See you again (A Tian Guan Ci Fu One-shot)

See You Again

Rain battered down upon Mount Tong'Lu, a thunderstorm the parched land hadn't experienced in millennia.

The once-imposing peak looked as desolate as the kingdom it towered over, unlike when it was bubbling with resentful spirits. The final battle between two fates had left the broken mountain as a souvenir. In the torrent, one figure sat, one figure laid, still enough to seem like just another extension of the rock bed.

It seemed to rain especially hard upon the figure lying down. His long black hair, once a gentle and luxurious curtain that rippled down the shape of his broad back, stuck to his skin in clumps, in spite of the bamboo hat shielding his face.

Fang Xin was pierced through his chest, nearly pinning him to the rock - An ironic mockery of his own cruelty.

His regal white robes, once reminiscent of lotuses, were just torn bits of cloth plastered to his body, dyed a sickening dark colour by the blood and dirt. A fitting contrast to his ghastly pallor.

He who once ruled the heavens, commanding respect and fear, was now nothing more than a broken, forsaken prince of a broken, forsaken kingdom - feared by none, mocked by all.

All but one.

Mei Nianqing sat by his side in silence, a complicated cycle of emotions playing across his face. His willowy build wasn't suited to bear the brunt of nature's fury, a bone-deep chill seeping in through the shabby fabric of his robes. But there was a stubbornness in his grave countenance that no force of nature could shake. Thick raindrops traced along the crease of his frown, often dripping into his eyes, but he never looked away.

No one would know how long they'd sat before Jun Wu stirred. The storm had begun to ebb by then.

A soft, pained sigh escaped his lips, eyelids opening to reveal a pair of obsidian irises, their unfathomable depth flatlined to a sorry dullness.

The first thing he saw was Nianqing kneeling beside him, eyes widening in surprise.

"Why are you here?" He rasped.

"I chose to stay." Nianqing replied.

"You should've left. You shouldn't be here." Jun Wu persisted.

That was reality. No one chose him. No one stayed with him. He had long since accepted that as fact.

"I chose to stay." The repetition was made with cold finality.

They lapsed into heavy static, none willing to speak again. For a while, the only sounds that could be heard was the horrific screaming of the souls in the lava pool below. A haunting cry of thousands dug through flesh into the very soul.

Come. Come burn with us. Burn your worries into ash and bone. Burn away your wants and desires, They seemed to say.

Jun Wu's eyes flitted to the cliff that led into the pit, a distant expression appearing on his face.

Nianqing followed his line of sight and a similar look flashed across his face for a moment, before he composed himself.

"Your Highness. Don't pay any mind to them." He said lightly, urging him to look away.

The man refused to listen, straining towards the edge. Fang Xin prevented him from moving, so he tried pulling it out, unsuccessfully as bigger spasms of pain shot through his body. He gasped as he fell back, the jostling only digging the blade deeper.

"Your Highness!" Nianqing immediately transferred as much spiritual energy as he could, circulating it through meridians that were barely holding on in the absence of the once boundless ocean of spiritual energy. A fresh spurt of blood blossomed through the murky mess of Jun Wu's robes.