Thread by @raeinthe

OK! Gonna give this a shot.

cw: a/b/o, mpreg, might veer into nsfw? I’m making this up as I go along! 🤠

https://twitter.com/cicerfics/status/1502355104816517121

It’s Friday night. Wei Ying is at his first college party, sitting on a couch, nursing his second terrible beer. He’d been looking forward to this, he thought, but after yet another day of radio silence from Lan Zhan, he’s feeling a little bit out of sorts.

He thought they were okay, after that night at Nie Huaisang’s party. Sure, they hadn’t really talked about what happened, but they’d still been texting every day since they parted for separate universities. At least, until earlier that week.

On Monday evening, Wei Ying had finally finished unpacking his & Jiang Cheng’s dorm room. He’d snapped a photo and sent it to Lan Zhan with a note saying, “this is the cleanest this room will ever be!!” And… nothing.

An omega girl plops down next to him on the couch. Too close, his treacherous brain says, but he ignores it. This is part of the college experience, right? He offers her the best smile he can muster. It seems to be good enough, her scent grows stronger as she cozies up to him.

His mind wanders back to a scent of sandalwood, magnolia, and cold mountain air.

The omega next to him smells like a Bath & Body Works explosion. It’s overwhelming. WY tries not to gag.

“I’m Wei Ying,” he offers blandly.

“Wang Lingjiao,” says the omega, her voice shrill.

Wei Ying remembers a different voice, a low, soft rumble. The voice that had sang him to sleep so gently that night, afterward. WY wishes he knew the name of the song. He pushes away the memory, takes a swig of beer.

“It’s so loud in here,” Wang Lingjiao pouts. “You should take me somewhere quieter.”

Wei Ying slams the rest of his beer and stands up, pulling out his phone.

“Umm, actually, my brother just texted looking for me,” he lies. “Gotta go, it was nice meeting you!” (Another lie.) He shoves his phone back in his pocket and all but runs out the door and back to his dorm.

——

Wei Ying is back in his tiny dorm bed, lights off. He figures he slipped out of the party quietly, Jiang Cheng won’t have noticed he’s gone yet, he’s got some time to himself.

He rummages in his dresser until he finds a dove grey cashmere sweater, the sweater Lan Zhan had said he could keep. WY never wore it, he didn’t want to overpower Lan Zhan’s scent with his own.

He holds it to its face, inhales the soft scent of sandalwood and magnolia, mixed with crisp cedar-scented wool shampoo. The smell of Lan Zhan.

Next thing he knows he’s back under his sheets, sweater pressed under his cheek into the pillow next to him, growing unbearably hard.

// gets more nsfw for a bit here, so feel free to replace the next several with “WY thinks about LZ and their brief dalliance” if that’s not your jam. (They’re eighteen in the flashbacks.)

He reaches into his boxers, memory fixated on that moment. The moment he finally felt what it was like to have Lan Zhan all around him, to be inside Lan Zhan.

He and Lan Zhan had been slowly escalating their unexpected makeout session. Wei Ying had been afraid that if he stopped, then that would be all. They would come to their senses and remember that they’re going to separate schools, and long-distance doesn’t work.

Neither of them had wanted to come to their senses. This was their first kiss. Their first kiss had been going on for the better part of an hour, and they were both naked in Nie Huaisang’s guest house.

(Nie Huaisang had specifically given them the key to go talk privately about why Lan Zhan was so upset. They weren’t in danger of being interrupted.)

They hadn’t really talked, actually. But here he was, Lan Zhan in his lap, naked except for a soft gray sweater that hung loose around his collarbone, grinding lazily on Wei Ying, nuzzling into his neck, but not quite crossing that line.

A gush of slick, and then there were no more lines. Except.

Wei Ying had willed himself to pause. He didn’t dare move. The feeling all around him, Lan Zhan all around him was so much.

But he’s not a dumbass.

“Lan Zhan, I can’t get you pregnant. That’d be such a bad idea right now.”

“Mn.” Lan Zhan exhaled into his neck. The ghost of a breath made Wei Ying shiver. It was all unbearably good.

“Lan Zhan. I really want to sleep with you. But I don’t have any condoms.”

Lan Zhan shifts gently to look at Wei Ying.

“The male omegas in my family do not get pregnant outside of heat.”

And really, Wei Ying should have questioned that.

Instead, his dick took charge of his mouth, and he said, “I can pull out.”

A few minutes later, he was already so close, but Lan Zhan said he needed his knot, said he wanted it to be Wei Ying.

They trusted each other. They were best friends, right?

// ok back to the regular story!

The light is blinding.

The light…is shining into his actual, half-shut eyeballs. Not in his mind.

A door slams.

“WHAT. THE FUCK. WEI YING. If you had just WARNED me you were bringing someone back here…”

Jiang Cheng’s eyes catch up to his nose as he adjusts to the change in lighting.

“Oh. This is. Actually worse.”

Wei Ying hates everything right now, and says so. Jiang Cheng strongly agrees.

——

Meanwhile, in another town, in another dorm room, Lan Zhan is also taking advantage of his roommate being out at a party.

He sets a pregnancy test on the bathroom counter.

Lan Zhan snaps a photo and adds it to an album called “Health” that has a screenshot of a bland-looking recipe as its cover.

He puts the test in the waste basket, then takes a piece of notebook paper and crumples it up, placing it to obscure what’s beneath.

He goes back into his room, and only then does he click on the “Health” album and truly look at the most recent photo. The test is positive. That’s not unexpected.

He swipes to the previous day’s photo. The line in that test was definitely lighter.

He goes back to view the contents of the album side-by-side. A week’s worth of pregnancy tests, a stronger and stronger positive each day. It shouldn’t be possible.

A door creaks behind him. Lan Zhan jumps. His phone falls on the floor, screen facing up.

“Um,” says Mianmian.

Lan Zhan grits his teeth. If Mianmian asks him about the father right now, he doesn’t think he can handle it. He’s been willing his mind not to go there, hasn’t opened any of Wei Ying’s texts since the day of the first test.

He knows as soon as he’s back in contact with WY, he won’t be able to keep this from him.

Mianmian hands him his phone, politely avoiding looking at the screen.

“What do you need, Lan Zhan?” Her gentle peony and honey scent trickles out around her, putting Lan Zhan at ease.

They had been matched as roommates based on their scent compatibility (most serious students choose scent-matched roommates over rooming with friends, as the presence of a compatible omega can help maintain focus and a sense of general well-being).

They’re not really friends yet, though. Mianmian tentatively holds her arms open to Lan Zhan, offering a hug, but then says “no pressure, I know Wei Ying said you don’t like to be touched.”

Wei Ying.

Lan Zhan’s phone chimes again.

He sees the message preview on the screen. “hey lan zhan I just wanted to say goodnight and I’m sorry”

Lan Zhan sits down at the foot of his bed. “I would be grateful if… Would you call my brother? Please.”

He doesn’t like to ask for such a juvenile favor.

Mianmian takes back the phone, not missing a beat. Her forehead crinkles at the message on the Lock Screen, but she holds it out for Lan Zhan to open.

“Lan Huan, right?”

Lan Zhan nods.

Lan Zhan is quiet on the ride to Lan Huan’s apartment.

Inside, Lan Huan makes him a cup of tea. Lan Zhan takes a small sip, then recoils at the wave of nausea the tannins send through him.

He tells his brother everything that happened in the Nie guest house.

(Well, everything except the name of the alpha he’d been with.)

Lan Xichen looks pained. “The nightstand. If you’d checked the nightstand you’d have found condoms.”

Lan Zhan carefully does not think about how his brother knows where there are condoms in the Nie guesthouse.

And he doesn’t think about why it didn’t occur to him to rifle around in the drawers that night. It doesn’t help.

Lan Zhan has been thinking this over for a week.

He’s had a week to go back through his calendar and look up the date of Nie Huaisang’s party.

A week to plug that date into a due date calculator, to determine that he’s unlikely to give birth until after finals.

A week to learn about the accommodations the school is able to make should he go into labor before finals, and to read about the university daycare.

A week to make a decision.

He tells his brother that he intends to keep the baby. The pregnancy should not interfere with his ability to complete the current school year.

After that, he will take a semester off to care for the child until they’re old enough for daycare, then return to school.

He’ll have to move back home to Cloud Recesses and commute to the university in Caiyi for classes, since he can’t stay in the dorms with a baby.

But Lan Zhan doesn’t think his uncle will turn him away. His brother agrees.

Lan Zhan is certain he has it all figured out, when his brother asks, “and does the father know?”

Lan Zhan doesn’t meet his brother’s eyes.

“While I would welcome his presence in my child’s life if that was something he wanted, he made it very clear that being a father is not an option for him now.”

——

Lan Huan wakes up before sunrise. He /can’t/ let himself feel guilty for going behind his brother’s back. Lan Zhan clearly had been trying to protect the identity of the alpha he’d been with, but it was fairly obvious to Lan Huan who it was.

There was always one person his younger brother could never say no to, who was always dragging him into trouble over and over again. One person who would dare be so reckless with Lan Zhan’s heart.

Lan Huan can’t let Wei Ying continue to lead his brother on.

——

Late the next morning, Wei Ying is on his way back to the dorm room with soup for a hungover Jiang Cheng, when the door opens and Jiang Cheng comes out.

His eyes narrow. “You have a visitor. I’ll be at Huaisang’s.” Then, he pauses. “He says Lan Zhan’s OK, that’s all I know.”

Inside, Lan Huan is near his desk. He is smiling. It’s not the kind of smile Wei Ying likes having aimed at him.

Wei Ying is about to suggest they take a walk, because he would very much like to be somewhere with witnesses right now, when Lan Huan starts speaking.

“I just want to make something abundantly clear:

Either you choose to stand by Lan Zhan now, or you stay away from him for good.

You do not get to leave him alone when things are hard only to reappear when his lifestyle would clash less with yours.”

Wei Ying is not sure this is entirely fair? He’s been trying to get ahold of Lan Zhan all week.

But.

He must have done something wrong. And it must be something obvious. Otherwise why would Lan Zhan be ignoring him? Why would Lan Huan come all this way?

Could it be— is he being creepy? Is he texting Lan Zhan too much? Is Lan Huan saying he needs to respect Lan Zhan’s boundaries if he’s really his friend? Wei Ying /has/ always had trouble with that.

Or… does Lan Zhan like someone, and Wei Ying is being too clingy and getting in the way?

Lan Huan’s brow furrows into the tiniest frown, and he continues, after an awkward silence:

“You are leaving Lan Zhan alone with an infant, juggling homework and a crying baby, while you continue to have a normal college experience. You have every right to do so. But you may not call yourself a father if you are not there when it’s difficult.”

Ah. Wei Ying remembers that one time Lan Zhan got drunk and told him about his parents.

But wait. Rewind. More importantly:

“An infant? Lan Zhan has an infant?”

——

Lan Huan might have made a mistake.

This morning, he had made an impromptu journey to, he /thought/, make Wei Ying regret hurting his baby brother.

Lan Zhan had been putting on a strong face, but he was pretty obviously heartbroken. His years-long crush had culminated in his best friend sleeping with him then discarding him when things got difficult.

Lan Huan had been prepared for Wei Ying to be sheepish or defiant upon being confronted, but instead he looks…confused.

Almost as if he’s just hearing this news for the first time.

Could Lan Huan have been mistaken about the father’s identity after all? Surely not.

“Would you excuse me for a moment?”

Lan Huan steps into the hallway and just barely hesitates before calling Lan Zhan.

“Brother?”

“Lan Zhan. I’m curious: when did you and your… um… alpha companion discuss his involvement in your child’s life?”

“Brother, where are you?”

“A-Zhan…” and, damn, Lan Huan only calls his brother that when he’s meddling, now Lan Zhan will definitely know something’s up.

“Where. Are. You.”

“…”

“Brother. Please hand the phone to Wei Ying.”

So yes, Lan Huan definitely made a mistake.

After WY’s hushed conversation on the phone that he really tried not to eavesdrop on, Lan Huan finds himself with a very eager, somewhat apologetic Wei Ying asking if he can hitch a ride back to Gusu for the weekend.

And… that’s a good thing, right? Wei Ying is showing that he does care, and Lan Zhan deserves his support right now. Lan Huan doesn’t have the heart to refuse.

But also, Lan Huan has never spent any extended amount of time alone with Wei Ying, and now they are about to spend several hours in a car, just the two of them.

Wei Ying is fidgeting in the passenger’s seat, cocooned in a sweater Lan Huan is 90% sure belongs to Lan Zhan, chattering about (presumably) every thought that comes to his mind re: babies, Lan Zhan’s pregnancy, school, his family, and any other number of topics.

Wei Ying occasionally seems to forget who his audience is, and Lan Huan soon loses all hope of making it back to Gusu without learning anything new about his brother’s sex life.

——

“I wonder why Lan Zhan kept it to himself. Is he worried about me with babies? But he’s been over to babysit A-Ling with me before! Lan Zhan will be so cute with a baby, he was so cute with A-Ling, let me see if I can find the picture… oh wait you’re driving.”

——

“I assumed when I wanted to have kids it would take longer, I can’t believe Lan Zhan’s actually pregnant after only one time! Well, I mean, after one /night/, I guess it was more than one—”

Lan Huan clears his throat.

——

“You know, I was supposed to be going to a few parties this weekend, I was so excited, I’d been looking forward to them all week.”

Lan Huan bristles. Is Wei Ying really complaining about missing out on partying right now?

“But now I don’t even care about skipping them, since I get to see Lan Zhan instead!” Wei Ying catches himself then. “Well, I mean, I know these aren’t the best circumstances. It’d be better if this was just a normal visit of course.”

Lan Huan hears the sentiment, though, and he does appreciate it. He can’t say he’s happy about his unmarried, unmated baby brother getting pregnant right as he’s supposed to be beginning his adult life,

but if it was going to happen, at least Lan Zhan has an alpha who’s clearly head-over-heels in love with him.

——

At some point on the car ride, Wei Ying starts messaging someone. Then his phone rings and Wei Ying picks up.

It’s the least Wei Ying has spoken on the entire car ride, the other person clearly has a lot to say. In between the muffled yelling coming of the phone, Wei Ying says, “Please don’t tell anyone. I haven’t even talked to Lan Zhan yet,” and, “I don’t know, about a month ago?”

And, “I’m sorry. I know I promised.”

When he hangs up, he barely-explains, “That was my brother.”

Lan Huan remembers the young man in purple pajama pants who’d greeted him with a scowl this morning.

“He seemed less-than-friendly when I arrived.”

Wei Ying waves a hand dismissively. “He’s always like that. But he is actually, um, pretty upset. We always said we’d go away to school together, I think he’s worried I won’t come back.”

The thought hadn’t occurred to Lan Huan. “You /are/ still planning on going back tomorrow?”

Wei Ying laughs nervously. “Of course. It’s not like I can transfer at the beginning of the semester, anyway.”

Lan Huan doesn’t feel all that reassured by Wei Ying’s answer, but at least, like Lan Zhan, he seems determined to continue with school.

“Jiang Cheng will come around though,” Wei Ying says, more to himself than to Lan Huan. “He loves being an uncle. He can’t resist a cute baby.”

He turns to Lan Huan. “It just occurred to me, you’re going to be an uncle too! You’ve never been one before, huh? You’ll love it!”

He shoots Lan Huan a mischievous grin. “Jiang Cheng might get a little competitive though, he takes the favorite uncle title very seriously. He’s an alpha too, so he can be pretty protective, but I promise he means well.”

That’s when it hits Lan Huan, this young man is about to (whether officially or not) become part of his family. He finds he doesn’t hate the idea.

——

Lan Zhan sits on his brother’s couch, willing himself to focus the reading he’s trying to get a head start on for class next week. It’s not going very well; the thought of Wei Ying arriving at any moment is incredibly distracting.

After a hurried conversation with this morning in which little was decided, other than that Wei Ying wants to be involved (!!!) and is coming here (!!!!!) to talk things over, Lan Zhan had busied himself cooking Wei Ying’s favorite soup as a distraction.

(Jiang Yanli had taught him the recipe for Wei Ying’s eighteenth birthday last Autumn.)

But now, with the soup lazily simmering on the stove and the kitchen all cleaned up, Lan Zhan is antsy. He doesn’t know what to expect once Wei Ying is here.

They haven’t seen each other in person since the morning after, and Lan Zhan isn’t entirely sure what they are to each other now.

The door creaks open.

“Wow, something smells amazing!”

Wei Ying.

Lan Zhan forces himself not to throw his textbook on the ground and run to the door. He wants to cry. He wants to purr. He wants to carry Wei Ying into Lan Huan’s guest room and cover him up in blankets & pillows, wrap all his limbs around Wei Ying and never let him leave.

He does not do those things. Wei Ying is not his mate. He’s not even his boyfriend. So instead, Lan Zhan tentatively takes Wei Ying’s hand and gives it a squeeze, then asks if he would like some lunch.

Wei Ying is less restrained. He squeezes Lan Zhan’s hand back, then drops his duffel bag and pulls him in for a hug. Lan Zhan buries his face in Wei Ying’s neck, tears coming to his eyes in spite of himself. Wei Ying, Wei Ying, Wei Ying.

“I missed you,” Wei Ying whispers.

They don’t let go until Lan Huan clears his throat, and when he pulls back, Lan Zhan can see there are tears in Wei Ying’s eyes, too, but he’s smiling. After weeks apart, the brightness of Wei Ying’s smile fixed on Lan Zhan is almost disorienting.

“Right. Lunch!” Wei Ying says.

––––

Lan Huan and Lan Zhan don't speak during meals, and for once, Wei Ying joins them in their silence. There are so many things he wants to ask Lan Zhan:

How long have you known? Why didn't you tell me? Did you think I'd be mad? Do you think I'd be a bad father?

But at the same time, he had just hugged Lan Zhan, and he hadn't doubted for a moment that Lan Zhan wanted him here. They had melted into each others' arms just as they had the last time they saw each other, as if they'd never been apart.

And Lan Zhan had cooked his sister's soup, which takes hours to make. He must have started in the morning right after they'd talked on the phone.

What are he and Lan Zhan to each other now? He has no idea. If you'd asked him any time in the past few years, he'd say: best friends. Lan Zhan, when he got drunk with Wei Ying after graduation, had called them soulmates.

Then, just before they both moved away, they'd been lovers. Just the one night. Does it still count as a one-night stand if it's your soulmate, Wei Ying wonders?

And now Lan Zhan is pregnant. Wei Ying's child is growing inside the most beautiful omega he's ever seen, who makes such wonderful soup, who smells so comforting, like a warm sweater, like sandalwood incense, like—

"I'm just, um, going to head out. Mingjue's going to be in town tonight, I'll be out with him and A-Yao fairly late," Lan Huan says, standing up. He gives Lan Zhan a look.

Wei Ying's mind starts to clear up and he realizes that his and Lan Zhan's scents have gotten /strong/.

Lan Huan, a beta, was finding it uncomfortable.

He & Lan Zhan stare at each other in silent argument, until he says, "You may both stay here for the night. I imagine you have a lot to talk about." He stares at Lan Zhan another moment & adds, as Lan Zhan's eyes widen in horror:

"I must insist, however, that any sexual activity be confined to the guest bedroom, and involve proper protection, /which can be found in the nightstand/." He turns and leaves.

Lan Zhan, having finished his soup, says quietly, "It's not like I can become any more pregnant." Wei Ying nearly chokes on a piece of lotus root.

And now, Wei Ying is truly alone with Lan Zhan. How did he successfully manage to spend so much time alone with Lan Zhan in high school? Lan Zhan is too much. He's too Lan Zhan. His hair is so glossy, and he smells so nice, and he's too beautiful. Wei Ying wants to lick his jaw.

"Wei Ying," Lan Zhan says, shaking him gently. Wei Ying has been zoning out staring at Lan Zhan.

Lan Zhan fetches a canister of coffee beans and holds it under Wei Ying's nose. Wei Ying breathes in. His head begins to clear up again.

"The pregnancy hormones," Lan Zhan says.

Of course. Wei Ying had knotted Lan Zhan, now Lan Zhan is pregnant. He's incredibly sensitive to Lan Zhan's scent right now. As his nose adjusts to the presence of the coffee, he finds himself leaning in toward Lan Zhan again. He wants Lan Zhan's earlobe between his teeth.

Lan Zhan rummages in his bag and pulls out a bottle of nasal spray then hands it to Wei Ying. WY takes it gratefully, still clutching the coffee bean canister under his nose. He squirts a couple of pumps in each nostril. There. That'll dull his sense of smell for an hour or two.

His head cleared for the time being, it now fully dawns on Wei Ying again where he is, and why. All the questions he has for Lan Zhan come rushing into his brain again. He pushes them back, hands the small bottle back to Lan Zhan, and reverts to teasing:

“I can’t believe you’d let me stick your nasal spray up my nose, Lan Zhan, I’ve never done something so intimate before. Are you going to let me use your toothbrush later?” Lan Zhan lets out a half-hearted huff of breath.

They stare at each other a bit too long, neither knowing where to begin.

Finally, Wei Ying grasps at the first question in his brain, the one that’s been tormenting him all week:

“Lan Zhan, why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?”

From there, the floodgates are open. They talk about everything, falling back into the easy friendship they’d shared for years. There’s a lot to figure out, but it’s Lan Zhan. What problems could the world possibly throw at them that WY and LZ can’t solve together?

WY is horrified to learn that LZ was keeping the pregnancy from him because of what he’d said that night before they’d gone at it in earnest.

“I urged you on when you tried to stop,” Lan Zhan says, not meeting Wei Ying’s eyes. “I told you I couldn’t get pregnant.”

Wei Ying had been all too eager to believe anything that made it ok to sleep with Lan Zhan in that moment, and he knows it.

“We both took the risk, Lan Zhan. I’m just as responsible for what happened as you are.”

He can’t stop himself voicing the next question in his mind, the same flavor of doubt that had been nagging at him all week.

“Did you… did you not want me involved? I know I might not seem like the best father material. But I thought… you’d been around me and A-Ling, you know I can take care of a baby.”

Another thought occurs to him, and his stomach tightens as he voices it.

“Or did you think if I found out I’d pressure you into a relationship you don’t want? I promise I would never do that, Lan Zhan. If you don’t like me that way, if it was just a one-time thing, I can live with that. I just want to be here for you and the baby, I swear.”

At that moment, Lan Zhan is inscrutable in a way he hasn’t been to Wei Ying for years now. His face carefully blank, he says, “that is all you want? Nothing else?”

It is definitely not all Wei Ying wants.

“Yes,” he says.

Something in Lan Zhan’s carefully blank expression falters for a moment. It’s barely there, but Wei Ying is a Lan Zhan expert, and the brief loss of composure gives him the courage to keep prodding, to poke at the cracks in his best friend’s defenses until they crumble.

“I mean, yes if that’s what /you/ want, Lan Zhan. What I want stopped mattering the moment I knocked you up.”

“Not true,” Lan Zhan growls. Then he sighs.

“I know there are other decisions I could have made, when I found out I was pregnant. And I know that my having a child will affect you now, whether I want it to or not. But. It is Wei Ying’s child.”

Wei Ying takes Lan Zhan’s hand in both of his.

“I understand, Lan Zhan.” He’s not sure he does, actually, but he hopes he’s on the right track. “If I had a piece of you to hold on to like that, I don’t think I could let it go either.”

WY isn’t sure if he should continue. He wants to. He wants to tell LZ about all the feelings that have been tormenting him since that night, to finally have everything out in the open between them.

But is that selfish? Shouldn’t he let Lan Zhan take the lead on that front?

“Wei Ying?” Lan Zhan breathes, his face closer than it had been, and that’s when Wei Ying remembers that talking isn’t always 100% necessary, actually, and leans in to kiss him.

It’s just a brief press of lips before Lan Zhan, at least, has the sense to draw back. “Wei Ying. If you don’t mean it–”

And that’s all it takes for Wei Ying to be brave, because Lan Zhan doubting that Wei Ying could kiss him and /not/ mean it is an actual travesty.

“Lan Zhan. I mean it. I meant it when we kissed that night, I meant all of it. I like you so much. I love you. I want to be there when our baby is born, I want to take care of you both, for as long as you’ll let me.”

Lan Zhan has gone momentarily still in his arms, but then they’re kissing again. “Always,” Lan Zhan whispers after a moment. “Will let you, always. Like you so much. Love you.”

I’ll continue this later tonight, here’s a link to the top if you’re just joining:

https://twitter.com/raeinthe/status/1502473308444450822

The conversation dwindles after that. They kiss. There is so much kissing. Wei Ying nibbles Lan Zhan’s lower lip, licks into his mouth, feels out the shape of his tongue.

Before long, he finds the effects of the scent-blocker fading, but he no longer has any reason to hold himself back. Lan Zhan is /his/.

“The guest room,” Lan Zhan says, nudging him up.

And there it is, the thing that makes Wei Ying pause. They’re in Lan Zhan’s brother’s home. Lan Huan said he’d be out late, but they have no idea when he could be back. They probably shouldn’t risk it, right?

But Lan Zhan disagrees. His brother broke his trust today, and he is feeling a tad vengeful.

They end up making excellent use of the guest room, including (at Wei Ying’s insistence, in spite of LZ’s grumbling that they don’t need it) the contents of the nightstand.

——

In between makeout sessions, they start to plan out what their lives will look like for the foreseeable future.

There is a bit of arguing, mostly when one of them says they’ll do or give up something that the other deems too much of a sacrifice.

For example, Lan Zhan reluctantly agrees that there isn’t a much better alternative to Wei Ying transferring to LZ’s university next year. It’s a pretty comparable school to Wei Ying’s, with good computer science (WY’s major) and art (WY’s minor) programs.

Lan Zhan is not thrilled when Wei Ying says he’ll do all online classes next semester so he can move to Gusu sooner.

Of course he wants Wei Ying here with him as soon as possible. But this feels /too/ selfish. Wei Ying thrives on classroom discussion. Lan Zhan doesn’t want him to come here only to feel trapped and isolated with no friends except Lan Zhan and Mianmian.

But Wei Ying is more stubborn than Lan Zhan has ever seen him. He doesn’t just want to be there for the baby, he says. He wants to be there for Lan Zhan. And it’s mostly prerequisite classes this first year anyway, WY reassures him: none of the very exciting stuff. LZ acquiesces.

They talk about when to tell their families. Wei Ying wants to tell Jiang Yanli right away so all the siblings know. Lan Zhan agrees, and tries not to think about how disappointed JYL will be in him.

(Lan Zhan now realizes in hindsight the pleasant conversation they had when she taught him her soup recipe was actually a very terrifying shovel talk.)

They’ll have to tell uncle fairly soon. If Lan Zhan plans to move back to Cloud Recesses before having his baby, uncle will need some notice. And if Wei Ying is moving here to help, it’s best to give uncle plenty of time to warm up to the idea.

They decide to tell LQR after Lan Zhan’s first ultrasound appointment. Wei Ying will come to town to be by Lan Zhan’s side, and Lan Zhan will be ready to show LQR the ultrasound photos in exchange for his support.

They don’t end up deciding when to tell the Jiangs, yet.

By the time they’ve got a plan, the evening has turned into early morning. They need to sleep before Wei Ying heads back.

Lan Zhan holds him close, but fights the urge to cling as fiercely as he’d like. Wei Ying is his boyfriend. Wei Ying is moving here, soon. When they wake up, it won’t be goodbye for long.