๏ผ his own expression is soft, listening to him recount it. it does hurt, that he knows so little. but the empathy is a distant ache, easily set aside. many children are orphans. many have even fewer memories than that. their worlds have a shared violence that they cannot so easily escape. he too looks askance, imagining it. a little boy with dark hair and a mischievous smile is not difficult to imagine. nor the warmth of the mother, nor even the laughter. ๏ผ
I am ๏ผ one of his faint pauses, as he casts about for an appropriate word. ultimately, he settles on one that is simplistic in its conveyance, and boundless in its care — ๏ผ gladdened, that you have that. I only wish you had more.
[That warm gaze moves back to Itachi and he shakes his head.]
It's alright. It's enough. I had a loving family once and that's so much. [It's so much more than what so many others have.] And I love my siblings. I can't imagine a life without them. [For all the bad, for all the dysfunction and pain, he won't ever think of himself as anything but lucky to have lived with the Jiangs.]
Who knows, maybe I'll meet them again in another life. Maybe I'll even be theirs again. [he chuckles lightly.] Who can say?
[With a nod, Wei Wuxian rises and exits the hot spring, wrapping a towel around his waist and squeezing the excess water from his hair. As he dries, he shoots a contemplative glance Itachi's way before returning his attention to drying.]
Would you tell me what your parents are like? [Only if he wants remains unspoken but very clear. Whatever relationship Itachi has with his parents most likely suffered from the things he'd done and he isn't sure if it's something the man is willing to share. He does trust that even if he isn't willing, he won't begrudge Wei Wuxian for asking.]
๏ผ it is a measure of reassurance, offered as he mirrors the toweling off. his clothing is easily retrievable from a locker, and it's as he is sorting through the neatly folded items that he continues: ๏ผ
My father is a stern man. He was under a considerable amount of pressure from a young age, and it... shaped him. He is the head of the Uchiha clan, but he was not born to it. My mother was the granddaughter of one of the founding members of Konoha, and she lost several older brothers in the war. He went from married to a woman with no claim herself to the position of clan-head, to one who carried the weight of our people on his shoulders within the span of a year. It wearied him. However... He never missed an opportunity to tell me he was proud of me. It was one of the last things he said to me before I left Konoha.
๏ผ he speaks softly. for all his father's foibles — and he has not failed to notice them — itachi still speaks of him with quiet affection. ๏ผ
My mother is sweet and warm. I never saw her pass someone in need of assistance without offering her own. It did not matter how wearied she was when she returned from a mission, she always made time for Sasuke. I have memories of her as a child, telling stories at my bedside. She watched over me when I was ill, or injured. She has a way of being... present, that is difficult to quantify.
[He has wondered before if Itachi's parents are still alive, and the way he speaks of them now makes it seems more likely that a rift exists between them only due to his leaving his village. He can't imagine what it would be to leave them behind. It's easy to hear the love Itachi holds for them in his words.]
Your father must have been under so much pressure. [He hears the echoes of Jiang Cheng's story in Itachi's father, though at least Jiang Cheng knew he'd inherit the mantle one day. (That the day had come too soon and before any of them were prepared didn't erase the fact that he had known leadership would eventually be his.) That last bit about Itachi's father makes his heart a little lighter.] He sounds like a good man.
And your mother so full of love. I'm glad you and Sasuke had her. ["Had," he says, though he has to imagine that even now with all that Itachi has done, wherever his mother is, whatever Itachi believes, she must still love him. A mother like that loves their child until the day they take their final breath, he feels it in his soul.]
๏ผ he reaches up, touches his fingers along the bone of his cheek and then drops his hand away, shrugging back into his clothing. his dark hair is unwound from its bun, and combed through with clever fingers. ๏ผ
Sasuke and I are alike in this. One could not mistake us as strangers to meet us.
[That gets a soft snort under his breath and he tries to picture it as he tugs his clothes back on, tying his still damp hair up with a red ribbon.]
What a good looking family. [He teases.
There are other questions he could ask and other subjects about Itachi's family that he's curious about, but he knows there are stumbling blocks here and he's happy not to have tripped over any of them yet. It seems a better thing to let things lie for now.]
๏ผ joking about such things is... not easy. should wei wuxian ever learn the truth — a not-insurmountable task, given their roles aboard the ximilia — he knows it will wound the man that he could not be honest in this instance. but he does not wish to harm him in the now any more than he must. ๏ผ
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no subject
I am ๏ผ one of his faint pauses, as he casts about for an appropriate word. ultimately, he settles on one that is simplistic in its conveyance, and boundless in its care — ๏ผ gladdened, that you have that. I only wish you had more.
no subject
It's alright. It's enough. I had a loving family once and that's so much. [It's so much more than what so many others have.] And I love my siblings. I can't imagine a life without them. [For all the bad, for all the dysfunction and pain, he won't ever think of himself as anything but lucky to have lived with the Jiangs.]
Who knows, maybe I'll meet them again in another life. Maybe I'll even be theirs again. [he chuckles lightly.] Who can say?
no subject
๏ผ he is silent for a time, fiddling with an errant strand of hair, coiling it back around the bun. ๏ผ
Come. We should return to my room.
no subject
Would you tell me what your parents are like? [Only if he wants remains unspoken but very clear. Whatever relationship Itachi has with his parents most likely suffered from the things he'd done and he isn't sure if it's something the man is willing to share. He does trust that even if he isn't willing, he won't begrudge Wei Wuxian for asking.]
no subject
๏ผ it is a measure of reassurance, offered as he mirrors the toweling off. his clothing is easily retrievable from a locker, and it's as he is sorting through the neatly folded items that he continues: ๏ผ
My father is a stern man. He was under a considerable amount of pressure from a young age, and it... shaped him. He is the head of the Uchiha clan, but he was not born to it. My mother was the granddaughter of one of the founding members of Konoha, and she lost several older brothers in the war. He went from married to a woman with no claim herself to the position of clan-head, to one who carried the weight of our people on his shoulders within the span of a year. It wearied him. However... He never missed an opportunity to tell me he was proud of me. It was one of the last things he said to me before I left Konoha.
๏ผ he speaks softly. for all his father's foibles — and he has not failed to notice them — itachi still speaks of him with quiet affection. ๏ผ
My mother is sweet and warm. I never saw her pass someone in need of assistance without offering her own. It did not matter how wearied she was when she returned from a mission, she always made time for Sasuke. I have memories of her as a child, telling stories at my bedside. She watched over me when I was ill, or injured. She has a way of being... present, that is difficult to quantify.
no subject
Your father must have been under so much pressure. [He hears the echoes of Jiang Cheng's story in Itachi's father, though at least Jiang Cheng knew he'd inherit the mantle one day. (That the day had come too soon and before any of them were prepared didn't erase the fact that he had known leadership would eventually be his.) That last bit about Itachi's father makes his heart a little lighter.] He sounds like a good man.
And your mother so full of love. I'm glad you and Sasuke had her. ["Had," he says, though he has to imagine that even now with all that Itachi has done, wherever his mother is, whatever Itachi believes, she must still love him. A mother like that loves their child until the day they take their final breath, he feels it in his soul.]
Do you look a lot like them?
no subject
๏ผ he reaches up, touches his fingers along the bone of his cheek and then drops his hand away, shrugging back into his clothing. his dark hair is unwound from its bun, and combed through with clever fingers. ๏ผ
Sasuke and I are alike in this. One could not mistake us as strangers to meet us.
no subject
What a good looking family. [He teases.
There are other questions he could ask and other subjects about Itachi's family that he's curious about, but he knows there are stumbling blocks here and he's happy not to have tripped over any of them yet. It seems a better thing to let things lie for now.]
Are you ready to head up?
no subject
๏ผ joking about such things is... not easy. should wei wuxian ever learn the truth — a not-insurmountable task, given their roles aboard the ximilia — he knows it will wound the man that he could not be honest in this instance. but he does not wish to harm him in the now any more than he must. ๏ผ
Come. I will make us tea.