Lan Wangji was the sort to suffer silently, and he was doing so now. Seated in the shadow beneath the jingshi’s overhang, his face was expressionless, eyes closed, as sweat trickled down his temple and splashed onto his immaculate white robes. This heat was never ending, horrific. All consuming. He made it a point not to have strong opinions on anything (or at least, not show them) but it was very, very hard to seem wilted in all of this. And he was, in fact, wilted.
He sensed someone flopping dramatically near him. “You won’t cool down by moving so vivaciously,” he cautioned, not opening his eyes. He only lived with one person, sure, but even had he lived with dozens of roommates, he would recognize the sound of that specific languishing anyhow. Wei Ying could do nothing without drama, including, apparently succumbing to heat stroke.
The flapping had been Wei Wuxian’s dramatic throw of his robes, letting them land on the side of their bed as he threw them off in spectacular fashion. “Why do I wear black, husband?” It was a choice he never regretted until this week. Now it felt as if the heat was absorbing into his body at an even more rapid rate.
He saw that bead of sweat on Lan Zhan’s face, and watched as it rolled down his perfect neck. He was no better, and Wei Wuxian rolled over to prop himself up.
With Lan Zhan having his eyes closed, Wei Wuxian saw an opportunity. He scooped out an ice cube from his nearby cup and tossed it in his mouth before approaching Lan Zhan slowly. He leaned down and pressed his now-iced lips to that column of skin exposed, with the bead of sweat that had run its course. “I do not think you are cooling down even without moving.”
“Because you are stubborn.” Lan Wangji was certain that his husband had been asking a rhetorical question, but he never turned down an opportunity for a loving insult. He also had not been expecting freezing cold lips to suddenly press themselves to his throat, and he startled, eyes opening, before they peered at Wei Wuxian in feigned annoyance.
It would have to be feigned annoyance, really, because it was too hot to properly fight him. For as much as Lan Wangji was pretending to be utterly unfazed by the weather, even he was affected. His expression unchanging, he held out his hand for a chunk of ice.
“So are you,” there was a hit of whine to Wei Wuxian’s voice as he leaned in for another kiss, ignoring the startle. He knew Lan Zhan’s real annoyed faces from his fake ones, it was a skill mastered over the years. A skill that had helped keep him alive being married to such a stoic man, since so many just assumed he was always truly annoyed.
Like a dutiful husband, he dropped another piece of ice into Lan Zhan’s open hand. “Tonight we should sneak out to the cold springs together. You can lose some of those layers you insist on wearing and we will frolick as we did when we were young.” Or last week, when it was quiet at night, but he knew he didn’t need to mention that.
“The layers I wear are appropriate to my station,” Lan Wangji muttered sulkily, and without pretense dropped the ice cube down Wei Wuxian’s back collar. Revenge.
It was difficult being an ice prince when it was approximately 9,000 degrees outside. He had to admit, the cold waters in the springs sounded wonderful right now. Some were so cold that they even had caverns with frost at their heart. Now that his meditation had been thoroughly disturbed, he relaxed his posture - honestly, it was probably difficult to tell that he had done so, but Wei Wuxian would know it - and regarded his husband. “I could frolic,” he admitted after a beat. “Provided that we not be interrupted by my brother or Lan Sizhui.”
“Your station as my husband provides you benefits, Lan Zhan. Like nudity.” Wei Wuxian was just being a shithead now, his little yelp carried across the quiet room still didn’t stop him from giving his husband a hard time. As usual. He had still deserved the ice cube all the same.
He did a little dance around in an attempt to dislodge the cube, but it melted before it was possible and he just sighed. “I can text them and tell them we will be in the area. A-Yuan is very good at reading between the lines and will probably avoid it. Come on, Lan Zhan--” Wei Wuxian leaned back down, clearly undisturbed by the ice cube for long. He pressed a kiss along the shell of his husband’s ear. “It will be a little risk.”
Lan Wangji considered the prospect, and despite the heat shivered just a little at this kiss. As soon as the shiver was over, he was hot again. This weather was intolerable. He knew that Wei Wuxian was right - A-Yuan had been traumatized regularly enough by his parents’ antics that he had a second sight for avoiding situations that might render him exposed to more. And Lan Xichen would figure it out as well (and likely had other things on his mind, too).
His eyes flicked back to Wei Wuxian, and he gave a small nod, nearly imperceptible. Rising to his feet in a graceful motion, he gestured to the phone he was certain was probably in Wei Wuxian’s robes with the air of someone who was impatient.
“Okay okay you don’t have to get antsy.” He could read his husband’s cues better than most and was glad for that, but still was a bit of a troll when it came to things.
But true to Wei Wuxian’s word, he shot off a text to their son and his brother, warning them away from the cold springs. Probably too obviously for most of their family’s tastes, but it served it’s purpose. After, he put up his thumb and then grabbed Lan Zhan’s hand to drag him along to the springs, not even bothering to grab a towel before they went. “The air just feels heavy, I think I prefer snow covered mountains to this. As much as I enjoy getting you naked I like when you enjoy it too.”
‘Antsy’ on Lan Wangji appeared to be as impervious to fluster as a human could possibly be, but nonetheless, he did have his tells, tells that his husband was absolutely familiar with. Lan Wangji did not exactly roll his eyes at Wei Ying’s gentle admonishment, but the energy was absolutely present nonetheless.
Still, even his tightly-wound anxieties were quieted as soon as one graceful toe dipped within the cool waters of Cloud Recesses spring. The area had both warm and cold springs, perfect for relieving one’s pains no matter the season, but until he’d known Wei Ying, he hadn’t taken advantage of it too much. There was purity in suffering things nobly, or so went the Lan clan’s teachings, but he was a great deal less self-punishing these days than he had been. Satisfied that the water would be the perfect antidote to the heat, he shed his robes (leaving on his headband, of course) and entered the deeper areas between rocks up to his shoulders.
“Even you slow down when the weather is like this,” he observed through one eye open.
“It’s horrible,” Wei Wuxian languished as he floated into the water. He had stripped quicker than ever before - well, save for his wedding night - just to get into the cold water. It wasn’t typical of him by any means, as he went to normally great pains to avoid the frigid temperatures of this water. But right now it was a relief, and he sighed happily as he floated closer to his husband.
“When it is so hot you can barely open your eyes! We can stay here and then lay under a fan later, Lan Zhan.” He found his husband’s waist with a hand. “If we put up privacy curtains will you relax your stance on less clothing?”
The water had initially felt so cold as to be numbing, but this wasn’t the frigid pools beneath Cloud Recesses, and no ice formed on his lashes. It was just a cool stream, and Lan Wangji felt himself relaxing as he became accustomed to the water, still and quiet as a statue from a shipwreck, as he observed his husband.
A fan did sound nice, provided that they weren’t interrupted by a sibling, rabbit or dragon. Yes, he didn’t want even his pet rabbits to see him naked. There were principles.
“And if we put our shoes by the curtain,” he decided executively. That would signal enough, he was fairly certain. He cupped some cool water in his hands and rested them on the nape of his husband’s neck, slowly letting the water warmed from his skin trickle down below Wei Ying’s hair. Lan Wangji wasn’t given to displays of affection, but he would never tire of taking care of Wei Ying.
Wei Wuxian leaned into his husband’s touch, pleased to have the attention on him in any way it came. Even if it was cold water shivering down his back. To keep Lan Zhan’s hands on him and that cold, he would have done and agreed to anything in that moment.
So shoes were the least of his worry. It was a small agreement to make if he got his husband naked or half naked for the rest of the day. The slow, devious grin settled on Wei Wuxian’s face. “Deal.”
He didn’t want to ruin it by doing something uncouth like dunking Lan Zhan, so instead Wei Wuxian just leaned into the warm body he felt behind him, pleased and sated for now.