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Jiang Cheng has better things to do than follow Lan Xichen around Lotus Pier, and yet here he is.
He’s keeping his distance; doesn’t want to be as overbearing as Lan Wangji has been back in the Cloud Recesses, after all. It’s just that he can’t help but worry about Lan Xichen.
Jiang Cheng only visited Lan Xichen twice before he decided to take him away from the Cloud Recesses, but it had been enough to see how the other Clan leader was fading away, slowly but surely.
Lan Wangji tried to explain to him that seclusion was sacred, and couldn’t be broken by outsiders, but Jiang Cheng didn’t give a shit about that. Seclusion wasn’t doing Lan Xichen any good; he was stewing in his own thoughts and memories, tirelessly trying to figure out where he could have spotted Jin Guangyao’s plotting, and it was destroying him.
Jiang Cheng wondered how Lan Wangji couldn’t see it, but in the end it didn’t matter. He wasn’t about to just leave Lan Xichen there, so taking him away, stealing him away, was the only logical solution.
Lan Xichen barely protested his own kidnapping, which only served to make Jiang Cheng feel justified.
And he had been right to steal him away, too, Jiang Cheng could see that after just two days at Lotus Pier.
Cloud Recesses was silent and strict; it was good to learn restraint and to be at peace, but it wasn’t what Lan Xichen needed.
He shouldn’t be left alone with his thoughts for too long, and the Cloud Recesses barely provided any distraction.
Lotus Pier was different. It was bustling with life; people running around, vendors yelling to sell their wares, training was loud and rambunctious.
It was nothing like the Cloud Recesses and maybe everything Lan Xichen needed.
“Are you worried he’ll drown?” Jin Ling suddenly asked from Jiang Cheng’s side and Jiang Cheng instinctively clenched his fist, Zidian faintly crackling.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jiang Cheng almost yelled but kept his voice quiet enough as to not draw Lan Xichen’s attention to him.
“Wondering if you’re worried he’ll drown,” Jin Ling cheekily replied and Jiang Cheng cursed every ancestor he knew for Wei Wuxian’s influence on the boy.
“Why would I worry over such a thing? I’m busy,” Jiang Cheng courtly gave back, but Jin Ling gave him a much too knowing smile.
“Of course you are. You do know that he can’t swim, right?”
“Do you have so much spare time that you can pester me with this?” Jiang Cheng wants to know, wondering who he’ll have to punish this time for letting Jin Ling skip his lessons.
“I finished my tasks early,” Jin Ling proudly says, lifting his chin up as if he wants to dare Jiang Cheng to say anything to that, but Jiang Cheng only looks at him.
Sometimes he wishes he was a bit more like his sister and Wei Wuxian; more open with his words and gentler with his temper, so he could tell Jin Ling that he’s proud of him every now and then. But when he opens his mouth to try the words get stuck in his throat like always and he falls back on his by now so familiar frown.
“Then get the hell out of here, before I find something else for you to learn,” he snaps at Jin Ling, who doesn’t seem particularly surprised or hurt by his outburst.
“Of course, Uncle,” he respectfully says and dashes away after a quick bow.
Jiang Cheng is staring after his nephew when he’s suddenly startled yet again.
“He’s doing a good job as a Clan leader at this age,” Lan Xichen softly remarks, and Jiang Cheng only barely manages to keep Zidian in check.
“Of course he is,” he snaps and then inwardly winces.
Lan Xichen is an honored guest and a Clan leader; Jiang Cheng should show him more respect than that.
“You did well, raising him,” Lan Xichen says, and Jiang Cheng turns to him. “And there’s no need for you to worry about me drowning,” Lan Xichen goes on, a small smile playing around his mouth.
Jiang Cheng desperately tries to not feel embarrassed that he overheard them talking about him, and instead focuses on the fact that Lan Xichen is smiling at all.
It’s already so much progress to the lifeless shell he stole away from the Cloud Recesses.
“But you can’t swim,” Jiang Cheng says, because he did know that. Of course he knows that.
It was his main concern when he made the decision to bring Lan Xichen here. He wanted to help him, not drown him in the never-ending water around Lotus Pier.
“No, I can’t,” Lan Xichen agrees, though he doesn’t seem particularly worried. “But there are so many people here, I doubt I could fall into the water unnoticed. Not to mention that everything is kind of overgrown by the lotus petals,” he goes on and Jiang Cheng frowns at him.
It’s not overgrown. It’s mostly left to it’s natural course and if the beautiful disarray is unpleasant to Lan Xichen’s eyes, then he can just suck it up and learn to deal with it. Not everything has to be as boring as the Cloud Recesses.
“It wasn’t a criticism,” Lan Xichen is quick to say, because apparently Jiang Cheng is now easy to read for everyone, not just his own family.
“I didn’t say anything,” he snaps, and this time Lan Xichen hides his smile behind his sleeve.
“Would you let me drown if I were to fall in?” Lan Xichen asks and he’s eyeing the water in a way that worries Jiang Cheng.
“Don’t be stupid,” he gives back, not softening his words in the slightest. “I won’t always be around to safe you.”
“Of course not,” Lan Xichen agrees, but it doesn’t seem like he believes Jiang Cheng at all.
Jiang Cheng wants to ask Lan Xichen how he likes Lotus Pier, if he regrets coming here at all already, but the words won’t come and so he simply says nothing.
“I like it here,” Lan Xichen eventually says and startles Jiang Cheng out of his thoughts. “People don’t treat me like I’m made out of glass, or with accusation. Jin Guangyao’s actions barely touched Lotus Pier. There’s no one to blame me, here.”
Jiang Cheng thinks back to how worried Jin Ling has been about Lan Xichen, about the worried looks even Nie Huaisang can’t completely play down, no matter his involvement in everything, and he wonders if Lan Xichen even knows that no one blames him.
“No one does,” he shortly says, because emotions are hard, and he briefly wonders if this is why Lan Wangji speaks so little.
“What?” Lan Xichen asks, and Jiang Cheng just barely refrains from rolling his eyes at him.
“No one blames you. You could have asked Jin Ling to stay with him and they would gladly open their doors for you,” Jiang Cheng explains and sees the honest surprise on Lan Xichen’s face. Not so surprisingly is the pain underneath.
“I’m not sure I can go back there,” Lan Xichen softly says and lets his gaze wander over the bustling piers and shimmering water. “I’m not sure I want to leave it here.”
“Then don’t,” Jiang Cheng says and sighs when Lan Xichen turns questioning eyes on him.
“I brought you here so you can heal,” Jiang Cheng explains, “but you’re welcome to stay here long after that.”
“Is that so,” he whispers, and Jiang Cheng is not sure he was meant to hear that.
They both stay quiet for a moment before Lan Xichen turns back to Jiang Cheng.
“Accompany me for today? Just to make sure I don’t drown?” Lan Xichen asks, and Jiang Cheng sees the humor under his still too present pain.
Jiang Cheng thinks about the myriads of tasks he should be doing, the letters he should be replying to, the decisions he has to make, and he finds it’s not a difficult choice at all.
“Of course,” he tells Lan Xichen and fights the rush of emotions at his pleased smile.
Jiang Cheng expects so see it more often the more Lan Xichen heals, and he just hopes he’ll get used to it someday.
Otherwise he’ll just have to show Lan Xichen how to swim, just to get away from him every now and then.