Work Text:
Jiang Yanli did not know Second Young Master Lan. He was the second son of Qingheng-Jun, and according to her mother, was a miniature version of Lan Qiren.
She did not know Second Young Master Lan, but she did know Lan Zhan.
Lan Zhan, who had little patience for her brother, but tolerated his antics.
Lan Zhan, who had played a melody for A-Xian when they had been in the cave.
Lan Zhan, who A-Xian loved to talk about, who A-Xian wanted to show around their home.
Lan Zhan, who worried for A-Xian during the war.
Even when the sword pierced her skin, she knew at least one thing.
A-Xian’s Lan Zhan would protect him.
XxX
Wen Qing had patience.
She had to - being a doctor meant that she had to deal with her elders forgetting their medication, her betters dismissing her, and her family humoring her.
But Wei Wuxian took all her patience, and funneled it to other uses.
He played with A-Yuan, so A-Yuan wouldn’t distract her.
He sat with Granny, and helped her take her medicine in the morning, so Wen Qing could focus on Uncle Five’s hip.
When A-Ning damaged his arm, Wei Wuxian was the first one to clean and prepare it so Wen Qing could go in and do her work.
He laughed, he played, and he is good.
And throughout the years…
He’s become her brother. Their family.
And when the Jins came knocking, it was her duty to their family to protect everyone.
So she took her patience, the patience she had so carefully cultivated so she could be taken seriously, and set it aside.
As she faced her death, she smiled at A-Xian’s only friend, and silently begged for the gods to hear her.
Take care of them.
XxX
Lan Sizhui didn’t know who Mo Xuanyu was.
He was a strange man, one who smiled through his lies, and one who laughed despite his pain.
Senior Mo, despite his oddities, was also kind.
He teased Jingyi, but it never went too far - not like the other clan disciples like Jin Chan.
Instead, he was patient, and guided them to find the answers they were searching for. Senior Mo trusted in their abilities, and that faith meant the world to Sizhui.
It reminded him of Hanguang-Jun, and how he taught them to ask questions, to seek their truths.
And later, when things were done and the dust settled, Lan Sizhui knew, with all his heart, that his Xian-gege was truly kind, patient, and above all, happy.
XxX
Jin Ling didn’t want to admit it.
He didn’t want to look at Wei Wuxian, and not see a monster.
The stories had told him about an evil man, one who had manipulated his mother and grandfather, one who used the gifts the Jiang Sect had given him, and had thrown it all away to save the same people that destroyed Lotus Pier.
Wei Wuxian hadn’t held the sword that killed his mother, but he may as well have been the one to stab her.
But…
But Wei Wuxian loved.
He was a murderer, but Wei Wuxian had loved his mother.
He was a monster, but Wei Wuxian had loved Lotus Pier.
Even Uncle, who never spared a kind word for Wei Wuxian otherwise, scoffed when Jin Ling told him about what he had learned about Wei Wuxian’s betrayal.
He loved us, A-Ling. He said quietly one night. He loved us, and it ruined him.
And seeing him now, resplendent in his red robes and smiling at Hanguang-Jun, Jin Ling knew that Wei Wuxian was above all a man.
A man who loved his husband and his family.
Jin Ling hoped that Wei Wuxian knew that he was loved in return.