1. “ Also for angsty backstory JFM or YZY did had a lively sister/aunt that suffered what they fear will happen to wwx and she came to a tragic end.” <—-Madame Lan origin? Yes/No?
2. I like the long ass courtship ending, so fic:
Wei WuXian’s smile hung in place for a moment, the finality in Jiang Fengmians voice swift and sharp as an execution blade. Like the pause between the sword stroke and the body beginning to twitch, it took a moment for the rejection to sink in.
Madame Yu had always been the sharp tongue to watch out for. Her immediate rejection of his request for them to bless a marriage with Lan Wangji was an expected obstacle. Never had he looked for it from his Uncle Jiang.
“..what?” he asked, eyes darting among his family as his smile faded in growing disbelief.
“I said,” Jiang Fengmian repeated, voice low in a grave, slow anger, his eyes only leaving Lan Wangji’s to glance with growing ire at where his hand was stretched out to clasp Wei WuXian’s between them. “No.”
Wei WuXian darted a look at Lan Wangji, throat tightening his suddenly shuttered expression, blank and empty even for him. It was jarring in contrast to how happy he’d been that morning when he bowed his head forward and let Wei WuXian tie his forehead ribbon on for him. Clearing his throat, Wei WuXian thought fast, then turned back around with another smile pinned to his face.
“Uncle Jiang, it’s okay.” he tried the same soothing voice that worked best on Jiang Cheng. “Lan Zhan doesn’t care about status, he already promised me-”
“I do not care what Lan-er-gongzhi has promised you.” Jiang Fengmian spat Lan Wangji’s title like it was filth. “A-Xian, come here away from him. There is nothing under heaven that would convince me to let you curse yourself marrying a Lan.”
Lan Wangji’s hand went slack in his grip. Wei WuXian clenched back and shifted sideways and forward, blocking his love as much as he could.
“Uncle Jiang!” scowling for the first time at this man that had been so kind to him, had given him a home and family and everything he wanted in life, Wei WuXian straightened his spine. “Don’t talk like that about Lan Zhan! You don’t know him! How could could you insult him so?”
Jiang Fengmain snapped his sleeves. “I don’t know him? No, A-Xian, the one that doesn’t know him is you! Lan Wangji is a Lan. They’re all the same. Rigid, rule-abiding monsters, high up in the Clouds. Passing judgment and demanding others follow them. He doesn’t love you, he wants to control you! You’re vibrant and full of life and you caught his attention.” Jiang Fengmian’s eyes took on a wild light and for a moment Wei WuXian was certain he would have swung his sword at Lan Wangji’s throat if Wei WuXian hadn’t been in the way. “He’ll marry you, then take you and lock you away, never to be seen again. That’s what they do.”
Lan Wangji’s breath hitched in something like a sob. Wei WuXian twisted to look at him, hot tears stinging his eyes at the stricken look on his face. Forgetting Jiang Fengmian for a moment, Wei WuXian turned to him completely, lifting his hands to cup that beautiful face.
“Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, don’t be sad. Don’t-”
Hands like iron bands clamped around his shoulders and wrenched him away.
Wei WuXian cried out and twisted, catching a glimpse of Madame Yu before he was slammed face first into the ground.
“Wei Ying!” Lan Wangji half rose, one hand reaching out to him before snapping back just fast enough to avoid the sting of Zidian.
“Damned Lans! I don’t care that you’re my nephew.” Jiang Fengmian drew his sword in a slow scrape of steel. Wei WuXian’s eyes widened in shock at his words. His struggles renewed as Uncle Jiang’s blade leveled toward Lan Wangji’s throat. “You’re that mans son and for that I’ll never forgive you.”
Wei WuXian’s eyes darted back and forth. Finding soft hints here and there, a vague similarity between Jiang Fengmian’s handsome features and Lan Wangji’s ethereal beauty. A passing resemblance between one great beauty and another, greater beauty he’d always thought. But….
A sister Jiang Fengmian always lit a bit of incense for every day. Her tablet polished to a shine in the ancestor hall.
“She was stolen from me.” he’d said the only time Wei WuXian had asked. “Stolen and smothered to death in a cage of supposed love. Be careful, A-Xian, of whose love you earn in this life. Some hearts are too heavy.”
He hadn’t understood then, and didn’t understand now.
“Uncle Jiang? What? Lan Zhan?” He looked helplessly at Lan Wangji, but found him as baffled as he was.
“Hold still.” Madame Yu shook him when he tried to go to him. “Ignorant boy! You really will go after any pretty face won’t you? Look what trouble your foolish lust had brought us. Did that viper even have to try to seduce you?”
“What are you talking about?” Wei WuXian tried out. “Lan Zhan isn’t like that! Lan Zhan is good and kind and sweet. What - I- Uncle Jiang! If Lan Zhan is your nephew, why would you disapprove of me marrying him?”
Jiang Fengmian scoffed in a way he could have learned from no one but his formidable wife. “So, am I supposed to be surprised that you didn’t tell him? You must be so pleased with yourself for stringing him along so far.”
Wei WuXian had never heard Lan Wangji stutter. Not once since that night hunt they’d met on, or through any danger or any of Wei WuXian’s flirtatious attempts to crack his Jade-like stoicism.
“Was what?” Jiang Fengmian snapped impatiently, taking a half step forward. Wrath pulled his lips back from his teeth and for the first time Wei WuXian was afraid of him. “My sister? Kidnapped and held to the end of her life in a Lan prison? Killed by Lan hands? Which is it?” his wrist snapped in a dismissive gesture that made his sword jerk and shear off a strand of Lan Wangji’s hair. A crooked smile came over his face. “I have a question of my own for you Lan-er-gongzhi. How did she die exactly? I only know I was told years after and denied her body for proper burial. Did your gentleman father murder her in her bed? Did your self-righteous elders finally have enough of her? Was it you? She never had any other children. Did you prove your murderous Lan blood on the way out of the womb and bleed her to death then?”
“STOP IT!” Wei WuXian screamed. Strength flooded him at the wounded way Lan Wangji folded forward over his knees, the spatter of blood as the motion sliced his cheek on the blade still brandished at him. Suibian sang through the air, smacking against his palm as he kicked away Madame Yu. The slam of steel against steel vibrated up his arm. Knocking against Jiang Fengmians Qi, not sheathed as it always was in spars, but fully unleased, was like striking an iron wall.
Gritting his teeth until he tasted iron, Wei WuXian pushed. Jiang Fengmian stumbled back a step, eyes wide on Wei WuXian’s sudden fury.
Backing up until his heel bumped into Lan Wangji’s knee, Wei WuXian didn’t lower Suibian or take his eyes off his family. Carefully, he turned so he could keep an eye on the two people who had taught him everything he knew about the sword and tried to think of a way to get Lan Wangji out of Lotus Pier. There was no hope of winning, but if Lan Wangji could just live….
First he had to get him off the floor.
Heart in his throat, Wei WuXian reached one hand back to grab a fistful of Lan Wangji’s robe. He’d just bent his knees and braced himself to lift him and run and somehow fight off the Sect Leader of Yunmeng Jiang and the Purple Spider when a voice rose like a bell into the tense silence.
“A-Xian-” Jiang Yanli called out, hands raised in supplication. She knew what he was about to do. Wei WuXian turned a pleading look toward her. Silently begged her not to do this. His heart couldn’t bear to be torn between her and Lan Wangji. Her expression turned gentle and reassuring. “A-Xian, father, please put down your swords. There’s some mistake, we can work this out.”
“There’s no mistake!” Jiang Fengmian said, jaw ticking as his teeth ground, but voice calming significantly in the face of Jiang Yanli’s soft beseeching eyes.
“Of course father.” she curtsied. “I’m sure you know the Lans well,” she turned a speculative look toward Lan Wangji. Wei WuXian’s heart sunk. “You are wise to be cautious. I too, do not want any harm to come to A-Xian. If Lan-er-gongzhi really does have dark intentions, I agree, he should be nowhere near him.” Her chin rose then to meet her father’s stubborn gaze with one of her own. “However, you do not know this Lan. A-Xian has always been a good judge of character. Would it hurt to take some time to be sure?“
For a moment Jiang Fengmian looked like he would snarl, but then his gaze lingered over Jiang Yanli. Shifted and lingered over Wei WuXian. With his anger receded enough, he could properly see Wei WuXian preparing to fight to save Lan Wangji.
Face pinched in displeasure, he sheathed his sword.
Madame Yu tisked, but Zidian crackled back to dormancy.
“Lan Wangji, if you really care for Wei WuXian,” Jiang Fengmian’s voice dripped with doubt. “Then you will not mind a long, chaste, chaperoned betrothal, will you not.”
Slowly, Lan Wangji’s head rose. Wei WuXian’s heart hurt for the pain stamped over his face. Just as slowly, his arms rose in a salute.
Lan Wangji bowed, again and again, deeper each time until his head knocked against the floor.
“Wangji will woo Wei Ying in all ways that are right and proper in the eyes of his family.”
“Then. Until you are married, you will never be alone with A-Xian again.” Jiang Fengmian snapped his sleeves, hate and revulsion twisting his face as he turned and stormed out of the room.
Wei WuXian eyed Madame Yu, then sunk to his knees and wrapped his arms around Lan Wangji’s shoulders for the last time he would be permitted in who-knew how long.
“Lan Zhan. I’m sorry. I never thought. I-” Wei WuXian swallowed thickly. “If this is too much, I understand if you-”
“I will wait.” Lan Wangji whispered into his ear, arms rising to embrace him just as desperately. “I will wait forever for Wei Ying. Sect Leader Jiang….he is. My mother was charged with murder. Father married her to save her he said, then locked her in a cottage. She died.” His embrace became nearly painful. “It is not wrong for Sect Leader Jiang to be suspicious. It is good he loves you so well.” The embrace gentled as damp tears fell against Wei WuXian’s collar. “I will never, ever do such a thing to Wei Ying. Never. I promise. I vow to you. I only love you and want you to be free and happy every day of your life.”
“I will be. As long as you’re beside me, I will be.” Wei WuXian choked out. “Just you. Who else could I be with but you? It can’t be anyone but you. If you are willing to wait, I’ll wait too.”
Soft lips pressed against the curve of his jaw, then he was pulled away for the second time that day.
“Alright then.” Madame Yu said as she motioned to her personal servants. “Fengmian will have more guidelines tomorrow. For now, someone find that dog a room far from Wei Ying.”
Wei WuXian watched Lan Wangji be lead away and wondered how their happiness could have crumbled so much. How the happy life of love and joy they’d been planning that morning had become so far away.
“You won’t assassinate him will you?” he asked dully.
Madame Yu sniffed. “Of course not. I won’t let Fengmian kill him either.”
Wei WuXian turned to her, confused. “Why?”
“My reasons are my own.” she said as she finally let go of him. Turning smartly, she headed toward the door as well. The sharp click of her shoes paused at the threshold. So quietly it would have been unheard if there had been a single other sound in the hall, she tossed over her shoulder. “For your sake I do hope that boy really loves you.”
Jiang Cheng shuffled awkwardly, then hurried after her.
Too exhausted to pick that apart just yet, Wei WuXian let himself be folded into his Shijie’s sympathetic embrace.
2087
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