"A-Zhan... how much longer..." Wei Ying groaned and whined, hanging onto Lan Zhan's sleeve.

"Just a bit more."

"Haaaaaaaaah?" Wei Ying moaned.

Jiang Meilien laughed. "Susu wants to go on Lil' Apple? I've been riding all the way..."

"No, no, climbing up this hill will be tiring to you, Little Lien, it's fine," Wei Wuxian quickly straightened himself up and plodded on strongly. Lan Wangji smiled at his immediate change in demeanour. He looked into the distance and nodded. "We're here."

"Hm?" Meilien looked around. "Shushu, where are we?"

"Isn't this...?" Wei Wuxian's face gradually blossomed into a smile. "A-Zhan, you're such a darling!"

Lan Zhan smiled back warmly.

Wei Wuxian hugged him and gave him a quick smooch on the lips before skipping away across the hilltop. "Hello, hello, helloooo!" He waved his hands excitedly in the air.

Jiang Meilien hopped down from Lil' Apple and watched, curious, as a young girl several years older than her run to Wei Wuxian. "Master Wei!"

"Hello, little one!"

"Mother, Mother! Master Wei's here!"

"Goodness," the mother, the old lady who had treated Wei Wuxian long ago once, and who Wei Wuxian had saved years back, beamed as she walked out of her humble home. "Master Wei! Am I delighted to see you!" 

"Hello, Mother," Wei Wuxian smiled and bowed to her before laughing and hugging the little girl. Though, she wasn't a little girl anymore. Probably nearing twenty! "A-Zhan was bringing me on a surprise trip and I was so tired I didn't even realise he'd brought me to Qilian Peak! Glad to meet you two again!"

"Ah, Yin Yue Xian's here, too," the young daughter bowed low to the man in white walking to them. Lan Wangji inclined his head to both mother and daughter.

"Hello, there, Mei," the girl waved to Meilien. "Master Wei has a daughter?" She smiled.

Meilien shook her head, not shy nor arrogant, just not the sort to speak to people unless introduced.

Wei Wuxian chuckled. "No, little one, that's my brother's daughter. She's my brother's and A-Zhan's brother's daughter. Jiang Meilien."

"Sect Leader Jiang's and Zewu-Jun's daughter?" The mother asked.

"Mother, that's Lianhua Meiren," the girl beamed. "Lianhua Meiren, honoured to meet you," she bowed.

"Ah?" Meilien quickly held her elbows. "Please, don't, you're older than me."

"Age is one thing, respect is another," the girl replied.

Meilien blushed. "Still, no need. So you're the Jie and Auntie who helped Susu when he came here earlier? Susu told me of you. Happy to see you too," Meilien bowed to them.

The mother smiled. "Courteous and certain, a kinder Jiang than her father, I see," she laughed.

"Mother," Wei Wuxian laughed with her. "You're still mad at my brother?"

"Sect Leader Jiang should have treated you better, Master Wei, and I won't take that back."

Jiang Meilien blinked in confusion for some time before slowly nodding when she understood what the old lady was talking about. She pursed her lips and looked down at her feet, guilty and ashamed, feeling for her father.

"But I guess you two have reconciled?" The old lady looked at Wei Wuxian.

"Mother, I never was angry with him. Never broke ties with him. Defecting from the sect, yes I did that. But I never defected from brotherhood."

The woman smiled. "I guess so. He trusts you enough to send his daughter with you, I suppose things are better. Well then, what are you waiting for? Come on in! I'll make some food?"

"We're good, Mother," Wei Wuxian shook his head.

The old woman turned to the little niece. "Lianhua Meiren, you need not be guilty of what your father committed. The past is gone. Since I know this, I'll forget things. Apologies for what I said about your father, I just couldn't stand the way Master Wei was lonely back when he came here."

"It's fine, Auntie, I understand."

"Do you want something to eat? Rice? Bread? Or soup?"

"No thank–"

"No, you have to eat, you aren't immortal like them. Soup?"

"Thank you," Meilien bowed with a charming smile. The old woman took her hand and guided her into the home for a meal.

The daughter snickered at Wei Wuxian after her mother went in.

"What?"

"Nothing," she giggled. "Just wondering if I should tell Mother exactly why Master Wei looked so lonely back then. You know, because Master Wei missed a certain someone who definitely wasn't a brother?" 

"You!" Wei Wuxian blushed and chased after her into the house, deliberately avoiding his husband's grinning eyes. 

**********

After downing a good two bowls, per person, of soup at the ladies' hut, and bidding them farewell, the couple and their niece had arrived at the lake near the Qilian valley. Wei Wuxian gleefully ran to the damp banks. He could feel the energy in him soaring, tail bone and wing bones screaming with delight at the sight of the vast open water before the silver eyes. Without a word to either of the two walking closer, he tied Lil' Apple to a tree a good distance away and dived into the lake. Lan Zhan held Jiang Meilien back from running to the lakeside to watch, should she be drenched in a shower of water.

Boom! Something exploded down below, deep underwater. Slowly a figure formed in the water, quickly increasing in size. Round and round the water spun and swirled, a massive whirlpool forming at top speed until whoosh! A tall and glamorous Kun Peng shot up into the air, his roar echoing far and wide. Wei Wuxian soared across the sky for a while before zooming down into the water with a splash. He flapped his long and gleaming golden tail, swishing across the water towards the bank.

"Hey, Little Lien," he called, grinning.

Meilien shuddered. "Susu, don't smile... Looks like the Devil's leering at me."

"Oh, sorry," Wei Wuxian contracted his mouth and nodded. "What do you think?"

"Susu looks beautiful! Scary, but I love it!"

Wei Wuxian bit his cheek to not smile at her again, resisting the glee. "Good. Then hop aboard." He wiggled his tail and turned to line his long body with the wall of the lake. Meilien gawked in awe at being able to get on him and looked up at Lan Wangji, reaching out her hands upwards, groping with them. Lan Zhan smiled at her 'grabby' hands and lifted her up onto Wei Wuxian.

"Hey, you too," Wei Ying called.

Lan Wangji sighed and sat on him astride, right behind Meilien, careful for his legs to not hit the fins.

"Hurray!" Meilien shrieked as Wei Wuxian swung his tail and shot across the water, swimming around the lake in a zigzag motion before spreading out his wings and darting up into the sky, niece and husband holding on tight to the feathery dorsal fin. Wei Ying roared and Meilien squealed happily as they flew through the clouds, fingers and wings running through them as the sun's dark golden light of an approaching dusk settled on the cotton and deflected off the gilded scales of the beast flying past it.

Lan Zhan's thumb ceaselessly and half-consciously caressed Wei Wuxian's side, despite the sharp scales. A-Ying, have the others ever gone on you?

Only you, and now, Meilien. I'm planning on taking Zizhen and Yiyi on a ride with their families completed, what do you say?

When Xiuying and Xiyi give birth?

Mhm.

Good.

Sizhui and Rulan seem too busy, somehow. Hey, come to think of it, Rulan didn't come to Cloud Recesses all throughout the past two weeks right?

Mn.

Wonder why... 

**********

Tired after the ride, the three sat around a fire on the lakeside, Wei Wuxian wrapped up in a furry coat and cuddled deep into Lan Wangji's torso for warmth. Jiang Meilien sat next to them, head leaning against Lan Zhan's arm as she tried to doze off.

"Little Lien, what's with your sleeping issues?" Wei Wuxian finally remembered to ask.

"I don't know, Susu... I don't want to sleep." She mumbled, yawning.

"Child, you're literally yawning."

"But I don't want to fall asleep..."

"What is it?" Lan Zhan wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"I... I see things when I fall asleep... so I don't want to sleep... it's too much."

"See things? What kind of things?"

"Spirits. All sorts of ghouls..." she juddered and trembled at the memory. "And then... this weird feeling..."

"Of familiarity?" Wei Wuxian asked.

"No..."

"Foreboding?"

"Sort of."

"Foresight?"

Meilien snapped her fingers. "Exactly!"

Wei Wuxian sighed. I wonder if demonic cultivators get to be soothsayers too, what with all these foresights. "Little Lien, what do you see?"

"It's... vague............... there's a whirlwind of colours, that's all. Silver............ purple.......... A bright flash of whitish violet.......... and the darkest red, smeared all over. Oh, and a beautiful pattern of green in the middle of the picture."

"Huh?" Wei Wuxian frowned. "I can't make much sense out of it, but we'll do this for now. Before going to sleep, think of the happiest thing you can think of. Playing with Little Ai and A-Xuan, or your fathers. Whatever it is."

Meilien narrowed her eyes, thinking, trying to focus on something. "Mn! This one time. Gege took me on a sword ride all over Lanling. He gave me chocolate, too! High up in the clouds, just like Susu took me now." 

"Oh, Little Rulan?" Wei Wuxian grinned. "I see. Then good. Think of that. Shut your eyes and dream of that. While thinking of nothing but that one visual, let yourself drift off to sleep. I promise it helps."

"Really?"

"Mn," Lan Zhan nodded to her.

Jiang Meilien nodded and shut her eyes, thinking of that one episode like she was meditating until Lan Wangji felt a light bump on his arm.

"Haha, she loves leaning on you or Xichen-ge while sleeping," Wei Ying whispered. "Must be Lan arm muscles being cosy."

"And A-Ying?"

"I'm good here," Wei Ying patted Lan Zhan's chest. "Listening to your heart that, you claim, beats solely for me," he chuckled.

"Mn, always," Lan Zhan nodded firmly.

"A-Zhan... What do you think this dream of hers is about? Quite colourful... but I think it's got something..."

"Silver, purple, whitish violet, red, green design. Purple might be Jiang. Whitish violet flash... Zidian?"

"I thought the same," Wei Wuxian nodded. "The silver must be... rain. Or..." he gulped. "Tears... And the red smear is for blood."

"Mn," Lan Zhan agreed. "Another battle?"

"I'm scared for her. Zidian... Tears... Blood... Or is it A-Cheng?"

"Nothing can happen to Jiang Wanyin," Lan Wangji answered.

"That is true... He's too strong. Then okay, what else was there? Green design..."

"Can't figure that out," Lan Wangji shook his head. "Demonic energy?"

"Hm, sounds like resentment. But the 'beautiful pattern'?" Wei Ying sighed. "I really don't get this. If anything, we should be prepared." 

"Mn. I'll tell gege."

Wei Ying nodded and laid his head on Lan Zhan's chest, finger tracing the brand mark he couldn't see due to the robes but knew was there. "We'll get rid of that Carmine Catastrophe when we get back. I wonder if it might be that again."

"Mn," Lan Zhan nodded. "Now stop worrying, sleep."

"You're not sleeping?"

"Meilien's here, I'll stay on guard."

Wei Wuxian wanted to stay up too but his eyes and mouth said otherwise, one drooping, the other yawning tiredly. "Nighty night, darling."

"Good night," Lan Zhan kissed his head, and stroked both his back and Meilien's, lulling them both to a deep sleep.