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Jiang Cheng knows he is sick. It is hard to deny that fact when he is sweating and shivering in turns, and everything is a little bit unreal and blurry around the edges. Not to mention his stuffed nose and the blinding headache that is throbbing away behind his temple.
Still, he can’t just rest, like his body demands. There are matters to attend to; letters to reply to, disputes to settle, meetings to be hold and decisions to be made.
He’s the sect leader; he can’t just take a day off. And he has a very honored guest that should be entertained.
No matter how much he aches with the need to lay down and rest his eyes, just for a moment.
But instead of doing that, he sits in his chair and listens to his Clan Elders complain about this year’s harvest.
As if that is something Jiang Cheng can influence.
Not for the first time that day Jiang Cheng wishes he had a trusted second, just so he could hand some of the responsibility off to them. But the only one who he trusts enough to handle the matters of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan is Jin Ling, and the poor boy is swamped enough as it is with learning how to deal with his own sect. He’s with Jiang Cheng to learn. Not to be put under more pressure.
Jin Ling doesn’t need this added responsibility, and besides. If anyone should help anyone, it would be the other way around. Like it always has been.
So Jiang Cheng continues to sit through this meeting, pretends that he cares, when he really couldn’t give less of a fuck if the Elders received a little bit less money from the harvest than they did last year, and tries his damn hardest to not just faceplant into the ground.
Even though the prospect becomes more and more tempting with every second that passes. If he manages to knock himself out like that, he’ll get at least a little bit of rest and quiet.
“Sect Leader,” one of the Elders suddenly says and it takes almost a full minute for the image of two identical people in front of his eyes to merge into one. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Yes,” Jiang Cheng grits out, and straightens up.
“No,” Jin Ling says from his side and Jiang Cheng sends him a silencing look.
Where is that handy silencing charm from Gusu when you need it.
“Be quiet,” Jiang Cheng demands, but Jin Ling squares his shoulders and Jiang Cheng knows what this means.
The boy takes too much after his mother in that regard.
“Sect Leader Jiang is sick,” Jin Ling says, almost accusingly, and Jiang Cheng would roll his eyes if he wasn’t so certain that it would split his head wide open.
“I am not,” Jiang Cheng presses out.
They have had this conversation already. All through breakfast and well into the morning, right until Jiang Cheng just walked out to attend to his duties, like a good sect leader.
“Shouldn’t you be resting, then?” the Elder says hesitantly.
“No,” Jiang Cheng tells him, just as Jin Ling says “Yes, he should be,” and Jiang Cheng’s head snaps around to him, not caring that the sudden movement upsets his stomach.
“I swear to the ancestors, I will throw you out if you don’t behave,” he threatens, and Jin Ling narrows his eyes at him.
“Do it. It’ll give me the opportunity to get Zewu-Jun in here,” Jin Ling hisses at him and Jiang Cheng shakes his head.
“He can’t order me to go to bed, either. Besides, you shouldn’t trouble him, he’s a guest.”
“Young master Jin, if Zewu-Jun would be able to help, we’re happy to get him,” one of the more friendly Elders pipes up and Jin Ling nods at him.
“He’s the only one uncle respects enough to listen to,” he decides. “Go get him.”
Jiang Cheng wants to strangle him, but he’s not sure he can summon up the strength that would take.
Not everyone was happy with the way Jin Ling interfered either, as it seemed, because a third Elder suddenly spoke up.
“No matter who the guest is, our Clan Leader can’t just cater to every whim of someone else,” he sneered and Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes at him, doing his best to see him clearly so he could remember his face once he was well again. “There are still matters to attend. Matters, the Sect Leader has to decide.”
“I’m sure there are,” Jin Ling said, and bowed deeply towards the Elder in a move that almost didn’t seem sarcastic. “But I’m sure there can be made an exception for the esteemed Zewu-Jun and honored guest of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan. He shouldn’t have to take his tea alone, every day, after all. We don’t want the Gusu Lan Clan to think we have bad manners, do we?” Jin Ling asked and Jiang Cheng could feel pride swell inside him.
The little mistress certainly knew how to use his words and how to sway the Elders. Jiang Cheng could just hope that he could handle his own sect as well as he just handled Jiang Cheng’s.
“Taking my tea alone is a dreadful boring experience,” Lan Xichen agrees, just as he steps into the hall, and Jiang Cheng wonders just how long he has been waiting outside. “I would be delighted by some company.”
“Zewu-Jun,” the Elders rush to greet him and Jiang Cheng can’t help the biting smile.
These goddamn bootlickers.
“If Clan Leader Jiang would be so kind as to offer me some company?” Lan Xichen asks, and Jiang Cheng doesn’t think he imagines the amused twinkle in his eyes.
“How could I ever deny the esteemed Zewu-Jun and our honored guest that pleasure,” Jiang Cheng gives back, with a side-look at Jin Ling who rolls his eyes at him.
“Do us all a favor and just take a rest,” he mutters under his breath, and Jiang Cheng swats his head.
“Careful,” he warns, but then turns back to the Elders. “The meeting is adjourned. We will continue this tomorrow.”
“Actually, I am still waiting for that sightseeing tour Clan Leader Jiang promised me,” Lan Xichen chimes in and Jiang Cheng presses his lips together, so he doesn’t burst out laughing. It probably won’t help his headache.
He hasn’t promised Lan Xichen anything, and least of all a sightseeing tour.
“How could I forget,” Jiang Cheng allows. “No meetings tomorrow then, either.”
The Elders rush to bow to him, and Jiang Cheng can’t say he’s too sad to see them all scramble in their need to get out.
Jin Ling respectfully bows and walks after them as well, much more composed than the Elders had been, leaving only Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen behind.
“You do seem terribly sick,” Lan Xichen tells him and Jiang Cheng scoffs, before a cough wrecks his body.
It doesn’t help with the headache in the slightest.
“Nonsense,” he gasps out once he can breathe again, and this time Lan Xichen looks at him with open worry.
“You should rest,” Lan Xichen says, and Jiang Cheng shakes his head.
“I’m okay. Or I will be, now that I don’t have to sit through another single complaint of them. I’ll finally catch up on my paperwork.”
“You will not,” Lan Xichen determinedly says, his voice allowing no argument, and Jiang Cheng stares at him in wonder. And maybe a little bit of awed desire.
He sometimes forgets that Lan Xichen is a clan leader himself.
“You will take a bath, and eat some soup and then you’ll rest,” Lan Xichen declares and steps closer to help Jiang Cheng up.
“I’m not some weak maiden,” Jiang Cheng complains and tries to push Lan Xichen’s hands off him, but of course he can’t even get him to budge.
“No, you’re just an incredibly stubborn man,” Lan Xichen mutters and simply lifts Jiang Cheng into a standing position. “Can you walk?” he wants to know and slightly loosens the grip he has on Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng’s knees immediately buckle under him.
“I’ll take that as a no.”
“I’m just--a little bit of rest would be nice,” Jiang Cheng finally admits, and he leans even more heavily against Lan Xichen.
He’s just glad that he’s too sick to get as flustered around Lan Xichen as he usually does whenever the other is even slightly close to him.
“A little bit of rest it is then,” Lan Xichen easily agrees and slings his arm around Jiang Cheng’s waist. “You’re burning up.”
“It’ll pass,” Jiang Cheng mutters, though now that he knows he doesn’t have to pretend to be alright anymore, he feels worse with every passing second.
“Under the right care,” Lan Xichen says and carefully walks Jiang Cheng towards his quarters.
Jiang Cheng must have passed out somewhere along the way, because suddenly he’s being lowered onto his bed.
“Need to undress,” he mutters, and tries to push Lan Xichen’s hands away again.
“I’ll help you,” Lan Xichen calmly promises but Jiang Cheng shakes his head.
It’s already bad enough Lan Xichen saw him in this state; he doesn’t need to help Jiang Cheng like a small child as well.
“I can do it,” he lowly tells him, even though his hands fumble on his belt.
He’s really cold, all of a sudden.
“Jiang Cheng,” Lan Xichen says and cups Jiang Cheng’s cheek in his hand.
Jiang Cheng wants to protest, because he’s sick and contagious and all disgustingly sweaty and Lan Xichen shouldn’t catch whatever he has, but instead he nuzzles into his palm.
“Let me help,” Lan Xichen goes on and Jiang Cheng weakly shakes his head.
“You’re our guest.”
“I’m your friend, too, aren’t I?” Lan Xichen asks, and Jiang Cheng decides he has to be imagining the hopeful tone in his voice.
He’s already more than lucky Lan Xichen indulges him every now and then with his requests for guidance. He should be so lucky to call him friend. Or anything more, for that matter.
So he doesn’t answer, isn’t sure he could form a coherent answer in his current state anyways, but Lan Xichen seems to take it as confirmation.
“Then shouldn’t I be allowed to help you?” Lan Xichen gently inquires, and Jiang Cheng finds it hard to remember any reasons as to why Lan Xichen shouldn’t undress him.
Not when he’s being this gentle.
“Yeah,” Jiang Cheng breathes out and is surprised when Lan Xichen chuckles at that.
“You’re really out of it already, aren’t you? Time for you to get into bed,” he decides and starts to undo all of Jiang Cheng’s layers.
He peels him out of his clothes, carefully guides him in this direction and then that one, and before Jiang Cheng knows it, he’s just in his underrobes and being tucked into bed.
“Sleep now,” Lan Xichen murmurs and smoothes his hand over Jiang Cheng’s forehead, effectively pushing the headache back to a more manageable level.
“You are too beautiful and too good,” Jiang Cheng mutters, already mostly on his way to sleep, but he still reaches out and presses Lan Xichen’s hand back to his face. “Too good,” he mumbles again, as he drifts off to sleep.
~*~*~
Lan Xichen stays with Jiang Cheng the whole time, even though most of the Elders seem affronted with his care for their sect leader.
If Lan Xichen has any say in this, they better get used to it quickly, because he’s not willing to leave Jiang Cheng again, unless he explicitly tells him to get lost.
The fever takes two long days to break and Jiang Cheng remains mostly out of it during that whole time.
He wakes for short times over the days, just enough for Lan Xichen to get some soup and water into him, but he’s never clear headed enough to have a conversation with him.
Jin Ling flutters in and out, always seemingly angry, but Lan Xichen can see the underlying worry in his gaze, notices how he visibly quiets down so as to not disturb his uncle’s rest, and Lan Xichen wonder’s if Jiang Cheng even knows how much his nephew loves him.
Jiang Cheng will probably kill Jin Ling if he hears that he threatened Lan Xichen to take proper care of his uncle or else. Lan Xichen had simply accepted the threat as the sign of love it was, and promised to do his utmost to nurse Jiang Cheng back to health.
And that is exactly what he is doing.
He’s there every time Jiang Cheng wakes up, hands him his soup and helps him with his water when Jiang Cheng’s shaking hands fail him.
Lan Xichen knows there’s a high probability that Jiang Cheng will be cross with him once he wakes up; Jiang Cheng doesn’t enjoy being seen as emotional at the best of times. Knowing that he’s been seen like this, sick and weak and almost vulnerable, will probably not sit right with him and he’ll lash out at Lan Xichen, he’s aware of that. Especially if he learns what he calls Lan Xichen every time he wakes up, and what he mutters in his feverish sleep.
It still doesn’t stop him. Lan Xichen would care for him like this even if Jiang Cheng wasn’t sick, if only he’d let him.
“Xichen-ge,” Jiang Cheng suddenly mumbles from his bed and effectively jolts Lan Xichen out of his wistful thoughts.
“A-Cheng,” Lan Xichen replies, and he would object to the liberty he takes with his fellow Sect Leader if Jiang Cheng hadn’t almost thrown a fit the first time he hadn’t called him A-Cheng in reply to Jiang Cheng calling him Xichen-ge.
Lan Xichen is still not over how much he likes hearing that name from Jiang Cheng.
“Still the most beautiful,” Jiang Cheng mutters, and immediately drifts off to sleep again.
He’s been doing that a lot lately, waking up only to check if Lan Xichen is still there, falling asleep before Lan Xichen can even reach for the soup, but Lan Xichen can’t find it in him to mind it.
He leans forward and presses a lingering kiss to Jiang Cheng’s forehead and is pleased to find that his temperature is steadily going down.
Jiang Cheng will wake up properly tomorrow, Lan Xichen is sure of that.
There is a very small part of him that is sad at the prospect of not being needed by Jiang Cheng anymore come tomorrow, of not being allowed all the liberties he had taken in order to care for him, but he squashes it down.
Jiang Cheng regaining his health is the only important thing right now.
Jiang Cheng wakes again in the evening, and this time he stays awake long enough for Lan Xichen to get some soup into him.
“Xichen-ge, I’m tired,” Jiang Cheng mutters after only five spoons and Lan Xichen sighs.
“Three more and you can go back to sleep,” he tells him, and he certainly doesn’t think of Jiang Cheng as completely adorable when he pouts at him.
“Xichen-ge is so mean to me,” Jiang Cheng mumbles, but obediently takes another spoon of soup and Lan Xichen can’t find it in him to insist on the other two when Jiang Cheng’s eyes grow heavy. “But always so beautiful,” he says under his breath and cuddles deeper into his blanket. “And the best.”
Lan Xichen smiles at him as he puts the bowl away, and then he rests his hand on Jiang Cheng’s head, soothingly carding his fingers through his hair until Jiang Cheng is deeply asleep again.
He sleeps through the night, much to Lan Xichen’s relief and when he checks his temperature again, he finds that it’s back to normal.
Seems like the worst is over.
Still, Lan Xichen stays in his room, resting on the bed some helpful disciples had brought him two days ago, and he keeps a close eye on Jiang Cheng.
He sees him wake up, disoriented and clearly still tired, but he gets up anyway. Jiang Cheng is still only in his underrobe, bright violet a beautiful contrast to his pale skin, and he rubs a hand over his eye as he shuffles barefoot towards the door, hair spilling wildly down his back and over his shoulders.
Lan Xichen’s heart thumbs heavily in his chest, and he really wouldn’t mind seeing Jiang Cheng like this, soft and unguarded, again.
“You should at least put on some shoes before you go outside,” Lan Xichen says when it looks like Jiang Cheng will really leave his room like this, and Jiang Cheng startles badly.
“What the fuck!” he exclaims, and though his voice is still rough, he sounds better too.
“I didn’t mean to startle you,” Lan Xichen says with a nod of his head, and he already mourns the loss of the soft, sleepy Jiang Cheng.
“Bullshit,” Jiang Cheng bites out and then seems to find his footing again, because the by now so familiar scowl finds his way back on his face. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m sorry for inconveniencing you,” Lan Xichen replies. “You were ill, taken with a severe fever, and we thought it best someone stayed by your side.”
“‘We’,” Jiang Cheng repeats and raises one eyebrow at Lan Xichen.
“Jin Ling was very worried,” Lan Xichen tells him and watches as Jiang Cheng gets flustered.
“There was nothing to worry about! It was just a simple cold!”
Lan Xichen wants to disagree, because Jiang Cheng had been knocked out for over two days by it, but he keeps his mouth closed when Jiang Cheng turns back to the bed.
“You’ve been here the whole time,” he mutters softly, almost questioningly, and Lan Xichen nods.
“Someone needed to make sure you eat.”
“And that someone had to be you?”
“I am here on holiday, so to speak. And besides, I didn’t mind.”
“You didn’t, huh?” Jiang Cheng whispers and Lan Xichen watches as he walks back to the bed, strokes a hand over the covers in deep thought.
“Xichen-ge,” he mumbles, and Lan Xichen replies in the by now quite familiar manner.
“A-Cheng.”
Jiang Cheng whirls around at that, and he seems he slightly overestimated his own health, because his knees seem to buckle under him, and Lan Xichen barely reaches him in time.
“Careful,” he admonishes him. “You’re still weak.”
He expects Jiang Cheng to protest at that but instead he leans further into Lan Xichen.
“You’re still too good,” Jiang Cheng lowly says and then groans when it seems to startle another thought. “I said the other part out loud, too, didn’t I?” he wants to know and Lan Xichen watches in fascination as Jiang Cheng blushes slightly.
“You usually did, yes,” he easily admits and can’t help but to press a soft kiss to Jiang Cheng’s temple, overcome with the need to feel the blush under his lips.
It’s nothing like his fever-flushed skin.
“Well,” Jiang Cheng says and then straightens up, out of Lan Xichen’s arms.
But before Lan Xichen can mourn his loss and wonder if their relationship is now ruined, Jiang Cheng pushes him down on his bed, before he climbs up to straddle his thighs.
“It didn’t send you running,” he observes, quite correctly, and Lan Xichen stares up at him, as Jiang Cheng puts his arms on his shoulders. “What is that supposed to tell me, Zewu-Jun?”
“That I much prefer it when you call me Xichen-ge, A-Cheng,” he replies and noses under Jiang Cheng’s chin, presses fleeting kisses against his fluttering throat.
“If this bedside manner is what that gets me, I think I can be convinced,” Jiang Cheng teasingly gives back and buries one hand in Lan Xichen’s hair.
Lan Xichen looks up at him again, even though it’s very hard to drag his lips away from Jiang Cheng’s skin, and he wonders if Jiang Cheng even knows what he does to him.
“You’re way too beautiful yourself, you know that?” Lan Xichen asks because Jiang Cheng is slightly smiling at him, his face soft and open in a way Lan Xichen hasn’t seen a lot before, and his hair is still open, softening him further.
He is so beautiful Lan Xichen has trouble breathing, let alone string a coherent thought together.
Jiang Cheng steals any remaining part of his sanity away when he leans forward and gently presses their lips together.
Lan Xichen hums into the kiss and chases after him when Jiang Cheng leans back, but he stills when Jiang Cheng cups his face in his hand.
“You’ve been taking very good care of me,” Jiang Cheng mutters as he presses another kiss to Lan Xichen’s cheek and Lan Xichen smiles at him.
“You’re very easy to care for,” he says and watches Jiang Cheng blush again.
He’s going to enjoy doing that a lot.
“Some would like to disagree.”
“Some clearly have no functioning brain,” Lan Xichen gives back, startling Jiang Cheng into a laugh.
The mood is only slightly dampened when it turns into a cough.
“You should rest some more,” Lan Xichen admonishes him, and rubs his hands up and down Jiang Cheng’s sides. “You’re still sick, even though you no longer have a fever.”
“I rested enough,” Jiang Cheng complains and then lets out a startled laugh when Lan Xichen lets himself fall backwards onto the bed, taking Jiang Cheng with him, so he’s sprawled all over him.
“Maybe I can convince you to stay a little bit longer in bed?”
Jiang Cheng scrutinizes him for a few seconds before he allows Lan Xichen to arrange them into a more comfortable position. Jiang Cheng melts against him as he tucks his face into the crook of Lan Xichen’s neck and then he lets out a long exhale.
“I think I’m convinced,” he mutters, sleep clearly tugging at him already again, and Lan Xichen continues to smooth his hand over his back.
“Good night, A-Cheng,” Lan Xichen says, lips pressed to the crown of Jiang Cheng’s head and Jiang Cheng snuggles even closer.
“Night, Xichen-ge.”