[ closed post: the sun shines brightly ]

[lightbearinglord]

It has been a strange handful of weeks, but Lan Wangji can accept strange far more easily than he could accept the pain that rippled inexorably outward from Shen Yuan's death, seeming to leave no one untouched. The parade of visitors was unusual, and thought-provoking, but not painful. Lan Wangji enjoyed meeting most of them. Even Galahad, whose empty politeness made him feel hollow in turn -- there was a quiet satisfaction in bringing him to the rabbits and watching his stunned expression at the simple joy of holding something small and vulnerable and trusting.

As for himself, the memories are so abstract as to be incomprehensible. There is something there, enough something to assure him that Aornis had no hand in this specific strangeness. But he can barely grasp at the details. He remembers embracing Magnus, but that signifies nothing out of the ordinary. He remembers sparring with Gideon; he remembers that he needs to ask Sagramore for fresh poetry. He remembers the loss of Wei Ying, newer and crueler than it typically is these days, but when he came back to himself the next morning, Wei Ying was there, his head tucked beneath Lan Wangji's chin and his ankle hooked around Lan Wangji's hip.

The least enjoyable of his encounters, at the least, provided him with something important. He has not removed the locket from his qiankun pouch. He wants to waste no time in bringing it to its intended recipient. He performs the first of his morning routines -- his meditation, his patrol, Wei Ying's breakfast -- and then goes to look for Magnus at the camp.

Comments

[summerdude]

Magnus looks up at him, quizzical.

[lightbearinglord]

He swallows back his instant urge to retreat into silence. Magnus knows enough to hear this part. "Wei Ying had just died. My grief was debilitating."

[summerdude]

"Oh. Yeah, I can see that," Magnus says, and goes to hug Hanguang-jun again.

[lightbearinglord]

Always willing to embrace Magnus, Lan Wangji accepts the hug without objection. Magnus is warm and familiar, perpetually an adolescent to the untrained eye; Sizhui, conversely, must have grown by now, since the last time Lan Wangji saw him confident and genial while he led his peers in the beginning of the night-hunt whose conclusion Lan Wangji never saw.

[summerdude]

"So Sunny is young for you, too," Magnus says, eventually. "Hence... the books?"

[lightbearinglord]

"Hence the books," Lan Wangji agrees quietly.

[summerdude]

"What books have you been reading? I've been reading some too."

[lightbearinglord]

"The first I read was The Simplest Baby Book in the World." His mouth quirks, although Magnus won't see it, at the title. It was, despite that, useful.

[summerdude]

"My first was What To Expect When You're Expecting," says Magnus. "It wasn't... the most helpful?"

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji frowns down at the top of Magnus' head. "Expecting... a child?"

[summerdude]

"Yeah? Pregnancy often leads to babies," Magnus says. "I thought maybe it would have advice."

[lightbearinglord]

"Sunny has already been born," Lan Wangji says, a little cautiously.

[summerdude]

"Yeah," says Magnus. "She's a baby. I thought the pregnancy book would have stuff about babies."

[lightbearinglord]

"And it did not?" Lan Wangji prompts him.

[summerdude]

"Um, no," Magnus sighs. "And then I got distracted with my World Religions books again."

[lightbearinglord]

"There is more to learn than can be read in a year." Lan Wangji is certainly sympathetic to that dilemma. He has begun to accept that for everything he learns, there will be a dozen subjects he never even knew he was missing.

[summerdude]

"Sunny is Jewish," Magnus explains. "I don't know a lot about that. I don't think anyone here probably does? So I figured I'd learn what I can in case she has questions, because there are people here who know--" don't admit to your father figure that you don't change her diaper, Magnus!!! "Baby stuff."

[lightbearinglord]

Fair enough, and Lan Wangji is touched that Magnus is putting such effort into this research for Sunny. It's true that he knows almost nothing about Judaism. "If you discover anything that I should know, will you tell me?"

[summerdude]

"Yeah, of course," says Magnus. "And in the meantime, if any of the millions of people here who don't know about condoms end up pregnant, I can be... helpful. Because I know what to expect. You know. When you're expecting."

[lightbearinglord]

"Rest assured that I am unlikely to become pregnant," Lan Wangji says, deadpan, "despite not knowing about condoms until you told me."

[summerdude]

"Well, there's a huge load off my mind," Magnus jokes. "But Hanguang-jun, most people here don't know about them."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji pauses to mentally run through the list of entanglements Claudius provided him the day they made wife cakes together. "I suspect pregnancy is still not a risk here." He can't imagine Susan Pevensie allowing such a state to befall her without her express intention.

[summerdude]

"Well, still. If."

[lightbearinglord]

"Then you will be an expert midwife."

[summerdude]

"Or at the very least," says Magnus, thoughtfully, "I can make a strong case on behalf of prenatal vitamins."