Searching for Perfection

11. Lies

Midnight found Wei WuXian sitting on a small bridge over a koi pond throwing bits of bread down to the gaping fish mouths below. He was going to have to come up with an extremely good hiding spot for the seal once he got back to Lotus Pier and probably create new spells or talismans to repel anyone from wanting to find it. Even better would be a spell that would make people forget about it. Jin GuangShan may have backed off from the topic earlier in the day. However.... There was no mistaking that he wanted the device; he wanted the power that came from the device. Physical power that would manifest as political power allowing him to.... What would it give him? The ability to control the dead would give him an unbeatable army and become the most powerful Sect. Being the most powerful Sect would... give him the power the Wen Sect once held? Is that what the lecher was after?

He heard soft footsteps on the path; he knew those footsteps. "HanGuang-Jun."

"Wei WuXian," came a soft reply.

The man in white did not lean on the bridge railings because, of course, he was not the type to lean. Ever. Wei WuXian leaned for him, resting his crossed arms on the bottom rail. "You're out late. Shouldn't you have gone to bed hours ago?" A whisper of sandalwood wound around his senses, a comforting scent. After all those months with that particular incense invading their shared closet and then tent, it was something he hadn't realized he'd missed until now.

"Mn..." was neither agreement nor disagreement.

Wei WuXian sat up a bit and fished the letter from his lapel pocket. "Back in the Nightless City, you accidentally included this with my letters. I swear I only read a few lines in it! I thought I should return it to you."

Lan WangJi seemed to stiffen even more than his normal stiff posture. "I gave it to you."

The neutral tone of that sentence confused the Hell out of Wei WuXian. It was a sentence. Not a question. Shouldn't it be a question? Looking up at the jade's face gave him no clues, either. The moonlight bleached away any possible red hues indicating embarrassment. "Yes, you gave it to me. I read a few lines because I didn't know what it was. Then I realized it was a love letter...." Wei WuXian shoved the folded paper into Lan WangJi's unresisting hand, and went back to gazing into the water. "I was kind of mad at first, you know."

"Mad?"

"I've told you so many embarrassing things! And you couldn't even tell me when you fell in love with that girl."

"What girl?"

Wei WuXian waved his arms uselessly at the fish swimming below. "How should I know what girl? I didn't read the whole letter! I do understand why you didn't tell me about her, though. I would have teased you mercilessly, I think." His chest felt odd. Like there was a huge tumor sitting right behind his sternum.

"Wei Ying... I am not in love with a girl."

The tumor disappeared for half a breath, then reappeared in his throat. It was long enough for the wish that the letter was actually for him to reappear and then be firmly smashed into oblivion. He wasn't Lan Zhan's pale moonlit beauty. Wei WuXian threw a few more bits of bread down at the fish and tried to swallow the lump away. "A woman, then," he said lightly when he was sure he could talk normally. "Is she married? Is that why you didn't give her the letter? Actually.... That makes sense."

"What does?"

"That you're in love with a married woman. She's married, so you wouldn't be able to marry her. And thinking about her naked.... That would be wrong. And you never do the wrong thing." He was wrong; the chest lump hadn't moved to his throat. Just shrunk for a few moments.

"I am not in love with a woman, married or not."

"Then who are you in love with?" He sounded a bit jealous, a bit petulant. Why should I be jealous?