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“Your brother threw a tea cup at my head!” Wei Wuxian let the full weight of his indignation show through. He’d barely dodged the cup since he hadn’t expected the normally calm (even if sometimes he was pretending) Lan Xichen. It’s not like the tea cup would have hurt him but the only way he could have been more shocked would have been if Sizhui had thrown a cup at him.
Now if it had been Jingyi or Jiang Cheng he wouldn’t have been surprised at all.
Lan Zhan raised his brow slightly and shook his head. “I don’t believe he appreciated your question.” Despite the cooly serene expression Wei Wuxian could tell his husband was highly amused.
Wei Wuxian made a face. “All I did was ask him if he still wanted to be close after the family dinner. I don’t understand why he’d hate that.” Of course he knew why Xichen was upset. It had been a travesty of a meal but at least no one had actually drawn swords or tried to hit anyone. Okay Jin Ling had tried to hit Jingyi but that happened all the time, it wasn’t a special thing for this occasion.
“He worked hard to make this happen.” Lan Zhan ignored the face from Wei Wuxian.
“Well yeah, but it’s almost like he’s never met any of us.” Wei Wuxian chuckled. He did feel bad but they had warned Xichen when he proposed the idea. It was a nice sentiment, and honestly if Xichen didn’t get involved Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng would probably just never go to see the other because there was the inertia of all the past events working against them. It had worked as a push against inertia but not necessarily worked as a family dinner.
And Jiang Cheng’s face had turned as purple as his robes several times which had been funny as hell to watch. And to be fair that was what family dinners had been like around Madam Yu, lots of seething, shouting and purple faces.
Several days ago Xichen had joined Wei Wuxian, Lan Zhan and Sizhui for breakfast and told them his idea for them to travel to Lotus Pier and join together with the Jiang Cheng, Jin Ling and all of the two families for the Moon Festival to encourage them to heal old wounds and be closer. Following that announcement was a lot of silence until Sizhui had smiled tentatively and said that sounded like a nice idea. Then he’d managed to excuse himself and fled to find Jingyi before anyone thought to stop him.
Once Sizhui was gone, Wei Wuxian took a gulp of tea wishing it was wine and sighed. “I don’t suppose there’s any way to talk you out of this?” He knew it was a waste of time to ask but one could always hope.
“I have already made the arrangements. Since that was where you grew up it made sense for you to travel there to celebrate and of course to bring your family. Jiang Wanyin agreed” Xichen used to how Wei Wuxian reacted to things by now ignored the way he was putting away tea like it was one of his favorite jars of wine. It was one of the ways he kept from saying the first thing that came to mind and allowing himself to edit. He only edited when he liked the people he was talking to.
“So…” After wondering what Jiang Cheng had really said, because he wasn’t sure he would have agreed unless Xichen had blackmailed him, Wei Wuxian looked helplessly at Lan Zhan and cleared his throat. “Uh so when do we leave?” Maybe if he knew when they were going he could sneak out and miss the whole thing.
Sadly all it took was one look at Lan Zhan’s expression to let him know that wasn’t going to happen. He was going to go along and witness the whole thing whether he wanted to or not. “Right, never mind I’ll just go ahead and pack then?”
After some discussion and a surprisingly stubborn Sizhui putting his foot down (quietly, it was actually a very impressive display of being an immovable object) they ended up taking Wen Ning and Jingyi along with them. Jingyi was just part and parcel of doing anything with Sizhui and Wen Ning of course was his family and the festival was about reuniting family there wasn’t a good reason why he shouldn’t come.
Other than the fact that he scared a lot of people who remembered the Ghost General and Jiang Cheng hadn’t ever let him walk into Lotus Pier since Wei Wuxian had come back.
The only person that had tried to talk Sizhui out of it was Xichen. Lan Zhan would do anything for their son which meant if he wanted to bring Wen Ning, Jingyi and some bandits they encountered on the road he’d let him do it. Wei Wuxian was actively taking Sizhui’s side since he felt the same way about it as Lan Zhan, whatever Sizhui wanted he was getting. Of course he also figured that immersion therapy was going to be the way to go to either all get them in the same place at the same time or make sure no one ever tried again.
While they were on the way to Lotus Pier he did make sure to get Sizhui aside for a few minutes to talk.
“A-Yuan you certainly know how to throw the fox into the henhouse don’t you?” Wei Wuxian chuckled and nodded to Wen Ning. Even without Sizhui he would have argued to take him along. Their relationship was complicated. Pretty much all of Wei Wuxian’s relationships were complicated, and by his own fault, but there was a special guilt for the shy child like Wen Ning who had been forced to be a monster.
Sizhui didn’t laugh, he just looked pale and strained with worry. “I know Wei Qianbei but he’s family. I couldn’t leave him to be alone.”
Neither said it but they both thought Wen Ning had been alone too long.
“It’s all right A Yuan, I just wanted to warn you Jin Ling will be angry and sad seeing him which means Jiang Cheng will be angry and yell a lot. It’s a Lotus Pier tradition.”
Sizhui managed a small smile since he’d been around Jin Ling often enough in training and night hunts to have experienced that Lotus Pier tradition first hand more than once. “I never knew exactly how complicated a big family could be.” Then Jingyi had called for him so he took Apple’s bridle and that left Wei Wuxian to rejoin Lan Zhan and Xichen.
The weather was cool and the sun was shining on them for the trip and it didn’t take nearly long enough to get to Lotus Pier as far as Wei Wuxian was concerned. Even though he knew this was going to go poorly all it took was one whiff of the damp air that surrounded Lotus Pier and Wei Wuxian suddenly missed his old home with a fierce ache. He barely had time to realize how much he missed the scents of where he’d grown up before Lan Zhan’s fingers slipped into his and he was able to feel it without being overwhelmed by it. After all he would miss the sights and scents of Cloud Recesses just as much.
It all started off okay. Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling were there to greet them when they arrived. Then Jin Ling saw Wen Ning and started to run his mouth, which made his brother start to get belligerent and yell, which made Xichen try to step up and smooth things over. It just kept going downhill with everyone talking at once and arguing.
“Why are you even here?” Jiang Cheng finally roared that at Wen Ning feeling like he wasn’t making any progress against Xichen’s calm statements and redirects.
Wen Ning looked surprised, he obviously hadn’t expected any questions to be directed at him, and pulled his shoulders up a little looking like he’d rather they were looking anywhere else. Wei Wuxian cleared his throat. “Wen Ning is family. This is a family holiday isn’t it?”
Jiang Cheng scowl turned positively thunderous and he bared his teeth at Wei Wuxian. “He killed family, he is not family!”
“Forgive me.” Wen Ning’s voice was soft, not what a lot of people would expect from the Ghost General, as he interrupted. “But your families killed my family as well.”
People had started bringing food and drinks in for the feast and hearing that a tray hit the floor with a crash that made everyone in the entire hall jump. He might as well have just said ‘happy slaughter of my people day’ for the way most of the people in the room looked like they had been slapped. Wei Wuxian’s face sunk into his hand with a groan and Jingyi and Sizhui had slapped their hands over their mouths in shock.
“We’re done!” Jiang Cheng’s voice raised into a shout. “Everyone get out! Clear out that food! There will be no feast!” He started waving all the people out of the hall before he grabbed Jin Ling by the elbow and pushed him toward the exit. “I knew this was a terrible idea!” He turned and stomped his way out of the hall in a dramatic exit that would have made Madam Yu proud. The door was too heavy to slam effectively but Jiang Cheng gave it a good try making it rattle slightly in its frame as it shut.
Wei Wuxian leaned over toward Xichen who was staring after everyone with his mouth hanging slightly open and grinned. “Still want us all to be closer as a family?”
Xichen had given him one steely eyed glare and that was when the tea cup had been thrown at him.
He and Lan Zhan had retreated to a quiet corner after that. It was a mess. Things around him were always a mess!
Wei Wuxian had always loved the Moon Festival as a child, even before the Jiang Clan had taken him in, because during the festival there were always extra food and mooncakes for everyone and people were more generous and would give handouts to him which meant for a time he wouldn’t be hungry. He always did his best to pretend it didn’t hurt that he didn’t have his mother and father to share a mooncake with. He had dimly remembered his father cutting the cakes into pieces and sharing them with his family to show their connection to each other.
Remembering that Wei Wuxian got from the cushion on the floor and nodded to Lan Zhan. “Come on, let’s fix things. But if anyone asks, it was your idea.” He waited for Lan Zhan to unfold gracefully from where he was sitting and join him then he led him to where the kitchens were and peeked inside.
Luckily for him the one of the cooks inside was one that had known him since he was a child at Lotus Pier and he was able to charm her into giving him a mooncake. Since everyone had stormed off without eating or having the mooncakes there was just one way to fix this.
“Go get your brother and Wen Ning. I’ll get our son and the two brats and we’ll meet in the main room with Jiang Cheng.” Lan Zhan nodded but before he could walk away Wei Wuxian grabbed his wrist and pulled him in for a kiss. “Next year we celebrate at Cloud Recesses huh?” He winked and let go so he could go find the kids.
It really wasn’t that hard to find them. Jin Ling was a loud kid, and Wei Wuxian suspected he’d be a loud adult just like his Uncle Jiang Cheng. Jingyi was almost as loud when he got started. They should have brought Zizhen with them. He was the one who tended to mediate and calm things down but of course he was celebrating with his own clan so Wei Wuxian was going to have to deal with these three on his own.
“All right, everyone shut up!” Wei Wuxian could be loud when he wanted to and three sets of shocked eyes turned to him when he stepped into the room and bellowed at them. “I see we’re continuing the grand Lotus Pier shouting match tradition. Let’s just say Jin Ling won and knock it off for a few minutes.”
“I…! You…!” Jin Ling was stuttering while he tried to figure out what he wanted to protest but he seemed stuck.
“Now. Sizhui, Jingyi, we have been disrespectful and not given our host the chance to cut the mooncake.” Jingyi opened his mouth to argue and Sizhui poked him hard in the ribs which made him wince and close his mouth while he rubbed his side. “Jin Ling.” Wei Wuxian put his hands in front of him, still holding the cake, and bowed. “Will you help us rectify this situation and take us to Jiang Cheng?”
Jin Ling wasn’t really angry. He was upset, seeing Wen Ning would always remind him how he hadn’t had a chance to know his father, seeing Wei Wuxian reminded him that he didn’t have his mother, and just like his uncle Jiang Cheng he didn’t do sad, confused and upset, he did angry instead.
It honestly could have gone either way but he thought it was Sizhui’s pleading expression that had tipped the balance. Jin Ling seemed to deflate a little and he nodded before gesturing for them to follow him. Jingui got another poke from Sizhui just in case he decided to say something as they fell in place behind Wei Wuxian.
Lan Zhan and Xichen were already there with Wen Ning and Jiang Cheng. His sworn brother was glowering at the room and looking uncomfortable. The expression didn’t get any better as Wei Wuxian got closer.
“I brought this for you.” He took the cake and held it out for his brother to take. Once he was close enough he could see underneath the glower and irritation the pain and emotional fragility that Jiang Cheng always did his best to hide. It took someone who knew him like Wei Wuxian did to see past the bluster. The sharp sting of guilt followed for both of them. It seemed like all they ever knew how to do was to step all over each other's feelings but maybe this would make it better.
Jiang Cheng slowly reached out to take the cake from him and Wei Wuxian backed up a few feet to give him space. It was out of his hands now but he knew Jiang Cheng. He would to the right thing.
They all slowly gathered closer to Jiang Cheng as he started to cut the cake into pieces. Several cuts later he started to hand out the pieces. The round cake was a whole, all of the pieces made a family complete when handed out by the family head. Jin Ling was first, then surprisingly Wei Wuxian. Lan Zhan, Sizhui and Xichen were next. Then he stood in front of Wen Ning with his hand closed as he looked into the face of the man who had been used to kill his sister’s husband.
Would he let it go? Could he accept Wen Ning?
Wen Ning had saved Jiang Cheng, he’d also been used as a weapon and hurt Jiang Cheng. Wei Wuxian held his breath waiting but it took so long he started to see spots in front of his eyes and Lan Zhan tugged his hand to remind him to breathe.
Letting out his own breath Jiang Cheng opened his fingers and held the piece of cake out to Wen Ning. “Take it.” He sounded brusk and impatient but Wen Ning smiled brightly before he ducked his head, took the piece of cake and backed up a step like he was worried Jiang Cheng would take it back. Things weren't fixed but they'd taken a step towards better.
"I guess we should go ahead and eat and not waste the food we took so much time to make." It was as close to an apology as Jiang Cheng ever made.
"Then we should definitely go eat." Wei Wuxian slipped his arm through Lan Zhan's and made a face at Xichen. "You are such a brat Zewu-Jun, always getting your way. Come on let's go eat before Jiang Cheng changes his mind!" He saw the small honestly happy smile on his brother in law's face and smiled in return before they all turned to go back to the hall to eat.
And to have some more arguments. It was a Lotus Pier tradition after all.