"That you want to just go and take him? I want that too, Lan Zhan. So much. I wouldn't. I won't. But I want." 

He has run out of tears for the evening, but his chest aches like a wound. 

"He loved the bunnies," Wangji whispers into Wei Ying's hair. "Remember the bunnies?"

Wei Ying hasn't run out of tears. They roll down his face as he nods. 

"We can--we can find him. We won't, won't be his parents this time, but--we can bring him bunnies. And destroy anyone who tries to hurt him."

Cling. Sad, desperate cling.

"I love you. I love you so much. We'll--neither of us will die and we'll be okay." 

He is definitely trying to convince himself as much as Lan Zhan. 

"I love you very much. I'll do anything."

It's ridiculously early by Wei Ying's standards but he's been pushing himself hard, the past week, and he's so tired and Lan Zhan is right there. 

He drifts off to sleep. 

He follows him to sleep, still clinging.

He dreams. 

It starts, as many of his nightmares start, with A-Yuan wreathed in resentful energy, his beautiful eyes glazed red.

"A-Yuan," Wangji gasps. "A-Yuan, what are you doing?"

A-Yuan startles, eyes widening. Before Wangji can say anything more, his son drops to his knees. "Father, I'm sorry!" A-Yuan cries. "Yuan will accept punishment."

Wangji stares. "A-Yuan - no, I would never - did I tell you to say that?"

They are outside, now, the Lan elders gathered around them. They have all seen. They all know A-Yuan to be a danger, they are murmuring about it.

The whip comes down once, twice. Wangji screams. He lurches forward, and Brother grabs him -- Wangji, be calm -- A-Yuan is bleeding --

"A-Yuan!" Wangji cries. "Stop kneeling there, run --"

"Father -" blood dripping from his cherubic little lips, down his baby chin, it will kill him - "What is black, what is white -"

"STOP --"

He lunges forward. His knees hit the bloody wood where A-Yuan had been. A-Yuan isn't there anymore, A-Yuan is up ahead - in the Burial Mounds, directly before them - and he is Wei Ying, they flicker in-and-out, and they are dying - the spiritual backlash will take them in seconds, Wangji knows, and he knows instinctively from dream after dream after dream how they will scream -

He tries to lurch after them, and the discipline whip strikes his back. He falls. He screams. He hates screaming, and it's wrong; he didn't cry out until the tenth strike - Wangji, you are such a disappointment - Wangji be calm, you mustn't try to move - and Wei Ying is gone and the pain drills down to his spine and never leaves and his love is dead and it hurts --

"Lan Zhan! Lan Zhan, wake up!" Wei Ying says desperately, shaking him. 

He gasps violently awake. For two seconds he lashes out, blind with pain and panic. Then Wangji goes very still. He has trained himself to go still; the wounds reopen if he flails too badly. He can already feel blood sticking down his back.

"Bandages," he mumbles, eyes shut, chest still heaving. He reaches out with one hand. "Please."

"You're not injured, Lan Zhan. You were having a nightmare." 

"Yes. I reopened the --"

His eyes snap open. "Wei Ying."

"I'm here, Lan Zhan."

Cli- no wait he needs to be still because his back is - no wait, he's in the past and his back his fine - CLING!!!

The most urgent clinging. He yanks Wei Ying very close and Squeezes and his arms tremble around him.

Wei Ying's upper arms are sort of trapped against his sides by the CLING but he's not going to ask Lan Zhan to let go or anything dumb like that, the amount of snuggle he can deliver with just his forearms is sorta limited but he's going to give it his best shot. 

"Reopened the what? What was the nightmare about?"

...shit.

"Mn."

"Lan Zhan, you made me tell you about my golden core, so now I'm going to make you tell me about this." 

That's actually a fair point and he hates it.

"I was injured. After we were separated before your death."

"How? Who did it?"

"I fought many people, while you were unwell. Many wanted to hurt you.

It was generous not to have me executed."

A mercy more to his uncle and brother than to him, but Wangji could not begrudge his family that after everything he had put them through.

Oh look, he can move his arms after all, if he needs to badly enough. 

"Lan Zhan, no," he breathes. He isn't sure what he means--no, that's not generosity, no, I'm not worth it, no, that can't happen to you--

"Lan Zhan. I know your clan is incredibly important to you. But if anyone ever tries to do that again, I'm going to break the whip and then them." 

"Uncle chose men who knew me. Respected me. Those were the elders he sent to retrieve me. Those were the men I hurt."