[ There is only the faintest hint of a smile, he knows better than to even appear to mock the first flash of how Jiang Wanyin is he has seen in a very long time, but he is relieved, for that small amount of trust, even with the immediate alarm after it.
A soft breath out. Then his words return to the question asked. ]
The needs that leave your eyes hollow and your step uncertain. The needs, unmet, that leave you seeking to erase yourself--
[ Xichen trails off, helplessly, as memory brings to him another figure, married into Lan out of necessity, imprisoned, nigh completely erased from the mind of nearly all others. He blinks again, averting his eyes for a moment to try to conceal the emotion that blazes in them, his calm broken unexpectedly, thoroughly. Honesty spills out through the cracks, low and quiet and raw. ]
I... do not wish to see you suffering more than you already are.
no subject
[ There is only the faintest hint of a smile, he knows better than to even appear to mock the first flash of how Jiang Wanyin is he has seen in a very long time, but he is relieved, for that small amount of trust, even with the immediate alarm after it.
A soft breath out. Then his words return to the question asked. ]
The needs that leave your eyes hollow and your step uncertain. The needs, unmet, that leave you seeking to erase yourself--
[ Xichen trails off, helplessly, as memory brings to him another figure, married into Lan out of necessity, imprisoned, nigh completely erased from the mind of nearly all others. He blinks again, averting his eyes for a moment to try to conceal the emotion that blazes in them, his calm broken unexpectedly, thoroughly. Honesty spills out through the cracks, low and quiet and raw. ]
I... do not wish to see you suffering more than you already are.