"Lan Zhan? Do you know? When you finally decide 'this is it; I'm done', your whole world starts to get really quiet. I could hear the blood pumping through my veins louder than the battle going on around me. I could hear each tear drop as it fell of...
It was about an hour before the banquet was scheduled to begin that Jiang Cheng knocked at the door to Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian's room. Lan SiZhui bade him enter, so Jiang Cheng strode in with his usual swagger only to stop and gape at the domestic scene in front of him: Wei WuXian sitting on the floor clad only in white trousers and shirt with Lan WangJi, equally as undressed, kneeling behind him combing his hair. Jiang Cheng blinked a few times at his brother and then turned to Lan SiZhui who was calmly playing his guqin. "I thought you were joking," he protested.
"Why would I joke about something like this?" Lan SiZhui asked innocently. He, of course, was dressed appropriately for visitors, wearing a formal robe more representative of his role as Sect Leader's nephew and second heir than junior disciple, and his hair held up by a more intricate piece than what he normally wore.
Wei WuXian laughed. "Lan Zhan insists I wear my hair properly, so I insist he do it for me." He looked over his shoulder to see his spouse's ears turning pink. He pursed his lips, but refrained from blowing a kiss since his brother and son were there. Turning around to face his brother again, he asked, "How can I help you?"
Jiang Cheng frowned at the floor for a moment, remembering the reason for this visit. "Sect leaders and Clan leaders are all asking me how much I'm going to make you grovel before I allow you to re-enter the YunMengJiang Sect."
"I'm not going to grovel, and I'm not rejoining the Sect," Wei WuXian spoke softly but purposefully.
"I know that," Jiang Cheng agreed. "I'm assuming that the other Sect leaders are not going to simply permit you to.... You know how they are. They are going to want the spectacle. And I know you, Wei Ying... you'll give them the spectacle they need if not the one they want. And I'd prefer it not be humiliating to me!"
"Jiang Cheng!" Wei WuXian laughed harder. "I'm going to greet you as my Shidi whom I haven't seen for a few days. That's all. If there is any spectacle, it's going to be made by someone else. I promise you." Everyone stared at Wei WuXian in disbelief; there was no way he was not going to be central to every spectacle that happened at the banquet!
Jiang Cheng noticed three swords in a stand. "You're carrying Suibian again?"
"Of course," Wei WuXian answered glibly. "It is, after all, required for a cultivator to carry a sword, isn't it?" For some reason, he didn't want to tell his brother that he had a new core. Maybe it was too new. Or maybe he just didn't want the whole 'lost core, gave up core, got new core' mess to be widely known. Jiang Cheng was not known as one able to keep other people's secrets for long. And Wei WuXian hadn't yet quite come up with a plausible lie as to why Suibian unsealed itself for Jiang Cheng....
"But you can't use it! Aren't you afraid of being asked to duel?"
"Jiang Cheng, I'm not a child anymore. Just because someone asks me to fight doesn't mean I have to oblige them. I'll just use Chenqing if I can't escape it."
"Wei Ying! Stop moving," Lan Zhan ordered. Pouting, Wei Ying sat quietly allowing his husband to twist and pull his hair into some intricate knot and hold it in place by an overly elaborate hair piece that had been the subject of many arguments. For someone who publicly claimed to be unable to say 'no' to Wei WuXian, Lan WangJi got his way far too often....
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