Chapter Text
Wei Wuxian burst from their bedroom in a flurry, rushing over to Lan Wangji’s side, a tiny box clutched in his fist. "What the fuck is this?"
Lan Wangji had to grab his husband's wrist to keep him still enough to get a look at it. He recognized the outer carvings on the box and replied casually. "They are Sizhui’ssold teeth."
"So you just keep his teeth in some random box? You just have his teeth saved? Just in a box like some kind of charm? Why ? My love this is creepy.”
Lan Wangji actually frowned, reaching to take the box from Wei Wuxian as though his husband might toss them out at any moment. "I will not throw them away."
Wei Wuxian ran a hand over his face, mouth parted in rare speechlessness. "Lan Zhan, what will you do with them? Just hoard them forever? Am I going to find this same box in fifty years and have this same conversation with you?"
His husband didn't hesitate in replying. "Yes. They are important."
Wei Wuxian loved him too much to tell him how disturbed he truly felt about the tiny teeth, all white and well cared for. He couldn't help feeling a mild curiosity, an odd fondness for the way Lan Wangji always held onto little things. "Were you the one who pulled them all out?
Lan Wangji’s expression hardly changed but Wei Wuxian could tell the question saddened him. He settled closer to Lan Wangji on the cushion, more or less in his lap. Lan Wangji placed the box down like it contained fine china, taking a moment to reply.
“Many came out on their own. But the ones that did need to be pulled were mostly done by my brother,” That made sense… from what he’d been told Lan Xichen had had a heavy hand in taking care of Sizhui.
Wei Wuxian would have to ask his brother in law for stories later. “Uncle pulled that one there.” He opened the box to show Wei Wuxian a particular tooth, tiny and glimmering, identical to three other little molars. Wei Wuxian started to ask just how Lan Wangji knew which one it was but then thought better of it.
“How many did you pull out?”
Lan Wangji, again, answered without much thought. “Only three. These here.”
He touched a canine, a molar, and a tiny incisor.
Wei Wuxian could no longer hold in the desire to tease him. “Lan Zhan, you really are a hoarder you know. This can't be normal. I don't think anyone ever kept teeth in Yunmeng. As a matter of fact I'm almost certain they did not.”
“People in Yunmeng have more children. Maybe it is not as special to them to hold onto every part of them.” And Wei Wuxian kissed him once, very hard, because there was nothing else he could do.
With his arms still wrapped around Lan Zhan’s neck, the box forgotten on the desk, Wei Wuxian asked, “So just how many of Sizhui’s things will I find hidden away here? Have you stuffed the floors with his old clothes?”
“No, those are in his old room.” That was the room Lan Wangji had tried to make Wei Wuxian sleep in when he had first resurrected. Nice try, but it could never compare to a night spent in Lan Wangji’s arms. “In the floor there is only alcohol for you. And Sizhui’s old papers.”
“Lan Zhan, you old fuddy duddy! Break them out, I want to see!”
Which was how Lan Sizhui found them several hours later, Wei Wuxian scattering papers as fast as Lan Wangji could restack them, laughing so loudly over Lan Sizhui’s art that they hadn't heard him knock. Lan Wangji nodded to him as he entered slowly; just because Wei Wuxian was laughing did not mean that they weren’t having sex. Sizhui had learned that the hard way.
“A-Die, gege! I brought you something!” Lan Sizhui smiled brightly at his father, who glowed with the reflection of it. In the years since Wei Wuxian had returned it seemed that his father was always smiling in his own way, the edges of his face glowing with mirth and warmth. Wei Wuxian looked up from where he was staring at some very crude art that had to be among the earliest things Sizhui had made.
“Sizhui! Come sit here so I can tease you!” It was always ‘Sizhui’ when Sizhui was calling him gege and ‘A-Yuan’ when Sizhui called him Baba. Wei Wuxian didn’t press him about it, though Sizhui knew it gave him a thrill to be acknowledged as a father. Lan Sizhui could call him dad whenever he felt like it.
Lan Sizhui approached, both hands behind his back, kneeling before Wei Wuxian with the mischievous grin he so rarely wore. “Alright, but first you have to hold out your hand. And shut your eyes. Baba! No peeking. I'm giving A-Die his first since you won't listen.” He pretended to turn away, smiling when he felt Wei Wuxian yank him back down onto the cushion beside him.
“A-Yuan how could you? You know I was only teasing, alright alright I’ll shut my eyes! Gimme, gimme, gimme!” He held out his hands, eyes shut tightly. It wasn’t the gift he was excited for really. Rather, it was that Lan Sizhui was so busy these days, twenty now and the leader of his peers. He rarely had time to spend doing things he enjoyed and when he did, he divided it amongst his parents and friends evenly. Wei Wuxian tried not to be greedy, but he did object to the idea that Jin Ling needed as much time as he or Lan Wangji did. The brat.
Wei Wuxian kept his grip on his son, squeezing him as tight as he dared, whatever gift Lan Sizhui had brought squished between them. He managed to work the paper from Lan Sizhuis hand. A letter from Wen Ning that he would pour over later.
“A-Yuan is being mean to me again, Lan Zhan. After all this time I spent praising his artwork he has the gall to slap me in the face like this, to call me names, to run away from home! Lan Zhan, scold him!”
Lan Wangji hardly glanced up from where he was placing Sizhui’s schoolwork together again. By year. “Sizhui, Wei Ying would like more of your attention.”
Wei Wuxian laughed and Lan Wangji gently took the old paper from his hand where Wei Wuxian had begun to squeeze it in his delight, relinquishing the death grip he had on Lan Sizhui. “Sizhui, even Lan Zhan knows I want you to come and visit more often!” Lan Wangji was the person who would best know all of the things Wei Wuxian wanted but neither of them pointed that out just then.
Lan Sizhui was well as aware of how little he saw them these days, biting his lip guiltily. “Baba, I’ll try to visit more often, I don’t mean to keep you waiting.” He toyed with his fingers, looking more like the sixteen year old that Wei Wuxian had first met than the twenty year old he had come to know.
“There's no need to feel guilty. You have a life of your own now. Here, one hug and you don’t have to worry about coming to see me. I can live on one of your hugs for months.” He opened his arms wide and Lan Sizhui fell into them, a sigh escaping his lips.
It was not that Lan Sizhui had been starved for affection as a child. Lan Wangji had indulged him in as many headpats, hugs, and when Lan Sizhui was still too young to be embarrassed about it, kisses (“A-Die, right on top of my head!”) as he asked for.
But there was just something about a hug from his Baba that felt familiar, like a time before he could fully remember. The body was different, the arms a little thinner, and scent more pine than lake. But the warmth was the same, the fingers that traced his spine were the same. The kiss right on top of his head. He thought he could live for months on one hug too. But that didn't mean he wanted to.
“Lan Zhan, come join our hug or what will you do for a whole month?” Lan Sizhui never went quite so long without visiting them but Wei Wuxian was nothing if not a tease.
Lan Wangji lifted himself from dozens of scribbled drawings, many of them featuring himself, Xichen, or a very tiny Lan JiJingyi. Lan Sizhui pushed his head up from Wei Wuxian chest to look over his shoulder, spotting something on Lan Wangji’s desk.
It was a tiny box filled with glittering pearls? Maybe it was a gift for Baba? No wait…
“Are those.. teeth?”