Pronoun Trouble

I wrote two things for the 520 Day Guardian Reverse Exchange, both Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan. Firstly, my assignment, which I set during the blindness arc. This was the "4k words" fic I kept throwing tons of writing meta at... which helped to some degree, but the first draft still fell bafflingly flat. Thankfully, trobadora prodded me into making them actually talk about their feelings (what? who does that?!), and then it came into focus. I'm really happy with how it turned out. Also, this one had a title from pretty early on, so didn't cause me last-minute title stress. *pets it approvingly*

Title: Trust Fall (6163 words) [Teen and Up]
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Additional Tags: Mutual Pining, Emotional and Physical hurt/comfort, Domestic Weilan, Clothes Sharing, Protectiveness, Weilan letting their guard down around each other, Shen Wei’s secrets and Zhao Yunlan’s feelings about them, Episode Related, Blindness Arc, Missing Scene, Getting Together, First Kiss, Zhao Xinci's A+ parenting
Summary: Shen Wei’s grip on Zhao Yunlan’s arms tightened in line with the tension in his voice. “You didn’t tell Minister Gao.”

“What? This? Eh, why bother him with minor operational details during a holiday?”

“Details.” Shen Wei’s tone was flat, which probably meant his brow was stern. Not Envoy-forbidding, but something in the Mildly Disapproving Professor range.

Zhao Yunlan refused to be disapproved of. Why let worry flood in and wash away their victory?


And then I picked up a late-ish pinch hit. Which would have been completely fine, except that I pounced on the "outsider POV" prompt (yes!!), without considering that my outsider POV fics always run long, because I feel like the POV character needs to get their own arc as well as the requested pairing being very present. Seven thousand words later... Yeah, this is why I've been AWOL for the last week and a half. (Well, and other reasons. But this was a big part of it.)

Anyway, this is one of those post-canon/everyone lives fics, told from Li Qian's POV. I always feel like, having had her life saved by Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan at the beginning of canon, she has a low-key life debt to them. Not like she should call them benefactor or anything, but like they're karmically linked now, which is only a tiny step away from being found family. I had a lot of fun with her perspective, and (again, thanks to trobadora's beta) added more shippiness in the rewrite, and this is how it came out.

Note: This did not come complete with a preordained title, and I was flailing until inspiration hit about an hour before reveals.


Title: The Life-Changing Magic of a Home-Cooked Meal (7341 words) [General Audiences]
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Relationships: Lǐ Qiàn & Shěn Wēi, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, POV Outsider, Domestic, Politics, Dark Energy Science, Worldbuilding, Found Family, Sharing Clothes, Banter, Established Relationship, Long-Haired Shen Wei
Summary: Li Qian peered past him down the hall, but there was no sign of Professor Shen. What should she do with her gifts?

“He’s in the kitchen, cooking up a storm. I’ll take you.” Chief Zhao opened the door wider, and Li Qian squared her shoulders and walked into the home of Professor Shen, Shen Wei, hero, public figure, and Ambassador of Dixing.

Chief Zhao seemed completely at ease. He took her coat and hung it on a coat-rack that was already thickly layered with wool overcoats and leather and denim jackets. She left her shoes on the floor below, next to a pair of fine leather shoes, some casual sheepskin boots and some heavy black ones with buckles.

Her initial base assumption that the Black-Cloaked Envoy would live in eerie, solitary splendour was starting to seem shaky.