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zhuilingyizhen · 4 years

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Tsundre Jin Ling who has no idea how to deal with his feelings for his (only) 3 friends

Side Note: Wow this ended up long- & thank you anon!! I really loved this ask.

At first he thinks that he’s supposed to feel like that towards all his friends. I mean, the three juniors are the only expieriences with friendship he’s had so far. So of course he loves likes them! Thankfully, he’s not as oblivious as Jingyi or as self-sacrificing as Sizhui. He is possibly more afflicted with dumb bitch disease than Zizhen, though. Very, very possibly.

But once the feelings of “I wanna hold his hand.” and “How would it feel to kiss him?” and “I never noticed how attractive he is.” start settling in, he realises two things. One, he’s a cutsleeve, and two, holy shit he’s in love with his friends.

There’s some major problems with this revelation. Of the 4 juniors, barely one and a half of them can healthily express their feelings, and I can guarantee that Jin Ling is not a part of that minority, being the tsundere he is. His mommy/daddy issues (rather, the lack of having living parents) also play a part in his not being able to successfully process or display his feelings. Plus, he’s not stupid just blind. He only has three friends. He’s in love with all three of them. In the scenario that they all reject his feelings and decide leave him, he would be alone again.

Imagine how he’d feel. Though his parents both left, that was due to their deaths, not them wanting to leave (though there is the fact that his mother was willing to give up her life for her brother possibly knowing that she would be leaving her son behind, but even then her main concern at the time was her brother’s life so it isn’t exactly a fair comparison and oops I’m rambling-). Jin Ling wouldn’t be able to live with himself knowing that his only friends (the ones that he loved & cared about) had willingly left him. Not that they would ever do that, but he doesn’t know that yet.

Another problem with his feelings is that he really doesn’t have anyone to talk to. The only parental figures in his life are his three uncles (JGY, WWX, and JC) and possibly WN? I’m not too sure about their canon relationship but them having a nice uncle-nephew like relationship would be nice. JL, seeing his uncle’s past experiences in romance, immediately crosses out JC from the list of possible confidants. We all know what happened with JGY (though assuming this was before everything went down, I would say that JL isn’t as close to JGY, & asking romance advice from him wasn’t exactly an appealing solution). WWX & WN both have strong familial connections with LSZ, so it would definitely be awkward talking to them about JL’s feelings for him (and almost worse having to tell them he also liked LJY & OYZZ). Plus, he wasn’t very much interested from getting a shovel talk from LWJ, who would most certainly hear about it from WWX. His friends weren’t exactly an option either, unless he went to them talking about his feelings for their mutual friends. And the idea of that was so mortifying that JL almost puked from embarrassment. Almost.

Plus, even if he asked in a hypothetical context, his friends know that he wouldn’t have a crush on anyone outside his tiny group of close knit juniors. Well, Sizhui and Zizhen know that. Jingyi is too dense to realize that Jin Ling is 1. Gay and 2. Desperately in love with them. The other two assume that JL likes one of them, but for the life of them can’t figure it out. JL is just too tsundere-y around them.

He has several options on how to deal with his quickly progressing feelings.

A: He confesses to them, and hopes that they don’t end their friendship.

B: He could slowly distance himself from his current friends, and possibly make some other friends. Leave them before they can leave him.

C: (similar to B) He could throw himself into his sect leader duties and use it as an excuse to not spend as much time with his friends, and brush them off whenever they ask about him. Become a bratty JC.

D: He hides his feelings for all three of them. Lets the feelings build up inside him, push his friends away whenever they ask, and accidentally act extremely suspicious and moodier than usual towards them.

He obviously picks a combination of the last three. Also probably has vehemently denied having feelings for any of them whenever the mere mention of romance is brought up, which has led to many awkward silences.

At this point, Zizhen is sure that JL has a crush on one of them (he’s betting on Sizhui). Sizhui himself is still trying to figure out who it is that JL likes (but he’s a bit closer to the truth than Zizhen) and Jingyi... Jingyi is questioning the odd behavior that’s going on between his three besties.

Sizhui is the first to figure it out. The juniors excluding JL (who’s busy on so-called sect stuff) are hanging out. LJY & OYZZ are discussing a romance novel that OYZZ read, and LSZ is just listening in. The gist of the novel is that a warrior falls in love with a young maiden from his hometown and the prince of a neighboring kingdom, who they are soon going to war against. The warrior has to choose what’s best for his home, and ends up slaying his male lover. Though he goes back to the young maiden and his family, the warrior ends up drowning himself in despair and guilt at having to kill the prince.

(The next part was kinda written as a fic, cause I didn’t wanna do like a screenplay of what happened.)

The two chat about it, with Sizhui occasionally offering his opinion, before Jingyi interjects. “Why couldn’t the warrior have just been with them both?”

Zizhen asks what both Sizhui and he were wondering. “What do you mean?”

“Well, he clearly loved them both. There had to be some way for him to date both of them.”

(End short dialogue fic thingy.)

It got Sizhui thinking about their situation. It was clear that Jin Ling had feelings for at least one of them, if his defensive behavior and blushing were any clue. But he hadn’t really considered the idea of him liking more than one of them, or even all three of them. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. LSZ could never exactly pinpoint who JL likes because JL had always acted the same (tsundere-y, blushing, & defensive) around all three of them. The different behavior most likely meant that...

Jin Ling liked all three of them.

Discovering this had left Sizhui reeling. The fact that he was on a picnic with the other two people one of his closest friends had a crush on didn’t exactly help, so he quickly excused himself (though this suspicious behavior went noticed by Zizhen and Jingyi, and they vowed to figure out what was afflicting the usually calm member of their group).

For one thing, Sizhui wasn’t completely sure how he felt about his friends. He was certainly fond of all three of them, but in love with them? That was quite a revelation. But it made sense. He was already close to the other three juniors, and he certainly loved them. However, the question was whether or not it was platonic or romantic love. Most of the physical contact he had with people were with his friends (mostly Jingyi, since they live at the same place & are usually together). So it would make sense that he would seek more romantic touches from them, right? Sizhui wasn’t quite sure about this all. The first thing to do was to confront Jin Ling about his feelings. Maybe they would figure it out together, all four of them.

Turns out, Jin Ling doesn’t want to talk about his feelings (seriously Sizhui, what were you expecting? Emotional maturity?). Sizhui quite literally had to chase him around Lotus Pier. Eventually he catches him, and gets Jin Ling to sit down with him for tea. (Sizhui didn’t even have to restrain him! That went better than expected.)

Not one to beat around the bush, Sizhui is pretty blunt with his questions.

“Do you like a zhen, a yi, and I romantically?”

Jin Ling was only half expecting that and chokes on his tea.

At first he denies it, but Sizhui refuses to let him leave until he tells him the truth. Which means JL either has to go with option A, or wait until Sizhui let’s him leave.

They sit there for almost an hour before the owner kicks them out. After that, they just kinda... chill. Jin Ling won’t say anything, and Sizhui won’t leave until he gets an answer, so they’re stuck in a deadlock.

Meanwhile, Jingyi and Zizhen are looking all over the Cloud Reccesses for Sizhui, but he is nowhere to be found.

Eventually, Jin Ling breaks first (he really needed to get this off his chest) and tells Sizhui that he likes them. After that, he immediately kicks Sizhui out the door and goes to mope around somewhere. Preferably with Fairy.

Sizhui finally returns and Jingyi breaks both the the no running and making loud noises rule once he sees him. Zizhen has to go back home, because by now it was pretty late. Thankfully, they got back before curfew.

The next step in Sizhui’s plan to get Jin Ling, Zizhen, and Jingyi together (he still wasn’t sure how he felt about it all himself, but he could at least make his best friends happy, right?) was to talk to Jingyi and figure out if Jingyi liked the Young Mistress & Zizhen.

This was easier than expected, cause though Jingyi is oblivious, he isn’t oblivious to his own feelin- oh wait. Well, at least he won’t deny his own feelings after figuring out that he has them. He and Sizhui have a very long talk, and yup he has feelings. He also holds Sizhui’s hand a little because feelings.

Meanwhile Jin Ling is freaking out back at Lotus Pier because he just remembered that there is a night hunt that week (and everyone will be suspicious if he doesn’t attend).

(Jiang Cheng is moderately concerned so he follows Jin Ling on the night hunt decides to visit Xichen on the day of the night hunt. On business, of course.)

The night hunt happens as usual, though Jin Ling is suspiciously quiet. Sizhui and Jingyi are more attached by the hip than usual.

They kill a few fierce corpses. Woohoo. But then Zizhen gets attacked from behind and Jin Ling pushes him out of the way. The two Lans deal with the corpse and Zizhen smiles and thanks Jin Ling, which leads to an incredibly blushy Jin Ling. Which makes Zizhen think. Because blushing + close proximity = signs of a crush. And currently Jin Ling is almost on top of him from tackling him earlier. So...

“Oh my god, you have a crush on me?”

Which was not the response Jin Ling was looking for. It also almost gives Sizhui a heart attack because oop this isn’t gonna go well. At this point, Jingyi can’t be fazed by the disaster that is his friends. Until Zizhen straight up kisses Jin Ling on the mouth, which makes him do a double take cause really guys? Right in front of his salad chicken wings?

Jin Ling is confused, Jingyi is confused, Zizhen is kinda confused and a bit dazed cause kisses sometimes do that, so Sizhui has to deal with this clusterfuck of emotions.

He gets everyone to sit in a circle (crisscross apple sauce) which, looking back on it, probably wasn’t the best idea considering they were on a night hunt. Sizhui, now knowing that at most of them have feelings for each other (still isn’t sure about Zizhen), decides to go first.

“I like all of you romantically.”

Yay confession! Jingyi isn’t surprised since he knew from their talk, so he just kinda smiles. Jin Ling, having never figured this out, would have spit out his tea again had he had tea. Zizhen just accepts it, because yeah, it makes sense.

They sit in awkward silence as Jin Ling tries to not choke on the air, Jingyi moves a bit closer to Sizhui, and Zizhen & Jingyi eventually breaks it.

“I like you all, too.”

“Same here.”

Which leaves Jin Ling, who has been attempting to find an excuse to get out of here at. It’s one thing to have feelings and another to find out that they’re returned. This wasn’t one of the outcomes he had prepared for. So he sits there until he realizes that his friends are waiting for a response.

“What’re you all looking at me for?! You can’t expect me to say it after you guys already went.”

Jingyi silently threatens to tickle him, which is somehow worse than having to spill his feelings?

“Fine, fine. I like you guys too. Can I leave now?”

Sadly for Jin Ling, Jingyi forces him & the others into a hug, because feelings.

They all just kinda sit there for a while, before Jin Ling realizes that it’s time for them to get the heck out of there because he has to get home before his uncle yells at him.

Little did he know, Jiang Cheng had been watching him from the bushes and his new boyfriends would be getting the shovel talk very, very soon...

#zhuilingyizhen #mdzs #jin ling #lan sizhui #ouyang zizhen #lan jingyi #mo dao zu shi #headcanons #mdzs headcanons #jin ling is a tsundere #lan xichen x jiang cheng #lan sect #xicheng #jiang cheng #lan xicheng

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more-gremlin-than-fae · 4 years

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Yet another CQL canon-divergence

Episode 26 this time. @bladedweaponsandswishycoats reminded me of this post about the use of zhiji in CQL and it reminded me of the AU my brain spent hours and hours on when I hit that episode in my first rewatch of the series.

This one’s gonna be just as long as all the others, although I might actually write this one since it’s mostly altering a single scene rather than having to write actually new stuff.

What if: WWX doesn't get there in time to intercept LWJ's glass of wine?

I'm assuming here that Lan Xichen has never actually seen Lan Wangji drink alcohol and has assumed that he knows the “golden core burning off alcohol” trick but never actually taught it to him, maybe he assumed their uncle had.

So, episode 26, all the same except at the banquet WWX gets there just after LWJ has been peer pressured into drinking the wine so he’s there instead just in time to catch LWJ before he falls face first into the soup with an oh so casual hand on his friend's shoulder. Cue the initial round of insults with Jin Zixun, but with the addition of a distracted WWX making 'come over here and pick up your passed out brother' faces at LXC when he thinks nobody’s looking.

(I'm assuming also LWJ tends to get past the initial passed out stage fairly quickly as in CQL here)

WWX and LWJ have just had the 'what am I to you/zhiji' conversation so that's at the absolute top of LWJ's mind when he wakes up drunk. He wants that with Wei Wuxian, even a Wei Wuxian who’s been weird and moody and emotionally distant. So. He wakes up drunk thinking about “how do I get that back? how do i prove that i feel the same way?” and drunk LWJ is just an LWJ without brakes.

So when WWX notices he’s awake and tries to take back the hand that has been oh so casually holding LWJ upright by the shoulder, LWJ just grabs it and holds on.

And then the rest of the scene unfolds more or less as canon but now WWX is trying to get the information from Jin Zixun and deal with Jin Guanshan and Jin Guanao while being followed around by a drunk and slightly belligerent and needy LWJ who just wants people to stop pissing off his zhiji and give him a break, for once. And at the same time, WWX is also trying to keep LWJ from losing face/people knowing he's a lightweight and now super drunk off one cup of wine. And he absolutely cannot bring himself to not be soft with drunk LWJ, so he’s switching back and forth on a dime between being cheerfully soft at LWJ and being angry and intimidating at Jin Zixun and everybody else.

LXC watches this for a little bit before realizing something is very wrong with his brother and that WWX is being king and running interference to save him face, so he stands up and asks WWX very quietly what the fuck is going on with Wangji, did they drug him?

WWX (under his breath, while JGS is talking): “No, he’s drunk. This is what he’s like after one cup of wine. You seriously never -?”

LXC: “Let’s not get into that here.”

WWX turns to LWJ: “hey, buddy, you’re brother’s here, you should go with him” and tries to transfer the hand currently locked around his wrist (not so incidentally preventing him from so much as slightly threatening anybody with Chenqing) to LXC

LWJ: “No.”

LXC: “Wangji, we need to have that important sect business meeting back in our quarters right now.”

LWJ looks at LXC, looks at WWX, looks daggers at Chenqing and then turns to his brother and says “No” again.

(This is how he’ll prove it, he’s decided. Since WWX insists on carrying Chenqing instead of Suibian then LWJ will just have to make sure he doesn’t need to use the demon flute and risk further corruption while LWJ is around.)

WWX is still under a time crunch here, he has to get the information and get back to Wen Qing before she gives up on him or ends up arrested for the crime of looking like a Wen in Jin territory. So while he keeps questioning Jin Zixun about the Wen prisoners, LXC and LWJ are having a low voiced argument about letting go of WWX until LWJ busts out of with "no, he’s my zhiji, this is important to him so it's important to me" and ends up being the one who intimidates Jin Zixun into giving up the info. LXC’s only choice at this point is to help or get out of the way.

Bonus: Jiang Cheng hears the zhiji comment and is like "oh, man, I thought it was one-sided, this is so much worse" and forgets about politics for a single minute, which is long enough for him to get involved in this whole mess out of sheer jealousy that suddenly the Lans are standing with WWX and Lan Wangji is claiming this intimate relationship with HIS brother, excuse u very much, Lan Wangji.

So they get the info and decamp as a group to an empty courtyard where WWX has to explain to LXC and JC why he’s suddenly interested in the treatment of the Wen prisoners all while trying to gently detach a Lan Wangji who’s still stubbornly attached to him at the wrist.

He’s distracted enough to actually tell the truth about Wen Qing being in town and how the Jiangs owe her and Wen Ning for hiding them from her relatives (shut UP, JIang Cheng, they HELPED and they ended up in Wen Ruohan’s dungeon for it, if Meng Yao gets a pass for actively helping Wen Ruohan while being a spy then WQ and WN deserve a pass for hiding and healing the Yunmeng sibs and refusing to participate in the burning and sacking and killing of the other sects)

The upshot is that now LXC and JC know everything except the golden core thing and LWJ is now insisting that he will go along and help his zhiji "your debts are my debts" etc. And he’s functional enough, and stubborn enough, that no one involved can actually stop him without injuring him.

So it shakes out that JC goes to get Wen Qing on his sword while LWJ more or less kidnaps WWX onto Bichen and they meet up at the camp.

This is definitely a “Wen Ning lives” fic because they get there much faster.

Anyway, fast forward to LWj waking up in a bedroll in a camp in the woods just past the Jin territory border with the Wen remnants and hazy memories but just rolls with it because he was absolutely not drunk what are you talking about and he is definitely going along with them to wherever they’re going, he’s the only one not starving and sleep deprived (he fell asleep at 9 while riding behind WWX on the horse).

That's as far as my brain managed to take it anyway.

Randomly: Wen Qing makes WWX tell LWJ about his core basically that morning because she refuses to conceal if he’s really all-in with them then he needs to know.

Actually this might be an "everybody lives" AU because giving WWX the opportunity and necessity of explaining to LXC and JC what he's actually doing and why before he gets more or less kidnapped onto Bichen to go rescue Wen Ning would likely throw off all the politics. And as much of an ass as JC canonically is about the Wens, there's no way he sees what's been happening at the work camp for himself and isn't absolutely appalled. So :waves hands: JGS' PR campaign against WWX doesn't work because there might not be a Geneva Convention but there are limits at least for some of the major sect leaders.

And also at the Qionqi Dao, drunk LWJ smacks WWX on the hand every time he tries to bring Chenqing anywhere near his face so he has impeccable testimony that he used no demonic cultivation in the whole incident. Wen Qing finds this hilarious and encourages him to do it always.

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