Jing Yu still had the talisman, which was tucked in his robes on his chest, activated. 

 He opened his mouth to say something, probably to Lan Xuan first, but he wasn't sure himself. 

Xue Yang tapped him, a frown on his lips. Jing Yu tilted his head in confusion. Xue Yang rolled his eyes, muttering, “don't waste your spiritual energy on them.” He bared his fangs in a menacing grin. 

“What do you want?” Xue Yang questioned them, acting bored and asking to place himself as a barrier to Jing Yu which…was unlike him Jing Yu felt baffled, and blinked at the other's back multiple times. Not only that, the action in itself spoke volumes. 

He quietly gauged the reaction of Lan Xuan, Xiao Xingchen, and Song Lan. They all seemed completely shocked, as if they knew Xue Yang and couldn't believe how he was behaving right now. 

Jing Yu watched Xue Yang closely. He didn't think the others saw him as anything other than…well a person who supplied his insufferable habit of eating sweets where he wanted. And he also now had a proper roof over his head and a room at Jing Yu’s home, which wasn't anything super extravagant. 

And it seemed, outside of the memory viewing where he witnessed Wei Wuxian's memories and the humiliation of Jin Guangshan, he and Xue Yang had been spending a lot of time together. 

Jing Yu also realized that was out of the norm for him. Jing Yu was a rogue cultivator and traveled to places where people needed help, or helping on night hunts. He didn't stay still for too long, he always had to keep going. He never stayed in one place, especially when he wasn't needed. 

But he's subconsciously spent so much time here…without realizing it and…that was dangerous. 

He wouldn't deny missing the Nie Sect, and missing Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang, who had been as close to a family to him he'd ever known. But he couldn't stand like Nie Mingjue when things were happening that he felt he could stop. Yes, he suffered some heavy losses, and nearly lost his life but it wasn't in his nature. Like the wind, free and flowing, he wanted to travel and help people in need. 

Jing Yu thought of Nie Huaisang and smiled. Nie Huaisang had never had any interest in cultivating with the Nie Sect sabers and maybe that was a good thing. He might like having a fan as a weapon, much like himself. Jing Yu chuckled. It would certainly be his style. He had given Nie Huaisang a lot of fans over the years before he had left the sect. 

He wondered how the both of them were fairing from the memory viewing. 

“We were in the area and heard about a vicious Yao that was somewhere near the outskirts of the town and wanted to investigate. And we heard there had been a riot not too long ago and wanted to see what all the commotion was about.” Lan Xuan spoke, but not unkindly. 

Jing Yu was impressed. They were both similar in temperament. He felt glad to see that despite what Lan Xuan had been through, he still hadn't changed, even if he didn't remember him. 

“The matter of the riot has been solved and the situation settled. It is no cause for concern, I can assure you. The yao on the other hand, I am less certain about.” Jing Yu had admitted. 

And he had the feeling they were looking for more than that and it had something to do with Xue Yang. 

The three came closer and Jing Yu noticed that Xue Yang seemed to tense up even more and he was staring at Xiao Xingchen with a glazed look in his eyes. The other said person was also acting seemingly strange, along with his companion. It was as if they were suddenly ambushed with an onslaught of memories. Their expressions were worrisome.

He noticed the subtle changes in their body language, becoming offensive and he quickly moved to stand in front of Xue Yang, shielding him.

“What the hell are you doing?” Xue Yang snapped, snatching Jing Yu’s empty sleeve on his left side. “Don't do unnecessary things. I don't need you to protect me.” Xue Yang gave a feral snarl, a small wild red glint in his eyes.

Jing Yu just turned his face towards him and smiled. “Maybe so, but everyone should have at least someone to defend them, or stand by them. It would be terribly lonely otherwise. Just because someone can take care of themselves doesn't mean they should always have to, or always do things alone.” Jing Yu spoke gently, but his tone was resolute. 

“I do not know nor understand what just happened or passed between the three of you. But I am no fool. Maybe you were faced with recollections of a past life, in another timeline. But things are not the same as then and are different. Xue Yang, nursing resentment and hatred is more harmful to you than your enemies, and leaves lasting scars. I see you, as you are and your potentials of what you can do. Because you are extremely intelligent. You are cruel to others but even more cruel to yourself. The heart is not so easily unmarred. I have never lied or led you falsely and never had any ill intentions or schemes. No matter what you saw, you don't have to make the same choices. And the choices remain yours.” Jing Yu looked Xue Yang directly in the eyes with his last words.

He suspected and knew Xue Yang could do terribly, awful things but he also knew that Xue Yang could be so much more, better. Maybe not different, but better and not so easily ready to harm others, especially the innocent. He didn't know what they had seen in their moment when their eyes had connected, nor would whatever they had seen would be easily forgotten. 

He just hoped they would make the right choice, or a better choice. It was a different life, a different past in a different timeline. It didn't have to be the same in this one. 

But ultimately, it would be Xue Yang's choice and the other two as well.

Lan Xuan stood watching on the side seeing how the next events would unfold. Jing Yu desperately wished in his heart that Xue Yang wouldn't suddenly spiral and make the wrong choice. He had never laid a hand to Xue Yang, and he didn't want to be forced to take him down to protect the others, preventing Xue Yang from doing any atrocities in the future. 

He didn't want to fight Xue Yang. He knew deep down, Xue Yang had the capacity to do good, to be good, in some capacity. His personality will never change. But he wasn't an emotionless being. If anything, he was led by rage, and pain, the feeling of vengeance, or feeling that everything was unjust in his own eyes… he was essentially a lost soul who had had no guidance from being a young toddler, no one who was kind to him or showed him love and affection or taught him empathy. 

But Jing Yu, had been spending months with him, and diverted his best as he could from any wrong paths he could take, and Jing Yu cared for Xue Yang, as no one had probably ever had in his life.

Xue Yang stared back fiercely, a step away from a cliff, or that's what it felt like. And he knew, he knew. He knew how Jing Yu treated him since they met. And the other didn't hide who he was and was honest. Jing Yu stayed with him when he could have been wandering like the rogue cultivator he was. 

Xue Yang stared at Jing Yu, taking all of him in. This man, who suffered worse than him, had lost an eye and his entire left arm. This man with a beautiful violet eye, that gleamed with affection aimed at him. Jing Yu’s long, luscious obsidian hair, with shades of green and red in it, with small white strands here and there. He was a good man, righteous. Unlike those who preached they were and ended up being fakes. 

Xue Yang turned to study the other man who he didn't know, dressed in the blue of the Gusu Lan sect and snow white hair, and kind eyes, staring at him with no judgment. But he had clearly come here with the famous Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan for a purpose. Did he know something? About what Xue Yang had just seen? What did they see? Did he come here with intentions to kill him if he were deemed a threat like his other self had been?

Xue Yang's mind was reeling and his emotions felt chaotic. He saw, he saw himself and..things other him had done and to those two. He felt angry and foolish and back into a corner, he hadn't done those things. He had thought about some things a few times but hadn't felt like acting upon it.

Xue Yang looked back at Jing Yu, searching for something. He saw no condemnation. Just a violet gaze, staring at him with a calm expression, with endless patience and care in his eyes towards him. Jing Yu seemed so regal, and despite his injuries, he was no doubt capable as deadly, far more dangerous than he appeared on the surface. Xue Yang felt it from the moment he saw the other. 

Jing Yu was like a waterfall, beautiful and calm but could be turbulent and deadly as the ocean. Or also like the wind, one moment it's gently kissing your cheeks with a soft breeze and the next moment it's tearing a large tree out of the ground, roots and all, with a violent ferocity. 

Xue Yang felt a twinge of jealousy glaring at the beautiful snow haired man in blue Gusu robes. Jing Yu had looked at the other with yearning for a moment, stars hidden in his eyes. Xue Yang clenched his jaw. 

The other male was clueless and didn't know, or didn't care and was brushing Jing Yu off by ignoring him. Just the thought really pissed Xue Yang off and Xue Yang wanted to do…very bad things that Jing Yu wouldn't like. And would probably hate him if he did that to someone he liked.

Lan Xuan noticed Xue Yang's intense glare and was bewildered at why he was being glared at in such a way. He had only just met the young man. He had only recently heard things that this young man's self in a different timeline had committed heinous acts. He hadn't done anything to him or said anything wrong. And yet he was getting a very murderous glare from Xue Yang. It really looked like the other wanted to stab him and kill him. 

The only way to kill Lan Xuan was to exercise him as a spirit or destroy Lan Wangji’s guqin beyond repair, since that was now his true physical body, since his actual one was long gone since he died long ago, and very young. He could maintain a physical human appearance, of his true soul, but it was because of the immense spiritual power he had gained, and Lan Wangji as well. 

Lan Xuan frowned but didn't say anything. He watched the silent communication between Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan and watched Xue Yang with the man Jing Yu, Xue Yang’s eyes changed, as did his demeanor. It was a slight difference but at the same time, quite a huge difference. Xue Yang cared for Jing Yu as well, in his own way. 

What an…unexpected development. Lan Xuan stared at Jing Yu some more, something slowly emerging from his own memories. Which was impossible, because he would have known if he had forgotten anything in his childhood, and he had been the one that was forgotten for a time. But why..why did he have this feeling? Why did Jing Yu seem so familiar? 

He remembered a really kind smile, someone who sat beside him, making all sorts of crafts, and who taught him how to make things too, like better origami’s. It had been a child whose face he couldn't clearly see, who was always by Nie Mingjue side, always, whenever they came to Cloud Recesses and they both spent time with him and played with him and helped him create gifts for his mother who was kept in seclusion, and for his unborn baby brother when he had recently learned the news. 

Jing Yu..Jing Yu…. Lan Xuan squinted, looking at the sky, trying to recall his memories, which he had apparently forgotten. Did the trauma of the past really affect him that much? That he would forget one of his own close friends? 

Lan Xuan blinked when he heard Xiao Xingchen speak. “I apologize, it seems we have misunderstood the situation. We're sorry to disturb you both. To make up for it, we can do a night hunt together sometime?” Though as he said this, he couldn't contain the tremble from his voice, as though he struggled to merely speak the words. 

Song Lan murmured quietly in the other ear, comforting him from whatever he was seeing in his mind, scars passed from another life possibly, if seeing Xue Yang sent such a shock to his soul that it brought up memories of what happened in a different time, it must have been very hard. 

Xue Yang glanced at Xiao Xingchen, his expression oddly blank. His earlier ire, and murderous intent seemed to dissipate. 

Xue Yang exhaled harshly and loud, rolling his eyes as he crossed his arms. “If it's that hard, don't force yourself. Whatever, I don't care. See you around or not, it's not my problem. I won't apologize for things I haven't done. He did those things, to the other you in that time and your companion. Not me. You're both an eyesore, you can leave now.” Xue Yang glowered with a huff and turned his back on them, walking away with steady strides. “And take your friend with you and leave me and my companion on our way.” Xue Yang shot a quick glare at Lan Xuan.

Jing Yu tilted his head and chuckled, following his proud tiger cub. He was a young man, not really a cub, so he couldn't really liken him to a tiger cub and more like a fully grown tiger, that was acting tame. And would no doubt be expecting sweets in return. 

He was worried about Xue Yang carrying his other selves memories but it actually seemed to shock his system and calm him? Maybe because of the severity and he isn't like the other version of himself?

Jing Yu could make good guesses but he'd probably never truly know. But they didn't matter as long as Xue Yang never spiraled or ended up doing anything atrocious, and made better choices. 

He felt that they would probably all run into each other for sure every now and then. Jing Yu wanted to meet Wei Wuxian, when the man was ready to face the world again. Yes, Jing Yu had recently heard about the others…revival? That's what it was. And it must have been recent. Wei Wuxian would need time to cope and heal, as the world gets used to knowing the truth of the events that happened and that Wei Wuxian was the only one to blame.  

His heart felt more at ease, trusting in Xue Yang more and felt proud of him for the little change over the course of time they've spent together. He never tried to force anything. He just wanted to be the guiding compass and help to show him a better path and maybe someone to look up to and stay with him so he wasn't so lonely and jaded and resentful. The little snake Jin Guangyao was thankfully stopped before he could do any more damage and lead Xue Yang astray. 

“Hey, are you coming or what? It's about to rain! You're gonna get soaked!” Xue Yang called from up ahead with a scowl, standing under the shack ahead and pointing to the sky that had turned to a dark stormy gray.

Jing Yu sighed and chuckled slightly, standing and staring at the youth with a little bit of awe, even as rain drops started to fall from the sky.

 Jing Yu might have some healed wounds and was more liable to get sick, despite still having high cultivation, because of how grave those injuries had nearly been, he wasn't that weak. But he knew Xue Yang meant well in his own way and even saying so showed how much he actually cared.

“Hey, pay attention! A-Yu, you're getting rained on. Honestly.” Xue Yang tsked, swiftly pulling around a black and silver umbrella, and pulling an extra robe around Jing Yu’s shoulders (the wind had begun to chill a little from the rain) with a scowl, staring at him. “You're always lecturing me but look at what you're doing?” 

Jing Yu noticed that Xue Yang had gotten slightly taller in the months they had gotten to know each other.

“I won't melt.” Jing Yu gazed at Xue Yang warmly, and brushed wet strands of hair that had fallen into the others eyes away so he could see clearly. 

Xue Yang flinched back a little in shock and was wary. Jing Yu kept his gaze warm, and his heart was also feeling quite warm. It was a feeling he hadn't fully felt in a while and it felt nice.

Xue Yang glanced away, seemingly embarrassed. It was Jing Yu’s first time seeing such an emotion cross Xue Yang's face. And he also saw the others surprise at himself too, scowling and muttering under his breath. He could see Xue Yang mentally cursing himself. Jing Yu held back another laugh. 

It was cute. 

Jing Yu came to a halt at that thought, and he felt a slight blush warming his own cheeks. 

He thought Xue Yang was being cute. 

Jing Yu kept his head down, letting his hair shield his face so the other didn't see as they walked side by side in the rain, Xue Yang unaware of his arm still wrapped around Jing Yu and Jing Yu was flustered and trying to calm down. 

Jing Yu didn't lift his head, but reached his right hand into his robes, grabbing a piece of Xue Yang's favorite candy and was about to gently push it into the others pocket, even though it was a little awkward, but Xue Yang had grabbed his arm, having dropped the umbrella, without removing the one he had wrapped around Jing Yu (he refused to), and grasped Jing Yu’s hand with a gentleness that surprised the other. 

Xue Yang slowly and carefully brought Jing Yu’s right hand, that held numerous scars, but still seemed so delicate, and that was still holding the piece of candy out to him; removing the wrapper nimbly, bringing Jing Yu’s hand up to his lips and having the other feed the candy to him. Xue Yang relished wasting the piece of candy, and teased Jing Yu’s fingers with his tongue as he ate the candy he had offered. 

Xue Yang took his time, and made sure to lick off the sweet stickiness from Jing Yu’s fingertips, staring with heated ruby eyes as he did before finally releasing the other.

Jing Yu had frozen, staring back at Xue Yang, who gave a little grin, showing a canine, and whispered against the others fingertips, still grasping his hand, and gifted each tip of Jing Yu’s finger with a feather light kiss from his lips after he licked them clean, “thank you for the dessert.” 

Jing Yu’s heart raced, and his cheeks that had been warm, had become even more heated. This..brat had become so bold so suddenly. Jing Yu…the feeling in his chest seemed to grow and expand and his thoughts were taking a very different turn and it was all so quick and sudden. Jing Yu’s right hand seems to tingle, a feeling of electricity racing up his arms and seeming to strike his heart. He stared at his fingertips Xue Yang had just licked and stared.

Xue Yang gave a light little laugh, genuine and held no underlying feelings and no malice, and it was music to Jing Yu’s ears, but Jing Yu was still frozen in shock and didn't know how to react, so he allowed the other to pull him along and following his lead, as the treaded the ground in the falling rain, sheltered by the umbrella Xue Yang had put back over them, after lowering it during..that moment that had passed between them. 

Jing Yu had a sudden thought to get back at him, a bit of playfulness rising within him. If that's how Xue Yang wanted to be, then he should respond in kind. 

He reached for another piece of candy again. He wouldn't be shown up this time. 

He pulled out the candy, offering it to Xue Yang again, who even arched his brow this time, with a smirk. “Again?”

Xue Yang reacted the same way, taking Jing Yu’s hand the candy offering, and bringing them to his lips and just as he was about to take the candy into his mouth Jing Yu made his move, and lifted his face to Xue Yang’s, pressing their lips together and he snatched the candy back in the kiss and bit his lips with a little tug, staring into Xue Yang's eyes daringly as he did so when he pulled away, and giving Xue Yang a wink with his eye, holding back a smile. 

Xue Yang had stilled, shock resonating in his eyes for a few long moments before his eyes seemed to blaze to life, searing into his soul and marking him. Xue Yang pressed their bodies together, leaning into Jing Yu. 

Jing Yu shivered with anticipation at the future promise those eyes held. 

“Well played.” Xue Yang bent his head in closer, their cheeks gently brushing, their bodies fitting together, as Xue Yang whispered those words into his ear and proceeded to place a soft little lingering kiss (as if marking his possession) just below Jing Yu’s ear and traced a path to the side of Jing Yu’s neck before slowly backing away.  

“The game is on then.” Xue Yang gave a little satisfied smile, before urging Jing Yu on, putting the umbrella back over both of their heads and resumed walking the path together. 

They walked on like that, and if someone had seen these two, walking so close together under a black and silver umbrella in the soft falling rain, it would be quite a sight to behold, the colorful flowers of nature adding color in their surroundings.

It was a feeling of warmth and closeness, a bittersweet, lovely sight that tugs the heartstrings. 

It was only the beginning of their journey together and soon to be friends and reunions to come. A different future, a brighter one lay ah