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Wei Wuxian is going on a date.
He puts on his best cologne and his favorite boots. His sister FaceTimes him and even picks his outfit for him, a smart black sweater and a pair of dark wash jeans that cost more than his rent and were definitely given to him by his insufferable brother-in-law for Christmas. He even puts on a little eyeliner to make his dark eyes pop.
He steps back to look in the mirror. He gives himself a grin and a thumbs up, and then immediately wonders if that’s exactly why he hasn’t been able to get a date in over a year.
Wei Wuxian’s a handsome guy, alright? He knows it. He’d have to be clueless—girls have always liked him, offering him flowers for his birthday and kisses for kindness. Boys have done the same thing, and Wei Wuxian used to bask in that attention. He’s grown up a little bit, but it’s been odd for him to have such a dry spell. He can’t help but to wonder if he’s lost his touch.
But that’s okay. Wei Wuxian is breaking his dry spell tonight.
He puts a coat over his shoulders—it’s winter already, the steady stream of snow falling out of the windows of his rickety little apartment. He has a nice jacket that Lan Zhan got him for his birthday, and he wears it tonight, even if it makes him hesitate to do so. But he shakes it off, knowing he’s getting too much in his head.
Wei Wuxian turns the lights off on his way out.
From the couch, book in his lap, Jiang Cheng says, “Fuck you.”
~*~*~*~*~*~
Nie Huaisang is the one who suggested a blind date.
“I know a person,” Nie Huaisang had offered.
Jiang Cheng, sitting to Wei Wuxian’s left, muttered, “Huaisang.”
Nie Huaisang shushed him. Wei Wuxian was usually the one third wheeling with the two of them so he didn’t think anything of their secret communication purely through eye contact and vague expressions. Wei Wuxian kept chewing at his sandwich, watching on in amusement as the two had a silent argument.
Finally, Jiang Cheng said, “You know what? Fine.”
“I’m always right,” Nie Huaisang reminded him, tapping him on the nose, before turning back to Wei Wuxian. “I know a person you can date.”
Wei Wuxian nearly choked on his sandwich. “What makes you think I want to date anyone?”
Nie Huaisang’s expression was a normal smile, but Wei Wuxian could swear that there was something mischievous in his eyes. Nie Huaisang has always been a bit of a mastermind. Wei Wuxian thought it better if he didn’t make eye contact with that particular part of his friend’s personality if he could help it.
“Well,” Nie Huaisang sighed, “you’re so young and attractive, you know? Ripe for the plucking. A paragon of a pretty boy, if you will.”
Wei Wuxian was immediately on guard. “What do you want from me?”
“I want the date to be blind,” Nie Huaisang said.
Wei Wuxian had never been on a blind date before, surprisingly enough. He hadn’t dated much since early college, to be fair, when his random flings were really starting to take time away from the grades he needed to maintain for his scholarship and Wei Wuxian made the executive decision that he didn’t want his adoptive mother to put him in an early grave. He’d socialized like the best of them and still came out of school with many stories, but most of them just weren’t romantic. He didn’t see anything wrong with that.
Now, at the cusp of his last semester of school, Wei Wuxian was still not convinced that dating was the best idea. “Do I have an option about the date thing?”
“No,” Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang said as one.
Wei Wuxian knew when the fight was lost. “A blind date, huh?”
“He’s hot,” Nie Huaisang told him earnestly, ignoring when Jiang Cheng let out a snort. “He’s smart, and rich, and he’s so built that he could probably crush a car with his bare hands.”
“Alright,” Jiang Cheng cautioned him, rolling his eyes.
Nie Huaisang didn’t look away from Wei Wuxian, grinning. “Do you trust me?”
It was a loaded question even on a good day. Wei Wuxian trusted him, sure, but only about as far as he could throw him. Wei Wuxian was a great judge of character and would never let his brother date someone he didn’t think was a good person, but Nie Huaisang always acted a little like a knife in the dark. Wei Wuxian thought, often, that if anyone ever hurt Jiang Cheng, they were likely to wake up with significantly less hair on their head.
Wei Wuxian knew when the fight was lost, and he couldn’t help but to be a little curious anyway. It’s not every day, at least, where someone wanted him to date this badly. And it had been a while. Wei Wuxian could wear his fancy cologne.
“Alright,” he said, grinning. “Why the hell not?”
Jiang Cheng sighed and told Nie Huaisang, “It’ll be your fault, after.”
Nie Huaisang put his hand over Jiang Cheng’s lips, and shushed him again.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Nie Huaisang only sends him the restaurant when Wei Wuxian sent him a picture that he was out the door and on the street, which was probably a good idea because Wei Wuxian probably would have pulled out of the plans if he wasn’t already done up. He follows the path on his phone and grimaces when he realizes Nie Huaisang must not have been exaggerating about the rich part. Wei Wuxian is grateful that his A-Jie made him dress nice—this restaurant was going to cost Wei Wuxian nearly a week of pay.
Oh well. It’ll make a good story, at least. He hopes.
Wei Wuxian sticks his hands in his pockets and makes his way to the metro, getting off a few neighborhoods over and coming up in, for some damned reason, the financial district. Wei Wuxian wrinkles his nose at the skyscrapers and micropubs he passes. He’s nearly to the restaurant, checking street signs, when he thinks, Lan Zhan lives nearby.
He shuts it down, like he does with a lot of Lan Zhan thoughts these days. Nope, no, not going there. Wei Wuxian knows an impossible wish when he meets one. He’s not about to delude himself into thinking he deserved something he could never manage to capture.
He kicks at some of the snow with his boot out of revenge. It doesn’t really help.
The restaurant looks new, and fancy, but not the kind of fancy of ostentatiousness or nouveau riche—Wei Wuxian knows that this is an old money kind of fancy, the ones who own a nice two-story apartment in the financial district like Lan Zhan’s family does. The ones who don’t flaunt their money but they undeniably have it.
The front facade is painted white, ivy and jasmine climbing up the front windows and offering a sort of privacy for the people inside. The restaurant’s name is painted in looping gold on the front windows, and Wei Wuxian double-checks his phone before sighing and making his way inside. He shrugs off his coat as he steps into the heated entryway, chewing on his lip. He glances around, looking for someone who might be here alone. He doesn’t see anyone and checks his phone. He is a minute early.
He pauses at the hostess stand. Offers the young woman an awkward smile when she greets him.
Wei Wuxian isn’t the kind of person to get cold feet, but he’s moments from bolting when the door opens again—
And Lan Zhan walks through.
Wei Wuxian met Lan Wangji in high school, at an academy that Wei Wuxian was promptly expelled from. Lan Wangji was a strict classmate in those days, a stickler for the rules, which is only to be expected from the boy whose uncle ran the school with an iron fist. Lan Wangji was a tightwad asshole, and Wei Wuxian loved to spend his time poking at his buttons and flourishing in the reactions they set off.
He didn’t see Lan Wangji again after his expulsion until starting university, where he walked into his first class and found a familiar face in the front row.
He’d grinned at Lan Wangji and sat next to him—and then never quite left.
Lan Wangji had become a good friend, somehow. He’d relaxed since their early teenage days, something settled inside of his shoulders and his spirit. He looked at Wei Wuxian with dry humor now instead of fury. He referred to Wei Wuxian as intelligent instead of a helpless troublemaker. Wei Wuxian, undeniably both of those things, was astonished by the turn in personality in those early days, but he has long grown accustomed to calling Lan Wangji one of his best friends.
Which is precisely why he’s struck dumb when Lan Zhan walks into the restaurant—and meets Wei Wuxian’s eyes with surprise of his own.
Wei Wuxian, holding his jacket in his hands and feeling far too poor for this place, says, “Oh. Hey.”
“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan says, the surprise drifting out of his eyes and into something Wei Wuxian doesn’t understand. He glances around and nods toward the hostess, stepping to the side so he can speak more directly with Wei Wuxian. “What are you doing here?”
“Uh,” Wei Wuxian says.
Okay, so Lan Zhan is the hottest man Wei Wuxian has ever met. So Lan Wangji might be three fourths of the reason why Wei Wuxian hasn’t bothered dating much in the last few years. Lan Zhan was the main reservation stopping Wei Wuxian from wanting to walk through those doors, and Lan Zhan is exactly as he looks—untouchable. Too beautiful for hands like Wei Wuxian’s, a scholarship student largely disowned by his adoptive parents and likely the biggest mistake Lan Wangji would ever make in his friendship dossier.
He clears his throat and offers, forcing his own bravery and gravitas, “I’m here for a date.”
Lan Wangji’s eyes widen. And narrow. “A date.”
“Yup,” Wei Wuxian says. “I’m meeting him here.”
Lan Zhan seems to take that in. Processes it before he asks, “Who?”
“Well. That's a little more complicated.”
Lan Wangji’s face is a little hard to read, which Wei Wuxian is almost taken aback about. He’s been able to read Lan Wangji like a magazine since the first day he met him—it’s what made testing his boundaries so much fun when they were younger and less in control of themselves. He doesn’t think there’s ever been a moment where Wei Wuxian hasn’t been able to read him—or hasn’t been allowed to.
Lan Wangji sits with that for a moment before he says, again, “Who?”
“I don’t know,” Wei Wuxian finally admits, and grins. “It’s a blind date.”
Lan Wangji starts, just a little twitch of his hand and jaw that Wei Wuxian sees because he is, as usual, paying way too much attention. He’s closed off again in less than a moment, his head slightly tilted like he does when he is waiting for one of Wei Wuxian’s punchlines. It does not come.
Lan Zhan says, “You are here for a date.”
“Yes.”
“Okay,” Lan Wangji says. “I am as well.”
Wei Wuxian—shatters, just a little bit. It was more like a precarious house of cards getting caught in the gentlest of breaths and crumbling down catastrophically but whatever, he was allowed to be a little dramatic. “Oh,” he says, and then forces himself to brighten as he continues, “That’s great! We can be each other’s wingmen.”
Lan Zhan stares at him. Blinks. Wei Wuxian wonders if there is something on his face.
Wei Wuxian can’t handle this for another moment, certain that if he deigns to have this conversation for another second he will launch himself through the front windows to lick his wounds back in his apartment with his brother to stand over him and laugh and sigh and have opinions. Lan Wangji is already not his brother’s favorite person—he can’t imagine how Jiang Cheng would react if he found out he hurt Wei Wuxian’s feelings, even if he didn’t know he was doing so.
Wei Wuxian is a grown up now. He’s old enough to drink as of two months ago and he can make his own grown up decisions. He can survive seeing Lan Wangji on a date. He can make sure his back is to Lan Zhan’s table.
He nudges Lan Wangji toward the hostess stand and says, “I’m going to wait at the bar for mine—you might as well get your table now, Lan Zhan.”
And then, without another word, Wei Wuxian trots across the room.
This is… embarrassing. Wei Wuxian is twenty-one years old and he was pretty sure he had enough life experience to make something like seeing his unattainable crush with someone else feel little more like getting stabbed with a pin. He figured being an orphan before six would give him iron skin and, to be fair, it really had. Wei Wuxian’s never been an emotional kind of guy like this but he thinks this has always been a little bit for the man he’s left behind in the foyer. He thinks there’s always been a little spongy part of his heart with Lan Zhan’s name on it, even if he knew it would end up getting hurt at some point.
Okay, so Wei Wuxian had a little bit of hope left. He’s allowed to have hope. He just forgot that it would sting like a bitch when it finally eventually got let down, and he’d have to do something about the bleeding in his heart and the look on his face before his date saw right through him.
Or, worse—Lan Zhan did.
Wei Wuxian was not going to make that man realize Wei Wuxian has a big fat crush on him. Nope. He’d sooner rip off his own toenails. He would rather willingly go have dinner with his adoptive mother who wishes he was never born.
Wei Wuxian slides into a seat at the bar and orders a water, because this place is not the kind of place where he can afford the kind of wine he likes to drink. He gives it a minute before he looks back, and Lan Wangji has been seated across the room, under a gilded portrait of a field of wildflowers. He’s sitting so that he can still see Wei Wuxian when he looks up from his menu and Wei Wuxian turns around again, certain he will be able to feel Lan Wangji’s eyes on his back for the rest of his disastrous, horrible night.
Wei Wuxian drinks his water. Keeps an eye on the door.
No one walks in.
He gives it five minutes, ten. A couple walks in. A family of three, with a teenager who looks like they’d rather die than be there. Wei Wuxian is starting to sweat. He’s starting to realize that, for the first time in his life, he is being stood up—and the other person didn’t even have to see him to do it.
It’s almost worse than getting rejected in person. He came highly recommended and he still didn’t bother to show. Wei Wuxian frowns down into his empty water cup, wondering how he was going to tell his brother when he got home.
After another five minutes—fifteen whole minutes—Wei Wuxian finally stands up. He figures enough is enough.
That’s the moment Lan Wangji catches his eye across the room, and gestures for him to come over.
Wei Wuxian is mostly just surprised that Lan Wangji is still alone, too, when he has been sitting at a table for two. He hesitates, but then heads across the restaurant toward Lan Zhan and says, when he gets there, “Where’s your date?”
Lan Wangji shrugs and shakes his head. Wei Wuxian gapes at him.
“What kind of idiot!” he says, throwing his arms out as much as he can without causing a scene. “Some people just don’t have a brain.”
Lan Wangji huffs a laugh and gestures for Wei Wuxian to take the seat. “Join me?”
Wei Wuxian’s brain goes blank. Before he can convince himself that this is a stupendously bad idea, that he should just walk out of the building and never look back, he is already in the seat. Wei Wuxian hangs the jacket Lan Wangji gave him on the back of the chair and notices, out of the corner of his eye, that Lan Wangji is watching him do it.
It tastes awful on his tongue before he even says it, but Wei Wuxian admits, “I got stood up.”
“Ridiculous,” Lan Wangji says.
“I know!” Wei Wuxian agrees. “I came recommended!”
Lan Wangji huffs, amused. He nudges the menu toward Wei Wuxian and says, in that deep and lovely voice that Wei Wuxian is obsessed with, “Stay. We’ll have something to eat.”
Wei Wuxian still wants to make a run for it, but how can he resist this beautiful temptation? Lan Zhan is so handsome he’s almost pretty, and Wei Wuxian is a sucker for a work of art. “Are you going to buy my drinks, Lan Zhan?” he teases.
“Sure,” Lan Wangji says, and Wei Wuxian nearly leans back from being blown away.
“I thought you don’t approve of drinking?”
“Recklessly,” Lan Wangji corrects gently, turning his golden gaze toward the menu. “I ordered an appetizer. We can share.”
Wei Wuxian likes this man for a lot of reasons, and this is just one of them—Lan Wangji has a way of swooping in and saving Wei Wuxian from awkwardness, from bad situations, from himself. Lan Wangji always does it so effortlessly, too, like it’s second nature for him to reach out and sweep Wei Wuxian off of his feet. Wei Wuxian thinks it is a great crime against his humanity for him to have this power, if only because he is using it for good and not nearly enough evil.
Wei Wuxian grins at him, screaming a little on the inside. “Lan Zhan, you’re the best!”
Lan Wangji offers him a small smile.
Before Wei Wuxian can practically collapse under the glory of a Lan Zhan smile, a rare gift from the universe, the waiter arrives and ruins the moment by delivering the appetizer. Wei Wuxian orders his glass of wine and Lan Wangji nods in approval. Wei Wuxian can’t help but to laugh at him as he does.
“Responsibly,” he agrees. “A glass and not a bottle.”
“Drinking too much is bad for you.”
“I know, I know. You’ve told me before.”
Specifically, when Lan Wangji caught him drinking on the roof of the Gusu Academy on day one, which neither of them mention, but Wei Wuxian laughs because he can see it written on Lan Wangji’s face. Lan Zhan’s eyes soften a little when he laughs, and Wei Wuxian thinks that it would be impossible not to fall for a man like this.
“Hungry, Lan Zhan?” Wei Wuxian teases. There’s at least three appetizers on the table, and it’s all things Wei Wuxian loves—calamari and fried tofu and noodles that look incredibly spicy, from the shade of the sauce. Wei Wuxian’s mouth practically waters as he grabs his plate, grabbing for his chopsticks. “Your date could’ve liked anything, you know! You should have waited for them.”
“It’s a little bit of everything,” Lan Wangji argues pleasantly, coveting a small chunk of the tofu.
“Who was it?” Wei Wuxian asks before he can convince himself that it’s a bad idea, before he can convince himself that he will only suffer if he knows. “Can’t have been MianMian, since she would have never left you here.”
“She is a lesbian,” Lan Wangji points out, and takes a peaceful bite of tofu.
Wei Wuxian’s mind goes empty. “Oh. That makes sense, actually.”
“Mm.”
“I can’t believe no one told me.”
“She is not quiet about it.”
“Huh,” Wei Wuxian says, chewing at the calamari. “Maybe I’m a little clueless, huh, Lan Zhan?”
Lan Wangji shoots him an amused look. Wei Wuxian winks at him, shoving another bite of food into his mouth. Wei Wuxian is pretty sure he’s not imagining Lan Zhan avoiding his question as to who. Maybe he’s embarrassed to be stood up. Maybe it was someone that they both knew.
Wei Wuxian thinks that, and suddenly feels like putting his food down.
He forces himself to swallow through it and asks, “Would you tell me if I asked?”
“Figure it out,” Lan Wangji says, and steals a tofu off of his plate.
Lan Wangji has always been a man of few words, but Wei Wuxian likes that about him—Wei Wuxian was born with a mouth and he was going to use it, but everything Lan Wangji said meant something. He didn’t use words as a shield. He says everything that he means and everything that he wants. When Lan Wangji speaks, his words are something to be valued.
Sometimes, though, he’s a complete bitch. Wei Wuxian kind of loves it.
The waiter drops off Wei Wuxian’s glass and takes their orders, and Wei Wuxian kind of loves the delusion of this moment. He can freely pretend like they are on an actual date and not just two guys pitying their lack of a date, commiserating as much as their pride allows over a delicious dinner. He can feed a few of the fantasies that he has been putting into the back of his mind, memorizing the way Lan Zhan looks on the opposite side of the table from him, how his long hair glows under the warm lighting.
Wei Wuxian loves this moment. He doesn’t want it to end.
LIke all moments, though, it does.
“What’s wrong?”
Wei Wuxian doesn’t actually have a good answer. He shakes his head, drinking from his wine. It’s his favorite, a local wine that Lan Wangji always makes sure is stocked in his sober household for when Wei Wuxian comes over. It tastes like Lan Wangji’s living room and the soft way he laughs and the way Wei Wuxian feels when he looks at him, warm and a little sparkly like someone with their first crush ever.
Wei Wuxian feels like a bit of a loser, but he can pretend. That’s pretty much all he knows how to do. “I’m just thinking about who would have stood you up on a date, Lan Zhan, when I know you could probably have anyone you ever wanted.”
It’s too much. It’s not enough. Lan Wangji blinks, slow and surprised. He is good at hiding his embarrassment with his poker face but Wei Wuxian has always been able to read him, and he sees the slightly pink shade of his neck.
“Maybe,” Lan Zhan says, and then zeroes that intense golden gaze on Wei Wuxian. “I think the same for you, though.”
Wei Wuxian laughs. “I’m an acquired taste, I think.”
Lan Zhan frowns. He’s never liked when Wei Wuxian is self-deprecating, always takes it like a personal offense. Wei Wuxian knows it but he can’t help it—he speaks self-deprecating like a third language, an old habit he’s never learned how to break. It comes with his upbringing, he thinks. Being the adoptive child in a prodigal family has always come with a feeling of pushing a boulder up a hill that never quite ends.
Before he can say anything, Wei Wuxian says, “Nie Huaisang is going to be disappointed.”
“He is an instigator.”
Nie Huaisang is one of Lan Zhan’s best friends, so he can definitely say so. “I thought he might have a point about this one though. He was very insistent. And I was a little bored, so why not, you know? I figured, worst case, I would leave with a new friend. I didn’t think he wouldn’t even bother to show.”
“Disappointing.”
“It really is! Now I’ll never know.” Wei Wuxian pauses as their food arrives and they thank the waiter, and then turn to their meals. “It’s such a nice restaurant, too. I wonder if Nie Huaisang picked it.”
“I think,” Lan Zhan says, “the date likely did, wanting to impress you.”
“I am easily impressed, Lan Zhan.”
“Hm,” he replies.
“Fancy places like these are nice, but maybe the next date could have been at something a little more normal, you know? Get the first impression out of the way and then go straight to somewhere hole-in-the-wall.”
Lan Zhan nods decisively. “Good idea.”
“Oh, maybe something fun, like a fair! That would be fun, wouldn’t it, Lan Zhan? I know you don’t like crowds—”
“It sounds fun,” Lan Zhan decides, and that is that.
Wei Wuxian heaps some of the appetizer noodles onto his plate. “I think you would have been a good date, Lan Zhan. You’d say all of the right things and order all of the right foods and they’d go home thinking they were struck by lightning, or maybe the god of luck and fortune.”
Lan Zhan stares at him. Huffs. “Wei Ying.”
He grins. “Come on, I’m allowed to hype you up.”
Lan Zhan shakes his head. “Ridiculous.”
“Only an idiot wouldn’t want to date you, Lan Zhan. You could have anyone.”
“Hm,” he replies again, and tilts his head. “There is someone I am interested in.”
Wei Wuxian’s world stops. The food suddenly doesn’t taste very good, and the wine sits heavy in his stomach. He forces himself to swallow what he’s chewing and chokes out, “There is, Lan Zhan? Why haven’t you told me?”
Lan Wangji ignores his question. “He is good and kind. He takes care of everyone around him and never helps himself. He is one of the best people I have ever known, even if it took a moment for me to realize it. He is someone I admire.”
Wei Wuxian might throw up all over the table. “High praise, Lan Zhan!”
“Mm,” he agrees pleasantly, setting his chin on his hand and meeting Wei Wuxian’s gaze across the table. “He is someone I like so obviously that a mutual friend set us up for a blind date.”
Wei Wuxian almost opens his mouth and says that it’s a shame he didn’t show up, especially being so high in Lan Wangji’s heavy esteem. But Wei Wuxian’s never been a stupid man, and eventually his brain looks past the glory of the night and clicks back into gear. His brain starts to run again. All of the little clues and hints start to slide into place and he—realizes.
“Wait—are we on a date?”
“Took you long enough,” Lan Zhan says.
Wei Wuxian gapes at him. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”
“Wei Ying needed to figure it out for himself.” Lan Zhan picks his chopsticks back up and takes a bite. As if this is a normal moment. As if Wei Wuxian isn’t about to crumble into a thousand paper airplanes and take off somewhere into the cosmos before he explodes into a million beautiful colors.
He’s pretty sure his heart has stopped beating. He sucks in a breath.
Wei Wuxian has been embarrassingly pining for this man for several years now. He’s followed him around, dogging his every step, poking him and needling him until those beautiful eyes land on him and don’t leave. Wei Wuxian has only ever taken from this man, but he’s wondering if it’s only things he’s been willingly given. He spends a moment suspended in time recontextualizing his entire friendship with this man, suddenly picking up every hint, suddenly wondering if he hasn’t been imagining all of the smiles and acquiescence and gifts. The jacket against his back, the warmest he’s ever had, feels ten times heavier.
Wei Wuxian stares at Lan Zhan. Lan Wangji stares smugly back.
“Oh,” Wei Wuxian says hoarsely.
“Mm,” Lan Wangji replies, eyes dancing. “So you’ve figured it out.”
“Holy shit.”
Lan Wangji’s foot nudges his under the table. “Okay?”
It’s a quiet, kind way of asking for permission. Wei Wuxian is pretty sure he is going to explode or implode or at very least open his mouth and say something supremely embarrassing. Wei Wuxian might launch himself across the table and kiss him. He might drop to his knee, right here on the first date, and ask if Lan Wangji wants to tie his soul to his.
Wei Wuxian says, “Duh.”
Lan Wangji huffs a laugh. A small, heavenly smile plays on his lips. Wei Wuxian thinks he might spend the rest of his life trying to keep that smile in place, so he can keep looking at it and so Lan Wangji can keep feeling whatever he is feeling right now when he looks at him.
And, because he’s still him, Wei Wuxian tells Lan Wangji, “I have been kind of in love with you for a while.”
Lan Wangji’s gaze softens. He reaches across the table and touches Wei Wuxian’s face with soft, sweet fingers. Wei Wuxian wants to bite him. He wants to steal him away and hide in his bedroom for the next six to seven months.
“I love you too,” Lan Wangji murmurs. “Of course. Of course.”
It’s too much and too fast and Wei Wuxian has always been this kind of man but he didn’t know Lan Wangji was too, though he should have guessed. Wei Wuxian has always been pedal-to-the-metal intense but he should have known, with his intense gazes and his all-in attitude, that Lan Wangji would be along for the ride. That he would match Wei Wuxian’s crazy no matter the situation, the life, the universe.
“Is this too much?” he asks anyway.
Lan Wangji shrugs.
Okay. Great. That’s fair enough.
“Holy shit,” he says again, for emphasis.
Lan Wangji smiles again. This is a little more wide and lovely, a little more heartbreaking and -making. Wei Wuxian knows, immediately, that he would give anything to see it every single day of his lousy little life.
It’s too much at once. He already knows Nie Huaisang is going to laugh himself hoarse and Jiang Cheng is going to scream at them that they’re idiots. And maybe they are, and they’ve wasted too much time, and they’re making up for it. Maybe Wei Wuxian has been blind and clueless and let his date sit there laughing at him for fifteen minutes because he couldn’t accept the possibility that he would be here for him, like a perfect gift from the fates.
Maybe it’s too much. Maybe it’s not enough. Only time will tell—and Wei Wuxian can learn how to be patient.
“This,” he says, “is one hell of a blind date.”
Lan Wangji holds up his water glass. Wei Wuxian grabs his wine and clinks their glasses softly, a goofy smile on his face.
“To the next,” Lan Wangji says.
“And the ones after that.”
“And after that.”
They drink.