Work Text:
“Wei-xiong, are you coming to eat?” Nie Huaisang clattered into his least favourite building in Cloud Recesses. “Aren’t you done?”
Behind him, Jiang Cheng folded his arms, clearly just as eager to be on his way.
“Just a minute, let me finish up.” Wei Wuxian was carefully finishing up the fine detail on his page, concentration evident in the tip of his tongue, just visible between his teeth.
Nie Huaisang slid in next to him, leaning over his shoulder.
“Oh, beautiful! Which immortal is this?”
“Ayy, stop, it’s obviously Lan Wangji!”
Nie Huaisang looked up to exchange a small glance with Jiang Wanyin.
“Well, I’m sure he’d be very flattered if he saw it. Wei-xiong, why study at all when you could earn a fortune painting rich men’s plain daughters like this?”
“What do you mean? That’s what he looks like! My portraits are very accurate. Tell him, Jiang Cheng!”
Jiang Cheng, bless him, sat down hard between them, forcing them apart. He stared at the drawing with an air of uncertainty, then curled his lip.
“I’m just surprised you don’t have him kneeling serenely on a giant lotus. Are you trying to flatter him so you can end your punishment early? It won’t work.”
“No, but I like how you’re thinking.”
“Why are you drawing Lan Wangji?”
Wei Wuxian beamed at both of them, turning from one to the other.
“Oh, you’ll like this. When he asks if I’ve finished my copying, I’ll pass him the drawing. While he’s distracted, I’ll…”
“When you give this drawing to Lan Wangji, is he going to recognise it?”
Wei Wuxian spluttered.
“Rude! Of course he’ll recognise it! It looks just like him.”
Jiang Cheng stared hard at him, prompting Wei Wuxian to stare back; he wasn’t going to lose that game. While Wei-xiong’s eyes were occupied, his shidi snatched the sheet of paper and slid it over to Nie Huaisang, who grabbed the brush and pounced on the portrait, ignoring the furious scuffle to his left as Jiang Cheng locked his arms around his appalled shixiong.
“A-Cheng! Stop! You’re ruining it!” He broke free explosively, lunging for his art just as Nie Huaisang finished, blotted, blew on the sheet and puffed it back across their heads, surprising everyone with a tiny and uncharacteristic use of qi, albeit for frivolous purposes. The paper danced in its unnatural breeze, fluttering like falling petals right into Jiang Cheng’s hands. He judged it silently for a moment, blew on the wet ink, then nodded.
“That’s more like it.”
Wei Ying snatched his portrait back, only it wasn’t his anymore, not quite. It was certainly, recognisably Lan Wangji, but subtly changed. His eyebrows were heavier and closer together, his nose less symmetrically aligned, his jawline squarer and, honestly? More like his brother’s. His ears were more prominent. His expression was less serene, brow creased and thin mouth narrowed down to the ghost of a frown. He looked extremely human.
The ink was smeared at one unfortunately crumpled corner.
Wei Wuxian let out a tiny whine and slumped against the library desk.
“Wei-xiong, is my painting really so bad?”
“No, it’s just - everyone knows the Second Jade of Lan is very handsome. Why is that such a big deal to you?”
“And his brother?”
“Of course, but…”
“But not quite as much?”
Wei Wuxian nodded.
“And his place on the list of eligible young masters?”
“Well of course Lan Xichen is number one, he’s the sect heir and he’s of age and…”
”Who do you think creates the list, Wei-xiong?”
Wei Wuxian looked momentarily confused. He paused and tried again.
“The…the young maidens of the great sects?”
Jiang Cheng snorted.
“Our parents, Wei-xiong. Or in my case, da-ge. Lan-laoshi and the elders. The people who arrange our marriages make the lists.”
“Then why am I ranked above the sect heir? Come on a-Cheng, Yu-furen would never accept that!”
He leant back, arms crossed, clearly feeling that an argument had been won. Jiang Cheng sighed, looking uncharacteristically guilty.
“Actually, a-niang doesn’t want us to look seriously for an engagement until I’ve had the chance to prove myself more. She thinks we’ll get better offers that way. Fifth place is respectable but not too pushy.”
“And you agree with her!?”
An unusually tactful pause.
“I’m not ready to be engaged yet. And you know she wants to make sure jiejie’s big wedding happens long before anything for me. You though, you can marry as soon as you want, as long as your wife is a virtuous and graceful lady who makes a positive contribution to Yunmeng.”
Nie Huaisang was clearly hiding a smile behind his fan, but not very effectively.
“Speaking of virtue and grace, why were you going to give Lan Wangji an extremely flattering drawing of himself?”
“It’s not flattering, it’s accurate! But if you must know, I’m going to distract him with it later so I can hide your book in his notes.”
“My ‘Rare Beauty’? You want to ambush Lan Wangji with those sorts of drawings? Wei Wuxian, are you so eager for your next life?”
“But it’ll be hilarious - don’t you think?” Wei Wuxian’s own brow was furrowing now, as if he couldn’t understand why this wasn’t obvious.
“No, I think it’ll be dangerous.”
“Ah ah, I’ve thought of that. I’ll have Suibian as well. If he starts a fight, he’ll have broken the rules. If he shouts at me, the same. I’ll get him to see how ridiculous the rules are here if it’s the last thing I do.”
Between them, his shidi asked again, with a surprising hint of concern.
“Why on earth are you doing this?”
“To win, of course!”
“What do you win? A lifelong enemy who’s apparently the best swordsman of our generation?”
“One of the best, thank you. No, you’ve got it completely back-to-front.”
Nie Huaisang broke in.
“You want him to be your friend. You’re going to bother him until he sees things your way.”
“Exactly! See, a-Cheng, Nie-xiong gets it. Lan Wangji should be my friend. I can show him how to have fun and he can show me how to, to hold up a mountain, or whatever it is he does to get his biceps like that.”
Jiang Cheng was pressing the heel of his hand into his upper dantian, grimacing ever so slightly.
“It’s not going to happen, you idiot. He blatantly ignored you yesterday already, and I heard he dragged you in here by your ear this morning…”
“By the arm, Jiang-xiong”
“Alright, by the arm, and…”
“And he put the Silence Spell on me this morning.”
Jiang Cheng threw his hands in the air.
“And you’re still rambling about his biceps! Why are you like this?”
“I know what I’d think if some boy I’d only just met chased me round my home, gave me an impossibly beautiful picture of myself, and then showed me drawings of two men fucking.”
Nie Huaisang’s unexpectedly direct language left Wei Wuxian with an open mouth. Huaisang reached out a finger and gently closed his jaw with an audible click of the teeth.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“There’s, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to make friends with Lan Wangji! He’s very impressive!”
“Yes, we know!” His shidi pounded the desk in frustration, rattling the brush stand alarmingly. “We know you think he’s the most beautiful man you’ve ever met! Heaven help him.”
“I’m talking about his achievements! His skill with a sword!”
“His strong arms.” Nie Huaisang murmured rather pointedly.
Wei Wuxian looked them over with genuine shock.
“Have neither of you ever made friends with anyone before? You know you have to recognise their positive qualities, right?”
“Wei-xiong, my family have been friends with the Lans for generations. Da-ge and I have visited with the Twin Jades since almost before I can remember, and you know he and Lan Xichen are about as close as could be. I think I know Wangji-xiong fairly well by now, but does he think of me as a friend? I couldn’t say. I don’t think he makes friends like that. He’s very private.”
“I know you think you’re the best at making friends along with being the best at everything else, Wei Wuxian. You’re always soooooo charming to everyone in Yunmeng, they all love you! But they also know you’re part of our household. Do they have any choice but to show you respect, whether or not you show it to them?” This time it was Jiang Cheng who leant back and crossed his arms in satisfaction, his point firmly made.
Wei Wuxian considered this for a moment.
“You’re Jiang-zongzhu’s son though. Doesn’t that go double for you?”
“Of course it does! You think I don’t know that? Of course people are kind to me because of a-die and a-niang, whether or not they really like me.”
Wei Wuxian flung his arms around him.
“My poor shidi! You deserve more true friends, a-Cheng! I’ll help, of course. And you’ll always have me.”
“Get off.”
“Just being the sect leader’s son isn’t always enough.” Nie Huaisang sounded calm but he spoke to the library’s desk rather than to anyone’s face. “My mother, it seems, wasn’t terribly well-liked in the Unclean Realm, and I’ve been given to understand that I inherited a little too much of her fecklessness.”
Wei Wuxian wailed dramatically and hauled him in, dragging him sideways in his enthusiasm.
“This will not do! We must all three be the very best friends! Forever!”
Jiang Cheng finally pushed his errant arm off but without rancour, speaking more calmly than he usually did.
“Look, all the disciples in our generation - one day I’ll likely have to order them to fight, to risk their lives. I can’t do that by presuming on their friendship, I have to win their respect. Of course we can like each other, we can treat each other well, but being friends comes far below that. Maybe it even gets in the way.”
“So you agree, that it’s important to make friends outside the family and the sect? After all, sect leaders need to be able to talk to one another about all sorts of things.”
“I suppose that’s true, but don’t confuse sect politics for friendship.”
“Da-ge certainly thinks a great deal of his friendship with Xichen-xiong. It’s very important to him.”
“There you go!”
“But it didn’t happen overnight. I don’t recall myself because I was so young, but I’m not sure da-ge liked Lan Xichen too much at first. You know how Xichen-xiong is, though.”
“How is he?”
“Patient. Even-tempered. Difficult to anger. Good with people. All things Wangji-xiong is not.”
“But I am!”
“Wei Wuxian! The last thing you are is patient!”
“I can be patient.” A slight pout. “I can wait for things that are worth waiting for. It’s just that most things aren’t.”
He settled himself back at the library table and peered at his doctored portrait, sighing.
“If you were capable of waiting for anything you wouldn’t be here getting punished.”
“If I didn’t want to be here, I wouldn’t be.”
“Oh, you’re full of it.”
Wei Wuxian had pulled out a fresh sheet of paper and was twirling his brush between his fingers. Nie Huaisang waved an ink-stick and started grinding it obligingly when Wei Wuxian nodded back. Huaisang seemed particularly cheerful as he chattered.
“So Wei-xiong planned this - why? To spend time with Wangji-xiong?”
“As I said, I’m teaching him how ridiculous the rules are here. Once he calms down, he’ll unwind, and we can start being real friends.”
“Mm, and what then, Wei-laoshi?”
“I haven’t quite decided. I’ll have to see if he’s a sore loser first.”
He swept his his hand rapidly across the page, swift strokes blooming into a familiar impossible beauty as he replied.
“What if you duel?”
“The same.”
“And when he beats you?” Jiang Cheng snorted.
“Unlikely. But if he does…” Wei Wuxian mused, tapping the ends of his brush against his teeth. “I’ll get him a gift.”
“What kind of gift?” Huaisang replied, excited, cutting across as his shidi asked, sharply, “With what money?”
“I’ll think of something. Something he’ll have to keep.” He scrawled his signature on the page and replaced his brush on its stand. A serious but perfect beauty glowed from it as he grinned, self-satisfied.
Nie Huaisang put a gently proprietary arm around his shoulder and smiled back at him.
“Superlative work, Wei-xiong. Tell him, Jiang-xiong!”
Jiang Cheng barged his other side only a little roughly and leant over the paper, brow creased.
“Still too pretty.”