Chapter Text
“Wu Ming, remove your mask,” Xie Lian said, keeping his tone commanding. Really, it was not easy to speak this way to his sweet ghost, when he still felt so bad about the way he’d treated him. But Wu Ming was already suspicious, catching on to the fact that he was not the Xie Lian that he knew, and there was still something that needed to be done before he could give his husband his memories back.
During many of these encounters, Xie Lian made use of the element of surprise.
“Your Highness–”
“Wu Ming. The mask. Now.”
Slowly, Wu Ming raised his hands and took off the smiling mask, dropping it to the floor of the abandoned shrine, a facade carefully crafted by Xie Lian’s skilled husband.
There were bandages covering the right side of Wu Ming's face, and though he knew it all, now, still Xie Lian’s breath hitched when he saw the shadow of that little soldier.
He reached out and started removing the bandages, as Wu Ming's eye widened and he trembled, keeping his arms at his sides.
When Xie Lian pulled away the rest of the bandages, his sweet ghost's right eye was closed. Xie Lian sighed. He was like this every time.
“Open your eye.”
Wu Ming fought a silent battle with himself for a moment, biting his lip.
“Your Highness, this eye, it's–”
“It's what?”
A shaky exhale. “Cursed. Ugly.”
“I will be the judge of that. Let me see.”
Unable to resist him, Wu Ming opened his eye. A smile bloomed on Xie Lian’s face at the sight before him.
“Beautiful,” he whispered, taking Wu Ming's face between his hands.
“Y–Your Highness?” Wu Ming's voice shook.
He didn't mind repeating himself. He would say it a hundred times, if need be. A thousand times. It was an injustice that no one had ever said it to him before.
“Beautiful.”
Wu Ming’s face was already so much like his husband’s, just a little younger and a little less defined. Less of those sharp edges that Xie Lian loved so much. But he loved these soft cheeks too. He leaned in to kiss one of them.
Wu Ming gasped and took a step back, both his eyes wide open now.
“Your Highness,” he breathed, “what are you doing?”
“Telling you that you’re beautiful,” Xie Lian said, before stepping forward to give him another kiss on the cheek, right below his red eye.
The ghost started to raise his hands, only to drop them to his sides again and stand completely still, frozen, like he was scared that even blinking could chase away this dream that he was having.
Xie Lian kissed his cheek again, in the same place. And then again.
“Your Highness.” Wu Ming’s voice was as fragile as a butterfly’s wing. “You’re… different.”
“But I’m also the same.”
Xie Lian put his arms around him, holding him tight. “Everything will be okay,” he said against Wu Ming’s shoulder.
“It will?”
He sounded so young – almost like a child. Xie Lian thought of Hong Hong’er and took a deep, calming breath.
“It will, I promise.”
He was hesitant, shy, on his guard, but eventually Wu Ming put his arms around Xie Lian, and then they stood there, as time kept flowing around them, like a playful mountain stream flows around a steadfast rock.
After what felt like half a night, but still too soon, Xie Lian lifted his head from Wu Ming’s shoulder. The ghost’s arms seemed to tighten around him. “When I wake up, up – will I ever get to hold you like this again?”
The mixture of hope and fear in his voice brought tears to Xie Lian’s eyes.
“Yes,” he promised, his own voice shaking, “yes, there will come a time when you’ll never have to let me go.”
“Oh,” Wu Ming sighed, a sound that carried all of his yearning and grief. Xie Lian’s promise was enough for him – he slowly let him pull away, his beloved mismatched eyes full of tears.
Xie Lian kissed his cheek one final time. For this round, at least. “Close your eyes, my sweet Wu Ming.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
He obediently let his eyes slip closed, and Xie Lian took the familiar budaoweng doll from his sleeve and opened it, before taking Wu Ming’s hand and slowly guiding it towards the sparkles that came out of it.
“I’ll see you soon,” he said, smiling through his tears.
Wu Ming started to fall, and as always, Xie Lian caught him. When his ghost stirred, he started to change, and before long he found himself smiling down at his beloved husband.
“Hello, San Lang.”
Around them, the facade of the dilapidated shrine fell away, and the warm colours and luxuries of their bedroom returned. Hua Cheng made a face at Xie Lian as he helped him sit up. “Was that really all gege wanted to do? You know you can do whatever you wish to this believer’s body.”
“En, I know,” Xie Lian chirped brightly, taking his hand and lacing their fingers. “But this was what I wished to do.”
It was true that these games often became a little more, uh, intimate, but this was really all he had been after this time around. He had been thinking about it for days.
His husband kissed the back of his hand and then glanced at the budaoweng doll on the floor.
“May this San Lang have a turn, gege? I would like to meet the you from back then again as well.”
Xie Lian rubbed his forehead. “Ah, San Lang, I don’t know. Last time I – he struck you.”
Hua Cheng grinned. “Yes. And later His Highness cried on my shoulder for several incense times.” His smile softened. “I really do love every version of you, gege. I want to give that version a kiss on the cheek, too.”
How could Xie Lian say no to that? He lowered his hand and nodded, biting his lip as his husband’s face lit up and he reached for the budaoweng doll.
“Just a moment.” He quickly leaned in and kissed Hua Cheng’s cheek, right below the scar where his red eye used to be. Where it had just been, moments before.
“San Lang is beautiful.”
Hua Cheng smiled and pulled Xie Lian into his lap, nuzzling his temple.
“I know. Gege tells me every day.”