baby it's cold outside (WangXian FF)

11

"Hey, you brats, gege is staying here with you boys starting from today! Ain't that fun, huh?"

Wei Wuxian took Yuan – the quiet one – and threw him up before he caught him again, causing the boy to scream and giggle.

"Me! Me! I want it too!" Jingyi – the bolder one – pulled at Wei Wuxian's pants and reached up his chubby hands so Wei Wuxian put Yuan down and took him into his embrace.

"Throw me higher than Yuan, uncle!" He grinned and Wei Wuxian could see the gap in between his teeth.

"Who's your uncle, brat? Call me gege or no airplane for you." He pinched the boy's nose but Jingyi only giggled.

"You're too old for a gege! Throw me first then I will decide if you still have the strength to be called a gege!"

"Why, you…"

Xie Lian and Luo Binghe laughed when they heard the childish conversation, since they knew how stubborn Jingyi was. But he also rarely liked people – unlike Yuan, who was more easily taken to strangers. In short, Jingyi was always the protector and the defender, and it was good to see him finally acted like his age with Wei Wuxian – who probably acted more like a five-year old than the boys.

They all saw how Wei Wuxian threw the boys in turns, and then they piled up on him, laughing and screaming, and then the three of them made snow angels.

"Well, I think we're going to have our hands full with three kids." Shen Qingqiu sighed and Hua Cheng smiled. That was the charm – and the curse – of being Wei Wuxian. He could charm your pants off, and annoyed you to hell in the same breath. He wondered if Mr. High and Mighty would be able to resist the author's charm since the latter seemed to have annoyed him a lot already, and this was just day two.

Then, suddenly the air stilled, and they all got quiet when they saw Lan Wangji come out of the house. Everyone was holding their breath since they didn't know what to make of his stoic expression.

Lan Wangji was wearing all white and he looked like he was the personification of the Heavenly God himself, and everyone waited for his reaction with the commotion. He was known to hate loud noises and preferred to live in quiet seclusion. So, in short, he and Wei Wuxian were the polar opposites and their friends wondered if there would be a world war soon.

"Heeyy, Lan Wangji, come join us, we're making snow angels here, right kids?" Wei Wuxian tickled the boys and they giggled happily.

Lan Wangji never saw the boys look that happy – or that free. they were always… tiptoeing around him, and he felt his heart clench.

Did he really deprive the children of their childhood with his strict teaching?

He rarely heard them laugh hysterically like this – even Yuan, who was always a quiet child.

But now he could see how happy they were and how easy the stranger took the kids' heart with his easy going manner and bright smile.

Before he could think deeper, his legs were pulled from under him and he fell down beside them, and both the kids screamed murder before they jumped him. And before long, the rest of the adults joined them in snowball fights and angel making with a lot of shrieks and laughter.

Luo Binghe had already prepared the lunch when they all finally finished with the snowball fights and changed their clothes to a dry one. They sat on the long communal table while Luo Binghe took out a big pot of hot soup, hot and fluffy white rice, and a few side dishes – all vegetarian.

Wei Wuxian frowned at the lack of meat dish, but when Shen Qingqiu took out a bottle of the red hot chili pepper from his pocket, his face became considerably happy again as he put the insane amount of chili on his soup and rice and everything.

The kids – and the other adults who didn't know his habit – gawked at the amount of the chili Wei Wuxian poured on his food. Even Lan Wangji raised his brow in amusement.

"Uncle, what's that? May I try?" Jingyi pointed at the bottle of chili and Wei Wuxian laughed.

"Sure, if you want to stay in the bathroom for the whole day. Otherwise this is…"

"Biohazard." Shen Qingqiu mumbled. "That thing is a live radioactive material. Do not come near it. Ever." He warned the kids. "He's a living dead, so it's no problem for him to eat that kind of… thing." He refrained himself in front of the kids and the others – especially their new landlord and his chef. "By the way, this soup is really good. What's in it, Binghe?"

"Ah, I made broth from the stems, the skins and the leftover of the root vegetables, adding some garlic, ginger, onion, scallion – which was burned first to give the smoky aroma – and then I strained them with tea cloth before adding some freshly picked root vegetables like potatoes, carrots, daikon, and many kind of mushrooms." Luo Binghe explained the process of making the super delicious broth. "I also made many fermented vegetables from around the world like kimchi, tsukemono, pickles, and many many more. We usually sell them online or consume them for winter like this."

"Oh… wow." Shen Qingqiu was speechless, since he didn't understand a word that Luo Binghe had just said, but he loked how the big man blushed lightly when he looked at him, and how his eyes shone bright when he explained about those vegetables. So cute.

"The sale of his fermented vegetables and canned broths are what keep us afloat for years." Xie Lian added. "He is our lifesaver."

Wei Wuxian took a peek at Lan Wangji – who seemed to lose his appetite but forced himself to eat a few bite before he pushed his food away. He could easily read the man's mind, how he was such a prideful Prince who had fallen from grace and ashamed of his own inability to take care of his own people.

Yes.

And the idea suddenly formed in his head.

A fallen prince who took a sole responsibility for his people.

A cold person yet full of warmth.

A prisoner of his own mind who yearned to be free from the chains.

His new main character.