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Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes as he watched Wei Wuxian yawn for what must have been the hundredth time in a shichen, his head drooping into his hand. It was getting ridiculous - and frankly quite embarrassing - to watch him.
Jiang Cheng supposed he understood. They were at the end of a long day; a very long day. They'd been up earlier than normal, and Lotus Pier had to receive the thing its disciples feared most: visitors. There was no leeway for creases in their robes, nor room for the kind of fooling around they were all used to (and, loath though Jiang Cheng was to admit it, quite fond of). They had to be on their best behaviour - or better, if they could manage it - all day, all the time.
And the crowning glory of any visit of another large sect to Lotus Pier was always the banquet at the end. This, over everything else, was the thing Jiang Cheng knew tired his shixiong out the most. Wei Wuxian just wasn't used to big gatherings with lots of social rules yet. There was still the occasional dish where he tripped up, or a social nicety he forgot that no one would point out to someone his age, assuming he should know it already.
Normally, he did fine. Better than Jiang Cheng sometimes, even, because he'd always struggled to remember some of the bits that came in the middle of a meal depending on the number of visitors they had (not that he'd ever admit it. Never). But that didn't mean that he found it easy, and that much was abundantly clear right now.
Jiang Cheng watched as Wei Wuxian yawned again - it couldn't have been more than a minute since the last time. As he looked, someone at the next table leaned over to murmur something in another's ear, drawing their eyes over to where Wei Wuxian sat, only half awake. Their expression wasn't a kind one.
Jiang Cheng had to do something. He couldn't demand they stop being rude - they were guests, and Wei Wuxian was being impolite by nearly falling asleep during the meal. But he could do something else.
"Niang," he said, tone as careful and put together as he could manage. There were eyes on him immediately, of course, but there probably had been all evening; he just felt them most now. "It is getting late, and the warmth is getting to me. May I go outside to get some air?"
Her eyes narrowed momentarily. For an instant, Jiang Cheng wondered if maybe he should have asked his father instead; he probably would have been more likely to grant the request, but that would have meant even more people seeing 'his' moment of weakness.
"You may," she said. "Try to be quick." She was disappointed in him, and Jiang Cheng tried not to be too upset by that. She'd only be more disappointed by his next action, and it was better to get used to the feeling anyway. It was hard to impress her these days.
On his way out, trying to ignore which eyes followed him and which returned to conversations that were hopefully far more interesting than the Jiang Clan's heir not having enough energy to make it through a full meal, Jiang Cheng passed the table Wei Wuxian sat at. A lot of the disciples clustered around looked tired, but none as much as Wei Wuxian.
"Come on," he said, gently poking Wei Wuxian's shoulder. He jolted, his eyes momentarily more alert. "You look like you'll fall asleep if you stay here any longer."
Ignoring the way that more eyes immediately fell on him, Jiang Cheng offered Wei Wuxian a hand. He took it gladly, a small, tired smile forming on his face. And then, side by side, they made their way out of the hall and into the cool air beyond.
Still, Jiang Cheng couldn't help but hear the words murmured as they walked. "It's like a mirror image of twenty years ago," one voice proclaimed. "The Jiang Clan don't change with the generations, it seems."
"You needn't say it as a bad thing," another replied. "It's adorable, the way he cares for his shixiong."
Jiang Cheng wrinkled his nose; he wasn't 'adorable', and a stranger saying as much almost made him want to turn back and leave Wei Wuxian to his drowsiness. But he tried to let the feeling go, concentrating on something else - he'd gotten away with it. The bone he threw to Wei Wuxian that would so count against him in his mother's eyes was spoken of well.
"Thanks, Jiang Cheng," Wei Wuxian said, almost the moment they were out of the hall and under the stars. Jiang Cheng felt better out here too; the air inside was far stuffier than he liked, and a little of the headache that threatened the corners of his mind eased now he was away from the pressure of so many people. He let his posture drop a little.
"You shouldn't stay up so late on nights before big days like this," he grumbled. "Then I wouldn't have to bail you out."
Wei Wuxian smiled with that sweet little smile he always put on when he wanted Jiang Cheng's father to ruffle his hair. Jiang Cheng shoved him in reply, but without much force. "I can handle it!" he objected. "Besides, no one was looking at me."
"They would have if you'd fallen asleep at the table," Jiang Cheng pointed out, choosing not to mention the people who very much had been looking at him. Wei Wuxian pulled a face and fell quiet again, his expression unable to hide the tiredness that marked his sluggish movements.
He perked up a little, however, as they got further and further away from the dining hall - much further than would constitute going out 'for air'. As if stepping outside for a moment would help Wei Wuxian at all. "Are we not going back yet?" he asked, his cautious tone laced with undeniable excitement.
"We've been boring all day," he said, hoping he sounded nonchalant. "I don't want to go back yet." Maybe not at all, if he could manage it; he hadn't quite worked out what he would say and do when he went back into the hall.
"Sounds good to me," Wei Wuxian said, eyes brightening by the second. "Where are we going?"
"You live here," Jiang Cheng shot back. "You tell me where we're going."
A crease appeared between Wei Wuxian's brows for just a moment before his expression lit up - he must have realised where Jiang Cheng's steps led to. "Really? In our nice robes?"
"They're not nice after you wear them anyway," Jiang Cheng grumbled. He hadn't even been looking, but sure enough, Wei Wuxian sheepishly rubbed at a small stain on the inside of one of his sleeves. How did he get something on the inside?
"That's different to training," Wei Wuxian said, clearly attempting to save even a little bit of face.
"We're not training," Jiang Cheng said. His legs carried him beyond the training grounds, heading instead to the edge of the lake that lapped at the shore there. The evening air was cooler out here, a breeze blowing across the water. Jiang Cheng closed his eyes, took in a deep breath, and waited for Wei Wuxian to twig.
Wei Wuxian squinted at the water for more than a few moments. He was normally so sharp; he must have been really tired. "You want to go for a swim?" he asked. "Your robes really will get muddy if you do that. You’ll have to clean them, you know."
"I don't want to go swimming," he replied. Wei Wuxian blinked, nodded, and then joined him in looking out over the water without another word. There was a very small smile on his face.
Jiang Cheng waited for a while. Not too long; if Wei Wuxian woke up too much, he might be too alert. But just as he hoped the false sense of security had settled in, he struck, his palms striking Wei Wuxian's back and sending him stumbling into the water.
"Jiang Cheng!" Wei Wuxian surfaced almost immediately, drenched from head to foot in the slightly muddy water. "I thought you said you didn't want to go swimming?"
"I never said I would be," he shot back, standing at the shore with his arms crossed and a small, probably smug smile forming on his face. "It's you who fell in the water."
"I fell?" Wei Wuxian asked, head cocked to one side. Jiang Cheng's stomach lurched at the sound of it; he was plotting something.
But it had been a long time since he'd been able to avoid Wei Wuxian's little traps, so he was content to blunder on and react when the moment came. "Yep," he said. "You fell."
"I see," Wei Wuxian said. "That means I was tired, and not looking where I was going... and with these heavy robes- whoops!" With a brief splash, he went under the water again.
Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes. He knew this game, and he knew to wait. But Wei Wuxian knew to wait, too, so Jiang Cheng watched as a few bubbles rose to the surface, and then a few more. Wei Wuxian still didn't resurface.
"Fine," he grumbled. "Play your games." Then, knowing that he was doing exactly what Wei Wuxian wanted him to, he jumped into the lake right after him.
"Oh, no," he said, hoping Wei Wuxian could hear every word from under the water; if he couldn't, there was no point to all the sarcasm he loaded into his voice. "My poor, helpless little shixiong is drowning. Whatever will I do?"
There was a tug at his leg. Jiang Cheng studiously ignored it. Then there was another, and another; he just waded out until he was waist deep in the slightly muddy water, knowing that his robes were already filthy. That was sort of the plan, but he was already dreading having to wash them later; he already knew he wouldn't get away with asking someone else to. Not even jiejie would do it if she learned he'd pushed her precious A-Xian into the water.
The tugging stopped, and for a brief moment Jiang Cheng entertained the worry that maybe Wei Wuxian was drowning. But he knew better than to seriously consider it - Wei Wuxian didn't have lots of swimming experience, not compared to most of the Jiang disciples, but that didn't mean he was bad at it.
Soon enough, Wei Wuxian proved exactly that. He surfaced; not at Jiang Cheng's side, but further out in the lake where the water was deeper. He looked to Jiang Cheng, gestured ‘help’, and then splashed back under the water again.
Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. Of course.
Still, he gave chase. Anything to have a good enough excuse to avoid going back to the banquet for the foreseeable future.
Jiang Cheng caught up to Wei Wuxian once, twice, three times; he was a better swimmer than Wei Wuxian, and he could go a lot faster. But as they kept going and Jiang Cheng's muscles started to tire just a little, he realised just how quickly Wei Wuxian was catching up - how quickly he was catching up in everything, not that Jiang Cheng would ever admit it aloud.
It didn't bode well for the future; if Wei Wuxian continued like this, he'd be head disciple within a few years. He'd make a terrible one.
But that was the future, not now. Now, Wei Wuxian's movements were clearly slowing, his body tiring. Maybe he was far from being truly spent, but Jiang Cheng wasn't going to take that risk so far away from land - or help. So he hooked one arm around Wei Wuxian's shoulders and tugged him, slowly but surely, towards the nearest shore.
There was only one problem with that: it was the closest one. Not the one they'd come from. By the time Jiang Cheng had them both sat firmly on the grass at the edge of the lake, he was very aware that they were no longer in the training grounds. Trees stretched around them, looming far into the distance. There was no sign of anyone around.
Oh well. At least they were out of the water, coated in mud as they now were. The ache of tiredness from the banquet had changed into something entirely new; a different kind of exhaustion, filling every inch of Jiang Cheng's body, right down to his bones.
Wei Wuxian didn't say anything, so Jiang Cheng just wrung his hair out and put his head against the grass, staring up at the sky.
The sun was almost gone now, slipping to its resting place under the water of the lake. It tinged the sky in orange and pink, accentuating the grey smudges of clouds that drifted overhead. Soon enough, it would take the warmth with it, and they'd both be cold as well as wet.
Jiang Cheng found he didn't really care. He'd rather just stare at the sun until it vanished, listen to Wei Wuxian's steady, quiet breathing until the time came when he decided to be loud and annoying again.
It wasn't until the sun vanished, replacing pink and orange with the bluish-grey that would soon turn to inky black, that Jiang Cheng finally moved again. His limbs had gone stiff, half with dirt and half with cold, and it took longer than he'd admit to sit up and start warming himself up.
He looked over at Wei Wuxian, whose wide eyes still stared up at the sky. Jiang Cheng looked up again; there wasn't that much to see just yet, but who knew what Wei Wuxian was really looking at?
Either way, he wasn't going to ask. Staring at the slowly appearing stars was all well and good, but Jiang Cheng still had no idea where they were. It was probably a good idea to at least attempt to find out.
He pushed himself up from the ground; there was a little scrape on the palm of one of his hands that caught the dirt as he moved, but he could deal with that later. "I'm finding out where we are," he announced, and then he started walking. Wei Wuxian didn't move.
He kept walking; before he even reached the trees, there was a flurry of movement, and Wei Wuxian appeared at his side. "Hey, Jiang Cheng, wait for me!" He sounded a little nervous in a way Jiang Cheng was no longer used to. There was a quietness to his tone too, one that Jiang Cheng had thought gone for good in the last few months as his confidence grew.
Strange. He didn't mind it, but made an internal note not to move so quickly next time. Wei Wuxian must have been really tired.
They raced the oncoming night as they moved through the woods. As the half-light faded even further, their steps quickened, moving faster than perhaps was safe given unfamiliar territory and the rough ground beneath them. Jiang Cheng almost tripped more than once, but the sensation of suddenly having nothing under his feet was more thrilling than anything.
Just as they broke into a clearing in the woods, Jiang Cheng's feet went out from under him entirely, his robes flapping in the cool breeze of evening as he fell forwards.
Hands caught his arms and, within a moment, he was half upright again, propped up against a tree with the bark digging into his back. A peal of laughter sounded, joined by another in the near-complete darkness that surrounded them now - it was only when Jiang Cheng recognised the second as Wei Wuxian's that he realised the first set of laughter was his own.
Out here, he could forget anything. He could forget the pressures of the meal, the feeling of all the eyes watching him for every flaw, every slip. He could forget about the future, and the balancing act that threatened him more with every passing day. He could forget that his jiejie would one day leave, and that the sect would at some point pass away from his father's capable hands into his own.
With Wei Wuxian here, alight in a way so different from how he appeared when they were in Lotus Pier, he could forget the way they weren't meant to be equals; were barely even meant to be friends. No, he could watch the way Wei Wuxian's eyes caught the last of the dying light and let that feeling surge up within his chest.
This was the Wei Wuxian he wanted to protect. This quiet confidence, this warmth. An ease without the flippant performance he put on around everyone else. Jiang Cheng wanted to see this kind of Wei Wuxian every day, the one who knew he had a place at Jiang Cheng's side and relished in it.
The moment didn't pass like Jiang Cheng expected it to. Instead, the feeling in his chest remained as Wei Wuxian took off once more, sprinting through the trees and leaving Jiang Cheng only a moment to get moving and keep pace with him. They kept running, following the light of the moon until the lanterns of Lotus Pier appeared in the distance, flames flickering with a golden light.
It was at this moment that the inky grey streaks of cloud from the sunset reached their pinnacle, opening up and pouring sheets of rain down without a second of hesitation. Jiang Cheng let out a harsh gasp of air as the cold sheets of water hit him at full force, drenching through his half-dried robes once more.
"Come on!" Wei Wuxian called, his laughter breathless as he kept running for cover. He didn't seem to mind how slippery the ground would soon become, or the way the darkness closed in around them. Jiang Cheng followed half-blindly; they were nearly home.
"Jiang-gongzi!" the man at the gate called when they finally half-sprinted, half-stumbled to Lotus Pier’s entrance. "Wei-gongzi, too. I hope you both know the trouble you've caused."
Jiang Cheng watched Wei Wuxian's quiet, self-assured core disappear in an instant, replaced by hands hooked behind his head and a lopsided smile. "We caused trouble?" he asked, like he wasn't soaked through, streaked with mud, and wearing robes that were slightly tattered at the hem after only a single day’s wear.
"Yes." The man's tone was sharp, but not angry - just a little exasperated. The person who was angry was probably Jiang Cheng's mother, but he was sure he'd hear plenty about that later. "We were all instructed to be on the lookout for you. It's good you returned now, it's getting bad out there."
Jiang Cheng looked out to the pier, where a few people hurried to guide boats in as the weather worsened. He nodded, schooling his expression into something that resembled seriousness. "We made it in time, though I would have liked to be a little sooner."
The man at the gate laughed, working the mechanism to let them in. "We were instructed to send you straight back to your rooms," he said. "I'd get cleaned up sharpish if I were you."
Jiang Cheng looked down at himself. His robes had fared better than Wei Wuxian's, but they were still a state, and his hands were stained with dirt. He'd be glad to get inside.
He and Wei Wuxian ran the final distance of the night through the pouring rain, very nearly collapsing in a heap when they reached their rooms. "We're done for," Wei Wuxian said the moment the door closed, moving immediately to pull off his outer layer.
"We are," Jiang Cheng agreed. But Wei Wuxian shot him a smile, and Jiang Cheng could only return it. They would have to face the consequences of the night soon enough, but now? He didn't care the slightest bit.