Chapter Text
“Wei Wuxian.”
Wei Wuxian looked up from the notebook where he had been very studiously doodling stick figures, confused. For once, he wasn’t actively disrupting class, that he was aware of at least. His statistics teacher was staring at him with an expression that would very much like to be resigned, but had once again been pushed into incredulousness.
“WHY do you have a sword under your chair?”
Fuck. Wei Wuxian glanced under his chair, noting that his equipment bag had, in fact, fallen open.
He should really stop putting his extra pencils in there; opening it in class caused more trouble that it was worth. He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, grinning sheepishly.
“In my defense,” Wei Wuxian started, resolutely ignoring the delighted eyes of his classmates and the glare he can feel burning into the back of his head from where his little brother is sitting behind him. “No one was supposed to KNOW I had a sword.”
“Wei Wuxian, you have two seconds to-” But Wei Wuxian was already explaining.
“I have practice after class! Please, don’t confiscate it, it’s not even sharp and it’s brand new and-”
“Practice?”
“Yes, wushu practice-”
“Wushu?”
“Yes, uh, it’s a martial art, well, it’s more like a performance art, uh, do you know kung fu? Just combine that with, like, rhythmic gymnastics, and you’ve got the basic idea. But anyway, it’s REALLY important that I both HAVE this jian - sword- this kind of sword- and get to practice as soon as possible because my shifu- well, she’s also my mom, so I guess that’s important, anyway she’s going to KILL me if I’m late because I can only attend tryouts if I ‘Apply myself properly, because if you go and embarrass me in front of Lan Qiren I will personally-’”
Wei Wuxian cleared his throat, dropping the air quotes.
“-Anyway! I need this sword very badly. Sir.”
His teacher’s expression had gone through several stages of what the twelfth grade faculty called “The Wei effect” during his monologue before settling back into slightly pained resignation.
“J-Just… zip that case up and, and, don’t do it again?” Wei Wuxian’s teacher sighed.
Every time, EVERY time he thought he had gotten used to Wei Wuxian during the two years the kid had been taking advanced math classes, he did something else.
He sighed, turning back to the board.
“I don’t wanna hear it, Jiang Cheng-”
“I’m JUST SAYING, why would you-”
“Because if I DON’T carry it everywhere, I forget it! You know how pissed Ma was last time I showed up without my jian .”
Jiang Cheng shook his head, breaking into a jog to keep up with his elder brother as they sped towards the bus stop.
“Yeah, without your jian , and your ankle brace, and your kneepads, and your shoes, and your-”
“Yes! Because-”
“Because you left your entire bag on the field during lunch. I remember.”
Wei Wuxian grinned, pointedly refusing to be cowed by his brother's scolding.
“Yep! And not everyone has gym for their last class and can leave their much smaller, more convenient, easy-to-hide chain whip-”
“Hey !”
“Chain whip bag in the locker room all day, is all I’m saying.”
Wei Wuxian grabbed a handrail and swung into the window seat in the back of the bus. The grace of the movement was only slightly hindered by the aforementioned inconveniently long bag currently holding his jian and everything else the next six hours of practice would need.
Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes, but dropped it as he thumped into the seat next to Wei Wuxian.
They lapsed into silence, Jiang Cheng closing his eyes and savoring the fifteen minutes of rest, knowing full well it’s all he would get until at least 10pm.
Wei Wuxian was quiet for the same reason, but his eyes were wide open, staring out the bus’s dirty window. He didn’t see the houses rushing by, giving way to the businesses of downtown and then the smaller shops and elementary school that lead up to the Lotus Pier Wushu School.
No, he saw long, black hair. He saw pale blue and white silk swaying softly before stretching tight over firmly muscled thighs, and elegant fingers wrapped gracefully around the handle of a jian.
He saw Lan Wangji, and his grin turned hungry.
The air in the Lotus Pier lobby was still, the only noise was the gentle chatter of the parents dropping off the youngest disciples for class.
The children’s voices were soft too while their parents helped them figure out which feet their shoes went on, everyone feeling lazy with post-school lethargy.
The kids even stood still while their parents tied the purple sash that marked them as disciples of Lotus Pier around their waists.
That was, until the door flew open under the force of two young men crashing through it. The children shrieked in delight, “Shixiong!” overlapping with the brothers' hasty greetings as they sped through the lobby and around the side.
They disappeared as quickly as they had come into the small back room that served every purpose from storage to locker room for the brothers and the few other disciples who spent their afternoons teaching the younger generations before their own training started.
Wei Wuxian cursed as he stumbled into a stack of padded mats, his shirt had gotten caught in his jacket and they had both twisted around his elbow as he attempted to yank them off, and now he couldn’t see.
He heard an admonishing ‘tsk’ from the back of the room, and when his head finally made it out of the fabric wrapped around it his eyes widened in delight.
“Jiejie!” Wei Wuxian exclaimed “You’re here! Do you have today off?”
He pulled on his uniform top before rushing over to receive his hug and cheek pinching, Jiang Cheng doing the same before they both turned around to pull on loose training pants.
Jin Ling, who was doing his best to stand still while his mother buttoned the top of his uniform, and who was definitely not miffed at being ignored by his uncles, called smugly:
“Da jiu, Xiao jiu! You’re in TROUBLE! Popo -”
He interrupted himself, his tiny face flashing with terror as he looked around furtively, as if his grandmother would appear from behind the stacks of spears on the wall if he didn’t address her properly while inside the studio.
“-I mean, Yu Shifu is going to make you run laps! She already said!”
Wei Wuxian finished tying his pants and turned around smiling, hopping on one foot over to his nephew to ruffle his hair as he tugged a shoe on.
“Jin Ling, shouldn’t you be on the carpet right now?” He teased. “I think I heard Yu Shifu yell to come inside…”
He hadn’t, but the way Jin Ling squeaked and raced from the room, only pausing to throw himself head first at his mother's waist for a hug, was hilarious.
Jiang Yanli braced her hands on her hips, a smile threatening to break through her disapproving expression.
“A-xian, do you feel very superior now that you’ve tricked a nine year old?” She teased.
“Yes.” Said Wei Wuxian.
“Yes.” Said Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Yanli shook her head again, laughing.
“You two.” She sighed.
She gave them a moment to finish tying their shoes before shooing them out of the room. “If you don’t start class on time, Mama really will make you run laps.”
Her younger brothers each threw an arm around her shoulders and squeezed again before heading out onto the carpet, glad that as long as they kept class running smoothly their mother and head shifu wouldn’t leave her office to yell at them until the advanced kids started training in the late afternoon.
In the meantime, they ran the youngest shidis and shimeis (and their nephew, because why would he get to rest while waiting for his actual age group to show up?) through basic stances, kicks, and adorably simple forms.
By the time Madam Yu appeared silently behind them two and a half hours later, they had wrapped up two classes of beginner and intermediate levels, and the advanced group was warmed up and ready for her to take over.
She smacked Wei Wuxian on the back of the head and he covered up his grin and he bowed and jogged to the back of the carpet, Jiang Cheng narrowly avoiding his own smack by following his big brother as quickly as he could.
They fell into the rhythm of drills quickly, letting years of muscle memory lead them.
Of course, this easy practice ended too soon, and the majority of the advanced students filtered out.
When only the handful of top disciples who had been picked to represent Lotus Pier at the annual National Wushu discussion conference were left, Madam Yu turned her dark eyes on them.
“We have three weeks.” She said. There was a collective shiver. “You all will NOT disappoint me.”
She turned to Wei Wuxian specifically. “The adult National Team trials function the same way as the youth trials, not that you attended those.”
She squinted suspiciously, and Wei Wuxian fidgeted under her eyes.
There was no way for her to actually know that his sudden interest in competing internationally had, uh, motives (tall, beautiful motives) beyond ‘wanting to prove to the entire world, once and for all, that my mother, the famous Yu Ziyuan of the Beijing Wushu Team herself, was better in every way than any other wushu shifu,” which is what he had told her when begging to be allowed to try out.
“And they’re using the new standard deductions, so you need to review those tonight. Until then, we’re reviewing short weapons. Go. kuai!”
By the time Madam Yu finally shook her head and told the panting, sweat soaked disciples they had better get stronger or just drop out of the competition entirely, the night had settled in a long time ago.
Jiang Cheng, bent over with his hands on his knees, managed to get out
“S-Sit ups, t-two hundred...” As his mother left the carpet, not even bothering to look over as the exhausted disciples dropped to the ground, weapons tossed to the side as they began the strength training they always ended on.
Thirty minutes later, she tugged Wei Wuxian’s ear as her boys stumbled into the car, wrinkling her nose.
“You both stink. Showers, before you even look at your sister.” She directed, squinting to confirm the door of the studio was locked before peeling out of the narrow side street behind their studio with absolutely zero regard for silly things like traffic laws.
More than used to this, Jiang Cheng looked over from the passenger seat.
“Then, Jiejie-”
“Yes, she- fasten your seatbelt- she’s staying for dinner and Jin Ling is staying over tonight. I think she made soup.”
Under the cover of darkness, she smiled as her sons whooped with delight, exhausted bodies sitting a little straighter as they drove towards home.