[pfsb] happy halloween!

[acrookedpath]

It's that time of year again.

The inn is bustling. All manner of strange outfits have been donned (some more willingly than others). Lanterns flicker ominously in the corners, pumpkins stand sentry at either end of the bar, and every order comes complete with a handful of wrapped candies.

And -- if you're Wei Wuxian -- Madam Bar has also gifted you with an enormous array of tiny cakes, each one with a little candle stuck in its center. His second birthday at the inn has arrived, and he could not be more pleased.

(He's also wearing a red T-shirt that reads, simply, I'M THE CHAOS. Just like last year, he has set his mild confusion aside in favor of delight at the bounty Madam Bar has given him.)

Comments

[lotus_sister]

Jiang Yanli smiles at him, warm and gentle. "Isn't he?"

[acrookedpath]

"He is."

Laughing a little, cheeks flaring brighter, he ducks his head as he begins peeling another lotus root.

"Do you know, it has been over a year and I am still surprised by it? Thinking of him as mine."

[lotus_sister]

"I am so happy for you, A-Xian." Jiang Yanli adds the first batch of pork ribs to the soup pot and begins to measure out the water. "I truly am."

[acrookedpath]

He glances Jiang Yanli's way, almost shyly, and has to stifle another small laugh at his own ridiculousness.

"I am glad you like him," he says, softly. "He has said he admires you, too."

[lotus_sister]

"Me?"

She sounds truly startled.

[acrookedpath]

"Of course you," he says -- and ah, the pride in his voice. "Why wouldn't he?"

[lotus_sister]

Hanguang-jun had always been respectful and polite, which was only to be expected, but the thought that he would admire her startles her.

But A-Xian's pride is so familiar, and she softens toward him in an instant. Her brothers loved her deeply, and she them. Always.

"A-Xian is entirely too sweet," she teases.

[acrookedpath]

He laughs. "I know if Lan Zhan were here, he would tell you, 'lying is forbidden.'"

Turns out Wei Wuxian can do a fairly passable impression of Lan Zhan these days!

[lotus_sister]

Jiang Yanli giggles and reaches out to swat him lightly on the shoulder.

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian recoils dramatically, pretending to nurse his shoulder, but cannot stop his own laughter the entire time.

He's still grinning as he returns to prepping his share of the ingredients.

[lotus_sister]

It doesn't take long for them to finish with the ingredients for the soup. Jiang Yanli stirs the last of them carefully in, adjusts the flame beneath the pot with the useful little lever, and covers it to simmer.

"Now," she says, turning to her brother with a cheerful smile. "That will need at least an hour. What shall we do in the meantime?"

[acrookedpath]

"Hmmm."

Wei Wuxian draws that out into a long, thoughtful hum, stroking an invisible beard on his chin.

"I have shown you the stables... you have met the waitrats... I cannot take you back into the forest to see the rest of the warren -- oh!" He brightens. "I could show you some of my projects?"

[lotus_sister]

"I'd like that," she says, smiling.

[acrookedpath]

"Then let's go!"

And just as before, Wei Wuxian catches his shijie's hand to pull her upstairs toward his and Lan Zhan's room.

[lotus_sister]

She follows, smiling, all the way out of the kitchen and across the common room to the stairs, and then gasps as they reach the top and his clothes change.

"A-Xian, what--"

[acrookedpath]

He startles a little himself, as his customary black robes suddenly swirl into being around him like a flock of birds settling on the grass.

"Oh! I think this happened last year as well," he explains. He gives the front of his robes a small tug, as if to check they are in place. "The costumes Madam Bar provides only last as long as you are downstairs."

What a shame! Lan Zhan would have liked to see him in a T-shirt, he knows.

[lotus_sister]

"Do they return if you go back down?" She looks downstairs, then at him. "I wonder what she would make of me?"

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian glances her way. A sly smile curves his mouth.

"We could go back downstairs and see," he suggests, all innocence.

[lotus_sister]

"Later," Jiang Yanli says, firmly. "I want to see A-Xian's projects first."

[acrookedpath]

His expression slides toward something more sheepish. Trust his shijie to keep him on track when his mind wants to jump elsewhere.

"All right," he says, "but I definitely want to see shijie in a costume from Madam Bar afterward!"

He leads her down the long hallway, past door after unremarkable door, before halting in front of the one marked 魏无羡 and 蓝忘机. Untouched, the latch lets out a soft click to allow them inside.

[lotus_sister]

"We have to go back down for the soup," she reminds him, practical and yet smiling softly. "So you very likely will."

The door unlatches of its own accord, and Jiang Yanli clasps her hands together in surprised delight.

[acrookedpath]

"Here we are," he says, softer than he intends. His whole posture has shifted, though he doesn't quite realize it: a relaxing, a brightening, like someone who has stepped ashore after a long journey. This little space is home. His home.

There are trinkets everywhere that speak to the life he's built with Lan Zhan. Delicately cut paper images. A pair of carved rabbits, one white and one black. A few of the (less scandalous) moving photographs that capture him and Ingress, during their trip to London Above that sometimes feels like it was an entire lifetime ago: the lifetime before Lan Zhan.

Of course there are practical things, too -- their shared instrument stand, jars of tea, incense, books on music and magic borrowed from the library. And there is the giant wall of talismans, Wei Wuxian's endless works-in-progress fluttering gently as the door shuts behind them.

[lotus_sister]

It looks different from the last time she saw it, floating near the table as a half-realized whisper of a woman, and everything about her softens further as she sees the small touches that silently proclaim a shared life. Little things with meaning that lies deeper between them, she thinks, the way she and Zixuan had, before.

"You are happy," she murmurs. "I can see it."

[acrookedpath]

"I am." Softly. "I truly am, shijie."

What must it be like, for her to finally see this room as more than a spirit? It lets Wei Wuxian himself see it with new eyes: all the beauty, and love, and occasional (or not-so-occasional) mess of two lives meeting.

He lingers a moment, taking it in, then springs back into motion. "This is my most recent project!" he says, picking up a painted lantern from one end of the low table. "I created an array to reveal the different energies that may live in a body, or an object -- it was very complex at first, but I was able to compress it down to a handful of talismans instead of an entire stack. And now I am trying to paint them on a lantern, so they do not even have to touch the person, or thing, you wish to examine. All you will have to do is shine the lantern's light on it!"

A sheepish beat.

"It... does not work quite yet. But I am making progress."

[lotus_sister]

"You made an array that lets you see qi and other energies? A-Xian, that's amazing!" Her delight is a bright and shining thing.