A Fluffy New Friend

[achickenformylove]

Who: Lan WangJi and you!
What: WangJi has a new pet and is showing it around the train
Where: Greenhouse, Dining room, around
When: Fiddlesticks 17 and 18
Warnings: fluff? literal and figuartive

WangJi was happy. How could he not be when the best husband he could ask for gifted him with a white rabbit. Rabbits were his favorite and he liked them. Now he had one of his own.

Of course, he wouldn't be a responsible pet owner if he didn't show his pet around the train so it could be used to the accommodations... and the fact that their home moved even though most of the time it wasn't too noticeable.

But he could easily be found around on arrival day with the rabbit safely tucked in his arms, still clearly visible so it could look around and see and greet others.

Prior to mealtime, WangJi could be found in the dining car sitting at one of the tables, letting the rabbit stretch its legs for a few minutes and look around. Yes, the rabbit was on the table, but he wasn't letting it out of arms reach just in case. Luckily, it seemed more content to just sit for the moment.

Where the rabbit was most happy was in the garden car. It had the chance to run around a bit in there and as long as it stayed away from the plants other passengers were growing, WangJi let it explore and walk on its own though he was not far away to make sure it didn't get anything it shouldn't.

Comments

[achickenformylove]

Alarming? Yes, it is rather alarming, but that is how WangJi grew up. That had been normal for him even if now he knows that life was not normal. Not that he would inflict such a life on someone else.

"She... passed when I was a child. I remember some things about her. She was never sad when my brother and I visited her."

There was a pause before he continued.

"My father survived until I was of age, but he remained in seclusion until his death."

[marriedanidiot]

"The poor woman." Nerdanel says softly, sadly.

"You were not raised by them then?"

[achickenformylove]

"I was not. My uncle raised my brother and me. He wanted to ensure that we did not fall victim to the same carelessness that my father did. We visited my mother at regular intervals until she passed. I saw my father even less than that."

[marriedanidiot]

"Oh..."

She breathes, her eyes full of grief. "Oh my dear, I am so sorry. Were you at least treated well?"

[achickenformylove]

"We were. My uncle cared about us deeply, but as we grew up, he became more serious with us. He wanted us to be proper Gusu Lan disciples, models of our sect. We were, but... I did not understand emotions well as a teenager."

[marriedanidiot]

She tsks.

"I suppose I can understand his fear. But children should be allowed to be children. I am sorry, my dear, although at least you were looked after."

[achickenformylove]

"Gusu Lan is one of the stricter sects because of our rules so as I grew to the age to become a junior, I would have had to follow all of them. I... do not know how a normal childhood would have changed my life. I was the youngest child in the Cloud Recesses for a long time."

[marriedanidiot]

"Did you have no playmates?" She wonders.

[achickenformylove]

"I had my older brother." Which is certainly not the same thing.

[marriedanidiot]

"Was there much of an age gap?" She wonders - there was a decently large one between Maedhros and Maglor, although not so large as was normal for other elven families. But both her eldest had long and long been adults by the time the Ambarussar were born.

[achickenformylove]

"Three years. By the time that our mother passed, he was of age to be beginning training with the sect as a junior." More rules, more lessons, more obligations. Less time for baby brother.

[marriedanidiot]

She makes a sad noise. "Did you have no one to play with?"

[achickenformylove]

"No. I was the youngest for some time." Which meant he had lived a pretty lonely life and with an uncle bound and determined that they be proper disciples, there wasn't much to dissuade from it.

[marriedanidiot]

"Ah youngling..." She murmurs softly, sadly.

"At least you were looked after. There is that. Ai, but the way Men treat their children is so strange to me..."

[achickenformylove]

"I was. There was that. My sect, the female disciples live and study separately. We do not wish there to be any problems that may arise between the two being in so close proximity, but... there were no women in my life after my mother."

Sure there may have been wives of disciples, but they had their own responsibilities and duties and one was not going to intrude on how the de-facto sect leader raised his nephew.

[marriedanidiot]

"That seems to me a grievious thing, to deny you such! I suppose there are good reasons to keep you separated, but even so..."

[achickenformylove]

"It is just how it was and I was too young to know better. I know now that's not how it should be. Even though I was limited from caring for my son when I first took him in, I still tried as much as I could."

[marriedanidiot]

"Based on how much he seems to love you, I think you did very well indeed." She says gently.

[achickenformylove]

"Thank you. I tried my best. I do know that I am closer to him than I was with my own father."

[marriedanidiot]

"It shows" She smiles. "He loves you very dearly and is a credit to you."

[achickenformylove]

"Everyone says that he is a credit to Gusu Lan, that he is one of our best-behaved juniors."

Sizhui was even allowed to speak to sect leaders for WangJi himself, such as Jiang Wanyin.

[marriedanidiot]

"And perhaps he is! But I think, more than anything... he is a credit to you, for you were his father, and the one he must have most sought to please."

[achickenformylove]

WangJi smiled. "He is a good son."

He loved Sizhui dearly. And even though they didn't say it as much considering that Sizhui was a junior now and they were a formal sect that maintained decorum, he knew that his son loved him.

[marriedanidiot]

"Will you tell me more of him?"

[achickenformylove]

"He is not my son by birth, but I took him in and insisted Uncle and my brother allow me to adopt him and accept him as my son. My uncle was not happy at first but he accepted it. Even if I couldn't care for him all the time when he was younger, we spent some time alone in the evenings and he always helped me feed the rabbits."

He still smiled. "The first time I took him, he thought the vegetables were for him and said he liked potatoes better."