Work Text:
Fang Duobing was visited by beauty in his dream.
It was just a pair of eyes in the dark, peering at him.
They were the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. They were dark and sweet and soulful, like deep ponds you wanted to sink into. Beautiful long and dense lashes framed them, straight strong brows added quiet expression to the beauty.
It had been the village of the skull cult where he had first really looked into those eyes and become stuck as if in molasses.
He had become stuck, and then his heart had jumped as it had back when Li Lianhua had first landed on his table, seeking protection.
He had stepped back from A-Fei, and gasped, and put his hand to his mouth, but the damage was done, his heart was touched, and all he had thought he’d known about the man was reversed, once again.
How could evil have such beautiful eyes? Why did eyelashes like that exist, on a man like that?
Did his beauty make him less evil?
Could Fang Duobing see that beauty because the man had never been evil to begin with?
Was the A-Fei they had met in the weeks before that pivotal moment the real person, or was it Di Feisheng, demon lord of the evil sect?
If evil, then why such beautiful eyelashes -- Fang Duobing had thought, his brain thoroughly disengaged, at that moment in the village of Shishou.
He was waking up now, many weeks had passed, and still there were those lovely eyes to ponder.
For a few hours, everything had been so right between the three of them in that place of evil and wrongness -- when Li Lianhua extended his hands to both of them to help him up, it had been so right and well and promising; the future he was dreaming of with Li Lianhua would be a future with A-Fei as well. Li Lianhua needed them both, one on each side.
It helped enormously that A-Fei had such beautiful eyelashes.
It wasn’t long until they found the truth about A-Fei, who had never been evil, just wanted his freedom as any person would; but those eyes looking up at him in the room in Shishou started it all.
There was a hiss, and then a light wiped away the darkness from which A-Fei’s eyes had been gazing out of Fang Duobing’s dream-addled memory.
“I can hear you think in the dark, Xiaobao,” Li Lianhua’s voice said from right beside his ear. “You are a worrier; but trust me, we will deal with this, too. What is it?”
Fang Duobing saw Li Lianhua’s pale arm reach out to light a candle, which cast a soft glow over the inside of the Lotus Lodge, where they had fallen asleep on Li Lianhua’s bed after drinking, and talking, and just kissing a little.
Li Lianhua sat up; his hair was in a braid for sleep, a braid that Fang Duobing had woven himself despite being tipsy, so it was a bit crooked.
“Nothing bad,” Fang Duobing said. “I was just thinking about A-Fei’s eyelashes.”
Li Lianhua laughed. “That is what you think of in my bed?” he said, shaking his head. “Really? Xiaobao?”
Fang Duobing sputtered, but Li Lianhua reached out to poke him.
“It’s fine,” he said. “They are very, very beautiful eyelashes. I like to think about them often, too.”
“Why isn’t he here?” Fang Duobing said, surprising himself. “He should be here as well. He just brought the flower and went. He should be with us; you need us both.”
“I’m glad you think so,” Li Lianhua said, getting up from the bed. “We should drink water.”
He went over to the kitchen to fill a carafe, and brought two cups. He poured for himself, sitting on the edge of the bed; then he handed the carafe and the second cup to Fang Duobing, who had sat up as well in the meanwhile, perching cross-legged on the bed in his under-robes.
Fang Duobing drank some water.
“Why do you think he left?”
Li Lianhua sighed.
“He told me to meet him at the East Sea for our final fight,” he said. “Simply staying here and arriving with me on the day would be a bit anticlimactic, wouldn’t it? He will not see me until our promise is fulfilled.”
Fang Duobing smiled to himself. Di Feisheng could be very dramatic; of course he would meet Li Lianhua in front of everyone, fight, and once one had won, they could make peace, swear to each other, and carry on with their lives together.
Lives that would include Fang Duobing. They would not abandon him again. Li Lianhua needed them both, after all.
They would swear to each other as three brothers, and whatever they did afterwards would be their own business. It was like a wedding, only with swords.
“We will see him again, and then, he won’t have to leave us again,” Fang Duobing said softly, drinking the next little cup of water before pouring for Li Lianhua again.
“You’ll be able to look into his beautiful eyes every day,” Li Lianhua promised, before putting the carafe and cups aside. “But now, let’s try and sleep some more, shall we? The next few days will be daunting.”
He reached out to pull Fang Duobing close and kiss him before blowing out the candle.
Once the Wangchuan flower took effect, there would be more than kisses and snuggling again, Fang Duobing thought as he pulled Li Lianhua close again, in the dark.
It wasn’t that important. But Di Feisheng deserved it, for his beautiful eyelashes. He deserved a whole Li Liahua who could fight him and love him and follow his invisible path through the air.
***
Beautiful eyelashes, huh? Li Lianhua thought in the ensuing darkness. It was good to know that Xiaobao had seen through it all, that he had it in him.
It would make things so much easier.
Li Lianhua remembered the first time he had seen Di Feisheng -- long after Di Feisheng had seen him first, when he had been sword-dancing in the moonlight on the roofs of Yangzhou.
He had seen a strong, handsome man, tall and broad-shouldered, with long, long legs built for qinggong, and big hands made for the sword.
And in his handsome face, the most beautiful eyes that Li Xiangyi had ever seen on any man or woman, soft and dark and sweet, with insanely long and dense eyelashes.
The long legs and broad hands commanded respect, but the sweet eyes were what Li Xiangyi wanted to make peace for. They were the reason he wanted to look into this man’s face again and again; he wanted to see them close when LI Xiangyi would kiss him, lashes casting shadows over the high cheekbones in the lamplight of the chamber they would share. He wanted to see those eyes blown wide with pleasure, screwed shut with ecstasy.
And for a precious few times, Li Xiangyi had seen all that; and Li Lianhua had seen it again, ten years later.
Now, he could trust that Fang Duobing would go on seeing it in his stead. Xiabao had looked into the sweet eyes of A-Fei and seen the true beauty there.
His men would have each other. They would be well. There was no cause to worry now.
Li Lianhua would not have to regret the outcome, which in any case would no longer include himself.