Steam curled like phantom hands in the medicinal bath chamber. Lan Wangji's knuckles whitened around the scroll as Wei Wuxian's voice sliced through the mist: "Lan Zhan! My robes drowned!"
The Second Jade's footsteps echoed too loudly on damp stone. He kept his gaze lowered, extending the white underrobe like a peace offering. Wei Wuxian's laughter rippled through the steam.
"Jiang Cheng would've thrown it at my face."
Lan Wangji's collar grew damp.
Emerging from the bath, Wei Wuxian's fingers glowed pink from the medicinal brew. When he stumbled, Lan Wangji caught the scent of lotus seeds and regret.
The instant noodles steamed ominously on Wei Wuxian's desk. "Spicy or mild?"
"Mn."
As Lan Wangji dissected the artificial noodles with surgical precision, his gaze snagged on the aberration atop the bed—a plush doll with scarlet ribbon hair and stitched-on smirk.
Wei Wuxian thrust the effigy into his arms. "A-Xuan's masterpiece! Says it'll keep me warm." The cotton replica's button eyes gleamed with manufactured cheer.
Lan Wangji's finger brushed the doll's stitched palm. "Siblings."
"Unlike someone's ice-block childhood!" Wei Wuxian slurped noodles loudly.
When the Second Jade departed at curfew, frost patterns bloomed across the medicinal bath's floor—delicate fractals mirroring the doll's embroidered robes.
The nightwatch disciple would later swear he glimpsed twin shadows in the moonlit corridor—one carrying noodles, the other clutching cotton.