For Wei Ying - Courting Take Final

[lan_wangji]

Wei Ying knows something is up. He is, in general, observant to detail when it suits him but Lan Wangji has made no effort to try and hide that this evening is special.

For one, Lan Wangji is leaving the house after 8pm, a sure sign that he is prepared to break his 9pm bedtime routine. For another, he is flying Wei Ying into the city voluntarily with vague promises of a surprise but a very exact timeline to meet, of which Lan Wangji has spent the better part of the evening trying to get Wei Ying to adhere to.

Wei Ying is even more distractible when he is excited about something.

He tightens his grip on Wei Ying's waist as they fly, the night air blessedly cool after yet another atrociously hot day.

Comments

[yiling_laozu]

Restless on the sword, Wei Wuxian might have stepped off a half dozen times already if Lan Wangji weren't holding him so tightly. It's late by Lan Wangji's standards, and not only are they leaving home but going into the city proper. It's all so intriguing that Wei Wuxian cannot stand still.

He turns, winding his own hands around Lan Wangji's neck to occupy them. "Lan Zhan, ah, Lan Zhan," he sighs. "My handsome, mysterious darling. Where are we going, eh? Is it a night hunt?" Wei Wuxian grins. "Are we going to the beach that makes us old?"

[lan_wangji]

Lan Wangji keeps as tight a grip as he can around Wei Ying's small waist as he squirms in Lan Wangji's hold to press closer, apparently not at all concerned with the idea of plummeting off the sword.

As if Lan Wangji would allow it.

"No. Surprise is not taking Wei Ying to a beach where he will grow old," he mutters, pinching Wei Ying's side for the ridiculousness of the suggestion. "Ought to take Wei Ying out after dark more often," he says half to himself. It is a little worrying how surprised Wei Ying was at the announcement. Lan Wangji ought to try harder in that regard.

[yiling_laozu]

"Ah, but it's so intriguing," Wei Wuxian sighs. "It must be a curse, but I can't decide if malevolence is more likely, or if there was simply a lingering sadness there that became resentful. We won't know, of course, until we investigate it ourselves."

He pauses, watching Lan Wangji's face in the dim light, but it remains impassive. Not the beach, then. "And you cannot take me out more often," Wei Wuxian continues. "Lan Zhan needs his rest. I already keep you up well after dark when we're indoors," he adds with another, sharper grin.

[lan_wangji]

Lan Wangji hums, ears warming as there is no lie in what Wei Ying says. There have been many mornings when he has woken after only hours of sleep and found it difficult to rise in the dark of morning. He hopes, in fact, that tonight proves to be such a night. He hopes for a lifetime of them.

"The effects do not seem to linger, regardless of the upset it seems to cause," he says, eyebrow raising at the idea of Wei Ying determined to investigate the place. "Are you curious as to what I will look like when I am old? What if it not to your liking?"

[yiling_laozu]

Wei Wuxian sniffs. "How could I see you old, Lan Zhan?" he asks. "Your cultivation is far too high for anything as mundane as aging." Lan Wangji will remain as he is - beautiful and strong, if anything, growing more pristine over the years. It's Wei Wuxian who will fade with time.

The thought is perhaps too sobering while standing on the flat of a blade, and Wei Wuxian abruptly switches tack. "You would be very handsome, of course, with hair as white as your robes. The Lightbearing Lord indeed."

[lan_wangji]

"Could never be as beautiful as Wei Ying," he argues, meaning it with every part of him. There is no face on Earth, certainly including his own, that could be seen as fine as Wei Ying's. He drops a quick kiss on Wei Ying's red cheek before angling Bichen down, lights and buildings underneath their feet swiftly giving way to the lush green of the park and river.

He drops them down in the same spot he'd first seen Wei Ying, across the river but unable to fly towards him, too injured and exhausted and utterly relieved.

"Do you remember this place?"

[yiling_laozu]

"The river," Wei Wuxian answers promptly. His memory is a funny thing, often able to recall every word of a scroll he's read yet little else about the day, even if something extraordinary happened, but Lan Wangji has asked him particularly.

He cocks his head. In the early days of Darrow everything had ached from the backs of his eyes to his heart to the ravenous hollow of his core, but he thinks he recalls a distinct pain here. Not his own, but Lan Wangji's. Ah - the stripes on his back. Ah - "I found you here!"

[lan_wangji]

Lan Wangji barely suppresses a huff at Wei Ying's first, enthusiastic reply but gives a pleased nod when Wei Ying manages to remember. He knows it is not Wei Ying's fault, some terrible mix of trauma and the Yin Iron but it is painful, sometimes, when he is unable to remember details that Lan Wangji holds so dear.

He casts a quick charm to ensure the grass next to the river is dry and tugs Wei Ying down, sitting neatly. "Wei Ying appeared and I was alive, again. You were a miracle. Are a miracle."

[yiling_laozu]

Lan Wangji would not enjoy the deflection of his sincere words, and so Wei Wuxian swallows the instinct, aiming a flushed smile down at his lap instead. Next to him, Lan Wangji is sitting neatly, and he folds his sprawled limbs in to match.

"I'm glad you pulled me from the burial grounds," he says. "I liked it there, but I like our home so much more. And I like the person there who makes it home."

[lan_wangji]

Lan Wangji chooses not to comment on how strange it is that Wei Ying enjoyed living in a burial ground at all, focusing instead on Wei Ying's proclamation of happiness with his home and his partner.

"Like our home as well. Like the person there with me. Wei Ying, I know our courtship was not traditional. I knew little of the process and know little of romance. You have not been disappointed in it?"

[yiling_laozu]

"Lan Zhan." The statement is so ridiculous he wants to laugh, but Lan Wangji is so earnest he reaches out and cups his cheek instead. Is that what this is? Some well-meaning yet deeply unnecessary apology for Lan Wangji's supposed courting failures? "I never expected to be courted at all." That is a life meant for other, more deserving people like his shijie. "And now I have been courted by a Jade of Lan, and, far more importantly," he says, lips quirking, "My dearest friend and only soul mate."

He thumbs the smooth skin beneath his fingers. "No other soul courted could possibly be happier."

[lan_wangji]

Lan Wangji lets out a relieved breath, turning his face to kiss Wei Ying's palm, hand reaching into his sleeve to pull out two boxes, one familiar and one yet given.

"Have two more gifts for Wei Ying, but want to do this first," he says, pulling the jade hair pin out of it's box. "Let me put your hair up. Know you did not have your guan li, want to do this for you. Would be a privilege."

[yiling_laozu]

The curious expression on Wei Wuxian's face as the boxes emerge drops away, replaced by stunned surprise. His guan li. He put away the idea of ever having one so long ago that he's forgotten to mourn it. His father is long departed, but Jiang Fengmian would have done this for him, if only death had not taken him, too. The rite should be impossible, but now Lan Wangji sits before him, poised to do it instead.

Wei Wuxian holds very still, only daring to nod to allow Lan Wangji to continue.

[lan_wangji]

He offers up a small bow of thanks and moves to kneel behind Wei Ying, fingers gently combing through the wind blown waves and undoing his ribbon. He looks forward every evening to the way Wei Ying's hair tumbles over his shoulders when it is undone. He adores that it is as unruly as his Wei Ying is but tonight, Lan Wangji needs it tamed.

He smooths and separates the pieces as he gathers Wei Ying's hair to the top of his head, baring his slender, pale neck. He does not know the preferred style for the Yungmeng Sect for such a ceremony so he tries a modified version of what he'd had. It is simple, lacking the braids or intricacies of other Sects, but as pieces cross over each other, he thinks it will do Wei Ying justice.

It is hardly protocol, but he cannot help but pause to kiss Wei Ying's now exposed neck, just once.

[yiling_laozu]

It isn't as if his hair is never up. He gathers it into a topknot when he swims, and sometimes when he works in the lotus pond, but this feels different. Wei Wuxian can't help but shiver as more and more of his neck is bared, feeling every whisper of wind and Lan Wangji's breath like a touch. His neck isn't the only thing feeling oversensitive, and Wei Wuxian swallows, willing suddenly raw nerves to quiet. Of course he must become a man before he is wed, but he hadn't expected that to be tonight, and he hadn't expected to feel quite so much.

"Ah, Lan Zhan," he says, summoning his widest smile yet to hide the way his eyes are overbright. "How do I look? I must be even more handsome than before."

[lan_wangji]

He shifts yet again to sit in front of Wei Ying, trying to take in such a stunning sight without losing his composure entirely. His fingers brush along Wei Ying's perfect cheek as he takes a fortifying breath. "Wei Wuxian is the most beautiful thing ever created," he states.

"Grows more beautiful all the time. It is difficult to endure."

[yiling_laozu]

At times Hanguang Jun is so beautiful and blunt and sincere that all Wei Wuxian can do is blush about it, and he does so now, gazing at his achingly lovely face until he has to look down at his hands instead. "Thank you for this, Lan Zhan," he says, looking up again.

"But your family isn't here, either. Should I do yours, also? I didn't bring anything, I didn't know we'd be doing this."

[lan_wangji]

He shakes his head and picks up the second, smaller box. "Had my guan li at the appropriate time," he says, remembering the day with no fondness as his thoughts had been fully occupied with Wei Ying's safety at the time. "Wei Ying can do mine at our wedding, if Wei Ying would agree."

He extends his hand with the box, forcing himself to calm, to do this as properly as he can manage. "If Wei Ying would agree to marry."

[yiling_laozu]

"If I - " Wei Wuxian looks between the box and Lan Wangji's outstretched hand, taking the box and then curling their fingers together. "Of course I agree to marry, Lan Zhan." He's still a long way away from feeling as if he deserves this man, but Wei Wuxian is past doubting Lan Wangji's regard for him. He loves him as desperately and completely as Wei Wuxian loves him in return, and Wei Wuxian is often a fool, but not so much that he would turn down the best possible version of his own life.

He laughs, though not unkindly at the nervous expression on Lan Wangji's face. "I would marry you right now."

[lan_wangji]

Lan Wangji lets out a relieved breath, not having thought Wei Ying would deny him but rather that Wei Ying would not be happy somehow, either out of issues of self-worth or of Lan Wangji's method of courting. But he looks relaxed, happy, entirely his Wei Ying.

He squeezes Wei Ying's hand, nodding down towards the box. "You must accept the gift to complete the courting," he insists, wanting it finished in the right way, with all the ceremony that Wei Ying deserves. "Then we are betrothed."

[yiling_laozu]

"Then I accept it," says Wei Wuxian, though it's a moment more before he looks away from Lan Wangji's pleased face to fiddle with the latch of the box. It opens beneath his fingers, and Wei Wuxian's mouth drops in surprise. Inside is a bracelet made of finely woven leather strands, their beauty overshadowed at once by the jade lotus blossom set in the bracelet's center.

"A lotus," Wei Wuxian murmurs, stroking the petals until the jade is warmed by his skin. "Where did you find it, Lan Zhan?"

[lan_wangji]

"Same merchant who had carved the pin," he answers, relieved yet again that Wei Ying does not seem in any way disappointed with his final offer. Asked him for this."

He wraps a hand around Wei Ying's bony knee, dropping a soft kiss to Wei Ying's forehead. "Asked him to carve this. A piece of home to carry as I carry mine."

[yiling_laozu]

"It's beautiful," Wei Wuxian says. "I thought the pin would be the loveliest thing I would ever own, but now this is." He closes his eyes for the kiss, wondering in the brief darkness if this is truly his life and not a dream yet to be torn from him.

"Will you put it on me, Lan Zhan?"

[lan_wangji]

He nods, glad for the distraction as he steadies himself, as it settles in his mind that Wei Ying is his, will be his. Wei Ying wants to be bound forever to him.

He knots it carefully in snug space between Wei Ying's wrist and the end of his gauntlets rest. "We will be married," he murmurs, lips twitching as he looks back up at Wei Ying. "I am your betrothed. My Wei Ying. Thank you."

[yiling_laozu]

Wei Wuxian turns his wrist this way and that, pleased by the way the jade shines in the dim light. He looks up with a grin, then climbs right into Lan Wangji's lap. "My betrothed," he murmurs, enjoying the way the word feels in his mouth.

"My betrothed is so thoughtful," he says. "And so handsome. If the cultivating world knew what I have stolen, they'd come after me with even more men."

[lan_wangji]

Lan Wangji happily wraps Wei Ying up in his arms, squeezing his small waist as he leans in to nip at Wei Ying's jaw.

"There was no one else who desired me in that way nor did I want anyone but Wei Ying," he argues as he kisses down Wei Ying's pale throat. "I have won the prize. The most clever and most lovely of men. You make me happy."