Untamed/MDZS catch-all

[ze_uwu_jun]

WHO: The Untamed / MDZS cast and friends (enemies, etc)
WHERE: Anywhere, everywhere, including their assigned lodgings and around all towns
WHEN: March
WHAT: Catch-all because the emotions never end
WARNINGS: The Untamed / Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation / Mo Dao Zu Shi spoilers; canon-typical violence; event-typical violence. Will add more if it becomes necessary

ooc: Go forth and do the things as they come.

Comments

[blackwaterchild]

He’s so loud, she thinks, shaking her head as he talks. He’s squeezing so tight she can feel her ribs ache, but she doesn’t think of the light bruises she might have later. IN a way, she kind of looks forward to it—a reminder that she didn’t imagine this.

After a moment she sort of huffs. “...We’re BOTH stupid,” she announces at last, slowly lowering her legs so she can stand on the ground, but she doesn’t let him go. The weather is cold and she’s not really dressed for it—since she’d been inside she’d mostly been hanging out in shorts and a tank top and the ground is freezing against her bare feet. But it doesn’t matter, because Jingyi is warm and everything reminds her that this is going to be okay. Everything will be okay now.

She takes a breath and pulls away enough to look up at his face. “...I’m going to get stronger. Next time... Next time we do one of these night-hunt things, I’m definitely going to be the one saving you. I’ll... Actually take the training more seriously, a bit. I guess.”

There’s a pause, a stretch of quiet as she just looks at him, slowly examining and taking in his face. At length she speaks softly, “I’m glad you’re back. I’m glad you’re okay.”

[gusumouthcannon]

He has his mouth already open to object to being called stupid, but swallows the words because he did get them into a lot of trouble however he looks at the situation.

Actually—he does not know how much trouble he is in.

This thought makes him remember that he is standing on the lawn of Hanguang-jun's house. And that he had shouted very loudly for Miu. Gently and carefully, he starts to disengage from her even as she remains very close to him like a heat-seeking small animal. He does not necessarily want to, but Miu is basically naked? Which in terms of proper Lan decorum means that he should not keep clinging to her even if he wants to. And also if Miu was this worried, he does not have the imagination to grasp how worried his family must also be. He needs see them and reassure them now that he has reassured himself about Miu.

Except he stops at Miu's words, his gaze drawn from the windows of the house back down to her face. He does not look away even though she is very close to him, and instead he searches her face for expression. She seems very serious, especially when she tells him that she is glad he is okay. "I am too," he agrees. "Glad that I am okay." He does not wait for a reaction and adds immediately, "I am glad you are okay, too," every word as full of truth as he can make it, serious and solemn, and aimed right at her.

Because, "You said three weeks before I am crying on the floor." His tone does not change. "And you are going to have to put a lot of work in if you want to make that happen."

[blackwaterchild]

He pulls away and she reaches out, not necessarily to keep hugging him, but to hold onto his arms and keep the contact. She stays quiet as Jingyi speaks, shrugging er shoulders as if to say ‘it’s nothing’ as he says he’s glad she’s alright. Of course he would be, last that he saw they were being overwhelmed by those heartless creatures. Naturally he would’ve been concerned.

And then....At first she looks confused, and then, abruptly, she starts to laugh. She laughs much harder than she probably should, simply because it feels good to laugh, especially after everything. “Mm! In three weeks, I’ll definitely have you crying! You can’t back out once you see how good I’ll get!”

Her laughter begins to subside and she grins. “And I guess you’d need your sword back to do that, huh? Hanguang-jun has it inside. I... saved it, after— Well, we have it. So no worries about that. You’ll have enough time to get some practice in yourself.”

[secondjade]

Hanguang-Jun is not inside. Hanguang-Jun is softly walking over to them, Jingyi’s sword in one hand and a folded cloth in the other. How much of their display has he seen? Impossible to tell by his expression, as calm and serene as always.

The deep relief is what he feels the most, and that’s what has him walk right over to the two of them.

He glances over Jingyi, quickly assessing, and then a knot of tension releases in his back.

“Lan Jingyi.” His voice is softer than it often is, and there is no stern reproach. There will be a consequence for his fool-hardiness later, but it is not the most important thing now.

[gusumouthcannon]

Right then and there, Jingyi decides that Miu laughter is great and she needs to do it more often. A smile spreads across his face as she holds his arms and laughs at him. That is much better than upset. Mission accomplished. "You have my promise. Three weeks, then we'll see," he says.

"My sword--" he continues only to halt at the sight of Hanguang-jun. His shoulders twitch back and his spine straightens; best behavior is ingrained at this point, and he automatically tidies his posture and expression. He does not yank his hands away from Miu, though. This is not something that registers with him as something he needs to not be doing in front of this person.

"Hanguang-jun," he says, and there is a wealth of emotion in his voice, chagrin and relief predominant. He is genuinely glad to see him, and see that he is carrying Jingyi's sword, and...ah. At this time he does dislodge Miu, but only the one hand so that he can touch his bare forehead. He had just been thinking that Miu was wearing very little and here he is without any headband at all. His ears and the back of his neck flush red.

Still, he swallows and tries to summon serenity, unable to match Hanguang-Jun's calm, but striving for that kind of perfection regardless. As he drops his hand away from his forehead, he looks Hanguang-Jun in the eye (and quails only a little), and says, "Thank you."

It's a word layered with many kinds of gratitude.

[blackwaterchild]

She can sense Wangji’s presence first, but she still tenses as Jingyi pulls away and Wangji speaks up. She half-turns to look at him, feeling no shame or embarrassment at having been ‘caught’ like this—they weren’t doing anything weird or wrong, so why would she?

Ironically it’s only after he drops one hand, leaving them only holding onto each other with one that gives her pause. She looks down at their hands, considers a moment, and then reluctantly lets him go.

His emotions were getting a bit too much for her anyhow, she thinks, and she clasps her hands behind her back. “...I’ll let you two talk. I’m freezing, so I’m going to go back inside and...make some tea. Or something. Jingyi—“ Miu looks at him a moment, hesitating, because she’s not entirely sure what to say. Be careful? Don’t do anything she wouldn’t do??

After a moment she settles on a soft, “Come find me when you’re done?” because it’s what she wants. She doesn’t quite want him out of her sight for too long today, half-concerned it’ll be the last time she sees him. She then turns to Wangji, remembering her manners at least enough to bow before taking her leave. She spares them both one last glance before she slips inside.

[secondjade]

He waits, no sound passing his lips as Lan Lingyi greets them, as they dislodge themselves from each other. He gives the slightest nod to the concept of tea, but otherwise lets Miu finish - nodding again when she bows.

Once alone, he turns back to the Junior - now his charge more than ever - and extends the hand with the cloth in it. His thumb pulls it open, and inside lies Jingyi’s forehead ribbon, carefully folded. He’s careful not to touch skin to it, for though he is by necessity far closer to a parental figure here on earth, he would not want to do his parents any dishonour by presuming to take their duties.

Instead, with that same quiet calm, he enquires:

“Are you wounded?” He couldn’t see anything but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. Jingyi’s health was first and foremost.

[gusumouthcannon]

Being let go of draws Jingyi's attention back down to Miu. He nods in agreement at the mention of tea, his brows crinkling towards each other as she hesitates. "I will," he tells her, though he is not sure if he will be able to or not. That depends on...well. What happens next.

He turns a slightly-less-bold look back up on Hanguang-Jun as Miu leaves. It is very different interacting with him alone, and his confidence wavers even though he does not pick up any signs that he is currently in for a scolding. It is just that Hanguang-Jun is very himself. Even if Jingyi has seen how he is around his cultivation partner, Hanguang-Jun is still very intimidating when Jingyi is the one with his full attention in a situation where a frisson of guilt remains lodged in his chest.

What rocks Jingyi most, though, is the offering of his headband. Emotions flit across his face as he stares at the revealed band of cloud-decorated cloth. That he had lost it, how he had lost it, that Hanguang-Jun now had it. "I am not wounded," Jingyi says more subdued than he usually is. Not...quiet, exactly, but more in line with his training. But the claw marks on his legs had vanished along with his body. When he had come out of the Porter, he had been hale and whole and repaired. "I do not remember exactly what happened, but all the scratches are gone."

The headband is both light and heavy when he retrieves it from Hanguang-Jun's hand. He cannot let the moment pass without trying to make things right. "I did not mean for Miu to be in danger. I had fought the creatures at the ceremony, so there should not have been any problems."

[secondjade]

The scratches. That was the most of what Jingyi remembered of the encounter, and Wangji felt glad for it and then ashamed in turn. The fact that the boy could not remember Bichen being drawn on him was a blessing, perhaps. But not one Wangji had earned.

"Jingyi." He spoke the boy's name again, mostly to stop him from continuing, his hand falling back to his side once the headband was given back.

"This world's dangers cannot be easily assessed," he continued, still in that low, quiet tone. "They are as foreign as the soil. Our assumptions will undermine us." He means it, when he says 'us'. Jingyi is far from the only one present whose hubris has brought harm.

Allowing Wei Wuxian to be harmed --

He put it as far out of mind as he could.

"We must be cautious in our vigilance."

[gusumouthcannon]

At his name, Jingyi clicks his teeth shut, his explanations cut short. Not that he knew what further explanations he might give, especially now that he has returned and can look back on his plan and see all of the flaws he could not see at dusk on an unfamiliar street.

He does not yet unfold the headband, but instead gives Hanguang-Jun his full attention. The words that are spoken to him, though... He swallows hard and nods. This is not a lesson he wishes to forget, not when he knows the consequences. "Yes, Hanguang-Jun," he says, trying to project strength he does not necessarily feel. "I made an assumption."

The subtlety of the phrase using 'us' flies right past Jingyi. He is too mired in his own guilt over Miu and the fact that he had worried everyone as much as Sizhui had only days before. Distracted by his frustration over his lack of vigilance, he asks without thinking, "What happened? I do not remember anything, and Miu only said that you came to find her in time."