yiling.
( He had anticipated silence, nightmarish husking, a slaughter of dust and dreams. A vast, unending emptiness of possibility.
Instead, Yiling surprised him: in the wake of the war that toppled the Yiling Patriarch and his restitution thirteen years after, the village has thrived, a convenient settlement at crossed roads. The markets lack exotic produce or sophisticated offerings, but excel in popularity. Those who must eat will have their fill. The roads accept visitors, bandits still banished by the specter of the Patriarch that is said to still manifest against wrongdoers on his grounds. Yunmeng's commerce is, if not wholly restored, then tentatively rejuvenating.
They arrive on lukewarm morning, Yiling clinging to its suffocating humidity even at the turn of seasons. Begging leave of his retinue, the acting sect leader has entrusted Sizhui and Uncle Qiren to watch over the clan — and now only carries their wares, dragging Little Apple by a soft lead. The donkey trots obediently, sparing unconvinced glances each way as if to transmit that it is an animal debased by these surroundings and prefers a hey of higher quality.
They enter the village, well ahead of Wei Ying's distant cave settlement, on foot &dmash; to vocal offers of carrot, winter melon and... of course he buys a bundle of turnips, paying twice the local going rate, and still not half of what might be charged in Jinlintai. Appeased, the old lady that descended on him withdraws, patting her belly, then her thinning basket of goods, because, ah, what a day.
Lan Wangji, trailing after his husband, is still a little aghast and confused after his ambush. )
I believe they like me here. ( Certainly, they like his silver. )

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Unbidden, he rolls them over, Wei Ying entrapped beneath his form again, their mouths colliding in a soft, trickling litany. He does not mean to excite his husband, as much as merely submerge them in the seas of Lan Wangji's own and their combined scent, their limbs entangled.
He drifts back only long enough to press his nose to Wei Ying's cheek, then the crook of his neck, unhelpfully agitating them both with reminders of what they had only just completed, the stirrings of his body sharpened. There is a beauty in Wei Ying, a constancy to his allure, a savage call. He inhales him. )
How have I failed to? ( And softer: ) Wei Ying. Teach me. I must take this seriously. Must seduce the Patriarch wholly. Tell me how to please him.
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His body’s still young and even though neither is trying to excite, he can’t help but react to the quiet passion. He tilts his head back and enjoys the feeling of his husband’s lips on his skin.]
Lan Zhan, you haven’t failed in anything. [He lifts his hips up once, just to make it evident that he’s already in the process of being seduced even though they’ve only just recovered from earlier loving.] But if you’re my virgin Hanguang-Jun, then I’ll be the one to seduce you. I could bind you and do all sorts of things to your body until all you know is want and pleasure. Would you like that, Lan Zhan?
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Hello, beautiful creature. Beloved. ) How may I make myself pleasing for the Patriarch's abduction?
( And softer, measured, struggling to fall into the part of the innocent of Gusu Lan, but slowly dipping into its requirements: ) We are sheltered in Cloud Recesses.
( Do not lie. But then, he speaks no falsehood, does not exaggerate. Cloud Recesses is renowned for discipline, sooner than defilement. He presents only the predictable picture of a worthy scion. )
I may fail to excite him.
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He should be considerate and warn Lan Zhan that he should stop now if he doesn’t mean to go the whole way with him a second time this evening.]
Kiss me. Tell me how you feel about me. Tell me why you want me to go with you to Gusu. Or show me. Get in my face and refuse to back down until one of us breaks and kisses the other. Hug me when you’re hard. Touch me. You can do anything you want, Lan Zhan. I love you, so I’ll want to tarnish your purity no matter what you do.
[He kisses Lan Zhan again, keeping it relatively brief this time.] Since you succeeded in taking me to Gusu with you, will you have me stay in the jingshi? We have a cold river nearby. I can catch the beautiful Hanguang-Jun having a bath or meditating.
I want to know how feel about me so I can tease you about it while I tease your body. How does that sound, Lan Zhan?
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If they proceed now, Wei Ying will be left wanting — and time has taught Lan Wangji that where he can silently suffer through the ardors of sexual frustration, Wei Ying is... sullen when deprived. One of their deepest quarrels, he remembers, had its roots in Wei Ying's unmet wants. Shameless man.
After a moment, easing on his side, he watches his lover and does them both the courtesy of truly considering his words, of giving them his full and undeterred attention. And silently: )
Like something I might have dreamed of, once. ( Will it depress him to finally give life to that fantasy, or will it fulfill his deepest desire? Even he cannot say. )
Wei Ying. My love. Shall I tell you how I feel about you now?
( Too early by far to fit into the narrative of their 'first' consummation as the vicious, if subdued Yiling Patriarch and his despoiled victim — but there is a fondness in Lan Wangji, a sense of yearning that requires him to offer out his love. )
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I like when you look at me like this. [One more kiss on the cheek before he relaxes and gazes back at Lan Zhan. He could just lay here and study his husband’s face for a whole shi and not feel tired of it.]
I know how you feel about me. [They’ve been married for quite some time now, so why is it so easy to turn him into a blushing maiden? And it’s not even anything sexy doing it!] But… I suppose a reminder would be welcomed if you’re feeling inspired.
And when you’re done being romantic, you can tell me about some of your favorite dreams you’ve had about me. Maybe one of them will be the inspiration we want.
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Lan Wangji's hands drip over Wei Ying's cheek, clasp his chin, draw him closer. Their mouths meet again, and it's a sweet and clumsy and honeyed thing, purposefully yang. Then, ever the polite gentleman — no less than the manners expected of Hanguang-Jun — he slips his touch to round on Wei Ying's length in a few tentative, comforting strokes. )
I like you. ( There, gravelly and soft, profound in its certainty. Enough. He could speak more words, whisper half truths and poetry, and little would change. This one sentence, all-encompassing.
Infatuation is a fleeting, distant thing, without cause or consequence. Soft, immature and half-considered. But Lan Wangji does not merely love — he likes, exceeding the overbearing heat of passing whim. )
I dream, at times, of taking you chained, unresisting. Then, of allowing your other husband of Lan — ( The very jade pillar so often underused because of Lan Wangji's jealousies. ) — the privilege, until you have wept your frustrations.
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His length grows more rigid in Lan Zhan’s grasp. He moans into Lan Zhan’s mouth, hips moving at a lazy tempo to match Lan Zhan’s gentle motion. He nips at his husband’s bottom lip when the kiss comes to a comfortable end.]
I like you too, Lan Zhan. You’re my best friend. [Whether it’s the hand around him or the verbal affection, his cheeks are rosy and his smile genuine. Love and like might appear to be along the same spectrum, but they’re different. When they fight, their love for each other never falters but there are moments when they just don’t like each other very much. So hearing that Lan Zhan likes him right now in this moment (and so many other times when they aren’t in the midst of their petty conflicts), he feels happy.]
I like spending time with you and the kids. [It feels strange to mention the kids when he has Lan Zhan’s hand around him, but the sentiment is there. There’s a reason he usually sends messages at all hours of the day and night when they’re separated by distance.
He licks his lips when Lan Zhan starts speaking again. He can imagine the scenario Lan Zhan creates for him and his flush kisses his neck and cheeks.] You can to do anything you want with me. Chained and tethered and unable to do anything besides endure maddening pleasure and teasing, huh? [He starts to move his hips again, slow and syrupy. A promise of pleasure rather than the hectic scramble of chasing it.]
We could mess around like that for hours. Do you want your dream to become real, Lan Zhan? I trust you to control me like that.
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He speaks, somehow, despite himself, nudging the sun-kissed column of his husband's throat with his nose, teething down the valleys and swells of his jutting collarbones. Growing himself far too excited, arousal sliding against Wei Ying's thigh. )
That. ( He agrees, as much weaver and victim of his own tale, irresistibly drawn to the fantasy of a Wei Ying wholly surrendered to him, beautiful collapsed, fresh and flush-faced. ) And more.
( He should stop, he know. Should make less of a nuisance of his cravings, as if he is no better than an adolescent who cannot contain himself. They were never allowed this, after all. )
To kiss you bruised during festivals in Caiyi. To take you as my bride, many times over. To kneel you in the sect leader's reception halls and enjoy your mouth between meetings.
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He angles himself so that when he moves into blissful friction, he shares some with Lan Zhan, too. They’ve only been kissing and he hasn’t even let his hands explore Lan Zhan’s sweet spots, yet his husband is hard for him. Because of him.]
More? [He coaxes, arching his back and reaching between them so he can take his husband in hand. He pinches the tip and uses the moisture beading there to soften his touch.]
All of it. I give freely. You’re too good at holding yourself back and denying yourself what you want. [Not that Lan Zhan holds himself back when it’s just the two of them. At least, he doesn’t think he does.] If you want me to suck on you in the reception hall, then I’ll get on my knees and do it. I’ll drink every last drop of evidence.
I want to reenact your dream in the library pavilion. Just you and me with the books bearing witness.
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He yields to it, impossibly starting to resuscitate his interest, for all they've only recently reached their completion. Wei Ying, he reminds himself, breathes in the body of a young man susceptible to a quick nascence and escalation of passions; Lan Wangji is merely shameless.
His hand briefly staggers before he remembers himself, capturing Wei Ying's pretty length again in soft tugs. )
How will we safeguard the library from intrusion? ( It is too densely and enthusiastically populated by the disciples, visitors and elders of Cloud Recesses to claim without risk of disruption, while they enjoy themselves.
But he does not refuse Wei Ying. In truth, never learned how. )
Perhaps during the evening meal. <small<( Taken either in the canteens of the clan by juniors or in the seclusion of private residences by senior members. Surely, that will buy them their time. )
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They can take their time now and enjoy the build up to more. His hand grips his husband more firmly, but he keeps the strokes slow enough to avoid urgency at this point in their play. He loves how Lan Zhan moves against his palm reminiscent of their union.]
We could use the forbidden section for secrecy. [It’s a suggestion, but he likes Lan Zhan’s idea better.] Or we can go when the sect sleeps. But meal time sounds good, too. As long as it’s with you, we can do it any time and anywhere. I want to be claimed in all the places that are important to us.
[He spreads his legs a little more, curling one around Lan Zhan’s thighs. The lazy speed they’re moving is just on the side of torturously slow more to stoke interest than to race to the finish. For now, he’s able to restrain himself from rolling Lan Zhan onto his back and ride him.]
We should find that cave where we fought the Xuanwu of Slaughter. We could do what we should have done when we were trapped in there. [As if either of them had been in any condition to do so with their wounds and inedia.] The rabbit clearing. A boat in the lakes of Yunmeng. Everywhere.
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All at once, his lungs feel too full, his chest close to breakage. He pushes into Wei Ying to claim his mouth, a childish and effusive aggression. Their breaths mingle, touch interwoven. )
...you remember. ( It should not make him so foolishly, so irrevocably fond. He should not be so simply appeased. And yet. ) Our encounters. Our feats. Death has not so crippled your memory.
( At times, faced with Wei Ying's sparse recollection, no doubt crippled also by resentful energy, he worries on this count. Worries that he forever yearn after something impossibly lost. That Wei Ying and he will never share true, definitive connection. )
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I remember some things. [He kisses Lan Zhan for a few seconds more, before he moves back until they’re nose to nose again.] It feels like the more time I spend with you, the more I remember about us.
[There are some things that are still out of his reach. The days after the massacre at Nightless City are still too fuzzy for him to make heads or tails of. Some nights, he wakes up from nightmares surrounding his death, but the images always fade to obscurity. He thinks he’d like to remember that time because Lan Zhan had been with him for parts of it, but his fragmented memory lacks clarity for it.]
Maybe if there are more things you want me to remember, you can tell me about them. It might work! And if it doesn’t, I’ll still get to hear a story about us.
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Quietly, fox-like and quick, his hand drips back down to capture his lover's length, shamelessly teasing the tip with the pulses of a tightened grip. Then, conversationally, as if he is not in the midst of torture most amorous: )
Shall I tell you the tale of our first kiss? ( Thieved, to Lan Wangji's frustration and Wei Ying's consternation, no fear to tell their children ) On Phoenix Mountain, you stood a blind vision. Glorious. Strong. Untouchable.
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You were so angry when I found you afterwards. [He leans in and brushes his lips across Lan Zhan’s jawbone. His hands are starting to tremble with the over-stimulation, but he’s still after more.] You wanted to do more than just kiss me, didn’t you? If you could go back and take me all for yourself, would you do it? We still need to go back to Phoenix Mountain and celebrate our first kiss.
[He had been powerful back then. Untouchable like Lan Zhan said, yet Lan Zhan had risked so much for just one kiss. The only kiss they ever shared when he was in his original body. At least Lan Zhan had a taste of him from before.]
What would you have done if I caught you and decided I wanted to be the one to take you? Would we have fought for dominance?
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His hips thrust with it, and he nearly sobs with the pains of parting, of suddenly rolling Wei Ying above him, as he attacks his husband's neck to continue their retelling. )
Would have torn each other's silks. Tumbled in the forest dirt. Bound our wrists. Parted your thighs. Perhaps we might have rutted —
( As he does now, bringing their hips together, the friction impossibly sweet between explosive licks of pleasure. He laughs, in between this: )
Let me in. Sweetheart, please. ( Unfair, to ask this of Wei Ying so soon after their first coupling. Entirely selfish and unreasonable. )
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He moves as directed, pressing his hips against Lan Zhan in pulses of heat. He can imagine the him of before losing composure and fighting with Lan Zhan in that way. Aroused and wanting to dominate. He doesn’t mind letting Lan Zhan dominate him these days, though. In fact, he loves every second of it.]
We would have. [His breaths are staring to come out in puffs, head up tilting to the side to enjoy Lan Zhan’s mouth.] We would have been like beasts, coveting the pleasure we shared. Neither of us would have backed down once we started.
[He spreads his legs like in Lan Zhan’s imagination and welcomes him. He doesn’t have nearly as many hang ups about being the bottom as he would have had back then. Chuckling, he nods his head and lets it hang over Lan Zhan, haloing him in his hair.]
What are you waiting for, Lan Zhan? Show me what I would have been missing back then.
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He enters his husband, hissing with the release of tension his body had been carrying for far too long and too tightly wound, for how recently they've partaken of each other's bodies. Wei Ying feels comfortable around him, warm and tender, known. He thinks to romance his lover with another bout of slow and steady, but concedes early on to walk his mouth on Wei Ying's temple. )
No. You show me how you claim what you have won. ( Softer, indelicate: ) How you might have at Phoenix Mountain.
( For all they both know that a Wei Ying fighting for dominance would not have necessarily allowed himself penetrated. Not as he was before, surrounded by beauties. )
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Claim my prize, huh? [His fingers travel down his husband’s chest, stopping to brush against one nipple, then to rub and pinch at it until it swells hard.
He thinks about how to make this work, grinning when he comes to a conclusion he thinks might work and not ruin the pride he still clings to regarding his first body. Just because he’s taking Lan Zhan inside of him, it doesn’t mean that he has to do it submissively.]
Put your hands above your head. [He thumbs at the nipple a little longer while he waits for Lan Zhan to comply. If he doesn’t, he’ll wrestle him into it, but either way, he wants to hold him down. Similar to how he’d been treated up that tree. Like this, he doesn’t have enough mass to keep Lan Zhan down - and knowing how strong his husband’s upper body strength is, he wouldn’t have been able to truly subdue him even back then. Not without his necromancy, anyway, and the stench of death isn’t something he’d like to bring into the bedroom.]
You like this, don’t you? Where are your precepts now, Lan Zhan?
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Belatedly, he hisses with the angry twist of his nipple, instinctively tempted to reach out and retaliate, before obediently drawing his hands back and above his head, where Wei Ying has positioned them. He asks discipline of his husband so often in their bed play that it would shame him now to fail this lone request.
Instead, he thinks: what is it Wei Ying expects of him? What part does he wish played? Not the one of Lan Wangji as he was during the twilight hours of Wei Ying's first life, desperate and desolate, willing to concede whatever it took to satisfy the Patriarch's anger. No. He wishes the Lan Wangji that a maddened Wei Ying envisioned, haughty and callous and uncaringly cold. So be it, his voice gravelly and thick: )
Do what you wish. You will have no pleasure of me, Patriarch. I shall be as the precepts. As stone.
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You say that, but your body betrays you. The only thing that’s stone is what’s between your legs.
[And what a wonderful thing it is to feel inside him. He grips Lan Zhan’s wrists with one hand, the other one clutching Lan Zhan’s cheek meanly to force his gaze at him.] You belong to me now, for as long as I want. Don’t worry, Lan Zhan, I’m generous. I’ll make sure your lust is satisfied, too.
[He starts to lift himself only to stop halfway to lower himself again. He assumes he’ll be the one doing most of the work with his prey acting so stoic. It makes him feel good knowing he’ll be bringing Lan Zhan to completion while his husband gets to lay back and enjoy it. Usually, it’s Lan Zhan who takes on the role of lead in these things.]
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Even so, the simmering pleasure in his veins threatens to come to a bloom, only at a tired, lackadaisical pace. He all but growls, shooting his husband a hard look intended to convey, if not his actual displeasure, then certainly his frustration.
Throughout this, between punched moans and the heave of his chest, he licks his lower lip, inviting the start of a kiss, the promise of one. He is owed. They are owed. )
You... ( Him. So beautiful, so cunning. His Wei Ying. ) You presume. Come close to my bite, if you think me so helpless.
( No kinder way to ask Wei Ying to come near his mouth than this without breaking the character he already struggles to inhabit. )
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Am I really so hateful?
[He tastes Lan Zhan’s bottom lip, tongue dragging too slowly across the expanse before he closes the distance between them with a slow kiss. All the while, his hips keep up a lazy pace. He moans between them, starting to think pinning Lan Zhan’s hands like this wasn’t his best plan. He liked the way it felt around him.
He breaks the kiss but doesn’t move back, letting their lips brush together while he speaks.]
Touch me. [He releases the hands he’s been pinning into place.] If you satisfy me, I might keep you around.
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Then, Wei Ying makes his demand, and even in this place of squalor — an inn so impoverished, so derelict — he is a king enthroned, a commander who must be instantly obeyed. As if snapped free of invisible restraints, Lan Wangji's hands shift to trail down his husband's flank, warm and covetous, then his hips, then the swells of his ass, briefly pinning him while Wangji delivers a few selfish, stabbing thrusts.
After, he remembers: he exists for Wei Ying's pleasure, enslaved. He catches his husband's sweet length in a weighing, appreciative hand, before strokes it in time with Wei Ying's descent.
All along, their mouths meet, breathlessly and easy, as all exchanges are between them. Love making is for completion, for satiety. Kissing, for intimacy, for bridging their intimacy. )
Am I to become another of your puppets? I shall — ( And here, a bitten gasp, where Wei Ying's next calculated bounce drags his cock in just so, and the tightness of his lover's body consumes him.) I shall bring you down with me.
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