Work Text:
It started with a cup of iced tea. Or rather, it started with Wei Wuxian attempting to do a kind deed. The week had been gruelingly hot, the heatwave having come early that summer, and the entire office was suffering for it. The air conditioning was not reliable enough to not keep a t-shirt on him at all times, even when the official dress code in the office was business casual with all the business and none of the casual.
And of course, Lan Wangji would never do something so undignified as to wear a t-shirt at work. A serious man like that would rather die of a heat stroke than go against company policy. Wei Wuxian, in his never-ending attempts to make Lan Wangji his friend, decided the only relief he could offer to the man was something cold to drink.
It had started with good intentions but ended up with the front of Lan Wangji’s white shirt soaked in iced tea, making the fabric see-through. The man had made a sudden movement the same time as Wei Wuxian had stumbled, and here they were. In Lan Wangji’s office, with Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian both looking down at his chest.
The shirt was sticking to his his body. His...surprisingly well-built body. Wei Wuxian had never thought Lan Wangji would look like that under his shirt. Not that he had spent a lot of time thinking about Lan Wangji’s body – the man had a face distracting enough already, Wei Wuxian didn’t need to go around thinking about the rest of him on top of it.
“…Sorry,” Wei Wuxian said, still, even though his brain had somehow stopped working at the sight of Lan Wangji’s pecs.
He moved his hand in an attempt to – what, wipe the iced tea off? Something. He meant to do something helpful, but Lan Wangji caught his wrist before he could even finish the thought.
And then the door opened.
“Senior Lan, we –“
The three interns, two Lans and an Ouyang, froze in the doorway to stare at the scene. And, well, it was a scene. Lan Wangji holding his wrist. Wei Wuxian staring at the iced tea covered chest. He figured, as far as scenes went, this qualified.
Then, the politest of the bunch, Lan Sizhui, squeaked, “We’ll come back later!”
The door was closed as promptly as it had been opened. The sound of it clicking shut was enough to knock Wei Wuxian out of it, and with a high laugh, he stumbled back. Out of Lan Wangji’s strangely strong grasp.
Was it really strange, though? Lan Wangji seemed to be spending a lot of time at the gym. Working on his… pecs. And biceps. And such.
“Wow, Lan Zhan, I really didn’t mean to –“ Wei Wuxian started.
“Get out,” the man only said, his glare perhaps doubly as angry as usually. The look had less of an effect now that there was something more interesting to focus on, but Wei Wuxian wisely did not say this.
With a couple more sorries, he escaped Lan Wangji’s office.
-
This little incident caused two problems, though Wei Wuxian didn’t know about the second one just yet. Right now his head was firmly on problem number one: had he seen wrong? Was Lan Wangji really in such a good shape under his clothes?
Sitting at his own desk an hour later, he was still thinking about it. He hadn’t really seen Lan Wangji ever wear anything but long-sleeved shirts that were very effective in hiding any muscle definition he might have. But surely this shouldn’t have come as such a surprise to him! Lan Wangji was objectively hot.
He had spent most of their youth talking about this to people. His friends and family loved to hear him gush about Lan Wangji’s good looks. Or at least, he figured they had to. No one other than Jiang Cheng had ever criticized him about it, and Jiang Cheng didn’t like anything he said.
It had been one of the first things he’d told Wei Wuxian, actually, when they had both gotten a job here. Don’t even mention how handsome you think Lan Wangji is, or I’m going to report you to HR!
It wasn’t like Wei Wuxian did it consciously! Sometimes one just ran into people whose looks were so ethereal it needed to be stated out loud, just to make sure everyone was on the same page about it. Besides, Lan Wangji had many other qualities one could compliment him on. Wei Wuxian didn’t want to become friends with people because of their looks, after all.
Anyway, that was to say, Wei Wuxian was fully aware of the fact that Lan Wangji was handsome. He just never thought he was hiding an amazing body in addition to his amazing face.
And that is why he went through Lan Wangji’s photos during work hours, trying to figure out from the pictures whether he had been really oblivious, or if Lan Wangji just hid the muscles on purpose.
“Why are you looking at pictures of Lan Wangji?” came a voice next to him not long into this research.
Jiang Cheng, as he was wont to, sounded absolutely disgusted.
“He’s secretly really built,” Wei Wuxian responded. “I saw it today.”
“...Insanity,” Jiang Cheng muttered, and Wei Wuxian nodded.
“It is, isn’t it? Lan Zhan is so good at hiding these things,” he said. “Can you believe I’ve known him for fifteen years and never knew this about him?”
“No, I meant what you’re doing is insanity,” Jiang Cheng snapped. “Obviously. There’s something really wrong with you.”
“What, am I not allowed to be interested in my friend?” Wei Wuxian asked, still looking at the pictures. Lan Wangji, more often than not, did not want to get his pictures taken. Most of the photos were blurry. “He must be doing lots of workouts.”
Wei Wuxian did as well, but not to that extent. He was more the type to try out new sports whenever he was in the mood for it, and other times he simply just jogged. He wondered if Lan Wangji would like to jog with him.
“Wait, what do you even mean, ‘you saw it today’?” Jiang Cheng asked then, and finally Wei Wuxian put his phone away.
He flashed a grin at Jiang Cheng. “I saw his entire chest with my own eyes.”
Now both disgusted and kind of pale, Jiang Cheng said, “Oh god. So they weren’t kidding.”
Wei Wuxian raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”
“About you and…” It looked like Jiang Cheng was fighting against shivers. “You – you really are shameless, you know that? I’m embarrassed to be associated with you.”
The grin slipped off of Wei Wuxian’s face. “Jiang Cheng, who said what?”
“The kids.” Jiang Cheng nodded towards where Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi and Ouyang Zizhen were furiously whispering in the corner of the room. They’d been assigned on coffee duty, but since the weather was atrociously hot, nobody wanted coffee. “They saw you and Lan Wangji in his office, getting up to who knows what!”
This, somehow, was only slightly more absurd than realizing Lan Wangji was secretly in really good shape. Wei Wuxian couldn’t help the burst of laughter escaping him. “What? That’s – hahahaha! They said that?”
“What are you laughing about?” Jiang Cheng asked, hitting him on the shoulder. “I thought they were just exaggerating, knowing you…but you actually were doing something with Lan Wangji in his office? You can’t do that shit at work!”
“Hahahaha, Jiang Cheng, what do you think we did, huh?” he asked, and then dodged another hit. “Calm down, calm down, alright? I spilled some iced tea on him, that’s all that – ouch, knock it off! I didn’t do anything!”
“You better not,” Jiang Cheng threatened, but thankfully put his fist down. “And stop looking at Lan Wangji’s photos, what is wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with that?”
Jiang Cheng shook his head, but ultimately seemed like the conversation was too much for him. “Fine, do whatever. Just keep me out of it.”
With another smile, Wei Wuxian nodded. “I’ll make sure to keep you very much out of it, Jiang Cheng.”
-
His attempt to keep Jiang Cheng out of it failed almost immediately. It wasn’t like there was much of ‘it’ to keep Jiang Cheng out of, but the thing was, the situation had escalated from one thing to another faster than Wei Wuxian could expect.
His first task, of course, was to stop the misunderstanding from spreading, so he went to confront the interns during his lunch break. They looked quite caught-out when Wei Wuxian approached them, which immediately made him concerned.
The conversation, from that moment onward, did not lessen his concern at all.
“Ahah, I think there has been some sort of misunderstanding,” Wei Wuxian said. “You know, about the situation in the morning.”
The three of them looked at Wei Wuxian with wide eyes, nodding very seriously.
“See, you think you might have seen something,” he continued, “but there was nothing going on!”
The kids kept nodding. Again, very seriously.
“We saw nothing!” Lan Jingyi said.
“That’s – well, that’s, of course you didn’t,” Wei Wuxian responded. “Because there was nothing to see. Right?”
“Yes, of course,” Lan Sizhui agreed quickly. “There was nothing to see, Senior Wei.”
Wei Wuxian frowned slightly, because this agreement didn’t sound like the right type of agreement. They had a… tone. Like they were all in on a secret.
“Really, nothing happened,” Wei Wuxian emphasized. “I spilled some iced tea on Lan Zhan. We are co-workers and friends.”
“Mm-hm!” Ouyang Zizhen nodded almost enthusiastically.
“...And besides, workplace relationships are unprofessional,” Wei Wuxian added, when the nodding continued and made him even more concerned. “Your Senior Lan would never do something like that.”
“Of course not,” Lan Sizhui said.
“Not our Senior Lan,” Lan Jingyi agreed.
“And! And, don’t go speaking about strange things around Jiang Cheng,” Wei Wuxian added, now that he was here. “He already misunderstood and gave me rough time about it!”
At this, the interns all stopped their nodding, now looking almost offended.
“He did?”
“Senior Wei, that’s not right,” Ouyang Zizhen said. “He shouldn’t be so close-minded!”
“What? There’s – there’s nothing to be close-minded about.” Wei Wuxian was completely baffled, and then the kids started eagerly nodding again.
“Right! Nothing happened,” Lan Jingyi said.
“We saw nothing, because nothing happened,” Lan Sizhui added.
Almost speechless, Wei Wuxian could only stare at their bobbing little heads. Had kids always been this weird?
“Right. So…good. Okay.” Wei Wuxian cleared his throat, giving them one final look. “Back to work.”
He got agreements yet again, and with a feeling like he might have just made things worse, Wei Wuxian left them to their devices. The moment he was out of hearing range, he saw them put their heads together to whisper some more.
-
A shadow fell over Wei Wuxian’s table as someone blocked the window.
“Wei Ying, can I talk to you?”
Wei Wuxian didn’t yelp, though the way Lan Wangji had approached his desk once again without making a single sound was still freakish. Instead of behaving suspiciously, he only turned the screen away from Lan Wangji as casually as he could, before turning to smile at the man himself. It had been difficult to catch the guy anywhere ever since the iced tea incident a couple days ago.
“Lan Zhan! What’s going on?” he asked. “Did you want to come and accept my invitation in person?”
He had sent Lan Wangji a message about going swimming together earlier that day. The message had gotten only a sad little ‘seen’ mark, but no answer had come. It wasn’t like Wei Wuxian hadn’t expected a refusal, but sometimes Lan Wangji could have benefited from actually answering. This type of behavior only made Wei Wuxian more determined.
Now, there was the slightest hint of a frown on the man’s face.
“…No,” he said. “It’s about the interns.”
Glancing over at where the kids were, once again, huddled together at the coffee machine, Wei Wuxian raised an eyebrow. As far as he knew, the kids had not gone around saying more nonsense about him and Lan Wangji getting up to god knows what in his office.
In fact, they seemed to fall pretty quiet whenever anyone who wasn’t part of their intern group passed them. So nothing was being spread.
“What about them?” he asked, trying to look innocent, though he didn’t know what for. He hadn’t technically done anything, had he?
“You need to assign them work,” Lan Wangji stated, almost painfully patient. “They are spending the day… gossiping.”
“Gossiping?” Wei Wuxian asked, alarms blaring in his head. Actually, considering how silently Lan Wangji could move, the kids could have probably accidentally said some nonsense around him. “What are they gossiping about?”
“…” Lan Wangji did not answer him. His jawline, as fine as it was to look at, looked even better when it tensed like that.
“Are they spreading rumors again?” Wei Wuxian asked then. “Aiyah, Lan Zhan, I told them there was nothing going on between the two of us! I swear, I would never let them say ridiculous things like that if I knew they were still doing it!”
This, for some reason, made Lan Wangji so still it almost felt like the air around him stopped moving completely. Or perhaps it was the faulty air conditioning.
As Lan Wangji’s expression grew cooler, Wei Wuxian got the distinct feeling he had taken a misstep somehow.
“Look, I’ll take care of it, alright?” he was quick to assure. “And how about in exchange, you go swimming with me? What do you say, Lan Zhan?”
Instead of the enthusiastic agreement Wei Wuxian had expected, Lan Wangji only stared at him for a moment or two, before he turned around and walked away. The tall line of his back seemed almost unbelievably straight when he did that.
Wei Wuxian was left to blink after him in confusion.
Then, his eyes moved to the kids. Who were all already staring at him. All with wide eyes and slightly open mouths.
With a sigh, Wei Wuxian turned back to his work. His work being, looking up ways to destroy an air conditioner fully. He had come up with a plan to get Lan Wangji to take off his shirt. Wei Wuxian really, really needed to check again whether he had been hallucinating the pecs.
If Lan Wangji didn’t want to go to a hot beach with him, Wei Wuxian would bring the hot beach into the office.
-
“What did you do?” Jiang Cheng snapped a day later, eyebrows furiously furrowed. “Didn’t I tell you to keep me out of it?”
“Out of what?” Wei Wuxian asked, only half-paying attention. It was the lunch break and Wei Wuxian was watching the door, just in case Lan Wangji would decide to join the rest of them to eat in the break room.
Usually that didn’t happen, but sometimes, on a lucky day, the man would show up. On an even luckier day, he would sit at the same table as Wei Wuxian.
“This – this thing with Lan Wangji,” Jiang Cheng had lowered his voice, somewhat, looking over his shoulder like he was worried someone might hear.
Wei Wuxian didn’t lower his voice. “I have no idea what you mean.”
“That Lan Jingyi kid ambushed me at the copy machine just now! He said something about being open-minded, and that HR is fine with office relationships as long as they are informed about it, and that it was weird of me to butt in someone else’s situation,” Jiang Cheng explained. “What the hell is that? What did you tell those kids?”
Finally turning to look at his brother, Wei Wuxian raised his eyebrows. “They told you what?”
Somehow, the conversation reminded Wei Wuxian a bit of the one he’d had with the kids back when he’d told them to stop spreading rumors. Back then they had said something about Jiang Cheng being close-minded.
“Look, it’s none of my business what you and Lan Wangji do,” Jiang Cheng stated. “Like I said, I don’t care! Tell those kids to leave me alone, I don’t want any part in this!”
“Tell them – ? Aiyah, Jiang Cheng, I already told them,” Wei Wuxian whined. “I already told you! Nothing is going on!”
Did no one here listen to him? Wei Wuxian had been so painfully normal the past few days, making the kids run some cold drink errands for them to keep them busy, and leaving Lan Wangji relatively alone!
Well, he had sent the kids to pick up another iced tea for him, and the interns had been very smiley about it, but Wei Wuxian had casually reminded them of his and Lan Wangji’s completely platonic friendship again. He’d thought they’d gotten it!
Thankfully, Lan Wangji had accepted the apology iced tea and even come to Wei Wuxian’s desk to thank him for it. He still hadn’t agreed to go swimming with Wei Wuxian. The air conditioning plan was still the more viable one.
“Didn’t I say I don’t care?” Jiang Cheng asked. “I don’t! I don’t care! Keep me out of it!”
“Who’s invited you into it, ah, Jiang Cheng?” Wei Wuxian snapped back.
Someone sat down next to Wei Wuxian almost soundlessly then. Before he could do so much as start accusing Jiang Cheng of being terribly nosy, he realized who it was.
Lan Wangji, somehow, had managed to sneak into the break room while Wei Wuxian was having his nonsense fight with Jiang Cheng. Impressive feat for a man who no doubt made people gasp in awe wherever he went.
Lucky day, indeed.
“Oh,” Wei Wuxian said, dumbly, as he stared at Lan Wangji’s handsome profile. The man had brought his meal with him, something sensible like a salad, and now gave Wei Wuxian a polite nod. “Lan Zhan, since when did you decide to eat your lunch here? Too hot in your office?”
Lan Wangji gave him a look, though after a while, nodded again. Wei Wuxian beamed at him.
“Oh my god,” Jiang Cheng groaned. “I’ve lost my appetite.”
With that, he got up and walked off.
“Good riddance!” Wei Wuxian called after him, before turning to Lan Wangji. “Lan Zhan, really, you should have told me you were going to eat lunch here. I would have bought more food to share!”
“No need,” Lan Wangji simply said.
“Of course I should have! What sort of a friend would I be if I didn’t?” he asked, starting to immediately pull out tasty-looking pieces of his own meal to put into Lan Wangji’s lunch box.
Lan Wangji immediately blocked him. “Wei Ying, you need to eat as well.”
“In this heat? I don’t think so,” he answered, before quickly adding, “Lan Zhan, isn’t it hot? You’re still wearing your sleeves long even though it’s so warm here.”
At this, the man gave an annoyed glance at Wei Wuxian’s rolled up sleeves and undone buttons. At least that’s what it looked like. Sometimes Lan Wangji’s expressions were hard to decipher. The gaze was stuck on Wei Wuxian’s bare collarbones for a moment, before Lan Wangji turned his face back forward with an almost jerky movement.
“It is the proper conduct for work,” he stated, the tension audible in his voice. “…You should button up as well.”
“Button up?” A ridiculous suggestion like that could only come from someone like Lan Wangji. “If I wore this shirt any other way, I would have died of a heatstroke already. Do you want me to die, Lan Zhan?”
“No,” came the response, surprisingly forcefully.
Wei Wuxian’s smile widened. “Then no buttoning up?”
“…Do what you wish,” Lan Wangji said. “You may get a warning about it.”
“I wore a t-shirt on Monday,” Wei Wuxian argued. “No one other than you said anything about it even then. Lan Zhan, why do I have a feeling you would be the only person to write me up for something like that when the office feels like an oven?”
Lan Wangji didn’t dignify this with an answer, and merely soundlessly ate his salad.
He could still remember a time, some fifteen years ago, when teasing from Wei Wuxian would cause Lan Wangji to lose his composure and chastise him. Nowadays, the man seemed to be somewhat immune. Sometimes Wei Wuxian almost believed they had reached that long-awaited phase of friendship, and then Lan Wangji did something unreasonable, such as not agree to go swimming with him.
It was nice to be in Lan Wangji’s good graces, after all. Wei Wuxian had always found teasing him an enjoyable way to spend time, but Lan Wangji was also someone who he had to admit he admired quite a bit.
He was diligent and kind to everyone, faultlessly polite in his everyday interactions with others. During their school years, Lan Wangji had been at the top of the class right alongside Wei Wuxian. He had rejected Wei Wuxian’s attempts at becoming his friend so forcefully it had made it impossible for Wei Wuxian to give up on it.
Well, nowadays he wasn’t quite as irritating as he had been back then. A bit less prone to boasting and stepping out of line. Perhaps there lay Lan Wangji’s grown tolerance towards him.
In any case, Wei Wuxian had found it increasingly easier to wheedle Lan Wangji into spending time together during work hours. At least, when they had breaks. Lan Wangji was not one to ignore his work or slack off.
Still, for him to complete the mission of checking out Lan Wangji’s upper body muscles again, he really needed those extra minutes outside the office.
“So, about going swimming together….” he started.
“No,” Lan Wangji responded curtly.
“What? Lan Zhan, don’t be unreasonable! It’s been so hot for a while, surely you would like refreshment like that,” Wei Wuxian argued, his meal once again forgotten. “Or do you not know how to swim?”
“I know how to swim,” the man responded.
Wei Wuxian spread his arms. “So we should go swimming together!”
“No.”
Before he had the time to start demanding an explanation for such an undue rejection to his suggestion, he noticed something in the corner of the break room. Or rather, someone. Three someones.
Wei Wuxian wanted to sigh. The interns were sneaking glances of them while trying to, very unsubtly, look busy.
What, surely they couldn’t still be on their mission to spread rumors about Lan Wangji and him to the entire office?
“Wei Ying, I thought we might –“ he heard Lan Wangji speak.
At the same time, though, Wei Wuxian was already calling the interns, “Hey! Do you guys need new tasks to do? You seem idle!”
The kids immediately skittered out of the break room, embarrassed and clearly having come there only to spy on Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. What on earth were they thinking they would accomplish with that?
Sighing, Wei Wuxian turned back to Lan Wangji. “Sorry, sorry, they’re always up to no good. What were you going to say, Lan Zhan?”
“…” Lan Wangji finished the remains of his salad, before answering, “Nothing. We should get back to work.”
Feeling like he had missed something, Wei Wuxian watched Lan Wangji get up from the table. The feeling didn’t leave him as he finished his own meal, and to distract himself from that, he assigned the interns to go get more cold drinks.
-
Clearly, before Wei Wuxian could continue with his plans to 1) get Lan Wangji to become his friend, and, more importantly, 2) get Lan Wangji to take his shirt off, he needed to deal with the interns. They were very obviously still under some sort of an assumption that he and Lan Wangji were an item.
This couldn’t go on, if only to save Lan Wangji from the humiliation of having to deny it to their faces.
So Wei Wuxian cornered them once again during lunch break.
“Look, I know you guys are still thinking some ridiculous things,” Wei Wuxian said. “I don’t know how many times I can say it, but you are mistaken. Lan Zhan and I are not dating!”
Three sets of eyes blinked at him. Then, in an almost disappointed voice, Ouyang Zizhen asked, “So… why do you keep looking at each other like that?”
It was Wei Wuxian’s turn to look baffled. “Like what?”
“Well,” Lan Jingyi said, “we have seen you staring at his pictures on your phone. A lot.”
“And… Senior Lan looks at you so intensely, when you are talking to each other,” Lan Sizhui said, sounding kind of embarrassed. “And then you were kissing in his office…”
“What? We were not kissing!” Wei Wuxian immediately denied. He was starting to get distressed. “Who saw kissing?”
“Well, not necessarily kissing, but you were so close that you must have…” Ouyang Zizhen said, then frowned, looking at his friends. “Right?”
“No! Not right,” Wei Wuxian said. “I spilled some iced tea on him, and was trying to clean it up. Really, Lan Zhan doesn’t even want to go swimming with me, why would he want to date me?”
The interns raised their eyebrows at him, exchanging looks. Again, Wei Wuxian felt like he might have misspoken.
“You want to go swimming with him?”
“He won’t go?”
“Why wouldn’t he want to date you? Some people just don’t like swimming!”
“He wouldn’t even need to swim, he could just – what am I saying? I don’t need to explain this to you.” Wei Wuxian sighed. “Either way, no one is having secret office romances, okay? Now you stop all the gossiping. Lan Zhan will be cross with me if you don’t stop it.”
“He will?” Lan Sizhui asked, almost aghast.
All of them were now staring at Wei Wuxian with a look that gave him shivers. It was almost… pitying. Like they were sad for him.
For what? Wei Wuxian was still confused about it. The biggest problem he was facing right now was the interns themselves, sabotaging his slowly flourishing friendship with Lan Wangji.
Just to make sure the kids would have other things to do, Wei Wuxian made them go get some cold drinks for the office again.
-
The next day, Lan Wangji was still adamant in refusing to go swimming with him. Or rather, the man was steadfastly ignoring all of Wei Wuxian’s cajoling invitations. At this point, Wei Wuxian figured the most reasonable thing was to give up on that plan and instead focus all of his energy on the air conditioner.
It wasn’t like the AC worked great even now. Would Wei Wuxian really be doing much more than bring attention to an issue everyone knew was there? Besides, Lan Wangji was clearly getting more and more annoyed with Wei Wuxian, which made his need to hasten the plan quite a bit stronger. He didn’t want Lan Wangji to be completely irritated with him before he managed to catch another glance of his amazing upper body.
This is what he pondered, when one of the kids showed up. Lan Sizhui, looking red-faced and quite chastised, handed a note to him.
“Oh? Who’s this from?” he took the offered note and folded it open.
“Senior Jiang,” Lan Sizhui said. “I…”
Give this kid something proper to do! Why the hell did I find him talking with HR about office relationships? Can’t you take care of your business by yourself? Wei Wuxian, I’ll kill you!
Wei Wuxian stared at the note for a mortifying second, before he turned back to Lan Sizhui.
“Sizhui. Didn’t we have this talk already?”
The boy looked so embarrassed he might have been close to tears. “We did, we did! I’m so sorry. I just – we just wanted to make sure there really wasn’t any problems with people dating, even if they’re in the same office. It’s not unprofessional as long as people keep it professional at work!”
The spiel made Wei Wuxian sort of want to dig a hole and bury himself in it.
Sighing, he picked up a stick-it note and wrote in it a reply to Jiang Cheng: You don’t even have to say it, it’s always clear from the look on your face what you want to do to me. I know you won’t do it!
He folded the note and put it aside on his desk, before turning back to Lan Sizhui. “Look, I appreciate you guys’ concern. But this type of thing is better left alone, alright? If you keep misunderstanding, it might cause awkward situations.”
“I’m sorry, Senior Wei,” Lan Sizhui said, sounding earnestly apologetic.
Wei Wuxian waved his hand. “It’s fine, it’s fine. Let me just…”
He picked up another note and started writing: Hi, Lan Zhan!!! Sorry if the kids made you feel weird. I’ve talked to them about it so you don’t have to worry anymore. Ps. Will you go swimming with me?
He folded this one too and put it down next to the other one, before turning back to Lan Sizhui. “Can you tell your friends to drop it as well? I really don’t want Lan Zhan to have to be concerned about this.”
The kid nodded, before glancing at the notes. “Do you want me to take that to Senior Jiang?”
Wei Wuxian shook his head. “I’ll just leave it at his desk. How about you go get some iced tea for the office?”
“Of course,” Lan Sizhui said, immediately ready for work. “Are they both for…?”
“Oh, actually, it’s probably better if you drop this, off” Wei Wuxian picked up the note for Lan Wangji and handed it to the kid, “to Lan Zhan.”
He’d been planning to use the note as an excuse to go bother Lan Wangji again, but thinking further about it, he figured Lan Wangji would only get more annoyed with him. Perhaps it was better to use Lan Sizhui’s innocent, well-meaning face for what it was meant for: emotional manipulation.
“Alright! I’ll do it right away,” Lan Sizhui said, and just like that, went on his way.
Wei Wuxian tried not to feel too relieved just yet. He knew these kids were almost as hard-headed as Jiang Cheng was.
After pulling out a screwdriver from his desk drawer, Wei Wuxian got up and walked past Jiang Cheng’s desk, dropping the note on it. He had much more important things to do than beef with his brother, after all.
He needed to break an air conditioner.
-
“Wei Ying, what are you doing?” came a voice from behind him.
Wei Wuxian froze, tool in his hand. The air conditioner’s control panel was open where Wei Wuxian had started his sabotage.
The maintenance room, where the air conditioner’s controller was kept, was usually the place where none of his coworkers showed up. Wei Wuxian had even chosen a good time for it, when most of the office was usually too busy to notice him being gone for extended periods of time.
He was going to do just a little bit of harm to the machine that could be easily fixed afterwards. Wei Wuxian didn’t want to commit mass slaughter by burning everyone to death, after all. But that necessitated no one saw him.
The jig was up.
Turning to Lan Wangji with a light laugh, Wei Wuxian said, “Ah, Lan Zhan, what are you doing here?”
For some reason, the man looked a bit strange. A little bit paler than usual, and something almost guilty on his face. Wei Wuxian didn’t think he had ever seen such an expression on Lan Wangji’s face. It was so hard to believe it was even there, that Wei Wuxian had to convince himself he wasn’t seeing right.
“…I wanted to talk to you,” the man responded, tone a bit strained. “I asked the interns where you were. The last time they had seen you, you were close to the maintenance room.”
“Right! Right.” Wei Wuxian nodded, silently cursing those little snitches. “Well, I get how it looks like, Lan Zhan. I know I’m not supposed to touch the AC. But somebody has to do something about this heat, right?”
Lan Wangji inclined his head, glancing down at where Wei Wuxian had tried to pull out a wire. He seemed to be considering something – perhaps bringing up whatever he wanted to talk to Wei Wuxian about – before clearly deciding it was better to focus on the matter at hand.
“You are trying to fix it?”
“Mm-mh!” Wei Wuxian agreed. “Upper management won’t do anything about this, so I figured, why not take the matters into my own hands?”
“And what if you break it?” Lan Wangji asked.
Wei Wuxian pushed the wire back into place. “How would I do that? Lan Zhan, you should know that I’m pretty handy when it comes down to it.”
“Hm,” was the only answer he got.
And then Lan Wangji just… stood there. Watching Wei Wuxian work.
Cursing himself, cursing the little interns, and cursing Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian changed tracks on the fly. He couldn’t break the damn thing with Lan Wangji chaperoning him right there, so instead, Wei Wuxian put his general skills with machinery to good use and started actually trying to solve the problem.
Sleeves rolled up, he got to work. It became apparent, very fast, that the problem did not lie in the workings of the machine, but the fact that a part of it should have probably been replaced eons ago. Wei Wuxian squinted at it, imagining a world where the upper management would agree to do it.
It was the type of dreaming that was not conductive to staying grounded in reality. Wei Wuxian sighed and put the panel back to its place, before turning to Lan Wangji.
“I can’t fix it.”
Lan Wangji nodded. “It should be left to a professional.”
The man was gazing at Wei Wuxian with a patient, serious look. Still, it had the same strangeness on the edges, almost as if Lan Wangji was...nervous?
A thought crossed his mind, then, and Wei Wuxian let out another, just a little too high, laugh. “Ah, ahah, Lan Zhan, you’re not thinking of reporting me? You shouldn’t be like that. Nobody likes a tattletale.”
Lan Wangji’s brows furrowed the slightest bit. “I was not.”
Immediately, Wei Wuxian nodded in relief. Lan Wangji did not, generally, tell lies. So him saying that was more than enough to convince him.
“Wei Ying,” the man continued then. “The message you sent me…”
Oh. Oh! Relief flooded Wei Wuxian’s chest. Of course. Lan Wangji wanted to talk about the kids. No wonder the man looked a bit off, seeing as the entire situation was so embarrassing.
“Right! Ah, Lan Zhan, I’m really sorry,” Wei Wuxian rushed to say. “I wish it was less obvious, but what can you do, haha?”
The kids really had been too open about their misunderstanding. Gossiping in front the entire office, it was sure to make someone like Lan Wangji feel highly uncomfortable.
It seemed reminding the man about it was the wrong move, though, because something in Lan Wangji’s eyes sort of… shuttered? The man looked more stiff, turning his face away from Wei Wuxian.
“You do?”
“Of course I do! I told the kids there is nothing going on between us,” Wei Wuxian insisted. “Lan Zhan, you have to understand I don’t want anything like that with you, alright?”
Jaw tensing, Lan Wangji gave a stiff nod. The topic seemed to make him extremely uncomfortable, which, for some reason, made something churn in the bottom of Wei Wuxian’s stomach. Surely it wasn’t that terrible as a concept to be dating Wei Wuxian?
Something else occurred to him, at that moment. “Oh. Lan Zhan, is that why you didn’t want to go swimming with me?”
He didn’t really want to believe it. Surely such a silly rumor wouldn’t stop Lan Wangji from wanting to spend time with Wei Wuxian. It couldn’t have been so horrible to that extent, could it?
But instead of denying it, Lan Wangji stood in a tense, stretching silence for a while before nodding again. Wei Wuxian’s stomach dropped even more.
Right. Right, of course.
Suddenly, Wei Wuxian wanted to escape the situation. Why was he feeling so awful about it, anyway? Of course Lan Wangji didn’t want to be seen with him like that, when people believed they were together.
“I apologize,” the man said then, “If I have made you uncomfortable.”
“You haven’t!” Wei Wuxian said immediately, almost shocked. “It’s not your fault! Really, now that I have convinced the kids, I’m sure it’s all going to go back to normal.”
“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said, though didn’t seem to know the words to continue. There was a closed-off look on the man’s face now.
They stood in silence again for a painful moment. Then, Wei Wuxian cleared his throat. “W-well, you know. I think I need to get back to work.”
Lan Wangji nodded again, still not meeting his eyes. And Wei Wuxian didn’t know what else to say, so he left Lan Wangji in the maintenance room, in the terribly awkward silence he had wanted to avoid.
-
Something about the interaction with Lan Wangji bothered him. Much like with the first conversation with the interns, Wei Wuxian felt like he had been having a strangely one-sided conversation.
It left him feeling odd, as well as terribly morose.
There was a part of him that knew why Lan Wangji’s rejection kept stinging. He had tried to ignore that part for a long time, but the kids had basically forced him to acknowledge it and think about it and mull over it for days.
He couldn’t help but think highly of Lan Wangji. He liked being around him, found him a steady and reliable presence, someone he loved to tease and was eager to make happy.
The fact that Lan Wangji seemed so uncomfortable with the concept of being possibly misunderstood to be dating Wei Wuxian was, in a terribly obvious way, painful.
Perhaps Wei Wuxian had never dared to turn into words how he felt about Lan Wangji. Perhaps he, under the guise of trying to get Lan Wangji to take off his shirt, had just found ways to circle around him more, give himself an excuse to look and prod and bother.
It was clear, now, that that was the type of thing Lan Wangji would rather not have to experience, and Wei Wuxian would certainly not force anyone to be around him against their will. He wasn’t fifteen anymore.
He sat at his desk with a long, pained sigh, and didn’t even glance at Jiang Cheng glaring at him.
“What’s with you?”
“Nothing,” Wei Wuxian responded, turning to his computer. “What’s with you?”
“Your special unit of annoying interns,” Jiang Cheng said. “I hope you told them to leave me alone.”
“I did,” Wei Wuxian said, peevish. He really didn’t need to redo this conversation.
“Good. Also, I think this is for Lan Wangji,” Jiang Cheng said, reaching over and slapping something on Wei Wuxian’s desk. “Unless you have given me a new nickname recently.”
“Huh?” he glanced at the open note, his own handwriting.
Hi, Lan Zhan, the note started. He stared at it for a long time, uncomprehending. Hadn’t he sent that to Lan Wangji? If it was at Jiang Cheng’s desk, then what note did Lan Wangji get?
The frown on his face smoothed out as all the blood drained from Wei Wuxian’s face.
Wait.
Hold on.
What had he said again?
You don’t even have to say it, it’s always clear from the look on your face what you want to do to me. I know you won’t do it!
Seconds ticked by to the beat of Wei Wuxian’s heart, suddenly fast and horrified. He had said – to Lan Wangji, he had said – ?
And then, Lan Wangji’s expression in the maintenance room came back to him. The guilty, almost caught-out look, the stiffness and the discomfort. What had he thought Wei Wuxian had meant?
Staring at the note, Wei Wuxian could only think of one alternative reading. Suddenly, the blood that had drained from his face came back with vengeance, his face turning beet red.
Is that why you didn’t want to go swimming with me?
Oh. Oh god.
I apologize if I have made you uncomfortable.
Jumping up from his desk so fast that the chair clattered down to the floor behind him, Wei Wuxian ran off. He ignored the shocked sound from Jiang Cheng, the sudden need to find Lan Wangji too overwhelming for him to do anything but run.
-
Lan Wangji wasn’t in his office, nor the maintenance room. Wei Wuxian looked for him in the break room, in the little storage where they had the copy machine, in every nook and cranny of their office. Finally, Wei Wuxian stumbled into the men’s washrooms, and found him there.
Lan Wangji was leaning over the sink, tap open, in the process of cooling his face with water. It dripped down his jaw to his neck, to the chest that was bared, because Lan Wangji had taken his shirt off.
Wei Wuxian could do nothing but stare, all the words he had thought to say while trying to find him stuck in the back of his throat that now felt desperately dry.
The chest really was something, but Lan Wangji’s arms were… toned, as well. What was his routine, to be able to maintain that sort of muscle in his biceps? Lan Wangji looked so effortlessly powerful in his form that even if the office hadn’t been burning with the heat, Wei Wuxian would have found himself hot anyway.
Then, Lan Wangji noticed him, and straightened. Again, there was the slight widening of his eyes, drops of water rolling against his skin that never seemed flushed.
At least, not in the way Wei Wuxian felt like right now.
“Wei Ying?” the man asked, confused.
“A-ahah, Lan Zhan, I…” what was he supposed to say again?
He watched as Lan Wangji turned to pick up his shirt from where he had thrown it over the door of one of the stalls, high enough to hopefully not touch anything too unhygienic. The man put it on, then, buttoning it up with the swiftness of a man likely aware of how intensely he was being watched.
“I sent you the wrong message,” Wei Wuxian blurted.
The fingers stopped on a button, as Lan Wangji turned to look at him with a frown. “The wrong message?”
“That was supposed to go to Jiang Cheng,” he rushed to explain. “He told me he was going to kill me, so I said… I said that.”
Lan Wangji’s eyes shifted, likely thinking back to the note. A shade of red was suddenly peeking from between Lan Wangji’s hair, his ears flushing. Wei Wuxian could recall this sign of embarrassment from their youth, and now, a terrifying mix of excitement and nervousness bubbled inside him.
If he hadn’t misunderstood completely, then…
“Lan Zhan, what did you think I meant by that?” he asked, walking closer. “I – I mean, you thought that message was for you, right?”
Eyes widening even further, Lan Wangji seemed to still completely. As if being in place would somehow make him disappear.
“What is it, exactly, that you would like to do to me, Lan Zhan?” Wei Wuxian asked, the light feeling in his chest curving the corners of his lips up. “You’d want to do something that makes it hard to go swimming with me, right?”
“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said, voice low. “Do not tease.”
“Who’s teasing, Lan Zhan?” Wei Wuxian asked, stopping finally very close to the man. It was too hot to stand this close, their body heat too much for a temperature like this. He didn’t care one bit. “Do you know why I wanted to go swimming with you?”
Lan Wangji only looked at him, shirt buttoned only halfway.
“I wanted to see you without a shirt on,” Wei Wuxian confessed. “Really, I feel so silly about that now. Lan Zhan, did you know that I have been staring at your pictures every day for a week now? I think that’s why the kids were convinced we were together.”
“…Why?” the man asked, though Wei Wuxian could see how his pupils had blown, how he had shifted to lean closer to him.
Wei Wuxian’s smile widened. “Why don’t you take me swimming and we’ll talk about it, huh, er-gege?”
Lan Wangji’s breath caught. “A date?”
“Mm-mh! A date. We’ll go get iced tea, swim around for a bit, and then you can show me all the things you want to do to me,” Wei Wuxian stated, braver than he felt.
Lan Wangji had never been a conversationalist, and this had not changed. Instead of a response, the man closed the distance between them and leaned down to catch Wei Wuxian’s mouth against his own.
Giddy, Wei Wuxian could do nothing but laugh against the lips, wrap his arms around Lan Wangji’s neck and pull him closer. And really, Lan Wangji’s strength truly was something to admire, since Wei Wuxian barely noticed being picked up and pushed against the wall.
And if he didn’t feel hot before, he really, really did now.
-
“Don’t go into the men’s washroom,” Lan Jingyi said, face a shade of green.
The others looked at him in confusion.
“Also, Senior Wei is a liar,” the boy added.
The two others realized what this meant in only a few moments. Lan Sizhui gasped, hand flying to his mouth. Ouyang Zizhen cheered.
“I knew it! See, didn’t I tell you I’m always right about these things? I knew there were tender feelings between them! I could tell it the moment I saw them look at each other!”
“Why did they deny it so hard this entire time, if they were going to be making out in the men’s room?” Lan Jingyi grimaced. “Really gross.”
Lan Sizhui’s flustered surprise turned into alarm, then, as he saw something behind them.
“Oh no,” he said.
“What, what?” the other two turned around, just in the time to see Senior Jiang disappear into the washroom.
“We should –“
“WEI WUXIAN!” came the screech, so loud it probably reached past the office to the entire building.
“Too late,” Ouyang Zizhen said.
“…We should go,” Lan Jingyi responded. “Iced tea, anyone?”