Work Text:
The news reached them of a powerful fierce corpse terrorizing the grounds where the GuanYin temple stood just as they reached the edge of what had been Jin Clan territory.
“I will go to investigate,” Lan XiChen announced. His uncle had, for the first time since the debacle at Burial Mounds, come down the mountain. He wasn’t needed at Carp Tower when the cultivating world decided what to do with the headless dragon that was Jin Clan. He would rather not be there.
So he went searching for this fierce corpse, and found it in the ruins of the temple Jin GuangYao had built to honor his dead mother. There, standing in a whirl of black smoke, the resentful energy to strong it made it hard for XiChen to breathe–stood a figure cloaked in gold, its left arm missing.
His hat had fallen off, and his hair fell in a riot of waves down his back. Black veins like vine marks marred his pale neck. But his face. His face was as perfect as ever. If corpses could smile, XiChen would’ve been able to see those two dimples on either cheek that always made his heart rejoice just a tiny bit.
“A-Yao,” he said, unable to help himself, even though he’d promised himself more than once he would no longer say that name.
The fierce corpse turned to him, the perfect face no longer a calm mask, but a snarl as it lunged at him, remaining hand outstretched, sharp nails ready to tear and claw. XiChen didn’t struggle. Somehow, he couldn’t. Just as he’d surrendered in this very temple that night, he let his sword crash to the ground, holding his arms open to accept the fate that should have been his the first time.
Die with me, Er-ge.
Closing his eyes, XiChen felt the air shift in front of his face. He prepared himself for the blow.
It never came. The only thing he felt was the tight pain in his chest that was a constant reminder that he’d failed to fulfill A-Yao’s request. That he was still alive, while A-Yao was—
“Er-ge…?”
XiChen gasped, tears slipping past his closed eyelids and trailing down his cheeks. A small sound escaped him. He thought it must’ve been a sob. Opening his eyes, he looked again at the person standing in front of him, arm still outstretched, though no longer to attack. No, Jin GuangYao’s hand was shaking, as if he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to strike or caress.
He shook so hard that he lost balance and began to fall. Without thinking, because it was only natural for him to want to do so, XiChen stepped forward and caught him.
“Er-ge,” came A-Yao’s voice, whisper-soft. He felt so solid, so real in XiChen’s arms. “You came back for me.” His words, although touched with sorrow, held a note of wonder to them.
Heart heavy, XiChen hung onto the man he could never fully hate, no matter how many reasons were given to him. “I did.”