[It's an odd position they're in, curled around and interlocked with one another. Lan Xichen's heart, at any other time, would be beating out his chest. This is intimate in ways they've never been, ways he doesn't even dare give a voice to. It would go beyond inappropriate. But in this moment, they are also well past appropriate; emotions are too high. At least the truth is finally on the table. A messy, cluttered, tangled truth that would take time to sort through, but it's there.]

I won't ask that of you. I don't have the right to ask that of anyone.

[What did good even mean? Once upon a time, he'd thought Da-ge a good and righteous man. He still thinks it to some degree, but now he can see the cracks, even before the sabre spirit sunk its claws into him. Nie Mingjue had seen the world in shades of black and white, good and evil. Once upon a time, Lan Xichen thought that was refreshing. Once upon a time, he'd envied that mindset.

But nothing is ever what it seems, is it?

He is really, really starting to understand his father.]

A-Yao, I will ask you for something much harder. Will you trust me with the truth? Even if it's painful for either of us...?