Come Back to Gusu

57. What are you?

"So you push me away? Don't you know that hurts, too?"

"I know. I do know. I just... No one has put me first in their life since before my parents died. I'm still not used to it."

"You are so willing to sacrifice yourself for those you love.... Can you learn to accept that I will always want to stand by your side protecting you? That I will help you find ways so that a sacrifice isn't necessary? Just... talk to me, Wei Ying. You are so good at talking.... Why are you silent when it matters the most?"

"I'm sorry. I love you. I promise I'll try." Wei Ying moved to seal his promise with a kiss. "I love you so much," he whispered against smooth lips. "I'm sorry I hurt you."

"Baba?" a young voice screeched through the JingShi. "Baba? Are you awake?" Footsteps thundered on the stairs.

"Yes, Baobie, I'm awake." The two men stepped back from each other, unconsciously brushing and shaking out their outfits to remove any obvious signs of being close.

Wei Yuan shoved open the door and stumbled over the door step, not unlike a newborn foal trying to stand. "Baba! I got to see NingShushu but he doesn't look like Shushu and he doesn't sound like Shushu and Jin Ling says it's someone pretending to be Shushu but I asked him to tell me something that only he and I know and he said it just right and I think it's Shushu but am I right or is Jin Ling right?"

Wei WuXian leaned down to hug his son's shoulders, and squeezed gently before straightening. "I did some magic and moved Wen Ning's soul into that new body. It will take a little time, maybe, to adjust to the way he looks and sounds now, but he is the same person he was last year."

"All right, Baba." The child looked up, smiling adoringly at his father. "I'm happy you're awake. A'Die looked sad when you kept sleeping all the time."

Wei WuXian smiled back, "And my A'Yuan? Was he looking sad, too?"

"No! A'Yuan wasn't sad. Gugu said Baba just needed to sleep because he did a lot of hard work and needed to rest so when he woke up, he would be all better. And A'Yuan needed to let Baba sleep, and be nice and quiet for A'Die and not get into trouble and do my schoolwork and play nicely with Lan Tian and, Baba? I got to sleep in A'Tian's bed! And his parents didn't even mind when we stayed up past bedtime. And..." his voice dropped to a whisper, "A'Tian's parents took us to Caiyi yesterday and we got to eat in a restaurant and they let me order meatballs and A'Tian tried one and they didn't even yell at him so he had another and another and last night he puked! His mom said it's because his tummy isn't used to eating meat, so he needs to eat less until his tummy is used to it. But I didn't puke because I eat meat all the time even though the Rules say I can't."

Wei WuXian started laughing about halfway through the babble. "Are you sleeping in the Jingshi tonight? Or with Lan Tian again?"

"Gugu says I can't sleep here for a few more days. She said Baba and Diedie need time to practice cultivation with no kids interrupting but I can interrupt now because you're going to eat lunch first and I can eat lunch with you but then I have to go play somewhere else this afternoon and I can stay in her room tonight and play with A'Kong." Leaning in a bit, and whispering as if relaying something in confidence, "Jiang Kong is boring. I don't like playing with him. All he does is eat, sleep, poop and roll over. Gugu gets so excited when he rolls over, but when I do it, she doesn't get excited. She just says I shouldn't be dirtying my robes. It's not fair."

"I'm sure your parents were excited when you started rolling over, too," Wei WuXian bit his lip to stop himself from grinning. "Your die and I get excited when I see you doing something new, don't we?"

"I guess."

Lunch was obviously a happy time for Wei Yuan. He wiggled on his seat as he (almost politely) shoveled his chicken and rice into his mouth. He was less enthusiastic about eating the vegetables Lan WangJi deliberately placed in his bowl.