Thread by @sunshotchampagn

Okay, we’re doing this. In my head this fic is alternately called Castaway!wwx or Late for the Sky. Bc I was listening to my dad’s copy of said Jackson Browne album on vinyl on repeat while thinking about this fic. I wanna say it was like three months into the pandemic jsyk.

https://twitter.com/sunshotchampagn/status/1524882487523938304

Some background: this is a modern with magic AU. There are cultivation sects and all major characters are around/in roughly similar places to canon. Wwx grew up with the Jiang and got both a cultivator’s and normie education.

You sort of pick whether you pursue magic or mundane professions in this AU. Cultivators’ relationship with the rest of the world is super similar to canon–in that people know who they are, what they do, and ask them for help.

But they’re fancy richies and keep their secrets to themselves–for the most part.

Wangxian knew each other from modern cultivator’s camp/school even though they grew up in different regions. Their relationship is just as fraught with longing and misunderstanding and idiocy as in canon

and it takes most of their twenties for them to get their personal and emotional shit together. None of this is helped by wwx’s divergent path of cultivation.

It all goes down fairly similarly to canon, but there isn’t a war, exactly and wwx doesn’t lose his golden core–yet.

What does happen is that wwx becomes increasingly interested in an underground-type movement within cultivator’s circles that advocate for using cultivation to do more helpful things for regular people other than just killing beasts and hunting ghosts.

This is how he meets the Wens. Wen Qing and wwx both decide to pursue mundane specialized educations and do secret research on how to apply cultivation to modern technology. This is very frowned upon by the cultivation establishment.

The Jiangs were already mad that wwx seemingly decided to throw away his VERY EXPENSIVE cultivation education and all his very obvious talent on just working as an engineer with “the common people.”

When they find out what he’s really doing, they think he’s trying to exploit their “generosity” to him for money and fame and cut him out entirely.

So, like he do, wwx goes full throttle.

He finished his degree and starts working in like really dangerous oil rig-style sites as a safety officer. He creates talismans and arrays that save lives and the industry starts hiring him as a consultant.

He travels around and word spreads. There’s some coverage in the media, every single one of the sect leaders are 😡 about it.

He has to start watching his back. Others have been killed for much less, including a-Yuan’s parents.

Around this time he reconnects with lwj, who is doing the very traditional cultivation path, going where the chaos is--

and running into small crying children in the middle of the street in the small town where wwx bought a couple houses with his oil-rig money so he and the wens can do what they please outside the sects.

So wangxian reconnect in a very Burial Mounds-like scenario, but it’s just a nice group of houses with a shared backyard and the wen's lives are still sort of in danger, but there’s no kill order or anything.

Also, this is way more backstory than I wanted to insert right away so I’m just going to say: wwx also was experimenting with theories about resentful energy in grad school sort of, but he didn’t get far bc the burial mounds were actually cleansed over the last few centuries--

so there’s not a huge deposit of it anywhere–that he knows of lol!

Lwj keeps coming around bc he is very in love with wwx and he’s able to facilitate some communication between wwx and his siblings, specifically bc jyl is getting married/having a baby.

She lives in Austrialia so it’s a little easier for her to maneuver around her parents’ refusal to have contact with wwx and invites him to come see the baby once he’s born. He books a flight! he's so excited!!

Reminder: THIS IS ALL BACKSTORY if I was writing this for real, all this information would be thrown in around a bunch of action and into dialogue like a normal story.

Okay, now for some bits of the actual fic. Which starts out this way, the morning after the night lwj and wwx get their heads out of their asses and talk through their shit then kiss and have sex and talk more and fall asleep in each others' arms:

“Wei Ying?”

“Hey, sweetheart.” Wei Ying’s got his boarding pass in the same hand as his phone. He’s probably going to drop one of them.

His suitcase is bumping along behind him because one of the wheels is cracked. He almost bowls over an old lady in his rush to the gate, but there’s no way he’s not going to take this call.

“You are not here.” He sounds sleepy, confused. Wei Ying didn’t want to leave him like this. It was the last thing he wanted to do.

“No, they changed my flight time. Did you get my note? I promise I would have stayed. I swear, Lan Zhan. I’m so sorry. I’m not running away, I--”

“I believe you, Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan tells him and that’s the best thing. He didn’t know, not until last night, Lan Zhan’s always believed him.

“There’s a later flight, but this one’s already cutting it close for dinnertime. I really wanted to stay, Lan Zhan, but Shijie said she was cooking.”

“I know, Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan says softly. “You will come home soon.”

“Yeah, I will,” he says. His mind and heart are full of this beautiful man he’s spent so long completely misunderstanding. “I’ll come home to you.”

“I love you, Wei Ying.”

He’s almost reached the gate. They’re just checking in the last person in line. The flight attendant, in five different shades of blue with a strained smile is watching him approach at a sprint.

He’s breathless with the memory of Lan Zhan’s hands and mouth, his dark eyes full of something Wei Ying has seen in them for years and only just identified. His heart’s so full. “Look in on a-Yuan for me?”

Lan Zhan says, “Mn. I will.”

“You’re so good. The best, Lan Zhan. I love you. I have to go,” he says and ends the call.

When it’s clear the plane is going down, Wei Ying closes his eyes and thinks, ah, I should have gotten the later flight. I should have stayed in Lan Zhan’s bed. I should have taken him to see a-Yuan today.

He thinks, I’m so sorry, sweetheart.

The ocean swallows him whole.

Don't ask me how the plane breaks up/wwx doesn't die on impact. He's a cultivator, so he manages to cling to something that floats. He even tries to save a few others, but they tire quickly and slip under the water.

He floats for a long time.

He doesn't remember how he makes it to the island. He thinks maybe he dreamed about it before he got there. Everything is hazy. He thought he heard someone talking. More than one voice maybe. When he wakes he tells himself he imagined it. Later, he'll realize he was wrong.

He spends a few nights on the beach. He dries out the few sheets of talisman paper he had in his coat pocket and makes a fire with one. He designs an array that freshens and purifies the water in one of the eddies by the rocks with the rest.

He needs to find shelter and food and then he needs to figure out how to get home.

//brb driving home from this coffee shop. will do more later!

The island isn't big (I'm literally imagining the one straight up from the movie castaway ok) and it wouldn't take very long to explore the entire thing but something holds wwx back. A weird feeling he doesn't bother to identify as fear.

He has his priorities anyway and after he figures out what plants he can forage and does a little fishing with his cultivation-aided reflexes, he moves on to searching for shelter beyond the beach.

He finds a little cave not far from where he set up his freshwater array. He thinks it will work for his purposes: a place where he can sleep that, while it won't be dry, it will protect him from the worst of the mid-day sun and from the wind and storms that plague the beach.

There's a smooth wall next to where he tosses some leaves to sleep on, and that's where he starts to plan his escape. He marks the days that go by and he's got a couple photos in his wallet that he pins up there as inspiration as well.

He doesn't have enough talisman paper to do something like teleportation. He'd read some theories on that in grad school and he maybe could have figured it out but in every scenario he'd need more than one cultivator to anchor him between teleport sites or he'd rip himself apart.

He lost Suibian in the ocean. He had to check it, which is standard procedure for cultivators flying commercial. And, by his extremely suspect calculations, he wouldn't be able to fly on it far enough to get anywhere anyway.

The only thing he can think of that might work is a raft. Which he will have to build by hand from the sparse trees which grow on the island and supplement the structure with talismans written in his own blood right onto the structure--so it won't break apart on the waves.

This is dangerously close to the kind of demonic cultivation he'd read about secretly in the Lan library during cultivation school while he was supposed to be taking punishment with lan zhan

He's also certain he will need all the reserves in his golden core to keep himself strong enough to actually sail the raft through the monstrous waves he'd ridden out on his way to this godforsaken place.

So, he'll need to supplement with something else to make sure the raft doesn't break apart AND that he can sail it close enough to civilization that some boat can pick him up or that he can make it to some island with at least one other person and maybe a telephone.

He tears at his hair late at night for days thinking about how if the island has never had any people living on it, there aren't any dead to disturb, no resentful energy to wake. Is he going to have to do some kind of ritual sacrifice on a few fish?

He's not sure that will work. He's not sure ANY of this will work.

But he looks up at the picture of lan zhan and a-yuan and he thinks--I'll make it work. I have to.

He ventures into the heart of the island the next day

//short break for a snack, i think. also lol here's the top of the thread

https://twitter.com/sunshotchampagn/status/1525870373547417601?s=20&t=2COkSGANFl2hiNGsuea5Yw

//okay back. i realized I forgot to tag this #mermay and hahaha is that a spoiler???

As he thought, the island isn't big. It takes him about half a day to walk across it, as far as he can tell. Maybe it would take a day to walk the circumference but that's not what he needs to do right now.

On his walk back to his little cave, he stumbles upon a few other smaller caves with their own shallow eddies and little nooks he could have used to sleep in. He thinks they might be interconnected, but even though he grew up in Lotus Pier, he's not an experienced cave diver--

--to even think about trying to explore them.

It's the next day that he finds the big cave.

There is something inside of it, he's certain. When he approached it for the first time, he would have sworn he could hear whispers from the mouth of that place. As he walks closer, the temperature drops.

When he looks inside, the darkness within it is somehow too dark. It feels like it’s drawing him in. His feet take two more steps than he meant to as he draws near. So, as someone who is mostly good at following his own instincts, he turns around and goes back to his little cave.

He mulls it over for a while.

He looks all over the island for the next few days, searching out that same feeling, gnawing on a hunch. He doesn't find it anywhere else. Frustrated, he goes back to the mouth of the cave and he lets himself feel it.

He channels his qi into the soles of his feet and he doesn't get any closer than he had before, but he stands there for a long time and looks into the darkness, thinking.

He makes a decision.

Whatever is in there, it's the closest thing to resentful energy this island has on offer and wwx needs it.

He needs it to build his raft, he needs to sink it into the grain of each bound sapling, so they will fuse together and bring him home again.

He needs it to return to his family, to his lan zhan and a-yuan.

So, he makes a little spear--nothing fancy, just a sturdy stick with a pointy end--and that same day, he walks into the mouth of the cave.

As soon as he enters, there is...an unfurling of something. It was coiled before, resting, lying in wait for him.

Now, it is huge, oppressive in its darkness and weight. wwx can't see it. There is no light in the cave.

It's all he can do to tread carefully enough he doesn't stumble over a loose rock and into the murky water filling wide, shallow pools at his feet.

He didn't go in without a plan, btw. It's not much of one because his understanding of resentful energy is so theoretical.

But, he's manipulated it before, a little. So, he holds out his hand, clutching his stupid spear in the other hand reaches for it with his own power.

In retrospect, with what little time he has to consider the matter, this is a colossally stupid idea.

The energy, the darkness, whatever it is, grabs him, bodily, and shakes him.

He holds on, like he’s riding a bull.

He drops his spear and lets his qi surge into both of his hands. He tries to push back and away from it, but it's too strong. It won't let him go.

It continues to shake him, sending him through the air to crash into the cave wall then back the other way to drag him through the rocks and the mud on the ground.

His breath, moving through his half-clenched teeth, makes a strangled little whistling noise and the energy reacts

He does it again, remembering lan zhan's musical cultivation, and starts to channel his power that way.

The darkness, the energy, doesn't like that. It slows then stills, quivering and clutching at him tighter. His song gets stronger now that he can breathe a little easier.

It doesn't surprise him at all when whatever it is starts talking to him.

*Ooh* it says in more than one voice. *What are you?*
wwx grits his teeth, swallows, and keeps whistling.

*A human!* It answers its own question. *A cultivator* it sounds pleased. *We have not seen your kind in many years, little human*

Well, you won't for long, wwx thinks and whistles harder, even though his throat is dry and his lips hurt. He pushes his qi through his hands again. He needs to get away to--he doesn't know what he needs to do. This, whatever it is, this energy is so strong.

*You need to stay* the energy replies even though he didn't speak aloud. *Staying is best. We want a friend. A playmate, little human,* they say. *We haven't had one in so long. And you, little stranger. You want a home.*

“I have one,” wwx blurts, surprised into engaging with it, knowing he's making a mistake.

*Do you?* it asks curiously.

The energy sighs and Wei Wuxian is assaulted by the memory of the Jiangs throwing him out. Auntie Yu's angry words about throwing away their money and his talent. Spiteful. Ungrateful. Unfilial boy.

Jiang Cheng's devastated face.

“No,” he croaks. There is pressure on his windpipe as he struggles. He should try to whistle again but he says, “That was years ago.”

The energy laughs. *Are you welcome in that home, little one? Where are you welcome now, poor stray kitten?*

Wei Wuxian hisses as they shove every closed door, every empty room, every cold look he’s ever borne at him in an endless barrage.

He whistles sharply again and he knows there’s something he can think of that's warm and good.

Someplace that felt right, where someone wanted him, someone who’s far away now, but so large in his mind. He can almost—

But the dark energy screeches and the water in the cave erupts, pulling him, as if snatched by a malevolent hand, into a large pool of water at the back of the cave.

The pool is shallow and he’s knocked into the sharp rocks at the bottom. He grasps and breathes in the tainted water. His mind screams even as his lungs do.

No, he thinks, he has to go home. He needs—

*We will give you the power you need,* they sing. *You can have it.*

They raise him from the water and carry him to the shore of the pool—half in, half out of the water. There is no one there but someone is holding his head. He feels hands, but no body, no warmth.

He’s bleeding freely from a cut at the base of his skull. It’s hot and thicker than the black water he’s submerged in.

*Let us help.*

He shakes his head and moans. He’ll heal. If they leave him alone. He can. His core—

*Oh, you won’t need that. Not here.*

He will. If he’s going home. He’ll need both to—

*But you are home, little one.*

No, he—he’s going home.

*You did, you did,” they croon. *Don’t you remember?*

There are hands cradling his head and no one is there but they whisper, *You tried and tried and then you came home and now you are here. We will heal you, treasure.*

There is a hand on his belly. It's so cold. *We will heal you so you can stay and be free. You can stay and we will love you but we need what is here.”

The hand sinks its fingers—no claws—into his skull and he whimpers. There were things there that he needed but—and here another set of claws sink into his belly, reaching for his warmth, and he screams and knows nothing but darkness.

He wakes to their whispers of glee. *He’s awake, he’s awake* they chant. *Wake up, friend. Wake up. Play with us more.*

The words *play* and *more* echo through the cave. Loud. It hurts his ears. His head.

He frowns. What did they do? They did something, didn’t they? Ugh, they’re so annoying.

“Shut up,” he grumbles. “You’re always talking nonsense.” He spits their water out. It tastes bad on his tongue. He tastes blood too.

Those dicks. They play so rough.

He blinks and shifts on the sharp rocks at his back. They…were playing? They must have been. The stupid darkness, they never play fair.

They click their many tongues and hush him like a child. *We do. We do* They say--they lie. *You don't remember, little one. We'll heal your head and you can play with us again. Always.*

He snarls his denial and offense. He’s no toy for them.

He whistles sharply and they pull away from him shrieking, but he draws them back in and twists them all around him. The water at his waist churns and creates a cyclone in their dank pool and down to the lower caves that open out to the ocean.

He can see the whole island through them, can sense and crush every living thing if he wants because he can sing their power back to them, through them.

“Not yours,” he says to the darkness. “Mine. My home. You said.” He *remembers* they said that.

They sigh and roll over for him. They come to his hands and caress, buzzing urgently, playfully like the nipping of the little fish along the rocks near the shore.

He whistles again, a little song his mouth knows, and they shudder and twist, unhappy.

“Mine now,” he says again.

He stands on unsteady feet. He looks down at them and then at his hands. They look—do they look strange?

With their long dark claws and blue and purple and black scales dusting the knuckles and joints. The blue shines iridescent, reflecting off the water and the little sliver of moon that’s lighting his cave from the opening at the very top.

His now, he thinks to himself, satisfied. Not strange at all. Good. Home.

The darkness trills so he trills back and dives into the water.

//phew!! and that's it for this part of the fic! Here's the top again!

https://twitter.com/sunshotchampagn/status/1525870373547417601?s=20&t=2COkSGANFl2hiNGsuea5Yw

//Just a little bit more tonight and also a fair warning:

I, uh, never finished writing most of this fic bc I don't know how it ends. There's a few more scenes to post but from there it's just vibes and shrug emojis all the way down!

lwj gets off the phone with the love of his life, who left him alone in bed with only a scribbled post-it note stuck to the pillow that said, "Flight changed. Got to go. I'm not afraid anymore xoxo" and has a fairly normal day.

He showers, makes breakfast, calls his brother, and tries not to sound happy enough that lxc will say something about how happy he sounds. He's taking a break from traveling for cultivation, to do some research for Shufu, but he hadn't planned on going to the library that day.

He's with a-Yuan and Wen Popo when he gets the call from Jiang Cheng.

He doesn't really remember the rest of the day.

He calls his brother again--he must have because xiongzhang comes and gets him and they go to Shufu's house after that and lwj sleeps.

He sleeps for days. And then he goes back to a-Yuan.

//this was less than I thought it would be bc I just realized I didn't account for a couple characters in my plot outline so lol I'll figure that out tomorrow!

//doing a little of this thread before heading in for a late-night at work

When lwj goes back to the little plot of houses with the shared backyard that shelters what wei ying had always resolutely refused to call his sect, when he looks a-Yuan in his big, dark eyes, and opens his mouth to say, no, xian-gege isn't coming home again--

-that is when he stops and thinks for the first time since he heard Jiang Wanyin's cracking sobs over the phone. He thinks, what if he's wrong?

The Jiang heir had been wrong about a lot of things related to his brother over the last few years. Always too quick to give up on him.

Lwj looks at a-Yuan, Wei Ying's son in all but name, and tells him, xian-gege was lost, very far away, but if he can be found, lwj will bring him home.

And here's a little threadfic I wrote up a long time ago that fits nicely into the space of time where lwj is searching for wwx. please enjoy and also please excuse any inconsistencies in the current thread with this older one. I changed a few things...

https://twitter.com/sunshotchampagn/status/1334352321069899776?s=20&t=O4DaI2yApqJC7XACZv0zbQ

//back to this! hello hello. please read the above threadfic bc it explains what lwj is up to in the saddest way possible

There will be more tweets coming soon!

So lwj vows to find wwx, as we all knew he would. I had not anticipated what the Wens would be up to in my initial plotting, but I'm thinking now that after they lose wwx's protection they go further into hiding.

They give permission for lwj to adopt a-yuan so he canhave a normal life and they have clandestine meetings sometimes to see him as he grows up. They exchange encrypted emails with lwj about searching the pacific for wwx.

lwj also recruits jiang yanli into his mission, despite the protests of the rest of the jiangs and all the jins except jin zixuan. They spend A LOT of money--at first hiring helicopters and ships to go around where the wreckage may have drifted.

And later, on maps and weather patterns. On consulting meteorologists and oceanographers. On mediums too, to see if they can find his spirit or trace his qi. On more boats when they think they've found an island he could have washed up on.

They travel to two other islands before they find him.

At one point I had some kind of idea that lwj only lands on the coordinates of the island because Sizhui has a dream. More like a nightmare, actually, and when he wakes, crying out for his xian-gege and crying hysterically, he traces a pattern with his fingers.

He keeps repeating the motion the next day, often enough, lwj frowns and sets pen and paper in front of him. He says, "Please draw it for me." Sizhui hadn't even realized he'd been doing it, but draw it he does.

lwj smiles at him, bc he's a good dad, says it's probably nothing then spends the next week staring between the drawing and all the maps he has, frowning some more and trying to convince himself he hasn't finally gone crazy from grief.

One night, in frustration, he tosses sizhui's drawing onto a pile of maps precarious enough that a few fall onto the floor along with the drawing.

They tumble and slide together and when they come to rest, the blue lines--well, they aren't NOT an arrow pointing from where the plane went down to one of the smallest little specks in a chain of islands about 200 miles to the south.

The island chain is one lwj and jyl had looked at years before but dismissed for some reason lwj can't remember anymore (and I don't feel like figuring out).

Long story short--they do even more research and realize, with wwx's golden core and the direction of the wind and the storms in the days following the crash, he very well might have ended up on that very island.

So, they charter a ship, get themselves a crew, and go to get him.

PS. there was a reason that Sizhui had this dream but i do not for the life of me remember. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

When lwj and jyl get to the island, they both have a bad feeling. lwj is an experienced cultivator, having continued to make his living going where the chaos is even as he searched and searched for wei ying.

jyl is a very perceptive person. As the island comes into view, they are both on the deck, looking out at it on the horizon. She feels something cold settle in her bones and when lwj says, "I will go. You stay with the crew. And keep your sword within reach," she nods.

lwj takes a rowboat from their ship towards the shore. They've come further down the beach from where wwx washed ashore and it's rockier, so he has to be careful to avoid the rocks as he rows.

He's concentrating so hard, he doesn't see wei ying sunning himself on a rock until he's nearly upon him.

"Wei Ying!" The name bursts from his mouth in the same moment that wwx, disturbed by the noise of one of the oars against a rock, sits bolt upright, then rears back in surprise, eyes wild and close to frightened.

He looks at lwj as if he's never seen him before.

Then he smiles.

He blinks and smiles wider, then cocks his head a little strangely before he slips seamlessly into the water and right back out again and into lwj's boat.

“I know you,” he says, smiling widely as he clamors haphazardly into the seat opposite lwj. “Your face. It lives in the little cave. He kept you there.”

This strikes Lan Wangji as strange, but perhaps someone else survived the crash? He asks, “Who did?”

But Wei Ying doesn’t answer. He reaches out, easy as he always has, to grasp Lan Wangji’s hand and says, “Come see.” Then he lets go immediately and dives back into the water.

“Wei Ying!” Lan Wangji cries, eyes wildly searching where he’d disappeared. The water here is strangely dark, almost murky, and Lan Wangji cannot see where Wei Ying went. His heart seizes in his chest. “Wei Ying!” He screams.

Wei Ying pops up out of the water, wiping his hair from his eyes and squinting up at Lan Wangji, having a heart attack in his rowboat.

“Were you calling me? Take your raft this way,” he says pointing further around the island. “I’ll show you the little cave.” And then he dives down again.

Lan Wangji can only follow.

Please imagine lwj desperately rowing his little rowboat after wwx who swims now like he was born in the water. And I dunno, wwx plays a game where he swims far ahead and watched lwj make huffing and puffing faces trying to catch up then like, swims right back and giggles at him.

because he's a monster and i love writing the cutest sad shit

anyway, eventually they make it to the little cave and wwx is SO EXCITED to show lwj around

wwx helps him tie up his boat and leads him into the cave, it's not big, so it only takes a few steps until they reach a flat wall.

“Here.” Wei Ying points to a picture on the wall, stuck with an old adhesive charm.

Lan Wangji can hardly believe it's still working, but Wei Ying’s talismans had always been the highest quality. The photo certainly is of Lan Wangji, but also of a-Yuan. The toddler is in Lan Wangji’s lap.

They're sitting at the kitchen table on a sunny morning with a plate of runny eggs on the table. The eggs aren’t in the picture, but Lan Wangji remembers. A-Yuan had his head turned to look up at Lan Wangji, his tiny fingers raised to brush Lan Wangji’s chin.

Lan Wangji was looking straight at the camera, eyes full of something Wei Ying hadn’t identified yet—something he wouldn’t for months.

Lan Wangji’s heart hurts. Wei Ying had this photo printed and carried it with him and charmed it to this cave wall.

Wei Ying shifts, capturing Lan Wangji’s attention again. He's looking between the picture and Lan Wangji’s face, beaming.

His expression reminds Lan Wangji of when their college pub trivia team, sadly short-lived, won second place, the highest score they ever achieved, on the strength of Wei Ying’s ability to name more popular songs of the 2000s played by high school marching bands than anyone else.

“See,” Wei Ying says. “It’s you. He must have liked you so much. He kept all his important things here. I tried to keep them nice for him. In case he came back.”

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji breathes, scanning the walls, taking them in. Wei Ying had filled the whole cave with his scribblings—some kind of navigation drawings, half-finished arrays that have the marks of travel or displacement--things he could barely understand.

Lan Wangji leaned forward and brushed the markings just under the photo. They were tally marks. Days perhaps? But there were only forty of them.

He turns back to Wei Ying. He really looks at him. His hair is long--the ends uneven, as though they’d been hacked at--but it still falls past his shoulders, matted and wet.

He’s pushed it away from his face, but not bothered to tie it up as he used to when they were younger; before he’d needed it short for work. He’s thin and filthy.

Most of his skin seems clean from the water, but his fingernails are black and strangely long and there’s some kind of grime around his neck, under his arms, and between his fingers. Lan Wangji can barely see it, but it looks almost scaly.

His eyes are black in the faint light of the cave and his face so pale and thin, Lan Wangji can’t believe it took so much time for him to realize that something is very wrong with Wei Ying.

Lan Wangji sits back on his heels. Wei Ying is smiling toothily at him. He can’t seem to sit still, which is so familiar it’s comforting. Wei Ying’s hands twitch on his knees, then they are twirling through the puddle of water at their feet.

His eyes dart between the wall and Lan Wangji and back to the wall, though he doesn’t look at it as though he can read any of the markings.

Lan Wangji’s heart is beating very fast.

“These are not your things?” he asks softly.

Wei Ying shakes his head. “Oh no. I don’t need things like that. But…” he hesitates and his attention is drawn to the picture again. After a moment, he says, “I like to look at them.”

Lan Wangji tries to smile. Wei Ying has been so far extremely focused on Lan Wangji and the little cave, but he seems so distractible, and Lan Wangji is terrified he will grow bored and flit away, perhaps where he can’t be followed.

Wei Ying swam through the water like he was born there, with even greater skill than he’d acquired through his childhood at Lotus Pier. He could disappear in an instant.

Wei Ying smiles back at him. “I always thought the picture was funny, but the more I looked at it, the more I liked it. And now you’re here and you’re so pretty.”

“Thank you, Wei Ying” Lan Wangji says.

He wants to take Wei Ying’s hands, but they keep moving—through the water and into his hair and, so so familiarly, to scratch at his nose. His expression flows like the stream that runs through the cave and into the sea.

In the space of only a moment, his eyes are dancing happily over Lan Wangji’s face then lighting up with a question. “What kind of thing are you?” He asks, voice bright and curious.

Lan Wangji’s brows furrow. “What do you mean?”

“Well, there’s fish in the sea and a few little ones in the stream on the land, and there are some birds and the mean boars and things and the darkness in the big cave. And I talk to all of them. And now I’m talking to you. What are you? What do I call you?”

A pit opens up in Lan Wangji’s stomach as he answers, “I’m a man, Wei Ying. I am Lan W—Lan Zhan.” Your Lan Zhan, he thinks.

“A man,” Wei Ying muses. “I forgot about those. Huh.” He smiles. He says, “Lan Zhan,” just as he always has. Like all he wants to do is say it.

Lan Wangji feels tears in his eyes, hot and sudden. He blinks and they fall down his cheeks.

Wei Ying tilts his head, looking with wide eyes. “That’s…” he says, hesitating again. “Lan Zhan is…sad?”

Lan Wangji quickly wipes the tears away. “No,” he says. “I am happy to find you here.”

Nothing else matters. Everything else, they can figure out. Wei Ying is alive and he needs Lan Wangji to keep it together. Even after all this time.

He tries to smile again. Wei Ying looks uncertain.

“What might Lan Zhan call you?” He makes himself ask.

Wei Ying giggles. “Lan Zhan has been calling this one Wei Ying for some time,” he says playfully. His sly smile grows curious, as though he’s just thought to ask, “But what does it mean?”

“It is your name.”

Wei Ying blinks. “Is it?” Lan Wangji nods, his heart aching still.

“The other creatures here don't talk so much in words," Wei Ying says. "Well, except for the darkness in the big cave. They just call me stupid names like little one and treasure."

He makes a grumpy, pouting face which clears almost at once again when he adds, "But I understand them--the other creatures. They like me best."

“Is that what you do?” Lan Wangji asks carefully. “Talk to the creatures on the island?”

Wei Ying lights up again. “Yes,” he says with relish. “I do other things too." He leans forward into Lan Wangji's space, then back out again, unable to keep still.

"I swim in the sea and play with the fish and eat them when they're too slow. I whistle at the birds sometimes. Oh, and I sit on the rocks and get warm, like when I saw you today."

Lan Wangji smiles, or tries to. "What about the cave with the darkness? Does Wei Ying talk to that?"

Wei Ying's expression falls slightly. His brow furrows then clears as he shrugs indifferently. "Yeah, but the cave is assholes. This one doesn’t like them. Never did."

Lan Wangji tilts his head, trying to look Wei Ying in the eye. He keeps his tone casual, as though they're just engaging in friendly small talk. "When did Wei Ying come here?"

"Oh, always, Lan Zhan." He blinks his dark eyes blithely as his words bear out the fear in Lan Wangji's heart. He says, “Wei Ying has always been here,” and smiles once more.

//and that's it for tonight. plus this is also the bulk of what I had already written out. the rest is a tiny scene, and old wip wednesday, and me blabbering about everything I forgot/never figured out about what happens at the end.

I'll bring that to you soon, I promise!

And here's the top again!

https://twitter.com/sunshotchampagn/status/1525870373547417601?s=20&t=IwG0Y7ZHFEHSzLE315sEpQ

@threadreaderapp unroll