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The curtains had gone xanthic with time. Probably San should replace them with new, white ones instead. But these curtains had been with him for over one hundred years. To replace them would feel like losing an old friend to a slowly creeping illness. And San had already lost so many friends.
"Why should I remain while everyone around me passes on?" San asked, gently running his fingers over the old fabric. "If I were not a mutant…"
But it wasn't just his mutant status. Many of his children and grandchildren and great grandchildren had also possessed an active mutant gene, but none of them had his long life. Sound and light manipulation. Animal communication. Telekinesis. But not San's healing factor that prevented his aging.
He remembered Wat. She had not known of his ability and had rushed him to medical care when he had been attacked by anti-mutant, anti-Chinese forces. She was kind and beautiful and not a mutant, and San had loved her dearly. If she had been a mutant, would she still be with San today? Or would she have died long ago, leaving him just as alone as a bullet had?
"Regardless," San said, "I will wait for you to come back to me."
"Great grandfather!" Ju called up the stairs, interrupting San's thoughts. Sparkles filtered under his door as she transformed her sound waves into light waves. "Dinner is ready!"
With a sigh, San stepped away from his bedroom window and headed for the door. His great granddaughter was so flashy.
…
…
Vee was not what San expected, but he had asked Tao to check with the goddess time after time and the answer came back the same. This young man was the reincarnation of Wat.
He didn't want to believe it at first. Vee was not delicate and sweet like Wat had been. He was loud and opinionated, like most youth these days. There was a darkness hiding behind his pleasant smile that Wat had never worn. Vee pretended to believe in reincarnation and San's family's insistence of a love that transcended lives, but San just knew that Vee was there for his money, or any of the priceless artifacts in San's antiquities room. His grandmother was sick, after all.
"My grandmother wants to see me married," Vee admitted after a few weeks of hanging around San's big house. He clasped his hands together between his knees and stared at them, as if he were admitting something shameful. "She's always joked about it, but now I—I don't know how much longer she has."
San, sitting in the big chair to the right of Vee's couch, felt his heart concede—just a little bit. At least Vee was being honest at last.
"You want me to marry you to make your grandmother happy?" San clarified.
Vee nodded and San sighed. He still wasn't sure that Vee was the reincarnation of his lost love, but he was in need, and it wasn't like they would have to pretend to be in love for long. Not if Vee was right about his grandmother's declining health.
…
…
Tao picked an auspicious date and time for the wedding. They didn't send out any invites, since everyone San associated with was already part of the wedding and Vee only had his grandmother and one friend. Verbal invites would suffice.
Jaem wanted to hold an engagement parade, but San shut it down. "Where am I parading to? Who am I giving gifts to?" he asked.
"What? You won't dance for my hand?" Vee teased. It was cute.
San felt himself begin to blush and forced himself not to. Instead, he huffed and walked away, saying, "Ridiculous."
As dowry, San agreed to pay for Vee's grandmother's hospital bills until she passed. He didn't expect Vee to get teary eyed and grab his hands, thanking him for his generosity. Even after Ju called Vee away, San's hands tingled where Vee had grasped them.
San's family prepared decorations and cried about him finally finding 'His One and Only,' and Vee helped them even though they tried to shoo him away. He insisted on assisting with food preparation and setting the table for meals, though Jaem and Chong asserted they were fine.
The further into the wedding preparations they got, the more it seemed that Vee truly enjoying being with San's family, and San felt his chest warm to see it. The wedding may be a falsehood, but at least it did not have to be unhappy. When Vee's grandmother passed, he would have people he cared about and who cared about him to fall back on. Though San hesitated to let anyone see it, that knowledge brought a smile to his lips.
San didn't know, then, that not all of his family was glad of his happy nuptials.
…
…
"Vee!" San called out, before he was racing forward with inhuman speed to snatch the gun from Suchat's hand, split it in half, and then knock out the other man with a blade strike to the neck.
But the damage was done. When San turned back from his unconscious opponent, he found Vee lying prone on the ground, blood leaking from a bullet wound to the chest. In a moment, San was kneeling beside Vee, lifting him up and cradling him to his chest.
"No," he said, a beg, a plea, tears already forming in his eyes. "Stay with me. Vee, stay with me."
Not again. Not another love lost to gun violence and greed. How was he a century older yet still could not protect those most important to him?!
"P'San," Vee gasped, his voice wet for an entirely different reason. "L—look at m—me. Please."
It was hard to make eye contact when San's were cloudy with tears, but San hurriedly wiped his face and did as Vee bid. Vee, despite the pain and the blood he'd lost, reached up to touch San's cheek. Something like static electricity passed from Vee's skin to San's, and then Vee gasped. It sounded almost like he was choking and San jerked, wanting to do something but entirely unsure what, but Vee shook his head, never looking away or even blinking. As San watched, Vee's expression tightened as if he were trying to pick up something that was entirely too heavy.
Then his skin began to deepen in color, until he looked like his normal self and not an exsanguinated shell. Blood stopped spilling from Vee's chest. The skin healed as though never touched. And the bullet rolled out onto the cement beside them.
They both took a moment to follow the sound of the rolling bullet.
Then San said, "You're a mutant. And you can heal?"
He wasn't certain if he were more relieved or ticked off. They had known each other for months. They had planned an entire fake wedding for Vee's grandmother—though the wedding date wasn't for another twelve days yet. And Vee had never revealed his own mutant status in all that time. But that same power had just saved his life and that of San's heart.
Taking a deep breath, Vee sat upright. His bloody clothes stuck to his torso, but San wasn't going to even think about getting him new ones until he explained what the heck was going on.
"I'm not a healer. You are," Vee said, voice shaking with nerves. When San lifted a sardonic eyebrow, Vee continued, "I'm a mimic. I have to have physical contact, but I can copy skills…including mutant abilities."
Vee reached out to touch San, but San pulled his hand back. It looked like San had just punched Vee in the heart, but he refused to back down yet.
"Why didn't you tell me before?" San demanded quietly.
He had thought that, since they agreed to be married for Vee's grandmother, they had grown to genuinely care about one another. Certainly San had fallen in love with Vee. There had been plenty of signs that Vee loved him too—or so San had believed. Had Vee tricked him? What else could Vee want from him that he would lie like that?
Vee pressed his lips together into a thin line, took a deep breath, then, "I don't tell anyone. I never have. And I didn't trust you, or your family, at first. I thought you were playing me. And by the time I realized you were all trustworthy—by the time I…fell in love with you…I…It had been so long." He lowered his eyes. "I thought you'd hate me."
In all their time together, San had never seen Vee shake the way he was now. If he was acting, then he was good at it.
Heart thumping loudly in his chest, San reached out to cup Vee's cheek. The younger man jumped and his gaze flew to San's in shock.
San shook his head. "I don't hate you," he said, leaning forward. "I love you."
He pressed their lips together in a gentle yet deep kiss. Here was someone who could live alongside him. A mutant who could copy his power and thus match his lifespan. The heavens had given him a blessed gift. His beloved returned to him, never to leave.
…
…
fin