Work Text:
Eyes are the window to the soul.
In the light of the moon, standing on the rooftop with jars of alcohol in his hands, they sparkled silver like the stars above them.
In the Library Pavilion, they twinkled in mischief.
At Biling Lake they burned with determination before the Waterborne Abyss swept him off Suibian, dousing him until the lively flame of him almost went out.
In the cold spring those eyes glowed warmly with admiration.
At the archery competition, surprise made them wide, like silver mirrors for Lan Wangji to look into.
When he saw them next, at Qishan Wen's indoctrination, though they looked at him with gentle worry, for Wen Chao they had nothing but stormy anger, slowly growing into a typhoon of fury.
In the face of the Xuanwu of Slaughter not even a hint of fear flashed through those eyes. They shone with trust and courage until fever crept into the body and made them glassy and unfocused.
The next time he saw them the lovely silver was replaced by the colour of freshly spilled blood. For the first time, Lan Wangji was scared of looking into those eyes.
Perhaps if he wasn't so scared, he would have realized sooner that under the blood were still hiding stars, their shine more and more dull every day from bearing pain and fear in loneliness.
Perhaps if he looked into those eyes and found those dying stars, they wouldn't have disappeared from his world, drowned under a sea of innocent blood.
Through a different window, after many years the familiar soul shined. At first, Lan Wangji thought there was only smoke. But they were just heavy clouds bearing many drops of rain that slowly, slowy dispersed until finally, at the Guanyin Temple in Yunping City, Yunmeng, Lan Wangji saw the stars again, blazing with the same emotion he could feel burning through every part of his own body.
Months later, sitting safe in the jingshi, with heavy regrets lifted from that strong soul, those eyes sparkled with happiness again and he couldn't stop the smile from curving his lips and crinkling the corners of his own eyes in response.
"Lan Zhan, what are you thinking about?"
"Wei Ying."