Lan Wangji folds himself into this embrace with an immediacy that would have stunned him once. He remembers the day Claudius brought him the rabbits, his own fleeting impulse to hug him then, and how quickly he dismissed it. He is glad for his own failure of self-control, the moment when his happiness about Claudius' engagement overpowered his adherence to propriety.

That all seems frivolous in hindsight. He tucks his arms around Claudius and buries his face in his shoulder again.