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It happens for a split second.

But a split second is more than enough for a vicious chill of fear to sink into his veins and make his heart go still.

Hua Cheng, corporeal once again, as he should always be, as he always will be, never again to fade away like he did that fateful day he had died for Xie Lian a third time—his now husband, flickers, as if the flame of a candle briefly lit his skin and was put out in an instant.

However, there is no candle, and they are outside in the garden, their garden, that they have just started building together, after a year of not being able to hold the one he holds the most dear in his heart; the home they have began to build after they now officially call each other ‘husband’.

It happens to fast that Xie Lian prays (to who? he doesn’t know.) that it’s a trick of the light.

Except for the fact that Hua Cheng stills, too, as his skin flashes oh so briefly that translucent hue that had plagued Xie Lian’s dreams for months, memories of him fading forever imprinted on his memory.

Xie Lian does not give his husband the chance to play what he is certain just happened off, so he moves quickly.

“San Lang?” Xie Lian rushes to cup his husband’s face, his grip so tight that he almost digs his nails into his cheeks. “Are you alright? What was that?”

Sweat drips down Hua Cheng’s brow, and his husband sends him a smile which he probably thinks is reassuring. “No need to worry, Gege. You know I don’t take well to the heat, that’s all it is.”

Xie Lian can read his husband too well, though, and see right through that smile. Enough that beneath the gentle look he is gazing upon Xie Lian with, is a hint of something so faint, so hidden that Xie Lian is the only person in the world who would ever see beneath it.

And underneath it, along with the brief flicker of his form, was a flicker of worry and pain, gone in an instant.

“That’s not what that was,” Xie Lian states plainly, leaving no room for argument. He refuses to let go of his husband until he knows exactly what’s going on.

Hua Cheng sighs as he places one hand atop Xie Lian’s, setting down the shovel that was in the other he was using to dig in the dirt. There’s a small speck of it on the tip of his eyebrow which Xie Lian subconsciously wipes away.

“I can never fool you, can I? Gege is much too sharp,” Hua Cheng squeezes his hand, still resting atop his own cheek, an action to try and calm Xie Lian’s racing heart. His husband can probably feel his rapid pulse in the air between them; his anxiety spiking so high in that brief moment, of course he would notice and try to bring it down.

Xie Lian frowns. “No, you can’t. San Lang, please,” his voice is almost a whine, a flurry of emotions clouding his better judgment.

Anything reasonable within him vanishes whenever it comes to Hua Cheng, and he does not care, either. Because if he needs to be unreasonable, if his endless love and adoration is considered such; then he will gladly never listen to reason again.

As they kneel beside each other in the dirt, the flowers and vegetables that they had been bedding forgotten, Hua Cheng looks at him as he always does, with devotion and love, and Xie Lian’s worry does not dissipate; it merely is coaxed into something gentler, smaller, still there but clouded by the love he feels in return for his husband.

“I do really think it’s partially the heat,” his husband confesses, and Xie Lian hangs on to every word. “Sometimes, if I exert myself, my body is still getting used to being as it is again. I must have overdone it today, that is all, Gege.”

Xie Lian feels hurt rise in his chest at the prospect that Hua Cheng had overworked himself, especially because he was the one who was so excited to get started on fixing up their garden the second they woke up. But of course, Hua Cheng will always want to do whatever Xie Lian asks, pushing any of his own fatigue or exhaustion in favour of spending time with him. Xie Lian is both honoured at how far his husband will always go for him, but at the same time, greatly upset that he would ignore his own pain to make Xie Lian happy.

It’s not a particularly surprising fact, and one Xie Lian was well aware of when it came to Hua Cheng. Still, he finds himself upset at the matter—but mostly at himself for not noticing. As he examines his husband’s face now, he notices that there are tired lines beneath his eye and his forehead is creased slightly more tense than normal.

He begins to rub gentle circles on his husband’s cheek with his thumb, and still, even when Hua Cheng is feeling unwell, he still smiles at him with so much kindness and love, and Xie Lian wants to erase any of the traces of hurt that are present upon his husband’s face.

“But….you’ve been so well. How have I not noticed?” Xie Lian starts, guilt washing over him. “I must sincerely apologize, San Lang, we’ve only been married just over a month and I…I already failed noticing your hurt.”

Hua Cheng blinks at his statement and proceeds to frown. “Your Highness, there is no need to speak in such a way. You have not noticed because there was nothing to notice.”

His tone is disapproving as it always is when Xie Lian puts himself down. It’s something he is working on—they are both working on, with each other, but they’ve only just got each other back. Back to where they can actually just be together without worrying about the next assignment Heaven will send him and looking over his shoulder for the one who had haunted him for 800 years—and years of unlearning will take time. Right now, Xie Lian just wants to be with his husband, and he knows Hua Cheng feels the same.

And now, Xie Lian will do everything in his power to ensure that he can protect the peace that has finally reached them, together.

Xie Lian is about to rebuke, but Hua Cheng presses a gentle finger to his lips. His husband is smiling, now, once again, to reassure him. “I’ve been strategically saving most of the energy for before bed…”

Hua Cheng trails off, only so that he can make Xie Lian flush. He does. His husband will truly never miss an opportunity to make him do so. Xie Lian shakes his head in exasperation before signalling for Hua Cheng to continue.

“After last night, though, and then all the digging this morning….I may have used more than I should have. I apologize for worrying Gege,” Hua Cheng finishes with a kiss to his forehead, and Xie Lian leans into the touch.

“No need to apologize, San Lang,” Xie Lian echoes his husband’s words that were said to him mere moments ago. “I will worry no matter what.”

A brief silence surrounds them before an idea crosses Xie Lian’s mind. He doesn’t say anything as he abruptly stands up, walks over behind Hua Cheng, and firmly places both his arms beneath his husband’s legs and lifts him up in a bridal carry, all thoughts of gardening abandoned as he manoeuvres Hua Cheng’s arm around his neck.

As Xie Lian meets his husband’s eye, the dazed look that flashes across it makes him laugh. Once Hua Cheng realizes that Xie Lian is looking at him, though, that dazed look is replaced by a familiar smirk.

“Not that I’m complaining about being whisked away in your arms, Gege, but where are we going?”

“Inside! Your body needs rest, San Lang, so that’s what you will be doing for the rest of the day.” Xie Lian’s tone leaves no room for argument, and if Hua Cheng is stunned, he doesn’t show it, only chuckles against him, and lets Xie Lian carry him into one of their now many shrines—one that, as long as the other is there, will be home.

“Do you have enough pillows?” Xie Lian asks as he proceeds to fluff one of the probably too many pillows he had brought with him. Seeing Hua Cheng, Supreme Ghost King, surrounded by a comical amount of cushions truly was a sight in itself. Xie Lian would laugh, if he was not so fret with worry.

Hua Cheng raises an eyebrow as he glances at the nest of blankets he has been burrowed in. “I think this is sufficient, Gege, really. There is no need to go to such lengths for me.”

Xie Lian huffs as he splays a hand against his husband’s back, pushing him forward to place the freshly fluffed cushion underneath his husband’s head, and gently lies him back down. Despite Hua Cheng’s verbal protests, he did not put up a  fight against Xie Lian handling him.

“Stop saying that. You would do the same for me,” Xie Lian practically hushes, and Hua Cheng raises his hands in a placating gesture at Xie Lian’s gentle glare.

“If I am going to be subject to bed rest all day, at least Gege can help keep San Lang company?”

“Of course I will,” Xie Lian takes off his outer robe, joining his husband in their bed. Arms wrap around his waist without wasting another second.

“No nonsense, though, San Lang. You need to rest,” he emphasizes the last word, because he knows his husband enough to know he will try to do anything but.

“How can I rest when such an ethereal being has made his into my arms? You do not make it easy, Your Highness,” Hua Cheng says, and his tone may be teasing, but the words are said softly against the crook of his neck.

Xie Lian is well aware that Hua Cheng is trying to distract him, both from the anxiety that is still making his heart beat too fast at concern for him, but also to try and stray him away from the topic at hand.

“What happened outside, San Lang?” Xie Lian asks, voice soft.

“When I said you needn’t worry, Your Highness, it was the truth,” Hua Cheng answers, and this calms Xie Lian’s mind, if only a bit, because he knows that his husband’s words are honest. “It is completely normal. This time just happened to be the one time you had been with me when it occurred.”

“It’s happened before?” Xie Lian immediately questions, eyes widening in alarm.

Firm hands are placed upon his shoulders and begin massaging away the tension that had set within them. “Once or twice only. I swear it. And I haven’t brought it up because it’s expected. Just a side effect of gaining all of my spiritual energy back to be as I am now. I am deeply sorry for scaring you.”

Xie Lian says nothing and leans into his husband’s embrace. He takes a deep breath to steady himself, because to Hua Cheng, it seems like nothing. But not for Xie Lian.

For Xie Lian, that brief flicker was a reminder of the past year without Hua Cheng. It was a reminder of the empty bed, the meals that had gone cold because he had cooked for two without realizing. Of the days he spent waiting on the front steps, each noise that sounded like even the faintest footsteps causing him to jolt up and call out for someone who it never was.

It was the memory of Hua Cheng being carefully wrapped in his arms and then ripped violently out of it the next. It was a thousand butterflies that were once the person he fell so deeply and desperately in love with that had sacrificed himself for him, again and again and again.

“Don’t apologize, San Lang, just as I said before.” Xie Lian finds the strength to speak, even when his heart feels so weak. “It’s a big deal to me, that you were hurting and I didn’t know. Please always tell me. I want to know your everything, just as you know mine.”

A brief pause. “Okay,” Hua Cheng says, and holds onto him tighter. “For you, Your Highness. I will.”

Xie Lian is quiet as he commits his husband’s words to memory—everything that Hua Cheng has ever said to him, all the phrases of his love and devotion stored neatly in his brain as if he had written a book solely for their eyes and ears only, to be pulled out when he most needed it.

“Gege?” Hua Cheng breaks him out of his stupor, and he brings himself back to the present. “Is there more to what you just told me?”

Naturally, Hua Cheng knows Xie Lian better than he does himself. He smiles faintly at how well his husband recognizes the way his brain works.

Xie Lian’s smile fades as he tries to figure out how to say what he wants to next. Even though it was a year filled with hope and waiting and knowing that one day, Hua Cheng would return, that did not mean it was not full of despair and longing, that each day bled into the next. It’s a memory that strings, that pulls at his heart and makes his eyes go cloudy.

“It just….reminded me of being without you. Last year.” The words get stuck in his throat, but he still feels like he needs to let them out. They’ve been bottled within him since Hua Cheng had returned to him, easily placated by the return of his husband to his side.

Hua Cheng continues to rub his shoulders in kind, this time leaning his head down to place a gentle kiss along the curve of his neck. “You have not told me much about it, Your Highness.”

That, he knows. Xie Lian knows why, because he was distracted with joy at his husband being back with him, awash with the days of love and happiness and consummating their marriage. He did not want to break the exhilaration and euphoria that had encompassed them for the past month.

But, bottling things up means they will eventually rise back to the surface, and often, at the most inconvenient times.

Xie Lian does not need to speak for Hua Cheng to read his mind.

“Please, will you tell me about it? Your Highness, I want to know. I told you before. I will always want to know your everything,” Hua Cheng pleads, bringing a gentle kiss to his knuckles as he repeats the words Xie Lian had just said back to him.

“I…San Lang, you need to rest,” Xie Lian tries, but it comes out weak. He really does want to tell his husband everything; but his thoughts right now are messy and tangled, a gigantic knot that even the finest comb could not undo. And his husband does truly need to rest.

“I am resting,” Hua Cheng says, and gives Xie Lian’s waist a loving squeeze. “There is nothing that relaxes me more than listening to all my beloved has to say, even if he think’s it’s foolish. Because nothing you say is ever such.”

Xie Lian is always at a loss for words when his husband speaks such kindness to him; even now, when he is not feeling well, he still wants Xie Lian to open up about everything he feels.

“Okay, but,” Xie Lian turns to look at Hua Cheng as he speaks, and his husband is already looking at him, eye sparkling with genuine interest and love, and his husband will always give him the courage to say what is on his mind. “You promise, after I tell you everything, you will let me take care of you the rest of the night?”

“I promise,” Hua Cheng vows, and Xie Lian’s shoulders relax.

Before beginning, Xie Lian moves within Hua Cheng’s embrace so that they are face to face. He tucks one arm under the pillow and brings the other to check his husband’s forehead before anything else. Still too warm, for his taste, so he takes a cool cloth and places it upon his forehead. He then glances down to where Hua Cheng’s hand is settled on his hip and intertwines his fingers within his husband’s, the red string which ties them together vibrant in the dim candlelight of their bedroom.

Hua Cheng lets him dote on him, knowing this is also for Xie Lian to gather his thoughts in a way that he can understand, in a way that he knows Hua Cheng will understand, too.

”…..I was lonely, after I finally remembered what not being alone felt like. It was you who reminded me what it was like to not be alone anymore,” Xie Lian whispers. As he voices those thoughts aloud, he feels selfish, guilty.

Hua Cheng had died for him. And here he was, talking about how his death had made him feel. When his husband was the one hurting. But Hua Cheng had asked; so Xie Lian will answer. He always will.

Xie Lian launches into a tale of everything that had happened during the past year while Hua Cheng had recuperated. From Mu Qing’s surprisingly frequent visits where he would often bring medicine and food and, of all things, help clean - yes, even sweep, during the days where Xie Lian could not get out of bed.

He recalls how Feng Xin would reinforce the arrays around the shrine, how he would come at the same frequency as Mu Qing (and, always, one after the other), and chat with him about the news of what had been going on in Heaven, the progression of the rebuilding, and other things he had picked up. A lot was always cordial chit-chat—Xie Lian would tell Feng Xin always wanted to ask, about the silver ring hanging from his neck, the string around his finger, but he would always trail off before the question could fall from his lips, and Xie Lian had never asked him to continue.

At the time, he had wanted to keep everything about Hua Cheng to himself: because without him by his side, the most he felt he could do was cherish everything that Hua Cheng had given to him, given for him, and keep it safely tucked within his heart, only to be shared once Hua Cheng had returned by his side to share everything right along with him.

He tells Hua Cheng about all the visits from officials and familiar ghosts. Xie Lian talks about about Jian Lan's words, how she no longer believed in everlasting love, and how Xie Lian had known deep in his heart that he did not agree. He blushes as he looks to Hua Cheng when he tells him he knows the only person who can achieve it.

He tells Hua Cheng about his and Ling Wen's discussion about how love can end in tragedy; how he knows their story will not end that way.

Xie Lian keeps talking about how so many had visited—even Rain Master, who so rarely left her abode of peace and humility. How even Lang Qianqiu had sought him out solely to give back the red coral pearl that was the other half to the one Hua Cheng now wore, always woven into his hair.

Xie Lian was never alone. He was constantly surrounded by people, however, his loneliness deepp within his heart was never alleviated. Because the one person he yearned for the most, the one who reminded him what companionship felt like, the one who reminded him that he deserved to have someone to talk to, he deserved to be heard, he deserved to be loved, was never the one who he came face to face with whenever he had opened the door.

Now, his husband is here, back in his arms, solid and firm and safe, and yet Xie Lian feels so selfish. Because his husband is the one who he should be taking care of right now; because his husband had committed such a selfless act so he could defeat the one person who had made him suffer for centuries of his life. But instead, he cannot help the sob that is rising in his throat at the sheer thought of having Hua Cheng taken away from him again, just as he had been taken away from him as soon as he had found the one person he did not even realize he was missing until he was right in front of him.

“I’m sorry, San Lang,” Xie Lian apologizes, because he feels he has to. He is being inconsiderate and immature, yet he cannot help his feelings. “You searched for me for 800 years, and you gave so much patience to me, and yet, I could hardly handle one year without you.”

It feels silly, really, to confess this.

“I’m just so scared,” Xie Lian admits and he buries his face into Hua Cheng’s neck. “I…don’t want…I can’t..lose you again.”

It’s the truth.

Xie Lian had truly forgotten what fear had felt like. When he had been wandering alone, he had gotten use to such rotten luck that he knew what to expect when everything went wrong and never went his way. The world being against him had made him forget to be scared, because he had no reason to be.

That had all changed when he had met a red-clad youth on an ox-cart, and now, Xie Lian knows what his own worst fear in the world is.

It was the one you love the most in the world fading away to nothing as you hold onto them; as they were in front of you one second and gone, shattered into a million butterflies the next.

Xie Lian has one fear, one true nightmare, and that is Hua Cheng dying for him for a fourth time.

Seeing that brief flicker earlier had sent a shockwave of memories through him from when he had lost his husband for a year, and even though he knew he would come back and he had what remained of him safely tucked away on his neck, the safest place in the world to his beloved husband; he had still been gone, his bed was empty and so was each house and shrine and the possibility of losing Hua Cheng again terrified him.

“Oh, Your Highness,” Hua Cheng murmurs as he places his lips upon the crown of his head, leaving a gentle kiss as Xie Lian cries into his shoulder.

As his husband holds him, as he whispers sweet nothings and runs his fingers through his hair, Xie Lian realizes something.

He had not cried the entire year that Hua Cheng had been away.

Because within that pain, was hope. Hope, and trust, and belief in Hua Cheng and his words—that he would never leave him. Even though he was gone, he knew he would return. All because of the red string that Hua Cheng had tied to him long ago, sealing that their fate would always lead to each other. All because of the ring that he has never removed from his neck, the one that he had held and whispered to on the darkest and cruelest nights.

All because Xie Lian will forever return the faith and belief that Hua Cheng had him in for 800 years—the most he can do, will always do, is give everything that Hua Cheng gave to him back, and even then, Xie Lian does not think it will ever be enough. But he will continue to offer everything that he is unto his husband, because he will forever be thanking him, again and again, for staying.

Xie Lian gathers himself before he pulls away from his husband’s neck, and Hua Cheng’s hands are right there, ready to wipe away his tears. His husband’s touch is always so gentle, so tender when laid upon him, as if he still cannot believe Xie Lian is real, in front of him, once again. Xie Lian cannot believe it either, sometimes. That he had been so unlucky for so long, yet Hua Cheng had made him feel like the luckiest man alive.

“You won’t lose me again. I promise, Your Highness, my words still ring true.” Hua Cheng says as he leans forward to bring their foreheads together, gently brushing his nose against Xie Lian’s own. “I will never leave you.”

Of course Xie Lian believes fully in his husband’s words. They are genuine, real, an embodiment of his husband’s devotion and adoration for him. Xie Lian trusts in them, he knows they are the truth. Yet, he still falters.

“I know you won’t, San Lang, not again, but…” Xie Lian hesitates, feeling unsure of his next words. A gentle brush of familiar lips against his own gives him the resolve he needs to continue. “Why am I still so terrified of losing you?”

It feels daunting to reveal a fear that is deep-seated into his bones, that has been even since before Hua Cheng had shattered into thousands of butterflies in his arms, gone in an instant as soon as Xie Lian had been able to hold him freely, without anyone or anything to get in the way of them.

Does he know the answer to his own question? He does. Because after meeting  Hua Cheng, after finding out what falling in love desperately and passionately feels like, after finding and falling for the one person who had stayed when everyone else had left.

Hua Cheng had stayed. He had stayed at his lowest. He had stayed when Xie Lian had told him to forget him. Hua Cheng had never forgotten him—had refused to let anyone, even his God himself, allow him to stop believing in the one who he had believed in even when no one else did.

“I know why. Because, San Lang, you were the only one who ever stayed,” he echoes his thoughts back to his husband, because he wants—needs–Hua Cheng to hear them.

Xie Lian had not even realized he had closed his eyes, but when he reopens them, the look he recieves back overwhelms him. Hua Cheng is gazing at him in kind, a gentle furrow of his brow which creases the corner of his eyes, his smile soft yet a hint of sadness mixed within.

Hua Cheng is silent as he simply looks at Xie Lian, eye moving from one part of his face to another, as if memorizing it over and over again. His hand is still winded within his hair, twirling the strands in the way that Xie Lian adores.

Xie Lian waits. He will wait, again and again, no matter how painful or scared he may be be. Because Hua Cheng is here and has lent him so much patience over so much centuries. Xie Lian will repay that patience tenfold and more.

As his husband takes his time to gather his words, the sunlight streams in through the window, capturing each angle and curve of Hua Cheng’s face. His eye sparkles against the reflection of the light, his pale skin radiant and his husband is simply put the most beautiful person Xie Lian has ever laid eyes upon. He cannot help but capture Hua Cheng’s lips in his own with his own encouragement; returning his husband’s from earlier.

Whatever Hua Cheng gives Xie Lian, he will reciprocate. They both will, because their love is built of mutual trust and understanding and Xie Lian would give everything if he could, just as Hua Cheng would. Just as he had.

Hua Cheng finally speaks, voice quiet and soft, his next words only for Xie Lian to hear, gaze never leaving his for a single moment.

“‘Do you remember when I told you, “There is no banquet in this world that doesn’t come to an end?” Maybe it’s unreasonable, but I don’t know if I want to believe that anymore. If there’s one banquet I never want to end, it’s the one between us. Maybe I’m selfish for that, I don’t know. But when you come back…I know you’ll come back. I want that to be the final one. Do you want that too, San Lang? I would like it very much.”

Xie Lian freezes at the echo of the words he had whispered many moons again are spoken by the one he thought had not been able to hear them. Words softly said on a sleepless night, daunted by his empty bed so he had gone out for a walk that had lead him up a familiar mountain and to the depths of the forest where he had first met Hua Cheng again; as he gently placed a kiss to the silver ring forever attached to his neck, a way to feel a part of his now husband when he could touch hold his hand.

As his husband looks at him, so full of adoration and love and directed at him, Xie Lian feels dizzy. He is awash with a flood of emotions that are chaos within his chest and making his heart beat too fast and his feelings overcome him, and he can barely think anything other than San Lang.

“San Lang,” Xie Lian breathes, hands immediately going to clasp the ring around his neck. He looks down at the most precious gift his husband had given him, at Hua Cheng’s entire being held delicately in his palm. “You could hear me?”

A noise of assent, followed by a soft chuckle. “Towards the end, yes. Sometimes I would hear your voice, but it was like it was far away, and I could never reach it. But that, Your Highness, is the one thing you said to me that I could fully understand and hear. It was like you were right next to me.”

Hua Cheng moves to kiss his temple, and releases his grasp from Xie Lian’s hair to place his hands beneath Xie Lian’s own. “Those words, Your Highness. They mean more than I can thank you for. And,”

His husband presses a gentle kiss to the corner of his eye, his cheek, his nose, peppering slowly down until he takes his lips within his own and Xie Lian passionately returns. Hua Cheng pulls back, but Xie Lian can still feel the ghost of his breath on his lips.

“I want that too, Your Highness,” Hua Cheng says, and Xie Lian wants to cry because his husband makes him feel too much.

Tears well in his eyes and he desperately captures Hua Cheng’s lips in his own once again, saying all that he cannot say with words with a kiss. Xie Lian’s hands wind through Hua Cheng’s messy and unkempt hair, he presses his chest flush against his husband’s own as Xie Lian is encircled by familiar and gentle arms and his legs are wrapped around Hua Cheng as they become one another’s, like they always should have been and will be forever now.

All thoughts of rest forgotten as two people who had been kept apart by a cruel twist of fate had been brought back together by the one person who had desperately and fiercely fought to throw that fate right back in it’s own face, carving a bloody path to find his way back to Xie Lian, always, everything that Hua Cheng had done, for him.

Cheeks flush and breathing heavy, they only pull apart because Xie Lian has a body that still needs air, and as he looks at his husband’s adoring face and finds himself unconsciously circling the ring around his neck with his fingers, and his face goes even more red as a thought occurs to him.

“San Lang,” Xie Lian rasps, air still coming back into his lungs. “You could hear me when I spoke to your ashes. Could you…feel…anything…by any chance?”

The wicked grin he receives in response is all he needs for an answer. His husband, however, thinks otherwise. “Do you mean each a loving kiss was bestowed upon me by His Highness? If so, then yes, I could feel you towards the end, too. Perhaps that’s what gave me enough spiritual energy to return when I did..”

Xie Lian cannot possibly blush more than he currently is but Hua Cheng will forever test the limits of that boundary. He feels too embarrassed to even respond, so he simply buries his face in the nest of blankets that have become incredibly unkempt through their discussion.

Hua Cheng’s laugh embraces him just as his husband’s arms once again do, and he is hauled up and back against a firm chest. Despite his embarrassment, he lets out a sigh of content, and Hua Cheng bites gently at his ear; a kiss in his own way that always sends chills through Xie Lian’s body.

“Thank you, San Lang, for listening,” Xie Lian says, leaning into his husband’s touch. “Are you going to hold up your end of our bargain?”

“I will always listen to anything you have to say,” Hua Cheng answers, and avoids his question. Xie Lian shakes his head and looks back to his husband with a raised eyebrow. Feigned innocence is painted on his husband’s face, and Xie Lian simply stares at him until he relents.

“I am very relaxed right now, Gege. With you in my arms, how could I not be?” Hua Cheng’s tone is light, unserious, and Xie Lian is exasperated at his husband’s usual nonsense, but it’s comforting. Warm. It makes him forget his fears from earlier, it reminds him that now, everything is okay. That Hua Cheng is alive—well, as alive as a Ghost King is—in his arms, and he is safe.

“San Lang, you know what you’re doing right now,” Xie Lian points back towards his ear, where his husband is still planting love-bites along it. “How about this. You rest today, and all night. And tomorrow, we can do whatever you want. But you need to rest.”

A disappointed sigh answers him, however, Xie Lian knows it’s not serious and his husband is still only teasing. “Alright, Gege, we have a deal. But you will take care of me, yes?”

Xie Lian really has spoiled his husband too much and he’s only been back for just over a month. But, he remembers the chilling fear that seeped itself into his bones earlier at the thought of Hua Cheng dissipating once again, and Xie Lian thinks he has to spoil him even more.

As he moves off the bed to fluff the pillows and reorganize the bed to ensure his husband’s comfort, Hua Cheng watches him, and Xie Lian drinks it in. Seeing his husband happy, content, laying down with his shoulders relaxed and his hand not gripped tightly on E’Ming, ready to fight at any moment, seeing his husband at peace after he had to fight for so long—it makes Xie Lian’s heart swell.

Once the bed is reset, Xie Lian joins Hua Cheng under the covers once again, and this time, he pulls Hua Cheng into his lap. It’s his turn to leave gentle kisses atop his husband’s head and weave his fingers through the tresses of his husband’s hair. It’s his turn to take care of Hua Cheng, for once, and Hua Cheng lets him.

He knows the fear of losing Hua Cheng will never leave him—it will always be present, in the back of his mind and a nightmare that may plague him from time to time. But he has someone to hear his fears, to listen to what he may think is unbecoming but he knows Hua Cheng will reassure him, will forever remind him that is he right by his side, just as he always has been, just as he always will be.

“Our banquet will not come to an end, again, San Lang. I’ll make sure of it,” Xie Lian whispers, and it is a promise sealed with a kiss. It is a promise locked between them—a promise held tight by the ring shining against Xie Lian chest, a promise captured by the vibrant red string forever leading them to one another.

Because one banquet ending for them was enough, and their banquet, the one where it is just Xie Lian and Hua Cheng, who spent so long running toward each other, are finally within each other’s grasp, had begun again. Within this one, they can stop running.

They can breathe, and look forward to the eternal banquet that encapsulates all that they are, everything and everyone that they have been and who they will become, and Xie Lian thinks about how he cannot wait to see how the eternity between them unfolds.

As Xie Lian watches his husband sleep against his chest, beautiful as he has always been, Xie Lian lifts his most precious possession—the perfect and delicately formed ring that Hua Cheng had lain upon his neck the moment Xie Lian had realized who he truly was and still stayed, just as Hua Cheng did for him.

Xie Lian brings his husband’s life to his lips, gifting upon it a delicate and tender kiss, and he hopes that his gift makes his way to Hua Cheng’s dreams, just as his words and love had while his husband had been resting, except this time, Hua Cheng is within his arms, and Xie Lian will never let him go, even if fate tries to pull them apart.

Because Xie Lian and Hua Cheng know better than anyone, that fate is what you decide. For them, that fate will forever, and always will be, each other.