Chapter Text
Lan Zhan looked out at the winter storm howling outside his front door, and decided he wanted nothing more than to curl up on his couch with his bunny and a book and ignore the world with a hot cup of tea. Instead, he forced his feet into his wool socks and sensible shoes, desperately wishing he owned a sturdy pair of boots, and made his way out into the snow to his sensible little car.
He winced as snow made its way into his shoes after just the first couple of steps. His practical nature wouldn’t allow him to purchase a new pair of boots, though. Not in March, when spring should be just around the corner. His practical nature, and the voice in his head (that sounded far too much like his uncle for his comfort) advising him against frivolous spending.
If he were back home in Gusu, this wouldn’t be a problem. Spring would’ve swept over the little town he had called home for the first twenty-four years of his life. The gentians would’ve bloomed in his mother’s garden, turning their yard a vibrant blue. But now, he was in the equally small town of Yiling. Far, far away from the place he had grown up in and everyone and everything he’d ever known, with only his little bunny, Bichen, to keep him company.
The small town had been in desperate need for a teacher, and he had been in equally desperate need to get out from under the well-meaning, but oppressive thumb of his uncle so he had jumped on the job offer when it had arrived.
Lan Zhan hadn’t been expecting Yiling to be quite so different from Gusu, and it’s taken him longer than expected to get acclimated to the changes. Which is why, and he’s ashamed to admit, it’s taken him just under a month to find out about Wei Yuan.
The school was tiny, so any dropout was noticeable. An underachiever could feel discouraged and choose not to continue, this was something you would see in any school anywhere in the world. But Wei Yuan…the young omega was something special. Before he had dropped out, his grades had been top of his class, and he was in quite a few extra curriculars, most notably as president of the Science Club.
Despite all of that, he had dropped out at the end of the previous semester. He should’ve been in Lan Zhan’s class, but nobody had even mentioned him to the new teacher. Nobody had mentioned the sixteen-year-old with incredible potential. It was almost as if nobody had cared about him…
Not Lan Zhan. He would not let that child slip under the radar.
He had read Wei Yuan’s file mere hours ago, and the thought of so much potential wasting away filled him with a righteous fury, and led him to where he was now in an uncharacteristically reckless action. Driving up a steep, snowy mountain nicknamed ‘The Burial Mounds’ on a Saturday night in his sensible little car to get to the single house on the borderline uninhabitable hill that belonged to the small Wei family. His sensible little car that was never designed for snow this bad. The snow was falling a mile a minute, faster than his little windshield wipers could keep up with. His car groaned as it strained its way up the mountain.
‘What was I thinking?’ he thought to himself. This was incredibly dangerous. He would be of no use to that child if he killed himself trying to get there, after all! The road leading up to the Wei house was narrow. Add the icy roads, and Lan Zhan’s overall inexperience in driving in snow, and it was a recipe for disaster. He had already skidded more than once, and he would be lucky if he didn’t slide right off the road--!
--
Now, Lan Zhan was not the type to believe in irony, but the timing for him to drive into a snowbank was certainly something like it. He had stayed in the car long enough to weigh the benefits of staying, and potentially being buried under the snow, or trying to make his way up to the Wei house on foot before deciding to risk it. After all, his car battery wouldn’t last for long and then he’d be without heat anyway. He might as well get moving before the snow got worse.
As he trudged through the snow, he once again regretted listening to his uncle’s many lessons on frugality, and never purchasing a cell phone along with the sturdy boots that he was desperately wishing he had with every step he took as his wool socks were quickly soaked through while his sensible shoes filled with snow. His white coat, though not thin, was clearly not as sufficient as he had thought it would be when he bought it. If he made it off this mountain alive, he was definitely upgrading his winter wardrobe.
To his immense relief, he heard a truck behind him and he turned as fast as he could to try and flag it down, nearly knocking the glasses off his frozen nose in his rush.
He was already in the headlights of what he could barely make out as a black truck with red accents rolled to a stop in front of him. For a second, Lan Zhan was worried. Afterall, a lone omega, obviously in a vulnerable position, alone on a mountain road at night, when nobody knows he’s here…who wouldn’t be at least a little afraid? He shook the concern from his mind. Who else would have a reason to be on this road at night (other than clearly insane teachers) than the land owners? Besides, he’s much too plain and boring for anyone to want to attack. His dear uncle Lan Qiren had assured him of that, which was the main reason he had been okay with Lan Zhan moving alone in the first place.
The driver hopped out of the truck, pulling Lan Zhan’s attention back to him, and away from any thoughts of his impending doom, either from his hopeful savior, or the snow. Or even his uncle if he ever got wind of how foolish Lan Zhan had been this evening…
The driver stalked towards him, thoroughly bundled up in a black coat with the hood pulled up. He was tall, taller than Lan Zhan, but that was the only thing he could really make out. That, and the fact that he did not look happy.
“Do you need help?”
--
Wei Ying hadn’t been having the most eventful Saturday, but apparently that was about to change. When he had first spotted the omega now sitting in his passenger seat with his hands firmly in front of the heater, he had, for a very brief moment, thought he had been looking at a snow fairy from the fairytales he used to tell A-Yuan when he was a child. Afterall, he was all bundled up in white, with snowflakes resting in the long black braid the flowed down his back. When he had whirled around to reveal the most beautiful face Wei Ying had ever seen, that hadn’t helped convince him he was wrong. At least not until he got close enough to see the frozen red skin, runny nose, and cute glasses that fogged over once Wei Ying had lifted the frozen omega into his truck.
“So, what brought you here in this weather? That was pretty stupid, to tell the truth.”
The omega gave him a halfhearted glare, but acknowledged through his shivers, “Yes, I realize that now. I was looking for the Wei household. I was hoping to speak with Wei Wuxian.”
“Oh yeah? What do you want with him?”
The omega could barely talk around his shivers, making Wei Ying fear he was in danger of hypothermia, but he was trying to make sure the beautiful man stayed awake. The last thing he needed was for this stranger to die in his truck. Knowing his luck, he’d end up with another murder charge on his hands.
“I want to talk to him about his son,” he shuddered out, his shivers strengthening in intensity as warmth filled his hands from the truck’s heater.
“Ah! Well, I know for a fact that that is one of his favorite topics of conversation, so he just might not throw you right back down the mountain!” Wei Ying’s attention was firmly on the road, but he could almost feel the unimpressed glare the lovely stranger was sending his way. He ignored it though, as he announced they were at their destination.
Wei Ying hopped out of the cab of the truck and ran over to the passenger side door where the stranger’s frozen fingers had been fumbling with the handle. He unfastened the man’s seatbelt, ignoring his startled protests, and swept him up into his arms.
“I can walk!” the man sounded infuriated as his arms wrapped securely around the back of Wei Ying’s neck.
“Let’s be honest, you can’t even feel your toes in those stupid shoes of yours. You’re already frozen near solid, I’m not gonna make it worse before I can get you fixed up.”
Wei Ying thought he heard the man mumble something about his shoes being ‘Sensible, not stupid,’ and wanted to laugh, but restrained himself. This little cutie was certainly an odd one.
He maneuvered the door open without needing to drop his precious cargo and kicked his boots off in the entry hall before making his way into the kitchen. Feet toasty warm in his thermal socks. He set the stranger down in the chair before moving to fill the kettle on the stove and filling a large mixing bowl with lukewarm water. He tested it with his finger, and cooled it just a bit, not wanting it to be too hot. It would cause pain regardless, but he didn’t want to make it worse.
“What’s your name?”
“…Lan Zhan. Courtesy Lan Wangji.”
“Courtesy name, huh? That’s a little old fashioned, isn’t it?” he laughed at Lan Zhan’s affronted glare, “I’m kidding! You’re so funny! I have one myself!”
“May I ask what I could call you, Mr. Wei?”
“Ah! You found me out? Take off your coat and shoes.”
“You were not very subtle. I would rather not, though I do apologize about the shoes in your house.”
Wei Ying walked over and set the bowl on the floor by Lan Zhan’s feet before unfastening his poor excuse for a coat and pulling it off, revealing a rather frumpy sweater vest and white button up shirt combo. At least he had the good sense to wear long sleeves with the rest of his wildly unsafe outfit. He walked the distance to his living room to drape the coat over his radiator and grab the throw blanket from his sofa. As he wrapped the blanket around Lan Zhan he whispered, “I wasn’t asking.”
--
Lan Zhan’s breath caught in his throat as he locked eyes with the older alpha. There was a strange tension for a moment before he smiled and knelt on the floor next to the bowl of water he had placed there before retrieving the blessedly warm blanket. “You can call me Wei Ying, though my courtesy name is Wei Wuxian. My parents were old fashioned, too.”
Lan Zhan nodded before looking in shock as Wei Ying slid off his sensible (not stupid!) shoes and soaked wool socks and placed his feet in the lukewarm bowl of water. The temperature shock nearly caused him to shoot upright from where he was sitting, and it was only his strong sense of discipline that kept him from kicking the bowl of water all over his savior.
“Don’t move, okay? You were out there for far too long, and I don’t want you to end up with hypothermia,” he moved Lan Zhan’s shoes and socks to join his coat in front of the radiator as the kettle began to whistle. As he prepared him a cup of tea, he spoke, “This would honestly be easier if you were naked, but I get a slight feeling you wouldn’t be open to that.”
Lan Zhan didn’t even dignify that with a response as Wei Ying placed the cup of tea in front of him and moved a chair to face him.
“So, what do you want with my son?”