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]

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."