Chapter Text

“What are you looking at that your neck’s about to pop off?” Jiang Wanyin asks but doesn’t even look up from trying to fix a fold on his uniform. He’s used to his adoptive brother’s shenanigans to even bother. 

“Why don’t you come look?” Wei Wuxian answers a few away, voice laced with an amused lilt.

Jiang Wanyin sighs but matches his volume from where he’s sitting. “Why don’t you just tell me?” 

“That’s no fun!”

Jiang Wanyin rolls his eyes, still preoccupied with how uncomfortable this uniform is on him. He tries to brush off the uneven rolls with a grunt, as if the fabric will magically fit and his skin won’t strain over the seams. 

It’s been too tight lately, but the university department still hasn’t restocked. So he’s left with a blazer and a pair of pants that’s a size too small. Curse whoever decides college instructors can dictate what the students should wear during their classes. Curse business suits in general.

Jiang Wanyin doesn’t see Wei Wuxian coming to him, grinning, before he hauls the other up from his seat. The only thing Jiang Wanyin can do is mutter a litany of curses as Wei Wuxian drags him to the classroom door, where most of their classmates already formed a crowd.

Wei Wuxian titters, hand still clutching at Jiang Wanyin’s wrist. Then, he pushes him just enough to put him by the classroom door. Jiang Wanyin relents, letting Wei Wuxian squeeze them past a small gap so they can peer at whatever everyone else is ogling at.

“Him,” Wei Wuxian whispers when they get enough space to stare properly. His grin is still on full display as he lightly nudges Jiang Wanyin. Just a step forward, since they’re taller than the rest, so Jiang Wanyin can see what he’s pointing at over the many heads in front of them.

“Ah ,” Jiang Wanyin immediately thinks. “Him.”

Lan Xichen — Student Council President and consistent top in every ranking there is — grades, riches, looks. 

He’s perfect.

Jiang Wanyin scoffs at the notion but looks on, curious about what’s so interesting. 

The man’s by the faculty room talking with his major’s Department Head. It probably has something to do with what the Student Council members were panicking over earlier that morning. Despite the obvious problem the council has, and the worried face of the advisor he’s talking to, Lan Xichen keeps an amicable smile on his face. His tone’s still gentle. Back straight and pose refined.

You can take a picture of him right now and it’ll be like those you see in magazines. Maybe even better.

Jiang Wanyin can’t help but compare how the university’s generic blazer and pants fit Lan Xichen as if they were tailored-made for him. Sure, nobody is perfect. But the deities sure played favorites with the Lans. It’s so unfair to make someone with proportions like Lan Xichen. Jiang Wanyin may not believe he’s perfect in every way, but he’s not blind either. When it comes to looks, Lan Xichen is top-tier.

On other aspects besides aesthetics, Jiang Wanyin has other notions. 

Many regard Lan Xichen as perfect because he gets along well with everyone at school, no matter the department or faction. Teachers always favor him even if they haven’t interacted with him personally. He follows the rules to a T and stays ahead of everyone else in terms of academic achievements.

He gets credit for all of that. But he’s not perfect. Nobody is. It wouldn’t be the centuries’ saying if it hadn’t been proven. 

To be fair, what does perfect mean anyway? No matter what it may be, Lan Xichen just isn’t.

Lan Xichen’s just good at restraining and hiding. 

He’s a great pretender.

What Lan Xichen displays is everything good about him. But no one can live without a few dark secrets. That’s just the fact of life. Yin and Yang — where there is good, there is bad. Lan Xichen’s just good at hiding his Yin.

Despite his beliefs, Jiang Wanyin never bad-mouthed Lan Xichen. Hadn’t disagreed with any praise everyone drowns the Fourth Year in. Jiang Wanyin just has his opinions and he keeps them to himself. 

He has nothing against Lan Xichen. He just thinks it’s not right to brand him a saint walking amongst humans.

He has thought of this from the first time he saw Lan Xichen. But after three years of having no interaction with him, Jiang Wanyin mostly just throws any thought about him at the back of his mind.

Not today though. Not even this year.

Now that it’s Lan Xichen’s last year in college and the whole university’s already mourning over his soon departure, previous murmurs of his “greatness” turned to screams you can hear in every hallway.

Although Jiang Wanyin is also scheduled to graduate soon and hopefully leave all of this behind, hearing about Lan Xichen wherever he was irked him.

Lan Xichen is too nice for Jiang Wanyin’s liking. He looks at him and thinks of how tiring it must be to put up a front of being this perfect human being. Is he even real? Jiang Wanyin just wants to —

Break him. 

Yeah, tear up his grand charade and prove he’s not the goody two shoes everyone thinks he is. Reveal who he really is behind all those wide smiles and gentle laughs. Wreck his great acting and parade his true character. Display Lan Xichen as he is, including the good and the bad. 

Yeah. Since it’s both of their last year here, Jiang Wanyin has nothing to lose. Why not?

He can prove that Lan Xichen is just like any other human to himself and move on. There’s no need to shatter everyone else’s illusion. But he — he needs to see at least the trick behind the magic that is Lan Xichen.

If he fails, at least he won’t need to see Lan Xichen anymore after graduation.

Yeah. Break Lan Xichen. He’ll do just that.

“Why do you look like that?” Wei Wuxian’s loud question pulls Jiang Wanyin out of his mind palace. Realizing Lan Xichen’s already nowhere to be found and they are the only ones remaining by the door further brings Jiang Wanyin back to his senses.

He returns to his seat, still feeling the tight pull of his clothes against his skin — he can’t wait for this Entrep class to be over. “What look? Do I look like I’m planning something?” He asks when Wei Wuxian sits beside him after some dilly-dallying.

“Nope. You look like you’re about to shit.”

“I fucking hate you.” 

“Tell me something new.” Wei Wuxian removes his blazer, picking at a loose thread. “So you’re planning something?”

Jiang Wanyin hates how Wei Wuxian focuses on things he shouldn’t. “No.”

Wei Wuxian, “Bet you’re planning to shit.”

Jiang Wanyin groans in frustration.

He’s Perfect

Jiang Wanyin starts subtly.

Where he usually shifts his attention away from Lan Xichen, he now does the opposite. He’ll follow Lan Xichen with his eyes whenever they are in the same space. 

It’s okay, everyone’s looking at Lan Xichen anywhere he goes anyway.

Then, Jiang Wanyin’s feet will walk on their own to chase after Lan Xichen’s path after a beat or two — enough not to be caught.

It’s nothing new, many follow Lan Xichen for some time until he reaches his classroom anyway.

It’s okay, it’s easy to blend with the crowd.

It took a while to get used to. But Jiang Wanyin will now actively go to where he heard Lan Xichen is. 

Seeking him out among the throng of people to see what he’s up to is a bit more difficult to be subtle about. Still, he does his best. He picks up where he’s going, who Lan Xichen is with.

It’s okay, it wasn’t too hard anyway. Lan Xichen sticks out like a sore thumb with his ebony hair against ghostly pale skin and bright golden eyes. Look for that or just… follow wherever there’s a small gathering of students circling someone. Lan Xichen has that effect on people — they always want to be close to him that they hover over him like flies. 

A week passes. Wei Wuxian, of course, notices. It isn’t long until he starts to tease him about finally acting on his “crush” on Lan Xichen.

Jiang Wanyin brushes him off, tells him to shut up. But that’s one thing Wei Wuxian can’t do. So, at their dining table one evening, Wei Wuxian announces it to everyone. 

“I do not have a crush on Lan Xichen,” Jiang Wanyin vehemently denies, chopsticks threateningly close to Wei Wuxian’s throat. If he’s just an inch closer, Wanyin’s sure he might have stabbed him.

Jiang Yanli is giggling beside him, “That popular Lan who stopped his uni for a year to work at their company? Is that the one?”

Wei Wuxian’s nodding as if his head’s about to pop off. “It was such a big deal to the school 'cause they depended on him as the ace of the volleyball team.”

“He’s back to being a player?”

“No, but he teaches the other members sometimes.”

“He got a lot on his plate.”

Wei Wuxian whistles, “I heard he asked his uncle for a break this sem. He won’t be involved with their company during his last year in uni.”

Jiang Wanyin snorts, “You hear a lot of things.”

That’s his bad. Putting his two cents means he’s interested. Being interested means he’s listening. He just opened himself up for his dear sister’s teasing as well. 

Jiang Yanli turns to him, smiles, and says, “It’s nice to have a love story before graduation.”

Jiang Wanyin pretends he’s not affected, munches on a half-cooked carrot, “It’s actually the worst — with the many requirements from profs and all.”

“So why do you have enough time to tail Lan Xichen, hm?” Wei Wuxian’s talking through a mouth full of food. It’s a skill to still understand him at this point.

“Oh! Does A-Cheng schedule his time around Lan Xichen’s?” His older sister is definitely not enjoying this. But in a way, she’s right. He’s taking precious time out of his busy schedule to tail Lan Xichen. But that is in no way in the romantic sense.

He has a better argument to explain everything, sure. But it’s not like he can tell them what he’s doing without them piling more questions.

Wei Wuxian can talk about it all he wants at home. But Jiang Wanyin should find a way to make him zip it at school.

“Fine,” Jiang Wanyin says after thinking about it for a split second. There’s only one thing that’ll make Wei Wuxian shut up. “I got a crush, so what?”

Evidently, that split-second thinking didn’t lead to a good decision. 

The other two people at the dining table stare at him wide-eyed. Jiang Wanyin’s eyes move from Jiang Yanli to Wei Wuxian. 

Is it really that hard to believe he may be interested in someone?

Jiang Yanli, dramatic as she is, reaches over the table to hold Jiang Wanyin’s shoulders. Looking straight at his eyes, she says: “I am so happy for you, didi. Take your chance, okay? Don’t let it slip away.”

Jiang Wanyin feels too guilty to say anything back to Yanli. So he just replies with a tight-lipped smile.

Wei Wuxian, “Damn, I was just teasing but. Uhm. Okay! Let me help you bag the Lan Xichen!”

“I only need one thing from you!” In contrast, Jiang Wanyin can’t wait to tell Wei Wuxian how he can help. “Don’t meddle with my plans and pretend you know nothing about it.”

Wei Wuxian’s face shows how he wants to complain about being left out. But he just lets out a huff. “Those are two things though.”

***

Although Jiang Wanyin keeps a tab on Lan Xichen, he keeps his distance. Observing is best when done from far away. But not too far.

If Lan Xichen isn’t with his council members, he’s with his two best friends or younger brother. Lan Xichen doesn’t really hang out with anyone else.

It didn’t take Jiang Wanyin long to figure out Lan Xichen’s exact routine either:

He comes to school 15 minutes before 8 am. Has morning classes. Takes his lunch in the cafeteria. Visits the library right after.

Then he’ll do his afternoon classes til 2 pm. From there, he’ll attend the council meetings. Sometimes he visits the volleyball team.

Half a month in and many (unproductive) observations later and still, Jiang Wanyin has never seen anything unusual with Lan Xichen’s schedule and behavior inside the university. 

Except maybe that one time he climbed a tree to save a cat and played with it behind the school bleachers. That’s unusual, sure, but didn’t that only prove his good nature?

…Is Lan Xichen, maybe, actually, the goody two shoes the whole school is obsessed with?

Everyone has to have at least one bad side, right? Maybe one nasty behavior? Lan Xichen never even coughs without bringing out a pristine white handkerchief first! Never even sneezes in front of anyone! He waits and holds his sneezes — it’s fucking unbelievable. Jiang Wanyin has never even heard Lan Xichen swear or raise his voice.

What is he? An angel incarnate?

At this point, Jiang Wanyin isn’t so sure anymore. Maybe he really is Mr. Perfect. Maybe Lan Xichen is in fact, an angel in disguise or whatever.

So. That’s it, right? He’ll have to get on with his life and confess to himself that maybe some perfect people exist. Or maybe it’s just Lan Xichen.

Well, this is… disappointing.

Jiang Wanyin slumps in his seat, closing the book he was hiding his face with after he made sure Lan Xichen had exited the library. 

It’s just after lunch. The library is virtually deserted save for some two or three souls scrambling to read over their review notes scattered by the benches and the librarian who’s barely awake behind the counter. 

Jiang Wanyin’s eyes linger at the closed library glass doors where Lan Xichen was. Almost a month and still nothing. 

He scratches the back of his neck, stares blankly at the table, then at the high ceilings in frustration. This is getting nowhere. He is going nowhere. 

But also, isn’t this borderline stalking?

After the adrenaline of the thought of exposing Lan Xichen and the fog of villainess dies down, Jiang Wanyin is left with that very uncomfortable question. 

He’s uncomfortable because he knows the answer to it: Yes. It’s (kinda) stalking and you should stop.

He mulled over this thought last night, too. Even tried to justify his actions by saying that hey — he just follows Lan Xichen whenever he’s in school! He never attempted to search for his home or bike after the Lan’s sedan. He never even attempted to do a deep dive of his social media accounts. Jiang Wanyin is just — a normal person taking an interest in a fellow college student. Like most of the university had been doing for the past five years! 

Right?

Even if it isn’t — he still became like everyone else. Which is really ironic. 

Yikes, Jiang Wanyin.

He lets go of a deep sigh, careful not to shout in frustration because he’s still inside a library. 

What was his goal again? Oh right. Break Lan Xichen? Then why does it feel like he’s the one having a mental breakdown?

As far as he knows, Lan Xichen hasn’t done anything remotely shocking. He just wanted to understand the “Lan Xichen Appeal.” Yeah, he’s got the looks, body, and manners. He’s pleasant to others, avoids confrontations, does as he’s told.

But at the core of it all — isn’t Lan Xichen’s kindness and courtesy just make him — boring?

Jiang Wanyin sighs again. Even if Lan Xichen is boring, he still dedicated a good chunk of his time to try and “expose” him.

He needs to find a new hobby, really. One that has nothing to do with Lan Xichen.

After wallowing in self-despair for the moment, Jiang Wanyin drags his feet up and steps in the direction of World Encyclopedias, the giant volume tucked nicely against his chest. He didn’t realize that it would be this heavy when he first got it from the table next to his as he desperately scanned for cover to avoid being seen by Lan Xichen before.

Maybe this book feels too heavy now because his self-pity adds at least fifteen pounds more to his walk of shame. Who knows?

He’s still mourning over this fruitless attempt of playing detective and realizing he’s done nothing but be a loser as he turns to the end of the section. 

Thinking of how pathetic he is because of this whole ordeal and now wobbling to a part of the library he’s never been to, Jiang Wanyin didn’t realize he was about to collide with someone until he just bounced off and landed softly against one of the shelves. 

Thank the heavens he didn’t let go of the thick book or else he will now have an injured foot. 

“Sor — ”

“You’ve been following me.”

Jiang Wanyin hasn’t been close enough to Lan Xichen to hear how his voice sounds at this range. He has heard him talk on stage a lot during programs and seminars. But nothing could have prepared Jiang Wanyin with how his voice actually sounds.

Despite himself, Jiang Wanyin immediately replies: “You already left the library!” He would have pointed an accusatory finger at Lan Xichen if not for this godforsaken encyclopedia.

Lan Xichen’s eyes narrow, an arm stretching past Jiang Wanyin’s head. 

With the wall on his other side, Lan Xichen’s arm on the other, Jiang Wanyin’s completely caged.

Lan Xichen, “So you are following me.”

“I am not!” Jiang Wanyin is bad at lying. “You just happened to be everywhere!” He is very terrible at it.

“Are you saying it’s fate’s fault that we happened to be at the same place, at the same time for the past week?”

Jiang Wanyin bites the inside of his cheek to stop whatever ready answer he has. So Lan Xichen noticed? 

Even so, he still can’t come up with a proper reply to that. “That’s… I don’t know, maybe?” His resolution to never admit to his playing detective is slowly crumbling away.

Lan Xichen slowly eases himself into Jiang Wanyin’s space, a breath of hair separating them. Jiang Wanyin hugs the book closer to his chest, fingers curling on it tighter. Without it, he can easily push Lan Xichen and run away. But right now, with no space to move, Jiang Wanyin’s frozen in place.

He mentally curses when he realizes Lan Xichen’s eyes are nailed to his. Damn, he has pretty eyes. 

Lan Xichen, “So you’re my fated or something?”

Jiang Wanyin, “What? No!” He thinks for a bit. Should he play dumber? The answer is yes. “I don’t know..? How can I be sure if we’re fated or not?”

Lan Xichen hums, eyes still squinting at Jiang Wanyin, trying to catch any hint of deception. Which is, right now, Jiang Wanyin knows is very obvious. 

Jiang Wanyin, “Can you back off my personal space, please?” 

“You invaded my personal space first.”

“I always kept my distance!”

“Aha!” Lan Xichen half-exclaims, “So you are following me!”

“I was ! But not anymore!” Jiang Wanyin’s shoulders slumped, everything he was thinking about before flooding his brain and making him more confused. 

Surprisingly, Lan Xichen carefully backs off. Not too far, but enough to let Jiang Wanyin breathe again. “ ‘Was’ ? Why? You don’t like me anymore?”

Jiang Wanyin, “What do you mean like — ”

“Me. You were following me because you like me and now you don’t. Your feelings sure change fast.”

“Wait, what?” Jiang Wanyin’s bewilderment is painted all over his face. What even is this conversation?

“You like me,” Lan Xichen announces. As if it’s the most well-known fact.

“I do not —”

“So it’s true. You don’t like me anymore. What did I do for you to not like me?”

“Nothing..? I think..? Wait, this is all so —”

Lan Xichen finally backs away, arms now crossed over his chest. “So you like me because I did nothing for you to not like me.”

“…What?” Jiang Wanyin forgets the weight of the book clutched to his chest with how confusing this interaction is going. “Can’t I just not feel anything about you?”

“You were following me so you must have felt something about me.”

Jiang Wanyin’s speechless for a moment. Lan Xichen’s refute makes sense, but he’s uncertain why his answers are so — mind-boggling. His brain can’t process whatever is happening at the moment. 

He isn’t sure how long he paused, but all that comes out of his mouth is: “I do not feel anything about you.”

Lan Xichen clicks his tongue, then walks closer again. 

Oh no, Jiang Wanyin thought, did he take that as a fucking challenge!?

Lan Xichen, “So you won’t feel anything if I kiss you?”

“What is kissing me has to do with any —”

Lan Xichen’s lips land on his before Jiang Wanyin can finish his question. And because Lan Xichen pressed their lips together while Jiang Wanyin was mid-sentence, it was easy for him to shove his tongue right in. 

He’s a grown college man who’s expected by society to have at least one romantic encounter under his belt. But Jiang Wanyin is his own person, and he has never had the interest to pursue any romantic endeavor. 

In short, Lan Xichen stole his first kiss. 

Stuck in his place and not knowing what to do, Jiang Wanyin holds the encyclopedia tighter. It didn’t take him much to subconsciously focus his attention on Lan Xichen’s tongue as it probed anything it could reach inside his mouth. 

At the back of his mind, he knows he must have been making some sounds that urged Lan Xichen on for him to press on, palms now cupping both of Jiang Wanyin’s cheeks. 

At one point, Lan Xichen coaxes the book out of Jiang Wanyin’s clasps and puts it somewhere. He leads Jiang Wanyin’s arms over his shoulders as he leans closer, closer.

Jiang Wanyin could feel the weight of Lan Xichen’s chest against his, the tip of his index finger tilting his chin up so their lips could slot better together. One of Lan Xichen’s hands holds his waist to keep him in place. The other is behind his head, making sure he doesn’t bump his head against the hard shelves.

“Fuck,” Lan Xichen lets out followed by a quick grunt as they both catch their breaths. His eyes scan Jiang Wanyin’s expression, thumb wiping the drool at the corner of Jiang Wanyin’s bottom lip.

“Pretty,” is all he says before he swoops right back in to claim Jiang Wanyin’s second kiss.

Jiang Wanyin’s not sure how long they’ve been kissing now. He can’t comprehend how he knows how to kiss him back. Wait — is he kissing Lan Xichen back or is Lan Xichen just — nipping and twirling his tongue inside his mouth?

His brain’s all foggy. It’s getting harder and harder to breathe. Jiang Wanyin’s starting to feel like he’s drowning. 

“…Need to breathe,” his mind tells him. But Lan Xichen isn’t showing any signs of stopping. 

Jiang Wanyin lets him. He even pulls him closer as if he’s the air that he needs to breathe in. He’ll rationalize anything else later.

When Jiang Wanyin feels like all the oxygen in his lungs is about to be sucked dry, he pulls at Lan Xichen’s uniform hard, the first button of his shirt popping out and landing somewhere. It’s a good thing Lan Xichen’s not wearing his tie. 

Lan Xichen only laughs for a brief moment, their lips still touching. But he didn’t stop. Jiang Wanyin falls right back in. Before he lets his eyes close again, he notices a vibrant red peaking — of a vividly detailed body of a scaled creature. Its tail stretches over the end of Lan Xichen’s collar.

Is that a tattoo?

Lan Xichen demands his attention not a second later, their tongues twirling around each other. It’s hard to keep up. But a part of Jiang Wanyin doesn’t want it to end just yet. 

That’s until he feels dizzy and unsteady. Now, he really needs to breathe. So he chomps down at Lan Xichen’s bottom lip. 

Lan Xichen growls and keeps on ravaging his mouth. So Jiang Wanyin, on the verge of losing consciousness from forgetting how to breathe while making out with Mr. Perfect properly, bites down again. 

He didn’t mean to bite too hard. But he has the nagging feeling that Lan Xichen doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon otherwise. So he puts whatever remaining energy he has in him into that bite.

The next thing Jiang Wanyin tastes is metal. 

Lan Xichen immediately pulls back, his hands still on Jiang Wanyin’s face. He then probes his lip with the tip of his tongue to confirm the new wound. 

Jiang Wanyin short-circuits for a bit. This man’s face — ah, it’s really unfair. He then feels Lan Xichen squeezing his cheeks. 

He has an amused brow raised, his squeezing of Jiang Wanyin’s face far too gentle to hurt. “Did you just bite me?”

Jiang Wanyin rashly swishes his head away to get off of Lan Xichen’s hold. And to also maybe feel like he’s back on the ground. “I can’t breathe, you fucker.”

“Don’t you know how to kiss?”

Jiang Wanyin gets redder, if that’s possible. “...”

“Don’t tell me —”

Jiang Wanyin finally regains control of his arms and pushes Lan Xichen away. Not too much so because it seems like all of his energy has left him.

“Jiang Wanyin, is that your first kiss?”

Jiang Wanyin glares at him. “And second. You thief.”

He never looked at Lan Xichen again when he ran past him and out of the library.

***

Lan Xichen — student council president, university sweetheart, and now… 

Jiang Wanyin’s first kiss. Scratch that — Jiang Wanyin’s first French kiss.

He buries his face in his pillow again as he feels his face heating up at the memory of Lan Xichen forcing his tongue down his throat. Whether it’s because of embarrassment or… other things — Jiang Wanyin doesn’t even want to think of them at the moment. 

He called in sick today and skipped his classes. Wei Wuxian updates him on what he missed. Frankly, Wei Wuxian updates him on things that don’t even matter, too. He just sends him random messages throughout the day.

Jiang Wanyin just feels guilty that his older sister went out of her way to make him soup when she was already busy working. 

It’s the first time Jiang Wanyin’s torn and confused about anything. Especially since this type of encounter isn’t something he has a lot of experience with.

Lan Xichen kissed him. Why did he kiss him anyway? Does Mr. Perfect just go around kissing anyone who follows him? Well, if he does, that’s one thing that makes him not perfect, right? Oh! He also cursed!

Lan Xichen also called him pretty.

“Jiang Wanyin, is that your first kiss?”

Wait. 

Did Lan Xichen call him by his full name? How did he know his name?

Wei Wuxian’s arrival at home is the same — loud and obnoxious. He all but runs to Jiang Wanyin’s room and pulls off his blanket enough to check his temperature. “Hey, your temp’s down now. Oh, I also got some good news!” 

The plastic he’s carrying rustles as he takes out one of the tangerines and peels. He hands over a piece to Jiang Wanyin. Jiang Wanyin accepts it gingerly, ashamed that he doesn’t really have any fever this morning but lets Wei Wuxian think so.

“Lan Xichen was looking for you in our classroom.”

Jiang Wanyin almost chokes on the orange slice. “What?”

“He said something about wanting to say sorry and making it up to you? Oh wait, what he said was ‘taking responsibility.’ Yeah, that’s it!” 

Jiang Wanyin mentally curses. Take responsibility? For what?

Wei Wuxian has an orange inside his mouth as he sits on the edge of Jiang Wanyin’s bed. “He’s being vague about it.” He grins, nudges Jiang Wanyin gently, “Ey, so tell me, something good happened with you and him, no?”

“No.” Jiang Wanyin pulls the blanket over his face to hide. “…Did he say anything else?”

“Told him you were resting at home ‘cause you’re sick. He asked if he could visit, so I asked for jiejie’s permission. He’s coming after his council.”

Jiang Wanyin shoots up from his bed, almost nauseous at the sudden movement. “What!?”

Wei Wuxian’s surprised too. “What? What!? I thought you’d be happy that your crush wants to check up on you!”

“No!” Jiang Wanyin groans. 

“What ‘no’? You won’t be happy? Did he do something bad? Something you don’t like?”

…Something Jiang Wanyin doesn’t like? 

Did he — not like the kiss? Did he like it? Would it go on for that long if he didn’t?

But does he want more of it? 

Wei Wuxian’s sticky palm lands on his forehead, “You’re really red. You sure you don’t want to go to the hospital? You feel hot. Your temp’s all down just a few minutes ago though?”

Jiang Wanyin slaps his hand away. “Just get out.”

“Ey, you’re still energetic. You’ll live.”

“Get out.”

“Yes, boss!” Wei Wuxian grins as he salutes him, teasing him about something Jiang Wanyin can’t comprehend when his mind’s on overdrive.

Jiang Wanyin gnaws on his bottom lip when Wei Wuxian finally closes the door. He throws himself on the bed. 

Does he want to kiss Lan Xichen again?

He pulls at his hair in frustration. 

Yes.

Yes he fucking does.