(Almost) Everything Is Comin' Up Chase [closed post]

[summerdude]

Magnus, triumphant, has finally managed to make some old bamboo sprout. With Drosera fed recently enough that she's not complaining of hunger and resting in her new favorite perch (lounging on his shoulder tucked right against his neck, her beak tangled in hair that is once again getting long), he sneaks it into the Mansion, hides it in a large gift-bag a closet gives him, and hangs it on Claudius and Galahad's doorknob with a quickly-jotted note that reads Claudius, What next? - MAGNUS CHASE.

Then, since he's already inside, he figures, why not wander around until he finds someone to talk to?

Comments

[lightbearinglord]

It is almost impossible to imagine Lan Wangji's own father making jokes of any kind -- but then, it is almost impossible to imagine him doing anything, considering that Lan Wangji did not know him at all. He nods, attentive. "You didn't groan," he points out. "You laughed."

[summerdude]

"Yeah, well, I find dad jokes funny," Magnus says, in tones of great confession. "Probably because I wasn't inundated by them as a kid."

[lightbearinglord]

"Nor was I," Lan Wangji says, almost dryly. If he and Lan Xichen had not been allowed those visits with his mother, he might have made it his entire childhood without ever hearing any adult laughter at all.

[summerdude]

"No?" Magnus realizes, then, that he's told Lan Wangji a lot about himself, but he knows comparatively little about Lan Wangji. Maybe that makes sense, in a weird parent-child sort of way, but it doesn't make a lot of sense in a friend sort of way. "I'd like to know more about how you grew up, if you're okay with sharing."

[lightbearinglord]

Although he very nearly invited the question, Lan Wangji is still somewhat surprised by it. He looks down at his hands, at the places where his fingertips meet Wangji's strings, and considers how much he would like to reveal. He wants to be honest with Magnus, but he also can barely tolerate the thought of speaking about his parents. "You know of the Cloud Recesses and its rules. When I was a child, there were three thousand of them. Xiongzhang and I were raised by our uncle. He was also our teacher."

[summerdude]

"What was that like?"

[lightbearinglord]

"Uncle is a renowned teacher of cultivation," Lan Wangji says. He's aware that this doesn't precisely answer the intent of Magnus' question, but he's also uncertain how else to answer. "I would be a poorer cultivator without his guidance."

[summerdude]

"Oh, speaking of, I've been meaning to ask," says Magnus. Since Drosera is off to the side trying gamely to rip her toy in half, he's pretty sure he has time to raise up into a handstand real quick. It's clear he's been practicing: his form is sturdier and more accurate now. "How am I doing? What should I focus on fixing next?"

[lightbearinglord]

This is a surprise of a slightly more pleasant variety. Lan Wangji stands and steps out from behind his qin so that he can make a circuit around Magnus, examining his form. "You have improved," he says, an understated compliment but an entirely sincere one. "Rotate your elbows out slightly more. Once you have mastered this, we can work on one-handed handstands."

[summerdude]

"Rotate out like -- this?" Magnus asks, attempting what he thinks Lan Wangji means.

[lightbearinglord]

"Mn." Lan Wangji watches, observing him for a breath or two. Magnus' feet are trying to drift apart; he takes hold of them and returns them to one another, and then he is satisfied. "Now see how long you can hold it."

[summerdude]

Magnus concentrates on holding his legs steady. "Your uncle taught you to do this?" He can't imagine Uncle Randolph doing anything like that.

[lightbearinglord]

"Along with other elders of my sect." Lan Wangji takes a single step back, continuing to keep his eyes on Magnus. He remains close enough to catch him if he has an uncontrolled fall.

[summerdude]

"So were you, like," Magnus screws his face up, trying to think of the term. "Communally raised?"

[lightbearinglord]

"To an extent. Uncle was our primary caretaker." And Lan Qiren loved them. Lan Wangji knows that he did. But there was such stark contrast between his demeanor, his strictness and his expectations, and their monthly respite in their laughing mother's company.

[summerdude]

It feels like there's maybe more to that story, so Magnus stays quiet for a little while, occupying his time by trying, carefully, to do a sort of push-up while still maintaining his handstand.

[lightbearinglord]

Unsurprisingly, then, Lan Wangji is quiet as well. He spares a glance for Drosera, to ensure she is still occupied and not destroying anything she isn't meant to destroy, and then returns to watching Magnus. This little demonstration of his strength is not exactly surprising after what he knows of Magnus, but he is silently both impressed and amused at Magnus' apparent inability to hold still.

[summerdude]

Okay, so Hanguang-jun isn't talking! "I'd like to know more."

[lightbearinglord]

Ah, apparently Lan Wangji has not escaped further questions about his childhood after all. At least Magnus already knows that his mother is dead. After a pause, and a little bluntly, he says, "Our mother died when I was six years old. We saw her once a month until then."

[summerdude]

"Only once a month?!" Magnus can't imagine that at all. He would have hated that.

[lightbearinglord]

"That is what the clan elders permitted." If Lan Wangji did not feel an obligation to keep watching Magnus, he would be looking away by now.

[summerdude]

"No offense, Hanguang-jun, but that sounds pretty fucked up," Magnus frowns.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji has absolutely no interest in passing any kind of verbal judgment on the situation between his father, his mother, and the Gusu Lan elders. He releases a very slow breath. "It is in the past," he says, somewhat shortly. Between her death and Wei Ying's arrival in his life, there was nothing. Books, qin, meditation, and more of the same. "Wei Ying came to study at the Cloud Recesses when we were fifteen."

[summerdude]

Okay! Message received loud and clear! "I technically met Alex when I was fifteen," Magnus offers. "At a youth shelter on Winter street. Um, that's in Boston, where I'm from. But Alex says it doesn't count because we didn't talk until she died."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji truly did not intend to be rude to Magnus, but even that short exchange stretched the limits of his ability to talk about his mother. He seizes this piece of information about Alex with some gratitude. "It counts," he says, quite sure of this, "if you took notice of her then."