Chapter Text
Is love alone enough?
Surrounded by day-by-day responsibilities, sense of duty, deeply rooted insecurities, along with unconditional love for their other half, how could one know which one of those should come first, or which one is stronger? Can love overcome all the other priorities in real life?
In springtime, about six months after their return to the Cloud Recesses, Wei Wuxian’s world slowly started to crumble.
After their love confession at Guanyin Temple, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian parted their way from the rest of the crowd (and literally eloping!) to travel across the land for nearly three months. Unofficially they were on their honeymoon and stayed low profile, basically because they didn’t want to add uproar to the already disarrayed cultivation world, by declaring that they are cultivation partners now. Those were the blissed few months for the newly eloped couple, after all the chaotic predicaments they've been through.
Travelling from one town to the other, visiting the places they haven’t been before, they went night hunting, ate and drank to their hearts’ content and played duets on Wangji and Chengqing. Their nights were filled with cute strings of laughter that came out with tickles, and soft yet meaningful whispers of “everyday means everyday”. Fortunately, Wei Wuxian’s soundproofing talismans worked like a charm in their inn’s rooms every time, so Lan Wangji didn’t have to resort to his famous silencing spell to silent his new husband. Secretly he enjoyed listening to Wei Wuxian’s lustful moans every time it hit a different octave with his sensual ministrations.
Breaking the bathtubs in most of the inns they stayed and compensating for them in the mornings became a second nature to this love drunk couple. Basking in the afterglow of their intimate entanglements, Wei Wuxian’s appreciation for their coupling acts went to a whole new level. Waking up in the mornings, bright smiles have permanently taken up residence on his devilishly pretty face, knowing that he was held tightly against a warm chest all night long. All of these made Wei Wuxian brimmed with fondness that he never knew he could feel because of another person.
After three months into their sweet escapades, Wei Wuxian suggested that it was time to go back to Cloud Recesses, even though it wasn’t what his heart truly desired. He knew their wandering days couldn’t be stretched out much longer as the cultivation world was already in disarray and Lan Wangji couldn’t just drop everything and go off roaming around with him forever. After all, Lan Wangji is still the second master of Gusu Lan Sect and he has responsibilities he can’t avoid forever.
As much as Wei Wuxian wanted them to continue travelling the world, basking in their dewy love and devotion for each other, he didn’t want Lan Wangji to abandon matters that are significant to him. Even though The Second Jade didn’t mention anything, Wei Wuxian knew that his husband must be worried about his brother in the aftermath of Jin Guangyao’s abhorrent string of deceptions, and the status of the Lan Sect after their leader went into seclusion.
So they decided to head back leisurely to Cloud Recesses, and to face the innumerable responsibilities that are waiting for them, especially for Lan Wangji.
Although later on they completed their third bow during their elopement, they know that doesn’t mean their status as cultivation partners will be accepted immediately by the Lan sect, especially Lan Qiren. Even after Wei Wuxian’s name has already been cleared of most previous allegations and the real culprit has been known, it wasn’t easy to dismiss misunderstandings and ill feelings that Lan QiRen had about him. It is still a long road ahead for Lan Qiren to wholeheartedly accept Wei Wuxian as his nephew’s cultivation partner.
It is not like Wei Wuxian never thought about wearing the red wedding attire and completing the wedding ceremony to make their relationship official. Especially after becoming a couple with his Lan Zhan, there were times he fantasized being in a room with every inch decorated in red, sitting on a four poster canopy bed draped in decorative gossamer curtains, while wearing traditional red robes matching Lan Wangji’s. Imagine how handsome his husband would be in the red wedding robe!
Lan Wangji hoped that after facing his uncle's ire for eloping, one day his uncle could finally relent to accept Wei Wuxian as his significant other. By that time, he set up a precedent for the rest of the Lan elders’ acceptance. Once that acceptance was granted, then they would be able to proceed with the official wedding ceremony. Wei Wuxian has already become Lan Wangji’s ‘everything’ and that has always been something indisputable. But by making their relationship official, it would make his partner being accepted as one of the main family members of the Lan Clan, and giving him the right to be included in their ancestral lineage record as the cultivation partner of the younger Jade.
Right after they came back to Cloud Recesses, Lan Wangji was offered the position of Chief Cultivator position. It was as expected, given the situation the cultivation world was in, and Lan Wangji was viewed to be the most suitable candidate to entrust with this position. Soon Lan Wangji found himself occupied, not only with the Chief Cultivator duties, but also filling in the shoes of a sect leader position. Position that he covered for Lan XiChen who went into seclusion, and decidedly seems to remain so for a foreseeable future.
While Lan Wangji dived straight into high demanding innumerable responsibilities of his position, Wei Wuxian was left to his own device by spending his time idling around the compound, fiddling with his talismans, pottering with his inventions, supervising juniors in their night hunts (permission reluctantly obtained from Lan QiRen), and making friends with whoever dared to approach the former Yiling Patriarch.
Sometimes he met Jiang Cheng when the Yunmeng Jiang sect leader also had business with the Chief Cultivator. Although things were still not at ease between them, Wei Wuxian was content with whatever his estranged brother was willing to offer.
Six months had passed since they went back to Cloud Recesses, and Wei Wuxian was still trying to find his footing in his husband’s home. As months passed, when he woke up in their bed alone more frequently than ever, or when he ended up watching beautiful sunsets turning into cooler nightfalls while he meandered Cloud Recesses’ lonely paths, he couldn’t stop his fleeting thoughts and reminiscences of the past few months of their blissful time. Glorious times when they could not keep their roaming hands off of each other and freedom to go to wherever their hearts wanted. Eventually he noticed more and more of the screaming absence of his other half, and started to feel the nagging sense of ‘loneliness’ somewhere deep in his heart that he put to a stop in an instant. It is an absurd feeling, he chided himself immediately.
Despite his thirst for wandering and his growing restlessness in Cloud Recesses, Wei Wuxian tried his utmost to be an understanding husband, knowing how crucial and trying the time is for Lan Wangji - the one who is shouldering more than one responsibility at the moment. His lust for travelling never dies, but for Lan Wangji, the one whom he loves more than his own life, he was willing to do anything. Including living inside the walls of three thousands rules and it’s inhabitants who many are still wary of his presence.
On the other hand he also didn’t want the Elders to think that their union is the factor that was holding back Lan Wangji from delivering what the world expects from him. It was a lot to take in for any person.
Since their marriage was not announced to the public, and not yet officially held, not many in the cultivation world were aware of the real nature of their relationship, except people who are really close to them. This includes their immediate families, the Lan elders and some inescapable Lan Juniors. To be honest, Wei Wuxian couldn't care less whether or not their marriage was herald to the whole cultivation world, their distant cousins or their grandmothers! Also, he did not have time or mind to worry about how people presume or assume atrocious notions about their closeness. In the eyes of heaven and the earth, their ancestors and of each other they are already married and that's all that matters. He was content with this undeniable truth and all he wanted was just to be by Lan Wangji’s side. He knows that Lan Wangji reciprocates his thoughts in a heartbeat, no hesitation whatsoever. He was sure of it.
So in general, he was content, as content as he could be under circumstances, living in Cloud Recesses, together with his husband.
Until...