[threadfic time??]

Lan Jingyi met Lan Sizhui for the first time when LJY was four and LSZ was five. They had rooms net to each other in the Lan mansion. Their rooms were on the side of the house that Lan Wangji occupied.

Jingyi moved into the Lan mansion after a house fire killed his parents. Lan Sizhui had been adopted a few years prior by Lan Wangji for reasons the man refuses to tell anyone, but that Sizhui knew probably had something to do with why his memories before the age of four

were fuzzy at best.

Lan Jingyi was something like a sixth cousin, but when it came to Lan family members that had room, time, and money to take on an orphan, Lan Wangji had been selected specifically /because/ he already had a child. Clearly, he was qualified. Or something.

But the house was big, and old, and the walls sometimes creaked when it stormed outside. And the inner walls were thin.

So, when dreams of fire burned their way into Jingyi's mind, when he woke screaming in the dead of night, the first person to get to him - without fail

was Sizhui.

As they grew up, there were many who looked at the Lan boys and saw them as brothers. Lan Wangji with an ageless wisdom (or perhaps just clinical detachment) seemed to know better. Lan Xichen occasionally referred to them as brothers, but Lan Wangji never did.

Which was good because Jingyi and Sizhui had decided very early on that they were /not/ brothers. Jingyi had brothers once, had a whole family of which he was all that was left. Sizhui wasn't sure what it meant to have siblings, wasn't sure if the chilly relationship between

his father and his father's brother was the kind of relationship he wanted to have with anyone.

but, best friends, well, Sizhui knew how to make friends. He wasn't sure who, precisely had taught him that, but he taught it to Jingyi and for the next twelve or so years, that was

what they were: best friends.

And then, one day, Lan Sizhui met Jin Ling.

It wasn't that Jingyi had any issues with Jin Ling. He seemed spoiled and a bit full of himself, but he made Sizhui smile and Jingyi had a vested interest in seeing his best friend smile. So, for Sizhui's sake, Jingyi sucked it up and put up with Jin Ling.

It wasn't jealousy, not exactly. Jingyi had no interest in the sort of thing that Sizhui and Jin Ling did in private. He'd never felt that way about Sizhui. And it wasn't that Sizhui was unattractive or that Jingyi was straight either it was just...different for the two of them.

"Queerplatonic."

The word was unfamiliar to Jingyi, so he looked up at Ouyang Zizhen, who'd said it, with a look of confusion.

Jingyi and Zizhen had met a few months ago during freshman orientation at university, and still reeling from Jingyi-and-Sizhui

becoming Jingyi-and-Sizhui-and-JinLing, Jingyi had been eager to make another friend. Zizhen was fun, he had no qualms about saying what needed to be said, and he wasn't half bad to look at (though, Jingyi was toeing the line carefully on that one.)

He owed it to himself, to Sizhui, and to whoever he dated in the future to figure this out. Sizhui was his best friend, they'd known each other forever, but Jingyi didn't want to date him, he just wanted to be in Sizhui's life and he didn't even know how to explain that

to himself, let alone to another person.

So, "Queerplatonic relationship. It's what you have with Sizhui. You care about him, you two are important to each other, you're very much a part of each others lives, but you aren't dating. Queerplatonic." Zizhen smiled.

Zizhen's smile made Jingyi smile. Jingyi's smile made Zizhen blush.

And well, with that out of the way, it only made sense that the best way to thank Zizhen for helping Jingyi figure out what was going on in his own head was to kiss him.

(or that was the excuse Jingyi used.)

{stopping for now. There's more of this. This is all just....setup.}