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Wei Ying looks at his checklist of students and then back down at the kid currently wrapped around his leg. He looks again. All names tidily (okay, messily) checked off and accounted for. Small child attached to his leg not…accounted for…

And he knows that he’s bad with faces and names and whatnot, but he swears, he’s never seen this kid before.

He looks around, but all the other pick-up/drop-off attendants have left and there aren’t any cars nearby. “Um…kid?” he says. “Do you have an adult?” The kid smiles and points up at Wei Ying in a way that would be adorable if it wasn’t so terrifying.

“Uh…” Wei Ying does some math, comes to the conclusion that it really shouldn’t be possible, and starts to have a mini meltdown. Internally. Externally he smiles and gives a nervous laugh and decides to look anywhere but the kid for the time being. Kids can sense panic. They’re the ultimate predators.

He scans the horizon and against all odds, sees Wen Qing running towards him. His smile becomes a little more genuine because Wen Qing will surely save him. Or, more likely, she’ll save the kid. But that should have the handy side effect of saving him.

Plus it’s just good to see her. They’ve been slacking on family dinner nights of late. And by slacking Wei Ying means that Wen Qing is in residency and Wen Ning is working a night job as a bouncer while he puts himself through school and Wei Ying…well.

Wen Qing bends over, slightly, when she reaches Wei Ying. “Holy shit,” she says. “He’s so fast. Please don’t do that.” She bends over a little further and addresses the last statement to the kid currently still attached to Wei Ying.

Wei Ying does some other math. He doesn’t think that works either. But then again, Wen Qing doesn’t like to tell him things about that area of her life. (Wen Ning totally spills all her secrets, but maybe there are things he doesn’t know either).

He really thinks he would have noticed though.

Wei Ying leads the way into his apartment, that is really Lan Zhan’s apartment, still thinking of ways to convince Lan Zhan that this is the Right Thing To Do. Lan Zhan has a very strict and conventional approach to Right and Wrong, but he can surprise Wei Ying on occasion.

Reference the whole living situation as an example.

Wei Ying hadn’t even considered asking Lan Zhan for help when he quit school under ignominious circumstances and had been subsequently expelled from the Jiang household.

(Wen Ning’s asshole roommates framed him when a room check turned up some drugs. Things got messy when Wei Ying said it didn’t make sense and tried to step in. He Might not have gotten expelled if he hadn’t quit, but Wei Ying was pretty done with…a lot of things at that point. So.)

Anyway.

He’d just been bouncing along with his stuff and the Wen Siblings, pretending everything was fine, when they’d run into each other. Literally.

They were so not that level of friend. Wei Ying had wanted to be. Had wanted to be so much more than that level of friend. But Lan Zhan didn’t seem to want any kind of friend (which might have been part of the appeal. If Lan Zhan, who didn’t like anybody, liked you, you knew you were special. Unequivocal fact).

It had become a bit of a running joke. What crazy thing would Wei Ying do next to get totally and completely ignored by Lan Zhan?

But all the same, Lan Zhan had taken one look at Wei Ying’s sunniest smile and asked him what was wrong. Had frowned and offered to help carry his luggage to where ever he was going and then offered a place to go when he realized Wei Ying didn’t have a plan.

The Wens too, for a bit. Though they had the good sense to then make a plan and move on.

Meanwhile, seven years later and Wei Ying is somehow still living in Lan Zhan’s guest room, eating Lan Zhan’s food, and doing his best not to encroach too far on Lan Zhan’s space. Wei Ying has been reliably informed that he’s annoying by nature and he owes Lan Zhan too much.

He curbs his impulse for messiness and noise. He doesn’t drink (at home). He doesn’t swear (out loud…much). He doesn’t bring home dates. He doesn’t bring home anyone without permission and never too many at a time. He enforces quiet hours for himself between the hours of 9 pm and 5 am.

Hopefully, any good will engendered by all of that will be enough to cover for the whole, bringing-home-a-stray-child thing he’s about to do.

(Lan Zhan says that this is *their* home and that he won’t ever kick Wei Ying out, but still…adoption is supposed to mean that you won’t be returned either and look at how that turned out.)

Anyway.

Wei Ying takes a deep breath, looks down at the small child holding onto his hand and peeping out from behind his leg, and nods to himself. This is Right, just like leaving school was Right and Lan Zhan will see that.

He has to see that.

Arguably, Lan Zhan has never agreed that Wei Ying made the right choice about school, he is just quietly accepting.

Wei Ying doesn’t think he can settle for quietly accepting this time. He needs…more than that. Significantly more.

No. He can do this. It’ll be fine. With or without Lan Zhan.

“Honey, I’m home!” he yells. Maybe if he tricks Lan Zhan into playing sitcom spouses he’ll be more open to adopting a stray kid. (Lan Zhan is surprisingly good at “yes, and-ing” things, although that skill mostly comes out when he’s trying to spite someone on Wei Ying’s behalf.)

Wei Ying shepherds the little boy out of the entryway and into the kitchen where, as his weird obsession with schedule dictates, Lan Zhan is busy prepping a disturbingly healthy dinner that Wei Ying will be expected to eat in the next half hour.

Lan Zhan looks up from the vegetables he’s chopping to smile at Wei Ying (well, to look softly at Wei Ying in a way that is totally a smile even if the outside world thinks he’s contemplating murder), and very carefully puts the knife he is holding down on the counter.

Lan Zhan knows, bone deep, that Wei Ying would never just kidnap a random child. Even if he were saving one…Lan Zhan really can’t figure out what the reasonable explanation for this is going to be (Wei Ying always has an explanation, even if they take too many words to explain and don’t quite follow traditional logic).

“Surprise!” Wei Ying says, throwing in some jazz hands. Lan Zhan ignores him, instead coming closer and squatting down so he’s eye level with this new development.

When Wei Ying first came to live with Lan Zhan he had shut down so completely that Lan Zhan despaired of ever seeing the old Wei Ying again. Over the years he had regained his spark, in all it’s ridiculous glory, although Lan Zhan could still see Wei Ying being overly careful around the apartment.

Careful with guests, careful with belongings, careful with behavior. Careful with him. Wei Ying has been an unfailingly considerate roommate, even if the logic behind some of his actions are inexplicable. See: that time he painted an unbelievably good mural next to the kitchen table that made it look like you were looking off a dock over a lake full of lotuses.

But now, here he is, with a not kidnapped child and that smile he uses when he’s trying to distract you from figuring out whatever his endgame is (as if anyone has ever managed to predict what Wei Ying will do next, Wei Ying included).

Alright. Lan Zhan will bite.

He makes eye contact with the child hiding halfway behind Wei Ying’s legs. The child smiles at him. No child ever smiles at Lan Zhan. He’s far too stern looking, and incapable of speaking in fun voices, and probably too tall to approach. But this one does.

Lan Zhan wonders if the smile is scripted, or if he’s doing it unprompted. Like a puppy that knows who has the final say.

He smiles like Wei Ying. Like if he beams forth enough positive energy and sunshine you’ll let him stay. Lan Zhan tries gathering up all of the support and acceptance he’s normally mentally sending towards Wei Ying and redirects it. If he needs help, he will be helped. No payment necessary.

Wei Ying shifts on his feet, not wanting to interrupt and risk ruining everything. There’s a long moment where the two mind meld or something and then Lan Zhan tips his head back to look up at Wei Ying again. He’s confused and adorable, but not judgmental. Good start.

“His name is Yuan and he needs a place to stay. Just for a little while,” Wei Ying says. Lies. Like a lying liar who lies. “He won’t be any trouble. He’s very well behaved.”

Yeah, he definitely should have figured out what to say before coming home. Lan Zhan always throws him off his game.

Lan Zhan stands back up and goes back to preparing the food, handing Yuan small pieces of raw vegetable to try when Yuan abandons Wei Ying in favor of exploring the kitchen. “Wei Ying,” he sighs. “How?”

Well.

Wei Ying dodges the question. He dodges it during dinner. He dodges it during bath time. He dodges it while finding a t-shirt that Yuan can wear to bed so that they can wash his clothes while he sleeps.

And Lan Zhan lets him because he is a fucking saint, but there is a reckoning coming, let there be no mistake.

After they tuck Yuan into Wei Ying’s bed, hovering awkwardly for a minute as if waiting for Yuan to finish the sitcom scenario by asking for a story, they make their way to the living room and Lan Zhan settles onto the couch, just looking at Wei Ying.

Lan Zhan should be a professional interrogator. There’s just something about his face that makes you want to tell him everything, no torture required.

“He’s the Wen’s cousin. His parents died in an accident and it took a while for them to track down next of kin. He’s been in foster care for…too long. They’re the only family left but if they take him…Wen Ning would have to drop out of school or he’ll end up spending all of his time in a daycare, but like, a shitty one, because who can afford that? I don’t—I can help. I want to help them.”

To his credit, Lan Zhan does not point out that Wei Ying has done things in the past to help the Wen’s and has only succeeded in hurting himself. Jury’s out on if he actually helped at all or if he was just “being an attention whore” (per Jiang Cheng).

“This isn’t a short term thing,” he says, instead. Cutting through Wei Ying’s bullshit, as per usual.

Okay. Well. This is fine. This is totally fine.

“Well…no,” Wei Ying says. “Probably not. But…I can move! I can totally get my own apartment and he’ll just be here underfoot until I figure that out…or maybe I can move in with the Wens. I’ll be like, their unpaid, live in nanny or something. It’ll be fine.”

Moving will be the opposite of fine. Wei Ying wonders if Lan Zhan will let him keep a key and just come over to sit in the space and absorb the general Lan Zhan-ness of it all while he’s at work. Borrow the occasional sweater.

“He doesn’t have any clothes,” Lan Zhan says. Which is surprisingly off topic, Wei Ying thinks. Clothes are slightly less important than shelter, in his opinion. And as a formerly homeless child, he thinks he gets to have one.

“He has clothes. Wen Qing was asking me to try and get him into that summer camp I’m working at on her way to work. He was going to have to sleep at the hospital while she worked a shift! That’s how last minute everything is!”

“I have trouble believing that Wen Qing is okay with all of this,” Lan Zhan says. Which is, again, so not the point. Maybe she didn’t agree to it IMMEDIATELY, but Wei Ying talked her around. He’s very good at talking people around. And she very much had to get to the hospital.

Wei Ying sits next to Lan Zhan and grabs his hand. Then gets distracted by the fact that he hasn’t let himself grab Lan Zhan’s hand in AT LEAST a month (two days, whatever) and he kinda wishes that he was always holding Lan Zhan’s hand. It makes him feel tethered, in a good way.

“I didn’t give up my bright and shining future so that Wen Qing and Wen Ning couldn’t follow their dreams,” he says. As close to joking about the past as he can ever manage (something he can only pull off with Lan Zhan, everyone else was too invested in his old career prospects).

“Please, I have to do this. Just give me enough time to get it figured out.”

“Children do better with structure and familiarity,” Lan Zhan says. “You should both just stay here rather than upend him again in a month.”

“What? But you hate kids,” Wei Ying says, before he fully thinks the sentence out (why is he trying to talk Lan Zhan OUT of this?).

Strictly speaking, they’ve never spoken about kids or any feelings about them. Lan Zhan likes structure and familiarity, but also quiet and…and…things that kids don’t.

Lan Zhan closes his eyes and considers how he got here. Is it a reverse baby trap when you use a surprise child to shove someone away? And how come he isn’t actually being consulted here? Wei Ying is just telling him that he’s moving out for Lan Zhan’s sake? Ridiculous.

Bad. Drama. Trope.

Not for the first time, Lan Zhan considers the logistics of dragging Wei Ying to couples therapy even though they are so much not a couple that sometimes it physically hurts.

There are not words for how scared Lan Zhan has been for the past seven years that he’ll get up one morning and Wei Ying will be gone and Lan Zhan won’t even know because Wei Ying is *so* careful not to leave things out in the common areas of the apartment.

Lan Zhan opens his eyes, forces eye contact with Wei Ying, and says with extreme deliberation: “I do not hate children.”

Wei Ying startles and blushes in the way that used to give Lan Zhan hope, back before they became roommates and suddenly there was this whole power dynamic that Lan Zhan was (is) far too socially inept to navigate.

“Okay,” Wei Ying says. Lan Zhan doesn’t lie, not even to be polite. And Wei Ying has gotten much better at reading his micro (and not so micro) expressions since moving in. If Lan Zhan wanted Wei Ying out, there would be definite signs. He would at least get mad.

There are people who think that Lan Zhan is always mad, but that’s just because they aren’t paying attention. When Lan Zhan is actually mad he flares his nostrils the tiniest bit and exhales through his nose in this harsh little huff like the world’s most refined, human-sized dragon.

It’s hilarious.

It’s also never about anything Wei Ying does (not for years). And while he’s definitely annoyed about the hating children statement, he’s not mad.

“We’ll stay, if that’s how you feel about it. But I hope you realize that you just signed up for a solid additional fourteen or whatever years with me because my little radish doesn’t deserve a broken home on top of everything else.”

Lan Zhan rolls his eyes like Wei Ying missed the entire point. “Our radish,” he mutters, in a way that makes Wei Ying’s hand spasm. Like, he totally didn’t mean to squeeze Lan Zhan’s hand like that, it just kinda happened and now Lan Zhan is Looking at him (he’s so not mad), and…

And…

And he pulls up one of Wei Ying’s favorite trashy reality t.v. shows on his laptop (the only t.v. in the apartment lives in Wei Ying’s room because Lan Zhan can “hear the electricity” or some such bullshit with his freaky bat ears and kept unplugging it when it was in the living room).

They spend the rest of the evening in easy companionship, Wei Ying watching his show and making snarky comments that Lan Zhan almost laughs at while he knits and pretends he isn’t watching.

(When Lan Zhan gets stressed (which is always), he knits. The smaller and more delicate the project, the more freaked out he is. He’s currently working on a scarf with basic cabling which is really just Lan Zhan’s baseline of stress. It’s when he pulls out a stuffed animal or something lacy that you have to worry.)

Everything is going to be fine.

Wei Ying wakes up to a dinosaur figuring being shoved up his nose. He slept on the couch after so kindly donating his room to Yuan, but that is not a long term solution. Both because of the dinosaur up the nose thing and the fact that his back is not as young as it used to be.

“Breakfast!” Yuan says, and runs towards the kitchen. Wei Ying follows after sneezing the dinosaur out and shoving it in his pocket so Lan Zhan doesn’t see and rethink his position (he won’t take it back after promising it, but he might WANT to).

The little monster has already been set up on top of a stack of books so he can reach the table without sitting on his knees and is attacking a hilariously large bowl of congee.

“How many kids do you think you’re feeding?” Wei Ying asks, as he sits in his own seat at the table to look at his equally healthy and filling breakfast.

Lan Zhan gets full credit for Wei Ying’s body making it anywhere near thirty. He probably would have burned out through sheer lack of nutrition on his own. He still can’t be trusted to make anything more labor intensive than instant ramen (and Jiang Cheng would claim he can’t be trusted with that either).

Lan Zhan “Mn”s at him and busies himself with making sure Yuan is using his spoon correctly, but Wei Ying can see that his ears are turning red.

“Do you have a plan?” Lan Zhan asks, once he’s taught Yuan to take smaller spoonfuls. Wei Ying raises an eyebrow at Lan Zhan.

“Uh, yeah. Work. And then other work. And then…wait for it. Work,” he says. It’s a gig economy and Wei Ying is just trying to live in it. He still dreams of working somewhere for enough hours a week that he qualifies for commuter benefits.

Meanwhile, Lan Zhan not only has health insurance, he has dental. And a pension plan. Who has a pension plan nowadays? (Librarians, apparently. Wei Ying still isn’t sure he believes it, but Lan Zhan doesn’t lie. So.)

Lan Zhan sends a pointed look towards Yuan, who has started spooning his leftovers into his empty juice cup. It looks like he’s barely touched the contents of the bowl, but also like he needs another bath.

“Uh…” Shit. The entire argument for Wei Ying taking this kid in hinges on him having more time to take care of him than the Wens.

“I thought…he could come with me? Get him signed up for summer camp? I know it’s a little late, but they can’t turn him down in person. He’s too cute!”

Lan Zhan sighs and Wei Ying sees him think the thought that Wei Ying hates seeing him think, the one where he regrets trusting Wei Ying to take care of something. Because who would trust Wei Ying to do something?

In actuality, Lan Zhan is castigating himself for not thinking to have this conversation the previous night. He’d been distracted by the very sudden parenthood and the glimmering hope that the reverse baby trap had been turned into an old fashioned baby trap. Fourteen years, Wei Ying promised.

“I’ll call out,” Lan Zhan says. “He can stay here with me and I’ll do some research on daycares. Maybe pre-schools?” He frowns at Yuan, realizes he’s frowning in a possibly threatening manner, and rearranges his face into a blank expression. Yuan misses all of it.

Wei Ying almost falls out of his chair in shock. He does drop his utensils. Not that he needs them anymore. He’s suddenly not very hungry.

Lan Zhan never calls out. He says it’s because he has a functioning immune system due to his sleep schedule and healthy eating (held up against Wei Ying’s more laissez-faire approach to life), but Wei Ying thinks he’s just magically stubborn.

The one time Lan Zhan did get sick he still went to work. He went in armed with a box of tissues, a can of lysol, and a glare that kept everyone at six feet. When he came home Wei Ying practically had to sit on him to make him go to bed early and stay there.

“No playing with your food. Wash your hands after you eat,” Lan Zhan doesn’t wait for Wei Ying to respond, just moves on to saving their kitchen from Yuan and his leftovers. He picks Yuan up and carries him over to the sink to follow the rule he just commanded.

Like he didn’t just shake the foundations of Wei Ying’s entire world.

“Lan Zhan. No. He’s my problem-“ Wei Ying says. Lan Zhan glares at him.

“Responsibility,” he says.

“What?”

Lan Zhan helps Yuan dry of his hands and frees him, waiting until Yuan runs into the other room. Like he knows that the adults are having a conversation he’s not going to be a part of.

“He’s our responsibility. Not a problem. Word choice matters.” He’s staring off after Yuan, eyebrows drawing slightly together and oh. Oh. Wei Ying is such a fucking idiot.

Wei Ying isn’t the only orphan in this household. Lan Zhan didn’t have to deal with the foster care system, or being handed off to complete strangers, but he’s probably still going to feel a certain type of way about Yuan’s options. Or lack thereof. How could he have just forgotten?

Everything that Lan Zhan does always comes across as so exact, so on purpose, that sometimes Wei Ying forgets that Lan Zhan is just as fucked up as he is. Well. Maybe not just as. But he doesn’t exactly check the boxes for normal and well adjusted, no matter how much Wei Ying loves him.

For the second time in twelve hours Wei Ying invades Lan Zhan’s space in the way that he keeps promising himself he’s going to stop (sometimes touching Lan Zhan is Worse than not touching Lan Zhan (for Wei Ying, Lan Zhan seems unaffected to a point that Wei Ying finds offensive)).

He tugs at Lan Zhan’s sleeve and then at his hand, entwining their fingers until he gets Lan Zhan’s attention. He smiles his brightest smile.

“You stay at home. I’ll ask about a spot at the camp and connect with Wen Qing and tonight we’ll figure it out. We can make a whole power point presentation if you want and…and between the two of us we at least know a bunch of things not to do. That’s a start, right?”

Lan Zhan nods slowly and Wei Ying goes for broke, pressing one finger between Lan Zhan’s eyebrows, smoothing away the crease there. He gets a patented “Wei Ying” look for his trouble and feels his own smile becoming more genuine in response.

Then he has to literally run, while still wearing his clothes from the day before, because he is late, late, late (as per usual). He won’t let Lan Zhan keep him on schedule for his own shit because he refuses to be Lan Zhan’s…responsibility.

It feels too similar to problem. They’re going to have to find a different word.

Lan Zhan is in way over his head. While it wasn’t a lie that he doesn’t hate children, he still has little (no) experience directly interacting with them. He knows what he could skim off of online parenting manuals last night, a lot of which seemed contradictory.

For a while after Wei Ying leaves, he silently follows Yuan around the apartment while he explores. Living room, Lan Zhan’s own room, Wei Ying’s room. But that starts feeling invasive and stalker-ish pretty quickly, so he retreats to his office, leaving the door open just in case.

He gets to work on the research he promised to Wei Ying, but he keeps getting sucked down various wormholes of information he had never previously considered. The safety concerns on child-sized furniture are intense.

Then Yuan starts popping his head in every three minutes to check on Lan Zhan, like if the adult in the apartment isn’t going to fulfill the monitoring responsibilities, he’ll do it. That doesn’t seem right.

Lan Zhan takes his laptop out and settles on the floor in the doorway to Wei Ying’s room because Yuan has dumped his backpack of belongings on the floor in there and Lan Zhan can’t bring himself to breech the threshold without express permission or imminent disaster.

Yuan’s belongings seem to be limited to an adult handful of plastic dinosaur figurines that seem like a choking hazard, a filled in coloring book with three broken crayons, and a stained hoodie that’s too big. It doesn’t seem like enough.

Well.

Lan Zhan goes to his room, picks up the small stuffed bunny he had stress knit last night after he should have gone to bed, and goes back to Wei Ying’s room to offer it to Yuan. Yuan hangs back, clutching his dinosaurs, so Lan Zhan places it on the floor next to where he’s set up.

It was a thought. Maybe he doesn’t like bunnies. That’s truly tragic. He bets there are patterns out there for less lethal dinosaurs.

Lan Zhan starts opening up more tabs on his browser. He doesn’t have much hope for Wen Qing handing over anything more than the basics, and based off of what he’s seen so far, those basics are going to be found wanting.

It only takes about five minutes for Yuan to decide that he’s curious enough to approach Lan Zhan and the scorned bunny. He makes eye contact with Lan Zhan as he picks the bunny up and, waving it towards Lan Zhan’s face goes “Roar.”

Lan Zhan makes a conscious effort to smile (apparently most people don’t think he’s smiling when He thinks he’s smiling) and then, because he doesn’t know what he’s doing with a kid, says “I don’t think bunnies roar.”

Yuan, bless him, thinks this is the funniest thing he’s ever heard. No one ever thinks Lan Zhan is funny except for Wei Ying, who likes to call Lan Zhan a #Petty Bitch, which, he thinks, is an entirely different section of humor.

Yuan scoots a little closer to Lan Zhan, peeps up at him, and meows. Lan Zhan shakes his head. Yuan falls over giggling. They repeat the set through various animal sounds until Yuan is gasping on the floor.

“What do bunnies do?” he asks.

Academic curiosity. Finally, something Lan Zhan understands. Too bad he doesn’t have a real answer. He sighs. Down on the floor, Yuan mimics him. Holds the bunny up and makes it give a small, heart broken sounding sigh.

Yuan looses the last vestiges of shyness he’d developed when Wei Ying left and climbs onto Lan Zhan’s lap.

“Do it again,” he laughs directly into Lan Zhan’s face.

Lan Zhan gives a small sigh and twitches his nose and Yuan throws himself backwards in delight, trusting that Lan Zhan will catch him before he hits the floor (he does, but it’s a near thing (the laptop does hit the floor, but it’s fine, Lan Zhan is almost sure)).

Trust established between the two of them, they make lunch (or: Yuan wraps himself around Lan Zhan’s leg while Lan Zhan assembles a simple soup and sandwich option) and then Yuan condescends to take a nap on the couch as long as Lan Zhan sits next to him.

Lan Zhan uses the downtime to make the purchases that rely on safety ratings only (various booster seats and stools, basically) and then collects a list of viable options of furniture for Yuan’s new room.

Luckily, Lan Zhan was raised to appreciate minimalism. It shouldn’t take too much effort to redistribute the contents of his office between his bedroom and a corner of the living room.

When Yuan wakes up, he takes the solemn duty of teaching Lan Zhan about snacks. He’s very passionate about the subject even though most of the things he lists don’t seem to be food. Maybe he’s also talking about things to do while eating snacks. Or after snacks. Or detailing the plot of a show he watched.

Maybe Lan Zhan needs to go to the grocery store.

It’s so similar to the way that Wei Ying bounces from topic to topic that Lan Zhan feels like he should be able to follow along. Except he very much can’t. He’s so lost.

He became fluent in Wei Ying, he’ll become fluent in Yuan. It’ll be fine.

There’s some protracted negotiation where Yuan doesn’t trust the apple Lan Zhan offers him until it’s cut into slices and peeled, and then Lan Zhan distracts Yuan from the kitchen and food by asking him to help measure out some things for his new furniture.

Yuan is so proud to be asked to help with something that Lan Zhan thinks he actually grows taller. They make the necessary measurements, measure everything else in the room just in case, and then Lan Zhan asks Yuan’s opinion of the furniture he’s ordering.

Yuan chooses everything. He wants all of it. Then he notices that his bunny is lying abandoned under the couch and goes to rescue it and just…doesn’t come back. Lan Zhan tries not to feel abandoned.

Lan Zhan tries to consider the furniture from a four year old’s point of view. Then he chooses the furniture he likes best.

He buys a twin bed with a rollout trundle in case Yuan wants to have a sleepover with a friend, and a matching nightstand/dresser set, and a bookcase where he’ll be able to reach all of the shelves, and a tiny table with matching chairs because choosing a desk feels too intimate.

Four is probably too young for a desk anyway.

Wei Ying has a terrible day. He should have been the one to call out of work. Or he should have made a fucking plan before Lan Zhan reminded him that he needed to have one. The group project that is Yuan’s life right now deserves better than scraps of Wei Ying’s attention.

He ignores a phone call from Jiang Cheng so he can try to ask the summer camp admin about getting his kid in last minute but she doesn’t have time in the morning so he spends his entire shift at the art gallery coming up with different arguments and then she turns him down halfway through the request at pick-up.

It so wouldn’t have happened if Yuan was there in person.

He almost quits the job in retaliation. He would make an awesome stay-at-home dad, thankyouverymuch. But if he’s offering his services as full time taker-care-er of Yuan, he’d also have to quit the art gallery and he kinda likes that one. Plus, like, rent.

Rent should probably still happen. Should he be paying more in rent now, because now there’s two of them? Is that how that works? He doesn’t know. He went straight from the Jiang’s to on-campus housing, to Lan Zhan’s house where Lan Zhan only accepts rent under duress.

Seriously. Wei Ying was the one who had to come up with a number and he has to pay in cash because Lan Zhan just…wasn’t depositing the checks Wei Ying was writing. Like he wouldn’t notice.

He goes to the Wen’s place to get Yuan’s stuff, but Wen Qing is running late and Wen Ning has already left, and then Wen Qing is holding Yuan’s stuff hostage.

She insists on coming home with Wei Ying to talk with Lan Zhan about the whole “situation” like Wei Ying isn’t capable of representing his household.

So now he’s getting home massively late for dinner and with Wen Qing in tow so he can be yelled at by two people at the same time and it just— maybe Wei Ying isn’t cut out for parenthood and shouldn’t be doing this. Maybe it’s a sign. Maybe he should just babysit when they need someone.

When he walks in the door Yuan almost takes him out, he runs into his legs so hard. Yeah. Fuck that. Yuan is staying.

Wen Qing is given a similar greeting, and Lan Zhan ushers them both into seats at the table. He takes two plates of food out of the oven because he’s doing an impression of a 1950’s sitcom housewife all on his own tonight, apparently.

Also, he totally knew that Wen Qing was coming. What the fuck?

Lan Zhan sits down next to Wei Ying at the table and presses his lips into a firm line while staring at Wen Qing across the table without blinking and Wei Ying gets the feeling that Lan Zhan is actually nervous. Like, so nervous.

Wei Ying nudges Lan Zhan’s knee with his own and rises to the occasion. The same way he always did when it was time to do a presentation in class. It’s Wei Ying’s dumb superpower. He can talk anyone into anything.

He talks about how excited he is about this opportunity, for all of them. Talks about making lunches for Yuan, and taking him to museums and parks, and bedtime stories. Talks about being an orphan and giving back, because if you can, you should.

Then Lan Zhan steps in at the perfect time, as if Wei Ying had cued him, to talk about the logistical stuff. Because no one comes through on a group project like Lan Zhan.

There’s a daycare associated with the university he’s a librarian at, and a spot waiting. A lawyer has been consulted and there’s a list of steps to go through to transfer the guardianship and then proceed to a legal adoption. Lan Zhan is waiting to hear back about putting Yuan on his health insurance.

By the time Yuan brings in his new bunny toy to show everyone (the one that totally would have tipped Wei Ying off to how Lan Zhan was feeling about all of this), Wen Qing is looking distinctly overwhelmed. Grateful, maybe. Sad. Relieved and annoyed with herself for feeling it.

(Wen Qing hates emotions almost as much as Jiang Cheng does, which is both why they started dating and then why they broke up. (Jiang Cheng won’t give Wei Ying a real reason for why they broke up, which means it had something to do with Wei Ying. But also: neither of them has met an emotion they can’t avoid. So.))

Wei Ying got a little overwhelmed himself, around the legal adoption part, but he thinks he hid it well (he did not, but Wen Qing wasn’t paying attention to him).

Wen Qing pulls Yuan up into her lap and pats at the bunny’s ears.

“Do you want to stay here?” she asks. “Are you sure?” Yuan shrugs like it doesn’t matter to him, because tiny children love to break your heart, and starts telling a story about a monster bunny taking down the dinosaurs.

Wen Qing kisses Yuan’s head and sets him free. She hands over a file of paperwork, a reusable shopping bag’s worth of clothes and leaves.

If anyone accused her of crying she would very effectively murder them and hide the body so they refrain, but Wei Ying hugs her hard and Lan Zhan looks away to give her privacy.

The next day starts much the same for Wei Ying. In pain, on the couch, breakfast ready and waiting as soon as he can drag himself to the kitchen.

“You can’t keep feeding me, Lan Zhan,” he says. “I’ll forget how to feed myself.”

Wei Ying says this atleast once a week. It does not deter Lan Zhan from feeding him. Possibly because Lan Zhan doubts Wei Ying ever knew how to feed himself. He always looks about one missed meal away from snapping in half, precautions must be taken.

“That would be unfortunate,” Lan Zhan says, and slides an extra egg onto his plate. As Wei Ying watches, Lan Zhan makes a circuit around the kitchen and Wei Ying swears, the kitchen begins to sparkle. It’s like living with a Disney princess. There’ll be singing birds, any minute.

Lan Zhan motions to Yuan, who has apparently already picked up on all of Lan Zhan’s body language. The two are ready to go before Wei Ying has eaten half of what’s in front of him.

“We have to fill out some paperwork,” Lan Zhan says. “Dinner?”

Wei Ying nods and waves and tries not to let it bother him that he brought home a kid and Lan Zhan is the one taking care of said kid. It would make sense. Lan Zhan is so much more together than Wei Ying.

No wonder Yuan is already following Lan Zhan around like a little duckling.

It isn’t a popularity contest. And if it is, it’s all about the long con. He’s got fourteen more years here, Lan Zhan promised.

Except.

Except the long con is all about laying down the foundations in the beginning. Wei Ying shoves away from the table and runs out the door, yelling for Lan Zhan to wait for him.

It’s a tense elevator ride down because Lan Zhan’s dumb superpower (aside from like, being good at everything) is the ability to always just walk out of the apartment and right onto the elevator. The man never has to wait. It’s weird.

But the car is still in it’s assigned parking spot when Wei Ying gets there so he throws himself onto the hood. Lan Zhan ducks out from the back seat where he’s strapping Yuan into a brand new booster seat (where did he even get that?) and raises both eyebrows.

“Me too,” Wei Ying says. “I want to go too.”

Lan Zhan nods and Wei Ying can see Yuan waving from his little safety seat and he slowly slides off the hood of the car, only just now remembering that car hoods are literally designed to give on impact. Luckily, it seems to have held up this time.

(It was only the one time that it didn’t, but Jiang Cheng was pissed when his graduation present didn’t make it out of the driveway before getting messed up. Madame Yu too.)

“I mean, as long as that’s okay,” Wei Ying says, sliding into the passenger seat and buckling his seatbelt. Lan Zhan shrugs, hitching one shoulder up the way he does when he wants you to do something but doesn’t want to pressure you. Wei Ying’s tension eases.

He turns around in his seat to look at Yuan.

“Are you excited about daycare, little radish?” he asks. Yuan bites his lip and gives a perfect recreation of the one-sided shoulder twitch Lan Zhan had just done.

Challenge fucking accepted. Project become Yuan’s favorite is on.

Ignoring a call from Yanli is a little harder than ignoring a call from Jiang Cheng, but Wei Ying needs to plan what to say before he gets into a conversation with her.

At the daycare Wei Ying flirts with the admin assistant just to keep from feeling completely superfluous. Lan Zhan has all the adult stuff covered, and Yuan wanders away to play with some of the other kids without saying goodbye.

Then the woman taking care of the paperwork starts flirting with Lan Zhan and Wei Ying can’t let that stand, so he starts flirting with Lan Zhan instead (he looks uncomfortable, it’s rescue flirting).

And, okay, it’s more draping himself over Lan Zhan’s back and smiling (baring his teeth) at the woman from over Lan Zhan’s shoulder than actual flirting. But two men walk in to register their kid for daycare, this woman’s assumption should be that they’re married. Not that…

It’s the principle of the matter. This is a terrible place to flirt with your clients.

Anyway.

Lan Zhan finishes the paperwork under Wei Ying’s watchful eye and the woman tones it down and Lan Zhan and Wei Ying have a whispered conversation about whether or not to interrupt Yuan’s play to say goodbye.

The opt for yes. Yuan waves at them but declines coming over.

“Such a good boy,” the woman in charge gushes.

Which, like, obviously. But also. Wei Ying has to bite his tongue to keep from lecturing her about the various ways that abandonment issues present in young children, having been a young child with abandonment issues himself.

Lan Zhan holds his hand and runs his thumb over Wei Ying’s knuckles in…reward? No. Solidarity. Support. And walks them both out to the car with nothing more than a polite nod in her direction.

Ha.

Lan Zhan declines talking about his future wedding to the daycare lady as he drives Wei Ying to work because it’s too late for Wei Ying to take the bus. He declines to talk about anything Wei Ying brings up, as if that isn’t just rude.

And then he hands over a bus pass and a credit card because he noticed that Wei Ying left the apartment without his backpack or wallet, even if Wei Ying hadn’t noticed yet. Wei Ying puts up a token protest, but they both know that Wei Ying will be taking both bus pass and credit card.

If he doesn’t Lan Zhan will go back to the apartment and get Wei Ying’s wallet and backpack for him, and then Lan Zhan will be late for work after having called out the day before. Wei Ying can’t be responsible for that, he refuses.

He’ll just add it to the tab he’s never going to be able to pay back.

Lan Zhan knows that Wei Ying is freaking out about him taking off the previous day, so he conveniently forgets to tell Wei Ying that he’s also taking a half day off today. This morning at the daycare is actually a trial run, he’s supposed to pick Yuan up before lunch.

Maybe not the best tactic to use on the man you’re raising a child with, but he’s allowed to take days off if he wants to. His job would actually prefer he took more days off. It messes with their work-life balance metrics when his sick leave/personal/vacation days expire.

As it is, he’s tempted to say that he should have just taken the whole day off. If Mian Mian were in today, she would just ask him. But she’s not. So instead everyone is just hovering around his peripheral looking for clues. It’s incredibly annoying.

He wonders if he’ll be able to get away with putting a picture of Yuan on his desk and just pretending that he’s had Yuan since Yuan was a baby. Avoid the conversation all together.

On the one hand, Mian Mian shares an office with him, and she’s the most likely to challenge him on it. On the other hand, there’s a picture of him and Wei Ying on his desk and she’s never asked about that.

Yuan greets him at the daycare with wide-eyed wonder because he apparently thought he just lived there now. Lan Zhan and Wei Ying were just a pleasant little interlude in the game of hot potato everyone keeps playing with him.

He’s going to finish knitting that dinosaur plushie in no time.

Yuan is a fan of lunch, but has no interest in a nap. Eventually Lan Zhan lets him help remove things from his office. Yuan gravely cares the bottom of Lan Zhan’s bookshelf, one book at a time, to Lan Zhan’s bed while Lan Zhan takes care of everything else except for the furniture.

By the time Yuan’s furniture arrives there’s enough room for the delivery men to assemble the bed and they’re so charmed by Yuan that they help Lan Zhan move his desk and bookshelf out. Yuan gives them all high fives on the way out.

All in all it’s a much more enjoyable afternoon than morning and Lan Zhan would consider leaving his job to be a stay-at-home dad if he thought Wei Ying would be at all okay with openly living off of his trust fund.

Wei Ying meets Huaisang for lunch because he knows he needs to get hyped up for what he’s about to do. And he needs to borrow money from someone other than Lan Zhan in order to actually do the thing.

It feels weird using Lan Zhan’s card for McDonald’s. It’s not a secret that Wei Ying eats like a trash monster when he’s outside of the apartment, but still. It’s different, using Lan Zhan’s actual money for fast food. And non-vegetarian at that.

“So, like, what’s this about?” Huaisang lounges in the booth opposite Wei Ying, a mass of wrappers taking up the table. Wei Ying puts his tray down in the middle of the mess.

“I need to get a haircut,” he says.

Huaisang looks at him skeptically. Or, Wei Ying imagines Huaisang looks at him skeptically. It’s hard to tell through the sunglasses. But Wei Ying probably hasn’t bothered to get his hair cut in the entire time that Huaisang has known him.

At least, not in a way that required any kind of fanfare. Certainly not one that required a reference. He’s been known to just hack like, a foot off over the kitchen garbage can on his way out the door (Lan Zhan looked like he wanted to die).

Seriously,” Wei Ying says. “I need someone to hot mom me in like, ten minutes for twenty dollars.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Huaisang says.

“Yeah, whatever,” Wei Ying says. Huaisang never wants to admit to anything, even basic knowledge. It’s easiest to just voice your acceptance that you’re talking to the void and then wait for the void to provide you with precisely what you asked for. “My shift starts in an hour.”

“Hm,” Huaisang says. He has a friend. A friend of a friend, really. Who might be able to do something. Maybe.

It turns out that the friend has some sort of wig scheme going on and Wei Ying is getting so much hair cut off that the friend agrees to do it in exchange for the hair. Once that’s decided it takes almost no time at all, certainly less time that it feels like it should.

When they leave the salon Huaisang turns in the opposite direction of Wei Ying and walks away without saying goodbye. Dude’s gotten weird since (finally) graduating, that’s all Wei Ying’s got to say.

When Wei Ying gets home from work Lan Zhan’s brain short-circuits.

“It’s my mom cut!” Wei Ying says cheerfully from the floor where Yuan had knocked him over. Lan Zhan is eternally grateful that Yuan is exuberant enough around Wei Ying to provide a distraction like that.

Wei Ying has never been really bothered by his hair (not like Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan’s hair care is a whole process). He keeps it long because “I can just keep it up and not think about it” until Lan Zhan sits him down and brushes it out and oils it because it’s physically painful to look at.

It’s also the best way to trick him into falling asleep and taking a nap if Lan Zhan can’t remember the last time he saw Wei Ying take a break.

It’s also also the best way to break Lan Zhan’s heart because Wei Ying will sleepily insist on returning the favor even though he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He always takes Lan Zhan’s hair extra seriously to make up for it.

But the point is, it’s always been long and distinctly him. Now it’s the typical cut of the day: a little length on top with the sides and back short and tight. How is Lan Zhan supposed to go about his life knowing that Wei Ying’s neck is just out and exposed like that?

Yuan shows Wei Ying his new room. Lan Zhan still hasn’t gotten the table and chairs put together so they do that and Wei Ying keeps nudging Lan Zhan and whining that they should have chosen the furniture as a Family and Lan Zhan thinks he nods, but he’s still stuck on the hair.

He isn’t great at processing unexpected things quickly. He’s going to have to come back for the family comment.

And then, AND THEN, Wei Ying reminds Lan Zhan that it’s dinner time and there’s nothing to eat. Lan Zhan was going to start making dinner when Wei Ying got home but HAIR, so they order take-out.

Which at least knocks Lan Zhan into the present because he has to make sure that Wei Ying orders some non-spicy options for himself, but also for Yuan because Yuan is a Child who deserves to be Protected from Wei Ying’s complete lack of tastebuds.

“Is it really that bad?” Wei Ying asks, after they’ve tucked Yuan in for the third time (something about having his own room instead of borrowing someone else’s seems to have freaked him out, so now they’re sitting on the floor outside his room with the door cracked so he knows they’re there).

Lan Zhan has his knitting with him and shamelessly takes advantage of the fact that he’s wrangling four tiny needles at this point to take an extra minute to answer. He feels so transparent around Wei Ying that even after all this time, it throws him when Wei Ying gets his thoughts so wrong.

“It is not bad,” he says finally. Wei Ying huffs and pulls at his hair. What’s left of it.

“I officially have regrets,” he says.

“Don’t,” Lan Zhan says.

“No?” Wei Ying smiles his half smile, the one that Lan Zhan likes more that his full smiles because the full smiles are so often putting on a show and the half smiles just slip out like he can’t help himself.

“Do you think I’m a hot mom?”

Lan Zhan has to fight not to roll his eyes hard enough to give himself a headache. If he’s managed to nurse Wei Ying through the flu multiple times (he always forgets to get the flu shot, and he always manages to catch the flu) and still found him attractive throughout, a haircut isn’t going to change anything.

Yuan comes out of his room dragging his blanket and knitted bunny, arranges himself on Wei Ying’s lap, and for all intents and purposes, appears to actually go to sleep. This is…not covered in the parenting books Lan Zhan has managed to go through.

Wei Ying and Lan Zhan hold eye contact for a minute and then Lan Zhan reaches up and turns off the hallway light. Wei Ying starts giggling and can’t stop, but it doesn’t seem to bother Yuan.

“Lan Zhan, I have to say, I did not anticipate you making me be the mean parent,” he says. And Lan Zhan is glad that the light is now dim enough that Wei Ying definitely cannot see his ears heating up. “If only our classmates could see you now.”

“I do not make Wei Ying do anything,” Lan Zhan says primly. Which elicits more giggles from Wei Ying and an answering glow of contentment inside Lan Zhan’s chest.

Huaisang keeps Jiang Cheng waiting, but by now he’s used to it. And as it turns out, he’s not great at making friends without Wei Ying hanging off of his shoulder betraying his every inner thought, so he can’t afford to just throw away friends because they have no concept of time.

To be fair, Jiang Cheng’s social circle post college has slowly cinched in to Jiang Cheng’s gym (note: personal trainers are not your friends) and his work, where he’s heir apparent. Everyone is unfailingly polite, but polite does not a friendship make.

Basically, Jiang Cheng has run out of ways to meet new people that don’t involve him being somehow involved in their employment. Maybe he could make friends out in the wilds. No one can prove it either way because he never goes there (he’s busy, okay?). He still can’t afford to throw over Huaisang.

Huaisang shows up at the same time the food does, like he was waiting outside and watching, making sure that Jiang Cheng is going to feed him before bothering to come in.

On second thought, maybe he can afford to throw over Huaisang.

“Your boy got a haircut,” Huaisang says, once they’ve opened the second bottle of wine.

Jiang Cheng has to rewind through the conversation that had hopped from Mingjue to Yanli to babies to the best way to get glitter out of your hair (as of yet undetermined, as evidenced by the copious amount still in Huaisang’s hair). Ah. There is is.

“So?” Jiang Cheng says. He doesn’t bother asking which boy. Huaisang always vaguely wavers away when you try to pin him down to a specific detail, like someone’s name, but he only ever refers to Wei Ying as Jiang Cheng’s boy.

(He refers to Lan Zhan as Wei Ying’s boy, which means he’s Jiang Cheng’s boy’s boy, which makes Jiang Cheng want to break something.)

Huaisang raises his hands and looks wounded.

“I don’t know. Said he wanted a mom cut. Think your boy’s boy has a fetish of some sort?”

And there it is.

Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes and considers the wisdom of chugging wine. Probably not much. Especially not with Huaisang who is both a champion enabler and insatiably curious about how high he can make the bill go before Jiang Cheng insists on him pitching in.

Something about seeing what his friendship is worth.

Thankfully they’ve gotten past the hotel trashing era of their friendship. The bill after Yanli’s wedding almost ruined their friendship, but Jiang Cheng is willing to accept most of the blame for that one.

It had only been a couple of months after Wei Ying self-destructed and Jiang Cheng had thought that everyone would pull it together for Yanli, but their parents spent the entire day twitchy and apparently had security on standby. Overkill, even by their mother’s standards.

Wei Ying never showed at all, opting to post no fewer than five selfies at an amusement park with the newly single Wen Qing rather than taking wedding photos with his fucking sister (who had subverted and subdued the security team with her new husband’s ridiculous amounts of money and her own natural charm because of course her baby brother wouldn’t just skip her wedding).

It was the first time Jiang Cheng had seen Yanli cry for real instead of as a distraction tactic.

Anyway.

“I really don’t want to know,” Jiang Cheng says. Wei Ying hasn’t responded to the last ten texts that Jiang Cheng has sent. If Wei Ying isn’t going to tell Jiang Cheng about his life then Jiang Cheng is done trying to find out on his own.

“What’s it look like?”

Huaisang snickers and sends Jiang Cheng a photo rather than hand over his phone like a normal person.

Jiang Cheng pours himself another glass.

The next day that they both have off, Lan Zhan drags them all to Target. Well. He says he’s going to Target and Wei Ying is obviously going to go too because Target and Yuan isn’t really given a choice. But Wei Ying calls it an adventure and Yuan seems down for it. So.

When they get there Lan Zhan gets a cart and goes directly to the kids clothing section, where he proceeds to put one of just about everything into the cart. Occasionally he holds something up against Yuan to check the size, or offers color options on otherwise identical shirts, but he’s definitely on a Mission.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Wei Ying says after the third dinosaur sweatshirt. “He has clothes. We don’t need to replace everything at once.” Yuan turns giant eyes up at Wei Ying. He really likes that dinosaur sweatshirt in particular. It has spikes down the sleeve like a tail.

“Now he will have more,” Lan Zhan says. Like Wei Ying doesn’t know that he finds Yuan’s other clothes lacking and that they’re all going directly in the trash (seriously, he hates them so much he won’t even be donating them).

Lan Zhan picks up some pajamas and holds them out to Yuan to choose. Yuan picks the one with bunnies on it and the two smile at each other like they already have inside jokes. Which is great. But also. What?

Wei Ying has to go take a walk and avoid looking at the cart because he keeps doing math every time he does and feeling like he can’t breathe. And sure, Lan Zhan has the money and has the right to spend it how he likes. But holy shit. It’s so much.

Wei Ying will totally loose custody if he and Lan Zhan ever…not split up. They can’t split up if they aren’t together.

Wei Ying looses track of time. It’s not the normal Target haze. He thinks he’s having an out of body experience, watching Lan Zhan compare tiny sandals to tiny sneakers and settling on both.

He snaps out of it when Lan Zhan leads them on a detour through the men’s clothing section to pick up some basics like socks that are obviously for Wei Ying. They’re black and Lan Zhan has steadfastly refused to have anything to do with black since Wei Ying dared him to go goth just once back in college.

“Nope,” Wei Ying grabs the offending socks and throws them back on the shelf. “If we’re doing…all of this I can’t-just don’t. Please. Not today.”

Lan Zhan sighs, but doesn’t fight him on it. Wei Ying has the sneaking suspicion that after Lan Zhan’s next solo trip to Target he’ll magically end up with some new socks anyway, but he still has some pride. If he doesn’t see Lan Zhan buy them at least he can pretend it’s the sock fairy or something.

Wei Ying thinks that they’re done, but they have to go past the toy section to get to the check out and, as Wei Ying is learning, Lan Zhan is a pushover for Yuan.

Yuan has also learned it.

He finds a set of small fuzzy bunny dolls in a house, because dollhouses aren’t just for people anymore, and brings it directly to Lan Zhan.

“I can have it?” he says. Lan Zhan puts it in the cart.

“Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying says. Lan Zhan looks back and forth between Wei Ying and the toy set. Guiltily. Lan Zhan has never looked guilty of anything in his entire life.

“He has fewer toys than is considered average,” Lan Zhan says.

“It’s so much.”

“He would already have this and more if he had been with us from a younger age,” Lan Zhan says, sticking hard to his logic defense. Wei Ying is suddenly struck by a vision of Lan Zhan with an infant, talking everything so very seriously.

“Please?” Lan Zhan says, reaching out as if to touch Wei Ying’s arm and then pulling back. “I would have…liked more toys when I was a child.”

Wei Ying sighs, glances down at Yuan who is practically dancing with nerves over the outcome. He gets into Lan Zhan’s space and squares off.

“Are you really telling me that spending an obscene amount of money on Yuan is some kind of therapy to make up for your own deprived childhood, you poor little rich boy?”

“You were also a poor little rich boy,” Lan Zhan points out. Which, like, yeah. Eventually. But when he moved in with the Jiangs it wasn’t that he just got all new things all at once. He was smaller than Jiang Cheng so he got a bunch of castoffs and they shared toys.

There isn’t another child for Yuan to share with though.

And Lan Zhan never asks for things. He just does them until Wei Ying says no and then he stops. Wei Ying takes another step closer to Lan Zhan. It’s a mistake because now they’re practically nose-to-nose, but he can’t back down now.

“Are you telling me, you think it would be negligent to leave without some toys?”

“What? No. I—“

“Are you telling me, that you’re going to kick me out of house and home if I don’t let you bring home some much useless sh—stuff that it’ll make up for all those years of minimalism?”

Lan Zhan tilts his head slightly, like he’s studying Wei Ying.

“Yes?” he says slowly. Hesitantly.

“Game on.”

They get the play set. They get play dough. They get a variety of puzzles and age appropriate legos and play food (Lan Zhan considers the whole play kitchen but doesn’t want to have to deal with the sales associate and there’s only so much room in the car). They get games.

They get a backpack and lunchbox set for daycare, rubber ducks and bubble bath for bath time. Chalk and a rubber ball for playing in the park. Crayons and coloring books and actual books for whenever. Sunscreen and children’s toothpaste and a Spiderman toothbrush that seems to be Yuan’s favorite thing he’s picked out all day.

Wei Ying watches Lan Zhan’s face while everything gets rung up and he doesn’t even flinch when he swipes his card.

Wei Ying pushes the cart to the car so that Yuan can hold Lan Zhan’s hand across the parking lot. He’s getting used to how much it hurts to look at the two of them being perfect together, an extra edge on how it feels to watch Lan Zhan being perfect.

It’s fine. This is fine.

“Lunch?” he says when they’ve all gathered next to the car. Yuan cheers.

“Do you think he’s too well adjusted?” Wei Ying asks that night, after they put Yuan to bed. “Like…too well behaved?”

They’re still working their way through de-tagging and washing all of the new clothes. The pajamas got washed first so Yuan would have something new for bed. Then clothes for tomorrow. Now they’re on things he won’t need until fall. Jeans and sweatshirts and jackets.

Yes, Lan Zhan thinks.

“Maybe,” he says. “He hasn’t been here long, online said he would start pushing boundaries as he got more comfortable.” Wei Ying pulls at his hair and puts his head on the table.

“I want to help him Now,” he says.

“We are,” Lan Zhan says, focusing on folding tiny t-shirts into perfect squares rather than on the vulnerable patch of skin on the back of Wei Ying’s neck. Wei Ying does not react.

When he’s done and stands, Wei Ying stands too, and throws himself at Lan Zhan the way he only does when he really, really wants a hug and won’t be taking no for an answer. Not that Lan Zhan would ever tell him no.

Lan Zhan gives in to temptation and when he returns the hug, one of his hands closes around the back of Wei Ying’s neck, protecting it from whatever out there in the world would dare.

“We’re going to be able to do this, right?” Wei Ying says. “They won’t take him away?”

“We have very good lawyers,” Lan Zhan says. It’s not a no. There are a million reasons why an adoption might not go through, many of them beyond their control. But they’re starting from a good position.

Wei Ying lets out a long, shuddering sigh into Lan Zhan’s neck, like he’s scared, but he’ll trust him. Lan Zhan holds him a little tighter.

“And then, get this. He just lets him! I’m telling you, Lan Zhan is a pushover!” Wei Ying is technically working, but no one is coming in to the art gallery so there’s no one to check coats for and no one can really see him if they aren’t trying to find him anyway (it’s a terrible set-up).

Maybe there are other things to do, but it’s been a slow week and here’s Huaisang coming out of a meeting with one of the curators, all ready to gossip to.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Huaisang says. “Lan Zhan has a son?”

“I have a son,” Wei Ying corrects. “And Lan Zhan is trying to steal his love from me by giving him everything he wants.” Huaisang gives him a long look, up and down.

“Who would have a kid with you?” he asks. The two eye each other for a minute before breaking out into matching laughs.

“Lan Zhan, clearly,” Wei Ying says, trying to toss his hair even though it’s too short now. “He loves me.”

“Right,” Huaisang says. Wei Ying has been claiming to be the sole owner of Lan Zhan’s undying devotion since before Lan Zhan would regularly speak to him. “I didn’t know you could adopt a kid with a friend?”

Wei Ying shifts. It’s become increasingly obvious that Lan Zhan’s lawyers think their best bet is to put Lan Zhan’s name on everything while Wei Ying will just kinda…exist off to the side, depending on Lan Zhan’s innate goodness, without any legal rights.

Not that different from the past seven years, actually.

“Maybe it’s different when you know the legal guardian,” Wei Ying suggests. Maybe it is, he doesn’t know. No one ever felt the need to explain to him what was going on when he was a kid and now his eyes keep glazing over whenever the lawyer starts explaining next steps.

It’s some kind of self-defense response. He can’t help it.

“Oh, okay,” Huaisang says, interest waning. “I thought you two were going to like, get married for convenience or something, like in a movie.”

“Yeah, right,” Wei Ying says.

“Can you imagine?” Huaisang shudders delicately and Wei Ying has to force himself to laugh.

Can he? Of course he can. It’s their life now but with matching rings, and a shared bedroom, and wedding invitations addressed to the both of them instead of one r.s.v.p.ing yes with a guest and one r.s.v.p.ing no so that they will definitely sit together at the reception.

“Lan Zhan would never stand for it,” Wei Ying says. “Too much lying.”

“Right…” Huaisang says. He pulls out a flip phone, of all things. “I’ve got to go. Have fun with…,” he motions towards the little closet Wei Ying is set up in, and walks away.

“Thanks for listening!” Wei Ying yells at Huaisang’s back. He’s not really expecting to be acknowledged, so he doesn’t watch his friend walk away. Honestly, he doesn’t think Huaisang was paying proper attention to the story.

Huaisang pulls up Yanli’s number full on in front of Wei Ying, just because he knows it’s one of the details that Wei Ying will never catch. He texts her a brief summary, namely that there is a child involved but no impending marriage.

He and Yanli have a running bet going about when Wei Ying and Lan Zhan will finally get together and he needs to get it down in writing that if there’s any hint of a marriage of convenience around the set up, that’s due to his influence.

Yanli sends back his receipt and an invitation to dinner, that of course he will be turning down because he can’t risk being seen with her like a real friend.

Yanli taps her phone against her chin and starts drafting an e-mail to Xichen. She’s been sending him little updates once a month or so. It’s something they fell into after Wei Ying and Lan Zhan first moved in together so that they could compare notes.

Both Wei Ying and Lan Zhan have to be forced into accepting or asking for help for themselves, but are very open about what they think the other needs.

It’s turned into a bit of a one-sided thing of late, but she thinks Xichen appreciates it, even if he never lets himself respond.

It should be scary how fast they settle, wrapping their schedules around each other even tighter than they had been (Wei Ying has enough friends to realize that he and Lan Zhan interact more than a lot of roommates) and making sure that Yuan feels secure between the two of them.

Before, Wei Ying maybe ate breakfast and mostly ate dinner at home. Now he always eats both at home, asking questions about Yuan’s friends at school and his growing collection of stuffed animals (Wei Ying clearly needs to find time to talk to Lan Zhan about that).

On days when Wei Ying isn’t working, but Lan Zhan is, Wei Ying stays home with Yuan and they eat the peanut butter sandwiches Yuan can’t take to daycare and run around the park until both of them are covered in grass stains, hurrying to hide the evidence before Lan Zhan gets home.

On days that Lan Zhan isn’t working, but Wei Ying is, they mostly stay home and do chores (allegedly) but Yuan’s growing collection of books proves that Lan Zhan almost always takes him to the bookstore after his nap and always buys something.

(“It’s educational,” he says, about a book about a tiny elephant buying cupcakes in NYC.)

On days where they both aren’t working they take Yuan to the library in the morning and spend the afternoons debating pre-schools. Which always ends with Wei Ying throwing his hands in the air and demanding to know what’s wrong with Yuan’s daycare.

Then they take out their aggression by playing hungry-hungry hippos (it’s Wei Ying’s favorite, but Yuan is less sure about it) until it’s time for Lan Zhan to give Yuan his next cooking lesson.

He’s going to be the only four year old who knows the hows and whys of properly prepared tofu. (His technique is suspect, but Lan Zhan won’t let Wei Ying say it.)

Yuan starts going to daycare every weekday, because routine is important, and he’s started making friends. They start setting up playdates.

Wei Ying makes friends with one of the moms at daycare. Her name is Mian Mian and she actually shares an office with Lan Zhan and she’s so cool her existence doesn’t make sense to Wei Ying. Like, it’s not that she’s too cool to be a mom (or a librarian), she’s too cool to be human.

Lan Zhan likes her too. He’d started cutting up apples to look like rabbits for Yuan’s snack and Mian Mian sent in turtles made out of kiwis and cut-up grapes for her daughter’s lunch, and now it’s a whole thing where they try to outdo each other and the kids love it.

According to the gossip, the other parents find it exhausting. But whatever. They don’t have to play if they don’t want to.

They start meeting with lawyers and social workers in earnest and Lan Zhan’s desk disappears under the reams of paperwork they have to fill out.

They try to see the Wens. They always did try to keep in touch, but now it feels more important. Wen Qing comes to the occasional dinner and Wen Ning pops by for lunch most weekends.

Faster than Wei Ying thinks possible, a month has passed. Summer is winding down and the discussion about pre-school is feeling more serious, but it has to be put off for tonight because Lan Zhan isn’t going to be there for dinner for the first time since Yuan started living with them.

If there’s anything to remind Wei Ying that Huaisang’s comment about a marriage of convenience never happening, this is it.

Lan Zhan goes to his Uncle’s house for dinner once a month. Wei Ying is never invited and Lan Zhan never tells Wei Ying about the conversation, but Wei Ying can guess. Uncle Qiren never comes by the apartment.

“Does he know?” Wei Ying asks, darting his eyes over at Yuan in a gesture that hopefully Lan Zhan will read and Yuan will not. Yuan looks between the two of them and sends himself to his room.

Well. Okay then.

Xichen used to come over to the apartment at least once a week and all the important information got passed that way, but then he had a really bad break up and now he’s on the Chinese-American man’s version of an Eat, Pray, Love trip with no definite end date.

He sends postcards that Lan Zhan will barely glance at before passing them to Wei Ying to read even though they’re always in Mandarin and Wei Ying’s Mandarin is strictly verbal and, even then, extremely limited.

Wei Ying puts the postcards on the refrigerator, right next to Yuan’s drawings and the color-coded calendar Wei Ying always forgets to update until Lan Zhan steals his phone and does it for him.

Once a month Lan Zhan takes down the old postcards and hides them in his office (like the emotional packrat he wants to be). But he always leaves at least one on the refrigerator so Wei Ying knows it’s okay to keep putting the new ones up.

“Mn. I will tell him if he doesn’t,” Lan Zhan says. They haven’t been keeping Yuan a secret so someone has probably already told Uncle Qiren, but in addition to not deigning to visit, Uncle Qiren refuses to dignify gossip by asking Lan Zhan if it’s true.

It took a year for Lan Zhan to admit Wei Ying had moved in. Sometimes that one still hurts. Wei Ying has to tell himself that Lan Zhan thought he was doing Wei Ying a favor. What favor, Wei Ying hasn’t settled on.

“Are you seeing anyone tonight?” Lan Zhan asks, after Wei Ying fails to continue the whole not-keeping-our-son-a-secret conversation.

Wei Ying normally uses Lan Zhan’s family dinner night to pretend he’s going on a date, or have Jiang Cheng over, or go to Yanli’s house for his own family dinner. This month he was too wrapped up in his new parental status to make plans.

He hasn’t told his family about Yuan.

He hasn’t taken an actual phone call from his family since Yuan moved in. He’s barely texted. Occasionally he’ll spam text them “i love you” gifs to throw them off, but that’s not going to work much longer.

He doesn’t know how to explain Yuan to them in a way that makes sense and certainly not in a way that he can explain in front of Yuan and he’s just kinda been assuming that Yuan will not be going to Uncle Qiren’s.

“Ah, no. Not this month,” Wei Ying says, going for carefree and failing miserably. Lan Zhan frowns but if he doesn’t leave now he won’t be an extremely petty two minutes early, so he calls goodbye to Yuan and leaves it until he gets home.

Yuan hurtles out of his room when he hears the door close and looks around with a betrayed expression on his face.

Yeah. That feeling right there is roughly how Wei Ying feels every month, but Yuan is probably more justified in feeling it.

“But-“ Yuan looks down at his stomach and then back up at Wei Ying. “No dinner?” he says.

“Of course we’re still having dinner,” Wei Ying says. “We’re just going to eat without Lan Zhan. He’s eating dinner with his Uncle tonight, remember? We talked about it at breakfast this morning.”

Yuan sits down and cries. Wails. Wei Ying has never seen a toddler tantrum up close before, if that even is what this is, but it’s awful. (There have been Discussions about how Yuan is too chill, so this is probably a good thing. Still sucks though.)

Yuan cries so hard he starts hiccuping and then he cries about the fact that Wei Ying laughs each time he does.

He can’t seem to get any words out that sound like words to Wei Ying and no matter what food Wei Ying offers, Yuan remains inconsolable. It isn’t dinner time without Lan Zhan. Wei Ying can relate.

Eventually, Wei Ying gets down on the floor and cries too.

When Lan Zhan gets home he’s expecting laughter and the hurried patter of little feet as they run to hide the evidence of whatever ridiculous scheme Wei Ying came up with for entertainment and maybe, just maybe, two people that are happy to see him.

Uncle Qiren never appears happy or upset when he sees Lan Zhan.

Instead he finds the two in a sloppy huddle on the floor, next to a largely untouched pizza and a pile of scrunched up napkins. Yuan crosses his arms and turns to face the other way when Lan Zhan says hello. It’s an unexpected knife to the heart, which was already feeling battered.

Lan Zhan has gotten spoiled over the past month, expecting people to be happy to see him. Ridiculous.

Lan Zhan wants to sit down on the floor pressed up against Wei Ying, but if Wei Ying pulls away from him right now like Yuan just did Lan Zhan might actually die. Or start crying. Either way, he doesn’t want to risk it so he sits safely on the couch.

Wei Ying shifts on the floor so his shoulder pushes against Lan Zhan’s knee.

“Yuan, can you tell me why you’re mad?” Lan Zhan says, because acknowledging emotions is both healthy and important even if he would rather go hide in his closet. Maybe under the bed.

He’s so tired.

“I’m very mad. Angry face,” Yuan says. Lan Zhan nods. At their first meeting with the social worker she had left behind a scale of emojis in case Yuan was having trouble expressing emotions. It’s hanging on the refrigerator, low enough for Yuan to reference. Normally he thinks it’s funny.

“I can see that,” Lan Zhan says. “Is it because I wasn’t here for dinner?”

“Dinner is for family,” Yuan says.

It’s been a while since Lan Zhan met a new rule.

“But Lan Zhan was eating dinner with family,” Wei Ying says, earning himself a look of betrayal. This is why Lan Zhan is the favorite.

“Not eating dinner together doesn’t mean we’re not a family,” Lan Zhan says.

Yuan presses his lips together and Lan Zhan can’t. He cannot argue logic with a four year old who should be getting ready for bed and he can’t just send him to bed like he’s being punished for being mad.

If that makes him a pushover, so be it.

Lan Zhan gets on the floor and takes a piece of pizza out of the box.

“Dinner?” he asks Yuan. And when Yuan nods, Lan Zhan takes a bite even though it’s room temperature and Lan Zhan doesn’t trust food that’s been sitting out that long. By a minor miracle, there’s no meat on it.

Yuan’s mouth drops open and then he practically dives into the pizza box to get slices for himself and Wei Ying. None of them eat much, but it’s enough to satisfy Yuan.

He allows Lan Zhan to help him get ready for bed and doesn’t even protest when Lan Zhan turns out the light after one story.

When Lan Zhan goes back out to the living room, Wei Ying is putting the pizza away in the kitchen so Lan Zhan can’t even do something embarrassing like curling up on Wei Ying’s lap and asking to be held. It’s just as well.

He lies down on the couch, face down. It’s what Wei Ying does when he’s being dramatic.

Uncle Qiren had indeed heard about Yuan and Lan Zhan’s choice of co-parent and was sitting there, waiting for Lan Zhan to tell him in that way that made Lan Zhan want to leave and never tell him anything ever again. Like he already disapproved and was going to make Lan Zhan see it his way.

If Xichen were there he would ask Uncle Qiren why he’s surprised, and then make many insinuations that Lan Zhan doesn’t want to listen to, even if they’re accurate, and then the conversation would move on. But Xichen wasn’t there.

Uncle Qiren always has his nephews’ best interest at heart, but he also has a unique skill at taking their dreams and shredding them, making them seem ridiculous and infantile. You may not have pets. You will not see your parents again. You cannot possibly be taking That seriously.

It’s always a negative with Uncle Qiren.

Uncle Qiren will not touch the dreams that are Wei Ying or Yuan, Lan Zhan won’t let him.

Lan Zhan is not sure he’s going to dinner next month. He’s not sure he’s invited to dinner next month. He misses Xichen.

“That bad, huh?” Wei Ying says, when he comes back from the kitchen.

“Mn.”

Wei Ying perches on the edge of the couch and leans back, draping himself over Lan Zhan’s waist to reach the back of the couch. It can’t be comfortable.

“Are we moving out?” Wei Ying asks, digging one elbow into Lan Zhan’s spine.

“Ow. No. What?” Lan Zhan tries to look at Wei Ying but he can’t without dislodging him and Lan Zhan doesn’t want to risk that, no matter how painful the current position is.

“I just thought maybe your Uncle…” Wei Ying trails off, politely not saying that he thinks Lan Zhan will just blindly follow whatever his uncle mandates. Up to and including kicking Wei Ying and Yuan out.

To be fair, that was probably true at one point in Lan Zhan’s life.

But it’s been literal years. Lan Zhan has all but put Wei Ying’s name on the deed to the apartment. Lan Zhan has offered to put Wei Ying’s name on the deed to the apartment. He isn’t sure what more he can do to reassure Wei Ying that he belongs here. That he’s wanted here.

“Uncle is not permitted an opinion about Wei Ying or Yuan,” Lan Zhan says. Wei Ying twists and falls off the couch completely, but manages to land with his chin digging into Lan Zhan’s shoulder.

“Really?” Wei Ying asks. Lan Zhan turns to look Wei Ying in the eye, realizes that his face is far too close for comfort, and turns back to the couch cushion. It’s for the best. He doesn’t know what to say anyway.

“Really,” he tells the couch cushion.

“Fourteen years. You promised,” Wei Ying says. Lan Zhan can tell that he’s smiling as he says it by the way he tilts his head to the side and digs his chin further into Lan Zhan’s shoulder, like the world’s weirdest massage.

“Or whatever,” Lan Zhan says.

“Hm?”

“I promised to ‘fourteen years or whatever’. Minimum fourteen years, maximum whatever.”

Wei Ying presses his whole face into Lan Zhan’s shoulder in a way that Lan Zhan could almost pretend is a kiss and then slides off. Lan Zhan risks turning his head. Still close, but not too close.

“Hey, Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying whispers.

“Mn.”

“Watch some shitty t.v. with me.”

Lan Zhan snorts because he knows he’s expected to disapprove, but he actually loves watching shitty t.v. with Wei Ying and listening to him snipe.

“I’m not moving,” he says. “You’ll have to get your laptop.”

Wei Ying smiles, full force, but in a way Lan Zhan knows isn’t fake. He bounds off like Lan Zhan might change his mind if he doesn’t get back as fast as possible.

There’s not a chance of Lan Zhan changing his mind about a single part of the night.

Yanli sighs into the phone and Jiang Cheng has to remind himself that it really is Wei Ying’s fault this time before he starts feeling too guilty. If Wei Ying wasn’t avoiding them, they wouldn’t be having this conversation.

“I’m sure he has his reasons,” Yanli says, and she sounds so much like Jiang Cheng’s therapist that he has to double check the phone and make sure he didn’t black out and start a different phone call.

“Like hell he does. He’s missing the entire pregnancy. I can’t believe he never responded to the baby shower invitation.”

“I didn’t really expect him to,” Yanli points out. “There’s no way mom would have missed it, so…”

Those trailing off sentences are the closest Yanli ever gets to criticizing anyone (unless she’s giving you a serious talking to, in which case, all bets are off).

She’s been trailing off while talking about Wei Ying more and more recently. Jiang Cheng bounces between feeling vindicated and worried.

“Anyway. Go on any good dates lately? I’m an old married lady, I need to live vicariously.”

Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes. Yanli is a deliriously happy married lady. Meanwhile, his dating life has slowly morphed from vaguely unsatisfying online connections to deeply unsatisfying arranged dates as his mother gets increasingly invested in Jiang Cheng carrying on the family line.

Which, like, Yanli is already doing. Perfectly happily. But apparently it only counts if the name gets passed down too. To which Jiang Cheng says: you should have had more kids. He’s already carrying on the company, someone else should be in charge of carrying on the bloodline/name.

Anyway.

Yanli probably knows more about his dates than he does because she 100% helps choose them and Jiang Cheng spends 100% of those dates forgetting anything he’s ever known about small talk or social interaction. Honestly, it’s getting concerning.

“The one last weekend was nice,” he says. She was. She had just gotten in a fight with her girlfriend about not being out to her parents and showed up to the restaurant an absolute mess.

Once it was established that neither of them was interested they had a perfectly nice dinner complaining about the prevalence of superhero movies at the cost of original scripts and then spent ten minutes deciding which dessert she should take home as a peace offering.

“Hmm,” Yanli says, no doubt already aware that there’s no second date happening.

“Can we go back to complaining about Wei Ying?” Jiang Cheng says. “Or more gross pregnancy stuff?”

“It’s not gross. It’s a natural process and very beautiful,” Yanli sniffs.

“Uh huh.”

It’s so gross. Growing humans is literally the grossest thing. And when it’s not gross it’s horrifying. Yanli keeps grabbing his hand and pressing it against her stomach when the baby moves and Jiang Cheng knows that it’s like a miracle, or whatever, but all he can think is that there’s a living thing in there actively trying to get out and it isn’t even fully cooked yet.

But Zixuan also keeps getting grossed out (Jiang Cheng has money on Zixuan passing out if he’s in the room when the birth actually happens) so now letting Yanli talk to him about it is a point of pride.

He bets Wei Ying wouldn’t get freaked out.

The time for the pre-school reckoning comes. There’s one attached to Yuan’s daycare that Wei Ying likes because he’ll already have friends there and at the end of the day he can just get walked across the courtyard to hang out at daycare until he can get picked up.

Lan Zhan likes a fancy one that costs as much as Wei Ying makes in a year between all of his jobs because it has a Mandarin language immersion program so Yuan won’t loose touch with his heritage.

The joke that Yuan will never meet American standards if he can speak more than one language is not appreciated. But then, Wei Ying isn’t appreciating much of what Lan Zhan is saying today either.

By the time they’re walking to the interview (an interview! for pre-school! why is that a thing?) Wei Ying doesn’t even know why they’re fighting, but they definitely are.

It’s been passive-aggressive swipe after passive-aggressive swipe from both of them all day. Like each of their subconsciouses read a script that said “not friends today” and ran with it.

“Do you have a legitimate complaint, or do you just not like that you have to make an effort?” Lan Zhan says. The only reason why he’s close enough to Wei Ying to even have a conversation is because Yuan is holding both of their hands.

He’s recently discovered that if he’s holding onto both of them he can sporadically jump and make Lan Zhan and Wei Ying swing him through the air. It’s cute in theory, but Wei Ying is just waiting for his shoulder to dislocate. And since Wei Ying only has shitty free health insurance, he doesn’t want to deal with it.

He mostly doesn’t want to deal with the “If you had just married me for my health insurance the last time it was needed” conversation that Lan Zhan will no doubt pull out because everything about today is awful.

If he gets fake married to Lan Zhan and then Lan Zhan has to politely ask him for a real divorce when he finds someone he wants to get real married to, it will destroy Wei Ying. Just absolutely decimate him.

It takes a specific kind of person to successfully pull of a fake marriage and Wei Ying is not it. Too many feelings.

“Do you have a legitimate reason to like them, or do you just like the fancy brand name?” Wei Ying shoots back.

“Wheeeeee!” Yuan yells, and jumps. Lan Zhan and Wei Ying raise Yuan and swing him the next few steps in perfect sync. So at least they’ve still got that.

“If we’re just going to be the diversity acceptance, we’re leaving,” Wei Ying says. Like he’ll be able to enforce that mandate.

Lan Zhan gives him a look, simultaneously reminding Wei Ying that a Chinese kid is hardly going to be the diversity acceptance at a Mandarin language school, but also that Lan Zhan’s son will never *just* be the diversity acceptance.

Despite being raised by a family at a similar level of society as Lan Zhan’s (Madame Yu and Uncle Qiren actually know each other, Lan Zhan and Wei Ying were probably dragged around the same parties as kids), Wei Ying is constantly astounded by the audacity of those actually born to such a position. It’s a whole other level.

“I hate that you’ll have this secret language,” Wei Ying says. That’s not quite it, but Wei Ying can’t figure out Why he’s so edgy about this school either. And he really doesn’t want to be the only one in the family who doesn’t know what’s going on.

“You speak Mandarin,” Lan Zhan says. “I’ve heard you.”

“Barely,” Wei Ying snaps.

Lan Zhan stops walking, so Yuan stops walking, and Wei Ying gets pulled back like they’re part of some kind of slapstick comedy routine. Lan Zhan is frowning and looking at Wei Ying like he’s trying to figure something that’s really important out, and they don’t have time for this now.

“We’re going to be late,” Wei Ying says. This isn’t the time or place for this discussion. There might never be a time or place for this discussion. It’s not even why he’s upset. He’s almost sure.

Wei Ying really wishes he knew why he was upset.

They go inside and Wei Ying can’t deny that Lan Zhan looks like he belongs inside this kind of school. He and Yuan look a little too disheveled. Wei Ying is wearing one of Lan Zhan’s suits because he doesn’t have a reason to own one so it doesn’t quite fit and Yuan…well.

Wei Ying can tell that the other kids are wearing ridiculous branded things and he is suddenly regretting the fact that Lan Zhan knows the difference between spending money for quality and spending money to show off and spending money because you don’t know how not to.

Which is ridiculous because Yuan is fucking adorable in his tiny grey pants that aren’t jeans or sweatpants and his tiny button-down and his tiny fucking suspenders with a matching bowtie because Lan Zhan is secretly a hipster wannabe. Those branded kids Wish they look as cool as Yuan.

Wei Ying leans into Lan Zhan because even fighting, he’d rather be on Lan Zhan’s side than anyone else’s and because he doesn’t want any of the other parents or teachers or whathaveyou to get any ideas about flirting with his son’s other dad. Establish dominance early, just in case.

“Hey, hey, Lan Zhaaaaaan. Let’s ace this.” Lan Zhan looks at Wei Ying like he knows that acing this interview has nothing to do with getting Yuan into the school and everything to do with Wei Ying feeling like he has something to prove.

Whatever.

It starts with a family interview. Yuan sits between them and looks up at Lan Zhan and Wei Ying every time he’s expected to answer a question like “What do you mean *I* have to answer, you’re right there?”

Then Yuan gets led off to be evaluated and Lan Zhan and Wei Ying are interviewed. The interviewers do not like at all that Yuan’s adoption hasn’t been finalized, or that Lan Zhan and Wei Ying aren’t married, or that Wei Ying isn’t fluent.

Which is all bullshit and directly contradictory to their mission statement, but that doesn’t even matter because Lan Zhan gets all snooty and bitchy back and Wei Ying does love to watch a bitchy Lan Zhan in action.

Wei Ying has totally found the best protector/provider out there and this school can suck it.

The last thing is…Wei Ying isn’t entirely sure what it is. The kids all get led off together so that the teachers can see how they interact together. Make sure they don’t have any biters or anything. And the parents are herded into a room with terrible snacks to make small talk with…the board? the PTA?

Someone with some kind of flex inside the school. Ostensibly it’s so the perspective parents can get any last minute questions answered by someone with insider knowledge. But it’s a test; of course it’s a test.

Wei Ying has just finished up a chat about why nuclear reactors are pretty great, actually (the person he’s talking to didn’t like them, that’s literally all Wei Ying knows about nuclear reactors aside from the hbo miniseries about Chernobyl, but the guy is annoying and must be wrong) when Lan Zhan grabs him.

Wei Ying’s first thought is that it’s a good thing he’d finished that conversation because man, this would be awkward. His second is that he really needs to double check that he’s awake because Lan Zhan never just grabs him without warning like this in reality. Dreams though…

His third registers that Lan Zhan is speaking, fast and panicked into Wei Ying’s ear, and Wei Ying should probably be paying attention to that but he can’t because again, Lan Zhan and the grabbing. Wei Ying recollects his self control and focuses.

“I didn’t know,” Lan Zhan says. Wei Ying pulls back and…yep. There it is. Great. Everything makes sense now.

Mommy Dearest is apparently one of the esteemed…donors? With enough sway at this school to have a say in prospective students. Is that even legal? That can’t be legal. The private schooling system (pre-private schooling system) in this country doesn’t make any kind of sense.

No wonder Wei Ying has been on edge all day. It’s like having an emotional allergy.

Wei Ying sees the exact moment that Madame Yu realizes that her former son is standing in front of her. Her lip curls slightly as she does the whole elevator review of Wei Ying, from his too big suit, to his disaster of a haircut now that it’s started growing out, to the man he’s attached to.

Well. There’s nothing she can say about Lan Zhan. Model citizen right there. And definitely connected. There’s no way they got in here for an interview last minute without calls happening behind the scenes.

Wei Ying spends the entire conversation feeling like he’s underwater. He’s just aware enough of Lan Zhan to know that Lan Zhan does enough speaking that Wei Ying doesn’t have to.

Ugh.

He hasn’t wanted to know.

He has been more than fine not knowing a blessed thing about Madame Yu and her regret, or lack there of. Even Yanli doesn’t mention anything about her when they meet up.

He doesn’t come back to himself until Madame Yu is walking away and Lan Zhan has his mouth against Wei Ying’s ear asking if he’s okay.

“Lan Zhan,” he whispers back. “I don’t think we’re going to get in.”

Lan Zhan laughs more because he knows Wei Ying needs the encouragement than because it was funny. But Wei Ying feels gratified anyway.

Lan Zhan spends the rest of the day and most of the next one being overly solicitous and part of Wei Ying revels in the spoiling, but most of him just wants to go back to normal. To rolling their eyes and smiling at each other over Yuan’s head.

He wants it so badly that he even vows to have an honest conversation with Lan Zhan about it once Yuan goes down for his nap, but almost as soon as Yuan (finally) agrees to quietly sit on his bed, Jiang Cheng shows up.

It was only a matter of time. It might as well happen now.

Lan Zhan mostly hovers in the background while Jiang Cheng storms around telling Wei Ying that it’s time to pack. Apparently his mother told him “all about it” over brunch today and Jiang Cheng thinks it’s high time Wei Ying stop wasting his time and come back into the fold already.

As if Wei Ying wants to go back to the Jiang family so badly that he would give up the family that hasn’t betrayed him.

Honestly, it’s a fight they have about once every other month. It just normally doesn’t happen in front of Lan Zhan. And it’s not normally this serious. Yuan has legitimately freaked Jiang Cheng out.

Well. Welcome to the club. It’s still the right thing to do.

There’s a furious five minutes where Jiang Cheng empties drawers into duffle bags and Wei Ying dumps them back out again all over his bed. Then there’s ten minutes of going back and forth about how Wei Ying likes his life and Jiang Cheng thinks Wei Ying is a self-sabotaging idiot before Lan Zhan steps in.

Wei Ying wishes he wouldn’t. The way to beat Jiang Cheng is to let him whip himself up into a frenzy and then exhaust himself. It’s more efficient. But Jiang Cheng has claimed that Yuan is going to ruin “what’s left” of Wei Ying’s life enough times that he can’t really blame him.

Jiang Cheng can insult Lan Zhan as much as he wants and Wei Ying will hate it, but at the end of the day, anything Jiang Cheng says will just bounce off of Lan Zhan because Lan Zhan doesn’t really care about what people think about him and that goes two-fold for people he doesn’t like.

They’ve never gotten along, for no reason that Wei Ying can tell aside from the fact that Jiang Cheng is loud and Lan Zhan has delicate ears. Mostly they just ignore each other and Wei Ying does his best to respect that and schedule them away from each other.

But the minute Jiang Cheng starts insulting Yuan, it’s game over.

“If you’re just here to denigrate our son, you can leave,” Lan Zhan says. He looks like he’s stretching to lord every extra inch he has over Jiang Cheng. Which is ridiculous. Lan Zhan’s posture is always impeccable. He would never.

“Your son?” Jiang Cheng motions between the two of them and scoffs. “What’s Wei Ying’s is not yours motherfucker.”

Despite spending the previous fifteen minutes angrily insisting that Yuan was Lan Zhan’s problem and not Wei Ying’s. Because Jiang Cheng thinks about what he’s saying in an argument even less than Wei Ying does.

Logic has nothing on volume in Jiang Cheng’s book.

Wei Ying grabs Lan Zhan’s arm and throws himself in-between him and Jiang Cheng.

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” he says. “We have been living together for seven years. Isn’t that when a common-law marriage kicks in?”

“YOU DO NOT QUALIFY FOR A COMMON LAW MARRIAGE,” Jiang Cheng says.

Wei Ying wonders if this will roll into the therapy Yuan will probably already need, or if he’ll need different specialists for different things. He wonders if that’s a question he should write down to ask the social worker and if it will affect the adoption to bring up the possibility of trauma inducing uncles.

He bets they won’t have to worry about Xichen traumatizing Yuan.

Lan Zhan does the angry dragon nose thing.

Wei Ying has to fight the sudden impulse to smile at that. It’s been a while since Lan Zhan has given his angry tell. Even the other day going to the pre-school, nothing.

“Your opinion on this matter, as all matters, is unnecessary,” Lan Zhan says. He slides into phase two of angry Lan Zhan, a truly disturbing level of calm. Wei Ying hasn’t seen this phase in a minute. He’d kinda been hoping to never see it again.

“You-“

“You’ve never liked Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying cuts in. “What did he ever do to you?”

It’s an outrageously bad time to ask that, in the middle of a fight. But he’s curious and a little desperate to change the direction of the fight, and maybe an academic query will derail the argument.

He really has been living with Lan Zhan too long, if he thinks an academic query will deter anything about this situation.

“He hasn’t had to do anything to me,” Jiang Cheng says. “He’s been trying to smother you the entire time you’ve lived together. Why can’t we come over? Why can’t you stay out late? Why don’t you drink anymore? He’s killing everything that makes you you.”

“He’s not-I didn’t-“ Wei Ying sputters. It may be a first for him. He might not always have the right words, but he normally at least HAS words.

Lan Zhan frowns.

“It’s called growing up. You should try it sometime.” There. A little weak, but better than nothing.

“Why did you stop drinking?” Lan Zhan says. “And…all the rest?”

Honestly, Wei Ying hadn’t thought that Lan Zhan had noticed.

“I didn’t stop drinking,” Wei Ying says. “I just drink less because I’m not some asshole college student that doesn’t know his limits anymore.”

Lan Zhan’s frown deepens.

“Anymore,” Wei Ying repeats, like Lan Zhan said something. “Maybe a little because I thought you would prefer I didn’t,” he adds.

“I would not have asked you to live with me if I did not want to live with all of you,” Lan Zhan says, physically pulling away from Wei Ying and rubbing at his arm like he has hives.

Wei Ying doesn’t remember the last time Lan Zhan actually pulled away from him.

Hurt Lan Zhan. Extra angry (and so probably also hurt) Jiang Cheng. It’s too much.

Before Wei Ying can decide what to do: re-attach to Lan Zhan, murder his brother, have this conversation like a mature adult, call his sister because they are clearly not mature adults who can handle having conversations unmoderated…Yuan hurtles out of his room and attaches to Lan Zhan’s leg.

Lan Zhan reaches down and relocates Yuan to his hip. He smooths back Yuan’s hair.

“Did we wake you? Are you upset? I’m sorry, we should have been more considerate.” Yuan whimpers something in response that Wei Ying can’t hear and burrows into Lan Zhan’s neck.

Which, like. Same. That spot is the safest spot in the world. It’s the exact same spot Wei Ying cried after getting disowned. Unadopted? It’s a good spot.

“No,” Lan Zhan says, rubbing Yuan’s back and making eye contact with Jiang Cheng. “You don’t have to leave, and we aren’t mad at you. You have done nothing wrong.”

Jiang Cheng has the good grace to look like he’s been sucker punched. It’s harder to tell someone that a kid is going to ruin their lives when the kid is in front of you.

“Maybe you should—maybe we should take a break from…this conversation…” Wei Ying says, hands fluttering like they don’t know where to settle. Tradition dictates that he take Jiang Cheng out after a blow up like this, but he needs to…Yuan needs him to stay right now.

Wei Ying gives in to his instinct and takes the step it takes to re-close the distance between him and Lan Zhan. He leans his forehead down to press against Yuan’s back.

“We’re so glad to have you in our lives, little radish,” he says.

Lan Zhan moves his hand from Yuan’s back to Wei Ying’s, so Yuan is sandwiched in a safe little envelope between the two of them.

“It’s okay if you don’t believe us yet,” Lan Zhan says, dropping a kiss on top of Yuan’s head. “We’ll still be here.”

Wei Ying hears Jiang Cheng leave, letting himself out and shutting the door gently, like he’s ashamed. He doesn’t turn around to look.

Instead he shifts into a slightly more comfortable position, head resting on the outer edge of Lan Zhan’s shoulder instead of on top of Yuan, and together the three of them sway gently from side to side the way you do when you try to comfort a baby.

It feels like slow dancing.

When Jiang Cheng calls Yanli he can feel her disappointment in him through the phone so he starts listing off everything Wei Ying has done wrong, ever, starting with the most recent events and working his way back.

As a defense strategy, it doesn’t go well.

He tries calling Huaisang, but Huaisang doesn’t pick up. Jiang Cheng finds his way into the first shitty bar that he sees. Huaisang has a habit of showing up wherever you called him from like, three hours later, so it might be worth it to stick around.

That, and Jiang Cheng just doesn’t particularly feel like going home to his empty apartment right now. He’d bought it thinking that Wei Ying would move in and fill it with laughter and ridiculous lies and now, five years later, it still feels too echoey and big for one person.

He’d never risked getting a different roommate because he wanted to make sure he had space if Wei Ying ever needed it.

He probably won’t need it.

Jiang Cheng should just get a different apartment.

Jiang Cheng is too many drinks in and still friendless (always alone, always his own fault) when he looks to the side and sees Wen Qing sitting next to him. He smiles at her before he remembers that she broke his heart rather viciously (but also, his own fault, if he remembers correctly).

There are times when one wishes to see one’s ex, but while day-drinking alone is not one of them.

He pokes her face, just to make sure she’s real.

Shit.

“Not to go all country western on you, but why the fuck are you in my part of town?” Wen Qing says.

Jiang Cheng tilts his head to the side and looks at her for as long as he thinks he can get away with. She’s still carries her face in an expression that’s half-annoyance, half-boredom, and her hair is still just a little messy when it’s pulled back. Her hair is the one thing she’s never fully managed to bully into submission.

“I had to be told on no uncertain terms that my efforts to rescue my brother from himself are underapresh-aprish…unwanted.” Jiang Cheng lays his head down on the bar in front of him because whatever he catches by doing that will be more enjoyable than the rest of this conversation.

Wen Qing is always trying to rescue Wei Ying from him even though Jiang Cheng is also ALWAYS TRYING TO RESCUE WEI YING.

“Ridiculous,” Jiang Cheng tells the bar.

“Oh, for-what did he do this time?” Wen Qing says, pulling out her phone. Off to save Wei Ying, as anticipated.

“They have to be married to adopt a kid together, right? Like…do they let roommates do that?”

Wen Qing grabs Jiang Cheng’s hair and twists his head to the side so he’s looking at her.

“That’s my baby cousin, dipshit,” she says.

Which makes no sense at all.

There is a world in which this turns into a whole conversation and Jiang Cheng gains a better understanding of his brother, of Wen Qing, and ultimately, of himself. This is not that world. The Jiang Cheng of this world is far too (drunk) dedicated to his own unhappiness (drunk).

And to think, he accuses Wei Ying of martyrdom. At least Wei Ying seems to be enjoying his life.

Oh, no. Avoid that thought.

“Why did you stop loving me?” he says.

Shit.

Wen Qing gets Wen Ning to help her get Jiang Cheng home and dump him onto the couch. Technically it’s only Wen Ning’s meal break, but he’s a human vacuum cleaner who only needs about five minutes to eat two full meals and everyone loves him, so no one will be mad if he’s late back.

“Alright, feel better!” Wen Ning says, patting Jiang Cheng on the head on his way back out.

“Are you two back together?” he asks Wen Qing in an undertone. He’s torn because on the one hand, he feels a little responsible for their break-up in the first place. But at the same time, Jiang Cheng was being a dick and Wen Ning feels compelled to defend all of Wen Qing’s decisions, even from herself.

Wen Qing waves him off, which is concerning on multiple levels, but he has to go back to work and he’s not calling out to do all that emotional lifting for free.

After Wen Ning leaves Wen Qing throws the blanket Lan Zhan knitted for them as a housewarming gift over Jiang Cheng and goes to hide in her room even though it’s only six. She’s avoided Jiang Cheng this long on purpose. Just because he’s a sad drunk, doesn’t mean she has to let herself get sucked back in.

Wei Ying throws all his clothes off of his bed and onto the floor and then they all spend the rest of the afternoon watching cartoons in his room. Lan Zhan starts in on what will be a fabulously lacy afghan for Yuan’s room.

They get take-out for dinner because Lan Zhan is too tired to cook and when Yuan makes a fuss about not wanting to go to bed Lan Zhan is too tired for that too and just pulls out the trundle in Yuan’s room.

Even then, Yuan jerks himself to the side to check that Lan Zhan is still there every five minutes. And then cries out to check that Wei Ying is still in the apartment.

If this turns into a more than tonight thing, Lan Zhan is going to kill Jiang Cheng.

After a few rounds of that Wei Ying comes in and makes Yuan scoot over so he can fit in the bed too. He makes Lan Zhan reach a hand up onto the bed for Yuan to hold onto so he doesn’t have to check to make sure Lan Zhan is still there and, finally, Yuan sleeps.

Lan Zhan blinks up at the ceiling and tries to think about getting Yuan those glow in the dark star stickers or literally anything other than the question that has been bouncing around in the back of his brain all afternoon.

He’ll ask once. And if Wei Ying pretends he’s asleep and doesn’t answer, then this question, like so many others, will get locked away. And they’ll be fine.

“Wei Ying, what about the rest?” He whispers because Yuan is asleep and even though he couldn’t stop himself from asking the question, part of him really doesn’t want the answer. Doesn’t want Wei Ying to hear the question and have to decide what to say.

Silence.

And then…

“Lan Zhan, light of my life, you have got to give me more context than that.”

Well.

Deep breaths.

“You said you drink less because you grew up. What about the rest?”

Wei Ying sighs.

“I don’t like sharing you?”

“Wei Ying.”

“Fuck, I don’t know,” he says.

“Because I was trying to be a good roommate and didn’t want you to be uncomfortable in your own home after taking me in. Because I didn’t want them to get in trouble with their parents for not cutting me out. Because I did grow up some and I realized that I like being able to leave the party and come back someplace that is both clean and quiet. Because sometimes going out feels like I’m just marking time until I can see you again. Which is stupid when you’re here and I can also be here. I like here. With you.”

Oh. Oh. But…

“You never leave anything out in the living room or kitchen,” Lan Zhan says.

“I-“ Wei Ying laughs. “Okay, I hadn’t actually realized I was doing that. I’ll endeavor to be messier, if that’ll make you happy. I leave food in the kitchen?”

“Mn.”

“Snacks are food.”

“Mn.”

Wei Ying laughs again, a quiet huff so he doesn’t wake up Yuan.

“Lan Zhan, go to sleep.”

Lan Zhan does.

So does Wei Ying. Well. Kind of. It’s definitely too early for Wei Ying to go to sleep, but he’s content to just exist and let himself drift. Growing up he always got his best thinking done while pretending to sleep. He should start doing that again.

Five minutes or five hours later, Yuan elbows Wei Ying between the ribs hard enough that Wei Ying wakes up and rolls off of the bed. It’s loud enough to get a sleepy response from Lan Zhan, but quiet enough that Yuan doesn’t react.

Wei Ying army crawls around the bed and climbs up onto the trundle with Lan Zhan because it seems safer than getting back on the bed with Yuan, but also because future Wei Ying will come back and murder present Wei Ying for wasting this golden opportunity if he doesn’t.

“Shhh, go back to sleep,” Wei Ying says when Lan Zhan starts to sit up, and wiggles into the space between Lan Zhan and the bed frame.

For a minute Wei Ying thinks Lan Zhan is going to kick him out, or worse, get up and leave, but eventually he just pulls the blanket over Wei Ying and very hesitantly spoons him (the only position in which two grown men are fitting on this mattress, to be honest).

Wei Ying pulls Lan Zhan’s arm around him more securely and follows his own advice.

Jiang Cheng wakes up at two a.m. wrapped up in a huge knitted blanket, and stumbles into the kitchen looking for water. Wen Qing is sitting on the counter hunched over a bowl of sugary cereal, eating in the dark like a gremlin.

“No wonder you’re friends with Wei Ying,” he mutters as he sticks his head under the faucet.

She scoffs, but when Jiang Cheng hoists himself up onto the counter next to her she lets him steal a spoonful.

“So…” Jiang Cheng says.

“I’m not a complete dick,” Wen Qing says, emphasizing the I, implying of course, that Jiang Cheng is.

“What-“

“You implied that Wei Ying is ruining his life, again, by helping out me and mine. Again.”

Jiang Cheng groans into his hands and Wen Qing feeds him another spoonful of cereal.

“I just want him to think of himself first.”

“Bullshit.” Wen Qing pours some more cereal into the bowl. “Can you really name one thing that Wei Ying would like more than playing house with Lan Zhan? Baby trapping Lan Zhan would be the most selfish thing Wei Ying has ever done if Lan Zhan wasn’t so desperate to be trapped.”

“He’s…yours?”

“My cousin. There doesn’t seem to be anyone else.”

“And Wei Ying…”

“All but kidnapped Yuan when he found out. He’s a good dad, A-Cheng. He’s…ready for this. In a way that I’m not.”

Jiang Cheng’s breath catches at the endearment and the only thing that convinces him to breath again is the thought that she’ll realize what she did and take it back.

At one point, after their break up (and immediately before, and during) Jiang Cheng would have said something bitter about Wen Qing taking advantage of Wei Ying too and the waste of potential. But now…now he just dips his head and accepts the cereal Wen Qing offers.

It’s nice to just sit for a minute and be taken care of by someone who isn’t Yanli. (She’s great, but also obligated through big-sisterdom and determined to take care of anyone who comes within mothering distance.) Wen Qing makes you work for it. If she’s taking care of you, you must be worth it.

Or maybe you’re just that pathetic.

Maybe Jiang Cheng didn’t think it through when he went to confront Wei Ying today, but that doesn’t change the fact that Jiang Cheng keeps getting the wrong end of the stick because Wei Ying keeps holding the damn things out of reach.

“I’m sorry. About today. And-“ Wen Qing shoves more cereal into his mouth before he can start in on all of that, which is fair. Things had gotten pretty nasty at the end and if they went through an itemized list of all the things Jiang Cheng wanted to apologize for they’d be here for the rest of the night.

After they finish the cereal and Jiang Cheng is reissued the invitation to spend the night on the couch Wen Qing says goodnight and Jiang Cheng leans down to kiss her out of some forgotten reflex.

There’s a moment where he could save it and pull back. A moment where he’s just frozen, hovering, and wondering how to get home. Doesn’t matter that it’s now three a.m. and he doesn’t know where here is. She shouldn’t have to kick him out to get some sleep.

But then Wen Qing’s hands are cupping his face and they’re kissing and Jiang Cheng is forced to do an awkward shuffle down the hall to Wen Qing’s room because he’s not risking moving far enough away from her mouth to stand up straight and he somehow still remembers how much Wen Qing hates being picked up (he remembers because it’s a lot, girl has control issues).

Wen Ning wishes he were more surprised when he comes home and finds the couch empty.

Wei Ying wakes up alone, but with the covers pulled up to his chin and tucked in all around him. Lan Zhan and Yuan have already gone. Wei Ying is in one of those weird slumps where all of his inconsistent jobs are being simultaneously inconsistent so he has no real reason to get up in the morning.

It’s downright weird that Yuan didn’t wake him up, even accidentally, though.

There’s breakfast waiting and a note signed by both Lan Zhan and Yuan when Wei Ying goes out to the kitchen.

Yanli texts right as Wei Ying sits down to eat. It’s a perfectly innocuous text. The government agent scrolling through the American people’s text messages wouldn’t notice anything wrong, but Wei Ying recognizes a summons from his sister when he gets one.

Yanli is first and foremost Wei Ying’s sister, but she is also Madame Yu’s daughter. She doesn’t normally feel the need to remind him of that.

He’s been maybe a little avoiding her, along with everyone else. Which really isn’t fair on his part because if there’s anyone who embodies unconditional love and acceptance, it’s Yanli. Just look at her husband.

He texts Lan Zhan his location before he knocks on Yanli’s door, just in case this turns into a sneaky kidnapping attempt of Jiang Cheng’s.

When Yanli opens the door she hugs Wei Ying like she really, really missed him (that’s to say, the way Yanli always hugs) even though it’s at a weird angle, because Yanli is going to have a baby like, real soon (she claims to have more than a month left, but Wei Ying doesn’t see how that’s possible).

She pulls him inside and force feeds him pastries while showing him the over-the-top nursery and talking about potential baby names. She laughs when Wei Ying suggests Rulan, but in a kind way, which is the entire reason Wei Ying suggested it in the first place.

“So,” she says, settling into her nursing chair, whatever that means, and looking at Wei Ying over the rim of her tea cup. She looks pointedly at the chair next to her until Wei Ying sits down. Yanli expects to be obeyed and it works.

She’s going to be the best mom.

“Jiang Cheng was totally out of line,” Wei Ying says. Because the best defense is a good offense. Or something.

“Why do you think Jiang Cheng is mad?” Yanli says. She likes walking her brothers through their problems. She probably would have been a great therapist.

“Because he’s a dick,” Wei Ying says, momentarily forgetting who he’s talking to. She frowns at him and he apologizes. “He made Yuan cry!”

Yanli allows that making an innocent bystander, and a child no less, cry is both a very Jiang Cheng move and very rude.

“He’s always worried about Lan Zhan taking advantage of you,” Yanli says. “He’s worried that you feel…beholden to Lan Zhan for what he did for you, and guilty that he wasn’t able to help you himself at the time.”

Wei Ying scoffs. “That’s ridiculous. He was in college, what was he supposed to do?”

“So was Lan Zhan,” Yanli says. “And then when you turned down his offer to move in after he got his own apartment…”

“I have an apartment,” Wei Ying says. “I like my apartment. I pay rent and everything.”

Ostensibly. Wei Ying rather suspects that Lan Zhan takes the (outrageously low) amount Wei Ying pays him in rent and uses it to replace Wei Ying’s rattier pieces of clothing piece by sneaky piece.

Like Wei Ying wouldn’t notice when his t-shirts came back from the laundry machine suddenly black-black instead of faded. Or that time his jeans came back miraculously healed after he’d stapled one of the back pockets back on. Or that time Lan Zhan just happened to have an extra winter coat that was totally tailored to Wei Ying’s size.

“You’re smiling,” Yanli notes.

“Well, I’m with you,” Wei Ying says. Yanli snorts delicately.

“Are you hiding your relationship with Lan Zhan from us because you don’t trust us to accept it, or have you yourself not accepted your feelings for Lan Zhan?”

“My what?” Wei Ying hadn’t realized he could still reach that frequency.

“Ah,” Yanli says. “I had thought…well. Xian Xian, I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to have multiple emotional conversations today. I should have pressed harder sooner, but I was waiting for you to be ready and now I’m unreasonably nervous about leaving them until after the baby is born, okay?”

Wei Ying nods because he’s never been able to do anything else in the face of a request from Yanli. The source of delicious soups and pastries must be kept appeased at all times.

“The facts as I understand them are these,” Yanli starts. “You and Lan Zhan were friends at school. When you got into trouble, Lan Zhan offered help. You changed, what felt to us, fundamental characteristics of yourself in order to stay there.”

Wei Ying tries to interject, but Yanli holds up her hand. Wei Ying is free to mount a rebuttal after, but he may not interrupt.

“You have since refused alternative living situations and help, including that of myself and Jiang Cheng in favor of continuing to stay with Lan Zhan. You now somehow also have a child with Lan Zhan, indicating that you both mean to continue on in this fashion for several more years, at minimum. You did not tell us about this child, who is old enough to attend pre-school, and we don’t know how long he’s been in your life.”

“A month! It’s been a month. A little over, less than two,” Wei Ying says. That, he has to correct right now. He hasn’t been keeping secrets for years, just…just a month. Just while he’s been figuring out what to say.

Yanli already knows this. Her resources are vast and her spy network could rival that of small countries. But she doesn’t want that relationship with her brothers.

“Alright. So I’ll ask again. Are you in a relationship with Lan Zhan?”

“No.”

Yanli takes a mental note to tell Huaisang that his initial guess was wrong.

“Are you in love with him?”

“I don’t—that’s not what we are to each other.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

Wei Ying closes his eyes and swallows and he knows that he can’t be in charge of the conversation when Yanli has already decided that she is, but he would appreciate being in charge of his own body. Why does everyone keep wanting to make him cry?

“Why does it matter,” he manages eventually, eyes still shut, “when he doesn’t feel the same way?”

“Is this a conversation you’ve had, or something that you’re assuming?”

Wei Ying gives in and just lets himself cry. He slides out of his chair because the floor always seems like a safer place to cry and leans against Yanli’s legs. She sighs and runs an hand through his har but that makes it worse because Wei Ying really misses Lan Zhan taking care of his hair.

Sometimes he used to not brush it on purpose because he knew it would taunt Lan Zhan into taking charge.

“Xian Xian, I haven’t always understood what the two of you two are to each other. But the man has made the conscious choice to raise a child with you. You need to trust people to love you back. At least given them the chance. Not just Lan Zhan, me and Jiang Cheng too.”

Wei Ying cries so hard he hiccups. Yanli doesn’t laugh at him. She’s already the better mom.

Eventually Wei Ying wipes his face off on his sleeve. He has a headache but he feels like he can sit in his chair again. Yanli hands him a bottle of cold water and motions for him to move his chair closer to her, so he can lean on her shoulder if he wants.

“What the fuck, where were you hiding cold water? Do you have servants now?”

Yanli laughs and points out a mini fridge next to her chair. Apparently nursing mothers have to work extra hard to stay hydrated. It’s a whole thing. And Zixuan is a weirdo who decided to put kitchen appliances in his baby’s room. Whatever.

“It’s sweet!” Yanli protests, laughing. Wei Ying would rather take a repeat of the conversation they just had than say something nice about Zixuan.

“So…what’s the other emotional conversation you wanted to have?” he asks.

“You have to talk to Jiang Cheng about your feelings,” Yanli says.

“What? No!”

It’s an instinctive rejection. He and Jiang Cheng have never once talked about feelings in earnest and they’re…well. They obviously aren’t fine. But Wei Ying doesn’t think adding feelings to the mix will help. Jiang Cheng has never met a feeling he can’t turn into anger.

“Xian Xian.”

“Yanli.”

She sighs.

“Our baby brother is very insecure and every time you choose Lan Zhan over him, he doesn’t see it as you choosing the man you love, he sees it as you rejecting him. And then you get defensive, so you pull away. Don’t you try to protest, you’ve been pulling away from us for years.”

Yanli points a finger in Wei Ying’s face until he acknowledges the point. There are caveats, but maybe they aren’t important right now.

“You get defensive and don’t give us any context for the decisions you make, decisions that seem to be coming at great cost to you.”

“If there is a cost, it’s something that I get to decide if I’m paying,” Wei Ying says. “I make the decisions about my life.”

“And we get to decide if we’re going to worry about you. You don’t tell us anything and then you’re surprised when we’re scared that we’re loosing you.”

“I just…”

“You don’t want to get between us and our parents. You don’t want to add anything to our lives that isn’t perfect and cheerful. We don’t want the social media version of your life. We want to be a part of all of it. You let Lan Zhan help you, why won’t you let us help you?”

Wei Ying sniffles into his sleeve.

“Can we be done with emotions yet?”

“Almost. You know how you don’t want to tell Lan Zhan you love him because you feel like the world will end if he says ‘no, thanks’? You’ve been telling me and Jiang Cheng no thanks for years.”

Wei Ying gets back on the floor.

Mian Mian spends the entirety of their joint lunch hyping Lan Zhan up. Ever since Mian Mian met Wei Ying at the daycare she’s become increasingly invested in their (Lan Zhan and Wei Ying’s) relationship.

Apparently, Lan Zhan has said a lot more than he thought he had over the years about Wei Ying. Apparently, somebody did notice the picture on his desk and has been quietly fascinated by the state of affairs between them.

Especially when Lan Zhan comes in to work still thrown enough by the previous night’s events that a well placed question by Mian Mian results in Lan Zhan spilling an absurd number of secrets.

He’d been convinced that he was dreaming, when Wei Ying crawled into bed with him in the early hours of the morning, but they’d still been curled up together when Lan Zhan’s alarm went off.

Lan Zhan had gone through significant effort to not wake Wei Ying up before he and Yuan left for the day. He doesn’t know if he’s supposed to react, or just pretend it didn’t happen. He doesn’t know what he wants the answer to be.

Everything was fine. He just wants everything to be fine.

Mian Mian’s extremely unhelpful solution is for Lan Zhan to tell Wei Ying that he loves him because Mian Mian has been married so long that she’s forgotten what it’s like to have conversations with people who aren’t legally bound to you.

If Mian Mian tells her husband that she loves him he’ll just go “Ah, yes,” or, presumably, that he loves her back.

If Lan Zhan tells Wei Ying that he loves him Wei Ying will panic and leave town and Lan Zhan will never see him again. And that’s the best case scenario because it doesn’t involve Wei Ying saying “No, thanks,” or “How could you ever think I would love you, you weird emotional hermit, why would you ruin what we had?”

“We are raising a child together,” Lan Zhan says. “We can’t risk any further emotional upheavals. Maybe when Yuan is older.”

“You’re raising a child together,” Mian Mian counters. Like it means something different when she says it. “And you want to talk about emotional upheavals? What about when you date other people?”

“That will never happen,” Lan Zhan says. He doesn’t even have to think about it. He can’t speak for Wei Ying, but for himself, it’s true. Lan Zhan can’t imagine being interested in anyone else while Wei Ying is in his life and Lan Zhan will do a lot to keep Wei Ying in his life.

Like adopt a kid.

Or suddenly decide that he doesn’t want to live alone and totally wants a roommate (after bringing about a lot of family upheaval by insisting that he no longer wanted to live with Xichen because he wanted to live alone).

For example.

“See, I feel like that’s information that he should have,” she says.

“Your opinion is noted,” Lan Zhan says. End of discussion.

(It is not the end of the discussion. It’s not even close. The discussion continues through the rest of lunch and a good portion of the afternoon, when Lan Zhan admits he is maybe being a little hypocritical insisting on emotional honesty with Yuan while hiding things from Wei Ying.)

After Yanli mops Wei Ying up off the floor and feeds him actual food, after she hugs him and apologizes for being mean even though she still thinks she’s right, after Wei Ying agrees to reach out to Jiang Cheng once he has the emotional bandwidth to deal with that conversation, Wei Ying goes home.

He walks in the door and Yuan is full of unintelligible stores that may or may not have really happened because Yuan is turning out to have quite the imagination. And Lan Zhan is cooking dinner and looking quietly content, if a little strained at the edges.

And Wei Ying thinks of Yanli’s advice that has to be right because Yanli is always right and he…just shuts that door. He’s not doing it tonight. He refuses. No spoons left.

When Yuan gets distracted Wei Ying goes into the kitchen to bother Lan Zhan because he thinks he’s been slacking in that department lately. And Lan Zhan said that he wants Wei Ying to be Wei Ying. So…

Lan Zhan asks after Yanli and Wei Ying slumps dramatically against the counter.

“If I have another emotion this week I’m going to turn into a pile of goo,” he says. “Save me.”

And Lan Zhan, the absolute asshole, just says “Alright,” all the while paying all his attention to the tofu he’s frying and not sparing Wei Ying a glance.

Wei Ying sits down on the floor.

“Lan Zhan! I said I would collapse if I had any more emotions! are you trying to kill me?”

Lan Zhan does that thing that he does where he tightens the corners of his mouth instead of laugh because he Will Not Show Emotion or Encourage Bad Behavior, and carefully nudges Wei Ying out of the way with his foot.

“Ah, forgive me for assuming you wanted a reply to your request,” he says.

Wei Ying spends the rest of the time until dinner doing his best to be in the way so Lan Zhan has to move him to the side. He watches closely and Lan Zhan never looks annoyed. If anything, Lan Zhan looks happier than he has in a minute.

They get through dinner and bath time and bedtime in a similar mood of silliness, but after they’ve shut the door on Yuan, Lan Zhan takes a breath and Wei Ying doesn’t Know what conversation is going to happen, but it’s going to be a Conversation.

Nope.

Had enough of those for one day, thanks.

“I want-“ Lan Zhan starts, and Wei Ying puts his hand over Lan Zhan’s mouth.

“No emotions,” Wei Ying says, and then takes his hand away because he doesn’t think he’s ever touched Lan Zhan’s mouth before?”

“-to apologize-“

“AAAAAAAH!” yells Wei Ying.

There’s the pitter patter of tiny feet. Lan Zhan sighs and gives Wei Ying a Look and Wei Ying shrugs. No emotions is now a rule for the night, break it and suffer the consequences.

When Lan Zhan re-emerges from Yuan’s room Wei Ying has retreated to his own room, but he’s left the door open.

“Lan Zhan, come hang out with me. Just like old times.”

Just like old times is a bit of a stretch. Lan Zhan’s avoidance of Wei Ying’s room is practically pathological. But every once in a while, when Wei Ying is feeling particularly needy, Lan Zhan will agree to come in.

It’s an extremely roundabout way of asking to snuggle, but both Wei Ying and Lan Zhan are masters of avoidance, so needs must.

Lan Zhan hesitates at the threshold, but eventually crosses over. Wei Ying rolls over onto the other side of the bed and mentally prepares himself for the hilarity of someone who keeps his spine as straight as Lan Zhan does, sitting on the bed.

It’s Wei Ying’s favorite, every time.

Like becoming Yuan’s favorite, watching t.v. with Lan Zhan is all about the long con.

The hardest part is getting him to sit down, of course.

But then there’s at least two episodes worth of repositioning necessary to make Lan Zhan sit like a human. Little nudges and touches that mean Wei Ying barely takes in whatever they’re watching. Too much plotting.

Actually Wei Ying’s favorite.

But oh, then Lan Zhan gets sleepy and forgets to be uptight and relaxes into the pillows and Wei Ying can accidentally on purpose get close enough to snuggle and Lan Zhan has never once pushed him away.

Wei Ying’s favorite, final answer.

Lan Zhan lasts three episodes before sliding down onto the pillows. Wei Ying hasn’t really been paying attention anyway. The t.v. wasn’t the point. He turns it off and inches forward the slightest bit so that they’re on the same pillow.

Lan Zhan doesn’t seem bothered, by the turning off the t.v. thing or the sharing a pillow thing.

“Hey, Lan Zhan. Are you awake?” It’s a valid question, even in the middle of an episode or conversation. Wei Ying has never known anyone who can fall asleep as fast as Lan Zhan, including himself after three days straight of no sleep.

“No,” Lan Zhan says. Wei Ying can practically feel the smile. An actual one. Hiding in the dark. What a travesty.

Wei Ying moves closer. He aims for Lan Zhan’s shoulder, long term goal: that curve into his neck.

Wei Ying has spent the entire day feeling raw and attacked and he wants comfort, damnit. If he starts crying he knows he would be granted immediate access, but he doesn’t have any tears left. And he can’t just ask.

Too embarrassing.

He lands face to face with Lan Zhan, noses brushing.

Ah. Quick, distraction-

“Lan Zhan? Lying? As I live and breathe. Guess I am a bad influence after all.”

“Mn. Not lying. Joking.” Lan Zhan must have moved, far more audaciously than Wei Ying has ever dared, because now their lips ghost past each other with ever syllable. Almost kissing, but not. Almost committing, but not.

Wei Ying says Lan Zhan’s name on repeat until their mouths come fully into contact.

Lan Zhan kisses just the way Wei Ying thought he would, and then not at all like Wei Ying thought he would, and then Wei Ying is done thinking.

“How did it go?”

Lan Zhan considers Mian Mian from his side of the office. She’s shut the door and has her coffee. Lan Zhan some how doesn’t have any excuses for escape.

“Unclear,” he says.

Mian Mian blinks at him to go on.

Lan Zhan hides his face in his hands and tries to think back over the past twelve hours and what he’s comfortable telling. He thinks about pretending to fall asleep in Wei Ying’s bed after so he wouldn’t have to leave, and then actually falling asleep all tangled up together.

He thinks about waking up in the morning and hovering next to the bed after he fought his way free because he didn’t want to leave even though he knew that was weird. He thinks about leaving a note next to Wei Ying’s breakfast and not knowing how to sign it.

He thinks about how he feels almost exactly the way he did seven years ago after Wei Ying first moved in: excited and nervous and happy and scared.

If Xichen was here he would just know all of it, and as much as Lan Zhan would hate that, he wouldn’t have to make decisions about his or Wei Ying’s privacy.

“It wasn’t a good time. Emotionally. To tell him. But then he kissed me, so I don’t know,” Lan Zhan says, finally.

“Okay…” Mian Mian says. “I hate both of you, why are we friends?”

“Because Yuan is a delight,” Lan Zhan says, as if his friendship with Mian Mian doesn’t predate Yuan’s entrance into his life. (To be fair, before they were just work colleagues and now they’re maybe actually friends.)

“Ah, yes.”

Wei Ying is equal parts ecstatic and panicked. On the one hand: he fulfilled a life-long ambition and it totally lived up to the hype (in Wei Ying’s head, no one else is allowed to talk about Lan Zhan that way). On the other hand: is he allowed to just like…touch Lan Zhan now? Whenever he wants? What are the rules?

There will be rules, of that Wei Ying does not doubt. The man loves his rules.

But he has no idea what they’ll be. He’s never so much as caught Lan Zhan looking at anyone else before, much less date them. There’s no road map for this.

It’ll be fine. They’ll…have a conversation. A Conversation. And. It. Will. Be. Fine. Yuan. Fourteen or whatever years. Fine.

He spends a good five minutes in the bathroom staring at the embarrassing mark on his neck in the mirror, smiling, before realizing that he never bothered to learn about the boring types of makeup that might hide it and there’s no other way to hide it from other adults.

Guess he’s staying home today. (Oh no, too bad. No make-up conversation with Jiang Cheng. So saaaaaaaad.)

Not that he wants to hide it. He kinda wants to shove his good time in everyone’s face, actually. But Lan Zhan has always been an intensely private person, and Wei Ying instinctively feels that the likelihood of a reoccurrence will be harmed if he starts running around shouting it from the rooftops.

When he goes out to the kitchen to eat the breakfast left out for him (at room temperature even though there are definitely reheating instructions written down next to the plate) he finds a stack of postcards left out for him as well.

Xichen’s postcards (Wei Ying Knew Lan Zhan kept them, the old softy). Each postcard has a sticky note attached, covered in Lan Zhan’s precise handwriting. An english translation.

It feels like there should be a big reveal here, but it’s all utterly mundane. There’s only so much you can fit on a postcard after all, and this is a months long one-sided correspondence, so it meanders along with little to no directions.

But they’re all addressed to Wei Ying in addition to Lan Zhan and contain little tidbits that Wei Ying would find interesting but Lan Zhan would not.

It takes a while to pick up on, but every postcard Xichen asks Lan Zhan something weird. To make sure that no weddings of note happen without him because he loves a wedding, or wondering if true love’s path has smoothed out yet, or if he’s achieved his dream.

By the time Wei Ying has reached the most recent one (“I’ve never been the third wheel, but I’m curious”) Wei Ying is almost certain that they’re all tiny digs at him and Lan Zhan. Like, as a couple. Or, rather, digs at Lan Zhan failing to ask Wei Ying to be a couple.

Fun fact number one: Lan Zhan thought Wei Ying could read Mandarin and handed all the postcards to him to read.

Fun fact number two: When Lan Zhan realized Wei Ying couldn’t read the postcards, he translated them and didn’t omit things that he definitely could have gotten away with omitting.

Super fun fact number three: They’re really going to have to have a Conversation, aren’t they?

Wei Ying doesn’t want a Conversation. He wants to be allowed to slide into Lan Zhan’s bed just as easily as he slid into Lan Zhan’s apartment, no talking necessary. Talking actively discouraged, actually.

Wei Ying is acting weird. This is why Lan Zhan doesn’t do things. Things always mess everything else up. (Lan Zhan refuses to regret last night, but he might regret Xichen’s postcards. Things on things. Foolish.)

He’s hanging out in the living room in a way that looks like he’s playing with Yuan, but is clearly avoiding Lan Zhan and just…this is why Xichen is always going on and on about how Lan Zhan needs to actually talk to people.

Normally, Lan Zhan can get away with not talking to people because he would genuinely rather not have extraneous people in his life. So if the consequences of not talking is that they leave. Well. Bye.

This is awful. The opposite of fine.

Lan Zhan has always thought of himself as a patient man, but apparently that was just more self-delusion. He’s very close to moving bedtime up by several hours in order to try and force Wei Ying to pay attention to him.

He can’t believe he’s jealous of Yuan getting attention. Yuan should get attention, stop being such a terrible father Lan Zhan. Lan Zhan doesn’t allow himself to interrupt in penance.

Yuan’s look of concern during dinner is enough to make Lan Zhan pull it together, thankfully. If he’s going to try and present Wei Ying with a case for why they should be together, all evidence as to their parenting skills probably shouldn’t point in the opposite direction.

Lan Zhan finagles it so that Wei Ying does story time so that he can be sure that Wei Ying won’t have time to run away and hide. He’s hyped himself up to have this conversation, if they don’t it might take another seven years.

He positions himself in the hall outside of Yuan’s room so Wei Ying won’t be able to sneak past.

He’s may be lying in wait a little more aggressively than he thought he was. When Wei Ying exits Yuan’s room he straight up bounces off of Lan Zhan.

“Oh!” he says. He reaches out to touch Lan Zhan’s arm and then pulls back, biting his lip. “Gotta be honest, I don’t know what the rules are.” He laughs. The nervous one, that sounds more like someone saying ‘ha ha ha’ than actual laughter.

“Do we have rules?” Lan Zhan asks. Wei Ying laughs again and motions towards the living room.

“Aren’t there always?” he says.

Well. On the one hand: fair. On the other hand: Lan Zhan might only need the fingers on that other hand to count the number of rules he hasn’t broken for Wei Ying and most of those are probably because there hasn’t been a reason to more than any moral backbone.

Wei Ying situates them on the couch, so they can face each other. He twists his hands together and fidgets.

“So like…I guess the first thing is like, what do you want? With me?”

Worst question. Worst, worst question.

Lan Zhan wants everything and then some. And if Lan Zhan asks for it, Wei Ying will give it because he’s terrible at boundaries. He views “can’t” and “no” as challenges to be surmounted, only realizing the personal cost after it’s too late.

It’s the classic Giving Tree problem.

This isn’t how this conversation was supposed to go. Lan Zhan was going to start it so he could ask Wei Ying what he wanted and then go from there.

As Lan Zhan struggles to come up with something to ask for that wouldn’t be too much, he watches as even the nervous laughter drains out of Wei Ying’s eyes and his knuckles go white-white, they’re twisted so tightly together.

He needs to say something.

Literally anything.

“Marry me?”

…

Not that.

Wei Ying tilts his head to the side in slow motion.

“What?”

“Mn. Never mind,” Lan Zhan says. He’s ruined everything. Except…except Wei Ying is laughing. For real this time

“Oh my god, Lan Zhaaaaaan,” he says, leaning into the couch for support. “What are you doing? We haven’t even gone on our first date yet!”

“Mn.” Lan Zhan focuses his attention on his own hands and wills the blood to stop going to his ears. It’s never worked before, but there’s a first time for everything and he can’t look Wei Ying in the face right now anyway. He supposes this is better than Wei Ying’s discomfort before.

“Wait, no, where are you going? Come back out.” Wei Ying slides across the couch and pats at Lan Zhan’s face until he looks up.

“Lan Zhan, do you really want to marry me? Like, ceremony, cake, signing things, telling our nearest and dearest that we love each other and everyone else can go fuck themselves or cry in a corner because you’re mine forever?”

Lan Zhan nods, once, decisively. The damage has already been done, he’s standing by his request.

“Yours,” he repeats, unable to resist the claim.

Wei Ying kisses him once, hard, like a reward for giving the right answer and then pulls back again.

“So like, we’re telling family and everyone, right?”

Lan Zhan wraps an arm around Wei Ying’s waist so that he won’t be able to wiggle away from the conversation.

“Wei Ying, what kind of marriage do you think I’m proposing, that we wouldn’t be telling people?”

“I don’t know,” Wei Ying whines and (as expected) tries to escape Lan Zhan’s hold (allegedly) but ends up “accidentally” straddling Lan Zhan’s lap with his arms around his neck.

Lan Zhan will not be distracted. (Well, maybe a little.)

“Just, like. You’re you. Fucking gorgeous, and with multiple degrees, and like, a shining beacon of what society is capable of. And i’m like…a college dropout gremlin who barely has a plan past tomorrow. What exactly am I bringing to this table?”

“Wei Ying.”

“What?”

Lan Zhan has to fight not to drop his head against Wei Ying’s collarbone and just give up on this conversation. This is exhausting. He can’t believe he has to say these actual words with his actual mouth instead of just thinking them in Wei Ying’s general direction.

“You are bringing Wei Ying. And Wei Ying is everything.”

“Okay, ground rule,” Wei Ying says. “You can’t just say things like that. I will die.”

“I’m in the middle of proposing to you. When else can I say it?”

Wei Ying flails hard enough that he full on hits Lan Zhan (they’re a lot closer than he’s used to, okay?) so he has to stop and check that Lan Zhan’s face is still perfect (it is).

“We should have a party,” Lan Zhan says, against Wei Ying’s shoulder blade, later that night. Wei Ying sighs and rolls over.

“I knew it was too good to be true. Who are you, and what did you do to Lan Zhan?” he says.

“You seemed concerned, earlier. About letting people know. If we have a party they’ll all be informed. We can tell them about Yuan’s impending adoption too.”

“Hmm. I remain unconvinced that you actually want this. What’s the ulterior motive?”

“It might help your siblings feel more involved.”

“Ugh. Why couldn’t Yanli have saved that one for next month? We could have just eloped!”

“There will be no ‘just’ about our marriage.”

Wei Ying flails, but Lan Zhan has already acclimated to this reaction and rolls out of the way.

The next day Wei Ying picks Lan Zhan up from work (and by picks up, he takes the bus over and then Lan Zhan drives them) and goes with him to pick Yuan up from daycare.

“I have to stake my claim,” he says, when Lan Zhan asks. He decides not to tell Lan Zhan that it’s mostly because he’s been twitchy all day, half convinced that Lan Zhan will look at him like he’s crazy the next time Wei Ying goes to kiss him.

And he really does have to stake his claim with the daycare ladies. First thing he’s doing once he starts generating income again is get Lan Zhan a ring. Odds are he won’t kick Wei Ying out if he doesn’t make rent.

Not that he ever would have, but living off of your fiancé feels different than living off of your weirdly accommodating friend.

Yuan squeals when he sees both of them, grabbing their hands and dragging them back past reception into the main playroom. He pulls them all the way up to two little boys and Mian Mian’s daughter.

“See! One! Two!”

“You can’t have two dads!” one of the boys protests. “How do they know who you’re talking to if you call them the same thing?”

Oh.

Oh no.

Yuan literally calls them nothing. Like, if he’s asking where one of them is, he just goes “Where…” and then looks all sad and dejected and lets the question dangle until it gets answered.

Wei Ying just kind of assumed that he would pick up their names, passive learning style, when he got more comfortable.

Yuan looks up, glancing from Lan Zhan to Wei Ying. He tugs on Wei Ying’s hand. “Dad?” Tugs on Lan Zhan’s hand. “Daddy?”

Oh, ow. That hurt (good hurt) just as much as Wei Ying thought it would.

Also: project become Yuan’s favorite looks to be in jeopardy. Not that Wei Ying can really blame him. Lan Zhan is the best.

“I don’t know…” the second by says.

“Confusing,” the first boy agrees.

Yuan sticks his lower lip out in the way that says he’s about to flip shit (the temper tantrums are still rare, but they seem worse for it when they do come about). Lan Zhan kneels down and pulls at Yuan’s hand.

“You could call me Baba. If you wanted. That also means Dad,” he says. Yuan smiles at Lan Zhan and then turns to the other kids and sticks his tongue out.

“Secret fucking language,” Wei Ying whispers in Lan Zhan’s ear when Lan Zhan stands back up.

Lan Zhan is too busy trying to look like he isn’t having emotions to yell at him for swearing in front of a bunch of kids. Wei Ying mentally adds that to the bucket list just so he can check it off.

Over the weekend Wei Ying gets up…not at the same time as Lan Zhan and Yuan, but much closer than he’s been getting up. He trends towards nocturnal, he can’t help it. But the art gallery is getting ready to start giving him shifts again and he put in for mornings so he has to start re-training himself to get up.

Lan Zhan sits at the table with him and drinks tea while Wei Ying tries to eat while smiling. For some reason it still feels different, being with Lan Zhan now that he’s With Lan Zhan versus unrequited with Lan Zhan even though, practically speaking, nothing has really changed.

They go over engagement party plans. It’s going to be small and soon, in the hopes that they can have it before Yanli has her baby. Which means Wei Ying has to get his act together and talk to Jiang Cheng so Jiang Cheng can be invited.

He sends a text that is answered precisely fourteen minutes later, which Wei Ying knows for a fact is Jiang Cheng’s passive aggressive tell when he makes you wait for a response (it’s also the longest he can go without answering a text, he hates not answering things).

“I don’t want to apologize,” Wei Ying says, looking up at Lan Zhan through his eyelashes because…yup. Lan Zhan doesn’t want him to apologize either, but he talks a big game about being the better person so he can’t openly advocate that Wei Ying fight with his brother.

“You don’t want to be fighting,” Lan Zhan points out, wrinkling his nose, ever so slightly.

Yuan tries to follow Wei Ying out the door and is very put out when he’s not allowed to go along for the ride.

“But I’ll miss you,” he says, having gone from student to master in the fine, fine art of emotional manipulation.

“But then I’ll be alone and I’ll miss you both,” Lan Zhan says, somehow actually the master of emotional manipulation.

“Ah, maybe-“ Wei Ying’s faltering is cut off by a Look from Lan Zhan. Wei Ying sighs and leaves, banished from his own home until he ends a fight he still thinks he’s justified in.

They meet at Jiang Cheng’s apartment because no one else is there so if they start crying or yelling it won’t matter, but this adds a whole other element of weird because they never hang out there.

Ever since Wei Ying turned down Jiang Cheng’s offer of a room he’s felt like the apartment has held it against him.

Jiang Cheng doesn’t even say hello when he opens the door, he just pushes it wide enough for Wei Ying to come in and leads the way to the living room where he sits on an uncomfortable looking chair and Wei Ying sits on an uncomfortable couch because someone bought modern furniture.

Ugh.

Madame Yu has always been about design over function.

“So…” Jiang Cheng says. Because he wasn’t the one to set up the meeting.

“So…” Wei Ying says. Because he isn’t the one who needs to apologize. Not initially.

“I’m not apologizing for being worried about you,” Jiang Cheng says.

“Right,” Wei Ying says. And stands up to leave because really, he doesn’t know where to go with that. Jiang Cheng surges forward and grabs Wei Ying’s arm.

“Don’t. I…I’m sorry for making Yuan cry,” he says.

Wei Ying slowly sits back down and Jiang Cheng retreats to his chair.

“Did Yanli maybe tell you about what we talked about the other day?” Wei Ying asks. “She was pretty mean.” Jiang Cheng nods.

“Yeah, she keeps blaming the hormones.”

“I love him.”

Jiang Cheng stares at Wei Ying for an uncomfortable length of time.

“No shit. Please tell me you didn’t just figure that out,” he says.

“Why does everyone keep saying that?”

Jiang Cheng gives Wei Ying another look that means he thinks Wei Ying is being an idiot. That might just be Jiang Cheng’s face, actually.

“Well. Yanli said I should tell you. So, like. That’s why I came.”

Jiang Cheng doesn’t say anything to that so Wei Ying figures he should get up and leave again, because honestly. He could be doing literally anything else right now.

So he does, but then he remembers what Yanli said about him always pulling away and about how Jiang Cheng is basically always running on defense and so, instead of leaving, Wei Ying tackles him.

It’s a terrible plan since Jiang Cheng is sitting in some kind of arm chair and they’re both basically thirty now, but they end up on the floor without any permanent injuries, so it’s not the worst case scenario.

“What the fuck?!” Jiang Cheng says, staring up at his ceiling.

“I don’t know!” Wei Ying yells back. “I just, I don’t know how to fix this. And tackling you always worked when we were kids!”

“That’s when we were fighting over who ate the last popsicle, not the fact that you don’t value yourself enough to at least look at the cliff you’re throwing yourself off of.”

Well. There it is.

“Do you really think I don’t value myself, Jiang Cheng?” Wei Ying rolls onto his side so he can watch his brother instead of addressing everything to the ceiling. Jiang Cheng glances at him and runs his hand through his hair. Focuses back on the ceiling.

“I don’t know. Maybe not as much as I used to, but sometimes, yeah. Like. What was your actual thought process when you decided to take Yuan? Was it that you wanted to raise a kid? Or was it that derailing your life matters less than derailing someone else’s?”

That’s…pretty accurate, actually.

“To be fair, I kinda derailed Lan Zhan’s life too,” Wei Ying says. “And I totally value him.”

Jiang Cheng’s mouth twitches, and then his shoulders shake, and then he’s full on laughing at the ceiling.

Wei Ying starts laughing too because he can’t remember the last time he laughed really hard with Jiang Cheng. College, probably. While doing something dumb with Huaisang.

“We’re getting married,” Wei Ying says, a while later. They’re still laying on the floor because it’s more comfortable that the furniture. Jiang Cheng sighs.

“That makes sense,” he says.

“Right?”

They keep talking, cycling away from the serious things to make fun of Zixuan and the nursery for a while before cycling back to talk about how weird it is that Yanli is almost a mom and Wei Ying is already a dad and Jiang Cheng would like to stay without for a little while longer, at least.

They talk about how Wei Ying skipped Yanli’s wedding because he was scared of being turned away and how he’d cried himself to sleep that night. About how he wants to elope and how Lan Zhan keeps insisting on a whole ceremony because Jiang Cheng isn’t the only person who thinks Wei Ying doesn’t value himself highly enough.

He’s being weirdly stubborn about it since the sensible thing would be to get married fast to make everything easier with the adoption papers. Wei Ying never thought he’d see the day when Lan Zhan threw logic out the window like that. But here it is. And all Wei Ying’s fault too.

Check it off the bucket list.

They talk about why Jiang Cheng’s apartment always feels so empty. About how when Jiang Cheng first started going to a therapist it took four sessions for him to say anything other than hello and goodbye.

They talk about how Jiang Cheng doesn’t feel like he’s enough for anyone ever, and it’s so similar to how Wei Ying feels about himself that he has to hit something to let the feelings out.

“Jiang Cheng, holy shit, Yanli was right. We have to talk about our feelings more.”

“She always is,” Jiang Cheng sighs.

“So, like, once every ten years or so?”

“Maybe.”

“Do you still have Mario Kart?”

“Fuck yes.”

They text Huaisang and he actually shows up in a timely manner for once, loaded down with takeout to make up for the fact that Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng cried through lunch.

When Wei Ying gets home he’s full to bursting with happiness and it gets better because Lan Zhan is in full at home mode, which is an entirely different thing than Lan Zhan at home.

Lan Zhan at home is basically the same thing as Lan Zhan outside, just as perfect and scarily productive, except he’s more likely to participate in conversation and he has more facial expressions.

Lan Zhan in home mode is comfy and cozy and lazy, like a cat in sunlight. He also wears glasses.

It took Wei Ying three years of living with Lan Zhan to see him in glasses even though the contact solution in the bathroom made it kinda obvious.

But Lan Zhan is a VAIN, VAIN man, and as far as Wei Ying can tell, he’s the only one allowed to see the glasses (now plus Yuan, just their little family unit), and even then it’s rare. It makes Wei Ying’s eyeballs hurt to think about how much time Lan Zhan spends with contacts in.

In the past Wei Ying has put in considerable effort towards convincing Lan Zhan that sexy librarian in glasses is a whole Look that he could (and should) be capitalizing on. Maybe he’ll stop that. He kinda wants to keep this look for them, now that he thinks about it.

Definitely still going to campaign for colored contacts though. Wei Ying is thinking gold.

“How are my two favorite boys,” Wei Ying asks, sprawling out on the floor to get a better look at the puzzle Lan Zhan and Yuan are putting together piece by careful piece. “Did you have a good day today? Did you have fun?”

Yuan doesn’t respond because the puzzle piece he’s holding won’t go where he wants it to. It’s the same piece he gets hung up on every time he does this puzzle and Wei Ying learned the hard way that he doesn’t want help with it.

“Mn. And you?”

“The most fun! Not the most fun. Here is the most fun. But after that.”

“We should schedule the party then,” Lan Zhan says. “Start with your sister. We can plan around her.”

“Party?” Yuan looks up. One of his friends from daycare had had a birthday party the other day and now all Yuan wants in life is more opportunities for cake.

“Yeah. We’re going to have a party so everyone can meet you,” Wei Ying says. Yuan frowns.

“Not a birthday party?” he says.

“We can still have cake,” Lan Zhan says. “At the party, not today. You already had ice cream today.”

“Cake and ice cream are not the same thing,” Yuan informs Lan Zhan.

Wei Ying nods along. Lan Zhan tips his head forward so he can look at Wei Ying sternly over the top of his glasses frames. Wei Ying starts shaking his head instead.

Wei Ying nudges one of the remaining puzzle pieces into the right spot.

“Hey, little radish. Lan Zhan and I wanted to tell you something.”

“With cake?” Yuan asks. Wei Ying has to admire the persistence. When he says no Yuan doesn’t look like he thinks it will be worth abandoning his puzzle, but he agrees to try.

“Lan Zhan and I are going to get married,” Wei Ying says. He’s not sure what he’s expecting, but more than the blank look he gets, that’s for sure.

“Me too?” Yuan says.

“Kids don’t get married, they get adopted,” Wei Ying says.

“What’s married?” Yuan asks, looking suspicious.

“It’s…” Wei Ying considers. “It’s so we can be a family. Forever.”

“Dinner means family,” Yuan says, firmly enough that he’s not going to listen to any argument against it.

“Oh. Okay. Well. There’ll be another party with more cake when we get married. And you’ll be there with us too, okay?” Wei Ying says. Yuan looks between the two of them, down at his frustrating puzzle, and opts to go find something else to play with.

“Thanks for the help,” Wei Ying says to Lan Zhan.

“He already knows we’re a family,” Lan Zhan says. “The rest is just paperwork.”

“Says the man who proposed before we even managed to go on a date,” Wei Ying says.

“We’ve lived together for years. What more could you possibly want to know before we get married?”

“I don’t know! Things!”

Wei Ying wants to know what it feels like to go out to dinner with Lan Zhan filled with shivery anticipation. He wants dinner at a place that’s obviously for dates and Lan Zhan’s hand at the small of Wei Ying’s back so everyone knows how it is between them.

He wants a knowing look from the waiter when they decide to skip dessert and a kiss that they have to stop even though they don’t want to because they’re still on the street. Or maybe they both find out they’re exhibitionists. Whatever.

Wei Ying just wants to Experience things together.

“Are you saying I’m not romantic enough?” Lan Zhan says.

“Why?”

“I’m about to disappoint you again,” Lan Zhan says. He pulls a box out of his pocket, tosses it over to Wei Ying, and retreats to the kitchen to prepare dinner because he is a coward.

Wei Ying opens the box and it’s a matching set of wedding bands. No diamonds or anything, just delicately etched silver. It’s a bit of an abstract design, but it makes Wei Ying think about clouds drifting across a lake, so he decides that that’s what it is.

He catapults himself into the kitchen and wraps his arms around Lan Zhan’s waist so he can dig his chin into Lan Zhan’s shoulder, maybe a little more forcefully than strictly necessary.

“Can we wear them now, or do we have to wait?” he asks.

After Wei Ying leaves and Huaisang…probably left, Jiang Cheng texts Wen Qing because that’s something that they do now. He hasn’t seen her since that night; he’d woken up alone the next morning and panicked, but she left her phone number on a post it stuck to his forehead.

Like he would have deleted it.

(Okay, he deleted it. But then he stole Wei Ying’s phone and got it back like, a week later.)

Anyway.

He lets himself initiate a conversation once a day and if she doesn’t respond he’s not allowed to send a second text. So far she has always responded, albeit several hours later on occasion.

Once she even initiated.

She shows up at his door twenty minutes later and invites herself in. She gives herself a tour, leading Jiang Cheng around his own apartment. She gives him a look that indicates she’s disappointed, but doesn’t elaborate with what.

She tries sitting on the couch and then goes back to Jiang Cheng’s bedroom and sets up on his bed instead. Jiang Cheng is instructed to sit when he remains hovering in the doorway and he almost sits straight down on the floor, he’s so confused.

When he finally manages to sit down next to her she hands him her phone.

“What’s going on?” Jiang Cheng has had a lot of upset today and hadn’t been planning on dealing with anything from Wen Qing’s corner. He’s not ready. He’s barely ready to be texting her again and now she’s sitting on his bed asking him to look at…dog photos?

“We’re finding you a dog to adopt, what do you think is happening? I can’t believe you got rid of the perfect napping couch for that monstrosity out there,” she says. “C’mon, scroll. Do you see any you like? I filled out most of the application already, but you’re going to have to fill in the gaps.”

“I can’t adopt a dog,” Jiang Cheng says.

He can’t. Wei Ying hates them, he works long hours that will only get longer as more responsibility gets transferred over…

“Why not?” Wen Qing says. “It’s a pet friendly building, I checked. Don’t tell me you can’t afford a dog walker. What’s the point of having all this money if you don’t use it?”

“I-“

“If you tell me you’re using all your money to make your apartment look this sad, I’m leaving.”

“Why do you want me to get a dog?”

Jiang Cheng is still trying to play catch up and he keeps getting distracted by the weird, fluttering feeling in his chest that he might call hope if he dared look closely enough. Wen Qing only talks like this, all snappish and in multiple directions, when she’s trying to not show that she cares.

“You clearly need something in your life that loves you,” Wen Qing says.

Oh.

Well, never mind then.

Jiang Cheng refocuses his attention on his hands, trying to make the photos and little biographies on the screen of Wen Qing’s phone register as anything. He has always wanted a dog. He used to talk about getting a dog. He shouldn’t waste the opportunity.

There’s an annoyed sigh from Wen Qing.

“That came out wrong,” she says. Like there are so many ways to take a statement like that. Even qualifying for the fact that Wen Qing’s statements always come out a little like an accusation.

“I’ve spent all week distracted because you might text me when I won’t be able to text you back, and that’s going to happen. A lot. I’d feel better if you have something…that will pay attention back to you.”

“So…the dog is actually for you,” Jiang Cheng says.

“If that’s what you have to tell yourself.”

“Are you going to come visit it?”

“Are you going to get better furniture? And by better, I mean shittier. Get something actually designed to sit on and I’ll think about it.”

Despite her many complaints about Jiang Cheng’s apartment and furniture. Wen Qing spends the night and stays for breakfast. She does not have a single complaint about the bed. Or the shower. Or the kitchen counter.

“Are you sure we should have it here?” he says, as Lan Zhan lets the caterers in, since apparently it’s that kind of party. When did they get old enough to have that kind of party? The space already feels weirdly full with people that aren’t them in it and the guests aren’t even here yet.

“Shouldn’t we get like, a party room or something?”

“Hard to do after the invitations have been sent,” Lan Zhan says. Which wouldn’t be a problem if he’d let Wei Ying set up a facebook event or something instead of sending out physical invitations. But whatever. A trap of Lan Zhan’s making.

“Yeah, but…isn’t this a bit much?” Wei Ying looks around, helplessly.

The furniture has already been rearranged to allow for the optimal flow of people and it doesn’t look like their house anymore. He’s considering hiding with Yuan in his room, but then he’d feel like he was abandoning Lan Zhan.

And end up having fomo for the fucking living room. Ridiculous.

“Mn.” Lan Zhan surveys the room. “It is a party.” He says it like a man resigned to his fate, as if the whole party thing wasn’t his idea in the first place.

The doorbell rings again, sounding utterly obnoxious now that it’s rung four times in one day. Wei Ying doesn’t know how he’s going to make it through the party. Most of his tirade about changing over time was bullshit, but he definitely prefers parties he can leave now. Let the record show.

Wei Ying bounces over to the door because Lan Zhan presumably has a reason to be surveying the apartment from his spot in the middle of the living room, while Wei Ying is just anxiously keeping him company and might as well do something useful.

Not that answering the door to someone he won’t know how to direct will be that useful, but…well. He’ll be able to pretend for a few seconds. That’s something.

He opens the door fully expecting to see another caterer or someone else that he will immediately pass off to Lan Zhan. And he’s not completely wrong. But the person he’s immediately passing off to Lan Zhan is Xichen.

“Hi! Wow! You’re back!”

Everything comes out in exclamations and is just as awkward as the hug Wei Ying offers Xichen. Wei Ying has never had to deal with interacting with the immediate family member of someone he’s sleeping with. It’s weird. So weird. And they always got along so well.

Xichen acts like everything is normal, like he hadn’t just disappeared for the better part of a year. Like he isn’t carting a backpacking backpack.

He says hello, hugs Wei Ying, and then politely grabs Wei Ying by the shoulders and moves him out of the way.

“Lan Zhan,” Xichen says, spreading his arms out in welcome. Wei Ying turns to catch the loving brother reunion.

Lan Zhan does the angry dragon nose thing.

Oh shit.

Xichen slowly lowers his arms and tilts his head to the side.

“Okay…” he says.

Lan Zhan turns around and goes into his room. Xichen raises his eyebrows and smiles at Wei Ying (Wei Ying has learned not to take it personally, the man has resting smiley face) and follows suit.

Wei Ying looks over at the catering staff, all of whom are thankfully toiling away with no need of any input from him, and closes the door.

Oh. Shit.

Lan Zhan leans against the wall and looks out through the blinds, purely so he won’t have to turn around and face Xichen. He listens as Xichen follows him into the room and closes the door and puts his “I’m off to travel the world” backpack on the ground.

“Lan Zhan,” Xichen says, in that measured, patient way of his.

For Lan Zhan’s entire life, he’s found that voice reassuring, calming. Home. Now he wants to be anywhere else. Preferably with Wei Ying and Yuan, but he’ll settle for alone.

“Are you back, then?” Lan Zhan says.

“Yes,” Xichen laughs. “I’m back. I said I’d come back when I was ready. And here I am.”

“Interesting choice of day,” Lan Zhan says.

“Ah,” Xichen says. “Uncle…he’s just concerned. He’ll get over it. You know how it is. And you know that I support you and Wei Ying, right?”

Lan Zhan whirls around, because he has to glare at his actual brother for that, no proxy will do. He opens his mouth to…to…there aren’t words. There are never words when he needs them, that’s why it took him so many years to reach this point with Wei Ying.

He shuts his mouth and breaths out through his nose.

“Well, now I really don’t know why you’re mad,” Xichen says. “That was supposed to be a good message.”

“You just—you just left. You were gone. For months. No contact except a bunch of postcards that don’t even say anything. But the minute Uncle decides he’s ‘concerned’ you just—“ Lan Zhan breaks off and gestures at Xichen.

Xichen, just standing in Lan Zhan’s bedroom after nine months, three weeks, and five days of not being there.

“How did he even—“ Nope. Still not ready.

“A-Zhan,” Xichen takes a careful few steps forward, closing the distance. “I told you that I’d do my best to stay places with internet, still have access to my e-mail. That if you needed me you just needed to write, and I would call you back.”

“It’s not the same and you know it.” Lan Zhan isn’t actually sure that Xichen does know it. He’s just so used to Xichen flitting around like some omniscient fairy elf king that he assumes Xichen both knows and understands everything.

In his own defense, he’s never been proven wrong.

Xichen closes the remaining distance between them and settles his hands on Lan Zhan’s shoulders, loose enough that Lan Zhan can shake them off if he wants, but tight enough that they feel a little like a weighted blanket.

“I’m sorry my leaving hurt you, but staying would have hurt me. I needed to be away from here and have some time without everyone else’s voices in my head so I could remember what just me sounded like.”

“Except Uncle’s,” Lan Zhan says. Xichen tips his head to the side and smiles his puzzled smile. It’s a little more crooked than his normal “everything is fine” smile.

“Uncle is not the only one who wrote to me,” he says, like that isn’t a knife to Lan Zhan’s heart. “I would have welcomed some contact from you as well.”

“I was simply following your request for some distance,” Lan Zhan says. He wants to shake Xichen’s hands off, but he can’t seem to make his shoulders move. “You’re supposed to be here. For me. Always. You promised.”

“Yes. And look. Here I am. Without you even asking.”

Lan Zhan bites his lips and turns his head to go back to looking out the window. Xichen is Lan Zhan’s ally. He’s never had to deal with being angry or betrayed at him, not really. Never had to deal with anger or betrayal at all without being able to talk it through with him.

“You’re late,” he says, finally.

“Mn. You’ve been busy,” Xichen agrees, ever so carefully pulling Lan Zhan into a hug, despite the fact that Lan Zhan’s arms are crossed and he refuses to uncross them and make things easier.

Xichen pats his back as Lan Zhan presses his forehead down into Xichen’s shoulder and, finally, allows himself to cry the way he hasn’t in nine months, three weeks, and six days.

When Lan Zhan seems to have wrung himself out, Xichen reaches up and tugs at Lan Zhan’s ponytail, they way he used to when they were kids and he thought Lan Zhan needed teasing. Kisses him on the forehead the way he did when they were kids and he was tucking Lan Zhan in at night.

“I missed you too,” he says.

Lan Zhan sniffles and pulls away. Finds some tissues. Finds Xichen a clean shirt.

When Wei Ying can’t think of anything else he can do he goes and gets dressed for the party as quickly as humanly possible (just in case the extremely independent caterers suddenly need something) and then dumps Yuan into his party clothes too.

Lan Zhan and Xichen are still shut up in Lan Zhan’s room and it’s almost time for the party. They decided that earlier was better than later out of respect for both Yuan’s and Yanli’s bedtimes, but now…

Ugh. Wei Ying so cannot host this party by himself.

He starts pacing the living room, but then Yuan starts pacing the living room and that can’t be a healthy habit to teach him so they start playing I spy but Wei Ying is distracted so it doesn’t go well.

All in all, Wei Ying is seeing what it would be like to function with Lan Zhan, and it isn’t pretty. He shudders to think what life would have been like if he hadn’t run into Lan Zhan with his suitcases that day. If Lan Zhan had let him move out last month.

It takes a lot of self control to not start knocking on Lan Zhan’s door.

Jiang Cheng shows up early, as planned, to try for a re-introduction to Yuan. Lan Zhan had wanted to be a part of it, but Wei Ying doesn’t want to interrupt Lan Zhan’s own brother drama to go get him, so…

It goes pretty well. Yuan doesn’t seem to connect Jiang Cheng with anything bad and when Jiang Cheng apologizes for yelling and being mean Yuan tells him that there’s going to be two kinds of cake.

“He can’t hate you if he’s offering you cake,” Wei Ying says, when Yuan runs back to his room to get something to show Jiang Cheng. “He loves cake.”

Xichen and Lan Zhan emerge two minutes before the party is supposed to start, because of course they do. Lan Zhan looks around and compliments Yuan on the streamers he and Wei Ying had put up out of anxious boredom.

Xichen and Yuan take the measure of each other, Yuan leaning against Jiang Cheng, who is now fully seated on the floor, and pulling at his hair absentmindedly. Jiang Cheng seems to have accepted that his life is pain now.

Xichen is suitably enamored with his new nephew, and Yuan is equally intrigued by his growing collection of uncles. This gives Wei Ying the opportunity to throw himself at Lan Zhan at long last.

“Don’t ever leave me again, I was so scared. Have I told you recently that I love you?” he says, letting himself hang from Lan Zhan’s neck. Lan Zhan just wraps an arm around his waist, supporting Wei Ying enough that he’s no longer pulling Lan Zhan sideways.

“I don’t remember you ever saying you love me,” he says.

“What! I-oh shit. Lan Zhan! I’m the worst fiancé. But, see? This is why you wait until after the date to propose. We should go on a date. Like, restaurant with ridiculous chairs date.”

“I don’t think Yuan would like it,” Lan Zhan says. They watch Xichen and Yuan for a moment. Yuan is introducing his knit bunny; Xichen is shaking the paw very seriously.

“You still haven’t said it,” Lan Zhan says.

“Well now it feels like it should be a whole thing,” Wei Ying says. Lan Zhan huffs what is almost a laugh and kisses Wei Ying’s cheek.

“Mn,” he says, and then disentangles himself to go answer the door, doorbell ringing yet again.

Wei Ying can’t even be mad because it’s Yanli and Zixuan (well, he can be mad about Zixuan, but never about Yanli).

They get Yanli set up in the best possible chair and Xichen brings Yuan over to meet his aunt and the party is on.

“What’s going on with that?” Yanli says, after a few more guests arrive and their brothers are distracted. She nods in Lan Zhan’s direction. Xichen sighs and hands over a twenty.

“You were right,” he says. “He feels abandoned. He’s mad.”

“Hm,” Yanli says, neatly pocketing the money. Between her, Xichen, and Huaisang, they’re just constantly passing around the same sixty dollars or so.

“He’s almost thirty,” Xichen defends himself. “I’m allowed to choose myself.”

“I never said you weren’t,” Yanli says. “Boundaries are important.”

She and Xichen share a wry glance. They’re both overly concerned older siblings and they know it. Their entire friendship is built on it (and on making bets about what silly thing their siblings will do next).

Huaisang shows up and drops his whatever attitude to practically tackle Xichen. He considers Xichen an honorary extra older brother on account of Xichen’s friendship with his actual older brother.

Lan Zhan normally gets all territorial over it, but he’s distracted, what with the party, and not really looking in Xichen’s direction.

The guest list isn’t terribly long, but it’s more people than Wei Ying has ever seen in the apartment. It’s, frankly, more people than he wants to see in the apartment ever again. He keeps looking over at Lan Zhan and waiting for him to go “so not worth it” and leave.

It’s also wildly upsetting to see Lan Zhan with his socializing mask on inside the apartment. He hadn’t quite realized how emotive Lan Zhan had become in private until it got taken away.

There are a few of Lan Zhan’s co-workers, in a little clump. All of them except for Mian Mian look shocked to be here, like they thought that they would show up and realize that it was an elaborate prank because there’s no way Lan Zhan would A) have a party at is house or B) invite them.

Lan Zhan feels personally vindicated. Mian Mian being able to guess his feelings about Wei Ying threw him, but apparently that was more of a Mian Mian being more observant than other people thing, than a Lan Zhan has started becoming painfully obvious thing.

Good. He prefers being vaguely feared over being an open book. Who needs that many friends anyway? Who can keep up with that many friends?

There are quite a few of Wei Ying’s co-workers, scraped together from various jobs. The look no less shocked than Lan Zhan’s co-workers, but that’s because they’re mostly still college students and have yet to develop standards for their living situations.

Of course, there’s also family and mutual friends from college. Possibly some mutual enemies from college.

Wei Ying runs around, flexing long forgotten host muscles. He checks in on Lan Zhan between every guest, and does his best to keep an eye on Yuan even though Lan Zhan is clearly also keeping an eye on Yuan and Mian Mian is keeping an eye on her daughter who is always velcro-ed to Yuan’s side.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Wen Ning is saying to Wen Qing when Wei Ying throws himself against him. Wen Ning catches him without effort. “Good to know you’re still alive.”

“Are they working you that hard?” Wei Ying asks, and Wen Ning seems to smirk. It’s a very unnatural expression for Wen Ning’s face, who is second only to Yanli in being all that is good and pure in this world.

“She’s never at home anymore,” Wen Ning says. “Even when she isn’t scheduled.”

Wen Qing makes like she’s going to hit him for that, but Wei Ying doesn’t have time for that nonsense. He’s going to have to go keep circulating soon.

“Wen Qing, are you dating someone? Who is it? Do I know them? What are they like?” Wei Ying hasn’t been granted those kind of details about Wen Qing’s life ever, he has only ever managed to find things out by accident. But hope springs eternal.

“None of your business,” she snaps, which means nothing. But she does move sharply enough, trying to catch Wen Ning off guard, that her hair and shirt move to the side at the same time.

“Wen Fucking Qing, are those bite marks?”

Okay. This is…not the best thing to happen recently because that’s Lan Zhan and Yuan, obviously. But it’s up there. He tries to get a closer look and she slaps his hand away.

“Mind your own bite marks,” she says, cheeks blazing. “Is that an actual hicky? What are you, teenagers?”

“Gross,” Jiang Cheng says, scowling as he slouches up to the group. Which is no fun at all because they can’t talk about Wen Qing’s new person in front of Jiang Cheng. He’s far too fragile for that. Do they even still talk? The break-up was brutal.

Wei Ying hurls himself from Wen Ning to Jiang Cheng. Parties are exhausting, but he does love how the general atmosphere is very friendly towards letting him just ricochet off of people or lean against them. At this rate he won’t have to stand up straight all day.

“My favorite baby brother!” he yells. “Sorry Wen Ning, you are still my best boy!”

Wen Ning raises his glass as if to cheers Wei Ying and makes a face at Wen Qing.

“How are you? Did you get any food? Have you seen Yanli? Let’s go get food and take some to Yanli!” Wei Ying steers Jiang Cheng away as Jiang Cheng protests that he saw Yanli when she got there, and congratulates himself on a job well done.

The host-ing with the most-ing is coming back with a vengeance.

Wen Ning snickers into his glass. “What are you going to tell them?” he says.

“Nothing yet,” Wen Qing says, subtly elbowing Wen Ning forcefully enough to make him almost drop the glass he was taking a drink out of. “It’s none of their business.”

“Isn’t it though?” Wen Ning says, nodding at the party around them. “I mean, like, you’re both part of the same group. It would affect game night or whatever.”

“We don’t have a game night.”

“Yeah, because everyone thinks you two can’t be in the same room together,” Wen Ning says. Who apparently has very strong feelings about not having a game night. “To be fair, you two really shouldn’t be left alone in a room together, if one ever wants to use the room again…”

“You were supposed to be at work,” Wen Qing says. “Get over it.”

“No,” Wen Ning says.

He catches Yuan’s eye and gets down on the floor to receive a thorough introduction into the game he and baby Mian Mian are making up as they go along. He readily consents to becoming their beast of burden and spends the rest of the party carting them from room to room.

Yanli makes her way back to her seat feeling contemplative. She somehow hadn’t thought she needed to worry about Jiang Cheng keeping secrets again, but there you go. At least one brother must be in a state of semi-crisis at all times.

When Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying appear at her elbow with more food than she could possibly eat in under forty-eight hours she considers saying something. Maybe not explicitly, but something to let him know that she knows. Or suspects.

But Jiang Cheng looks happy and today is about Wei Ying and Lan Zhan and Yuan. And a (very) small part of her wants to see if he can pull this off on his own. She’ll give him until after the baby arrives, she decides. After that, if it’s a problem, big enough for her to notice despite the baby, she’ll reconsider.

The party goes well. Everyone seems to enjoy themselves (when they’re not being suspicious about being invited) and they all listened politely while Wei Ying made a speech about the importance of finding your family.

They showed off their wedding bands even though they aren’t married yet and asked for ideas for dates and venues. Everyone agrees that Yuan is the best son they could ask for.

It goes so well that people stay long after the projected end time, and even though Yanli says her goodbyes at five, they don’t finish saying goodbyes to various people until well past eight.

Xichen is the last person to leave and he hugs Lan Zhan again before he goes. It’s a special occasion, in multiple directions, after all.

Lan Zhan feels bad, but it’s a relief when Xichen leaves, and the catering staff is gone, and it’s just him and Wei Ying and Yuan. The way it’s meant to be.

Yuan is so tired Lan Zhan has to hold him upright while he brushes his teeth.

“But I want more cake,” Yuan says, leaning against the sink, tearfully.

“There will be leftover cake tomorrow,” Lan Zhan says.

“Breakfast?”

“No,” Lan Zhan says, and takes over complete control of the rest of Yuan’s going to bed routine: changing into pajamas, brushing his hair smooth, getting tucked into bed, turning on the nightlight. He’s out so fast Lan Zhan doesn’t even have to read him a story.

When Lan Zhan goes out into the living room, Wei Ying is sprawled out, face down on the couch (recently returned to it’s normal spot). Lan Zhan debates with himself and then crawls on top of him, digging his chin into Wei Ying’s shoulder, the way Wei Ying always does to him.

Wei Ying laughs and shoves Lan Zhan to the side so he can roll over and they can spoon properly.

“How did I used to throw parties all the time? I feel like I just ran a marathon,” he says.

“You’re getting old,” Lan Zhan says. Wei Ying snickers and pretends to elbow him and Lan Zhan uses the opportunity to hold him the slightest bit tighter.

They stay that way for a good half hour before Lan Zhan starts falling asleep in earnest and Wei Ying insists they get up because Lan Zhan is also getting old and will regret every single one of his life choices leading up to the one where he spends the whole night on the couch.

Because Wei Ying is semi-nocturnal by nature he starts getting a second wind once they stand up and greatly enjoys walking Lan Zhan through his entire getting ready for bed routine: teeth, face, pajamas.

He makes Lan Zhan sit on the edge of the bed and then stands behind him and brushes out his hair and braids it for bed. It’s something they haven’t done since they became more than friends. Lan Zhan couldn’t have imagined that it would feel more intimate now than it did before, but it does.

They turn out the lights and get in bed and Lan Zhan is drifting off while Wei Ying kneads the mattress with his foot like a cat when Wei Ying bolts up into a sitting position. He throws himself back down and crowds onto Lan Zhan’s side.

“Lan Zhan? Lan Zhan? Are you still awake?”

Lan Zhan is snapped, rather unpleasantly, into full awake mode.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

Wei Ying sighs.

“I was supposed to tell you I love you. I love you. Shit. I’m sorry it took me so long to say.”

Lan Zhan takes a deep breath to steady his pounding heart. Adrenaline is possibly his least favorite thing.

“That’s okay. You have always shown me how you felt for me, you did not need to say it.” Lan Zhan feels Wei Ying collapse back into the mattress.

“Oh,” he says in a faint voice. “That’s okay then.”

Lan Zhan reaches out and feels around, locates Wei Ying’s hand and pulls it to his mouth.

“I love you too.”

“Oh,” Wei Ying breaths, as Lan Zhan kisses his palm and then entwines their fingers together. “That’s good.”

“I’m going to sleep now,” Lan Zhan says, and Wei Ying laughs and gives him permission. When Lan Zhan wakes up the next morning they’re still holding hands.

Wen Qing has to go to work directly from the party and as far as Jiang Cheng can tell, doesn’t leave the hospital again for three days. She shows up at midnight, leaning against his door and demanding food. He pretends he wasn’t about to go to bed and acquiesces.

She disappears when he starts cracking eggs into a pan, because breakfast is the only thing he can make on short notice, and when she reappears she’s wearing a pair of leggings she must have had in her bag and one of his sweatshirts. It makes her look even more pocket sized than normal.

Jiang Cheng opts not to share that observation.

They end up eating the eggs straight out of the pan because while he cooks she climbs up on the counter and wraps limbs around him like a little octopus with no self preservation instinct regarding the open flame on the stove, and won’t let him go long enough to get plates.

It’s not even anything sexual, she just wants to exist in his space.

When Wen Qing gives in to liking Jiang Cheng she basically decides she wants to live on top of him. He has no idea why she keeps complaining about his couch when she always just sits on him anyway, but the new one is getting delivered tomorrow.

They leave the dishes because, again, Wen Qing is being clingy. She koala bears onto his side, tightly enough that when he steps away from the counter she goes with him. He expects her to protest at being carried, but instead she just bites at his collarbone in a way that should be weird, but he decides is adorable.

They scroll through the new dogs at the animal shelter with the app they like best until Wen Qing falls asleep, still mostly on top of Jiang Cheng. He looses feeling in his foot almost immediately. It’s the best night.

She wakes him up in the morning to make sure she told him which dog she likes best and Jiang Cheng means to make her breakfast again while she takes a shower and steals more of his clothes but then they both get distracted and then they’re running late.

Jiang Cheng gives Wen Qing a ride to the hospital and then has to go back home to get dressed himself. He’d rather be late than go to work anything less than perfectly turned out. The interns have a twitter dedicated entirely to his suits and he will not let them down.

(He knows for a fact that his mother follows that twitter, he’s not dealing with her being disappointed either.)

Summer winds down, marked by Yuan’s transition into pre-school and Wei Ying’s new job wrangling children for the afternoon showings at a small children’s puppet theater. Which doesn’t seem like it should be a real thing, and if it is a real thing it should scare kids rather than entertain them, but whatever.

The difference in schedule is minimal, and Wei Ying is always home for dinner. So.

Dinner conversation has turned into a daily rundown of all the things Wei Ying wants to incorporate into the wedding. He’s half hoping that if he comes up with something ridiculous enough, Lan Zhan would agree to cancel the whole thing and just take a trip to city hall with him.

He really thought that the bouncy castle would be the thing to break Lan Zhan (how much more undignified can you get), but he forgot to factor in the idea of just how cute Yuan will be jumping around a bouncy castle. So now that’s happening.

Jiang Cheng gets a dog. She’s a five year old mix of any number of different breeds, but mostly looks like a pit bull, and like she’s permanently begging. Her name is Lightening and nothing Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing do can convince her to answer to anything else.

Wei Ying agrees to try meeting her. She was crate-trained by her first family and still seems convinced that if she wants to lay down, it should be in there, so it’s not like he even has to worry about her jumping on him.

He lasts ten minutes and then something interesting happens so she pops her head up and Wei Ying almost has a heart attack.

Lan Zhan suggests Jiang Cheng can come by their apartment to hang out with Wei Ying and Yuan and then spends the entire time sulking in the corner working on the blanket for Yuan’s room.

The blanket is getting intense and Jiang Cheng keeps looking over at it with a weird look on his face, but the peace holds.

Xichen comes over for dinner about once a week and hassles them about setting an actual date.

Lan Zhan skips monthly dinner with Uncle Qiren, citing Yuan’s anxiety. They’re currently in negotiations for a monthly lunch.

He hasn’t wanted to talk about it and Wei Ying is willing to let it slide because he puts aside Yuan’s extravagant blanket to make a fairly basic baby blanket for Yanli.

Super secret side benefit to being Lan Zhan’s fiancé: he’s never going to have to worry about picking out baby or wedding gifts again unless he wants to.

They receive the text message about Yanli being in labor and on her way to the hospital just as Lan Zhan is finishing up the pale golden border. Wei Ying immediately freaks out and starts running around the apartment.

“Lan Zhan, what are you doing, we have to go!”

Lan Zhan points at the phone with a needle. The follow up text reminds them that they will be informed once the baby is born and to not bother coming to the hospital until after that. Yanli and Zixuan are going to be busy and will not be catering to guests.

“Yuan has already gone to bed,” Lan Zhan says.

“But he’s getting a new cousin!” Wei Ying whines.

“He will not get to meet that cousin tonight,” Lan Zhan says. “Or be allowed onto the floor at all. He’s too young.”

Wei Ying pitches himself onto the couch, face first. When Wei Ying pouts it is a full body affair.

“I’m getting a nephew!” Wei Ying yells into the couch cushion. Lan Zhan smooths back Wei Ying’s hair.

“Yuan is sleeping,” he points out. Again. Which like, Wei Ying Knows. That’s why he shouted into a cushion. He rolls over and kicks his feet.

“I want to meeeeet him,” he whines. Lan Zhan very carefully tucks the baby blanket over Wei Ying’s head until Wei Ying starts laughing and agrees to keep it down.

He texts Jiang Cheng about how unfair it is that Lan Zhan is making him stick to the prior arrangement they made with Yanli.

According to Jiang Cheng, none of the grandparents-to-be would agree to it so now they aren’t getting told until after the baby is born. So to keep quiet. Just in case Wei Ying ends up on speaking terms with them between now and then.

He texts Wen Qing about how long labor lasts and gets some links to medical journals that may or may not pertain to childbirth, but has too many disturbing pictures to scroll past to get to the real info.

Now that Lan Zhan is well and truly finished knitting for the night Wei Ying commanders his lap to sulk from and texts Wen Ning for some sympathy and then Huaisang just for the hell of it. Sulking is a group activity.

Wen Ning texts Wei Ying enough motivational art to start his own mini positive thinking gallery and puts his phone down. Wen Qing is sitting opposite him at their table that’s piled high with junk mail because neither of them ever use it.

“So…” she says, when he doesn’t start the conversation even though he’s the one that called a family meeting.

“So…some guys from work are looking for a new roommate and I’m thinking of taking them up on it,” Wen Ning says. Fast. Like a band-aid.

“But. Why? Are you still mad about-“

“No,” Wen Ning says. Maybe a little. Maybe he very much wants to make sure it doesn’t happen again. But that’s not actually the point.

“I want you to be more independent,” Wen Ning says.

“What is this, an intervention?”

“Why aren’t you living with Jiang Cheng?”

“Because I…live here?”

“Do you? That key? Not for here. Half of your clothes: gone. When was the last time you went grocery shopping? Don’t try looking around at the food in here, I bought all of it.”

“I can’t just move myself into someone else’s apartment.”

“One: you kinda already have. Two: no, you probably shouldn’t, but you could talk to him about it. Say I’m moving out so you need to move somewhere. See where he goes with it.”

“What if you don’t like it at your new apartment?”

“Then I will deal with it because I’m also an adult. Or I’ll move in with Jiang Cheng too. You’ll never notice. That place is huge.”

“When have you been to Jiang Cheng’s apartment?”

“I have friends too.”

Wen Qing narrows her eyes at Wen Ning, who in turn, purses his lips and refuses to answer.

“What if we break up again?” she says, in a much quieter voice. Wen Ning shakes his head.

“For once in your life, will you just do the thing you clearly want to do?”

They get a text in the early hours of the morning to say that the baby has been safely delivered and everyone is healthy and they still aren’t allowed to visit. They will be received in the afternoon, if convenient.

Wei Ying hasn’t gone to sleep and he wakes Lan Zhan up to make sure it’s convenient. Then he has to text all his co-workers to get rid of his afternoon shift and luckily, one of them is also still up and desperate so they pick it up no problem.

When they tell Yuan over breakfast about his new cousin he seems singularly unconcerned until he finds out that he’s not going to be able to go visit at the hospital with everyone else and has a full body meltdown while putting on his shoes.

“But he’s my cousin!” he wails into Lan Zhan’s shoulder.

“He will still be your cousin, even if you don’t see him yet,” Lan Zhan says, stroking Yuan’s hair, and not seeming to mind the decibel levels Yuan is reaching right next to his ear. Wei Ying likes to think that that’s his influence.

“I’ve never had a cousin!”

“Yes you have,” Wei Ying says. Because he’s never met an argument he can back down from, especially when he knows he’s right. “Wen Qing and Wen Ning are your cousins.”

That shocks Yuan so much that he hiccups once and stops crying altogether.

“They’re not cousins, they’re adults!” he protests.

“Those are not mutually exclusive concepts,” Lan Zhan says. Because Lan Zhan scoffs at age appropriate vocabulary. Yuan pulls back, lower lip in full pout. Lan Zhan looks steadily back at him. Maybe not *always* a pushover.

“But I want to meet him?” Yuan says.

“Mn,” Lan Zhan says, nodding. “Soon. Not today.”

Yuan sighs and leans back, staring at the ceiling until Lan Zhan puts him down and tells him to finish putting on his shoes while he goes and changes his shirt.

At the hospital Yanli is in full battle preparation mode, despite having just given birth. Zixuan is reminded both of why he loves her and why he never wants to be on her bad side.

“What if we didn’t push the issue?” he says. Yanli looks unimpressed.

“Nothing brings a family together like a funeral, or a baby,” Yanli says. “And I’m not arranging a funeral, okay?” Zixuan looks up at the ceiling for a minute before redirecting his attention to his wife.

“Please tell me, you didn’t decide that now was the time to have a baby because you wanted to manipulate your family into speaking again,” he says. Because honestly. Their son deserves to exist for his own sake.

Zixuan understands complicated family dynamics and being desperate for one family meal that doesn’t involve recriminations being thrown around. But he also knows what it’s like to be born for a specific purpose, and he wanted better than that for his son.

Yanli smiles at him, the one that makes you think she could never plot anything diabolical or devious.

“We would have started having kids much sooner if that was my reason,” she says.

“Yanli-“

“Zixuan,” Yanli says, suddenly no nonsense. “We will be having one, singular, family birthday party per year, per child.”

Zixuan puts his hands up in surrender.

Yanli reaches out and Zixuan leans into her hand.

“Our children deserve their whole family, don’t you think?” she says. It’s a low blow, given his various half-siblings and all the issues he’s seen first hand that happen when bits and pieces of your family are held off limits. “Just let me try.”

He twists his head to the side to kiss the inside of her wrist.

“You say that like saying no is an option,” he says. She preens.

“Not today,” she agrees, laughing. It’s what she’s counting on.

When Lan Zhan and Wei Ying walk into Yanli’s hospital room, Jiang Cheng is already there, sitting in a chair and looking downright terrified to be holding his newest nephew. Wei Ying immediately bounds over and starts bothering him.

“Are you crying? Hand him over if you’re just going to get salt all over him,” he says. Zixuan rushes over to mediate.

Lan Zhan takes the scenic route to his nephew, choosing to check in with Yanli before going to inspect the baby. She insists on giving him a full hug and he finds himself holding her hand and sitting in Zixuan’s seat before he knows what’s happening.

“I already know you’ll be on Wei Ying’s side. But I need you to not sweep him away when my parents show up,” Yanli says.

“Pardon?” Lan Zhan says. He reminds himself that he likes Yanli. Wei Ying loves her. She just had a baby. That she is not above using to manipulate people.

“Don’t you think this has gone on long enough?” she says. “My parents need to accept that Wei Ying is a part of my family and Wei Ying needs to realize the exact same thing. I’m not saying anyone needs to speak, or forgive, but they do need to be able to be in the same room.”

“Maybe you should take your own advice and tell them that,” Lan Zhan says. Yanli tilts her head and gives Lan Zhan a look that makes him feel scolded even though he won’t acknowledge it. He inclines his head. He won’t immediately whisk Wei Ying away, he will just be ready.

By the time the Jiang parents show up baby Jin Ling has been passed over to Wei Ying and Lan Zhan is sitting next to him. He cannot agree that Jin Ling is the cutest because Yuan is clearly unbeatable, but he does like the look on Wei Ying’s face while holding him.

Jiang Cheng is complaining to Yanli about something and Zixuan bounces back and forth between his wife and his baby, like he doesn’t trust his brother-in-laws to be left alone with anyone. It’s not an unfair assessment, in Lan Zhan’s opinion.

When Zixuan is busy over by Yanli, Lan Zhan leans in to tattle to Wei Ying about his sister’s plans. Because really. When has anyone had a good experience blindsiding Wei Ying? It’s never a good idea.

“Look at you, risking the wrath of Yanli,” Wei Ying says. “You’ve never been so hot.”

“Mn,” Lan Zhan says. He looks to the door, sees who is standing just outside, and settles a protective hand over the back of Wei Ying’s neck.

Madame Yu comes in after a long moment in the hallway and engages in eye contact warfare with Yanli. Jiang Fengmian kisses Yanli on the cheek and comes to kneel next to Wei Ying, inspecting the baby.

“Well, hello there,” he says. He claps Wei Ying on the shoulder, eyes still focused on Jin Ling, before he scoops him up and carries him over to his wife.

Wei Ying whimpers and turns his face into Lan Zhan’s neck.

“Say the word, and we’ll leave,” Lan Zhan says. Wei Ying shakes his head.

“We’d have to go past them,” he whispers.

“I can take them,” Lan Zhan says. “They’re distracted.” Wei Ying shakes his head again, presses a smile into Lan Zhan’s skin.

“I can do it,” he says.

Jiang Cheng pulls his chair over to sit on Wei Ying’s other side. He crosses his arms and slouches to the side so he’s leaning against Wei Ying’s free shoulder.

“Fucking ridiculous,” he says.

“You were crying when we got here,” Wei Ying sniffles.

“I was talking about them, fuck off,” Jiang Cheng says. It’s Jiang Cheng, so his voice carries, but neither of his parents react.

Yanli is outwardly beaming by the time her parents leave. There isn’t anymore interaction between them and Wei Ying, but that means that everything stays civil. So.

When the Jiang parents leave, all three siblings start crying in different directions. Jiang Cheng is leaning back in his chair, glaring at the ceiling, Yanli is smiling proudly down at Jin Ling like he did something. and Wei Ying is using Lan Zhan’s shirt collar as a tissue.

It’s the second shirt Lan Zhan has lost to tears today.

“You’re going to come to all of A-Ling’s stuff now, right?” Yanli says. “Like, like birthdays and school plays and sports and things?”

“I don’t know,” Wei Ying blubbers back. “Let me see him again.”

And Zixuan has to ferry the thankfully still sleeping baby back over to his uncles.

Wen Qing walks in on her break and walks around handing out juice boxes that she pulls from her pockets.

“Fucking hell, what happened?” she says.

“I’m an uncle!” Wei Ying says.

“My parents weren’t the absolute worst,” Yanli says, from where she is now outright sobbing into Zixuan’s shoulder. Wen Qing hands her the tissue box from the side table and comes over to inspect Jin Ling. She leans over Wei Ying.

“Aw. Hi little alien,” she says.

“He’s not an alien,” Jiang Cheng says. “He’s perfect.”

“They’re all aliens until they stop being squishy,” Wen Qing says. Which perfectly echos Lan Zhan’s thoughts on the matter, not that he would ever say so in front of a parent.

Jiang Cheng huffs and Wen Qing laughs and Lan Zhan misses the transition because he was trying to figure out what to do with the juice box Wen Qing gave him. But the next time he looks over Jiang Cheng’s arm is curled around Wen Qing as he sulkily drinks his own juice box and she uses her shirt to wipe away his tears.

Wei Ying reacts loudly enough that Jin Ling wakes up and Zixuan kicks them all out for being disgraces, but not before Yanli reassures them again that she’s crying because she’s so happy.

Wei Ying shows his maturity by waiting until they’re all the way out of the hospital to tackle Jiang Cheng. He doesn’t refrain from yelling, loudly, about who knows what the entire way there, but disturbing the peace is a far cry from wrestling that could be mistaken for assault.

Wen Qing disappears at some point during the trek to the doors, probably because she has to go back to work, but maybe from cowardice, and Lan Zhan is feeling rather left out as Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng scuffle in the grass.

Not that he wants to join in. His clothes are a lot less able to withstand grass stains than Wei Ying’s. But still. It looks…fun. They’re smiling with each attempted hit and soon enough they’re on the ground laughing up at the sky. Lan Zhan takes a seat on a nearby bench.

“What was that?” Wei Ying says.

“You attacked me!” Jiang Cheng says.

“With! Wen! Qing!” Wei Ying hits Jiang Cheng with each word.

“No comment,” Jiang Cheng says. He looks…less angry than normal.

“Can we double-date? I’ve never been on a double-date! Lan Zhan! Let’s go on a double-date with Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing!”

Lan Zhan smiles reflexively at Wei Ying, the way he always does whenever Wei Ying suggests they do anything together.

“Mn.”

Wei Ying gasps and hits Jiang Cheng again.

“He said yes,” he says.

(Lan Zhan did not say yes. Lan Zhan was acknowledging that Wei Ying said something to him. Wei Ying knows this. Wei Ying also knows that Lan Zhan is never going to contradict him in front of Jiang Cheng.)

After Lan Zhan and Wei Ying pick Yuan up from daycare (they walk across the courtyard like little ducklings when they’re done with pre-school) and go back to the apartment, Lan Zhan texts his brother.

They’ve seen each other since the party and it’s been fine. They are perfectly capable of being civil to each other. Friendly even. But it’s not the same as it was. Lan Zhan can’t even tell if it’s himself or Xichen being weird, it just is.

If Wei Ying can fix what was wrong between him and Jiang Cheng after so many years, Lan Zhan can at least try with Xichen.

Wei Ying distracts Yuan so Lan Zhan can slip out to take a walk with Xichen. Yuan makes everything better, but is maybe not the most conducive to…whatever this is going to be.

Xichen is leaning against his car, smiling placidly at the world around him, when Lan Zhan gets outside. They start walking, just for something to do, something to pay attention to that isn’t each other.

“So,” Lan Zhan says. “How are you?”

He repeats the question several times throughout the walk, each time getting a more complete answer.

Neither Lan Zhan nor Xichen lie, it’s one of the few family rules that has well and truly stuck past the family home, but Xichen is much more skilled at hiding things under layers and layers of pleasantries.

They go from talking about how everything is fine and going back to work will be lovely to talking about how Xichen is redecorating his entire apartment because it still feels contaminated by his ex, even after all the time and distance.

They talk about that one sunrise (because of course Xichen experienced a magical sunrise) that reassured Xichen that he would eventually be alright.

“Are you alright?” Lan Zhan asks. Xichen’s ever present smile actually wobbles.

“Not really,” he says. “But I’m more alright than I was.”

“Mn.”

“Maybe I stayed away past solitude’s usefulness,” Xichen agrees.

“If you wanted to stay. With us. While you…redecorate or move or whatever. We have space,” Lan Zhan says. Xichen’s smile smooths and softens.

“I wouldn’t want to intrude,” Xichen says. Lan Zhan actually scoffs.

“Ridiculous,” Lan Zhan says. “Yuan might not let you move back out. Think about it.”

Lan Zhan carefully loops his arm through Xichen’s, as if Xichen is something fragile that needs to be taken care of, and leads him to the taco truck they’re getting dinner from that night.

Dinner is for family, so Xichen stays to eat.

“I didn’t stop,” Wen Qing says. She’s somewhere around his lower back and she reaches up and presses her hand into his shoulder when he tries to move. She’s not actually strong enough to pin him down, isn’t even trying, to be honest.

He stays down.

“Stop what?” he asks.

He tries to tell himself that the fact that she jumped him as soon as she came into the apartment means she probably isn’t breaking up with him, she must find something worthwhile about him. But he’s not entirely sure that’s true.

Sex was never their problem and it didn’t keep her from leaving him last time.

It would be just like Wen Qing to decide to have one last hurrah before cutting off all contact, and not even bothering to tell him until after. He should probably consider himself lucky if she doesn’t just ghost him.

“I didn’t stop loving you,” she says, hand flexing against his back when he tries to move again. She keeps her nails cut short, but at this rate they still might break skin. He pushes into it. Just a little.

Jiang Cheng feels like his fist is just one big bruise from the number of times he’s bitten it to avoid saying “I love you” out loud until Wen Qing is ready to hear it and here she is, saying “I love you” like it’s an admission of guilt.

“Okay…”

“I just—I was so tired and everything was so messed up and I needed to stop fighting with you. And you had already chosen your brother’s side so I chose my brother’s side and-and-“ Wen Qing pauses to take a breath. “I didn’t break up with you because I didn’t love you. I didn’t realize that was what you thought.”

“Why are we…are you breaking up with me again?” Jiang Cheng says.

He’s been low key anxious ever since they started hooking up again that this was some weird revenge plot. That she was just messing with him so she could leave him again, really leaving him too broken to be fixed this time.

His therapist has not been pleased.

Wen Qing rocks her head back and forth against his spine. It’s a relief, but also not, because he can’t think of a single good reason for why they’re having this conversation.

There was the whole accidentally outing themselves to his entire family earlier, but the two things don’t quite connect for him.

“Wen Ning’s moving out,” she says.

Alright. That doesn’t connect either.

“Okay. That’s…do you want help finding a new apartment? Or a new roommate?”

Wen Qing goes so still she stops breathing. And Jiang Cheng thought talking to Wei Ying was hard. Wen Qing is so determined not to let you know she wants something she’d rather asphyxiate herself.

“Do you—do you want to move in with me?”

She bites his hip and then slides off of him so he can roll over.

“So…” she says, once they’re situated, both sitting and facing each other, although she’s paying more attention to her hands than to him.

“Can you move in? Yes. Haven’t you kind of already? Why are you all the way over there?” Jiang Cheng reaches a hand out.

She’s moved far enough across the bed that he has to actually reach and it’s unsettling after weeks of her designating him as the comfy place to sit, the more inconvenient it is for him the better.

“You haven’t said it back,” she says to her hands, continuing to ignore his.

He waves his hand until she reluctantly takes it, lets him reel her back in and tuck her in under his chin because she’s right, it’s easier to have this conversation when they aren’t looking at each other.

“I love you too. Do you have a dresser you want to bring or should we buy one? Did you really think I wouldn’t notice that you moved all my t-shirts into a suitcase in the closet?”

“Are you going to give me closet space?”

“You can’t negotiate after asking to move in, you should have waited for me to pitch. Use on of the spare bedrooms as a closet, I just got this one organized.”

Eventually they get dressed and move out into the living room to keep Lightening company. She still seems set on spending most of her time in her crate even though they never close it, so they sprawl out on the couch nearby arguing about clothes and storage space.

Jiang Cheng thinks this is what happiness feels like.

Instead of going on double-dates, Lan Zhan agrees to having extended family dinners. Everyone’s busy, and enough of them have inconsistent schedules, that it’s a bit of a moving target. But they aim for once or twice a month.

“I just have to know,” Wei Ying says, a few dinners in when everything is feeling very settled and less precarious. “What inspired you to make this mistake twice?”

He’s lounging on the couch without a care in the world because Lan Zhan banned him from the kitchen and Yuan has kidnapped Xichen, so he already has adult supervision built in for whatever game he’s playing.

The question is directed at Wen Qing, and she knows it’s a joke, but she can feel Jiang Cheng tense next to her so she thinks about her options before answering.

She thinks about how he always follows the interns back on twitter even though he can’t stand twitter and about how he hasn’t taken a pay raise the last three promotions as part of this whole negotiation to raise the entry level pay.

She thinks about how his feelings are so close to the surface that he practically vibrates with them at all times and about how he always tries to make her food when she comes home, even when he was already asleep, because all of the Jiang siblings are compulsive caretakers.

She thinks about granola bars hidden in her bag, and him trapping her hands against his skin to warm them up, and all the times she’s come home to him sitting on the floor with Lightening trying to convince her she can hang out outside of the crate.

She thinks about how he always takes so fucking long to apologize because he wants to prove that he can do better before he asks for forgiveness.

She thinks about how when she looks at him, she thinks ‘Home’ and she thinks ‘Safe’.

“Have you considered,” Wen Qing says. “That your brother is…so fucking hot?”

Jiang Cheng smirks down at his hands and doesn’t even react when Wei Ying starts yelling.

“Gross!” Wei Ying says. “Take it back!”

“Jawline could cut glass,” Wen Qing says, leaning in to kiss it. Wei Ying shudders.

“Ugh. Is this what you had to deal with, all the time?” he asks, turning to Wen Ning. Wen Ning takes a sip of his drink and nods.

“She’s very shallow, my sister,” he says.

Wen Qing throws a pillow at him.

At long last, Lan Zhan gives in. He gets the application and checks dates and agrees to go get married at City Hall if Wei Ying agrees to a full wedding ceremony and reception on their first anniversary.

Wei Ying privately thinks that this is more about listening to the lawyers and making Yuan’s paperwork easier than Lan Zhan giving in to him, but he’s content to play the role of pleased husband who has gotten his way so he doesn’t bring it up.

They dump Yuan into his pre-school interview outfit and text the siblings to ask for witnesses and go to a fancy cupcake bakery after because they promised Yuan cake. Yuan is beside himself with joy when Lan Zhan lets him pick out multiple mini cupcakes.

“Still a pushover, I see,” Wei Ying says when Lan Zhan sits down next to him. Lan Zhan cuts him a look and Wei Ying laughs. He can’t stop laughing today.

“Just checking,” he says. “They say marriage changes you.”

Lan Zhan rolls his eyes, but his ears tinge red every time Wei Ying makes reference to the fact that they’re Married and Husbands, so there’s no way he’s stopping anytime soon.

Yuan wiggles into Wei Ying’s lap and holds out mini cupcakes to both him and Lan Zhan.

“Family means cake,” Yuan says, making sure they both eat before he gets down and runs around the table to check on all his aunts and uncles.

“If this turns into some kind of math proof where dinner means cake, I’m blaming you,” Wei Ying says.

Lan Zhan decides he’s willing to accept the blame for most things today.

He leans in for another kiss. Wei Ying obliges, perhaps a little too enthusiasticlly for a weekday afternoon in public, but…Lan Zhan is willing to accept the blame for that too.