As Spring Will Surely Come 2/10

[silver_sun]

Part 2

It is a crisp, bright afternoon as they leave the Jingshi and walk down to the edge of the Cloud Recesses, the last traces of morning frost having melted away.

“What do we know about the spirit? Is it very dangerous?” Wei Wuxian asks once they are in flight. “Is there a reason you didn’t want Sizhui to come with us?”

It seems ridiculous to try and justify his misgivings now, they seem baseless and without substance. “We will stay overnight.”

Laughing, Wei Wuxian leans in and presses a kiss to his neck. “Are you going to keep me up all night?”

It’s teasing and definitely meant to be taken in a way that isn’t just about being kept awake due to the night hunt. “Wei Ying, we’re flying.”

“I trust you,” he replies, pressing another kiss. “Now tell me all about this spirit.”

It doesn’t take long to relate what information he has been given by Lan Xiuling, even with Wei Wuxian interrupting to give ideas of what he thinks the situation might be.

Wei Wuxian core is developing well and it is strong enough now to protect him from the windchill of flight.

That his new core is developing so well has been a mostly unspoken source of happiness for them both. Considering the amount of dual cultivation they have put into strengthening it, perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise. Yet the fear that this body would be limited by loss of the core in Wei Wuxian’s original body had lingered.

In the end it had been an unfounded fear. This wasn’t this body that had its core cut from it. Mo Xuanyu had, during his time at Koi Tower, started on the path to cultivation. A path that had stalled when he’d been sent home to Mo Manor in disgrace. Yet it had laid the foundation that Wei Wuxian could build on. That fledgling core had, along with Mo Xuanyu hurt and anger at his situation, been enough to allow him to do the Soul Summoning ritual and gift his body to Wei Wuxian.

They have spoken little of core transfer since the night of its reveal by Wen Ning. Wei Wuxian repeating to him what he had told Jiang Wanyin, that it was all in the past and that it was time to let it all go.

The last time that he had raised the subject, Wei Wuxian had shaken his head and said, “Lan Zhan, if it had been your brother, would you not have done all you could?”

That had been an end to the matter, as there was no answer that Lan Wangji could give that would not truly hurt them both. His own dislike of Jiang Wanyin has no bearing on Wei Wuxian’s feelings about him either now or more than half a lifetime ago. He had done an incredible, impossible, amazing thing and it is one which Lan Wangji is almost certain that he would be unable to make himself.

“Lan Zhan! What are you thinking so hard about?” Wei Wuxian asks, prodding him in the arm. “Is there something about this haunting that’s got you spooked?”

“No. My brother.”

There is a pause, then Wei Wuxian’s grip changes subtly from one of necessity to one meant for comfort. “Was your visit so bad?”

“There was no change.” It feels somewhere between a lie and the most hopeful reading of the truth. “He is yet to decide about Dongzhi.”

There isn’t a reply. Because really what could be said? Wei Wuxian hold him tighter, hugging him as they fly on, the winter countryside rolling on beneath them.

---

The watermill is located outside of Luhe village. Sitting on the banks of the river Lu the mill looks as if it has been part of the landscape there for more than a century. The mill building is large and well maintained, while the substantial wooden water wheel turns slowly in the steady current of the river.

The workers at the mill are unloading grain sacks from an ox cart, busy, but otherwise seemingly happy to be working there. For a place that was haunted by a spirit that had very nearly killed three people in the last month, the lack of fear or even nervousness on the part of those workers is confusing.

It is all the more reason why they need to talk to them, to make certain of what people know of the spirit before proceeding. Perhaps there had been some clue or some information that had not been shared with Lan Xiuling that could prove important.

As they approach one of the men pauses in the unloading of the cart and walks over to them. Broad and stocky, his face weathered from a lifetime of work outdoors, he stops in front of them and offers a small bow. “Daozhangs, are you here about the spirit too?”

“We are,” Wei Wuxan says, “You look like you must know so much about the mill and everything around here. I was saying we needed to find someone who knows about Luhe.”

“There isn’t much to tell, truth be told,” he says. “My family have worked on this mill for three generations and Old Drowner has been here all the time.”

“You have named the spirit?”

“We have to call it something. Stay away from the Lu once the sun has set or Old Drowner will have you.” He looks towards the placidly rippling river. “My grandmother used to say that.”

“Have a lot of people drowned here?” Wei Wuxian asks,

“One that I’ve heard of. It was when my grandfather was a boy. A man who’d been travelling, looking for work on the river, was pulled in. Caught his head on the wheel. Now they’d told the children not to look, but grandfather well he wanted to prove himself to his friends and sneaked a look. Said he couldn’t eat meat from that day forward.”

“Did your village not seek aid?” Lan Wangji asks,

“Well no one knew who this man was, and we all knew to avoid the place.” He shakes his head. “Luhe isn’t a rich village to pay for aid. No great sect will notice us and no travelling cultivator will seek fame defeating such a spirit.”

It is true. It is also disheartening. “Gusu Lan notices you,” Lan Wangji says, offering what he can. “We will assist you.”

He looks doubtfully at them, as if he exacts some form of condition to be attached.

“It won’t cost you anything,” Wei Wuxian says brightly, trying to put the man at ease. “Really, we do this because it must be done.”

It is best, Lan Wangji decides, not to mention Lan Xiuling’s attempt to rid the river around the mill of its spirit to the mill owner. There is nothing to be gained by admitting past failure. Bringing harm of reputation to their sect in addition to the physical harm that Xiuling and her niece suffered is unnecessary.

“If you must try, then you can,” the mill owner replies to them. “It will make no difference to me.”

It’s certainly not the most enthusiastic reaction they have had to removing a troublesome spirit for free. However, as the man was not being bothered by it himself, it would seem of little consequence to him one way or another.

“We will return at nightfall,” Lan Wangji says. “Tomorrow we will inform you of our actions.”

The mill owner nods, then seeing one of the sacks that are being unloading threatening to split and it is lifted from the ox cart, says, “Then I shall leave you to your task, Daozhangs, as I must attend to mine.”

Leaving him to deal with his cargo of grain, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian walk a short distance from the mill to discuss what they will do next.

Stopping where the willows grow along the bank, their trailing branches sweeping the slowly rippling water, Wei Wuxian says, “So what do you want to do? Do we try to speak with the spirit now or do you want to wait for it to get dark?”

Lan Wangji considers his response for a moment, then says, “We will return tonight.”

“What do you want to do now?” Wei Wuxian looks around at the empty seeming countryside. “We could see if we can find someone really old who might remember more about the man who got his head squashed.”

It was a possibility, but given that the mill worker who was well into late middle age had said it was when his grandfather had been a child the likelihood of finding anyone that old who was still alive was somewhere between remote and impossible.

“En. We will wait at the inn for nightfall.”

Wei Wuxian smiles brightly and bounces his shoulder against Lan Wangji’s “Warm wine on a cold afternoon. You spoil me, Lan Zhan.”

“Deservedly so.” Lan Wangji leans in and tucks a loose strand of hair back behind Wei Wuxian’s ear, enjoying the pleased, if flustered, look on his husband’s face. “You deserve everything I can give.”

---

The inn, the only one in Luhe, is the one that Lan Xiuling and Lan Chunyue had stayed at the previous night. So upon seeing Lan Wangji’s forehead ribbon, the innkeeper asks, “Are you two young masters here to meet with the lady cultivators who wore ribbons such as your own?”

“No,” Lan Wangji replies, having little interest in indulging the innkeeper’s curiosity. “We are aware they left. We require a room for the night, an evening meal, with wine and a bath.”

“Just the one room?”

“One room. One bed.” Once, Lan Wangji knows, he would never have dared to speak in such a way. He would have been shocked by anyone that acted in such a way. Now he has no such reservations. He knows how people might view his relationship with Wei Wuxian. He also doesn’t care what they think.

“I meant no offence, young masters, just making sure,” the innkeeper says, sounding unbothered by it. “There’s a good room upstairs. Will you be wanting the bath now or after your meal?”

There is still an hour or so until it is time to eat. Time which he can spend with Wei Wuxian. There hadn’t been a great deal of time this morning for them to indulge in their ‘everyday’ or even to have breakfast together, Wei Wuxian having slept in until it was almost time to leave for Caiyi with Sizhui. They can make up for that time now.

“Before.” He looks at Wei Wuxian, who is already looking towards the stairs to where their room is.

Their room is simple, but well furnished. The bath, along with hot water for it, doesn’t take long to arrive.

Wei Wuxian walks around the tub a couple of times, before saying, “It’s really sturdy. What do you think? Should we give it a try?”

What he thinks, Lan Wangji doesn’t speak aloud. Because while he knows that Wei Wuxian would welcome the idea, they truly don’t have time at the moment.

What he would like is for them to get into the bath together and have Wei Wuxian ride him, until he is hot and tired and whining about it, before pushing him against the side of the tub and fucking him hard until they come. It’s nice, but he knows that they will both want to sleep afterwards, and that no matter what Wei Wuxian says to the contrary, he’ll be tender and bruised. It’s hard to refuse, but he says, “No. We will face the spirit in a few hours.”

“But I’m cold now, Lan Zhan! You need to come here and warm me up.”

There are other things that they can do. After four years of marriage they have experimented with a variety of techniques. It sounded cold to describe it in such terms, but it had been what they’d needed. As they’d rather rapidly discovered, that while they were both very enthusiastic about sex, both of them were lacking in any form of practical experience that wasn’t their own hand and a lot of imagination.

They play into each other’s fantasies. Wei Wuxian’s desire to be taken, to be ravished and used for pleasure. To be an object of desire, to be wanted and cherished beyond all reason and restraint. To be overwhelmed by it all.

Lan Wangji’s own deepest desires have been for things that, while not shameful, have sometimes made him worry that they were too much, too intense, too violent for anyone to enjoy. He wants to hold Wei Wuxian down, he wants to take him as hard and as fast as he can. He wants to hear his whines and moans, feel the way he clenches tight about him and watch how hot tears streak his flushed cheeks when he’s already come twice and he’s still being fucked. He wants to leave marks on his skin, wants to claim him, wants the world to know that he is his and that he will never let him go.

Sex can’t be this every time however, it’s exhausting in ways beyond the purely physical. Sometimes their everyday is sleepy and warm beneath the covers of their bed, lips and fingers exploring. Sometimes Wei Wuxian will fuck his thighs, babbling praise about how strong his legs are. Then once he’s come, he’ll use that same clever tongue to bring him to completion as well.

Lan Wangj will never tire of the sight of Wei Wuxian’s head bobbing between his thighs, swallowing and swallowing until he is fucking his throat as well as his mouth.

Nor will he tire of how Wei Wuxian’s hands roam, know that that he knows that no where is off limits Sometimes up to Lan Wangji’s chest as feather light touches that seem to follow no pattern, or sometimes it is sharp twists and pinches that leave his nipples hot, hard and aching. Sometimes they drift lower, teasing the soft, sensitive skin behind his balls, or he’ll stroke it across his hole, a single slick fingertip pressing lightly, promising so much more.

Having Wei Wuxian inside him, whether that tongue or finger or cock, is something that Lan Wangji can’t quite put into words. It is incredible, overwhelming and unfortunately almost always over embarrassingly soon. The fact is he can last as long as he wants when he fucks him, when he can control his rhythm, when he can pause just long enough to pull back from the edge. Being able to bring Wei Wuxian to completion twice before he permits himself to finish feels like the natural order of things.

So when they do it, the only practical way, in Lan Wangji’s opinion, is for him to make Wei Wuxian come first. Not that that is any kind of hardship. He loves the way Wei Wuxian’s cock feels in his mouth. The salt and bitter musk of it, the way it flexes and swells against his tongue and pushes against the back of his throat, the way the sparse dark pubic hair curls, tickling his nose as he swallows him down.

They have about an hour until it is time for their evening meal. Not long if they want to wash and dress afterwards. The fact of the matter is that Wei Wuxian loves sex just as much as he does, so regardless of the time constraints they will both make this work.

“The water is warm,” Lan Wangji says, not letting Wei Wuxian know yet that he is willing to indulge him. “You will not be cold.”

“Why is my husband so cruel? What have I done to deserve such neglect?” Despite the words his tone is teasing. He peers into the water using it as a mirror. “Do these looks displease you? Has some pretty maiden caught your eye? No, that can’t be it.” Raising an arm he sniffs at his armpit.

Deciding the silliness has gone on long enough, Lan Wangji shakes his head. “Ridiculous.”

Wei Wuxian’s response is to laugh and place a hand on the front of his clothes as if he is going to pull them open. “Could it be that the noble Hanguang-jun wants to see me naked?”

“Yes.”

“Lan Zhan! How can you speak so plainly? Aren’t you embarrassed?”

“No.” Enjoying how easy it is for him now to fluster Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji starts to remove his own clothing. “Now undress.”

Clothes are shed and placed over the privacy screen between the bath and door to the room, so that it is shielded from sight from anyone entering the room.
The water is wonderfully warm and with both of them in the bathtub comes up to mid thigh. Although with what he has in mind, he will not be standing for long.

Taking hold of Wei Wuxian’s hips, he pushes him back against the side of the tub, before kissing him. Lips first, then across his jaw and neck, to his collarbones. It’s easy to leave a love bite there, the skin thin and soft. Sucking hard, then scraping his teeth across it, while Wei Wuxian gasps, head tipped back, lost in pleasure.

Polite, precise conversation cannot describe the surge of emotions within him when he has Wei Wuxian in his arms like this, when he can hear the sounds he draws from him. It is being an unmoored boat caught in a river in spate, it is being blossom whirled from the branches in a storm. It is want and need and all things inbetween.

He wants more, needs more. Kneeling down in the water, he is level with Wei Wuxian cock, half hard already, without even having been touched.

He traces the tip of it with his tongue, before taking it into his mouth.

He will never tire of this. Not of the salt-bitter taste of precome on his tongue. Not of how Wei Wuxian’s cock fills with arousal, pushing against the soft palate, then against the back of his throat.

There is something very satisfying too in how the muscles in Wei Wuxian’s thighs tremble as he wants to thrust forward, but can’t move in Lan Wangji’s grip. He feels the way Wei Wuxian hands grips his shoulders, rhythmic grasping at first then how his fingers tighten the closer he gets. How his whole body tenses, breath catching as he comes.

Lan Wangji swallows, feeling the hot rush of come on tongue. He presses his tongue against the slit, teasing every last drop from it as Wei Wuxian gasps and writhes in his grip.

“Stop! You can stop now!” There is a sob in Wei Wuxian’s voice. “It’s too much, I can’t take it.”

Part of him wants to push Wei Wuxian further, to see if he can make him hard again even while he’s trembling from overstimulation, if he can push him to completion a second time. This evening, unfortunately, they do not have time to try it. Releasing the grip on his hips, Lan Wangji can see faint marks where his fingers have gripped too tight.

Wei Wuxian sags for a moment then drops to his knees in front of him, splashing water out onto the floor. Flushed and breathing hard, he smiles daze and happy, then wraps his arms about him.

“Lan zhan, I think you sucked me dry! Do I taste so good you can’t get enough of me?” He kisses Lan Wangji, open mouthed, licking against his lips, trying to taste himself there.

“Shameless.”

“But that’s how you like me. No one would believe what the renowned Hanguang-Jun likes to do to his poor fragile husband behind closed doors.”

“You do not object to those things.”

“Of course I don’t!” There is a bright, teasing look in his eyes, as his smile turns mischievous. “But what do you want to do with me now? I’m completely at your mercy. You’ve worn me out, I don’t think I can stand.”

“Then you can kneel.” Lan Wangji feels breathless with desire. He’s been hard from the moment he took Wei Wuxian in his mouth and he’s aching for release. Having Wei Wuxian teasing him so shamelessly only makes the need more urgent. “No more talking. Use your mouth on me.”

There is a flush to Wei Wuxian’s cheeks, as he leans in until their lips are almost touching again. “So that’s how it is, is it? Now where would my handsome husband like my mouth today?”

He kisses Lan Wangji’s lower lip very softly. “Is this enough? Or something more?” His hand strays beneath the water, a finger very gently teasing the exposed tip, where the foreskin has pulled back in his arousal.

With a gasp he catches Wei Wuxian’s wrist, stilling him for a moment. “Wherever you wish. Anything.”

There is a mischievous glint in Wei Wuxian’s eyes and suddenly Lan Wangji knows exactly what he is planning. He can feel embarrassment crawling over his skin like ants, but worse still the burning rush of arousal. There isn’t much that can do this to him now, but this…this still can. “Wei Ying-

“You said anywhere and you know how much I enjoy it.” He circles his thumb around the head of Lan Wangji cock again. “I know you do too. So let me do this.”

He has no ability, or wish for that matter, to deny him, so he nods.

“Stand up and turn around.”

Although the door to the room is closed and there is a screen between it and the bath, Lan Wangji feels exposed. It is a feeling that isn’t helped by Wei Wuxian saying, “There are other people in the inn, Lan Zhan, so you’re going to have to try to be quiet for me.”

“Am I not quiet?”

“Not when I do this,” Wei Wuxian says smugly. Placing his hands wide on Lan Wangji’s buttocks, he spends a moment squeezing and kneading the soft, rounded flesh, before he spreads the cheeks wide and starts work with his tongue.
Covering his mouth with his hand, Lan Wangji barely manages to stifle the moans that fall from his lips.

His cock is pressed against the edge of the bathtub. He considered taking it in hand, helping himself find release while Wei Wuxian tongue works on his most intimate of places.

Yet that would mean it would be over too soon and he doesn’t want that. He wants this to last.

Broad, flat strokes with Wei Wuxian’s tongue slowly give way to shorter, faster ones, finally becoming jabbing motions with the tip of his tongue, pushing in fractionally deeper each time, opening him up.

He can’t keep still, his whole body alight with need. He needs release, but it’s not quite enough. He grinds against the edge of the tub, but it doesn’t give him what he wants. “Wei Ying, please.”

The tongue retreats and Wei Wuxian strokes a finger tip back and forth across the slick, sensitive skin, but never pressing inside. “Now what could you want?”

It’s maddening. “Do not tease.”

Leaning in, Wei Wuxian nips gently at the inside of Lan Wangji’s thighs. “Turn around and I’ll show you if I’m teasing or not.”

Lan Wangji turns slowly. He wonders how he looks to Wei Wuxian at this moment. If he looks as flushed and desperate as he feels, and if that pleases him.

It seems to, as the look he gives him is filled with desire. It is a brief look however. Because as soon as Lan Wangji has turned around, he takes his cock in his mouth.

Even that is momentary, as with practised ease, Wei Wuxian leans forward, changing the angle so that he can take him in fully.

There is no time to adjust to the enveloping pressure and heat, as Wei Wuxian rubs his fingertip over his hole.

There is no teasing this time, spit-slick from being worked open by his tongue, it presses it inside with little effort, immediately seeking out its target and starts to rub small circular motions.

The sudden pressure inside combined with the heat of his mouth is too much. After having held back for so long, the intensity of it is almost too much and Lan Wangji thrusts forwards, hips jerking, unable to control them as he comes.

His hand falls from his mouth, gripping Wei Wuxian’s shoulders, as he tries to keep his balance. He gasps, the unrestricted rush of air, making feel lightheaded.

If he is going too hard too or too deep, Wei Wuxian shows no indication of it, swallowing round every thrust, while his finger keeps moving inside him.

It’s too much, his body shaking with pleasure so sweet and sharp that it threatens to tip over into more than he can bear. His breath hitches, legs feeling jellied and unsteady.

Realising that he’s taken him to his limit, Wei Wuxian stops and releases him, guiding him down to kneel in the water in front of him.

“Wow, look at you,” Wei Wuxian says, impossibly fond, as brushes hair back from Lan Wangji’s face. “You really enjoyed that, did you?”

Shivery, Lan Wangji nods, presses wet, open mouthed kisses to his chest and neck. It always takes him longer to come back to himself after coming like this. Everything feels so sensitive and bright. It makes him want to cling to Wei Wuxian, to never let him go.

Part 3 - https://silver-sun.dreamwidth.org/272488.html#cutid1