Work Text:
Warning(s): G, some blood
When the squalling of a baby met Yìng Xīng’s ears, the blacksmith had no idea what to expect.
Ever since the High Cloud Quintet had been properly established, Jìng Liú’s residence in the Tapestry of Verdure garden district had become something of an unofficial haunt to the five of them. The Sword Champion’s apartments were sprawling, a massive affair of courtyards, interspersed buildings, and all the necessities that came for her and her student who had lived out of them since boyhood. It felt like Jǐng Yuán had shown him his master’s residence ages ago, but then and there, he was grateful.
“Jǐng Yuán, she’s fine. She just needs to nurse.”
“Nurse? Vidyādhara actually do that— Oh.”
Rounding a corner to one of the many courtyards, in the space underhung by eaves sprawling with expansive, flowering trees, Yìng Xīng watched, transfixed, as Dān Féng cradled a red-faced, flailing infant seemingly inconsolable in one arm while he wriggled his hand to cause his voluminous sleeve to slide down and expose his pale, slender wrist. With lips pulled back obscenely, Dān Féng sunk wicked fangs into the tender underside of his arm until he drew blood that smeared on his lips vividly. Yìng Xīng gulped at the sight but was focused on what transpired after.
At the scent of copper, the writhing infant cried harder, small hands grasping for his wrist. Delicately, Dān Féng coaxed it to her lips and the baby ceased crying almost immediately. She began to suckle noisily as any babe would at their mother’s breast, vibrant blues dilated happily and small fingers clutching Dān Féng’s hand adorably. She cooed and he smiled so softly that Yìng Xīng’s heart melted.
Something else in him shifted, though, like a planet tilted off its axis.
“Ah, look who finally decided to join us! Finally done with your endless work for the day?” Jǐng Yuán teased with a boyish smile, only to be completely ignored by the craftsmen.
Yìng Xīng came almost crowdingly into Dān Féng’s side, a comfortable warmth radiant from the smaller Vidyādhara he towered over. Their biceps touched and Dān Féng glanced up at him, the infant doing the same with those doe-like blues.
“What’s this one’s name?” Yìng Xīng asked as he leaned over slightly, for all the world looking like they were a married pair, Jǐng Yuán noted in amusement.
“Báilù,” Dān Féng answered simply, gazing fondly at the infant despite the pall of bittersweetness that weighed him. “She was my master who raised me when I was this small. She passed, but… we were sworn siblings, so I’ll raise her as she did me.”
A pang lanced Yìng Xīng’s heart when it dawned on him how all Vidyādhara children originally came into being, a notion he was aware of. This was the first time he’d been exposed to it, let alone on such a deeply personal basis.
Especially when he considered how this Báilù would grow up differently, an entirely new person divorced from the master that Dān Féng had once known. He couldn’t imagine that kind of heartbreak, wondering how Dān Féng could even stand it.
“Jǐng Yuán! Come here, there’s something I need help with!” Bái Héng called from over the ivy-cascaded perimeter wall, Yìng Xīng startling guiltily at their closeness when Jǐng Yuán shouted his reply.
“Again? Wait a minute, will you?”
Dān Féng paid little mind as Jǐng Yuán cantered away, oblivious to it as Báilù was close to being finished nursing, nursing slowing to a languid pace instead of frantic, hungry gulps.
The awareness of their aloneness yawned betwixt the pair, but Yìng Xīng seemed to be the only one truly aware. His heart hammered in his throat, meditating on the moment for what it was.
He didn’t know what it was about Dān Féng being so gentle and warm with little Báilù that caused a paradigm shift in the forger. Truthfully, awareness of his hopeless infatuation with the Vidyādhara Elder was spreading among the five like wildfire with only the object of his attraction being totally oblivious.
For better, for worse…
“She’s been cooped up here for too long. Going into town helps tire her enough to nap.”
Yìng Xīng blinked and he gaped slightly, rearing back at what Dān Féng was insinuating, except… No, it wasn’t insinuation, but intention.
That much was confirmed when Dān Féng manifested a ribbon of healing water, the substance entwining his wrist and stitching his wound shut in under a minute. Adjusting little Báilù so she could be carried slightly over his shoulder, the infant perching small hands on his shoulder. He began to walk and Yìng Xīng hovered near like a bee flirting between flowers.
“I’ll admit, I’ve never heard of a baby who was lulled by the noise of a city,” he concurred with a laugh, endeared as Báilù began taking fistfuls of Dān Féng’s dark, teal-black locks.
Dān Féng cast him an amused look that bore that attractively gentle softness again. “I doubt you weren’t unusual when your parents raised you,” he countered wryly. “You must’ve had your quirks. You’re already quite odd.”
Yìng Xīng’s expression of affront was totally genuine, features screwing into a grimace. “Really, you’re one to talk, Yīnyuè-jūn. It takes one to know one.”
They fell into a comfortable, companionable silence as the high walls of Jìng Liú’s estate yielded to the quiet boulevards lined with trees that draped over alabaster walls. The wind was sweet and fragrant with the first flowers of spring, reaching for a dusty white magnolia blossom he felt the irresistible urge to pluck and tuck behind Dān Féng’s tapered ear.
“Yīnyuè-jūn!”
The lumber of a strapping young man sounded as Dān Féng stopped to receive the passersby indulgently. “Mother was right about you being here! Ah—this is for you…”
A hollow pit clawed like tiny claws had begun digging out the flesh of his chest cavity, a cold and clammy sensation gradually trickling with a hot, jealous indignance. The tender desire died as his hand returned in a tense fist to his side, watching as Dān Féng smiled politely and received a beautiful, florid pink stone.
He recognized it from the crafting district, belonging to some stoneworking guild that partook in such exquisite crafts. It was a pretty gesture, borderline romantic as Yìng Xīng’s heart hammered angrily against his chest, the organ throwing itself against his sternum like a rabid dog braying against the bars of his ribs.
“Is this your daughter, by any chance?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes.”
In his pained attempt at civility, the gormless man’s hand reached to let little Báilù grasp his finger, her bubbly giggling and guileless smile enough to send him over the edge.
“Ah, ah!” he cried out in alarm as Yìng Xīng seized it in a vice, eyes shadowed wrathfully. Dān Féng pitched back in surprise, cradling Báilù protectively as she squealed in surprise at the doting stranger being assailed by Yìng Xīng.
“What are you doing?!” Dān Féng shouted as the man’s face contorted in pain, the crackle of bones in his hand threatening to snap if more pressure was applied. “Yìng Xīng!”
With the barest application of Qi did Dān Féng create an invisible barrier between them that forcefully extricated the smith’s grip who recoiled in shock.
“I’m sorry!” the stranger exclaimed as he backpedaled and stumbled, fleeing from the street and putting as much distance between them as possible.
Yìng Xīng’s eyes shuttered and he swallowed thickly, tone low and raspy. “Dān Féng, I’m sorry, I—“ he fumbled apologetically, shaking his head. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“You don’t?” Dān Féng flared, baring his fangs in a rare snarl. He cradled Báilù protectively to his chest. “What do you mean you don’t?! Start explaining because that was unwarranted!”
“I thought it was strange. Someone approaching you like this didn’t strike me as normal. What am I supposed to think? I don’t exactly understand the pomp and ceremony you’re supposed to maintain!”
“It doesn’t have to stand on ceremony when that man was just trying to be kind!” Dān Féng shot back hotly, hissing in frustration. “Nevermind. Just… behave, will you?”
Cowed by Dān Féng’s outburst, Yìng Xīng’s heart thundered in his ears and drowned out the birdsong that carried like a blessing on the wind. The Vidyādhara huffed and Báilù whimpered, burying her face against Dān Féng’s clavicle.
Is this what love does to a man? he demanded of himself with a wave of nausea washing over him. As he watched Dān Féng’s retreating back, he stood beneath the musky sweetness of the magnolia blossoms, the question hanging cumbersomely on his mind.
What was it about Báilù that shifted it so intensely?
Desire. The word hung over him tauntingly like the rake of a claw seductively down his spine. He’d known his feelings were growing more intense as the months sculled like lazy clouds that paired with the desperation of time that only the short-lived species like himself understood. He stood, anchored to this fast-acting rot while everyone around him was rocks in a stream whose erosion was barely noticeable.
And Báilù… She was like the answer to a question he never thought he’d ask himself, never thought would come true. That anything beyond pining would never come to fruition.
Yìng Xīng gazed at the swing of Dān Féng’s long teal tresses, and the retreat of his slender back. His heart throbbed with every step the Vidyādhara took, longing intensifying with distance. As if that distance hadn’t been there from the start.
He sighed desolately and started behind Dān Féng, pocketing one of his hands.
If he could only have what he wanted from afar, so be it.