The Weifengshi felt like home. The cool refreshing air, the babbling brook, the way the stones in the yard crunched under his boots. It was a home he was itching to leave; Lan Wangji was supposedly meditating in his own home not too far away. Wei WuXian gently patted the white messenger bunny as it delivered a message: 'I will see you at dinner. I miss you.' "I miss you, too, Lan Zhan," he sighed and looked towards his little house. The back doors were wide open; Lan QiRen was inside, calmly sitting at the dining table drinking tea. Taking a deep breath to center himself, Wei WuXian walked into his house. "Lan Xiansheng," he bowed at exactly the appropriate depth for a suitor meeting his beloved's parent.
"Wei WuXian."
I would offer you tea, but I see you've already made yourself at home. He wanted to say it. Insulting the man who needed to bless his marriage was probably not the correct approach. So instead he placed Suibian in the sword stand and went to sit on the opposite side of the table. "Is the tea acceptable? I'm afraid I haven't been here long enough to check to see if it is stale."
"I brought fresh tea for you," Lan QiRen regally nodded at a box. "I understand you find our normal teas unpleasant, so I had this one specially ordered."
Wei WuXian bowed again as best he could. "This one appreciates Lan Xiansheng's efforts."
"Does this one?" Lan QiRen poured them both a cup, but didn't take a sip. "Are you determined to marry my nephew?"
"Yes."
"Even if I decline to give my blessing?"
"Lan Xiansheng... a marriage is simply a vow between two people. We dress it up with ceremonies and games, but at its heart? Lan Zhan and I have made our vows to each other already. We hope for harmony in our marriage. If you say you forbid us from having the handfasting ceremony, we can't stop you. If you say you forbid us from making our bows next spring, we can't stop you.
"However." He firmed his voice. "We are already married. With or without your blessing, we will remain married. Also, we have Jiang ZongZhu and Lan ZongZhu's blessings and signed betrothal agreements; the ceremonies will proceed as arranged."
Lan QiRen's eyes narrowed. "Even though being a cut sleeve must be an embarrassment to your parents?"
Wei WuXian gripped his tea cup so hard it cracked in his hand. "There is nothing I have ever done in my entire life that would have embarrassed or shamed my parents. My parents would have wanted me to be as happy in my marriage as they were in theirs."
"Being a cut sleeve makes you happy?"
"Lan Zhan makes me happy." Wei WuXian carefully placed the destroyed cup on his table. "I make him happy. He is my zhiji." He looked into the grandmaster's eyes. "We will handfast tomorrow morning with or without your blessing. We will make our bows next year with or without your blessing."
Lan QiRen poured himself another cup of tea and blew across the hot beverage. "So fierce in your disrespect for your elders. Just like your mother."
Wei WuXian glared at the grandmaster. "I could have shown you nothing but respect since the day we met and I think you would still have treated me as a troublemaker because you hated my mother. I hope whatever she did to you was worth your continued ire almost twenty years after her death!"
"She shaved off my beard!" Lan QiRen roared.
Wei WuXian stared in shock, then struggled to not burst out laughing. Looking at his shaking body, the elder frowned, "It's not funny."
"Of course not," Wei WuXian snorted, holding his convulsing stomach. "Not funny at all. This small one is sure Lan Xiansheng's beard was something to be proud of before..." He couldn't contain his giggles anymore; he nearly fell over laughing. "Before my mother shaved it off," he wheezed. "I agree, Lan Xiansheng... you absolutely cannot give your blessing for your nephew to marry the son of the woman who shaved your beard off."
"Ridiculous," the older man sighed. "You make me sound ridiculous."
Wei WuXian swallowed his giggles as best as possible. "I thought she'd done something unforgivable. Like flirted with you while knowing she was going to marry my father. Or tried to kill you."
"Tried to kill me? It would have been less humiliating if she had.
"Your mother had a reputation for flirting with everyone she met. Same as you. Until she arrived at our lectures that year and met Wei ChangSe. She was beautiful and talented and at least half of the boys were hoping she'd look at us with some sort of interest. The ways our classmates tried to attract her attention?" Lan QiRen's eyes were soft, focused on those memories.
"Even you?"
"Me? I have never had any desire to wed. I might have broken my self-imposed vow had she deigned to look my way, though. She thought I was pompous and too full of my own self-importance." His eyes cleared. "You're very much like her, you know. I can see why WangJi loves you."
"Lan XianSheng... will you please give us your blessing to marry?"
"As if it matters to you whether or not I do? Seeing as how you're already married and going through the rituals because you have the blessing of your sect leaders?"
"Lan Zhan would very much like your blessing. So... it matters to me."
Lan QiRen sighed. "If I had the ability or desire to deny my nephew anything he truly wanted, you would never have come here to heal after the battle at the Nightless City." He pulled out a box from his sleeve. "You will need this for the handfasting ceremony tomorrow morning. It's yours to wear when you're here." He pulled a green ribbon out of another pocket in his sleeve. "You will tie that ribbon on his wrist. Watch carefully." He took Wei WuXian's left arm and began winding the ribbon around it in an intricate pattern. "You're going to be doing this to him at the same time he's putting his on you. So watch the rhythm. When done correctly, it's a beautiful dance." He unwound the ribbon. "Again. Watch.." He repeated his actions, Wei WuXian memorizing the pattern. Then he removed it. "Your turn to practice." Wei WuXian tied and untied the ribbon over and over until he had the pattern and tempo perfect.
Lan QiRen stood up and shook some of the wrinkles out of his robe. "Wei WuXian.... I consent to your marriage with Lan WangJi. May your lives together be blissful. May your love last until you both pass away."
Dinner came too fast and yet not fast enough. Wei WuXian sighed at his bowl of rice and the platters and bowls of bland vegetables and tofu. "I forgot to bring chili oil," he whined to his table mates.
Jiang WanYin smacked his shoulder. "You're the one who wants to marry into GusuLan."
"I'll die of starvation!"
Jiang YanLi smiled gently. "A'Xian... you only have to spend half the year here. Less than that because of night hunts. I'm sure even you can remember to buy chili oil at some point?"
"Or you could learn to cook," Jin ZiXuan muttered as he slurped his bowl of medicinal soup. "I forgot how bad the food is here."
"I don't remember seeing you in the dining hall during the lectures," Jiang WanYin narrowed his eyes at his brother-in-law.
"One of my disciples was a pretty good cook," Jin ZiXuan looked like he was refraining from sticking his tongue out. "We had to buy some herbs and spices from the market each week, and he wasn't allowed to cook meat.... But other than that, he fed us very tasty meals."
"I should have let Wei WuXian punch you in the face more often," Jiang WanYin grumbled. "Engaged to my sister but you wouldn't even share food with us?"
"ChengCheng...." Jiang YanLi chided. "You weren't on speaking terms. How could he invite you?"
"A simple, 'do you want to eat food that has flavor?' would have sufficed," Wei WuXian stabbed a chopstick into a rather wilted radish and held it up. "I didn't know it was possible to make these things taste even worse than they normally do. I'd be impressed if I wasn't horrified."
"Don't play with your food."
"I'm not hungry." Wei WuXian stood up. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Dear readers.
I've been procrastinating, stalled on the wedding day events because....
Eventually I have to decide what to do with Jin GuangYao. Whether to kill him off in battle, or execute him, or let him escape to Japan? if there's a battle, do any of my heroes/heroines not survive? And then there's A'Yuan.... Do I leave him with Granny and Wen Qing? I have like 10 different scenarios running through my brain, and I'm not really happy with any of them. The one that **feels** the best is... heartbreaking. Which I don't want to write, honestly.
Of course, now I have my WQ and JYL alter-egos in one corner of the boxing ring holding hands and saying, 'you know that's what should happen.' And WWX trying to shove himself into LWJ in the opposite corner, crying and yelling 'no! I can't go through that. Don't make me. Make it so everyone gets a happy ending.'
Argh!
Thank you for reading and commenting.
- Aitch.