WHO Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli WHERE Inside, then right outside the clinic WHEN January 23, after the Snowglobe folks were let out WHAT Siblings reunite! There are tears. STATUS Complete WARNINGS Pretty tame, though there are spoilers a'plenty for "The Untamed", if you're worried about that
There were too many people around. Jiang Cheng wasn’t a fan. He was even less of a fan when he knew there was a good chance his sister was in this clutter of bodies somewhere. He ignored the sounds of relieved loved ones as best he could but his face progressed from determined to wounded the further he weaved through the crowd.
Patience had never been his strong suit. It wasn’t even his mediocre suit. He was two seconds from blasting everyone back from him and shouting his sister’s name when caught a glimpse of her. Just the curve of her cheek and a brush of hair as she turned her head and he felt like his stomach dropped out. She wasn’t looking his way. Somehow that was both a relief and unacceptable at the same time.
He limped forward, pushing free of the throng to stand next to her.
It was too good to be true - which meant it was probably wrong somehow and it would be snatched away from him like everything else - but he couldn’t fight the joy that filled his heart. There were too many witnesses though. He felt his eyes go damp anyway.
“Jiejie,” he whispered, reaching out to touch her sleeve and bring her attention back in his direction.
Yanli knew that there were people surrounding her. It was impossible to miss, given the happy reunions that were happening all around. Were she not so preoccupied, she knew that the sight would have made her heart happy; though she only knew a handful of the faces, it was wonderful to see loved ones finding their others, giving hugs and exchanging joyful tears.
But for as much as she could appreciate the happiness, there was one person she was looking for. Yanli had been separated from Jiang Cheng for only a few weeks, but they had spent so much of their lives at one another's side, along with Wei Wuxian. Though she knew things were fraught between her brothers back home (and had a feeling that went deeper than she had perhaps been told), she was just happy to have the three of them together and in one place once more. There would be time to sort out their differences soon enough. For now, Yanli would just take this win.
Growing impatient, Yanli stepped into the crowd, pushing herself onto her toes to look for her brother's familiar face. In the end, it was Cheng that had found her, his voice and the touch of his hand enough to have her spinning.
"There you are," Yanli breathed, the words filled with a mix of relief and wonder. Without hesitating, she stepped forward, her arms going wide to pull her brother into a tight embrace.
He was sure he’d be able to tell she wasn’t real as soon as he looked her in the eyes, but he was shocked into stillness by how real she was. Even her arms around him felt the same as they had sixteen years ago. Any attempt to keep himself stoic crumbled; he muffled a sob against her shoulder. If he pulled away now, he would be exposed in front of all these strangers, so he let himself cry for a few seconds.
When he was convinced he could get himself back under control, Cheng pulled back and removed any evidence of his breakdown with a quick swipe of his hands over his eyes.
“Forgive me, I...I should’ve asked you to meet me somewhere private.” Wei Wuxian was close by. Even Hanguang-Jun and Wen Qing. He wasn’t thrilled by the thought of them all watching him embarrass himself. “Can we just…” He looked around for a door and then gently tugged her towards it. “Can we talk outside? Please?”
Though Yanli firmly believed that there was nothing that she needed to forgive about this moment, she knew better than to actually argue the point. What she wanted most was for her brother to be comfortable and if that meant getting away from this crowd, that was what she would do. She could tell that he was overwhelmed. In truth, she wasn't about to complain about getting away from all of these people, too.
Still, she paused just a moment to give a smile over her shoulder in Wei Wuxian's direction, making sure he at least noticed that they were leaving so he wouldn't worry if he later, then Yanli's attention was back on Cheng, letting him lead her outside. Once there, she took in a breath before turning to her brother. She took a second to assess his expressions, reading him in the way that she had grown fluent in over the course of their lives, then reached for his hand and smiled.
"I am so relieved you're here," she said, honest as ever as her fingers squeezed gently around his. "I didn't like being here without you, especially once we found out you were in that place."
It wasn’t entirely empty outside, with people coming and going, but it was a huge improvement over the chaos indoors. Jiang Cheng’s heart was still inside a vise and his injured leg hurt from traveling even that far, but at least he could breathe a little easier as he squeezed his sister’s hand back.
“I can’t...even begin to tell you how good it is to see you again.” His words were tight and brittle with barely controlled emotion. He took her hand in both of his and bowed his head over them. It wasn’t a proper bow but they were family and he was too emotional to do anything but cling to her even in this small way. “Will you tell me about your time here? You said you’ve been treated well but I know we were in a very public conversation.”
"It was true," Yanli replied, quick to want to reassure him that she really had been treated well and that this truly was a good place. She had been witness to what everyone had been saying about the other version of Vallo that the others had been stuck in; she had to imagine that it would be hard to believe, after experiencing that for so long.
Yanli gave Cheng a warm smile, fingers squeezing against his once more to try to reassure him further. "The people here have been very kind, especially the others that were brought here from their own homes. They gave me a place to stay, some money -- it has been very good, even if I do miss home." She paused, tipping her head forward just a bit for emphasis. "I have missed you." There were other things (and people, especially Jin Zixuan) that she missed, but her brother had been top of the list.
He nodded slowly as she spoke. He was listening to every word but he was also a little lost in just listening to her speak and watching her face. His life had ended with hers - he’d shaped a new one eventually but it would always be a ghost of the one he’d hoped to have.
“I’ve missed you too.” The odds he was going to be saying that a lot were high. At least he managed to let go of her hands and not cling like a barnacle. “It’s been...much longer for me. Since I saw you last.” That subject made his expression sour again. He glanced back towards the doors of the clinic, like he could see through the walls to the obnoxious presence inside of it. Wei Wuxian was impossible to ignore. “How have things been with him?”
His admitting that it had been much longer since he had seen her caused something to trip in the back of Yanli's mind. There had been little things that she had picked up on, particularly in regards to Wei Wuxian, that left her suspecting that there was something that she wasn't being told. Yanli trusted Wei Wuxian to tell her in his own time and hadn't pushed or even outright asked, but the questions were mounting within her.
Deciding not to focus on that just this moment, she thought about Cheng's question. Despite herself and knowing just how fraught things had been between her brothers, she gave a small smile. "Things have been good," she said honestly. "It had been some time since I'd been able to see him and I believe we've been making up for that." She hesitated, smile leaving and being replaced instead with concern. "Will you be all right with him here?"
He knew his phrasing would draw her suspicion - she was smart, after all, and he had never been particularly good at subtly. But he was suddenly very hesitant to blurt out all the bad things that had happened. He focused on her question.
“I’ll be fine. I’m not--We’re not…” Talking about his brother had always been complicated but it was tenfold now. She didn’t even know how bad things got later. His breath came out in a rush and he took both of her forearms to hold her attention. “A lot has happened, jiejie. Things I don’t want to be the one to tell you. But who else is going to?” He sounded tired. A little bitter. But mostly worn around the edges by the stress of these last few weeks. Decades. Certainly by the weight of the information that was slowly forming into words on his tongue.
“Wei Wuxian...doesn’t have his golden core anymore.” He watched her face very closely. “Because it turns out, all those years ago, he gave his to me.”
It wasn't all too frequent that Yanli was completely stunned into silence. Yes, she might take a moment to consider her thoughts and words, but rarely was she at a complete loss for words.
"What?" she asked, her eyes wide in disbelief. Yanli shook her head once as though trying to clear her mind, then glanced back in the direction of where they had left Wei Wuxian in the clinic. She looked back to Cheng. "He -- how is that possible?"
Even as she asked the question, though, Yanli felt a few puzzle pieces snap into place within her mind. She would have never considered such a thing until it had been presented to her by her brother for so many reasons, least of all because it just didn't seem possible for someone's golden core to be given to another, but she remembered how Jiang Cheng had returned with his abilities restored. Though she had accepted the story of how that had come to be as truth, it wasn't difficult to imagine that it hadn't been that simple and that Wei Wuxian had been involved.
Jiang Cheng’s guilt reared up like an angry bear in his chest. He closed his eyes briefly, trying to center himself. His sister didn’t need the weight of his disappointment in himself, but it carried through into his words anyway.
“There was apparently a ritual.” He could hear the Ghost General telling the story in horrifying detail all over again. His own version was more succinct. “Something dangerous and forbidden, as usual. He could’ve died. He’s such a--He shouldn’t have--” This was probably a bad idea. He’d hoped saying it out loud would ease the tightness in his chest. Instead, he just felt small and bruised.
“He’s a fool, but...” He scowled. “...There are worse things than him being here.”
It was difficult, not knowing if she had the words to ease the obvious pain that her brother was feeling. Yanli normally had those answers, simply because she knew him -- and Wei Wuxian, for that matter -- as well as she did. But these were big worries, big troubles that some kind words of encouragement and soup could only go so far.
But still, she could try; Yanli would always try, when it came to her brothers.
Ignoring that they were still more or less in public, Yanli reached out and held Cheng's face in her hands, her touch gentle. "If he did this for you," she started, her voice just as gentle as her touch had been, "it is because he thought it was the right thing to do because you are his brother and he loves you." Her hands dropped, patting him once on the shoulders as she smiled. "I think this will be a good thing, having the three of us in one place once more."
His eyes drifted shut and he stayed there unmoving for a moment. It felt like ten lifetimes since he’d had her comforting touch and gentle voice to center him. He dreaded her learning what he’d done even more now. He had to tell her. Eventually. He couldn’t bear to do it now.
It might break him permanently for her to know he caused the death of their brother.
“He always thinks he’s doing the right thing,” Jiang Cheng grumbled weakly. Glancing back towards the doors, he noticed more and more people were starting to exit. This spot on the sidewalk would only be semi-private for a moment longer. “Enough about Wei Wuxian. Where are you staying?” This drew his gaze across the foreign buildings and how it added an extra dose of strangeness to have seen them all rotting and broken. “Is it close by?”
"I have an apartment," Yanli said, willing to take her brother's lead. They had only just been reunited, after all, and he had been through what sounded like a harrowing handful of weeks. She gestured in the direction of the Morningside building that she had been staying in since she'd arrived. It had been a bit lonely, simply because she was so used to always having someone around in one way or another. "It isn't very far and has an empty bedroom that is yours, if you'll have it."
Before he could answer, though, Yanli stepped back, then let her eyes move across her brother, trying to assess before asking, "Unless you need more medical attention here?"
There was nothing Jiang Cheng wanted less than to go back inside to let someone poke and prod at him. Actually, going back in and asking Hanguang-Jun for healing would be worse. He could just imagine that stoic face actually flickering with distaste. No. Asking the great Hanguang-Jun for help was relegated to another life.
“I’m fine,” he insisted, holding out his arm to her. “It’s nothing that won’t heal in time. And I am certain this room you’re offering is a vast improvement over where I’ve been sleeping. Just...show me the scenic route.”