Chapter Text
Lan Ping is having a relaxing morning when Lan Shoushan comes to fetch him.
At the ward’s entrance, he finds The Second Jade of Lan. He looks as stately and serious as he ever does. Nothing is obviously amiss. “Ah, Hanguang-jun,” he salutes, “how may we help you?”
“I am seeking care for my husband.” He shifts to reveal Wei Wuxian, tucked just behind him. Lan Ping had missed his presence. He looks meek and pale. It’s disconcerting.
“Master Wei,” Lan Ping salutes him as well, “we meet again.” He tries a small smile in greeting.
Wei Wuxian mirrors his smile and his bow. “Ah! Yes, I remember you!” He becomes more animated, coming alive. “You set my shoulder. Thank you again for that!” His smile shifts, becoming rueful. He rolls his right shoulder. “Still works great!”
He looks more natural with a smile on his face. It might have been convincing if it hadn’t faded so quickly.
----
Lan Ping has met Wei Wuxian twice.
The first time, Sect Leader Lan had pulled Lan Ping from his chambers in the middle of the night and brought him to the hanshi. He’d operated on a bloody Wei Wuxian, pierced through and through. He’d been lucky that none of his bowels had been nicked. But, Lan Ping is a talented healer and it had healed with barely a scar to mark the occasion.
The memory still gives him nightmares. Lan Wangji’s white robes stained with blood from the chest down. Lan Xichen’s bedding, and under his bed where the blood had soaked through and pooled on the floor, haunts him.
The second time is the one Wei Wuxian remembers.
Lan Ping doesn’t know the details, but the gist was that Wei Wuxian had taken a tumble down a hillside and landed poorly. He’d sprained his ankle, taken multiple contusions and lacerations, but the shoulder was most pressing. Someone had tried to reset it without success. It needed to be popped out and then popped back in again.
The trauma of the fall alone must have been miserably painful. Then, add a failed reset. Lan Ping always tries to prepare his patients for having a joint reset. They typically yell and then cry. Lan Ping explained to Wei Wuxian that it will take two steps, twice the misfortune, in order to settle the joint correctly. Wei Wuxian merely nodded his assent.
Each step must have been excruciating, but Wei Wuxian hadn’t given any sign of pain beyond gritting his teeth and wincing. He’d laughed when the arm had finally settled properly in the socket, reflexively testing it out.
“Much better!” he’d said, flashing a smile.
When Lan Ping tried to offer him pain relievers, he’d laughed at that too.
“Is it the one from tree bark or the one from poppy seeds?” He’d asked. “I don’t like the seeds one, it makes me really hazy.”
Lan Ping had been fingering a pouch of each. He returned the reject to its locked compartment. “The tree bark one.”
“Ah, that’ll be great,” Wei Wuxian said, accepting the packet. “I’ll make Hanguang-jun make me tea.” He’d flounced off as though nothing significant had occurred.
----
To see Wei Wuxian so quiet and still worries Lan Ping greatly. “Please, follow me,” he says and leads them to a private room.
“So,” he begins, “what brings you in today?”
The couple exchanges a long look. Lan Wangji appears blank to Lan Ping, but Wei Wuxian clearly can read his husband with greater fluency. He crosses his arms and looks away.
It is Lan Wangji who addresses Lan Ping. “Wei Ying has been unusually fatigued. He is frequently nauseous and sensitive to scent. The smell of certain foods, foods he usually enjoys, often triggers him.”
It’s not the longest Lan Ping has ever heard Lan Wangji speak, but it comes close.
Lan Ping nods. “May I have you strip to your inner clothes?”
Lan Wangji begins by stepping closer to Wei Wuxian and bringing his hands to the cinch of his husband’s belt. The intimacy of undressing is stunning.
Lan Ping turns his back to them to stall for time, ostensibly to gather supplies. Lan Wangji softly clears his throat to signal to Lan Ping their readiness. Wei Wuxian is sitting on the edge of the bed. He looks stiff and anxious. Lan Wangji is harder to read. His hand cradles the nape of Wei Wuxian’s neck. He stands closely enough that their legs are pressed together.
Lan Ping clears his own throat. “I usually have partners leave the room.”
And immediately, Lan Wangji’s posture shifts, stiffening and becoming protective. Wei Wuxian lashes out to grab his closest hand.
“No!” he yelps, and then more calmly adds, “No. I want him here.”
Lan Ping nods again. “Please lay back.”
Wei Wuxian lays down but does not relinquish Lan Wangji’s hand.
Lan Ping takes a moment to collect himself and for everyone’s nerves to settle. After a few breaths, the tension is smoothed over.
He focuses on Wei Wuxian. “From your point of view, is there anything you’d like to add? Any symptoms Hanguang-jun missed?”
Wei Wuxian looks at Lan Wangji and abruptly a brush spreads across his face.
“Wei Ying?”
Wei Wuxian groans and throws an arm over his face.
“It is important that the healer has complete information in order to treat you.”
Wei Wuxian groans again. “ Lan Zhan , urg, it’s so embarrassing!” He brings his arm down enough to look Lan Wangji in the eye. “And I’m sure you already know.”
“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji says again. Lan Ping interprets this one as tell the healer .
Wei Wuxian turns into his elbow, more fully hiding his face. “I’ve been really, really horny.”
“Mm.”
“See! You knew! I knew you knew!” He says, his face still firmly pressed into his arm.
“Mm,” Lan Wangji says. Then a moment later, he continues, “Your nipples have been darker.”
This shocks Wei Wuxian out of hiding. “What? They have not. I would have noticed!”
This time Lan Wangji addresses Lan Ping. “His nipples have been darker.” He pauses briefly and then adds, “and more sensitive.”
Wei Wuxian whines shrilly, hiding his face once more. “Lan Zhan, you can’t tell people stuff like that!”
“I can and I will if it will help you.” Lan Wangji squeezes the hand he is still holding and Wei Wuxian lowers his arm.
Wei Wuxian was never hiding his embarrassment well. He is flushed bright red. The blush extends down his neck and onto his chest.
Lan Ping feels blessed by his years of experience. He is narrowly able to keep the smile off of his face. “I’d like to do a scan of your spiritual energies.”
Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji nod.
“For this, I’m afraid I have to ask Hanguang-jun not to touch you. This way I can concentrate solely on your energy.” They nod again and Lan Wangji releases his hand, stepping back. “Would you mind untying your shirt?”
Lan Ping starts at the crown of his head. “Please close your eyes and bring your arms to your side. Palms up, please. Deep breaths. That’s it, just like that.” He coaches and begins scanning. “I may occasionally touch you.”
He clears the orifices of the face. Moving down the lines of his qi, checking the meridians. Spiritual energy flows readily.
Lan Ping has been devastatingly curious about Wei Wuxian. A confirmed, known case of transmigration. Through a dark ritual. What the fuck. It sounds too fantastic to be real. Lan Ping chides himself. He must focus on the case at hand.
He is slow and methodical. The qi around Wei Wuxian’s heart has some pooling, but that makes sense. Lan Ping presses two fingertips to the center of his sternum. Lan Ping senses some resentful energy being harbored there. After checking the surrounding meridians, it doesn’t seem to be having any downstream effects.
Things become more unusual, but also clearer, as he reaches the lower dantian. Lan Ping takes a deep breath and convinces himself not to linger. He keeps his face neutral and his body calm. He continues down one leg and then the other, completing the circuit.
“May I have you turn onto your side. Please, face away,” he directs Wei Wuxian. He begins again at the crown of Wei Wuxian’s head, working his way downward, confirming what he already knows.
“Please return to your back. I’m doing to palpate your abdomen.” Wei Wuxian shifts. “Actually, may I have you loosen the ties of your trousers? I may need to feel slightly lower.” He looks to Lan Wangji. “No more than is needed.” He assures.
Wei Wuxian loosens the ties and then reclines.
“Also, you can touch again.” Lan Ping says.
Lan Wangji immediately snatches up his hand just as Wei Wuxian has raised it to offer to him. Lan Wangji settles at the edge of the bed and presses a kiss to his husband’s fingertips.
Lan Ping returns his attention to Wei Wuxian’s stomach.
He looks like he’s had a couple of large meals. It’s subtle, all things considered.
Lan Ping palpates, feeling the edges of his womb - miraculous, truly - and lower, getting a sense of the baby’s size and development.
Lan Ping withdraws slightly. “I’d like to do an internal palpation, if you’ll allow.”
“Internal?” Wei Wuxian echos. He has lost his earlier blush. His face now is pale, fearful.
Lan Wangji takes in Wei Wuxian. Never breaking eye contact with his husband, he says to Lan Ping, “Is it necessary?”
Lan Ping considers for a moment. “I think I know what is happening with Master Wei. How about this, I can explain, and then you can decide if you’d like me to gather further information.”
Wei Wuxian sits up and adjusts until both of their backs rest against the headboard. Lan Wangji has one leg on the bed. The other is on the floor. It should look awkward, but doesn’t. Lan Ping envies his grace.
Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji share a long moment of silent eye contact before Lan Wangji presses another, lingering kiss along his knuckles, and Wei Wuxian nods.
“Okay,” he says, waiting for Lan Ping.
No need to sugar coat it. “You are pregnant.”
“I’m what?”
“You are pregnant. Several months along, in fact.” Wei Wuxian is poleaxed. Lan Wangji looks blank. More blank than usual. “It’s not unheard of,” Lan Ping explains, “just very, very rare.”
“But, but how? I’m - Mo Xuanyu wasn’t secretly a woman, was he?”
“No,” Lan Ping reassures. He gathers his thoughts. How to phrase it. “Frankly, your existence here is a miracle.” He lets that sink in before continuing. “I don’t think a little wish magic is beyond your ken.”
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian breathes just as Lan Wangji is saying “Wei Ying.” Their words are dense with meaning.
And then the shocked lull is over. They spring into action, reaching for each other. Wei Wuxian scrambles onto his knees and into Lan Wangji’s lap.
Lan Ping turns away. “I’ll give you a few minutes.”
He walks back to his office and looks out at the familiar view. The second oldest magnolias in Cloud Recesses are outside his window. Pink buds dot the branches. In a couple weeks the flowers will be in full bloom and the scent will waft in, overwhelming his allergies but warming his heart.
When Lan Ping returns, he is thankful that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are both still clothed. They paint a beautiful picture.
Lan Wangji has Wei Wuxian cuddled in his lap, legs over one side, and Wei Wuxian’s face pressed into his neck. Wei Wuxian’s shirt still hangs open. Lan Ping can see one hand supporting Wei Wuxian’s back. Wei Wuxian's hands cover Lan Wangji's other hand, where it pressed low on his stomach, over where their child grows.
They both look up when Lan Ping enters.
“Hi,” Wei Wuxian says, the shiest Lan Ping has ever heard him.
He straightens, and then he and Lan Wangji share a look. There are tear tracks on Wei Wuxian’s face. Lan Wangji lifts his hand from Wei Wuxian’s stomach and wipes at his cheeks with his thumb. Wei Wuxian laughs. And Lan Wangji -
Lan Wangji is smiling. A full smile, with teeth and gums.
Wei Wuxian marvels at his expression for a moment before pressing a quick peck to his lips. He doesn’t look away from his husband when he says, “We’d like to know more.”
Logistics are discussed. Wei Wuxian reclines in Lan Wangji’s lap. Lan Wangji holds both of his hands, held over his head. “Stay with me,” Lan Wangji says, stroking one soothing hand down Wei Wuxian’s arm.
Neither of them look away as Lan Ping presses in and palpates from the outside, triangulating. Once finished, he withdraws and places a small washcloth at the foot of the bed.
“I’ll let you get dressed and then I’ll come back and share my findings.”
Lan Ping doesn’t travel far. He stands in the corridor and thinks about how it felt when he first found out his beloved a-Qiu was expecting. The delight, the excitement.
When he returns, Wei Wuxian is once again fully clothed. He has on a blinding smile. He tries to bring it under control, but the smile just keeps creeping back onto his face. Lan Wangji appears more placid, but his eyes are bright, glowing with happiness. They sit side by side at the edge of the bed, holding hands.
“Assuming you're not bearing multiples, you are between four and five months along. I suspect between fourteen to sixteen weeks. Unfortunately, you don’t have anything so convenient as a menses to compare your progression against, so it will have to be an approximation.”
“That far along?” Wei Wuxian asks. His eyebrows disappear into his bangs. “Shouldn’t I be, I dunno, bigger?”
“Not necessarily,” Lan Ping explains, falling into familiar territory. “Some people show early. Others do not. It’s common to begin showing later during a first pregnancy.”
Wei Wuxian gasps. “First,” he repeats quietly.
“Don’t worry though. You’re almost halfway. The baby will only grow exponentially from here.”
They both nod.
“I want to see you again in a week. I’m sure you’ll have plenty of questions by then.”
They both nod again, Wei Wuxian nodding more vigorously. He loads them up with book recommendations and brief guide with frequently asked questions.
As they both stand to leave, Lan Ping pauses at the doorway. The couple stills beside him. “Please,” he says and dips into a bow, “allow me be the first to offer congratulations.”
He’ll have to do some research and speak with Lan Huiling of the womens’ healers. Watching Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian leave, their fingers threaded, fills him with joy.
It’s nice to see a main-family Lan so fulfilled in love.