WangXian Untamed Together

Chapter 18 - Dual But Different

It was different this time.

As splendid, exciting, and inventive as their everyday had always proven to be, tonight was different.

As magical, all-encompassing and overwhelming as Dual Cultivation had proven the once they attempted it, tonight was also very different from that first experience.

Just as with every experience of lovemaking between the men, each heart called out to the other and soul sought soul. Two bodies moved together as warmth sought warmth, and tongues and lips and hands and hips moved in patterns and motions instinctive and natural yet honed by experience. Wei WuXian's light cries rang out to delight Lan WangJi's ears time and again as he brought his husband to the very precipice of fulfillment before backing off, only to revel in the low-voiced and increasingly dirty praises groaned or gasped as the moment allowed Wei WuXian his never-silent voice.

In turn, Wei WuXian's clever hands and mouth drew forth a rich hum from Lan WangJi's throat, lost to his own pleasure, offering all his being to Wei WuXian. The resonant tones slipped into perfect harmony with Wei WuXian's own outcries and created a perfect, echoing symphony of joyous passion and limitless desire.

The two men warmed the former Archive Room with nothing more than their shared body heat against the icy air and still the high-ceilinged chamber grew noticeably less cold. Sweat dripped unheeded down long, lean muscles that flexed and slid and curled about their match. Unremarked time drifted past them, lost in their determined efforts to combine, and their perfectly matched desires to both give and accept all they could.

"Core..." panted Lan WangJi. "Core, Wei Ying. My love, your Core..."

The exquisite, delicate agony of holding back from completion grew as breath became short and bodies strained to join. Over and over they climbed the mountain together, the journey shared with joy and passion, until reaching the honey-sweet air of the heights, only to stop in their tracks before reaching the peak. Again and again the rise, only to be denied at the last moment.

Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi had experienced Dual Cultivation only once previously. It was notably different this night in another aspect as well, since Wei WuXian had been in Mo XuanYu's form at the time, a delicate and petite man. He was adjusting well to relearning the differences between that and his restored frame, but it was still a work in progress; on rare occasions he mis-stepped or failed to hit a target because he was still acclimating to his longer limbs and greater height. In almost every respect this Dual Cultivation was to be, yet again, a first for Wei WuXian, albeit one he gave his husband with all his heart behind it. Likewise, another first for Lan WangJi, his first Dual Cultivation with Wei WuXian in the body he had longed for so many empty years, and known could never be touched, never be known, lost as it was to the infernos below Nightless City.

As before, Lan WangJi took charge, leading his husband forward in collecting his spiritual energy, concentrating it in his Core and preparing to share when the moment was reached. Once more Wei WuXian gradually lost all coherency until even the slightest subconscious reservation was long erased and his sole ambition was to share with his husband. Not even an ambition, his sole desire and only purpose became joining with his husband, sharing everything he was in every way possible, only and all for Lan WangJi, giving himself over completely and with abandon. Despite Lan WangJi's iron self-will and impressive stamina, a time came when further denial was impossible. At that moment of realization, Lan WangJi whispered "Now, Wei Ying," and both men released their spiritual essence toward each other, opening their own pathways wide to receive the energies of their partner, Meridians surging as time ceased.

And it was different.

In the timeless, fractional, endless instant of combination, the men screamed into the Archive Room, but it was only the physical plane that witnessed the echoes, bouncing about the cavernous chamber. On the spiritual plane there was another presence. In that opening of the Universe, specific to themselves and the moment, Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian became aware of another energy. It did not feel like an intruder, but perhaps something like a visitor. Their own Qi circulated, spiralling and converging in limitless patterns, beautiful and utterly distracting, while a third energy slipped in and out around the surges of Qi, surfing from one stream to the other, infiltrating and separating from Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi in turn and simultaneously. There was no malice, no discontent to be felt from this energy. Nothing negative nor, conversely, anything positive. It was much like a late-Winter breeze slipping startlingly cool down a neck warmed by the Spring sun, or the welcome chill of the Cold Spring on a body aching and hot from the Training Grounds. Different. Not necessarily unwelcome, nor particularly disturbing. Simply noticeable. Distinct from either Lan WangJi or Wei WuXian. As the two men's Qi surged through their pathways, mingling and converging on their Cores, the new element seemed almost to observe. It remained on the surface, as it were, watchful and not actively participating. Their Qi rampaged through each other's Meridians, surging and wild in the journey to their Cores. Finally, when the cataract of spiritual energy slowed to a steady, even flow – the work of less than a flicker of time no matter it felt like hours - the men collapsed in each others' arms, breathing heavily and shuddering through the aftermath. Slowly their bodies turned liquid, melting into each other as the Dual Cultivation enchantment waned.

The first time Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian had attempted Dual Cultivation, it was Wei WuXian who had recovered first, and soothed Lan WangJi through the fallout.

Again, this time was different.

Slowly Lan WangJi recovered his capacity for thought. At first dazed impressions of a force unknown to him came to his mind. As his thoughts settled into coherency once more, he gradually slowed his breathing. Eventually he noticed the sound of dripping from condensation falling into the Cold Springs. Sensation followed and Lan WangJi felt the chill and cramping of muscles exposed to the cold atmosphere of the Cold Cavern for far too long. Sluggish in his thoughts, he realized he was lying collapsed above Wei WuXian, pressing him into the bed with all his weight and he moved off to one side. Opening his eyes he saw his husband, and drew him closer in his arms, pulling their discarded robes over them both for warmth. Snuggled together, Lan WangJi waited.

Wei WuXian did not stir.

Lan WangJi pressed a kiss to Wei WuXian's jaw. No response. Slightly unnerved, Lan WangJi sat up to look at his husband. Wei WuXian remained immobile, lying as he had fallen at the height of their passion, mouth slightly open as if in a scream not yet ended, hands limp in the bedclothes and chest rising and falling steadily with his breath. Gently Lan WangJi kissed his husband yet again. Still no response. Concerned now, Lan WangJi took Wei WuXian's wrist and sent a tendril of Qi to his husband's Meridians. All seemed well – the pathways fully open, no injuries, the Yin Iron interfering with reading the energies near the Core, as expected. But Wei WuXian was not awakening.

Lan WangJi began to dress while he considered the situation.

They had Dual Cultivated once without concern. But this time had felt different. Lan WangJi's memory poked him – yes, that's right. That sense of a different energy, something belonging neither to himself nor Wei WuXian. Oh, gods! Had it harmed Wei Ying?

Lan WangJi raced himself into the final layer of robes, hands shaking with nebulous fears budding in his mind and too terrifying to truly consider. He turned to dressing his husband, who was limp and uncooperative. Just at the point Lan WangJi had decided to carry his husband to the Healing Hall partially clad, unable to wait any longer in seeking help, Wei WuXian gasped, inhaled deeply, then opened his eyes, foggy and unfocussed.

"Wei Ying!" Lan WangJi's frightened tones seemed to steady Wei WuXian, drawing him further from his dazed state, and he turned his silver eyes to his husband as he clumsily made to rise.

"Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan. Sweetheart. Husband. Such an experience. Let me get dressed and I'll tell you something – oh!"

Lan WangJi caught Wei WuXian in his arms. His husband had attempted to stand but his knees had given out.

"Ah, HanGuang-Jun! So talented to be where the chaos is..." Wei WuXian began to giggle, in a tired voice with a rising note of hysteria. "I'm the chaos... that's me..."

Lan WangJi sat his husband down on the edge of the bed and helped him draw the remainder of his robes around him and fasten them properly. Wei WuXian's hands seemed all thumbs and were of no use and a fair bit of an obstacle, so Lan WangJi finally batted them away and finished the closures himself. Wei WuXian sat there, being dressed like a doll, offering no resistance, his eyes nearly closed. Finally done, Lan WangJi sat beside Wei WuXian.

"Wei Ying? Are you alright?"

Wei WuXian gave a small, lazy smile to Lan WangJi and leaned his head into his shoulder.

"Ah, Lan Zhan, my love, my very heart... I have so much to tell you about... but first I need to sleep. I'm fine, I promise, but I need sleep so badly, my love and I'm so very, very tired. Such a day, such a day... we've truly claimed this place now, shall we stay here?"

Lan WangJi slipped an arm behind his husband and the other under his knees, lifting him easily in his arms. Wei WuXian had regained his height but remained significantly slimmer than Lan WangJi, and the famous Lan arm strength was a blessing in this circumstance.

"Too cold. Wei Ying will rest better at home."

Placing his concerns to the back of his mind, Lan WangJi focussed on what he could best do to help his husband, who could barely keep his head up or his eyes open. Carefully he carried his husband down the mountain to their home. By the time they had reached the Jingshi Wei WuXian was sound asleep and Lan WangJi gently disrobed him and put him to bed before climbing in at his side. They would talk in the morning.