Chapter Text
In the end, Wangji could safely say it all came together thanks to the screams of Jiang Wanyin, even if he loathed to admit it, for once he was grateful for the angry man’s presence in Wei Ying’s life.
It began the morning after their wedding when Wangji woke up to the elders on his door. Their severe faces scaring the mist from sleep away from his eyes, Wangji did not frown at them, but it was close, his lips moved down a fraction of an inch.
“Good morning,” greeted Wangji, closing the door, firmly, behind him. “What brings elders to the Jingshi?”
Elder YuChun flapped his sleeves in the air and looked down at Wangji like he’d done all his life, as if Wangji had personally offended him on the day he’d been born. “We came for your…husband. He is expected at the healing quarters, to begin his purification.”
Lan Wangji nodded slowly, but did not open the door nor asked Wei Ying to come outside. “Wei Ying will be there, after breakfast. It was a long night, begging elder to understand.”
“Lan Wangji, you-!”
Hanguang-Jun stood at his full height as he walked past the elders and towards the kitchens. “Wei Ying will be there, shouting is forbidden. Have a nice morning.”
By the time they actually appeared before the healers it was past noon, but seeing their angry faces, Lan Wangji had no regrets. He knew it would be a hard morning for his husband, and thus Wangji had allowed him to wake up several hours late, he’d served breakfast so full of spice it had hurt Lan Zhan’s nose by being in its proximity, he’d drawn Wei Ying a long bath with relaxing herbs and finally, after all that, escorted him to the healers.
Wen Qing raised an unimpressed eyebrow at them, at the white underclothes that belonged to Wangji peeking from underneath Wei Ying’s dark robes. “You are late,” she said.
“Apologies, Wen-Guniang.”
Wei Wuxian smiled sheepishly and rubbed his nose. “Yes, Qing-Jie, we’re sorry, but we are here.” He clapped, handed Chenqing to Lan Zhan, and took a step forward, hands raised, eyes hard. “Let's get this done with.”
Watching Wei Ying walking toward the elders felt like the end of a dream, a peaceful dream that had begun this morning when he woke up to Wei Ying’s disheveled hair and shy smile. When he held Wei Ying’s hand and reassured him that if he wanted once the healers were done he would set Wei Ying free of their marriage; he did not have to bound himself to Wangji against his will, there would be no repercussions against the Wen remnants.
But Wei Ying had looked at him and smiled, big and blinding, before lowering his eyes to his hands and whispering, “What if I want to be married to Lan Zhan? I’ve seen today he is a fine husband, the best I could ask for!”
Wei Ying had taken Wangji’s hands on his own. “I know being married to me is not something you wanted, but when your brother made the proposition, I-I could not find a good reason to refuse him. Perhaps I was selfish, for I have always wanted Lan Zhan’s attention for myself, but I want to ask Lan Zhan to give me one chance. One chance to prove to him I can be a good husband for him, that we can be happy together. Perhaps it's foolish of me, perhaps I just don’t want to be alone, but I have to be with someone for the rest of my life, I want it to be Lan Zhan.”
Lan Wangji was raised to resist temptation, but at that moment every single excuse he’d told himself crumbled and died. If Wei Ying wanted to try and be family with him, who was Wangji to stop him. Wangji licked his lips and spoke, raising a trembling hand to caress a strand of Wei Ying’s hair.
“While you are at the healers, I’ll speak with uncle about adopting Wen Yuan as our own.”
Wei Ying grabbed Lan Zhan’s wrist and smiled, leaning his face into the open palm. “Really?! Lan Zhan, you would do that!?”
“He was already your son. It is only right, he will be mine as well, by marriage.”
And if Wangji had trouble getting back on his feet after the way Wei Ying had hugged him and placed a surprise kiss on his cheek before running to take his bath, well no one had to know Wangji was rendered stupid by his husband.
Wei Ying fell into step with Wen Qing and turned to give a little wave to Lan Zhan before stepping inside the infirmary; something heavy sat on Lan Wangji’s belly, and as he turned around fully intended to speak with his uncle he did his best to ignore the bad feeling and the pull at his soul that begged him to stay with Wei Ying. Wei Ying did not want him during the purification, he’d been insistent about it. Wangji would respect that, in the meanwhile, he would ensure the beginnings of their marriage were not a rocky one.
Wangji was in the middle of a staring contest with his uncle, Wen Yuan on his lap and XiongZhang between them with that soft smile of his that had long stopped deceiving Wangji; Xichen was worried this argument would escalate.
“Wangji,” exhaled Shufu, eyes set on Wen Yuan’s grey-purple eyes and the nose he shared with the ghost general. “I urge you to reconsider.”
Wangji looked back at his uncle, golden eyes ablaze. “If Shufu does not do it, XiongZhang will. Wangji only asked due to courtesy, I want Shufu to meet his grandnephew.”
Lan Qiren opened his mouth only to be interrupted by the sound of yelling coming from the direction of the infirmary. Then a disciple came walking very fast towards them.
“Sect leader! Sect leader Jiang is here! He is threatening to-”
The sound of crashing and the sizzling telltale of Zidan reached their ears, and Lan Xichen’s smile became strained.
“I see, thank you. Tell the rest to stay away for a while.”
When they reached the infirmary it was to see the chaos unfold before their eyes, everyone was screaming. Wen Qing was screaming, her fingers digging into Wei Ying’s prone arm, her legs the only thing separating his head from the ground. There was blood on Wei Ying’s lips and nose. Jiang Wanyin’s Zidan was thrashing the ground, his face was purple and tear-stained as he screamed in anger at Wei Ying’s unconscious face.
Wangji placed A’Yuan into Shufu’s arms and marched forward, he dove underneath one of Zidan’s electric arcs and pushed Jiang Wanyin away.
“Leave.” Said Hanguang-Jun, eyes dark and ablaze. Something had gone wrong and Wei Ying was hurt, and Jiang Wanyin, Wangji was sure, was at fault for it. “Leave, Jiang-ZongZhu.”
Jiang Wanyin turned his crazed eyes towards him. “Leave!? Leave him!? For you to kill?” Jiang Wanyin took a step forward, lips drawn into a snarl. “Is it not enough that you married him without informing us? Without informing me! But you also want to kill him!?” He scoffed. “So much for righteousness!”
Lan Xichen took a step forward, a placating smile on his face. “Sect leader Jiang, I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about. Killing is forbidden. Wei-Gongzi assured me no harm would come to him during the process of purging him from resentful energy.”
Zidan lashed against the moist soil. “And after? Did that fool tell you what would’ve happened had I not interrupted? Or did he keep you in the dark as he did to me!?”
Wangji, who had rushed to kneel next to Wen Qing and Wei Wuxian, stared back at him. “What do you mean?”
Turns out Wei Wuxian had arrived at the Cloud Recesses two days later than the Wen Remnants because he went to visit Lotus pier, to kneel at the tablets of Yu-Furen and Jiang Fengmian. To ask for their forgiveness and their blessings in his future marriage (or, thought Wangji, lips drawn into a thin line as he stared at his husband’s ashen face, to ask for a warm welcome if he failed to do the impossible and survive the purge of resentment.)
Jiang Wanyin looked away, Zidan still uncoiled and burning the grass around its electrified tip. They had fought not as companionable teenagers engaging in a heated argument, but as two grown men that used to know each other and now saw strangers every time they crossed; Jiang Wanyin saw betrayal every time he looked at Wei Wuxian and Wei Wuxian was too kind to say how much his Shidi had disappointed him, how proud he made him.
The emotions pouring out of Jiang Wanyin’s mouth and running across his face were too much for Lan Wangji to fully comprehend, it would require Wangji to pay an enormous amount of attention to sect leader Jiang, Wangji was not interested.
In the middle of their fight, Wei Ying had suffered a qi deviation and collapsed on one of the piers, vulnerable to Jiang Wanyin’s attack had it not been for the ghost general who had followed Wei Wuxian to Yunmeng.
Apparently, Wangji came to understand as he cleaned the blood from Wei Ying’s lips and felt the pulse on his wrist, there had been another discussion, more screams. Why couldn’t people discuss things in an orderly manner? Though, considering Shufu's usual method to express his displeasure, he should not have been surprised.
The golden core inside Jiang Wanyin was not his.
It was Wei Ying’s.
Agony seared his heart as he sank his fingers into Wei Wuxian’s flesh and began to circle his spiritual energy across Wei Ying’s fractured meridians, when he reached the point where he would have been able to feel Wei Ying’s core he came across a cold and empty vacuum; as if Wei Ying’s soul had been sucked away.
It made so much sense now, Wangji felt like an idiot. And yet he had never, he would never have dared to imagine that Wei Ying had lost his core. Wangji had felt that core once when they’d been hiding at the Xuanwu cave, a bright golden sun inside Wei Ying’s chest. It had been as great as Wangji’s own, during the war Wangji had despaired to think the damage demonic cultivation must have done to that beautiful star, the pride of Wei Ying’s cultivation.
Lan Wangji should have known, he should have realized when he saw the first wrinkles under Wei Ying’s eyes that day at Yiling. He understood Wei Ying’s words better now, Wei Ying had only expected to survive as a miracle or to end up so wounded and sick without the resentful energy that had kept him together that he would surely have died in a few days.
Lan Wangji shared one look with Wen Guniang and carried Wei Ying in his arms, blood staining his front robes.
“What do you think you are doing! I’m not done with him! Wake him up! He is just pretending!”
Wangji’s husband had suffered so much and Jiang Wanyin still had the nerve to come and make this about him. Wangji wanted him gone. Golden eyes landed on Jiang Cheng’s wrecked face, on the way his hands were shaking and the way he looked at Wei Wuxian with a mix of despair, love, fear, and annoyance.
Jiang Wanyin was worried, but Wangji had no time to care for the man's bottled up and messed up feelings; his husband needed him.
“Sect leader Jiang will be welcome back when he regains his manners.” Said Wangji and turned around, walking back into the infirmary with Wei Ying in his arms.
No one else would harm his husband. If Wei Ying needed to cultivate the demonic path to survive then Wangji would make sure it did not consume his husband’s mind, that his life did not come at the cost of his soul.
Lan Wangji swore it to any deity that would listen.
Wei Wuxian woke up slowly, he blinked away the mist of sleep from his eyes as his brain processed the dull sounds around him as a voice; soft and deep. Someone was singing to him.
Groaning, he turned his face to the side, and his pupils finally adjusted to the light so he could recognize his husband’s face. “Lan Zhan,” he smiled.
His husband helped him sit upon the bed and Wei Wuxian frowned when he realized he was still inside the healers' pavilion; slowly things came back to him, the reluctance of his body to give up their source of power, to renounce the power that had glued him and kept him alive. The surprise at the lack of pain and Wen Qing’s determined eyes as her fingers and needled dug upon him, stabilizing him, helping him leave. He recalled smiling, thinking he would survive this, that maybe he could have a life with Lan Zhan or in his mountain when Lan Zhan grew tired of him.
And then his shidi had come, disrupting the procedure, then the pain had become too much; no sane man should know how it felt to have one’s meridians shredded.
It was truly a miracle he was alive, he supposed.
“Lan Zhan,” he croaked over the edge of the cup of water his Zhiji had handed him. “I can…still feel some dark energy inside of me,” Wei Wuxian licked his dry lips, there were a million things he should ask, about Jiang Cheng, about the Wens, and the status of the arrangement he made with Zewu-Jun; still what came from his lips was none of that. “ Are we still married?”
Lan Zhan’s hand hovered above Wei Wuxian’s free hand for a millisecond, before he reached down, ears red, and joined their hands together. “Mn, for as long as Wei Ying wants.”
Nodding, Wei Wuxian placed the cup aside. “When are they coming?”
“Who?”
Wei Wuxian smiled at his silly husband. “The healers, Lan Zhan! To finish the ritual, so I can fill my part of the contract.”
Lan Zhan squeezed his hand gently yet firmly and pinned him down with an unimpressed look. “They won’t come for that, only to ensure you are healthy enough to return to the Jingshi.”
“But-!”
“No, buts Wei Ying.” Wei Wuxian was sure there was a frown on Lan Zhan’s face, a small wrinkle between his eyebrows. “I spoke to the elders in light of yesterday’s events. They ended up agreeing to my suggestion. If Wei Ying wishes to remain married to me or in the Cloud Recesses with the rest of the Wens he should allow at least one session of clarity per week, so his mind and soul would remain undamaged.” Then in an act that seemed to surprise them both, Lan Zhan kissed the tips of Wei Wuxian’s fingers. “They won’t ask for more.”
“Why?” Asked Wei Wuxian, eyes wide and heart hammering against his ribs. “Why won’t they ask more? Yesterday they wanted to chew on me until all I had left were my bones.
Lan Zhan met his eyes dead center, heat crawled up Wei Wuxian’s neck. “Because I will leave.”
“What?”
“If they demand more than what Wei Ying can give, I will defect.”
Wei Wuxian sat up with one quick movement and shook Lan Zhan by the shoulders. “Are you crazy, Lan Zhan! Why would you say that! I’m not worth such actions! You can’t leave your family! I’m not worth that, why would you do that!”
And then, the utterly shameless man he married grabbed Wei Wuxian’s hand and placed it against his cheek, resting his face upon it. The tips of Wei Wuxian’s fingers brushed the edge of Lan Zhan’s forehead ribbon. “Is it unclear? I love Wei Ying.”
Wei Wuxian felt his heart stop and a funny feeling settled on the pit of his stomach, he laughed nervously and tried to take his hand away, but Lan Zhan did not bulge. “Lan Zhan, don’t be silly. I thought lying was forbidden.” He looked away from his Zhiji’s intense glare. “Don’t say things you don’t mean, how could you love a disgrace such as myself?”
“I almost lost Wei Ying yesterday, before we could even begin to figure out our lives together. I want Wei Ying to know I love him. I have loved Wei Ying for many years.” Suddenly, Wei Wuxian realized that the hand resting against Lan Zhan’s face was wet, Lan Zhan was crying, silent tears running down his ivory cheeks. “I’m sorry I did not stand by the man I loved when I should have. I will stand next to Wei Ying from now on, no matter if Wei Ying returns my feelings or not.”
Who was the idiot that said Lan Zhan was a man of few words? Who had given him the right to raise a strange fluttering inside Wei Wuxian’s damaged heart?
Against his better judgment, Wei Wuxian risked looking at Lan Zhan’s face. This man…this man… on impulse Wei Wuxian surged forward and pressed his lips to Lan Zhan’s, a quick peck that had him blushing to the roots of his hair and Lan Zhan’s ears burning red. He refused to look his husband in the face as he spoke.
“I think I’m already a little in love with you. If Lan Zhan is willing, I'll like to be married to him for many, many years.” His blush deepened. “Yes, E…Er-gege?”
Shameless! He was so shameless! How embarrassing!
At first, Wei Wuxian did not realize what was happening, not until the edges of Lan Zhan’s face became softer and his eyes shone with mirth; Lan Zhan was smiling, plump lips parted into a soft smile that Wei Wuxian’s heart could not handle.
“Yes”, thought Wei Wuxian, beaming back. “He could spend the rest of his days waxing poetry about that smile, about the way it made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It made him feel at home, a simple gesture, and Wei Wuxian knew that from now on everything would be alright.