He wondered if Lan Wangji would still be so agreeable if he knew which type of musical cultivation Wei Wuxian was using to subdue these ghosts. If he would still want to night-hunt with someone who had the broad, well-lit path in front of him, yet still chose to fell the tree and make a single-log bridge just a little ways down the river.
To Wei Wuxian, having more than one path available to all those who wished to cross was neither crooked nor amoral. But he still had to make it sturdy and sound before anyone else could hope to follow.
His chosen melody flowed through the room in a slow, sweet creep. As his eyes darted around the room, Wei Wuxian noticed black pinpricks on the walls: first there were only three, then five, and eventually he counted nine. The longer he played, a crawling web of black began to ooze from each of those dots, a corrupted, ashen rot that ate away at even the light from the lanterns.
Wei Wuxian noticed, for the first time, that this room did not have a window big enough for anyone to fit through, though it provided the barest modicum of light. He wondered if any of the rooms did, or if this was part of Liu Rong's initial design. It would have made the rooms of the brothel escapable from only one exit—one that he'd blocked off when the fire started, so worried about ensuring he had the money to rebuild that he, too, was utterly consumed.
At least he hadn't made it out alive.
The walls blackened and crumbled as forms finally burst through them. Arms and legs were what Wei Wuxian saw first; their rigid limbs were covered in dark, matted hair, and their skin rustled and cracked like dry old manuscripts. The scent of dust filled his nostrils, but Wei Wuxian was practiced at playing through danger—he did not cough.
When they began to tumble from the holes they'd made, each making their own sickening crunch as they hit the floor, he switched from coaxing them out to subduing them. The music he played now was rhythmic and syrupy, slowing their movements and dulling the blunt edge of their resentment, but they still twitched in his direction. To Wei Wuxian, they seemed like spiders made of hair, flashes of something close to human flesh appearing only in brief moments.
As Wei Wuxian played on, they began to stumble into each other, swaying on bent limbs. The most determined of the lot actually managed to get a hand on the bed; it was so emaciated that he nearly mistook it for bone, if not for the sagging, desiccated flesh still unevenly clinging to that skeleton.
Maybe he would sketch them as he imagined them looking before they had died. He wouldn't know anything about their actual appearances, of course, but if he looked as ugly in death as these prostitutes did, he would be grateful for a shiny new face.
The hand clawed at the bed, but it was weak. If it got close enough, the ghost would lick the sweat from his skin by any means possible, so desperate for water that they would suck the fluid from his eyes and lick their rotting lips afterward.
Lan Wangji returned with an entire bathtub full of water. If Wei Wuxian had not been playing Chenqing, he would have burst out laughing.
Who else but Lan Wangji would carry a full bathtub up two flights of stairs?
The nine ghosts froze, and though it was difficult to discern the locations of their heads through the knotted, stringy hair that covered their bodies, it seemed they snapped their attention toward Lan Wangji in unison.
Wei Wuxian played slower, Chenqing's notes growing more complex as he wove them into a web of his own. Though they knew there was water waiting for them, they could not find it, crawling desperately over each other in confusion like a pit full of rats searching for the lingering scent of meat.
He expected Lan Wangji to take Wangji down from his back and lead them to the water one at a time; normally, liberating a water eater was as easy as letting them drink their fill. Instead, he watched with mounting amusement as Lan Wangji simply set down the tub, walked inside, and grabbed one of them by the hair. He carried them over without any apparent concern for how disgusting it must feel to touch one, and when he was close enough, Lan Wangji gently submerged the ghost in the tub.
From the bed, Wei Wuxian could not see what the ghost did next, but he assumed it opened a maw somewhere and slurped, judging by the sound. Lan Wangji peered down at the surface of the water, nodded once, and then repeated the process again and again, each time reaching into the mass of limbs and hauling one out with his hands alone.
For every ghost that was submerged, a piece of the rotting wall melted away, the ghost rot giving way to a healthy, normal room once more. The last ghost flailed and kicked, but not at Lan Wangji—every part of them reached desperately for liberation, at last satisfied from their terrible thirst.
There came a sound similar to when Wei Wuxian sucked the last drops of liquor from the bottom of a jar, then all was quiet. He lowered Chenqing from his lips, staring at Lan Wangji's now filthy hands with an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Wei Wuxian hopped down from the bed and tugged Lan Wangji by the sleeve over to the washbasin. There was still water in it, and a clean cloth nearby, so it was an easy thing to wipe the grime from his hands. Lan Wangji was very obedient as Wei Wuxian cleaned him off: he turned his hand before Wei Wuxian even needed to ask, spreading his fingers wide so that Wei Wuxian could clean between them.
"Why did you do that?" Wei Wuxian asked as he worked.
"Efficiency."
"Using Wangji would have been better. What if they bit you? I've seen shi shui with horrible needle teeth, you know, so that they can filter things out of the water they swallow—"
"I would not be hurt," Lan Wangji said. His tone was reassuring enough—in the sense that it held the barest hint of sun warming against a rime of frost—that Wei Wuxian felt rather silly. "You held them well. They were too confused to… bite." The last word was said with a touch of skepticism.
Wei Wuxian frowned down at Lan Wangji's clean hands, then pinched his wrist. "Using their own resentment against them is disorienting," he snapped out. "They don't know what to do. Those little ones are actually harder to work with; the more evil it is, the easier it's been to control."
"You have mastered this path?"
He scoffed. "Of course not. I can't just invent a new theory of cultivation overnight. If it were that easy, wouldn't someone have done it by now?" He finally met Lan Wangji's eyes, noting the worry he'd expected, but surprised by the interest he found alongside it. "But I've tried enough times to know this works."
"When?"
"Here and there," Wei Wuxian evaded.
Lan Wangji chased him down with his voice, confident and firm. "Night-hunting."
"Well, it's the most convenient way. It's not as though I'd go around desecrating graves just to practice my theories!"
A warm hand utterly enveloped Wei Wuxian's wrist. "Experiments can fail."
"Do you think I don't realize that?"
"If it fails," Lan Wangji said, his grip tightening enough to bruise, "I will be there."
When it was Wei Wuxian proposing their continued partnership, he'd felt it made sense, but now that Lan Wangji was the one saying it, he pulled away, laughing a little. "I was only joking, before," he said, "I mean, two disciples from differing sects… It would be a bit like becoming rogue cultivators! And that's ridiculous."
"You do not stick to the boundary of Yunmeng Jiang," Lan Wangji argued. "Nor I to Gusu Lan territory."
He was making sense, but Wei Wuxian's heart was beating very fast. He felt close to a rabbit in a trap. There was a reason that he spent most of his night-hunts on his own.
"And when I do something you don't like? What will the righteous Lan Wangji do then?"
Wei Wuxian's pulse must have pounded against Lan Wangji's fingers, the way he was still holding on so tight, but he didn't call any attention to it. He did not let go, either.
"I would tell you," Lan Wangji answered.
"And?"
Lan Wangji tilted his head a fraction to the right. Wei Wuxian wrenched his wrist away, turning to face the bed. "Will you take me back to Gusu with you? Send me back to my sect for punishment?"
There was a long pause, but Wei Wuxian was actually used to that after these two days in Lan Wangji's company. It would be strange for him to speak without thinking.
"You…" Wei Wuxian turned to see that Lan Wangji's brow was slightly furrowed; his thumb tingled with the urge to smooth it out. The silence as he waited for Lan Wangji to organize his thoughts actually drained his frustration bit by bit, until he felt a bit tired, and not really angry at all.
He opened his mouth to beg Lan Wangji to forget it, but Lan Wangji spoke first.
"We will discuss it."
Unfortunately, all that time meant that Wei Wuxian had lost the thread of the conversation. "Huh?"
"If you do… that. We will talk about it."
The corners of Wei Wuxian's mouth twitched upward helplessly. "We'll have a nice conversation about our principles and come to an equitable compromise?"
Lan Wangji nodded. He looked so serious that Wei Wuxian would've expected him to be entering a life and death fight, rather than making a promise to have complex conversations with Wei Wuxian in the future. He wanted very badly to say that there was no need, but something about that sincerity was just—it was unbearable.
"Okay," Wei Wuxian said, "Lan Zhan, you win. I would be honored."
The barest loosening of Lan Wangji's shoulders told Wei Wuxian more than he ever would with words. For whatever reason, this was the outcome Lan Wangji truly wanted, and Wei Wuxian could not begrudge someone willing to catch him if he fell.
Or maybe he could, but he'd just realized that he no longer wanted to.
There was no point in bothering their hosts by getting separate rooms, not when they were leaving in the morning anyway. By the time they'd cleared out the ghosts, the sun was already setting, so Lan Wangji insisted they stay—with so many deaths in one place, it was still possible they'd missed something.
Not likely though.
Wei Wuxian was untroubled as he settled in on the opposite edge of the bed from Lan Wangji. Without any hungry ghosts, their night should be restful and safe, and in the morning, he and Lan Wangji would set off in the direction of Yunmeng. He was already imagining the look on Jiang Cheng's face when he saw who Wei Wuxian had in tow.
It was good that he'd eliminated the source of his strange thoughts toward Lan Wangji: lust was a good method of producing many different forms of water from one body, but the water eaters were liberated, and along with them went that unnatural desire. The thought of Lan Wangji growing uncomfortable with him again when they had only just reached such peace was not one Wei Wuxian liked to linger on.
Wei Wuxian woke with his mouth full.
It was a disorienting sensation, and it was difficult to breathe around whatever was pressing down on his tongue. The taste was salty and clean; when Wei Wuxian suckled curiously, still half asleep, he heard a low noise from somewhere behind him.
Other sensations registered with time. There was a hand at his hip, holding tight but not holding him down. Sweat plastered his inner robe and trousers to his skin. He was pressed against something warm and broad enough to make him feel encircled, and there was something even hotter pressed against him from below.
He remembered this. He remembered liking it—and being frustrated, like he was just on the edge of something and forcibly shoved back. Instinct guided his hips back onto that pressure, a hitch that allowed Lan Wangji's cock closer to his hole through his trousers.
Everything recontextualized at once: the weight on his tongue was Lan Wangji's fingers, and the weight behind him was Lan Wangji's everything else.
Wei Wuxian moaned. He'd been dreaming about something like this, only it wasn't Lan Wangji's fingers in his mouth, it was his—
"Wei Ying."
The level of desperation in Lan Wangji's voice made him freeze. He felt very good, but it was clear that something was wrong if Lan Wangji was saying his name like that, wasn't it?
The hand on his hip was so firm.
"Are you awake?"
He nodded, drooling around Lan Wangji's fingers. This was probably something that should be embarrassing, but his face felt beyond thick, as though it was fortified with spiritual energy. He pushed his hips back toward Lan Wangji again, but was held fast before he could get any proper friction, causing a little frustrated noise to bubble up from his throat.
Lan Wangji was so mean.
He took his fingers out of Wei Wuxian's mouth. "Don't," Wei Wuxian said, his throat hoarse. "Give it back."
When Lan Wangji neither gave back his hand nor let go of Wei Wuxian's hip, he squirmed and wriggled until he was facing Lan Wangji, who allowed it when Wei Wuxian didn't make any more attempts to grind on him.
He was so easy to fool…
"Er-gege," Wei Wuxian whispered, his mouth and chin still wet, "I thought you liked me, now." This was the second time that Lan Wangji had prevented him from coming like this, and Wei Wuxian didn't understand. There was no reason, in his mind, why Lan Wangji would be so obstinate. In fact, it was practically self-defeatist! Did he think Wei Wuxian was selfish and wouldn't let him orgasm? He wanted Lan Wangji to come in his mouth. If anything, Lan Wangji was the selfish one...
He'd dreamed of this two nights in a row, and if he had to endure a third without trying for real, he was going to—to—well, he'd do something to Lan Wangji, but in his stupor, it was difficult to think about anything but the present.
"You're awake." It was too dark for him to make out Lan Wangji's face, but his voice was rough, as though he, too, had been asleep.
More troublingly, Lan Wangji actually sounded surprised. "Didn't I just say so? Lan Zhan, don't be so difficult…"
Wei Wuxian pushed until he could climb on top of Lan Wangji, then pushed his inner robe off his shoulders and let it pool around his waist. It was much too hot to wear it, but the effort it would take him to untie seemed utterly unreasonable—must everything attempt to thwart him tonight?!
Lan Wangji's hands slid over his thighs, hot even through his trousers, and squeezed. Wei Wuxian got the strangest feeling that if he were a melon, Lan Wangji might have slapped him just now.
Good thing he was a person!
He fumbled beneath him until he found the tie holding Lan Wangji's robes closed and quickly pried them apart. Lan Wangji sat up a bit to assist in getting them all the way off his arms, but when he was done, he settled a little further down, so that Wei Wuxian now straddled his waist.
The next thing he knew, Lan Wangji was tugging him down by the nape of the neck. He went willingly toward the assault, the lips on his soft and bruising in equal measure. Wei Wuxian kissed back with blind intensity, allowing Lan Wangji's tongue inside his mouth and sucking on it, only to have Lan Wangji pull away and bite so hard he nearly drew blood.
"Ow ow ow!" Wei Wuxian cried. "Lan Zhan, that hurt!"
Lan Wangji's fingers came up to touch where he'd bitten, perhaps to see if there was any blood. Wei Wuxian felt the tenderness in that touch and leaned down again, only certain where Lan Wangji's face was when he touched his cold nose to Lan Wangji's. "Are you sorry?" Wei Wuxian asked. "It's okay if you've never kissed anyone before, er-gege. I'll show you…"
He kissed Lan Wangji again, with as little finesse as he had the first time. Truthfully, Wei Wuxian had not kissed anyone before, either, but how could he admit something like that? It was fine for Lan Wangji, who was so beautiful and who everyone was so very intimidated by—if not for that stern expression of his, he would turn down three proposals a day, Wei Wuxian was certain—but for someone as outgoing, handsome, and charming as himself? It was a total disgrace.
Lan Wangji ran his hand over Wei Wuxian's ass, squeezing hard enough to make him jump. Their teeth clacked together. Wei Wuxian pulled away to laugh, pressing his smile against Lan Wangji's cheek. "Not like that!" He kissed Lan Wangji again. "Slower," Wei Wuxian advised before sucking Lan Wangji's lower lip into his mouth, "no teeth, see?"
Rather than listening, Lan Wangji bit his mouth again, and this time, when Wei Wuxian tried to pull away and chastise him, he refused to let go. Wei Wuxian made a series of panicked sounds before allowing Lan Wangji to hold him tighter, at which point he let go and lapped at the imprints he'd made in Wei Wuxian's skin. It was a strange sensation, but the throb of it made him moan, his hips grinding against Lan Wangji's stomach and seeking friction.
He could use his teeth more, if it was like this. Wei Wuxian would graciously allow it. Though he couldn't say that aloud—if he did, Wei Wuxian would be admitting that he was wrong a few moments earlier, and then Lan Wangji would question his experience. So he allowed Lan Wangji to bite him again, a low, pained sound half-trapped at the back of Wei Wuxian's throat, and hoped that Lan Wangji would take the hint anyway.
The cycle between that throbbing bruise and the sharp pain destroyed Wei Wuxian's sense of time. When Lan Wangji grabbed him firmly beneath the thighs, he could not tell if they had been kissing for minutes or for hours, only that his gasp was the first real breath he'd taken in a long time.
"Do you like it?" he could not help but ask.
"What?"
"Kissing," Wei Wuxian breathed. His heart was pounding. "Don't you like it?" He liked it so much. If Lan Wangji didn't like it, he was going to roll right out of the room.
Instead of answering, Lan Wangji tightened his grip and actually lifted Wei Wuxian. He scrambled to support himself, but could only slap his hands against the wall as Lan Wangji moved him up. Had he somehow moved out from under Wei Wuxian? No, because he could still feel the warmth of Lan Wangji between his thighs, supporting him with his hands. When he let go, Wei Wuxian remained up on his knees, not wanting to crush Lan Wangji and unsure of his plans.
"Weren't you supposed to move me further down?" Wei Wuxian joked, unreasonably anxious all of the sudden.
When Lan Wangji shook his head, Wei Wuxian could feel the movement between his thighs. Lan Wangji scooted down a little so that the broad press of his shoulders touched the backs of Wei Wuxian's legs, supporting Wei Wuxian's weight a little more, then reached up to the hem of Wei Wuxian's pants with both hands and tore them cleanly down the middle.
Panicked, Wei Wuxian rocked forward and smacked his head on the wall. "Ow, fuck—Lan Zhan, what are you doing?!"
He shivered, the cool night air surprising on his heated skin, still damp with sweat from how hot he'd been when he was sleeping. Lan Wangji didn't seem bothered. He grasped Wei Wuxian's thighs firmly, then turned his head to the side and bit down on Wei Wuxian's inner thigh. He gave a little yelp. "Lan Wangji!"
"Kissing," Lan Wangji said, his breath sending new shudders through Wei Wuxian against such sensitive skin.
Wei Wuxian braced himself with both hands against the wall. Though his thighs were still steady, the muscles had begun to ache from keeping upright this long. "If you call that kissing, I think we need more less—aaah!!!!!!!"
His thoughts fractured—like porcelain dropped against hard stone, the fragments were in too many pieces to be easily put back together. Lan Wangji was kissing him, but it was unlike any kiss he'd ever experienced, despite the fact that all of them had come from Lan Wangji, anyway.
On second thought, he doubted anyone had experienced this before...
There was no way that anyone could be so shameless, so base as to kiss someone there, yet Lan Wangji was doing so, his tongue tracing the edges of Wei Wuxian's hole as easily as it had mapped the roof of his mouth. Wei Wuxian had never touched this area unless it was necessary, but he did not think it had been so sensitive before—there was no way he could have missed something like this, not with how wet his cock was making his belly as it twitched almost in tandem with Lan Wangji's movements.
He tried to lean up and get away long enough to remember his words, but Lan Wangji's hands tightened on his thighs, lessening the amount of work he had to do to stay upright while ensuring there was nowhere for Wei Wuxian to run. "You, uh, ah, h-how are, Lan Zhan Lan Zhan stop that," he babbled, forgetting what he was trying to say the instant he said it. Lan Wangji's tongue must have been as strong as his arms; he pushed inside Wei Wuxian over and over, even while he clenched desperately against the invasion. The most he could do was cling to Lan Wangji's tongue whenever it left him.
No part of it was bearable, this sharp, overwhelming pleasure. When he squirmed away, he was torturously empty; when he moved closer, Lan Wangji would kiss him again, and that—
"Lan Zhan," he begged, a wave of intensity building inside him, "Lan Zhan, don't, don't stop, haaa, I, I'm gonna—" Wei Wuxian slid one hand off the wall, tipping wildly toward that side before Lan Wangji pushed him upright from below. His strength was unreal. Wei Wuxian couldn't even grind down on his tongue, not when Lan Wangji wanted him to be still.
But he hadn't said anything about Wei Wuxian's hands—not that Lan Wangji could tell him what to do in the first place, mouth occupied as it was.
Wei Wuxian reached down and fumbled to take himself in hand, but he only managed to awkwardly press his dick against his stomach before he came, the barest amount of stimulation coaxing a stuttering moan wrung from him as he shuddered over Lan Wangji's face.
He was dimly aware of Lan Wangji catching his now-limp form, moving Wei Wuxian back into his lap and adjusting his own position so that he was sitting against the wall. When he resurfaced from the brief haze of post-orgasmic bliss, Wei Wuxian sat back enough to glare at Lan Wangji.
"You've done this before!"
Lan Wangji shook his head, but Wei Wuxian didn't believe him. He punched Lan Wangji in the shoulder, who caught him at the wrist and flipped him over, holding his arm tight against the hard surface of the bed. Wei Wuxian tried to twist out from under him, but Lan Wangji was a heavy weight between his legs, and the longer he struggled, the more distracted Wei Wuxian became.
He thought he'd grown out of competing over strength with Lan Wangji, but this was still the same boy that had carried him around the Cloud Recesses by only the collar of his robes.
Pouting, Wei Wuxian gave up, going utterly limp under Lan Wangji's hard body. "Are you really going to lie? There's no way anyone would—you can't just—Lan Zhan, you really want me to believe that you thought that up on your own?!"
Wei Wuxian didn't know which thought was worse: the idea of Lan Wangji practicing on lots of people, or the idea of such a solemn, cold face hiding such a depraved mind.
Lan Wangji leaned down and bit the curve of his jaw, then said, "You liked it."
"I don't even know what 'it' is, let alone—"
A mouth covered his, kissing him speechless. As Lan Wangji pulled away, he pulled Wei Wuxian's sore bottom lip between his teeth, only letting go when Wei Wuxian whimpered. "Kissing," Lan Wangji said, as though that explained everything.
Wei Wuxian huffed, irritated without any reason to be. "Well, I—well. If you're sooooo knowledgeable, Lan-laoshi, do you have anything else to teach me?" He knew he was being difficult, but he couldn't stop thinking about Lan Wangji doing that before, perfecting his technique with as many hours as he'd spent learning the qin. It sent a cold shiver of envy down Wei Wuxian's spine.
Lan Wangji reached between them, gathering the drying come from Wei Wuxian's skin before moving his hand lower. What was Lan Wangji's obsession with that hole of his, exactly?
"A little," he said. Before Wei Wuxian could inquire further, Lan Wangji smeared the sticky fluid over Wei Wuxian's hole—still tender from earlier abuses—and pushed two fingers inside.
It was much too big an intrusion for such a small space, and Wei Wuxian scrambled backward, trying to avoid the pain. Lan Wangji did not let him go. There was nothing to do but bear it as those two fingers entered him from inside, their path barely smoothed by Lan Wangji's thin attempt at softening the blow.
Earlier, Wei Wuxian had thought Lan Wangji's kisses were similar to taking a cock into one's mouth. It was only now he realized that they might have an additional purpose. Still, he couldn't believe it, some flimsy hope clawing its way out of his mouth as he asked, "Are you sure? About… what are you going to do, exactly?" He'd felt Lan Wangji's cock multiple times in the past few days. The thought of something so large trying to fit inside that hole was entirely unrealistic.
"Yes."
Wei Wuxian could have cried. Had Lan Wangji done this before as well?
"How?" he asked, unable to keep suspicion from his voice.
"Research," Lan Wangji said, pushing a third finger inside. It was a painful stretch, but Wei Wuxian bore it as well as he could, filled with equal parts excitement and trepidation. By now he knew he was well out of his depth.
Strangely, this intonation from Lan Wangji was familiar to him, yet when he tried to place it, his mind was smokey and full of mist. Had Lan Wangji said this before? The thought vanished before Wei Wuxian could catch it.
Just as he was getting somewhat used to the full feeling, Lan Wangji pulled his fingers out, rubbing something wet and warm over his hole. It was much too big! "Lan Zhan," he said, real fear in his voice, "maybe you should put another finger, or, I can try in my mouth? This is—"
Lan Wangji pushed the head inside as he spoke, but froze when Wei Wuxian asked such questions. His body was trembling so fiercely that Wei Wuxian could feel it all over. "Does it hurt?" he asked.
Wei Wuxian tried to imagine what Lan Wangji felt in this moment, heart sore as he realized the difficulty of his position. "If you come further inside me, it won't be so bad," he said. "Besides, it's my first time. Isn't it supposed to hurt?"
In one violent motion, Lan Wangji thrust fully inside him, until there was nowhere left for either of them to go. A cry was torn from the back of his throat—a cracked, dry sound. "Lan Zhan, too fast! You're too deep, you'll tear me apart…"
"You said," Lan Wangji began through gritted teeth, but after a few moments of silence, it was clear he would be unable to finish that sentence. Wei Wuxian adjusted a little beneath him and found it was easier to take; when he lifted upwards a little, he felt the ghost of a pleasant sensation.
Lan Wangji took his movement as an invitation to move on his own, pulling out slowly and thrusting deep. Wei Wuxian gasped as tears sprung to his eyes. It was ridiculous, yet at the same time, he chased that phantom pleasure, moving his hips when Lan Wangji did.
"If you cannot take it deeper," Lan Wangji warned, "stop moving."
Wei Wuxian flexed upward at the same time Lan Wangji thrust forward, feeling his whole body light up from the inside. "I can take it," he protested, "I can take it! Lan Zhan, do it again, yes, like that, just like that, gege please—"
As he spoke, each word was punctuated by a harsh thrust from Lan Wangji, whose strength and determination seemed to increase each time. It felt as though Lan Wangji would hollow him out before the night was over, but every time he passed that place inside, Wei Wuxian could not be bothered to care.
Lan Wangji grabbed his thigh and began to push it upward, sitting properly on his knees so he had more power. His thrusts were so strong that Wei Wuxian was pushed up the bed, one thigh held tightly against his chest as the other flailed in tandem with Lan Wangji's motions.
When Lan Wangji bit down on his nipple without warning, Wei Wuxian whined. The pleasure was so overwhelming he had to speak or he would go utterly mad.
"Don't you think it's funny that—ah! Lan Zhan, gently—that we came here to look into people who died doing this, and then we did it too?" Wei Wuxian ran his fingers through Lan Wangji's hair, which had begun to tangle in the sweat and heat between them. It was very humanizing. On the next thrust, his teeth clacked together from the unexpected force. It was like the closer Lan Wangji came to his orgasm, the stronger he became, which would not be good for Wei Wuxian's survival, but that didn't matter. It was still the best thing he'd ever felt.
He laughed in gasping breaths, air supply cut short each time he took Lan Wangji so forcefully inside. "Is that why you keep tasting me, Lan Zhan? Are you hungry?" The next thing he knew, Lan Wangji was kissing him, and he forgot the rest of his train of thought, their night-hunt drifting out of his mind in favor of holding Lan Wangji as tightly as possible and running his tongue over Lan Wangji's teeth.
He couldn't allow his mouth to be silenced for long, however, and was pulling away to kiss Lan Wangji's cheek along the way to his next desperate breath. "Deeper, Lan Zhan, you're holding back, just let go, it's okay, oh, Lan Zhan!" He was a very good listener, and increased the depth and force of his thrusts when commanded. Wei Wuxian had only been bluffing, but when Lan Wangji hit that new place inside him, he wailed, his leg twitching uselessly as the thigh pressed tightly to his chest trembled.
"I take it back," he cried, lashes wet with tears, "I take it back, I'm only—Lan Zhan, is this how you treat every virgin you've taken?!"
Lan Wangji gathered Wei Wuxian's other leg and lifted it, making Wei Wuxian very thankful for his natural inclination toward flexibility. With both of his legs pressed tightly to his chest, there was too much flesh between them for Lan Wangji to kiss him, but he leaned close enough that they exchanged breaths and sped his movements, as though a new ferocity had shot through him. "There is no one else."
As the words hit him, Wei Wuxian was so overwhelmed that he arched upward, the head of his dick curving sideways and brushing his inner thigh. The combination of that fragment of accidental touch and the knowledge that Lan Wangji really hadn't done this before, either, that Wei Wuxian was the only one—his orgasm rushed over him in a sharp burst.
This time, he could feel everything as Lan Wangji continued to thrust inside of him. His original moan of anguished pleasure turned into mostly anguish as the sensation became almost unbearable, but Lan Wangj was going so fast, it was likely he would come soon, and Wei Wuxian was not really cruel enough to deny him that. He bit his tongue until it nearly bled, and when Lan Wangji came inside him, it was so warm that he shuddered uncontrollably, biting down on his own knuckles so that Lan Wangji wouldn't worry about his weak noises.
Lan Wangji immediately rolled them over, so that Wei Wuxian was not crushed beneath his weight, at least. Wei Wuxian pressed his forehead against Lan Wangji's sweaty chest and inhaled deeply.
"If I were a hungry ghost," Wei Wuxian murmured, "I would eat you."
The words made Lan Wangji's cock stir inside him. With a jolt, Wei Wuxian sat upright, staring down at the blurry outline of Lan Wangji in the darkness. "Lan Zhan, you're still hard!" Now that he'd had a few moments to gather his wits, he was no longer so averse to the feeling. Curious, he rocked back and forth a bit with a little "oh!" and found the sensation was just as pleasurable this way, if not moreso.
Wei Wuxian pushed up from his seat on Lan Wangji's cock, but he could only do it for a moment before his tired thighs gave out, slamming him back down. Lan Wangji grunted aloud while Wei Wuxian choked on his own saliva.
The flash of white-hot pleasure was well worth it. Wei Wuxian didn't see why he couldn't try again; Lan Wangji was still hard, after all.
It was not that anything was wrong, exactly. Yet Wei Wuxian thought it strange that he was not particularly tired. His muscles ached and groaned, but even that became pleasurable when he was close to orgasm.
"Lan Zhan—" he began to ask, but when Lan Wangji bit down on his neck, Wei Wuxian cried out and forgot what he was supposed to be asking.
"Wei Ying," Lan Wangji said, mouth pressed against the curve of Wei Wuxian's spine as he caught his breath, his come spilling out around his softening cock. Wei Wuxian's hole was too full, now, to keep it all inside, as much as he whined each time it oozed back out. "Something is wrong."
"I need it," Wei Wuxian begged in lieu of an answer.
Lan Wangji pulled out and licked his come from where it dripped down Wei Wuxian's thigh, all the way until he reached his hole again. Once he was there, Lan Wangji did not speak again for some time.
Wei Wuxian's whole body shook, and he could no longer tell if it was from pleasure. Everything felt good, yet at the same time, he knew that what he felt was unnatural. Even a man who inflated his own prowess would not claim to have gone so many rounds in one night as he and Lan Wangji, and as much as he wanted to justify that with their singular abilities, he worried there was something off.
"Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, I think you'll kill me like this..." he joked—only it didn't quite feel like a joke.
Lan Wangji adjusted his grip on Wei Wuxian's hips. "I hope not."
Despite Wei Wuxian's position atop Lan Wangji, it was Lan Wangji that was doing the work from below, his feet braced flat on the bed so that he could thrust forward. After the third time Lan Wangji had kissed him from below, Wei Wuxian had teased him, saying it was a shame that Lan Wangji could not see the part of Wei Wuxian he liked the most while he was on top.
So Lan Wangji had pulled him off and turned him around.
Now, Wei Wuxian braced himself on Lan Wangji's thighs and tried desperately not to fall off the bed. Lan Wangji's stamina was unreal. He really would make the perfect husband.
Outside, birds began to make their morning calls, and still, he had not tired of Lan Wangji's body. There was something about that he disliked, though there were a great many things he liked about it. He just couldn't…
His hole fluttered helplessly around Lan Wangji as that still-pleasurable place inside him was brushed; it must have felt good, because Lan Wangji made a low, soft noise as he filled Wei Wuxian from below. At this point, he was so wet that Lan Wangji fucked in and out of him easily, filthy noises rising up every time he so much as breathed. Wei Wuxian felt that warmth fill him and moaned as he came again too, though his own orgasm was mostly sensation, his cock having gone limp a while before.
They caught their breath together, Wei Wuxian shocked by how loud his breathing was to his own ears. In the moment of clarity, he took a deep breath and frowned, looking over his shoulder at Lan Wangji. "I don't smell you," he said.
Lan Wangji—who must have been experiencing the same brief clarity as him—sat up, his chest pressed tight to Wei Wuxian's back. "Not just that."
As soon as he said it, Wei Wuxian realized what had been bothering him. Even when he had touched himself alone, there was a scent to that act that could not be masked, but here, in spite of how long they'd spent fucking and how many times they'd come, there was only the scent of the cold, damp air outside, clearly filtering in from the window.
Wei Wuxian reached out to one side of the bed and summoned Suibian. Lan Wangji reached for the opposite side and summoned Bichen.
"Shi xiangyan," Wei Wuxian whispered to Lan Wangji, unsure how far he'd come out of the sexual daze. He was pleased to feel a nod against his shoulder—an incense eater who'd fed from two strong cultivators for this long would need to be eliminated, with no possibility for liberation or suppression. He needed Lan Wangji sharp for that.
"Ready?" Wei Wuxian whispered. They needed to act quickly; already, he could feel the ghost's desires affecting his own, raw lust gnawing at his insides.
Lan Wangji pressed a kiss to the nape of his neck.
An instant later, Wei Wuxian sprang to his feet, with Lan Wangji following soon after. Scents typically rose in the air, so it was natural for them to thrust their swords upwards first.
As they came in contact with the ceiling, there was a terrible, rasping shriek, and the spirit of an emaciated man oozed from the ceiling. Though his shape was that of a man, as blackened smoke began to rise from the two spiritual sword wounds and his body began to dissolve around the growing holes, Wei Wuxian realized that his face was not a face at all—instead, the mouth, eyes, and ears had been replaced with nostrils, though only his nose had any real shape to it. The rest were small, curved holes, which flared rapidly as the mouthless shrieking continued on.
Fortunately for all involved, their cultivation was strong, and it didn't take long to burn out such a ghost. Incense eaters were powerful enough to influence humans without teaming up with another ghost, but they weren't strong enough to heal around two spiritual swords, not by half.
There was no way for him to ask, but based on his clothes—and on the nature of his effect on their bodies and minds—the incense eater was likely that horrible Liu Rong. What he'd done when he was alive was bad, but what he'd become after he died was worse: an incense eater who fed only on the smell of sex would have perpetrated sexual violence throughout his life, the ongoing hunger carried over with him in death so intensely that it had swallowed up any desire for the usual offerings.
Wei Wuxian could not say he felt particularly sorry as the last of his spirit was eliminated.
The instant it was gone, Lan Wangji jumped down from the bed, as though standing on top was so undignified he couldn't do it a moment longer. Wei Wuxian followed him, dropping Suibian without much care where it ended up.
As the feelings stirred by the ghost left him, he no longer felt overwhelming lust. His body was utterly exhausted. Wei Wuxian waited for a long moment as he stared at Lan Wangji's back, the toned muscle of his thighs, at the freckle on his hip.
The overwhelming fondness, the desire for closeness, and the need to feel Lan Wangji's warmth pressed against him… They were all still present.
"Lan Zhan?"
Lan Wangji turned to face him, his expression unreadable. Wei Wuxian swallowed hard, but he'd never been afraid to say what he wanted, and now that he understood the shape of it, he wasn't about to back down.
He smiled at Lan Wangji. "I was only exaggerating, you know."
The blank stare continued.
"When I said you would kill me. I thought something might be there, or listening, but every time I tried to shape the thought, it vanished."
Lan Wangji said nothing.
"I could—" The words clogged his throat, forcing a small cough. "I could keep going if you wanted to." Something flickered behind Lan Wangji's eyes, which only made him want to say more. "Lan Zhan, if it's you—if you asked me right now, I would go again just to show you I mean it! But you'd have to do all the work, because I think my legs will fall off if I try."
That flicker came again, followed by something so surprising, Wei Wuxian nearly forgot to breathe:
Lan Wangji laughed.
It was only for a moment, but Wei Wuxian's eyes stuck to his mouth, not wanting to lose sight of that passing glimpse. The sound was so faint he stopped breathing to catch it, and even then, he had to strain his ears to hear clearly as it died off.
Wei Wuxian crossed the distance between them helplessly, cupping Lan Wangji's face in his hands, eyes round and wide. He had never seen a smile like that, so fragile and blinding it was like seeing the sun reflected off the top of fresh snow. The world had shifted beneath his feet.
"If you marry me for real," Wei Wuxian said, his words moving faster than his mind could possibly comprehend what he'd just seen, "I'll make you laugh all the time. Until your stomach hurts, Lan Zhan, I mean it!"
Lan Wangji gripped his wrist and eased his hand down so that it was covering his heart—the beats were so fast they could outstrip a hummingbird's wings. Only when Wei Wuxian could feel it beating did he nod his head in agreement.
"I mean it," Lan Wangji repeated back to him, his hand held over Wei Wuxian's, heart nearly pounding out of his chest. He was unbelievably cute. Wei Wuxian kissed him again and again, unable to help himself. Sleep was nothing compared to this, anyway.