Archive of Our Own

The watchtower was an old, creaky thing standing tall among flat-topped pine trees. It had been repurposed from a fire lookout tower that had not been in use for years at this point, and thus had a clear view of the surrounding forest. 

When Wei Wuxian dragged his bags up the wooden stairs, he was sure the whole thing was going to fall apart under him. It made noise with every step, a loud groan like a dying spirit. Wei Wuxian knew, at least, that there would be no way for anyone to catch him by surprise out here. There was no way to approach without alerting everyone within a mile’s radius of their presence.

The room inside the tower was simple, with a bed and a desk and some supplies for both cultivation and general human survival. Everywhere around him, through the wall-length windows, he could see an endless amount of trees. A small town in the distance, of course, and then the other watchtower in the area.

Another cultivator stayed there, keeping guard of that side of the forest. They would be, technically, co-workers in this.

Wei Wuxian dropped his bags on the floor, and a small amount of dust swirled around them. Apparently this tower had not been in use for a while. Nobody had wanted this assignment, not when the location was so in the middle of nowhere and the area not particularly rewarding when it came to night-hunting. 

That was obviously not the point of it. The watchtowers were there to take care of regular people who did not live close to any sects. Guarding over an area that nobody in the cultivation world really cared about, because it didn’t come with gold and glory. 

And the pay was really, truly shit. But that was not the point either.

No, the point was to get as far away from everything as one could, while doing something worthwhile at the same time. It was truly no hardship for Wei Wuxian.

On the desk that had been pushed close to the bed, there was a transceiver. Phones didn’t work too well out here in the wilderness, so a watchtower cultivator’s only way to contact the other tower was through one of those. There was a way to contact the town in the other tower. Wei Wuxian picked up the transceiver and sat down, looking at the setting sun in the treeline.

“Hello, hello, anyone there?” he said into it. The other tower, far in the distance, had its light still on. His coworker had not yet gone to bed. “Wei Wuxian reporting for duty!”

It took a moment, before the transceiver crackled. “Mn. I am here.”

The voice, deep and serious, made Wei Wuxian smile. So this was his new watchtower partner.

“Great! I didn’t catch your name,” he immediately replied, focus now entirely on the other watchtower. He could see its light, certainly, but from this distance it was impossible to see any type of human figure in the windows.

“Lan Wangji,” came the answer promptly, and then no additional information nor questions. Wei Wuxian didn’t need much of it, either way. He immediately stood straighter.

“No way,” he laughed. “Is this really Lan Wangji? From the Gusu Lan sect? Are you pulling my leg?”

This time, it took just a second longer for the response to come. “Mn.”

“Wait, is that an agreement to you being Lan Wangji or you pulling my leg?”

“I am Lan Wangji,” Lan Wangji said, and Wei Wuxian could hear the twinge of annoyance in his voice now.

This did not discourage him from pressing the button again. “I think you’re joking. Why would Lan Wangji, Lan Zhan, the second jade of Lan, the illustrious Hanguang-jun, ever work a job this remote and thankless?”

The question was not exactly fair. Wei Wuxian had never met Lan Wangji himself, but he had certainly heard of him. Much in the way Wei Wuxian was infamous, Lan Wangji’s reputation was the complete opposite. Where people spoke of Wei Wuxian in hushed whispers, scandalized, Lan Wangji was talked about loudly and proudly.

He was, as far as Wei Wuxian had heard, as serious as he was handsome, and as brave as he was skilled. Years ago, before the watchtowers, he had apparently patrolled around the country, finding people in need of help, and earned himself the very impressive title of Hanguang-jun.

“I do not joke,” Lan Wangji responded.

Wei Wuxian laughed. “You know, if you keep that up, I might just believe you. Lans have no sense of humor, do you?”

Evidently irritated with the conversation, Lan Wangji did not respond. Wei Wuxian tapped the button again.

“Lan Wangji, you should really try to get along with me,” he said. “After all, we are really the only people each other can talk to regularly.”

Lan Wangji’s response was loud and clear: silence. The transceiver did not make a sound, and when Wei Wuxian stared at the other tower in the distance, its lights turned off. Wei Wuxian huffed, considering the option of bothering Lan Wangji a bit more. They really weren’t allowed to turn off the transceivers, and if this person truly was the Hanguang-jun he had heard of, he would never break a rule like that. Not even if his tower buddy was really, really annoying.

Deciding to start their relationship with some amount of amiability, Wei Wuxian placed the transceiver by the bed, and started unpacking.

-

The first night in the tower went as well as one could expect. The bed was as creaky as the tower itself, and while the windows showed long stretches of the starry sky, the lack of windowless walls made Wei Wuxian feel a bit like a fish in an aquarium.

He had slept erratically, in small bits of time, and when he had finally fallen asleep, it felt like a second before he heard the crackling sound of the transceiver and a deep, smooth voice calling his name.

“-ei Wuxian?”

Wei Wuxian stretched out his hand, missed the transceiver entirely, and sent it flying from the desk. The clattering sound of it hitting the floor finally woke Wei Wuxian up enough for him to stumble after it. He almost tripped on the sheets wrapped around his legs.

“Hi, hi, yes, I’m here,” he said, still a bit groggy. How early was it? It could not have been much past six in the morning, judging from how low the sun was still in the sky.

There was a short pause before Lan Wangji responded. “You were asleep?”

“On my way to waking up,” Wei Wuxian said, then grinned. “Lan Zhan, what is it? Did you miss me already?”

The pause was longer this time. The guy was probably shocked Wei Wuxian dared to be so familiar with him. Then, “Someone set off a signal firework close to your tower. East of you.”

Oh. Wei Wuxian kicked the sheet off his feet and walked to the window pointing eastward. He did not see anything, but it probably didn’t hurt to go down there to check for himself.

“Got it,” he spoke to the transceiver. “I’ll go see what’s up.”

Wei Wuxian put the radio on the desk and grabbed his pants from the back of a chair. While pulling them up, he glanced towards the other tower. Lan Wangji had, apparently, already been up. Had he truly gone to bed that early last night? And woken up so early?

He had heard the rules in Gusu Lan sect were strict. Things like bedtime and food and human emotions were regulated. Lan Wangji must have been truly unlucky to have someone like Wei Wuxian end up as his coworker. A person like that – a rule-follower – would have a very low opinion of someone like Wei Wuxian indeed.

He wondered distantly if Lan Wangji had ever heard of him, the way he had heard of Lan Wangji. Whether Lan Wangji had already formed an opinion of him. Maybe he had already even decided not to bother with Wei Wuxian, and was hoping for him to leave as soon as possible. 

While he was pondering this, the transceiver made its little sound again, and Lan Wangji’s deep voice said, “Take the transceiver with you.”

“Hm? Afraid you might start missing me?” Wei Wuxian said, grabbing the receiver and his flute, and headed towards the door. 

“You should have it with you at all times,” Lan Wangji responded dryly, and Wei Wuxian grinned. Ah, that’s the Hanguang-jun he had heard of. 

“At all times?” asked Wei Wuxian, descending the stairs. “Sounds very intimate, Lan Zhan. We’ll be together at all times?”

“For safety reasons,” Lan Wangji said. “... Do not call me familiarly.”

“You can call me Wei Ying,” Wei Wuxian said, “since we are going to be intimate from now on, no? Better get used to it.”

Lan Wangji left him without an answer once more, clearly annoyed with him. Wei Wuxian laughed into the transceiver.

“Lan Zhan, don’t be cross with me. I’ll start worrying you might not show up to save me!” 

Still, no answer. 

“Fine, fine, be like that,” he said. “Can you at least lead me to where the signal came from?”

The air outside was damp with the morning mist. Under his shoes, the grass felt dewy. It would be getting much lighter soon, but at this moment still, the surroundings were hazy and golden. It was as beautiful as it was suddenly unnerving. He didn’t hear any birds singing.

“Mn,” Lan Wangji responded. “You are on the east side of the tower?”

“Are you not looking at me?” Wei Wuxian asked. “I saw binoculars on the desk. You don’t have those?”

“You are covered by the trees.” Lan Wangji’s no-nonsense tone made Wei Wuxian grin again.

“So you were looking at me?” he asked.

“Ridiculous,” came the response. “Do you see the hill from where you are?”

Wei Wuxian did, in fact, see the ground sloping up into a hill some distance away from him. It would be a twenty-minute walk, he was pretty sure.

“I see it,” he confirmed.

“The signal came from the bottom.”

“Guess I’ll have to do some hiking,” Wei Wuxian said. “I’ll let you know if I see anything. You can keep looking at my side of the forest in the meantime too. I’m not territorial.”

Lan Wangji left him hanging again.

“Are you territorial, Lan Zhan?” he asked, walking into the woods. It was deep in the middle of nowhere, truly in the wilderness, so the trees were high enough to cover parts of the sky.

Immediately, it was darker. Wei Wuxian looked around with mild interest. The path he was walking down had likely been a hiking path at some point, though from the way the plants had at times grown all over it, he figured no one had walked it in ages.

“Is there a point to these inquiries?” Lan Wangji said, voice as even as it had been the entire morning.

“I’m getting to know you. Tell me, how long have you been alone in your tower without talking to anyone?”

“Two months,” said Lan Wangji.

“Two months already?” Wei Wuxian could imagine it. The same routine every day, showing up when there was trouble, slaying minor yaos and occasionally visiting the town for some supplies. “Lan Zhan, tell me, was there a reason you chose a distant location like this? What are you getting out of it?”

The answer came fast and wry, “Silence.”

Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but laugh, the sound echoing in the surrounding forest. Lan Zhan was funny, it seemed. Wei Wuxian was eager to get to interrogate him more, though at the moment, he figured he should probably focus on the task at hand.

“Well, say goodbye to those days, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian chirped into the transceiver, and then stuffed it in his pocket. He would need to get a holster for it.

-

It took him a little less than twenty minutes to reach the bottom of the hill, but he came across nothing during his walk. No people, no monsters, no ghosts. The forest around him stayed eerily silent, no sign of anyone who might have sent the signal.

He called out to see if anyone would respond, but nothing in the woods answered. Making rounds around the area, he finally came across some sort of sign that there had indeed been people here.

“Lan Zhan, there’s a shoe here,” he said, picking up a stick from the ground and poking the item.

“A shoe?”

Wei Wuxian used the stick to turn it around, and noticed something unpleasant. A splatter of red on it. “I think it’s got blood on it. This person either ran for their life so fast that they left their shoe behind, or there’s nothing but a shoe left of them.”

“Do you have your sword with you?” Lan Zhan asked immediately.

“I have the means to defend myself,” Wei Wuxian responded, glancing around. Still nothing. There were slight hints of resentful energy, though it could have been any malicious thing living in this forest.

Curiously, when he tried to follow it, he only ended up doing a circle around the area.

The transceiver made a sound. “Have you found anything?”

“Not yet,” Wei Wuxian said, scratching his cheek. “Strange. There’s some resentful energy, but it doesn’t lead to anywhere. Whatever this thing was is not here anymore.”

“I see.” Lan Wangji’s tone was hard to interpret. “Go back to the tower. I will make a report about it to the town.”

“Yeah,” Wei Wuxian responded. “Nobody should walk through here before we’ve found whatever it is that did this.”

There came no answer to this, which likely meant that Lan Wangji agreed. Wei Wuxian used the stick to pick up the shoe, just in case someone would come looking for it later.

After giving one final cursory look around the place, he started heading back towards his tower.

-

Back when he had lived with the Jiangs, Wei Wuxian’s room had been next to Jiang Cheng’s. After that, they had been roommates for a while, while both of them did cultivation work under the Yunmeng Jiangs. Then, when Wei Wuxian had defected, they had finally moved into their own apartments, and Wei Wuxian lived alone for the first time.

It had been Wei Wuxian’s idea, mostly. He knew that the whole demonic cultivation thing was already causing trouble for the Jiangs, and he knew Madam Yu was still irritated about her children considering Wei Wuxian close.

Jiang Cheng hadn’t argued, but he had been mad. He always was, nowadays.

In any case, enough people had shown their disapproval about his chosen path that it was necessary for him to bring some distance between himself and the rest of the cultivation world. It was funny how easily he had gotten this job – they feared him enough to want to put him far away, yet were not willing to fully cut ties by rejecting him.

He guessed it was half wanting to not piss him off, either. Some of them had certainly seen him use his flute.

Here, in his little tower, he was free to be without having to worry about other people’s opinions. Although, because the universe had a sense of humor, his only coworker was the famously righteous Hanguang-jun from the Lan sect.

And he certainly had opinions.

“You are...Wei Wuxian, formerly of Yunmeng Jiang?” the man asked him that night, after a day of outright ignoring all the chatter Wei Wuxian had sent his way.

During that time, Wei Wuxian had managed to do an inventory of all the stuff he had inside the tower, put all of his own stuff on the shelf and try to stalk Lan Wangji moving inside his tower with his binoculars. He only ever managed to catch the vague shape of him.

“The one and only,” Wei Wuxian responded. “So you have heard of me after all, Lan Zhan?”

There was a slight pause. “You use unorthodox methods.”

“I cultivate the ghost path,” Wei Wuxian agreed. “Don’t tell me you’re going to give me a lecture? You should know I have heard it before, and I’m not convinced.”

“The ghost path will damage the body and the heart,” Lan Wangji said, predictably.

Wei Wuxian laughed. “Are you concerned for my body and my heart, Lan Zhan?”

“Do not joke,” the man responded.

Wei Wuxian wondered what his expression might look right now. Whether he was angry, with a line between his no doubt majestic brows. He’d never seen Lan Wangji in person, but had heard people talk about his good looks enough times to believe it.

He sighed. “You can’t choose the people you work with. Are you going to be difficult about it? If you are, I suggest applying for another position.”

There was a silence for a longer moment, this time. “I will not.”

“Great,” Wei Wuxian said. “Then you should start really being nicer to me, Hanguang-jun. Let’s leave the lectures for the cultivators outside of these towers.”

Lan Wangji did not respond, though Wei Wuxian saw the light in Lan Wangji’s tower stayed on a bit longer that evening.

-

The time passed surprisingly quickly in this job. Once he had figured out how to set up an alerting talisman for the watchtower – in case someone showed up needing his help and he was not present – he had started wandering around in the forest a lot more.

He did not see any more bloody shoes, nor signal fireworks. Lan Wangji had sent the warning to the town, and apparently it had been enough to discourage people from wandering around.

So Wei Wuxian enjoyed the summer heat outside, carrying the transceiver with him anywhere he went, since Lan Wangji insisted upon it. He would of course use the transceiver for things that Lan Wangji did not find appropriate, and then laugh himself sick at the man’s irritation.

“This does not constitute an emergency,” Lan Wangji said one day, when Wei Wuxian informed him about a big anthill he had found.

“It feels like an important piece of information to share,” Wei Wuxian argued. “It’s right in between your tower and mine. It’s like a little border patrol between our shares of the woods.”

“Do you not take anything seriously?” Lan Wangji asked, because he did not like joy or whimsy.

“I take many things seriously,” Wei Wuxian responded, then gasped. “Wait – oh my god, what is that? Lan Zhan! Lan Zhan, it’s coming at me! It’s – AAAH!!”

“Wei Ying?” came Lan Wangji’s alarmed voice.

“– AAAAHAHAHA, Lan Zhan, did you really believe me?” He laughed so hard tears were starting to gather in the corners of his eyes. “Hahahaha, how can you be so gullible? What, did you think the ants were attacking me? Hahahaha! Lan Zhan, you’re so easy to trick!”

Lan Wangji did not talk to him for the rest of the day after that.

Other than that, Wei Wuxian was mapping the area. He did of course have an actual, physical map for the place, but he liked the hands-on aspect of a job like this. He wanted to see the winding paths around the tower, the brook the went down the slope of the hill where he’d found the shoe, and the small pond that was a bit closer to Lan Zhan’s side of the forest than his.

He had grown up near lakes, and was used to swimming when it got too hot. During one of the hottest days of this job so far, Wei Wuxian grabbed his transceiver and a towel and headed for the pond, whistling happily on his way there.

Once he got to the pond, he stared at Lan Wangji’s watchtower for a while. He was still definitely not close enough to see inside, but he figured he could have been, had he taken the binoculars with him. Deciding to do so next time, he started taking off his clothes.

Almost immediately, the transceiver did its crackling noise. “What are you doing?”

Wei Wuxian, who was kicking off his pants, responded with, “Haha, are you watching me right now, Lan Zhan?”

“There is an outdoor shower next to your tower,” Lan Wangji stated tersely.

Wei Wuxian laughed. “What? I’m not going to clean myself here. I’m going swimming.”

There was no response to that, but Wei Wuxian, having rid himself of pants and a shirt, only standing in his underwear, waved brightly at Lan Wangji’s watchtower. He wondered if the man was still watching him.

“You know, you could join me,” he said into the transceiver.

Lan Wangji did not respond.

“Do you Lans really not swim? How do you deal with the heat? I feel like I might fry alive if I don’t go dip in the water for a while!”

“There could be water ghouls,” Lan Wangji said.

Glancing at the glimmering surface of the water, Wei Wuxian laughed again. “What, in that pond? I’m not sensing any resentful energy. If there’s a water ghoul there, it’s good enough at hiding that I might as well let it drown me.”

This time, Lan Wangji’s silence felt very judging. Wei Wuxian tossed the transceiver on top of his clothes, before running into the water, cool despite the heat in the air. Perfect for this type of weather.

Later, when Wei Wuxian was heading back to his tower, Lan Wangji told him not to go swimming anymore.

“You don’t have to watch me, you know,” Wei Wuxian said. “Lan Zhan, if my nude body offends your sensibilities so much, there’s no need for you to keep watch.”

Instead of answering Wei Wuxian’s tease, Lan Wangji instead asked, “Why are you not using your sword?”

Steps staying steady, Wei Wuxian glanced back at the watchtower. It was normal for cultivators to use their sword for travel, especially when covering a large area like this.

“For such short distances?” Wei Wuxian asked. “Why should I do that, when I can enjoy the forest?”

“The day of the signal firework,” Lan Wangji said then.

Wei Wuxian considered this for a moment, tossing the transceiver up and down in his hand.

“Lan Zhan, I’ll tell you the truth,” he said after a while, stilling his movement. “I left my sword back home.”

This was unheard of. A cultivator would never leave their sword anywhere – it was practically an extension of one’s hand. Especially doing work like this. Wei Wuxian knew he seemed more and more audacious to Lan Wangji the more he talked.

Still, Lan Wangji’s reaction hit a tender place in his chest. “Irresponsible.”

“Aren’t I? Well, thankfully, I’m not helpless without it,” Wei Wuxian responded lightly. “Did you know, there’s a burial ground not too far away from my tower.”

No response came, and Wei Wuxian did not provoke Lan Wangji any more than that. He tossed the transceiver back up, down, up, down, and continued walking back to his base.

-

“Lan Zhan, is that you?” Wei Wuxian asked, transceiver in hand the moment he had spotted a white spot flying above the treeline.

He scrambled up from the bed he’d been lying on to pick up the binoculars. Unfortunately, Lan Wangji was far away enough for Wei Wuxian to only see the vague outline of him. He was tall, black-haired and probably had the white Lan forehead ribbon on.

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said.

“What’s going on?”

“I saw someone in the forest,” was the response, serious and even as always.

It had been three days since Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji had had the tense little conversation about his sword, and after that, for a while, Lan Wangji had talked to him even less than normally.

But knowing Hanguang-jun, this dislike of his towards Wei Wuxian would not stop him from being professional. Of course he would have to act like an adult when it came to their work. Seeing someone in the forest either meant that someone was stupid enough to not believe their warnings, or another cultivator ready to hunt.

Either way, it was their duty to figure out which one it was.

“How well did you see them?” Wei Wuxian asked, trying to look where Lan Wangji was flying, but could not see much from the trees. That’s why people were expected to use signal fireworks around these parts. It was part of the deal with the watchtowers.

“Not well.”

“Alright,” Wei Wuxian responded. “Keep me updated, Hanguang-jun.”

Lan Wangji did not respond, though Wei Wuxian had not expected him to. It was almost miraculous, sometimes, when he answered Wei Wuxian with a longer sentence. A man like Lan Wangji knew how to be concise.

Wei Wuxian tried to keep looking at the shape of Lan Wangji, but after a while he lost sight of him. After that, he waited for an update.

The sun was about to set soon. The sky was cast in beautiful shades of orange and red, romantic in the way only nature could be. It was a good view.

After a while of waiting, he took the transceiver back in hand. “Lan Zhan? What’s the situation?”

“I cannot find them,” the man responded, a bit delayed.

Wei Wuxian frowned. “You’re sure you saw someone? Did you go to the right place?”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji responded, clearly to both.

“You think they could have left so fast that you couldn’t see them?”

“No.”

“Then...could something have happened to them already?” Wei Wuxian thought about the time between Lan Wangji first left his tower and when he asked for the update. It wasn’t impossible, but if that was the case, this thing was fast enough to be a real threat.

“Perhaps,” Lan Wangji responded.

“Well,” Wei Wuxian said, “if you feel scared, you can always sleep in my tower, Lan Zhan. There’s room for two in my bed.”

After a slight pause, Lan Wangji said, “Are you always this frivolous with people?”

Wei Wuxian pursed his lips. “I think so?”

It wasn’t like he was changing his personality for Lan Wangji’s benefit. Jiang Cheng had always called him annoying, and while Shijie was way kinder about it, she also knew of Wei Wuxian’s tendency to find entertainment for himself in the face of boredom.

Lan Wangji did not respond.

“Should we send another message to the town?” Wei Wuxian asked then. “Maybe ask if anyone’s gone missing?”

“Mn.”

“I’ll start figuring out some sort of a trap for a yao. If it’s a ghost, I can take care of it without a trap.”

No answer. Wei Wuxian blew a fallen strand of hair off his face. “Lan Zhan, was there resentful energy there?”

“Trace amounts,” Lan Wangji said.

“Hm, like with the last one. Alright. Whatever it is, it’s not going to be around for long,” Wei Wuxian stated.

“Mn,” came the answer, as Wei Wuxian spotted a flash of white in the distance.

The lights in the other tower turned on. Lan Wangji did not have to use the stairs to get up to the room, like Wei Wuxian did.

He sighed into the silence of the air.

-

The next day, Wei Wuxian went out to set some traps. They were only meant to confirm there was something there, since he didn’t want to make anything that might harm a person instead of a resentful being.

He’d destroyed one yao nest a couple days ago, but that one had been only a basic forest yao one, a thing that could eat people if they were really slow or dumb enough to not start running when they saw its sharp teeth.

What they were dealing with was something else. Two people, who had disappeared fast, and did not leave much of anything behind to even confirm they had been there.

“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian said, after finishing putting down another trap. “Have other people disappeared since you started here?”

“No,” the man responded.

“So the first one was after I showed up?” Wei Wuxian frowned. “Was it really calm around here before I came? There’s barely anything around, very few demon nests and ghosts too. Were there more before?”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said. “I got rid of them.”

Wei Wuxian couldn’t help the smile that spread on his face at that. Of course Lan Wangji would be so efficient as to empty an entire forest of monsters before Wei Wuxian even showed up.

“Hanguang-jun, how competent,” he cooed. “It’s too bad you missed this thing.”

“Did I?”

Wei Wuxian laughed. “What, you think I brought it with me? Do you know, there are many rumors about me, but I have never before heard anyone say I purposefully bring monsters with me wherever I go to eat people.”

“That is not what I said,” Lan Wangji said disapprovingly.

“What did you mean by that, then? It might have shown up when I did, but it’s certainly got nothing to do with me, Lan Zhan.”

“Mn.”

He did wonder, though, at the reason he was placed here specifically. Did they put him with Hanguang-jun because he came from a notoriously righteous sect, whose cultivators would never even dare think about cultivating through resentful energy?

Lan Wangji hadn’t said anything to him about it after that one conversation, though. If that had been their attempt, they clearly failed.

“Lan Zhan,” he said then, starting to walk towards where he had seen a little brook before. “What does your family think about you working here?”

“Uphold the value of justice,” Lan Zhan said, quoting one of the three thousand rules of his sect. “They approve of helping the powerless.”

“That doesn’t even answer the question,” Wei Wuxian said. “I bet they are upset to hear you are working a thankless job in the middle of nowhere with a demonic cultivator.”

Lan Zhan was too upright to lie, so he didn’t respond. There was something sweet about it. Did he not want to hurt Wei Wuxian’s feelings?

“What does your family think?” Lan Zhan asked instead.

“Hm? My family…” He thought about angry Jiang Cheng, who had asked him to abandon the crooked path multiple times, and gotten angrier and angrier about it whenever Wei Wuxian had shrugged it off. “Well, I don’t think they know I’m here.”

“You did not tell them?”

“You know I’m not affiliated with the Jiangs anymore, right, Lan Zhan? It’s not like I’m accountable to them,” he said blithely. “Besides, who am I going to bother about it? If you asked the cultivation world as a whole, I bet they’re relieved to know I’m not out there stealing their night-hunts.”

It had pissed many people off, him showing up to take care of a hunt. He was too effective at it, which was the worst offense one could give in their circles, at least if one did not come from a big and powerful sect.

“I see.”

“Can’t relate?” Wei Wuxian had reached the brook, and looked around for a good spot to place the trap. “I bet no one has ever felt anything but wonder and astonishment when Hanguang-jun has showed up.”

“Do not flatter,” Lan Wangji cited, voice unimpressed.

“Who’s flattering? Lan Zhan, you must admit that a venerable, handsome, righteous, tall, dashing man such as yourself would only garner admiration when stealing someone else’s night-hunt glory,” Wei Wuxian argued.

He settled by a tree, starting to work on the final trap. It was essentially an array that would activate when touched by resentful energy.

“I have night-hunted with the Jins,” came Lan Wangji’s surprising reply.

Wei Wuxian burst into laughter again. “Lan Zhan, did you really just say that? Isn’t talking bad about other people one of your sect rules? What would Lan Qiren say if he heard you just then?”

“’Be truthful’,” Lan Zhan responded. “I have merely corrected your misinterpretation.”

“Hahaha, Lan Zhan, nobody said you have a sense of humor!” Wei Wuxian looked at his finished array, pleased with his handiwork. “We shouldn’t let anyone know. You will have suitors lining up at your door.”

“Ridiculous.”

“How is it ridiculous?” The unimpressed tone made Wei Wuxian want to laugh again. Lan Zhan’s reactions really were too good. “You know, Lan Zhan, I have only ever heard you being praised. Even before I had talked to you, I had heard how handsome and how righteous you are!”

This time, Lan Wangji did not bother even answering.

“Do you have social media? How unfortunate that I never did search up what you look like,” Wei Wuxian said. “Now I’m curious.”

“Why?” Lan Wangji asked.

“Isn’t it only natural? Before, I knew you were handsome, but I didn’t know you personally. Now, wouldn’t it be normal for me to want to know what you really look like, since a rule-stickler like you is so loved by everyone, hahahaha?”

He had expected the radio silence after a declaration like this, though he still attempted to wheedle Lan Wangji into responding to him. Of course, a man like Lan Wangji was both too unyielding as well as too much of a complete wet blanket to respond after that.

Still, Wei Wuxian laughed all the way back to the watchtower.

-

Another unreasonably hot day brought with it another opportunity to go swimming. He had not gone swimming too many times, since the first time made Lan Wangji so annoyed with him. Still, something had to give, because Wei Wuxian woke up once again covered in sweat.

He tried not to make Lan Wangji angry by teasing him about watching him again, but did give a wave towards the tower, just in case the man was looking. He had brought his binoculars with him the last time, but could not see Lan Wangji in the window.

He figured a thin-faced man like Lan Wangji probably got outraged at the mere thought of Wei Wuxian outside without a shirt on.

Despite knowing this, he stripped fast and jumped into the water, immediately dunking his head to get his hair wet. He’d really needed the refreshing feeling of water on him.

He didn’t have too much time to cool off.

“Uh, h-hi?” came a voice behind him, and Wei Wuxian squawked, before splashing around to see the person who’d spoken.

A man at the side of the pond, not too far away from him. He had delicate features that made his look a bit melancholy. This wasn’t helped by the wide eyes as he awkwardly waved at Wei Wuxian.

“Oh! Hi,” Wei Wuxian said, immediately relaxing. He noticed the sword hanging by the man’s waist – a cultivator. “Did you come from the town? You shouldn’t be walking around here, there’s something in the woods making people disappear!”

“Yes, I, I came from there to see if you guys needed any help,” the man said. “I’m Wen Ning. You’re one of the watchtower cultivators, right?”

Wei Wuxian swam towards him, and the closer he got, the more embarrassed the guy looked. “Yes, that one over there in the distance is mine. The one closer to us is Lan Wangji’s tower.”

“Lan Wangji?” asked the cultivator, Wen Ning. “From the Lan sect?”

“Him! Can you imagine?” Wei Wuxian got to the shallow part and stood up, shaking the wetness out of his hair. “I’m Wei Wuxian! Nice to meet you.”

“Wei Wuxian?” he asked, and this time he sounded incredulous.

“I know, what are the chances?” Wei Wuxian laughed. Wen Ning was not really looking at him, since he was standing there wet in his underwear. Unselfconsciously, he started walking towards his pile of clothes. “But yes, as you can imagine, you don’t need to risk yourself since it’s Hanguang-jun on the case.”

“Oh,” said the man, not sounding too disappointed, thankfully. He followed behind Wei Wuxian.

“But, since you’re already here, do you want to see my tower?” Wei Wuxian asked, at the same time as his transceiver crackled.

“Wei Ying,” came Lan Wangji’s voice, and for some reason, he sounded irritated.

Throwing a towel over his head while picking up the transceiver with his other hand, Wei Wuxian answered, “Lan Zhan! Something wrong?”

There was a short silence, as Wei Wuxian glanced at Wen Ning. His eyebrows had shot up.

“Who are you with?” asked Lan Wangji.

“Oh! This is Wen Ning. Wen Ning, come say hi to Lan Zhan!” He grabbed Wen Ning closer and shoved the transceiver in his face.

Wen Ning looked alarmed, as he stuttered out a “H-hi?”

Another pause. Then, “Hi. Wei Ying, what is going on?”

“He came to see if we needed any help,” Wei Wuxian explained, turning towards the tower where Lan Wangji was likely watching them. “You know, with the disappearing people. I told him the reliable Hanguang-jun is working on it, so it’s alright!”

“Mn. He is not needed.”

Wei Wuxian flashed a smile at Wen Ning, who answered it with an uncertain one. “Yeah! So I’m taking him to my tower.”

The silence lasted almost twice as long this time. Wei Wuxian rubbed his hair drier with the towel, before he started pulling on his pants.

“Why?” asked Lan Wangji, his voice sounding kinda strange.

“Lan Zhan, you know why! I haven’t talked to anyone else in ages,” Wei Wuxian said. “Half of the time when I talk to you, you just stop responding and leave me alone for the rest of the day! Is it any wonder I want someone else to entertain me?”

Wen Ning, who had been politely looking away from Wei Wuxian dressing himself, now gave an alarmed look.

“Uh, Mr. Wei –“ he started, but Wei Wuxian was still going.

“Besides, the view up there is amazing, I feel like other people should get to experience it as well,” he said.

Lan Wangji didn’t respond, but it wasn’t like Wei Wuxian had expected him to. He had probably immediately started enjoying his day of freedom from Wei Wuxian.

“Mr. Wei,” said Wen Ning again, as Wei Wuxian pulled on a shirt. “When you say, ‘entertain’, do you mean – ?”

“Play a board game with me or something! I also have wine, if you want to get tipsy,” Wei Wuxian said. “Not enough of it to get really drunk, but my tolerance is high enough for it to be practically impossible without using half of my earnings anyway.”

“O-oh,” Wen Ning said uncertainly. “Okay.”

“I would suggest we night-hunt, but I just recently found out that Hanguang-jun has slain practically all things worth night-hunting here except for that thing we still haven’t found,” Wei Wuxian explained.

Wen Ning nodded. “Makes sense.”

Finally having dressed himself decent, Wei Wuxian grabbed the towel and the transceiver, and with a final wave towards Lan Wangji’s tower, he turned to Wen Ning.

“So, tell me about yourself. Are you from the town? Or just passing by?”

“Oh, no, I actually am just passing by,” Wen Ning started, and they continued chatting pleasantly.

The transceiver didn’t crackle once on their way to the tower.

-

“– and then, if you can imagine it, I had to run away from the other cultivators who I had just saved,” Wei Wuxian recounted a couple hours later, enamel cup half-full of wine in hand. “They were not half as terrified of the yao as they were of me.”

“Oh,” said Wen Ning, whose cup Wei Wuxian had just filled. “That sounds unfair.”

It was hours later, after Wei Wuxian had pestered the guy into trying his cooking (Wen Ning was polite enough to not spit it out, but he could see his eyes watering) and playing (losing) a few rounds of weiqi with him.

Now they were sitting on Wei Wuxian’s bed, exchanging cultivation stories. The sky was already dimming a bit, evening inching towards night.

“Well, who cares? It’s not like I was doing it for the praise, haha!”

“I suppose,” Wen Ning said, taking a sip of his wine. Then he looked outside, blinking. “Oh, is it so late already?”

“Huh.” Wei Wuxian realized that soon it would be way too late for Wen Ning to leave the tower.

He might have been a cultivator, but leaving right now would still be a risk, since the his alcohol tolerance was nowhere near Wei Wuxian’s. Could he even let the guy mount his sword when he’d been drinking? There had to be laws against that.

“You know, you can stay overnight,” Wei Wuxian said. “You can take the bed, I’ll take the other mattress for the floor.”

Wen Ning blinked at him. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“What do you mean?” Wei Wuxian asked, confused.

Wen Ning opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything. Then he glanced towards the window, towards the other watchtower.

Ah. Wei Wuxian got it.

“Don’t worry about Lan Zhan,” he said, suddenly amused. “He might think it’s unprofessional I brought you here, but it’s not like it’s explicitly forbidden. Otherwise he would have actually told me I wasn’t allowed.”

“Right…” Wen Ning said, though he sounded uncertain still.

“Besides, what is he going to do? Fly here to kick you out?” Wei Wuxian laughed. “I don’t think he cares enough!”

Just then, the transceiver made its familiar sound on the table. “Wei Ying.”

His laughter immediately stopped. Was Lan Wangji psychic?

He cleared his throat before reaching for the transceiver, ignoring Wen Ning’s nervous look. “Yeah, what’s going on, Lan Zhan?”

“Your visitor has not left.”

Wei Wuxian spluttered out a laugh. “What, how would you know, Lan Zhan? Did you keep watch?”

Instead of answering the question, Lan Wangji merely said, “He should leave. It will be dark soon.”

“Hm. He can’t,” Wei Wuxian responded. “We’ve been drinking. He shouldn’t go flying while tipsy.”

“You have been drinking?” Lan Wangji asked, sounding extremely displeased, almost frosty.

“Aiyah, Lan Zhan, what if we have? Don’t be so mad about it, I bet you would enjoy yourself if you tried it too!”

“Where is he going to sleep?” asked Lan Wangji, completely ignoring Wei Wuxian’s comment. “There is only one bed.”

Wei Wuxian grinned. “Didn’t I tell you it fits two?”

“Shameless,” Lan Wangji said, and he had never before sounded so icy. “Inappropriate.”

“What are you getting so agitated for, er-gege? I’m obviously joking,” he responded, when noticing how pale Wen Ning had gotten. “I’m going to sleep on the floor! Nobody’s doing anything unprofessional during work hours!”

Wen Ning had hidden his face in his hands. Wei Wuxian, feeling sorry for the guy, said into the transceiver, “Lan Zhan, I don’t want to argue with you so late. If you have nothing nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything.”

As if to agree with him, Lan Wangji did not say anything. So Wei Wuxian shrugged and put the transceiver on the table. Wen Ning still looked like he was really embarrassed.

“Don’t worry about him, alright?” Wei Wuxian said. “Lan Zhan is a chronic killjoy. For a person who probably has never had a dirty thought in his life, he seems to think everyone else is out here doing nothing but dirty things.”

Wen Ning rested his forehead in his hand, letting the other drop. “M-maybe I should leave.”

“Don’t be silly, Wen Ning! I’m going to make the bed for you. Leave in the morning. It’s safer that way,” Wei Wuxian said, and then winked. “I promise not to do anything shameless.”

For some reason, Wen Ning glanced at the other tower again, but in the end, nodded.

So Wei Wuxian made their beds, and after a little more chatter, they slept.

-

That night, Wei Wuxian woke up to a feeling that something wasn’t right. It could not have been much past midnight, the moon shining in the sky and casting pale light inside the room. Wen Ning had also risen, sat up on the bed, clearly having awakened to the same thing.

Quietly, Wei Wuxian grabbed the transceiver and moved towards the window. He couldn’t see anything outside, but was somehow certain there was something.

“Lan Zhan,” he whispered into the transceiver. “Lan Zhan, you wouldn’t happen to have come here to check if we really were in separate beds?”

After a short while, the answer came.

“Wei Ying?” Lan Wangji’s deep voice was rough with sleep.

So, no. Not Lan Wangji. Wen Ning had moved to look out of the windows too, frowning slightly.

“Guess not,” Wei Wuxian said. “There’s something outside my tower, Lan Zhan.”

Sounding immediately more alert, Lan Wangji responded, “Do you need assistance?”

“No, no,” Wei Wuxian said. “Let me first check out what it is.”

In the distance, the light in the other tower turned on. Wei Wuxian moved to the door. Opened it.

Nothing attacked immediately, at least. Wei Wuxian took a step on the deck around the room, towards the fenced edge. He glanced around the border of the forest, but saw nothing.

Then, he looked straight down, and stilled.

At the bottom of the tower, right by the stairs going up, there was a figure. It was shrouded in darkness, looking up at them. Its eyes gleamed red.

“Lan Zhan,” he whispered into the transceiver again. “There’s a thing there. I have no idea what it is. Looks more human than yao, but I don’t think it’s a ghost. Not a fierce corpse either. It’s got red eyes.”

“I see.”

Wei Wuxian turned around, where Wen Ning was worriedly looking out with him. He asked him, “Can you hand me my flute? It’s on the desk.”

Wen Ning nodded and went to grab it. Wei Wuxian turned back around to look at the thing.

It was not there anymore.

Eyebrows drawing up, Wei Wuxian leaned over the fence to look around. There was nothing there, nowhere around the tower. No gleaming red eyes, nothing.

He checked the stairs, just to be sure, but they were as empty as before. He could sense no resentful energy anywhere either.

Wen Ning came back with the flute. He grabbed it with a quick thank you, then lifted the transceiver back to his mouth, this time not bothering to whisper.

“Hey, Lan Zhan, it’s gone,” he said. “It disappeared really fast, too. I don’t even know what direction. Should I try to go find it?”

“Do not,” said Lan Wangji immediately.

“Right, right. Well, you better set up an alerting talisman, just in case it shows up to your tower next,” Wei Wuxian said.

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said. “You as well.”

Wei Wuxian hummed. It wasn’t like cultivators of his and Lan Wangji’s caliber wouldn’t wake up either way, but Wei Wuxian had now witnessed how fast this thing was. He’d rather have an early alert next time.

“I’m going back to sleep,” he said then. “Good night, Lan Zhan. Let me know if you get eaten.”

He didn’t get a response, which was usual. Wen Ning only gave a few concerned looks towards the forest, before he, too, turned and headed back for the bed.

They didn’t wake up again that night.

-

Next morning, Wei Wuxian sent off Wen Ning with a bright smile and an invitation to come back whenever he’d like. Wen Ning had answered his smile, but there was a nervous edge there.

“Maybe for a few hours during the day,” the man said, and Wei Wuxian laughed, though it didn’t seem to be a joke.

After Wen Ning had left, Wei Wuxian turned back to his favorite person to bother.

“Hey, Lan Zhan,” he said, sitting at the steps while looking towards Lan Wangji’s tower. “Did you get eaten by that thing?”

“No,” Lan Wangji responded, to Wei Wuxian’s surprise. He usually didn’t answer stupid questions.

“What a relief.” Wei Wuxian smiled, leaning against the wooden steps behind him. “I would get so desperately bored here without you!”

“Would you?” Lan Wangji asked. He sounded like he was irritated with Wei Wuxian again.

“What do you mean? Of course I would,” Wei Wuxian said. “Haven’t we become quite close, in the past few weeks?”

“Yet you feel the need for other people to come entertain you,” the man said.

Oh. Wei Wuxian blinked. Had he really insulted Lan Wangji’s pride with that? Of course, Hanguang-jun had to the best at everything. Even at entertaining Wei Wuxian, it seemed.

He muffled a laugh into his sleeve, before clearing his throat. “Lan Zhan, ah Lan Zhan! Are you mad I have other friends?”

“Ridiculous,” Lan Wangji said, his usual retort.

“Hahaha, Lan Zhan, you really are too funny. If you wanted me to pay more attention to you, you should have just told me! And you especially shouldn’t take it out on other people. You scared poor Wen Ning half to death with your strict tone last night!”

“You have no care for professionalism,” Lan Wangji snapped.

“What, you really haven’t hosted anyone in the entire time you’ve been here? Not even your family?”

“No.” The answer came fast and brief.

“Oh.” Wei Wuxian thought about Lan Wangji, all alone in the tower for months. Not even having anyone to call with the transceiver, only occasionally going to the town to probably have short calls with family members. “Lan Zhan, don’t you ever get lonely?”

It did not take long for Lan Wangji to answer, “No.”

He sounded sincere. Of course, it did make sense. Hanguang-jun had this type of reputation, after all. Untouchable, aloof, someone who didn’t care for the company of others. Wei Wuxian just had never believed that to be really true.

He himself, after all, didn’t care for being alone. He liked people, and he liked talking.

“Do you?” asked Lan Wangji.

Wei Wuxian pursed his lips, looking at the forest before him. “A bit.”

“Then why did you come here?” Lan Wangji asked.

“I guess,” Wei Wuxian said, “I needed a break. A little breather from…”

Disappointing his former sect. Scaring and irritating people around him. Making Shijie sad. Making Jiang Cheng angry. Not being able to find night-hunts, because the sects around his home were so against working with him.

“…everything,” he finished, a bit lamely.

Lan Wangji didn’t respond for a moment. In the end, he only said, “I understand.”

Maybe it was the Lan sincerity, but something about it made Wei Wuxian smile.

“Anyway, it’s not like I’m lonely here,” he said. “I have you, don’t I?”

Despite the annoyance Lan Wangji had had towards him before, the man didn’t start arguing. Instead, when he responded, his tone was only serious.

“…Mn.”

-

The traps he’d set up for the thing had been destroyed. Wei Wuxian was doing his usual rounds, walking around the forest, when he came across the closest one to his tower. The thing was, it had been set off. And yet, somehow, the thing had not gotten caught in it.

He frowned at it, wondering if he should set up another one. Would it be useful? They didn’t even know what this thing was.

When he checked the other two, he found the one at the brook in a similar state, and in the other one, there was only a useless little mountain yao. He got rid of it fast and easy, though informed Lan Wangji of the development.

“Did you get a response from the town?” Wei Wuxian asked after giving the update.

“Mn. No regular people. Two cultivators.”

“Cultivators?” Wei Wuxian frowned. “Really?”

This thing, why would it go after cultivators when normal people were so much easier to deal with? Wouldn’t a malicious being enjoy easier prey? Yet this thing, whatever it was, seemed to target cultivators.

Worse – it had managed to make a couple of them disappear. Had it eaten them? Taken them somewhere?

The worst thing about it was that it didn’t leave a trace. Wei Wuxian was used to ghosts and yaos and corpses. This was something that didn’t let itself be followed, and was fast enough to avoid him and Lan Wangji whenever they searched for it.

Well. At least they now had a clue.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Lan Zhan?” Wei Wuxian asked.

“Mn,” the man responded. “Mantis and cicada.”

“Right! The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it,” Wei Wuxian said. “The cultivators are night-hunting basic yao, and don’t realize they’re also being hunted. So we should figure out where there’s any yaos left around here. We need to know where those cultivators would go.”

The problem was, Lan Wangji had gotten rid of basically anything that lived around here. And the thing hadn’t attacked him so far.

Was it just because it knew it was no match for Lan Wangji?

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said then. “Do not go after it alone.”

“Worried for me, Lan er-gege?” Wei Wuxian grinned. “You shouldn’t be. The moment it saw me it turned around and ran away.”

The silence this time might have been one of those displeased ones.

“I won’t go after it alone,” Wei Wuxian allowed. “But what are you suggesting instead? Should we both leave our posts to hunt it together?”

“You regularly leave your tower.”

“So did you, until very recently!”

“I only left for a couple of hours at a time,” Lan Wangji stated. “You leave for the entire day.”

“Are you telling me I’m bad at my job, Lan Zhan? Besides, ever since we told the town to stop coming here, it’s not like anyone is knocking on our door much either!”

Lan Wangji paused. “That is not what I meant.”

“Maybe we should ask Wen Ning to come back,” Wei Wuxian mused. Wen Ning could stay at one of the towers, while Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji hunted for the thing.

“No,” Lan Wangji said immediately.

Sighing, Wei Wuxian nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. We shouldn’t put anyone else in danger.”

“Mn.”

“Alright. It’s clearly closer to my part of the woods, since your side is where you have obviously taken care of every single resentful being, so how about this – I go look for it, and the moment I see it, I’ll call for you to come save me? You have your sword, so you should be able to move quickly.”

The silence felt like hesitation this time. Then, “Alright.”

“Great! See, we don’t need to argue about everything, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian said. “It’s easier if you just agree with me.”

“Hm,” Lan Wangji responded, and it sounded neither like a disagreement nor an agreement.

-

That evening, once it became dusky and the surroundings tinted blue, Wei Wuxian went out to look for it. He figured the side farthest from Lan Wangji’s tower would be the best place to start his search, since that’s where any resentful beings would be, if there were any left.

He walked in the forest, chattering to Lan Wangji in the meantime. He had been more sociable that day, responding to Wei Wuxian’s comments even when he found them ridiculous.

It made Wei Wuxian feel a bit warm inside. Something about Lan Wangji finally seeming to warm up to him really rewired his brain in a new, exciting way.

He really liked him. Wei Wuxian wasn’t afraid to say it – he liked this rule-stickler, who constantly called him ridiculous and nonsensical and shameless. Lan Wangji was really fun to talk to, and even more fun to rile up.

He was so curious about him, too. Wei Wuxian hadn’t been able to wheedle much out of him when it came to personal details. Most of it he had already known, through gossip and rumors. The Lan sect, with its three thousand rules, had created this incredible specimen, who was righteous and kind and handsome and – most importantly – horribly, terribly thin-faced.

And for some reason, did not treat Wei Wuxian the way other people treated him. There was suspicion, of course, but it was towards Wei Wuxian’s mischief, not his intentions. And there was irritation, but never due to Wei Wuxian being impressive.

Lan Wangji seemed to find him an endless source of frustration, yet never treated him with anything but patience.

And every day, Wei Wuxian tested that patience.

“Lan Zhan, do you have a cultivation partner?” Wei Wuxian asked, when the dusk had turned to full darkness.

“Why do you ask?” answered Lan Wangji.

“You don’t, do you?” He was sure he would have heard of it, if Lan Wangji did. “I knew it. Lan Zhan, it’s because you are so serious all the time. Do you even know how to flirt with girls?”

“Why does this concern you?” Lan Wangji responded, sounding irritated again.

“As your friend, I feel like it’s important for me to support you in things like these,” Wei Wuxian said, hand over his heart. “Since I have so much experience, it could really benefit you to accept my help!”

“Shameless,” Lan Wangji snapped.

“What do you mean, ‘shameless’? Don’t you want to get married some day, er-gege?” Wei Wuxian asked. “How will you do that, if you have never even flirted with anyone?”

“Only frivolous people flirt with no intention to follow through,” Lan Wangji stated.

“Fine, fine, then let this frivolous person be of even bigger help to you,” Wei Wuxian said. “Since you don’t want to give anyone the wrong idea, you can practice on me! You can flirt with me without ever following through!”

After a long, no doubt pained pause, Lan Wangji responded, “You really have no shame.”

“That’s not flirty, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian said.

An audible breath, which was basically a heavy sigh coming from Lan Wangji. “You are asking me to flirt with you.”

“Uh-huh.”

“As practice.”

“Yes,” Wei Wuxian agreed.

He couldn’t imagine Lan Wangji’s face, seeing as he had never actually met the man, but he imagined it would look pretty funny right about then.

“Very well,” Lan Wangji said.

Wei Wuxian stumbled. Quickly righting himself, thankful for the fact that Lan Wangji couldn’t see him, he coughed a laugh. “H-haha, Lan Zhan, are you going to do it? Right now?”

“Mn.”

“Alright! I’m ready,” Wei Wuxian said, something flipping in his stomach. “Let’s hear your flirting, er-gege!”

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said then, his voice serious and deep. “Would you like to see my tower?”

“Wh– Lan Zhan!“ Wei Wuxian squawked, face suddenly heating up and his eyes widening into a ridiculous size. “That’s – that’s not – you’re just propositioning me!”

A slight pause. “I…meant my watchtower.”

Somehow, this made Wei Wuxian blush even worse. “Well – well, Lan Zhan, it doesn’t come across that way at all!”

“You have said the view from the inside is beautiful,” Lan Wangji said.

“I did, but – if you say, ‘do you want to see my tower’, that sounds like you’re talking about something different!”

“Do not make assumptions,” Lan Wangji quoted the rule, sounding indignant.

“Fine, alright, I think we should leave the towers aside,” Wei Wuxian stated. “How about you just compliment me?”

Lan Wangji was silent for a while, probably suspecting this entire exercise was an excuse from Wei Wuxian to fish for compliments.

After a while, Lan Wangji only said, “Why do you want to do this?”

“Didn’t I already say? I am your friend!”

“You flirt with your friends?” asked Lan Wangji.

“Well, no – but the rest of them don’t need my help as desperately as you do,” Wei Wuxian said. “Look at you, trying it for one time and saying something so shameless!”

“You said it first,” Lan Wangji stated.

“What?” Wei Wuxian frowned. “When?”

“Think for yourself.”

Wei Wuxian was about to say something, but then, in the corner of his eye, he noticed a bit of movement. He stopped immediately, turning to look that way into the dark woods. He stared, quietly.

The transceiver made a sound. “Wei Ying?”

“Hush, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian whispered, intently staring at where he thought he’d seen something.

He waited for a while, slowly looking around. But after long moments of expecting something to jump out at him, he had to give up.

“Ah, I thought I saw something,” Wei Wuxian sighed. “Sorry for the false alarm. Do you think I should keep heading forward?”

“No,” Lan Wangji said. “You will be too far for me to be of help.”

“Right,” Wei Wuxian said. “Well, let’s try this again tomorrow. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

“Mn.”

And with that, Wei Wuxian turned around. They didn’t talk about flirting after that.

-

They did this for a couple of nights. Wei Wuxian would go out, chatting with Lan Wangji while walking in the forest after dark. A couple of times he would come across a minor yao or a ghost, but those times the thing did not show up, and Wei Wuxian would eventually have to take care of the yaos and ghosts with a few talismans and his flute.

One time, Lan Wangji implored him to try and be quiet during the walk, as to see whether the thing was averse to noise. Wei Wuxian stayed quiet, yet it was obvious this did nothing.

After a couple more tries, they had to admit it was futile. They’d have to figure out a better plan for it.

So Wei Wuxian stayed in the tower the next evening, not moving from his bed. He’d bothered Lan Wangji long enough that day to feel some mercy towards him. The guy had been so nice to him in the past few days, after all, by not ignoring him so much anymore.

He was restless, though. Restless, and thinking about Lan Wangji. About that one conversation, about flirting. How Lan Wangji had so seriously suggested Wei Wuxian come look at his tower.

He felt both embarrassed as well as amused by it. Of course Lan Wangji would never get that saying a thing like that would be suggestive. Of course he would think it’s a completely normal thing to do. To flirt like that.

He thought about Lan Wangji flirting. How would a fuddy-duddy like that flirt, anyway? He refused to give Wei Wuxian the compliment he had asked for.

Maybe Lan Wangji just wasn’t the type of person to show his affection through words, either way. Perhaps he would rather show it.

Suddenly, he really wished he knew what Lan Wangji looked like.

Tapping his fingers against his stomach, Wei Wuxian imagined someone serious. Someone tall and handsome, whose fingers were long and slim. He knew Lan Wangji used a guqin for cultivation. He was likely adept with his hands.

And then he imagined that serious person saying, would you like to see my tower?

Wei Wuxian burst into laughter.

After he had laughed himself sick, he figured he might as well enjoy himself a little more. Ever since coming here, alone time had felt a bit risky. There were windows all around him, and the outdoor shower offered even less privacy. So he hadn’t really been up to much in the form of self-pleasure the entire time he’d been there.

It was late, too, and he could see the light in Lan Wangji’s tower had already been turned off.

He turned off his own before quietly pulling his pants off. The night was once again moonlit, clear and beautiful. He glanced at the transceiver quickly, before sliding his hand under the waistline of his boxers.

He had been restless. He needed some sort of stimulation, and out here, alone, this seemed like the best option.

Slowly, he pulled himself out, stroking at the hardening length. He tried to imagine someone else’s hand there, someone pretty. He was having a hard time with it. It wasn’t like he had much experience – none at all, in fact, no matter how he’d lied to Lan Wangji – but usually it wasn’t this challenging.

He closed his eyes, but could only imagine a voice.

His dick twitched at this, and a helpless moan escaped his mouth. A voice, lips against his ear. Telling him he was shameless.

Wei Wuxian gasped, as he tightened the hold around his cock. Heat was spreading over his cheeks, down his chest. He thumbed a nipple gently, and let out another sound.

Perhaps his eyes would be closed. Perhaps this person would tie something around his eyes, so that he couldn’t see, could only feel them and hear their beautiful voice.

Their hand around his dick, another one playing with his chest. Telling him how good he looked like this. Telling him how –

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji’s voice cut through the silence, sounding strangled.

Wei Wuxian opened his eyes, breathing heavy, face heating up even more. He swallowed, brought himself back to the moment.

He grabbed the transceiver and tried not to sound out of breath, as he responded, slightly too high, “Lan Zhan! What’s going on?”

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said, still sounding strange. “I – your transceiver.”

Weii Wuxian stared at the other tower. “Ahah, what – what about my transceiver?”

It took a long moment for Lan Wangji to spit it out, but when he finally did, Wei Wuxian’s heart might have stopped.

“It – malfunctions, occasionally. I could not let you,” Lan Wangji said, “continue.”

Wei Wuxian’s head felt suddenly very empty. His mouth went dry. So, that meant that…the transceiver had been on? That Lan Zhan had heard him just then?

“Since…since when did you listen, Lan Zhan?”

Another long pause. Then, “Since you laughed.”

Oh. Oh, the entire time, then.

Wei Wuxian was hot all over, face red and mouth open. And, worst of all, still turned on. No, maybe even more turned on. Lan Wangji had listened to him touch himself. He had listened.

And told him after he had been moaning for a while. Not after the first sound, but after – at least after half a minute. Maybe a whole minute.

He swallowed, before asking, voice hoarse, “Did you like to listen to it, Lan Zhan?”

Lan Wangji didn’t respond, and Wei Wuxian’s fingers found his dick again. He gasped.

“Wei Ying?” Lan Wangji asked, almost incredulous.

Wei Wuxian bit his lip, and kept stroking. “Lan Zhan, ah – ha, did it turn you on?”

There was no response again, but crucially – crucially, Lan Wangji did not tell him to stop.

“Did you imagine me on this bed, touching myself?” he gasped.

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said, “what are you doing?”

“What do you think I’m doing, er-gege?” he asked, moving his hand faster, rougher. The pleasure pooled in his stomach. “Do you want me to stop?”

Lan Wangji didn’t respond, and Wei Wuxian laughed breathlessly.

“You really refuse to say what you want, Lan Zhan.” The head of his cock was leaking, making the slide of his fingers wetter. He pressed himself tighter against the mattress, closing his eyes again. “Ah, ah, Lan Zhan, don’t worry. I know you like it – ah! I’ll let you listen.”

He imagined it again, that deep voice saying Wei Ying in that strangled tone. It had been flustered, hadn’t it? Lan Wangji was flustered. Wei Wuxian’s heart flutteredat how cute it was.

The sound of his hand around his dick was only slightly less loud than the sound of his moans.

“Lan Zhan, er-gege, are you touching yourself too?” he asked. “Are you, ah, are you thinking about me? Do you like how I sound?”

Lan Wangji was likely gritting his teeth together, angry. Was he touching himself? Would he?

The hot, molten feeling intensified in his stomach. How would Lan Wangji’s cock look? Wei Wuxian’s mouth felt wetter, now, as he imagined putting it on Lan Wangji. Wrapping his lips around the length of it. It would be big, wouldn’t it? Lan Wangji was so perfect in every other way.

The slide of his hands got more forceful as he imagined Lan Wangji getting mad at him about it. About Wei Wuxian wanting to suck his dick.

“Lan Zhan, I’m – ha, I’m imagining it’s your hand touching me like this,” he confessed. “Jerking me off, giving it to me good. Would you touch me like this?”

“Lower,” came Lan Wangji’s voice, and it sounded rough.

It immediately went to Wei Wuxian’s dick, both his hand and cock twitching, though he was uncertain what he meant. Did he mean Wei Wuxian needed to be quieter, or,

“You would, ah, touch me lower?” Wei Wuxian asked, voice shaky, and then had to bite his lip as to moan too loud, when Lan Wangji’s response came.

“Mn.”

Lan Wangji would – he would – down there? Wei Wuxian’s precum was spilling down already, between his thighs. He pulled off the boxers entirely, opening his legs with wildly beating heart.

He moved his fingers down gently between his cheeks. The thought was – his face was so flushed, he was so close to combusting. He touched at the sensitive skin of his hole, where Lan Wangji would touch him. Where Lan Wangji said he wanted to touch.

His moan was louder than before, as he circled the area with his finger.

“L-Lan Zhan, I’m touching it,” he groaned. “If you were here, I’d – I’d let you touch me there. I’d spread my legs for you so you could touch me, ah, as much as you’d want.”

Slowly, like afraid of how it would feel, he pushed a finger inside. It was tight, and the thought was both embarrassing and so incredibly hot in his mind.

Another moan, as he sunk the finger down to a knuckle. “It’s – ah, ah, it’s so tight, Lan Zhan, I’m so tight for you.”

“Wei Ying,” came Lan Wangji’s voice, and it sounded like he was shivering. In anger, arousal, something.

Wei Wuxian laughed, the thought of Lan Wangji being furious with him in the other tower somehow never not amusing to him. “Hahaha, Lan Zhan, do you – are you angry at me for turning you on? Ah, ha, Lan er-gege, I know you like to hear me moan for you.”

He didn’t get a response, so he merely made more sounds for Lan Wangji.

“Would you finger me, Lan Zhan? Ah – ah, haha, would you fuck me with your fingers, or with your tongue, or with your cock? Lan Zhan, are you big? I bet it’s so impressive, Hanguang-jun is s-so impressive with, ah, ah –“

Trying to fit another finger in, he furrowed his brows, trying to relax. He was so turned on that stopping the movement felt criminal, but he bet Lan Wangji’s fingers were bigger than his own, would make him feel fuller.

His dick was so, so red against his stomach.

“I’d let you do anything to me,” Wei Wuxian gasped, and when he managed to push the other finger in, the feeling of the stretch made him almost mad with arousal. “AH, Lan Zhan, L-Lan er-gege, I’d want it deep, I’d want you to fuck me until I can’t walk! Fuck me even if I scream.”

With a voice that was hoarse with emotion, Lan Wangji told him, “Mark your words.”

The promise of it, the threat, made the feeling bubble over. In a second, Wei Wuxian was coming all over his own stomach, two fingers thrusting inside of him. He let out a sound like he had never before, a sound that he could have never believed came from himself if he hadn’t been the one to hear it.

His legs were shaking, pulse going mad, when he pulled his fingers out and gasped for breath. His brain was not yet online, still bluescreening after the orgasm. He had never – there had never been a time he’d touched – and it felt like this?

With a shuddering exhale, he reached his hand for the boxers, and wiped his chest on them.

Ah. He’d have to go take a shower.

For a while, he only blinked away the black spots in his vision, catching his breath. The shirt was wearing was sticking to his skin because of the heat.

His eyes landed on the transceiver next to him, embarrassment slowly catching up to him.

Right. He had just, what, made Lan Wangji listen to him masturbate? It was fine. It was – well. He had made Lan Wangji an active participant, which made it more like phone sex, except that other party said almost nothing during the entire thing, and he was the one kind of initiating and presuming a lot.

Then again, Lan Wangji really would have told him to stop if he’d wanted, wouldn’t he? And he had said that he would touch Wei Wuxian – there. He had said it.

So, so maybe it wasn’t a complete disaster of a situation, right?

“Um. Lan Zhan,” he said then. Heart beating so loud he could almost not hear his own thoughts. “Did you, ah…did you come?”

It took a long while for Lan Wangji to respond, long enough for the air against Wei Wuxian’s bare skin to start feeling cool.

Then, “Mn.”

He didn’t know if it was relief that flooded him that moment. It didn’t take away the sudden shame, the absolute mortification of having done that so shamelessly just now, but it was…something, at least.

Had Lan Wangji gone along with it because it had turned him on to listen to Wei Wuxian? Had he thought it was as hot as Wei Wuxian did? Listening to Lan Wangji’s voice, imagining it in his head, was it really the same for Lan Wangji?

“That’s…that’s good, Lan Zhan,” he said then. “It was good, right?”

No response came, and Wei Wuxian’s insides did a little flip. Right. Right, he was getting too in on his head about it. When had Lan Wangji ever expressed any sort of interest in this type of thing? Lan Wangji would of course go along with it if he was turned on, but it didn’t really mean anything, did it?

Wei Wuxian was the one overthinking it.

“Wei Ying,” said Lan Wangji then, and Wei Wuxian tensed. “You said…”

He blushed furiously again, reminded of all the things he had just very loudly and carelessly blabbered.

Before giving Lan Wangji the chance to repeat what he’d said, all the embarrassing words, he quickly rushed to assure, “Haha, don’t people say all kinds of things when they talk dirty? Lan Zhan, you really shouldn’t worry about it.”

Lan Wangji’s silence was almost oppressive. Then, “I shouldn’t?”

“You really shouldn’t!” Wei Wuxian forced a grin, hoping it could be heard through his words as him being nonchalant about the whole situation. “The things I said, can’t we forget about them?”

After another long, painful stretch of silence, Lan Wangji responded, “I cannot.”

“Lan Zhan, don’t be unreasonable,” Wei Wuxian said, smile vanishing. “We are coworkers, aren’t we? So, so shouldn’t we try to, you know…”

He didn’t know what he was saying. Hadn’t he been the one to cross the line between professionalism and something else?

He wanted to know what Lan Wangji was thinking. No – he wanted to see Lan Wangji’s face, to see his eyes, to maybe understand what he was feeling right now. To see if there was maybe a chance they could – well.

Wei Wuxian didn’t know what he himself was feeling. He had said so many shameless things, and roped Lan Wangji into the situation with him.

“Lan Zhan?” he asked after a while, when no response came.

The man sounded tired when he answered with, “Sleep, Wei Ying.”

Ah. Alright. I guess that’s it, then.

Wei Wuxian stared at the ceiling for a few, long moments, before finally closing his eyes. He’d shower tomorrow.

-

The next day, the mood was off. It wasn’t that Wei Wuxian had expected to wake up to complete normalcy, but then, he hadn’t really prepared himself for this type of aftermath either.

Lan Wangji didn’t talk to him.

No, that wasn’t right either. Lan Wangji did answer him when he said good morning, and he did say he was doing fine when Wei Wuxian asked. And yet, the tone was strange, and there was an underlying tension that made Wei Wuxian feel like he had made a horrible, horrible mistake.

He hadn’t meant to. There had been a level of understanding between them, this easy companionship that made every day just that much brighter, since he got to talk to Lan Wangji.

That ease was gone now, and it was definitely Wei Wuxian’s fault.

Why had he said those things? He’d always had trouble shutting up when it came to certain matters, but his own feelings had never been something he’d put out there just like that.

Wei Wuxian thought about himself, moaning on the bed while telling Lan Wangji, I’d let you do anything to me. His face was red again, and he had to slap his hands against his cheeks to get away from those thoughts.

How could he have been that shameless?

Lan Wangji was definitely the type of person to take things like that seriously. He even said it himself, didn’t he? Only frivolous people would flirt without following through. Wei Wuxian had gone a full step beyond flirting, straight to the territory where just saying, “it’s harmless!” didn’t cut it anymore.

But the other option was to, what? Ask Lan Wangji to maybe take him out sometime?

And what would he do if Lan Wangji said no? He really, truly wanted the earth to swallow him.

Gauging out whether Lan Wangji was interested would be even harder now, wouldn’t it? After such a scenario, where they had already had intimate relations, and Lan Wangji had not agreed with him about how good it had been.

He had probably been dealing with the worst post-orgasm clarity ever.

And the transceiver – the traitorous, traitorous transceiver! He had looked at it in the morning, wondering if the button occasionally got stuck, but he didn’t think so. It must have been something in the wiring.

He would have taken it apart, had it not been so vital to be always available in case Lan Wangji needed him. Or if he needed Lan Wangji.

Now he kept glancing between it and Lan Wangji’s tower in the distance.

Finally, having gathered enough bravery, he pressed the button again. “Hey, Lan Zhan.”

After a moment, Lan Wangji responded. “Mn?”

“I just wanted to ask, since you said my transceiver sometimes malfunctions,” he said, sounding casual and normal and like he wasn’t dying inside. “Have you been hearing me before, unintentionally?”

“…Mn.”

“Right,” Wei Wuxian said. “So, if you knew, why didn’t you tell me before yesterday?”

Had he really been that interested in hearing Wei Wuxian whistle his way around the forest?

“I had not…realized, fully.” Lan Wangji’s voice sounded muted. “I thought you might have been doing it on purpose.”

“Until yesterday,” Wei Wuxian concluded.

“Yes,” Lan Wangji agreed.

Again, Wei Wuxian felt like he might have benefited from taking a dip in the cool pond. He would have, had it not been so close to Lan Wangji’s tower. Wei Wuxian didn’t need him witnessing his squirming right now.

“So, that’s why you knew Wen Ning was still with me that one time,” he guessed. “Lan Zhan, did you listen in on our conversation?”

“No,” Lan Wangji said immediately. “Only the last few sentences, before I called your name.”

“Ah, right,” he said. “Hanguang-jun wouldn’t be so dishonorable as to eavesdrop. It’s probably forbidden in your rules, too, isn’t it?”

“Mn.”

Wei Wuxian didn’t know how to continue, so he stayed quiet. And Lan Wangji, as was his habit, did not offer anything more to say either.

-

When evening fell, Wei Wuxian found himself restless once more. He did not know what to do with himself when his main source of entertainment was out of reach like this. Even he wasn’t so shameless as to bother Lan Wangji right now, and the solution last night – the one that had caused the entire situation – was definitely not viable.

So he walked around the deck, staring out into the forest, at the watchtower in the distance. Then he walked the stairs down, listened to the squeaking of them under his shoes. Then, after staring at the forest again, at the trees that rose high above him, he figured he might as well go looking for the thing again.

He had the transceiver with him, after all, so Lan Wangji couldn’t be mad at him.

As he walked, he tested if it was malfunctioning again, letting Lan Wangji know he was outside when he was not supposed to.

“Lan Zhan?” he said quietly, and then, when no response came, he shoved the thing in his pocket.

The forest had been a bit creepy after sundown the entire time he’d stayed there. For some reason, the sounds of it were always muted at night, and the ground under him was always a bit unsteady.

He didn’t hear spirits, though. Nothing out of place. No yaos nor ghosts nor walking corpses, and the sky felt as open as it always had, when he saw it through the tops of the trees. It was mottled with stars, right now, beautiful in its deep blue.

He twirled the flute in his hand, whistling like it was another one of his little walks. As if nothing embarrassing had happened and he still had a chance with Lan Wangji, even though he had made things painfully awkward for the both of them.

After a while of walking, he came to a clearing. He didn’t think he’d been there before, on that side of the hill. It felt more covered, a bit more hidden.

And Wei Wuxian immediately stumbled on something. He steadied himself, squinting at whatever it was at his feet. A carcass of a wild animal?

As his eyes adjusted, he realized what he was seeing.

It was a decomposing body, sword at its side. And missing one shoe.

“Oh.” Wei Wuxian’s hold on the flute tightened.

Looking around slowly, quietly, he pulled the transceiver out of his pocket. No time to play embarrassed now. They had a real problem to deal with.

“Lan Zhan? Haha, funny story – I went on a little walk, and I’ve located the guy who lost his shoe,” he whispered.

Only a second later, Lan Wangji’s steady voice answered, “Where?”

“Northeast of the spot where the signal firework came from the first day,” Wei Wuxian said, and then froze.

Red eyes, staring at him, from the other side of the clearing. Higher than he would have guessed, from looking at it from the tower last time. And now, finally, being clouded in strong resentful energy.

Not a yao, then. It had a corporeal body, so not a ghost.

“And I’ve found our culprit,” he said to Lan Zhan in a low voice, keeping his eyes steady on the prize. “You should hurry up.”

“Mn.”

He was cautious, this time. The thing, from everything Wei Wuxian could see of it, looked, felt, and sounded like a ferocious corpse. The way its body moved, the resentment, the posture.

Yet, ferocious corpses didn’t have pupils at all. And while right now, this thing was full of resentment, it had not been so before. Somehow it was able to mask itself, to become something else entirely.

One thing Wei Wuxian could tell, though, was that it was dead.

And dead things were his specialty.

He lifted the flute to his lips, looking at the thing. It had not moved at all, only stared back at Wei Wuxian with unblinking eyes. So Wei Wuxian played for it, a high, eerie melody.

The music played with the resentful energy, tried to get a hold of it. Dance for me, it said, and yet, the thing did not dance. It did not move, react, care. It appraised Wei Wuxian from where it was, and Wei Wuxian appraised it back.

For a moment, he could only frown at it, deep in thought.

And then, he stopped playing. He had looked lower, lower at where its stomach was. Within it, a soft glow, like a candle wrapped in a layer of skin. Energy, Wei Wuxian realized, and then froze completely.

This was not a ferocious corpse. This was nothing Wei Wuxian had ever seen before.

It was a monster, certainly, but not the type that any cultivator would go after alone. Perhaps not even in a group, if there was a chance it could get them.

Within its stomach, spiritual energy. Stolen, devoured, taken from cultivators it had gutted and disposed of. Hiding the resentment with the energy that was supposed to heal, energize, center. It was trapped in its form, not affecting it.

This thing was a nightmare.

A nightmare that only Wei Wuxian could deal with, because he had nothing it could want.

He pulled the transceiver closer to himself, saying frantically, “Lan Zhan, do not come! This thing, it eats spiritual energy– do not –“

In a blink of an eye, the corpse was lunging at him. Wei Wuxian leaped out of the way, his hold on the transceiver slipping. It dropped on the ground, into the overgrown grass close to the corpse of the cultivator.

“Wei Ying?” he could hear Lan Wangji’s voice through it, but he had no time to stop and respond.

Wei Wuxian started playing again, dancing out of the way of the corpse’s attacks. Behind the thing’s back, the one-shoed cultivator pulled itself up. It followed the call of Wei Wuxian’s music.

It wouldn’t be enough, Wei Wuxian knew. He would have to lure this thing closer to his tower, closer to the burial grounds that were in the other direction. In the meantime, the cultivator let out an ear-piercing scream, attacking the thing’s back while it was focused on Wei Wuxian.

He played and kept dodging, one step at a time getting closer to the woods, closer to the path.

Now, the thing being at such a short distance from himself, Wei Wuxian could understand it better. It was not a completely mindless thing. There was intention behind its eyes, consideration. It had attacked when Wei Wuxian had told Lan Wangji to not come – so it wanted Lan Wangji here.

Before, it had clearly gone after what it still considered easy prey, which meant lower level cultivators. Golden cores, but nothing that could be a threat.

Wen Ning, in his tower. Not Lan Wangji.

But then, this thing had grown since that. It had probably fed on another cultivator. Tall, lumbering, monstrous thing with an appetite for an energy that was supposed to be lethal for beings of resentment.

So Wei Wuxian kept playing, stepping back, stepping to the side, twisting out of the way while the cultivator corpse dealt little damage to the one attacking him.

He could imagine this thing being a tough opponent for a weaker cultivator. It was too fast and strong, too quiet when it stalked its meal. Wei Wuxian felt disgust looking at it.

A few more steps back, and they were within the woods again. Wei Wuxian readied himself to call an entire graveyard of corpses to devour this one, to make sure it would never be a threat again.

“Wei Ying!” the voice of Lan Wangji cut through the noise, voice steady and audible even through the music and the roars of the corpses.

Wei Wuxian’s blood froze.

He had come? He had still come?

He couldn’t stop playing, couldn’t pay attention to Lan Wangji, because just then, the thing also noticed Lan Wangji. The massive, powerful golden core of him.

In a flash, multiple things happened consecutively. A flash of white fabric, appearing in front of him with the flare of a spiritual sword. The thing, somehow able to evade the blade and reach toward the one in front of him, the one standing between him and the thing.

Lan Wangji, who did not realize –

Who did not understand that Wei Wuxian –

No, no, no, no, no, no –

Without thinking for a second, purely on instinct, Wei Wuxian pushed Lan Wangji out of the way and took the hit to his own stomach, the sharp nails of the corpse digging into where his golden core used to be.

He heard a scream, and it might have been his own.

And then, another flash of light, another loud noise.

Wei Wuxian lost consciousness.

-

There was warmth on his face. That’s the first thing he felt, the warmth against his cheek, softly stroking.

Then, the ache in his muscles, the pain in his abdomen. Someone next to him. Someone’s hand on him.

With a soft exhale, he opened his eyes. A bright room, flooded in sunlight from all sides. The sky was shades of golden and orange. Was it morning?

Then, he met the gaze of light-colored eyes, so serious and yet, for some reason, lined with red. As if he had cried. The face – the most beautiful thing Wei Wuxian had seen in his life, delicate and aloof – was as expressionless as it could be, but the eyes were endlessly sorrowful.

“Wei Ying,” the handsome person said with a familiar, deep voice.

“Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying responded, blinking away the tiredness. The soreness.

Oh, it was Lan Wangi’s hand on his cheek, his body settled by Wei Wuxian’s side on the bed. Leaning over him, looking at his face.

“You really are very handsome, do you know, er-gege?” Wei Wuxian blurted out, and Lan Wangji’s thumb stroking his cheek stilled.

The man closed his eyes for a moment, as if pained. Then, “Wei Ying, your – I am so sorry. Your golden core.”

Oh. Wei Wuxian felt it, then, the other hand on his stomach. Lan Wangji’s long finger splayed out against the – oh, bandages? Had Lan Wangji bandaged him?

He no doubt was feeling the emptiness, the lack of a golden core where there should have been one. Wei Wuxian recalled his first time feeling it, the horror like melting ice down his spine. It had felt so utterly wrong.

His heart ached, suddenly. The situation before he’d fallen unconscious flashed in his mind, and he realized now why Lan Wangji looked so upset.

Wei Wuxian let out a shaky breath, grabbing Lan Wangji’s hand. The man blinked, but did not pull away.

Holding his gaze, Wei Wuxian said, “Lan Zhan, please don’t be upset. It didn’t take my golden core.”

“Wei Ying –“ Lan Wangji started, though Wei Wuxian didn’t give him the chance to continue.

“If I tell you something, Lan Zhan, you absolutely cannot share it to anyone, alright?” he said. “Lan Zhan, promise me you won’t tell a soul.”

A line appeared between his eyebrows, as perfect and symmetrical as the rest of him. “I promise.”

Swallowing, Wei Wuxian nodded. Then, with the lump in his throat unmoving, he said,

“I had no golden core to begin with.”

This, at least, seemed to give Lan Wangji a pause. The man looked at him, face slack with an emotion Wei Wuxian could not identify.

“How?” the man asked then.

He was likely thinking of Wei Wuxian’s reputation before he’d started cultivating the ghost path. The most gifted disciple of the Jiangs, always ready to show off his skills with the sword. Strong, powerful golden core. How could it be possible?

“What I did last night, pushing you away, I had already done to Jiang Cheng, years ago,” Wei Wuxian said. Words that he’d promised himself never to tell anyone. To never let anyone know. “There was a cultivator, working for some people that had a problem with our sect – and he, well. He had the ability to melt a person’s core.”

Lan Wangji’s eyes lit with recognition – he had likely heard of this cultivator. Of the situation back then.

“Jiang Cheng was already so weak after fighting, he was close to passing out, and he didn’t realize I took the hit for him,” Wei Wuxian continued. “So he doesn’t know – nobody knows. No one. Lan Zhan, I was in no danger there with that thing, I was –“

Suddenly remembering the thing, he pushed himself upright. “Lan Zhan! The corpse, what happened to it?”

Pulling away, as if all that Wei Wuxian was saying was too much, Lan Wangji responded, “It is gone.”

“You killed it?” Wei Wuxian let out a breath of relief, closing his eyes. “You killed it. Ah, Lan Zhan, you are so reliable. I shouldn’t have worried.”

Of course Lan Wangji was able to kill it, especially when Wei Wuxian had distracted it like that. How many strikes had it taken? Two? Three? Wei Wuxian could imagine how the situation had unfolded after it. Lan Wangji, chopping the thing’s head off, then carrying Wei Wuxian to safety with concern.

Had he thought he’d been at fault?

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said, voice thick with some sort of an emotion. “You should not have done what you did.”

“What?” Wei Wuxian turned back to look at Lan Wangji. “What do you mean? Of course I had to do it! Lan Zhan, it could not have done anything to me, and you could have – you could have lost your golden core.”

“It could not have done anything to you?” Lan Wangji asked, looking at the bandages he’d tied around Wei Wuxian. “You had to do it?”

His throat felt dry. “Lan Zhan…”

“…” Lan Wangji said nothing, only shook his head as if to himself. The man got up, then, stood in all of his grace. Lan Wangji’s posture was straight and effortless. The shirt he was wearing did not have one wrinkle, not one speck of dirt on its whiteness.

He really was a sight to behold.

It was Lan Wangji’s tower, Wei Wuxian realized. The bed didn’t creak under him. Everything was spotless. The books on the shelves were evenly placed and neatly ordered. There was no clutter anywhere. On the desk, Lan Wangji’s black guqin. Next to it, Wei Wuxian’s flute.

“I’m sorry,” Wei Wuxian said, a bit nonsensically.

Lan Wangji shook his head again, back towards him. “No need. Please rest.”

Wei Wuxian settled more comfortably against the mattress. He did feel tired. The pillow under his head was soft, comfortable. Lan Wangji really did live in luxury compared to him.

Wei Wuxian smiled to himself. It made sense, after all.

His eyes followed Lan Wangji as the man went to the little gas stove by one of the windows. He took a kettle, and carefully, meticulously, started boiling water. Wei Wuxian’s gaze moved from his strong back to his arms, no doubt made of lean muscle under the soft cotton of his shirt. The Lans were known for their arm strength.

It felt right, the way Lan Wangji looked like. Very little expression, very serious, very him. It made Wei Wuxian feel a little giddy, like he might just start laughing.

God, what a couple of days they’d had.

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said then, turning to look at him from the corner of his eye. “Your cultivation…it is out of necessity.”

Wei Wuxian blinked. “Hm? Yes, it is. I mean, of course I’d rather carry my sword around and fly everywhere like you, but it’s not an option anymore.”

There was a contemplative look in the pale eyes now. “Many would understand your chosen path, if you let them know.”

He exhaled slowly. “And let Jiang Cheng also know what happened? No, he would be truly upset. Even more than he is now.”

“You will bear it alone, then?” Lan Wangji asked, a bit sharp. His eyes were still lined with red, the long lashes shivering.

Wei Wuxian smiled at him. “Am I alone, Lan Zhan?”

For this, Lan Wangji turned fully around to face him, his face unreadable yet eyes searching.

“You know,” Wei Wuxian said, and then felt like he couldn’t meet those eyes, turning instead to fiddle with the bandages. “I had never told anyone about that. We now share a big secret between us.”

The wound under the bandage ached. Lan Wangji moved back to him and placed his palm over Wei Wuxian’s hands, stopping the restless movement. It felt warm.

Wei Wuxian dared a glance at him. “Making sure I don’t ruin your handiwork? You did patch me up nicely.”

“Wei Ying, I…” Lan Wangji started. There was the look in his eyes again, the one that made Wei Wuxian feel a bit like he needed to distract himself.

Lan Wangji opened his mouth. The kettle chose this moment to start whistling.

Letting go of Wei Wuxian’s hand, he moved back to the stove to move the kettle off the burner. Wei Wuxian immediately missed that warmth of his touch, and then felt shameless for thinking it.

He watched Lan Wangji make them tea, serious face focused on the process of it. He truly was impeccable to look at.

When a cup of steaming tea was handed to him, he lifted himself up to his forearm. Surprisingly, his abdomen didn’t hurt. Perhaps it had been only a surface scratch, the nails not digging deep enough to leave lasting damage.

It had bled, and the wounds ached, but it probably hadn’t truly injured his muscles. Silver linings, and all that.

The tea was fragrant and mild, a flavor Wei Wuxian imagined was popular with the Lans. Lan Wangji sat down by the bed again, his own cup in his hand. He watched as Wei Wuxian took careful sips, trying not to burn his tongue.

“What?” Wei Wuxian asked at some point, when Lan Wangji had not stopped staring.

“You look as I imagined you,” the man stated.

Wei Wuxian flashed him a grin. “Handsome?”

Lan Wangji only sipped his tea, and did not respond. Wei Wuxian laughed. So, he didn’t deny it then.

“Well, you too, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian said. “No wonder you had to disappear into the woods, having to shoulder all the attention. I’m now actually amazed anyone let you.”

He was given a look, an admonishing one he’d imagined as a permanent fixture on that face ever since getting to know him. It made him smile against the rim of the cup.

Wei Wuxian finished his tea, felt it carry heat from his throat to his stomach. Lan Wangji clearly didn’t hate him. He clearly didn’t think badly of Wei Wuxian.

And at this point, was there really anything else he could ask for?

-

At one point, he fell back asleep. Not because he was so injured, of course. Lan Wangji put some sort of healing ointment on the wound, and it did not even look red after it.

No, it was mostly about staying up for most of last night, and the night before that. He needed a long nap to make up for it. So he shamelessly hoarded Lan Wangji’s bed as the man himself silently filled out some sort of a report, as dutiful as expected.

Hours later, when the sky had turned blue and the air inside got too hot for extra layers, Wei Wuxian finally woke up. He immediately kicked off the blanket, before fully even realizing where he was.

Then, when he opened his eyes, he noted Lan Wangji looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

Wei Wuxian pushed himself up into a sitting position, yawning. The wound didn’t ache anymore. The bandage had stayed blissfully white, which meant that he hadn’t bled either.

“Lan Zhan, should we go swimming?” Wei Wuxian asked. His long pants were too much for the weather. He needed shorts.

“No,” Lan Wangji responded with his usual tone. “Risk of infection.”

“I risked the water ghouls and you think I wouldn’t risk infection?” Wei Wuxian asked, dragging himself up from the bed. He stretched languidly, until Lan Wangji sent a glance his way, which reminded him that he was not actually wearing a shirt.

It would have been completely normal, if there hadn’t been the whole transceiver sex thing having happened between them so recently. With a light flush, he reached for the only black garment around him, which had to be his t-shirt.

It was, with a torn front.

He tossed it aside. Lan Wangji would have to tolerate his naked nipples.

“If you need something to wear, I have spare clothes,” Lan Wangji said, when the shirt hit the floor.

“It’s too warm for clothes anyway,” Wei Wuxian stated, going to where Lan Wangji was writing something at the desk. “The report?”

“No,” Lan Wangji responded. “Finished it.”

“Then what are you writing? A journal entry?” Wei Wuxian looked over his broad shoulder, but Lan Wangji covered the paper with his hand.

“Wei Ying,” the man chastised.

“What?” Wei Wuxian leaned over more, trying to see. It seemed to be a letter. “Oh, er-gege, are you writing a love letter? I have almost been gutted, and you’re here writing romantic prose?”

“Ridiculous,” Lan Wangji told him, catching the hand Wei Wuxian reached out to grab the paper.

“Fine, fine!” Wei Wuxian said, pulling back. “Keep your secret love letters!”

He waited for a second for Lan Wangji to lower his guard, before he made a fast move back towards the paper and snatched it from under Lan Wangji’s relaxed hand.

“Wei Ying!”

Wei Wuxian danced away from Lan Wangji’s reach, laughing. “Hahaha, let’s see who you’re –“

He read the words on the paper, the smile fading. He stopped moving entirely, eyes stuck on the letter. Because it was a letter. To – Lan Xichen?

I am writing to inquire about the formation of golden core in adulthood. Are there any ways to speed up the process?

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said carefully. “I was not intending to reveal your status.”

Wei Wuxian blinked at it, the letter, then Lan Wangji. “I know. I know you’re – not like that.”

Lan Wangji nodded. “I assumed you have searched for a solution by yourself, but perhaps there is something in our sect’s library that could help.”

Something warm spread in Wei Wuxian’s chest, his throat suddenly very dry.

He coughed a laugh. “You’re just too good, Lan Zhan.”

In the past few years, he could barely remember a time when someone had treated him like this. Perhaps no one ever had. Lan Wangji just really was that type of person, wasn’t he?

He handed the paper back, clearing his throat. “Well, I’ve been working on it. It takes time, even for someone like me. And I’ll never get back to the point where I was, but it’s at least something.”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji agreed.

“Don’t feel too bad for me, either, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian said then, smiling again. “I’ve gotten by just fine so far, haven’t I?”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said again. Then, “Wei Ying.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“…” Lan Wangji looked at him. “Put a shirt on.”

Looking down at his own naked chest, Wei Wuxian started laughing again. Right, of course. Perhaps Wei Wuxian would have been able to continue the shamelessness on his own, but this was Lan Wangji he was with.

He turned towards one of the chests that had to be for clothes, intending to find one wrinkled shirt to ruin with his summer sweat.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said. “I’m really too shameless with you, aren’t I? Lan Zhan, it’s because you’ve made me feel too comfortable. When was the last time you called me frivolous?”

When no response came, Wei Wuxian turned back to look at the other man. Lan Wangji was gazing at the sky, the blue with the white clouds.

Ah.

He suddenly felt the situation at its entirety. The weeks of teasing. A night, where they’d been so intimate with each other. The next one, where they’d fought something nightmarish. And now, the conversation about his golden core.

How was Lan Wangji handling all of it?

“Ah, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian said, drawing the man’s attention back to him. “You know I…I meant to apologize to you.”

Lan Wangji’s eyebrows lowered slightly. “Why?”

“For the other night,” he said, and willed the blush to stay down. He didn’t think it worked. “For the entire…well. You know. I never meant to make you uncomfortable, or take advantage.”

For a while, Lan Wangji stared at him.

“You did not,” he said then. “Wei Ying. I listened to you first.”

God, and wasn’t that a thought? Wei Wuxian pushed on. “I know, but you told me you couldn’t let me continue, but then I…did.”

“That is not…” Lan Wangji paused for a moment, before he cast his eyes. “I had to. Stop you. Because otherwise, I would have flown to your tower.”

Wei Wuxian’s heart fluttered, the heat on his face intensifying. No way was Lan Zhan really saying that –?

“To stop me?” he asked, and Lan Wangji gave him a look, almost annoyed.

“Wei Ying,” he said. “Do not play stupid.”

Something flipped in his stomach, and it might have been something good. Because surely he was understanding this correctly? Surely he was hearing the words right?

“But you didn’t,” Wei Wuxian said, “fly to me. When I continued.”

“A test of my self-control,” Lan Wangji responded. His eyes looked so dark, suddenly, even in the brightness of the room. “One I almost lost multiple times.”

The thought of Lan Wangji in this tower, listening to Wei Wuxian, thinking about taking his sword and flying to him, to – to do the things Wei Wuxian had described? To touch him where Lan Wangji had wanted to?

“You should have come,” Wei Wuxian said, before he could stop his mouth.

Lan Wangji was so still at that moment, he could have been a statue. “Wei Ying. Do not joke.”

“You said it yourself – only frivolous people flirt without following through!” Wei Wuxian said. “Lan Zhan, haven’t you said many things just now? Where’s the follow-through?”

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said, and it sounded like the start of a rejection.

Wei Wuxian panicked. He hadn’t even properly said what he wanted yet! Lan Wangji hadn’t even heard him out!

Letting go from the last of his hesitations, Wei Wuxian stepped forward. “Lan Zhan, Lan Wangji, I really wanted you to come to me that night too!”

Eyes wide, Lan Wangji stared at him.

“And – and it’s not because of I was bored or horny, or anything like that,” Wei Wuxian said. “I just really like you a lot. So before you reject me, you should –“

He didn’t get the chance to finish the sentence, before Lan Wangji had gotten up and caught him in his arms. In a second, soft lips were pressed against his.

“Hng –?”

The kiss intensified, Lan Wangji drawing him closer, and all the worry, all the concern and embarrassment over the entire thing melted away.

Lan Wangji, despite being the most terribly prudish person he knew, was a good kisser. It felt intense in all the right ways. Lan Wangji’s mouth against his, the arm around his bare waist and another one in his overgrown hair.

Wei Wuxian pulled the man closer by his neck, gasping against the lips. He felt a little light-headed.

“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian sighed against his mouth once they separated for air. “Since when did you want to do this to me? How many times did you want to shut me up like this, when I annoyed you?”

Instead of answering, Lan Wangji only backed him against one of the windows. Wei Wuxian’s shoulders hit the reinforced glass, and he couldn’t help but gasp in surprise.

He grinned. “Hanguang-jun, what are you doing? Isn’t this a bit shameless? Anyone could look up and see us!”

It was unlikely, since they were in the middle of the forest, and pretty high up at that. But Lan Wangji’s eyes were dark, and his ears bright red, and the hold he had of Wei Wuxian’s waist was getting tighter and tighter.

“Wei Ying.” The look Lan Wangji leveled at him was fervent. “What you said, that night…”

“I meant all of it,” Wei Wuxian admitted. “I was trying to save face afterwards. But Lan Zhan, if you want me, I meant all of it.”

The hands against his skin shivered. Lan Wangji got closer, not breaking eye contact. Staring at him like he dared Wei Wuxian to joke right now.

“Spread them,” Lan Wangji said, then, tone low.

Wei Wuxian blinked, confused. “Spread what?”

“You said, you would spread your legs for me,” Lan Wangji reminded him with an even voice. “Spread them.”

A hot flash ran through Wei Wuxian’s body, like electricity down his spine. His face heated up even more.

“L-Lan Zhan! Who taught you to say things like that?” Wei Wuxian asked.

Instead of responding, one of Lan Wangji’s hands dropped to his waistband, fingers dipping underneath it. Against his skin. Pulling it down.

Wei Wuxian squirmed, but understood the order. With rushed movements, he helped Lan Wangji get rid of his pants, and didn’t even feel self-conscious about the obvious, growing hard-on that was revealed. Lan Wangji looked at it, looked at him, more shamelessly than Wei Wuxian had expected.

Then, with the hold back on his waist, Lan Wangji easily turned him around. Wei Wuxian’s hands took support from the window.

“Lan Zhan! This is how you treat an injured man?” he squawked, head swirling back to give Lan Wangji an accusing look.

The man did not meet his eyes, too busy looking at Wei Wuxian’s backside. The hands traveling down his sides were making Wei Wuxian shiver despite the heat. He gasped, when Lan Wangji spread him open to look at his hole.

“Lan Zhan, what are you doing, just staring at it?” Wei Wuxian said. “Do you need directions? I’ll tell you what to do, since you look so lost!”

Immediately he was given a glare, but instead of taking up on Wei Wuxian’s offer, Lan Wangji, for some reason, started pulling off his forehead ribbon. Confusedly Wei Wuxian watched as it came undone.

He’d heard something about it being important to the Lans, but nothing more when it came to details.

“What is it, er-gege? Afraid your ribbon will get dirty?” He asked, grin spreading on his face again. “I’d be more worried about your pan – ngh!”

Before he could fully react, Lan Wangji had caught his face in a grip, forcing his mouth open. And then, the terrible man took his forehead ribbon and – and tied it around Wei Wuxian’s mouth. Gagged him.

“Hnh hnn!!” Wei Wuxian attempted to say, outraged, through the white fabric digging into the sides of his mouth. It was already getting wet with spit.

He could have pulled it off easily with his hands, but, regrettably, it was turning him on.

“Mn.” Lan Wangji tilted Wei Wuxian’s head by his chin. “Better.”

“Hnhg, hnhh!” Wei Wuxian said, before Lan Wangji let go of his face to turn his attention back to where it had been earlier.

He was being spread open, then, with the hands that Wei Wuxian had seen working so methodically at the stove, making tea. With the same amount of reverence, two of Lan Wangji’s fingers pressed against his hole.

Wei Wuxian choked. His dick twitched as the pleasure of the touch spread all over him. He’d never been sensitive like this, so easy. Maybe it was the fact that he was under Lan Wangji’s hands, attention, not allowed to speak nonsense, only there to take what Lan Wangji chose to give him.

Leaning to his side, to the desk drawer, Lan Wangji pulled something out. Wei Wuxian’s head didn’t turn enough to see what, but he was too busy pressing his forehead against the glass, trying to even his breath. How was he so turned on when he had barely been touched?

The sound of a cork popping open, then, after a second, a cool liquid was dripping against Wei Wuxian, on Lan Wangji’s fingers.

“Hh – hng!”

Lan Wangji’s fingers started rubbing his hole, around it, giving a bit of pressure with the slickness of the lube. His other hand was holding Wei Wuxian’s hips up with an iron grip.

And then, the finger pushed in. Wei Wuxian moaned, eyes squeezing shut, as the feeling of Lan Wangji’s finger filling him made his entire body shudder. He’d known it would be bigger, would make him feel fuller.

And then it started moving, and Wei Wuxian would have said something to make Lan Wangji do it faster, rougher, but Lan Wangji had taken that option from him so now he had to only endure it. Yet, it took entirely too little time for Lan Wangji to inch in another one, the stretch suddenly too tight and too rough, even with the lube.

“Hnh hhn!” Wei Wuxian groaned, turning to look over his shoulder again.

Lan Wangji’s eyes were so, so dark, red-rimmed, fully concentrated on watching his own fingers thrust in and out of Wei Wuxian. A flash of heat came in a wave through Wei Wuxian. Lan Wangji looked almost wild.

Then, the man’s fingers pulled out of him. Wei Wuxian moaned at the loss almost as much as he’d done at the intrusion. Lan Wangji, however, immediately distracted him by pulling down the front of his own pants, which is when Wei Wuxian saw –

“NNH!” he protested, eyes wide. Lan Wangji didn’t have a cock, he had a third leg! And he was planning to put it in Wei Wuxian!

But when Wei Wuxian made to pull away, Lan Wangji’s grip on him tightened, only dragging him back, lining his monster of a cock against his hole. With his other hand, he’d lubed it up, making it even more terrifying.

Wei Wuxian’s dick was so hard against his own stomach he would have been sure all of his blood had navigated there, had his face not been so impossibly hot. He drew in a shaky breath.

And then Lan Wangji started sinking in, and Wei Wuxian’s knees buckled. Lan Wangji caught him, both hands at his hips now, slowly pushing in like every moment he held back was painful.

The sound Wei Wuxian made was so loud it likely carried over the entire forest.

Almost on instinct, he tried closing his legs, stopping the intrusion into his body that was just entirely, wholly too much.

“Wei Ying.” Lan Wangji’s voice was low, shivering. “Spread them.”

Wei Wuxian wanted to curse his past self! Why had he said all that nonsense again? Did he want to die? Lan Wangji was going to kill him! Death by dick! His entire body was shaking so much that if it weren’t for Lan Wangji’s hold on him, he would have already fallen over.

Yet his legs were more loyal to Lan Wangji than himself. As he relaxed his posture, gasping for breath, Lan Wangji bottomed out, hips against his ass. He was so deep, Wei Wuxian couldn’t help the desperate moan.

Lan Wangji was inside of him. He had taken Lan Wangji fully inside of him. He should have been more scared for his insides, but the thought was making him almost feverish with want.

Leaning over him, palms sliding against his back to his waist, Lan Wangji started moving.

This is when Wei Wuxian started truly wondering if he was going to die. Every movement, every thrust, forced a sound out of him, bringing tears to the corner of his eyes. Lan Wangji fucked in the way that was fitting for his personality. Unyielding, intense, and punishing.

With every move, Lan Wangji pushed him against the window, and Wei Wuxian’s palms left prints on the surface of it. When Lan Wangji leaned closer to bite into his shoulder, Wei Wuxian cried out. It was a mix of pain and pleasure he had never felt before.

Relentlessly, like he truly wanted him to never be able to walk again, Lan Wangji pushed into him, again and again.

At some point, Wei Wuxian tried to beg for mercy, but through his gag it was impossible to enunciate anything but broken moans and whines. Lan Wangji did not change the position, only drilled into him from behind with rough, fast movements. His endurance was entirely too much.

When Wei Wuxian was already whimpering, barely keeping himself up, Lan Wangji finally started fucking into him with more erratic movements.

Mercy, er-gege, Wei Wuxian wanted to cry, and then, come inside me, come inside, don’t let anything spill out, and then, never stop fucking me, fuck me until I can’t stand up anymore!

Instead, he moaned and pushed back against Lan Wangji’s thrusts, trail of spit spilling from the corner of his mouth, hands shaking against the glass. He was completely ruined.

And when Lan Wangji finally shook, forcing himself deeper into Wei Wuxian than he’d been before, Wei Wuxian cried through the fabric of the ribbon a muffled loop of Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, and only barely caught the cum he was spilling into his own hand instead of the window in front of him.

With his support now halved, Wei Wuxian’s only saving grace from face-planting himself against the glass was Lan Wangji’s strong arms that pulled him back, closer against him. Both of them high on pleasure that was slowly fading, they tried to catch their breaths.

With the hand that was not holding a palm-full of cum, Wei Wuxian pulled the wet ribbon out of his mouth, gasping.

“L-Lan Zhan! Lan Zhan, kiss me,” he said immediately, ribbon hanging around his neck.

Without need for more words, Lan Wangji pulled out and turned him around, immediately drawing him into another kiss, sweet and intense and breathless.

Wei Wuxian’s chest was so full, mind foggy with the high of Lan Wangji’s regard, he could do nothing but bask in the feeling and kiss Lan Wangji back. He let the man pull him up, instinctively wrapping his legs around Lan Wangji.

“Lan Zhan, I like you so much,” he confessed again, when their mouths finally separated. “I can’t believe you fucked me so good, and didn’t even let me say anything! When did you become this type of man, Hanguang-jun?”

Lan Wangji’s eyes were still dark, looking up and down his face, from his eyes to his red, kiss-swollen mouth.

Then, like the demon he was, Lan Wangji pressed him back against the window. Wei Wuxian’s eyes widened, as he felt the dick that should have been soft at this point, poke at his hole again. Fully hard.

“Lan Zhan – surely you don’t want to go again?” he said.

“Think of what you said,” Lan Wangji only replied, and slid right back in.

Wei Wuxian yowled as this horrible, ruthless man started pounding him again with no remorse. Against the window, still. With so much force Wei Wuxian would have hit his head, had he not caught a hold around Lan Wangji’s shoulders.

“L-Lan Zhan, ah, Lan Zhan! Can’t you forget what I said? If you fuck me like this, h-ha, I really won’t be able to walk! AH! N-no, Lan Zhan, why did you get harder? Lan Zhan!!”

-

“Hm, Lan Zhan, I have terrible news,” Wei Wuxian said into the transceiver. “The water is cold. I will not be able to swim.”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji responded.

Wei Wuxian stood up from the squat he had been in, shaking the water off his hand as he turned to look at Lan Wangji’s tower. “Lan Zhan, this is terrible. You can’t go swimming with me!”

“I will endure,” Lan Wangji responded wryly.

“I can’t believe you would say this,” Wei Wuxian bemoaned. “First you lock me in your tower for weeks to have your way with me, then you refuse to feel remorse for making me miss my chance to swim!”

It was true, after all. For weeks, now, they had spent most of the time inside Lan Wangji’s tower, only ever going out when someone was passing or they wanted to go a little bit further away from the towers to night-hunt.

During that entire time, Wei Wuxian hadn’t had the chance to go swimming. They’d been getting used to each other’s physical beings, now that they could finally see each other. And feel. And touch.

Wei Ying couldn’t lie and say he was honestly upset about it.

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said. “It was my fault.”

“So you admit it, then? Lan Zhan, if you behave this way, shouldn’t I go back to my own tower?” Wei Wuxian looked at where he assumed Lan Wangji was watching him, and pointed an accusing finger towards him. “You have been giving me so many punishments for my shameless behavior, yet you’re only ever rewarding yourself!”

“Do you want to go back to your own tower?” Lan Wangji asked.

“What else do you suggest?” Wei Wuxian said sadly. “There has to be consequences for your actions.”

“Mn. I will come swim with you,” came the response.

“What? But Lan Zhan, it’s so cold!”

Lan Wangji’s voice was very serious, when he responded, “The Cloud Recesses have a cold spring. I am used to it.”

“Oh?” Wei Wuxian gave a thoughtful look at the pond, the turned back to the tower, just in time to see Lan Wangji step on his sword and start descending towards Wei Wuxian.

Soon enough, Lan Wangji was leaping next to him from the height of a few meters, gracefully as ever, and sheathed his sword. Every time Wei Wuxian got to stand next to Lan Wangji, nowadays, he would feel a flash of warmth in his chest.

He was truly in deep, wasn’t he?

“Lan Zhan, why do I have the feeling you are not at all remorseful, still?” Wei Wuxian asked, stepping closer to Lan Wangji.

The man gave him a terribly soft look, before catching his wrist in a hold and pulling him closer.

Wei Wuxian let himself be pulled, as he narrowed his eyes in mock suspicion. “Hold on, Lan Zhan, you wouldn’t have just agreed to swim with me to get me naked again, would you?”

Lan Wangji did not lie, so he only leaned in to give Wei Wuxian a kiss. And, well, Wei Wuxian was very easy to succumb to temptation.

They did not make it to the pond.