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 Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2024 6:27 am
Unfortunately, Orah—Princess Ida in her civilian guise—hadn’t been on shift tonight. That was a little bit sad, Liánlí thought, but at the same time, probably better in some respects. Less distracting to talk to nurses whom he didn’t know to power up into royal senshi tied to the planet where some of his friends had Wonders. Even though there would have been a bit more freedom in speaking to Orah—they could have been more honest with her about what had actually happened while still coming up with a cover story to go in the records—Liánlí didn’t think it was so bad. Not great, either, since his head really wasn’t happy right now, but it definitely could have been worse.
Either way, though, he had Huanxi with him, and nobody at Destiny City Memorial said anything about that, even without them being, like, married married. Everyone heard “partner” and accepted it. The closest anyone had come to commenting on it was when one of the on-duty emergency room nurses had led them back to a room: hearing how Liánlí described Huanxi, they’d smirked in an odd, playful way and, under their breath, had said, “Luckyyyy~”
(Which, in all due fairness, was completely true. Liánlí was incredibly lucky to have Huanxi in his life.)
The nurse practitioner who wound up seeing them wasn’t, per se, nice? With his pink hair in a messy bun, he seemed like he’d been working for a while already and like he might have been asked to stay longer on top of that. Still, he was patient about asking questions concerning what had happened (the old story from Boston about an accidental fall had made Nurse Farkas frown pensively, and Liánlí had to wonder if he was trying to determine whether or not that story was a lie to cover something that Huanxi had caused to happen, but ultimately, Nurse Farkas had taken it as the truth, probably because nobody with eyes could deny Huanxi’s devotion). Nurse Farkas was also gentle about doing some preliminary tests, like having Liánlí count how many fingers he’d held up, checking his reflexes, and asking Liánlí to list his birthday, the president’s name, what he and Huanxi had had for dinner (a mixed vegetable salad using spinach as the base, and homemade spicy noodle soup with tofu, lotus root, broccoli, snow peas, carrots, gai lan, and bok choy) (Liánlí had also made some shrimp dumplings for Ryla and Heibing, but hadn’t had any himself), then his and Huanxi’s address.
“You very likely have a concussion,” Nurse Farkas said, after Liánlí had given him the home address, “but it doesn’t seem to be very severe. Still serious, though, and it’s better that you came.” If he had suspected anything about Huanxi’s involvement in causing the injury, he seemed to be more or less at ease. Or at least like he now believed that Huanxi had only done the responsible thing, which made it less likely that he’d done anything to hurt Liánlí. “One of the doctors on duty tonight will be with you shortly. They’ll likely want to do a CT scan to confirm, it’s a fairly standard procedure with head injuries. There’s too much that you can miss by accident and have it come up and cause all kinds of problems later.”
A sigh, and a small, tired smile, then he added, “How’s your pain feeling? If it’s too intense, I can get you some acetaminophen to help.” Looking at Huanxi, he explained, “It won’t increase his risk of bleeding. That’s one of the big things you want to avoid after a head injury. Nobody wants to shoulder an increased risk of bleeding while you’re already at risk of internal bleeding within the brain.”
Liánlí had to think about it for a moment, but he decided to accept the acetaminophen. He was already hurting less than he had initially—probably some of that was from Lanting’s nice healing magic, he thought—but it still wasn’t comfortable. On top of that, letting the staff here help him however they could seemed like it might help put Huanxi’s mind more at ease, and too likely, this whole situation was already stressful enough for him. When Nurse Practitioner Farkas returned with some water and the acetaminophen, Liánlí took it and thanked him, and soon enough, he and Huanxi were alone again, waiting for the doctor who’d come to see them.
“What kinds of words are you going to have with Corvina, Huan-ge,” Liánlí said, keeping his voice low, the same way the lights were currently low. Even if they were alone right now, the door was open and he didn’t want to risk being overheard more than absolutely necessary. “He did something reckless and I did get hurt. But I really do think he didn’t mean for it to happen. And……it’s like you told Kiyoshi, right? Sometimes your magic doesn’t work how it’s supposed to? Maybe Corvina’s just misdirected?”
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Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2024 1:00 pm
Huanxi couldn't help but be impressed by hospitals, here on Earth. He'd known great centers of magical healing, once, of course--had spent time aiding the one on Helene however he could--but this was different. The Earth of this era had lost access to so much magic, so much knowledge--but they seemed to have well and made due with their technology and sciences instead. Honestly, it was genuinely remarkable to see.
It was also a distraction. He could do little more than he'd done already, having let the new healing magic he'd acquired after returning to his planet and recovering his zheng do its work on Kaifeng on the way over. All he could do was trust in the professionalism and ability of the medical doctors here.
He probably would have trusted Princess Ida more, but that was something of a what-if. She wasn't here. Nurse Farkas was, and he was direct, professional, and honestly? Huanxi appreciated the way he saw the man turn over their story of a fall before deciding to accept it. He had not wounded Lianli, but it was good to know that Nurse Farkas was wary enough to look out for people that would dishonor themselves in such a way, hurting their partners.
The exact words he said, the treatments he recommended, were fully beyond Huanxi; he nodded along silently, accepting that this was the preferred course of action for this kind of injury with the resources available.
And when the nurse was gone, he lowered his voice to answer Lianli.
"I will have the only kind of word Corvina understands. An accident, yes, but an accident caused by his foolishness, recklessness, and refusal to listen. Warned him that magic had little effect on these creatures and to be careful; he ignored the warning, went ahead anyway, and the results were disastrous." His expression darkened. "He will walk away. For Lanting's sake, and because he did not do more damage." Unspoken: if things had ended worse, consideration for Lanting might not have saved his Senshi.
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Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2024 4:12 pm
Liánlí made a throaty noise like “mn,” a sound of understanding and acceptance, not really wanting to nod right now when doing so had felt so uncomfortable not too long ago. The double-shot of healing magic from Lanting and Helene had helped a great deal, but even so, Liánlí didn’t want to do too much that might upset something as delicate as a head injury. He also gave himself a few moments to turn what Huanxi said over in his mind, because he had mixed feelings on the matter.
“I understand,” he said, briefly considering leaning up for a forehead-nudge but deciding to go with resting a hand on Huanxi’s cheek instead. “I really hope he learns from all this. I know A-Xu’s been kind of stressed about how Corvina doesn’t really get along well with most people. And he’s been giving Kiyoshi trouble too—not the same kind of trouble or anything? But trying to hold him accountable for things that might have happened on his world a thousand years ago? Apparently, Corvina’s like, really strongly invested in believing that the people of Old Murikabushi were all weak and horrible and bad. And I guess he’s been taking it out on Kiyoshi instead of understanding that he’s a new person?”
Which seemed like a really weird thing for Corvina to not understand, since he got it totally fine for Lanting and Kaifeng? But, well. Liánlí sighed. He supposed he didn’t really know what Corvina thought about anything here, or why Shuangxu and Liánlí could be different from Zhiheng and Xingyi in his mind, but Kiyoshi and Airan were supposed to be essentially the same. All three of them had been reincarnated from their predecessors, so by all rights, he should have regarded all three of them the same.
“Just be careful when you have your words with him, okay? You’re skilled and powerful, but he could still hurt you, and I—”
A firm but overall polite knock cut Liánlí off. The door to his room had been open, and with the bright lights out in the corridor, it took Liánlí a moment to fully look at the figure in the doorway. When he managed it, his eyes went wide and his mouth fell open. Between her backlighting, the dimmed lights in the room, and the way that the bleach-bright hallway glared back at him, Liánlí thought that he must have been seeing things that weren’t there. Imagining things because he’d hit his head harder than expected in the fight with the gargoyles, or because the magic from Helene and Lanting had missed patching up some kind of cerebral hemorrhage, or because he was stupid, and emotional, and no matter how much he loved the life he had now, he wished he could have had it without also leaving her.
As the doctor stepped more into the room, his eyes adjusted but he didn’t stop seeing someone who looked so remarkably similar to him, save that she kept her hair in a bun rather than a braid, and instead of straight black, she’d been blessed with a black to pink ombré in her hair like Xingyi-ge had once had. The shape of Liánlí’s sister, still immediately recognizable after nearly ten years. So, either something was really ******** wrong with Liánlí or maybe, just maybe, he was getting lucky in something where he’d never expected Fate to favor him—
“Huáng-xiānsheng,” she said in a voice he hadn’t ever forgotten, using an honorific for him that he couldn’t imagine she would have used otherwise, “wǒ xìng Huáng-yīshēng. Nǐ yào wǒ shuō hànyǔ ma?”
“Bù…” Liánlí shook his head without thinking about it—then winced from that motion, but not as hard as he’d been wincing back in the park. He also slipped into Mandarin without thinking about it, just following her lead, waiting for her to look up from what he assumed was his chart. “Bù bì.…… I…?”
Hearing him speak, even when he said so little, she blinked down at the chart for a moment. He couldn’t tell where she was looking, exactly, but maybe, it was at the top of the page? With the name? Which would have made sense if true, but before Liánlí could discern quite where Xiùyīng was looking, she turned her gaze up. Turned her eyes—even in the low light, unmistakably the same violet shade as Liánlí’s own—on him.
Bemusedly, she wrinkled her nose, then asked, “……Zhìháo?”
Liánlí swallowed thickly. “Da-jie…?”
He didn’t need to ask. Not really. Not when she was right here, so close. The uncertainty only came from feeling like something here had to go wrong. Something, somehow, had to be Not Right about this, because he was pretty sure that Xiùyīng and her utterly unmemorable man-thing and their daughter didn’t live in Destiny City. Even if they’d moved here after he had—and they would’ve had to—they’d had so much time to cross paths. So many years when they could have found each other. For it to happen now, out of the blue, there had to be some kind of trick involved, didn’t there?
But Xiùyīng came closer to where Liánlí sat, on the furniture piece that seemed to be half-exam table and half-bed. As she moved, she held his patient file fast to her chest. She reached out and brushed some of Liánlí’s messy bangs off his face, tucking them behind his ear.
“You still haven’t learned how to keep your hair out of your face?” She tried to tease him, tried to give a playful smile. Her eyes, however, grew glassy. Started looking like tanghulu grapes. “After all this time, even?”
As he tried to decide what to say to that, Liánlí instinctively looked to Huanxi. He gasped a little as he did—but it did give his mouth a sense of direction. Not one that involved giving Xiuying an answer to her actual question, but still, a sense of direction.
“Huan-ge, she……” Liánlí didn’t mean to break out in a wide grin. Nor did he mean to laugh breathlessly. “My sister—aiyah, hey, da-jie?” Looking back to her, Liánlí gestured at Huanxi. “Zhè shì Xin Huanxi. Huan-ge shì wǒ—”
“Nǐ lǎogōng ma?”
Making a noise not entirely unlike a distressed teakettle, Liánlí flushed scarlet. “Not yet, da-jie, not yet!”
Burying his face in his palms didn’t make him stop blushing over that question, and it didn’t entirely comfort him, either. He did it anyway, though, as if it could actually hide how flustered he was.
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Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2024 4:44 pm
Huanxi made a small noise of disgust to express his general displeasure with everything about Corvina's attitude towards people in the present. He had always been hardheaded and unpleasant, and it seemed it had only gotten worse with time. Corvina had been allowed to fester in his own unpleasantness, and had come out worse.
He couldn't answer Lianli's concerns out loud, not with the doctor arriving, but he did nod, subtle and small--though he wasn't sure Lianli saw, since he seemed....thoroughly distracted.
The doctor...bore a remarkable similarity to Lianli; Huanxi could see it even at first glance. He wasn't sure what to make of it, per se, but the way they reacted to each other--yes, they knew each other. Well enough that she knew Lianli's name before he had been Lianli.
The Zhihao he seemed so eager to leave behind. The one Huanxi wished he would be more kind to.
This, at least, seemed a positive surprise. And when Lianli introduced her, he understood. His sister--a sister he had thought lost. Yes, Huanxi understood that longing, understood the emotion of this reunion. To see Zhiguang again....
An idle thought. Perhaps an impossibility.
"It is a pleasure to meet Lianli's family," Huanxi said. "And an unexpectedly pleasant surprise." It seemed that even Corvina's arrogant foolishness could make for a positive outcome, given enough luck.
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Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2024 11:04 am
“He’s my zhiyin, da-jie,” Lianli managed to say, peeking out from behind his hands. Okay. This—this was alright. His heart started racing, then tried to settle itself, then started racing again. But this was good, really. Exciting. And he could trust that Xiuying would understand what he meant with the relationship term he’d used for Huanxi. They’d gotten the same insistence from Yang Bailin that nothing they did would count for anything if they didn’t learn their classics. “Not……we’re not married yet.”
Which……wasn’t something they’d discussed, either. Considering everything, especially the parts where Huan-ge’s world remained infected with Chaos and he didn’t know yet what had happened to his brother, Liánlí hadn’t really felt like the time was right for such a conversation. In his heart, he didn’t want anybody else and already considered himself married to Huanxi in every way that mattered most to him. Officially, yes, there were several ways that real marriage changed things, but Liánlí didn’t need to have any of them immediately.
He did want them, someday. But with a whole moon to save and a missing gege to find, he didn’t mind waiting. Marriage wasn’t exactly a solo gig, and just because Liánlí felt like eloping tonight would’ve been perfectly fine didn’t mean that Huanxi did.
Thankfully, Xiuying nodded instead of pressing him any and her expression remained quite soft. “Zhiyin, then,” she said, then looked to Huanxi. “I apologize for not displaying my best manners in meeting you for the first time, Xin Huanxi. The way our family name is written in English is fairly common. Seeing a patient named ‘Huang,’ I didn’t expect for them to be…” She hesitated a moment, gears visibly turning in her head in the way Liánlí recognized as his da-jie catching herself before she said something she didn’t want to say. “Liánlí.”
Although the situation remained quite Very A Lot, Liánlí’s nerves eased slightly, hearing her say his name. A warm flush of relief coursed through him and he smiled. Even with how easily Ming-er and Qiye had adjusted to him not going by “Zhihao” anymore, and even knowing that Xiuying cared about respecting people how they wanted to be respected, part of him had always feared that nobody from the family would understand, not even his da-jie.
“I didn’t even know you were in town now, da-jie,” Liánlí pointed out. “Presumably with the husband and baby?”
“What ‘baby’?” Xiuying laughed, the sound warm and good-natured. “Huanjing is eleven now, and Xiaxue is six. I don’t think either of them would like hearing their er-jiu call them ‘babies.’”
………Oh.
Liánlí glanced down and away, hearing that. He thought of his little violin students, Miss Huanjing and Miss Xiaxue Guo. And their father, Guo Chunmian-xiansheng, who was inoffensively nice and whose wife liked to call him “Mianmian” when she was being cutesy with him.
…………Oh, sometime in the near future, there was going to be another awkward moment about Liánlí never remembering his brother-in-law. He could feel it in his bones. On the plus, though, he hadn’t been the only one who forgot the other, this time. Chunmian hadn’t recognized him after all this time, either.
Maybe there remained a chance that this wouldn’t happen? But……no, no, Liánlí felt pretty sure that it would.
……………Oops.
“It isn’t just us, either,” Xiuying said, her tone gentler and more cautious. “Jiayi moved here for graduate school last year. Jiawei came with her. And……I understand?” Taking a deep breath, Xiuying reached out to put a hand on Liánlí’s arm. “I know seeing them may be complicated for you. But if you should ever feel up to that, I think the twins would like to see you.”
Liánlí took his own deep breath. All he felt up to giving her in response to that at first was a sigh and an “Mn.” Really, she was being pretty diplomatic in understating the situation between him and the twins as “complicated.” If either of them wanted to apologize for their role in him getting outed to their parents and grandparents, then maybe Liánlí could see them. But if they didn’t—Jiayi, he thought, was more likely to hold out on apologizing than Jiawei—then……that was something to deal with later, probably.
Yeah. Definitely later.
“But—you,” Xiuying went on. “I have to go get a different doctor.” She looked to Huanxi and explained, “The AMA’s Code of Medical Ethics says doctors shouldn’t treat their own family unless it can’t be avoided. This can, so…” Looking back to Liánlí, she asked, “What brought you in?”
“Fell and hit my head. Nurse Farkas said it might—oh!” Liánlí saw the slight furrow in Xiuying’s brow, the way she glanced back to Huanxi. Oh no—she knew the old lie their grandparents had taught them to tell for doctors, too. Combing fingers through his floppy bangs, he rushed to tell her, “No, da-jie, no! It’s not—Huanxi didn’t do anything, I promise. We were out together, it was just an accident. Ask the receptionists and the security people, they saw him carry me in.”
Xiuying frowned bemusedly. “Your lying tells are the same as they ever were,” she pointed out, “but you’re not lying about Huanxi’s involvement.”
“It—it’s complicated, da-jie.” Really, same as the situation between Liánlí and the twins, that was the nicest and most diplomatic thing to be said right now. “Sometime else—not tonight—but some other time, I promise, I’ll explain everything. But for now, just—I hit the back of my head while we were out tonight and it was not Huanxi’s fault.”
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Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2024 12:56 pm
Huanxi....did not have the words to interrupt this reunion. It was important, for Lianli to get to speak to his sister, and moreso--as much as it warmed him to see Lianli reconnecting with his family, it pulled at an ache that he was doing his very best to ignore.
He had found Xingyi again, in Lianli. But he was unsure of if he would ever find Zhiguang, as himself or as someone new. And that did....hurt. The knowledge that he was likely to never see the brother he had loved again. That their last parting might well have been an eternal parting.
Still. This was good. Lianli deserved his family--the parts that wanted him, that accepted him as he was, not the ones that had tried to crush his spirit.
Also--as much as he would gladly have called himself Lianli's husband, they were not that, not yet.
He nodde his head politely when Xiuying addressed him. "You had no reason to know," he said. "But it is a pleasure to meet you, Doctor."
He accepted the way that she looked at him--a fall was not an uncommon lie to cover for more sinister things, and better that she look out for her brother's best interests. It really was reassuring to see so many people at this hospital recognize that.
"I would never intentionally bring harm to Lianli," he said, "but I understand if my word is not enough. Still, it is what I can offer."
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Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2024 10:49 pm
Xiuying hesitated for a moment—clearly thinking about something but not in a way where Liánlí could tell exactly what she was thinking—but ultimately shook her head. “I trust my brother. Liánlí wouldn’t lie to one of his siblings about something like this,” she said, giving Huanxi a small smile before she glanced back to Liánlí. “I do still want to hear the full explanation, but……another time.”
Briefly keeping himself from nodding, Liánlí gave her another noise of affirmation like “Mn.” “Some other time when one of your colleagues might not want to give me a CT scan so late at night,” he said, grinning a little even though it really wasn’t funny.
“Once I find someone else to treat you,” Xiuying said, “they’ll be right in.”
That sounded like the best idea, and as much as he didn’t want to yet, Liánlí behaved by letting his sister go. The sooner he saw somebody who could actually treat him, the better—especially if the doctor who came in did want to do a CT scan. Depending on how many patients needed one right now and how many people from Radiology were currently on staff, it could end up taking a while to even get in for the scan, much less to get it done with.
But once Xiuying had left, Liánlí sighed. Exciting as relocating each other was, he’d already had a pretty exciting evening, between the gargoyles and the head injury and now, an unexpected run-in with his jiejie (and the subsequent mental math about how close they must have been for months on months, now, ever since Hayden had hooked da-jie’s husband up with Liánlí so he could teach the girls violin).
Oh, and he’d have to let Qiye and Ming-er know, especially so Ming-er knew why they couldn’t have any time out together as Kaifeng and Selenga for a few days. Concussion recuperation periods typically weren’t immediate and running right back out into Knightly Business was probably a good way to make things a lot worse for himself (not that Liánlí recalled the single time he’d gotten a concussion as a child, but he knew that Qiang-er, his elder brother, had gotten two before leaving the house for undergrad and neither had been pleasant to deal with). Part of Liánlí also wanted to ask Qiye and Ming-er if they’d known about Xiuying, Chunmian, and the girls being in town, or if they’d known about the twins moving here too. Qiye was, after all, cousin to da-jie and the twins as well as to Liánlí. Had she and Ming-er left him out of the loop to respect what they’d perceived as his boundaries (which hadn’t entirely been accurate but was completely understandable)? Or would all of this be news to them, as well?
As he tried to think about everything that had happened and tried to ask himself what, exactly, he felt about it all, Liánlí wilted into a slouch. Bracing himself on the bed-table-amalgam-thing kept him from slumping over too far that he accidentally hurt himself. This…… All of this was too much, honestly. Liánlí needed to put himself in mental quiet time and not try to think about it all until later……but trying to make that happen only made the thoughts clamor more loudly for his attention.
“I think two little gremlins are gonna want to address you as ‘jiufu’ instead of ‘shizhang’ in the near future,” he said, turning to look at Huanxi, hoping to take his mind off of everything else for a moment. Which, being fair, the sight of his zhiyin certainly did, but……right now, more in a way that made Liánlí’s lips pout while his eyes sparkled earnestly. “Huan-ge? Are you alright?”
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Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2024 12:09 am
Huanxi nodded. It was good, that she trusted Lianli's word. Still, they were hopefully past that.
When she left, his attention was turned entirely towards Lianli again--Lianli, who had to be dealing with quite a lot, considering the circumstances they had stumbled into. There was....so much. Reconnecting with a family he had not sought out for quite some time...that could only bring much, in the way of feelings.
Whatever Huanxi himself was feeling right now, whatever the tempest in his chest meant--he needed to be there for Lianli, more than anything.
"...The girls? Your students? Why?" There were, after all, not exactly many people who called him shizhang, but it felt like he was missing a step in the connecting line, here. It happened occasionally, but the point was to ask and find out. "And I...will be fine. Finding your sister put me in the mind of my brother. But there is nothing to be done. Either he will be returned to me as himself, or possibly as someone new, or he will not--no choice either of us can make will affect that outcome."
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Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2024 12:42 am
“Oh, uh. It’s……being fair, there is a very slim chance that I might be wrong, but……” Liánlí made a throaty, somewhat wobbly, noncommittal noise and cringed. “I really don’t think I am. ‘Xiaxue’ isn’t that uncommon as a name? The poem it comes from is an old classic. Really popular for weddings? Because it’s basically the poet swearing to love his wife forever in all kinds of beautiful ways, like swearing not to part from her until it snows in summer.
“Huanjing’s name is less common, though. Not so much so that I thought it was weird or suggestive to meet another ‘Huanjing’? But then there’s their father’s name……Chunmian. Again, not so uncommon that I thought anything of it until tonight? Especially since last I’d heard, da-jie only had one child, and I am terrible at remembering her husband’s name? But……” Liánlí groaned softly, gently kneading his fingertips into the bridge of his nose. “Guo-xiansheng has said his wife likes calling him ‘Mianmian’ when they’re being cutesy, which goes back to another classic, an old folk song. He’s never mentioned his wife’s name to me before. But then, here’s da-jie, saying they have two kids now and……”
Leaning more toward Huanxi, leaning on his shoulder as much as Liánlí could currently accomplish, Liánlí sighed. “……I’m pretty sure Huanjing and Xiaxue have been my nieces this whole time. And that it’s gonna be a whole awkward thing in the near future. And when that gets sorted out? The way they’ve been addressing you means ‘teacher’s husband,’ which……?”
Liánlí making a shrugging sort of noise. “It may not be true, yet? But I thought it would be easier for them to understand, and I would like it to be true someday? It doesn’t have to be right away or anything, there’s a lot going on, just……yeah? I’d really like to get married someday?
“Then, ‘jiufu’ isn’t exactly a word that exists? ‘Jiujiu’ is a maternal uncle, so that’s what I’ll be to the girls if I’m right. Traditionally in Chinese, there’s ‘jiuma’ for the wife of your mother’s brother. But we also have ‘yifu’ for the husband of your father’s sister, so if you put the ‘fu’ character meaning ‘husband’ with the ‘jiu’ character meaning ‘maternal uncle’? ‘Jiufu,’ for your maternal uncle’s husband.”
Taking a moment to just breathe, Liánlí reached for Huanxi’s hands and intertwined their fingers. “And—I know it’s not something that can help resolve the question of where your brother is? But I hope you and I can find him, Huan-ge. Mostly so you can just know what happened or not? But……” A gentle squeeze. “If your gege turns up as you remember him? It’d be really nice to have him here whenever we do get married.”
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Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2024 11:52 am
Ah. Well. That made sense, Huanxi supposed. He had trouble imagining not knowing one's brother-in-law, but then, he had known Xinzhang quite well, and had been getting to know their third before.....
Well. Before.
"If that is so, then your sister and her husband have raised two clever, delightful young ladies, and I...." Huanxi felt another knot settle in his chest. A different one, this time.
Husband.
It was a word he had longed to use for Xingyi, once. Had wished he could say about him. Had hoped....but it had not come to pass. Duty had lain between them, and now....things were different. The world was different. And it seemed that it would indeed one day be something he could say of Lianli.
"I will be proud to be their uncle-in-law, both before it is literally true, and after." He looked down at their entwined hands, and then back up at Lianli, eyes soft and a small smile tugging at his lips. "There is no one else who I would ever choose. But I would like to have my brother at my wedding, as I was at his."
He brought Lianli's hand up to his lips, placing a kiss on their entwined fingers.
"We will make our path forward. With your family and mine."
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