[this is dangerous. this is dangerous. he should not have opened this route of conversation.]
Recall Phoenix Mountain.
[repeating this particular transgression to both of them causes no more damage, he supposes, than it already has. he cannot make himself say, I have loved you, or something like it, since you climbed a wall in front of we when we were fifteen; I have known I have loved you since we fought a Divine Beast when we were seventeen; I have never stopped.]
if Wei Wuxian misconstrues this he is just going to possibly pitch himself off the side of the island and let the magic winds blow him around for a while]
[he has to attempt to re-contextualize every interaction they've had since that kiss on Phoenix Mountain and that is very difficult when he previously assumed Lan Wangji wanted to lock him up or kill him.]
[there is clear distress in his voice; a sort of panic clawing at him when faced with this admission, placed up next to their many years of arguing and fighting]
[his breath strangles on Wei Wuxian's name; he just tried to say it so vehemently he feels like he's choking, for a moment. his hands have curled fully into fists.]
Then what was your plan, exactly? To settle me and the Wens in a nice little empty spot on the mountainside? How long do you think you could have kept the Jins away, or your own family?
[it's not what he wants to ask or say. the futility of it still feels like a stab through the stomach, even now: a slow and painful realization that no matter what path they took, it couldn't have ended well. it would have always ended like this. at least the way it went meant Lan Wangji didn't get dragged into it.
his breathing evens out, steady even as he digs his nails into his palms so hard they draw blood]
...It was better than you didn't. There was nothing you could do.
I thought you spoke of a different time. Before you went to the Burial Mounds.
Once that had passed, you and I knew. "Nobody can give me a nice, broad road to walk on. A road where I could protect those I want to protect." You told me yourself.
[this is breathlessly hurtful at this point; he feels it in his gut like an open wound, tearing ever wider. Wei Wuxian has always been good at this, when he chooses to be: at turning his own good intentions into blows, at discounting that others might have been able to help him at all, regardless of their own.]
[hunches over himself, eyes on his hands clenched in his lap. the fuzzy memory of a bad dream floats through his consciousness, of Lan Wangji wandering alone through the Burial Mounds while bleeding out. the thought of it being real sends his pulse racing in alarm.]
...It...already happened a long time ago, Er-gege. If you had died back then, I wouldn't get to be here with you now.
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Recall Phoenix Mountain.
[repeating this particular transgression to both of them causes no more damage, he supposes, than it already has. he cannot make himself say, I have loved you, or something like it, since you climbed a wall in front of we when we were fifteen; I have known I have loved you since we fought a Divine Beast when we were seventeen; I have never stopped.]
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Which part about it? I don't know what this has to do with my question.
[he does attempt to think back, but he's also busy trying to work out Lan Wangji's words]
Has it...been since then?
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[hmm what]
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if Wei Wuxian misconstrues this he is just going to possibly pitch himself off the side of the island and let the magic winds blow him around for a while]
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[he has to attempt to re-contextualize every interaction they've had since that kiss on Phoenix Mountain and that is very difficult when he previously assumed Lan Wangji wanted to lock him up or kill him.]
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Before then.
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[there is clear distress in his voice; a sort of panic clawing at him when faced with this admission, placed up next to their many years of arguing and fighting]
But you hated me! We were always fighting!
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No.
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[the truth of it feels already known; but he's anxious, so anxious that what he's thinking might be wrong]
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I wished to...
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No. No matter what you thought your intentions were, you know it would have turned into an excuse to keep me locked up there.
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No.
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[it's not what he wants to ask or say. the futility of it still feels like a stab through the stomach, even now: a slow and painful realization that no matter what path they took, it couldn't have ended well. it would have always ended like this. at least the way it went meant Lan Wangji didn't get dragged into it.
his breathing evens out, steady even as he digs his nails into his palms so hard they draw blood]
...It was better than you didn't. There was nothing you could do.
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I thought you spoke of a different time. Before you went to the Burial Mounds.
Once that had passed, you and I knew. "Nobody can give me a nice, broad road to walk on. A road where I could protect those I want to protect." You told me yourself.
I regret that I did not stay, then.
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I'm glad you didn't stay. It would have meant getting caught up in our troubles. You don't deserve that.
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I should have stayed.
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No joy in safety.
Nor in hearing of your deaths.
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...It...already happened a long time ago, Er-gege. If you had died back then, I wouldn't get to be here with you now.
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As you are more informed.
What do you want of me?
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