#MDZS, #Wangxian. #DarkLanZhan.
#Day6: THE ONLY ONE LEFT BY HIS SIDE
When Wei Ying was a child, his favorite game was playing house. "I'm Mama and you're Baba," he would say to Lan Zhan. And Lan Zhan would nod solemnly, fat cheeks wobbling.
"This is Xiao Baobao," he would say as he shook his stuffed rabbit. It had a brown stain on one of the ears that Wei Ying as a child could never stand to look at without wanting to cry.
While this would go on, Yu-ayi would be dragging Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli to piano classes under Lan Qiren's tutelage with Lan Zhan's older brother Lan Huan. Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying were the same age, but somehow, Wei Ying was never worthy of extracurricular activities.
Too much trouble, Yu-ayi would cite. Wei Ying never figured out if he was the trouble or if the trouble was coordinating activities for him with the money his parents left him. (Wei Ying also never figured out why Lan Zhan only lasted one day in that joint piano lesson.)
And so when Wei Ying was a child, his idea of family was him, Lan Zhan, and a bloodied stuffed rabbit masquerading as a baby. He thinks this primed him for his life now with Lan Zhan as the only one left by his side.
It was never a purposeful disconnection that separated Wei Ying from the Jiangs; it was just the natural drifting apart of people at different stages in their life.
Wei Ying is still in grad school with Lan Zhan; Jiang Cheng is in an entry-level position at Yunmeng Jiang Ceramic Technology Co., Ltd; and Jiang Yanli is off on her honeymoon with Jin Zixuan.
When the texts and phone calls start to trickle off, Wei Ying doesn't even notice. It's just the way drifting apart creeps up on you. One day, Wei Ying suddenly found himself with all his chats inactive, even his university chats, and only his chat with Lan Zhan still active.
(His chat with Jiang Cheng has been deleted but he cannot find it within himself to wonder at it further). He wonders when his whole world became Lan Zhan—just going through the motions with the world outside.
It's like looking through a window and realizing that it's been frosted glass this whole time.
"Do you think I should start making friends again?" Wei Ying says in a small voice.
"Why?" Lan Zhan says. His voice reverberates through Wei Ying, chest to Wei Ying's back as the arm slung over Wei Ying's waist tightens.
"...I don't know," Wei Ying answers. "I just feel like I should. This isn't healthy, right? Have you even been talking to your brother and uncle?"
"I only need Wei Ying."
Is this love?
Maybe.
It's all Wei Ying's ever known, never quite fitting in with the Jiangs and feeling too damaged to ever fully relax with his previous friends. Lan Zhan has always accepted him unconditionally.
Lan Zhan has always been an introvert, but he had never begrudged Wei Ying leaving him at home, only staring at his back with solemn, golden eyes. Lan Zhan has never asked beyond what Wei Ying is willing to give.
This is love.
[compiled on ao3 with 5 other prompt fills, "one man's love story is another man's horror story": archiveofourown.org/works/40039656]
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