Call Anytime

The Brother Trap

Wei Ying sounded quite confident to his own ears as he settled back into his boyfriend’s arms. But what kind of situation could actually make Jiang Cheng not devolve into anger? Everything made his little brother angry. Hell, he had once tried to stop a Secret Santa event in the office because "who do they think they are to give me a fountain pen? I can buy myself a fountain pen if I want to!”

Wei Ying sighed. He should sleep. Maybe something in his dreams will inspire him!

Weirdly enough, Wei Ying's big idea did come to him in his dreams... though nightmares would be a better description. Thinking about the unholy trifecta that was Jin Guangyao, Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue's relationship, seemed to have triggered an old memory.

“Wei Ying?” Lan Zhan’s gentle voice broke through his thoughts. “Did you not sleep well? You kept twitching in the night.”

“I had a bad dream.” Wei Ying shuddered inspite of himself. “Actually, it was more of a bad memory.” He kissed Lan Zhan’s shoulder, reminding himself that he was safe in his arms. “So, you remember I told you that I knew Meng Yao as Jin Guangyao...”

The first time Wei Ying met Jin Guangyao was at his sister’s engagement party. He was not exactly enthusiastic about the impending nuptials, and kept lurking in the shadows, muttering unfavourable things about his brother-in-law-to-be. Jiang Cheng and he had planned to spend the entire evening glaring at Jin Zixuan but as luck would have it, a certain Dr. Wen Qing had walked into the party with Jin Zixuan’s cousin Luo Qingyang (“Just call me Mianmian, please!) and Jiang Cheng had transformed into a puppy, following her around, excited by how she seemed to absolutely hate him. Mianmian seemed to enjoy the whole interaction because Jiang Cheng was the only person at the party who didn’t realize that Wen Qing was her date.

In any case, Wei Ying was alone, and being angry alone was just tiresome.

“You seem unhappy, Mr. Wei.” A rather petite man settled in at the nearly-empty Jiang table, right next to Wei Ying. Most of the guests were slow-dancing to Ed Sheeran. God.

“Is it that obvious?” Wei Ying chuckled, tipsy already. “He doesn’t deserve her.”

“Does anyone?” The man’s smile teased the line between playful and something more. “But my brother does seem to adore her.”

“Oh!” Wei Ying stuck out his hand reflexively. “You’re his brother? Hi, I’m-”

“Wei Wuxian, given name Ying.” Wei Ying's hand was held briefly in a cold grip. “I’m Jin Guangyao, the infamous half-brother.”

“Not that infamous,” Wei Ying laughed. “Because I haven’t really heard of you.”

Jin Guangyao's vacant smile turned dark for a brief moment until he arranged it back into a smooth grin. “Well, I am… new to the family, you could say.”

“Got it!” Drunk Wei Ying said cheerfully, not getting it at all. “I’m old to the family but no one ever wants to hang with me,” he pouted, pointing at the empty table. “So, lets hang out together at the wedding too!”

“Ha, I would be happy to,” Jin Guangyao smiled. “But I think my date would mind.”

“Aahhhhh, lucky you.” Wei Ying slumped back into his chair. “I can’t get anyone on Tinder or Grindr or even fucking Raya, to be my date for a family wedding. Seriously, Greg, I’m not going to propose to you or something. We haven’t even fucked yet-” He covered his mouth with his hands, eyes wide. “TMI!”

But Jin Guangyao simply laughed. “Greg sounds like an idiot.”

“He was.” Wei Ying nodded solemnly.

“I have a really good friend I could set you up with though..” Jin Guangyao trailed off.

“Really?” Wei Ying clapped his hands.

Honestly, the fact that Jin Guangyao called that demon his ‘really good friend’ should have warned Wei Ying about the nefarious Jin brother.

“Wait,” Lan Zhan looked adorably alarmed as he took Wei Ying’s chin in hand, tilting his head towards him. “The guy we’re going to meet is your ex-boyfriend?”

“Aiya, Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying batted at his hand. “We went on one very unsatisfactory date that ended with an ice sculpture at my sister’s wedding being set on fire! Xue Yang was never my boyfriend.”

The clear distaste on Wei Ying’s face as he mentioned the man calmed Lan Zhan down a little. And yet, he couldn’t stomach the idea of anyone ever having been on the receiving end of Wei Ying’s sunny smile and undivided attention, though there must have been many before him. How many? He berated himself for thinking about such things. Wei Ying had agreed to meet up with a clearly disgraceful character for the sake of their brothers’ happiness. This was hardly the time for jealousy. And yet…

“What was that for?” Wei Ying giggled as Lan Zhan leaned in and kissed his swollen lips. “I haven’t exactly recovered from last night, you know?” He winked. Lan Zhan couldn’t resist kissing him again, deeper this time.

“Well, well, well,” a voice spoke somewhere above them. “Is this what I think it is?”

The man was wearing a leather jacket in the sweltering afternoon heat and yet, the confident smirk playing on his lips was all Lan Zhan could notice. “Is my pretty little Wuxian-ge offering me a threesome?”

Wei Ying’s grip on his arm was the only thing stopping Lan Zhan from kicking at the man’s chair as he sat down across the table from them, looking around the cafe as if Lan Zhan's murderous glare didn't faze him at all.

“Hi, Xue Yang.” Wei Ying smiled in placation. “That’s not it... But it's good to know that you haven’t changed much.”

“Ah, gege, don’t be like that,” Xue Yang started to take Wei Ying's hand in his but Lan Zhan was quick to block him.

Xue Yang raised an eyebrow at the beautiful stranger swiftly taking both of Wei Ying’s hands in one of his own, as he clenched his other hand into a furious fist.

“Okay, okay,” Xue Yang chuckled. “Got ourselves a boyfriend now, have we, ge?”

“Yes,” Wei Ying smiled beatifically at Lan Zhan. “This is Lan Zhan, my boyfriend.” He couldn’t help but blush, a sight that made Lan Zhan grip his hands tighter, wishing he could just tie him up and keep him away from hungry eyes. Especially one pair of ravenous eyes that currently seemed to be staring at both of them with obviously bad intentions.

“We do have a business proposition for you, though.” Wei Ying squared his shoulders and turned back towards Xue Yang. “By which I mean, I will buy you a shit ton of Pewdiepie merch if you answer some questions about Jin Guangyao.”

As Wei Ying got deeper into conversation with Xue Yang, Lan Zhan made a mental note to look up what ‘Pewdiepie’ was, and whether he could get Wei Ying a restraining order against this weird man who somehow kept trying to turn the conversation towards polyamory.