inbox | eastbound

[downswing]

lan wangji
missives | encounters

Comments

[weifinder]

As long as you aren't holding me by my collar.

( he wouldn't have, for a long time. now, he hesitates in turn. )

And don't drop me. The only reason I survived last time was because the burial grounds caught me. Lowered me down, ah.

( said softly, studiously light, as if it doesn't matter. as if he didn't clearly remember. as if sheer resentment hadn't been the only thing to keep him alive. sheer tortured resentment from those countless souls left murdered and worse in that land.

no, between that and the arrogance of every person telling him he was less to not practise the arts he no longer had the internal forces for, for his own aching awareness, for the lack of true regret in why... no. for a long time, he never would have wanted someone else's gift, someone's pity, in sword flight. )

[downswing]

It need not... be as it was. We need not attempt.

[weifinder]

Nothing is as it was, Lan Zhan. Make new memories. I'd like to. Would you?

[downswing]

...perhaps. After your dragon.

[weifinder]

I could call Lethe over the once, but that seems a rather long flight for a ride in joy—

[downswing]

It is not Lethe you crave.

[weifinder]

No, it's you.

( HE DOESN'T CRAVE DRAGONS, BAE, all of them aren't cool enough )

[downswing]

( R o l l i n g his eyes. )

I speak of riding.

[weifinder]

As do I!

[downswing]

( There are moments when battling a man's exhausting pick-up offensive when you must call his bluff to retaliate, or perish under the weight of his wretched puns. )

Noted. Come bare to our corridors. We shall carve time.

[weifinder]

Sounds cold, see you soon!

( ... he's going to show up, but not naked, he'll just wait to find Wangji before starting to undress. Because if Wangji isn't bluffing, what! Fun? If he is, then chew on that, husband. )

[downswing]

( ...why does this never work for him. )

Wei Ying.

[weifinder]

You paint such inviting pictures, Lan Zhan!

But yes, I would enjoy a ride with you on Irenia after this place, at her whim.

[downswing]

You tease to excess.

[weifinder]

Out of affection, and, sometimes, hopeful entreaty.

[downswing]

( A pause, then, mildly: ) Are you dissatisfied?

[weifinder]

Not when our choice of beds is so poor.

[downswing]

Then? ( No. A shift. ) May I speak freely?

[weifinder]

Please.

1/2

[downswing]

( He takes his time, weighs each word, lets it slip like sand granules, gravelly. )

I am... tempted. Where Wei Ying is concerned. To... resolve... his difficulties. See his wishes answered, needs met.

[downswing]

Do not position me where I cannot do so. ( Teasing, taunting, knowing full well there can be no recourse, for want of time, of means. ) It distresses.

1/2

[weifinder]

( granted, this whole conversation was one meant to really just let lan zhan know what was done, so he was abreast of developments as much as wei wuxian was in the aftermath of delivering.

so he listens, as his husband has in small steps become a man who tries, to whatever degrees, to create understandings. to bridge between them in words. to frame those words in ways that can help bring context and clarity to what is, after all, decades of mourning and more recent years of conflicted, complicated living on the move. )

Mm, I don't intend to distress you, Lan Zhan. You don't need to resolve my difficulties, ah? For me, knowing you want to, that I can rely on you wishing to try, and doing what you can? That means more than I know how to say.

[weifinder]

I would like us to have the time we haven't for the time most couples have following a wedding feast. For ourselves, can we look forward to that? After we're gone from this place, this Alem.

[downswing]

Humbly, this one accepts his duty.

[weifinder]

I would hope it's more a pleasure than a duty, ah?

( though by tone he sounds at least something like amused, smiling. )