Chapter Text
Wei Wuxian never stays in one place for long.
Over the past year he spent a few months up north, until it started getting too cold to sleep outside. Then some time in the outskirts of Lanling, where there's a higher going rate for wandering cultivators willing to pick up a night hunt or two. Then a pretty nice month wandering the Yueling coast, until he got sick of sleeping on beaches and waking up with sand in previously undiscovered crevices.
He came up to Gusu a few months ago. Settled in Caiyi because he likes the place and because he has intentionally been staying away from Yunmeng ever since the incident. Plus, Caiyi is better than freezing his ass off in Qinghe or getting stabbed by some random asshole in Qishan.
The food here largely sucks, but he is growing a tiny pepper plant in the back room he's renting at a local inn. Or, well. By renting, he means helping clean up after customers in exchange for room and board, and by room, he means a spare closet. But his pepper plant is thriving, so Wei Ying dumps homemade chili oil on his breakfast every morning and feels very self-sufficient about the whole thing.
He's sitting in the inn's main room, still nursing his one jar of wine for the night, because he can't afford a second but doesn't want to go to sleep just yet, when he overhears a nearby table gossiping about some juicy bit of news from the Cloud Recesses.
Wei Ying's ears perk up and he leans in their direction, trying to listen in on the specifics. It turns out, if the half-drunk man ranting to his rowdy friends is to be believed, Gusu Lan is trying to marry off Hanguang-Jun, their esteemed Second Jade. Everyone's going positively wild guessing who the lucky bride will be. The tipsy storyteller swears there's a princess coming from the far south. His friend has heard that Lanling is sending a whole cadre of suitors, in an attempt to overwhelm the process with sheer numbers.
Wei Ying laughs and drains his wine. He's had exactly one interaction with Lan Wangji of the Cloud Recesses, and from what he can tell the guy is a massive bitch. He hadn't even responded when Wei Ying apologized for running into him fully accidentally. Lan Wangji had just gotten to his feet, looking a bit like a cat who'd been pet the wrong way, ignored Wei Ying's offer of a hand up, and then stared imperiously until Wei Ying scrambled off for fear those golden eyes could actually stop his heart, like the local legends say.
Lan Wangji is pretty hot, though, Wei Ying has to admit. So he probably won't have any trouble finding a spouse. One of those Lanling douchebags would fit right in, gold robes matching Lan Wangji's terrifying eyes. Wei Ying tilts his head for a moment, remembering the eyes in question, then slaps his last piece of silver down on the table next to his empty bowl and hops to his feet to leave. He's gonna have to go night hunting tomorrow if he wants to afford dinner this week, and he should probably get an early start replenishing his talismans before heading out.
---
Lan Wangji is getting sick of suitors. At this point he doesn't actually care who he marries.
Well. Not a Jin.
And not that towering man from Quinghe who had come in holding what could only be described as a battleaxe* with what looked like dried blood crusted on it. Can't you clean your weapon, dear god. And absolutely not a Wen.
So perhaps he has some opinions. The bigger point is that this whole process feels so useless. There are so many better ways he could spend his time than politely sipping tea while the latest sect leader's niece or son or third-cousin-twice-removed bats their eyelashes at him and compliments his "firm gaze." (Lan Zhan hadn't glared at that turn of phrase specifically, but only because he'd been glaring since the beady-eyed Jin cousin in question first sat down. No one but his brother could ever tell the difference between his annoyed glare and his regular expression, anyway, so it's not like it mattered.)
Finally, mercifully, the Jin Cousin takes his leave and Lan Zhan is able to stand and stretch his legs for the first time in hours. This whole procedure is testing even his renowned ability to cultivate stillness.
He takes his leave of the ornate hall, hoping for a moment of solitude before he is scheduled to speak with a Sect Leader from Laoling and his eldest daughter who would, if Lan Zhan's uncle is to be believed, be a tolerably advantageous match, if not as beneficial as a Jiang or Jin.
As Lan Zhan sweeps out into the corridor that connects the ceremonial hall from his favorite (being that it is usually blissfully empty) garden, he passes a few of the visiting cultivators around his own age, apparently in the middle of a raucously entertaining conversation. Lan Zhan holds back a frown at the noise, before his brain catches up with what they're actually saying.
"Imagine sleeping with Wangji," the first boy says. A distant Jin cousin, by the looks of his robes.
"Like fucking a dead fish," a boy next to him says, laughing cruelly.
"Don't be mean," another boy in Nie blacks and grays. Nie Mingjue’s little brother, if Lan Zhan is remembering correctly, and his words should be kind but Lan Zhan is fairly sure he hears laughter in the Nie boy's voice, too.
"Maybe he'll marry another icicle and they can stare at each other in silence while they..." the Jin boy continues.
Lan Zhan hurries back the direction he came from, but can't avoid seeing the vulgar gesture the boy is making. Seeing Nie Huaisang startle as he sweeps away doesn't help, either. Lan Zhan doesn't particularly want anyone to know he'd overheard.
He's not hurt, is the thing. Lan Zhan isn't a stranger to people talking about him behind his back. He doesn't care. They'd never dare say it to his face, and that's good enough for him. But there's a reason he's sitting through these interminable meetings with an endless string of potential spouses. Gusu Lan needs to make political allies, especially with the worrying consolidation of power in the Wen Sect, and the Second Jade of Lan is the perfect candidate. An important figurehead for Gusu Lan without the political complications that come with Xichen's future role as sect leader.
Lan Wangji doesn't think a marriage would be annulled because he is insufficiently capable of his marital duties, but he's not completely certain. He doesn't want to cause political problems for his sect if his future spouse raises complaints about his performance.
"Don't you think, Lan er-gongzi?" the girl across from him asks.
"Mm," Lan Zhan replies, because he does not know what she just said. The girl smiles in response, but her mouth is tight.
That afternoon, Lan Zhan goes to his most valued - and really only - source for questions like this.
"Brother, what would happen if a spouse were... displeased with the ministrations of their husband?"
Lan Zhan had mulled over his question carefully, testing out different wording until he found what, he thought, was the perfect mix of decorum and clarity.
Lan Xichen's face looks so stricken at the question, though, that all Lan Zhan can do is mutter a harried "never mind, it’s nothing" and hurry away as quickly as decorum will allow.
He'll have to find a way to teach himself, Lan Zhan thinks with a firm mental nod. It must be like any other skill that one can practice dutifully until it is mastered.
Lan Zhan goes night hunting with some of the visiting disciples the next afternoon. For all he doesn't relish more time with his peers, he will gladly take the excuse to burn off extra energy from a day of sitting and clenching his jaw trying not to be rude to suitors.
They're several hours into the search for a nest of corpses that have been harassing a nearby village when they stop to rest and eat just outside of Caiyi. Lan Zhan is restraining himself from lecturing the group about speaking while eating - as much as the buzz of conversation is grating on his nerves, they’re not in the Cloud Recesses right now so technically breaking no rules - when the senior Lan disciple leading today’s hunt suddenly stands and turns toward the road.
There's a figure in the distance, approaching from the west, and from the look of the sword on his hip he's a cultivator as well.
"Ah, I have company tonight!" the figure says cheerfully, as he gets within earshot of the group. He's dressed nearly all in black, hair messy and clothes looking worn but well cared for. Lan Zhan doesn't recognize his sword. A rogue cultivator, then.
"State your business," Lan Jingze says, polite but firm as always.
"Same as you I presume. Out appreciating the beauty of nature. Might dispose of a few fierce corpses along the way."
The man gives a careless shrug of his shoulder, and something about him looks oddly familiar to Lan Zhan. Next to him, Nie Huaisang steps forward and asks, with a tentative flutter of his fan, "Have we met before?"
The man in black narrows his eyes before bursting into a wide grin. "Is that little Nie-xiong?"
There's a rumble of confusion from the group, and Lan Zhan feels his own face tighten at the man's rudeness, but Nie Huaisang lowers his hands and smiles widely in return.
"Wei-gongzi? What are you doing here? Ah, I mean…" Huaisang turns to the rest of the group, hiding behind his fan once again. "Everyone, this is Wei Wuxian. You may have met him before if you attended conferences in Yunmeng?"
It suddenly clicks into place where Lan Zhan has seen this man before. He’d been much younger when Wei Wuxian of Yunmeng barreled straight into him, just outside of the gates of the Cloud Recesses. It had been one of the first times Lan Zhan had been allowed the honor of welcoming a visiting retinue for diplomatic conferences. He'd had no idea how to handle the whirling ball of energy that swept the feet out from under him, then eagerly attempted to grab him by the wrist and pull him back upright.
At the time, Lan Zhan had only narrowly avoided reciting the dozen Cloud Recesses rules the young boy had broken, before realizing he did not know if official diplomatic visitors were also forbidden from running or laughing or knocking other cultivators into the dirt then acting like it’s the funniest thing in the world.
Lan Zhan schools his face into stillness and carefully does not let his eyes roam over the man in black in front of him. He's taller now, and while his face has lost some of the roundness of youth he seems to have kept the blazing smile that had been so disorienting to a twelve-year-old Lan Zhan.
Someone next to Lan Zhan coughs politely, and he realizes the group has been introducing themselves and is waiting for him to join in.
"Wait, I know you," Wei Wuxian says before Lan Zhan can collect himself and reply. "Lan Zhan! It's been a long time!"
Lan Zhan has to choke back an annoyed huff at the man's shameless familiarity. Another thing that clearly hasn't changed since he was a boy.
"Ah, my apologies," Wei Wuxian says with a distinct lilt of laughter in his voice. “I can see the Second Jade of Lan is just as upright as everyone says. Please excuse any offense, Lan er-gongzi, I'll leave you all to your hunting."
Up until now, Lan Zhan didn't know someone could bow sarcastically, but Wei Wuxian seems to be a man of many talents.
He heads off with a casual wave, away from the beaten path and into the surrounding forest like he doesn't have a care in the world about wandering through the woods alone. It takes Lan Zhan a long moment to pull himself together and rejoin his fellow cultivators as they sit back down to their food.
As he listens to the chatter grow around him again, it's clear Wei Wuxian is the new topic of choice.
"I can't believe that was him! The Yiling Rogue!" one of the younger Lans says, with something distressingly close to admiration in his voice. "I didn't know he was in Gusu!"
"I've run into him before," one of the seniors responds, which Lan Zhan finds more discomfiting than he likes to admit. "I think he's been in the area for a few months."
"He keeps swiping my hunts," Nie Xiuwei grumbles in response, but he's quickly cut off by one of the younger Jin's piping up with an excited "He's so talented. Did you all hear about the abyss he killed in Yiling all by himself?"
Lan Zhan finishes his meal quickly then readies himself to return to the hunt, pointedly ignoring the conversation behind him.
---
Wei Wuxian doesn't go very far when he leaves the group of cultivators. Why give up an eavesdropping opportunity this good? Instead, he parks himself in a nearby tree as soon as he's out of sight and pulls out half a pork bun he'd saved from dinner the night before. He laughs to himself at their conversation. It had been a water snake demon, not an abyss, and he very much had help killing it, but legends tended to spread around things like that and he had no real desire to correct people. Not when they made him sound so cool.
"The Yiling Rogue" was a new moniker though. He's heard The Demon of Yunmeng before from people less sympathetic to his story, and occasionally Brother Yiling from those in the north who were familiar with him after the year or so he spent in the area, but Yiling Rogue is new. Very dashing, Wei Ying thinks as he finishes his snack.
He wanders back down the same road to Caiyi later that night, just him and the familiar stars overhead. His money pouch jingles as he tosses it restlessly back and forth, filled for once with silver a local blacksmith gave him for the minor corpse infestation he just cleared out.
Okay, not so minor, but Wei Ying handled it just fine. Just a few cuts and bruises to show for the fight, alongside the handful of coins the blacksmith gave him in thanks. Other rogue cultivators would have demanded more, but the man had three children who’d looked loved and well fed but whose clothes were clearly more patch than original fabric at this point and... anyway, Wei Ying can always go night hunting again later this week, or pick up another shift at the inn serving booze to drunk travelers.
He idly wonders if the Lans are still out looking for the same corpse problem he just cleared out. If they'll be up all night for nothing, now that Wei Ying has flushed out the infestation on his own. Sometimes local sects get... annoyed at that. The Lans are some of the least likely to give him shit over swiping their prey, generally living up to their reputation as noble sticks-in-the-mud, but there’d been visiting disciples in the group as well. Wei Ying will keep an eye out for any pissed off gentry this week, just in case.
He's nearly home - so close he can practically feel his bed under him, taste the bottle of mediocre but effective wine he has stashed under his floorboards - when he hears an ear-shattering braying off in the distance, followed by a string of furious cursing.
Up ahead, a broad-shouldered man is screaming at a donkey that has stopped dead in the middle of the road.
Wei Ying considers ducking into the trees lining the road and avoiding the pair altogether, until he sees the man pull a whip from his belt and begin flailing away at the donkey so intensely that Wei Ying is worried he might not stop until the poor beast is dead.
He's jogging up before he stops to think about what he's doing.
"Hey, hey, I think he's had enough, yeah?"
Wei Ying realizes his mistake a split second after the man turns, arm now raised against him instead of the braying donkey.
"Who the hell are you?" the man yells, and then there's a crack of the whip. Wei Ying rips Suibian out of its sheath in a heartbeat, but he already knows he's going to be too late. He flinches away from the flying leather, but no strike comes.
"Sir."
Wei Ying slowly opens his eyes at the new, chilly voice. A familiar white figure is standing in front of him, sword drawn. The angry man's whip is lying next to him like a dead snake in the dirt.
"Lan Zhan!" Wei Ying cries, unable to keep the laughter out of his voice. And here he'd thought he was sharing the petulant donkey's punishment tonight. Instead he gets another chance to see the beautiful Second Jade of Lan up close and personal. What an eventful evening this is turning out to be.
"Are you hurt?" Lan Zhan asks, without breaking eye contact with the furious but clearly cowed donkey owner.
"Ah, I'm not the one you should be worried about," Wei Ying says before stepping past the man towards the donkey behind him. "It's this sweet baby who needs our concern."
The sweet baby in question attempts to bite Wei Ying's finger off as he reaches out to pat its head.
"You shouldn't treat your beloved donkey like this," Wei Ying says as he carefully keeps all his digits away from the animal's mouth.
"Beloved? This horrible ass?" The man growls and looks longingly at his whip where it lies on the ground, clearly too close to Lan Zhan and his still-drawn sword for the man to risk retrieving it.
"Ahh, if he's too much trouble, I can take him for you."
Wei Ying doesn't actually need a donkey. He really doesn't need a donkey, he thinks, as the donkey in question attempts to bite him again. He dodges the bite and smiles at the red-faced man. It's enough work keeping himself alive and fed. But he can't bring himself to let the man walk off with the poor animal still in his possession.
"Are you trying to steal my property?" the man asks, very angry for someone who was, quite recently, a few minutes away from his property being one very dead donkey.
"No, no!" Wei Ying says, because it's easier than arguing. "I'll pay?"
He takes the few pieces of newly earned silver out of his pouch and holds them out. The man looks at him for a long moment, eyebrows raised, before he snatches the money and huffs. "Fine. It's your problem now."
Wei Ying watches as the man tucks the silver in his own pocket, hesitates for a moment, then darts forward to grab his whip from Lan Zhan's feet before heading down the road at a quick pace. He's clearly worried Lan Zhan's going to strike him down, if not with his sword then possibly with his icy glare.
It'd be hilarious, if Wei Ying wasn't coming to terms with being the proud owner of a donkey who has just successfully bitten him on the shoulder.
"Ow," Wei Ying says.
"Hee haw," says the donkey.
Lan Zhan turns towards them both and looks mostly stone-faced, though Wei Ying thinks there might be a slight whiff of concern under that piercing stare.
"Ah ha ha," Wei Ying laughs, rubbing at the painful lump on his shoulder. "What are you doing here, Lan Zhan?"
The man's eyes flash at his name, but he doesn't say anything. Excellent. Wei Ying is wearing him down.
"I heard yelling," Lan Zhan says after a moment, by way of explanation.
"But where's the rest of your group?"
"They were... eager to keep moving."
Ah, so they weren't in a rush to find extra trouble, no matter how many yelling donkeys or distressed rogue cultivators they heard. Understandable, Wei Ying supposes, though it does raise the question of why Lan Zhan of the Cloud Recesses had been willing to waste his time coming to the rescue.
"Thank you for saving my precious new child," Wei Ying says with an overly formal bow. He has to dodge to the left halfway through to avoid another nip from the donkey in question. Lan Zhan looks at them both in what Wei Ying can only assume is confusion. Again, hilarious.
"I'll be off then," Wei Ying says, giving the donkey's reins a tug. The donkey does not move. "Ah ha ha, such a tease, this one."
Another tug, and the donkey still doesn't move. At least it's not trying to bite Wei Ying anymore. Wei Ying is starting to feel his exhaustion from the day return, though, now that the adrenaline of a near fight is wearing off. He'd really appreciate it if his precious new charge would move its, ahem, ass. He's not going to hit the animal, because Wei Ying isn't an asshole, but he's starting to suspect the donkey had not helped its own case with its old owner.
That's when Lan Zhan pulls a bright, round apple out of his own bag and holds it out in front of the animal.
The donkey moves immediately.
Wei Ying watches, fully bemused, as Lan Zhan takes up a slow pace down the road followed behind by a suddenly focused and apparently highly apple-motivated donkey.
"Oh good, now my donkey likes you more than me! How shameless. How rude," Wei Wuxian whines, taking a hop-skip to catch up with them.
Lan Zhan stops in response and shoves the apple into Wei Wuxian's hand before swiftly turning back in the direction of the former corpse infestation and presumably the other Lan night hunters.
"Ah, if you're looking for the corpses still, there's no need. I handled them all! Head home and get a good night's sleep, Lan Zhan!"
Wei Ying feels he is being very polite. He only has a bit of a shit-eating grin as he informs Lan Zhan of his impressive success. He's looking out for Lan Zhan's rest and well-being, really.
Lan Zhan stops short and glares at Wei Ying in response.
"Alone?"
"Don't you trust me? I can't believe you'd doubt my skills like this, Lan Zhan," Wei Wuxian says.
Lan Wangji must think there's no way a lowly rogue cultivator could have handled the problem on his own. It’s an attitude Wei Wuxian has been brushing off with jokes and smirks since he was barely a teenager.
"Hm," Lan Wangji responds, and Wei Wuxian has no idea what he means by it. But the man bows again, and this time turns to follow the road back to the Cloud Recesses, so perhaps he believed Wei Ying after all.
“Okay, come on you horrible little apple fiend,” Wei Ying says and starts pulling his new charge towards Caiyi and bed. “Hey, that’s what I should call you. Horrible Little Apple. Maybe if you’re very good we can drop the horrible.”
The donkey brays again, but refrains from taking any more chunks out of Wei Ying’s body, so he thinks the night is looking up, all things considered.
---
Lan Zhan is distracted the next day. He tells himself it's because of the disruption to his schedule from night hunting. (He'd been back in the Cloud Recesses and asleep by 9 pm, as usual.) Reminds himself that it has been long weeks of meetings and lectures and endless walks through the gardens with potential marriage partners. Anyone would be feeling some level of exhaustion at this point. (The Second Jade of Lan is famously unflappable. Has always prided himself on that fact.)
After he trails off into a too-long silence in the middle of a conversation with a southern sect leader's daughter, leaving her staring at him in confusion, Lan Zhan is finally forced to admit he's been thrown off by seeing the strange boy from his childhood again.
Wei Wuxian had been off-putting and overwhelming when he was young, and he's apparently just as overwhelming now. Lan Zhan keeps flashing back to Wei Wuxian and his horrible donkey, his horrible grin when he'd casually mentioned disposing of an entire nest of corpses on his own. It’s a task big enough it should have required half a dozen cultivators to finish safely. He was lucky he got away with just a few scrapes for his trouble.
The good news is Lan Zhan is never going to see Wei Wuxian again, he thinks as he finally returns to the Jingshi that night, with its blessed silence and lack of outsiders trying to impress him.
(Lan Zhan slips an apple into his pocket the next morning, just in case.)
---
Now that Wei Ying has two mouths to feed, he really does need to go night hunting more frequently. The inn's owner has let him stable Little Apple out back with the rest of the horses, but the beast utterly refuses to eat the abundant (and free) grass that grows in the dry fields nearby, and Wei Wuxian can't bring himself to deny his new friend food until he eats the cheap stuff out of necessity. So he adds a line for oats and apples to his tragic weekly budget and, later that week, packs up supplies to hit the road looking for trouble and a nearby farmer or mayor or blacksmith willing to pay him to handle it.
It's nearing the middle of the night, and Wei Ying still has no real leads on the reports of monstrous water dwelling creatures plaguing local fishers, when he once again runs into the group of Lan cultivators and their various visiting hangers-on.
Wei Ying is torn between amusement at the perturbed look on Lan Zhan's face and happiness at seeing Nie Huaisang again. He was an odd kid, back in the day, but always a good time. They'd gotten on well, even if Wei Ying lost touch with Huaisang at the same time he lost touch with the rest of the formal cultivation world. So when Huaisang invites him to join them for a rest and a pastry, Wei Ying happily accepts the invitation.
It's... nice, getting to chat with Huaisang again, though he's apparently only gotten more flighty and weird about his fan in the intervening years. Some of the other cultivators in the group soon gather around, looking torn between starstruck and slightly terrified of Wei Ying. It's an attitude he's getting more and more used to these days.
Urban legend says Wei Wuxian murdered three people, fought his brother, then fled Lotus Pier, and has been night hunting around the country ever since as an attempt to make up for his sins. Depending on their sensibilities and thirst for the dramatic, people consider him either a delinquent who should return home to face punishment, or a justice-seeking vigilante just evil enough to be extremely cool.
(This is not true. Shortly after turning fourteen, Wei Ying accidentally broke his brother's arm, got in a screaming fight with Madam Yu that ended with her whipping him until he could barely walk, then ran away from Yunmeng in an attempt to keep Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng from having an irreparable falling out with their family on his behalf.)
"Perhaps Wei-gongzi could join us on our hunt? So he does not risk facing a dangerous monster alone this time?" Nie Huaisang asks as the hour grows late and Wei Ying has started contemplating where he should set up his own camp for the night.
It's pretty clear what he really means is "Actually, we'd rather not sleep rough tonight only to realize tomorrow you've dispatched the monster before we could even arrive," but Wei Ying has never minded company on a night hunt. Loves picking people's brains and bothering them for stories about their own hunts and travels, so he happily agrees.
It's too late to continue their search that night, so instead they spend a pleasant hour sitting around a fire, sharing stories about past exploits. It doesn't take long for an excitable looking younger Lan to start peppering Wei Ying for information about his most notorious night adventures. They've clearly all heard some deeply exaggerated stories, but Wei Ying runs with it, spinning wilder and wilder versions of his honestly usually pretty mundane hunts.
"And then it ran straight into the women's bathhouse," he says, to uproarious laughter from the group.
Most of the group, that is. Lan Wangji is looking pained as always. Wei Ying thinks he detects a downturn of displeasure in the straight line of the man's mouth. Probably scandalized by the thought of a naked human body. Wei Ying leans into his story, wanting to see if he can get more of a reaction out of the man.
"Not a stitch of clothing on them, just bubbles everywhere, and they're all screaming..." Wei Ying mimics a breathy noise, more groan than scream of terror, and the group collectively leans forward, hanging off his every word.
"So I pull it out..." He smirks. "My sword, I mean, and stab the mogwai right in the heart. I saved all their lives that day."
"Oh my god," one of the Lans murmurs, awestruck.
"Did you..." another one starts then catches himself.
The hulking Nie cultivator next to him finishes his question for him. "Did they thank you?" He gives a lascivious grin, and Wei Ying grins back and nods.
He had actually screamed and jumped to face the opposite direction, giving the women enough time to scramble to put their robes back on. They'd had a lovely tea after everyone got dressed and cleaned up the last of the dead monster, though, the women thanking Wei Ying for his help and Wei Ying happily eating as many lotus cakes as they'd give him while gossiping about local news. Mrs. Chao at the bakery down the street was marrying off her THIRD daughter this year alone! What blessings.
---
Lan Wangji listens to the stories, his heart going about a mile a minute when Wei Wuxian starts talking about naked women fawning over him. He refuses to think about why. Just attempts to clear his mind, like anything close to meditation would be possible with the cultivators around him laughing uproariously at Wei Wuxian's stories. Even his fellow Lans are smiling and urging him on. Shameless.
Except, then a thought pops into Lan Wangji's head, unbidden and unwanted at first until he stops and considers it more fully. He has a problem, and the man in front of him might have a solution. Lan Wangji carefully tucks the thought away to consider further as the stories wrap up and everyone pulls out tents and gets ready to sleep, with plans to resume their hunt in the morning.
---
They wake the next morning to a bright, cloud-free sky and the raucous chirping of birds. Even better, it only takes them a few hours after breaking camp to find the lake they are looking for, surface bubbling with demonic energy and unnatural-looking shadows darting around under the water.
They divide up and begin wading into the shallows. Wei Ying lets Suibian whistle through the air and water, slashing at monstrous carp while the sound of Lan Zhan's infamous guqin fills the air, and realizes this is perhaps the most fun he's had on a night hunt in years. (Wei Wuxian… working with the Honorable Second Stick Up His Butt of Lan and enjoying it. Who would have imagined.)
By the time they have found the cursed fishing trap that was transforming the lake’s carp into angry two-headed horrors, everyone is covered in mud and Wei Ying is laughing with the effort of keeping a particularly feisty fish in a headlock.
"Hey, it looks like you," he says once the fish has shrunk back to a somewhat manageable shape and standard number of heads. Wei Wuxian holds up the wriggling carp next to Lan Wangji and gives it a little shake as it whips around wildly.
He says it mostly because the fish is flashing gold, furious and oddly beautiful, in a way that reminds Wei Ying uncomfortably of Lan Wangji's eyes. Also a little bit because somehow Lan Wangji has come out of this fight completely free from muck, while the rest of them look like they have tried to wrestle a mudslide.
A flicker of something that is uncomfortably close to hurt crosses Lan Wangji's face (and since when did this guy start showing anything in the same neighborhood as emotion, Wei Ying wonders desperately) before Lan Wangji pulls the fish out of Wei Wuxian's hands and releases it back into the river.
"So, that was fun. Think the villagers have any gold for us for this one or..." Wei Ying says cheerfully.
"Gusu Lan does not accept payment for night hunting," Lan Wangji says, clearly reciting straight out of one of his sect's infamous rulebooks.
"Okay, but I'm not from Gusu Lan," Wei Ying says with a shrug, "and Little Apple needs food on his plate and a roof over his head."
"Your donkey needs a roof over its head?" one of the other Lans asks, as Wei Ying picks his way out of the half foot of mud he's slowly sinking into, collects the donkey in question, and starts heading back towards the fishing village.
"Children. So needy!" Wei Wuxian says cheerfully over his shoulder as the rest of the Lans struggle to free themselves as well and follow him.
---
He does end up taking money from a grateful fisherman, despite the Lans looking at him disapprovingly. Not as much as the man offers him, though, and not even because the weight of Lan Wangji's stare on his back makes him feel weirdly guilty as he takes a third of the offered silver and tucks the rest back in the man's pocket when he's not looking.
It's just that these folks are so nice, the fisherman's wife loading up his bag with fresh-cooked dumplings and his five daughters giggling as Wei Ying flirts outrageously with them, the youngest blushing and hiding behind her mother's skirts when Wei Ying says she has the prettiest ribbons he's ever seen in her two tiny braids.
Wei Ying parts ways with the Lans a short while later, when the road forks towards the Cloud Recesses on one side and the bustling lights of Caiyi on the other. He assumes he is alone again, just Little Apple's smelly but already familiar presence for company, until a few moments later he realizes there are quiet footsteps in his wake.
He turns, worried he has stumbled into the path of bandits just moments after leaving the security of other cultivators, only to see a familiar flash of white and blue and inhumanly upright posture.
"Lan Zhan?" Wei Ying says, confused. "Are you here to take the silver back? Because I wouldn't have taken it, but some of us have donkeys to feed, you know."
And selves to feed, Wei Ying thinks, a little bitterly. Not everyone has the resources of an ancient and powerful sect to keep their bellies full. Not anymore.
"Wei Wuxian is not of Gusu Lan," Lan Zhan says by way of answer, and Wei Ying relaxes slightly. He still isn’t sure why Lan Zhan has followed him in the first place, though.
"May I... accompany you?" Lan Zhan finally spits out after Wei Ying stares at him curiously for what feels like several full, silent minutes.
"Uh, sure?" Wei Ying answers. He's still confused, but the Second Jade of Lan isn't going to shank him and leave him for dead halfway to Caiyi. Probably.
When Lan Zhan pulls an apple out of his pocket and feeds it to Little Apple, Wei Wuxian beams at him, almost not believing his own eyes. It must just be Lan Zhan's afternoon snack - there's no way he's been carrying around an apple on the off chance he ran into Wei Ying's disagreeable donkey again - but it's still surprisingly nice of the man.
They talk, and it's clear Lan Zhan has something he's building up to, but he can't bring himself to say it just yet. Wei Ying is dying with curiosity, but also oddly enjoying the conversation. He's not used to having someone to walk home with at night. Even Little Apple has been a welcome diversion from his usual habit of talking to himself and the open sky. An actual human who responds with words - even if about two thirds of those words are a soft "mn" of acknowledgement or interest or disagreement - is novel. Wei Ying finds he likes it a lot.
Also, from what words Lan Zhan does share, it's clear the man is a really, really good cultivator. Most of Wei Ying's knowledge is self taught - old wives’ tales and hard-fought experience layered on top of the few years of real instruction he got before leaving Yunmeng. Lan Zhan has been classically educated and it shows, but beyond that he's also just. Clever. Clever in a way, if Wei Ying lets himself indulge in ego for a moment, most other cultivators aren't.
They talk through a recent night hunt Wei Ying has gone on, where he'd used a combination of practical traps and spiritual arrays on a fierce corpse running wild through a desperate farmer's rice fields, slowing it long enough to trap and cleanse it of demonic energy. Lan Zhan doesn't ask why Wei Ying had bothered with something so mundane as the practical traps, just hms before saying he'd chosen the arrays smartly (a compliment? Wei Ying thinks with a heady rush, from Mr. Icy Glare himself?) then thoughtfully suggesting a few alternative options he could try next time.
They're debating if switching the radical sun for fire would work better on the revised light talismans Wei Ying has been fiddling with lately, or if it would just cause the user to burn their own fingerprints off, when they reach the front steps of the inn Wei Wuxian is staying at. He looks up, surprised, then over at Lan Zhan.
"Oh, uh. This is me? This is my..." he waves vaguely. "Where I'm staying."
"Oh," Lan Zhan says back, and looks oddly disappointed for all his face hasn't really moved much.
"Want to come in for a drink?" Wei Ying asks, impulsively. He doesn't expect Lan Zhan to take him up on it. Surely the man has important sect business to do. Robes to keep impossibly clean and the like. But Lan Zhan nods his head and then is ducking into the shittiest inn in Caiyi, like it isn't an affront to his entire, supernaturally-beautiful aura.
They sit at a tiny table in the corner of the main room and continue their conversation. Wei Ying is having such a good time that he splurges on a jar of wine for them before discovering Lan Zhan doesn't drink, which, damn. He makes fun of him, but this time there's no real fire behind his words, and soon they're back at their earlier conversation. Wei Ying sketches out his point about the brushstrokes in light with a finger on the tabletop, and Lan Zhan watches intently, as though there were actual writing in front of him.
They lapse into a friendly silence, eventually, Wei Ying finishing his wine and Lan Zhan taking too-elegant sips of his tea. Wei Ying suddenly remembers that Lan Zhan had clearly been itching to ask him something at the start of all this, and unless he was desperate for Wei Ying's opinion on the best type of polish for one's sword, he hasn't gotten around to mentioning it yet.
"So," Wei Ying says, leaning forward, getting as far into Lan Zhan's space as the table between them will allow. "Why did you come find me today. Something on Lan er-gonzi’s mind?"
Wei Ying is expecting Lan Zhan to look annoyed or angry. What he isn't expecting is the sudden blush that blooms over the man's face. Wei Ying would have bet good money that Lan Zhan wasn’t physically capable of such a thing. It's a good thing he banned himself from gambling years ago.
"It is..." Lan Zhan starts, then pauses. Wei Ying inches even closer, dying to know what has even the Second Jade of Lan stumbling over his words.
"The conversation would be better suited for a... private location."
Wei Ying blinks.
"I've got a room here?" he says. Lan Zhan nods.
"That would be sufficient."
Wei Ying leads him back to his room, hastily kicking some wayward notes and an empty bottle of liquor under his bed as they enter. He momentarily debates feeling ashamed of the tiny quarters, then decides fuck him, if he cares how small my room is and instead flops lazily on his bed.
Lan Zhan doesn't seem to have noticed the simplicity of the room he's standing in. He's too busy looking determinately at the talismans on Wei Ying’s tiny desk, spread out in a semi-coherent order next to the equally tiny chili plant.
"I have... a request for you," Lan Zhan says, finally, and Wei Ying is increasingly worried the man is going to ask him to kill someone on commission. For all they've had about one and three-quarters conversations in his lifetime, Wei Ying has never heard Lan Zhan sound this tentative before. It's an unsettling contrast to his stoic face and straight posture.
"I am unsure if you have heard, but I am to be married soon.”
"Oh yeah, congrats on that!" Wei Ying cuts in before he can stop himself. Lan Zhan nods in thanks, but doesn't say anything in response. He doesn't look overwhelmed with joy at the prospect, but what does Wei Ying know.
"I do not like to be unprepared for new situations," Lan Zhan continues, something Wei Ying does not find surprising at all from what little he knows of him. "I do not wish to leave my future spouse... dissatisfied with my intimate knowledge. I am hoping to find an instructor, to better prepare myself for such matters."
Wei Ying feels his mouth drop open. He's pretty sure the Second Jade of Lan just told him he's a virgin who wants to learn how to do sex good.
"Do you mean workbooks? Essays?" Wei Ying finds himself asking before his brain can catch up with his mouth. "Or were you thinking more hands-on application."
"The latter," Lan Zhan says, still staring intently at the chili plant.
"Oh," Wei Wuxian says, and finds himself at an extremely rare loss of words.
Lan Zhan looks up, and Wei Ying is starting to wonder why he ever thought this guy was emotionless because his eyes have clearly gone wide with embarrassment now. "I see this was ill-thought out. Please ignore the request."
Wei Ying grabs him by the wrist before he can sweep out of the tiny room. His hand is burning up along with the rest of him, but he realizes he doesn't want to lose this sudden and fully-unexpected opportunity.
"You've come to the right place, then!" Wei Ying announces cheerfully, shoving his panic and horny confusion down to the bottom of his stomach.
"You're willing to teach me?" Lan Zhan says, and Wei Ying has to dig his nails into his own palm to keep the cheerful smile on his face.
"Absolutely. Look no further for the mentor you need."
Wei Ying is not the mentor he needs.
At least, not if Lan Zhan is looking for someone to teach him who has, say, actually had sex before. Or kissed more than three (3) people in his entire life. But Wei Ying's brain is starting to catch up to his mouth, and he's finding they are in complete agreement. The scorchingly hot, surprisingly clever, possibly not as huge a stick-in-the-mud as previously assumed Second Jade of Lan has just offered up the opportunity to teach him the ways of love-making and all of Wei Ying is, he's realizing, fully on board with this plan.
"On the matter of compensation..." Lan Zhan says.
"No money," Wei Ying says firmly, mouth moving before his brain once again.
He realizes, as he thinks about it in Lan Zhan's surprised silence that follows, that he doesn't think he'd mind getting paid for this if it was someone else. Seems as good a way as any to keep a roof over his head. But... he looks at Lan Zhan again. At his sharp eyes and the long line of his nose and the way his hair flows like a river down his back. He'd be getting too much out of it himself to feel okay taking the man's money too. He already feels guilt welling up in his stomach at the mild deception he's pulling here.
But Wei Wuxian has always been good at picking up new skills quickly. Good with physicality and movement and coordination. Surely it can't be that hard to teach someone how to, uh. Tend to their future spouse proficiently.
And in the meantime he is, at minimum, gonna get to make out with the Second Jade of Lan's disturbingly perfect face. That's worth the risk, in Wei Ying's humble opinion.
"You don't want to be paid..." Lan Zhan starts, looking confused.
"Not money. Something else," Wei Ying interrupts again, realizing his mistake. If he isn't getting compensated, then why the hell is he doing this? He can't let Lan Zhan grok the desperate boner he got the second the man brought up this proposition. "You teach me cultivation."
Lan Zhan looks even more confused now. "But you are already an excellent cultivator."
Wei Ying feels himself blush at the compliment, but pushes forward. "Yeah, but I'm missing a lot of the basics still. Not so good at school..." he says by way of explanation, because he doesn't want to get into the real reason. "You give me private lessons, and I'll give you private lessons."
Wei Ying ends his proposal with a wink, which Lan Zhan ignores in favor of looking contemplative.
"Also you buy me one jar of Emperor's Smile a week?" Wei Ying adds in, hoping it'll count as enough monetary compensation that Lan Zhan will stop asking questions. He can live with being bought alcohol, even if he doesn't want Lan Zhan's money.
Lan Zhan's mouth curls slightly in displeasure, and Wei Ying worries he has miscalculated again, but then the man is bowing slightly and says, “Agreed."
Wei Ying feels his heart thump in his chest. He'd been smirking and laughing his way through the negotiations, but he realizes now some part of him had been expecting Lan Zhan to say he was kidding at any moment. Like this man, perfect robes and achingly upright posture, has ever kidded in his life. Suddenly Wei Ying is very aware of just how small his broom closet of a room is. Lan Zhan is right there. Lan Zhan's too-red lips are right there.
"Shall we start tomorrow?" Lan Zhan asks, and Wei Ying lets out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
"Yeah. Yeah that's perfect." That'll give him time to prepare. Maybe take a bath. Comb his hair properly for once. Jump off a cliff real quick if he decides this is actually a huge mistake. Normal things.
Lan Zhan stands. He looks serious and unfazed by the whole thing, but then Wei Ying catches his eyes and thinks he sees a hint of nerves mirrored back at him. Somehow, it calms him down, to think they might be in the same boat here. Even if Lan Zhan can't know that his… sex mentor is also wildly unsure what he's doing.
"Meet me after dinner?" Wei Ying asks. Lan Zhan had mentioned his clan's freakishly early curfew during their walk to Caiyi, but that should give them enough time before he needs to head back to the Cloud Recesses. "Uh, take this. So you can come through the back, if you want."
Wei Ying digs through the messy drawers near his bed until he finds an extra key to the inn's back entrance, then hands it to Lan Zhan. He'd made a copy for himself, in case he ever lost his first one, and what the owners don't know won't hurt them.
"Thank you, Wei Wuxian," Lan Zhan says with another perfect bow, then he turns and sweeps out of the room, leaving a thoroughly bemused Wei Ying sitting on his bed, wondering what the hell he's just gotten himself into.
---
Lan Zhan has barely finished his last bite of rice at that evening's meal when his uncle clears his throat meaningfully at the same time his brother turns towards him, an annoyingly kind look in his eyes.
"Wangji, how are you feeling these days?"
Lan Zhan blinks, and his uncle gives another, louder cough. Lan Xichen doesn't look away though, letting the silence after his question sit despite their uncle's prompting.
"I am well," Lan Zhan finally replies. He can feel Uncle's eyes on him still, and he fights against the urge to duck his head.
"I know the matchmaking process is difficult," his brother says, still so softly that it makes Lan Zhan want to stand up and leave the room. "If there is anything I can do to help..."
"You know how important this match will be for the sect," Uncle cuts in, and it must have been on his mind for some time for him to interrupt Xichen like this. "If there is anything holding you back from the process. Anything that might prevent a judicious match..."
Ah, Lan Zhan thinks, things finally clicking into place for him. They are worried he isn't going to be able to uphold his side of a future marriage. Lan Zhan nods seriously at his brother, then his uncle. "I will be more diligent."
He has a plan in place, after all, to make himself an acceptable spouse to whoever he ends up betrothed to. Uncle looks satisfied at the response, but his brother's face is still furrowed with familiar worry. They finish their post-meal tea in silence, though, and as Lan Zhan returns to his rooms that night he stiffens his resolve to be a star pupil for Wei Wuxian. He will be a dedicated and successful spouse.
Speaking of Wei Wuxian... Lan Zhan lies in bed that night, mind racing uncharacteristically, and finds he is unable to force himself to sleep as he thinks about his upcoming lessons. Usually, on the rare nights sleep doesn't come immediately and naturally at 9pm, he would spend an hour or two playing guqin and meditating on what he has learned that day. But meditating on the events of today has left him with his pulse racing and an alarming heat in his belly.
It's the excitement of getting to learn a new skill, he tells himself, hours after he should have been asleep. Preparing in advance for new lessons is the sign of a dutiful student, he tries to convince his brain, as he takes himself in hand and lets himself find his pleasure to the memory of Wei Ying biting his lip and saying "Meet me after dinner?" Mercifully, he falls asleep quickly after that. He does not dream that night.
---
Wei Ying stays in bed until noon the next day.
Eventually, when he can no longer pretend he's still asleep, he drags himself up to feed Little Apple and bathe in the pond he's found tucked away just outside the border of Caiyi. It has cool, clear water, little in the way of foot traffic, and is cheaper than paying for hot water back at the inn. After spending too long soaking in the dappled sunlight on the water, he finally heads back and sits in his room, brain racing as he tries to figure out how to make the hours between now and dinnertime pass. Wei Ying hasn't felt this way since he was a child, waiting for a festival day to arrive in Lotus Pier. Teaching Lan Wangji of the Cloud Recesses how to make out isn't a fried tangyuan on the winter solstice, Wei Ying reminds himself, but it doesn't do much to stop his leg from bouncing in anticipation.
He ends up taking on an extra shift covering the late lunchtime traffic in the inn's front room, mostly to stop himself from accidentally picking the threads of his mattress fully apart. That means he's wiping down empty bowls when he sees a familiar white figure come in through the front entrance.
"Hey! Hey!" Wei Ying says, hastily putting away the damp cloth he's holding and darting out to take Lan Zhan by the elbow. "I thought I said to come in through the back?"
"I came this way yesterday?" Lan Zhan asks. His eyes dart towards the bar, where the innkeeper's husband has been left to manage the few remaining patrons. Lan Zhan looks annoyed for some reason, and Wei Ying hopes he hasn't already gotten this off to a bad start.
"It's fine!" he croons, but gives Lan Zhan a forceful tug by his arm towards the back rooms, "but people can see you out here! Don't get careless, Er-gongzi."
Wei Ying can't believe the man just walked off the street into the seedy inn Wei Ying calls home. Where anyone could see him! They'd done the exact same thing the night before, of course, but that had been before their arrangement! And Wei Ying isn't the one with a reputation to uphold. Lan Zhan really should be more cautious about being publicly associated with the notorious rogue cultivator Wei Wuxian.
Wei Ying tugs a still annoyed Lan Zhan into his room and shuts the door behind him, then turns and smiles brightly, hoping to save the mood at least a little bit. No good practicing kissing with a sour disposition. He also lets himself finally take a good look at Lan Zhan, now that they're alone. The man has shown up looking, as always, perfectly pressed and beautiful. Untouchable.
Wei Ying decides the goals of his first lesson are:
1. Kissing.
2. Mess Lan Zhan up, at least a little bit.
He doesn't tell Lan Zhan about goal number two. Students don't need the full rundown of their teacher's pedagogy, after all.
"So!" Wei Ying says cheerfully, clapping his hands together when it becomes clear Lan Zhan isn't going to be the first to speak. "Lesson time! Let's start with the basics. How much do you know about kissing?"
Lan Zhan opens his mouth, but then shuts it again without speaking. Wei Ying wonders why he is so committed to fucking this up before it even starts. Perhaps one day he will learn not to speak without thinking.
"Nevermind! Nevermind! Practical demonstrations are a better place to start. What was I thinking."
Wei Ying grabs at Lan Zhan's sleeve and pulls him to sit down on his bed, trying not to react when Lan Zhan's eyes go wide.
"Here, let's just..." Wei Ying sits down next to Lan Zhan, letting himself inch just close enough that his side is brushing up against the clean, soft white silks of Lan Zhan’s robes. He reaches over, slowly and as carefully as he can, and brushes a thumb over Lan Zhan's cheek. If this is Lan Wangji of Gusu Lan's first kiss - and Wei Ying suspects it is - it should probably be a good one.
"Ready?" Wei Ying asks, more quietly than comes naturally, like he is trying to avoid spooking a particularly timid rabbit.
"Of course," Lan Zhan says. His voice is firm, because he is not a small rabbit, after all. He is an exceptional young talent, renowned and feared throughout the cultivation world for his strength of character. And Wei Ying is gonna make out with his face.
"Here goes," Wei Ying says, mostly to himself, then leans forward and catches Lan Zhan's mouth with his own.
Wei Ying isn't sure why he expected Lan Zhan's lips to be cold. Or, well. His whole disposition radiates the sort of self containment that reminds one of an icy pool, waters still, dark, and deep. But the mouth beneath Wei Ying's is warm to the touch, soft, and apparently able to turn him into a poet with a single touch.
Because this is... nice. Better than nice. They're barely even moving, but Wei Ying wants to sink into the man. Has to firmly remind himself to take this slow. This is a learning opportunity, not a drunken fumble with some random cultivator in the middle of a night hunt.
Wei Ying has done this part before. Not often, but he'd shared a fun handful of kisses with the visiting daughter of a local nobleman back when he was still living in Lotus Pier. They'd bumped noses for a few awkward minutes before darting out of the archery equipment shed they'd hidden in, giggling wildly as the adults supervising the day's activities had called for their missing charges.
Wei Ying had gotten a bit farther after leaving Yunmeng, once spending a pleasant half hour or so with his tongue down the throat of a fellow rogue cultivator he met at a seedy roadside inn outside of Moling, before both boys went their separate ways. He’d even once gotten satisfyingly handsy with an elk hunter while travelling across Qinghe. She'd dragged him into her tent when they got caught in a snowstorm and it became clear Wei Ying hadn't prepared well enough for the cold. It had been a fun few hours. Neither of them were particularly interested in anything beyond a bit of hand stuff, wouldn't have gone further even if they'd been willing to undress enough to do so. But it had been a nice way to share body heat and forget the howling wind and the cold leeching in through every crack in the tent.
Which is to say, Wei Ying suspects he has a bit more experience than Lan Zhan, but not by much. They're doing a pretty good job of improvising, though, if he does say so himself. After a few chaste moments of contact, Wei Ying darts out his tongue, runs it across the rim of Lan Zhan's lips. Lan Zhan sucks in a breath in response, lets his mouth fall open in permission, and Wei Ying sinks in further.
He loses track of time like that, exploring Lan Zhan's mouth, letting him tentatively explore back. He carefully corrects course when they bump noses a bit too hard, sucks in a gasp when Lan Zhan snakes a hand behind Wei Ying's head and pulls him in closer. Prodigies, Wei Ying thinks with exasperation as he shivers under the firm hold Lan Zhan has on the nape of his neck.
Wei Ying pulls back when he can feel them both starting to gasp for air, runs a thumb across Lan Zhan's flushed mouth and hushes, "Easy. Breathe." and then they are back at it.
"Lesson one complete," Wei Ying says finally, forcing himself to separate when he can hear the crowds of nighttime revelers getting louder beyond the confines of his room. It must be getting late. "As expected, Lan Zhan is a star pupil."
Lan Zhan blinks at him (adorable Wei Ying croons internally, and just barely stops himself from bopping the man on his beautiful little nose) then reaches down to straighten out his robes. A few strands of hair have come loose from his normally impeccable topknot, and Wei Ying gleefully checks item number two off his lesson plan for the day.
"Thank you for your tutelage," Lan Zhan says with a polite bow, once they've both gotten up from the bed and rearranged their mussed clothing.
Wei Ying has to bodily hold back a laugh. For all he loves getting a reaction out of Lan Zhan, he doesn't think it's the time to laugh at the man's too-stoic expression. It takes a monumental amount of self-control though. Wei Ying mentally pats himself on the back for being such a considerate teacher.
"If you are available, I will return in four days for a cultivation lesson," Lan Zhan continues, and Wei Ying's mirth turns to excitement. It's been years since he's had anything close to formal lessons, and for all he used to bristle at sitting in a classroom, lately he's been thinking fondly of the vast resources his few precious years in Yunmeng had afforded him.
"Have your sword with you," Lan Zhan finishes, and ooh they're going to have practical lessons. Even better, Wei Ying thinks with glee.