...how strange.

Brother found a new doctor for him recently, a respected elder healer from the Nie Sect. Though she informed Wangji that the new salves might gradually improve his baseline, he doesn't think that could explain such dramatic change overnight.

Perhaps it is one of those dreams where you dream of your own waking.

He opens his eyes.

None of A-Yuan's art or belongings are anywhere to be seen. 

His student robes, however, are exactly where they were back when he was wearing them regularly. 

This continues to be disconcerting! He sits up very slowly - and then remembers that he does not have to; this is a dream and there is no pain.

He dresses himself in the student robes and picks out one of his more simple silver crowns to pull up his hair. Bichen is where it should be; he picks up the sword and leaves his home to explore whatever else the dream has to offer.

Cloud Recesses is not a place that changes much. Even when it was burned down and rebuilt, little changed. 

"Little" is enough, for one who grew up there, who watched it burn, who helped rebuild. This is not a Cloud Recesses that has ever burned. 

He definitely should not get his hopes up that this will be a pleasant dream. Those are rare. But it is pleasant, at least, to see his home as it was 

If he heads toward the Lan Sect Mansion, will he run into anyone else? See any other students, or anyone who doesn't belong in this general time frame?

There are other students! Nie Huaisang, Jin Zixuan and Jiang Wanyin can all be identified, all looking and behaving appropriately for the time period. 

There is nobody who does not belong in this scene. There is also no Wei Ying. Possibly this is in some way connected with the fading but still entirely visible bruise on Jin Zixuan's cheek. 

Hm.

This level of consistency and detail definitely seems incongruous for this being a dream. But a bizarrely consistent lucid dream is still more likely than... whatever else this could be. 

It really does feel a lot like he's awake, only less painful. Wangji is unsure how to resolve this uncertainty.

No need to subject himself to the existence of Jiang Wanyin while he figures it out, though. He keeps walking and tries to find his brother.

His brother is helping their uncle with something, would he like to subject himself to the existence of Lan Qiren instead?

Not particularly.

He will wait outside for Brother and Uncle to be done, in case any other important people materialize and decide to approach him. The longer he stands in this garden and does absolutely nothing, the less this feels like plausibly a dream.

Eventually Lan Xichen walks out. He smiles when he sees his brother. 

Wangji does not move his face in any way, but to Xichen he will still look glad to see him.

He bows. "Brother. I have a question."

"Yes?"

"If you thought you might be dreaming, how would you determine that you were awake?"

"Hm." He leans back. "That's a good question. I've heard of people pinching themselves, if they don't often feel pain in dreams. Reading a text you don't know very well and seeing if it makes sense. Trying to see if there are any places where what you're experiencing is inconsistent or doesn't match reality."

"Mn."

He will try each of those things, but for now he has to confront the fact that everything feels quite real, and not dreamlike at all aside from the absurdity and the absence of pain. Wangji has never heard about anything similar to this ever happening. How could it be possible? Was it stable; might he be pulled back into the present at any moment?

- and if this is real, then - 

"Wei Ying?"

"What about him?"

Why does he have to pick more words. Why can he not just say 'Wei Ying' and have all the information he wants presented to him immediately.

"Where is he?"

"At Lotus Pier, one assumes. He was expelled after attacking Jin Zixuan?"

Right, that happened.

Wangji wants to ride Bichen to Lotus Pier right this second, but he... shouldn't. Won't. There isn't anything to protect Wei Ying from right now, and nothing he needs to stop him from doing. Instead he should remain here and plan ahead to do both of those things as thoroughly as possible.

He goes to the library. He will try pinching himself, and then reading over some different texts. How does that go?

The pinch hurts. Much less than the scars would, but definitely an amount. The texts make sense and are consistent with the hypothesis that he just woke up in the past somehow and is not dreaming.

Okay. 

He unsheathes Bichen and presses the tip against his leg, to be sure.

Ouchies and blood occur. 

Another thing that occurs is the library door sliding open at exactly the wrong moment. 

"What the fuck!?"

Oh shit.

Okay. Well. This is not ideal but fortunately he does not owe Jiang Wanyin an explanation.

Wangji wipes Bichen off on his leg above the wound and then sheathes it, letting his robes drop down. He goes to walk past Jiang Cheng and leave the library.

What the fuck. 

Guest students from other sects who are not actually Lan disciples are bad at following the rules. This was especially evident while Wei Ying was among their number but continues to be true now. Multiple people are assigned punitive copying after being caught gossiping about the fact that apparently Lan Wangji, or someone or something resembling Lan Wangji, apparently stabbed himself in the leg in front of Jiang Cheng that morning. 

This does not concern him, although he is unimpressed. He bandages his leg and cleans his robes and moves on to focus on more important things.

The important thing for the time being is placing fireproofing charms on approximately every surface in the Cloud Recesses. It takes a very long time to get to every building, every wall, every book and piece of art, especially when trying to do this undetected.

It gives him time to consider his next moves. Ways to sabotage the Wen... ways to undercut the Jin's authority or damage their leadership without punishing Jin commoners...

Unfortunately for Wangji's plan to go undetected, his brother is very good at detecting him. 

"Can I have a word?" Xichen asks, narrowly missing catching his brother applying a fireproofing charm to the underside of a roof. 

Oh no.

Wangji bows, inviting Xichen either to go on or to lead him somewhere else.

"Are you feeling alright?"

Hhhh. "Fine."

"Gossiping is of course forbidden, but accidentally overhearing what others gossip about is not. Do you have any idea why someone would think you stabbed yourself in the leg this morning?"

"Wangji." 

"I needed to know if I was dreaming."

"Why do you think you're dreaming?"

"I no longer do."

"Why did you think it was likely enough you were dreaming to stab your leg over it." 

"It will not be a problem again."

Sigh. 

"Please go to the healers about it." 

"Yes, Brother." He bows, and then escapes.

Wangji really does not want to see the healers about it, but Brother will probably check. He goes to the healers and tells them he hurt his leg.

The healers assume it was some kind of training accident and make (0) fuss about it. 

Great. He'll place some more stealthy fireproofing charms on his way out.

Days pass: uneventful, and yet very busy for Wangji. Planning, fireproofing charms, avoiding his brother, avoiding Jiang Wanyin, planning...

Wangji sleeps poorly. Nightmares. He wakes up with pain clawing his back, Wei Ying's shattered voice screaming in his ears, blistering ash coating his throat - it is always Father's ash, or Brother's. Wangji wakes with his heart pounding and his chest tight with urgency, knowing that Wei Ying is out there alive and could die at any moment, Wangji must go to him now before it's too late -

But it's fine. Less time sleeping means more time concentrating on important plans.

A letter from Gusu Lan to Qinghe Nie ends up in the hands of higher Wen authority. A traitor gave up the letter in a bid to spare his own life after insulting an unnamed Wen general, according to the note. The letter addresses credible rumors of valuable treasure, apparently hidden in a cave in Dusk Creek Mountain. Very exciting and valuable potentially magic treasure.

Wangji gives it a while to see if anything happens. He has more letters of this nature prepared in case it failed to reach Wen Ruohan.

Before any kind of relevant word comes from Qishan, Jiang Cheng receives a letter from Lotus Pier that has him VERY UPSET. 

...concerning.

Wangji will stand nearby and wait for Jiang Wanyin to yell about whatever has him upset, as Jiang Wanyin usually does.

Apparently some time after arriving home Wei Wuxian just went MISSING. He could have run off, in theory, but that seems unlikely because he didn't take anything with him, not even his sword. Nobody has any good ideas about what happened and this is EXTREMELY CONCERNING IN FACT. 

Oh NO

Oh no no no no how what did he change - who took him - if he's even still alive - 

Wangji doesn't know how this could have happened and he has no idea how he caused it but it is definitely his fault, he is the only thing that has changed here. He needs to find Wei Ying. He doesn't know how.

He will start with seizing Jiang Wanyin by the arm and demanding more information.

"What the fuck, what do you even care?"

"Fuck you."

He storms off.

That was not very productive, but at least he did not break Jiang Wanyin's arm or kill him on the spot which is what he felt like doing. Even though nothing is Jiang Wanyin's fault yet. It feels like his fault, his fault that Wangji has to lose Wei Ying twice - fuck, this is very bad.

He goes back to the Jingshi. It doesn't feel like he can breathe as he packs. The packing is extremely light; a water canteen, his qugin, a bundle of talismans. Wangji silently wishes the house farewell.

And then he rides his sword west.

Meanwhile, Jiang Cheng goes to Xichen. 

"Do you have any idea what's wrong with your brother?" 

"...Why, what happened." 

So Jiang Cheng explains what happened: the letter (which he is still VERY CONCERNED over), Wangji's inexplicable reaction, Wangji's anger over his extremely understandable reaction to his inexplicable reaction, Wangji storming off, also that thing where he stabbed himself in the leg a while back???

Xichen is quiet for a long moment. 

Finally: "My brother began behaving differently the morning of the, uh, library incident. He asked me--the first thing he asked me was where your brother was, which seemed odd but not terribly important at the time but which I now have to wonder if it is somehow related. Then he asked me how to tell if you were dreaming; one of the pieces of advice I gave him was to pinch yourself to see if it hurt. When I asked him about the library incident he said he had to be very sure he wasn't dreaming." 

"...You think he knows something." 

"I don't know what to think. But it seems possible." 

"Fuck. Fine, it's not like I have any better leads." 

He doesn't bother to pack anything and therefore arrives outside soon enough to see Lan Wangji take off and follow him. 

Lan Wangji flies towards Qishan.

He isn't sure where the Wens would keep Wei Ying, if they have him, but Wangji will cut his way through their territory until he finds out. If Wei Ying is a prisoner in Nightless City, surely word would spread. Wen soldiers should know, at the very least.

If Wei Ying isn't a prisoner in Nightless City, Wangji will go to Dust Creek Mountain. That his efforts to take care of Xuanwu might have backfired so catastrophically is horrifying, but a possibility.

If Wei Ying isn't there, Wangji will go to Yiling.

He lands once he is too exhausted to continue or once he catches sight of a Wen Sect outpost, whichever happens first.

Maybe it would have been Wen Sect Outpost if he had been sleeping well! Alas. 

Well, that's infuriating.

Fine. He lands in this random forest. He is tired enough that continuing to move around is painful, but Wangji is very adept at ignoring the demands of his body. He moves around as much as is necessary to collect kindling and start a fire.

Shortly thereafter, Jiang Cheng, who has less endurance in general than Lan Wangji but has been sleeping well, lands. 

Wow, what the fuck. 

He glares, a hand flying to Bichen's hilt, and waits for Jiang Wanyin to explain himself.

"Your brother says the morning you stabbed yourself in the fucking leg you asked where Wei Wuxian was. Do you know anything about what's happened to him?" he demands. 

"No." And he doesn't, and he should, and he hates it.

"Do you have anything to go on. Or did you just fly off in a random direction." 

"You've been acting weird for almost a week and now my brother is missing, don't act like I'm the one who's out of line." 

Jiang Wanyin had been loyal to Wei Ying too, at this age. He and Wangji had worked together to find him the last time Wei Ying went missing. He had been a decent ally, and Wangji would be foolish to drive off any cultivator who could help him save Wei Ying. Two people attacking a fortress will go better than one, even if one of those people is objectively the worst.

It's just. Jiang Wanyin does not deserve the number of words he will have to come up with to actually explain this, which is Many. Wangji is extremely annoyed.

"I lived for eight more years than this. A week ago I woke up here, in the past." He stares into the fire. "This did not happen last time. It's too soon."

"What? That's--" impossible, crazy, but not, honestly, that much crazier than stabbing yourself in the leg in the middle of the LIbrary Pavilion. And it would explain the part where he thought he was dreaming. 

He's not convinced Lan Wangji is right, but he thinks he's probably not lying. 

"What do you mean too soon, are you saying this is supposed to happen at some point?"

"Wei Ying went missing while we were at war with Wen Ruohan. For three months we searched for him. It did not happen like this."

"At war with--fuck. What happened? Was he okay?"

"No."

"Fuck." He rubs his face. "And you--got closer, in those eight years, and that's why you're so upset now when you couldn't stand him when he left, okay. Where was he? How did he disappear? It probably wasn't from his undisturbed room, if it was a war. You're headed to Qishan? You think they have him again? What did you change?"

"You three were in hiding. He vanished while you were away.

Soldiers claimed they threw him into the burial mounds of Yiling. But he lived. Wei Ying never told us what happened. 

I will look for him in Qishan first. Then everywhere else."

"The burial--fuck, fuck those fuckers. Who was it?"

"Wen Chao. Wen Zhuliu."

"Wen Zhuliu? The Core-Melting Hand?" 

"Mn. He served Wen Chao throughout many atrocities." 

"Is that what you mean when you say he wasn't okay--that he was--"

Oh.

But - no, why wouldn't he say, that couldn't be it. He would have told- if not Wangji, Wei Ying would have told someone. It doesn't. It doesn't make sense.

"He never used his sword again," he rasps eventually.

"Fuck," he hisses. 

"I'm going to kill them slowly." 

You killed him, he wants to say, you killed him for it. But if he does then Jiang Wanyin will want to know why.

"Mm." 

"Sleep. In the morning we need to fly."

"Yeah. Ugh. Okay." 

He goes to very grumpy sleep. 

It takes him a long time to fall asleep. He is miserable and afraid and guilty.

Perhaps it would be easier to sleep on his back, which in this body is generally more comfortable, but he's trying to maintain the habit of laying on his front. He is prepared to need that again, this time. He is ready for it to come to that again, so long as Wei Ying lives.

He startles awake several minutes shy of five in the morning. Takes those minutes to pull himself together. Then he sits up and checks if his companion is awake.

Nope, still asleep. 

Wangji cleans up the not-quite-a-campsite, and covers up the fire residue. If Jiang Wanyin is still asleep, he can be kicked awake. Gently. Sort of.

"Ow," Jiang Cheng mutters, but he gets up and mounts his sword without any real complaint. 

Good. Off they go. Keeping a careful eye out for potential outposts.

There's one over there! It seems slightly...fire-damaged. 

...oh?

That being the case, they can try landing directly on it instead of stealthily nearby. Is anyone here?

The interior is full of corpses, fierce and still. The latter appear to be all Wen soldiers. The fierce corpses are gathered around a single barricaded room that it doesn't appear they've managed to break into yet. 

...well that's highly concerning.

He will start dispatching the fierce corpses and hope that Jiang Wanyin follows his lead.

Yep. It's almost relaxing. Re-killing fierce corpses is normal and expected and so much less concerning than everything else right now.

Once they are Successfully Dispatched he turns his attention to the barricade. "Do you think there are soldiers, there?"

"There's got to be something, or they wouldn't have bothered trying to get in." 

They can dismantle the barricaded door and take a look inside, then.

There are people huddled inside; servants, mostly. A small number of cultivators, none of them dressed like a soldier. 

"Did--did you get them all?" One of the latter asks, stepping forward warily. 

"Yes. What happened?"

"I don't know," she says, lips pressed together thinly. "There was just suddenly a sea of fierce corpses, and this was the only room in the whole building where the wards worked." 

"Mm." He looks over at Jiang Wanyin. They'll have to keep moving, find the next one.

"Are any of you hurt?" he asks the lady.

"Not badly. A few bruises is all." 

Back to Jiang Wanyin. "Let's go."

Nod. 

The next Wen outpost doesn't appear to have any survivors, and is burned to the ground. 

"We should keep going until we find one still burning."

"I take it this didn't happen last time either." 

Well. Some things eerily similar to this did happen before they found Wei Ying last time. But he can't tell Jiang Wanyin about that. "Mn."

The next one is more like the first in terms of amount-of-burned-ness. 

The one after that is still on fire. 

They land and run towards it. Is anyone outside nearby? Can they see anyone inside as they approach?

Nobody alive is outside. There are several fierce corpses, just standing there, not doing anything. 

The doors are closed. Nothing inside is visible. 

They will burst inside, if the building is sufficiently not-completely-on-fire as to allow that.

The first morning he'd woken up in his old bed at Lotus Pier, he'd thought he was dreaming. 

He had dreams like that, sometimes. Dreams of happier times. Usually they were of the few blissfully happy months between when Lan Zhan had come to visit them in Yiling, and been convinced by A-Yuan's pleading to stay, and--well, everything that came after. The best months of his life, full of love and light and joy, followed by the worst; Shijie's husband's death, then Wen Ning and Wen Qing's, then Shijie herself, and finally, at the siege that had almost wiped them out, Lan Zhan had died five feet away from the tree where A-Yuan had been hiding. 

He had plenty of nightmares, too. Nightmares of watching it happen, of killing himself like he had been so tempted to do and leaving A-Yuan all alone. 

Dreaming of Lotus Pier in the specific interval between when he had been expelled from Cloud Recesses and when Jiang Cheng had come back was unusual, but shijie was there, and the lakes, and--well, it was a good dream. 

He revised that assessment when he woke up still there the next morning. 

He tried everything he could think of to force himself to wake up, and--nothing. This was, somehow, real. 

Everyone was alive. Shijie was alive. Wen Qing and Wen Ning were alive out there, somewhere. Lan Zhan was alive, and he had never cursed himself before for punching that stupid peacock, but he did now, because if he hadn't he would have woken up at Cloud Recesses and could have gone to see Lan Zhan immediately. 

He almost did that anyway, grabbed Suibian and flown over (he could do that now, his golden core was still his) but...

But these people were alive, but they weren't safe. The Wens had already started their encroachments, as the waterborne abyss they had chased into Biling Lake proved. If he didn't do anything, there would be a war again. Cloud Recesses would burn, Uncle Jiang and Madame Yu would die, and...

No. He wasn't going to let history just repeat itself. 

Which meant he needed to find the people who needed to die, and end them, without it being connected to Lotus Pier. 

His younger body had never been thrown in the Burial Mounds like garbage, but in the end, that didn't matter. He was still the same person who had invented demonic cultivation, and the inferior flute he cut for himself out of green bamboo, too hasty to try to recreate Chenqing, sufficed for his purposes. Not for this timeline were the massive armies of the undead he had marshalled in the Sunshot Campaign. He gathered a handful of the strongest fierce corpses he could find, and set off. 

The first Wen Outpost that he came across fell silently in the night, each living soul within snuffed out by precisely-controlled fierce corpses before an alarm could be raised. He went through their documents, then burned the place to the ground. 

The second one was more populous and, more importantly, contained an actual medical staff. None of them were Wen Qing, but for all he knew they were her friends, and he really didn't want to piss her off, even if probably in this timeline the Wen siblings would have no particular reason to give him the time of day. That was--fine, that was objectively much better than Wen Ning dying and coming back as a sentient fierce corpse who couldn't eat Shijie's soup when she gave it to him with a smile. 

The third didn't have doctors, but it did have a significant civilian staff, which he made a point of sparing as well. If it meant there were witnesses to his methods, oh well, he could just put the flute down after he was done cleaning out Qishan of the rot that was poisoning it and went home and picked up his sword again. None of them had seen his face or anything. 

The fourth one contained Wen Zhuliu and Wen Chao. 

He didn't make them suffer as much as he had the first time. Wen Zhuliu he killed first and quickly; he still had something to lose to the man, after all, this time. Looking at the man's body, head tilted at an unnatural angle from his snapped neck, sent an overwhelming wave of relief through him. Jiang Cheng's core was safe. 

Wen Chao he took his time with a little, but not very much. The man was pathetic without his bodyguard to shield him, and it had been child's play to draw it out, wounding him dozens of times before finally hacking his head off. It hadn't been a pleasant death, but this timeline's Wen Chao, while presumably guilty of numerous sins Wei Wuxian wasn't specifically aware of, had not in fact committed the specific misdeeds that had earned him his slow descent into madness in the original timeline. 

He is pondering these things, Wen Chao's severed head dangling from his fist by the hair, his robes soaked in Wen Chao's blood (and probably other people's too; the corpses that had taken care of the rest of the outpost weren't especially tidy) when the doors burst open. He turns to look. 

He stumbles, which he almost never does. Catches himself.

He's too late, is the first coherent thought he has. Too late. Wei Ying is covered with blood, and he must have already lost his golden core because he left his sword behind and he's dismembering bodies and why else -

He doesn't know how he possibly failed this badly, how he possibly managed to push Wei Ying into Demonic Cultivation this early. He's so young, they're both still young, and it isn't going to matter they aren't going to get more time he failed - 

He needs to get between Wei Ying and Jiang Wanyin, Wangji thinks feverishly. He needs to keep everyone else away. Keep Wei Ying safe. 

He walks toward him, wading through the gore. "Wei Ying," he whispers.

Lan Zhan is here. 

Lan Zhan is here and alive and god, how could he have forgotten how beautiful Lan Zhan was. 

It doesn't occur to him to wonder what the fuck Lan Zhan is doing here. That would require him to be able to have coherent thoughts right now. 

He drops Wen Chao's head like the irrelevant piece of rubbish that it is and runs towards Lan Zhan, throws his arms around his neck and kisses him. 

Wh -

Oh. Okay, kissing. No more thoughts, only kissing.

He has no idea how or why this is happening but it probably doesn't matter. What does matter: Wei Ying's mouth. Wei Ying, solid and alive in his arms. Wei Ying, holding him back. Kissing him. Kissing Wei Ying. Okay.

(Jiang Cheng shrieks and covers his eyes and is summarily ignored)

In this young, strong body with its strong golden core, he doesn't have to come up for air for a long time. 

Long enough, even, that by the time he does, he has regained the ability to string together a single entire sentence. 

"Lan Zhan, what are you doing here?"

His voice. His voice his voice his voice. His arms. Wangji wonders if this is what fainting feels like.

"For you," he manages to say, which makes no sense. "I came for Wei Ying. Won't let you die.

-- Did. Did you kiss me?" 

"Yes! I'm not going to die, Lan Zhan, I've got the situation completely under control, I promise." 

And then, to illustrate at least one of these points, he kisses him again. He wasted way too much time not kissing Lan Zhan last time and he does not plan to make that mistake again. 

He swoons. The swooning is not visibly or tangibly observable in any way, but it's definitely happening.

He should probably stab himself in the leg again, what is happening.

"Promise to let me help you."

"Lan Zhan, if anyone finds out you were here, the Wens will have no choice but to declare war on the Lans. I can do this without anyone finding out it was me. That's why I left everything behind at Lotus Pier, if I did this using Suibian somebody might recognize it." 

"What is this for? Your goal, Wei Ying?" 

"I know this sounds insane, but a week ago I woke up in my bed at Lotus Pier after falling asleep eight years in the future. The future was horrible and I have to stop it."

what

"The Wens attacked everyone--they burned the Cloud Recesses, Lan Zhan--and we stopped them but so many other terrible things happened afterwards, but if I kill Wen Chao and Wen Ruohan and Wen Xu then maybe none of that happens and everyone gets to be okay." His arms tighten around Lan Zhan. "I'm not making this up and I'm not crazy, Lan Zhan, I swear, I can tell you things you never told me at this point in the timeline--"

"You died. After we stopped them you died."

"--What, no, you died." 

"No. I wasn't there. They took me away before they came for you, it was four years ago."

"Four years ago you were cut down five feet away from the tree where A-Yuan was hiding." 

"-did he live? You survived? Did Jiang Wanyin not go after you?"

("Did I not what?")

"I was going to destroy the Yin Tiger Seal, but--you died, and I--it didn't matter anymore, it didn't matter what using it did to me, A-Yuan had to live, Granny and Uncle Four and Uncle Six and all the rest had to live or you would have died for nothing and that, it didn't matter what happened to me, I lost Shijie and Wen Qing and Wen Ning and I lost you, it didn't matter anymore what happened to me but they had to live." 

He will formulate thoughts about this but first he has to kiss him again.

Wei Ying kisses back like he's afraid Lan Zhan will vanish if he doesn't find some way to physically meld the two of them together. 

Kiss. Cling.

Eventually they take another break from kissing but he will not stop clinging. "You were hurt after the battle at Nightless City. I tried to hide you. - Failed. You died fighting back after destroying the amulet, spiritual backlash." Kiss. "I found A-Yuan, after. Nothing left but him."

"You brought me back to the Burial Mounds, after Nightless City. They were afraid to enter. Until they had enough numbers." Why would he stop clinging, that sounds like a terrible idea. "I was a wreck, I had no idea what was going on, I fought you and told you to fuck off, but you still dragged me home." A sound that's half-chuckle and half-sob bubbles out of his throat. "You put up with so much from me, Lan Zhan. All the way to the end." 

Cling. Is it possible to cling any more than this, time to find out.

"You - you. You. But you wanted me?"

"Of course I did, Lan Zhan, who could not want you?"

He probably needs to stab himself in both legs, actually.

"You told me to go away," he says hoarsely. "I didn't. But they found us. I had to leave. I never - I wanted to stay."

"I know. I--wish I could regret that, sometimes. I probably would regret it if you had died for me. But it was A-Yuan. I can't--I've wished I had died instead every day since then but I could never wish it had been A-Yuan." 

"I love you."

"I love you too, so much. I missed you so much." 

This is very much not the reaction Wei Ying had the last time Wangji said that. He's crying again. That's fine, the crying doesn't count if you're also kissing.

Kiss. "You went missing. Thought I was too late to save you, made things worse."

"If I'd known I would have come and told you first. I'm--I thought you wouldn't even know until I was back, until it was all taken care of, until you were safe." 

"Your family wrote to Jiang Cheng. He was loud." Squeeze. "Not safe unless you're safe."

"Ah, Lan Zhan, you have to warn me before saying things like that! I can't believe I forgot how you say things like that, my heart can't take it." 

Sure, he can do that.

”I am going to say something like that,” he says seriously. “I cannot ever let go of you. It will hurt. I want to hold you forever.”

Wei Ying squeaks, and then lunges forwards to kiss him devouringly.

Oh.

It turns out being devoured by Wei Ying is very good. Wei Ying is very good. Wei Ying should do more assertive good things such as, perhaps, shoving him to the ground.

They probably should not have sex in a pile of burning Wen corpses, but also, in another sense, Shouldn’t They Though.

Wangji does not know how to communicate this but he’ll try squeezing Wei Ying’s waist harder and then grabbing his ass, in the hope that this inspires him. 

Look, there are only so many times in your life you are offered the opportunity to deflower your true love in the blood of your worst enemies, and maybe when you are offered opportunities like these you should take them. 

Wei Ying is inspired to moan whimperingly and shiver and fumble for the ties of their robes. 

Oh, a moaning Wei Ying! That is almost as good as a devouring-kisses Wei Ying! Or maybe it's better? It is so hard to tell, Wei Ying is so good. 

Robe ties: begone. Part of him wants to make sure that Jiang Wanyin has fucked off by now, but nothing could be more of a mood killer than seeing Jiang Wanyin's face and/or acknowledging his existence and so Wangji will not.

Wangji's robes have five layers; Wei Ying's skin becomes visible first. Seeing Wei Ying's chest and being allowed to touch it is very overwhelming, he is overwhelmed. He tries to figure out what to do with it and cannot, so he'll just. Bite Wei Ying's neck instead.

"Anh, Lan-er-gege," he groans into Lan Zhan's ear, "want you so much, love you so much." He nuzzles the ear in question and then nips it. 

("WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU," Jiang Cheng yells at them from outside the burning building, thank you very much, and then, when this has no effect, stalks off to put out the fucking fire.)

Ear nipping results in a noise that Wangji has never imagined he could make before.

Wei Ying wants him (!!!!!) and called him Lan-er gege (!!!!) and NIPPED HIS EAR and it's very frustrating that they are not on the ground already, why aren't they on the ground yet. How does he get them on the ground without moving his ear away from Wei Ying's mouth this is such a dilemma.

Eventually he settles for kicking out Wei Ying's ankle like they were sparring and slamming them both to the ground. He twists mid-fall so that this does not hurt Wei Ying.

"That is so fucking hot, why are you wearing so many layers, ugh," Wei Ying says in between nibbles of Lan Zhan's flushed earlobe. He grinds down against him and moans and bites. 

Well Wangji was going to help get rid of the layers but now he cannot, he is busy moaning and clutching at Wei Ying's shoulders.

Wei Ying manages to get the rest of Lan Zhan's robes open on his own, which is good, because the next thing he does is stick his hand down Lan Zhan's pants and there's no way that's going to render him more functional. 

He is abruptly much less functional! Current Lan Zhan functions include gasping and clinging and writhing slightly.

"Wei Ying-"

"Lan Zhan, my Lan Zhan, going to make you feel so good~" Kisses now. 

His Lan Zhan!!!!!!! Kisses.

He will try biting occasionally during the kisses since biting turns out to be one of the Best Things. Also various parts of Wei Ying can be grabbed, tightly, wherever he can reach. Wei Ying is real and alive and he's never letting go and ahhhh

Wei Ying manages to shove their trousers down and then he has the both of them in one hand while the other comes up to toy with Lan Zhan's nipple while he moans and breathes Lan Zhan's name and affectionate variations thereof into his mouth. 

Lan Zhan is completely out of words and yet this is still probably the most noise he's ever produced in his life. Clingclingclingcling.

He keeps opening his mouth and trying to find the words (words like mine and yours and stay and I'll die before I ever lose you again and please) but his mind is blank. His mouth open-shuts, again and again, and there's moaning and gasping and Wei Ying and nothing else.

He wraps one of his legs around Wei Ying and clings that way too.

Wei Ying--

moans, and shudders, and gasps-- 

and lets go with the hand not on Lan Zhan's chest--

and reaches behind himself--

and says, "Lan-er-gege, want you inside me." 

-- words, he needs words again -- lots of gasping before he gets there --

"Will it hurt you?"

He traces a bite mark with the other hand. "Maybe a little. Not in a bad way." 

He can reposition with this new goal in mind, panting slightly. "Tell me how to - how you want."

"Ah, gege, you're too good to me, and you call me shameless." He kisses him, soft and sweet but no less deep for it, and slips his fingers out and grabs him and lines them up and 

sinks down 

s l o w l y

"Wei Ying -- ohh -- mm, mm." Lan Zhan moans, and his head rocks back to hit the ground. His hands find Wei Ying's waist, somehow. He digs his nails in without thinking.

"Lan Zhan, yes," Wei Ying breathes, back arching, and grips the other's hips with his thighs and flips them over. 

Oh.

Oh, this is. A good position.

He will hold Wei Ying down against the ground very firmly (safe, right here, not going anywhere) and begin to move. "Hurts?"

"Never in a bad way," he says breathlessly, half-laughing. "Lan Zhan, ah, you feel so good, love you so much." 

"Love you." He will move more, then, very gradually increasing his speed.

Wei Ying is alive. Wei Ying wants him. Wei Ying is alive. Lan Zhan bites his neck again and again and tries not to come immediately.

That is a more difficult task than he wants it to be. "Wei Ying, ahh, I might -- I -- already --"

"Ahh--go ahead, er-gege, I want to feel you--I know you can go again--" 

How very unhelpful --

He comes back to himself after an indeterminate amount of time. Some more time after that, he can indeed begin to go again. "Love you. Love you. Perfect, never letting go - mine -"

"Love you, yours, all yours, it could never be anyone else, love you so much." 

His.

They can do this as long as Wei Ying wants, however Wei Ying wants. As far as Lan Zhan is concerned, he never needs to do anything other than this ever again. Also it looks like the building around them has conveniently stopped being on fire all by itself, so they have plenty of time.

They have four years at least of lost time to make up for. He wants a lot. 

Eventually, though, much later, he collapses breathlessly against Lan Zhan and stretches and sighs and just snuggles up without immediately initiating anything again. 

"It's fun being the one who knows what he's doing," he giggles. 

He will initiate more clinging. So many snuggles.

"...we did this before? You?"

"What, you thought I'd been with someone else and you didn't growl in jealous rage?"

Well, no, he absolutely would have growled in jealous rage, it's just that Wangji had already resigned himself to a life of jealous rage. "But... when?"

"...Did A-Yuan not convince you to stay with us, after your 'just passing through' visit to Yiling?"

"No."

"Oh. Well, mine did. And the months between that and when everything went to hell were the happiest of that life." 

"Missed you so much."

Cling. He bundles him up and clings as tightly as possible. He's trembling, slightly.

With the famous Lan arm strength that is very tightly indeed. It hurts a little, not that Wei Ying is complaining; if he did that, Lan Zhan might hold him less tightly, and that would be awful. 

He softly begins to hum Wangxian. 

He clings and cries silently into Wei Ying's hair.

He reaches up to pet Lan Zhan's hair, disregarding how absolutely horrid it's become after several hours of rolling around on a floor covered in blood. "The other me was a fool, never saying anything and dying a virgin." 

"I never..." He kisses Wei Ying's forehead. "I thought you hated me. At the end. You became angry when I tried to tell you."

"When was this?"

"After Nightless City. When I hid you."

"Lan Zhan...I don't remember very much from back then, but everyone says I was in a really bad place. Shijie had just died. I don't think I wanted to hear anything from anybody."

"Mm."

"There was no other time."

"Fuck, I'm so sorry for doing that to you, Lan Zhan," he murmurs, burying his face against the other's neck. "--We have time now. We have all the time in the world now." 

"If you live. You must live."

"I'm not gonna die this time, Lan Zhan! Nobody's going to find out it was me who did all this, and with Wen Ruohan and his sons and anybody else who needs to die out of the way there won't have to be a Sunshot Campaign, and then I won't have to provoke the Jins to get Wen Ning and Wen Qing and A-Yuan and everyone else out of a horrible labor camp, and there'll be no reason for either of us to die." Cling. Nuzzle. "You aren't allowed to die either." 

"Jiang Wanyin knows."

"Huh? Jiang Cheng? Did he come back too?"

"Came here. He saw you holding a severed head. Knows you did this."

"Okay, well, he was fine with what I did during the Sunshot Campaign, it wasn't until after the war that things started to get--tense--between us. I'm sure if we tell him I did it to avert a future where Shijie dies it'll be fine." 

"Mn."

"Even afterwards things were okay between us until the ambush at Qiongqi path. He helped Shijie sneak out to visit before her wedding so I could congratulate her, since I couldn't go, and again when she was pregnant with Jin Ling and she asked me to give him his courtesy name." 

"You chose Jin Ling's courtesy name?"

"Yeah! Shijie said in the Jin clan it's tradition for one of the parents' siblings to choose the courtesy name and she and the peacock picked me because I couldn't be around much." 

Kiss?

Kiss~<3<3<3

Eventually Wangji notices that the sun is starting to set.

"How many of these will you destroy?" he says, ticking his head fractionally towards the ruined guardhouse around them.

"Um...until I find Wen Xu, I guess? I wasn't destroying them just to destroy them, I was looking for people who had to die, and I wanted to start with Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu if possible because Wen Zhuliu is a serious threat, and it doesn't really matter whether I kill Wen Xu or Wen Ruohan first, but Wen Ruohan will have more guards and stuff." 

"I want Wen Xu."

"Lan Zhan, if you get seen killing the Wen heir, I can't leave any witnesses," Wei Ying warns. "I'm not letting this turn into another full-out war if I can stop it, and it will, if Lan-er-gongzi is known to have killed Wen Xu."

"Mn."

He cares less about who kills Wen Xu than he cares about Wei Ying going after fewer highly dangerous people, but this is unfortunately a fair point. "I want to help you."

"Okay. We'll find a way to make that work that doesn't have you storming any Wen strongholds openly or anything." Snuggle. "If I don't go in in person again--I probably shouldn't have here, but I really needed to see in person that Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu were dead--then we can both just. Not risk being seen, everyone can think it was some kind of weird curse or something, and if someone finds us anyway I'll have you by my side. ...And maybe you can carry me, it's faster to go by sword than on foot, if I just gather new corpses each place." 

Nuzzle. "I will carry Wei Ying."

Wei Ying makes a happy sound halfway between a sigh and a purr and nuzzles back. Even with both of them sticky beyond measure with blood that isn't theirs and other fluids that are, lying on the hard (and also sticky) floor of a building that was recently on fire and smells like it, he hasn't felt this good in years. Four years, to be specific. 

"You make me so happy, Lan Zhan." 

"Good. I will stay." He nips Wei Ying's neck a few times, and then sighs internally. "We should make camp before dark. You may check that your brother is alive, if you wish."

"I should do that. ...We should...probably clean up first," he observes, taking in the fact their lack of clothes and flaking layers of miscellaneous fluids. "Ah, I didn't even think about your pretty white robes before getting blood all over you." 

"How will I ever afford it."

He bursts out laughing and kisses him on the cheek. "Excellent point, Lan Zhan. Good thing I was wearing black, though, I didn't exactly pack a spare outfit." 

"I will buy as many outfits as you like."

"I love you. Good thing Jiang Cheng's along for us to make do the shopping, I don't think showing up in town like this would be a good idea." He reluctantly untangles himself enough from Lan Zhan to grab his clothes. 

He reassembles his own robes, to the extent that this is possible. Wangji doesn't think he's ever been this disheveled in his life, and he has both fought a war and been whipped nearly to death.

It's kind of nice. Nicer than he expected. The dishevelment is Wei Ying's, caused all by him, even the blood. He feels like he is Wei Ying's. Wei Ying's Lan Zhan. "How have you been traveling?"

"On foot. Carried by fierce corpses when I got tired." 

It would be objectively absurd to feel jealous of a fierce corpse, so he will not. Not even a little bit. He finishes getting dressed and then takes Wei Ying's hand. "I will do a better job of carrying you."

He wraps his arms around Lan Zhan's waist and nuzzles his shoulder. "Of course you will." 

They leave the ruined building. Is Jiang Wanyin still hanging around anywhere?

Jiang Wanyin has set up camp already. He looks over at the two of them when they emerge, scowls, and jerks his head. "There's a stream over that way. Please don't add sleeping in that gunk to your list of crazy." 

"Ah, Jiang Cheng, I missed you too!" 

"Not enough to notice my existence instead of fucking Lan Wangji. You could have told me you were a cutsleeve, you know." 

"I didn't knooooow at this point in the timeline!" 

"Whatever. Fucking bathe before the wind shifts and I have to smell that." 

Fucking Lan Wangji is definitely a better use of Wei Ying's time than noticing Jiang Wanyin. Granted, most things are a better use of time than noticing Jiang Wanyin, but fucking Lan Wangji is an especially good alternative.

They can go to the stream over there and undress and wade into the water to clean themselves and wash their ruined clothes.

They sure are both naked again, aren't they.

They sure are!!! Wei Ying is extremely enthusiastic about this fact. Oh look there's the tackling Lan Zhan down that he was looking for earlier. 

OH!! ! !  !!  

Ohhh

This is probably not very sanitary, and - frivolous bathing activities that distract from hygiene are against the rules, and - there's a theoretical drowning hazard - but absolutely none of those things make him not want to get fucked into a riverbank by Wei Ying, so -

Moaning and clinging and splashing, a little. Please.

Frivolous bathing activities are against the rules, huh? Good thing they're not at Cloud Recesses. 

Wei Ying grew up at Lotus Pier. One little stream is not going to drown him. Even if he ducks under the water to get his mouth on something there. Even if that something is really impressively big. 

Okay well Wei Ying better be concentrating a lot on not drowning because Wangji has absolutely no capacity to notice if either of them is drowning -

- also he is intermittently flailing so hopefully Wei Ying is prepared to deal with that -

He comes embarrassingly fast again, but that is okay because that means it takes less time before he can pounce on Wei Ying instead and gnaw on his neck. Wangji is still too wrecked from earlier to go another round right away, but he has two hands and some opportune places for those hands to go. "Love you. Mine."

"Ah, Lan Zhan, so forceful!" Wei Ying cries, any hint of scold in the words washed away by the sheer delight in his tone. "Ah, you just can't resist letting the whole world know who I belong to." 

He bites harder.

"Quiet," he murmurs against Wei Ying's neck, licking over the mark he just left. "My Wei Ying."

"Ahh, hah, make me." 

Well he was going to continue using this hand to pleasure Wei Ying, but fine. He covers Wei Ying's mouth and bites his ear and works harder with the remaining hand to compensate. "Shameless."

Wei Ying makes a low whimpering moan through the hand on his mouth that might be agreement or just pleasure, who knows. 

Good.

What Wangji lacks in experience in this timeline, he will make up for with Determination.

Wei Ying is also in a sixteen-year-old body that was virginal until earlier today, he's really not going to last a lot longer than Lan Zhan did. 

It's not justified to feel smug about this, what with them both being sixteen-year-old virgins, but Wangji does a little anyway.

He will hold on to his Wei Ying and clean him in the river like a responsible Wei Ying owner.

Wei Ying goes bonelessly limp and cooperative and nuzzles whatever part of Lan Zhan happens to be in reach at any given moment. 

What a good Wei Ying. Wei Ying will be nuzzled back.

Eventually they are both clean, and their clothes are... as clean as they can be, which is not very clean. One of Wangji's hanfu layers floated away downstream while they were fucking but he doesn't particularly care; it was ruined anyway.

No one is ever going to believe any of these layers were originally white, but they're no longer caked enough to be stiff, so, you know, that's an improvement. 

"Lan Zhan, carry me," Wei Ying pouts. "You fucked me too good, I don't think I can walk."

"Ridiculous." He scoops him up and carries him. It is ridiculous, but Wangji has no regrets.

"Mmmmmmmmmmm<3" Wei Wuxian responds, smug and satisfied, resting his head on Lan Zhan's shoulder and fingering the purpling crescent bruises on his neck. 

Happy, barely-perceptible shivering.

"Where do you want to live, once we fix the war?"

"--I hadn't even thought of that," he admits. "I don't know. Lan Qiren would probably have a qi deviation if you tried to bring me back to the Cloud Recesses. I don't know that you'd get along much better with Madam Yu, though." 

"I never knew much about her."

It is difficult for him to picture his uncle's response, in this timeline. This Uncle doesn't yet know that Wangji is a disappointment. If all goes well, he may never find out.

"Her marriage to Uncle Jiang was never that great and...things go better for everyone when no three of her, me, Jiang Cheng and Uncle Jiang are in a room together." 

"Mm." He has no objections to avoiding rooms that contain Jiang Cheng.

"In Gusu, you can have Emperor's Smile."

<3<3<3 There's really no appropriate response to that comment except kisses. 

Oh good.

Kiss kiss.

Had Jiang Wanyin made a fire, yet. Or has he vanished completely? Either of those outcomes are acceptable.

Jiang Wanyin has made a fire, and also, when he sees them, a pained noise before slapping his hand over his eyes. 

"Didn't you used to yell at Wei Wuxian for this kind of thing? Have you really changed that much?" 

"I'm just saying, would you be doing that kind of thing in front of Lan Xichen?"

"Do not talk to me about my family. Do not talk to anyone about how to treat their brother."

"Look, I don't--I don't know what happened in that fucked-up future where apparently something happened to jiejie and Wei Wuxian lost his golden core, but I haven't done anything wrong!" 

Wei Wuxian yelps and starts. "What? You know about that? How do you know about that?" 

"He told me while we were looking for you." 

"How did you know about that?" he demands of Lan Zhan. 

It is hard to redirect his attention towards answering Wei Ying's question because he is so fucking mad at Jiang Wanyin.

"You never told me. I never -

Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu hurt you, and you never touched your sword again. Should have realized."

"...I'm sorry, Lan Zhan. It was--complicated--I didn't want anyone to know." 

"I did not understand. I was unfair to you."

"I didn't want you to understand. I was--afraid--of what would happen, if anyone found out." 

"Afraid of what would happen."

"Can we talk about this somewhere else?" he asks quietly, darting a glance at Jiang Cheng. 

He looks at Jiang Wanyin. "Leave."

He does not look remotely happy about it even by Jiang Cheng standards but he throws up his arms and leaves. 

When he's well out of earshot: "Do you remember that paper Wen Qing did, before the war, it might even exist already I'm not sure, about the theoretical possibility of golden core transfer?" 

"When the Wens attacked Lotus Pier, Wen Qing helped us get out. And she--I begged her to. Jiang Cheng didn't know. I told him that I knew where Baoshan Sanren's mountain was and that if he went up blindfolded and said he was me, that he was Cangse Sanren's son, that she could restore his golden core. I couldn't let him find out. You can be angry with me for this but he didn't have any idea." 

"Wei Ying."

He is angry, he's angry at Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing and most of all himself for not realizing -

And Wei Ying had been all alone, the world hating him for making a sacrifice that no one else would be strong enough to make. Lan Wangji had been angry with him. Confused, and scared, but angry. And Wei Ying hadn't told him. Hadn't trusted him, maybe, but had Lan Wangji ever shown himself to be worthy of Wei Ying's trust?

He is so angry that he cannot breathe. He is horrified.

"Did it hurt?"

He bites his lip and looks away. 

"It was years ago, Lan Zhan. And now we're in the past and I even have my golden core back, so it's not that big a deal." 

"It'll be different this time, this can't go wrong the same way, Wen Zhuliu is already dead." 

That's both true and objectively great news, but it doesn't make Wangji feel any better right now. He clings to his Wei Ying and cries quietly into his neck.

"I love you, Lan Zhan. I--nothing like this is ever going to happen again but if it did I'd tell you this time, I promise," Wei Ying says quietly, hugging back as hard as he can. 

"Mn."

C l i n g

"I love you. I love you so much. I'm not going anywhere, Lan Zhan, I'm okay, I'm right here." 

He on no level deserves Lan Zhan, does he ever do anything but hurt him??? But Lan Zhan is definitely not going to let go no matter what he says so it doesn't really matter if he deserves him or not. 

That is correct, and it's good that Wei Ying knows it. "I love you. I will do better."

"I love you. I--I can't promise I won't ever use demonic cultivation again, after this is over, but--I'm not planning to, I'm going to pick Suibian back up again, and--I won't lose control again, I won't do this long enough, it won't have a chance to happen." 

Squeeze. Wei Ying had said he wouldn't lose control last time, but Lan Wangji doesn't want to fight about it. And - he trusts him. This time will be better, he'll make sure that it is better.

"I love you. If you lost control a thousand times I would love you."

Last time he said that and then continued to use demonic cultivation indefinitely. This time he's saying he'll stop! It's super different. 

"I really don't deserve you. I don't know how I'm lucky enough that you don't care but I never want to take it for granted."

"I failed you."

"You never stopped trying to save me. It's not your fault I made myself impossible to save."

"In your timeline, I succeeded. But I left you. I killed you."

"You didn't succeed, Lan Zhan. The only reason I haven't killed myself at any point in the past four years is that A-Yuan needed me."

Sounds Like A Success To Him

"But he had you. You lived." Wangji loves A-Yuan with all his heart, but he's under no illusions about being a better parent than Wei Ying.

"We couldn't leave the Burial Mounds, Lan Zhan. Not ever. I destroyed the besiegers, they were too terrified of me to try again, but only as long as none of us ever poked our noses out. A-Yuan deserved better than that." 

"He deserved a parent who could play with him." Who could talk and love easily, who could show him to laugh freely, who could go outside with him...

"I keep trying not to think about it. The fact that in this timeline A-Yuan's birth parents would still be alive. That making everything right means he'll never be ours."

He knows.

"It feels evil to think that - maybe... I am ashamed."

"That you want to just go and take him? I want that too, Lan Zhan. So much. I wouldn't. I won't. But I want." 

He has run out of tears for the evening, but his chest aches like a wound. 

"He loved the bunnies," Wangji whispers into Wei Ying's hair. "Remember the bunnies?"

Wei Ying hasn't run out of tears. They roll down his face as he nods. 

"We can--we can find him. We won't, won't be his parents this time, but--we can bring him bunnies. And destroy anyone who tries to hurt him."

Cling. Sad, desperate cling.

"I love you. I love you so much. We'll--neither of us will die and we'll be okay." 

He is definitely trying to convince himself as much as Lan Zhan. 

"I love you very much. I'll do anything."

It's ridiculously early by Wei Ying's standards but he's been pushing himself hard, the past week, and he's so tired and Lan Zhan is right there. 

He drifts off to sleep. 

He follows him to sleep, still clinging.

He dreams. 

It starts, as many of his nightmares start, with A-Yuan wreathed in resentful energy, his beautiful eyes glazed red.

"A-Yuan," Wangji gasps. "A-Yuan, what are you doing?"

A-Yuan startles, eyes widening. Before Wangji can say anything more, his son drops to his knees. "Father, I'm sorry!" A-Yuan cries. "Yuan will accept punishment."

Wangji stares. "A-Yuan - no, I would never - did I tell you to say that?"

They are outside, now, the Lan elders gathered around them. They have all seen. They all know A-Yuan to be a danger, they are murmuring about it.

The whip comes down once, twice. Wangji screams. He lurches forward, and Brother grabs him -- Wangji, be calm -- A-Yuan is bleeding --

"A-Yuan!" Wangji cries. "Stop kneeling there, run --"

"Father -" blood dripping from his cherubic little lips, down his baby chin, it will kill him - "What is black, what is white -"

"STOP --"

He lunges forward. His knees hit the bloody wood where A-Yuan had been. A-Yuan isn't there anymore, A-Yuan is up ahead - in the Burial Mounds, directly before them - and he is Wei Ying, they flicker in-and-out, and they are dying - the spiritual backlash will take them in seconds, Wangji knows, and he knows instinctively from dream after dream after dream how they will scream -

He tries to lurch after them, and the discipline whip strikes his back. He falls. He screams. He hates screaming, and it's wrong; he didn't cry out until the tenth strike - Wangji, you are such a disappointment - Wangji be calm, you mustn't try to move - and Wei Ying is gone and the pain drills down to his spine and never leaves and his love is dead and it hurts --

"Lan Zhan! Lan Zhan, wake up!" Wei Ying says desperately, shaking him. 

He gasps violently awake. For two seconds he lashes out, blind with pain and panic. Then Wangji goes very still. He has trained himself to go still; the wounds reopen if he flails too badly. He can already feel blood sticking down his back.

"Bandages," he mumbles, eyes shut, chest still heaving. He reaches out with one hand. "Please."

"You're not injured, Lan Zhan. You were having a nightmare." 

"Yes. I reopened the --"

His eyes snap open. "Wei Ying."

"I'm here, Lan Zhan."

Cli- no wait he needs to be still because his back is - no wait, he's in the past and his back his fine - CLING!!!

The most urgent clinging. He yanks Wei Ying very close and Squeezes and his arms tremble around him.

Wei Ying's upper arms are sort of trapped against his sides by the CLING but he's not going to ask Lan Zhan to let go or anything dumb like that, the amount of snuggle he can deliver with just his forearms is sorta limited but he's going to give it his best shot. 

"Reopened the what? What was the nightmare about?"

...shit.

"Mn."

"Lan Zhan, you made me tell you about my golden core, so now I'm going to make you tell me about this." 

That's actually a fair point and he hates it.

"I was injured. After we were separated before your death."

"How? Who did it?"

"I fought many people, while you were unwell. Many wanted to hurt you.

It was generous not to have me executed."

A mercy more to his uncle and brother than to him, but Wangji could not begrudge his family that after everything he had put them through.

Oh look, he can move his arms after all, if he needs to badly enough. 

"Lan Zhan, no," he breathes. He isn't sure what he means--no, that's not generosity, no, I'm not worth it, no, that can't happen to you--

"Lan Zhan. I know your clan is incredibly important to you. But if anyone ever tries to do that again, I'm going to break the whip and then them." 

"Uncle chose men who knew me. Respected me. Those were the elders he sent to retrieve me. Those were the men I hurt."

"I don't care. You're mine and I won't let anyone hurt you."

Oh.

Being Wei Ying's is a much more compelling argument than anything he was prepared to deal with. Time for snuggles.

"I regret that I could not be a better father to A-Yuan," he whispers. "Until last year, I could not leave my bed unassisted."

Wei Ying makes an angry hissing noise through his teeth. 

"I am not going to ask who delivered the blows. Because it hasn't happened and it isn't going to happen and you wouldn't want me to go after them for it. If I ask you anyway remind me that I said not to tell. Unless you do want me to go after them for it. It can be for unrelated reasons, I don't mind." 

Tight squeeze. "Thank you, for not hurting them." He kisses his cheek. "Love you."

"Aaah, Lan Zhan. I love you so much. When you're this soft with me I can't bear it, my heart doesn't have room for it all." Sigh. "You could probably stop me from breaking someone like that in half even if it happened right in front of me. Definitely breaking the whip, though. Not gonna let you get hurt." 

"And I will not break Jiang Cheng in half, for you." Kiss. "No one gets hurt."

Kiss. "You know what, that is fair." 

His hand creeps up Lan Zhan's back and starts to rub slow circles. 

That's really nice, actually. Wangji does not know very much about how relaxing works, but maybe leaning his head against Wei Ying's is an acceptable start?

"My Lan Zhan," Wei Ying whispers, pressing a tiny kiss to his lips. 

"My Wei Ying." Snuggle. "It is still early, if you need more sleep."

"Mhm," he murmurs, curling up against him and closing his eyes again. 

He cuddles him and hums softly and does not fall asleep again himself.

Jiang Cheng, still basically used to the Cloud Recesses sleep schedule, wakes up shortly after five the next morning and starts cleaning up the campsite. He says nothing to Lan Wangji and avoids even looking at him more than necessary. 

Good.

Wangji will gently nudge Wei Ying awake if he's still asleep once the campsite is clear.

Wei Ying stirs, pouting quietly about the hour and nuzzling at Lan Zhan's neck. 

Compelling. Wangji will stand up with Wei Ying scooped in his arms, then. "We should move. Tell me where to take you."

Y A W N 

"West. Unless you have a better idea than me of where Wen Xu is." 

He does not. They can fly west until they come across the next outpost. Is Jiang Wanyin coming?

Well if he does not then maybe next time they decide to have sex in a building that is on fire nobody will be around to put the fire out, so. 

Well, Wangji won't try to drive him off.

They can land a short distance away from the next guardhouse they find, unless Wei Ying prefers to land directly on it for some reason?

Nope. Just out of sight of the guardhouse is perfect, actually. 

Wei Wuxian plays his flute, mustering the resentful dead to destroy his enemies. But he does it balancing on Bichen, leaning on Lan Zhan and with the latter's arm around his waist.

He can't help but be very concerned and unhappy, watching Wei Ying do this, but it helps to have Wei Ying right there to squeeze for comfort, like a stress ball. 

The resentful dead claw through the walls. The guardhouse burns.

There is no Wen Xu. When this has been confirmed he sighs and stops playing and lowers the flute. The dead lose their focus. He wraps his arms around Lan Zhan's waist. 

"Next one," he says. 

"If you need rest, we will stop." He hass concerns about Wei Ying pushing himself too hard in general but not at this particular moment; for now they can fly on.

The next fortress is equally flammable. Any Wen Xus?

None yet. 

"Really, it's lucky I found Wen Chao so fast," he sighs. 

"He might be all the way in Nightless City."

"I would like to be able to take on Wen Xu and Wen Ruohan separately. I wasn't even the one who killed Wen Ruohan last time." 

“Mn. If they are in the same place, what will you do?”

"Draw one of them away if I can. If I can't--well, it depends on where they both are. If they're somewhere without a lot of innocents I have some ideas involving poison. If they're not...I don't know." He grimaces. "I won't--you'll be here to stop me if I try to do something overboard."

"I could help draw one out. It should be possible without appearing involved in their deaths."

"Or dying. You're not allowed to die any more than I am." 

"I have a good track record."

"Your track record in my timeline isn't any better than mine in yours." S Q U E E Z E

"I myself have not died even once." Squeezesqueeze. 

"Good. Do you want to find somewhere marginally more comfortable than a bloody stone floor to have reminding-each-other-we're-both-alive sex."

Nod. "Tell Jiang Cheng to leave us."

"You realize I'm right here and I can hear you, right?"