Lan Wangji checking Wei Wuxian's wrist when he's asleep so he can stare at the Lan headband he tied around it, only to find a purple hair ribbon wrapped so tight that it leaves deep red marks
What if on some random night hunt, both wwx and jc get deaged to somewhere probably around the CR studies.
It is seriously troubling for everyone, especially the boy who still have their adult bodies. jc can tell this core isn't his. It being stronger was indeed a bit worrying when he wasn't explained what happened, but he somehow also could tell it /wasn't his/.
wwx on the other side saw his reflection in sandu and was shocked when he couldn't recognise himself but also felt much weaker than what he remembered "of the day before".
It takes a lot of calming down from the juniors and attempts at explaining who they are today (leaving the trauma on the side for now).
The thing is, they are still in the middle of solving some problems and the two "young" cultivators are more than happy to help despite being so troubled ("I trust we can fix it later" wwx said as jc rolled his eyes at his lack of care).
And this is how the juniors see for the first time what the duo was like before everything was shattered. They are so close to one another, fighting rather well despite the balance now being messed up (they somehow still manage to balance it well enough).
Back to the inn, everyone is surprised by how jc acts (even jl, who has only known jiujiu post-I-lost-everything-but-you). This is such a contrast from the fierce and severs looking sect leader they know (even tho the quartet has learned to know he can be nice and loving too).
wwx isn't 100% out of character, although he might be a bit less drunk than usual and a whole lot flirty with jc (which does make the juniors a bit unsure of what is happening.) of course, the ymj sect was immediately warned of what happened, so no one would be surprised of seeing their dear sect leader like this.
of course, lwj is also warned of the situation (as if they could let hgj in the dark about his husband). So while they all have that fun at the inn, you have ymj SIC and lwj on their way to them to make sure their respective reason of worries is alright.
meanwhile, the juniors are still stuck to deal with a wwx who is somehow more mischievous than before and a jc who is actually ready to /follow him/ in these ideas.
It is a strange evening for the juniors than to deal with these men who they look up to but are now basically around their age. But as no one has reached them yet for help, they decide that staying at the inn would be better. After all, it is close to where everything happened and they actually have yet to fully deal with what has been causing problems to this village.
They were going to take three rooms (thankfully to jl money, the juniors could share the biggest room here), but wwx asked why three when he and jc can share one. It takes a bit of arguing, only for jl to give in because he cannot argue against jiujiu telling him it would be stupid to spend on a room that isn't even needed.
So they now have two rooms and the juniors are a bit nervous about it.
What if they suddenly get back to normal in the middle of the night? Would they be alright in the same room?
"But don't you think senior way and sect leader jiang are strangely... very close to one another?" oyz ends up asking after a while.
Sure, they all had heard about how close the two had been in the past, but they felt like people had forgotten to tell them about how they seemed to flirt together?! This isn't right, especially since now, wwx is married to hgj!!
little did they know that wwx and jc had actually been pining for /years/ in the past.
it was Jiang "I am not enough he can find better" Cheng and Wei "I know jc doesn't see me as a servant but I still cannot be his for this reason" Ying being an absolute idiot. They had experienced together, mostly because they trusted each other in trying those, hiding behind it only being experiments and everyone does that yes, it wasn't because they were in love with each other.
These are the same idiots who most likely still had romantic love for each other, but had too much baggage at this point to go on with it.
But now you have them away from anything that could have been a cause of worries and a reminder of why they "couldn't". Sure, in their mind, it was only yesterday that yzy would have wiped wwx at the thought of his sleeping with her son, or that jfm was always putting wwx first.
But they also understood that now, no one would do such a thing. Now they would probably be side by side (and the role was probably reversed in the public eyes).
Now they were away and could a bit more easily indulge. especially in an inn.
They were happy to finally be in their room after checking out. Despite technically being the youngest of the group now, the juniors were still looking up for their opinions and also making sure they were alright. the duo was more than happy to finally be alone.
the moment they were in, wwx slapped a silencing talisman on the door, turning to jc with a grin, starting to tease him again about how he has been acting since earlier with the kids.
it ends up with them playfully arguing until jc finally pushes wwx to the bed and pins him down on it. It surprises them a bit all the ease it took jc to do it, after all, to them it wasn't so long ago that they were to the same strength, both physically and in cultivation. wwx laugh at this, since he was usually the one to pin jc down on a bed "A-cheng has gotten so strong" he praised with a grin.
jc shut him up with a kiss, wwx more than happy to indulge, pulling him closer.
It is a bit weird, since this is jc older body, while wwx simply did not have his at all. Yet it was as if they didn't care for any of it, as long as it was them it would always be alright (plus jc would lie if he said this body wasn't attractive too, even if differently).
(🌸NSFW-ISH to come)
hands soon start to roam over unfamiliar skin, slowly taking robes away so they can have direct access to the skin. fingers run over scares for which they do not know the history (and honestly they don't want to know right now).
After a while wwx ends up flipping them over, grinning when he is finally atop jc, kissing along his neck down his chest (giving some love to those harsh scars on his chest, feeling like he has an idea where they come from, yet he pushes it far away).
wwx in this body isn't as strong as jc, yet he lets him take over, letting wwx do as he wishes, more than happy that they can finally have this moment for them, knowing he will have all the time he wants to do whatever he wants with wwx too.
the night goes on like this, wwx taking all he wants and gladly letting jc take all he wants too.
To say the least, they didn't sleep much that night (which these older bodies do not seem to agree with).
when they meet again with the juniors, the group of young
(🌸 end)
man tries not to stare in disbelief and disapproval at the mark they may or may not have left visible on each other's neck (they might have gone a bit overboard with the knowledge of no one here to scold them). the lan juniors are a bit conflicted because they do not want for hgj to be destroyed by this (but lsz can easily see how happy this makes senior wei).
jl is in a way worried this will only end up hurting his jiujiu /again/. it is good to see him so happy, but what will it be like when they get back to normal? Will he be alone again?
and on the side oyz look about to go crazy over this new development.
it is so easy to catch on for the juniors, so of course, once they join the ymj SIC and lwj who are having tea downstairs at the inn while waiting for them, of course, they would notice it too (especially lwj, because he /knows/ he's not the one who put those mark here).
They know that both men had been deaged, but neither would have actually expected for something like this to happen. Sure, wwx and jc had a history of being really close, but none of them would have expected it to turn out like this. How could lwj have missed it in their youth?
it doesn't take long before the ymj SIC comes up to his sect leader, politely saluting him while presenting himself (he knows jc must have no idea who he is).
jc is a bit surprised by the action, still not used to the idea he was indeed a sect leader now (but also he had no memory of this man, had he been newer to LP?).
wwx give the man a glance, a bit unsure why /he/ wasn't the sic by jc sides (the juniors did tell them some of the history, but it never told him why he wasn't by jc sides anymore). then they looked at lwj who had approached wwx so suddenly, actually making him back off a little bit, not expecting for the man to come up to him so suddenly.
lwj clearly looks hurt for a moment, hand retracting as his eyes lingered on wwx neck and a couple of exposed marks. he looks displeased for a moment, yet no comments come and he goes back to his usual unexpressive face.
This does trouble wwx, looking back at the juniors who are greeting hgj politely. they have to explain again what happened the day before, saying they didn't have too much time to find out what happened since they had more pressing matters that they still hadn't fully taken care of yet.
"We are enough today that we can split, can't we?" jc asked. They were now 8, which included 2 that were actually older and more experimented now that they were both deaged.
"We could keep investigating here while you two go back to where everything happened" ljy suggested.
Every juniors agreed, not interested to be stuck in the weird and awkward situation that would happen once jc and wwx would go back to being close while lwj couldn't really do anything because this wasn't really the wwx he married (from what he understood, this wwx
was from a time when they barely even knew each other, he couldn't exactly expect wwx to accept so easily that they are husband now, doesn't stop from hurting when he sees what he sees).
Not tagging or writing main couples names in full to keep this out of ppl looking for their contents searches, but check tags & be aware the main md zs couple is mentioned, before checking below the cut.
I know the concept of WW marrying LW for the cash and using said cash to shower sugar shidi with the cold hard stuff isn't new.
But the inherent tragedy of this kind of triangle cannot be overstated.
Married WW becomes obsessed by JC, an exotic dancer he met at a bar while out looking for thrills one night.
JC isn't going to turn down an idiot willing to spend that kind of money just to get into his pants, and he's happy to oblige, and becomes WW's side piece.
For now. LW is fully aware of what's happening, but what can he do except bear it, because he'd rather put up with the cheating, and WW spending his money on his side-piece, than let WW go, because he loves him.
And WW knows JC doesn't really care for him, even though /he's/ madly in lust/love. He knows if someone with a bigger bank balance came along and wanted JC, he wouldn't see the other for dust, but what can he do except take what he can now, because he does love him?
No one is really happy, except JC who's net worth is significantly increased by spending a few hours out of his week on his back, or his knees. It ain't much but it's honest work.
Extra thought: What if LW plans to pay JC to get lost instead. Yes, he’s hesitant bc it would hurt WW, but it would certainly solve HIS problem, bc JC is definitely only in it for the cash. These hos ain’t loyal. 👀
