Chapter Text
Jiang Cheng pointedly refused to look at Wei Wuxian as he led him by the elbow, helping him walk back to the Omega dorms.
Wei Wuxian had refused assistance but Lan Xichen had insisted on having someone accompany him. And to his surprise, Jiang Cheng had volunteered.
As far as his options went it wasn’t too bad. It was better than having Lan Zhan or any of the Lans for that matter. He just had to endure the awkward air between himself and his Shidi.
“I can still walk,” Wei Wuxian petulantly mumbled.
“I’m not leaving you to your own devices. Look where that got us already!” Jiang Cheng snapped.
Shame welled up inside Wei Wuxian, and he quietened, eyes trained on the cobblestone path beneath his feet.
Jiang Cheng shot him a glance and his grip on Wei Wuxian’s arm tightened.
The sudden pressure made Wei Wuxian stumble, having to lean heavily on the Alpha’s beside him.
“Careful!” Jiang Cheng chided him. “Do you want to kill the kid before you have him?”
Wei Wuxian’s eyes widened at his words, just as they reached his room.
With no words wasted, Jiang Cheng threw the doors open, led him through, and seated him on the bed, closing the doors behind them.
He darted to the table and poured a cup of water, pushing it into Wei Wuxian’s hands. “Drink,” he commanded.
Wei Wuxian’s eyes began to brim over making him hastily raise the cup to cover his face.
“You need anything else? Something to eat? Craving some anything? Don’t pregnant people have weird cravings?” Jiang Cheng searched his face.
Wei Wuxian shook his head mutually, turning his face away to rub at the tears now streaming down his face.
“What? Does it hurt somewhere? What’s wrong?” Jiang Cheng stepped closer.
Wei Wuxian bit his lip hard, trying to stop the emotions swirling inside. “Nothing,” he gasped.
“Wei Wuxian, Wei Ying,” Jiang Cheng’s voice grew softer, arms circling the Omega in a comforting embrace.
“I’m sorry, this is all my fault, Wei Wuxian wept, hiding his face in his palms. “I didn’t think, if only I just- if I just-” He broke himself off with a fresh sob.
“Is one hand enough to clap? It takes two, doesn’t it? So how is it your fault alone?” Jiang Cheng demanded.
Wei Wuxian quietened down a bit, furiously scrubbing at his face. “It’s not like that, Shidi. I shouldn’t have been delusional,” he said bitterly.
Jiang Cheng looked at him thoughtfully. “You hoped for something else. It wasn’t just a night together.”
Wei Wuxian sighed. “I hoped for a lot of things. Look where that got me.”
Jiang Cheng scent grew angry. “Oh? Then they are the ones who deceived you, aren’t they? How is this your fault at all?”
“Stop, please,” Wei Wuxian begged. “They have their reasons.”
“What could they possibly be? What can be more important than the bearer of their child?!”
Wei Wuxian looked away tiredly. “Me, Jiang Cheng. I am bearing the child. That makes all the difference. Acknowledging me would make life terrible for them.”
Jiang Cheng lightly smacked the back of his head. “No talking shit about yourself. My nephew’s gonna hear it and then what’s he going to think about his father?”
Wei Wuxian’s eyes watered again, but with relief and affection this time. He shifted in Jiang Cheng‘s hold, raising one hand to cup his slightly protruding belly. “Nephew? How are you so sure?”
Jiang Cheng shrugged . “I am not. Just feels like it. Call it a Shushu’s instinct.”
A smile finally broke across the Wei Wuxian‘s face. “Alright, Shushu.”
Jiang Cheng huffed a laugh as well. “Fine, fine. Enough excitement for one day. We don’t need you fainting again. Lie down.”
“Mmn.” With how heavy his head was, Wei Wuxian wasn’t about to argue.
“Want me to lie down with you?”
“No, don’t,” Wei Wuxian answered.
Jiang Cheng glowered at him. “ What, my scent not good enough for you?”
Wei Wuxian smiled again. “Have you ever burnt incense? You know, how too much is overbearing but just enough is comforting? Stay, hold my hand,” he asked.
Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes as he reached out.
A few moments later, “I’m sorry, A-Xian.”
Wei Wuxian cracked one eye open. “What for?”
Jiang Cheng looked at him remorsefully. “For everything I said to you back there. I was worrying about the Sect and our reputation when I should’ve actually been worrying about you.”
Wei Wuxian stared at him in surprise. Apologies from Jiang Cheng were rare; close to almost never occurring. His way of making up was a shove to the shoulder after a fight, or an offering of food or just straight up back to normal as do nothing had ever happened.
This was new.
Wei Wuxian paused to find an answer.“Apology not accepted. I’ll think about it when you become best Shushu,” he teased.
Jiang Cheng grinned at him, as he readily agreed. “Challenge accepted. Now go to sleep, asshole.”
Wei Wuxian knew that his future was going to be ridden with hurdles and pits. But he now knew he wasn’t going to be alone.
“Didi.” Someone was shaking his shoulder.
Lan Wangji slowly forced his eyes open. “XiongZhang.”
Lan Xichen looked at him sadly. Truly, what a pitiful sight he must have made.
Sitting in front of his guqin but not playing anything, lost inside his own head. He hadn’t even heard the door of the Jingshi open and his brother come in.
“Wangji,” Lan Xichen tried to catch his attention again.
The sadness in his brother’s eyes spread across his face. Lan Xichen’s emotions were as clear as water across a still lake. More than once, he had sat in front of the mirror and wondered what it would be like if his own face could contort itself into shapes that could describe what he felt inside.
And if he could have, maybe he could have prevented Wei Ying from being targeted by a predator. Granted, Lan Wangji did understand the desire to have Wei Ying but he couldn’t comprehend how anyone could bear to let him go after holding him in their arms.
That too, in disgrace.
They had taken advantage of him, his beautiful smiles, his selfless heart and used to satisfy their own greed. And after they were done, they had rejected him so callously.
Fury coursed through his veins. Wei Ying only ever had to tell him the name of the Sire, and Wangji would hold them at the end of his sword and make sure that they did right by this wonderful person.
“Wangji, please come back,” Xichen’s voice sounded underwater, hazy and muffled.
Lan Wangji slowly broke through surface, his brothers voice much clearer now. “Wangji? Are you back? Are you with me?”
The Second Jade of Lan did not gain the title Ice Prince without a reason. With eyes that betrayed nothing, he looked straight at his brother. “Mmn.”
Lan Xichen sighed. “A missive has been sent. Jiang-Zongzhu will most likely be here by the end of the week.”
Something he couldn’t name made Wangji’s chest seize up. Wei Ying would be gone in a week. Wangji would probably never see him again. And as an unbonded, unmarried Omega who had mated with someone so as to produce a child would be ostracised from society. He would not see him at any social events and the Jiang might restrict his hunts due m to the ill repute that would inevitably come if the news ever got out.
“Xiongzhang,” Lan Wangji called, frantically grabbing Xichen’s sleeve. “Wei Ying will be ruined if we let this continue. Both his child and him will suffer. We have to do something.” His voice sounded and usually weak.
Lan Xichen held him by the shoulders. “Wangji, for anything to be done, there has to be a marriage.”
Wangji looked away. “Yes, there must. I will marry him.”
Lan Xichen stared at him for a second, dumbfounded, before jerking away. “Wangji! Have you lost your mind?! He’s carrying someone else’s child in his womb! Have you been completely blinded by your heart?”
Lan Wangji shook his head, still pleading. “I do not want to marry him because I desire him. I want to marry him because I love him and I cannot bear to see him suffer.”
His brother pressed his temples in frustration. “Wangji, if he marries you, do you think the elders will accept him? Even if they accept him as your spouse, he will be separated from his child. They will never let a bastard child be recognised member of the Sect.”
Lan Wangji began to grow desperate. “Then I will leave Cloud Recesses. “I will leave with Wei Ying.”
Lan Xichen asked fervently, “Where? How would you even take care of yourself, let alone him and his child? The two of you were barely eighteen years old. You’re not even established cultivators yet, how will you survive on your own?”
Lan Wangji had no answer.
Lan Xichen gently held his hand. “Forget all this. Do you think Wei-Gongzi would agree to marry you, in the first place? He is completely taken with the Sire of his child. Do you think he will marry you and move on?”
Wangji wanted to argue but he found he had nothing he could say.
Lan Xichen continued. “You suggest all this because you fear he will be ill treated. But Didi, he’s going back to Yunmeng. The rules in Lotus Pier are not as harsh as the ones in Cloud Recesses. He will not suffer there; perhaps only his reputation will, that too only if the news gets out, which I am sure Jiang-Zongzhu would absolutely prevent.”
Wangji began to calm down at that.
“Do you truly love him to this extent?”Lan Xichen couldn’t seem to help but ask.
“I had no idea, either,” Wangji admitted. “But I now know how far I can go for him.”