Work Text:
Black Water was trying to figure what he was going to do next.
He had waited so long. So incredibly long for his revenge, and in the end he had none of the satisfaction he'd been planning and moving towards. All his careful plans, his decades of deceit and work so carefully constructed that he'd fooled mortals and the whole of the Court of Heaven, and now he felt… Nothing. It was enough to make him wish he'd brought Shi Wudu's corpse along so he could physically tear it apart, just to search deeper into that black pit of a heart that man had possessed and thrown it personally into the deepest shadows of the ocean. Maybe that would help, but as much as he enjoyed thinking it, he doubted it would change anything.
He'd waited so long. And now he didn't know what to feel.
Of course he still had Qingxuan. That part was far from done. He had hardly left the vapid idiot who had possessed all of his good fortune out from his plots. He wasn't the main course of the revenge - he seemed to have been truly ignorant till the moment of reveal - but Black Water Demon Xuan had somehow spoilt his dinner and would satisfy himself on dessert.
He paused though, considering the defeated and powerless Wind Master, broken as his fan, in the next room. It felt… strange, to think of him gone. Qingxuan had always been flitting about, and even when Black Water had been able to pull away enough to get a fresh breath of air, he would still get invites to infuriating parties and bothersome adventures that Qingxuan would use to stick his nose into other people's businesses. He had seethed and roiled for the longest time, but his act was perfect as ever, and Qingxuan had truly trusted and confided in him more than any other than perhaps his brother. Mores the pity to him.
What was giving him this pause then? There were plenty of torments he had delighted himself in planning and arranging for Qingxuan over the years, but when it came time, he now found himself hesitating.
It must be that sour taste left over from Shi Wudu's infuriating end. He had planned it so well and at the last minute his hand was forced in his rage to give him exactly what he had wanted, sparing his dear little brother yet again.
Yes, that must be it. He was not hesitating for weakness. He was not showing pity to Qingxuan's exhausted sobs, or being played again by the constant presence of the Wind Master that felt eerily absent these past days. He was just making sure he got what he wanted this time, and would know what comes next.
The "what comes next" part was the vast and unknown, but he would figure it out. He always did.