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The yao darts forward between Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi, slamming Wei Wuxian backwards in its haste to get away. It's the only hit the creature has managed to land despite its size and the resentful energy that drips from it. The creature ricochets off trees, fleeing.
"Where's Senior Wei?!" Lan Jingyi yells, terrified. Lan Sizhui whips his head around as Lan Wangji follows after the yao, and spots a heap of robes behind them, near where Wei Wuxian had once stood. His eyes widen and he tugs at Lan Jingyi's sleeve.
Sitting between the fabric, eyes wide and teary, is a very small and very unclothed child. The child has dark, dirty hair pulled back with a ratty red ribbon, and their face is vaguely familiar.
"No…" Lan Jingyi breathes out, just as the child looks down at themselves, notices their own nakedness and begins to cry.
"My clothes! What did you do with A-Ying's clothes?!" 'A-Ying' sobs, grabbing at the fabric that was Wei Wuxian's robes and pushing them aside, searching. When they don't find what they're looking for, they curl up, eyes still warily looking at the two Lan cultivators. "Who are you?!"
Lan Sizhui steps forward, projecting his movements, and A-Ying's brow furrows the closer he gets. "A-Ying, my name is Lan Sizhui. I don't know where your clothes are, but I can make you new ones?" He crouches next to the child and pulls up the red inner robe they're sitting on. It's too big on the child, who couldn't be much older than 6 years old. Lan Sizhui tears the fabric off the arms and the length, then tears another strip to use as a makeshift belt, quickly tying everything around the now quietly crying child.
A-Ying hiccups. "T-thank you." they say, rubbing their eyes. "Are you... are you 'cul-chi-vators'?" they ask, the word unsure in their mouth.
Lan Sizhui glances at Lan Jingyi, who comes closer. "We are Lan cultivators." he confirms, nodding. A-Ying looks between the two of them, taking their bottom lip into their mouth.
"Ma– Mama told A-Ying to find 'cul-chi-vators' if he needed help..."
Lan Jingyi finally crouches next to them. "And do you need help, A-Ying?" he asks, glancing at Lan Sizhui in concern when the child nods. They had both unwillingly seen how dangerously thin and scarred his body was, had heard how A-Ying had referred to himself as a 'he' despite having different parts than the two of them.
Lan Sizhui blinks and turns to Lan Jingyi in concern. "'A-Ying'..." he murmurs. Not a moment later, his eyes widen in recognition. "Wei Ying?" he asks, stricken, looking back to the child before them. A-Ying—Wei Ying, Wei Wuxian—nods carefully and quietly. He looks like he could cry again. Lan Sizhui shares another glance with Lan Jingyi. He has heard of the time Wei Wuxian spent homeless on the streets of Yiling after his parents died, how the previous Sect Leader Jiang eventually found him after years and brought him back to Lotus Pier. But they weren't in Yiling, nor anywhere near Yunmeng.
"The yao must've cursed Senior Wei when it smacked into him." Lan Jingyi says, taking the words right out of Lan Sizhui's mouth. A-Ying looks at him, then behind him, going pale.
"...Wei Ying?"
—————
A-Ying clings to Lan Sizhui, who holds the child in an embrace, and watches Lan Wangji over his shoulder. "Gege," he complains softly, pushing his mouth into the same shoulder. "A-Ying can walk."
"I know," Lan Sizhui replies, not for the first time since he started carrying A-Ying. "But you don't have any shoes, and I want to carry you. There's a lot of big steps and you could fall." He doesn't say it's because Wei Wuxian had always carried him at any moment he physically could, swinging him up into the air or down into a patch of dirt, and he wants nothing more than to throw A-Ying up and catch him to hear him laugh.
It had been difficult when Lan Wangji had returned, having eliminated the yao. He was the only adult now that Wei Wuxian was like this, and A-Ying had been so frightened he had cried out loudly, hiding in Lan Sizhui's skirts. Now, as they travel to find a suitable area to camp, Lan Wangji walks behind them as A-Ying wanted to keep him where he could see him. Lan Wangji looks positively miserable, even if Lan Sizhui is the only one to realise it.
A-Ying remains quiet as they stop and Lan Sizhui has to put him down to help set up tents and a fire. The child silently follows Lan Wangji, who lets him, as Lan Wangji places wards around their camp's perimeter. Something he does must make a difference, because after they come back to join the disciples around the fire, A-Ying sits pressed up against Lan Wangji's side.
"Here," Lan Sizhui says to A-Ying, unwrapping some of his rations to give to the child. A-Ying looks at it, then looks at Lan Sizhui's face in disbelief. He doesn't take it. "A-Ying. You must be hungry, eat." Lan Sizhui takes A-Ying's hand and puts the food in it, but A-Ying remains frozen and unmoving. Lan Sizhui falters, feels eyes on him and looks up to Lan Wangji for guidance. Lan Wangji glances at the rest of the food in Lan Sizhui's hand pointedly, then flicks back at his face. Lan Sizhui forces his face back into a smile and looks at A-Ying again—purposefully bringing the food to his mouth and taking a bite, chewing and swallowing. A-Ying's lips part into a little concerned pout.
"Eat, it's for you." Lan Sizhui says again and sits on a-Ying's other side. The child looks at the other members of the camp, who are all silently eating like good little Lans. He hesitantly takes a bite, then another and another when no one stops him. He practically inhales it, like he's starving—and Lan Sizhui's heart sinks, because he is starving. But A-Ying doesn't ask for more, even as he watches them all eat their portions and finish their meal.
"Water," Lan Wangji says, holding a waterskin to A-Ying. "Drink slowly." A-Ying huffs, but only takes a few sips at Lan Wangji's insistence.
Lan Sizhui watches the scene with a heavy heart.
—————
"No!" A-Ying shrieks, fighting against Lan Sizhui's hold. "A-Ying can't sleep yet! It's not safe! Let me GO!" He smacks and kicks, and as soon as Lan Sizhui's grip loosens even the slightest he shoots out of the tent. He runs to where Lan Wangji still sits at the low fire, meditating.
Lan Wangji cracks open an eye as A-Ying sits at his side again, not as close as before, and peers around his body to look at Lan Sizhui. Lan Sizhui looks dejected, but ends up going back to his tent after Lan Wangji gives him a nod. A-Ying won't bother him if he cannot sleep.
"A-Ying is sorry," the child says, drawing his knees up to his chest and tucking his makeshift robes into place around him. Lan Wangji turns to him, finally allowing himself a proper look at Wei Ying's original face. He's so distracted by the thing he'd never thought he'd get to see again, that he almost misses what A-Ying says next. "but A-Ying can't sleep until the man goes away."
Lan Wangji blinks at him. "What man, Wei Ying?"
A-Ying shakes his head. "The man. He always comes when the moon is high," A-Ying says, pointing to the night sky. "and tries to touch and hurt A-Ying." The child curls his hands around the backs of his little thighs, squeezing himself together and making sure his robe is closed.
Lan Wangji feels his blood run cold. This isn't something Wei Wuxian and he have ever discussed before, even with the detail Wei Wuxian has gone into of what he remembers from this time of his life. It's not a whole lot, and Lan Wangji wonders if this is another thing Wei Wuxian has forgotten, or made himself forget. For now, however, A-Ying is looking at him like he's let him in on a secret (which he has) and still has that scared expression hidden under bravado.
"That man will not come tonight, Wei Ying. I will not allow it." Lan Wangji reaches out and tentatively touches A-Ying's hair. "If anyone tries to hurt you again, come to me and I will protect you."
A-Ying sobs, pressing a hand to his mouth to quiet himself. "From t-the d-d-dogs too?"
Oh, Wei Ying.
"Mn. Sleep now, I am here." Lan Wangji hums, shifting closer so that A-Ying can hide himself under his long, flowy sleeve. Under the newfound sense of safety, A-Ying quickly falls fast asleep.
—————
They are all back in the Cloud Recesses—A-Ying having met Lan Qiren, who looked almost concerned, and Lan Xichen, who coo-ed over the child and held him at his hip for several moments—and Lan Wangji has settled them back into the Jingshi when there's a crackle of magic and the sound of fabric tearing. Lan Wangji pokes his head out into the main area where he had laid an exhausted and sleepy A-Ying against the floor cushions and finds a now adult Wei Wuxian curled up instead.
"Wei Ying." Lan Wangji calls, quickly pulling robes from the wardrobe and wrapping them around his husband's frame.
Wei Wuxian hums, blinking open his eyes slowly at the manhandling. "Lan Zhan?" he asks as he sits up, putting his arms through the robes Lan Wangji provides. "What happened? I feel so sore."
"You were cursed." Lan Wangji says after a moment, adjusting Wei Wuxian's lapels. Wei Wuxian's legs are still bare. "You reverted to a child."
"Oh?" Wei Wuxian replies. He still feels sluggish. He looks up at Lan Wangji, his face different once again, and something in how Lan Wangji looks to him makes his expression turn stricken. "Lan Zhan..?"
"You–" Lan Wangji sucks in a breath, not wanting those old, leftover feelings of panic and helplessness to bubble back to the surface. He cups Wei Ying's face in his hands and brings their foreheads together. "Your face was your old one." he says. "I never thought I would see it again."
"Oh, my sweetheart." Wei Wuxian says back, shifting to press their lips together as well in a chaste kiss. "Did you meet little A-Xian? He's only 3, y'know."
"No." Lan Wangji chases the kiss, giving Wei Wuxian another and another, then nips at his lips lightly. "I met A-Ying."
Wei Wuxian draws back quickly, almost flinching. "What?"
Lan Wangji lets his hands fall away from his Wei Wuxian's face and takes up his clenching hands instead. "You couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old." Lan Wangji looks down as he plays with Wei Wuxian's fingers. "It took all night, but eventually you fell asleep against me." He doesn't mention anything he noticed, anything A-Ying said, but Wei Wuxian still gives him a look of disbelief when he says nothing much happened.
"Then why am I back to normal?" Wei Wuxian says as he settles his adult-sized body in Lan Wangji's lap now.
"I suppose a full day has passed." Lan Wangji replies, taking Wei Wuxian's hair down to brush it. A-Ying hadn't let any of them touch his hair nor bathe him and Lan Wangji has been itching to brush it free of tangles and wash and oil it until it's shiny and smooth. Wei Wuxian hums as the brush passes against his scalp and lets Lan Wangji work.
"But you dealt with the yao last night?"
"Mn, before we discovered your predicament."
"Lan Zhan!" Wei Wuxian laughs, turning in his hold, then laughs again when Lan Wangji forcibly sits him to face forward again. "So, I didn't trust you?"
Lan Wangji hums again, parting a new section of Wei Wuxian's hair. "You didn't trust any of us at first, but when you saw me..." he trails off, thinking of the terror in A-Ying's fragile gaze. "You did not have much trust in adults at that time."
"You could say that." Wei Wuxian hums back, shivering when Lan Wangji brushes at his nape. "Or maybe it was your face, like when you made A-Yuan cry that first time?" he continues wistfully. "Do you remember that, Lan Zhan? Do you still frighten children with your fuddy duddy seriousness?"
"I still had Bichen unsheathed," Lan Wangji says carefully as he begins to braid back Wei Wuxian's hair when he finishes brushing, trying to keep it untangled for his bath later. "Perhaps that reminded A-Ying of the last time he saw his parents."
"Ah," Wei Wuxian chokes out.
"It's alright, Wei Ying."
"But, I..."
"Wei Ying. It's alright. You... You were a very lovely child. I just wish so many had not taken such advantage of you."
Wei Wuxian huffs, finally twisting around now that Lan Wangji has removed his hands from hair. He noses at Lan Wangji's face, making him tilt up so Wei Wuxian can get to his neck. "I was taken advantage of as a cultivator more."
Lan Wangji sets his hands high up on Wei Wuxian's waist, pulling him close, and hums. Wei Wuxian's lips press softly against his jaw. "I can still wish you hadn't been."
"But if I hadn't..." Wei Wuxian curls his arm around his own body to entwine their fingers. "We wouldn't have gotten to have this." he sighs, bringing their joined hands between the folds of his robes. He's still not wearing trousers, so it's only a moment before they're where he is warm and growing damp.
"Maybe we could make our own A-Ying, huh," Wei Wuxian sighs at the brush of their fingers. "and we could give them a much better life. Wouldn't you like that, Lan Zhan? Maybe they'd have my ol–" Wei Wuxian's breath hitches when Lan Wangji's finger penetrates him, just the tip tickling his insides. "Ah, Lan Zhan, take me to bed first, you wicked man!" he cries, throwing his head back. He squints at Lan Wangji through his lashes. "Ah, ah, but you said you'd protect me, are you already shirking your dut– Oh!"
Lan Wangji lifts Wei Wuxian up one handed and takes him to their bed, throwing him onto it and quickly climbing over him to bracket him in his limbs. Wei Wuxian laughs melodically at the fire in his eyes, how he leans over Wei Wuxian to brush their lips together again. "Mark your words." Lan Wangji tells Wei Wuxian, then blinks, tilting his head slightly. His hair falls, brushing the sheets next to Wei Wuxian's head. "I will protect you, A-Ying. You. Are. Mine."
The Wei Wuxian under him moans, whining for Lan Wangji's hands back on him, back in him, and it's all he can do but smile and give it all to him.