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Jiang Cheng wakes up when the warmth behind him pulls away.
“No,” he grumbles and throws his arm behind him to get Nie Mingjue back to where he belongs, which is plastered to his back.
“My heart,” Nie Mingjue says and leans back in to kiss his bare shoulder, “our light is missing.”
“What?” Jiang Cheng demands to know, but he’s already blinking awake, craning his neck to look at the very empty space in their bed.
Space that should be filled with a sleeping Lan Xichen, especially given that it’s still dark outside. Lan Xichen never wakes up in the middle of the night.
“You think he had a nightmare again?” Jiang Cheng asks Nie Mingjue, but he’s already locating a shirt.
“Maybe,” Nie Mingjue thoughtfully says and sits up, the blanket sliding down to his lap. “I thought he just went to the bathroom or something, but it’s been fifteen minutes now. Maybe longer.”
“Fuck,” Jiang Cheng mutters under his breath.
Lan Xichen doesn’t seem to dream about the sad man as he titled him as often as he used to, but when he does it still leaves him shaken.
If he has really been gone from the bed for as long as Nie Mingjue says then it was probably a bad one.
“Come on,” Nie Mingjue says, somehow out of the bed before Jiang Cheng, and offers him a hand.
Nie Mingjue didn’t bother to put on a shirt, and Jiang Cheng narrows his eyes at him. If only he would run that hot.
They silently make their way through the apartment, but they can’t find Lan Xichen in the bathroom nor in the living-room or kitchen, and that only leaves one real alternative.
They make their way over to Lan Xichen’s studio, moving on unspoken agreement and when Jiang Cheng peers into the room he finds Lan Xichen in it.
Jiang Cheng motions with his head for Nie Mingjue to follow him and they make their way into the room, now purposefully dragging their feet so that Lan Xichen can hear them approaching.
He is always easily startled after one of the dreams, and Jiang Cheng would hate to make his emotional state worse by scaring him.
They both look at Lan Xichen for a long moment; he’s standing in front of his canvas stand, empty canvas propped up on it, a brush forgotten in his hand as he simply stares at the white surface. He’s in his sleeping clothes, but he didn’t put on any socks or even shoes and Jiang Cheng thinks that he must be horribly cold by now.
“Xichen?” he carefully asks, but it’s Nie Mingjue who reaches out for him, to lightly touch his arm.
“My light?” he asks just as carefully as Jiang Cheng had, voice pitched low so that he doesn’t jerk Lan Xichen out of whatever place he retreated to.
It must have been a bad one if Lan Xichen is this unresponsive.
“My light, what are you doing?” Jiang Cheng asks him next, and moves to take the brush from his fingers.
There is no paint in sight, so he didn’t actually get that far before he lost himself in his thoughts and so the brush is easily discarded to the side.
Lan Xichen finally blinks at them, jerking slightly when he notices them, and then he stares at his empty hands, before he looks back at the canvas.
“...what was I doing?” he asks them, his voice rough and Jiang Cheng worries that he has been crying before.
“I think you were going to draw,” Nie Mingjue softly says and it must jolt something lose in Lan Xichen, because his eyes water and he starts to cry again.
“Oh no,” Jiang Cheng breathes out, his heart heavy, because he hates seeing Lan Xichen like this, hates that he can’t protect him from whatever his brain comes up with.
Nie Mingjue doesn’t seem to fare much better, if the pained noise he lets out is any indication, and it’s enough to finally make Lan Xichen look at him.
“Mingjue,” he breathes out and suddenly he’s scrambling at Nie Mingjue, moving his hands over Nie Mingjue’s neck over and over again.
“You’re alright, you’re okay,” Lan Xichen sobs out and then just falls against Nie Mingjue’s chest.
“Our soul is perfectly healthy,” Jiang Cheng lowly tells Lan Xichen as he moves closer to stroke his hand up and down Lan Xichen’s back. “It wasn’t real.”
He doesn’t know what exactly Lan Xichen dreamed about, but if this is how he reacts to it, then Jiang Cheng doesn’t even want to know.
“Are you truly?” Lan Xichen asks, his voice small and Nie Mingjue lets him smooth his hands over his arms and torso, even down to his legs.
“I am fine, my light. I’m not hurt and everything is where it’s supposed to be,” Nie Mingjue reassures him and Lan Xichen blinks up at him.
“But it wasn’t. Your head it wasn’t—,” he trails off here but Jiang Cheng can piece it together himself.
His head wasn’t where it was supposed to be and Jiang Cheng feels sick just thinking about it.
“My stubborn head is right where it belongs,” Nie Mingjue promises him and it startles Lan Xichen into a laugh.
“Okay, okay,” he mutters, but it seems like he can’t help himself as he checks Nie Mingjue’s neck over and over again.
Nie Mingjue allows it, even as Jiang Cheng steps closer and catches one of Lan Xichen’s hands in his.
It’s ice cold, like he feared.
“My light, come back to bed,” he coaxes him and Nie Mingjue takes Lan Xichen’s other hand.
“My heart,” Lan Xichen suddenly sighs as if he hadn’t even noticed Jiang Cheng at first, and Jiang Cheng leans in to brush a kiss over his cheek.
“I’m right here,” he promises and Lan Xichen nods.
“Don’t—don’t let go,” he asks of them and both Jiang Cheng and Nie Mingjue squeeze his hands.
“We won’t,” Nie Mingjue promises him, even as he pulls him towards their bedroom.
Lan Xichen follows them easily enough, even though he can’t seem to take his eyes off Nie Mingjue.
They lead him towards their bed, and Lan Xichen doesn’t seem to be ready to let go of Nie Mingjue yet, so Jiang Cheng gently untangles his hand and slides into it first.
“Come here, my light,” he says as he holds the blanket up for Lan Xichen to slide right under and he does so, even though he doesn’t let go of Nie Mingjue even once.
“I’m sorry, I have to—,” Lan Xichen starts and turns around, clearly not comfortable with leaving Nie Mingjue out of his eyes.
“That’s fine,” Nie Mingjue reassures him as he meets Jiang Cheng’s eyes over his head.
Jiang Cheng dislikes being the big spoon, but of course he’ll do it if it helps Lan Xichen.
So instead of answering Nie Mingjue’s unvoiced question, he simply snuggles up to Lan Xichen until they are pressed flush together.
“He’s still right there,” Jiang Cheng reassures Lan Xichen lowly, and then takes Lan Xichen’s empty hand in his again.
“And I’m not going anywhere,” Nie Mingjue promises as well, and then lays down close enough that his and Lan Xichen’s foreheads can rest against each other.
“Okay,” Lan Xichen breathes out and moves the hand that is still grabbing Nie Mingjue’s tightly until he can rest his fingertips against his pulse.
It seems to relax him, because he goes slack in Jiang Cheng’s arms and when he meets Nie Mingjue’s eyes he whispers “He fell asleep.”
“Good,” Jiang Cheng mumbles back and presses a kiss to the nape of Lan Xichen’s neck.
He hopes Lan Xichen gets a few more restful hours and he wishes he could just fight Lan Xichen’s nightmares.
It’s unfair that their light should suffer so, but at least Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng will be there to reassure him that whatever horrible things he sees, they are not real. They will love him until he forgets about them.
Jiang Cheng presses himself closer to Lan Xichen just as Nie Mingjue does the same, and they drift off like this, Lan Xichen secure and warm in their middle.