Work Text:
Hua Cheng had explained to him that, in order to transplant memories and emotions, two conditions had to be met: the first being complete and irrevocable trust in that person, and the second: to fear them deeply and know that they hold absolute power over him.
There were three possibilities: the imperial preceptor of Xianle, Jun Wu and the last one, which only counted for the second criteria, White-No-Face.
Xie Lian had told as much to Hua Cheng and Hua Cheng then asked him a question;
“Is it only those three?”
Xie Lian nodded. This meant that someone among those three had planted within him the Wuyong people’s memories and emotions at the moment of volcanic cataclysm. Hua Cheng mused on it, furrowing his brows.
Xie Lian stayed silent for a while before he suddenly spoke up. “That’s not everyone.”
Hua Cheng turned his head to look at him. “What?”
Xie Lian drew a small breath. “...It’s actually not just those three, there's a fourth person who fulfills the first condition. But I’m certain he has nothing to do with the memories and emotions of the dead.”
Hearing this, Hua Cheng turned toward him completely. “Oh? How do you know? Have Your Highness and this person shared many years of deep friendship?”
Not so many years, Xie Lian thought, but a deep friendship. He believed this person counted, but he was too embarrassed to say it out loud, so he replied ambiguously.
“In any case… he might be the one I trust the most. Even more than my master and Jun Wu.”
“How does that count?” Hua Cheng asked.
Xie Lian lightly cleared his throat. “It’s embarrassing to say,” he said shyly. “Because… if I were to make a grave mistake, or find myself in trouble after upsetting a huge hornets’ nest, he’s the first one I’d think to call… And my trust for him isn’t quite the same as what I have for my master and the Emperor…”
“Different how?” Hua Cheng asked, he looked grim, but when he saw Xie Lian watching him he tried to relax and put on the face he uses when teasing. Xie Lian thought it didn’t look very natural now.
“Ah! Haha! I’m… not sure how to explain, actually…” Xie Lian scratched his rapidly reddening cheek with a finger and looked away.
He couldn’t speak about how he admired and trusted that someone so deeply that he knew for certain that person would never hurt him. Not to the man himself at least!!!
Hua Cheng bowed his head and played with his silver vambraces, “I don’t think gege should trust others so deeply…” He advised.
‘You’re talking about yourself!!’
Instead of blurting that out, he only let out a soft ‘Oh’ and they both resumed their search for Yin Yu.
After a while of walking, Hua Cheng asked, “It’s not Feng Xin, is it?”
Xie Lian had already moved on from the conversation and blinked. “Huh? What?”
“The person gege trusts deeply.” Hua Cheng said.
Xie Lian instantly waved. “Of course not!” What a weird idea!
Hua Cheng’s brows twitched. “It can’t be Mu Qing, right?”
Xie Lian felt a few beads of cold sweat on his temple and waved even harder, “That’s even more impossible. But why is San Lang asking about this again?”
Hua Cheng smiled. “I thought about it, and I think that this fourth person is the most suspicious. So to prevent any surprises, will gege please tell me? Who is this person you trust the most, and with whom you’ve shared many years of deep friendship?”
?!
Hua Cheng had completely assumed!
Hell, he hadn’t known him for a year yet!
“I really don’t think he would have done anything to harm me…” Xie Lian answered instead. “You would know if you knew who he was, I just…” He cleared his throat. It really was hard to say such things to others!!
Especially after having discovered his true feelings for the ghost only a few days ago…
“Then gege should tell me who that person is, right? If only to give your San Lang peace of mind?” Hua Cheng was smiling, but Xie Lian couldn’t help but think it was completely fake.
Maybe it was because of that smile that Xie Lian felt even more inclined to tell the truth. He hated the fact that that fake smile was turned towards him. Usually it was only turned towards others, if Hua Cheng even deigned to smile at them. The smiles he gave Xie Lian were always truthful.
Maybe it was because he said ‘your San Lang’. Making Xie Lian’s heart flutter and jump.
Maybe it was because of the exact reason Hua Cheng was questioning him.
He trusted him. No matter what.
Xie Lian steeled himself and mumbled, his arms crossed and his face heated up.
Hua Cheng leaned closer, with a frown. “What was that gege? I apologize, I didn’t catch that.”
“It’s you!” Xie Lian blurted out embarrassingly loud. He closed his eyes, refusing to look at Hua Cheng.
He could feel the ghost intake a breath he did not need. Xie Lian dared to peek through his lashes to see the ghost king’s reaction and was baffled at the sight.
Hua Cheng was looking at him like he hung the stars and the moon. His mouth was slightly open and his eye wide as a saucer. His arms hung uselessly at his side.
“San Lang…?” Xie Lian hesitated, Hua Cheng looked far away, “is everything okay? Please don’t take it to heart if it makes you uncomfortable-! I- the last thing I want is for you to feel awkward around me…” Xie Lian was starting to panic a little, almost never before had he seen Hua Cheng speechless.
He felt a weight lift from his shoulders when Hua Cheng finally blinked and exhaled the breath he had inhaled earlier.
“Gege needn’t worry, this San Lang could never be uncomfortable around you.” The ghost said. Before Xie Lian could tell him he was glad and move on, (he would burst into an embarrassed puddle soon for sure.) Hua Cheng stopped him with a raised hand, “please, let me say this, Your Highness.”
Xie Lian nodded, he felt that Hua Cheng really needed to say what he wanted to and so did not refuse him.
“Your Highness, this one could not be happier to hear that you feel like you can trust him with all your heart. I feel it is only fair that I tell you how I feel myself.” Xie Lian sucked in a breath and bit his bottom lip.
This sounded like…
“I trust no one in this world as much as I trust gege, not even the trust I have in myself is as strong as the one I hold for you.” Hua Cheng was speaking in earnest, a hand above his unbeating heart. His singular eye was gleaming with something that had always been left unspoken about between them.
Xie Lian was sure he had the same look in his eyes.
“San Lang… you…” Xie Lian wasn’t sure what to say, he was about to laugh and say ‘I’m glad San Lang trusts me! Anyways, let's continue searching!’ in the hope of slowing his rapidly beating heart down, when he heard thumbing sounds further down the streets.
Hua Cheng frowned and swiftly took him by the waist, moving to hide them both in a dark alleyway.
Xie Lian was greeted by Hua Cheng’s strong chest pressed to his nose and a wall against his back. Hua Cheng had put his hand between the wall and Xie Lian skull to protect him if he accidentally bumped against the bricks, the other was still holding onto his waist.
Xie Lian held back a gasp, not wanting the stranger that was walking the street of Wuyong to hear him and find their hiding place, but it was very hard not to!!!!
‘Why do you always awaken at the worst times?!?!” He cried mentally to a certain part of himself that had been dormant for centuries. At least, right up until he had entered that coffin with Hua Cheng. His eyes were closed tightly, but when the thumping sound approached he opened them out of curiosity.
Hua Cheng was glaring at the empty street, and then Xie Lian realised those thumping sounds were very familiar…
Just when he realised this, Xuan Ji passed by the alleyway, not even casting a glance towards it. She was holding Guzi in her arms and a green ghost fire was hanging above her head, casting her in a green hue.
It wasn’t long before she had passed and the sounds of thumping faded away.
Neither man moved, but then Hua Cheng looked back towards him.
Their gaze caught and they froze again.
Xie Lian was looking up at Hua Cheng nervously and it seemed like the other was just as nervous.
“We should follow them, Qi Rong is probably around too if she and Guzi are here.” Hua Cheng broke the silence, his voice sounded choked. Despite his words, he did not move.
“Yeah.” Xie Lian breathed, not making any move either.
Hua Cheng’s head lowered slightly, inching closer to Xie Lian’s own, but then he stopped.
Xie Lian hadn’t dared to hope before, how could Hua Cheng ever love him back? What did Xie Lian have to offer to him other than bad food and meek company?
But the look in Hua Cheng’s eye dared him. It was asking him to hope, because it held hope itself.
Xie Lian drew in a shaky breath as he brought his arms up to hug the ghost’s neck. Hua Cheng gasped almost imperceptibly, which made Xie Lian lower his gaze to those plump lips for a second. He licked his own as he forced his gaze back up quickly.
“Your Highness…” Hua Cheng breathed, was that awe in his voice? Xie Lian could almost believe it.
He titled his chin up, “San Lang.” He said in the same tone.
Once again, Hua Cheng lowered his head. Their noses would touch if he only moved up only by a centimeter.
Xie Lian gulped and did just that, stretching his neck up.
He felt Hua Cheng quiver and the ghost’s eye almost closed when their noses touched, but he was still looking at him through a lidded gaze.
Unable to wait any longer, Xie Lian tugged the ghost down and crashed their lips together clumsily. Hua Cheng made a surprised noise, only after a few seconds did he relax in the kiss.
Hua Cheng moved to fully hug Xie Lian’s waist and pressed him impossibly close.
Xie Lian keened in surprise only to then tighten his own arms around the ghost’s neck. If this had happened a few weeks ago, Xie Lian would have been very nervous about his technique as he deepened their kiss.
Now, though, he felt nervous for another reason. He had had plenty of practice with heated kisses when Mont Tonglu had opened. The reason he felt so faint was that Hua Cheng was lucid this time around. What if he hated it?
But Hua Cheng only whined and pushed against his mouth with just as much fervor, if not more. When Xie Lian hesitantly darted out his tongue to lick at Hua Cheng’s lips, the ghost gasped and pulled back.
He didn’t go far, their lips were still touching. Xie Lian was a little sad he had pulled away, but took this as an opportunity to breathe again.
Their eyes met once again.
“Your Highness,” Hua Cheng whispered, “is this- I mean, are you-?” Hua Cheng looked like a fish out of water as he opened and closed his mouth, his eye wide and unblinking in a way only a ghost can.
Xie Lian understood what the ghost king was asking;
Is this okay?
He answered by leaning up to crash their lips back together, Hua Cheng only whined once again and clutched his waist harder. Xie Lian did not waste any time to lick the other’s mouth open, when he was met with a pliant mouth, he could only move one of his hands up to grip at Hua Cheng’s dark hair as he angled their heads to the side.
Hua Cheng’s tongue met his and began a dance of push and pull. Xie Lian was thrilled to realise that he was in charge this time, Hua Cheng had been taken too off-guard to properly lead like he had during the ghost rut.
Xie Lian found this positively thrilling as he continued to kiss the ghost, only spurred on further by the almost impossible to hear moans and whimpers he let out.
Sadly for them both, Xie Lian was still human and very much did need air. He pulled away and touched their foreheads together.
They looked at each other quietly, the only sound being Xie Lian’s panting breath.
“Was I right?” The god broke the silence after a few more minutes.
Hua Cheng licked his lips and frowned, “about what, gege?”
“That you would never hurt me.” Xie Lian explained.
Hua Cheng sighed and buried his face in Xie Lian’s shoulder, tracing an arm up and down Xie Lian’s back. “I would never do anything that could harm my beloved.” He whispered.
Xie Lian’s breath caught and he clutched the man’s shoulders even harder, “I wouldn’t do it to my beloved either.” He could feel tears in his eyes as he smiled the brightest smile he had in over eight hundred years.
Hua Cheng choked on his shoulder, “gege has a beloved…?”
Was he…?
“Silly ghost, you are my beloved just as much as I am yours.” But then an unpleasant thought popped in his head; what if he wasn’t Hua Cheng beloved?
“That- that is, I’m your beloved? Right? I, um, assumed b-because-”
Before he could explain further, lips sealed over his and officially erased all his doubts.
“There is no one else in this world that holds my heart like you and there never will be, Your Highness.” Hua Cheng was solemn, his voice winded and a tear clung to his eyelash.
“I’m glad, San Lang needs to know that I feel the same, okay?” Xie Lian answered, wiping that tear away as his own fell, caught quickly by the ghost king’s gentle thumb.
“Your Highness will be the death of me.” Hua Cheng breathed and Xie Lian smiled.
“I’ll never let death separate us.” Xie Lian answered.
“Neither will I.” It was the last thing they said before their lips met again, gentler, this time.
Again and again, until it wasn’t enough and they lost themselves in the throes of passion.