I'll Be Watching

Fandom: Mo Dao Zu Shi
Pairings/Characters: M/M; Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 3,343
Content Notes: No AO3 Warnings Apply; winter weather as relentless atmosphere and adversary; public transportation as a liminal zone; possible unreality—the situation is open to interpretation.
Creator Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting
Creator Links: (AO3–locked) Suspicious_Popsicle, (Dreamwidth) suspicious_popsicle,(Tumblr-locked) suspiciouspopsicle

Theme: Journey & Travel, Hurt/Comfort, Modern AU

Summary: When he came to, the bus was on the freeway. The windows were dewed with drops of melted snow that shone with captured light. Outside, traffic was at a standstill. Dingy slush covered the roads, gradually accumulating as snow drifted down from the woolen sky, the flakes picked out in sharp contrast where they plunged into the light of streetlamps and headlights. Wei WuXian laughed softly to see it. When he turned away from the window, he saw that the beautiful man from earlier was still sitting next to him, watching him with an expression that might, optimistically, be called inquisitive.

“The snow,” Wei WuXian said, gesturing outside. “It looks like champagne bubbles, only going the wrong way.” He laughed again, and rubbed his head. “Have you ever felt drunk, but been pretty sure you weren't drinking? Haha, no, never mind me. I'm just tired.” He rubbed a hand over his face, wanting desperately to sleep.

Author’s Notes: For firesonic152.
For my friend, who got stuck on a bus and sent me photos. XD

(See the end of the work for other works inspired by this one.)

Reccer's Notes: A modern AU account of a snowy night when Lan Wangji serves as Public Transit Guardian Angel to an exhausted, dissociating, and hypothermic Wei Wuxian—who has been in far more trouble than he realizes.

(Until the summer of 2023, shanks’ mare and Dayton, Ohio’s city bus system were my primary modes of transportation. This hazy grey winter ghost-story-or-is-it? is anchored in Suspicious_Popsicle’s concrete lived-in detail, nailing the experience of looping interminably around just to shelter from the elements, waiting for the next opportunity for a stop or transfer (better hope you have at least a day pass and a sympathetic driver, and that you don’t drowse off again!) And of trudging wearily forward through the hostile frigid weather in sodden Vimes’ Boots! Boots! Boots!

Suffice to say that the idea of rescue by a steadfast, devoted, and ethereally handsome Saint Bernard held a profound appeal.)

(This hits similar narrative pressure points to willowcatkin’s Guardian fic The White Umbrella, recced here.)

Fanwork Links: (AO3-locked): Night Bus, by Suspicious_Popsicle : https://archiveofourown.org/works/16792465
Collections: fics that cured ser’s depression
Inspired Works:
Little Talks, by firesonic152.
[Podfic] Night Bus, by flamingwell.