WHO Wei Wuxian & Lan Wangji WHERE The Jingshi WHEN This morning, April 27th WHAT Wei Wuxian wakes up with uh, something extra. STATUS Complete! WARNINGS It’s a little heavy, some mentions of canon death and losing a part of one’s self.
Waking up in the Jingshi had become common for Wei Wuxian. He was settled, he was comfortable. He slept like a starfish against Lan Zhan, the two of them going out of their normal comfort zones to comfort each other throughout the night. Sometimes there were nightmares, sometimes it was simply just want.
He almost always woke up after his partner, though. Wei Wuxian liked to lounge in bed, looking like a tasty treat or being lazy, for a good half hour before he rose, if afforded as such. There were some mornings when he was on his way out to the Burial Mounds or work and he couldn’t afford the extra time, but on lazier days…
Well, if he could convince Lan Zhan to join him again, it was considered a win.
But this morning was different. This morning didn’t have that kiss of the sun through a shaded window, the warmth touching the back of his neck, the soft noises of Lan Zhan moving around the jingshi, preparing tea or breakfast.
This morning was almost violent, early and everything Wei Wuxian hated. His eyes opened with a familiar feeling of pain, like a fist closing around his core. The pain was brief, however, as the fist was removed.
Leaving behind a warmth in his chest that he hadn’t felt in a long time.
Wei Wuxian stilled in bed, gasping for air. “Lan Zhan--”
Lan Wangji was meditating in the dim morning light, his eyes closed as he went through his morning routine. He was well-used to being the one up first, moving through the jingshi like a silent ghost. Wei Ying had always been fine with winging his morning, but Lan Wangji preferred to plan it, moving from action to action with the same deliberation that he gave all his undertakings.
But the jingshi was small, and he was attuned to all his Wei Ying’s noises anyhow - his little sighs in dreams, the sudden clenching of his fist as nightmares invaded his mind like smoke. Lan Wangji hurried over at the first sound of distress, surprised to see that his lover was awake and not in the throws of whatever haunted him at night.
“Wei Ying,” he said softly, and sat on the edge of their bed, leaning forward to clasp his hands in his own. His dark eyes looked him up and down - there was something different, although he couldn’t say what. Perhaps just the sheen of sweat from a bad dream. “I’m here.”
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian repeated it, as he so often did. He liked how the name of his lover, his best friend, his soulmate, rolled off of his tongue. He was unapologetic about it, even when his brother was teasing him.
Now he sat there, hand under Lan Zhan’s, comfort immediately coursing through him and penetrating the gasps for air. He needed a minute, but not as many minutes as he might have needed, when waking up, drained of energy.
It was odd. And it worried him immediately. “Lan Zhan-- do I feel different? Is it- Can you sense anything?” It had been so long now without it, that to feel that warmth creeping across his chest was unfamiliar, a different sort of warmth than when he looked at his partner, or when he was sunbathing. This was from the inside.
Lan Wangji stared at him with his usual intensity, although one used to his expressions would see the tinge of worry turning the corner of his mouth down as he regarded his lover. His first thought was a curse - he couldn’t help but remember the legions of people back home who would have loved to curse the man layout before him - but then he remembered the mischief Vallo could play and reevaluated, wondering if it was more magic from that direction.
“You don’t look as if you are injured,” he observed after a moment, once he was sure of it. He tilted his head, eyes narrowing. “You look… less pale, maybe?”
The Yiling Patriarch, and his unholy pallor of death. That had been what was whispered, ages ago. Lan Wangji had never paid it any mind, but now that something has shifted behind Wei Ying’s eyes, he was not so sure. Wei Ying has always just been annoyingly beautiful to him.
“Lan Zhan, you aren’t supposed to tell me how pale I am!” That was a lie, an exaggeration for the sake of things. He appreciated the honesty deep down, and he knew that when one lacked a strong spirit, the pallor of his skin was more milky white. His body had no longer been warmed and happy, an adjustment that most did not have to go through.
Which had him thinking, far too hard and too serious.
Wei Wuxian reached out and pulled Subian from it’s stationary spot on the corner of their bed, next to Bichen. Bichen went everywhere with Lan Zhan, of course, while Suibian stayed here, in its place, untouched.
He could have unsheathed it back home, but it felt different - there was no connection any longer, just half of a familiarity. So when he pulled it a few inches out of its sheath, and Wei Wuxian felt the pull, he snapped it back in with a gasp on his lips and realization dawning on his face. “I need to see if Jiang Cheng is okay.”
It was only when Wei Ying reached for his sword - the sword that was mostly decorative, entirely sentimental these days - that Lan Wangji put the implications together in a flash of understanding. His golden core had somehow returned. Its absence in the first place had been difficult for Lan Wangji to fathom - that someone as full of life and magic as Wei Ying could somehow lack - but the surge of joy he felt was mitigated by the wave of anxiety that crashed over him nearly as quickly. What had caused this change? What if was one of Vallo’s temporary tricks - the powerhouse of Wei Ying’s magic arriving only to disappear once again? Lan Wangji didn’t know how Wei Ying would cope with its absence.
And, of course if his Golden Core was here... then yes, that begged the question: what of Jiang Cheng, who had received it years ago in an exchange?
“Let’s see your brother,” Lan Wangji agreed, keeping his thoughts as to how charged the visit would likely be to himself. Jiang Cheng had his nature, after all. “We’ll need to visit Wen Qing as well. She would be the one most likely to offer insight as to what’s happened.” He wrapped his fingers around Wei Ying’s wrist and helped him rise, the gesture protective, his back up. If someone was messing about with Wei Ying’s heart, he was going to decimate them.
Wei Wuxian wasn’t sure he could face Jiang Cheng, if something had happened. If something had reversed them. It was the coward’s way out, maybe, but Wei Wuxian was never one to call himself brave.
He squeezed Lan Zhan’s hand back, and brought his partner’s hand up to kiss lightly before rushing over to grab his phone. “I can just--” Technology! He half debated pulling out a paper man and sending it over to Lotus Pier to spy, but-- that seemed a step too far, for someone he trusted.
Wei Wuxian sent a text off to Jiang Cheng, his nose scrunching up as he looked down, trying to think up words that weren’t as obvious as “You have Golden Core???” He squinted up at Lan Zhan. “I could ask him to meet us at the clinic? To see Wen Qing? Or I can invite her here.”
It was good to focus on this, because he couldn’t let himself have a moment to-- react. Feel relief. Wei Wuxian knew the moment he did, the moment he thought something good, it would be taken away from him.
Lan Wangji considered how best to get Jiang Cheng near them without alerting him to what had happened - if that was possible. “I think you might ask Lady Wen to invite him to the clinic,” he suggested, momentarily feeling sorry for Lady Wen. “She can say that she has invited all of us due to a-- concern.”
Jiang Cheng had not been particularly subtle regarding his interest in Lady Wen years before, and although both parties appeared to have moved on, he suspected that Wei Wuxian’s brother would be far better behaved at her behest than his. It was crafty, but it would get results.
He looked back up to Wei Wuxian, eyes black and concerned. “How do you feel?”
Wei Wuxian sat down again, heavily. He had always liked the idea of tricking Jiang Cheng when it came to silly little things. But now it was-- more difficult. He knew his brother wouldn’t appreciate anything too heavy handed, not after all they had been through.
But he loved that Lan Zhan thought of it. “That is crafty, Lan Zhan. I will see what she says.” If it held up, once his mouth started moving as fast as his brain did. Things often went down the drain once that started happening.
He gave himself a look, down and over his body, before pulling in a long, deep breath. He could feel the core there, but it was-- different, somehow. Wei Wuxian had cultivated a very strong core, he was not so cocky that he would say it was the strongest but it certainly had its promise. This was his, but did not feel like that. “I feel-- different. Like I have run up a thousand steps I would not have been able to run up yesterday, but out of breath for all of them. It is there but it is hiding.”
Lan Wangji inclined his head. “You’re out of practice,” he observed, and while on the face of things that statement might have been condescending it was said with such a tender care that offense could hardly be taken. “But that doesn’t mean that you can stay out of practice. We have so many ways to train - you can assist with Lan Sizhui’s training…” the thought warmed his heart, somehow, on a new level that he had not quite yet examined.
He had never found Wei Ying lacking, even when he had not approved of his magic. But he knew going without a Golden Core had hurt Wei Ying in a thousand unquantifiable ways. Lan Wangji knew how temporary so many of Vallo’s magics were, but nonetheless, he felt his hope rising.
“Let’s not sit in bed all day,” he said primly, smoothing his robes, “and let’s address this quickly. If your brother is affected, we should face this before he’s fully awake.”
“Training?” Wei Wuxian took on that pitch he had when he was younger, back in his actual training days. He’d already done the time! Paid the price! Learned everything and then some.
Which meant it should be easy, right? He sunk back anyway, groaning. “Lan Zhan take pity on me.” He sounded pathetic but usually that was a cover for a Wei Wuxian that was hiding his feelings, that was pretending and acting, lashing out. He wasn’t quite ready to face things head on, but that was one of the reasons why he had Lan Zhan - his shield to that sort of thing, someone who challenged him and pushed him and believed in him.
It helped. So did the worry that Jiang Cheng was without his core. He ran a hand over his face. “Okay, Lan Zhan. Let’s go.”
Lan Wangji gave a graceful nod and without another (verbal) word handed Wei Ying his hair brush. Golden core or no, one had to have some degree of decorum before stepping foot outside… and fussing over Wei Ying helped him disguise his own nerves. What had Vallo done now?