Thread by @tragicsonglan

I Don't Go Here, but it's #omegaLWJseason and I can't stop thinking about doesn't-know-he's-pregnant LWJ on the Yiling Date, going into labor after they wake up Wen Ning and are having dinner in the Burial Mounds.

I like this because it combines my favorite things, which are: people (WWX) panicking while someone they love (LWJ) is in distress, other people (WQ, Granny Wen) being very calm and matter-of-fact in the face of that distress,

and also The Political Ramifications of A Twin Jade In Distress In the Burial Mounds, which is absolutely the most important part of this thought.

I also really like the image of Granny Wen being the one In Charge here, along with the other aunties of the Wen Remnant, because Wen Qing might be a doctor, but it's the elder women who know what they're doing here.

Other parts of this I like:
- WWX being threatened with sedation if he doesn't go take a walk bc he's scaring a-Yuan
- Granny Wen letting LWJ squeeze her hand as tight as he can while he's in labor
- aunties bustling around the cave with water and washcloths

Anyway, Wen Qing gets the honor of writing to Lan Xichen and telling him that his baby brother is fine and the baby is fine too, but it will be a couple weeks before they are ready to go home to Gusu, and if he wishes to escort LWJ, he can meet them in Yiling a week from Thursday

Lan Xichen, upon reading Wen Qing's letter: shufu, I'm an uncle? SHUFU! IM AN UNCLE! 😃😃😃

Lan Qiren: *spits blood*

Anyway, they realize quickly that neither Lan Xichen nor Lan Qiren can go to Yiling without People Finding Out, so they send Lan Bo, a cousin. Wen Qing meets him and after grilling him for a while, she takes him into the Burial Mounds.

Lan Wangji is not really ready to go home yet. It was a hard labor, made scarier by the fact that he didn't know what was happening at first, and made worse after by the part where WWX won't look him in the eye and only stares at the baby sidelong

LWJ knows that the baby could only be WWX's - there are no other options than the handful of times they tumbled together on the war front and that last, desperate time when they argued in the rain as the Wen escaped. It must have been then - he had been so careful, before.

WWX doesn't know that, though, and time passes strangely in the Burial Mounds, especially when you have no core and the resentment here tugs at you relentlessly. The baby could be anyone's, for all he knows.

Anyway, Lan Bo, second cousin (grandchild of their grandfather's brother), a little baby-crazy himself, father to Jing-er and another on the way, delighted to be the first Lan relation to meet Lan-guniang

Lan Wangji is stiff, a little cold and hesitant, but ah, that's pretty normal, he's always been reticent, and Lan Bo isn't worried. They'll give it a few more days, and then he and Lan Wangji and the little one can go back to Cloud Recesses

In the meantime, he'll keep a sharp eye out, protective of his younger cousin, wary of the Wens for all that it's clear they have taken good care of LWJ and the baby.

It doesn't take him long to notice a distinct absence of cultivators.

There is Wen-guniang, of course, and Wei-gongzi, and, he supposes, Wen Qionglin, though Lan Bo isn't certain how much cultivation a walking corpse can do. But the rest. The aunties don't feed LWJ spiritual energy the way the midwives in Gusu did for a-Yan when Jing-er was born.

They fuss over him, sure, but in the way all aunties fuss over a new parent and their child.

The uncles - well, it is backbreaking work to shore up wooden huts for the coming winter and to till a field that is full of rocks and roots and bones.

A cultivator would not have to work half so hard nor sleep so soundly nor twist and stretch before going back to it the next morning. He thinks of offering a hand, but the uncles eye him warily, their grips on their hoes and shovels that much tighter, so he does not.

Lan Bo was among those chased into the caves at the back of the mountain; there is no love lost between him and the Wen cultivators who destroyed his home. But these people - anyone with eyes could see that they were not fighting in Gusu or Yunmeng or Qishan.

The knowledge sits uneasily as the days pass and Lan Wangji still refuses to leave.

"I must speak with Wei Ying before I go," he insists, but WWX has taken to wandering the outer edges of the Burial Mounds, spending long hours away from the encampment.

He comes back looking more haunted and gaunt than he left, sparing only enough time to guzzle lukewarm broth before falling to sleep. He leaves again as soon as he wakes. He doesn't look at Lan Wangji.

>>stopping here for the night!

from the top:

https://twitter.com/tragicsonglan/status/1469663585425051648?s=20