How (not) to buy a couch

DAY 15 - late afternoon

It took one and half hour before the doorbell rung. It took one and a half hour for the movers to get the first out of the two pieces of the couch upstairs. Lan Wangji briefly wondered what had taken them this long. Even when he and Wei Wuxian had been moving their fridge, they did not take that long, third of the time actually and they were not professional movers at all.

Nevertheless, he opened the door and watched as the older mover – still without his respirator on, apparently he was not about to wear it even when stepping into their apartment which Lan Wangji considered very rude but had to tolerate for the sake of getting the couch installed – came around him and started inspecting their hall.

He briefly looked at the rabbits' enclosure, taking it into consideration apparently. The animals were hiding, they did not like the noise or the strange scents too much. The mover even asked, slightly curious: "Is this for guinea pigs? I have guineas at home, they are cute."

Lan Wangji did not deem him worth the reply. They had taken too much time getting upstairs and he wanted them to continue with their job and instead, the mover seemed to wanted to start a leisurely conversation. Before he could tell him off, Wei Wuxian stepped in, smiling at once. It looked like the mover's interest in their pets had actually helped him calm down his nerves and get back to his overexcited mood.

"No, those are bunnies. They are hiding now; they are a bit shy. But I assure you, they are equally cute, if not more." Then, as if he only thought about it at that exact moment, he added: "Please be careful to not step into the enclosure or hurt them."

The older mover smiled back and reassured: "Of course not! We cannot disturb those innocent souls."

Then he proceeded to go inspect the living room, moving a piece of furniture to the side in the process. Apparently, they had not cleared everything out of the way properly. He looked around the room and nodded to himself. He turned around and went to join his colleague who was still standing in the hall outside of the apartment.

He however stopped just short of going through the door. He watched it carefully for a whole minute and then approached it and without as much as a word of warning, he lifted it up. He got it out of the hinges and put it to the side.

Lan Wangji was glaring at him and when the man realized that, he shrugged his shoulders and said, not that much apologetically: "I will put it back again afterwards. It will be easier like this." Perhaps it would, Lan Wangji did not doubt that, but the mover could have at least asked before doing it!

Lan Wangji had had just enough of all of this stalling. He wanted to get things over with quickly so he would not have to tolerate the presence of strangers in his and Wei Wuxian's private space. Not only that, there was still danger in case any of the workers was infected without knowing it. He just wanted to have his peace and that could be accomplished only with their new couch being in their living room and him and his lover cuddling on it without anyone around.

His voice icy, he warned the movers who had just started to push the couch through the door. And push was the right word. The younger worker was standing on the side of the door and squeezing the headrest's fabric towards the inside so the other mover who was pushing from back could get it thought the door.

"Be careful, our ceiling is low due to the apartment being just under the roof."

The movers did not seem to be paying any attention to him so Lan Wangji repeated his warning. It was then that the younger mover's head lifted slightly to look at him and he nodded distractedly. But at least he acknowledged it, that was good. Lan Wangji did not want to find himself with a hole through the plasterboard of which the ceiling was made.

Afterwards, he turned around and took hold of his lover's hand and dragged him toward the living room. He noticed with how much horror Wei Wuxian had been watching the movers push the couch through the door. His lover did not need to see that; he was stressed out as it was already.

Wei Wuxian was standing in the middle of a bare looking living room, waiting for the movers to get their couch there. He had seen enough and his heart was full of worry for their new piece of furniture. He could only hope that the couch would survive all that pushing and squeezing and would be fine in the end.

He held onto Lan Wangji for emotional support. This was all stressing him out greatly and he just wanted it to be over. It was taking way too long for every single move.

Suddenly, there was a loud noise and one of the workers – probably the younger one – swore. Without even thinking what he was doing, Wei Wuxian flew out of the living room and right into the hall, he was immediately checking what had happened. At first, he could only see that the younger mover had one of his legs inside the rabbits' enclosure and was balancing dangerously to avoid falling inside the cage.

Wei Wuxian held his breath. He knew Lan Wangji would not take it well if any of the bunnies would be hurt. Luckily, the man managed to regain his balance and quickly stepped out of the enclosure without damaging it. He had only scared the fluffy animals.

The second thing which Wei Wuxian noticed only because the older mover was looking up at the ceiling, was a long and deep scratch in the plasterboard. It was not a hole through the whole thing, but it was close enough to one. And it certainly looked horrendous. Wei Wuxian almost wanted to cry, if because of regret for their newly painted ceiling or because of anger, he could not tell, perhaps it was both at once. He would not have been this bothered if Lan Wangji had not just warned the movers to be careful.

And the worst of all? The younger mover just shrugged his shoulders when he noticed Wei Wuxian's horrified and angry expression and he dismissed all the words which were coming to Wei Wuxian's mouth: "Ah, sorry about that I guess. We will deduct the price for the repair from the amount you will pay for the moving."

Wei Wuxian was left completely speechless. He was just standing there, not knowing what to do or how to react anymore. He could not even tell if Lan Wangji was by his side or not. The movers did not mind him at all and just continued to push the couch into the living room, soon coming out of it for the second piece.

It all happened to me, I am not joking, it was a traumatic experience. The hole in the ceiling is still there as it is not so easy to fix :'(