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drunk-on-dk · 1 year

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Days and Nights were like... | Seventeen Headcanon (m)

Days and Nights with the members were... - ot13 headcanon

w/c: ~2.2k

warnings: suggestive content, some smut (? idk nothing too explicit, but MDNI), fluffy fluffy, food and alcohol mentions, minors do not interact!!! (18+)

a/n: this was an activity I did to get my mind warmed up to keep working on some WIP, i hope you enjoy these!

Choi Seungcheol

Days with Seungcheol were… chaste kisses before you both leave for work. Sometimes they were random calls during your work break where any random bystander would think he was angry, but only you could practically hear the pout on his lips just from the slight whine in his tone, “when do you get off of work today? you didn’t even kiss me goodbye this morning.” He’d proceed to get his revenge by sending you pictures of him after his Jiu-Jitsu class.

Nights with Seungcheol were… nights out on the town, delicious food, one too many bottles of soju, and hasty kisses against the wall in the alleyway of the bar you two ended up at. Seungcheol would call you two a cab back home, shushing you and reminding you to behave (even though he doesn’t mind the PDA – it was the tinge of possessiveness in him). His hand would be tightly wrapped around your thigh the entire ride as a firm reminder of the night to come.

Yoon Jeonghan

Days with Jeonghan were… ruffles of your hair as he agrees to help you try a new recipe in the kitchen. Ultimately, you’re stifling any giggles of yours as Jeonghan almost loses his everlasting patience for the nth time over a new kitchen appliance. You’ll find all sorts of items in the oddest of places after your meal is done, even the measuring spoon that Jeonghan oh-so-cleverly hid in your hoodies appears days later in the wash. Admittedly, even after all the tomfoolery, Jeonghan swears every new recipe is the best damn meal of his life, and you believe him every time.

Nights with Jeonghan were… carefree and adventurous, yet safe and warm; anything goes when it’s just you two against the world. Whether it is a night out with each other’s friends, or if it's hours rolling between the sheets, you two will never get enough of each other (not when you’re each other’s favorite person). He’d play nice for you all day, but when he had you right where he wanted you in bed, he’d ravage you until he knew his angel was taken care of.

Hong Joshua

Days with Joshua were… comfortable conversations between tasks, forehead kisses, and earnest touches. Nothing you did ever went unnoticed, even if it was from afar. Not a day would pass that Joshua didn’t make sure that you knew your worth. Loving notes were left on the mirror, sweet nothings were whispered in passing, and deep conversations were held over cups of coffee. It’s almost as if he was fueled by making you blush.

Nights with Joshua were… candlelit dinners at your favorite restaurant shared smiles that make your cheekbones hurt, and whipped cream kisses. However, the feast didn’t end after dessert but continued all the way to the bed. He was always a starved man when it came to you, but you were insatiable as well. Maybe you’d two even try a new kink that was mentioned over dinner every so often.

Wen Junhui

Days with Junhui were… comfortable, quiet walks around town just to end up at a cat café. He’d talk your ear off the whole way home about how cute that one kitty was and how you two should go back tomorrow. He’d become shy once he’d realized he hadn’t let you get a word in once, but you always reassure him that you love listening to him, no matter the topic.

Nights with Junhui were… loving arms encapsulating your frame as you both scrolled through your social media. You’d find yourself counting his moles just like how you’d count the stars in the night sky. He’d give you a curious look up until you’d smash your lips into his, which of course he’d melt into without hesitation. He likes when you take control, he loves that you take the time every night to let him know just how important he is to you.

Kwon Soonyoung

Days with Soonyoung were… toothy smiles and shared sweatshirts. Soonyoung couldn’t hide his chuckle or smile when you’d stumble out of your room in his clothing. If he could, he’d bottle you up and take you everywhere with him. However, it was Soonyoung who followed you everywhere, to the grocery store, to the mall, on your walks to the park when you’d already put your headphones on. It’s not like you’d ever complain though, you don’t know what you’d do without him.

Nights with Soonyoung were… coming up with ridiculous dance moves in the middle of a bar. Everyone was convinced you two were the perfect match. Beyond the bubbly nature of your relationship, nights with Soonyoung were carnal, driven by pure desire and hunger. All you had to do was nibble on his ear, whisper something dirty, and he was on his knees at the edge of the bed for you. God, you were perfect for him, there was no one else like you.

Jeon Wonwoo

Days with Wonwoo were… cozy like rainy days, the smell of petrichor making you feel at ease as you and Wonwoo start yet another movie. You both liked the excuse to stay in with each other all day with no obligations, just enjoying one another’s company and listening to the pitter-patter of raindrops on the window. You’d sink deeper into his hold when he’d laugh at a funny part of whatever movie was on, loving the way his deep laugh vibrated from his firm chest and made your entire body tingle with warmth.

Nights with Wonwoo were… letting him teach you his favorite game and pouting when you’d continue to lose to him, even though he is an experienced player. Shockingly enough, you’d soon become better at it than he is after a few hours spent playing together. Ultimately, this would earn you a special award later in between the sheets for all your achievements. He’d still make you work for it though as a reminder of your bratty attitude earlier on, but he’d make it worth your while as per usual.

Lee Jihoon

Days with Jihoon were… packed lunches and visits to him. He was the hardest worker you’d ever met, someone had to take care of him, and you made sure that person was you. He’d never know how to voice his appreciation, but you knew he’d cared without needing him to say anything. You understood just how much he cared when you peeked in the top drawer of his desk; all your little sticky notes from the packed lunches that you brought him were all saved, piled, and kept neatly in an accessible spot. You’d continue to write the notes even though he’d look flustered every time he’d open his lunch.

Nights with Jihoon were… staying tucked away in your hotel room together, sharing fleeting kisses during commercials, and venturing out to the local convenience store to pick up various snacks. You made Jihoon crack in ways that no one else ever could. He’d like to consider he had good restraint, but that didn’t apply when it came to you. You’d be pinned down tightly against whatever surface he could have you on, basking in the way you’d become so pliable for him so quickly.

Lee Seokmin

Days with Seokmin were… soaking in the sunshine of his everlasting warmth, feeling sun-kissed from all the shared chuckles and jokes. You’re not even sure what you two are laughing about at this point, all you know is that the world seems to slow down every time you look him in the eyes, pure joy radiating through your body and calming you for a second before you break into another fit of laughter.

Nights with Seokmin were… scattered clothing across the floor, up the stairs, and down the hallway leading to your bedroom. Your lips would only break apart to come up for air occasionally. The taste of your lips, the touch of your skin, the smell of your hair. It was all enough to overwhelm his senses. If it were up to Seokmin, he’d breathe you in all day and all night. He’d consume you if he could.

Kim Mingyu

Days with Mingyu were… random acts of kindness, the type that makes your cheeks burn when he’d drop off your favorite mid-day pick-me-up coffee at work, or when you’d come home to a bouquet of roses and a handwritten note. You didn’t need all these items when you already had the most thoughtful partner in the world, his smile when you’d walk through the door was enough of a gift for you.

Nights with Mingyu were… shy, soft touches that slowly became desperate and rough. He was easy to rile up, and you enjoyed doing so by teasing him every so often whilst you two were out and about. You’d pass by him, ensuring that you’d graze him just enough to drive him crazy, earning you a warning squeeze to your hip. You’d have him begging for you by the end of the night like the good boy he is.

Xu Minghao

Days with Minghao were… shared book recommendations, he’d bring you the most recent novel he completed and thought you might enjoy it as well. The scent of your sweet perfume would mix with the aroma of the inked paper, and there was nothing more comforting than that. Reading sessions would become tickle-fights. He liked the way you’d pout, a wide smile on his face as you squirmed in his grasp. He’d feel content once he’d released you, absolutely endeared how you’d immediately bury yourself back in the chapter you left off at.

Nights with Minghao were… random “fashion shows” that had him clutching his stomach from laughing too hard, absolutely endeared by how you’d exit his closet in haphazardly pulled-together outfits. Nights with him were also experimental because no one else knew you better than he did. Minghao knew exactly how to push you to the brink, knew exactly how to make you shiver in anticipation, and knew your body better than anyone else ever could. He could stay in with you every night if you let him.

Boo Seungkwan

Days with Seungkwan were… noticing how well your head nuzzled into the crook of Seungkwan’s neck. You two fit together like two puzzle pieces, comfortably sipping on your coffees as you two took some time to rest together between errands and daily tasks. You’d listen to Seungkwan rant about something that had gone wrong in the day. Thank goodness he couldn’t see the small smile that graced your features as he’d ramble on, sipping on the sweet taste of your drink and burrowing even deeper into his neck.

Nights with Seungkwan were… long winds of karaoke that would eventually exhaust you both. Seungkwan would watch you with an endearing smile as you plop down on the couch. The kisses were always long and deep on tired nights like this. Lovemaking was slow paced like the ballads you two had previously belted. Or the rhythm was quick and sharp, using up the last ounce of energy until you were milking him dry.

Hansol Vernon Chwe

Days with Vernon were… soft bobs of the head as you two worked on your own tasks. Vernon had curated the playlist, especially for moments like this. When you had asked him about it, he’d stuttered out a response that it was something he just threw together for fun. There wasn’t a day that went by that you didn’t listen to his playlist. Most of the songs would end up in your top played by the end of the year, forever being gentle reminders of your relationship with Vernon.

Nights with Vernon were… as if the stars and moon perfectly aligned no matter the season, the way Vernon’s eyes twinkle in the moonlight is enough for you to believe in fate. Vernon believes in it too, jaw slack every time you strip down for him, rather he is unbelieving you are his for the taking. He does everything he can to ensure you receive the love you deserve, the way your body so perfectly molds against him is a reminder that fate does really exist.

Lee Chan

Days with Chan were… constant exchanges of texts. He’d send you a pun, followed by a random picture of one of the guys, followed by a sweet “I miss you” message. You were quick to reciprocate, as something about his demeaner hit a soft spot in you. You yearned to see his bright smile after each text, knowing that the pun you shot right back would make him laugh in an instant. Imagining his soft chuckle and smile was enough to get you through the day until you could come back home to him.

Nights with Chan were… not nearly as soft as your text exchanges. It was domineering and passionate, but Chan liked when you gave him a taste of his own medicine. The bedroom was competitive for you two in a way, however, there was one shared goal of pleasing each other. You both would always go to bed satisfied, the lusty rivalry tiring you both out until you found peace in each other’s arms.

#svt smut #seventeen smut #svthub #seventeen headcanons #svt headcanons #i have no clue how to tag this

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thatswhatsushesaid · 1 year

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What other crimes do you think it would’ve been good for Untamed characters to do that they never had time for in canon?

The more likely to cause the purity police to clutch their pearls the better, please and thank you 🥰

ooooh man that's a tough one 🧐 (also I'll be going with mdzs canon here unless otherwise specified)

more murder for a-yao, obviously. I suppose it would have been particularly valid of jgy to find some way to orchestrate madam jin's death considering she injured him badly enough in the days leading up to the jinlintai stairs incident with nmj for him to have a head wound serious enough that it gapes open once he hits the ground. recall from the villainous friends extra that she has thrown crockery and a literal incense burner at him because he had the audacity to not be dead. and because jgs is a fuckboy, which is somehow jgy's problem to manage, naturally. so anyway, yes, I personally think it would have been extremely sexy of jgy to off his evil step-mother.

revenge quest for jin ling? like I'm not saying the novel is remotely suggesting this is in the cards, but thematically it seems like the natural and tragic continuation of the cycle of violence in mdzs, and all lan jingyi's jokes about him being the fussy 'young mistress jin' aside, he's one of the two characters left in the jianghu who mourns jgy after his death. alas, I just can't see lxc being the type to get his kill bill on given the state he's in post-canon, but, and I say this with tremendous affection for huaisang, I think if jin ling did actually confirm for himself that nhs was behind his xiao shushu's demise, he might do something explosively stupid about it.

ooh, speaking of huaisang--I have no idea how one would even swing this turn of events, but maybe some actual fratricide for a-sang? honestly, nmj is as much a clear threat to nhs's life near the time of his qi deviation, and even as he was qi deviating he very easily could have cut off nhs's arm and his leg. I know that nhs's love for nmj is deeply tied to his commitment to his naughty little vision quest, but, idk. rearrange a few key canon events, force nmj to do something truly heinous in front of nhs... I'm just sayin', is all. 🫖

hmm, all of this is pretty milquetoast and unlikely to result in too much pearl clutching, I need to step up my game--oh, I know, let su minshan hand mianmian over to wen chao to be used as bait for the xuanwu of slaughter! no wen chao temper tantrum, no abandonment of the other cultivators, and maybe everyone manages to escape the angry slaughter turtle cave without provoking further violence? ...yeah it's too much of a reach. oh well, I tried.

#asks answered #mdzs shitposting

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geekygirl24 · 6 months

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BL Prompts - Chapter 38 Links

Prompt from Mlkleber: Ahhh I am so far behind. Ok. So I have been mulling this over lol, thoughts on Wen Kexing finds out that Zishu would often join Beiyun & Wu Xi because they were the only people he could trust to have sex with. Jealous or Lust that ends with the 4 of them (like special occasion maybe Zishu’s birthday lol idk) getting together … maybe that was how Kexing found out accidentally … the four of them were all drinking together and Zishu offhandedly mentions missing something one of them did in bed to him? Idk… if you hate it I have other thoughts, but this one has been nagging me a bit. https://archiveofourown.org/works/46279000/chapters/128109403

Prompt from Skissa: Woah so many prompts already. Ok, gotta comment first then read =)

Is it ok to give Chai from Love on the Air a OC lover? I loved his aura & power, so to see him in action when someone's messing with his boyfriend /husband esp. during a race would be hella awesome! https://archiveofourown.org/works/46207009/chapters/127826866

Prompt from Stormborn_88:I always wondered what was "wrong" with Zhi Gang's shoulder (since they made him react to Bo Xiang noticing it, but never mentioned it again), so I thought it might be some scars?! No idea. But for the prompt lets go with scars. Bo Xiang eventually finds out that those scars were left by a not so nice ex-boyfriend of Zhi Gang's. (Would be great but not a must if the story includes one of their amazing hugs - no idea what it is, but Bo Xiang always hugs SO intense or tender. Like the hug on the bridge in Ep7 after he gives him the ring? Watched it a million times! - Only Kinn & Porsche can hug the same ^^). https://archiveofourown.org/works/46255276/chapters/127890874

Prompt from Nehaali: Hi, I would love a roommates of Poongduck 304 story! Anything that maintains the enemies to lovers premise of the show and is funny. Thank you!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/46231810/chapters/127968385

Prompt from ZarZiZanKy: Let's continue this vibe….Life: Love on the Line. Itou and Nishi. Established relationship, domestic fluff. Perhaps something about Itou getting Nishi to become more carefree. Thanks

I feel like it’s the other way round for the characters and their personalities, so I did it that way. https://archiveofourown.org/works/46179736/chapters/128039143

#word of honor #love on the line #nishi x itou #roommates of poongduck 304 #history3: make our days count #bo xiang x zhi gang #love in the air

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foxbox21212 · 3 months

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It upsets me how rude, mean, and judgmental specifically libs can be to conservatives. All the while ironically talking about how they are the victims of them lol. Idk, I just get it now. And I mean hey sometimes there are mean or rude conservatives. I am not one for politics even though I more side with conservatives these days. Also most of my friends i would consider conservative.

It’s sad how the enemy divides and makes Gods people look bad. Let’s talk about Covid. Well if you don’t get the shots and wear the masks you’re just ignorant they say. Look what the government and scientists say. Covid is just like any other disease to God. But unspiritual people are not capable of understanding that God still heals today. “Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers” 2 Cor 4:4

Also I have a theory that conservative people died of covid because 1) they either didn’t believe covid is real lol which was false AND didn’t have God either unfortunately or 2) they had religious spirit and thought they knew God when they didn’t actually know him at all…

Let me give an example. My spiritual mom got a fever and she heard Jesus tell her to continue her day and go grocery shopping. So she listened and right when she left the store her fever was completely gone. It was her faith that made her well. Luke 18:42

Worldly things will not affect you if you are a true believer of God and have no evil in you. Attacks come they do we are human and susceptible to attacks. But God teaches us how to fight them away. And another thing, I’ve heard of many testimony where God did instruct people not to wear a mask or get a shot. And fortunately they ended up okay and most of the time got a new job or moved away. But these people I would consider prophetic and actually have a real intimate and tangible relationship with God. Just like my spiritual mom.

I did personally end up getting the shots and had more lib views at the time. I did not understand that Jesus heals. I didn’t understand until I would see it for my own eyes or experience healings for myself. Diseases that people got diagnosed with that same day casted out and completely gone after. It’s incredible and there is nothing else on this earth I’ve seen like it. It’s sad how people would rather trust big pharma than God, like they even care about you at all lol. But they just don’t understand because they don’t know God 🥺

Also, I had to repent of the shots and I recommend everyone repents of the shots because you probably did get something from it. I don’t want to scare anyone though. But considering the reality of the situation maybe you should be scared of the what the enemy is doing to you. Anyways, I did pray for unbelievers who had covid and they did experience either healing or Holy Spirit. And it was actually instantly most of the time. Which showed me the spiritual reality behind what is actually going on. Some people refused which made me sad but hey just goes back to that reality that they don’t understand or know God.

Reminds me of a story. I was at church, got prayed over, and received healing for something. The pastor said how I would be healing people soon and to take note. I didn’t really understand what that meant at the time just thought it was really cool. Time went on and a few weeks later I decided to randomly visit my mom. She was sick in bed. She told me how she worked with chemicals earlier, drank too much caffeine, and took adderall and she couldn’t eat or drink without throwing up. She also couldn’t sleep because she was so wired. I decided to test it out on her, and since she did already accept Holy Spirit I knew I had a good chance of healing my mom. For that is the God who heals. And I knew my mom was in a good position to receive healing. Anyways, it takes discernment which comes from the Spirit but anyways, I got my prayer book and did a prayer similar to what my pastor did for me. Took maybe 10-20 minutes. After I finished my mom literally got up, belched, and went to the kitchen to start eating food. My mom was instantly healed. And her sickness was completely gone after that.

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coquelicoq · 3 years

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i bet jiang cheng, like, studied for the cloud recesses salute ceremony. this earnest little teen sect heir who just wants his daddy to love him was probably like, "i am going to get a good grade in saying hello to lan-xiansheng, something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve," and i bet he practiced what he was going to say in front of a mirror, complete with choreography, for fucking weeks before they came to gusu. and then after all that hard work, what happens during the actual salute ceremony? he goes last, and who should stroll in just when he's getting started but wen fucking chao, who immediately steals the spotlight, insults his shige, and provokes everyone to draw their swords, in a hall of learning, on the first day of school. like some kind of hooligan! then after lan xichen calms everybody down with his sword-charming, does jiang cheng get to resume his salute? no he does not! wen qing jumps in with her own salute and gift, after which lan xichen declares the ceremony over. but jiang cheng never got a turn! nobody accepted his gift!! how is he supposed to know if authority figures approve of him if the other children don't let him show off the authority-figure-pleasing skills he has worked so hard to acquire???

#we never even got to see the jiang clan gift :( i would like to see it :(((#i fucking LOVE that wwx is like 'hey. you interrupted my shidi. what's your fucking problem?' like HELLOOOOOOOOOO #you messed with jiang cheng when he was in the middle of something important to him and made him and our sect lose face hdy #it is the only time in the entire series that wwx uses the word 'shidi' for jiang cheng and it's a great moment for that one 'shidi'#but anyway i noticed that jiang cheng never even gets to give his gift over and i was very mad on his behalf about it #idk maybe they continued after the wens left? maybe lan xichen just meant 'wen qing completed the ceremony'?#but the scene ends there so the fact remains we never see jiang cheng get to do the ceremony #and therefore i have decided he doesn't get to do it because that fits very well into my view of his character and you can't stop me #the untamed #jiang cheng #cql watch #my posts #f #the funny thing is that getting a good grade in saying hello to lan-xiansheng IS a normal thing to want and a possible thing to achieve #but because we're talking jiang 'i'm gonna stop in the middle of the street in caiyi to sternly remind my disciples to be on their best #behavior because everything they do reflects on yunmeng jiang' cheng here just ratchet it all up to 11 #EDIT: wait i forgot wwx does use 'shidi' for jc another time...when they're kids and he's first come to live at lotus pier #and he's knocking on the door like shidi let me innnnnn and jc is like who are you calling shidi #but i think maybe this is the only time he says 'my shidi' when talking about jc to someone else?#yes i checked my notes and this is correct #in guanyin temple jgy refers to jc as wwx's shidi but then wwx immediately refers to jc as something way more formal #jiang-zongzhu i think #like ouchhh #but that's for another day #that's a DIFFERENT way for jc to get his lil heart stomped on

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featherfur · 3 years

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Meng Yao should have been around when Jiang Cheng was running around with his head cut off trying to make disciples out of rogues and convince everyone to get started on the war. I just think he’d see this, probably manic, idiot who needs help and is 100% willing to be bossed around and who really doesn’t care about Meng Yao station in life because he’s just fucking desperate and wants to die but can’t because Yanli and just go “actually I’m interested”. Because Jiang Cheng would riot if he knew Meng Yao wanted to go back to his dad, and well Jiang Cheng is very pathetic when he thinks he’s being left behind (“You’re leaving me for the Jin just like Shijie? Tears and loud words for you! Tears and loud words dor a thousand years!”)

And Meng Yao would have a spot in Lotus Pier where he is VERY clearly wanted, he probably doesn’t become sworn brothers with anyone (or LXC and NMJ realize that no one needs to give the Jin any more influence and become sworn brothers with Jiang Cheng) unless it’s Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian (unfortunately WWX will still probably be killed or hunted at the very least but atleast Qin Su is alive? Maybe having MY around will help calm JC into the fact that LWJ wants to bang his brother and help him so JC can convince WWX to let LWJ atleast play for him, then maybe WWX can accidentally let slip about him already destroying one half and LWJ can help destroy the other half… Dunno if the Wen Remnants survive either sorry, honestly I don’t know if anyone can stop JGS in the long run)

So there’s two ways this goes: (under read more I have Thoughts)

Meng Yao DOES go to the Jin Sect still because JC gets wanting your Dad’s Approval even when he’s a dick AND he protects Yanli who immediately adopted him when JC showed up to the war with him. Without being stuck between a Rock and a Hard place (sorry NMJ not everyone is a annoyingly stubborn with their morals as you and MY is being hurt :( leave him alone :(( ) MY is able to continue being pressured without breaking and even though JGS keeps trying to get him to manipulate JC, MY won’t and won’t manipulate NMJ either and every time he goes to Lotus Pier to ‘look into’ the Jiang Sect he actually just spends the week being plied with children and listening to Jiang Cheng explain the fashion industry Again and talk about silks vs cashmeres vs wool so he just gets a vacay and is more prepared to stand up against his dad.

Also JC and Yanli catch on pretty quick to Madam Jin abusing MY because they were there after Madam Yu would hurt WWX and they know the signs of trying to hide the pain and Yanli suddenly starts Show Up whenever Madam Jin tries anything because that is her Didi now and she will protect him and if anyone ELSE tries to mess with him she will rip them apart like when Jin Zixun tries to bother WWX.

JGS does eventually manage to frame something on WWX but MY intervenes immediately by telling JC the truth and without the ‘did my kinda insane PTSD ridden brother so this?” Panic thoughts JC gets his people and is waiting for the force of Jin and smaller sects, with his two sworn brothers on either side. Because yeah NMJ absolutely hates the Wen but can he really ignore LXC and JC? Plus NHS on the side? He’s only there to protect WWX, anyone else can get fucked and even then he’s only protecting WWX because JC asked him too because NMJ thinks WWX sucks for choosing the wens because he’s very much of the one track ‘the wens suck’ mind. MY pretends he has no idea what’s going on but he does summon Jin Zixuan on ‘accident’ who shows up, annoyed he had to leave his kid, and is like “are we really going to accuse Nie Mingjue, known Wen hater, of protecting Wei Wuxian and lying about his innocence? Because his sword is the same size as my body and I’d rather Not”

(okay he’s more polite and subtle but that’s the gist) somehow Jin Guangshan dies, I’m voting Yanli poisoned him because I think Meng Yao is 100% willing at this point to simply take the abuse because Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen aren’t essentially telling him to murder his father and that he’s stupid for not holding harder to his morals (sorry NMJ,,, you just,, I love you but MY is hurting and he’s not as stabby as you) NMJ is still very much crankily telling him his dad sucks whenever they meet but Jiang Cheng gets all sparkly whenever MY is around because MY will say he’s Doing Good, so there’s only so much room before JC start just biting anyone who even looks at MY wrong. (NMJ says he’s proud of JC once and JC just starts crying and NMJ UnderstandsTM why MY won’t leave him alone)

But Yanli has to be the one to kill him because MY wouldn’t because he’s a filial son and probably hasn’t lost his hope he will be Loved, Jin Zixuan wouldn’t because he’s like the only one in the entire show not down with murder, Madam Jin is not about to give up the power and money that comes from being the wife of Jin Guangshan even if JZX would take care of her because Yanli clearly is willing to rip everyone apart who fucks with her family and unlike Jiang Cheng is willing to change the status quo, and if JGS dies on a hunt they’ll blame WWX so Yanli just poisons him slowly and he dies from ‘illness’. JZX takes power, Meng Yao is told he’s amazing twelve times a day because JZX can do busy work and argue against anyone but he cannot have a small talk conversation to save his life. Life continues peacefully, Jiang Cheng keeps kidnapping JZX’s advisor because he misses him. Meng Yao knows how to control literally every single great sect but he’s busy chasing down his nephews and helping Jiang Cheng avoid marriage offers to do anything.

Once Jin Guangshan died, LXC and MY both swooped in to have the Wen Remnants moved somewhere else to ‘civilize’ them (using LXC’s own words here) and WWX is very much caught between Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji arguing over who he’s going home with and he’s honestly never felt more Loved TM. WWX spends six months to break the rest of the tiger rally under the grumpy/watchful eye of NMJ who still isn’t happy anyone from the Wen’s is still alive but he’s weak to puppy eyes and also when he’s being strong armed by his sworn brothers, MY, and NHS (though he still keeps an eye on the actual cultivators, he’s pretty much forgotten the rest of the Wen Remnants exist he just cares about the ones who know how to use a sword). Wangxian happens, idk how I’m voting for a wild Jingyi another orphan decides that he wants to meet the Purple Angry Man and body slams into WWX’s legs trying to get to the Purple man and LWJ catches him and it’s a full on romantic moment of staring into each other’s eyes while Jiang Cheng makes disgusted noises and Meng Yao pats his hand and just tells him to accept it.

Or Meng Yao stays in Lotus Pier because Jiang Cheng has problems and Meng Yao loves a messy loudmouth aggressive bitch with a secret heart of gold. Also Jiang Cheng is the exact kind of Demi-aroace dummy to not realize Meng Yao has a crush on LXC and keeps sending him over to Cloud Recesses to help with trade or something and MY gets to hang out with his crush constantly.

MY is Jiang Cheng’s personal advisor since WWX is currently refusing to process his trauma and staying in a very traumatic place. MY does try to help but WWX doesn’t trust him and probably only half trusts him around JC, BUT MY is very good with kids and helps work with JC on how to slip WWX supplies while negotiating directly with Nie and Lan without Jin glaring over him this time, and Jin Zixuan is more than happy to help when he can because again he’s just like the only one with modern morals and wants Lotus Pier to be strong since if all the sects fall then well the fucking demons/ghosts they hunt will eat them. So WWX is slowly atleast not ready to kill him, Meng Yao finds out WWX already destroyed half the Tiger Tally and tries to get him to let NMJ and LXC help him destroy it further (because that ties the three sects closer and so WWX won’t just stab someone if someone isn’t happy about the Wen’s existing)

Yanli poisons Jin Guangshan again because I think that’s the best way for him to go, Meng Yao does grieve but also that lasts for three minutes before Jiang Cheng shows up with some children he found in Yunmeng and Meng Yao needs to explain to him again that just because the kid latches on doesn’t mean you can take them home. But with JGS out of the way it’s a lot easier to strong arm NMJ into letting the Lan take the remnants (JC and NMJ still aren’t happy about it but NMJ can’t fight the three other sects and JC is getting his brother back and he’ll take the Wen living if that means WWX is too) and WWX returns to Lotus Pier. The truth of the golden core comes out probably via WWX having a flashback or panic attack or something (or that one theory of Yanli knowing,,,) words happen, WWX storms off to find LWJ.

Meng Yao wonders why he likes messy cry babies but still helps out Jiang Cheng because they’re technically brother in laws and also because he really does care about him. Wangxian happens and now Jiang Cheng is really pissed but WWX also said he wasn’t going to just up and leave so they’re on a rotating system but honestly everyone’s just waiting for them to move permanently to Lotus Pier because Lan Wangji has this giant hole in his heart for kids who love Wei Wuxian and Lotus Pier is filled with kids who are Jiang and therefore are insane ans love WWX.

Personally I think this one is the least likely but it sounds very nice right?

#the untamed #mdzs #Jiang Cheng #Meng Yao #Jin Guangyao #fix it #sorta #Lan Xichen #Nie Mingjue #Jiang Yanl #Wei Wuxian #read more #don’t take any of this seriously lmao pls I’m just fucking around

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rosethornewrites · 3 years

Text

Fic: frost on the frozen ground

Relationships: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén/Mèng Yáo | Jīn Guāngyáo

Characters: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Lan Qiren, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Wen Qing, Fourth Uncle, Jin Zixun

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Modern AU, Corporate Espionage, Bad Uncle Lán Qǐrén, Anxiety, Confrontations, Family, References to Depression, Bunnies, Found Family, Podfic Welcome

Summary: Wei Ying and A-Zhan are still dealing with the fallout weeks after the public arrest of Meng Yao and Jin Guangshan cleared Wei Ying's name, when an uninvited visitor shows up. Second in the moonlight falls corporate spy AU series, inspired by @angstymdzsthoughts.

Notes: See end.

AO3 link

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Wei Ying was exhausted. It wasn’t even a physical sort of exhaustion, but one brought on by the absolute circus the last few weeks had been, following the very public arrest of Lan Xichen’s fiancé for the exact corporate espionage Gusu Lan Tech had accused him of and ruined his life over five years ago.

Trust Nie Huaisang to somehow convince the FBI to arrest Meng Yao during a major family dinner for the grooms that was well-attended by the media as a sort of social gala, and to also ensure they arrested Jin Guangshan at the same time. He was only the head of Jin Enterprises, so it’s not like it didn’t send that company’s stocks tanking immediately while also humiliating Gusu Lan Tech.

Nie Huaisang did petty well.

Wei Ying just wished the aftermath hadn’t meant reporters hounding him and A-Zhan almost constantly, though that wasn’t Huaisang’s fault. At least, that he knew of—his old friend hadn’t reached out, and Wei Ying didn’t know whether to expect him to.

They’d had to start screening their calls and if they did go out, it was wearing disguises and usually separately.

It had started when Jin Guangshan’s shitty nephew had attempted to ambush interview them while they were shopping for groceries with A-Yuan.

Everyone knew he was a hack. Jin Zixun had majored in history at a university his uncle was on the board of (the only reason he was even admitted) and barely got his degree. He’d been resoundingly rejected by every reputable employer despite his uncle’s best efforts, and could only get a job at some hack blog site pretending to be news and to have journalistic integrity. He was largely known for ludicrous conspiracy theories, vehement misogyny, and, weirdly, white nationalist talking points, but his articles and livestreams apparently got enough advertising revenue to merit his continued employment.

He had the nerve to imply Wei Ying had somehow framed Meng Yao and Jin Guangshan.

On the bright side, the camera had been livestreaming, and A-Zhan had verbally eviscerated him and implied that he probably had a hand in the corporate espionage, that maybe the investigation should look into him.

“I recall your name and the insulting things you said and wrote about Wei Ying. You claimed, without evidence, there was a connection with Compu-Jiang, and then they took a financial hit. Trying to take out your uncle’s competition?”

Jin Zixun’s face had turned interesting colors and he cut the camera, but the damage was done. They learned the next day he was canned from the pseudo-journalist farce and the FBI had declared him a “person of interest” and seized his electronics.

The interest in that led to more media coverage looking at the Weis, rekindling interest in the false accusation and Wei Ying’s blacklisting from the industry. Uncle Four had banned reporters from the premises, and since he owned the building that meant they at least weren’t buzzing the apartment from the lobby or, worse, somehow getting in and knocking on their door, for the most part at least. Now they were simply waiting across the street and accosting them if they spotted them, something that most often happened if they were together, and less if they were separate.

Wei Ying didn’t want to revisit the year or so following the blacklisting. Even with A-Zhan beside him, it had been like a montage of humiliation and pain. He hated that these reporters wanted to put all that on display again.

The Wens had been amazing, often bringing them groceries and cooked meals, but they couldn’t stay cooped up—they had a son, and he was fond of parks and libraries. Sometimes his aunts or uncles or Granny would take him out for them if there was a congregation of reporters, and that had at least ensured the parasites hadn’t caught on to A-Yuan’s existence connected to them yet.

As a bright spot, A-Li had contacted him. With her father-in-law in prison for the corporate espionage Wei Ying had been framed for, her husband had consented to let him meet his nephew. She was excited to meet A-Yuan. They were just waiting for some of the furor to die down.

Even though it was Saturday, Wei Ying was finishing a coding project while A-Zhan was taking A-Yuan to the library and then a different park than usual. He wished he could go with them, but it was better not to tempt fate.

He was nearly finished sorting out a coding error when the bell for the apartment building buzzer rang. Sighing in irritation, he stalked to the door and pressed the button to respond, careful not to press the one that unlocked the door.

“No comment. Please leave the premises.”

“I am not the press,” a gravelly male voice responded.

Wei Ying blinked. He knew that voice, but he couldn’t place it.

“Name?”

“You know perfectly well who I am.”

It was the haughtiness of the tone that pinged his memory. How could he forget, being lectured by Lan Qiren on his ungrateful nature and ruining of his nephew when he was being fired?

Just the memory made him nauseous. As far as he knew, Lan Qiren hadn’t reached out to A-Zhan, though Lan Xichen had, apologizing that they would be dragged into this again.

Quickly, he pulled his phone from his pocket and fired a text message off to A-Zhan.

Your uncle is here

“You’ll need to make an appointment,” he said blithely. “Have Lan Xichen set it up with A-Zhan. He has his number.”

His phone dinged as the uninvited visitor made outraged sounds that he very carefully refused to allow to register as words. Then the buzzer started up again, and he ignored it.

Not invited. Do not let him in.

In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Wei Ying had to smile over his husband’s use of proper punctuation and capitalization, ever proper even via text.

on it, he replied. will let you know when clear

The noise from the intercom/buzzer ceased, thankfully, and Wei Ying moved back toward the office, stepping over the barrier that kept Turmeric from getting to all the cords. As he did, he texted Wen Qing to let her know what had happened.

a-zhans uncle buzzed from lobby

told him to make appt

idk what he wants

He sat down with a sigh and stretched before trying to immerse himself back in the code. He’d just found his line of coding error when a knock on the door reverberated through the apartment. Before he could even contemplate getting up, his phone chimed, a text from Wen Qing.

Auntie 6 came to me

He followed her in

Uncle 4 and I are on it

Which meant, of course, that Lan Qiren had breached the building, likely not even registering that he was trespassing, or so privileged that he felt trespassing laws didn’t apply to him.

Fuck.

He could feel his anxiety rising, something he didn’t need. Now was not the time for a Xanax, no matter how much his heart was fluttering at the idea of having to deal with A-Zhan’s uncle.

lmk when i can escape, he sent back.

Then he texted A-Zhan.

breached perimeter

qing-jie & unc 4 to rescue

will come to u

where r u?

Wei Ying crept to the living room, trying to stay quiet as the intruder knocked again, more forcefully. He debated for a moment, fiddling with his phone nervously before slipping it in his pocket, then grabbed Turmeric’s carrier, leash, and harness. The bunny needed some outdoors time, and Wei Ying would probably be able to meet A-Zhan and A-Yuan at the park.

The knocking continued, and he was certain before long Lan Qiren would lose all sense of decorum and start yelling through the door.

plz hurry, he texted Wen Qing.

He donned a hat A-Yuan had gifted him for Father’s Day, an adorable white bucket hat with bunnies and carrots on it, and a pair of big sunglasses. He was wearing torn jeans and a black t-shirt with a binary code motif Wen Ning had given him for Christmas—it read “fuck off,” but wasn’t too inappropriate given that only coders could read it. He was as decent as he was going to get.

Wei Ying opened Turmeric’s hutch and scooped him gently into the carrier, hushing him even though he was completely quiet and cooperative. He felt like an intruder in his own home, and it left a sour taste in his mouth.

Finally, he could hear voices outside the door—Uncle Four’s boisterous voice asking what he could do for “the gentleman,” Wen Qing mentioning trespassing, Lan Qiren’s haughtiness slowly sputtering out, growing distant as they led him away.

His phone dinged twice, A-Zhan texting the location of the park, and Wen Qing giving the all-clear. Wei Ying grabbed his shoes, keys, and wallet, Turmeric’s crate and his sundries, and slipped out of the apartment in socked feet, easing the door shut and locking it as quietly as he could.

He practically tiptoed down the side staircase, the one that didn’t lead to the lobby but straight outside, and slipped his shoes on in the vestibule before slipping outside into the sunshine, making sure the door shut behind him without anyone getting in.

The park, thankfully, was not too far away, and he didn’t see any reporters on this side of the building. Likely they had seen Lan Qiren enter and were all crowded on the side near the lobby hoping to see something good.

Fat chance.

Wei Ying booked it the first few blocks before he felt like he’d escaped and started to calm, but he didn’t really relax until he could see A-Zhan in the distance, looking in his direction, A-Yuan beside him sipping on a boxed apple juice. His husband folded him into a hug, and he could feel the tension ease from his body with a soft sigh.

“I brought Turmeric. He could use some outside time.”

The tiny smile he got from A-Zhan finished the job of easing the worst of his anxiety, and they sat with A-Yuan on the grass to bring Turmeric out of the carrier and belt him into his little harness.

His fingers fumbled on the buckles and he sighed in frustration.

“Sit, A-Ying,” A-Zhan said. “Relax.”

There was a bit of worry in his eyes, and that told Wei Ying he must look frazzled. A-Zhan knew his anxieties, knew what Lan Qiren had said to him, something he’d opened up about long ago, when they’d learned to communicate and work as a team, and when Wei Ying was learning not to push him away.

And so Wei Ying settled back and let him finish with Turmeric, focused on the sunshine and the breeze and the soft grass beneath him. His fingers itched to pull out his phone, though he’d received no notifications, and he resisted it, instead rubbing his hand along the surface of the grass, letting the individual strands tickle his palms.

Before long, their absolutely adorable second son was contentedly exploring the grass, and curious children were starting to gather. A-Zhan explained bunnies didn’t like loud noises and sudden movements, and told them if they had permission from their parents, they could approach one at a time to pet him.

A-Yuan tumbled into Wei Ying’s lap, content to watch Turmeric from there, and he had no doubt his son had picked up on his anxiety. He was a bright boy.

Eventually, the children wandered away, a calm bunny only so interesting, and A-Yuan was half-asleep on his lap. A-Zhan’s phone dinged, and he handed the leash to Wei Ying before fishing it out. A bit of texting and a few alerts later, his mouth was downturned.

“A-Zhan?” he asked.

“I sent Xichen to retrieve Qiren, but he insists he must speak to me.”

Wei Ying fantasized briefly about Lan Qiren being led from the premises in handcuffs, yelling, but he knew that wouldn’t solve anything. It could well make things worse, so he wasn’t even able to enjoy the fantasy.

“The board voted to remove xiongzhang,” he added. “Likely he wishes to insist I take over the company.”

He felt his chest clench at that. Pity toward Xichen, who had done what he could to keep Wei Ying out of prison even if only for A-Zhan’s sake, and the grief he was facing as his life fell apart around him. But more, there was fear that A-Zhan would take it, would leave him behind—not a rational fear given everything they had weathered together, but anxiety was cruel.

“You can take it if you want it, A-Zhan,” he said after a minute.

A-Zhan made a noncommittal noise.

“I am texting Wen Qing to prepare a conference room so we need not open our home to him,” he replied after a moment. “I should hear him out.”

Wei Ying looked away, swallowing hard at the taste of bile. His vision was blurred, but he kept a handle on it, refused to cry again over this.

“I… I’ll stay with A-Yuan while you meet him.”

He startled when A-Zhan knelt in front of him and took his hands.

“We are together in this and all things. Granny will meet us and watch A-Yuan during the meeting. I need you there, A-Ying. I will say no.”

Wei Ying glanced up at him.

“He will hound us until I meet with him, but I will not go back to Gusu Lan Tech,” A-Zhan said, his voice insistent, worried. “My place is with you, at Dafan.”

“You’re sure you don’t want it?” he couldn’t help asking.

This was, after all, a chance for A-Zhan to reconcile with his family and further his career. But his husband’s expression turned stormy at the question.

“They will never admit to having wronged you, A-Ying. I cannot abide that.”

Wei Ying manages a weak smile.

“They’ll never admit they wronged you, either.”

A-Zhan nodded, the corners of his lips taut with stress.

“Wen Qing will sit in with us since this is now a Dafan Applications matter. Uncle Four, too.”

Wei Ying blinked at him blankly for a moment before he understood. Technically Gusu Lan Tech was trying to poach A-Zhan from Dafan Applications, which made it company business. Lan Qiren was trespassing on Uncle Four’s property, which made it his business. And it meant they’d have witnesses. His husband was clever, and so was Wen Qing.

“A-Die, baba, okay?”

A-Yuan looked up at them solemnly. The poor child had been with them at the grocery store when Jin Zixun had ambushed them, had seen so much these past weeks that he didn’t understand. He deserved some explanation.

“We are, baobei,” Wei Ying said firmly. “Bad things happened a few years ago. Someone made it look like a-die did something bad, and they just got caught.”

He could see the moment their son understood.

“That’s why the mean man said it was your fault?”

Wei Ying nodded, and A-Yuan squirmed out of his lap to give him a giant hug.

“Thank you. Now baba’s uncle wants to talk to us, so we need to go home. You’ll visit with popo while we find out what he wants, okay?”

A-Yuan bit his lip, looking more anxious than a child his age should.

“Baba’s uncle won’t be mean to you, will he?”

His heart broke at his son’s concern. It was clear he’d picked up on undertones they thought they’d kept away. A-Zhan wrapped A-Yuan in a hug.

“Baba won’t let shufu be mean to a-die,” A-Zhan said seriously.

“And your gugu will be with us, so she won’t let him be mean to either of us,” Wei Ying added.

A-Yuan brightened—Wen Qing had a reputation, one even her five-year-old nephew was aware of. He trusted her to protect his dads.

“Okay,” A-Yuan said. “If you bring Turmeric with you, he’ll comfort you if he’s mean!”

Wei Ying smiled at that.

“That’s why we’re leaving Turmeric with you, so he can comfort you. I know you’re worried, but baba and I will be okay. We’ll come right home when we’re done and snuggle with you and Turmeric.”

Their son seemed to accept that, and A-Zhan deftly removed Turmeric’s harness and placed him in the carrier. He pulled their disguises from a bag. Wei Ying was delighted when A-Yuan put on his brown bunny bucket hat, and he reached out to arrange the ears once the boy had it on. A-Zhan was wearing his own bucket hat, green with frog eyes, also a Father’s Day gift from A-Yuan.

Honesty, he hadn’t expected that fatherhood would make A-Zhan even sexier, but he wasn’t complaining.

The walk home was quiet. Wei Ying dreaded reaching home and hated that he felt that way. The home he had made with A-Zhan and A-Yuan was precious to him, and it felt like a sacred space had been violated.

As they drew nearer, they planned to separate, A-Zhan taking A-Yuan to one side staircase, and Wei Ying taking Turmeric to the other, the plan to meet at the apartment.

Wei Ying was actually surprised when it went off without a hitch, and he opened the stairwell door to see A-Zhan unlocking the door, Granny already hugging A-Yuan. Just a few years ago she’d have picked him up, but he was a bit big for that now.

She smiled at his approach, reaching up to pat him on the cheek.

“Aiya, you look so stressed. Popo will make dinner,” she said. “Auntie Three is making baozi for the building, too.”

Several of the aunties loved cooking different things in excess, so every few weeks they would make a huge batch of something delicious for the whole building, since everyone in the building was family. Auntie Three’s baozi were a favorite of his; she remembered his love for spicy food and always accommodated that in his.

“Extra spicy for A-Ying,” he chirped, though popo clucked softly in a way that let him know she saw through his attempt at cheer.

She headed straight for the kitchen, where she would likely catalogue the fridge to decide what to cook. Whatever she made, it would be delicious; his mouth was almost watering just thinking about it.

He focused on getting Turmeric settled in his hutch, and A-Zhan got A-Yuan situated with a coloring book and crayons.

“I should change,” Wei Ying said, remembering his torn jeans and the shirt Lan Qiren might be able to decode.

He’d probably think Wei Ying wore the shirt on purpose to send a message. Frankly, Wei Ying wouldn’t mind that interpretation, but he didn’t want to antagonize.

“What you are wearing is fine,” A-Zhan said, catching his wrist. “He interrupted our day, and he can get us as we are.”

A-Zhan was still wearing the frog bucket hat, with apparently no intent on removing it. His light blue shirt, Wei Ying noticed for the first time, was the one with a print of a rabbit wearing glasses and a bow tie, with ‘daddy’ in script underneath. Wei Ying snagged his hat with the bunnies and carrots motif from where he’d placed it atop the bunny hutch and put it back on. They’d match, to a certain extent, present a united front.

“Be good for popo,” A-Zhan directed A-Yuan, as though their son would ever be anything but good.

The boy simply nodded and discarded his crayon to run over and hug them both.

The first two floors of the building were Dafan Applications office space. Though the first floor also held a lovely coffee shop and several other stores open to the public, the core of the building was the headquarters. An elevator and staircase serviced the offices, accessible with employee IDs. Each office was accessible only by swiping employee IDs, and record was kept of who entered and when.

Since the apartments were held entirely by family, it might have seemed paranoid, but Wei Ying was glad for the security the building had—after all, the lack of it at Gusu Lan Tech had led to him being framed for corporate espionage. Poorly, but it ultimately hadn’t mattered.

He hadn’t understood why he’d been framed, only that he’d had to correct Su She’s subpar coding many times when he’d worked there, so it wasn’t very surprising that he’d fuck up installing the code to the point where it would be caught before it could do damage. Since he’d never been anything but pleasant to Su She, that he’d been targeted had surprised him.

When he had mentioned his confusion to A-Zhan, about a week after the news broke, he learned that Su She had tried to tell A-Zhan that Wei Ying was a poor choice as a romantic partner, implying he would be better.

“I told him he was not qualified to speak with me,” A-Zhan had recollected.

It made a sick sort of sense—if Wei Ying was out of the way, fired or imprisoned, Su She might think he had a shot. And given that Lan Qiren had hated him even before he and A-Zhan started dating, the frame up job was sufficient.

A-Zhan took his hand and led him into the elevator, and he realized he must have blanked out because he hadn’t even heard it arrive. His husband was watching him in concern, and he hated how much this invasion by Lan Qiren was messing with him, but he absolutely wasn’t going to abandon A-Zhan to face him alone.

“I’m okay,” Wei Ying said. “I just want to get it over with.”

Uncle Four was waiting for them by the elevators. He offered a smile.

“I’ll bring by a few bottles of my newest brew later,” he said in greeting.

“That bad, huh?” Wei Ying asked ruefully.

“I don’t wish to speak ill of A-Zhan’s family,” Uncle Four said deferentially.

‘But that man…’ was heavily implied.

A-Zhan inclined his head.

“He decided Wei Ying’s guilt on flimsy evidence,” his husband said, his tone dismissive.

Wei Ying squeezed his hand—it was as close to disparaging as A-Zhan had ever come toward his uncle. More often, they simply pretended he didn’t exist, which prior to this had been fairly easy. When they had spoken of it, when he had finally told A-Zhan in one of his darker moments what Lan Qiren had said to him when running him out of Gusu Lan Tech with security, his husband had simply folded him in his arms and told him he was wrong, over and over again, and reiterated that he had chosen Wei Ying.

A-Zhan was angry, he realized. Perhaps over Lan Qiren returning to their life with all of his customary arrogance, or perhaps in defense of his brother, who was being excised from the company. He remembered, early in their relationship, learning that both brothers had been told what to major in, prepped for what Lan Qiren thought their careers should look like at Gusu Lan, which was why A-Zhan hadn’t been able to pursue music as he had wished. It was why he had expected him to break up with him, as ordered.

He wondered what Lan Xichen had given up, what dreams he had let go to serve his family.

“Tomorrow,” he told Uncle Four. “I think we’ll need tonight for us.”

The older man offered a sympathetic smile and escorted them to the conference room.

It was the ostentatious one they used for particularly obnoxious or status-obsessed clients, with handsomely-carved panels with the Dafan Applications logo and an imposing table that looked expensive but were actually the work of a family member with a woodworking hobby. It had two doors, one on either side of the long table, which was ideal—they wouldn’t have to walk past Lan Qiren to get in or out.

When they entered, Wei Ying’s gaze was drawn to Lan Xichen first, seated at the side of the table. He looked… defeated was the first word to come to mind. He glanced at his husband, could see he too was looking at his brother, concerned lines at the corners of his eyes betraying his emotions.

“Finally,” Lan Qiren commented, drawing their attention. “I don’t have all day.”

His gaze was, as usual, disapproving, and he completely disregarded the fact that he had been the one to crash their day, not the other way around.

“My husband told you to schedule an appointment,” A-Zhan said in lieu of greeting.

He tugged Wei Ying to the head of the table, where someone had thoughtfully placed two chairs. Qing-jie was his guess, letting them present as the team they were. She was on one side of the table beside the seats, and Uncle Four sat on the other, probably as owner of the building. Wen Ning was too faint-hearted to handle this, he knew, even though he was technically the head of Dafan Applications.

“An appointment, to see my own nephew?” Lan Qiren grated, glaring at Wei Ying like it was his fault.

“You told me five years ago that I was no nephew of yours,” A-Zhan said, his voice dispassionate.

Wei Ying knew how much that had hurt A-Zhan. Part of him wanted to tell Lan Qiren that, rail at him over every emotional scar he had inflicted on the both of them, but he also knew there was no point in it—he wouldn’t listen, and he knew well enough that it wouldn’t be cathartic. It was better to let A-Zhan get this over with and be here to support him.

“You were making a mistake!”

His continued glaring at Wei Ying made it obvious what “mistake” he was referring to, and he barely managed not to flinch. It was clear this conversation was not going to be pleasant. A-Zhan took his hand, lacing their fingers together and squeezing gently.

“As I recall, the evidence that he was not making a mistake has been all over the news,” Wen Qing drawled.

“What business is it of yours?” Lan Qiren demanded. “Why are you here?”

“As witnesses,” she replied. “And A-Zhan and A-Ying are family. We’re here for them.”

Warmth spread through Wei Ying’s chest at her pronouncement—he often referred to her as Qing-jie, but hadn’t known the sentiment was returned.

“And I own the building in which you are currently trespassing,” Uncle Four added.

Where he was normally a jovial and friendly man, his expression was serious and bordering on unwelcoming. Apparently Lan Qiren had made quite the impression on him.

Lan Qiren sniffed disdainfully, but finally focused on A-Zhan.

“The board has decided Xichen’s… indiscretions make him unfit to head the company. You have been appointed in his place. You will, of course, be expected to take the Lan name again, as will the child you’ve adopted. I’ve taken the liberty of securing housing for you, and I suppose we can find a place in the company for your husband, on a provisionary basis, of course.”

Dead silence followed his pronouncement, and Wei Ying felt dizzy with the presumption of all of this—A-Zhan was being ordered back to Gusu Lan Tech as though this wasn’t the first they’d seen or heard from Lan Qiren in over five years, clearly expected to obey without question.

“Provisionary?” A-Zhan murmured, his voice icy with what Wei Ying recognized as fury.

He squeezed A-Zhan’s hand, silently asking that he not be angry on his behalf. After all, he expected nothing but this treatment from Lan Qiren, so he wasn’t surprised to receive it.

“He’ll be expected to prove himself, of course.”

“He already has,” Wen Qing cut in. “He’s been an asset to Dafan Applications since the day we hired him, paramount to our success.”

Lan Qiren sniffed dismissively.

“Yes, well, his previous stint of employment at Gusu Lan Tech left much to be desired.”

A-Zhan’s jaw clenched. Wei Ying’s stomach roiled, remembering the constant criticism he’d faced there, how ultimately he wondered why they’d even agreed to hire him.

“I will not subject my husband to further abuse at the hands of the company that attempted to ruin his career.”

To his surprise, Lan Qiren looked satisfied by that statement.

“Then we’ll arrange for your move. You’ll be expected to dress more professionally in the future, as the representative of the company.”

He eyed A-Zhan’s hat and clothing with distaste.

Wei Ying stole a glance at Xichen, who looked haggard and drained and was barely listening to the conversation, and felt empathy for his situation. Xichen had always treated him kindly, until he went no-contact after A-Zhan’s resignation, something he was likely ordered to do. Even so, he also sought to warn them of what had happened, and had informed A-Zhan of Lan Qiren’s intentions. And he had stood fast against the board’s desire to have him prosecuted.

And now the man he had been set to marry is in prison, having brought Nie Innovations to its knees and attempted the same with Gusu Lan Tech, and what happiness he’d been looking forward to was just so much smoke.

“You misunderstand,” A-Zhan said. “I do not intend to relocate, or take on the Lan name, or chair Gusu Lan Tech. I will continue to work at Dafan and live in my apartment with my husband and our son. I will remain Wei Zhan.”

Lan Qiren looked shocked, almost as though he had been physically slapped, and then the anger returned.

“You leave me no choice. It will be a simple matter to buy out Dafan,” he said.

Wen Qing laughed at the threat.

“Dafan Applications is a worker cooperative. You have no power.”

For the first time he’d known him, Lan Qiren seemed incapable of words. After all, it meant that he and A-Zhan were part owners of Dafan, as all employees were, something he would never offer at Gusu Lan. Wei Ying privately hoped he was having an internal fit over the socialism of worker cooperatives.

A-Zhan, however, had plenty to say.

“You disrupted our Saturday after five years of silence to demand I change my life to suit your whims,” A-Zhan said coldly. “You didn’t even have the grace to apologize to Wei Ying, whose life and career you tried to destroy.”

Lan Qiren’s expression turned stormy.

“You chose this ill-bred miscreant over your family, and you expect me to apologize to him?”

“No,” A-Zhan said. “I chose the truth. I chose love. A-Ying is my family.”

“You,” Lan Qiren snarled, turning his attention to Wei Ying. “This rebellion is all your influence! A-Zhan was filial until you came along!”

Wei Ying stayed silent. His anxiety spiked but was soothed by A-Zhan’s hand in his, in the feeling of his fingers entwined. Lan Qiren could do nothing to them—he’d already tried, and they’d ultimately come out stronger. They’d built a life and found new family.

There was so much he could say, but he knew better than to think Lan Qiren would listen; he was a convenient scapegoat, and nothing would convince him otherwise.

“Have you nothing to say, you ingrate?” Lan Qiren demanded.

A-Zhan tensed, but Wei Ying squeezed his hand.

“I see no point in speaking to you,” he said honestly.

“You dare!”

Lan Qiren stood, quivering with rage.

“You broke our family as completely as you broke the Jiangs, and you have the gall to sit there smirking, enjoying the mess you’ve made!”

Mention of the Jiangs hurt—it had been weeks and only A-Li had reached out, but she had never broken contact to begin with.

Wen Qing slapped the table and stood, startling them.

“I’ve heard quite enough. You can’t bully your estranged nephew into uprooting the life he built after you alienated him, so you go after A-Ying again. You act the victim, but you drove A-Zhan away with your unmerited vitriol toward A-Ying.”

Uncle Four stood as well. He was a calm man, but Wei Ying could see him tremble—in anger or nervousness, he didn’t know.

“You are not welcome here, Lan Qiren. Leave or you will be removed.”

“And given that you attempted to poach two of our best employees and threatened our company, you can tell your board that Dafan Applications will never do business with Gusu Lan Tech,” Wen Qing added.

Wei Ying knew her level of petty and wondered if their new apps would unexpectedly glitch on Gusu Lan products in the future. Probably not, since she was focused on user experience.

Maybe he was the one feeling petty, but he doubted anyone who mattered would judge him for it.

“Clearly attempting to reason with any of you is an exercise in futility,” Lan Qiren said.

It took far too much energy to suppress a nearly-hysterical giggle building in Wei Ying’s chest at his complete lack of self awareness.

“Come, Xichen. We’re done here.”

A-Zhan bristled further, glancing at Wei Ying with a question in his eyes, and he nodded. Xichen deserved to know he still had family.

“Xiongzhang may stay for dinner, if he wishes,” A-Zhan said. “Our son would love to meet his bobo.”

A tiny smile lit up Xichen’s features, and Wei Ying got the impression it was the first time he’d smiled since his fiancé’s arrest.

“I would be honored to,” he said softly.

His voice was hoarse, as though he was no longer used to speaking, or was overcome with emotion. It could easily be both.

“Thank you, didi.”

Lan Qiren scoffed, and Wen Qing pointed at the door, raising an eyebrow. When he stomped out, she and Uncle Four followed him to escort him from the premises, leaving the three of them alone.

“Were you offered another position in the company?” A-Zhan asked after a moment of uncomfortable silence.

Xichen shook his head, the fleeting smile gone.

“No. Uncle believes I need time to reflect on my mistakes.”

Wei Ying didn’t hold back a scoff, given that Lan Qiren had referred to him as A-Zhan’s mistake.

“You didn’t make any mistakes. You had no way of knowing.”

The smile Xichen offers is wrong, bitter.

“I should have done more. Instead of letting them scapegoat you, I should have insisted on a full investigation. Maybe we would have uncovered the truth and protected you. Maybe we could have prevented the damage to Nie Innovations and Mingjue’s health, too.”

He had forgotten that Xichen and Mingjue were friends somehow. Wei Ying wanted to tell him the guilt he carried was a burden that shouldn’t be his, but he also knew from struggling with his own that it was something Xichen would need to come to terms with himself.

“You should reach out to him,” A-Zhan said, looking at Wei Ying like he knew what he was thinking. “I doubt he blames you, and perhaps he could use the help.”

Xichen looked torn on the idea. Wei Ying could almost see the thoughts running through his head—that he would be unwelcome, a burden on his friend, but that it was a way to do penance for the sins he believed he’d committed.

“I’ll think about it,” he finally said.

Wei Ying walked around the table and patted his shoulder, gesturing to the other door, the one that led to the interior of the building. A-Zhan had offered an olive branch with the invitation, and this was his.

“Come on. Popo is cooking, and Auntie Three made baozi for the whole building. And A-Yuan is waiting.”

The smile returned, a little stronger this time, and Wei Ying smiled back as Xichen levered out of his seat to follow them home.

-------------

Jin Zixun’s background is maybe based on a very well-known “journalist” who just constantly looks confused and outraged. To narrow it down, John Oliver did a segment on him recently. Uh, and maybe slightly on two other conspiracy theorists who pretend at journalism, one of whom keeps getting sued.

Also, I am old enough to text in full sentences most of the time. I had some friends check over Wei Ying’s panic texts so hopefully they’re believable.

This was difficult to write because of the anxiety Wei Ying was feeling and the uncomfortable conversations.

Also, I forgot the Nie company name and had to check—I couldn’t remember if it was Nie Innovations or Nie Industries. Turns out I accidentally used both in the first fic in the series. Fixed it now.

I maybe spent too much time researching worker cooperatives and employee-owned companies. It’s not a major part of this fic, but I thought it was a cool detail to bring in.

The title is, again, from the Li Bai poem.

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hueningshaped · 4 years

Text

★ prince of the future | w.jh

▰ genre: fluff + idk what genre time travel is but uhhh

▰ word count: 3916 (FRICK)

▰ synopsis: the one where jun is a time traveler who shows up in your apartment having just returned from an ancient war and he was also a king and you introduce him to hot dogs and cell phones + female! reader + the one where reader has to catch up with jun being a time lord of some sorts

▰ notes: cross posted on wattpad | this is my first posted imagine/thing on here >___<

▰ possible warnings :: blood, wounds, food

There was absolutely no way that any of this was real, and if it even was, you perhaps should have dialed the emergency number quite a while ago. After all, there were many factors that affected your logic and sensitivity as you were sleep deprived and had just finished working a double shift.

"Once more, sweet miss, for your ease, are there any tourniquets present within your residence?" The young man pleaded, head hung down towards the wound that one of his hands were busy addressing, while the other bloodily leaned against your doorframe.

"I-I — " your jaw seemed to be jammed, tongue caught between your teeth because this was all too much to deal with. One second, you were trying to start up your record player and the next, you were temporarily blinded by a flash of light from your kitchen.

Nonetheless, you remained in your spot, half sprawled, half sat, upon the hardwood floor.

"I suppose I could just search it myself." His militaristic, shin-high boots clicked cleanly upon the once crystal clear, tile floor as he vanished into the hallway.

You had to face the facts: this guy was tall. His head barely missed the top of the doorframe. His diction and attire obviously furthered him from this era. Maybe he was just a medieval soldier reenactor, but that seemed unlikely. In fact, the whole situation seemed unlikely. An amply bleeding wound had erupted from his thigh, flushing in loose spots across your floor.

Were you seriously going to let a man step all over you even in the strangest of circumstances? Never: you had promised yourself you wouldn't go through this again.

He audibly seemed to be pulling drawers out from their initial piece, left and right, with the thunderous cascade of your paraphernalia and belongings. The blood led to the restroom. The reflection of the sanguine drew you closer, you discovered, after arming yourself. His broad shoulders shielded him from seeing you perhaps as you entered.

You were within an arm's reach, of knocking him out with a skillet, that you had grabbed soundlessly, before he had spun the opposite direction, grabbing you, to complete the rotation, before finally, he had you, as wild as it was, in his arms, mid-fall, with your arms locked around your own neck: the skillet now amongst the mess he had made.

New fact: he was absolutely beautiful.

His stunningly-lidded eyes consisted of something far more than your bewildered reflection but a glint of wonder, a glint of mischief. Fine bloodied lines etched the edges of his cheekbones, frequented the side of his left temple, and even smudged the corner of his full and bruised lips.

"Care to explain that?" He nudged his head towards the dropped cooking pan before meeting your eyes once more.

All you could muster was a sob as your face contorted itself in your rather pathetic, frightened expression.

"Please don't kill me! Please don't hurt me! Please, please, please!" Tears blurred your vision and if you didn't know any better, you would have confirmed that you had seen a pitiful look breathe over his features.

"Darling, darling, darling... Hush. I would never kill you. Besides, I am quite unfamiliar with the way this property functions. You shall be my guide." With that said, he loosened his lock on you and hoisted you over his shoulder, which should have, maybe, broke his entire body, yet the subtle grunt seemed to prove he wasn't superhuman. But what could he be?

"I will yell for help! I'll scream!" You continued, still untrusting, as he decided to move from your bathroom to your bedroom, which for the most part was proof of the child you were at heart.

"At least let me kill myself so you don't have to!" More tears came despite your sudden grip on the doorframe of your bedroom, with this man still tugging your body forward so you could let go, but that had to be your only strength since you had trouble letting go.

This struggle gave you enough time to throw your legs the other direction, running on the hallway wall, before wrapping your entire body around his neck. Immediately collapsing with him, you should have been able to ascend and speed away yet that move had literally taken all your strength. That was your workout for the...year probably.

The man sat up, coughing still, but this time, he spat some blood to his side, eyeing you over with a half startled yet impressed smirk.

"Look at you, little warrior," he cooed with his noble, caramel voice. "I do not know what I can possibly offer so as that you cease every attempt to kill me, which I deem unfair and even a bit hypocritical. I am Wen Junhui, time-traveling lord, not to mention that I just returned from 1334, from a battle within the Yuan Dynasty. The furthest I have ventured to your time was 1991, so please forgive me for my informalities. Please take care of me and I will simply be on my way, back to 1970."

Your head had to still be spinning. His determined look never ended with yours even as you slowly joined him, sitting up.

His right eye seemed to be engulfed in blood from perhaps a reopened wound on his temple, the trail dribbling down to his chin.

"What the fuck?" You exclaimed out of instinct.

"I beg your pardon?" It bothered you that he was way too hot to be speaking like some imperial reenactor. His lips should be spouting corny jokes, bad compliments, and maybe even singing a song. (Maybe they should be on yours.)

"There's no way any of that's true. I... did you drug me?" He rolled his eyes, fortunately with a small grin on his rugged face.

"I did no such thing. In fact, opium hasn't hit China yet. It is rather exhausting traveling from place to place, or should I say, time to time, so I have not delved into drugs. Nonetheless, I am severely wounded and my internal compass —" He paused to tap the centre of his chest, which clinked, in return. " - led me here. Please. I hope my pleas meet your grace."

One tenth of you screamed over your shoulder, accepting anything he would do to you. You sighed deeply, as if you had been served the greatest plate of disappointment, yet complying to the rest of you that exhaled kindness in breaths.

"You can do whatever, I guess. Just let me call my parents and tell them my goodbye's." You trailed off finally, rising from your state upon your knees only to fall back again since that quite literally took the air right out of you.

"Call? Are they present around one of these rooms? Hello?" He began hollering with an innocent light now softening his look, despite looking as he had just come from battle, which he had even said he did.

"No!" You laughed, wiping your nose with the back of your hand, before meeting his eyes once more. "With my phone? You know what telephones are, don't you?" You showed him your smartphone, waving it around for him, which seemed to dim everything around his your hand for his focus. So, it looked he absolutely no clue what it was.

"This must be the most lofty technological advancement yet. I have never seen anything so promising yet thrilling, besides you." He commented, almost in a sing-song voice.

"What?" You stammered, to which he shook his head as if dismissing your question

"The last I saw of this mechanism had to have been grand, heavy like a cantaloupe, and anything but this, really!" Junhui exclaimed excitedly like a child. How old was he even?

His blood continued beating upon the floor in minor dots, the warmth rippling down his leathered leg in thin streams.

"So, about the, uh, tourniquets? I got some bandages in my closet, if you'd like to follow me. I also have some other stuff if you want to look and pick through." Your voice fell quiet as his eyes never once ceased the contact with you.

"Stuff?" He blinked, reaching a hand down towards you. You obliged, slipping your hand into his, fingers gripping yours with gentle ferocity, which yanked you up immediately upon into his chest. It suddenly became hot.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," you pulled away, zipping off into your bedroom. The walls were adorned with Hello Kitty plushies and anime posters and the bed filled with stuffed animals. "R-right this way. Umm, feel free to sit on the bed."

You weren't as articulate as you would have hoped to be and you also noted that you were becoming rather obsessive over your own mannerisms.

The subtle squeak of your mattress notified you of his seat but the small hums of observation caused you to become flustered of your vulnerability.

"So, uh, Junhui?" You called out.

"You may address me as Jun." He interjected.

"Okay, Jun, how old are you? Are you immortal or what?" Your question seemed to earn a rich chuckle out of him. Alas, the first aid kit was underneath a pile of old comforters.

"I turned the age of 23 in 1845 yesterday," Jun replied as you found him clutching onto your Chococat pillow against his chest. "My internal compass was inherited naturally but...as I am the last of my thin dynasty with this power, my parents urged me to travel. Never to return home."

His voice sullied over with his chin and cheeks further plummeting into the side of your pillow. There had to be blood splotches by the time he would let go.

"So, you're bleeding from where exactly?" His eyes dropped at your words, his confidence retracting by degrees as he shyly withdrew the pillow, to reveal the deteriorating patch of some material around the side of his right thigh.

"Just here?" You sat on your knees, zeroing in on his wound, not even the situation.

"It possesses the most major blood loss. The rest is minor and axial." His statement cut short as he inhaled sharply, biting his lip to muffle his pain. Your peripheral vision caught his fingers wriggling and your kindness got the best of you.

"Do you want to hold my hand?" You asked, mentally slapping yourself. Murderer, do you want me to open the door and let you in? Sharpen your knife? You had practically said.

The way his calloused skin met yours in a tight grip sent waves of electricity throughout your system.

"Jesus..." your mouth went again as you now observed the state of his wound: deep, enflamed, near infection. "Alright, I'm going to clean it up, using some good stuff that you can buy at a drug store, which I bought from a drug store, and then wrap it up, only which I have done after putting some bacteria killing, healing gel."

You decided to talk him through everything that you were going to do, which was half rambling, half an attempt to distract him. His knees rose from the side of your bed as his legs were far too long.

"Drug store?" He questioned, watching your eyes instead of your hands.

"Yeah, we call it drug store since it's got pharmaceuticals. It also has stuffed animals and peanuts, so it's kind of strange." You commented, inching your gauze of hydrogen peroxide towards the wound, which caused him to flinch.

"I'm sorry. Just keep looking at me. Do you like um, peanuts?" Here you were being forced to converse with some dude that had just showed up in your place. He exhaled quietly at your question and movement. A few drops of the product met the surface and he continued breathing deeply.

"I love peanuts with my beef, in some specific meals." He replied slowly, lulling every syllable.

"I've never tried that," you answered. "Sounds yummy. Are you a dessert type of person or do you enjoy spicy or hearty meals?"

As you continued your process, you discovered that he loved spicy foods, used to eat them with his parents everyday, but now ate them intermittently throughout time. He never stayed any age of time permanently but he also spent weeks at most, settling himself down for at least to catch a breath.

"And you're done. There's still blood everywhere but those are just stains. Do you want some more gel or gauze for your face?" He blinked at your words, cracking a grin after a while.

"I could apply it myself, if it could relieve you of any more trouble that I have caused." He sugggested, arching a scarred eyebrow.

While he was working it on his face (after you had both equally returned all the misplaced furniture and products back into their rightful places), your record player finally turned on, blasting some Aretha Franklin.

"Excellent!" He cried out from the bathroom upon the first minute or so of the song and entered the living room where you stood.

"Good stuff, right? I always listened to her with my family. Especially when we would make the food together." Your murmured, settling upon the Hello Kitty bandaids across his face.

"Excuse me, um..." he paused, realizing he didn't know your name after what had to be an hour and a half. "It's Y/N." You assured.

"Yes, dear Y/N, what possible refreshments and nourishments do you have? I am bordering famished." Jun pouted excessively with some overarticulated hand motions.

"I've got some hot dogs, I know that for sure, and some ramen." You led him into the kitchen, reddening at the realization that you barely had anything.

"Hot dogs? I do not believe I have heard of them." He admitted naively, running a hand by the nape of his neck in embarrassment.

"Really? They're alright. I'll make you some so you can try them," you began your cooking, steaming a glance of his long figure. "Then, maybe you can kill me afterwards."

Junhui choked at your words before his quiet snickers burst into adorable cackling. The weenies crackled from the oil on your (other) skillet, breaking aroma throughout the atmosphere.

"I truly am not trying to kill you. Your stubborn belief sure is endearing. You are, pardon my frankness, too cute to kill." He continued smiling, as if his confession was a simple fact, and you mirrored his actions, reddening to Mars, as you melted into pudding internally.

"Oh, um," your mouth went dry and your hands went clammy as the chopstick in your hand hit the oil continuously instead of the meat. "Th-they're almost ready. You can sit down in the chair and not just on the table, unless you come from a time where people sit on tables to eat."

What are you saying? You scolded yourself, turning the stove off to move the food onto a farther plate.

"What are these things called again?" Junhui asked, knees hitting the roof of your table. He took a jab at the cooked hot dogs.

"Hot dogs. I can't tell you why or how, but that's what they're called." You both shared a laugh. His lips puckered constantly, pressing and parting repeatedly, perhaps in great, hidden hunger.

"Alright, so, you can put them in a bun, or bread, or something else, if you want, but I only have bread, so I'll make you the first one." Junhui nodded resolutely, licking his lips now.

"Do you have children?" He suddenly broke the silence, to which you gave him a confused glance, before returning to the food.

"No, no, I don't have kids. Why?" Your voice quieted again as you pushed some condiments for him forward.

It seemed that he had waited for you to meet his gaze because he offered that same billion-dollar, reassuring-beyond-belief grin. Beautiful.

"Your touch and efforts are motherly. You are very dear." If his caramel voice hadn't fully infatuated you, you were practically lost in him now. This had to be karma, for what, you weren't sure; you just never had good luck. Here you were, falling in love with perhaps someone a little short of an enigma (despite his great height): too good to be true.

"Thank you... thanks." Your blushing surely could not have been missed as he chuckled at your sudden inarticulation.

"You are adorable, as well." He added playfully, earning your scoff-chuckle.

"Anyway, are you ready for your hot dog, your highness?" You adopted an artifically royal accent, which softened his expression.

"How did you know I was a king once?" His voice decrescendoed with a bit of an untrusting tone. He sounded hurt.

"Oh, no, what, I didn't know that," you started stuttering. "I was just joking around. I'm sorry..."

The smoke emanating from the food dissipated slightly as did the conversation between you. What kind of time lord looked like a puppy who had been kicked around too much?

Junhui hesitated for a split second before simply elevating the food with his hands to stare at it inquisitively.

"How... how does one even consume this thing?" He looked appalled, his doe eyes shot wide with bewilderment, sending you in a fit of laughter.

"You could cut it or just simply do this." You displayed diligently, watching the awe light up his face. Jun nodded eagerly before mirroring your action.

"Mmm!" He hummed loudly, shaking his shoulders loosely like a child.

"This is absolutely delightful! I'll have another!" He thrust his hand forward to yank another fervently off the plate.

It filled you with glee to see him chew in such delight. His motions were so comical yet innocent. The certain Hello Kitty bandaid upon his cheek expanded with each munch.

Midnight had gone by, leaving you two sitting in silence at around two in the morning.

"What on Earth is that tiny, yellow thing?" He had asked as you washed the plates with your sponge.

"What's a hoodie?" He had questioned as he watched you look through your closet for something for him to wear.

You had introduced him to your phone, showing him how to take a selfie, which he mastered even though he had never seen an iPhone in his life. He played a game but had nearly tossed your phone out the window because of how often he was losing. Junhui had even looked through your books and photo books, sitting cross legged on the floor with your things spread out.

"I knew a man named Franz Kafka: strange, eccentric, but it was as if he could see the future, even though I had traveled decades before him. I never knew he would become a novelist." Jun confessed quietly, all the while you were fighting sleep on the bed.

The sun had to be coming up by now. You knew that you would have to get ready for work by a little after dawn to make it on time but the thought of returning to reality made you even more exhausted.

"Why have you not dozed off yet? Y/N, you look tired beyond belief." He noted, peering at you with observant, worried eyes. The sky was beginning to lighten from outside.

"You night murder me," you joked, leaning against the wall against your bed. "No, I just don't want to go to work. I know I should sleep but thinking about the few hours of sleep I'm going to get—"

"Then, come with me." Jun stated with the shut of your book. You blinked at him, watching the sky further change hues from behind his chestnut haired head.

"What? No way. I can't just...leave everything...can I?" He still smiled as ascended from his spot and joined you on your bed, thankfully remaining across the mattress from you.

"That's what everyone says," he whispered solemnly despite the chuckle. "You can. We could venture to yesteryear today, to tomorrow, to the day you were born, to the day Muhammad Ali won, to the middle of the Reformation era in Europe, any time, any where. My internal compass...has surges on energy. It mimics a second heart. You have helped me recover in the past few hours that would typically cause me to exhaust days at end. You have shown me the future in just the glimpse of your silhouette."

A beam of light between his pectorals seemed to glow, like the rising sun. There was no way someone like him existed, and surely there was no way time travel had existed, but here both enigmas were.

"I know it is not right of me to force you, but if you joined me and wanted to return, we would be back within the blink of an eye. Your destiny just seems aching for more, as do you." Jun nudged your foot with his elbow, stretching his thigh.

You pondered over it, knowing full well that the consequences of your actions today would effect you far more worse than the possibilities of being with Junhui, even if you knew little or nothing about him. You were a fool but something inside of you ached for something like him to come and spontaneously wreck your life in much better way than life had already screwed you over.

The sound of your alarm clock resounded as both you and Junhui ascended. He eyed you prospectively with a hopeful gleam in his eyes.

"With the first strike of sunlight, the energy will automatically launch me into the last century of today. The world depends on you now for an answer, Y/N. Are you willing to go with me? Are you —"

"Yeah. Yes. Yes."

He exhaled excitedly, looking down at you with a smile so big you had to roll your eyes.

"Well, it surely must have been my charm that persuaded you, huh?" He joked.

"Yeah, right. My choice was my own. So, anyway, how exactly is this going to happen?" Junhui watched the sky outside before returning his gaze to you. His shirt started illuminating from the inside out.

"I have never traveled before with anyone but as I have read in the ancient books, there should be little to no distance between us. You could simply embrace me, hold my hand, or if you have any other ideas..."

You would've laughed but his expression was dead serious.

"Don't try anything funny or it's over," you kicked some shoes on before shyly tiptoeing beside him. "I'm scared."

He gently tugged you against his side and wrapped his arm around you. His small waist greeted you warmly with his skin flush against your own.

"You’ll be alright, I promise," Junhui pressed you more into him as you both turned to face the impending sunrise. "Are you ready?"

Taking a deep breath, of all the things you had been through and all the impossibilities you were about to witness, you grinned up at his beautiful face.

"I'm ready." You said, finally venturing into the unknown, just as you were born to.

#junhui x reader #jun x reader #wen junhui #seventeen x reader #seventeen imagines #seventeen scenarios #junhui fluff #junhui imagines

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neverdoingmuch · 3 years

Note

I’m here for the ‘swords not as pets’ agenda. Swords as cars: solid, get you from place to place, potentially dangerous, customizable, something people name. Wwx losing his license taking the fall for a mistake jc made (idk, dui maybe?) and just choosing to mod the hell out of a self-balancing scooter or segway or something so it goes dangerously fast. Alternatively: spending 3 months inventing the first functional actual levitating hoverboard, with an insane top speed. 3 months in the (1/2)

sawdfert this is delightful!! i saw segway and i immediately started wheezing,, there was no time for laughing i went straight to the wheezing. i think it would make more sense if wwx lost his car and got a motorcycle? like hoverboards and segways are cool but motorcycles have that big reputation of being dangerous and there’s the whole ‘rebellious teen gets a motorcycle and becomes a delinquent’ thing? like motorcycles are fast and if you crash it’s so much worse than if you were in a car and there’s no airbags or anything. but also?? wwx rocking up to school on a segway while playing his flute like the shittiest entrance ever? iconic. but let’s stick with chenqing as a motorcycle/scooter (motorcycle-esque scooter not the ones that try and take out your ankles).

okay so all the major sects are super rich so in a modern au it would make sense for all the sect heirs to get cars. i’m not saying that jc and wwx complain about jzx being stuck-up bc he was given a porsche for his birthday even though they were also given cars for their birthdays,,, but i am. at first it would have been this major point of contention between yzy and jfm bc wwx isn’t even their son so why is he getting a car too but wwx is like ah it’s so i can drive jc and jyl to school! you wouldn’t want their cars being left outside the school all day would you? someone in my maths class had their car get keyed and it was super expensive to fix,, and yzy is like yes wwx may have a car only to protect my children from parking hassles,, also wwx must pay for his own parking. so wwx and jc both get given cars for their bdays.

now wwx gets bored easily,, so you could translate him being a cultivation genius to him being really good at driving. im talking that jc is still getting the hang of switching gears and wwx is out there casually drifting around corners. (this does mean he has to get new tyres really frequently but he’s friends with wen ning, whose family runs the mechanics that wwx likes to go to so he just helps around the shop for a bit and gets a discount (yes its the family discount)). anyway wwx really enjoys driving, also! he just rocks up to wen ning’s place one day and is like dude, i wanna pimp my ride, wanna help and wen ning is like heck yeah. so wwx pays for some upgrades with his own money and he spends hours doing some custom work to make it look cool,,

it’s all going well until wwx and jc go to wen chao’s party one night and jc gets absolutely sloshed,,, like completely hammered. wwx had walked in, grabbed a cup of lemonade or something and was gonna hang with his friends but lwj was there for some reason so he spent the entire night talking to him in the back garden. which means that when jc wanted to leave he saw wwx hanging out with lwj and went ew gross and just decided to drive home himself. he crashes and when wwx comes home the next day jc gets super pissed at him bc he was meant to be the designated driver and if he hadnt been screwing around with lwj jc wouldnt have tried to drive home and now his parents will be super pissed and wwx is like woah chill my grandmother is a mechanic and she can fix this up just give me a couple of days.

so wwx goes to baoshan sanren mechanics (which is just the back entrance to the wen sibling’s mechanics) and spends the next three days getting rid of all of his customisations and mods so his car looks exactly like jc’s. does he cry when he has to spend like five mins spraying the inside of the car with axe body spray to get the jc stench going on? maybe a little. but he does it and returns the car to jc! and jc is like oh wow my car is fixed, your grandma is a miracle worker and wwx is like haha yeah (:

anyway wwx mysteriously and suddenly discovers a passion for public transport,, it’s a good way to stay humble jiang cheng, he says, also i used all my petrol money buying porn from nhs or whatever. anyway wwx is doing the whole pt to school thing but then one afternoon wen chao and wzh find him and idk maybe the party got too rowdy so the cops came and wc got in trouble with his dad? he assumes wwx called the cops on him so he shoves wwx into his car and drives him out to the middle of no where and dumps him in the burial mounds scrap metal recycling place or whatever.

the train line isn’t running that day and there’s no phone service either so wwx is stuck there overnight. he gets super bored. so what does he do? he finds an abandoned scooter and starts scavenging for parts. he’s not expecting it to actually work but by the time the sun rises he’s found some actually decent parts and he thinks that he could get it working. tbh he kinda forgets to go back home and just walks into town to buy some food and then goes back and continues fiddling with the scooter. he doesnt live there for the three months but the people in yiling just accept that this random teenager has all but moved into their scrap heap and adopt him anyway. so he goes and visits the burial mounds every day after school so none of his friends or family really see him anymore.

until! one day he rocks up to school on his scooter. scooters,, are kinda like sad pathetic motorcycles,, but wwx mods his scooter with like a powerful engine and new steering and everything so people see it and go oh! a motorcycle! even though it’s not actually (can you do that with a scooter? idk but suspend your disbelief pls). so lwj is like hnnngg wwx in a leather jacket on a motorcycle but also wei ying, stop riding a motorcycle, *enter statistics about motorcycle crashes here* and wwx is like no! you cant take chenqing away from me. and jc is pissed bc they were meant to be brothers and have matching cars and be able to work on them and give them cool paint jobs together! but now wwx has this bike which has been modded to hell and back and refuses to drive his car bc it’s not as cool as his bike. so we get to have the whole ‘everyone thinks wwx is doing something dumb and dangerous’ bc he has a motorcycle and why isnt he just driving his car anymore? but we also get to keep some of the nuance of the demonic cultivation bc yeah it’s more dangerous than driving in a car but wwx doesnt have a car anymore and scooters are a loottt safer than motorcycles (if my two seconds of research is correct).

so! wwx won’t abandon chenqing and he did most of his work using scrap parts so he goes back to the wens and is like wen ning my best bro check her out and he’s like oooooooh and they start modding chenqing together. wen qing doesnt know why wwx is constantly over at their shop all the time but jc keeps arguing with wwx and wwx grows more distant with his family and friends bc he’s making ~bad decisions~ and a motorcycle is a gateway to idk teen delinquent shenanigans like smoking and doing graffiti so he’s kinda ousted from respectable rich people society and wen qing is like i have two (2) brothers now and they’re adorable not that i’ll ever tell them that. and wwx modding chenqing got him a reputation in yiling like everyone saw him walk in one day and then drive out with this sexy sexy bike so people start coming to him for mods and stuff and wwx earns the title yiling patriarch and wen ning, his trusted best friend and helper, gets called the ghost general bc idk he helps a lot but the customers never meet him. so they become some dynamic duo for car and bike mods!

anyway,, yzy delivers him an ultimatum one day: the car or the bike (or more accurately: the family or the bike) but wwx can’t drive the car anymore so he just gets quietly disowned and drops out of school. (we’ll save jzxuan the suffering in this au he can keep his car). he goes to the wens and theyre like hey whats up? wait no you cant live in a scrap heap,, not even if you buy a tent,,, just live with us please. and then wwx gets adopted by the wens and idk i want them to have a happy ending so wwx and wn go off and do some actual mechanic and modding training with some expert (sqdcfgt imagine if it was the real baoshan sanren who just happened to be in the market for some apprentices and saw wwx and wn’s work and was like them and then later realised it was her grandson). so they get their apprenticeship and they disappear off somewhere for a year or two - when wwx had been disowned he’d deleted everyone’s contacts and was like if they text me i’ll add them back but im not gonna have a contact list cemetery. (no one contacts him).

eventually the 13 years pass and wwx has been helping the wens raise their little nephew a-yuan who is showing a real aptitude for being a mechanic even though he’s just a kid and just generally enjoying the quiet life of being a mechanic while doing fun mods and lil baby projects. then one day lwj’s car breaks down while he’s driving through the area and he calls up the local mechanic and guess who rocks up? it’s wwx. and then we get to have them dance around each other and wwx being like lwj doesnt trust me, he’s just sitting here and watching me work all day ): and lwj is like dont let him go dont let him go dont let him go,, and eventually they get their romance but this is way too long already so im im gonna end this here

i didnt mean to make this an entire au but i adored your idea so much anon so i kinda had to!!

#mdzs #modao zushi #wei wuxian #wangxian #lan wangji #wen ning #wen qing #my aus #asks #cql #the untamed #i might come and add a read more later but i dont have time now sorry!#Anonymous

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lotusjwy · 3 years

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okay so i dont know if u actually ship jc with anyone but the "I’m sick of being useless" is giving me strong Vibes so either you should choose a jc pairing or maybe do it for yunmeng bros? :D

anon, anonny, my friend. i ship almost every jiang cheng ship, so pls feel free to specify one next time if you want! but! i’ll still do this from yunmeng bro perspective, bc i haven’t written them in a hot minute. idk if i’d rly classify this as angst, at least in comparison to the last one i wrote, but i did my best! fun fact though, this is actually my second revision of it, the first one jiang cheng was being far too nice and i was like excuse me, who are you?

The night hunt that had already started off on a wrong note, had only grown progressively worse as it went on. Wei Wuxian had turned up unexpectedly on Jiang Cheng’s doorstep, begging him to accompany him, Lan Jingyi and Jin Ling on a night hunt nearby. Jiang Cheng had agreed to go along, only because he hadn’t seen either his nephew or brother in quite some time, as other responsibilities had been getting the better of them all. However, very early into the night hunt, it was apparent that they were vastly unprepared for the fight, and had gotten overpowered quickly, their injuries growing worse with each blow. To make matters worse, none of them had signal flares on them, Jin Ling and Lan Jingyi having forgotten theirs yet again. Jiang Cheng was going to start strapping them onto the boys himself.

Towards the climax of the fight, they all watched in horror as Jin Ling dropped to the ground, a deep gash on his chest blood gushing from the wound. Jiang Cheng quickly shot forward finishing off the last of the beasts, a final burst of energy rushing through him in his need to protect his nephew.

After the fact, he lowered his sword, and turned back towards Jin Ling. He saw Wei Wuxian had Jin Ling cradled in his lap, as he pressed his outer robes onto Jin Ling’s wounds hoping to stop the bleeding, with Lan Jingyi kneeling beside the duo, transferring qi to his injured friend.

Jiang Cheng surveyed the situation that they were in, trying not to let his panic set in, knowing he had to take control, neither Lan Jingyi or Wei Wuxian being in positions to figure out what to do. They were all too injured to safely transfer Jin Ling back to Lotus Pier, and Wei Wuxian’s golden core wasn’t strong enough to last riding a sword whilst also helping to carry an injured man. “Lan Jingyi, go to Lotus Pier and request help immediately. Do not take no for an answer. Bring them here or tell them where we are, if you feel too weak to make the trip back. Go now, go quickly. And fucking stay safe, you idiot.”

After Jingyi had frantically left, Jiang Cheng dropped down next to the remaining two, grabbing his nephew’s wrist to continue transferring qi to him. “Come on, A-Ling, you dumbass, wake the fuck up. Please wake the fuck up.”

“I’m sorry.” If Jiang Cheng hadn’t been sitting right next to Wei Wuxian, he may not have heard him, for how faintly he spoke.

“What the fuck, Wei Wuxian? What kind of fucking game do you think this is?!” Jiang Cheng felt anger coursing through his veins, though he wasn’t sure if he was really mad at his brother or just at the situation at hand. “If I wasn’t trying to keep our fucking nephew alive, I’d strangle you where you sit. For fucks sake, what the fuck happened?”

“I don’t know. It wasn’t meant to be so strong. There wasn’t meant to be so many of them.” Wei Wuxian’s voice continued to be soft, breaking any time he spoke above a whisper. His eyes never left Jin Ling’s face, not wanting to see the hatred he knew his brother’s face would be showing.

“Of all the fucking times for Lan Wangji to not be glued to your side. Where the fuck is he, then? I can’t believe he would leave you alone with two cultivators who are just barely adults, on a night hunt.” He continued to mutter expletives about Lan Wangji under his breath, cursing the man.

“I… It’s my fault. He wanted to come with us, but Zewu-jun needed Lan Zhan for something, so I told him that we’d be fine. That I’d come ask you for help.” He risked a glance at Jiang Cheng, only to realise that the other wasn’t even looking at him anymore, instead he was also looking at Jin Ling.

“You didn’t think that this night hunt required more than one qualified cultivator? You thought I could make up for the downfalls of both Lan Jingyi, A-Ling and you?” Jiang Cheng scoffed in disbelief, “I’m aware that this used to be your golden core, but there’s only so much I can do, Wei Wuxian.”

“I know, I’m sorry! I didn’t think. I- I thought I could handle it!” He exclaimed, desperation seeping into his voice.

“You thought you could handle it. When have you ever been able to just handle something? When has anything ever not blown up in your face?” Jiang Cheng couldn’t even count the amount of times Wei Wuxian had gotten them into countless situations where they should have died, yet had somehow lived to tell the tale.

“I get it! I fucked up! I always fucking fuck up!” His voice was growing more frustrated with each word he said, growing angry at himself, at the situation, at Jiang Cheng for making him feel worse than he was already feeling.

“Then why don’t you ever fucking think? Just once, I am begging you to think just once in your fucking life. When the lives of A-Ling and Lan Jingyi are also at stake, rather than just mine or yours! Do you understand that your decisions could have gotten them killed?” Jiang Cheng didn’t think he’d been this angry at Wei Wuxian since he defected with the Wen remnants to the Burial Mounds.

Finally, Wei Wuxian had had enough, almost jumping up before seeming to remember that he had Jin Ling laying across his lap. Instead, he let out a scream of frustration; one that startled even Jiang Cheng from his focus on Jin Ling, who hadn’t been expecting such a noise to come from his brother.

“I’m sick of being useless, Jiang Cheng. I’ve become useless.” His voice full of the agony he was feeling, deep inside. This was his biggest insecurity since he had been brought back. That he’d never grow to the same level of cultivation, as he had before. “I’m sick of you or Lan Zhan, or any of the younger disciples having to protect me when we get rushed like this! I’m sick of being the liability of any night hunt because I’m not as strong as I used to be!”

“So, what? You didn’t let Lan Wangji come as a test to yourself?” There was disbelief in his words, as if he couldn’t fathom even Wei Wuxian being this idiotic.

“I- Fine. Yes. I really did think we could handle it, Jiang Cheng. I didn’t think it would be as bad as it was, I promise. I’d never risk shi-jie’s son, nor Jingyi, or A-Yuan or anyone.” Letting out a frustrated huff of breath, Wei Wuxian’s head hung low, not wanting to face the other in his moment of shame. “I just- All I wanted was to prove that this stupid fucking core could do something.”

Jiang Cheng shook his head, choosing to not respond to the other, wanting to focus his energies on his nephew, ensuring that the other was getting the qi he needed to heal. He didn’t spend all these years helping to raise Jin Ling, just for the boy to get taken down in front of him. There was also nothing he could say to Wei Wuxian while he was in this state, without making the situation worse for both of them.

Instead, the two sat in silence, waiting for their rescue to arrive. Thankfully, it seemed that Jingyi’s strength as a cultivator wasn’t an exaggeration, the boy making it back to them in record time, with Jiang Cheng’s second in command and first disciple following quickly behind him. Once Jiang Cheng ensured that his disciples had his nephew secured and would safely bring him to Lotus Pier, Jiang Cheng turned to Wei Wuxian, who throughout the flurry of bodies being moved around had stayed kneeling on the ground.

“For fucks sake, if you had a problem in the past, you never used to fucking mope around. You used to pick yourself the fuck up and figure out a solution.” He reached out a hand to Wei Wuxian, pulling him up. “Strengthen your core, dumbass. I know Mo Xuanyu wasn’t strong, but he did have a golden core. Use it, strengthen it. Maybe you won’t ever be as strong as you used to be, but you can still fucking get stronger than you currently are.”

#jiang cheng #wei wuxian #mdzs #the untamed #cql #fic #jwy #wwx #yunmengs pride #anon #ask prompt #idk how i feel about this one tbh #but i wrote it and i don't hate it #so theres that #i hope this lived up to your expectations anon!#btw disclaimer: i love wwx and i definitely think he's good at working under pressure #but i also think in panic and depression he'd be like what the fuck man #what the fuck NOW #and his power difference between him as a teen him as the yiling patriarch and him in mo xuanyu's body are all so different #i didn't know how to end it #so i ended it on jiang cheng being vaguely encouraging #bc this is mature adult jiang cheng who raised a kid #also editing was minimal sorry for any mistakesaksdfj #Anonymous #why was it only jin ling and sizhui? i dont know #that's just how it be #lets say Sizhui was busy helping Wangji and Zizhen was busy at his own sect #my fic

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porcupine-girl · 4 years

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Untamed Fic Rec List

Look, most of these are reasonably popular fics already, so if you’ve been in this fandom for a couple months you’ve likely read them. Which is not how I normally do rec lists, but I’m new enough to Untamed that I’m still reading through all the fics by authors I know from other fandoms plus ones that have been personally recced to me, so I haven’t made it into the deep dive of underappreciated fics that I normally like to rec.

It doesn’t help that one of these recs is 445K, so for like two weeks straight it was basically all I was reading.

BUT if, like me, you are rather new to this fandom and its fics, here are some good ones:

The Same Moon Shines Series by sami

This is the 445K behemoth, made up of 23 works, and is technically made up of three interrelated series. The first fic, which establishes the whole universe/multiverse, is 139K on its own. Basically, decades into the canon future, WWX invents time travel.

He goes back to being born, but is reborn with all his memories intact. And he fixes, like, fucking everything and it’s so, so fucking satisfying. Everything’s not perfect though - for example, he like lowkey (highkey?) traumatizes LXC by showing him his previous life via empathy and that has some consequences eventually. Featuring ace poly JC/LXC/WQ triad.

Then in a cracky subseries, appropriately called “ridiculous future bullshit”, we assume that the main six from this universe (WWX, LWJ, JC, WQ, LXC, JYL, & Lan Sizhui) all achieve immortality and find out what they’re up to in the modern day, where they’re revered in the Five Nations (this does a great job of staying in the canon world instead of ours) but of course white Western assholes do things like try and make a disney movie called Hanguang-Jun and the Yiling Patriarch where they marry LWJ off to a girl.

And then in a third subseries, which so far has only one WIP fic, we go back to the canon universe, find out that JC and LWJ were stuck there watching WWX disappear in his time machine array (so WWX actually split off into another universe, he didn’t rewind his own), and so they get into the array having no idea what it will do but wanting to chase down the asshole they love. And so a third universe is born, where they are both born with their memories but WWX is not. I absolutely love seeing how different their priorities are from WWX’s in terms of what they want to change in their new life.

(Also: This is technically a MDZS fic that usually goes with novel canon over show canon if there’s a discrepancy, so if like me you haven’t read the whole novel you might need to look up some plot points now and then.)

The Vermillion Ribbon by @unforth

AU where Wei WuXian was taken in by Wen Qing and Wen Ning’s parents instead of the Jiangs. LWJ (who is the POV character) is a super DUPER dick to him at first, like even moreso than in canon, but the speed with which he regrets his choices is breathtaking and extremely satisfying.

LWJ is a VERY unreliable narrator. He has absolutely no idea what is going on with himself or anyone else at any point in time. Eventually he at least becomes self-aware of this fact, and can at least go wait am I missing something? I think I’m missing several somethings but fuck if I know what. Wei WuXian not understanding this about him leads to some miscommunication, because WWX doesn’t get that LWJ needs absolutely everything spelled out to him in single-syllable words with crayon drawings and y’know, WWX isn’t going to be straightforward anytime he can pretend he’s TOTALLY FINE :D :D :D instead.

LWJ’s friendship with NHS is magical, and NHS in general gets 810% more opportunity to scheme and plot pre-time-of-NMJ’s-canonical-death than in canon and is honestly living his best life. It’s also valuable for LWJ to have a scheming friend because, aside from realizing he misjudged WWX, this is how he starts to figure out that he’s a dumbass who has no idea what is going on ever. But he can count on NHS to always be ten steps ahead, so it’s okay.

(ETA: I’m sorry, I made unforth feel like maybe LWJ was too dense, and no, he’s very much not stupid in general. Like, honestly the fact that he becomes so self-aware of the things he’s bad at, and does things like trust NHS to always understand the stuff he’s missing, makes him come off as very intelligent. It’s just in the specific realm of understanding anything that people say or do that isn’t 100% honest and straightforward that he is just entirely hopeless in a rather relatable way, and like I said, WWX’s go-to is hiding any and all pain so that is a bad combo.)

The Fire Lapping Up the Creek by notevenyou

This diverges from canon when WWX is on his way to Jin Ling’s one month celebration, but doesn’t bring Wen Ning along. So when Jin Zixun attacks it goes very poorly for him, poorly enough that Jin Zixuan thinks he’s dead and it’s reported back at Carp Tower as such. Sending LWJ into a dissociative state. He manages to break through to reality just long enough to find out that Jin Zixuan took WWX’s body back to the burial mounds and left it with Wen Qing, and to get on his sword and go directly there. Thankfully, it turns out that WWX is not dead, but only just barely so.

So LWJ stays there, because now that he spent some amount of time (he isn’t really sure if it was like five minutes or two hours, because dissociation) thinking WWX was dead he now knows that he should never, ever be anywhere but with WWX.

Honestly, it almost feels like a spoiler to say WWX doesn’t die, but there’s no major character death warning while there IS one for graphic violence so it’s not a chose not to warn either, so that’s technically not a spoiler. But things are touch-and-go for him for a very, very long time. And the romance is a slow burn with pining galore. And you get to see LWJ teaching A-Yuan to play the guqin, so like imagine being WWX and you wake up from almost dying to see that going on in your cave.

Velle: to will, to wish by @aerlalaith

This one is actually canon-compliant, and as it’s both quite a bit shorter and more straightforward, plot-wise, than the others, my writeup will be short but that doesn’t mean I loved it any less. Basically, it’s the process of LWJ deciding to adopt A-Yuan in the aftermath of WWX’s death. It starts just after he’s been beaten for turning against the other cultivators, and at first it’s mostly his grief and both physical and emotional pain. A-Yuan starts slipping in to visit him. and LWJ isn’t sure if he’s really okay with that at first.

Of course he becomes very okay with it, but the Lan elders and Lan Qiren and all aren’t just going to be like “ok sure you can barely walk you should def adopt a four-year-old of unclear origins who may or may not have something to do with your demonic dead boyfriend and the evil people he helped, that’s cool,” so it’s not that simple.

There’s a followup fic where, years later, LWJ chooses the courtesy name Sizhui and Xichen gives him shit for it.

save a sword, ride a socialist by sysrae / @fozmeadows

Continuing on my grand tour of Untamed fics by my fave writers from other fandoms, I get to enjoy having overlapped with foz on a third straight fandom which is just fabulous. I totally thought I wasn’t gonna read AUs and then this asshole comes along and writes AUs, which is not playing fair.

I especially love this because it’s modern day but much like ridiculous future bullshit it’s modern day in (more or less) a canonish world, not our world. So like, they fly on swords, but not long distances because it’s easier to take a train or drive rather than use up all that spiritual energy.

Lan Qiren and Jin Guangshan miss the old ways, though, and they think the best ancient tradition to bring back is arranged marriage! Because that will go over well with today’s youth. They try to make LWJ marry Mianmian but he’s like “um I’m gay” and LQ throws a hissy fit about that so Jin Zixuan (who is LWJ’s bestie and is fucking hilarious) hatches a plot for LWJ to cause LQ to stroke out by bringing WWX to Lan Xichen’s birthday party as his fake date.

But when LWJ and WWX meet up to talk this over, LWJ is instantly fucked because WWX has a small child with him and it turns out that this small child is the orphan he adopted. He doesn’t notice he’s fucked until a few days later, though, when WWX comes over for “kissing practice” and they fuck and he calls Jin Zixuan all “I think I caught a feel, what do?” and JZX is like idk, you’re a moron, don’t ask me to clean up your moron messes. And the next day LWJ buys a car seat.

Lan Wangji heard about Jack 110% Zimmermann and said “challenge accepted,” is what I’m saying here. And now I’ve written as much about this 33k fic as I did about the 445k, so I’ll shut up before I just recount the entire plot.

#the untamed #fic recs #wangxian #if I haven't recced your fic I probably haven't read it yet #literally this is most of the fics I've managed to read so far #when I say the same moon shines took up all of my reading time for 2-3 weeks I am being entirely serious #and then vermillion ribbon is 220+k so it took a week or two too #so like i've got ao3 emails waiting in my inbox for fics by tippy and moosefeels and through_shadows_falling and a few others #I promise I will get to them!

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trensu · 4 years

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Episode 50: The One with the Greatest Family Reunion(s) of All Time

so we start the ep with nhs's truly oscar-worthy performance which results in jgy getting stabbed

And i cheer for both the performance AND the stabbing!!!

lxc has his eyes closed bc that's his coping mechanism when times get tough

lol lxc is like I TOLD YOU I WASN'T GONNA HOLD BACK IF YOU DID ONE MORE BAD THING

and jgy is like i know!! that's why i haven't done one more bad thing!!!!

everyone's faces are like sure jan

but then they look at nhs like, wait a minute...

jgy is like why are you looking at him? you're not gonna see anything! i didn't see anything all these years and i'm smarter and sneakier than all of you!!!

okay, he didn't say that last part but it was def implied

jgy: nhs, good for you. i didn't expect that you would be my downfall.

NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQ--uhhh, NIE HUAISANG!!

nhs hasn't broken character either! He needs to join a theater troupe or smth with those skills.

blah blah lxc and jgy are having Feelings blah blah blah lxc is conflicted blah

hm, those Feelings are becoming rather Dramatique

ugh jgy just let it go and die already

jgy: have I ever done you wrong?

UM?? how about KILLING his little brother's soulmate?

which resulted in him having to watch his little brother suffer extreme physical punishment and then grieve for years after??

PRETTY SURE THAT HURT LXC QUITE A LOT

Jgy: now you won't even give me a chance to live?

I THINK THE FUCK NOT!!!

oh we're getting some not so great special effects and jgy drags lxc to the coffin and then bleeds all over it, gross

ooooh, the Temple of Doom is starting to fall apart

lwj makes a move towards lxc but wwx grabs his arm and stops him!

bc it's dangerous to get too close and wwx is protective of his soulmate!!

jc starts the evacuation bc hello the building is crumbling and he gets everyone out except the lan bros, wwx and jgy

Jgy: stay and die with me

FUCK YOU JGY

but lxc was ready and willing to do that, so jgy shoves him back bc why the hell not

(we're gonna ignore how awkward that particular maneuver was, we already know special effects are not a priority in this show)

Jgy's like lets emotionally torment lxc some more, just for kicks, bc I'm an ASSHOLE

lwj catches his brother and he is Concerned.

Eventually our lan bros and wwx flee the temple and jgy has one last meltdown before getting crushed LIKE THE MAGGOT HE IS

Now we cut to a shot of all our crew standing outside

and we see my bratty son slowly fall to his knees with a look of UTTER SORROW AND PAIN ON HIS FACE

Bc he was BETRAYED by his nice uncle

MY POOR SON!!

we get reaction shots from wwx and the lan bros

(wwx continues to be beautiful even when sad)

oh, now lxc and nhs are having a moment sitting on the steps of the temple

lxc asks nhs if jgy really had made a move

nhs is like, you questioning me is making me doubt everything! idk idk!!

even amidst his grief he takes a moment to be completely exasperated by NHS's catchphrase lolol

now we cut to wwx sitting on a different set of stairs, carefully fiddling with his demon flute and he looks up to see jc watching him and HE SMILES

BC THAT'S HIS LITTLE BROTHER!!

AND THEY'RE ALL STILL MIRACULOUSLY ALIVE AFTER THAT HOT MESS!!

oooh, he's unwrapping his sleeve and we get a flash of his bare forearm

how scandalous! you're gonna give lwj vapors, wwx

We see the very last cut on his arm fade away bc finally mxy has been avenged

AND WWX SMILES AGAIN!!

cut to jc and jl watching wwx smile

bc i mean, who wouldn't be captivated by wwx's smile?

PEOPLE YOU CAN'T TRUST, THAT'S WHO

none of the sect leaders before were captivated by that smile AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED!!!

oh that smile didn't stick around for long bc we hear barking!!

wwx gets this panicked wide-eyed expression that mAKES ME WANNA HIDE HIM AND PROTECT HIM FROM THE WORLD

But I also don't want to get murdered by LWJ's death glare so I'll just let him hide and protect wwx...

omg my bratty son looks SO HAPPY and shouts "fairy!!" before running towards his doggy friend

i'm not much of a dog person, tbh, but MY BRATTY SON IS SO HAPPY

and fairy did bring a whole crew of cultivators...

too little too late, some smart spiritual dog he is, lololol

we've got lan disciples, and jiang disciples and all these people swarming around our crew, fussing over them.

it's kind of sweet except i notice that no one's approached my bratty son

he is, in fact, ALL ALONE with fairy and i am OFFENDED on his behalf

not that my bratty son seems to mind

he's too wrapped up in his doggy reunion to notice BUT I NOTICED SO I'LL BE OFFENDED ENOUGH FOR THE BOTH OF US

wwx is smiling as he sees lwj and jc being fussed over by their respective disciples

so cute so CUTE, I love his smiles so much

lwj stands up and greets his uncle with a stately bow

god he's elegant and regal af, how the hell does he do it

but his uncle's a douchebag and barely acknowledges him before turning to leave and lwj watches him go, kind of hurt, kind of surprised

ooooh, now we get a shot of jc watching wwx as he gets questioned by oyzz

Oyzz is like what happened? Are you hurt? Is everyone okay??

and we can see wwx is still smiling!! BC MY BOY IS MADE OF SUNSHINE OKAY

awwwww

jl looks up with an ADORABLE smile on his face and tells fairy to wait outside

HE TAKES FAIRY OUTSIDE BC HE KNOWS WWX IS AFRAID OF DOGS!!!

My bratty son is actually very sweet!!

jc starts to leave the scene (and it's only until now that he stops staring at wwx btw) and wwx watches him go 😔

cut to a shot of lwj blatantly staring at wwx as per usual

wwx looks up and meets his gaze

they get lost in each other for a bit bc when DON'T they?

We’re at the steps of the temple again and we see nhs pick up jgy's crumpled up hat looking all contemplative

oops, nhs's fingers come away from the hat all tacky with blood, yuck

cut to my bratty son running back into the temple where all the cultivators are inspecting stuff and he asks ljy where wwx is

HE'S ASKING AFTER MY SUNSHINE BOY!

Y'know, his not-evil, not-angry uncle?

ljy tells him that he and hanguang jun left after they brought them lil apple

lol, the idea of ljy and oyzz dragging lil apple along just to return him to wwx cracks me up

jl tells ljy to take care of fairy for him before he dashes off to find his new uncle

BUT JC STOPS HIM?? "don't chase after them"

look at jc being all Cool leaning against that tree

in his fashionable robes

with his awesome sword tucked in the crook of his elbow

jl throws one last glance at the direction wwx and lwj left, and then joins jc under the tree

jc is like, they're long gone kid

jl: so that's it? you're letting them leave just like that??

jc: what else? invite them to stay for dinner? say thank you and then i am sorry??

lol, he's working himself up into a snit already

But also, like, MY BRATTY SON HAS A GOOD HEART, OKAY??

he just hides it under bluster bc he's sensitive and people are mean to him all the time!

HE WANTED TO CONNECT WITH WWX (AND MAYBE LWJ??) NOW THAT THIS WAS ALL OVER

AND HE WOULD'VE DONE IT IF NOT FOR JC BEING ALL HUNG UP ON HIS ISSUES STILL

not that i hold that against jc, that's a lot of emotional trauma he's gotta work through

LOL JL IS NOT GONNA LET HIMSELF BE COWED BY HIS UNCLE BC WHEN DOES HE EVER?

JL: it was exactly bc of the way you were acting that they took off! you're such a pain in the neck!!

AND THEN HE POUTS AND FALLS INTO A CROUCH WITH HIS ARMS CROSSED AND STARTS SULKING UP A STORM

I LOVE MY BRATTY SON SO MUCH

JC: IS THAT HOW YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO SPEAK TO YOUR ELDERS? ARE YOU ASKING TO GET DISCIPLINED??

these two crack me up every time, i swear

but the whole corporal punishment is...problematic

jc raises his arm to smack jl and jl ducks and raises his own arm to block the blow and i'm sitting here like, yikes

but then we get a shot of jc's open palm, out of focus with a crisp backdrop of red leaves from the tree they're under

and his hand is just held there, stilled for just a moment before the fingers start to gently curl inward and the strike never happens (thank god)

jc: lets go home, jin ling. let everyone go back to the place where they belong

he walks off with jin ling springing to his feet and chasing after him a beat later

jl: was there something you wanted to say to wwx?

have i mentioned i love my bratty son? BECAUSE I DO. A LOT.

jc: no, there isn't.

jl: bullshit!

I LOVE HIM!! WHAT A MOUTHY BRAT 💜

JL: i saw it with my own eyes! you wanted to talk to wwx! but you didn't say a word just now or back in the temple!

jc: there is nothing to say

jl: bullshit! you had something to say!

while this entire exchange is happening we see jc marching ahead, not looking at jl at all, but jl is walking backwards eyes pinned to his face the entire time

bc my son might be a brat but he's also pretty observant and he KNOWS his uncle

AND NOW WE GET A FLASHBACK

WE GET A BIG REVEAL

we're back at “the ones where we gross sob FOREVER”

and wwx is telling jc to stay put at the inn while he goes to get food and meds

his voice all weak and tremulous

but jc steps out of the inn for a moment after wwx leaves

AND SEES THAT THE WEN FLUNKIES CAUGHT SIGHT OF HIS BROTHER!!

they were like three feet away from grabbing his big brother

and he says internally, "take care. i'm leaving jyl in your hands"

AND I'M CRYING BC THEY'RE PLAYING THAT MUSIC

THAT SWEET TENDER MUSIC THEY PLAY WHENEVER JYL AND HER BROTHERS HAVE A MOMENT

Jc goes and causes a distraction and lets himself be caught by the wens

SO THAT HIS BIG BROTHER AND BIG SISTER COULD STAY SAFE

I'M CRYING I'M CRYING

MY YUNMENG SIBS, MY POOR YUNMENG SIBS!!

WHY DID THEY HAVE TO SUFFER SO??

WHY WERE THEY SO DAMN SELF-SACRIFICING???

WHY THE HELL COULDN'T THEY LEARN TO COMMUNICATE BETTER???

cut back to the present, and jc's eyes are welled up with tears

he has a hurt little smile on his face, he says, "take care"

softly, mostly to himself

after a moment, he turns to jin ling and says "lets go"

and we watch them leave

I just want them all to be a BIG HAPPY FAMILY DAMN IT

cut to the next scene, we hear ~THEIR SONG~ start playing in the background all slow and soft

i love the overhead shot we get of them surrounded by the gorgeous foliage, it's so peaceful

As wwx and lwj walk slowly and at ease with lil apple between them

AND MY HEART FEELS SO TENDER AND FULL OMG

lwj: wei ying

he says it all seriously. wwx looks at him and he's got A BIG SMILE ON HIS FACE

bc he's looking at his soulmate!!!

who wouldn't smile when looking at their soulmate???

he's cheerfully twirling his flute bc finally all is right in the world!

the mystery is solved, his loved ones are safe

and he's traveling with lwj and lil apple

nothing could be better!

wwx: whats up?

lwj is pointedly not looking at him

lwj: there is something that I…

and here he stops in his tracks, and wwx stops with him

lwj: i didn't tell you.

wwx gets all playful and leans on lil apple, and waggles his demon flute and lwj

wwx: what is it?

Look at that mischievous grin!!

he's all prepared to tease the heck out of lwj for whatever he's about to say LOL

but they're interrupted!!

wen ning and lan sizhui are running after them and wwx notices

LOLOL

His face scrunches up and he mutters under his breath like, damn it! every time!! these two are fast!

wwx: sizhui, why are you following us? aren't you afraid of old master lan calling you out?

MY SUNSHINE BOY IS SMILING SO MUCH THIS EPISODE, I'M SO HAPPY!!!

lsz: i have something important to ask you!

he's all out of breath!

wwx turns to look at lwj eyes wide and curious before going back to lsz

wwx: what is it?

lsz goes on to explain how he's been remembering things but he's unsure of stuff so he wanted to ask them about it

wwx looks confused and glances at lwj

lwj just looks back at him briefly before his eyes flick down

wwx: what is it that you want to know?

lsz looks down and, like, gathers up the strength needed for this next line of questioning.

with the sweetest smile, and the softest eyes he starts listing stuff

like how he knew a cocky chef who was actually a terrible cook

(wwx laughs confusedly at this)

and how that man planted him in a field and told him he'd grow faster with some watering and sunlight

AND WE GET A FLASHBACK OF LITTLE A-YUAN PLOPPED IN THE DIRT GETTING BURIED BY WWX

he goes on to say how that man would play with him

and how he had invited hunguang jun for a meal and then didn't pick up the tab so hanguang jun had to pay

There we get a flashback to their meal at the yiling wine house!

we cut back to the present and WWX'S FACE IS STUNNED, EYES WELLING UP WITH TEARS, AND LSZ IS GETTING CHOKED UP AS HE TELLS HIM THINGS

AND WWX'S BREATHING GETS SHAKY

BC LSZ TELLS HIM HIS SURNAME IS WEN

wwx blinks rapidly, not believing what he's hearing

wwx: wen was your surname? isn't lan your surname?

wwx: lan sizhui, lan yuan.. A-yuan?

AND OH GOD HIS FACE, HIS FACE

His eyebrows are furrowed

His eyes are full of tears!

he's looking at lsz like this has to be a dream bc it's too good to be true

Lsz nods jerkily

AND I'M TRYING TO HOLD BACK TEARS

HOW THE HELL IS LWJ WATCHING THIS ALL GO DOWN WITHOUT CRYING??

he's watching his son so intently

he's seeing his two most precious people reunite

and there are no tears??

I DON'T UNDERSTAND

HE'S VERY OBVIOUSLY MOVED BY THIS BUT NOT CRYING

MEANWHILE MY FACE IS A FREAKING RIVER OF EMOTION

lsz: i...i am a-yuan

and his voice all cracked with feeling

wwx huffs and is still shaky

wwx: didn't a-yuan pass away already?

he's thought his kid was dead this whole time

MY HEART, MY HEART

lwj had been staring at lsz this whole time but when he hears wwx say that, his gaze drops to the ground

HE FEELS ASHAMED (AS HE SHOULD BE!!) BC HE DIDN'T TELL WWX SOONER

wwx turns to lwj, hope and tentative joy in his voice

wwx: lan zhan, was it you?

lwj meets his gaze and says yes, his voice steady and firm

lwj: this was the thing i haven't told you about

Yeah, i know, i’ve been YELLING AT YOU ABOUT IT THIS WHOLE TIME

and wwx looks back at lsz, breath choppy and lsz flings himself into wwx's arms!!!

I AM SOBBING

lsz: i really missed you, i really missed you

THEY'RE BOTH CRYING AND CLINGING TO EACH OTHER SO HARD

OH GOD I NEED TISSUES

wwx laughs and sniffles

wwx: silly boy, why are you crying?

AS IF YOUR FACE ISN'T STREAMING WITH TEARS, WWX

lsz pulls back and scrubs his face in his sleeve

lsx: i wasn't crying. i was just feeling really sad and yet thrilled at the same time

YOU TWO STOP DENYING YOUR TEARS

IF I HAVE TO SIT IN A PUDDLE OF MY TEARS THEN YOU HAVE TO OWN UP TO YOUR OWN TEARS, YOU HEAR ME??

lsz: i couldn't put it into words

lwj: then don't

pffft, ofc lwj would be the one advocating for LESS WORDS lololol

wwx laughs at that

wwx: that's right. no need to say anything

then he starts his theatrics, bc he wouldn't be wwx without his theatrics

he leans on lil apple and rubs his own shoulder

wwx: damn, you little ones are strong, you are indeed a student of hanguang jun

he looks at lwj and points his demon flute at him

HE'S SO HAPPY

lwj: he is a student of yours as well

omg lwj delivers this line so sincerely

like, there was barely a pause between what wwx and what lwj responded with

he's so freaking earnest

LOL wwx straightens up at that and reaches for lsz

wwx: no wonder he is such a handsome boy!

Wwx, you are SHAMELESS

He giggles as he pats lsz’s face, it’s freaking adorable

lsz: master wei didn't teach me anything!

wow lsz, you've had your other dad back for all of five minutes and you're already sassing him?

he truly is wwx's son lol

wwx: i did! it was bc you were so little and you forgot

You’re sounding a bit defensive there, wwx...

lsz: yes, i seem to recall. i remember now

wwx immediately starts preening

wwx: you see. i've mentored him!

lsz: for example, switching the portrait of a beauty into--

wwx slams his hand over lsz's mouth, HIS FACE IS A PICTURE OF PANIC

LOLOLOL

lwj's eyes have widened slightly and developed an edge of Judgement

wn peeks at lwj out of the corner of his eyes like he's trying to gauge his reaction or smth lolol

wwx laughs awkwardly and takes his hand off lsz's mouth to shake a finger at him, wearing a tight smile on his face

lsz: and when a pretty lady passes by--

wwx: NONSENSE!!!

LOL I'M D Y I N G

wwx shouts this at the TOP OF HIS LUNGS to drown out lsz

he whirls on him pointing an accusatory finger and marches towards him as lsz scrambles back

wwx: nonsense! how come you're remembering these kinds of things? how could i teach little kids these things?

LOL HE'S TALKING SO FAST

lsz: you did! wen ning can testify!

wow, way to throw your uncle under the bus, lsz

kids these days have no filial piety!

wwx: there's nothing for wen ning to testify!

OMG WN AND LWJ IN THE BACKGROUND 🤣🤣🤣

as soon as lsz draws attention to him, wn looks at lsz like WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?

and lwj side-eyes wen ning SO HARD, like what the hell did you let wwx teach my son?

wwx: stop talking nonsense! i am telling you, little boy. lan zhan, what did you teach him?

AND WE GET THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SHOT OF LWJ HERE

as soon as wwx turns to him with his wild accusations, lwj gets this delightfully crooked smile on his face

and he looks down as if there's TOO MUCH JOY IN HIS HEART that he can't bear to watch for long

GOD THIS IS SUCH A BEAUTIFUL EXPRESSION ON HIS FACE.

and this marks, what, THE THIRD? the third time lwj smiles in public, all OUT IN THE OPEN?

I'M DYING, I'M DYING

wwx: when a-yuan was little and with me, he was a good boy!

lsz: it's the truth!

wwx: nonsense!

wwx: do you see that pit? no matter how big you've become, i will still plant you into that pit. understand?

lsz has a big grin on his face

wwx: what are you laughing at? you dumb boy!

AND THEN LSZ DROPS TO THE GROUND AND HUGS WWX'S LEG LIKE HE USED TO WHEN HE WAS A TODDLER

AND EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL IN THE WORLD

wwx laughs to himself and lwj still has a small smile playing across his lips as he watches his son

wwx: a-yuan, you are too old for this

AS IF HE'S NOT LOVING EVERY SECOND OF IT

wwx: do you remember, you used to grab hanguang jun's leg when you were little, just like this?

so many wonderful flashbacks of little a-yuan clinging to his parents’ legs!!

oh god, oh god, my heart, my heart is going to explode from all the tender feelings!! Look at their faces

wwx's mouth slowly curls into a smile before it grows INTO A FLASH OF HIS SQUINTY-EYED SMILE

you know the one!

the one that stretches SO BIG WITH HAPPINESS IT LIGHTS UP THE WHOLE WORLD?? YEAH, THAT ONE

and then we cut to lwj's face

he has the softest expression on his face

he's got this gentle, tiny smile, the slightest of curves at the corners of his mouth

and in his eyes are SO FULL OF LOVE AND WARMTH as he watches his soulmate smile at him with their son clinging to his soulmate's leg

AND I MUST'VE DIED AND GONE TO THE GOOD PLACE BC THIS IS JUST TOO BEAUTIFUL TO BE REAL

now we cut to a different scene, lwj and lsz are in the background have some sort of father-son chat, while wwx and wn chill in the foreground

here we find out that wn and lsz plan to go back to qishan to build some sort of memorial to their loved ones

wwx: i'll come with you

wn: that won't be necessary

wwx: you don't want me to tag along?

aw, my sunshine boy looks kinda hurt 😔

but wn assures him that that's not the case. it's just that wwx has already done more than enough for them and it's time for wen ning to go out on his own

wwx gets all teary-eyed again and pats him on the shoulder, and agrees that that's for the best

lsz and wn split off, and wwx waves his demon flute cheerfully at them, lwj at his side

wwx turns to lwj with a smile

wwx: lan zhan, lets go!

he says happily, with confidence, then he taps chenqing on his head a couple of times

wwx: where should we go?

he grins, pulling lil apple along with him, so cheerfully!

wwx: let's get going, lil apple!

but lwj isn't turning with him

he's still in that spot, his back towards wwx who already was forging onto his next adventure

AND MY HEART IS BREAKING

BC WHY HASN'T HE TURNED TO FOLLOW WWX???

wwx slows to a stop as he notices the absence of white robes at his side AND ~THEIR SONG~ STARTS PLAYING AGAIN

he turns back slowly to look back at lwj, confused

there is too much distance between them!!

TOO MUCH!

multiple yards of distance where there should be NONE!

THERE SHOULD BE NONE DISTANCE!!!!!!

WHY ISN'T THERE NONE DISTANCE??!?!

lwj is still facing away from wwx, he's still rooted to the spot and his face has gone blank

wwx: lan zhan, you...aren't you coming with me?

HE SOUNDS SO CONFUSED, SO TIMID

HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT'S HAPPENING

and there's a too long pause during which wwx's eyes are desperately pinned to lwj's back

finally, FINALLY, lwj turns ever so slowly to face wwx

wwx is staring at him and lwj can only meet his eyes briefly before they slowly turn downwards

wwx gets this tiny hurt smile on his face and nods as his eyes well with tears again but this time THEY ARE NOT HAPPY TEARS

these are "i knew this was too good to be true" tears

these are "of course i can't keep good, pure lan zhan at my side" tears

these are "this is exactly what i deserve" tears

lwj looks up again, and wwx gives him a nod and a smile bc he doesn't want lwj to feel guilty for leaving him

LEAVING HIM

HE'S LEAVING HIM AGAIN

WHY

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING

the camera pulls out, really emphasizing the distance and the sudden quiet that falls between them is severely lacking any words of explanation

AND I'M SCREAMING INTERNALLY BC WTF WHY

we cut to a truly impressive shot of the cloud recesses, followed by a cut to a waterfall

I’m pretty sure it's the same waterfall from when they were kids and had that sword fight

and we hear the opening notes of ~Their Song~ played on the flute

wwx walks into view on the shore of the pond the waterfall goes into, with his flute at his lips

in the background we see that lwj is at the opposite shore closer to the waterfall, sitting cross-legged with his guqin in his lap

AND THEN THEY GIVE US VOCALS

bc watching them play ~THEIR SONG~ TOGETHER BUT AT A DISTANCE WASN'T PAINFUL ENOUGH

and jfc the shots of the waterfalls in this area are freaking gorgeous

now we see them standing together on the same boulder over a smaller waterfall

bc our boys have an aesthetic

that aesthetic is moonlight and waterfalls, and they're sticking to it

wwx: lan zhan, tbh, it surprised me that you would take over the role of his excellency

lwj: we made a vow here

and we get a flashback to the lantern scene and hear those vows they made as kids

Back in the present, wwx smiles, and knocks back the jar of wine that he has with him bc the mystery has been solved BUT HIS ALCOHOLISM HASN'T!

and i'm sitting here SCREAMING INTERNALLY, FUCK THOSE VOWS.

YOU'VE GOT NEW, BETTER VOWS, WHICH ARE NEVER EVER LEAVE EACH OTHER'S SIDES EVER AGAIN, DAMN IT

wwx turns to face lwj

wwx: lan zhan, you truly deserve your title, hanguang jun

and lwj turns to look back at him

lwj: and you too, wei ying

we are BLESSED with wwx's wide, squinty-eyed smile

and lwj graces us with his soft, small, secret smile

they stare at each other for a moment before turning back to gaze off into the distance

the camera pulls back to gift us with the gorgeous scenery that surrounds them

now we cut to them walking down the steps towards that big rock full of ridiculous gusulan rules

nhs is there! with his fan!

nhs: this is unexpected. cloud recesses has added another thousand rules.

wwx: nhs, no matter how many rules are added, there is one that matters most. do you know what it is?

nhs looks so at ease here

this entire time since we got back to the present to watch wwx solve this mystery, nhs was nervous, twitchy and flaky in every scene

but here, he stands straight and serene with a confidence we have not yet seen on him til now

nhs: i have no clue

he says this and it doesn't sound anything like his usual anxious, dopey, "idk idk i really don't know"

nhs: please advise, wwx.

and wwx strides up until he's right next to nhs, shoulder to shoulder, tho they're facing opposite directions

wwx: that would be...

he leans down, and lowers his voice

wwx: "thou shall not befriend the devil"

there has been a distinct lack of background noise or music since this scene started

but the minute those words leave wwx's mouth, we get ominous music.

nhs keeps his harmless act as he meets wwx's eyes and they share a laugh

(a laugh of acknowledgement, of recognition of each other's skills)

nhs: wwx, you have the nerve

wwx: no i wouldn't dare. i'm no match for you.

the words they're exchanging SOUND carefree and easy on the surface, but they definitely carry some underlying tension

nhs notices lwj watching them and bows respectfully

nhs: your excellency

he turns to leave, fan open against his chest

wwx: clan leader nie, i have one question that i would love to get your opinion on.

nhs: go on

wwx: you have put in so much effort and energy, don't you want to be the Excellency?

wwx is gauging nhs's threat level to lwj

bc with the skills nhs has developed and the cover he has, it really wouldn't be all that difficult for him to depose lwj if he wanted, you know?

but nhs has never been the ambitious sort

he was perfectly content with his art, and his fans, and his porn, and being second young master, nothing more (UNTIL FUCKING JGY RUINED IT ALL)

nhs: wwx, it was once said that we can never get tired of these scenes; earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea

nhs: as for me, i am a sensible man. if i have to, i always do it myself.

nhs: but for the things that aren't my business, i won't meddle in

and i'm not sure if there's something i'm missing, some layer of context or whatever,

but what i get from this is that nhs is saying everything has its place and he has no desire to go outside of his own place in the world

if the situation calls for it, he will intervene but ONLY if there's no one else willing or able to step in

really, this is just his poetic way of saying, i have no interest in hurting hanguang jun or stealing his power

lwj walks up to join wwx as the two of them watch nhs leave

lwj: aren't you going to ask him?

wwx: ask him what?

wwx: who let mxy out? who released the blade spirit? who found sisi and bicao? and who wrote that anonymous letter?

and he gets this unconcerned expression on his face

with a little pout he just goes on to say that these questions don't matter anymore

and he walks off, twirling his flute

we cut to the next scene and our boys are standing face to face on a grassy hilltop. wwx points behind lwj

Brief aside to say, i love the robes lwj wears here, they’re very very pretty. White and pale blue, they look very airy and light

wwx: i will head that way

and lwj points with bichen behind wwx

lwj: i will head this way

AND THEN THEY JUST STARE AT EACH OTHER FOR A BIT

BC THEY DON'T REALLY WANNA SAY GOODBYE, DO THEY?

lwj: have you decided where you are going to go?

wwx shakes his head and tilts his chin up

wwx: it's a big world that we live in. i will wander with my fine wine and a ride, and make it my home

*cries softly* but you have a home, LWJ is your home, why are you leaving

lwj lowers his gaze

probs bc he is thinking the same thing i was

let lwj be your home, wwx

wwx: lan zhan, i will get going

and lwj gives him one single, barely there nod of the head

bc he doesn't want wwx to go!!!

but he doesn't want to hold him back either...

wwx walks past him with a smile, dragging lil apple along with him and cheerfully he says:

"as long as the sea is bound to wash up on the sand and stars are above you, we will meet again."

and lwj just watches him leave before steeling himself to turn and walk off to his wwx-less future

but as he walks, he hears wwx playing their song on his flute so he pauses to turn back slightly

and we hear wwx’s voice over, "lan zhan, next time we see each other, you better have a name for this song."

as lwj continues walking, we hear his voice over, "way ahead of you."

and he seems slightly less sad at their parting.

AND NOW WE'RE GETTING THE FUCKING VOCALS AGAIN BC THE SHOW JUST LOVES TEARING OUR HEARTS OUT OF OUR CHEST

we get a gorgeous shot of a green cliff side and of course the cliffside has a couple of pretty waterfalls

wwx standing alone, playing on his flute, and the camera is lovingly caressing all of wwx's best features

we get a beautiful close up of wwx's lips resting over the mouthpiece of his flute, aND I THANK EVERY DEITY IN EXISTENCE FOR IT

and it's not immediately apparent bc wwx always wears dark form fitting robes

but the robes he's wearing in this scene are DEFINITELY DIFFERENT from the ones he was wearing when he and lwj parted ways

MEANING SOME TIME HAS PASSED

we have no way of knowing how much time

COULD BE AN HOUR! COULD BE A DAY! COULD BE A COUPLE OF YEARS!!

WE JUST DON'T KNOW

but time has passed

wwx is playing ~Their Song~ alone on that hill, the vocals are like honey to the ears and they crescendo to give us an overwhelming swell of emotion

the music peeters off until it's just wwx's flute reaching the last notes of ~Their Song~

as he is finishing we hear lwj's voice

"Wei Ying."

wwx freezes, like he's wondering if he imagined that voice

the music is completely gone, everything is utterly silent and wwx's face is completely open as he lowers his flute

a smile starts to curl at his mouth, small and tentative and as he turns around, ~Their Song~ crescendos into existence again

and wwx's smile grows incredulous and relieved and SO FULL OF LOVE AND JOY

I DIE, I DIE!

MY BEAUTIFUL SUNSHINE BOY

and we fade to black

bc that's where it ends

That's it

THAT'S ALL THERE IS, WE MADE IT TO THE END!

IT'S OVER, THERE'S NO MORE. MY LIFE NO LONGER HAS MEANING. OMG I JUST BURST INTO TEARS. WHY IS THIS AFFECTING ME SO MUCH

I KNEW THIS WAS COMING. I'VE SEEN THIS THREE OTHER TIMES ALREADY!! OH GOD OH GOD, I MISS WWX'S FACE ALREADY. GIVE ME BACK MY SUNSHINE BOY, LET ME KEEP HIM FOREVER *SOBS*

Hang on, hang on, just give me a minute. *deep breath* Okay, i’m good, i’m good now.

This show is just...it’s so beautiful in every way except CGI lol and it evokes so many visceral feelings. It’s passionate, is what it is. And not in the sexual way “passionate” has been forced to become. This show is passionate the way passion is supposed to mean: piercing anguish, burning anger, utter devotion...just overwhelming feeling

But most importantly, the passion in this show is intense love:

Platonic love; see how much our main cast gave up to aid their friends and dependents

Familial love; look at the lengths those brothers and sisters went for each other

Romantic love; watch how these two soulmates returned to each other again and again regardless of all the obstacles between them

I honestly can’t think of another show that’s done this so well. I am just so grateful to have been able to watch this show, to have gotten to know these characters even tho it’s raised my standards for future shows to ridiculously high levels

So that’s it! We’ve reached the end of the guide! Now we can go back and re-visit our favorite scenes whenever we want!

Return to Masterpost

#WangXiantics #wangxian #the untamed #cql

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hunxi-guilai · 4 years

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do you have any insight as to why certain characters (jiang cheng, wen ning, jin ling) rarely use their courtesy names while other characters (okay i’ll be honest this is about the third gusu bro nie huaisang) never reveal their given names in canon? (@cangse-sanren)

(spiritual follow-up to this post, maybe?)

to be totally honest, I think this might be a POV thing, since the show is pretty rigidly from Wei Wuxian’s (also highly unreliable) POV. I talked a bit about Jiang Cheng not really being called Jiang Wanyin all that much (except when he’s being a lil bitch) in the post I linked above -- tl;dr I think it’s probably a combination of limited POV (Wei Wuxian would go straight to personal name rather than courtesy name), and just... not really having people left in the world in the social position that would allow them to use Jiang Cheng’s courtesy name. Everyone else left in the world would probably have to refer to Jiang Cheng as either -gongzi or -zongzhu in order to display the proper respect and deference.

Jin Ling, I think I’ve heard it said (and I can’t remember if this is from canon material or something I’ve picked up on my dash) felt that his courtesy name wasn’t, idk, manly enough or something and refuses to go by his courtesy name.

Wen Ning, honestly, I’m not too sure about, because by all rights folks should be calling him Wen Qionglin. Wei Wuxian, we know, doesn’t give a flying fuck about when he should be using courtesy names or personal names, so it’s not very surprising that he chooses to go straight for the intimacy of a personal name; I’m honestly surprised that Jiang Cheng and others follow his lead almost universally across the board. We do get Wei Wuxian yelling Wen Qionglin at one point, which feels very much like the deployment of firstname-lastname, you’re in trouble this time! But since Wen Ning is eternally cast in the role of ‘baby bro,’ he gets the personal name treatment quite a lot.

Especially with Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning, though, because they become so reviled after death, using their personal names specifically to condemn and castigate them is also like, a Thing. It’s not just rude to call someone by their personal name to their face; to continue to refer to them disparagingly by their personal name when they’re not in the room/this mortal realm is also a demonstration of scorn. Part of this, I think, comes from a sort of infantilization that happens with personal names. Personal names are childhood names; courtesy names are bestowed when someone comes of age, so reverting back to a childhood name for someone does, on some level, treat them as a troublesome brat who hasn’t conducted themselves with the appropriate amount of maturity to deserve their courtesy names.

If I had to guess why some folks never reveal their personal names in canon, it’s probably because they’re just not close enough to Wei Wuxian for him to come to know this, and it just never gets brought up. I’m honestly not even sure how we know Lan Xichen’s personal name, because I don’t think it’s ever referenced in the show (in the novel maybe?), and Wei Wuxian hasn’t really been in a situation where he’d learn or use Lan Xichen’s personal name. It’s a bit more of a mystery why we have such a spotty record with the names of female characters -- for example, Jiang Yanli is extremely close to Wei Wuxian, but we never find out her personal name (is it a taboo thing related to gender? 讳 hui is a custom practiced in certain dynasties of avoiding characters in emperor’s/deceased relatives’ personal names, but I don’t think it’s a necessarily a thing in CQL). Conversely, we only know Wen Qing’s personal name, which makes no sense, because she absolutely should have gotten a courtesy name at this point.

tl;dr to answer your question, it’s a combination of limited perspective and general mystery

#ask and ye shall receive #@cangse-sanren #it took me embarrassingly long to figure out what the @ at the end of the ask meant #hope this helps!

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demoiselledefortune · 3 years

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20, 23, 25!

20. What is the purest ship in the fandom?

So I’m not usually someone very interested into “pure” ships (I am *very* much interested into messy ships!) and I’m not really sure what that means besides wanting to make a grimace about putting forth “purity” as an ideal. Unless it’s meant to be, idk, non romantic relationships like some of the parent/main caregiver + child or siblings + siblings or Xue yang + sweets (A+ pure relationship)...

okay you know what Su She’s devotion for Jin Guangyao is very pure, so let’s go with that. (I don’t even care about about Sue She).

23. Unpopular character you love?

Lan Qiren! I feel he’s very underappreciated by the fandom, mostly cuz he’s not pretty enough for them I think XD And he’s the main on screen survivor of the older generation so he gets saddled with all the playing the bad authoritarian role (it was worse before CQL, but since that more people have remembered that Sect Leader Yao exists and use him instead. Thank you for your sacrifice Sect Leader Yao, being the role of the annoying older guy everyone is annoyed at for good reason and who can always be counted on to say the bad things is a hard role but a necessary one).

I like him because he’s another grumpy uncle raising his nephews and taking care of all the bullshit left on his lap by a wayward sibling, and i find that rather sympathetic. He’s obviously not been a bad primary caregiver either (There’s the whipping business, I’m not sure if canon ever made clear who exactly decided on it and i more often see him blamed for it which is not absurd, but say, Xichen never is, and of course there’s a lot of nameless Elders).

One thing I note that fandom often forgets is that canon pointed out that he’s not actually very old (he was just born 50 yo in personality). Especially during the Gusu arc. Someone asserting their authority as a teacher (and making mistakes as one) when they’re up in their ears in responsibilities is something I find sympathetic.

He’s definitely not a very good teacher with Wei Wuxian and we’ve all had to deal with annoying teachers so maybe that’s why too XD

I wish the fandom explored more often the relationship he’s had with a lot of the cast as someone who’s been a teacher to a lot of them though. (Like, there’s one short fic with him and Nie Huaisang: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25156843 which is lovely -- and I’ve seen some Jiang Cheng writers -- especially in Xicheng fic - which explored them though i’m always eager to see fic that contrast them interestingly)

It also helps that their family dynamics continue to be one of the things I find most interesting about the Lans (Especially Wangji, I almost only like him in the context of his relationship with Xichen and Qiren and his mother nowadays).

25- How would you end XXX/Would you change the ending of XXX?

Hmm there’s definitely a lot of loose ends that might be worth addressing more directly. And some of it is what’s interesting about it, especially for the sake of fanfic; so I’m not.... i don’t have strong feelings on whether it would be better if done differently but my answers are of the “it would be interesting if...” we got Yunmeng Shangjue reconcilation, or a clear end state for Lan Xichen or Nie Huaisang... but it’s also interesting that we didn’t.

Like there’s a background thread of Baoshen Sanren who underpines some stuff but is never the topic and even her key role turns out to not be her.

And Yi City (which does connects to Baoshen Sanren) does have a bit too much of being its own little black hole in the narration, and could have wrapped up more definitely. So yeah, integrate it more to the main story somehow and have something more around it?

More scenes during the Sunshot campaign in general, because we lack a lot of details on it? The Wen baddies barely have a personality and the one we focus the most on are treated as very one-dimensional.

And narratively i’d have liked if Wen Qing had survived - especially since it seems in character for the Jin sect to keep her around for their research rather than execute her given how gifted she was.

Actually that’s a thing I would do differently in general: female characters and especially female characters surviving at the end.

I would definitely have made some of the Juniors female characters. You don’t really need them for m/m shipping and they are representative of the future being perhaps not as bad/corrupt as the past, so I think it would have been very positive if some of them had been girls. (Obviously Jin Ling being female would have been complicated with his role as heir of Jin sect but even that doesn’t feel impossible and make him being an echo of Yanli perhaps more poignant as well as complicated by him being an echo of YZY to WWX).

I think A-Qing is another character who didn’t need to be already dead/dying in the story; and that might have been interesting to have her join the Junior trio somehow after that arc (perhaps replacing Ouyang Zizhen - nothing against him but he’s more easily replaceable and he does join during that arc).

Qin Su also deserved better. I’m not sure what I would have done to get her a better deal, but she deserved to have a bit more of a voice and agency before dying.

#mo dao zu shi #meme answer #hqfeels

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kinghellcat · 4 years

Text

Tales from the Burial Mounds, Part I

I wrote a little vignette! I think I want to make a short series of these, detailing the time Wei Wuxian and the Dafan-Wen family lived in Yiling. It’s been a while since I’ve written anything, and much longer since I shared my writing, so... be nice to me :x Thanks!

2k Rated G

Tags: Wei Wuxian & Wen Ning, feelings, a lot of feelings (dude idk how to tag)

The wind made hardly a sound as it rushed through the bare, brittle branches of the trees dotting the sides of the Burial Mounds. Though it was well into the summer, the trees remained gnarled and blackened, as though they’d been burned. Not one of them bore leaves, nor flowers, nor fruits. Indeed the only thing that grew well here were bitter wild herbs. Those and radishes. Wei Wuxian had never liked radishes, and couldn’t imagine why anyone else would. But they grew here, they fed the people here, and thus he would tend them.

Wei Wuxian kneeled in the dirt, pulling weeds and inspecting the spindly leaves. Much of the work had already been done, but he wasn’t ready to rejoin the others yet. “Yiling Patriarch” is hardly the title he would’ve given himself -- how self-important it sounds! -- but he supposed it suited him after all. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but he’d already begun feeling the pressure of supporting and protecting the people here. He had brought the remnants of the Wen clan, the Dafan-Wen, to this dreary place, and thus he would protect them.

Only, he felt that they deserved better. Better homes, better clothes, better food certainly. A better leader too. Someone who had more, or anything at all, to offer. Eventually, Wei Wuxian’s hands came to a stop and he found himself just sitting in the radish patch alone, feeling sorry for himself. He shook his head vigorously, like he could shake the negative thoughts from his mind. He stood and stretched his arms high to the waning sunlight.

It was probably almost dinner time. If he didn’t return to the main compound -- if you could call it that -- Wen Qing would surely give him another lecture. Heaving a mighty sigh, he brushed off his robes and made his way back to their shabby dining room/main hall/everything else room. It was made from the ruins of a temple to the fallen, all those whose bodies were buried in these hills. The irony was not lost on him; the fearsome Yiling Patriarch, the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation making his home on a literal mound of corpses and sharing meals with criminals in a desecrated temple was probably exactly what the world had expected of him.

In reality, it was just a bunch of poor, scared people who wanted nothing more than to live in peace. The world would never get to see that, they wouldn’t even try. And why should they? Wei Wuxian thought wryly, It’s not like this is a place worth visiting. He shook his head again. Now was not the time for complaints. If the Burial Mounds weren’t worth visiting, he would at least try to make it a place worth living in. And if that meant he had to eat radish soup every night for the rest of his life, well, that was a sacrifice he was willing to make.

He arrived with enough time to spare that Wen Qing didn’t go off on him, but she did lightly scold him for getting so dirty. Wei Wuxian just laughed it off; he had realized by now that she scolded people to show that she cared. It was sort of touching to think he was included among the people she cared for, if only she could express it more kindly… With a sharp breath, Wei Wuxian once again cut off his train of thought. If he let his mind wander toward Jiang Yanli, he might actually cry. Instead he forced himself to focus on the present, on the people around him now.

Wen Ning had helped Granny Wen make dinner tonight, and though it was still mostly radishes, it was almost tasty. Wen Ning had apparently been quite skilled in the kitchen since he was very young. “Well, see, my sister was always busy with her studies, and after our parents died, it was only natural that it’d fall to me, right?” He had reasoned when Wei Wuxian remarked on his cooking. Underselling himself, as usual, Wei Wuxian thought. But he knew that trying to force praise on Wen Ning only made him uncomfortable, so he let it be. He settled for giving his hand a warm squeeze.

Wen Ning shuffled his feet shyly, but squeezed Wei Wuxian’s hand in return, ever so lightly. “Thanks…” he mumbled. He withdrew his hand and returned to serving up the others, with a very small smile. Even when he was alive, Wen Ning hadn’t been the most expressive person, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel deeply. On the contrary, it was the strength and breadth of the feelings he left unexpressed that had allowed Wei Wuxian to return him to life, or something close to it. All his leftover resentment and fury at the abuse he and his family suffered before his death, on top of a lifetime of being looked down on and ignored, had turned him into a frighteningly powerful fierce corpse.

But that rage was tempered by an even greater kindness. For all his anger at the injustices of the world, Wen Ning was a gentle young man. Sweet, even. Juxtaposed with his ferocity on the battlefield, one might assume he was two different people. Wei Wuxian laughed, thinking that if only people could see the great and terrible Ghost General serving soup to his aunties and cousins, they couldn��t possibly find him so frightening. They couldn’t possibly hate him. Wei Wuxian had already cursed himself a thousand times for turning such a good, kind person into a weapon, to be feared and reviled by the rest of the cultivation world. But what else could he have done? Let him die? He could never have forgiven himself for doing nothing.

Wei Wuxian sighed. He wasn’t doing a very good job at staying positive tonight. He finished his soup, down to the last wretched radish, and excused himself. Wen Qing side-eyed him as he slunk away, but if she was suspicious or concerned for him, she didn’t say so. She returned her attention to her family, and reached across the table to wipe a dribble of soup from Wen Yuan’s chin. “A-Yuan, slow down or you’ll make a mess.” The little boy nodded, but continued to slurp loudly and messily. Wen Qing shook her head, but she smiled fondly.

Wei Wuxian’s mind threatened to wander to his sister again. How he wished to see her again! But how could he, after his unceremonious departure from the Jiang sect? Jiang Cheng would never allow it, and frankly, he wouldn’t want Yanli to see this sorry place. He wanted nothing more than to taste her cooking again, to rest his head on her shoulder while she comforted him… His fingers curled into fists at his sides and he squeezed his eyes shut. It wouldn’t do to start crying while anyone was still awake.

The inside of the Demon-Subdue Cave was just as shabby as the rest of the settlement, worse maybe, considering that it was literally a dark, creepy cave. But Wei Wuxian had claimed the spot for his own, and the Wens knew better than to bother him here. There was plenty of space to tinker, which meant there was plenty of space to make messes. There were crumpled papers, faulty talismans, and half-finished inventions littered all across the floor and on the flat, raised stones that functioned as tables. Wei Wuxian stepped carefully around them as he made his way to the back of the cave where his bed stood. It was another raised stone platform, just long enough to lay on, with a moth-eaten blanket thrown haphazardly over it. He stretched out lazily, his shoulders popping and spine cracking loudly. Though it seemed almost pointless to try, he got as comfortable as he could and tried to sleep.

Sure enough, sleep evaded him. He tried over and over again to clear his mind and relax, but failed every time. Waves of melancholy lapped at him, shot through with deep regret. Why did I do this? How could I leave Yunmeng? How could I betray Jiang Cheng and shijie? One half of him lamented, desperately wishing for his soft bed in his nice clean room back at Lotus Pier. The other half tried to reason with him: I had to do something. I couldn’t let the Wens die! My dream has always been to stand on the side of justice. Isn’t that what I’m doing? It was a solid argument but still he had trouble convincing himself.

He got up and surveyed his many abandoned projects. Maybe he could distract himself with his inventions. He’d been meaning to work on improving his Compass of Evil. Scooping up his prototypes and sitting at his makeshift desk, he examined the parts and the enchantments he’d placed on them. He took the latest version apart and put it back together, but couldn’t think of what to add, what to do differently. Frustration mounting, he gripped the compass and hurled it across the cave with all his might.

It hit the wall and broke into pieces. A yelp from the darkness startled Wei Wuxian from his seething. Wen Ning took a step into the dim candlelight. “Master Wei… are you well?” He asked. Since his resurrection he had lost his stutter and most of his nervous twitches, but he was still shy, and polite to a fault. His long, dark hair was loose around his shoulders, nearly blending in with the darkness, making his ghostly pale face stand out among the gloom. “You left dinner much earlier than usual… I wanted to check on you sooner, but Wen Qing kept stopping me.”

“I’m fine,” Wei Wuxian lied. “Thanks for worrying, though.” He tried to smile but must have failed; Wen Ning looked thoroughly unconvinced.

“Forgive me, Master Wei, but I’m not stupid. I can tell something is bothering you… I want to help you if I can.” He took a few steps forward, but stayed out of reach, like he was afraid to approach Wei Wuxian. Was his poor mood so obvious? Wei Wuxian stood and closed the gap between them, ignoring the flash of panic in Wen Ning’s eyes.

“Oh Wen Ning. I know you’re not stupid.” He started, laying a hand on Wen Ning’s arm. Wen Ning’s posture relaxed a little. “But really, it’s fine. You help me with so much already! You don’t have to worry about a bad day.”

“Master Wei--” Wen Ning tried to argue, but Wei Wuxian cut him off.

“Haven’t I told you to stop calling me that?” He laughed. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”

Wen Ning stared for a moment, eyes wide. “Friends…” he echoed. “Right… Sorry Mas-- er… um.” He fumbled his words, eloquent as always. Suddenly he seemed very interested in the ground.

Wei Wuxian laughed for real this time. Maybe he was teasing him too much, but it really was a lot of fun. And at least he seemed distracted from trying to talk to Wei Wuxian about his feelings. Just to lay it on thick, he reached out for Wen Ning’s chin and tipped it up so they were looking each other in the eyes. “Repeat after me: Wei. Wu. Xian.” He said clearly.

If Wen Ning could still blush, he would surely have gone beet red by now. “Wei…” he cleared his throat awkwardly. “Wei Wuxian.”

“Good!” Wei Wuxian smiled, patting Wen Ning’s cheek gently. It had actually felt a little nice for Wen Ning to drop some of his usual reverent formality.

Wen Ning shifted his gaze to the ground again. He opened and closed his mouth a couple times, trying to find the right words. After a few moments, he clenched his jaw and made eye contact with Wei Wuxian again. “Wei Wuxian,” he repeated, with more confidence than Wei Wuxian had ever heard from him. “As your friend, I am worried about you. Even if I can’t help… At least let me care.” His expression was subtle, but the knit of his eyebrows and the set of his jaw spoke volumes. He was serious.

Wei Wuxian didn’t have a response to that. He simply blinked a few times before a single tear slipped out. With a gasp, he took a step away and turned his back. Stop it stop it stop it! He yelled at himself. A firm hand grasped his shoulder. “You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to. But you don’t have to be alone with whatever is bothering you.” Wen Ning said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Wei Wuxian was still for a long time. At last, he nodded and turned back around. He mustered up a watery smile for his friend. “Thank you. I’m glad to have a friend like you.” They sat together quietly for a while and eventually Wei Wuxian couldn’t hold back his tears. He was just thankful he managed to keep the pitiful wailing to a minimum. When he finally felt as if he had run out of tears, Wei Wuxian was exhausted. He’d been tired for days now, unable to relax enough to get any rest, but now he could barely resist the thrall of sleep. He figured this must be his body finally giving up on him. His eyelids fluttered and he swayed a little. Immediately, Wen Ning reached out to steady him, and looked at him quizzically. He leaned into Wen Ning, resting his head on his shoulder, smiling vaguely before blacking out completely.

#badcat.txt #mdzs #mdzs fic #wei wuxian #wen ning #wen qing #wen yuan #wei wuxian & wen ning #first mdzs fic #be nice to me

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