Twin Prides One-Shots

Brothers?

Wei Wuxian chewed his lip ever so slightly as he stroked the small puff ball of a rabbit that sat perched in his lap. Autumn was beginning to set in at the Cloud Recess and cold air was biting at his reddening nose. Yet the man couldn't have cared less, he had far different , more important things on his mind. Or rather an important person: Jiang Cheng. He and the Jiang Sect Leader hadn't had a moment to really speak to one another since Wei Wuxian had returned. And while it was something that many would call him crazy-well, crazier-for thinking, he missed the man. Even after everything that had happened, all the mistakes that both had made, the two were brothers. One of the few things that the other still had. Sure, it was...complicated, but that didn't make Wei Wuxian love his brother any less.

Brother, he thought. Could he really call Jiang Cheng that? He certainly loved the man like his own little brother, surely similar to how Lan Xichen saw and cared for Lan Wangji, but he couldn't say whether or not Jiang Cheng felt the same way. Wei Wuxian shook his head, his long ponytail shifting behind him, Jiang Cheng had always had more than a little bit of struggle when it came to his emotions-well, aside from anger that was. He didn't know how to express himself, and all the shit with his parent's relationship and treatment of each other didn't help. Wei Wuxian could see just how much Jiang Cheng had doubted and compared himself to him in the past, and he knew that a shred of resentment had to have sparked in his heart. Yet wasn't that how siblings were supposed to be? Hating and loving each other in equal measures? 

Wei Wuxian chuckled lightly to himself, finally reaching a conclusion of his own. "Jiang Cheng will always be my brother, even if I'm not his."

...

Jiang Cheng stared thoughtlessly out a small window, his hand lightly tapping against his knee. Being a Sect Leader was boring, especially when he was going it all alone. Alone. The word repeated in his mind, there was a time when he would have thought that impossible, 'fore Wei Wuxian was supposed to be at his side. He flinched at the deep pain that struck through him in that moment. He never should have allowed Wei Wuxian to leave the Jiang Sect. He should have fought him harder when he'd suggested it. Alas, it was long past too late at that point. 

Jiang Cheng shut his eyes as tight as he could, how much pain had his shixiong-his brother-suffered because of him. "Brother," he murmured as zidian flashed on his finger. "What right do I hold to call him that?"

Even when he was jealous and angry, Wei Wuxian had always been his brother from the moment his father had first brought him home. It was only in his darkest moments that he forgot that, only to suffer with the pain for years to follow. He'd hunted demonic cultivator after demonic cultivator, bringing about a most savage end to each of them as they reminded him of what he'd lost. Yet when the Sect Leader had finally found his brother again, the one he'd sworn he was searching for, what had he done? He'd let him go. He always let Wei Wuxian go. And it was only after it was too late that he ever realized. 

Jiang Cheng felt zidian change to a whip in his grasp, instinctively causing him to clutch the handle tight as he stared off at the descending sun, a single tear fighting to escape. "What did I do to deserve him? What have I done to deserve to miss him?" he laughed bitterly, "even when he's not here that idiot is tearing me apart."