Work Text:
Written for Hua Cheng Weekend
Day 1: Kisses
The Abyss.
It was the only world Hua Cheng had ever known. His memories began in this place, and he suspected they might also end in this place. And yet… When a tear between realities opened large enough for him to temporarily slip into the world of humans, it felt so natural. The crisp air, the solid ground, the things that grew and lived, and the light that poured from the blue, blue sky that washed over him like water down the throat of a man starved of it—it felt like coming home.
Each time he was ripped back without a contractor to anchor him, he couldn’t help but lament the loss.
The Abyss wasn’t cold, nor was it warm. The ground was never solid, instead covered in a thick, dark liquid that tugged at one’s ankles and shins as they trudged through it. Hua Cheng had no idea what the actual ground looked like because he had never encountered a patch of it that was dry. The sky was black and endless, like the human’s nighttime without the specks of light adorning it. Nothing grew, but the empty husks of buildings and chunks of stone wall and roads protruded up from the endless mire.
They were the only things of note, so in between kicking demon ass and stealing as many trips to the world of humans as he could, he spent most of his time exploring these.
Now, he did say they were the most interesting thing the Abyss had to offer. That didn’t actually make them all that interesting. They were gutted beyond repair, most just piles of debris large enough to rise above the surface of the mire. Sometimes, Hua Cheng managed to find an interesting knick knack here, a broken toy there, amusing for about five minutes before getting old.
What was interesting about them was that they were very similar to the types of buildings humans might live in, because they were so fragile a species they needed to live in wood and stone structures. How they survived, Hua Cheng wasn’t sure, but he assumed that their world was just much safer than the Abyss.
How they arrived in the Abyss in such a large quantity… Hua Cheng couldn’t say. But the implications behind it were the one thing that could give him a sense of foreboding.
It was one suck building that he found himself in front of, this one more intact than most. It actually had a roof still, for one. Hua Cheng kicked a plank of wood to the side, and he watched, bored, as it slipped and disappeared under the surface of the mire. With that out of the way, he ducked to enter the building.
It took him very little time to realize he wasn’t alone.
A man sat just around a bend, warming his hands around a fire. He had somehow started an actual fire within the Abyss, which Hua Cheng hadn’t actually realized was possible until that exact moment. What little wood the Abyss had to offer was always damp from the mire, and there were few dry places to build one. There was also little reason for demons to have one, since it was never cold within the Abyss and they required no food here.
It had Hua Cheng narrowing his eyes at the stranger. He sniffed the air, and sure enough, the stench of a human permeated the air.
It wasn’t odd for a human to find their way into the Abyss. Just as demons were able to temporarily slip into their world through tears, humans were able to accidentally wander from their world into the Abyss through these same tears. But where demons would be ripped back to the Abyss if they were unable to find a human contractor to anchor them, humans had no such mechanism to return them to their own world. Once they were here, it was only a matter of time before they were killed, eaten, or the taint of the Abyss corrupted them until they were just like any other demon.
Still, a human presented an interesting opportunity: eating one was said to increase one’s power, while contracting with one would provide both power and an anchor should the demon manage to get both themself and their contractor back to the human’s world.
Besides, even if that weren’t the case, Hua Cheng was bored. Any half-decent company he didn’t feel like murdering would be welcome.
Still not entirely decided on which path he was going to take, Hua Cheng decided to play it safe and morph his human skin into that of a teenager’s. With a quick glance to his murky reflection in the mire where two dark eyes instead of one staring back at him, he stepped around the bend.
The man had a gentle look to him. His robes were pure white, save for the pants which had been dyed a rusty red from trudging through the mire. A bamboo hat hung behind his shoulders, and a sword was strapped to his waist. Beyond that, though, he seemed to have nothing else on his person.
The Abyss’s mire made it difficult to move soundlessly. The moment he rounded the bend, the man’s eyes slid up to meet Hua Cheng’s own.
Hua Cheng kept a lazy smirk fixed on his face as he strode forward. “You have a nice setup here. Would you mind company?”
“Not at all,” the man replied with a soft smile. “It does get a bit lonely here, doesn’t it?”
Hua Cheng hummed his agreement as he took a seat across from the man. It wasn’t exactly comfortable to sit on the broken remains of what was once furniture, but the heat from the fire more than made up for it. Hua Cheng had never paid much attention to fire when there was one, too distracted by all the other wonders of the world of humans, but its brightness and warmth reminded him of it. He had to force himself not to scoot closer.
“So, Daozhang, what is a fellow human doing down here?” he asked. Perhaps it was a bit risky to fake being human when he knew very little of humans, but as far as he knew, he was one of the few demons who could take on the appearance of one. Hopefully, the human before him wouldn’t question it and just cling to the idea that he wasn’t the only human trapped within the Abyss.
The man raised an eyebrow at him. “I ended up stuck here after the fall of Xian Le. And yourself?”
“Got pulled in through a tear,” Hua Cheng answered absently. “Xian Le?”
“You don’t know of it?” At this, the man sounded surprised. “What do you think we’re sitting in? The reason the Abyss has ruins is because someone opened up a tear large enough to drop an entire city into the Abyss.”
Hua Cheng smiled. “You’ll have to forgive this one his ignorance, Daozhang. I’ve never heard of this before. The ruins have always been here, for as long as I’ve been here, at least. I’ve wondered where they came from, but I’ve never learned anything before meeting you.”
When Hua Cheng first approached this man, it was with the intent of simply feeling him out and deciding what he felt like doing with the human as he went. But now that he knew he could explain where these ruins came from, among countless other things that had been bugging Hua Cheng…
Color him interested.
“Oh? You must have fallen in after the city’s fall then… Has everyone forgotten it?” The man’s voice sounded… sad, almost.
Hua Cheng shook his head. Something in him cried at seeing the man sad, however odd that sounded. He wanted to ease away the sadness and bring the man’s smile back.
...what was wrong with him? This was just some random human. No matter how Hua Cheng searched his memory, they hadn’t once met.
And yet… Hua Cheng knew there were pieces of himself missing. He knew he was a demon, and yet he felt that was incomplete. When he stepped into the world of humans for the first time, the sun beating down on his face, he felt it was familiar.
He had come to the conclusion that his memory must be fragmented long ago. Perhaps… Perhaps, this human would know something from the holes in Hua Cheng’s own memory.
So he found himself speaking before he could think better of it. “No, I’m just ignorant. Such an event… People couldn’t have forgotten, could they?”
“I wonder,” he mused. “The memory of humans… It’s not an infallible thing.”
To that, Hua Cheng said nothing. How could he, when he knew so little of humans? The person before him knew far better than he would, and his eyes looked… old. His face was young, but his eyes spoke to a long, long life where each new day was another new hardship.
It felt wrong, somehow.
“But!” The man clapped, a smile so bright that Hua Cheng doubted its truthfulness chasing away the solemn expression of before. “Since you don’t know the story, why don’t I tell you? Or perhaps, I could tell you about what the Abyss looked like before Xian Le fell?”
“It looked different?”
The man nodded, closing his eyes as if to recall the image more clearly. A stupid thing to do before a demon, but at this point, Hua Cheng was far more interested in the man’s words and smile then he was in taking his life. “Yes. Once, it was a land filled with light. Like thousands of stars, these lights filled the air, the sky, the grounds—not a place was untouched by their warmth. It was a quiet place, one of power and awe that was both a punishment to wrongdoers and a haven to those who knew its secrets. But unfortunately, something changed and warped it. It’s now a place of darkness that is neither warm nor cold, and the very ground is soaked in blood. But… you knew this, didn’t you?”
Hua Cheng blinked when he was addressed. He’d lost himself in the man’s words, enraptured by the tale of a land that only existed in one man’s memory now. It was hard to believe the Abyss could ever be as he described, but even so, Hua Cheng wouldn’t be arguing.
Somehow, he didn’t think this person would lie to him.
“I knew,” he said. “I’ve been stuck here, after all. But the fact you know so much about the Abyss… The Abyss isn’t a place for humans, is it? Who are you, Gege?”
“It’s certainly not for humans…. I suppose that was a bit careless of me.” Here, the man laughed. “Would you believe me if I told you I was a reaper?”
In the corner of Hua Cheng’s eye, he caught something creeping.
He refused to react, keeping a blank smile fixed to his face. Something in him crawled at the word, and he knew it meant something to him. He just couldn’t place what. “Sorry, Gege. This one is very ignorant. What is a reaper?”
“Ah, well.” The man laughed again, this time a quiet thing. “Reapers consist of only one clan, so naturally, there aren’t many. And secrecy was of the utmost importance… But I don’t think there’s any harm in telling you.”
Hua Cheng’s smile didn’t waver, though he knew what that meant. The man seemed to be thoroughly convinced of his humanity. That he was still willing to tell him things that were considered secret… It meant he thought Hua Cheng would never make it to the world of humans to tell anyone.
That was fine. If he was convinced of Hua Cheng’s humanity, it would make befriending him for more information all the easier.
“Reapers are people who are born with the power of the Abyss flowing through them,” the man explained. “They are chosen by the Abyss as its protectors, its representatives within the world of humans. They’re meant to protect both worlds, and to punish those who might abuse the Abyss’ powers.”
Hua Cheng raised an eyebrow. “Abuse them?”
“Like forming an illegal contract.”
When Hua Cheng still smiled blankly back at him, the man laughed. The sound was enough to ease the tightening of his chest.
“Humans are only allowed to form contracts with demons under specific circumstances,” he added lightly. “If a human makes a contract with a demon outside of those circumstances, they are dubbed an illegal contractor. Part of a reaper’s job is to send these illegal contractors, as well as other abnormalities of the Abyss manifesting within the world of humans, back to the Abyss.”
“So even if a demon manages to make a contract with a human to escape to the world of humans, they’ll still be sent back?” Hua Cheng wondered. It really put a damper on his plans, but it was a good thing to know.
...He wondered what these ‘other abnormalities’ consisted of. He didn’t ask, though.
The man nodded. “Precisely. A contract with a demon is a very powerful thing. It’s said that some demons can even rewrite time itself, so of course this power can’t be given to just anyone. It must be regulated to curtail the potential damage, though…”
“What is it?”
“Nothing is infallible,” he sighed. “Even with the reapers, the city of Xian Le was destroyed, and we were able to do nothing and save no one. Most of the reapers themselves would have been caught up in the damage, as well. It has me worried about what the human world will look like now…”
Hua Cheng said nothing for some time, and the reaper didn’t attempt to break the silence, either. Then, he pursed his lips and asked, “Does Gege want to return to the world on the surface?”
“I wonder.” The reaper smiled, but it was a soulless thing. “After how badly I failed… I resigned myself to the fate of wandering here until my body or mind gave out on me.”
A human’s fate within the Abyss was always sealed. Either they would die, their body ripped to shreds by demons or the forces of the Abyss itself, or the power of the Abyss would corrupt them until they were no different from a demon.
Hua Cheng wasn’t sure what would happen to a reaper, but already… The man’s eyes were dull, and his shoulders were heavy with sorrow. For some reason, the sight had his chest aching, and Hua Cheng wondered what his eyes would look like under the light of the sun.
Then, a flash, and the ground beneath them erupted.
Hua Cheng had been watching it earlier, the force of his glare alone enough to keep the demon at bay. It was low level trash, something that only had enough awareness to know when to skully its ass away from him and what was his.
But so lost in the reaper’s words, Hua Cheng had let his guard down.
Tendrils rose from the water, the demon having snuck its appendages silently beneath the water as they spoke. The reaper did nothing, not so much as a flinch or a widening of the eyes, as he was hoisted into the air by one, his arms trapped against his sides. Another three lashed out at Hua Cheng, and he grit his teeth as he used E-Ming to fend them off.
He’d suppressed his own scent and aura, for good reason. Trash like this was nothing to him, but to a human… They wouldn’t be able to match it, not alone. If Hua Cheng fought it in earnest, he’d give himself away.
The main body of the demon emerged from the black water. Its hulking form was uggly, but there were very few beautiful things left to the Abyss. Its skin was rough and misshapen, as though lumps of flesh had simply been tossed into one another, and a multitude of eyes, ears, and mouths from various creatures covered it. Some of its limbs hung limply at its side, some formed massive and boney arms, while most were long, inhuman tendrils of flesh. Before becoming a demon, it must have been a lot of things—probably a mass grave tossed into the Abyss, or simply some of the previous residents, animal and human both, who had been smushed together during the tragedy.
One of its hulking mouths opening, revealing rows and rows of crooked, razor sharp teeth. It raised the reaper higher, ready to drop him inside its mouth and grind him into gore.
And yet, when faced directly with death, the reaper still did nothing.
Hua Cheng’s grip tightened on his scimitar, and his heart felt like it was about to break his rib cage. He screamed silently for the reaper to do something—anything.
Then, the thing tossed the reaper up, and Hua Cheng saw red.
“XIE LIAN!”
The monster was shorn in half before it knew what hit it. Bits of gore and blood fell like rain, creating smaller ripples in the surface of the mire to accompany the waves the demon’s collapsing body created. Even hacked into two parts as it was, Hua Cheng knew that wasn’t quite enough to kill it, but he had more important things on his mind.
When Hua Cheng jumped up, arms carefully circling under the shoulders and knees of the reaper to catch him and bring him safely back to the ground, he didn’t look at all surprised.
“So you did know who I was,” Xie Lian breathed.
Hua Cheng said nothing as they landed. Keeping a firm grasp on Xie Lian, he ground his heel into one of the tendrils for good measure. E-Ming sprung to life on its own, the blade spinning into the air and setting to work hacking the demon into smaller and smaller pieces to end any hope of its recovery. Hua Cheng never wanted to see it move again.
“That was a cruel trick, Gege.”
Xie Lian had a sword strapped to his waist, and he had knowledge of the Abyss from before Hua Cheng’s memory even began. There was no way he was helpless in a fight against a demon.
“Forgive me.” Xie Lian sounded almost sorry, and it was enough to almost ease the annoyance burning at the core of Hua Cheng’s mind. “I suspected you were a demon, because no ordinary human would survive the Abyss… But I had to be sure. You aren’t… exactly like most demons.”
Taking a deep breath, Hua Cheng looked at Xie Lian. He looked no different from before, a sad smile waning under old eyes. More gore dirtied the white of his robes than before, and the sight rankled Hua Cheng. “What does Gege mean by that?”
“Most demons don’t talk, unless to lure humans into traps,” Xie Lian recounted. “They also don’t take human form without reason. But you… I saw you around the corner. You changed your appearance, but even when you thought I wasn’t watching, you still chose the form of a human. Most demons, if they were ever human at all, have forgotten what it is to take on a true human shape.”
Forgotten, huh? Hua Cheng certainly didn’t remember what it was like to be human. He took this form because it pleased him, and he hadn’t thought of it much beyond that. Though, glancing down at the dying remnants of what was once human but no longer… He supposed his form did set him apart. Most demons tried to scratch and claw their way back to humanity, but their memories were twisted, their forms then twisting, too.
Hua Cheng supposed that made sense. He certainly had met very few demons he wouldn’t consider complete trash, let alone ones like Xie Lian he wanted to talk with.
“Ah… I do appreciate your concern, by the way, but you can put me down now.”
Hua Cheng blinked, then grinned. He’d almost forgotten he was holding Xie Lian. “But Gege, the ground is dirty.”
“...Yes?”
“Gege deserves better than to be sullied by it.” Hua Cheng didn’t think about the words before he said them, but they felt right all the same. The gore staining what was once surely the pure white of Xie Lian’s robes irked him. He’d rather carry him for days on end.
A strange expression crossed Xie Lian’s face, one that Hua Cheng couldn’t place as happy or sad. “Ah… Well, that’s very flattering, but I’m quite used to it. I’ve lived in the Abyss for a long time now. Please put me down.”
“...As Gege wishes,” Hua Cheng agreed, although reluctantly. He loosened his grip on Xie Lian and dipped the arm holding his legs, allowing him to stand and free himself of Hua Cheng’s hold.
He missed the warmth already.
Xie Lian turned to face him, the mire of the Abyss sloshing at his feet. “Well, demon, how should I address you?”
“San Lang is still fine,” he answered. It was as much a name as ‘Hua Cheng’ was to him.
Xie Lian smiled. “Well, San Lang, I’m sure you had a reason for approaching me, didn’t you? You don’t have to hide it now.”
“Gege can make a contract with a demon and return to the world of humans,” Hua Cheng said. If Xie Lian wanted to get straight to the point, then he was all too happy to indulge. “Why haven’t you? Why remain in the Abyss?”
At this, Xie Lian’s smile died. “...Let me ask you this, San Lang. Is there any point in returning?”
“Yes,” Hua Cheng said derisively. “You said this was once a beautiful place, but it isn’t now. I think… Gege deserves a beautiful world, and this isn’t it.”
“I… Ah, San Lang… You can’t just say things like that.” Xie Lian rubbed the back of his head, a dopey and uncomfortable smile spreading over his lips. “I… Well… San Lang, do you want to go to the surface?”
He nodded as he wore a matching grin. “Yes, Gege. I’m bored of this place. I’d like to see the world of humans, for more than just a few minutes.”
“In that case…” Xie Lian hummed, and he shifted from foot to foot. “Why hasn’t San Lang made a contract with a human and gone to the surface yet? As a demon, you are just as capable of this as I am.”
He shrugged. “Didn’t feel like it.”
“But… San Lang just said he wanted to go.”
At that, Hua Cheng laughed. “No, Gege, I meant I didn’t feel like making a contract with the humans I’ve met up to this point. They were all dull, nothing like Gege.”
“Does that mean…”
Xie Lian trailed off, but his voice belied none of the hesitance that Hua Cheng was expecting at the proposition. He was told humans were either desperate for the power of demons or wary of it—there was no in between. But then again, Xie Lian was a reaper. Perhaps the power of demons was nothing but a trifle to him.
It excited Hua Cheng, to have met someone so powerful and nostalgic.
It was with that in mind that Hua Cheng took a step forward. “Gege, would you form a contract with me?”
Xie Lian met his gaze, his eyes clear. “Very well. San Lang, will you serve me as my demon?”
“With pleasure,” Hua Cheng purred. He’d never made a contract before, but the method was ingrained in his blood stronger than the fleeting memories of his formerly human soul. He stepped closer, finally closing the distance between the two.
Xie Lian never once shrank back. He stood firm in front of Hua Cheng, ready to accept what he’d agreed to. It was only when Hua Cheng’s fang sank into his own lips that Xie Lian’s eyes widened.
But before he could react properly, Hua Cheng stooped to press their lips together, the blood becoming a rosy smear between them. Xie Lian’s lips were frozen, at first, then they parted to take Hua Cheng’s lower lip—the bleeding lip—between them. He sucked, the blood of a demon flowing down his throat.
Perhaps there were other ways to have Xie Lian drink his blood, but none seemed as enticing as this.
It was then that Hua Cheng felt a rush of power strong enough to unhinge his mind. It was so much, and oh, he wanted. He wanted to take and take, until he alone could shattered the barrier between this hell and the bright sunny world above.
And a treacherous voice whispered he could take it all. Xie Lian was just one human who wasn’t quite human—there were hundreds of thousands more for the taking, if Hua Cheng wanted more once he reached the surface.
But he wasn’t doing this for power, he reminded himself. He forced the madness to quell itself, tapering off the power along with it. Reaper or not, if he took too much, it might prove detrimental to Xie Lian.
So he pulled back and scolded the part of himself that lamented the loss.
Xie Lian stared back at him, eyes dazed and glassy, before they completely glossed over and slid shut. He went limp, but thankfully, Hua Cheng had pulled him into his grasp sometime during their kiss. Hua Cheng pulled him up the moment he lost consciousness, preventing him from falling into the Abyss’ mire below.
“I’m sorry, Gege.” He wanted to brush a stray hair from Xie Lian’s face, but somehow, he felt he’d lost the right. “I still took a bit too much, huh? Well, you can sleep. I won’t let anything happen to you. In the meantime…”
Would it not be fitting, for Xie Lian to next wake back in his home?
But that would prove problematic. It would be difficult to take them both up like this, so…
He glanced down at Xie Lian’s still sleeping form. “Sorry, Gege, I’m going to impose on you again.” Possession was a part of the standard contract between demon and human, so this should be alright. It was easy enough for Hua Cheng to dissolve his own physical form and slip inside Xie Lian’s.
He was careful not to touch the reaper’s soul. If he was met with any resistance, he would have taken it as a sign of rejection from Xie Lian and fled the body immediately, but the reaper’s soul was quiet and accepting. It was easy enough to land on Xie Lian’s feet, to summon E-Ming to his hands.
Xie Lian was a little shorter and stalkier than Hua Cheng was used to, but his form felt strong. Despite the robes, it was also easy to move in. Hua Cheng flexed his arm a moment before glaring up at the ceiling of the Abyss, an endless black void.
“Right then,” he said to himself, wondering if Xie Lian’s soul would hear his own voice or Hua Cheng’s if he could hear at the moment. “I think it’s about time to leave.”
The chains that bound Hua Cheng to this Abyss were all too easily shattered with the might of Xie Lian’s and his own power combined. He flew, up and up and up, bound by nothing, until he was met with the sun.
At it, he smiled. He couldn’t wait until Xie Lian woke up to see it, as well.