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The ruins stand guard at the base of the ancient mountain — a relic of centuries past still formidable as it was in its prime. Most of the walls lay as dust around him, and what remains will join it in time, crumbling to bits and pieces to litter the tired ground. The ruins are quiet, spare for the occasional wind sweeping through the barren courtyard, dead leaves scraping, and there he resides within its still heart.
“Hah…”
This courtyard was his pride and joy, he remembers distantly: once so austere, he gave it life and beauty, trees and flowers growing from his soft hands, birds perching on his horns to give their thanks. Now, his only companion here is a gnarled mulberry tree a few paces away, withered and long-since dead.
Nie Huaisang drops his gaze to the fire by his feet, a small and pitiful thing made from dry leaves and twigs from wherever and whenever the wind brings them. He kneels and runs a hand through the flames unflinchingly, before picking up a few embers and bringing them near his face. The courtyard was once filled with fragrant flowers, the scent carrying to all corners of the otherwise intimidating fortress, but smoke is all that remains.
His ears twitch at the unusual sound by the edge of the compound, past the ruined walls of the courtyard, and he startles, thoroughly extinguishing his tiny fire with a flare of magic. Shaking his hands free of ash, he closes his eyes and goes still, willing his heart to follow suit.
Boots… boots dragging through barren earth, pausing every so often. Soon, footsteps on weathered stone.
Nie Huaisang’s heart beats in his throat, and aside from whatever damned thing is wandering about in this cursed place, it feels like the loudest thing he’s heard in centuries. The strange sounds fade in and out, making their way around the maze-like fortress: opening doors, moving debris, no doubt sifting through what little remains.
A person? A person… here? It’s a wonder anyone’s found this place to begin with. It’s a wonder anyone dare approach this place.
He stands and dusts off his robes, facing the approaching noise, and he’s a little surprised when the noise, it— he… steps into the courtyard. The human’s gaze combs the ruins, barely missing Nie Huaisang to his left, instead coming to land on the gnarled tree to his right. Nie Huaisang takes a moment to give an equal amount of attention to this person, sweeping his eyes up and down his form. A boy— no, a man? A traveler, perhaps, if his rucksack is anything to go by.
As the human wanders closer, his eyes finally catch on Nie Huaisang, and he mindlessly steps closer for a look, eyes more observant than his brain must be. The person is just staring now, and his insides feel hot with the attention. Nie Huaisang’s throat clicks as he swallows, trying to remember how vocal cords work, trying to remember how to breathe in a way that forms words. Eventually, he says, “Come closer!”
The human stiffens, eyes wide and heart quickening. He does not move.
Nie Huaisang can’t remember the last time he ever saw a person, and now that one is here, this is how it’s going?
“Excuse me! I believe I said to come closer! I know you heard me and I know you have working legs, so you are oh so invited TO MOVE THEM!” He was a stunning conversationalist at one point, really, but he’s surely forgotten all of that now at the sight of this trespasser.
“You’re… you’re a—”
“Ai, stop gawking at me, I believe I asked you to move your ass!”
“You— Hell no, fiend! You’ll eat my soul!”
“… Excuse me, what?”
“Don’t play stupid! That’s what you demons eat, isn’t it?”
Nie Huaisang feels a laugh building in his chest despite reason. Ages, ages spent bound here, and the humans have gone and spun fantasies of soul-sucking demons! It would be amusing if he had another to laugh about it with. It’s another thing entirely if he’s the last one left.
“Shut it, fiend! I may be tired, but I’m not stupid enough to fall for your tricks.”
As his laughter dies down, he reasons he may as well have his fun with the only and possibly last person he will see for the rest of his damned life.
“Tricks? What tricks? I want nothing but to hear you for a while, really!”
“Hear? What the Hell do you want to hear me for?”
“Ah, do you not hear yourself? Such a lovely voice, even with your abrasive attitude. I pity any person trying to gain your affections.” Cutting of the person’s sputtering, he continues, “But I meant it, I’d like to listen to anything you have to say. I’m terribly bored after all. Can’t I just hear you talk for a while?”
“...”
Wordlessly, the person takes a step back, then another, and another. He turns away, and now Nie Huaisang is the one left sputtering. “H-Hey! Seriously, you won’t even spare me a few moments of your time? You wandered all the way here, and you won’t indulge this poor—”
“Why are you so damn insistent on hearing me talk?” The human turns back around to meet Nie Huaisang’s eyes warily, a hint annoyed, and yet he shows no indication of moving any further.
Interesting.
“You can’t believe that I’m bored? Or that I like your voice? I could never lie about a voice as lovely as yours, truly! I mean it human, I’m not one for needless compliments!”
As the man’s gaze grows as dark as the embers by his feet, Nie Huaisang sweeps his gaze over the person once more, though definitely not for the last time, if he has any say in the matter. The man has a youthful face, albeit marred by his stern expression, and he is rather lean muscled — the smell of lotus, the dirt of a day’s travel, and something uniquely him fills Nie Huaisang’s senses like a breath of fresh air.
“… I must be going insane,” the human mutters to himself, “Fine. I shouldn’t stay long, but— just stay the fuck over there, will you?”
Nie Huaisang laughs again, though it is not of joy, and the man flinches. “What’s keeping me from you is much more powerful than I care to challenge, human.”
The man’s eyebrow twitches and he scowls. “Whatever.” With a heavy sigh, the human takes a single step closer, still much farther away than Nie Huaisang would like, and his eyes fixate on Nie Huaisang’s ears, flicking in response to the sound.
“You really think I’ll do something to you? Scared to come closer?”
“There’s no such thing as too careful, is there?” The man fidgets again, shifting his weight in a way Nie Huaisang tracks greedily, eager to see any sort of motion, any sort of life in this stagnant and barren prison. “So, I guess I have something for you, something I read from a book when I was little.”
“Pff— Sorry, sorry, imagining you littler with that same scowl is, pffhahahaha—!” The human’s scowl impossibly deepens, face growing purple. Ah, If only Nie Huaisang could keep riling him up, if only to see him turn amusing colors, but he almost fears the man would combust after a point.
“Shut up!” The human eventually returns to a normal color and remembers what respiration is. “… Anyways. There was once a man who went to the market. He was always super friendly to everyone, and the shopkeepers all knew him by name. But one day, the innkeeper had noticed he came with a… friend, who had peculiar light eyes and wore a hood.”
“And why are light colored eyes so peculiar?” Nie Huaisang asks plainly.
The human pins him with a look. “… Let me get there.”
It does not pass Nie Huaisang’s attention how the person stares into his own eyes, a light brownish amber, last he checked a mirror.
“So the man went to the market every week after with that new companion in tow. One day, he doesn’t show up, but the light eyed person does. He goes to every shopkeeper, asking where the man had gone, as if he didn’t know. Well, the day before, the man’s family found his room covered in blood, reeking of dark magic. They said he had his soul stolen by none other than the light eyed fiend, and he used the man’s corpse in some sick ritual. Today, if you ever see eyes that shine almost unnaturally, you should run before your soul is snatched from your body.”
“… So, human, why haven’t you run yet?” Nie Huaisang smirks. “Why bother indulging my requests?”
“Perhaps you’ve already caught me.”
“Hm. I doubt I’m that powerful, perhaps you just like me too much!”
The man stands there silently, fidgeting again. “… Whatever… I’m leaving then.” He doesn’t move.
Nie Huaisang contemplates his situation for a few moments, wondering just exactly how he has come to be so incredibly, simultaneously blessed and cursed with the sudden appearance of another living being. “… Alright. Good luck on your travels then, person. I’m sure you have better things to attend to.”
The man doesn’t seem to believe him, fair enough, but he’s more than happy to be out of this cursed place, no doubt. He steps back, letting out a gentle sigh of relief when he realizes that no, Nie Huaisang did not charm him with dark magic. He steps back once more, each step slower than the last, as if he’s still worried Nie Huaisang will stop him.
Another step, and he’ll be past the courtyard. Another step, and he’ll be in the halls. Another step, and he’ll be outside of the compound. Another step, and to Nie Huaisang’s mounting horror, he realizes he’ll never know when or if he’ll see another living being ever again.
“WAIT! Stay— Please stay! I, I changed my mind, I… Wait! Please just—” Nie Huaisang’s words fall from him like a torrent, and without thinking, he reaches out with singular wanting, a singular desire. Stay…! Please stay! “PLEASE—!”
Nie Huaisang’s fingertips graze past the damned circle’s edge, set alight in a flash that illuminates the dim courtyard. His howl resounds through the whole compound, the whole mountain, rattling the walls still left standing as fire quickly engulfs his fingers — the human clutches his ears in pain, standing just within the exit hall.
Nie Huaisang drops to his knees, screaming his throat raw as he attempts to smother the cursed flames to no avail. The person’s footsteps have ceased, and through his sobbing and the crackling of scorched flesh, Nie Huaisang hears his boots through the dirt, hesitantly approaching him once again.
“… You’re stuck,” he says, a statement rather than a question. As if it isn’t the greatest fucking understatement of the millennium.
Nie Huaisang’s jaw clenches, teeth grinding to dust as he blinks through his tears. He screws his eyes shut, folding in on himself as if it could ease the burning, as if he hasn’t lived with the phantom sensation for so long it feels intrinsic to his being. After all this time, after he’s already given up hoping, a human stands before Nie Huaisang. The first sign of life he’s seen since he’s been bound here, and it stands — living and breathing — just outside this damned prison. Looking into the human’s eyes fills him with nothing but rage and sorrow, so he grits his teeth once more, and occupies himself with his sizzling flesh instead.
Taking his silence as invitation, the human speaks again. “How… How long have you been—”
“LONG ENOUGH! Long enough… alright!? It shouldn’t even matter to you. You were so ready to walk out as if you’ve never seen me! So… So why don’t you go do that then!? If you’re so damn scared of demons eating your damn soul or whatever!”
“Make up your damn mind! I should stay, I should leave— What the Hell do you want from me?”
“…”
“… Fine. Fine! I get it, just— What’s—” The man cuts himself off, rubbing a hand over his face and not meeting Nie Huaisang’s gaze. Finally, he manages, “What’s your name?”
Nie Huaisang’s laugh bubbles out of him unwarranted. “… Pardon?”
“I don’t want to keep calling you ‘fiend’ or ‘demon’. I know you all have names.”
“You want to know my name.”
“Is that such an insane ask for a stranger? What, do you not have one?”
Nie Huaisang huffs. “After all that blabbering about me being a fiendish demon, you want to know my name?” He ignores the human for a moment longer, pretending to be more interested in the way his skin knits itself back together, but really, he’s long since grown bored of it, and it’s never been worth the agony. He winces when a joint clicks back in place rather loudly: the human winces right along with him. Eventually, he speaks again. “… Nie Huaisang.” He enunciates slowly, a playful smile on his face. “May I have your name?”
The man stares at him, contemplating something, before his eyebrow does that thing again, joining in his impossibly deep scowl that Nie Huaisang is starting to find endearing.
“I’m not falling for that. Ask me properly if you’re ready to be serious with me.”
“Hey, I just burned my damn hand up with Hellfire and you’re the first living thing I’ve seen in ages, let me have my fun.”
“Ask me properly this time,” the man stresses.
“Fine, human… What. Is your name?”
“Jiang Cheng.” The person — Jiang Cheng, his mind amends — squints down at Nie Huaisang. “How’s your hand?”
“Ah, it’s seen better days, I suppose,” he says lightly. Nie Huaisang holds his still-heated fingers up. “But see? All good now. I heal rather quick.” He blows cool air through his digits, and Jiang Cheng’s gaze grows more intense than it already was.
Hm.
“So, Jiang Cheng,” Nie Huaisang savors the feeling of his name, the shape of it on his tongue, “won’t you stay for a while?”
The human… Jiang Cheng meets Nie Huaisang’s gaze again hesitantly, taking his time to respond. “… I don’t see why not.”
Nie Huaisang gives him a small but genuine smile. “Thank you. Sincerely, I mean it.”
“It’s nothing.” Jiang Cheng shifts his weight again, idly adjusting the strap of his bag. “Well… I doubt you’ll be much help, but I’m a bit lost right now.”
“Lost, you say?” Nie Huaisang feels he must’ve lost it, giggles escaping without his wanting, to Jiang Cheng’s confusion. “Ah, it’s nothing, it’s nothing, just ironic to me.”
“How so?”
“Well, you’re lost, and I can never be lost, because I will always be right where I am right now: stuck!”
“… Right. Do you know your way around here? Surrounding towns, the nearest main road, things like that?”
“Oh Jiang Cheng, I know this place so intimately, feel free to ask me anything~!”
Jiang Cheng jerks his head away, neck and ears flushing at his tone. “Can’t you ever be serious?”
“Again. Fiend trapped in a shithole. Let me have my fun, damn it.”
Huffing, Jiang Cheng clearly decides to move past it. “What is this place anyways? And would you know how to get to Yunmeng from here?”
“Hmm, I don’t know of any Yunmeng, but I can tell you what I know of this place. Perhaps I can spare a quick tale, since I have all the time in the world.” Jiang Cheng doesn’t find this as funny as he does. He sighs.
Jiang Cheng remains a bit tense, but he squints and clenches his fists by his sides as if to stave off exhaustion. Maybe at the end of his tale, he can ask Jiang Cheng how far he’s traveled, how far away Yunmeng might be.
“Here.” Nie Huaisang readjusts on the ground, sitting cross-legged, and gestures for Jiang Cheng to sit as well. Reluctantly, he takes a few steps forward, standing a close yet safe distance from the barrier, and sits.
Nie Huaisang clears his throat. “The name of the town outside of here is Qinghe. Or, whatever remains of it was once known as that. I imagine it must’ve been wiped off the maps ages before your birth. But as for the name of this place, it’s—”
Jiang Cheng’s eyes widen and he stiffens, the air growing awkward. Nie Huaisang sighs yet again.
“… Your stomach couldn’t have picked a better time?”
Jiang Cheng scoffs. “As if I could control that. You fiends don’t even need to eat food, all you eat is souls.”
“Hm.” Nie Huaisang leans back on his hands, looking up at the dreary late-morning sky. “… Actually, I do need to eat food. Or, at least I did, before I was cursed and bound here. It’s been so long since I’ve felt hunger… I almost miss it, I think. Not that I can remember the tastes of anything anymore. Tell me: where exactly did you hear that we don’t need to eat food? I know humans are short-lived, so they’re bound to get many things wrong, but demons aren’t even real!”
“Then… What are you?”
“A fae, of course!”
Jiang Cheng looks at him blankly, not a hint of understanding behind his eyes.
“Ah… So then they succeeded, there really is no record of us in your history.” It’s not a question, and he isn’t about to elaborate, and Jiang Cheng thankfully realizes as such quickly, shutting his mouth before he can ask.
The two of them lapse into silence for a while, before Nie Huaisang thrusts his hands out, just before the barrier. “Here. I’ll roast your lotus seeds. I think I remember them tasting nice as is, but I’m sure you like them roasted as well—? Don’t look at me like that, I can smell them in your bag.”
“Why?”
Nie Huaisang pins Jiang Cheng with a look. “So I can steal them and eat them,” he deadpans. “Remind me again which of the two of us can live without food?”
Jiang Cheng looks a bit disgruntled, but otherwise opens up his pack to pull the lotus seeds out. “What do you want for this, exactly?” He stares at Nie Huaisang warily, bag open on his lap.
“I’ll keep telling you my story, if you don’t mind keeping me company until noon.”
“… That’s it?”
“Yep.”
“You swear you’re not pulling my leg?”
“Now human, I’m starting to doubt you’re actually that hungry if you’re going to keep drawing this out.”
Jiang Cheng huffs as he finishes digging out the bundle of lotus seeds. “… Fine. Deal.”
His words reverberate through the courtyard — an ancient magic that rings in his ears, disturbing the centuries-old dust.
Nie Huaisang gives him a sly smile and tilts his head playfully. “Oh? A ‘deal’? Did I hear that right?”
Realizing the weight of his words, the magic he had just invoked, Jiang Cheng stiffens. “You… I just—”
“Correct, you’ve made a pact with me.”
Jiang Cheng’s face darkens, his fists clenched white, joints creaking with the force. After a few tense moments, Jiang Cheng deflates, and he sighs. Wordlessly, he shifts onto his knees, shuffling even closer to the barrier, and moves to place the bundle into Nie Huaisang’s hands.
Jiang Cheng’s hands look so nice — strong, calloused, littered with scars of various sizes — a worker’s hands. They look like they’d be warm despite the mid-autumn chill. Nie Huaisang holds his gaze as their hands come closer and closer still.
How nice it would be, Nie Huaisang thinks, to brush their hands together as Jiang Cheng hands him the lotus seeds. How nice it would be, he thinks, if he got to hold on for just a moment longer — see if his hands are soft despite their roughened appearance.
How easy it would be… Nie Huaisang thinks… to grab his wrist and quickly… quickly just— it would be so easy—
His outstretched hands twitch as Jiang Cheng approaches the barrier. As quickly as it came, he exhales, and dismisses the thought.
Jiang Cheng drops the bundle into Nie Huaisang’s hands, and his fingers curl around it gently. For a moment, he lets himself imagine warm skin instead of worn cotton.
“… One moment.”
Nie Huaisang pours some of the lotus seeds into the palm of his hand and places the bundle on his lap. He can tell that Jiang Cheng is still wary, still full of questions, but that can all wait until later, though he’d honestly prefer if it was never. He takes a deep breath, pouring in his energy, and a fire blooms forth from his fingers, forming a hearth for the lotus seeds. He shuffles them around to roast evenly, and Jiang Cheng watches his magic with guarded curiosity. He wonders if this is the human’s first time seeing fae magic, or his first time seeing any magic at all.
“… This fortress was known as The Unclean Realm. It… It was my home, for a time. Aside from being stuck here, it’s where I was born. Where I grew up.” Nie Huaisang spares a glance towards where the main hall would have stood, the worn establishment plaque long since fallen to the ground, splintered and weathered away. After a long silence, he looks to the human.
“What about you, Jiang Cheng? The place you were born?”
Jiang Cheng gracefully takes the deflection, to Nie Huaisang’s relief.
“Ah. Yunmeng is a fishing town on the river… somewhere south of here. I got turned around on my way home from Lanling because of the storm, so I headed into the mountains thinking I could find some cave to shelter in. I didn’t think I’d find a whole ghost town here, though.” Nie Huaisang sets aside the first batch of roasted seeds, pulling out more from the pouch as Jiang Cheng talks. “I’m not sure exactly how long it’s been around for, but I just know it’s very old, and my family has been there since the start. So, for you to not have heard of it… How old are you?”
Nie Huaisang almost drops the lotus seeds in his hands at the question, flames flaring dangerously. He quickly turns them and sets them aside. “… Well! First I’d want to ask you what year it is now, but I’m sure it’s been so long that you humans have changed the calendar system for the nth time. Plus,” he scoffs in mock-offense, “like I’d tell a handsome man my age!”
“Again. Are you capable of being serious about anything in your life?”
“Nope! Absolutely not,” Nie Huaisang smiles.
Jiang Cheng opens his mouth as if to ask him something else, but seems to decide against it. “I know you said you’d tell me a tale, but… You don’t have to talk about this place. Not if you don’t want to.”
“Ah, I appreciate that, human. Then, I suppose I’ll tell you a little something.” Nie Huaisang not-so-stealthily sets some lotus seeds aside for himself, pouring the rest into the cloth pouch, and he clears his throat once more, sore from the most talking he’s had in lifetimes.
“You know how the stars sometimes fall like rain in the sky?”
“You mean a meteor shower?”
“Hush! I’m trying to be poetic, but yes, Jiang Cheng, a meteor shower.”
“I know of them, but I haven’t seen one yet.”
“Well,” Nie Huaisang settles back on his hands, looking up at the gray overcast as if he could see past it, “I used to stargaze a lot as a child, and I’d see them then. Thousands upon thousands of lights bleeding across the open sky above… My brother used to take me to the top of the mountain to watch them. We’d sit in the grass, side by side, watching the stars make their slow journey through the deep black…”
Jiang Cheng nods slowly.
“And as we watched them… Flash!”
Nie Huaisang reignites the small fire at his side and the flames crackle wildly, nearly reaching his shoulders despite the size of its pathetic timber. Jiang Cheng jumps, and the light catches brilliantly in the brown of his eyes, flickering gold and honey. He continues to stoke the flames with every “Flash”, before the small fire fizzles out, nothing left to fuel it.
“And then they die… By the time the falling stars blinked out, I would sometimes be long asleep, waking up to the sun on my face through my bedroom window. But… the last time I had seen the stars fall, I had woken up chilled and covered in the morning dew, still on the mountaintop.” He looks down at the cloth bundle — an excuse to quickly blink away the sudden wetness in his eyes.
“Your brother… Did he—?”
“He passed, yes.”
“Huaisang… I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Ah, it’s been so long, and I’ve known so many losses in this long life, there’s no need for your condolences.”
“Well… that doesn’t make it hurt any less. Doesn’t matter how long you’ve lived.”
“… No. No, it doesn’t, does it? … If I may ask, have you lost someone, human?”
“I uh… I lost my parents too, a few years ago. I understand how it feels, if it’s any consolation.”
“I’m so sorry, Jiang Cheng.”
They lapse into mutual silence again, the air having suddenly grown very heavy.
“... Your lotus seeds are done roasting now.” Nie Huaisang picks up the lotus seeds he set aside for himself, examining them for a long moment, before quickly popping one into his mouth.
“Hey—!”
“Mmmmm!” Nie Huaisang's mouth works, the taste nearly painful after lifetimes of only tasting ash. “Ai, don’t give me that look! I’ll toss you the rest and won’t eat them, even if they are the best thing I’ve had in ages, if you agree to stay here until sunset.”
Jiang Cheng looks up then, squinting at the sun through the thick clouds, sitting high in the sky. “… It’s already noon.”
“Indeed, how observant of you!”
Jiang Cheng looks at his cloth bundle, still on the floor by his side. “… Nie Huaisang. You said you’d roast the lotus seeds for me.”
“Yes, I said I’d roast them, not hand them over,” he says playfully, and his playful smile grows genuine upon realizing Jiang Cheng said his full name for the first time. He, unlike Nie Huaisang, is frowning, but it doesn’t seem genuine.
“You’re unbelievable. Fine, we have a deal.”
The courtyard echoes with the words once more, the leaves shifting in the wind’s absence, and this time the human remains unfazed. Nie Huaisang’s smile widens, and he promptly tosses the bundle past the barrier into Jiang Cheng’s lap.
Shifting his attention back to his own portion of lotus seeds, Nie Huaisang eats another, and another, pointedly ignoring Jiang Cheng’s intense staring. He takes his sweet time — he has plenty of it, after all — piercing a seed with his fang to split it in half, savoring what he’s pointedly ignoring may be his last meal for the rest of his life. Eventually, he hears Jiang Cheng open his pouch and join Nie Huaisang in eating.
… Curse this human for making him remember things. When was the last time he shared a meal with someone? Will this really be the last time?
Nie Huaisang chances a look at the human, only to see him slowly nodding off, even as he feeds himself. “… I remember when I used to feel tired. Tell me, does it feel the same for you?”
Jiang Cheng’s head whips up, and he blinks a few times to process the question. “W… What?”
“You’re … sleepy, correct?” Jiang Cheng is giving a valiant effort towards keeping his eyes open, Nie Huaisang will give him that.
“Oh. Yeah, I guess.”
“‘You guess’? Your head could very well fall off your shoulders if it weren’t for your neck, and ‘You guess’?”
“Fuck off, Huaisang. Yes, I’m tired. Why? Does it— Did it feel any different for you?”
“No. Fae feel exhaustion the same way you humans do… I… I simply don’t remember what it feels like anymore. Hah… I used to fall asleep during my brother’s clan meetings. I’d fall asleep to get out of training, fall asleep over my desk writing poetry. If I wasn’t indulging in the arts, I used sleep to avoid my responsibilities. As the second son, I didn’t need to do much of anything, after all. My brother was always there for everything. Always there for me. But that was… That was before—”
Nie Huaisang’s ears twitch to the shift of fabric, the settling of a body against packed earth. He looks over at Jiang Cheng’s sleeping form, brows no longer pinched, shoulders no longer as tense as his brother’s once were… He’s not very keen on wondering what has made Jiang Cheng so stressed that he’s comparing this human to his brother.
Jiang Cheng’s face relaxes so much in his sleep that Nie Huaisang thinks he must look a decade younger, maybe even two. Seeing him now, he no longer faults himself for mistaking the man as merely a boy before. Though, it couldn’t have been that long since he was one, judging from his youthful appearance. This must be the most relaxed Jiang Cheng gets to be in his life: the gentle and quiet peace of sleep. When was the last time Jiang Cheng had good quality sleep?
A sudden sharp envy cuts into him — twisting — and it bleeds.
“He looks so peaceful…”
… When was the last time he had been able to sleep at all? Allowed to sleep? To close his eyes and dream? Was waking up in that muddy grass cold and alone the last bit of “peace” he had been allowed?
Nie Huaisang grits his teeth, feels the pit grow in his stomach — looking at Jiang Cheng’s smoothened face does nothing but make his veins run cold as he bleeds out.
He throws a left-over lotus seed at Jiang Cheng’s head with a rage-sharpened accuracy, no longer caring about wasting his last meal, and it bounces and rolls a short distance away. Jiang Cheng doesn’t even shift.
Nie Huaisang’s breathing picks up, a rage so familiar, yet he’d only ever known it in his brother until that day. He picks up the remaining seeds in his hands — three pitiful things. He almost considers burning them completely to ash. A taste he’s most familiar with, anyway.
He pelts Jiang Cheng’s body with the lotus seeds one by one, and one by one he watches them bounce back across the barrier, into the dust and ash. He picks them up again, hitting the sleeping human over and over until they’ve all rolled far beyond his reach. Still, the human does not wake.
… He could’ve pulled him in. Would the warmth of another’s skin, so different from the scorching heat of the curse’s touch, feel just as painful despite how much he craves it? He should’ve pulled him in. It would have been so easy. Or… Is that how this curse works again? Did he need the human’s permission first? … Has he really forgotten the conditions? Has it been that long? Has he forgotten why he doesn’t allow himself hope? Not anymore?
Nie Huaisang covers his head with his arms, nails digging into the back of his scalp, tugging at his horns, pulling at his hair so roughly it pricks tears in his eyes.
WHY DIDN’T HE TAKE HIM? WHY DIDN’T HE PULL HIM IN? IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO EASY. TAKE HIS WRIST. TAKE HIM. TAKE—
Copper bursts in Nie Huaisang’s mouth, and he forces himself to breathe. The image of Jiang Cheng’s mouth on his only fades long after his tongue has stitched itself back together.
… Has he really been here for so long that he’s forgotten? Forgotten what falling feels like? Jiang Cheng says he’s been away from home for a few days, but what are days again? Days, months, years, centuries… Has it really been centuries? How many centuries? … Has it been a millenia? He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know anymore. He doesn’t want to know. He wishes he didn’t know the passage of time so intimately he could never forget — he cannot even pretend to ignore it anymore.
Another wind sweeps through the courtyard, dead leaves scraping, swirling in small patterns around them.
“… I wish you hadn’t come here.” Nie Huaisang stares at Jiang Cheng as his vision begins to blur. “… Wake up… Wake up…!” With no more seeds left to throw, Nie Huaisang starts clawing at the packed dirt for whatever he can grasp, scattering it all over the sleeping human. Jiang Cheng still doesn’t stir. “Wake… the Hell… UP!” Nie Huaisang takes another handful, angrily tossing it onto Jiang Cheng, who still does not wake. He seethes.
“… You get to rest, but I do not get the fucking luxury! I no longer sleep! Not anymore… Not since…” Nie Huaisang’s arms fall to his sides, tears trailing down his cheeks heavily, mixing with the blood from his lips, down his chin. “… Not since I last saw the stars fall.”
Tears have always come easily to Nie Huaisang, despite his clan’s fierce reputation. After so many centuries bound here, this is one of many things that have not changed about this place, about him.
Nie Huaisang wipes roughly at his face, smooths his hair, and embraces numbness once more. “… I wish you’d just leave. If you can’t stay, then I wish you had never come… I’ve been hurt enough — I’ve hurt enough — and I don’t need anymore of it… I don’t need you.”
Jiang Cheng continues to sleep, just out of arm’s reach, and Nie Huaisang curls up on the floor to mirror him, shutting his eyes. He pretends for a moment that this — this pitiful imitation of closeness — is something he can have. He pretends the hollowness of his sorrow is something akin to peace.
+++
Jiang Cheng wakes up disoriented: his mouth is dry, there’s a growing chill, and, when he turns over onto his side, he notes that he is definitely not in a bed at an inn. He rubs the sleep from his eyes and sees the horned fiend — no, Nie Huaisang — turned away from him, unmoving.
“… Huaisang? Are you asleep—?”
“I don’t sleep,” Nie Huaisang replies tersely.
“Right… Sorry.”
Jiang Cheng sits up and startles when he feels something roll out of his hair. When he picks up the offending object, he’s confused to find a roasted lotus seed.
Did… did he just fucking throw these at him while he slept?
Jiang Cheng looks down at the ground, perfectly roasted lotus seeds strewn about, albeit very dusty. It’s then that he notes the mess all over himself and his belongings, and the claw marks in the dirt surrounding Nie Huaisang. He opens his mouth to say something, scowling, when Nie Huaisang rolls onto his back and locks eyes with him.
The fiend… The fae’s eyes are watery, ears drooped, and a smear of blood has dried in the corner of his lips. Seeing Nie Huaisang’s vulnerable face makes him falter from saying something that’s probably stupid.
“... You’re being an ass right now.”
… That was even more stupid than what he was originally going to say.
Nie Huaisang shuts his eyes, another tear slipping down his face as he sets his head back down in the cradle of his arms, and ignores Jiang Cheng as if he really could sleep. The silence is deafening, but he knows Nie Huaisang can hear his heart slamming in his throat from the way the fae’s ears nearly flick in time.
“Leave.”
Jiang Cheng looks at the sky. It’s darker than it was before, but it’s not yet sunset.
“… I’m not breaking my end of the pact.”
“Does it look like I care? Leave, human. Be damned and rot for all I care.”
Jiang Cheng gets to his feet, taking another step towards the circle. “Huaisang—”
“Don’t. I’ve already fulfilled my end. I’ve already given you your damn seeds. If you won’t leave until sundown, then at least do me the bare minimum of shutting the fuck up.”
“What the Hell is your problem!? Calm the fuck down!”
Nie Huaisang scoffs. “Remind me again of the one currently yelling about it?”
Jiang Cheng fumes, frustration rising hotly in his throat, but he forces it down, swiping a hand over his face. “Look— I don’t get why you were throwing shit at me— on me, whatever— and I’m pretty pissed off, but I’m trying to— can’t you… Can’t you fucking see that I’m trying here? I’m worried about you!”
“I did not ask you to, and I’m telling you to stop.”
“You’re so full of shit, Nie Huaisang! You’re lonely, and you’re not being honest with me! Fuck, I get it! I can’t be honest about things either! But I stayed because I gave a shit!”
“… Do you know what I want, Jiang Cheng?” The fae says his name with venom.
Nie Huaisang stands and looks Jiang Cheng in the eye, shorter than him, yet no less intimidating — a challenge neither of them seem to really want, yet Jiang Cheng holds firm, even taking another step towards the barrier.
“I want you. To leave.” Nie Huaisang approaches the edge of the circle, their faces closer than they’ve ever been before. Despite it all, Jiang Cheng notes the flecks of green in the fae’s dark amber eyes, the light freckles dotting his cheeks.
“I hate you. I hate all you humans. Do you know what I would do if I got out of this damned circle?”
Jiang Cheng is shaking, but he continues to hold Nie Huaisang’s gaze. The fae leans in, and he can feel his breath on his face. Warm. Close. Chilling.
“I’d kill all of you pathetic humans. Every last one. Hah, perhaps I’d break your legs and make you watch.” He smiles cruelly then, yet fresh tears shine on his face as he says it. “After I’m done, I wouldn’t stop at breaking your legs, human. Why, I’d tear you limb from limb and pry your rib cage apart with my bare hands just to enjoy the warmth of your blood.”
“Huaisang. You don’t mean any of that—”
“I do, though, human. I’d take so much joy in watching you come apart under my hands. I want to watch your heart slow to a stop in my grasp and make you watch that, too.”
“Nie Huaisang, stop—!”
“And what can you do about it, human? What the Hell can you do!?” Nie Huaisang thrusts his arm out towards the side of Jiang Cheng’s face — past the barrier, Jiang Cheng notes with alarm — and it instantly sets aflame, crackling with cursed heat.
Jiang Cheng jumps back in shock and screws his eyes shut, but not before seeing Nie Huaisang’s skin burning— no, boiling off in gruesome layers, blood evaporating, charred black falling away to expose the white of his bones.
“WATCH, human. Watch me, Jiang Cheng.”
Jiang Cheng forces his gaze back to Nie Huaisang’s hand, then back to his face as tears stream down it once more. He feels his own face dampening to match.
“I am TRAPPED here. I cannot leave this fucking place. Don’t you get it? Nothing I say fucking means anything, but I am tired of you standing here and making me hope again… so GET OUT. LEAVE. Just… Please just—” Nie Huaisang finally withdraws his arm into the circle and drops to the floor, cradling the smoldering stump of his wrist. If Nie Huaisang was in that much agony before over his fingertips barely touching the circle’s edge—
Had Jiang Cheng eaten a little more earlier, he feels like he would empty it all right back out. It’s all he can do to keep from gagging.
“Do you understand now? Please… Just leave me be.” Nie Huaisang holds out his charred and twisted knob of a wrist for Jiang Cheng to see clearly, forcing him to look again. “This is all I’ve known for too long, all I will ever know for the rest of this cursed life… Do not make me believe otherwise, human. Don’t give me hope. It’s too much. It’s too cruel of you.”
Jiang Cheng swallows down the sour bile fighting its way up his throat, willing himself to finally ask. “… Why are you trapped here?”
“I don’t know anymore… I really don’t. I don’t know.” Nie Huaisang looks up at him, amber eyes still shining with wetness. “Does it matter? Accident, punishment, whatever it was… It really doesn’t matter anymore. I was bound here long before your bloodline was established. Long before your Yunmeng ever existed.” Nie Huaisang’s ears droop, and he closes his eyes. For someone who doesn’t need to sleep, who can’t sleep, he looks like he truly needs it. “It was so, so so long ago. I don’t know, Jiang Cheng, I really don’t know anymore. Even so, the reasons know longer matter.”
Jiang Cheng clenches his fists at his side, silent for a long while. “… Alright.”
Nie Huaisang’s eyes snap open, and he looks up at him apprehensively. “What?”
Jiang Cheng thinks he must be fucking stupid, but he steels himself, committing to his response. “I’m getting you out of there.”
Nie Huaisang looks at him as if he grew a second head.
“I’m serious! How do I help you? I— Shut it for a second! I know you don’t actually want me to leave, so I won’t leave. I don’t care what you have or haven’t done to land yourself in this fucking mess, so I won’t ask. Whatever it was, I don’t give a shit about that now.. I’m staying here, and you can’t tell me otherwise, so just tell me how to help you, damn it!”
“… Hah, we really both lost our damn minds, haven’t we?”
“Huaisang, I mean it, I—”
“Humans rewrote history to completely erase the fae from existence. You thought I was a demon who feasts on souls, for fuck’s sake! What makes you think I want to leave now? When that’s all that awaits me?”
“You’re lying to yourself if you wanna tell me you prefer burning yourself to a damn crisp over freedom.”
“… But why, Jiang Cheng? Why? Why would you want to save me? What would be left for me out there? The world would rather I rot here for the rest of eternity.”
“I want to save you because it’s the right thing to do.”
“And how can you be so sure of that?”
Jiang Cheng must have taken too long to respond, because Nie Huaisang continues with a sigh, taking his silence as an answer. “… I may not have been a bloodthirsty demon as you once thought me, but I was not perfect, either. I’ve done so many things in my life now. Admirable things… Horrible things… I blessed a man’s family with a century of good harvest. I cursed a man’s bloodline for all future generations. I saved a child. I trespassed and stole an ancient text. I saved a marriage. I killed an entire family. I helped stop a war.” Nie Huaisang closes his eyes, grimacing. “And of all these, not a single one of them is the reason I’m here.”
“You said you don’t remember?”
Nie Huaisang looks at Jiang Cheng again, lips pulled tight. “I believe I said it no longer matters why I’m here… You can believe that I know or that I don’t, but none of it matters anymore. It never will. Just leave me here to rot for the rest of my banal existence as the curse intended, damn it.”
“Huaisang. You’re not getting me to leave… You’re not getting me to leave you.” Jiang Cheng dares to approach the barrier again and raises his hand to it, grazing the ancient magic that ripples between them. Nie Huaisang, unthinking it seems, lifts his newly healed hand from the other side to mirror him, gaze flicking between both their hands. “Tell me. Tell me exactly how long you’ve been here. I know you’re aware.”
“Jiang Cheng… I don’t know. I really don’t know anymore. I don’t.”
“… If that’s so, then I think it’s been long enough.” Jiang Cheng’s hand reaches through the barrier, past the circle’s edge, and weaves his fingers together with Nie Huaisang’s, holding more firmly when Nie Huaisang flinches and tries to pull away.
Nie Huaisang looks down at their joined hands, and for a long moment, Jiang Cheng can only hear the rustling of leaves, and the aggressive thump of his heart. He knows he can hear it, too. He squeezes his hand back, and finally locks eyes with Jiang Cheng once more. “… A life for a life. I need to switch with another life. It’s the only way for me to leave.”
Jiang Cheng’s face falls for a brief moment, but he steels his expression, determined. He’ll just have to achieve the impossible, then. He will achieve the impossible for him. They are walking out of here, together. “I’ll find another way.”
“And what the Hell is your plan?”
Jiang Cheng spares a look at the barren tree across the courtyard, and doesn’t turn back to Nie Huaisang as he speaks. “… I’ll plant a tree in your place.”
“… You’re kidding.”
“I’m sure there’s small enough trees still growing further up the mountain, I’ll bring one here and plant it.”
“What if you go through all that trouble and it doesn’t work? What then?”
Jiang Cheng, emboldened, reaches out for Nie Huaisang’s other hand and interlocks their fingers. “It will work. Trust me.”
The courtyard grows dark, and the two glance up at the fading twilight over the weathered walls of the compound.
“I won’t leave you. I know you don’t want that. But you have to let me go now. I’ll come back to you, and we’ll both walk out of this place. Together.”
Nie Huaisang breaks eye contact to look down at their joined hands, deep in thought.
“…”
Jiang Cheng winces, a bloom of red from Nie Huaisang’s nails digging painfully into his skin. Jiang Cheng swears as he strengthens his grip, screwing his eyes shut, but he stubbornly holds onto his hands equally as tight. “… Let me go,” Jiang Cheng whispers under his breath. He can feel Nie Huaisang’s eyes on him and forces himself to breathe before opening his eyes and daring to meet his gaze. “Huaisang. Let me go… I’ll come back for you.”
“…”
Nie Huaisang quietly loosens his hands, and his arms drop limply to his sides, ears drooping. Jiang Cheng picks up his bag from the ground, carelessly wiping the blood off on his shirt.
“Please… Don’t leave me here. I beg you.”
“I swear. I won’t. I swear I’ll free you.” The walls do not shake with his promise, but his heart pounds hard enough in compensation. Slowly, he steps back, almost unwilling to really leave, to look anywhere that isn’t Nie Huaisang, before he tears out of the courtyard and onto the mountain path.
The full moon accompanies Jiang Cheng on his silent trek up the mountain, steadily approaching the divide between the barren land surrounding the Unclean Realm and the overgrowth near the peak. Weathered stone marks what must’ve been stairs long ago, yet they still serve their purpose well enough under his weight.
The night here is much colder than he’s used to in Yunmeng, and he takes the coat from his bag, pulling it around him tighter. Maybe he was a little overconfident, the beginnings of exhaustion taking a hold of him, but he made a promise. He’ll die before he breaks it.
When Jiang Cheng finally drags himself into the courtyard, he sees Nie Huaisang laying next to the long-extinguished fire. With every heavy footfall and drag of his boots, Nie Huaisang’s ears twitch — and when Jiang Cheng comes closer, the fae sits up, his eyes aglow. Through the haze of his exhaustion, Jiang Cheng realizes the glow is literal, shining brilliantly like embers in the dark. Huh, his mind supplies, that storybook was actually true, wasn’t it?
“You look horrible.”
“Thanks, I feel horrible,” Jiang Cheng responds dryly, throwing his pack into the circle within Nie Huaisang’s reach. Suddenly, his vision begins to blur at the edges, and Jiang Cheng barely has the mind to set the young mulberry tree down before the world spins and goes black.
+++
Jiang Cheng’s limp body falls across the barrier, and Nie Huaisang quickly rushes to his side.
“Jiang Cheng!”
After checking the human’s breathing, hesitantly he reaches out to touch Jiang Cheng’s arm and flinches — he’s as cold as ice, even through the layer of his coat. Nie Huaisang pulls Jiang Cheng’s bag into his lap and quickly rummages through it for something — anything to rekindle the fire. He pulls out branches and twigs Jiang Cheng must’ve gathered, throwing them into the growing flames, when his fingers brush against something hard and flat.
Fire properly lit and Jiang Cheng growing warmer, Nie Huaisang slowly pulls out the item. The human must’ve found it in the rubble that morning. Though he has not seen it in lifetimes, Nie Huaisang could never forget about a single gift from his brother, and especially not the first.
With shaking hands, Nie Huaisang opens the worn cover of a sketchbook and flips through the pages, tracing fingers over preserved strokes, tracing thoughts over flooding memories, and on the last page, he’s suddenly struck by the dull ache of knowing he may very well be holding the last physical memory of his brother.
He traces the lines of his brother’s form: his larger horns that curve down rather than up like his own, his infamous saber at his side, the near perpetual frown softened into something more neutral by Nie Huaisang’s hands. It would’ve been an even more dishonest portrait, but he almost wishes he painted his brother with a smile to see whenever he wished, as rare as it had become in his brother’s last days. If Nie Huaisang only knew this would be his last chance to have seen it.
There will be no such chances anymore.
Setting down the sketchbook, Nie Huaisang glances at the mulberry sapling, so much like the one he planted in the courtyard centuries ago. There it sits just outside the circle, crooked in its temporary home, and he nonsensically feels as if it’s mocking him. Perhaps it is. With a sigh, Nie Huaisang curls up on the floor across from Jiang Cheng, much like he had done before, waiting for him to wake once more.
… He could leave right now.
The realization shoots through Nie Huaisang’s core like lightning.
He… He could get up and… and he’d be free. He could walk out. He could leave, and he’d be long gone by the time the human wakes and realizes. He…
Nie Huaisang looks at Jiang Cheng’s sleeping form, his softened expression, and he looks to his sketchbook, perched atop the human’s bag. He closes his eyes then, letting his body sink fully into the floor. Perhaps he will let himself have this moment, the closest his grief has ever brought him to peace. And perhaps… he will open his heart once again.
+++
The morning sun is just cresting over the unseen horizon when Jiang Cheng finally stirs.
“A-Cheng.”
For a brief moment, the voice blends seamlessly into memories — his sister, his brother, his mother — calling his name.
He sits up suddenly, confused, when something falls from him again. This time, he looks down to see green and gray fabrics pooling onto his lap: Nie Huaisang’s outer robes. His face warms. “Oh… Thank you.”
“It’s nothing, really. You were cold.”
Averting eye contact, Jiang Cheng returns the robes and slowly pulls to his feet, exiting the circle to bring the mulberry tree inside. When he sets it down, Nie Huaisang jams a fist into the packed earth, breaking apart the barren soil.
“Here. Shall we get started?”
Jiang Cheng reaches for Nie Huaisang, placing a hand on top of his. “Yes. Let’s get you out of here.”
The two of them work in nervous silence as the sun continues to rise: removing barren soil, placing the mulberry sapling in its new home, packing in richer soil taken from the mountain, watering the tree, and hoping.
Jiang Cheng stands to inspect their work, and Nie Huaisang joins him, leaning into his shoulder. “… It’s done.”
Their dirt-covered hands find each other, interlocking their fingers once more.
“… So it is.”
Jiang Cheng takes this as his cue to step forward, but Nie Huaisang doesn’t budge, his feet firmly rooted in place. When he turns around to reassure him, he sees that Nie Huaisang’s attention is still on the small mulberry tree.
“… You know, my mother chose my name with the hope that I’d live a comfortable and happy life.”
“You know,” Jiang Cheng squeezes his hand, and Nie Huaisang meets his gaze easily this time. “It’s not too late to have that now.” Jiang Cheng takes hold of both of his hands and slowly steps backward, leading Nie Huaisang towards the edge of the barrier. When he steps through it, the curse rippling around him, he pauses with their joined hands held just before the circle’s edge. “… Trust me.”
Jiang Cheng loosens his grip as he takes another step backwards, the touch of their fingers light but grounding. He thinks back once again to the pain Nie Huaisang must’ve felt as he forced himself past the barrier, the agony in his face, and understands his hesitation too well. Jiang Cheng really fucking hopes this works.
With a deep breath, Nie Huaisang closes his eyes —
“I trust you.”
— and rushes forward.
For a moment, everything comes to a screeching halt, and Jiang Cheng cannot breathe, does not think he could live with putting Huaisang through any more pain if this fails. But there is no searing heat, no burning flesh — only the soft touch of cool lips on his, contrasting the warm iron grip around Jiang Cheng’s waist. Jiang Cheng melts into the kiss, shifting to hold Nie Huaisang equally as tight, as if he never wants to let go. He won’t. He knows now that he never will.
Nie Huaisang breaks away from the kiss to roughly shove his face into the crook of his neck, and Jiang Cheng feels him shake apart in his arms, his shoulder rapidly dampening. He kisses the crown of Nie Huaisang’s head, kisses the curved black horns on both sides, kisses the tip of a pointed ear, before holding him even closer.
Nie Huaisang’s voice shakes as he rests his head down on Jiang Cheng’s shoulder, hiccuping. “Can we stay like this for a bit? Just for a little while. You… You’re strong… It’s familiar.” Nie Huaisang whispers something else that he doesn’t hear as he noses into Jiang Cheng’s shirt. He doesn’t ask. They say nothing else, the wind stirring dead leaves and dust around their feet, blowing through the branches of the mulberry tree they planted. They hold each other tight, as if it might blow the other away.
+++
Nie Huaisang raises a hand to swipe away the wetness from Jiang Cheng’s face. “Now, why are you crying too? I thought I was the emotional one.” He hiccups again, resting a hand on Jiang Cheng’s cheek. “A-Cheng, don’t tell me— You’re secretly a crybaby too, aren’t you?”
Jiang Cheng huffs, and Nie Huaisang feels the air against his head. He’s so terribly fond of this human, this man, this Jiang Cheng. His, if he will let him. He’s never letting anyone he loves go ever again.
Nie Huaisang pulls away, hands shifting to rest atop Jiang Cheng’s shoulders. “Lead the way out for me?”
“I’m sure you know the way better than I do.”
“A-Cheng, I don’t, I really don’t! Can’t you indulge me once more?”
“I’m sure I’ll be doing that all my life, won’t I?” Jiang Cheng’s face heats to an adorable red, and Nie Huaisang can’t help but to kiss him again.
“Is that a complaint?”
“Who said it was?”
After a few more moments of light bickering, they take one last look at the mulberry tree, both of them, before walking out of the courtyard, out of the Unclean Realm, hand in hand.
Nie Huaisang spares a long glance back the way they came, before continuing down the path with Jiang Cheng. “Hah… When was the last time I saw this place from the outside…?”
Jiang Cheng is quiet at his side as they walk, the silence of the moment so different from the silence of the barren courtyard. It’s peaceful, instead of suffocating. More than anything, it’s… pleasant. Nie Huaisang had forgotten how much he enjoys being in the presence of another living being. He hopes he gets to have this for a long time, for as long as he can. He glances at Jiang Cheng’s profile again, and smiles to himself.
He looks around the path as they walk away from the ancient mountain, the decay slowly giving way to growth, and the sounds of life are music to Nie Huaisang’s ears.
No, he supposes, it’s not silent anymore.
“… The Unclean Realm was long-since abandoned by the time I was bound. I came to find my way home, but I certainly wasn’t expecting a permanent stay.” Nie Huaisang pulls Jiang Cheng along the overgrown path, looking over his shoulder with a bright smile. “Soon. Soon I’ll get you home too.”
Nie Huaisang nearly faceplants at the sight of Jiang Cheng’s reciprocated smile, the way his stern features melt away and betray his actual age, and he simply can’t just see that and not do anything about it. He stops Jiang Cheng by the shoulders and kisses both corners of his lips, giggling as Jiang Cheng’s brain catches up and he kisses back. They stand there a while longer, caught up in the joy and the warmth of each other, before continuing on their way.
Jiang Cheng has a contemplative look on his face, and Nie Huaisang’s ears flick in response to his rising heart rate. “Sang-er?”
Nie Huaisang’s heart quickens to match. “Y-Yes?”
“… Are you sure you didn’t want to travel around first? … I’d always find you again. I’m sure you’d find your way to me.”
Nie Huaisang’s face burns at Jiang Cheng’s sincerity and boldness, but sighs when he thinks of the question further. “A-Cheng, where else is there for me to go? … Everyone I knew and loved is long gone, and the world is unfamiliar to me now… Besides,” Nie Huaisang looks up at Jiang Cheng to find that he’s already looking at him. The smile returns to his face. “You just waltz into my life and save me from a centuries-long curse, and now you want to be rid of me?”
Nie Huaisang’s words are light and teasing, but Jiang Cheng tenses, before setting a hand around his waist and placing a rough kiss to the seam where his horn meets skin. “Like Hell I’d actually let you off that easy.”
“Then, take me home, A-Cheng?”
“Of course.”
As the night steadily approaches again, Nie Huaisang almost feels delighted to realize that exhaustion has finally come for him, his eyes growing heavy. The two of them lay on their backs in their makeshift camp, watching the stars as drowsiness overtakes them. Before Nie Huaisang’s eyes slip shut, he catches a brief glimpse of the stars falling once again, and smiles, knowing that he won’t be waking up alone this time.
For the first time in centuries, Nie Huaisang sleeps. And for the first time in centuries, Nie Huaisang dreams.