Chapter Text
At twilight they reached the lake and built a fire with driftwood they found on the shoreline. Fires cast by Lan Wangji always burnt differently from Wei Wuxian’s own - steadier, longer, less vibrant and volatile. Wei Wuxian could get as close as she wanted to the flames without much fear of getting burnt - once she swore she saw a lick of flame actually duck away from her when her hair was dangling too close, although when she snapped her head around to Lan Wangji, Lan Wangji was deep in thought, gazing into the embers. Wei Wuxian still had her suspicions.
It was cool if not cold, now that the summer was drawing to a close, and once the fire was burning Wei Wuxian sat down in front of it, rubbing her hands together, kicking off her boots and wiggling her toes. Lan Wangji was setting up the rest of their camp, the canvas tent for them to sleep under and the mats and provisions. She used a few protective talismans to secure their camp, so no one could approach them without first announcing themselves.
Wei Wuxian was waiting for Lan Wangji to come over to the fire and sit with her, but once the camp was ready, Lan Wangji only came to stand beside her, one hand tracing idly over the crown of Wei Wuxian's head. Wei Wuxian leaned back into it, looked up at Lan Wangji and made a hopeful noise through her pouted lips, a kiss-kiss noise. Lan Wangji’s expression was unreadable, although her fingers tightened in Wei Wuxian's hair.
“I think I will swim,” Lan Wangji said.
Wei Wuxian blinked up at her. “Lan Zhan,” she said, “are you crazy?”
“It is good for the muscles,” Lan Wangji said. “I am not crazy. It was a long way to walk.”
Wei Wuxian opened her mouth to refute this, and then clamped it shut again, mollified. Lan Wangji had let her ride on Apple for most of the journey, tapping his flank carelessly with a stick and pretending to direct him while Lan Wangji held the rope and walked alongside them, actually leading the way. Wei Wuxian had asked almost once an hour whether they should swap places, and every time Lan Wangji had responded with a silent, unimpressed sideways glance. Rude of her, but it also meant that Wei Wuxian didn’t feel guilty about Lan Wangji’s sore muscles.
“Fine, Lan Zhan,” she said, “just don’t expect me to come and save you if there are water demons in there.”
“Mn,” Lan Wangji agreed, and untied her sash. Wei Wuxian hadn’t connected the fact that Lan Wangji wanted to swim with the fact that Lan Wangji would have to undress to do it, and she watched Lan Wangji cast off the white layers of her robes with wide, surprised eyes.
“Lan-er-gege,” she said, once Lan Wangji was down to her trousers. The scars across her back were just visible in the evening light, shadowy dip of her shoulder blades, and her long hair trailing down. She turned when Wei Wuxian spoke. “You shouldn’t swim in your hair ribbon. It will get wet.”
It was such a transparent ploy that Wei Wuxian expected some kind of dry retort from Lan Wangji, but instead, Lan Wangji nodded and came over to the fire, crouching with her back to Wei Wuxian. It was always easier to get away with things when she called Lan Wangji her gege. The first few times she had done it Lan Wangji had said, “Foolish,” and pretended to be annoyed, but Lan Wangji’s pink tipped ears had betrayed her.
Wei Wuxian pulled her hair aside and untied the ribbon, still tightly knotted from when she had tied it on Lan Wangji this morning. They had woken up early - early for Wei Wuxian anyway - in order to get a good start on the day’s traveling.
They were walking from Cloud Recesses to the Unclean Realm. The Nie clan were currently in possession of an ancient artifact called the Gold-palmed Warrior. It was older than much of recorded history and, Lan Wangji had said, imbued with deep spiritual importance, although as far as Wei Wuxian could tell it didn’t actually do anything. It was just pretty and expensive and a useful energy source for certain elements of cultivation, and it was said to bring the clan that possessed it good luck.
This sounded faintly familiar to Wei Wuxian, like something Jiang Fengmian had explained to her while she wasn’t listening, too focused on retying her bowstring or getting Jiang Cheng into a chokehold.
Lan Wangji said that because of its uncertain origins, the different clans used to debate endlessly over who had rights to keep it. Duels were fought over it, and much blood and time wasted, until a treaty was drawn up that each clan would hold the Gold-palmed Warrior for ten years, before transferring it to the next clan along.
“I definitely don’t remember that,” Wei Wuxian said. “That sounds like something I would have noticed, right?”
Lan Wangji dropped her gaze. “The last time it was transferred, from the Jin to the Nie Clan, was ten years ago. You were not…”
“Ah,” Wei Wuxian said. She tapped her temple with her knuckle - of course. Lan Wangji did not need to explain further.
It had been a long summer, more night hunting than they could keep up with, and for some of them Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian had needed to split up, tackle a threat from opposite sides. It was easy for them to do so, of course, and neither of them had ever been in any real danger, but nights apart made both of them restless and anxious in the days before and after, jealous of each other’s company. They could have sent a couple of the Lan cultivators to collect the Gold-palmed Warrior from the Unclean Realm, but Lan Wangji had said that it would be more respectful to travel there themselves. They could probably travel there using Bichen, but “The weather is favourable,” Lan Wangji had said. “Apple would enjoy the chance for a walk.”
Now Apple was wandering down to the shoreline of the lake, lapping at the water. Lan Wangji was in the water, already quite far out; Wei Wuxian could just see the white lines of her arms chopping against the surface of the lake, leaving ripples in her wake. Wei Wuxian had been warmed enough by the fire, and she didn’t like feeling left behind, so she went to join Apple by the water’s edge, patting him gently on his side. She dipped one bare toe into the water, just to test it, and then pulled back with a hiss. It was cold as ice.
“It is not that cold,” Lan Wangji said. She had stopped swimming and was standing out there in the lake, water lapping around her shoulders. Wei Wuxian startled. She hated when Lan Wangji did that, secretly pausing and watching her when Wei Wuxian thought she was alone. She hated it so much that it made her insides hot, something prickling at the back of her neck.
“Come here,” Lan Wangji said.
“No! You can’t force me.”
“I will not force Wei Ying. If she is scared…”
“I’m not scared, Lan Zhan!”
Wei Wuxian was entirely sure that she was being baited, but she couldn’t help feeling indignant about it anyway. She wasn’t afraid of a bit of pond water. If Lan Wangji thought she could trick Wei Wuxian into getting wet by calling her a coward, she was wrong -- but also, Wei Wuxian wasn’t a coward. Suddenly she grinned.
“Okay, Hanguang-Jun,” she called. “You win. I’m coming out to you.”
Wei Wuxian’s spiritual power was still fairly diminished, but if she didn’t over exert herself and kept her focus she could summon up a little power. Enough for movement, if not for fighting. She mustered together all of the power in Mo Xuanyu’s body and took a flying leap over the water, running across the lake towards Lan Wangji, skating like a beetle with her feet tapping on the surface.
She was planning to fly to Lan Wangji and run in an arc around her, and get all the way back to the shore without actually falling in or getting wet. She would have made it, too, if not for the cunning and underhanded Hanguang-Jun. Just as Wei Wuxian was skating around her, Lan Wangji reached out one hand to hook Wei Wuxian’s ankle. It was like a dead weight on her leg; Mo Xuanyu’s body couldn’t shake her off, and Wei Wuxian tripped into the freezing cold water. She came up shrieking.
“You’re the worst, Lan Zhan! Why would anyone bother to worry about demons when you are around, playing nasty tricks on your Wei Ying--”
“It is good for you,” Lan Wangji said evenly. She waded closer to Wei Wuxian and plucked a strand of pond weed from Wei Wuxian’s hair.
At least Lan Wangji didn’t make them stay in for very long. It was dark now, and as they came out of the water Wei Wuxian was shivering. Her robes were heavy with water, mud sinking in between her toes. Lan Wangji performed a quick drying spell on herself as they emerged from the lake, and when they reached their camp she folded herself quickly into her robes before Wei Wuxian could even get a very good look at her, pristine like she was never undressed.
Wei Wuxian was expecting to receive her own drying spell as well, but when Lan Wangji beckoned her over, it was to untie the knot of her sash and push her robes off of her shoulders. “Lan Zhan!” Wei Wuxian said, scandalized, but Lan Wangji ignored her. She got Wei Wuxian out of her wet clothes and then produced a towel instead, and wrapped Wei Wuxian in it, swaddling her almost like a baby. They sat by the fire together, Lan Zhan in her clean dry robes and Wei Wuxian wrapped up in her towel, and Lan Wangji used a second towel to dry Wei Wuxian’s hair, rubbing into Wei Wuxian's scalp and neck while Wei Wuxian preened and purred.
When Lan Wangji suggested that they camp along the way to the Unclean Realm, rather than staying at inns, Wei Wuxian had been sceptical. She much preferred to stay at inns with Lan Wangji; part of it was sentimentality about their previous adventures, the first time she had kissed Lan Wangji and the first time they had fucked, always hidden away in the private rooms of an inn, behind a locked door. But she also liked the convenience of inns; she liked being able to order food and drink up to their rooms whenever she wanted; liked the feeling of being two anonymous strangers in a foreign town almost as much as she liked being two revered and/or feared visitors to a familiar place. But sitting by the fire with Lan Wangji, alone except for the humming of insects and the flicker of stars overhead, Wei Wuxian wondered if she might need to revise her traveling preferences.
Once Wei Wuxian was warmed through, Lan Wangji set about making a meal from the supplies they had brought. In order to avoid being roped in to help Wei Wuxian crawled into their tent and started making their bed, which mostly meant moving a few pillows around and then curling up in the blankets like a cat, unraveling from her towel and throwing it aside, with her damp hair falling around her. The crackle of fire outside and the sounds of Lan Wangji moving about, the smell of sandalwood in the air. She sighed happily, pressing her nose into the blankets.
“Do not get the bed wet,” Lan Wangji said from outside the tent.
It was absolutely the wrong thing to say. Wei Wuxian grinned. “But how can I help it,” she called, “when I’m so warm and I’m lying undressed in our bed, and my big strong husband is outside tending to the fire, what else am I supposed to do except get nice and wet so I’m ready for him---”
“Dinner is ready,” Lan Wangji said.
Wei Wuxian sat up. “Do I have to get dressed before I eat?”
“Yes.” A pause, and Lan Wangji added, “Just an outer robe so that you are warm.”
Wei Wuxian took this as the permission it was to snag one of Lan Wangji’s spare robes and drape herself in the white, tying it very loosely around her waist. She wished Lan Wangji carried spare headbands too, so she could complete the look, but this would do. Maybe later if she was good or annoying enough Lan Wangji would hand hers over anyway.
Dinner was vegetable soup and bread. It was bland but it restored some of Wei Wuxian’s energy, and as they ate she speculated about whether or not there were fish in the lake. In the morning she might try to catch some, make Lan Wangji cook them for her breakfast. Wei Wuxian had been sleepy in the tent but out in the night air she felt more awake, chatty, and she was pointing out various constellations, some she had learned and others she had invented for herself, when Lan Wangji said,
“No talking during meals.”
Wei Wuxian snapped her mouth shut. She nodded, and made a big show of scarfing down the rest of her meal in silence, while Lan Wangji watched her suspiciously. She waited until Lan Wangji had turned back to her own food before leaning over and stealing the remaining half of Lan Wangji’s bread, smiling warmly, and then making an expression of surprise at Lan Wangji’s cold, reprimanding look.
“Ask before taking,” Lan Wangji said.
“But how can I ask,” Wei Wuxian said triumphantly, “if I’m not allowed to speak?”
She felt very pleased with herself for besting Lan Wangji in this battle of wits. Lan Wangji was so clever and well-read and she talked like a great poet or a scholar, but she was not always as quick-witted as Wei Wuxian. What Wei Wuxian lacked in scholarly learning she made up for with a certain intuitive--- ah!
“Lan Zhan!” Wei Wuxian cried, and dropped the last corner of bread and her soup bowl as Lan Wangji took her by the hair and pulled her backwards, sharp and unrelenting, dragging Wei Wuxian back into the tent by her ponytail. It hurt so much, something like a burn, and when Lan Wangji deposited her on the floor of the tent Wei Wuxian whimpered, rubbing her sore head and staring up at Lan Wangji, who was kneeling beside her.
“So cruel, my husband,” Wei Wuxian complained. “Didn’t even let me finish eating.”
“Wei Ying is misbehaving tonight,” said Lan Wangji. There was a new edge in her voice, a new cadence which had not been there before. As she spoke she was combing her own hair back with her fingers, twisting it into a neat braid that swung down her back. Lan Wangji always tied her hair out of the way like this before she wanted to do a particularly nasty scene, and by this point Wei Wuxian had an inadvertent response to it. She felt on edge, ready, the same way she felt before a fight.
Lan Wangji said, “Wei Ying is trying to get into trouble.”
“I’m not!” Wei Wuxian said, even though she had been. In her defence, Wei Wuxian felt like she was always trying to get in trouble with Lan Wangji. She was always trying to get a reaction, break that stony resolve; she felt every miniscule change of Lan Wangji’s expression as a personal victory.
“Intentionally or not,” Lan Wangji said. “The punishment is the same.”
“Lan Zhan!” Wei Wuxian said, intending to protest her innocence, but then she noticed Lan Wangji pulling up her sleeves. “What are you gonna do?”
“No more talking,” Lan Wangji said. “On your knees.”
Wei Wuxian was absolutely going to keep talking, she already had three or four smart remarks queued up in her head, but when she went to open her mouth she found that she couldn’t. Ugh! Lan Wangji had cast the silencing spell.
“Mmmf,” she protested, pointing to her mouth, but Lan Wangji was implacable.
“Knees,” she said.
Not wanting to give in entirely, Wei Wuxian made a big slow show of hauling herself up onto her knees. She sat up tall, straight backed with her chin raised, and shot Lan Wangji as innocent a look as she could manage. Lan Wangji looked furious; it made Wei Wuxian’s whole body pulse. Something was going to happen, now, Lan Wangji was going to do something to her, and she didn’t know what it would be.
“You know that is not what I meant,” Lan Wangji said, and twisted her hand in Wei Wuxian’s hair again, pushing down until Wei Wuxian’s face was to the ground. She untied the loose sash around Wei Wuxian’s waist and stripped her roughly, manhandling her arms and legs around until Wei Wuxian was naked and kneeling, her face against the ground and her hips up in the air.
“That’s better,” Lan Wangji said. “That is what I mean when I tell you ‘on your knees’. The same way you like to be fucked.”
Wei Wuxian squeaked. How could Lan Wangji be so vulgar? What would people say, if they knew how cruel and obscene the pure Hanguang-Jun could be? Sometimes Wei Wuxian wished she could tell them, but she knew that she really preferred it this way - it made her feel special to think that she was the only person in the world who knew what Lan Wangji was really like. She was drawn out of these affectionate thoughts by the sharp sting of Lan Wangji’s hand as it landed on her ass.
“Mmmmff!” she cried, and Lan Wangji hit her again. It hurt so much! Wei Wuxian had been sitting in the saddle all day and her muscles were already tight and sore. Lan Wangji was so cruel about it, too, not spreading the blows around to make it easier to take but hitting the same spot, over and over and over, until it felt stinging hot and throbbing, like she was burning a mark into Wei Wuxian’s skin. Wei Wuxian knew that she was wet and wondered how obvious it was to Lan Wangji. She could feel it dripping down her thighs. The light in the tent was fairly dim, just a soft fiery glow, but Lan Wangji had good eyes and never seemed to overlook anything that Wei Wuxian’s body was telling her.
The silencing spell meant that Wei Wuxian couldn’t even scream for relief, and instead she made frantic, muffled noises, deep in her throat, embarrassing half-cries as if she was ashamed of making a sound. Every one of her noises seemed to make Lan Wangji hit her harder, like she was trying to force Wei Wuxian to break the spell, trying to rip her lips apart. Like she wanted to find out what part of her would have the strongest effect on Wei Wuxian, the spell in her mouth or the hand on her ass.
After what must have been at least thirty strikes - neither of them were counting - Lan Wangji stroked roughly down over Wei Wuxian’s tits, squeezing her nipples too hard. Wei Wuxian could feel her lips ungluing as the spell wore off, but she hadn’t spoken in so long that now she had momentarily forgotten how to. Instead all she did once she could make noises again was start to sob, shaking and frantic.
“Poor Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji murmured, at the same time as she took Wei Wuxian's left nipple and twisted viciously.
“You don’t mean that,” Wei Wuxian said pitifully, “if you really felt sorry for your Wei Ying you would---mmf!”
And the silencing spell fell over her again, and this time Lan Wangji picked a new spot. Lower down on her thigh where the skin was stretched and sensitive, and her hand felt like a switch now, like an implement designed specifically to make Wei Wuxian hurt. Wei Wuxian’s pussy was aching, she was desperate for Lan Wangji to pay attention to it but also terrified of what sort of attention it would be. She kicked her legs against the ground behind her, gave a muffled scream, and Lan Wangji ignored her and just kept striking.
The next time the spell wore off, Lan Wangji paused with her hand resting on Wei Wuxian’s ass, proprietary. “Do you have anything to say, Wei Ying?”
“I -” Wei Wuxian struggled to think. “I’m - I’m sorry, husband, I’m sorry for misbehaving.”
Lan Wangji made an approving noise and took Wei Wuxian into her lap. Wei Wuxian realized for the first time that she was cold, she had been naked for so long now but the searing pain of Lan Wangji’s strikes had distracted her from it. Now she was shivering, and she huddled in close to Lan Wangji, straddling one of her thighs so she could rub her clit against Lan Wangji’s leg, not particularly hard but enough to send little sparks of relief between her legs; finally, something nice, after all of that pain.
“Better,” Lan Wangji said. “Now you’re being good.”
She stretched her other leg out enough that she could slip one hand down beneath her robe. Wei Wuxian could feel Lan Wangji jerking herself off while Wei Wuxian ground down helplessly on her thigh, and they were both panting now, kissing, Wei Wuxian was covered in chill sweat and they were going to mess up Lan Wangji’s robes, Lan Wangji should have undressed too, she should have given Wei Wuxian some warning, why did Lan Wangji always have to be so, so--
“So mean to me,” Wei Wuxian said tearfully.
“It is good for you,” Lan Wangji repeated. “Wei Ying. Are you going to come for me?”
“Not like this,” Wei Wuxian said, “Not without you, please, Hanguang-Jun,” and she kissed desperately at Lan Wangji’s neck, down behind her ear and along her jawline, smell of sandalwood and outside air, frantic kisses like she didn’t know how else to show Lan Wangji how much she wanted it, and Lan Wangji groaned low, almost under her breath, and then Wei Wuxian felt her shaking and shuddering as she came. Wei Wuxian kissed her through it, but Lan Wangji had not even caught her breath again before Wei Wuxian started to beg.
“Please touch me,” she said, “Please touch me there, Lan Zhan, if you touch me I’ll come, please, husband, I promise to be good, promise to behave myself and just be your good humble wife--”
“Don’t make promises that you cannot keep,” Lan Wangji said.
“Lan Zhaaaan,” Wei Wuxian whined, and that felt good at least, drawing the name out like a prayer in her mouth, and she was gearing up to do it again when Lan Wangji tipped them over and pushed Wei Wuxian onto her stomach, her face once again pressed down to the ground as Lan Wangji climbed on top of her, both of them lying flat with Lan Wangji grinding down hard against Wei Wuxian’s sore ass. She was going to make herself come again, using Wei Wuxian’s bruised skin for friction. It hurt so much.
Sometimes Lan Wangji liked to find the bruises she had left on Wei Wuxian’s skin, the morning after she had made them, and to press down hard on the blue-purple marks, making Wei Wuxian yelp. This felt like that times a million; relentless shoving thrusts of her hips, right up into Wei Wuxian, almost like she was pushing inside, and Wei Wuxian wanted that suddenly with a great ferocity.
“Please Lan Zhan, please put something inside me, your hands or your, your tongue, please fuck me. You have to, Lan Zhan!”
“I do not have to,” Lan Wangji said.
Her voice was so low and rough it came out like a growl, and it sent waves of electric heat rolling down through Wei Wuxian. Lan Wangji was panting from exertion. She bit down on the back of Wei Wuxian’s neck, she was so cruel, and Wei Wuxian was babbling her protests now, an unending stream of complaints and demands which Lan Wangji was entirely deaf to. It didn’t matter whether she used the silencing spell or not; Lan Wangji was only ever going to listen to the things she wanted to hear Wei Wuxian say, and the rest would be ignored - which meant that Wei Wuxian could never say anything wrong.
When Lan Wangji came for a second time, Wei Wuxian was sobbing weakly against one of the pillows. Her ass and the backs of her thighs were throbbing from the friction and the pain, and she begged plaintively until Lan Zhan finally, finally touched her where she was swollen and wet. She slipped her hand between Wei Wuxian’s legs, and she didn’t tease any more. She went straight for Wei Wuxian’s clit and worked it with two fingers, these firm rolling strokes without cease, like crashing waves that Wei Wuxian buckled under, until her back arched and she came with a yowl.
“There you are,” Lan Wangji murmured. “My pretty wife.”
There were things to be done before sleeping; Apple needed to be fed, the fire needed to be put out, the dishes rinsed in the lake, the protective talismans reinforced. Wei Wuxian did none of this. She stayed inside the tent, warm and aching, piled under the blankets and furs and listening to the soft sounds of Lan Wangji padding around outside, taking care of everything. Keeping her safe.