[pfsb]

[acrookedpath]

Lan Zhan, he writes, I'm swimming in the lake! I love you -- Wei Ying. After a moment's thought, Wei Wuxian adds a smiley face to the bottom like Madam Bar so often does with her napkin notes.

It's unseasonably warm today, more early summer than late fall. The trees have dropped enough of their leaves that Wei Wuxian knows such days will depart for good soon enough. And frankly, if he stares at his latest iteration of the energy-revealing array much longer, his eyes will cross and stick that way. He needs to clear his head.

After leaving one copy of the note in their room and another with Madam Bar, he requests some swimming attire; she provides a black short-sleeved shirt much like the one he wore to London Above, the fabric smooth as silk but much stretchier, and loose red trousers that end just above his knees. A little revealing for a lake shared by many, perhaps, but they'll do.

He changes in the public washroom and walks to the shoreline. Stepping onto one of the larger rocks, he eyes the water with a smile.

Then he backs up, sprints forward to spring off the rock, and cannonballs into the lake with a loud whoop.

Comments

[acrookedpath]

No objection from Wei Wuxian. Quite the opposite, considering the soft moan he lets out.

"Lan Zhan," he whispers against his hair, rocking their hips closer. "Why are we still standing here? Do I still have to be patient?"

[lightamidchaos]

He cannot help it. He laughs, clear and bright, then picks Wei Ying up in his arms, holding him tight as he carries him the few steps across the room to their bed.

[acrookedpath]

...He's laughing.

Lan Zhan's laughing.

Wei Wuxian has never heard him sound like this before: not a faintly amused huff of breath, but an actual, proper laugh. His whole body floods with light, a rush of joy so intense it feels as if it will lift him to the clouds. All the times he has teased him, cracked jokes in the hope of the smallest smile, and suddenly now --

He's beaming back at him, radiant, as they drop onto the bed together, and he wastes no time in grabbing his face to kiss him hard.

[lightamidchaos]

He kisses him back, then shifts until he is lying on top of Wei Ying, pinning him to the mattress with the weight of his body.

Lan Wangji looks down at him, at the happiness in his smile, the light in his eyes, and bends his head to lean his forehead against his.

"My Wei Ying," he murmurs. "Bright and shining."

[acrookedpath]

His smile softens to a deep, abiding fondness as he cradles Lan Zhan's cheek.

"If I shine," he murmurs, "I am only reflecting your brightness, Lan Zhan. My Lan Zhan."

My love. My heart.

[lightamidchaos]

He turns his face into Wei Ying's hand, kisses his palm, then takes hold of his wrist.

Somehow his forehead ribbon has come through the tangle with the shirt still in place. He pulls it free, then touches his lips to the inside of Wei Ying's wrist and tastes the delicate skin there before he wraps the ribbon around Wei Ying's wrist once more, securing it with the familiar knot over the cloud.

[acrookedpath]

He shivers as Lan Zhan's lips brush his pulse; holds still, eyes bright, as he secures the ribbon in place.

Every time, it is a small marvel. I am yours. And with all the talk of Ciri's prophecy, it feels like a tether, now, as well: I will find you, if we are ever parted. You will not go far.

He slides his hand back into Lan Zhan's hair as soon as he's done tying the ribbon, drawing him into another deep kiss. "Beautiful, steadfast Lan Zhan," he whispers. "I love you. I love you."

I will never leave you.

[lightamidchaos]

His heart leaps, dizzying and wildly unsteady, and he buries his face in Wei Ying's shoulder again, at the curve of his throat.

"Wei Ying," he murmurs, muffled, his lips moving against the other man's skin. "My Wei Ying. I love you. Wei Ying."

He kisses a slow trail up his neck, mouthing at his jaw, biting at his earlobe as he plunges his fingers into Wei Ying's hair and comes up with the bright red ribbon.

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian's head falls back with a loud groan of pleasure. He digs his fingers into one of the furrowing scars along Lan Zhan's back, one foot hooking around the other man's calf to push closer still. "Yes," he gasps. "Lan Zhan. That feels so good. You're always -- "

That cuts off with another sharp inhale as Lan Zhan's teeth close on his earlobe; then an exhaled, quivering curse as his red ribbon comes free with a hard tug.

[lightamidchaos]

He makes an inquisitive noise and raises his head to look down at him.

As he does, he runs his fingers through Wei Ying's hair, spreading it out around his head, over the pillow. Once he does, he takes the red ribbon in one hand and trails it in his fingers down Wei Ying's arm to his other wrist.

[acrookedpath]

He shudders; the sound trails into another soft laugh as he watches the track of Lan Zhan's hand.

"Every time you touch me, you are always so certain, Lan Zhan," he breathes. "I like to think of how often you imagined this." He draws his foot up along Lan Zhan's bare leg. "Was it every night, that you dreamed about us? How did you look as you thought of us together? What did you do?"

[lightamidchaos]

Slowly, deliberately, he begins to wrap the red ribbon in a spiral around Wei Ying's wrist.

"Too many words," he says. "To tell it."

He draws a quick breath at the caress, as Wei Ying's foot moves higher.

"I would have to show you. Instead."

[acrookedpath]

"Will you?"

He flexes his wrist against the ribbon as Lan Zhan works, feeling the shift in pressure, the tug of each loop of red silk against his skin.

"Please. Show me, Lan Zhan. I want to see. Ah, I wish I had been there to see it for myself -- "

[lightamidchaos]

"As Wei Ying wishes."

He ties a knot, tests it to make sure it is secure, and then pulls both of Wei Ying's arms up above his head with the same deliberate focus, and begins to wrap the red ribbon around his other wrist as well.

"This is part of it," he remarks, with deceptive casualness. "What I imagined."

[acrookedpath]

Oh.

His eyes go round. It is not the first time Lan Zhan has restrained him, but usually it is with his hands, or his body. Not like this. Experimentally, he twists against the ribbon again, staring at Lan Zhan with something very like wonder.

"Oh?" he manages.

[lightamidchaos]

"Mn. Yes."

He flips the length of ribbon between Wei Ying's wrists over a bedpost, then takes up the slack between them before he finishes tying the second knot. He runs a careful finger beneath the red silk on each of Wei Ying's hands, ensuring that although it is secure, it is not too tight.

The result, when he is done, is that Wei Ying's arms are stretched above him, so that he can wiggle and squirm but not free himself.

Lan Wangji looks down at him, admiring the contrast of the bright red ribbon against his golden skin, and the look in his eyes is heated.

"Mine," he murmurs.

[acrookedpath]

That look alone is enough to make him whimper, straining upward toward Lan Zhan. He cannot breathe; he is aware of every inch of his skin, pricked with heat, every place where he touches Lan Zhan. Everywhere he doesn't. Everywhere he can't, now, restrained as he is.

(Sometimes he still wants to laugh in giddy disbelief at how much he enjoys moments like this. He has learned quite a lot about himself in the past few weeks.)

"Please," he begs. "Yes."

[lightamidchaos]

He tangles his fingers in Wei Ying's hair, wrapping it around his hand, and holds him still for a fierce, passionate kiss.

"Mine," he says again, when it breaks, and pulls his head to the side, exposing the arch of his neck. The mark he kisses into being there could probably be hidden by Wei Ying's hair, if he wants, but it certainly cannot be hidden beneath the collar of his robes.

"Everyone will see," he says, against his skin, as he sets the first mark and begins a second. "Everyone will know. I love you. And you are mine."

[acrookedpath]

Unthinking, he tries to reach for Lan Zhan and is immediately brought up short by his restraints. The loose end of the ribbon sways above him; he watches it as if in a dream, gasping, his entire mind hazing out to a white mist. He jolts back to himself when Lan Zhan sucks a mark onto his throat -- "Fuck," he swears, fervent as a prayer. "Ah. Lan Zhan, gods, yes, more of that, tell everybody, tell them -- "

He isn't wholly aware he's babbling. He isn't aware of anything but Lan Zhan's mouth on his neck.

[lightamidchaos]

He adds a third, a dark constellation, and moves down along the line of his throat, biting at the muscle joining neck and shoulder, tracing a path with kisses, lower and lower still.

"Wei Ying likes to tease," he tells him. "So I dreamed of teasing Wei Ying, in turn."

He kisses his hip, nipping sharply at the skin.

[acrookedpath]

His hips buck as he moans again, but, pinned beneath Lan Zhan's weight, he cannot get very far. "Please," he continues to beg, desperate. His whole body feels as if it's vibrating too fast, and the rattle has spread to his mind, knocking away the pleasant fog that had started to envelop him. "Please."

[lightamidchaos]

"Wei Ying. Yes--"

He shifts, running his hands over Wei Ying's thighs as he lowers his head for a much more intimate kiss.

"--I dreamed of this, too," he finishes, and then his mouth is too busy to say anything else.

[acrookedpath]

There. There is Lan Zhan, giving him what he needs. There is the banishing of all thought, the hum of his body hitting a clear, sustained note instead of the out-of-tune clash of too much and not enough; the cresting wave of pleasure and the horrible uncertainty of whether he can endure much more of it.

Lan Zhan will never make him endure more than he can handle. Wei Wuxian knows this as he knows the rise of the sun.

He gives himself over to him, even as his hands twist in the restraints, reaching for what he cannot touch. It does not matter. Lan Zhan will let him go when he is ready, and right now --

Right now he can simply be.

[lightamidchaos]

Later, after he has followed Wei Ying over the edge of desire; after he has freed him from red silk and coiled the ribbon safely away; after he has plied him with water and care and soothed the marks of passion on his skin —

—Lan Wangji lies entangled with Wei Ying in their bed, feeling the warm weight of the other man against him, his arms around him, and just breathes.

Eventually, it occurs to him to ask,

“Where did you leave your robes?”

[acrookedpath]

"With Madam Bar," he mumbles. His eyes stay closed; his voice is a little hazy still, his thoughts drifting as distant as the clouds. "Changed downstairs, in the public washroom. Gave them to her after."

He rises and falls with the movement of Lan Zhan's breathing, as if he were resting on the floor of a boat rocking gently in the waves. A tiny smile touches his mouth.