#pingpangxie

[katamaricule]

Sometimes you just have to make the Wu Xie Whump/Iron Triangle OT3 video you want to see in the world.

As per my original use of the song as a title for A Single Explosion (which is about Xiao Ge and Pangzi during the events of Ultimate Note), I would have preferred to make this a pingpang video, but sadly, there is just not enough footage to pull it off. So instead, please enjoy approximately three minutes of Reunion-era Wu Xie being consumptively beautiful while his husbands fret.

[sunriseverse]

day two! picked the prompt "family" for today, in all its forms :) many thanks once more to @tiesanjiaoshenanigans for organising this all!

—

Wu Xie hasn't seen his parents for longer than a brief flash in—years. Which is why, when, on an utterly unremarkable Wednesday afternoon, enjoying the bright warmth of the summer's day from under the lovely protection of the shade trees in their yard, his phone rings, the last person he expects to hear on the other end is his father.

For a moment, silence reigns; Wu Xie had automatically set it to speaker out of habit, no need these days to hide his conversations from his companions, and, more than that, no real motivation to do so when half the time the calls are either spam or Li Cu calling to tear into him about whatever it is is his fault now, and so his father's voice is loud across the still summer air, and the emptiness left behind is jarring.

From where he's crouched and prodding at the garden soil, Pangzi's head rises, casting him a glance of concern. Wu Xie offers an instinctive smile, slightly strained around the edges, turns off speaker, and presses the phone to his ear. "Ba," he says. "It's been a while since I've heard your voice."

On the other end, a tinny sigh. "Wu Xie," his father says, "come home. Erbai is sick."

Whatever faint hope Wu Xie had had about this conversation possibly avoiding minefields as they'd so carefully managed for the past few decades and change dies a fiery, inglorious death, much like some unfortunate souls in that Nanjing tomb. Instinctively, Wu Xie wants to deny—to bring up the many, many rifts between him and his Ershu, tell his father he's not even sure the man would want to see him if he really is that sick. Pangzi would make a joke about Wu Xie scaring him the remaining half to death.

Instead, he breathes, slow and shallow. "How long?" he asks. Then: "No, don't tell me. I don't want to know." Couldn't bear knowing, his mind whispers in the dark recesses.

"I've booked a ticket for you," his father tells him. "You should have the confirmation information—I used your number."

Should I remember to pay that back? Wu Xie doesn't ask, because it's a step too far. His father has never expected him to pay back his generosity—has only ever expected nothing at all. It's not easy being the black sheep, Wu Xie knows. "Okay," Wu Xie mutters, numb, and feels suddenly and violently like a child, in all the worst ways. When he breathes, he can hear the whistle of it. Xiaoge keeps leaving out pamphlets about sleep pathology clinics. "I'll…see you."

His father doesn't say anything more, just goes mn, and hangs up. The phone, against his ear, is unpleasantly cool in the sunbright warmth of the midday. Wu Xie, stretched out on the reclined chair, stares incoherently up at the sparse clouds slowly meandering their way across the heavens, and wonders, not for the firs time, if there's a world where his family is less—complicated, fractious, just…less. Wonders if his grandfather's family had been like this, too—if the complexities stem from the wealth that he had later acquired, and the way that had shaped all their lives.

And then, without warning, a hand on his shoulder, familiar, slender fingers tapping against the joint of muscle between it and his neck. Wu Xie opens eyes he hadn't realised he'd closed, and finds Xiaoge's image, upside-down, standing over the back off the chair. His head is slightly cocked, inquisitive. "Wu Xie."

"Xiaoge," he returns, a reuful smile. "Did you hear all that?"

"Whatever it was, it wasn't good," comes Pangzi's voice, and when Wu Xie cranes his neck, he finds the other's stood up, pulling off his gloves and dusting off his knees, grass-stained. "Aiya, Tianzhen, what's that father of yours doing calling you up in retirement? I thought this was supposed to be our escape from the calling of the business."

Xiaoge lets out a low hmm. "Shaoxing."

"Ah, fuck off," Pangzi says, gamely, and reaches out to ruffle Xiaoge's hair in a clear show of affection. Wu Xie, suddenly, is so very content that he can't breathe around it. "Well, Tianzhen? Out with it. Ah, scoot over a bit, give your Pang-ye some space to sit."

"Get your own chair," Wu Xie grouses, batting ineffectually at Pangzi, until he has to shift halfway off the chair to give the other enough space to sit. "Si Pangzi," he grumbles, tossing his phone down onto the lush grass, because it'll just dig into his flesh if he tries to put it anywhere else.

Xiaoge's fingers, still on his skin, start tracing senseless patterns—or, rather, patterns with their own sense, but only to Xiaoge; Wu Xie's utterly shit at trying to play that game. He doesn't say anything, but his touch, and Pangzi's loud personality, go a long way to teasing the strands of tension in his body apart. Wu Xie sighs, and presses his eyes shut for a long, long moment, concentrates on the warmth of Pangzi's body and the slight chill of Xiaoge's fingers. "Ershu's sick," he says. "Ba didn't say what it was—just that he'd already booked a ticket for me."

Pangzi turns his head to look at him properly, brows furrowed. "What time?" he says.

There's a long pause, broken only by the distant birdsong and hum of cicadas. "I haven't checked," Wu Xie admits.

"Well, hurry up," Pangzi says, digging around in his own pockets. "This Pang-ye's not a miracle worker; I need to know when the ticket is so I can book two more for the same time."

"For the—Pangzi," Wu Xie says.

"Wu Xie," Pangzi says, in reply. "What, did you think we were just going to leave you to run off and deal with them on your own? Youth, you have so little faith in your elders," he mutters. "Really, what's the world coming to."

"I can't ask that of you," Wu Xie protests.

"You're not asking," Xiaoge points out, placid and paced. "We're offering."

Well, when he puts it like that. Wu Xie sighs. Sometimes, his lovers are terrible in the very best way. "Alright, alright," he says. "Pangzi, get your ass off my leg so I can grab my phone, you're flattening me—"

"Oh, that's how you repay your Pang-ye's generosity—?"

As they devolve into practiced bickering, Wu Xie notes, distantly, that the dark cloud that had fallen over him has begun to dissipate.

[lungache]

thinking about how pangzi made his life's mission love. he gets boiled down to just loving money but that isn't true at all. he doesn't make money chasing wu xie and xiaoge around- if anything he LOSES money. he doesn't care about legacies or politics. he doesn't care about grandiose plots. he doesn't care about the jiumen. he doesn't care about zhang bullshit. he certainly doesn't care about sanshu. his life would be infinitely easier if he walked away. but the people he cares about care about those things. he has a dog in the fight because he loves. that's all.

[scaredysap]

forgot to post this some time ago but i find it fun to have Wang Meng witness the gay polyamorousness of the Iron Triangle while he’s over there, aroacing and minding his own business

[pangzi]

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

Chapters: 4/4 Relationships: Wang Pangzi/Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling, Wang Pangzi/Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling/Hei Xiazi/Xie Yuchen Characters: Wang Pangzi, Wu Xie (DMBJ Series), Zhang Qiling, Xie Yuchen, Li Cu (DMBJ Series), Su Wan (DMBJ Series), Yang Hao (DMBJ Series), Original Characters, Hei Xia Zi (DMBJ Series) Additional Tags: Crossdressing, Polyamory, Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Boys Being Boys, idiots being idiots, Sexual Tension, Bickering, 3 + 1, kind of, surprise parties, Gender Fuckery, Trans Xie Yuchen, Smut, Cockblocking, Oral Sex, Penis In Vagina Sex Summary:

Pangzi has celebrated well over 40 birthdays now.

Most of them passed like any other day but ever since he met a certain bespectacled boy in a damp tomb, birthdays are no longer just like any other day.

These are four of his most memorable birthdays:

That time they got kicked out of Xinyue restaurant, again.

The time Su Wan, Li Cu and Yang Hao threw Pangzi a surprise party, but ended up the ones surprised.

And that was the last time Xiao Hua let them stay in one of his guest bedrooms

The birthday that was nothing more than just another calm day

[hils79]

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

Title: Flavours of Love

Fandom:  盗墓笔记重启 | The Lost Tomb Reboot (TV), 盗墓笔记 - 南派三叔 | The Grave Robbers' Chronicles - Xu Lei

Relationships: Wang Pangzi/Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling

Summary: 

“Tianzhen, I want to teach you how to cook.”

This isn’t the first time Pangzi has made this attempt. It’s not even the twentieth. Pangzi lost count some time after that. But he clings to the hope that somehow this time will be different. That somehow retirement has magically removed Wu Xie’s ability to burn food just by looking at it.

“Focus,” Xiaoge says softly but firmly from where he’s perched on the counter near the door. It’s where he likes to sit when he’s watching Pangzi cook anyway, and if he happens to be close enough that he can intervene if Wu Xie does something stupid then that’s just a bonus as far as Pangzi is concerned.

“I am focusing,” Wu Xie replies with a pout. “Ooh, can we make steamed buns? Or noodles? Or, oh, I saw these really nice looking dumplings in a Douyin video and—”

Pangzi pokes him gently in the shoulder to bring his attention back to the lesson at hand. “You’re trying to run before you can walk. Now, just take a breath and listen to your Pang-ye. If you listen and do well I’ll reward you at the end.”

This is what he has been reduced to. Bribing one of his lovers as though he were a small child. And the sad thing is it works. Wu Xie’s eyes light up at the sound of reward and he immediately gives Pangzi all of his attention.

“Good boy,” Pangzi says and he doesn’t miss the way something flashes in Wu Xie’s eyes at the praise. That’s something for the three of them to revisit later. In the bedroom.

“The first thing you need to do,” Pangzi says as he sets a few things down on the counter in front of Wu Xie, “is familiarise yourself with your tools.”

He can already feel himself regretting everything about this venture when he picks up one of the kitchen knives. It’s not his best knife. He wouldn’t even let Xiaoge touch his best knife so he’s certainly not going to let Wu Xie near it.

“This is the most important utensil in the entire kitchen,” Pangzi says as he hands it over to Wu Xie.

“I know how to use a knife, Pangzi,” Wu Xie points out and then touches the blade with the tip of his finger to see how sharp it is. Blood wells immediately and Wu Xie hisses a curse.

Read the rest on AO3

[fixaidea]

More on my 'Iron Triange becomes a full throuple' agenda, specifically a version where Wu Xie and Xiaoge get together first and then later adsorb Pangzi into the relationship:

Well. It's a good thing Pangzi has known the other two for so long, because he's not gonna have the easiest time here. See, it's normal for a new partner to have their set tastes and preferences and of course you gotta map these out, right?

Right, but these two are two especially weird, deeply traumatised men who never had (consensual) sex with anyone before each other, so the love life they developped is basically the romantic equivalent of those isolated deep-sea ecosystems that thrive around hydrothermal vents independent of all other known life-forms.

Wu Xie is easier, the dynamic he and Pangzi fall into is something of a lighthearted 'best friends with benefits' kind of thing.

Xiaoge is much more work, especially if Wu Xie isn't present. The man is basically wired backwards, where he remains stoic in the face of the worst pain and torture, but melts into a weepy puddle in bed. Sex with him is an Event you need to set a good amount of time aside for because it mainly consists of foreplay, cuddlig and napping together.

[endof-vanity]

wu xie xiao ge + pangzi