[ It would be easier if Wei Wuxian would fight back - if his brother would make some kind of attempt to deny it, to pretend that he is something other than this. It would make some of the burden on Jiang Cheng's shoulders feel easier to bear, somehow, as if he could muster up the will to shoulder it all. It would be better if he felt as though he was being an idiot, that none of this was justified - because it would make it easier to forgive his brother.
That's not the case, however, and his eyes still burn with tears that he can't quite swallow back, that he can do nothing to stop other than squeeze them shut and hope that he wears thin somehow.
It would be easier if the embrace didn't feel so much like home. ]
It took a whole life for you to try, idiot.
[ He remembers another promise; let's be brothers, they said, even in the next life. Are they brothers now? Is that connection still there, with a different body housing Wei Wuxian's soul? Blood never linked them to begin with, that had never mattered, but it was a confusing myriad of thoughts that wrap up on his mind and leave Jiang Cheng wondering and wishing a thousand things.
He sinks into the embrace. ]
You should have told me. You didn't need to protect me. Even then I was Clan Leader, even then I was going to have to be stronger and better. I was a leader, not just your younger brother. You should have believed I could do it.
[ He breathes out, shiveringly, before he shakes his head. ]
I had been ready to die for you and A-Jie. I had left to do that. But then you were just as stupid as I was and it was all for nothing.
[ A confession he hadn't really been prepared to make, especially not here, hanging before his ancestors and feeling their judgement rain down on him. ]
we're the heroes these two needed
That's not the case, however, and his eyes still burn with tears that he can't quite swallow back, that he can do nothing to stop other than squeeze them shut and hope that he wears thin somehow.
It would be easier if the embrace didn't feel so much like home. ]
It took a whole life for you to try, idiot.
[ He remembers another promise; let's be brothers, they said, even in the next life. Are they brothers now? Is that connection still there, with a different body housing Wei Wuxian's soul? Blood never linked them to begin with, that had never mattered, but it was a confusing myriad of thoughts that wrap up on his mind and leave Jiang Cheng wondering and wishing a thousand things.
He sinks into the embrace. ]
You should have told me. You didn't need to protect me. Even then I was Clan Leader, even then I was going to have to be stronger and better. I was a leader, not just your younger brother. You should have believed I could do it.
[ He breathes out, shiveringly, before he shakes his head. ]
I had been ready to die for you and A-Jie. I had left to do that. But then you were just as stupid as I was and it was all for nothing.
[ A confession he hadn't really been prepared to make, especially not here, hanging before his ancestors and feeling their judgement rain down on him. ]