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"Who the fuck did this to you?"
His words were no more than a mere whisper, yet they reverberated around the main hall of Paradise Manor clearly. This anger coming from Hua Cheng was unlike anything Xie Lian had seen before. Xie Lian had stumbled into the hall, scratches and cuts all over his arms, neck and face. However, Xie Lian had only come to visit Hua Cheng and didn't think much of his injuries, positive that they'd heal naturally, and payed them no mind.
"San Lang?" Xie Lian asked, worried that he had somehow angered Hua Cheng.
"Who dares to hurt you?" Hua Cheng repeated, looking as though he was about to strangle the nearest ghost around him, his usual air of mischief and teasing nowhere to be found.
"I- That- No, there's no reason to worry about that," Xie Lian stammered, "Are you okay, San Lang? Did I intrude at a bad time?"
Abandoning all pretenses, Hua Cheng stalked up to Xie Lian and gripped his shoulder firmly but gently, "You're hurt," he said, as though that explained everything. Before Xie Lian could offer more comment, he was quickly swept up in an all too familiar position and was carried back to the black jade divan where Hua Cheng had previously been sitting.
Xie Lian was placed there in the gentlest, softest way possible, and Hua Cheng settled himself in a position so that the two were face to face.
"Explain."
With no other option Xie Lian relayed the details of how he got injured to Hua Cheng. He had been walking around, collecting scraps when he was attacked by a horde of ghosts. Naturally, they weren't able to do much to Xie Lian, but unfortunately due to his bad luck, tripped and fell into a thorny bush, sustaining many, many scratches all over. Truly the worst of luck.
After he was done telling his story, Xie Lian suddenly noticed that the skin around his cuts had turned a sickly looking green. Now that he thought about it, Xie Lian was feeling quite... strange. Of course, Hua Cheng being Hua Cheng, immediately noticed something was off. Without wasting anymore time, he started to wrap bandages around Xie Lian's wounds, just tight enough to slow down circulation.
"Gege..." Hua Cheng started, his voice laced with venom, "Just what plant did you fall into?"
Xie Lian was about to reply that he had no idea, only remembering the fact that it had been spiky, and evidently laced with poison, when suddenly memories that he had been suppressing for the last few centuries resurfaced. A horrifying picture of the White-Clothed Calamity sitting in the forest appeared in his mind, slowly morphing into crowds of people afflicted with the human face disease. Shocked by the sudden relapse of this, he fell silent, shaking.
"Your Highness?!?!" Hua Cheng's normal calm, collected tone was replaced by something that sounded like shock and fear. He shook Xie Lian slightly, and this small motion caused him to snap out of his stupor. After Xie Lian had stopped shaking as much, Hua Cheng let out a small breath, relieved.
The second Hua Cheng relaxed, Xie Lian scrambled off the divan he had been sitting on, leaning on it instead and curling into a ball. Muttering something about the White-Clothed Calamity, Xie Lian held his head as though afraid of looking anywhere. Hua Cheng sat on the floor next to him, wrapping an arm around Xie Lian, murmuring words of comfort.
Xie Lian's breathing was labored, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. After a few more minutes of listening to Xie Lian's horrified whispers, Hua Cheng deduced that Xie Lian was probably hallucinating, or something along those lines.
Hua Cheng fucking hated this feeling. Not being able to do anything while the one he loved was in pain truly was the greatest suffering imaginable. All he could do was sit next to Xie Lian as he labored through this. If Hua Cheng ever found out whose idea it was to send a band of ghosts after Xie Lian, they would be condemned to a fate worse than death.
The two sat there for hours, Xie Lian looked like he was maybe getting better but it was hard to tell. Among all of his crazed murmurs, Xie Lian had repeatedly asked Hua Cheng to kill him, to end his suffering. Each time Hua Cheng had refused resolutely, and hugged and comforted him with renewed effort.
"Your Highness," he would say, "I would do anything for you but that. You're going to be okay."
Towards the end of the night, Xie Lian seemed to have gained some sense of awareness back, or at least the hallucinations were seeming to affect him less. All through this, Hua Cheng had cradled Xie Lian, and now he moved to pick him up. Xie Lian made no effort to flail around or resist so the two traveled down one of the halls towards a room in which Xie Lian could rest.
Hua Cheng had just gently set him down on the bed when Xie Lian reached a shaking arm towards him.
"Don't... don't leave me." he whispered, his voice slightly broken.
"I would never think of it, don't worry."
Hua Cheng sat down next to him, softly stroking Xie Lian's hair.
"You're going to be okay, I'm right here."
Whilst Hua Cheng was reassuring him, Xie Lian picked up a small trace of resentment in his voice.
"San Lang?" he asked. "San Lang, what's wrong?"
"I'm so sorry..." Hua Cheng said, his words barely audible. "I couldn't do anything, and I still can't. I'm sorry..."
A sudden wave of clear-headedness swept over him, Xie Lian was shocked.
"It's not your fault San Lang, I promise." he reassured, taking Hua Cheng's hand in his own.
Hua Cheng was about to reply when it seemed Xie Lian's madness had relapsed, he started screaming. The shouts echoed in the chamber, a startling cacophony of yells. Xie Lian twisted away from Hua Cheng, as though afraid of hurting him.
This pattern repeated for a long time, sometimes Xie Lian had a vague sense of where he was, and other times was consumed by the hallucinations. Hours later, it seemed that whatever strange poison was causing this had run its course, and Xie Lian was back to normal. After the ordeal, Xie Lian was unbelievably tired. His eyes fluttered open and closed as he talked to Hua Cheng.
"Rest." Hua Cheng said. "Gege is tired, he should sleep."
"Don't leave me-" Xie Lian said once more.
"I won't. I would never leave my little butterfly."
Xie Lian choked slightly, feeling amused. "What did San Lang just call me?" he teased.
Horrified that it had slipped out, Hua Cheng quickly muttered, "Nothing. Pray gege forgets San Lang ever said anything."
"Well now, I can't just do that can I? Call me that again, I like it."
"...My little butterfly." Hua Cheng whispered, his usually pale face slightly tinted with red.