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An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Rating: Mature

Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Category: Gen

Fandoms: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Modao Zushi - Moxiang Tongxiu & Related Fandoms, 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù

Characters: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Lan Qiren, Madam Lan (Modao Zushi), Cángsè Sǎnrén (mentioned), Original Female Character(s), Qingheng-jun (Modao Zushi)

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Aromantic Asexual Lan Qiren, Queerplatonic Relationships, Developing Friendships, Male-Female Friendship, Gusu Lan Sect (Modao Zushi), Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji Leaves the Gusu Lan Sect, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen Leaves the Gusu Lan Sect, bet u didn’t expect that, Madam Lan Lives (Modao Zushi), Madam Lan Deserves Better (Modao Zushi), Child Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Child Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Bad Parent Qingheng-jun, Minor Madam Lan/Qingheng-jun, Madam Lan Backstory (Modao Zushi), lan-furen takes her babies and RUNS, in chap 2, Prophetic Dreams, Canon-Typical Violence, Blood and Injury, War, We get flashbacks (flash forwards?) to the sun shot campaign, where the twin jades aren’t exactly having the best of times, Twin Jades of Lan Dynamics, Good Uncle Lan Qiren, Good Parent Madam Lán (Módào Zǔshī)

Summary:

Dreams are figments of the imagination that flit under closed eyelids with a chaotic energy that only Cangse Sanren can match in life. Lan Qiren has never had much to do with the realm of dreams - that is until nightmares plague his night, a mere few months after little Lan Zhan comes into his care.

He brushes it off to fatigue from the sudden entry into leadership that he was never trained for.

Of course, it is far more difficult to brush off when Lan-furen, of all people, shares his nightmares.

Or, Lan Qiren and Lan-furen share dreams of the Sunshot campaign and are thus jointly traumatised by the agony awaiting their boys. Somehow a friendship blooms - the change of the world is perhaps a natural consequence.

Excerpt of chapter 1 below!

The first dream comes to him not long after little Lan Zhan comes into his care.

Both of his nephews are safe and warm in their beds, and well-behaved as they may be, they are still small children that require every ounce of his energy. Lan Qiren cannot remember the last time he didn't go to sleep utterly exhausted and cursing his brother's foolishness.

He is asleep before his head hits the pillow, his last image of the waking world of A-Huan sprawled in his bed with A-Zhan curled into his side.

Lan Qiren had never been prone to dreams, even as a child, so it is strange that he is having one at all. It is more vivid and realistic than those he's heard his peers complain of, sending a chill through his body, the likes of which he has never felt before.

It is Lan Zhan - he does not know how he recognises the young man kneeling before him as the toddler he'd fought with about breakfast this morning, but it is an insticutal recognistion that he knows to be true with a fervour he cannot deny. Lan Zhan kneels, misery wrought across his features and Lan Qiren cannot move, cannot hold that face in his hands and demand to know who dared to hurt his nephew so terribly.

He is rooted to his place. His heart thunders in his ears as another enters the scene, with a face near-identical to Lan Zhan's. Lan Huan, then, with tears down his cheeks and in his hand-

Lan Qiren swears his heart stops beating.

The disciplinary whip is clenched in Lan Huan's white-knuckled hands, hands that tremble but do not falter as Lan Huan brings the whip up high. Lan Huan bites fiercely at his own lip, an habit that is familiar to the young A-Huan he knows, crimson blooming as teeth pierce the soft skin.

Lan Huan, he wants to scream, eyes wide with horror. Lan Huan, stop this at once.

Lan Zhan's bowed head lifts, head tilting to the side and his lips moves. The murmur should not be audible but it rings clear like a thousand bells in Lan Qiren's ears: do it, Xiongzhang. It is okay.

Lan Huan's lips trembled with his next inhale. The whip comes down with startling speed and the scene changes as it cracks along Lan Zhan's back, crimson splattering across Lan Qiren's face, crimson spilling from Lan Zhan's mouth and his back, oh gods, his back-

He lurches awake, clutching his chest. Nausea rolls in his stomach like a stormy sea, heart fluttering under his ribcage as though it means to find an escape. He throws his feet to the side of the bed, the floor cool on his feet and he forces himself up. He moves too quickly for his exhausted body to cope, his head spinning unpleasantly as blood rushes to his feet, but he shakes his head sharply as though it would make it stop spiralling.

Eyes squeezed tight, nausea runs up his throat with startling vehemence as the images replay in his mind again and again, the crack of the whip in his ears, the way it had split pale skin with ease, the way Lan Zhan had bled and bled and bled, as though there was no end to it.

"Shufu?"

He turns.

A-Huan, just as he remembers him before he fell asleep: little hands that wouldn't fit around the whip let alone hold it aloft, big golden eyes still hazed over with the remnant of sleep instead of drenched in tears and a sweet face still round with the wonder of childhood. A little fist rises to rub against A-Huan's eye, mouth wide as he yawns. His hair is a mess because, as the bruises on Lan Qiren's body can attest to, A-Huan is incapable of staying still in his sleep.

"Shufu?" A-Huan asks again, after a few minutes of quiet passes. "Is it Zhanzhan? Is he okay?"

No, Lan Qiren thinks instantly, mind awash with red. He inhales. Holds it for five counts and exhales shakily.

A-Zhan lays curled into his brother's side, the same position he had fallen asleep. He does not seem bothered by his brother's movement, snuggling closer to A-Huan's warmth and sighing contently.

"Everything is alright, A-Huan." Lan Qiren says, laying down on the bed again. He'd prefer to bathe, rid himself of the sweat drying on his skin, but he doesn't think his heart will survive a second without his nephews safe and hale in his line of sight.

"Okay, Shufu." A-Huan accepts the words easily, yawning wide once more before his eyes flutter shut and he falls into sleep's embrace once more.

Lan Qiren doesn't sleep the rest of the night, eyes intent upon the steady rise and fall of his nephews' chests and unable to forget the nightmare awaiting him behind closed eyes.

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