Fluffy WangXian Oneshots

There's a Book...Part 5

"Writing a book is an adventure." Winston Churchill

Only the noise of a fork chasing a blueberry could be heard on A-Yuan's plate, as Wei Ying pondered Lan Zhan's question.

Was he happy?

Was he?

Out of everything Lan Zhan could have asked him, that wasn't at all on the list of his guesses.

And if Wei Ying thought about it honestly, he wasn't sure. From rising in the morning, looking after A-Yuan's day, meals, prep, going to and from school, then his own job of writing; all of that took too much time from him to even contemplate thinking about himself. From one breath to the next, Wei Ying was constantly on the move, too involved in the present to give any attention to how he might be feeling...and then the truth was, he couldn't afford to think about it. That would be wasting valuable time.

"I don't know." He admitted.

Lan Zhan was shocked.

If anybody had asked him the same question, he might have said yes...before.

He had been happy, if happiness meant contentment, being satisfied with his lot in life. He was happy to go to the Institute, happy to sort out books, happy to play on his guqin. His life had minimal contact with anybody else, and he was happy with that.

Before.

Now?

Now, he wasn't sure.

Now there was something missing in his life and he was pretty sure it had something to do with the beautiful man sitting right in front of him...and his little Radish. It was looking up at him now, those big chocolate eyes questioning.

And Lan Zhan had not realised it, but he had held his breath, waiting for Wei Ying's answer, hoping for an affirmative, that yes, he was happy. The alternative didn't bear thinking about...but now he was confused and felt sorry for asking such a question in the first place.

Wei Ying didn't look happy, especially now, just tired, and maybe that was an indication of how he was feeling about his life.

"Baba upset?" A-Yuan tugging on his sleeve had Wei Ying plastering a smile on his own face and picking him up to plant noisy kisses on his cheeks.

Through their back and forth, Lan Zhan watched them both more carefully, taking note of the tightness behind Wei Ying's smile, and his bottomless pit of kindness, wanting A-Yuan to be happy, first and foremost.

As for the child, it didn't seem to know that it's father was faking it, pretending to be happy for solely it's benefit. Chortles and giggles erupted as Wei Ying did his best to make the child forget.

But Lan Zhan was worried that Wei Ying was doing that for himself too. Maybe he was avoiding thinking about his own life...and that made Lan Zhan feel sad.

This beautiful man should be happy, always...not just because he was beautiful, but because he was good and kind.

In these three days of Lan Zhan knowing him, he had the opinion that Wei Ying was an exceptional young man.

Lan Zhan stood up suddenly.

Wei Ying threw him a questioning glance.

"Just coming." Lan Zhan told him, disappearing towards the bathroom area.

When he returned, Wei Ying was putting A-Yuan's coat on for him.

"Checkwist, Baba?" A-Yuan was saying.

"Okay, Sweetie, let's do it." Wei Ying swung him up into his arms.

"Coats?" They both said together, giggling as they each touched the other's garment. "Keys?" Wei Ying patted his backside, which made Lan Zhan's ears red, and then, "money!" They both laughed and turned to look at Lan Zhan.