Chapter Text
"I hope I get in," Wei WuXian said, staring out the darkening window on the evening of his eleventh birthday.
Although Jiang Cheng knew immediately what he was talking about, he could only scoff in disbelief at those words. "What are you talking about?! Of course you're going to get in. It drives Mother crazy the way the gnomes follow you around the garden, and you can even use them to play tricks on the servants- how could you possibly not get in!?" he raged, and Wei WuXian couldn't help but laugh, for Jiang Cheng's voice was still far too high for him to sound scary at all.
Wei WuXian flopped back over the sofa and smiled at him, although without meaning. That was just how his expression always was. "But what do you think Jiang FengMian and Madam Yu will say if I don't get into the Lotus Sect? What if I'm in the Peony Sect instead, will they regret taking me in?"
"... Don't be ridiculous," Jiang Cheng sighed and turned away. "Father will accept you no matter what." And regardless, he knew Wei WuXian would most definitely get in. There was no one out there more suited to the Lotus Sect's motto: 'Attempt the impossible.'
Wei WuXian sat up and pinched his adoptive brother's cheek teasingly. "You must be right. Jiang Cheng, you're so sensible!" He didn't notice the way the other boy cringed at his praise. "Ah, I'm so glad your family adopted me, or else who knows where I'd be!"
"You'd have no one to bury your corpse, that's for sure," Jiang Cheng muttered, but also couldn't help but smile just a little back.
No owl-carried letter or any other kind arrived that night, and after Jiang Cheng pushed Wei WuXian into his bed in the early hours of the morning, he could only lie awake and think desperately about the same thing happening again in five days' time.
At least in Wei WuXian's case, he knew it had to be a mistake. There was no way he wasn't getting in.
Wei WuXian's letter came three days late, but Jiang Cheng's letter arrived at the same time. They were both irrepressibly ecstatic and raced around the fountain on brooms until Jiang Cheng got too dizzy and threw up on the grass. The whole family had a big meal to celebrate, even though it was somewhat uncomfortable, since Madam Yu glowered at Wei WuXian for half of the meal, and only looked at Jiang Cheng to warn him about studying hard and, very pointedly, to 'keep the right sort of company'... While Jiang FengMian had brought home a big cake in Wei WuXian's current favorite flavor- Black Forest- in order to 'make up for his letter coming late'. Even though these things seemed small and like they could've been dismissed, the tension at the table was somehow thicker than the cake.
Still, despite all this and Jiang Cheng's reoccurring stomach troubles, the two boys' good moods couldn't be repressed, and somehow that night Wei WuXian had managed to persuade his two adoptive siblings that they ought to end the day with some memorable magic... And, with a grin and a flourish, presented Jiang YanLi with a wand- her father's.
Jiang Cheng yelled at him and almost managed to convince them to put the extremely potent magical conduit directly back. However, seeing the fragile yet hopeful expression on his sister's face while holding the wand, he also couldn't help but encourage her.
Even though Jiang YanLi had told them over and over that she wasn't very good at magic, she performed a charm that had flower petals falling from the boys' (unofficially) shared bedroom ceiling. They were pink, delicate to the touch, had an authentic crisp fragrance, and fluttered gently down to the ground where they collected.
Wei WuXian had stared up at the enchanted ceiling in wonder and proclaimed Jiang YanLi the greatest witch in all the land, while the two blood-related siblings panicked over the fact that they couldn't get it to stop, but still had to sneak the wand back before its absence was noted!
When they woke up in the morning, all the petals had disappeared from the room, only a sweet scent remained to remind them of it. Wei WuXian looked more than a little disappointed, but Jiang Cheng whacked him over the head with a pillow, reminding him how much trouble they'd be in if anyone had found their room still looking like that.
Several months passed and Jiang FengMian brought the three kids to the magical marketplace to buy everything they'd need for the upcoming school year, including finally buying the long-awaited wands for Jiang Cheng and Wei WuXian... Which promptly got locked away in the house along with Jiang YanLi's, in line with a long-standing practice that was entirely Wei WuXian's fault.
But they had to come out eventually, and a couple of weeks later, the wands formed a small but important part of the luggage the three trolleyed through the train station. For Jiang Cheng's part, this baggage included a very fierce purple bird. It was his mother's Zidian and while its size was nothing too large, by the way it was glaring around the platform, it looked as if it could just about eat all the other birds around.
Ten minutes after the train departed from the station, Wei WuXian was jittering in his seat from barely suppressed excitement, and seemed moments away from jumping out of the compartment to go cause trouble all over the train, when the door suddenly slid open and the anxious face of another kid their age peered into their space, looking a little bit desperate.
"Please, can you let me sit with you, even if it's only for a moment!" he requested, ducking his head.
Wei WuXian looked more than a little bit delighted. "Why, what are you doing?" he asked as the other boy proceeded to crawl under his seat row and cower.
Outside, a loud stomping sound could be heard, getting closer while the hiding boy increasingly trembled. It paused outside their compartment, and the occupants glanced up to see a very tall figure look around, scowling heavily, eyebrows visibly flexing, before marching on further down the train.
"M-my big b-brother," the quivering boy said, and slowly recovering, introduced himself as Nie HuaiSang, also a first year student. "He trapped me in a room with a very scary boy in our year, who barely looked at me or said a word but I could feel the whole compartment icing over, until I could barely breathe! I swear, I barely escaped with my life." He carefully rearranged his robes and sighed excessively.
Wei WuXian laughed and Jiang YanLi offered Nie HuaiSang a chocolate frog, which he declined, saying he couldn't stomach the way they jumped around, and then got utterly squeamish when Wei WuXian 'accidentally' let the enchanted chocolate escape from its packaging on to Nie HuaiSang's lap. For about five minutes, chaos reigned. Jiang Cheng ended up eating it just to prove he wasn't so easily affected, to a giggling Jiang YanLi.
Then they looked around and saw that Wei WuXian had apparently excused himself from the compartment while they were all so preoccupied.
"He's going to cause trouble, isn't he?" Jiang Cheng groaned, while Jiang YanLi tried quietly and ineffectively to reassure him, and Nie HuaiSang looked on in bemusement.
Zidian fluffed up its feathers and squawked in protest as Jiang Cheng resignedly walked out of the compartment in search of his wild adopted brother.