First fic thread alert!

Wangxian Modern omg they were roommates AU

In which wwx starts playing the ghost hunting simulation game Phasmaphobia with jc, nhs, & wn and wakes up lwj by shouting like a baby about it in the middle of the night.

It’s been 1 month and lwj has gotten used to the fact that wwx stays up /late./

He’s always been a night owl.

Growing up it wasn’t uncommon for lwj to wake up with an explosion of text messages waiting for him. One sided conversations wwx would have, mostly nonsense.

The occasional existential crisis.

That was just the way he was. A supernova of constant energy, thoughts always rushing at a million miles a minute.

So yes, lwj had an idea of what wwx’s ‘sleeping habits’ were like when they moved in together.

They’re respectful of each other’s complete opposite schedules. Well, lwj is /always/ respectful. He goes about his morning routines in a comfortable silence, taking care not to disturb wwx while he sleeps until noon most days.

Some days he disturbs the curated silence though.

He takes his guqin out onto the balcony with his morning tea, plucks out gentle melodies and hums along wordlessly. It’s a good way to start the day.

For the most part wwx has been pretty subdued.

On two occasions lwj had woken at 2am to wwx crawling into his bed, the scent of rice wine heavy enough on his breath to make even lwj dizzy.

The conversations were still one sided, with wwx saying anything to come to mind as he nestled in close and asked to be held.

So lwj would silently hold him, wondering if wwx could decipher the morse code messages his pounding hard was sending.

He never could.

Only in the last week had wwx /really/ started disturbing lwj’s sleep schedule though.

The first incident occurred on Sunday night.

lwj had woken to the sounds of shouting and stumbled to wwx’s room, bleary eyed and disheveled, only to find him glued to his laptop with a gaming headset on.

‘No no no— fuck fuck FUCK! I’m dead, it got me. Hello? Hellooooooo? Can anyone hear me? I’m— oh, Lan Zhan, I’m sorry! Did I wake you up?’

Lwj soundlessly looked between the laptop and wwx before returning to bed.

Then it happened again the next night. And the night after that. After the fourth night, lwj finally had enough.

It’s nearly 1 o’clock in the afternoon when wwx shuffles into the kitchen the next day, bed head wild, rubbing his eyes.

Lwj’s chest thrums. He allows himself to be distracted for only a moment before remembering he’s /mad/ at him and they need to have a talk.

‘Good mor-mor-’ wwx interrupts himself with a loud yawn ‘ning, Lan Zhan’

‘Wei Ying, it’s no longer morning.’

Wwx gives him a sleepy smile and pours a bowl of cereal. It’s hard to scold him when he looks this adorable. But lwj’s entire routine has been upended for the past few days. He needs to put his foot down.

‘Lan Zhan, you’re staring at me.’

‘I am not.’

He is.

‘Oooookay, whatever you say,’ wwx says. ‘Sorry for waking you again last night, that game is just /scary/ sometimes.’

‘Why do you play it then?’

‘A-Ning didn’t want to play it alone,’ wwx shrugs.

Lwj’s chest feels warm again. Of course wwx would do something like that.

‘I made jiang cheng and nie huaisang join us too.’

And then his heart sinks for some reason. Wwx hadn’t asked him to play with them. Lwj doesn’t even have any games on his own laptop, only really uses it for work and watching cooking tutorials.

He has no reason to be jealous over their little group. But he is.

‘What is the game?’ lwj asks.

‘You wouldn’t like it,’ wwx says, amused twinkle in his eyes.

‘What is it?’

‘It’s a ghost hunting game.’

Lwj stares at him. Wwx is someone who still sleeps with a nightlight on and rushes up flights stairs in the middle of the night like he is being chased by something. Is he serious right now?

‘Wei Ying, you are terrified of such things.’

‘Yeah, but it’s fun to play with them,’ wwx laughs. ‘Even you might enjoy it.’

Well, what’s that supposed to mean?

‘Okay, I will play too then,” lwj says. Wwx blinks, looks at him like he hasn’t heard right.

‘Really?’

‘Mn. Install it for me.’

Later that night they are sitting in their own bedrooms. Wwx explained the mic feedback would echo if they were in the same room, plus it was a better ambiance for the game if they were separated. So lwj agreed.

Lwj is wearing a headset he borrowed from wwx and listening to jc, nhs, wn, and wwx chatter in the discord voice channel.

He has /no clue/ what they hell they're talking about.

Something about sanity. Jc is telling wwx not to turn all the lights on in the house again unless they want to die.

It's been fifteen minutes and they haven't even started playing yet.

They're all too busy bickering amongst each other.

'Lan Zhan are you still on? I can't hear you.' wwx asks.

'Yes.'

'Do you understand what to do?' nhs asks.

Is he supposed to? All they've done is spoken in circles about various items. Lwj tuned out after wn said oiuja board 4 times.

'I will follow Wei Ying.'

'No, we have to split up and search! The ghost only shows up if you're in a room alone,' jc says.

'Lan Zhan it's ok, follow me until you get the hang of it. I'll tell you what to do," wwx says brightly.

'Whatever, let's just start,' jc grumbles.

Lwj wonders exactly how fun this could possibly be if jc is already sounding so aggravated. Until he remembers one of wwx's favourite things to do is provoke and tease him.

'Here Lan Zhan, use the thermometer to search for the ghost, it's the most important role!" wwx says.

'No it isn't!' jc argues.

'Shhhhh, stop shouting, the lights will start flickering!' wn chimes in

The mechanics are clunky. The graphics are definitely nothing special. Lwj really doesn't understand what could possibly be so scary about the game as they shuffle around the little house.

Their characters are merging through the doors, for god's sake.

After another fifteen minutes of investigating wwx says they should actually split up. So lwj wanders around the basement and points the thermometer at random objects.

The voice channel is buzzing with their conversation but lwj notices something strange.

It actually sounds like they're speaking to each other from varying distances.

wwx sounds slightly muffled and quiet, but he can still hear him pretty clearly.

The others, he can barely hear. Even though they are obviously shouting in to their mics

Lwj doesn't use discord, so he figures maybe it's just some sort of technical error and chooses not to address it.

And he's /really/ still not getting the hang of this game.

Bored with wandering around the basement, he goes back upstairs to find wwx

The sound of heartbeats floods his ears, catching him by surprise.

'I hear something,' lwj says quietly.

No one responds.

'Wei Ying?'

No answer.

Lwj frowns and then realizes his character is locked in the basement now.

He removes the headset and goes to wwx's room.

'The lights are off, the lights are off! Fuckkkkk I'm so fucked, I'm so—'

lwj taps him on the shoulder and wwx /screams/

lwj jumps and takes a step back as wwx rips his headphones off.

'Lan Zhan! What the fuck, you can't scare me like that!" wwx is near tears and breathing heavily.

lwj's heart lurches, he really didn't mean to do that.

'I am sorry,' he says quietly.

'It's fine, it's fine,' wwx waves his hand and then rests it against his chest. 'Why did you come in?'

'I think my microphone is broken, I could not hear anyone.'

'Ahhh, yes that's part of the game. I should have told you that, I'm sorry.'

'And I was locked in the basement. Do you have they key to let me out?'

lwj doesn't really understand the look wwx is giving him. Really, it looks like he's about to start crying again.

'The doors lock sometimes, it's the ghost fucking with everyone. If you start to panic that's when it kills you.'

'Oh, I see,' lwj says and looks at wwx's screen. 'I will return to my room then.'

As he turns wwx's fingers close gently around his wrist.

wwx is giving him that /look/ again.

'Lan Zhan, are you having fun?'

So far, he's felt like the only one that doesn't understand an inside joke between friends. But wwx looks so... hopeful.

'Yes, Wei Ying. I think I understand better now.'

The smile that wwx gives him makes lwj's knees weak.

So what if he doesn't understand a single thing about this game. If stumbling through it makes wwx smile at him like that, he'll gladly break his routine to play it with him

As the night goes on, lwj does start to get the hang of it.

In fact, he starts to take it pretty seriously.

During one game he's the only one to keep a level head when the silhouette of a ghost child starts appearing through the flickering lights.

wwx dies during every game they play.

The /second/ anything starts to happen, he immediately begins babbling into the mic and lwj can hear his fingers smashing against the keys as he forces his character to run.

He's singled out every time.

Even as lwj chases wwx's character around in an attempt to draw the ghost's attention away and save him, he's always silent on his own mic so the ghost ignores him.

In order to draw it away, he would have to start panicking /more/ than wwx.

He hasn't spoken much at all during any of their games, always unable to make himself heard over the rest of them.

But wwx keeps dying. And he feels bad. He wants to help.

So on the next game when they learn the ghost's name lwj makes the decision to draw it out.

Before he does so he approaches wwx's character and drops some smudge sticks, which gives their characters more time to hide when being hunted by a ghost, at his feet.

'Wei Ying, take these.'

'Lan Zhan I already have some! Use them for yourself.'

'You always run out of them, take mine.'

'Are you two done courting each other? We have a ghost to hunt,' jc says loudly.

'You're just jealous you don't have a friend as good to you as Lan Zhan is to me!' wwx replies.

lwj has to cover his mic with his hand so no one hears the content little sigh that escapes his lips

'Are we splitting up now?' nhs asks.

'I'll take upstairs,' jc announces and disappears.

lwj continues following wwx around when everyone else splits up

By now lwj has figured out that the thing that makes the ghost pursue someone is linked to low sanity levels in the game.

Shouting, cursing, crying— all of the things wwx does— means his sanity levels are constantly near 0.

Ways to off set this and preserve sanity without having to take a sanity tablet include having their characters stay in well-lit areas or return to the van outside. But when wwx is running away he doesn't think logically.

And they can't carry sanity tablets around all the time. They need the inventory for other items.

'Lan Zhan, why are you following me?' wwx asks after five minutes

lwj doesn't say anything at first until he's sure he can't hear the others.

'To protect Wei Ying.'

'Lan Zhan!' wwx laughs. 'It's just a game.'

It's well past lwj's bedtime. He /might/ be a little loopy with sleep deprivation.

'Shhh, I will draw it out. Wei Ying, hide with the camera when I do.'

'Lan Zhan, are you sacrificing yourself for me?'

'....Mn.'

wwx's laughter rings out again over the mic and lwj keeps shushing him.

Doesn't he realize the more noise he makes that /he's/ going to be the one to draw the ghost's attention then?

How is lwj supposed to do this if wwx won't cooperate?

'Ahhh Lan Zhan, you're too much for me.'

'Wei Ying, this is very serious.'

'Yes, of course, of course!'

An abrupt hissing noise echoes in the headset. lwj listens calmly, but wwx must have heard it in his headset too because he screeches loudly.

God, he's hopeless.

'Lan Zhan! Did you hear that? Save me, Lan Zhan!'

'Wei Ying needs to be /quiet/ first!' lwj raises his voice for the first time all night.

Their combined chatter makes the ghost slam a door nearby as the lights start flickering. wwx screams again.

lwj can't hear the others at all. Not a good sign.

'Wei Ying, use a smudge stick and /hide!/' lwj shouts into the mic and then starts repeating the ghost's name to draw it out as he runs down the hallway.

It doesn't take long before 2 dead hands appear on lwj's screen, indicating the ghost has killed him. From the other room he can hear wwx dramatically shouting.

'Lan Zhan! Your death will not be in vain!'

Combined with the lack of sleep it's enough to make lwj start laughing deliriously.

After the rest of them regroup to call it to call it a night wwx barges into lwj's room, positively /beaming/ at him.

'I can't believe you sacrificed yourself for me.'

'You are not very good at this game. Someone had to help.'

wwx's laughter rings out bright and warm as he falls onto lwj's lap and wraps an arm around his shoulders.

'My hero,' wwx says.

lwj's heart pumps out another morse code message.

He has no idea what to do with his hands. Should he wrap an arm around wwx's waist?

They've been friends since childhood. They hug all the time, wwx /loves/ to hug. They've shared beds together.

Hell, this isn't even the first time he's had wwx draped over him like this.

He decides to grip the armrests on the chair instead.

'Lan Zhan?' wwx asks, uncharacteristically low and soft. It's almost a whisper, but not quite.

'Mn?'

'Can I sleep in here tonight?'

'Are you frightened?' lwj teases.

'What if I am?' wwx asks.

lwj looks up at him. He's seen wwx scared out of his wits plenty of times. That's not the expression he's wearing now. But lwj doesn't question it. Wouldn't dare question him.

'Then I will protect you, Wei Ying. I will always protect you.'

Take it from the top! https://twitter.com/wangxian_trash/status/1316165142246236163

This whole thing came about cause my own roommate has been playing this and listening to his screams from the basement in the middle of the night is literally the funniest thing in the world to me right now.

Thanks for reading!