Work Text:
Someone is rewinding time.
Li Jie’s memories ebb and flow, but the part of his mind where Yuan Wuhuo dwells is like the riverbed. He has recollections of striking down Lu Wuyi, of desperate crowds howling for rain, and Li Jie’s cultivation is brimming like he’s fought countless battles overnight. Such chaos should have changed the world, but the night remains still above the oppressive heat, cradling the same waxing moon.
Yuan Wuhuo quells Li Jie’s fitful sleep and takes control of their body. A familiar itch blooms immediately under his skin and at least one more time, he follows it to Ji Ling.
Ji Ling’s robes swirl around his body like a snowdrift and his eyes are dark pools set in a pale face. Lately, he resembles a corpse dressed in state.
“Do you blame me?” he asks. “For lying even to you?”
“No. I don’t always know your mind, but I know you.” Yuan Wuhuo’s words are Li Jie’s but going to his knees before Ji Ling is all him. He kisses the inside of Ji Ling’s wrist. “You have always been kind.”
He hears Ji Ling gasp. “Li Jie…”
“Longshen-daren,” Yuan Wuhuo looks up. “Do you blame me?”
Ji Ling looks pained, but he touches Yuan Wuhuo…Li Jie’s chin, and thumbs his bottom lip.
The night in Luo’an is hot and dry. Unconsciously, Li Jie kicks off his bedcovers as he continues to drift through a dream where he’s rutting desperately into Ji Ling’s splayed and willing body. The heat is wet and slick in contrast to the relentless aridity of Han Ba’s curse.
Ji Ling’s eyes flutter as he wraps his legs around Li Jie’s waist, moaning for more.
“Longshen-daren,” Li Jie utters and still his hips, unwilling to hurt the man he’s vowed to protect.
“Don’t hold back,” a deep voice murmurs at his shoulder. Yuan Wuhuo’s arm is an afterimage of his own, trailing — butterfly light— down Ji Ling’s waist. “Haven’t you always wanted this? Hasn’t he always been stronger than we think?”
Li Jie wakes with a gasp, chest tight with longing until a commotion outside grabs his attention, and he has to shed the remnants of his dream like an old veil.