Work Text:
No one expected remnants of divinity to act up once they had freed Amphoreus.
On returning back to the Express, their godhood shed, Caelus, March and Dan Heng were ready for everything to go back to normal. They will continue their daily lives as they prepare for the next warp jump to wherever the trailblaze takes them. March will try to pawn her duties off to someone else, only for Caelus to trick her into doing double duty. Dan Heng will continue to organize the data bank while slowly adding in everything they've learned of Amphoreus. Caelus will prowl around the Express as he always does, somehow finishing his duties in time before he goes to bother their poor conductor.
There will be no mastery over time. There will be no whispers of the earth delicately calling out. There will be no shouldering of burdens far too great for a mere mortal.
There will just be Caelus, March and Dan Heng.
Which is why the Astral Express had to make an immediate pitstop at the Xianzhou Luofu when something happened and Dan Heng had fallen mysteriously ill. He refused to move from the data bank, body cold and skin clammy. His face was flushed, brows furrowed in agony and more importantly whenever Caelus tried to leave to go fetch water or medicine Dan Heng would throw an uncharacteristic fit. He kept Caelus' coat clenched in a white knuckle grip, a pitiful whine escaping his mouth. When Dan Heng fell asleep and Caelus thought it safe to leave he woke up and dragged Caelus back down onto the futon.
"Please grab Bailu," Caelus tells March as she peeks her head into the data bank to tell them that they've arrived at the Luofu.
"That's the plan," she says. March notices how Caelus is currently crowded against the wall that forms the head of Dan Heng's "bed." In Caelus' lap, wrapped tight around him, is Dan Heng who is fast asleep but still shivering. "Has he gotten worse or…?"
Caelus shakes his head, "He's still about the same but a little clingier. A lot more sluggish, too."
March frowns. "I'll ask Pom Pom to bring you some food and medicine for Dan Heng. We'll try to be as fast as we can getting Miss Bailu here."
"Thanks a ton."
"You gotta do some of my chores for a week, by the way," March says. "I've been doing all of your work while you're here being an oversized plush for Dan Heng."
Caelus, eloquently, sticks his tongue out at March. She just laughs, skipping down the hall. The door closes quietly behind her once again leaving Caelus in the dim light of the data bank with Dan Heng. The other man shifts in his arms, gently moving up to press his ear to Caelus' chest. "You're not going to hear anything, y'know," Caelus murmurs. "I've got nothing but a mass of heat and energy there."
"…but it still pulses like a heartbeat," Dan Heng whispers.
"So you were awake."
Dan Heng curls up closer to Caelus in response. He truly does look miserable, Caelus notes. His eyes, though closed, still look sunken in and his skin paler than usual. Dan Heng has long since given up on keeping his normal appearance. His horns glow in the soft blue light of the data bank's floor, his tail swishing back and forth in agitation. Dan Heng's hair, now long, sticks to his sweaty skin and is tangled. There's not even a flush to Dan Heng's skin to indicate a fever. All of the body heat he has he's leeched from Caelus' furnace of a body.
"They'll bring Bailu over as fast as they can and then we'll figure out what's wrong," Caelus says. He tries to move his body a little to get comfortable only to have Dan Heng squeeze tight around him. "'m not going anywhere, promise."
"But you've almost died on me twice now," Dan Heng says. "Stay."
"My legs are falling asleep," Caelus tries to argue.
Dan Heng answers by moving them both onto their sides, face to face, and immediately burrowing his head against Caelus' chest. Dan Heng purposefully tangles their legs together. Caelus wraps his arms around Dan Heng in return, cocooning him in warmth and love. "…I keep dreaming of our first journey together," Dan Heng says.
Caelus hums.
"The cold of Belobog feels too real and I keep chasing after you through the Fragmentum."
"So it was a nightmare."
"They're always nightmares."
Caelus feels the way Dan Heng's fingers curl against his shirt to tether himself. Dan Heng never rests easy. Caelus knows that. His subconscious is haunted by his past, by his trauma, by every single thing that Dan Heng holds close to his chest as to not worry all of them. Dan Heng has to be strong. He has to be steady. He is the guard of the Astral Express, their defender, and he cannot show weakness or fear. It is—was—a self imposed loneliness that Dan Heng has only recently learned to let go of.
But ghosts do not disappear so easily. Caelus knows that all too well. "Did you dream of Cocolia stabbing me?" Caelus asks.
Dan Heng sucks in a deep breath. "You never woke up. Just like when we first landed in Amphoreus. Just like I was so afraid of when I found you submerged in the memoria."
The breath Dan Heng lets out is shaky.
"I was scared. I'm still scared. You are so fragile despite the airs you put on."
"I'm not that fragile," Caelus insists. "I'm broader than you, ya know! I have more bulk, too." But Dan Heng is still stronger. Dan Heng still has better battle sense than Caelus. No matter how sturdy Caelus is built, how many hits he can take, to a Vidyadhara he is still painfully mortal. Dan Heng's silence tells Caelus everything he needs to know. "Sorry," Caelus murmurs.
Dan Heng remains quiet.
Caelus runs through everything he could say in his head. Silly jokes, soothing words, all are pointless in the face of Dan Heng's paradoxical grief. Caelus did not spend one thousand years in a horrid simulation, latching onto every little hope, trying to find a lost friend. He does not know of the harrowing ordeals that Dan Heng went through while holding fast onto every single memory. Then, to just wake up as if everything was normal, as if Caelus didn't die almost twice and that ages of suffering, cycles upon cycles of pain, never happened?
Words are empty.
Words are not enough.
Caelus kisses the top of Dan Heng's head.
Death is no stranger to Caelus. He has forgotten everything once and perhaps in the future he will forget again. Cocolia ran him through and sent him to that empty space between realms where Qlipoth gazed upon him. He witnessed the Watchmaker's death and donned his hat, the rest of the Nameless by his side, to defeat the honeyed dreams of the Order. He died twice in Amphoreus, once from the force of Nikador's spear and again when he shed his mortality to take on the mantle of Worldbearing. Death is always at Caelus' side. "Death" even rests in his chest, nestled in his ribs and bringing that pulsating comfort that Dan Heng needs to hear.
Caelus does not say this to Dan Heng. He keeps the thoughts to himself and lets Dan Heng take all the comfort that he needs. As sick and delirious as he is he doesn't need Caelus' macabre views to drag him down even further.
"Oh, am I interrupting something?" a playful voice whispers from the doorway. Caelus hadn't even heard the door open, too lost in his thoughts. He looks up to see Bailu tip toe her way in. Her voice had been light but the expression on her face is full of concern.
"You're not."
Caelus waves her over. When Bailu is close enough he ruffles her hair, enough to make her frown and smack at his hand. "Stop it, I'm here on official business," she says. "March came with Mister Welt and Miss Himeko. They told me what's going on." Bailu delicately touches Dan Heng's shoulder. "Dan Heng, is it alright if I ask you to lay on your back so I can give you an examination?"
Dan Heng tries to hide further into Caelus.
"Come on, you heard the doctor," Caelus says. "This is really unlike you. Think of how much March will tease you once I tell her about this."
Reluctantly, Dan Heng finally allows Caelus to let him go. When he rolls onto his back he looks far too disgruntled. It's cute. Caelus can't resist reaching out to pinch at Dan Heng's nose, which earns him another irritated smack—this time from Dan Heng himself. "Alright, let's see…" Bailu gets to work, puttin her hand against Dan Heng's forehead. She even looks at his eyes and the inside of his mouth before making a motion with her hand that Caelus can't quite figure out. Briefly, Dan Heng's body glows until Bailu is done with her examination. When she's finished she's frowning.
"It's an excess of power," she says. "I don't know what happened recently but he has far too much energy built up inside his body. It's perhaps too much. Did you guys do something recently? Like a super intense fight?"
"Super intense" is one way of putting it.
"Did you hear about the fight against a Lord Ravager?" Caelus asks.
"…I helped treat those who survived," Bailu says. "Don't tell me…"
"It's a long story, but we were there."
"Then whatever you did, Dan Heng hasn't expelled the rest of the energy from it yet." Bailu pats at Dan Heng's cheek. "It's still a bit early so it's not life threatening but the weight of it is blocking important meridians. He just needs a large, empty space to let it all out."
Caelus' face twists in confusion, "I…don't think I know of a big, empty place that's close by."
"Oh, that's the easiest part!" Bailu chirps. "Just leave it to me!"
*****
"Scalegorge?"
In hindsight, Caelus should have expected it. Bailu's not really been allowed off planet and her usual haunts on the Luofu are crowded with people. In Scalegorge, there's empty coastline that goes on for miles and vast expanses of water. It's perfect for a Vidyadhara to let any excess power loose. Caelus adjusts the hold he has on Dan Heng. The only hard part had been getting Dan Heng to move from the Express all the way to Scalegorge.
He still refused to let Caelus go and on top of that had decided Bailu couldn't go either. It had taken a lot of coaxing until they reached a compromise. The compromise being that Caelus carry him—piggyback—to Scalegorge while his tail curled loosely around Bailu's hand in lieu of proper handholding. Now that they're here Caelus tries to gently let Dan Heng down.
Predictably, Dan Heng does not move.
"Dan Heng," Caelus says.
"Mmm."
"Dan Heng, we're here."
Dan Heng clings tighter to Caelus. Caelus gives Bailu a pleading look. He's never really had to deal with this before. Betweem the two of them it's usually Caelus who is the clingy one. Bailu laughs at him. "If you don't want to let go of Caelus you can still let that power out, Dan Heng!" she says. "It's quite easy. Just focus on what—"
Bailu doesn't even finish the sentence.
There's a golden flash of light that fills the area, the water surging up and around Dan Heng and Caelus. Caelus closes his eyes and holds his breath, hoping to not drown in the sudden tide. When his lungs start burning and it gets far too difficult Caelus opens his mouth in a gasp and sucks in a deep breath. He half expects water to start flooding in. Nothing does. He just gets the salty taste of the air and a tinge of something else.
"I—I—oh, goodness—"
Why does Bailu sound so distant.
Cautiously, Caelus opens one eye to see what's going on. The first thing he notices is that he's…higher up than he once was. The second thing he notices is that he's cradled close to something soft, something a little plush, that he's felt numerous times before. Caelus opens his other eye to finally take in what is happening. He can see further across the waters than before, he's definitely higher than before, and when he looks down he sees that he's being held in a giant hand.
…a giant hand?
Caelus turns around and looks up, up, up into Dan Heng's face. He looks to be a combination of his Imbibitor Lunae form and Terravox form. There is the brilliant gold color of Terravox's horns over the clear, curved horns of Imbibitor Lunae. Trailing behind Dan Heng is his tail, solid and real and colored teal. Dan Heng's hair is still long and his outfit as Imbibitor Lunae looks to be the same save for some added attachments that seem to come from Terravox. The alarming thing, however, is how big Dan Heng currently is.
"I…I'm sorry," Dan Heng says. There's a flush to his cheeks. "Bailu said to focus on that power and…well…perhaps because I am so close to where I was originally from…"
"Can you crush me?" Caelus blurts out.
That gets him an appalled look from Dan Heng who immediately starts tearing up on hearing those words. Caelus starts panicking, backpedaling as fast as he can. "Shit, I mean, uh, no, don't do that, you look great even as a giant dragon, really beautiful still, god I really shouldn't have said that after you were so afraid of me dying!" Caelus nervously looks down for Bailu who shakes her head. She's absolutely not getting involved, especially when it's Caelus' fault. "Can you bring me up to your face, please?" Caelus ends up asking.
Dan Heng obliges, though there's still tears in the corners of his eyes. Caelus leans forward and places a kiss on the bridge of Dan Heng's nose. Or tries. Dan Heng is pretty huge right now and Caelus is still normal sized. But the kiss is enough and Dan Heng coos at Caelus. Soft lips press against Caelus' body, practically toppling him over as Dan Heng returns the kiss as best as he can.
"Get a room!" Bailu shouts from below. Dan Heng is a bit too lost in showing Caelus affection. It seems with releasing all that excess power Dan Heng also let go of any inhibitions he had. Or at least the firm hold he had on his emotions. Caelus wonders if this is just a side effect.
"So, how long does he have to stay like this?" Caelus shouts back once Dan Heng has finished kissing him. It seems he's now just content with holding Caelus in his palms, soft purrs escaping him and his tail coiled around him in contentment.
"Give him about an hour or two," Bailu answers. "And get ready to be smothered. Whatever was causing that excess of power to build up influenced him just a bit too much."
"Wait, how smothered are we—"
Caelus doesn't get to finish before Dan Heng brings him up for another kiss and a nuzzle. Two hours of this isn't so bad, Caelus thinks as he pats at Dan Heng's cheek and returns the kiss when he can. It's not any different than when Dan Heng kept him pinned in the data bank.
"Must be nice to be so loved," Bailu comments as she watches Caelus scramble to survive another wave of affection from Dan Heng. Though, she does wonder what happened during their fight with the Lord Ravager. It's not her place to question them. When they're ready they'll tell her. She sneaks off, knowing that she's no longer needed. The two are far too caught up in each other to notice so she makes a mental note to send Caelus the bill via text. She'll get as much food out of him as she can.
"Hey, so—hold on Dan Heng—so since Bailu said you needed to release an excess of power do you think this is remnants of…?"
"The coreflame?"
"Yeah."
Dan Heng stops to think. "Most likely," he answers. "If Cyrene was tied as closely to the Remembrance as we theorized, when she stored all of Amphoreus in your book there could have been some remnants left on us."
"So this," here, Caelus gestures to Dan Heng's giant body, "is all Terravox?"
"Some of it," Dan Heng says. "The rest of it is still me."
"Oh. Man, I hope me or March don't go through that. I don't think we can have a proper outlet like you…"
"You can." Dan Heng starts nuzzling at Caelus again. "You both are strong. You can do anything." He follows it up with another kiss. "But I hope it never comes to that. I don't want to potentially lose you from that."
Caelus opens his mouth to once again assure Dan Heng that he's strong but it's stopped by another kiss, then another, until Caelus is once again stuck under an onslaught of affection. Bailu shouldn't have left so early. Caelus still never got an answer of how smothered he's going to get. There are worse ways to go, Caelus thinks. Far, far worse ways to go.
Hours later, Dan Heng and Caelus come stumbling back into the Express. Dan Heng looks healthier than he had been and Caelus …
"Did you get hit by a starskiff or something?" March asks. "You look horrible."
Caelus' clothes and hair is disheveled, his coat slung over his arm due to a tear thanks to one of Dan Heng's claws, and the collar of his white shirt is stretched so badly it hangs loosely off of a muscled shoulder. Dan Heng himself looks perfectly fine. Not a hair out of place and clothes normal. Caelus doesn't even know if he has the heart to tell March he spent upwards to three hours getting kissed and snuggled by a giant version of Dan Heng.
"Bailu made me go through hell to get things to help Dan Heng," Caelus answers instead.
"She could have asked me for help, too," March says.
"It was too dangerous for the cutest girl in the universe," Caelus throws back.
Dan Heng coughs into his fist.
"Hey, I survived Amphoreus with you all! I faced the Lord Ravager! Nothing is too dangerous for me!"
As Caelus and March continue to squabble, Dan Heng quietly threads his fingers between Caelus'. What March doesn't know won't hurt her, Caelus thinks. At least until Dan Heng is ready to admit what happened in Scalegorge to her.
Still, who thought the remnants of divinity could do that to Dan Heng? Caelus is kind of hoping it doesn't happen to him.