Chapter Text
“Ah, here’s the culprit,” said the low voice of a man, close enough to startle Wei Ying awake. He opened his eyes just in time to be grabbed by the legs and watched as the world flipped upside down.
“Huh. Go figure. I didn’t know rabbits ate peonies.”
Wei Ying flinched. The voices were deafening, the heavy perfume of flowers was making him dizzy, and the blood rushing to his head did not help.
“What should I do with it?”
“Kill it, skin it, and take it to the kitchen. There’s no use in meat going to waste when we have so many mouths to feed.”
There was a moment’s pause.
“Are you sure? Killing and serving a black rabbit might be inauspicious. Aren’t they supposed to symbolize good fortune and a long life?”
“Then eating one should be extra lucky, shouldn’t it? Besides, all of our guests are high level cultivators. Why would they have to worry about living a long life?”
The closer voice sighed. “Whatever you say.”
That’s when a hand reached for Wei Ying’s neck.
Wait! He tried to shout and failed. I’m the rabbit?!
Fingers brushed the fur at his throat and Wei Ying thrashed. He jerked his head around and snapped at the fingers stretching closer to him.
He was surprised by the resulting CRUNCH.
“AH!”
His stomach swooped as he dropped. He landed hard but didn’t pause for a second. He pushed off with all of his strength and darted swiftly away.
I feel so light! He thought as he flew over the ground like a bolt of lighting. Do all rabbits move like this???
In his hurry to get away he hadn’t considered where he was going. So when he finally paused to look around he was startled to find he didn’t recognize his surroundings at all.
The crooked roads and dingy markets he remembered had been replaced with bright white flowers, tidy stone paths, and buildings gilt in gold.
By the time the noise of his pursuers faded, he’d landed just outside of a long, spacious pavilion, with the bustle of a crowd coming from inside.
That wasn’t all, though. When he inched closer, he was hit by the feeling of something potent hanging in the air— like the heavy press of humidity, or the static of an oncoming storm.
He swept his gaze around, checking for witnesses before bunching his back legs and springing up onto the single round opening in the wall.
The space inside was filled to the brim with people; all of them dressed in swirling, colorful robes and armed with gleaming weapons. Which caused a spark to go off in Wei Ying’s head.
Cultivators. He had heard the voices talking about them before. High-ranking cultivators.
GGGGGRRRRR
Wei Ying jumped, nearly out of his skin, and whirled to see three large dogs standing at alert near the entrance of the pavilion. One had spotted him, and the others shifted focus to match.
Fear shot through him like ice down his spine.
Oh shit.
He jumped down and threw himself toward plummeting stone steps on the opposite side of the room. He practically flew down them—with barely enough grace to avoid tumbling head over ass— but he could still hear the baying dogs just behind him, leaving him shaking with chills.
He reached a landing and scrambled to hide behind the first thing he saw; which turned out to be a pair of soft-booted feet.
He cowered under many heavy layers of robes, hoping the dogs wouldn’t be bold enough to attack a cultivator just to find him. Unfortunately, he’d forgotten to consider what would happen if his hiding place actually noticed him. So he was surprised when a set of strong, jade-white hands scooped him up into the air.
He wriggled, trying to escape on pure instinct despite the danger of the dogs, but the hands refused to release him.
A shrill whistle cut through the air.
The dogs, who had just caught up to him, skidded to a halt and dropped submissively to the ground.
A moment later, a purple-clad youth strode up to them. “What the hell are you doing, chasing a rabbit?!” He clicked his tongue. “Does that sound like the job of Spirit Dogs to you?!” He shouted at the canines who groveled at his feet.
He turned. “My apologies, Lan Wangji.” He bowed respectfully. “They’ve never acted out like this before.”
The one holding Wei Ying bowed in response. “No need, Jiang Wanyin. Perhaps you can send them to the dormitories until meetings have concluded.”
Jiang Wanyin looked miffed by this but didn’t argue. “I’ll take them myself. Is that rabbit yours? I didn’t know that Gusu Lan allowed pets.”
“Not mine,” his captor corrected, “but pointless bloodshed should be avoided. Spirit dogs should not hunt wild game in a crowd.”
Jiang Wanyin scowled at what was clearly judgment. “Obviously. I’ll take them.” He pivoted on his heel and stormed off, whistling for his dogs to follow. “Jasmine, Love, Princess, come!”
The dogs rose and chased after their master, leaving Wei Ying dumbfounded in their wake.
Were those supposed to be those monsters’ names???
A gentle touch stroked his back, and Wei Ying stiffened in surprise. He looked up to find pale-gold eyes staring down at him intensely.
He gulped.
“Are you hurt?” The young cultivator asked in a soft voice, as if he expected an answer— even though he was already prodding Wei Ying’s ears and legs to see for himself. When he didn’t find evidence of injury he seemed to relax. “Are you frightened?”
If Wei Ying were human, he would have blushed and tried to crack a joke to hide it. As a rabbit, he could only kick his feet like a shy toddler.
You’re staring!
“Wangji? I heard a commotion. Is everything alright?”
With the swiftness of a child being caught up past their bedtime, Wei Ying was shoved inside a billowing sleeve.
“Mn.”
“Oh?” The soothing voice of yet another young man continued. “What was all that noise?”
“Jiang Wanyin’s dogs were misbehaving.”
“Were they?” He sounded surprised. “I wouldn’t have expected his dogs to slip up. Especially so publicly.”
Wei Ying’s bunny-napper was silent in response.
“Hm? You seem happier now than when we arrived. Did you enjoy seeing the dogs?”
“…”
“No? Did something else happen?”
Fingers brushed against Wei Ying’s ears, as if reflexively, and he squirmed in surprise.
So touchy!
“… Wangji what’s inside your sleeve?”
“…”
“Oh? You never lie. Are you sure you aren’t keeping something from me?”
There was a tense moment of silence before Bunny-napper scooped Wei Ying into his palm and unearthed him from the sleeve.
Two impossibly beautiful faces looked down at him and Wei Ying’s eyes widened in shock and wonder.
Are they twins?
The young man who was not holding him blinked. “A black rabbit? Where did it come from?” He reached out and offered his fingers to sniff.
Wei Ying felt a pang of hunger. This person was swimming with that alluring sensation from before, and he felt like his body was trying to eat itself alive in response to his craving for it.
He stretched out his nose.
The moment the two of them touched, a spark of energy zipped through his veins, and Wei Ying jerked back in surprise.
Whoa.
“It’s probably afraid.” Bunny-napper warned, tucking Wei Ying protectively against his chest. “It was chased.”
Understanding spread through the other youth’s darker eyes. “So you saved this rabbit. I see.” He smiled fondly. “Well… it doesn’t look domesticated. We should take it somewhere safe before letting it go.”
Bunny-napper tightened his grip.
“… Mn.”
GONG GONG GONG
“Ah, its time for the afternoon meal. Will you look after the rabbit until we’re on our way home? I would hate for it to wind up in trouble again.” The other cultivator tilted his head curiously, but the set of his mouth was strangely knowing.
Bunny-napper’s hand relaxed.
“I will care for it.”
“Good. Then we should go.”
Wei Ying was hidden unceremoniously inside the flowing white sleeve again.
What will happen to me? He fretted, now that he had a moment between threats of imminent death. Is this my second life? Reborn as a rabbit?
He was still mourning this possibility when his captor’s hand reached inside the sleeve. The rabbit was greeted by the smell of food, and it suddenly occurred to him that his biggest concern from his previously life had completely escaped his notice in this one.
He sniffed the greens that were offered to him and, finding nothing off about them, nibbled curiously. He hoped being a rabbit would make vegetables taste delicious to him for the first time in his existence.
He was sorely disappointed.
After a while, he realized that no matter how much food his keeper slipped to him, the strange hunger-pang feeling in his gut never went away. The heady sensation given off by Bunny-napper and his nearly identical— brother…?— still filled him with a hollow, aching pain that nothing seemed to fill.
Bunny-napper must have thought he was being restless, because he reached inside the sleeve again and carefully stroked two fingers along the slope of his head.
Wei Ying’s mouth watered. He could almost taste it. Whatever he’d been craving sizzled in the very air around him, and wafted off this cultivator’s arm in waves. Unable to take the craving another second, Wei Ying squirmed forward and pressed his mouth to the tender underside of Bunny-napper’s wrist.
The energy hit him fast, like biting into a pump fruit and having juice burst onto your tongue. Wei Ying felt like he should be choking on it, but there was nothing physical to choke on. Only the suffocating feeling of too much energy being poured into his veins.
He shoved himself away and half collapsed against the cool fabric of the sleeve.
What the hell was that?
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