a fic idea that's been plaguing my mind for days:

lwj getting seriously hurt on a night hunt that he's bloodied all over. it's fine tho they make it out alive and after lwj is tended to and resting, wwx takes his blood-soaked robes in a river somewhere and compulsively washes it

wwx sees the amount of blood on lwj's robes. lwj robes are white. pristine white. he has only ever seen it this bloody during the war and even then it was NEVER this much bloody. wwx tunnel visions on this single task of washing the blood off of lwj's robes

//fuck, sorry. tw: blood

he scrubs and scrubs but no water what he does the blood IS STILL there. why won't it come off? the river's water where he's washing has turned pink and the blood is still there just how much blood did lwj loose

it's at this point of this au that i mention this was a night hunt gone wrong. wwx and lwj were just coming back to gusu after a light night hunt when they were intercepted by another case of a god statue that's come to life.

im gonna throw in that the party originally pursuing the god statue was the jiang sect. jiang cheng is there. the god statue was annihilated but there were a lot of casualties. jiang cheng sent the remaining jiang disciples to get help for clean up. he stayed behind just because

and that's how he found wwx scrubbing lwj's by now clean white robes by the river.

"what are you doing?" he asks wwx who is still compulsively scrubbing at the robes

"i'm washing lan zhan's robes. he likes to be clean and it's all bloody. FUCK. why won't the blood come off!!"

jiang cheng looks down. sees that the robes are now back to its pristine white and wwx has scrubbed his knuckles raw.

"wei wuxian, the blood is—"

"i know! i'll get it out i just need to soak it and scrub it better"

he doesn't know, jiang cheng thinks, or rather he's not seeing that the robes are clean. only that it was covered in lwj's blood and wwx is still seeing that imagery.

a bloody lwj. on the ground. unmoving and unresponsive to wwx's calls.

for a moment jiang cheng is floored. he doesn't know how to deal with this wwx.

wwx who's seen their clan slaughter, wwx who fought a war in his teens, wwx who raised and lived with the dead. wwx who has died once.

jiang cheng doesn't know how to deal with a wwx who is used to death losing it over the sight of lwj almost dying.

he crouches down to where wwx is still scrubbing at lwj's robes, grasps his wrists and turns him to face him. it is the gentlest jiang cheng has ever been to wwx

"hey," jiang cheng says firm enough to snap wwx's eyes up to him "lwj is fine. he's stable. he'll be fine."

never in his life did jiang cheng thing he would ever be in this situation

"i know that jiang cheng. i'm just washing his robes because they're so bloody it—"

"any more and it's your blood that's gonna color those robes red"

wwx's grips lwj's robes. wrings them dry just so his hands have something to grasp. he can still see the blood on them.

"i—he stopped breathing a-cheng. lwj he—he stopped breathing"

jiang cheng knows. he saw the face wwx made when he felt for lwj's pulse and couldn't feel anything for a couple of seconds. it was worse than when lotus pier burned down, worse than whe a-jie died. he decided right there and then he never wants to see wwx make that face again.

anyway. jiang cheng shakes wwx off his hysteria and manages to guide him back to where lwj and the rest of their remaining group were. wwx stays by lwj's side until reinforcements came and until lwj wakes up. wwx let's out a relief sob when lwj opens his eyes and called for him

lwj notices wwx's knuckles are red raw and blistered. when he asked why wwx just said he got carried away washing the blood off his robes but lwj KNOWS and so he kisses each of wwx's knuckles and fingers whispering 'thank you' and 'sorry' in between

wwx tearfully tells him there is no need for thank yous and sorry between them that's what you said lan zhan so stop it but he has to promised nEVER to scare him like that again.

lwj plants one last kiss on wwx's open palm, soft and tender, and tells him "i promise."

THE END