never too far to look back | Glowfic Constellation

deaths-joy-and-grief

"Ah, Jiang Cheng, don't cry. It's not a big deal, yeah? Everything will go better this time. Let's wait and cry in front of Shijie sometime, okay? She actually knows things to say when people are upset, she knows what to do, you know that both of us are useless."

choose-to-offend

He nods.

Jiang Cheng needs to sit down and take a careful look at his priorities and figure out what he actually wants.

Haltingly, "I hadn't been a good brother, the first time around." Can he change that too, and not just the world?

deaths-joy-and-grief

“Ah? Oh, don’t worry about that, everyone kills their brother once in a while.”

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Lan Zhan snaps back to attention. “Don’t joke.”

deaths-joy-and-grief

He shakes his head. “Seriously, Jiang Cheng, it’s okay.”

listen-to-the-heartbeat

It is NOT okay.

choose-to-offend

Oh right, Lan Wangji is still there. Jiang Cheng will glare at him.

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Fuck you.

deaths-joy-and-grief

...weird. Wei Wuxian will just... finish his soup, while these two resolve whatever glare fest they're putting on.

choose-to-offend

It is impressive how odious Lan Wangji can be without even talking.

Jiang Cheng is not going to win any glaring contests with someone who had just seen him cry. Also, he is exhausted. Yesterday (or however time worked now) had been awful, and today hadn't been much better.

Was there anything else that needed to be mentioned about the future? He thinks they've covered the biggest things. The only thing left was the golden core. That would need to be said. Not in front of Lan Wangji, though. Jiang Cheng already was going to have a hard time sleeping in the same inn as Lan Wangji as it was. He didn't want to get stabbed in his sleep and the last thing he needed was another thing that Lan Wangji would blame him for.

He'll be going to bed now.

deaths-joy-and-grief

Ah, okay. No one will stop him.

Jiang Cheng has his choice of two bed-alcoves, each broad enough to comfortably fit two people without them needing to touch or acknowledge each other's existence.

choose-to-offend

He picks one at random and prepares to sleep. This ends in him lying with his back to one of the walls. Zidian stays on his wrist as always, but he doesn't bring the swords to bed.

deaths-joy-and-grief

Wei Wuxian stops trying to smile as soon as Jiang Cheng is in bed. His face relaxes into exhausted misery.

"Were you there?"

listen-to-the-heartbeat

deaths-joy-and-grief

"When I k--

When I killed Shijie. Were you there."

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"The killing strike was not yours."

deaths-joy-and-grief

"My fucking puppet then, Lan Zhan."

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"The killing strike was not yours. She pushed you out of the way as a human man attempted to kill you."

deaths-joy-and-grief

That's... more painful, actually, to hear. That hurts.

Of course she would! Even after Wei Wuxian had left her behind and murdered her husband and ruined everuthing, of course Shijie would still let him be the reason she lost her life.

Wei Wuxian has always known that he doesn't deserve his sister, but until now he didn't realize quite how much.

"I'm lucky Jiang Cheng is even willing to look at me," he mutters to the table.

listen-to-the-heartbeat

Jiang Wanyin is lucky that he hasn't already been violently murdered.

deaths-joy-and-grief

He takes one glance at Lan Zhan's face and laughs humorlessly. "Why do you hate him so much, Lan Zhan? He can't have done anything more annoying than I subjected you to in our classmate days."

listen-to-the-heartbeat

Wangji is caught completely off guard by this not being obvious. He stares at Wei Ying. (Right in front of him, still, pale and miserable and unwilling to trust him and alive.)

"Killed you."

deaths-joy-and-grief

An even emptier huff of a laugh. "Beat you to it?"

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