There was a sense of urgency as Jiang Wanyin typed away on the old laptop in front of him.

He didn't know what it was. He couldn't think clearly. He felt muddled. The feeling was similar to if there was pressure against his ears and everything sounded a bit distant. A bit detached.

A prickling sense of anger poked at him. It seemed like everyone was having fun while he was slaving his weekends away doing college assignments. He knew for a fact that his brother was probably out on a date and having the time of his life with his boyfriend. Why can't he be doing that?

Jiang Wanyin grabbed the coffee cup next to the laptop and brought it to his mouth and scowled. This sucks. The coffee shop down the street didn't even get his name right. Who the fuck is Jiao Wanning??

Jiang Wanyin took a sip of the coffee. His frown deepens. So bitter. Just like how he's feeling right now. See, if he was at Aunt Luo's coffee shop it would have been way better. Lan Huan would never get his name wrong.

Then Jiang Wanyin's scowl faltered. Wait. Then why the hell did he buy coffee?

There was a small mirror at the corner of the desk. Jiang Wanyin glanced at it, his confused expression displayed on his face. Had he brought coffee to stay focused on his work?

Jiang Wanyin pushed himself up from the table. He began pacing around the room. What is going on?

It was as if he had forgotten what he came for. Something was different but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Is he suffering from memory loss? Or could it be that Wei Wuxian's goldfish memory is finally starting to affect him? Jiang Wanyin surely hopes not.

Maybe he just needed some fresh air. Jiang Wanyin pivoted on his heels and strode over to the door. He twisted the doorknob, opened the door, and met face-to-face with Lan Xichen.

The man on the other side of the door had on a white baseball cap and was wearing a mask, but no doubt it was Lan Xichen.

The two blinked and stared at each other for a moment. Then Jiang Wanyin grabbed Lan Xichen's arm, pulling him inside. "Great timing," he said.

。。。

。。。

。。。

Lan Xichen sat on the edge of Jiang Wanyin's bed, watching his boyfriend pace back and forth around the room with a scowl.

Lan Xichen opened his mouth, wanting to take the initiative to speak but Jiang Wanyin spun around and beat him to it. "What day is today?" he asked.

"February 13th," Lan Xichen said immediately. "It's almost Valentine's Day. Ahaha..." his voice trailed off at Jiang Wanyin's increasing glower.

Did Lan Xichen do something wrong? This morning when he woke up, he was struck with an immense and unimaginable... problem, to say the least. Alarmed and with no one in the house, Lan Xichen's only other thought was to see Jiang Wanyin.

But now looking at his boyfriend's sullen face, maybe he has an even bigger problem coming his way.

"What's wrong?" he asked and patted the space next to him on the bed. "Come sit."

Jiang Wanyin shot him a look before walking over and sitting down next to him. Lan Xichen smiled and wrapped an arm around Jiang Wanyin's waist. He gave him a swift kiss on the cheek and asked again, "What's wrong?"

Jiang Wanyin looked at him. He said bluntly, "Why were you dressed like that?" He meant the mask that Lan Xichen had taken off after he was inside Jiang Wanyin's home. It was like Lan Xichen didn't want to be recognized. Not to mention he was still wearing the white baseball cap.

Lan Xichen's smile froze on his face.

Jiang Wanyin narrowed his eyes at him. "Don't tell me you decided to become a celebrity without telling me."

Lan Xichen blinked before letting out a laugh, the tension easing. "Of course not," he said.

Jiang Wanyin, now genuinely curious, forgetting about his own problems, asked, "Then why are you wearing them?"

There was a discreet look in Lan Xichen's gentle eyes as he looked away to the floor. "I don't know, A-cheng," he said. He then sighed and admitted, "Frankly, I sort of wish that it was because of me becoming a celebrity."

Jiang Wanyin raised an eyebrow. Somehow he had the premonition that something bad was going to happen.

Lan Xichen furrowed his eyebrows and said, "Something abnormal happened to me today. No, not abnormal. It should be impossible. Wanyin, I don't know if you are going to believe me or not."

"What is it?" Jiang Wanyin asked. "I would believe you, just tell me."

Lan Xichen exhaled and looked at Jiang Cheng. "Alright, I'll show you. But A-cheng, whatever you do, don't freak out."

Jiang Wanyin bit back his rebuttal of why would I freak out and watched Lan Xichen finally reach up to take off his cap.

Lan Xichen's short hair was hidden underneath the cap and now taking it off, Jiang Cheng's eyes widened incredulously as the shockingly white hair was revealed from underneath.

"..."

Though it was an odd thing to do, it wasn't that odd and Jiang Cheng didn't know why Lan Xichen was freaking out about this. Did he want to make a bold statement with his hair and freak out because it was a bad idea? Though it didn't look that bad to Jiang Cheng. Lan Xichen was a handsome man so rather than looking like an old man, Lan Xichen looked more like a foreign idol Jiang Cheng seen on TV. Jiang Wanyin tilted his head to take a closer look and nearly fell out of his bed in shock.

A-are, are those- cat ears?

Wolf ears???

Lan Xichen looked like he was about to go into distress mode.

"Um," Jiang Wanyin managed to utter. "I thought you said Valentine's not Halloween." Jiang Wanyin recomposed himself. The ears had looked so real he gave himself quite the fright.

"That's because it is real," Lan Xichen said glumly. "It's real, Wanyin."

Before Jiang Cheng can go through his stage of denial and voice his shock, they hear the front door slam open, nearly scaring the shit out of the both of them.

Then the noise was accompanied by a pair of loud footsteps as if the person making it made it their life priority to disturb the peace of the neighbors downstairs.

Who else could it be then-

"JIANG CHENG! WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY! LAN ZHAN HE-"

The bedroom door banged open-

"HE-"

Wei Wuxian's eyes widened and the words vanished from his mouth as he saw Jiang Wanyin and Lan Xichen sitting there, at the edge of the bed. Particularly at Lan Xichen.

Lan Wangji appeared beside Wei Wuxian with his usual expressionless expression on his face, holding a folded sweatshirt atop his head with a hand.

Wei Wuxian: "Eh-??"

"Y tú?"

。。。

。。。

。。。

"Wait, so let me get this straight," Wei Wuxian said. "Lan Zhan and Xichen-ge just randomly conjured up whatever animal ears those are and their hair just randomly turned silvery white??"

"Guess so," Jiang Wanyin gritted. They had gathered around in a circle, sitting in a lotus position on the carpet.

Lan Xichen looked like he was reflecting on his life decisions while pulling on one of his 'whatever animal ears those are' as if it was the same as tugging on an earlobe.

Lan Wangji's face stayed impassive while Wei Wuxian's face had the what was the author thinking?? written all over it. But it wasn't anything personal.

"Then what do we do now?" Lan Xichen brooded. "I have a meeting for a new project my team has been working on in a few days and I can't go out looking like this."

Jiang Wanyin grimaced. Poor Lan Huan. Seriously, what was the author thinking?

Like I said, it was nothing personal.

"Well, good thing we have a few days to worry about it, right?" Wei Wuxian laughed awkwardly. "I mean, you can always just wear a cap to the meetings."

Lan Xichen and Jiang Wanyin stared at him. It was as if one was to suggest Lan Qiren wear a bathing suit to someone's funeral.

That might've been a bit of an exaggeration.

"Why are you not worried?" Jiang Wanyin snapped at Wei Wuxian.

Wei Wuxian blinked and pointed at himself. "Me? Well, I think Lan Zhan and I have reached an unspoken agreement that if worst comes to worst," Wei Wuxian's face turned serious, and puffed up his chest, "I'll protect Lan Zhan and hide him from the evil society and make enough money for the both of us."

"Wow, how benevolent of you," Jiang Wanyin said sarcastically.

Wei Wuxian shrugged. "Or I can always ask Luo-xiong or Hua-xiong for an extra buck."

Jiang Wanyin stared at him, half in disbelief, half in exasperation.

"What, it's not my fault you don't have any friends- oh! I know! We should call Hua-xiong! I don't know about you, but Hua-xiong's the smartest person I know! We should call him!"

"You think he's going to know what's going on?" Jiang Wanyin scoffed.

Wei Wuxian was already on his phone, ignoring Jiang Cheng.

No one picked up.

"Hmm... Let me try Xie-ge's phone," Wei Wuxian said, unbothered.

This time-

Hello?

"Ayeee, Xie-xiong!" Wei Wuxian cheered, winking at everyone in the room.

Jiang Wanyin: 🙄

Lan Xichen: 🙂

Lan Wangji: 😐👍🏻

Wei Wuxian began talking, "Hey, Xie-xiong, are you with Hua-xiong, right now? Can I talk to him?"

There seemed to be a fumble at the other end of the call. Wei Wuxian tapped the speaker button so everyone could hear Xie Lian.

Xie Lian spoke again: "Oh, I'm afraid that's not possible right now, Wei-xiong."

Wei Wuxian: "Eh, why not, Xie-xiong?"

Xie Lian's voice seemed strained over the phone. "Something unimaginable happened. I don't think you'll believe me if I tell you."

Everyone widened their eyes. Even Lan Wangji. (:0)

Wei Wuxian held the phone closer to him and said, "Um... Xie-xiong, maybe I'll believe it? Because something damn unbelievable happened to Lan Zhan and Xichen-ge!"

There was silence over the phone.

Then-

"Oh my god, it happened to you too?!" Xie Lian cried.

Wei Wuxian nodded in deep grief even though Xie Lian couldn't see him. Jiang Wanyin rolled his eyes.

Wei Wuxian whispered loudly over the phone, "Yeah, Xie-xiong it did. They just look a bit weird that's all. You should bring Hua-xiong over so we can try to fix this asap!"

"Mn, okay! I know I shouldn't be glad that it happened to you guys too but at least now I know I'm not going crazy. You should have seen my reaction when San Lang turned into a toddler! Hopefully, we can fix this..."

Jiang Wanyin blinked. No one dared say a word. Wei Wuxian's jaw almost dropped to the floor.

"Hello? Wei-xiong? San Lang and I are still coming over, right?"

Wei Wuxian picked up the phone, staring at Jiang Cheng. He closed and then opened his mouth and said, "Oh yeah, we are at Jiang Cheng's apartment, you know which one, the one we all got drunk at in our college freshman year."

"Ohh, got it! See you soon then!"

Xie Lian hung up.

Wei Wuxian's smile faltered. Since it was Xie Lian, they could only believe him.

Suddenly, sprouting a few pairs of wolf ears doesn't seem all that bad.

🥹

☺️

⭐️

Disclaimer: This author does not have a thing for furries.