#Cql fic

[youhideastar]

Fic: What the Moonlight Reveals

The Untamed / Wangxian / ~5000 words / AU

Palace Guard Lan Wangji and Eunuch Wei Wuxian in the Forbidden City

Lan Wangji turns a corner in the Forbidden City, and there he is, lounging against the red-painted wall in the light of the setting sun. “Lan-daren,” Wei Ying calls, smiling. He doesn’t bow. Wei Ying adheres scrupulously to etiquette when others are present, but for as long as they have known one another, Lan Wangji has been the exception. Wei Ying had started calling him “Lan Zhan” only a day after Lan Wangji had first been transferred to the Imperial Guard, and blithely ignored Lan Wangji’s corrections on that point. If he is using Lan Wangji’s title, it means something is afoot.

Read What the Moonlight Reveals on AO3!

[classygreydove]

wangxian + hanahaki with a twist AU ideas

many fic readers have mixed feelings about hanahaki aus for various reasons. But i think there's a lot of potential with this au, if only it is tweaked a bit:

Idea #1: in a world where u get hanahaki whenever you hold unacknowledged feelings for someone, wwx cannot figure out who he has feelings for. Is it Mianmian??? (and he has to figure it out before it kills him, if you want more angst. or for a more comedic fic, getting hanahaki is just annoying and embarrassing, and goes away once he realizes aloud who he likes romantically.) but the plot twist: wwx was intentionally oblivious this whole time because he "knew" liking lwj wasn't an option bc he has to stay in lotus pier and be jc's right hand, or he is yllz and without a golden core he will die early/cannot be lwj's cultivation partner, so he is subconsciously (but slowly more consciously) preventing himself from recognizing his own feelings

Idea #2: in a world where u get mildly inconvenient but not life-threatening hanahaki whenever you hold unacknowledged feelings for someone, a teenage lwj refuses to admit he likes wei wuxian, of all people. He won't. He won't. (and lxc in the back, trying to set them up: didi i love u but why) he spends the majority of the fic being frustrated at the flowers he coughs up and their meanings. by the end of the fic/wwx's time in cloud recesses lwj has accepted he is in love with wwx and the hanahaki goes away.

Idea #3: in a world where you don't get hanahaki in your lungs but as flower tattoos on your body, lwj is covered in flowers from head to toe for years. It is harmless, but seen as pitiable to love so deeply and unrequitedly. wwx doesn't know until he returns as mxy bc it was his "get lost!" before his death that caused the flowers to appear on lwj's skin in places he could not cover with his robes. Maybe lwj is wearing a veil/gloves etc to cover up the flowers when wwx returns bc the flowers are seen as deeply personal. maybe he doesn't and wwx sees the flowers right away.

Idea #4: in a world where anyone with a golden core gets a mild, not-dangerous case of hanahaki whenever you have a crush, (and it is considered a way of confession/courting to give the flowers to the object of your affections, with the hanahaki going away once affection dies/or is returned) teenage wwx and lwj both get hanahaki. wwx leaves the flowers in lwj's room/on his desk/etc, but has no idea lwj preserves all of them by pressing and storing them in a book. lwj does not give any of his flowers in return until after xuanwu cave, when wwx wakes up to find a flower tucked into his robes. Then after wwx passes out upon defeating wrh, lwj leaves wwx another flower. lwj thinks wwx no longer has hanahaki/his affections have died, but in reality wwx has no core and cannot make them. then the yunmeng balcony scene happens, or the flower toss scene at the nighthunt happens (wwx is still pining, he still wants to give lwj flowers even though they aren't hanahaki flowers) and lwj wonders why wwx has tossed him a flower if his affections are no longer returned. and idk maybe its canon compliant from there, or maybe its a fix-it. who knows.

[pigfartsviatardis]

This one goes out to wangxian nation ❤️💙

Do you like the following concept:

LWJ is hit with a curse where he’s in horrible pain unless WWX is touching him oh dear oh no

If so I have a double whammy for you!!! I myself have written a fic around this concept, with plenty of mutual pining and UST (that gets thoroughly resolved):

But if you want a more poetic and emotional take on the idea from a more talented author (I’m not ashamed to say it, it’s true) then please look no further than:

Enjoy!

[cheerywhiskey]

boy trouble, I've got double

🍁 30k | rated T | one-shot

🍁 teen wangxian

🍁 royalty au romcom

🍁 role swap with a twist

🍁 WWX knows better than to pine for someone taken

🍁 WWX vows that he won't fall for Lan Zhan

🍁 WWX fails

https://archiveofourown.org/works/60370534

[onedamnminuteadmiral]

My MDZS fic is finally up! Chapter 1 of 3!

Read here:

[rosethornewrites]

Fic: the gentle light that strays and vanishes and returns, ch. 1

Relationships: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin & Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin & Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji

Characters: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui

Additional Tags: POV Third Person, POV Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Grief/Mourning, Anger, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin & Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian Reconciliation, Snark, Regret, Past Character Death, Podfic Welcome

Summary: Jiang Cheng stalks to the dock when a disciple informs him of an approaching boat. He's had them on the lookout ever since Lan Wangji's passive aggressive letter arrived… Or Wei Wuxian comes home.

Notes: See end

AO3 link

Part 4 of the try to praise the mutilated world series. (https://archiveofourown.org/series/1711984)

-----------

Jiang Cheng stalks to the dock when a disciple informs him of an approaching boat. He’s had them on the lookout ever since Lan Wangji’s passive aggressive letter arrived. 

As if it wasn’t bad enough learning he’d hated Wei Wuxian for no reason for sixteen years due to a petty bastard’s machinations, he’d had him ripped away again by Lan Wangji. 

Whose letter had informed him that he would be bringing Wei Wuxian to Lotus Pier to pay his respects to Jiang Yanli. And that they would stay at a local inn if necessary to avoid “infringing on the hospitality of the Jiang sect.”

The entire missive reeked of Lan Wangji’s grievance toward him over Wei Wuxian’s death, and somehow managed to imply that he was inhospitable and would refuse Wei Wuxian.

To hell with that. 

Jiang Cheng had ordered that no inns around Lotus Pier take them, and had prepared one of the more opulent rooms for Lan Wangji, befitting his station as Chief Cultivator. And he’d had Wei Wuxian’s old rooms aired out and furnished with fresh linens and sundries.

He ignored the fact that Wei Wuxian’s quarters had been largely untouched, waiting for him, in the sixteen years he’d been dead; Jiang Cheng hadn’t had the heart to touch it. He polished Suibian until it practically glowed and placed it on an ornate sword rack decorated with carved lotuses next to the bed with a second slot for Chenqing, filled the wardrobe with dark clothing with embroidered lotuses, every article with purple in it, to make it clear where he belonged—even if they’d fucking eloped the last time they were here, he was of Yunmeng Jiang, dammit. 

And hanging from Suibian’s hilt, Wei Wuxian’s clarity bell. 

So he stands at the dock, his feet itching with the urge to stomp, Sandu clenched in a fist at his side, willing Zidian to be still despite his fury. 

The boat pulls up and a disciple gets off first, one of the Lan brats Jin Ling was friends with—the one that got seasick, judging from the green tint to his face. But the youth turns back to the boat to help someone out. 

Wei Wuxian looks awful—pale, dark circles under his eyes, too thin. It brings Jiang Cheng back to meeting him in Yiling with A-Jie before her marriage, seeing how thin he was and wanting to do something about it, but what? And then the next time had been at Nightless City, and he’d hung from Hanguang-Jun’s grip like a limp doll, his face like a ghost, smiling at him with bloody teeth, as though trusting him to end it, and he couldn’t, but he’d wound up doing it anyway and Wei Wuxian doesn’t even blame him, just expects to be turned away and it was his fault.

It’s almost a relief that they’re paying attention to his brother as he stumbles on the pier, giving him time to breathe, to collect the tatters of his calm. 

Wei Wuxian doesn’t look any less like shit when he’s on the dock, and watching him try to smile is a special sort of hell now that he knows what his brother hides under his smiles. Jiang Cheng wants to throttle him until he’s honest about what he’s feeling, but he holds himself back, clenching his fist again to let the metal of Zidian cut into his fingers and ground him. 

But he doesn’t know what to say, and he has to say something now that they’re here, to welcome them. To welcome him home. 

So of course “You look like shit, Wei Wuxian,” is what comes out of his mouth instead. 

Wei Wuxian’s smile does a weird thing where it turns more genuine and almost fond, and Jiang Cheng is even less sure what to do with that. 

Lan Wangji keeps him steady when he sways, and when they approach he can see details he missed at a distance—his eyes lined red and bloodshot, his face not as thin as Jiang Cheng first thought. Maybe that’s just the ghost of his own memory, haunting him. 

He fucking hates it. 

Many thoughts run through his head; at the fore is that separating them would be cruel—Lan Wangji is the most disheveled he’s seen him since the war. While the man has been a petty asshole to him (and Jiang Cheng can no longer consider it unwarranted with everything revealed in Nie Huaisang’s machinations), he won’t respond in kind. 

Especially not with Wei Wuxian looking so damn fragile. 

“The kid can stay in your old room,” he manages.

He’s not prepared for the raw emotion on the kid’s face, or sure where it comes from. 

“Ah, little radish,” Wei Wuxian murmurs, only audible because they’ve moved off the dock. “You can see where your Xian-gege grew up.”

Well, isn’t this a night of revelations?

Jiang Cheng forces himself to keep walking, even as pieces of a puzzle slide together in his mind.

The Lan is the kid from Burial Mounds. The one that hugged his leg the one time he visited. The one he’d assumed died with the rest, the Jin just tasteful enough not to hang the body of a dead child with the rest. 

The one he hadn’t dared give another thought to with dead siblings and an orphaned nephew to raise, terrified of the road those thoughts might take—that he’d lost another family member, another nephew. 

Instead, he poured everything he had into raising Jin Ling, into strengthening Yunmeng Jiang until he was certain no one could ever raze it again, and then strengthening it some more. 

It’s appropriate for the kid to stay in Wei Wuxian’s old room now. If Jiang Cheng had raised him, that’s where he would have lived, his right after his adoptive father’s death. Instead, he was raised by Lan Wangji, and it rankles him to have reason to approve of the man who’s hated him for sixteen years. 

Hate he won’t let himself consider, for fear he’ll realize he deserves it. 

“A small repast is waiting in the main hall,” he finds himself saying, leading the way into Lotus Pier. “And then you can settle into your quarters before dinner.”

That would give the servants time to move the sword rack with Suibian and the robes from the wardrobe into the quarters Wei Wuxian would now share with Lan Wangji. It wasn’t as poignant a message as his room, and it implied acceptance of the Chief Cultivator as his… 

For a moment he imagines calling Lan Wangji saozi, but he prefers living. He has no idea what he’d call him. Xiongfu?

No, he’s not going to think about this right now. 

The steps of his guests are fading behind him, so he stops, flagging one of the servants to issue his orders. 

Oh, gods, he’s going to have to walk them both to their quarters after tea, his brother and his brother’s whatever. Jiang Cheng will look like a coward, or the gesture ingenuine, if he sends servants to guide them. Knowing Wei Wuxian and his well-established and infuriating lack of self-worth—he gave him his core and it makes him want to scream—it would absolutely be interpreted as the latter. 

But the footsteps are closer now, so he forces himself to start walking, only this time at a slower pace. He doesn’t dare look behind him, not when his brother is taking in Lotus Pier, this time without the threat of Jin Guangyao’s machinations to distract him. 

Jiang Cheng has lived with the ghosts of memories of this place before the war for sixteen years. Wei Wuxian’s experiencing them for perhaps the first time, at least since A-Jie…

Oh.

Oh.

Lan Wangji’s demands in his letter suddenly make so much more sense. With A-Jie’s birthday in a few days, of course Wei Wuxian is a fucking mess. 

Jiang Cheng pointedly refuses to remember the agony of that first year. A Wei Wuxian unable to hide his hurts and accepting of help demonstrates it well enough. 

At least dinner won’t include lotus root and pork rib soup. He was being petty when he nixed that from the dinner plans, and he’d argued with himself over it, but now he’s glad he did, after all. 

Jiang Cheng has no illusions that he can avoid Wei Wuxian’s grief, but now that he gets what’s going on, he’d prefer not to have his brother break down on his first night back. 

A-Jie’s birthday means Jin Ling will be coming, as well, and maybe his presence will help somehow. 

Honestly, how did he not make the connection before now? He should have anticipated this.

Fuck, he should’ve been the one to invite Wei Wuxian home, but he’s been too busy definitely refusing to wallow that he just didn’t even think about A-Jie’s birthday. He’s sure it would’ve hit him like a ton of bricks when Jin Ling shows up tomorrow, and then he’d decidedly refuse to cry over forgetting, pretending his tears are from missing her only. But it doesn’t change the fact that he forgot, and on what was, to his idiot brother, the first birthday without her. 

Worse, some milestones have already passed, and more will be coming up, and if he knows Wei Wuxian, he’s suffered silently through them and would have continued to do so if not for Lan Wangji’s interference. 

He’s going to come out of this appreciating that stone-faced bastard, isn’t he?

Thankfully, they reach the main hall before he can go further down that tangle of thought, though he’s sure it’ll come back to torment him later. 

For the repast, Jiang Cheng made sure to include the spicy fish balls from a market stall he knows Wei Wuxian likes—extra spicy, of course, so much so that the stall popo, who’s been there since they were kids, gave him a knowing look and approving nod. He even got enough bland snacks, like lotus seed buns, to satisfy Lan Wangji’s palate. He didn’t expect the kid, and doesn’t know his preferences anyway, but there are plenty of snacks available to choose from. There is also, of course, lotus tea and Hefeng wine, just to show Wei Wuxian his creation is still made at Lotus Pier, still valued. 

Jiang Cheng was being petty when he included it, but he’s glad he did when Wei Wuxian’s expression shifts from that empty smile to something more real, a sort of touched nostalgia that brings him back to the day that idiot came up with the idea after using a lotus leaf as cup for his wine. 

He realizes he needs to go through the annual sales records since Wei Wuxian’s fake defection and calculate his share of the profits, along with the sales of all his talismans—he’ll be damned if his brother lives off his husband’s purse strings when he’s brought in so much money to Lotus Pier even in death. 

Even in death, he’d ensured Yunmeng Jiang would prosper, with both jindan and his inventions. 

He needs a drink, just thinking about Wei Wuxian’s death, the hole it left in him and how angry he was at missing him, anger he didn’t deserve then and absolutely doesn’t now.  

Wei Wuxian warns the Lan kid about the spicy fish balls, and the boy tries some anyway, sending himself into a coughing fit. 

“Aiya, A-Yuan, you didn’t have to taste them if you don’t like spice,” his brother says, laughing. 

“It reminds me of your cooking, A-Die,” the teen teases when he’s cleared his palate with something sweet. 

Ah, hell, he’s going to have to respect Lan Wangji saving the kid, isn’t he, his brother’s son. 

Thankfully the repast’s awkward silence is filled by Wei Wuxian talking to his son and… again, whatever Lan Wangji is. Jiang Cheng won’t accept they’re married—not when Wei Wuxian deserves an opulent wedding—even if they bowed to his parents. Wei Wuxian is getting married at Lotus Pier properly, with all the fanfare of Jie’s wedding, and far more tasteful because it’s not the Jin. He’ll fucking insist if he has to. 

If nothing else, Lan Wangji will agree with him that Wei Wuxian deserves a beautiful wedding, and he doesn’t feel some sort of vindication that the man would basically have to, if he knows what’s good for him. He might fight over holding it at Lotus Pier, but dammit, Jiang Cheng never took Wei Wuxian off the Jiang clan roster, and he’d only let someone else have the title of da-shixiong reluctantly. 

Just like they planned A-Jie’s wedding when they were kids, Jiang Cheng and A-Jie planned Wei Wuxian’s. And maybe those documents with the plans hadn’t survived the Wen, but they were still in Jiang Cheng’s head and he would see them implemented. He’d swear to A-Jie if he had to.

He realizes with a carefully-repressed jolt that his guests have not eaten in some time, meaning it is time to let them rest before dinner and specifically to save Wei Wuxian from having to find more to talk about in the silence, and clears his throat.

“I’ll see you to your rooms, then.”

————

I finally have a diagnosis. Multisystem long covid. It’s what I expected, but finally diagnosed. So it’s more a relief than anything. My doctor is affiliated with one of fifteen long covid centers in the US that is studying it, so I’ll have access to clinical trials and such. It’s not a great diagnosis, but it’s an answer. 

This is going to be several chapters. We’ll see what it demands. This has been sitting in my files, largely written, and I realized I could give myself permission for it to be multiple chapters. 

Thanks again to adrian_kres for the beta!

a-die = dad

da-shixiong = eldest martial brother, or head disciple

Hefeng liquor = lotus breeze liquor 

popo = grandmother

saozi = sister in law

xiongfu = not an actual word but breaks down to brother’s husband

[wayofcloudbrain]

Fic Promo: Just The Way You Are by real_ghost and wayofcloudbrain

Fandom: MDZS/The Untamed Relationship(s): Lan Xichen/Meng Yao (main pairing) Lan Xichen/various other male characters (casual), Meng Yao/Nie Mingjue (past), Lan Xichen/Nie Mingjue (past), many many background pairings Rating: E Wordcount: 85k and counting Status: posting in progress

🌇 alternate universe: modern setting (but it’s actually an alternate universe) 🌇 slowburn: tfw you’ve found the man of your dreams but you’re both messed up and your timing sucks 🌇 pining (and also sleeping around) while cohabitating 🌇 come for the xiyao, stay for the epic sprawl of sideplots and background characters (we love everyone so everyone is here)

Summary:

Yes. Yes, A-Yao is staying in his ex’s best friend’s apartment while said best friend is on an impromptu skiing trip with said ex because said ex needs to clear his thick fucking head. No, Mingjue doesn’t know that A-Yao is crashing at Xichen’s and ideally he will never find out. In the wake of a break-up that affects more than only the ex-boyfriends, Lan Xichen revaluates his life choices and is thrown headfirst into an identity crisis. In his utter lack of direction, he unsuccessfully tries to distract himself with dating of varying degrees of seriousness. Meanwhile, Meng Yao – recently hired as tech mogul Wen Ruohan’s personal assistant at Nevernight Games – is planning to pull himself up by a pair of bootstraps that he is pretty sure he’ll have to shoplift first. On this small artificial island in the Pacific Ocean, everybody knows everybody and everybody’s gotta go through it. It’s a whole mess.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26602150/chapters/64860505

Main story of JTWYA-Verse (see series for many more extras and oneshot spin-offs)

[sassybluee]

Chapters: 10/10

Words: 39,548

Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian

Characters: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Wen Xu (Modao Zushi), Meng Yao | Jin Guangyao, Wen Ruohan, Wen Qing (Modao Zushi), Wen Ning | Wen Qionglin, Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Jin Guangshan, Jin Zixun, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen

Additional Tags: Canon - Modao Zushi & The Untamed Combination, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cursed Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, War Prize Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Yiling Laozu Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Trans Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Arranged Marriage, Canon-Typical Violence, Whipping, Minor Character Death, Strap-Ons, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering

Summary:

When he was born, it was said that Lan Wangji would grow up to be "so beautiful that no one could look at him." After killing a fellow disciple with a mere look, he is forced into a life of seclusion, with only a veil to grant him some freedom.

After the Cloud Recesses are attacked by Wen forces, Lan Wangji is unexpectedly taken prisoner. Alone and injured, he must rely on the part of himself he fears the most.

Then, word spreads of a dangerous man in Yiling who is impossible to kill...

My @bottomjibigbang fic is finally here! I can’t believe I can share it all with you now! I had a lot of fun writing this fic, and I hope you enjoy it.

Featuring art by @aoi-hagane, embedded in the fic and viewable here.

[agoodboysforeverhole]

🍉xiyao gotcha for gaza🍉


Prompt: Modern AU: JGY and LXC are both seeing other people (named characters or not, but no characters bashing ofc) but end up sleeping together very enthusiastically when the occasion presents itself. Come morning JGY is fretting, not out of guilt but rather worrying about work and social life complications if the news get out. LXC in the meantime shows zero regret, because being with A-Yao is something he'd wanted for ages. The tone is up to the writer (comedic, gritty, angsty) but ideally with xiyao endgame. (if NSFW, I love me some power bottom JGY!)

Thirty-Five Adequate Years by real_ghost


Summary: Lan Wangji is suspecting a university janitor (Meng Yao) of charging students for writing their papers. Lan Xichen is deeply impressed with Meng Yao's abilities. He is also closeted and engaged.


Fandom: MDZS, CQL
Pairing: Lan Xichen / Meng Yao
Rating: Explicit
Tags: Modern AU, University Setting, Illegal Activities, Infidelity, Cheating, Mutual Pining, Gay Sex, Power Bottom Meng Yao, Unprotected Sex
Words: 7791

[disastermages]

Draped in Black and Dripping With Love Ch. 8

[read it on ao3]

Lan Zhan’s family members aren’t especially loud, it’s just that there are so many of them and his uncle’s house feels smaller and smaller with every guest that walks through the door. He tried his best, he really did, but he still waits until no one is standing over him, asking about his grades or telling him how big he’s gotten to duck underneath a table.

He won’t stay long. Uncle will be upset with him if he hides for too long, so Lan Zhan only means to hide for a moment, until he feels ready to come out again.

The tablecloth rustles and sways as his relatives walk by, murmuring to each other or chuckling lightly. It’s the laughter that makes him gather his legs in his arms and press them against his chest, as if he could still shrink himself into something that can’t be seen.

What were they laughing at? Were they laughing at his mother? Were they standing over her casket and clucking their tongues? Lan Zhan had been to see her more times than he can count, but he’d shied away when his father drifted into the room, a soulless look in his eyes. The whole room had gone quiet then, the air sucked out of it, and Lan Zhan had let himself be driven away from his mother’s side. His father stood at her head, looking down at her and not seeing either of his sons.

Lan Huan tried to catch him, he even whispered his name, but Lan Zhan’s stomach was already churning, acid was already rising in his throat, but all three bathrooms were already occupied. Underneath a table was the only place he could go as heat began to prick at his eyes.

A whimper, a squeak of a sob shakes out of Lan Zhan as he rests his forehead on his arm, hating the texture of his suit jacket. Uncle tried to get him something different, another kind of fabric, but his father had insisted, his voice and eyes getting sharp.

His mother never looked at him like that, she never spoke to him like that either, not even when she had to scold him or correct him for doing something wrong. Lan Zhan isn’t sure when he started to rock himself, but he can’t make himself stop now as he tries hard to choke down the tears as they come.

He wants his mother.

He wishes it was his father.

Lan Zhan knows that it’s wrong to wish for such a thing, that he’d be punished if he breathed even a word of it to a single person, he knows that it’s unfilial, but he cannot help it. He cannot stop himself, even as he manages to stop another hiccup as it tries to force its way up. He needs to get up, he needs to sneak out from underneath the table and find his brother, or his uncle, but not his father, but the room has gone quiet again. They would notice him sneaking out now.

Lan Zhan doesn’t want to, but he has to. Pushing himself onto his hands and knees, Lan Zhan moves to crawl out from the side of the table, but the tablecloth is lifting up from the other side and an older woman is crawling under the table with him. Her silk, wide legged trousers make the movement easier, easier than it would be for all the other aunties who are wearing dresses.

She doesn’t look angry when she rolls herself onto her bottom, her head ducking just a little. “Zhan’er, did you come here to hide too?” The auntie drops her voice to a conspirator’s whisper, a calm smile spreading across her face. She doesn’t reach out to pat the top of his head or to pinch his cheeks like the other aunties had, she doesn’t reach out to touch him at all, she simply waits for his answer while arranging her legs until they’re crossed on top of each other.

Lan Zhan doesn’t remember her name. He doesn’t remember meeting her when his uncle had brought him and his brother to receive all the guests.

Wordlessly, Lan Zhan nods his head and settles back onto his knees. Would it be rude to leave? Would it be more rude to stay when this auntie had come to hide, just like he had? His uncle had never said anything about the etiquette of hiding under a table with another person. He and Lan Huan were always very polite, that’s what older people always told Lan Zhan’s uncle.

Lan Zhan shifts his weight awkwardly from knee to knee, looking away from the auntie in front of him. His fingers twist into the fabric of his slacks, only to let go almost automatically. He hates this material. It feels bad no matter how he tries to touch it.

“Are grownups allowed to hide under tables?” Lan Zhan asks the question carefully, looking up at the woman to gauge her reaction. Most adults didn’t like being called out, Lan Zhan knows that from experience, but the auntie’s shoulders shake with laughter that she can’t let out. Her dark hair falls over one shoulder as she leans forward, her elbows on her knees.

“No one is supposed to hide under tables.” The auntie answers, her voice thick with faux seriousness, “The family has given up on me, though, they say arguing with Auntie Yi is like arguing with a brick wall.”

Auntie Yi. Lan Yi. The name sounds familiar for some reason, but Lan Zhan can’t remember why right now.

“I need to go back out.” Lan Zhan says quietly, but he doesn’t move, “They’ll come look for me if I don’t, and then Uncle will punish me.” And Lan Huan would look at him with a mixture of pity and sympathy, and maybe a little envy. It’s always easier for Lan Zhan to disappear, he wasn’t born first. “Father will be angry.”

The smile drops off of Lan Yi’s face when Lan Zhan says that, her fingers twitching and then pressing together. A long time ago, Lan Zhan heard other adults whispering about his father, about his fickleness, about the mistakes he’d made, but they’d gone quiet the second they saw Lan Zhan watching them. They always stopped whispering whenever they caught Lan Zhan looking at them. It never felt fair.

“Will you only be in trouble if they find you under a table?” Lan Yi asks suddenly. She forces her face to soften, adults do that a lot when they talk to him. Lan Zhan isn’t sure why. 

“I’m not supposed to go anywhere by myself, I’m supposed to have an adult or A-Huan.” Saying it aloud only makes Lan Zhan feel like a baby, too young to be left on his own. For some reason, that makes Auntie Yi’s smile come back, it makes it look real before she gets onto her own hands and knees to crawl out from under the table. She doesn’t even look to see if there’s anyone around. She doesn’t have to, Lan Zhan realizes, watching her slip out and hold the tablecloth up for him. 

“Auntie Yi is an adult.” Lan Yi declares, straightening her back and letting it pop. “Zhan’er won’t get in trouble as long as he’s with an adult.” Not a single person gives them a second glance as Lan Yi holds out her hand for Lan Zhan to take, but her touch is cold. It’s almost cold enough to hurt, but Lan Zhan forces himself to hold onto her as she navigates them through the crowd. No one tries to stop them, but more than a few of them shiver as the two of them pass.

Lan Huan is trapped in a cluster of people, standing between their father and their uncle and Lan Zhan waves as Lan Yi leads him through an open door and down the wooden steps. If they started looking for him, Lan Huan would tell them that Lan Zhan was with an auntie, he might even remember Auntie Yi’s name.

Lan Zhan might still get in trouble, but the consequences wouldn’t be as bad as they would be if he wandered off on his own.

Lan Yi leads him far away from the constant low buzzing of his mother’s funeral, into the dense forest that surrounds his home, until they come to stand in front of a rockface. A secretive smile crawls onto Lan Yi’s face as she drops into a squat before Lan Zhan, her fingers undoing the knot at the back of her head to untie her headband. “Does ZhanZhan’er want to see why we still wear our headbands sometimes?”

Hundreds of years ago, Lan Qiren’s voice sounds in Lan Zhan’s mind now, they wore their headbands every single day of their lives, but now, they only wear them for special occasions. For first nighthunts. For weddings. For funerals. For cultivation certification ceremonies. Those were the examples that his uncle had given him, but he still nods silently when Lan Yi asks.

Lan Yi drapes her headband over a tree branch carefully before she makes a show of patting the stone again and again. She watches Lan Zhan out of the corner of her eye and he blinks up at her, waiting for something to happen. Only when she’s sure he’s interested does she coax him forward.

He lets her guide his hand to press against the rock, but to his surprise, Lan Zhan’s fingers sink into the stone. A cold breeze nips at his fingertips and Lan Zhan pulls his hand back and looks at Lan Yi. She’d let go of him to retie her headband, but once it’s in place, she holds her hand out to him again. “I think there’s something you’ll like within the cave, Zhan’er, would you like to see it?”

For a moment, Lan Zhan hesitates, he can neither nod nor shake his head, but he still raises his hand and takes hold of Lan Yi’s hand, letting her lead him through the mouth of the cave.

He wakes up before he gets to see what waits for him, but Lan Zhan already knows. He can still remember the night of his mother’s funeral. He knows that despite the insistence of his uncle, his brother, and his father that Aunt Yi was long dead, that she took him to see the rabbits in the ice cave.

He still remembers her ice cold touch growing colder and colder as she led him down.

But those memories don’t help him as he flicks through page after page of information. His cousin had sent everything he could find pertaining to Hanguang-jun and the Yiling Patriarch, separately and together. Even things that contain the barest mention of either of them ended up in the compressed folder and Lan Zhan can only blame himself, he should have been more specific. 

He’s read through far too many conflicting accounts of the Yiling Patriarch selling radishes and eating virgins to fully believe either of them anymore. It’s true that the Yiling Patriarch tried to establish a small farm within the Burial Mounds after he’d settled there with surviving members of a forgotten clan, but whether or not he sold radishes or potatoes on the streets of Yiling is still debated by long winded scholars. 

Lan Zhan swipes through again and again, skimming and moving on until he sees something that forces him to swipe backwards, his grip on the tablet in his hands tipping for just a moment in his haste.

The calligraphy is old and faded, but it’s still carefully painted enough that Lan Zhan can understand it with enough trial and error and guesswork. The report, written by Hanguang-jun himself, details a mission to the Burial Mounds. The intention was to watch from a distance, but the Yiling Patriarch, referred to by courtesy name, caught him on his way. Lan Zhan expects to read about a fight, about blows being exchanged on a busy city street, but all he finds is a recounting of a meeting between Hanguang-jun and Wei Wuxian.

There’d been a discussion, a nearly peaceful one at that, and then Hanguang-jun returned to the Burial Mounds with the Yiling Patriarch, responding to a distress signal relating to the Ghost General. 

Hanguang-jun documents that he believes Wei Wuxian can control the resentful energy, but not without bringing harm to himself. What follows is Hanguang-jun’s signature, his own courtesy name that’s been obscured through time and reorganization. 

There’s more, scattered journal entries with Wei Wuxian’s birth name blotted out or eaten by moths, poems of mourning that make Lan Zhan’s chest feel as if it could crack in half, and finally a photo of a long dead, but preserved peony. Lan Zhan reaches out to touch it, to feel the crumbling petals before he can think to stop himself, only for the pounding of his own heart in his ears to stop him.

Memories that don’t feel like his own swirl through his mind quickly, too quickly for Lan Zhan to focus on a single one. All at once, he feels indignant, he feels butterflies in his stomach for the first time, he feels the need to scold Wei Ying and to order him to piss off, he feels the give of Wei Ying’s flesh between his teeth as he bites down out of sheer embarrassment, he feels as if Wei Ying has fallen off the face of the planet, worry rising like bile in his throat as Lan Zhan presses the heels of his hands against his eyes.

The tablet clatters onto the kitchen table. Lan Zhan is grateful enough that it doesn’t land on the floor as the world tilts and the memories rush over him like a tidal wave. He doesn’t know what they mean, he isn’t sure he’ll ever know what they mean, but he still forces himself to breathe in, cold air rushing against his face as he forces his hands away.

Wei Ying’s ring still sits on his hand, his right ring finger, and when Lan Zhan twists it, he feels the worst parts of the headache begin to subside.

Things have been better between them lately. Wei Ying doesn’t slink around the house, hiding in corners to speak with the Yiling Patriarch, at least, as far as Lan Zhan knows, he doesn’t. More than once now, Wei Ying had let him help with easing spirits in the house onwards. The spirit of a sobbing woman Lan Zhan had found hiding in the corner of a room in the far part of the house, two ghost children who insisted on running up and down the stairs until they were forced to replay their deaths, even the spirit of an older man who spread the smell of wine through the whole house.

Lan Zhan used to blame that smell on Wei Ying and he’d been all but forced to acknowledge and admit his mistake, but Wei Ying refused to let him apologize, even as a scolded blush rose on Lan Zhan’s cheeks. 

Only the Yiling Patriarch, only Wei Wuxian, and the spirits under his control avoid Lan Zhan now, though he still catches him lurking within the shadows, his glowing eyes sharp and full of rage and resentment. Lan Zhan stared him down once, meeting his eyes and refusing to let himself shrink back out of weariness or fear.

When Lan Zhan blinked, the Yiling Patriarch was gone and he was alone in the hallway. The Yiling Patriarch had even taken the persistent smell of decay with him. 

He knows that the ring is becoming a crutch, that it will not always protect him, that whatever spell or methods Wei Ying had used to enchant it would wear down over time, but Lan Zhan cannot make himself take it off, even when he leaves the house, even when he and Wei Ying are alone together. 

They don’t sleep with a pillow between them anymore. They sleep with Wei Ying curled around him from behind, holding onto Lan Zhan like an overly warm octopus, or they sleep with Lan Zhan’s face tucked into the crook of Wei Ying’s neck, their arms draped over each other. 

But they’ve gone no further than they did that night in the woods. Their hands wander over each other, Wei Ying watches Lan Zhan with unconcealed hunger in his eyes, and Lan Zhan lets himself wonder what it would be like to have his mouth on Wei Ying, to let his teeth scrape against his chest, his stomach, his thighs, but Lan Zhan hasn’t been able to bring himself to take it any further. Whether or not Wei Ying lets disappointment or frustration show is something Lan Zhan can’t think about, even if a tiny, miniscule part of himself wishes it would. 

Without a single touch from him, the tablet screen brightens and Lan Zhan feels his eyes widen. He’d left it on the photo of the preserved peony, but something unseen had changed the scan on the screen, something had flipped through until something else stared up at Lan Zhan, the blue glow of the tablet making a knot form in his throat.

It takes him too long to realize what he’s looking at, it takes him a moment longer to realize who Lan Zhan is, and why his name appears next to that of Wei Wuxian. The marriage record stares up at Lan Zhan indifferently. The birth names of both of them are on the page, Lan Wangji, Lan Zhan, second son of Gusu Lan, Hanguang-jun, and then, Wei Wuxian, Wei Ying of Yunmeng Jiang.

Lan Zhan’s hands shake as he takes up the tablet again. The dates are wrong, Wei Wuxian would have been dead, and his family never practiced ghost marriages, let alone marrying their second heir off to someone like the Yiling Patriarch. The Yiling Patriarch was a pariah, a heretic. Lan Zhan has to look at the marriage record again and again, turning the display off and then back on again to make sure his mind isn’t being played with.

The scent of rot and decay chokes Lan Zhan’s lungs as he stands up, the dining chair falling over and clattering onto the floor.

He whirls around, but the Yiling Patriarch doesn’t do a single thing beyond pawing at the tablet, his touch never landing and his fingers slipping through it like water. For the first time, Lan Zhan doesn’t see rage on his face, he doesn’t even see resentment, the only thing there is confusion, even the red glow of his eyes has faded. It leaves Lan Zhan staring into eyes he thought belonged to his Wei Ying and his Wei Ying alone. 

Panic sets into the Yiling Patriarch’s eyes, into Wei Wuxian’s eyes as he looks between Lan Zhan and the screen. He tries to speak, but the only sound that comes is the groaning and creaking of the house around them, pipes rattle in the walls and the lights flicker around them. Lan Zhan tries to open his mouth to tell Wei Wuxian to stop, to calm him. It feels like second nature to do, as if it’s been ingrained into his basest instincts, but the Yiling Patriarch is backing away from him, sinking and shrinking into the shadows while he covers his face with his hands.

Lan Zhan can do nothing but watch as he melts into the shadows, until he watches those shadows seep into the walls and disappear completely. Only when the Yiling Patriarch is gone can Lan Zhan move again, his legs suddenly feeling weak underneath him. 

Before he can collapse onto the floor, the chair he’d been sitting in rights itself and slides underneath him, catching him. Lan Zhan isn’t sure if the Yiling Patriarch did it, but he’s grateful for it. It makes it easier to lower his head until his cheek rests against the smooth wood, though it isn’t as cold as he’d like it to be.

He can hear Wei Ying shouting for him before he ever comes into the room, but he can’t make himself raise his head or answer him, not until the smell of Wei Ying’s cologne fills his lungs, replacing the clinging stench of decay the Yiling Patriarch had brought with him. 

“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan finally answers as Wei Ying comes to stand in front of the table, his eyes wild with worry, “You should seek out the Yiling Patriarch. Something has happened.” The explanation is too simple, Lan Zhan knows that he should continue, but Wei Ying puts his hands on him as he rounds the table and kneels in front of him. Warm fingers brush Lan Wangj’s hair away from his face, but Lan Zhan doesn’t shrink away from them despite the heat outside. 

Even as his eyes grow heavy and every last bit of energy seems to be sucked out of him, Lan Zhan can’t bring himself to spurn Wei Ying’s touch.

The world around him goes black and it isn’t fair.

[youhideastar]

Fic: Rule of Law

The Untamed / Gen w/background Wangxian / ~2400 words

Canon compliant, takes place between the second-to-last and last episodes of the drama; LWJ and LJY-centric; Lan Wangji's decision to accept the Chief Cultivator position is something that can actually be so personal 🥺

Lan Jingyi shuffles into the office looking as if he’s eaten something unpleasant. “Hanguang-jun,” he says, with some trepidation. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but… I think what the cultivation world needs is a—a code of rules. Written down.”

Read Rule of Law on AO3!

[bisexualmarvelmagnusbane]

dig them out (wangxian)

Summary:

"A-Yuan has never been struck. I did not bring your son to a cruel place."

Lan Zhan explains himself.

~|~

Additional Tags: Communication, i nearly went insane trying to write a fic in which these two talk, Switching, Dom Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Sub Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Dom Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian/Sub Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Discussions of parenting, Lan Zhan spilling his guts because Wei Wuxian asked, and wouldn't stop asking, exploring why Lan Zhan did the things he did that canon never explains, don't get me wrong i like that canon doesn't explain it, but i had so many explanations that i NEEDED to get them on paper, i don't even remember how tagging works on this site good grief, exploring the changes in the Gusu Lan sect, oh i need to be upfront that there is way more talking than fucking in this. WAY more!!, BDSM Switch Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/BDSM Switch Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian

[classygreydove]

3 Wangxian + Mulan AU ideas

I wrote a comment about this somewhere but couldn't find it again. But basically, I love wangxian. I love mulan. I love mulan au. I'm not really into a/b/o? so here's some mulan au ideas that don't use that specific trope:

Idea #1: transmasc!wwx escapes his miserable life endlessly disappointing Madam Yu and feeling uncomfortable in his own skin by running away to join the military. He meets LWJ, who comes from a very respected Lan lineage of court officials, scholars and generals. LWJ hasn't married yet, despite pressures from family and politics, bc bro is gay and isn't interested in loveless marriage (see: madam lan trauma). He's putting it off by focusing on his career, which is defending the current dynasty from the Wen (a very rich clan from north China trying to overthrow the southern-based dynasty, with the help of a strong nomadic tribe whose leader is zhao zhuliu and whose tribe raises the *best* horses and therefore is very much a Threat.) Wwx, using his radical ideas about fireworks/gunpowder (or some other genius weaponry innovation), ends up turning the tide of the war and defeats the Wen. Lwj is absolutely smitten and wishing he could take those bows so bad, but knowing it is impossible. Somehow, whether injury or madam yu, wwx gets forcibly outed, but is given a general position regardless/offered a place in the Emperor's court instead of execution. Wwx accepts, and continues to dress and act as masc as he pleases, and still being addressed by masc titles (admittedly, part of the reason he can do this is bc misogyny, but still!) and Lwj courts wwx - regardless of others opinions about wwx's unsuitability as a "wife" - and is the most gender-affirming husband to wwx ever, and wwx and lwj live happily ever after.

Idea #2: they're both women. Wwx cross-dresses (maybe has a little fun with gender/gender expression, maybe nb? or just mostly prefers being a woman) to go into the army instead of jc so that jc doesn't die on some battlefield somewhere. Meets lwj, who is also cross-dressing, and whose mother chose to raise her as a son from birth to give her daughter a better future free from the chains she had experienced. She is a very respected general (again from lineage of generals). She recognizes wwx doing a rather poor job of hiding her identity but doesn't say anything, even before wwx earns her respect (and she earns wwx's). Similar plot stuff as idea #1 occurs, wwx is revealed to be a woman. Through either betrothal due to the emperor doing some shipping, or through lwj beginning the courting process herself, wwx and lwj begin courting. As the steps are completed, however, lwj is more and more panicked trying to figure out how to tell wwx she is a woman (luckily, we know wwx is bisexual). Lwj knows she's a woman, but she doesn't know how to *be* a woman, having lived all her life as a man, so she's insecure about that as well. And Will wwx even want her once she discovers lwj isn't a man? Fic ends when wwx and lwj finally have that talk and get married and live happily ever after.

Idea #3: wwx is the well-renowned general tasked with leading his forces against the Wen. Lwj is the transmasc! (or even just cross-dressing woman, bc I confess I love a good het romance that breaks gender roles, as a disaster bisexual) who was childhood friends? betrothed at a young age? to wwx. Lwj is not willing to leave wwx to face the enemy alone, so lwj joins the army and is stationed under wwx. Wwx, who hasn't seen or interacted with lwj in years, finds himself falling in love with this soldier who fights with such dedication and devotion by his side...and Stuff Happens from there.

[pigfartsviatardis]

(Most of my writing is shippy but I do branch out sometimes and this fic is very much about the yunmeng bros and jin ling)

Jiujiu and Da-jiu

fandom: The Untamed/CQL

rating: T (no smut)

w/c: 3933

chapters: 1 (complete)

Post canon, beginnings of broconciliation, family-centric.

Jin Ling has many faults. But when he wants something, he can make it happen. And he wants his uncles to get along.

Basically JL parent-traps WWX and JC, because he is his mother's son.

[cheerywhiskey]

crimson blue

🍁 138k | COMPLETE | explicit

🍁 marriage of convenience

🍁 angst with a happy ending

🍁 melodrama, romance, smut & fluff

🍁 ft. geniusxian & pregji

🍁 a wangxian soap opera

🍁 LWJ falls in love like moth to flame

🍁 WWX burns the world down for him

[black-n-white-wings]

Chapters: 2/9 Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin & Jin Ling | Jin Rulan Characters: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Jin Ling | Jin Rulan, Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Original Characters Additional Tags: most of the cast makes an appearance, Angst, Suicidal Thoughts, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin Character Study, Canon-Typical Violence, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin-centric, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin Needs Therapy, Suicide Attempt, Depression, BAMF Original Characters, A twenty-years long mental breakdown, Jiang Cheng is living with the ghosts of christmas past and they are pissed Series: Part 1 of So while you think you're alone, you cast two shadows down the road

(this work is finished and chapters will be published regularly)

Chapter preview:

“It had to be him, there was no body at the bottom of this blasted pit. He had looked, come back often. Again, and again. There was no way it was him, raising the dead to scare farmers. He did not know. Let it be him, do not let it be him, a ghost, a man, a monster, a wish…”

The second chapter of my fanfic is up! The spiraling down of everyone’s favourite Jiujiu is moving forward! I have corrected two more chapters and they’ll be published once I make sure I haven’t added mistakes in the process.

(also, why do you link it to Chap1 when I share, AO3, I shared chap2?? Someone help, I’m old)