Second Time Around

21. Please Come Home

The inn they chose to meet their brothers in was far enough away from Lotus Pier that Jiang WanYin was not immediately recognized as the Jiang sect leader, only as a cultivator. Wei WuXian was alone in a room when Jiang WanYin stomped his way inside. "No word for over a year! You couldn't even be bothered to let me or A'Jie know you were fine? Even now... are you coming back home?"

Wei WuXian prostrated himself. "This one apologizes for his actions and begs for indulgence." He levered himself back up to his knees. "I honestly thought you'd prefer me being gone. Since I took your decision away from you."

"You ass!" Jiang Cheng fisted his hands and clenched his jaw like he was ready to hit something. "Did you ever stop to wonder why I was the one taken back then? You were the one waltzing through the streets without a care! They were going to kill you!"

"What?"

"Wen ZhuLiu was only a few stalls away from you. No matter what my mother thought, you are like my brother, not simply a sect brother. You're strong and smart and you love A'Jie. I knew you'd protect her to your dying breath. Besides.... you are my brother as much as I am yours; I'd cut my own heart out for you, too."

Wel WuXian blinked at his sect leader in astonishment. It was one thing to think that they were more than simple sect brothers; it was another to hear it acknowledged aloud.

Jiang Cheng wasn't done ranting. Every little thing that had gone wrong over the past year was all Wei WuXian's fault, from the children being slow in learning how to swim to junior disciples doing the wrong pranks to night hunts that would have turned out differently. Occasionally the rants wound back to the topic of brotherhood, namely that brothers shouldn't leave without warning and really shouldn't leave to go live with strangers!

Wei WuXian snorted. "What else was I supposed to do? You took away my responsibilities. My respect from our shidis and shimeis. You took away my title. You refused to speak to me! Was I really supposed to stay in Lotus Pier just so you could resent me that much more?"

Jiang Cheng picked up a cup and threw it across the room to smash into the wall. "I was angry! At you, at me, at you! You! You should have said something! You shouldn't have treated me like I was a lost little boy!" Another cup went flying. "Damn you, Wei WuXian! Damn you to Hell! I'm not a spoiled little child who needs to be protected from the consequences of his own actions!"

"You were dying!" Wie WuXian spat back, standing up. "Was I supposed to just let you do that? ShiJie just lost her parents! Was I supposed to stand back and let her lose you, too?"

Jiang Cheng snarled and clenched his fists. "The smartest man in the cultivation realm looked at a dying man and couldn't come up with a way to make me want to live other than to give me your core?"

"I'm not that smart."

"Wei WuXian! You invented a brand new cultivation method in three months after giving up your core and being thrown into the Burial Mounds! Who else on this planet could do that? Sometimes I really just want to slap some sense into you."

"You complain about me not telling you what I was going to do? You had plenty of time to tell me what you did! You knew you were dying, and not once did you think to tell us that you weren't caught at random? That you deliberately put yourself into the Wen's path to protect me!"

Jiang Cheng shoved his brother hard enough to make him stumble, but not hard enough to make him fall. It wasn't a big enough push to be satisfying. "When was I given the chance to say anything? You disappeared for hours at a time, not telling me where you were or what you were doing. And when we were together? All I could see on your face was pity. Pity!" He laughed bitterly. "I didn't need your pity, Wei WuXian. I didn't want your pity!"