When Madam Mo tries to talk her family up by mentioning a relative who used to be a cultivator, the doors burst open. A young man in his early twenties bursts in, his clothes in disarray and his face painted with garish makeup that makes him look like a hanged corpse. 

"That's me! You must be talking about me, right? I'm the only one here who used to be a cultivator." 

Don't smile don't smile don't smile...

"Interesting!" she says, brightly, and like she's definitely not contemplating murder. She senses Madame Mo does not like this man. Therefore... "Have you noticed anything that'd be useful here, then?"

"Huh? No, sorry, I've been locked away and haven't seen anything." 

"What--get rid of him!" Madam Mo hisses to the servants. Her husband gets up to drag the lunatic out himself, but instead of standing his ground he drops to the floor and digs his fingers into the floorboards. The husband tries to drag him away anyway, face flushing, but his grip is too strong. Several servants start approaching the pair of them. 

"Oh! Dragging him out seems rather rude!" she says, feigning shock to disguise her glee. Oh yeah Madame Mo definitely hates this guy.

"I'm so sorry young masters, it's only that my nephew is completely insane," she says, bowing to the Lan disciples. "It's really for his own good that he must leave." 

"I'm not going to leave until my cousin gives back what he stole from me!" he announces. 

"What? Me, steal from you? What a joke!" his much better dressed cousin protests. 

"Fine, you didn't steal, you robbed," the so-called lunatic asserts. "You hit me and took my things!" 

Mo Ziyuan starts towards the intruder angrily. 

"That seems a rather serious accusation!" she says, hiding her amusement slightly less well. "Surely if Mo Ziyuan did such a thing, he would apologize?"

"Of course he would, if he had, which he didn't!" Madam Mo asserts. Mo Ziyuan kicks his cousin and falls over; "Mo Xuanyu" rips his shirt open to reveal a nasty foot-shaped bruise. 

"You just came here to make a big scene!" Madam Mo accuses accurately. 

"I just came to get my stuff back, is that so wrong?" "Mo Xuanyu" demands. 

"Well! This seems rather credible to me!" she says. "Perhaps Mo Ziyuan can return anything he took, and apologize, and we can all get on with what we're here for?"

Mo Ziyuan, not having left the things he stole from his cousin in any kind of shape to return them, starts sweating. "This is ridiculous! I can't believe you're accepting the word of a lunatic like that!" 

"I may be a lunatic, but you're the one who snuck into the room of a known cutsleeve in the middle of the night to steal. Think of your reputation!" 

"What--he's your cousin!" Madam Mo exclaimed. 

"So? He's the one who did it, don't blame me for calling him out! You can do what you like with your own reputation," he adds to his "cousin," "but I want to find a good man someday!"

Mo Ziyuan sees red. He picks up a chair and swings it at his cousin, who dodges out of the way to let it shatter against the floor. 

Not laughing is VERY HARD.

"Don't we all." She sighs, dramatically. "And Mo Ziyuan! Please desist from this shameful behavior! Surely a lunatic's words shouldn't have such an effect on you..."

To Mo Xuanyu: "I know you feel very wronged, but there is a serious situation going on, and perhaps it's better to resolve this affair later?"

"Ah, well, if you say it, Lan-guniang, how can I disoblige?" he asks, and bows, and flees out the door, with Mo Ziyuan barely restrained from pursuit by his father. 

Now, with that bit of entertainment temporarily resolved, back to more serious business...

She calms down the Mo family a bit, though she teases them some about their 'cultivator' in there, and ends up taking over the West Courtyard, directing the other Lan disciples to carefully place spirit-attracting flags around it, so the problem should come directly to them.

Mo Xuanyu next comes to her attention having stolen one of the flags Jingyi was setting up, playing keep-away while Jingyi tries to get it back. 

Dude, seriously, please don't.

She intervenes, sternly, and demands Mo Xuanyu give the flag back.

"Ah, it's just a flag, so what's the big deal?" he demands, and throws it down and runs off again. 

Sigh.

The guy's funny... And a bit weird, but that fits with 'lunatic.'

She puts the flag back where it goes, and tells the other junior disciples to keep a better eye on them next time.

Unfortunately, they don't manage to keep a good enough eye on them that Mo Ziyuan doesn't manage to steal one in the middle of the night before he turns up dead, shriveled and missing an arm the next morning. 

Okay that is slightly a problem!

They definitely missed something. She wants the disciples to keep together in at least pairs, and gather the household together - see if anyone's injured, behaving strangely, missing, or also dead. (Do not gather anyone injured or behaving strangely with the others.)

It's sort of hard to tell if anyone's behaving strangely because a lot of them are freaking out!

Keep them calm, keep them separated a bit from each other, keep everyone under observation...

Where is Mo Xuanyu?

Over here, having accusations flung at him by his aunt. 

She quasi-politely separates them, and, out of easy eavesdropping by the aunt, would like to know, non-accusingly, if he saw anything?

"Well, I didn't see anything last night or anything, but..." he fishes the spirit attraction flag out of Mo Ziyuan's robes. 

Sigh. "That's part of why we were saying not to mess with those, you know. We should get that out away from everyone else..."

Madam Mo takes this opportunity to start shrieking at Lan Fengli for not protecting her son. 

"I'm sorry, ma'am." She's even mostly sincere. "However, I now need to make sure everyone else is safe."

"How are you supposed to make sure anyone is safe when you couldn't even protect him!?"

"We're sending a message to our Sect that something went wrong, and we'll keep a better eye on everyone, now. It'll be easier if people follow our directions, though - like not messing with the flags - since we know what's dangerous and what isn't." What has the world come to that she's advocating obeying rules...

"If you could do that, you should have done it sooner! Your useless sect! You send nothing but children, and now my son is dead!" 

"Leave her alone. Your son was instructed to stay out of the West Courtyard, and instead he snuck in and stole an incredibly dangerous magic artifact! That's his own fault, not mine, not hers. You can't just treat these people who came out all this way to help you as though they were your servants!" 

"How dare you speak to me like that! My shameful sister's insane bastard, you're lucky we house and feed you! Get him out of here!" she orders her husband, shoving on his shoulder. 

Her husband, seemingly dazed by the loss of his only son, just shoves back. She goes sprawling, looking at him with more bafflement than anger. He's never even defied her before, let alone shoved her around. 

...Okay something's really off.

"Ma'am, calm down - sir, step back - "

Madam Mo does not calm down, ordering one of the servants to get her husband out of here. Her husband doesn't react to anything anyone says. 

Could be grief, but... All this commotion definitely isn't helping, anyways.

"Stand back!" she orders the servant, voice loud and sharp. "Madam Mo, you as well." She positions herself in front of the man, examining him, hand not quite on her sword but near enough to it.

"Sir," she says, firmly. "I need you to step back."

He does not respond. 

Okay. Usually even people in shock respond - at least flinch, even belatedly.

Not taking her eyes off him, she orders two of the other junior disciples to get the other members of the household away, and check everyone else for unresponsiveness, and then another two to come assist her. (If he's in shock, she should get him somewhere calm and protected. If something worse is wrong, she should get him under guard and separated from anyone without the ability to defend themselves.)

Nobody else is unresponsive. 

After a few minutes he collapses, as desiccated as his son. 

She steps back, slightly surprised, then masters herself.

...Does he seem to be missing an arm like his son was, too?

Sort of hard to tell, he collapsed on his left side. 

Okay. The other disciples need to check people again for unresponsiveness. (She pokes him with her sheathed sword to turn him over.)

Before her sword touches the body, all the lights in the room go out. 

Okay! Bad! 

She lights a flame talisman.

The body is lying slightly differently and the arm is gone. 

Okay this thing doesn't like being looked at, or doesn't like the light - everyone needs to get out in the daylight now. Orderly.

Is anyone new not responding?

Madam Mo. And her left hand does NOT match her right; it's a man's hand, gnarled and burly. 

If she gets in trouble for this so be it.

Lan Fengli is very fast, something she uses to lunge for Madam Mo, sword lashing for her left arm.

The arm twists out of the way in a way no living human arm could and lunges for her throat. 

She twists out of range, trying to position herself so any lunges on the arm's part will make it vulnerable to being run through.

The arm goes for one of the servants instead. He goes down gurgling. 

It takes more than a second to strangle someone.

She starts singing to try to pacify the arm. And also keeps trying to pin it with her sword without exposing herself or anyone else, focusing most on keeping it from killing anyone else.

It slows, a little. 

The servant's neck goes crack. 

Slows a little hopefully means stabbable! 

She can manage to stab the arm, but it doesn't slow the arm down much; it slides up the sword to reach for her--

--Jingyi yelps in protest as his outer robe is wrenched from him and thrown over the arm. The whole thing erupts in spiritual flames. 

Sword: stabbed through something wooden, and she jumps back, letting go of her sword, pulling out her long knife, and continuing to sing.

The overrobe slowed the arm down even more than the song did. The other juniors started taking theirs off and throwing them at it. 

She follows suit, still singing.

The arm is significantly slowed down by all the robes but it manages to fight its way out of them. 

Before it can get past the juniors and their swords, however, the fierce corpses of the dead Mo family shove their way past and start engaging it. 

She wants the juniors to take this time to regroup - make sure all the Mo household are cleared out, anyone injured fall back - 

She gets out an actual instrument to try to keep the arm calmed - might calm the corpses, too, which could be good or bad - 

If she tries she can aim the music mostly at the arm. It's a lot more than zero effective, and between her and the corpses they can keep the arm from getting out and getting anyone else until--

Her music is joined and supported by the familiar chords of a guqin as the backup the signal flare summoned arrives. All four dead things freeze in place. 

Oh thank fuck.

She had been aiming at the arm, and keeps playing, the mournful tune of her xun well sorted to this sort of thing. Also though she would like to gesture for the other juniors to Leave, Please, as she backs up herself.

The other juniors are more than happy to GTFO. They'll go look after the shellshocked surviving servants or something. 

Now that her father's here she's feeling slightly less like this is the Worst Disaster Ever.

Still pretty bad.

She backs up a good bit, but keeps playing.

He doesn't manage to exorcise the arm, but he can bind it and stuff it in a qiankun pouch to transport back to Cloud Recesses and kill the fierce corpses. 

"Are you alright?" he asks when the immediate danger is past.

"Yeah. Only a bit shaken."

"What happened?"

She explains, pretty thoroughly.

He nods. 

He considers the previously-fierce corpses. 

"Where is Mo Xuanyu?"

"...Dunno. Lost track of him."

"Mn." There were clearly more important concerns. 

He sets the juniors to looking for him. Nothing turns up. 

"A bit odd..."

"Hn." 

Mo Xuanyu aside, he has to take the arm back to Cloud Recesses. The juniors turn in reports on the hunt and discuss what went wrong and right with their teachers. 

There's a soul-eater of some kind on Dafan Mountain, apparently. Wangji's going to check it out, does Fengli want to come and bring Jingyi?

She discusses what went wrong with her father; she has a rather extensive list, including points where she could've done better, and ideas for how.

Yes, she'd like to come with. It'll be fun to do something with Jingyi, too.

It turns out quite a lot of cultivators have turned up to hunt the soul-eater; apparently it's fairly high-profile and the people who mostly care about that have come flocking. Some idiot put up deity-binding nets that have captured nothing they're supposed to and more than a few low-level cultivators. Wangji destroys them all with the sword glare from Bichen. 

Oh look, here's Mo Xuanyu. With the idiot who put up the nets. Who is, apparently, Jiang Wanyin. 

Free entertainment!

She waves at Mo Xuanyu. "You vanished so quickly out of Mo Village!" she says. "I was wondering if you were okay."

"Ahah, you don't need to worry about me, Lan-guniang."

"You seem to have a nose for trouble."

"What can I say, these things just seem to happen."

"The chaos comes where you are, then?"

"You flatter me."

"Not everyone would think that's a compliment!"

"Ah, but remember, I am a lunatic."

"Eh, the interesting people all are."

"Hah! That's not very Lannish of you."

She laughs. "I narrowly avoided setting any records for copying the rules by rarely being in the Cloud Recesses."

"Pfffffffft! Should you be saying that around Hanguang-jun?"

"Eh, dad's cool."

"Dad?"

"You haven't heard any of the gossip? I have the coolest dad." Both of them, even if she can only admit to one.

"I, uh, had not heard any gossip along those particular lines, no." This kid definitely looks older than thirteen, how had he not known Lan Zhan had a kid???

Shrug. "It's interesting what spreads and what doesn't."

"Anyways, we should probably keep searching for that soul-eater..."

"Yeah. See you," he says, and wanders off. 

Wangji looks vaguely troubled. 

"Something up?"

"He reminds me of--someone." 

"Oh." She shrugs. "I like him, but don't think he reminds me of anyone particular..."

His gaze flicks to all the witnesses who don't know about her secret dad. 

Time to go looking for the soul eater, then? (Possibly without witnesses?)

Well they can certainly get the fuck away from Jiang Wanyin and Jin Ling but Lan Jingyi will presumably be coming along with them. 

Hampers talking freely, but she's a lot more relaxed away from the Jiang Sect patriarch and his nephew.

Hm. 

Wangji sends Jingyi on an errand involving a local shrine. 

"He reminded me of your other father," he says quietly when they are alone. 

" - Really? How odd..."

"You didn't notice that he was a little similar to you?" 

" - Oh yeah, we were definitely getting along well... I don't really think of myself as similar to dad a lot, though..."

"You are of course your own person. But when you were very small and I knew you less well of yourself I was often struck by how much you take after him."

She laughs. "Do you think something's up, then, with him being so similar?"

"No." Just that it hurts.

She leans against him, briefly.

He gives her shoulder a brief squeeze. 

They continue looking for any sign of a soul-eating creature, to no avail. 

It is when they have circled around to head to the shrine to regroup with Jingyi that the sounds of panicked combat reach their ears--

Followed by the sound of a remarkably horrible flute playing what is nonetheless identifiable as a song no one else alive should know. 

Lan Wangji freezes in place for a moment before bolting towards the source of the sound.

She runs as well, ready to draw her sword - she knows that song, that's her dads' song Wangxian...

He comes into view of the scene as Wen Ning is demolishing the soul-eating goddess. 

That by itself is startling enough; the Jin sect was supposed to have incinerated him before the siege, even before Nightless City. But--

The figure controlling him was Mo Xuanyu, who had reminded him so much of Wei Ying, and was now playing a hastily-carved bamboo flute, and the notes that he was playing on it were--

This was not Mo Xuanyu. 

"Do you think something's up, then, with him being so similar?" "No." 

He had been wrong. He had been so, so wrong. 

Wei Ying. 

Wei Ying backs up into the trees and almost physically collides with Lan Wangji, Wangji's hand coming up to grip Wei Ying's wrist, to feel the vital pulse, alive, alive, alive--

The two stare at each other for a long moment before Wei Ying determinedly begins playing again, banishing Wen Ning back to--somewhere--not here where there are dozens of cultivators who would love to make their name by killing him. 

She steps up next to her father, keeping her attention fixed on the cultivators, though she's fighting not to glance at her maybe-other-dad.

And that was when Jiang Cheng had the bad grace to show up. 

He got into a shouting argument with his nephew, which was fine on its own, but Jin Ling mentioned the part where Wen Ning had showed up and "Mo Xuanyu" had been controlling him. 

Jiang Cheng's eyes narrowed as he turned to the demonic cultivator. 

"So. You're back, then." 

And his purple lightning whip lashes out. 

Only to be deflected by a burst of power from Wangji's guqin strings. The two spiritual tools' power surge against each other, and the night sky lights up purple. 

Oh this is so not on any level good. 

He makes a break for it. 

Bad move. As soon as he's outside Hanguang-jun's protective range, Jiang Cheng redirects Zidian, to strike the body that must be holding his brother's soul and banish it. 

But while the strike is quite painful, and he goes crashing into the donkey he was originally running towards, nothing else happens. 

"Ow! You really can bully anyone you want when you're from a big sect, can't you!" 

Sharply: "Clearly such a strike did nothing," she says, sharply, not leaving her father's protection but stepping closer to 'Mo Xuanyu' all the same, "So there can't be a possession here. Why would anyone think one strange person, who can't even play the flute, could control such a legendary figure as the Ghost General?"

"You weren't here! He was definitely controlling him!" Jin Ling yells. "Wen Ning moved when he was playing and stopped when he stopped, there's no question!"

"And since Zidian found nothing... What does that even prove?"

"It doesn't have to prove anything! Wen Ning killed my father!" 

"Who are you, then?" Jiang Cheng growls at "Mo Xuanyu."

"Erm..." says a random bystander, and then explains that he was Jin Guangshan's bastard who had been a disciple of the Jin sect until he had been kicked out for being bad at respectable cultivation and being super gay and it was super plausible that he had taken up demonic cultivation. 

"Whatever, then. Wei Wuxian or not, I'm taking him back to Lotus Pier." 

"Um...I'm flattered, I really am, but just because I'm a cutsleeve doesn't mean I'll go to bed with just any man, and frankly, you aren't my type." 

"That--no--what is your type, then???" he demands, tripped up by his own competitive instincts. 

"Well, Hanguang-jun, for example, he's completely gorgeous." 

"Mark your words." 

"Huh?"

"I'm taking him back to the Lan Sect with me." 

And Jiang Cheng, not daring to get into a serious fight with Hanguang-jun over a random demonic cultivator, had to give up. 

To 'Mo Xuanyu': "Didn't you say you wanted to find a respectable man?" she teases.

"Ah, I did say that, but..."

Shoulder pat. (There's a very decent chance he might be secretly her other dad...) "Cheer up! My father is very respectable, and surely no danger to your reputation."

"You really are a very strange Lan."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"It is. Do you know why your father's taken such an interest in me?"

Hm is Lan Jingyi or any other cultivator still in earshot...

Nope. Right now it's just her, him and the donkey.

She opens her mouth, closes it, considers what she wants to say -

Blurts out: "I'm A-Yuan."

"A-Yuan?"

His hand comes up to her face, tilting it slightly to examine her features. Her age--he hadn't known Lan Zhan to have a kid--her attitude, her--

"Lan Zhan found you? You're okay?" 

"Yeah. He's been a really good dad."

"No one knows - where he got me from."

He hugs her tightly. 

"I thought you died. I'm so glad you're alive. How did you know it was me?"

Hugs!

"You did die! And - no one else knows that song you played. Dad composed it, and - he's only played it for me. And for you."

"Ohhhhhhh yeahhhhh that's where I learned that one. Oops? Uh, at least it's just...you...and Lan Zhan..." Sigh. "He's got to be really mad at me." 

"He missed you! A lot!"

"What, really?"

"Of course!"

"Even after everything I did?"

"Even after all that. All of his stories of you are - fond."

"Oh. Wow." He swallows. "That's--good to know. Thanks." He lets go of her and puts his hands on her shoulders. "I've got a lot to thank him for, I guess. Mostly bringing you up so well, you were magnificent at Mo Village." 

Teary smile. "Thanks."

Lan Wangji returns, having finished dealing with returning the consumed-but-undigested souls to their owners. He blinks at the two of them. 

"...Lan Zhan. A-Yuan told me everything. Thank you so, so much for taking care of her." 

"It was not a hardship. She is marvelous." 

"Ha, I'll bet she is. Wen Qing's niece and raised by the legendary Hanguang-jun, how could she have turned out any other way?" 

"She is herself." 

"Of course! I didn't mean to suggest otherwise." 

"Mn." 

Awwww she doesn't want her dads sad.

"Being myself doesn't mean I can't be people's kid, too," she says. "It's - I want to be myself but I'm also proud of where I came from. Of both my dads."

He hugs her again. "You're wonderful," he tells her. "I'm so glad you're okay."

"We are also glad you are alive." 

"Ah, I can't believe you've somehow forgiven me for anything." 

"Nothing to forgive." 

"Nothing to forgive? I know there were Lan disciples at the Siege, at Nightless City..." 

"They should not have been there."

"...Ah, I'm really glad it's you who found me out," he says, shaking his head. 

Hug!

"I'm - we're - glad you're back."

"Well...I was absolutely planning to try to make a break for it before we reached Cloud Recesses, but if you're here, there's no way I will." 

"I'd be very sad if you vanished!"

"Glad to hear it, little radish," he says, ruffling her hair. 

She laughs and swats at his hand.

Jingyi comes back after not much longer, and the four of them plus ornery donkey set off. 

Around Jingyi, Wei Wuxian keeps up the "lunatic cutsleeve Mo Xuanyu" act, behaving even more erratically than usual and flirting outrageously with his coparent. 

That's really funny. She helps some of his acts, playing off his jokes, teasing him about courting her father properly.

Wow this would sure be great if Wei Ying meant any of it. He doesn't. Wangji should probably ask A-Yuan to ask Wei Ying to cut it out. 

Instead he does not do that. 

"Your skin is a lot thicker than it used to be," Wei Ying giggles one evening when they're alone. "Before I died, you would have freaked out completely at someone acting like this around you." 

"Thirteen years changes much."

"I guess it would." 

They reach Cloud Recesses without serious incident, somehow. 

That's good. She's - really excited about having her family whole again, but also she's started thinking about everyone who hates Wei Wuxian and it's kind of stressful...

"Are you okay?"

"Mostly."

"What's wrong? Ambient proximity to Lan Qiren's goatee?"

"I'm kinda worried about," she waves a hand vaguely.

"Mmmmm. Don't worry too much, as far as these people are concerned 'Mo Xuanyu' is just a harmless lunatic." 

"I'll try."

"Good. I'm not going to leave like that again; this time I'll stay as long as you want me around." 

"Good."

"Admittedly the amount of time you spend not in the Cloud Recesses will make it easier for me not to accidentally tip off Lan Qiren as to who I am by breaking a dozen rules at once." 

"No one else does that?"

"Not like me!"

She laughs. "If we were staying here any longer I'd propose a competition."

He laughs. "I think Lan Zhan might get upset if we actually sent his uncle into qi deviation." 

"He'd probably sigh."

"And narrow his eyes slightly!"

They reach the gates. Lan Wangji speaks to the disciple on guard duty, who asks if his guest is going to need a guest room made up; Wangji hesitates for a moment before saying that he'll stay in the Jingshi. 

(He chokes, slightly, at that.) 

"So you'll be with us," she explains to him. "It might be a bit crowded, but we never stay long..."

"Oh, yeah, I guess it makes sense, if you stay there too because it's not for long." 

"Probably I'll need my own rooms sooner or later, but yeah, sharing's more convenient for now."

"I promise to try not to wake you in the middle of the night if you'll promise not to wake me at your unbearably Lannish hour by jumping on me, I think that's the kind of thing that's only cute and non-internal-organ-damaging when you're little." 

She snickers. "I don't remember that! But I promise not to."

"You don't? You used to wake me at the most absurd hour of the morning by jumping right onto my stomach, Wen Qing would scold you for it if she caught you but I wasn't a snitch so she usually didn't." 

"Aw. And, yeah, I never did that with other dad, and I've forgotten a lot about being really little..."

"Ah, that makes sense. I don't remember that much about my parents either...you didn't? Hanguang-jun just too proper?"

" - Oh, no. It's - he was injured, for a few years. I got a lot of very serious talks with Uncle about not jumping on him."

"Oh. What happened?"

"...The discipline whip. It's - he still has a ton of scars."

"What? A discipline whip? Hanguang-jun, the famed Second Jade--what could he have done?"

She frowns. "Nothing to deserve that. He got in a fight with some Lan Sect elders and hurt them - when he was carrying you back to the Burial Mounds after Nightless City."

"When he was what!?"

" - You didn't know about that?"

"I barely remember anything from between Nightless City and dying. I remember--hiding you in a tree--destroying the Yin Tiger Seal and dying, I wish I didn't remember that--I thought I had walked back somehow--"

"No. Dad carried you."

"I need to go talk to him." 

"Okay. I can keep anyone from disturbing you two..."

"Thanks." 

He hurries off. 

Lan Zhan is still in the Jingshi, unpacking for their stay. He looks up, startled, when Wei Wuxian barges in. 

"Lan Zhan! A-Yuan said--I don't remember hardly anything from around that time. She said you carried me from Nightless City back to the Burial Mounds?"

"You don't remember?" 

"I don't remember anything from that time except--vague flashes, of preparing for the siege; hiding A-Yuan in a tree; destroying the Stygian Tiger Seal. Dying. I thought I had managed to get back on my own somehow." 

"Oh." 

"She said they found us. She said you fought Lan Elders for me. She said they hit you with a Discipline Whip enough that she was broken of the habit of waking people up by jumping on them by the time you had recovered enough that it wouldn't hurt you." 

"Mn." 

"Lan Zhan, why?" He isn't worth that, has never been worth that. Even before he was Yiling Laozu. 

He doesn't remember. 

Lan Wangji can't imagine the response will be any better than last time--more articulate perhaps, but essentially the same in result--but.

Some things have to be said. 

"Because I love you." 

"He missed you! A lot!"
       
"All of his stories of you are - fond."

Ohhhhhh. Wow. Okay. He doesn't know what he expected but he definitely didn't expect this. 

Something he can't identify rises in his throat. Thirteen years ago, Lan Zhan had loved him. Thirteen years dead; thirteen years was more than long enough to grieve and move on. 

"I'm sorry you got hurt because of me." 

"I am sorry only that it was not enough." 

He tries to laugh. It comes out a little choked. "Lan Zhan, you really are too good. I can't believe you could love someone like me at a time like that." 

Something wet rolls down his cheek. He brings a hand to his face and discovers tears. 

All the Lan self-discipline in the world is not enough to prevent him from cupping that tearstained cheek with his hand right now. 

"Will always love Wei Ying," he says softly. 

Wei Wuxian's hand comes up to cover Lan Zhan's. 

"What--even now? Even after thirteen years?"

"Always." 

He lets out a sob and throws his arms around Lan Zhan's neck. 

"Lan Zhan, I...right now, I don't think I know how I feel. Things keep happening, and--it's all mixed up. But I--when you said you still, I--felt--relieved? I think? So I--I don't know. But I'm sorry you had to wait thirteen years for me." 

His arms come up to return the embrace. Is this shock? No, he went into shock after the discipline whip; this is something else. 

"Would wait forever." 

Wei Wuxian breaks down crying. 

Well. 

Snuggling a crying Wei Ying is much worse than Wei Ying not crying but it is much better than not snuggling a crying Wei Ying, so. 

Also, on reflection, it is much much much better than Wei Ying needing to cry but instead pasting a smile on and pretending everything's fine. 

She comes back to the Jingshi after a bit.

Her dads are still cuddling and looking sort of shell-shocked. Wangji dips his head in acknowledgement as she enters. 

"Everything okay?"

"Ah...just having a lot of feelings, little radish." 

He half-lets go of Lan Zhan to pull her into the hug. 

Hug!!!

So much hug. He was going to bathe in the cold springs after he had unpacked his sleeves but instead he is hugging Wei Ying and THEIR DAUGHTER at the SAME TIME and you could not pry him out of this hug before someone else lets go for anything. 

Eventually Wei Wuxian does let go. 

"I think I need some time to go think by myself." 

"Mn." 

"Okay. Good - luck with thoughts?"

"Thanks," he says, and kisses her on the forehead and wanders off. 

It's been years--decades, really, or nearly so--but he remembers Cloud Recesses well. It's weird, considering how bad his memory is in general. His feet draw him down familiar paths as his thoughts wander in directions he's never considered before. 

There are a lot of things from the past that he has to examine in a new light, now, all the way back to the way he had constantly teased Lan Zhan for attention back at Cloud Recesses. Well. Back when they had been students, he reflects wryly, glancing at his surroundings. 

How does he feel about Lan Zhan? Clearly it isn't anything simple. He likes him, he cares about him, he...he had felt like he was being punched in the gut when Lan Zhan said "Because I love you." But. In a good way? And when he thought but thirteen years is plenty of time to get over me it had felt like icewater. 

He tries to imagine kissing Lan Zhan, and a frisson of heat stabs down his spine. He imagines going deeper, prying open Hanguang-jun's oh-so-proper shell in a much more intimate way than he had ever aspired to as a teenager, and, okay, he is definitely feeling some things. 

He had never before known himself to be attracted to men, but, he reasons, if one was going to be attracted to any man, Lan Wangji would be a good bet, considering that he's basically the most gorgeous human being on the planet. 

But how did one go about figuring out if it was any more than that? Disentangling affection from attraction and gratitude and the overwhelming desire to cling to the few people in the world who don't absolutely despise you? It would be wrong, after everything Lan Zhan had done, to take advantage of him, to tell him his feelings were returned only to wake up one morning to discover that it was nothing more than physical attraction and passing infatuation. 

How could he possibly figure it out? 

Well...well, Lan Zhan had at one point, right?  

He wends his way back to the Jingshi only to find it empty. Well, Lan Zhan and A-Yuan wouldn't spend all their time here even while at Cloud Recesses, that only makes sense. He initially intends to wait quietly for one or both of them to come back, but, due to who he is as a person, that resolution lasts less than five minutes. He starts rifling through Lan Zhan's things, and discovers a thick stack of paper with...what is this? 

When A-Yuan returns she will find him utterly engrossed in the adventures of Bun Yuan. 

"Found something interesting?"

"You are adorable." 

"Oh?"

"Bun Yuan!"

"You found those?"

"I did."

She laughs. "I'm glad I wrote all those down, then."

"Is Fox Cultivator supposed to be anyone?"

"My friend Lan Jingyi's character - you met him, he's the other junior disciple who was with us."

"Ah, yes. Neat kid. He's pretty unLannish, too, but you overshadow him a bit." 

"Maybe I was a bad influence."

"I think you sound like a great influence."

She laughs. "The absolute best!"

"I'm so terribly glad Lan Zhan found you."

" - Yeah. I am too."

"I'm glad you came back."

"Ah, you can thank Mo Xuanyu for that. Although you might be irritated with him, too. If the arm hadn't killed those people...in fact, I find it interesting that the arm killed the exact four people who Mo Xuanyu wanted to die."

"...Weird."

He explains the sacrificial ritual and the four cuts and the consequences had those people not died. 

"...Yeah that would've been bad."

"You know, I think Mo Xuanyu really wasn't all right in the head. I don't know that it was as simple as just lunacy, but..." He shakes his head. "I find it very interesting that he was sane when he left for Koi Tower and was apparently crazy when he came back. Considering that apparently they didn't destroy Wen Ning like they said they did."

"...Yeah. I don't - know a lot about what's going on in Koi Tower, though. But that all seems suspicious."

"I mean, I'm glad he's alive, but...he didn't seem conscious at all. I don't know what they did to him but I'm concerned."

"I don't actually remember what he was like... Do you think you can fix it?"

"I hope so. ...He was very kind. And he loved you a lot." 

"I hope I get to meet him again, then. Properly."

"Yeah. I don't dare summon him anywhere near Cloud Recesses, and...I've been kind of nervous about doing so where your dad could walk in on us. Just because he doesn't blame me for what happened doesn't mean...I don't know."

"Could you talk to him about it?"

"I mean, I could do that, or, I could avoid the topic like a coward."

Small smile. "I can distract him sometime. But I really think he'd be fine if you asked. Worse comes to worse, I can make puppy dog eyes at him about wanting to meet my Uncle Wen Ning."

"Yeah, you're right. Probably after some number of conversations about feelings, though." 

"Okay."

"Have you ever been in love?"

"Not really? Lots of times I see someone who's pretty, and I got silly over this one girl once, but... I don't think I've met anyone I wanna marry someday."

"How did you know you were just silly and not in love?"

Shrug. "Imagining a 'forever' instead of a 'tomorrow' felt - like I'd rather run off. I guess? And I didn't miss her when we split ways."

"Hmm. Thanks."

"Are you worried you aren't in love with dad?"

"I didn't know he loved me before I died. And now I don't know how to tell the difference between love and--friendship and attraction and gratitude all mixed up together. He deserves better than for me to say, 'okay, I feel the same way' if I'm going to wake up someday less than thirteen years from now and go 'oops, no.'"

She thinks.

"He's - waited my whole life. More, I think. Maybe... I think he likes having you around, even if just - as a friend. But you could tell him you need to straighten out your feelings, too, because you really value him and like him and want him to have you - sure?"

"I don't think dad always knows he deserves better..."

"Ah, well, if he didn't have that problem he might have picked someone better than me to fall in love with." 

"You're my dad, too. A good one. He deserves you, and you deserve him." Because you're both idiots.

"I love you so much," he says, hugging her. "I may not have my feelings for Lan Zhan all figured out but there's no doubt in my heart how much I love you." 

She smiles again, hugging him back. "Thanks, dad. I love you too."

And this is how Lan Wangji finds them, as he steps back into the Jingshi, still damp from the bath but otherwise impeccably put-together. His eyes soften imperceptibly when he sees the two of them together. 

"Hi, Lan Zhan. Can we...talk?"

Yep that's fear going down his spine. "Alright." 

"Okay. So, um...A-Yuan, poke me if I say something dumb?"

"You mean if you open your mouth?"

"A-Yuan, if I don't say anything then we'll never get this sorted out! Use your judgment for what the threshold of dumbness should be." 

"Alright. I'll poke you if you say anything egregiously dumb."

"Thank you." 

Deep breath. 

"Lan Zhan, how did you know you were in love with me?" 

ERROR: LAN WANGJI.EXE HAS FAILED. PLEASE REBOOT. 

"Wei Ying is Wei Ying." 

"That's no help at all!!! Look, I--feelings are hard, okay?" 

"Mn." 

"So I--I'm attracted to you, who wouldn't be, you're the most gorgeous person on the planet, and I've wanted to be your friend for a very long time, and I'm so, so glad that you found A-Yuan and brought her up, and you don't hate me, and--I have so many feelings, Lan Zhan! And I've never been in love with someone before, how would I recognize that feeling among all the others? And I don't--I can't say I love you if I'm not sure. But I--I'm not sure. I could be? I don't know." 

That is not on the list of things he thought Wei Ying might say, ever. 

"When I told you. After Nightless City. You told me to fuck off." 

"...I already said I don't remember that at all, Lan Zhan, but--I really wouldn't trust anything that came out of my mouth at that point, there's--there's a reason I don't remember much from that time, I was not in a great or incredibly lucid frame of mind." 

"...Mn."

"Lan Zhan, I'm sorry." 

"There is no need for you to say 'thank you' or 'I'm sorry' to me," he says, and then he grabs Wei Ying by the collar and kisses him. 

!!! Oh wow okay kissing Lan Zhan is really nice. 

...Also...kind...of...familiar...? 

"Lan Zhan, was that you on Phoenix Mountain!?"

Time to go very still while his ears turn red. 

She buries her face in her palms. "You're both idiots... Do I want to know..."

"So there was this hunt, on Phoenix Mountain, and I decided to show off by using demonic cultivation to order all the ghouls on the mountain to go turn themselves in at the Jiang gate, while blindfolded, and then I relaxed in a tree, and while I couldn't see anything someone came up and stole my first kiss!" 

"Your first--"

"Pfft, did you believe all that bragging I did? Only you would."

She pokes her recently resurrected dad.

"What? I was absolutely ridiculous!"

Poke. "Be nice."

Pout. "Fine. My claims were absolutely ridiculous, but I was behaving even more outrageously than I usually do back then, so I suppose Lan Zhan can't be blamed for taking me seriously." 

She leans back, satisfied.

"I--even back then, I knew it was wrong." 

"Ah, I'm not exactly complaining. It's nice that I didn't die without ever having been kissed." 

"Ah, Lan Zhan. I didn't die on purpose. And I'm here now." 

HUG. 

Wow this actually feels really incredibly good and warm and safe. He is maybe going to curl up a little closer into Lan Zhan's embrace. 

Wow okay this is approximately the best thing that's happened EVER, Wei Ying is ALIVE and CUDDLING HIM and might even have feelings for him??? What even is this. Since when does Lan Wangji get to have things this nice happen to him. 

"...Do you guys want me to duck out?" she asks, quietly, feeling kinda awkward.

"I never want to make you feel unwelcome," he answers without even thinking about it. 

"Oh I don't feel unwelcome, just - you two seem like you'd like to make out and I would rather not be in the room."

"Oh. Uh, yes please." 

She smiles a little and heads out to find something else to do. Like maybe talk with Lan Jingyi...

And now they are alone together! Which...was the idea. So he probably shouldn't have butterflies in his stomach like this. 

Lan Wangji does not have butterflies in his stomach right now. Lan Wangji got those all out of the way when he was a flustered teenager who had no idea what to do about his feelings. Lan Wangji cradles Wei Ying to his chest with an awed reverence appropriate to the fact that his beloved was dead for thirteen years and now is alive and in his arms and this is precious beyond any measure.