#eirenical

Wei Wuxian rubs the back of his neck with a sheepish laugh as he accepts the scroll from the disciple. Their notes are meticulous, as is to be expected of a Gusu Lan disciple, listing not only the names of the visitors, but also the place of origin, their affiliated sect, and their reason for calling.

“Ah, sorry to cause all this trouble for you both,” he says, scanning the long list quickly. “I’ll handle it from here—”

“Yiling Laozu!” a man calls out from somewhere on the other side of the gate. He breaks free from the crowd and charges towards them. “Yiling Laozu! Wait!”

The two disciples cross their swords in his path to prevent him from crossing the gate; Lan Wangji instinctively steps in front of Wei Wuxian, one arm thrown out to shield him from view. But instead of attacking, the man throws himself onto his knees and prostrates himself on the ground. Everyone stops in their tracks, baffled.

“Yiling Laozu!” 

Wei Wuxian blinks. “Yes? Can I help you?”

“Please accept my son as your disciple!”

Wei Wuxian stumbles half a step and almost drops the scroll in shock.

“What?” He must have heard wrong. “What did you just say?”

The man presses himself closer to the ground and repeats his plea: “Please accept my son as your disciple!”

“Uh…” Wow. “Okay, uh…I didn’t see that coming.”

Wei Wuxian had always prided himself on his intuition and on being observant. He can tell the exact moment when a night hunt is about to go terribly wrong, and knows instinctively what needs to be done to salvage the situation; he can tell when someone is lying to him, or hiding something, and usually knows how to coax, pry or force the information from them.

But this...this is beyond him.

He glances over at Lan Wangji for help, but Lan Wangji looks equally baffled by this sudden turn of events. Him? Take a disciple? They do know who is he right? They’re not mistaking him for someone else? 

“Yiling Laozu saved my son’s life,” the man continues. “Without your help, my son would be dead! A life debt must be repaid. He’s slow-witted, but he will work hard and do his best to learn from you. Please allow him to serve you as your disciple!”

Wow, he really isn’t kidding. Wei Wuxian definitely didn’t see this coming. He vaguely recognises the man—he and Lan Wangji had exorcised a demon in Guilin that had been possessing a young boy to feed on his yang energy. It had only been a day’s work or less, nothing that would be worth sending his son to serve a former criminal like him, no matter how much his reputation has been rehabilitated in the past year.

He looks up at Lan Wangji.

“Thank you for your kind words, sir,” he begins slowly, still looking to Lan Wangji for reassurance. The corners of Lan Wangji’s mouth soften. “But the credit for saving your son was not mine alone. And I have no mind to accept any disciples, now or ever. I only cultivated this path because there had been no other option available to me at the time, born out of desperation. I would not recommend it to anyone if they had a chance at something else."

The man looks crestfallen as Wei Wuxian steps around Lan Wangji to kneel beside him on the ground. He helps him up with a hand under his elbow.

“If you are really looking for a way to repay us for this life debt, then you should set your son on the path to help others.” Wei Wuxian claps him on the shoulder. “You have the chance to walk that righteous path. You should take it.”

A small, wistful smile flits across his lips and the light in his eyes dim; it is gone almost as soon as it appears, and he’s stepping away again to rejoin Lan Wangji. The man remains kneeling on the floor looking up at them both, wide-eyed with wonder, as if he’d been struck by a revelation. Wei Wuxian clears his throat and looks away with an awkward grin.

“Anyway, sorry to disappoint you after you’ve come all this way,” he says, voice coming out a little louder than intended. “I would offer to write you a recommendation letter to join another sect, but I’m afraid my reputation hasn’t improved that much—”

“That won’t be necessary,” Lan Wangji says firmly. He inclines his head at the man. “If you do not mind, Gusu Lan will accept your son as a disciple.”

The man’s jaw drops.

“Xianshi...” He throws himself onto the ground, pressing his forehead to the ground over and over again in thanks. “You have blessed our entire family by accepting my son into Gusu Lan. I assure you, he will work hard! He will not disappoint you!”

Wei Wuxian catches Lan Wangji’s eye and smiles, warmth filling his chest.

“I’m sure your son will do very well,” Wei Wuxian tells the man brightly. “He will have the best teachers the cultivation world has to offer. He’ll learn much more from them than he would have from me!”

“Wei Ying, too, is an excellent teacher,” Lan Wangji says immediately.  “The insight he has to offer is invaluable.”

Wei Wuxian’s face grows hot. “Aiyo, Lan Zhan, don’t be so embarrassing!”

Lan Wangji shakes his head with a noise of dissent, which tickles a laugh out of Wei Wuxian. The warm feeling in his chest expands to fill his body, tingling from the top of his head to the tips of his toes, before settling down into a deep sense of contentment. When he meets Lan Wangji’s eyes again, he finds that same joy mirrored on his face.

Ah, he thinks quietly. So this is the feeling of coming home.

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