"...he should not have involved you," Runyu voices softly, responding to Xichen's despair with a quiet grief of his own. "There are... rumors, in my family, that my father committed some similar atrocity to his eldest brother for inheritance and power."

Such a thing is blasphemy to say, but Lan Xichen tugs at his heartstrings, and Runyu feels sheltered by his assumed name as well as the fact of being in the presence of a mortal. Cultivator or not, unless Lan Xichen proves to be one of the rare few he too will be here and gone before Runyu can fully grasp this time between them.

"Family should always come first. When we forget, when we are clouded to it by greed or injustice or grief... tragedy arises."

Sighing out his breath, Runyu curls against Xichen a little closer, drawing an arm around his shoulders as an older brother might.

"I hope your family finds its way. I hope your burdens lessen, grow easier to bear."