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- The First Gift
It started when they were teenagers, like most things did with them. After all, they met the first year of high school, fourteen and fresh-faced, the top two in their classes despite Wei Ying being a delinquent. This of course infuriated Lan Zhan. Rules were meant to be followed, and that’s what would lead to success, yet here this bright-eyed boy was throwing that out the window.
They were assigned to a project together several weeks into their first year, and they got kicked out of the library to study due to Wei Ying’s incessant chattering, so Lan Zhan reluctantly offered his house as a place to study. Once Wei Ying saw his room he was fascinated by every single object, mostly plain white and blue items needed for school, but he had one indulgence and it was a pack of bunny stickers for his planner. Wei Ying looked at him with a sparkle in his eye.
“You like bunnies Lan Zhan?”
Lan Zhan only nodded mutely but could feel a blush creeping into his ears. Would Wei Ying tease him for this?
Wei Ying did laugh, but it wasn’t cruel. “That’s so cute! You should get more bunny-themed items, like a keychain, or a plushie, you would seem a lot less strict!” Lan Zhan thought there was nothing wrong with being rule-abiding and strict. Wei Ying seemed to live a totally different life. Yet he was constantly in punishment for it.
They didn’t manage to finish their assignment that day, but after two more study sessions, they got their work done and received the highest grade in the class. Wei Ying celebrated with a whoop and slung his arm around his neck squishing their cheeks together causing Lan Zhan to flush and shove him away. He couldn’t handle this closeness. Wei Ying merely laughed.
*
Lan Zhan and his brother were shopping with his uncle, looking methodically through the checklist of items again, when out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of something. It was advertised as a children's item, it was cartoonish and far too colorful for him for sure. Yet the bunny key chain reminded him of Wei Ying’s words and because of that he wanted. He took the keychain off the display and brought it to his uncle.
“Uncle, can I get this? For my bag for school.”
Lan Huan immediately took an interest in the keychain. “Oh, how cute Lan Zhan! Those will match those stickers I got you for your planner nicely. It’s good to indulge every once in a while.”
Uncle looked between them and said, “Very well.” Lan Zhan added it to the cart and tried not to think of what Wei Ying might say when he noticed it.
*
Wei Ying noticed the key chain nearly immediately. “Ah Lan Zhan did you take my suggestion? Getting cute bunnies for your bag? It’s so cute let me see Lan Zhaaaaaaan.”
While Wei Ying turned the key chain over in his hand and complimented and started asking Lan Zhan questions, leaning in close Lan Zhan thought Oh. He wasn’t irritated by Wei Ying. He liked Wei Ying. That’s why he couldn’t stop blushing around him. That’s why his thoughts swirled around Wei Ying constantly.
There was no way he could tell anyone this, ever.
*
Lan Zhan suffered through his crush through the next several months. He noticed that While Wei Ying made a special point to talk and to tease him every day, he also seemed to flirt with other classmates just as easily. It made Lan Zhan question if he was special to Wei Ying at all. The thoughts stupidly kept him up at night.
Then soon after new years is Lan Zhan’s birthday. He eats breakfast with his uncle and brother, who wish him happy birthday. His uncle gifts him generously a new laptop to take notes and do schoolwork on. His brother gifts him a new set of pens with a blue bunny motif on them. Lan Zhan thanks them for them the gifts then heads to school. He hadn’t told anyone at school it was his birthday, so he didn’t expect any well wishes or gifts of any kind. That was until he saw Wei Ying.
Wei Ying came into the class just as the bell was ringing which wasn’t unusual. What was unusual is that he was carrying a giant stuffed bunny. The stuffed bunny had to be at least three feet high, white with a light blue bow on top of its head. Wei Ying rushed to his seat and tried to squish the enormous bunny under his desk, but when he figured out that wouldn’t work he set the bunny next to him. He caught Lan Zhan’s eye and winked.
During lunch hour Wei Ying bounds over to Lan Zhan’s desk. “Lan Zhan! Do you like your present?”
“How did you know it was my birthday?”
“I had to be sneaky in the administrative offices about it, but I wanted to surprise you! Are you properly impressed?”
Lan Zhan had to admit he was. He had no clue what he was going to do with the giant bunny. But he could already feel himself growing fond of it because it was from Wei Ying.
“I have nowhere to put it.”
“You can put it in your bed and cuddle it and pretend it’s me! It will make you happy!” Wei Ying said with a teasing smile. All Lan Zhan could think is that it would.
Wei Ying walked him home that day carrying the giant bunny the whole way, and placed it on his bed when they got back to his house. He insisted on taking selfies with the bunny and taking pictures of Lan Zhan holding his new present.
Wei Ying lingered at the door when it was time for him to go home.
“Thank you for the bunny, Wei Ying.”
“It was nothing! I just wanted you to feel special, and have something that made you think of me.”
Lan Zhan hesitated only slightly before saying. “I always think of Wei Ying.”
Wei Ying blushed. “Do you mean that?”
Lan Zhan nodded his head. “Mn.”
Wei Ying smiled his brilliant smile. “I have one more gift for you but you have to close your eyes.”
Lan Zhan squeezed his eyes shut. He breathed in and out, then felt lips pressed against his own for just a moment, not even enough time for him to kiss back. “Happy birthday Lan Zhan.” Was whispered, and by the time he opened his eyes, Wei Ying was gone into the night.
He couldn’t help thinking it was the best birthday he ever had.
2. the kidnapped one.
Wei Ying and Lan Zhan ended up officially getting together that summer and have been dating ever since. When it came time for college they both got high grades and could get into a lot of different schools, so it was easy to choose to go to school together. They’re first year they had to live in dorms, and they didn’t end up even in the same building, but Lan Zhan had a single room so he spent a lot of time in there, even though Wei Ying got along with his shy roommate, Wen Ning.
Wei Ying quickly found a group of friends through his roommate and dragged Lan Zhan to hang out with them too. There was Wen Ning, his sister Wen Qing, Jiang Cheng, who had decided to go to the same school as them as well, and Nie Huaisang. If Lan Zhan found it was easy to talk to Wen Qing, who was going to school to become a doctor. She also had a passion for studying hard.
Wei Ying became friends with Nie Huaisang through a science class they took together. Apparently, Nie Huaisang was extremely squeamish and didn’t like the experiments most of the time so Wei Ying offered to be his partner through all the different projects. Nie Huaisang did his nails as payment which Wei Ying thought was totally worth it.
Wei Ying was studying in his own room for once because apparently he was being too “distracting” to Lan Zhan. He didn’t think it was his fault that his boyfriend was so handsome he wanted to make out with him instead of studying. Either way when his phone started ringing he happily took the distraction.
“Nie Huaisang, what’s up?”
“Wei Ying, have you looked at the syllabus for for our class?”
“Not really? I know I’m supposed to but-”
“In two weeks they’re going to have us dissect rabbits! I can’t do it, Wei Ying, I won’t!”
“That can’t be right, let me look.”
He pulled up the sheet that had their experiments list on it. They had done larva, and frogs so far. There it was in two weeks it said: “Experiment with rabbits.”
“It’s okay Nie Huaisang, we’ll save those bunnies.”
*
The first step was finding the rabbits. So Wei Ying dragged Wen Ning along to the school’s lab building to find the bunnies in question. It was late at night so they were being extra sneaky. Most of the doors were unlocked so it wasn’t hard to look around but finally they came across a locked door that seemed to have some animals inside.
Wei Ying grumbled. “Great, how do we get in now?”
Wen Ning gave him a sheepish smile. “If you have a hairpin, I can try to unlock it?”
Wei Ying took a pin from his hair and handed it over to Wen Ning and whooped after a couple of minutes when the door successfully came unlocked. “Yes, Wen Ning! Coming in clutch with your surprising tricks!” This caused Wen Ning to blush.
They looked around the room and there were several animals, rats, frogs, and even some bugs, but over in a cage in the corner was what they were after. The rabbit. There was only one surprisingly. It was kept in a fairly large cage, but there were no other cages of that size anywhere in the room and it was the only one in there. Wei Ying decided to take the whole cage with them.
“Where are we taking it?” Asked Wen Ning as they fled into the night. “Back to our dorms?”
“Nope, I have a better idea.”
*
“Wei Ying, why have you come to my room at 2 in the morning with a rabbit?”
“Our class was going to dissect it so we had to save it!”
“That seems Unlikely.”
“It’s true Lan Zhan! They were keeping him in a cage and-”
“A cage? They were keeping him in a cage?”
“Yeah and-”
“Disgraceful. Rabbits should have a hutch, and room to play. I will take care of him.”
Wei Ying smiled. “Thanks, Lan Zhan! I knew you’d want to! Finally, you get a real bunny after all this time, huh?”
“Mn, we must go shopping for supplies tomorrow.”
“Sure thing. Why don’t I crash here tonight?” He looked expectantly at Wen Ning who had been watching their conversation from the sidelines, and petting the rabbit gently.
“Oh, oh! Wei Ying must be very tired, but I’m not as tired, I can make it back to our rooms okay, you sleep here Wei Ying, I’ll go back now. Goodnight!”
“Goodnight!” Wei Ying waved Wen Ning out before quickly jumping into Lan Zhan’s arms.
*
Wei Ying quickly found that Lan Zhan with a real live bunny had very few other interests other than that bunny. They had made their way to several supply stores the following day and Lan Zhan had made as roomy of a hutch as he could for the rabbit in his small dorm, but mostly let him wander around free when he was home from classes.
Wei Ying received several bunny pictures a day, and Lan Zhan had even been active on Instagram just to upload bunny pictures. It was so cute.
Disaster struck when the faculty started asking where their rabbit had gone. Wei Ying had a thick face and could pull off ignorance, but Wen Ning trembled at the thought of getting in trouble. The Professor came in and addressed the class as a group.
“I believe it was one of my classes that stole the rabbit we were set to do positive reinforcement tests with, please fess up now.”
Nie Huaisang raised his hand. “Positive reinforcement tests?”
“Yes, that's the experiment we were doing with the rabbit for my class.”
Nie Huaisang looked at Wei Ying like, oops.
*
“Lan Zhan we have to give the bunny back, they weren’t really going to kill it.”
“They mistreated it. It’s mine now.”
“Lan Zhaaaaan.”
*
They did room inspections a week later and found the rabbit in Lan Zhan’s room. He went to the head of the faculty and pleaded his case that he should be allowed to keep it because it was mistreated before. When they took a look at his impressive hutch they gave in easily, which just caused Wei Ying to laugh.
3. The Bunny’s Buddy.
Once they graduated college they moved to an apartment in the city together. Their bunny, now named Lemon, got a spacious room in the living room to play. It was an important part of them picking out their apartment for the foreseeable future.
There were things that Wei Ying enjoyed about living in the city, the go go go worked how his mind worked, he liked that he just had to walk for a minute to be where good food and good coffee was. He knew Lan Zhan missed small-town life though, and that made him miss it too. They tried to visit their families often but they were all busy with their jobs.
Which is why Wei Ying wanted to cheer his boyfriend up for their anniversary! And he knew just the thing. He had been keeping his eye on animal shelter pet adoption websites and when Bumblebee had lit up his screen he knew that that bunny would be the perfect companion to Lemon. His discription was shy but friendly, which was absolutely perfect!
Wei Ying planned to pick him up while Lan Zhan was at work the day of their anniversary and surprised him. He hid in the closet calling the animal shelter to explain his plan and they readily agreed to hold the bunny for a few days.
On their anniversary usually they went all out, but this year they decided to have a quiet night in since it was their first year at their jobs, so Wei Ying was expecting some elaborate gift from Lan Zhan, but how could he top a bunny? Wei Ying would win this secret competition.
Their anniversary came around and Wei Ying always got off work about an hour before Lan Zhan did, so he had plenty of time to stop by the shelter and pick up the rabbit. They gave him a little cardboard carrier to take him home in and off he was to go home a suprise Lan Zhan.
When he got home he was surprised to see Lan Zhan’s car already parked. Oh no, how would he hide the bunny now? He unlocked the front door trying to walk past the kitchen with the bunny carrier behind his back when Lan Zhan called for him.
He looked to their small dining room, and it had transformed with balloons and flowers all around and a romantic setting for two, dinner already plated. Wei Ying’s mind whited out. “Lan Zhan what is all this?”
“I got off work early so I could surprise you. Wanted to show you how much I love you.”
“I know you love me, Lan Zhan, you didn’t have to do all this to show it.” His heart squeezes in his chest.
“Wanted to. Wei Ying should always feel loved, always feel appreciated, and always have the best. I always want to give Wei Ying the best of everything that I can.”
Wei Ying’s eyes were beginning to sting. “Lan Zhan stop or I’ll start getting the wrong idea about what this is.”
Lan Zhan shakes his head. “You don’t have the wrong idea. I’ve wanted Wei Ying as long as I’ve known you, in every way. Love Wei Ying as much as my body will allow me to. Let me show you for the rest of my life.” Then he drops to one knee and holds out a silver ring.
Wei Ying is blubbering at this point, cannot believe this is happening. He can only nod and accept the ring as Lan Zhan slides it onto his finger.
“You did all this,” Wei Ying says between sobs. “The dinner, the proposal, everything and I got you Bumblebee.”
Lan Zhan looks at him in confusion. “A bumblebee?”
Wei Ying holds out the cardboard carrier. “Bumblebee!”
Despite the chaos, Lan Zhan’s face lights up as he opens the carrier and coos at the new bunny. So maybe the bunny was the right choice after all.
4. Little Bundles Of Joy
Wedding planning was absolutely chaotic, especially when you had as much family to please as Lan Zhan and Wei Ying did. Lan Zhan often in the late hours of the night when they were discussing curtain colors would whisper super sexy ideas in Wei Ying’s ear like, “Let’s just elope and be done with it.”
Wei Ying got shivers up his spine at the idea. But he also pictured the disappointed look on his Jiejie’s face when she wasn’t there for it. So he tried to stay strong.
Things were going well on the bunny front, Lan Zhan was equally in love with Bumblebee as he was with Lemon. He ordered mini hats and outfits for them to dress up in and take cute photos. His Instagram had taken off and now had hundreds of thousands of followers because of the bunnies. Wei Ying was so proud. His little Lan Zhan, social media famous. Of course, Nie Huaisang wanted to talk about social media all the time when they hung out now. After college, he became an influencer, much to his brother's frustration.
It was six weeks before their wedding when Lan Zhan was pacing back and forth in their living room. “Something is wrong with Lemon, he has gained a lot of weight the past several weeks, and even the followers have noticed.”
Wei Ying hmmed. “We can take him to the vet this weekend, I’ll call to make an appointment.”
The weekend came around and Lan Zhan took their precious bunny to the vet. Wei Ying received a call while Lan Zhan was still there. “What’s wrong? Is it Lemon?”
“Lemon is pregnant. Lemon is also apparently female.”
“What? WHAT?”
“She’s due in 10 days.”
*
“Lan Zhan we can’t keep all the babies we don’t have the room.”
“Mn.”
“And we both work long hours, we don’t have the time to care for this many bunnies.”
“Mn.”
“Don’t be unreasonable! What are we supposed to do? Move out to the country with a big yard so we can have a million bunnies?”
Lan Zhan looked at him with glittering eyes.
“Oh my god, fine.”
*
“I can’t believe you got special permissions to work remotely because of bunnies.”
“They’re very important to Lan Zhan’s social media, Jiang Cheng.”
*
They got married on a spring day with flowers blooming everywhere in the garden where they were having their ceremony at and in the background of all their pictures a dozen baby bunnies ran around in the grass, as if they were Wei Ying’s and Lan Zhan’s children.
5. The Sick One
After their wedding day, they packed up and moved out of the city to a ranch house that better suited their lifestyle of having many rabbits. It had a large fenced-in yard that was perfect for their 13 rabbits and Wei Ying also started a small vegetable garden outside the fenced-in area so the bunnies wouldn’t nibble on it. Life was very domestic, they shopped at farmers markets, and traded gardening tips with the grannies next door. They worked from home and life was lovely.
They just found out Lemon was pregnant again and so they were preparing for even more rabbits, Lan Zhan was thrilled. Wei Ying was planning on getting all the little rabbits fixed soon.
One day Lan Zhan was scrolling through his phone when he received a message from one of his followers. He didn’t typically reply to messages but this message was from someone concerned about how their rabbit was losing hair and had discoloration on its stomach. They couldn’t afford to take them to the vet though.
Lan Zhan replied with a cautioning message that it sounded like ringworm and that is transferable to humans but it was very treatable.
The person sent back several panicked messages back that they couldn’t afford treatment, asking if they should take their bunny to a shelter and how could they help.
Lan Zhan found Wei Ying and sat down with him. “One of my followers needs help with their rabbit, I think we could care for it but it would mean adopting another rabbit that is ill.”
Wei Ying just laughed. “What’s adopting one more rabbit when we have 20? If we can help we should. We can become a bunny shelter for all I care.”
And suddenly, they were.
After Lan Zhan picked up that rabbit with ringworm and treated it, and let it loose with the other rabbits, others started reaching out to him to ask to take care of their injured or ill rabbits. Lan Zhan took them all in from all over the country, with no cost and became The Bunny Shelter.
He uploaded pictures every day to his Instagram to update people on how the bunnies were, and people kept sending their rabbits there, and Lan Zhan and Wei Ying lived happily with a hundred bunnies by their side.
+1. The One He Got To Keep
After years of adopting bunnies and having the little rabbits make their lives full, they decided they were ready for a bigger challenge. It worked out perfectly that Wen Ning’s baby cousin was looking for a home right at that moment.
And so they adopted little A-Yuan into their lives. A-Yuan loved the bunnies, and his new parents and they loved him in turn, spoiling him rotten easily, yet he was a well-behaved child. It was a good thing he found his father's romance endearing because they were sick with it, always showing affection to each other and A-Yuan.
Wen Ning and his sister visited the family often, as did Lan Zhan’s and Wei Ying’s siblings who loved A-Yuan.
As he got older A-Yuan learned to care for the bunnies. He especially loved caring for the sick and injured ones, and had an especially gentle touch. Lan Zhan praised him often.
A-Yuan even loved bunnies in his toys, playing with paper rabbits, or rabbit-themed card games. The giant stuffed rabbit that Wei Ying had gifted Lan Zhan all those years ago now sat in A-Yuan’s room, he would often jump into it for story time since it was larger than him. Lan Zhan thought sadly about how it wouldn’t be for long.
A-Yuan started kindergarten out great, making several friends, and drawing them in with his rabbit stories. One of his cousins was in the same class so that was nice. First grade was an even bigger hit with all the stuff he got to learn he was so excited about recess too.
The first day of second grade he came home tears soaking his face. “There was a rabbit caught in the fence, we haftu save him!” A-Yuan cried to his dads. Lan Zhan and Wei Ying grabbed some supplies and led A-Yuan back to the school.
There was indeed a baby rabbit caught in the playground fence. Lan Zhan gently used wire cutters to cut the rabbit free and secured it in a small carrier with some food. They brought it back home where A-Yuan took obsessive care of it. He cleaned the rabbit's wounds, and played with the rabbit and made sure it was eating day after day.
Even after it was all healed up he would look specifically for this rabbit.
Lan Zhan sat down with his son while he was playing with the rabbit one evening. “A-Yuan would you like to name this rabbit?”
“But you and Dad always name the rabbits.”
“Yes, but I thought this one could be Yours.”
A-Yuan’s eyes grew bright and shiny. “Mine? My rabbit?”
Lan Zhan eagerly nodded his head. “Mn.”
A-Yuan thought hard. “I want to name him Cloud because you said we could go where you grew up one day and there on those mountains you could touch the clouds.”
Lan Zhan could only smile naming his rabbit after family. “Indeed we will go sometime.”
And so Wei Ying, Lan Zhan, and A-Yuan spent their days with their rabbits, and each other, being happy forever.