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Though now lost to history, it was recorded in that place that it had begun with a powerful dragon-lord named Jiang Chi, and the settling of a small compound by the lakeside, because dragons were of the water, and never wished to be too far from it.
Jiang Chi had decreed the people of Yunmeng had especially pleased him and his kin, and therefore they would return the favour of the people’s deification and generous offerings, by bringing them the protection of his kind, and the bounty of their affinity with the winds, rains, rivers and lakes.
As their benevolent influence, and the number of those who bowed their heads to the it, grew, it became obvious that even the dragons couldn’t be everywhere at once, so thereafter came the founding of the Yunmeng Jiang Sect, and disciples were welcomed from the lands around, and were set on the path of cultivation. Thus was the sect’s capacity to serve the people Jiang Chi had sworn to safeguard extended, and additionally it allowed the dragons to focus on the more mystical elements of what their protection entailed.
Thus had Jiang Chi’s line, and the lines of those who had come with him, been tied to the land of Yunmeng, and her people.
Though, while the dragons could shed their pelts and live amongst the humans they had sworn to safe-keep, the urge to return to the rivers and lakes that had nurtured them was always strong; for they came from the water, and eventually, they would return to it. Either in life, or death.
***
“I understand.” This was a straight-backed young figure, gangly and obviously at the awkward cusp of adulthood. The young ones eyes spoke of a bone-weary suffering and maturity belying his youthful body and face, however.
“A-Cheng…” This was a boy of similar age to the other, but his shoulders were a little bowed, as if under a huge sorrow.
“I said I understand, A-Xian, and I do. Just...don’t make it more difficult for us than it has to be.”
“I’ll come back. I promise, I just need this...now.”
“I know.”
The straight-backed youth stood on the pier for a long time, watching as the sleek black scales of the one he had grown up with slipped beneath the surface of the dusk-darkened lake with barely a ripple.
“I know.” He repeated to the gently teasing breeze. “I know no one ever returns.”
The first drops of water began to fall from the sky as the youth moved from the pier, and went to his rooms to open a sturdy chest stored beneath his bed.
He felt angry, and betrayed, and he knew he would never see the other again, because what he had whispered to the wind was the truth, no dragon who ever returned to the waterways came back to their human existence afterwards.
But he did understand. The pull, the glamour, the temptation of the water was as strong in him as it was in any of his kind.
That night, in the deluge of unseasonably torrential rain, with the sight of those gleaming dark scales vanishing from view in his memory, the youth burned his own dragon pelt, ensuring that the temptation to follow, to give in to his very own nature, was forever removed.
Here, at Lotus Pier, was where he'd stay; he now had no other choice, after all.
***
The summer nights were the ones that most often seemed to set him off. It was that time of the year, when it was hot, and the nights were humid and close, that Jiang Cheng most often woke up, with his skin burning, and his heart racing and his breath coming in great wrenching gasps, like he’d forgotten he was swimming without his pelt again.
He rose, realising there would be no more sleep for him tonight, and, bare-chested, barefooted and lathed with sweat, he padded out of his rooms and onto his private pavilion, built out onto the lake, enabled to do so unclad only due to the darkness.
There was just the trace of an evening breeze, which cooled his skin a little, and soothed him.
He collapsed onto one of the benches, and hung his arms over the railing, leaning his chin on the top and staring out into the inky blackness of the night, and sat, still and silent, for a time.
It was the early morning, and dawn would begin to lighten the sky in a little while. While he was often busy, and slept like the dead when he did rest, he had always liked this time of the night. People often said things always seemed worse just before the dawn, and while that could be true, when he sat here in the stillness of a normally-bustling Lotus Pier, with nothing but the sound of the waters lapping at the pilings, the creaks and groans of the wooden pavilions and walkways, and the ripples and rustles of the wind over the water, he found it like a kind of balm.
Even as teenagers, when he and Wei Wuxian had used to sneak out to lay and look at the stars and listen to the lakes…
A shudder shook his frame as he thought of Wei Wuxian. It wasn’t as if the other, and the lingering sorrow he felt at a lost love, was ever very far from his thoughts, but tonight his name seemed to especially affect Jiang Cheng. So much so, that he felt the sudden wetness of an escaped tear, which rolled down his cheek, off his chin, and disappeared to join the lake below him.
It had been so long, and while the pain had dulled, it never faded away entirely. And it shouldn’t. If it didn’t hurt, it meant his feelings hadn’t been real, or deep, after all.
Still, he couldn’t afford to let them rule him; he had responsibilities, as the last of his line to remain at Lotus Pier, after all.
He scrubbed the back of his hand over his face to clear the evidence of his grief, before rising and heading back to his rooms.
He was awake, and it was moving on for dawn, so he may as well just dress and continue with his day. This was enough time spent living in the past for a while, anyway.
***
It was a little while after Jiang Cheng had slid the door closed behind him that an inky dark shadow separated from the deeper shadows of the lake, and a long, sinuous body wrapped around one of the pilings, and slid up to the platform.
The figure on the pavilion. He felt reasonably sure it had been Jiang Cheng. It had felt like Jiang Cheng; familiar, and comforting. But at the same time it hadn’t smelled quite like him. There was something he didn’t recognise about his childhood friend, and former sweetheart. Like he wasn’t quite the same. Wasn’t quite whole.
There was a rising sense of unease, even as the thought solidified in his mind.
***
Mid-morning found Jiang Cheng aboard in Lotus Pier. Breakfast and the early training sessions had come and gone, and he had briefly stopped off at one of the piers to watch the youngest disciples taking their swimming lessons and offer them encouragement. He hadn’t been surprised in the least to find a gaggle of the Lotus Pier towns-children had joined them; it so often happened that the little scamps found their way into the more fun activities of Jiang Sect-life, like the feasts and festivals, the swimming lessons, archery and kite shooting. It was good that they did though, it kept the children occupied and busy and relatively out of trouble, and fostered good relations between the townspeople and the sect. And after all, it was how the Jiang sect had come about; his ancestors had taken their human forms, settled the area, and worked for and with the people surrounding for this very reason.
He had had to leave them to it when the catcalls of the exuberant children, who were able to be a little cheekier with him than the young disciples were because of their respect for him as zongzhu, began to demand he join them.
A tight smile, a shake of the head, and a wave to indicate he was leaving the lakeside was the response they received.
He had been intending to find one of the elders to discuss some logistical issues, and was crossing the main courtyard, when something caught his attention. It sounded a little like...a snore?
At first he almost thought he had misheard. Except it sounded again.
Frowning, he followed the sound to the main hall, and, pushing aside one of the ornamental doors, glanced inside.
There was a softly snoring figure sprawled over the Lotus Throne, which was the centrepiece of the hall. The figure was sleeping lengthways, with their legs hooked over one arm, and their back propped up by the other.
He wasn’t particularly proprietorial about what was rightfully his seat as Sect Leader, but this figure was absolutely not a townsperson, nor a member of his sect, and therefore he felt the insult. His temper flashed, and he was across the hall in a heartbeat. He grabbed the collars of the figure, yanking them out of his seat, and throwing them to the floor.
Except an iron-hard grip caught hold of his robes, and he was pulled down with them. A move so fast, so unexpected, and so familiar, he couldn’t defend against it.
He found himself on his back, looking up into a face that was maybe a little leaner and more firmly defined, losing some of it’s childish roundness and youthful vigor in the intervening years, but extremely well-known to him.
“You!” He exclaimed.
Wei Wuxian was just beginning to grin, and opened his mouth to no doubt make some stupid, teasing comment that would make Jiang Cheng want to thump him, when the expression froze on the other dragon’s face as he took in Jiang Cheng’s features.
His feelings hadn’t really had time to resolve into something he understood at the sudden return of someone he hadn’t expected to ever see again, but that look from Wei Wuxian, which he knew the cause of, made his stomach churn in self-consciousness.
Of course everything was different now. Of course Wei Wuxian would react like that to him.
“A-Cheng, what happened?” He sounded horrified. And well he might.
Jiang Cheng wore high-necked under-shirts beneath his robes to hide most of the damage from his neck down these days, but he couldn’t do anything to disguise the marks it had left on his face.
He wanted to run. To hide his face, that Wei Wuxian had always thought of as handsome in their youth, from the man who he had always wanted to appear the best before.
But he wasn’t a stupid whelp any longer; he didn’t need Wei Wuxian to think he was handsome. He had lived this long without him after all.
He slammed his open palm against the centre of Wei Wuxian’s chest and called on the lightning his maternal line had been adept at manipulating.
The sudden jolt stunned Wei Wuxian long enough for him to push the other from on top of him, and scramble to his feet.
Except what could he do once there? He couldn’t run and hide; here Wei Wuxian was in Lotus Pier again, and even if he wanted to, he couldn’t just ignore that fact.
“Why are you here?” He asked instead. He sounded confrontational. He didn’t care.
“I came back. I promised you I would, didn’t I?” Wei Wuxian said as he rose to his feet too, a mixture of expressions fighting for dominance of his face, so quickly Jiang Cheng couldn’t identify them all. “I expected a warmer welcome, I’m not going to lie.”
Wei Wuxian was correct, he had promised to return. But Jiang Cheng hadn’t believed him, because no one had ever come back.
“I didn’t believe you would.” He didn’t know whether his lack of faith said more about him than it did about Wei Wuxian, now the unthinkable had happened and he had returned, but Jiang Cheng couldn’t lie and pretend this wasn’t a most unexpected surprise to him.
And that seemed to anger Wei Wuxian. His face twisted with it, and there was a noticeable darkening of the sky outside the hall; but that wasn’t unexpected with two powerful dragons in the vicinity experiencing incredibly strong negative emotions.
“I thought you had gone for good. No other dragon ever came back, Wei Wuxian. That’s the truth.”
“I’m not the other dragons, Jiang Cheng. I promised you I’d come back for you.”
“I’m sorry.” There really wasn’t anything more he could do than express his remorse at the fact he hadn’t believed Wei Wuxian’s words.
“Did you hate me so much for leaving?”
A sliver of lightning lit the hall up in three staccato flashes, casting shadows over Wei Wuxian’s face, and there was a steady rumble of thunder as their emotions continued to get the better of them.
A small, vicious part of him had come so very close to hating Wei Wuxian. But he had always understood what drew Wei Wuxian back to the waters. Those times after the Wens had tried to burn the Jiang Sect out of existence had been tough for them all, they had lost so much, and were all dealing with their own aftermaths. He understood that Wei Wuxian thought the waters would help him heal.
He shook his head. “I didn’t hate you. I already said that I understood what drove you away. But it did hurt. Made me feel insignificant to you.” He was rarely so honest. It made him feel vulnerable. To distract from his words, Jiang Cheng forced a smile. “But you’re back now, and you’re always welcome at Lotus Pier, this is your home, after all. We should celebrate.”
With his loose tongue that had admitted how much Wei Wuxian’s leaving had hurt him, he didn’t want to dwell on it, didn’t want to see Wei Wuxian’s reactions, didn’t want his sympathy, or to know that Wei Wuxian thought he was weak, or bitter.
“A-Cheng…” Wei Wuxian reached out to catch hold of him, but he’d expected it; it had been a long time, but he knew Wei Wuxian like he knew his own skin. Better, even. And it was the easiest thing in the world to avoid Wei Wuxian’s hand, and continue to walk out of the hall. The sky was beginning to lighten, and the thunder had become just a gentle roll in the far distance as Jiang Cheng, now in the courtyard, turned to wait for Wei Wuxian to join him.
While the other walked slowly to his side, he waved over a passing servant and sent them off to make arrangements to ensure the rooms that had been Wei Wuxian’s before he had left, were cleaned out and aired, and to have alcohol and snacks brought to his office, and to summon his Head Disciple.
If he could ensure they weren’t alone together, maybe he could keep Wei Wuxian from asking the questions he didn’t want to answer.
He tried to keep one or two steps ahead of Wei Wuxian as they passed out of the courtyard and into the quieter, Sect-only parts of Lotus Pier, but once they entered his office, his trying to put some distance between them, and slow down Wei Wuxian’s inevitable questions, it had no more effect than trying to hold back the tide, which was exactly what dealing with the this dragon he had grown up alongside had felt like for the majority of their lives.
Wei Wuxian had often teased him as children for being the shorter of the pair, even though as an adult the difference in their height as humans was minimal. This was because Jiang Cheng had always gotten his growth spurts later than the older boy, and sometimes he had been left looking up to the other when stood side by side.
Because of this, and because Jiang Cheng would often prevaricate and struggle to voice his feelings, to open up and be honest with him, he had gotten into the habit of crowding Jiang Cheng physically when Wei Wuxian wanted to pin him down to a discussion.
The door jambs had barely kissed closed before Wei Wuxian had him corralled.
He should have expected it, based on how well he did know the other.
His fingers were surprisingly gentle as he took Jiang Cheng’s chin, and tilted his face so he had to meet Wei Wuxian’s gaze.
It was incredibly earnest, a look Jiang Cheng wasn’t used to from the teasing, confident older dragon.
“I’m sorry that I left you, A-Cheng, leaving you alone, walking away from you, that made the decision to leave so very hard to make.”
Wei Wuxian’s words were simultaneously welcome, and yet incredibly hard to hear still. Jiang Cheng swallowed as he what his response should be. He decided he didn’t really know. The two parts of himself that had understood Wei Wuxian’s need, and resented him for his desertion had been at war for years, but he’d never needed to reconcile them. Because he hadn’t ever believed he’d see Wei Wuxian again, after the final view of those black scales slipping beneath the rippling surface of the lake.
But here the other was, having kept his promise, and returned to Jiang Cheng’s side.
He felt less empty inside than he had for so many years. But still.
“I believe you. I’m sorry I doubted you. It’s been so long though.” He offered a tentative smile to the other. “It will take us some time to get used to having you here again, but I’m glad you are. Welcome home, A-Xian.”
The dual action of his warm, yet still distancing words, and the arrival of Yang Hai, his head disciple and a distant maternal kinsman who, along with his twin sister Yang Mei, had joined Jiang Cheng after Wei Wuxian had left the sect, put a little welcome space between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian, and made the discussion he most wished to avoid impossible for the time being. He knew it was nothing but a delaying of the inevitable; this was Wei Wuxian, after all, but he would take whatever grace he was offered to try and order his thoughts and words.
***
It should have been no surprise that he found it difficult to sleep that night. The day had been a whirlwind of activity after his initial discovery of Wei Wuxian sleeping on the Lotus Throne.
He had asked Yang Hai to arrange for a day of celebration and feasting for Wei Wuxian, and he had no doubt that his Head Disciple would have it well in hand, as would Yang Mei with the daily duties he had to set aside to devote his time to the newly-returned dragon.
They had toured the compound and the town, and called off to eat the pies, buns, and cakes of the vendors that Wei Wuxian had missed while away. They ate so many snacks, and treats it hurt, and Wei Wuxian dragged him to one of the piers where they flopped out in the sun to bake as they had as children, to the sound of some of of the older teen disciples fooling around in the lake nearby with their free time.
They had lain for a while watching, Jiang Cheng occasionally returning a wave or an excited call. A few of the older ones had vague memories of Wei Wuxian, although most had been too young when he had left to remember him at all. Some of the braver ones, who had swum closer to the pier, had begun to talk to Wei Wuxian and ask him for tales of his doings while he had been away from Lotus Pier, then they had asked him to join them in their horseplay, which Wei Wuxian of course would have loved doing.
“Go ahead,” Jiang Cheng had urged; a dragon always loved every opportunity to be in the water after all, and horseplay was always something Wei Wuxian would never turn down the opportunity to do.
“Come with me.” Wei Wuxian had invited.
Jiang Cheng had shook his head. “I ate too much.” The little excuses had come as easily as breathing to him after so many years.
“Sect Leader doesn’t like to be in the water.” One of the disciples had said with the simple honesty of someone not quite old enough to recognise the words for what they meant about a Sect Leader who was also a dragon.
Wei Wuxian had tossed him a calculating look, but Jiang Cheng had ignored it. Stalling tactics for a talk he knew was imminent, only.
Wei Wuxian had turned to the youngsters waiting for him, “Another time, yes? I’ve been away so long, I should give Sect Leader my undivided attention for now.”
He hadn’t known if Wei Wuxian had meant to make it sound so ominous.
It shouldn’t have been surprising to Jiang Cheng how easily they had fallen into the old rhythms between them. Wei Wuxian teasing, Jiang Cheng scolding half-heartedly, and rolling his eyes, as they nudged and knocked each other when no one else was looking. There were moments when he had tried to slow down or suppress his own emotions; he didn’t know how long Wei Wuxian had returned for after all, but he was also happy, revelling in the renewed closeness that Wei Wuxian seemed to wish to take up exactly where they had left off. The happiness that came with having someone he had always considered to be the equivalent of his soulmate by his side was a palpable thing, however, no matter how much he wanted to slow things down and take his time getting the measure of the other again.
Sleepless, he found himself back out on the pavilion. There was a light, yet steady downpour, caused no doubt by his more introspective mood tonight. He had a jar of lotus blossom wine on the table in the centre of the pavilion, and there could really only be one explanation for that. He expected.
There was the cawing sound of a particularly vocal night heron out in the blackness, the noise just audible through the sound of raindrops on wood and water, and the usual creaking of boards and pilings licked at by the lapping lake. He waited.
It wasn’t really that long, in the end, before he felt the arrival of the other, then a light touch at his shoulders, as Wei Wuxian lay his open palms on them.
“This is the Sect Leader’s private pavilion.” Theoretically his words were true. But they had no heat to them; Wei Wuxian never considered himself unwelcome anywhere. And Jiang Cheng himself had never considered this place out of bounds to that one special person, after all.
Wei Wuxian squeezed his shoulders lightly.
“Am I not the Sect Leader’s private person?” He teased lightly.
Wei Wuxian must have felt him tense, because he used his grip to urge Jiang Cheng to turn to face him.
“A-Cheng?”
“I don’t know A-Xian. This all does feel familiar, doesn’t it? But you were gone so long, and you haven’t mentioned yet how long you intend to stay this time.”
“For good.” Wei Wuxian promised simply. And how easily Wei Wuxian made his promises had always set Jiang Cheng’s teeth a little. And although Wei Wuxian hadn’t yet seemed bothered by the changes to his face, it was only half the issue. He wasn’t whole anymore and never even could be again.
“Really? Even with this?” He pointed at his left cheek, and then moved to pull the collar of his robe aside, to show where the burn marks affected his neck and chest. “And this?” Seeing the damage didn’t really seem to affect Wei Wuxian; he didn’t flinch, or recoil.
“A-Cheng, if I can put up with your temper and your sharp tongue...there isn’t much left in the world that could put me off.”
“I burned my pelt. It wasn’t your fault, at all, but I did do it the night you left. It was the only way I could be sure I would be strong enough to stay here, and not follow you. I had to stay here.” As the only one left, he had had to be strong enough. By any means possible.
He saw Wei Wuxian’s throat bob in the light from the lamp he’d brought out, and looked up to see the pain in his dark eyes. It wasn’t disgust, even now that he knew Jiang Cheng would never be able to return to his dragon form and join him in the lakes again.
It seemed to take Wei Wuxian a long time to order his thoughts though.
Neither of them had been much at expressing themselves through words though, so it was no surprise.
“A-Cheng. I knew something was different, of course I did. I wish you hadn’t. I’m so sorry. And I wish I could go back and try to talk you out of it. But for your sake, not mine. I came back from the waters for you. Like no dragon ever did before. But I had to, the pull back to your side was stronger on me than the water was, so something like that isn’t going to affect my need to be here, by your side. Sooner or later, while we two are in this world, we would be together again.”
He wanted with everything he had to believe Wei Wuxian’s words. Today had been such a joy. And he wanted them. But he was cautious. It could be very easy to say it didn’t matter, then living with the reality for any length of time would bring home the truth of what it meant.
“Is that really how you feel?” He asked.
“Really it is. Let’s take each day as it comes, then A-Cheng. One after the other.” Wei Wuxian knew him too well to doubt what was causing his tentativeness, and read his expressions.
Completely against his own impetuous nature, Wei Wuxian offered the solution that Jiang Cheng needed, and he tried to fight to keep the stupid smile off his face; but it was a losing battle against the happiness.
Wei Wuxian grinned that infectious grin of his, and leaned over to press a kiss against his forehead.
“Today, or tomorrow, or in 10,000 years, is soon enough to wait for you, A-Cheng.”
~ Later ~
“Jiang-zongzhu! Wei-qianbei!” The exuberant shouts of the youngest disciples and the towns-children ricocheted across the lake, and the pair paused on the pier to watch as the children showed off their swimming achievements, watched over carefully by Yang Mei their instructor, and several older disciples meant to add extra eyes to ensure the youngsters safety, as even Yang Mei’s gaze couldn’t be everywhere at once.
“Come and swim with us, Jiang-zongzhu!” A cheekily gap-toothed young girl called, and some of the other children took up the chant.
He gnawed on his lip indecisively for a few moments, but, as he turned to face Wei Wuxian, the other smiled supportively. That was all he needed.
“You don’t have to,” he said it and Jiang Cheng believed it. But he carefully pulled off his outer robe, and still carefully covered by his inner shirt and pants, dived from the pier and into the water beneath. He knew Wei Wuxian followed close behind, though he hit the water without causing so much as a splash or a ripple, having taken his dragon form.
They had swum together several times privately recently, as Jiang Cheng had been desperate to overcome his aversion to the water, which had developed likely as a kind of self-defence after he’d burned his pelt.
Impetuous Wei Wuxian, had allowed him to take that at his own pace, while still pushing him a little in the way he most needed.
Jiang Cheng swam over to the excited youngsters, and joined Yang Mei in their lesson, although by that time, lesson would have been too organised a word for the devolution of their attention span as Wei Wuxian did his best to cause exuberant havoc, swimming always below the surface in and around the children, bolstering those youngest who couldn’t quite float entirely unaided yet, or tugging the older, stronger swimmers beneath the water briefly to delighted yells, yet always careful to wait for them to break the surface once more.
“I genuinely don’t know why we even bother, sometimes.” Jiang Cheng grumbled in a low tone for Yang Mei’s ears only. She merely snorted in response, as the whoops and hollers split the morning air, audible from everywhere in Lotus Pier.
After the ‘lesson’ the children were sent to the pier, and counted out, handed their towels and sent back to their rooms to wash up and change. Meanwhile, the black, scaled form lurking in the depths began to wrap himself around Jiang Cheng’s torso.
“I have a lot or work to do today, Wei Wuxian.” Jiang Cheng complained, but it was no good, and he was tugged below the surface.
He might not have the ability to access his dragon form anymore, but he could still breathe beneath the water, and move much faster and more agilely than a normal human could. It was no match for a dragon, of course, but it was enough for him to worm free, and break the surface again, only to have his arms full of Wei Wuxian back in his own human form before he even had time to wipe the water from his face.
“Hello, A-Cheng.”
“A-Xian!” But his scolds fell on deaf ears, as usual. “Hello.” He relented.
“Does this handsome one deserve a kiss?”
“Rarely, but he continues to ask for them, even so!”
Despite his scold, he still leaned over and placed his lake-cooled lips against Wei Wuxian’s. They lost track of time, of where they were, like was always the case, and the kiss continued, until the catcalls and screeches of excitement from the pier intruded on their consciousness.
“Sect Leader is kissing Wei-qianbei!” One particularly brave towns-child cried out in teasing delight.
Jiang Cheng, caught in the act and disbelieving of his own lack of decorum to have forgotten where they were when he initiated the kiss, tried to push himself backwards, and away from his co-accused. He could feel the heat of embarrassment in his cheeks.
But Wei Wuxian; shameless, annoying Wei Wuxian; wouldn’t let him go, instead he held on, then feathered a kiss against Jiang Cheng’s nose, then his lips, before he turned to the children.
“Don’t make me get out of the lake to chase you away. I’m hungry, I’ll gobble you all up, if I have to. Sect Leader has sacrificed himself so prettily to save you all from my chomps, so don’t waste his kindness!” He called back.
More screeches sounded, and there was a sudden mad rush as the children ran down the pier and into the main compound for safety, their giggles and yells following them, while the shameless dragon, and his pretty sacrifice remained twined together in the lake for several more kisses.