#probably!

i will tell you about the significantly worse time where jiang cheng, instead of leading/joining the mob gathering to siege to the burial mounds after nightless city, gets to the burial mounds first.

to find wei wuxian in crisis/melting down/about to get torn apart by the resentful energy.

(yeah in canon this is supposed to be a result of the pressure of the actual siege. whatever. don't think about it too hard. wei wuxian smoking from the eyes/losing his shit in a way that jiang cheng — always willing to excuse during the sunshot campaign — has never seen before.)

jiang cheng is colossally furious, grief-stricken, betrayed in a way he didn't think was possible, here with no idea what he's going to do/what he's supposed to do/what happens now. wei wuxian also half-mad with grief and anger and guilt because shijie was never supposed to be part of this, she was never supposed to --

for Ye Olde Porn Reasons, fucking would in fact fix wei wuxian/give him the ability to control the resentful energy backlash that's building up. fucking would prevent his death. wen qing confirms it. wen ning isn't an option; the fierce corpse issue means that anything he does will exacerbate the feedback loop wei wuxian's stuck in. she'd do it in a heartbeat to keep him alive but wei wuxian doesn't have a core. it'd work…better…if it was someone who's known him longer, she says, without making eye contact.

(wei wuxian doesn't have a fucking core? every single minute of this fucking day feels like getting stabbed over and over again. when the fuck did that happen. what else has wei wuxian been lying about — it doesn't fucking matter, jiang cheng tells himself. does anything matter at this point.)

(wen qing's being judicious about the information she's providing, here: telling jiang cheng about the core transfer might make him even angrier, but telling him that wei wuxian has no core might make him a little more sympathetic. wei wuxian might be their best chance of surviving this mess. odds aren't great. she's doing what she can and hoping for the best.)

there is a moment where jiang cheng considers...not doing that. letting it all fucking end, y'know?

but yanli's dead. if wei wuxian dies, there's really no one left. jiang cheng might be cripplingly angry and heartbroken, but he can't bear to raise his sword, and he can't lose one more person.

it is fucking infuriating that wei wuxian is insultingly, insufferably possessive when they fuck. now he's babbling shit about jiang cheng being his, now he's moaning about not losing jiang cheng, now he's clutching and grabbing at jiang cheng like he's trying to claw his way inside him? now? jiejie is fucking dead, he's pulling this bullshit now? jiang cheng wants to slap him, wants to gag him, needs him to shut the fuck up right now.

(the worst true thing about this is: it's what jiang cheng has wanted to hear basically his whole adult life, right? it's sick that it's happening now and it's sick that it's still working for him. it's wrong. there's something wrong with him and there's something wrong with wei wuxian, that they could do this.)

from wei wuxian's pov, jiang cheng showed up here to try to kill him (deserved) and he's suckerpunched when it goes in...a naked direction instead. the sex is not really helping him clear his head but this is something he can – it's not familiar, it's not really like he's on any kind of even keel here, but even though jiang cheng is furious and near-silent he's not really fighting when wei wuxian claws his robes off, gets to the skin underneath, gets his hands on him. gets inside him. he's even getting hard about it, and that is maybe the crack that wei wuxian can sink his fingernails into (everything had gone completely out of control, totally off the rails, but this? jiang cheng's body? this he can control. he's not going to hurt jiang cheng. he can make him hard. he can make him moan. this isn't familiar territory, but it's close enough, maybe; getting a reaction out of jiang cheng, seeing that he hasn't fucked things up badly enough to prevent jiang cheng from reacting to him. he's regaining his footing.

(this makes it sound romantic. important to note that if they'd fucked for the first time in different circumstances, maybe? but here jiang cheng is angry enough that he's biting, he's furious that it's good, he's furious that wei wuxian is making it good for him, everything about it is pissing him off, right?

and it is good. better than anything he's had before. jiang cheng's not aware of it but there is some golden-core-related fuckery that means this is the best sex he's had so far in his life, probably.)

(wei wuxian is not actually regaining his equilibrium, btw. the whole world wants to kill the wens? fine. the whole world wants wei wuxian dead bad enough to kill shijie? fine. and here's jiang cheng, showing up in the burial mounds alone, by himself, against the fearsome yllz, like an idiot, letting wei wuxian dick-deep in his body where wei wuxian can practically hear his core spinning in jiang cheng's lower dantian -- wei wuxian could've done anything to jiang cheng.

wei wuxian could do anything to jiang cheng.

keep him, even.)

so post-coital they're both lying on the stone floor (wei wuxian half-dressed, jiang cheng completely naked; jiang cheng went into this trying to keep his clothes on, get it over with quickly, but blazed-on-resentful-energy!wei wuxian was determined to get jiang cheng naked, get his hands all over jiang cheng, and at some point jiang cheng forgot why he should prevent wei wuxian from doing that) and jiang cheng does a quick check. wei wuxian does not seem to be smoking at the eyes. the blood pool has stopped boiling. whatever crisis wei wuxian was headed towards seems to have paused for the moment.

What Comes Next. oh fucking no. because if jiang cheng leaves wei wuxian here, he's dead for sure. but how could he — how could he even think of bringing wei wuxian back to lotus pier? it would be disloyal. unfilial. it would be — but if he leaves him here, jiang cheng thinks, again, with sick dread coiling in his stomach, he's dead. and jiang cheng isn't done with wei wuxian, he doesn't get to die right after jiejie.

fine. jiang cheng is dragging wei wuxian home, his parents can roll in their graves about it. the wens are not jiang cheng's problem but as long as wei wuxian leaves the barriers up at the burial mounds, the rest of the cultivation world will probably waste enough time trying to break them down that the wens can run for it. whatever.

jiang cheng: get up, idiot. shut up. i'm taking you home.

wei wuxian, lying on the floor, watching jiang cheng pull his robes back on (they're a fucking mess) with a weird look in his eyes: no.

jiang cheng: you can't stay here. they're going to kill you. you understand that they're going to kill you, right?

wei wuxian: they're not going to kill me, i've got a hostage.

jiang cheng (still not getting it. difficult day for him. give him grace): who? who do you think anyone possibly cares about? wen qing? nie mingjue wants her dead too. don't be more of a fucking idiot than you already are.

cue a real screaming match about the idea of sect leader jiang as the yiling laozu's hostage: wei wuxian is like hey, idk where you think you're going but you're sure as fuck not leaving my sight, not after shijie --

jiang cheng does hit him for that one, i think. never occurred to him to be afraid of wei wuxian a day in his life and he's not starting now.