Wei WuXian woke slowly. His mouth tasted like he'd been swimming in sand. His head pounded like Jiang Cheng's fists, except harder. His stomach roiled from not having sufficient food in it for several days while simultaneously protesting that any food ingested would be immediately rejected. He opened blood shot eyes to see the unusual sight of Lan WangJi glaring at him from the other bed.

Well, Lan WangJi glaring was perfectly normal. Still being in their room at this hour of the day was the unusual part.

"Good. You're awake," said a female voice.

Wei WuXian carefully turned his head to look towards his feet. "QingJie…" he tried to smile, but his mouth felt like it was going to crack in half, so he stopped halfway.

"Drink," Lan WangJi ordered shoving a water skin at his roommate. Wei WuXian gratefully accepted it.

Wen Qing sniffed and gagged. "Who's this QingJie you're talking to? I'm not your sister." To the Lan, she added, "Make him drink two skins of water, then the entire pot of tea. He should vomit about halfway through, so you might want to drag him outside first."

Wei WuXian grimaced at that. "QingJie is so mean to me."

"He can have congee for breakfast, vegetables only. No meat. And no chilies." Lan WangJi nodded at that while Wei WuXian whined his displeasure. "I'll take the needles out after that, so bring him to the medical tent."

"Hey! What needles?" Wei WuXian panicked. His still-not-sober body was too slow to stop Wen Qing from inserting her acupuncture needles in his face and hair.

"I must look ridiculous," the younger man whined. But neither of his elders paid any attention to him.

"Lan WangJi will make sure Wei Ying obeys?" Wen Qing asked as she rose.

"Mn," the jade replied.

Wei WuXian had no desire to drink Wen Qing's vomit inducing tea. He did his best to protest, but in the end, found himself being hauled to an empty courtyard, being bodily restrained, and the tea dumped down his throat. After emptying his guts, Wei WuXian rested weakly in his captor's hold. "Lan WangJi…. I thought we were friends."

"Mm. Will make Wei Ying drink this tea every morning after he gets drunk."

The younger man pushed his way out of the loosened hold and stumbled away from the mess on the ground. "I hope I got it on you, you fiend," he muttered. "Would serve you right for taking her side."

"Go bathe. Wei Ying stinks."

Bathing, washing his clothes, and eating bland food were all done by rote. His head still pounded and his stomach still made arguments both for and against eating. He ignored the whispers and outright laughter at the golden needles surrounding his head. "QingJie," he whined when he was in the healer's tent and she was removing them. "I don't think your needles helped my hangover at all."

"Why would you think my needles were there to help you with a hangover?" Wen Qing asked with a completely straight face. "You put yourself into this situation. It's simply my job as a doctor to discourage you from ever drinking that much again." In a much more concerned tone, she added, "Wei WuXian. You are not responsible for the deaths of the DafanWen. Not a single one. They died because my cousin and my uncle are despicable. Sadistic. Horrid. Possibly insane."

"But."

"No. You wanting to rescue them goes above and beyond any expectations they could have of you. That any of us could have on you. Their deaths are sad, yes. Needless, yes. It was cruel and meant to punish me. And it is punishing me. They were my friends. My responsibility. Looking back, I wish I had asked to bring them here. Or sent a message for them to run away and hide. I didn't. Even so? I am not responsible for their deaths. I did not cause them. I was merely the excuse given. I will mourn them, as you are allowed to mourn them. I will avenge them as best as I am able. As you are allowed to avenge them. I will not let you drown yourself in wine trying to claim responsibility for the actions of others. Do you understand? Do you know how much you scared Lan WangJi last night? He was afraid you would drink yourself to death!"

Lan WangJi being scared was impossible. "I understand, QingJie."

"No, you don't. No more drinking like that. One jar per day. That's it."

Wei WuXian left the tent, still feeling guilty about not saving the DafanWen, and angry at not being permitted to drink more than one jar of wine. One jar would barely make it through dinner! What if there was a banquet? Just with the opening toasts one would drink four or five jars! He'd follow the one jar per day restriction for a week or so. And he'd try to not get that drunk ever again. "One jar! Who only drinks one jar?"

Being drunk for several days meant he'd missed going out on his regular patrol. Which was another thing he should be feeling guilty about and yet couldn't find enough in him to care. Not being out on his regular patrol meant he was wandering around, avoiding all responsibilities, when the MeiShanYu arrived. There were the formal greetings between Sect leaders to be endured. Then the greetings between siblings, and finally, "A'Xian…. It's so good to see you again."

"ShiJie… XianXian missed you."

Jiang Cheng glared at his brother. "How old are you?"

"XianXian is three," Jiang YanLi answered. "A'Cheng… you are not to bully our brother." She took their hands and squeezed tight. "We are the only family we have left."

"Not the only family, apparently," Jiang Cheng muttered angrily.

"Who?"

"Look over there." Wei WuXian looked through the milling Yu and saw flashes of Jin gold. "Jin ZiXuan and some LanLingJin cultivators 'coincidentally' met up with the MeiShanYu."

Wei WuXian's free hand balled into a fist. "He better not be here because of ShiJie," he spoke through gritted teeth.

Jiang YanLi laughed quietly. "Don't worry, Didi. The engagement is broken." She looked a bit sad regardless of the relaxed smile on her face. "If he's here courting a wife, he'll not be looking at me."

"Of course he should be looking at you for a wife! A'Jie is the best. When this war is over, we'll find you a better husband." Jiang Cheng was angry. For his sister. At her former fiancé. At his asshole of a brother who still reeked of alcohol. "A'Jie, you should think about marrying Nie ZongZhu."

"She's half his height!" Wei WuXian protested.

"He'll beat Jin GuangShan to a bloody pulp for having disrespected A'Jie. Jin ZiXuan, too."

"I'm not looking to marry anyone just yet," Jiang YanLi protested at the same time that Wei WuXian conceded, "You do have a point there…."

The rest of the day was filled with hilarity, on Wei WuXian's part at least, as Nie HuaiSang tried to fit even more people into the keep. Jin ZiXuan was moved into the younger boy's room which necessitated moving an heir of lower status to yet another room. Which cascaded a few more times. At least one minor Sect leader insinuated that Lan WangJi's roommate was not an heir, and so he should be relegated to a tent with the other soldiers and cultivators. Wei WuXian's enjoyment of the mess came to a screeching halt at that.

Sleeping outside at Lotus Pier in summer was fun. Sleeping in a tent designed for two with three other people? When the weather was getting ready to turn to fall and winter? He much preferred his closet!

Lan WangJi apparently agreed as he simply stated, "No," when the suggestion to change his roommates was brought up. Any attempts to persuade him were met with blank looks or glares. Lan XiChen was appealed to, to change his brother's mind. Or, to order him to allow the swap in roommates. Lan XiChen simply smiled kindly, and repeated his brother's curt, "No."

Wei WuXian wasn't quite sure how he was supposed to react to that. He considered Lan WangJi to be a friend; he wasn't entirely sure if the other boy agreed to that sentiment.

That night, he went to their room early. Lan Zhan was in the middle of getting ready for bed, and Wei WuXian wasn't sure how he felt about that, either. Seeing the younger jade immaculately dressed was to watch true beauty. To see him with his hair loose around his shoulders? With only his forehead ribbon holding it back? And the multitudes of robes neatly folded on the chest? Lan WangJi's beauty was transformed from ethereal jade to earthly god. It wasn't as if the older boy was bare to the world, though; he still had his inner robes tied correctly around his body. There was no extraneous skin showing. And yet… Wei WuXian's stomach felt almost as unsettled as it had after drinking the hangover tea. It made him want to immediately break Wen Qing's alcohol restriction. Or take another bath.

"Lan Zhan," he finally made himself talk. "Are we friends?" When the older boy just looked at him, he swallowed, "Because I see you as a friend. I've always seen you as a friend. The very first time I saw you, I thought, 'we're going to be best friends.' You always seem to want me to stay at a distance, though. And I… I can be friends from a distance. It's hard, though. I'm not used to it, but I can do it. So I thought maybe we really were friends. And then, I left Cloud Recesses and I know I invited you to visit me in the Lotus Pier, and you never came. I wasn't sure if it was because you were busy or because we really weren't friends. When I saw you at the Indoctrination Bureau, you avoided me most of the time. So then I thought, 'I guess we're not friends.' And then you stopped Wen Chou from whipping me, and you really didn't have a reason to do that unless we were friends, right? But right after, you went back to ignoring me! Then we got stuck in the cave together. All the heroic tales say that having a death adventure like that brings people closer together. I don't feel like we got closer, though. And even living here in the Unclean Realm…. Before we became roommates. After we became roommates. You ignore me for weeks at a time and then sit on a roof all night to make sure I don't fall off it. And when you're given the perfect opportunity to get a new roommate, one who talks considerably less than I do, and probably won't be found drunk on a rooftop, and causes less trouble than I do…. You insisted upon staying with me. So…. I need to know. Are we friends? Do you even like me a little bit?"

The room was silent. But even a silent room can be really loud when one is anxiously awaiting news. Lan Zhan looked so serious; Wei WuXian squirmed under the scrutiny. He was almost positive the jade was trying to tell him something, but he had no idea what it was. It was almost the exact same look he'd given back in that cave after being teased about liking MianMian…. Lan Zhan abruptly lay down, "Sleep." He waved a hand towards the candle, extinguishing it with a thought.

Disappointed, Wei WuXian removed his own outer robes and crawled under the blanket. In the darkness, he heard, "Friends."

Preparations for war took a serious turn in the following days; scouts reported Wen Xu's army was on the march towards the Unclean Realm with the intention of eliminating the rebellious Sects gathered there. No quarter would be offered, nor given. Even more disturbing were the reports of puppets marching alongside the army. Skirmishes against the puppets did not reveal if they were dead, undead, or merely enthralled. They were impervious to pain. Uncaring about the loss of a limb or head. Hacking them to pieces was the only way to stop them.

Wei WuXian and his fellow Jiang disciples were placed under the direction of Lan XiChen. He fought until his arm grew too sore to lift SuiBian and then continued to fight. Armies fighting against armies in an all-out melee was considerably different than skulking about the enemy camp. Or sparring in a practice field. Or even a slash-and-grab like when they'd rescued the DafanWen. Battle was noisy with the clashing blades and the screams of the dying or injured soldiers. At last the call came to fall back and regroup.

Wei WuXian looked down at his robes saturated with blood. His or his enemies, he didn't know just yet. The adrenaline running through his body refused to allow him to feel any of the cuts and stab wounds he must have. Looking over the battlefield, seeing the dead and the dying, hearing the cries of the wounded, he fell to his knees and vomited. He wasn't the only one reacting this way; he was one of the few youngsters who failed to remain upright. Kneeling on sodden robes made his stomach rebel even further, and he choked up bile.

Far across the field came the excited shouts of victory. Wei WuXian looked over to see Nie MingJue holding Wen Xu up by the throat and yelling obscenities at him. Wei WuXian was rather impressed at the length and breadth of the obscenities. He was almost sure that some were made up on the spot. But then the Nie Sect leader let go of the Wen heir who stumbled to remain upright after being dropped almost a meter. The Nie laughed loudly and kicked the heir to his knees. Wen Xu was still protesting that he should die a soldier's death when Baxia swung smoothly and removed his head. It rolled for a bit. Nie MingJue shouted a few more obscenities at the head, stepped on it. And then adjusted his robes to piss on it.

Wei WuXian sighed sadly. "I was going to use him to experiment on extracting his Core! And now he's dead."

Wen Xu's death demoralized the Wen army. There were still pockets fighting here and there; Lan XiChen gave the order for the Lan and Jiang to rest and recover a bit. Then to find their dead and wounded on the battlefield.

Jiang BiMing stood next to Wei WuXian, "Are you all right?"

"Of course!" Wei WuXian answered brightly as if there wasn't a puddle of his vomit sinking into the ground right in front of him and attempted to stand. His attempts made him aware of a searing pain in his right leg and something hot trickling down it. "Maybe not. I seem to…." He made a waving gesture at his thigh. "I don't think I can stand on it right now." The Jiang disciple forced his head disciple to lay down, then ripped the trouser leg open so he could see the wound. He immediately started giving spiritual power to aid the wound to close and heal properly. "You don't need to do that," Wei WuXian protested. "It's not that bad, right? It can wait?" Jiang BiMing ignored the younger man. "I'm sure there are others more wounded than me out there! You should help them."

Jiang BiMing sighed. "We do what we can out here. The Healers will see to the very wounded. Once your wound is closed, your Core can finish healing you." The senior disciple continued to infuse his head disciple with spiritual energy.

Wei WuXian was left to feel impotent as other Jiangs busied themselves piling up the bodies of the dead Wen and carrying the bodies of the allies back for burial or healing. When he was healed enough that he could walk, he stood up and was face to face with Lan WangJi. The other man's face looked odd… white and pinched. "Are you all right, Lan Zhan?"

That earned him a glare. "Fine." And then, Wei WuXian was granted more words from the jade. "You let him Heal you?"

Wei WuXian rubbed at his nose, itchy with dried blood. "I didn't 'let' him do anything. He just ignored my objections.'' He leaned down to pull the ripped trousers apart showing a crimson scar amidst the dog scars. "See? It's almost healed already."

"Wei Ying!" Lan Zhan's ears burned bright red.

"What? You and I are both men. Looking at my thigh for medical reasons is nothing to be ashamed of. Now if you were a maiden, that would be…." His voice trailed off as he remembered a drunk conversation where he'd mentioned marrying a female Lan Zhan. "Anyways, you're not a maiden, so we don't have to worry about that."

Cleaning up from the battle took days. There were bodies to bury, bodies to burn, looters to stop, captives to manage, people to heal, and thousands of people in need of bathing. Wei WuXian elected for a quick clean up with a bucket until there was room in the bathing houses for him to soak.

He sighed as he burned the robes worn to battle; soaked with blood and cut in too many places to mend, they were not worth keeping even as rags. So now, he was down to one set of clothing and the humiliation of having to ask Jiang Cheng for money to buy another set. Not that his brother had money, either, so he was going to have to ask one of the other Sect leaders for a loan….

But before he could gather up the courage, four bundles of cloth appeared on his bed. Four sets of robes made from expensive cloth. Three sets of everyday wear: one in a smokey gray with black accents, one in black with red accents and one in dark blue with white accents. And one set of formal wear: a sleeveless coat of bright blue with white embroidery, outer robes of a slightly darker blue with embroidery the color of the coat, and white under robes. Nie HuaiSang denied giving them to him. Jiang Cheng asked how Wei WuXian thought he could afford even one set of clothes? Lan WangJi just looked blankly through him. Jiang YanLi smiled and said he should be grateful that someone was willing to take care of him.

There wasn't much that Wei WuXian was ashamed of. Accepting charity like this was one of them. He wasn't a child anymore. He was capable of earning his own way in life. He just wasn't in a position to earn money at the moment.

He also wasn't in a position where he could ignore or discard the gifts, either.