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Chongyun thinks the temperature clouding the mountains is just cold enough that he feels at ease. The wind slapped against his face, his hair tossing wildly, and the wind dries his eyes till they burn, but it feels so light. Like he could release his holds on the rocks beneath his hands and be able to slowly float down.
He shouldn’t try that, though. He’d definitely fall and die a very, very, very painful death. It’s not like he doubted either Xiao or Xingqiu’s ability to catch him, of course, but it’s still very likely he’d die. Very, very, very painfully.
Thankfully, Chongyun doesn’t commit a stupid suicide, and he heaves himself to the tip of the mountain, feet brushing against grass for the first time in such a long half hour. Xiao comes up behind him, and Xingqiu is last, pulling himself just over the edge to sprawl his body across the floor, heaving with exhaustion.
“Your stamina needs work,” Xiao commented helpfully, squatting down to push some hair out of Xingqiu’s eyes. Chongyun stretched his arms up, sighing with relief when his back cracked.
“Thank — thank you, oh wonderful yaksha,” Xingqiu huffed, rolling onto his back. He brought up a hand to shield his eyes from the burning sun. “If my stamina needs work, it’ll be a long time till I bring my attention to it!”
“You should join us for stretches,” Chongyun said, walking over to stand besides Xiao. “And running.”
“I do stretches, baobao,” Xingqiu sighed, lowering his hand to his chest as his eyes rolled up to grin at the other two. “It’s you two who have more stamina than sense.”
Chongyun merely made a noise of acknowledgement at the back of his throat at the taunt, exasperated. If Xiao had noticed it, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he stood up and put his hands on his hips. “Do you want me to carry you?”
Xingqiu flipped over eagerly, pushing himself off the grass and quickly dusted himself off. “ Hell yes!”
“Then that’s proof you should get working on that stamina,” Xiao said blankly, face empty of any remorse as Xingqiu deflated and flopped against Chongyun’s side, boneless. Chongyun stumbled for a moment before getting into position to hold both of their weights up.
“Wounded, attacked brutally by my own lover!” Xingqiu moaned pitifully. He dramatically draped an arm over his forehead. “Woe is me! Does thou refuse to cease their brutality?” He peeked an eye through a gap in his fingers, staring at Xiao expectantly.
Xiao huffed in indignance. He turned around. “Where is the spot?”
Chongyun let out a snicker as Xinqiu detached himself from him to direct them to the designated area. He had told Chongyun of a place at the tip of the mountains around the Dunyu Ruins, with sightings of evil spirits that have been terrorizing passerbyers. At first, Chongyun wanted to doubt it, since the place Xingqiu was referring to was not somewhere dark and cramped, a place spirits love to sit around in.
But he gave him the benefit of the doubt.
The two had told their other boyfriend Xiao of their adventure. Xiao glanced at Xingqiu, at Chongyun, then at Xingqiu again, and promptly stated he was joining.
Not that Chongyun was complaining. Both of the best people in the world, side by side with him as they went on the search for an evil spirit for him to exorcise. He felt immensely protected. And excited, more than he's ever been on one of these hunts. With Xiao’s newly added company and Xingqiu not reading a novel the entire journey made his heart seize with joy.
He took a deep breath, suddenly realizing how fast his heart was beating. The flushed warmth slowly faded away, leaving the usual dull in his chest. The only difference was, Chongyun felt as if he was on the verge of giggling uncontrollably, face aflame.
He tried not to do that.
The trio walked for a few minutes, the atmosphere filled mostly by Xingqiu and Chongyun’s conversation. Xiao walked beside them, as usual, silent as ever. Though occasionally, Xingqiu would direct a comment at him, and Xiao would either huff in annoyance or nod.
Which was code for he loved them.
Out of the blue, Xingqiu stopped in his tracks. “It should be here,” he said in a weird voice, growing a bit more high pitched at the end like he was singing it. Chongyun’s eyes surveyed the area, but his eyes found nothing but grass, trees, and bushes. He squinted, straining harder, but still there was not a spirit to be seen.
“Let’s spread out and check,” Chongyun said, not letting the lack of spirits get to him. There was still a possibility, right? Plus, he didn't want to lose a moment to show off an exorcism to either of his boyfriends. It would be something too great to pass up.
Xiao nodded, already moving to the left to examine a cluster of trees. Xingqiu nodded as well, a bit strained, but nonetheless stalked off to the opposite area. Chongyun sighed and continued forward, looking up and around for every possible place a spirit could be hiding. He couldn’t feel anything nearby, yet he stubbornly held onto that tiny sliver of what if.
A while later, Chongyun felt a breeze just a little too unnatural. He looked up, eyes darting around till they landed on the top of Xiao’s hair. The adeptus, probably having sensed his eyes on him, turned his head around and nodded slightly. Chongyun glanced around before finding Xingqiu a few paces besides him, absentmindedly picking at a large branch. He nudged his arm, and the other looked up. Chongyun pointed at the direction Xiao stood.
Xingqiu furrowed his eyebrows — in confusion? — before heading over, Chongyun in tow. A few yards before they reached Xiao, Chongyun could already see what had caught his attention.
And it wasn’t an evil spirit. Nor was it a spirit at all.
A dendro samachural sat on a ledge, his staff by his side. A mitachural sat on the ground opposite of it, ax set on his lap. Four other hilichurals lounged around a pot hanging over a fire.
“Oh,” Chongyun couldn’t help but sigh, watching again, as more and more of his hope diminished right before his eyes. Xingqiu glanced at him, frowning.
They moved a bit closer, and now Chongyun was able to see the smoky black aura that emitted from the monsters, and the agitated way they moved around. They were affected by something negative, and — Chongyun felt those hopes slightly rise again — that something could be an evil spirit.
Xiao looked back again at them, and that flash of something sharp had just passed his eyes before he leapt at the group. The monsters were fortunate enough to catch sight of him before he plunged his glistening jade spear at them. However, they quickly found themselves in an unfortunate situation when Chongyun and Xingqiu jumped out, freezing the opponents in quick movements.
It was going fine. For a while.
Chongyun’s mind was absolutely clear when it happened. He wasn’t distracted, wasn’t hazy, his mind was clear and aware. Painfully aware.
It happened in slow motion. He had slammed his claymore on the ground directly above a hilichural’s head, knocking it off its feet. The ground around him cracked with ice, layering cryo over their attacks. He hefted his claymore over his arm, readying another hit, when a quick flash of red and movement caught his eye.
He felt his body slowly turn. He watched as Xiao and Xingqiu’s light feet danced around slowly. The hilichural, body colored a bright blazing red, charged at him slowly. He stood there, waiting. Slowly, it happened.
In a flash, he was knocked onto his back, and time rushed to match its original pace. The hilichural — Chongyun realized the bright red hue was coming from the lit torch it clutched in its hand, swinging around as a weapon — had skidded to a stop behind him, growling brutally as it raised its torch for another blow.
Chongyun scrambled back to his feet — too late, it seems. The hilichural hurled the torch at him, and as quick as the lighting cast from the electro god herself, it hit him with enough force to knock him back again.
His side burned where it had hit, the charred clothing drenched in beaten black blood. Distantly he heard his name — “Chongyun!” — from Xingqiu, he thinks. He fell, and his back grazed the deadly thorns summoned by the dendro samachural.
It would’ve been deadly if he had fallen on it, but he barely missed its pointed edge by an inch. He crumpled to the ground, coughing from the impact — and the tiny, duller by still painful thorns that still pierced his back. The torch from the hilichural rolled towards the vines.
It erupted in a pit of fiery doom.
It burned. It hurt. Chongyun’s head suddenly exploded, the fire seemingly touching every last corner of his mind. He might’ve screamed. He felt the usual coolness from his cryo vision dissolving from his body, replaced with an overwhelming heat. His wound felt like fire itself. Sweat was pouring down his face.
“Chongyun!” A voice boomed, rage pouring out from every letter of the name. His name. A cold wind zipped past him, temporarily melting the hot away. For a second it did, but the heat returned as quick as it left.
“H-hey, YunYun? It’s me, Xingqiu. Qingai de, open your eyes for me?”
Chongyun’s eyes were struggling to stay open, but just hearing that softness from Xingqiu’s voice was filling him with conviction. He gazed up at the boy, zeroing in on his features — yellow eyes, blue hair, worried frown. Blood on his pristine clothes.
“Thank you. I love you, dear. Keep them open, alright?”
Xingqiu bent over his body, eyes scanning the wound at his side. He was pulled into his lap, Chongyun suddenly realized. And the sounds of the hilichurals had ceased.
“Is he okay?” Xiao’s voice entered the silence, but it was raw and a bit disoriented.
“He should be,” Xingqiu murmured. Chongyun could feel the hydro made swords clean out his wound, soothing his muscles and the burn. “It’s a good thing I can use a hydro vision to heal him. He’s still got the burning, we should take him somewhere colder. He’s hot.”
There was a pause, and Xingqiu lifted his head. From where Chongyun’s face rested — on Xingqiu’s dirty, bloodied legs, eyes half open and blurry — he couldn’t see Xiao, but he could sense the dark looming karma that embraced the three of them. He shivered.
“Are you okay, though? Baobei?” Xingqiu asked, voice as soft as ever in that uncharacteristic healer way. “Take off your mask. You’re trembling. Hey —” Xingqiu lifted an arm, and Chongyun could hear the faint cracking sounds as Xiao’s mask disappeared. “There we go,” Xingqiu sighed in relief. “There should be a statue nearby, and we’ve collected enough geocolus to heal a significant amount.”
Xiao grunted. “Too far. I can take us back to the inn.”
“But the karma —”
“He needs something cold.” Xiao’s feet were rigid, nothing like their usual swiftness. He walked and knelt on his knees beside Chongyun, at an angle where their eyes met. “The statue can’t do that. I’ll be okay.”
Xingqiu didn’t say anything for a while. Xiao took that as his sign. He placed his hands on both their shoulders, inhaled quickly, and the scenery melted away.
The grass became wooden floor. The trees became wooden walls. The quiet stillness was filled with mindless chatter.
Chongyun couldn’t keep himself awake. He closed his eyes, the feeling of Xingqiu’s healing the only thing soothing him.
—
It was a while before he awoke.
The room was covered with a thin layer of cryo. Nestled on his forehead was a towel, damp with water. His outpiece had been taken off, his shoes forgotten on the floor. The bed was warm.
Xingqiu and Xiao were beside him, Chongyun could tell. He could recognize their presence from a mile away. He turned his head, gazing at their quietly conversing figures for a few seconds, before Xiao’s keenful ears heard him. He turned, and Chongyun watched as relief rushed to his face.
Xingqiu was quick to follow, letting out a gasp. He spun around, pulling Chongyun in a tight hug. Chongyun could feel his arms pressing against his injury; it had been bandaged tightly, he noted.
“You’re awake! You’re awake! You wouldn’t wake up for an hour so we had to ask QiQi to come and — Yun, you scared me half to death! I—” Xingqiu paused, taking in a deep breath. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
Chongyun weakly patted his back. “Of course I’m okay, you healed me. How’d we get out of there?” He scooted back, allowing Xingqiu more room to sit.
“Xiao threw a tantrum and killed everything. The usual,” Xingqiu sighed, but he was obviously still on edge. Teasing Xiao(and Chongyun) was his coping mechanism for everything.
Xiao remained stoic, but Chongyun didn’t miss the way his eyes wandered back to his bandaged waist. “The karma came out. It was...ah, unruly of me.”
“You’re okay though?” Chongyun asked hurriedly, checking Xiao’s body for any signs of the karma clinging onto him. “DId my yang —”
“It got rid of it, yes.” Xiao nodded, paused, and moved to sit on the bed as well. Chongyun could see the way he cringed at the softness of it — he never liked the feeling of a mattress, he had said once. “Your burn. Does it hurt?”
Chongyun’s hands automatically went to brush against the bandages. “A little bit, but I feel better.” A thought rushed to him. “The spirit—”
“The information was unreliable from the beginning,” Xingqiu cut in, shaking his head. “My source wasn’t known to be truthful.”
Xiao side eyed Xingqiu, and the two passed on a secret message Chongyun couldn’t figure out.
“Hungry, my liege?” Xingqiu asked suddenly, directing the topic away. “Yanxiao has prepared you jewelry soup — cold, just the way you like it.”
Chongyun’s stomach growled.