Thread by @cerbykerby

mdzs au where lwj ends up losing his leg due to the wen indoctrination and tortoise of slaughter—and gets a new one made for him by wwx: yet another threadfic by me

tags: robotic limbs, canon (maybe cyberpunk-ish?) au, probably some angst, comedy, you know how I am

lwj is not surprised when the cloud recesses physician quietly tells him that his leg needs to be amputated; it is the expected result after days of aggressive use and no treatment combined with starvation and little spiritual energy usage.

still, the loss hits him hard.

he spends the early months of the sunshot campaign sheltering with other non-combatants in the cloud recesses. it tears him apart to not be out there fighting.

he's not there to personally witness wwx returning to the cultivation world as a changed man, surrounded by darkness.

he hears of it, of course—of how different wwx is, how cold his smile has grown, how cruel his new cultivation methods are.

he desperately wants to see wwx, but he can't. there is a war to be fought, and lwj cannot fight.

then, weeks later, wwx visits the cloud recesses.

he is there to see his shijie, who has been an unexpected source of companionship for lwj. the siblings greet each other warmly, with misty eyes and relieved smiles.

then wwx turns to look at lwj.

lwj doesn't flinch, not even when wwx's gaze drops to where his leg used to be.

it is the first look lwj gets at this new side of wwx; wwx's face is dark. murderous.

then his expression shifts to something more horrifying: a reassuring smile that doesn't reach his red eyes.

"Don't worry, Lan Zhan," he pats lwj on the shoulder. "I'll make them pay tenfold."

and pay he makes them. wwx lays waste to every battlefield he steps on, literally turning the enemy against themselves. crows follow him everywhere, feasting on the devastation he leaves behind.

lwj forces himself not to weep, especially when wwx's visits grow in frequency.

wwx conducts a lot of tests and measurements on lwj. lwj endures the scrutiny in a way he never could for anyone else. he sometimes tries to bring up the topic of wwx's harmful cultivation path, but wwx shuts it down each time.

lwj lets him. eventually, he stops asking.

one day, wwx proudly presents him with a leg made out of wood. "For testing purposes," he says as he straps it onto lwj. "I'll make you a better one once we have a finalized design."

lwj feels wwx's hand on his bare thigh, and tries not to shiver.

testing is not easy. lwj ends up falling a lot during their sessions. wwx always tries to catch him, but when he does, he—oddly enough—stumbles under lwj's weight, like he doesn't have the strength to hold him.

so lwj tries not to fall anymore, but wwx is insistent.

when wwx tells him that he has the final version finished, lwj expects it to also be made out of wood.

he does not expect wwx to pull out an entire metal leg.

it is beautiful: the same color as bichen, and covered in cloud engravings. it almost looks like a real leg.

lwj attaches it with shaking hands. he feels his spiritual energy pushing into the metal, flowing through, filling it. the engravings glow a soft blue.

wwx claps with glee. "What do you think?"

lwj moves—actually /moves/—his leg. he flexes the metal foot and rolls his ankle.

"It is amazing," lwj breathes. he can't feel the new leg—there are no nerves or flesh there—but he can *sense* it. it will take some getting used to, but—he could go back to how he was before. he could go out and fight.

wwx spins chenqing in his hand. "You up for a field test?"

stories later describe how wwx appeared with lwj on the battlefield just in time to beat back the overwhelming wen numbers. in such stories, lwj is like a beam of light, fast and full of righteous fury as he defends his allies.

he gains a title: hanguang-jun

reality is far less dramatic. lwj charges into the midst of battle and fights, fights, fights until the wen ranks break and flee.

at the allied camp, his uncle bursts into tears upon seeing him. lxc hugs lwj tight enough to crack his ribs and thanks wwx profusely.

during dinner, wwx walks past, brushing his hand across lwj's shoulders. "Come to my tent afterwards," he says not-so-quietly in lwj's ear.

lwj's ears burn. lxc politely pretends he didn't hear anything. some distance away, a watching nmj starts violently choking on his rice.

as lwj finishes his dinner, he can *see* word of what happened spread through the camp. passersby eye him curiously, while those who linger nearby sneak glances at him.

war is war. everyone who fights it know the risks. there might not be a tomorrow. indulgences are common.

the most common—and free—indulgence is companionship, particularly in the bedroll. it would not be unexpected if wwx, known for his love of indulgences, also sought such comforts.

there are dozens of eyes on lwj as he sets his empty bowl down and heads towards wwx's tent.

he doesn't know what to expect. wwx is not the type to expect payment for a leg, so lwj is almost certain it's not that. but if wwx *did* indulge in physical pleasures and he asked, specifically, for lwj…

then lwj would accept with the entirety of his poor, foolish heart.

whether it is for a lifetime, a day, or even an hour, lwj will accept however much wwx is willing to give him. because he is a fool, and he is a lan. he can only love too much.

he stops outside of wwx's tent. "Wei Ying?"

"Come in," wwx answers from within.

lwj steps inside.

the tent interior is, for the lack of a better description, an organized mess. items are scattered everywhere, but the scattering is not mindless.

wwx is lounging on his bed, grinning wolfishly at lwj. "Hello, Lan Zhan," he greets. "Come here and take your pants off."

lwj freezes. this feels—very perfunctory. he'd hoped that, if it came to this, he would at least be allowed to hold wwx, maybe exchange soft words with him beforehand.

but if this is how wwx wants it to be…

lwj swallows his nerves and lifts his robes to reach his waistband.

the mischievous grin on wwx's face wavers when lwj pushes his pants down and steps out of them. "Huh. I expected you to refuse." with a swing of his leg, he sat up. "Come sit."

lwj's robes are long enough to hide his legs, but he still feels exposed. he walks over and sits.

wwx reaches down and, without warning, lifts lwj's metal foot up and onto his lap.

lwj scrambles to keep his robes from sliding too far up his legs. "Wei Ying!"

"Calm down, I just want to take a look at this." wwx knocks his knuckles on the metal. "How is it holding up?"

the—oh. wwx just wants to—

oh.

lwj has horribly misinterpreted the situation.

he wishes he could command his ears not to turn red. "It's fine," he manages, looking away.

wwx hums as he fiddles with the metal leg. "That's good, but you should visit nightly for maintenance."

(( i want to mention that i do, in fact, have a darker branch of thought where a more sadistic yiling-patriarch-y wwx asks lwj how he's going to show his gratitude for wwx restoring his mobility and there's dubcon and bad thoughts.

im not gonna write it.

just know it exists ))

and so lwj does. every night, he finishes his supper, and goes to wwx's tent with curious gazes following him.

he knows what it looks like; there are rumors spreading around camp. a few are unkind. most are credulous.

they don't seem to bother wwx, so lwj ignores them.

he is far more focused on the way wwx gently rests his hand on lwj's bare thigh as he focuses on adjusting whatever it is that he found wrong about the metal leg.

one time, wwx grips lwj's inner thigh while moving him, and lwj nearly moans. that would have been embarrassing.

(( It appears the thread broke. Here is the rest:

https://twitter.com/cerbykerby/status/1451317090590212105

the war ends.

nothing comes of their nightly visits.

they part ways with little ceremony and nothing more than a, "I'll stop by every now and then to check on your leg," from wwx.

he never does. he takes the wen remnants and flees to the burial mounds.

lwj's leg is fine—more than fine, really. wwx taught him how to use his spiritual energy to shift some of the plates in his leg to make up for minor shifts in the structure. it doesn't need much upkeep.

the only issues with it are sensory issue. lwj cannot feel through it.

he can sense through it, but not feel through it. if he concentrates, he can sense if someone is touching his leg, but he doesn't know what that sensation is like.

this becomes a problem when he goes to yiling and a little boy attaches himself to lwj's metal leg.

lwj has no idea how long the boy has been attached to him; he only thinks to look down when he notices the locals staring at him funny.

there is a small child hugging lwj's leg, his little face smooshed against lwj's pants to smother his giggles. he's seated on lwj's foot.

the dust at the bottom of the little boy's clothes implies that lwj may have walked quite some distance, unaware that he had a toddler with him.

lwj tries, and fails, not to panic at the realization that he may have accidentally kidnapped someone's child.

meanwhile the child is starting to fuss. "A-die," he whines, wriggling. "Walk!"

lwj is certain he's not a father. "I'm not your father," he tells the child. "And you need to go home."

the child's lower lip quivers.

'Uh oh,' lwj thinks.

then the boy's mouth opens and he cries.

later, when wwx successfully wrangles the boy—a-yuan—back to his side, wwx laughs, doubled over, until tears stream down his face.

"You thought you ki—" 'kidnapped him' is probably what wwx means to say, but it's lost to gasps and wheezes.

"Mn," lwj says.

wwx laughs harder.

they have lunch together. wwx's talisman goes off, and they rush to the burial mounds. when wwx asks lwj to stay the night, lwj doesn't refuse.

"Just like old time, huh?" wwx says with lwj's leg in his lap.

lwj tries not to think about it. "Mn," he agrees.

"Everything looks good. You know, it's been almost a year since I did any maintenance on this. You might not need me anymore," wwx says as he gives lwj's metal leg a hearty smack.

'That's not true,' lwj wants to say. 'I will always need you.'

instead, he draws his leg back.

they sleep on separate blankets. when lwj leaves in the morning, he says, "Goodbye, Wei Ying."

he doesn't say, "Do you plan on living like this forever?"

he doesn't say, "Come back to Gusu with me."

everything goes downhill after that. qiongqi path. jzx's death. the siege. "Get lost." the 33 whip strikes.

then wwx is gone.

lwj never knew one soul could bear so much grief and remain whole. he feels torn apart, yet he remains whole. it's like a mockery.

three years later, when lwj is well enough to start walking outside, lxc finds him sitting on his bed, staring at his metal leg.

his brother sits beside him. "A-Yao has offered to have a new one constructed for you, if the sight of this one brings you too much pain," he says.

as if lwj would ever allow that. every clan is scrambling for anything and everything left behind by wwx: notes, inventions, tools, artifacts, and more.

lwj's leg was personally crafted by wwx. it is controlled with spiritual energy, and thus qualifies as a cultivation tool.

who doesn't know that the jin clan is aggressively scouring for wwx's creations? jgy's offer comes with the implicit expectation that lwj hand over the metal leg wwx made for him in exchange.

"No," lwj says as he fastens the leg on.

thirteen years pass. the metal leg serves lwj well. spiritual energy helps maintain the metal's integrity, and lwj is familiar enough with the leg that he can compensate for all the functional quirks it develops over time.

still, it won't last forever. lwj doesn't expect it to.

over time, the cultivation world seems to forget that lwj is walking around with a metal leg. the leg has not deteriorated to the point where lwj's movements are affected, and it is completely covered by a boot, pants, and robes.

out of sight, out of mind, it seems.

then lwj hears the song. then he declares that he is bringing this person back to gusu. then wwx is in the cloud recesses.

lwj's joy feels like an overfilled cup on the verge of spilling over.

sure, wwx throws a fuss. he does everything to try and rile lwj up. it doesn't work.

when lwj is bathing in the cold springs, wwx snatches his metal leg and clothes and bolts off with them, cackling the entire time.

lwj lets him. he just chills in the springs for a little longer, until a flustered sizhui comes back with his clothes and a walking cane.

"Young Master Mo says he wants to play with your leg a little bit," sizhui says, somewhat flustered. "I can try to get it back from him, if you'd like."

"No need." lwj dresses and takes the cane.

"What if he breaks it?" jingyi laments. "Then Hanguang-Jun won't be able to walk!"

"He won't break it," lwj says as he steadily makes his way back to the jingshi.

wwx is not there for the night, nor is he for the next. lwj isn't worried.

yes, there is the possibility that wwx ran off, but wwx is not so thoughtless as to bolt after depriving lwj of a limb.

sure enough, on the third day, the jingshi door opens, and there's a *plop* as wwx tosses him his leg.

"This leg is no fun," wwx pouts. "It's so poorly designed. Whoever made it was really lazy."

lwj takes the leg. it has been cleaned and polished. it looks almost brand new.

he reattaches it. his spiritual energy flows freely through. it feels like swimming in a clear lake after years of murky water.

he flexes his foot—it moves smoothly, well-oiled. "Thank you. It is much improved."

wwx puffs his chest out. "Of course. I *do* know what I'm doing."

lwj gets to fully appreciate how much better the leg works when they start their feral arm investigation. he had gotten used to overcompensating for minor quirks his metal leg developed over the last decade. now it feels amazing to use.

wwx resumes maintenance work on it.

"Ah, Lan Zhan, this leg is too outdated," wwx laments one night after lwj called him by name. "Once we're done with all this, I'll make you a much better one."

"Mn," lwj agrees, fond.

--------

everything goes well until lwj enters guanyin temple to find wwx being held hostage.

lwj complies with jgy's demand to seal away his spiritual energy. without spiritual energy, his leg no longer works. there is no way lwj can rush to wwx's side fast enough if jgy decides to pull the guqin string just a little tighter.

in the end, he didn't need to worry.

"Back then, I really wanted to sleep with you!" wwx declares. then he's free, running towards lwj and calling his name.

wwx runs into him with full force. lwj staggers back, dragging his dead metal leg, and falls to the ground.

neither of them care. lwj listens, eyes wide, as wwx declares his love for him and swears to never forget anything he says again.

by the time nmj's corpse bursts in, lwj's spiritual energy is flowing again, and he moves as one with wwx to subdue and trap him.

while the cultivation world is busy reeling from the revelation of jgy's crimes, lwj and wwx steal away to explore the world together, hand in hand.

when they return to the cloud recesses months later, wwx makes good on his promise and builds lwj a new leg.

this one is silver, and covers up to lwj's mid-thigh for better control and movement anticipation. elaborate engravings of clouds, cranes, lotuses, rabbits, and the distant burial mounds wrap around the leg. wisp-like tendrils curl around lwj's knee, like an embrace.

when lwj puts it on, his spiritual energy flows into the leg and the engravings glow a faint blue—their world come to life in color.

"It's perfect. I love it," lwj tells wwx, and kisses him.

--- THE END ---

AND NOW—Things I Thought of That I Couldn't Put in the Threadfic:

- a-yuan has tried to chew on lwj's leg. he nearly chipped a tooth.
- sometime during the 13 years, lwj's leg has definitely fallen off and he took a tumble. scared a few good years off of his juniors' lives.

- wwx wants to put a flamethrower in lwj's heel.
- lwj likes to flash wwx by wearing no pants and slooowly pulling his robe up to expose the entire length of his metal leg and a peek of bare skin at the top of his thigh. it makes wwx s w e a t.