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Xie Lian felt his hands shaking. Perhaps it should’ve been in fear or disgust. Perhaps many would assume it was. It’s what he had once wanted it to be.
But here, next to his husband, he found it easier to admit the reason he was shaking.
Excitement.
A terrified Land of the Tender was trembling in front of the couple, bound up by Ruoye, and Xie Lian was excited.
He maintained that fighting didn’t solve anything. Wrongs could not be righted with violence.
But bloodlust could.
He’d known what creatures they were hunting. Known to cover his nose and mouth and tread with care. Known that the pair of them could easily slaughter a group of mere flower demons and that even if they did fall prey to their fragrance, they could help each other recover far better than Xie Lian had before.
What he hadn’t known was how good it would feel to slaughter them.
What he hadn’t known was how, upon seeing there was only one remaining, he’d call out for Hua Cheng to stop and keep it alive.
“Your highness, did you breathe it in?” Hua Cheng was by his side in an instant. In his private communication array in an instant. Close and with eyes only for Xie Lian even though a moment ago he’d been glorious with the aura of battle; a cat playing his prey.
“I’m alright, I just…” how did he explain something like this?
And yet Hua Cheng seemed to understand. Taking in his healthy flush and the light in his eyes and the tall stance he upheld, Hua Cheng understood him.
“Should I let gege kill the last one?” The question was gentle but teasing. Flirtatious yet with the air of generosity.
And Xie Lian found himself responding before he could fully think it through. “I want to kill it together.”
He knew by the way his husband’s eyes darkened he wanted that too.
It did scare him, in a way, just how appealing that sounded. To kill such an awful creature he felt no remorse for and simply sate his own long suppressed bloodlust with the knowledge of this safe target for it. To kill it with his husband, who was tender with him and cruel with all who wronged him. Who satiated his bloodlust without the pesky interference of morals and belief systems that Xie Lian upheld.
There was something more in that too. In the fact that Hua Cheng had stopped the threat of his blade when Xie Lian told him to stop and had now agreed to kill by his side without hesitation.
This was something he felt better acquainted with.
There may have been some shame in his own bloodlust, but there was no shame in him at the idea of using Hua Cheng to murder on his behalf. He had long ago privately felt many of Hua Cheng’s kills could just as well be counted as his own and had been privately pleased to find the thought held no guilt but so much love.
So if he just…
“If I told you how I wanted you to kill it, would you carry it out for me?”
Hua Cheng’s gaze was dangerous. Was reverent. His fanatic ghost, ready to follow any command given.
“Of course, your highness.”
The shift was palpable enough that even without being able to hear what they were saying, the demon had begun to shrink in on itself, looking desperately for an escape.
It was only as Hua Cheng faced away from Xie Lian’s gaze and towards the demon that Xie Lian remembered, so very long ago, when he’d striven to satiate his bloodlust only to find the pesky nameless ghost he’d taken on on his general stealing the killing and the burning on his behalf.
Because he thought Xie Lian shouldn’t bother with such petty things. Because he didn’t think Xie Lian should stain his hands with more blood he might regret.
Because he took joy in being Xie Lian’s weapon.
And Xie Lian had always so dearly loved weapons.
“I’m going to call back Ruoye,” Xie Lian begun to pace in a large circle around the demon and his husband. Watching. “When I do, restrain it, but don’t kill it.”
He didn’t need to wait for a response.
Their timing was fluid and without hesitation. Ruoye was off and Hua Cheng descended upon the creature too quickly to be seen, pulling it up by its hair as E’ming pressed against its chest, right over where a heart would be.
But didn’t break skin.
The satisfaction of knowing Hua Cheng was holding back for him ran through him like a burst of spiritual power, flooding down his limbs and making his heart race.
Hua Cheng was so very dangerous. But not to Xie Lian.
“E’ming, shallow cuts only, alright?”
In the hilt, a demonic red eye spun wildly around, radiating some horrid mix of killing intent and glee that had the demon screaming and trying to get away.
It couldn’t get far though. Not with Hua Cheng holding its hair and pressing a hand more firmly at its waist to keep it still. Those were hands that could bruise. If Xie Lian let them, they could kill.
But only if Xie Lian let them.
He was fairly sure the demon was pleading as the first cuts were made, begging for mercy and bargaining how well behaved it could be as E’ming made small, shallow cuts along its torso. Thin enough to have blood rising up, but not to truly be a danger.
Xie Lian was too busy to pay that much mind.
“Just keep holding it still, San Lang, that’s it. Ah, it’s getting desperate, neck and waist holds now.”
His command was obeyed in a flash, the demon screaming as it was pressed flush to a murderous Ghost King. Hua Cheng’s hand rested— just rested— on the creatures neck and right over a few cuts E’ming had already made to its stomach. Hua Cheng took no liberties to choke the thing or to aggravate it’s wounds.
Xie Lian had only told him to hold the creature still after all.
It was… beautiful. Hua Cheng looked serious in a way he rarely was during fights with such petty creatures. Fully focused.
Fully my blade.
How long had Hua Cheng wanted this too? How many kills had he made wishing he could share them with his god so they could be accepted for the offerings they were?
He spoke aloud this time, so the demon could hear him. “San Lang. Heal it.”
If Hua Cheng was bothered by such a command, he didn’t show it. Butterflies swarmed before relief could fully set in on the flower demon’s expression, then returned, tentative but there, as they really did close up the cuts.
When they dispersed, Xie Lian nodded, returning to the communication array. “Other side.”
The demon didn’t fight so much this time when it was turned around in Hua Cheng’s grasp and felt the shallow cuts of E’ming’s blade.
“Such violent tastes you have, you gave me a fright,” the demon sniffled. “I’m sure this is fun, but I can show you both something much better.”
Hua Cheng had E’ming between its lips before the damned thing could try to kiss him.
“San Lang, don’t touch it anymore,” Xie Lian called out gently, glad when his husband let the flower demon crumple to the ground.
E’ming went back to its task, leaving only a thin slice to the edges of its mouth as it slipped back to the creature’s back. Obedient.
Patient.
Though the demon had clearly believed it had some footing again since being healed the first time, it wasn’t stupid. It didn’t want to be anywhere near them. But with both of them clearly so much faster and E’ming pressed near, there was nowhere to run.
“San Lang,” there was something out of body about his voice. Calm even where he felt wild. “Do you remember when you called me to the Gambler’s Den so I could see your demonstration?”
It took Hua Cheng a moment before recognition lit up his face.
“I want another. After E’ming finishes and you heal the demon.”
“Gege enjoyed it that much?” Hua Cheng’s voice was low.
Breathless.
Xie Lian let his gaze dip down to the shoes his husband wore; platformed with that deadly heel. It was with an electric thrill in his veins that he met his husband’s eyes again.
His ‘yes’ did not need to be spoken. Hua Cheng understood his desires without the words to shape them.
And so they waited. Like predators lying in wait for their prey to let down its guard, they watched the flower demon tremble and blocked out the coy words it tried to coax them with as it looked for its escape.
“Very good, E’ming, come here,” Xie Lian called softly when the cuts littered nearly every patch of skin like a menacing pattern.
As the butterflies descended to heal, E’ming came into Xie Lian’s arms with the innocent enthusiasm of a puppy.
“Ah, San Lang—“ Xie Lian smiled as he caught the sheath thrown his way. Hua Cheng knew what he wanted. He always did. The knowledge of the attention he paid and the dedication he had to predicting and fulfilling Xie Lian’s every want was the sweetest declaration of love he’d ever held, and as he sheathed E’ming, he felt that love in his very soul.
E’ming’s killing aura had dimmed, nothing more than a content puppy as Xie Lian stroked it.
But Hua Cheng’s killing aura had only grown. Intoxicating in its power.
Intoxicating in the fact it was a gift.
“Where would gege like me first?” Hua Cheng asked, devotion and danger mixing into a cocktail only Xie Lian could survive drinking.
Xie Lian had been shameless for centuries. He’d learned it because he had to. Because he’d been humiliated too often not to be. But Hua Cheng brought him new shame. He thought it was because Hua Cheng had given him someone he wanted to have again— and therefore something to lose.
To want was a terrifying prospect.
But to get what he wanted… it made being brave worth it.
“I like it when you make them look at you,” he admitted.
He had thought perhaps Hua Cheng would tease, or at least raise an eyebrow, but instead he simply pressed the toe of his boot under the chin of the demon to make it look up. It wasn’t hard. The demon got the hint easily enough, moving from where it had been enduring the cuts on hands and knees to try and sit up seductively again.
“I don’t want it looking at you at all,” he blurted, the words out of his mouth before he could stop them and then, lovely in his danger, Hua Cheng obeyed before he could take them back.
The thin spike of Hua Cheng’s heel drove itself into the demon’s eye, forcing the creature screaming and writhing onto its back, it’s legs still tucked under it as it cried blood, screamed mercy, but ultimately could do nothing to stop the driving of that heel deeper into its skull.
All because Xie Lian had said he didn’t want the flower demon looking at Hua Cheng.
That knowledge shouldn’t have felt as good as it did.
“Both of them,” Xie Lian said, fingers dancing over E’ming possessively. Even though he knew Hua Cheng was already going to for him.
The way Hua Cheng met his eyes as he pulled out his heel to drive it into the other eye socket, hitting dead on even as the demon was trying to run away.
The squish of a popping eyeball was gruesome, even as covered by screams as it was.
Xie Lian had never felt so calm. His grip closed around E’ming’s sheath.
“Open them.”
If it was someone else, they may not have understood. But Hua Cheng did not hesitate to fulfill Xie Lian’s command.
He had known— had heard rumors— of E’ming’s special curse. The way it could reopen any wound it had given no matter how much time had passed. It wasn’t often he got the opportunity to see it though.
Blood splattered as if sucked out of the body and into the air, those thin cuts ripped into something much bigger and pulling a wretched wail out of the demon.
“Wait,” Xie Lian did not look away. He let himself soak in the ruthless efficiency he’d directed his husband in. Let himself smell the stench of blood so heavy he could taste it. His fingers still trembled.
His heart did not waver.
“Did your highness want to be the one to finish it?”
“I will,” Xie Lian spoke evenly. They both did. As though they were not driving a demon to the brink of despair in the way they were toying with it. “Heal the cuts again.”
Hua Cheng did not hesitate to send butterflies to fulfill the command.
The minute it was finished, Xie Lian dragged a hand down E’ming’s sheath. “Open them.”
And so the newly healed skin was once again pulled open.
“PLEASE! MERCY, PLEASE!”
“Again,” Xie Lian ordered, the butterflies descending at his call as though he was their master.
Fighting did not solve anything. Mercy was virtue and second chances should be awarded liberally. Whether ghost or god or demon or human, all deserved a chance because good and evil was not so clear as it might first seem.
But this flower demon had run out of chances. And the sight of such an awful creature suffering fed something Xie Lian did not indulge often. It deserved to be fed. Hua Cheng would happily feed it for him.
“Finish it,” Xie Lian said softly as the butterflies landed again.
“I thought Gege wanted to?”
Xie Lian met his gaze, staring into the clear and unwavering devotion there. Some in Heaven called Hua Cheng his attack dog when they thought Xie Lian couldn’t hear.
They weren’t wrong.
“I am. Isn’t San Lang my blade?”
Hua Cheng’s lashes fluttered.
And the butterflies became a frenzy.
They were so talented.
Xie Lian watched the scene before him. Watched the wraith butterflies earn their reputation as Hua Cheng slowly made his way in front of Xie Lian once more. They finished their gruesome work just as Hua Cheng finished his journey, fluttering out behind him to backlight him in their glow.
“Are you satisfied, your highness?”
Xie Lian leaned in, head resting on his husband’s shoulder as he let the wicked calm and the powerful thrill wash over him just a bit longer. He didn’t have to hide those for this moment. Not over something like the Land of the Tender. Not in front of Hua Cheng. “En.”