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Wei Wuxian is the most annoying girl in the world and Lan Wangji can't take her eyes off her.
The Gusulan classes are famous for inculcating discipline and knowledge in the visiting disciples, a degree of restraint even in the most uncontrollable of the young masters and ladies that are sent there every year.
Wei Wuxian is determined to be the one exception, the singular dark blot on Lan Qiren's teaching career. Maybe even the sole cause of an early qi deviation.
She sits in the classes and throws papers at Lan Wangji. She sticks rude talismans to Lan Qiren's back. She cheats furiously and shamelessly behind Lan Qiren's back and Lan Wangji is forced to intervene, angrily snatching up the papers flying around and exposing the deed.
The fallout is Wei Wuxian getting assigned to one month of sitting in the library pavilion and copying the rule books. Lan Wangji is to be her supervisor.
Lan Wangji catches her groaning about this to her friends, Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng. "Copying the rules under the Second Jade, they want to kill me from boredom. This is a murder attempt. Jiang Cheng, you must avenge me after my death."
Something sinks inside Lan Wangji's stomach at that, grows cold until she's forced to turn away.
Eavesdropping is forbidden in the Cloud Recesses.
*
Lan Wangji is frosty like the jade that they call her the next morning, when Wei Wuxian trudges to the library pavilion, still half asleep by the looks of it.
Lan Wangji is under no pretensions when it comes to Wei Wuxian, just because her own heart beats faster whenever she is around the other girl doesn't mean that it means anything, that it could ever be reciprocated. She's aware of her own nature. It isn't a coincidence that her closest friend, her singular friend is Lan Xichen, her brother.
Wei Wuxian doesn't misbehave for the first few hours and Lan Wangji copies one of Lan An's poem collections stoically. Ever so often she would cast a glance at the other girl, too quick to be caught. Wei Wuxian's posture is atrocious and her writing is an untidy scrawl. The sunlight streaming from the wide windows catches on her hair occasionally and Lan Wangji forgets to look away during those moments.
Wei Wuxian starts looking back after a while, when the last veneer of sleep is gone. She rotates her wrists methodically and looks at Lan Wangji with such open curiosity that Lan Wangji casts her eyes down, lest she spills ink all over her scroll.
Wei Wuxian gets up and moves, walking closer and sitting right in front of Lan Wangji. She peers down at Lan Wangji's work. "Wow, jiejie, your characters are so good."
Lan Wangji continues writing, thankful for her thick face.
Wei Wuxian snatches the inkpot closest to her and starts grinding the ink, slow and surprisingly meticulous as she tries to catch Lan Wangji's eye.
"Jiejie."
A pause.
"Lan Wangji."
A noticeably shorter pause than before.
"Lan-er-jiejie."
.
.
.
"Lan Zhan!"
Lan Wangji looks up at that, eyes widening at the cadence of her name in Wei Wuxian's mouth, impudently called.
Wei Wuxian backs away, hands apologetic in that adorable way of hers that is as sincere as it is put on. She pouts at Lan Wangji, complaining, "Don't look at me like that, I only used your given name because otherwise you wouldn't pay attention to me. Don't you know it's rude to ignore people?"
Lan Wangji is not ignoring her, can not ignore her even if her life depended on it. She doesn't reply, going back to carefully copying another word of Lan An's poem but Wei Wuxian isn't having any of that.
She bangs on the table, almost making the brush that Lan Wangji is handling slip from her fingers. Lan Wangji glares at her, a flicker of righteous fury alighting at the casual way the other girl disturbs her surroundings. Loud, so loud, and completely unaware of the effect she has on people.
Wei Wuxian doesn't balk under Lan Wangji's glare, on the contrary she blooms under it. It almost seems like it makes her happy to have Lan Wangji's full attention but that couldn't be. Lan Wangji is boring and Wei Wuxian is probably only having fun at her expense.
"Do your work."
Wei Wuxian whines. "I don't want to."
Lan Wangji bristles. "Do it or I will double your workload."
"What?! Do you want me to fly up to the heavens? Jiejie, don't be cruel. Let's be friends, I have never had a friend as pretty as you. Why won't you be my friend? Lan Zhan! Look at me!"
Lan Wangji doesn't spare her a glance, ignores that Wei Wuxian calling her pretty makes her heart pound, the traitor that it is. Wei Wuxian is a flatterer by nature, a casual flirt who could not mean half the things that Lan Wangji has heard her say.
Wei Wuxian is undeterred by the lack of response. She shifts closer than before. Lan Wangji is abruptly grateful for the low table between them. "I want to apologise to you. I think you're really cool, Lan Zhan, I can never be as righteous and disciplined as you are. We got off the wrong foot that day, let's remedy that. Won't you be my friend? Let bygones be bygones."
She leans forward hopefully, that supernova bright smile right in Lan Wangji's face and Lan Wangji can't help but instinctively scowl in response. "I don't have friends."
"What? Is even having friends forbidden in the Cloud Recesses?"
Lan Wangji doesn't know how to explain that people shrink away from her, how being the person who doles out punishments doesn't endear her to anyone and, anyway, she's too cold for anyone to come close to. Lan Wangji prefers it that way.
Wei Wuxian is still waiting for a response so Lan Wangji draws herself up straighter. "The rules are awaiting you, if you still need clarification," she says pointedly, nodding towards where Wei Wuxian's punishment is lying unfinished behind her.
Wei Wuxian frowns, a real one this time. "Lan Zhan! Aren't you too inflexible? I already said I am sorry." A frantic tug at Lan Wangji's sleeve and Lan Wangji is forced to look up again. Wei Wuxian takes the opportunity to bat her eyelashes exaggeratedly. "Jiejie, there are many benefits to being my friend."
Lan Wangji is stunned for a moment at the effect that has on her poor, unruly heart and that somehow translates into a fiercer scowl. "Wei Ying would benefit from completing her punishment and then her education, as befits a girl of her stature."
Wei Wuxian's face does an odd thing, like she hasn't expected that to come out of Lan Wangji's mouth.
"What do you mean by a girl of my stature? Are you looking down on me?" Wei Wuxian is joking but Lan Wangji can detect an undertone of genuine feeling there, a hint of dissatisfaction and resignation.
It surprises Lan Wangji; Wei Wuxian is everything that flows, fractious and wilful like the air that inevitably messes up Lan Wangji's hair whenever she's sword-borne; it seems that the facade of carelessness might just be that - a facade.
Lan Wangji ventures carefully. "Wei Ying is the head disciple of Yunmeng."
Wei Wuxian's shoulders slump. She shrugs, setting the inkpot back down carefully in its rightful place. "Yes, yes, I am aware."
Lan Wangji hesitates. "Wei Ying also has good skills with the sword and has novel ideas when they're not toeing the line of impropriety."
Wei Wuxian looks up sharply at that, surprised at first and then mischievous, brushing aside the tension as easily as weightless smoke. "Ah, Lan Zhan. Are you suggesting that I merely toe the line of impropriety? I must try harder than that."
Lan Wangji blinks at her, bites out. "Shameless."
"But you like me anyway! Don't you, jiejie?" It's said in a teasing tone as Wei Wuxian finally finally makes her way back to her place, clearly not expecting a reply.
Lan Wangji is simultaneously relieved and cross at the distance. She didn't know it was possible to feel so many conflicting emotions at the same time, feelings and impulses that only make sense when she's got Wei Wuxian close, within her sights.
Lan Wangji is not lacking in patience but she determines: the next time Wei Wuxian opens her mouth she will put the Lan silencing spell on her.
*
Lan Qiren's classes usually stay in the realm of theory and books, tests about clan hierarchies and painfully internalised etiquette. There's very little practical work unless it's Lan Xichen or other seniors taking them out for minor nighthunts, and that too is heavily supervised, orderly and regimented. Who will march ahead and who will cast the talismans and who will capture the prey, all as predetermined as it could be.
The older disciples have a degree of higher freedom, can go on individual nighthunts provided that they submit corresponding reports to a teacher. Lan Wangji has been going on nighthunts since she turned fourteen, spanning the length and breadth of Gusu on Bichen. Spending so much time exterminating problems and traversing the countryside means that she has learnt how to read the pulse of the common people, means that her swordwork and guqin skills have been honed by real life application, instincts and cultivation both sharpened to needlepoints.
Despite all her experience, sword fighting with Wei Wuxian feels different.
They've taken to spending the evenings together after Wei Wuxian's timeslot of punishment is up, much to Lan Wangji's surprise. Lan Wangji had thought that Wei Wuxian would want to get away as fast as possible from the confines of the library pavilion, and she had run away like she was being chased the first few times.
After that Wei Wuxian had stopped. Wei Wuxian had stayed.
Punishments have a routine, it's been Lan Wangji's job long enough that she can measure the wrongdoing by glance alone and prescribe a corresponding course correction. The rules of Gusu, lifeless, yet holding so much sway, dictate whether it is a rap on the knuckles or kneeling in the earth or enforced seclusion that would ensure that the lessons take, become ingrained.
The routine to their time together in the library pavilion is off-beat from the start, following the pattern of the first day.
Wei Wuxian has a hard time focusing, the monotony of copying lines pushes her to distraction and Lan Wangji finds herself at the receiving end of many questions. When silenced, balls of paper fly at her, each having an impudent scribble or a cheeky drawing in Wei Wuxian's carefree yet precise hand. Lan Wangji does not spare them a glance.
The unusualness is in the details: the way Lan Wangji can easily wash her hands off the tedious task of overseeing the unruly Yunmeng girl but refuses to do so. How she can as easily increase the punishment as well, make Wei Wuxian behave appropriately. She refuses to do that either and hence, everyday, Wei Wuxian sits in front of Lan Wangji for hours on end, intermittently chewing at the end of her brush as she painfully writes the rules of Lan Wangji's clan.
There emerges a pattern: Lan Wangji can usually tolerate a certain amount of ridiculousness before the silencing spell is enforced, either because Wei Wuxian teased too much, in that frivolous way of hers, or worse, came too close.
Wei Wuxian has a habit of not leaving things be and when the rules of Gusu have exhausted her short supply of attention, she turns that playful nature in Lan Wangji's direction, eagle-sharp gaze and wide smile that scurry under Lan Wangji's skin, discomfiting and heady in equal measures.
One such sunlit afternoon, during the start of the second week of punishment, Wei Wuxian is once again trying her luck at getting a response from Lan Wangji, flinging questions and commentary as they might occur to her.
It is irritating until it is not, Lan Wangji copies scriptures while carefully listening to every word that drops out of Wei Wuxian's mouth. It paints a picture, fills in a lot of blanks that exist in Lan Wangji's mind towards this smiling girl. Information freely offered is fair game and Lan Wangji is a scholar in all things, gobbles up the things Wei Wuxian says along with memorising the way the sunlight plays across the other girl's face, the golden dip of her eyelashes, the round jut of mouth.
Lan Wangji takes them out to study later when Wei Wuxian leaves, slowly chewing up every greedily collected morsel and the full picture leaves her warmer than ever, yearning to do these things that Wei Wuxian speaks of. Joy has never come easily in her life, more so since Lan Wangji's mother passed away, but the way Wei Wuxian speaks of Yunmeng, her siblings, even climbing mundane trees makes the Second Jade jealous in a way that she has seldom been all her life. What does joy that is easily partaken, without ceremony or pretence, feels like? Lan Wangji thinks it might taste like Wei Wuxian's skin; look like the warm curve of Wei Wuxian's smile.
Lan Wangji does not communicate any of this to Wei Wuxian, allowing Wei Wuxian to talk about Yunmeng and blue lakes and spicy meats. Wei Wuxian has a penchant for talking, filling the silence almost constantly and Lan Wangji finds herself getting used to the constant sea of her chatter.
"Lan Zhan, have you ever been to Yunmeng?"
"No."
"Do you know it's the best place in the world? Gusu has its charms, that's for sure, but Yunmeng is different. You must come visit."
"No."
Wei Wuxian frowns. "Don't just say 'no no' for everything! Aren't we close now? One day, I will drag you to Yunmeng with me, just you see."
Lan Wangji blinks in surprise at that, before schooling her features into their usual calm mask.
Wei Wuxian is looking at her expectantly, eyes crinkling as she grins at having caught Lan Wangji's eyes.
"No."
Wei Wuxian's expression drops. "You don't want to?"
Lan Wangji does want to, desperately wants to go see a place that Wei Wuxian adores so much, and that's the problem, isn't it?
Lying is forbidden in the Cloud Recesses so Lan Wangji just casts her eyes down, pretending to focus on the scrolls. "My duties are here."
"Ah. So jiejie wants to," Wei Wuxian muses. "But her uncle probably does not allow her."
Lan Wangji tilts her head slightly, hearing the unspoken criticism of her uncle. She irrationally wants to defend him. Lan Qiren is the personification of what makes the Lan Sect the way they are, the body over the soul, and Lan Wangji wants Wei Wuxian to see that, understand the way her clan is, that she is. She wants Wei Wuxian to like Gusu, she realises all at once, and isn't that the impossible quest?
"Uncle doesn't disallow me anything. I have been nighthunting alone since I was fourteen."
Wei Wuxian tilts her head, unconsciously mimicking Lan Wangji as she leans closer. "Then why won't you come? Lan Zhan, come to Yunmeng with me."
"With…...you?"
"Who else? I can show you all of Yunmeng's charms. We can take a boat and eat fresh lotus seeds. The ones in Caiyi, I am sorry to say, are not as good, as sweet. These merchants are all for profit and none for taste." Wei Wuxian huffs, loud and indignant.
Lan Wangji finds herself suppressing a smile that suddenly wants to bloom over her own face, and that is such an unexpected thing that she blurts out, "It would be nice to ascertain the veracity of Wei Ying's boasts."
Wei Wuxian blinks in surprise, before her face lights up in a big smile. "You were paying attention?" And then, "What boasts? Yunmeng is amazing, oh jiejie, you must visit."
Lan Wangji hums non-committedly.
Wei Wuxian leans, beckoning her close and Lan Wangji, the fool that she is, bends and allows Wei Wuxian to whisper in her ear, her lips brushing the skin there as she says.
As she says: "Yunmeng's boys are very handsome too. Don't you want to see?"
Lan Wangji pulls back like a snake has bitten her, scowling once again as she glares at Wei Wuxian. "Shameless."
Wei Wuxian grins, patting Lan Wangji's hand confidently where it's clenched around the brush. "You can talk to me about these things. We are friends now and I will guide you as someone with my vast experience should."
The words vast experience ring around in Lan Wangji's head, boomeranging until all she sees is green. She snatches her hand back and allows the Lan Silencing spell to shape around her spiritual energy, using it to shut Wei Wuxian up.
Lan Wangji wishes that that was all, but when it comes to Wei Wuxian it merely is the beginning.
Wei Wuxian is quiet for the rest of the afternoon, radiating petulant indignance and for once, Lan Wangji can not wait for their time to be up, furiously painting characters and resolutely not looking at the other girl. Vast experience, indeed, Lan Wangji thinks, the dainty calligraphy brush almost breaking under the force of her clenched grip.
When the bell tolls, signifying that the punishment for today is done and Wei Wuxian can leave, Lan Wangji sits statuesquely still, but instead of leaving, Wei Wuxian stares up at her expectantly. Lan Wangji, implacable, coldly stares back.
"What are you doing after this?"
Lan Wangji bristles, rising up to keep the scrolls in their proper place. She tucks them securely into their shelves and takes a deep breath before turning back to Wei Wuxian. Her voice is level and calm when she says, "I cultivate."
Wei Wuxian hums, rising up and sauntering close. "What about something fun?"
Lan Wangji is irritated suddenly, about where the question leads, the obvious way Wei Wuxian's worldview differs from hers, the word 'fun'. She still remembers how Wei Wuxian had complained to her friends about Lan Wangji boring her to death.
Lan Wangji, acting on the sudden impulse to thoroughly smash everyone of Wei Wuxian's expectations, so that Wei Wuxian might leave her alone, intonates, "Cultivation is fun."
Wei Wuxian raises an eyebrow. "Ah?"
Lan Wangji continues, "In fact, meditation is the most fun." A pause as she allows Wei Wuxian to digest this. "If you'll excuse me."
Contrary to all of Lan Wangji's expectations, Wei Wuxian scrambles to follow her as she leaves the room.
Lan Wangji barely pauses, walks quickly to the next thing on her schedule which is: swordplay practice. Wei Wuxian follows her to the wide field where she usually practices her swordplay, the grass shewn close to the ground.
The muted light of the spent sun makes the blade of Bichen gleam warmly, as she starts going through the basic poses to warm up.
Wei Wuxian stands several meters away, golden and blurry, watching as Lan Wangji advances to the more complicated Gusu routines, finishing them with an easy grace. Lan Wangji, despite her best efforts, can not shake Wei Wuxian off and that makes her slash the air with more ferocity than usual.
Wei Wuxian claps loudly when Lan Wangji finishes another furious routine. "You Lans are perfect, aren't you?" she calls out chirpily.
Lan Wangji, slitted-eyed in annoyance, turns to glare at her and Wei Wuxian raises her hands up defensively, before fingering the hilt of Suibian. "Would jiejie practice with me?"
"Doesn't Wei Ying have other things to do?" It's said in as pointed a tone that Lan Wangji can muster, which is to say it isn't much of a giveaway at all but Wei Wuxian still catches the shift in her expressions. Lan Wangji wonders when she became so easy to read.
Something about all this makes Wei Wuxian throw her head back and laugh and laugh, that same infuriating laugh that has stolen Lan Wangji's heart at first sight.
"Nothing else is as fun as hanging out with jiejie," Wei Wuxian says, simply, like it is the truth.
She unsheathes Suibian, stepping into Lan Wangji's space as her smile transforms from open amusement into something almost cocky, predatory, her gaze focused on Lan Wangji. The hint of challenge is extended almost like an open hand, Wei Wuxian holding her palm out and saying 'Come here.'
The air is still, the lazy breeze noiselessly sweeping past them, Lan Wangji pinned on one side of the makeshift battlefield with Wei Wuxian on the other. Gusu, in her peripheral vision, is as green and calming as it always is and Wei Wuxian, with her impatient, inquiring bright eyes, sticks out like a sore thumb. Yet, she is all that Lan Wangji sees.
Lan Wangji inclines her head, once, in acquiescence. It is a surrender as much as it is a counter challenge, and when they start dueling in earnest, the blade of Bichen cutting the air around Wei Wuxian's body, the other girl deftly moves away, quicker than the wind.
Wei Wuxian is good, a fact that Lan Wangji has long known in the back of her mind. Their first meeting was on the rooftops, Bichen and Suibian clashing but this - this wilful abdication of good conduct, fighting because Lan Wangji wants to, feels different.
Distance and intimacy burn in equal measures and when matched against Wei Wuxian, it is clear that these are their two contradicting styles. Lan Wangji wields distance like a weapon, using her vast spiritual energy to direct Bichen around, her opponents always one sword length away until they're not. Until suddenly, inevitably, all at once: Bichen finds their throat, holding their lives captive.
Wei Wuxian, on the contrary, sweeps close like a hawk to do damage, her victorious cackle right in the opponent's ear, the thunder to Suibian's lightning-like blade. She isn't afraid to intrude upon Lan Wangji's space, has never been afraid, in fact, and where others have long left Lan Wangji to her silence and solitude, Wei Wuxian sticks close like honey, cloyingly sweet and impossible to get rid of.
Wei Wuxian darts close, Suibian held like an afterthought, and Lan Wangji spins away in response, a ridiculous game of cat and mouse which would only end with one of them in the dirt.
Lan Wangji realises that she has not thought this through, panicking slightly as Wei Wuxian comes near again, blade spinning in a move that is so typically Yunmeng that it hurts: a tornado of uplifted movement, a jump that propels her high in the sky before she comes crashing down right onto Lan Wangji.
Lan Wangji did have one moment to make a counter move and usually that would suffice, would be enough to think up several moves but Wei Wuxian is so - radiant that Lan Wangji has to use that moment to take in a sharp breath, before Wei Wuxian knocks her down.
It's a shock to both of them, Lan Wangji can feel the blood rushing to her ears, throbbing in her heart during that one still moment where she's on the ground and Wei Wuxian - warm and heavy - is atop her.
Lan Wangji doesn't even have to push her away, the other girl rises quickly, a fountain of apologies and laughter spewing forth as she extends a hand out to Lan Wangji. "I didn't hurt you, did I? Who knew the Second Jade of Gusu would so easily be thrown over?"
Lan Wangji can feel her mouth twisting, and she ignores the hand offered to her, rising up in one fluid motion. It has been years since she's been so gracelessly defeated, been so inattentive, and something like fury rises up in her, not at Wei Wuxian but at herself. At the inevitability of this, how huge it suddenly feels in her chest, all this want and need, devotion bubbling like a hidden spring.
Lan Wangji steadies her grip over Bichen, looks her fate right in the eye and asks, calmly, "Again?"
Wei Wuxian grins back, as easy and necessary as the sun. "Always."
*