[ closed post: rabbit meditation power hour ]

[lightbearinglord]

The rabbits have been settling in. They have sweet, easygoing temperaments, which helps, and it helps, too, that the mansion has apparently noticed their presence and supplied Lan Wangji with a little wooden hutch for their keeping when he is not able to hold them. He does, on occasion, need his hands for other tasks. His preferred kitchen has also been forthcoming with hay and vegetables for their feeding. Wei Ying has already threatened to cook and eat them several times, which means he likes them and will be whittling toys for them any day now. Once winter passes, Lan Wangji will work on constructing a sturdier hutch for the outdoors as well, so that they can see the lake and the woods.¹

Because they are so sweet, and also so endearingly small, their presence is calming in itself. Lan Wangji does not exactly need help to meditate successfully -- he has been doing it daily since he was very young -- but the company does not go amiss, either. It is difficult to dwell overmuch on anything troublesome with two tiny, warm bodies in one's lap.

Lan Wangji is not actually meditating yet, but he is seated in that side room he prefers to use for the practice. There is incense burning, and he has a little brown rabbit, munching its way through a piece of watercress, perched on his knee. In his hands, he holds the equally little white rabbit, which is overall doing well, but which does have a greater tendency to startle and to want to hide itself. He is speaking to it under his breath, gently.

¹It's important for rabbits who began life in the bottom of a top hat to be exposed to nature.

Comments

[wickedwit]

Claudius understands enough to paint a picture in broad strokes, colored by the painful circumstances of Lan Wangji's own seclusion, and a knowledge of the hurts that make a man retreat from the world. He also understands Lan Wangji long loved a mother kept behind closed doors -- a mother who teased him, who smiled even when he bit at her, because he felt so much and she knew how much her son's heart could hold.

Lan Xichen must have seen his brother's devotion every day Lan Wangji waited outside that closed door. It must've been a dear hope of his, not to let Lan Wangji’s devotion go to waste. I think I've spent most of my life worrying about you.

"It must've been a comfort to him," Claudius says, with a softer smile, “to see thee well-befriended. Such selfless people never stop worrying about the ones they love, even when they’ve their own sorrows to bear.”

[lightbearinglord]

Claudius is right, he thinks. Lan Xichen has enough of his own worries and troubles, the toil of running a sect from seclusion and the everyday pain of his memories of Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao. Lan Wangji knows his brother. Lan Xichen's face isn't so subtle as his own, but its gentle smiles can hold their own puzzles to unravel. He could see that Lan Xichen was, with all his grief and weariness, truly eased to see his cold and distant younger brother finding a place somewhere outside the regimented Cloud Recesses.

He's quiet again as he remembers his brother's arms around him, the clean smell of the Cloud Recesses and Gusu tea, his name in Lan Xichen's warm voice. It may be that he can never show Claudius the back mountain dotted with soft white rabbits or watch with amusement as he looks in disbelief at the four thousand and counting rules carved into the Wall of Discipline. There is, however, a request he has been meaning to make since Claudius passingly called him by his title the month prior.

"Claudius," he says, perhaps a little abruptly. "You may address me as Wangji, if you would prefer."

[wickedwit]

"Wangji," Claudius repeats, and his smile broadens around it. When they were strangers to each other, he remembers copying Lan Wangji's courtesies, correcting himself through observation, sliding Lan back into his greetings as though he'd never let it slip. He wanted all his adaptations to look effortless, to prove his cosmopolitanism, which was absurd when they weren't even from the same world. To his surprise, Wangji doesn't feel like a step backwards, returning to his first clumsy tests with terms of address. It feels lighter on his tongue, lighter than even Lan Wangji with the title. Simply put, "I like the sound of it. You’ll be hearing it until you’re sick of it, I’m sure. Wangji, I’ve such a story tell thee. Wangji, I need thy counsel. Wangji, what does cut-sleeve mean? The last comes from meeting your unfortunate in-law.”

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji had hardly realized his own trepidation about this request until it has passed. He has never explicitly asked such a thing before; he was Lan Zhan, or A-Zhan to his mother, and then he was Lan Wangji, and his brother and his uncle adjusted accordingly. He finds himself smiling at Claudius' recitation, warmed enough that even an allusion to Jiang Wanyin's existence, which is unfortunate indeed, does not dampen his mood.

"I am a cut-sleeve," he says, a little wryness in the lingering quirk at the corner of his mouth. "A man who desires other men."

[wickedwit]

"So you've a term for it! You know, I thought it might be something of the kind." Does that mean Jiang Wanyin is a heterosexual? If that's how self-declared heterosexuals behave, Claudius isn't convinced. But he does so enjoy collecting words and their meanings, and asks, "Why 'cut-sleeve'?"

[lightbearinglord]

As he speaks, Lan Wangji returns to petting between Xiaoxue's ears. "Emperor Ai's closest official, Dong Xian, was also his lover. The emperor awoke one day to Dong Xian asleep, head on his sleeve." Lan Wangji lifts the hand that is not occupied with a rabbit to show the long drape of his own sleeve. "The emperor cut his sleeve rather than disturb the man he loved."

[wickedwit]

"Wangji," Claudius says in impressed, delighted tones. "I knew you had a way with stories, but that is perhaps the most romantic story I've ever heard. We should read the romances of your culture next."

[lightbearinglord]

Cut-sleeve is almost never a word used in kindness, but Claudius looks so thrilled, and the informal use of his courtesy name alone is enough of a charming novelty, that Lan Wangji does not tell him that. At least not today. "Mn," he agrees. He will think on possible texts for that; poetry, most likely. The thought of Crowley sitting through a discussion of the Shijing is enticingly entertaining.

Now, though, he does give Claudius a briskly sharp look of assessment. "You encountered Jiang Wanyin?"

[wickedwit]

"Oh, yes," Claudius reports cheerfully. He was fondly imagining Galahad with his halo of shining hair pillowed upon the long sleeve of a robe, but he shelves aside the thought for later. "I thought Jiang Wanyin seemed like a charming new arrival, someone I could coax into putting down his weapons to share drinks and flirtations. Know'st thou, there's never been a man more like a rotten loquat. Sometimes a coarse, desultory manner can add to one's charm, but in his case, it quite detracts from it. I'm not sure whether he needs more confidence or less to pull it off. He seemed both overly sure of himself and desperate to prove it about himself, which makes an unappealing, unconvincing middle ground. Whenever he insisted he wasn't a cut-sleeve, for instance, as though I should at once know what it means and why he couldn't be." Claudius rolls his eyes. "Anyway, I kissed him on the cheek, and that broke him¹. He went completely still, like a mouse cornered by a housecat ... I'm not that frightening, am I, Wangji?"

^{1Some say Jiang Wanyin is still bluescreening to this day.}

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji gives him a look, a look that says you already know my answer to this question. His mouth twitches a little, whether in amusement or horror at the thought of Claudius bestowing a kiss upon Jiang Wanyin's face -- not even he is entirely certain. Claudius' description of Jiang Wanyin's personality defects is cutting and accurate in the extreme, and Claudius is apparently unharmed. "Sect Leader Jiang is a trial," he says, managing some dryness despite the undercurrent of quite sincere loathing. There is too much history to explain without first making absolutely certain: "He did not use his whip on you?"

[wickedwit]

"No, I flattered him into putting it away. Or perhaps I shamed him into putting it away?" That distinction doesn't matter overmuch, with both tactics being so intertwined. Claudius inclines his head at Lan Wangji, curious. "Is it uniquely dangerous?"

[lightbearinglord]

Claudius talked Jiang Wanyin into putting Zidian away. Not that Lan Wangji has ever lacked respect for Claudius, but he does take a moment to reflect on that. He could not have managed such a feat in a thousand years of trying. "Zidian's lightning could do considerable damage to someone without spiritual power. It also separates the soul and body of anyone possessed. Apparently it had no effect on Crowley." A little more visibly irritated, he adds, "Jiang Wanyin used it to prevent me from leaving with Wei Ying that day."

[wickedwit]

Claudius takes the knowledge in stride, with only a flickering scowl and an eye-roll when hears his two dearest friends met the business end of that whip — of course a man who storms about a place with weapons drawn is well-prepared to use them. “What an ass,” he says, a shorter and more pointed take-down of Jiang Wanyin’s personality. “Wert thou able to scape him even so?”

[lightbearinglord]

Truthfully, Lan Wangji dislikes Jiang Wanyin so ardently that he could nearly leap to the defense of asses on behalf of Wei Ying's ill-tempered pet donkey. He takes the point, though, and nods. "Once, Jiang Wanyin and I battled for the better part of a day. This time, Magnus found us and disarmed us. I retrieved Bichen and took Wei Ying and Magnus both away before Jiang Wanyin could recover Zidian."

[wickedwit]

"Deftly done on Magnus's part," Claudius says with a smile full of fondness. "How did he manage to disarm you both?"

[lightbearinglord]

Speaking of the wide range of disparate abilities on display. "Magnus can exert his will and expel all weaponry from the hands of those around him." Fortunately for Lan Wangji, Magnus had already demonstrated this power to him in a much less heated situation, and that knowledge gave him the advantage over Jiang Wanyin. He has no doubt that the two of them could have continued fighting for considerably longer if uninterrupted.

[wickedwit]

"Quite the talented protégé," Claudius says, only a thread of teasing in his voice. "You must have been proud -- moreso than you are every day, of course." It's a part of fatherhood that Claudius newly understands. Xiaoxue is doing nothing but sitting calmly and letting Lan Wangji stroke him, and Claudius's heart is crushed with pride.

[lightbearinglord]

There is no need to say anything in answer to that. Lan Wangji needs only to catch Claudius' eye as he thinks of Magnus in order for Claudius to see and understand that of course he is proud, and indescribably fond, and occasionally terrified of how much he cares about Magnus.

He had intended, though, to give Claudius some of the relevant background. Of course, he might not need to clarify his feelings about Jiang Wanyin now that Claudius has met him and declared Lan Wangji's description accurate, but he knows how much Claudius likes information. Moreover, he has almost always found that reaching past his discomfort to explain himself to his friend leaves him feeling lighter and calmer. So he passes Claudius a fresh handful of watercress and says, his voice controlled with the utmost care, "Before Wei Ying died, the cultivation world turned against him. Jiang Wanyin did not defend him, and forced him to choose between those he had sworn to defend and keeping his place in the Jiang clan. During the years of his death, any man who cultivated a path like Wei Ying's would be seized, taken to Lotus Pier, and subjected to Zidian's torture. He is cruel about our relationship and bars Wei Ying from Lotus Pier. And Wei Ying loves him still."

[wickedwit]

"Ah," Claudius says, recognizing the weight of Lan Wangji's words, taking them and holding them with the same care he holds a rabbit, and feeds it leaves of watercress. "If there were no love between them, thou couldst be well quit of him. But thy Wei Wuxian has a loving and loyal heart. It's a bitter thing, to watch such hearts be broken by the undeserving."

[lightbearinglord]

"Mn." Again, a poor response, but at least Claudius, who had a cruel and monstrous brother who was not always a monster, will understand him in it. Lan Wangji watches the gentle movements of Claudius' hands as he feeds the rabbit in his lap, weighing what he has just learned about Aornis, and continues: "An associate of Shen Yuan's told me that there is not only a dramatic adaptation about Wei Ying and myself. There is also a book. Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation." He pronounces this title with subtle but clear disdain. He does not care for his Wei Ying, with a loving and loyal heart, ridiculous and brilliant and beautiful, being immortalized in such a way.

[wickedwit]

"I would've chosen something more charming and evocative, for a story such as yours," Claudius says, his smile sympathetic. His story, of course, has the misfortune of being named either for the brother he hates, or the nephew who hates him, but he's not the main character in it. Hearing that title, Claudius has no doubt Wei Wuxian is the complicated hero of his tale, and Lan Wangji the lover who stood with him through his trials. "Shen Yuan's friend ... that must have been the author. Did he tell you anything more?"

[lightbearinglord]

"The author of Luo Binghe," Lan Wangji repeats coldly. That unassuming little cultivator created Luo Binghe? "He fled from me shortly after telling me of this book." His eyebrows twitch up as he looks at Claudius and asks, "I'm not that frightening, am I, Claudius?" It would be impossible for him to mimic Claudius' playful tone, so he doesn't even try, but he has the words down.

[wickedwit]

Claudius laughs, eyes dancing with a merry light. "Who could ever say that? See what a harbor Xiaoxue has found in thee. There's a judgment I trust above all others."

[lightbearinglord]

There's some answering light in Lan Wangji's own eyes -- enough for Claudius to see it, which is what matters. He looks down at Xiaoxue, who appears entirely relaxed now, acclimated to the both of them, and sets one careful hand atop its head. As he suspected, he can feel the faint rumble of the rabbit purring, gently chattering its teeth. "Xiaoxue is wise," he says in fond agreement.

[wickedwit]

"Oh, yes. Wise in the way that innocents are, which should be cherished before they grow older. Age makes so many of us so much more foolish." Claudius has, of course, no idea how old these rabbits are. "But with such guidance, neither Xiaoxue nor Danding need worry about that.