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Everyone had told Wei Wuxian that demonic cultivation harmed the body. He knew.
He knew.
But they hadn’t told him that it also simply changed it. In ways that he wasn’t sure if he should find laughable, or horrifying, or—why not? What was one more price to pay for all of this? What was one more thing that separated him from the rest of the cultivation world? What was one more thing lost?
There was still A-Yuan planted happily in the dirt; there was still surprisingly potent fruit liquor and frankly even more surprising fruit, given their location. He had thought that the only thing they could dig up here were bones and the only things they could grow were corpse fruits. He’d been wrong.
With the lanterns strung up and Wen Qing proudly standing by them, in her dirt-stained, plain cotton robes, so much softer than the resplendent robes of the Qishan Wen…it was a little beautiful. The gnarled and twisted trees that fought for life there did bloom—that was where the fruit came from, after all. And if A-Yuan’s toys were all carved from bone, well, they were still well-made.
He didn’t think about how he jumped at the chance to visit Yiling proper. He just liked to be helpful, to see a change of scenery. To see more than the same 50 people, smell something that was not grave dirt. Wen Ning seemed to enjoy it, too, even if he made a lackluster salesman.
When he’d seen those familiar white robes, it had felt like someone had physically hit him. The beginnings of grief and a yearning he tried to suppress both blooming in his stomach, equally ugly flowers. And then he was just happy to see him, even if it was tinged with desperation—what was happening in the outside world? What had Lan Zhan been up to? How was everyone? And other, more important questions that even he did not dare to ask.
Lan Zhan had been on a night hunt in the surrounding area, he told him. He’d consented, after a moment of hesitation, to see where his old classmate lived, and they walked together through the dark forest.
Fighting what, Wei Wuxian had wanted to know? Obviously it was dead, nothing could survive Hanguang-Jun if he decided that it must die, not even the Xuanwu…
Lan Wangji had said something about a snake demon and, characteristically, left it at that. Wei Wuxian had had to pick one of the fruits from a tree on their way in—he still didn’t know what the fruit was called, it wasn’t found outside of the Burial Grounds—and take a bite to hide his grin, and whatever else lurked there. How he’d missed the treasured, measured words of this quiet person, carefully rationed, precisely said. So unlike himself. So refreshing.
Lan Wangji was more interested in what he had been up to. Eyeing his body and asking him warily if there was enough food in the Burial Grounds.
Wei Wuxian had waved this away with a laugh, offering him a bite of his evidence, and Lan Wangji had emphatically declined. He tried to convince him that what grew there was sanitary enough, that they all ate it, and none of them were getting sick. In fact, it was only making them hardier, he said—A-Yuan would grow up with a stomach as strong as bone.
Lan Wangji said little in response, but took interest in the architecture, the garden. He was courteous to the Wen themselves, treating them as he would any other, and particularly charmed by A-Yuan, who clearly felt the same way.
“You should have told me there was a child here,” he’d said, somewhat resentfully. “There were toys being sold in the city.”
“A-Yuan has all of the toys he could ever want!” Wei Wuxian said, scooping him up and flinging him into the sky in a motion that left Lan Wangji half-reaching to catch him, alarm plain on his face. “Look, he has bone butterflies, bone birds, bone…that’s just a bone, I guess.”
Lan Wangji had given him a look, a look that portended future, non-bone related toys, which filled Wei Wuxian with delight. Perhaps…he would return.
No, he wouldn’t, he realized, stomach sinking again. He couldn’t. He had his own path to walk, and it was on sunnier roads than this.
“Want to see my lair?” he’d asked, and shown Lan Wangji his cave. Lan Wangji had not seemed particularly impressed—maybe a little depressed in fact. He’d asked him some rather serious questions about the blood pool and demonic cultivation, and so on and so forth. Questions that fed the resentful energy’s irritability and made him want to push him into the blood pool, frankly.
“Let’s not talk about this,” Wei Wuxian had said. “Let’s just…talk about old times, okay? Will you stay for dinner?” And he’d looked at the ground, not wanting to show just how badly he wanted him to stay. It was one thing to tease and wheedle; it was another thing to truly, desperately need, and to open himself up to its denial.
Lan Wangji had looked at him carefully, silent for a long moment, and then agreed. They’d put on a small feast for him, at least, with what they could. What they had. A-Yuan had sat in his lap, tried to feed him soup, and Wei Wuxian had thought fiercely—good child. Useful child.
After dinner, they’d taken a walk. More of a hike, really, Wei Wuxian juggling a bottle of fruit wine, dropping it occasionally, until Lan Wangji took it from him in exasperation. Playing with food was apparently frowned upon by his clan too.
At the top of the hill, you still couldn’t see the stars very well. The trees were too dense. The copse parted in the middle, offering them a little sanctum of dirt and knobbed roots and rock. They seated themselves under a few of the larger trees and they talked.
They talked for a long while, even if most of it was Wei Wuxian—Lan Wangji communicating in his own, quieter ways—and Wei Wuxian drank the fruit wine. To his great surprise, when he teasingly offered Lan Wangji a drink, he accepted. Even though he was a Lan; even though there was no cup and Wei Wuxian had been swigging from it like it was his own personal gourd of water.
“Just a sip!” Wei Wuxian said hastily, taking it back from him almost as soon as the jug touched his lips. “I can’t carry you all the way to Gusu, Lan Zhan.”
Lan Wangji lowered the jug and handed it back to him. There was an intensity in his eyes that didn’t match the subject matter. “You could.”
“No, I can’t!” Wei Wuxian laughed. “Arm strength aside, I can’t leave this place. Even my trips into town are enough of a risk.”
Lan Wangji was staring at him intently. There was a faint blush to the tips of his ears, from the wine, Wei Wuxian thought. “Wei Ying can’t live here forever.”
“I don’t have a choice,” Wei Wuxian said lightly, twirling Chenqing. “If I leave them, they’ll die. The Burial Grounds are safe enough with me here. Without me…besides, I’m sure the Jin in particular would force their way in the day I left.” He sighed. “It doesn’t matter. I can’t exactly rejoin society, anyway.”
“Come back to Gusu with me,” Lan Wangji said, still staring.
“I just said that I can’t, Lan Zhan. Let’s not have that conversation again, okay? If I can’t leave on risk of death, I definitely don’t want to leave just so your clan can whip me properly.”
“With me,” Lan Wangji repeated.
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian said, exasperated. He rolled his eyes up to the treetops—just for a moment—and when he looked back, his retort died on his lips.
Lan Wangji’s black, clear eyes were a bright blue, and his pupil was vertical now. In his open mouth, his tongue was longer, thinner, and the mouth that he used to eat tofu and leafy vegetables was now more suited to paralyzing his beloved rabbits. Even his facial structure seemed to have changed in a subtle way.
But there wasn’t much time for Wei Wuxian to focus on that, since by far the most staggering change was Lan Wangji rapidly outgrowing his white robes, Wei Wuxian pulling them from him in a daze, freeing a larger torso that, more importantly, disappeared into a giant, thick-waisted snake body of shining blues, green-blue, and an underbelly of white. They were scales and they shone slightly in the dim light of the moon as it struggled to filter through the choke of trees.
“L-Lan Zhan?!” Wei Wuxian was on his feet. He felt no killing intent, but he also didn’t want to wait until he was half-way down his throat to find out.
Lan Wangji looked down at his now bared torso, black hair sliding over his new scales. “Oh,” he said.
“What do you mean ‘oh’?!” Wei Wuxian demanded. He remembered, suddenly, Lan Wangji’s offhand comment about fighting a snake demon. “Were you cursed?”
“Mn,” Lan Wangji said, twisting an arm to inspect its underside. There were some sort of bone spurs erupting from his elbows and the hands that inspected them ended in black claws.
Wei Wuxian held his forehead. “I assume you’ve already tried to…not be a snake. If it is beyond you, it is beyond me. I’m going to get Wen Qing.”
Lan Wangji laid a hand on his shoulder. Wei Wuxian had to look up to meet his gaze. “Do not get Wen Qing.”
“Why not?”
Lan Wangji hesitated. His face was just a little more difficult to read like this. “I do not want…her to help me.”
“Well…who did you hunt with this time? Did they have any ideas on how to cure it?” Wei Wuxian was hoping that he’d had a sizable group with him, and that someone at least had an idea of a medicine or a method that could help. He was also, to be honest, grasping a bit at conversation in order to calm himself down. Even for the way his life went, it was a bit of a shock.
“I was alone.”
Wei Wuxian was aghast. “Why would you hunt something so dangerous alone?”
Lan Wangji was silent.
“Okay, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian said, no longer afraid, or at least, not very. He sat back down, and regretted it a little, since the other man (?) was now towering over him. “Why don’t you tell me what happened.”
Lan Wangji coiled in on himself, lowering his head closer to his companion’s. “…this creature that I encountered, it was not malicious. Just strange. It did not wish me ill or try to hurt me. But it has a very, very strong desire to…” Wei Wuxian thought he saw his ears redden in the strained moonlight. “…continue its family. There are very few of it left, because it has a monstrous appearance and is often hunted on night-hunts. Its skin is prized for its size and its colors. But it has undertaken a vow, and will only kill when hungry. It was not hungry when I met it.”
“I don’t understand why it cursed you, if it didn’t wish you ill,” Wei Wuxian said, absently stroking the snake skin, careful to pet it in the right direction. “Oh! I’m sorry, Lan Zhan. It looked so smooth. It is so smooth! So, why did it change you like this?”
Lan Wangji cleared his throat and said quietly. “Not enough mates. It chooses certain humans to help ensure that it does not die out.”
Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but laugh, though he felt bad. “So you have to…find a snake demon woman? Oh, Hanguang-Jun, this is nothing short of scandalous. They say that Mo Xuanyu…” he trailed off, realizing he was not being very comforting. “Eh, never mind that.”
“Does not have to be a woman,” Lan Wangji said in a low voice, his gaze unwavering.
“A snake…man? Or something else?” Wei Wuxian tried, feeling that he was missing something.
Lan Wangji lowered his gaze to the ground, a thin membrane flicking over his irises to clear them away for a moment. “I have someone in mind.”
“Who—who’s that?” Wei Wuxian said, trying to be nonchalant and not quite pulling it off. He played with Chenqing as though it were very interesting.
Lan Wangji raised his eyes. “You, Wei Ying. If you are willing.”
“M-me?” Wei Wuxian said, promptly dropping Chenqing and hastily dusting it off. “I—how does that work? Other cultivators might disagree, but I am not a snake demon,” he said with a nervous laugh.
“You do not have to be,” Lan Wangji said carefully. “It is enough to carry…carry the young. It has not been tried before with a man, but he assured me that it would work.” He looked worried for a moment. “Only, I am afraid that it may hurt you. This was not what I had in mind when I…”
“When you…?” Wei Wuxian hardly dared ask, but he had to know.
The pupils dilated. “When I imagined fucking you.”
Wei Wuxian almost fell over. “Lan Zhan! I thought you—thought you didn’t even approve of me! How can you be thinking of things like that?!”
The eyes lowered again. “I wish you walked a different path. I worry for you. But since you are the one who walks it, I will follow you.”
Wei Wuxian made a noise that was more syllables than words. His own face was most definitely colored. He held it between his hands. “I don’t know what to say. I barely even hoped that you would follow me home, much less…this feels like a dream, Lan Zhan.”
The now much larger man lowered his head, his forehead ribbon trailing over Wei Wuxian’s arm and sending goosebumps up it. “Does that mean Wei Ying returns my feelings?”
Wei Wuxian couldn’t bear to meet his eyes. He felt like his face must be more red than tan now. He could only nod emphatically, resisting the urge to spew all kinds of nonsense.
“Does that mean, then, that you might consider mating with me?”
“Mating?!” Wei Wuxian slapped his snake waist. “Hanguang-Jun, you can’t use that kind of language with me! I—I’ll be too embarrassed to go on!”
Lan Wangji laughed softly. “I always thought it was Wei Ying who was the shameless one.”
“Yes, so did I,” Wei Wuxian said, still unable to look at him. “But—but if it will help you, I mean, and I’d like to, so yes, definitely, this is the right idea, Lan Zhan, you were so right to come to me, I will definitely, uh, definitely do that.”
Lan Wangji was smiling at him still, but the smile faded. “I want to be clear. I no longer have the same anatomy. And you will carry our young, despite…having the more traditional anatomy. It may hurt.”
“I’m used to pain,” Wei Wuxian said, drawing idly in the dirt.
“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said.
“Well,” Wei Wuxian said, taking a deep breath. Might as well tell him now, before they went any further. “Besides that, you’ll be delighted to know that you were right about demonic cultivation. Sort of. I don’t have traditional anatomy anymore. Something about being saturated in Yin energy all the time, I’d guess.”
Lan Wangji’s eyes widened. “Explain this to me.”
“I have…well…are we going to? Because I can just show you,” Wei Wuxian said, the color that had barely left rising again. He was ruining his reputation as a shameless flirt, but at least Lan Zhan wouldn’t tell.
“Yes,” Lan Wangji said at once. “Yes. Show me.”
Wei Wuxian began to undo his robes, dropping them in the dirt. Wen Qing could yell at him later, he’d wash them. It took him a few minutes to get through his layers, until there was a pile of cloth and nothing between him and the night air. He shivered in it slightly, fighting the urge to hide himself behind his hands.
“Oh,” Lan Wangji said, but it was an awed kind of “oh”, accompanied by an outstretched hand as he reached out to very gently touch him. Wei Wuxian held very still, letting the tip of a claw trace over his cunt, wanting to squirm but also rather wanting to keep himself in one piece.
“Lan Zhan, I don’t think I can stay still if you do that,” he said finally.
“Ah,” Lan Wangji said, retracting the hand. He raised his eyes to meet Wei Wuxian’s and smiled. “This is good news. I think this will be less painful for you.”
“Good news,” Wei Wuxian repeated.
Lan Wangji’s hand fell the rest of the way, back to his side. He looked like he wanted to correct himself, or say something, but nothing came out.
“Thank you for saying so, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian said finally, when he could control his voice. “That was not the reaction I was expecting.” He gave a somewhat shaky laugh.
Lan Wangji reached out a hand, cradling his face in a large hand. “Wei Ying is beautiful. Before, and now.”
Wei Wuxian again had to fight against crying. That was not the mood that they were trying to cultivate here. He took a deep breath and let it out. “Lan Zhan, too.”
Lan Wangji raised an eyebrow. “You do not have to say it in return.” He gestured toward the lower half of his body. He gave a very small, wry smile. “Unless Wei Ying is more fond of snakes than I knew?”
“I like this one very much,” Wei Wuxian said, smiling back and tentatively running a hand down the smoothness of his stomach. It was still human there, all hard muscle and soft flesh, but just a little lower, he trailed over the incomparable smoothness of scales.
To his great surprise, something emerged underneath his hand. Where had been smooth scale a moment ago, a pale, textured length rose, and—
“Two?!” Wei Wuxian exclaimed, his hand hesitating.
Lan Wangji’s ears were definitely red now. “That, I did not know. Is it alright?”
“It’s alright,” Wei Wuxian assured him, recovering from his surprise. He stretched on his tiptoes, pulling the ribbon down from Lan Wangji’s head with a mischievous expression on his face. Lan Wangji’s mouth was open in a perfect illustration of surprise, which softened into a look that put the stars into his eyes. “Finally, I can do this! Now come down here, Lan Zhan. Let’s explore the rest as we go…”
He reached up again, wanting to pull him down for a kiss, but he had to wait for Lan Wangji to coil lower, sinking down to his level. The moment their lips touched, any hesitation was thrown into the dirt with his robes. Wei Wuxian held him by the shoulders, pulling him on top, which was what he’d always imagined, despite other, minor changes. He was pleased to discover that the whole of him was as hot as his human half was. It was cool in the night air, after all, or had been, before Lan Wangji laid atop him, warming him in a way that he perhaps hadn’t ever been. Certainly not since coming here.
Maybe someday they could make use of both, but for tonight, one cock was more than enough for him. Neither of them had had much patience to wait—had already waited years—but Wei Wuxian was wet enough that it hardly mattered. Lan Wangji pushed his way inside of him bit by bit, the textures that Wei Wuxian had felt earlier making him squirm in the best way, even as he protested the pain and the pace, complaining and raising his hips to meet him at the same time, ankles sliding against his scales. If that part of him was less thick, he would have locked his legs around him.
It was a good thing that they had taken such a long walk, because the previously silent night was filled with his cries and talk of the most shameless kind. Lan Wangji preferred to use his body to speak, but rather differently than usual, mercilessly driving him against the abused pile of robes and dirt beneath them. There was a root under Wei Wuxian’s back; he didn’t care, barely felt it over the other sensations.
They soon found that once he was fully inside, the textures acted as a deterrent for pulling back out, like blunted hooks. If someone had told Wei Wuxian this beforehand, he thought he would have had a little more hesitation, but in practice, it bonded him to Lan Wangji at their conjoined base, closer than he would have believed possible, rocking back and forth with what little room they were allowed, Wei Wuxian contracting around him, touching everywhere he could reach.
Only when he came was there enough room to truly move, to withdraw. Wei Wuxian hastily moved his robes out of the way, a thick, silvery liquid already beginning to trickle from his entrance.
“Do I need to keep that inside?” Wei Wuxian asked, worried. “There’s so much of it…”
Lan Wangji laughed softly, curled beside him, still warming him. “No. Enough will stay inside. Besides, we can always make more.”
Wei Wuxian’s attention was piqued. “Say, Lan Zhan, your poor other cock didn’t get nearly enough attention. Do you think…”
Lan Wangji didn’t answer him, but braced the other man up against the base of a large tree, slithering up against him. He was too tall to kiss him in this position, but for the feeling of being half-crushed by him, Wei Wuxian thought it was worth it, voice muffled by his flesh, pinned helplessly. The bark ate into his back with every thrust, but far from deterring him, it excited him; he encouraged it.
Later, they lay back down, finally spent. They’d moved the robes away, content to lie in their own mess, sweat glistening on their skin in the cold light. The air was still and silent once more. There were no night insects in the Burial Grounds, nor birds. Tonight, there was no wind, either.
“You’re still a snake,” Wei Wuxian observed, somewhat lazily.
“Mn,” Lan Wangji said with a smile that Wei Wuxian found hard to read.
“When do you turn back? After I…?”
“I won’t,” Lan Wangji said, kissing his shocked face.
“What?!”
“I thought that it was a noble goal,” Lan Wangji said, resting his head on his hand. “To let this species survive.”
“Well, yes, of course, but. Your body? Your clan?” Wei Wuxian was baffled. “Won’t this affect your duties?”
“I wanted different duties,” Lan Wangji said softly, touching the other’s face.
“But—but—”
“I will visit,” Lan Wangji said. “If they’ll have me.”
Wei Wuxian couldn’t even stammer out a response for a moment. “Then where—?”
“Here,” he replied, laying a hand on Wei Wuxian’s chest and then gesturing to the woods, to the Burial Grounds. “If you’ll have me.”
Wei Wuxian stared at him for a moment, speechless. Then he flung his arms around him, squeezing him. “Yes! Yes!” That was all he could think to say, and so he said it several more times, for good measure.
“Besides,” Lan Wangji said, with a trace of amusement and something darker, laying a hand over Wei Wuxian’s stomach. “It wouldn’t do to abandon my children, too.”
Just to make very sure that there were, in fact, children, they continued to make up for their lost time that night, stumbling back to town before dawn. And if Wei Wuxian had a bit of a limp, well, that was why they hadn’t waited til the sun was rising and the village was up and about.
There was something of a fuss made over Lan Wangji being rather taller and more serpentine than previously known, but once the screaming had died down, Wei Wuxian had explained part of the truth—that it was a curse (“curse”) and Lan Wangji would simply have to stay with the rest of the outcasts where he could be safe. And that, in fact, he could help to keep them safe, because if anyone ever came in the brief times that the Yiling Laozu left his village, they probably were not going to be so eager to invade a territory protected by a fuck-off huge serpent with Hanguang-Jun’s face.
This was sealed by A-Yuan coming to hug his thigh—or where his thighs had been, anyway—and Wangji very carefully picking him up and setting him on a hip. Despite the fact that there were no fewer than 49 other adults to keep an eye on A-Yuan, this was insufficient, and Granny Wen in particular was relieved.
Several weeks later, when Wei Wuxian’s stomach began to grow, they were once again surprised in a way that actually required quite a bit more explaining than the snake part—no, Wei Wuxian hadn’t suddenly found more food; yes, they were together; yes, cultivating the path that he did had had some Unexpected Results, and no, they weren’t entirely sure what birth or child would look like.
They then had the privilege of having these conversations twice, since a rather bedraggled Lan Xichen had stumbled through the forest. The barrier was open to him, he hadn’t had to break through, but the Burial Grounds in and of themself were impossible to casually walk into. Wei Wuxian forgot, because he had made exactly one narrow path through the trees which only he and Wen Ning used, but apart from that, the landscape itself was as inhospitable as the spirits within it.
“Xiongzhang,” Lan Wangji said, pale facing losing just a little more color.
“Wangji…?” Lan Xichen asked faintly, tilting his head back slightly for a better look.
Lan Xichen was more distraught at the idea of his brother spending so much time away and the effect that his new body would have on his life. They could not have the conversation over tea, as they had none, but there were red, juicy slices of fruit and the homemade chairs of Wei Wuxian’s new house. Lan Wangji had insisted that he have a new house, if only for guests. There had been an unspoken agreement to avoid showing off the Demon Subduing Cave.
“I think it’s a noble goal,” Lan Xichen said earnestly, and Wei Wuxian grinned. “If unexpected. But the cultivation world is unkind to difference. I worry that you will be treated cruelly.”
Lan Wangji had glanced at his cultivation partner. “If they will not have me, I do not particularly mind. Xiongzhang, by the way, this snake demon…let me tell you where it can be found.”
Lan Xichen didn’t follow. “To try and undo the curse?”
“No,” Lan Wangji said. “I do not want it undone. Not now, anyway. But if you ever find yourself facing an impossible choice, I wanted you to know that there is a third option.”
Lan Xichen gave a puzzled smile. He seemed about to speak, and then thought better of it. Though he was the friendlier of the two, like Wangji, he did not speak carelessly. Wei Wuxian thought that he knew that he was missing something, and would think more on it. As for himself, he was caught between laughter and being somewhat touched. He could only imagine Lan Qiren’s qi deviation at the prospect of losing both Jades to the same humiliating curse.
“Will the child be like Wangji?” Lan Xichen asked finally. His own surprise at this string of revelations was wearing off and he was warming rapidly to the idea of being an uncle, whatever the circumstances.
“Maybe,” Wei Wuxian said. “Or it might look even more like the snake demon. At the very least, even if it looks human, it will have more than one form. After all, the whole point was so that its kind wouldn’t die out.”
“It might depend,” Lan Wangji said, exchanging a glance with Wei Wuxian, who did his best to smother a laugh. They had already talked about the importance of trying many times. Just to be sure. After all, this was a big responsibility, and they were both going to take it with the utmost seriousness. They had already agreed to try every day.
Lan Xichen’s smile had deepened, his eyes soft. “So long as you’re happy, Wangji. Once Uncle recovers from the shocks, you can visit. And if I can find my way back, I will, too.”
“Ah, I will show you a better way,” Wei Wuxian said, a little embarrassed.
“No, no need to trouble yourself,” Lan Xichen said hastily. Wei Wuxian had reached a point where…well, it was less of a point and more of a circle, really.
“Zewu-Jun, there is a need,” Wei Wuxian insisted. “Lesser cultivators have perished just trying to get in.”
“I can show him,” Lan Wangji said calmly, as Lan Xichen waved away his title. “I know the way.”
“I am not too round to walk,” Wei Wuxian complained, ruining this somewhat by requiring a hand to rise to his feet and almost stepping on A-Yuan, who he could barely see over his belly.
“Too round?” A-Yuan asked him, laying his chubby hands on his stomach.
“Not for long,” Wei Wuxian said, bending slightly to pick him up and regretting it, but just for a moment. He swung A-Yuan high into the air, so that he shrieked with delight, and both Jades reached for him on reflex.
“A-die, what is it? When is it?” A-Yuan asked, his fat cheeks red with laughter. He was where most of the food went, after all. As it should. Well, where it had, anyway. Lan Wangji insisted on feeding Wei Wuxian more now that he was pregnant, and had threatened force-feeding more than once when he’d declined. He had been hunting outside the Burial Grounds to get meat for them, something Wei Wuxian hadn’t dared leave the village long enough to do much in the past.
“Who knows?” Wei Wuxian said rhetorically, tossing him again, at the vehement protest of the Lans. “You get what you get, A-Yuan.”
“Please stop throwing the child,” Lan Xichen said anxiously.
Wei Wuxian ignored him. “I’m taking requests,” he told A-Yuan seriously. “But only if you’re good. If you’re no good, it’ll just be snakes.” He widened his eyes and hissed.
A-Yuan regarded him very seriously, and then leaned in, cupping a hand over his ear to whisper rather loudly and frankly, a little wetly. Wei Wuxian nodded, equally solemn. “Noted. Now go see baba and shushu off. They need a guide.”
Lan Wangji’s wry little smile was back. He did not actually fit well enough in the little house to enter, so he was resting on his own improvised seat, his long back half trailing out the open door and his forearms folded upon a wooden stool. He gathered himself up and withdrew, ducking so as not to hit his head on the way out. Lan Xichen made his goodbyes, all smiles now, laying a hand on his newest family member’s belly to say a blessing before he left.
“Good riddance,” Wei Wuxian said, as a joke to himself, sitting back down with a groan. He could do that, now that he was alone.
Now that he was alone.
“Oh no,” he said, feeling something in him start to shift. “No, not now. Stop that.”
It did not stop, and he groaned again.
If he bawled, he could stop them before they reached the edge of the forest.
He bawled.
“LAN ZHAN!”
In less time than he would have thought possible, there was a rather anxious face at the door, a hand on either side of the door frame as he leaned inside. “It’s time, isn’t it? It’s time.”
Wei Wuxian opened his mouth to ask how he was going to help him from there, and to go get Wen Qing instead, when Lan Wangji abruptly forced his way through, taking part of the doorway with him.
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian gasped. “Fourth uncle worked very hard on that—door!”
“I will fix it later, Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said, laying his hands on his stomach, as though that could tell him anything. “Does it hurt? What does it feel like?”
“Who cares? Go get Wen—no! Never mind, don’t leave!” Wei Wuxian gasped, abruptly changing his mind as he felt something begin to travel perilously close to his entrance. Lan Wangji helped ease him into a crouch. He had taken his duties as father very seriously and read that gravity, in fact, would help Wei Wuxian with his labors, rather than lying back as some did. He undressed him, uncaring who saw, and fetched a clean blanket and spread it underneath.
“Hold my—” Lan Wangji gritted his teeth. Wei Wuxian was way ahead of him, gripping his hand like he was trying to break it. He added his other hand for good measure, so that Lan Wangji couldn’t even brush the hair out of his face. He could only hold on and bear with him.
“Breathe, you are supposed to breath, Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said anxiously.
Wei Wuxian let his breath out in a hiss and drew it in as a gasp.
A peak of white was emerging.
“It’s—it’s an egg?” His surprise helped break through the pain, though just for a moment. He’d known it was a possibility, but somehow, he just hadn’t expected it. Lan Zhan was somewhat of a snake now, but he was not. Shouldn’t it be a live birth?
“Breathe,” Lan Wangji reminded him, squeezing back, watching as the peak broadened.
“Why is it getting wider,” Wei Wuxian groaned, looking against his best intentions. “This is cruel, Lan Zhan. This is your seed’s fault. You did this.”
“I’m sorry,” Lan Wangji said, missing the half-joke, and Wei Wuxian shook his head, losing his ability to speak as the egg broadened and with a final push, dropped gently to the soft blanket below it. Wei Wuxian dropped less gently, and would have hit the floor if Lan Wangji hadn’t been holding him up.
“You see,” Lan Wangji said, still nervous, unable to look at the egg until Wei Wuxian opened his eyes. “It’s a good thing that you have the anatomy you do…”
“Yes, magnificent,” Wei Wuxian said. He felt he’d earned the right to be a little snappish. Still, his feelings cleared when he saw the egg. “Oh…it’s a little beautiful, isn’t it?”
And it was, a shining white, nearly opaque. It was soft-shelled, unlike a bird’s egg, and whatever was within it writhed gently from time to time.
“Yes,” Lan Wangji said, finally taking a breath himself. “You are alright, Wei Ying?”
“I’m alright,” Wei Wuxian said. “Though I’m a little glad that today’s everyday was this morning…”
“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji reprimanded.
“What? It can’t hear me. Probably.”
“I will keep it warm,” Lan Wangji said, winding his way around it. This left very little room for anything but the two of them in the room and knocked over several objects in the room. “You can rest, Wei Ying.”
Something about the protective look on Lan Wangji’s face as he curled around the egg seemed to awaken a different possibility in Wei Wuxian’s mind.
“Uh, then again,” he said, crawling over to his partner, which was not far, since he was practically everywhere. “You know, this might be one of the only possible times to fit in proper attention to both parts of you, if you know what I mean?”
Lan Wangji stared at him for a moment, and then looked over his shoulder. He used the tip of his tail to pull the battered door shut and then turned back around. His pupils were almost lost in the blue of his eyes, which were bright and dark all at once. “It is true that everyday may become difficult with little ones.”
“Yes…” Wei Wuxian said, tugging at the other’s modified robes. That was only half of what he’d meant, but he felt sure Lan Zhan had understood the double meaning. “Yes, we should mate diligently while we can.”
“Now Wei Ying can say it?” Lan Wangji asked with a smile, leaning in for a kiss.
“Now I can say it,” Wei Wuxian said, full of yearning and love and a melancholy as sweet as the fruit that grew only there.