Courtship Rite

Wedding

The lock clicked. Wei Ying shot up on the bed. His hands clenched at the blanket as the door opened. It had to be Lan Wangji. No one else had visited since the day the fists had flown and there'd been a body on the floor and Lan Wangji's voice, so cold, saying "Leave him." No, don't think about that. Never think about that.

The figure in the doorway dripped blood, so much blood, clotting and dripping. Wei Ying choked back a scream. But no, that wasn't blood, or was it? No, not blood, cloth, red cloth, the color of blood, but not blood. Red. Red with silver embroidery. Lan Wangji was wearing red. Why was Lan Wangji wearing red?

Lan Wangji's hands reached out towards Wei Ying. They held something. Fabric. Red fabric, but folded up, controlled, organized, not flowing down like blood. "Put this on. You may change in the bathroom. I will wait."

Wei Ying shut the bathroom door behind himself and fell against it. He closed his eyes against the sight of the red robes but couldn't stop thinking. These were wedding robes. Lan Wangji had given him wedding robes. They were getting married? Today? But Lan Wangji hadn't asked, had he? No, Wei Ying would have remembered that. There'd been betrothal gifts, anonymous, disturbing, but no asking. But Lan Wangji hadn't asked before kidnapping him, before imprisoning him, before fucking him. Lan Wangji wasn't an asking kind of a guy.

He closed his eyes as he shook out the robes so he wouldn't have to see all that red spilling. When he'd finished dressing, he opened them again and looked in the mirror. His skin, which never saw the sun anymore, looked pale against the bright red. He had dark circles under his eyes and knots in his hair. "I look like fucking Snow White."

The knock on the door made him jump. "Wei Ying, what is taking so long?"

Wei Ying opened the door. Lan Wangji just stood there, staring.

"I know my hair's a mess," Wei Ying said.

"Wei Ying is beautiful, more so than usual." He took Wei Ying's hand. "Come. Sit." He led Wei Ying to the bed, sat beside him, and started combing Wei Ying's hair.

"I can do that myself."

Lan Wangji didn't speak. He just kept combing. Wei Ying felt like squirming in his seat. Lan Wangji was just combing his hair. Why did it feel so intimate?

When the door flew open, Wei Ying shrank into Lan Wangi. Better the devil he knew than this new threat. "What are you doing? Stop this travesty at once." It was the angry old man who'd kicked Wei Ying out of his apartment. Lan Wangji's uncle?

"It is not a travesty. I am marrying Wei Ying."

"You will not desecrate our family with that whore," the old man shouted. Wei Ying turned away and curled up, making himself less vulnerable to a strike. Maybe Lan Wangji would step between them?

"Uncle." The voice was Xichen's.

When Lan Wangji stepped forward, Wei Ying shifted to hide himself from the old man. "Wei Ying is not a whore. Wei Ying is pure. Wei Ying is everything." Lan Wangji turned his back on the old man and held a hand out to Wei Ying. "Come."

Wei Ying allowed himself to be pulled to his feet but kept Lan Wangji between himself and the other two Lans. The old man moved, placing himself between them and the door. "Wangji, I forbid it."

Lan Wangji let go of Wei Ying's hand. His fist flew. Wei Ying flinched and turned away. He couldn't do this again. He couldn't see another body on the floor, abandoned, dying alone. Lan Wangji grabbed him by the arm and pulled him towards the door. Wei Ying glanced around. The old man was not dying on the floor. The old man was leaning on Xichen but stood on his own two feet while one hand covered his nose. Blood dripped down from behind his hand.

Wei Ying closed his eyes and drifted, pulled along in Lan Wangji's wake. Only when they stopped moving did he open his eyes. Lan Wangji had brought him to the rooftop garden, to his mother's altar. Wei Ying saw a second memorial plaque, the one that bore his parents' names.

"I had it brought from your room for the ceremony," Lan Wangji said.

They bowed three times. I'm married, Wei Ying thought. It didn't seem real.

A table had been set at the far end of the garden next to the waterfall. A young woman stayed and served their food. Wei Ying didn't look at her. He didn't want to make Lan Wangji jealous. He forced himself to smile. He tried to look happy for his husband.