title: a slow unfolding
fandom: Guardian
length: ~300 words
contents: no warnings apply, future-fic, ending AU: handwavey

summary: Zhao Yunlan makes sure there is always, always space for Shen Wei.




It isn't until much later that Zhao Yunlan discovers that Shen Wei loves music.

It's almost an accident, really. Dr. Cheng brings a half dozen old records to their housewarming party, and seems surprised that the turntable is nowhere to be found.

"He's had it since we were students together," she tells Zhao Yunlan, and Shen Wei ducks his head.

"I put a few things in storage when I left the teachers' dorms."

Breakable things, Zhao Yunlan guesses. Personal things he'd collected between one war and the next.

The record player makes an appearance the next day, on the cabinet Zhao Yunlan had ostentatiously cleared for it. The rest -- whatever else Shen Wei had chosen to protect -- stays safely locked away. Zhao Yunlan doesn't ask, but he does make sure (loudly, and at length) that there is room enough for anything Shen Wei might want to bring home.

After another week, and a conversation with Lin Jing, Zhao Yunlan braves the music store for analog speakers --

("Yeah, digital music sounds like shit," Da Qing had confirmed when Zhao Yunlan asked.

"But you never said anything!"

"How was I supposed to know you'd care? You have shitty taste in baijiu, too.")

-- all so he can come home one evening to find Shen Wei relaxed on the couch, eyes closed, as the soft harmonies of centuries-old chamber music float through the air.

The empty places on their shelves are still waiting for the end of the war; they may be waiting forever. But Shen Wei smiles when Zhao Yunlan joins him on the couch, and reaches unerringly to take Zhao Yunlan's hand in his.