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Prompt: Bunnies
Gifset: On my Tumblr!
There’s a bunny in the jingshi.
It’s the first thing Wei Wuxian sees when he finally deigns to rouse himself from bed that morning and throws open the curtains leading out from the bed chambers.
He’s walking out, scratching his back and yawning, and there it is. A little black fluffball, drowsily flopped on a pallet laid out beside the desk.
The desk where his husband is sat at, writing.
“Lan Zhan!” Wei Wuxian calls, forgetting all about the bunny in his excitement at the sight of the other man, because he’s back! Lan Zhan is back! Finally!
For the past week, Lan Zhan has been away at Baling, presiding over a dispute as Chief Cultivator, smoothing over some ruffled feathers.
Wei Wuxian has missed him to a degree even he would feel a bit ashamed about saying out loud.
He runs up to Lan Zhan giddy with joy and throws his arms around his husband, invading his space with no regard for his work. The scroll and quill Lan Zhan’s using to write are cast aside unceremoniously, to make space for Wei Wuxian to seat himself in his husband’s lap instead. Lan Zhan’s hands come up automatically to steady him, and he scoots back a little away from the desk so Wei Wuxian can sit more comfortably on him, like the considerate wonderful human being that he is.
After a few moments of clinging to his husband, breathing in the intoxicating mix of sandalwood layered on Lan Zhan’s skin, Wei Wuxian pulls back a bit, so he can drink in that beautiful face next. Like a parched and ravenous man feasting in a desert oasis.
Lan Zhan’s eyes are endlessly warm and fond when they meet his own. “Good morning, Wei Ying.”
“Ahh, Lan Zhan, it is so good to see your pretty face again! I was a man deprived for all these days, absolutely wretched in your absence. How could you do this to your poor inconsolable husband, Er-gege? Have you no care, no mercy? You’re not allowed to leave me for longer than a night from now – no, not even that much. Eight hours. You’re not allowed to leave me for longer than eight hours from now, or I might perish entirely! Waste away, without the sight of my gorgeous husband to fill my soul.”
Wei Wuxian buries his grin in Lan Zhan’s neck, waiting for the ‘Ridiculous’ that should be the retort to that pathetic (but embarrassingly, rather true) bout of childish whining.
Except Lan Zhan devastates him entirely by saying, “I’ve missed you as well, Wei Ying. Very much. You should accompany me wherever I go from now on, always. I don’t care to be parted from you again, not even for a day.”
Wei Wuxian’s heart skips a beat.
He snuggles closer, trying to not sniffle. “Lan Zhan, are you really trying to kill me? Warn a man before you say such sweet things.”
“You started it.” Wei Wuxian can hear the smile in those words. He pulls back, feeling still so very tender from those words, to drink in the sight of the actual smile, like a ray of sunlight on a snowy field.
And well, he just has to kiss that smile now. He dares any man confronted by the sight of the soft curve of that exquisite mouth to not be overtaken by the desire to taste it. He leans forward, grinning, pressing his lips against Lan Zhan’s, sighing in contentment at this gentle comfort he’s missed sorely the past few days.
It carries on for seconds turning into minutes – lips on lips, breaths intermingling, and muffled moans – turning heated, and might’ve continued on thus, if not for an unexpected interruption.
An unexpected interruption in the form of something nibbling at the bed clothes covering Wei Wuxian’s ass.
And while Wei Wuxian would be perfectly fine with this behavior from his husband, considering his tongue is presently occupying said man’s mouth, all evidence suggests that it is decidedly not his husband nipping at Wei Wuxian’s rump.
Which is quite alarming.
Wei Wuxian pulls back with a startled yelp, whipping around to seek the vile perpetrator of this undeserved assault to his rear to find – a bunny.
Oh, the bunny. Right!
“Lan Zhan, there’s a bunny in the jingshi,” Wei Wuxian gasps out, as his husband moves from his lips to the soft skin beneath his ear.
“Mn,” is all Lan Zhan says though, sucking at the sensitive skin there.
“La-Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian’s breath hitches and he shivers. “There’s a bunny – why is there a bunny here, and not in the woo – oh – the woods.”
“Found him in Baling on the way back,” Lan Zhan murmurs again his jaw and the warmth of those words against heated flesh sends another shiver down Wei Wuxian’s spine. “A group of wild dogs were chasing him. Rescued him, to bring him to Gusu. Home.”
Wei Wuxian tilts his head further, leaning into his husband’s roving touch. “Ah, Lan Zhan. Aren’t you breaking multiple Lan Sect rules here?” he asks, aiming a smirk at the ceiling. He clears his throat and recites, in a perfect imitation of Lan Qiren’s pompous voice, “‘You shall not interfere with the cycle of predator and prey in nature’, ‘You shall not keep pets in the halls of Cloud Rece’ – ah! Lan Zhan!”
For Lan Zhan just bit him, right on the delicate skin stretched over his collarbone.
“Lan Zhan, you brute. Let me go.”
“’You shall not interfere in the cycle of predator and prey in nature’,” Lan Zhan quips right back at him, and goes back to nibbling at Wei Wuxian’s clavicle, much the way bunny was doing to his behind a minute ago.
Wei Wuxian lets out a burst of breathless giggles at that and feels a huff against his jaw as Lan Zhan smiles against his skin.
“Oh, predator and prey, is it now, Er-gege?” he asks around chuckles and gasps as Lan Zhan moves to the other side of his neck to leave another bite, this one a little harder than the last. “Am I the bunny in this situation? I thought the noble Lan Sect did not hunt in the Cloud Recesses? Isn’t the upstanding Hanguang-jun a sworn vegetarian? Is he going to forsake all his righteous ways, now, to walk a deviant path? Oh, what has the world become –“
“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan rumbles against his throat. “Stop messing around.”
Wei Wuxian pulls back, setting his jaw in that particular pugnacious jut that he knows drives his husband crazy. “Oh yeah?” he asks with a challenging grin. “And what is Hanguang-jun going to do about it if I don’t?”
As expected, Lan Zhan’s eyes darken and he topples him right into the ground.
It’s all going exactly according to Wei Wuxian’s plan…
…Except for one thing.
“Lan Zhan.”
“Mn,” hummed against Wei Wuxian’s sternum. It tickles.
Lan Zhan’s legs are splayed over his own, pressing him down to the floor. Wei Wuxian’s hands are busy twined in Lan Zhan’s hair, slowly teasing the headpiece out of its intricate bindings, so his hair can fall freely around his face.
(And, gosh, he has missed this closeness.)
…But.
“Lan Zhan!”
Lan Zhan finally pulls back, mouth set in an adorable moue of impatience. “What?”
“The bunny is watching!”
And so he is. The black ball of fluff is now perched atop the desk, looking right down at them with unwavering amber eyes.
“Lan Er-gege, surely you’re not shameless enough to ravish me before an audience?” Wei Wuxian teases, cackling as the pout on his husband’s face grows more pronounced. “And in front of our own child, too!”
“Ridiculous,” Lan Zhan breathes, but he still doesn’t move, looking absolutely reluctant to separate even an inch from Wei Wuxian.
And that’s adorable too. Wei Wuxian can’t resist teasing him more.
“Oh, but what will all the bunnies of Gusu say when they hear of this?” he bemoans dramatically. “They will be crushed to learn of how absolutely rotten their father is!”
“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan growls, and suddenly, Wei Wuxian is airborne. In one smooth movement, Lan Zhan has stood up from the ground, with his hands balanced under Wei Wuxian’s thighs, carrying him effortlessly.
(And isn’t that blindingly hot.)
He heads straight for the bed, still unmade from Wei Wuxian’s sleep, and deposits him there, careless in his impatience. With a quick whisk, the curtains slide shut, finally shielding them from the eyes of any prying bunnies.
“Can we carry on now?” Lan Zhan asks brusquely. There is color high on his cheeks and his ears are flushed a vivid red. His clothing is disheveled from where Wei Wuxian’s hands grabbed at them, and his hair is half-falling out of its top-knot.
His forehead ribbon is crooked.
He is absolutely breathtaking.
Wei Wuxian drinks in the sight. Possessive heat curls in him at the absolutely-sure knowledge that no one else except him has ever beheld the pristine and perfect Second Jade of Gusu like this.
It is heady.
Instead of replying, he merely holds out his empty arms, and Lan Zhan wastes no time in folding into his embrace.
*
That evening, when Lan Zhan returns, he immediately comes to a stop at the entrance to the jingshi, looking bemused.
“There’s another rabbit.”
Wei Wuxian, who is feeding celery sticks to the two bunnies rolling around on his lap, shoots Lan Zhan a wide grin.
“Well Lan Zhan, what sort of parents would we be if we raised our poor boy in isolation? He needs a friend! So, I took him down to the hills around the Cold Pond and found him a bunny-mate he got along best with!”
The white bunny, the subject of this present conversation, quietly chews the greens and continues to ignore them.
Lan Zhan stares for a couple more seconds, seemingly battling with something inside himself, before giving it up as a lost cause and resigning himself to this new situation.
He heads to the table where Wei Wuxian has hot tea ready to serve, sitting down across from him.
“I’ll build them a shelter in the back gardens tomorrow after I tend to the lotuses,” Wei Wuxian says, feeling satisfaction thrum in his veins at the fondness in Lan Zhan’s eyes as they track the bunnies. He loves seeing that look in Lan Zhan's eyes, knowing he caused that happiness.
“Mn.”
“And we need to name them, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian prattles on. “Won’t do to just call them the bunnies, you know. They’re our own now, right? They deserve to be named!”
“Mn.”
“So, I was thinking,” he pauses, a mischievous idea coming into his head. His grin widens. “Let's name them ‘Stew’ and ‘Stuffed bun’!”
“Wei Ying.”