Chapter Text
“I recognize this is a ridiculous question,” Mingjue says. He’s caring for Wangji’s newly hatched baby by holding the tiny dragon’s tail and waiting for him to notice. “Probably,” he adds.
Lan Huan has both of the fox babies, but one of them is asleep, so the responsibility is relatively equivalent. Fortunately fox babies like to be stroked. He’s happy to pat a tiny fox cub and call it “childcare” for as long as his brother asks.
“Probably it’s a ridiculous question?” he asks, rubbing one of Chihu’s ears gently. “Or probably you recognize that it’s ridiculous?”
Mingjue pretends not to notice word games by answering them carelessly. Lan Huan knows better, and he smiles when Mingjue declares, “Both. So what are the chances you ever lay an egg?”
Lan Huan blinks. “Minimal?” he says.
“Ah,” Mingjue says, studying him too closely. “So it is a ridiculous question. I tried to warn you.”
“You did,” Lan Huan agrees, his smile returning. “I think knowing Wei Wuxian affects everyone’s perception of what’s normal and what’s not.”
“I don’t disagree,” Mingue tells him, “but to be fair, you’re a dragon.”
“Mm,” Lan Huan says, running his finger over Chihu’s other ear. Her younger sister is lying in his lap, motionless except for the minute rise and fall of her chest. “Apparently that can happen to anyone.”
Mingjue doesn’t answer, but his amusement is obvious. Lan Huan likes amusing him. He also likes watching Mingjue play with a very precocious hatchling: one who knows exactly why he can’t move and is likely plotting Mingjue’s demise. Lan Huan may have to rescue him from a tiny, vengeful dragon who’s too much like his father.
“Here’s a less ridiculous question,” Mingjue says, pulling his hand away just before Longhu might have--would have?--sunk his teeth into it. “I expect to marry into your family. You’re the sect heir, and my position is nominal at best. It makes sense, if you’ll accept it.”
He pauses, looking at Lan Huan expectantly. Lan Huan feels guilty about reaching the same conclusion. “It’s not what I imagined years ago,” he says, with a sigh he wouldn’t let anyone else hear. “But I agree it makes the most sense now.”
“Given that,” Mingjue continues, putting his hand down on the other side of Longhu and then picking it up just as quickly when the baby dragon whips around. “Will your uncle submit a proposal to Nie clan? Or will your father do it? Fair warning, A-Sang plans to give whoever it is a very difficult time.”
“My uncle,” Lan Huan says. It’s the only possible answer: his uncle raised him, and his uncle gave him permission to marry for love. Or at least “compatibility,” which he explicitly defined to include a man of Lan Huan’s choosing.
(He has not explicitly given his permission for it to include two men of Lan Huan’s choosing, but currently only one of them has accepted, so there’s time for clarification.)
(His father has verbally supported Lan Huan’s multiple partners, but he’s also made it clear he’d prefer Wangji as sect heir. At this point, with Wangji leading Wei alongside his husband, chances of him taking over Lan Sect are vanishingly small. Whether their father will continue to accept Lan Huan in light of this is uncertain.)
“All right,” Mingjue says, after waiting long enough to indicate he thought there would be more. “Least ridiculous question, then. What about Meng Yao?”
Least ridiculous, Lan Huan thinks, letting his fingers rest against Chihu’s shoulders as she tries to roll herself over. But most challenging.
“I don’t know,” he admits. “I hope he’ll change his mind again.”
“He never changed his mind in the first place,” Mingue says. “He’s just being noble. Or a martyr. Whatever you like. He’ll come around in time for the wedding, which is why I want to know who we ask: his father, or his sect leader?”
“Not his father,” Lan Huan says immediately. That’s all they need, the Jins involved in another wedding. Especially his. “Jin Guangshan never acknowledged him. There’s no reason he should benefit from this marriage.”
Mingjue only nods. He was clearly expecting that. “Me, then,” he says. “Or A-Sang. As we discussed in the beginning.”
Lan Huan considers this and finds it… inappropriate. He and Mingjue aren’t the only ones who’ve changed since those days. “His sect leader,” he says slowly. “Yes. But I think it has to be Wei Wuxian, don’t you?”
Mingjue hisses as the tiny dragon scores a direct hit, but he waves off Lan Huan’s concern. “You’re not joking,” he says instead. “You’re going to tell your uncle to petition Wei Wuxian to let Meng Yao marry you?”
He doesn’t see a more reasonable solution, short of bargaining with Jin Guangshan after all. He personally feels that would be disrespectful to everyone involved. “Unless you want Huaisang to do it,” he says.
This time Mingjue laughs out loud. “Oh,” he says, “Xichen, under no circumstances can we allow that! But if it were anyone else I’d do it just to see what happens.”
Lan Huan hesitates. “It does hold a certain terrible appeal,” he says. “To instigate the first instance of Huaisang and Wei Wuxian bargaining with each other as sect leaders?”
“No,” Mingjue says firmly. “Absolutely not. Let someone else light that fuse.”
“Hm,” Lan Huan says. “Do you think my uncle and Wei Wuxian will do better than your brother and Wei Wuxian?”
Mingjue’s expression concedes the point, but then he says unexpectedly, “What about your father? Can you have your uncle petition A-Sang, and your father talk to Wei Wuxian?”
That’s. Well. Lan Huan can’t decide if that’s a brilliant or terrible idea. “Perhaps?” he says, testing out the possibility. “I suppose it’s ultimately their decision, but I could suggest it.”
“Wei Wuxian could suggest it,” Mingjue adds, looking very pleased with himself for the trouble this would cause. “Whether his input helps or hurts, I don’t know, but certainly it would have some effect.”
Lan Huan looks at him long enough that Mingjue asks, “What?”
Lan Huan has to look away to scoop a wandering Chihu back into his lap, but she doesn’t protest. He knows he still looks fond when says, “I’m just remembering what happens when you get bored, that’s all. Relatedly, I’m thinking of additional projects you could be involved with while you’re here. To prevent boredom.”
Mingjue laughs again, and the sound is free and unencumbered by resentment. The present may not be what he would have chosen, Lan Huan thinks: this is not Qinghe, and there’s no saber at his side. But it’s wonderful to have him still, alive and laughing and playing with Lan Huan’s nieces and nephews.
If Lan Huan has to go through Wei Wuxian, Huaisang, and every adult in Lan clan to keep this, he will.