Chapter Text
"... Would you please. Stop. Fidgeting." The words are sharp staccatos where Jin Zixuan bit them off, his whole being one tense line of misery as he knelt amongst the white stones. Wei Wuxian gave him a sidelong look, the same white stones shifting under his knees as he did.
"I'm not fidgeting." Wei Wuxian replied, perfectly honestly, if with a sneer he felt Jin Zixuan fully deserved.
"Well you certainly aren't still. What is wrong with you?" Jin Zixuan hissed back, clearly uncomfortable with breaking the implied rule of keeping quiet while kneeling.
"What's wrong with your face?" Wei Wuxian sniped back - he'd long ago come to the conclusion that punishment was inevitable in his life, so he might as well do as he felt was best in the meantime.
"You know what's wrong with my face, you're the one who..." Jin Zixuan twisted, the better to make his argument. A soft scuff of a foot against stone interrupted him. Wei Wuxian looked up, and beamed when he spotted Lan Zhan standing at the edge of the rock garden, eying them both with a particularly blank expression, even for him.
"Hi Lan Zhan! Come look at these ants, they're fascinating, I've never seen big ones like this before!" He called cheerfully, waving as if there was any chance that Lan Zhan might not have spotted him.
"You are so embarrassing." Jin Zixuan hissed, but Wei Wuxian ignored him.
"No speaking while undergoing punishment." Lan Zhan intoned, firmly, and swept away like a gorgeous swan, all stately dignity and grace. Wei Wuxian snickered - Lan Zhan was always so serious, even when he didn't have to be.
But still, he didn't want to make Lan Zhan upset when there wouldn't be a chance he'd be nearby to see the results (he gave the best reactions, just fantastic), so he settled back to his ant nest experiments. It wasn't like he wanted to talk to Jin Zixuan anyway.
Wei Wuxian wasn't sure how long they were kneeling there. He'd been made to kneel so many times, in so many places, he'd perfected the art of entertaining himself to such a degree that time just melted away. Still, he had plenty of time to think, in between observations of the ants and re-arranging the nearest stones into a series of increasingly-complicated designs and trying to mentally sort out the problems with his latest talisman design.
He was grateful that his much-needed correction of Jin Zixuan's attitude would be treated as a matter between individuals, rather than between sects. He was also grateful that the Lan had realized that Jin Zixuan had been in the wrong as well, his commentary needlessly cruel. However, he'd had time to calm down, and consider that maybe there might have been a better choice than resorting to hitting. Though, there was very likely there was no more satisfying option - he would savor that memory for a long time. However, as he considered the events of the day, he felt unsettled. Finally, he reached a point where he realized that Lan Zhan would just have to be disappointed.
"Hey Jin Zixuan?"
"Shut up, you're not supposed to talk." The Jin heir sniffed, his already impossibly tense posture tensing even further.
"I've been thinking."
"Did it hurt?" Jin Zixuan sniped, then froze, as if he couldn't quite believe he'd said that. Neither could Wei Wuxian.
"Who said you could be funny?" Wei Wuxian complained, pouting. Sure, he'd come to some conclusions about the day's events, but he still wasn't prepared to actually like this guy!
"I can be funny if I want."
"Yeah, to look at."
"You!" Jin Zixuan fumed, shifting minutely so he was kneeling facing even further away from Wei Wuxian.
"Anyway, shut up, I'm trying to apologize."
"You... wait, what?" Jin Zixuan sounded flummoxed. Wei Wuxian didn't blame him, he still wasn't sure this was the best idea, but when had that ever stopped him?
"Like I said, before I was so rudely interrupted, - by the way, interrupting isn't allowed in Cloud Recesses - is that I've been thinking, and I think I over-reacted." Wei Wuxian explained.
"I think anyone here could have told you that." Jin Zixuan glowered, but he didn't interrupt Wei Wuxian more than that, so he let it pass without extra commentary.
"You never have been good with words, and you're even worse with words under pressure. I mean, who can forget that time you came to the river festival and managed to tell everyone you hated rivers? Who hates rivers?" Wei Wuxian rambled, ignoring Jin Zixuan's groan. It had really been a horrible day, and Jiang Cheng had been ready to dump the Jin heir in the deepest part of the river as punishment.
"I'm fine with words." Jin Zixuan huffed.
"You're atrocious, and you really need to fix that. You're going to be a sect leader for goodness sake. There tends to be a fair amount of talking in a position like that, and more serious consequences than a punch if you insult the wrong person." Wei Wuxian retorted, not willing to let Jin Zixuan entirely off the hook just because he could admit that he was also wrong. "Anyway, I shouldn't have hit you just because you're as diplomatic as a thrown rock. I'm sorry."
There. If Jin Zixuan thought he was getting more than that, his wits were still clearly rattled. There was a long silence, filled only by the faint rustle of leaves in the breeze and the occasional bird.
"I'm sorry too." Wei Wuxian startled, blinking wide-eyed at Jin Zixuan. He hadn't been aware a Jin could pronounce the word 'sorry'. Was there any previous written accounts of such miracles? "I... don't have a sister. I... I am mother's only child, anyway."
Wei Wuxian grimaced in sympathy. Who knew if Jin Zixuan actually had a sister? Certainly not Jin Zixuan!
"But if I did," He barreled onward, like a boulder bouncing down a rocky slope towards an unsuspecting town, "I wouldn't want her to be insulted either. Though I probably wouldn't hit anyone."
"You'd just snub them." Wei Wuxian agreed, wryly.
"I.. well."
"And ban them from your presence."
"Obviously." Jin Zixuan rolled his eyes.
"And buy out the entire inn so they couldn't possibly intrude on you in any way..."
"Look, I apologized for that already." Jin Zixuan huffed, needled.
"Did you though? I don't remember shijie saying anything about it. You might want to try it again, she would have been sure to tell Jiang Cheng and me if we should be appreciating your good manners. Maybe practice with someone who understands how conversations go." Wei Wuxian retorted, nearly crowing when Jin Zixuan grimaced in acknowledgement. Silence came back, but only long enough for Wei Wuxian to consider going back to his mental talisman construction.
"Fine. Jiangguniang, please let me extend my..." Wei Wuxian interrupted the pompous drone with a flicked stone, pleased when he managed to clip Jin Zixuan across the ear.
"Oh no, if we're doing this, we're doing it right. And you're waiting at least until after we're done kneeling so I can make sure you bow correctly to her, honestly, it's positively criminal no one's fixed this before. But you're not going marching up to her, flinging some snotty wordy bit of nonsense, and then running away, what sort of apology is that?" Wei Wuxian protested, flicking another stone at Jin Zixuan, catching him across the knuckles. Hah.
"You are so annoying. Fine. How do you suggest I start, then? If you suggest crawling, I'm shoving you in that ant hill." Jin Zixuan grumbled, and Wei Wuxian blinked at him before a slow, true grin spread over his face. Well. What did you know? There really was a person under that Jin porcelain.
"Not here, we're going to do this properly, and with my luck recently someone will interrupt us before we get anywhere near a proper apology." Wei Wuxian argued, determined that if nothing else was accomplished out of this, he was at least going to get a fantastic apology for shijie.
"Fine. Tomorrow, after class?"
"The next time we can go into Caiyi Town. You're buying the wine." Wei Wuxian countered cheerfully.
"You presume much, thinking either of you will be free to leave Cloud Recesses for some time." Whoop, that was Lan Qiren, sounding sour and... confused? Definitely confused. That was new. Wei Wuxian scooted around on his knees to be able to face his teacher. Yup, that was confusion written across his face. Wei Wuxian supposed it was somewhat surprising to find the two disciples you were punishing for fighting making plans to spend their free time together, but weren't they supposed to learn from their mistakes? Or something? Wei Wuxian vaguely remembered some rule or other that had to do with that.
"It strikes me, from this incident, that both of you require lessons in patience. Thus, you will be aiding the swordmaster teach footwork to the beginner class. You will also aid the swordmaster in any task he sees fit to give you, until he releases you from duty. Go now, he is is expecting you in the armory." Lan Qiren informed them with an unimpressed stare.
Wei Wuxian kept a very tight lid on his excitement. He was going to get to play with the baby Lans! He'd been missing training his shidis so very much, this was fantastic! He absolutely couldn't let Lan Qiren know he'd accidentally given Wei Wuxian a gift instead of a punishment. He managed to give Jin Zixuan a sidelong look, and the Jin heir looked disgruntled. He couldn't imagine the Jin heir had been anywhere near the beginner students since he was one, and maybe not even then.
Poor lamb. His shins would be punished thoroughly.
Alas, his hope to get immediately to teasing baby Lans was stymied by the fact that there wouldn't actually be a practical class for a few days. Instead, both boys were set to the job of straightening, polishing, and repairing the practice swords the children would be using. Even if Lan babies were the most excellently behaved children in the entire cultivation world, there was no power in the world that would prevent practice swords from being damaged in the process of teaching swordsmanship.
Wei Wuxian, long used to this sort of work, settled in without needing further instruction. This sort of thing wasn't beneath a head disciple in Yunmeng Jiang (or at least, that is what Madam Yu said and ordered), but Jin Zixuan stared at the pile with something approaching horror.
"Are they throwing their swords off of cliffs for fun?" He hissed at Wei Wuxian after his job had been explained.
"Hardly, but these are lighter metal than a cultivator's sword, and they carry no spiritual energy on top of that. They're not nearly as resilient. Don't you remember using one? There's a reason you don't get one of your very own." Wei Wuxian scoffed.
"... I did." Jin Zixuan replied, nonplussed.
"You did what?"
"I had my own. My tutor handled the care of it until I was deemed old enough to learn that sort of thing." Jin Zixuan explained, puzzled. "Wait, that's not how it worked in the Jiang?"
"Absolutely not! We'd waste too much time stopping to fix things every time someone chipped the edge or bent it by slamming it into the ground when they tripped or..."
"Yes, yes, I get it, just... stop. Stop." Jin Zixuan looked pained. "Please. Learn how to end sentences, Wei Wuxian."
"What, do you want me to speak like a Lan and say as little as possible?" Wei Wuxian scoffed, raising his voice as he finished lining up his chosen handful of swords with chips and got the whetstone going so he could grind out the knicks. These kids had some anger issues surrounding rocks, it seemed. He couldn't wait to see what they were like in person, this was going to be hilarious.
"I think that would physically cause you harm and would be hilarious to watch so yes. Do that." Jin Zixuan snarked.
Wei Wuxian pitched a polishing rag at the Jin heir's head in retaliation. The resulting shriek of disgust was cheering.
Hours later, the two young cultivators surveyed the rows and rows of freshly straightened, repaired, and polished training swords. Wei Wuxian was proud of them. He had no idea how Jin Zixuan felt about the whole thing - the man just looked frazzled and tired, which... fair, some of the swords for the older kids required a fair amount of muscle to work back into place, so it had been a workout. Still, visible result! That was always encouraging.
"Maybe they'll be happy practicing with sticks tomorrow." Jin Zixuan mused, worrying at a spot on the side of his thumb he'd caught on jagged edge of a particularly battered blade. None of the blades were truly sharp, so the cut was minor, and healing quickly, but Wei Wuxian knew those kinds of thing stung.
"What? Why, when they now have all these beautiful swords to pick from?" Wei Wuxian complained, waving a hand at all of their hard work.
"I don't want them to have any of these. They're perfect now. You saw what they did to them the first time, they'll only ruin them again."
"That's what they're for, so you don't go swinging your actual spiritual sword at a boulder just because you never learned that's a stupid idea."
"... Look, just because some people need to do the stupid thing just to learn that it's stupid doesn't actually make it less stupid." Jin Zixuan huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.
"They're babies! You'll see, they will be ridiculously cute and you won't be able to deny them anything, and I'll just laugh at you because you'll be such a pushover, okay?" Wei Wuxian laughed. "Now come on, we need to clean up the work room."
"Why? That wasn't part of our orders. Someone else will do that." Wei Wuxian stared at Jin Zixuan for a long beat, honestly shocked.
"... Yeah. Us. We're the extra help. There is no one lower in the chain of command here. Do you even know how to use a broom?"
"No." Jin Zixuan sounded vaguely offended that Wei Wuxian even asked the question.
"... This is just painful. Fine, I'll sweep up, you put all the tools away. Believe me, as someone more prone to getting into trouble than you, we need to clean up the work room, alright? I'm honestly trying to keep this from getting worse." He really was - as much as he was looking forward to helping with the little Lans, he knew he was one mis-step from Lan Qiren throwing him bodily off the mountain. If that happened, he was in for a world of hurt, and he honestly did want to stay. There was no Lan Zhan outside of Cloud Recesses - who would he bother if he couldn't see Lan Zhan anymore?
Later that night, he sat cross-legged on his bed trying to meditate the worst of the muscle soreness away. Between the kneeling and the hours put in with those swords, he was actually tired enough that sitting meditation wasn't a strain. This was a bonus, because he was pretty sure Lan Xichen wasn't going to magically appear and offer to let him into the Cold Spring a second time.
"You! Where have you been? I went to go check on you and you weren't kneeling by Lan Qiren's office - don't tell me you snuck away! Honestly, don't you ever think?" Jiang Cheng shouted as he stormed into the room. Clearly he'd spent his time building up a good head of steam rather than anything more productive. Where was that anger when shijie was being insulted? Wei Wuxian didn't see him throwing any punches.
"If I snuck away, what is it that you thought the peacock did?" He asked, honestly curious. He has a fairly good idea what the answer is, and he watches storm clouds boil across Jiang Cheng's expression, gather, and then fall away again. There it is.
"So what were you doing?" Jiang Cheng asked, in a much more reasonable tone. If Jin Zixuan's major stumbling block was not having enough words and being entirely unskilled in using them, Jiang Cheng's was that he was too fast in finding the sharpest words in his possession and too prone to throwing them before he thought about if that was what he truly meant. Over the years Wei Wuxian had learned how to dance around the sharp barbs, but it was still a problem. He just hadn't quite figured out he was meant to fix that problem.
"Lanlaoshi put us to work for the swordmaster - we spent the day fixing the training swords." We Wuxian explained, and then cackled at Jiang Cheng's look of sympathetic dismay. See, that was the correct response to that sort of news! "Did you know the peacock had a tutor for all of his sword-work? No mucking about with the rest of the children for him!"
The last of Jiang Cheng's stress and worry melted out of his posture as he snorted, and Wei Wuxian could relax in turn. Honestly, he'd never tried to dodge a punishment before. Thinking he would now was just rude.
"Well, it's time for dinner, and ajie will want to see that you're well. You worried her, you know." Jiang Cheng needled, and Wei Wuxian winced.
"Shijie will forgive me." He declared, though even now he worried, just a little, where he was absolutely certain no one would see, that maybe this time would be the time he'd gone too far.
"You're an idiot. Come on, I'm hungry." Jiang Cheng declared, and started prodding at Wei Wuxian until he unfolded himself and gathered up Suibian. The Lan cuisine was worth facing to reassure shijie that he was well. Besides, he wanted to see if Jin Zixuan managed to clear up that black eye yet.