this phantom pain might not be so farfetched {JC x LXC} {Xicheng}

Since the tender age of 9, Jiang Cheng has been convinced there is something growing within his chest.

He fancies it might be a rose bush, full of thorns that poke his lungs everytime his father praises Wei Wuxian while his mother compares his lacking skills to his adopted brother and his sister dotes on the older boy, first and foremost. Or maybe it's a cactus, one that parches his throat dry with a hacking cough when all his friends favor the cooler Jiang sibling and dismiss his minuscule insecurities. But sometimes he contemplates if it's poison ivy wrapping tightly around his esophagus, causing uncomfortable irritation when his childhood crush, flawless Lan Xichen doesn't notice him the way Jiang Cheng notices everything about the older boy.

He might not be certain what it is, but all he knows is that he is growing something so magnificent and indescribable.

And it hurts.

Yet no one believes him when he mentions the pain, when somedays the basic skill of breathing doesn't come easy. He catches the eye rolls, hears the scoffs, fumes at the blatant teasing, and clams up at the scolding he receives for his "exaggeration".

Though perhaps his imagination wasn't too far off the mark.

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(This is my own story cross-posted from Ao3. You can find this story there through the same account name: Meadow_Wanderer. External link will take you directly there)