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(Han Ye)

Han Ye gasped awake, instantly on his feet, eyes searching for the threat which woke him from a deep sleep.

Nothing moved.

He frowned, shifting from a full ready stance with his knees bent and weight on the balls of his feet to a slightly more relaxed position, ears still searching for the smallest sound, eyes scanning for the smallest out of place feature.

Except…

Han Ye blinked.

This was not the palace. These were not his rooms. And…

He turned, realizing that he stood alone.

He pulled in a deep breath, closing his eyes and counting to three before opening them again and straightening how he stood to focus better on surveying the area around him.

A meadow, light greens patched with bright yellows and pinks and blues of flower clusters, broken by the grey blue meandering line of a small brook.

White clouds, looking like nothing but fluff, hung low.

Han Ye frowned, tracing the path of light from a cloud to the ground below, the shadow too dark, too large, and not quite in the right place.

Glancing up again, his frown deepened before he set off upstream of the brook.

The sky hung too close.

(Zhang Min)

Zhang Min swore as a foot slid out from under him, sand once again pouring into his house slipper, searing through his slacks as ass once again met dune. He huffed, glaring at the surrounding sand dunes, then at the sky.

He quickly averted his gaze from there though, happy to ignore the way it pressed down on him, the blue too blue with the sun beating down on him, pricking the back of his neck with molten needles, from above.

At least, he assumed it was directly above him.

And moved with him so it stayed in that spot.

“Secretary Xiao!” 

Zhang Min waited. He did not expect an answer, aware that from the moment he woke in this strange place, he was alone.

Well.

Except for whatever it was which kept raising his hackles, much in the same way that even the thought of his father overseeing one of his projects did. The tension pulling his chest tight was reminiscent of the way it squeezed his lungs when in the same room as the Chairman.

These were familiar sensations, however, Zhang Min having a lifetime of experience with ignoring them and powering through them to get done whatever it was he needed.

Hence him sitting on the side of a dune, footprints somehow covered by windswept sand even though no breeze cooled nor hit him.

Zhang Min huffed, unbuttoned a few buttons of his shirt, rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, and set off again.

Surely the end wasn’t too far off.

(Ji Fa)

Tension pulled Ji Fa to his feet, heart pounding, breath controlled and even as he reached for the dagger he always kept strapped to his person, changing its location every few nights so as to lower the chances of being disarmed in sleep.

The dagger was gone.

Ji Fa’s frown deepened, fists clenching as eyes automatically scanned the surrounding area.

Waist high grass, what was once green and had been dehydrated to a lackluster, sickly brown, sat eerily still. No hint of air movement brushed across Ji Fa’s skin, the sky above him somehow too close, too blue. And while light and heat surrounded him, Ji Fa could not track the exact location of the sun, furthering the crawling sense of wrong screaming at him from under his skin.

Ji Fa paced a few steps.

The grass waved, parting easily for his passage, swaying shut behind him.

Much too stiff.

The screaming grew, Ji Fa’s fists tightening until nails began to bite into skin. If he wasn’t certain this was real, he would think it a nightmare, the field around him sloping down the hillside to a well-known battlefield, one which he expected to haunt him for years to come.

The one which had started the victory for his throne.

The air did not move.

Gritting his teeth, Ji Fa set off down the hill of too stiff grass, in too bright light from nowhere.

(Lin Shen)

Lin Shen groaned, face scrunching against the incessant light intent on piercing his eyes through his eyelids.

“A-Chi, get the blinds.” He rolled onto his side, slinging an arm out and frowned when limb met not another warm body, but instead a dewy, spongy texture. He peeled open an eye, sitting up with a start when he saw not their bedroom, still sparse with personalization, but instead a forest, ground covered in this spongy moss like substance, thin grey trees huddled into groups with the occasional wide, dark brown trunk of a well-established aged oak breaking them up.

Lin Shen rubbed his eyes with the back of his wrists and blinked.

Forest.

He trailed his eyes up, frowning not at the low hanging haze of thin fog, but at the glimpses he saw beyond it, gathering the impression of the sky being a constrained thing, much closer than it should have been.

Not finding any injury to himself after a quick check, Lin Shen stood, stumbling slightly as everything spun before righting itself with a throb along his temple.

A crow cawed, swooping low overhead, and Lin Shen frowned.

That did not sound like a crow.

(Han Ye)

Han Ye stooped, dragging light fingers through the crisp brook, pleased with the movement of water. He cupped his hand, leaning over as he brought it up to drink what he could before splashing his face. Done, he remained crouched, frowning.

The temperature of the day never grew. Nor did it cool. It also seemed, as he eyed a small patch of mountain flowers, that he was walking in some sort of loop. Trees lined the meadow, never growing farther or closer. He peered behind him as he stood.

Surely he was moving.

It would not be possible for him to walk so much and never move location. Not with the grass and flowers also moving around him to give the impression of forward momentum.

He eyed the brook, his broken reflection in it as the water moved over rocks and around dirt clods, breathing through the tightening of bands around his ribs. So far he had avoided extraneous noise.

Perhaps this was a mistake.

After all, how could he be expected for Ji Fa to find him if he kept quiet? He knew his way around a fight, sword or no, bandits and wild animals would be no problem.

A twitch of something in the reflection of the brook, a small red light, there and then gone, drew Han Ye’s attention. He crouched once more, waiting.

There!

It flashed again, there and gone in barely the time it took to blink an eye.

Han Ye waited, counting, and on the count of thirty it appeared again. He thrust his hand out into the icy water, closing it over the light and pulling it from the depths of the brook.

Except, opening his hand, it was empty.

Han Ye’s frown grew, eyes immediately returning to the water, waiting for it to calm from his intrusion and…

THERE

Again!

The same spot, the red dot had not moved or even appeared to have flinched from his intrusion. Which meant this thing, whatever it was, was not in the depths of the water. So…

Han Ye waited for it to show, right on the count of thirty, and glanced up, counting.

Èrshíqī

Èrshíbā

Èrshíjiǔ

Sānshí, there!

The red dot appeared and vanished above Han Ye in the too close sky.

Nerves began to prickle across Han Ye’s shoulders and neck. He did not know what could be blinking at him from the sky, but it surely could not be anything good.

Mind made up, he stood, turning on his heel to begin walking away from the brook, set on staying silent until he left the too low sky and the red light flashing in it behind.

(Han Ye)

The ground shifted again, Han Ye spacing his feet to keep his balance, left arm firm where it sat behind his back, right arm barely venturing from his side as he waited for the shifting to stop.

With a rumble, finally the floor settled, Han Ye gritting his teeth as he took in how much distance had been added between him and his goal.

After walking perpendicular to the brook for what surely must have been a shi, he had spotted an outcropping of rocks. Pleased at finally finding something new in this never-ending, stifling meadow, he had immediately adjusted his path to reach them. Barely a dozen steps on his new path, and the air filled with a groan, the ground suddenly moving, causing him to sway and stumble.

At first he had thought it an earthquake, but the momentum only carried him one direction, and though jarring, did not feel like any earthquake he had experienced.

Clearly, he was on the right path then, if there were mysterious forces at work attempting to keep him from the rocks.

Han Ye grinned and set off at a leisurely pace. Barely two dozen steps later and the ground moved once more.

“Fuck.”

Clearly it would not matter how he approached the rocks or how softly or confidently his feet met the ground. Han Ye gazed at the outcropping of rocks. If the ground were going to move no matter what he tried…

He kneeled, then laid himself flat on the ground.

Nothing.

Good.

Slowly, Han Ye extended his right arm out, left leg coming up and to the side at the same time, and he pushed himself forward in a crawl, then froze.

Still nothing.

Han Ye smirked, slowly extending each limb as needed to crawl forward on his front, not caring about the dirt and grass caking onto him with every given opportunity. Any time he began to gather speed, the ground creaked, and he froze until it settled once more.

If, he grimly thought, pausing to rest as sweat slid down his neck to catch on his already wet collar, there was a sun which made sense, then he would be able to track the time spent on this endeavor which should have been simple.

Finally, finally, Han Ye stretched out a hand to rest it on a rock, sighing and relaxing as the rough gravelly texture which he expected met him. He smiled, cheek resting on the ground, and chuckled.

Warily, he moved closer to the rock before risking kneeling. And when that provoked no reaction, he carefully settled one foot properly, and then the other, standing with one hand still anchored on the rock, and waited.

The ground grumbled and moved but this time, he merely watched as tracks of the ground as long as he was tall moved at various speeds.

“What?”

With a frown, Han Ye shrugged it off, turning to the rocks and pacing around them for any sort of clue or opening to the center of their circle, hand dragging on it the whole time. As he completed his third pass around, nerves once again growing restless and energy building with no good outlet, his fingers snagged on a minor ledge. Pain blossomed across a finger as it sliced open, a few drops of blood escaping onto the rock before he quickly withdrew his hand.

In the next breath, the rocks crumbled, dust causing Han Ye to cough and sneeze, shutting his eyes and turning so as to protect some part of his vision. As the air cleared and the dust settled, Han Ye carefully wiped his face with a sleeve, he gasped, eyes growing wide in spite of the dust clinging to his lashes as he stared at the doorway before him.

A doorway which glowed and seemed to be blocked off not by wood and bamboo, but by some sort of liquid.

Cautiously, he extended his hand forward, barely grazing his fingers against the cool almost gelatinous liquid. When nothing happened, he set his whole palm on it.

Still nothing.

As Han Ye began to extend some pressure on it, pushing to see if the surface tension would break, an image formed, and Han Ye found himself staring at a stretch of sand, dark water, as dark as the sky above it alight with an infinite amount of stars, glowed with sparkling green spots which seemed to float in time with the movement of the waves which lapped at black sand which backed up to palm trees swaying in some form of breeze.

Startled, Han Ye pulled his hand back, and the image faded.

“What?”

Han Ye frowned at the swirling doorway, scanning the rocks around it for any sort of hint or clue as to what he  had just witnessed.

Nothing.

He set his hand once more on the liquid and began to push, the same scene appeared.

Before Han Ye could consider another option of backtracking and trying to find something else in the strange meadow, the ground groaned. Turning quickly, Han Ye saw the meadow moving in large strips in opposite directions.

That is not what made his stomach drop.

His stomach dropped when he realized he did not have his sword with him, and charging across the meadow, with no regard to how the ground moved however it seemed to please, was a large beast. Almost cat-like, the movement of its powerful muscles rippling with every step and lunge of its four legs, it snarled when it saw Han Ye, the black fur entrancing him at how it seemed to soak in all the light around it. In place of its whiskers, long almost tentacle looking appendages flowed behind it, with smaller ones wiggling around and nearly giving the impression of a star shaped snout, an impression only belied by the multiple sets of large fangs which dripped green ooze.

Han Ye did not recognize the creature, but one did not need to in order to realize that even with a weapon, fighting whatever this beast was would be the worst of ideas.

With no second thought, Han Ye whipped around and jumped at the strange doorway. The liquid pushed against him, seeming as though it did not want to allow him through, and just as Han Ye’s heart began to pound and lungs preemptively burn from anticipated lack of oxygen, it gave, and Han Ye found himself falling through a brief moment of nothing before crashing and rolling on the black sandy beach he had seen, coming to a stop against what he assumed to be a small tree. He kept his eyes closed for a moment, waiting for the dizziness to pass, and only opened them when he heard a familiar voice.

“What? Where did you come from?”

(Zhang Min)

Hot hands with knuckles threatening to crack scooped at sand, pushing the sun burnt layers out of the way, searching for a layer which might be cooler, or even better, wet.

Zhang Min swore as no matter how much he dug down and down and down some more, outpacing the sand which fell back into the hole. His jacket was over his head, only succeeding in its task of keeping the burning sunlight off his ears and neck, sleeves rolled up just past his elbows, shirt clinging to his back and chest as sweat gathered and dried just to be replenished.

After several minutes, which felt like hours, Zhang Min let out a shout, slamming a hand on the ground and glared at the sand.

“What is going on?”

No one answered.

Rolling on his knee to sit properly on his ass, he covered his face with his sand covered hands. He rubbed at his temples and sighed.

“Come on Zhang Min. Think!”

Nothing. He could not recall how he had arrived in the middle of a group of sand dunes, or even what he was doing before he fell asleep.

Well, at least he thought he had fallen asleep. And no bump or ache on the head led him to think he had not passed out.

Lowering his hands, he kicked off his house slippers, pulling off his socks and stuffing them in a jacket pocket. With a sigh, he stared at the dune he had just trekked down.

He could always go back. Perhaps he had missed something in the area he had woken.

But with no path to follow back, the sand erasing his steps just as soon as his feet lifted in an unnatural and unsettling manner, he would likely get lost.

On the other hand, he was likely already lost as it was.

But if he backtracked and found nothing, that was time wasted. What was it? Humans could go something like a week without food? Zhang Min grimaced at the thought.

Water, however.

He kicked the back of his heel into the sand before rolling back to hands and knees, staring at the incline which faced him. It wasn’t so steep, he tried to convince himself as he began to crawl upwards, keeping his center of gravity low in the hopes of conserving energy.

He still had to pause and rest when he reached the top of the dune, using the driest spot he could find on the inside of his jacket, still on his head, to wipe at the gathered sweat on his forehead. He paused, freezing partway through the motion, eyes covered and unable to see, as he swore he smelled the warm scent of Lin Shen’s ginseng and juniper cologne. A smile grew and Zhang Min quickly threw off his jacket, expecting and hoping to see the face of his boyfriend.

An unending tan sea greeted him.

His smile fell, heart cracking as arms went limp when the scent faded. “Oh.”

Then he frowned, lifting his jacket up and sniffing along the inside silk panel, wondering if, perhaps, his boyfriend’s scent had gotten into the fabric. But no, no matter where on the jacket he sniffed, Zhang Min could not find the smell.

He huffed before swinging the jacket around to resettle it over his head.

“It would be great if I could get a clue on which way to go.” Zhang Min muttered to himself, not feeling particularly wanting to descend and climb yet another dune.

The scent again, and this time, as Zhang Min involuntarily closed his eyes, tension easing from the back of his head and hopefully delaying the onset of a migraine, filled his nose. He turned, craving more of it, circling in place a few times before he stopped.

Was it stronger coming from one direction?

Could this… could this be a clue?

Even slower, eyes closed and brow furrowed as Zhang Min concentrated as hard as he could on the scent and nothing else, he began to turn in place again.

It was completely absent when facing the direction he had come from (which gave Zhang Min some small comfort that he hadn’t, at least, completely botched whatever this was). Turning to his right there was nothing, it was as he circled to face his left from the direction he had come that it reappeared, and was the strongest.

Zhang Min opened his eyes and grinned.

Though the dune did slope down, it wasn’t at a steep angle, and it wasn’t the same direction as before.

His boyfriend had never (well, almost never), led him wrong before.

With a deep breath and a quick roll of shoulders, shaking out each leg, Zhang Min once again began to walk.

(Zhang Min)

The light from the undiscoverable sun faded as he walked. Not to complete darkness, just dimmed, as though some clouds had rolled in. The scent he followed as well, carried on the smallest of breezes which Zhang Min only noticed due to how it chilled the sweat on his upper lip, turned crisp, with the promise of chill rain.

Zhang Min hoped it would rain. Just a light one, barely a drizzle. Enough to cool him down, maybe catch some in his mouth to drink. But not quite enough or fast enough to soak him (though he had to admit, the appeal of being soaked from fresh rainwater was a much better concept to him than his current state of being soaked due to salty sweat).

And while no rain deigned to fall (Zhang Min was not sure it could, as the light grew dimmer from supposedly thickening clouds, he had paused to stare at the sky, frowning, unable to place exactly what it was about the medium grey which set him on edge and made his brain scream WRONG!!!), Zhang Min was able to remove his jacket from his head and unbutton his shirt as he cooled, flapping the lapels to get it unstuck from his torso, leaving it hanging loose and open as he pushed one foot in front of the other, grimacing when the sand began to incline again.

With a groan he rolled his neck, pausing and eyes growing wide at what he saw.

Was that?

It couldn’t be.

Zhang Min blinked, rubbing his eyes with both hands, and blinking more as he stared at the valley just below him. In the middle sat a crystalline blue pond, what looked to be fish jumping from it and breaking the waters, sending drops to flowers surrounding it with a handful of thin, scraggly palm trees sitting together in a clump.

Zhang Min frowned even as his heart leapt with hope. How could this be here? This didn’t make sense.

Closing his eyes tightly and spinning in place, Zhang Min reopened them, expecting the little oasis to be gone.

It was not, the water glittering with light from he didn’t know where, tempting and promising.

It was just down one dune. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to go investigate it.

Zhang Min was halfway down the dune before he had fully made his decision, and three-quarters of the way down when he realized that ginseng and juniper scent was growing stronger with every sliding step.

As the sand leveled out into the small valley, Zhang Min nearly sobbed as he threw himself on his stomach, ignoring the way the rough sand bit against his stomach and chest as he crawled to the water. He paused for just a moment, just long enough to shakily extend a trembling hand to touch it, pulling it back quickly as he sent ripples through the surface. He licked his fingers. A big grin and a small laugh, and Zhang Min pushed his whole head under the surface of the pond, shaking it before sipping in small mouthfuls at a time.

It was only when his lungs burned with need that he pulled back, gasping in a huge breath of air and blowing out through his nose to clear it.

It was real!

It was almost, he vaguely thought as he pushed his head once more into the water, too good to be true.

As that thought faded to the back of his mind, fire blossomed along Zhang Min’s scarred left shoulder when several sharp points dug into it and pulled him under.

Zhang Min stilled, fighting every impulse to flail, knowing from a lifetime of swimming that that would only lead to exhaustion and higher chance of death. As he let the water carry his weight while whatever had grabbed him pulled at him, dragging him it seemed deeper and deeper, the light fading quickly as they descended, Zhang Min opened his eyes and barely held back a cry of surprise.

In his shoulder were long pointed nails. Those nails attached to a knobby, skeletal hand which led past a prominent wrist to an oddly lean arm, muscle and tendon just barely covering bone, to a shoulder which jutted out at an unusual angle. And that was bad enough, but the real shock came as Zhang Min’s gaze went from arm to skeletal torso, chunks of skin and muscle missing to allow bone to shine through and up to a neck hidden by what appeared to be a scarf or necklaces of seaweed. And the face which greeted him as the being paused in its efforts, turning to face him, was worse.

Rotting flesh barely clung to cheek bones, teeth, filed to a point, showing through gaps, the nose gone entirely and eyes so cloudy, they may as well have never had pupils in them at all. Strange lengths of what he thought might be seaweed floated around the face, drifting not with water, but with, it seemed, a life of its own.

The creature opened its mouth, dozens of tiny, tiny fish swarming from it, and leaned in.

Zhang Min panicked, heart instantly rabbiting and feet flailing out to kick at the creature before he could fully think through a plan. They were both shocked by the action, the creature instantly letting go and Zhang Min staring as it did so before he shook his head and began to swim upwards.

A shrill cry, both high pitched to the point of triggering a migraine but also so low pitched as to unsettle Zhang Min and make him question his existence filled the water. He glanced back briefly, freezing as he saw it lift a hand in the well known gesture of a threatening slap. He closed his eyes, flinching in anticipation as his father appeared behind his eyelids, anger and hatred plain across his face as he pulled back his hand to slap Zhang Min.

Instead of the slap landing, as it always had except for on one occasion, the most recent one, his father’s hand was caught. A larger hand, stronger, wrapped around his wrist, twisting and pushing in to make his father’s knees buckle and stare up at them both.

“You will never touch him again.” Lin Shen had snarled.

The Chairman had paled, not giving any acknowledgement. Lin Shen clearly found something in the Chairman’s eyes, however, because he had smirked, releasing his grip and turning to Zhang Min.

Zhang Min’s eyes flew open and he once again, with more intention helping to propel his leg through the water which fought his every movement, kicked at the creature. He hit it in the stomach, where the diaphragm would be just under the rib cage if it had a lower rib cage. As the creature doubled over, Zhang Min managed to get his other foot up and push off its shoulder to propel himself upwards, swimming as quickly as he could to the surface.

As soon as his face touched air he pulled in a ragged breath, taking just one moment to shake his head before switching to a backstroke to get to shore, where he quickly pulled himself up to land, flopping down on it, toes just barely out of the water, gasping and panting and trembling.

“What…was…that?” he gasped to himself, flinching as water kissed his toes. He scrambled forward before rolling onto his back.

The noise returned, Zhang Min pushing himself to sit before he was ready, swaying with the head rush and fighting to keep his vision clear as his heart plummeted.

The creature stared at him, gnashing its teeth, and began to swim.

“Fuck!” Zhang Min sprung to his feet, adrenaline instantly flooding through him, and ran. Perhaps he could climb up one of the trees, wait out the creature until the full light came back. The creature looked as though it was not used to sun exposure. Zhang Min hoped it would not be able to stay on the surface if it was hit with the full force of a desert sun.

As he reached the trees he stopped, gaping at what he saw in front of him. Instead of trees leaning against each other with a view of the sand behind them, they seemed to form a doorway, the middle of which was full of a swirling, gel-like substance.

He paced forward carefully, barely managing a poke to the surface before jumping back.

Nothing happened.

He eased forward again, about to poke the thing which looked as though it belonged in a sci-fi show, when the creature behind him yelled again. He looked back over his shoulder, mouth dropping open as he saw that what he assumed was a tail of bones and clear flesh, were ripped apart into two legs, glowing light blue blood pouring from the creature as it wobbled to stand and began to run at Zhang Min.

“Oh, double fuck!”

He had no time to think of an alternative.

He took one more moment to stare in horror at what he saw, and as the hand which had speared him before, his blood, he noted, dripping from its nails, Zhang Min turned back to the weird portal looking door and jumped in.

Cool goo surrounded him, cushioned him without stopping his forward momentum.

And then he landed with a hard oof and a groan as he rolled over the now familiar and still uncomfortable roughness of sand.

Zhang Min rolled to a stop and waited, curling into a ball in an attempt to protect himself from the creature.

And waited.

And waited.

And eventually cracked open an eye, which became both wide as he pushed himself up to stare around him.

The sand was black. The sky was riddled with more stars than he had ever seen in his life, he pulled in a deep breath, tasting the salt on his tongue distinct to an ocean, which reflected not  the stars but bioluminescent algae. He spared a glance behind him to find the typical tropical island set up which he would expect from a drama.

And no sign of the creature at all.

He flopped back, allowing himself a moment before he forced himself to stand.

“I need shelter, it’s too dark to do anything.”

But before he took three steps, something ripped open in the space just before him, and a person rolled out, stopping at his feet.

“What? Where did you come from?”

(Ji Fa)

The battlefield was trampled, much as they left it, minus the horrendous pools and puddles and mess of blood.

No bodies.

Thankfully, no bodies.

Ji Fa let out a shaky breath, rolling his shoulders in an attempt to loosen some of the tension working to draw them up to his ears and his posture out of place. He stepped with care as flashes of the aftermath of the battle sprung through his mind at the smallest instance.

A body there.

A horse there.

A head cracked open by a spear there.

Cries of agony from the wounded, begging for mercy as his soldiers swept through and looked back at him for guidance, one question in their eyes: do we kill them, or do we heal them?

He knew it was a weak choice at the time. Knew the high risk of it coming back to haunt him.

He had been so young then, however, that Ji Fa, already barely able to stomach the stench of yet another battlefield from yet another battle in a war that he had helped to start, but did not truly want, and wanted even less what waited at the end.

“Take them back to camp. Get the medics to look at them. Then put them under guard.”

Everyone had bowed and snapped to attention, as expected.

As they would for the rest of his life, he suspected now, shaking his head as he swayed, attempting to pull himself from the memory, iron burning at his nose.

A rustling in the flattened grass pulled his attention back to the field around him. Ji Fa’s eyes immediately snapped to scan the ground close by, shifting his weight to the balls of his feet, ready to move if the sound was what he expected.

The rustling faded, and he frowned. After a few moments, he began to walk once more, even more cautious than before in order not to step on any hidden creatures or holes under the flattened prairie grass.

A single house with a single tree appeared in the distance. Ji Fa frowned, having no recollection of there being a dwelling so close to the battle. He turned his steps toward it, keeping himself light, barely making a sound.

The rustling started again, much closer to where Ji Fa walked.

And from behind him.

Ji Fa turned on the balls of his feet, center of gravity dropping and ready to shift.

For a brief moment, he dropped his guard, taken back by what he saw, and in that moment, the creature struck. Pain tore skin and muscle in his shoulder as sharp, barbed, oozing fangs sunk into it, the long slender, overly large body with no legs propelling it forward. Scales flashed across Ji Fa’s vision, gleaming with a sheen of bright red speckled with deeper reds and browns.

Blood.

Ji Fa hit the ground and slid on his back, hands on the creature’s neck, attempting to push it off him. The creature hissed, slithering to draw Ji Fa into its coils.

As the barbed fang sunk in deeper, Ji Fa let out a yell.

In the fire-y pain, a drop of cool comfort. Ji Fa’s head swayed, eyes briefly falling shut. With a gasp, he snapped them back open, and froze.

He could still feel the fang in his flesh, the heat of the blood oozing from the wound.

But he no longer saw the blood covered snake. Instead, he stood in a prairie field much like the one he had just been in, except this one was bright and lively, all greens with specks of yellow blossoms, dragonflies buzzing about and cranes flying overhead.

And on the closest swelling of land which could be called a hill, stood a figure, tall and proper, one hand behind his back, in all purple with a weimao, purple veil blowing in the breeze.

“Han Ye?” Ji Fa gasped, mouth hanging open. He stumbled forward a few steps, and when the figure did not move or change, Ji Fa fought to suppress a sob. “Han Ye!”

Ji Fa ran, every impact of foot on the ground sending bolts of pain through his body from his shoulder. He ignored it, eager to see his most loyal and steadfast friend.

And the one he possibly loved.

Not that, he knew, slowing as he grew closer to Han Ye standing on the hill, still facing away from Ji Fa and oddly still, anything could come of such affections. Not after the war. Not with the stability of the kingdom and its people on the line.

“Han Ye.” Ji Fa panted, left hand pressed to his right shoulder in an effort to stem some of the pain.

Han Ye still did not move.

“Han Ye, what are you doing here? This place,” Ji Fa looked around, unease flooding through him as the tall grass just a moment ago vivid green now sunk under its own weight and grey showed several red lights, to steady to be candle flame, to bright to be anything Ji Fa would recognize, surrounded them, “this place is not a place you should know. This is from my childhood. What, how?”

Han Ye still did not move, and the breeze died.

Ji Fa huffed, moving to stand in front of Han Ye, glaring at the face he knew must be behind the veil.

But…

 Ji Fa paused. The head hidden by the purple veil appeared oddly smooth.

Bloodied hand moved from his shoulder, trembling, to lift the cloth, Ji Fa’s heart wrenching from him, stomach turning, at the blank wooden head which stared back at him.

“No. No!”

Ji Fa pushed the doll over, and like that, as wooden limbs crashed to the ground, ringing the oddest noise through the air which should not come from wood meeting dirt and grass, Ji Fa gasped awake to find himself wrapped firmly in the coils of the snake, blood on its scales now its own roiling entity, scales vanishing to allow for new tendrils to appear and add to those holding Ji Fa.

The pressure around his chest was too great, Ji Fa’s bones creaking, and he groaned, allowing his body to go limp, and accepting his apparent, inevitable end. As his head fell back, his hair shifted, the hair stick catching on the creatures’ coils. Ji fa’s mind flashed through the faces of those old and young who had welcomed him so warmly to the current capital, those who had expressed hope for a stable future of promise and prosperity and safety.

To lips, usually held in the most cautious of neutral positions, but which curled so temptingly when amused or when drinking from a cup, always so impassioned when speaking.

That little spark, which lived so deep in him he sometimes forgot it existed, stirred, hopping about and reigniting his fight.

No, Ji Fa would not fall this day.

Slowly, Ji Fa managed to work a hand, his wounded arm, free from the scales and tendrils wrapped around him, allowing himself one brief pause as pain flashed further through bone, before shakily lifting it to his head. It would be his luck that he had dropped to his bed, hair still pinned, too exhausted to do much more than toss off his outermost robes.

He drew the hair stick from his hair, holding his breath as it fell round him, onto tendrils of blood and scales.

The creature did not react, seemingly content to keep a gentle glide around him, flexing and squeezing him every few moments.

All Ji Fa needed was the head to appear.

As his breaths turned to gasps, wheezing more and more as bones creaked more and more and became closer to giving out, his chance finally appeared. The blood possessed snake exposed its head from the coils, one large eye staring straight at Ji Fa who, with a shout, brought his arm down with as much force as he could, hair pin sinking with a squelch into the eye.

The creature tightened around Ji Fa, chest no longer able to expand in any capacity, his head instantly growing light and dots appearing in his vision before one by one, the coils relaxed and fell away, the bloody tendrils helping to pin him into place evaporating as though they had never existed.

Ji Fa collapsed to his knees, still surrounded but no longer in danger, coughing and gasping as he fought for air and consciousness.

It was likely still unsafe, and he did not have the luxury of passing out.

Once his head stopped spinning, he forced himself to his feet, gingerly climbing over the coils of the beast, grimacing at the sight of his hair stick standing from the now deflated eye. He grabbed it, however, pulling it out and using the bottom of his robes to wipe it as clean as he could before slipping it into a sleeve. Holding his shoulder, he turned back to the single dwelling and made his way to it as quickly as he could.

By the time he arrived, leaning on the wall in much welcomed shade. So exhausted was he, using the wall to prop himself up to walk around to the entrance, that he failed to notice the doorway not closed off by a door or open to show the courtyard beyond, but instead full of a glowing, swirling, liquid.

He did not, therefore, hesitate, before stepping through and landing with the thwump of a limp corpse onto a pile of bitingly cold, silver snow.

(Lin Shen)

Lin Shen trembled with another shudder working through him as the not-a-crow cawed again. While he could not be certain, and could not prove it, which irked him greatly, he was certain that the not-a-crow which followed him was the same as when he woke.

And worse.

He swore it had attempted to guide him.

That worry quickly fell to the wayside as the voices began. Small murmurings, faint, at first, barely a whisper on the oddly stiff wind. They grew louder as he walked, at first, and he thought perhaps that meant he was going the right way, whichever way that was and whatever that meant, just to find himself thoroughly distracted by them with one foot sunk into a bog, face scrunched and hands over his ears, attempting to drown them out.

You failed to save your mother from the accident, why do you think you can keep him safe?

What makes you think you are worthy of him, can take care of him, when all you do is make a habit of avoiding your problems?

He’ll end up injured, just like your ma, and then what will you do? Avoid whatever injured him? Avoid him? Avoid everything?

More and more pressed into his head, fingernails starting to dig into tender scalp, until a charming laugh managed to pierce through, tension bleeding from Lin Shen’s shoulders, hands dropping as he instinctively turned to where the sun should have been, eyes kept shut.

Shen’er, think. This is clearly an illusion or a dream or a hypnosis session. Breathe. Focus. There you go, that’s my Shen’er.

Lin Shen could not stop the smile which relaxed his face if he had desired to do so. Of course, his boyfriend would ground him, tell him to stop and think in the moments when the panic was too much to work past, leaving him feeling out of control of everything.

Just like he would for Zhang Min. Had always done for him, in fact, their first meeting being at one of Zhang Min’s hotels and Lin Shen had stumbled into the wrong ballroom to find Zhang Min curled in a corner, hands over head, his entire aura radiating pain.

Lin Shen still did not understand what had overtaken him in that moment, but instead of leaving to make it to his conference on time (something which Xiaoxiao had teased him endlessly for), Lin Shen had knelt in front of Zhang Min, and the rest fell into place.

A thread of peace from the memory and the unchangeable fact which was Zhang Min in his life.

And the certainty that he would do anything to get back to him.

With a nod and a huff, Lin Shen rolled his neck, straightened his shoulders, and opened his eyes. He would keep making his way up this current forested incline which felt like it was on a mountain of some sort, and when at the top, he would be able to pinpoint a better path to take.

If he ever reached the top, that is.

The more he climbed, dirt most definitely moving under his feet with every step, muscles screaming and aching at this abuse, Lin Shen swore that somehow, and he thought perhaps the odd groaning and creaking he heard at oddly regular intervals was related, the path stretched. And stretched. And stretched.

It was when he grew frustrated and stopped without warning that Lin Shen knew the truth of his theory. While he stopped moving, the ground beneath him did not. Lin Shen fell to his knees, dirt and rock tearing at cloth and flesh as palms also met the moving ground.

“What?”

Before Lin Shen could fully grasp what had just happened, the cawing grew louder, closer, and more numerous.

It was then he realized that the not-a-crow which had been swooping at him and seemingly guiding him had been absent for the last several minutes of his hike. Dread flooding through him, Lin Shen slowly turned and gasped.

Up the path, skimming between trees, above them, and along the trail, was the largest murder of crows Lin Shen had ever seen. So many and so tight together despite flying that it appeared as though a giant blob of black was engulfing the side of the mountain.

Lin Shen froze, only able to watch as they drew closer and closer until the first of the not-a-crows reached him, snapping at his nose, which startled him to falling back. Ass and hands meeting ground, the impact jarring his back moving all the way up his spine, pulled Lin Shen back to his senses. He rolled over, scrambling on hands and knees to start moving up the mountain, eventually getting his feet underneath him and able to start running.

They dove at him, beaks snapping, ears bombarded with cawing which grew shriller and louder.

As the trail began to level out, Lin Shen’s heart dropped at seeing the trees thin, the top of this crest sitting bare and even more exposed than he was now. A tugging at his pants leg, the barest nip of pain at the muscle underneath, and Lin Shen realized he had no choice.

Just before the tree line, he threw himself off the tree and down the hillside, trying his best to roll and not bounce until he could gather his feet again.

For a brief moment, silence greeted him.

Frowning, Lin Shen turned.

How…how could the not-a-crows be gone just like that?

As he puzzled over their sudden absence, a whisper crossed his mind.

You’ve failed him. It’s too late.

Just like you failed her.

Just like you’ve failed Shao Ning, and everyone who depends on you.

Lin Shen shook his head. What? There was no way that could be right.

The voices laughed, the laughing morphing into cawing. Slowly, Lin Shen craned his neck to look directly above him, and found the murder of crows hanging there in one giant formation, all focused directly on him.

Of course you’ve failed them all. You’re here aren’t you, leaving them all alone.

When the closest not-a-crow flapped one singular wing, Lin Shen broke out running parallel to the ridge. Surely there had to be a fallen tree, a hollowed out log, a cave, something in which he could hide and get some protection and a moment to breathe and think.

Wings brushed against his hair and face, bird feet grasping at his clothes before letting go, Lin Shen too focused on running and escaping to puzzle out if they were attempting to slow him down, trip him, or what.

The hill curved, and Lin Shen sobbed before he stumbled, falling flat on his stomach. As he scrambled back to his feet, he caught sight of an opening in the hillside, oddly lit, but a cave nonetheless. Figuring that nothing in the cave could be worse then what he was facing currently, Lin Shen once again took off, breath wheezing from his lungs with every jarring, sliding impact of his feet on bramble and undergrowth.

He never realized the crows had once again vanished, instantly throwing himself into the cave as soon as he drew close enough.

Not even realizing, as he had closed his eyes, that he was throwing himself into a portal which belonged in a sci-fi movie.

Lin Shen was running from a murder of not-a-crows.

And next he was landing on silver, bitingly cold snow, and passing out.

(Han Ye)

Han Ye stared, heart leaping before plummeting at the sight of the man towering above him. He looked so familiar, but some things were wrong. Instead of long hair bound up into a knot, this man’s hair was shorn close to his head. Instead of the robes usually preferred by the one he loved, this man wore pants, far tighter than what was proper, and a shirt drenched and entirely see through.

Han Ye realized he was staring at the man’s hardened brown nipples, visible through his wet shirt, and instantly felt heat flood across the bridge of his nose and the planes of his cheeks. “Oh, I’m sorry, I…” Han Ye paused, staring around as best he could from his back on the sand. “I was being hunted by a weird creature and had to escape.”

The man frowned, huffing out a breath before extending a hand. Han Ye accepted it and the help to stand. Han Ye brushed off his robes and brushed his hair behind his shoulders before standing properly, one hand behind his back, the other held in front of him in a loose fist, posture straight.

The man raised an eyebrow, eyes blatantly traveling Han Ye’s body. “You look familiar.”

Han Ye grimaced. “As do you.”

The longer Han Ye studied the man, just shorter than him, much like, he realized with a start, the one he followed. In fact, he was certain they would be the same height.

“Where did you come from?”

“Pardon?”

Zhang Min sighed, turning to stare at the water. “You appeared out of a portal which belongs to a sci-fi novel. So. Where did you come from?”

Han Ye frowned, parsing through Zhang Min’s words, unease crawling up his spine and wrapping itself around his chest in a way, he despaired, which was all too familiar. With a deep breath, he assumed his princely demeanor, the detached politeness of his mask a comfortable home. “I am not certain what this… sci-fi portal… you speak of is. However. I was in a meadow and found a pile of rocks which had some… glowing substance in it. It was my only escape.”

Zhang Min studied Han Ye. Han Ye kept his gaze detached, only allowing a quirk of his eyebrow after several long moments.

Zhang Min shrugged, scowled, kicked some sand and walked off down the beach.

Han Ye stared after him, head tilted to the side, eyes narrowed.

How could there be someone who wore Ji Fa’s face?

(Zhang Min)

Zhang Min shoved his hands in his pockets, kicking at the sand as he walked. How could a man who looked exactly like his boyfriend appear out of thin air? How could he dare to look at Zhang Min and decide on the spot that Zhang Min were lesser and start putting on detached airs?

Oh.

Oh!

That’s what this was.

Zhang Min sighed, rolling his shoulders and neck to ease the tension and stress, then sat, legs crossed, knees up, arms wrapped around them. He leaned his cheek on an arm and stared, unseeing, at the sky which burst with stars beyond.

Clearly, he was in a hypnosis session.

Of course.

Lin Shen had tried a few times to get Zhang Min to agree to some form of therapy, even going so far as to offer to treat Zhang Min himself, in spite of the ethical violation there.

Zhang Min huffed a laugh, burying his head in the crook of his elbow as he remembered how Lin Shen had, in his last attempt, pulled out his doting puppy eyes in an effort to convince Zhang Min. It had made Zhang Min laugh, and now again the warmth of being cared for blossomed.

Maybe he finally said yes and this was the result?

(Lin Shen)

Movement and the crunching of snow pulled Lin Shen from the blackness which he had fallen into. Blinking his eyes, he gasped and pushed up to sit as icy cold dug into exposed flesh. He glanced around, seeing nothing but snow, what he thought was snow as it was silver, glittering around him. To his right stretched a cliff face, he seemingly landed in a snow drift gathered against it. And to the left, Lin Shen gaped, crawling to get just a bit closer, the snow came to a jarringly close horizon line which his brain chose to ignore to instead focus on the stars, barely a speck of deep black space between them, glittering like nothing he had ever seen.

Before he could fully comprehend the sight, particularly of that horizon line, the same crunching of snow and a groan pulled Lin Shen’s gaze to his left.

“Shit!” he breathed out, seeing a man with loose, long flowing hair attempting to move from the snow mound in which he appeared to be buried, the silver around him stained deep red. Lin Shen crawled over, grabbing onto the man’s forearms, and pulling.

Slowly, between Lin Shen pulling and the man offering what little help he could by wiggling and gritting his teeth, he was pulled free. Lin Shen helped him to sit, the man slumped over his knees, breathing shallow and erratic.

“Th-thank you.” The man forced out.

Lin Shen stared at the bloody path the man had left behind. “Of course. You, you’re wounded, we need to get you looked at.”

A low laugh, the man shaking his head. “It wouldn’t do any good, I’ve already lost so much blood, and I stopped feeling the cold a while ago.”

“How long ago?”

The man barely managed a shrug, eyes falling shut. “I just … I just wanted to see the stars again. My guiding star.”

Lin Shen caught the man as he listed to the side, desperately looking around them for any sort of shelter. One spot of the cliff was darker than the rest, surely that must be a cave. Lin Shen gingerly picked the man up and began to walk to the shelter he hoped existed.

He froze, however, when he caught sight of the man’s face, feeling the blood draining from his own.

Listing back, mouth barely open to allow panting breaths past perfectly shaped cupid’s bow lips, was a face he knew perfectly, apart from this one being thinner, gaunter.

Zhang Min, except it was not Zhang Min.

Ignoring the flood of feelings which surged through him, Lin Shen refocused on the cave, arms tightening unconsciously around the man in his arms, and fought against a sudden wind to get them out of the snow.

(Ji Fa)

Ji Fa frowned as slowly consciousness returned. His fingers and nose told him of a biting cold, brain insisting that it still bit at his cheeks and lips.

And yet.

When Ji Fa pulled in a deep breath, a bit too cold to be comfortable but assuring him of his current state of living all the same, he found himself to be warm, face turned to some sort of heat and light. He blinked open his eyes to find a modest fire, lighting the walls of a cave small enough to heat properly from its meager flames. He attempted to sit, groaning as his right shoulder refused to hold any weight and collapsed to his side instead.

“Careful. Here, let me help.”

Eyes shut tight and grimacing from the pain, Ji Fa nodded, large hands which felt familiar and yet not through his robes gently grabbing him and helping him up and get settled.

“Thank you.”

The hands vanished. “Of course. You really should watch that shoulder, I don’t know what happened to you, but it’s not in good shape.”

Ji Fa huffed a laugh. “I don’t know that you’d believe me if I told you.” He opened his eyes and froze.

Across from the fire from him, poking at it with something that seemed like it could have been ice for how silvery cold it looked, sat Han Ye.

Except.

Ji Fa frowned, squinting.

If this man let his hair grow out, took on a more royal standing then yes, he would be a match for Han Ye.

Ji Fa, tired as he was, felt the weight of his royal mantle fall around him like a shield, watching with mild curiosity as the man seemed to notice, and seemed to take offense at it.

“If you are willing, I can take a closer look at those wounds.”

“You are a physician?”

The man’s frown deepened. “No, not for the body. But even still, I was at medical school for a time and picked up some things.”

“Then what do you think you would be able to do?”

“Depends on how bad it all really is. At the very least I should look to see if the blood has slowed.”

Ji Fa pulled in a shaky breath. “Fine.”

The man gave a single nod, rotating a pot Ji Fa just now noticed, full of water and it looked like, rags? Before he grabbed one and crouched next to Ji Fa once more.

“Who is it that tends to me?”

The man paused in carefully pulling Ji Fa’s robes from his bloodied shoulder. “Tend to you?”

Ji Fa hummed, letting his eyes fall shut to hide the discomfort.

The man scoffed and resumed. “Dr. Lin Shen.”

“You are a doctor?”

“I work with the brain.”

“Ah.”

Silence once more.

“And you?”

Ji Fa fought to reopen his eyes, meeting Lin Shen’s gaze directly. “King Wu of Zhou.”

Lin Shen scoffed, but then studied Ji Fa’s gaze intently. “You actually think that.”

“What is there to think? I fought in the battles for my throne myself. I live, day in and out, with the shouts and screams of war in my head.”

Ji Fa sighed as the burning wound was finally freed from his robes, the fresh air on it stinging, but also relieving.

“What happened?”

“Giant blood snake.”

Lin Shen shook his head, taking a rag from the bucket and gently dabbing at the blood around the hole in Ji Fa’s shoulder.

Ji Fa watched him through half-shut eyes, unease growing with every passing moment. As the last of the dry rags was tied off, Lin Shen helped Ji Fa’s arm back into the sleeve of his robes and insisted on binding Ji Fa’s arm into place; Ji Fa could no longer stand it.

“How have you stolen his face?”

Lin Shen snorted. “I could ask you the same.”

“You- You’ve seen my face before?”

Lin Shen nodded. “And not just in whatever museum it is you spend way too much time at to think you are actually the founding emperor of the Zhou dynasty.”

Ji Fa frowned. “You know who I am?”

Lin Shen paused, frowning. “Of course, I’ve studied history.”

“History?”

Ji Fa sat in silence as Lin Shen threw the now bloodied water out of the cave entrance, returning with a handful of packed snow to quickly wipe the pot within the light of the fire before leaving again to fill it with fresh snow.

“Lin Shen. You wear the face of my most trusted aide and closest friend, the Crown Prince of Jing. How.”

“Probably the same way that you wear the face of my boyfriend.”

They glared at each other.

“This is nonsense.” Ji Fa spat, itching to cross his arms but unable to do so.

Lin Shen snorted, rotating the pot and shaking his head. “Everything here is wrong.”

Ji Fa opened his mouth, intending to demand Lin Shen to explain, but before he could, Lin Shen stood, and stormed out into the night.

(Han Ye)

Han Ye built up a small fire just up from the waves for lack of anything better to do, thoughts still on the man who wore Ji Fa’s face.

Ji Fa.

A deep sigh escaped him as his thoughts turned. The last he had seen of Ji Fa was at the engagement announcement of Ji Fa, the man he was fairly certain was the love of his life, to his younger sister, Han Anning. It was purely political, he knew, but that did not stop the bitter vile which rose in his throat at the thought. It did not excuse his actions of storming from the hall once the engagement was finalized.

The Crown Prince.

That was who he had always been.

The hope and future of the Jing State, always loyal, always steadfast, with a good head on his shoulders. Always making the choice which would better the country, uphold justice, serve the people.

So carefully crafted was his image, that Han Ye feared that he would never be able to escape it.

It hid a dark, dark secret.

What was often seen as loyalty, particularly in regards to the woman his grandfather had engaged him too, was not so much loyalty as it was obsession. Possession.

Jealousy.

It had not taken long though, after the arrival of Ren Anle, for Han Ye to realize that whatever feelings he thought were affection for her, and for Di Ziyuan, were not affection.

He had decided that didn’t matter.

And then he saw how his dear sister and Ren Anle interacted, the way they looked at each other, and knew that if he could, if he did not think it important to the peace of the kingdom, he would gladly give Ren Anle to his sister.

So when it was announced about a year into Ji Fa’s war against the Shang Dynasty that the Jing State would be siding with Ji Fa, sending military aid along with resources to help them withstand the war, and that in exchange the new young emperor would be taking Han Anning as his wife and queen, Han Ye had had a flare of satisfaction at it. One which immediately flooded him with guilt.

And then he met Ji Fa.

He had convinced his father, after kneeling outside the throne room for a full night, day, and second night, to send him to the frontlines.

After all, how could he possibly consider himself a well-rounded, just ruler if he did not get all the experience he could.

Han Ye led his troops to the Yellow River to join with Ji Fa’s forces.

And upon seeing the man, helmet being pulled off his sweat laden brow, hair falling from its constraints, Han Ye stopped breathing existence for the Jing Kingdom.

And started breathing for Ji Fa instead.

Of course, Han Ye mused as he poked at a log needlessly, fire long set and alive, he had never mentioned it to anyone. Why would he? Ji Fa was already promised, and Han Ye had his own throne.

“Fuck.” Han Ye threw his small stick into the flames, sitting with head in hands, elbows propped on knees. With a deep sigh he lifted his gaze to stare at the sky above him, frowning at how the stars above seemed so much flatter and closer than those above the water line.

Maybe if he had taken the one chance he had…

Han Ye shook his head.

Nonsense. Utter nonsense.

The kingdom came first, and his word to Ren Anle.

Han Ye’s stomach chose that moment to growl, making Han Ye grimace. Perhaps there is food in the trees. With a groan and a stretch, he stood and went to study the nearest tree, squinting his eyes to try to see what might rest at the top aside from the palm fronds.

He was so focused on the tree that he failed to notice, or to even sense, the movement by his ankle. A thin vine wiggled closer and closer, tapping on his boot and waiting for a reaction before it wrapped around his ankle and pulled.

Han Ye’s eyes widened as he fell forward, catching sight of the man who wore Ji Fa’s face running towards him, eyes wide, his shout barely registering in Han Ye’s ears before everything was buried in underbrush and sand.

Han Ye found himself standing in Ji Fa’s tent. He frowned, looking around for a clue as to when this was. On Ji Fa’s desk sat an unrolled map, Han Ye immediately going over to study it.

Ah.

Of course, it would be this memory, this time. He had just been pondering it, after all.

Unless…

Unless this wasn’t a memory and was reality, and he had been dreaming or hallucinating everything else?

Han Ye shook his head, trying to clear it of the pounding fogginess which hung onto the edges of his consciousness and clenched his hands. The object he held in his left hand dug into his fingers and palm while his right hand trembled, holding a box tight.

“Han Ye?”

Han Ye glanced up as Ji Fa entered his tent, motioning for his second in command to stay outside and wait, the tent falling shut behind him. Han Ye quickly bowed while doing his best to hide the trinket in his hand and the box. “Your Highness.”

“I was told you wished to speak to me?”

“Ah, uh, yes, I umm… That is…” Han Ye tried to swallow, mouth suddenly dry, unable to hide the warmth which blossomed on his cheeks at Ji Fa’s amused chuckle. “I just wanted to check with you once more in regards to tomorrow’s excursion.”

Ji Fa hummed, eyes twinkling, and nodded. “Of course. Cause we haven’t done that enough.”

“Can it be enough, Your Highness?” Han Ye both loved and hated the way he trembled under his own armor as Ji Fa drew closer.

Ji Fa leaned in, hand casually brushing imaginary dust from Han Ye’s shoulder. “It cannot, you are correct taizi.” Ji Fa smirked up at Han Ye, holding his position for what was definitely too long for propriety before turning to the opened map, motioning for Han Ye to sit. “You can set the box to the side, taizi, it will be safe.”

“Oh, uh, actually.” Han Ye swallowed, mouth dry. “It’s uh…for you.”

Ji Fa’s eyes widened, glancing from the box to Han Ye and back. “Oh.”

Han Ye nodded, quickly slipping the pendant in his hand into his sleeve so he could properly hold out the box and bow. Ji Fa accepted it, wasting no time in opening it and gasping, eyes sparkling with joy at the instrument cradled within. Several long reeds of bamboo tied together, each in a different length, to create…

“A paixiao?”

Han Ye nodded, ignoring the burning of his cheeks. “I thought, maybe, that umm…”

Ji Fa reached for Han Ye’s hand, squeezing it in his grasp. “I love it, thank you taizi. Let’s quickly go over this so I can play it.”

As they went over the plan, yet again, for the attempt at sabotaging a supply line to the troops of the Shang Kingdom which were camped nearby, Han Ye kept his hands hidden, fiddling with the white jade trinket, mind distracted. 

“Taizi? Is there anything else?”

Han Ye held his left hand low enough that Ji Fa would not be able to see it, and stared at the little figure of three gardenia’s grouped together. Something small. Simple.

Why am I here again? I know this has happened, I remember giving him this, the way he leaned in, how close we got before I backed away, the… the hurt in his eyes when I did so, and our fight before the last battle. I couldn’t have dreamed all that.

“Taizi?”

The weight of Ji Fa’s hand setting on Han Ye’s knee drew Han Ye back to his body, his breath catching and his cock twitching. “Yes?”

“Did you hear anything I just said?”

Han Ye flinched, even though amusement bubbled through Ji Fa’s voice and danced in his eyes. He bowed, scooting back enough for Ji Fa’s hand to slide from his knee. “Apologies, Your Highness. My mind was elsewhere.”

“Where was it, perchance, Taizi?” Ji Fa leaned in, distance carefully calculated to stay on the correct side of proper. “A lover, perhaps?”

Han Ye sputtered, heat flaring from his neck to his ears as Ji Fa laughed.

“It’s alright to think of them, especially when away in a war. As long as it’s not a critical moment for you or your men, and I know you know this plan inside and out.”

“That is no excuse though for my mind wandering, I was just… I mean…” Han Ye stopped himself, pulling in a deep breath, and exhaling sharply through his nose. He held out his gift in both hands, bowing as he offered it to Ji Fa. “A gift, for luck.” And my love.

“Oh!” Ji Fa lifted the jade gardenia trinket carefully from Han Ye’s hands, inspecting it closely, falling oddly still and silent for someone who was normally so full of life and energy that any moment he wasn’t focusing on it, he would be vibrating with life.

“Of course, if it is unsuitable or not to your taste I can – “

“No, no. That’s… that’s not it.” Ji Fa’s voice was low, a finger trailing gently across (object). “It’s gorgeous, taizi, thank you.”

Han Ye nodded, hands clenching and eyes momentarily burning before he forced his focus back onto the map, scooting into the table once more. Ji Fa placed the jade gardenia’s at the top of the desk, safe enough distance from the edge it would not fall, but still out of the way, and smiled at it. As he refocused on the map as well, he scooted closer to Han Ye, and began the plan again from step one.

In not nearly enough time for Han Ye, they wrapped up their discussion. “I will leave you to relax, now, thank you.”

“Han Ye…” Ji Fa’s voice drifted off with a sigh and a bitter smile, eyes on the gift.

“Highness?” Han Ye paused, bent over as he was in the middle of standing, and waited, heart pounding at how he was close enough to Ji Fa here to count each of his eyelashes, mole standing proudly and gorgeously on his cheek.

Ji Fa looked up at him, and Han Ye stopped breathing.

Before, in Han Ye’s memories of the real event (and while this certainly seemed very, very real right now, Han Ye was not sure it was), this was where Han Ye had waited while Ji Fa slowly inched closer, their lips so close before Han Ye ran.

The urge to do so again now pulled at him, voices in his head that had been planted in childhood shouting at him to remember his duty, that Ji Fa was betrothed to his sister.

But, Han Ye thought as he watched Ji Fa bite his lip and turn to face Han Ye, slowly lifting on his knees, if this a dream, why should I not indulge myself and take what I want?

Han Ye lifted a hand to Ji Fa’s cheek, Ji Fa’s breath stuttering at the contact. They both leaned in, and the split second before their lips met, Ji Fa’s already shut, lips curled with anticipation, everything froze.

UNGRATEFUL CHILD!

Han Ye could not move as, from the corner of his eye, he watched his father storm into the tent, veins in his temple popping up, steam nearly coming out of his ears as he walked.

“How could you! At every turn I have catered to your whims, whatever you have desired I have granted it, even against my better judgement, and this is how you repay me?”

As though on puppet rods, Han Ye straightens, Ji Fa still frozen, the air around them unusually still and stale, and turns to face his father. He bows, deeper than he has since childhood. “Buhou.”

His father scoffs. As he speaks, Han Ye frowns, discomfort growing inside him as he watches lips move, but his voice comes not through his ears, but echoing inside his head instead. YOU DARE TO DESIRE YOUR SISTER’S BETROTHED. UNFILIAL BRAT!

Han Ye, reflecting back on this moment for years after it occurred, would never be able to quite say why, instead of shoving his irritation with his father down like he normally did, biding his time as he normally chose, why he instead let it out.

“You call me unfilial? When all I have ever done from the moment of my birth was for the betterment of the kingdom and the safety of its people? When at every turn, at every case of justice you put me in charge of, you come in behind me and undermine my ruling to appease the men who are in your ear, have you in their pockets?”

His father sputters, temple pulsing more. HOW DARE YOU!

Han Ye straightens, baring his teeth. “No! How dare you allow corruption in the lords to infiltrate your court. How dare you, instead of honoring my mother, cast her aside for your own selfish desires, ignoring her existence entirely.”

A sick, twisted smile turns Han Ye’s father’s lips. IS THAT NOT WHAT YOU DO NOW? SELFISH. YOURSELF FIRST.

Han Ye scoffs, pretending to straighten his armor before meeting his father’s eyes. “Then I suppose, dear buhou, I learned it from the best.”

HAN YE, IMPUDENT CHILD, IF YOU DARE TO DO THIS YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING. I WILL DISOWN YOU, CAST YOU FROM THE PALACE WALLS MYSELF, MAKE IT SO YOU CAN NEVER GET YOUR FACE BACK.

Han Ye shrugged, a weight lifting from him as he turned to focus, once more, on Ji Fa, still frozen where he kneeled. Han Ye crouched, hand gentle on Ji Fa’s cheek once more, thumb stroking just under his eye. With a shuddering breath, Han Ye leaned in and carefully sLotted their lips together, Ji Fa unfreezing under the touch.

Han Ye’s father howled, a sudden wind gust slamming into the tent, sending it flying and everything with it. Han Ye held onto Ji Fa as tight as he could, Ji Fa slowly being pulled from him.

“Han Ye.”

As a new gush of wind blew between them, ripping them apart, the jade gardenia’s flew past them, and Han Ye passed out again.

“Hey. HEY!”

Han Ye groaned as he gained consciousness, something patting at his cheek.

“Hey, wake up! Come on.”

He blinked open his eyes, wincing as some sand fell into them and wiping it away before trying again. The man who wore Ji Fa’s face leaned over him, brow furrowed and concerned.

The man laughed. “I guess we forgot introductions. I’m Zhang Min.”

“Han Ye.”

Zhang Min helped him to sit. Han Ye gazed at his lap full of sand, feeling the gritty particles invading his eyebrows, scalp, and under his nails.

“What? What happened?” Han Ye tried to brush the sand off, frowning as instead more sand just took its place.

“I was coming back, thought it was wiser to stick together since everything has just been weird today, and something was pulling you into the jungle. I tried shouting, and you might have heard me, but before I could grab you the sand and plants buried you.”

“Buried me?” Han Ye paused to stare at Zhang Min who nodded. “That’s preposterous.”

“I know.”

“But…” Han Ye trailed off, thinking. It had definitely been an odd day; a headache having settled behind his eyes.

“Yeah. Come on, I managed to keep the fire going and found some food that probably isn’t poisonous.”

Han Ye couldn’t help the snort that escaped him, accepting Zhang Min’s help to stand and walk away from the palm tree he had been staring at before the weird foray into his memories, feeling oddly warm and pleased with the actions he had taken, and eager to make them reality.

As they sat by the fire Zhang Min had somehow managed to move, Han Ye accepting the easily peelable fruit Zhang Min had gathered, Han Ye sighed, rolling his neck.

“Do you… do you want to talk about it?”

Han Ye shrugged, allowing his princely demeanor to fall off as he ate, elbows on raised knees. “I was in my memories, I guess. Except it played out different, maybe it was more like a dream.”

Zhang Min hummed as he listened to Han Ye recount the whole tale, trying to hide how he dabbed at his eyes when Han Ye recounted the kiss.

“I’ve wanted that kiss for so long.” Han Ye sighs, staring up again at the flat stars.

Silence settled around them as they thought, Han Ye poking at the new warmth inside him.

“You know, Zhang Min-laoban, it almost felt like an exam.”

Zhang Min hummed. “Perhaps it was. We’ve both been attacked by monsters, things are just slightly off, have you noticed? Maybe this whole thing is a test.”

Han Ye frowned. “But of what? Why?”

Zhang Min sighed. “I don’t know.”

(Zhang Min)

Zhang Min sat by their small fire, studying Han Ye’s broad shoulders as he slept. His heart still ached from what he had witnessed Han Ye go through that day, this strange test which had materialized from nowhere, and the unsettling realization Zhang Min was still piecing together that they were not where they thought they were.

The fire popped, sparks dancing into the night to fade out of existence and draw the eyes to the myriad of stars instead. Zhang Min sighed, head back to stare above him now, and pondered.

Han Ye was willing to forsake everything for Ji Fa, even though Han Ye claimed that there was no hope for a relationship between them, Ji Fa being promised to his sister and their kingdoms still unstable.

And here was Zhang Min, cowering, as ever, no matter how hard he fought with himself to not, no matter how well he hid it in the moment, at the smallest volume increase in his father’s voice or lift of his hand.

The sun, or what they believed to be the sun, Zhang Min thought grimly as he rubbed at his eyes, woke him. He wasn’t even sure when he had fallen asleep, having, at some point apparently, slid to rest his head against the palm tree log he had been sitting on. The rustling of clothes nearby pulled an eye open, and found Han Ye sitting, back still towards Zhang Min, and rubbing at his robes.

Ah. The blood.

Zhang Min stretched with a yawn, rolling his neck before pushing himself to stand. “We can head back to the ocean today, see if the sea water will help with the stains.” He kicked sand over the remnants of the burned-out fire.

Han Ye had frozen when Zhang Min spoke, exhaling with control before nodding. “I would like to try, thank you.”

Zhang Min shrugged. Walking to stand in front of Han Ye, he held out a hand to help him up. “Come on, no use waiting around here.”

Han Ye, much to Zhang Min’s surprise, accepted the offered hand in standing. As he brushed off his robes, Zhang min stared at his hand, still warm from the touch, and chose to ignore the new ache that had formed in his chest.

They retraced their steps from the day before, the silence between them more companionable than it had been. As the black sand stretched out in front of them, the trees ending several meters back from the water’s edge, Zhang Min paused, eyes scanning. At night, the horizon seemed to stretch forever, as one would expect over an ocean. But now…

He frowned. “I’m going to swim for a bit, clear my head.”

Han Ye nodded, already in the process of stripping out of his robes and checking the layers for blood. “Alright, just be careful. We don’t know what could be living in waters such as these.”

Zhang Min hummed, shucking off his pants and heading to the ocean, not pausing as he reached the emerald green water, simply walking straight in, ducking underneath to fully submerge himself as soon as he was waist deep. As the familiar pressing silence which was always present in the water surrounded him, Zhang Min allowed the tension to ease from his muscles. He floated for a few minutes before righting himself, running his hands over his face and back over his buzzed hair, then dove.

He swam for a bit underwater, before surfacing and beginning to stroke, legs working to propel him forward as he breathed on every third lift of his left arm. As his muscles began to loosen more with the exertion, then move gently into that burning stage of a good workout, Zhang Min paused, legs drifting below him and… still hitting the seabed? Zhang Min frowned. Surely, he had gone far enough out at this point that it should have dropped, but instead he stood, water barely higher than his lower ribs. He turned to look behind him, easily spotting Han Ye crouched at the water’s edge, working on the blood stains in his clothes. Turning back, Zhang Min’s frown deepened.

Why did the sky appear so close?

Cautiously, he reached out a hand, fingers barely skimming across chilled glass before he suddenly found himself falling, caught in water falling into an empty space as the sandy seabed he had stood on opened with a groan.

“Zhang Min!”

He had no chance to shout back to Han Ye, to tell him to get away from the water, barely having the chance to gasp for air as the water pulled him under with it.

Deep, heaving coughs forced Zhang Min back to consciousness. He lifted himself onto one arm, bent forward as he fought to expel the water from his lungs and breath. Once the worst had passed, he lifted his head to look around.

A room?

The floor a slatted bamboo, water still dripping between it to who knew where the only sound echoing through the space, walls a warm oak with low lit sconces on each wall. In front of him…

In front of him, a mirror. Zhang Min confronted with his own appearance, pale, looking like the partially drowned rat he felt like.

And oh.

Every injury he had acquired in his life as Zhang Min, sitting fresh all over his body. His face mottled in yellows and purples, the shoulder of his shirt torn and the skin just barely visible underneath when he twisted to get a better look angry, bubbling with blisters and skin falling off. A small cut at his temple bleeding, one that never scarred, and the only time the Chairman was so careless.

Well, until the last time.

Zhang Min winced, then glanced at his left shoulder, and pressed gentle fingers to his face. Nothing felt wrong, no phantom pains besieged him, and his shoulder looked as it had for years now, healed and mostly the color of the rest of his flesh instead of the fresh mess of blisters it had been as a child and his father had had the housekeeper intentionally pour scalding water on him.

Glancing back at the mirror, Zhang Min grit his teeth at the sight of the red imprint of his father’s hand across both cheeks. As he stared, a small cut along his temple from the one time his father had hit him and had apparently forgotten about the ring he wore formed.

“You are Zhang Min! When will you act like it?” The chairman’s voice rang through the space. Zhang Min flinched, feeling, suddenly, all of six years old.

“I do act like it.” He whispered.

Not quietly enough, however, as the Chairman’s scoffing laugh filled the room. “You might put on a good act, but all it takes is one mistake, one misstep, and then you will be found out to be a fraud. We can’t have that, the Sinai Group cannot afford that! Do better!”

“Yes sir.” Zhang Min winced, expecting flesh on flesh at any moment. He caught the gaze of his reflection once more, and hung his head. He had never wanted this. Had never wanted to be Zhang Min.

He had never had that choice to not be.

“You are Zhang Min.”

A familiar mantra.

The burning at his eyes was new, though.

“You are Zhang Min.”

He wiped at his eyes, barely winning the battle of keeping the tears from falling.

“Zhang Min is great, you know I love him.” A familiar voice, one kinder, surrounded Zhang Min. He gasped, eyes flying open and bit his lip as in the mirror, he saw Lin Shen standing next to him. Shakily, Zhang Min lifted his hand, reaching it to the side where Lin Shen stood only to meet air.

“Shen’er.” Zhang Min gasped. “Where are you?”

Lin Shen smiled. “You know where.”

“Shen’er, can we end this session? I don’t want to do this anymore.”

“A-Chi. I know you know this isn’t a session.”

“Then what’s happening?” Zhang Min couldn’t help the way his voice rose, or the way he crawled towards the mirror, hand resting on it, heart pounding as the Lin Shen within it crouched and set his hand to mirror Zhang Min’s. “Where are you? Shen’er, please?”

“I’m waiting for you, A-Chi. Xiao Chi. My Xiao Chi. I’ll always be waiting.”

“For what? I’m here, Shen’er, please, just tell me where you are and –“

Lin Shen shook his head. “This is something you have to do for yourself, A-Chi.”

He faded.

“No, no!” Zhang Min felt along the glass, searching for any type of hidden seam or crack which might let him through. Nothing. “Shen’er!”

The Chairman’s laugh again. “As if you would ever get the chance to pursue this relationship fully. Why are you even wasting your time, Zhang Min? You will do what is best for the company and marry Nana. It’s already been decided.”

“No.” Zhang Min shook his head. He couldn’t. Not since meeting Lin Shen. “Shen’er, I’m so tired.”

Zhang Min curled next to the mirror, head where Lin Shen had been, and allowed his brain to drift and turn to nothingness.

Zhang Min stood, waiting, down the hall from the banquet room which Nana had been decorating for their engagement party. He had hardly eaten that day, found it difficult to even get water past the knot in his throat and lump in his stomach, let alone food.

And when Nana appeared next to him, dressed in a white gown, hair up, talking even more nonsense than usual, he felt actively ill. Shoving it all to the side he kept on a polite face.

Until he saw it. dreamA small ferris wheel, just like the one he had always wanted to go on as a child, and never seemed to have the time for. Just like the one that he had bumped into an unfairly attractive psychologist in front of just a few weeks before. As Zhang Min stared at the miniature one in front of him, he swore he could feel his phone burning in his pocket, itching to be opened and used to call the man.

“You like it? I picked it out just for us.” Nana slid her hand to hold onto his arm.

And Zhang Min stepped back.

“Zhang Min, what? Don’t you like it?”

He stared at her. He could see the insecurity in her eyes, the way she seemed to project so much out of her own insecurities. But, he realized, he could no longer be a part of her game. He was not hers, not her pawn, and really, he realized, he had let this go on for far too long.

“I’m sorry, Nana.”

She had reached out for him. He ignored it, steps quickening until he was running, loosening and untying the bow tie around his neck.

“Zhang Min!” Her shout followed him, but didn’t outpace him. Not this time.

Every step which placed more distance between him and a life trapped to Nana, him and a life forced on him by the Chairman, grew lighter and lighter, his breathing easier, the weight of existence easing from unbearable crushing stone and debris to, for the time being, clear air and space around him.

“I’m not Zhang Min. I am Zhang Chi.”

He woke with a gasp, still in the room, brightly lit now, and glanced about. Nothing had changed except the lighting. Looking at himself in the mirror once more, he was pleased to see that some color had returned to his cheeks.

“I am Zhang Chi.” A laugh, unexpected and unused, fell from him, and he beamed. “I am Zhang Chi.”

Zhang Chi attempted to push himself to his feet, falling back to sit as a wave of dizziness hit him. He laughed again, running his hands over his face. “Shen’er? Where?”

His voice trailed off as a hissing noise filled the room, Zhang Chi looking around for the source of it, finding, in each corner, something had occurred to allow a steady stream of barely visible steam or, he sniffed, gas? fill the room. He coughed, growing dizzy as his heart began to race.

“No, Shen’er. I… I…”

He faded into unconsciousness.

(Lin Shen)

Lin Shen sat behind the wheel of a car, hands gripping it tightly, foot pressed on the brake hard enough he lifted himself from his seat, only kept in place by the seatbelt across his chest and waist. No. No. I don’t… I don’t drive. I can’t drive. Wait… how did I get here?

Xiaoxiao’s taunting voice filled his head as she attempted several times to convince him to learn. And he had tried, once, managing to drive around an empty lot with growing ease and comfort, only to freeze and panic, allowing the car to drive up off the payment onto a grass partition when she had suggested pulling onto the small side street.

The radio crackled.

And that’s it for today’s top 20 hits, and isn’t that quite the selection?

The radio host laughed, and Lin Shen’s grimace grew.

Now, before the weather, there is just one important note that I was just handed, what is this? Hmmm, well… if there is a Lin Shen listening, there is a very important message for you.

Lin Shen inadvertently relaxed, sinking into the driver’s seat and staring at the radio as it crackled once more.

Choose, Lin Shen. You have to choose.

Lin Shen’s blood ran cold. Choose? It couldn’t possibly mean…

You’ve spent your life avoiding everything you can, Lin Shen. Choose. You either are with him… Or you aren’t.

Lin Shen gasped, a car horn shrieked, and he barely had the chance to look out of the driver’s window, barely had a chance to register the car lights heading straight for him and his eyes to widen before the car hit, and everything went black.

He woke in the hallway of the Chairman’s house. He could hear the shouting from down the hall, blood instantly boiling as Zhang Min’s calm voice replied with just the barest edge to it.

Zhang Min. His A-Chi. He had worked so hard the last several weeks, at the hotel, yes, but on his own life as well, and Lin Shen couldn’t be prouder.

The Chairman’s voice again, calling Zhang Min ungrateful, unfit, nothing but lies and poison flying at Zhang Min with every word.

Lin Shen closed his eyes and breathed, hands clenching into fists. When this had happened, he had immediately stormed down the hall and into the room, grabbing the Chairman before he could contact Zhang Min. He hadn’t consciously done it; it had felt so natural to insert himself into his boyfriend’s business and stand up for him.

Just like it had been so natural for Zhang Min to avoid him three days later for a week, unconvincing lies of a last-minute conference, and blurry photos from Secretary Xiao messaged to him showing a cut down Zhang Min’s cheek, bruised and bandaged.

Lin Shen had barely been able to stomach the sight, guilt gnawing at his stomach until Zhang Min finally agreed to meet.

His stomach and determination both vanished when finally seeing his boyfriend for the first time after, his calm determination still unsteady, but Lin Shen could see in the spark of Zhang Min’s eyes, rebuilding. Lin Shen hadn’t consciously realized it then, but that was when he began to pull away, rescheduling their counseling sessions, avoiding phone and video calls.

It had hurt, Lin Shen thought as the Chairman’s voice grew louder, Lin Shen’s heart pumping harder and harder as he knew the time was drawing near, when the messages began to falter, coming farther and farther in between.

Nothing, not even the car accident he was in as a child with his mother, he wryly thought, had hurt as much as the last message Zhang Min had sent.

A-Chi <3

I don’t know what happened, but you’re clearly not interested anymore.

I am marrying Nana.

And that was it.

Until… Lin Shen frowned. Until just before he had fallen asleep, half a can of beer held in one hand, the coffee table holding its five brethren, his phone had pinged with the tone he had set just for Zhang Min.

A-Chi <3

Hey.

Where are you?

We need to talk, and I mean *actually* talk.

Lin Shen’s feet began to move down the hall, towards the voices, a lump in his throat aching with every step. He recalled typing a reply, but he was unsure if it had ever been sent. When he woke…

When he woke, he was in the forest.

Next Lin Shen knew, he was in the doorway to the living room, two sets of eyes on him, one filled with anger, one with gentleness and perhaps the beginnings of love. Lin Shen wasn’t brave enough, yet, to call it that, but he thought it was.

The Chairman laughed, eyes taking on a crazy glint.

Lin Shen frowned. This was not what had happened.

“You? What do you think you can do here?” The Chairman sneered.

Lin Shen straightened his shoulders, eyes on the Chairman. “I can stop you from assaulting him and save you from those charges.”

More laughter. “As if he would ever press those. Zhang Min is a lot of useless things, but he isn’t so stupid as to shoot the hand that feeds him, has fed him, has given him a life he would otherwise not have had of luxury.”

Zhang Min’s bitter chuckle at that pulled the Chairman’s attention back on him, Lin Shen biting the inside of his cheek.

“Oh, that’s funny? Will you be laughing when I cut you off and he leaves you? He’s done it once; he will do it again.”

Wait… how could he possibly know?

Zhang Min gazed at Lin Shen, eyes round and watery.

“A-Chi, I… it’s not like that, I just – “

“He is Zhang Min! And you, Doctor Lin Shen, are a coward.” The Chairman spun to face Zhang Min entirely, hand pulling back, open, palm towards Zhang Min.

“No.” Lin Shen’s voice was barely above a whisper. If he interfered, Zhang Min would still be hit, and worse, he would be cut with what was likely a ring. But if Lin Shen stood here and watched…

This, he realized, is why he avoided everything he could. Why he clung to the excuses of public transportation, insisting that everyone but him drive when it was necessary to leave the city. Why he kept his visits to the hospital to once a week, unwilling to sit at his mother’s side longer than necessary.

“No.” Lin Shen’s voice grew in strength as the Chairman’s hand began its descent.

One step.

Zhang Min did not move.

Second step.

Lin Shen swore he could see the speed building in the Chairman’s hand.

Lin Shen launched himself on the third step, arms wide to grab around the Chairman’s waist. As they fell, he vaguely realized that no sound of flesh meeting flesh filled the air.

Lin Shen tried to brace himself to hit the cold, hard floor, knowing his shoulder at best, elbow at worst, would take most of the impact. Right before they should have landed, however, the floor vanished, and they kept falling.

Lin Shen stood squinting in a white room, the silence deafening. No furniture, no lines on the floor or walls, the Chairman gone about halfway through a descent which had begun to seem as if it would never end.

There!

Lin Shen’s gaze caught on a red dot flashing across the room from him. He started to walk over to it, freezing when a familiar voice reached him.

“Shen’er.”

Lin Shen slowly turned, nausea creeping in as he faced his mother, feeling, once more, like the young boy he had been when the accident had happened. “Ma?”

She smiled at him, standing, seemingly perfectly healthy as though nothing had ever happened. “Shen’er. Look at you.”

Lin Shen shook his head. Damn, he must have given in to Xiaoxiao’s pestering for her to hypnotize him. Running a hand down his face, he sighed. “I’ve been grown for a while, ma. You’re still unconscious at the hospital.”

His ma frowned and… glitched? Lin Shen blinked, rubbed his eyes. When he looked at her again, she seemed solid enough.

“Shen’er?”

She flickered.

“What?” Lin Shen took a step forward, and the room plunged into darkness. The silence pressed in heavier before a series of squeaks and beeps came from the spot he had seen the red dot, now behind him. Lin Shen turned, finding the red dot still blinking. He slid a foot forward, cautious and unwilling to lose complete contact with the ground.

He had shuffled no more than three steps when the lights flashed back on, blinding him. He blinked, throwing a hand up to try to block some of the light while waiting for his eyes to adjust.

“Shen’er?”

And like that, the tension melted from Lin Shen.

“A-Chi? Are you alright?” Lin Shen turned once more to find Zhang Chi standing behind him, right where his ma had just been.

Zhang Chi gave a shy smile, shoulders hunching. “Yeah. I am.” A step forward. “Thanks to you.”

Lin Shen let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. “Good. Good. I… I was worried…”

Zhang Chi laughed. “The great Lin Shen, worried?”

Lin Shen gave a small chuckle. “Yeah. That I had made things with your father worse.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. Whatever happens, I’ll handle it. It’ll be fine.”

“No.” Lin Shen walked over to Zhang Chi, grabbing his hands, warm and solid. “It’s not fine. You deserve better, A-Chi. And I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have put distance between us, I just… I just panicked, and I avoid things when that happens, and – “

Zhang Chi leaned up and forward on his toes, barely brushing their lips together. It succeeded in making Lin Shen quiet, a small hitch to his breath all that betrayed him after.

“A-Chi, I… I may fuck up and do it again. Be patient with me?”

Zhang Chi smiled, his mouth opening to reply.

And then he was gone, blinked out of existence right in front of Lin Shen, who barely had time to register it before something pricked the side of his neck, and he fell to the solid ground.

(Ji Fa)

The fire grew smaller, the fuel nearly used up, and Ji Fa startled awake as the cold began to bite at his face. Blinking his eyes open, he frowned as he looked around. That Lin Shen is still not back?

Gritting his teeth against the pain of his shoulder, Ji Fa stood, throwing on some more fuel for the fire from the pile of papers and…well Ji Fa wasn’t sure what else Lin Shen had gathered for it, but it worked to grow the flames and bring back a small edge of warmth to the cave.

Crouching in front of it, Ji Fa stared at the entrance of the cave, wind howling past it in a sheet of white. A storm had moved in.

Ji Fa’s frown deepened. He secured his clothes tighter around him and, after checking once more that the fire would stay burning for a while, ventured into the storm.

White swirled around him, the wind instantly cutting to his bones as he trudged through unbroken snow piled knee high, eyes slitted in an attempt to see past what was immediately in front of him.

“Lin-yisheng! Lin-yisheng?” Ji Fa tried to shout, swearing as the wind stole his word before they even reached his own ears.

After staggering another five steps, Ji Fa paused. Lin Shen had not been dressed much warmer than Ji Fa currently was. If he was exposed when the storm started, he’d be well buried and frozen by now.

Maybe… Ji Fa growled under his breath, no. He had to find Lin Shen.

No sooner had he lifted a foot to resume walking when he paused again, whirling to face the snowdrift behind him, weight evenly balanced between his feet ready to fight, right shoulder back to protect it as, with a shout and a gasp, Lin Shen leapt from it.

Well, not so much a leap as looking as though he was tossed.

He landed in a tangle of limbs, groaning. Ji Fa hurried over to him, crouching down to help him sit, running his hands where they could reach to check for injury. With the exception of a small hole, potentially a bite?, on the side of Lin Shen’s neck, he was fine.

The wind roared past them in one last, giant push to bury them, and died down. Snow which had mere moments before been small, crystalline daggers now fell gently, no more harmful than a feather.

Lin Shen groaned, one hand to his temple as he swayed.

“Come on, let’s get back to the cave.” Ji Fa grabbed Lin Shen’s arm with his good hand, hauling him to his feet and slowly guiding him back.

(Ji Fa)

Ji Fa helped Lin Shen to sit against the cave wall where he had previously been, stoking to fire more. Lin Shen shivered, eyes half closed, and limp as Ji Fa stripped him from his wet clothes, removing his own cloak to wrap it around Lin Shen. Once he had Lin Shen’s clothes spread out to hopefully dry, Ji Fa sat, pulling Lin Shen close.

“No, this is not nec-nec-necccessary.” Lin Shen shivered and stuttered.

Ji Fa noticed the blue tinge to Lin Shen’s lips and frowned. “It is, you were out long enough to start to go blue.”

Lin Shen managed to huff a small laugh, but put up no further protest.

The silence pressed in on them, broken only by the occasional snaps and crackles which make up the language of fire. Ji Fa could feel the jade gardenia’s Han Ye had gifted him pressing against his thigh, but was unable to retrieve it.

Instead, when the silence grew too loud, Ji Fa began to sing under his breath.

Lin Shen’s breathing stuttered, he let out a small hmm as he fought to lift his head and look around before resettling against Ji Fa, smiling softly as he listened.

As the last of Ji Fa’s voice faded from the air, Lin Shen sighed. “You sound like him, you know.”

“Your boyfriend?”

“Yeah. He doesn’t like anyone to know, but he has the cutest singing voice.”

Ji Fa smirked and chuckled. “I normally don’t sing. My friend, the one you look like, he always is trying to get me to sing. Eventually he gave me a set of paixiao, which I am much more inclined to play.”

Lin Shen hummed. “Maybe I should get Zhang Min an instrument.”

“Lin-yisheng,” Ji Fa furrowed his brow, unconsciously squeezing Lin Shen when he hummed in reply, half his thoughts on how this was exactly how Han Ye had felt in his arms the one time they had embraced, “what happened, when you were out in the storm? The way you left that snow drift, that was not… natural.”

Ji Fa could feel the way Lin Shen’s brow furrowed against his neck, an arm moving to press against the small pinprick of a hole on the side of Lin Shen’s neck.

“I… I was in a memory, I think? Except, it wasn’t a memory, it was like it was happening in real time, and this time…” Lin Shen paused. “This time it went the way it should have gone in the first place.”

Ji Fa hummed, holding Lin Shen close until they both drifted to sleep.

The first thing Ji Fa noticed as he drifted back to consciousness was the lack of weight on him, the lack of warmth of another body.

The second, after opening his eyes, was the lack of firelight against the cave’s rough walls, but instead, a forest of sparse, bare trees, the space between them filled with tents, horses, and people.

Ji Fa’s heart sank.

Oh. This dream again.

So often after the final battle for the throne had Ji Fa dreamt this exact dream, unable to change anything, unable to stop Han Ye from storming out of his tent, out of any significant role in Ji Fa’s life past that of future brother-in-law.

As he watched Han Ye storm past where he stood facing his own tent, entering it in a dramatic fashion which only spoke to how upset he had been, Ji Fa resigned himself once more to heartbreak, and followed.

In the tent Ji Fa waved for the generals to leave, never breaking eye contact with Han Ye.

Once they were alone, Ji Fa watched himself walk over to Han Ye, reaching to cup a cheek in his hand, only for Han Ye to push the hand away.

“Taizi, what’s –“

“That! That is what is wrong, A-Ji.”

Ji Fa winced, as he did every time.

“Taizi, we have been over this, and –“

“And simply because you have decided that we need to keep propriety at all costs, I cannot go into battle?”

Ji Fa recalled being confused at how Han Ye had appeared to change subjects at the time so rapidly, his mind still not disengaged from the conversation he had been in the middle of with his generals.

And there, the first crack of his heart reopening as he watched himself straighten and slide into the role of Emperor over lover. “There is no need to risk the lineage of two royal families by you going into battle with me.”

Han Ye stared at Ji Fa, a slight tremble running through his whole body. “And?”

The second crack.

The Ji Fa of the memory sighed. “And what, taizi?”

Han Ye nodded. “Alright. Fine, Your Highness. I accept your decision, but I will be on the battlefield leading my men.”

“What? A-Ye, no, you need to –“

Han Ye barked a laugh, pulling a bamboo brush from the bag he had slung over his shoulder and staring at it. “Now it’s A-Ye, when I don’t bend to will and follow along like a good minion is supposed to.”

“Minion? A-Ye, I don’t understand…”

“You don’t?” Han Ye sniffled, and shook his head. There, the third crack of Ji Fa’s heart as Han Ye settled his own royalty around him like a shield. “Then I am not one you need to understand, Your Highness. Thank you for your concern and regard, it pleases this one to know Princess Han Anning will be in good hands.”

Ji Fa watched as again, like every time before, Han Ye allowed the bamboo brush to fall, wishing fervently that he could interfere in his own dream and stop him.

“I look forward to a prosperous peace between our kingdoms when this is over.”

“Taizi – A’Ye, please…”

Han Ye turned and walked from the tent.

Ji Fa watched himself, the hurt and confusion plain on his face, relived the string of thoughts which had plagued and followed him into the battle, an endless litany of what? Why doesn’t he see? What happened? Where is he gone? Why?

The Ji Fa of the memory bent to pick up the bamboo brush, dusting it off as best he could before setting it carefully on his desk next to the paixiao and small jade flowers that Han Ye had gifted him.

The dream turned fuzzy, and Ji Fa frowned. This was not what usually happened, usually his mind immediately cut to the battle and the bloodshed, the pounding worry with every heartbeat over Han Ye’s safety, and ending with his fears of Han Ye’s death.

This time, the edges of the dream remained fuzzy, Ji Fa finding the scene around him speeding up and himself taken from the tent and into a clearing in the same woods. Apparently the place where Han Ye had gone after their spat, as the scene cleared to show Han Ye sitting in a tree, one leg propped up on the branch, the hanging low.

Ji Fa’s heart twinged even as he could not stop the small smile curling his lips.

Their spot.

Even after a fight, both of them weary from the war and battle after battle, at odds with each other more and more, Han Ye had retreated to their spot.

“Why are you here, Your Highness?”

Ji Fa blinked, then realized that Han Ye was looking at him from the corner of his eyes, apparently able to see him. Ji Fa’s breath hitched, panic squeezing his heart. He should keep up the act, it was for Han Ye’s safety, after all.

They couldn’t risk breaking the contract anyway.

But…

Ji Fa let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. But before he could speak, Han Ye snorted.

“Of course.”

Ji Fa tilted his head in question. “A-Ye? Please. What was that about?”

Han Ye crossed his arms, head turned to face from Ji Fa, gaze fixed on the nearby lake.

“Surely you know why I gave those orders?”

No response.

Ji Fa suppressed a chuckle. Always so stubborn, this one. “And surely someone as wise and well read as the Prince of Jing realizes what the gifts I have bequeathed him mean.”

Though Ji Fa couldn’t see it, he still smiled when Han Ye rolled his eyes before finally turning to face him.

“And surely someone as experienced as King Wu of Zhou knows what my gifts to him represent.”

Ji Fa nodded. “Of course.”

“And yet he still deigns to order me about under the guise of concern for my sister and kingdom.” Han Ye’s breath stuttered, lips settling into a firmer line to prevent any trembling from showing.

“A-Ye, I know you know that as leaders we have to put everyone else first, and –“

“I know, A-Fa. I know, I just.” Han Ye clenched his fists. “Maybe I want to be selfish for once.”

Ji Fa could not deny how tempting that sounded, how he longed to pull Han Ye close, feel their lips together and declare his claim to the Crown Prince to the world.

But…

But what? Ji Fa thought. This is a dream.

The panic which had kept his feet rooted morphed, no longer one of self-imposed restraint but one of fear of the unknown as Ji Fa slowly walked forward until he stood just to the side of the branch Han Ye perched on, staring up at him.

Their eyes met, steady, and Ji Fa tilted his head in question.

Han Ye nodded.

Ji Fa scrambled up the tree, sitting in front of Han Ye when Han Ye lowered his leg, close enough they could feel the way the air was displaced by the other’s body. Ji Fa lifted a trembling hand to Han Ye’s face, holding it just a hair's breadth away from touching his skin. “A-Ye, I have been dishonest.”

Han Ye snorted, but remained silent, staring at Ji Fa with his wide puppy eyes, the smallest pout present on his lips.

“I want nothing more than to keep you safe.”

“So you keep from battle?”

“Yes.”

“And your bed?”

Ji Fa licked his lips. “Yes.”

Silence. Ji Fa waited, anticipation thrumming through him, though anticipation for what, he could not quite place.

“I am not a child.”

“No, you are not.”

“And yet you coddle me.”

Ji Fa grimaced. “That was not my intent. A-Ye, please. I’m sorry. I – I’ve never wanted another person before like this, A-Ye. If something were to happen to you…”

And there, Han Ye’s shoulders softened, and he pulled Ji Fa’s hand to his cheek, nuzzling into it. “Nothing will.”

“I want you, A-Ye. But you’re the taizi, we can’t…”

Han Ye smirked. “My sister can take the throne.”

“What? Are you sure?”

Han Ye nodded, the corner of his lips brushing Ji Fa’s thumb. “She knows how I feel about you. She suggested it.”

Ji Fa’s other hand found itself on Han Ye’s chest, grabbing the fabric of his robes and pulling until their foreheads met, breath shared between them.

“I want you, A-Ye. I love you.”

Ji Fa made sure that as soon as the last word was set free from his mouth he moved first to initiate the kiss between them, Han Ye sinking into him, and allowing themselves to get lost for a short while.

Ji Fa gasped as he woke, the cave bright with sunlight reflected from the fallen snow outside, the air crisp, but no longer biting. Looking around he found Lin Shen dressed and on the other side of the fire, turning the pot once more which he seemed to have refilled. They exchanged nods and sat in silence.

Ji Fa felt lighter, relaxed in a way he hadn’t been since before taking the throne and going to war with the king of the Shang. He let his eyes drift shut again, recalling Han Ye’s lips on his own, and drifted, knowing his heart and what actions he needed to take.

(Han Ye)

Han Ye stood, water lapping at his bare feet, trouser legs tied up around his knees to keep them dry, one hand behind his back, the other held just so in front, like it usually was when he was thinking. Whatever it was that had happened the day prior, dream, hallucination, he had serious doubts about the reality of it, sat heavy on his mind.

But not as heavy as waking up to find Zhang Min absent, and the beach shore extending out further than it had in the short time they had been here. His dreams, after Zhang Min had helped him to settle at the fireside and sleep, had at one point been besieged by a whirlpool opening up while in the throne room of the palace.

Surely that is not what happened here though.

Han Ye’s frown deepened.

Rustling behind him from the forest cut off his train of thought, Han Ye turning quickly to confront whatever it was.

Then silence.

Nerves on edge, Han Ye slowly walked up the beach, pausing as a low groan came from the trees.

Relief flooded through Han Ye and he rushed into the underbrush, pausing on the edge of the clearing where they had set up their fire. There, where Han Ye had slept the night before, lay Zhang Min.

Zhang Min groaned again, hand reaching up to rest on his head.

“Zhang-laoban? Where were you, are you alright?”

Another groan pulled Han Ye over to Zhang Min’s side, hands gently running over his buzzed hair, searching for any sign of injury.

“Zhang Chi.”

“Hmm?” Han Ye frowned at how dilated Zhang Min’s eyes were when he opened them.

“My name. My real name. Zhang Chi. I want to be him.”

Zhang Chi’s eyes fell shut again, his breathing evening out to that of sleep.

Han Ye couldn’t help the smile as he let his fingers linger over Zhang Chi’s brow.

(Zhang Chi)

Zhang Chi’s head pounded as he regained consciousness, light even through his eyelids far too bright for comfort. He slung an arm over his eyes, which barely helped, and could not stop the whimper. He was prone to migraines, yes, and used to them to a certain extent in that he knew how best he could handle them.

But this did not feel like that.

This had the distinct flavor of the aftereffects of some sort of drug, Zhang Chi remembering the same feeling from his knee surgery.

“Zhang-laoban?”

Han Ye’s voice, though not quite the same as his boyfriend’s, still soothed over Zhang Chi’s ears, lessening the pounding in his head.

“Zhang-laoban, let me help you sit so you can drink.”

Zhang Chi groaned at the thought of moving, but couldn’t deny how parched he felt. Eyes kept firmly shut and gripping onto Han Ye’s arm a bit too tightly, Zhang Chi allowed him to maneuver him as needed to sit, accepting what felt like a round cup with a rough, slightly fuzzy texture. He sipped from it cautiously, tension easing as the cool water soothed his throat.

“Thank you.” He risked peeking one eye open, wincing as pain lanced through his head like an ice pick. Ah, half a coconut, that made sense.

“What happened, Zhang-laoban? When I woke up you were gone.”

Zhang Chi hummed. “This place isn’t what it seems. I was swimming and something in the water opened and pulled me down with the water, dumping me into this strange room.” He recounted everything that had occurred, sipping at the water whenever Han Ye nudged his hand holding the coconut.

By the time Zhang Chi finished, his head pounded slightly less, enough that he could stare at the ground with his eyes open.

“I had called what I went through some sort of exam, your trial sounds the same.”

Zhang Chi nodded. “It felt like it, honestly.”

Han Ye hummed. “As did mine. But why are we being tested?”

Zhang Chi sat that night in the same spot he had been in all day, Han Ye insisting that he could take care of everything they needed for the day.

Watching him fail to properly clean the fish he claimed to have gotten from the fresh spring he claimed to have found the drinkable water, Zhang Chi was having some doubts.

“So what do you think is going on?” Han Ye asked, sitting back after getting the sticks speared through the fish set in the ground by the fire.

Zhang Chi shook his head. “I don’t know.”

They sat in silence for a bit, until Zhang Chi couldn’t hold his thoughts in anymore. “I think tomorrow we should search for a way out of here.”

Han Ye nodded, turning the fish.

(Zhang Chi)

“The portal that brought you here, you found it in some rocks?”

Han Ye hummed as he held out a hand to Zhang Chi to help him over a small stream. “It seemed out of place, to be honest. Even the rock formation seemed unnatural, there was no obvious reason for them to be there.”

“Because you were in a meadow?”

“That is what it seemed like, yes.”

Zhang Chi chewed on his lower lip as they continued walking through the jungle, having agreed that for now, the best plan was to try to find an end to the area they were in. “The one I took was in between some palm trees in an oasis.”

Han Ye nodded.

The farther they walked, the more the air seemed to grow heavier, nerves becoming more and more on edge as they caught glimpse of red lights and odd movements from their peripheries.

“Zhang Chi, let me go in front.” Han Ye set a hand on Zhang Chi’s shoulder, glaring at a spot just ahead of them where something reflective had appeared and then vanished.

“I am perfectly fine leading the way, there is no need – “

“It’s not that you can’t lead, it’s that I am trained in how to fight and would rather have whatever might be tracking us come at me first.”

Zhang Chi blinked up at Han Ye. “Oh.”

Their eyes met and they shared a nod, Han Ye moving ahead of Zhang Chi by a few paces.

Only a handful of steps later and they both froze as the air crackled with static. The ground rumbled and they watched, mouths hanging open, as the trees moved to block their forward path, opening a new path to the side leading straight to what appeared to be a cliff wall much closer than it felt it should have been. 

“That rumbling is what happened in the meadow.”

“Those look exactly like the portal I found to come here.”

Han Ye nodded.

Before them in the cliff face, not even attempting to blend into the rock wall or appear as though they could be potential entrances to a cave, were two door frames, the area inside of them glowing and swirling like the portals which had brought them to the beach. They cautiously stepped forward, peering at the swirling liquid.

Zhang Chi made to step closer, but Han Ye’s voice stopped him.

“Zhang-laoban, look at this.”

To the side of the newly opened path stood a large, carved rock. Zhang Chi was not sure how he had missed it sitting there as he walked over to it, mouth already gawking and eyes wide. “What?”

Han Ye shook his head, lips pressed into a thin line, eyes unmoving from the carving in the rock before them.

“Is that?”

A short nod. “That is the person I love. Ji Fa.”

The carving did indeed show Ji Fa in full battle armor but still exposing a wound to his chest, staring into the distance with grim determination as one arm extended behind him, in it, his heart dripping.

“Oh. Wow.”

Han Ye couldn’t stop his hand as it reached up to brush against the stone, eyes burning with tears.

Zhang Chi’s gaze slipped from the heart in Ji Fa’s hand to notice the carving extended around the side of the carved stone. He followed it, dread setting in with each step and solidifying as he looked up at a carving of Lin Shen crouched, with three sets of arms. The first set of hands covered his eyes, the second rested over his ears, while the third, and the ones which looked most natural in their placement, wrapped around his bent knees. Around him were images of various events in Lin Shen’s life, most of which Zhang Chi recognized from stories he had been told. A car dented on the side, a woman’s body on a stretcher. An endless row of blank houses, child’s toys and clothes strewn all about them. A gun lying flat, bullet shells surrounding it.

Han Ye stepped to Zhang Chi’s side, gazing up and nodding. “He hides.”

“He avoids.”

A hum and they stood, just peering up.

“Do you think?”

“Yes. Whatever this world is, whatever reason we were brought here and separated. I think they were as well and have been through similar trials as us.”

“So now what?” Weariness sat heavy in Zhang Chi’s voice.

Han Ye set a firm hand gently on his shoulder, squeezing it. “We move forward and we find them.”

They turned to face the portals, walking to them to inspect them closer. And just barely, if they focused on one, they could see…

“The palace!” Han Ye’s eyes widened, staring at the door on the right. “It has to be my way home.”

Zhang Chi nodded, heart pounding as he stared at the left door where he thought he could see the inside of Lin Shen’s apartment. “Do you think it’s that easy? We can go home? Find them there?”

Han Ye frowned. “It seems too easy.”

“Yes.”

“Especially after the rumbling.”

“Yes.”

They shared a look.

“But we have to get home.”

Han Ye nodded, an itch setting in below his skin to find Ji Fa, to properly explain everything and confess. “Yes.”

“Think we can trust what we see in the doors?”

Han Ye studied them again. “I don’t think we have a choice.”

Zhang Chi hummed but nodded. Together they stepped up to the glowing doorways. With one last look at each other, they each stepped through, breaths held as they fell.

(Lin Shen)

Lin Shen stared at the blinding world beyond the cave entrance, Ji Fa in silence next to him.

“We need to get back.”

“Mmm.”

Lin Shen chewed on the inside of his lip, weighing the pros and cons of staying in their shelter versus leaving it, and coming to the same conclusion. “It would be safer to stay here, especially with your wound, but – “

“But we aren’t going to make any progress on getting ourselves home staying put. My shoulder is fine, Lin-yisheng. We should go. The sun shines. I’ve fared worse.”

Lin Shen hummed, but nodded, helping Ji Fa stand and together, they left.

The snow crunched underneath them, the topmost layer having partially solidified during the night. Upon exiting the cave Ji Fa had nodded to the right, Lin Shen’s gaze following the motion to find, below them in a valley still oddly green, a small village.

After walking for a while, the ground began to slope down. Lin Shen kept going in his straight path, casting one glance over his shoulder when he no longer felt Ji Fa beside him and snorted. Ji Fa was moving in long paths back and forth with a minimal downward angle.

“That’ll take you forever to get down that way.” Lin Shen called back before turning. On his next step, his foot landed with his weight a bit too far forward, and it slid out from underneath him, Lin Shen squawking as he fell back and slid down the hillside a ways on his ass.

A low chuckle reached him as he groaned, pushing himself up carefully and brushing the snow off the back of his head.

“That is why I move the way I do, Lin-yisheng. It is more time consuming, but I am less likely to slide down the mountain.”

Lin Shen glared at Ji Fa, the effect he felt softening as he gazed at Ji Fa’s amused face, lips curled and more relaxed than Lin Shen had seen him yet.

Returning his gaze to the ground immediately in front of him, Ji Fa resumed walking at a slightly steeper angle than before.

Lin Shen smirked, deciding to wait until Ji Fa reached him, but then gasped as Ji Fa’s feet slid out from under him, Ji Fa landing on his side with an oof and slid down to him.

Ji Fa groaned, pushing himself up (thankful he had landed on his uninjured side).

Their eyes met and the two couldn’t help the shared laughter which burst out of them. Cautiously they stood, brushing off what they could of the snow, and Lin Shen followed Ji Fa on the self-made switchbacks at a shallower angle.

The light moved, Lin Shen and Ji Fa both glancing at the sky and frowning as there appeared to be no curve to it, and finally, when it was shining down on them from straight over head, the reached the flatter valley floor and stepped from snow to bright green, thriving, long grass.

No animals scurried past them in the grass as they walked, nothing flew past them in the skies. With their steps now cushioned the silence surrounding them was once again unbroken and eerie. The first of the houses grew closer, and their steps slowed.

“Where is everyone?” Lin Shen peered into the window of a wooden house, square and built from individual logs stacked on top of each other.

Ji Fa’s face was once again pulled into a frown as he gazed between the houses. “There’s no signs of distress anywhere. It’s like… it was abandoned.”

Lin Shen hummed, moving past the house to stare down the stone lined street beyond. Across from them was what looked to be a small park, swings and slides empty and rusted. Beyond that a small building with a steepled roof and a cross on the very top, next to a fenced off field where if he squinted, Lin Shen could make out some overgrown tombstones.

He startled when Ji Fa grabbed his wrist, whipping his head around to stare at Ji Fa, but pausing as he saw the reason Ji Fa had grabbed him in the first place.

In the road to their left stood what Lin Shen recognized to be a dog.

Except…

“What is it? A monster?”

Lin Shen couldn’t help the small smile. “Not quite. It’s a robot dog, just not one designed well so it doesn’t have a head. Just the torso, legs, and tail.”

Ji Fa glanced at Lin Shen from the corner of his eye. “That is no dog.”

“It’s not, really.”

“What’s a robot?”

Lin Shen puffed out his cheeks as he thought. “You really commit to the bit, don’t you. Alright, whatever. It’s manmade. We figured out how to create and manipulate electricity and what sorts of material we could direct it through to control the things we build.”

Ji Fa nodded, shifting back as the headless robot dog stepped towards them. It paused, Lin Shen swearing that if it had a head, it would have tilted it in confusion, and then the tail began to wag. A tinny bark sounded from the robot, and the dog awkwardly walked in a wide arc to turn around, barking again before stiffly walking away.

“I think it wants us to follow it.”

“Is that wise?” Ji Fa raised an eyebrow, watching as the robot wobbled on a stray stone, nearly tipping over.

Lin Shen shrugged. “Probably not, but it’s likely our best bet to move forward.”

Ji Fa hummed, dropping his grip on Lin Shen’s wrist, and together they followed the robot dog, keeping a good distance behind it.

It led them through the town, wobbling as it tried to turn in front of the small market, and to what Lin Shen could only gather was supposed to be a mix of the library and local government offices. Barking its tinny bark once more, the robot dog managed to ease its way up the stone steps and through the open door.

Sharing a look, neither feeling particularly great about leaving the open space outside for the confines of a building, they shared a nod and walked in.

Books were scattered everywhere. Some still on their shelves, covered with a thick, noticeable layer of dust, others spread open on tables, and others still strewn about as though someone had been searching for something and tossed them to the side when they held no answers. On the far wall the topmost part of a scroll hung, the rest crumpled on the ground beneath it, having clearly been torn. Across from it a desk, wood gleaming in the dim light from the grime covered windows and behind it, a high-backed chair in green velvet.

Lin Shen frowned and immediately walked over to the desk, running his fingers across it and bringing them up, already knowing he would see no dust on them.

Clean.

A tinny bark, and the dog appeared on the far side of the desk from him.

“Lin-yisheng.”

Ji Fa’s voice pulled Lin Shen to look over, finding Ji Fa standing at the torn scroll, holding it up gingerly and staring down at it, eyes wide.

“You should see this.”

With a glance at the robot dog, who sat and seemed as if it would wait for their attention again, Lin Shen walked over, tripping over his own feet when he caught a glimpse of the illustration on the scroll, falling into Ji Fa’s side.

“What?”

A shaking hand grabbed a side of the scroll, Lin Shen bending closer as though it would change the illustration, showing the real painting underneath whatever joke this was before them.

It did not change.

Lin Shen glanced up at Ji Fa who barely flicked his eyes to meet his gaze before focusing once more with disbelief on the painting they held.

Lin Shen straightened, swallowing hard as he stared at his Zhang Chi, the most gorgeous of his smiles lifting his features while a stream of what appeared to be blood and… Lin Shen swayed as he realized the black also pouring from Zhang Chi’s chest was strings of words, feeling ill with the certainty that if he were to take the time to try to decipher them, it would be every insult that had ever been thrown at his boyfriend.

Next to Zhang Chi on the scroll stood Han Ye. A sharp, painful sob hitched itself in Ji Fa’s chest, refusing to move as he studied it. Facing directly towards them stood Han Ye, tall and calm and proud in the white robes he preferred with his black court hat futou sitting perfectly straight, one arm behind him, the other in front bent just so.

That wasn’t what caused Ji Fa’s sorrow though.

That would be the slightly faded image just behind Han Ye. In this image he wore his blue robes with a pattern of knots. He was bent over, hands on his head, face contorted in a silent scream and just, looking so, so small and alone.

“Oh.” The whispered word fell from Lin Shen, and Ji Fa could only agree.

“The weird dreams, do you think they had them as well? With their own demons?” Ji Fa had a decent idea of what Han Ye would have re-lived, if so.

Lin Shen nodded. “Yes.”

The robot dog barked once more, standing and with its front legs extended out so its torso was angled down. Ji Fa and Lin Shen shared a look and, with one last glance at the scroll, dropped it and moved to follow the robot as it moved past the oddly clean desk and waited at the wall which slid open to reveal a short set of stairs and a large, dark room, beyond. It turned to face Ji Fa and Lin Shen.

“Might as well?”

Ji Fa gave a single nod. “Might as well.”

Together they stepped past the robot, into the room, the wall sliding shut behind them.

For a few moments they stood stiff, ears straining for any noise in the pitch black. Just as Ji Fa was about to speak, weight already shifting forward to slide his feet along the ground without lifting them, two bright lights swirled into existence. They hovered just above ground level, tall enough for each of them to walk into either one and into the world beyond them.

“That’s my apartment!” Lin Shen exclaimed, eyes wide as between the swirling silver’s, he caught glimpses of his couch and bookshelves, heart suddenly aching for the familiarity of his everyday life and Zhang Chi’s arms.

Ji Fa hummed, controlling an exhaled breath as he watched the second portal swirl over images of the palace, duty warring once again inside of him with want and desire.

And he was going to win that war.

They faced each other, Lin Shen holding out his hand, Ji Fa studying it a moment before taking it and shaking it.

“Good luck, Lin-yisheng.”

“And you.”

They faced their chosen portals, each bracing themselves with a deep breath, and stepped through.

(Zhang Chi)

Zhang Chi turned in a slow circle, unable to believe what he saw.

Instead of Lin Shen’s apartment, full of books and them, he found himself… in the palace? In Han Ye’s rooms?

Zhang Chi frowned. It certainly looked close to what he would expect from the costume dramas he watched, a desk there, the bedroom over there, a courtyard just outside, mostly private, which would, he suspected, lead to the rest of the palace. Zhang Chi walked around the rooms, falling into the habit of studying them and grading them, judging how well they would do as the aesthetic for a new hotel or hostel. When he reached the back of Han Ye’s rooms, Zhang Chi stopped, eyes growing wide before a smile grew across his face.

Surely Han Ye wouldn’t mind if Zhang Chi took his time and cleaned up a bit in his private hot springs, right?

Lin Shen landed on the wooden floor with zero grace. He groaned, pushing himself to sit and looked around.

“What?”

He expected to step into his apartment.

This was not his apartment.

Instead, he seemed to be in a backroom of someone’s private quarters in a palace, like in the costume dramas Zhang Chi liked to watch (and that Lin Shen secretly enjoyed and would never admit to). Rubbing at his face, Lin Shen groaned. “I just want to go home.”

Splashing outside drew his attention, Lin Shen standing and quietly making his way to peer into the back courtyard. He froze, unaware of when he moved to stand in the doorway completely, entranced by what he saw.

A small waterfall over a boulder and some smaller rocks, steam rising from it and the pool which took up the majority of the area.

And in the pool, muscled back currently turned toward Lin Shen, hint of the curve of his ass peeking from just above the water’s surface as the man stretched his arms above his head, leaning from side to side, stood Zhang Chi,

Lin Shen couldn’t stop the strangled gasp which escaped him, mixed with half a sob as tension dropped from his body at the sight of his boyfriend.

Zhang Chi turned, Lin Shen’s eyes unable to not drift down to take in his defined pecs and abs, barely visible treasure trail teasing down to the water line.

At Zhang Chi’s low chuckle, Lin Shen pulled his eyes back up to finally meet his boyfriend’s gaze.

And everything clicked into place.

Quicker than he had thought possible, Lin Shen found himself bare and stepping into the hot spring. The heat from the spring warmed him, but it was nothing compared to the warmth which grew in his chest and through his whole person when he accepted Zhang Chi’s offered hand and threw himself at Zhang Chi, arms wrapped tight around the other’s shoulders, head buried in the crook of his neck.

Zhang Chi’s laugh was wet, mixed with tears of his own as he wrapped his arms around Lin Shen’s waist, holding him as close as he could, spinning them through the hot water.

“You’re okay? You’re okay.” Lin Shen pulled back to stare at Zhang Chi, hands moving to cup his face, thumbs tracing gently over his cheeks.

Zhang Chi chuckled and nodded, nuzzling into Lin Shen’s hands. “I am. Are you?”

Lin Shen nodded; a million words trapped behind his teeth as they all fought to be the first ones out. Instead of speaking, though, Lin Shen, for once, let his instincts guide him, no longer wanting to qualify and avoid and warn before taking any action, not wanting to risk planting any seed of doubt in Zhang Chi’s mind of what he means to Lin Shen.

Not anymore.

Instead of speaking, Lin Shen leaned in, gently tilting Zhang Chi’s head and pressing their lips together. They moaned into each other, the kiss quickly turning from a brushing, shy thing into a clash of teeth and tongues, fingers digging into flesh as their cocks hardened.

“Fuck, I’ve missed you.” Zhang Chi gasped when they finally separated enough to breathe.

Lin Shen’s breath hitched once more; eyes half closed as he studied Zhang Chi’s face. “I missed you so much, A-Chi. I never want to miss you like that again.”

“You don’t have to.” Zhang Chi closed the gap between them once more, kissing on Lin Shen’s upper lip before slightly pulling back to pull in his lower one as well, sucking on it and nipping at it before releasing it and trailing his kisses down Lin Shen’s jaw, teeth nipping at his earlobe before he dragged his tongue down the line of Lin Shen’s neck.

Lin Shen’s hands roamed everywhere they could reach on Zhang Min’s body, quickly finding their way down to his ass, squeezing it and kneading it, a finger slipping between the cheeks to tease at Zhang Min’s hole.

“A-Chi. A-Chi.”

“Shen’er.” Zhang Chi pulled back, freezing his fingers and gripping Lin Shen’s hips tight enough to stop him from moving.

“A-Chi, please.”

With a soft smile, Zhang Chi brushed their noses together. “You’re mine, Shen’er. Over everything else, you’re mine.”

Lin Shen stared at him, mouth in an o.

“I just…” Zhang Chi hooked his lower lip in his teeth, eyes sliding to the side as he shrunk in on himself.

Lin Shen hated it, bringing a hand up to play with the short hairs at the back of Zhang Chi’s neck, passing a kiss across his cheek. “What is it, A-Chi?”

“I just hope you’re okay with me being Zhang Chi, and not Zhang Min.”

Lin Shen stared at Zhang Chi, eyes burning with tears as his heart swelled with love and pride. “A-Chi.” He gently guided Zhang Chi to meet his eyes, smiling so wide his cheeks hurt, “I have always loved Zhang Chi.”

“Really?” Zhang Chi’s voice was small, but tension slowly eased from his shoulders.

Lin Shen nodded, grinding his cock against Zhang Chi’s abs and kissing him slow and deep. When he pulled back, he left barely enough room for him to speak. “Whoever you want to be, whatever you want to do, A-Chi, I’m with you, even when I mess up. No more leaving, no more pulling back. I promise.”

Zhang Chi beamed at him, smile so wide that even when he leaned in to kiss Lin Shen once more, he couldn’t stop the pull on his lips.

Lin Shen laughed, one hand trailing up Zhang Chi’s side to tease at a brown nipple with the barest of touches, causing Zhang Chi to shiver.

“Fuck, Shen’er. Please.”

“Please what?”

Zhang Chi pushed his lower lip out at the same time he pushed his hard cock against Lin Shen’s.

Lin Shen chuckled. “Do we have anything to use so I can fuck you like you deserve?”

Zhang Chi shivered and nodded, turning to what seemed to be a floating rock and grabbing a small, ceramic container. He held it out to Lin Shen.  “Please, Shen’er. Make me yours.”

“Fuck.” Lin Shen took the jar, pulling Zhang Chi in with a tight grip on his waist which was sure to bruise, guiding them over to the waterfall with their lips locked. Pinning Zhang Chi to the rock, Lin Shen was unable to stop himself from squeezing his luscious ass more as one handed, he got some oil on his fingers. What felt like ages later the slicked-up fingers traced around Zhang Chi’s hole, teasing, and on a deep exhale from his boyfriend, slid inside.

Zhang Chi gasped, throwing his head back and arching his back, legs wrapped firmly around Lin Shen’s waist as the stretch of two fingers quickly eased from slight pain to pleasure with Lin Shen massaging them in and out. Zhang Chi dug his fingers into Lin Shen’s shoulders when Li Shen nipped at his collarbone, sucking on the flesh there.

As Zhang Chi relaxed, Lin Shen teased his third finger, sliding it inside and working to find Zhang Chi’s prostate, smirking to himself, head still buried in Zhang Chi’s neck, when Zhang Chi let out a strangled moan and couldn’t help but thrust against him a few times.

“So good for me, A-Chi.”

Zhang Chi whined again, nodding. “Only for you, Shen’er, please. I’ve been so good.”

Lin Shen growled, sliding his fingers from Zhang Chi’s warmth to grab his aching cock and position it at Zhang Chi’s entrance. Zhang Chi wiggled in his embrace, impatient, settling when Lin Shen caught his lips in another deep kiss and finally sliding in, Zhang Chi’s body accepting him easily and feeling like home.

Lin Shen kept a tight grip on Zhang Chi’s hips and ass, slowing him down when he tried to rush sitting fully on Lin Shen’s cock, squirming and whining when stopped. They both paused when Lin Shen’s length was fully in, panting deeply, eyes meeting and holding their gaze as they both reached to hold hands and Lin Shen began to move, dragging his cock slowly past Zhang Chi’s prostate, making him gasp every time.

“Shen’er, please.”

Lin Shen shook his head, keeping the same, slow, almost luxurious pace of his thrusts. He did take some pity on Zhang Chi and, squeezing Zhang Chi’s ass to encourage him to lean into the rock more, moved his hand not holding Zhang Chi’s to grab Zhang Chi’s cock, taking up the same, slow pace with his hand as his hips.

Slowly, Zhang Chi relaxed more and more.

Slowly, heat built in both of them until they were gasping and desperate for release.

Lin Shen nuzzled his nose into Zhang Chi’s cheek, dragging his lips across Zhang Chi’s smooth skin until he reached his ear. “You’ve been so good, A-Chi. Come for me.”

Not two thrusts later, Zhang Chi’s back was arching, mouth open in a silent scream as he came, covering Lin Shen’s hand and their abs.

Lin Shen held himself back, fucking Zhang Chi through his orgasm, ad when he began to relax and whimper Lin Shen let himself cum, holding Zhang Chi’s hips so he could get as deep as possible, filling him with a gasp.

Slowly, Lin Shen came back to himself, humming as he felt the brush of soft kisses across his shoulders, neck, and face from Zhang Chi. He shifted, slipping out of Zhang Chi to both their grimaces, wrapping his arms tight around Zhang Chi’s back as he knelt to let them float a bit, wrapped together, exchanging lazy kisses and just being.

Zhang Chi woke the next morning, head pounding, and flinched. Cool hands stroked over his head, instantly providing some relief, and he relaxed back into the bed all without opening his eyes.

“A-Chi?”

“Mmmm, head.”

Lin Shen kissed the top of Zhang Chi’s head. “If you let me go, I can go get something for it.”

Zhang Chi pouted, but let his arms drop from Lin Shen, pushing his lower lip out further and further the longer he was gone. The amused huff he got when Lin Shen returned nearly ruined the pout, lips desperate to tug into a smile.

“Come here you baby.” Lin Shen settled next to Zhang Chi, helping to guide him to lean against him and encouraging sips of a tea he had found laid out with a note saying it was for migraines.

Zhang Chi let himself drift, warm and feeling loved, for a while before he sighed and sat up more, keeping contact with Lin Shen the whole time. He swayed into Lin Shen, nudging him, and smiled. “Thank you, Shen’er.”

“A-Chi, I’m so sorry for pulling back. I just – “

“I know, bao. It hurt, but I know.”

Another kiss.

“So, Shen’er,” Zhang Min stared at the teacup, now empty, brow furrowed, “where do you think we are?”

They told each other of all the things they had experienced, the weird off-ness of everything, they dragged themselves from the bed, sharing concerned looks as all they found were not their clothes they arrived in, but robes.

Lin Shen’s breath caught when he saw Zhang Chi in his, finishing tying the black belt around maroon robes which highlighted the angle of his jaw and nose.

“Wow, Shen’er. We should get you dressed up more often if you’re going to be this handsome in them.”

Lin Shen shrugged his shoulders, the deep blue of his robes enhancing the movement, then pulled Zhang Chi close. “I’m nothing compared to you.”

Zhang Chi snorted, rolling his eyes with a smile and patting Lin Shen’s cheek. “We are both very attractive, we know this. Now. Shall we?”

Lin Shen nodded. “Anything you find, no matter how small it may seem.”

“Right. Let’s go.”

With a small peck of their lips, they separated, each to a different side of the room and began to inspect everything they could. They ran fingers across walls and under the edges of furniture, got down to lay on the ground to check under everything they could.

Nothing.

They moved to the main room.

Again, nothing.

They checked the back hall and the back room leading out to the hot spring bath.

Nothing, until Zhang Chi went to open the doors to check outside, and they would not budge. In fact, running his fingers over the seam where the wood doors met, he felt not an indent, but smooth…metal?

“Shen’er.”

“Hmm?”

“Come feel this.”

Lin Shen ran his fingers down the door as well, frowning, then moved to drag them across what should have been thin bamboo.

Metal.

They shared a look, but before either of them could say anything, a whirring noise drew their attention behind them. Down the hall towards the main room hovered a little ball with a giant camera lens in the center of it, propellers above it spinning furiously to keep it aloft. It whirred again, moving towards them slightly before spinning to fly out of the hall, waiting just where they could still see it, bobbing up and down.

Lin Shen ang Zhang Chi shared a look.

“This is a scifi novel.”

Zhang Chi nodded. “Do we follow it?”

“Do we have a choice? It was fine, ultimately, when Ji Fa and I followed the dog.”

“This is much better than a headless dog robot.”

Lin Shen barked a laugh, nodding. With a deep breath, he held his hand out to Zhang Chi. “Shall we?”

Zhang Chi gripped it tight, twining their fingers together, and they set off behind the robot which trilled and spun in a circle as they did, eagerly, it seemed, leading them into the main courtyard and to where the rest of the palace should have been. Instead, as they left the courtyard of the crown prince, they moved not into the larger palace complex, but through a shimmering veil and into what appeared to be a new hallway, all tarnished metallic greys and neon lights with exposed pipes and wires.

“What?” Zhang Chi gaped.

Lin Shen let out a controlled breath, squeezing Zhang Chi’s hand in his. “A space station?”

“It has to be, but…”

“Yeah.”

“That explains the flat skies.”

Lin Shen nodded. “The red lights.”

“The odd horizon line. Shen’er… do you think we were abducted by aliens?”

“Why would aliens put us through those weird tests?”

Zhang Chi shook his head, trying to ignore a familiar sensation as a migraine began to build up once more. He pulled in a slow breath.

The little robot flew back over to them, circling around them as it chirped and trilled.

“Come on, A-Chi. Maybe we are almost done with this and can go home.”

Zhang Chi nodded, and they set off.

(Han Ye)

Han Ye stared out the large window, forehead pressed against it. He often traversed in towers and heights when scaling cliffs, but this…

He forced himself to pull in a shaky breath, eyes sliding to look below, the people hurrying about and strange horseless things, carriages??? No larger than ants or beetles. Carefully, he slid one foot back, then the other, until he could no longer look down.

Two walls of pure glass faced him, the horizon full of other ridiculously tall buildings of reflective material on one side, the other slowly tapering down to a sea of houses and he assumed there had to be a market or two in there as well.

Wrenching his eyes from the view, Han Ye studied the room around him. When he had first realized that he was not in the palace as he had expected to be, he had sworn and punched the ground. He needed to find Ji Fa, they needed to talk! He had no idea of how much time he might have spent trapped in whatever odd world he suddenly found himself in, and the wedding between his sister and Ji Fa was not far off.

It was as he stood that he caught sight of how high up he was and found himself entranced, intrigued, and unsettled.

Those feelings did not dissipate as he took in the sharp lines of metal tables and chairs, some with overly stuffed pillows and cushions, some without. Everything seemed to glow and very little looked touched or used.

He carefully ventured down a hall, opening one door after fumbling with the handle to find the room beyond dark. Frowning, he squinted, trying to see anything which might be a candle or a lantern, hand slipping on the wall and hitting some sort of lever.

The lights flashed on, making him squint, and Han Ye stared at the wall. He carefully pushed the lever back down, the lights turning off as he did so, and then back up and on. He giggled, flipping the lever a few more times before a rustling and groan from down the hall drew his attention. Immediately his nerves flared to attention once more, weight shifting so he could remain silent as he hugged the wall, shuffling to the room he heard the noises from and paused, listening.

A muffled “fuck” came from it.

Someone was in there.

Han Ye frowned. He could turn and leave. He could open the door and confront them. He could find a place to hide and hope they leave soon and perhaps he could find more clues or follow them.

Before he could decide, the light from under the door was broken by a shadow, and the door handle turned.

(Ji Fa)

Ji Fa kept himself tense, ready to spring up at the slightest indication of threat. Whatever ground he laid on now, it was unusually soft and giving. Clenching his hands a few times, he realized he was lying on top of a blanket, somehow having landed perfectly on what appeared to be some sort of bed, head cushioned by a square and flatter than he was used to in a pillow. Curtains to the side of the room were pulled back, allowing sunlight to flood in from a floor to ceiling window that looked as though it could also open, a metal platform beyond it with a small table and two chairs.

Carefully, he pushed himself to sit, groaning at the tug and pulsing that set off through his right shoulder as he did so. He stared at it, probing around the bandaged wound carefully, grimacing at the pain and tenderness.

“Fuck.”

Ji Fa pulled in a controlled breath and slung his legs over the edge of the much too high bed. Nothing to do but ignore it and try to figure out where, and when, he was now.

He kept his footsteps light, as always, immediately moving towards the door. Whatever clues there might be, he reasoned, would likely not be in the small room.

Frowning at the handle, he set his right hand on it, lightly pushing down, down, down until it unlatched and began to swing towards him.

Movement made him drop, immediately pitching and launching himself forward to grab whatever it was around the middle, arms wrapped tight as they both crashed to the floor of the hallway beyond. As soon as they landed, Ji Fa set his legs over the creature’s, pressing down so as to keep it pinned, one hand (his left hand so he could exert more strength) on what seemed to be the sternum as he set up, right hand pulled back and ready to strike out.

He blinked.

“A-Ye?”

Han Ye laid below him, arms raised to block whatever blow might come, blinking as he stared up at Ji Fa. “A-Fa?” Han Ye lowered his arms.

Ji Fa sat, still pinning Han Ye to the ground, and blinked, right arm slowly, slowly lowering as tension, worry, nerves, and that constant need to be on guard at all moments drained from him. “A-Ye. A-Ye, is it…it’s really you?”

Han Ye nodded, eyes filling with tears and he slid a hand over to rest on Ji Fa’s which was on his chest. “I swear.”

The warmth of Han Ye’s hand, surely that was something which could not be copied, the softness of his skin broken only by the callouses which came from years of training with sword. The way the shield Ji Fa held around his heart crumbled, he was certain Han Ye would be able to hear it as he surged forward, pressing their lips together in a desperate, longing kiss.

Han Ye gave a surprised mmph before he moaned into it, hands immediately sliding to hold Ji Fa’s face, wrapping around the back of his head to hold him there. He quickly became aware of their matching desire, breaking apart the kiss to pant and press their foreheads together. “A-Fa, I’m sorry.”

Ji Fa shook his head. “The wrong is mine, I’m sorry, A-ye. I only wanted to protect the one most precious to my heart.”

Warmth flooded Han Ye’s ears and cheeks, unable to hide the smile. “And I only wanted to do the same.”

They shared a laugh full of tears, exchanging several more kisses before Ji Fa nipped at Han Ye’s lower lip.

“A-Ye?”

Han Ye nodded, next he knew Ji Fa was off him, picking him up, and carrying him into the room he had just come from. Ji Fa softly set Han Ye onto the bed, hands soft as he immediately began to divest Han Ye of his clothes, pressing a kiss to every section of exposed skin as it was revealed.

Han Ye ran his hands through Ji Fa’s hair, happy to just touch him as much as he could until he slid back up to capture Han Ye’s lips in another kiss, giving Han Ye the chance to start working on Ji Fa’s clothes. He frowned into the kiss as he pushed Ji Fa’s robes off him, fingers brushing against the bandages.

“A-Fa! What happened?”

Ji Fa pressed his lips to Han Ye’s forehead. “It’s fine.”

“It is not, there is blood seeping through the bandages!”

Ji Fa nodded. “And stopping now will not change that, Han Ye, dear A-Ye.” Ji Fa waited for Han Ye to meet his gaze, “Please?”

Sincerity, desire, and something Han Ye hoped and yet feared to acknowledge as love shown through Ji Fa’s eyes. His own desire pulsed through him with every beat of his heart, yearning which had been growing inside of him for so long now as to be permanently a part of him pulled at him to get as close as possible to Ji Fa and never let him go.

“Alright, A-Fa, but you will let me look at it later.”

Ji Fa nodded with a chuckle and another kiss. “I wouldn’t dare to stop you.”

He also did not dare to stop Han Ye as he pushed Ji Fa carefully over, reversing their position from the hall. Grabbing as many pillows as he could, Han Ye helped Ji Fa to sit comfortably, making sure his shoulder was supported, then ground his ass down on Ji Fa’s straining cock.

Ji Fa hissed, hands immediately setting on Han Ye’s waist and squeezing. “A-Ye, fuck.”

Han Ye trapped Ji Fa in another deep kiss, rolling his hips down until they were both panting before he pulled back. Spotting a side table, Han Ye brushed his fingers over Ji Fa’s cheek before he stretched over to open the drawer, fumbling in the process until it opened. Inside, several suggestive items which caused him to blush and then ignore, frowning as he saw no pot of oil.

Just a weird tube.

He grabbed it, sitting back on Ji Fa’s thighs to stare at it. One end appeared to open, Han Ye managing to unscrew it and grinning as the wet liquid inside oozed out.

Ji Fa’s breath hitched, eyes focused on Han Ye’s hands and fingers. “A-Ye.” Ji Fa licked his lips. “Please.”

Han Ye hummed, drizzling the liquid over his fingers more before tossing it to the side, uncaring as the stuff inside spilled out everywhere, and rubbed his fingers together. “What do you want, A-Fa?”

“Ride me, fuck, I want to be in you, A-Ye.”

Han Ye’s flush deepened at how easily Ji Fa had stated it. He nodded, hesitating at how best to proceed. He needed to get himself ready, didn’t he? He was used to fingering himself, it was one of the few indulgences he allowed himself. But straddling Ji Fa like this…

Ji Fa squeezed Han Ye’s waist, moving to rub his thighs with a firm pressure. “A-Ye, turn around and scoot up my body until you are kneeling in front of my face.”

Han Ye frowned, but did as instructed, shivering when Ji Fa began to grope his ass, squeezing it, pulling the cheeks apart before letting them close again, hands then roaming down his thighs and back to repeat the whole process. He had just begun to relax when something wet moved up his crack, from his balls, over his hole, to the base of his spine. “A-Fa!”

Ji Fa chuckled, squeezing Han Ye’s small ass cheeks once more before hooking his fingers around Han Ye’s waist, encouraging him to sit back closer to Ji Fa’s face, and set to town licking over Han Ye’s hole.

Han Ye moaned, head dropping to rest between Ji Fa’s legs, Ji Fa’s cock pressed against him.

When Han Ye relaxed once more, Ji Fa set his lips firmly around his hole and sucked, slipping his tongue in in the process, smirking at Han Ye’s groan and the pressure of him pushing back for more.

He alternated between fucking his tongue into Han Ye’s hole and licking over it, slipping a finger in, then another when Han Ye just got used to the feeling of Ji Fa playing with him. Ji Fa pulled his head back, biting Han Ye’s ass.

“A-Fa, please – ah – need more, need you –“

Ji Fa hummed, looking as best he could for the tube and grabbed it from where it had rolled closer to them. He poured some of the odd liquid straight over Han Ye’s hole and crack, pushing it into him with the movement of his fingers and finally sliding in a third one.

Finally, with Han Ye shivering with every breath, Ji Fa decided he was ready. With one last thrust of his fingers into Han Ye, aimed to directly hit the bundle of nerves he had been teasing relentlessly, Ji Fa pulled his fingers out.

“A-Faaa, fuck. Please!”

Ji Fa lightly slapped Han Ye’s thigh before gently guiding him off of his chest and to turn around. “If you want my cock, A-Ye, then you have to deal with being empty for a few moments.”

Han Ye whined, straddling Ji Fa’s waist, allowing him to position Han Ye exactly as he wanted.

Ji Fa kept his clean hand stroking Han Ye’s thigh and side. “There you go, now up on your knees. Good, now breath, and when you’re ready, sit.”

Ji Fa held his cock to Han Ye’s hole, keeping a string of praise going as Han Ye slowly, so slowly, sat, both of them gasping when Ji Fa’s cock first slid into Han Ye, and with every movement after until he was fully seated.

With a moan, Han Ye leaned forward, hands on Ji Fa’s chest to hold him up unconsciously playing with Ji Fa’s nipples, causing him to bite his lip and use all of his discipline from years of military life to not immediately start fucking Han Ye before he was ready.

After what to Ji Fa felt like an eternity, Han Ye wiggled his hips, and began to move.

“Fuck, A-Ye.”

Han Ye slid up slow, dropping his hips back down with a cry and that was it.

Ji Fa grabbed Han Ye’s hips, pulling him down onto his cock as he thrust up, keeping his hips angled so that he would hit Han Ye’s prostate with every motion. He grit his teeth as warmth pooled in him, coiling tighter and tighter. “A-Ye, be good for me, bao, stroke your cock, show me how you like it.”

Han Ye sobbed as he wrapped a hand around his red, weeping cock, matching his strokes to Ji Fa’s thrusts. He froze for a brief moment before a scream tore through him as his orgasm hit him, shuddering through him, cum covering Ji Fa’s abs and chest.

“Fuck, A-Ye.” With one last thrust Ji Fa’s own orgasm hit him, Ji Fa barely managing to keep fucking Han Ye through it and burying his cock deep in the other.

Han Ye collapsed on top of him, both of them heaving for breath as they returned to themselves, Ji Fa gently running his hands up and down Han Ye’s back the entire time.

“A-Ye?”

Han Ye hummed.

Ji Fa pecked a kiss to the top of his head. “Just checking on you bao. You should rest.”

Another hum, and within moments Han Ye’s breath evened out in sleep. Ji Fa lightly squeezed him, setting one hand on the back of his head, and let his eyes fall closed.

Han Ye sighed as he woke, wanting more than anything to stay in the dream he had had. The sun burned bright through his eyelids, but he refused to give up sleep quite yet, instead turning his head over with another contented sigh, nuzzling into the warmth surrounding him, luxuriating in the safety and love he felt for perhaps the first time of his life.

Slowly he became aware of the fingers trailing up and down his back, the soft humming he could not just hear, but felt as well.

Han Ye frowned and begrudgingly opened one eye to stare at the odd room.

Oh.

So that wasn’t part of the dream.

Wait.

Han Ye blinked, drudging his brain to function. If the room wasn’t part of the dream and was in fact reality, then that meant…

With a gasp and wide eyes, Han Ye pushed himself up, finding himself kneeling between Ji Fa’s legs, staring down at his sister’s betrothed, both of them entirely nude.

Ji Fa let the sudden tension from Han Ye’s quick movements ease from him, smiling. “A-Ye, come back. It’s fine, you’re safe. We both are.”

Slowly, Han Ye eased himself back down, not quite laying flat on Ji Fa lack he had been, instead propping his arms on Ji Fa’s chest to help hold his head up so they could look at each other. “Did we?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.”

“Is that… I thought… A-Ye if I overstepped – “

“What?” Han Ye blinked, then shook his head with a huff. “No, A-Fa. It was fantastic. I thought I had dreamed it.”

“A good dream?”

Han Ye booped the end of Ji Fa’s nose. “Silly. The best dream. Even better cause I have you here for real.”

All of Han Ye’s worries melted for a moment at Ji Fa’s responding smile, so bright and wide and happy that it scrunched his eyes and nose. Han Ye rested his head back on Ji Fa’s pecs, allowing himself a few more brief moments to enjoy the closeness, to memorize the sound of life pounding through Ji Fa’s body, before he decided to face the circumstances at hand.

“We aren’t home.”

“No.”

“Any idea where we are?”

Ji Fa hummed, unconsciously playing with the ends of Han Ye’s hair. “Somewhere we are not supposed to be. The things I’ve seen, A-Ye, metal things that can sound like an animal without having a head, strange beasts and low skies.”

“Red dots. Rumbling ground but not in the way it shifts during an earthquake.”

Ji Fa nodded. “There has to be a way home. We just have to figure out the game.”

Han Ye buried his face in Ji Fa’s chest, breathing deep before pushing himself up once more. “Alright. Let’s go.”

As they finally climbed from the bed, they noticed their clothes gone. Instead, on a small bench by the door that neither recalled being there, sat two pairs of strange looking and feeling pants and shirts. They dressed in grim silence, tangling their hands together as they crept from the room and down the hall.

The apartment lay empty, nothing else appearing disturbed while they were sequestered in the bedroom. Ji Fa, after a brief glance, made to walk straight to what appeared to be the door to the outside.

“Wait, A-Fa.”

Ji Fa stopped, turning to face Han Ye who stared out the windows.

“A-Ye? What is it?”

“The outside.”

Ji Fa placed a hand on Han Ye’s waist as he stood next to him, turning his attention to the windows and gasping. “It looks – “

“It’s all flat. It wasn’t flat before. How… A-Fa, how is the outside flat?”

Ji Fa grit his teeth, glaring at the odd walls.

Before either of them could question further, the lighting flashed, once, twice, the sunlight and the lights inside the odd room flickering before dying out completely. In sync, they shifted the way they stood to be ready for an attack, Ji Fa automatically turning so their backs were to each other.

A whirring, followed by a clunk and some beeping. The room flooded with red as something bumped against Ji Fa’s foot. He instantly lifted it, ready to stomp and pin whatever it was that had touched him but pausing as he looked down.

Next to him, seemingly emitting the beeping and whirring noises, was a flat little thing in the shape of a circle. As Ji Fa studied it, two weird prongs on top of it shifted in accompaniment to the beeping and it twirled, then rolled off a ways before stopping again and faced them.

“A-Fa?”

Ji Fa shook his head. “This is not like the other metal things I have seen.”

Han Ye frowned. “What do we do?”

The creature spun in place again, prongs moving as it beeped some more.

“I think,” Ji Fa straightened, offering his hand to Han Ye again, “that we are meant to follow it.”

“Should we?”

“The last creature I followed brought me to the room which led me to you.”

Han Ye grinned, taking Ji Fa’s hand. “That’s not particularly good evidence for following it.”

A shrug. “Perhaps, but now I have you, so maybe for now it’s good enough.”

The little creature whirred and zoomed over to the door. It slid open for them as they approached and slowly stepped out.

Though they did not have an idea of what to expect stepping out of the rooms into the strange world which flattened oddly beyond, they both paused to blink at the hallway which greeted them. Where they might have expected a place housing living quarters so pristine to also be as clean, they found themselves in a hallway which was all tarnished metallic greys and neon lights with exposed pipes and wires, the floor grated in a hexagon pattern.

“What kind of place?”

The robot rumbled and beeped its way over the grated ground, bumping into Han Ye’s feet and then Ji Fa’s, spinning as they looked at it before taking off down the hallway. They shared a nod, setting off after it, pulling on their experience in battle to shove any misgivings or doubts to the side.

(Lin Shen & Zhang Chi)

Lin Shen and Zhang Chi stared at the open ceiling of the hallway, the flying robot that had been guiding them having suddenly taken off straight up.

“I don’t see a ladder.”

“Or anything to climb.”

Zhang Chi huffed, crossing his arms and glaring at the space above them, lower lip out in a pout.

Lin Shen chuckled when he saw it, pulling Zhang Chi into his chest and wrapping his arms around him. “We will just find another way, A-Chi. It’ll be fine.”

Zhang Chi huffed again, but allowed Lin Shen to pull him down the hallway, continuing in the same direction they had been heading. They came to a crossroads, their hallway branching into two. With a look they both headed towards the left branch.

“I want to leave the Sinai Group.”

Lin Shen tripped over his own feet, managing not to fall. “What?”

Zhang Chi nodded, gaze determined even as Lin Shen could see the struggle in him to stand with his usual proper posture. “It’s actually been at the back of my mind for a while, but well…” Zhang Chi grimaced, then shook his head. “I’ve already been speaking to one of the uncles about setting up a new endeavor just for myself. I had meant to present it as an option for expansion, but… I’d actually really like to do it on my own.”

“Then you should!” Lin Shen grabbed both of Zhang Chi’s hands in his, holding them up to his chest. “Whatever you want to do, A-Chi. Do it.”

A small smile softened Zhang Chi’s gaze and he gave a single nod. “Alright.”

They kept their hands locked as they began to walk again, Zhang Chi unconsciously starting to sway them back and forth.

“I umm… I was thinking…”

Zhang Chi stopped, his turn to face Lin Shen fully.

Lin Shen’s laugh was sharp. “It’s silly after what you just said, never mind.”

“No. No, we are not doing that, Shen’er. My thing isn’t more important than yours, or bigger than yours. Tell me, bao.” He lifted onto his toes to reach Lin Shen’s lips for a brief kiss. “Please?”

Lin Shen ducked his head. “Ah, I was just thinking. Maybe I should face down some of my own fears and um… learn to drive? Then we could go away on trips and it actually be just the two of us?”

“That’s a great idea, Shen’er.” Zhang Chi squeezed Lin Shen’s hands. “You’ll tell me if you need or want help?”

Lin Shen nodded, eyes burning and focusing on his breathing as he felt himself start to tremble. Next he knew he was in Zhang Chi’s arms being squeezed and resettling into his body.

“Let’s get out of here before we completely fall apart, alright bao?”

Another nod, and they continued on their way, both hesitating as the floor shifted from the solid metal to a grated pattern. They frowned as they turned a corner and saw the floor no longer even, but instead lowered with steps raised.

“What is this?”

Zhang Chi studied the walls to either side. “Why would a space station have a booby trap set up like an adventure movie?”

“Hmm?”

“Look.” Zhang Chi pointed to a series of small holes which at a quick glance blended in. “Don’t those look like holes that poison darts or something would shoot out of when a booby trap is set off?”

“They do.”

They both gazed at the floor once more.

“So there has to be a safe path across.”

“And if we step on a wrong step, we get poison darted to death.”

Zhang Chi chuckled. “Something like that.”

“There!” Lin Shen pointed at the two closest steps. “They are slightly different shades.”

Zhang Chi hummed, looking around them. He squeezed Lin Shen’s hand before letting go, back tracking a few steps and crouching to fiddle with something. When he came back, he held out his hand to show Lin Shen a bolt. “Which one do you want to test?”

“Test?”

Zhang Chi nodded. “We toss it onto one and if it’s the wrong color, then the darts will go, and if it’s the right color, then we know which path to take.”

“Genius.” Lin Shen pulled Zhang Chi in by the waist, kissing him deeply. They were both panting when they broke apart, Zhang Chi pleasantly flushed.

He cleared his throat. “Which one?”

“The light grey.”

With a nod, Zhang Chi straightened to face the hallway, eyes narrowing as he focused and lined up the shot. The step wasn’t that far away, even with them standing back a ways from the edge of the floor. He tossed the bolt, hitting the light grey step directly in the center.

Nothing.

With a small laugh, Zhang Chi jumped over to it, turning to smile at Lin Shen. “See? Just like I said.” He jumped to the next one and waited.

Lin Shen was quick to follow.

No sooner had his feet touched the step, however, than his stomach dropped out of him, quickly followed by the rest of him as the floor below them collapsed.

Ji Fa and Han Ye stared at the wall in front of them. Hexagons of different sizes stuck out of it, slowly shifting through a myriad of colors.

“There must be a way past.”

Ji Fa hummed. “Perhaps. Perhaps we should try another way.”

Han Ye nodded and they turned to backtrack to find the little whirring robot which had led them to the hexagon covered wall speed past them, stopping them from moving then whirring away as the hallway behind them closed, leaving them in a small square area.

“Well.”

The hexagons behind them glowed white before fading, causing them to turn back.

A hexagon lit in orange, followed by two others. Another pulse of dimmer white light, then the wall sat blank. Waiting.

Han Ye and Ji Fa shared a look.

“A puzzle?” Ji Fa offered.

Han Ye hummed. “Perhaps. Perhaps instructions?”

“How?”

Han Ye thought back to his first lessons in weiqi and how he had repeated every move his father had made. “It’s like weiqi. It must be.” He stepped forward and quickly pressed the three hexagons which had lit up.

The wall pulsed orange before flashing through a rainbow of colors.

Then a new pattern. Pale blue, five hexagons, flashing faster and further distance apart.

Han Ye repeated again, smiling as the rainbow pulsed once more.

The pattern repeated, the wall flashing through ever increasing numbers and colors, faster and faster until, but this time twenty-nine hexagons flashed in quick succession, Ji Fa was covering half of the wall and they both squinted with headaches.

“Fuck. I think I missed some.”

“It’s fine, I got it.” Han Ye grit his teeth, pressing the hexagons as quick as he could, reaching for one slightly out of even his long reach when he slipped, his hand and shoulder slamming against the wall, pushing in several hexagons at once.

The wall flashed red, a deep horn blaring. Ji Fa grabbed Han Ye, pulling him close an instant before the floor collapsed out from under them, and they fell.

Zhang Chi had just helped Lin Shen to stand when something fell into the room next to them. Before he knew what had happened, Zhang Chi found himself pinned between the wall, which was much closer than he had thought, and Lin Shen’s back.

Whatever had fallen groaned in two distinct tones, and Zhang Chi gasped. “Han Ye?”

“Zhang Chi?”

“Ji Fa?”

“Lin Shen?”

The mass which had fallen separated into two people in the nearly nonexistent light, everyone straining to see anything. Lin Shen and Zhang Chi helped the other two to stand.

“You found him?” Zhang Chi asked Han Ye, hand on his upper arm with a supportive squeeze.

Han Ye nodded. “Yeah. Yeah I did.”

“And it’s all good?”

“It’s nearly perfect.”

Han Ye and Lin Shen both swore that Zhang Chi’s smile was so bright as to light up the room by pure force.

Before they could continue, though, several small screens surrounding them in a circle crackled to life, static dancing across them. They all squinted their eyes, flinching at the sudden brightness.

Ji Fa was the first to gasp, eyes wide as one screen close to the ground switched from the black and white static to a video. Two men, two other versions of himself and Han Ye, running into a burning building, through flames, flipping their helmet visors down as they moved in sync from room to room, calling each clear until they reached the end of a hall and found two small children. The four watched as the two doppelgangers on the screen each grabbed a child and took off back outside, the shorter one stumbling right as a beam started to fall from the ceiling. They all gasped as the shorter one managed to toss the kid to the taller one before getting pinned by the beam. The tall one hesitated, quickly making the choice to get the kids outside before plunging immediately back in and into the flames.

Another screen flickering to play a scene drew Lin Shen’s attention. Two men, one with reddish brown hair, one with his hair in soft waves, both dressed in clothes Lin Shen recognized belonging to a mingguo drama walking down a street, each pushing a bike with a basket in the front stuffed full.

Han Ye’s gaze was drawn to a screen showing a man in red robes with hair like starlight, clearly talking to someone off screen. His eyes grew wider as a black-haired man in teal walked over, sticking his tongue out at the silver-haired man. They set to bickering, the joy dancing in their eyes telling Han Ye that whatever it was they were arguing over was not serious. This was further proven when a man with white hair with a pink tinge to it entered the scene, sitting between them and throwing an arm over each.

Zhang Chi, breathing with relief as the shorter firefighter was given oxygen sitting in the back of an ambulance after having been rescued, found his gaze drawn to a man with what seemed to be close to a bowl cut, old-style shirt buttoned all the way up, eyes rimmed red and full of tears as he stood in the rain, two sets of arms around him and two foreheads resting against his temples as he vibrated with pain.

One by one each screen began to play various scenes and in all of them, the pairings all seemed to be of the same men.

Of them.

The four exchanged perplexed looks.

“What in the world?” Zhang Chi turned to Lin Shen. “We’re all hallucinating, right? Or this is one of your hypnosis sessions, like I originally thought.”

Lin Shen shook his head. “I don’t think so, A-Chi.”

“Then what is this?”

“I think,” they all turned to face Ji Fa who slotted his hand into Han Ye’s, eyes not wavering from a screen showing a man dressed as a modern doctor talking to a man sliding a helmet off his head, revealing a face to mirror his own and Zhang Chi’s, “these are different lifetimes.”

Lin Shen frowned. “But all the modern ones, the ones all in the same time the A-Chi and I live…”

Han Ye pulled in a deep breath. “Oh.”

Ji Fa nodded. “Exactly, A-ye.”

“Does your time and world have the legend of the red string?”

Zhang Chi and Lin Shen both nodded, Zhang Chi leaning against Lin Shen’s side.

Han Ye motioned to the screens around them. “That’s what this is. Must be. It’s not just lifetimes though, it’s worlds.”

“Oh.” Zhang Chi gasped as Lin Shen squeezed his shoulders. “Oh, that… that could make sense. And that would mean…” Zhang Chi snapped his mouth shut, a frisson of fear thrumming through him at the words which had almost escaped him.

Yes.

All four jumped, staring around them until a bank of screens flickered off and a scratchy projection of…a sable? flickered into life.

“What?”

A low laugh rumbled through them. It means exactly what you think it means. And your actions have just proven it.

Lin Shen felt as though his brain was short-circuiting. “Wait, wait wait. We have just proven it?”

The sable hologram gave a single nod before sitting and licking a front paw.

Ji Fa leaned into Lin Shen to whisper. “What is this?”

Lin Shen let out a high pitched, barking giggle on the edge of hysteria as he rubbed at his face with one hand. “A hologram of a sable. It’s not here, it’s not real. Just an image.”

Ji Fa gave a slow nod. “Why?”

Lin Shen shook his head.

Do you really not know?

“We really don’t, so why don’t you stop with these games and just tell us.” Zhang Chi snapped, glaring at the sable as it flickered in and out of existence.

You, you knew of the red string. No guesses from you as to who I am?

Han Ye shook his head. “I don’t know any stories of sable’s.”

“But you do know other stories.”

“I suppose.”

The sable hologram laid down, head resting over its front paws and waited. When Han Ye did not continue, it huffed. I am the universe.

Silence.

I brought you here.

“Why? What use could any of what we have just gone through be to the universe?”

The sable cocked its head. Hope. And boredom.

“Hope?”

“Boredom?”

It gets boring existing for time on end, only observing as the things which populate you go about their own lives with no thought to you at all. Watching them fight each other, build up empires just to destroy them, taking and taking and taking from their planets and worlds.

“So, hope?”

A nod, then a motion with a paw to the screens still lit. The four turned to watch as they all switched to show the same scene. Two men, one in a blue robe with a mint green over robe turned to face a slightly shorter one in teal robes, arm grasping the others shoulder and speaking into a mic. AS he finished, he pulled the taller man into an embrace, close ups showing both pairs of eyes full of unshed tears and adoration.

That there is good and love and sincerity in existence.

“The universe needs to be reminded of that?”

A deep sigh. When you have seen what I have and been in existence for eternity, yes. Sometimes you do.

The four stood in silence, eyes focused on the screens as the embrace ended between yet another pair of their doppelgangers and they welcomed other people onto the stage with them, speeches being given, everyone taking a moment to pause for what appeared to be pictures being taken and the two doppelgangers holding their lanterns in their left hands, their right hands holding the mics raised above their heads in what Lin Shen and Zhang Chi recognized to be a pose from a popular anime.

“So you pulled us from our lives to test us?”

I did.

“And what? Our connections to each other?”

Yes.

Ji Fa huffed, wanting to be annoyed, but finding himself unable to be as he rested his head on Han Ye’s shoulder.

The test is over now. I will return you to your times and your lives to do with as you please.

“Are…” Zhang Chi bit his lower lip to stop himself from speaking.

Hmm?

Zhang Chi pulled in a deep breath. ”Will they,” he motioned to the screens once again showing different pairs through different time periods and worlds, “all be okay?”

They will. They all have their own challenges; they all will overcome them.

Zhang Chi nodded.

Han Ye and Ji Fa turned to face them, bowing deep.

“Thank you, Lin-yisheng, for your help.”

Lin Shen snorted. “Think nothing of it. You’ll… you both, be safe.”

Zhang Chi nodded, flushing as Han Ye pulled him into a hug. “You get your boyfriend sorted and now you’re all touchy feely.”

Han Ye barked a laugh. “I suppose. Stay strong, Zhang Chi.”

They faded from view.

Clasping hands, Lin Shen and Zhang Chi nodded at the sable hologram as the world around them sparkled and brightened.

They came to lying in Lin Shen’s bed, cuddled together, the robes of dynasties gone by the only indication that what they had been through had occurred.

That night Zhang Chi called a meeting of the board of the Sinai Group, immediately resigning and cutting all contact with his father and half-brother. Lin Shen welcomed him home with the plans for a health spa and suggestions of mental health practices to offer at Zhang Chi’s new venture. After a private celebration, Lin Shen pulled Zhang Chi out into the brisk night, to a lit up ferris wheel, and a ring offered down on one knee.

Ji Fa and Han Ye strode into the hall of Jing’s emperor, hand in hand, instantly calling off the wedding between Anning and JI Fa, Han Ye resigning his position as Crown Prince to venture to the Zhou kingdom to wed and support Ji Fa into an era of prosperity and peace for the Zhou and Jing dynasties once his sister took the throne from their father.

And throughout time and worlds, their doppelgangers met, fell in love, fought, and stayed together no matter what was thrown in their way.