"Don't think like that," he says, refusing to move to a slightly more comfortable talking distance. "We can support the other Lan Wangji while his Wei Ying is gone, but I never want to imagine my life without you."

If he could still feel Lan Wangji's love, it would wrap around him like a vice, and hold on protectively, possessively. Instead, he caresses his wings around Wei Ying to make sort of a protective shell, as if he might slip away otherwise.

It was difficult with the other one being gone, and Lan Wangji feeling sad, but also feeling even more like he had something to prove, like he never wanted to even be a minute without Wei Ying. It gives him no time to grieve, or to think about anything else, so he does not.