Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Lan Wangji sips the last of his tea and glares at the bottom of his travel cup. His emotional support beverage depleted, he allows himself to indulge in a brief fantasy of throwing his chair at Jin Guangshan's head. Brief, because he is fully aware that he isn't technically supposed to be at this meeting but was invited anyway because LanLingJin Sect and GusuLan Sect have been allied for over a millennium.

(He would say their families are friends, but that would imply some level of fondness or at the very least trust between them.)

The other deans and department heads are all sitting politely while Jin Guangshan slogs his way through his presentation on upcoming changes to faculty, changes to programs, planned construction, and other such collegiate doings. It rarely effects Lan Wangji's work. He's the head of collection management for the university's library, and while changes to programs and faculty do mean he may need to acquire materials, he typically already has what they want, or can acquire it with ease.

He is excellent at his job, not that anybody notices.

"One more thing on the docket for today. We're happy to announce that Wei Wuxian will be joining our faculty effective immediately. He has confirmed that he will begin working as a researcher for this current Summer semester and start teaching come Fall semester. Be sure to give him a good welcome. We're very grateful that he's selected JinLinTai University, and we want to do everything we can to convince him to stay."

Lan Wangji swallows down his immediate, creeping dread. "Excuse me? Wei Wuxian is teaching here?"

"Yes." Jin Guangshan speaks slowly, like Lan Wangji is an idiot. next to him, Jin Guangyao and Jin Zixuan, his secretary and vice president respectively, both briefly close their eyes, probably stifling twin sighs. "He will be the Dean and sole professor and researcher -for now- of the newly minted College of Talismanry and Array Studies. We are extremely fortunate to have him. We made the decision over a month ago."

"Why was I not informed then?" Lan Wangji asks, trying his best to remain cool and collected, despite rising irritation and panic.

"You're a librarian," Jin Guangshan says, smiling at him like he thinks Lan Wangji's distress is cute. "It's not really important to you. You're only here because you're technically a department head."

"Yes, I am a librarian. I am head of Collection Management. A collection which currently contains nothing but casual, light reading on talismanry and array arts because we have never considered it a valid school of study. We have no materials."

"So get them," Jin Guangshan shrugs.

"Our budget for this quarter and next are already finalized and approved by Fiscal. I should have been informed sooner."

Jin Guangshan smiles in a way that is truly, magnificently condescending. "Well, I'm sure Wei Wuxian will be happy to recommend materials outside of his own publications. He must have started somewhere. You might even enjoy it, Wangji. He is… quite the alpha presence."

Behind his father, Jin Zixuan drops his head down onto his desk, resurrected moments later by Jin Guangyao jabbing him with an elbow so sharp it could probably cut glass. Lan Wangji appreciates them both very much.

"When will he provide his list of reference materials needing acquisition?" Lan Wangji deliberately ignores the slight upon his secondary sex. One day, he might get through a meeting with Jin Guangshan without one, but today he gets another stopwatch screenshot from Jin Zixuan to add to his collection. He suspects the heir might have some kind of sick scrapbook dedicated to his father's bad behavior. Jin Guangyao probably has a spreadsheet.

"We'll be sure he drops by to visit when he starts on June first." Jin Guangshan turns off his presentation. "If there are no further hysterics-" What if Lan Wangji just bludgeons the President and Sect Leader with his laptop? "-we can be done for the day."

The benefit of always sitting at the back of the room is that he gets to leave first, but today Lan Wangji closes his laptop and packs up slowly enough that a few people leave before him, just so Jin Guangshan doesn't know exactly how close to hysterical he actually is.

Works on recently rediscovered cultivation arts don't exactly grow on trees.

"Wangji!" Jin Zixuan jogs over, laptop under his arm. "Wait up!"

Lan Wangji does not wait up, but he does slow down so the other omega can catch up to him.

"Dad's an ass."

"I am aware."

"I've met Wei Wuxian."

"And his 'alpha presence'?" Lan Wangji tries to walk just slightly faster to imply that his friend should come back later.

"Well, he is an alpha. But who cares about that, I have actual information about him."

Easy for Jin Zixuan to say. He's very attached to his mate, and as such, strange alphas are of no consequence to him. Still… he slows down to let Jin Zixuan catch up to him properly.

"He's close with A-Li and Wanyin," the other omega puffs. Lan Wangji turns left, toward the mall, taking the long way back to the library. "Wanyin calls him a friend, but constantly complains about him. A-Li adores him like a second little brother."

"What am I to glean from that, Zixuan?"

"From what I could gather listening to Wanyin rant about him, Wei Wuxian is an eccentric intellectual, but the friendly kind."

Lan Wangji understands the subtext immediately. Frenetic, easily distracted, and deeply frustrating, but well-intentioned and, potentially, very rewarding to work with if Lan Wangji can establish an academic rapport. One of the best things about working at a university outside of Gusu is that Lan Wangji has been able to indulge his own thirst for knowledge without oversight. Without his family constantly leaning over his shoulder, he can be a little more frivolous in his research topics and general existence.

Some people smoke, drink, eat, have sex, or shop for a rush of pleasure. Lan Wangji reads documents he has no imminent use for, composes music he has no intention of applying to cultivation, and lurks in the backs of auditoriums and lecture halls.

"I wouldn't worry too much about not having anything for him." Jin Zixuan squeezes his shoulder. "He's probably not expecting you to."

It isn't really about Wei Wuxian's expectations. It's more about Lan Wangji's reputation as an omega department head, and they both know it. Gender and sex equality have been long-established by the United Nations for about 150 years and by the International Alliance of Tribes and Indigenous Nations for about 300, but academia and the ancient Sects like the Jins and even his own Lans are usually about a century or so behind the social norms. Lan Wangji would not have his current position without his parents' influence and generous donations, and is often treated by administration as a delicate little flower in need of coddling rather than a grown fucking man with two Ph.D.s and a golden core powerful enough to short out all of Shanghai.

"I need to speak to Qin Su and Luo Qingyang," Lan Wangji says by way of dismissal. "We will see what we can do prior to Wei Wuxian's arrival and pull together an estimate for Fiscal."

"Alright, I'll leave you alone." Jin Zixuan falls back. "But just… People don't suck as much as you think they do. Try to keep that in mind."

Lan Wangji says nothing. Instead, he walks at a carefully paced stroll back to his office on the top floor of the library, sits at his desk, and puts his head in his hands. How exhausting.

He loves his job. Really he does. He has friends here, if only a few. His family is close, but not breathing on him. His apartment is nice, and again, out from under the direct eye of his family. He has intimacy, closeness, privacy, and purpose, all exactly where and how he wants them.

(If there are a few quiet whispers of grief or sore spots of rejection underneath all of that, it's his prerogative to ignore or prod at them in the dead of night when he's supposed to be sleeping.)

He only just manages to recover his composure before his assistants let themselves in. Luo Qingyang sets a tea tray on his desk, pouring out a steaming cup of sencha for them both. Qin Su types away on her tablet, slurping at a cup of strong black coffee.

"A-Yao says he can't kill Dad, but he'll imagine it very hard."

Jin Guangyao is a scheming little creep. Lan Wangji has zero doubts that the beta man fantasizes vividly about his father's death every second of every day. It humanizes him, if Lan Wangji is being entirely honest.

"Him and a million other people, and perhaps a few entire countries." Luo Qingyang helps herself to some tea from the pot, sitting in one of the chairs across from his desk, one leg crossed over the other. "We'll outlive that creep if it kills us."

"It just might," Qin Su mutters, scowling into her coffee.

Lan Wangji huffs out a laugh. These two women are, in essence, his closest friends. Well, them and maybe Jin Zixuan. And Xichen, obviously. There is a hierarchy, and his brother is at the top, but his brother has his own work drama to deal with, training to take over leadership of their sect when their father retires, hopefully in about 100 years. Jin Zixuan is a bit of an idiot, but a well-meaning one. He's just extremely socially awkward. Lan Wangji likes to stand a few feet away from him against the same wall at social gatherings.

If he didn't have his girls to help him, Lan Wangji would be entirely lost. He argued for the ability to hire his own assistants, and was granted final choice after the Jins had narrowed down the candidate pool… to entirely Jin family members and associates. Lan Wangji chose Luo Qingyang because Jin Zixuan recommended her, and he chose Qin Su because she seemed the most eager. Both women are extremely well-qualified, and even better, work well together.

"A-Yao forwarded Wei Wuxian's work email address," Qin Su informs him. "He apologizes for failing to inform you."

Lan Wangji doubts his sincerity entirely. He does not doubt that if Jin Guangyao was responsible for his not being informed, there was some very important reason that Lan Wangji will likely never know. This is best, because homicide is frowned upon.

"I have sent Wei Wuxian an email, CC'ing both of you, requesting that he schedule a meeting with us as soon as possible regarding library acquisitions. I did not give him any details. He has yet to respond."

"Amazing." Lan Wangji sips his tea.

"In a rare case of good news," Luo Qingyang offers, "our grant proposal for starting a pleasure and casual reading collection was accepted. I forwarded the documents to you for eSignature, and prepared a response. I've also rough-drafted articles for the library website and posts for the university social media."

"That is good news." Lan Wangji shifts the tea set aside, balances his pince nez glasses on his nose, and connects his laptop to the docking station on his desk. Logging in, he opens his email to see the appropriate new messages. "Can you please also update our collection development webpage and our policy handbook? I want to ensure those remain up-to-date regarding our progress on our goals. Update quarterly and annually in detail, and 5-year if you can."

"Oh, I can do that!" Qin Su says.

"No, I need you to help me find and pull copies of Wei Wuxian's published research and go through his references. We can see which of them might be available through databases and digital collections we already have access to and make a list of those we don't have and how much they will cost. That way, we won't be entirely empty-handed for the world's foremost and revolutionary researcher of this dynasty."

"Sure," Qin Su mutters. "Only mostly empty-handed for the world's most foremost and revolutionary researcher and, some might argue, amateur archaeologist, of this dynasty."

"He's also hot," Qingyang supplies. "We can't forget hot."

She passes her phone to Lan Wangji so he can see for himself. This is unnecessary, but only because he's already been subjected to forced oggling by his mother. He decides it's in his best interest to pretend he's successfully stuck himself under the rock he calls his home.

Wei Wuxian is hot. His Wikipedia photo shows a brown-skinned man in bright red and light-swallowing black modern hanfu. His wild, wavy black hair, high cheekbones, dark eyes, and sharp-toothed smile make him seem otherworldly, like a hulijing or a fairy.

He's actually more handsome than Lan Wangji remembers, and he hums in appreciation for the sake of his friends.

"Right?!" The girls chirp in unison.

Sometimes, Lan Wangji forgets exactly how much he prefers men, and male alphas specifically. And sometimes, the world's most foremost and revolutionary researcher and amateur archaeologist of this dynasty is perhaps the most beautiful alpha man ever born.

"Some people really do have everything," Qin Su sighs, gazing at the same photo in a slightly higher resolution on her tablet.

"He does now." Luo Qingyang takes her phone back before Lan Wangji can stare a hole through it. "He was not born into wealth."

"Oh yeah. I forgot about that part."

Lan Wangji did not. His family is old money, emphasis on Old and Money alike. In his experience, new money people tend to be… challenging. They think they have the clout to enter Clan social circles, not understanding that it's not just money that ties them all together, but also ancient bonds that will always take precedence. Then, new money people tend to get bent out of shape that they're not automatically included in those bonds.

Lan Wangji remembers being twelve years old, still years away from his first hear, standing with his grandmother during an intermission at an opera, when a new money alpha came up to them and asked how much the Lans were asking for their second young master when he came of age. Not for himself, fortunately for the alpha, but for his similarly-aged daughter. Still, Lan Wangji will never forget Lan Yi's gelid tone as she told him, in very politick terms, to never speak to her or come near her young grandson ever again.

The new money alpha had been defensive, and the Lans later caught wind that he had tried to badmouth them to members of other Clans. He had assumed that because he had become wealthy, he could simply purchase the deed to a young omega of an ancient and esteemed cultivation clan, not at all understanding how little his wealth meant to a family like the Lans, that marriage arrangements and marriage purchases are two very different things, or that perhaps the intermission of an opera is not an appropriate place to try and "put down an offer" for an omega child.

It was also the first time that Lan Wangji fully understood that he is not only a beloved child of his parents, a precious and rare omega son, but also, to some, an asset. It only took one man to teach him forever that the powerful are the ones who are least likely to see him as a person. That sort of thing tends to be formative.

It also tends to add a rather chilly layer of nuance to his relationships with his own family.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Qin Su says, waving a hand. "If not, we'll just tell A-Yao about it, and he'll end up face down in a river somewhere."

"That won't be necessary. Hopefully." Luo Qingyang sighs. "Ideally, the world's hottest, most foremost and revolutionary researcher who is also an amateur archaeologist and newly filthy rich will be very nice and understanding about having three months to put his entire curriculum together, get his lab in order, and acquire materials under the bureaucratic oversight of the academic hegemony of JinLinTai U."

"Ever the optimist," Qin Su laughs. "God, that skinny little waist though."

"I want to feed him hotpot and nibble his ear," Luo Qingyang cackles.

Lan Wangji huffs a laugh of his own, shaking his head at his friends. They're ridiculous.

Wei Wuxian inspects himself in the mirror one more time, twitching the red ribbon tied around his high ponytail. He actually bothered to use conditioner and diffuse dry, so his loose waves and curls don't look like they've been caught in avery localized windstorm. Yet.

In all honesty, he looks pretty good. He takes a deep breath. Xiuming watches him from the bathroom doorway, leaning all rakish in her new academy uniform.

"Are you done preening yet?"

"Wait your turn." He tweezes one last eyebrow hair and admits there's nothing else he can do to make himself look good before he starts doing damage. "Well, that's that."

"Given up?" Xiuming elbows him out of the way, reaching for her makeup kit under their shared sink.

"Oh, hush!" Wei Ying flings a box of dental floss at her. "Shit! Contacts!"

"HA! And you already did your makeup, loser."

Wei Ying ruffles his sister's hair, ignoring her cry of horror, as he leans around her to grab his contacts out of the medicine cabinet. How is it that this bathroom is twice as big as their old one, but still too small for the both of them? He should have just gotten them a place with three bathrooms.

"It's so unfair. Mama and Baba are off drinking butter tea and frolicking in mountain streams and I have to go to summer school," Xuiming gripes, rummaging through the bottom drawer for her eyeliner.

"Butter tea gives you the farts."

"It gives you the farts too."

"You're a fart."

"No, you're a - You're one of the most important cultivators of your generation, and you're calling your little sister a fart. You're embarrassing, that's what you are."

"And you," Wei Wuxian kisses his sister's cheek right after she puts her blush on, "are a stinky little fart who's going to be late for school if she doesn't hurry up."

"I can't believe people respect you!" she shrieks after him, throwing a lip gloss at his head. He picks it up and pockets it to use later.

Eventually, they both make it out the door. Wei Wuxian resolutely does not show how unsure he is about his driving abilities, and he only gets one scoop of chili crisp on his noodles because he promised their father he'd look after his health. He and his sister eat on the street in front of the noodle shop like they always did back home, sharing a piece of youtiao and a cup of soy milk while guarding their respective noodles from each other's reaching chopsticks.

They both pretend not to notice the stares of casual passersby at the sight of a man in a casual shirt and jeans eating breakfast with a girl in a uniform from one of the most expensive academies in China.

"Good luck today." Xiuming fills her travel cup with complementary green tea from a dispenser station, screws the lid on, and leads the way back to the car.

"Thanks." Wei Ying sips his own black tea, wincing when he burns his tongue because he might be a genius, but he's also an idiot. "I might need it."

"Just don't tell them about the time you tried to make cookies in a frying pan. You'll do fine."

"You just can't let that go, can you?" Wei Wuxian starts the car and peels back out into traffic, heading toward the academy.

"Nope!"

Wei Wuxian pulls up outside LanLing Cultivation Academy. It's summer, but because of her previous education at a public cultivation school, Xiuming was only accepted to the academy with the understanding that she would take summer remedials to help her catch up. She isn't the only student, fortunately. There are others there for remedials, and a good number of students taking electives or study courses for cultivation exams or the Gaokao. Or both.

Jin Guangshan hinted that he would make very sure Xiuming passed both, but Wei Wuxian expects her to do well under her own merit. They both inherited their parents' intelligence. They're both going to use it.

"Learn something cool."

"Fat chance."

"Aw, come on! There's some chance."

"We'll see." Xiuming hefts her backpack onto her shoulder. "Love you, ge."

"Love you too, meimei. Kick ass."

"Kick ass."

She follows the crowd of other students into the school without looking back. Wei Wuxian wishes she would, and kicks himself for wishing it as he drives away.

It's hard, watching her grow up.

Xiuming learned to roll over, crawl, and walk while Wei Wuxian studied for his cultivation exams and the Gaokao. The picture of his cake after his scores were posted has tiny toddler handprints in it. His little sister was there for every minute of that particular hell, and he will definitely be there for every minute of hers, so help him gods.

The university parking garage is actually largely empty, likely because half the staff fly by sword or live in campus staff housing. Wei Wuxian picks a parking spot, stuffs a note under the windshield wiper blade saying sorry, he's new, if this is someone's spot he didn't mean any inconvenience or offense, and jogs across campus to greet the Jins.

The most ostentatious, tacky building on campus houses the most ostentatious, tacky office, which houses Jin Guangshan. And, currently, his two oldest sons. Jin Guangshan is a known cad who can't even be bothered to have a harem, which is very antiquated but at least a bit more acceptable than just openly cheating on his obviously unhappy wife. Unfortunately for everyone, he can and does get away with it because he's stupid rich and from a properly ancient cultivation Sect.

Jin Zixuan he sees pretty often, because he's the mate of his friend Jiang Cheng's sister. Jin Zixuan is… okay. He's awkward and suspicious of people being friendly with him, but ultimately he's pretty harmless. Apparently, he used to have his head stuck way up his own ass, but Wei Wuxian wasn't around for that part of things. Jin Guangyao is more of an enigma. He's the son of an omega woman who used to sell MLM cosmetics to students on campus. He's very strange, and something about him doesn't seem quite right. He wants Jin Guangshan's approval very, very, very, badly. It's bewildering because as far as Wei Wuxian is concerned, gaining that guy's actual approval is a huge indication that you have made a very bad turn in your life.

The office stinks like peony flowers and alpha musk.

"Ah, Wei Wuxian!" Jin Guangshan's feet pop off the desk and he springs to his feet in a show of spry youth that he actually manages to pull off. Not that big a deal. He might be about 90 years old, but he's got the youth of someone in their early 30s. It's such a shame. "Welcome, welcome! We're so glad you could be here, son. Please, have a seat. Can we get you some coffee? Tea?"

"Oh, uh. I'll take some coffee."

Jin Guangyao bows obsequiously, scuttles over to an electric kettle, and begins some kind of over-produced coffee-making ceremony involving a scale, an electric grinder, a tiny spray bottle, and what might be a fucking alembic.

Jin Guangshan prances around the desk to lean against the back of it, all hospitality and smiles as he lets his son make coffee for a guy he's never exchanged more than a polite introductory greeting with. That's how he seduces so many women, Wei Wuxian supposes: he moves through life like it bends around him, and the people around him just make it happen because he's that powerful and unfortunately charismatic.

Wei Wuxian bristles at the alpha's increased proximity, but keeps his friendly smile as even as he can.

He needs to play nice.

"Thank you again, Jin-Zongzhu," he says, bowing his head, "both for hosting me and for helping me get my sister into the academy. She's already enjoying her classes."

"Well, of course! A fine young woman like that will make someone a very happy alpha one day, so long as she mingles with proper society."

Wei Wuxian's smile doesn't even twitch. Behind Jin Guangshan, Jin Zixuan looks the tiniest bit nauseous. Jin Guangyao chooses this as the perfect moment to bow and scrape his way over with a cup of fragrant black coffee and some very obsequious dimples.

"Really, A-Xian," Jin Guangshan simpers, "We're so grateful to have such an accomplished and handsome man join our illustrious university."

"I am so grateful to be here." Wei Wuxian sips his coffee.

The truth is that this was his second choice, and they both know it, and that knowledge has teeth. His first choice was Cloud Recesses since the Lans aren't entirely morally bankrupt, but the Lans told him they weren't interested at this time due to his relatively recent successes and still-uncertain ability to contribute to cultivation knowledge long-term. They encouraged him to try back in a few decades, and he plans to.

JLTU just happened to have the best offer out of those offering, and Jin Guangshan's private email promising Xiuming's immediate admission into the local academy sealed the deal. He'd rather her be studying at Caiyi or Gusu, but he couldn't send her away. They're a package deal unless she decides it's time to find or start her own pack.

"Now, I've asked A-Yao to show you to your office. It's directly attached to our research labs, so you should be quite comfortable, but please let me know if changes need to be made."

"Of course, Jin-Zongzhu. And Jin Er-Gongzi, I would be grateful for the escort." Wei Wuxian gulps down the still scalding coffee, eager to escape the university president. He springs to his feet, saluting the older cultivator.

"So eager," Jin Guangshan chuckles. "I remember being young. Enjoy your time here, Wei Wuxian. I will certainly enjoy your tenure."

Wei Wuxian leaves as quickly has he can manage, Jin Guangyao strolling behind him with a serene expression on his face. Wei Wuxian wonders what it would take to rattle this guy.

"Our cultivation research center is close by." An unfamiliar cultivator flies overhead on their sword. Jin Guangyao's smile fixes itself for a moment. "Forgive me, but we will have to walk."

"That's fine! It's a nice day." Wei Wuxian grins. "Thanks again for showing me around. I promise to learn the campus quickly, so this will hopefully be the only time you have to deal with me."

Jin Guangyao just dimples at him.

The labs are quite close, and require a key to access. Wei Wuxian waves his gold peony key chain over the receiver, and the doors unlock with a click. The place is quite sterile, with no windows in the hallway and shitty, hospital-grade overhead lighting. The white walls and linoleum floors are scuffed and scratched. It's… surprisingly normal after Jin Guangshan's office.

It also smells strongly of magic. Meaning it doesn't have a smell, exactly, but he can feel the slight fizzle of it on his skin and in his nose. In this case, it's a bunch of different magics, which makes him sneeze.

"You get used to it," Jin Guangyao promises, offering him a tissue.

"Yes, of course. Sorry. I rented out my own space for my initial research, so this is a bit different." He blows his nose and pockets the used tissue, doing his best to pretend he doesn't notice that Jin Guangyao held his hand out for the snotty paper like it's part of his job. "At least there aren't a million different scents going off in here."

"Yes, students and faculty are encouraged to limit their scents and pheromones through blockers or their own control. That includes our researchers."

"Noted!" Wei Wuxian wishes this guy would just give it up and be the pencil-pushing nag he so clearly wants to be.

"You're in room 306." Jin Guangyao shows him to the elevator, just around the corner from the front desk where a bored student employee is playing a mobile game, and past two fake plants and two water drinking fountains. The elevator is very standard too, in that it moves too slowly and smells like stale coffee and onions.

There are two palm prints and half a face print against the brushed steel doors at what seems pretty close to waist height, which Wei Wuxian is not above snickering at. Glancing over, he spots Jin Guangyao desperately trying to squash a smirk of his own. So there is a human being behind those dimples! All is not lost!

Office 306 is also standard. There's an L-shaped desk to the left and facing toward door, with two small armchairs sitting facing the desk. The desk has two monitors, and above the desk along the side attached to the wall are some little cupboards. Immediately to the right of the door is an old metal filing cabinet painted tan. It's… serviceable, but it could be better.

"I sense you have complaints," Jin Guangyao says. "I can hear those."

His stylus hovers over his tablet like he's got his finger on the trigger. This guy is wasted on Jin Guangshan. He probably thinks his pups are all as stupid and incompetent as he is, and that he himself is the best thing to ever happen to humanity.

"Not complaints, exactly. I can make this work. But there are some things I would like to change, if possible?"

Those damn dimples wink at him. "Of course."

"Can we get rid of the filing cabinet, and replace it with a bookshelf? And then can I get some file sorters to go on the shelves? Ones that I can see through. Can we get rid of the cupboards above the desk, too? I'd love some bulletin boards there instead. And maybe a white board or two on the opposite wall? And a docking station for my laptop, if possible. Ideally, I would have a document scanner.

"None of it would need to be new! Or matching. It could all literally be scrounged up from a supply closet somewhere."

Jin Guangyao blinks at him.

"Ah. I guess I want to change everything but the desk." Wei Wuxian winces. "Sorry."

"It is not your fault. You should have been asked what you need before you arrived."

"Right…"

Wei Wuxian sighs, gestures to the armchairs. Jin Guangyao blinks at him before perching on the very edge of the broken down, faux leather chair. Wei Wuxian sits in the other one, scooting it around to face him.

"I like to keep my work visible, so I prioritize workspace more than storage. I need to be able to spread out a lot of different documents. I also need to be able to shift my work between here and my home regularly. My parents are currently travelling, so I'm looking after my sister. She's too young to be left to her own devices."

"She's a teenager, isn't she?" Jin Guangyao frowns.

"Yes, but she's still a pup. She still relies on her pack."

"Oh. Yes, of course she does."

It occurs to Wei Wuxian that Jin Guangyao probably did not get the whole pack nesting thing that he did, because Jin Guangyao only had his mother to look after them.

"I don't want to take that away from her until she's ready," Wei Wuxian explains, softening his tone and exposing the scent glands in his wrists to show that he's being vulnerable. "I'm like a third parent to her, in a lot of ways. She deserves time." And then, in a more casual tone, "I explained this to Jin-Zongzhu, but I'm not sure he understood. I'm not going to compromise my bond with my sister for this job. I'd rather go back to working out of a storage unit."

"I understand." Jin Guangyao's dimples have faded, and he's switched out the doe-eyes for a more assessing but still genteel kind of look. "You know, we have a few digital worktables. They can cast between each other as well as other digital devices, wirelessly. Perhaps one of those here in addition to the monitors and a standing desk, and another in your laboratory space would work?"

"Oh." Wei Wuxian blinks. "That- That would be awesome, actually. Seriously? You can get me one of those?"

"Yes. We may have to purchase one, but I'm sure Jin-Zongzhu would be happy to make a donation to your research."

"Thank you." And then, because he has a feeling he knows what Jin Guangyao's about, "I'll remember this. Seriously."

This time, Jin Guangyao's dimples don't seem to be quite so insincere.

"Would you like to see the lab space?"

"Sure!"

Jin Guangyao scribbles away on his tablet as he hustles down a long hall into a large room.

"Your lab is equipped for teaching as well as study, since we're short on space. For now, the indoor testing range is by reservation, and the outdoor testing ranges are first come, first serve. This is temporary. I'm sure you saw the construction as we walked by. That will be our new cultivation research building. It will be bigger, with better accommodations."

Wei Wuxian did not see the construction, as it happens. He'd been too busy watching Jin Guangyao.

The lab contains some basic scientific equipment, including a microscope, a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer, and a water bath all set up against the left wall. An overhead projector, several blank tables, a podium, another computer and monitor make up the center of the room. Shelves and drawers labelled with various types of glass and metal tools and containers and a PPE storage closet stretch along the right wall.

There are also other things that Wei Wuxian specifically requested: a repurposed mail organizer storing different weights and grades of paper, as per Wei Wuxian's specifications. Drawers labelled with a variety of writing implements. A dozen or so mortars and pestles, some bronze, some quartz, and some clay. Ink sticks. Enchanted shields (his own patent). And a few other odds and ends Wei Wuxian could think of.

"I will have a docking station brought in here as well," Jin Guangyao promises. "And the digital worktable with an extension cord."

Wei Wuxian checks the class tables, glad to see they have built in outlets for chargers and power cables. "How much equipment do you think the circuits can support?"

"This room has two circuits, so even if you have something plugged into every outlet, nothing should happen. Similarly, you should be able to continue working under reduced power in the event of an outage."

"Modern devices are tricky. We're still learning how they interact with cultivation magics. Other sorcerers abroad are learning too. Can we get surge protectors for the digital worktables, and set my computer to back up every three minutes?"

"Certainly." Jin Guangyao makes another note on his tablet.

"Also, a secure recycling bin in addition to the qi-hazard and bio-hazard bins."

"Oh, yes."

"Um… I'm sure there will be other things down the road, but it's hard to tell what that is. Proving that talismans still work is one thing. Figuring out how is another. Making new ones? I'll get back to you." Wei Wuxian chuckles.

"That is fine. I've sent a researcher's manual to your new work email that will give you guidelines on how to make acquisition requests. You can meet with our research fiscal department at your leisure."

"Yes, I think that will work great, thank you."

"If there's nothing else at present, I need to speak to Fiscal about your requests so they can handle it."

"There is one thing…" Wei Wuxian dogs his phone out of his pocket and pulls up the fifth email in his work inbox. It's the only email not automated or from a Jin. "Someone requested a meeting with me today. Someone named Qin Su, on behalf of Lan Wangji?"

"Yes, Lan Wangji is our Head of Collections. He's also a researcher here in an unrelated field. Qin Su and Luo Qingyang are his assistants. Their offices are on the 6th floor of the university library."

The young beta watches him, obviously waiting to see if there's anything else.

"If you're leaving, I won't say no to you pointing the way."

"Of course." They exit the same way they came in, and Jin Guangyao points to a tall, square building across the mall and behind a few other, smaller buildings. "That's the library. The entrance is on the other side, away from us. I'm happy to walk you over and introduce you, if you wish."

"Oh, no, that's really alright. I just gave you a bunch of stuff to deal with." He shoots Jin Guangyao his best smile, and mostly means it. "Thanks a lot for your help today. I appreciate you."

Jin Guangyao gives him that odd little blink again, like he's not used to being respected or regarded. Wei Wuxian decides to push a little further.

"I know it's your job, but seriously. I'm a weird case, so if there's anything I can do, tell me."

Jin Guangyao bows. "I will. I hope you can get settled before Fall semester starts."

"Yeah, me too." Wei Wuxian laughs. "See you soon!"

Jin Guangyao doesn't get out of his bow until Wei Wuxian starts walking away, and Wei Wuxian can feel the beta's eyes following him across the mall.

Time to find this Lan Wangji.

Chapter Text

The library has that library smell: a nostalgic mix of old cellulose, book glue, neglected carpets, and hot electronics. There's also a flurry of pheromones so scattered and intermingled that he can't identify individual smells, but he picks up on stress, hunger, despair, curiosity, hope, and excitement. The library is also huge. Even the sixth floor, which is half offices, has so many books and scrolls that it would take Wei Wuxian years to read through. Not that he can foresee himself having the time for it.

That's the downside about being the only researcher in his field: Wei Wuxian has to do it all himself. Oh, and he has nobody to talk about it with. Or collaborate with. Or rotate shifts with while waiting for a test to finish. Or to step in if he has an emergency… Okay actually there are a lot of downsides to being the only researcher in his field.

Across from the books, there's a door with a pane of security glass embossed with characters that say "Library Administration and Research". Through that door, there are more doors, including one that says "Collection Management". Opening that door, the air is less saturated in pheromones, probably because staff are not quite as stressed as the students. However, Wei Wuxian notices there's a relatively fresh bit of bitterness in the air. Something must have happened recently. It's also noticeably sweet. Omegas.

Wei Wuxian grins. He loves working with omegas and betas. Research and high academia tend to be dominated by alphas because they least often carry pups, but Wei Wuxian has noticed that when there are omegas and betas in the mix, things just tend to function better and be more amicable. More and better work gets done.

It's almost like humans are meant to function in heterogeneous packs or something.

Ignoring the directory on the wall, Wei Wuxian saunters down the hall, admiring the dark wood and cozy lighting. A young, petite woman in heels, a brown pencil skirt, and yellow silk blouse emerges from one of the only offices with an open door.

"Excuse me, miss?" He approaches with his best smile on. She's very cute. "Could you point me to Lan Wangji's office? Or his assistants uh… Sorry, I'm really bad with names."

"Oh, it's okay! I'm Qin Su. I am one of Lan Wangji's assistants."

"Oh, great!" Wei Wuxian laughs. "I'm so sorry. It's nice to meet you."

"You too." Her cheeks are a little pink. She smells like peonies. A Jin after all, then. "Oh! Follow me, please!"

She leads him around and down the hall to a larger office with windows facing North. The room smells like sandalwood and a touch of orange blossom, a little sweet, not overpowering. It's pretty impersonal, aside from a tea set and a collection of orchids and other plants on the windowsills and crowding in the corners of the room, but it's tasteful. There's a couch against the righthand wall, and a coffee table on a thin rug. The coffee table has one of those little zen gardens on it, and a glass bowl of what might be live moss. The desk is on the other half of the room, facing the couch, but there are two chairs in front of it, with a small end table in between. The desk itself is standard fare like the one in Wei Wuxian's office.

The man sitting behind it is anything but.

So this is Lan Wangji. He's a pretty large man, built heavier than Wei Wuxian: broader in the shoulders, more robust in the arms and chest. His skin is pale, cool toned, and his eyes are long and a very light golden brown. His ink-black hair is done half up in a very old style, secured with a jade pin. The strands hanging loose on either side of his face soften his sharp, strong features. He has a very solemn, almost severe look, all told, but he's so beautiful Wei Wuxian forgets to breathe for a second.

He's also incredibly powerful. Wei Wuxian can feel Lan Wangji's cultivation. It tingles on his skin like the air right before a strike of lightning.

And then Lan Wangji stands, and Wei Wuxian realizes that the sweet-ish sandalwood smell is him. This beautiful (and very tall!) man is an omega.

Sexual dimorphism is pure bullshit. Exhibit A.

Wei Wuxian can't help but stare, unsure of what to say. Lan Wangji stares back, adjusting his white silk button down shirt where it shifted while he was sitting. A strange alpha entering an omega's territory, they watch each other for a long moment, ==long enough that Qin Su inches away from them.

It's Lan Wangji who speaks first.

"Wei Wuxian, hello." Lan Wangji nods, a stuff, formal movement. That serious facial expression doesn't shift. He gestures to one of the chairs in front of him. "Please, have a seat."

Ohhhh, he's a fuddy duddy. This is going to be fun.

"Hi! You must be Lan Wangji!" Wei Wuxian chirps as he plops himself down in one of the chairs, throwing his legs over the arm. "It's nice to meet you! Nobody warned me you were so handsome!"

Lan Wangji's ears turn a very light shade of pink even as his lips twitch into a small frown.

"Thank you for meeting me." The omega's speech is as stiff and formal as he is. "I am Director of Collection Management. Specifically, I am in charge of acquisition, cataloguing, and course reserves. Qin Su, whom you have now met, and Luo Qingyang, whom you will meet shortly, are my assistant librarians."

"Wow, that's impressive!" Wei Wuxian grins. "I take it you have questions about my publications?"

Lan Wangji pinches his lips together minutely, body rigid. Despite the fact that his scent has settled into the office, Wei Wuxian can't get a single whiff of him to gauge what he's feeling. He's keeping his feelings close to himself.

"I regret that we could not meet under better circumstances, but I was not informed of your imminent arrival until very recently. As such, I have not had time to acquire materials related to your expertise and discipline."

"Ah." Wei Wuxian sighs, letting his feet drop to the floor with a loud thud. "I see."

"Apologies." Lan Wangji lays his hands on the desk, wrists somewhat exposed and head turned to expose the edge of his scent gland. Sweet.

"They seriously didn't tell you I was coming? I know it was kept kind of quiet, but… Seriously?"

"No." That pretty, plush mouth purses. With his scent now available, Wei Wuxian catches that slight bitterness he noticed earlier. This must be what that hit of displeasure back in the hall was about.

Wei Wuxian grins. If he didn't know better, he'd say Lan Wangji is furious.

"Right… because why bother informing the librarian that the guy with the super niche and very new field of research is about to start teaching? You just sort books! Not important!" Wei Wuxian laughs.

Lan Wangji might be sulking. Wei Wuxian was definitely right that he's a persnickety type, so misbehaving gives him something to read, but the guy is still very buttoned down. Wei Wuxian wants to play with him.

Sadly, he needs to behave.

"But really, Lan Wangji, don't apologize. There's not much on array language or talismanry outside of my own publications anyway. But I imagine you're already aware of that."

"Mn." Lan Wangji extends a hand, and a different young omega woman hands him a tablet. Wei Wuxian didn't even hear her come in. He sniffs the air again, and catches a very subtle hint of rosehips. This must be… shit, what's her name? Luo something. The other assistant librarian. "Aside from your own publications, we have compiled a comprehensive list of documents you referenced. I- Apologies."

This time, Lan Wangji's frown is apparent, combined with a small furrow in his brow. He lifts a pair of silver pince nez glasses from a chain around his neck, balancing them on his nose. Cute.

"I am uncertain as to the provenance of some of these artifacts included in your publication."

"Oh, those are from The Mountain."

"A mountain?" Lan Wangji pushes the glasses higher up his nose with his middle finger. His bottom lip does this little tuck that's almost like a pout. It's cute.

"The Mountain. Baoshan Sanren's Mountain. I've visited for summer and winter breaks since I was a young child. My mother was a disciple of hers. She's my grandmother, by adoption."

The two women and their very beautiful boss stare at him for a long moment, obviously waiting for him to say "Kidding!"

He doesn't. He isn't kidding.

Lan Wangji recovers first. "I see. That is not the same thing as verified provenance."

"That's why I published in the Mogao Journal of Cultivation Research: Anthropology Edition. That's their June edition. I was their Linguistic Anthropology main feature." Wei Wuxian reaches for his backpack, rummaging around the enchanted liminal space until the packet finds its way into his hand. He slides both dissertations onto the desk. "I wrote a dissertation on my methods for authenticating and dating those documents concurrent with my dissertation on interpreting the Talismanic language. They go together and were both published by the Mogao Journal, but in different editions due to their subject matter. There are talks to publish a collection of my more inter-disciplinary and related publications in a special issue, but those things take a while."

Lan Wangji blinks. "I was aware of both publications, but I was unaware of their relationship. We only had time to review your references materials. Reading your work was not our first priority. Apologies."

"Yeah, it's pretty cool!" Wei Wuxian's face splits into a wide grin. "People joke that I'm an amateur archaeologist, but it's more anthropology than archaeology, with a vast, seemingly endless ocean of nuance between the two. Granted, archaeology is pretty much a sub-discipline of anthropology, although you could just as easily argue the converse, but I work a lot with linguistics and even cartography. Talismanic language used to be utilized more widely as a sort of magical shorthand to indicate areas under the influence of certain enchantments or that seemed to possess certain magical qualities. To me, I refer to my work as anthropology because archaeology implies a lot more footwork than I typically get up to. Mostly I just stare at really old papers and scans of really old papers. Have you ever looked at a radical until you see a swarm of them every time you blink?"

To Wei Wuxian's astonishment, the librarian's mouth quirks up a fraction.

"Mn. Not a radical. I practice musical cultivation."

He can't help the grin that splits his face open wide enough to show off his alpha canines. "Oh, you definitely get it then. What instrument do you play?"

"A number, but my main instrument is the guqin."

"Oh, wow! Very traditional. You're a Lan right? Like, from the Sect? Do you use the guqin as a spiritual instrument? Is it named? Have you ever used it in a night hunt? You do go on night hunts, right? I mean, I can tell you're a powerful cultivator, so it would only make sense that you're on a roster for a Sect or the municipality. I'm on-"

There's a soft laugh from behind him, where one of the assistants has taken a seat. Wei Wuxian closes his teeth around the words still trying to tumble out of his loud mouth.

Alright, fine. He's not very good at behaving.

Lan Wangji regards him for a long moment over the edge of his glasses, which are slowly slipping down his straight nose. He straightens in his chair before speaking.

"I am the second son of Lan Mingzhi, Qingheng-jun, the current leader of the GusuLan Sect. My spiritual guqin is Wangji, the same as my courtesy name. I am not currently on a night hunt roster, but am listed with the municipality as available for Class 1 and Class 2 night hunts. I bring Wangji with me on the rare occasion I am needed."

Pushing his glasses up his nose with his middle finger again, Lan Wangji looks through a file folder on his desk, removing a few sheets of paper.

"I do not have access to The Mountain's archives. To my knowledge, no one does. However, I have been able to locate your previous publications. It would appear that Mogao's digital database has copies. Additionally, the more basic references you have used in the past are available through subscriptions or are in our catalogue." Lan Wangji removes a third document. "There are many we do not have, however."

Wei Wuxian grimaces as he rifles through the lists, looking at the titles the library doesn't have. "That doesn't surprise me. Works in my field aren't prioritized. But most of these can be substituted. I can make up a list for you sometime this week…

"There really aren't many publications or artifacts that I would use for teaching. I'd mostly just use my own work. Which might sound a bit obnoxious, but there's pretty much nothing else. That's part of why I published through Mogao. They're public access, so anyone can read it. I needed to make sure I'd have something to use.

"That includes digital copies of the documents and artifacts I used in my initial research, and the lexicon I've been developing. The lexicon is partially public access. I have a few symbols and characters that are currently proprietary, and therefore unlisted. I also have some that I'm not ready to add to the public version yet, for various reasons."

Lan Wangji is quiet for a long moment, then hums. "I am glad you will have access to your publications. Please let me know by the end of the week what we will need to acquire. I will do my best to furnish your classes with materials, but due to time constraints and the obscure nature of your work, I cannot make promises."

"No worries!" Wei Wuxian grins. "Truthfully, I don't really have any idea what I'm doing. I'm making it up as I go."

The omega frowns. "You have no plan for your courses?"

"Not really. It's not like I know how to teach. But it sounded fun, and I wasn't in a position to keep working on my own."

"Mn." Lan Wangji does not ask, only nods. "I will send you my syllabi from the classes I have taught for the last five years. It will give you some idea of how a course should be structured. If you require assistance, email me, Luo Qingyang, and Qin Su. We all teach courses in addition to our library work. We will help."

"Oh…" Wei Wuxian recovers quickly. "That's very kind of you."

Nice job, Wei Wuxian! Way to go!

"Mn." Lan Wangji turns to his computer. "It is unfair to you and your students to provide you with no guidance. Poor student performance may result in your termination."

Wei Wuxian's smile falters. He can't really tell if that's an indictment of his character or not. Judging by Lan Wangji's frown, it's definitely an indictment of something.

"Right… Well, I'd very much prefer to keep this job. I only just got it…"

"Mn. Understandable."

There's a very awkward pause, and just as it becomes unbearable, Wei Wuxian finds a few of his very well-spoken-of braincells.

"I'm sorry, by the way. I should have thought about all this stuff. I just kind of assumed someone would explain something to me eventually."

Lan Wangji's body relaxes minutely. His expression is almost a smile.

"Mn."

Another long pause, but much less tense. Wei Wuxian decides to end on a good note.

"Right. Well, I've got your email," he says, standing. "I'll send you my list of alternative materials to these." He waves third list. "And, um. I'll have one of your assistants set up a meeting? When I have the beginnings of my shit together?"

"Yes. Qin Su will send you an email." Lan Wangji stands, and when he follows, Wei Wuxian realizes that he might actually be a few centimeters shorter than the omega. "Thank you for your time."

"Thank you!" Wei Wuxian grins, trying his best not to oggle like an idiot.

After yet another awkward pause, he leaves. He needs to go back and rummage unsupervised through his lab space.

It's only later, while he's washing dust off a series of mylar sheets, that he smells a very light sandalwood fragrance on his clothes.

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian is not what Lan Wangji expected.

At least, he doesn't think so. The alpha is hard to get a read on. He was rather all over the place at their first meeting, one moment being exceptionally vague, and the next oversharing like an excited puppy. Or like an excited academic. The way his face lit up realizing that Lan Wangji also has a very niche field of study… He is beautiful.

So beautiful.

And now, for one or all of those reasons, Lan Wangji has volunteered himself to help Wei Wuxian learn how to do his job. Qin Su and Luo Qingyang are equal parts annoyed and amused, but Lan Wangji can't quite shake the feeling that something is Off about the way Wei Wuxian was brought on.

Why was he brought here, without ceremony or guidance? Not to be ungenerous, but why would Jin Guangshan be so neglectful of Wei Wuxian's on-boarding while also giving him a personal research lab with zero visible strings attached? He's not exactly known for his kindness and altruistic nature.

Lan Wangji has a suspicion that the answers to these questions are important. Unfortunately, he has no idea how to find those answers. It's not like he can come out and ask.

It's been three days, and he still has no idea. Lan Wangji does what he knows best. He brews a pot of tea, accepts a meeting request for an hour from now, and refreshes his memory.

According to the internet, it happened like this:

Talisman and array arts were lost centuries ago, having fallen out of use as swordwork and spellcasting took priority. During the early centuries of global exploration, land contests were perpetual, and sorcerers of various disciplines often found themselves unable to fight each other effectively. A cultivator from Shandong and a hedgewitch from Ireland have just enough in and out of common to be both explosive and useless against each other. By the time anyone realized that written sorcery had been neglected, most was forgotten. The Lan Sect has always carried a quiet, personal pain for this lapse - many records and texts were lost in a burning of Cloud Recesses almost a millennia ago.

(This part, Lan Wangji knows. It seems like this loss has always been a part of him despite the passage of time. He understands. His Sect is made of cultivators and of archivists. The burning was a tragedy, an assault not only on knowledge, but on identity.)

Then along came Wei Wuxian, a young cultivator of modest and obscure background, with some connection to the Great Sects but virtually no involvement in their doings. Reportedly working out of a rented storage unit, he surged to fame when, after his dissertation was rejected for lack of credibility, he used a reconstructed shielding array to divert a forest fire away from civilians. Almost overnight, Wei Wuxian became a household name among cultivators and mortals alike, and his designs were patented and sold to cultivators in the form of pre-printed talismans.

He has not once mentioned to anyone what the next phase of his research will be.

Lan Wangji suspects that next phase is a mystery to Wei Wuxian himself.

"Hey!" The alpha himself knocks on the doorframe, grinning. "I let myself in. Hope that's okay."

"Mn. Please, come in."

Wei Wuxian seems rather delighted by this, skipping into his office and scooting his chair up to Lan Wangji's desk, knees knocking against the front panel, passing him a clump of handwritten bullet points regarding potential course materials and substitutions. It's distractingly charming in its own way.

He chatters as he works, narrating his thoughts out loud. He ruminates on Lan Wangji's syllabi but also on the subject matter itself, asking questions without waiting for the answer, words jumping ahead like the answer materializes in between his half breaths.

Wei Wuxian scribbles notes into the margins of the syllabus in a nearly illegible shorthand, asking questions about grading attendance policies before answering them on his own. He chews on the top of his cheap gel pen and tugs on a lock of his hair until the twist comes apart and he's left with a feathery, wild trail of fluff over his shoulder.

He's truly beautiful: intense, focused, insightful. Possibly insane.

It's a strange feeling. Wei Wuxian has whispered about like a mysterious disease among the Jianghu, but been marketed as some kind of transcendental genius by the layfolk: an untouchable Other in black hanfu with an epic, mysterious history and a dark, sexual allure. Now, he's sitting at Lan Wangji's desk like many students have in the past, in a faded t-shirt with holes in the collar and armpit and a pair of jeans held together with darned seams and woven patches. His cultivation ripples off his body like summer heat off green grass, flaring in and out as his energy shifts with his thoughts. He even smells lovely: like lapsang souchong tea and honey.

He's fascinating. Alluring. Some primal part of Lan Wangji's brain wants him. Viscerally.

"Would you like some tea?" he blurts.

Wei Wuxian blinks at him, clearly derailed from his thoughts. "Oh. Sure. Yes, that sounds nice."

Lan Wangji's ears burn with embarrassment. It's been a good while since he felt interest for someone, but that's no reason for his senses to vacate him like this.

"I don't believe gongfu cha is feasible at the moment." Lan Wangji gestures at the documents and computers spread over his desk. "But I can make a pot. Do you have a preference?"

"Not really! I usually go with red tea, but I like everything. Make whatever you're in the mood for."

"Mn." Lan Wangji decides to take him at his word. He fills his electric kettle with distilled water and sets it to 79C. Looking through his office stash, he finds a tin of gunpowder green tea.

"Gongfu, eh? Are you an enthusiast?"

Lan Wangji considers the question. "I believe in doing things properly."

This makes Wei Wuxian laugh, a wild cackle that reminds Lan Wangji of a raven. "So when I walked in here, not knowing my ass from my elbow?"

"The fault is not entirely yours." The electric kettle beeps. "It is difficult to do things properly when you are given no instructions or expectations with which to begin."

Lan Wangji pours some of the hot water into the teapot. Once the clay is hot to the touch, he empties it into a jar to water his plants with later. Then, he spoons in some of the pearled leaves and fills the pot with more hot water.

"Hm… I have a feeling you're being quite generous with me."

"I find. Peace," Lan Wangji says, attempting to explain, "in doing things properly. Not everyone feels the same way."

Turning, Lan Wangji finds himself being studied, that bright gaze turned sharp. He waits, bracing for Wei Wuxian's judgement, be it to praise or condemn.

"Which do you find more satisfying: a thing done well, or the doing?"

Lan Wangji blinks. Nobody has ever asked him that. Turning to the collection of tea cups stored upside down on a shelf hanging on the wall in between the windows, he does his best to hide his sudden discomposure.

"I take pleasure in doing something well, and find satisfaction when it is finished." He pours out the tea, a charred, vegetal aroma rising in a cloud of steam. "I find peace in the ritual."

Wei Wuxian accepts the cup with a smile, sniffing it. "Gunpowder?"

"Mn. My mother enjoys roasted teas. Hojicha is her favorite."

"I'm surprised. I thought your family would be drinking top-shelf stuff all the time."

"I do enjoy fine tea, yes. But my mother was a rogue cultivator, and well-travelled. She lived among regular people, and loved the simple pleasures in their lives. Japanese and roasted green teas like zhucha-" Lan Wangji gestures to the cup of tea in front of him. "-hojicha, and genmaicha are her teas of choice."

"And yours?" Wei Wuxian asks, meeting his eyes over the rim of his cup. "Mn, your mother isn't wrong. This really is a good one."

"I prefer white and green teas. When it comes to red teas, finery such as first flush Darjeeling or high end oolongs are my preference."

"So… any white or green or the very best of the reds?" Wei Wuxian grins. "It suits you."

"I am particularly fond of jinya dianhong. And you?" Lan Wangji asks, certain he's being teased.

"Oh, I'll drink anything! I'm about as cultured as fresh milk!"

Lan Wangji doesn't buy it. Wei Wuxian might excel at dodging personal questions, and he does lack the refinement of Lan Wangji and his social peers, but he is also intelligent and well-educated. He definitely has thoughts and feelings about tea.

The alpha sips his tea and smiles into it, licking stray moisture from his lips. Some primal corner of Lan Wangji's brain preens over this. It's an instinct of the human species, this desire to provide for each other. Lan Wangji is an omega. For him, this instinct presents as a drive to nurture those close to him.

Wei Wuxian does not yet count as "close", but Lan Wangji thinks maybe he could… Even if he's using a heavily annotated copy of Lan Wangji's syllabus for Theory and Praxis of Musical Cultivation as a coaster.

"I'm told I need to finalize my courses by next week," Wei Wuxian tells him. "I need to have a minimum of two classes, with two sections each."

"That is a lot for a researcher."

"Yeah, but the more students attend, the better my chances are that one will want to be a TA or lab assistant next semester. I need to be able to prove that my work isn't a fad and that it's worthy of study…"

Lan Wangji waits. Something heavy and unspoken settles on the papers between them. After a long moment, Wei Wuxian shrugs, reaches for his tea, and pulls another syllabus toward him: Qin Su's for Introduction to Digital Curation.

Once again, Lan Wangji chooses not to ask. But this time, he can hear the truth in the silence.

I need to prove myself.

It's a feeling he understands all too well.

Lan Wangji is not, for the record, just pretty. He's fucking gorgeous. He's fascinating. Wei Wuxian wants to chew on his cute, pink ears. He wants Lan Wangji to chew on whatever part of him strikes the omega's fancy. He wants to pound on every single one of Lan Wangji's buttons. He wants Lan Wangji to draw his sword and kick his ass right in the library, or on the university mall. Even better, he's pretty sure Lan Wangji could actually do it, because standing next to the guy makes the air feel like running his fingers over the static of an old CRV television. And maybe it's just because Wei Wuxian has finally allowed himself two seconds to fucking breathe, but he thinks Lan Wangji might be the most interesting person he's ever known.

The two seconds to breathe end when his sister throws herself into the passenger seat of the car.

"Let's get the fuck outta here." Xiuming scrunches down in her seat, arms folded over her chest, scowling.

"You okay?" He pulls out into traffic, remembering to check his mirror for once. He misses taking the train. There is nothing wrong with trains. Trains are for everyone, not just the working class.

He has appearances to keep.

"Fine. Some of these people are just always scheming for a way up the ladder. A lot of them are okay. Out of touch maybe, but okay. And then some of them are just insufferable."

"Sorry, mei. That sucks."

"Yeah." Xiuming turns to stare out the window. "Takes getting used to, I guess."

"Do you want to get used to it?" Wei Wuxian asks.

"What choice do I have?" she bites out.

"Well," Wei Wuxian begins. "You can get used to it, and I don't think that would necessarily be wrong of you to do. You can also endure it and keep hating it. Or you can tell them that their behavior sucks, and that you won't entertain it."

"Yeah… Maybe."

Wei Wuxian picks up sweet and sour spare ribs from their favorite Hunan street vendor on the way, and throws together smashed cucumbers, stir-fried cabbage, and rice in their kitchen. It's still weird, having such a large kitchen. They have four burners now instead of two, and a dishwasher. And the counter space! Wei Wuxian started learning to cook when he was fifteen, but he's begun to really enjoy it now that he has more space.

Cooking for his sister is one of his favorite things. The alpha in him likes watching her eat what he makes, especially when she actually likes eating it.

Today, she's quiet, picking at her food. There's obviously something bothering her, a hint of burnt sugar in her scent, but he doesn't want to push. She goes to her room right after dinner, leaving him to clean up alone. He doesn't mind.

Sometimes, a person just needs to feel bad about something in peace for a while.

After the kitchen is clean, Wei Wuxian scrunches up in the corner of their couch and checks his phone.

Baba:

- How are you and A-Ming?

- Are you settling in well?

- We miss you.

This last message is followed by images of their day. Blue, snowcapped mountains on the horizon, green valleys rich with water, slopes covered in pines or tea trees, meadows of yellow wildflowers. Despite spending less than half the year there, Wei Wuxian can't help the lurch of homesickness he feels for The Mountain and surrounding lands. He likes urban life well enough, and enjoys the conveniences of it, but it's been so long since he properly saw the stars and breathed fresh air. He wishes he could see his grandmother.

He wishes he could ask her what to do.

Wei Ying:

- We're doing well. There's plenty to get used to, but it's going alright.

- We miss you too.

- How is Mama?

He doesn't expect a response any time soon, but his father replies about an hour later, while Wei Wuxian struggles to arrange his lessons for Introduction to Talismanic and Array Language into an order that would make sense to a beginner.

Baba:

- Some of her martial brothers are here. She's been catching up with them. They're lovely people.

- You haven't heard from her?

Wei Ying:

- Not since you left.

Baba:

- I'm sorry.

Wei Wuxian does not throw his phone across the room, but only because it's a shared wall and his neighbors don't deserve that. Instead, he swallows the bitterness, sets his phone facedown on the coffee table, and indulges in a scalding hot shower.

His parents didn't leave Sect life behind on a whim. Cangse Sanren has always been loudly critical of orthodoxy, and often refers to the Great Sects as modern-day parasites or thugs. His father left not just to please her, but also because he too wanted their pups to grow up away from all the politics and bureaucracy.

Wei Wuxian tips his head forward to press against the cool tile. The water beats down on his back.

He doesn't disagree. He's never disagreed. But what else was he supposed to do?

Chapter Text

Wei Xiuming's favorite person in the world is her brother.

Yes, she also loves her parents and grandmother. Obviously. But Wei Wuxian is the one who raised her. He taught her how to wipe her butt, wash her hair, fry an egg, and wear makeup. He's the person she trusts the most and knows the best.

Currently, he's also the source of her greatest sufferings in life.

"He's so hot!"

"So hot!"

The two girls sitting in front of her squeal and coo over a recent candid photo of Xiuming's older brother like he's some kind of prince. He's not even dressed nicely! He's wearing his pajama shirt for fuck's sake! It has holes in the collar and the armpit!

"He's so stylish. Where did he get that shirt?!"

Uniqlo. Ten years ago. Probably on clearance or during an end of season sale.

"Wei-guniang!" One of the girls turns in her chair to smile at her. "Your brother is so handsome!"

"If you say so," Xiuming replies, wrinkling her nose.

"Oh, we definitely say so," the other girl laughs.

Xiuming doesn't know who either of these girls are. They've never introduced themselves to her even though they apparently know who she is.

"You can't seriously be lusting after Wei-guniang's brother in front of her," another girl says, sitting down in an adjacent desk. "I'm Su Xiyun, by the way. Nice to meet you."

Su Xiyun is a pretty girl. She's tall, with dark eyes and high cheekbones and that straight, black hair that Xiuming sometimes wishes she had until she watches these same girls try to get her curls in the bathroom during lunch.

"You too," Xiuming says, and might actually mean it.

Su Xiyun smiles bright, showing off her large, sharp canines (an alpha, then) and opens her mouth to say something else, but Laoshi walks in and the class falls silent.

Between standard education and cultivation lessons, an aspiring cultivator's day is longer than that of a mortal. Their classes end several hours later, there is more homework involved, and twice as many examinations. It might be true that a decent cultivator requires less sleep, but by the end of her classes, Xiuming finds herself exhausted.

Her remedials aren't particularly challenging. She's smart, like the rest of her family, and not really that behind, but her electives - Meditation and Movement, Intermediate Spellwork Technique, and Navigation and Plotting - are dense and unforgiving. Taking Meditation and Movement on the same day as her Form and Technique of the Sword lab is Diyu on Earth.

Once classes are finally over, Xiuming and the other students wind through the old building, their senses constantly assaulted by obnoxious gold and white peony wallpaper and endless Jin family portraits. In the atrium, Wei Wuxian is speaking with a few other parents, mostly omegas and women. One mother actually reaches out and touches his arm, leaving her scent on his skin as she runs her mouth about… something. Another is bringing his set of fraternal twins over for introduction, but demurring politely.

It makes Xiuming's skin crawl, watching these people throw themselves and their children at her brother. Her brother who, bless him, is too friendly to realize their scheming, proven when the woman scenting him proceeds to pretend she lost her balance to cover her behavior, and Wei Wuxian sets her right with polite hands and the general friendliness that has become his hallmark among these Jianghu people.

Gods, she just can't stand it. These same people wouldn't have pissed on her brother if he was on fire a year ago, and now they're throwing literal children at him in the hopes of trapping him in this miserable hole of a society forever.

"Xian-ge!" Xiuming skips the last step on the old wooden stairs.

To the annoyance of the sickos around them, Wei Wuxian's attentions immediately turn to her.

"A-Ming." Her brother beams at her, brushing his thumbs across her cheeks and scenting her freely. "How was your day?"

"Long," she admits, leaning into him. She doesn't glare at the sourpuss woman who's certainly glaring at her. Instead, she rubs her cheeks against his wrists and purrs at him. "What are you doing here so early?

"Traffic was light for once!" Wei Wuxian tucks her into his side. "I was just telling Su-furen here about how excited I am to start teaching come Fall. Her daughter has apparently expressed interest in learning talismanry."

Xiuming watches Su Xiyun step up to Su-furen's side. The resemblance between them is immediately apparent: they have the exact same face. To her credit, Su Xiyun's smile is genuine, if carefully arranged to cover her fangs in the face of an elder alpha.

"Yes, that is true. I've been putting in extra hours of calligraphy practice to give myself better advantage."

Wei Wuxian's smile cracks into something more genuine. He tries so hard, but his societal arts are fragile. Xiuming can't stand to see him like this, in a world he does not belong to or want to live in.

"I wouldn't worry too much. My calligraphy is… well, my father and teachers called it 'spirited'. So long as it is passable, you shouldn't have any issues."

The pair both laugh politely. Su-furen sounds like she's important. Su Xiyun sounds like she finds Wei Wuxian genuinely amusing, which is something, at least.

"Oh, forgive my manners. Wei-gongzi, please meet my eldest daughter, Su Xiyun. She has been living with her father out in the country, but recently moved back to the city to enter society properly." Su-furen brushes some stray hair out of her daughter's face. "And I am very glad to have her."

Even the gentry love their pups, Xiuming supposes.

"Well it is a pleasure to meet you, Su-guniang." Wei Wuxian bows lightly. "I look forward to seeing you in my classes some day."

"We look forward to it as well," Su-furen promises. "It was lovely meeting you."

Xiuming leans into her brother's side while they trade farewells for far longer than could ever be necessary until eventually she finds herself being guided outside.

"How exhausting," Wei Wuxian sighs.

"You don't know the half of it." She catches a whiff of Su-furen on her brother and wrinkles her nose. Before they even reach he car, she's rubbed the scent glands of her wrists and cheeks all over him to get the stranger's scent off of him.

Underneath that, she notices, is that faint sandalwood scent again. A coworker? Wei Wuxian hasn't mentioned anyone.

"I don't doubt you, meimei." Wei Wuxian sighs. "Society is quite something, isn't it?"

"That's one way of putting it."

Xiuming cracks open her books as soon as she gets into the car, glaring at her calculus notes in the hope they might miraculously make sense to her. They do not. It will be another long night.

By the time she understands her homework, it is only hours to sunrise. Peeking her head out her bedroom door, Wei Wuxian's light is still on, bleeding under the doorway. Xiuming closes the door so carefully even her brother's enhanced senses won't catch it, turns out her own light, and climbs into her nest.

She must do well. She must be the best. She must to prove herself a hard worker, a first-class cultivator, a worthy individual.

If she can do that, maybe she can free her brother.

Let it be known that Qin Su loves her job.

She is fully aware that her father's money paid for her college education and her father's influence had a role in her employment and her brother's recommendation landed her the position, but it was Wangji that chose her.

Not only that, he respects her. He does not care that she's one of many illegitimate nepo babies trotting around LanLing or that she briefly dated her half brother or that she's an omega woman. It's not even an "omega solidarity" thing. He chose her because he thought she'd be likeable and good at her job, and that's it.

If Wangji ever leaves, and eventually he will, Qin Su is absolutely going to go with him.

"You're working hard." Meng Yao slips into the room, placid smile perfectly arranged.

"Hey." Qin Su sits back in her office chair. "Did you need something?"

"Some peace and fucking quiet would be nice."

"Help yourself. Qingyang is downstairs sorting new acquisitions and Wangji is in his lab today."

Watching her half-brother and ex-boyfriend drop with slightly less grace than normal into the uncomfortable arm chair across from her desk, she can't help but feel sorry for him. Which Meng Yao must notice and definitely hates, but she can't really help that either. Meng Yao did not have her luck when it comes to JLTU employment.

"Want some coffee?"

"Please."

Ten minutes later, they both have coffee, and Qin Su gets back to her work. She actually is working hard, today. It's up to her to begin the selection process for the new pleasure reading wing. The wing formerly stored the university's Special Collections, but they were recently moved to a new annex building with increased security, no doubt in reaction to Wei Wuxian's presence and his known affinity for document analysis.

Meng Yao already confirmed Wei Wuxian's peony charm does not grant him access. If he wants to see the special collections, he will have to request access. Hopefully, he'll ask them or Wangji instead of making a formal request through the university access portal like the students now have to do.

"Has Hanguang-jun met Wei Wuxian yet?" Meng Yao asks, apropos of nothing.

"Yes, a couple days ago."

"How did it go?"

Qin Su reaches for the ancient and very heavy stapler on the corner of her desk. "A-Yao, if I find out that you deliberately withheld Wei Wuxian's arrival from us for some experiment, I will exact twenty-six lost years of sibling vengeance against you before you can even think to beg for mercy."

"… Hear me out-"

"Prepare to die."

"Hear me out!"

Qin Su does not throw the stapler. "You have thirty seconds to convince me."

"Hanguang-jun is a bitchy, spoiled omega obsessed with organizing old books and talking to ghosts with various string instruments. Wei Wuxian is a chatty, annoying alpha obsessed with staring at old books and making fireworks come out of sticky notes. They'll either kill each other, or get married by the end of summer."

"Not a chance. Wangji isn't interested in courtship." Qin Su turns back to her work.

"Are you sure?" Meng Yao smirks. It fits his weasely, dimpled little face way too well. "Maybe he just needs someone as weird and obsessive as he is."

"Well, Wei Wuxian is definitely that." Qin Su sips her coffee. "He'll ramble about his work at the drop of a hat."

"Hm."

They sit in silence for a minute.

"You know, actually…" Qin Su says. "Lan Wangji did volunteer to help Wei Wuxian get ready for Fall semester."

She sits back in her chair, considering. Lan Wangji isn't known for indulging the under-prepared unless it's a student. A grown man who assumed he'd be told what to do is definitely not that.

"See? I'm right about this."

"Right about what?" Luo Qingyang asks, hurrying over to her desk next to Qin Su's. "Hi, Guangyao."

"Qingyang." Meng Yao nods. "I think Hanguang-jun and Wei Wuxian are going to hook up."

"No way. Wei Wuxian is a certified yapper. He stopped by yesterday on my way out and talked at me for twenty fucking minutes. They are not compatible."

"If you say so." Meng Yao shrugs. "I stand by my assessment."

"Don't you have work you should be doing?" Luo Qingyang huffs, signing into her computer.

"Yes. I'm meant to be harassing you about whether you have time for collection expansion. Jin-Zongzhu asked me to remind you that Collection Management is not currently an investment priority for the university and that it is up to your current team to manage any and all ventures with the resources you've been given. But he wishes you luck."

"He can suck my dick," Luo Qingyang snipes.

"You don't have a dick," Meng Yao helpfully reminds her. "And he'd probably give you a disease."

"At least one," Qin Su agrees over her coffee cup. "Does Jin Guangshan have any idea of what we do or how we do it?"

"Not one." Meng Yao dimples at her.

"So maybe he should refrain from commenting."

"It would certainly make my life easier. Anyway, I told him I'd come supervise for a while."

"Well you have fun with that. I have papers to grade and A-Su has a pleasure reading library to stock."

"Thank you, I will have fun."

Meng Yao crosses one slender leg over the other, takes out his phone, and doesn't say another word until lunch time.

Qin Su sets aside her acquisition spreadsheet to start in on her own grading. Summer courses are always more trying than Fall and Spring courses. The same amount of information has to be condensed into fewer weeks, overlapping with two other Summer "semesters". June-mester is just getting started, but May-mester is finishing mid-terms. In two weeks, May-mester finals will begin, and June-mester mid-terms will start right after, followed immediately by the beginning of July-mester. Collection Management isn't a difficult course, exactly, but it is dense and both of her June-mester classes are full. Students caught wind of the possibility of a new collection being added to the library and registered in the hopes of getting some hands-on practice.

Qin Su plans to incorporate her projects into the lectures, but most of this work will unfortunately need to be done by her and her cohorts. The department interns might get some practice cataloguing, though. They seem competent. And very eager.

After all, it's not every day you have the opportunity to put together a new library collection from scratch. Even for seasoned librarians, it's a very rare treat.

If only she could finish grading these damn midterms.

"I saw in the news today that Wei Wuxian has joined the faculty at your university. Did you know that?"

Xichen spreads mud on his cheeks with a glass spatula. His hands are soft, the skin shimmery and healthy. Lan Wangji glances at his own hands, dry from handling paper all day no matter how often he moisturizes.

"Mn."

Lan Wangji sucks the beans out of a salted edamame pod, tossing the empty shells into a separate bowl. The little bunnies his brother painted on his nails are safe and secure under gel polish, all the tiny hang nails lovingly trimmed away.

He stares at the little red wounds. No matter how high his cultivation, the tiny, stinging reminders of his work never quite heal. They scab overnight, and others peel up to reveal the humanity in his flesh. It's always been like this, since he was very young. A childhood buried in books and scrolls and musical instruments, skin snagged, sliced, abraded, dried and worn by cellulose and steel and brass and silk. If he took time to heal fully, then he might finally escape them, left pristine and invulnerable forever, but he can't quite bring himself to do it.

At least his brother is here to build up his fingernails so they don't chip and peel and break anymore. They sit pristine and perfect on scabbed, rough hands, a labor of his brother's tender love.

"Do you think you'll get to meet him?" Xichen asks, pulling him from his examination.

"I have."

It's movie night, a long-standing tradition between him and his brother that started when they were children. The ritual faded out as Xichen entered high school, and Lan Wangji had assumed that would be that. It was a shame, but completely understandable. After Lan Wangji left Gusu, Xichen stubbornly invited himself over every weekend, and the tradition was reborn.

It's far better than what Lan Wangji assumed would happen.

"You have?" Xichen turns in his seat to face him, grey mud turning pale on his face as it dries. "I'm surprised."

"I had to. Jin Guangshan did not inform me of his arrival. I needed to speak to him about acquiring materials for his work." Lan Wangji calculates before continuing. "He was given no guidance on teaching or course preparation, so I offered to assist him while he structures his curriculum."

"That was generous of you," Lan Xichen smiles. "I'm glad you've found something to keep you busy."

Lan Wangji does not have a kind response to that, so he turns a corner.

"I don't understand why Jin Guangshan would invest in Wei Wuxian's work, and then give him no resources to ensure his success."

"Ah…" Lan Xichen hums. "It's not really about his work, I'm afraid. The Sects want him under supervision. They-"

"They?"

"Fine, Wangji. We don't like the idea of a rogue cultivator running loose with undisclosed abilities and without oversight." Xichen sits back on Lan Wangji's dove grey couch, inspecting his own painted fingernails. "We don't like that talismans can be used by laypeople so long as they are charged by a cultivator. It brings risk that we cannot manage."

"Hm." Lan Wangji bites into another pod. "So he is being cooperative."

"Possibly. He may simply be biding his time while he figures out a way to make himself untouchable."

Lan Wangji cocks his head. Xichen sets his peanuts aside, tucking his socked feet up onto the couch.

"I do worry, to be honest. He just-" Xichen huffs, waving his hand in a helpless gesture, revealing muddy fingerprints on his white sock. "He came out of nowhere, Wangji. From what I understand, he arrived at Scorching Sun Palace alone, unannounced, and presented a manuscript on a forgotten fantasy of our Sect's. When the Wens declined to entertain him, citing lack of reasonable cause, he left. Months later, he reappeared in the middle of a wildfire, and used a slip of paper to erect a shield of pure qi. It was… alarming to say the least.

"Jin Guangshan even suggested that he set the fire in the first place-"

"Hm."

"I know. It was later proven to have been an ordinary lightning strike. But still… We have no idea what he is capable of, and that is worrisome. Despite what his work could mean for our Sect, the risk is too great. I don't want him near us, especially not around our pups and our younger disciples. They're too impressionable. If, in a few decades, LanLing is still standing, I'll invite him to come to Gusu."

Lan Wangji tips his head against the back of the couch, considering his brother's account. He can understand why Wen Ruohan would dismiss Wei Wuxian, but he knows that his own Sect would have leapt at the remote possibility of restoring an ancient art. He also understands why the Sects would be leery of Wei Wuxian's sudden appearance.

What he doesn't understand is why, after being dismissed so easily and proving himself capable of succeeding on his own, Wei Wuxian would even be willing to make nice with the Sects. Especially the Jins.

It makes no sense.

It's also none of his business.

He turns back to his brother. "My baihao yinzhen arrived today. Would you like some?"

"Please!"

Lan Xichen's mud mask cracks around his bright smile, and Lan Wangji sets the matters and mysteries of Wei Wuxian aside in favor of his brother's company.

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian finds it interesting that just as he signed his contract, JLTU's special collections were moved to an annex that he does not have access to. He isn't surprised he doesn't have access, but he is annoyed. Frustrated. Maybe even a little angry.

He's been such a good boy, and they're still keeping him on a leash.

Whatever. There's probably nothing useful to him in there anyway. He just wanted to see it.

Over the weekend, Wei Wuxian settled on his courses and submitted them to administration: Syntax of Written Cultivation I and Introduction to Talismanry and Array Arts. This does mean he'll have to spend Fall semester building intermediate courses, but that's a problem for Future Wei Wuxian.

Present Day Wei Wuxian is too busy fighting to actually put these courses together. He's got most of a syllabus for both courses thanks to Collection Management's assistance. They're truly wonderful people.

Jin Guangyao got him his worktables and his office. He currently has a few hundred prints scattered over the tables and walls in his lab, arranged… somehow. He's certain he's onto something, but the what and why and where and how all escape him. Hopefully his brain will eventually process what he's looking at.

Hopefully.

Today, though, he climbs the library stairs, wading through a cloud of strawberry-flavored vape mist and past a student who appears to be sleeping on the landing, to the fourth floor. It's relatively empty, so he picks a random desk and falls into the chair.

The desks on this floor are old wood, all of them stained with an ugly sort of orange-red varnish. They're nice in that they have shields on the front and sides to offer some semblance of privacy and they all hug outlets, but awful in that they're small.

Still, this floor is quiet, and the change of environment shakes up all the particles that settled at the bottom of his brain pan. He cracks open a huge thermal bottle of cheap tea and gets to work.

He's on his third little cup when he opens a new tab and his eyes land on a suggested article from a rather low-brow news site:

Meet the Librarian and Musicologist Composing an Enchanted Symphony

Accompanying the headline is a photograph of Lan Wangji dressed in hanfu, wearing a ribbon around his forehead, the tails hanging in the long fall of his hair. His robes are the white and pale blue of his Sect, made of shimmering silk. The color makes the cool tone of his skin even more intense, giving him a bit of drama instead of washing him out. And his face. He looks so peaceful. Without his glasses, the gold of his eyes is bright, almost luminous, and his solemn face is softer, somehow.

This must be what Lan Wangji meant when he spoke of his work in music.

Wei Wuxian opens the article. It's a scant five paragraphs with no citations.

Lan Zhan zi Wangji, professionally knows as Hanguang-jun, is not your average cultivator. The second heir to the GusuLan Sect, he received some attention when he left his ancestral home five years ago to work in Lanling. At the time, his reasoning (wanting to experience academic life outside of his Sect) was met with some skepticism, with many Jianghu enthusiasts speculating as to the antiquated ways the Sects approach secondary sexes. But Lans do not lie, as everyone knows, and Hanguang-jun's assertions appear to have come to pass.

Known for his skill with musical composition and his talent with the guqin in particular, Hanguang-jun has devoted his post-collegiate years to education, library collection management, and most notably, his original music works.

Three days ago, the YunmengJiang Sect released the initial itinerary for the Annual Discussion Conference. To the surprise of many, Hanguang-jun was listed as one of the main exhibitors, performing a personal composition with a quintet. The quintet will be comprised of a xiao, guqin, two cellos, and a steel tongue drum. This exhibition is expected to demonstrate progress toward cultivation symphonies, which may have multiple applications to continued pollution management, public health, medicine, combat, and night hunting.

Enthusiasts say that this demonstration, the first of its kind, will illustrate the flexibility of modern cultivation techniques and improve the relationship between Eastern, African, and Western sorcery. Critics argue that this break from tradition marks a departure from the values and historic legacy of Chinese cultivation and of the GusuLan Sect in particular.

Hanguang-jun earned his Ph.D.s in Library and Information Management and Cultivation Musicology concurrently at GusuLan University and Conservatory. He is a renowned cultivator, and only deployed for Class 1 and Class 2 night hunts. He currently works at JinLinTai University as Director of Collection Management, a professor of library and information sciences and cultivation musicology, and a researcher of cultivation musicology. He is an omega, and currently unmated.

Lan Zhan. The spring sky, the tail of a magpie, the mountains on the horizon, the heart of a glacier - the deepest, brightest blue.

Wei Wuxian smiles. It suits his cool, lofty friend. His cool, lofty, extremely well-educated, supremely talented friend.

He supposes he knew Lan Wangji was an extremely accomplished person. Obviously, given his position and apparent cultivation level. But he hadn't thought that he might be so specialized or widely regarded. He's impressed.

"Are you looking up my boss?"

Wei Wuxian jolts, twisting in his chair to see Luo Qingyang standing just behind him.

"Hey! Nah, I just saw an article and got curious."

"Have you ever been to a conference before?" Luo Qingyang drops into the chair of the desk behind him.

"A couple." Wei Wuxian turns to sit sideways to they can chat. "I'm childhood friends with Jiang Cheng -uh. Jiang Wanyin. I went with him a few times when we were kids, but not since we presented. People might've assumed I was after him or Jiang Yanli. I didn't want to make things difficult for them."

"Right. I guess that makes sense." Her tone suggests it doesn't. "Are you going to come to this one?"

"I might."

He probably should. It would be a good look to show up and smile and maybe shoot off some fireworks or something. How many times can he pull that one before adults get bored?

"You know, there's this boutique on 15th and 11th. They can dress you up nice."

"Damn, you have something you wanna say?" Wei Wuxian laughs, leaning back to show off another faded t-shirt, unbuttoned button down with the worn edges, and the same pair of old jeans he wore last week.

"You look like you live in one of our supply closets."

"Harsh!"

"But true." Luo Qingyang cracks a smile for him. "You're trying to act the part. Looking the part will help."

Wei Wuxian's smile falters. "Yeah. I guess so, huh?"

"Sorry." Luo Qingyang's hand touches the back of his. Her nails are a cute pinkish shade, with white French tips. There's a thin stripe of pink glitter just above the white. It suits her. "I didn't mean to imply…"

"No, it's okay." Wei Wuxian pats her hand. "I know how I dress. Truthfully, I've just been too busy. It wasn't something I've even thought about until you mentioned it."

"The hanfu on your Wikipedia page was really nice!"

"It doesn't fit right anymore. It's long enough, but it's all tight in the shoulders and waist." Wei Wuxian sighs. "It was a nice set though. Fuck, I think it was my only set. Yeah, okay. I'll add it to the list.

"For some reason, I thought I'd be less busy once my work was legitimized."

"Yeah, we all thought that," Luo Qingyang chuckles. "Except Wangji. I think he hoped he'd have more work to do."

"That seems like him." Wei Wuxian drains the last of the cold tea in his cup. "Actually, is he in his office today? I thought I might drop by for a visit, see if he can look at my syllabi. They're about finished."

"He'll be here another hour or so. I'm sure he'd be happy to help."

"Awesome!" He stuffs his computer and folder back in his backpack. "Thank you."

"Of course. I should get back to work. I only came up to grab a snack from the vending machine. This floor has the best options."

"Oooh, good to know!" And he's off to the library.

Lan Wangji's door is closed. When he knocks, there's a long pause, and then a very hushed, "Enter quietly."

Curiosity piqued, Wei Wuxian opens the door as quietly as he can, poking his head in.

"Hey, it's just me."

Lan Wangji is stiff, sitting on his couch with his feet tucked up, ears pink. There's a book fallen open on his lap and his little clay tea set on the end table beside him.

The coffee table has been pushed to butt up against Lan Wangji's desk, and a sort of tiny pen enclosure wraps around the rug, reaching all the way to the wall behind the couch. And inside the pen-

"Oh my gods."

"Hello, Wei Wuxian. Forgive the impropriety."

"Lan Zhan! You have bunnies?!"

Lan Wangji frowns at him, ears darkening.

"Aw, come on! We're friends, aren't we? You can call me Wei Ying to make it fair!"

"Wei Wuxian, lower your voice." Lan Wangji's frown only deepens.

Tucked against him, a black rabbit and a white rabbit twitch their noses in Wei Wuxian's direction.

"At least introduce me," Wei Wuxian whisper-yells, sitting next to the pen on the floor, grinning ear to ear.

They look so soft. And Lan Wangji looks extremely cute with the little fuzzies snuggled up to him.

"This is Dawn." Lan Wangji rubs the white rabbit's head between the ears. "She is deaf. Dusk is blind." He runs his hand over the black rabbit's body.

"Aw, I didn't know you had pets. They seem so sweet."

"My Sect has many rules and principles related to discipline of self. Owning pets is forbidden. Dawn and Dusk are… wards."

The blush of Lan Wangji's ears creeps into his cheeks in time with Wei Wuxian's widening grin. He squeezes a hand over his mouth so he doesn't scare Dusk, shoulders shaking. Who does he think he's fooling, curled up on the couch with his supposed "wards"?

"That's so sweet. How did you get them if you didn't buy them?"

"Killing in Cloud Recesses is forbidden. It keeps the environment pure. As such, wildlife is common there. We are unsure how domesticated rabbits found their way there, but they have become naturalized. There is a warren in the back hills. I found them there as abandoned kits."

"What are they doing here?" Wei Wuxian asks so he won't squeal with cuteness overload. He doubts Lan Wangji or the bunnies would appreciate it. Well, Dusk wouldn't anyway.

"They are elderly now, and require more frequent veterinary care. Their veterinarian is closer to here than to my office. And…" His mouth twitches. "Their occasional office visit appears to improve intern morale."

"Lan Zhan!" The omega's sour glare only makes him smile more. "I had no idea you were such a softie! Rescuing baby bunnies and bringing them in for visits!"

"I have benefitted from their companionship."

"I can imagine. They obviously love you."

Lan Wangji's expression softens, looking down at the little creatures that are definitely not pets. It's so fucking cute, Wei Wuxian can barely stand it.

"Do you like bunnies a lot?" Wei Wuxian asks.

"Mn. I like animals, but I am partial to rabbits."

Supremely fucking cute.

"I always wanted a pet. Maybe a cat or a bird or something. But I have a little sister instead, and she serves a similar purpose."

"Companionship?"

"Yep! It might seem weird - she's 15 years younger than me - but we're very close. We spend a lot of our time together."

"I am glad." There's a lull in conversation, amicable if a little awkward. Eventually, Lan Wangji's expression shifts to something more professional. "Was there something you needed?"

"Oh, I was hoping you could look over my syllabi before I move on to setting up the course pages."

"Of course. Please send me digital copies. I will print them at home and return them to you tomorrow."

"Thanks."

Silence settles between them. While Wei Wuxian squirms, Lan Wangji seems entirely unphased, returning to his book, occasionally petting one of the rabbits, glancing down to check on them. They've talked a lot during their short meetings. It hadn't occurred to Wei Wuxian that that might not be Lan Wangji's default. This peaceful sort of silence suits him well.

The sunlight is caught in Lan Wangji's lashes. Wei Wuxian feels like an intruder.

He stares anyway.

Wei Wuxian has never been particularly discerning when it comes to what he finds attractive. Men, women, either, neither - any combination of primary and secondary sex characteristics is fine by him. They don't even need to be beautiful or handsome or sexy.

But they do need to be interesting. Do something interesting, be something interesting, feel something interesting.

Lan Wangji is endlessly interesting. He is also beautiful, handsome, and sexy, which definitely doesn't hurt even if it's not required.

He settles against a potted fig tree, pours out some more of his tea, and he wonders…

"Wei Ying… Wei Ying!"

"Hm?" Wei Wuxian blinks. How long has he been sitting here? "Sorry, Lan Zhan. What's up?"

"I must leave for our appointment. I would prefer my office be vacant while I am gone."

"Oh. Oh, yeah. Of course." He creaks to his feet, putting his thermal bottle back together. "How long was I sitting there?"

"Mm, about an hour."

"Fuck, sorry."

Lan Wangji's eyes rove over his face and body for a long moment. "Get some rest. I will see you tomorrow."

"Sure." He brushes the rumples out of his jeans, smiling back at his cool counterpart. "See you tomorrow- Wait!"

"Hm?"

"Can I have your phone number? It might be more convenient than email." Lan Wangji stares at him for a long moment, just long enough to Wei Wuxian to reconsider. Then he takes the phone and enters his number.

"See you tomorrow, Wei Ying."

"See you tomorrow, Lan Zhan!"

It's only as he gets in the car to find someplace else to be before he needs to pick Xiuming up from school that he realizes Lan Wangji called him "Wei Ying."

Wei Ying.

Wei Wuxian wants to capture the shape of that mouth in a jar. He wants to turn the sound of it into a song. He wants it whispered in his ear on the wings of a moth.

He wants.

"Okay!" Doctor Lan Junling smiles as she pumps hand sanitizer onto her dry hands. "Lan-er-gongzi, let's start with a weigh in."

Lan Wangji places the carrier on the examination table, carefully lifting Dusk onto the scale, using his hands to keep him in place. The clinic is small, a little worn, and smells strongly of dogs and disinfectant, but Dr. Lan is a skilled and compassionate veterinarian.

Dr. Lan takes down Dusk's weight. "Alright, and Dawn."

He puts Dusk back in the carrier for her safety and sets Dawn on the scale. She sits quietly, hunched over. When he lets go of her, she tries to climb back into his hands.

"Just a moment, baby girl. I know… Okay, great." Dr. Lan gently palpates Dawn's belly, feeling and stretching her limbs, examining her teeth. She shines a flashlight in her eyes and ears and nose. She listens to her heart and lungs with her stethoscope. "How has she been moving?"

"They are both slowing down. Their movements have become stiff. They have notably less energy."

"In general, or since your last visit?"

"Both."

"I saw them six months ago, right?"

"Mn."

"Hm…"

Dr. Lan switches out the rabbits again, going through the same examination with Dusk before placing him back in the carrier. Dawn immediately snuggles up to him.

"I have noticed… I believe they are losing their respective hearing and sight."

Dr. Lan pulls a clicker from her lab coat pocket, pressing the button next to Dusk's head. She moves, but does not react as she would have if she were younger. Or even six months ago.

"Yes, I agree. Dusk's hearing is going. Dawn's eyes have that senior cloudiness to them." His relative, a cousin some times removed, gives him an empathetic smile. "They've lost a little weight. I think mostly muscle mass. Their teeth look okay. Have you switched them to senior pellets yet?"

"Mn, a few years ago. They have taken to it well. They are eating plenty of grass."

"I didn't feel any masses, bloating, hot spots, or swelling anywhere. Have you noticed anything concerning?"

"No. They seem healthy. Just… old."

"It'll happen to all of us, sooner or later." Dr. Lan smiles. "And they do seem to be in very good health, all things considered. You've taken wonderful care of them."

It's been nearly nine years, and neither he nor his veterinarian are fools.

Lan Wangji still remembers bottle-feeding them as infants. He enjoyed caring for Dawn and Dusk, discovering their disabilities and how they cared for each other. The warmth he felt, both for them and for their shared warmth. Now, he is here, nursing them through their decline. The knowledge he's always carried, that after a scant decade, he will have certainly said goodbye to his little friends, looms in front of him. It is no surprise, and should not feel like one, but it does.

"Lan-er-gongzi?"

Lan Wangji blinks, turning his attention back to the vet. "Apologies… Thank you."

"Change is hard. This is one of the hardest." She reaches out and squeezes his arm. "What change are you most concerned about right now?"

"I do worry about the weight loss, but mostly I worry about them both being blind and deaf."

"I understand. The weight loss isn't necessarily a concern. Most of what they've lost appears to be muscle mass, which is very normal for senior animals. They move around less, so the muscles atrophy. It's very likely that this is their new body type. Try increasing their pellets and adding in a softer variety of grass. At their age, it's so important for them to eat. It's very hard to put fat back on a senior pet once they lose it.

"As for their senses, it's a novel circumstance - I've never worked with a pair like your girls. They've relied on each other's senses their entire lives. Their bond might make it easier for them for them to adapt, or it might make it more difficult. To help, make sure to keep their water, food, and other items in the exact same locations. Make sure that their pen is accessible - low inclines and ledges. Keep their movement to padded areas with surface textures they can easily move on to help with the arthritis. I also recommend that you stick more precisely to a schedule so they know what to expect when."

"Mn. Is there anything else we can do for their arthritis? I fear it has worsened significantly in the last six months."

"They might get cold easily and stiffen up, just like old people. A heating pad kept on a low temperature should help. We can do some blood tests to see if they can handle pain killers."

"What about an x-ray?"

"Mn, if they were young, maybe." Dr. Lan shrugs. "But they're quite old. We know they have arthritis. X-rays might show the severity, but they'd need to stay still, and possibly be sedated. We don't want to put them through that at their age. It would be very stressful for them, and sedation would be hard on their organs."

Lan Wangji nods. "Let's do the blood test."

"Okay. The tests will take between 24 and 48 hours, but I can send you home with some painkillers for them. Do not give them any meds unless I call you and give you the go ahead. Otherwise, you could damage their liver or kidneys. That won't help them."

"Mn."

Lan Wangji holds the rabbits while Dr. Lan draws their blood. It goes surprisingly quickly, Dawn and Dusk nervous, but trusting.

"Such good babies." Dr. Lan smiles as she scratches the top of Dusk's head. "I want to see them again in three months. We'll keep a close eye on them, make sure they're as comfortable as possible." Her eyes are dark and warm when they meet his. "Until they're ready."

Lan Wangji swallows, a dull-sharp ache flaring behind his eyes. There's not much more to say. Dawn and Dusk are dying. Rabbits only live eight to ten years, and they have lived nearly nine. It's a good, long life for a rabbit, especially given their early abandonment and their disabilities and Lan Wangji's own inexperience caring for animals.

He closes the lid of their carrier, turning the latch to keep it shut. He says goodbye to Lan Junling. He pays his bill and collects a 30-day supply of painkillers at the front desk. He straps the carrier into the back seat of his car. He gets into the driver's seat. He wraps his fingers around the steering wheel, presses his foot on the brake, and pushes the button to start his car.

And… He sits there.

He takes a deep breath in until his lungs hurt, and lets it out in a long, trembling exhale. He takes another, then another. Again and again.

He knew this is how it would go. He knew. This is hardly any different than the last appointment six months ago.

Chances are, Dawn and Dusk will not live another year. Chances are, he will have them humanely euthanized together. Should one of them pass without his interference, he will not make the other linger alone. Chances are he will cry, and worry he made the wrong choice, and miss them terribly like a festering wound to his heart. Chances are that he will feel so very alone in his home when they are gone, and there will be nothing he can do to change that.

He takes one more breath, shifts gears, and goes home.

Instead of putting Dawn and Dusk in their pen, Lan Wangji brings them into his nest. They curl up against his side and fall asleep, exhausted after their long day. Their soft, warm, little bodies still fit so nicely against his, like nothing has changed.

He sighs, feeling rather like a worn, wrung out, aging animal himself. He realizes, with a very distant hysteria, that this is the most physical contact he ever gets. He might have months of this left, or weeks. He cannot tell. But he savors it. He'll savor it as long as he can.

Chapter Text

Lan Wangji has been very absent since the hour Wei Wuxian spent in his office. He emailed him digitally annotated copies of his syllabi the next day, but Wei Wuxian hasn't seen or heard from him since.

It's driving Wei Wuxian to distraction. Is Lan Wangji busy? Did he really hate being called by his given name so much? Did the bunnies' vet appointment go poorly? Is he just tired of having Wei Wuxian underfoot?

Yet another problem arrives Friday morning with the mail. Among the usual bills, advertisements, and a small package for Xiuming that feels suspiciously like yet another nail polish is a thick envelope made of old-fashioned parchment.

Wei Wuxian tosses the rest of the mail on the coffee table and shoves the envelope into his backpack to look at later when Xiuming isn't around.

Xiuming, with the sixth sense of a teenager with a passion for cosmetics, materializes to snatch up her package and spirit it off to her room. She returns just as Wei Wuxian is ready to badger her about being late for school. Even so, they get their noodles to go and he lets her eat in the car.

If there's one thing Weis are very good at, it's being very nearly if not entirely late for everything.

In his own office, now covered in print outs and sitcky notes and general detritus of his work, he shoves a stack of talisman prototypes aside to make a clear spot on his desk and brings out the envelope.

The paper is a lovely creamy color, and has that fuzzy-coarse feeling that indicates it is handmade. It is bound tightly with a purple silk ribbon and sealed with purple wax: a nine-petaled lotus flower.

The official sigil of the YunmengJiang Sect.

With a grimace, he pops the seal and unties the ribbon. A few bits of paper slide out, which he sets aside. The folded paper isn't overly stiff, but it crinkles back into shape when he tries to pull it flat. Anchoring the top with his coffee mug and the bottom with his cell phone, he reads.

To Wei Wuxian and his familial associates,

By service of this letter, you are hereby invited to attend this summer's Annual Cultivation Discussion Conference, Exhibition, and Tournament, to take place August 13 to 17 at Lotus Pier. Food and housing accommodations will be provided by your most gracious hosts, the YunmengJiang Sect.

Kindly confirm your attendance no later than June 22 via return envelope (enclosed). If you or your associates wish to be added to the tournament roster as an exhibitor or competitor, include with your confirmation a completed application (enclosed). Upon receipt of your confirmation, the YunmengJiang Sect will send an information packet for each attending guest. This will include a finalized itinerary, tournament and exhibition program, and a personalized attendance pass. Each attendant in your party must present their attendance pass to gain entry.

Your party may include no more than 4 people. Only those same 4 people may apply to compete or exhibit.

Warmest regards,

Jiang Fengmiang, Jiang-Zongzhu

Yu Ziyuan, Jiang-Furen

Jiang Wanyin, Gongzi, Jiang-DaShixiong

A very warm invitation indeed.

Nie Yujin and the girls aren't even listed. Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan can do whatever they want, but if Wei Wuxian had a daughter-in-law and three granddaughters, he'd absolutely bring them up at every opportunity.

Wei Wuxian sorts through the rest of the documents, setting aside the attendance slips and the participant application forms. There's an additional note on a small card embossed at the top with a violet spider.

Call me immediately.

That should be fun.

He probably has a few days before she figures out he's putting it off. Even the Violet Spider isn't that good. Jinzhu and Yinzhu, however…

Eh, he'll worry about it later.

He stuffs the papers back in his backpack and plugs his laptop into the monitors on his desk. His annotated syllabi stare at him in judgement. He hasn't touched them. He hasn't touched his research. He's just been shifting between files and locations for the last three days, accomplishing nothing.

Maybe he bit off more than he can chew. He doesn't know how to do this. He has no idea how to teach. He knows how to do research, but he has no idea what comes after finishing what he'd once thought would take his entire life. He doesn't know how to appease the Sects and convince them to leave his family alone. He doesn't know how to live in peace and be happy under their scrutiny. He doesn't know how to fix things with Lan Wangji so they can all be friends again.

He wishes he could talk to his parents. Wei Changze is a man of few words, and most of the time the words themselves mean almost nothing - just social rituals that promise love and respect and an open heart. Cangse Sanren is more like him - she speaks freely and as she thinks and never found a problem she couldn't puzzle out given the right motivation.

In the past, talking to his father helped him work through his problems on his own. Talking to his mother was electrifying and collaborative.

Lately, it's been tense, devolving into bickering and frustration. Cangse Sanren holds fast to the family's values. Wei Wuxian just wants his family safe. He needs to atone for his mistakes. He thinks his mother understands this. He doesn't think she'll forgive him.

He can't pit his parents against each other. He can't ask his father to choose him. He definitely can't unload all his problems on Xiuming, who is already in a vulnerable position because of him.

Wei Wuxian doesn't believe for an instant that Jin Guangshan was merely being generous or trying to sweeten the deal when he offered to give Xiuming a place in his academy. Jin Guangshan put her there to keep an eye on her, to keep her vulnerable, knowing that Wei Wuxian could not refuse the offer without offending the Sect. He and his cultivators have access to Xiuming for nine hours a day, and there is nothing in the world Wei Wuxian can do about it.

Blowing a breath out through his cheeks, he drops his head down on the desk.

He needs to do his work.

What is he going to do?

He needs to do something.

What is he going to do?

"Can I join you in crisis?"

Wei Wuxian almost jumps out of his skin. "You have to stop sneaking up on me like that! How are you doing this?!"

Luo Qingyang smirks. "I'm a known feather foot."

"No kidding."

Wei Wuxian sighs, throwing himself back against his office chair. The office chair reveals itself to have a reclining function by tipping him dangerously backward. He yelps, arms and legs pinwheeling until he regains his balance. Luo Qingyang laughs at him. He doesn't blame her.

"So what are you having a crisis about?" Wei Wuxian asks, once his life isn't in danger.

"You first."

"Oh, you know. The crushing weight of academia and the expectations of cultivation oligarchs and my own family, the crushing fear that appeasing said oligarchs is actually more attainable than appeasing my family, and also I have no idea what I'm doing, never have, and sooner or later everyone is going to find out."

"Well, damn. Now my crisis sounds lame."

"Heyyyyyyyyyyy, we had a deal!" He pouts at her, exaggerating his puppy eyes so she knows he's joking.

"I have... feelings. For someone in business."

"Ewww!"

"I know!" Luo Qingyang huffs. "He just seems so nice! Like, boringly normal! And he's cute!"

"What is he in business for?"

"His family makes pottery. Like, really good, ancient, secret recipe passed down since forever pottery. He's supposed to take over when his father retires."

"Well that's not so bad. He might not suck."

"Yeah… I dunno, he might not even be interested."

"How did you meet?"

"We keep bumping into each other at a cafe on the way to work."

"Awww. That is normal and boring!" Wei Wuxian grins, propping his chin on his hand and his elbow on his desk.

"And I want normal and boring! Normal and boring is great!" She leans toward him. "This place is a hive of drama. I need someone normal to offset it."

"I haven't seen much drama so far." Wei Wuxian shrugs. "Then again, I've kind of kept to myself aside from you guys."

"Oh, you'll find it. It might take until you start teaching. That's when you start meeting students and more faculty and you realize that the crap you dealt with as a teenager doesn't really ever stop, it just evolves."

Wei Wuxian let's out a long, loud sigh. "You're not wrong. I wish it would evolve into something nicer. Like a velociraptor evolving into a chicken or something."

"Hey, chickens are pretty bloodthirsty. I've seen videos where they swallow snakes whole and eat their own eggs."

"That checks out." Wei Wuxian shrugs. "What's your business guy's name?"

"Wen Mingdao. No relation to the Sect. He's not a cultivator."

"Oh."

"It's a bummer, isn't it?" Luo Qingyang inspects her nails. "Nobody tells you that you'll watch people you love age and fade while your life and youth keep going indefinitely. They just tell you you're a cultivator. You're special. All that stuff…

"You're a really powerful cultivator. Do you ever think about how lonely it'll be, if you're one of the only one left?"

"Sometimes," Wei Wuxian shrugs again. "But everyone watches people they love get old. Everyone loses someone too early. That's part of life. I don't think it's that different.

"Some people might think it lonely and say it's pointless to associate outside of our circle, but I don't think my centuries will be lonely at all. I'm going to meet so many amazing people. I'm going to make so many friends. I'm going to do and see so many cool things. That's not sad to me, it's exciting. It's a blessing."

"That's a really nice way of thinking about it." Luo Qingyang's smile is a little sad. "I was adopted. My parents aren't cultivators. None of my family are. When I showed potential, they put me in courses and… let me grow.

"I'm nothing exceptional, but it's enough that I could outlive any pups I have. I will outlive a mortal partner. But any stronger cultivator would definitely outlive me. It's… tricky."

Wei Wuxian nods. He gets it. Coming from the opposite direction, the idea of watching his pups or a mate grow old and pass on… it does hold tremendous pain.

"It would still be worth it, if it makes you happy."

"How do you know?"

"Because," Wei Wuxian shrugs. "You could kick it on a night hunt tomorrow. Your businessman could die of cancer twenty years from now. It would still be worth it then, right? If he was the right person for you?"

"I'm… not sure. Guess I should think about it before I decide, huh?"

"Or just wing it and find out. That's what I do!"

"And what have you found out?"

"That I need to keep winging it!" Wei Wuxian laughs.

"Hm." Luo Qingyang's expression turns speculative. "You're a very interesting person, Wei Wuxian. I'm curious to see where you go."

"Well right now, I think I'm going to go get some coffee. Wanna come?"

"Oh, let's grab Qin Su! She loves coffee. She'll come with us!"

Wei Wuxian grins, eager for the excuse to flee his office and all the stress and obligations it contains.

Maybe coffee will help.

Lan Wangji is avoiding his people. He is avoiding Qin Su. He is avoiding Luo Qingyang. He is avoiding his students and the department interns. He is avoiding his family.

He is avoiding Wei Wuxian, especially.

His greatest fear is that they will ask about Dawn and Dusk. That he will have to say, over and over, "They are as well as can be expected," or something to similar effect, until he cracks. He doesn't think he can endure a parade of platitudes from well-meaning people.

His second greatest fear is that he will see Wei Wuxian, and be happy about it. Wei Wuxian who called him by his given name, the first person to do so since he presented some fifteen years ago. Wei Wuxian who smiled at him and his bunnies. Wei Wuxian who sat quietly in his vicinity, watching him read with a smile on his face, completely unaware of time slipping past.

That instinctive knowing that the alpha's eyes were on him made the hair on his arms stand up, his heart race, his breath tremble in his chest. He wanted to be looked at, watched, seen. He wanted to be witnessed, there in that hour where he was Lan Zhan…

He isn't certain of the nature Wei Wuxian's interest. It could very well be some passing fixation, an errant curiosity. Lan Wangji is fully aware he is an unconventional person. An unattached omega in his thirties with an exceptional bloodline and career isn't exactly easy to come by. More than one person has taken a fancy to the novel idea of his personage, and sometimes later to the idea of spiriting him away from his life to be barefoot and pregnant in a kitchen he does not own.

But some small part of himself that he just can't quite kill hopes for more.

A larger part of himself is disgusted for thinking about Wei Wuxian at all when he has so many other things to worry about.

Like his tournament exhibition, which is still untested.

For now, Lan Wangji has found a distraction - working the library front desk. It's terrible. It stinks of pheromones, stray scents, old coffee grounds, and sweat. There is a sticky patch on the floor from someone's spilled drink, and he can hear people's shoe bottoms become tacky every time they walk through it. There's so much errant chatter, even shouting, and every time the espresso machine in the cafe across the hallway hisses, there's a slowly forming storm of rage inside of him that compels him to go over and punch the damn thing.

The students are largely clueless. They ask for directions to different parts of the library (there is a directory on the wall), where to find a specific book (there is an online catalogue and a cataloguing system guide), or whether their hold is ready (they would have received an email). Granted there are also students who ask good questions, but most of them seem woefully ingnorant of how the library functions and how to use it.

Lan Wangji is horrified.

"Is it always like this?" He turns to the student worker next to him.

"Yeah, pretty much." The student, Ouyang Zizhen according to his employee tag, gives him a sad, forlorn sort of look. "There's supposed to be one of you guys down here all the time, but nobody enforces it, so nobody comes."

"…"

His eyes drift away from Ouyang Zizhen's face and, like a compass needle seeking North, land on Wei Wuxian walking out of the building between Qin Su and Luo Qingyang, talking and laughing. The storm of rage swells inexplicably larger.

"… I was not aware of this."

"Shows how long it's been like this. I've only been here since the start of May-mester, but all of the other students workers complain about how you guys never bother to show up."

"Is there a roster?"

"Not that I know of."

"Unbelievable."

"Maybe the library director can help?" Ouyang Zizhen, bless him, looks at him with such hope.

"There isn't a director. Different departments have directors, but we have no one to report to except each other. Even then, we only communicate on matters pertinent to our designated functions."

"Oh." The kid's face morphs into a frown. "That's so fucking stupid."

"It is fucking stupid, isn't it." Lan Wangji shakes his head. "Obviously, this library does not function as well as I thought."

"Excuse me?" A female student hustles up to the desk. "I have an appointment with Special Collections."

Speaking of fucking stupid, this new song and dance routine. "Yes, of course. Who are you meeting with?"

"Dr. Fan."

"Mn. I will inform her that you are here. Please, head to the annex. She will greet you as soon as she can."

Once the student starts walking, Lan Wangji dials Dr. Fan's extension.

"Hello?"

"Your 1:00 is here."

"Oh, good. Thank you."

Dr. Fan hangs up, and Lan Wangji does not care.

Instead, he logs into his university account on the front desk computer, opens a blank document, and begins to type.

Students unaware of library function and use

Orientation training inadequate?

Need better outreach/engagement

Librarian station at front desk long-term vacant

Student engaement at library not prioritized?

Schedule meeting with other librarians re: front desk, student ignorance/engagement

Roster for front desk shifts? Evening hours??

Ideas, thoughts, information, plans spiral out from him as he types, using every pause and lull between queries to work. He funnels his frustrations and his griefs and his sorrows into the keys, every click sounding in his sensitive ears and crashing against some levy holding everything he's feeling back. He's standing on the other side, watching, unable to do anything but wait for it to overwhelm him.

"Excuse me, Lan Wangji?"

Lan Wangji glances up over the top of his glasses. A man, who appears to be European, approaches the desk.

"Yes, can I help you?"

The man continues in awkward Mandarin, "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nils Errson. My family-"

Wei Wuxian, Luo Qingyang, and Qin Su re-enter the library with paper cups and wide smiles, chatting like old friends.

"- in Sweden. We recently earned a place among the Jianghu here by adapting our company's energy-measuring technology to be compatible with Eastern Qi. As my family's alpha heir, I would be remiss to-"

Wei Wuxian plays with Luo Qingyang's free hand while the girls laugh.

The levy springs a leak.

Chapter Text

"No, I'm serious! They're really cute!" Wei Wuxian lifts Luo Qingyang's hand so he can see her nails better.

"Oh, I don't know. I feel like they're kind of… basic."

"Well, what's wrong with that?" Qin Su asks, leaning over to inspect Luo Qingyang's nails. "They suit you. You're a girly girl."

"It's just that every time I go in, I think, 'Today's the day. I'm going to do something fun and cool,' and then I chicken out at the last minute. What if I hate it?"

"Then you live with it for a few weeks until you go back to get them redone," Qin Su says. "It happens. I still remember the time I got stiletto nails. I wanted to feel like a badass. I just felt like a clown."

"What are stiletto nails?" Wei Wuxian asks.

"Oh, like this." Qin Su finds a picture on her phone. The nails are long, and end in sharp points. "I don't know what I was thinking. They did not suit me."

"You tried something new, and it didn't work. It happens." Luo Qingyang pats her arm. "Ooh, we should-"

"Hold up!" Qin Su grabs them both and pulls them off to the side, against the wall of the Special Collections Annex. She leans her head forward to peer into the mess of students. "Oh, for fuck's sake."

"What are we looking at?" Wei Wuxian asks, sipping from his cup. "Oh, Heaven and Officials, this coffee is good!"

"Shh! We're watching Wangji reject another alpha."

"I can't believe they still try," Luo Qingyang snorts.

Wei Wuxian watches with the girls as a reasonably attractive White man approaches Lan Wangji while he is actively typing at the front desk, glasses slipping down his pretty nose. Lan Wangji looks up, face carefully polite, but Wei Wuxian swears he can see a hint of irritation. Reasonable, since the man decided to interrupt his work instead of waiting 20 minutes for his lunch break.

"Who the hell is this guy?" he mutters.

"Nils Errson. Alpha. Swedish." Luo Qingyang's tone is deeply unimpressed. "Teaches software engineering. Not a cultivator. Not even a magician."

"Hm. So already zero chance."

"Yeah, but he's New Money. So he thinks he's got one."

"Oh." Wei Wuxian blinks. "Right."

"Poor Wangji. He got tired of all this courting crap years ago, but they all still try," Qin Su sighs.

"Mhm. And he's been in a terrible mood the last few days. This is not the time." Luo Qingyang huffs. "Not that they care."

"Well, he's kind of perfect, isn't he?" Wei Wuxian shrugs, sipping at the truly delicious coffee. "Can't blame them for trying."

"And if they don't fuck off?" Qin Su mutters.

"Kick them in the nuts, obviously." Wei Wuxian leans past Qin Su so he can get a look. "Maybe I'm biased, but this guy looks imminently kickable."

The girls hum in agreement.

Nils Erikson, the doomed but audacious man that he is, presents Lan Wangji with a courting gift in the form of a white box tied with a red ribbon. Oh, Wei Wuxian actually knows what that is - when he was hired, Jin Guangshan gifted him a Santos Dumont watch which, according to his sister, cost 103,000 Yuan.

(The worst part is that he actually really likes the watch. It's nice, and he's never had a 'formal' watch before. [Apparently, there is such a thing.] Normally, he wears the Zodiac pig Swatch his sister got him for the same occasion. It has "脱颖而出" engraved on the face. He bought her a matching tiger one the very next day with "画龙点睛". In other words, he can also buy dumb expensive things, and have significantly more fun with it.)

"Cartier? For Lan Zhan?" Wei Wuxian cocks his head. "Does he even like that stuff?"

"Not really." Qin Su sips her coffee. "He's a different level of rich - he likes finely expensive things, not merely expensive things. And Wangji's a Lan. If he wanted Cartier, he'd have it already."

"So what do we think?" Luo Qingyang asks. Neil is still talking, for some reason. "Juste un Clou or Love Bracelet?"

"Ooh, good question!" Qin Su hums. "Love Bracelet, silver."

"Nah, Love Bracelet is basically a collar. Even this guy wouldn't have the balls." Wei Wuxian has already forgotten the guy's name. Nick? Nate? Something like that. Neil? "I'm going with the… the nail thing. With diamonds. But in gold, because this guy is an idiot."

"Oh, I like it!" Qin Su taps their cups together.

Guy MansSon or whatever his name is finally finishes talking about family or the sacred tradition of courting gifts or whatever, and passes over the box. Or tries to. Lan Wangji stares at it for a long moment, murmurs something to the alpha, and returns to what is hopefully not an email, pushing his glasses back up his nose with his middle finger - curse that adorable habit of his.

The alpha stands there for a moment, stunned, and Wei Wuxian can feel him starting to get angry.

Shit.

Lan Wangji could absolutely handle it himself. He's cool as a cucumber. He's ridiculously powerful. It sounds like he has a lot of experience turning people down. But maybe the university library, in front of all these students, isn't the best place to start yelling or using cultivation.

It's not the best place to present a courting gift, either, but no accounting for common sense.

"Come on, we're rescuing him." Without waiting to see if the girls actually come with him, he trots over to Lan Wangji's seat behind the desk. "Lan Zhan! Ready for lunch?"

"Mn?"

"Silly goose! We're all going to lunch, remember? We talked about it this morning!" He turns to the alpha, still holding the stupid gift, and gives his most dazzling, distracting smile. "Hi, I'm Wei Wuxian. Who are you?"

The alpha stares, mouth slack, eyes glazed. "I'm… Nils Errson. Um. Please accept this courting gift."

Well. That was unexpected. Behind Nils, Lan Wangji twitches, ears turning bright red.

"Hm." Well, Wei Wuxian can be a dick, too. "Open it for me, handsome?"

Nate, still drooling at him, unwraps the box and opens it, revealing, as Wei Wuxian had guessed, Juste un Clou, gold, with diamonds.

He sucks in a breath through his teeth. "Gold's not really Lan Zhan's color is it?"

The alpha blanches.

"And I've got such skinny baby bird wrists." Wei Wuxian holds up one wrist in demonstration, to prove he isn't lying. His wrist is noticeably smaller than Lan Wangji's. "Don't think that'll fit. Thanks anyway, though! Lan Zhan! Lunch! Noodles!"

"Mn. Noodles. I remember now." He is the worst liar of all time.

It makes Wei Wuxian all fluttery inside.

Lan Wangji stands and comes around the desk, past… the guy - damn Wei Wuxian is so bad with names - and offers his arm to Qin Su. They leave the loser with his overpriced bracelet gaping after them, bursting into giggles the moment they're all outside.

"You called it! How did you do that?" Luo Qingyang asks. "Every bit!"

Lan Wangji releases Qin Su's arm and falls slightly behind them, visibly tense. There's a slightly bitter scent in the air, like over-muddled orange peels.

"Well, he didn't call Errson falling in love with him at first sight." Qin Su snickers.

"I got a feeling." Wei Wuxian scratches the back of his head. "Sometime alphas... Well. He's an insecure guy who's concerned with status, not sincerity. The gift was about him, not about who he was giving it to." Wei Wuxian turns around, walking backwards for a second. "We did crush his heart, though, Lan Zhan. He's probably weeping right there in the lobby where we left him."

"I'm sure he'll live," Lan Wangji says, tone clipped. His shoulders are stiff, hands curled into fists. "He can cry into the tissue paper."

"Yeah, seriously. Though, if he had gone with the Love Bracelet, I would have tasered him," Qin Su says.

"Hey," Wei Wuxian trots forward, leaving the girls to compare arsenals. "You okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Right… That's why you're trying to run from me without running from me."

"Why did you do that?" Lan Wangji asks. "A-Yang, A-Su, go on ahead a moment, please."

They wait for the girls to walk ahead, and then Lan Wangji waits for him to talk.

"He was angry." Wei Wuxian shrugs, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his jeans. There's a hole in the left one. He's lost two sets of earbuds because he keeps forgetting about the hole or repairing it.

"I could have handled it. I am not a child."

"I know that." Lan Wangji scoffs, trying to turn away, and Wei Wuxian catches his arm. "Hey, I know that! You could have handled it. You were handling it. I just didn't think you'd mind if we helped-"

"Is that what you were doing? Helping?" Those golden eyes are frigid and sharp as ice.

"Hey, that's not fair! I didn't know he'd act like that! I've never met him before!"

Lan Wangji glares at him. Wei Wuxian has no idea what he's done wrong. He was just trying to get his friend out of an uncomfortable situation, and then trying to get them both out. What's wrong with that?

He sighs. Whatever then. Let him be mad. Who cares? He did his best.

"I apologize."

"Huh?" Wei Wuxian blinks.

"I misunderstood your motives. I was unfair." The omega stands very still, ducking his head slightly, putting the scent gland on his neck in view. Submissive, placating. It's so fucking weird to see a person like Lan Wangji being submissive. Wei Wuxian knows he could blow up a hydroelectric dam with his pinky finger if he wanted to. He can feel it just standing next to him.

"It's alright." When Lan Wangji still doesn't move, Wei Wuxian pushes on, letting a little of his scent out to soothe his friend. "Really, Lan Zhan. It's fine. It was just a misunderstanding. No big deal. It happens."

"Mn."

The poor guy just looks so damn downcast, and Wei Wuxian feels kind of helpless. He doesn't know Lan Wangji very well yet, but this whole thing with WhatsHisFace obviously hit a tender spot.

"I went over to help because that guy was pissed you turned him down. The front desk of the university library wasn't an appropriate place for him to present you with a courting gift and it wasn't an appropriate place for an argument. I had no idea he'd react like that to me, or embarrass you like that… He's a dick, Lan Zhan."

Lan Wangji huffs, finally relaxing. "He is."

"Yeah! So come on. Your friends who are not dicks are looking forward to getting noodles with you. You can get as many toppings as you want! My treat!"

Wei Wuxian doesn't ask why Lan Wangji got so upset in the first place. Probably he figured Wei Wuxian thought him some kind of helpless damsel trapped in a cage of social convention. It's not for Wei Wuxian to comment on.

Maybe he was out of line. If he'd been in a position like that, even as the alpha he is, he would have appreciated some interference. But as an alpha, nobody would ever reduce him to a person inherently in need of protecting. Ugh, great, now he's doubting his own intentions.

But he can't help but notice the pink tinge to Lan Wangji's ears, or the way he tucks his hair behind both of them at the same time, or how genuinely pleased he seems when Wei Wuxian pays for his noodles even though it doesn't make a financial difference to either of them.

It almost makes him think he might have a shot.

"You absolutely do not have a shot," Luo Qingyang says.

"Oh, come on! I totally have a shot!" He groans slouching so deep in his chair that his chin is tucked against his chest and his legs are sprawled across the floor. "Why don't I have a shot?"

"Because nobody has a shot," Qin Su says, patting his hand. "Wangji hasn't accepted a courting gift in three years, and nobody ever got past the third gift before that. He's not interested. He loves his work, and not even you can compete with his work."

"I can't compete with budgeting for book acquisitions?"

Qin Su pats his hand again, which almost makes up for Luo Qingyang's snort of derision. "Honey, that's his job. His passion is musical cultivation. He's so well-published, his papers could fill a journal and a half."

"Oh. I thought it was the other way around."

"Nope. He's an even bigger and cooler nerd than you."

Yeah, Wei Wuxian definitely can't compete with that. He'd have a chance with a badass cultivator with a very cool job, but not with a badass cultivator with a very cool job and a passion for researching applications of the arts in cultivation.

"Let it go, buddy. Wangji really likes you, just as a friend. That's still special. Not even generally. It's special to him."

Qin Su blinks at him with her large brown eyes, absolutely abusing her cuteness factor, which is almost as strong as Xiuming's. He's so weak for omegas. Stupid biology, making him such a sucker. He wasn't like this before Xiuming learned how to ask for things. It must be her fault. It's just gotta be!

"Can't you just… appreciate him as a friend?" she pleads, and fuck, it's like when Xiuming begs for coffee after school. He just can't say no. Not that he would, in this case, but it's still just so unfair.

"Of course." The disappointment still stings, but he'll get over it. Hopefully. "Lan Zhan is my friend. He'll always be my friend."

The girls look so relieved, and Qin Su immediately dials back the puppy eyes.

Wei Wuxian gets back to slogging away at his shitty attempt at assembling his courses for a discipline that barely exists, questions all of his life choices, gives up, packs his things, says goodbye to Luo Qingyang, Qin Su, and Lan Wangji, and leaves to pick up Xiuming from school.

"What's wrong?" Xiuming asks the moment she gets sin the car. "You smell all sad."

"I was going to ask out someone from work, but he's not interested."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, I'm super bummed. I really like him a lot."

"There are other people. You'll find someone, Ge."

"Yeah…"

The truth is, sometimes Wei Wuxian thinks he missed his window. These days, the economy is good, living is sustainable, the air is clean, and every day the prognosis for life on Earth looks better. Young people divide into two groups: people who mate young and have pups, and people who don't mate and devote their time to pioneering new fields of study or making art. Wei Wuxian had hoped to land in the first category, but he tripped into the second while trying to make himself a more appealing candidate for the first, and now he's over thirty and might just be stuck.

He absolutely loves his work, and he's excited to teach and keep building upon what he's made, and he thinks it's cool as fuck that some people devote every ounce of their life to their work, but he wants the other stuff too.

He wants what his parents have. He wants pups who have what he and his sister have. He wants love, sex, intimacy, pups, and a mate to share his thoughts and feelings with in a way he can't with his parents and won't with his sister.

Looks like he extended the 'questioning his life choices' portion of his schedule for today.

"A boy gave me a courting gift today," Xiuming admits.

"Yeah? Did you take it?"

"… No. It was sweet. He bought me some really pretty hair pins. I liked them. But I don't know if I want to court anybody. I haven't decided yet, and it wouldn't be fair to say yes if I wasn't sure."

"You're such a good kid." He lifts her hand so he can kiss her wrist and rub his cheek against it.

"Still felt so bad about it. He looked really sad."

"Romance sucks, kiddo." Her sweet, dark oolong, honey, and peach scent mingles with his. It's immediately comforting, a reminder that he has a pack, and their bonds are strong. "Wanna get coffee and takeout about it?"

"Yes please." And there's that damn puppy-eyed look again. Jeez, can all omegas do this, or is Wei Wuxian really, truly just a fucking sucker?

Watching his sister happily slurp tapioca and custard out of an iced coffee while he orders fried chicken for delivery, he knows he's a fucking sucker. He's a weak, pathetic sucker and all the omegas in his life can smell it on him.

Xiuming passes over a matcha drink with strawberry puree and red bean at the bottom before snuggling up to him on the couch and turning on a Western drama about two alpha hockey players, and then turning it off twenty minutes later. He just can't watch something like that with his teenage sister. It's too weird.

"I… swear I thought people were exaggerating," she says.

"Watch it separately and then yap about it over the weekend?"

"Agreed. Wanna re-watch Hotel De Luna again?"

"Sure."

They end up passed out on the couch, Xiuming snuggled into his side and purring in his ear. It's a pretty nice night, all told.

Chapter Text

Lan Wangji overheard Wei Wuxian ask about courting him. Or rather, about whether he has 'a shot'. He is aware that people outside of the Jianghu do not adhere to traditional (see also: antiquated) courting rituals, but he has no idea what 'a shot' entails. 'A shot' at what? Courting? A sexual encounter? Wei Wuxian might have 'a shot', but that depends very much on what he's aiming at.

For the very first time in his life, he actually wishes someone would court him. Courting comes with rules. There are predetermined rituals and expectations. As an omega who does not approach others, courting is easy for him. Pushing all of the historical political nuances and strong-arming aside, all Lan Wangji ever learned to do when it comes to courting is look pretty and accept or decline gifts until his suitor inevitably disappoints him.

He has no idea what he's meant to do with the nebulous potential of 'a shot'. Or with the fact that Wei Wuxian agreed so easily not to bother with it after all.

That's deeply irritating, more so than the flaky courtship practices of the layfolk. Lan Wangji is his own person. Why ask his friends when he's right across the hall? Why give up so easily?

(Why not tell Wei Wuxian to march his ass across that hall and ask him himself? But that's a completely separate conversation he already knows how to have.)

It's as bewildering as it is frustrating. It's been a very long, miserable week.

So he does exactly what a man of thirty-one should do, and cries to his brother about it at their next movie night.

Xichen spends a good minute laughing at him, which is somewhat fair but very cruel.

"It is not that funny," he mutters. He's crosslegged on the floor, Dawn and Dusk asleep on a heating pad in his lap while he adds calligraphy to his brother's latest watercolor painting.

"You're upset," Lan Xichen summarizes, in a sort of incredulous tone that implies Lan Wangji is being ridiculous, "because you have friends who reinforce your boundaries, and when this alpha - who is objectively very talented, very handsome, and very rich - learned of that boundary… he respected it. Wangji, if this is your biggest problem right now, your life must be just about perfect."

Xichen chuckles, but Lan Wangji's stomach twists. This is far from his biggest problem in life, but he hasn't confided much in his brother lately. Xichen doubtless has so many burdens already. It seems selfish to add to them.

His eyes land automatically on the rabbits, the ridges of their spines and their patchy fur.

Gently, he shifts them off his lap to rest safely under the coffee table. He collects his calligraphy set and carries it into the kitchen. Xichen follows after him, detecting the slight bittering of his scent.

"I'm sorry, Wangji. I was only teasing, but that wasn't kind."

"No, I understand. My problems are ones I made myself."

"That is not what I mean." Xichen hums, folding his hands in front of him, thinking. "Perhaps I have adopted our parents' habit of diminishing your work. I know you work hard, and that you find your work fulfilling. I suppose I just… I had assumed that we would always be together."

Lan Wangji rinses the ink from his brushes, watching the black water pool in the bottom of the sink before slipping down the drain. Droplets of stained water cling to the brushed steel sides, and he washes them away with the spray nozzle so they won't dry and adhere to the steel.

He had never once assumed that, ever. He's an omega. His future, according to his Sect, his family, and even the tabloids, is to have a useful marriage and be carted off to someone else's family to bear pups and reduce his career down to a hobby - likely performing a song at family gatherings and curating an antique book collection for his dominant parent-in-law.

He doesn't know how to explain this inevitability to his brother, so chooses words that are close enough to the feeling of it.

"I did not leave to hurt you."

"I know that! I do! I just don't understand why you would ever want to be anywhere else."

"Xiongzhang..."

Lan Wangji leans on the sink, collecting his thoughts. His brother is a beta. He is the embodiment of balance and stability. His body exists in a state of constant quiet, never ruled by mating cycles or drives. His calling in life, in a pack, is to keep order and peace. If he takes a mate, it will be a simple matter of compatibility, not of instinct or hormones or the other muddy contents of Lan Wangji's own waters.

"Do you remember the night at the opera house?" he asks, staring into the drain like the answers to all of his problems might blink back at him from the depths.

"I remember many nights at the opera house. Which one are you thinking of?"

"Do you remember the man who wanted to buy me for his daughter?"

Xichen stiffens. "No, I don't remember this. When did this happen?"

"I was twelve."

The air conditioning kicks up, a blast of chilly air coursing over them. Even so, Xichen's sharp inhale is plenty audible. He says nothing, so Lan Wangji continues.

"It is… challenging. To be a son and brother, and also an asset. A commodity. I needed. Distance. From that."

Lan Wangji retrieves one of the cloths in the cupboard above the sink. He watches it pass over the beads of water, leaving behind tracks and streaks until it gets wet enough to draw all the moisture together. He turns the cloth over, polishing the steel until it gleams.

"It was never your fault. Nor Muqin's. Nor Fuqin's. Or Shufu's. Our people are much slower to change. I have faith that we will, given time. I also have faith in myself, that I can exist in the world as a whole person, not only as an omega or a second son."

He turns to his brother, who somehow looks so small standing in the dim, warmth of the light above the stove, his oversized pajama bottoms pooling around his feet and his oversized robe hanging down to his fingers. There's a lost, painfully young expression on his face that reminds Lan Wangji that growth and maturity don't just happen.

It's as long and constant a process as life itself.

"But you are still those things, Wangji. You can't just push them aside and try to forget them."

"If I wanted to forget, you would not be here!" The air scrapes between them. He lets a bit of his scent out, warm and soothing - two traits he would not apply to himself, but evidently must exist in him somewhere. "Forgive me. I… have been struggling of late."

"No, I'm sorry." Xichen looks tired, sad. "I don't understand your experiences. I should not pretend."

"I do not dislike being an omega. I am proud to be a second son, and your brother. I am not trying to forget you. I am simply trying to learn the rest of me."

Lan Wangji wonders what it must be like to be Lan Xichen, Zewu-jun, who knows himself so easily. Maybe that's the benefit of being the first born: to grow up with a fixed point in space, knowing who you are and who you will become. Or maybe Xichen is just like that. Maybe he has always known who he is under his own power, and found peace in that knowing.

"Have you learned anything recently?" Xichen asks, caution in every word.

"I have a double standard," Lan Wangji admits, grateful for the olive branch. "I despise alphas who presume my interest. However, I also find it irritating that Wei Wuxian does not presume my interest."

Lan Xichen laughs. "Do you like him?"

"I believe I may. I do not know him well."

"If you want to know him, maybe you should tell him that."

"Mm…"

"You can't be upset because all of these alphas assume they deserve your time and then also be upset when an alpha who does deserve your time respects that you've made it very clear you want them all to fuck off and leave you to your work."

"Why not?" Yes, he is being petulant about this.

Lan Xichen laughs, voice sweet and melodic. "People are not mind readers, Wangji, and you are difficult for strangers to read. Courting rituals put the majority of effort on the suitor. If you want to participate in the wider world, why not take the first step yourself?"

"Perhaps…"

"However." Xichen rolls a calligraphy brush between his fingers. "Do be careful. His plans are obscure. He may have ulterior motives."

"I believe he does," Lan Wangji agrees easily. "But they do not involve me."

"How can you be sure?"

"He is… chatty." Lan Wangji waits while his brother dissolves into peals of laughter. "If he has ulterior designs against me, someone would have heard about it by now." He fills the tea kettle.

"You're not worried he wants to use you for upper mobility?"

"Mn. He wants to prove himself capable of participating in society, but his behavior is not that of someone seeking societal improvement. I would know."

"Yes, I suppose you would." Xichen sighs. "Is the rest of your work going well? What have you been up to?"

Lan Wangji blinks. Xichen has asked, briefly, 'how is work?' It has always been perfunctory small talk, a question that says more than it asks: I hope you are well. I care about you, and by extension, the things you do.

This is far more direct. Effort, Lan Wangji realizes. His brother cannot understand his experiences as an omega, but he can understand what it's like to be an academic person.

"Busy. Summer semesters are faster paced, so there is more teaching work to do, even if the classes are asynchronous. Our grant application to open a pleasure reading collection where Special Collections used to be was approved, so we have moved to the acquisition phase. It eats into my research time. I've yet to test my exhibition piece. Additionally, I have discovered that the library administration is deeply ineffective, and am taking measures to improve it."

"That sounds stressful."

"It is." Lan Wangji frowns. The water in the kettle has cooled substantially, so he reheats it. In the meantime, he reaches for a large, orange bottle of liquid pain relief and two small, plastic syringes. "I work from home more, in the evenings. Dawn and Dusk are declining more rapidly, and Lan Junling has recommended keeping them to a stricter routine."

The kettle clicks, and Lan Wangji prepares chamomile and peppermint tea with one hand and shakes the orange bottle of liquid suspension with the other.

"I am trying to spend as much time with them as possible," he admits.

"I'm sorry, Didi."

"It is life," he murmurs, watching the chamomile buds unfurl in his mug. "It happens to everything."

Xichen turns to Dawn and Dusk, still sleeping on the heating pad under the dining table. Lan Wangji carefully draws the right amount of medicine into the syringes.

"And an alpha tried to give me a Cartier bracelet as a courting gift. At the library front desk. During a busy hour."

"Whatever happened to getting to know somebody? Reading the room?"

"Hmph. Do you know of Nils Errson?" He pads over to Dawn and Dusk, gently lifting Dawn onto his lap and rubbing her head until she wakes. "His family is in technology in Sweden."

"No. Was he your attempted suitor?"

Lan Wangji regales his brother with the story in detail while he gives the rabbits their medication: the lazy, impersonal gift while he was very visibly busy, the immediate affront at Lan Wangji's refusal, Wei Wuxian stepping in to de-escalate and seducing Errson with a single word and dazzling smile. And his highly effective dismissal.

"That must be quite the smile."

"It is."

"But also… What the fuck?"

"Mn."

"Wangji, what the fuck?"

"I don't know."

"Poor Wei Wuxian," Xichen chuckles. "He went over to help and stepped right in it."

Lan Wangji scoffs, which only makes his brother laugh more.

Truthfully, he's still embarrassed by his misplaced jealousy. It had been a very difficult day, but still. Wei Wuxian had seduced Errson so easily, with his beautiful smile and open disposition, and he hadn't been interested in anything except helping Lan Wangji out of an uncomfortable, and very public, situation.

Not that Lan Wangji had any right to be jealous to begin with. He's not courting Wei Wuxian.

But he could be, if he didn't present himself as such a stuffy, jaded brat.

He better get on it before someone else does.

Dawn and Dusk are once again cuddled up together under the coffee table, but now they're grooming each other.

"Ge?"

"Hm?"

"I'm fairly certain Dawn and Dusk are pets."

Xichen dissolves into another fit of giggles until his cheeks are flushed and there's a stitch in his side.

"Ridiculous."

Xichen grins, brushing loose hair out of his far. "They are absolutely pets, Wangji. You're the only one who ever thought otherwise."

"Mn." Lan Wangji drags his socked toe along the floor. "Would you. Care? To spend the night?"

The sheer delight in his brother's scent turns so sweet and warm that even his lighter beta pheromones diffuse through the living space. "I'd love to."

They missed each other, he realizes. Despite everything, the missed each other.

It's only much later, when they're both settled in, his sleeping brother's softer, more subtle sandalwood and jasmine scent floating over him, sinking into his nest, that Lan Wangji realizes he never asks Xichen about his life and doings either.

Weekends are for playing catch up.

Specifically, they're for catching up on all the things that go into being alive that didn't happen during the week. In this case, Wei Wuxian scrubs the kitchen within an inch of its life while his sister sorts the absolute mess of mail, homework, print-outs, and random shit that's accumulated on the table.

"Oh look. Another coupon for yet another seafood restaurant." Xiuming glares at the offending flyer before tossing it in the recycle.

"Welcome to Shandong," Wei Wuxian mutters, taking out his own food-related frustrations on a chili oil stain stubbornly stuck in the grout.

"It won't even be spicy!! I miss the food back home."

"Yeah..."

Wei Wuxian misses it too. He misses the rich, spicy flavors of Hunan badly. Not that the food in Shandong isn't good in its own right, but it's different, and not to their taste.

Hunan is landlocked. There's some fish, of course, but mostly pork and chicken. Here on the coast of Shandong, it's all seafood all the time (this is a slight exaggeration) and he's tired of it. Sea cucumbers, abalone, prawns, crabs, scallops, squid, braised fish, fried fish, steamed fish, dried fish. Food is savory, but rarely spicy. Instead of rice, there's maize and millet and wheat and bread.

There's so much fucking bread. He's never seen so much bread in his life.

"Did you know rice is for poor people, apparently?" Xiuming says. "According to one of my classmates."

"I've heard that. Did you know rice is delicious?"

"I've heard that too," Xiuming laughs. "But the little flatbreads stuffed with red bean are good."

"Oh, really? I wouldn't know since you ate them all."

"Payback for eating my youtiao."

"You left it in the car!"

"Lies! Excuses!" Xiuming dumps a stack of paper in the trash. "Victim blaming!"

Wei Wuxian rolls his eyes. "Whatever. If you're done with the mail, could you take care of the bathroom counter? It looks like a makeup bomb went off in there."

"Yeah, fair. If I can borrow your Bunny Blush Clio."

"You can have it. I meant to order a different shade. That one makes me look like a ghost."

"Your loss, my gain." Xiuming grins. "Oh, also! Auntie Yu texted me. She said to be an adult and call her."

"'Kay." Wei Wuxian scrubs the grout harder as his sister leaves the room, muttering under his breath. "I'm fucking busy as all shit, but sure, I'll just drop everything for a lecture about everything I've ever done wrong in my entire life."

He dries up the floor and shoves the cleaning supplies back under the sink. Irritated, he drags out the vacuum and attacks the living room floor with it.

He does not want to engage with whatever crap Yu Ziyuan has ready for him. Whatever it is, she will be 100% correct, it will be a complete hassle, and he just needs a damn minute, okay?

It's for the best, Wei Wuxian supposes, that Lan Wangji is summarily not interested in him. He'd just let him down - too busy, too scattered, too stubborn, too much.

It's all just too much.

He needs to pull it together.

Xiuming screams.

"Ge!!!"

Shit. Wei Wuxian clears the living room with a leap, sliding in his socks down the hallway toward the shared bathroom.

"What is it? What happened-" The sink is bleeding. "Oh, for fuck's sake!"

The sink is bleeding.

The sink is bleeding.

Thick, dark blood oozes out from the cupboard and all over the floor, soaked into the bath rug. Note to self: Don't buy red bath rugs in case the sink starts bleeding.

"What is it?! Ge, what's doing this?!" Xiuming is freaked, and that's fair.

"Alright, don't freak out. It's either a haunt or there was a murder upstairs. We'll handle it."

See, living in a crappy, two-bedroom flat for thirty years, Wei Wuxian learned a good deal and developed a good number of habits that no longer apply to his life or new, three-bedroom apartment with new fixtures. One of those things is to always keep a basin under sinks to catch leaking water. Unfortunately, this means that he has no idea how long the sink has been bleeding.

Squatting on the sodden, copper-stinking bath rug, Wei Wuxian opens the cupboard. It's… gross. The basin is indeed overflowing, full of thick, congealed sludge that stinks with a hint of rot. The blood spills over the top, running down the sides of the basin in tacky layers of droplets. It's pooled all over the bottom of the cupboard, puddling around cleaning products and backup bottles of shampoo and conditioner.

It's still dripping from the pipe.

"Well that's nasty. Mei, go get the toolbox from the laundry room please, a small plastic cup from the cabinet, and check under the kitchen sink for some latex gloves."

Xiuming scurries off, rattling around in the laundry room before returning with a battered metal tackle box probably older than their dad and the other items Wei Wuxian requested.

"Alright." He snaps on a pair of the gloves and passes her the box. "What comes first?"

"Assess."

"Good, go ahead."

Xiuming's eyes glint as she leans over to get a look under the sink, kneeling next to her brother in the blood. "No imminent danger. No heavy miasma. No visible enemies."

"Nice. So what's next?"

"Investigate."

"What should we investigate first?"

"The rate of the bleeding?"

"Hm… Sure, alright."

"Is that what you'd do?" Xiuming asks, looking at him.

"No, but that's okay. What do you think?"

"Um…" Xiuming wrinkles her nose, fumbling in the tackle box for a flashlight. The cold light makes the blood look dark and sinister. "Slow drip. Steady. So probably not anything imminently dangerous. It's not an attack."

"Great job. Is there anything else to inspect?"

"The pipes?"

"And?"

"And… What?"

"The blood. It had to come from somewhere, right? Is it natural? Unnatural? Fresh? Old? Warm? Cold?"

"How do you inspect blood?" Xiuming wrinkles her face at the basin of blood.

"Look at it first. What do you observe?"

"It's a mix of old and fresh blood. It's got clots in it, and is somewhat congealed, but it's dripping fresh from the pipe. It looks dark, so it's not oxygenated. Venous or dead blood." She lays a hand on the side of the basin. "Feels room temperature, but it could be warm coming from the leak."

"What else can you do to inspect it?"

"… You're going to make me smell the blood, aren't you?"

"Yup."

Xiuming groans, sticking her head into the cupboard to give it a sniff.

"Well?" Wei Wuxian asks.

"I smell rot, metal, salt… Something kind of animalic and bitter- Oh! It smells like yao!"

"Great job!" Wei Wuxian grins.

"Ge, I think there's a yao in the pipes!"

"That's a really good guess. Would you like to do the honors?" Wei Wuxian asks.

"Yeah, alright."

"Sweet, okay. I'll be right here to talk you through it and help if you need me. Okay?"

"Okay."

Wei Wuxian wiggles back a bit to give his sister more room. She goes straight for the slipnut.

"Woah, okay! Wait a minute."

She looks back at him over her shoulder. "Don't we need to open the pipe?"

"Yeah, but you see this here?" Wei Wuxian points to the bottom curve of the pipe. "This is called a J-bend or a sink trap. Water hangs out in this part of the pipe, full to the top, to keep sewage and gas from coming back up. But see how the blood is dripping from that part?"

"Ohhh, so if I pop this off, a whole bunch of crud is gonna come out?"

"Yep!" Wei Wuxian leans back again. "Normally, not a huge deal, but in this case, if the contents of the pipe mix with the blood pool, we might miss something important."

"So we should empty the basin first."

"Good idea."

Xiuming reaches for the overflowed basin, and Wei Wuxian prepares himself for the mess to follow, but his sister -his brilliant, clever little sister- remembers Wei Wuxian's request for a little plastic cup, and uses it to bail the crud out of the basin and into the toilet until it's empty enough to dump without spilling. The toilet flushes itself in response to the liquid volume.

Xiuming places the basin back under the sink trap. "Next?"

"Now we can open the pipe. These here-" Wei Wuxian points to the little rings connect the PVC pipes together. "-are called slipnuts. There's a flexible washer inside that keeps them watertight. You should be able to get them loose with your hands, but you might need a wrench if it's too slippery."

"Okay."

Xiuming struggles with the nut for a minute, her small hands not quite able to get a good grip at first, but after a moment, she adjusts, and the nut comes loose. She does the same to the other end, and the trap pops off with a gush of blood and a sickly splat into the basin.

"Oh, ew!"

Wei Wuxian leans around her shoulder. In the basin, quivering and hissing, is a very unhappy rat yao. Rat yao are harmless on their own - they might eat strange things, attack small urban wildlife, and apparently summon a few gallons of dead blood when angry, but they're more of an inconvenience than anything else.

It's when they all come together to form their nest societies that they become a problem.

"Poor little buddy," Wei Wuxian coos. Xiuming looks at him like he's insane. "Probably got stuck and started oozing blood as a stress response."

"Gross."

"Let's clean everything up and figure out why the sink was leaking. Our little friend might've tried chewing its way out."

"Do not call it a friend."

Ignoring his sister's pointed look, Wei Wuxian drops the rat yao in the tub, watches to make sure it can't escape, and washes the pipes at the other end.

"Yeah, see?" He shows his sister where the yao chewed into the pipe, nut, and rubber washer. "I'll call the super and tell them what parts we need. We can use Mama and Baba's bathroom or the kitchen sink in the meantime."

Together with his sister, they close off the water line to the sink to prevent any mistakes and clean up the blood, rinsing the bath mat clear in the tub before shoving it in the washing machine. The rat yao glares at them with glowing red eyes from the far end, occasionally trying and failing to scurry up the sloped sides of the tub and painting the enamel with bloody streaks in the process.

Xiuming scrapes the blood in the cupboard and on the floor into a dust pan and dumps it in the toilet before wiping up the rest with hydrogen peroxide and rags made from old clothes. Wei Wuxian takes it upon himself to don some heavier duty rubber gloves and clean up the rat yao with warm water and shampoo in the tub.

The rat yao fights him the entire time, wiggling and trying to lash him with the miniscule spines on its tail. It's nasty blackened teeth click with each attempt to bite, and it's dark red eyes glow with anger. It's still secreting blood, of course.

"Come on, little guy," Wei Wuxian huffs, dodging more teeth. "You gotta work with me here."

"I can't believe you're bathing a rat yao."

"He's had a hard day."

"Aren't we going to kill it?"

"Nah, it's just one. We'll put him outside."

"But he could make a nest or-!"

"He could, but right now he's just a solitary rat yao that got stuck in a pipe. We don't hunt things that might become dangerous but aren't currently, mei. That's a very slippery slope to just hunting for the sake of hunting. We can do better than that." He finally gets ahead of the blood and bundles the struggling yao in a hand towel, rubbing him dry. "He might go back to his nest and tell them how delicious we smell. He might also just go back to living in a burrow, find his peace with whatever happened to him, eat weird shit for a while, and eventually make his grave in a wall somewhere. He deserves that chance."

Xiuming stares at him, and then at the rat yao, who seems to have settled now that he's clean and dry.

"If it comes back with its nest, you're on your own."

"Fair enough!" Wei Wuxian laughs. "I'll put him outside."

He takes the rat downstairs and out to the middle courtyard. It's bright and green, and each apartment has a small garden plot. Wei Wuxian sets the rat yao among his own pack's long beans and red beans, taking the opportunity to snag a few eggplants.

"Be good, little buddy. Eat some beans, okay?"

He sets a red bean pod in front of the animal. The rat yao stares at him, very still, his tiny little hands on his tail.

He can feel the creature's eyes on him as he heads back into the building.

Back in the apartment, he meets his sister in the laundry room. They strip and shove their bloody clothes in with the rest of the casualties.

"Hey." He squeezes her shoulders, tucking her against his side and rubbing his cheek along her scalp. She nuzzles into his shoulder. "You killed it in there."

"I didn't even get to use my sword or a spell or anything."

"Sometimes you don't need to. Knowing when to use your weapons and when to use your brain is a skill that some grown adult cultivators never develop." He kisses the top of her head. "You go long, I'll go short?"

"You bet!"

Xiuming takes off for the untouched master bathroom in their parents' room, and Wei Wuxian showers in their formerly bloody shared bathroom. He stinks of blood, and scrubs his skin until it's red. When he finally smells like ginger and mint soap instead of stinky coins, he steps out of the shower-

And very nearly kills himself slipping on the bare floor.

"Fucking shit!" He massages his throbbing hip, hissing through his teeth.

He sighs, sitting on the cold floor, hair sticking to his skin in dripping tendrils.

"I would really like a fucking break, please. If there's like, a Shen of tired academics or something, could I please just get a fucking break?"

Wei Wuxian does not get a break, fucking or otherwise, but he wakes up on Sunday morning with the rat yao sleeping on his pillow.

Xiuming cackles like hyena, endlessly amused by his fortune.

Shen of Tired Academics or Something, this isn't exactly what I had in mind…

Chapter Text

After the tense but ultimately enjoyable night with his brother, Lan Wangji spent the rest of the weekend in peace and quiet. He cuddled Dawn and Dusk in his nest while the cleaners came, took a scalding hot bath, masturbated a few times, graded another wave of papers, drank a lot of tea, read a book, dismantled and rebuilt his nest, and cuddled his bunnies some more.

By the time Monday morning rolls around, he's feeling much better. There's still a heavy little nugget of grief rolling around inside him, but it's bearable. He actually isn't supposed to be here today, and it might make him late for brunch, but he has some business to take care of.

"Wangji?" Luo Qingyang blinks, surprised. His calendar is blocked off for the morning and he rarely bothers the girls in their office. "What are you-"

Lan Wangji sits in one of the extra chairs, watching them both over the top of his glasses. Both women sit up a little straighter. He is still irritated, but looking at his friends, he feels mostly affection.

"First, I want you both to know how much I appreciate you. Not only are you excellent coworkers, you are also excellent friends. It means a lot that you would look out for me. However…" Lan Wangji makes eye contact with each of them in turn. "Next time someone asks if they have a 'shot' with me or anything of the kind, please just tell them to ask me directly. It will save me a world of trouble."

"Ah." Qin Su winces. "Sorry. Noted."

"Sorry, Wangji."

"It is fine. I understand you wanted to help, but I can and will speak for myself." He smiles. "Thank you. Both of you."

"Of course," Qin Su says. "Do you need anything?"

"No. I came to talk to you, hit on an alpha, and be late for brunch. Have a great day."

Luo Qingyang blows him a kiss. Qin Su curses and reaches for her phone. Lan Wangji does not ask. He doesn't want to know.

Instead, he heads downstairs, out of the library, across the mall to Cultivation Research and Development, and works his way to Wei Wuxian's office. When he arrives, Wei Wuxian slams his desk drawer closed, bracing his knee against it.

"Good morning."

"Lan Zhan!" The alpha smiles at him. He looks… guilty? Best not to ask what's in his desk. "Hi, good morning! Do you want some tea? Green. It's nice! Tastes like… green? I dunno, A-Ming said it's a good one."

"I can't today. I have an engagement. I'm sorry." And he is. Very much so.

"Oh. Well, that's okay. Next time." The drawer rustles. Neither of them acknowledge it.

Now that Lan Wangji knows the alpha is interested, it's so obvious. He's literally blushing just from seeing him, following him with his body like a sunflower following the sun.

Cute.

"I had a question, before I head out." And now Lan Wangji is blushing too, ears hot.

"Sure, how can I help?"

Lan Wangji accepts Wei Wuxian's offer of his own already cooled mug of tea, sipping at it lightly. The tea itself is a very nice green, if not very well-prepared. Sweet, and like blanched spinach.

"Mn. I am curious… When are you going to present me with a courting gift?"

"Oh." And his smile falters. Lan Wangji can't help but be a little giddy about it. "I'm not going to. Luo Qingyang and Qin Su said you weren't interested in courting. I won't bother you."

"But you wanted to. I overheard as much."

"Don't worry about it, Lan Zhan. Seriously. My feelings are mine to deal with, not yours. I'm glad we're friends."

Wei Wuxian picks his smile back up, determined to sell it for him. And he means it. He so obviously wants Lan Wangji to let it go instead of pushing on his sore feelings some more. Xichen was right - Lan Wangji is ridiculous.

"I'd accept one, if it was from you."

"Really?"

"If you can promise to ask me instead of my friends the next time you want to know how I feel about you."

And the alpha's face breaks open like a sunrise. "Really, really?"

"Mn."

"Seriously?"

"Mn."

"Okay!" He's grinning so wide. It's so cute. "I'll - Yeah! I'll get you a gift. And. Yeah, I guess that was super dumb, huh? Sorry."

"Good." He tucks his hair behind both of his pinked ears. "I look forward to it."

They stand there, smiling at each other for a long moment, and then Lan Wangji's watch buzzes to remind him to leave. He takes one more sip of Wei Wuxian's tea, hands it back, and hustles off to brunch.

Over frittata at the fancy Western restaurant his parents prefer when they visit, he debates telling them about Wei Wuxian. Ultimately, the decision is made for him.

"Oh, Wangji." Lan Mingzhi, professionally known as Qingheng-zun, pours his wife a second mimosa. "Your mother and I have been talking, and we have someone we would like you to meet. A very nice alpha around your age has changed his mind about pursuing a career full-time, and is looking to start a family. We believe you may like him and would like you to agree to a meeting. There is a gala next week in Dublin-"

"Fuqin," Lan Wangji interrupts as politely as he can before his father gets further into his sales pitch. "I have someone I am interested in."

His mother, father, and uncle pause what they're doing to gawk at him like he declared he was going to be the first to fly his sword to Mars.

That's so fucking rude.

"Oh, that's wonderful, dear," his mother, Liu Ruming, says, recovering first. "Will you tell us about him?"

Lan Wangji hesitates. He isn't sure of his family's opinion, except for Xichen, who seems politically cautious but also eager for Lan Wangji's happiness. On the other hand, his parents and uncle are shocked at the mere idea that Lan Wangji could express and be granted mutual interest in another human being, all on his own, which he finds rather irritating.

"You are familiar with Wei Wuxian?"

Lan Qiren drops his fork. His mother nearly spills her mimosa. His father overturns the butter tray with his elbow.

Lan Wangji is going to remember this moment forever. He's going to think about it in the dead of night, after he's got Wei Wuxian married and mated and locked down permanently (huge leap, but he's feeling petty), and he's going to rub it in forever that, yes, his incredibly awkward, emotionally constipated ass pulled a better alpha than his parents could ever scheme of throwing at him.

But for now, he's going to sit here, in silence, and watch his father try to get fresh butter out of the sleeve of his linen suit jacket. Xichen reaches to get a napkin, and Lan Wangji grabs his wrist to stop him. Let the legendary Qingheng-jun lose his greatest battle. Milk solids: 1. Qingheng-jun: 0.

"Wangji dear, I wasn't aware that you even knew Wei Wuxian," his mother says, because she has twice the wit as her husband or brother-in-law. This isn't Lan Wangji being ungenerous. They all know she's the smartest out of the five of them.

"Mn. Administration neglected to mention his arrival. He and I have been working closely to ensure he has the materials he needs for classes he will be teaching come Fall semester, and I have been teaching him how to use the coursework platforms and how to construct a syllabus. We have spent much time together in the past two weeks."

"Two weeks?!" Lan Qiren croaks. "Wangji, you've known him only two weeks?"

"Mn." He sips his orange juice. "Is there a problem?"

"We don't know Wei Wuxian," Qingheng-Jun says. "His family is unknown. His life is obscure. He has only just risen to prominence, and in a most alarming fashion."

"I know more about Wei Wuxian than I do about your prospective in Dublin." Parents really are exhausting creatures. "He is intelligent. Talented. Wealthy. He has a teenage omega sister whom he adores. His father is a rogue cultivator formerly of the YungmengJiang Sect. His mother is a rogue cultivator who studied under Baoshan Sanren. She is Baoshan Sanren's adoptive daughter, as well. He referred to Baoshan Sanren as his grandmother."

Again, silence from his parents. They stare at him much the way he had stared at Wei Wuxian when he explained his relationship with The Mountain.

"Preposterous!" Lan Qiren finally chokes out. "There is absolutely no way the boy is telling the truth! Basoshan Sanren as a grandmother, ha! Baoshan Sanren does not allow outsiders to visit her lair, let alone call her 'grandmother'."

"Shufu, 'the boy' is a man over thirty, and accomplished in his own right. And we have no reason to doubt him - everything we know of The Mountain is pure speculation."

"His accomplishments do not mean his supposed grandmother is an immortal! Those things are not inclusive!"

"Qiren," Liu Ruming soothes, brushing their wrists together. "Wangji just spoke multiple sentences at once. He's obviously taken with the man. Baobei, when will we get to meet him?"

"I invited him to present courting gifts this morning. He intended to keep his interest unknown, as he heard I was not interested in courting others. You will meet him when the time is right."

Another long, unfairly astonished pause.

"Xichen, what do you think of Wei Wuxian?" Lan Mingzhi asks just as Lan Qiren has taken a breath, probably to scold Lan Wangji for being inappropriate and too forward with an alpha.

"I have not met him, so I hesitate to pass judgement, but I have heard plenty of good things." Lan Xichen smiles that smile of his that offers precisely nothing. "I wish him luck in keeping Wangji's regard."

Lan Wangji does not roll his eyes, but it's a near thing. At least his brother has some faith in him.

His phone buzzes next to him on the table, and Lan Wangji chooses to answer it so his family has time to recover their manners.

"Wei Ying, hello."

"Are you busy right now?"

"Not very. My family is preoccupied with something, so I have a few moments. What do you need?"

"I'm trying to find the university's Mogao database you showed me. In my hubris, I told myself I'd be able to find it myself again later… And, uh. It's later."

Lan Wangji huffs, a smile curling his lips. "Go to the university library website."

"Okay. Now what?"

"Select 'Databases'." He takes a bite of his omelet. "Oh. Are you logged in as an administrator?"

"Yes. Okay, then what?"

"Choose 'Guides by Subject' and then 'Interdisciplinary/Miscellaneous Cultivation'. There should be a 'Tapestries, Translations, and Transcriptions - Mogao Library Online'."

"Oh, yes! There it is! Thank you!" Then, Wei Wuxian's tone changes from his bright chirp to something warmer and almost clandestine. "I'm trying to get some work done, but my mind keeps wandering. I can't stop thinking about gifts to get for a persnickety librarian. Got any ideas, Gege?"

"Hm. You're a researcher. Do some research." Wei Wuxian cackles, and Lan Wangji's heart goes all warm and fluttery. "I should return to my family now. If you need any more help with your work, Qin Su and Luo Qingyang should be available in my stead."

"Thanks, Lan Zhan!"

Wei Wuxian hangs up, and Lan Wangji serenely ignores his family's stares as he continues to eat his breakfast. The coffee here is actually quite good. Mellow, sweet, complex… a hint of caramel, something a touch floral. He washes his own smug satisfaction down before turning to his still, silent family.

"I apologize. As I said, there are some… unusual circumstances, ones which I am largely responsible for managing."

"Yes, I'm sure you're suffering greatly," Lan Mingzhu teases.

"It is stressful, Fuqin."

"That's true," Xichen cuts in. "Wangji's reputation as Head of Collections Management currently hinges ability to provide proper reference materials for Wei Wuxian's teaching and research. Regardless of Wei Wuxian's interest in pursuing a relationship, this is still a serious challenge."

Lan Wangji nudges his brother's wrist with his own, scenting him as subtly as he can.

"This is the fault of that pompous slut, Jin Guangshan," Lan Qiren grumbles, stabbing his arugula salad with unnecessary force.

"Mn. I believe he did it on purpose. I do not understand why."

"Because he's a spoiled brat. An adulterous, disgusting lech who-"

"Didi. That's enough. Wangji's poor prospective beau in Dublin might not have heard you."

"He is not prospective," Lan Wangji sniffs at his father. "Does he even speak Mandarin?"

"Of course not, Wangji, don't be ridiculous." Lan Qiren huffs. "But you speak English. He speaks Gaelic and English. Your children could be trilingual. And, on occasion, see their fraternal grandmother."

Lan Wangji drops his glasses to hang around his neck so he can pinch the bridge of his nose. He's never telling his family anything again.

By the time he escapes brunch with his family, Wei Wuxian has left for the day.

"He went to pick up his sister. He's working from home this evening." Luo Qingyang does not bother to look up from her computer. "You know, instead of following after you like yet another love-sick puppy."

"Mn…"

"He already came in crowing about his luck, and ruminating out loud about what gift to give you. We gave him nothing," Qin Su says, and she does bother to look at him. "We'll make him work for it."

Lan Wangji's heart warms. These women really are just the loveliest.

Qin Su and Luo Qingyang might be Wei Wuxian's friends, but they obviously belong to Lan Wangji. Meaning: They were happy for him, and gave him exactly zero information. Which is fair. He didn't expect them to, after Lan Wangji's gentle reprimand.

Honestly, he's just glad none one noticed he brought a rat yao to work with him.

But they're not the only girls in his life, and he can think of one in particular that would be thrilled to meddle in his affairs.

"You pulled a Lan?!" Xiuming gapes at him. "Like, a Lan Lan?"

At last! Proper acknowledgement of his achievements in life!

"I mean, not yet. I haven't even given him a courting gift."

Xiuming narrows her eyes, probably trying to decide if her brother is, in fact, secretly a dog.

"Explain."

Wei Wuxian fills his sister in while he ferries their dinner over to the coffee table: stir-fried pork and chilis, stir-fried eggplant and long beans, braised lotus root, and rice. The rat yao is chewing on a slice of eggplant on his shoulder.

"I guess he's kind of known for not accepting any courting proposals these days, and even when he did it never lasted long? Something about nobody making it past the third gift? I don't know what that means, though."

"Huh. How close is this Lan Zhan to the main family?"

"Oh, uh. He… is? The main family?"

Another long stare. "Explain."

"Lan Zhan is Lan Wangji."

"Hanguang-jun? That Lan Wangji?" Xiuming carefully sets down a piece of long bean. The rat yao leaps forward and snatches it from her plate. "As in the second heir and precious omega son of the GusuLan Sect Leader Qingheng-jun himself?"

"That would be the one." Wow, he's going to present a courting gift to someone with an honorific. He can't wait to tell Jiang Cheng about this…

"Oh my sweet, stupid big brother, you have no idea what you've stepped in."

"Hey! Lan Zhan is great! He's awesome!"

"I believe you," Xiuming says, looking at him with her serious little face. "Do you know how courting works at his level of society? It's not just giving him a present and taking him to dinner. There's a specific order of operations."

"Oh." Wei Wuxian scratches the back of his head, pulling half his slipping ponytail out as he does so. "I'll be honest, I had no idea there was anything special to do."

"Oh yeah. The giving of a gift is pretty ubiquitous, as far as I can tell, especially when it comes to alpha-omega pairings. But Lans operate under different systems. They're old money. Ancient money. They've been around longer than recorded history. And they behave like it."

"So, what? They think they're too cool for me?"

"Yes, but that's a problem for later. For now, let's worry about courting rituals among the Jianghu. There are phases: gifting, outings, and then meeting each other's families."

"Well that doesn't seem so different, really."

"Just wait." Xiuming chews for a minute, then continues. "So, today, gifting is a common overture. Usually, people gift something that their prospective mate can wear. It's sort of a claim, like collars in the olden days."

"Sure, okay." Wei Wuxian thinks of the Swedish guy with his bracelet and Xiuming's classmate with the hair clips.

"But traditionally, the first gift was something consumable. Alphas would give omegas sweets or fruit. Omegas would give alphas meat or a bumper crop. Betas would give either depending on their primary sex. It was done as a way of showing that they have the means to provide for the other.

"The second gift would be something that the other could use. For omegas and female betas, the pursuer would gift something like new porcelain or a tea set. The alphas and female betas, they'd gift weapons or even livestock. Other more unisex gifts could include farming equipment, saddles, palanquins, or even slaves."

"Ew."

"Yeah. And then the final gift would be something wearable, pretty much always jewelry. Traditionally, a collar, but nowadays, it can be anything. A guan. A yaopei. Earrings. Maybe a fan. Anything that would stand out enough to prove a claim of courtship."

Okay, Wei Wuxian may have underestimated courting a Lan.

"If all three courtship gifts are accepted, you go on three or more outings. These can be anything, but they are typically expected to be in public, if not chaperoned-"

"Chaperoned?!" Wei Wuxian gapes. "What is this, the Tang Dynasty?!"

"No, so you have wiggle room. These outings -dates, essentially - have typically involved the arts or sharing of culture, if you're from different clans. But these days it could be anything. Hanfu cosplay photoshoot. Strip club. Going to work. Sex. This is when you get to know each other, make sure your politics and finances and plans for the future line up. Basically, are you compatible?

"Assuming the dates go well, you'll meet his family. Usually you stay overnight in their home, or even longer as a guest. You learn what will please your mate and help them be comfortable in your home, develop a relationship with his family, and gain their approval.

"Then, he'll come stay with us. Since you're pursuing him, it's understood that he'll join our pack and live with us. Since he's an omega and a second son, this is something he'll have been raised to expect. He'll stay for a little while, ostensibly to get to know us, but historically to learn how to manage your household and other affairs."

"Fun," Wei Wuxian quips, wrinkling his nose.

"Yeah. And then you mate, he moves in, and you have six pups or whatever the hell you guys want, and I go off to college to escape your spawn."

"This seems very… formatted."

"It is. These families are antique. The goal of courting is to establish connections, form bonds, and push out pups. All those old things."

"Is this seriously what they're teaching you at that expensive school we're not paying for?"

"Yup. Aren't you glad you're not paying for it?"

Wei Wuxian frowns down at their dinner, pushing a clump of peppercorns around in his bowl. "I think reinventing talismanry sounded more doable."

"His family isn't going to be thrilled. They don't want new money people. They think we're weird and entitled and annoying and rude. Which we are."

"If your mother heard you say that-"

"They're snobbish and frigid and selfish and out of touch."

"Better."

The two share a private smile. Their mother can and will criticize the ancient Sects ad nauseum and unsolicited. Which, if Wei Wuxian is honest with himself, would be an improvement over their current, mutually agreed-upon silence.

Then again, if she were here, she'd be ranting about Wei Wuxian sleeping with the enemy or courting corruption or something.

"Just worry about not giving him crap gifts for now." Xiuming reaches across the table to touch his hand. Her hands, Wei Wuxian realizes, look strikingly like adult hands rather than those of a young pup. "We can deal with Mama later if we need to."

Wei Wuxian nods, pushing that weariness to the back of him mind again. Lan Wangji is much easier to think about right now.

"He's a tea enthusiast. I'll bring him some teas from Panchthar. That should appeal to him, especially since it's special to me. And maybe… a more personal tea set? His is just clay. Oh! He'd look so pretty with a hair pin to match his glasses chain. Or some earrings? Gods, he'd look beautiful in pearls. Ah, but his hair so just so nice…"

"Damn, Ge. Save some pussy for the rest of us."

"Crass!" Wei Wuxian sniffs. "I am a gentleman, I'll have you know."

"Uh-huh. Sure." Xiuming smirks at him, nudging his knee with her knee. "I'm really happy for you, Ge. I hope he knows how good he has it."

"I'm the lucky one here, pup. I promise you that."

"Well, if you pull it off, I'll get to meet him and decide for myself."

The rat yao skips over to Wei Wuxian's plate and steals a piece of his pork. Xiuming purses her lips.

"So are you gonna… keep that thing?"

Wei Wuxian sighs. Last time he ever prays to a Shen.

Chapter Text

Lan Wangji didn't actually expect much when he told Wei Wuxian he could get him a courting gift. He didn't believe he'd dislike whatever Wei Wuxian chose, but he also didn't expect anything spectacular or very meaningful either. That isn't to say he doesn't think Wei Wuxian will try or isn't a good match. They simply haven't known each other very long.

The next day, Wei Wuxian bursts into his office, ponytail flying behind him and cheeks flushed, a wide but nervous grin on his face, canines glinting in the light. He's practically vibrating when he offers Lan Wangji a small box wrapped in red and black paper. His warm, summery qi swirls and ripples around him, excited down to the very core of him.

In spite of himself, Lan Wangji finds the alpha's enthusiasm contagious. He doesn't remember if anyone was ever excited to give him a courting gift.

Quelling the flutter in his chest, Lan Wangji accepts the box. It's heavier than he initially thought, and solid. It must be made of wood instead of cardboard. The box itself sounds full, and it's weight is disproportionate. He unwraps the paper to reveal a gift box decorated with soft black-on-black damask fabric depicting loong and feng huang. With Wei Wuxian's nod of encouragement, Lan Wangji lifts the lid of the box to reveal a quartet of apothecary jars of tea leaves nestled in stuffed velvet.

Wei Wuxian clears his throat, audibly nervous. He shifts from foot to foot inches from Lan Wangji's desk. And then, as seems something of his habit, he begins to talk, words coming rushed and leaving Lan Wangji to catch up.

"My mother is Nepali. These teas are from Panchthar, the district she was originally from before Granny found her and took her to The Mountain. We stop through, sometimes, on our way to Tibet to visit Granny and everyone, and I always liked the tea. I thought you might like it, too. She always said good tea comes from honest dirt, and there's no dirt more honest than Nepali dirt.

"There's a JinYa, a white, a spiced red, and a pearled oolong. I know that aside from the white, they're all a bit dark for you, but I hope you like them at least a little bit."

Lan Wangji blinks at the little jars. The leaves are beautiful, whole and twisted. The JinYa and white look velvety and soft to the touch, the oolong semi-oxidized, the red tea mixed with visible ginger, citrus peels, cardamom pods, and other spices. It is demonstrably good tea, and he hasn't even opened the jars to smell any of them.

He wants to stick his face in each one. He wants to give Wei Wuxian a hug and rub his scent all over him, hearing the vulnerable shred of hope in his voice as he explains his choice of gift, shares with him a piece of his own past, his own blood.

"These are beautiful. Thank you." To his relief, his tone is moderated. "Will you share some with me?"

The alpha's face breaks open into another wide grin, full of teeth but still sweet and friendly. "I'd love to!"

"Mn."

Lan Wangji opens the jar of white tea, admiring the silvery color and soft fuzz, the curl of the leaves, the very light aroma. It really is a beautiful tea. He fills his electric kettle with distilled water and sets it to 82 degrees Celsius. By eye and pinch of his fingers, he measures out the proper amount of leaves into a bowl.

These leaves are excellent quality and do not need a wash, so when the water is ready, he uses some to heat his gaiwan and pours the water into his jar to keep for his plants. He adds the leaves and more water, and the first fill of the gaiwan is spilt between two small cups - he chooses glass cups instead of the matching clay that came with his teapot so he can see the liquor. The buds and leaves sit in the bottom of the gaiwan, just barely bloomed. The lid of the gaiwan hosts the aroma of the leaves: sweet, floral, and a touch of hay. Raising the pale, almost clear liquid up to the light, Lan Wangji can see all the translucent little hairs from the leaves floating in it almost like very fine glitter.

"Beautiful," he murmurs. He catches Wei Wuxian's eye. "Truly. Beautiful."

Wei Wuxian grins, scooting a chair up until he knocks his knees against the desk again before leaning forward to take his own steaming cup off the desk. Lan Wangji admires the alpha's pink cheeks as he raises his own cup in a toast before tasting. It's wonderfully floral, and a little buttery. As mellow as can be expected, just barely sweet, and delicate as a flower petal.

"I would very much like to see the dirt this tea grew from," Lan Wangji whispers, barely steady. He never thought he'd be so moved by tea.

"It's beautiful dirt," Wei Wuxian smiles, sipping his own tea. "The rest of it is beautiful too, though I don't get up there very often these days."

"Busy?"

"Endlessly. My parents stopped in on their way to The Mountain, though I can't say where that is, exactly." Wei Wuxian winks. Then, his smile dims a bit. "I stayed behind with A-Ming. We had too much to do here, this time."

"Next time."

"Next time." Wei Wuxian sips his tea. "If I were there now, I'd be running around in the valleys like a wild animal or sunbathing or buried in scrolls in the archives or sparring with my uncles and aunts and cousins or splashing in the meltwater creeks and rivers and not getting giardia again."

Lan Wangji's lips twitch. He was fortunate to be part of the junior disciple minority that hasn't contracted giardia at some point, and he hopes his streak holds steady.

"And in winter?" he asks, instead of boasting about his lack of parasites.

"Winters are nice too. Very, very cold. So cold your snot freezes when you step outside. But it's fun, the snow. Drinking soup and tea and reading or listening to my elders tell stories while repairing equipment and stuff. Playing music. It's a very different sort of energy, but so cozy and welcoming.

"I really miss it. Things are different there."

Lan Wangji cocks his head.

"Well, it's not really a sect, you know? I mean, there are practices and philosophies that bond everyone together, but it's not… branded like the great Sects are. There isn't the same attachment to orthodoxy or social hierarchy or politics or any of that crap. And the people who live there, live there. It's more of a community than anything else."

"I see." If those are things Wei Wuxian does not care for, that might be an issue long-term. "Why entertain those things if you don't enjoy them?"

Wei Wuxian hesitates, searching Lan Wangji's face for a moment before giving a tiny nod. "The Sects would never let me just run around passing out talismans. When I brought them my first dissertations, they thought I was a joke. When I stopped a forest fire with a piece of paper, they thought I was a threat. They're not stupid. They learned what I have, and they needed to make sure I was on a leash."

"So you chose to work for them?" Lan Wangji frowns, trying to follow.

"Nies weren't interested. The Jiangs are family friends, and I didn't want to cause them any political strain. I offered to come work for the Lans, actually."

Lan Wangji blinks. He hadn't heard that.

"They admired what I was doing, but weren't confident in the staying power of my research. Said they didn't want to invest in something so uncertain, but that they would consider me in the future."

"Mn."

That makes some sense. GusuLan is known for being very generous with researchers, but also very conservative in their fostering of progress. Still, it seems that Wei Wuxian believes the uncertain element is his work, and not himself.

Lan Wangji suspects that Wei Wuxian would chafe in Gusu, truthfully. If he is very critical of orthodoxy, he'd probably rub along like sandpaper. But he'd also have more security, and the Lans would invest in his research for the sake of recovered knowledge rather than profit or prestige.

"So… LanlingJin. At the very least, when Jin Guangshan found out I'd offered myself to the Lans, he threw in a scholarship for my sister."

"That certainly doesn't hurt."

"He implied he'd make sure she passed all of her exams and could go to any university she wanted… I need to figure out how to handle that."

"You said you are close with your sister?"

"Yeah!" Wei Wuxian's face brightens at the change of topic. "Xiuming. She's fifteen. Recently presented as an omega. And she's so smart, Lan Zhan. She makes me feel dumb as a box of hair sometimes. I think maybe it's because she knows how to shut up and listen, but I can just see it in her face sometimes when she's doing her homework or something. She's just so awesome…"

The brotherly pride in his voice when Wei Wuxian tells him about his sister… Something inside of Lan Wangji aches. He wonders if Xichen ever chatters about his accomplishments to his friends.

"Our parents night hunted for the regional government back in Hunan," Wei Wuxian continues, "so I often watched Xiuming over nights, took her to school, helped her with homework. I still do those things. She's still a pup, you know? Even if she's fifteen and presented. I'm the person she's closest to in our pack. I want her to know I'll always be there for her. That she can count on me for big things, and the little things too."

Lan Wangji can read between the lines: Wei Xiuming is a top priority for Wei Wuxian. If Lan Wangji cannot accept that, then this will not work.

It seems absurd, the idea that he might feel threatened by a teenage girl, but he has existed in the world for over thirty years and that's long enough to know exactly how absurd people can be. Personally, he finds it very attractive how devoted Wei Wuxian is to his family and especially his younger sister.

Instead of saying any of that, he pours them a second steep of tea, and says, "I have an older brother."

"Zewu-jun, right?"

"Mn."

"What is he like?"

"Sweet. Very loyal. He is a fierce warrior, but in his personal life, he is quite gentle and good-tempered. People prefer him to me. They find him more personable."

"Rumor says you two look alike."

"Mn. Nearly identical. Among the Jianghu and in the media, we are known as the Twin Jades." Ostensibly, it is due to their pure, twin appearances in Sect uniform. Lan Wangji has always suspected there was something tongue-in-cheek about it, and may contain a small slight against him.

"Are you close?"

"Not as close as we used to be, but I believe closer than we were."

"Why?"

"I chose to leave Gusu. It is a choice my family struggles to understand."

"Ah."

Lan Wangji pours another cup of tea for them both. "It can be challenging," he says carefully, "to know yourself when your entire life exists in one place."

The alpha sitting across from him grins. "Very true!"

"Xiongzhang and I have been trying, in recent weeks, to grow close again. To be how we used to be. I am hopeful."

Wei Wuxian's smile doesn't falter, exactly, but it… shifts. It warms, but at the same time, saddens. A tender, gentle sort of empathy.

"How do you do it?" he muses, not even really sounding like he's asking Lan Wangji at all.

"Do what?" Lan Wangji asks anyway, because in his experience, the universe rarely provides satisfactory answers.

"How do you get them to see?" The alpha huffs, shifting in his chair, agitated in a way Lan Wangji has not seen before. "Or even just listen?"

"My parents do not listen. Not yet. They believe I am going through some sort of youthful rebellion. They find my work here cute."

"'Cute.'" Wei Wuxian shakes his head. "I mean, you are cute, but still. Every time someone calls what I do 'cute', I swear I turn a little bit evil."

Ignoring his burning ears, Lan Wangji continues. "I think my brother was just ready to hear me. I hope that my parents and uncle will be ready in time."

Wei Wuxian polishes off the tea in his cup. He looks tired. There must be so much on his shoulders, Lan Wangji realizes. A new job, a sister to raise, a society to appease, a new social circle to try and fail to wedge his way into.

He has no idea what to say, or how to help. Instead, he finds something else to talk about.

"Wei Ying?"

"Hm?" The alpha perks up at the sound of his given name.

"What was in your desk yesterday?"

Wei Wuxian groans, thunking his head down on the edge of Lan Wangji's desk.

"Okay. So. There's something you need to know about me." The alpha lifts his head, revealing a red stripe across his forehead from the edge of the desk. "I am a complete and utter sucker."

That. Is not what Lan Wangji had expected.

"Sunday morning, Xiuming and I found a rat yao stuck in the pipe under our sink. We have no idea how he got in there but he summoned a lot of blood and kind of made me wonder if someone committed a murder in the bathroom upstairs but anyway we got him out and Xiuming wanted to kill him but I'm a sucker as previously mentioned so I said no and cleaned him up and then I put him outside in our garden plot with some beans but he climbed back up into the apartment and I woke up with him curled up in my bed like a pet! I've put him outside like three times and he keeps finding his way back in! And he just looked so sad, all by himself in the garden, hunched under the beans…

"Anyway, I didn't know what to do with him yesterday, so I might've brought him to work with me because I didn't want him left unsupervised in the apartment and I think I might have a pet rat yao now and I don't really know what to do or how to feel about that."

Lan Wangji stares. Wei Wuxian, one of the most talented and influential researchers of his generation, tamed a rat yao by being nice to it, brought it to work with him, and hid it in his desk while Lan Wangji asked him about courting gifts.

It's the most ridiculous thing he's ever heard.

"I named him Red Bean!" The alpha burts. "They're his favorite."

Lan Wangji can't help it: he laughs. A single, high chime of a laugh that holds a true smile hostage on his face.

Wei Wuxian looks at him like he's seeing the stars for the first time.

Wei Wuxian couldn't stay too long, as he unfortunately has work to do. His syllabi are officially finished, so it's time to make the online course… stuff. Basically, he has to make digital versions of the course modules with pages for readings and other steps and assignments, which Wei Wuxian definitely used as a university student himself, but using them as a student and putting them together as a professor are two very different things… Not that he's thinking about that at all. He should have just stayed, given he's just sitting at his desk with his burning face in his hands.

Lan Wangji can laugh. With his mouth open. And his laugh sounds so nice.

Honestly, Wei Wuxian can't believe his luck. Lan Wangji is intelligent, educated, gorgeous, talented - everything Wei Wuxian ever dreamed of. People like that don't grow on trees.

To be fair, Wei Wuxian hasn't been frequenting many forests. He's had hookups. Been on a few dates. Even had a girlfriend for a little while. It's apparently fun to sleep with or date a 'misunderstood genius' as they seemed to brand him, but it's not so fun to be waiting up for that supposed genius while he gets lost in his head and a maze of document scans for hours and hours at a time with nothing to show for it. His girlfriend had felt neglected, and like she was waiting for something that was never going to come.

He never blamed her.

He's a nightmare, plain and simple. Either fiddling around for days on end or somehow cranking out weeks of work in a matter of days or even hours. In college, people hated doing group projects with him. He'd either be too scattered to meaningfully contribute, or he'd end up doing six projects for the price of one all by himself. By the end of his first year, he was doing all of his group projects solo and had made more enemies than friends out of students and faculty alike.

Worse, the quality and depth of his work was always tied to how interested he was in doing it. The way he's been dragging his feet, ass, and everything else to get his courses set up is a very ill wind for his maiden voyage as a professor.

His phone buzzes loudly, crawling across the desk, interrupting his musings.

The ID makes him groan, but he answers, head dropping down onto his desk.

"Hey. Auntie. How's things?"

"Is that how you answer the phone?" Yu Ziyuan's unnecessarily harsh voice clips in his ear. "Although at this point, I suppose I should be grateful to know the Jins haven't had you murdered yet."

It's still early.

"Sorry, Auntie."

"And sit up straight! What if someone walks by and sees you slouched over like that? I can hear your terrible posture."

"I'm in my office, Auntie. The door is closed." He sighs, sitting himself upright anyway. "I'm sorry I didn't call sooner. I've been busy. What did you need?"

"Do you have the forms for the conference with you?"

"Yes, Auntie." The path of least resistance is the path that will only age him a decade instead of a century. "I have them."

"Good. I am at a small tea house within walking distance of the university. HongHong-er's. Do you know it?"

"Yes, Auntie." Wei Wuxian's heart drops.

"Since you have time to answer the phone, you have time to treat me to tea. Bring the paperwork with you. You have ten minutes to get here before I come find you."

The call ends before Wei Wuxian can finish saying, "Yes, Auntie."

He's never going to get his work done.

Wei Wuxian doesn't dislike Yu Ziyuan, exactly. In fact, he respects the hell out of her. She's a very powerful cultivator. She knows how to get shit done. She's managed to force open a space for herself despite being a female omega in a society of stuffy antiques. If he was ever in a crisis and needed someone to micromanage him out of trouble or terrorize his enemies into submission, she'd be at the top of his list.

On the other hand, Yu Ziyuan is also needlessly confrontational, harsh, and critical of everyone around her. She's difficult to work with. They don't get along. Wei Wuxian's generally more vibes-based approach to life and responsibility irritates her like nothing else on Earth, and he finds her impossible to please, which he in turn finds absolutely exhausting. Their general incompatibility is why they tend to stay out of each other's way and why he's been avoiding her.

He was having such a good morning, chatting with Lan Wangji, taking a brief respite from everything he's failing to do and everything he's doing wrong. It's not like he's not trying. It's just… So much.

It's so much. He needs to produce and figure out how to teach post-secondary course curriculum. He needs to advance his research within the next six months to have any hope of solidifying his work. He needs to find a way to ingratiate himself to the Sects, potentially without any support from his parents. He needs to make sure Xiuming gets settled in at the academy and that she is as safe as possible. He needs to make sure the house stays in order, their finances are secure, and any social obligations are handled. He needs to make sure his family is prepared and outfitted for the Discussion Conference they're no doubt going to be forced to attend.

And now he needs to have tea with a woman who cannot stand him, probably so she can tell him about more things he needs to do, or do better, or do correctly.

After taking a moment to grind the heels of his hands into his eyeballs, Wei Wuxian sucks it up, digs the mess of invitation papers out of his desk drawer, and tromps down the hill behind the CR&D building to HongHong-er's. It's a quaint little tea house with old-fashioned sloped roofs and woodworking, boasting having been around for over two thousand years.

Sure enough, Yu-Furen is already there, sipping steaming tea by a window. She's dressed in expensive violet silk and purple Jimmy Choos. Wei Wuxian knows they're Jimmy Choos because he picked them out for her as a gift after the Jiangs endorsed him. Or at least discouraged his persecution.

It's nice to know she likes them.

There is a second place set at the table, directly across from her, so Wei Wuxian forgoes ordering his own tea and instead approaches the table. He can smell her particular scent, uninhibited and unapologetic: honey and peppercorns.

He bows.

"Yu-Furen, Auntie. Thank you for inviting me."

"Sit."

Wei Wuxian sits.

Yu-Furen sets down her tea cup without making a sound, places her hands in her lap, and regards him with a critical eye, probably checking his tied up hair for bumps, his eyes for goo, his nose for boogers, his skin for zits, his clothes for holes and stains, and his attitude for problems.

"Wei Wuxian, why are you dressed like you work out of a storage unit?"

"Because I did work out of a storage unit, Auntie."

The woman raises an eyebrow at him. "Sass? After I came all this way?"

It's not like he invited her.

"… I haven't had time. I didn't even think about it until a few days ago."

"Well think on it now." She exhales, a flaring of her nostrils that makes him think of the horses at The Mountain. He does not voice this thought because he wants to live. "I told Fengmian something like this would happen. I told him, I told your mother, I told your father - but does anyone listen to me? No! Never! And now look at us."

"I'm sorry, Auntie. I don't understand."

"Your mother saw no reason to teach you how the world really works, and instead taught you how she wants it to work. Now here you sit, in some limbo between the Jianghu and rogue status, with no idea how to even present yourself to a Furen."

Wei Wuxian swallows down the anger at her indictment of his mother.

"At least you've seen fit to ensure Xiuming has more success."

Which had absolutely nothing to do with him, really. He doesn't correct her, though.

"Do you know why your father left his position?"

"He thought it best."

"But do you know why?"

"He wanted me to grow up away from the politics of the Sects."

"Perhaps," Yu-Furen allows, which is rather generous of her. "But he also knew that it is impossible to remain on the fringes of the Jianghu. You are either one of us, or you are not. Your mother refused to entertain the Jianghu, so they left.

"You are our friends, of course, as much as you possibly can be, but at the end of the day, you are outsiders. To some, you are deserters. What do you suppose happens when a deserter resurfaces with what could be understood as a challenge?"

"It's not like I raised the damn dead or anything," Wei Wuxian grumbles. "I did try to do things differently."

"Which is why you were spared, in the end." Yu-Furen lifts her cup, finishing the last of the tea. "You should be grateful. If your parents weren't old friends of Fengmian, you'd probably be in a cell right now, if not worse."

Wei Wuxian pours more for both of them. He's smart enough to know that he is her inferior in every way but second sex. It doesn't bother him. He likes serving his elders. He likes serving his juniors too. But his alpha instincts and societal expectations limit what he is permitted to do out of doors.

"Here I thought due process existed," he mumbles.

"Not when Wen-Xiandu is away and Jin-Zongzhu is playing house in his absence."

"Happy days."

Yu-Furen glares at him. "I am going to tell you something that may prove useful to your situation, and then I am going to tell you what to do. You are going to do it, and you are going to complain to someone else. Understood?"

"Yes, Auntie."

He can always disobey her later if he disagrees.

"Wen Ruohan was in seclusion when you went to Qishan. He won't return to his duties until the discussion conference. Wen Xu was in Mexico meeting with the Council of Brujerías, and after that was conferring with the Representative Order of Santería in Cuba. He only just returned. Wen Ruohan's idiot second son refused to see you, likely for reasons that will only ever make sense in his tiny pig mind."

Wei Wuxian snorts. He's met Wen Chao precisely once, and it was one time too many. The man is still young, around Wei Wuxian's age, but deeply, deeply unpleasant. Incompetent. Disgusting. Last Wei Wuxian heard, Wen Ruohan is increasingly displeased with his second son's inability to get his shit together. Even for Sect heirs, being a spoiled, idiotic waste of space and oxygen is only acceptable for your first couple decades of life.

"Wen Ruohan will be at the Conference. It is very likely he will want to speak with you. So-"

"Why?" He winces. "Sorry, Yu-Furen."

She glares at him, and lifts her tea, presumably trying to swallow her irritation with him like she's forcing down a horse vitamin.

"QishanWen has a personal stake in your work, as do the Lans. Neither of them would dare invest in you without speaking to the other."

"I had no idea." Wei Wuxian frowns, turning his brain upside down and shaking it. Nothing comes loose. "Do you know why?"

"I don't know the details. It's some private grievance between them. They're the only Sects with any arrays still functioning, and they are ancient. Older than the Jin and Nie Sects even. Possibly older than the Jiang. Possibly older than their own Sects."

"Oh."

There could be any number of reasons, then. Maybe they don't know how to read their arrays. Maybe the arrays need maintenance. Maybe they want their arrays kept secret. Maybe Wei Wuxian accidently uncovered hidden secrets of either or both of their Sects.

That might make things with Lan Wangji extremely awkward.

His face must make some kind of expression, or perhaps a neon sign materializes above his head flashing "GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY" in magenta lights, because Yu-Furen narrows her eyes at him.

"What did you do?"

"Nothing!" he yelps. And then remembers he's supposed to be using his manners. "Well. I mean! Nothing I could have known I was doing!"

Literally none of those words could form a complete sentence. Even for him that's embarrassing.

"Given your-" Yu-Furen gestures to all of him, which is rude but also fair, "-That could be anything from a mild compliment to a declaration of war."

Wei Wuxian weighs his options. Yu Ziyuan is not fond of him. This conversation is a minefield. She is going to lose patience with him if they go on for too long. He understands, since she frustrates him too, but he also doesn't want to deal with that.

Still, Yu Ziyuan is not a gossip. She has her own reasons for coming all this way to speak to him and try to give him advice, but she's still here, of her own volition, without being asked. That's more than he can say for anyone else.

"Did you know Hanguang-jun works at this university?"

"Yes." Yu-Furen 's lips pinch together. "What about it?"

"Well. At his invitation, I presented him with a courting gift this morning. He accepted it. I think he even liked it."

Yu-Furen stares at him, expression calculating. Wei Wuxian tries and fails not to squirm, feeling very much like a small insect under a magnifying lens, a bead of white light inching ever closer…

"That, I could not have predicted." She nods. "It might even work in your favor if you manage to succeed with him."

"I'm not going to use him for political bullshit."

"Of course not. That's how you fail. But he is now part of the politics at play whether you like it or not."

Right. Obviously. Wei Wuxian is probably the only person on Earth that didn't see that. Diyu alive, astronauts in orbit probably saw that coming.

"He's a good boy. He has a mixed reputation, but he has always been respectful. I would say you are a match in cultivation and talent as well…

"I assume," Yu-Furen says, shifting to a tone that suggests she's actually threatening him instead of hypothetically threatening him, "that you are courting him properly, as expected by the Jianghu?"

"Yes, Auntie." Wei Wuxian does not sigh again, but it's a near thing. "Something to consume, something to use, something to wear; three outings; meet each other's parents; mate and have lots of pups. I already got a lecture."

"Your tone leaves much to be desired. What did you give him?"

"Some teas from Panchthar."

"Tea." Yu-Furen raises her eyebrow.

"Lan Zhan is very fond of tea. He has a whole set-up in his office. He seemed happy with them. Did a whole tea ceremony for us and everything."

"I see." She's inspecting him again, more quizzical that suspicious. "And what are you going to give him next?"

"Well his teapot at the office is plain clay, so I thought of giving him something more personal?"

"Hm… Be careful. What is to you a plain clay pot may very well be exceptional. Made by a single family in some backwater, or very old. It's not a bad idea, but be sure to do your proper research."

"What if I ask Nie Huaisang? He knows all about that stuff."

"If you must." Yu-Furen considers him. "His specialty is jewelry, not pottery. He may be more helpful in that case. And do not give Hanguang-jun a collar or I will excommunicate your family. Understood?"

"Auntie, if either of us is getting collared to the other, he can collar me. He's way too good for me."

"And yet he invited you to court him. He must see something in you that we don't."

Wei Wuxian snorts, aware that's he's being unkind to himself but also not disagreeing. And then he remembers his manners. "You were going to boss me around?"

"Yes, I was." Her countenance seems… a bit warmer. Wei Wuxian has no idea what he did. She folds her hands in her lap, looking him up and down, but not as critically as before. More like she's trying to find something, and can't.

"You cannot do this halfway. You don't need to join a Sect, at least not at this juncture, but you need to be the very picture of cooperation. Courting Hanguang-jun will upset them, given your station in life, but doing it properly will ease their grievance in that regard. Hanguang-jun is a pariah anyway. He is respected, but not liked."

"Okay."

"Here are the things you need to do. Are you listening?"

"Hang on." Wei Wuxian digs a tiny notebook and a pen out of his pocket. "Yeah, alright."

"First, your manners. The slouching and laying all over the table, the sighing, saying 'yeah' to your elders, the cursing - better yourself. Immediately. And speaking of bettering yourself, stop dressing like a teenage miscreant. The tabloids and teenage girls might love the unhoused chique look, but it is not a good look. Dressing to appear impoverished is highly frowned upon among the layfolk."

"It's not a look!" Wei Wuxian protests, scribbling notes without looking at the paper. "They're just my clothes!"

"Which was not…" She wrinkles her nose, "… a direct insult when you lived in a tiny apartment and worked out of a box. But now you are a very rich man with power and influence. Dress like it."

She gives him that eye again. "I don't expect you to know how to dress fashionably, but at the very least your clothes should not contain holes other than those put there by the manufacturer.

"Buy new hanfu. You looked like you were wearing a costume in that old set. Buy new suits, a minimum of three. Two coats. Bespoke, not tailored. Do not let me see you wear a 'casual suit'. Ever. They look ridiculous. Anywhere you can get away with wearing that clownery, you're better off wearing something else. Wear fine sweaters, blouses, or button ups with trousers instead. Jeans are not for Sect gatherings or for work. Ever. I do not care what your coworkers wear. You are not like them.

"Shoes. Cuff links. Earrings, since your ears are pierced - unorthodox, by the way. Hair pins and guans. A few necklaces would not be amiss. Makeup is…" It's Yu-Furen's turn to sigh. "Fine. Plenty of people wear makeup now. You might receive criticism from other alphas, but those are not alphas you should closely associate with anyway."

"So I'm to, what, replace my entire wardrobe?"

"You tell me." Yu-Furen sips her tea. Wei Wuxian scoffs, slouching back in his seat. "What did just I tell you about your manners?"

Wei Wuxian ducks his head. She told him they suck. And she's right.

"Carry your sword with you."

"I do! It's in my bag…" which is in his office. "Yes, Auntie."

"You're to attend the conference. Your family will attend the conference. You and Xiuming will participate in the tournaments. You will exhibit. You will all attend the banquet."

"Fat fucking chance- I mean! That doesn't really seem likely, Auntie. I can speak for myself and for A-Ming, but my parents…"

"Your parents will understand. If they don't, hand them over to me and I will make them."

The idea of siccing Yu Ziyuan on Cangse Sanren kind of makes him want to curl up and die in a hole somewhere.

"I'll convince them somehow," he mumbles, leaning forward over the table and immediately feeling a glare shoot through him like a bolt of lightning. He sits up as straight as he can.

Yu-Furen pinches her lips together again. "Convince me that you are not entirely hopeless, Wei Wuxian. I implore you."

"Hey! I got Hanguang-jun to accept my suit or whatever! That's something, right?"

"Minus the 'or whatever', yes. That is almost something."

Yu-Furen almost smiles, which is more than almost something.

Out of all the things to win him some approval, Wei Wuxian can't believe it's giving an omega some tea.

Maybe the Jianghu really is just that starved for the bare minimum. Or at least their omegas are.

Yu-Furen sits and drinks tea while Wei Wuxian fills out the applications for the discussion conference. When he hands them over, she reads them all the way through, probably looking for mistakes, and then packs them away in her purse, which is definitely also designer but he has no idea what brand.

"Good. I'll send you your attendance packet soon." She stands, and he stands to, lowering his head. "Give my love to Xiuming." And then, because she incapable of allowing Wei Wuxian to think her at all soft, "Do not disappoint me, Wei Wuxian. If you cannot get this mess under control, we will sever ties. I will not have my family or my Sect lose face over your impulsivity. Understood?"

"Yes, Auntie. This one understands."

Yu Ziyuan leaves without another word, heels clicking on the old stones.

He has a grim and creeping suspicion that he does not understand.

Chapter Text

When Yu Ziyuan dumped a whole mountain of instructions on him, she doubtless expected him to drop all of his responsibilities and immediately go out and find a tailor shop that will make him a bespoke wardrobe right down to his boxers.

(Which do, admittedly, have a lot of holes that weren't put there by the manufacturer, but it's not like anybody's gonna know.)

Unfortunately for her, Wei Wuxian is much more interested in what she said about teapots: a little clay teapot might be a very big deal. Since it's Lan Wangji's clay teapot, it makes sense that I would be very nice, very old, or both, even if it's just a squat little brown pot to Wei Wuxian himself. What had Qin Su said?

He likes unique expensive things, not merely expensive things.

Yeah, that.

But how is Wei Wuxian supposed to know what makes an expensive teapot unique? It's a teapot! And does it actually have to be expensive or just be very good quality? Is his idea of good quality Lan Wangji's idea of good quality?

The almost-answer to this strange problem comes to him sitting on the couch, thumbing through his half-started projects for something he might be able to finish in time for the conference in August, feeling uniformly apathetic toward all of them, and regularly getting distracted watching Red Bean chase a jingle ball across the floor.

Xiuming is excited. She hasn't been to conference before. They stopped going a year after she was born. Once Wei Wuxian presented, distance was cultivated between him and Jiang Cheng in particular. He could have gone back after Jiang Cheng married, but by then he was too deep in his research. He never belonged there anyway, and nobody made that a secret.

Presently, Xiuming is on the carpet, throwing the ball for Red Bean, sharing notes with the girl they met at the academy, Su Xiyun, and putting together a Pinterest board for when they eventually go to the tailor. She's talking about shoes.

"These aren't as high-end," she says, holding up an image of a pair of black platform penny loafers with red hearts cut into the tongues, "but they're very cute. Obviously you and I will need to be matching, and you already have that black and red aesthetic, so I'm going to go with that. Everyone there should know we're a package deal.

"You'll need some red bottoms, Ge. I'm thinking all black for your banquet suit, with a red silk lining. Red bottom shoes, ruby earrings and matching cufflinks. Maybe something for your hair… What do you think?"

"How do you… think of all that stuff?"

"Su Xiyun said I should take a practical approach: in an ideal world, these things don't matter. But it's not an ideal world, so they do. I might as well try to make the most of it.

"It's actually kind of fun. I have been leaning into it more lately. My peers at school talk about these things all the time. They all wear the same shoes, have the same bags, drink from the same water bottles, wear the same brands. It's fascinating, watching them try to stand out while also trying to conform."

Wei Wuxian looks at his sister. Really looks at her, maybe for the first time in longer than he thought. Her hair is different than it used to be, well-cared for, curls soft and defined, pinned half up in a style that takes way more effort than she used to bother with. Her makeup is different too - also soft, and pink, shimmery. Since when has Xiuming been one for shimmer?

"Do you… want? Those things?"

She glances back, stiff, shoulders hunched.

"Why the hell would I want any of that crap?"

"To make life easier? To fit in? To belong? To help build new relationships?" Wei Wuxian shrugs. "Those aren't bad things to want, meimei."

"I have no interest in building relationship or community based on things. Especially not with these people."

"These people?" Wei Wuxian cocks his head.

"They leashed you like a dog!" Xiuming snaps. "They surveil you! They're just waiting to see you fail! I don't want anything to do with any of them!"

"A-Mei," Wei Wuxian sighs. He slips off the couch and onto the floor next to her, setting his laptop down on the coffee table. How does he explain this without it being a complete and utter copout? "People are not the body that governs them."

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"It means that Jin Guangshan and other Sect leaders might be suspicious, knowledge-hoarding tyrants, but that doesn't mean that every Sect member is also a suspicious, knowledge-hoarding tyrant."

"So what? Look for the ones that 'aren't like the others' or whatever?"

"No, just… Maybe give them the benefit of the doubt. These people are different. They're spoiled and classist and selfish, but they also don't know any other way to be unless they were told. Plenty of them probably do like you and want to be your friend.

"That's part of being an adult, meimei. People you don't align with and don't align with you will be part of your life and community, and you still have to learn to coexist with them."

"Even if you hate them?"

"Even if you hate them. But most of them just won't be a perfect fit."

"What about Hanguang-jun?"

"What about him?"

"Is he 'different' or 'special' or whatever?"

Ignoring the sullen sarcasm in Xiuming's voice, Wei Wuxian answers the question as carefully but honestly as he can. "I don't know. I don't think so. At least, he's no more different or special than any other singular person, which means he is entirely and also not at all. But he is also an interesting person who loves tea and music and libraries and his friends and his elderly pet bunnies."

"And that's good enough for you?"

"It could be. I'm not sure yet." Wei Wuxian shrugs. "Either way, I did what I did, and this is where we are. I have to find some kind of way to get along with these people."

"They don't deserve you, or your work."

"Yes they do." Xiuming scoffs, and Wei Wuxian turns fully toward her. He reiterates, even more firmly, "Yes, they do.

"Mama taught us that knowledge should be free to everyone, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, 'everyone' also includes people you don't like, people you're mad at, and people whose values go directly against your own. Even shitty, ungrateful Jins who keep your brother like a pet.

"Everyone means everyone, meimei, even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard."

Xiuming scowls at her tablet, but says nothing more on the subject. If Wei Wuxian remembers anything from his own adolescence, this is pretty much the same thing as saying, "You're right and I was wrong."

"Hey, so you've been learning about expensive crap and where to buy it, right?"

"Of a sort," Xiuming says slowly, eyes narrowing. "Why?"

"What about kitchenware? Pottery? Anything like that?"

"No idea." The side-eye intensifies. "Why?"

"I need to buy a teapot for the second heir of a three thousand-year old religious Sect."

"Good luck with that. Maybe ask Auntie Yu?"

Wei Wuxian shakes his head. "Nah, that's no good. Lan Zhan is a tea enthusiast. He knows way more about tea than she does."

"Ask someone who would know about that then," Xiuming shrugs. "I'm busy saving you from looking a potato."

"Where would I be without you?" he asks.

His sister scoffs and rolls her eyes. "Performing your exhibition in a burlap sack. Obviously."

Red Bean, tired of playing by himself, nudges his jingle ball against Wei Wuxian's foot.

"Yeah, alright buddy. We can play for a while."

The rat yao runs figure eights over his feet until Wei Wuxian tosses the ball for him again. Xiuming shakes her head and returns to her Pinterest boards.

"Hey you are learning like, useful things, at that school of yours, right?"

"Yes, Ge." Her eye roll is audible. "All the normal coursework. This is just stuff I've picked up from the other students and in my History of Prada Purses class that definitely exists for real."

"Okay, just checking."

He pours himself a glass of baiju, watching his sister add some spider lilies to a black-and-red pinterest board. Yu-Furen was right: Xiuming is way better suited to this mess than he is.

Still, Xiuming's words do give him an idea… He sets his glass aside, opens a new tab on his computer, and looks up "What is Prada?"

Wei Wuxian does not go snooping in Lan Wangji's office. He is a grown adult man and an alpha, and snooping through an omega's belongings - or anyone's belongings - is extremely invasive and inappropriate and exactly how you do not win someone's heart, especially if they are cooler than you in every possible way.

But if he lingers at Lan Wangji's little tea station when he drops by with coffee for them and the girls, that's different. And if he so happens to find a company seal on the corner of the wooden tray and take a picture when the others aren't looking, that's different too.

He wants to run right back to his office and do what he does best: take some writing and give it meaning. Instead, he sits with his friends and Lan Wangji and chats politely until Lan Wangji has to leave for class. At that point, they all part ways to perform various functions and duties, with Wei Wuxian hustling back to his own office to stare at his unfinished work until it inevitably does not complete itself.

Just outside his locked office door, a strange scent hits his nose. Peonies and alpha musk. It smells… rotten. Almost like an old bouquet left in a water vase for too long - overly sweet and a little sour. It's not someone he recognizes, and definitely not a friend.

The alpha in him bristles. Someone was here, outside his door, near his work. He glides a finger over the handle… his locking talisman is still in place, sunk into the brushed metal. The stranger did not get in.

Swallowing a low growl, Wei Wuxian stalks the strange scent down the hall to the stairway. Outside, the scent leads down the hill from the building and off campus toward a cluster of bars and clubs, fading after a few dozen meters.

Great. Just what he needs. Jins snooping in his work. Or trying to. Idiots. Did they honestly think he leaves his work unattended? He has talismans laid in his door handle, in his computer, in his desk drawers, in his backpack, on his phone. His computers are empty of his research. Everything related to his work is saved on drives, and kept on his person.

When he was hired, the Jins tried to put it in his contract that everything he made would be proprietary of their Sect. Wei Wuxian had refused, negotiating that the Jins could have free access to his inventions as long as they did not resell, and it would all belong to him until he chose to let the patent expire.

They retaliated by cutting his offered salary and revoking the offer to naturalize his parents as municipality residents, but that was fine by him. He doesn't need the salary, and his parents can still work hunts as licensed rogues. They obviously don't want to be here anyway.

Wei Wuxian supposed that might also be part of why the Jins blocked his access to the university's Special Collections. He doesn't doubt that they'll keep trying to find ways to trap him or manipulate him. Not once in his damn life has he wanted to deal with Sect pissing contest. Not only are they trying to piss on his stuff, they're also trying to piss on him.

It really pisses him off.

He cracks his door and puts his air purifier in the crack. Hopefully, the stench clears out before he leaves to pick up Xiuming. If Jin StinkyButt wants to spy on him, they can do it while Wei Wuxian is here to answer any of their questions.

As he understands it, that's what the office hours are fucking for.

Sighing through his nose, Wei Wuxian belatedly remembers Auntie Yu's demand that he carry his sword everywhere. Yeah… He should really do that. Currently, his sword in leaning up against his nightstand, because he forgot it again.

He'll remember it tomorrow.

In the meantime, he has a photo to stare at and an exhibition to pull together.

Fireworks aren't going to cut it this time. That might charm kids and layfolk, but not the entire Jianghu. He pulls his file folder of unfinished designs back out his backpack, fingering through them. They're all equally interesting, and would be fun to present, which means they're all equally boring and unsatisfying.

On a whim, he calls Lan Wangji.

"Wei Ying."

Gods, it's so hot when he says his name like that.

"Can you do me a big favor, Gege?"

"Mn."

"Pick a number between one and… one-hundred and eighty-seven."

"Thirty-one."

Wei Wuxian flops back into his chair, letting it spin him before he drops his feet on the floor under his desk. He digs the project out of the folder and grins.

"Excellent choice."

"What have I chosen?"

"My conference exhibition. I couldn't choose. All of my projects are just too cool, yanno? It would be impossible for my to play favorites with my brain babies." Wei Wuxian grins. "And I heard you had something real special planned. I couldn't show up with some silly sparklers or something."

"I'm sure your sparklers are wonderful."

Wei Wuxian does not giggle and kick his feet under his desk, if only because his door is open and that would be so embarrassing, but it's a very near thing.

"Have you ever seen my fireworks?"

"I'm sorry to say I have not."

"I'll show you. I'll make you a show. Whenever you want. It'll be my best one."

"Wei Ying is kind."

"Not as kind as you think," which is way too honest too soon. "I have an ulterior motive, after all."

"Mn?"

"I have this really wonderful man I'm trying to impress, you see."

There's a soft huff on the other end of the line, something like a laugh. It makes Wei Wuxian feel all fluttery inside.

"You need not try very hard. Just be you."

"Ha! I dunno. I'm told you're hard to impress. And I'm a lot to handle, Gege! Don't get too cocky."

"…" The pause stretches long enough for Wei Wuxian to wonder if he said something wrong. "Then perhaps we are both simply enough."

Simply enough.

Wei Wuxian's restless chair swivelling slides to a halt, smile softening on his face. It might be a little ridiculous, sitting bashful and blushing alone in his office. But wouldn't that be a nice change? No more too much, never again insufficient…

"I hope so, Lan Zhan."

"Mn. What will you do for you exhibition?"

"It's a surprise," Wei Wuxian grins, reaching for his external drive and plugging it into his laptop. "I can't wait to see yours. I read an article about it."

"Mn. The major exhibitors are announced in advance. Since the tournament and exhibitions are broadcasted, it helps draw public interest."

"It sounds really cool. When I was a kid, I used to wonder what it would be like to live in a world where magic was shared…" Instead of guarded. He glares at his hard drive. "I like the idea of spending my life watching that happen."

Just watching?"

"Oh." Wei Wuxian blinks, staring down at Project Thirty-One. "I dunno. I never thought about it. To be honest, I haven't seriously thought about what I want my future to be for a long time."

Maybe not ever, but he doesn't say that.

"You have one-hundred and eighty-seven projects unfinished, yet you question your place in the future of cultivation and magic… Think on it."

"I- I will. I promise." He wonders if Lan Wangji can tell how much he's blushing through the phone.

Probably not, right?

"Good. Enjoy your work, Wei Ying. I will see you soon."

"See you soon."

Lan Wangji hangs up, and Wei Wuxian stares at Project Thirty-One through his fingers.

31

31-10-2345

Spirit Attraction Flag

Description: a talisman/flag that is used to attract spirits instead of repel them (See project C-19 for spirit repelling flag)

Applications:

• Draw the attention of yin entities/creatures during removal/combat/extermination

• Draw YE/Cs toward or away from target areas

• Trapping YE/Cs

  • Humane Removal

  • Ecological census

  • Sample population study

  • Extermination

• Directing swarms

Wei Wuxian peruses the scribbled notes slanting down the page. It's honestly not a bad project, even if he never did any actual work on it. Looks like he did some brainstorming and then put it aside for a couple years. He probably had the idea right after he finished reconstructing his Spirit Repelling Flag, then got distracted by the dozen or so other reconstructions he had on hand at the time.

He'll review it at home tonight after they have dinner.

There's something else Wei Wuxian needs to do while he's here.

The photo of Lan Wangji's tea set isn't in the best focus, but he crops it down to the characters and does a reverse image search.

He blinks down at the results. Oh, no way.

Squinting, Wei Wuxian scrolls through the results, inspecting the images with the mind of a man who's done this a thousand times and knows exactly what he's looking at but still can't quite believe it's this easy.

But it really just might be.

Wei Wuxian sends Luo Qingyang an email, logs out of his computer, and hurries off to collect his sister.

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian groans, sliding his fingers up his face to rub his eyes. The chunky, black cat's eye glasses nearly topple right off his ears sitting at an extreme angle on his face, one of the limbs dangling. He's been here since before dawn, with a short break to take Xiuming to school, and now it's late afternoon. Xiuming is at the academy library, studying or designing more Pinterest boards, but she won't want to stay there all night.

She's like their dad in that she enjoys things like normal daylight hours and eating meals at specific times and sleeping at night in a nest.

Weirdos.

He sighs. He might have flirted his way to confidence yesterday, but right now, glaring at the eighty-seventh iteration of his spirit attraction flag and Red Bean in his shiny new travel cage peacefully ignoring it in favor of some frozen peas in a bowl of water, he's not exactly overflowing with ego.

When Red Bean does finally abandon his enrichment snack-tivity, he scampers right past the little flag to chew on the bars of the cage for a minute before giving Wei Wuxian the saddest, wettest little bloodred eyes ever seen on a yao.

"Yeah, okay, buddy. Come here."

Wei Wuxian unlatches the cage, scoops out the rat yao, and plops him on his shoulder. Red Bean's little tongue darts out to lick he cheek, sandpapery and no doubt rasping off little flecks of his skin. Wei Wuxian rubs the top of his tiny head.

When not secreting physically impossible amounts of dead blood, Red Bean's fur is surprisingly soft, presumably like a normal rat. He's actually pretty normal overall, aside from the venomous fangs, the line of toxic spines down the length of his tail, the sandpaper tongue made for sloughing meat off of bone, and the red eyes that glow in the dark. He also seems a bit more humanlike in terms of his sentience, but Wei Wuxian isn't familiar enough with regular rats to tell for sure.

A knock on his lab door breaks him from his rat yao-related musings.

He hastily brushes his rumpled lab coat smooth, wincing at the ink-spattered sleeves and scattered mess on the table. He scrapes the papers into a mostly straight pile and tosses his brushes on a steel tray, grimacing when he realizes some of them are stiff with dried ink.

Recognizing his situation as hopeless, he calls out: "It's open!"

Then he remembers the doors muffle sounds and he waves his arm over his head with a thumbs up at the end.

"Hey," Luo Qingyang sticks her head in, "You asked me for a huge and awkward favor? He's here."

"Oh, awesome! Come in!" Wei Wuxian carries the steel tray over to the laboratory sink and drops it in with a clatter, setting the faucet to run warm.

"I'm busy with my actual job, believe it or not, so I'm just gonna ditch and run. See you later!" Luo Qingyang waves herself out of the room, already dialing someone on her phone. "Play nice with each other!"

"Yes, Mom!" Wei Wuxian yells over his shoulder. Then he returns to fruitlessly scrubbing at the brushes. "Just a minute and I'll remember something like manners."

"No worries," a rather unremarkable voice responds. Expensive-sounding shoes travel from the doorway to his table. "Um. I think your test subject may have escaped."

"No, he's right here." Wei Wuxian turns off the sink, leaves the brushes to their fate, and gestures to Red Bean. "My best assistant. Well, my only assistant, but he's doing a decent enough job."

The unremarkable man that presumably owns the unremarkable voice pales, staring at the rat yao. "Um!"

Yep. Definitely him. Aw, he really is so boring-looking!

Okay, be normal. Don't scare off his new friend's potential boyfriend.

"Yeah, be careful. He hasn't really met any strangers yet. He likes me and my sister well enough, though."

Red Bean is squinting at Mr. Boring a little suspiciously, so Wei Wuxian plucks him off his shoulder and tucks him back into his little cage, passing him a peanut as a consolation prize. Then, he turns his mostly-full attention - at last - to the guest he begged Luo Qingyang to drag over to him.

"Hi! I'm Wei Wuxian! It's great to meet you!" He salutes his guest, pulling his sword out of the little chest pocket on his lab coat.

"Wen Mingdao," the unremarkable man stammers back, brown eyes wide. He bows, a bit too low, in Wei Wuxian's uneducated estimation. "It's an honor, Xiansheng."

"Oh, ew. Please- I mean. Wei Wuxian is fine. Just Wei Wuxian. Unless you're not comfortable?"

Wen Mingdao is clearly not comfortable, though because it's Wei Wuxian offering or because he doesn't feel it's deserved is not clear. Wei Wuxian grins, gesturing to a stool at his worktable and taking the one adjacent.

"Wen Mingdao, I need your help."

"Well, I'm glad to help you however I can, but I don't really see what I could possibly do for you."

Wei Wuxian scrolls through a dozen or so photos and videos of Red Bean learning to do tricks to find the photo of Lan Wangji's tea set. "Do you recognize this tea set?"

"Oh." Wen Mingdao blinks at it. "It's one I made. The first one I ever sold, in fact." His cheeks turn the color of strawberries. "I sold it to Hanguang-jun."

"Yes. That's why you're here."

Wen Mingdao blinks at him, obviously anxious, running through the possible reasons Wei Wuxian might want to see him about the little tea set.

"I want to get Lan Zhan a new tea pot. As a courting gift."

Well, whatever Wen Mingdao expected, it wasn't that. He blinks, a bit aghast. "Oh. I see. Um. I can work with that. What were you thinking?"

"Something… a bit more personal? And big enough for at least four people."

"Did you want it made custom? We can do that, but it can take a while. "

"I don't think it needs to be, not at this juncture. And I don't want to wait." Wei Wuxian grins. "I was hoping you might have something now?"

"I can show you what we have available." Wen Mingdao cracks open a tablet and stylus. "We have a few complete sets with four or six cups ready for sale. Do you know if you wanted clay or porcelain?"

"What's the difference?"

"Clay is good for heat retention. It also develops a patina that can give tea unique characteristics over time, so is usually used for one type of tea, like pu-erh. The teapot is sandy and coarse when it is new, but develops its shine and gloss with use and the oils of the hands. We make the teapot, but the owner gives it a spirit."

Wen Mingdao's eyes are bright, smiling down at photographs of his teapots, and Wei Wuxian kind of wants to pinch his cheeks. This guy is just too precious.

"Porcelain will capture the pure essence of the tea without affecting the flavor of the next batch. It's better than clay for green or white teas. The water will cool faster in a porcelain teapot, which is unfortunate for red or pu-erh teas, but for fine whites and greens this is ideal."

Huh. That's very interesting.

"So maybe porcelain, then? I mean, he already has clay, and porcelain seems more versatile. He loves green tea, so this would be better."

"Hm. If my memory serves, he purchased the clay pot to use for pu-erh."

Wei Wuxian chokes on a laugh. "Sorry, I just -" He giggles. "I can't imagine Lan Zhan drinking pu-erh tea. Ever."

Wen Mingdao suppresses a smile of his own and passes over his tablet. "These are the ones we have right now."

"And I can just… add to cart?"

"Oh. No." Wen Mingdao gives him an odd look. "We're not. Like that. We, um. We're rather exclusive, so people come to us, and we show them our inventory, and then discuss price."

Wei Wuxian blinks down at the photograph sets of the simple clay, stoneware, and porcelain pots. Delicate, graceful designs with simple forms, artful glazes, and soft brushstrokes, all obviously made by a family of fine artists. Despite the variety of materials and styles, there's a certain uniformity to the design and a sense of elegance that carries through.

Definitely no manufacturing mold seams on these bad boys. The photosets include signatures on each piece, close-ups of material quality, where the handles and spouts attach to the pots, and close-ups of brushstrokes and carvings.

"It was my fraternal grandmother that got us started with porcelain," Wen Mingdao says. "Before her, we stuck to clay for a few centuries, and then clay and stoneware for a few more."

"Is it that different?"

"Oh, very!" To Wei Wuxian's relief and disappointment in equal measure, Wen Mingdao does not launch into a lecture about the differences between clay, stoneware, and porcelain. "I chose to do stoneware. I enjoy the glazing process. My grandfather and father stick to clay. They're traditionalists. My mother and grandmother paint and carve. My sister does clay. My brother does stoneware. My gother randmother and my other brother do porcelain."

"Wow. A real family business, huh?"

"That's right!" Wen Mingdao grins, adorably proud of his family business.

He's literally so precious. Wei Wuxian has to suppress the super weird instinct to feed him soup and scent him so nobody will mess with him. Mortals are so fragile! What if someone tries to hug him too hard? He could just gelatinize-

Super weird.

Wei Wuxian does his best to disguise his weirdness by scrolling through the photosets, stopping at a pair of tea sets, identical in shape and design, but one is clay and the other is porcelain.

"Oh."

The clay is… brown. Wei Wuxian is sure that if he asked Wen Mingdao, he'd have plenty to say about the clay's place of origin, mineral composition, heat distribution, porosity, and more, but he can ask about it another time.

The brown clay teapot is carved with a pair of bunnies in a very traditional style, chasing each other down a cloudy mountainside. Each of the six cups and the gaiwan has a different bunny image carved into it, but the same two bunnies, one black and one white.

The soft, white porcelain carries the same designs, astonishingly similar, painted in a watercolor fashion in black, green, and blue.

Both sets are identical in size and shape, right down to the perfect fits of the teapot lids.

"These are beautiful."

"My grandparents made these two together, as a project. A symbol of their marriage for their fiftieth anniversary - their respective disciplines in perfect harmony." Wen Mingdao hesitates for one moment, and then continues. "They are, truly, the most beautiful sets we've ever made. The clay pot's lid has this gorgeous rasp to it. I know it will shine wonderfully given proper treatment. And the porcelain one sounds like jade. It gave me chills when we inspected it."

By the end of his pitch, Wen Mingdao has the goofiest 'this is some very cool shit and I am a part of it' grin on his face.

Wei Wuxian is sold.

"How much do you want for them?"

"We're asking for 10 million yuan for each set," Wen Mingdao admits. "I feel we could do 18 for both."

Wei Wuxian whistles through his teeth. "What if we were to do 14, and throw in some talismans?"

Wen Mingdao's eyes glint. "How many?"

"Depends. What do you want, how good do you want them to be, and how long are you willing to wait for them? I can print some off from my computer right now, but they won't be as good as if I write them by hand on bamboo and hemp parchment. Those will be more stable, so they'll hold up longer and the effects will be better quality."

Wen Mingdao considers him, eyes glazing over as he thinks, quiet for a long time. Wei Wuxian watches Red Bean run on his little rat wheel.

"Sorry, I was just thinking of all the different ideas I have. What about some stamps?"

"Stamps?"

"Yes, if we could stamp a talismanic design on the pots, either in a glaze-proof ink or as an indentation in the clay, then cultivators could use them as talismans, right? To keep the tea hot? To prevent tea from sinking into a clay teapot? To keep the pot from breaking? That sort of thing?"

Wei Wuxian blinks. "I'm. Not sure… Possibly. It depends on how compatible the script is with the composition of the clay. I haven't explored this sort of thing before."

"Perhaps we could work together?" Wen Mingdao asks. "I am here studying business, but I also have access to a kiln. We could experiment together?"

"Ah." Wei Wuxian winces. "That's not something I'm able to do right now. I have an exhibition coming up in a couple months, and I teach my first semester in the Fall… I'd be interesting in working together in the future, once I'm settled. Perhaps next summer?"

Wen Mingdao considers him for a long moment, then nods. "I can have both of these sets delivered to you here, tomorrow. If you can compensate for the difference in asking price, we will have an accord. Additionally, we will discuss a research proposal to begin at the start of the next fiscal year. "

"Sure," Wei Wuxian shrugs. "I can't guarantee anything, but I'd definitely be interested in trying it out. Even if this doesn't work, there are probably other ways. I think we can work something out."

It honestly sounds very interesting. He'd always wondered about including talismans in electronics and other items. This would be a natural place to start: a highly specialized technology and process, but one that doesn't involve electronic components in order to function.

Plus, he'll have something other than empty hands to offer the Jins at the end of his first year.

"Excellent." Wen Mingdao smiles. "14 million yuan for both sets, 6 million yuan in talismans, and an agreement of a future research partnership. I'm very excited to see where this relationship takes us."

Wei Wuxian grins. He's excited too. "What happens next?"

"I write up a sales agreement. You pay and sign. I sign. We negotiate a research proposal. I will have our family's lawyer write up a business contract in the event that our enterprise is successful. You will, of course, receive a percentage of sales on any enchanted pots."

"Seems reasonable to me. Does the research proposal need to be finalized before I get the tea sets?"

"No," Wen Mingdao shakes his head. "I will draft the sales agreement tonight, which will confirm your commitment to the research. The proposal itself will include a business contract that will likely need revisions or involve negotiations, so I wouldn't expect to have your signature before receipt of the merchandise. Only commitment to a future signature."

"I can work with that," Wei Wuxian says easily. It sounds like the most reasonable thing he's agreed to in the last year at least.

"Excellent." Wen Mingdao stands, bowing lightly. "I will make the arrangements. I should be able to make the delivery tomorrow or the day after."

"Sounds good. Hold on." Wei Wuxian pulls a pen out of his lab pocket and scrawls his contact information on the scrap of paper. "Just let me know and I'll tell you where to meet me."

"Good." Wen Mingao slips the paper in his trouser pocket, packs up his tablet, and nods. "I will see you soon, Wei Wuxian. Thank you for your business."

"Thank you!" Wei Wuxian bows back, matching the other man's salutation. This guy is one hell of an artist, after all.

Wen Mingdao shows himself out, and Wei Wuxian returns to his bum talismans and Red Bean's adorable antics. Except for a brief pause to send Luo Qingyang a direct order to 'climb that nerd like a tree'.

It's another four hours before he can call his day over, Xiuming staying late at school to study in the academy library. By the time he can justify leaving, Red Bean is showing, if not an abject draw to the talisman, then a compelling interest. Whether that's because Wei Wuxian is getting closer to success or because Red Bean just wants to know what's going on is anyone's guess.

Either way, he figures he and Xiuming can take turns pestering the poor creature until he either pretends the flag works or decides to eat them.

Chapter Text

Wen Mingdao drops off the tea sets the next afternoon, and Wei Wuxian pays him 12 million Yuan.

"Thank you. Here is our sales agreement, and here is the drafted proposal for our research partnership." He passes over a folder containing a document and a flashdrive.

"I'll look over the proposal and see what amendments need to be made. You'll get it by the end of the summer." Wei Wuxian passes over a box repurposed from Xiuming's latest massive order of Japanese skincare. "I hope you'll consider this payment and a show of good faith."

Wen Mingdao hums, opening the box. The look of open awe on his face is quite frankly adorable.

"I did some research on problems that ceramicists can have or common mistakes that can happen." Wei Wuxian pulls out the first bundle, labelled and bound with string. "These are no-stick talismans." He pulls out another bundle. "These are, uh, yes-stick talismans. Drying talismans. No-dry talismans. Warming talismans. Cooling talismans. Temperature stasis talismans.

"I think you might be able to do some initial experimentation with these, actually. I imagine they'll burn off in the kiln, but it might change how they work, if they work, or the appearance of the object. They're all charged and ready to use. Just stick them on the object and they should activate."

Wen Mingdao blinks at the stacks of talismans. He's so… simple. For this life. Wei Wuxian can literally see him doing the math.

Which is good, because he's definitely got more than the other 6 mil's worth in that box.

Eventually, Wen Mingdao nods, snatches back the sales agreement, scrawling his signature in the box provided. "This will work perfectly. We're in agreement."

"Sounds great." Wei Wuxian reviews the agreement anyway before signing. "I'm really looking forward to this. It's going to be so cool!!" Wei Wuxian looks over the guy's face. "You're going to do a great job. Curiosity is the future, and opportunity will get you there."

Wen Mingdao blinks. "Thank you."

"No, thank you!" Wei Wuxian grins, setting a hand on top of the wooden boxes containing his treasures. "I've been floundering trying to figure out what I want to try next. This is perfect! It'll be fun!"

Wen Mingdao bows lightly, and turns to leave. At the door, he turns back around. "I know who those are for. This won't stay quiet for long."

"I know." Wei Wuxian sighs. "I don't expect it to. I just want the illusion of peace while it lasts."

Wen Mingdao actually rolls his eyes. "With these people? Good luck."

Wei Wuxian laughs him out of the room, reaching for his phone the moment the door is closed.

Wei Wuxian:

- Hey so I said it before and i'm saying it again: you should definitely hit that

Luo Qingyang:

- I am hitting that

Wei Wuxian:

- Permanently

- He's so weird and pleasant in the most boring way

Luo Qingyang:

- Like you're qualified

- you picked weird and unpleasant in the most bizarre way

Wei Wuxian:

- Do as I say, not as I'm hoping to do

- also that's such a mean thing to say about Lan Zhan

Luo Qingyang:

- 1. Gross

- 2. He's grumpy, bitter, jaded, spoiled, judgemental, bitchy, obsessive, and unpleasant

- 3. He is also a softie with a heart the size of China and if you break said heart I will kill you with a pencil, dismember you with an industrial paper cutter, and feed you to a nest of zombie cats

Wei Wuxian:

- noted

- and I happen to like that in a guy 😍

Speaking of a persnickety, lovely, animal-cuddling guy who may or may not be a little bit all of those other things - except spoiled, which he definitely is and Wei Wuxian wouldn't mind shamelessly enabling for the forseeable future - he has places to be.

He tucks the boxes into the qiankun pocket of his backpack. He hates using qiankun pockets. Neither the boxes nor the open pocket of his backpack change size or shape, but the boxes sink into the dark space inside without any fuss.

It's so… creepy. It always makes him feel a little queasy.

But whatever.

Wei Wuxian stops by the bathroom to pee real quick and then spend ten minutes fiddling with his frizzy, tattered ponytail before giving up. He tries tying it up in a bun, hoping he can achieve that 'messy but in a sexy, stylish sort of way' look. Sadly, he mostly just looks like he's trying to hide the fact that he slept on it and then spent most of the day pulling on the locks until they frayed apart.

Welp. If Lan Wangji is courting him for his looks, he's shit outta luck.

If he's courting Wei Wuxian for his brain, he might also be shit outta luck. The stupid thing's pretty solid as far as intelligence goes, but the operating system is… Well. Sometimes it feels like his brain is using him.

Wait. That's kinda what brains are for.

Eh, whatever. He gets his own picture.

He's about to tumble further down that incomprehensible staircase of thought and take the physical stairs back down to the ground floor and across the mall when something new registers, and he stops in his tracks.

Reportedly, the doors to the labs dampen sound, but thanks to his cultivation level, Wei Wuxian's ears are extremely keen. He tends to catch sounds others wouldn't. In this case, his ears are snagged on the faintest sound of a quqin, the repetitive plucking of one note, so far in between that Wei Wuxian starts walking again before the next note plays out. Curiosity piqued, Wei Wuxian slips onto the landing, following the intermittent resonance as it bounces off the concrete walls until it leads down the stairway to the ground floor. There, in one of the rooms, is Lan Wangji.

More specifically, it's Lan Wangji's back, sitting on the floor, in front of a live fuzhu standing in a temporary enclosure. Wei Wuxian stares. He's never seen a fuzhu in person - they're extremely rare, and considered flood omens, so they're not often kept for zoos or research. It's a delicate, white, deer-like creature with huge ears and extremely long, fragile-looking legs that remind Wei Wuxian of a wading bird's in how she picks them up high and creeps forward with each step. Her four, many-pointed antlers reach high like plum tree branches, and her eyes are the milky green-white-violet of nephrite jade.

Lan Wangji is even more beautiful, dressed not in a button-up shirt and trousers, but pale blue jeans and a soft-looking, long-sleeved shirt in a creamy sort of color. His hair is twisted into a large, glossy bun on the back of his head except for those strands that frame his face, which Wei Wuxian can just make out over the other cultivator's shoulder.

As he watches from the window, Lan Wangji plucks the same note again, this time followed by another one at a lower pitch, like listening to a river stone fall down an embankment. Through the thick, laboratory door, Wei Wuxian can't quite feel the magic in the omega's playing, but he can hear it. The notes have a sort of… bright quality that comes with yang qi.

The fuzhu prances forward two steps, tossing her head, tail erect. The light catches on her two descending fangs as she shakes her antlers. Then, she catches sight of Wei Wuxian's face and snorts, pawing nervously on the strawed floor of her little pen.

Lan Wangji turns, blinking in surprise before getting up from his seat on the floor. He's wearing flat-bottom canvas shoes, which seems so young and casual that it makes Wei Wuxian's heart ache a little bit. Instead of his pince nez, he's wearing simple, frameless glasses.

"Wei Ying?" Lan Wangji asks, cracking the door open. He pushes the glasses up his nose with his middle finger.

Ugh, it's still cute even in regular glasses.

"Hey, sorry. I was on my way out when I heard the notes." He brushes his fingers against Lan Wangji's elbow, careful not to scent him. "I was just being nosy."

The omega looks at him, something guarded in his face. Then, he steps aside. "You may come in, if you have time."

"I have a little." Wei Wuxian follows him in. "I don't think I've seen you in jeans before."

"No, probably not. I do not wear jeans if I have office hours."

"So today is strictly research?"

"Mn."

"I know your exhibition piece is about amplifying music-based magic and that you're a cultivation musicologist, but what do you specialize in?"

"My expertise as a junior disciple was Cleansing and Inquiry. Today, I research ways to use musical cultivation to improve aspects of public health on a large scale."

"And… the fuzhu?"

"She is my test subject. I am researching how different notes, patterns, and tonal resonances affect mood."

"Huh." Wei Wuxian can immediately think of a lot of really, really bad ways such a thing could be used. Then again, the same talisman he uses to trap the wildfire could be used to trap people.

"Fuzhu are mild-mannered, and generally agreeable creatures. As such, they make good subjects." Lan Wangji leads him deeper into the room, giving Wei Wuxian the opportunity to appreciate how nice his butt looks in those jeans.

"And… the floods?"

"Mn. Fuzhu are very particular about the quality of the staple food: moss. So long as their moss is good and damp and thriving, the chances of floods are minimal. But I work on the ground floor because the rooms have drains. Just in case. That said, I do my best not to anger her."

"Ah."

Wei Wuxian eyes the creature that is very obviously sizing him up from her pen. A small, almost secret-looking smile plays at the corners of Lan Wangji's mouth, and it dawns on Wei Wuxian that Lan Wangji is being funny.

"Does she have a name?"

"Mei." It's at least as cute as his butt.

"Because her antlers look like plum trees?"

"Mn."

"She's pretty."

"Mn." Lan Wangji smiles, eyes warm and soft.

So it's not just bunnies then. It's animals in general. That's way more attractive than it has any right to be. Wei Wuxian must be getting old and tired, catching feelings for a man based on his affinity for hyperspecific research and fondness for animals. And a really cute ass, but honestly the animal thing is more important to him in this moment.

He can think about Lan Wangji's cute ass later.

He's even more cute when he clips a few leaves off a thriving hosta plant in the corner of the room and offers one to the fuzhu. She nibbles it delicately from his hand.

"Sweet lady," the omega murmurs, brushing the back of a finger over her nose. "She's been a very cooperative subject. I'm hoping to acquire her permanently when she has served her purpose as my test subject. She deserves it."

"What will you do with her?" Wei Wuxian asks, accepting a hosta leaf and offering it to the delicate animal.

"She will find Cloud Recesses an excellent place to live. The fuzhu there have been content for centuries."

"There are fuzhu in Cloud Recesses?"

"Among other supernatural creatures, yes." At Wei Wuxian's confused look, Lan Wangji continues. "Killing has been forbidden in Cloud Recesses since the founding of my Sect. Aside from one incident of invasion a millennia ago, Cloud Recesses has served as an unsullied refuge for man and animal alike."

"Is it pretty there?"

"Beautiful."

"Do you ever go back to visit?"

"For a few days every year, before the discussion conference."

Wei Wuxian waits for Lan Wangji to decide if he has more to say, but he doesn't. Or at least, chooses not to.

Wei Wuxian knows that feeling.

"She'll probably miss you. I know I would." He leans into Lan Wangji's side briefly, just a brush, carefully scentless. Then he steals a hosta leaf and crumples it into his own mouth. "Mmph, especially if you pass out treats like these!"

The fuzhu grunts unhappily, and Lan Wangji passes the animal another leaf before eating one himself. The three of them munch on raw vegetation together in comfortable silence, Lan Wangji running his hands along the dappled, silvern coat. Despite her delicate build and etheral look, her body is covered in dense, water-resistant fur. She stands on two long, cloven toes that splay wide - built for wading and swimming.

Like many magical creatures, she represents an odd mix of impracticality and natural evolution.

"Were you leaving for the day?" Lan Wangji asks.

"Well, actually, I was looking for you…" Wei Wuxian reaches for some of his hair to pull on, but it's all wadded upon his head. "Um. I have a gift for you. If it's not too soon?"

Lan Wangji blinks. "A courting gift?"

"Yes." Wei Wuxian takes a deep breath. "I, uh. I don't really know if there's a general timeframe for these things or what, but I knew what I wanted to get you, so I went and got it."

Lan Wangji's ears redden, made all the more obvious when he tucks his hair behind his ears.

"Historically, courting rituals were performed while the families were engaged in political or business negotiations. The parents would dictate when gifts were presented. Given that our parents are not here and we are not currently part of any economic or political machinations, you can give me whatever you like, whenever you wish."

"Lan Zhan!" Wei Wuxian gasps, stepping closer. There are probably stars in his eyes, and he does his best not to think about it lest he be embarrassed. "Are you flirting with me?"

"Yes."

Their fingers brush, catching together in a light cling. Lan Wangji's fingers are surprisingly dry and calloused, not hands Wei Wuxian would expect from a man of his breeding. Lan Wangji's eyes are keen behind his glasses, sharp and almost glowing as they watch Wei Wuxian try not to blush.

"Then I better make it worth your while, hm?" Heart in his throat, Wei Wuxian leads Lan Wangji over to a nearby counter by their still-joined fingertips.

He unzips the qiankun pocket of his backpack and resolutely does not flinch, groan, or avert his gaze as he removes the two wooden boxes.

He's the bravest man alive.

Lan Wangji blinks at him expectantly. Oh, he's waiting for Wei Wuxian to give a speech.

"So. I may have gone a little overboard. Um." Yeah, he definitely went overboard. He unlatches both boxes and slides the lids off. "But look, I couldn't just get one. They're a pair."

Lan Wangji stares.

"So, um. I noticed that the tea set in your office only serves two. Which might have worked fine back when you first got here! But… you have friends now. And you have me. So you need a new tea set.

"I looked up the maker of the little one in your office and found them. I tracked down the heir. He showed me what they had available, and I saw these. The first thing that caught my eye was the artwork, but then Wen Mingdao told me a story. He told me the clay one was made by his grandfather, and the porcelain one was made my his grandmother. She brought porcelain and painting techniques into their family, and these two sets were made to reflect those years of love and labor and art…"

Lan Wangji's eyes haven't left the boxes. Wei Wuxian pauses to breathe, because he's finally run out of air.

"And if I am very, very lucky," Wei Wuxian presses on, voice going soft, "I would also like to have years of love and labor and art to share and inspire."

"You bought both sets?" There's a careful, controlled quality to Lan Wangji's voice as he traces the black rabbit's ear with the tip of one finger.

"I was going to get you porcelain, since it's apparently better for green and white tea, and I know that's what you like, but I just - I couldn't part them." Wei Wuxian hooks his free fingers - he's still holding Lan Wangji's hand - onto the edge of the clay set's box. "It would have felt wrong to separate them, and I knew they would be in good hands…"

Wei Wuxian barely manages to close him mouth before he starts rambling nervously. After a stretch of silence, Lan Wangji tears his eyes away from the tea sets, meeting his eyes.

He doesn't say anything, but there's something surprisingly vulnerable, even fragile, in his expression. He takes a firmer hold of Wei Wuxian's hand, and even though he doesn't pull, Wei Wuxian finds himself stepping closer until they're inches apart.

With a touch of surprise, Wei Wuxian realizes that he has to tilt his head up a little bit to meet the omega's gaze. They look good together, he bets. Not that it matters, of course, but they do. It's a nice feeling, the idea of being part of a set.

"Thank you, Wei Ying." There are a thousand words hidden in those few, heavy with meaning Wei Wuxian can only begin to know.

Maybe someday, given time.

"You like them?" He's still caught on the fact that he really does have to look up a little if he really wants to locks eyes with Lan Wangji. Lan Wangji, whose free hand - the one not caught up in his own - has found his waist. He can smell sandalwood and that light hint of orange blossoms, and he wonders if it'll still be on his clothes when he gets home.

"Mn."

Wei Wuxian realizes with a tremor of the spirit that he can hear their every breath.

"Good." The click of his throat is so loud in the quiet of the room. "Hey, um. Can I ask a question?"

"Ask."

"Why a clay tea pot if you like green tea? Wen Mingdao said they're for dark teas, like pu-erh."

Lan Wangji's ears flush again. "It was for pu-erh. Then I discovered quite quickly that I despise pu-erh."

Wei Wuxian snorts. There's a hand on his waist. "Oh, you would hate it, wouldn't you? That's perfect. That's so you."

"I am glad you think so."

"I like you so much, Lan Zhan."

Lan Wangji's eyes dart to his lips. They're so close, chests almost touching with every inhalation. "I like you so much too."

"Yeah?" Are they going to kiss? "Really?"

"Mn."

"Show me?"

They're standing so close now that their chests almost brush with each inhalation - matched inhalations. Wei Wuxian's heart rabbits in his chest. His first, wild thought is that he is way too old for this. His second, wilder thought is that's bullshit, nobody should ever be too old for this, if he gets old enough that his heart just gives out from Lan Wangji's attention, it would be so fucking worth it.

"Lan Zhan, this is really intense and I'm definitely not hating it, but are you going to kiss me or what-"

Lan Wangji kisses him.

His mouth tastes green and vegetal from the hosta leaves, and his lips are soft - a contrast to the strong hands - both of them! - fitted to the small of his back.

After a few moments, Lan Wangji pulls away, the tips of their noses almost brushing. He's so beautiful, so handsome.

"My turn?" Wei Wuxian asks, surprised when his voice comes out breathless.

Lan Wangji's head tips, and Wei Wuxian takes that as carte blanche. He slips his arms over Lan Wangji's broad shoulders and kisses him again, deeper, but hopefully gentlemanly.

Apparently, Lan Wangji does not care that much about 'gentlemanly', because he's the one that introduces tongue into the mix.

Wei Wuxian isn't one to complain or resist, leaning into it. It's warm, a little heated, but almost easy. Those strong hands come up to his cheeks, gentle and kind.

They break apart again, Wei Wuxian breathless as anything, blinking into golden eyes framed by long lashes. Lan Wangji blinks back, something so deeply sincere in his gaze even with that same neutral expression steady on his face.

"Wow. Lan Zhan, you-" He presses another soft kiss to Lan Wangji's mouth. "You really do like the tea sets, huh?"

"More than you know."

"Yeah?"

"Mn." Lan Wangji's eyes fall on the painted bunnies again. There's something so soft and warm in his gaze. "Thank you."

"You're sweet." Since it seems like it's on the table, Wei Wuxian leans in and kisses his cheek. His phone buzzes in has back pocket, and he pulls it out. It's an alarm to pick up his sister.

"I have to go. One more kiss for the road?"

"Mn."

Lan Wangji takes his face in his hands and plants one on him, quick but no less intense.

"Wow. Gods, you're cool. Okay one more." Wei Wuxian kisses him again, fumbling through his pockets for his keys. "See you soon, Gege."

The fuzhu grunts at him as he hurries out, so Wei Wuxian blows a kiss at them both. "Bye!"

Lan Wangji smiles at the floor, tucking his hair behind his blushing ears again.

Wei Wuxian can't wait to tell his sister about this.