Jiang Cheng sat up in a huff, cracking his neck and climbing to his feet. He was no stranger to sleepless nights, he'd had sixteen years of them to prepare him for this one, but that didn't mean it wasn't annoying. Wei Wuxian liked to pretend to be a mother hen and follow after him giving him tips for sleeping all the way through the night until Jiang Cheng finally snapped and tried to hit him.

He turned and found himself entirely unsurpised to find Wei Wuxian perched on a large rock nearby, staring up at the crescent moon, almost in a trance.

"Trouble sleeping?" He asked, startling him.

"No more than usual," Wei Wuxian said, voice ringing hollow. He didn't look away from the sky as he spoke, but as he approached Jiang Cheng could see tear tracks down the sides of his face. He pretended he didn't see them. "And you?"

"No more than usual."

Jiang Cheng climbed onto the rock so they sat side by side and all was quiet for a while.

"I'm surprised you didn't wake your husband."

"He would never admit to it, but he gets cranky if he doesn't get enough sleep."

"How can you tell?" Jiang Cheng chuffed. Wei Wuxian muffled his snort with his sleeve.

"When he hasn't slept enough the corners of his mouth turn down and his 'mn's are lower in pitch."

"I can't tell if you're fucking with me."

Wei Wuxian laughed for real this time. "I'm not. It's subtle, you wouldn't believe how long it took me to figure him out."

"I would. Jin Ling told me what happened in Guanyin Temple."

Wei Wuxian buried his face in his hands. "Okay listen, I just really wanted to clear up our misunderstanding right then in case Jin Guangyao decided to slit my throat."

"In front of his brother and our nephew."

"Gotta do what you gotta do," he said miserably.

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. "You two are insufferable."

"I've heard that before, but you still wouldn't believe how long we misunderstood each other for."

"Try me."

"He was in love with me the whole time, since we were teenagers, that summer in Gusu."

"You're lying," Jiang Cheng said, turning his eyes away from the sky for the first time since climbing onto the rock. "He hated you! He kept trying to arrest you during the war!"

Wei Wuxian shook his head. "He saw the way the tides were turning before either of us did, he wanted to protect me because he knew that the world would turn against me and my mind would be corrupted by demonic cultivation."

"Unbelievable. Some of that at least is on him. 'Come back to Gusu with me' isn't a very effusive love confession."

Wei Wuxian was unable to restrain himself from laughing this time. "It's on both of us, I could have asked why he wanted me in Gusu."

"Still."

Wei Wuxian leaned back on his hands, squeezing his eyes shut as his smile relaxed into something more natural.

"He bit me in the Cave of Xuanwu," he said casually, like that wasn't the craziest thing that Jiang Cheng had ever heard in his life.

"He what?"

"He bit me!" He could barely speak around his laughter now. "The poor guy, he's trapped in a terrible stinking cave with his crush and a dead turtle and he's bleeding from his leg wound and I go 'Oh Lan Zhan, I bet you have a crush on MianMian! And he snapped!" He threw his head back and laughed, forcing Jiang Cheng to clap a hand over his mouth to keep from waking everyone else.

"Of course he snapped, trapped in a cave with you for a week! I probably would have just drowned you in the pool with the damned tortoise!" Wei Wuxian kept laughing, paying no heed to the hand still pressed tightly against his mouth.

"Hey! I took good care of him! And I still take good care of him!"

"As if! You're a trophy husband! You don't do anything! I've heard your juniors talk about how you laze about Cloud Recesses all day like you've got no shame!"

"I take the Juniors on Night Hunts! And I help him grade papers! Though don't tell Lan Qiren about that last bit he'd have a conniption."

"You'll send him into a Qi deviation one of these days."

Wei Wuxian winced like this was a genuine fear of his. "I'm trying not to kill him."

"That would put a damper on your marriage."

"For real," Wei Wuxian said, chuckling nervously.

"I don't know how you manage it, living with all those rules, you never even managed to abide by the few rules we had in Lotus Pier."

"Ah, it would look bad on Lan Zhan if I misbehaved, so I just think about him until the urge to commit mischief passes. And I spend a lot of time with the rabbits."

"Rabbits?"

"The rabbits?" Wei Wuxian repeated, like he hadn't understood why Jiang Cheng was confused.

"What rabbits?"

"You don't know about the rabbits?"

"We have rabbits! Do you remember when we were teenagers I gave Lan Zhan those bunnies? He kept them! Now there's a whole little grove of them there that we take care of!"

"I thought pets weren't allowed in Cloud Recessess."

"If Lan Zhan wants rabbits he gets to have them," Wei Wuxian said, shrugging. "He likes them. They're very snuggly. I've snuck some into the Jingshi a time or two and he always pretends to be mad but then he lets them stay for supper and sit in his lap while he grades papers, so I know he likes it when I do."

"Ridiculous," Jiang Cheng snapped, at a loss for anything else to say.

Wei Wuxian giggled, looking over at him finally. "You sound just like him."

"Shut up! Do not!"

"Do so!"

Jiang Cheng scowled, then turned his face back to the sky. Wei Wuxian followed suit and the two of them fell into a comfortable silence. Eventually Wei Wuxian glanced over his shoulder.

"Lan Zhan, how long have you been awake for?" Jiang Cheng startled and turned see Lan Wangji watching them, his eyes lingering adoringly on Wei Wuxian.

"A while, are you feeling better now?"

"I am, thanks to Jiang Cheng."

"Will you come back to bed?"

"I will, but only so you don't get grumpy in the morning."

Lan Wangji frowned. "I don't get grumpy."

Wei Wuxian shot Jiang Cheng an 'I told you so' face before sliding off the rock and into his husbands arms. Jiang Cheng watched as Wei Wuxian allowed himself to be led back to the tent he was sharing with his husband, then sighed.

He slid off the rock and made his way to his own tent, smiling when he saw Jin Ling asleep on his own cot inside.

On nights like these it was nice to not be alone.