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“Why don’t you show him around, Wangji?” Lan Xichen said gently.
Lan Wangji turned to the him in question and stared. Since arriving that morning, Nie Huaisang had shown little interest in anything, stubbornly clinging to his older brother or Wangji’s, if the former was unavailable, and turning away whenever Lan Wangji tried to make eye contact. He did so now as well, looking up at Xiongzhang and tugging pleadingly on his sleeve.
“You two should get to know each other better,” Lan Xichen chided with an affectionate chuckle.
Lan Wangji did not agree. He also did not have time to entertain a guest, having a strict training regiment to stick to. His uncle said they needed to welcome their visitors. He did not say that lessons for the day were excused.
But then Lan Xichen nudged Nie Huaisang towards him, and Lan Wangji knew the moment to protest had passed.
Be a gracious host, the rules also said.
“I will show you around,” he agreed, and Nie Huaisang nodded uncertainly, looking more and more wistful as Lan Xichen left them. “This way.”
He showed him the dorms, the classrooms, the canteen, the training fields – all of the facilities that Lan Wangji regularly used that were permitted to outsiders. Nie Huaisang followed along behind, and would occasionally mutter something about training, or comment on something pretty, but his expression was impassive and his words were frivolous, and thus no conversation could spring from them.
However, the timidity that afflicted him before started to vanish and he wandered off more and more, asking what was down this way and that. Lan Wangji answered, but most of where he pointed to was forbidden. They would need permission from his Uncle to go there.
“That’s not fair,” Nie Huaisang whined. “Da-ge said the Cloud Recesses were reeeeally pretty but all you’re showing me are boring old training grounds.”
“Training is important,” Lan Wangji replied with a frown. Watching the other disciples they passed train was a rare sight too. Nie Huaisang should have been grateful to see it.
“Let’s go to the back hill,” Nie Huaisang said quickly. “We can run around.”
“Bringing a guest to the back hill without permission is forbidden.”
“Then let’s go get permission.”
“No. Uncle is busy now.” Talking to your father, Lan Wangji did not add.
“Fiiiiine,” Nie Huaisang grumbled. “Then can we at least look at more art? There was a pretty window in the classroom before. Who made it? Are there more?”
There were more.
Lan Wangji nodded resolutely and took him back to the lecture hall, to the long wall depicting their clan’s history. The wall had many intricate hollowed out windows depicting the lives of the clan’s ancestors.
Nie Huaisang had wandered around with a tired expression before, but now his eyes lit up and he quickly rushed over to the nearest one. “So detailed! Lan Zhan, who is this?”
Lan Wangji answered. He knew the names of all of his ancestors and the famous accomplishments that were captured in the windows, but there were many details his lessons hadn’t covered yet, and he struggled under Nie Huaisang’s excited flurry of questions. He did not mind answering them though – for anything he couldn’t answer, he made a note to look up later.
Nie Huaisang repaid the answers by telling stories about his own sect’s history. His stories left out names and contained a lot of obvious embellishments (not at all the proper way to recount an ancestor's deeds), but it still made for a very informative discussion as they went from window to window.
They walked slowly, and Lan Wangji grew increasingly aware of how short their time was growing. The lunch bell would ring soon, and Lan Wangji knew there was an important banquet prepared for their guests. Being late for it would be unacceptable.
But, Nie Huaisang was still enthralled by the artworks, and Lan Wangji didn't want to pull him away. He liked that there was something in his home that Nie Huaisang didn't find boring after all. Lan Wangji wanted him to see more of their art. In particular, he wanted Nie Huaisang to see his favorite. It was towards the end of the room among the oldest windows, depicting the third sect leader of the Lan sect, Lan Yi, and her powerful guqin techniques. If they continued at their current pace though, they wouldn’t reach it before the banquet.
As Nie Huaisang admired the image of the eighth sect leader and his paintbrush (he was famous for having the most beautiful calligraphy of any in their clan), Lan Wangji stepped forward.
“Nie Huaisang,” he said quietly. But Nie Huaisang either didn’t hear him, or didn’t notice. At some point, he had pulled out a fan from his sleeve and started using it a pointer for the things he especially liked. His other hand was free though.
It was also the hand closer to Lan Wangji.
Daringly, he grabbed it.
Nie Huaisang froze. Slowly he turned to him in confusion.
Realizing what he’d just done, Lan Wangji’s face suddenly felt very warm and immediately he tried to pull away. But Nie Huaisang had already accepted his hand and held on with a grip that betrayed his small frame.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“…the lunch bell,” Lan Wangji said, staring down at his trapped hand. “It will ring soon. We have to go.”
“Right now?”
“No… but soon. But I… want to show you something first,” he tugged Nie Huaisang’s hand lightly. “It’s… my favorite…”
He expected to be released after that, but Nie Huaisang’s face only brightened, and his grip strengthened. “I want to see!” he said. “It’s that way, right? Let’s go!”
He pulled Lan Wangji’s arm along, swinging it to and fro as he ran.
“Running in the Cloud Recesses is forbidden.”
“We’re not running, we’re skipping,” Nie Huaisang insisted with a bright cheerful smile - the kind he’d only shown Xiongzhang before. “Is that forbidden too?”
“…No.”