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Jiang Yanli placed a hand over the top of his as he paused to look at the picture of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji smiling into the camera in front of the Parthenon in Athens. He should cry at the chasm of emptiness that opened up inside him at the feeling of loss, but he didn’t have any tears left at this point.
He put the picture in the cardboard box, along with the rest, and all the stupid little trinkets and mementos that reminded him of Lan Wangji, and their life together, before Lan Wangji had broken all ties with Wei Wuxian.
One of the most cutting things about it was, as they were both celebrities, in the public eye, their relationship had been secret, known only to a few close friends, family and work colleagues.
And so Wei Wuxian was expected to work tomorrow; he had a recording session, and he would have to look and sound like he was perfectly normal, like his world hadn’t collapsed around him and left him lost and confused.
“You don’t have to deal with this now, A-Xian, we can leave it until it’s a little less fresh if you want”
“No, jiejie, I want them gone, I want them out of here tonight. Tomorrow is a fresh start. A rebirth, new me, no more Lan Wangji, he can go to hell”
He slammed the lid on the cardboard box, then checked his phone, “Jiang Cheng should be here soon, lets tape this up so he can go throw it at Lan Wangji tomorrow” Wei Wuxian was raw and hurting, and still at that point he didn’t care what he said about the other, Lan Wangji was only lucky he hadn’t felt the need to call him or drive over there and give him his entire mind, never mind a piece of it.
Better, in case he said something that couldn’t be taken back. Not that it mattered now.
His horrible week didn’t get any better when the pictures of Jiang Cheng punching Lan Wangji in the face were splashed all over every news and gossip tabloid and website in the country.
Wei Wuxian thought he should have felt some spark of satisfaction at Jiang Cheng putting Lan Wangji on his ass in defence of him, but he didn’t.
It didn’t help that Lan Xichen, trying to restrain Jiang Cheng, had accidentally broken Jiang Cheng’s arm which had resulted in a ridiculously long, nerve wracking operation for he and Jiang Yanli to sit through, on his already frazzled nerves.
Jiang Cheng received the dressing down of his life once he came around from the anaesthesia. Wei Wuxian had never heard their jiejie so angry and cutting, either before or since.
*** 2 Years Later ***
“Wei Wuxian is forced to attend to promote his new collaboration album with MianMian, Lan-xiansheng, perhaps you should consider advising your client to give this event a miss”
Wei Wuxian rolled his eyes, and leaned back in his chair as Jiang Cheng’s face flushed in temper and he unconsciously reached up to rub at his right forearm while he listened to whatever was said to him.
“That is, of course, your client’s prerogative, Lan-xiansheng. I see. Well, please inform him of the situation. If your client still sees it as necessary to attend we would appreciate it if you would provide us notice via email” there were no pleasantries as Jiang Cheng hung up the call and tossed his earpiece onto the desk in front of him, frustration evident in the move.
“Asshole”
“Flirting with Xichen-ge again, I see”
“Flirting? With the man who snapped my fucking arm like a twig?” Jiang Cheng demanded in irritation.
“In fairness you did punch his brother, and he explained it was an accident; he was only trying to restrain you. He even sent you a fruit basket and flowers to apologise”
The former of which Jiang Cheng had given away to charity, and the latter to their jiejie, but still…
Teasing Jiang Cheng took his mind off of the very real problem of possibly having to meet up with his ex at the charity gala evening, which was why he did it. And it was fun, besides.
“It was a spiral fracture, Wei Wuxian, it took eight months to heal, like flowers and a fruit basket make up for that. It fucking hurt”
His complaint made, he dropped the subject, and, knowing Wei Wuxian had taken in all the information he needed from his half of the conversion with Lan Xichen, he changed it to discussions of some fan signings they had arranged next week with co-artist MianMian.
***
As the event grew closer things became frantic. Jiang Cheng told him that he’d been informed Lan Wangji would definitely be attending. So now was the perfect time to prove he’d moved on, he told himself, that Lan Wangji was nothing to him more than an ex boyfriend.
Despite these words he didn’t feel hopeful he was up to the task, however.
Then a tabloid ran with an article speculating that he and MianMian were in a secret relationship. It genuinely wasn’t the first, nor would it be the last of it’s kind linking him romantically with someone but it caused a frenzy and he and Jiang Cheng were busy enacting damage control with MianMian and her management team.
A few weeks later, another article was run in another tabloid claiming through rigorous investigative journalism it had been found out that a celebrity reporter at a rival paper had been blackmailing and harassing celebrities with threats of exposure. Wei Wuxian had never liked Su She and it was easy for him to believe it was the truth; he had never come across as particularly ethical, but that paper claimed initially that the accusations were false; pure mud-slinging.
The thing about mud-slinging was, if enough was thrown, some of it stuck. The melee culminated in the resignation and disgrace of Su She, as the other papers were suddenly full of stories of celebrities who claimed to have been blackmailed and bullied.
***
With all the fuss he hadn’t had that much time to dwell on his imminent meeting with Lan Wangji. Nor had he really had time to mentally prepare himself.
The night of the gala, therefore, he felt like he was on the back foot and unprepared.
He didn’t know what to expect nor how he was going to react to what did occur.
The feeling only intensified when, calling an acknowledgement at the knock on his dressing room door, it turned out to be the man he dreaded encountering.
The other came in and closed the door behind him, his elegantly handsome face was expressionless, but he wavered in front of it like he didn’t know what his reception would be.
Wei Wuxian could help him with that.
“Lan Zhan, I thought our management teams had agreed that we would keep a respectful distance. This is hardly that”
“Wei Ying…” the tiniest look of consternation crossed his face, before it disappeared. “Your team wanted that, I never agreed. Can we please talk?”
What could Lan Wangji possibly think there was left to talk about at this stage? The only way to find out was of course to agree, but having Lan Wangji here was proving he wasn’t as over him, and what he had done, as Wei Wuxian hoped. It hurt. It still hurt. It was silly, two years later he should have moved on from this, stopped giving Lan Wangji this power to hurt him.
“I’m not sure what you think there is left to talk about, Lan Zhan” he said tiredly, closing his eyes and rubbing at them with a finger and thumb.
“The truth. The things I didn’t tell you”
At those words Wei Wuxian’s eyes snapped open; what did he mean? He looked back at the other, the only way to find out of course was to let him talk. He waved vaguely for the other to sit, Lan Wangji followed his gesture and perched on the nearby stool.
“You saw the news about Su She, the reporter, recently?” he asked, knowing Wei Wuxian couldn’t really have avoided it.
“Yes”
He nodded as Wei Wuxian agreed. “We were being blackmailed, Wei Ying. I broke off with you to protect you. Su She threatened to smear everything over his grubby little tabloid, it could have destroyed our careers”
“If you paid why would you break up with me? And is your career really that important to you? How the fuck is that protecting me?” as far as excuses went it turned Wei Wuxian’s temper up to eleven.
“Wei Ying, my career meant nothing to me, I was protecting yours. I broke up with you so Su She wouldn’t have any future leverage, no reason to leave me alone and come after you. Blackmailers don’t stop” that soothed his temper a little, but still…
“Who the hell were you to decide my career was more important to me than the man I loved? We could have gone anywhere, done anything. I wouldn’t have cared about it. Typical Lan arrogance, assuming you had the right to make that decision alone”
That seemed to shake Lan Wangji a little, “I only wanted to protect you”
“Well, it didn’t work, you ripped my heart out. But thanks, I guess?”
“I’m sorry, Wei Ying, but I did it because I love you” he almost missed the present tense of the admission in his anger. What was he to make of that? What did he even want to make of that?
They were silent while Wei Wuxian pondered.
“Are you really seeing MianMian?” the question was low, tentative, unlike Lan Wangji, and Wei Wuxian looked at him, caught the gaze of those pale amber eyes. There was a cruel part of himself that wanted to say yes, claim they were now a thing, try to hurt Lan Wangji. But he didn’t listen to it.
“No, its one of those stupid, fake, tabloid ‘they’re spending so much time together’ pieces of fiction. We’ve just released a collaboration, of course we’re spending a lot of time together now we have to do the promo”
Lan Wangji nodded his acceptance of Wei Wuxian’s words. Was that a flash of relief in his eyes?
“Do you hate me, Wei Ying?” well that question came out of the blue. He was caught off guard by Lan Wangji’s unusual directness.
“I don’t know” was the only honest answer he could give, again, ignoring that voice that told him to hurt the other and just say yes. “I thought I did, I think I should. I’m not sure. I don’t know”
“Then please give me a second chance, Wei Ying. I’ll earn your love again” Lan Wangji leaned forward suddenly, pressing a short, almost-chaste kiss again Wei Wuxian’s lips. Should he punch him? Push him away? Enjoy it?
Lan Wangji pulled back before he could decide; he was confused, and oh but he had missed those lips on his.
His voice was still sharp, “Do you think one kiss is going to make up for everything, Lan Zhan?” he demanded. He had been hurt, destroyed, and here was the other begging for a second chance. A chance he was beginning to think he dearly wanted to allow him.
“No, Wei Ying, but I have to start somewhere”