Growing Pains from Growing Family (Xicheng)

Chapter 1: Going Up in Flames

A/N: I'm back! It's finally here!!! With over 90 000 words this is the longest story I have ever written and I am so excited to share it with all of you. <3

Bang Bang Bang

Colorful lights filled the air as all his hard work went up in flames. Jumping out of the way to avoid being caught on fire as well, Lan Xichen ended up on the roof of the building next to Hanshi. His home, his work, his life. All of it was being ruined as fireworks were going off inside of Hanshi's walls. And who did he catch standing in the distance, watching the disaster with a smile on his face if not his brother-in-law?

Thankfully he wasn't crazy enough to have risked Lan Xichen's life, the fireworks had been arranged and set off whilst he was out picking up the final rabbit droppings from Wei Wuxian's last prank. But even if he was safe he couldn't help but mourn that which would be ruined. Gone forever. A spiraling anger filled Lan Xichen's stomach as he stormed over to give his brother-in-law a piece of his mind.

"Wei Wuxian!" he screamed. Lan Huan did not swear often, couldn't even remember the last time he had done so, but right now there were so many things he wanted to shout to the man in front of him. Yet, his bad habits took over, he couldn't yell such things before hearing the other person out first. "What do you have to say for yourself?". But Wei Ying had nothing to defend himself with, instead his eyes filled with surprise before he pulled Zewu-jun in for a hug.

"Thank the heavens that you're safe brother-in-law. We were worried you might have still been in there." Pulling him into an even closer embrace it was clear just how worried Wei Ying had been for his safety. He was so concerned that he was willing to risk his husband's wrath by hugging another man in front of him.

"..." Lan Xichen was still mad, but at the same time his yelling wouldn't make a difference. Wei Ying would not listen and next week he would pull yet another prank which would end just as bad as the previous one.

"We didn't mean for the fireworks to fall over like that... but can you believe it, I found out that the youngsters have never gotten to see fireworks before!? How could I possibly have them deprived of that privilege, that simply had to change. You understand right Zewu-jun??" Fireworks were not allowed in Gusu, but it wasn't like their disciples was disallowed from experiencing them at all. If there was a festival going on at the same time as their leaders were holding important sect meetings in rival territories the younger disciples were allowed to go participate in the festivities. The juniors had definitely seen such colorful flames before. Lan Huan had no way of knowing who had lied, whether it was the juniors saying they hadn't seen it before or Wei Wuxian for trying to hide that he had just wanted to set the fireworks off for selfish reasons, in the end the result was the same regardless of who had been untruthful.

"So that's why you burned down my home?" Lan Xichen felt so helpless, there were drawings, souvenirs, memories inside of that house which would be lost forever and for what? For them to watch explosions for a couple of minutes? "Why did you do this inside of the Cloud Recesses?" Even if he had done it outside it would've still been a breach of the rules but at least it would've been safer. What if they had hit a building where there were people still inside?

"Bu if my juniors haven't seen it then what about all the other Lan disciples? This way I could make sure that everyone would get to enjoy the explosive fun!!" Wei Wuxian cheerfully explained, having completely forgotten that he was meant to be apologetic to the person whose house he just burnt down. Lan Xichen was not enjoying the 'explosive fun'.

"Right..." A random Lan disciple perhaps getting to watch fireworks was certainly more valuable than all of sect leader Lan's hopes and dreams. Lan Xichen truly loved the drawings he had made, countless of sleepless nights and scoldings from his uncle as a result of not going to bed on time. And now they had all gone up in smoke. He'd never be able to recreate them. Sitting in the grass he watched as some of his older disciples helped extinguished the fire, which they had begun doing as soon as the fireworks stopped going on, but it was already too late to save it.

With the fire gone so was the light and colorful spectacle, and with the entertainment over with Lan Xichen was left all alone. Sitting in the darkness of the night he watched the outlined ruins of his home in the moonlight. Perhaps "ruins" was a bit of an overstatement, it was far from how bad it could've been. With the frames of the Cloud Recesses' houses had been flame retardant ever since the Wens' burned down the Cloud Recesses the structure still stood tall. But the insides... it was all gone, turned into nothing but dust.

Fuck Wei Wuxian!

Ready to turn to the dark side? The naughty voice inside him spoke. Usually the nice and forgiving voice won in the end but tonight it sounded really tempting to just give into his desires and fight back. To act out petty revenge for all that he and his sect had been put through over the past couple of months. His brother-in-law's "fun" had slowly gotten worse and more destructive by the day and Lan Wangji wasn't doing enough to stop him from spiraling out of control. It was time for Lan Xichen to fight back.

"...because if you are, then I have a plan." Turning around Lan Xichen found a dark clad cultivator standing behind him, glaring in the direction of Jingshi to where their brothers had left. Having been made to stay in Gusu to clean up after his brother's previous couple pranks, he was equally as pissed off as Lan Xichen was. "But I'll need your cooperation to pull it off."

"Sure..." his voice sounded hollow, defeated. Despite his anger there wasn't much fighting power left inside him. When hearing this Jiang Wanyin's heart ached as his anger for Wei Wuxian tripled. He would not just stand by and watch as Lan Xichen's spirit broke down as a result of the Wei's uncaring actions. These pranks weren't just annoying to clean up after, they were downright dangerous. But his revenge couldn't be enacted until tomorrow morning, so until then Lan Xichen's wellbeing was priority number one.

"Come on, you look exhausted. Let's find you a warm bed to sleep in." sect leader Jiang said as he pulled one of the Lan's arms over his shoulders to help support him.

Lan Xichen let out a forced laugh. "You don't think my regular bed is warm enough?" he said and pointed in the direction of Hanshi where his bed had been heated up so much probably nothing more than a pile of ash.

"Very funny, but I don't think that one is very suitable for sect leader Lan anymore. Don't worry though, I'll help you find a better one" He replied as he carried the tired cultivator along with him, away from the bad memories of his burnt down house.