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The thing is, Wei Wuxian could just leave.
Deep down, he's sure Lan Wangji knows it. The Cloud Recesses aren't enough to keep the Yiling Patriarch bound, not unless he wants them to. They'd barely been able to contain him as a teenager. How could they have any chance of doing so now?
It would be so easy. He would barely even have to try. It would take nothing to carve a flute from some stray piece of wood and—
His lips curl wryly. Instead, he lifts one hand and picks up the tea cup Lan Wangji has set before him. The Second Jade of Lan was diligent in visiting the small house tucked away in the quiet of the Cloud Recesses; he insists on bringing Wei Wuxian his meals every day.
Tipping his head back, Wei Wuxian downs the contents of the tea cup then smiles brightly at his captor sitting across the low table.
"I knew I could count on you, Lan Zhan," he says. The taste of Emperor's Smile is heady in his mouth. It had only taken three weeks of whining that he couldn't possibly live on tea and grass for Lan Wangji to cave.
Lan Wangji lifts his own cup and sips, much slower and much more proper and consuming one hundred per cent more actual tea. After he sets his own cup back down, he looks at Wei Wuxian with careful eyes and finally nods his head in acknowledgement.
Sitting back comfortably Wei Wuxian gives a sigh of contentment. There had been spices in his breakfast that morning—not enough, of course, but it was a start. Between that and the Emperor's smile and the pleasant ache in his body from the way the upright Hanguang Jun had had his way with him last night—
Well, Wei Wuxian's not sure why he should want to leave. Imprisonment at the Cloud Recesses seems like a perfectly acceptable way to while away his time and avoid the Lanling Jin until he's ready to exact his revenge for the Burial Mounds and the lost remnant of the Wen.
Finally, Lan Wangji stands, his robes rustling elegantly around him as he moves. "I must attend to the juniors. I will return tonight," he says. "And I will bring Lan Yuan to visit you tomorrow." He insists on doing that every day, too, bringing A-Yuan by every morning.
It's enough that sometimes, Wei Wuxian finds he wishes he could stay forever.
He stretches lazily to hide his thoughts. "Then I'm going to take a nap," he says. He's made progress on the food and alcohol; now he just has to get Lan Wangji to wake him up every morning at a reasonable time.
Lan Wangji gives him a disapproving look, but he doesn't say anything about it. Probably he realizes he's lucky Wei Wuxian doesn't just refuse to get up at all in the morning. He turns for the door, and then hesitates and turns back.
"Thank you for staying, Wei Ying," he says.
Wei Wuxian looks at him innocently and blinks his eyes in pretend surprise. "You captured me fair and square and locked me away all nice and safe. What else am I supposed to do but sit here quietly for you, Lan Zhan?"
Lan Wangji just shakes his head and leaves.
Tonight, Wei Wuxian will be still be here. They'll have dinner, and then Wei Wuxian will pull Lan Wangji towards his bed. He'll let Lan Wangji press him down to the mattress and take him hard and fierce, like he might disappear in a wisp of smoke.
But one day—
One day he'll take the talismans hidden beneath the floorboards, the ones he's been perfecting every day when he's supposedly napping. One day Lan Wangji will open the door of his little prison and find nothing but the shavings from a little carved flute.
And one day, when Wei Wuxian has set everything to rights and taken his revenge, maybe Lan Wangji will let him return.