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Wei Wuxian dashed into the room and whirled to face Lan Wanji as the latter closed the door behind them, and locked it. Lan Wanji's face betrayed nothing of his intentions, nor did it offer any explanations as to why he'd brought them here. This was a mystery for him to solve, then. Wei Wuxian grinned wider, if that was possible, and pivoted to face the room again. It was an abandoned suite, from the looks of it. Its layout was identical to a hundred others in the building, but it lacked the standard set of furnishings. Instead, it was filled with odd, mismatched pieces of furniture set down in what seemed to be no particular order. The conclusion: This was a guest room, but only a storage guest room.
Wei Wuxian went to go plop down on one of the chairs—a particularly gaudy piece in red with black embroidery and silver fittings. Lan Wanji said nothing about the dust cloud that flew up, and Wei Wuxian neglected to care about said dust cloud. He preferred to fish for compliments instead. "Lan Zhan! Look! Wouldn't this look so good in my room? I'd put it in the corner, near the bookshelf! Lan Zhan!" Wei Wuxian kept rambling as he tossed one of his lanky legs over a chair arm, going on about his future decorating endeavors all the while inspecting the room. He wondered where some of the items in the room had come from, since they didn't match any of the sets held by the hotel. The sun streamed through one of the windows to shine on the corner of a nondescript rug. The overall effect made the place seem bright despite its obvious neglect.
When Wei Wuxian finally paused to take a breath, the quietness of the room was obvious—they could hear no sounds from the workings of the hotel. Lan Wanji's responsive "Mn" could be heard clearly. He had long since tucked away the brass key he'd used to access the room, which he'd chosen specifically for its old-fashioned locking mechanism. No one had bothered to upgrade it to a key card, and so there were no digital records of who came and went into this room. It was perfectly suited for Lan Wanji's purposes.
"Lan Zhan, tell me," Wei Wuxian went on, "did you get permission for us to visit this place?" The answer was clearly "no," but that wasn't enough to stop him from teasing. He continued, "Or have my delinquent ways started rubbing off on you? Eh, Lan Zhan?" Wei Wuxian's smile turned sly as he spoke, the emotion contained within only more obvious as Lan Wanji silently stepped further into the room. His ears turned pink. He continued walking in as though the motion of his limbs would serve to distract Wei Wuxian from the blush.
It worked well enough. Wei Wuxian threw away all questions of logistics. It didn't matter, in any case—he knew that Lan Wanji wouldn't have brought them here if the risk of being caught was anything but negligible. Moreover, it was the Lan family that owned the Cloud Recesses chain. Technically, Lan Wanji had the right to be in any nook or cranny in this hotel, or in any other owned by his uncle. Technically. Equally technically, he was an ordinary staff member, subject to the same rules as everyone else—which is why he'd been very careful when retrieving the key from the depths of the manager's desk drawers. He'd been equally careful when he'd whisked Wei Wuxian away.
They weren't supposed to linger in the guest rooms, and this place still counted as one despite its current state. Lan Wanji knew this. Wei Wuxian knew this. Everyone knew this, and yet none of it mattered. None of it mattered as Lan Wanji came to kneel before Wei Wuxian's dusty throne, and spoke clearly for the first time since they'd snuck away. "Wei Ying." His words came out with the same smoothness with which his palms lifted, then settled upon Wei Wuxian's hips.
Wei Wuxian, whose words had trickled away with Lan Wanji's approach, had the expression of a rabbit debating whether or not to run across a road full of busy traffic. He came to a decision rather quickly, though, swinging his errant leg off of the chair's arm so he could face Lan Wanji head-on. "Lan Zhan!" he answered, as his smile grew gentler. "Lan Zhan, I like it here. Thanks for showing me." Lan Wanji held on tighter, as Wei Wuxian continued, "It can be our secret hiding place, yeah? When everything gets too loud?"
"Mn," Lan Wanji affirmed. The chair that Wei Wuxian had chosen was rather large, so Lan Wanji had to tilt his head up to look at him from his kneeling position. Wei Wuxian's silver eyes—which he insisted were a murky grey—gazed at Lan Wanji's golden ones ("Like real gold, Lan Zhan!" Wei Wuxian had insisted. Giggling, he'd continued, "Like, genuine 24 carat magic!" before exploding into a cheesy pop song that had been popular a few summers ago). Lan Wanji remembered that moment as he studied Wei Wuxian.
It seemed that he was satisfied with what he saw, as a small smile dared to appear upon Lan Wanji's lips. This development evidently delighted Wei Wuxian, who wiggled his way closer to the edge of the seat, and thus deeper into Lan Wanji's embrace. Wei Wuxian froze, then, seemingly thinking twice about his recent decision to cross the road. It was too late, though. Lan Wanji's arms had already moved to encircle Wei Wuxian more securely, and there was nothing left to do but melt into the touch.
Wei Wuxian now turned into a cat, of the sort that oozed when you tried to pick it up. However, he couldn't ooze very far within the bounds of Lan Wanji, so his words were the ones to slip out instead. "Lan Zhan... you're holding me very tightly. Are you afraid I'll make a run for it?" His question was accompanied by the slide of his arms around Lan Wanji's neck. "Would you chase after me, hmm?" he continued. Pointless questions, to be sure, since they both knew Wei Wuxian had no intentions of running from Lan Wanji—not anymore, and never again. In fact, they were questions directly contradicted by Wei Wuxian's slow lean towards Lan Wanji, so that he was more draped upon the latter than seated in the chair.
Lan Wanji huffed a breath of air in a way that could almost be mistaken for amusement. He was long used to Wei Wuxian's verbosity, and was one of perhaps two people who could correctly discern the underlying emotions contained within. Right now, Wei Wuxian's excitement was tainted by a nervousness that Lan Wanji sought to remedy by tightening his hold and rubbing circles on Wei Wuxian's back. They were good for now, but dragging the moment for too long wouldn't do—Wei Wuxian would begin to worry that he'd misread the moment (he hadn't) or that Lan Wanji was having second thoughts (he wasn't). Lan Wanji had spirited them off to an abandoned room for a reason, after all.
And it was time for that reason to become a reality. Lan Wanji leaned into Wei Wuxian, and their foreheads touched. Wei Wuxian quieted once more. His eyes glittered with anticipation, and closed. He was very ready for what was to come.
Or so he thought.
Those silver eyes opened and flashed, accompanied by a rather undignified, squeaky "Lan ZHAN!" The aforementioned 'Lan Zhan' was now glowing with a rare, genuine grin. "No one ever believes me when I say you're a tease!" Wei Wuxian emphasized this last sentence with a poke at Lan Wanji's cheek. "What would people say if I told them that the Second Jade of Lan was secretly a prankster!" was followed by another poke, and "A naughty man who would tease his poor, expectant lover with kisses deceptively delivered upon the nose!" was followed by yet another.
Wei Wuxian would have kept going, too, if Lan Wanji hadn't finally silenced him with what they'd come here for—a kiss.
