Work Text:
they assumed i knew nothing
(but i knew you)
Wei Ying is fairly certain he is the only person in the world that gets to see Lan Zhan the way that he gets to.
Which, okay. Obviously.
They’ve been together for years at this points- classmates to friends to best friends to boyfriends.
Wei Ying knows Lan Zhan.
🐇
“Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan!” The words increase in volume as Wei Ying gets closer to the kitchen counter, trying to make sure his voice will still carry to where his boyfriend is currently feeding their rabbits in their enclosure. “The girls better not be getting extra snacks!”
They were away for the weekend at a conference for the university where Lan Zhan works, which means that they had to have their neighbor check on their rabbits instead of being able to take care of them themselves. Lan Zhan will never admit it aloud, but Wei Ying knows that Lan Zhan always feels guilt when he has to leave them alone for an extended period of time due to their past. Bichen, a soft white mini Lop, and Suibian, a grey and black mini Lop, were a bounded pair when the rescue found them, two survivors from an abandoned home.
(Wei Ying doesn’t allow himself to think too hard about how Lan Zhan also hates leaving him alone for extended periods of time. Lan Zhan has a habit of adopting forgotten ones. It’s fine.)
Sliding around their kitchen island and stopping in front of their fridge on his socked feet, Wei Ying pulls the door open to take out two bottles- water for Lan Zhan and a mango drink for himself. He settles them into the crook of his elbow as he hums under his breath, bopping his head along to the music in his head and letting his ponytail sway behind him as he does so. He does a quick glance around the kitchen for snacks before his eyes land on the hammock of fruit handing under their cabinets.
Tucked in the corner is a pear that is to the ripeness Lan Zhan likes them, so Wei Ying grabs it for his boyfriend and a bag of chips from the basket Lan Zhan keeps stocked on the counter for himself.
Still humming under his breath, Wei Ying once again uses the slipperiness from his socks to slide along the hardwood floors and back into the living room. Depositing the bottles and their snacks gently onto the coffee table in front of the couch, he sprawls across said couch, reaching up to tug his ponytail loose and shaking it out with a hand before he lays down.
Wei Ying watches as Lan Zhan purposely glances over his shoulder at him, one corner of his mouth slightly quirked as he slowly adds another leaf of lettuce to the enclosure, his eyes never leaving Wei Ying’s.
Widening his eyes in fake shock, Wei Ying gasps as he dramatically throws a hand over his heart. “Lan Zhan! How scandalous!” He watches as his boyfriend adds one more piece of extra lettuce to the enclosure, sliding the door back as Wei Ying howls with laughter on the couch.
“Lan Zhan! You’re going to spoil them!” Wei Yings makes a grabby motion with his hands towards his boyfriend, latching onto his hands when he’s close enough and pressing kisses to the pads of Lan Zhan’s fingers. “How are you going to spoil them and me? Huh?”
“I will manage.”
Wei Ying laughs once again at his boyfriend’s serious expression, kissing his fingers once more before he lets Lan Zhan go with a shake of his head. “I don’t doubt that at all, sweetheart.” He closes his eyes when Lan Zhan leans down, brushing his hair away from his forehead and laying a kiss there before he straightens up.
While Lan Zhan grabs his bottle of water and pear off the table, Wei Ying draws his knees up until the other settles down; once he does, Wei Ying tucks his feet under Lan Zhan’s thighs to keep them warm as his boyfriend flicks through their streaming services to find something to watch.
Over the course of the movie they decide on, Wei Ying watches his boyfriend drink the entirety of the bottle of water and finish off the pear too.
Hell yeah, Wei Ying knows his boyfriend and his snack preferences.
🐇
Wei Ying is lounging on the couch, Bichen tucked into the hood of his hoodie where he’s wearing it backwards (for this exact purpose) when he hears their front door open two hours earlier than it’s supposed to. By the time he sits up, Lan Zhan has shut the door behind him with a soft click and is leaning back against it. There’s a quickness to his breath and a look in his eyes that tells Wei Ying all he needs to know.
He knows Lan Zhan, struggles included.
Cradling Bichen with one hand under her where she’s still tucked into the hood, Wei Ying stands slowly and makes his way over to where Lan Zhan is still in their entry way. He takes in one deep breath that he lets out in a huff, looking his boyfriend over and cataloguing what he sees.
Lan Zhan has his eyes closed now, the corners of his mouth pinched tight as his fingers flex at his sides in a steady pattern. Humming softly to himself, Wei Ying reaches to lightly touch Lan Zhan’s hands so he’ll raise them, and he deposits Bichen into the trembling hands once they’re raised up enough.
“Lan Zhan, ah. Can you hold our daughter for me while I get your shoes off and get you in something more cozy?” Wei Ying makes sure to keep his voice quieter than usual, bouncing slightly on the tips of his toes. When Lan Zhan nods just barely, one of his hands cradling Bichen close to his chest as the other smooths through her fur and Wei Ying smiles and presses a quick kiss to his jaw before he crouches down. “Thanks, sweetheart.”
Wei Ying works on undoing the laces on Lan Zhan’s leather shoes, helping him out of them and then into the slippers he keeps by the door instead. Squeezing the other’s calves, he stands up after a moment and takes stock of how his boyfriend seems now. The tightness around his mouth seems to have loosened some, and his fingers aren’t trembling as hard where they’re running through Bichen’s fur.
“Okay, Lan Zhan. Let’s put Bichen back with her wife and get you into some different clothes,” Wei Ying herds his boyfriend towards their bedroom, stopping to place Bichen back into the enclosure beside a sleeping Suibian. Wei Ying pats them both gently before he wraps an arm around Lan Zhan’s waist, leading him further down the hall and nudging open the bedroom door with his free hand.
Humming once more under his breath, Wei Ying moves to slide the pale blue cardigan his boyfriend is wearing off his shoulders, laying it over his own arm as his fingers deftly undo the buttons of the white shirt underneath. He moves to the place them gently in the laundry hamper, always more careful with Lan Zhan’s things than his own, and comes back to help his boyfriend out of his work slacks. Once they are folded back over their hanger and placed back in their closet, Wei Ying grabs a massive red hoodie from his own side of the closet and a pair of soft black leggings.
Holding them out in front of himself with a smile, Wei Ying watches as Lan Zhan finishes placing the pins from his hair on their dresser. “Are these alright, sweetheart?” He watches as Lan Zhan brushes his fingers over the fabric of both pieces of clothing, and Wei Ying grins when his boyfriend smiles. “Hell yeah. I thought they would be.”
Once Lan Zhan is dressed, Wei Ying presses him back so he can sit down on the edge of the bed, and he moves so he’s kneeling behind his boyfriend, a soft hair tie around his wrist as his fingers already start combing through long hair. He drops a kiss to the top of Lan Zhan’s head as he carefully braids the other’s hair, talking about everything and nothing as he does so.
Wei Ying knows that Lan Zhan will tell him about whatever is bothering him later, but for now Wei Ying knows that this is all his boyfriend needs and can handle.
🐇
No matter how hard he tries, Wei Ying cannot possibly go to bed when Lan Zhan decides to. He’s tried before, he really has!
9 pm is just so early to go to bed. Wei Ying does most of his best thinking at night, so for him to try and go to bed in the early evening just goes against everything his body tells him.
Instead, they have a routine. It’s worked for them the entire time that they’ve been sleeping in the same bed. Lan Zhan will go to bed, dressed in his pyjamas with his hair carefully braided away from his face. Wei Ying will curl up beside him in a hoodie and his boxers, tucking his feet under the hem of Lan Zhan’s pyjama pants.
They will lay there together until Wei Ying gets too squirmy to stay still, and he will drop a kiss to the space between Lan Zhan’s eyebrows and wiggle his way out of the bed. He will shove his feet into the slippers that stay beside his side of the bed and make his way out of the room, wandering between their living room, the kitchen, and his home office.
Tonight, however, when Wei Ying starts to wiggle his way out of bed, but he’s halted by the tightening of Lan Zhan’s arms around him. The grip is preventing him from moving, and he squirms around enough so he can see his boyfriend’s face.
There is the smallest of wrinkles in between Lan Zhan’s brows, and his fingers dig into the skin of Wei Ying’s sides under the hoodie hard enough to hurt. Wei Ying doesn’t mind it though, making a soft noise under his breath and moving one of his hands up to cup Lan Zhan’s cheek, smoothing his thumb over it slowly.
“Oh, sweetheart. It’s okay,” the words are followed by a kiss to Lan Zhan’s jaw, and Wei Ying settles back down into his previous position. He tosses his leg over Lan Zhan’s waist, dropping his cheek so it’s against the other’s shoulder as he curls his arm over the expanse of his boyfriend’s chest.
Wei Ying knows that Lan Zhan has nightmares- about losing his mother, about his childhood, even about potentially losing Wei Ying due to the fretful years that Wei Ying was kicked out of his aunt and uncle’s home and proceeded to disappear off the face of the planet for a while.
He also knows, too, typically what Lan Zhan is having a nightmare about based on how he's behaving. With this one, and the way he’s clinging to Wei Ying and not making any noise, he knows that whatever is plaguing his mind has something to do with Wei Ying himself.
When the nightmares involve his mother, there’s tears and quiet whimpers for the woman. Those always break Wei Ying’s heart the most.
There is an urge to move create get up get up get up coursing through Wei Ying’s mind, but it is also being held at bay by the urge of protect Lan Zhan don’t make him upset.
(Wei Ying likes to think urges in his mind all belong to these little monsters that are constantly tumbling around for dominance about who gets to be loudest. The rational part of his brain always sounds like his shijie. His therapist thinks that’s a good thing. He does too, honestly.)
He takes in a deep breath as he settles in for a little while longer, letting his own eyes fall closed. He’ll get up later, when the grip on his sides becomes not so tight and Lan Zhan has settled down in his sleep.
Wei Ying knows that if he leaves now, they’ll both be miserable.
🐇
There is a hand shoved into the back pocket of his pants as another hand is buried in the loose hair that’s tumbling around Wei Ying’s shoulders, keeping him close to his boyfriend as Lan Zhan presses him back against the front door to their apartment. Wei Ying’s mouth is already sore in the best possible way, and they’ve only been back into their own space for five minutes at the most.
They’ve been doing their best to keep their hands mostly to themselves since before they left their apartment for the dinner that Wei Ying’s company was hosting and they had to attend, so honestly, Wei Ying counts it has a win for them both that they only started making out once they were in their own apartment.
Wei Ying had planned for this, though, so it makes him happy that his plan worked. He knew it would, because he knows just what to do to make his boyfriend riled up.
He had made sure to grab the tightest professional pants hanging in his closet, pairing the black fabric with a red silk shirt with a black lace overlay that clung to his shoulders and chest. There is the barest hint of eyeliner on his eyes, and the silver and black piercings lining his ears are being caught every so often by the tips on Lan Zhan’s fingers as he boyfriend runs his fingers through his hair.
Lan Zhan wants Wei Ying all the time, no matter what, but Wei Ying also knows that there’s something about the pants he’s wearing and the piercings lining his ears that makes Lan Zhan wants him even more.
“Ah, Lan Zhan, sweetheart,” Wei Ying lets his words fall into a moan as he tips his head, the fact that their mouths have separated prompting Lan Zhan to trail kisses down Wei Ying’s neck instead, pairing the kisses with small bites as he does so. “Are you just going to take me right here, baby? What if someone hears?”
Pausing at where he’s pressing a kiss to the juncture of Wei Ying’s neck and shoulder, Lan Zhan doesn’t move for a moment before he bites down hard on the skin there, drawing a yelp from Wei Ying as his hands tug at the cardigan still covering his boyfriend’s shoulders.
“No. Your noises are only for me to hear.”
Well fuck.
Wei Ying hums softly under his breath as his hands move to slide up under the fabric of Lan Zhan’s cardigan at his shoulders, pushing it back and down before he smirks at his boyfriend. “Really? You don’t want anyone passing by to hear how good you fuck me? You don’t want them to-“ His words are cut off when he feels both of his boyfriend’s hands slide down to grip his thighs, and he dissolves into laughter as he’s thrown over Lan Zhan’s shoulders, his own hands pressing to the others sides to keep himself steady. “Lan Zhan!”
From this view, the only thing that Wei Ying can see is the floor and the curve of his boyfriend’s ass in his dress pants, and it is no competition as to which he’s going to stare at as Lan Zhan starts making his way further into their apartment to the bedroom.
Most of the things that Wei Ying knows about Lan Zhan are wholesome, they really are, but he also knows how to turn Lan Zhan on so much that his boyfriend is going to fuck him until he cries.
Wei Ying can’t wait.
🐇
If there’s one thing that Lan Zhan hates more than being tickled (which is saying something, because the one time Wei Ying tried it he ended up with a sore jaw from a fist that came his way as a knee-jerk reaction) it’s spiders.
The first time that there had been a spider in their apartment, Wei Ying hadn’t thought anything about it. He simply grabbed a napkin and a cup, urged the little guy onto the napkin and covered him with the cup so he could take him outside to the balcony and set him free.
(He didn't notice when that cup went missing the next day.)
Wei Ying has never been afraid of spiders, but he knows, now, that Lan Zhan is terrified of them. To the point that he will leave a room and not come back until Wei Ying has assured him that the spider is gone.
That’s why, when Wei Ying is curled into Lan Zhan’s side on the couch and he sees a fast scurry of black across their living room floor, he knows that he’s got to act like he doesn’t see anything at all while also thinking of some excuse to get Lan Zhan into another room. It takes him a moment of worrying his bottom lip with his teeth before he thinks of something, and he grins to himself before he begins his plan.
“Lan Zhan! Will you go grab me another bag of chips from the kitchen?” He makes a point to rattle the empty bag in his lap at his boyfriend, exaggerating his pout as he looks up at him. “Please, sweetheart? Please?” Wei Ying presses a kiss to his boyfriend’s cheek as he flutters his eyelashes up at him.
Lan Zhan makes a soft noise before he nods, pressing a kiss of his own to Wei Ying’s temple before he stands and makes his way to the kitchen. Wei Ying watches him go with a smile, and when Lan Zhan rounds the corner that takes him out of line of sight, Wei Ying vaults to his feet with a napkin in hand from their coffee table and hurries to where he can see the spider still on the floor.
He coaxes the little spider onto the napkin and deposits him outside their apartment door in the time it takes Lan Zhan to come back from the kitchen, a bag of Wei Ying’s favourite chips in hand. Offering a smile to his boyfriend and throwing himself into his lap when he sits down, Wei Ying smacks a kiss to Lan Zhan’s cheek before he snuggles in against his chest, his feet pressing to the end of the couch.
“Thank you!”
Lan Zhan wraps his arms around Wei Ying’s waist tightly, squeezing him against his chest and pressing a kiss to the top of his head once he does so. “You’re welcome, love.”
Wei Ying knows that if the spider had been seen by his boyfriend, they wouldn’t be snuggling on th couch right now and well.
That would just be a travesty.
🐇
Lan Zhan is acting weird and it is driving Wei Ying crazy.
First, there was the fact that he was late coming home one day, something that doesn’t hardly ever happen. Then, there was the fact that when he did get home, he pressed a kiss to Wei Ying’s forehead before shuffling around him and depositing the bag he carries to work into their room.
Lan Zhan obviously knew what he was doing, however, with putting the bag where he did- Wei Ying and his ADHD struggle with object permanence with the best of them, and so once the bag leaves his immediate sight, he’s totally forgotten it exists.
(Also, Lan Zhan only tends to do that with The Big Surprises. He never does it in a harmful way and Wei Ying loves him all the more for it.)
It’s Friday night at the end of the week that was prefaced by Lan Zhan coming home early, and Wei Ying is sitting on the couch in the living room when he hears his boyfriend coming from down the hall. He tips his head back against the couch so he can see the other man with a grin, and he welcomes the kiss that’s pressed to his mouth even though he’s upside down with a hum.
Lan Zhan brushes a hand along Wei Ying’s shoulder before he comes around the couch, and instead of sitting down beside him like Wei Ying expects him too, he kneels between Wei Yingks spread knees.
“Oh, are we eager for something, sweetheart?” The words start off teasing, but there’s a seriousness gracing his boyfriend’s face that erases all teasing from Wei Ying. “Lan Zhan?”
He watches as Lan Zhan takes in a slow breath before he draws his hands out from where they were tucked behind his own back, a small red box that’s open with a small silver ring finding its place on Wei Ying’s knee.
What the fuck.
“What the fuck?” Wei Ying stares in disbelief, and the fingers of his hand are trembling slightly as he reaches out to grab the ring box so he can bring it up closer to his face. “Really, Lan Zhan? Are you serious?” There’s tears pricking the corners of Wei Ying’s eyes, and he scrubs a hand across them as he takes in a sharp breath.
“Of course. I wish for the world to know that we belong to each other. I have always wished for that, I was just..trying to find the appropriate time.”
Lan Zhan’s voice has a slight tremor that only Wei Ying can recognize, and it’s what finally prompts him into action; he can feel the tears slipping down his face as he laughs, throwing his arms around Lan Zhan’s neck and peppering kisses across his face. “Anytime was the appropriate time! I would’ve said yes after a day of dating you, Lan Zhan!”
It’s only later when they’re sprawled across each other in bed, the sheets tangled around their waists and their skin still slightly sticky that has Wei Ying raising up quickly, his hand on Lan Zhan’s chest to brace himself so he can see his boyfriend’s face and shove the new engagement ring on his finger at him at the same time.
“Is this why you’ve been so weird lately?”
There’s a small quirk to the side of his boyfriend, no, his fiancés mouth that Wei Ying knows is his way of laughing, and he leans into the hand pushing through his hair easily as Lan Zhan leans up to brush their lips together once.
“You know me so well.”