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Wei Wuxian looks up from where he’s sitting cross legged on one of the two beds inside the hotel room he’d managed to get barely an hour ago, his eyes travel once all over the man standing on the door’s threshold.
The man is a vision, in the white rain-soaked pants clinging to his skin, a sky-blue rain coat covering him up to mid thigh, just as dripping wet as his hair.
“Hanguang-jun.” he greets with a cheer, “Come in, come in. You must be my room partner for the night, ah?”
An hour ago, he had managed to secure the last available room in the hotel - probably in the whole city - due to what the meteorology agency had called ‘mild rain’ but in fact is a raging storm in the category of a typhoon. The weather had caught him by surprise (just like everyone else), his train had stopped in a middle sized city, a bored voice telling him (and all other passengers) all railroads were closed until tomorrow.
He’d been as dripping wet as the famous Hanguang-jun standing on the threshold by the time he had arrived at the hotel - the only hotel without a long line waiting at the lobby, most probably because barely anyone could afford a room inside the five-star building.
If he’d had a chance to choose, he wouldn’t have gone for this hotel either, but given the circumstances he’d been relatively sure either this one or none at all.
The very attentive lady at the front desk had given him the last available room, had asked him if he’d like to book two days as the chances are low the train will resume operation by tomorrow. He had taken the offer gratefully, had asked the lady to prepare a second room key (it’s a double after all) for a man about his age, white pants, blue jacket. A man named Lan Wangji.
He hadn’t met the second Jade of Lan yet, but knows of him from bits and pieces Auntie Yi had shared here and there.
He hadn’t seen the second Jade of Lan on the train, nor knows where he might be, but a feeling in his gut and a flash of a premonition tells him Hanguang-jun is going to arrive at this hotel, in the search for a room just like him.
Giving the second bed to the famous man comes naturally to him. Out of curiosity, and out of a partial fear for Lan Yi’s wrath if she gets to know her grandson had to sleep outside during a raging typhoon while her zhiji’s grandson had a room with a free bed he could have shared.
The door clicks closed behind Lan Wangji, fierce eyes focused on Wei Wuxian, “Cultivator?” he asks, his voice cold, distance inducing. A valiant question when he is greeted by his title only the cultivation world knows about.
Wei Wuxian hums in affirmation, “I’m the grandson of Baoshan Sanren. Auntie Yi told me about you.” he keeps the grin on his lips, “Don’t worry, I won’t bite. I promise.”
Lan Wangji’s eyes narrow at the too familiar ‘Auntie Yi’, his gaze turns from fiery to heated.
“Aiyah, don’t just stand there. The door next to you leads into the bathroom. The staff just changed towels, so you won’t need to use the soppy ones I already drenched. Feel free to take your time.” With the last word spoken, he turns his head back to the laptop in front of him, continues to read an article about the newest talisman inventions on a net surface available only to cultivators.
Half an hour later, Wei Wuxian hears the bathroom door unlocking the same moment the talisman he has just drawn disappears in a mini explosion right under his hand. “Fucking hell. I knew this fucking talisman wasn’t safe.” he swears, slowly turns his hand with a wince and a mumbled, “Ouch.”
He startles badly when another hand wraps around his black stained wrist, when he’s suddenly face to face with the second Jade of Lan - the man known to never speak to anyone, known to never touch others, known to keep at least an arm's length distance to everyone - whose lips are thinned, the inkling of a frown between his brows.
“Can you feel your hand?”
“Ah?” Wei Wuxian breathes out, blinks at Hanguang-jun.
Lan Wangji flicks his eyes to Wei Wuxian’s eyes, then back to the hand, repeats, “Can you feel your hand?”
“I- yeah? Burns like hell?”
Lan Wangji’s lips thin impossible further before he says, “Stay still. No moving.”
He flinches when a cleaning spell is shot against his hand, the spiritual energy cold against his skin. A stark contrast to the burn he can feel over half his hand, where his skin is deep red, moments away from bleeding out.
He flinches again when Hanguang-jun’s fingers, still wrapped around his wrist, starts to glow before the same cold spiritual energy flows directly into his hand healing the burn within a few breaths.
Half a minute later, he stares at his entirely healed, unblemished skin, the pain all but a memory.
“Move it.”
“What?” Wei Wuxian asks, taken aback.
“Move your fingers.”
“Oh.” he exhales, nods faintly, carefully moves his fingers, finds everything working like usual. The last shred of what was once his brush falling on the ruined sheets, “All good.” he says, still baffled, “Thank you.”
Lan Wangji doesn’t let go of his wrist, turns his eyes fully to him, “You do not have a core. You should be more careful.”
“I-“ he swallows, feels his soul opening under those eyes, feels himself fall deeply, groundlessly, “I have healing talismans with me. Things like this happen to me regularly.” he says nonsensically.
“You shouldn’t travel on your own if situations like this happen to you regularly.”
“Will gege travel with me then?” he retorts, aiming for a light, teasing tone but fails it by lengths.
“Are you flirting, or do you mean it?”
“What if I mean it?” he asks seriously, feels his heartbeat picking up, knows Hanguang-jun feels the rabbiting of his pulse points under his fingers as well.
“I do not travel with companions.” Lan Wangji says, leans forward until his lips ghost over Wei Wuxian’s ear, “I will only travel with my husband.”
All breath is punched out of Wei Wuxian in one whoosh, his heart starts to jackhammer against his rips, “Are you teasing me?” he asks, breathless.
“I don’t tease.” Lan Wangji says, his voice drops a tone deeper with the next two words, “Wei Wuxian.”
A full body shudder runs through him, his eyes close for a moment before he opens them again with a shaky inhale, “You know me.”
“You are the talisman genius under Baoshan Sanren’s care. Cangse Sanren’s son.” Lan Wangji says slowly, deliberately, “Your cultivation is unparalleled.”
“So is yours, Hanguang-jun.”
Lan Wangji hums, “Lan Zhan.”
For a hot moment, the world stops existing for Wei Wuxian while his soul turns, aligns itself to the soul of the man still holding his wrist. “Wei Ying.” he hears himself say when he comes back to reality.
“Wei Ying.” Lan Wangji says, savouring the name, “Be more careful.”
Wei Wuxian draws in much needed air when the hand suddenly vanishes from his wrist, when the other body suddenly draws back. Feelings run through him in waves, uncontrolled, unstoppable. He wants Lan Zhan with a force shaking his bones, his heart longs for an intimate bond, his body screams to do something, anything to keep the man by his side.
His mind works overtime keeping himself in check, keeping himself from reaching out.
“Have you eaten?” Lan Wangji asks.
“I- no, I haven’t. Yet.” he stutters out, his heart loud in his ears.
Lan Wangji hums, indicates for Wei Wuxian to sit down at the chair in front of the only desk in the room, “Select something from the room service.”
Wei Wuxian gets up mechanically, tries to reign in his heart while he sits down on the chair, while he flips through the black leather folder until he finds the room service menu. By the time he looks up again, the bed - where there was a glaring black hole from the mini explosion - is immaculate, the sheets back in place where he had crumpled them earlier.
“Thank you.” he says, nods to the bed, receives a hum as answer. “How about a three course meal for two persons? We could share?” he starts to read the options without waiting for an approval, finds an option with three different mains, two of them vegetarian. They agree on it with just one shared look, giving Wei Wuxian the feeling as if they were an age-old couple instead of nothing more than mere strangers.
“How did this happen?” Lan Wangji asks as soon as Wei Wuxian has ended the call to the room service.
He turns his head after noting down the time he had called, next to the timeframe the lady on the other side had given him the kitchen will need to prepare his order, finds Hanguang-jun sitting on the other bed, his back straight, his legs crossed. “I went through the newest talisman inventions on ‘Talisman today’s social media account, and found that one odd enough I wanted to see what exactly is wrong with it.” He waves his hand in a ‘don’t worry’ motion when Lan Wangji’s eyebrow climbs up judge-fully, “I already prepared a healing talisman, and I used inferior talisman paper. I also made sure nothing valuable was near, nor have I held the paper with the other hand in case it… well…” he wrinkles his nose, “…it explodes.”
Lan Wangji looks at him with an alarmed expression screaming ‘What kind of idiot are you?’
“For my defence,” he says, “I know what I am doing. I just wanted to see where the talisman goes wrong so I can correct it. I am not conducting such experiments if I think it might not be safe.”
Lan Wangji’s expression morphs into ‘Your idea towards safety needs to be looked at.’
Wei Wuxian pouts, “That’s not fair. You don’t even know me, how are you able to judge if I am capable of judging if something is safe or not?” A raised eyebrow from Lan Wangji’s side and a pointed look towards the formerly burned hand later, Wei Wuxian adds, “Alright, maaaaybe you saw not at the saaaafest point, but I want you to know that I survived almost a full year of traveling on my own through all the country without a single lasting scratch on my body.”
“You travelled?” Lan Wangji asks, his expression back into careful neutrality.
“Yes.” He nods, crosses his legs, “On my own. Perfectly safe. A year of freedom before I have to begin my studies.”
“You travelled alone without a golden core?”
“Sure thing. Others do it too. All the time.”
“They don’t travel as a cultivator.”
“Does it make a difference?”
“You went on nighthunts.”
“How’d you know?”
“You are from the Sanren Sect. You live from going on nighthunts.”
Wei Wuxian wrinkles his nose, “I mean, you’re not wrong. But I didn’t just solely went on nighthunts the past year. I worked at farms here and there, just like anyone else does when they Work & Travel.”
“It’s dangerous.”
“I promise you it wasn’t dangerous.”
“You went on nighthunts.” Lan Wangji states, his eyes gaining on intensity, “Somewhere rural, where barely anyone else lives, where people still know cultivators exist. Places where spiritual and undead creatures can gain on strength without anyone getting in their way.” The formerly lowered eyebrow climbs up again, “None of the situations you encountered were dangerous for someone without the ability to wield a spiritual sword?”
Wei Wuxian curls his nose, looks to the side. He feels seen through. Just like when he tries to tell Auntie Yi everything is fine when it is not. “Do you know you’re scarier than Auntie Yi?” he mumbles, pouts at the wall, “How does it come you suddenly talk? No complaint here, really none. But Auntie Yi frequently told me you barely ever speak. You don’t seem to me like a guy who doesn’t know how to speak.” he tries to divert.
“I like speaking to you.” Lan Wangji says, calm, an undertone in the sentence creating shivers all over Wei Wuxian’s skin.
“Do you?”
Lan Wangji hums.
Wei Wuxian sucks his lower lip between his teeth, gnaws on it. His body screams at him to get up, to climb on the stupidly attractively crossed legs, to see how well he fits into the offered place, how their chests feel if pressed together, how their mouths will—
“Don’t.”
Wei Wuxian’s eyes snap to Hanguang-jun, “Ah?” he asks with his heartbeat in his throat. Had he uttered any of his thoughts aloud?
Lan Wangji’s eyes briefly flicker briefly to the now bitten underlip.
“You want me to stop gnawing on my lip?” he asks, unbelievingly.
“If you want it bitten, I will do it for you.”
Wei Wuxian’s mouth parts in shock, arousal shoots through him in a wave threatening to swallow him. He can’t help but watch frozenly how Lan Wangji unfolds his legs, stands up, walks to him, bends down until they are face to face, a thumb pressing down on his mole before the hand cradles his jaw.
The touch is searing to his soul, to his heart. His eyes connect with phoenix shaped ones above him, drowning him in burning desire. Helplessly he watches how Lan Wangji’s face comes slowly, but intently closer.
He makes a high pitched sound when their lips connect, when Lan Wangji doesn’t start slow, nor exploring, but deep, relentless. Like a man starved. Their tongues glide together in a fight for dominance. His hands shoots up, fist into the stupidly soft material of Lan Wangji’s shirt while he tries to get a control over their kiss, over his desire, over the man hovering over him.
He breaks the kiss just when he is about to gain the light of victory, pants heavily against their barely apart lips, “We need to stop.”
Lan Wangji growls deeply as an answer, uses the hold on his jaw to tilt his head backwards, crashes their mouths together again.
Wei Wuxian moans, the filthy kiss driving a sensation all through is body, while all his blood travels south, turning him lightheaded. Want and desire runs through him, his deep red pulsating spiritual energies exchange with ice-blue, plunge into each other in unstoppable passion. He yanks Lan Wangji down on him until their hips grind against each other with fiery urgency.
A hand wraps around his hipbone, keeping him in place. A hard length rubs against his, making him gasp.
His arms wrap around a broad back, drawing Lan Wangji deeper down on his lap, keeping him in place in return. He moans throatily when their kiss unimaginable deepens further.
He doesn’t notice how close he is until it is too late, until he’s already riding the very edge, unable to hold back the waves of intense arousal.
Wet sounds, gasps, groans, moans fill the air when his orgasm crests over him in an overwhelming sensation. His hips twitch uselessly against the strong hold, his vision whites while their mouths swallow each other deep resounding noises.
Wei Wuxian opens his eyes breathless seconds later, spots of dancing white in his vision, breaks what isn’t a kiss anymore but just lips on lips, panting into each other’s open mouth.
“Fuck.” he says winded, “You made me come into my pants. Like a teenager.”
Lan Wangji hums, equally breathless, his forehead falls on Wei Wuxian’s shoulder for a moment before he squeezes Wei Wuxian’s hip, then gets up slowly, with clear reluctance, as if it costs him to part.
“Where are you going?” he asks with dropping feeling in his stomach, his arms falling from where he had wrapped it around broad shoulders.
“If I do not bring distance between us now, I will fuck you.”
“Oh?” he grins, the dropping feeling turning into an army of fluttering butterflies, “Who says it’s not me fucking you?”
Lan Wangji looks at him with one raised eyebrow once he stands an arms length away, sends a cleaning talisman to both their trousers with a tremor in his hand, “We will eat. Then fuck.”
Wei Wuxian licks his swollen lips, can’t help the way his heart jumps at the words, “Sounds like a plan.”
Lan Wangji hums, turns, walks back to the second bed, settles himself against the headboard. A brief pause of hanging silence fills the room before he says, “Where did you get the talisman from?”
“The one that exploded?” Wei Wuxian asks, doesn’t wait for the answering hum, launches into an explanation about the internet site, the talisman, his thoughts about the talisman, where he thinks it went wrong, how it can be used if tweaked.
Time flies while he talks, while he comes down from the high of an unexpected orgasm. His heart starts beating wildly every time their eyes catch, every time he briefly thinks about what is on the table once they finished dinner.
The room service comes and goes, the three-course meal vanishes under their spoons and chopsticks in shared silence, their ankles touching under the small table next to the floor to ceiling window.
“Lan Zhan,” he says once he has swallowed the last bite of chocolate cake he had ordered on top, “you’re a Lan.”
Lan Wangji hums, refills both their cups with the tea he had added to the order, “You’re a member of the Sanren Sect.”
Wei Wuxian hums in return, downs the cup in one go just like he would if it had been alcohol - if one had been available, “You only love once.” he adds, points towards the meaning he had intended to convey.
“Just like you.” Lan Wangji retorts, drinks his cup slowly.
“Just like me.” he agrees easily, waits till their eyes meet, “So, tell me, Hanguang-jun, if I consider this a date, will I be right?”
“You will be.”
Wei Wuxian nods faintly, flicks his eyes briefly to the forehead ribbon sitting on Lan Wangji’s forehead ever since he came out of the bathroom, “What would you do if I would touch it?”
He knows the meaning of the ribbon, had been taught the meaning from a very early age on from both Auntie Yi and Baoshan-laoshi. He knows today’s Lan Sect hides the ribbon with a spell if outside of grounds populated by cultivators. The very reason it hadn’t been visible when Hanguang-jun stepped into the room the first time.
Lan Wangji’s eyes gain on intensity before he says, “If you touch it, I will take you to a temple tomorrow where we will bow three times.”
“You want to elope?”
“It is your choice.”
A smile forms on Wei Wuxian’s lips, with a light trace of a predatory quality, “Do you know what you are getting yourself into? By marrying me?”
“Do you know what you get yourself into?” Lan Wangji retorts with the same lingering quality.
Wei Wuxian snorts, leans back, crosses his arms, “Auntie Yi will have our head for marrying without telling her. She’s my teacher’s zhiji, and your Sect Leader after all.”
“Call her.”
“Surely not.”
“Then I will call her.”
“No. Absolutely not.” he says, stretches an arm backwards to retrieve his phone from the desk behind him, “She’ll get a heart attack when she suddenly hears you talking. Or worse, she’ll think I either gave you alcohol or spelled you. No one needs to know you actually are capable of talking. Lethally, I might add. This is our secret, that I will take to my grave.”
“It won’t be necessary.”
“What?”
“Taking it to the grave.”
Wei Wuxian laughs unbelievingly, shakes his head, opens his contacts, scrolls through it until he lands at Lan Yi’s cellphone number, tabs the call button, then the speaker.
After five rings, a female voice picks up the call, “If you have been stupid enough to find a mountain yao in the middle of a typhoon, neither my wife nor I will help you out.”
“Thank you, Auntie Yi.” he says dryly, “I appreciate the faith you have in me.”
“It’s called experience.” she says in response, equally dryly, “Why did you call if not for you bleeding out lonely on a forest floor?”
He rolls his eyes, “It’s reassuring to know you think I only call because I need help.”
“The last time you called - half a year ago, I may remind you - had been because you were lying on a forest floor not feeling your lower half after you haunted down whatnot else. Before that, you called two months prior, also from a forest floor, without being able to tell me what’s wrong because you’ve been barely conscious.”
“Old stories.” he shrugs it off, tries to ignore the alarmed expression in Lan Wangji’s eyes, “I’m calling to let you know I might or might not get married tomorrow per cultivation tradition with three bows in a temple I am not sure exists somewhere near.”
“Theoretically?” she asks, suspiciously.
“I think we are beyond theory.”
“Are you now? And who do you intend to marry?”
“Hanguang-jun.”
Three seconds of silence hang in the room and over the line before Lan Yi’s voice comes from farther away, “A-Xian is going to marry Wangji tomorrow.” Another voice - one Wei Wuxian can identify as Baoshan Sanren’s - answers, “I can’t believe you won the bet. I’ve been this close to a victory. Two more months. Only two more months! How did they even meet?”
“You bet on us!?” Wei Wuxian exclaims.
“It is of no matter.” Lan Yi’s voice comes from as close as before, “How did you two meet?”
“You answer my question, I answer yours.”
“Youth of today. No respect to their elders.” She sighs, then says, “We have a bet pool. Everyone of us had been sure you two will marry once you two will meet. Everyone of us had set a bet on a timeframe when it might happen. Your laoshi had bet you won’t meet before your Year On Your Own - how your calling it - is over, while I had bet you two will meet inside that year.”
“A bet pool? Who else is in?”
“I answered your question, you answer mine.”
Wei Wuxian clicks his tongue, then answers, “The typhoon suspended my train. I got stranded in this city, got the last hotel room, got a premonition of Hanguang-jun arriving at the fully booked hotel, and asked the lady at the front counter to give the second room key to him.” He drops his phone on his lap in suprise when all of a sudden Lan Wangji is standing next to him instead of sitting opposite of him like a scant second ago, his wrist held in the same firm manner as earlier.
“You had a premonition?” Lan Wangji asks.
“Yes.” he blinks at him, “How’d you think I knew you would arrive? Why else would I have called the staff to bring fresh towels?”
“You can see the future?”
“Sometimes. It happens sporadically.” he says, picks up the phone with his other hand, lays it down on the table in front of him, “I had a premonition when I left the train station, about the city taking damage because of the typhoon, so I placed talismans on all necessary points. It will be safe for the next two days.”
“Those talismans are yours?”
“Yes?”
“They are powerful.”
Wei Wuxian snorts, “Yeah, they should be. If they weren’t they wouldn’t be able to keep everyone in the city safe.”
“You do not have a core.”
“We established that.” He shakes his wrist as much as it is possible when he notices the question lingering in Lan Wangji’s eyes about how it is possible to draw powerful talisman without a core nourishing the spiritual powers, “You’re fingers are already on my pulse point. Check for yourself. I may not have a golden core, but I have a substitute.”
He feels the cold prickle when Lan Wangji’s spiritual energy shoots into him, travels down, all the way to where every other cultivator holds a shining golden core.
He feels the sudden halt, the almost flinch in Lan Wangji’s body, the way he retracts slowly until the cold sensation leaves his wrist before the hand lets go of him.
“You have a black core.”
“Yep.” He plops the ‘p’ “Sure have. I can’t use spiritual swords, but I’m sensible to energies and own a few sets of powers others can’t even dream about.” he turns his head faintly to the side, “I know that look of yours. Hold yourself back, we are still on the phone with our grandmothers.”
Lan Wangji thins his lips, takes a step back, then turns, settles back into the chair opposite of Wei Wuxian, not looking at him.
“I can’t believe Wangji is talking.” Lan Yi says after several seconds of silence.
“Back to business.” Wei Wuxian says, claps into his hands, “I guess we don’t have to ask for any blessing if there is an - I emphasize - bet pool going on. Lan Zhan and I will talk about when and how we gonna get officially married - on paper and all the fanfare - but for now we gonna bow tomorrow. I very much hope you won’t need Hanguang-jun in the Lan Sect for the next two months, because I am not willing to stop my travels, and I am absolutely sure Lan Zhan won’t let me roam around on my own. Especially not now that you informed him about the two nighthunts he really shouldn’t have known about. He won’t ever believe me again, if I tell him I can safely go on nighthunts on my own.” He watches how Lan Wangji’s lips thin into invisibility, nods to himself, “See? Told you. Now he thinks he needs to protect me.”
“You better have someone protecting you.” Baoshan Sanren says, “You’re too reckless on your own.”
“Thanks, Laoshi. You are making it worse.”
“Wangji,” Lan Yi says in her sect leader tone, “I want you to keep reporting where you are. You will be back in Caiyi a week before university starts, as agreed upon. Your relationship with A-Xian will stay a secret until there will be an official statement of your marriage. I will inform your parents and your brother, as well as your uncle, everyone else will not get to know.”
“A-Xian,” Baoshan Sanren says, “you will let your husband know when you feel like you need a pause or if you feel any pain. Don’t make him guessing like you do it with us.”
“I promise,” he says, lifts three fingers to his temple, “to be a dutiful husband. Honest and caring.”
“Good.” Baoshan Sanren says, “I want a photo of the temple you two will bow.”
“Don’t forget to install silencing talismans when you two are going to enjoy yourselves with each other.” Lan Yi warns, her tone back to normal, “No matter where you are.”
“Auntie Yi! Seriously!” he exclaims, feels a blush spreading over his cheeks.
“You’re with a Lan. I won’t say more. Goodbye.”
The line disconnects.
“Auntie Yi is shameless, ah?” he says, looks up, finds Lan Wangji’s lips still pressed together firmly, his expression closed.
“You said it wasn’t dangerous.”
“It wasn’t dangerous. It’s just two nighthunts that took a turn I didn’t anticipate.”
“You got hurt.”
“Nothing lasting.”
Lan Wangji turns his head, his eyes narrowed in a way it elicits goosebumps all over Wei Wuxian’s skin, “You got hurt.”
“Aiyah, seriously, Lan Zhan. You don’t have to worry.” He crosses his arms in front of his chest when his future husband’s eyes narrow infinitesimal further, “Alright. I tell you one thing, which is - I promise - the only thing why a nighthunt could possibly run into an awry result.” he averts his eyes, “I am afraid of dogs. And wolves, and everything that could remotely be viewed as a dog. I don’t know why, my parents don’t know why. I have this fear since birth and can’t shake it. The two nighthunts Auntie Yi mentioned went exceptionally well, until a mountain yao in the form of a dog appeared. I panicked and—“ he tetters out, makes a vague move with his hand. “As long as there are no dogs close I am perfectly fine, and perfectly capable of taking care of myself.” He pauses, then adds, “Besides, neither of those nighthunts were really bad, like worrisome bad. I still had the mindset to draw a communication talisman, so my phone connected to Auntie Yi’s phone.”
Several seconds of silence hang oppressive in the room, the only sound the stormy rain against the window.
He turns his head slowly back to Lan Wangji, finds his future husband’s eyes closed, his expression unreadable, “Lan Zhan?”
“Promise me you won’t go on nighthunts alone anymore.” Lan Wangji says, slowly opens his eyes.
Wei Wuxian swallows. The tone clenches his heart, the emotions written all over his future husband shake him to his bones for a reason he can’t parse out, “I promise.”
Lan Wangji nods faintly, gets up, rounds the small table, takes Wei Wuxian’s hand, draws him up, guides them to the bed, turns them until Wei Wuxian lies on his back. He hovers over him for a second before he swings his leg over Wei Wuxian’s hip, sits down on his lap, leans forward, brings their lips together in a soft, gentle kiss.
—
2 months later
—
“I will seriously cry if I can’t have this anymore, every morning.” Wei Wuxian says, squeezes his husband’s waist where his hand lays, both their bodies still undressed from their last night’s activities, the sheets of the bed kicked off somewhere to the side.
He’s only half joking.
Today is their last day together, both their trains will leave in less than four hours in entirely different directions. Lan Zhan’s towards Caiyi, his towards Qinghe where he will begin his dual study program in a week.
Lan Wangji shifts closer until they are chest to chest, every possible part of their body touching, “We will see each other every weekend.”
“And every semester break.” Wei Wuxian adds, then sighs, “I will be going to miss my beautiful husband. What shall I do without him? He spoiled me to a degree where I cannot live without him.”
After lengthy discussions they had agreed on neither of them giving up what they had planned before they met. Lan Zhan will go back to Caiyi, for a three year dual education aiming toward a Bachelor in hotel and restaurant management. He’ll work in his parents five star luxury hotel, just like planned.
While he will work at Nie Mingjue’s security company. A computing and IT dual study program costing him two and a half year in Qinghe, and half a year in Caiyi, given he will manage to pass all exams on the first try. It had taken a suspiciously low amount of effort to get Nie Mingjue to agree to transfer him to the company’s branch office in Caiyi once he won’t need to attend university classes anymore. He somehow suspects his friend Nie Huaisang had found out about the relationship no one should know, resulting in his friend going doe-eyed at his brother until he relented to Wei Wuxian’s request.
“We will videocall every day.” Lan Wangji says, lifts his hand, strokes his fingertips over Wei Wuxian’s temple, “I will find ways to spoil you over distance.”
“Is that a promise?”
“It’s a promise.” Lan Wangji reassures, turns his head, glides their lips together softly.
Wei Wuxian hums, “Spoil me now?” he asks against his husband’s lips lingering on his.
He feels his love’s small smile before all gentleness is taken from their next kiss.
—
2.5 years later
—
Wei Wuxian sighs towards the window of the moving train, his hands wrapped around the small white plush bunny in his lap. Its twin - a small black one - is driving on a train towards Caiyi.
Lan Zhan had gotten them the two bunnies, a trophy from a stall at the summer festival in Yiling, yesterday. It had been a beautiful day they had spent outside the Sanren Sects grounds, full of laughter, delicious food, and kisses at night under a row of lanterns. He had felt dreamy when they wandered back to the gate leading into Sanren Sect - a gate invisible to everyone not belonging to the Sect - when they kissed their way from the gate to where his parents live, where they used the chance of the temporarily empty house to enjoy each other.
The soft, hazy feeling vanished this morning, when they both packed their Qiankun Bags, when they both walked to the train station where they had to part from each other’s side after two shared weeks.
He had thought they will get used to parting, after two and a half year of travelling to Yiling every weekend, every holiday, every semester break, to spend time with each other inside the Sanren Sect - the only place they can safely and openly be together, in any way possible. The Sanren Sect is small, utterly secret, not connected to either the worldly reality nor the cultivation world. The ideal place to be the husbands they are.
Not a day goes by where he doesn’t regret their decision to wait to formally marry until they both graduated. To keep their relationship a secret, until no one will be able to judge them for studying at two different places, and with this possibly accusing Lan Wangji of only having married Wei Wuxian to gain access to the secrets of the Sanren Sect. He knows they made the most sensible decision, knows it is the right decision, but at times like this he can’t bring himself to believe it was what they should have been going for.
Every time they have to part he feels as if his heart is ripped apart. Every time his train drives in the opposite direction to where his husband is going, he feels as if he is loosing a part of himself.
He had thought the first time was the worst, after two months of sharing every moment with each other, when he watched Lan Zhan driving away from him, his own train waiting three platforms away. He had thought he won’t be able to keep his tears inside while he walked through the station, while he boarded his own train.
He had thought the next time they will have to part it will be easier.
It wasn’t.
It isn’t.
This time it feels worse, what with him knowing he won’t see Lan Zhan for the next four weeks - the longest time they have stayed apart.
In the upcoming two weeks, he will have to run through an exam marathon before he will move from his small student apartment in Qinghe to his cousin’s apartment in Caiyi.
The following two weeks, Lan Zhan will run through an exam marathon.
It will be the cultivation conference - and his first time visiting Cloud Recesses - when they will meet again.
Four weeks of torture, topped by a conference where they both can’t just slip away to get some time alone.
He’s already looking forward to seeing his husband again.
He’s not looking forward to twelve boring hours or dry conversations about sect politics while he is going to long for touching the man he loves.
—
4 weeks later, the day of the conference
—
The unmistakeable sound of a ringtone - Wei Wuxian only uses for his husband - pierces loudly through the talisman silenced room, and slowly through the thick fog of his sleep.
He flips his finger with a shot of spiritual power, feels the weight of his phone in his hand the next moment. Without opening his eyes, he fumbles with his thumb on the screen until the ringing stops, then presses the phone to his ear, mumbles, “Morning.”
“Good morning, Wei Ying.” Lan Wangji’s smooth voice travels through the speaker, “You texted me an hour ago.”
Wei Wuxian hums, his mind still halfway in dreamland, “Did I?”
“You did.” A pause, “You asked me to give you a waking call with an appointed time. What happened?”
“Mhn?” he hums, turns on his back, reluctantly opens his eyes a sliver wide. His mind is refusing to wake with him, demanding with ferocity to go back to sleep.
“Have you been up all night?”
It’s the worry in the tone, Wei Wuxian thinks, sinking the most into him. He curls his brows, tries to think past the need to turn around and go back to the soft, relaxing darkness he was in seconds ago, “I worked on a file…” he manages to say, then sighs, slowly sits up, his eyes still not open any further than the sliver, “…someone destroyed, but Nie Mingjue will need today.”
“Someone?” Lan Wangji asks, a dark undertone swinging with it, “Su She again?”
“Yeah, Su She again.” he agrees, then yawns.
“I’ll talk to Sect Leader Nie.”
“Don’t bother. It was nothing, really.”
“You sacrificed a whole night. Again.” The last word is said with an intensity telling Wei Wuxian his husband is truly fret up. An occurence rare, but always dangerous.
“Lan Zhan.” he says in attempt to smooth his love’s energies, “Darling, Sweetheart, Love of my Life, don’t be angry, ah? I’m fine. You’ll see I’m fine when we meet later. I’m just a bit tired right now, but honestly, when am I not tired at morning? Especially when my beautiful husband isn’t here to wake me up with his lips all over—“
“Wei Ying.” Lan Wangji says with a warning tone, “Don’t.”
He pouts, “No morning phone sex?”
“I have to be at my uncle’s office in less than an hour.” Lan Wangji says in a way that would be a crestfallen tone at anyone else.
“Damn.” Wei Wuxian sighs, then yawns again, “I can’t believe we get cockblocked by your uncle.”
“I will make it up to you this evening.”
He perks up, his eyes open fully, “Yeah? What do you have planned?”
“It’s a secret.”
“Aiyah, Lan Zhan, come on. No phone sex, and you suspending me all day long making me wonder what my very kinky husband has planned? That’s cruel.”
“You like it.”
“I do.” He chirps, falls back into bed, “It’ll make it easier to get myself through twelve hours of absolutely boring intersect politics. Which, let’s be honest, it doesn’t make sense I be there as well. The Sanren Sect isn’t part of it.”
“It’s custom.”
“I know.” he wrinkles his nose, “Still, it doesn’t make sense to me. If I hadn’t promised my parents to go there in their stead, I seriously would consider skipping this particular experience.”
“Would you?” Lan Wangji says, very judgementally.
“Aiyaaaaah, you know what I mean. I would skip it, if my beautiful husband wouldn’t be there, promising a hopefully fun time in the evening, and definitely a tour of the legendary Cloud Recesses during day.” He pauses then adds with a serious tone, “I can’t wait to see you. It’s going to be torture to not be allowed to touch you as long as anyone could possibly see us. It was absolute torture to be in Caiyi for two weeks now, knowing you’re close, but not being able to meet you.” He pauses for breath, then continues, “We’re not gonna do that again. Being apart this long.”
“We won’t.” Lan Wangji promises.
“Good…” he sighs, “Good. Alright. I…” he sits up again, swings his legs over the edge of the bed, “…definitely need a shower now. How much time do you have?”
“Enough time to stay on the phone until you hold a cup of coffee in your hand.”
Wei Wuxian smiles, “That’ll take at least another half an hour.” He stands up, bends his upper body backwards until the usual joint in his shoulder blobs, then starts his way towards the shower while rambling everything going through his mind towards his husband.
—
Wei Wuxian hangs up with a “See you later.” mournfully, almost an hour after he had accepted the call.
He’s standing in the kitchen of his cousin’s apartment, a cup of coffee in hand, feeling the wakefulness slipping away from him with every second he’s not hearing his husband’s voice. His eyes are almost fully closed, his mind halfway convinced it can take a rest when he feels the first frizzle of his cousin’s waking energies running through the apartment.
Contrary to his husband’s calmness, Jiang Cheng’s energy feels to him like charged static. His energy crackles loudly, announcing his presence way before he physically appears.
It is an ongoing topic between them - ever since he had moved in two weeks ago - about how his cousin finds his ability to literally feel energy creepy, while he seems to not believe a word Wei Wuxian says. It would be infuriating, if he hadn’t learned how to cope with the scepticism thrown at him every time he is using powers specific to the Sanren Sect.
Just like the (invisible) cleaning talisman he had attached to the four walls of the entire apartment (sans his own room), so he won’t have to clean by hand.
He’s pretty sure Jiang Cheng had tried to find the source of the sudden cleanness of his apartment, and had thoroughly failed to find the talisman.
In a quiet corner of his mind, he thinks it to be incredibly funny.
“Morning.” he mumbles into his coffee cup a moment before Jiang Cheng steps into the kitchen, silently revels in how the energy at his cousin sparks in bewilderment, just like each time this situation happened in the last weeks.
Somehow, the joke never gets old.
—
About an hour later, Cloud Recesses
—
The long buffet taking almost all of the east wall of the ceremony hall is almost a dream come true.
Wei Wuxian had thought he’ll encounter a monk related breakfast - just the way the Lans like to eat - but instead he had found table on table filled with different delicacies specific to every area of every Sect attending today. Including his beloved fruit tarts Yiling got famous for within the last ten years.
He’s just about to load his now empty plate with a few of them when he feels his husband’s energy entering the room. It is the only warning he gets before the plate vanishes out of his hand, before his body gets turned with a large hand on his narrow waist, and all his air is stolen in a deep, affectionate kiss.
By the time his husband lets go of him he feels dizzy with want, his whole body frozen between wanting to climb his love like a tree, and the restraint of not doing so in the middle of the Cloud Recesses.
Their relationship is still secret (to all but a few), his parents have reminded him to behave at the conference, to not create a havoc in any sense, but here he is, well kissed, definitely hard, and definitely wanting to throw all caution to the wind.
“I set up silencing talismans,” Lan Wangji whispers into his ear, “in my room here in the Cloud Recesses.” He pauses briefly, “For tonight.” He adds, kisses Wei Wuxian’s earlobe.
Desire runs in shivers through him. The need to touch his husband, to undress him, to mark him as his is overwhelming.
For once he is glad to wear robes, disguising his fully hard length, a step away from leaking.
He can’t wait for tonight.