Too Far Apart

18. Push and Pull

Lan Xichen knew he had to take a step back, he clearly knew it yet he kissed Wanyin on the cheek before he took to the air last week. He had hoped Wanyin would come on his usual day but he did not and nor could Lan Xichen go surrounded by the piling duties and letters only he could address.

Much to his surprise, Wanyin came, two days later than expected.

"This is unusual?" He spoke as the man sat down with his usual frown.

"Should I leave?" Lan Xichen was surprised and taken aback. Wanyin's usual remarks and threats were normal but he had never been at the receiving end of one of those.

"No. Please, stay." Lan Xichen called back with some loss of composure and it made Wanyin smile. 

"This is how I am Sect Leader Lan. Difficult to deal with. Do you think you will be able to handle it?" Lan Xichen looked up from his still ongoing paperwork and noted the challenging smirk on his face. Wanyin's sharp features made it even more daring and overconfident. Had Lan Xichen not known the vulnerability behind it, he would have mistaken it for a true challenge. He replied with a smile, accepting the challenge and the vulnerability.

"Wanyin only speaks like that to people he cares about. I am much obliged to be at the receiving end of his care."

The reaction it produced of utter redness on the other man made him look bashful and desirable that Lan Xichen felt his heart swoon and blood rise. Never in his lifetime had he had an experience so centred in the body rather than the mind or heart. He picked himself from the seat and walked over to the man and sat across him at the table. Wanyin's eyes widened a little.

"What?" Wanyin spoke through the set jaw but it did nothing to his redness. The question jolted Lan Xichen. What? What was he going to do? What could he do? Nothing. The answer was nothing. He could do nothing or say nothing. But he did, with a controlled check on his actions, he reached out and let the back of his hand glide through the sharp terrains of his cheeks, tracing the side of face, the redness, exposed to him. Wanyin seem to turn still under his hand, eyes fluttering to close before they were wide open and he moved away. In only a split moment, Wanyin had submitted to his touch and repelled from it.

What hold did this person before him have? Why did he have such a hold over Lan Xichen that his body had pulled him before his mind could think and his heart could beat? After another moment, they retired to their places and companionable silence, a silence that spoke too loud appeared.

------

Jiang Cheng questioned himself as he waited on the pier with some of his disciples for Lan Xichen and his disciples to arrive. Why was he subjecting himself to this torture of closeness, knowing that was just filling a place for another? The way Lan Huan had looked at him with a storm behind his eyes was much like the last time they kissed. It spoke of the emotions the man didn't speak of. It scared him. He had not missed Lan Xichen's patient advances and felt irritated for his determination.

He could see them in the sky, dressed for a hunt. No more wide sleeves and flowing robes. Or rather less flowing robes. In a close fit garb, the man only looked larger and yet as he landed with a smile on his face, there was nothing commanding about his presence but an inviting light.

One sight and he forgot all the reasoning he had been accumulating over their time apart. He gave a formal courtesy, "Sect Leader Lan."

Jiang Cheng could see the amusement in Lan Huan's eyes and wanted to snap away at it as the other returned the gesture, "Sect Leader Jiang."

"Sorry for troubling you with our stay but Sect Leader Nie has other guests to entertain at his conference despite his need to deal with the hunt." Jiang Cheng knew all about it. All the night hunts in the Nie realm where taken by Lans or Jins previously. Now that Jiang Cheng was looking over the Jin sect while his nephew was under training, Jiang sect too untook in the Unclean Realm.