Fluffy WangXian Oneshots Book Two

The Beauty And Melancholy Between

MDZS GOTCHA FOR GAZA PROMPT #198

For @WanderingNomad2

Prompt #198: Post- Canon WangXian family playing with bunnies, maybe LWJ and LSZ teaming up to bury a giggling WWX in bunnies or smth.

THE BEAUTY AND MELANCHOLY BETWEEN

There is a life, and there is a death, and there is beauty and melancholy between - Albert Camus

Wei Ying feels the warm kiss upon his forehead and too soon, it is gone. His eyes will not open, heavy with sleep as they are. It is the rain that wakes him, pelting against the roof of the Jingshi with a vengeance, the sound of it thrumming with a matching beat in his ribcage.

Too early, his mind says, listening to the comforting pitter patter outside, away from him who is warm and dry. He drifts in a haziness of dozing and awake, the twilight of all consciousness like a soothing blanket around his shoulders. He lies there for hours and thinks about the coming day.

He has nothing planned for today. It is one of those lazy days, and he laughs to himself because his beautiful husband would be the first to admonish him, telling him that Wei Ying worked too hard every day, and he must learn to listen to his body. Lan Zhan hates it when Wei Ying is unkind to himself.

Hours pass by and then Wei Ying sits up in bed, the blanket a cocoon against the chill of outside.

The rain has become somewhat friendlier now; rather than torrents slapping the ground, it begins to sing, lulling him back to sleep as he watches the drops falling into puddles, a mesmerising sight.

This mood becomes a mantle on his shoulders later when he rises from his bed to wash up for the day.

Lan Zhan joins him for his breakfast time, lunchtime for everyone else.

They sit and eat quietly and Wei Ying hopes that his state of mind will not be remarked upon; there's no way he can explain how he feels because even he does not understand it. But he needn't have worried; Lan Zhan knows him better than anyone.

Once they finish eating, Lan Zhan collects their dishes and pauses. He bends to kiss the top of Wei Ying’s head, a touch to comfort him instead.

Wei Ying’s melancholy does not leave him.

He waits until Lan Zhan leaves and then messes around with talismans and arrays, but his heart is not in it, and he retires to the window to watch the rain.

Except…there isn't any.

The clouds have moved away and left the skies a vivid blue, a hazy sunshine drenching everything he sees in tea colours now, such a vast change to the greyness of the dull morning. And yet, Wei Ying cannot say in good faith that he prefers this scene out of his window now.

There's a knock on the door and Wei Ying, who doesn't feel like getting up, yells out to whoever it is to come in, if they wish to.

It is A-Yuan.

Still the same happy child from his youth, and yet…he is different. Now, that name does not fit him as well. He might be A-Yuan in Wei Ying’s heart forever, but the A-Yuan of now has become Lan SiZhui, son of Hanguang-Jun. Lan WangJi.

This boy was sent to them when they needed him the most, and if they kept him alive at different times in their lives, then certainly, he repaid the favour with interest.

SiZhui comes and sits beside him by the window, waiting for a welcome that will forever be his. He sits quietly too, sensitive to those around him.

The seconds pass dutifully into minutes, and they in turn, dance into hours. Together, the father and son watch the shadows lengthen as the afternoon begins to wane.

“I was wondering,” SiZhui says, after a while.

“Mn?” Wei Ying has been leaning his cheek on his own raised knee, and he lifts his face to look at him.

SiZhui smiles at the crease decorating his father's soft skin. “It is time to feed the bunnies. Will you come with me?”

Wei Ying looks into his hopeful face and sees the child that used to be, the one that taught him how to fly when he was feeling sad, all those years ago. The same smile that had the power to move mountains and part seas, the one that Wei Ying was hopelessly weak for. He would do anything for this little boy.

He looks around the Jingshi and sees traces of himself, nestled into the nooks and crannies of this home and sharing it with Lan Zhan. He has a space here, a welcoming home, a loving partner and a loyal, wonderful son.

“There is no reason I should feel this way,” he tells SiZhui softly.

“Why do we need a reason, Baba?” A-Yuan asks him, innocently wise. “Shall we go?”

He helps Wei Ying up and makes sure to cover his shoulders with an extra cloak. Up here in the mountains, it is only warm while the sun shines, evaporating into a chilly mist by the evening when they will return. He doesn't want his father to get ill.

There's a basket of vegetables outside on the porch which SiZhui picks up as they leave. Wei Ying can see leafy carrots and sweetcorn cobs snuggled against lettuce and coriander and it cheers him up.

Tiny colourful wildflowers nod their heads in his direction, approving his decision to leave the four bland walls of his home in favour of the bold outdoors. Slowly but surely, the lightness returns to his gait as they walk into the meadows of the bunnies.

“Are there more?” Wei Ying asks, seeing the small fluffballs hopping from place to place, some of them flopping onto the ground to expose their soft bellies, others munching on the damp grass.

SiZhui nods and extracts the blanket he stole from the Jingshi to lay it on the green grass, inviting Wei Ying to make himself comfortable. Wei Ying flops down upon it, feeling marginally better.

He urges SiZhui to dump the vegetables and lie down next to him, but his son is far too diligent to abuse his task like that. SiZhui waits until he has patiently fed all the bunnies, making sure they all get a fair share, and then he puts the basket aside and stretches out next to his father.

The warmth of their bodies and the last dying rays of the sun help to lull them to sleep, the breeze a sweet caress over their faces as if making a motherly promise to protect them.

**************

Something is tickling his nose.

Wei Ying keeps his eyes closed while he tries to figure it out. His nose scrunches up automatically, and he hears a faint, hushed giggle. There's a blanket…? On him?

And it seems to be moving, but it's warm and comfortable and then Wei Ying hears a voice whisper, “let's pile them on!”

“Mn.”

So his faithful husband is complicit in this mischief?

Before Wei Ying can make another sound, suddenly the weight on his chest increases and he must open his eyes because both his darling husband and their favourite child are gathering bunnies to pile on top of him.

And Wei Ying cannot help himself, he's a weak man when it comes to either of these two making an effort to enjoy themselves, something he wishes they would do more often. The laughter bubbles up inside him until it won't be suppressed, and when a bunny innocently wiggles its fluffy butt under his nose, Wei Ying loses it.

His laughter rings out and echoes in the valleys nearby, bouncing off the unyielding mountains with joy. The bunnies scarper, bounding away because of the sudden joy, and Wei Ying’s chuckles turn into helpless giggles as his family try to do it again.

Exhausted now, Wei Ying spreads his arms and his legs like a starfish, tears of happiness leaking from his eyes and he feels grateful for his loving family.

Feelings come and go, and all throughout, here is his patient family giving him time and space to deal with it. Their foundation is built on the strongest pillars of love, and they will never let him forget it.

“How is Wei Ying feeling now?” The deep voice of his husband stirs a longing in his heart, and makes him shiver with joy.

“Much better now,” Wei Ying says, and he smiles to prove it.