Summary: “I think…” Xie Lian says slowly, not taking his eyes off the bag. “I think I knew this person. Who this soul used to be.”
He can hear Hua Cheng suck in a breath. “Gege, maybe it’s better if you don’t—“
But Xie Lian ignores him, and reaches out with one trembling hand to touch the bag. A second passes, and then another, and Xie Lian almost lets out a breath in relief, before he feels something in the bag reaching back.
“A-Ying?”
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Once upon a time, Xie Lian took in an orphan, and gave him a home and a family. Twenty years and a godhood later, he finds he still has more in him to give.
Kay's comments: Just finished reading TGCF, so obviously I'm in the mood for some crossover fics. Don't worry though, I'll stay a loyal Wangxianist. Really liked this story where Xie Lian cared for Wei Wuxian during his childhood years in Yiling and especially loved how it all returned to Yiling in chapter seven; the chapter that destroyed me emotionally.
Excerpt: “You never talked about him before,” Hua Cheng says softly, as Xie Lian finishes the story. Xie Lian ducks his head, feeling chastised even though there was no censure in Hua Cheng’s tone.
“It was difficult,” he says, looking down. Hua Cheng insisted they leave the room and the bag behind them, and Xie Lian didn’t put too much of a fight, still reeling from his realisation. They are now sitting in Hua Cheng’s bedroom, the calm, familiar presence of it helping sooth Xie Lian’s agitation. “When I ascended, I had to leave A-Ying behind. It would not have been safe for him, and I had managed to find a respectable cultivator clan who knew his parents and could take him in. It was… better than I could have given him, at the time.” He takes in a breath, and then another, and Hua Cheng says nothing, sitting there quietly and waiting for him to gather his thoughts, his hands warm and comforting around his own. Xie Lian is so, so grateful for him.
“I felt guilty,” he admits, still not looking at Hua Cheng. “A-Ying was—very mad at me, when I told him I had to leave. It was a cruel thing to do to a child who has already lost his parents once, and I couldn’t explain to him I was a god. He had thought me a rogue cultivator until then, and I never corrected him.” He closes his eyes in remembered grief. “It was.... easier, not to talk about him, to believe he forgot about me, and was living a happy, peaceful life,” he laughs bitterly. “Not quite so, as it turns out.”
pov xie lian, canon divergence, hualian, hua cheng/xie lian, crossover, tgcf, thirteen years of wei wuxian's death, ghost wei wuxian, wei wuxian & xie lian friendship, canon temporary character death, found family, kid fic, grief/mourning, hopeful ending, emotional hurt/comfort
