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It is only after their marriage that Lan Wangji realises he had severely underestimated his husband’s poor memory.
Lan Qiren intercepts him on the way to the library pavilion one day and when Lan Wangji goes to bow, he pauses. His uncle is holding a fox curled up in his arms, a few of the fox’s nine tails are curled around Lan Qiren’s bicep, the rest are flicking lazily in the air.
Lan Wangji blinks at his sleeping husband in Lan Qiren’s arms.
“I found him right outside the classroom, by the door. Tell your husband to sleep in appropriate locations at appropriate timings,” Lan Qiren says, frowning, but he makes no move to pass Wei Ying over. “He was blocking the path.”
“Yes, uncle,” Lan Wangji responds. His chest grips at the sight of Wei Ying in his uncle's arms, soft and trusting, and the fact that his uncle is willingly carrying Wei Ying as carefully as one would a baby. It’s a revolutionary sight. “I will bring him back to the Jingshi.”
There’s no way to pass Wei Ying over without waking him up. In fact, Lan Wangji doesn’t even know how Lan Qiren was able to pick him up without Wei Ying making a fuss. Wei Ying likes to fuss when he’s being prodded from his sleep. Likes to whine and shuffle around until he’s satisfied again. Lan Qiren ends up bending down and tips Wei Ying gently onto the floor, where the fox slides onto the ground like furry jelly. It jostles Wei Ying though, who instantly blinks awake blearily.
“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji says, and he lowers himself down to run a hand through his husband’s scruff and back up, scratching behind his ears gently. His own tail is now thumping insistently against the wooden floor boards.
Wei Ying yawns, his little mouth stretching wide open, canines in full sight and blinking again, looking around, then he sees Lan Wangji. He makes a noise, long and drawn out. Lan Wangji’s breath stops in his throat.
Lan Qiren is still standing before the both of them, a fist neatly folded behind his back. Lan Wangji pets Wei Ying’s head once more, then he moves a hand under the fox’s tummy, lifts him, and cradles him to his chest. Wei Ying makes no attempt to resist, seemingly falling back asleep the moment he’s secured in Lan Wangji’s arms.
“Thank you, Shufu, for looking after him.”
“He is a Lan spouse. Make Wei Wuxian sleep at the right times. If he can’t remember to do so, make him copy the rules 300 times.”
“Yes, Shufu.”
Lan Wangji doesn’t move once Lan Qiren leaves. He stares at the library pavilion from a distance and suddenly can’t remember what he needed from there. Wei Ying, however, is starting up a steady rumbling purr in his arms. A tail has curled itself around Lan Wangji’s bicep now, and there’s another one threatening to stuff itself into his mouth.
He heads off towards the Jingshi.
He puts Wei Ying on the pillows on the bed. His husband stretches and rolls around to get comfortable but otherwise, doesn’t wake up again. Lan Wangji should feel bad for tiring out his husband that much at night, but he doesn’t really.
The afternoon sunlight streams through the window, gentle breeze ruffling the cloth blinds that are put up. Lan Wangji settles at the low table in the main room, the bed and his fox still in sight, and starts tuning his guqin. He runs through warm ups and practices, runs through every song he can remember, all without a thread of spiritual energy. Then, he plays Wangxian.
Wei Ying shifts to human form halfway through his nap, which is a solid indicator that he’s about to wake up, or already woken up. Lan Wangji pays it no mind, finishes the song and looks up from his guqin just in time to see Wei Ying pushing himself up on his hands.
Wei Ying smiles sleepily at him, and Lan Zhan tilts his head slightly. “Er gege, did you let me sleep in?”
Wei Ying rolls off the bed ungracefully and wobbles himself over to the low table, dropping himself unceremoniously into Lan Wangji’s lap, completely heedless about the fact he’s currently stark naked.
“Shufu found you sleeping on the wooden paths,” he says, stroking Wei Ying’s hair back from his face, fine pieces of raven strands slipping through his fingers. Wei Ying sits sideways, leaning heavily into Lan Wangji’s embrace and tucking his face into the crook of his neck.
“Did he really? I don’t even remember falling asleep there. I must’ve wandered out of the jingshi to find you when you weren’t there when I woke up. Your fault, er-gege,” Wei Ying says petulantly against his skin.
“Nap in the jingshi next time.”
“‘Kay… ah? If Lan-xiansheng found me on the paths, why am I here?”
Wei Ying lifts his head from where he was hiding, causing Lan Wangji’s hand to slide down his hair and he subconsciously rubs circles into Wei Ying’s arm instead. Wei Ying’s skin is petal soft, smooth and pale. His soft cock rests on his thigh, his hands curled into Lan Wangji’s robes. He’s so beautiful. It awakens dark draconic desires in Lan Zhan.
“Lan Zhan?”
Lan Wangji blinks. “Shufu carried you off the path and came to find me. I brought you back.”
“Lan-xiansheng carried me?”
“Mn. You don’t remember?”
“Nope. Not at all,” Wei Ying says, then suddenly, he grabs Lan Wangji and peers over his shoulders, and Lan Wangji knows he’s caught. His tail, thick and scaly, swishes slowly from left to right, making soft scratching noises on the floor boards. Wei Ying smirks and leans in.
“Husband… does my pale and nubile body arouse you? Are you attracted to my nudity?” Wei Ying purrs, rubbing the forehead sweetly into Lan Wangji’s jawline.
Lan Wangji’s hand dips lower from where it was caressing Wei Ying’s arm. “Yes.”
“Hanguang-jun.” Lan Sizhui stops him after class one day.
“What is it?” Lan Wangji watches his son closely. Sizhui is intelligent. He used to follow Lan Wangji around after class, asking about a million things, both related and unrelated to class but in recent years, he’s come forward less. It’s not a bad thing, however, for it just indicates that he is learning how to solve problems on his own, developing critical thinking. Lan Wangji waits patiently for the question Lan Sizhui wants to ask him this time.
“Is Wei-qianbei mad at us?”
Lan Wangji stares. ‘Us’ means him and Lan Jingyi who are, as Lan Wangji knows, Wei Ying’s favourite juniors. He waits, just in case Lan Sizhui means to say anything else, yet his face carries no hint of playfulness on his face. Instead, he looks serious, worried. “Why would you think so?”
Lan Sizhui finally breaks eye contact and looks down at the floor. “Ah, we saw Wei-qianbei in fox form two days ago and yesterday, but every time we’ve tried to go over and greet him, he runs away. Really quickly. Like, he darts away from us. Have we done anything to upset him, Hanguang-jun? Or is he not feeling well?”
That’s the Wei Ying in him, in Lan Sizhui. Caring and selfless. It fills Lan Wangji with pride. But he also furrows his brow. Wei Ying? Running away from A-Yuan?
To Lan Wangji’s knowledge, Wei Ying in fox form isn’t that much different from human Wei Ying. His husband as a fox is equally energetic and playful, darting around the room to burn off nervous energy in the same way he likes to run his mouth when he’s bored, or affectionately winding figure-eights around Lan Wangji’s ankles when he comes back to the Jingshi. Wei Ying never runs away from him. And even if he does, well, Lan Wangji would catch him.
Lan Wangji stays silent in thought for too long and his son immediately tries to retract his words. “If Wei-qianbei truly isn’t feeling well, please don’t bother him for my sake, Hanguang-jun. I’m sure it’s a small matter. Jingyi and I just wish that we haven’t done anything to make him upset.”
Lan Wangji quells the panic with a hand to his shoulder. “Do not worry. I’ll ask Wei Ying about this. There’s nothing you could’ve done to have made him upset.” Wei Ying isn’t that kind of person.
Lan Sizhui visibly relaxes at his reassurance. He bows respectfully. “Then… Thank you, Hanguang-jun. This disciple will take his leave first.”
“Mn.”
It is still the middle of the week, the day which Lan Wangji takes his afternoon meal with his uncle and Wei Ying with Wen Ning. He sets off towards the classrooms in search for his uncle, and tucks this matter away for later.
Wei Ying comes back late at night, when Lan Wangji is already bathed, sitting at the low table once again, reading scripts while waiting for his husband to return.
“Lan Zhan! Why’re you still awake?”
“It is not yet 9,” he says as he stands.
“It’s about to be, though! Were you waiting for me?” Wei Ying kicks his boots off and twirls merrily into Lan Wangji’s arms, throwing his arms around Lan Wangji’s shoulders. His cheeks are flushed from alcohol, cheeks and hands cold from the night chill but he beams up at Lan Wangji like none of it matters.
Lan Wangji’s tail is thumping the floorboards again and he knows Wei Ying knows when his smile grows wider. There’s nothing he can do then but pull Wei Ying into a long kiss.
“I missed you,” he says, when they part their lips but stay close together, close enough that Lan Wangji can rub the tip of his nose to Wei Ying’s chilly one. His hands caress Wei Ying’s waist as he breathes him in.
Wei Ying's laughter is bright, like tinkling bells. “But why, you just saw me this morning!”
“And now, night has fallen,” Lan Wangji says, kissing the corner of his smile.
Wei Ying sighs dramatically, “yes, yes, it has truly been so long since we’ve reconciled and held each other. Tell me, Lan-er, did anyone bully you today?”
Lan Wangji helps Wei Ying take off his outer robes, stripping him down to get him ready for a bath as he speaks. “Sizhui came to see me in the afternoon. He asks if you’re upset with him.”
“A-Yuan? Why would I be upset with A-Yuan? He’s been nothing but filial.”
Lan Wangji takes pleasure in sliding the last under robe off Wei Ying’s shoulders. “He says that you’ve been running away from him and Jingyi whenever they try to greet you.”
Wei Ying fixes him with a questioning look. “Since when do I run away from my favourite Lans?”
Wei Ying ducks behind the privacy screen and Lan Wangji follows, sitting dutifully next to the bathtub while Wei Ying sinks himself into the water kept warm by a talisman with a sigh. “When you’re a fox, they say you’ll run away from them. Are you scared of them?”
Wei Ying folds his arms over the side of the tub and rests his head on them. “Did I? I'm not scared of them at all. But, honestly, I don’t remember that happening at all. A lot of the things I do when I’m a fox are based on instinct.”
Lan Wangji nods meaningfully. He had known, of course, that Wei Ying definitely wouldn’t have been upset with Lan Sizhui, but he’s also relieved to know that Wei Ying isn’t, in fact, upset with Sizhui.
He fishes his husband out of the tub before he falls asleep and pats him dry with a towel before carrying him over to the bed, his tail swishing as he walks. Wei Ying giggles when he’s wrapped up in the towel and pressed to Lan Wangji’s chest.
Lan Wangji fucks his husband to sleep, and for a few minutes after they’re done, when Wei Ying is still breathlessly dazed and flushed underneath him, he lies flat over Wei Ying, covering the whole of his husband’s body with his own while still inside him. The end of his tail curls around Wei Ying’s right shin and Lan Wangji gives in to his instincts to shield his husband in his current state of vulnerability, to hoard and protect his most precious treasure.
There are holes appearing all over the grounds of Cloud Recesses. The Elders are getting confused, worried at the signs of seemingly irregular holes popping up overnight. They’re simply
holes
. Dug into the ground, no more than the length of a forearm, the size of a plate. There’s no demonic energy coming from them, in fact, no sort of spiritual energy at all. No one knows what’s causing this holes, and no one knows the purpose of them.
In the past three days, there has been no rhyme or pattern to the holes that appear.
Lan Wangji spends his day examining one of the holes that has appeared behind the Jingshi, and when he comes home, spots his husband napping on the porch in fox form, laid on one side, his nine tails enveloping his form almost completely.
His paws are awfully muddy.
Lan Wangji has a suspicion.
He doesn’t wake his husband up yet, only walks into the Jingshi to retrieve a cloth and wet it with some leftover water from this morning’s bath. Then, he returns to the porch and sits down on the stairs next to where Wei Ying is asleep. Gently, he lifts up Wei Ying’s paws one by one, and starts wiping them clean.
Wei Ying stirs by the time he’s done, lifting his head and barking when catches sight of Lan Wangji sitting beside him.
Lan Wangji bends down and kisses Wei Ying’s furry forehead. “Wei Ying,” he says very seriously, and the fox perks up at the tone of his voice to look at him, “have you been digging holes in the Cloud Recesses?”
The fox blinks. Then, in the next second, Wei Ying is tucked into his side, naked and curious.
Lan Wangji scrambles to shrug off his outer robe and wrap it around Wei Ying’s frame. No one walks by the Jingshi for no reason and no one would peer disrespectfully into the residence of Hanguang-jun either, but Lan Wangji would still rather not have his husband so severely underdressed in plain sight.
“Lan Zhan. Have I?”
“Have you?”
Wei Ying blinks owlishly at him again. “How did you know it was me?”
Lan Wangji holds up the now muddy and damp cloth. “Your paws were covered in dirt, and no dragon is small enough to dig such holes. Even the young ones do not.”
“Oh,” Wei Ying says slowly, sounding a little surprised as he looks down at his own hands, now clean. “Do the elders know it’s me? I know they’re starting to make noise about their perfect Cloud Recesses being ruined, right?”
Lan Wangji shakes his head and presses a kiss to Wei Ying’s brow. “They do not know it was you. Why have you been digging holes?”
Wei Ying’s forehead wrinkles as he frowns, his eyes a dark brown. He looks… confused. “I… think I was trying to build a den? Either that, or I was hunting for worms? Or maybe, it was just for fun…? I can’t remember.”
“You can’t remember?”
“I can’t remember, sorry, Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying says as plays with the hem of the sleeves of Lan Wangji’s outer robe. “Are the elders angry? I’m sorry, really. I don’t know why I dug those holes either. I don’t really remember doing it either, but I remember feeling the need to… build a den.”
Lan Wangji can’t control the surge of fear that bursts behind his rib cage. “Wei Ying, is the Jingshi adequate? Are you unhappy—”
“No! No, Lan Zhan, I’m happy with you. I love the Jingshi, I love being with you, I wouldn’t have it any other way. But, like I said, my fox acts on instinct. I don’t… really know why I want to build a den? Maybe it’s just because I finally feel safe enough to settle down and now I want to build my own house, you know, like that dream.” Wei Ying kisses Lan Wangji’s cheekbone and then darts out his little tongue to lick it. “I’m not unhappy. I’m very happy, my dear husband. I love you so much.”
“I love Wei Ying as well. Please, if you ever feel that, perhaps, the Jingshi is oppressive—”
“The Jingshi is my home, er-gege. Nothing will ever change that, you hear me? My home is with you. It’s just funky fox behaviour, gege, I swear.”
Lan Wangji hums and pulls Wei Ying closer, resting his cheek on top of Wei Ying’s head and pulling the robe tighter around his husband.
“You don’t remember a lot of things from when you’re a fox,” Lan Wangji observes.
Wei Ying hums lazily. “I don’t remember my actions but I can kinda remember the feeling of the instinct. It’s like when you lie on me to hoard me, you know? You’re following instinct.” Wei Ying sighs and leans further into Lan Wangji’s embrace, unaware.
Lan Wangji is frozen. “How did you know I was hoarding you?”
Wei Ying makes a noncommittal hum. “You’re a very heavy dragon, Lan Zhan ah. You lie on top of me all the time at night, don’t think I don’t know. Good for you, though, I'm into that.”
Lan Wangji’s tail flicks lazily as he watches his husband pick up his hand, study it for a while, then twine their fingers together. “Actually,” Wei Ying starts, “I like when you’re possessive of me, I think,” then he stops abruptly and flushes bright red.
“Ah! Lan Zhan, that was a joke, please! I mean, no— not a joke! But please forget that I ever said that! Lan Zhan? Lan Zhan— mmf!”
“Congratulations, Hanguang-jun! Wei-gongzi is pregnant. Foxes are very fertile indeed. Please be mindful for now that Wei-gongzi is expecting, he is in a very delicate state. Like those holes around the place, avoid stepping into those. I’ve had too many juniors come in with a sprained ankle simply due to the holes. Eat more warm foods, avoid alcohol as it is bad for the babies. Dragon genes are dominant, so we could be expecting dragon blooded children. Of course, fox kits are possible as well. Another thing you should know, Hanguang-jun, is that excessive nesting is completely normal. Building separate living spaces as well — like a den — is normal. It’s just the parental instinct in the fox to want to provide for their children. Wei-gongzi is in very good health right now. I’ll see him next week to check up on him again.”