Thread by @Firebrd86

#kaeys5k

Prompt: De-aged
Pairing: WWX & JL

"Hanguang-Jun is gonna be soooo mad."

"Oh no, his heart will be broken! Is this the end of love?"

"We can figure this out..."

"Ugh."

The Juniors all stared at the small boy standing in the middle of the triggered array

He was smiling at them, eyes bright and curious. He looked like he was having the best day of his life, when in fact, the Juniors might be having the WORST day of their lives

For that child in the middle of the array was none other than Wei-qianbei

And he'd been de-aged

It was so annoying when they walked into a nighthunt with fairly clear objectives, only to have someone (Wei-qianbei) perform some kind of self-sacrificing feat and end up like this

It was probably a good thing that this array appeared to be your run-of-the-mill, generic 'de-aging-for-a-day' arrays. They were all hoping that this would all be a bad memory in 24 hours time

"So what do we do while we figure this out?" OYZZ asked

"Well, last time, Hanguang-Jun was mad at us for not going straight to him, so I think that's what we should do," LSZ offered

"But then we'll be another disappointment to Hanguang-Jun!" LJY wailed

JL snorted. Everyone looked at him

Instead of answering, he walked into the now-harmless array and plucked Wei-qianbei - probably should call him A-Ying now - up and carried him away. "You need some better clothes and a meal. Are you hungry, A-Ying?"

A-Ying perked up at the mention of food, but then hesitated

JL knew this would happen. He was becoming very familiar with his uncle's child form. Which was probably a bad thing in and of itself, because it meant that Wei-qianbei walked into these kinds of arrays a lot more than he should

"Don't worry, A-Ying," he told the boy. "There's going to be so much leftover that it would be a shame to leave it uneaten. Are you able to help us with that?"

This kind of workaround had always seemed to help A-Ying be more comfortable with eating

Eyes solemn, A-Ying nodded. "I can do that! A-Ying can help!"

He was so eager and so earnest that JL felt his chest ache. It always did when he thought about how awful Wei-qianbei's childhood would have been

The thought of a child that young having to fight dogs for food...

Ugh, that wasn't right. Which was why JL had secretly set up several large estates that had the best teachers and carers and where homeless children could have fun and run around and become their best little selves

No child in Lanling would go hungry if he could help it

The other Juniors followed JL down the mountain to the nearest town, and then into the best inn where JL ordered so much food that A-Ying couldn't possibly decline

As A-Ying shovelled rice and vegetables and pork into his mouth, LSZ went off to send for HGJ

It wasn't long before he returned. "Hanguang-Jun will be here soon. He was attending to some business in the next town over."

"More like being close by just in case we needed him," JL corrected. He wasn't mad. It was kind of nice to have a powerful cultivator like HGJ nearby

Of course, it would be better if that cultivator was Jiujiu, but Jiujiu was a very busy man, and JL didn't want to interrupt him from important things all the time

Besides, if Jiujiu wasn't here, then JL had another story to tell Jiujiu when they next met up

Although, he thought, looking at A-Ying, he was probably going to be scolded for letting Jiujiu's shixiong be de-aged AGAIN... He could just hear the tone of voice Jiujiu used when he shouted, "A-Ling!"

Okay, so maybe it was a good thing Jiujiu wasn't here

A-Ying was just finishing off his third bowl of rice and pork when HGJ arrived. He looked calm and not at all worried, actually, which was a relief

HGJ even sat down at the table with them and poured himself a cup of tea

Without waiting for an invitation, JL began to rattle off all the details that he knew HGJ would want. What kind of array A-Ying had stepped into. What they had originally been hunting on the nighthunt. How long A-Ying had been like this. How much he'd eaten. If he was tired

A lot of information, but JL knew HGJ would want it. Because Wei-qianbei was just as important to HGJ as JL was important to Jiujiu

And JL knew that if this happened to him, Jiujiu would be looking for the same information (after he shouted a bit, of course)

HGJ placed a gentle hand on top of A-Ying's head when JL was finished. "Very good. A-Ying, I have some bunnies that would like to say hello to you. Would you like to see them?"

Ever trusting with his HGJ, A-Ying grinned wide and nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah!"

As HGJ and A-Ying left, JL heaved a sigh and downed the remainder of the tea in his cup. He stood. "We're near Lotus Pier. I'm going to visit Jiujiu. If you want to come, I'm leaving now."

He had the sudden need to go and hug his Jiujiu. Just because

Thank you @bingumootmoot for this cute prompt! I love a good JL/WWX friendship fic