Chapter Text
There were many things Hua Cheng had been prepared for when he found Xie Lian after centuries of searching. After all, he’d had plenty of time to plan and imagine such a thing, creating scenario after scenario of how it would go to fall asleep.
He’d been prepared to serve, as he always was, as Xie Lian deserved. He had a warm home full of clothes for him and artifacts of legends and the means to get most things his god would request of him. Money and power meant he finally could offer Xie Lian something more than just his own, useless self.
He’d been prepared to explain any questions Xie Lian asked about his motives for being there and wanting to help. Perhaps through a bit of playful evasion to leave them both the plausible deniability of an alliance without Xie Lian having to admit to knowing a ghost like him. Perhaps with open, unrestrained honesty that laid his heart and his ashes out for the taking.
He’d been prepared to find Xie Lian in a state that Hua Cheng would never forgive himself for allowing to happen through his neglecting to find him sooner. After all, he was aware Xie Lian seemed to be suffering immensely through the few bits of sightings and too late identifications of places he’d been. He remembered how Xie Lian had been the last time they’d met. He worried every day about what horror his unlucky god could be facing and what state he’d be in when they finally reunited.
He’d been prepared to rearrange his entire life really. Because this was the point of living at all. This was the heart of Hua Cheng’s purpose: Xie Lian and whatever he could need.
What he hadn’t really been prepared for was for his god to need to be resocialized.
How could he have expected his reunion with his god would happen in a field, his god bloodstained and laying flat on his back in the sun?
It was a terrifying sight, sending chills down Hua Cheng’s spine to find his god seemingly prone and bloodied. He hadn’t thought, hadn’t heistated, had just lunged forward to help and found Xie Lian blinking up at him, the blood on his robes clearly old, his skin seemingly unmarked although there was a large gash in his robes exposing his stomach.
“Are you alright?” Hua Cheng had ruined his entrance, but surely this much was fine? A normal thing to ask when Xie Lian looked like he did.
Xie Lian nodded, then seemed to realize something, knocked Hua Cheng onto his back and skittered away. He could’ve tried to dodge, but he didn’t. It wasn’t a terribly hard hit, clearly meant to just buy Xie Lian time for a retreat. If it made Xie Lian feel better to put space between them, Hua Cheng had no reason to fight it.
There was a power to the hit too, a latent elegance, but it was… off. More instinctual than Hua Cheng thought seemed right coming from his god.
“I’m not a threat,” he promised, keeping himself right where he’d landed. He could see Xie Lian fine through his butterflies, he hadn’t gone far. “I noticed your robes are ripped. May I fix them?”
If something was wrong that had Xie Lian acting on skittish instinct, forcing his will on the god wasn’t going to improve anything. Better to simply show he wasn’t anything to be on guard for.
As he’d hoped, Xie Lian came back over to him, pulling him up into a sitting position in apology, his expression conveyed as much clearly.
“Thank you. May I?” He reached out, but did not touch. Whatever was wrong, his god seemed on edge. Whatever had given him bloodstained robes ripped open like this had probably upset him quite a bit. Best to keep things under his god’s control. To let him be aware of sudden movements even if they were for his own gain.
Xie Lian allowed it, leaning back to better expose the rip.
Hua Cheng tugged the fabric together, letting his butterflies gather to mend it.
Xie Lian’s eyes followed the way they shimmered, seeming very interested in them. “Cute,” he managed, though something about his voice… it was raw, like he wasn’t used to speaking. Tones a bit off even.
What had happened to him to make him like this?
“You can touch them if you want.”
Xie Lian grabbed one with lightning speed, cupping it in his hands like a treasure.
And though he seemed off and was covered in bloodstains and clearly wasn’t all there, he looked so relaxed and content staring at that butterfly.
“Your robes are all fixed. I could wash out the bloodstains for you too if you’d like,” Hua Cheng offered as the butterflies that had been mending the robe came flying up to get Xie Lian’s attention too.
And his god laughed, looking incredibly satisfied to be holding a handful of little helpers feared by the heavens.
“Cute,” Xie Lian told each of the butterflies, like they all needed to hear it individually.
Hua Cheng felt the word run down his spine and collect in his stomach, warm and fluttery. To think his god liked his butterflies so much. To think they had finally reunited.
“Would you like to see more?” Hua Cheng asked, catching Xie Lian’s clear intrigue.
Lifting up his wrists, he let a few more butterflies emerge from his vambraces, watching the way they instantly sought out Xie Lian.
He could control where they went and what they did, but that’s not what this was. They truly just liked Xie Lian. How could they not? They were a part of Hua Cheng. Formed from his ghostly powers and therefore made of love and devotion for this man. Just the way Hua Cheng felt a pull towards him, of course they would too.
To finally meet their reason for existing, for that reason to call them cute and laugh over their attentions, of course they’d get a little excited. Fluttering, swarming, giddy like children meeting a storybook hero.
The joyful little encounter is interrupted by the sound of Xie Lian’s stomach calling out to be fed.
Hua Cheng nearly offered him food, only for Xie Lian to simply… move the butterflies and reach down to tear out a chunk of grass.
“Your highness, don’t eat that,” Hua Cheng gently but firmly forced Xie Lian’s grass filled hand away from his mouth, feeling his heart fall at the animalistic dismay in his god’s face at being refused food.
He must have been starving. Still, that wouldn’t do him any good.
“Here,” he offered an apple. “This will taste better.”
Xie Lian took a bite and instantly tried to swallow a chunk whole, coughing it back up and remembering to chew a few more times before swallowing again. Had he been just swallowing grass? For how long? How long had his god suffered?
“Good. You’re doing so good, your highness, how does it taste?”
Xie Lian stared at him, seeming to be trying very hard to process what he was saying. “Taste… good.”
“Is there somewhere your highness has been trying to go?”
Xie Lian’s face scrunched up as he munched on the apple, seeming to be trying very hard at something. It occurred to Hua Cheng a moment later, given what he’d seen, Xie Lian might not currently have the words for what he wanted to say.
“Did you want to stay here?”
Xie Lian shook his head at that, expression easing a bit to have a question he could answer as he practically choked down the apple core.
Wiping the stickiness of the juice from his face, Hua Cheng tried again. “If you came home with me I have more food. I could get your highness a bed.”
Xie Lian clicked his tongue a few times, seeming to be sorting out the way it felt moving in his mouth. “…Lian. Xie Lian.”
He was introducing himself. Had Hua Cheng not given away he recognized him by his title? Or was he too out of sorts to recognize what it meant to be called by his title?
“You can call me San Lang.” It was a stupid wish, but one that had appeared in several of his lonely night scenarios for meeting again.
“Cinnamon.” His tones really were all off. But since cinnamon probably wasn’t what he wanted to talk about, Hua Cheng quickly ran through a few similar sounding words and guessed.
“Ghost? Yes, I’m a ghost, your highness.”
Xie Lian shook his head, pointing to himself.
Fear flashing through him, Hua Cheng reached out to check Xie Lian’s meridians, but everything seemed to be working correctly. Whatever was wrong with him wasn’t spiritual or any sort of curse.
Relieved, he shook his head back. “You’re alive, gege.”
Xie Lian nodded.
“…Did you think I was only talking to you because I thought you were a ghost too?”
Xie Lian nodded again, seeming relieved he’d figured it out.
“No. I don’t care what you are, your highness, I just want to help you.”
“Xie.”
“Xie Lian?”
Xie Lian shook his head, taking both of Hua Cheng’s hands into his with a bit too much strength. “Xie.”
Oh. Just xie. Just thanks.
“Of course, your highness. Let’s get you cleaned up, hm?”
With a clatter of the dice and a shower of butterflies, they were teleported off.
Off where Xie Lian could heal.
Off where Hua Cheng could finally make the cruelties of the universe and his long absence up to his god.