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The first thing Wei Wuxian thinks as his consciousness returns to him is that everything hurts.
The second thing is someone is lying opposite him in serious need of medical attention.
Wei Wuxian scrambles up, ignoring the pulsing pain and fog in his head to sit the young man—omega, omega!—up and wipe the blood trickling from his nose. It's not until the young man’s hand swats at his face, unseeingly aiming for where Wei Wuxian is sluggishly bleeding from the corners of his eyes, when he gets a look at dark eyes filled with a despair Wei Wuxian recognises all too well.
-
Mo Xuanyu is a pretty little thing for his age, and in another life would probably be married off with pups of his own by now—but this is this life, and not long after the events of Mo Manor occur, Mo Xuanyu is struck by his heat on the road. While they're travelling, he grins and bares it, but as soon as they're in sight of people he hides away.
It's because of this that he misses all the drama at Dafan Mountain, and watches his new friend/saviour’s heart explode into thousands of tiny shards as he looks into Hanguang-jun’s eyes.
Wei Wuxian backtracks for him before they go to Gusu, though. The two of them ride on Little Apple—Wei Wuxian has little to no stamina to even walk, his breath coming in great heaves that have even Mo Xuanyu concerned despite all his wailing and crying and teasing. They cuddle together when they stop for the night, Wei Wuxian nursing a jug of wine.
After the first night, they don't talk much about the soul summoning ritual directly. Mo Xuanyu drops the right vague hints and Wei Wuxian asks the right vague questions. Mo Xuanyu obviously has other things he wants to say to him, especially with the way he stares at the last scar cut deep into Wei Wuxian's arm—but he doesn't, no, not yet.
-
Wei Wuxian swears to himself as he quickly travels back to his flesh body, throwing himself out of the paperman and jumping up from where he had been cradled in Lan Wangji's lap, clutching at his arms. “Lan Zhan, fuck, Lan Zhan– Xuanyu’s been compelled!”
Lan Wangji stiffens under him—he has grown very fond of Mo Xuanyu as of late, almost as much as Wei Wuxian has—and his nails sharpen, the points just digging into Wei Wuxian's skin. His scent begins to sour with anger and disappointment. Wei Wuxian whines unconsciously, trying to soothe, until Lan Wangji pulls them both up and grabs Mo Xuanyu out from his hiding place. Mo Xuanyu begins to babble nonsense, clearly frightened out of his mind, only for Lan Wangji to hold his face still with one hand and stare into his eyes. Lan Wangji's breath hitches minutely and he loosens his grip, giving one shake of his head as he shuts his eyes and breathes.
“I can break the compulsion,” Lan Wangji says after a few moments, looking a lot more calm. “Not here. It may be painful.”
Mo Xuanyu squeaks, causing them both to look at him. Right, we gotta get outta here.
They don't make it out in one piece, Wei Wuxian stabbed by their own shared nephew. Mo Xuanyu can only nurse him with trembling hands, trying to direct Lan Wangji's spiritual energy from dissipating with nowhere to go. He ends up fainting on the way back to Gusu anyway, making Lan Wangji scare his brother with two unconscious bodies.
In the time Wei Wuxian spends asleep, Mo Xuanyu watches Lan Wangji care for Wei Wuxian on his sickbed. He is so careful, so gentle, almost like a lover. That's when it hits Mo Xuanyu, that despite everything, Wei Wuxian has no idea. Absolutely no idea at all! When would he have had time for love, even if it was blatantly staring him in the face, with every story Mo Xuanyu has heard from both the man himself and the Jianghu. Lan Wangji is changing Wei Wuxian's bled through bandages when he gathers the courage to ask—and he pauses, looks up at Mo Xuanyu through his impossibly thick lashes and nods, once and to the point, before he looks back down to secure everything.
Lan Wangji has dressed Wei Wuxian in his own inner robes on the day he wakes, playing something on the guqin that makes Mo Xuanyu feel light as a feather. Without knowing it, he falls asleep and wakes up a while later to Wei Wuxian awake as well and wringing his hands in fret before he's so exhausted again that he falls asleep after only drinking the light broth Lan Wangji sets in front of him with their evening meal.
-
Mo Xuanyu didn't think his heart could break any more until he saw Lan Wangji's shatter to absolute pieces as he learns about Wei Wuxian's golden core.
It makes sense now, the lack of presentation and scent, the way Wei Wuxian hasn't gone into heat or rut or anything at all despite the months passing. Mo Xuanyu’s fleeting core is inside his own dantian, after all, and not inside Wei Wuxian's like it would've been if he had been properly successful in the soul summoning ritual. Wei Wuxian is still ill as they flee towards Yunping, their party having to stop on the side of the road as his meridians sluggishly bleed and he is sick behind a bush. Lan Wangji combs back his hair as it loosens in the struggle, while the Ghost General Wen Ning searches for any herbs with medicinal value.
Only a short few days later Mo Xuanyu hears crashing around from the room next door to his at the inn, and then Wei Wuxian is running away. Lan Wangji looks crazed as he grabs his arm and shakes his head to keep him from running after him, his alpha pheromones soaking the air around them.
There's a bite on the back of Wei Wuxian's neck—not a mating bite, that'll be for later now that Lan Wangji is embracing Wei Wuxian like he’ll never let him go again—but it's deep and bruising and claiming, right where they all see it with every brush of his ponytail or turn of his neck.
-
In Guanyin Temple, Jin Guangyao lifts the compulsion on Mo Xuanyu with a simple wave of his arm.
Wei Wuxian had been relatively civil until that particular moment, and suddenly Mo Xuanyu gets to see why everyone was so frightened of the angry Yiling Laozu.
-
One night after the second siege while they were on the road, Wei Wuxian had had just a little too much to drink and pitched himself into Mo Xuanyu's embrace, shoving his face into his neck. He'd spoken quietly about the truth of his life in the Burial Mounds with the Wen remnants, about the little Wen Yuan—his pup—who would've been a teenager now if Wei Wuxian hadn't failed him and he’d lived. Wei Wuxian sobbed against him, curled up so small and tight that it must’ve hurt. From across the space of their rented room Lan Wangji watched them, his eyes flickering in the light. Mo Xuanyu made a hand gesture that he'll pass the quieting Wei Wuxian over to him, but he lowered his eyes and shook his head once, tucking a warm blanket around them with a flourish.
The scene replays in Mo Xuanyu's mind when Lan Sizhui's true identity is revealed, and whenever Wei Wuxian looks at him with hearts and stars in his eyes instead of Mo Xuanyu. Wei Wuxian breaks down when he murmurs the child's name that first time, his scent leaking out to cover him in it. The two of them smile through their tears and embrace, Wei Wuxian getting lifted clear off the ground.
-
“Sorry to have kept you waiting!” Wei Wuxian says, tugging Lan Wangji along behind him as he reaches Mo Xuanyu. His neck and shoulders are half exposed, his robes all lopsided, and are covered in fading kiss marks. He looks flustered while Lan Wangji looks quietly pleased. Despite them all being back in the Cloud Recesses for so long, Wei Wuxian still hasn't had a heat and Lan Wangji hasn't claimed him. Are they waiting for it? Mo Xuanyu raises his eyebrow at Wei Wuxian but he shakes his head and lets go of Lan Wangji's hand to wrap both arms around Mo Xuanyu instead.
Wei Wuxian smells like home and Mo Xuanyu has to resist the urge to rub himself against him to transfer it onto him—until Wei Wuxian does it himself without shame, scenting him like a parent would a pup. Lan Wangji stands next to him and does the same, but slower, giving Mo Xuanyu the chance to back out if it's too much. Mo Xuanyu accepts it with a small smile that makes Wei Wuxian tilt his head and smile brightly back.
Lan Wangji leaves them be as they walk off, Wei Wuxian leading Mo Xuanyu away from the buildings and paths and going towards the back hills. He pulls Mo Xuanyu down on top of him on the grass and rolls them both around in until Mo Xuanyu is laughing so hard he is gasping for breath.
“Xian-gege,” Mo Xuanyu chokes, thumping his hand against the ground. “Whatever this is, I yield!”
Wei Wuxian flops back onto the ground and looks up at Mo Xuanyu, both their arms wrapped around each other, and his smile widens even more impossibly wide. He watches Mo Xuanyu’s mouth, the way his lips form around words, and says, “You finally laughed.”
“Huh? I've laughed before.”
“Not in front of me, not like this,” Wei Wuxian challenges, leaning up on his elbows so Mo Xuanyu shifts back onto his lap. “You've never wrestled or anything with another omega, have you?”
Mo Xuanyu’s eyes widen, not just because what Wei Wuxian says is true—but for the fact Wei Wuxian is finally admitting that he is an omega in words. Mo Xuanyu just stares down at him and nods, putting his hands very gently on Wei Wuxian's shoulders. He watches Wei Wuxian's eyes soften and feels ill.
“Oh, Xuanyu,” Wei Wuxian says. “I'll– no, we’ll never leave you alone again.”
“Xian-gege… I–”
“Shh, don't disagree with me so soon!” Wei Wuxian cries out, though his tone is far from disappointed. “My own protégé doesn't care for me anymore!”
Mo Xuanyu freezes, then hardens his grip on Wei Wuxian's shoulders and starts to shakes him back and forth.
“Xian-gege!”
-
When he gets summoned to the Jingshi, Mo Xuanyu follows behind a disciple feeling nauseous and worried. He's not sure why, he likes Lan Wangji.
Lan Wangji nods the disciple away and leads Mo Xuanyu inside to sit at the table, where he then immediately falls to the floor in a deep bow. “Thank you for bringing Wei Ying back to me,” he says, voice slightly muffled.
“Lan Wangji–!”
Lan Wangji looks up. “Please, call me as you do Wei Ying.”
Mo Xuanyu looks back at him incredulously until he gets it, and even then he chokes out. “G-Gege, I-I–”
Lan Wangji gets up again in a flourish, pulling out boxes and packages out from under the table and the closet, carefully placing them in front of Mo Xuanyu for him to open. New dark coloured robes, and new Lan Sect coloured robes, are in the first, followed by various trinkets and things Mo Xuanyu has mentioned enjoying in passing. One of the packages is just a bundle of papers, which has Lan Wangji finally settling into the seat across from him at the table and spreading them out. Plans and diagrams of buildings and rooms cover the tabletop.
“In the spring,” Lan Wangji starts carefully, making Mo Xuanyu look up at him. “Wei Ying and I will be leaving the Cloud Recesses. I have procured a cottage near the border and we will live there when we are in Gusu.” Lan Wangji pauses for a moment, likely waiting for Mo Xuanyu to say something, then continues when he doesn't, “Sizhui has already been promised the Jingshi, but any of these properties can be arranged to be yours if you wish. There will also be a room made up for you at ours.”
Ours, he says. Lan Wangji’s and Wei Wuxian's.
But it's all a lot for Lan Wangji to say at once and it shows by the way his hands shake just ever so slightly as he finally pours out some now forgotten tea. Mo Xuanyu looks over the papers properly, looking at the diagrams of already built buildings and layouts of ones yet to be started on. Coming from the dingy hut at the back of the Mo manor property, everything is more than he could have ever dreamed of and extremely overwhelming. Before his eyes can start welling up with tears, Lan Wangji takes one of the smaller packages Mo Xuanyu had flicked through and pulls out a strange dark token. Mo Xuanyu already has a jade entrance token looped on his belt, so he takes the token from Lan Wangji's hands with an obvious question in his expression.
“Give this to the blacksmiths and they will forge a sword for you,” Lan Wangji says, looking pointedly at the training sword Mo Xuanyu has strapped to his waist. He's been allowed to join in on the junior classes despite his age, relearning basic sword forms from the beginning. “The cottage is only a short flight away.”
Mo Xuanyu nods and doesn't talk for a long while, looking at all the things Lan Wangji has given him as signs of his appreciation for him. He feels light and heavy at the same time. He doesn't understand how to belong, how to have somewhere and someone who wants him. The only thing he does is breathes and sits in front of Lan Wangji, sipping slowly at the tea.
“Xuanyu,” Lan Wangji says softly after a long period of their silence, “it is alright to be overwhelmed.”
“Yea,” Mo Xuanyu says back, nodding again. A glimpse of the tiniest, warmest smile he's ever seen appears on Lan Wangji's face and he finds himself gathering the courage to smile back—thinking to himself suddenly for the first time that he's so glad that it all turned out like this, that not only have Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji found their happiness in each other, but now there was even a possibility on the horizon for Mo Xuanyu’s own happiness to occur. The heaviness that had weighed him down only a moment ago begins to melt off his shoulders—and by the time the things are packed into a qiankan pouch and Wei Wuxian is sliding the door of the Jingshi open with Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi behind him, he feels warmer and safer on the inside than he has ever felt in his life.
These people have brought him into their ragtag group of a family like he has always supposed to have been there. Maybe he has been. Maybe this was where he was supposed to be all along. His eyes meet Wei Wuxian's over Lan Wangji’s head as they embrace each other, Wei Wuxian pulling Lan Wangji’s face to his chest and making the kids blush with their blatant displays of affection, and he can't help but be the first one to smile for once, which makes Wei Wuxian grin so wide his face must hurt.
-
Wei Wuxian watches Mo Xuanyu lift off the ground without wobbling and forces himself not to grimace and turn away. His stomach flops even though his own feet are firmly on the ground with zero chance of falling. He's even been practicing more with Lan Wangji, though having his big strong husband—more recently, his mate—to protect his frail self doesn't really get Wei Wuxian very far in the ‘trying not to worry himself sick on a sword’ department. It's all Very Hard and there's been A Lot of Changes lately, the overwhelming-ness often driving him to drink again and again. But he's trying. He's trying right now, telling his brain everything is alright, that even if Mo Xuanyu takes a tumble, it's okay. Wei Wuxian knows this is just practice, just another day of training. Watching over the younger ones used to be his job, for just sake! There's no need to save him. There's no gaping mass with pulsing resentment-filled hands ready and waiting to steal his life and body away, that only Wei Wuxian can control, that–
Wei Wuxian hunches over as he coughs and is sick, falling to his knees when it becomes too much. He hears the grass crunch under Mo Xuanyu's feet as he lands and throws himself next to Wei Wuxian in his own worry, and feels Lan Wangji’s cool hands on the flushed skin of his face and neck. He feels so dizzy, like someone has thrown him around in circles and then let him go to crash into a wall.
It's hard to open his eyes, even minutes after he feels his stomach settle. Mo Xuanyu is in front of him when he finally does and he pitches himself forward into his embrace, murmuring apologies. Mo Xuanyu hums and rubs at his back as he circles his arms around him—and Wei Wuxian finally feels like it’ll be okay. That if he looks away for a second, no one will get hurt. Everything will be fine. He can close his eyes again and let those awful feelings that are tugging at him to win for once, because he knows that when it's all over he will wake up safe, cradled in someone's warm embrace. He won't let anything happen to them and they'll never let anything bad happen to him in return. They'll only let good things happen.
A cloth wipes at his face, taking away the tears at his eyes and the mess at his mouth. It smells like sandalwood, like Lan Wangji, so much that Wei Wuxian smiles into it, letting himself float away.
Only once Wei Wuxian seems to have passed out does Mo Xuanyu begin to let go, to let him fall back into Lan Wangji’s steady hold. His robes, unusually (and properly) tightened for once, slip at the collar and reveal thick bandaging fixed in place at his neck. Mo Xuanyu glances up at Lan Wangji and smiles despite the whole situation, waggling his eyebrows when Lan Wangji’s ears start burning red. It's been a long time coming, having waited to exchange mating bites for this long. No wonder Wei Wuxian had been more fretful and skittish than usual, Mo Xuanyu thinks as Lan Wangji shifts, his hair moving to show off his already healed, smaller bite scar. His emotions all around would've been heightened, and he always looks at Mo Xuanyu or the Juniors with such a complicated expression whenever they practice something new. Mo Xuanyu should've realised it all sooner, but he had been so excited to show his geges how much he had progressed in flying, as his lessons had taken him away from staying with them at the cottage. Lan Wangji shakes his head softly when he tries to apologise and makes him come inside—where he lays Wei Wuxian out on some cushions, kisses his cheek and strokes back his hair gently while they wait for him to return again.