Chapter Text
A-yuan is a good child. He listens to his father, his uncle, and his grand-uncle. He obeyed the rules, did well in his classes, and preferred to read rather than playing with others.
And that’s what worried Lan Zhan.
He knew how lonely it could be as a child who could only visit their parent a few times a year, to which he was grateful to his brother and uncle for raising A-yuan during his isolation, but there’s a bigger difference between himself and his son. Although they both had Xichen to help them, Lan Zhan was raised with him, not by him. Having a brother was the closest he got to having a friend as a kid, but A-yuan didn’t have any family around his age.
Since family wasn’t an option, his mind drifted to his and Wei Ying’s friendship, as a point of reference. Although the mixed clan classes were a good option, it would be a few years before A-yuan would partake in them. No, he needed a friend sooner. That lefting traveling in search of a potential friend or the children already living in the Cloud Recesses. He decided to check closer to home first, then travel if they couldn’t find an adequate friend nearby.
With that settled, the next thing he had to consider was what kind of friend would his son want. Lan Zhan knew that if his uncle had a say in this, the friend would embody the Lan rules, which wasn’t realistic or ideal. Most who followed the rules to the letter were closed off, which was the opposite of what they needed. He thought back to Wei Ying, how he ignored and bent rules. He probably couldn’t expect the same level of reasoning out of a child this young, but looking through the trouble makers wouldn’t hurt.
He thought some more. He needed someone who was expressive. Lan Zhan knew that A-yuan was expressive, but since the fever and five years that they barely spent together, the smiles and the tears showed less often, becoming more reserved than he liked. A-yuan was Wei Ying’s son, he deserved to have his emotions heard and understood.
The more he thought this over, a bit of amusement filled him at the idea of finding a little Wei Ying to befriend his son. People had already been comparing A-yuan to himself, not his precious son would have his own friend to bring out more of himself. A friend who would question the rules, express emotions, and want to be friends with his son.
“Baba?”
Lan Zhan looks up from his guqin and over to his son, well dressed and stiffly straight, waiting.
“Can we go see the bunnies?” A-yuan asks, trying to keep the eagerness out of his voice, even thought it was just the two of them. He needed a friend soon, Lan Zhan wanted him to relax more, but talking was hard and he wouldn’t even set a good example of relaxing in each other’s presence even if he told A-yuan to do so.
“Mm.” Lan Zhan hums, getting up from the floor and storing the instrument away. He walked to his son and offered his hand, warming inside as it was accepted. He heard many tales of children finally deciding that they didn’t want their parents to hold their hands and knew that one day his little boy was going to stop being led by the hand, but a selfish part of him was glad it wasn’t today.
Their walk started out like normal, following the usual path and seeing minimal creatures running about, but then they both heard it. A child was crying and it was very loud. Lan Zhan turned towards it, then was surprised at a tug on his arm. A-yuan was pulling him towards the crying, a determined look on his young face.
When they found the source of the crying, it was a young child clinging to Lan Qiren’s leg. He looks over as they approach, looking so tired. Lan Zhan looked between them, questioning.
His uncle sighs. “He broke some of the rules. Since writing the rules didn’t seem to work and he instead played during the writing sessions, we decided to try sending him out into the woods. It hasn’t even been an incense’s time.”
The child continued to cry, soaking the fabric under his small fists.
A-yuan stepped forward and gently rested his hand on the other’s shoulder. “It’s okay, you’re safe now. Lan Qiren and Hanguang-jun are here with us.”
“I-I’m not scared!” The child defends through his tears.
“You’re very brave.” A-yuan smiles and Lan Zhan doesn’t know if he was being genuine or not.
“Sizhui.” Lan Qiren warns. “Lying is forbidden.”
“But he is brave.” A-yuan says, getting the other child to cry softer and finally look over to him. “He’s not scared when standing on the tall rocks and looking down.”
Lan Qiren strokes his beard, none to pleased, but seemingly unwilling to fight this battle. In any case, the other child has stopped crying completely and was looking at A-yuan with wonder. Without even having to look, a first potential friend has appeared.
“Uncle.” Lan Zhan says to his uncle, silently conveying his need to take care of the children for a while.
Lan Qiren sighs, slowly peeling the child off of himself before turning to leave. “The rest of your punishment shall be decided by Hanguang-jun. Try to remember it this time.”
As the three were left alone, Lan Zhan offered his hands to the children. A-yuan quickly accepted, while the other stared for a bit, as if expecting a trick, then cautiously accepted his hand. With the children secured, he continued their walk to the bunnies.
“I’m Lan Sizhui.” A-yuan says after they walk for a while, relaxing more as he realized that they were still going to where he wanted to go and not to somewhere else to witness a punishment.
“O-oh!” The child startled, too in his own head over the situation. “I’m Jingyi. Lan Jingyi! Um, where are we going?”
“To see the bunnies!”
Jingyi blinked, looking between the pair, trying to see if this was somehow a trick.
“They’re really friendly and they like carrots!” A-yuan smiles brightly, starting to talk about all he knows about bunnies. Lan Zhan is happy, it might be too early to declare them as friends, but its nice that A-yuan is still friendly and seems to want friends.
Once they made it to the field with the bunnies, Jingyi began to open up more. It was easy to see how he would get in trouble for breaking the rules, he was loud and would talk before thinking his own thoughts through. A-yuan didn’t seem to mind, listening to him talk and even getting his own thoughts in when he wanted to speak up. Having dealt with Wei Ying, he had the feeling that this would not change anytime soon, not unless something live changing happened, and even then, it would change how he interacted with people and not how his mind works. If they continue being friends and A-yuan wants to help Jingyi, perhaps he could find a way to help him stay out of some of the trouble, to bend but not break.
One thing was for certain to Lan Zhan, he was going to need to help change things about the sect that didn’t work anymore. Starting with the whip.