Chapter Text
Lan Wangji has only just returned home after a several years long stint studying across the country — his degree now just a sheet of paper packed into one of many boxes — when he sees the reason why he stayed away.
Wei Wuxian.
Lan Wangji feels his lips part in what must look like he’s quietly dumbfounded, but inside, his heart has stopped. He’d been forced into coming to this party even though he’d only arrived back this morning. A party for Su She — the Lan’s have been burned by him, but they’ve been ‘invited, Wangji‘, as his brother stressed when Lan Wangji dragged his feet — a party to celebrate his birthday and 10 year marriage anniversary. He hadn’t wanted to come.
Wei Wuxian stands several metres away, a woman hovering nearby. His outfit surprises Lan Wangji, but he doesn’t look completely uncomfortable or out of place: long black dress with a high mesh neck and sleeves, sleek black clutch bag cradled in his hands. Red lips, dark eyes, hair loose.
He’d been looking back as they walked forward, but Lan Wangji would recognise that voice anywhere. Then, they’d stopped just inside the entrance. Wei Wuxian scans the room, now, and lands on the lone Lan Wangji at the bar. His eyes widen as he blinks, his brow lifts in surprise.
They’re only allowed that moment of eye contact before the woman’s hand on Wei Wuxian’s elbow has him look away from Lan Wangji, his eyes dropping demurely. Lan Wangji properly sees his left hand as he adjusts his grip on his clutch before he’s led away. The rock of a diamond ring on his wedding ring finger makes Lan Wangji’s heart sink.
The sight of the long slit in the dress, the sheer stockings and the shiny black stilettos has his heart twist painfully right before it reaches the bottom.
—
Lan Wangji is going to punch the bathroom wall. He’s never felt this angry. He doesn’t even have a reason for it.
Wei Wuxian married Su She. Wei Wuxian’s been married to Su She for 10 years and nobody fucking told him.
He knows he has no reason to be angry. Wei Wuxian was never his. They’d had a half drunken, one night stand, almost 10 and a half years ago. Right before Wei Wuxian completely disappeared from Lan Wangji’s life and he’d then thrown himself into his studies as a distraction.
Nobody had told him where Wei Wuxian had been, here all along, but he also hadn’t asked. Nobody had known to tell him.
Did people think they were still enemies? They haven’t even spoken in 10 yea—
Lan Wangji’s hand has formed a fist when one of the toilet cubicles gets flushed and the door unlocks. He unclenches it slowly, looking down at the sink and just trying to breathe, when,
“Oh.”
Wei Wuxian’s eyes meet his in the mirror when Lan Wangji’s head snaps up. His makeup is a little mused, eyes a little red, as if he’s been crying. Wei Wuxian comes up to the only sink left available and begins to wash his hands.
“Wei… Wei Ying.”
Wei Wuxian hums, glancing up at him through the mirror again as he opens his bag and pulls out some makeup. He wipes off his lipstick with a tissue.
“Lan Zhan,” he murmurs once he’s put everything down. “I—!“
Lan Wangji is going to punch the wall. He is so fucking stupid. Wei Wuxian is married, what the absolute loving fuck does he think he’s doing kissing him?!
It’s barely a kiss, more just the slightest brush of their lips together. Wei Wuxian stands there — only slightly turned to him, blinking rapidly — before he huffs out something Lan Wangji thinks is meant to be a laugh and grabs Lan Wangji’s wrist.
“You might want to wash your mouth out.” he mutters, voice bitter. “You don’t know where mine’s been.”
Lan Wangji properly looks at Wei Wuxian, then, at what he’s not seeing. Wei Wuxian is alone. Their eyes no longer meet, he’s not smiling. Lan Wangji hasn’t seen him truly smile all night, even when he’d been at his sister’s side. The one gracing his face now is a mock imitation of the one Lan Wangji fell in love with.
“What happened to you, Wei Ying?”
Wei Wuxian removes his hand from Lan Wangji’s arm and turns back to his makeup. He dabs at his eyes with a tissue before uncapping his eyeliner.
“I got married, Lan Zhan.” he says as he paints at the corner of his right eye. He opens his mouth to say something else, before he closes it and looks at Lan Wangji. Then he looks down, demure, again. Lan Wangji hates it. “I’m sorry, I never told you.”
“Wei Yi—“
“It was arranged. I— Madam Yu, she—” Wei Wuxian sucks in a sharp breath and Lan Wangji realises he’s on the verge of hyperventilating. “—didn’t know, until I couldn’t stop it. L-Lan Zhan, I— I didn’t— haha, fuck.”
Lan Wangji looks up from where he’d taken the hand Wei Wuxian has gripped on the sink in his own. He squeezes it as Wei Wuxian draws in a shaky breath.
“Wei Ying, breathe.” he murmurs. “It’s okay. I’m here.”
Wei Wuxian seems to break at those words, falling to his knees in front of the sink. He barely breathes and cries, dark makeup trailing dark tear tracks quickly down his face.
—
Wei Wuxian stumbles out of the bathroom half an hour later like a newborn deer with a new face on. Lan Wangji waits long enough to see him be ignored as he sits back down next to Su She.
It doesn’t matter. His number is in Lan Wangji’s phone, and Lan Wangji’s number in his.
He doesn’t look at Lan Wangji for the rest of the night, but he can feel the stare on him until he’s led out to where Lan Wangji can’t see him anymore.
It wasn’t enough that his husband had to fuck his face against the cubicle of the function hall’s bathroom tonight already, Su She holds him face down on the bed as he fucks him. It's been 10 years, Su She knows just where to touch him and what buttons to press to make him cry out and come against the sheets.
As he pulls his face up off the bed, makeup smeared again, he hears the sound of a camera shutter. Su She grips his thigh before using his thumb to spread him open and take another photo.
“Fuck, you’re so easy for me tonight, A-Xian.”
He puts his face back down without saying anything and spreads his legs a little wider, trying to seem inviting. It works. Su She’s not good at dirty talk like he is, so all he hears is his husband’s grunts in his ear as he gets filled up as many times as it takes.