the stars shine for you

Book 3 A Route with Mason as your BFF be like:

Mason really told his Commanding Agent to get his shit straight huh

the first time lan sizhui calls jiang cheng his uncle it's 100% on accident and he's just standing there like "oh god this is it. this is how I die. this is my final moment on earth. I've lived a good long life, made it to the ripe age of 17" thinking jiang cheng is about to dismember him right then and there but the man just starts weeping

Lan Sizhui gets utterly engulfed in a hug by his newly acknowledged uncle.

(I refuse to believe Jin Ling never got hugs from his uncle; Jiang Cheng always finds ways to touch the people he loves; in fact, he only stopped giving Jin Ling hugs when he hit puberty and Jin Ling told him displays of affection were too childish. He cuffed him for it but respected his boundary--jin ling secretly misses his hugs).

Lan Sizhui awkwardly returns the hug, even as his chest warms at the thought of his family's love. And Jiang Cheng wants to tell him so many things, how glad he is that his family has grown one person larger, how he wants to show him Lotus Pier properly, and how he's going to get him his own bell.

But that's too much to say all at once.

"...finally," he chokes out instead, "finally, we get someone with some goddamn sense in the family."

wei wuxian and jiang cheng are still on... awkward terms at this point. they miss each other but they don't know how to interact or what to say or how to say it so they cautiously pace around each other. until one day sizhui comes home and tells wei wuxian about the very... odd experience he's just had with jiang cheng and wei wuxian is so overwhelmed by the fact that sizhui thinks of him as his father so thoroughly that he accidentally called jiang cheng his uncle that for five minutes he forgets to be overwhelmed by the fact that jiang cheng AGREES

and so wei wuxian finds himself at lotus pier storming up to jiang cheng going "a-cheng! where's my hug, huh? I DIE and I don't even get a welcome back hug!? jiang cheng, where are your manners?" but as they stand there and look at each other the adolescent impulsivity and devil may care attitude left over in some drained part of wei wuxian starts to fade and he realizes that maybe he shouldn't be here, maybe that wasn't what to say or how to say it, and he might meet zidians angry sizzle in a few seconds. but jiang cheng just flings himself forward into wei wuxians chest and presses his face into his big brothers shoulder,

"you're such a fucking idiot"

I keep thinking about this concept of jiang cheng showing lan sizhui around lotus pier and just... imagining all the other things he would want to share with him. he makes an attempt to remember jiang yanlis lotus root pork rib soup recipe, and despite his botched and shakey instructions, lan sizhui does a remarkably good job. jiang cheng is a little disappointed when he discovers lan sizhuis boat sickness, but shows him how to peal lotus pods on the shore. and when lan sizhui tells wei wuxian that jiang cheng is showing him around lotus pier, wei wuxian tries not to dwell too much on the part of him that wishes he could be the one to show his son around the place he grew up. but when jiang cheng comes to get sizhui and wei wuxian stays behind, he turns back and snaps, "why you just standing there? aren't you coming, idiot?" jiang cheng even begrudgingly says lan wangji can come too, and jin ling decides to tag along, and maybe jiang cheng decides he's going to let some part of the past go - wen ning is allowed to enter lotus pier for the first time since the night he dragged jiang chengs unconscious and coreless body out of it. so this very odd looking group of cultivators walks around lotus pier in the purple yunmeng sunset, and for the first time in so, so long, as him and wei wuxian point at things and tell stories and laugh, jiang cheng feels like he has a family

Giving a watch as a gift means a declaration that ‘we are together for every second of the day’. A continuation of Noct’s birthday comic.