Fluffy WangXian Oneshots

Hidden Memories

Sometimes things happen by themselves, pushed along by circumstances with no clear definition of intent.

That's what had happened to Wei Ying and Lan Zhan.

One night, they were reunited in the middle of a particularly intense night hunt, and somehow Wei Ying ended up coming back to Cloud Recesses with his friend.

There was no mention of how long he was going to stay, just an unspoken rule that he would be staying in the Jingshi with Lan Zhan.

They spent their days waking up together, albeit at different times of the day, but Lan Zhan always returned to the Jingshi to make sure Wei Ying ate properly, even bringing him a bottle of his favourite chilli oil as an incentive.

Night hunts were also spent fighting together, with the odd lessons thrown in for the juniors, and so far, Uncle Qiren had kept his distance, which in Wei Ying’s opinion was a win.

Wei Ying would spend his waking hours either playing with the bunnies, or entertaining himself creating new talismans depending on whichever mood struck him. Inspiration hit at the funniest of times and his creative juices flowed like wine, so there was that.

He always looked forward to Lan Zhan returning home after a long day. He didn't want to say anything to his benefactor but there were days when he felt a little lonely. It was nice going to play with the bunnies, and nicer still if he could talk unhindered with the youngsters. SiZhui in particular was an amazing kid, with just the right amount of curiosity but well, for a Lan. He just needed a nudge in the right direction and they would all be much happier...except maybe Uncle Qiren.

On this particular afternoon, Lan Zhan had just left after sharing his lunch time with Wei Ying, who had stopped working by shoving everything off the table they were going to eat off.

But when he put everything back, he found that this talisman idea was great but for one missing line. So he got up and wandered over to Lan Zhan’s quite substantial bookcase, hoping for inspiration.

Of course, in his hurry to find what he was looking for, he ended up dropping a pile of books, and when he trued picking them up, one in particular opened and something fell out.

As if caught by the winds of fate, it jumped out of his hands at every attempt to snatch it back, and Wei Ying got a good look at it before it managed to slip into a crack in the floorboard.

It was a dried peony flower, still carrying a pinkish hue, carefully preserved and clearly used as a book mark.

Now, ordinarily, Wei Ying would have ho hummed and let it go...but he was sort of already feeling guilty of leeching off Lan Zhan, and this was Lan Zhan's beloved home...and what if that flower meant something really important to Lan Zhan?

Easily the best at guilt-tripping himself, Wei Ying decided he would have to find it and put it back exactly where he had fallen out of. After all, it was only polite to do so.

So he knelt at the crack where he'd seen the blasted thing fall through and tried to pry the wood up, at least enough so that he could see where it had gone. But to his surprise, the wooden board slid aside almost as if it was well oiled.

He lifted it up to find the biggest surprise of all: expecting a musty underneath and more wood, only to find there were things down there.

Interesting things.

His hand reached down and pulled out the first thing that had caught his attention. It was a jar of Emperor’s Smile, but what made this particular jar stand out, was that it was from ages ago.

When he had first come to Cloud Recesses, filled with talk and hearsay about the region's most prestigious wine, he had excitedly bought his first ever jar. It was white in colour, fastened with a bottle stop in the same white as the body with writing embossed on the sides.