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eleanorfenyxwrites · 2 years

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The Sculptor

Chapter 6 - The Agreement

[Masterpost] [AO3]

-/-

“Ah, Lan Zhan!!” Wei Wuxian calls and Lan Wangji turns, concerned, to see the man himself running up the sidewalk towards him. His face is flushed and his hair sticking slightly to his temples where stray pieces have fallen out of his sloppy ponytail. “Oh god I’m so sorry, you haven’t been waiting for too long, have you?”

Lan Wangji had arrived at 9:30 sharp, as per his usual. It is now nearly 10:45 according to his watch, but considering he’d be willing to wait for much longer for Wei Wuxian he shakes his head no, and it’s not a lie.

“Not too long. Are you alright?”

“Fine!” Wei Wuxian says brightly and fumbles for his keys. Lan Wangji wordlessly takes his bag from him to free up his hands for the process, and he feels his ears turn pink at the grateful smile Wei Wuxian shoots him. Wei Wuxian lets them into the studio and he hurries to start putting his things together for the day while Lan Wangji moves at his typical pace, hanging up Wei Wuxian’s bag first and then his own suit jacket and satchel beside it.

“So - I’m really sorry I’m late, but I come bearing good news!” Wei Wuxian says with a grin, hands clasped together in front of his chest once he’s plopped down on his stool. His happiness is infectious so despite his nerves for what the day will bring Lan Wangji offers him a small smile as he perches on the edge of the sofa in his usual spot.

“What is your news?” he asks, because Wei Wuxian likes to be goaded into saying what’s on his mind sometimes, and Lan Wangji is happy enough to oblige.

“I’m late because the client wanted to meet with me this morning and show me the space where the piece will go, and we decided on a scene! Finally!”

Wei Wuxian’s relief is palpable - he’s seemed content enough these last few weeks to sketch and paint, but Lan Wangji is sure that he’s far happier to have a goal to work towards rather than painting him over and over again in slightly different poses with no real direction.

“Mn. That is very good news.”

“How do you feel about having your liver pecked out by a giant bird?” Wei Wuxian asks, and Lan Wangji blinks for a moment before huffing an amused breath through his nose. “What?! It’s a legitimate part of the myth!”

“I am aware,” he says dryly. “My wife will be so pleased to have her hopes fulfilled.”

Wei Wuxian throws his head back to laugh at that. “Trouble in paradise?” he teases as he continues getting his things set out with his characteristic scrambling, brushes and pencils clattering cheerfully against the wooden tray of his easel.

“Not at all. She merely enjoys violence.”

That makes Wei Wuxian laugh again and Lan Wangji is as pleased as he’s been for weeks that Wei Wuxian seems to find him so funny. Not many people understand his sense of humor, or think that he even has one at all, but Wei Wuxian had noticed it very quickly - within the first week of their knowing each other. It had taken Wen Qing months of being married to him to spot it, and other than her and Wei Wuxian he’s fairly sure that only Lan Xichen suspects its existence.

“A woman after my own heart,” Wei Wuxian says sardonically.

Lan Wangji wonders if Wen Qing would like to meet Wei Wuxian at any point - she hasn’t said so, but then again she’s nearly as uninterested in socializing as he is and therefore highly unlikely to ask to be introduced to a stranger.

“Okay so - now that I know what we’re doing, we can talk poses. What I have in mind isn’t going to be comfortable, most likely, but we can start slowly and work our way up to you holding it for extended periods of time. How flexible are you?”

Lan Wangji blinks at the sudden question but considers it thoughtfully, as he does every question Wei Wuxian poses to him. “Sufficiently,” he decides, and Wei Wuxian playfully narrows his eyes at him.

“ ‘Sufficiently’ he says. Sufficiently flexible for what, Lan Zhan? Sitting behind a large mahogany desk scaring all your students with that glare of yours?”

“Sufficient for putting my leg over my head,” he replies to be contrary, but the laugh he’s expecting doesn’t come. Wei Wuxian instead blushes a charming shade of pink across his cheekbones and sits up straight, blinking owlishly at him from around the side of his easel.

“Are you serious?”

“Yoga is good exercise,” he says calmly, though he’s definitely taking note of that reaction. For no particular reason. “It encourages both strength and flexibility, it is excellent for concentration and mindful behavior.”

“And putting your leg behind your head.”

“I cannot demonstrate in these trousers, but yes.”

Wei Wuxian makes some sort of choking noise and hides behind his easel. Well really he’s reaching down to grab the large folder containing all of his sketch pages so far, but Lan Wangji can’t help but feel that it’s with a distinctly embarrassed air, like he’s happy for the excuse to hide for a moment and compose himself.

“Well I think that’s plenty flexible for what I’ve got in mind at least,” Wei Wuxian says after a moment and when he reappears around the edge of the easel his face is no longer pink. “Who knew you’d be into the latest hippie health fad, Lan Zhan!”

“I do not believe my uncle would appreciate the parallel, he has been doing yoga for far longer than the fad has swept through American counter-culture. As have many other people.”

“Aiyah, I know that,” Wei Wuxian flaps a hand at him, smile just barely visible from what Lan Wangji can see of him. “I’m only teasing. Hang on just a sec, Lan Zhan, I’m trying to find a sketch I did a couple weeks ago -”

Lan Wangji waits obediently as Wei Wuxian ruffles through what must be dozens of pages, muttering to himself in a way that’s become as comfortable for Lan Wangji as silence used to be. It’s a pleasant sort of white noise, one he’s beginning to associate with peaceful hours spent watching Wei Wuxian at work as the man sketches or paints him. It’s strangely not uncomfortable at all to be the subject of his work, he just has to hope he feels the same once his likeness has been captured in bronze and sold to this mysterious client of Wei Wuxian’s.

“Aha!! Got it!” Wei Wuxian sets the folder aside again and gets to his feet to round the easel and cross the relatively short distance to him - it feels like it should be miles with how much time Wei Wuxian spends over there watching him over here, but all it takes is five long strides to close the space between them, and then Wei Wuxian is plopping down on the couch at his side.

It’s the first time he’s seen any of Wei Wuxian’s sketches of him, and for a moment he can’t believe it’s meant to be him. Not because it isn’t a faithful likeness - it is, Wei Wuxian is clearly skilled - but because even for a casual sketch it was clearly done with care, and what almost feels like…tender attention to detail. He forces himself to focus on what it is that Wei Wuxian wants him to notice about it in particular as the man starts talking and gesturing with his free hand.

“So this pose - it’s the most relaxed one you’ve done yet, I want to take it and sort push-” he presses his gesturing palm down flat and away from himself as if running it along something - “Your head and shoulders down towards the floor, off the edge of the couch. I mean obviously poor Prometheus won’t be on a couch, but you’re lucky that I care about your comfort, Lan Zhan! What do you think?”

Lan Wangji takes a moment to try to visualize what it is Wei Wuxian wants, but he’s not nearly as much of a visual thinker as an artist. Still, he knows his own limits and this sounds well within them, so he nods after a moment with his usual, “Mn.”

“Great!” Wei Wuxian is up and off the couch again in a flash, drawing still in his hand, and Lan Wangji wonders how strange it would be to ask if he could keep it. “First thing’s first though - we’ve got a hurdle to jump today before I can have you sprawling around, dangling halfway off my couch.”

Lan Wangji has had all weekend (plus an unexpected extra hour this morning) to grow accustomed to the idea of undressing here, now, in front of Wei Wuxian. He’d reasoned with himself that Wei Wuxian has been an artist for a long time, he’s likely seen plenty of people naked and thinks little to nothing of it. That doesn’t make it any less of a new experience for Lan Wangji, but he can be assured that this is a safe place to try it, that Wei Wuxian’s eye is trained to make beauty out of anything. He’s not blind, he knows that he’s attractive to other people, so he isn’t afraid of Wei Wuxian being…displeased with him, but still. He’d like to think that Wei Wuxian could find him beautiful. After seeing the sketch, he’s fairly confident he already does.

“Mn.”

“Just your shirt today, we can go slow,” Wei Wuxian reminds him, and Lan Wangji nods again as he stands. He appreciates the reassurance as well as Wei Wuxian’s patience with something that must seem so simple to him but is clearly a struggle for Lan Wangji to wrap his mind around. He wants to thank him for it, but he isn’t sure how to do it elegantly so he figures he can just show his gratitude by trusting him with his vulnerability.

Lan Wangji slips out of his shoes and bends down to tug his socks off, folding them both neatly one at a time to tuck them into the corresponding shoe. Wei Wuxian stays quiet and lets Lan Wangji move at his own pace, in his own way - another kindness, one of many that Wei Wuxian shows him as easily as breathing.

He straightens up then and unfastens his belt with a quiet jingle; he thinks he hears Wei Wuxian gasp a little, so close but so far away, but he doesn’t look up to check lest he lose his nerve. He unbuttons his trousers next to more easily tug his shirttails out of where they’re tucked, and only once the shirt is freed does he begin unbuttoning it, starting from the bottom and working his way up towards the starched collar. When it’s hanging loose on either side of his chest, Lan Wangji shrugs out of lightweight linen and, before he can think better of it, reaches down to the hem of his cotton undershirt to tug it free of his trousers as well - and then over his head, down his arms, and off completely. He refastens his trousers but leaves the belt hanging loose as he cross the room to hang both shirt and undershirt on the hook next to his jacket, then after one more moment of internal debate he slides his belt free of the loops with a quick hiss of leather against the fabric and hangs it up as well.

He’s never been so underdressed in front of another person, not since he was a child small enough to still need help dressing from his brother or uncle, and when he turns around to face Wei Wuxian again he can feel the heat practically radiating off his own ears and gathering pink in his chest. Wei Wuxian is staring at him, eyes slightly wider than normal, but Lan Wangji can’t read his expression as he returns to the couch and, with a mental effort, settles into his preferred pose when Wei Wuxian doesn’t direct him. He pulls his legs up sideways onto the sofa and leans his elbow against the arm, chin resting in his palm as he looks across at Wei Wuxian.

“Well. Well then. You were an overachiever in school weren’t you, Lan Zhan?” Wei Wuxian teases when the silence feels like the thunderstorm that had finally broken early on Saturday morning.

“Mn. I was valedictorian,” he says because it’s true but he also knows it’ll make Wei Wuxian laugh - which it does, and the moment of tension breaks entirely. Lan Wangji still isn’t comfortable being so bare, but he trusts Wei Wuxian to treat him gently, and he trusts that they’ll remain undisturbed in the studio. In all the weeks he’s been here, no one has ever even walked past the door, and the only windows in the space, on the back wall well behind the sofa, just look out into a lush thatch of greenery growing wild at the edge of the lot. He’s not afraid of anyone else seeing him like this, so he settles into the familiar comfort of the jewel-green velvet sofa and tries to get used to having Wei Wuxian’s eyes on him all over again.

It’s surprisingly pleasant.

#the untamed fanfic #wangxian #Lan Wangji #Wei Wuxian #When WWX is gesturing trying to explain the pose he's absolutely imagining running his hand up LWJ's stomach and chest #So scandalous

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