Solace.

Do you know where solace lies?
- in the air that revives your cherished memories.

Had it been a few years ago, he would have considered it pathetic to even think about, meant to be confined within the boundaries of an inane dream. And yet, there he was - standing before the giant doors of Lotus Pier's main quarters, looking at the unfamiliar design of the metal planks wistfully.

It's early. The soft rays of dawn have not yet broken out to light the land. The air was pleasingly moderate, unlike chilly winds of Gusu. His body relaxed under the familiar air and its very familiar raw essence.

There was a sea of hesitancy in his heart. A tentative precariousness.

"This is your home. What are you so hesitant about?"

A hoarse and shaky voice made him startle, but his composure returned soon as his mind processed the familiarity the voice brought in his heart. He turned around and an overwhelmed grin broke out on his face.

An old, gaunt woman was standing with a basket of apples in her hand. Her eyes were sparkling like the stars and a lovely smile adorned her face as she gazed at Wei Wuxian with thousands of emotions in her eyes.

"Granny..." Wei Wuxian called out in a broken voice. He ran towards the woman and took her frail, yet loving frame in a tight embrace.

"How?" His voice broke.

How? You and your family were slaughtered. How did you survive? Why did I not see you or hear about you all these years? The Wens had slaughtered every healer of Lotus Pier.

"So, A-Xian remembers this old, dying creature? He did not forget me?" Her broken voice surpassed the joys of a singing thrush.

"How could I?" He rasped.

"A-Xian, Lotus Pier has always been your home. Will always be. Ups and downs, fall and rise, dusk and dawn... These are all parts of our very lives. But no matter what, some things never loose their essence. Even though A-Cheng acts like a berserk wood in quest of thrashing someone, deep down, he is broken. Hollow. He has no one except A-Ling. But in these seven years, I saw something else in his eyes. A spark. A spark that only assurance of a family's presence brings."

Wei Wuxian's eyes glistened. As soft moonlight passed across his face, the rims of his Phoenix eyes glimmered softly along the accumulated drops of moisture.

Has he been selfish?

He should have met his brother.

But he never did. He could never gather the courage to do so. Not after everything that took place. Not after he opened a nasty wound and aggravated it further.

Did he make a wrong decision?

Wrong decision.

Was it wrong of him to force his way into Cloud Recess that clearly marked him as a distinct intruder?

Should he have left that place the day Lan Qiren openly called him an evil soul. An outsider. A tarnishing companion?

Unconsciously he reached the edge of the wooden bridge and stared down at the cluster of lotuses sleeping peacefully under the moon, lulled by chirping of the crickets.

"Granny... Will he still accept me?"

Relationships are delicate equations. A slight miscalculation could disrupt the balance to an unfathomable extent. Especially when the bonds are not carved out of blood relations. Your parents will never abandon you unless a great adversity occurs. But your foster brother...

Wei Wuxian kind of felt at lost.

A rare dead silence fell over Lotus Pier air and even the crickets have stopped causing a low key pandemonium. He suddenly felt lonely. Alone. As if he was the only one. The only soul who is breathing the fresh and fragrant air of Lotus Pier.

Granny was silent like the lonely lotus that had been severed from its stem and was currently floating around the pond with a dead spirit.

She is an old body. Perhaps not interested anymore to console the part of him that has been deeply wounded.

Wei Wuxian sighed.

Should I just go back...

His feet itched with a strange urge and his fingers clutched the iron railing tightly.

"What took you so long?"

A deep voice startled him, making his heart skip a beat. The voice has grown unfamiliar with the passage of time but the tone underlying it is as familiar as ever.

Apparently threatening. Apparently accusing. Yet vulnerable and sulking.

Yet hearing this voice suddenly made his eyes go wide and he swivelled around, facing the man with stinging eyes.

For a moment, he went still.

His brother is as dexterous as ever. Standing with full glory, pride and strength of a powerful sect leader. But onus of time and responsibilities did not spare him; etching almost unnoticeable wrinkles under the lightly swollen almond eyes. And right cheek.

"Hello sect leader Jiang. Remember who I am?"

He made an attempt to smile but it came out as a broken grin, followed by spells of tears smearing his lips with a warm and salty taste.

Jiang Cheng looks sedated and distant...his eyes having an almost impermeable depth. His face looked less daunting than before, layered by a strange lull. He looks calm. The kind of calmness that produces from the years of weariness.

He missed a lot.

More than a deceased person misses on the lives of his loved ones.

"Who are you?" Jiang Cheng asked rhetoricaly and walked towards Wei Wuxian with long strides, his usual gait per se. For a moment, Wei Wuxian thought his brother was going to hug him. But as he darted forward to embrace the man, a sharp punch landed on his face, making him stagger and fall on the ground.

Jiang Cheng held him by his collar and stood him up on unstable steps.

"Hey! What the fuck?" Wei Wuxian panted out, still processing the hard blow. Jiang Cheng gritted his teeth and shoved him away by his collar. The usual, infamous scowl returned on his forehead and finally he looked like the old Jiang Cheng, his brother, he once knew.

"You think you can abandon me, and return whenever you want? How could you be so selfish Wei Wuxian? How... How could you..." His sternness gave up and he pulled Wei Wuxian into a crushing hug, trying hard to control the tears.

"I... I am sorry..."

The throes of overflowing emotions were almost choking him, but he didn't fail to pull Jiang Cheng as close to him as possible. He could feel the warmth of his golden core on his brother's chest and it seeped past the layers of robes and percolated into his own heart. Made him realise a strong presence.

"I have always been with you, have I not Jiang Cheng?" His words were humid and shaky. Wistful.

Jiang Cheng shook over him. "Yes. And also no. You are a bastard Wei Wuxian."

Wei Wuxian smiled. " I missed you, sour log."

Jiang Cheng frowned and landed a slap on his brother's head. "Don't call me that!" Even though he feigned displeasure, the moniker evoked strange aliveness, bringing back the long lost memories of careless childhood. When they were young, unbothered about the onerous life.

The two stood side by side for a moment, unable to manifest what they should do next. The initial stage of a reunion is always easy, but the next actions are not so easy to proceed. Practically meeting each other after 20 years...two souls almost become strangers.

Jiang Cheng sighed. "You have grown up. Didn't you?"

Wei Wuxian knows what this 'grown up' meant. And he agrees, he did. Living with Lan Wangji for several years, he had imbibed himself with much of Lan Wangji's essence. In his behavior, and demeanor. He loves this change in himself. It helps him earn his own emotions into a better understanding- being into himself.

He smiled peacefully. But suddenly, something clicked in his mind. He started looking around abruptly and Jiang Cheng frowned.

"What?"

Wei Wuxian ambled around the dock, but found nothing- rather, no one. His face translated into a confounded twist.

"Jiang Cheng... where did she go?" Wei Wuxian asked hurriedly and looked around with swift eyes.

Jiang Cheng's eyebrows drew towards each other incredulously. "What are you looking for? Whom? You were alone ever since you stepped on the dock. No one is awake yet."

Wei Wuxian frowned. "Hey! What are you saying? Where is granny Lee? She was with me before you came here."

Jiang Cheng looked stupored. "Wei Wuxian, granny Lee..." he sighed. "Granny Lee and her family were slaughtered by the Wens. I cremated her myself. What nonsense are you talking?"

A soothing waft of wind blew over the dock and Wei Wuxian looked up at the stars with mellow eyes.

Thank you granny. He whispered to the stars.

"Are you coming inside? Or interested in keeping on hallucinating things?" Jiang Cheng asked not so frankly. But Wei Wuxian smiled jovially, sprinting on his feet like a fluttering lotus.

"Of course go inside and gobble up some lotus pork soup! I miss Sh-" His voice dropped to silence as he realized the implications of his mindless words.

Jiang Cheng went silent for a moment. But did not comment on his hurtful and vacuous prattle.

"Come inside. I will ask the old lady make soup for you."

Wei Wuxian nodded. Thankful to his brother for not bothering his mindlessness.
.
.
.

"Jin Ling is arriving today. How long are you planning on staying? Want to meet him?" Jiang Cheng asked calmly, as he took a satisfying sip of his morning tea.

Soft and warm sunlight has started playing around the room, lightning it up with dazzle. Raw fragrance of fresh lotuses never ceased to bloom in the lotus pier quarters. Not even after thirteen years.

Wei Wuxian munched on his steamed bun and smiled brightly. "Ahh Jin Ling! It has been quite a while since I met him. Yes sure! I won't go until he arrives." He felt quite rejuvenated and connected. It felt like his real family is just around him; have always been there. Only he missed the opportunities to reconnect with them.

Or perhaps it was always meant to be like this.

However, he didn't answer the next part of his brother's question.

Jiang Cheng, "If you think I am a fool, you are highly wrong Wei Wuxian. What happened between you two? Are you fighting like those forty years old couples or what?"

Wei Wuxian's throat went dry. He quickly took a sip of his tea, but the lump in his throat didn't go down. His face went grim. Jiang Cheng's scowl returned like a boomerang.

"Hey! Wei Wuxian. Did the Lans do something with you?"

Wei Wuxian perked up quickly. "Aish no! Can I not come to meet my own brother?" But his heart felt heavy. A pang of guilt painfully rippled his chest. He felt ashamed of himself. He came to his broken brother only when he himself felt broken.

Jiang Cheng, " Apparently, no. You had no reason in these seven years. Why now?"

Jiang Cheng knows, there was no ready for Wei Wuxian to return to his home. He himself had cut every tie with him. How could a person return to a place that had harshiy rebuked and banished him, as if he is a filthy dog?

There has been not a day when guilt and pain didn't assail him. Countless sleepless nights and countless nightmares. But as he saw Wei Wuxian return so suddenly to Lotus Pier, he couldn't help but act nonchalant, as if it was meant to be like this.

It was surely meant to be like this.

"If you don't want to tell, then please keep quiet and eat." He said with his usual bashful tone. But deep down his heart, he felt content. Content enough to relish in the return of at least one of his family members who once left him, rendered him all alone.

"I can't wait to meet Jin Ling!" Wei Wuxian chirped.

Jiang Cheng, " Hmm."

It felt like a family. A home.
.
.
.

That evening, Jin Ling arrived. And the three had the most chaotic reunion. With two sour moodies, Wei Wuxian kept the lotus pier air exuberant with endless teasing and pranks.

They swam together, and picked up lotus seeds.

Wei Wuxian never felt so refreshed. So endlessly free and ebullient.

It felt like he had returned to his childhood days. Carefree. Joyous.

Jin Ling kept on chanting "I am not a child anymore! Neither are you Wei Wuxian!"

But Wei Wuxian kept on throwing empty seeds at him and Jiang Cheng. Feeling humiliated, Jin Ling too countered the attack, gradually breaking into laughing mess.

Wei Wuxian never imagined it would be this easy to connect with his home.

His home

This is how home feels like.

Warm and joyful.

A part of his heart still ached. Bled with an unspeakable melancholy.

A part of his heart is still hollow and wounded. And it was currently slathered by the joyful ventures with his brother and nephew.
.
.
.

Not a soul was surprised except Wei Wuxian when a figure in white and blue stood at the door of Lotus Pier; looking all ruffled and jaded. Exhausted and unkempt.

"Where is Wei Ying?"

Does the reunion between Yunmeng bros seem too abrupt? 🤔

Do not forget to vote and comment!