The Tears of Thirteen Years

Chapter 27

      Thank you for reading this story. Much love!

This is an AU of the ending.

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With every step he takes, his heart lightens like a bird finally able to truly take flight.

It had felt far longer a time, held captive by Jin GuangYao but it was still dark, the brilliant hues of the dawn an hour away, so the streets were quiet. The hush of early morning, long settled before the new day. There was no one yet awake to hear the clicking of a donkey's hooves on the ground, but it could have been the mouth to hell itself and Lan Wangji's soft footfalls would not have hesitated.

Sitting on the back of the donkey was the center of his world, his miracle.

Well trained in the art of horse riding, but Wei Wuxian sat upon this donkey's back as idly as an Emperor.

It stole his breath to see him, vibrant, unbowed and alive. The sharp knives of panic, a memory too close to the surface to let him rest just yet, the image of guqin strings cutting into the perfect column of Wei Ying's neck, leaving his heart unsteady.

Jin GuangYao was dead but that was not the thought his mind and heart was focused on. Wei Ying loved him.

Wei Ying, the Yiling Patriarch...loves him.

There were no words in any language to describe the feelings swirling in his chest. It was an impossible dream, a wild hope and nothing reality could ever give him.

The beautiful wild soul he had cherished for what felt like a lifetime...loved him.

For thirteen years he had lived with the shards of his heart, the jagged pieces that focused on raising thier son, on surviving another day, another ten minutes knowing that Wei Ying was damned to chaos.

For longer than that, he had fought these feelings and resigned himself to heartache.

In one night he had discovered what it felt like to kiss Wei Ying, to hold him warm, alive and passionate in his arms. The feel of his skin and the sound of his moans. Every fantasy, dream and craving realized in an inn room.

The misunderstanding that followed seemed so ridiculous now.

Wei Ying loves him.

From the corner of his eye he watches Wei Ying pluck an apple free from the basket and bite into it. Before, he would have looked away, afraid to reveal the truth of his feelings, the want that would have surfaced like a wave, but now he simply rejoices in everything that is Wei Ying.

The tempestuous but much loved Lil' Apple flared its nostrils in fury, slamming its hooves. Wei Ying slapped it lightly and bravely slipped the half-eaten apple into its mouth.

"Lan Zhan, did you know? The one named SiSi seemed to have been a friend of Jin GuangYao's mother's."

Refocusing on the present despite the joy bubbling in his throat, he answered his question. "I did not."

Wei Ying smiled warmly as those long fingers caressed his shoulder, suddenly and so gently. It startled him, but such affection from Wei Ying was precious, something he often dreamed about. "I was only making a comment, not that I was really asking you. I saw it back at the Guanyin Temple, in Empathy with the ghoul woman. She looked after Jin GuangYao and his mother quite well."

Empathy. It was a remarkable creation, something only Wei Ying would consider and terrifyingly dangerous. News of it had spread, the idea upsetting centuries of standard practice. By this point in their lives, the entire cultivation world had heard of Empathy and several other... similar inventions but no one could employ it with the same ease and grace as Wei Ying.