EVER SINCE WUXIAN had met his A-Yuan, Lan Sizhui, again, he had been very emotional. Sizhui, being the sweet boy he was, tried his best to comfort Wuxian, whom he had loved like a father so many years, but it took a lot of time before Wuxian was alright again. And then something tragic happened.

One rainy day, Sizhui was out on a night hunt with the rest of the juniors, and then he was kidnapped by Su She, the master of the Moling Su clan. When the juniors returned to Cloud Recesses without Sizhui, their heads hanging low with tears, Lan Wangji immediately knew that something was wrong. Being a caring husband, he didn't tell Wuxian right then, but took time listening to the juniors and learning what had happened. When he heard their description of how Sizhui fought, he felt emotional.

"He wasn't panicking at all and fighting just like he should, but then he got stabbed, and he started screaming... screaming your name, Young Master Lan, and Master Wei's name. It was sad to see. Su She joked about how that showed weakness, but it doesn't, does it? Young Master Sizhui could never be weak, right?"

"Never," Wangji said firmly. "And he will be saved. Do not doubt that."

"Can we help?"

That was the familiar voice of Jin Ling, who generally didn't care about any of the juniors, except Sizhui. He felt a connection to Sizhui, because they were both orphans and both had to be raised by men that Jin Ling joked were pathetic- of course he was referring to Sizhui's past being taken care of by Wuxian and not by the great Hanguang-jun, who he would never insult even to his death.

"No, Jin Rulan. This is a dangerous mission. The Moling Su clan are very good fighters, trained by my very own Lan clan. You should just rest and try to forget what you've seen. Was your night hunt successful other than this abduction?"

"Yes," Ouyang Zizhen spoke up this time. Zizhen was a quiet boy for the most part, and quite sentimental. None of the other juniors thought too highly of him, but Wangji liked the boy. He was quiet, and studied well. That was the mark of a good man.

"Rest then, and dream of your sweet success. I'm sure you've all heavily exerted yourselves with this night hunt- some of you are breathing very heavily, and all of you are drenched in enough sweat to fill a sea. If you wish, you may go to the springs and bathe before resting. Good job, children," Wangji said, adding the last part to sound more like Wuxian, whom he knew the children loved. The words didn't quite have the desired effect, but Zizhen smiled at him in a friendly way before they left, so he was proud of himself.

Wangji's face fell with realization as soon as the children went their various ways.

I must tell Wei Ying of Sizhui's abduction. The poor man is already overwhelmed. If I tell him about this, he'll doubtlessly go through a huge period of depression. And I can't bear to see him like that...

After careful thinking, Wangji chose to make Sizhui's abduction secret from Wei Wuxian. He went to his brother, Sect Leader Xichen, and begged him to not speak anything of Sizhui's abduction within the sect except among the elders and with the juniors who had witnessed it, in order to preserve Wuxian's mental state. Xichen disagreed with this method, believing that Wuxian should just be told directly, mental affects be damned, but he condoned his brother's choices anyway, secretly informing everyone but Wuxian of Sizhui's abduction and then ordering them to keep it a secret from Wuxian.

But of course, secrets between so many people can never be kept. And one fateful night, Lan Wangji was awakened in such a way...

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"MY BABY! A-YUAN!"

Lan Zhan's eyes snapped open when he heard his husband's howling, and his heart dropped when he realized what he had just said. Could it be that- no, the Lan clan would always keep their secrets no matter what, that was a certainty. So how did he know?

From the darkness, his Wei Ying came, shaking like a leaf, with tears streaming down his cheeks. A paper in his hands relieved the way he had learned the information, and when he saw Lan Zhan, he crumpled the paper up into a ball and flung it at his husband, then collapsed on the  bed and wailed loud, dry wails.

"Wei Ying, I didn't want to hurt you like this," Lan Zhan said, feeling terrible about his husband's current condition. "Please, Wei Ying..."

He reached his hand out to touch his husband's shoulder reassuringly, but Wuxian threw him off and yelled, "How couldn't you tell me that my baby was abducted? He could be dead right now because of you withholding this information from me! Damn you to hell, Lan Wangji, you bastard! I don't think I can be with you anymore."

"No, Wei Ying! Please don't, I didn't mean it!" Lan Zhan begged.

But it was too late. His husband had already left the room, slamming the door behind him.

"Wei Ying! My baby!" he said, unconsciously almost mirroring the words his husband had said about A-Yuan. "No, my baby, no..."

He sunk to the ground and let grief consume him as he sobbed loudly.

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Wei Wuxian was ready to kill everyone and anyone to get his baby back. But, unfortunately, before killing, there had to come diplomacy. So he and Lan Xichen- a very apologetic, very disappointed Lan Xichen- stood in front of the Moling Su clan now, petitioning for the life of a person who shouldn't even be in their clutches.

"Lan Sizhui is not from your clan, and your abducting him violated many laws. You've also injured him- have his injuries been taken care of?" Lan Xichen asked, his voice booming throughout the entire audience room.

The Su clan all met each other's eyes as if the answer to the question lied in them. Nobody spoke, and Wuxian lost his temper. He slammed his hand onto the table, making everyone jump, and yelled, "Where is my child, damn it?!"

Su She laughed at Wei Wuxian's short temper, so different from his adopted son's temper. Lan Sizhui stayed calm, even when he was insulted, called names, and beaten until he bled. Wei Wuxian, however, couldn't handle being insulted or denied in any way. This lack of temper could be exploited easily.

"Bring the Lan junior in here. And make sure he's silenced before he comes in. That child speaks so much- so many questions, and so much to scream when we touch him," Su She said.

"Touch him?" Xichen gasped, unable to believe what he just heard.

"My baby!" Wuxian wailed, his voice breaking, and his mental state breaking when he imagined the things poor Sizhui must have gone through. He would be scarred forever after this, due to those damned Wens.

Two strong Su clan men left the room and came back ten minutes later carrying Lan Sizhui between them. Unlike usually, Sizhui didn't look elegant and prepared for everything. His long hair was tangled, dirty, and flipping over his face, making it impossible for him to see anything. His dark eyes were widened in panic beneath the thick black veil of his hair, and his breathing was uneven in panic. He could feel the hands of the men who had violated him so many times touching him once more, but this time their touches weren't soft and hesitant, but hard and purposeful, and thankfully not anywhere private.

His body had become emaciated in prison, since he had been starved to try and break his spirit. It surely had succeeded- he trembled more than his father Wuxian did- and he was terrified that at any moment, someone would jump on him and overpower him, which was something he couldn't fight thanks to his major loss of weight.

Lastly, his lips had been sewn together to silence him. Now, whenever he tried to talk, nothing would come out but a harsh grunt, and his lips would hurt from the stitches being pulled on. He reached out to touch the thread once again, running his long fingers over it and cursing the men who bound him like this. When he raised his head again after bending down to touch his lips, his hair flipped back over his shoulders, and his face was revealed to Wuxian and Xichen, who were both completely shocked.

"They've completely changed him," Xichen said.

Wuxian said nothing, just raced to embrace the boy he loved like a son and cry on his shoulder.

When Sizhui first felt someone grabbing him and shaking him so violently, he was reminded of how the men beat him in prison, and he tried to scream, terrified that he would be violated once again. But when he noticed Wei Wuxian's face, he calmed down, and wrapped his arms around the man he loved like a father while humming to him, trying to be soothing.

Xichen slowly came up to him and shook his hand, seeing how much he didn't like to be touched. He not-so-secretly gave the Su clan members who were holding him angry glares, and they responded in kind, but he didn't mind. All he cared about was that Sizhui was safe.

"How can we get him back?" he asked, coming back to reality. "What must we do?"

"Pay us back with another life," Su She said without hesitation.

"Impossible," Xichen shot back. "Lives are not to be traded like goods."

"Very well. Then you can't have him," Su She responded.

He gestured for the two men to pull Sizhui away, but before they could even get moving, Wuxian had cut both their heads off in one smooth motion with Suibian. The rest of the Su clan all ran away, which was the first sensible thing they had done the entire meeting, leaving Su She alone and facing a very angry Wuxian and Lan Xichen.

"Maybe now that we're more equal, you'll rethink your price," Wuxian said, walking up to Su She and pressing Suibian right into the man's neck. Blood trickled down when Su She brought his jaw down to talk, and he whimpered and closed his mouth again.

"He wants to talk. Move the sword away," Xichen said.

"If he wants to talk, he can speak with the sword to his throat," Wuxian said, loosening his grip on it and moving the blade an inch away from the skin so that the clan leader could speak.

"Take the boy and leave," Su She said, hissing with anger. "You don't need to pay anything. Just don't kill any more members of my clan."

"I cannot make that promise," Wuxian said.

"A-Ying," Xichen said, putting his hands on his brother-in-law's shoulders. "You need to make that promise, or Sizhui isn't coming home."

When Wuxian heard that, he got scared.

"No, please, my baby! I'll promise anything, just don't take my baby away from me," he wailed.

Seeing Wuxian scared about losing him made Sizhui feel emotional. He knelt down and rapped his arms around the older man's thigh like he did when he was little. When Wuxian felt this, he burst into sobs.

"A-Yuan. I missed you so much," he said, finding it hard to speak much more words than that.

Sizhui nodded and gave him a sympathetic glance.

"Let's go, A-Ying," Xichen said in his gentle voice, wrapping Wuxian in his arms and covering his tear-stained face with his long sleeve so that the Su clan wouldn't have the privilege of seeing a man cry today. Proudly, the three men walked out of the Su clan estates and began their long journey back to Cloud Recesses. After a day, they returned back home, and went directly to Lan Wangji's room to both surprise and soothe him with their presence.

"Wangji, we're back," Xichen called through the door. "Can you-"

Lan Zhan ran out of his room and threw his arms around Wuxian, not letting go. Sizhui smiled at how precious his two fathers were, then winced from the pain of the strings on his lips being pulled.

"Sizhui," Lan Zhan said, staring at the young man awkwardly.

Sizhui bowed in response and pointed to the string on his lips to signify that he couldn't speak. When Wangji saw the string and how hurt the young man was, he turned away to hide his tears. How could someone hurt such a friendly, effusive, and thoroughly beautiful young man like this?

"Sizhui, we'll help you," he said, choked by his tears, unable to say anything more.

"You'll be able to speak again soon, A-Yuan," Wuxian said. "Now you must rest."

Xichen took out his Liebing, and Wangji summoned his guqin. Wuxian drew Chenqing, but he was too emotional to play a calming song successfully, so he placed Chenqing back in his belt and listened as the Twin Jades of Lan played a calming melody so beautiful he had to fight falling asleep. But Sizhui, who was already exhausted, was brought into sleep easily, collapsing to the ground as smoothly and beautifully as Wuxian did.

Wuxian picked his son up and laid him down in Lan Zhan's bed, lying down next to him and stroking his hair. Xichen and Wangji stopped playing their instruments and left for a moment. When they returned, Xichen had a small knife that didn't have a very sharp edge to cut the thread on Sizhui's mouth.

"Hold him down, Wuxian. He may panic when he feels the blade on his lips," Xichen said.

Wuxian reluctantly rose from the bed and held onto the arms of his son, pinning the young man to the bed. When he was sure that Sizhui couldn't move, he nodded to Xichen, who began the long laborious process of cutting the thread. Since the thread had gone deep into the young man's lips, cutting it included a few drops of blood, but not anything that intense. Thankfully, Sizhui didn't react negatively to the blade on his lips, because he was sleeping too deeply to feel anything. When the strings were gone, he looked a bit more free, but not completely free yet.

"You need to take care of him, A-Ying and Wangji. Help him, he's been suffering a lot, the poor young man. Poor Sizhui," Xichen said, stroking the young man's hair.

Sizhui rolled over in the bed and drowsily muttered, "D-d-don' hurt me, I don' like i'..."

"Sizhui," Lan Zhan said softly, his heart breaking when his son said that. "No one is going to hurt you anymore."

"No!" Sizhui screamed, tossing and turning violently. "No, don't touch me there, I said no! It hurts, I don't like it!"

Xichen put Liebing to his lips, intending to play a calming melody for the boy once more, but Wuxian grabbed his wrist and pointed to Sizhui's eyes to stop him.

"He's awake, he's just having night terrors. They'll pass, and when they pass, he'll be awake and we can talk to him. Please... don't put him to sleep again. I want to see my boy... my precious A-Yuan."

Xichen nodded in response, too bothered by all these events to even speak anymore. He hung his head and stood in the corner, watching as poor Sizhui cried out and tossed around on the bed.

Finally, he stopped fighting, and his breath slowly returned to normal. He closed his eyes for a short while, then opened them once more.

"Y-Young Master W-Wei... you s-saved me."

His weak, unsure voice came to Wuxian's ears like a miracle, and the older man sat down on the bed next to his son, squeezing his hand and whispering, "I will always save you, my A-Yuan. No matter what."

"Hanguang-jun... it hurts, Hanguang-jun," Sizhui whimpered, as tears rolled down his cheeks. "It hurts..."

"I know. I know, Sizhui. It will hurt for a long while, but then all the pain will be gone," Lan Zhan said, running his fingers through his son's hair, shocked at what a bad condition it was in. But obviously it would be like that, it wasn't as if the Moling Su clan took care of their prisoners.

"M-M-Ma-Master..." Sizhui said, still struggling with speaking after being muzzled for so long.

Xichen stepped forward and gave his son-in-law a gentle kiss on the cheek, making him both giggle and cry more. Xichen never really kissed anyone to show affection- Lans really never showed affection in general- so getting kissed by him made Sizhui see just how much he was loved.

"I'm so sorry for worrying you all," he said, sounding drowsy once again. "Especially you, Young Master Wei. I missed you so much..."

Wuxian buried his head in Lan Zhan's shoulder, overcome with emotion. He couldn't speak anymore, couldn't watch his son suffer anymore. It was too much for him.

"Rest now, my son, and regain your strength. Good days will come again, soon enough," Lan Zhan said. 

"I love you, A-Yuan," Wuxian sobbed. "I love you so much, my baby."

"I love you very much too, Father," Sizhui said.

When he heard that title come out of Sizhui's mouth, Wuxian just cried more.

"My baby," he whispered.

"Yes, Father. I am your son, forever and always."

Lan Zhan smiled a serene smile at Sizhui, and Xichen gave him one last kiss before they left. They knew their son's road to complete recovery would take a long time, but they would stay by his side the entire time. Just like good fathers should.