Thread by @lanzhanqilai

baby lwj being a picky eater.....no one really clocks it except lxc.....he lets his little brother give all his boiled radishes him under the guise of jiacai as a love language & lxc very graciously accepts all these nasty little things & says "wangji is so generous ^^"

after lwj grows up, they stop being able to take all their meals together; lxc gets busy with sect business, lwj starts school & lives in the dorms, &.....lwj grows up. their parents passed & their uncle impresses expectations upon them & lwj shoulders it, like lxc did before him

so after a while of not eating together, they sit for a meal & lxc still somewhat expects lwj to resume old habits; he almost welcomes it, for a reminder of a secret communication they share & childish amusement. but lwj silently eats every single thing in his bowl, hated or not.

the only indication, so subtle that lxc wouldn't have caught it if he wasn't staring so intently at lwj eating, that he disliked something was the slightest clench of his jaw as he chewed. no pouting, no big eyes glancing up at lxc, no clumsy chopsticks & "...here, gege".

lxc can't swallow for a moment, for how his throat burns at all the bittersweet reminders that lwj has grown up, has begun carefully curating an image befitting a second young master. it just. pulls at him. he misses those miserable little radishes plonking in his bowl.

gently, lwj says, "xiongzhang?" & lxc looks up to meet his eyes & realizes he's stopped eating, a turnip halfway to his mouth, & lxc knows what he wants to do. he reaches over & snatches the vegetable out of his chopsticks with a grin & plops it into his own bowl.

"wangji, give me some too," he chides. boldly, he digs into lwj's rice & picks out more. "don't you remember how you used to give ge all the radishes?"
lwj's ears redden at the tease but he doesn't stop lxc. it's enough tht lwj relaxes & quietly deposits a radish into lxc's bowl.