The very first thing that we hear the main character in The Untamed say is “Lan Zhan”.
And the way he says it… so softly and desperately… I got goosebumps the first time I heard it… because it’s enough. It’s enough to let the viewers know that this Lan Zhan is someone very close and dear to Wei Ying… someone he doesn’t wish to leave behind so he has to tell him to let him go…
Series: The Untamed/ Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation
Chapter: 6- Pixelator
Pairing: Wangxian ( But Ladybug Love Square this time)
Genre: Romance, humor, angst, action
Rated: T
Words: 7714
Chapter Summary: Wangji deals with being grounded after jumping into battle with Darkblade, and the class work experience day doesn’t go to plan when the hotel is attacked by Pixelator
Series: The Untamed/ Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation
Chapter: 5- Darkblade
Pairing: Wangxian ( But Ladybug Love Square this time)
Genre: Romance, humor, angst, action
Rated: T
Words: 8700
Chapter Summary: After a nasty news story by Nadia Chamack, Armand D'Argencore is akumatized into Darkblade, who has a grudge against Lan Wangji. When confronted, Wangji doesn’t have the opportunity to escape so he must fight side by side with his superhero partner as a civillian to protect Paris. (as you can imagine, Lan Qiren is not thrilled about this)
Series: The Untamed/ Grandmaster of Demonic Cultiation
Pairing: Wangxian
Genre: Romance
Rated: T
Words: 1333
Summary: Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian take divination because they think it’s going to be all fun and games, but things turn out to be quite grim (pun intended)
Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian had chosen Divination because to them it seemed like a great big joke, and easy a, and Madam Yu had told them if they didn’t take her dearest friends class at Hogwarts they would both be sleeping in the stables for a month.
Lan Wangji had signed up for divination because it was a noble and ancient art that had been practiced in his family for centuries, and though he may not have his brother’s gift of prophecy, he could at least learn to read tea leaves and tarot and crystal balls like a proper Lan should. Dream interpretation, he mused, he needed no help with. There was no mystery shrouding the meaning of the dreams he kept having of Wei Ying. He knew exactly what they meant.
They meant that he had chosen the table nearest to the two brothers, sitting across from a Slytherin he’d never spoken to before. It meant that despite his Uncles verystrong opinions about eavesdropping and neglecting school work, Lan Wangji was doing both of those things, listening carefully to Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian decidedly nottaking this class seriously, and ignoring his own table mates cup on the table in front of him.
“This… this tea lump looks weirdly like that frog you stepped on and cried for a week when we were seven. After you stepped on it, to be specific. Maybe you’re going to step on another frog! Or maybe you’re going to cry for a week?” Nearby, Nie Huaisang snorted.
“Shut up, asshole,” Jiang Cheng grumbled.
“I’m not kidding, look!”
Lan Wangji glanced up surreptitiously to see Wei Ying holding out Jiang Cheng’s cup to him, face earnest, though amused.
“Holy fuck,” Jiang Cheng breathed, incredulous. “Maybe I will step on a frog.”
“Or cry for a week,” Nie Huaisang added helpfully.
“What about me?” Wei Ying asked eagerly, leaning forward, and though Wangji couldn’t see his face for the way he’d angled his body, he got the distinct impression that Wei Ying wasn’t interested in realpredictions, he just wanted a springboard to make more jokes off of.
Jiang Cheng frowned and focused on Wei yings cup, tilting and shifting it this way and that. “You’ve got this sort of… wonky cross?” He referenced his textbook and winced. “Yikes, that means suffering. But this could be the sun? That one means happiness so… you’re going to suffer a lot, and then be happy? Or maybe you’ll be happy and thensuffer a lot.”
“No way! Make better predictions for me! What a mean brother you are!”
“It’s not my fault! Drink tea better if you want better tea leaves!”
“What’s that supposed to mean, I drink tea just fine!”
“Ah perhaps I might interject?” Nie Huaisang interjected, like he hadn’t already done so. Wei Ying reclined in his seat once more and waved for Nie Huaisang to continue, obviously looking forward to whatever nonsense his friend was likely to come up with.
“Could it perhaps be that you’re going to suffer, but be happy about it?” Jiang Cheng pulled a confused face. Nie Huaisang pulled out his signature folding fan. “Could it be that our dear Wei Wuxian likes to suffer?” He dropped into a more sultry tone and waggled his eyebrows enthusiastically to ensure that no one missed his meaning.
Jiang Cheng turned bright red and swore while all the students in earshot, besides Wangji and himself, laughed loudly. Wei Ying threw his head back, treating Wangji to a long look at the column of his throat as he laughed at his own expense.
Their amusement had the unfortunate side effect of summoning Madam Jin to their corner. She scowled and took Wei Wuxian’s cup from Jiang Cheng, then softened slightly at what she saw.
“A misshapen cross, you are going to suffer,” she said softly. Evidently she hadn’t been incensed enough by his misbehaviour to wish misfortune on a thirteen year old.
Lan Wangji felt his stomach churn at the revelation. Madam Jin was the most respected seer of their lifetime, if she predicted it, it was almost guaranteed to come true. The hair on the back of his neck lifted as she furrowed her brow, rotating the cup. She gasped loudly and dropped the cup onto the table, taking several steps back and gazing at Wei Ying, wide eyed.
“My dear… You have the Grim.”
Many gasps echoed her own as she pointed dramatically at Wei Ying.
“Um sorry, but I don’t know what that means? What’s the Grim?” Nie Huaisang asked.
“The Grim,” another student read, “taking the form of a giant spectral dog, it’s among one of the darkest omens of our world. An omen of death.”
The whole world shifted underneath Lan Wangji, but he didn’t have the ability to be grateful that he was sitting. His mind was swimming with the words an omen of death. Even Jiang Cheng had the decency to look horrified. Nie Huaisang, predictably, tumbled out of his chair in a dead faint. Only Wei Ying continued to look utterly unruffled, reclining in his seat like Madam Jin hadn’tjust looked him in the face and told him he was going to die.
Later that night Wangji would drag his brother frantically into a secluded corner of the Ravenclaw common room and relate to him what had happened, teetering on the edge of panic as he asked what he could do to keep Wei Ying safe. Lan Xichen would look horrified, then pitying, then he would attempt to comfort his brother. The future is always shifting and changing, he would say. Besides, there are many different things any given omen could mean.
Lan Wangji would not be comforted by this sentiment, but it would be years before he understood what that particular omen of death had meant.
x x x x x x
He’d thought that he understood it when Wei Ying went missing during the war. He and Jiang Cheng spent three months frantically searching battlefields for him, checking the faces of every Inferius that they encountered, but they never found him. Lan Wangji had managed to shove that unpleasant evening in their third year to the back of his mind, only occasionally needing to banish it once more.
Then when Wei Ying had been taken he’d woken up nearly nightly in a cold sweat, the sound of Madam Jin announcing to the room that the person Lan Wangji had already held so dear to his heart was going to die. He’s not dead, he would repeat, over and over, until he fell back into an uneasy slumber.
He often wondered if Jiang Cheng had been as haunted by the omen as he had been. He’d loved Wei Ying as well, but he’d never placed as much stock in Divination as Lan Wangji had. Perhaps he’d forgotten entirely, or perhaps when he’d realized his brother had been taken the words had echoed in his ears as they’d echoed in Lan Wangji. Perhaps he’d heard them everytime that Wei Ying did something reckless and dangerous. Perhaps that was why he always shouted at him so loudly for endangering himself- to drown out the voice.
Perhaps the both of them were tormented by the idea that thishad been what the omen had predicted, all those years ago.
But then one day, on a carnage strewn battlefield, after they had been outnumbered by wizards and Inferi and were starting to flag, Wangji had finally understood what the omen actuallymeant.
There are many different things any given omen could mean.
The flames around the allied forces turned green, and there was a sudden shift in atmosphere. There was some shouting from the back of the Death Eater’s forces, then, to Lan Wangji’s horror, the dead bodies from both sides started to rise. The Inferius that had already been there began to turn savagely on their compatriots, tearing them brutally apart.
Wei Wuxian strutted onto the battlefield, and death followed with him.
