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After spending pretty much an entire day at the police station, being questioned about his whereabouts and going over the legalities of the pardon with Lan Xichen acting as his lawyer and continuously giving him subtle looks that he couldn’t interpret with everything else that was going on, Lan Wangji dragged Wei Wuxian to see a doctor. If Wei Wuxian hadn’t fallen asleep in the passenger seat of Lan Wangji’s car, he would have protested that there was nothing wrong with him that a week of sleep and a month of eating regularly couldn’t cure, but as it was he didn’t even realize where they were until he blinked the bleariness from his eyes in the waiting room.
“Wait, where are we?” Wei Wuxian asked Lan Wangji, who sat beside him and seemed to actually somehow be reading one of the magazines laying around that was probably as old as he was.
“You must be evaluated by a doctor,” Lan Wangji replied, not looking up from what seemed to be an article on home decor. Was he actually reading that? Wei Wuxian wasn’t sure.
Wei Wuxian huffed and tried to stand, but Lan Wangji’s hand shot out so fast he didn’t even see it and pulled him back down. “I’m fine, Lan Zhan,” he insisted. “Nothing some sleep and decent food won’t fix.”
Finally, Lan Wangji looked up. “You have been on the streets for thirteen years,” he reminded him. That seemed sufficient explanation to him, apparently, because it was all he said. Wei Wuxian opened his mouth again, only to close it when he met Lan Wangji’s eyes. That golden gaze was intense, pleading, worried, and Wei Wuxian started to realize that all the things Lan Wangji never said were reflected in his eyes instead. He sighed heavily and leaned back against the uncomfortable waiting room chair with his arms crossed, but stopped resisting.
Intense golden eyes seemed to stare into his soul, but if they were trying to impart wisdom there Wei Wuxian couldn’t understand it.
“Eye witnesses place you at the scene and your fingerprints were found on the murder weapon,” Lan Wangji said, voice grave and serioius like it always was.
“Lan Zhan, I lived there for most of my life, my fingerprints are probably on everything in that house at this point,” Wei Wuxian argued before his lawyer had a chance. “But I was with Wen Ning and a-Yuan when it happened.”
“The Wens claim they hadn’t seen you in over a week, and your son is too young by far to testify,” Lan Wangji’s partner interjected. Wei Wuxian wished he could remember the smarmy man’s name if only to curse it.
“You spoke to Wen Ning?” he asked.
“We spoke to the Wens,” was the reply, and Wei Wuxian scoffed. The Wens had bought off the police decades ago, and Wei Wuxian knew he was absolutely fucked. He turned back to Lan Wangji and found that the intense gaze hadn’t wavered.
“Lan Zhan, find Wen Ning. He’ll tell you where I was. Besides, why would I ever kill the people who took me in off the streets, gave me a home and took care of me and paid for my education? I wouldn’t!”
“It’s a well-known fact that you never got along with Madam Yu,” the partner sneered. “Isn’t that reason enough?”
“Speculation,” Lan Wangji reprimanded before Wei Wuxian could reach across the interrogation table to throttle him.
“Are you arresting my client at this time?” Wei Wuxian’s lawyer interjected in a calm voice with a smile in it, and Wei Wuxian wondered again how exactly it wasn’t some sort of conflict of interest to have Lan Xichen sitting across the table from Lan Wangji. “This evidence you have will never hold up in court. It was his childhood home, and the murder weapon had been in that building longer than my client had lived there, which renders your fingerprint analysis suspect at best, and your eyewitness testimony is not solid enough to truly point to my client. You are reaching, attempting to pin blame rather than going after the true murderer. But if you want to push the matter further, I’m happy to go to court and bring Wen Qionglin with me, though we both know it’s a waste of time.”
There was a long pause, in which Lan Wangji’s partner sneered and glared and Lan Wangji himself simply stared at Wei Wuxian like he was trying to have an entire conversation with his eyes, but all of it was lost in translation.
“No,” he said at last. “You may go.” There was another long pause, and for some reason none of them moved during it, like there was a physical weight in the room holding them all in place. “I am sorry for your loss.” The scoffing from his partner was ignored by everyone as at last they moved towards the door, and Wei Wuxian wasn’t sure what he was feeling.
A dozen vaccinations, including a truly unpleasant one for tuberculosis, and a biopsy to make sure a mole on his shoulder wasn’t skin cancer later, Wei Wuxian found himself falling asleep in Lan Wangji’s car again. It felt like all the sleep he hadn’t gotten for the past thirteen years was trying valiantly to happen all at once. He didn’t resist when Lan Wangji pulled him out of the car again, but when he found himself staring at his own reflection in a bathroom mirror, a towel on the counter beside him along with some clearly borrowed clothes and a comb that wasn’t his it took him an embarrassing amount of time to figure out that he was supposed to take a shower. Doing so didn’t really help much with the fatigue because Lan Wangji’s bathroom was huge and the shower was beyond luxurious and the water was hotter than anything Wei Wuxian had used in over a decade. Even after he’d washed his whole body three times he just stood in the spray for a while and tried to convince himself that it was real. Especially since he was so tired, it didn’t feel real, and he was still terrified he was dreaming. He really didn’t want to wake up.
Even after however long Wei Wuxian had stood in the shower the water still didn’t cool off, but eventually he decided he wanted a bed more than he wanted to continue standing there, so he got out and dried off. The clothes he’d been given were clearly Lan Wangji’s, and the white t-shirt sagged around him and nearly fell off one shoulder. The sweats had a drawstring, and it was good they did because otherwise they would never have stayed on. Lan Wangji was so broad now, and something about that made tingles flow through his body for a moment, but the reason why was lost in the haze of his exhaustion.
Exiting the bathroom, Wei Wuxian immediately found Lan Wangji standing just inside what appeared to be the master bedroom. His eyes traveled down Wei Wuxian’s form leisurely before snapping back up to his face. In silence, he gestured for Wei Wuxian to follow him, so Wei Wuxian did. He’d been expecting to be taken to another bedroom or something, but instead found himself in the kitchen, seated at a small table situated beneath an east-facing window, with a huge spread of food laid out before him.
“Wow, was I in the shower that long?” he asked, summoning a smile. It still hadn’t sunk in that this was real, that he was actually sitting in Lan Wangji’s kitchen with Lan Wangji, a free man. He kept expecting to wake up in another alley somewhere, or just get arrested at any second.
The food wasn’t what he might have made for himself, but it was worlds better than anything he’d had in the last decade. Congee that smelled of some fragrant broth and soy sauce, topped with mushrooms and leek and a poached egg, what looked suspiciously like one the medicinal soups the Lan clan was infamous for packed with wilted greens, and a strong tea that was probably also medicinal but sweetened with honey to make it more palatable. No red anywhere, but that was probably a good thing considering how long it had been since he’d eaten the kind of spice he’d once favored. The smile came easier as he took a bite of congee, tears springing to his eyes before he blinked them away. Despite lacking in spiciness it was still richly flavored, and the poached egg poured golden yolk over it for added richness, and all of it sat warm and comfortable in his stomach without upsetting it at all.
“Xianxian,” Jiang Yanli said, fondness in her tone, as she scooped more pork into his bowl for him.
“What?” he protested, pouting at her and silently loving the little smile she wore. “It’s true! He’s stuck up and has a stick up his ass. He’s going into law enforcement for crying out loud! Honestly, a little graffiti never hurt anyone.”
“A-Xian, are you maybe just upset that you won’t have the opportunity to see him in college?” Jiang Yanli asked, making him choke on the sip of broth he’d just taken. She really was too perceptive for Wei Wuxian’s comfort, and always had been.
“Jiejie,” he drawled, pouting extra hard until she gently patted his head like he was nine again, smiling indulgently.
“If you’re worried about it, tell him how you feel,” she urged. “You don’t have to break up just because you’re graduating and won’t be going to the same school anymore. He loves you, right? Tell him you feel the same. You can work something out. It’s only a few years, and you can still work out how to see each other.”
Wei Wuxian sank into his bowl of his sister’s soup and allowed himself to be vulnerable in a way he only ever could be with her. “Does he? I can’t tell… Maybe he’s just tolerating me, going along with this relationship because I pestered him into submission. He’s never said it. What if he still hates me, jiejie? Or hates me even more now because of this?”
“Love isn’t only shown in words, my little a-Xian,” Jiang Yanli told him sagely, and ladled more soup into his bowl.
“Thank you, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian whispered when he was done, feeling a little overwhelmed and a little more like he might actually be home.
“No need,” Lan Wangji replied as he cleared away the dishes.
Wei Wuxian scoffed. “Of course there is. You’ve done so much for me today, and over the last thirteen years. I can’t ever repay you.”
“You owe me nothing,” Lan Wangji insisted. “There is no need for thanks between us.”
Wei Wuxian wanted to argue the point a little more, but now that he was full he was even more tired than before, so he just leaned his cheek on his fist and mumbled, “If you say so,” and closed his eyes.
“Wei Ying!”
“Please, Lan Zhan, if you ever felt any affection for me at all, pretend you never saw me,” Wei Wuxian begged, hefting his bag more firmly onto his back and wiping his eyes. “I swear to you on my sister’s life I didn’t do it, any of it. But I can’t prove it from here, and I can’t prove it from prison, and they’re going to kill me if you arrest me. Even if by some miracle I don’t get the death sentence, which you know I will with no one to argue in my favor, then I’ll mysteriously die in prison.”
“It is more complicated than that,” Lan Wangji replied, still holding his wrist tightly. His face was pinched with stress and there were dark circles under his eyes, but he was still the most beautiful man Wei Wuxian had ever met, the most upstanding and righteous and good. “Let me do my job, and I will -”
Wei Wuxian laughed, and it was borderline hysterical and a little wet. “Wen Ruohan will never let me live,” he insisted. “You have to know that! I… I killed Wen Chao, I killed his son, and I won’t live to see trial if I let you take me in! Lan Zhan, it was self defence only, I swear, but to that man it won’t matter. I have to leave or I’ll die! Please, Lan Zhan. Let me go.”
They stared at each other for a long time, both desperate, and Wei Wuxian felt his heart breaking. But the handcuffs hadn’t come out yet. A truck blew by them and blasted its horn at a car that tried to cut it off, and both of them jumped. Wei Wuxian used the sudden distraction to wrench his wrist free of the detective’s iron grasp and stepped back. “Take care of a-Yuan? Don’t let him end up on the streets, okay? He’s too young, he won’t understand. Tell him I’m sorry.” He didn’t wait for any sort of reply, just turned and bolted away to catch the next bus to anywhere else. He didn’t look back, because he knew that if he did he might not be able to leave.
Wei Wuxian woke wrapped up in clouds. Or at least, that was what it felt like in the first few bleary minutes of consciousness with rays of sunlight falling across his face and warming him as he lay on the softest mattress he had possibly ever experienced and was covered by what had to be a real down comforter. Once he was awake enough to know he wasn’t lying in clouds he had a few minutes to think he must be dead, until that line of thinking was interrupted by the realization that he definitely hadn’t earned this sort of comfort in the afterlife. It wasn’t until he heard a door softly open, nearly silent, that he remembered anything.
Turning his head, he locked eyes with Lan Wangji, who was standing in the doorway with his hand still on the knob and staring at him with slightly wide eyes. That was the only thing about his otherwise stoic expression that indicated any sort of emotional response at all, but it made Wei Wuxian smile all the same. “Last thing I remember was sitting in the kitchen,” he said, and was shocked by how raspy his voice was, breaking twice on that short sentence. He swallowed hard past his dry throat. “Did you carry me here, Lan Zhan?”
Lan Wangji took his hand off the doorknob at last and straightened his shoulders, tucking his hands behind him and looking so proper it made Wei Wuxian want to mess up his perfect hair or something. “I did,” he said, to Wei Wuxian’s surprise. His brows shot up. “You did not wake, so I knew you needed the rest.”
Lan Wangji left, then, and returned a few moments later with a bundle of cloth in his arms, which he laid on the foot of the bed. “If you’d like to shower, feel free. I will prepare something to eat,” he said, no longer meeting Wei Wuxian’s gaze.
Wei Wuxian was left alone once more, and he stretched somewhat luxuriously in the bed. His body felt better than he could remember, not aching nearly so badly as usual, except for the sites of the more unpleasant vaccinations from the day before. Once he’d stretched the sleep stiffness from his joints he looked around and was somewhat startled to see that he seemed to have slept in the master bedroom he’d briefly seen after his last shower. Sitting up, he gave it a better look. He hadn’t really looked the day before, having been too exhausted to take in many details, but now he could see that it was definitely Lan Wangji’s bedroom. There was a small framed picture on the nightstand of a child that could only be a-Yuan holding a rabbit and surrounded by a few more, grinning up at the camera with two gaps in his brilliant smile. Wei Wuxian let a finger drift across the frame, trying not to cry as he recalled what he’d said the very last time he’d seen Lan Wangji before he fled. He’d asked him to take care of his a-Yuan, but he’d never expected him to take that so seriously as to adopt the boy himself.
The rest of the room was rather sparse, decorated in white and gentle shades of blue, with no knicknacks laying around and no clothes on the floor, as disgustingly perfect as ever. The pictures hanging on the walls were landscape paintings in traditional styles, tasteful and serene and perfectly in line with what Wei Wuxian would have expected. It wasn’t until he got up and started heading for the shower that he saw one that stood out from the others.
A simple sketch done in ballpoint pen, he recognized his own art style at once. It was the portrait he’d drawn of Lan Wangji back in high school, when he’d still been desperately trying to get his attention, now framed on the wall beside the door into the bathroom. Lan Wangji would likely look at it every day just for where it was positioned, and Wei Wuxian felt a rush of emotion he couldn’t quite name as he forced himself to look away and headed for the shower.
Lan Wangji pinned Wei Wuxian against his locker and kissed him so fiercely that neither of them bothered to notice the extremely loud smack that Wei Wuxian’s textbook made when he dropped it in his shock. Lan Wangji’s hips shoved against Wei Wuxian’s, ensuring he had no wiggle room at all against the inside of his locker door and there was no escape, his big hands cupping Wei Wuxian’s face and tilting it to just the right angle to devour him and all but climb down his throat.
Wei Wuxian just stood there in his shock, taking all the passion Lan Wangji seemed determined to show him passively, his brain screaming what the fuck on repeat as Lan Wangji’s tongue forced its way inside his mouth. It wasn’t until Wei Wuxian couldn’t get enough air and made a slight sound of protest that Lan Wangji finally pulled away, but only to rest his forehead on Wei Wuxian’s shoulder.
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian gasped, his hands finally coming up. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to push the other boy away or beg him to keep kissing him, so he ended up just fisting his hands in Lan Wangji’s shirt. “What…?”
“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji breathed against his neck, and he shivered. “Do not flirt if you do not mean it.”
“Me?” Wei Wuxian cried, and began laughing somewhat breathlessly. “You’re the one who just pinned me to my locker with your mouth!” Lan Wangji tensed against him, almost as though he was realizing what he’d done for the first time, and Wei Wuxian felt him start to pull away. Well, that wouldn’t do, so he pulled him closer and then twined his arms around his neck to make sure he stayed there. Lan Wangji lifted his head to meet Wei Wuxian’s gaze, but swiftly his eyes trailed down to Wei Wuxian’s grinning lips.
“Does this mean I’m forgiven for making you look at porn in the school library, Lan Zhan?” he asked, shameless and unrepentant. Lan Wangji’s lips twitched and Wei Wuxian wasn’t quite sure if it was displeasure or amusement.
“Do not flirt if you do not mean it,” he repeated, and Wei Wuxian laughed again.
“I usually don’t mean it,” he admitted, and Lan Wangji’s eyes darted away and he tried again to pull away, but Wei Wuxian still wouldn’t let him. “Let me finish!” he cried, struggling to hold on. Lan Wangji was so incredibly strong, and Wei Wuxian almost got distracted wondering if those strong Lan arms could carry him. “I usually don’t mean it when I flirt, but I always mean it when I flirt with you.” He grinned when Lan Wangji’s startled eyes met his. They just stared at each other for a while, and Lan Wangji must have found what he was looking for or else his own urges simply got the better of him, and he swooped in for another kiss. As first kisses went, Wei Wuxian was entirely certain that it was the best anyone could ever hope to have, and the both of them were late to their next class and nearly received detention for continuing to devour each other in the hallway long after the bell had rung. Only Lan Wangji’s otherwise spotless reputation saved Wei Wuxian from yet another afternoon spent copying school rules, and he laughed as he teased Lan Wangji about it while they hurried to class.
Freshly showered and much more awake, Wei Wuxian wandered out in the direction he could smell cooking food. To his shock, it smelled like chili in Lan Wangji’s house, and Wei Wuxian eagerly followed the scent.
“Lan Zhan, I didn’t know you even owned any spices!” Wei Wuxian teased with a grin as he leaned against the kitchen island and watched Lan Wangji carefully drop some chopped vegetables into a simmering and very red broth.
“Until this morning, I did not,” Lan Wangji admitted without looking away from his task until it was completed. Then he turned and for a few moments simply stared at Wei Wuxian in silence. For once, unhindered at last by the unfounded assumptions that once plagued him, Wei Wuxian could read how overwhelmed he was in the slight parting of his lips and the widening of his eyes and the way his chest stuttered as though his breath had hitched silently for a moment.
“I feel much better today,” Wei Wuxian told him, his tone much softer and fond. “How long was I asleep?”
“Sixteen hours,” came the prompt response, despite that look remaining frozen on Lan Wangji’s face. After a few more moments of staring Lan Wangji visibly swallowed and turned to stir the pot before turning off the heat and tossing in some chopped herbs. “Perhaps today you should call your siblings. They will want to know you’re back.”
Instinctual panic filled Wei Wuxian for a moment at the thought of speaking to Jiang Cheng again, until he forcibly calmed himself. There was no way he was getting out of contacting him, and the longer he waited the worse the response would be. “Yeah, you’re right.” He was silent for a moment as Lan Wangji ladled the spicy soup into a bowl and set it on the little table from the night before, where a covered bowl of rice and a glass of ice water were already waiting, and looked up at Wei Wuxian expectantly. With a grin, he sat at the place set for him and dug in eagerly. The spice burst on his tongue, tingling in his tonsils and spreading warmth through his body, complimented by the strong flavors of aromatic vegetables and the richness of the pork broth that was the base of the soup. Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but close his eyes and moan a little in pleasure. It still wasn’t as spicy as he’d once preferred, but it was close and he was grateful.
“You went shopping this morning, huh?” Wei Wuxian teased when he finally opened his eyes. “Or else you started eating meat sometime in the last decade?” He pointedly bit into a piece of pork he’d discovered in his bowl, grinning at the pink tinge to Lan Wangji’s ears as he tipped his head up in acknowledgement.
“You need to eat well,” was the soft and calm reply, but Wei Wuxian laughed a little. He wanted to tease, but he wanted to keep eating more, so they were silent for a while as Lan Wangji delicately nibbled on a small portion of plain rice and Wei Wuxian inhaled three portions of soup and two of rice.
When he was finally so full he couldn’t eat another bite, he sat back in the chair with his eyes closed and his hands resting over his stomach, a smile on his face while Lan Wangji cleaned the dishes and packed away the rest of the soup into a plastic container and tucked it into the fridge for later.
“So,” Wei Wuxian began, feeling a little awkward for once in his life. “Where’s a-Yuan?” He’d been wondering since the night before, but was only just now coherent enough to actually ask.
“School,” came the reply. “He stayed with a friend last night. He will be home this afternoon.”
Wei Wuxian was quiet for a moment as Lan Wangji rejoined him at the table after refilling his water for him. “Does he know?” he asked quietly.
Lan Wangji inclined his head. “Yes,” he said. “I asked him to stay with Jingyi last night because I knew you needed rest and did not wish to overwhelm you. He is very excited to see you.”
“Xian-gege, Xian-gege!” a tiny voice called excitedly as a tiny body on very short legs barrelled into him at full tilt. He laughed and pretended to almost be knocked over. “Auntie Qing says I get to stay with you now!”
Wei Wuxian lifted a-Yuan into his arms and tossed him in the air a couple of times before pulling him close and settling him on his hip. “That’s right! Are you excited?” he asked, grinning widely. The paperwork had finally gone through and the adoption was finalized, a thoroughly relieved and exhausted Wen Qing gratefully signing the last of it with a notary just the day before. Between med school and her sick brother, she hadn’t had nearly enough time to devote to raising a child, and she didn’t want to be a mother besides, but her cousins had made her guardian when they’d died anyway. She’d done her best and it was obvious she loved the little boy, but she simply didn’t have time to take proper care of him. Aside from that, she was on thin ice with the main family at the moment, and a child was a weakness to be exploited to them. It wasn’t safe, so she’d signed over custody rights to Wei Wuxian, knowing he’d take good care of him and loved him with everything he was.
“Mmh!” Yuan replied, nodding so vigorously he shook his hair free of its clip. Wei Wuxian laughed and gently fixed it for him. He’d always loved kids, and he’d always loved this kid in particular ever since the first time he’d attached himself to his thigh and called him Xian-gege. He was excited to start a family with him, more than he could ever say.
“I miss him,” Wei Wuxian admitted, a little embarrassed by how wistful he sounded. “I always thought about him, I wanted to come back and just… try to see him. Just from a distance, to know he was okay. Happy. Safe.”
“You will see for yourself in a few hours,” Lan Wangji told him gently. Wei Wuxian grinned. Lan Wangji pulled a sleek cell phone out of his pocket and placed it on the table before him. “For now, you may use my phone to call your siblings. I have both their personal numbers. You are welcome to invite them here, if you wish.”
Wei Wuxian stared at the phone for a few minutes, his heart pounding with the thought of seeing Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli again. Part of him was terrified, thought for sure they had to hate him, and part of him just wanted to bury himself in jiejie’s arms while Jiang Cheng yelled in his most affectionate tone.
He took a deep, shuddering breath, and picked up the phone.