Grantaire

The compliment earns Grantaire one barely-there warm glance, just a flicker before Lan Wangji hones in on the pinball machine again. He can go, now, for long stretches of easily keeping the ball aloft, his whole face perfectly still aside from the movement of his eyes as he follows it around the cabinet. When he does lose a ball, it is down to some truly unpredictable trick of the game's layout, the ball careening off a bumper at some startling angle or catching awkwardly on the tip of a flipper before he can save it. Moreover, he is, he finds, enjoying himself immensely. It comes as a faint but distinct surprise. Uncle would deride this as a waste of time and a frivolous indulgence. Wei Ying would love it. For better or for worse, Lan Wangji knows whose opinion he prefers to give weight.