Pink and white blossoms dotted the canopies under which they walked, and fluffy rabbits darted to and fro amid the underbrush, but Wei Wuxian couldn't take in any of the beauty around him. He wasn't the kind of person who was easily worried… but he was worried sick.

Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen had been gone for almost a day now and the children had been gone even longer still. Try as he might not to dwell on things, he kept imagining all the terrible ways they might have been hurt.

Why had Jin Ling looked so damned scared before he jumped through that gate?

There was hardly anything to distract Wei Wuxian from it either. Wen Ning was typically quiet and was even quieter now, undoubtedly fretting over Sizhui as well. And Lan Zhan hadn't made much conversation either, not that he was particularly talkative normally. But, there was no chance he hadn't noticed how often Wei Wuxian was wringing his hands together or how he perked up at the sound of any substantial wind. It seemed that either Lan Zhan was also too trapped in his own head to pull Wei Wuxian out of his or that he was angry with him.

Then, as if answering his own need for distraction, Wei Wuxian suddenly remembered something.

"Lan Zhan! Lan Zhan!" he whispered loudly.

Wen Ning took one look at the devilish grin on Wei Wuxian's face and immediately extricated himself from their company. He wandered off through the trees until Wei Wuxian could no longer see him. He wouldn't have gone far, though. And he would come back if needed or once he was told that it was safe and he wasn't in any danger of hearing things that he didn't want to hear.

"Mn," Lan Zhan said. His face was impassive, but his tone was harsher than usual.

"Lan Zhan, I think we haven't been keeping up."

Lan Zhan looked at him quizzically.

"Are you upset with me, Lan Zhan?" Wei Wuxian asked flirtatiously, pressing himself against him while they walked. "I mean, every day is meant to be every day."

"Mn."

"We've missed some, haven't we?"

"…yes…"

"I can make it up to you," Wei Wuxian murmured, starting to slip his hand under Lan Zhan's robe.

Lan Zhan grabbed his wrist and pushed it away. Wei Wuxian was shocked and admittedly a little wounded too.

"You never deny me," he whined. "Is it because we're out here in the woods? Is it Wen Ning? I can ask him to give us some time together."

"No," Lan Zhan said stiffly.

Upset as he was that he hadn't accepted his affections like he normally did, Wei Wuxian didn't try to reach for him again. But, he was going to get to the bottom of this.

"I'm sorry we missed a day," Wei Wuxian said as seductively as he could, which was certainly saying something. "Let me make it up to you."

"It's been more than a day."

"Then I'll really make it up to you," Wei Wuxian said, going so far as to bat his eyelashes a few times.

That got the tiniest smile out of Lan Zhan.

Wei Wuxian cozied up to him again. Lan Zhan sighed.

Realizing that he wasn't going to be able to ignore him, he put his arm around Wei Wuxian.

"That's a yes then?" Wei Wuxian asked. "Tell me what you want."

"No."

Wei Wuxian gave him a coquettish pout. "Why not? We've missed days. Isn't that why you're upset?"

"No."

Trying to get Lan Zhan to talk could be a tedious task, but he seemed even more reluctant now.

"You are upset though, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

He sighed. "It has to do with you, but it's not because of you."

"So tell me."

"It doesn't matter. There's nothing to be done about it."

"It matters to me."

Lan Zhan looked down at him, pain evident in the crease between his brows.

"You'll feel guilty," he said softly. "I don't want that for you either."

Wei Wuxian scratched at his chin, feigning deep thought. "In that case, I promise not to feel guilty," he said with a grin. "Who knows? Maybe I wouldn't have felt that way anyhow."

The crease in Lan Zhan's forehead deepened. "You can't choose whether or not to feel guilty."

"Well I felt guilty before when I thought this had to do with the two of us sleeping together," Wei Wuxian said. "So why not simply clear the air and let me decide how to feel about it?"

Lan Zhan pressed his lips together – his thinking face. After a few moments of walking in silence, he inhaled deeply and said, "If you insist."

"I do," Wei Wuxian said.

Still, he paused before speaking. Wei Wuxian waited as patiently as he could.

"This is not what I wanted for you," Lan Zhan said, not looking at him. "I thought once everything was done at Guanyin Temple, that would be it. But here we are again. And now A-Yuan is in danger again too. You shouldn't have to travel and fight like this."

"Didn't want this for me?" Wei Wuxian said, confused. "Lan Zhan, I would need to travel to get anywhere that I wanted to go. I don't mind travelling."

Lan Zhan gave him a look somewhere between pity and exasperation. "This isn't peace," he explained. "After everything that happened, I wanted you to have that."

"Oh."

Wei Wuxian didn't know what to say. There was an odd tightness in his chest, like his body was rejecting the kindness that Lan Zhan was trying to bestow upon him.

The reality was, Wei Wuxian wasn't so sure that he deserved peace. He had been the cause of a lot of the grief in the past. In his mind, everything that came afterward was penance, no matter how much he might have wanted peace for himself and Lan Zhan too.

"Don't feel bad," Wei Wuxian said with a smile. "Xue Yang is my problem. It only makes sense that I clean up my own messes. After that, things should be quiet."

He couldn't promise it. Hell, he was pretty sure that his assertion that things would be quiet after Xue Yang was laughably inaccurate. The number of enemies he'd made in life was outnumbered only by the number of corpses that he'd raised and probably only by a small margin at that.

"Xue Yang is not your problem," Lan Zhan said firmly.

"He practices demonic cultivation because I founded it. He harbors a grudge against me because I helped to kill him. He's a monster that I helped to make. He seems a little like my problem, wouldn't you say?"

"You can't blame yourself for the path that others choose to take," Lan Zhan said. "Jiang Wanyin was wrong to say the things that he did. You are not responsible for everything that happens around you."

Wei Wuxian didn't entirely agree, but he bit his tongue. It would be useless to argue. Lan Zhan wouldn't concede, not in a debate like this.

But Jiang Cheng really had been right when he said that trouble followed Wei Wuxian. And it really was usually trouble that Wei Wuxian had stirred up himself in one way or another.

"You deserve peace too," Wei Wuxian said. "I'll make it my personal mission to deliver that to us… at least before one of us dies again."

He laughed and playfully nudged Lan Zhan.

"That's not funny," Lan Zhan said.

Wei Wuxian's laughter quieted. He cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Right. Well…"

He racked his brain for something to change the subject. So much for trying to make Lan Zhan feel better…

"I don't know about peace," Wei Wuxian said coyly, "but we could have fun here, if you wanted to."

Lan Zhan cocked his head to the side. The brief flash of a smile was not missed by Wei Wuxian.

"Are you sure that it's not, in fact, you who is upset by our missed days?" Lan Zhan queried.

Ooo! So flirty!

"Of course I'm upset!" Wei Wuxian pouted, hugging Lan Zhan tightly. "I mean, why haven't you swept me off my feet yet? I'm practically begging you! Have you grown bored of me, oh great and powerful Hanguang-jun?"

Lan Zhan's eyes widened. "No, of course not," he said seriously.

"Lan Zhan, I was kidding."

"Hm."

He sounded a little annoyed. Why was Wei Wuxian struggling so much today?

He tried to brainstorm other ideas to woo Lan Zhan.

Before he could land on anything, though, Lan Zhan had tilted Wei Wuxian's head up to look at him.

How pretty those golden eyes of his were! They still had the power to take his breath away.

"Lan Zhan…"

There was no time to think of anything more than his name. Lan Zhan leaned forward and kissed him… hard. Wei Wuxian inhaled sharply in surprise and then kissed him back with equal ferocity.

It really did feel like it had been forever since they'd been together.

The faint smell of sandalwood, the warmth of his tongue, the feel of his breath on his face – all of it was as exhilarating as it had been the first time. A soft groan escaped Wei Wuxian's throat. Lan Zhan pulled him closer.

He started to clumsily fumble with the sash of Lan Zhan's robe, his excitement increasing with the rate of Lan Zhan's breathing.

Before he knew it, he was on his back. The forest floor was surprisingly unyielding and dug into his shoulder blades as he lay there, but he didn't mind. He could hardly feel it. Only his husband existed to him now.

Lan Zhan leaned over. He smothered him in sloppy kisses while Wei Wuxian continued to reach down into his clothes. Lan Zhan let out a little moan when Wei Wuxian's hand found what it sought.

"Wei Ying," Lan Zhan whispered into his neck.

Crack!

The gods thought they were being funny, huh?

Just as Lan Zhan had begun to undress Wei Wuxian, a portal had appeared beside them, cutting things short. Wei Wuxian thudded his head back against the ground a couple of times in frustration.

"No peace for us and no fun for us either, I guess," he said bitterly.

"Wei Wux – oh my goodness! I – um – that's – oh my!"

"A little warning would be nice next time, Huaisang!" Wei Wuxian shouted at the Nie Clan leader who had quickly hidden his face behind a fan.

"H-how am I supposed to give warning?"

Lan Zhan pulled his clothes tightly around himself and jumped back from Wei Wuxian as if he'd been burned. His ears were bright red.

Wei Wuxian, on the other hand, stayed where he was, robe half open and caught by the high winds, flower petals still tangled in his hair.

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. Lan Zhan was cute when he was flustered.

"What do you want, Huaisang?" Wei Wuxian asked when the Nie Clan leader still had not proceeded to say anything more.

"Oh! Um…" Huaisang lowered his fan a few inches, revealing his scrunched brow and pretty golden hair piece. "I thought you might be worried, so I wanted to inform you that the Battle of Jinlintai is over and-"

"The what?!" Wei Wuxian shouted, leaping to his feet.

Huaisang's fan popped up a few millimeters.

"No one has spoken to you?" Huaisang asked incredulously.

"No," Lan Zhan breathed. He looked paler than usual. "We haven't heard anything."

Huaisang waved off his comment nonchalantly. "Well I suppose I haven't heard from anyone either," he said. "I only know because I sent some of my own people there to help."

"For fuck's sake, Huaisang!" Wei Wuxian roared. "Is everyone all right?! We have family over there! Why aren't you telling us anything?!"

Lan Zhan placed a hand on his shoulder and almost instantly, Wei Wuxian felt the panic in his chest subside. Huaisang fluttered his fan.

"I don't really know," he said. "I think they're fine. It was a pretty decisive victory for the Jins. My people haven't given me a lot of specifics on – what are you doing?"

Wei Wuxian was scrabbling at Lan Zhan's sleeves. He reached in and yanked out some paper. He slapped it down on the ground and began to feel around for a brush to write with but could find nothing. Jin Ling had taken it with him.

"Blood it is, then," Wei Wuxian said, pulling a knife from his robe.

A vice-like grip tightened around his wrist. Wei Wuxian looked up to see Lan Zhan restraining him.

"I know you want me to cut back on demonic cultivation," Wei Wuxian said, exasperated, "but this is an emergency."

"I'm sure everyone is fine," Huaisang squeaked, glancing between the two of them. "The Jins won the battle yesterday with minimal losses from their side. The enemy stood no chance. It was foolish of them to try."

"Yesterday?" Wei Wuxian repeated. "Are you in Lanling? How did you receive word so quickly?"

"Birds."

Something wasn't adding up. Huaisang had returned to the Unclean Realm not long ago and had warned Jin Ling of the impending battle only a half a day in advance. How had he also had time to send his own people to help in Jinlintai? He had already made it clear that he couldn't link to anyone except Lan Xichen, Jiang Cheng, and Wei Wuxian.

Had he used transportation talismans? That would have been very expensive for his men.

Unless… he'd already had people stationed there…

"Who was the enemy?" a hoarse voice asked.

Wei Wuxian jumped and twisted around to find that Wen Ning had returned. The whirlwind around them must have covered up the sound of his footsteps and had probably been his cue to return and find out what was going on.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," Huaisang said, a hint of cunning in his tone. "My people managed to apprehend one of the invaders before the explosion killed the rest of them-"

"Explosion?" Wei Wuxian asked, trying to keep his worry from creeping up again.

"Someone detonated their golden core when the battle was over," Huaisang explained quickly, sounding a little irritated that he kept getting interrupted. "It seemed they didn't want to be taken prisoner, but I managed to capture one anyway."

"Right and what have you found out?"

"Xue Yang probably had something to do with this," Huaisang said excitedly. "I've already sent word to Jinlintai that these clans were riled up by some sort of gang. Sect Leader Jin is going to track them down. I captured one of its members, though, and they told me that they were instructed by someone else."

"And?" Wei Wuxian coaxed him, annoyed by his dramatic pauses.

"I'm getting to it," Huaisang said flatly. "Anyway, this gang was instructed by a man of average build, long black hair, and a penchant for demonic cultivation to deliver Wei Wuxian to Nightless City if they somehow happened across him. In return, they would receive… well… something. I can't really remember. It wasn't important."

It seemed that the puzzle pieces that Wei Wuxian felt were important were very different from the ones that Huaisang valued. Wei Wuxian didn't care that much about Xue Yang's involvement. He wanted to know how this gang convinced all those clans to attack Jinlintai. He wanted to try to figure out how to help Jin Ling. Who cared if Xue Yang was trying to capture him? He already knew that was the case.

"Does that description sound like Xue Yang to you?" Huaisang asked.

"That's pretty vague, don't you think?" Wei Wuxian said.

"Sure, but does it sound like him?"

"I suppose so…"

"Oh! They also mentioned that he always had a bag of sweets on his person."

"That's him," Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan said together.

"Great!" Huaisang said, clapping his fan closed. "I have a plan!"

Of course he did. And Wei Wuxian already had a bad feeling about it. He knew how ruthless Huaisang could be.

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't catch that," Wei Wuxian said, leaning his head closer to the storm gate. "I think the wind has picked up a bit over here."

"I said I have a plan!"

"What?"

When Huaisang scooted closer to repeat himself, Wei Wuxian seized him by the arm.

"Hey! What-?!"

With one mighty tug, Wei Wuxian pulled Huaisang out of the Unclean Realm and into the forest. The Nie Clan leader brushed the front of his rumpled clothes once he was released and scowled at all three of them. The gate collapsed behind him.

"What is this about?" he demanded.

"You said you had a plan," Wei Wuxian answered matter-of-factly.

"I thought you couldn't hear me…"

Wei Wuxian waved him away. "If you've got a plan, you can help us execute it."

Huaisang's brow drew down, giving him an appearance strikingly similar to his late elder brother. They didn't usually look much alike, but in irritation, they certainly shared a stern resemblance.

"Wouldn't you rather have me in the Unclean Realm so you can link to me if you need to get out of a bad situation?" Huaisang asked shortly.

"No, I'm sure we'll figure it out."

"Wei Wuxian, I'm really more of a planner than a do-er."

"I disagree," Wei Wuxian said pointedly.

Huaisang visibly shrank. Wen Ning and Lan Zhan were quiet but watching both of them carefully.

"I – um – I-"

"Why don't you tell us your plan?" Wei Wuxian prompted him.

"It's rather long," Huaisang said, much of his earlier indignation diffused.

"Good thing I thought to pull you through, then. Imagine if we had to sit with all that wind while we listened."

Huaisang scowled at him. Wei Wuxian smiled back.

And the insects and forest critters went about their lives. The world continued to move forward while the two of them remained locked in a pointless impasse.

They were on the same side in this. And yet, it felt as if they were trying to anticipate and outwit the other.

It was equal parts entertaining and disheartening.

"All right, listen up," Huaisang said at last. "Here's what I've come up with."

A twinkle appeared in his eye as he laid out his horribly complicated plan to apprehend Xue Yang. Secondary… tertiary… quaternary backup plans… Huaisang used to be the boy who wouldn't finish his homework. Now here he was, coming up with so many crisscrossing scenarios and traps that he couldn't possibly lose against his opponent.

And to think! Every single one of those plans he had just laid out was a lie.

Wei Wuxian knew enough to know that Huaisang wouldn't have spelled out his strategy here in the forest where anyone could be listening. Wei Wuxian had only asked so he could assess how likely it was that Huaisang would lie to them.

But he didn't doubt that the real plan was just as convoluted. He wondered how many backups Huaisang had had when he'd gone after Jin Guangyao.

He wondered how many of those plans had failed before he decided to endanger Jin Ling and the other juniors by leading them to Yi City.

"You've got all that then?" Huaisang asked, tossing aside the stick he'd been using to draw in the dirt.

None of the pictures in front of them were discernable. Wei Wuxian had no idea what he was supposed to be looking at.

"Why is this so complicated?" Wei Wuxian asked.

"Trust me," Huaisang said, flicking open his fan. "This is a tried and true method."

Wen Ning furrowed his brow, his confusion apparently deepening as he stared at the dirt squiggles and listened to their conversation. Lan Zhan's expression hardened.

"Wouldn't this type of winding plot be something that you've only tried once?" Wei Wuxian asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Huaisang replied.

Wei Wuxian snorted.

They smoothed out Huaisang's tracing on the ground, as if anyone would be able to understand it if they came across it.

When they all straightened up again, Lan Zhan asked, "Xue Yang isn't targeting you. Why are you going to such lengths to help us?"

The silence that fell over the group was filled by the twittering of birds. The three of them waited for Huaisang to answer.

His face flushed. He fanned himself nervously.

Wei Wuxian couldn't figure out why he was knocked off kilter by Lan Zhan's simple question. And it wasn't explained when he finally answered.

"I think I owe a lot of people a lot of things," Huaisang said in a small voice. "I just want to be helpful."

That made no sense.

As far as Wei Wuxian could see it, Huaisang had already helped to bring him back from the dead (though a little more careful planning of that step would have been nice!), helped him to clear his name, and overall had given him a second chance to start a family with Lan Zhan. He wasn't sure what it was that Huaisang felt he still owed him.

Warning bells were sounding in the back of his mind.

"And we love having your help!" Wei Wuxian exclaimed, throwing his arm around Huaisang's shoulders. "You'll be sticking with us then?"

"I think – um – I'm not sure – I might get in the way – I don't know…"

"Nonsense! It's great to have you onboard!"

Wei Wuxian heard Huaisang let out a little groan as he shrank down beneath his arm.

The sound of defeat! He would probably ask to leave for the Unclean Realm again at a different time, but for now, he was going to stay with them…

…Which meant that Wei Wuxian could keep an eye on him.