(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?

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[summerdude]

Magnus gives Lan Wangji a look of faint surprise. "You remember that?"

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji is also faintly surprised, but he keeps that out of his own expression. "Of course." He has tried his best to remember everything Magnus has said to him.

[summerdude]

Magnus flushes, then studies his hands. "Yeah," he says. "They thought I blew up my apartment. Because of, like, some stuff. School disciplinary records, stuff like that."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji's jaw tightens as he considers this. He can too easily imagine these police officers being cruel to Magnus, giving him no chances to defend himself. Just as with seemingly every powerful figure in Magnus' life, they were meant to protect him and they hurt him instead. He is a little too overcome with anger about it to speak; instead, he reaches for Magnus' hand.

[summerdude]

Oooh, Lan Wangji is a handholdy kind of guy, too? Excellent. Magnus lets him take his hand, and leans against him. "I do have authority issues," he allows. "But that's because pretty much most authority has issues."

[lightbearinglord]

"Mn." Lan Wangji can agree with that sentiment easily. "I have witnessed impossible cruelty from those in power." Honestly, he is not exactly prone to holding hands with anyone but Wei Ying -- and, notably, Claudius, once. Still, after the translation spell's recalcitrance the other day, it comes to him more easily now as a way to communicate with Magnus when words are failing him.

[summerdude]

"Yeah," Magnus nods. "So 'insane cop energy' means that they have the same sort of bearing as a cop."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji nods with understanding. He thinks, for a moment or two, about everything they have just discussed. "You are brave," he says again, slightly more steely and insistent about it. For what he has endured, for remaining Middle Ground Guy despite the buffeting forces of gods and fate and multiple realms, for committing to finding a new path here and now.

[summerdude]

"If you say so, Hanguang-jun."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji does not belabor the point. If he didn't mean it, he would not have said it in the first place. He tightens his hold on Magnus' hand and stays quiet for the time being.

[summerdude]

Drosera ambles over then, so Magnus pulls her into his lap with his free hand and lets her gnaw on the leather cuff he's wearing around his wrist. "Do I ever say stuff where you're like, 'what the heck is that guy even talking about?'"

[lightbearinglord]

Interested, Lan Wangji watches the movements of Drosera's beak before considering the question. It comes close to making him smile. "Often," he says, clearly not complaining about it. "Less often since I educated myself about the Norse gods and their realms."

[summerdude]

"Sorry," Magnus says, even though it is clear Lan Wangji doesn't mind. "You spend a ton of time in a place with people who have a shared frame of reference and then you lose track of what other people would know about it." He makes a careful face. "Little John said I tell stories too fast, and then, like, we got a couple new people here and the things they say are so confusing, so I wondered if I was like that sometimes, too."

[lightbearinglord]

It has never occurred to Lan Wangji to be bothered by this tendency of Magnus', but he can hardly dispute its existence. "Sometimes." He offers his own free hand to Drosera, the way he would to one of the rabbits to sniff. "If I could not understand your meaning, I would stop you."

[summerdude]

"Okay," says Magnus, mollified. "That's alright, then."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji gives him one fond little glance, a smile threatening at the corners of his eyes despite his persistently solemn mouth. "You seem refreshingly understandable to me still now that the mansion is translating again."

[summerdude]

At that, Magnus laughs. "That was wild," he agrees. "I kept running into everyone here that speaks Chinese for most of the day. Luckily Shen Yuan knows a little English and sign, and Qi Yan and me both know how to talk to--"

He cuts himself off and slaps a hand over his mouth, eyes wide. He's pretty sure the fact that she speaks horse isn't public information.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji is somewhat grateful that it is easy for him to keep his own expression placid. "If Qi-xiansheng would not want me to know, then do not tell me."

[summerdude]

Magnus gives Lan Wangji a thankful sort of look. "Sorry I just, like, talked at you forever even when you couldn't understand me, though."

[lightbearinglord]

It takes Lan Wangji a moment to sort out the sentiment he wants to express here. He looks down at their joined hands as he thinks, then back up at Magnus. "I minded that I couldn't understand, but I did not mind listening to you," he says, then. To some extent, he is grateful for Shen Yuan's intervention, but surely the less said about Shen Yuan, the better. If he thinks too much on him, he will remember what Shen Yuan said over Magnus' head knowing that he wouldn't understand it, and he will become irritable again.

[summerdude]

Magnus takes a deep breath. "I, um. Kind of was taking advantage of the translation breakdown. I kind of was telling you that you're a little bit like a father figure to me," he says, all in a rush. "Like, the mythological kind that doesn't suck."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji could not have said what he expected Magnus to have been telling him in the absence of translation, but he knows that this was not it. Startled, he stares at him, for once not entirely certain what his own expression is doing, which leaves it a little softer than usual, a little more open. He knows how complicated Magnus' feelings about his father are. He knows how complicated his feelings about his own father are. If a father is simply an elder, meant to be revered and respected from afar, then Lan Wangji's feelings for Qingheng-jun were appropriate. Anything beyond that is a snarl of fear, anger, and abandonment that sits in one of the quietest and least-explored parts of his heart.

He knows that he can be competent, brisk, and gentle all at once as a teacher and as a senior disciple. Sizhui is special to him in a way that unavoidably recalls the way that he feels about Magnus, but he would not name himself Sizhui's father outside of Wei Ying's jokes on the topic. He hesitates, realizing abruptly that his grip on Magnus' hand has changed, bordering suddenly on crushing. Although he knows Magnus can endure it, he instructs himself to relax. He is faintly embarrassed to feel a certain tightness in his throat. "I am?"

[summerdude]

Magnus nods, once or twice, ending with his chin tucked against his chest. He glances up at Lan Wangji like that, a little sheepish, a little embarrassed. "Is that okay?"

[lightbearinglord]

"Yes," Lan Wangji says, this time without hesitation, because if nothing else, he doesn't want Magnus to be ashamed or afraid. Then he is quiet again, helpless for a moment. "I..." Uncharacteristically, he struggles briefly mid-sentence. He wants to say that he hopes to be worthy of this. He wants to say that he already knows Magnus better, and loves him more, than Qingheng-jun ever knew or loved him. "It is an honor," he manages, once he has his voice under better control.

[summerdude]

"Aw, shucks," Magnus says. He moves Drosera carefully to the side, despite her obvious and rather noisy protests, and flings himself into a big bear hug.