❰ it pains her to see her brother's face crumple and in so many ways. it was never her intention to upset him in any way, and yet she has...is it fair? unfair? it's hard to say — she's become somewhat more aware of her tendency to put the emotions of others above her own, but is this such a case?

a gentle hand — currently, her only hand — moves to instead touch his face, grazing jiang cheng's cheek with eyes soft. the egg, in the corner of her eye, twitches peculiarly at these conflicting waves of complex emotion. ❱ Even when I am to go to my final grave, I would never know my brothers to have failed. ❰ it's true. she has never once thought of them as anything but capable, true specimens of the strength and power of the clan that bore them. and now they've individually proven that they still hold those qualities in spades outside of their clanship.

but this is not a subject she thought they would dive into today, the ways in which jiang cheng believes he has let her down. they are unwarranted, and part of her wants to reassure him as such until she can no longer speak...but to broach the subject would mean others would follow suit after, and that. that she just isn't strong enough for right now. ❱ Let's not dwell on things that aren't part of our present. Your sister could use the help of someone capable. It's become hard to heat a kettle, now.

❰ perhaps some sort of task of usefulness will distract him, move his mind into a place that wants to succeed in the now instead of dwell on past falls. ❱