Always

Chapter 12 - Empathy

After what seemed like a good twenty minutes or so, Wangji managed to get out of Wuxian's tickle attack. He basically managed to collect himself long enough to pin Wuxian underneath him on the bed.

"You...are dangerously close...to being punished," Wangji warned pinning Wuxian's hands about his head.

"Playfully, right?" Wuxian asked, "if you say punish, the curse will find a way to act out. So you need to be specific."

Wangji realized that being playful like this was going to be a challenge. He did not want to risk any chance of Wuxian going through a punishment of the curse. Wangji then moved off of Wuxian and sat down beside him.

"I will not hurt you," Wangji assured him.

"I know," Wuxian said, "Lan Zhan...I am so sorry."

Wangji looked Wuxian in the eyes, "why are you apologizing to me?"

"For leaving, hiding," Wuxian answered, "hurting you. I never wanted to hurt you. I just felt alone and miserable. I cannot talk about this curse freely. I want so badly for it to go away."

"You can talk freely about it with me," Wangji told him, "why is that?"

Wuxian shrugged.

"The ring, you said you made it. What does it do?" Wangji asked.

"I made a few things. The ring is called Baozang. It can store things inside, and it has unlimited space. This red bracelet is actually a whip called Chìhóng. When used, it gives off extreme heat. It can cause burns and emit red lightning," Wuxian explained and took out the flute from his ring, "and this, is a spiritual Dizi I learned to craft and play called Chenqing."

"You made all these?" Wangji asked.

Wuxian nodded, "I needed to hide my sword as it would be recognized by others. So I put it in the ring and crafted the flute at the whip. I don't want a lot of people to know that I have been found. Madam Yu will for sure, try to kill me."

"I will not let her near you," Wangji told him.

"It was so long ago...so my memory of it is vague...do you know how to do Empathy?" Wuxian asked.

"I do, but it can be dangerous without a third person to supervise. Why?" Wangji asked.

"I want someone to perform empathy on me. Back to the day I got the curse. I cannot remember all that was said but I think Miao Luo spoke of how the curse can break and the consequences of what will happen to Madam Yu if it does break," Wuxian said, "if we can figure out what the consequences are, it might be useful."

"I will ask Xiongzhang to sit in, do not go anywhere," Wangji told him.

"I promise," Wuxian said. Wei Wuxian stayed put as he said he would. Lan Wangji soon returned with his brother but did not explain to him the situation.

"Wei Gongzi," Lan Xichen said.

"Ah, Zewu Jun, please just call me Wuxian. I do not care much for formalities."

"As long as you call me Xichen," He told him.

"Okay," Wuxian said, "so I want to let Lan Zhan perform Empathy. I want him to look back at the memory."

"What memory? Empathy can be dangerous," Xichen said.

"Wei Ying wants to go back to the day he was cursed. He said he does not have much memory of that day but it is still within his subconscious. If we can look into it, we will see what Miao Luo had Madam Yu compromise with and to see if there was anything else we needed to know," Wangji explained.