Thread by @cerbykerby

enemies-with-benefits wangxian 👀

wangxian fighting hard against each other but screwing each other harder 🥵🥵🥵

ok so the whole sunshot campaign happens, except wwx was found by the Wens instead of the Jiangs so he's fighting on their side with his demonic cultivation.

he is, without a doubt, one of the biggest threats on the battlefield.

the only proven way to counteract his flute is to drown out its sound with music played on another, louder, cultivation-based instrument.

enter lwj, the second jade of lan, and proud owner of a Big Heckin Instrument.

the first time they clash on the battlefield is legendary.

wen ruohan is annoyed but unworried due to the sheer numbers advantage the wens have. wen zhuliu pulls wwx aside and asks if he needs guards to help him deal with lwj on the battlefield.

meanwhile, wwx—who has never seen anyone so beautiful—goes to bed to jerk off about it.

word spreads. now every time wwx appears, everyone knows to look for lwj, and vice-versa. those two are always clashing, evenly-matched, perfect opposites. neither ever has the upper hand for long.

it thrills wwx. it frustrates lwj.

the first time they fuck is mostly an accident. wwx is, as usual, running his mouth as they fight. teasing, flirting, taunting, insulting, whatever gets under lwj's skin.

lwj tackles him a little too hard. they both go flying, tumbling down a hill and out of view.

they've never gotten close enough to wrestle before. It's clear that lwj is stronger, but wwx has had more experience in close combat fighting. they struggle inelegantly, limbs tangling, faces within inches of each other.

so much squirming and rubbing elicits… bodily reactions.

wwx makes a small noise—not of pain or exertion—and that's all it takes. they fumble with each other's clothes. there's not enough time and they're too wound up to undress all the way, so they just push any obstructing layers aside, down, up.

tw // slight noncon

lwj doesn't let wwx think about it; he forces wwx's leg up and pushes into him without the slightest hesitation.

wwx squeals at the intrusion and, for a rare brief moment, goes limp in submission.

a bite to his neck from lwj riles him back up.

tw // slight noncon

they fuck like how they fight: fast, hard, and with no mercy. lwj sets a brutal pace without consideration for wwx, and wwx keeps his ankles firmly locked behind lwj's waist. they are too high on adrenaline to give their actions much thought.

after they finish, wwx leaves immediately to rejoin the battle. lwj, tired and reeling from the experience, lags behind.

his inaction costs him the lives of six men that wwx gets to before lwj can stop him.

both of them are quiet when they return to their respective camps.

wwx is reevaluating his assumptions about lwj. he thought lwj was the pure, incorruptible second jade of lan. pure, incorruptible jades of lan do not ravish their enemies in the middle of a battle, and definitely not so well.

wwx will need to see if he can exploit this further.

meanwhile lwj is disappointed with himself. he should not have stooped to such levels with wwx, not with something so vulnerable and intimate. lans love only once, and lwj cannot. not wwx. not in this war.

(he doesn't dare think about after the war)

it should not happen again.

it happens again. all it takes is another battle, a smirk from wwx, and a coy, "You look tired, er-gege. Perhaps you couldn't stop thinking about how nicely I spread my legs for you," for lwj to chase him, tackle him, teach him a lesson.

it happens again. and again. and again.

then one day, one battle, wwx is—gone.

he never shows up. neither do his fierce corpses.

without demonic cultivation working against them, the cultivation clans slice through the wens easier, but there are still too many wens.

the war goes on. wwx doesn't return.

lwj corners wen chao during a turning point in the war.

"Where is Wei Ying?!"

wen chao gives him the most disgusting sneer. "He turned traitor, so I banished him to Yiling's Burial Mounds."

lwj's heart makes multiple, nauseating flips in his chest.

("You sent a demonic cultivator to the one place that has enough resentful energy to last centuries?!" wen ruohan roars at his son. "Are you stupid?!"

wen chao's answer is petulant. "It's to trap him! He's only one man! He can't fight an entire mountain range of corpses!")

(wen chao was never really bright)

lwj cannot drop everything and race to go look for wwx. his family and allies need him. anyone who can fight is fighting. there is no one to send. even standing at the burial mounds' border is dangerous.

lwj's fighting gains a new edge of desperation, and it shows in his music.

tw // mentions of suicide (background characters only)

the war ends rather pathetically. reports of wen soldiers being found dead en masse, usually by their own hand, devastates morale. key figures in the war die, one by one, unexpected and unexplained.

for the most part, people are too busy fighting for their lives to notice the strange happenings amongst the wens.

lwj notices. and he hopes. but it is a very fruitless hope. no matter how quickly he responds to reports of massive numbers of dead wens, he never finds anything.

the final siege at nightless city is nothing more than a mockery. the wens flee. the cultivation clans chase. wen ruohan's life ends with a well-aimed golden sword.

it is not the glorified ending most had expected.

lwj doesn't attend the celebration banquet. he spends his time digging through documents to try and find anything and everything left behind by wwx. as others share stories and toasts to the dead, lwj walks through nightless city to the room that wwx once lived in.

it has already been ransacked—whether by the fleeing wens or by looting cultivators, lwj doesn't know. but the room is destroyed.

he tries to salvage whatever is left. there is not much. a few torn scraps of paper with wwx's handwriting on them. faulty talismans. a red ribbon.

lwj gathers everything and puts them in his qiankun bag. he wraps the dirty, tattered red ribbon around his wrist as he sits down on the ruined bed and stares at the silent debris.

he doesn't know if he's allowed to grieve. it feels strange to mourn on his enemy's behalf.

although—since the war is over, wwx is no longer his enemy. now he is—now he is—lwj doesn't know what he is.

a former enemy. a former lover. someone in the past, but someone who is not—cannot be, lwj refuses to entertain the thought—dead.

wwx's room is in small house, separate from any other buildings. lwj sets it alight when he steps out.

the massive flames reach for the sky and bellows black smoke, but it is contained, and it goes ignored by the celebrating cultivators.

there is much rebuilding to be done, and lwj returns with his family to the cloud recesses to help. it is weeks before he feels the responsibilities lighten and he has permission to go to yiling.

he doesn't bring his guqin. he doesn't want to look like a threat.

almost immediately after entering the town, he feels something attach to his leg. he looks down and sees—a child. small. likely no more than two years old.

the child giggles. hugs tighter. looks up at lwj with open wonder. his eyes—his eyes are distinctly silver-grey in color.

lwj knows those eyes. those eyes are usually glowing red, like blood-drenched suns, but he has seen them on occasions when they reverted back to their default silver-grey.

and it has been more than two years since he last saw wwx.

lwj's heart plummets to the ground.

((imma pause here for a bit cos i need to do groceries 'n stuff, but also pls know that, yes, this threadfic will have mpreg, as expected of me~ pls continue reading or not reading according to ur preferences))

lwj takes too long to respond. the boy goes from looking like lwj is he most wondrous person he's seen to looking like lwj has called him every foul name on the planet; he bursts into tears.

lwj begins to panic. he has never had to deal with small children before.

he reaches down and pats the boy's tiny back. "There, there," he tries. "Are you lost? Where is your—"

the boy bawls louder and, for some reason, holds onto lwj's leg tighter. he buries his tear-soaked face against lwj's knee.

a crying child draws attention. a crowd gathers in short order, with people whispering amongst each other and watching.

"Why isn't the father consoling his child?" one of them says not-too-quietly.

father. /father./

lwj feels a little sick.

"I am not—" he tries to say.

but the crowd doesn't listen. "Look at your noses!" one of the men exclaims, pointing. "They're exactly the same. How can this not be your child?"

the nausea in lwj's stomach grows.

he doesn't know what to do. the boy won't stop crying, but he won't let go of lwj either, so lwj is left standing there awkwardly with a child sitting on his foot.

lwj should not be so surprised that wwx shows up. of course he would show up. but the sight of him is devastating.

wwx is—different. his hair is down, for one. he seems… skinnier, yet taller. but his eyes—his eyes are just as silver as lwj remembers.

they are just as silver as the eyes of the boy still wailing on the ground.

lwj lets the odd mix of betrayal and relief settle in him.

he has no right to feel betrayed. they had so little. wwx is entitled to his own life and happiness. an enemy that he often fought—and sometimes fucked—wouldn't cross wwx's mind when he thinks about the future.

still, it guts lwj to think about wwx now married and with a child.

he should leave. he never should have come looking for wwx. he is making his father's mistake: imposing his own feelings onto someone unwilling and unknowing. wwx deserves to be left in peace.

except leaving is quite difficult when lwj has an entire child attached to his leg

wwx's eyes meet his and—there is shock. that is definitely a look of shock. wwx stares at him, unmoving.

then he moves. he approaches so quickly that it looks threatening. it /is/ threatening. that beautiful face twists into a scowl, and—

"Step away from my son," wwx snarls.

lwj would like very much to step away from wwx's son, but wwx's son is not making it easy.

"Ah…" lwj tries to nudge the boy. "Little one, your baba is here. You should—"

"Baba!" the boy sobs, wiping tears and mucus all over lwj's pants. "Baba!"

lwj winces and looks at wwx.

wwx looks pale for someone who should be red with fury. his lower eyelid twitches. he kneels and holds his arms out. "A-Yuan," he calls.

one moment the boy is looking up at the call of his name. the next, he is off of lwj's leg and running towards wwx. "Baba!" he wails.

wwx embraces him tightly, all while glaring daggers at lwj over the boy's shoulder. "Shh, shh, it's alright, baobei." he pats the boy's back. "What did we learn about wandering off?"

"Don't do it," a-yuan blubbers, clinging tightly.

"Good." wwx picks him up and turns to leave.

lwj should leave them be. they have their own life here, far from the rest of the cultivation world. it is pure selfishness that makes him say, "Wait. Wei Ying."

wwx freezes. looks over his shoulder. his eyes are red daggers. "What do you want."

lwj tries to speak. fails. tries again. "I didn't see you," is what he manages. "I thought you—that maybe you—"

"Died?" wwx finishes for him with an unpleasant smile. "You must be disappointed, then."

lwj can only shake his head. no. not disappointed. quite the opposite.

"The war is over," he says.

"About time," wwx replies, watching a-yuan play with his hair.

"I came to look for you," lwj speaks around the lump in his throat.

"And you found me," wwx answers like it means nothing. "So, what's next?"

lwj swallows. wills himself to be calm.

"You look well." lwj sounds pathetic.

wwx must think so too, judging by the side-eye he gives him. "I am well," he says almost defensively. he doesn't ask how lwj is.

lwj looks at a-yuan, who is now shyly peeking at him. "You had a baby." his voice is hoarse.

"I did." wwx definitely sounds defensive now. "He's all mine."

lwj can't breathe. "Congratulations," he makes himself say. "He is beautiful."

for some reason, that is what makes the resolve on wwx's face waver. "He is, isn't he." his tone is different. strange. stifled.

a-yuan clings to his father's neck. "Baba," he whispers, looking at lwj with wide eyes.

wwx's hesitation is palpable. he watches his son with a strange look, like he's being torn in two from within.

whatever indecision wwx has, a-yuan makes the first move. he reaches for lwj.

well, he doesn't so much reach for lwj as he does fall out of wwx's arms in lwj's general direction.

wwx yelps. lwj leaps forward. a-yuan falls into his arms.

"A-Yuan!" wwx shrieks, but it is too late. a-yuan is firmly in lwj's arms and blinking curiously up at him.

lwj is suddenly reminded that he doesn't not know how to hold a child when a-yuan squirms uncomfortably in his hold. he tries to hand a-yuan back to wwx, but a-yuan makes a protesting whine.

"Ugh." wwx drags both hands down his cheeks. "No, like this." he arranges lwj's arms.

suddenly, lwj is holding a small child very, very close to his face.

a-yuan chews on his fist as he gazes at lwj. "Hi."

"Hello," lwj responds.

a-yuan looks at wwx. then back at lwj. he doesn't say anything.

"You're supposed to say, 'Hello, Lan-shushu,'" wwx corrects him.

a-yuan doesn't call him 'Lan-shushu'. instead, he stares at lwj for a while, then—lays his head down on lwj's shoulder. it is very sweet.

wwx groans. "Sorry. I try to teach him manners."

"He is polite," lwj says, rubbing a-yuan's back. "Do not push him so hard at this age."