["Old friend," Wei Wuxian says, like it's nothing, as though there's no question that their address should be friendly. It's painful, almost, to hear him speak like that, because it would be too easy to simply go along with that--to pretend that they are once again boys in school, playing pranks and drinking and getting into all sorts of trouble, and to lean into that naive comfort of having a friend. Yet, with those memories come the ones that followed: watching his brother and his friends leave for war, calling for Wei Wuxian to be safe, only for him to disappear, leaving people to look for him, and returning changed. Of course he remembers how Wei Wuxian had flinched away from him then, enough to startle Nie Huaisang out of his relief, though he was quickly ushered away before he could probe further. And hadn't things just gone downhill from there? Escalation after escalation until finally Wei Wuxian had been gone for good.
Well. Not exactly for good. But "Clan Leader Nie" isn't supposed to know that.
So, no, they can't be friends, no matter how Nie Huaisang might wish it. At the end of the day, a friend is someone you can laugh and have fun with, yes, but you don't use your friends as pawns the way that Nie Huaisang still needs to use Wei Wuxian for his own ends. Even now, even here, he cannot let his guard down. One false move and it could all be for naught, after all.]
1/3
Well. Not exactly for good. But "Clan Leader Nie" isn't supposed to know that.
So, no, they can't be friends, no matter how Nie Huaisang might wish it. At the end of the day, a friend is someone you can laugh and have fun with, yes, but you don't use your friends as pawns the way that Nie Huaisang still needs to use Wei Wuxian for his own ends. Even now, even here, he cannot let his guard down. One false move and it could all be for naught, after all.]