Chapter Text
Three Months Later
Xian-gege had told him that when he was four he could go on an adventure. A-Yuan knew he was four now, because Granny had said so on the day when he'd had a really big bowl of noodles and Xian-gege and Wangji-gege had brought him red envelopes and toys. There had been another man there too, whose name A-Yuan couldn't remember but who had a moustache like Uncle Four and looked grumpy except for when he smiled, and who had only stayed long enough to look around their village and press another envelope into Qing-jiejie's hands before he left.
"You can come back and visit us," Qing-jiejie had said, "but this is your chance for a fresh start," and he hadn't understood what she'd meant until Wangji-gege had dressed him in white robes and shown him a pretty white ribbon with little clouds all over it.
"This will be for you," he had said solemnly, "when you have completed your first lessons." Xian-gege had laughed and ruffled his hair and said something about being sensible which A-Yuan had tried his best to listen to but hadn't quite managed to remember, and then Qing-jiejie and Ning-gege had hugged him really really tight and made him promise to be good and try his best at everything.
A-Yuan knew that his name was Lan Yuan now, and he knew the first twenty-five rules by heart, and Wangji-gege (who he knew he was supposed to call Hanguang-Jun, but Xian-gege said that only mattered when other seniors were around) had tied his ribbon in place for him that morning and told him he was doing well.
Sometimes he had dreams that scared him, where it was dark and cold and there were unfamiliar people shouting things he didn't understand, but every time he woke he was safe in the Cloud Recesses with Xian-gege and Wangji-gege, in a warm bed of his own with floaty white fabric draped all around it, and he knew with a certainty that sat secure and solid inside him that nothing bad could happen any more.
In the summer (A-Yuan wasn't sure when that was, but he hoped it was soon), Xian-gege had promised that they would go to a place called Lotus Pier and he could learn how to swim in a lake full of flowers. Every time Xian-gege talked about Lotus Pier he looked so happy that A-Yuan really really wanted to go there.
When A-Yuan finished his lessons that afternoon and his class was let out to play, he sat down cross-legged on the steps outside the classroom and tried very hard to remember the new meditation they had learned before the midday meal. He wanted to do it again, because there had been a moment towards the end when he'd concentrated really really hard and felt a little flicker of something warm inside his chest, just like how Xian-gege always said his spiritual energy would feel one day. Maybe if he could remember what he'd done it would be there again --
"Lan Zhan!"
A-Yuan looked up -- and up, at the roof of the library pavilion across the courtyard from where he sat. Xian-gege's face was bright with happiness, and his voice sounded like he wanted to be laughing, and he had his sword in his hand -- and it was pointed at Wangji-gege?!
"Don't worry," said a confident voice beside him, and he blinked and looked over at a boy his own age who had an expression like he was letting him in on a secret. "I saw them doing this yesterday. I think it's for fun."
A peal of laughter broke the momentary silence, and A-Yuan looked up again in time to see Xian-gege skip backwards away from Wangji-gege's blade and jump to the next building's roof with a flying leap that looked improbably effortless. "You'll have to try harder than that!"
Wangji-gege followed him immediately, and A-Yuan watched with eyes wide in awe as they danced around each other across the rooftops and away out of sight. The last A-Yuan saw of them was a glimpse of Wangji-gege's face as he chased Xian-gege up and over a high wall.
He was smiling too.