"Lan Zhan? Do you know? When you finally decide 'this is it; I'm done', your whole world starts to get really quiet. I could hear the blood pumping through my veins louder than the battle going on around me. I could hear each tear drop as it fell of...
Lan WangJi smiled all day. Not that anyone noticed; his face and body externally remained as impassive as always. But inside, where only his brother and lover might notice, he was laughing and smiling and dancing with joy. Wei WuXian was alive and here and in love with him. And as long as those three remained true, the rest of the world could burn and Lan WangJi would be happy.
He had woken up at five, as he always did, but not in his usual sleeping position. Instead of lying flat on his back with his hands crossed on his chest, he had woken up on his side, left shoulder and arm numb from supporting Wei WuXian's sleeping head for the last few hours. They lay with their legs entwined, upper arms around the other's waist and pressed tight against the other's bare back. Normally he would immediately get up and get ready for the day; wasting time lying in bed was against Lan rules.
This, however, wasn't wasting time.... This was pure and simple enjoyment. Twenty years of wanting and waiting and hoping and dreaming were over. He slowly slid his arm out from under Wei Ying's head and untangled their legs. As he sat up, Wei Ying flopped over to lie on his back, arms and legs askew. Even more slowly, Lan WangJi pushed their blanket down, exposing skin rarely touched by sunlight. He hadn't taken a good look the previous night; he had been far more interested in touching and being touched than looking. One fingertip, long callused from playing the guqin, archery, and swordplay, reached out and lightly traced a pair of matching criss-crossing scars on Wei WuXian's lower left abdomen. The older scar, silvered and smoothed by time, given by Jiang Cheng in their mock duel. The newer one, healed but still red and angry looking, given by Jin Ling. The finger traveled over rectangular hills and ridges on the abdomen. Muscles that were more defined now than they had been a few months ago. He ached to slide his hand down, to push those trousers off, but he controlled himself. There was plenty of time for that later. He would respect that Wei Ying had wanted to have his lower half clothed while they slept. So his finger traveled upwards instead, tracing ribs that were too defined. He's too thin.... He let his palms rest gently and lightly on firm pectoral muscles, not rubbing, not intending to stimulate the nipples there. He could feel himself getting hard as he remembered laving those nipples with his tongue just a few hours before, feeling them pebble up in response, biting them gently with his teeth, hearing Wei Ying's gasp of pleasure, tasting salty sweat. There were more silvery marks to trace on his torso and arms, some thin and most likely made by swords and knives. A few thicker ones curving around his sides, Zidian's whip marks perhaps. A few that looked like they might be teeth marks... permanent reminders of why Wei Ying was so afraid of dogs. He left the Wen brand for last; Wei Ying had joked through the pain after getting that one. But the mark was altered, as if someone had rebranded him over the scar. Did the Wen do that when they captured him? He could well picture Wen Chou smiling that sadistic smile as Wang LingJiao wielded her branding iron over the still healing flesh.... Reluctantly, he withdrew his fingers away from Wei Ying's skin. They both had work to do in the morning; play time would have to wait.
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Wei WuXian was accustomed to being stared at. And gossiped about. It was almost a daily occurrence growing up in Lotus Pier simply as a side effect of being adopted by the Sect leader and the rumor that he was Jiang FengMian's bastard child. Any and all of his antics just added fuel to an already existing fire. And it became more wide-spread after his accomplishments at the end of the SunShot Campaign and then becoming the notorious Yiling Patriarch. But he had expected the normally reserved Lan to be better behaved than this. Especially since a prohibition against gossiping was number something or other in their 4000 rules. Granted what they were staring at was an unusual situation even for Wei WuXian. Having cleared multiple bins of scrolls and removed more than a dozen books from their shelf in the library, he needed to find a way to carry them all back to the Jingshi. He decided the easiest way would be to wrap the scrolls in his sash, slide SuiBian's rope handle through one end, and then tie the sash ends over one shoulder, and carry the books in his arms. This left his outerrobes flapping freely as he walked, exposing his red underrobe and trousers. And on top of that, he had bathed and washed his hair after his training session with ZeWu-Jun, and his hair still hung tangled and wet down his back, gathered only by a simple leather tie at the nape of his neck. All the important body parts were covered, but.... Who knew that such a sight would be enough to warrant all the eyebrows being raised and tongues wagging?
