Chapter Text
Lan Qiren felt a tugging on his beard that brought him to a full stop, before he was tripping over a pair of giggling children.
"No wunnin!" Said the one in his arms, very seriously.
"Sorry." Both of them mumbled, not sorry at all. Not even turning around to look at them before running away once more, trying to hit each other with a pair of wooden swords.
"Thank you, A-xian." He said. His niece hummed, contently.
He knew he wasn't supposed to play favorites. And he wasn't! But Wangxian was too much like her father for him to resist, with those chubby cheeks and sober expressions. She looked like a very small adult. A tiny Lan Wangji. Her twin had gotten the more mischievous side of the family from her mother and although she could still mimic perfectly the same innocent expression, she knew exactly what she was doing with all that cuteness. Of course, she was turning out a daddy's girl and would end up completely spoiled if he didn't intervene soon, his level indulging her antics to a level he has never seen, never dreamed of, before. It is, at least until he got married. He should have seen it coming. Anyone that remembered him so much of Wei Wuxian would have Lan Wangji's heart in their hands.
Still, he was quite pleased with this change. He worried when the whole thing was put in motion and Lan Wangji didn't question his proposition, not even seeming to be bothered by the premise that someone he didn't know was going to be chosen to marry him and that he was stealing from his nephew a chance of finding true happiness for the sake of the empire. But now, he was glad about his choices.
Wei Wuxian wasn't the person he envisioned when he first idealized his plan. He can't know now if hadn't his nephews messed up the whole thing if he would even have presented the young prince with the possibility, thinking the fox too loud and outgoing and not omega-like enough, despite the things he thought positive traits, for someone as reserved as his Lan Wangji to like. Once again, he was glad to be wrong.
He has never seen his nephew so happy since their mother's death when they were just kids. Now, he could see Lan Wangji smiling, openly smiling. He played his guqin more often, having someone to duet with. He joined hunting parties and training competitions for fun, having finally found a worthy opponent. He became more adventurous and more open to people and was thrilled with every small thing his fox showed him, especially the kids. He always carried at least one around. All of them most of the time. All of them and his wife most of the time. He was a very strong boy. Lan Qiren had to enjoy the little opportunities he had when he could snatch one before they grew too big for him to carry.
However, although being the central reason for this ordeal, the kids weren't the only benefit from this situation. He had his assumptions before, but he was a delight to confirm Wei Wuxian was excellent at management and politics, helping Lan Wangji with his tasks dutifully and eventually gathering his own. Even though sometimes the Lan elders and courts were dissatisfied by staying at the same level as the omega and often found his ideas unorthodox, Wei Wuxian knew how to stand his ground and had brought several improvements to the empire, enough that was hard to criticize him. Harder when his husband had picked the horrible habit of cuddling in his dragon form in his hair and around his neck, daring anyone to even look at his fox. The empire prospered.
He followed the two older kids. A-Yuan had recently gotten his second tail, to the absolute pride and delight of both of his parents, and was still struggling to learn how to keep his balance and was prone to accidents. He has never raised a fox before, but he supposed young dragons went through a similar process to deal with the length of their tails and the growth of their horns. That's why the no-running rule exists! Thankfully his nieces weren't big enough to have theirs yet.
"Where is your other shoe, huh?" He heard Wei Wuxian calling before he got into his field of view.
He lowered the little dragon to the ground, watching her stumble away in her chubby toddler legs, before she was almost immediately snatched away by a new pair of hands. None of the kids had the right to stay on their own feet for very long. There weren't enough of them around for everyone in the family to get their share and all of them were starting to get greedy about their personal baby time. Himself included.
He hoped it wouldn't be a problem for too long. By the size of his nephew-in-law, another one would be popping out soon and hardly would be the last, even if he wanted to. Everyone knew better than to expect it was possible to get Lan Wangji's hands away from his wife long enough.
"Rulan! Be more careful! You are going to hurt your Jiujiu." Jiang Yanli warned.
"What kind of Sect Leader am I in your eyes, that can get hurt by little children?" Jiang Cheng complained, currently trying to protect his knees from being hit. "Ouch! You little...!" He held back a curse, forcefully removing a baby dragon that was biting him in the tail.
A-Li giggled, as he was being handed back to her father, who didn't even try to pretend he was very smug about it and didn't remember her she shouldn't be biting others.
"Jiujiu!" The kids demanded. "Come back here!"
"Later." He tried. "You should eat first. Your mother didn't spend so long making these pastries for you to disregard her efforts."
"I think Jiujiu is scared." Jin Zixuan unsuspiciously said from inside his teacup.
The kids gasped in disbelief.
"I am not scared!" Jiang Cheng protested.
The boys exchanged looks. Jin Rulan crossed his arms. Lan Yuan whispered to him. "My dads are never scared of fighting anyone".
"Mine isn't either." Rulan whispered back.
"Little rats! Why won't you go fight your own dads them?" The tiger rolled his eyes, this was ridiculous.
"I can't disturb the baby." Jin Zixuan stated, as a matter of fact. His younger daughter snored softly in his arms.
"Lan Zhan can't disturb the baby either. And by that I mean me. It's a marriage duty. You wouldn't understand." He said, leaning even closer to his husband. Being pregnant was hard, his back hurt and having a picnic without a back cushion was a terrible idea. Lan Zhan was perfectly content acting as his human cushion.
"A-Xian wants to fight too!" Nie Mingjue said, raising the baby up so everyone could see the little determination in her eyes. "The sooner they start to train the better Just you see, in a few years, this is going to be the face of the greatest warrior the world has ever seen."
The greatest warrior in the world has ever seen kicked excitedly, accidentally whipping the bear in the chin with her tail. The Queen laughed delightedly, carefully accepting her stuffed bunny for safe keeping during the fight.
Jiang Cheng could only groan and accept because he couldn't let Nie Mingjue think he was actually scared of little children and mockingly raised his hand in a half-defense stand. He was immediately hit in the nose by one small hand.
It took him a total of ten minutes to give up and lay face down in the grass while small kids jumped on top of him.
Lan Qiren takes a deep breath and remembers.
He remembers the first few years of his brother's reign. They were both so young. Not young like Lan Huan had been when he took the crown, but young nevertheless. Unprepared. How they never really thought this day was coming any time soon, but it came.
He remembers how the elders had pressed his brother to choose a bride and have his own heir. How the queen came into their lives, despite the council's best efforts for him to take a more beneficial marriage offer, a more proper omega. He never knew what led the emperor to this choice. Maybe spite. Maybe his last act of juvenile rebelliousness. But still, he was a fool. He knows he shouldn't disrespect the death but it was true.
The Queen was a nice woman. She was fun and smart and free. She didn't want to be there, a caged birth. They were miserable. There were fights back then. There was shouting and there was crying. But then, Lan Huan came and then Wangji and he dared to hope.
But then, there was silence.
He doesn't know how it went sideways but they weren't talking anymore. She got sick and he didn't want to fight anymore. Or go to the meetings. Or see his children. And when she died, he just didn't want to go anywhere.
He tried his best. To be an emperor when he wasn't. To be a parent when he wasn't. To be a lot of things he wasn't supposed to be and teach things he didn't know in hopes one day Lan Xichen would do better. They were quiet, serious children, the two of them. Wangji worried him the worst. He had a hard time making friends.
He tried to keep the pressure out of their shoulders as much as he could, but it wouldn't work forever. Lan Huan would have to take the throne when he came of age and have a new heir. Restart the cycle.
He worried it wouldn't be enough. That his mistakes would be too grave. That his choices would make them miserable as they had in the past.
And suddenly there was sound again. There was laughter.
He looked around to really take in what he had constructed.
A-Huan laid across the grass, his head on his husband's lap, who happily exchanged recipes with Jiang Yanli. Wangji holding very still with a smile on his face as his daughter giggles, dangling from his horns, his fox with open hands under her in case she falls. The kids pass by him running. One of them trips across his tail, but quickly gets back up, still laughing, having given up their attack on the tiger to chase Nie Mingjue across the garden instead.
He doesn't remember being happier.