Work Text:
"Did I lose?"
Xiao Se looked towards Xiao Jingxia's body as he said it. Despite knowing that this meant that his younger brother had tried to kill their older brother, he felt a pang of regret nonetheless. He hadn't known this brother well, not like Er-ge, but that didn't mean that he'd wanted him dead. He'd hoped that the trap he'd left wouldn't be necessary in the end.
And so he let his eyes linger on the body a moment too long. He didn't watch to see the impact his words had on Prince Chi. After all, they both knew that this bet between the two of them has been decisively won, and there is little more that could be gained for either of them by pretending otherwise.
Xiao Yu was many things, but despite his temper he was still generally pragmatic. He’d pulled Wuxin back earlier in the fight rather than risk him falling into Xiao Se’s hands. Xiao Se had thought he could afford to look away from the brother that wanted him dead.
He was wrong.
As Prince Chi lashed out in a fit of rage, Xiao Se didn’t react quickly enough to block his attack. His vision began to blur as he fell to his knees, holding onto his staff to keep from falling over. Before the darkness took over his vision, he saw Lei Wujie step between him and Prince Chi as Sikong Qianluo rushed to support him.
Then he didn’t see anything.
---
When he came back to himself, Xiao Se tried to open his eyes and immediately shut them again, trying to chase away the pounding headache the bright light had intensified.
Someone was at his bedside, he could tell. It was probably Qianluo, although he wouldn’t be surprised if it was Ruoyi. Lei Wujie was too restless to wait at a bedside for someone to wake up, and Ji Xue was too busy to do it. And Tang Lian– Tang Lian–
“Lao Liu,” the person at his bedside said, and all of Xiao Se’s predictions were proven wrong. Not Qianluo or Ruoyi but a man. And more specifically, his older brother, Xiao Chong, Prince Bai. He hadn’t expected Xiao Chong to be waiting by his bedside. After all, his brother had just undergone major surgery and needed to recover himself. But even if he hadn’t, their relationship wasn’t one where either of them would expect the other to nurse them back to health. Protecting their life, possibly, but not something as mundane as sitting vigil while they sleep.
Xiao Se opened one eye and squinted at Xiao Chong. His brother looked well for someone who’d been operated on and then almost assassinated. His eyes… for the first time since they’d been children, Xiao Chong was looking directly at Xiao Se rather than in his general direction.
“How long has it been?” he asked. “Or is the Divine Healer going to scold you for leaving your sickbed?”
“It’s been a few days. I came as soon as I was allowed to remove the blindfold,” his brother told him with a smile. “General Ye’s daughter pleaded your case to the State Preceptor and the Scholarly Sword Deity to provide care for yourself and the Divine Healer. The Divine Healer is nearly recovered now, and her apprentice is seeing to Imperial Father’s health. I am sure everyone will be happy to hear that you’ve awoken. I understand they kept you asleep for a short while for the sake of your recovery, but now they’ve been waiting for you to wake up on your own.”
“How much do you know about what happened?” Xiao Se asked, closing his eyes again. Too long. He had too many things to do to waste time lying in a sick bed. He had to help Wuxin before Prince Chi did anything irreversible to him.
“I know that Lang Ying was the one to give me his eyes. I know that both of us were nearly murdered by our own blood.” Xiao Chong sighed. “I know that Lao Jiu is dead. I’ve had it put out that he accidentally activated the weapon and suffered the consequences. I find little reason to tarnish his reputation in death. But I… I find it harder to forgive Lao Qi for the harm he has caused you. Is the throne really worth all of this?”
Xiao Se hummed. “It would be worth it to keep it out of the hands of Prince Chi.”
“He’s our brother,” Xiao Chong protested, but there was little conviction to it. There was a reason he wanted the throne for himself, and it wasn’t because he was power hungry.
“He would drive the country to ruin.”
There was a pause in the conversation. Both of them knew that was true. The matter hanging over both of them was not Prince Chi’s suitability to take the throne, but their own.
Xiao Chong took a deep breath and released it slowly. “You are my brother.” I don’t want to lose you to this fight, he doesn’t say. He won’t give up his own claim to the throne so quickly, Xiao Se knows. He even respects XIao Chong’s conviction. With his right hand man’s sacrifice, Xiao Chong will feel more determined than ever to fight to prove himself worthy of the great gift he’s been given. Xiao Se isn’t ready to give up his own fight either, but a kingdom with Prince Bai as the emperor isn’t a nightmare to contemplate.
“You are my brother, too,” he said instead of all of that.
“You were hurt defending me,” Xiao Chong continued. “After all the trouble you went to in order to secure my treatment. I owe you a debt that I can never repay.”
Xiao Se sighed and opened his eyes again, both of them now. His headache had started to abate, and the light was not so painful any longer.
“You are my brother,” he repeated. “There is no debt. And even if there was, surely it only makes up for the one I owed you for your injury in the first place.”
“You were a child,” Xiao Chong said firmly. “You shared your dessert with your older brother. That I was poisoned as a result was not your desire, and you owe me nothing for it. I would never truly blame you for it.”
“You are more forgiving than me,” Xiao Se said with a huff of laughter. “We can agree, then, that neither of us owe a debt? We may be fighting for the same thing, but we are family first, I hope.” That was far from a given with royalty, and both of them knew it.
Xiao Chong smiled, and his eyes sparkled with happiness. Xiao Se would have to get used to them being so expressive, but it was a good thing to get used to.
“Your friends are quite protective of you, you know,” Xiao Chong said. “They only let me in here when they were satisfied that I was as worried as they were, and they only let me sit here so that they could force Sikong-guniang to rest somewhere that wasn’t this chair.”
Xiao Se smiled back at him. “We have both been blessed to have people to rely on,” he agreed.
They talked of lighter topics until Xiao Se tired again and Xiao Chong excused himself to let the others know. It was the most genuine conversation they’d had since they were children, and it made Xiao Se hope that however this ended, whether he called himself Xiao Se or Xiao Chuhe, and whoever ascended to the throne, the two of them at least would still be able to call themselves brothers.