Chapter Text
The unfortunate thing was that Lan Wangji is not fond of rabbits, as Wei Wuxian learns. And it would be fine—totally, absolutely fine, if not for the fact that Wei Wuxian himself is a rabbit-spirit, and that he has a major, major crush on Lan Wangji, and that upon hearing the indication that Hanguang-jun doesn’t like rabbits, immediately falls into a fit of misery and despair.
When he started the conversation, desperately, he had hoped that at the very least, that Lan Zhan would find them at least a little bit cute. Wei Wuxian had woken up that morning with a little dream dancing on the edges of his mindscape, one where he had been wearing these ancient, traditional robes, and so had Lan Zhan. It seemed to strange to wear them, but at the same time, it felt nearly normal—dare he say, comfortable—like he had been wearing them all his life, no matter the fact that he could never afford to wear such garments like that. They were expensive these days.
He remembers climbing through a window, all stealth-like, and meeting Lan Zhan. Two clusters of warmth were pressed up against his bosom, and Wei Wuxian had pulled them out to present to his friend. Rabbits. One black and the other white. Words had come out of his mouth, he thought, but he can’t entirely recall what he had said. Likely, they were something along the teasing kind.
So, he woke up one morning, in the aftermath of a dream wherein he had given his roommate rabbits while they both wore ancient costumes, and distinctly remembered that Lan Zhan had indeed accepted them in said dream. He though it must have been some sort of symbolism or something, or his pining had projected so far into his subconscious that he just needed to dream about it. Something or the other.
The point was, he was convinced that maybe, just maybe, Lan Zhan would accept him. Accept him as a rabbit-spirit who is currently hiding his true identity to the vast majority of the human population, accept him as someone who had strong, romantic feelings towards someone he calls his best friend, and just maybe, also actually returned his feelings. All because of a dream. He totally made perfect sense. It was a message from the gods!
That was what led him to this moment. The moment where he lays on the floor of his brother’s dorm room, near-tears because—because—Lan Zhan doesn’t even like rabbits. Wei Wuxian had the smart idea to repeat the same scenario that he had dreamed of. After he woke up, he got ready and immediately went to the store to pick up a twin pair of rabbits to gift to his best friend slash roommate without delay. When he came back, he knocked on the door to Lan Zhan’s room and, with a flourish, presented the rabbits to him.
“Pets are not allowed in the Cloud Recesses,” Lan Zhan had immediately said, without looking up from his book.
Wei Wuxian had pouted (in a way that he thought was cute), but Lan Zhan still did not look at him. “Haha, Lan Zhan! Don’t you at least think they are adorable? If not pets, then maybe you could roast them just right and eat them!” He joked, even though it hurt a little bit. He was basically threatening his own kind, after all. But he knew that Lan Zhan would never cause unnecessary harm to animals.
“No. Return them.”
“Lan Zhan! You do not like rabbits? They might taste good.”
“Do not like.”
Do not like? Wei Wuxian had thought. Do not like??? His mind had come to a sudden halt (for once in his life), and his face had become suddenly blank. Lan Zhan had still not looked up from the book he was reading, so as calmly as he could, Wei Wuxian had walked backward out of Lan Zhan’s room and immediately turned around and sprinted out of their shared dormitory.
He can’t believe that he had been so foolish enough to hope that Lan Zhan ever liked him. Sure, they had been roommates for over two years now at Cloud Recesses University, but he guesses now that Lan Zhan had just never warmed up to him. And it makes sense now—Lan Zhan doesn’t like rabbits. Wei Wuxian is part rabbit. Lan Zhan doesn’t like Wei Wuxian because Lan Zhan doesn’t like rabbits, because Wei Wuxian is a rabbit spirit (even if Lan Zhan doesn’t know it, and now he won’t ever).
Wei Wuxian stares up at the plain ceiling of Jiang Cheng’s dorm room. His brother lives in a dorm in an entirely different building than Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. Despite his earlier complaints about having his brother live so far at the beginning of university, Wei Wuxian is now appreciative of the distance. It provides a nice escape, at the very least.
Jiang Cheng has yet to return from his classes. He’s a different major than Wei Wuxian, so their classes never line up. Actually, Wei Wuxian should be in one right now, but the whole Lan Wangji rabbit fiasco had screwed up his morning, so it can screw over his afternoon too.
An hour later, Wei Wuxian has not moved from his position on the floor. His eyes are still misty, and he’s been holding back tears for quite a while now. This is how Jiang Cheng finds him—miserable and feeling alone.
“The fuck is wrong with you? Be glad that I don’t have any roommates,” Jiang Cheng says, gesturing to Wei Wuxian’s head. His glamour must have worn off in his fit of self-wallowing, then. The black rabbit ears twitch at the sound of his brother’s voice, and Wei Wuxian doesn’t make a move to respond.
“Wei Wuxian?” Jiang Cheng barks, yet there’s an undercurrent of concern in his tone now. Wei Wuxian sends a slow blink to his brother, hoping that he can convey the entirety of what he is feeling to his brother with a single look. They make eye contact, and Wei Wuxian heaves a watery inhale. His chest hurts—has been hurting for the longest time.
“Dude, shit, what happened?” Jiang Cheng drops his bag somewhere off to the side in his haste to comfort his brother. He is unused to seeing him like this, probably. It doesn’t happen often. “Do I need to call jiejie?”
He goes to Wei Wuxian and gently (as gently as someone like Jiang Cheng can, which is basically just roughly but slightly less) lifts him into a sitting position. Jiang Cheng coaxes his brother to concentrate on Jiang Cheng, to not break his gaze. “Wei Wuxian?”
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian starts in a mutter, nearly gasping between each word. His ears are not upright as they’d usually be. Instead, the animal appendages are hanging limply at either side of his head, reflecting his mood. He isn’t focused enough to realize how much his brother’s face hardens when he hears the name. “Lan Zhan, he doesn’t like rabbits.” His voice drops even quieter, then, the quietest that Jiang Cheng has ever heard him. “He doesn’t like rabbits, Jiang Cheng.” He doesn’t like me.
“I wanted to give him some rabbits,” I wanted to see how he felt about them. “I wanted to gift them to him,” I wanted him to accept me. “A dream…a dream told me to…”
Said rabbits were cowering somewhere under Jiang Cheng’s bed, feeling the weight of their brethren’s emotions and not wanting to disturb. In his head, Wei Wuxian had named them a-Ying, the black one, and a-Zhan, the white one. It is embarrassing and stupid. At least he hadn’t gotten the chance to tell Lan Zhan their names.
“He said…he said he doesn’t like rabbits.” Wei Wuxian’s eyes are definitely clouding up at a rate that Jiang Cheng does not know how to respond to. Their sister is way more adept at comforting the likes of others. Internally, Jiang Cheng curses Lan Wangji. Does he not know that Wei Wuxian had held him as the object of his affections since the first time their paths crossed? Does he not know that when Wei Wuxian loves, he loves fiercely and loyally without ever letting go?
Lan Wangji had hurt Jiang Cheng’s brother, and he may never forgive the man for it.
“Hey,” Jiang Cheng tries, trying to channel the spirit of their older sister, “Stay here for a while, okay? We can have Huaisang pick up your things later.” He cradles Wei Wuxian against him and lets him rest his head on his shoulder. Wei Wuxian buries his face into it and wheezes. It hurts.
He doesn’t ask if Lan Wangji has somehow found out about Wei Wuxian’s true nature. It doesn’t matter to him, and he knows that despite his brother’s seemingly careless attitude, Wei Wuxian is a very careful person. He would never accidentally reveal himself, so if Lan Wangji knows about it, then it was because Wei Wuxian had deliberately revealed himself.
They sit on the floor for who knows how long, and later Jiang Cheng will pretend that Wei Wuxian didn’t quietly sob into his shoulder for the majority of the afternoon and night, enough so that he had passed out and that Jiang Cheng had to carry him to bed and sleep by him, the same way they used to when they were small.
He had sent a vaguely-phrased text to Huaisang, who, graciously enough, did what he asked without complaint when Jiang Cheng had offered to do some of his homework for him. Nie Huaisang is finicky about a lot of things, sure, but when it was serious, then his friends can always count on him. The three of them, Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang, had been friends since high school, so they are a tight bunch. The only thing is, neither Huaisang or Jiang Cheng are rabbit-spirits, or even, animal-spirits, and only the Jiangs and the phoenix-spirit Wen family are aware of Wei Wuxian’s unique attributes.
In the morning, Jiang Cheng rises blearily from his side of the bed—how they both managed to fit on only a twin-sized cot was only due to Wei Wuxian’s snuggling habits and Jiang Cheng’s ability to put up with it. Carefully, he pries Wei Wuxian’s octopus limbs from his body and leaves the bed to answer a knock at the door. He ignores the pitiful expression on the other’s sleeping face when he shuts the door to his bedroom.
Huaisang is there along with his elder brother, Nie Mingjue. They hold in their arms boxes of Wei Wuxian’s belongings. Jiang Cheng wishes he could’ve seen Lan Wangji’s reaction to the removal of his roommate’s things. If he had even been there for it. Huaisang only carries one box, probably the lightest one, while Nie Mingjue carries three. How such a lanky boy and a muscular man were even related, Jiang Cheng doesn’t know.
“Hey,” Jiang Cheng says, a little gruffer because of sleep. “Thank you for doing this.”
“Of course!” Huaisang replies. “Couples fight?”
Jiang Cheng shoots him a glare and doesn’t respond. More like unrequited pining and miscommunication fight. He moves out of the way so that they can set the boxes down and invites them to stay for breakfast.
Huaisang’s dorm is just across the hall from his. He’s an art major and acts a lot like a useless bum, but in reality, Jiang Cheng knows that he is quite intelligent in his own way, rivaling even Wei Wuxian at times. His brother is a senior athlete for the school, well versed in nearly every sport in existence. They couldn’t be more unalike.
After he freshens up a bit, Jiang Cheng joins them in his tiny eating area. Breakfast is filled with mindless small talk, and Jiang Cheng isn’t really paying attention. He’s mostly thinking about exactly how he’s going to give Lan Wangji a piece of his mind. He and Wei Wuxian may have had their ups and downs yes, Jiang Cheng is not prideful enough to ignore that, especially after the hell that his mother put them through while raising them, but every time Lan Wangji has hurt Wei Wuxian, his elder brother would always seek the comfort of his family.
Jiang Cheng remembers the first year that they had taken the other boy in before they decided to formally adopt him. Wei Wuxian was only a year older, yet his years living around the streets and being passed from family to family had stunted his development. Jiang Cheng’s mother had protested even sparing the boy a glance, yet his father had gladly taken him in out of guilt for his old friends. He and Wei Wuxian’s parents had been lifelong friends, yet they had stopped talking after Jiang Fengmian had gotten married to Yu Ziyuan. The reason why? Jiang Cheng never knew, but he suspected his mother had been part of the reason.
Wei Wuxian’s months on the streets had greatly affected him, suppressing his naturally rambunctious nature in favor of survival. When he had first arrived, they hadn’t been aware of his rabbit spirit. Even Jiang Cheng’s father didn’t know that he had been friends with a special type of people. However, after Jiang Cheng’s three dogs had gone absolutely buck wild after smelling the prey that was little a-Ying, then they had figured it out pretty quick.
During his childhood, it had been evident that Wei Wuxian was different. He would do things like sniff objects he found unfamiliar, run around hyperactively for literally no reason, and was very, very cuddly. Later, the presentation of fluffy black rabbit ears that matched his hair and a little spotted tail shouldn’t have been shocking, in hindsight. Though, if he were being honest, Wei Wuxian is more like a fox than a rabbit. Jiang Cheng’s mother had not been pleased.
Afterward, the whole family had subconsciously made it their goal to protect Wei Wuxian and his attributes. It was a lucky thing that, as he grew older, Wei Wuxian found ways to control his instincts so as not to expose himself. In the modern world, animal-spirits weren’t very common and were often sought after for sex trafficking, slavery, or for their organs. The few who “made it” in the world were either criminals, abused, or killed off quickly. It might have been the reason why Wei Wuxian’s parents had died, though their death is still an unsolved case. They haven’t tried to reopen it either for the sake of Wei Wuxian’s safety.
However, in their little community, animal spirits are surprisingly not uncommon if people know where to look. Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian had met the Wens their senior year of high school and discovered that the whole family line is made up of phoenix-spirits. Though, most of them are criminals. But Wen Qing and her younger brother Wen Ning are from a distant branch that had little association with the crime group. That didn’t stop the bloodline from gifting them with the spirit, though.
“What are you plotting, Jiang Wanyin?” Nie Mingjue asks, startling him out of his ponderous stupor. “You’ve been staring at your plate for ten minutes.”
Jiang Cheng laughs harshly. “Nothing. Thank you, guys, again for your help.”
He makes them leave before Wei Wuxian inevitably wakes up. Jiang Cheng suspects that Wei Wuxian will be too exhausted, emotionally, and physically, to keep up the glamour that hides his ears for their guests. Besides, he probably doesn’t want to interact with so many people in the morning.
After the Nie brothers leave, Jiang Cheng goes to the bedroom to sneak a glance at his brother. He was right to shoo the other guys away because it seems that Wei Wuxian has just awoken. His hair is a disaster, all mussed up from sleep, and there’s a sort of tiredness to his form that Jiang Cheng is unused to seeing. Like this, his ears are barely visible underneath his nest of hair. It isn’t right. Such a rabbit like him shouldn’t be so sad. His brother doesn’t even notice him when he opens the door, so he has to awkwardly clear his throat to catch his attention.
“Oh. Good morning,” Wei Wuxian smiles, but it looks painful. Jiang Cheng winces and wishes he never has to see that expression ever again. Through their childhood, nothing has ever affected the shining light that was his older brother this much since they first met.
“How are you feeling?” Jiang Cheng croaks. He should really call Yanli before his meter runs out. Despite the brothers’ closeness, he knows that only their jiejie can really do anything to amend the situation.
Wei Wuxian shakes his head in lieu of a verbal response. The smile falls off his face like he has just fully processed what had happened. His fists clench and unclench. Jiang Cheng’s eyes flick to them, but he doesn’t comment.
“Come eat.” Jiang Cheng says this. His meter has run out, and he has run out of flowery words to say. “We can figure out this shit later.”