[If he weren't so attuned to Itachi's mannerisms he might miss that slight pause, but with Itachi, everything means something and so Wei Wuxian takes note. Where the pause comes from though, he doesn't probe. What they're doing here is new for both of them and he doesn't see the need to go poking and prodding every small thing.
He also resists catching Itachi's hand to plant a soft kiss against his knuckles after that elbow squeeze, if only barely. The smile he fixes his friend with likely conveys his warm affection all the same.]
I'm going to look for work in research. Something with field work so that I can travel. I figure the more places I can get to, the more people I can talk to and pick up on any local rumors that sound like the orb's work.
（ hm. he stops, and then takes a moment to collect his thoughts as he plates up his own breakfast. he hadn't wished to eat until wei ying was downstairs — there is something of old cadences long laid to rest, the pulse of a family unit being enlivened by the sharing of food that he had not wished to set aside. ）
I am going to remain here, I think.
（ in and of itself, a departure. itachi has always been quick to enter the fray, dirty his hands. so the thought of him remaining elsewhere, loosening his grip on active engagement...
it tells a story. of someone who has, perhaps, learned to let things go. ）
Warn me ahead of time when you intend to return. I will ensure there is a meal set aside for you.
["You don't have to." He catches himself before the words are out, and this time he doesn't stop himself from reaching out to take Itachi's hand and give it a squeeze. Itachi doesn't have to, he wants to. He wouldn't do it if he didn't want to. Like Itachi's touch to his elbow, the hand squeeze is brief and he pulls it back after just a few seconds.]
Alright, I'll text you. You should let me help cook dinner sometime though. I haven't found any chili peppers here so you don't even have to worry! [Wei Wuxian grins and then returns to his food. It is different for Itachi to play a less active role, and it feels odd, but not in a bad way.]
Do you want me to pick anything up for you while I'm out?
（ wei ying pulls back, and itachi turns his wrist and catches his hand before he can quite back away. he uses that single point of connection like a tether, hauls the man in and presses a kiss against the side of his mouth. there is something exploratory about it, as if the thing done by daylight will differ than by dusk.
for a moment he simply stands in close, unmoving. then he releases him with one final stroke of his thumb against the delicate bones of the man's wrist. ）
Only if something catches your eye. Or if you come across Cubits in need of rehabilitation.
[It is one thing to be kissed. Anyone can kiss, some better than others, some with more enthusiasm than others, but a kiss can be just a kiss.
It is another thing to be beloved, and when Itachi pulls him in to brush his lips against the corner of his mouth, he isn't just kissed, he feels beloved.
It's foolish the way he feels tears spring to his eyes that he carefully blinks back when Itachi steps away. He needs a moment—just a brief one to revel in the feeling, and even though Itachi has let go, he rests his forehead against the man's shoulder, simultaneously hiding his face and maintaining their closeness.]
I like you so much. [The sentiment is hardly new, and for the most part isn't even reflective of the changes in their relationship, but being able to say it like this, that part's new.]
[He lets out some sort of incomprehensible whining sound and then pulls back, leaning in to press a quick kiss to Itachi's cheek before he moves away to properly begin eating. Once he's seated and eating, he asks—]
（ he makes a considering sound, as he slides into the chair opposite wei ying, setting his tray with its small assorted dishes down. a grilled piece of fish makes up the protein, and a smaller salad of pickled greens sits near his right hand as he picks up chopsticks with his left. ）
I have yet to decide. I don't feel especially drawn to the concept. My contract with my summons back home was intended to be for life.
It does feel strange to take charge of a living creature knowing we'll be leaving them behind in a short while. If I do take them on, I don't know how to make sure it's not on me when we find the orb. [What would that even mean for the Cubit? Would it just be stuck in that cubitile until someone found it? He frowns at the thought.]
What was your summons back home? [He pauses and then] Crows?
（ he has not given much thought to how much he misses them, he only knows that he does. it is strange, not to have their presence lurking at the fringes of his mind, and he turns one hand over curiously. ）
They came to me when I was about five years old.
（ not long after he stepped off the cliff above, undecided until he was halfway down as to whether or not he intended to live or die at the bottom. ）
Came to you? [He doesn't know how summons work in Itachi's world. Maybe they're drawn to the people they're willing to make pacts with. It would hardly be the strangest thing he's heard about his world.]
( his lips purse thoughtfully. he has never attempted to quantify it before. truthfully, he kept the contract to himself. it did not feel important — and even then he was private. )
One normally seeks out a contract. There are many clans of animals allied to shinobi families — and if one wishes to pursue the sage arts one must generally befriend the clan chieftain to advance. I am not sure I can explain it except to say that the crows chose me. I have not heard of another being so contracted.
[Wei Wuxian listens with interest, unable to resist comparing notes to his own world's understanding of animals and other life forms. Their worlds are similar enough that he wonders if the animal clans Itachi speaks of are animals that have cultivated sentience in ways not entirely dissimilar to those in his world.]
I've always liked crows. [He admits after a minute.] They're supposed to be bad luck in my culture, but they're intelligent birds, and while most animals were wary of me when I was most saturated with resentful energy, crows didn't fear me. [Their affinity for resentful energy was perhaps one of the reasons they were so heavily associated with bad luck, but Wei Wuxian hadn't ever been troubled by their company. All the trouble he made was his own.]
Are all animals in your world sentient or only some?
（ he wasn't aware of that particular tendency, but he doesn't find it terribly surprising either — even at his worst, corvids had never feared him, either. it's not an unexpected commonality, but what is unexpected is that it feels like a tether across worlds, across lifetimes.
his expression shifts. heartened, almost. ）
Mm. I cannot say how things were before chakra was bestowed upon my world — what records exist of that tumultuous time are scattered and subject to bias — but I am inclined to believe animals did not possess sapience prior. Summon animals are a minority — most can communicate in some fashion, and live in cities or regions according to their custom, and their partnership with humans is a matter of mutual respect and benefit.
（ he has been alone more of his life than not, now. but no amount of solitude could ever divorce him from knowing his crows were only a heartbeat and handspan away. he does not often dwell on their lack and had — in fact — trained himself to view them only as a tool. a means to an end. but for a moment of brief sentiment, he aches in the absence. ）
Animals generally cannot be forced into service against their will, save by those in possession of the Sharingan. But that is rare, even among the Uchiha.
[He can't believe he's even thinking it, but if he'd lived in Itachi's world, he might have actually given up meat. He isn't sure how he'd feel about potentially eating something that could communicate and form its own cities. What if he accidentally ate one of the wrong animals? Instead of voicing that disturbing thought, he opts for focusing on the other mildly disturbing information.
Or, well, it would be mildly disturbing if it weren't Itachi. From Itachi he finds himself both surprised and entirely not. Why shouldn't the Sharingan be able to control the wills of others?]
Is that something you can do? [The question is all curiosity, without a hint of judgment in it. Whether Itachi had ever subjected any animal or person to it...given what he knows of his past, it's entirely possible. Who he was then informs his present but it doesn't define it, not for Wei Wuxian.
And anyway, if Wei Wuxian had possessed an ability like that when the sects came for the Wen, he wouldn't have hesitated to use it.]
（ normally, such a question would warrant consideration, no matter whether he planned to answer to the affirmative or not. it would afford a long silence, followed by his choice on the matter. in nearly no circumstance would he be wholly honest.
he has spoken of the sharingan to precious few. the few times he has troubled himself to mention genjutsu, he has framed it as harmless illusory magic. magic, not a shinobi technique — he has frequently found it more convenient to let that misconception abridge what he says and what others know of him.
if they wish to call it magic, it is no especial business of his.
wei ying, by contrast, gets only a brief press of his mouth into a line. and then itachi opens his mouth and does not lie: ）
[It's the thinning of his lips despite how brief it is that makes him sober and consider the weight of the admission. It isn't just that Itachi is a private person. He has always been more private about his abilities than almost anything else, and Wei Wuxian knows that the Sharingan was a weapon both feared and desired by many that led to some form of discrimination against the Uchiha.
His mind drifts to all that Jin Guangshan was willing to do to try and take the Yin Tiger seal from him and then what that vile man might have been willing to do for something that could take control of the minds of his enemies. It's a terrifying thought and one that makes him shudder.
It really isn't a small admission.]
Was it commonly known that the Sharingan was capable of this? [He asks, brow furrowed as he considers the ramifications of an affirmative answer.]
（ he could give another singular answer. yes, and be done. wei ying knows better now than to take a short reply as dismissal — he has nearly two years' worth of experience in itachi's tendency to refuse to answer things he does not wish to speak on. he would pursue other avenues if he was curious. perhaps that brilliant mind would already be thinking of ways to apply such a thing or to defend against it, and any further questions would be pure academia.
something in the shudder makes his gaze slip away like a shadow. he focuses on a whorl in the wood of the wall, nearly a spiral, and then: ）
There is nearly no defense against a strong Sharingan user.
（ it is not quite an admission. wei ying knows he is powerful, and itachi has never felt the need to clarify exactly how much before now. power has been the source of more grief than good in his life. he is not proud of it.
chaos, danzō had told him once, his fingers curled against his shoulder — will follow you all of your life. ）
Any shinobi with precise control and the necessary aptitude for yin chakra can utilize genjutsu in combat. But the very best among them are supplanted by the weakest of the Sharingan-users within the Uchiha. There have been some in my clan powerful enough to enthrall thousands under an unbreakable geas. I am, certainly, the strongest of my generation, but I am perhaps only the tenth most powerful of the Uchiha to have ever lived. Consider — one need only be a tenth again as powerful as I to impose one's will on another. To know a member of my clan is to doubt your every thought. Your every emotion. Your memories, your mind. The truth of our capabilities matters little when one considers an Uchiha's tendency towards madness, and my world's bent towards cruelty.
（ he does not sound indifferent. but there is a quality to his voice that is not often present. a sense of restrained emotion, so subtle a throughline it is possible he himself is not aware of it. ）
So — ah, yes, to answer your question. It was commonly known. We made it so.
[His eyes are fixed on Itachi as he speaks, watching him closely, and when he finishes, Wei Wuxian is quiet for a long time. The furrow in his brow had grown deeper as Itachi had spoken and he drops his gaze after a long moment, shaking his head so subtly as to almost go unnoticed. (Almost, maybe if it was anyone but Itachi sitting in front of him.)
The power that he speaks of is so immense, and he can understand why people would fear it and covet it. Truly, he can understand it, but it's not that thought that makes his heart ache.
He's long known the Sharingan was a thing to be feared, but it is so much more powerful than he could have imagined. Devastatingly so. And there must have been so many men like Jin Guangshan or worse. People who would have done anything to take that power. To use it. Not to mention the blind fear. Itachi's character wouldn't have mattered. His kindness and his gentleness wouldn't have mattered. All he would have been to them was a weapon.
He reaches for Itachi's hand and catches it in his own, holding it tight.]
I can't imagine growing up like that. I don't doubt your strength, I never have, but it must have been hard.
（ he looks down at their joined hands. he lets it happen without protest, but there is no physiological response to the touch. neutrality, in this, is perhaps the only thing he can offer. deep affection and years of friendship are what hold back cruel impulse.
there are so many things in the world he has taught himself to stand. compassion is not one of them.
yet his tolerance for it from the man before him now is something earned. hard-won, and sharp-edged. it is a thing with teeth, and not baring them is a choice made with calculated deliberation. ）
Perhaps it is more accurate to say — I did not find it to be so. My parents did their best to shield me from the hatred and the fear. My skills made me useful to the village I love. If you gave me the choice of a thousand lives, each more peaceful, more perfect than the last — I would still, and always choose to live and die as Uchiha Itachi of Konoha.
[His hand tightens around Itachi's and he bows his head in understanding, feeling his heart swell with admiration for the man in front of him. Once after Itachi's betrayal, he had questioned his loyalty, as if it was owed to him when they were honestly little more than friendly strangers. His ire had been well earned, but the assumption of disloyalty incorrect. He is sure now that there is perhaps no one more loyal than Uchiha Itachi once that loyalty had been truly earned.]
I'm pretty fond of him myself. [He says quietly and then rises to press a kiss to Itachi's forehead before pulling back to sit again. A teasing look crosses his face and he adds] questionable taste aside.
（ he exhales. but there is nothing further to be said, and nothing he wishes to express besides — so he simply lets the silence settle between them, and takes his breakfast in its swell. ）
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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He also resists catching Itachi's hand to plant a soft kiss against his knuckles after that elbow squeeze, if only barely. The smile he fixes his friend with likely conveys his warm affection all the same.]
I'm going to look for work in research. Something with field work so that I can travel. I figure the more places I can get to, the more people I can talk to and pick up on any local rumors that sound like the orb's work.
What about you?
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（ hm. he stops, and then takes a moment to collect his thoughts as he plates up his own breakfast. he hadn't wished to eat until wei ying was downstairs — there is something of old cadences long laid to rest, the pulse of a family unit being enlivened by the sharing of food that he had not wished to set aside. ）
I am going to remain here, I think.
（ in and of itself, a departure. itachi has always been quick to enter the fray, dirty his hands. so the thought of him remaining elsewhere, loosening his grip on active engagement...
it tells a story. of someone who has, perhaps, learned to let things go. ）
Warn me ahead of time when you intend to return. I will ensure there is a meal set aside for you.
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Alright, I'll text you. You should let me help cook dinner sometime though. I haven't found any chili peppers here so you don't even have to worry! [Wei Wuxian grins and then returns to his food. It is different for Itachi to play a less active role, and it feels odd, but not in a bad way.]
Do you want me to pick anything up for you while I'm out?
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for a moment he simply stands in close, unmoving. then he releases him with one final stroke of his thumb against the delicate bones of the man's wrist. ）
Only if something catches your eye. Or if you come across Cubits in need of rehabilitation.
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It is another thing to be beloved, and when Itachi pulls him in to brush his lips against the corner of his mouth, he isn't just kissed, he feels beloved.
It's foolish the way he feels tears spring to his eyes that he carefully blinks back when Itachi steps away. He needs a moment—just a brief one to revel in the feeling, and even though Itachi has let go, he rests his forehead against the man's shoulder, simultaneously hiding his face and maintaining their closeness.]
I like you so much. [The sentiment is hardly new, and for the most part isn't even reflective of the changes in their relationship, but being able to say it like this, that part's new.]
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（ it's said good-naturedly, amused rather than self-deprecatory. but he does lift a hand, and cup his palm against the nape of his companion's neck. ）
Come. Eat breakfast before it cools.
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Do you plan to take on any Cubits of your own?
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I have yet to decide. I don't feel especially drawn to the concept. My contract with my summons back home was intended to be for life.
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It does feel strange to take charge of a living creature knowing we'll be leaving them behind in a short while. If I do take them on, I don't know how to make sure it's not on me when we find the orb. [What would that even mean for the Cubit? Would it just be stuck in that cubitile until someone found it? He frowns at the thought.]
What was your summons back home? [He pauses and then] Crows?
cw: suicidality
（ he has not given much thought to how much he misses them, he only knows that he does. it is strange, not to have their presence lurking at the fringes of his mind, and he turns one hand over curiously. ）
They came to me when I was about five years old.
（ not long after he stepped off the cliff above, undecided until he was halfway down as to whether or not he intended to live or die at the bottom. ）
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One normally seeks out a contract. There are many clans of animals allied to shinobi families — and if one wishes to pursue the sage arts one must generally befriend the clan chieftain to advance. I am not sure I can explain it except to say that the crows chose me. I have not heard of another being so contracted.
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I've always liked crows. [He admits after a minute.] They're supposed to be bad luck in my culture, but they're intelligent birds, and while most animals were wary of me when I was most saturated with resentful energy, crows didn't fear me. [Their affinity for resentful energy was perhaps one of the reasons they were so heavily associated with bad luck, but Wei Wuxian hadn't ever been troubled by their company. All the trouble he made was his own.]
Are all animals in your world sentient or only some?
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his expression shifts. heartened, almost. ）
Mm. I cannot say how things were before chakra was bestowed upon my world — what records exist of that tumultuous time are scattered and subject to bias — but I am inclined to believe animals did not possess sapience prior. Summon animals are a minority — most can communicate in some fashion, and live in cities or regions according to their custom, and their partnership with humans is a matter of mutual respect and benefit.
（ he has been alone more of his life than not, now. but no amount of solitude could ever divorce him from knowing his crows were only a heartbeat and handspan away. he does not often dwell on their lack and had — in fact — trained himself to view them only as a tool. a means to an end. but for a moment of brief sentiment, he aches in the absence. ）
Animals generally cannot be forced into service against their will, save by those in possession of the Sharingan. But that is rare, even among the Uchiha.
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Or, well, it would be mildly disturbing if it weren't Itachi. From Itachi he finds himself both surprised and entirely not. Why shouldn't the Sharingan be able to control the wills of others?]
Is that something you can do? [The question is all curiosity, without a hint of judgment in it. Whether Itachi had ever subjected any animal or person to it...given what he knows of his past, it's entirely possible. Who he was then informs his present but it doesn't define it, not for Wei Wuxian.
And anyway, if Wei Wuxian had possessed an ability like that when the sects came for the Wen, he wouldn't have hesitated to use it.]
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he has spoken of the sharingan to precious few. the few times he has troubled himself to mention genjutsu, he has framed it as harmless illusory magic. magic, not a shinobi technique — he has frequently found it more convenient to let that misconception abridge what he says and what others know of him.
if they wish to call it magic, it is no especial business of his.
wei ying, by contrast, gets only a brief press of his mouth into a line. and then itachi opens his mouth and does not lie: ）
Yes.
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His mind drifts to all that Jin Guangshan was willing to do to try and take the Yin Tiger seal from him and then what that vile man might have been willing to do for something that could take control of the minds of his enemies. It's a terrifying thought and one that makes him shudder.
It really isn't a small admission.]
Was it commonly known that the Sharingan was capable of this? [He asks, brow furrowed as he considers the ramifications of an affirmative answer.]
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something in the shudder makes his gaze slip away like a shadow. he focuses on a whorl in the wood of the wall, nearly a spiral, and then: ）
There is nearly no defense against a strong Sharingan user.
（ it is not quite an admission. wei ying knows he is powerful, and itachi has never felt the need to clarify exactly how much before now. power has been the source of more grief than good in his life. he is not proud of it.
chaos, danzō had told him once, his fingers curled against his shoulder — will follow you all of your life. ）
Any shinobi with precise control and the necessary aptitude for yin chakra can utilize genjutsu in combat. But the very best among them are supplanted by the weakest of the Sharingan-users within the Uchiha. There have been some in my clan powerful enough to enthrall thousands under an unbreakable geas. I am, certainly, the strongest of my generation, but I am perhaps only the tenth most powerful of the Uchiha to have ever lived. Consider — one need only be a tenth again as powerful as I to impose one's will on another. To know a member of my clan is to doubt your every thought. Your every emotion. Your memories, your mind. The truth of our capabilities matters little when one considers an Uchiha's tendency towards madness, and my world's bent towards cruelty.
（ he does not sound indifferent. but there is a quality to his voice that is not often present. a sense of restrained emotion, so subtle a throughline it is possible he himself is not aware of it. ）
So — ah, yes, to answer your question. It was commonly known. We made it so.
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The power that he speaks of is so immense, and he can understand why people would fear it and covet it. Truly, he can understand it, but it's not that thought that makes his heart ache.
He's long known the Sharingan was a thing to be feared, but it is so much more powerful than he could have imagined. Devastatingly so. And there must have been so many men like Jin Guangshan or worse. People who would have done anything to take that power. To use it. Not to mention the blind fear. Itachi's character wouldn't have mattered. His kindness and his gentleness wouldn't have mattered. All he would have been to them was a weapon.
He reaches for Itachi's hand and catches it in his own, holding it tight.]
I can't imagine growing up like that. I don't doubt your strength, I never have, but it must have been hard.
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（ he looks down at their joined hands. he lets it happen without protest, but there is no physiological response to the touch. neutrality, in this, is perhaps the only thing he can offer. deep affection and years of friendship are what hold back cruel impulse.
there are so many things in the world he has taught himself to stand. compassion is not one of them.
yet his tolerance for it from the man before him now is something earned. hard-won, and sharp-edged. it is a thing with teeth, and not baring them is a choice made with calculated deliberation. ）
Perhaps it is more accurate to say — I did not find it to be so. My parents did their best to shield me from the hatred and the fear. My skills made me useful to the village I love. If you gave me the choice of a thousand lives, each more peaceful, more perfect than the last — I would still, and always choose to live and die as Uchiha Itachi of Konoha.
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I'm pretty fond of him myself. [He says quietly and then rises to press a kiss to Itachi's forehead before pulling back to sit again. A teasing look crosses his face and he adds] questionable taste aside.
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