Wei Wuxian awoke slowly. His mind felt slow and foggy. There was light, wherever he was. Wei Wuxian tried shifting so it wouldn't bother him, groggily throwing an arm across his eyes.

"Wei Ying?" Lan Wangji's deep voice was filled with so much concern that Wei Wuxian was immediately blinking awake.

"Lan Zhan?" Wei Wuxian attempted to say, but it came out much less intelligible than he intended.

He blinked a few times to clear his eyes and found Lan Wangji hovering beside him. Lan Wangji's eyebrows furrowed and he disappeared from Wei Wuxian's view. Wei Wuxian turned his head and was pleased that he could see Lan Wangji pouring hot water. Lan Wangji returned with his offering of water.

"Water," Lan Wangji said softly.

Wei Wuxian allowed Lan Wangji to help him sit up and drink. Mostly because Wei Wuxian loved to have Lan Wangji's hands on him. Also he was very thirsty. The hot water felt like it was loosening something in his throat. Feeling more awake, Wei Wuxian searched the room carefully. There was no one else there.

"Wen Qing?" Wei Wuxian asked with a mixture of hope and dread.

"She is recovering. She's with Xiongzhang." Lan Wangji said softly.

Wei Wuxian let himself collapse backwards as those words sunk in. That was a lot for such a short sentence. Wen Qing was safe. She was hurt. Which Wei Wuxian hated, but also already knew would be the case. She was recovering though. Recovering was good. Recovering meant healing. Wei Wuxian blinked at the interior of the room. It looked vaguely familiar, but definitely not somewhere he had been often.

"Lan Zhan. This is Nightless City?" Wei Wuxian asked, his voice suddenly hollow.

"Mn." Lan Wangji acknowledged.

"We won?" Wei Wuxian asked with a breathy gasp.

"Mn. The war is over." Lan Wangji said gently.

That is somehow the best and worst sentence Wei Wuxian could have possibly imagined. The war was over. The war was over! Wei Wuxian was thrilled. Wei Wuxian was terrified. Wei Wuxian had desperately wanted the war to end, but now that it had he had to think about everything that came after.

In his last life the war ended. Wen Qing's family was imprisoned. Jiang Wanyin's anger toward him grew stronger by the day. He was made a pariah because of his demonic cultivation and for having the audacity to rescue innocent people. He killed people. Innocent people died. Shijie died. He died.

"Wei Ying." Lan Wangji's voice was muddled, like he was speaking through water.

Wei Wuxian's body felt cold. He remembered the feeling of blades cutting into him. The burning, blinding pain of zidian against his flesh. He could feel the open air around him and it was too much. All that space filled with all those people. People who wanted to kill his family. People who wanted to kill him.

"Wei Ying. You are safe." Lan Wangji's voice was self assured even if it sounded distant and fuzzy. "Wei Ying. I am holding you. Can you feel my arms around you?"

Wei Wuxian was feeling a lot of things right now. He didn't really want to focus on any of them.

"We are sitting on a bed in a room. There is no one here but the two of us." Lan Wangji continued.

Wei Wuxian felt something tug on his head. Was it Lan Wangji? Lan Wangji said he was holding him. The sensation came again. Then a light sensation of nails scratching against his scalp.

"Wei Ying is safe. I'm here." Lan Wangji's voice sounded much closer now.

Wei Wuxian focused on the feeling of fingers combing through his hair. His heart was still racing uncomfortably in his chest. He felt like he wasn't getting enough air and this unsettling feeling of panic seemed to just be shifting around under his skin. Wei Wuxian desperately wanted the feeling to go away.

"Slow breaths Wei Ying. You are safe." Lan Wangji said smoothly.

Wei Wuxian felt the strong chest he was leaning against expand in a slow dramatic breath. Oh, he could feel a chest now. That was new. That was probably attached to the arms he could now also feel wrapped around him. Those were things that had not been happening while he died. Now if the rest of his body could agree with Lan Wangji that would be very nice.

"Try to match my breathing, Wei Ying." Lan Wangji's voice sounded much closer. Like a soft murmur against his ear. Wei Wuxian felt the chest rise dramatically again and attempted to match it. His whole body felt like it shook with the effort of trying to match that pace.

"Wei Ying is doing well." Lan Wangji encouraged.

That was nice to hear. Wei Wuxian didn't feel like he was doing well. He was now mostly certain that he was safe. Not just hallucinating on his deathbed or something. So the whole feeling the armies closing in on him and viscerally remembering what it was like to be stabbed was probably a flashback. That sucked.

"Slow breaths. You're safe." Lan Wangji assured him.

The racing pulse and uncomfortable feeling of distress that seemed to have fused with his blood did not go away. Wei Wuxian followed along with the rises and falls of Lan Wangji's chest. Right, they were in Nightless city. They just won a war. Wei Wuxian felt a small spike in his already elevated panic.

'Right, not thinking about that part right now.' Wei Wuxian said internally.

He was sitting on a bed in Lan Wangji's arms. That was objectively a great place to be. Wei Wuxian loved being in Lan Wangji's arms. Now if only Wei Wuxian didn't feel like his skin was trying to crawl off of his body. That would be great. It would also be great if his brain would stop telling him that he wasn't getting enough oxygen.

'Lan Zhan is breathing like this and said I should too. So clearly this is enough oxygen.' Wei Wuxian told himself firmly. His brain did not believe him, because Wei Wuxian's brain is a liar. His brain is a liar that has been through a number of very stressful and anxiety producing situations. Resulting in his brain being entirely too prone to panicking and Wei Wuxian wished knowing that would make it stop.

It did not make it stop, but this was not Wei Wuxian's first panic attack. It was extremely uncomfortable, but it would eventually stop. Lan Wangji was here, and Lan Wangji would keep him safe until his brain started working properly again. Wei Wuxian took several very slow breaths.

"I think... I'd like to be sitting in your lap right now." Wei Wuxian said with minimal difficulty.

A warm kiss was placed against his forehead. Wei Wuxian's lips tugged up in a tiny smile. It felt like it took forever to reposition themselves, but it was probably only seconds. Wei Wuxian did his best to curl himself into a ball in Lan Wangji's lap. Lan Wangji pulled the blanket up and around Wei Wuxian before wrapping him in his embrace. Wei Wuxian's head was guided to Lan Wangji's shoulder. His hands came up automatically to grip Lan Wangji's robes.

"Better?" Lan Wangji inquired.

"Ish?" Wei Wuxian said with a small shrug. "My brain still thinks I'm not breathing fast enough and I kind of want to rip all my skin off to get this sensation out of my body." Lan Wangji squeezed Wei Wuxian a little tighter and it helped quiet the impulse.

"I'm here. It will go away with time." Lan Wangji said softly.

Wei Wuxian groaned something between a complaint and an acknowledgement. It felt like he needed to do something. The uncomfortable anxious feeling that he very much wanted to make go away. Wen Qing had explained that the body apparently had a time limit on how long it could stay that anxious. Which was nice to know, but frustratingly sometimes the only thing to do was to just wait.

Wei Wuxian hated waiting. Wei Wuxian possibly hated waiting more than he hated copying lines. Wei Wuxian compromised by wiggling his feet nervously as he continued to take deliberately steady breaths. Having to think about breathing was also very annoying. It took up space in his brain making it harder to think about other things. On the other hand it also didn't take so much thinking that it took all his attention. It just left him with less space to pay attention than he usually had. Which also sucked.

Panic attacks sucked and Wei Wuxian was really pissed that he was having one right now. This was supposed to be a good and exciting thing right now. Again, not thinking too fully on that since Wei Wuxian did not need to have another flashback while having a panic attack. Still, this should have at least been a nice chill time to feel relieved. Wei Wuxian didn't even know how long he had been unconscious yet.

Wei Wuxian was debating what to ask Lan Wangji about when Lan Wangji began to softly hum. A small smile broke across Wei Wuxain's face even though the disquieting sensation in his body hadn't gone away. Wei Wuxian quietly hummed along with Lan Wangji. Letting himself focus on the music, the vibration of the notes in Lan Wangji's chest, and reminding himself to continue to breathe at steady intervals.