This fic was supposed to be a half-crack 2-shot and not to be taken seriously but the angst train hit me in the middle of it so we're back to our regularly scheduled shenanigans.

I apologise if it doesn't feel like it fits but alas this is the road I chose.

xoxoxoxoxox

Wei Wuxian hadn't had a truly restful night's sleep since Lotus Pier fell. Neither had Jiang Cheng, though he'd had significantly more physical comforts than Wei Wuxian had had since his move to the Burial Mounds.

Airing out their grievances like they had that night resulted in both of them finally feeling some relief from the loneliness, guilt, and resentment that plagued their lives. It was cathartic having that weight lifted and it had done them both a lot of good. Suffice to say, for the first time in close to two decades, they both slept like babies.

Awareness trickled in slowly. He was feeling warmer than usual upon waking up. There was hair tickling his face and a body wrapped around him, clinging like a limpet. He opened his eyes and blinked blearily. The last time he'd woken up in a similar position was when Jin Ling hadn't yet felt like he was too big to stay with his jiujiu and regularly crawled into his bed in the night when he was at Lotus Pier and he felt lonely or had a nightmare.

The morning light was streaming in through the thin curtains and for a moment he was acting on autopilot, only registering that it was far past the time that he would normally be up.

"A-Ling geroff.." he mumbled, nudging the body on top of his and trying not to fall back asleep. He felt far too comfortable and if there wasn't a niggling sense of having something important to do at the back of his mind, he'd be quite content to snuggle up to his nephew and go straight back to sleep. He hadn't had such good sleep in way too long.

"Mm, five more minutes ChengCheng." The person nuzzled him lazily, not budging.

ChengCheng?!

A pulse of shock ran through his veins and cleared the sleepiness away instantly. That wasn't Jin Ling!

Who was…

He glimpsed down and saw a red ribbon.

Oh.

Right.

It was Wei Wuxian.

Wait.

Wei Wuxian?!

He suddenly remembered exactly why he was with Wei Wuxian.

He tried to sit up but Wei Wuxian didn't make it easy.

"Wake up!" he shook him and glanced at the window. The sun was clearly out in full force, shining through the curtain.

Crap! It was late. Close to noon if he had to guess.

"Wei Wuxian, we don't have time for this!"

If he was lucky it was one of those hunts where his nephew was in no hurry to get back to Koi Tower.

He managed to unglue the sticky limbs still clutching at him and got out of bed, putting on his over-robe hastily.

He looked at Wei Wuxian and sighed, shaking him once more. "I'm going to check on the kids, by the time I come back you better be awake!"

He made a beeline for the rooms his nephew and his friends occupied the night before, but found them empty.

"Laoban-niang, when did the young masters who had those rooms leave?" he questioned the innkeeper.

"Just after breakfast gongzi," was not the answer he was hoping for.

"Jiang Cheng! There you are," yawned Wei Wuxian, who had felt bereft after being deprived of his living pillow and had woken up, worried that Jiang Cheng left to follow the kids without him. He was looking dishevelled as he had dressed even more hastily than Jiang Cheng and rushed outside to see if he really was alone again.

"Finally, you're awake. They've gone ahead of us," Jiang Cheng said, making it seem like they were with the party of young masters because the innkeeper was still there and was paying close attention.

"Ah, that's too bad," he played along, "We'll just have to catch up to them later."

The innkeeper, having already noted Jiang Cheng's rich garb, saw an opportunity and took it.

"Does this mean that gongzi and his," here the innkeeper stopped and eyed Wei Wuxian up and down, noting Mo Xuanyu's old robes and Wei Wuxian's general state of dishevelment, "... companion will be staying for lunch?"

Well, rude! thought Wei Wuxian. But his stomach gurgled at the same time and he blushed.

Jiang Cheng sighed, "We might as well. Send it up to the room." And with that he turned and stalked back to the room, with Wei Wuxian following close behind.

"Ah hehe, I'm sorry I'll pay you back for the food," Wei Wuxian said, entering their room behind him and rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.

Jiang Cheng hit him with an unimpressed look.

"Okay, okay I won't pay you back for the food?"

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, "Do I seem like I'm incapable of affording lunch for one member of my sect?"

"Jiang Cheng," Wei Wuxian's eyes turned glassy.

"What?" he barked, avoiding Wei Wuxian's gaze.

"A...A-Cheeeng," Wei Wuxian wailed and threw himself at his sect leader, hugging him tightly. He had felt better after their talk but the day had a way of ruining the spell of the night, making everything harsher and more awkward and so he still hadn't known where he stood. He hadn't dared to believe...

"What are you doing? Get off of me!" Jiang Cheng said, but only made a feeble attempt to extricate himself.

Just as he was relaxing into the hug however, the innkeeper walked in.

"Oh. Oh my. I'll just bring this back later shall I?"

Jiang Cheng flushed and pushed at Wei Wuxian (who didn't fully let go, and who, while still clinging to his side and remembering the innkeeper's judgmental look from before, shot her a mischievous smile that went unnoticed by his companion, relishing in the affronted expression it elicited) and scowled, "No need. Just set it up on the table."

After the innkeeper and the servants had laid out their lunch and Wei Wuxian had gotten over his bout of emotion, they ate and discussed what they'd do next.

"Are you going to go to Jinlin Tai anyway?" Wei Wuxian asked before shoving a dumpling into his mouth.

"Of course, once we make sure Jin Ling is safe in his sect, then we can go home," Jiang Cheng said, battling Wei Wuxian's lightning chopsticks for the last dumpling. Wei Wuxian had been inhaling the food. His emotional night had given him a voracious appetite. But Jiang Cheng's words and the nostalgia of the moment meant that he lost the squabble for the dumpling because his heart had clenched tightly at the thought of calling Lotus Pier home again and he'd hesitated a beat too long.

He composed himself though and went back to the food. "Well he's probably already gotten there, he had a few hours headstart on us after all, so we might as well take our time."

"Tsk. If someone hadn't kept me up half the night, we wouldn't have slept so late and could have caught up to them this morning."

*crash*

Wide-eyed they both turned to see a servant girl hastily picking up the bottle of chili oil (that Wei Wuxian had saucily requested from the innkeeper after she had finished setting up their lunch) which now lay sideways on the floor.

She stammered out an apology as Wei Wuxian wailed at the wastage of good chili oil.

"This one is s..sorry young masters, I will get another b..bottle right away."
"Forget it, whatever's left in this one will do," said Wei Wuxian, and upon seeing her gaze flitting between the two of them and her reddened ears, he smirked and winked at her.

She almost dropped the bottle again but he managed to catch it before any more damage was done. She threw another surreptitious glance at them and quickly dashed out of the room.

"Huh. What was all that about..." said a puzzled Jiang Cheng.

Wei Wuxian sauntered back to his seat and smiled serenely at him.

"No idea."

They finished the rest of the meal without any more incidents and it felt so much like old times that Wei Wuxian half expected his shijie to come in with a pot of lotus and pork rib soup. The pang that accompanied that thought was visible on his face, the dream he'd had bringing all the pain from her death back to the forefront of his mind.

"What's wrong? I told you not to eat so much chili. Are you getting heartburn now?" queried Jiang Cheng, upon noticing his expression suddenly shifting and his hand unconsciously rubbing at his chest.

"Yeah… it's definitely heartburn alright," he said, smiling ruefully. His heart did burn after all.

Jiang Cheng sighed, but started fussing over him, "Why are you like this? You have to remember that Mo Xuanyu's stomach isn't made of iron like yours was. Even if you like the chili you should cut down on adding extra to every dish. Here, chew on these herbs. It should help." He pulled out some medicine from his qiankun pouch and made sure Wei Wuxian took it.

Wei Wuxian couldn't help but look at him fondly while dutifully chewing his herbs. Jiang Cheng was always like this. He'd scold him but help him too. He suddenly recalled that time in the Cloud Recesses where Jiang Cheng had scolded him for getting in trouble but he also carried him on his back and grumbled about Lan Wangji to Lan Xichen's face after finding out that, thanks to him, various parts of Wei Wuxian's body would be swollen for three days from being beaten as punishment.

He was always getting Wei Wuxian out of trouble when they were younger, or picking up the pieces after him when he couldn't escape it. And always he'd scold him and tell him not to expect any help from him, as if he ever left Wei Wuxian on his own except for the one time that Wei Wuxian himself requested it.

"Okay that should be enough time chewing," Jiang Cheng said, interrupting his reminiscing.

"Oh okay," he said and prepared to swallow the nasty chewed up wad of herbs. But he wasn't supposed to ingest those. Jiang Cheng moved before he could completely get it down and grabbed his throat.

"No, don't swallow," he panicked, "Spit it out!"

He hacked it back up just in time but unfortunately it fell on the hand holding his throat.

"Ugh this is disgusting... so slimy," gagged Jiang Cheng, using a cleaning talisman on his hand and man he was fast at that when did he learn…

But before Wei Wuxian could even voice his question or give his thanks, there was the sound of giggling and a shushing sound right outside their door.

They shared a perplexed glance and Jiang Cheng opened the door to see the serving girl from before with a friend this time standing outside.

"What is the meaning of this?" he snapped.

"Gongzi, we are here to clear the dishes," said the first girl, not even withering under his glare.

"Yes, we didn't want to… interrupt.. So we waited outside. If the young masters are finished we can clean up the dishes now," piped the chili-oil-dropping serving girl, who seemed less timid now that she had a friend with her.

"Interrupt? Why didn't you just knock?"

"W..we just thought gongzi and his.. friend would appreciate the privacy."

"Are all the people who work at this inn as weird as you two?" he shook his head disbelievingly, "Whatever, nevermind. We're done eating."

"I'll bet you are," snickered the fearless one, when his back was turned.

Leaving the servant girls to clean the room they made their way to the innkeeper to return the room key.

"Looks like laoban-niang has a few new guests," said Wei Wuxian, looking at the line of people who came for lunch.

"Mm, seems so."

"In the meantime, we could go get Lil Apple," said Wei Wuxian cheerily.

Jiang Cheng had genuinely forgotten about the donkey.

"Wait a second, we can't take the donkey with us," he protested.

"Why not? We have to take him with us! He's family now! I can't just leave him behind. A-Cheeeng," Wei Wuxian whined.

"I can't fly a donkey to Jinlin Tai!"

"And you know I can't fly," Wei Wuxian pouted, "This core isn't strong enough to make that trip and I don't have a sword. If you go ahead I can follow on foot with Lil Apple."

"Do you know how long it will take to get there on foot? Especially with that stubborn ass keeping you back? We've already wasted enough time."

"I know but you can get there before me and I'll meet you there."

"Don't be silly," Jiang Cheng cut him off, "You can ride on my sword. Don't worry about your ass, I'll take care of it."

"Really?" Wei Wuxian's eyes shined with tentative hope. It had been so long since he'd been on a sword (not including life or death situations) and he couldn't deny he was excited to be up in the air again. "You'll really let me ride your sword?"

"Isn't that what I said? Do you doubt me?"
"No, I know you're strong enough to hold up the both of us, A-Cheng. And you promise my ass will be in good hands?"

*Thud*

The innkeeper, who had spotted her most richly dressed customer and was coming over to see if he needed anything, had overheard the last parts of their conversation, and fainted dead away.

"What the…"

"Where did she come from? Didn't she just have a line of customers?"

Two servants came to check on their boss.

"Whatever, let's just get out of here. These people are strange," Jiang Cheng said, and tucked the key into the innkeeper's apron.

"You guys know anyone who can wrangle a donkey?" he asked the servants.

"I can gongzi!" said the tall lanky one enthusiastically.

"Really?" Jiang Cheng eyed him sceptically.

"I grew up on a farm!" he said, and proved his mettle by hefting the innkeeper up by himself and depositing her on a bench inside the lunch hall.

"So, how can I help you gongzi?" he said as he returned.

"Do you know how to get to Lotus Pier in Yunmeng," he queried.

"Sure do!"

"Great. I need you to deliver a donkey for me. I'll give you a letter to take to Lotus Pier with you and the donkey. Just show the guards the letter and ask for Second-in-Command Pan. They'll take that stubborn ass off your hands and I'll pay you half-fee now and you'll get the other half from SIC Pan when you arrive."

The teenager's eyes widened at the silver he was presented with.

"Rest assured, the donkey will be safe with me!" he declared. They went out to the edge of the forest where Wei Wuxian had left the donkey. Bribing him with apples he introduced the servant boy called Dai Yong to Lil Apple. His enthusiasm about the donkey was almost on par with Wei Wuxian's so Wei Wuxian was satisfied that Lil Apple was in good hands.

"Well, now that that's settled… Time to fly!"

He hopped onto Sandu behind Jiang Cheng and was nearly vibrating with excitement.

"Idiot, you'll fall off if you keep carrying on like that," Jiang Cheng groused, "Just hold on carefully."

"Okay. I'll stick to you like glue. I promise, I'll be fine," he said, doing his signature three finger salute. Jiang Cheng's mind stuttered, the image overlapping with a different body in a different time and place.

"Better keep your promise this time," he muttered, "Let's go see A-Ling."