Anyway. The next time I write a modern wangxian AU, there will be a subplot where LQR is newly retired.
And he's just...driving his nephews completely crazy.
He calls LXC seven times in a row, but doesn't leave a single voicemail.
LXC sees the calls and he rushes to call his uncle back, terrified that there's an emergency.
What ELSE could have prompted so many consecutive calls???
But when he finally gets ahold of his uncle, LQR is just like, "I wanted to let you know that the supermarket has mangoes on sale. 🤗"
The next day, he calls LWJ.
LQR: Do you remember Maureen Larson?
LWJ: No.
LQR: The woman who lived next door to us when you were seven years old. She was a tax accountant.
LWJ: ...No. I do not remember her
LQR: Well, I just found out she died.
[long silence]
LWJ: ...Uncle. I am at WORK.
LWJ and LXC wind up desperately searching for activities for their uncle, to help fill up his time.
Does he want to join a book club? Maybe a birdwatching group?? He could take watercolor lessons???
It's a terrible role reversal.
Years ago, it was LXC and LQR trying to force LWJ to socialize.
Now LWJ is dragging his uncle around town, pointing to groups of senior citizens, saying things like, "Look! They seem nice. Maybe they would like to be friends. Why don't you go up to them and say hello?"
LWJ and LXC are appealing to their own friends, too.
Does anyone know a nice widow in her late 60s or early 70s? A woman who enjoys bland food, silent walks around the garden, and never ever leaving wet towels on the wood floors under any circumstances?
Please help. We think it's finally time for Uncle to get married. 😔
"Hey, cicer, are you just subtweeting your parents right now?!"
...
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Got the Bunji brainworms, so you're all gonna suffer with me.
LWJ is a shapeshifter! He forcibly shifts into bunny form whenever he gets too exhausted/sick/overextended. Sometimes, it takes him a while to recuperate enough to shift back.
One week, he lets himself get overtired with his job.
Oopsie! He's suddenly a fluffy white bunny!
Now, he could manage this situation if he were at home. It's happened before.
He has a little alert system rigged up so he can contact his brother and let him know he's stuck as a bunny.
LXC will come over to collect him. He'll take LWJ to his home and look after him for a few days. He'll call LWJ's workplace, too, and let them know he's "out sick".
They don't know this about each other for AGES! Because they were brought up in a way where you don't talk about this stuff with family!!
But one night, long after their respective marriages, their husbands are out.
They hired a babysitter for the kids.
They're planning on having a nice brotherly hang-out session. Just gonna watch some movies on the couch and have a lil chat. Decompress after a long work week.
Anyone who knows him would be SHOOK to find out he does this as a side-gig. Because he doesn't seem like the type?
But it's actually very impersonal! He's nothing more than a collection of muscles and sinews, shapes and angles, to these artists. It's not erotic or weird at all.
I am once again thinking of beautiful black widow LWJ, in a birdcage veil, smoking from a cigarette holder as he tells the police officer that yes, he is so distraught over his wealthy husband's untimely demise.
Shattered.
Simply crushed.
Anyway. 'Pearls for a Funeral' really awakened something in me, and I'm extremely sad that there isn't more noir-inspired fic for this fandom.