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Dan Heng believed him and Caelus would be together forever. In the short 2 years of knowing each other and 10 months of dating, Dan Heng had grown attached to Caelus in a way he’d never felt before. It felt odd, at first. The warm, fuzzy feeling he’d get in his gut when he brushed shoulders with Caelus, or how his heart would start pounding when the other smiled at him. He was positive he was going nuts, although he eventually learned from March 7th that actually he’d fallen in love. She giggled when she realized he’d never had feelings for another person before.
That night he March explained what he felt he stayed up thinking, he thinking about love. Love was an odd thing. It can make another feel like they’re on top of the world, or it can make them feel sorrow and pain in every way, shape and form.
To Dan Heng, he felt so much more alive after he’d dated Caelus.
Whenever Caelus saw Dan Heng in his Vidyadhara form, the rare times he agreed to show it to his boyfriend, the beam in his eyes at the beauty he saw in Dan Heng made him feel like his own person. It reminded him he wasn’t Dan Feng’s shadow. From that day on Dan Heng knew, ‘This is it, I know he’s the one I’ll grow old with.”
Dan Heng truly believed they’d be together forever.
Caelus excitedly led Dan Heng to the train car they would be flying to Amphoreus, rambling on to his boyfriend about his curiosity for what this new world would be like, especially because so little was known about it.
“What do you think the people’ll be like? What if everythings upside-down? Or sideways? Do you think the people are gonna be upside-down? Since, y’know, Amphoreus itself is kinda shaped weirdly. Or do you think that bright light radiating from the center is the planet? What even is the bright light coming from Amphoreous? ” Caelus asked enthusiastically as he practically bombarded Dan Heng with questions he had no answers to. Even after spending the entire night before digging through the database of the Archives, as expected, he found practically nothing. It wasn’t all too surprising considering Akivili THEMSELVES never discovered the planet. Caelus sat down beside Dan Heng in the train car, reaching to hold his hand tightly, Caelus’ hands warm and a bit clammy from sweat in contrast to Dan Heng’s constantly freezing ones. Before Dan Heng could even think of how to answer Caelus’ questions, the pair heard Pom-Pom’s voice from the speaker.
“We’ll be sending you two off shortly!” Pom-Pom said, “If possible, tell us when you land, alright? Pom-Pom hopes you two have fun!” They exclaimed, the countdown beginning shortly after.
The screen in front of them flickered to life, the seconds ticking down on it;
T-minus, 10
9
8
7
6
5…
Dan Heng felt Caelus’ grip on his hand tighten as the countdown kept ticking down to 4…
3
2
1
And then they were off. Dan Heng felt adrenaline rush through him and the grip of Caelus’ on his hand loosen, knowing he had most likely passed out, yet Dan Heng kept their fingers intertwined, holding his hand firmly. Caelus’ odd condition of losing consciousness whenever they would warp worried Dan Heng but there was little he could do but be there for him and hold his hand, and Dan Heng did just that.
The galaxy looked oddly blank, in a way. There were only a few distant stars in the empty vacuum of space.
Dan Heng sat quietly with the unconscious grey-head as the train car drifted through the galaxy as they approached Amphoreous.
—
There was a bright light coming from the figure 8 looking planet, blinding Dan Heng and before he knew it, they had broken through Amphoreous’ atmosphere. There was fog and haze, it was fairly dark, it seemed quite rocky. Dan Heng noticed a few tall rock formations, seemingly mountains. It seemed normal when they initially entered. Dan Heng imagined it looking more warped and… odd for lack of a better word — considering the infinity shape of the planet and the mysterious bright light from the center of it but he pushed the thought to the side. He glanced at Caelus who was still unawakened. Dan Heng assumed he wouldn’t be awake till they landed and let him be, placing a gentle kiss on his raccoons dry hand. The screen in front of Dan Heng showed how close they were to landing and he watched intently. The train was on a steady path and Dan Heng assumed they’d land fine since everything seemed fine.
Until there was a sudden fwoosh!
Dan Heng heard a loud whoosh and before he knew it, something had pierced right through the train car with a loud boom, as if a bomb has just gone off.
“Caelus—!” Dan Heng exclaimed as the metal car crash landed through the clouds and slammed into a temple-like building, fire spreading. A loud ringing in Dan Heng’s ears was all he could hear when he opened his eyes and all he could see was the flames consuming the train car, choking on the burning smell. He was unsure of how long he’d been knocked out but thankfully it didn’t seem like long. As of now, his main priority was making sure he and Caelus were safe. His head felt like it was splitting in half, his whole body aching in pain, his eyes drooping and threatening to shut. As he forced himself to stay awake, fearing of what would happen if he closed his eyes, Dan Heng glanced to his side, noticing Caelus’ limp body leaking a flowing, thick crimson liquid from his side and he immediately felt his heart stop. No. No, no, no, no, no.
Dan Heng dragged his boyfriend out of the burning train car, to the side. His hands trembled uncontrollably, similar to how the ground shook when an earthquake struck as he lifted Caelus’ unconscious body to a clearer area nearby. His sleeves and clothes were stained and soaked with blood.
He took a deep breath, just focus on keeping him awake. As long as he’s awake, he’ll be alright. It’s Caelus, he’ll always be alright.
Or so Dan Heng thought.
“Caelus? Caelus, Caelus, ar—” Dan Heng choked on his words, fear looming over him noticing how pale Caelus seemed. His fingers pressed against his lovers neck, he couldn’t feel a pulse. Now he was really panicking. He got a good look at Caelus’ injuries now that his body was essentially splayed out in front of him. His organs were practically spilling out from his side along with a waterfall of blood, draining out of his body because of whatever hit the train car in the first place. Dan Heng felt nauseous as he simply stared at his practically dead lover’s body. His trembling hands moved to Caelus’ chest, Dan Heng pumping his arms and performing CPR. He knew it wouldn’t do anything but he had to do something! He thought he heard a crack but he kept going, bringing his lips to Caelus’, blowing air in to hopefully resuscitate him but to no avail.
“Caelus? Caelus, Caelus please , this— this isn’t funny—” Dan Heng practically begged, trying to maybe shake Caelus to wake him up — though he already knew well nothing would happen. Dan Heng’s vision blurred, hot tears streaming down his face he tried his hardest to blink back slowly streaming down his face. He kept going, doing anything and everything he could, praying to any Aeon above to wake up Caelus. Please, please, not him…! Don’t take him away…! Why…? Why couldn’t it be me?! Dan Heng thought to himself as everything suddenly went dark, something hitting his head hard as he groaned in pain.
—
When Dan Heng woke up his head throbbed, eyes puffy, bodying aching and clothes stained red. How long was I asleep…? Where am I, what’s happening? Are the others okay? Where’s everyone else? Dan Heng asked himself. The whole world felt like it was spinning, his vision taking a few moments to focus.
When he sat up he saw Caelus limp, dead body sitting in front of him. It all came back to him. A part of the left side of Caelus’ body was practically gone, having been stabbed from whatever large object hit them. His intestines sat outside of his body, leaking out onto the ground. Dan Heng could even see bits of his ribcage and lungs revealed. The sight sickened him yet made him want to shred his skin to bits and bawl his eyes out at the same time, guilt slowly eating him up. He was the Express’ guard, yet he couldn’t protect the one he loved the most?
Caelus’ skin was pale, the stone beneath them a darker shade of grey as it soaked in the spilled blood from his body, a puddle of it surrounding him. Dan Heng stopped and simply stared at his lovers body so full of life actively being drained of it. Dan Heng slapped himself, hit, punch, anything to wake him up from this unfortunately real nightmare as he bawled his eyes out with muffled sobs. This— this could not be happening. He stared down at his bloody hands that held his lover’s just moments ago.
There was no way Caelus was dead.