[Voice] Imagination 22

[ayao]

[He is tired and sad and more beside himself than he would like to admit.]

Xue Yang, answer me.

[That isn't how he wants to begin this broadcast, so he breathes in...and out.]

Has anyone seen Chifeng-Zun? I cannot find him and I know of no ill that has befallen him.

[Now, the part that really hurts.]

Huaisang, Zewu-Jun, I have failed you in not protecting him. I tried.

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[ayao]

[He settles in immediately, the gentle scent of his perfume hopefully offering some sense of calm. He is so careful with his hygiene and his appearance. Those habits had extended to Mingjue; Meng Yao had spent his mornings brushing the man's hair and helping him ready for the day.]

I want to. [He rests their heads together, eyes closing.] For you.

[lanxichen]

I-- [ Xichen hesitates, then hums softly. Yes, it's a comfort. It's a comfort that Xichen feels guiltier for accepting. And he knows that Mingjue himself more than allowed it, but that's different. It's Xichen's trust that hurt him, after all.

And yet. Yet he needs this, a little. And he thinks Meng Yao is not pretending about needing it, too. ]

All right. But - in a little while. I truly am not that hungry.

[ So, yes, that is permission to stay close like this. ]

[ayao]

A little while. [He agrees, curling closer to the other man, one of his hands rubbing over Xichen's back. It feels so good to touch him and he is, as ever, greedy for more. Meng Yao has been so careful about becoming overly attached to anyone, but Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen have turned his self-control on its head.]

I would have gone in his place.

[lanxichen]

[ Xichen squeezes his eyes against the stinging, his fingers rising to caress lightly over the braided hair. ]

Do not think of it so. I think - eventually, we will all need to go. He was ever the first of us, is all. Instead, try to cherish the additional time we did have. Knowing that, in the end, he could seek a way to forgive and would choose to love.

[ayao]

He proved his strength. [Not just physically, but the strength of his heart too. Nie Mingjue is one of a kind and wholly deserving of their love.] I will follow his lead with you and everyone else I encounter.

[Meng Yao sighs under that touch, holding Xichen a bit tighter.]

[lanxichen]

I know he would like that. He always wanted you to follow his example.

[ One of the reasons, probably one of the biggest reasons, why he agreed to their sworn brotherhood.

But that is... all the more certainty for Xichen to know what he said is true. ]

Ever the best of us, he was a good man - and I think you can be, too. And you will not be alone on that path, either.

[ Xichen will not abandon him. Somehow. ]