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a-very-fond-farewell · 4 years

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The forbidden crack! Untamed prompts: 24/?

CLAMP AU n.3 [chengyu? yucheng? (JC/MXY) edition. don’t...question my taste bruh]: “Somewhere, sometime.”

[tw eating disorders mentioned + tw suicide mention (body sacrifice)]

[ok fam. ok. I get it. I would basically ship JC with a rock if it meant I could play with my crack AUs. but I have solid evidence for this one. I promise you.]

[so, “Kobato” from CLAMP is possibly my favorite series from them. it’s 6 volumes long, roughly 40 chapters (and I only recently found out there was an epilogue...even though it was not there in my published version of the series. bc your local cryptid did in fact buy the entire thing in the flesh, that’s how much I love it)]

[in this AU I’ll change some things for the sake of consistency, but I suggest you read it bc the hurt/comfort and pining is enjoyable...so...if you read my silly AU I’m afraid I will spoil the plot for u :( and that’s the last thing I want to do...I understand if you decide to go read the manga and skip my prompt. it’s ok, I’m fine, go and have fun ;-;]

[if you kept reading, hi :D]

[now. am I uncomfortable with certain common tropes in CLAMP’s work in general? yes. especially the age gaps between some of the characters, some of which are not adults. hence the reason behind the changes in this AU. but! the aesthetics fam. the beautiful drawings. the cute outfits. (*ﾉ▽ﾉ)

do you see these?? how cute would Mo XuanYu look in these fam?? I honestly hc him enjoying skirts and feminine outfits a whole lot, but you can imagine him with pants and they would be just as cute. my favorite one is the second from the left btw.]

(imagine Mo XuanYu like this btw and check out the fancomic by the same op! an anon suggested it to me a while ago and now I’m hooked!)

[other mangacaps bc you need visuals:

yeah. angry boy meets bby with a mission to accomplish, bonding over their inferiority complex. yep. I only love the nicest things in life. that’s me.

also look at my baby girl ;-; so cuTe]

[the title is from the ost from the anime series, “Itsuka dokoka de” (check it out!). the anime feels more cohesive than the original manga, possibly bc the pacing is handled a little bit better (since the manga was cut short and the end felt a bit sloppy, but the emotional engagement was still good). and I remember being 17 and crying like a baby when this song came in. if you don’t have time for the manga binge the anime instead! there are plot holes in both of them and the stories are different but still both very enjoyable if you like soft things and angsty vibes.]

[enjoy!]

When YanLi saw him for the first time in front of her door, at the beginning of spring, she thought XuanYu was too pretty and too young for his own good. Sitting across her on the floor, a tea set between them as he politely answered her questions, the boy couldn’t have looked older than sixteen yet he assured her he was of age and well into adulthood. Which seemed pretty difficult to assess, not with the way he dressed: cute button down, beret slightly askew on top of his pretty head and an old-looking suitcases in hand. She didn’t mention the stuffed black rabbit poking out from the front pocket of his luggage, which seemed more of a comfort thing than a reliable source of company.

Moreover, Jin Ling seemed transfixed by him, toddling his way towards their guest asking for cuddles... something her son had never done in front of strangers.

XuanYu refused to give his last name, nor did he have an ID he could show her, nor did he seem worried about how strange that was. And YanLi knew ZiXuan would have been against it, but she couldn’t leave the kid looking all over Lanling for a place to stay... so she gave him the only available room in their rundown pension.

She only hoped Jiang Cheng would be a nice neighbor and leave the kid alone. Who knew what horrors XuanYu was running away from, after all.

When XiChen heard from YanLi of her new tenant, he would have never guessed the kid to look so naive. Not in a bad way, mind you. But his smiles, for how genuine they seemed to be, looked a little bit too big. A little bit too strained not to be a distraction tactic from his part. Or maybe XiChen had lived too long surrounded by fake smiles and closed off people to not worry.

That’s probably why he gave XuanYu a job when YanLi asked him to look over the kid. More to prove himself there were still trustworthy people in the world than to give the younger man a chance. He couldn’t even pay him a full salary, not with the debt collectors breathing on his neck as he tried to run his late mother’s kindergarten.

But maybe that would have been enough for now. A starting point for something better, something new.

A-Yuan had always known the kindergarten used to be an orphanage back in the days, but now he had reached an age where doubts stuck to his head instead of being forgotten with the passing of time. Wen Qing and A-Ning were always busy -be it in the hospital or in university- and A-Yuan didn’t know if they loved him enough to keep him. Ever since granny had passed away he had wondered, day after day, when his cousins would have left him behind for good.

He was thinking about such things when he first met XuanYu, on the man’s first day on the job as a teaching assistant. A-Yuan was mulling over his sadness when XuanYu had come to his rescue, asking him what was wrong... before enthusiastically praising his cousins for working so hard after hearing they were late to take A-Yuan home. XuanYu stayed with him and they played on the swings as they waited for A-Ning to come pick him up, apologizing profusely.

On the way home, his cousin held him close and kissed his forehead as he asked him if he had had fun with the new teacher. And A-Yuan felt less doubtful afterwards.

After hearing the story from her brother, Wen Qing had made it her job to look into XuanYu and his weird approach to life in general. She took every opportunity she could grasp to spy on the younger man, lunch breaks be damned. She needed to confirm if the kid was a trust worthy person or a runaway child pretending to be older than what he actually was. Well, maybe tailing an unsuspecting young man on the streets of Lanling in scrubs and sunglasses would be considered a bit much, she could admit as much. But it was the thought that counted, no?

Her friend MianMian told her to knock it off and talk to the kid like a normal human being, but the truth was that... well, XuanYu was really too weird to be considered normal. He seldom put himself in dangerous situations without much care, such as picking up a random (and still lit) cigarette from the ground just to give it back to the person who had “accidentally dropped it”. Other times he would cross a road without looking left and right first, risking to be run over by cars at every corner. He never, never, fumbled with a phone and he frequently talked to himself... sometimes even directing his words to that creepy stuffed rabbit of his.

No thank you, Wen Qing felt safer behind light poles and crumpled newspapers held upside down. Even if that made her look sketchy as fuck.

Wen Ning made sure to arrive on time to pick A-Yuan up after that time, often chatting with XuanYu as they waited for his baby cousin to retrieve his backpack and raincoat. It was refreshing to speak with the younger man, no matter how weird he acted sometimes. Like that time A-Yuan asked him to tie his shoe-laces for him and XuanYu didn’t know how to do it. Or that time they caught the man taking a nap on the floor in the middle of the school hall. Or that time XiChen had ordered a cake for one of the kids’ birthday and XuanYu didn’t seem to know how to sing the birthday song.

Wen Ning had no place to judge, after all. But XuanYu’s smiles felt like balm on his heart. And if his sweet voice followed Wen Ning home as he bounced A-Yuan in his arms, well. Nobody needed to know that.

The last thing Meng Yao would have expected to hear that summer day when he called the kindergarten was a voice so different from XiChen’s. Startled, he had confusedly asked if the kid worked there and how so, given that the school definitely couldn’t afford to hire anyone. He ought to know. He was the debt collector.

But the kid apologized, introduced himself, and then explained XiChen had offered him a part-time job out of kindness more than out of need. The idiot. XiChen should have remembered who his money belonged to instead of taking charity cases left and right.

But when Meng Yao said as much to naive XuanYu, the other vehemently protested, surprising the debt collector with strong opinions on how he shouldn’t underestimate other people’s intelligence and kindness in the first place.

Meng Yao laughed out at that, genuinely so.

There was more to that kid XuanYu than what one would have expected.

Nie HuaiSang caught a first glimpse of the mystery man only in late summer, when XuanYu stepped into his cake shop to look at the display. His coworker MianMian seemed to recognize the younger man immediately, greeting him by saying they had a friend in common, namely Wen Qing. The kid merely tilted his head and answered he had never formerly met “Miss. Wen” and that he only knew who she was from what the woman’s younger brother had told him about her.

MianMian shrugged and smiled at him.

To which HuaiSang asked him what they could do for him and XuanYu... just... stopped working. Saying that he had wondered if he could do something for them instead. Apparently, Wen Ning had let it slip they were currently understaffed and needed a hand to deliver their sweets.

Delighted, MianMian set him to work, no matter how many times HuaiSang assured her they didn’t need to force the kid to help them... also because they didn’t actually have the means to pay him in kind. But XuanYu refused money altogether, simply asking them to let him help.

To their amusement (and horror) XuanYu didn’t know how to ride a bicycle, so he insisted on covering the deliveries by foot in the neighborhood instead.

HuaiSang called XiChen on the phone that same evening, asking him to give the kid some slack the following day. And maybe buy him some balm for blisters as well.

Jin Ling was young but he wasn’t stupid. Turning three had made him wiser, he knew as much. So he knew XuanYu was magical. He just did.

His pretty-gege talked with stuffed animals, always wore nice things, and kept in his satchel bag a vial filling up with magical candies every time he did something nice for others. A-Ling had seen it with his own eyes, that time XuanYu had put a plaster on his scrapped knee and blew on it to make the pain go away: the golden candy had appeared in the bottle out of nowhere and XuanYu had asked him to keep the secret.

And A-Ling may have been young, but he wasn’t a snitch.

No sir.

ZiXuan eventually stumbled upon their new tenant even though YanLi had tried everything in her power to prevent it. He was very displeased with her: taking a scrawny kid in, cutting his rent in half merely because he couldn’t afford to pay the room in full. Utter nonsense.

No matter how much this kid XuanYu praised A-Ling’s personality or YanLi’s cooking, no matter how much he smiled and made himself look accommodating and unthreatening. ZiXuan didn’t work pro bono even at the firm, let alone for his wife’s business.

Yet, when he asked to be let inside the kid’s room to formally discuss the terms of his contract (and tell him to pack his things and leave at the end of summer), ZiXuan was left speechless. There was no bed, no table or chairs. The fridge wasn’t humming and the AC wasn’t working. The only things he could see were the younger man’s clothes neatly folded in his open suitcase or hanging by the window to dry. No books, no snacks, no nothing.

Usually tenants brought their things in right off the bat, their stuff mailed in within a week after moving in. YanLi was very particular about it, she would have not overlooked something like that. But maybe she had been too busy with A-Ling these past few months and hadn’t noticed the kid was actually too poor to even breathe.

And now that he looked at him, XuanYu looked suspiciously skinny.

Was he sleeping on the floor? Didn’t he have covers for the colder season? Was his fridge broken, empty, or -gods forbid- purposely left with no power because the kid couldn’t afford the electricity bill?

“Do you actually live like this?”

XuanYu didn’t answer to that, but smiled anyway. It looked sinister in a way ZiXuan couldn’t explain, afraid of the things such a young man may or may not have endured in the past. And was maybe still enduring now.

The following day ZiXuan gave the kid their spare futon they bought in Japan on their honeymoon. They never had guests anyway and they could afford to pay for a tenant’s electricity bill every now and then, they weren’t poor.

Certainly YanLi would have agreed with him on the matter.

JinGy saw it. He did! He wasn’t lying! Xuan-ge was there, surrounded by darkness and shadows, looking over the children during their nap time, only a sliver of light coming from the door left ajar... casting shadows on half of his pretty face.

And he saw him reviving that stuffed black rabbit he always had on him.

The rabbit just rose on his hind legs and turned his head up and started whispering things to Xuan-ge, who nodded every now and then in deep though.

JinGyi had read about how paper-man talismans had been stuff of legends in the past. His books spoke of ancient times in which even corpses could be brought back to life. How even animals could turn into godly beasts if enough resentful energy polluted them. But he would have never thought magic could actually be real and so easy to play with.

And Xuan-ge had looked nothing but beautiful as he was talking to the stuffed animal, humming softly under his breath.

When Jiang Cheng dropped out of university for the second time, YanLi didn’t say anything and instead welcomed him back in his old room. So much for enrolling in law school at twenty-three, uh? ZiXuan would have been disappointed in him like the first time that had happened in his bachelor anyway, no point in avoiding the man. It was autumn anyway: it was either going back to the apartment complex or look for a new flatmate. But the school housing had rightfully kicked him out after dropping out in the middle of the academic year, so there would have been little hope for him to find a new place anytime soon.

What he did not expect to find was a new tenant living next door.

Sleeping in front of the door, clutching a satchel bag and a fucking stuffed animal on his lap.

Jiang Cheng jolted him awake and took in the sight of his shoulder length hair, his long lashes and sleepy eyes and thought he looked ridiculous. Wearing a silly hat and moccasins, purple shadows under his eyes, a confused expression on his worn out face. When asked what the hell he was doing there, sleeping out of his room instead of inside of it, the younger man said he had forgotten his keys inside that morning.

He was clearly an idiot, so Jiang Cheng walked away and returned to his room after more than a year away. If someone asked him who had rung YanLi to bring the spare keys to help the idiot he would have shrugged at them and shut the door in their face.

He didn’t have time for that, he had to think how to ask XiChen to let him back to work at the school the following day.

A-Qing had seen many things in life, met many horrible people, dealt with the scum of the scum... but she had yet to meet XuanYu.

A menace. A hurricane. A fool. The amount of times she had had to scoop him up from the ground after he had clumsily slipped on invisible bananas and such should have earned her a honorary title for outstanding citizen. It’s been months since his arrival and the kids had already learned to make way whenever they saw him. He inspired fear even in their tiny heads, honestly. What a fellow teaching assistant, really.

She was just there to score brownie points for his electives and internship program to become a social service worker, that was true. But she cared about the kids enough to know she had to do something about that. The children loved XuanYu and they were this fucking close to either worship him like a small deity or criminal and something ought to be done.

The last thing she would have expected to see, however, was Jiang Cheng coming back so soon. Crawling back from university to ask to work there, wagging his tail like the lovesick dog he was. She could easily imagine what the older student would have said to XiChen, something on the line of “you know goddamn well I’m not doing it for the money. I grew up here, I don’t want to see this place crumbling down. I’m definitely not doing it because I’m in love with you and seeing you sad makes me want to gag.”

Well, maybe the last part could be considered artistic license from her part, but judging by what she could overhear behind XiChen’s office door... yep. She had definitely nailed the part about being fond of the ex-orphanage and for the rest... the sentiment was there. The pining bastard.

“Do you need anything, A-Qing?”, XuanYu asked her out of no-fucking-where, startling her as she pretended to dust off the floor very close to a door. Cheek-plastered-on-it kind of close.

“Nothing. Mind your business,” she answered, flustered as fuck.

XuanYu couldn’t be that naive, he knew what he was fucking doing. His creepy little smile so similar to the one the debt collect always had on his face. No wonder XiChen had fallen for such a tricky bitch.

“Then will you help me find JinGyi? He doesn’t want me to help him with his project for the festival and went into hiding again.”

There, that smile and knowing gaze. Judging poser. He looked much older than his alleged twenty years. He knew what he was fucking doi...

“You?!”

Jiang Cheng’s honest-to-gods screech pulled A-Qing out of her thoughts. She turned and had to witness XiChen amiably patting Jiang Cheng on the head as their boss explained him how XuanYu worked there.

“It’s been almost six months now, he’s a very valuable kid and helped out around here while you were studying.”

Jiang Cheng was both livid and red with longing, because his touch-starved ass was all over that hand patting him platonically on the head. He was also angry, which was default for him... but there was something else underneath. Something promising in the way he stared XuanYu down.

Maybe A-Qing could win some candy by betting with the kids about such unexpected turn of events.

ZiZhen believed A-Yi. If his friend had told him the new teacher assistant was a witch then he was right. So they had started researching witches at the school, but only found a couple of colored books on the matter, mostly useless. All but one, telling the story of a nanny called Mary Poppins... some western thing.

But everything checked for the most part. The hat was there, every day a different one, but ultimately never leaving XuanYu’s head. The umbrella was not, but both him and A-Yuan had seen their gege with a parasol once and that was enough. His satchel contained infinite amount of things, from sweets to possessed stuffed animals, like a qiankun bag from the legends! He talked with things as if he could control them.

Well, even the teacher sometimes tried to convince the printer to work with sweet words, gently coaxing it back to life... maybe that was just how adults functioned. Even his dad would ask the fridge where his favorite cake had disappeared sometimes. Adults were weird.

Fuck Lanling. Rain day and night, autumn planning everyone’s demise by flooding every bloody year. Xue Yang was over it.

He took a random umbrella from the rack by the door of the convenience store and left without a second thought, already wondering what he could say to convince XingChen to offer him dinner somewhere new. The man wasn’t married anymore after all, so Xue Yang could technically have his way with him now, right?

“Excuse me!”

Xue Yang was not in the mood for people calling him out on his bullshit that night, but he turned anyway and saw the weirdest thing. A young man roughly his age, maybe a year or so younger, drenched from head to toe after rushing to him. He was panting, clutching a plastic bag full of cleaning supplies from the convenience store Xue Yang had just left.

“I believe you mistakenly took my umbrella,” the other said, pretty face framed by wet hair sticking to his forehead and cheeks.

Amused, Xue Yang shut the clear plastic umbrella he had “mistakenly taken” and held it at arm’s length by the handle, directing the pointy edge to the other like a sword. Hell if he was going to get wet himself, he needed to prove something to the idiot. He could handle a bit of rain for the sake of being dramatic.

“You want it back?” Xue Yang asked, rising his chin and arching an eyebrow at the other. The man nodded, holding his now wet beret in place on top of his head as if he was more worried about it falling on the ground than keeping his crown dry.

“I knew it was someone else’s when I took it.”

“But...?”

“And what’ll you give me back for it? What are you gonna do about it?”

This should have taught him not to mess with him: he didn’t even have to use his business tone to make the other take a step back. Meng Yao, the bastard, had taught him smiles went a long way in dealing with stupid people after all.

“Right, if I take it from you... you won’t have one to go back home with.”

Uh?

“Wait here. I’ll go buy you one at the convenience store. I’ll be back.”

Uh??

The idiot actually run back to the store and purchased him a fucking umbrella. And Xue Yang was twice as stupid because he waited for him to come back, startled as he was. The idiot was smiling megawatt bright when he came back as well, what the fuck?

The sick bastard extended the clear plastic umbrella to him like Xue Yang had done earlier, but he held it by the middle, as if surrendering his weapon. It was fairly similar to the one Xue Yang had stolen anyway, why bother asking for his umbrella back?

“Did your dead mother give this particular one to you or something?”

The bite in his words only mildly deterred the other man, who pressed his lips together before forcing an even bigger smile on his face.

“No. It’s pretty cheap. But it’s mine. It’s the first thing I bought with my money.”

Xue Yang left after that. With the stolen umbrella. Because he was still a scumbag and not a sentimental asshole. But he was very quiet that evening when XingChen treated him to some fancy takeout on his couch while lovingly drying Xue Yang’s hair with a towel.

Nothing made sense anymore.

Qin Su worried over Jiang Cheng. He was her best worker, but she knew for a fact that he had a million part-time jobs in town and she didn’t want to overwork him. She also knew he would give all of his hard-earned money to XiChen anyway. All to pay a stupid debt. The huge lovesick idiot.

Was he the fastest delivery driver? Yes. Was he the most well behaved of his staff? Not even close. But he was respectful enough to work over his issues and she trusted him with doing his job at the end of the day.

So when she found a young man in a frilly outfit waiting for her on the lobby of her shop asking for Jiang Cheng... well, she was pleasantly surprised.

He introduced himself as XuanYu and held a lunch box in his hands, saying Jiang Cheng had forgotten it at home. Which left A-Su properly impressed. How could a man as angry as Jiang Cheng secure himself such a lovely person was beyond her comprehension, honestly.

He was adorable and she wanted to be his sister like, yesterday.

But when Jiang Cheng came back from a delivery, entering the dumpling shop with his helmet still on, he stared XuanYu down and told him off right off the bat.

“Not you again,” he said, to A-Su’s utter confusion, “Can’t you take a fucking hint? I’m already avoiding you at work. I don’t want to be your friend.”

Something akin to hurt painted XuanYu’s feature for a fraction of a second before he could retrieve his smile and point at the lunch box.

“Your sister asked me to give this to you on my way out. A-Ling helped making rice cakes this time and wanted to hear from you if you liked them or not.”

Qin Su could have easily missed the change in XuanYu’s voice at that, that’s how much of a good actor he was. But Jiang Cheng had no face even to feel ashamed for lashing out at the kid like that. How much older could he be from XuanYu, three years? Two? Had nobody taught him some respect?

“XuanYu, if he bullies you again you come here. Am I understood?”

Like hell she was gonna let this gem of a child slip away from Jiang Cheng’s hands.

Not in a million years.

Song Lan breathed in and out. In and out. The clear morning air surrounded him like an old friend, hugging him closely as he clutched the papers for his divorce.

XingChen had signed them in the end. Five years together were now in the past for him.

Maybe they had been too young back then, when they had taken the chance to get married the moment the government announced the change in the law for people like them. How old have they been, twenty-three? Twenty-four? Another lifetime. An existence away.

He wished he could cry. It would have been easier.

But, as he turned a corner, someone stumbled into him and sent the papers scattering on the sidewalk. Song Lan tried to save them from being dirtied on a puddle but was unsuccessful. He didn’t know why he bothered anymore. It felt like the last piece of his lover had left and Song Lan couldn’t even prevent something as simple as that. XingChen’s signature dirtied in a pool, but not enough to be washed away. What a joke.

The young man in front him bowed down, apologizing profusely, trying to save the documents at the best of his abilities. He even suggested finding a public toilet to dry the sheets under the hot air blowing machine, the silly man.

Song Lan smiled instead, reassuring him it was fine.

He was fine.

But the kid accidentally read the first few lines of the agreement before looking up at Song Lan. And where he would have expected pity, Song Lan only saw consternation instead on his pale face. It was so startling to see it, that he had to crouch back down on the ground next to the kid and reassure him everything was fine. It was just paper, it wasn’t important, he didn’t have to feel so guilty about...

“It is important. Your life is important.”

Such a dramatic sentence, uttered so vehemently, should have sounded weird to Song Lan. Especially because he disapproved of such antics in the first place. But it sounded so sincere, so earnest that he felt touched for a moment.

So he helped the kid up on his feet and asked him to walk a bit with him, to keep him company. Reserved as he was, he would have never thought possible opening up to a stranger the way he did that day. But there was something calming about the kid, almost as if he had been put on earth to soothe other people’s existence.

So he told him how his husband had fallen in love with someone else, someone much younger than them. How this had strained their marriage even if Song Lan had known all along his husband had the ability to fall in love with more than one person at a time. But Song Lan was monogamous and would have never justified forcing his lover to suppress his feelings just to please him. So it had been Song Lan himself to call it quits and wish him all the luck in the world.

The kid had started crying at some point, without Song Lan even noticing at first.

“Why are you crying? Please no, I didn’t wan to upset you.”

“So much love. In different ways but... it’s too much. There’s so much of it, of course I’m crying for you and your loved one.”

Song Lan was many things. Too stern, too rigid, too peculiar about who could touch him or not, too cold in expressing his emotions. But he felt warm then, in front of a kid crying for him in the middle of the street, one day of late autumn.

“Thank you.”

***

XuanYu let it slip once with Mrs. Jin how little he remembered of his past.

It wasn’t a lie, he really didn’t remember what it had been of him before he had met her, asking for a room. But the kind woman just assumed he was talking about his past or youth, so he didn’t correct her on the matter.

Knowing the truth would have scared her, after all.

But he still let himself trust her that day as they sat in front of a pot of tea and he pretended to drink and eat the pastries on the low table. He didn’t need to eat or drink. He wasn’t even sure he had a digestive system.

“I only remember... a song.”

“A song?”

“Yes. Someone singing every night before falling asleep. I don’t think it was meant for me to hear... but my body remembers the shivers. The feeling of being loved.”

“The body remembers the weirdest things, XuanYu. You should trust it more.”

He smiled at that, wriggling his hands on the handkerchief where he had hidden the pastries from sight.

“I’m pretty sure that song wasn’t for me. My body was merely there to listen.”

YanLi looked uncomfortable at that, something scary painting her features.

“Maybe I was eavesdropping,” he reassured her with a self-deprecating joke, not sure if that would have made her feel more at ease or not, “Maybe I was listening in, hoping such lovely words could be directed at me for once.”

Mrs. Jin sipped her tea for a long while afterwards, before finding the resolution to look up and stare him down with a serious expression.

“Unrequited feelings hurt, don’t they?”

XuanYu didn’t know what she meant by that, but he nodded anyway.

He heard something rustling in his bag and hid the sweets inside of it the moment YanLi turned to clear the table. If A-Ling heard someone munching their protests away from inside of the bag, he didn’t snitch on XuanYu and retrieved playing with Fairy on the carpeted floor next to him instead.

Lan Zhan was disappointed in him, XuanYu knew that much. They were admiring the sunset from the small balcony in their room, folding laundry.

XuanYu always wondered why Lan Zhan assumed the form of a black stuffed rabbit, of all things, but he didn’t want to pry. He didn’t even know his real name. The other had told him he used to be a human in his past life and that he hadn’t technically reincarnated in this lifetime. That his current form was just a mean to a goal, that he could use it to guide XuanYu and help him better that way without expending much spiritual energy.

He told him someone dear to him taught him how to manipulate paper-man talismans in his previous life. How similar the process had been to move around in a stuffed animal’s body. How convenient.

XuanYu believed he secretly loved it, even if Lan Zhan would have never said as much. He already talked very little to begin with.

“You told her you don’t remember your past.”

“That I did.”

“Don’t do it again”

XuanYu folded the last towel on his lap and then let Lan Zhan take a nap on it. He felt silly having to take showers and pretend to be a normal human being. He hated inconveniencing the Jins with him, accepting their bedding and paid kitchen appliances and so on. But if he wanted to accomplish his mission he had to make an effort to look normal... instead of spirited away from another world or maybe simply another era.

“I won’t do it again, don’t worry Lan Zhan.”

Lan Zhan was disappointed, but he was also patient to a fault.

Sure, it would have been much appreciated if Mo XuanYu didn’t lose him around every other day. This time the younger man had forgotten to pick him up from the floor where he had been reading stories to the children at the kindergarten.

But Lan Zhan was also a stuffed animal now, so it wasn’t like he could move around and risk being seeing by normal humans. His body was a vessel and any damage would have had repercussions on his soul as well.

What to do.

He tried not to panic when he felt someone picking him up from the floor after an hour or so. He silently prayed for them not to be A-Qing: even in this life she was too smart for her own good and he couldn’t risk being found out so soon. Mo XuanYu wasn’t even halfway to complete his mission and Lan Zhan couldn’t...

“I’m sure A-Yu is looking for you, little guy. What are doing all the way back here?”

It was always difficult to hear his older brother’s voice in this life. To see his face, to notice how sad he was even in this new reincarnation of his.

Lan Zhan didn’t move a single muscle as XiChen dusted him off and put him in his apron front pocket as he looked for “A-Yu”.

In order to give a second chance to Mo XuanYu, Lan Zhan had sacrificed any possibility to ever reincarnate until his mission was accomplished. So XiChen didn’t have a younger brother in this lifetime and he would have not had one for a while. Lan Zhan missed him, but they had to wait for a bit more.

They still had three months to fill the bottle the King of Hell had entrusted Mo XuanYu with. Then he would have entered the list for reincarnation once more and everything will have been fine in the end.

Lan Zhan owed the kid his life, so he trusted him.

No matter what.

XuanYu remembered the boy who had stolen his umbrella. He remembered him well enough to recognize him when he found him crawling on the floor, a stab wound in his belly, one winter night.

Panicked, he asked Lan Zhan what they could do as he instinctively pressed the wound with his bare hands. Lan Zhan didn’t dare move not to attract attention on himself. The other man snarled out at XuanYu, asking him why did he even bother, seemingly recognizing him.

“I took your fucking umbrella. Hate me and leave me alone.”

“Ridiculous.”

Lan Zhan would have been proud of him for that remark, but XuanYu was too scared to think about it. He didn’t have a phone and he didn’t even know the number for emergencies. He wasn’t even qualified to be a teacher. How had he survived until then. He was useless and stupid and...

“What the fuck?” Jiang Cheng’s voice came in a whisper behind him.

What a sorry view the older man had to take in that night: a pool of blood staining otherwise clean clothes, a moaning boy on the ground in restless pain, a crying mess of a sad excuse of a human pressing on a throbbing wound next to him.

Jiang Cheng muttered something about the boy being one of Meng Yao’s men, that they should leave him there to die for all he cared.

The man under XuanYu barked back, telling him he had tried to “convince the idiot of the same”. But XuanYu was horrified by what he had just heard.

“People die for nothing. People die for fucking nothing. You don’t leave someone behind just because you fucking hate them.”

XuanYu has never cursed in this brief, borrowed life of his. Maybe spending so much time with Jiang Cheng had rubbed some of his habits off on him in the end.

Startled, Jiang Cheng seemed to agree with him because he fished out his phone and called an ambulance right away.

The stabbed man laughed at that.

Lan Zhan was clutched in XuanYu’s hands as they waited in the corridor of a badly lit hospital. The kid was crying, hard. He must have remembered how his family in Mo Manor had mistreated him in the past, how easily his own relatives had starved him off just out of spite. How already impossibly emaciated he had been when he had sacrificed his body for Wei Ying, to bring him back in a weakened vessel just to seek revenge. Just to let his hatred run free.

Such cruelty had earned him nothing but distrust from the hell judges, who sentenced him to never be reincarnated again. Only when Lan Zhan had ascended to heaven -many centuries after reaching immortality- he had been able to make them relent.

If Mo XuanYu could prove to be a good human being during a trial time of one year on planet earth, filling a vial with good actions in the form of golden gems, then they would have considered Lan Zhan’s proposal. Mo XuanYu would have atoned his sin and be granted a new life, a clean record, and a second chance at happiness.

Seeing someone almost die in front of him must have awaken something ugly in him. His stained hands, the iron stench in the air. All that blood... like the last thing he had most probably seen in his previous life before his body sacrifice. A scarlet array under his feet, another soul replacing his in his own body.

Lan Zhan let himself be held tightly in Mo XuanYu’s hands that night at the hospital.

And hugged back without anyone else noticing.

Xiao XingChen. That was the name of the man showing up at the kindergarten one week later. XuanYu had never seen him before, but the man hugged him in front of the kids, alerting both XiChen and Jiang Cheng.

“Thank you,” the tall man said in between tears, holding him tight.

“I don’t understand. I...”

“You saved A-Yang. Thank you.”

XuanYu pressed his lips together tightly at that, so overwhelmed he didn’t know what to say. His fingertips hurting with sometimes akin to electricity the more he let himself be held so fiercely by the other man.

He started crying in earnest only after the man had left, surrounded by the children who worried and fussed over him. He fell asleep with them during nap time and when he woke up he found Jiang Cheng placing a quilt over him.

Caught red handed, the older man feigned disinterest in the beginning... but then he sat down next to him. Just like he had done in the hospital one week ago.

“Did you see someone die before?” Jiang Cheng asked then, awkwardly scratching the back of his head, “You had such a strong... reaction to my words. It was insensitive of me. I apologize for angering you. I’ll better myself.”

XuanYu didn’t answer at that.

Jiang Cheng would have never understood what it meant to sacrifice yourself to hatred and revenge. How much it had scarred him to be brought back to life, but only as a worn out set of robes on top of someone else’s soul. How distant he had felt when the Yiling Patriarch had inhabited his body and had let himself be touched by someone else.

Jiang Cheng would have never understood what it meant to be touched in the flesh but be utterly unreachable as a soul. Or how much it hurt to become an empty body filled by someone foreign and new. Someone who could wear his skin better than him.

Jiang Cheng would have never understood. And thank all the gods for that.

So XuanYu... Mo XuanYu kept quiet and smiled instead.

Lan Zhan didn’t trust Jiang Cheng. He hadn’t in the past and he wasn’t gonna start now. Wei Ying would have been so disappointed in him for thinking badly of his baby brother, but there was little Lan Zhan could do about that.

Wei Ying wasn’t there to judge him for it.

Mo XuanYu would wake up every morning and wash himself, get dressed and tidy up the room before leaving. He would fix his appearance in a mirror Young Lady Jiang had gifted him in autumn, making sure his hat was still in place.

“What would happen if I were to...?”

“You must keep your hat on... even when you sleep. You know this much.”

“I wear a headband to bed.”

“And what of it?”

“It’s... silly.”

“Nobody can see you in your sleep. Why the sudden worry?”

Mo XuanYu said nothing in response to that, but Lan Zhan knew. The kid had never worried too much about his appearance aside from looking proper and well dressed. He had never fussed over his features, but recently he had taken the habit to walk dangerously close to makeup stores and check various displays at the convenience store close by. Lan Zhan knew Mo XuanYu had remembered his past... how he had quickly realized he was already an adult. With needs and desires.

But now a brand new reincarnation of Jiang WanYin would wait for him every morning to walk to work together. Now Jiang Cheng acted pleasantly enough to be considered kind and doting to someone starved of affection like Mo XuanYu had always been. Which wasn’t planned, it had never been.

Lan Zhan didn’t like where this was going.

He didn’t like it at all.

Nie HuaiSang came to bring a cake for XuanYu one day or so before the end of the year, snow sticking to his hair and flushed cheeks.

“I don’t know when your birthday is... so I’m pretty sure I’m late to the game. But I wanted to thank you for helping me and MianMian that one time. So I made a cake for you. I hope you like strawberries.”

Mo XuanYu had no idea if he liked them or not. He couldn’t even eat.

He started crying in the middle of his room, where HuaiSang had placed the boxed cake on top of his low table.

Panicked, HuaiSang jumped up and out of the room to alert Jiang Cheng next door. But upon seeing the other man’s worried expression XuanYu cried even harder.

“What did you do to him, you bastard?”

“I’m not the one who used to prank people all the time. Grow up!”

“You clearly did something horrible to him for...”

“A-Cheng we’re not twelve anymore. Who do you take me for?”

XuanYu took his chance to stuff his face with cake, gulping it down bit by bit even if he knew he didn’t have the necessary organs to process it without vomiting it all out in an hour or so. He had tried many times to hold food down to no avail. His body rejecting it as if it was poisonous and dangerous.

He had tried so many times... to practice. To be able to appreciate YanLi’s generous cooking, to help A-Ling and the children at school prep their lunches and maybe... maybe to eat with Jiang Cheng every now and then.

Nie HuaiSang hugged him and patted his head, confused but too scared to ask for an explanation. Mo XuanYu smiled at him and lied, saying his cake was the best he had ever eaten. It wasn’t the best. It was simply the first.

He had no way to compare it with anything else, really.

Wen Ning had heard about his “stomachache” from XiChen, who had known all about it from YanLi and Jiang Cheng. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise for XuanYu when he saw the older boy in front of his apartment complex the last day of the year.

But it was a surprise.

“Can we talk for a bit?” Wen Ning asked, holding his umbrella up for XuanYu to walk beside him, protecting him from the icy snow.

They walked to the nearest park, sitting under the gazebo to watch the snow falling down. Their heavy coats keeping them warm, despite the cold.

They used to take long walks back from the kindergarten with A-Yuan after school, since the Wens lived close to XuanYu. Before Jiang Cheng came back anyway.

Wen Ning looked uncomfortable, fidgeting with his fingers as he tried to find the right words. He surprised XuanYu by telling him how, in the past, he had suffered from an eating disorder and had been hospitalized for a while in his teens. How worried his sister and their grandma had been for him, how much they helped him in his recovery. How alone he had felt for years still, no matter how loved he was.

“A-Yuan told me he never saw you eat. So I was wondering if you needed help.”

It wasn’t the case, but XuanYu knew he meant well. Telling him everything was fine would have only worried him more, so he tried to explain an half-truth that could satisfy him. Saying it was difficult for him to process food, that in the past he had suffered from malnutrition and now he had digestive issues.

He was talking about his past life, but he figured that could work as well.

When they parted ways in front of the apartment complex, Wen Ning asked to hold XuanYu’s hands for a bit. He cradled them carefully, as if they were precious. His slender fingers cupping XuanYu’s smaller palms almost reverently.

“I know you don’t feel the same about me. But I’ll ask you to look after yourself anyway. Not out of obligation for me... but out of respect for yourself, if nothing else.”

The moment Wen Ning let go of his hands, Jiang Cheng stepped out of the front door of the building and saw them.

He said nothing and walked away after stepping out of the gate.

Lan Zhan would have very much liked to flip a finger at Jiang WanYin’s forehead. Hard. Wei Ying would have done the same, he was sure.

Wei Ying would have also smacked some sense in his baby brother, forcing him to face his feelings and take responsibility for what he was doing to poor Mo XuanYu.

Who was currently waiting for the other man’s return like a dog by his room balcony, surveying the front courtyard like a bird of prey from above.

Lan Zhan tried to coax the kid inside, reminding him snow was still falling down and that his beanie was slipping away. He tried to be gentle about it, knowing how much XuanYu had grown resentful of the hats he had to constantly wear.

But the younger man simply shrugged, saying he wanted to wait for another five minutes. Just one more. Just to make sure.

Jiang Cheng didn’t come back that night.

And Mo XuanYu cried in his sleep clutching the half-empty vial to his chest.

Lan Zhan spent the night watching over him, singing to him the song he had written for Wei Ying. He snuggled close to XuanYu and made sure his wide headband was covering the crown of his head, before pressing himself to the other’s forehead.

He never stopped singing.

Wishing he could take all the pain away.

YanLi, A-Yuan and even ZiXuan knocked on his door to greet him into the new year, despite how XuanYu should have been the one to pay his respects to his landlords.

But they asked him to visit the funeral home with them instead, to say their thanks to YanLi’s parents with offers and flowers.

He dressed in his best clothes, having never been in what seemed to be a modern version of the ancestral halls of his childhood in a past life. The establishment was fairly sterile, with shelves filled with plaques and pictures instead of wooden inscriptions on an altar. The lot of them bowed and said their thanks, chatting with the late Jiangs almost as if they had never left. YanLi apologized to her mother for Jiang Cheng’s absence that year like any other year, while ZiXuan told his father-in-law how they would have visited the Jin ancestors during Chūnjié to make it fair.

XuanYu looked at them and barely kept himself from crying.

On their way back, YanLi explained her parents had died when she was still twelve and Jiang Cheng was merely six. How they had lived in the orphanage run by XiChen’s mother and made friends with the boy, who was YanLi’s classmate. How the siblings stayed there until YanLi came of age and got custody of her baby brother. ZiXuan’s family of lawyers had helped her pro bono and that was how she had met the man and fallen in love with him. Even if it had taken a while for ZiXuan to notice her at first, preoccupied with university and law school as he had been at the time. But the Jins helped her with the inheritance left by the late Madame Yu: the apartment complex where they currently lived.

Watching them explaining their past in such detail moved XuanYu deeply. Feeling as if they wanted to make him part of their family by filling in the gaps for him.

That was still his older brother after all and those were still his sister-in-law and his beloved nephew and he... he loved them. He had missed them so, so much.

And he was about to leave them again soon.

Wen Qing finally showed herself up one day at the park, when Mo XuanYu was taking Fairy out for an evening walk. She approached him by telling the younger man she had assisted in the surgery Xue Yang had undergone some time back.

Lan Zhan (hiding in the kid’s coat pocket) could see how startled the kid was at the mention of the criminal, but he decided to trust this version of Lady Wen as he would have done in the past.

Wei Ying cared deeply for her, after all.

Whatever truths she was about to entrust Mo XuanYu with, Lan Zhan knew the kid could take it.

He hoped as much, at least.

Jiang Cheng came back only for Chinese New Year. Saying he had stayed at XiChen’s since the winter break allowed them to take it easy and figure some stuff out for the following school year.

It hurt to know where he had been all along, but XuanYu braved a smile anyway. He knew how much Jiang Cheng cared for the older man, how much he wanted to save the school from the debt collector. How much he didn’t love XuanYu back.

So he let himself cry one last time before waking up one morning and deciding he had had enough.

He talked with Lan Zhan, asking him to tell him all about Wei WuXian and their love. If XuanYu’s sacrifice had allowed them to be happy as they deserved in the end. If Lan Zhan hated him now, for forcing him away from his loved one, who was currently waiting for him to come back to heaven.

Mo XuanYu knew the couple had sacrificed their chance at reincarnation to allow him to seek a second lifetime for himself. He knew Wei Ying watched over them from up above, waiting for Lan Zhan to secure a new life for the kid.

They talked all day and then well into the night.

By dawn Mo XuanYu had decided what to do.

XuanYu properly met Meng Yao one day of early spring, when flowers weren’t yet brave enough to poke their way out and greet the sun. The man was dressed in black, his hair cut short, a sigarette between his lips as he waited patiently for the kindergarten to open.

It was XuanYu’s duty to open that morning, so he was the one to greet the man.

Upon hearing his voice, Meng Yao immediately recognized him.

“There you are. I was waiting for you.”

“Me?”

“You’re the kid who answered the phone. And the one who helped my subordinate back in winter, right?”

His dimples were so deep, his face so pleasant.

Mo XuanYu remembered him from another lifetime. He remembered how much he had cared for his older brother Jin GuangYao. How hurt he had felt when the other had lied and accused him of harassment just to get rid of him.

But this was a new life and Meng Yao was just a man.

Who happened to have been married with XiChen for a while before turning to a life filled with crime and gang violence.

Wen Qing had told him Meng Yao had initially tried to live far away from his adoptive father Wen RuoHan. All for the sake of marrying XiChen and keep him safe. But XiChen’s mother still had had a debt to pay for the construction of the orphanage, a price too high for her to pay with her poor health and delicate disposition. A debt that XiChen had inherited from her when she had died.

That was why Meng Yao had left him: to go back to his father and ask him to handle the debt himself, supplicating him to overlook such small issue and let him dry XiChen out of every penny and cent instead.

Wen Qing may have learned this only from the gossiping running in her family, with the Wen Clan being as big as it was, but she was pretty sure of what she had told XuanYu. That Meng Yao had simply faked having fallen out of love with XiChen to protect him from his adoptive father and his cruelty. That XiChen still loved him and was waiting for him to fight alongside him instead.

Mo XuanYu knew all of this.

So now he could act and fulfill his mission.

“I want to pay the debt XiChen owes you.”

“You are full of surprises, XuanYu. And how do you plan to do that?”

“I can do many things.”

“You’re very pretty, you can make good money out of it.”

XuanYu considered his words before shaking his head.

“It’s not something I can do.”

“Then what can you do?”

“I’ll solve everything.”

“I’m all ears.”

“But you’ll have to stop making XiChen worry so much.”

“That’s not how business work...”

“Lie to me. Give your word and I’ll... I will solve everything.”

Meng Yao humored him and nodded.

Then and only then, Mo XuanYu took his hat off.

Lan Zhan had watched the entire scene unfold before his eyes without intervening, trusting Mo XuanYu with such an important choice. He took in the sight of the beautiful spiritual light shining brightly on top of XuanYu’s head like a crown.

His soul in full display, its energy so raw it had slowed down time all around them.

Lan Zhan turned around and looked at XiChen, who had just turned a corner and had been walking towards XuanYu to greet him good morning. Frozen in time, his older brother’s face still looked peaceful... simply because he had had no time to notice Meng Yao’s presence quite yet.

Lan Zhan turned once more and saw Jiang WanYin making his way in a rush towards them, surely to protect XuanYu from Meng Yao. When did he arrive? His features trapped in a perpetual frown, scared for the one he truly loved in this lifetime.

Then, Lan Zhan looked up at Mo XuanYu and saw him taking the bottle only half filled with gold... which symbolized his goodwill and generous spirit.

“Will this be enough to grant a wish, Lan Zhan?”

When XuanYu said his name like that he sounded so much like his Wei Ying, full of hope and love.

“It depends on the wish, A-Yu.”

“I reckon it’s not enough for a new reincarnation, eh?”

“It’s enough to save a life... but not yours.”

XuanYu looked crestfallen, but he persevered still.

The bottle transformed into a bag filled with money and XuanYu made his way to XiChen and left it at his feet before smiling up at his mentor and employer.

“I cannot rewrite the past, but maybe I can plan a better future for you.”

Still smiling, XuanYu slowly walked over to Jiang Cheng and said his farewells.

Then he crouched down and took Lan Zhan in his hands, kissing him goodbye on the head affectionately.

“Erase me well, Lan Zhan,” he whispered then.

Before disappearing into thin air.

***

Wei Ying had agreed with him, suggesting the idea himself.

In the end the King of Hell had granted Lan Zhan’s request and offered Mo XuanYu a second chance anyway. Since this new self-sacrifice had been fueled by positive emotions instead of anger and despair, the hell judges had considered the atonement fulfilled and put the kid’s name back on the reincarnation list.

Twenty years had past and many things had changed.

For starters, the kid’s last name wasn’t Mo anymore, but Nie. The boy had, in fact, born into Nie MingJue’s family and had lived overseas in Japan for a while before moving back to Lanling when XuanYu turned twenty. Nie HuaiSang had met him many times during summer vacations and other festivities, visiting his brother and his wife every chance he had gotten to dote on his cute nephew XuanYu.

Nie MingJue had done a remarkable job in protecting him from harm. So, by the time their little family had decided to move close to HuaiSang, XuanYu had become a well adjusted adult with a brilliant future ahead of him.

Nobody remembered him.

Or so Lan Zhan had thought.

Apparently, he had forgotten to wipe Jin Ling’s memories thoroughly. So, when The Nie family had come to greet HuaiSang’s friends YanLi and ZiXuan, A-Ling almost had a stroke out of incredulity and happiness for being reunited with his “A-Yu”. Even if Jin Ling was now older than the pretty-gege from his memories. Even if he had spent years trying to figure out why nobody seemed to remember the weird uncle living next door to his Jiujiu years back.

XiChen and Meng Yao had solved their problems and had started running the school together right after Wen RuoHan sudden and mysterious disappearance. The man had many enemies after all.

A-Yuan had grown up into a fine young man, someone Wei Ying would have certainly been proud of, working with his cousin Wen Ning at the local botanical garden while his friends still studied in university.

Nie HuaiSang had married Qin Su and opened a restaurant with her.

MianMian and Wen Qing had decided to live together and adopt a bunch of dogs just because.

Xiao XingChen and Xue Yang still lived together while Song Lan had found his way back to them after talking it out with the couple.

A-Qing was probably running some sketchy business in social services to protect kids from horrible families.

Lan Zhan was still, unfortunately, a stuffed rabbit. Following XuanYu in his new life in the most unexpected of ways. In the form of the first present the boy’s uncle had gifted him in childhood. If Wei Ying had pulled a string or two from heaven to make that happen, well, Lan Zhan himself was none the wiser. The only thing he knew was that XuanYu had always taken him with him in all his travels even if he didn’t know he could speak. Lan Zhan had preferred not to reveal his nature and let the kid have a normal childhood. Especially since he had no memories of his past as a tenant in Jiang YanLi’s house. Nor of his life as a cultivator.

Wei Ying had agreed they could wait to be reunited again. The both of them wanting to look over XuanYu for a little longer before getting their own chance at reincarnation. They had all eternity to be together again... they could definitely wait a bit more for the kid.

All was well.

Aside from the other person whose mind Lan Zhan had conveniently forgot to wipe clean of any memory of XuanYu.

In his defense, Lan Zhan had tried to make Jiang Cheng forget. But something about XuanYu must have touched him so deeply... that Lan Zhan had not been able to do much about it. The kid’s smiles and clumsy antics would always linger in the back of the other’s mind no matter how much he tried to ignore them.

Coming back from his job at ZiXuan’s firm, exhausted and vulnerable, Jiang Cheng decided to visit his sister the same day Nie MingJue had brought his family there. So he was particularly weak to the sight of a bright, soft XuanYu when YanLi introduced her younger brother to their guests.

To Lan Zhan’s absolute delight, Jiang Cheng immediately bowed down to a scary looking Nie MingJue and asked his son’s hand in marriage.

Yes, grovel to this precious boy and learn your place.

XuanYu only tilted his head at that weird man bowing to his parents and smiled.

His laughter ringing up to the sky, where Wei Ying was still listening.

From where he would have kept watching.

[I worked so hard on this please reblog]

[kobato means “little dove” I thought it was cute since XuanYu is a magpie! + I wanted MXY a chance at life and for once this is a reversal-sacrifice from WWX’s part and I think it’s neat.]

[JC would be 43 or so... which yikes. but this is all I could do. I don’t like huge age gaps but at least everyone is a consenting adult, okay?]

[the thing that started this was like “what if LXC was an only child and LWJ did not reincarnate bc he’s still in the afterlife or something? then the entire thing escalated so...yeah.]

now I will cry for ages. I worked so hard on this good god D:

#mdzs #cql #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #mdzs/au: clamp #mdzs/au: kindergarten #mdzs/au: kobato #mdzs/au: modern #mo xuanyu #jiang cheng #the forbidden crack! untamed prompts #RAREPAIR ALERT #I AM TRASH I WILL SHIP JC WITH A ROCK FOR ALL I CARE #xiyao #tw eating disorders mentioned #wangxian #yucheng #chengyu

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bluestrawberrypaint · 3 years

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it's wei ying's birthday and oh! what's this?

A PRESENT!

(NOTE: this was originally posted around wwx's birthday and since I'm uploading everything here at a later time, some might get confused.)

bonus:

gotta make sure the recipient is happy lmaoo

✨ wangxian kindergarten au: PART 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8✨

(@/shibe_sann is my Twitter side account for danmei-related things!)

Buy me a Coffee! | Twitter | Instagram | Commissions

#wangxian #kindergarten au #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #mdzs au #wei wuxian #lan wangji #my art

1K notes · View notes

watermelonicepop · 3 years

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after that day, jin ling cannot stop telling jiujiu the story about this a-yuan gege he met at playground.

#jin ling #lan shizui #zhuiling #a yuan #mdzs #mdzs fanart #mxtx #mxtx fanart #kindergarten!AU #yuan gege #baby jin ling #yellow chicken #by watermelonicepop

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wangxianficrecs · 3 years

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Hello! I some time ago I came across fic where LWJ adopted Lan JingYi and WWX adopted Wen Yuan and they met (and fell in love 😍) at the kindergarten or something like that but I lost link and can't find it

Maybe you have seen this before? ❤️

I send you my love and gratitude 💗

Hmmm, we’ll have to outsource this one. Who’s read it or heard of it, my chickies?

@obaewankenope said they found this one, but it also has a sprinkling of stalker!Xue Yang:

Shit happens, but love does too

by sweetdeadlykittypaws

E, 18k, wangxian

Summary: A typical Monday morning for Wei Ying consisted in waking up as late as possible, preparing breakfast for A-Yuan, bringing him at the kindergarden and walking (running) to work.

But that wasn't a typical morning. After dropping there his son, Wei Ying felt something was off. A cold feeling in his guts.

Like a usual day... if it wasn't for the creep he felt.

wwx has a deadly stalker

#wangxian fic finder #wangxian #mdzs fic finder #single dad lan wangji #single dad wei wuxian #modern au #at least I assume it's modern #unless there was a cultivator kindergarten I overlooked #which is possible #and if there wasn't #someone should definitely write it

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noirlevity · 4 years

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Kindergarten XueXiao for #SoftXueXiao on twitter. If things go well I might post a series of short comics feat bibi xuexiao :D

#mdzs #xuexiao #xiao xingchen #xue yang #myart #kindergarten au #watercolor

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hey-hamlet · 3 years

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anyone got any fic recs? some good bnha or mdzs fic - diamonds in the rough, favourites you always go back to, things that made you late because you couldn’t stop reading, all goes!

i’ll go first:

BNHA

Why Are We Here Again? - cloud_nine_and_three_quarters Class 1-A is a villain reform class with Aizawa it’s ex-vigilante teacher. Izuku, quirkless, confused and angry has no idea why he’s there with the villains, the criminals, those with uncontrollable quirks, and the vigilantes that got caught.

It takes him a while - but he works it out. It probably would have been less dangerous for the heroes to leave him where he was.

Complete - 230′000+ words

release the dogs of war - IceEckos12 A dimension hopping Izuku gets stuck in a world of superpowers after a jump gone wrong. Though, considering the super-powered jerk he’s looking for, this might actually be the right world after all.

Complete - 44′000+ words

You and I will be safe and sound - supercrunch Toshinori is a cop gone undercover as a kindergarten teacher to find a possible lead on a case in a woman named Noriko. Well, maybe this cute freckled kid and his mum could help?

Complete - 20′000+ words

MDZS

The One-Body Problem - metisket Lan Jingyi gets kidnapped by some demonic cultivators who try to make him a vessel for the reserection of the Yilling Patriarch. Turns out Jingyi’s soul stays in his body and he gets a new headmate by the name of Wei Wuxian, a dead man very happy to be called back like this.

Complete - 28′000+ words

loving so soft and sharp - swordgrip Look, this a a weird rec, dead dove, dark everyone, pretty short, but the way it was written just punched me in the face so hard I needed to add it. everyone here is terrible other than poor wei ying

Complete - 800+ words

See What I’ve Become - Vamillepudding Lan Wangji wanted to live a quiet life away from his family - (un?)fortunately, Wei Wuxian keeps getting in the way of that. Mob AU, Wei Wuxian gets stabbed, general fun times.

#fic recs #feel free to self rec too there is 0 shame here

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sitrusky · 4 years

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mdzs kindergarten au from last year

#mo dao zu shi #modaozushi #wei wuxian #lan wangji #jin ling #lan sizhui #wangxian #my art

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softwired · 3 years

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sanctuary

fandom ◦ MDZS pairing ◦ SangCheng rating ◦ Teen word count ◦ 2,195 notes ◦ modern day assassin/crime AU

read on Ao3

He hasn’t seen Nie Huaisang in thirteen years. And now, he’s here to take him out of the world.

Lil fic for Sangcheng Week 2021 Day 1 - Heartbreak (assassin/mark)

The sun shines brightly, blue sky overhead reflecting off the angled panes of glass covering the building ahead. The sanctuary has just opened for the day but it’s too early for visitors. Multicolored raised beds bursting with flowers and fluttering with early morning pollinators fill the air with a fresh fragrance. There are no attendants around, but Jiang Cheng knows someone is in the building before him. The contract he’d received had told him as much. He doesn’t know who they are, but he has a basic description and a known talent for adapting to circumstance. He follows the narrow gravel path between tall beds of autumn-colored mums and black-eyed-susans, his boots making less sound than the bumblebees flying clumsily past his head.

He silently enters the bird house. It’s filled with cheerful sound, the happy, raucous birdsong everyone associates with bright new days and life in motion. It immediately reminds him of someone he hasn’t seen in over a decade, someone he’s thought of more than was probably normal considering how long it’s been. He stows this thought to process or repress later and passes into the main part of the sanctuary.

The building is a warehouse-sized room shielded in glass and choked in jungle-like layers of plantlife. It feels like wandering into the wild for a moment. The space has been created by human beings, but it belongs to the birds, and he can’t help the impression that he’s an interloper. But, that’s a feeling he’s more at home in than most, given his profession. As much as the greenery generates a sense of the unknown, it also provides him with the ability to go unseen, and he uses it to his advantage as he slowly begins to explore the space.

It doesn’t take long for him to find his mark. They give themselves away by their voice. While he can tell from yards away that their bird calls are well-practiced, there’s a depth to their voice that screams human. They speak bird with an accent, as someone once described it to Jiang Cheng. He suddenly has an uneasy feeling and stops his approach to listen. He trusts his instincts enough to take a few seconds, waiting for an obstacle to make itself known.

“Hello?” The person calling out is closer to Jiang Cheng than he’d realized, somewhere just beyond a screen of broad green leaves. His hand flexes at his side, his pulse quickens a fraction. “I thought you said someone was there. Are you trying to scare me?” The voice is familiar, but the laughter that follows is unmistakable. Jiang Cheng’s heart skips a beat, thuds harshly, and races like an engine about to shake itself apart. Without even seeing him, he knows. The person he’s been sent here to kill is Nie Huaisang.

Jiang Cheng hadn’t been born or raised an assassin. He’d had a normal life once. He’d been a typical teenager with an exceptional amount of disfunction in his family but plenty of love and support to get through it. One of the people he would never be able to thank enough for existing and caring for him was Nie Huaisang.

They’d been best friends since kindergarten, protecting each other from schoolyard bullies who thought Huaisang was too girly, Jiang Cheng was too awkward, and they were both from weird families. By the time they were in high school, Nie Huaisang’s room had become Jiang Cheng’s sanctuary when he needed to escape from the constant fighting in his own home, or get away from his obnoxious brother. Jiang Cheng had been the first person Nie Huaisang admitted his attraction to boys to, as soon as he’d started to accept it himself. He’d been Jiang Cheng’s first kiss on the first night either of them had tried alcohol. They’d laughed at each other afterward and fallen asleep together on someone else’s couch.

Despite years of ending long phone conversations with, “Love you!” as a half-joke, their relationship remained platonic until most of their senior year was over. On an otherwise ordinary day, Jiang Cheng saw Nie Huaisang turn around by the school gate where he always waited to greet his friend. His smile was the same one he used every day to tell Jiang Cheng wordlessly that he was as happy to see him as Jiang Cheng was. And at that moment, with the end of their school lives looming, he’d realized he wanted more.

They’d dated officially for less than a month before Jiang Cheng’s life had spun beyond his control, but that sliver of time spent together had been enough to haunt Jiang Cheng for more than a decade. It was the most peaceful, exciting, and hopeful few weeks of his life. And, the memories of this person’s warmth and affection had kept him going through all the dark times that had followed.

He hasn’t seen Nie Huaisang in thirteen years. And now, he’s here to take him out of the world.

“Hm… you really think there’s someone here?” the voice beyond the leaves asks conversationally. There’s no reply but birdsong. “Alright, if I look will that make you happy?”

Jiang Cheng is frozen to the spot. For once, he doesn’t know what to do. His mind is running backwards and forwards over the contract he’d received. How could he not have known? How could he have let himself become so distant from this person that they were not only strangers, but murderer and victim?

A pale hand parts the foliage before him like it’s a curtain. Then, he’s there, gazing into Jiang Cheng’s eyes, pinning him like a butterfly to a card.

“Huaisang.” The name tumbles from his lips.

Nie Huaisang smiles like he’s been waiting for him. He reaches out his hand, offering it to Jiang Cheng.

“Why are you skulking in the bushes?” he asks wryly. “You were upsetting the birds.”

“Huaisang, I—”

Nie Huaisang reaches further so he can grasp Jiang Cheng’s wrist and pull him out of his hiding place. His fingers are warm, his grip strong. His sharp nails dig into Jiang Cheng’s skin. If this is a dream, it’s very convincing.

Nie Huaisang is older now, and it suits him. His face has lost its childish softness, but he remains soft. He hasn’t gotten any taller, still the perfect height to tuck in against Jiang Cheng’s chest. His hair is long, like he hasn’t cut it since the last time they’d been together, half up in a bun with the rest sweeping down his back. He’s beautiful and handsome at the same time, regal in a three-piece suit.

A three-piece suit is not the standard uniform of the attendants at this sanctuary. It’s also nothing like the baggy flannel and short flared skirt he’d been wearing last time Jiang Cheng saw him.

“You—” Jiang Cheng starts. Nie Huaisang puts a finger to his lips.

“Sit down first. Take a breath and we can talk.” He pulls Jiang Cheng to a wooden bench and they sit down together before Huaisang releases his hold.

“Why—why are you here?” Jiang Cheng stumbles over his words.

“Why are you here?” Nie Huaisang repeats the question back at him, raising an eyebrow.

“You look good,” Jiang Cheng blurts.

Nie Huaisang’s face brightens with shock. He laughs, raising a hand to his mouth to cover his teeth.

“You’re still doing that,” Jiang Cheng huffs. He yanks Nie Huaisang’s hand away from his face. “I told you nobody wants you to hide your smile.”

Nie Huaisang stares at him. Jiang Cheng stares back, feeling as though his spirit has left his body and he’s just watching the action.

“I wasn’t expecting…” Nie Huaisang starts, but doesn’t finish his sentence.

“You were clearly expecting me,” Jiang Cheng says.

Nie Huaisang nods.

“Not that it’s a new development, but someone wants me dead,” he says softly. The sudden anger that Jiang Cheng feels over this reality must show on his face. Huaisang tilts his head and smiles in a sad way. It’s so much like the past that Jiang Cheng feels wrenched from the inside, skin too tight, blood to warm.

“How did you know that I was—that it would be me who showed up today and not someone else?” he asks.

“I didn’t know for certain,” Huaisang admits, “but I paid off as many people as I could to keep the pool of applicants low.”

“Who are you?” Jiang Cheng asks, all the tiny hints combining with circumstance to form a shaky picture of what’s going on here.

“Tell me why you’re here and I’ll explain everything,” Huaisang replies smoothly.

“I’m here to kill someone. Someone with long hair who likes spending their mornings in this bird sanctuary and did something to piss someone off enough to get a price on his head.”

Huaisang smirks. “How expensive am I?” he asks. “I wasn’t able to find out the exact hire price, just how much I needed to spend to outbid it.”

Jiang Cheng does not find this situation amusing, but he has enough practice interacting with people who would to keep up.

“Expensive enough to get me to cancel breakfast with my sister and nephew.”

“Aw, how is Yanli? I’ve missed her.”

“Huaisang, you need to explain what is going on here,” Jiang Cheng tells him firmly.

Huaisang sighs and pulls a lock of his long hair over his shoulder to toy with it.

“All those years, I told you so much about my family but you weren’t really listening,” he replies. “And that’s fine. I didn’t want you to realize who I was. I wanted to run away with you.” He looks up, smiling. Jiang Cheng says nothing. He’s holding his breath.

“When Mingjue got sick I took over for him. You were gone. There was no escaping it. And, as it turns out, I’m very good at being a crime lord.”

“Who wants you dead and why?” Jiang Cheng growls.

“Jin Guangyao. I’ve been working to destabilize his position in the city government for quite a while. It seems he finally found out.”

Jiang Cheng makes to stand up. Nie Huaisang grabs his arm,

“Where are you going?” he laughs.

Jiang Cheng looks down at him. “I’m going to take care of him so there isn’t a contract on you any more,” he explains like it’s obvious.

“Jiang Cheng, after all these years, you’re still so sweet and I don’t deserve it at all.”

“I’m an assassin. I came here to kill someone,” Jiang Cheng reminds him.

Nie Huaisang’s smile is so beautiful it makes him want to cry.

“You don’t have to worry about Jin Guangyao. I’ve already set his downfall in motion. I’m only here because I couldn’t resist the chance to see you again.”

Jiang Cheng glares at him. “You risked being assassinated for the chance to see your ex? Are you insane? You clearly knew where I was. Why didn’t you just call me?”

“I thought…” Nie Huaisang’s voice fades.

“You weren’t thinking,” Jiang Cheng supplies for him. He sighs, anger settling in as the unreality of the situation begins to disperse. “All these years—” he laughs bitterly at himself. “I’m such an idiot. Your cousin who was in jail, your brother’s weird work hours. All the guys in suits who would pick you up from school. God, I’m a fucking idiot.” He leans over and Huaisang releases his arm so Jiang Cheng can put his face in his hands.

“If you’d known,” Huaisang says, voice dark and even, “would you have told me what happened to your parents? Or would you have left the same way you did when you thought it was in my best interest?”

Jiang Cheng lifts his head, looks into the sad, guarded expression of the only person he’s ever been in love with, and snorts.

“You’re too stupid to be the head of a crime family. I can’t believe you. Huaisang, you—god, we’re a perfect match. No one else deserves to put up with our bullshit.”

Before Huaisang can decide which expression to paint on his face, Jiang Cheng leans in and kisses him. Huaisang makes a tiny sound of surprise, then returns the kiss. They haven’t done this in over a decade, but that time shrinks to nothing in a moment. Just like all those years ago, this day has gone from ordinary to the best day of Jiang Cheng’s life, because Nie Huaisang is here with him.

“Do you want to have lunch with me and Yanli? You can meet Jin Ling,” Jiang Cheng offers as soon as they pull apart. Nie Huaisang’s hands are warm on his shoulders.

“Jiang Cheng, it’s been thirteen years,” Huaisang objects weakly.

“You wanted to see me bad enough to risk being assassinated,” Jiang Cheng reminds him. He watches Huaisang blush with satisfaction. It had been fun when they were teenagers, and it’s even more fun now that he’s supposed to be a big scary criminal.

“Do you want to come work for me?” the scary criminal asks.

“I’m not cheap,” Jiang Cheng warns him.

Nie Huaisang smiles. “I think I can keep you satisfied.”

#mdzs fanfiction #sangcheng #sangcheng week 2021

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museaway · 4 years

Text

2019 in fics

I didn’t think I’d been too productive this year until I made this list. I posted more regularly than I remembered. Didn’t anticipate getting into new fandoms this year but am loving mdzs and tgcf! Planning to write more for both of those in 2020. TGCF was my surprise favorite - both the book and fandom. I have one remaining sheith WIP I want to finish, and then I think I’ve settled my heart.

February

get you the moon vld | sheith | 7.9k | post-s8 fix-it

March

the in-between vld | sheith | 2.2k | established relationship birthday fluff

oceans between (you and me) vld | sheith | 13k | pilot + mermaid AU

April

a new light mdzs | wangxian | xichen POV | 2.4k | post-canon

May

pillow talk mdzs | wangxian | 3.4k | mature | post-canon slice of life

July

someone else’s name vld | sheith (keith/shiro clone) | mature | 22k

timestamp for the painted desert vld | sheith | mature | kindergarten teacher + single dad AU

keeping rabbits mdzs | wangxian | 3.6k | teen | post-canon

September

the next five years star trek aos | gen | scotty-centric | 5.4k | post-canon

October

an emptying spn | deancas | 26k | mature | canon divergent AU

December

after thirty-eight hours spn | endverse deancas | 4k

the butterfly lovers tgcf | hualian | 37k | mature | soulmates AU

#my writing tag #wangxian #hualian #sheith #deancas #2019 fic roundup

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fantasyamidmelancholicreality · 5 years

Text

The voice of my heart, lately sounds like you.

MDZS MODERN AU.

CH-1 YOU ARE MY NEW BEST FRIEND!

"Ah, I'll kill you"

"Not if I kill you first"

"Damn you, Wei WuXian this is not even your fight. Why are you being so aggressive?"

"You pick up a fight with my bro and expect me to sit back and watch, you shit hole for a brain"

"Damn right..... Ah..... Wei WuXian get your lame ass here."

"How coward can you be Jin ZiXun bringing your 5 cowards against the 2 of us!."

"Wei WuXian you once said you can singlehandedly take care even if there were 10 of us, what happened to that? Don't feel so motivated now?"

Jiang Cheng gave Wei WuXian a deadly glare. Wei WuXian wanted to kick that Jin ZiXun so hard that he could feel pain in every breath he takes.Idea struck him. Wei WuXian suddenly starts to kick and punch whoever is in his vicinity. Since the boys knew that Wei WuXian was more difficult to handle among the two, they were ganging up against him. Jiang Cheng saw this as an opportunity and punched hard the boy who was holding him. Jin ZiXun saw this and thought that the tables might turn and they might have to run away from a fight they could've easily won. In desperation he moves in direction to punch Wei WuXian.

It was an easy day at school. No boys from class had made any fuss over anything and so in a light mood he was riding back to home, leisurely on his bicycle. The distant noise of boys struggling was the only misfit to his perfectly easy day. Those voices increased as he slowly cycled towards his home. Several boys were fighting on the streets. Five of the boys bullying two others. He suddenly felt a pang in his heart as he recognized the boys who were struggling to break free. He saw Wei WuXian was about to get hit in the face as his brother Jiang Cheng hit a boy of other group. Before he could understand his own actions he running towards Wei WuXian. He shoved Wei WuXian from where he was to behind him. Since Wei WuXian was about to get punched now the punch landed on Lan WangJi's face!

Everyone is silent. With horror.

Jin ZiXun can see his death in Lan WangJi's eye as he recovered from punch to face the culprit. Jin ZiXun took a few steps back, his hands in defensive position. In shear fear he says 'I'm.. I'm sor.... Please don't kill m!." Everyone was just stunned but Wei WuXian had to laugh at that.

"Hahahaha. He's so afraid of you, Lan Zhan! Come on Lan Zhan do me a favor and kill him!" Wei WuXian said with a bit of sarcasm and something very evil.

The boys immediately went pale. It was Jin ZiXun was first gathered courage or rather enough cowardice and ran away and the others followed. Lan WangJi turned to help Wei WuXian get up from the streets. Wei WuXian smiled at him so bright that Lan WangJi thought he might be blinded by the light that smile radiates. Wei WuXian thanked him and said "you really made him piss in his pants Lan Zhan! You are so cool and strong!!" And then Wei WuXian had to smile harder than before. Lan WangJi swallowed and blinked twice before nodding a few times. Jiang Cheng was facing them and said "guys, the trouble is not over yet." And he gestured for them to look behind. The both turned in a flash and saw a tall, huge boy looking at them with such a disgusted look on his face it became difficult for them to know if he was in their side or otherwise.

"Big bro Nie" Lan WangJi said "can you help?" It was Nie MingJue the senior Head boy also he was Lan XiChen’s best friend. So obviously he had good relations with the head boy and Lan WangJi knew he was here to help. “Who were those cowards?’Nie MingJue asked looking at Jiang Cheng. “They were Jin ZiXun’s cowards” Jiang Cheng said with disgust.

“So you are rivals? I often watch you both getting into trouble with them.”

“Not rivals we just simply don’t agree with their mere existence.”

Nie MingJue smiled at Jiang Chen at such a disgust. He almost looked proud to know someone talk with such disgust. He offered Jiang Cheng his hand and pulled him up. “WangJi, I’ll take this boy to his home and you take him” he said pointing at Wei WuXian. “You must know where they live, right?” to which Lan WangJi only nodded. At that Nie MingJue started paddling his cycle and moved in the direction of Jiang Cheng’s home.

Lan WangJi carefully seated Wei WuXian on the back seat and started to paddle. “Lan Zhan thanks for saving our asses! You know we owe you one. Next time if you get into trouble just call me and I’ll come to save your ass.” Wei WuXian said with a wide grin. Although Lan WangJi was looking forward he knew the person behind was smiling. Lan WangJi did not say anything. He only nodded at thanks. Wei WuXian continued with his chatter. “ Lan Zhan do you know where I live? Of course you should know, uncle Jiang lives in a very huge house plus he is very good and famous so you must know him, right?” At that also Lan WangJi nodded. “Lan Zhan you are not saying anything!!” there was a little whine in his voice which ended in a pout. After a few moments of silence Lan WangJi asked “What do you want me to say?” He sounded genuine. He might really not know what to say. Wei WuXian chuckled and said “I can give you classes on ‘how to talk’ and ‘what to say’ if you want to” Lan WangJi didn't say anything. Being silent was his strong point not talking like this boy sitting on the back seat of his cycle. Wei WuXian talked pretty much all the way to his home and Lan WangJi listened patiently.

Soon they reached the destination and Lan WangJi was stressing over should he escort Wei WuXian till he reaches inside his home or should he just say farewell from the gate of his home. He was still confused when Wei WuXian grabbed his hand and was dragged him inside the gate and in his house.

The moment he stepped inside the house he was greeted with some worrying faces and some angry faces. Wei WuXian was immediately taken into warm embrace of a girl who was elder than him, probably his Shijie. Wei WuXian was still holding Lan WangJi’s hand. Before he could ask Wei WuXian to let go of his hand Wei WuXian said “ I’m okay shijie! Don’t worry those cowards cant hurt me.” He smiled at his shijie and all the tension was vanished. Jiang Cheng was already home, since the head boy might have paddled fast to deliver him home.

Since Wei WuXian assured he was okay the attention shifted to the boy who was holding his hand. Suddenly feeling all the eyes on him Lan WangJi tensed up a bit. Wei WuXian turned with that bright smile and introduced him as “ this is my new best friend, Lan Zhan!” He smiled even more looking admiringly at his proclaimed ‘new best friend’

Lan WangJi swallowed. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know how to react. He felt like running away and never looking back. But all he could do was to stand there, feeling like out of the place and try to look away from the staring faces.

“Don’t stare, you are scaring the boy.” said a stern and dominating voice. Everyone obeyed and looked in different direction. That voice made Lan WangJi think of his uncle. He many a times talk with such authority. Hence the voice did not scare him but relaxed him in a way. He looked towards the direction of the voice but the woman had turned away and so he could only see the frame of that woman and not her face.

The girl, Wei WuXian called his shijie, took Lan WangJi’s hand in her hand and said with the warmest expression “ I thank you very much for saving A-Xian” Lan WangJi melted at the love she showed just for thanking him for saving her brother. He was about to smile but Wei WuXian was first to talk. “Shijie could you make us something, we are hungry. Lan Zhan took so much trouble to save us and bring me home. We cant send him home hungry right?” His shijie smiled at him and said “ first attend to his injury and in the meanwhile I’ll cook you something.”

Wei WuXian had almost forgotten about that injury on Lan WangJi’s left cheek.He suddenly looked at his face and caressed the surrounding skin, carefully not to further hurt him. Lan WangJi froze at this gesture. He never liked anyone touching him even the slightest. He even wouldn't let his brother touch him unnecessarily. And there was this boy, his classmate since kindergarten, who was the most naughty boy in their class and so Lan WangJi kept his distance. But right now he was so close to his face, his hands on his cheek, caressing the hurt away. Lan WangJi started to turn red in the ears. Wei WuXian then dragged him to his and Jiang Cheng’s shared room, completely oblivious of the effect of such gestures on the other boy.

Once in the room Wei WuXian asked Lan WangJi to sit on his bed and he started looking for first aid. He found it soon and attended to the wound on Lan WangJi’s face. Lan WangJi sat completely still during the whole process. Maybe he was still not sure how to react. Wei WuXian kept slipping him sweet smiles and Lan WangJi kept looking away from those blinding smiles.

In no time did the shijie returned and asked them to join for her special soup. Wei WuXian talked non stop even when soup was in his mouth. Lan WangJi listened to everything he had to say, nodding sometimes. After finishing the soup Lan WangJi asked for their leave to go home. Wei WuXian hugged him as farewell and walked him to his cycle. “ see you tomorrow at school, Lan Zhan!” with that Wei WuXian waved at him and he took off on his cycle.

On his way home Lan WangJi was filled with warmth and light. As he remembered what his old classmate but new friend said his face was lifted with joy and a smile spread across his face without his knowledge, ‘my new best friend.’

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"Come to hospital with me today, WangJi." Lan XiChen said suddenly turning to his younger brother with the same smile but warmer and filled with something like love, "I want you to meet someone there." Lan WangJi was surprised at his brother's sudden request and then arrangement. "'Someone' Jin GuangYao! I've met him before brother." Said Lan WangJi who did not like to go anywhere but to where he is absolutely required.

Lan XiChen was founder and president of 'Lan hospitals and research facilities', along with Jin GuangYao and Nie MingJue. Lan XiChen founded the facility and later did Jin GuangYao and Nie MingJue joined hands to help benefit more people from the sects, and hence the name. Since Nie MingJue passed away quiet a long time ago it was his younger brother Nie HuaiSang sharing the responsibility now. They were very close to Lan XiChen, so of course Lan WangJi knew them all well too. Even so Lan WangJi would not meet with them unless its important and/or his brother was busy with other things.

Lan XiChen hardly made any requests to Lan WangJi but whenever he did his younger brother was sure to grant them. He was reluctant but Lan WangJi agreed to go with his brother. Lan XiChen was happier at that. They quickly but safely drove to the hospital and he asked Lan WangJi to wait for some time since his 'someone' was busy at the moment. Lan XiChen decided to go seek his 'someone' first and bring him to Lan WangJi to officially tell him 'something'.

Lan WangJi sat in the visitor's room even though he was offered to wait at Lan XiChen's office. He started going through the magazines, flipping pages, gathering information in any available material. He heard commotion from outside. It was as if the sounds came from far off but still somewhere near by. He did not pay much attention at first. Then the sounds of struggle started to grow louder. He had to get out of the room to check if everything was alright. When he got out of the room he could hear the commotion but can't see where it came from. Before he know it he started to move towards the direction of sound.

He heard someone laugh and he stopped in his tracks. His heart beating wildly. He doesn't know why but there was something that made him impatient. He moved faster towards the sound.

In no time he was in a long Hall with rooms on both the sides. The noises were the loudest there. He started to move, again, towards the voice but it was a restricted section. Without the written permission from the president not even president himself was allowed to enter.

Lan WangJi heard the laugh again. That same laugh. He knew for sure who was in there still wished it wasn't him. Lan WangJi knew very well what the restriction section was for. Not research exactly but if someone guessed it was for experimentation they won't be entirely wrong. The restriction section was guarded by two iron gates sealed with multiple seals and locks. The design complex, almost making it look unbreachable but Lan WangJi knew the truth. Lan WangJi demanded the gatekeeper to let him through. Since he lacked the permission she couldn't. He sternly ordered her to go find his brother and get him the permission. It wasn't her job to do so but she was so scared of the look on Lan WangJi's face that she ran to find Lan XiChen.

"XiChen, as much as I'd like to come to your place, you know I can't. I have to attend the conference tomorrow and get the scientist you couldn't last time." Jin GuangYao said hugging Lan XiChen. "Anyone else you want me to bring?" Lan XiChen only smiled at the tease and replied, " The one I want doesn't, see if you could do anything about that " Jin GuangYao melted at that and kissed him deeply, " I can't go if say things like these, you know." Lan XiChen smiled brightly at the idea but before he could speak they heard desperate knocks at the office door. Jin GuangYao walked over and allowed himself to unlock the door. It was the gatekeeper and she looked scared. Jin GuangYao's phone vibrated and he fetched it out of his pocket to see who it was, he glanced at Lan XiChen and excused himself out and away from office.

She was breathless and so Lan WangJi asked her if everything was alright. It was unlikely of the gatekeeper to knock at his doors. "President Lan, your brother demands the permission to enter the restriction section." She paused a minute to catch her breath and then added " He looked like he would kill someone if he couldn't enter." Tears were welling up her eyes. It gave Lan XiChen an odd sense of loss and worry. He immediately looked for blank sheet of paper in his drawer and wrote an simple permission and signed it. He walked towards the restriction section in long, worried strides towards restriction with the requested- oh no- demanded permission.

Lan WangJi was now holding on yo the iron gates. Only his figures could reach to the other side. Without his permission a name slipped his mouth, "Wei Ying". The echos of his own voice made him realize what he just did. As if a reply to his plea he heard a faint, frail voice calling his name. " Lan Zhan " Lan WangJi wanted to know for sure he was not hallucinating and so he raised his voice and called that name with all the love and all the longing he felt. "Wei Ying" As soon as those syllables we're out of his mouth, he heard the sound of metal falling on floor and commotion from within the restricted section. Some footsteps running towards him and some voices shouting 'don't let him go' 'we can't let anyone find out' 'hold him quick'.

Lan WangJi was now more worried than ever for he knew for sure it was Wei WuXian, and given he was in the restricted section the thought of experiments being performed on him made him frown. So he called again, the name to which he had set his heart, "Wei Ying! Wei Ying!"

A figure appeared from the far end of Hall. He was clad in hospital clothes and a badge with a number was pinned on his chest. At the sight of the man he set his heart on he couldn't help but call him again, only this time Lan WangJi sounded more desperate than ever. "Wei Ying! Wei Ying come to me." At that the said man ran towards him, dodging all the doctors and scientists and who so ever came in his way. As the man was approaching close Lan WangJi could now look at his features, running like a lunatic, his face dark clad with pain and wounds. Eyes swollen and red, clearly deprived of sleep. His hair disheveled. He was not the man Lan WangJi knew, he was am abused version of the man he loved.

The running man finally came to a pause and a frail smile broke on his face. Lan WangJi's world crumbled all over again at that smile. He had seen that smile in all its glory and now to have received that smile like a dying flame, just stabbed his poor heart. He suddenly felt warmth around the tips of his fingers that had found its way through the gates. Tears welling up his eyes as he called the man again, softly "Wei Ying" Love dripping off every gesture Lan WangJi made towards him. The other man teared his gaze from Lan WangJi's fingers and looked him in the eyes and smiled. The smiled that melted mountains was now only given to Lan WangJi. "Lan Zhan! You found me, Lan Zhan." Tears streamed down Lan WangJi's cheeks at the sound he yearned to hear for years.

Lan WangJi could see conspiracy behind Wei WuXian. The doctors and helpers stepping towards Wei WuXian with different medical instruments in their hands. Fear struck Lan WangJi as he shouted for his brother. Thankfully Lan XiChen was not far behind and hearing his brother shout he ran towards him.

He came to a pause as he saw his brother's back and the man in front of him. He quickly recognized him. His steps stumbled half in confusion and half in disbelief. Lan WangJi looked over his shoulder and saw his brother. Lan XiChen handed the gatekeeper the written permission and she got a single key from her pocket and moved to open the gates. But before she could open the gates a doctor shoved an injection into Wei WuXian's neck. Everyone was stunned. Lan WangJi pushed aside the gatekeeper opened the gates wide and punched the doctor unconscious. Wei WuXian still smiling said " I knew you'd find me, Lan Zhan." Lan WangJi caught the fainting Wei WuXian and said "Always. I'll always find you, Wei Ying." Hearing that Wei WuXian fainted in Lan WangJi's arms.

#wangxian #mdzs #modern au #fluff&angst

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