#also my house got flooded for the second time in 4 sodding years this weekend

[alipeeps]

Wei Ying’s expression is tight and unhappy, his entire body held rigidly away from Lan Zhan.

He doesn’t look at Lan Zhan as he says, “You don’t have to worry, Lan Zhan, I’m never going to touch you.”

The distaste in Wei Ying’s voice makes Lan Zhan’s blood run cold.

“Just because our families have arranged this marriage, we don’t have to be together… like that…” Wei Ying’s mouth twists unpleasantly. “It can be a marriage in name only. A…” he swallows, looking like he might be sick, “…a business arrangement.”

———

So hey @sarah-yyy, I only went and wrote you a fic!

This was 100% inspired by your awesome WB-verse fics because it turns out angsty mutual pining/misunderstanding is like 1000% my jam and I love your stories so much! This was meant to be a birthday fic for you but it is horrendously late because, yet again, it turns out I am congenitally incapable of being concise! I would love to be able to craft short, perfectly-worded, feels-inducing ficlets the way you do but I just can’t, no matter how I try. So here, have 10,000 words of mutual pining angst instead! :D

This fic was also based on a prompt from a list of Arranged Marriage prompts (which I have promptly lost!) and the prompt I chose from the list was “You don’t have to worry, I’m never going to touch you.”

It should be noted that I don’t write ship fic. Like, ever. I write whump. I have verrrrry occasionally written smut. And I have once written fluff. I have never written an actual ship fic and I blame the fact that I am now doing so entirely on a) The Untamed, b) Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan, and c) you! :D

I also need to thank @stebeee for cheering me on with this fic when it seemed like it would never end and for giving it a speedy partial beta-read for me. :)

Anyway, happy belated birthday hon, I hope you enjoy the fic.