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English
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Published:
2020-07-12
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1,115
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1/1
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22
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374
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Bound Together

Summary:

Upon realizing Mo Xuanyu's body can potentially let him practice orthodox cultivation again, Wei Wuxian decides to try a simple spell from his youth.

It does not go as planned.

Notes:

Written for Trope Bingo prompt "Handcuffed/Bound Together"

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

“I’m really, really sorry.”

“Mn.”

“No, really, I mean it this time. Are you mad, Lan Zhan? You’re definitely mad, I can tell.”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji grunted again, and the expression on his face intensified ever so slightly, a sure prelude to rage if Wei Wuxian ever saw it. Lan Wangji pulled back his wrist again. Not as hard as he had the first time, but with enough spiritual force behind it to make Mo Xuanyu’s weak body stumble towards him.

“Sturdy,” Lan Wangji commented.

“I know, I have no idea how that happened either.” Wei Wuxian stared down at his own wrist in frustrated disbelief. A thin blue spiritual thread was wrapped around it. There was a matching one on Lan Wangji’s wrist and little distance between them.

It happened like this. After the two of them had left the Cloud Recesses to begin their wild goose chase, it quickly became clear that Lan Wangji would not be able to consistently fly them everywhere (no matter how much he insisted otherwise). Travelling on foot though came with its own set of problems—the main one being it was slow, and getting the chance to sample every town’s specialty alcohol was little consolation. The frustration caused Wei Wuxian to make a certain slip.

“If only I could fly on a sword again too,” he’d lamented loudly (later, he decided he’d been especially drunk and swore never to touch this particular town’s liquor again).

“Is that body no good?” Lan Wangji questioned earnestly, reminding Wei Wuxian of his situation and he sent a silent thank you to the Mo Xuanyu beyond the grave for this recovery.

“It’s no good at all,” Wei Wuxian agreed. “I’d heard at Mo Manor that Mo Xuanyu trained at Carp Tower for a time, but his spiritual power was too low to work with.” That he’d been brought in to start his training at a very late age was probably the main contributor to that, but either way the damage had been done.

“Let me see,” Lan Wangji said and before Wei Wuxian could react, Lan Wanji’s soft hands were on him, sending pulses of spiritual energy as he checked his meridians. Wei Wuxian was never more grateful to not be in his own body than at that moment. He remained frozen in place, heart thundering in his chest until Lan Wangji finally pulled away and nodded solemnly.

“It’s workable,” Lan Wangji said, which…had not been what Wei Wuxian expected at all.

“Wait really?”

“If you start now and work hard at it, there is a chance Mo Xuanyu’s body will be able to form a golden core,” Lan Wangji explained. “At this age though, it will be weak but—

“No, no I’ll take it!” Wei Wuxian said quickly. “Weak or not, that’s great! Thanks Lan Zhan!”

So Wei Wuxian’s training began. He couldn’t focus on it as much as he’d have liked given their mission, but any rest stop and spare moment became dedicated to basic core training. On the side, Wei Wuxian tried to remember the various spells he’d come up with in his youth, and see if this body could take to them.

He’d struck gold with the bonding spell. Originally developed for a prank, the spiritual thread took little energy to cast and maintain and Wei Wuxian’s cheers resounded through the market when he’d successfully tied his and Lan Wangji’s wrists together.

The cheers died quickly when he then tried to unbind them.

And couldn’t.

Wei Wuxian pulled in one direction, and Lan Wangji pulled in the other, but the only accomplishment was sending Wei Wuxian falling into his partner. Lan Wangji kept him from hitting the ground at least.

“Okay, I can fix this,” Wei Wuxian insisted even as every one of his attempts at dispersing the thread failed. “Or maybe not. Lan Zhan, you mind? You should be able to break it.”

“No need,” Lan Wangji said and instead turned around and started walking at a brisk pace. Wei Wuxian had no choice but to follow.

I’ve done it now, Wei Wuxian thought with a sigh. This is his way of punishing me. He remembered the days when he was in control of the thread. It was significantly less funny when he was the one being yanked around like Little Apple.

(And even Little Apple could put up more of a resistance)

Lan Wangji was at least a gracious master. He didn’t walk too fast, and he even let Wei Wuxian lead when the latter spotted something interesting. If not for the fact that Wei Wuxian couldn’t stray further than 3 chi and kept getting pulled back when he forgot that, it would be almost tolerable.

Then lunchtime arrived, and even the almost was gone.

“Lan Zhan, break the thread already. I’m hungry too.”

The thread’s short length forced them to sit next to each other. That by itself would have been fine, but then there was the part where both of their dominant hands were stuck and that made it rather hard to hold their chopsticks. Thus, Lan Wangji ate, and Wei Wuxian watched his bound arm flail about.

“Lan Zhaaan,” he whined.

“I can feed you,” Lan Wangji offered, and, okay wow, Lan Zhan had changed a lot over the years. Wei Wuxian could only stare and he put some food on his chopsticks and held it up.

“I think this joke’s gone far enough, don’t you?” Wei Wuxian tried to scoot away. “Lan Zhan please don’t be mad. I’ve learned my lesson. I promise I’ll focus on the core training and stop testing out random spells on you.”

Lan Wangji’s eyes narrowed. He did not lower the chopsticks.

“There’s more? Uh… can I get a hint?”

“There’s nothing.”

“No, no, there’s clearly something.” Why else would Lan Wangji let them stay bound together like this?

But Lan Wangji just shook his head, all with his usual stoic frown. “This situation,” he said. “I don’t mind it.”

“Well I’m sure you don’t mind seeing as you’re the one yanking me around,” Wei Wuxian sputtered. Mo Xuanyu, Mo Xuanyu. Why couldn’t you prepare a proper cultivator’s body for me? he grumbled in his mind.

“With this, you can’t disappear on me again.”

Wei Wuxian’s jaw dropped. Lan Wangji took the opportunity to stuff the food into his mouth. His face was as collected as always. But Wei Wuxian could feel his own heating up as he chewed and he yanked his bound hand so he had something to cover it with (unable to appreciate that the swift motion made Lan Wangji’s arm jerk for once.)

That Lan Zhan! He’d really gotten so daring!

Notes:

(LWJ undoes the spell about an hour later)
(He also does not reveal that he was the one who’d actually cast it)
(He realized what WWX was trying to do and liked the idea of being close together for a little while)

Thank you for reading! I hope you liked it! It's been a while since I've been able to write something so short haha

I read somewhere that the author said that Wei Wuxian would eventually be able to form a new golden core in Mo Xuanyu's body which is what gave me the idea for this fic. I really love that ending for him a lot haha