hi kimmie! congrats on the follower milestone! if you'd like, a drabble about lan wangji looking out for lan sizhui? maybe helping him on a night hunt, giving him advice, teaching him guqin...whatever you want :)
Thank you so much for the congratulations and for the prompt request! This is slightly different than I intended it to go, but I hope you enjoy it all the same!
Sizhui is not a difficult child.
He is bright and clever, inquisitive as someone his age is likely to be. He is kind in nature, intuitive to people in a way that Lan Wangji still manages to find himself struggling with.
It is why Lan Wangji is not all that surprised when Sizhui asks to join him on one of the evenings he leaves the Jingshi to play his guqin alone. It has never been a secret where he goes, and Sizhui has come to an age in which he knows enough to understand Lan Wangji leaves to play for a spirit that is long gone but never forgotten.
Wei Ying is still someone Sizhui cannot recall from his own foggy memories, despite the few years of his life he spent being raised by him. Yet he knows of the Yílíng Lǎozǔ. More importantly, he knows the truth of him - or, enough of the truth which he should know of.
Sizhui understands that he had not been the monster the majority of the world still makes him out to be, nor is he deserving of the stories told to scare young children before bedtime. That instead he had simply been a man. A man who stumbled along his own path and lost his way, constantly fighting for what he believed was right and just, until the day he ultimately paid the price for it all.
Lan Wangji had been determined to not let Wei Ying’s true memory be tarnished and forgotten, least of all in the mind of the boy he had loved and cherished as his own son. Every story he shared was important, a precious memory that Lan Wangji clung and shielded close to his chest so the cruelty of the world could not tarnish it. It was with great care that he passed each one down into the child's gentle hands, knowing they would be treated well with him.
Right now, with Sizhui sitting by his side, the only sound surrounding them being that of the cicadas singing their nightly tune, Lan Wangji is hit by a feeling of how right it is that it should be the two of them keeping Wei Ying’s memory alive.
After all, it had been them who had loved him the most in life.
Gently, Lan Wangji begins to strum the first few lines of inquiry, noticing how Sizhui watches the movement of his fingertips upon the guqin in respectful silence. He has only recently started learning to play himself. Lan Wangji often takes the time to teach him a piece or two between his other training and studies, and will often return to the Jingshi to the melodic sound of Sizhui practicing what he has been taught. Inquiry is something still very new to him; something which Sizhui has heard about, yet not seen in action until now.
Lan Wangji is no stranger to playing it by now. He has spent so many times in this same meadow, hoping with his whole being for a response which he never receives. There are days where he doesn't even speak as he plays, instead taking the time to reminisce over the man he desperately misses.
Yet tonight, with Sizhui by his side, he gently coaxes the boy into speaking. He tells him to ask a question, any question he likes. Sizhui's brow creases in thought at the request, taking a long moment to consider what he could say.
The words which pass his lips are as soft as a whisper; as if speaking too loud could spook any possible lingering spirits. The tune Lan Wangji plays continues uninterrupted, yet he turns his towards Sizhui, looking at him in surprise. Sizhui's own gaze has moved away from watching Lan Wangji's fingers glide over the guqin, instead staring out at the long stretch of meadow ahead of them, watching as the light of small fireflies dance lightly in the distance.
“You’re missed, wherever you are. Hanguang Jun doesn’t ever say it, but I can tell. Especially when he speaks of you.
I hope you’re happy. I think ... you sound like you were a good person in your lifetime. Like you deserved to find happiness.”
Lan Wangji’s heart aches at Sizhui's unexpected words. He closes his eyes, steading his breath so as not to let his tears fall, lest the boy see and become worried for him.
Sizhui is a good child. A bright child.
Wei Ying would be proud of who he was growing up to become.
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