Honor and Cultivation (WoH×MDZS)

Demon to Demon

Kexing was not having a good day.

At least the day was almost over, he reflected, staring at the moon as he drank the wine he carried with him. Night had fallen- the Lans were asleep, Zishu, Chengling and Gu Xiang were in their rooms and Wuxian and Wen Ning were wandering around... somewhere. Frankly Kexing didn't give a shit, so long as he couldn't see them from his place on the rooftop.

All he wanted was to wallow in his sadness until he got drunk.

Movement next to him alerted him, and Kexing turned to see Wuxuan settling on the roof next to him, carrying a bag over his shoulder.

"What're you doing here?" Kexing asked warily.

"Checking on you!"

Kexing glared at him.

"Really!!" Wuxian insisted. "You seem really upset today, I don't wanna make it worse!!"

Kexing huffed and retorted, "I'm upset whenever I see you. Why don't you conveniently leave?"

"This again, do you really have something against saying "get lost"?"

"I'll say it if you make me mad enough."

Wuxian laughed. He replied easily, "Not tonight. Tomorrow! Tomorrow I'll make you so angry you'll cough up blood like Old Man Lan."

"You can try."

Wuxian unpacked his bag to reveal several jars of wine. He offered 1 to Kexing and invited, "Here. Don't drink your own wine- in case we end up somewhere without wine later."

"Where the hell'd you get this?"

"In this house."

"Give it here."

Wuxian pushed the jar closer. He watched Kexing drink several mouthfuls and asked, "Is it good?"

"How about you try it yourself?"

Wuxian chuckled. He took a jar from himself and began to drink, only to choke on the first mouthful. "Jeez!!" he coughed. "It's pretty damn strong!!"

"What? Is it too strong for you?"

"Of course not!" Wuxian retorted, glaring at him. "I have excellent tolerance- this is nothing to me!" He drank a couple mouthfuls to show him. "See? Perfectly fine!"

Kexing laughed- a sign of real amusement this time rather than sardonic. "Sure," he remarked. "You reminded me of A-Xu a bit there."

Wuxian laughed and replied, "Did I?"

"He likes some good wine and admiring the moon too."

"You seem like a good match then."

"Why're you being so nice today? Grown a conscience?"

"As if, fuck off!" Wuxian retorted, shoving Kexing in the shoulder.

Kexing laughed and drank another mouthful of wine. He was half expecting a scathing retort from Wuxian, but he said nothing, only stared at the moon thoughtfully, fiddling with his flute without noticing.

He replied at last, "I'm being nice today because... you're not unhappy in the same way you usually are."

Kexing frozen at the observation, but Wuxian seemed not to notice, continuing without looking at Kexing, "You're... worried. About what the people around you'll think. You're tired of keeping a secret, you want everything to stop. There's a part of your identity that feels like a rock on your chest, and it's making it hard to breathe. No matter how much you pretend, it's hard to feel really free and happy."