#other than the obvious guilt and emotional distress jl's biggest problem is that sizhui gives him Disappointed Eyes after hearing about it

[words-writ-in-starlight]

Prompt: I feel bad for asking this but animal attack with wwx. I think you know what animal I'm talking about 🐶

Oh you’re a BASTARD, you can come sit by me.  Roughly based on a real thing I once saw a real live dumbass do.  For this H/C meme!

Wei Wuxian knows it’s ridiculous.  He does.  He’s a grown man, he fought in a war, he stood against the whole damn cultivation world with an army of the dead.  He should be past this.  He should be better than this.

He’s not.  He’s really, really not.

The kid doesn’t mean anything by it.  Fuck, he was raised by Jiang Cheng, he probably thinks that love looks like hitting below the belt.  

“Just get over yourself,” Jin Ling says without looking up from the papers he’s sorting through.  He looks tired--Wei Wuxian thought so when he first came to Koi Tower yesterday, and he knows Jin Ling worked late into the night.  He’d meant to help, today, for all Jin Ling’s skepticism--Wei Wuxian pointed out dryly that he was da-shixiong of a whole sect, once, and can probably handle scheduling patrols without trouble--but...

“A-Ling,” Wei Wuxian says, with his best pathetic smile, and it shakes something awful on his lips, “have some pity for this poor fragile senior, hey?”  He can’t--he can’t move, he’s pressed as far back against the wall as he can manage, behind the table Jin Ling pointed him to, and he can feel his hands shake, his breath rasp in his chest, and this would normally where he makes a performance out of it, makes a joke before anyone else can get there, but the stupid twist of hurt in his gut is making it...challenging.

“She’s harmless,” Jin Ling says.  He finally glances up, reaches out to scratch his dog’s ears with ink-stained fingers.  “See, look.  Fairy, open.”  He taps her muzzle with a finger and she opens her mouth--Wei Wuxian feels a lurch of blind terror, and can’t help blurting out a frantic “Don’t” when Jin Ling puts his hand fearlessly on top of all those sharp teeth.  Jin Ling rolls his eyes at him and takes his hand back, showing off the front and back as if to say see, all fine.

Wei Wuxian, actually, cannot see.  He’s pretty sure he’s about to gasp himself unconscious, actually.  Black dots speckle the edges of his vision, and there’s a roaring in his ears, and then, gods, and then Jin Ling is coming closer, and for some forsaken reason he is bringing the dog with him.

“Here,” Jin Ling says, and grabs Wei Wuxian by the wrist and drags his arm away from his chest.  And Wei Wuxian lets him, because if he tries to run, the shop owner will be angry, because if he fights back, he will hurt someone, because if he moves, he will never stop running.

He wishes Lan Zhan was here.

He thinks Jin Ling says “It’s fine, don’t be so dramatic,” but he can’t really hear him, he can only hear his own desperate breaths and a clutter of voices snarling out of the past and someone saying “Please, please, don’t, don’t--”

Fairy’s teeth are hard, cold points against his hand, pressure on the top and bottom of his palm, and--

Wei Wuxian’s self-control comes to a sudden, brutal end, and he yanks his hand back.

It’s not the dog’s fault--Wei Wuxian isn’t a fool, and he knows, he knows that holding still is the safest choice, he knows how dogs work, but he just can’t--he can’t do anything else.  And she’s well-trained, is the thing, with orders to hold his hand in her mouth, and he’s trying to get away, and--

He has a moment of clarity, as her teeth piece the skin and sink into the muscle of his palm, that he’s going to feel horribly guilty for this later.

Her teeth are gone almost as soon as the pain registers, and there’s chaos, rippling around him like standing in a gale wind, but Wei Wuxian has barely managed to pull his hand back into his chest before Jin Ling is in front of him with a frantic look on his face.

“I’m fine,” Wei Wuxian forces out, and tries for a smile.

“Wei-qianbei, you’re bleeding!” Jin Ling says, and oh, the kid must be really scared, he only gets civil with Wei Wuxian when something is terribly wrong.  “She didn’t mean to--someone get a doctor!”

“I’m fine,” Wei Wuxian repeats.  He blinks hard a few times, glances around the room, and Jin Ling must have send Fairy away at once, because there’s no sign of her save for the thundering of Wei Wuxian’s heart, and the teeth marks in his hand.  “I don’t need a doctor,” he says automatically, and forces himself to look at his hand.

It’s not so bad, really.  There’s one puncture where one of Fairy’s bottom teeth pierced the meat of his palm, below his thumb, and a matching one that seems to have glanced off the bone on top, with shallower indentations that don’t quite break skin.  But Wei Wuxian closes his shaking hand into a fist, ignores the burst of pain and the rush of blood and Jin Ling’s outraged squawk of fear, and his hand moves as smoothly as ever.

“Don’t do that, dajiu,” Jin Ling snarls, and grabs Wei Wuxian’s wrist again, hovers nervously over his fingers as if considering forcing them flat to get a better look at the injury.  “What if--I didn’t--why did you move?”

Wei Wuxian is--tired.  His hand is bright with pain, and his head aches, his chest heavy with the memory of old fear and new hurt, and he says, “You’ve spent too much time with Jiang Cheng.”  He musters what he thinks is a much better smile, because Jin Ling is kneeling in front of him and getting blood on his golden sleeve, with a scowl on his face and a trembling lip.  It’s a ridiculous amount of fuss over a scratched hand and an old fear.  “Hey, let me go, what am I, your prisoner?”

Jin Ling lets go like he’s been burned.  “I--I didn’t mean to--”

“It’s okay,” Wei Wuxian says, and his uninjured hand is still trembling but he reaches out anyway to stroke Jin Ling’s hair.  “It’s okay.  Don’t--don’t punish your dog, okay?  I just won’t--”

“I’ll put Fairy in the kennels when you come visit,” Jin Ling says, sharp and angry and definitely not leaning into Wei Wuxian’s hand.  “Don’t be stupid.  I shouldn’t have--come on.”  He shakes Wei Wuxian off and jumps to his feet, brushing at his robes irritably, and then he pulls Wei Wuxian upright with a kind of care that he would never admit to.  “I’ll get someone to look at your hand.”

“Okay, A-Ling,” Wei Wuxian says, and lets Jin Ling pull his uninjured arm over his shoulders, although he can feel long habit wrestling down the shaking and the sickness so that he stands steady on both feet.  “If you want.”

#the untamed #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #jin ling #wei wuxian #starlight writes stuff #ask meme #fic meme #i did actually see someone try to pull this! except that the real life thing i saw was between two eleven-year-olds #and an adult saw what was happening and foresaw this EXACT outcome and interceded and lectured the dog owning child about it #jin ling has no malice in his heart! he doesn't mean to do harm here! he just doesn't have the emotional tools to handle this #because jiang cheng doesn't! and jgy didn't! and therefore no one taught this kid about how sometimes you change your behavior to protect o #*protect others #to jin ling making someone face their fear should fix everything! jiang cheng never had an emotion he didn't try to fight to the death! #so obviously this should be the same! #but it just doesn't really work like that and he's just not equipped for this turn of events #wwx is fine after some medical care and some very determined hovering from lwj and this is an informative learning experience for jl #other than the obvious guilt and emotional distress jl's biggest problem is that sizhui gives him Disappointed Eyes after hearing about it #a queue we will keep and our honor someday avenge #Anonymous #asked and answered