Thread by @lanergeges

cw // hanahaki disease

but just the thought of wwx getting hanahaki after he returns from the burial mounds bc he thinks lwj hates him & everyone assumes it's a side-effect of his demonic cultivation.

wwx himself isn't a 100% sure of the reason so he assumes that it *is* bc of the demonic cultivation. it's not like he has unrequited feelings for anyone... but in his mind even his friendship for lwj is unrequited so he does get the disease.

he tries to make light of it and is successful for the most part bc the sects are busy with the sunshot campaign first and then painting him the villain later. wq suspects something is amiss with the whole situation but doesn't have the supplies or the money to help wwx.

so he sorta somehow manages to live with it for years. it gets somewhat better after lwj visits him the one time bc he realizes that lwj doesn't abhor him as much as he thought, but it never goes away. he still suffers when the siege is led & even when he comes back to life.

because for the most part, he isn't sure if lwj is only tolerating him to find the culprit behind the quest they're on, or if he's out here because of his sense of justice or whatever. he doesn't believe that lwj would spend time with him if given a choice.

so the coughing up of petals continues, but he manages to hide it in his new life from everyone. it's only on the steps of the koi tower after his true identity is out and jgy tries to spin the narrative of him bewitching lwj when he coughs blood & petals in front of everyone.

but when lwj chooses him over the entire cultivation world, when he stands by wwx and fights with him, wwx realizes that lwj doesn't hate him, after all. and that's when he vreathes properly for the first time in years.