Chapter Text
His uncle had found out.
“What were you thinking?” Lan QiRen spat. “Taking in such a beast – it could have killed someone!”
The aforementioned “beast” was currently sitting on its back legs, almost like a cat except that its front legs weren’t long enough to reach the ground, dangling uselessly instead. Some feathers were still caught in its teeth from the bird it had been chasing a few minutes ago, eyes round and blinking as it looked around at the humans.
“A-Ying wouldn’t,” Lan Zhan replied stubbornly. He stood in front of his dragon with one hand on its snout, unwilling to be cowed.
“It’s only a hatchling, uncle,” Lan XiChen added weakly from between the two of them.
“For now,” Lan QiRen said darkly. “But that does not mean it isn’t capable of killing already. It must be returned to the wild immediately.”
Lan Zhan defiantly took a step back to hug A-Ying’s neck as if to say, I’m not letting go so you had better be prepared to throw me out too.
“A-Zhan…” Lan XiChen’s expression radiated unhappiness. “Uncle has a point-“
“A-Ying wouldn’t,” Lan Zhan repeated.
Lan XiChen sighed. “I know, I know. A-Ying might not be dangerous but-“
Lan QiRen snorted pointedly at that.
Lan XiChen glanced over but continued on as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “Don’t you think A-Ying will be happier in the wild? Where there’s room to fly and play without needing to hide?”
That argument made Lan Zhan’s grip on A-Ying’s neck falter, his eyebrows nudging together. He looked into his dragon’s big, gray eyes and asked softly, “A-Ying…?”
A-Ying trilled and bumped Lan Zhan’s cheek with its nose.
“A-Ying snuck out today to chase birds,” Lan XiChen said. “A-Zhan, don’t you think that might be because it wants to live outside?”
Outside…
Lan Zhan stroked along the dragon’s head, down its neck. The scales were warm under his palm, soothing as he traced the familiar patterns. This dragon was his friend; he didn’t want anything to change.
But what did A-Ying want?
A memory of his mother’s face passed through his mind. She would always ask him to bring her a few of the flowers just outside her cottage because she wasn’t even allowed to reach her arm past the doorframe to pick some herself. And now he couldn’t see her at all.
He pressed his forehead to A-Ying’s, shutting his eyes. The dragon vibrated faintly under the touch, emitting a soft, confused note. It still couldn’t speak with Inquiry, they hadn’t had enough time…
“A-Zhan?” Lan XiChen laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Do you understand?”
Lan Zhan sniffled and sat back on his heels, cradling his dragon’s face. Its scales shimmered in the light, making every small movement seem to ripple across its whole form with effortless grace. Even with the feathers clinging foolishly to its mouth, it was beautiful in the early morning sun.
He wiped his eyes on his sleeve and nodded once.
As they continued on into the forest, the snowfall thinned out and the frosted landscape came alive with all the wild animals that had been too shy to approach the road. Wei WuXian’s usual chatter became increasingly stilted because every time something rustled in the distance, he perked up, round eyes searching for the source.
“Lan Zhan,” he said, tugging at Lan WangJi’s sleeve as he stared into the distance. His voice was hushed in quality, but not in volume. “Lan Zhan, there’s a rabbit over there.”
Lan WangJi followed his line of sight, but could not make out the animal himself. “Mm.”
Wei WuXian groaned and pushed his face into Lan WangJi’s shoulder. “I can’t chase them like this! Humans need two hands to catch rabbits, Lan Zhan!”
Lan WangJi allowed himself to appreciate the warming point of contact between them while he decided on a response. “Don’t need hands at all,” he said after a pause.
Wei WuXian lifted his head to direct a pout at Lan WangJi, leaning even more heavily against him as he did. “Oh really, wise riddle master Lan? Then you do it.”
“Mm.”
Lan WangJi reluctantly parted himself from Wei WuXian’s side to kneel on the ground. He touched the spot beside him, tilting his head in Wei WuXian’s direction to indicate that he should sit as well.
“The song I played…”
“Ah, no instruments allowed!” Wei WuXian prodded Lan WangJi’s arm. “You need hands for those.”
Lan WangJi raised an eyebrow. “Voice is allowed. No hands necessary.”
Wei WuXian barked a laugh, then clapped a hand over his mouth. His fingers parted to reveal one half of his smiling lips. “Geez, warn me next time or I’m blaming you for all the rabbits I scare away.”
Lan WangJi had often attracted rabbits unintentionally when he had practiced this song in the past, likely calmed to the point of overlooking their instinctive fear of humans. He had never tried it without his guqin, but he was sure the principle was the same. He took a breath and began humming. After a few bars, two furry ears popped up from behind a tree trunk, twitching nervously. It was clearly listening, but didn’t come any closer.
“I don’t think they’ll come if I’m here,” Wei WuXian whispered. “Even if you calm them with that song, I still smell like a predator…”
Lan WangJi considered that. Perhaps it was a reference to the fact that his companion ate meat while he did not?
“You sing as well,” he suggested.
When he returned to the tune, Wei WuXian joined him, whistling instead of humming, which morphed the overall tone into a more lighthearted one. He followed along with the established song at first but slowly fell into the companion piece he had come up with earlier, turning it into a duet.
As they repeated the melody, his head began to slump until his cheek was resting on Lan WangJi’s shoulder. Lan WangJi could feel his breath against his neck and he only just barely repressed a shiver, aware that it would certainly be noticed like this.
The rabbit was finally pacified and made its approach, though it still seemed to be wary of Wei WuXian because it purposefully made a wide circle around him, coming up to Lan WangJi instead. It watched him warily from beside his leg, but when nothing bad happened, it moved into his lap, seeking warmth.
Wei WuXian’s whistling cut off with a little “aww!” His grin could be felt against Lan WangJi’s shoulder. “Lan Zhan, it likes you!”
Lan WangJi didn’t stop humming to reply. Instead, he gently took Wei WuXian’s right hand and held it out to the rabbit, trying to convey that this was safe with the music.
Wei WuXian’s breath against his neck paused. He was holding it, waiting.
The rabbit sniffed at him, shrank back briefly, but then nudged closer. It pushed its nose against his palm and made the discovery that he was even warmer than Lan WangJi. It then happily crawled into Wei WuXian’s lap and made itself comfortable in a little ball.
“Oh…”
Wei WuXian stared at it, his hand still hovering uncertainly. He brought it down bit by bit until he fingers touched fur. When the rabbit didn’t move, he let his palm rest on top of it and brushed over its back. His eyes couldn’t be seen through his lashes, lending a tender touch to the secret smile that formed on his face, partly hidden by the fall of his hair and directed at no one in particular.
Lan WangJi desperately wanted to sweep his bangs back and have that smile for himself. He swallowed that desire and let it sink to the back of his throat. He would be content to simply watch.
All of a sudden, the rabbit’s ears pricked up again, and in the next instant it dashed back into the forest. Lan WangJi was baffled for about a second until he realized that he could sense the group of Wen cultivators somewhere in the distance. They were still relatively far away, but even that was too close for comfort.
How could he have let himself get so distracted?
The look on Wei WuXian’s face mirrored that thought, eyes going wide and blank as he searched the tree line. There were a few heartbeats of silence where nothing moved. Even the air in front of their mouths was clear of mist.
Lan WangJi lunged in front of Wei WuXian and an arrow ripped through his thigh.
Their enemy was already upon them!
Lan WangJi nearly bit through his tongue holding back a cry. No wonder he had been able to sense the Wens so easily; it was on purpose! The large group was a red herring that drew attention to itself so the target would let their guard down when they escaped, unaware of the true predator still tracking them undetected.
The archer probably wasn’t even a cultivator at all, making it much easier to sneak by people who were on the lookout for spiritual energy. Their only mission was to get in close enough to immobilize the target, then inform the cultivators of their position. Sure enough, the next shot was a flare that burst into a red sun crest over their heads, calling in reinforcements.
Now that Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian had been pinned down, the others would be closing in shortly.
“Lan Zhan!” Wei WuXian shouted. His voice was full of all the panic one might expect, but there was a strange quality underneath it as well, a ragged edge like there was a stone in the back of his throat that nicked his words as they scraped by.
He helped Lan WangJi to sit up, moving so that his back shielded him from the direction of their attacker.
“Doesn’t hurt,” Lan WangJi said through gritted teeth.
It wasn’t a lie; he could feel his pulse against the open air, but he was numb to any other sensation. The bleeding would be an issue, but at least they wouldn’t have to remove the arrow later. It had probably been a design best equipped for penetration since this group of Wens was hunting an armored dragon, so piercing right through a human leg was to be expected.
In any case, they didn’t have time to worry over it. There was no way they could escape now, with both of them too injured to run. They would just have to make their stand here.
Lan WangJi swept his guqin off his back and held it poised to attack, but Wei WuXian laid his hand on top of the strings.
“No.” His face was as pale as the snow around them, throwing his black eyes into sharp contrast. “Don’t put yourself in harm’s way for me anymore. I will protect you this time.”
His fingers were trembling, so faintly it wouldn’t have been noticeable except that the movement was propagated through the strings underneath.
Another arrow hurtled towards them. Lan WangJi tried to blast it away with a chord, but Wei WuXian’s hand muted it entirely. He could only watch as its path through the air lead it straight to Wei WuXian.
A deafening roar shook the forest.
A looming shadow consumed Lan WangJi’s vision, black scales cutting through the darkness with flashes of silver frost, so bright in contrast that it was blinding. His mind simply couldn’t understand what it was seeing at first.
There was an eruption of fire – he could feel the heat blast across his face – but the switch in his brain that was supposed to make him look in the direction of danger didn’t trigger. He couldn’t move his eyes away from those scales, orange and red now sparking across the ice-dappled black like comets in a star field.
He didn’t need to guess anymore.
“A-Ying.”
He breathed the name like it was oxygen. His hand moved of its own accord, settling over that ridged flank to feel the lava surging just below the surface.
He called out, “Wei Ying!”
His dragon rumbled in response and he could feel it in the earth below him. It knocked something loose inside him, broke whatever wall he had built between the A-Ying and the Wei WuXian he kept in his heart.
More arrows began to rain down on them as reinforcements arrived but Wei WuXian blew them away with a volley of fire. A few made it through, but he had curled himself around Lan WangJi so that they glanced off his armored hide.
It was a good defense, but after a few minutes of deflecting shots, Lan WangJi suddenly realized they would never be able to win like this. Wei WuXian had to control the distance of his fire or else risk burning the whole forest down, and so wouldn’t be able to go on the offensive if he continued to immobilize himself protecting Lan WangJi. All the Wens had to do was stay just out of range and keep shooting until they inevitably got in a lucky hit.
Lan WangJi readied his guqin once more and when the next round of arrows arrived, he snapped his fingers across the strings to repel the attack before Wei WuXian could get to it.
“Take them out,” he said. “I will cover you.”
One of Wei WuXian’s gray eyes swiveled back to look at him. It was difficult to interpret that expression without any other human features to go on, but Lan WangJi could see his own reflection in that eye, with stark determination lining his jaw and the creases of his brow, viewing himself the way that Wei WuXian saw him.
He consciously softened the muscles in his face, just enough to let slip a fraction of the warmth in his chest. He touched Wei WuXian’s flank again, urging him on with a gentle push.
“Go.”
After a brief moment of hesitation, those scales slid past his fingertips as Wei WuXian unraveled himself. True to his word, Lan WangJi began to play in earnest, creating a wall of sound to ward off arrows while Wei WuXian drew himself up to his full height and launched himself at the archers.
The battle didn’t last long after that. Wei WuXian was about fifteen feet tall on all fours and none of the trees were high enough to be out of reach when he stretched up with his snapping jaws, grabbing archers by the legs to tear them from their perches and throw them to the ground with ominous thuds. A few Wens managed to avoid him at first or survived the fall and drew their swords to attempt close combat, but Lan WangJi’s song knocked them off balance, ringing so violently in their ears that they didn’t have the coordination to land any hits where Wei WuXian was vulnerable. Within minutes, the earth around them was splattered with blood.
Lan WangJi stilled the reverberations of his strings with a firm touch, listening intently for anyone they had missed; when he was satisfied that they were alone once again, he replaced his guqin inside its fabric case. All was quiet except for Wei WuXian’s harsh breathing.
His dragon was standing over the half-mangled bodies, steam billowing out of his nose to curl around his branching horns. His eyes were cold as they reflected the red snow around him, which melted into gooey puddles of slush where he stepped.
Lan WangJi swallowed back his heartbeat and called to him softly, “Wei Ying.”
Wei WuXian looked up and the trees shadowed his gaze, darkening it into something unreadable. He lowered his head again and approached about as slowly as he could manage given the length of his stride. He laid himself before Lan WangJi like he was kneeling, eyes shut, the end of his snout pushed into the ground.
Lan WangJi meant to say something but his hands were reaching out before he could think of a reason to stop them. Cradling Wei WuXian’s head, he hunched over to rest his forehead against his dragon’s.
The scales were feverish under his palms but with the threat of tears burning behind his nose, the heat didn’t register against his face. He pressed his lips together to hold back the wet gasps bubbling in the back of his throat, though this meant that he was forced to breathe through his rapidly clogging nose and every inhale became a rasping sniffle.
“Wei Ying,” he croaked.
He needed to say more, he needed to explain how his ribs were aching from how much his heart had swelled inside him, that he could feel it filling the hole in his chest and that it hurt because it had been there for so many years it had scarred over and now it was tearing open again, there was blood pooling in his lungs and flooding behind his eyes, throbbing throughout his entire body, and he would savor every second of it because his dragon – his Wei Ying – had returned to him…
Words simply weren’t enough.
His dragon’s head lifted with a low rumble. Lan WangJi leaned back just a little and Wei WuXian pushed the tip of his snout into his cheek. His gray eyes were searching Lan WangJi’s face, like there was something he had expected there but couldn’t find.
Had he thought Lan WangJi wouldn’t accept him? That he had to hide who he was all this time?
Lan WangJi wrapped his arms around Wei WuXian’s neck, so wide that his hands were unable to touch each other. His tears became all the more difficult to hold back when Wei WuXian accepted the embrace, nuzzling gently into the side of his face.
He hoped Wei WuXian could hear his pulse, how wildly it was beating for him.
Wei WuXian finally broke the silence to give a muffled trill. It rose and fell with distinct notes and Lan WangJi realized he was humming a message in the language of Inquiry.
Why haven’t you killed me?
Lan WangJi thought for a moment that he must have heard wrong. Before he could ask what that meant, Wei WuXian warbled another series of notes.
I killed your father.
Lan WangJi’s arms went slack. Wei WuXian seemed to take that as a sign, pulling his head back, but Lan WangJi cupped his face again and he stilled. His eyes were closed now, afraid to look.
Lan WangJi pressed a kiss to his snout. He felt the startled exhale of air against his chest.
“He was already gone,” he murmured. “Wei Ying did not do it.”
Then why did you… Why would you look for me?
He paused, working through his words. There were too many reasons to list them all. In the end, he voiced the one that was at the core of all the others: “Needed to see you.”
Even if it was only one more time, he needed to see his dragon.
Wei WuXian made a stuttering, high-pitched sound – a garbled, Lan Zhan…
It was such a beautiful tune that Lan WangJi had to kiss him again.
I missed you, Wei WuXian struggled to hum, the notes skipping in strange places where his breathing hitched.
A few teardrops finally escaped, rolling down Lan WangJi’s cheeks and turning to steam where they hit the dragon’s muzzle. “Missed you,” he repeated in a whisper.
Wei WuXian tilted his head up again slightly, his tongue flicking out to lap away some of the tears. Lan Zhan- The nudging was gentle, but he was so big that it gradually pushed Lan WangJi down, lowering his back to the ground. Lan Zhan!
Lan WangJi stroked the side of his jaw, gazing up at him. “Wei Ying.”
Wei WuXian finally seemed to notice that he was now hovering over Lan WangJi and he gave an amused chirp. Lan Zhan, it’s like the day we met! He booped the tip of Lan WangJi’s nose with his own, mimicking that very first encounter to underscore the point.
He was so beautiful, his scales shimmering with the silver of the forest but the only thing reflected in his bright eyes was Lan WangJi.
I wanted to stay with you, he sang earnestly. I really wanted to be with you.
“Wanted you,” Lan WangJi said. He had meant to just repeat Wei WuXian’s sentiment, but instead his words came out raw.
Wei WuXian stopped breathing for a moment, which was made obvious by the fact that the fog steadily puffing from his nostrils cut short.
Lan WangJi averted his gaze slightly off to the side and clarified quietly, “I- want you.”
Wei WuXian flapped his good wing nervously, but he didn’t move away. Lan Zhan…
His nose inched just the slightest bit closer, brushing the tip of Lan WangJi’s once more.
I can only heal like this, he hummed, subdued by the proximity. I can’t take on my human form right now…
He was so close. Lan WangJi’s fingers caressed down the underside of his dragon’s jaw and then, impulsively, he closed the miniscule gap to kiss the front of his muzzle over the seam of his mouth.
“Beautiful,” he murmured without even pulling back, wanting to feel scales bite at his lips. “In this form… In any form.”
Wei WuXian shivered at that, a tiny tremor that reverberated across the lines of light on his body.
Lan Zhan! The melody of his voice had become thin and reedy. Flustered. He quickly changed the topic. You’re- You’re injured too!
In truth, Lan WangJi had completely forgotten about his own arrow wound. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been – he could already feel his spiritual energy flowing to his leg, working to close it. It didn’t seem he had been poisoned, either, since it would only affect humans and this had been an arrow intended for a dragon. Now that he had been reminded of it, though, the stabbing pain that had been so far from his consciousness was starting to become clearer.
I can help, Wei WuXian insisted. My saliva has healing properties.
He shifted backwards so he could hover over Lan WangJi’s leg. His breath was hot and even as it made the wound sting more sharply, Lan WangJi found himself clinging to the sensation.
With remarkable care, considering the size of his teeth, Wei WuXian nipped away the fabric on Lan WangJi’s thigh. Then, slowly, he unfurled the tip of his prehensile tongue and brushed it over. Immediately, a shuddering gasp escaped from Lan WangJi’s throat and Wei WuXian hesitated, glancing up.
Lan WangJi gritted his teeth and said, “Go on.”
Wei WuXian obediently continued. The pain was rapidly fading away, but this meant that Lan WangJi had no distraction at all from the persistent, tickling heat. He shifted minutely, fighting down the urge to squirm at the wet slide of it against tender skin.
Does it hurt? Wei WuXian asked.
Lan WangJi didn’t trust himself to open his mouth so he shook his head instead. It was strange, prickling distinctly where the rough quality of Wei WuXian’s tongue pulled at fine hairs, but it wasn’t bad. Still, having it all concentrated in one place was getting increasingly intense, boiling under his flesh, he wanted to feel it elsewhere-
Lan Zhan?
The vibration of Wei WuXian’s soft hum was directly against the inside of Lan WangJi’s thigh, lighting up the nerves there with a curdling flare of electricity that lingered with the heat rather than vanishing. A whimper pried its way through Lan WangJi’s tightly shut lips.
It didn’t hurt at all. It felt… It felt good.
Wei WuXian must have come to that conclusion at the same time Lan WangJi did, because he tentatively slipped his tongue a bit further up, venturing under the fabric that he hadn’t clipped away.
Lan WangJi flexed his foot trying to stay still, unable to help how his toes were curling. All the touching was pulling his blood to the surface, dying his skin pink, making it more and more impossible for him to ignore his circulation as it began to seep into his groin. There was no way he could hide it, Wei WuXian was in such close proximity that it was only a matter of time…
All at once, the tongue retreated and he let out the breath he had been clutching so tightly in his chest.
Wei WuXian crawled back up, his dilated eyes dark as his jaw fell open an inch over Lan WangJi’s face. Lan Zhan. He could hardly be understood with how out of tune his voice had gone. Lan Zhan, I want-
“Yes,” Lan WangJi rasped out.
Wei WuXian’s tongue dove into his mouth and he opened for it gladly, his hands seizing at the ground as they searched frantically for something to hold onto. He found a tree root and it was all he could do not to tear his nails gripping it. Thick, searing heat poured into the back of his throat, coiling to fill the space inside him. He struggled to swallow around it, jaw aching as a strand of saliva trickled down his chin. One of the tears pricking at the corner of his eyes finally squeezed past his eyelid to roll over his cheek and it was almost cold in comparison to his burning face.
Wei WuXian took this as a cue to ease his tongue out, licking over Lan WangJi’s lower lip as he withdrew.
Lan Zhan, he whined, whistling the streaky notes through his teeth. I want to devour you.
Fire shot straight through Lan WangJi’s core, so fast it was dizzying. Clumsy with desire, he yanked aside his robe to bare his chest. He could hardly see what he was doing through his blurred vision and in his haste, he tore the fabric at his waist where it was bound in place by his belt.
He didn’t have the time to care; Wei WuXian was on him in an instant, tongue laving over his neck and down to circle his chest. The points of his teeth grazed over an artery and Lan WangJi jolted, reflexively turning his head to the side to give even easier access.
As his chest was kneaded with steadily increasing pressure, he began to grasp blindly until he found the base of one of Wei WuXian’s antlers. He had to stretch his arm to even reach it, but once he had a grip on the smooth bone, he had the leverage to pull himself just a little closer to Wei WuXian’s mouth, reciprocating the forceful strokes of that tongue by urgently pushing his chest back against it. Wei WuXian growled and pressed him into the ground, teeth scraping against his collarbone.
The combination of all those things at once – the tongue working his pecs until they were rubbed raw, the flush of heat and friction from Wei WuXian’s breath, the teeth raking against him and only barely not breaking skin when they could just as easily rip him apart – all of it startled an “ah!” out of Lan WangJi as he arched, head rolling back, heedless of the dirt. He lost his grip on Wei WuXian’s antler and, without the focus to take hold of it again, he could only curl his fingers into the snow trying to keep his body curved up to meet his dragon. From this angle, he could clearly see the rise and fall of his chest as he panted and the obscene give when Wei WuXian’s tongue sunk into his flesh.
“Wei- Ying,” he gasped, eyes squeezing shut in the hopes that he could gather some semblance self-control.
It didn’t work. All that did was give him a second to remember that there were other parts of his body not receiving any attention at all. His thigh was still pulsing from the treatment it had gotten and once he noticed that, it didn’t take much at all for his mind to shift up a few inches to where his dick was shamefully hard.
His hips twitched reflexively and he just couldn’t find it in himself to be embarrassed about the electricity that raced up his spine at how Wei WuXian’s eyes instantly pivoted down to follow such a miniscule movement.
Wei WuXian dragged his tongue through the valley between Lan WangJi’s pecs and then ventured south. Lan WangJi shivered as the cold air finally caught up to his bare skin but it was thrilling more than uncomfortable, a contrast that drew the scorching fervor between them into sharp focus.
Then he felt a puff of sweltering air between his legs and Wei WuXian asked quietly, Lan Zhan?
Lan WangJi spread them without a second thought and Wei WuXian steadied himself with another small breath before tonguing at the fabric still covering his cock. It was too much and not enough, rough with the searing friction of soaked cloth but the barrier between them after having that tongue directly on his skin was unbearable. Lan WangJi’s hips jerked up of their own accord, seeking more.
Wei WuXian actually had the gall to laugh at that – more of a sandy echo in his chest than a human version of the noise, but regardless the sound wave quivered down his tongue and only made Lan WangJi convulse again.
He kicked out with one of his legs uselessly. “Wei Ying…!”
Wei WuXian hummed a response. Lan WangJi couldn’t decode the meaning of it because it rang straight through his cock.
He began to wrestle his pants off, a difficult task with how his hands no longer had any strength or coordination due to Wei WuXian’s torment. He eventually got a thumb under the waistband but was only able to shove it down to the crease of his thigh, which ultimately didn’t change anything. Wei WuXian made another amused whistle that had Lan WangJi twisting his head back, but then retracted his tongue to catch the fabric on his front teeth and help tug everything down.
Lan WangJi had a moment of relief as his cock was laid bare. After the blistering chafe he had just experienced, the chill was welcome. He shut his eyes, trying to reign in his erratic breathing.
His progress in that regard stalled immediately when the tip of Wei WuXian’s tongue tickled the base of his cock and then vanished. It was hardly even a touch but air swelled up in his chest as he forgot to exhale.
Lan Zhan, I really meant it, Wei WuXian purred. I want to eat you up.
That was all the warning he gave before he angled his head to hook Lan WangJi’s ankles over the lowest branches of his horns. When he lifted his head slightly, Lan WangJi’s legs lifted with it, putting him on full display with his ass at the mercy of those ravenous jaws.
His dragon’s eyes were pitch black. Not a single ray of light could escape from the yawning abyss of want in his gaze.
Lan WangJi couldn’t see his reflection this time but he was sure his own expression was the same.
Wei WuXian licked once over his hole, then pierced his tongue inside. It was white-hot, lava pouring into his body, and it was so much at once that it forced Lan WangJi’s voice from his chest, releasing a strangled little cry. He strained against the antlers keeping his legs in place, unable to spread them any wider as his dragon carved out the space inside of him.
Wei WuXian’s tongue was fairly thin at the end and coated in viscous saliva that made the process easier. Once it had pried Lan WangJi open enough to work in and out a few times, it slid in further, getting thicker as it went. It began to mold itself to the edges, lining Lan WangJi’s insides before it filled him even more, coiling inward until there was no room left.
Lan WangJi couldn’t have cried out again even if he tried. He was speared open and stuffed so full with smoldering magma that it seemed all the oxygen had been displaced from his body. He could only choke on his own lungs as he clenched around it, hips twitching uselessly for more.
Lan Zhan, Wei WuXian sang, honey-sweet and melting into the pit of his stomach. You’re taking me so well…
His tongue wriggled playfully, pushing back against the tension in Lan WangJi’s muscles.
Can you take more?
Rather than violent sparks, the rhythm of his voice was soothing this time, a cadence that ebbed in and out. He continued to hum it without meaning and Lan WangJi let himself sink into it, his heartbeat falling in line, softening to the shape of Wei WuXian inside him with a quiet moan.
“Please,” he whispered, voice cracking.
Wei WuXian nuzzled his inner thigh with the side of his muzzle, the drag of his scales as tender as a kiss. Then, slowly, he fed even more of his tongue inside, corkscrewing beyond where Lan WangJi would have guessed his limit was yesterday. Now he ached for it, savoring the stretch and the gentle way that Wei WuXian rocked back and forth, pulling out incrementally before pushing in just a tad deeper than he’d been before.
Finally, Wei WuXian’s lower front teeth dented into the meat of Lan WangJi’s ass as he eased in the last inch of his tongue that could feasibly be put inside without detaching it from his skull.
Lan Zhan… Lan Zhan, you feel amazing, I can taste your heartbeat, he crooned.
Lan WangJi laid a hand over his heart to feel it for himself, the delirious thrumming that was flooding his veins with euphoric warmth. The skin under his palm was sore from how Wei WuXian had touched him, laid claim to him, and every pulse agitated the bruising from the inside, reminding him over and over again who exactly this heart in his chest beat for.
He couldn’t find the words – let alone the air – to articulate any of that so instead he murmured brokenly, “Wei Ying.”
It feels like you’re mine. Wei WuXian hummed that so softly the vibrations didn’t carry.
“Yours,” Lan WangJi whispered.
Lan Zhan, I want…
Wei WuXian stirred inside him, briefly compressing smaller so that he could swell up again, making Lan WangJi gasp inaudibly.
I want to make you mine.
He began pumping the thickest section of his tongue in and out gradually. Lan WangJi squeezed around it every time it went in, as if he could keep it there with his stretched out muscles.
You’re so good, so open for me, I want-
“More,” Lan WangJi finished for him, barely forcing out the word while he used the antlers as a brace to rock back against Wei WuXian, feeling the point of a tooth bite into him as he did but only pushing harder for it.
Wei WuXian whined at that, sending static straight to Lan WangJi’s nerves and boiling in his guts. Then, all too soon, he began to uncoil, pulling his tongue out inch by torturous inch. Lan WangJi could groan and clench all he liked, but it was too slippery for him to possibly hold onto. He was left empty and painfully conscious of the gaping space where his dragon had been.
Wei WuXian gave him an apologetic lick on his thigh, then lowered his head to let Lan WangJi’s legs go too. But once they were freed, he prodded them further apart with his snout before moving up to nuzzle into Lan WangJi’s neck. Lan WangJi welcomed him, smoothing a hand over the side of his dragon’s jaw and tilting his head to half-kiss what he could reach.
Then Wei WuXian slid past to move up even further and finally something firm bumped up against Lan WangJi’s knee. Breath catching in his throat, he dared to look down his body to see it.
Wei WuXian’s cock was befitting for a creature his size, but when put in such stark contrast with Lan WangJi’s, it was positively monstrous, dwarfing anything that had ever graced the body of a human. Thick and ridged, the base was dark with scales that thinned out into softer ribbing as they got closer to the tapered tip, slick with pearls of fluid. Even more alien was the bulbous shape just above the base that suggested a knot.
Lan WangJi hiked up his legs without a second thought. He needed it inside him.
It nudged up against his ass, clumsily seeking his hole. He reached down between his legs to take it into his hand, marveling at the pleasantly uneven texture and how wide he had to extend his fingers to hold it. He rubbed his thumb over the slit at the tip, spreading some of the beading fluid around, and heard a thump from Wei WuXian’s head dropping to the ground somewhere above him.
Lan Zhan!
The notes were shrill, punctuated by repressed thrusts that made the dragon’s cock tremble in Lan WangJi’s grasp.
Please, I can’t… The desperation was starting to turn Wei WuXian’s humming to nonsense as he struggled not to go off-key. He let out a frustrated whistle and tried again, stuttering through his next phrase. I can’t hold back much longer.
Lan WangJi understood the sentiment. Feeling that shaft almost rutting into his palm, weighty and just the right side of coarse – he clenched around nothing in anticipation and it made the emptiness excruciating.
Without any more delay, he guided it to his hole. He was so stretched out and slick from Wei WuXian’s tongue that the tip was able to slip inside without much resistance. After that, though, it rapidly got thicker and once the head was in, the rest needed was going to need more force.
Lan WangJi’s thighs were trembling with the effort to keep them open as he fought the urge to clamp down. The heat was so tantalizingly close, searing at his rim, but he needed it deeper, needed it to fill the icy void, and it was maddening like this.
“Wei Ying, please,” he begged. He tried to push back but he just didn’t have the leverage with all the slippery slush under him.
A growl rippled through Wei WuXian’s belly over him and then his dragon tried a thrust, but it only succeeded in propelling Lan WangJi a little further forward across the ground. A second attempt had much the same result and dislodged what small amount of progress they had made the first time.
They weren’t going to get anywhere like this. Wei WuXian was just too big.
“Wait.”
Lan WangJi scrabbled for the tree root he had found before. Not trusting his focus to hold onto it, he yanked off his forehead ribbon and wound it around his wrists, binding them to the root. It was messy, especially since he couldn’t quite see what he was doing, and the first wrist he had tied was clearly more secure than the other, but when he gave it a tug, it seemed more or less stable.
Now that he had something to brace himself against, he encouraged Wei WuXian to try once again with an experimental roll of his hips. He felt that huge length sink just a bit deeper inside him and couldn’t hold back the quiet moan that escaped him.
Wei WuXian got the message pretty fast. He began working himself inside in similar motions to his tongue, moving in, out, then in a little further than before. Lan WangJi strained against the ribbon to hold himself in place, toes curling every time the textured shape of his dragon’s cock caught on his rim.
It probably should have started to hurt by now, some faraway part of his mind thought. His body wasn’t meant to take something so large. But whatever was in Wei WuXian’s saliva, healing properties or otherwise, it was doing wonders. There was a gratifying ache somewhere on the horizon but the sharpest pain he could feel was his ribbon cutting into his wrists when he yanked at it too hard.
Then, finally, he felt the bulge of the knot press up against his ass and Wei WuXian stilled.
He had taken nearly all of it.
He felt like he could feel it in his chest, his throat, like he could choke on it if he weren’t careful. It was just so solid inside him, unyielding, so overwhelmingly hot against his core, fully capable of splitting him in two. Where Wei WuXian’s tongue had melted to fit him, he was now forced to fit it, to etch the shape of his dragon into his very body.
He knew he was going to feel it for a long time after this, Wei WuXian’s phantom presence stoking whatever embers would be left from incinerating his innards. The thought was a pleasant one. He wanted Wei WuXian to pierce his body through just as profoundly as he had already done to his soul.
He never wanted to forget this.
“Make me yours,” he murmured, echoing Wei WuXian’s earlier words. Leave behind a scar that will never fade.
Wei WuXian roared in response, territorial and thrillingly animalistic. He didn’t need to sing any notes to clarify the message: mine!
And then he began to move. He was simply too big to pull out very far and every thrust was grinding into the deepest parts of Lan WangJi, making his whole body lurch every time. Perhaps the technique was clumsy, but there wasn’t any room to tell either way; no matter what Wei WuXian did, he was all Lan WangJi could feel, every ridge on the dragon’s length was a thousand times larger than it had seemed to the eye.
The knot continued to rub up against his rim as his dragon fucked into him, pushing teasingly at his ass, already stretched to the limit. Lan WangJi knew he wouldn’t be able to take it this time but he couldn’t help wanting it anyway, wanting everything Wei WuXian could give him.
Spurred on by this desire, he found the focus to shift his weight to his arms and upper back so he could lift his ass higher. Wei WuXian was able to pound into him with even more force like this and the friction was almost numbing, overloading his nerves to the point of grating them to ash.
A throaty moan tripped out over his teeth, scattered and pitchy. Wei WuXian reciprocated with an answering whine, dick kicking inside Lan WangJi. He rutted into him a few times hardly pulling out at all, getting lost for a moment in the sensation of how he fit into Lan WangJi’s body, in the simple pleasure of friction and the overlapping waves of their heartbeats brought together as close as two living beings could ever be.
Lan WangJi didn’t even notice when he came. The blinding heat inside him was just so all-encompassing that the sparks of his orgasm hardly registered. It only occurred to him when he realized Wei WuXian was getting close. He could feel the knot swelling against his hole and then his dragon let out a strained howl, crushing all the way into him to spill inside.
Lan WangJi had thought there wasn’t a single place left inside him that Wei WuXian hadn’t touched, but his dragon’s come flooded whatever space had remained until he was truly full to bursting, and then some, trickling out of him around Wei WuXian’s dick. Reflexively, he drew his tensed thighs together, trying to clamp down to keep it all inside, but it was no use. He had been split open too far to manage such a thing.
He groaned as he finally let his arms relax and Wei WuXian rumbled sleepily in response. His dragon began to pull out and though he wanted to protest, to keep that warmth inside him as long as possible, he was too fucked out to have the energy. So Wei WuXian eased out of him unimpeded, leaving Lan WangJi with his lingering warmth and the gnawing memory of fullness.
Sliding back down, Wei WuXian tipped to the side and flopped onto the ground with his underbelly exposed. Lan WangJi fumbled with untying his wrists before he was unceremoniously pulled into an embrace of sorts, nestled into his dragon’s chest with a wing laid over top like a blanket.
Wei WuXian nosed at his arm until he could reach Lan WangJi’s wrists and began lapping earnestly at the red ribbon marks. With his snout in reach once again, Lan WangJi took the opportunity to pet along the smooth scales of his jaw, a smile tugging at the corners of his bruised lips at how Wei WuXian’s tongue endeavored to follow his movements.
Lan Zhan, Wei WuXian hummed, a lilt of humor entering his tune. You should probably know that dragons mate for life.
Lan WangJi grasped for his muddied ribbon and nudged at Wei WuXian’s head until it lowered. He tied the ribbon around one of his dragon’s horns, laying a kiss at the base of it.
“So do Lans,” he said.