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[laughitoff]

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[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?

[laughitoff]

You didn't want it. Things have gotten more complicated since then. I don't really know where we stand now. And I don't make much of a friend, anyway.

[he doesn't sound bitter or mad or anything about it, just...tired, too]

[strikingchords]

...

What is a friend, to you?

[laughitoff]

...

[it takes him a long time to answer that one, oddly]

Someone you like the company of, who likes yours back. Someone who stands with you. Someone you want to spend time with.

[strikingchords]

[eventually]

I had thought otherwise.

When first we met.

[laughitoff]

I gathered.

[strikingchords]

Do not take umbrage.

[he also doesn't sound really mad, though that statement is a little sharper, tension coiling up against Wei Wuxian's anticipated offense.]

...

[then he just sounds tired again, though his words are still strongly stated and very direct]

You played around when serious, and mocked others with an earnest face. But, you were not a faithless person. That was my certainty. It would not reconcile.

Rather, I was unsettled. I did not play.

...

Then you were gone.

[laughitoff]

I'm not taking. Anything. Or I'm trying not to.

[closes his eyes, leaning his head against the stone]

I'm right here.