a home.
They fall together, like fresh snow off the mountaintop: first, in measured, patient, cultivating reunion after an extended dinner at their inn. Then, with passion. Then, syrupy and slow, with morning. In a rare, turn, after bathing, Lan Wangji denies himself the rigors and discipline of morning and coaxes them back abed, to hold his lover throughout his rest near sunrise, until halfway to midday.
He stirs them, inevitably, when the blinding bright white of the day overwhelms, and they must set for the road to make good pace to Cloud Recesses while still enjoying their stroll. They arrive, meandering, in the depths of a trickling, golden afternoon, when much of the clan is distracted with the latest lecture of a visiting hermit — they say, an aspiring immortal — and neither Uncle nor Sizhui can be politely parted from his wisdom. First, a brief stop with Liang. Secondly, for Lan Wangji, yet slowed by his fading wounds and bruises, to test the recovery of his disciples.
Lastly, facing the dregs of an afternoon together with no duties, no assignments, no occupation — curiosity wins over. With the packed necessities of a quick meal in his qiankun pouch, he steers Wei Ying to walk the winding, if peaceful path toward the peripheral territories, past the liminal, isolated quietude of the jingshi and into the periphery of Lan Wangji's inherited grounds.
A short walk, yet they may have breached the threshold of a brave new world. He had chosen the space for its proximity to river water, cunning, lively spikes of rice stabbing the field, alongside feral flowers. Already, the builders and architects have marked a path to make a road, but they have yet to set down wood or stone for steps. These, he knows, are still young days for their home, Wei Ying's house, rising on strong, sprawling bones that stretch out over a considerable territory: a number of rooms, some superfluous, including an isolated study for Wei Ying's pleasure and a music chamber. A large kitchen, for all much of the house yet misses its roof. A segment for the archery post Lan Wangji had bidden. The house, designed to host an inner garden, even boasts the allocated space for a pond men had been digging until mere hours prior, when their toil ended.
"To grow lotus," he murmurs, nodding ahead where the pond is yet to glisten and crest, where its waters are short of rising. And he does not ask, Do you like it, what it can be? But his gaze flickers between Wei Ying's face and the home in desperate, hungry study.

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And he wonders why Lan Zhan looks so happy to see him. First, he’d heard the emotion coloring his name and now he can practically feel the relief and joy radiating from his husband. It’s not the reaction he’d anticipated and it throws him off.
Oh. By using the sound dampening talisman, had he somehow sent Lan Zhan into a panic at his sudden ‘disappearance’? He knows Lan Zhan will feel a spike of loss and dread waking to an empty bed, but he hadn’t thought that he could trigger the same sort of reaction tonight. He wants to go to him so badly and hold and kiss him, but there’s still a sliver of sun left in the sky.
But then his victory is announced. He grins back at Lan Zhan and doesn’t hesitate at all before throwing himself off the roof towards his husband’s waiting arms. He doesn’t use any qi to soften his fall because he trusts Lan Zhan to catch him. No matter how bad things get or how much his own mind twists his emotions up, Lan Zhan will always be there to catch him.
He lands easily in his husband’s arms and he squeezes him tightly, burying his face against the crook of his shoulder. “Now if you want me to get into the river, you’ll have no choice but to get in, too,” he says, even though Lan Zhan had said that there would be no river bath. “I’m not going to let go of you until we get back to the jingshi and maybe not even then!”
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He remembers thinking so once, before a tree, when Wei Ying's devotion was still fledgling and uncertain, when they had no name for the red string that bound their fates. When Lan Wangji could not depend on his lover's acceptance.
Now, he knows better: catches Wei Ying confidently, yet still has to take a step back to preserve his balance, a trembled exhalation marking his catch. But he does not waiver, both arms trapping Wei Ying's waist as he turns in a circle to rebalance, nuzzling the crook of his husband's neck and colliding their cheeks, as if to share his scent.
"Don't disappear." Not bittersweet, not heated. Only a quiet plea he now understands will be respected, because Wei Ying loves him well and true. In increments, the shivers he hadn't acknowledged his body was perpetuating begin to soften, to wane. He is here. Wei Ying is close.
Affection shared between them, he turns on his side, so they may both tip their heads and behold the sun sinking behind mountaintops in the crisp horizon. The view from their home, hereon. A pretty sight.
"You hid so well. What a fine predator. Must feed him a rich dinner, so he will allow me uneaten."
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“I’m here,” his voice is muffled against Lan Zhan’s skin now, his throat now that he’s turned his head a little. “I’m here and I won’t ever leave you. I love you so much, Lan Zhan.” He kisses Lan Wangji’s throat and cheek, only stopping when they’re turned around again, this time to look at the sunset.
He smiles at the sight and leans his head against his husband’s. “You were the predator, remember? I’m the clever rabbit who knew how to hide his tracks. But I might take a nibble when you fall asleep before me.”
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"Too cold to alight here," he murmurs wistfully as the sun bleeds red, and the skies start to accept their dark. He entreats himself more than Wei Ying back to reason, certain that neither of them would enjoy the chills and hardships of a night spent curled up on a rigid floor. And yet, he is tempted. It will be a beautiful house, an enticing home. They could cherish their first night here, together.
"Soon," he decrees instead, kissing the top of Wei Ying's head before regretfully descending him back down on his own feet.
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As soon as he’s on his feet again, he grabs Lan Zhan’s arm and hugs it to his chest. “Soon,” he agrees, “Unless you wanted to stay the night?” They really shouldn’t. It’s going to be cold and it might rain. They won’t get to say goodnight to the boys, either. But it’s still tempting in its potential for romance.
Then again, they already have soft plans for their everyday tonight. He’s looking forward to Hanguang-Jun taking advantage of the unsuspecting Yiling Patriarch. It’s a good thing the sun’s down so Lan Zhan wont notice how much he’s blushing just thinking about it.
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Unlike Wei Ying, he has not enjoyed the pleasure of their company throughout travel. Lan Liang might tolerate another day's neglect, possessing a fickle grasp of time. But Sizhui pines and lived through enough of his childhood in the absence of his parents to have earned their doting now.
And softer, "Uncle and Xichen have received my reports. Likely worry."
No matter his experience as a veteran night hunter, family will be family, and terse correspondence that describes his wounding will do little to assuage their natural fears. Lan Wangji, who now starts to walk his husband toward the jingshi, should best greet at length and present himself, whole and hale.
"Perhaps when spring blooms." And the ground warms, and the thought of a night outdoors is no longer a cruel necessity, but a welcome diversion.
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“Do you think the construction will be done by the summer?” He asks, not really knowing the ins and outs of things like that. He doesn’t want to rush the workers, but now that he’s seen the house and can picture what it will become, he’s a lot more excited by the idea of moving.
He looks back at the house for a few more moments before they start on their way back to their current residence. “When should we start commissioning the furniture?”
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He nods, at first tentative but increasingly certain: it can be done. Will be done. "By summer. We shall seek out merchants in the coming days."
Sculpting, chiseling and pouring furniture and decorations is an exercise of months, stretching into seasons. Better to start early, for all they'll have the basics of the jingshi to tide them, as needed. He hesitates, measuring his words before finally treading ground, "Will you want our bed of the jingshi, or one new?"
Elopement deprived them of the traditional offering of their wedding night bed, to be reconstructed as their conjugal spread — but the jingshi was still the first nook to welcome. Nevertheless, a bitter, saddened place. There is enough reason to welcome or reject the proposition.
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“I’ll think about what sorts of things we’ll need for our comfort first,” he says with good intentions, but he knows he might need to be reminded later on when the time to do so actually comes. “We can worry about filling the other quarters after we have our immediate needs met.”
He hums thoughtfully, thinking about their bed in the jingshi. He doesn’t have the same sort of emotional feelings towards those rooms as Lan Zhan does. To him, it’s more of a matter of practicality. “Maybe we can leave that bed where it is. We aren’t moving that far, but it would be nice to have a place to stay if you’re needed for political conferences that will go on multiple days in a row. Unless you think Lan shufu would want to repurpose the jingshi when we move?”
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Until the last of his questions.
His uncle. His uncle, having rights over the home of Lan Wangji's mother. The woman he too forsook at the mercy of a clan that misunderstood her and heavily preferred her husband. The same mistress of the sect whom he failed to protect.
No. He growls, nearly, teeth sharp and visible, the feral and visceral quality of his answer plain. "I shall sooner put the house to flame myself."
With his two hands, stubborn and willing, forgiving not a cinder, leaving not a pillar to stand. The home that embraced him for decades is better off falling than becoming a repurposed accommodation, stripped of its grief and dignity.
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He rubs his thumb over Lan Zhan’s knuckles in a silent apology. “If it comes to that, I’ll help in any capacity you’d want me to,” he offers. “But if he knows you want it maintained, surely he won’t be so cruel as to take it away from you.” No, the cruel one is Wei Wuxian who callously mentioned it in the first place.
He brings Lan Zhan’s hand up to his mouth and kisses it a few times for good measure. “Whatever tomorrow brings, let’s face it together.” Always together.
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Skittish like a lamb before the anger of his loved ones, Wei Ying does not need his misplaced fury. No. And there is, too, a cradle of ignorance in which they've allowed this matter to fester, Lan Wangji taking a scant part in introducing his husband to the legacy of his long-departed mother-in-law.
"...my love. I apologise. I have startled you." He has startled himself. "You bear no blame."
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“Are you worried that he’ll retaliate against you because we’re moving?” Or retaliate against Wei Wuxian because surely it must be his fault to lure the second son of the sect away from his ancestral home. It’s not something he’s put much thought into.
One kiss against Lan Zhan’s palm later, he lowers their hands and he starts walking again. They’re walking at a sedate pace, but it’s not like they haven’t traveled in the dark before. They’re still far enough from the main lands of Cloud Recesses that the lighting is dim. It would almost be romantic if they were talking about something different.
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"No." This, after minor consideration, after checking in with himself. "He is a man of rash impulse and stubbornness, but not cruelty."
For all he knows Wei Ying, upon seeing the lattice of scars on Lan Wangji's back, has begged to disagree. Even so — and even in his perpetual criticism of Wei Ying and the slowness of his thawing — his uncle is not purposefully, irrevocably unkind.
"He has failed to show you kindness." A truth, no matter anyone's interpretation. "Though he learns, and Sizhui and Liang teach him. But he does not wish to humble or reap sorrow. He merely... misunderstood mother's grief."
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“No kidding. He’s always been strict,” he agrees with a little laugh at the understatement. They’d really rubbed each other the wrong way since day 1. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t noticed some of that softening whenever Lan Liang is involved. The first time he’d seen the man smile had been after Lan Zhan brought the baby home.
His smile fades into something more compassionate when Lan Zhan mentions his mother. “He likely didn’t understand yours, either,” he points out. He means the grief of Lan Zhan losing his mother, but he could say the same thing about Lan Zhan’s grief after his death. “I don’t think he means ill or anything, but he can be… cold when it involves the heart.”
And he can be equally cold when it comes to discipline. As much as Wei Wuxian despises how severe Lan Zhan’s punishment had been, he understands that it would have been necessary to appease the rest of the sect. Be that as it may, it should have been less extreme.
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There is that burden too to bear, to consider as their own. A price was paid: it was Lan Qiren who opened his heart and his purse, in the wake of his brother's confinement, then passing.
"I wish him opened to you. So that two of the men I hold close may know each other's beauty and truth." Perhaps, he supposes, more of these virtues lie with Wei Ying — but cerainly, even his uncle is not without merits. For Sizhui's sake. For Liang. For Wei Ying, too, who is far more deserving than the sects have ever paid as his due.
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"He's... getting better. I think," he says thoughtfully. Really, the only reason he spends any time with Lan Qiren is Lan Liang. They never take their meals together, though he did try to sit next to Lan Qiren one day for Lan Qiren's midday meal and his own breakfast. He'd been scowled at so much that he eventually moved down a seat to give the elder his space. That had been before the youngest Lan's adoption.
"I don't dislike him or anything. Think he'd feel better if I told him he could stop by anytime he wants to see A-Liang? He really loves that kid," he says, rubbing the back of his head. "I don't know how much he'd open up to me, but it's worth a try. I can hold a conversation easily enough even if I'm the only one talking. I can't exactly tell him too much about me since it's against the Lan precepts to brag and to complain - not that I have a lot to complain about in the present."
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Without notice, he finds his arm winding around his husband's waist, cleverly aware of just when they risk entering the radius of the residences' vantage and he must withdraw himself to preserve the appearance of dignity. For now, for another few heartbeats, this small transgression may pass, as he directs a few slivers of his pulsing qi to warm Wei Ying against the evening's sharpening chills.
"Remember: he knows, between you who would be chosen." That Lan Wangji, who barely lingered among the sect last time, would not hesitate to walk out if his lover were banished or offended. If Wei Ying so much as asked. "He must earn your approval, as much as you do his."
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He doesn't mean to gasp when Lan Zhan starts the qi transfer, but he does it anyway. Before they started working on his core, he would have brushed the gesture off as something entirely frivolous and unnecessary. But Lan Zhan knows what happened to his golden core and he's also learned how to accept qi despite it.
"I'd never make you choose between us," he says, doubting that Lan Qiren would ever do anything to insult him badly enough to react that way. It's not impossible, but it might as well be. The only reason he could think of to do it is if Lan Qiren hurt or insulted Lan Zhan or one of the kids enough to push Lan Zhan to distance himself from the sect on his own. He'd obviously side with Lan Zhan in that case!
"I guess the best way to do it is to suck up to him, huh?" he asks after a moment, looking up at Lan Zhan's face. He looks good in any lighting, doesn't he? "Just because I never bothered to before doesn't mean I don't know how. I'll be courteous enough that he won't know how to handle it."
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In the interim, just as they start to come close to the main path, Wei Ying flinches with a gasp, and Lan Wangji removes his hand and interrupts the qi transfer, only mouthing softly, "Hurts?"
Surely not. Surely, and yet his heart is a troubled thing, a bird furiously beating its wings and petrified of the possibility of causing Wei Ying any flavour of hardship. Perhaps he is overstimulated after devoting himself to the wards, and Lan Wangji troubles him further.
"Wei Ying. Do not be submissive to him. Cordial, but not conceding." This, spoken with quiet, molten surety. "You are my husband. My wife. My soulmate. You outrank him in the sect and in my favour."
But he understands, inevitably, the instinct to make peace, sooner than war. No matter outright rank, it is always better to please and cater to, than to irritate and indispose.
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He guides Lan Zhan’s hand back to where it was on the small of his back. It’s an invitation to transfer a little more of that warm qi to him, if Lan Zhan feels so inclined or to just touch him like he’d been doing before.
It feels weird to be reminded that his position in the Lan sect outranks Lan Qiren’s. It’s not a surprise, really, but it’s just something he hasn’t spent much time thinking about. As the man who raised Lan Zhan and his own former instructor, it just doesn’t feel natural that their positions are now reversed. He wonders how much of Lan Qiren’s softening distaste for him is due to that or if he really is earning the old man’s respect.
“He’ll lose what respect he’s gained for me if I coddle his ego too much,” he agrees. “Don’t worry, Lan Zhan. Being submissive isn’t my style unless it’s with you. In bed.” And now that he’s reminded of their relative ranks in the clan, he might open up to the elder on his own. After all, he isn’t the sort who cares for authority.
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With a soft murmur, he retaliates against his husband newly discovered backbone. "You are not submissive to me in bed. You bully, demand, whine and threaten with your cold ankles."
But he speaks his truth with fondness, eager to discourahe his husband from steering toward questions of his place in Lan Wangji's regard. He is constantly challenging, picky and petulant, but never in the absence of Lan Wangji's sincere enthusiasm and vocal encouragement.
"Wei Ying is more submissive to Caiyi sweet sellers and launderers for gossip than to his husband." Truly, no one has glimpsed a more plaintive sight than the Yiling Patriarch, bereft of his sustenance of sugar or rumours. He is all civility then, long-lashed blinks and purring, until his prey comes within reach.
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“I’m not that bad,” he answers around his laughter. He nudges Lan Zhan’s side again, this time with his hand on his husband’s middle. “You make me sound like a brat.” And is it incorrect to do so? Nope! It’s all true and he doesn’t pretend otherwise.
“Next time you bind me, you could always put a gag in my mouth, then I’d have no choice but to submit to Lan Zhan,” he suggests, thinking back to the request he’d made recently regarding binding him in bed.
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And Lan Wangji, illustrious second son of a dignified sect, should know better than to suddenly drag his lover behind the nearest, seemingly empty home, Wei Ying's back to thick wooden planks, stench of moss crisp in their nostrils. He watches his husband, shackling both of Wei Ying's wrists in one hold, no better than the thug Wei Ying wishes him to be for the purposes of their nightly pleasure.
Nearly night, skies deep blue and darkening, and the roads emptied while most cultivators attend either the conference of the visiting monk, or dining preparations. No one will see them. Anyone could.
Lan Wangji wets his lower lip with the tip of a greedy tongue. "Must I gag you here? Now?"
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“Is Hanguang-Jun worried I’m going to call for help?” He teases, nibbling at his lower lip and looking at Lan Zhan’s mouth. “You’ll have to find some way to keep me quiet.”
His heart thuds in his chest while he waits for Lan Zhan to have some mercy and just kiss him. He moves his feet apart just enough to put some space between his legs. A shameless invitation. If this were any other town, he’d anticipate Lan Zhan’s roaming hand and a hectic scramble to seek each other’s pleasure before getting caught. But this is Cloud Recesses. Surely, Lan Zhan wouldn’t risk such a thing here, as much as Wei Wuxian would be thrilled by it.
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