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Lan Wangji is desperate in his devotion.
The long perfected grace falls away as he stumbles across the floor, nearly colliding with the handrails of the hospital bed.
Jiang Cheng observes the man he once considered ruthlessly and unfailingly cold from his chair in the room's corner. Lan Wangji reaches down a shaking hand to oh so carefully wipe a drop of sweat from Jiang Cheng's brother’s forehead.
He briefly wonders if the second young master of the Lan family has left the stark white hospital room even once in the three days Wei Ying has been its unwitting prisoner. Each time Jiang Cheng returns after a trip to shovel tasteless food down his throat and take a quick shower, he finds Lan Wangji stubbornly fixed next to Wei Ying's side, as though his feet have molded to the pristine laminate floor.
The instigating phone call between the pair was brief. He bit back the sour taste of surprise when Lan Wangji actually picked up, tone abruptly cool as he inquired if Jiang Cheng had dialed the wrong number. For a wild moment, Jiang Cheng seriously considered simply hanging up, but having witnessed the gentle nature of this infuriating man's relationship with his brother stilled his finger. Wei Ying would want him here.
Shockingly, his voice only cracked once as Jiang Cheng forced the words out, explaining in quick terms the details of Wei Ying's accident. That it hadn't been his brother's fault - the other driver ran a red light. That the man blew a .14 and has been hauled off to the jail after he quite unfairly walked away unscathed while demolishing the front passenger side of Wei Ying’s car. That his brother had been pulled out unconscious by paramedics at the scene, battered but breathing. That he'd been rushed to the nearest hospital and was currently undergoing surgery to repair damage to his leg and torso. That they were waiting for more news. That Lan Wangji fully knew of Jiang Cheng’s opinion of him, but for some reason Wei Ying adored him, so he better get his ass over here.
Lan Wangji listened to Jiang Cheng’s shaky monologue in complete silence. It was only when Jiang Cheng reached the end that he paused for a response, impatiently shifting his weight from foot to foot as the noises of the busy waiting room washed over him.
"Well?" Jiang Cheng finally demanded after a full ten seconds of frigid silence. "Are you coming or not?"
His only answer was the dial tone. Jiang Cheng wrenched the phone away from his ear and stared at it with disgust. Of course, what had he been thinking? He'd always known there was something off about precious Master Lan, who appeared to only tolerate the friendship Wei Ying forced upon him. He'd probably been waiting for the chance to slip out of Wei Ying’s life.
His brother deserves far better, Jiang Cheng thought fiercely as he spun on his heel and began the long walk back to the blinking sign above the operating room door. Jiang Yanli was waiting for him there, and Jiang Cheng took her into his arms as she shook against him. He squeezed his eyes shut.
I’m not ready for this.
So it was with a certain level of surprise that Jiang Cheng lifted his head from his sister’s hair merely a quarter-hour later when the flimsy hallway doors flew open with such force they clanged sharply against the white walls.
And there he was. Lan Wangji in all his glory, pale coat flapping behind as he spun to a stop at the Cheng siblings’ side.
For a moment, Jiang Cheng could only stare. Not only was he firmly unaware that Lan Wangji could look anything other than pristine, but only a minute ago he would have sworn the young man’s eyes were incapable of bleeding emotion.
Well - bleed they did.
Lan Wangji was wild with panic. “How is he?” he demanded, swaying even closer and reaching out to fist his hands into the front of Jiang Cheng’s coat. He heaved in a breath as though the hospital was situated on top of a mountain with air too thin to properly be sucked into aching lungs.
It was Jiang Yanli who finally answered, as Jiang Cheng stood frozen in shock at the sight of the viciously broken man before him.
“We are still waiting for news,” she said, voice soft with an understanding Jiang Cheng couldn’t achieve. “He’s been in surgery for two hours. The doctor said he’d come straight out to us when they are done. All we really know is that there is damage to a lung, and his leg is broken in several places.”
Lan Wangji seemed to deflate with each word. Stumbling back a step, he curled in on himself. His next words were garbled and forced out of clenched teeth. “I - I - I would like to stay, if - if that is alright.”
Jiang Yanli, unfailingly kind in contrast to her brother’s consistent anger, replied gently. “Of course, Lan Wangji, you are welcome to stay. We’ll make sure to share any more details the doctors tell us.”
Permission granted, Lan Wangji sagged back against the wall, eyes now fixed on the closed operating room door.
Jiang Cheng couldn’t help his staring. If nothing else, the young master Lan’s strange behavior was a welcome distraction, pulling his mind from his brother’s broken body separated from him by only a thin wall and the impenetrable blinking In Operation sign.
For the last few years, Jiang Cheng watched his brother’s growing friendship with a highly skeptical eye. They seemed too odd of a pair - the wild Wei Ying and the righteous Lan Wangji.
At first, Lan Wangji appeared to agree with Jiang Cheng’s skepticism, leaning away in frustration and exasperation whenever Wei Ying approached him with that deadly spark of mischief in his eyes.
But slowly over time, something shifted without Jiang Cheng’s notice. Suddenly, it was Lan Zhan appearing silently at Wei Ying’s side, seeking out his company like a moth to a flame. Suddenly, it was Lan Wangji who became a fixture in Jiang Cheng’s brother’s apartment. Lan Wangji, who had the audacity to hum in disapproval whenever the brothers fought, subtly placing himself in front of Wei Ying whenever their disagreements threatened to turn physical.
As if Jiang Cheng would actually hurt his brother. Push him around a little, sure, but he’d never do real damage. Lan Wangji appeared to care little for this distinction.
And now here he was, gasping for air in the hospital hallway as the man he once despised potentially fought for his life mere feet away.
Jiang Cheng simply didn’t know what to make of it.
When the surgeon finally pushed into the hallway nearly an hour later, Lan Wangji seemed to teleport from his spot curled against the wall to the doctor’s side. His fingers trembled, but his voice was sharp. “How is Wei Ying? What is the damage?”
The doctor looked slightly alarmed for a brief moment before soft understanding filled his features. Lan Zhan held perfectly still as the man clapped him roughly on the shoulder, a move young master Lan would normally sway to the side to avoid.
“He’s going to be alright, son,” the doctor said gently, gaze flitting past Lan Wangji to land on the Chengs, still intertwined.
Yanli pressed a hand to her mouth to muffle a cry. She sank to the bench, pulling her brother down at her side.
Jiang Cheng could barely focus as pure, unadulterated relief roared in his ears.
Lung nearly punctured by a broken rib. The need for another surgery on a fractured leg. Vitals looking good. Remaining sedated for recovery, they would wait for the patient to awaken on his own. Could take several days. Very optimistic.
He hardly registered when the doctor went back through the door, leaving the trio once again alone in the hallway.
“I’ll go see if I can find out what room they are going to put him in,” Jiang Yanli said softly. She squeezed her brother’s wrist before departing down the hallway. Her quiet steps receded as Jiang Cheng realized he and Lan Wangji were suddenly very alone.
Wei Ying was always there by their sides, ready to act as a buffer between his best friend’s cold aloofness and his brother’s quick temper. Now, Jiang Cheng found himself uncharacteristically without words as he stumbled over to lean against the wall.
The pair stood in uncomfortable silence for several long minutes. Finally, Lan Wangji heaved a deep breath and turned. Jiang Cheng stiffened as he met steely eyes. The panic had receded, replaced with a deadly calm. “I will stay with Wei Ying and wait for him to awaken.”
Unquestionably not a question.
It was almost a relief to feel anger burn away the numbness. “This is a hospital, Master Lan,” Jiang Change replied coolly, stubbornly meeting the man’s sharp gaze. “I expect they will only want next of kin for now. Wei Ying will have his brother and sister at his side, and I daresay we can handle taking care of him. I only called you because I know he’d want you to be aware, but you didn’t need to make the effort to come all the way here. I’m sure you have plenty of other important things to do. As Yanli said, we’ll be sure to let him know you stopped by.”
Lan Wangji was suddenly right in front of him, face unnaturally close as the rage returned. It took every ounce of his composure for Jiang Cheng not to flinch.
“Take care of him?” Lan Wangji’s voice was venomous. “You’ve always done a beautiful job at that, Jiang Wanyin. Wei Ying has certainly never ended up knocking at my door in the middle of the night with a fake grin plastered across his face after being thrown out by you.”
This time, Jiang Cheng couldn’t restrain the flinch that rattled through his bones. “We’re brothers!” he snapped. “Brothers fight sometimes, but I’m always here when he really needs me. I’ve been here far longer than you. With the way you treat him, some days I’m not even sure if my brother is anything more to you than an annoyance.”
Vicious pleasure rolled down his spine as this time it was Lan Wangji who flinched away.
“Wei Ying is not an annoyance,” he said, venom dripping from his voice. Jiang Cheng marveled at seeing more emotion from this man in the last hour than he had in three years. “Wei Ying is my friend. My only friend. I will not leave when he needs me.”
“He’s never needed you!” Jiang Cheng was shaking. “You’re just a pet project for him. Wei Ying gets bored easily, soon enough he’ll find someone new to fix.”
For a moment, a flash crossed his opponent’s eyes. Doubt? Guilt? Wei Ying was always unerringly adept at reading the perfectly composed features of Lan Wangji, but Jiang Cheng never found the same success.
Then the steel shield slid back into place in Lan Wangji's eyes, and the man turned away from Jiang Cheng, focus once again shifting to the blinking operation sign. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not leaving him.”
And that, well, was that. Lan Wangji remained stubbornly by their side throughout the next three harrowing days. He hovered anxiously as Wei Ying’s prone figure was wheeled out the operating room and down to a private area. He remained tucked into the room’s corner when nurses were busily tending to their patient and was at Wei Ying’s bedside the moment they bustled out.
While Jiang Cheng and Yanli came by several times a day, Lan Wangji refused to leave at all and kept watch over their brother as he remained deeply unconscious.
Once, when Jiang Cheng arrived back at the hospital, nearly delirious with only three hours of sleep under his belt, he’d paused uncertainly outside the slightly ajar door to Wei Ying’s room as two voices floated out.
“You can’t keep up like this.” Jiang Cheng recognized Lan Xichen’s worried voice instantly. “You’ve barely eaten, you haven’t slept. Soon you’re just going to drop to the ground, and then everyone will need to worry after you instead of Wei Wuxian. Besides, he wouldn’t want you to be like this. Please, little brother, go home and rest. Take a shower, and eat something. He will still be here when you get back.”
“No.” Jiang Cheng jerked his head back at the unnaturally loud response. He’d never heard Lan Wangji use that tone of voice with his brother before. Over the last few days, the man’s perfect composure was continuing to crack.
“I won’t leave him. The doctor said it is likely that Wei Ying will regain consciousness today. I don’t want him to be alone.”
“I’m sure he won’t be,” Lan Xichen replied gently, unfazed by his brother’s unusual show of emotion. “You said his siblings have been here as well. I’m sure his brother will get back soon and stay with him until you can return. Wei Wuxin will have his family when he wakes up, and I’m sure they will be more than happy to let the rascal pester them to his heart’s content.”
Of course, they would. Jiang Cheng had long ago mastered the art of pretending not to care, but after three long days of terror and nerves, there was little his brother could ask of him that he would not be falling over himself to give.
“That’s not…” Lan Wangji’s voice trailed off. He took in a shaking inhale of breath before continuing. “I know he’ll have what he needs. I know I’m not what Wei Ying will need, but I…”
A moment’s silence.
“But I need him.”
Suddenly, quite unable to bear the force of this egotistical, rigid, infuriating man’s deepest desire, Jiang Cheng loudly pushed his way through the door, leaving it wide open in his wake.
“Ah, Lan Xichen,” he said primly as if he hadn’t just heard this man’s younger brother baring his soul. “The amount of Lans in my brother’s room keeps growing. We made an exception for this annoyance, but we really don’t want too many people worrying over my empathic brother.”
Lan Xichen straightened up at his arrival, pulling away from Lan Wangji’s side. Jiang Cheng suspected he’d had a hand on the small of his younger brother’s back.
“Of course, Jiang Wanyin,” he said quietly. “I must apologize for my intrusion. I admit I wanted to check on my own brother as well as yours.”
Well, damn him, that made Jiang Cheng soften. If there was anything he fully understood, it was how to worry after one’s brother.
“That’s quite alright,” he huffed, tilting his head up to glare at the ceiling. “Thank you for understanding.”
Lan Xichen bowed slightly to him and with one final worried glance at his brother, he quietly left the room, closing the door behind him.
Ah yes, perfect, the awkward silence was back. Jiang Cheng moved to the open side of the bed and reached down to brush Wei Ying’s hair back off his forehead. “Any changes?”
“His fingers have moved a few times,” Lan Wangji replied softly, and Jiang Cheng glanced up to find the other man’s gaze fixed on Wei Ying’s lax face. “No other changes, but the doctor expects he will wake up soon. Once he does, they will begin discussions on the next surgery to repair the fracture in his leg.”
Jiang Cheng winced, reaching down to rub at his own thigh. “It’s going to be a long recovery.”
Lan Zhan nodded, and his next words were wrapped in warmth. “Wei Ying is strong. The strongest person I know. He will get through it.”
Over the last three days, the obvious devotion Lan Wangji jealously held for his brother had ceased surprising him, but Jiang Cheng still found himself unable to pinpoint the reason behind it. Lan Wangji and his brother couldn’t be more different, and yet the affection Wei Ying cultivated was clearly reciprocated. More than reciprocated.
Hearts are meant to be broken up between lots of people. For the portion of his heart dedicated to friendship, Lan Zhan had only Wei Ying.
“You really care about him.”
Jiang Cheng didn’t realize he’d spoken aloud until Lan Wangji’s quiet voice answered.
“Sometimes, he’s all I care about in the world.”
Jiang Cheng was saved from trying to come up with a response to a declaration like that by the sound of a soft groan coming from beneath them. Before he even had a chance to react, Lan Wangji was bent down low, his hand reaching out to cup a beloved face.
“Wei Ying?”
Beautiful dark eyes fluttered open. For a moment, Wei Ying’s gaze was unfocused, but then it alighted on the face mere inches away from his own. Recognition sparked, and a slow smile spread over his face.
“Lan Zhan,” he murmured, titled his face into the other man’s palm. “What’s put such a worried look on your face? It wasn’t me, was it?”
Jiang Cheng watched in stunned silence as an answering, heartbreakingly sincere smile bloomed across Lan Wangji’s face. “You’ve been in an car accident, Wei Ying,” he said gently, fingers running over the side of his friend’s cheek. “But you’re ok, everything is going to be ok. I’m here. Go back to sleep.”
“Mmm, ok, Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying said, his eyes already beginning to slide shut again. “If you say so, I trust you.”
Then, as an apparent afterthought, Wei Ying turned his neck slightly to look up at his brother. “Jiang Cheng, you’re here too. That’s nice, I hope the two of you are getting along.”
Jiang Cheng huffed, reaching out to rather roughly poke his brother on the forehead. “Yah, we’re the ones supposed to be worrying about you. Don’t mind us, I’m sure we’ll survive.”
His touch turned more gentle as he scratched lightly across the top of Wei Ying’s head, his brother murmuring in appreciation. “Go back to sleep, idiot. The faster you get better, the faster I can get out of this dingy hospital. Everything smells like Clorox here.”
“Go back to sleep, Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan repeated, his touch endlessly reverent.
Wei Ying didn’t even have a chance to respond before his eyes drifted shut, and sleep once again pulled him under.
The pair stood over him for another long moment, both heaving in a deep breath as though breaking through the surface of a frozen lake.
Finally, Jiang Cheng wretched himself away from the bed. “I-” he started before pausing to lip dry cracked lips. “I should go find Wei Ying’s doctor to let them know he woke up.”
The next words caught momentarily in his throat before bursting forth. “Will you stay with him?”
Not that Jiang Cheng really had the right to ask, what with how he’d treated the other man earlier. Sometimes his sharp tongue worked leagues faster than his brain.
It wasn’t easy to be two of the people who loved Wei Ying most in the world alone together in a room - especially when Jiang Cheng wasn’t entirely sure if he still held the top spot.
Still, the answer was obvious.
“I will stay.”
The words blazed with brimstone and fire.
Jiang Cheng can only give a shaky nod as he turns to stumble out of the room. He paused right outside the door to gather his composure, mind racing.
When had the cold Lan prince changed so drastically? When had Wei Ying managed to crack open that stone heart?
Jiang Cheng leaned subtly over to peer through the thin line of glass in his brother’s hospital room door.
Lan Wangji was holding the slumbering Wei Ying’s hand again. As Jiang Cheng watched, Lan Zhan slowly lifted the hand to his lips to brush a kiss to each of his knuckles.
Jiang Chang jerked away from the window. Shaking himself, he turned and began making his way down the hallway in search of a nurse.
Devotion like that is a mystery.
Perhaps one day he would understand. For now, Jiang Cheng mused that at least his brother could feel its warm embrace.
He could only hope that Lan Wangji’s endless devotion wouldn’t end up burning them both.