wuding | a home.

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Longer than he should be, armed with the patient of a hermit monk, he allows himself to enjoy the slick welcome of his husband's body at a measured, disciplined pace. Snap of his hips, the give of flesh yielding, Wei Ying's hungry moans, Lan Wangji's own feverish exhalations. They might be in a dream of singular, savage repetitions.

He fucks into his lover, until the clutch of Wei Ying's body, unlubricated, turns punishing. Until, hissing, he despairs of it, wondering fleetingly how they could ever achieve satisfaction in such a primitive, inefficient way. Grasping Wei Ying's hair in one hand, he exerts himself to exit Wei Ying's flesh, pulling back to lie knelt on his heels on the bed, his angered erection wilting heavy on his side.

"I shall bind you to my bed, where you will attend me. Gratefully," he murmurs, because that is the fate of every war spoil, however charming and beautiful, however alluring.

Then, in brief renunciation of his role, he turns to raid their bedside, clearly knowing of where to search for the pot of salve that assists their bedplay. He applies a sheer, generous, floral layer of unguent to himself, more spread on his fingertips.

Yet he does not join Wei Ying's body again, waiting. "But you are a poor lay. A cold fish. Earn my attention, else I shall leave you to your groom to find despoiled."

His moans turn to a whimper when Lan Zhan pulls out. Neither of them tasting completion. He holds his breath at first, worried that if he is bleeding, Lan Zhan will stop their bed play and treat him like he’s made of glass. Luckily, it seems he’s not harmed, though he’s sure his entrance is a sight to see. Raw, stretched, swollen. His sex, on the other hand, is still as hard as ever. A smeared bead of moisture on the tip.

He sighs, taking the time to catch his breath. He pushes himself up on his wrists instead of his elbows and looks over his shoulder to see what his husband’s doing. Ah, good. Lubricant is a good call.

“Grateful to be your slave, you mean? Show me what I have to be grateful for,” he says, more challenging than he means to. He’s supposed to be a mistreated maiden here. Fearful and wanting to be freed from this wretched fate.

He fixes the robe, covering himself with it before he crawls towards this lovely predator. He throws his arms over Lan Zhan’s neck and grins at him. “You call me a whore,” he says, nudging his husband’s cheek with his nose. “I can be your virgin or I can be your whore. Whatever you have in store for me is a better fate than what he will do to me. Why don’t you tell me what you want and I can show you I’m no cold fish.”

Another slip of the act, a heartbeat of softness as he answers Wei Ying's nosing with his own, their cheeks colliding. So long into their lovemaking, and he has not kissed his husband, nor will their parts, in truth, allow it. His mouth yearns. Instead, he remembers what is required of him: the harshness of his part, its aloofness.

He pulls away to regard his handsome prey with an air of studied indifference, brows pulled and mouth pursed, gaze considering. Then, his hand wanders down, sight unseen, to where he feels the chafed, fattened length of his husband's beading arousal, and offers it the respite of a few tight strokes, to the beat of his voice.

"My virgin. My whore," he corrects, then his spare hand slips to tap Wei Ying's silk-saddled rump, nudging him forward, where Lan Wangji's own erection awaits with soaring, heated interest. "Ride. Show me you are worth keeping."

He, too, longs to kiss his husband, but he’s up to keeping their game going if Lan Zhan is. The hiccup of trying to fuck with no lube has them both in the unusual predicament of giving them trouble reaching climax. But they’re both still aroused and passionate enough to keep going.

“Yours,” he agrees, parting his knees and rocking against Lan Zhan’s hand eagerly. It’s a little hard for him to want to stop long enough to change positions with the delightful friction, but he manages to crawl into Lan Zhan’s lap with one knee on either side of his lover’s hips.

He reaches between them and takes Lan Zhan’s girth in one hand, giving it a few slow strokes while he gets up onto his knees. It takes a little creative contortion, but he guides his husband’s cock right to his entrance. It stings some - small tears in the skin, then - but he sits down on it anyway with a long groan.

He doesn’t wait before lifting himself and lowering himself again. “You said ride,” he says, feigning shyness. “Is this how you mean?”

Of course, an innocent would hardly know the meaning, let alone the exercise behind the lewd, enthusiastic riding that Wei Ying so often indulges in — but here, too, they suspend reality for a few heartbeats to accommodate their pleasure.

He hisses as Wei Ying takes him in hand, pleasure bloomed and raw, the heat of him growing. Then, Wei Ying — and there is a tremor, isn't there, a slight pause that so often betrays the discomfort his lover does not confess — settles down, and Lan Wangji's hands come to his waist to steady and slow his pace. Easy, beloved. Easier, at least, than where his natural passions might take Wei Ying.

"You find the way shamelessly," he croons, appreciatively, rewarding Wei Ying with slow, guttering moans and the return of his hand on his husband's length, after casting aside his robes to reveal him. There is a trick to pleasing Wei Ying, and it comes down not to the roughness he requests in perpetuity, but to keeping him just on the edge, before the treatment he receives hardens into it. A steady, firm grip, without meanness or cruelty, while Wei Ying chases his pleasure in between Lan Wangji's lazy thrusts.

This is what they both want. What feels right between them. Lan Zhan sliding deeper and then more shallowly as he rises and falls with him. They couldn’t do something like this without their salve and what felt painful before only gives him the mildest discomfort.

The desire to kiss Lan Zhan overtakes him and he sheds the role of a misused maiden when he closes the distance between them and seals their lips together. The kiss is at once heated, tongue slipping between them to lap at his husband’s bottom lip. He throws his arms around Lan Zhan’s neck and holds him close.

“Lan Zhan,” he says without ending the kiss, “You’re so good to me. You did well. Next time, you should hold my head down against the mattress or lift me up by the hair when you’re inside of me. Choke me, tie me up, have your way with me however you feel like.”

There, that. More than the growing fit of their bodies, the salve easing their path and the configuration of their flesh — but Wei Ying's sudden liveliness, his responsive affection, the draw of his mouth. He's pulled towards Wei Ying, moth to his flame and gladly burning, their kiss tender and prolonged, welcoming Wei Ying's tongue and the distant aftertaste of wine.

Throughout this, slow, leisurely thrusts, the purpose of their night unforgotten. His hands move, from forcibly maneuvering Wei Ying's hips to cradling his lower back, allowing his husband to seat and control himself. To move as he pleases.

"You are unharmed?" He cannot bring himself to ask, did he cross a line and inflict too much, too suddenly? The deluge of Wei Ying's requests for even more roughness indicates otherwise. Briefly overwhelmed, he chases Wei Ying's mouth again to silence him. "Veteran or virgin, my beloved takes me so well. So tightly. So warmly."

He suspects the problems they’ve had this evening with their bed play may stem, at least partially, from their fight earlier in the day. Though having sex without lubricant had been a good idea in theory, it had been uncomfortable in practice. He doesn’t need Lan Zhan to be rough when they sleep together to feel satisfied, but it’s something he enjoys occasionally. Fantasies about dubious consent and even complete lack of consent are just that. If anyone tried to sleep with him other than Lan Zhan, he’d send them packing.

He laughs, forehead to forehead with his husband. “You surprised me with the biting and I’m going to be sore tomorrow, but no. You didn’t injure me. You really got into your role tonight,” he brushes their lips together between his words.

They’re going at a subdued pace right now, but it still feels good. They’ll speed up naturally when they get closer to finishing, but for now he’s enjoying the feeling of being filled up by the man he loves more than anyone or anything else in the world. “You fit so snugly like you were made just for me.

"Attempted," he murmurs, and kisses Wei Ying every other word, like a parched man seeking his succor. "Wanted to be good for Wei Ying."

Not obedient or submissive, certainly not tonight — but attentive, doting, responsive. To show Wei Ying the full extent of his care and adoration, following a gutting instance of quarrel.

Perhaps they should have stayed by their edict. Even now, arousal tightly nestled inside his husband, the sweat of their coupling beading on his back, mouths orbiting close together in fleeting kisses — he feels distant from Wei Ying, fearful for their connection. He clings, hands gliding over Wei Ying's back, anchoring as he thrusts in, less to chase the peak of his pleasure than to sustain the simmer of their passions.

"You are pleased?" His mouth latches onto Wei Ying's, snake-fast, unwilling to hear a no.

“A good attempt,” he coos, letting his body move and pace itself automatically to match Lan Zhan’s. “You’re so good, Lan Zhan. I love you so much. Am I good for you? Do you like how it feels to fill me up?” There’s no worry or insecurity in his words tonight. He feels confident that Lan Zhan’s answers will be positive.

Laughing, he kisses his lover for several moments before pulling back enough to look him in the eyes. “You didn’t give me a chance to answer,” teasing and playful, “I’m pleased. Happy. You’re amazing.”

They rock together at relaxed pace, enjoying the proximity to one another without hurrying towards their completion. It’s comforting and familiar to be like this together. He squeezes his arms around Lan Zhan’s neck and buries his face there, kissing and nibbling at Lan Zhan’s shoulder.

He finds that after being brutalized by their little game, he especially likes to just be held close for a little while. This time, the holding is coming a little early in their fun and he likes it too. All he wants to do is be close to his husband for the rest of the night.

Pleased. Happy. A state in which Lan Wangji should preserve his husband in perpetuity. He nuzzles, captures scent, traces his nose at the junction of Wei Ying's throat and shoulder, tongue lapping apologetically where the print of his mouth lingers, inflamed. For a few moments, his movements stall.

"You feel like home," he murmurs, and he has told Wei Ying so before, constantly failing to explain himself. "Like silk, cut for my purpose. Like kindness. I return to you, and you alone receive me."

Unquestioning, without complaint. Pleading for more, stoking the flame of Lan Wangji's impossible, unyielding passion. His hips piston up, chasing the residue of their pleasure, building momentum again — until temptation seizes him, and he tips Wei Ying over, on his back, their bodies yet bound.

Control is his now, but the anger, the poison of before has deserted him. He hunts their mutual enjoyment, hand crafty when he encircles Wei Ying's arousal again, and it is not to steal or prove a point, but to gladden them both. He remembers Wei Ying's preference: together. He runs towards that, timing his own thrusts and his attention on Wei Ying's body to hit synchrony.

"My love. My sweet love. No man deserves you, yet I have hold."

He pulls back just enough to see Lan Zhan’s face, confused by the lack of movement. He doesn’t ask, starting to smile again at the romantic words slipping from his husband’s mouth. “Home,” he repeats, then shakes his head with a laugh. “Whether your things stay at the jingshi or at the new house, I’ll always welcome you. My home is wherever you are because you’re my home too.”

He’s ready to go when Lan Zhan starts moving again. Instead of the languid pacing and shallow thrusts of before, they move more feverishly. More deeply. He follows Lan Zhan’s lead, laughing a few short syllables when the position changes. This. This is what he wants. He wraps his legs around Lan Zhan’s thighs and uses the stability there to add to his own momentum

He moans his husband’s name, writhing under the attention to his nearly painful erection. It feels like they’ve been going at it for almost too long without release. “Faster,” he requests and speeds up his own movements to ramp up the frequency of those hints of promised pleasure.

“Lan Zhan. Husband. Lover. My whole world,” he says in short, staccato impulses between their thrusts. “I’m close. Just a little more. That’s it, Lan Zhan. Almost there. Do you feel it too?”

He feels it.

Feels the clutch of Wei Ying's body, feels their world unravel. Feels himself dissolving in mere particles of agonized, too-long withheld pleasure, the mechanics of their hips aligning, the friction of his husband's welcoming flesh, his hand docile but clumsy stroking Wei Ying to completion —

He feels alive, and at the same time depleted, too much stolen from him, claimed by Wei Ying's body. Harsh, breathy inhalations steal his voice. How is it his husband yet speaks? Faster, then. He obeys.

"I... Wei Ying. Wei Ying."

And quickly, far too quickly, pleasure gnawing at his extremities — it's together, as Wei Ying likes it. The pace of his hips trembles, he pushes deeper into his soulmate, deeper and deeper as if to inhabit his skin, while his hand tortures the sweet length in its grasp with clever, mean strokes. When he feels the pressure crest, then release, his moan tightens, dies silent. Too overwhelmed.

His toes curl behind Lan Zhan’s thighs, breaths starting to shred and become erratic. Having the stimulation on both sides is nearly overwhelming and his words dissolve into broken syllables as he shamelessly coaxes Lan Zhan into letting go.

He doesn’t know if it hits him or Lan Zhan first. He cries out again, doubly glad for their sound dampening talismans because without them, surely it wouldn’t just be Lan Liang disturbed by the heightened volume. The pleasure hits him in waves, similar to their most recent wedding night. The prolonged stimulation and almost-releases giving him a similar effect.

He doesn’t stop moving immediately, rolling his hips to squeeze out fleeting trickles of pleasure for several moments after his climax. He only relaxes once he feels like he’s milked all the pleasure he can get.

He collapses on his back, loosening his ankles so he can press his feet into the mattress. “That was amazing,” he says, breathless and already feeling the syrupy post-sex fatigue. “You’re going to have to carry me if you want to bathe again.”

Tension is slashed to silence around him; the moment breaks.

He releases inside of his husband, artlessly failing to keep up his attention on Wei Ying's cock until he remembers, distantly, to coax him to satisfaction, finding his palm richly wet and his lover lax before him. He drops down, weight likely unpleasant, but too bonelessly lethargic to architect a more ambitious conclusion.

For a long time, he breathes. And he breathes, and he breathes.

Then, gently, he starts to stir, first to litter kisses on Wei Ying's eyes and cheeks and temples, then to slowly extricate himself from his husband's body. He lingers, hands slow, over Wei Ying's belly, his grown, sliding down below to the wet of their recent joining, and the pulsing rim of his hole.

"May I see?" They know all too well he will, no matter Wei Ying's permission. That he must test his husband's body for fresh wounding, after his exertion. "Please."

He’d rub Lan Zhan’s back if his hands weren’t still bound, but he can still hold him tenderly since he’d never let go of his husband’s neck. Much like the evening of their marriage, the lazy feeling that hits him is just that much more powerful than usual. Part of him hopes that Lan Zhan falls asleep on top of him like this so he can sleep as well.

He is slow to let Lan Zhan up, smiling under the litany of affection. “I love you, too.” More than he can express in words. This feeling is almost as good as the orgasm itself. His whole body feels like it’s humming.

And then Lan Zhan asks and he’s immediately worried about what he’ll find. He’s sore, but he still isn’t sure of the state of himself. It can’t be any worse than the first time Lan Zhan entered him, can it? It would be better to show Lan Zhan confidently. If he hesitates too long, it will only make him worry and he’ll look anyway.

“Sure,” he says when Lan Zhan adds the word ‘please’ to his request, “Want to look at it like this or want me to roll over first?”

He thinks, at first, to unbind his husband. Then, sensing Wei Ying's all-encompassing lethargy, he decides to lean into the help of his fettered hands, allowing the cradle of Wei Ying's arms to support him, while Lan Wangji rises and drags Wei Ying's legs around his waist, supporting his lower back and seat.

After, the movements are known, familiar — if fumbling, slightly, compared to earlier in the evening. He too is worn, overcome. The dimmed lighting of their rooms had created a perfect ambiance earlier that now compromises attempts to navigate the jingshi without stumble. He releases Wei Ying to sit on the very rim of their bathtub again, facing inward, while Lan Wangji spills their remaining hot water within, before joining him.

Only then does he unbind Wei Ying's hands, slowly rubbing the wrists to restore their proper blood flow and infusing them with restorative qi. Dragged into the bathtub, Wei Ying should be more readily open for cleansing, Lan Wangji's fingers working dipping in and out tenderly to assist. Throughout, he feels how the muscle answers him, the elasticity and give of the rim, long with any aches Wei Ying seeks so badly to shield from him.

"You experience no hurts?"

He’s used to this. After they sleep together, Lan Zhan usually dutifully tends to him and he falls in line naturally. First as he’s carried, then again as he sits on the rim of the tub. He doesn’t have much in the way of padding on his backside, but he finds that he can balance easily enough so the damage really isn’t something he’s worried about.

He slides into the hot water with a pleased sigh, rotating his wrists to ward off any lingering stiffness. They ache in a minor way that isn’t entirely unpleasant. Under the water where Lan Zhan cleans him, he’s relieved that it doesn’t hurt too much there, either.

“Nothing too bad,” he answers, resting his forehead against the wall of the tub. “Maybe next time we can suspend imagination and use the salve anyway. I’m a little sore down there, but nothing I can’t ignore when I have to sit in public.” Though the thought of Lan Qiren witnessing him show discomfort sitting does sound more hilarious than embarrassing. The poor old man wouldn’t know what to do about it.

“If it hurt too much, I would have broken character to whine about it. I almost did when you chomped on me like a dog, but that didn’t last long enough for me to bother,” he admits.

"Next time." Then, Wei Ying envisions a continuity, or at least a few incidental recurrences. Yet he broke character before completion, reconfiguring their love-making in a way Lan Wangji had assumed signaled either his reticence or his exasperation. "Had assumed..."

But it does not matter, his private hesitations deserted as Wei Ying's body opens to him, and he may study the battered puffiness of the rim. No tears, at least. They were fortunate.

"Some of the soothing salve remains." Wei Ying required far more attention in the young days of their coupling, when his frailty and Lan Wangji's enthusiasm combined into wounding. He will recover the balm, when they return to bed and apply it generously, no matter the intent stupefaction of the Lan healer, when he must request more.

For now, he sits Wei Ying on the opposite side of the tub, so they might each bask and sprawl in warmth without the pricklings of overstimulation. So often, in repose, Wei Ying resembles a beautiful doll — his ghostly pallor now startled by the beastly prints of Lan Wangji's bite.

His gaze sharpens, narrows on the proof. "...the bites. I apologise. Perhaps, as with slaps."

Not something to explore again in bedplay.

He tilts his head to the side and smiles at his husband. “Next time,” he repeats, “I love all sides of Lan Zhan. Maybe you can tie me up, too. I could be a war prize for an accomplished general. Or a virgin bed warmer for the emperor. Anything Lan Zhan wants me to be.”

He thinks to argue against the necessity of using the balm, but it would make Lan Zhan feel better if he bears the embarrassment of accepting healing after their bed play. “You’re worrying too much,” he teases, taking the hand that isn’t inspecting him and bringing it to his lips to kiss. “But we can use some of that salve. It’s been a while since we needed it.”

He leans back against the tub and yawns widely. He could fall asleep just like this feeling warm and sated. Tomorrow, they’ll have to dual cultivate because of their newly agreed on schedule, but tonight is theirs to enjoy without meditation. “Nibbling is okay, just don’t try to take a chunk out me next time, okay?” He knows that Lan Zhan sometimes resorts to biting when he’s feeling overwhelmed. Sex can be overwhelming at times.

A while, but there is no harm to come of additional care, not when Wei Ying so diligently exposes himself to hardship. They have ever made love without care or consideration, content to heal, sooner than pre-empt.

Perhaps it should not be so. He dwindles, calling his hand back, binding his fingers among Wei Ying's own. Tugging, once. Again.

"It is... difficult to not treat you gently, within our limitations," he admits. Wei Ying does not care for scratching or bites. Lan Wangji could not bear to lash or scratch him. They both have no appetite for tearing Wei Ying through penetration. Their options whittle down to hard grabs, pulls of Wei Ying's hair, tempered chokeholds.

But he is nothing if not studious. "Tell me more of what would please you."

“Do you like it better when it’s gentle?” He asks, genuinely curious. He always assumed Lan Zhan likes it a little rough since the beginning. Could it be that he’s missed something important? “There’s being gentle and then there’s treating me like I’m fragile. I don’t need special treatment. I’d be happy doing it however you like it.”

He squeezes Lan Zhan’s hand lightly before relaxing. Now that his inspection’s over, he sits with his back against the tub wall. He situates his legs around where Lan Zhan’s already claimed territory for his longer limbs.

“As long as we both feel satisfied at the end, I’m happy. We’re always talking about what I want when we sleep together. What do you want? If you could do it any way with my enthusiastic consent, what would it be like?”

"Hold." This conversation, its derailment. Their gentle, unobtrusive ruminations. He reaches out in passing, first to sweep any hair off Wei Ying's face, then to neatly saddle it over a white, bruise-marked shoulder. Then, his touch drips down, to Wei Ying's arms, holding the print of his fingers. His ribs.

Does he like it better when they are gentle, loving, sweet? He thinks, at the end of the day, his tolerance for intentionally manhandling Wei Ying is slimmer, constricted by private calculations over his...

...frailty. Ah.

"Do I often treat you as if fragile?" In truth, in retrospect, he can identify certain instances. Inadvertent, but perhaps... "Do I undermine you?"

He presses his lips together to keep himself from further distancing himself from the intent behind Lan Zhan’s original questions. He feels like his whims are always catered to regardless, so it feels uneven if he always gets to choose what they do. He wants to do the sorts of things Lan Zhan likes, too. Loving Lan Zhan well is one of the things he strives for. Not because he thinks he’ll lose him otherwise, but because he loves the man.

“Sometimes,” he admits. “I know I don’t have accelerated healing when I’m low on qi, but I’m still pretty hardy. Maybe not like I used to be, but I’m not fragile. I can handle some pain and I like it sometimes, too. I want you to feel confident in the ways you touch me. If that means being gentle, then be gentle. If you like to be more rough, then trust me to be able to handle it during and after. I’m not going to break.”

He rubs his thumb over Lan Zhan’s knuckles, smiling at him encouragingly. “I love you so much, Lan Zhan. You deserve to have a say in how we sleep together, too. It would make me happy to know that I’m giving you what you need.”

He listens. Over the course of an either abrupt and short matrimony, or an extensive one, depending on how they care to take and keep count — he has learned that the best gift he may offer his husband is that of heeding him without intervening, without interrupting, without derailment. His fingers curl as Wei Ying's touch spreads warmth around and within him.

His smile tickles the corners of his mouth, and he leans in all at once to steal a kiss at the edge of Wei Ying's lips. Then, he falls back and beholds him, considers.

The second gift he may give, he has understood also, is this: not to rush himself, when gifting Wei Ying his answer. To be measured, patient, calm.

"I do not answer well to the thought of losing you." A pause, still weighing his words, finding them flimsy, flighty, lacking. "Whether to death or to another man."

The first manifests as paranoia, an all-consuming paralysis. The second as jealousy, prone to malice and hurt. "I am... not adverse to rough play. I initiate it through negligence. Seldom... with intent to harm."

An excess of enthusiasm may be no better, but it differs in the root of the purpose. In the heart of the deed. "At times, Wei Ying does not appear to request pain, but hurt."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject