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Wei Wuxian finds out Lan Zhan doesn't actually need his glasses about fifteen years after he first sees him, an uptight and shockingly handsome boy in heavy black frames and adorable little rabbit teeth being tortured into perfection with a mouthful of braces.
It was probably too much to say he'd fallen in love at first sight, but it was true Wei Wuxian had spent a lot more time than anybody who thought that they just wanted to be someone's friend wondering what Lan Zhan looked like under his perfectly buttoned up uniform shirts and sweaters, what it would feel like to kiss someone with all those braces. Even then, Lan Zhan had been a miracle in his gym uniform, even though he wore it as baggy as he could get away with -- the looseness of the shirt and shorts had only suggested the growing lithe muscle of his frame. Wei Wuxian had caught a glimpse of his back once as he pulled off his shirt, and had muddled, half-remembered dreams about it for weeks.
Lan Zhan grew up and lost the braces, but kept the glasses -- less chunky now, but still black. Wei Wuxian was sure that he'd be even more handsome without them, but the one time he'd dared to pluck them off his face, Lan Zhan had gotten really angry at him. Really, truly angry, so angry that for a second Wei Wuxian thought Lan Zhan was going to at last pay him back for all the time he'd spent bugging him to amuse himself at their very expensive, very posh, very boring academy.
Then, well, everything, and Wei Wuxian hadn't seen Lan Zhan, or his glasses, for thirteen long years that he didn't like to think about -- but that was over with! He was back, and sometimes Lan Zhan made a face that might have been a smile if it tried really hard in his direction, and Wei Wuxian had his family and his son now! Lan Zhan really liked A-Yuan, and A-Yuan really liked him, to the point that Wei Wuxian was forced to stop himself from imagining what if they really were a family, really did go out with A-Yuan swinging between them, one mittened hand in each of theirs. If A-Yuan could be swung up in Lan Zhan's arms when he got tired, if Wei Wuxian could --
Anyway.
He's trying to get along better with Jiang Cheng these days - for one thing, A-Yuan really likes Jin Ling too, and it seems too bad for the cousins to never get to know each other. Jiang Yanli would have made sure they knew each other, Wei Wuxian knows it. He also knows that Jiang Cheng was really hurt when he left, and he's had so much happen to him since that it's understandable that he might lash out at Wei Wuxian sometimes.
It hurts, of course. And sometimes it's hard not to say something angry in return. But Wei Wuxian really is trying. And Jiang Cheng - well, he's sure he must be trying too, or else he wouldn't bring Jin Ling to play with A-Yuan, even if the only place he'll agree to meet is at a playground or a children's gym. It's fine. Jin Ling is the only blood family Jiang Cheng has left, after all, so no wonder he's so careful about him.
Jiang Cheng is standing with his arms crossed, in the way that means that he's feeling stubborn. Wei Wuxian knows that he's probably going to say something harsh. It's fine, he thinks, he'll just let him vent and then Lan Zhan had half-suggested they meet up, him and Wei Wuxian and A-Yuan, for dinner. But -- "You could come with us," he says. "We're going to go to the hot pot place --"
"'We'?" says Jiang Cheng.
Wei Wuxian swallows his temper down, again, and says, "Yeah, Lan Zhan's gonna --"
"Can you do anything without him?" says Jiang Cheng.
"What's that supposed to mean?" says Wei Wuxian, maybe a little sharper than he means to.
"It means," says Jiang Cheng, "that every fucking time we meet up, all you want to talk about is Lan Zhan this, Lan Zhan that, Lan Zhan says, Lan Zhan did -- can you even shit without him wiping your ass?"
Wei Wuxian flinches a little, but he smiles as brightly as he can. "I just --"
"You just what?" says Jiang Cheng. He throws his shoulders back, plants his feet wide apart, so aggressively that A-Yuan looks up and then moves behind Wei Wuxian. Not scared, exactly, but cautious, in the way he had learned before Wei Wuxian had adopted him. "You just care about Lan Wangji more than you ever cared about the family that raised you?"
"That's not true!" says Wei Wuxian.
"Isn't it?" says Jiang Cheng. He's getting red in the face, which means he's not going to do anything but double down on anything he says. "You seemed to be fine with leaving me and jiejie, but Lan Wangji finds you and you come back, just like that."
"I --" says Wei Wuxian. He doesn't know how to explain himself, and A-Yuan has reached out one careful little hand to hold onto the fabric of his jeans. "This isn't -- you're going to upset A-Yuan."
"Why the fuck should I care," snaps Jiang Cheng. "You never --" He takes a step forward, and Wei Wuxian doesn't flinch back, exactly, but he looks away, down on the ground. In the next second a shadow falls between him and Jiang Cheng, and Wei Wuxian looks up to see Lan Zhan's broad back.
Jiang Cheng draws in a long, hissing breath, and says, "Of course you show up to defend him," in a voice so bitter that Wei Wuxian can taste it like bile in his throat.
"Someone has to," says Lan Zhan. His voice is even, as always, but there's a hard edge to it that Wei Wuxian can't remember ever hearing.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean," says Jiang Cheng.
That is when Wei Wuxian finds out Lan Zhan actually does not need his glasses, because Lan Zhan stares at Jiang Cheng for a long, cold minute, and then takes them off and hands them to Wei Wuxian.
"Uh," he says.
Lan Zhan doesn't bother explaining. Instead, he takes one step forward toward Jiang Cheng, not aggressively, but in a way that makes him seem very tall.
"Lan Zhan," says Wei Wuxian. He doesn't know what Lan Zhan means to do but he can tell by the set of his back he means to do it as thoroughly as possible. "Lan Zhan, come on, Jiang Cheng was just --"
"I meant every damn word," says Jiang Cheng. Wei Wuxian was trying to defuse things, but Jiang Cheng was mulish on good days and now he's mad and defensive.
A-yuan scoots closer to Wei Wuxian and he bends down to pick him up. When he looks up again, Lan Zhan has opened his mouth and begun to list exactly why he believed Jiang Cheng had meant every word, starting from things Wei Wuxian genuinely did not remember from their academy years, seguing into Jiang family drama that Wei Wuxian hadn't known anybody but their own family had heard about, lingering over Wei Wuxian's college embarrassments with a tone that suggested he faintly regretted not being part of them --
Wei Wuxian looks at Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng looks at Wei Wuxian.
Wei Wuxian tries to silently communicate I don't fucking know, I didn't know he could talk this much either! but Jiang Cheng looks skeptical. As far as Wei Wuxian is aware, Lan Zhan thinks humans had a lifetime limit on the number of words they were allowed to speak, and he meant to have enough to last him until he was ninety. We Wuxian has never, ever heard Lan Zhan speak more than four carefully chosen words at a time.
-- Lan Zhan, unbothered by either of them staring at him like he had grown three heads and a pair of horns, continues bringing up every slight he had ever imagined Wei Wuxian to suffer --
"Oh come on," says Wei Wuxian, "Lan Zhan, don't exaggerate!"
Jiang Cheng gives him another look, one that says I genuinely cannot fucking believe this is happening to us and you had to tell LAN WANGJI not to exaggerate what the fuck.
-- and ignores Wei Wuxian's objection to wind up with a cutting critique and dismissal of Jiang Cheng's hair, clothing, choice of career, and parenting methods.
Then he stops, gently puts his hand on the small of Wei Wuxian's back and steers him out the door. Wei Wuxian looks back to see Jiang Cheng gaping after them and Jin Ling with his fist in his mouth, clearly weighing the benefits of staying quiet or throwing a tantrum because A-Yuan has left.
Lan Zhan goes quiet again like usual, as they walk to Lan Zhan's ridiculous dad Toyota and Lan Zhan straps A-yuan in the car seat, then helps Wei Wuxian into the front and does up his seat belt up for him like he enjoys doing it. Wei Wuxian is frankly too shellshocked to speak.
Lan Zhan gets in the car, but doesn't turn it on. He just looks at Wei Wuxian, and then back at the windshield.
"Well," says Wei Wuxian. "That uh. Sure happened."
"Mm," says Lan Zhan, starting the car and then putting it in reverse to back up and drive to -- Wei Wuxian isn't sure where, but he doesn't think that either of them are in the mood for hotpot now. Maybe he's just taking them home.
Then he realizes -- "Lan Zhan, you're driving without your glasses!"
"Mm," says Lan Zhan again, as if driving presumably half blind with a three year old in the car is something Lan Zhan would ever dream of doing. Wei Wuxian fumbles for Lan Zhan's glasses, but Lan Zhan flicks a glance over and says, "No need."
"Ah?" says Wei Wuxian.
"I just wear glasses," says Lan Zhan in the irritating way he has of saying completely off the wall shit as if it's perfectly logical. "I don't need them."
Wei Wuxian says, "What?", and then, "Bullshit you don't, your brother showed me and A-yuan pictures when you were three and you had them on."
Lan Zhan taps one finger against the steering wheel, which means he's still pretty agitated, and says, "They help."
Help with what, if you don't have bad eyes, Wei Wuxian doesn't say. He just waits, because if Lan Zhan can explain it, he will. The car goes quiet again, a heavy quiet, but not a bad one.
"After Mother died," says Lan Zhan, his eyes on the road. "After that, everything was too much, and the glasses helped keep it away. So I just kept wearing them."
And now Wei Wuxian feels like even more of a dick than he usually does. "Do you mean to tell me I just snatched your safety object or whatever and ran around with it laughing like an asshole when I was fifteen?"
"You were one," says Lan Zhan.
"Okay, fair," says Wei Wuxian. He swallows and adds, "I'm sorry."
Lan Zhan's mouth flickers into a smile. "For what?"
Wei Wuxian opens his mouth, closes it again, and says, "Okay, that's also fair. Do you - do you want them back at the next light?"
"No," says Lan Zhan.
Wei Wuxian has no idea what to say. If Lan Zhan says he doesn't need them, he doesn't need them, but --
Lan Zhan flicks another glance at him and then reaches out and pulls Wei Wuxian's hand to his thigh, patting it gently once before he puts his hand back on the wheel. Wei Wuxian can feel blood rushing up to his face, turning him a horrible shade of embarrassed red. "Lan Zhan!"
"I like too much," says Lan Zhan. "If it's you."
And there's really nothing Wei Wuxian can say to that.