I want to protect you.

Chapter two

Chapter Two

"Then I will stay by your side until you are ready to join me." His words seemed to reverberate and bounce off the sides of his skull startling him with just how much conviction they were uttered as if there was no other choice available to him. He didn't know why but he was suddenly very frightened at how easily Lan Zhan had chosen to leave everything he knew behind for him, 'Me a demonic cultivator, one who has strayed from the righteous path...' he stumbled backward as all his thoughts converged on everything that had happened the night before which had inadvertently led him to seek the safety of Lan Zhan's arms, 'I will taint him...' tear's filled his eyes as he looked at Lan Zhan making note of the pristine white robes that didn't even have a seam out of place unable to help seeing a flash of those robes being covered in blood by the time he left his side tainting the perfect picture in front of him.

Trembling hands moved into his line of vision without him realizing he had moved once again seeing them stained with blood that no amount of scrubbing could remove his heart began wildly beating against his chest while his breathing became shallow knowing that he had touched him, clung to him with these hands...hands that could do so much damage. Soon everything in his own mind overwhelmed him becoming an odd combination of blurry while in bizarre detail that left him unable to breathe let alone think...until suddenly his hands were taken gently between two very strong ones that were gentle despite the strength he knew was there. He marveled at this for a moment noting the calluses on the fingertips telling of the year's of training to master the Zither only in the next second he tried violently yanking his hands away once more seeing the blood on his hands but the other hands held firm, "Wei Ying..." his voice cut through his defenses as easily as if it were paper startling him and making him whimper in fright, "Lan Zhan...Please..." he didn't know what he was wanting from him, to be honest, but his hysterical plea came out before he could stop it, one part of him he knew the less logical part of him wanted him to let him go, to let him drown in the misery that he had brought upon himself but the logical part of him the one that craved the strength of those hands of the scent that could soothe him into submission into a quiet peace that he felt he didn't deserve.

Before however, he could voice this irrationality he was pulled against a strong chest and his nose once more was filled with the scent of sandalwood. His body had two different reactions to this even as arms wrapped around him holding onto him firmly he felt his body jerk almost violently trying to get away even as his mind seemed to latch onto the safety Lan Zhan's presence provided he felt like he was being rubbed raw by the overwhelming emotions that seemed to hit him without permission and he lashed out hitting Lan Zhan's chest begging and pleading for him to let go...he didn't he just held him as he thrashed allowing him to beat against his chest without a sound of protest or pain until without warning all the fight went out of him he followed him silently to his knee's and continued to hold a now violently trembling Wei Ying as he weakly beat against his chest silently crying slowly his crying dissolved into hitched breaths and hickups which he knew normally if Wei Ying had been in the right frame of mind would have made him giggle.

When he finally stopped hitting him even weakly Lan Zhan maneuvered himself into a seated position and pulled Wei Ying so he was sitting across his lap and held him gently brushing his hair out of his face allowing him the chance to recover himself. It didn't take long and he braced himself for whatever Wei Ying said when he looked down and saw that Wei Ying had pulled his hands in front of his face as if seeing something he couldn't, his voice was strained and raw when he finally spoke, "You shouldn't let me touch you...they are stained I will stain you."

Lan Zhan remained silent for a moment not knowing what to say to him until finally, he held out his hand making sure Wei Ying could see, "Do you think mine are not? When I found out you were missing I did many things I cannot bring myself to regret...I hurt many people in my attempts to find out where you were...even your brother couldn't hold me back from taking out my fury on anyone who didn't know where you were..." Lan Zhan could feel Wei Ying's eyes on him but he pushed forward knowing it would probably be the only way he could get through to Wei Ying, "When I found out where they had thrown you it took more than just your brother and my men to keep me from torturing the men who told me...I would have stormed into Wen Rohan's den myself and murdered him on the spot for what he allowed his son to do...in the end, I would have been killed but when I thought you had died I couldn't..." his voice broke and as he knew was normal for Wei Ying he felt his hand on his cheek but he couldn't look him in the eyes, "I couldn't live with myself knowing that I hadn't been there...I shouldn't have left you alone...If I had just stayed by you then none of that would have happened...I was furious with myself and I wanted the world to burn for what they had done to you."