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[laughitoff]

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[strikingchords]

[IT'S A GOOD THING THAT READING LAN WANGJI'S TONE ALONE IS A SKILL YOU ARE VERY GOOD AT]

For what?

[laughitoff]

Messing up giving presents and generally being mean?

[the high note of almost-panic has not really left his voice]

[strikingchords]

You. You did not.

...

I failed to accept it properly.

[NO CHANGE IN TONE BUT HIS VOICE SOUNDS KIND OF AIRLESS AND THE REPEATING THE "YOU" WAS WEIRD]

[laughitoff]

[THERE'S ANOTHER VERY LONG SILENCE. the very tips of Wei Wuxian's fox ears start showing over the top of the gravestone again]

...

Do you dislike me?

[strikingchords]

...


[EVEN WEIRDER AND MORE AIRLESS AND QUIETER]

No.

[laughitoff]

[they come up a tiny bit higher.]

Do you think I dislike you?

[strikingchords]

...

[very low]

Were I less unfit for liking.

You would not need to ask.

[laughitoff]

[they disappear again]

...

[strikingchords]

[he hears like, one rough breath on the other side of the headstone, then silence again.]

[laughitoff]

[miserably]

That's not true.

[strikingchords]

[after a while, still very soft, another breath...]

No?

[laughitoff]

No.

[strikingchords]

[he did just tell Jiang Yanli earlier that if Wei Wuxian tells him something he needs to trust him at his word. he doesn't want to imply he doesn't believe him. so, instead,]

I do not understand.

[laughitoff]

I have been--very unkind.

[strikingchords]

[steady]

You have had cause.

[laughitoff]

Not as much as I've been making out. Not from you.

[strikingchords]

[he hears a sigh on the other side of the headstone]

[laughitoff]

...

You're not...unfit. I just don't know how to treat you if you're not an enemy, after all. That's not your fault.

[strikingchords]

[...there's a faint noise of footsteps...]

[laughitoff]

[he holds still against the urge to bolt, digging his hands into the grave-dirt.]

[strikingchords]

[they stop again before Lan Wangji comes into view.

when he hears Lan Wangji again, he's still on the other side of the headstone, immediately opposite but not quite right up against it, and his voice is at the same height as Wei Wuxian's own ducked-down head :(a

it's sort of soft, philosophical, like it was breathed out as the very long-delayed end of that sigh.]

We will never be enemies.

[laughitoff]

[strangely, this does not make him feel less tense, though he is still staying put...]

Then what are we?

[strikingchords]

[the voice doesn't move more. tired]

What do you wish?

[laughitoff]

I don’t know.

I would have said I wanted to be friends, once.

[strikingchords]

[his heart squeezes in his chest.]

Once?