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Lan Wangji finds him ankle deep in the water, wind whipping at his hair. Wei Ying is standing still, arms stretched out at his sides, eyes on the boiling horizon. The sea is angry today, clouds hanging deep and ominous in the sky. The wind howls like a pack of wolves, but the crash of the waves is louder still. If he calls out, Wei Ying would not hear him.
Wei Ying looks transfixed, water and wind tearing at his robes. Lan Wangji hurries toward him. He would not let him stand alone, not even against the ocean.
Somehow, despite the noise, Wei Ying notices his approach. His arms dropping to his side, he turns to greet Lan Wangji with a smile that looks like a funeral. Lan Wangji's heart skips a beat, then thunders against his ribs. He's seen that look before, it's the look Wei Ying had in Nightless City. It's the look of a drowning man. He's close enough now to see that some of the moisture on Wei Ying's face is from tears.
Lan Wangji comes to a halt a mere breath away from Wei Ying, close enough to touch if he's allowed. "Wei Ying," he says, as if that can encompass all of the questions he wants to ask.
Wei Ying shakes himself, puts on a more jovial smile. "Ah, Lan Zhan. Did you know I have never seen the ocean before? It sure is big, isn't it?"
Lan Wangji nods. The ocean is as vast and tumultuous as Lan Wangji's love for Wei Ying, but these are words he doesn't know how to say. My heart, it beats like the crashing of the waves, and it only beats for you. "Wei Ying, why are you here?"
Wei Ying takes a step closer, until they're chest to chest, breathing the same salty air. "I woke up with the need to see the ocean," he says, wrapping his arms around Lan Wangji in a gentle embrace. His mouth is right at Lan Wangji's ear. "Sometimes everything inside my head feels so big, it's good to be reminded of how small I am."
Lan Wangji tightens the embrace. "You're not small." You're my entire world.
Laughing, Wei Ying shakes his head, brushing wet hair across Lan Wangji's face. "Oh Lan Zhan, it's not like that. The sea is so, so beautiful. My heart aches with it, but the same way it aches when I look into your eyes. It's not a bad thing."
Lan Wangji buries his head in Wei Ying's neck. "I don't want to cause you pain," he says, pressing the words into Wei Ying's skin.
Wei Ying is running his fingers through Lan Wangji's hair like he's petting a skittish horse. "Lan Zhan, my love, how could you cause me pain? You are my ocean, you are the sky above me, the earth I walk on. I only cry because I am so happy."
Lan Wangji can no longer feel the cold. His heart is burning with the fire of Wei Ying's sun. "Wei Ying makes me happy, too."
Laughing, Wei Ying pulls away far enough to meet Lan Wangji's eyes. Looking at Wei Ying is nothing like the ocean, it is a roaring fire, the center of the sun. He's molten gold and liquid sugar, a man so bright he outshines the stars. Lan Wangji feels like he should go blind staring at Wei Ying for too long, and yet, he has no desire to look at anything else.
"Hey, Lan Zhan, let's go home and dive into my ocean, yeah?"
Sometimes, sometimes Wei Ying is like the sun, and most of the time he's this. Lan Zhan refuses to grace this ridiculousness with a smile, but he does let Wei Ying drag him up the shore, toward the home they share.