Work Text:
---
Lan Wangji had been adamant about three things in the early days of their marriage.
Number one, obviously, everyday is everyday. Wei Wuxian understands and very much appreciates this.
Number two, Wei Wuxian has to fall asleep next to his husband at least four days out of the seven in a week. Once Wei Wuxian understood this came from a place of care, for Wei Wuxian, and for Lan Wangji’s peace of mind, it became easier to accept and grow into this habit. Gradually, Wei Wuxian learned that Lan Wangji’s mind, while forever steady and fascinating, can play tricks in the night, and can convince Lan Wangji that Wei Wuxian never came back from the dead and was not in fact his husband. If all it takes to soothe his husband’s mind is some gentle spooning before sleep, Wei Wuxian can happily provide that. Number two, easy.
Number three, however, was different. Less about their relationship and more material. Or perhaps more about their relationship than Wei Wuxian had realised at the time.
He understands now.
Number three, Lan Wangji wanted a house. He had drawn up a list of specifications for Wei Wuxian’s approval, and presented it to Wei Wuxian on the night before their wedding:
“Wei Ying, I have something for you.”
“I should hope you do, my beautiful husband-to-be, I’m not ready for sleep yet!”
Lan Wangji’s list said their marital home had to be outside of Cloud Recesses, a pleasant surprise to Wei Wuxian, with large outdoor space and a reasonable arrangement of bright and peaceful rooms.
Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian had traipsed through numerous houses fitting the descriptions, and Wei Wuxian had been variously charmed and disgusted as applicable to the options available.
It had taken a lot longer to find a house, their house, than Wei Wuxian would have imagined if he had given thought to the process any earlier, but Lan Wangji persisted and would not settle for anything less than what he wanted.
He’s stubborn like that, his husband.
Eventually, they’d found their own not-so-little patch of paradise on the outskirts of Caiyi, far enough away to have plenty of privacy, close enough to make going into town a nice outing rather than an expedition that Wei Wuxian could otherwise have easily convinced himself was too long to bother with the effort.
The previous owners had trained vines above the porch that goes around the spacious cottage. On accepting the house as theirs, Wei Wuxian had marked the occasion by using a simple talisman to turn the vines a peaceful shade of blue, which pleased his husband and therefore was a very nice way of starting the moving process.
They’d moved things in, with the rambunctious juniors ‘helping’. Jingyi had dropped a vase. Sizhui had been a dear sweet thing following instructions, but the boy did not have much sense of direction and kept getting lost in the new rooms. In his son’s defence, there were quite a lot of rooms in their new humble abode.
And then the movers had finished and left and taken all their noise and running about with them, and Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian had been left alone, in their own space, their new house, their marital home.
There’s a strange emptiness of atmosphere that comes with being in a space where you know, one day, there will be many memories created, many moments to look back on, yet now all that potential is just out there, waiting. A home, a space, all of their own, not connected to the past but looking forward to a brighter, cosier future.
Wei Wuxian kisses his husband long and slow, enjoying the pleasure of creating their first memories together in their new home, making them count, making them mean something, setting a standard of hope and happiness and togetherness to carry them through the rest of time.
---
In the morning, after enjoying some easy morning sex and drifting away into sated slumber for a few more hours, Wei Wuxian walks out of their new bedroom, stubs his toe on some furniture that was not there last night he swears, and ambles along past various rooms until he finds his elegant husband chopping vegetables in their new kitchen. He goes to stand behind him and wraps his arms snug around his waist. “Morning.”
“Afternoon,” Lan Wangji says with a hint of amusement, pausing his vegetable chopping.
“I slept that long?! Did I miss all the new house chores?”
“No.” Lan Wangji resumes chopping, ensures the knife and chopping board do not create much noise. “I saved some for you.”
“Ah, my husband is too good.” Wei Wuxian steals a piece of carrot, pops it into his mouth, asks, “Which ones?”
Lan Wangji uses the knife to guide the finished chopped carrot pieces from the chopping board and into an empty bowl, next to another bowl full of chopped celery. “You can build the rabbit hutches.”
“Oh? Why’s that?” Wei Wuxian teases, already knowing the answer.
“Sizhui is bringing the rabbits in an hour. I will look after them while they wait.”
“Ah, so you want to play with the rabbits and enjoy their soft fur and silly little nose twitches while your poor husband toils in the heat of the day with hammer and nail doing exhausting manual labour. I see how it is. It’s a good job I love you, huh?” Wei Wuxian kisses his husband’s soft cheek.
“Mn, very good.”
And so, Wei Wuxian finds himself sweatily arranging piles of pre-cut timber into an elaborate rabbit outdoor play pen.
It is, essentially, a rabbit village. Maybe even a rabbit town. Wei Wuxian will probably at some point end up making them little stalls and little aprons so they can pretend they’re having a little rabbit market, and he might even make a little entrance sign for ‘Rabbit City’. No doubt the play pen will get expanded upon as time goes on; there’s plenty of room in their garden for rabbit-related extensions.
Amidst these musings, Wei Wuxian pauses for water breaks very frequently, taking them as opportunities to sneak glances of his husband. He looks divine in the sunshine, like some sort of fairy princess, with rabbits peacefully resting on every contour of his properly postured body. Wei Wuxian saves the image in his mind to sketch later.
Lan Wangji insists on thoroughly checking Wei Wuxian’s masterpiece of rabbit-appropriate accommodation and entertainment, following a comprehensive list of safety measures, before he allows the rabbits to enter their new home. His care for the rabbits is adorable. Wei Wuxian happily obliges in making all the required modifications and takes great delight in sighing all the more dramatically each time Lan Wangji finds another precaution that they can take.
Eventually, ‘Rabbit City’ is deemed rabbit-safe, though Wei Wuxian laughs when the name does not receive approval. Nonetheless, they give the (still-tragically-nameless-to-Lan-Wangji, definitely-forever-going-to-be-called-‘Rabbit-City’-by-Wei-Wuxian), rabbit play pen an official opening ceremony. Wei Wuxian lays rather awkwardly on the ground outside the entrance to the hutches, angled so that he can drape his red ribbon over the threshold, and Lan Wangji solemnly lifts it as the stunningly well-behaved rabbits crowd around. Wei Wuxian applauds very quietly to not disturb them.
“Opening ceremony of ‘Rabbit City’ complete!” Wei Wuxian declares, still lounging on the grass.
“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji says, accompanied by his special look of mild disapproval that is only ever given to Wei Wuxian.
With a cheeky grin, Wei Wuxian replies, “Alright, Lan Zhan, I’ll workshop a better name for ‘Rabbit City’… Unless…” He picks up the nearest rabbit, holds it close to his face. “Are you happy with it, little rabbit?” He then points the rabbit towards his husband, making the rabbit talk in a higher pitched voice, “I’m happy!”
Lan Wangji does not appear moved by this rabbit’s joyful acceptance.
“Ah, Lan Zhan, the little rabbit has spoken, and as the elected-by-my-hands representative for his friends, it seems all rabbit-kind concurs. ‘Rabbit City’ it is!”
Lan Wangji takes the rabbit from Wei Wuxian and places it gently on the ground. Gives another look of mild disapproval, this time tempered by the minutest raise of the corner of his lip.
Success! Lan Wangji smiled. ‘Rabbit City’ it is.
Opening ceremony of ‘Rabbit City’ complete, Wei Wuxian sits up and Lan Wangji allows some of the rabbits milling around to enter their play pen through the little door. The ones still nestled within Lan Wangji’s robes are carefully removed, one-by-one, carried over the walls, and placed directly into the hutches. Wei Wuxian watches, not trusted with the task of rehoming the rabbits, and not at all surprised that the rabbits seem to prefer to stay clinging to the folds of Lan Wangji’s robes rather than sit on their hay and grass.
Wei Wuxian agrees with the rabbits; he prefers clinging to his husband, too. He says the thought aloud and admires the tips of his husband’s ears as they tinge with pink. Then, because he can, because they’re in the garden of their home and it’s a safe space for the two of them together, he leans forward and kisses one of those blushing ears, feels it burn up even more under his touch.
Wei Wuxian laughs as Lan Wangji puts the remaining rabbits down into their hutch with slightly more haste.
---
Lan Wangji had been adamant that they needed a house of their own, and now Wei Wuxian understands. It means, in a practical sense, that Wei Wuxian can enjoy granting numbers one and two of his husband’s list in every room.
But it’s more than that.
It’s theirs.
Something safe and meaningful that they share together, that they’ll continue creating together, that they’ll enjoy forever.
Their home, a cherished space.
Balancing chaos and peace, yin and yang, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.
---