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“Oh! Zewu-Jun! I thought you were Lan Zhan, that’s why I had my ghost brides bring you the flowers! Whoops, haha, you have the same robes as Lan Zhan today!” Wei Wuxian chirped, looking adorably sheepish when Lan Xichen turned around after accepting the rose from the giggling bride ghost.
Lan Xichen huffed a laugh and stood beneath the window that Wei Wuxian was leaning out of, smiling gently at him.
“Yes. I unfortunately got my robes a bit messy, and Wangji had a spare to borrow me,” he said.
“Oh? The great Zewu-Jun, I can never imagine you with your robes messy! Surely the GusuLan have talismans sewn into their robes to keep them clean?” he teased, leaning further over out the windowsill and providing Lan Xichen with an ample view of his beautiful chest.
It was a hot day in Yunmeng, and while Lan Xichen had seen many people wandering around in shorter robes, seeing all of this chest was… simply delicious. He could understand why Wangji would spit blood at the mere thought of Wei Wuxian undressing in the Xuanwu Cave- his poor brother had been so adorably flustered when retelling that story, it made Lan Xichen want to tease him some more. And, of course, to tease Wei Wuxian, whose company he’d always found to be absolutely delightful.
“That is true, however, those were new robes, and I hadn’t had the chance to sew in the talismans yet,” he explained.
“Zewu-Jun, you sew?” Wei Wuxian asked, laughing.
“Indeed I do. Perhaps I should join you up there, so we may converse more freely than like this?” he answered.
“Of course, of course! Come on up! I’ll never deny the company of one of Gusu’s finest beauties! It would be better if Lan Zhan was here, but I fear I may be too greedy to want to entertain both of Gusu’s Twin Jades,” Wei Wuxian said, waving him up and twirling his flute in his nimble fingers.
Lan Xichen laughed and made his way inside, secretly flicking out a butterfly talisman to tell Wangji which tea shop and inn he was in.
For all that Wei Wuxian was flirty and cheerful before, when Lan Xichen was actually in the room with him, he immediately knew that something was wrong with the man.
Firstly, Wei Wuxian looked a lot paler and thinner than expected, when seeing him up close like this. He looked almost fragile beneath the teasing smile and carefree lounging in the sun by the window.
Secondly, Lan Xichen’s cultivation was especially sensitive to scents. And he remembers Wei Wuxian’s scent vividly from their Gusu days. Not only was his scent off, but if he smiled hard enough to squint his eyes, and poured qi into them, he could almost see the glow of cultivation and the power of one's golden core radiating out from their body. He’d practiced it when in hiding, after reading it from a secret cultivation manual. Something was definitely up with Wei Wuxian’s cultivation- his golden core must be almost completely depleted for him to have no trace of the golden glow that all cultivators had.
By the time he’d sat down and Wei Wuxian had poured tea for him, all perfectly proper form to contrast with his open chest and loose robes, Lan Xichen knew beyond a doubt that something horrible had happened to Wei Wuxian. The man was an alpha, and always had been an alpha. It was a fact that had deeply saddened Wangji, for two alphas weren’t exactly considered to be equal matches in GusuLan. Cultivators were all alphas, and could only freely marry other betas or omegas.
Wei Wuxian smelled like an omega. It was not even faint, either, as if he’d been cuddling with an omega and got their scent all over him. No, this was as if the scent was emanating from his own body. And the longer he sat there, flirting with the man and drinking tea, the stronger the scent grew.
“Xiongzhang,” Lan Wangji called from the doorway, as the innkeeper ushered him in and brought out more tea and snacks for them.
“Oh! Lan Zhan! How delightful! I wasn’t expecting to have both of Gusu’s finest beauties gracing my presence today!” Wei Wuxian exclaimed, sounding oddly breathless as he looked at Wangji.
“Wangji! Glad you could make it in time. Wei Wuxian graciously invited me for tea. Come sit, and join us,” he said, turning all the way to face Wangji and signaling with his eyes.
“Hm,” Wangji said, and serenely sat next to him, across from Wei Wuxian.
Lan Xichen reached beneath the table and discretely took his brother’s palm in his, and then traced onto his skin while Wei Wuxian poured him some tea and chatted endlessly.
“-and! You can imagine my surprise, Lan Zhan, when the handsome man I thought was you turned around and turned out to be your brother instead! Hahaa, I was so shocked! You both are dressed in the same robes today! It’s not fair, you both are t-twins, you shouldn’t be dressing the same when your faces are already basically identical already!” he said.
Lan Xichen noticed an odd tremor in Wei Wuxian’s too-skinny frame, and tapped Wangji’s palm to draw his attention to it.
I know, Wangji tapped back. He won’t listen when I try to talk about it, his brother traced out, in the language they invented to talk past curfew when they were little children.
“Thank you for the tea, Wei Ying. I did not know you were so elegant when doing the tea ritual,” Wangji said out loud, and gently took the cup from him, allowing their fingers to brush as they intercepted the cup.
Wei Wuxian squawked and flailed around for a little bit, as the scent of omega grew stronger. Lan Xichen barely refrained from raising his eyebrows in surprise. Often, as was the case with omegas, they did not usually have the capacity to control their scents since most of them weren’t cultivators. Wei Wuxian, raised in polite society, would know how to control his scent and know that releasing it in polite company like this was terribly impolite and could even be seen as a proposition in some sects- the GusuLan were one of them.
Wangji put his cup down and stared at Wei Wuxian, frowning as he tried to make sense of it. He knew Wei Wuxian’s scent and control the best out of the two of them, and he likely hadn’t gotten close like this, without the scent of the war masking everything else, to truly pick up on the other man’s scent the way they could now.
“Wei Ying, what happened to your cultivation?” Wangji asked bluntly.
Lan Xichen watched as the man’s posture shifted, as he became guarded within seconds, and as a deep-seated exhaustion and irritation showed on his face, for just a moment before he smoothed it out into fake neutrality.
“Lan Zhan, are you still on about that?” he asked, tiredly.
“Wei Wuxian, please don’t misunderstand. Wangji is merely concerned, that is all. You’ve grown thinner, even after the war has been over for a year. Are you perhaps not fully recovered from your battlefield injuries? You received quite a few of them, if I recall correctly. Perhaps our Gusu healers can assist you, since they’ve got plenty of experience with such things?” he hurried to say, softly and gently, allowing the concern he’d desperately been holding back since entering this room to seep into his voice.
Wei Wuxian stared deep into his eyes, and Lan Xichen allowed him to search for whatever he was looking for within them.
A moment later, he sighed and slumped over, rubbing his face with his hands, which were trembling slightly.
Lan Xichen reached out and pressed a palm against his brother’s knee, urging him to be silent and patient, and to let Xichen handle this.
“I have a tea blend that I can share with you to help increase your appetite, and another to help with sleep. I know I’ve struggled with both of those after the war, too,” he offered, and reached in for the small sachets of tea he always carried around with him.
“You, Zewu-Jun? You also suffer from such things? It seems almost unheard of, you’re so strong and- and poised,” Wei Wuxian murmured, looking up in surprise at him.
“Most of those who’ve seen the horrors of war are afflicted with such. And I’ve found great comfort in leaning on my brother and others who’ve shared these experiences with me,” he said, reaching out with the tea.
Wei Wuxian stared at it in his palms, before reaching out to take it, but not pulling his hands away. The tremble got worse. Lan Xichen cupped his hands to still them, and was surprised at the sound Wei Wuxian made. Next to him, Wangji took in a sharp breath, as another wave of omega scent- thicker this time- permeated through the air.
“Wei Wuxian,” Lan Xichen murmured, rubbing his thumbs over the man’s chilled fingers,”you are not alone in this. You have friends in Wangji and myself. You have your siblings to lean on. People who care for you. Would you consider allowing us to help you in whatever way we can?” he asked.
Wei Wuxian’s eyes fluttered, and he swallowed thickly.
“Zewu-Jun… you are too kind. Truly,” he mumbled.
“Wei Ying… you are close to Jiang Wanyin, and closer still to Lady Jiang. Why do you know confide in them the way you used to in class all the time in lectures?” Wangji asked, and Xichen could hear the subtle strain in his voice from how much he was holding back.
Wei Wuxian’s barked laughter filled the air, though it sounded all wrong from his happy, bell-like peal before.
“Ahh… I fear I’d be too much of a burden to them. They’ve already got the entire sect to run, no need for me to bring my personal problems to them. I’ll just burden them unnecessarily, when I’m supposed to be taking the burdens off their shoulders,” he said eventually, and Lan Xichen squeezed his hands gently.
“I do not believe that at all, Wei Wuxian. You would never consider your siblings coming to you with their problems, no matter how big or small, as being burdensome, now would you? Why do you think your siblings would treat you any differently?” he asked.
Then, just as a little test, he sent the tiniest amounts of qi into the man’s fingertips and continued to rub them to warm them up some more. Wei Wuxian jumped just a little bit at this, and looked down at their hands in surprise and.. Was that fear in his eyes for a moment there?
“Ahh, apologies. I should have asked first. Your hands just felt a little bit cold, and I have an abundance of qi to spare, and your core is clearly severely depleted for you to have such cold hands to begin with, so I thought I’d warm them up for you,” he explained, trying to keep his face warm and open and friendly even as a yawning pit of horror was starting to form in his stomach from the dawning realisation.
Wei Wuxian had not a single trace of qi in his meridians at all. And Wen Zhuliu had attacked Lotus Pier after all. And when Wangji and Jiang Wanyin had found Wei Wuxian, he’d already been hunting the man and Wen Chao with such vengeance that he’d looked like a demon to Wangji the first time he’d seen him that night. Sure, there were rumours that Jiang Wanyin was the one who’d had his core melted out, but he’d turned up after a month and was clearly stronger than before, so instead it must have been Wei Wuxian who’d been hit by the Core-Melting Hand instead.
Thinking about it now, it all checked out. The new cultivation style. His irreverent refusal to touch his sword again, when he was the only swordsman of their generation to ever fight Wangji to a standstill, apart from Xichen himself and Nie Mingjue. If he didn’t have a core at all, no wonder he was harsh and abrasive with Wangji wherever he asked about his cultivation style. And it would certainly explain how he was omega now, or why he was going into heat so quickly after no longer being an alpha cultivator anymore.
Wei Wuxian withdrew his hands quickly, looking down at the table.
“Ahh, I thank you for your generosity Zewu-Jun, but I think that was perhaps too much generosity,” he said, and then turned to Wangji.
“Lan Zhan, your brother is too generous with everything! You need to make sure kind and good people like him don’t get taken advantage of by the scoundrels out there!” he joked, trying to inject brevity into the conversation.
“Hm. Xiongzhang is like that. Nothing I say or do can ever convince him otherwise. He’ll simply find a way to help someone behind my back, then,” Wangji joked, keeping remarkably calm when he already figured out that Xichen was not okay after such a revelation.
“I enjoy helping people, Wangji, excuse me for that. I have such an abundance, it would only make me happier to share it with everyone I care for, don’t you think? Besides, what’s a small sacrifice to me when someone else gets the benefit from it?” he asked lightly, looking at Wei Wuxian, who had a strained smile on his face.
Before the man could do more than take a sip of his wine, though, Lan Xichen continued, “I mean, you would know about that too, right? I sacrificed myself to get our library to safety, you sacrificed yourself by no doubt taking the blow from the Core-Melting Hand in place of your brother, so he could carry on the Jiang sect, correct?” he asked, still in the same soft, light and gentle tone he’d been using all along.
Wei Wuxian gasped in shock, eyes widening, before looking stricken, and Lan Xichen paid no mind to the equally shocked gasp from Wangji beside him, in favour of grabbing Wei Wuxian’s hands when the man made an aborted movement to stand up and probably leave.
“Wei Ying!” Wangji exclaimed, equally stricken, and the proof was given to them in the next moment, when Wei Wuxian tried to pull his hands back and Xichen simply tightened his grip on the man’s delicate wrists. Try as he might, a non-cultivator couldn’t escape from a cultivator no matter how hard they tried.
“Zweu-Jun!” Wei Wuxian huffed, trying his best to pull back with a panicked look on his face.
“Don’t worry, Wei Wuxian. I will not hurt you,” he reassured.
“It’s not the hurting that I’m worried about!” he tried to shout, but was breathless from panic and the increasing wave of scent that signalled that his heat was starting.
“Then what is?” Lan Xichen couldn’t help himself from asking.
“I… I just… J-Jiang Cheng doesn’t know,” he whispered, stuttering and avoiding their eyes as he slumped, all the fight having been taken from him.
“And I can’t tell him. I can’t. Please don’t tell him,” Wei Wuxian whispered, looking up to meet their eyes with tears welling up in his own.
“We won’t,” Xichen promised, on reflex, at the same time that Wangji made a wounded sound in his throat.
“Wei Ying… all this time… I’ve been asking you about your cultivation, and only hurting you by reminding you of your loss and pain every day?” he whispered, and they all froze.
“Lan Zhan!” Wei Wuxian whispered, body turning to his brother, and Lan Xichen let go of his wrists.
“I have been such a terrible friend to you, Wei Ying,” Wangji breathed, and Wei Wuxian practically lunged over the table to grab his hands.
“No, Lan Zhan, no! You’re not a terrible friend, don’t say that! You didn’t know! I didn't want anyone to know!” he gasped out, almost climbing on the table to reach out and swipe away a silent tear at the corner of Wangji’s eyes.
Lan Xichen silently reached out and wiped away the other one.
“It makes sense now, why you’re an omega. And if you lost your core before the war started, it also matches up with the approximate timeline of the first heat that most of Wen Zhuliu’s past victims experienced,” he said.
Both Wei Wuxian and Wangji turned to him with identical looks of surprise on their face.
“Wait, omega?! Heat?! Oh my god, is this why I've felt so weird all day today?!” Wei Wuxian rushed out.
“Yes. Your scent is that of an omega in pre-heat, because only cultivators with golden cores can be alphas, but anyone can be an omega,” Xichen explained.
“And it takes four years for someone to present their heat; two of which were spent during the war, and now two of them have almost passed. The timing works out almost perfectly,” he added.
Wei Wuxian looked both defeated and trapped, like a desperate fox trying to run away.
“Please don’t tell anyone,” he begged, “Please. No one can know about this,”
“I won’t tell a soul, Wei Wuxian. Your secret is safe with me, I promise.” he said.
“Us,” Wangji said, voice hoarse, “We will keep your secret safe, Wei Ying.”
Wei Wuxian swallowed thickly, searching both of their faces.
“I.. thank you,” he finally whispered.
“There is no need for sorry or thank you between us, Wei Ying,” Wangji murmured.
“Just let us help you instead. Please. The first heat after losing one’s core is often the most brutal for the other victims Gusu healers have helped. I… I don’t want you to go through that pain alone. And there’s two of us, both alphas, who know how to help you through a first heat,” he asked, hoping he’d be able to help.
“Please, Wei Ying. Please let us help you. If your family doesn’t know, then we can help you without anyone outside of the three of us knowing,” Wangji urged.
Wei Wuxian looked conflicted, and swallowed thickly even as his scent thickened.
“I… I can’t ask that of you! How can I…” he trailed off.
“You are not asking,” Wangji said.
“We are offering,” Xichen said.
Wei Wuxian looked back and forth between the two of them.
Xichen walked around the table and knelt gently in front of the trembling man, before slowly cupping his face and rubbing his thumbs over his cheeks.
“Wei Ying. Let us help you, please. You’ve trusted us with your closest secret. Can you continue to trust us to help you go through your first heat?” he asked.
Wei Wuxian whined. Honest-to-god whined.
Xichen would be a liar if he said that the sound didn’t go straight to his dick, now a comfortable yet still hidden bulge beneath his thick borrowed robes.
“Wei Ying. Please? We don’t want you to suffer the way we’ve seen others suffer through this before. You’re our friend. You’re my soulmate. We care for you,” Wangji said, also coming around the table to take Wei Wuxian’s hands in his own.
“...Well. When I have the two most sought after beauties in all of Gusu propositioning me like this, I’d be a fool to say no. So many people dream of being in this position, after all,” he finally joked, blinking away the wetness in his eyes.
“Perfect. I will get us a room in the inn right away,” Lan Xichen said, as he slowly pulled away from Wei Wuxian’s perfect warm face.
Wangji had things to say to him, and Xichen had faith that this time his brother would manage to find the right words or actions to express his true feelings for the man.
He was right. When he returned, Wei Wuxian was sitting in Wangji’s lap and getting kissed, and the scent of preheat was starting to fill the room.
“Wangji. Wuxian. I got us a room, and it’s discreet enough that no one should see us or catch our scent if we’re quick enough,” he informed them, and they were in the room in record time.
It was good that Wei Wuxian already had some prepared silencing talismans they could use, and that Xichen had already organised for them to use the room undisturbed for the rest of the day and the whole night too, and had even gotten snacks and tea sent up for them (mostly Wei Wuxian) to eat afterwards. All they needed to do was peel Wei Wuxian and each other out of their robes while still trying to keep their mouths pressed against each other’s mouths and skin. Now, they all were trembling from need and arousal and the sweet scent of Wei Wuxian finally slipping into his heat, a transition made easy now that he was bathed in their alpha scents.
“I can’t get hard, though. I should have said earlier, Zewu-Jun,” he gasped against Xichen’s mouth.
“Call me Lan Huan, Wuxian. And don’t worry about that, we can make you feel good in other ways,” Xichen murmured, kissing him quiet and tracing his fingers against the man’s plump ass. He shifted his weight to the side to allow for Wangji to kneel in front of Wei Wuxian’s large but still-soft dick.
“I’ll take good care of it regardless, Wei Ying. I’ll suck it well for you,” he murmured, and Xichen chuckled at Wei Wuxian’s wail and breathy “where did a good Lan boy like you learn to speak like that huh Lan Zhan?”
And then Wei Wuxian was moaning low as Wangji took all of his dick into his mouth, and Xichen lazily watched for a moment before allowing his oiled fingers to probe and rub against Wei Wuxian’s pulsing rim.
“Don’t worry, Wei Ying, we’ve got you,” he murmured, holding the man securely as he arched back, and starting to suck a hickey onto his exposed neck.
Wei Wuxian was not coherent for very long after that.