Chapter Text
Sparks shower down from the explosion of light and color in the fireplace, branding their common room floor like a scattering of the tiniest, blackest cherry blossoms, and Wei Wuxian barely gets a chance to see Lan Zhan—
—Someone tall and lean and strong and masculine, with flowing hair as jet as the darkest cave, and skin like white peach’s flesh, and a devastatingly handsome face to frame those long, fey, molten gold dragon eyes—
—Wei Wuxian barely catches a glimpse of this incomparable beauty before Lan Zhan is crushing him close in his arms, burying his face in his shoulder and hair.
“Wei Ying,” he says again. In a physical voice that thrums with emotion in the room, and into Wei Wuxian’s body.
Wei Wuxian holds him back tightly. He just might never let him go. “Lan Zhan!! Oh skies, Lan Zhan Lan Zhan Lan Zhan…”
Laughing, Wei Wuxian leans back to look at him again. Up close like this, he’s unbearably beautiful, and solid under Wei Wuxian’s hands, and he smells INCREDIBLE. Like a sandalwood forest that Wei Wuxian wants to get lost in. Touching Lan Zhan’s face, touching his hair, running his hand over the collar of his silk robes, Wei Wuxian can’t even speak. He’s just laughing and sputtering and weeping, somehow looking at someone he knows better than anyone else yet has never actually seen before.
Lan Zhan’s brows furrow, as he takes Wei Wuxian’s face in his elegant hands. They’re so warm. “Wei Ying, I love you.”
“What???”
“The curse held my tongue. No one can speak about the nature of a Shenjing’s curse, not even the Shenjing. Thus, I could not discuss any matter of the heart.”
Wei Wuxian’s really crying now, and still laughing with joy as he strokes Lan Zhan’s angular cheeks. “You really take everything so literally!”
“I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you. I tried.”
“Lan Zhan, don’t apologize to me, you were cursed! Oh you poor thing… I’m always chattering away, while there you were unable to speak… There’s nothing to forgive, Lan Zhan, please, get that sad look off your face, I just can’t stand it.” Without thinking about it, he kisses his cheeks, one after the other. Feeling the brush of Lan Zhan’s warm skin on his lips lights him from the inside.
At those kisses, Lan Zhan’s dragon eyes fly wide open in amazement, and he brings his fingertips to where Wei Ying’s lips had been in awe. And then, he smiles. While his eyes aren’t actually glowing (Wei Wuxian suspects that they could), it feels like they are.
Slightly uncertain in the motion at first, he reaches up and thumbs Wei Wuxian’s tears away. “Wei Ying, our cursed bond is broken. Still, you are my fated person. Wherever you go, I go.”
Wei Wuxian’s barely been touched, all these years. Lan Zhan’s touch, clumsy though it may be in these first few minutes of having a body, feels incredible. Huffing a laugh, Wei Wuxian gets lost in exploring this man-Lan Zhan again, rubbing his arms and looking him over. Grinning, he toys with Lan Zhan’s hair (impossibly silky). “Just look at you… The human form of starlight…”
“… You like it?”
“Like it?! Oh, Lan Zhan… Truthfully, my darling, amazing, beautiful Shenjing, I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve been in love with you as a fire, you see, so, how could I possibly have complaints about you as a gorgeous, flesh and blood man—?”
At ‘in love with you,’ Lan Zhan’s eyes went very wide again. At ‘gorgeous,’ he was already pulling Wei Ying in to kiss his babbling mouth.
Wei Wuxian has felt the thrill of summoning a thousand lingfu at once, has explored caves made of jewels and waters bright as turquoise, has traversed mountains where only gods live, and still—never has he felt such a hot, ecstatic thrill in his body and spirit as this.
They pull apart with barely time for a breath and charged eye contact before they come in for another. Their arms are wrapped tight around each other now, and the kisses don’t stop. And Lan Zhan… Lan Zhan’s mouth is soft and hot, and he tastes like a sweet, smokey, piney cup of lapsang souchong, oh skies, Wei Wuxian’s actually, finally kissing his fire demon…
But Wei Wuxian happens to open his eyes and catch a glimpse of THE KIDS. Standing right there, just a short ways away. Gaping.
He giggles, shying away from Lan Zhan’s lips (he stays in his arms though—he couldn’t possibly leave). “Oh, eh heh, ah, Lord Hanguang, I guess this isn’t the most private of places…”
His Shenjing’s expression does not change. He simply scoops Wei Wuxian into his arms and sprints them up the stairs. Wei Wuxian laughs the entire way, latching his hands behind Lan Zhan’s neck and nuzzling close.
At the top of the stairs, when he sees his bedroom door down the hall—or, rather, sees their bedroom door—his heart truly begins to thunder.
⋆⁺ ₊⋆₊⁺₊⋆⋆ ⁺₊⋆ ☾ ⁺₊⋆ ⋆⁺₊ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ⁺
After the adults rush upstairs, Mo Xuanyu’s thrill ashes away, and… they just feel awkward.
They’re standing with Sizhui in the empty common room after witnessing that display, not speaking and not knowing where to look.
Sizhui’s not being awkward. He rarely is (which is nice), and his happiness on Master Gui and Hanguang’s behalf was sweet. Mo Xuanyu feels it too (family! Master Gui sees Mo Xuanyu as FAMILY!). There’s an incredible relief ringing in them right now, with Master Gui safe and Hanguang free. But still. That passionate kissing and racing off to a private room for obvious, private activities was… a lot. Even if Xuanyu doesn’t blame them one bit.
Finally, Mo Xuanyu plucks up the courage to face him (they know the longer they avoid it, the more awkward things will get, anyway). Sizhui’s gentle, even features are soothing to look at. Mo Xuanyu has to try not to stare at him these days, in fact, which is weird. He’s not particularly handsome or pretty, just… nice. Symmetrical. Grounded. They keep remembering the kissing, as they look at him.
Oh, I looked at him too long again, they think, eyes darting away. They’re giggling as they say, “Can you even imagine acting like that with someone?”
Something solidifies in Sizhui’s expression. “I think so,” he replies—stepping forward to peck Mo Xuanyu on the cheek.
Wide-eyed, open-mouthed, Xuanyu feels shock and excitement zip through every inch of them. They flicker into a girl, a boy, and then back to their true form in just a few wild heartbeats. “Me??”
Sizhui only smiles. “Is that so hard to imagine?”
WHAT??!?! “Um. Yes.” WAIT—HE’LL THINK YOU DON’T WANT HIM TO LIKE YOU! “Or, ah, I mean—Not you and me together, that’s not the hard part… What I mean is the thought of you imagining that, not me imagining you—” AUGGHH YOU SOUND LIKE A CREEP NOW! “OR, I mean, not that I’ve been thinking about you like that—!”
Unbelievably, he looks endeared by all of this bumbling. “If you don’t want me to, I won’t do it again. I really like being friends as we are. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. Did you like the kiss?”
Oh… I can trust Sizhui even more than I already do. “I think so,” they say, echoing him.
Sizhui jogs down the stairwell to the portal compass. He swivels it from red to teal to green, peeking out the door each time.
Then, he looks up at Mo Xuanyu with a pink-cheeked smile. And they have an intuition, right then—that those hazel eyes of his could melt them even at their frostiest, soften them even at their prickliest, and coax them even at their most withdrawn. “It’s snowing in Pineslope. Would you like to take a walk with me?”
Mo Xuanyu’s smiles come so much more freely, these days, around this sweet mountain boy. “Definitely.”
⋆⁺ ₊⋆₊⁺₊⋆⋆ ⁺₊⋆ ☾ ⁺₊⋆ ⋆⁺₊ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ⁺
Wei Wuxian has to open the door, because Lan Zhan has no idea how. The Shenjing seems to have all the physical grace and strength of the finest warrior, though. He has no problem hurrying inside their room, slamming the door shut, and pinning Wei Wuxian to it—to devour him with kisses.
Barely able to breathe from excitement, Wei Wuxian's still taking in deep, greedy breaths, tasting and smelling and feeling this precious person. The person he housed in his heart. Lan Zhan’s here in the room. He’s free!
His left hand has perfect, black nails, long and almost like claws. It’s well-known that Shenjing, like any of the fey folk who take human form, always have at least one part of them that gives their magical nature away. At least Lan Zhan isn’t stuck with animal feet, as many of them are rumored to be in human form.
In any case, as Lan Zhan carefully learns how to run them along Wei Wuxian’s scalp and through his hair, and how to rake them with just the right pressure down Wei Wuxian’s back, his human “Mmmm”s with each drag of them along his skin. Wei Wuxian’s pleasure seems to turn Lan Zhan on even more.
And Wei Wuxian wants more skin. He pulls at the fine, cloud-patterned robes covering his beloved’s chest and shoulders, kissing new territory as he does. Lan Zhan lets out a small groan, eagerly following suit with Wei Wuxian’s clothes. After thirteen years of hardly any touch at all, being skin to skin with Lan Zhan is making Wei Wuxian melt.
“Wei Ying—one moment.” For some insane reason, Lan Zhan stops kissing him to kneel among his scattered silks, searching for something. The firelight flickers in warm colors on his muscled back. In order to patiently wait for naked Lan Zhan to return to his arms, Wei Wuxian indulges in this view, savoring it.
Lan Zhan stays kneeling, but turns to face Wei Ying now with red and blue treasures in his hands, presenting them. “Wei Ying. Wei Wuxian. Sorcerer Gui. I wish to be bound as your partner in life.”
The ruby rabbit skull has been transformed. Wei Wuxian reaches out and takes two earrings with rubies shaped like long teardrops, beaded to their golden ear hooks with a milky jade bead. There’s also a yaopei for his sash made with indigo silk, featuring a dangling ruby coin the size of a moon cake. It’s carved all over with protective heavenly script and bears another jade bead threaded above its shiny blue tassel.
Loving a demon is as wild a ride as ever. “So pretty. Who knew you were such a romantic!” He immediately puts in the earrings ties the yaopei around his bare waist. If he can’t tie it over clothes, he’ll wear it like this. Because it’s a love token from Lan Zhan. I’m never taking this off, he decides, giddy. “The most righteous Shenjing in all the lands loves me? What did I do to deserve this??”
“You deserve more than I can give,” he replies, fierce.
“Lan Zhan…” He believes in Lan Zhan’s righteous spirit. He admires Lan Zhan’s convictions and principles, deeply. Lan Zhan is good. If he sees Wei Wuxian this way…
“The earrings will sense danger and alert you.” His beloved Shenjing is still kneeling, formal and serious. Of course. “The yaopei’s silk is not of Earth, but fully my essence, which—”
“Tell me later,” he purrs, pulling Lan Zhan up to his lips again.
And soon enough, they’re pressed together on the bed into the soft quilts, adorned only by Wei Wuxian’s new love tokens. Its silky rope feels amazing on his bare waist, but nowhere near as nice as Lan Zhan, who clearly is reveling in being able to touch him. With hand, mouth, and the rest of his new body.
In fact, his hard, hot erection is pressed against Wei Wuxian’s thigh, and Wei Wuxian’s going to go mad. “Lan Zhan,” he whispers, hazy already, “you really did become a man… I’m dying to pleasure you… May I?”
And so Wei Wuxian shows him just how great having a cock can be. Lan Zhan is eager to reciprocate, and is also a fast learner. His body, from erection to pectoral, is just glorious. Wei Wuxian is practically drooling, as he runs his lips and tongue over more of him—moaning at the feeling of this long-hidden part of his own body in Lan Zhan’s strong grip, and at the feel of Lan Zhan in his own hand, and the sound of Lan Zhan’s breath, and his lips on Wei Wuxian’s collarbone, his shoulder, his neck…
Oh, his neck. “Fuck I’ll come now, wait wait,” he manages, wriggling beneath his new lover once more and opening his legs to wrap them around Lan Zhan. “Let’s make love like this. Take me. I’m yours.”
Lan Zhan diligently proceeds with sandalwood oil on a gentle (non-clawed) hand, enticing Wei Wuxian’s body to open and relax with sensuous neck kisses as he reaches in. "May I also try magic to relax you?"
That's exciting. "Please!"
"Wei Ying…" Lan Zhan's gazing into his eyes now, and Wei Wuxian feels pure adoration lay over him like a blanket. He can't look away. In fact, he could never want to. Lan Zhan is the most perfect beautiful thing, and there is nothing else, nothing that exists except for him, and Wei Wuxian lives to love and please him. For the first time, it feels very, very good to forget. "Relax."
With a happy sigh, Wei Wuxian complies. And Wei Wuxian's body feels better than it ever has. He feels like warm, soft clay, gazing up worshipfully at his fey lover.
Suddenly, the enchantment lifts, and Wei Wuxian feels his wits return. Still, his body has definitely benefited. "Skies, Lan Zhan, that felt incredible. You could do more."
"Not yet," he murmurs, kissing him and entering him further. "Too powerful, for starting out. And... I need to know you want this."
"Oh I do, I do, so much," he whines back, reaching down to pull Lan Zhan's hand further in.
More time passes like this. Once satisfied with Wei Wuxian’s looseness (Wei Wuxian is delirious with desire, at this point), he coats his erection with yet more fragrant oil. Entering Wei Wuxian slowly but surely, he’s gazing into his eyes with loving dominion. Lan Zhan: Wei Wuxian's new lover. His old friend. His spiritual companion. His fire.
“Is this really happening?” Wei Wuxian breathes, voice pitched high. “How is this real? Oh, Lan Zhan… Lan Zhan…”
With each forward motion of Lan Zhan's hips, Wei Wuxian moans again, rolling his head back. Rapt, Lan Zhan watches him, drinking in his pleasure the way a plant soaks the sun. His thrusts quicken, and so does Wei Wuxian’s breath and heart. Wei Wuxian’s crying out in pleasure, now clutching Lan Zhan’s hips with his thighs and hair with his hands—
“Wei Ying…” his Shenjing says, kissing him again, and finally moaning himself as he strokes Wei Wuxian inside—
And then Wei Wuxian shudders all over with orgasm, practically screaming into Lan Zhan’s muscled shoulder, breath fluttering. Lan Zhan lets out a deep, guttural moan in response, breathing hard and deep—and Wei Wuxian feels something very hot and good inside him, filling his lower dantian with soothing warmth. I’ll never be cold again, he intuits, laughing a little.
Lan Zhan pulls back, and notices his lover's orgasm pooled and peppered across Wei Wuxian's stomach. His eyes widen dramatically. In a rush, he licks all of it up from Wei Wuxian, breathing deeply and groaning again.
Wei Wuxian laughs, arousal returning already at such an ardent, hungry display. “Well well. Shenjing, are you going to devour me after all?”
Collapsed now, cheek against Wei Wuxian’s chest, Lan Zhan’s eyes are closed. “Apologies…”
“No no,” he sighs back, stroking Lan Zhan. “It was hot, actually.”
After a quick rest, they’re lying there in the bed’s chaotic jumble of quilts and pillows, just looking at each other. Neither can stop touching the other for long.
“Lan Zhan, share my life with me. Travel the world with me, fight monsters with me, mentor these kids with me. You said ‘I go where you go’—please, please yes. I want you with me.”
“You have accepted my tokens. So it shall be. My kind does not love the way yours does,” Lan Zhan murmurs, looking almost nervous. “I… I only love once, and that love lasts till death.”
“A Shenjing’s heart is a heavy burden,” Wei Wuxian purrs, smiling and cuddling closer in their nest. “One I gladly accept. It’s an honor, Lan Zhan… Lan Wangji, Lord Hanguang, my zhulong and hearth-lighter…”
“This is a human form, but the core of me is still smokeless flame. I am also a heavenly beast. You’re sure?”
Yes, beneath this magically transformed flesh Wei Wuxian so eagerly joined in lovemaking, of course there is still that otherwordly energy Wei Wuxian knows from his hearth. It flares steadily in the center of his lover, as familiar in its feel as Lan Zhan’s eyes were on sight.
It feels like home. “Of course, Lan Zhan. I know you. I’ve known what you are since we met that night, and I knew you just now when I brought you to my bed. I loved you as a fire, I love you as a dragon, I love you like this. It could only be you.” He sighs dreamily again, tracing Lan Zhan’s eyebrows. “To think my first time would be so perfect… No one could ever compare to this.”
“… First?”
“Haha, yes, darling. Many have propositioned me, but I’ve been waiting for you.”
Subtlety is a defining trait of Lan Zhan’s. Yet right now, in bed with his love, there is no hiding his fierce happiness, nor the fact that he is close to tears.
All these years? he asks in their hearts, unable to speak.
Wei Wuxian climbs onto him, nuzzling his nose. “Yes, Lan Zhan…”
They kiss and kiss and kiss. Being on top is nice, too.
“My first offering to you was my heart,” Wei Wuxian whispers between kisses. “I’ll make many more offerings to you… like the one I just made in this bed, darling Shenjing… Any time we want… I’ll keep you happy and strong and hot-blooded, I promise…”
“You… already made your heart into a refuge for me… Those tokens were mine to you…” Lan Zhan’s limbs wrap around him. He’s melting into the kisses, struggling to keep focus. “I… I would not ask for offerings…”
“Ah, but I’ll give them because I want to… Just as you filled me up with your lovely yang magic just now… Hey, even kissing is probably good for us both, isn’t it?” Lan Zhan blushes. “Haha!”
His partner rolls them over, pinning him into the pillows again with a stern smile. “Crude.”
“And? What will you do about it, mighty Lord Hanguang? Isn’t an animal body what you’ve been wanting? Spit and come are included!”
“WEI YING.”
It turns out that kissing in bed can be play, too. Wei Wuxian has never appreciated authority—until playing with this person who respects and loves him, and whom he respects in turn. Now, it’s fun to be naughty and punished, with much giggling and grappling and biting. He wonders how else this can transform their relationship…
Some time later, as light of star and moon pour in their window and the fire crackles from the hearth, they get to talking more. About life, about their shared past, about their values. There are so many things Lan Zhan couldn’t say, and though he will certainly remain a man of few words, he’s not falling silent. It feels so good to be able to talk.
“Lan Zhan, you’re an expert at anal sex… Heavenly Shenjing, how did you learn this, hm? Peeking down as a watcher from the stars?”
Lan Zhan’s eyes narrow at him. “Never. I listened to humans sharing knowledge, compared it with my own knowledge of human anatomy, and ascertained what was true and what was not.”
“Ah, that fits, of course you did…” he coos, curling up to brush against his lips again.
When they reach the topic of the war, Wei Wuxian reveals an idea. “The dead are in the many thousands. Lan Zhan—I was thinking I’d raise all those dead in one go and lay siege to Jinlintai itself. I think this would make even the nobles and royals call for Jin Guangyao to end it.”
At this description of a zombie army, Lan Zhan looks stunned, even mildly horrified. But after a moment, he wryly smiles, closing his eyes and shaking his head. For the first time in his life, as far as Wei Wuxian knows, he huffs a laugh.
Grinning, Wei Wuxian wheedles, “What do you think?”
“Heinous. And, also…” He opens those elemental eyes again, burning with righteousness. “Perfect justice.”
His heart leaps. “Really? You think so?? You know, this way, I think it’s actually more ethical, because I’m not asking anyone to get hurt for the cause. My army would already be dead!”
With a burning smile, Lan Zhan can only say, “Mmn.” Wei Wuxian can tell he hates to agree to such dark magic. But also that he knows Wei Wuxian is right, and trusts him.
And this is their life, now—a divine spirit and a necromantic sorcerer, in love and taking on the impossible.
“Hmmm, Lan Zhan, I suppose one consideration is that there may be surviving loved ones of the corpses, and terrified children… I wouldn’t want them to see all that.”
“We’ll evacuate the capitol.”
“YES!” He has no idea how they’ll do all this. He just knows that together, they can. “Lan Zhan, I’m not sorry for what I’ve done against this war, but I’m sorry I’ve worried you so much. An ordinary person couldn’t stop all this. But I can, so I have to try.”
“I know.” Lan Zhan’s eyes truly burn with love. “I’ll do it with you.”
The same love burns in Wei Wuxian—but it makes him squeal. “Let’s end this war, Lan Zhan, you and me! Once and for all!!”
“Mmn…” Pulling him in for a passionate kiss again, Lan Zhan holds him tight. This kiss feels like a promise. Like devotion embodied.
Some while later, Wei Wuxian asks, “Lan Zhan, bathe with me? OH, wait, can you??”
Lan Zhan smiles his small, perfect smile—and Wei Wuxian hears the water heater flare to life.
Once inside, Wei Wuxian delights at Lan Zhan’s first experiences with water and steam. He’s much like a cat toward it, at first, but is soon standing beneath the hot rain of Wei Wuxian’s invention in complete surrender, head tilted back and lips parted.
“How is your opposite element treating you, fire demon?”
“It dulls my senses, but feels… miraculous.”
The shower is fun and sweet, involving much soaping and shampooing and head massage and teasing. Until, quite suddenly, the sweetness phases erotic again.
And this time, they’re in Wei Wuxian’s domain. It’s time for Lan Zhan to have a turn at all the wonders he wrought upon Wei Wuxian’s body, and Wei Wuxian is reveling in the process.
“Lan Zhan, turn around,” he says at one point, eager for his perfect ass. So eager, he’s forgetting that such phrasing—using a Shenjing’s true name and a command—results in compulsion.
With a gasp, Lan Zhan swiftly turns and plants his hands on the rain chamber’s wall. He looks over his shoulder at Wei Wuxian with one shocked, ardent eye. “Wei Ying…”
“Oh no, ahhhhh I didn’t mean to force you!” For thirteen years, he never slipped up on this! “Oh skies, I’m so sorry—”
“No! Let’s… let’s explore this,” Lan Zhan says, swallowing. He’s breathing hard. “I trust you.”
A realization trickles over Wei Wuxian, from crown to heart to sex. “Oh. Alright then… But how will I know if you really want to stop, but can’t?”
“Command me to tell you now, as a blanket rule.”
“Oh my.” He steps forward into the rain shower again, taking Lan Zhan’s hot, wet hips in his hands to whisper in his ear, “Lan Zhan. You must tell me if you don’t like a command during sex. And if you can’t tell me because your mouth is full, then that command is broken.”
“If my mouth is full…?”
“Lan Zhan—take me in your mouth.”
Those gold eyes flash with light, dragon pupils disappearing for a heartbeat. And then Lan Zhan faces him, kneels, and, looking up at him so full of adoration and desire, follows the command. With gusto.
"Harder," Wei Wuxian groans, holding onto Lan Zhan's head, now. Lan Zhan complies without needing a command.
Wei Wuxian laughs, biting his lip. “Hanguang? You’re being so obedient…”
Before Lan Zhan’s ministrations undo him, Wei Wuxian has his lover braced against the rain chamber wall again, completely relaxed—and then, he is fucking him so deep and good, he’s sure Lan Zhan is seeing stars.
“One last command.” Wei Wuxian bites his beautiful shoulder, then says, “Lan Zhan, don’t hold back your voice.”
This was a very good idea. Wei Wuxian climaxes not long after. He then kneels to finish Lan Zhan with his own mouth, and his eyes widen when Lan Zhan’s seed floods in. It’s hot on his tongue, almost scaldingly so, but tastes so ineffably delicious that he swallows without thinking.
As they climb out and dry off, Lan Zhan’s brow furrows. “My body…”
Wei Wuxian hears a rumble from Lan Zhan’s stomach and laughs, endeared. “Oh Lan Zhan—you’re hungry! Let’s go downstairs together. There’s so much for you to explore as a man down there, too! Ooh, well, we may not have much to eat, we fed everything to your transformation fire…”
Once downstairs, still cozy and casual in quilted house robes and fluffy slippers, they find their kids up late, matching short hair so funny-looking. He still needs to ask about that. Those two seem closer than before somehow, and very happy.
Sizhui is chopping tofu. “We went to the night market.” Xuanyu smiles crookedly over their clumsily diced mushrooms.
“You two are so dependable!” Wei Wuxian chirps, running over to give their shoulders a squeeze.
“Mmn.” Lan Zhan approaches with elegance, golden eyes on them. He’s mostly expressionless, yet somehow, Wei Wuxian can see so much affection in his gaze.
Wei Wuxian isn’t sure how the kids will act around this stoic Shenjing. Xuanyu looks intimidated but hopeful, and Sizhui looks like the dedicated disciple he was always meant to be. He initiates a proper bow, and Xuanyu follows.
When they rise, Lan Zan lays a hand on each of their heads, energy reminding Wei Wuxian of the warm glow of coals. Then, they’re in his arms the same way they were Wei Wuxian’s earlier. Lan Zhan closes his eyes, brows furrowing as he holds them tight.
Treasures, he says in Wei Wuxian’s heart. Making fierce eye contact over the teens’ heads. I will protect them with my life.
I know, he thinks back, yet another tear escaping his eye.
It’s not long after this that Lan Zhan realizes he can actually, finally go outside. He and Wei Wuxian stand silently in their quiet Pineslope lane, in a night with that soft kind of silence snowfall makes. Lan Zhan smells the cold night air, catching icy flakes on his lashes and nose.
As they walk back up the stairwell, Sizhui offers Bichen. “Master Hanguang, your sword.”
Shyly, Xuanyu shuffles forward with the instrument Wangji. “And qin.”
Intent, Lan Zhan accepts his ancestral items, sitting to play qin right then and there. Apparently, this is something he does not need to learn—it is the most lovely music Wei Wuxian has ever heard. He now understands Lan Zhan’s left-handed black claws: his form was made to be a qin player.
After this, Lan Zhan bows to and unsheathes Bichen, wielding him with a mastery such as Wei Wuxian has ever seen. Heavenly martial art forms are as inborn in Lan Zhan’s body as the qin, and he turns their common room into a magnificent arena for a few moments. Sizhui is gazing awestruck at his master, jaw dropped open.
When Lan Zhan sheathes Bichen again, Wei Wuxian hugs him from behind. “Delicious. I can’t wait to spar.”
The night grows late, but no one is ready for bed. Wei Wuxian is on the couch with Xuanyu, looking over some new invention designs, both of them wrapped in fleece shawls. Lan Zhan stands with Sizhui at the fire, bound in a one-armed hug while they cook. It’s funny what’s awkward for him and what isn’t—sword and qin, complete perfection. But he grapples with holding spoons.
And Wei Wuxian realizes he gets to discover life all over again with delight, even its most mundane pieces. Just as Lan Zhan has been his teacher and guide to sorcery, it's his turn to guide Lan Zhan through Earth.
After they’ve eaten (Lan Zhan has now tasted tofu, mushrooms, soy sauce, and white tea), they all cuddle up on the couch, talking through the day’s terrors and wonders. Their curses. Their magics. Their realizations and joys.
Eyes heavy, Lan Zhan eventually says inside, Wei Ying… I feel strange.
“Hm? What is it, darling?”
Before Lan Zhan can answer him, Lan Zhan yawns. Wei Wuxian sees a thrilling flash of fangs.
“Oh how adorable… You’re tired. Look how cute, kids!”
They giggle, and Lan Zhan reprimands Wei Wuxian with frown and dragon side eye. Cute? I?
“Yes, you. SO cute. You've got a full belly. Time for bed.”
Now, Lan Zhan looks remotely into the middle distance, correcting his posture as if not sleepy at all.
Wei Wuxian’s heart could BURST with affection. SO CUTE! “Come on to bed, come on now, Lan Zhan. Maybe you don’t want the night to end. But this is part of having a body. Hey, you can finally learn what sleeping is like!”
Lan Zhan sighs, closing his eyes. “It feels like… my fire is going out. Except, it’s not dangerous… I think.”
“That makes sense.” He tucks Lan Zhan’s hair behind his ear. “It’s been a big day, and a long night. Come, Lan Zhan, let’s go cuddle up.”
This seems to convince him well enough.
Curled up under layers of soft quilts with snow falling outside their window, Wei Wuxian lays his head against his love. His love, who is warm and solid and breathing beneath him.
He makes sure to drape his arm right over Lan Zhan’s beating heart.
⋆⁺ ₊⋆₊⁺₊⋆⋆ ⁺₊⋆ ☾ ⁺₊⋆ ⋆⁺₊ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ⁺
The next time Sizhui has a nightmare, things are very different.
By all accounts, there is no reason for it. The evening is a good one. He and his strange family are all in the common room together. Xuanyu studies a stele, Sizhui studies a scroll, and his adoptive parents sit on the window bench together, playing flute and qin to accompany them.
“Heaven seems too good to be true,” Xuanyu says suddenly, setting down the inscribed stone. “Is it real? These people believe that getting there is the biggest goal in life.”
Sizhui lowers his own scroll—a set of Daoist poems, assigned by his adoptive dragon father. “The monks said it was a realm only good people could reach. They had strong ideas about good and bad, right and wrong.”
“This stele says heaven is distant. But then other holy traditions I’ve read say it’s just a step away, like the Underworld…”
Baba turns to his partner. “Well, heavenly beast? You’re the expert. What do you say? Is heaven far, or close? Is it all it’s chalked up to be?”
Master Hanguang keeps playing. His subtle smile warms the room. “Heaven is on Earth.”
Later that night, a nightmare comes. He’s seeing new things, now, things he hasn’t been able to grasp very well through a small child’s memories.
But when Sizhui wakes, cold and trembling, he still has those memories, at least. And he allows himself something that he hasn’t done in many, many years—he comforts himself by imagining that beautiful blue dragon of his youth. Now that he knows Master Hanguang is real, it doesn’t make him sad. It warms his heart like it used to. The love he feels there, for his spiritual master and father, is bright and limitless.
And then, his star guardian appears. Sizhui accidentally summoned him with his heart.
A dragon’s shiny fur is surprisingly, divinely soft. The coils of Master Hanguang’s long body encircle the bed several times, cocooning him.
A-Yuan, you are not alone, his voice said in Sizhui’s heart. We have you. You are ours. Do not worry.
Sizhui has never slept so well.
⋆⁺ ₊⋆₊⁺₊⋆⋆ ⁺₊⋆ ☾ ⁺₊⋆ ⋆⁺₊ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ⁺