Chapter Text
In the end, they settle Wen Qing on Dafan Mountain.
They argue about it for days first. Dafan Mountain is far, Wei Wuxian insists, too far to be safe. It's outside the direct jurisdiction of the Lans -- not that that would stop him and Lan Zhan from coming to her aid, but it also means other clans can target her without fear of immediate retaliation. No, Gusu is a better bet. She doesn't have to stay in Caiyi Town, or even any of the other towns near Cloud Recesses, just somewhere in the region. It'll be safer for her here. The Lan Clan will protect her.
Wen Qing rolls her eyes when he says that, a gesture Wei Wuxian is intimately familiar with from the thousands of times it was directed at him in the Burial Mounds. He used to think it was far scarier than her needles ever were, but now it's just...comforting, somehow. The knowledge that even now, sixteen years and a resurrection away from where they started, he can still say something stupid enough to piss Wen Qing off in just the wrong way settles something in his chest he didn't know was out of place.
"Can you even say that?" she asks. The look on her face makes it very clear she expects the answer to be no.
"Of course I can," Wei Wuxian says, full of confidence. Then he turns to Lan Zhan and whispers behind his hand, "Can I?"
Lan Zhan barely spares him half a glance before nodding to Wen Qing. Then he reaches over and pats Wei Wuxian's knee under the table before he can pout too much at the lack of attention.
Wen Qing sighs, then. It's weary in a way that Wei Wuxian will never admit tugs at his heart. Lan Zhan frowns and says, firmly, "We will protect you."
He does not say, the Lan clan will protect you. He does not promise her Lan Xichen's grace or Lan Qiren's might. And there's the issue. Wei Wuxian can say whatever he wants here in the safety of this nameless restaurant in a town too small to be on any map, but when it comes down to it -- and it will come down to it, eventually; Wen Ruohan's shadow is long, and Wen Qing could walk to the ends of the earth and still find herself inside it -- the only people they can promise will stand by her side are themselves.
Wei Wuxian knows this. Knowing doesn't make it any less bitter.
Wen Qing respects Hanguang Jun too much to roll her eyes at him, but she does level him with a look that borders on exasperation. She takes a long si of her tea before she speaks, and Wei Wuxian desperately wants to know what kind of barbed words she's washing down. He doesn't want Lan Zhan to be scolded, necessarily. It'd just be nice for it to be someone else for a change.
"It's not that I don't appreciate the offer." She doesn't, the absolute liar. "Really, Hanguang Jun, I'm grateful for all you've done for me, and all you are willing to do." And what about him? Doesn't he deserve thanks too? Wen Qing is so rude. "But I'm not going to live the rest of my life under the supervision of the Lan clan. Or that of anyone else, for that matter." She turns her gaze to Wei Wuxian, and adds, "No matter how good their intentions."
Okay, ouch. His chagrin must show on his face, because Wen Qing's eyes soften just a fraction and when she sighs this time it sounds almost fond. "I know you mean well," she tells him, voice bordering on gentle, "but you've done enough for me. Let me protect myself, now."
Wei Wuxian hesitates. It's not that he thinks she can't protect herself, it's that she doesn't have to anymore. Wen Qing has never spoken much about the years she spent keeping herself and Wen Ning alive in Wen Ruohan's court, and Wei Wuxian knows better than to ask. He also knows, better than most, how much steel and fire Wen Qing carries in her small frame, the talons she hides under her gentle doctor's hands. But none of that changes the fact that sometimes, when he looks at her now, he still sees the unfathomable girl he met in Cloud Recesses who was too young have any worry lines on her forehead, who still looked at him with mistrust instead of annoyance, who wore robes of brilliant scarlet and a distant, hunted expression whenever she thought no one was looking.
It's the memory of that look that makes Wei Wuxian pause, makes something in him ache . Lotus Pier had been kind to him growing up, and he had been happy there. But there had been some days when Jiang Fengmian had left on clan business -- or worse, when he left and took Jiang Cheng and Yanli with him -- where it didn't matter how scarce he made himself or how carefully he tread through the halls. Madam Yu would find him, and Zidian soon after. The way Wen Qing had looked as a student in Cloud Recesses was the same way he felt at the end of those days: stretched thin but unwilling to break.
He doesn't know how to say it without making her angry, but Wei Wuxian doesn't want her to ever feel that alone again, and Dafan Mountain is far. Too far to not be lonely.
And yet.
Under the table, he reaches for Lan Zhan's hand. He's met halfway, and the familiar feeling of Lan Zhan's knobbly knuckles digging into his fingers settles him. He has such funny hands, Wei Wuxian thinks, and the wave of fondness that comes with it drowns out his uneasiness long enough for him to nod at Wen Qing and say, "Okay."
She beams at him. It's the most genuine smile he's seen from her since he woke up in Mo Xuanyu's body, and he's loath to ruin it by opening his mouth, but he can't quite stop himself from saying, "Just one more question."
Lan Zhan shifts in the way that means he thinks Wei Wuxian should have stopped talking, and Wen Qing's smile vanishes in an instant, replaced by deep suspicion. "What?"
For once, Wei Wuxian rolls the words in his mouth before letting loose. He drags his thumb nervously up and down Lan Zhan's. Then he says, simply, "What if I miss you?"
Immediately, the tension breaks. Wen Qing snorts -- forget the needles, she'd knife him if he ever told her she snorts, but she does -- and even Lan Zhan lets out an amused huff of air, the absolute traitor. Wei Wuxian looks wildly back and forth between them, mouth gaping. "Don't laugh at me! I'm serious!"
"Then don't be an idiot." Wen Qing rolls her eyes again and actually, Wei Wuxian decides he isn't going to miss her at all. "It's not like you can't visit."
She says it like the idea of him darkening her doorstep is some great hardship, but she's smiling again, and Wei Wuxian hears it as the invitation it is. He smiles back.
And they go to Dafan Mountain.
Wen Qing stands in the middle of her new house. She turns once, twice in a slow circle, then stops, facing Wei Wuxian. He’s smiling at her, but she can see the anticipation etched in the lines around his eyes, the nervous set of his shoulders. She thought she was finally used to it, but the disconnect between his existence and her memory hits her yet again. That may be Mo Xuanyu’s body but that’s Wei Wuxian’s body language, and it's so strange, looking at something so new yet so dear. It’s been a long, long time since Yiling, but she would know those expressions anywhere, on any face.
“Well?” he says, when the silence stretches too long. His fingers drum nervously where his hands are resting on his hips. "Do you like it?"
Wen Qing opens her mouth but her voice catches in her throat, and all she manages is a sharp, choked off inhale. The smile slips sideways off Wei Wuxian's face.
"Wen Qing?" he asks gently, and for some reason Wen Qing feels like she might cry.
"It's..." She shakes her head to clear it, trying to find the words. "Why is it so big?"
"It's not that big." And really, Wei Wuxian is right. There's a small main area with a little table and some cushions, and a few little shelves stocked with jars of pickled vegetables, bags of rice, even a few books and scrolls that Lan Wangji had apparently rescued from being thrown out after a deep clean of the Lan library. There are two -- two! -- little side rooms with their own doors, and an even littler alcove that could be screened off to make a third sleeping area, or even a study, if she wanted it. All told, the entire cabin could fit inside the rooms she and Wen Ning had stayed in as students in Cloud Recesses with room to spare.
But when Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji had bullied her into letting them find her a place to live, she'd only agreed on the condition that it would be small, cheap, and not in Gusu. One room, she had instructed them very carefully, that was all the space she needed. But this...
"This is not what we agreed on," Wen Qing says accusingly.
Wei Wuxian rolls his eyes and, hey , that's her move. Brat. "It's close enough. And it was practically free. It belonged to some little old lady who finally agreed to move down into the village to live with her daughter after, like, apparently years of begging. We tried to give her money but she only wanted us to help move her stuff, and -- hey, don't give me that look, we snuck her daughter the money." He pouts at her, then brightens almost immediately. "Oh, Granny also made us promise you would go have tea with her every week, so, yeah, you're not allowed to be a complete mountain hermit."
Wen Qing stares at him. A million thoughts race through her head, but all that makes it out of her mouth is, "You're insane." Then, a beat later, "I don't need you to make friends for me." Then, "I wasn't going to be a mountain hermit." And then she turns back around, because if she keeps looking at his smile she's actually going to cry.
Thankfully, Wei Wuxian doesn't seem to notice, because all he does is laugh at her back. "I don't believe you for a second. But think of it as insurance, if you like that better. Now you have to accept this place, because you'll disappoint a nice old lady if you don't. She's so excited for you to visit."
She doesn't even know me , Wen Qing wants to say, but the enormity of that fact hits her before she can even try to squeeze the words out of her throat. The old lady doesn't know her. No one does. She can walk through town with her head held high and no one will care. She can smile at shopkeepers in the market and no one will look twice. She can introduce herself, if she wants to.
How long has it been since no one knew her name?
Wen Qing doesn't cry, but she does sniff, just once. Soft footsteps shuffle behind her, and then Wei Wuxian is next to her, putting an arm around her shoulders. This close, it's hard to ignore how he's barely taller than her anymore. Wen Qing is still so used to having to look up to glare at him, but if she turned just a little, she'd be able to do it at eye level.
She doesn't. They stand there quietly and stare at the shelves until Wen Qing feels steady again.
"Thank you," she says to a jar of pickled cabbage. It comes out only a little watery, and she's unreasonably proud of that.
Wei Wuxian squeezes her shoulder gently. "Wen Qing, Wen Qing, come on, do we really need thanks between us anymore? Just do me a favor and let someone do something nice for you for once."
She can't help it -- it really shouldn't be funny, how Wei Wuxian of all people has the audacity to scold her about this of all things, but it is, so she laughs. She laughs long and hard, until her stomach hurts, until her eyes are wet from mirth, until her lungs are tight from lack of air and nothing else.
Wen Qing hasn't laughed in sixteen years. It's good to know she hasn't forgotten how.
Wei Wuxian's hand slips from her shoulder to pat her awkwardly on her back as she coughs and wheezes her way back down. His voice is fond but bewildered when he asks, "Um? Are you good? Did I say something weird?"
Wen Qing shakes her head, unable to explain it all. "Everything you say is weird." She finally turns to face him and can't quite stop herself from grinning as he scrunches his face up in affront. "I'm fine," she adds before he can start whining, and she thinks she might even mean it. And then she elbows him hard in the chest before she can do something else stupid, like hug him.
Wei Wuxian yelps and snatches his hand away from her to clutch at his nonexistent wound. "Hey! What was that for!"
"Meddling." Wen Qing ignores his indignant spluttering and sweeps past him towards the door. "Why is Hanguang Jun waiting outside again?"
"He wanted to give you space. Don't change the subject. You're such a bully, Wen Qing."
"Hold that thought while I grab the only person on this mountain who cares." She throws the door open. Late afternoon sunlight splashes over her like a wave and mountain air fills her lungs and Wen Qing feels shockingly, brilliantly alive.
"Hanguang Jun," she calls, and the man in question looks up from where he's tenderly stroking Little Apple's nose. "I'm bullying your husband. Get in here and protect him while I make dinner."