[Blade knows exactly what he said, and he doesn't take it back. He can tell from the pain in Dan Heng's eyes that he's thinking of the unfortunate series of events that led to Blade's immortality.

But that was in the past. Blade intends to live this life like he couldn't before, and he wants Dan Heng to, also. Maybe the demon will try now and then to resurface those feelings of anguish and despair and fury, but the other Blade never denied the love, either. They were two sides of the same coin, love and hatred, and at the end of the day he simply felt resignation.

... No. Those events won't come to pass again. They won't.

He accepts Dan Heng into his arms and all but clings right back, covering him in his coat sleeves. If he's not careful he might poke himself on Dan Heng's horns but he's... weirdly used to this? Seems like his body still remembers.]

Okay, [he says simply, as he gently strokes the silky dark hair before him.] Okay.

... I know there are some things we still haven't forgiven ourselves for. Things that are too hard to talk about.

[He still has nightmares about hurting Dan Heng. About the people he killed. He doesn't see their faces all the time, but when he does, he wakes up with an awful pain in his chest and the taste of copper in his mouth.]

But still... we were different people then. You finally have a life free of the politics that ruled your past on the Xianzhou. And I... I have a chance to be free of this madness.

This cycle of misery ends with me. You were the one who convinced me that I could, so I will definitely prove it to you someday. I will.

[He presses a kiss into Dan Heng's hair, and falls silent again.]