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After everything was over and done with Mu Qing should have been surprised by how fast life went back to normal...or what counted as normal nowadays after the Heavens had been shook to the core, mostly destroyed, and had lost their Emperor who, as it turned out, had been leading a double life all this time. Heavenly Emperor by day, White Clothed Calamity by night. Who would have thought that it would be so easy to pose as a God that not one but two Devastation class ghosts had managed to do so for centuries and millennia without anybody noticing.
Mu Qing snorted slightly at the thought. Honestly, with how self absorbed most Gods were it wasn´t that much of a surprise really. Just as it wasn´t much of a surprise that, after the wounded had been tended to and the palaces had been rebuild, heavenly bureaucracy was quick to start up again, after all there where prayers to take care of and merits to collect, especially after all the destruction that had been going on. Ling Wen had quickly been pardoned, her usefulness outweighing her guilt in that pragmatic way the Heavens usually had and soon everything was back to usual.
He gently switched the package he was carrying from one arm to the other, careful not to squish the fat, juicy plums inside as he slowly walked up the path to Puji Shrine. Well, mostly usual at least. Some things were new, like this, him meeting up with Xie Lian regularly to talk or play games or just sit together and nag as he watched his laughing crown prince try to do household chores, usually ending with him carefully explaining how to darn socks or get fruit stains out of white robes with Xie Lian hovering by his shoulder, earnestly trying to learn. It still ended mostly in disaster, even with the shackles gone and a lucky Ghost King permanently attached to his hip Xie Lian and household chores rarely mixed well, as much as he tried to learn. And as frustrating as it sometimes could be Mu Qing found that he minded his bumbling prince less and less, showcasing an unusual amount of patience for most things. Well, aside from his cooking-or aggravated torture as Mu Qing liked to call it. That was something that even all of his skills couldn´t cure and they quickly decided that, whenever they´d meet up, Mu Qing would bring the snacks and Xie Lian would provide the tea. Tea was safe. Well, mostly.
Mu Qing skipped lightly over a few protruding roots on the path, humming a few notes of a popular song he kept hearing on the streets, for once in a rare good mood already before even seeing Xie Lian. At first their meetings had been stiff and stilted, too much past between them to easily ignore and sometimes hard words were exchanged, usually from Mu Qing´s side with him storming off in a fit, leaving Xie Lian and his sad, tired eyes behind. Sometimes he´d find little things out of place the next day, silver powdery dust as light as a butterfly´s wings scattered over his clothes or, after a few months, small skulls and tiny bones in his tea cup or underneath his pillow. Subtle but very definite reminders that, while he might be tolerated for the sake of Dianxia, he was still on probation and might encounter some unfortunate incident or two if he hurt Xie Lian too much. At first he had raged about how apparently he wasn´t trusted enough to not fuck things up again but after some rare self contemplation on his part he had finally admitted to himself that sometimes his temper –did- get out of hand and people might end up getting hurt even if he didn´t want them to be. And at least bones in his tea and silver fingerprints on his robes where a good indicator that he might need to pay an extra visit to Xie Lian and apologize.
Having time to themselves, with no Feng Xin or retainers or other Gods or Ghost Kings around did do wonders for their relationship though. The Crown Prince of Xian Le, Flower Crowned Martial God and Xie Lian, God of Broken and Forgotten Things didn´t have a lot of things left in common after all and it took Mu Qing a while to change the old picture of the prince still living in his memories to what Xie Lian had become during all their years apart. Old perceptions and reservations and real or imagined slights where hard to let go after all, especially for Mu Qing who was never one to let go of a grudge easily. But after a few rocky months they had developed their own kind of comfortable routine, growing more and more at ease with each other until their meetings had become companionable, with barely any more hidden traps underneath that they hadn´t unearthed and dealt with before.
And as much as he´d deny it if somebody asked him, seeing Xie Lian so obviously happy and well cared for did wonders for Mu Qing´s well being too, even if he didn´t like to think too much about why exactly. This way lay only heartbreak...and potential dismemberment at the hand of Crimson Rain Sought Flower and Black Water Sinking Ships, who had made it abundantly clear that Xie Lian was off limit, for anybody. But even with that very potent reminder in the back of his head Mu Qing sometimes struggled. Because one thing that had changed about Xie Lian was that he had become a lot more affectionate than he had ever been during their youth, easily exchanging touches and gestures of affection, sitting close with shoulders touching without thinking twice about it.
And while Mu Qing greedily drank up any kind of affection he could get he had to be very careful to not lose himself in warm touches and the smell of powdery incense ashes and flowers whenever Xie Lian leant close. It was no secret after all that a forgotten God had married a notorious Ghost King, and that the both of them had grown increasingly close to another Ghost King up to the point where it was very unusual to see one of them without the others close by. And Mu Qing was very sure that, no matter what the exact relationship between the three of them might be, him trespassing past whatever boundary remained between friendly touches and other, unthinkable things would end with him being no more then an insignificant and slightly unsanitary smear between the pages of the book of history.
No, some things were not safe to even dream about…but sometimes, in the deep of night after a few cups of wine Mu Qing couldn´t help feeling sorry for himself a little bit. Now that he had finally worked his way past the old hurts and insecurities marring his relationship with Xie Lian and had finally been able to grudgingly admit that a lot of his issues might have come from misunderstood and repressed affections he might have held towards his prince, said prince was definitely and absolutely out of reach.
“Just my type of luck really…of the two people I ever had any kind of interest in one is my best friend and also very happily married and the other turned out to be a Ghost King in disguise. Who is also dubiously close to said best friend and his husband.”
He kicked aside a pebble, huffing a slightly self deprecating sigh. Ming Yi turning out to be Black Water Sinking Ships in disguise had been one of the bigger surprises in recent years, ending with the loss of three Elemental Masters – a dead Watermaster, a lost and powerless Windmaster and an Earthmaster who had never actually been one after all, the original Ming Yi being long dead- a lot less personnel all over the Heavens as He Xuan had dissolved his clones after he was done with Shi Wudu and a lot of downtrodden Officials, carefully avoiding each others eyes and pretending to never have tried to get into the Earthmaster´s good graces.
“At least I know why he always creeped me out so much, no wonder he kept his distance, he´s simply to powerful to completely blank out his true nature in the end. I really wonder how the Windmaster managed to be so close to him all the time, sometimes ignorance truly is bliss…”
Mu Qing suppressed a slight shudder, thinking of hungry golden eyes and slender fingers as white as bone. Black Water´s true form had in the end not been too different from his disguise as the Earthmaster, with the same sharp features and overall physique as it was easier to uphold a fake skin if it was close to your original form. But where the disguise was meant to blend in and be as inconspicuous as possible, dull and uninteresting and easy to oversee, his true form was anything but. Crimson Rain usually wore his teenager skin in public, camouflaging himself as ordinary until he felt the need to intimidate but He Xuan wore his power openly, like a badge and a warning sign at the same time. Come too close and risk to be bitten, either verbally or literally…it was a good thing for humanity that, even though he ventured far from his domain these days, he usually only sought out the company of Xie Lian and Crimson Rain, disregarding anybody else. Mu Qing sure as hell would live out the rest of his days happily without having to see that particular face again.
He had seen him before of course, these days it was nearly impossible to be close to Xie Lian in any way or capacity without one or both Ghost Kings trailing close by, as overly protective of their Dianxia as a first time mother of her newborn, even though without his shackles there was hardly anything aside from these same Devastations he´d have to fear. And if you didn´t see them in person you could be sure that either one of He Xuan´s clones was nearby or that somewhere on the prince´s person a silver butterfly would be hidden. Sometimes you´d see small white, skeletal fish flitting around him, each in their own little water bubble, trailing droplets all over the place and hiding underneath the crown prince´s hair when they got startled, like he was a particularly active piece of coral to take refuge in.
“Black Water Sinking Ships being playful, what an astonishing concept” he thought as he climbed the last steps to the shrine, ducking through the entryway, a sarcastic little snort escaping him…only to look up and come face to face with the same Devastation who´s existence he had just been contemplating. Standing in a cabbage patch with his robes hiked up and sleeves tied behind his back, bare white feet caked with mud up to his ankles and his usually so pristine hair falling in one big, messy half undone braid over his shoulder, as black as the waters in his domain.
“Xie Lian tried doing that braid, I´d recognize his attempts at braiding anywhere” and “His hair looks so glossy, like oil on water after a bath” went through his head at the same time as “Daozang, have you noticed, there is a Devastation standing in your cabbage patch” and Mu Qing can feel slightly hysterical laughter bubbling up, transfixed by eyes as stagnant and bottomless as the deep sea, a small animal being scared into motionless panic by something with too many teeth. He Xuan remains equally unmoving, just staring in that unblinking way he has that always reminded Mu Qing of sharks in shallow waters, relentless and hungry…and then the spell is broken when He Xuan slowly straightens up, carelessly pushing a few strands of hair out of his face with muddy hands.
“You are early.”
He Xuan´s voice is still as cold and inflectionless as ever and yet the accusation and reproach is clear. You are not meant to be here yet and you are interfering. Mu Qing opens his mouth to defend himself, after all they never actually agreed on a set time for these meetings and yet for once, he has lost his words, feeling like an especially dumb fish opening and closing his mouth without any sound coming out. He Xuan blinks once, clearly giving up on getting any kind of coherent statement out of him and turns slightly in the general direction of the shrine behind him, not letting Mu Qing out of his sight for even a second.
“A-Lian?”
There´s a soft questioning sound from somewhere inside the shrine and a few seconds later, Xie Lian´s head peeks out of the door, hair a dusty mess, wearing a raggedy apron and brandishing a broom.
“Yes A-Xuan? Ah, Mu Qing, you´re here already. I apologize, we got delayed with the garden and then I managed to drop my incense burner, there´s ashes all over the place, just give me a second to clean up. I´ll take you to the tea house down in the village to play, the shrine is a mess.”
Mu Qing never felt as much like crying from relief as when Xie Lian happily comes over to give him a quick hug, breathing in the now familiar scent of incense and flowers –heavy on the incense today for obvious reasons, but for once Mu Qing can´t find it in him to mind the dusty hand prints his prince leaves all over his robes- before Xie Lian steps back again, smiling at him in that gentle way he has...and coincidentially blocking the line of sight between him and Black water, allowing Mu Qing to breathe freely again.
"Let me clean up quick and we can be on our way, I´ll do the rest of the sweeping tomorrow."
With that he steps aside, quickly rinsing his face and hands in a bucket of clear water nearby and Mu Qing´s relief is endless when He Xuan deems Xie Lian a much more worthy object of attention, his eyes glued to the white clad form and his face softened with something imperceptible as they both watch Xie Lian make another mess, spilling most of the bucket´s contents all over himself while trying to get clean. You can actually see the moment of contemplation -change into dry robes or keep the wet ones- before he shrugs, wiping his hands on the apron before putting it aside and walking over again to stand in front of He Xuan.
Who is actually, full on smiling right now, and Mu Qing decides here and there that it is a good thing he doens´t tend to do that in public often because his already handsome if fierce face gets transformed into something that makes his poor confused heart skip a couple of unnecessary beats and has his ears turning suspiciously warm.
"...clumsy." The affection is clear in Black Water´s voice as he one handedly pulls Xie Lian closer by the lapel of his robe and Mu Qing wants to look away from what is clearly some kind of private moment but he simply can´t. Xie Lian full on giggles as he lets himself be manhandled willingly, using his wet sleeve to wipe something from He Xuan´s face
"And yet, I am not the with mud on my face. Will you be alright with the rest of the garden? Just leave the radishes for tomorrow, we can do them together."
He Xuan makes a non commital noise that might be agreement or a confession, gently tilting Xie Lian´s chin up with his other hand to kiss him, his slender fingers as pale as bone against Xie Lian´s rosy cheek. Right there in front of Mu Qing with no intention of letting up soon and Mu Qing gets the very definite impression he is being shown his place...and it´s not anywhere even close to where He Xuan and Xie Lian are right now.
It feels like an eternity until He Xuan finally lets up -a very uncomfortable eternity for Mu Qing and a clearly very enjoyable one for the pair in front of him, if Xie Lian´s dazed happy smile is any indicator- and makes a complicated gesture between them. Mu Qing can feel power surge, like the sudden influx of waves on a shore, feeling his own spiritual core reflexively react in kind and He Xuan´s smile turns into a shark´s tooth-filled grin as his attention shifts from the God in front of him to Mu Qing. The air is tense with power for a moment, one as dark and deep as the abyss, one like golden thunder but before anything can truly escalate the tension gets broken when Xie Lian accusingly prods He Xuan´s middle, making him break their eye contact.
"A-Xuan, that tickled."
Mu Qing blinks confusedly...only to sheepishly rein in his own powers again when it becomes obvious that the only thing He Xuan did was dry Xie Lian´s robes, a fine spray of water droplets now floating around him. He Xuan´s smile turns from predatory to derisive, side eyeing Mu Qing with amusement and honestly, Mu Qing can´t blame him really. As if he´d have any kind of chance of holding up against Black Water Sinking Ships on his own , he was no slouch but Devastation class ghosts were on a whole another level than anything, really.
"...I know. Remember you promised Hua Cheng you´d cook tonight. Don´t make me listen to him whine about how the love of his life abandoned him to starve. Again."
Xie Lian rolls his eyes in what Mu Qing thinks is a pretty good approximation of his own favorite past time before quickly pecking the Devastation in front of him on his cheek for good measure, pretending like they hadn´t just barely avoided disaster. Well, for Mu Qing at least, Black Water would happily eat little Gods like him for breakfast if Xie Lian would not be cross with him for that, he was sure. That´s what Devastation class Ghost Kings were supposed to do after all, not play around with cabbages.
" Hm, I am sure you will find some way of distracting him until I am back. And I won´t forget."
"Oh, I will."
He Xuan´s smile turns feral in a way that gives Mu Qing the sudden and very unasked for epiphany that he´s not thinking about nice board games or solving riddles to pass the time and he can feel the blush spread from his ears all the way to his neck. Ignorance sometimes really would be bliss, especially when it concerns the private matters of one God and two Ghost Kings apparently...but for now he has the perfect distraction, with Xie Lian slipping his arm through his, dragging him back out of the shrine with a last "Be good A-Xuan!" as a parting gift.
He can still feel that golden gaze on the back of his head, assessing and measuring and finding him wanting as Xie Lian leads them down the mountain path again, only breathing a sigh of relief once they´re finally out of sight of Puji shrine. Sometimes he really wondered what the hell had happened to his life...but then there´s Xie Lian, happily chatting next to him while their shoulders brush, his hand warm on Mu Qing´s arm, the smell of incense and flowers following after him and Mu Qing has to admit that, maybe, not all new things were bad...