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Everyone at school is obsessed with Lan Zhan. Wei Ying is no exception of course, seriously, literally anyone with eyes would be, but it's more than just his looks for Wei Ying. It's the fun of getting to tease Lan Zhan, getting to argue with him in class, catching his rare bits of dry humor. Wei Ying just can't help following him around, trying to tease him or get a rise out of him every moment he can. It's just too fun.
...And if all his messing around is covering for the fact that he's down rather bad for Lan Zhan well that's no one's business but his own right?
Wei Ying doesn't have a shot in hell, he's fully aware of that. Literally anyone in the high school who likes guys even slightly is into him. Lan Zhan can take his pick.
Unfortunately for the whole school it's been 5 months already since Lan Zhan transferred in and so far Lan Zhan is picking no one. Fuck, no one's even been able to figure out if he likes guys or girls yet, not even Wei Ying and he has /tried/.
The day Wei Ying /finally/ gets an answer to his question it's lunch period and Wei Ying has once again shown up uninvited at Lan Zhan's table and is doing his usual 'Lan Zhan pay attention to me routine' and Lan Zhan is giving his one word answers when Wei Ying hears a fake as hell sounding laugh from behind him.
"Don't look now but he's at it again."
"That's nearly every day this week, talk about pathetic."
The first voice belongs to Jin Zixun. The second voice belongs to Su She, both members of what Wei Ying as derisively called the "only gay for Lan Zhan" club. And like, look Wei Ying gets it, A L O T of people had their gay or bi or pan awakening when Lan Zhan showed up at the school, Wei Ying unabashedly included, but most people, again Wei Ying included, didn't decide that they're cooler than the rest of the school's queer population by virtue of "only" being gay for the hot guy. They and the rest of their awful friend group still bully more openly queer students on the regular, especially soft spoken shy ones like Wen Ning and therefore, as far as Wei Ying is concerned, they are the inferior queers and he would quite happily shove them out a widow, preferably onto an entire pile of legos.
All this is to say that when they start up their pathetic bullying routine behind him, Wei Ying turns around, gives them his biggest fake grin, and asks, "Did you two need something?"
"We're just wondering how desperate you have to be throw yourself at Lan Zhan every day." Jin Zixun sneers down at him.
Wei Ying arches an eye brow at him, his voice mock cheerful. "Every day? Have you been counting? Wow you must be pretty obsessed with me."
Jin Zixun's eyes narrow and he begins to bristle. "Obsessed? You're the one who's obsessed with Lan Zhan! Like he'd want a delinquent like you!"
Here's the thing, for probably the first time in his entire waist of a life Jin Zixun is actually completely right about something. Yes, Wei Ying is pathetically obsessed with Lan Zhan, and yes someone with Wei Ying's history doesn't have a shot in hell with him, and yeah, normally having all that rubbed in his face might hurt a bit, but here's the thing: This is Jin Zixun and Wei Ying simply refuses to have his feelings hurt by someone as obvious and pathetic as Jin Zixun.
...However Wei Ying has spent the last twenty four hours trying to come up with an excuse to punch Jin Zixun in the nose and this is very much starting to look like this could be it. He's just trying to decide if it's worth doing it in front of Lan Zhan who will definitely not want to be anywhere near him after he starts a fight at Lan Zhan's lunch table, when he hears a cool voice from just beside him.
"You are disrupting lunch. Please leave."
Wei Ying whips around to see Lan Zhan glaring up at Jin Zixun.
"I-" For a moment Jin Zixun flounders, face turning pink in embarrassment and Wei Ying thinks he sees Jin Zixun's last two brain cells fighting in real time over whether he cares more about getting embarrassed in public or making a good impression on Lan Wangji.
Unfortunately for everyone with ears Su She choses that moment to open his mouth. "Lan Zhan, you misunderstand. We're here to warn you. You probably didn't know that you're having lunch with a criminal. It was before you transferred so you probably wouldn't have heard but he really does have a juvenile record."
Wei Ying stiffens. Ok yeah he really has been hoping Lan Zhan wouldn't hear about that...
"That's right." Jin Zixun seems to have found his second wind. "And he's a total slut too. Just yesterday I saw him coming out of a bathroom stall with Wen Ning. He wasn't even trying to hide it. Bet he..."
Whatever he bets Wei Ying does is lost to sound of a chair scraping back at Lan Zhan jumps abruptly to his feet, grabs his backpack, and storms out of the lunch room.
There's more laughter from behind him at that followed by Jin Zixun smirking down at him again. "See that Wei, guess he really doesn't want anything to do with you."
Wei Ying ignores him. His heart is racing far too quickly and his hands feel like their shaking a little as he grabs his own bag and rushes after Lan Zhan. Fuck Jin Zixun and Su She, he'll deal with them later. For right now though he needs to go after Lan Zhan, needs to make sure that Lan Zhan doesn't never want to see him again. Because what if those assholes are right? What if Lan Zhan doesn't want anything to do with him now? He knew it would happen at some point but...
"Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan wait!"
Lan Zhan, half way down the hallway outside the lunch room, stops at the sound of Wei Ying's voice, allowing Wei Ying to come painting up beside him.
"Lan Zhan I know that sounded bad but it's more complicated than that I swear!"
"You do not need to explain." Lan Zhan's voice is tight and hard and part of Wei Ying wants to flinch away from it, it hurts, but he needs to at least try to get this out so he steps closer instead.
"No, listen, please! It's true, I do have a record, but it's not like they're making it sound! It was this guy Wen Chao who used to go here. I caught him trying to corner Mianmian up against a wall so I broke his face for him, only his father's a judge so I'm the one who ended up getting arrested."
And hadn't Madam Yu been happy about that. MianMian's testimony (and wow that girl could be amazingly scathing) had knocked his sentence down to community service, but he'd still nearly ended up on the street after that one.
"I see." Lan Zhan still isn't looking at him, his fists still clenched tight at his sides, his shoulders still locked in a stiff line, but he hasn't walked off yet so that's something right?
Wei Ying takes a shuddering breath, his own shoulders drooping a bit. "I know I should have told you about it myself. Just about everyone knows so I should have figured someone would tell you eventually if I didn't. I just didn't want to make a whole thing out of it and there's no easy way to work 'oh by the way I was arrested this one time for beating a guy up but he deserved it so it's fine' into a conversation, you know?" Wei Ying looks down at the scuffed toes of his boots, "I'm still sorry I wasn't upfront about it."
Lan Zhan is quiet for a moment then, "It sounds like he did deserve it though."
"What?" Wei Ying's head snaps up, eyes widening, as he stares at Lan Zhan.
Lan Zhan still isn't looking at him, but some of the frost has left his voice. "From what you have said you did the right thing. Wen Chao was in the wrong and you should never have been punished for it."
"I... I mean yeah. A lot of people just don't really tend to see it that way."
"Then they are wrong."
Lan Zhan glances at Wei Ying then away again. "I apologize."
Feeling his cheeks turning a bit pink Wei Ying hastily waves him off. "It's fine, it's fine, really! Lots of people make assumptions when they first hear about it, and I mean those two did make it sound pretty bad."
Lan Zhan shakes his head. "That is not what I meant."
Wei Ying blinks at him. "Then what?"
Lan Zhan hesitates for a moment, as though stealing himself, then "You seem to be under the impression that I left because I did not want to associate with you. That was not the case. I did not mean to upset you or make you feel that you needed to explain yourself and so I apologize."
For a moment Wei Ying just stares at him. That's the most he's heard Lan Zhan say in one go outside of class and he's vaguely shocked. Then meaning behind the words process and Wei Ying blinks again, utterly thrown.
"Why'd you leave then? Was it just because those guys are annoying? Because yeah they're pretty annoying."
To his surprise Lan Zhan shakes his head.
"Really?" Wei Ying arches an eyebrow at him. "You don't find them even a /bit/ annoying?"
"They are annoying but that is not why I left."
"Then why?"
Lan Zhan's ears turn pink. "I thought if they did not stop speaking about you like that I would do something... I should not."
"What?" Wei Ying's eyes widen and again all he can seem to do is stare at Lan Zhan, this time in shear disbelief, his heart beginning to race unsteadily. Until this point he's been pretty damn sure Lan Zhan is only barely tolerating him so for him to say something like that...
"Lan Zhan, were you... Were you thinking about hitting them?"
Ears still red and eyes still fixed firmly on the far wall Lan Zhan nods. “Mm.”
For once in his life Wei Ying finds that he is completely out of words. All he can do is continue to stare at Lan Zhan in sheer slack jawed disbelief.
When he doesn't say anything, Lan Zhan continues his voice quiet but still sharp with an anger that Wei Ying realizes, to his shock, has always been on his behalf.
"They should not spread such rumors about you. I have seen the way you stand up for those they and their friends harass. You are..." Lan Zhan actually hesitates for a moment, something Wei Ying has never heard him do before, and then his voice so quiet Wei Ying can barely hear it, "Wen Ning is very lucky."
"Wen Ning?" Wei Ying's eyes are wide, his face pink, and he's reeling so much from the unexpected praise that for a moment all he can do is stare dumbly unable to process how Wen Ning came to be in the middle of this conversation.
He must take too long because Lan Zhan nods and then actually begins to walk off. /That/ snaps Wei Ying out of it and lunges forward, grabbing Lan Zhan by the shoulder to stop him.
"Lan Zhan, wait! I'm not dating Wen Ning!"
Lan Zhan comes to an abrupt stop, his entire body tensing again, though from the words or the unexpected touch Wei Ying isn't sure.
"You are not?" Lan Zhan's voice is quiet, a little hoarse.
"No, no, nothing like that. A-Ning's one of my best friends and it's true I did come out of the bathroom with him yesterday but we weren't /doing/ anything. I found him in there crying so I went to check on him, that's all. Turns out Jin Zixun was being really awful to A-Ning all morning so really it's that asshole's fault I was even in there." Anddd why Wei Ying has spent the last 24 hours looking for an excuse to give Jin Zixun the Wen Chao treatment that wouldn't end with Wei Ying out on the street.
Lan Zhan's head snaps up, finally looking at Wei Ying, his eyes wide. "...Then you are not seeing anyone?" His voice comes out hoarse and a little shaky.
Wei Ying shakes his head. "Nope, not with anyone." He licks his lips and ...did Lan Zhan's eyes just flick down toward them? Wei Ying takes a shaky breath. Is he reading their right? There's a good chance he's not, but if he is, if he is...
"...I'd like to be though."
"You would?" Lan Zhan's gaze is fixed on Wei Ying now, so intense it takes his breath away.
Maybe that's what gives Wei Ying the courage to step forward, or maybe it's the echo of Lan Zhan's voice in head 'Wen Ning is lucky' whichever the case Wei Ying takes a shuddering breath and admits, "They're not wrong you know? I really have been throwing myself at you. Just thought you should know. It's fine if y...mpf!?"
And that's as far as he gets before Wei Ying finds himself being shoved against the nearest lockers and kissed breathless.
***
The next day at lunch Jin Zixun and Su She pause by their table again look down their noses at Wei Ying.
"Still at it?" Jin Zixun snears. "God how pathetic can you be?"
Su She nods along. "At this point I think it counts as harassment, what do you think Lan Zhan?" He leans forward toward Lan Zhan like the ingratiating slime that he is.
Before Wei Ying can say anything Lan Zhan wraps a possessive arm around his waist, looks up, and cooly, and in his most bitchily polite voice asks, "Please explain to me how it counts as harassment for my /boyfriend/ to have lunch with me?"
The looks on their faces are /priceless/.