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Once things finally calm down—between Mt Tonglu, the restructuring of the Heavenly court, their wedding—Xie Lian and Hua Cheng head west on a trip in the mortal realm.
Verdant coniferous pine forests hang onto the sloping mountainside, stubbornly tethered despite the billowing winds. Xie Lian coughs, unused to the dry September cold and the tickling of fir pollen clinging to his throat. Beneath them, sticks crunch every other step that isn't softened by moss or other creeping vegetation.
They navigate the underbrush rather amateurishly, ducking under low ferns and errant branches clumsily. Neither of them feel any shame about it; there's always more to learn.
Their home for the night is up on a nearer precipice of the mountain, but still a ways away. Neither of them mind that either, though. As their conversation ebbs and flows and the sweet herbivore friends say their hellos and goodbyes, the journey is an pleasant one. The whole point was the hike, after all.
But when Xie Lian's hair catches on a branch for the third time, they quickly realise something needs to be done about their long hair.
"Gege's going to tie his up?" Hua Cheng asks a little too eagerly.
Xie Lian eyes him suspiciously. "Yeeess?"
"No, no please don't mind this one. Gege is just full of great ideas as usual—"
"San Lang—?"
"I'll join him! What great ideas Gege has—"
"San Lang—…"
"How do you like this, your Highness?"
Xie Lian sighs. Fond and suspicious and utterly lost at what Hua Cheng could possibly be trying to get at this time.
He looks and softens. Like this, Hua Cheng is a splitting image of his nameless ghost. Silky black cascades elegantly from a high ponytail. Xie Lian can't help reaching up to stroke it, as he'd always wished he'd done with his precious Wu Ming.
"Beautiful," he murmurs fondly. "But the ends might still catch. May I?"
"Always." Hua Cheng breathes, immediately going pliant against a sturdy trunk.
Xie Lian braids the loose layers tightly, tying off the end with a particularly long string of curly fern. It's cute. Something organic on an immortal ghost form, he smiles at the contrast. "Let's see if it helps."
"Gege?" Hua Cheng doesn't even need to finish the question.
"Of course," Xie Lian replies and settles down onto a mossy stump—the only sign of civilisation here before them. Well… that and the signposts and the cabin and… It was a poetic thought anyway.
Since the year Xie Lian found out that Hua Cheng's method of giving spiritual power was… unorthodox, the cat was out of the bag and the ruse was up. Nothing of significance changed, given that they still kiss, but they don't need a guise now. In fact, excuses of any sort have since grown unwelcome in their home. What does change is how Hua Cheng gives Xie Lian spiritual power in every touch they share. From passing him the soy sauce over dinner, to buried three fingers deep inside of him, spiritual power passes to and from them like an everlasting breath. Recycled and reignited between them over and over and over again.
It's a simple style, a low ponytail just enough to keep Xie Lian's pin straight hair in place, but Hua Cheng treats the task with utmost importance. Reverence and respect bleed from his every movement. Spiritual power tames the slight frizz better than any perfumed oil could.
"Beautiful," Hua Cheng echoes and Xie Lian is beginning to think he might be getting better at handling compliments than Xie Lian can.
"Ready?" He's tugged gently to his feet. Their fingers intertwine seamlessly. "I want to eat lunch out on the rocks, let's keep going."
They keep going.
But their pace has slowed down significantly.
"Mm-, San Lang—ha…"
"Yes yes yes—" Hua Cheng exhales against the newly exposed shell of Xie Lian's ear. Small and cute. Like a hamster's. "So cute, so cute I want to just—"
They stagger forward together, Hua Cheng clung eagerly around Xie Lian like a ghost king backpack. They're still technically making progress on the hike. But…
"San Lang!" Xie Lian snaps with a huff. "We're never going to make it at this rate. Focus."
Hua Cheng's eyes glaze over just so and Xie Lian knows there's no world in which he emerges victorious from this situation.
Still, adamant on trying, Xie Lian bolts.
Just fucking runs off and sprints as fast as he can without using his spiritual powers.
He knows Hua Cheng is right behind him, he can feel his laughter in the wind and the rumble of his purr practically against his ear. They'd never had the space to do this before; let loose and be vulnerable and utterly ridiculous. His hair politely stays out of danger's way, domesticated by a little attention.
Xie Lian shouts over the roaring wind to scold him, "—YOU KNOW, EVER SINCE—CAN'T SEEM TO TAKE SAN LANG ANYWHERE—"
He hears, rather than feels, the rush of wind freezing like a waterfall hitting pause as Hua Cheng reaches out and slams him against a towering fir tree.
The world stills.
The fir tree pollen swims around them like dust motes.
Xie Lian sneezes.
They burst into a fit of helpless laughter. Xie Lian coughing around his newfound allergies and Hua Cheng offering himself as a ghostly tissue to his beloved husband. The sun shines a little differently through where the underbrush begins to meet the canopy. Their brief chase stunt helped make up quite a bit of lost time, they both realise.
"You-ah…" Xie Lian pinches Hua Cheng's cheek and sniffles.
"Me-ah." Hua Cheng parrots cheekily.
Xie Lian isn't even thinking when he grabs the end of Hua Cheng's long braid and yanks on it playfully.
"Dianx—" Hua Cheng whimpers blissfully.
Ah.
So that's it.
"I see." Xie Lian smiles like a saint and lets go, pats Hua Cheng's arm to let him free, and continues on his pleasant hike.
"Gege."
The fern curls here less and less as the temperature drops with the altitude.
"Gege..."
The trees grow taller and the mossy floor is now littered with soft soil and decaying wood.
"Gege?"
"Hmm?"
"Is Gege—"
"Oh, San Lang! Look!" Xie Lian exclaims, pointing to a large formation of rocks that overlook the distant sister mountain range. "We're here. And no, I'm not mad. Come on."
They share their packed lunch—soft char siu buns and crunchy cucumbers—and admire the view for as long as they desire. By the time they're ready to continue on their way, the sun is halfway through its descent and warms the forest in a wash of pale yellow.
Hua Cheng plays nice for the rest of the hike and while they make it to a wooden log cabin easily, the sun has long winked out and a chill begins to settle deep in Xie Lian's bones. His teeth are chattering, pathetically weak to the dry cold, and Hua Cheng's current form is little help.
It's unsurprising that there's no bath up on the mountain, but no less disappointing. Taking it upon himself, like the brave soldier he had once been, Hua Cheng promises, "I'll help warm Gege up," and promptly presses his ice-cold lips to Xie Lian's.
"San Lang!" Xie Lian hisses, breaking away from the kiss. He was cold and it was starting to hurt, he wasn't in the mood for jokes. "Please can't you just shift into something?"
"I'm afraid not." Hua Cheng says gravely, but gives no further explanation on the matter. "Gege, please. Do you trust me?"
He sighs. "Of course I trust you, but please, I'm freezing."
Hua Cheng nods, serious. In all fairness, his heatless hands have been trying to warm Xie Lian up by rubbing him through his robes ceaselessly.
"I know. It'll be okay soon, I promise." Hua Cheng's eye is dark in the sparse candlelight. Xie Lian would have described it as hungry, if he had the capacity to think that hard. As it stands, Xie Lian is the choice of prey for his beloved husband and his hunt is a mutually beneficial arrangement.
He sighs as Hua Cheng's warm mouth finds his jugular. He's as pliant as a doe, going lax with zero survival instinct. A hot tongue finds that exposed ear again, and a delighted shiver runs through him. He was right, Xie Lian thought, it was getting warmer.
Usually, Hua Cheng would have to hold away Xie Lian's lovely hair to access the nape of his neck, but now it shows itself easily with a tuck of his ponytail over one shoulder. Usually, Hua Cheng's own hair would tickle Xie Lian's bare back, now it simply accessorises Hua Cheng's lithe movements like a jaguar's flicking tail.
He's warm now, nearing a fever pitch, sweat beading across his forehead. Hua Cheng laps up the salt of it from his neck, marking as he goes, and then cool fingers scratch down his scalp and hook possessively into the base of his ponytail, uses it as leverage to tilt Xie Lian's head back with a low, guttural groan.
"Beautiful," Hua Cheng purrs against the shell of his ear and Xie Lian shudders.
"Again." The doe demands.
"Hmm?" Hua Cheng questions.
Hua Cheng questions him.
"I said again." His God demands.
Hua Cheng's fingers loosen instinctively at the sound—exactly the opposite of what he was hoping for, and a frustrated sound escapes Xie Lian. He's hot now, a blazing wildfire eager to set the surrounding forest alight. His touch burns with spiritual power, searing kisses into Hua Cheng's skin.
Xie Lian tugs Hua Cheng's clothing off haphazardly. And the hunt has wordlessly backfired. Or perhaps, the hunt has only ever been a red herring.
Hua Cheng's sharp nails are struggling for purchase against the oak table that Xie Lian brutally fucks him against. His thrusts are shallow and fast, in pursuit of his own pleasure within his body, and the movement inches Hua Cheng further and further forward until he slips out with a snarl.
"Back." Xie Lian commands and Hua Cheng scrambles to obey. The fearsome Crimson Rain Sought Flower spreads himself eagerly, lines Xie Lian back up, and inches back back back until he's bottomed out where he ought to. The gorgeous lines of Hua Cheng's muscle tense deliciously with each thrust, visible today without long strands of hair clinging to sweat and saliva.
In its stead is a beautiful braid that bobs with each hitched movement. This time, Xie Lian is deliberate as he grabs the tail end and wraps the long braid around his hand once, twice, and brutally tugs Hua Cheng's head back in time with a thrust.
"Fuck! Oh fuckfuckfuck—" Hua Cheng comes with his back arched like the crescent moon and Xie Lian follows while bearing witness to one of the most beautiful sights he's ever seen.
"Again?" Xie Lian requests politely later, from where he's knelt on a cushion on the floor. Never on the hard floor—that had been their compromise, years and years ago. Xie Lian's big brown doe eyes blink up at Hua Cheng, dilated with want and watery with embarrassment.
"That's good," Hua Cheng curls in to kiss his forehead, before scratching those long nails across his scalp and latching into the base of Xie Lian's ponytail like a deadly hook. He guides his husband forward forward forward by the hook until his throat is contracting around his cock. "S-so good."
Xie Lian comes that time barely touched.
Outside, the tall pines shiver and shudder in the September breeze, tapping against their wooden abode intermittently. Neither of them are bothered by it. It's organic and alive around them, there's bound to be noise. The firewood crackles and spits beside where they lay in a mess of splayed hair and idle touch, spiritual power humming through, between, and inside one another.
"San Lang knows he can just ask, right?" Xie Lian mumbles sleepily. A yawn interrupts him. Blink. Blink. Yawn.
Hua Cheng is smiling, devastated by the mundanity of the moment and reduced to a pile of sentimental sap. "Wasn't it more fun this way?"
Doe eyes regard him curiously.
His smile widens, showing teeth. Cheeky little thing.
"I suppose it was," he acquiesces with a grin.