Chapter Text
On an intellectual level, Jin Ling understands that having Wei Wuxian move to the same town as the rest of the family instead of living halfway across the country is a good thing. It means that his mom will be able to see her brother face to face instead of just talking to him over the phone, and it’ll give his uncle someone else to argue with during family dinner nights instead of his dad.
“Oh my god, can you not ?” He hisses at Wei Wuxian, who only laughs and lets go of his cheeks and waltzes over to bother Jin Ling’s mom.
But on an emotional level, he’s ready to strangle his uncle for being so embarrassing and pinching his cheeks in public like Jin Ling is a 3 year old and not almost 16 years old and in desperate need to keep his dignity intact.
He’d only agreed to go with his parents to meet up with Wei Wuxian because he knew that if he didn’t he’d never hear the end of it from both of his uncles- Jiang Cheng would complain about being left alone to deal with his brother, and Wei Wuxian would fake cry about not being appreciated or something. Dealing with his extended family was, and still is, a hassle as always.
Still, he crosses his arms and goes to stand by his dad, who looks just as uncomfortable as him. It's always them on the sidelines when Janli interacts with her brothers, even if Jiang Cheng will drag Jin Ling into the conversation by force.
The car ride back home from the airport is nothing less than awkward. Jin Zixuan had offered to carry Wei Wuxian’s luggage out of obligation more than actual chivalry and had gotten a cheerful no back followed by an insult. Standard procedure. Jin Ling shares the backseat with Wei Wuxian, whose legs are just a bit too long to fit comfortably in the space behind Jin Zixuan.
“What grade are you in right now a-Ling?” Wei Wuxian pokes his finger at his shoulder.
“Same grade as when you asked that question over the phone three months ago.”
“Ah but you can’t expect me to remember something from that long ago. I’m old now Jin Ling, my memory is fading and soon I won’t even remember your name.”
Jin Ling clenches his jaw. “Lose your memory quicker then, old man.”
“Such disrespect.” Wei Wuxian gasps and leans forward in his seat. “Hey, shijie did you know you’re raising a little rascal?”
His mom giggles, the only one in the world who could stand being around Wei Wuxian for longer than 10 minutes without wishing that he’d shut up. Jiang Yanli is an enabler, and that’s okay when it comes to Jin Ling’s habit of trying to teach his dogs weirder and weirder tricks, not when it comes to Wei Wuxian’s teasing.
Sighing, Jin Ling crosses his arms and leans his head against the window. In the rearview window, he catches his dad’s eyes and gets a sympathetic look back before he focuses back on the road.
The rest of the trip back continues in a similar fashion.
——
He’d hoped that was the only interaction he’d have with Wei Wuxian, an annoying but awkward meetup at the airport and that was it. Jin Ling could get used to occasionally seeing him at the few family dinners he couldn’t weasel his way out of, and he’d go on living with the fact that he now happened to live in the same town as his entangled uncle.
For a few days that actually seems to be what’s going to happen, but the universe and his family love to prove him wrong.
It’s Sunday night and Jin Ling is in his room making sure that he’s got everything ready for school the next day. The preparations mostly consist of texting Jiang Cheng and begging him to drive Jin Ling to school in his very cool car, and his uncle texting him back and saying that Jin Ling will never be cool enough to ride in the car. It’s about as close to a confirmation as he’s going to get, if Jiang Cheng actually couldn’t give him the ride, he’d just straight up tell Jin Ling no.
He’s interrupted by a knock on his door, and Jin Ling scrambles away from where he’s laying on his bed towards his desk and pretends that he’s been sitting and reading up on next week’s history topics the entire time.
“Come in.”
His mom opens the door, dressed in her nightgown and face free of makeup. She smiles when she sees him sitting at the desk, a twinkle in her eyes. “It’s getting a bit late A-Ling, I’m sure you can leave studying for tomorrow.”
“Mhm, I just want to be ready for next week’s lessons.” It almost sounds like a question, and Jin Ling forces himself not to cringe. He doesn’t like lying to his mom, but he also doesn’t like disappointing her.
“I’m sure you’ll do great. You don’t have any tests next week right?”
“Not unless there’s a surprise pop quiz or something. Why?”
His mom’s smile turns a bit more gentle, and she walks into his room and stands behind his chair, and strokes his hair with one hand, comforting and warm. “Wei Ying’s furniture and moving boxes are arriving tomorrow and I was thinking that you could go over after school and help him unpack. It would be good if you spend some more time with your uncle. Besides, I don’t think he’d say no to a pair of extra hands and I know he’s been… Regretful about not being able to be around you before.”
Jin Ling grimaces and the first thing he wants to do is say no. He doesn’t care if his uncle wants to spend time with him or not, he’d rather have an unprepared test on Monday than go over and help some relative he barely knows setting up his apartment but. But he doesn’t like disappointing his mom, and he knows that this is something she wants to happen, because his mom is the best person in the world and if she wants her family to get along then Jin Ling is just going to have to suck it up.
“Um sure, give me his address and I’ll take the bus there after school.”
The address is sorta familiar, but he can’t remember where he’s heard it before.
——
“Hey princess.” Lan Jingyi slides into the seat beside him, placing his lunch tray on the table. Lan Sizhui seats himself across from both of them and pulls out his white marble hydro-flask filled with green tea and places it next to his tray. “Do you want to head over to my place after school and study?”
Jin Ling gives him a look and points his fork at him. “I happen to be busy today and even if I weren’t, you’d spend like ten minutes focusing on your homework before complaining about it being boring and talking about video games instead.”
“Oh, feisty .” Lan Jingyi grins at him, big and goofy and absolutely stupid. He’s infuriating. “What are you doing that’s more important than hanging out with your best friend?”
“I promised mom that I’d help my uncle set up his new apartment. Apparently, he wants to have a ‘bonding moment’ or something stupid like that.” He rolls his eyes and stabs the food on his plate with the fork.
“Which one of your uncles?” Lan Sizhui asks after he sets down his cup of green tea that Jin Ling knows tastes like boiled hay but Lan Sizhui loves the taste of it.
“Wei Wuxian. He’s like, my mom’s foster brother maybe. Have I told you about him? He used to live halfway across the country but now he’s here and I have to hang out with him and ugh it’s so stupid.”
“You have way too many uncles dude.” Lan Jingyi complains. “Is he nice at least? We don’t really want a repeat of Jin Zixun.” They all grimace.
He shakes his head. “Nah he’s not like that but I don’t know, he’s just mostly annoying I guess? Mom really likes him-”
Lan Jingyi snorts, cutting him off. “Your mom likes anyone who can stand to be in the same room as you, he’s not that special.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine, you get along with your other uncles- it won’t be any different with Wei Wuxian.” Lan Sizhui smiles at him, all serine and confident in Jin Ling’s abilities to charm his uncle into being less annoying.
Jin Ling honestly wishes it was that easy, but they only have lunch for 40 minutes and he doesn’t have the time to once again go over the weird strained relationships and tensions that exist in his family, both on his mom’s and dad’s side. The one thing most of them seem to have in common is that none of them really like Wei Wuxian.
When Jin Ling was younger he’d sit and silently listen as both sides of his family complained about Wei Wuxian when his mom conveniently wasn't around to defend him. It had toned down in later years, perhaps due to the passage of time or the distance between them all, but Jin Ling has spent a lot of time listening to Jiang Cheng rant about Wei Wuxian and he’s not completely sure he wants to get along with him.
He doesn’t know how to explain it to his friends, but both Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi have been around for long enough to know that there’s nothing simple about his family ever. Besides, Lan Sizhui is well acquainted with complicated family relationships, Jin Ling can trust him not to pry into it.
“Ugh it’s whatever, I’ll probably be busy for a few days helping him out though, so I don’t know if I’ll make it to bunny duty on Wednesday.”
Lan Jingyi pouts, and throws himself against Jin Ling in the most dramatic fashion someone who went to theatre classes for a year could come up with. “I’m going to have to take care of all the Lan rabbits all alone ? You’ve abandoned me to such a cruel fate- how will I ever forgive you?”
Jin Ling shoves him back, face hot and flushed red. “Get off you idiot! God, it’s like you’ve never heard of personal space!”
Laughing, Lan Jingyi turns back to his own food and Lan Sizhui sips his tea like a miniature version of his father. Lunch break goes on, like always.