Chapter Text
Small puffs of breath. Sounds of rustling sheets. The feeling of a silky texture from the cloth under him. The smell of fresh grass and dew. The sound of warm laughter of two people. The feeling of arms wrapped around his small body.
Those were some of the few things that he suddenly remembered. The memories that have left him feeling all warm and fuzzy as soon as he wakes up from sleep. The first few times it happened, it left him feeling confused and disoriented. At first, he had chalked it up to it being the memories of Dan Feng, but one memory that had appeared in his dreams had him discarding that thought.
In that memory, he had found himself lying belly first on a floor of a living room of sorts. The sound of a bustling kitchen filtered through the room as the sound of humming accompanied the noise. The person had been humming a nostalgic and yet unfamiliar tune. In front of him was a young man with gold cat-like eyes. He seemed to have been watching over Dan Heng and playing with him with a warm smile on his face. The person had opened his mouth to say something but Dan Heng woke up.
The mystery of those memories have kept him up the rest of the night after each appearance. He had started writing everything down every time he had those dreams and despite his best attempts, he could never be able to recreate the images of the figures appearing in the memories. But he knew one thing. These memories of his could probably belong to the first Yinyue-Jun.
All his life, he had been told that the life of Yinyue-Jun had started on the Xianzhou Luofu, but this new set of memories has left him feeling skeptical. Had the Perceptors had a hand in this? Did they change the history of Yinyue-jun so that it would deter his future incarnations from ever finding out where they truly came from? And if so, why? So that they could manipulate the Cloudhymn magic for themselves?
Questions after questions and yet, no answer in sight. For all he knows, the people in those memories are long gone. And yet, the appearance of horns, tails and elongated ears had given him a sliver of hope that their species are long life ones. Going back to Xianzhou to look for answers would be moot. If his theories about the Perceptors were right, then any evidence regarding Yinyue of not being a Xianzhou native is long gone and destroyed already. And even if the first Yinyue-Jun had hidden cues for his next reincarnation to find, he would not know where to look.
The sound of knocking broke Dan Heng out of his deep thinking. Dan Heng turned his head to the door and let out a sigh when he heard it was just both March and Stelle.
“Dan Heng! Wake up! Time for breakfast,” chorused the two in a sing-song voice. “And your husband is here!” Stelle exclaimed before the two burst into a giggling mess.
Despite the slight warmth he was feeling on his cheeks, Dan Heng turned towards the journal where he was writing down his latest set of memories that appeared in his last dream. Closing the book, Dan Heng took one last glance at the page he was working on where it showcases two faceless adults engaged in a dance. One day, he will uncover the truth to these memories and why they are appearing now but for now the Express had guests over and he has a husband to demand cuddles from.
✻
Staring at the photo frame in his hands, the tears that he was desperately holding in dripped down his face. He let out a shaky breath as he wiped his tears away with the heel of his hand. Noticing the gloomy weather, he couldn’t help but feel as if the weather was mocking him for his grief.
“Baobei?” A voice sounded from behind him as a hand was placed on his shoulder. Turning around he came face to face with his husband’s own grief stricken eyes. His husband’s beautiful cor lapis that shone so brightly were darkened with grief on this day.
“Oh , Ajax.” His husband cooed as he brought the other into an embrace. Ajax gripped the back of his husband’s shoulders as he let out a choked sob. He felt his husband’s kiss on the top of his head. “My love. I know,” he says with his own choked sob. “Let it out, baobei. I am right here,” his husband continued in a soothing voice. Ajax sobbed before letting out a gut wrenching wail as he was reminded once again what day it was.
It was the day that their darling boy didn’t come home.
What turned out to be an adventure out in the stars, turned out to be the worst decision any of them could ever have done. At first, they were only a bit worried when he didn’t come back by the deadline but just thought that he was so caught up in his adventures. But when no message of any sort reached them, their worries and fear grew as the years went by. Most of their older children had also ventured out to the stars in search of their missing brother. On the day he was supposed to come home, their children will come home with no news and to grieve with their parents.
“Where is he, Zhongli? Where’s our baby?” Ajax asked with a gut wrenching sob. Zhongli bit his lip and clutched onto Ajax tighter as few tears of his own dripped down his face. The two remained in their embrace as they both cried their hearts out for their child.
For their little moon.
Their Yue.