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There is a fox in the Cloud Recesses.
That alone would raise a few eyebrows. The Cloud Recesses is up at the top of mountains, in the domain of dragons. Foxes usually aren't found among clouds, being as land-bound as they are.
The explanation for the fox's presence is simple: he married into the dragon clan. He calls the clan's Second Young Master his husband—or at least he should. He hasn't called anyone anything yet, because foxes can't speak.
They usually bark. Or yelp. Or scream.
And scream he does, with all the frustration that can be packed in his small black-furred body. The Cloud Recesses' centuries-long peace is shattered like porcelain, kicked off a table by one deliberately-placed paw.
He can speak, if he wishes. On his wedding day, he walked into the Cloud Recesses on two human feet, clad in luxurious red silk with embroidered lotuses. On his wedding night, he scurried beneath his husband's bed with four fox paws and hissed at all attempts to get him out. He has walked on four paws ever since, refusing all requests to turn back into his human form and act the way the dignified Second Young Master Lan's husband should act.
There is a fox in the Cloud Recesses, and the dragons have not known peace since he arrived.
The marriage was arranged between the Jiang snake clan and the Lan dragon clan as a means of forging an alliance in the wake of the Sunshot Campaign. The new Jiang Clan Leader was young and struggling to rebuild his home. The Lan Clan had lost many in the war, and their population levels had dropped dangerously low.
They had the means to help each other. The Lans had steady access to construction materials, and the Jiangs had one fox spirit of marriageable age.
It was an obvious choice, but not an easy one. Jiang Cheng deliberated over it with his sister for ages. Once they reached their decision, Wei Wuxian accepted it without protest, and left his home dressed in wedding brocade to live among dragons.
But that doesn't mean he has any sort of intention to passively lie back and let his dragon husband do as he pleases. He has dreams! Plans! Aspirations! And he's not going to let any of those go just because some distant dragon clan that he doesn't care about needs some baby dragons.
So he does whatever he pleases, which is usually sitting out of reach of the Lan dragons and caterwauling loud enough for the people of Caiyi Town to hear him. It is very easy for him. His fox form is small and quick, while the Lan dragons' massive size makes them slow. Even if they change to human form, they cannot reach him; he darts into the tightest nooks and crannies and continues his screaming from there.
Silence is like gold in the Cloud Recesses, highly valued and easily stolen. Wei Wuxian robs the Lans of it on a daily—nay, hourly—basis as he loudly announces his grievances for the world to hear.
Lan Wangji has tried all manner of methods to quiet him. The first few times, he ordered Wei Wuxian to stop disturbing the peace. When that didn't work (for obvious reasons), he tried silencing him with a spell—which only served to rile Wei Wuxian up more once it wore off. Now, the most he will do is drop blankets on Wei Wuxian in a half-hearted attempt to muffle his voice a little.
Wei Wuxian's husband is like that—the most rule-abiding, cold-hearted, distant creature he has ever met. He doesn't smile, doesn't talk, and usually ignores Wei Wuxian until someone calls on him to take a screeching Wei Wuxian away from the middle courtyard.
Wei Wuxian is perfectly fine with that. He's fine with an unloving, detached husband. Who needs husbands, anyway. Stupid.
They are supposed to sleep in the same bed, but Wei Wuxian has successfully commandeered it. Lan Wangji can no longer sleep in his own room, so when the night gong rings to announce the Cloud Recesses bedtime, Lan Wangji shifts into his dragon form and coils around a nearby mountain to sleep.
Of course, Wei Wuxian cannot let him off that easily. Oh, no. This is war. Conquest and victory must both be absolute. Lan Wangji cannot be allowed to think that he can escape so easily.
Thus, around midnight on randomly chosen nights, Wei Wuxian likes to sneak up the mountain that serves as his husband's outdoor bed. Every time, he seeks out Lan Wangji's head. And every time, he plants his four fox paws firmly on the scaly snout and yells directly at one of Lan Wangji's eyeballs.
He bounces back and forth between each eye, just to make sure the dragon knows exactly who he is and how perturbed he is.
It is a solid tactic. Lan Wangji wakes up each time with a distinctly annoyed huff. One time, he even nudges Wei Wuxian off of his snout so that he can fly off to sleep on another mountain.
All in all, a success! If Wei Wuxian can keep up his goal of constantly driving his husband away, then Lan Wangji will eventually, surely, learn to leave whenever he sees Wei Wuxian. It will work. It has to work. Wei Wuxian must see to it that his husband cannot stand him if he wants a chance of this marriage being annulled sometime in the foreseeable future.
However, despite his determination to remain indefinitely in his fox form, Wei Wuxian is still tragically human, and he does human things—like make mistakes.
One such mistake finds him blinking away in the rays of early dawn. Except… he is very obviously not in his bed. He is equally obviously no longer in the Cloud Recesses. No. He is—he is—
He stands up. Shakes the morning dew out of his fur. Turns.
There is. Lan Wangji. Right there. Looking at him with his gigantic Lan dragon eyeballs.
Oh.
Wei Wuxian remembers. He went out the previous night like he usually does, to firmly remind his dragon husband that he has no intentions of getting along with him, ever. He was… he was doing his usual yelling and screeching, and now he… isn't.
Because he'd fallen asleep.
He'd fallen asleep. And Lan Wangji saw him being all good and quiet and agreeable.
Furious, Wei Wuxian lays out a flurry of paw smacks directly on his husband's snout. He screams into Lan Wangji's ear for good measure before hopping off and angrily trotting off into the forest.
Things just go downhill after that. Lan Wangji stops trying to stay away. He even dares to reclaim his jingshi, which Wei Wuxian is very upset about.
He earned that place! Fair and square! It is his! Only he gets to sleep in that bed and scream from amidst its sheets!
But, no. No matter how many times Wei Wuxian tries, Lan Wangji won't budge from his bed. After a few nights of screaming in protest, Wei Wuxian storms off.
Fine! Lan Wangji can be that way if he wants to. Wei Wuxian will simply sleep under the jingshi porch, where nobody can reach him and he is free to make as much noise as he pleases. He will not give in! He will not be domesticated! He is free, and he always will be!
On his third night of sleeping under the porch, the heavens split open and a torrent of rain drenches the earth.
The jingshi porch makes for poor protection against rain. Because it is a porch. It is designed to allow rain to drain through. That is part of what makes it a porch.
Wei Wuxian is soaked. He can't even screech his protests, because the thunder and rain drown out his voice. But he has never been one to admit defeat. He shall remain outside out of spite, because he cannot allow Lan Wangji to feel more comfortable with him than he already has.
… Ah, but the inside of the jingshi must be warm and dry. Dragons are creatures of water and tend to prefer colder temperatures, but Lan Wangji has always—has always kept a fire going, for Wei Wuxian's comfort.
A bit of spite leaves Wei Wuxian's body, but pride easily takes its place. Whatever. He has endured far worse than a little rain in the past. He can tolerate this. Storms don't last forever, and foxes cannot catch colds.
As the rain continues to pour, Wei Wuxian repeatedly tells himself he's not miserable, and waits for sleep to claim him once more.
Wei Wuxian is… warm.
Warm is nice. Warm is good. Warm is not the icy wetness of rain. Warm is—is—
He wakes up with a start, all of his senses registering at once. He smells sandalwood; he is in the jingshi. He sees Lan Wangji, in his unfairly lovely human form. He feels—he feels water, still, but it is—warm. Warm water. So much water that he doesn't feel wet.
He is in a bathtub. Lan Wangji is holding him in a bathtub. Lan Wangji is—
Wei Wuxian opens his mouth and lets out the most ear-splitting caterwaul his tiny fox body can produce. He starts thrashing around in Lan Wangji's hold, sending water over the edge of the bathtub and drenching Lan Wangji's sleeves.
Lan Wangji tries to hold him in place. "Wei Ying! I'm not going to hurt you."
Oh, on the contrary. Wei Wuxian is absolutely, positively convinced that he just woke up in the middle of Lan Wangji's attempt to drown him. How very insidious of Hanguang-Jun, picking a thunderstorm to muffle his cries!
Wei Wuxian latches fiercely onto Lan Wangji's arm. He will fight! He will not yield! He—
He feels blunt human teeth on his scruff.
Wei Wuxian is so surprised that he lets go of Lan Wangji's arm, leaving behind teeth marks with blood already welling up from them. Lan Wangji lets go of him too, looking far too regal and put-together for someone who just bit a fox.
Lan Wangji had… bitten him. He'd bitten Wei Wuxian.
The audacity of it all warrants a full-throated wail from Wei Wuxian: head thrown back, paws braced stubbornly against Lan Wangji's arms, mouth open as wide as possible. If his tail weren't soaked, it would be puffed up. A few clumps of wet fur make a valiant effort. He yells out his frustrations, his indignation, his whole protest against this marriage thing.
Lan Wangji patiently holds him as he screams. "Would you like me to finish bathing you?"
"Absolutely not," Wei Wuxian would have said, if he could talk in fox form. Instead, he grumpily submits to letting himself be washed. Might as well, since he is already wet. The water feels pretty nice anyways, now that he has calmed down a little.
To make sure Lan Wangji knows that he is not one to be so easily won over, Wei Wuxian shakes his fur out once he's out of the bathtub, spraying water everywhere. As a final touch, he tears his towel to shreds after he has rolled around in it as much as possible to dry off.
To his immense frustration, Lan Wangji is not deterred.
He almost seems… encouraged. Which is not what Wei Wuxian wanted to happen.
One morning, he brings Wei Wuxian a nice, savory breakfast. The smell of eggs and meat and sauce makes Wei Wuxian's nose twitch and his ears perk up. He scarfs down one of the omelettes and is halfway through another when Lan Wangji tells him that he personally made the food.
No amount of retching can make the food come back up to Wei Wuxian's mouth. Lan Wangji doesn't help by nudging a plate of sausages closer. In the end, Wei Wuxian eats the food and then goes to tear Lan Wangji's bedsheets to smithereens.
Lan Wangji doesn't even blink at the ruined bedsheets. Instead, he cuts the fabric into even strips and ties them together into a mop.
Wei Wuxian destroys the mop too, but it feels like a cheap victory. Mops are hardly high-value.
They get along, unfortunately.
Wei Wuxian is disappointed. No amount of yelling seems to get to Lan Wangji anymore. When Wei Wuxian pounces onto his chest in the middle of the night and yowls into his ear, Lan Wangji gently rolls him onto his back and rubs his belly.
Which, hm.
Feels quite nice. Quite nice, indeed.
The food quality only improves, too. Soon, Wei Wuxian finds himself enjoying luxury meals like chicken for lunch and beef for dinner. Lan Wangji once bought and patiently held out a lamb skewer for Wei Wuxian to munch on.
After their meals, Lan Wangji often goes on walks with him to see the rabbits living in the back mountains. Some days they stroll together in Caiyi Town, where Wei Wuxian basks under the attention of curious villagers intrigued by the fox in their midst. Lan Wangji buys whatever Wei Wuxian's snout touches; Wei Wuxian has a pretty red ribbon tied around his neck that he personally selected.
Life really isn't that bad here, among dragons. Wei Wuxian's grievances feel more and more superficial. He stops yelling as much, too. It really is quite taxing on his throat.
He also stops fighting Lan Wangji for space on their bed. He still insists on sleeping directly in the center of the bed, but Lan Wangji doesn't utter a single objection and simply settles himself a respectful distance away.
Lan Wangji also, thankfully, doesn't utter a single word when Wei Wuxian eventually, reluctantly, scoots towards him and wriggles himself into Lan Wangji's side for warmth.
The jingshi feels coziest during storms, and Wei Wuxian wakes up one morning to rain. It is very soothing, and it is still dark out, and he is so comfortable. Yawning, he stretches and feels a tug on his head.
He freezes. Repeats the movement. Feels the tug again.
That's hair. Long hair. His long hair, tangled in his fingers.
Somehow, in his sleep, he'd reverted back to his human form. He hasn't been human since his wedding, which was weeks ago. And he is so, so naked, except for the red ribbon still around his neck. Foxes don't wear clothes, after all, and he has been a fox for quite some time now.
He's about to shift back into his fox form when the body beside him moves. He only has a few seconds to realize, with dread, that Lan Wangji is awake, before their positions are reversed.
"Ai!" he hears his own human voice cry out. "Wait! Hold on—"
Wei Wuxian's back is pressed into the mattress, and on top of him, Lan Wangji calmly watches him. He looks very much awake. There is no telling how long he has been awake.
Wei Wuxian feels—not scared, but incredibly nervous. This is not looking good. He tries to laugh. "Ah. Good morning."
"Hm." Lan Wangji leans closer, until their noses are almost touching. "Good morning, Wei Ying."
Wei Wuxian's danger-sense from before spikes. "Ah-h, um, so uh, nice weather, huh?"
Lan Wangji hums as he settles himself between Wei Wuxian's legs—when did those open? Wei Wuxian has no idea. Traitorous legs.
"It appears we will have to stay indoors," Lan Wangji comments without glancing at the window.
Wei Wuxian's breathing stutters when he feels Lan Wangji's hand on his knee, bringing it up to hook on Lan Wangji's hip. "W-why? I like the rain."
Lan Wangji noses along Wei Wuxian's jawline, making him shiver. "Our staying indoors has nothing to do with the rain."
Wei Wuxian tries very hard to think. It is the most difficult thing he's had to do. Stupid sexy dragon.
"I don't suppose—" he barely stifles a moan when Lan Wangji's lips find his neck, "—y-you could let me go?"
The question gains him some reprieve. Lan Wangji lifts his head to look at him. "And where do you plan to go?"
As casually as he can, Wei Wuxian shrugs. "You know, anywhere. Just doing my own thing. Maybe I should go scream on the roof of the Library Pavilion. It'll add a bit of background noise to the Cloud Recesses."
Lan Wangji shrugs his night-robe off of his shoulders, revealing smooth, bare skin. "Is that so."
Belatedly, unhelpfully, Wei Wuxian's mind reminds him that he and Lan Wangji haven't consummated their marriage. "Yup.'' He makes himself sound put together, not too frayed. "You know me, just making noise wherever I go."
There is a small, amused glean in Lan Wangji's eyes as he presses their foreheads together; Wei Wuxian fails to suppress a whimper.
"Then feel free to make as much noise as you please, right here, in this bed," Lan Wangji says, fingers playing with the red ribbon around Wei Wuxian's neck, before leaning down and capturing Wei Wuxian's lips in his.
And for the first time since he married into the Gusu Lan sect, Wei Wuxian obeys.
There is a fox in the Cloud Recesses. He no longer yells in courtyards or on rooftops, but the dragons still haven't known peace since he arrived.