Work Text:
Jiang Cheng wakes up to a blinding headache, a stuffed nose and a scratchy throat.
He groans into his pillow before he’s even really awake and then he blindly reaches for his phone. He pulls up his last conversation with Lan Xichen and then types out a message with just one eye open.
I don’t want to see you today, do NOT come over.
As soon as he sends it he realizes that it sounds entirely too mean without context, so he quickly types out a I’m sick and don’t want to infect you, too but before he’s even halfway through that message his phone lights up with an incoming call.
It’s Lan Xichen, of course.
“It’s too early for me to have done anything to make you mad,” is what Lan Xichen greets him with, clearly trying for a light tone, but Jiang Cheng can hear the underlining worry in his voice.
“I’m not,” Jiang Cheng rasps out, and his throat is not liking his attempts to speak, because a coughing fit wrecks him.
“You’re sick,” Lan Xichen says with understanding once Jiang Cheng caught his breath and Jiang Cheng doesn’t dare to speak again, so he carefully hums.
“Is it very bad?” Lan Xichen asks and Jiang Cheng opens his mouth, before his eyes fall onto the bottle of water next to his bed.
“Wait,” he gets out, and reaches for the bottle, taking big gulps and soothing his throat—however temporary—before he gets back on the line with Lan Xichen.
“Very,” Jiang Cheng agrees. “I feel like my head is going to explode.”
“You sound horrible,” Lan Xichen notes and Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes—because duh—but even that turns out to be a bad idea, because it only intensifies his headache.
“I feel horrible,” he admits and Lan Xichen softly sighs at the other end of the line.
“Do you really not want me to come over? I could take care of you.”
“If you set foot in here, I’m going to sneeze on you and then you’ll be sick, too. And then who is going to take care of who?”
“Well, not you of me, because you’ll still be sick,” Lan Xichen teases, but then he gets serious again. “Promise me to at least call Wei Wuxian? Someone should check in on you.”
“You really don’t care about my brother, huh?” Jiang Cheng gets out before a new coughing fit hits him and Lan Xichen makes a concerned noise.
“I just don’t know him to get sick,” Lan Xichen corrects him. “I haven’t seen him sick in all the years he’s been with Wangji.”
“That’s because he gets sick exactly once a year, and conveniently always during the family retreat. I still maintain my position that he somehow does it on purpose.”
“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Lan Xichen agrees and then sighs again. “Fine, I won’t come to visit you. But you’ll keep in touch when you’re awake, okay, or otherwise I’ll worry. And as soon as the worst has passed, I’m right there by your side.”
Jiang Cheng closes his eyes at that, unable to help the soft smile on his face, because he loves this man so damn much, it’s ridiculous sometimes.
“Of course,” he promises easily. “You can even call once a day to make sure I haven’t died.”
“At least once a day,” Lan Xichen corrects him. “But now go write Wei Wuxian and then go back to sleep, alright, my heart?”
“Mh, okay,” Jiang Cheng whispers, already more tired than he had been when he woke up, and it’s a struggle to keep his eyes open.
“Text your brother,” Lan Xichen reminds him again and Jiang Cheng gets to it right that moment, because he knows otherwise he’ll forget it and fall asleep.
I’m sick, don’t bother coming over, he types, even though he’s not very optimistic that Wei Wuxian will listen to him.
He’s almost a worse mother-hen than Jiang Yanli.
“Done,” Jiang Cheng mumbles, eyes already more closed than open and Lan Xichen chuckles softly.
“Good, my heart. I love you. Now sleep,” he instructs him.
Jiang Cheng has just enough awareness left to mumble “Love you, too,” before everything goes dark again.
~*~*~
Jiang Cheng startles awake when the door to his bedroom is flung open with enough force that it bounces back from the wall.
“What the fuck,” Jiang Cheng gets out, his voice grating and not much more than a harsh whisper and it’s a real struggle to open his eyes fully, even though the adrenaline is coursing through his veins right now.
“Surprise,” Wei Wuxian’s obnoxiously bright voice yells out and it feels like he personally hammered a nail right between Jiang Cheng’s eyes.
“Fuck off,” Jiang Cheng groans and flops back into bed.
He really cannot deal with this right now.
“Won’t, can’t, shan’t,” Wei Wuxian brightly says and flings himself onto the bed.
“Go away,” Jiang Cheng begs as he tucks the blanket over his head, but Wei Wuxian doesn’t move.
“Still, won’t, can’t shan’t,” Wei Wuxian repeats and Jiang Cheng knows that he’s doomed.
If Wei Wuxian is in one of those moods, then it’s easier to make an elephant move. At least those can be lured away by food.
“What did I ever do to deserve this?” Jiang Cheng laments and peeks out from under the blanket, only to be hit by a blinding smile from Wei Wuxian.
“You’ll never know hoy you deserve to be this lucky in life,” Wei Wuxian solemnly says, but then he gets serious. “You really do look sick.”
“I am,” Jiang Cheng says, and as if to underline his point a cough wrecks his whole frame.
“You really are sick,” Wei Wuxian says again, as if Jiang Cheng would lie over text like that.
Jiang Cheng doesn’t deign to answer him and instead pitifully sneezes into his pillow.
“Gross,” Wei Wuxian mutters and then wrangles the pillow away from him.
“Hey,” Jiang Cheng protests, but Wei Wuxian isn’t deterred and simply takes the pillow away from him.
“It’s full of bacteria now, you’re not going to sleep on that anymore, I’ll get you a new one,” he rambles and dashes off to find a new one for Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng watches him run around in his room, a horrifying thought forming in his mind. He waits until Wei Wuxian comes back to the bed to shove the pillow at him, before he confirms it.
“You told A-jie,” Jiang Cheng says, and Wei Wuxian doesn’t even have to answer, the guilty look on his face tells Jiang Cheng all he needs to know.
“Why would you do that?” Jiang Cheng demands to know but Wei Wuxian only shrugs.
“You know how shijie is. If she finds out that you were sick and no one told her about it, she’s going to kill us both.”
“You didn’t even believe I was sick, why would you tell her?” Jiang Cheng incredulously asks but Wei Wuxian shakes his head.
“I didn’t tell her, though!” Wei Wuxian exclaims and Jiang Cheng narrows his eyes at him.
“Then who did?” he wants to know, but he can already guess what Wei Wuxian’s answer will be.
“Xichen-ge did,” Wei Wuxian says, and of course he did.
Of course.
“He’s such a worry-wat,” Jiang Cheng grumbles, but secretly he is pleased that Lan Xichen wanted to make sure that someone is looking after Jiang Cheng. “He already forced me to tell you, he really shouldn’t have dragged A-jie into this.”
“Nah, don’t complain, you love that he worries like that,” Wei Wuxian tosses over his shoulder, as he leaves the bedroom.
“What are you doing?” Jiang Cheng calls after him, completely ignoring how right Wei Wuxian is, and promptly starts to cough again.
“I come bearing gifts,” Wei Wuxian triumphantly says as he comes back into the room, burdened with two heavy looking bags.
“What is happening?” Jiang Cheng dumbly asks, because why the fuck is Wei Wuxian bringing him things.
“This one,” Wei Wuxian says and lifts the left bag, “is from shijie. It’s full of medicine and soup, so you get better quickly.”
“Of course it is,” Jiang Cheng mutters, but he holds out his hands to accept the bag.
Jiang Yanli really does worry too much about his health all the time, and it looks like she put all the medicine in her house into the bag. Jiang Cheng only has eyes for the containers of soup, though. The medicine can wait.
“Medicine first,” Wei Wuxian says just at that moment, as if he’s able to read Jiang Cheng’s mind and expertly steals the soup away from Jiang Cheng.
“Do not even think about eating that,” Jiang Cheng threatens him and Wei Wuxian looks at him with wide eyes.
“I won’t! Shi-jie will now and she will kill me. The soup is for you. But I am under very strict instructions to feed you medicine first, so open up!” Wei Wuxian cheerfully says and holds a pill to Jiang Cheng’s lips.
“I’m going to bite you,” Jiang Cheng threatens, but Wei Wuxian only takes that opportunity to drop the pill into his mouth.
Jiang Cheng swallows it on reflex, but he would prefer to spit it out at Wei Wuxian again.
“Okay, and now something for your stuffed nose,” Wei Wuxian says and holds out a spoon with some syrup on it.
Jiang Cheng eyes it suspiciously.
“I don’t think so,” he finally says and Wei Wuxian pouts at him.
“Do you want me to do the airplane thing?” he asks and Jiang Cheng glares so hard at him that his headache flares up again.
“I will sneeze on you,” Jiang Cheng warns him.
“Gross,” Wei Wuxian cheerfully says and then simply stuffs the spoon into Jiang Cheng’s mouth.
He almost chokes on it, but in the end he survives. He wishes he didn’t, though, with how foul it tastes.
“Better tell me what’s in the other bag,” Jiang Cheng says, once he’s sure he doesn’t have to throw up anymore and Wei Wuxian smiles at him.
“This,” he says and lifts the bag, momentarily forgetting about the medicine, “comes from your boyfriend.”
“Oh, really?” Jiang Cheng asks, curiosity piqued and he makes grabby hands at the bag. “What did he pack?”
“Fruits,” Wei Wuxian says with a shudder. “Lots and lots of fruits.”
Jiang Cheng smiles at that and looks into the bag when Wei Wuxian finally hands it over.
“He said he trusts that shi-jie had the medicine and soup part down and he’s adding the vitamin c you need to get healthy again,” Wei Wuxian explains and makes a gagging sound as if he and Lan Wangji aren’t just as sickeningly sweet to each other.
“And he packed all my favourites,” Jiang Cheng mutters, and blindly reaches into the bag and pulls out one of the fruits.
“Ew, wipe that love sick look off your face, I don’t want to see that,” Wei Wuxian gags, and Jiang Cheng sticks his tongue out at him.
“Go find your boyfriend and be disgusting with him then,” Jiang Cheng says and Wei Wuxian nods as if that is the best idea ever, and promptly leaves without a word of goodbye.
Jiang Cheng knows that he will be back in the evening to check if he ate the soup and to pester him with more medicine again, but for now he revels in the blessed silence.
Jiang Cheng bites into the fruit in his hand, his teeth sinking into the ripe flesh, and he hums when the flavour hits his tongue, thought he’s barely able to taste it with how sick he is.
He continues nibbling on the fruit as he reaches for his phone and calls Lan Xichen again.
“Did my package reach you?” is the first thing Lan Xichen asks and Jiang Cheng bites into the fruit again, trusting that the sound will carry over the phone.
“Ah, I see,” Lan Xichen says, and he must say it with a smile, because Jiang Cheng knows that particular voice.
It’s the voice he loves best, after all.
“I thought your sister had the rest covered, but I know you get a craving for fruits every now and then and I didn’t want to risk you not having any.”
“Thank you,” Jiang Cheng whispers and quickly swallows the rest of the fruit, before he lays back down in bed.
“How are you feeling?” Lan Xichen asks, his voice low and gentle and Jiang Cheng’s eyes are already going heavy again.
“Better, now that I’m talking to you,” he mutters and Lan Xichen huffs out a laugh.
“You sap,” Lan Xichen accuses him, but Jiang Cheng doesn’t mind, because after that Lan Xichen stays on the phone and talks to him until he falls asleep.
And it’s a very sweet sleep for Jiang Cheng, with the voice of his light in his ears.