Once A Tale (MXM, BXB)

The White Dragon: Bonus Short II

"Rather pitiful to leave him behind so frequently, isn't it?"

"It can't be helped," replied Quan despondently. The dragon hung his head slightly, staring dejectedly at the floor. The great hall of the spirit realm, where all of the wondrous dragon spirits gathered, had floors that shifted and changed by the moment. They were often interesting to watch, but they seemed colourless and vague to Quan at the moment, their patterns and shapes more an eyesore than an interest. "They keep calling me back, and I cannot exactly ignore them for Wu."

"Well," Cao Guanyu said thoughtfully, "You could try. I think it would be rather amusing."

Quan gave him a long look and the thunder dragon laughed heartily at his unimpressed stare.

"You may do it if you like, Master," Quan said, "but I don't wish to suffer the consequences. Imagine if they were to keep me from Wu entirely, forbade me from seeing him..."

Guanyu shook his head slightly in disbelief.

Wu would never believe him if he told him about this side of Quan. The two were truly helpless without each other and it was certainly a first, as far as dragons went. When what they presided over came to them, they would spread that thing far and wide. Whether it be through storms, as Guanyu dealt with, or through spreading inspiration to as many people as possible.

Which Quan would be doing, except... he truly didn't seem to be able to give it to more than Wu and was utterly lacking power without him.

"Ah, codependency," Guanyu remarked. "It's so sweet, in a way."

Quan pursed his lips in a sullen expression. "Wu is right. You do enjoy laughing at us too much."

Guanyu shrugged.

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Quan's departure for home couldn't come fast enough.

As he swam through the air in his great dragon form, white scales sparkling in the moonlight and starshine, he thought about the meeting of dragons. As usual, he'd been under scrutiny by the elders, the most powerful and the oldest of all of the spirits. He had no answer when they asked him why he wasn't spreading inspiration to all humans, what reason he could have.

Thankfully, Cao Guanyu piped up on his behalf, but still...

Even though he had found what he provided, presided over, still he was rather a useless dragon spirit.

If I had to part from Wu for weeks... months... even longer...

It didn't bear thinking about! He shook his head furiously. Though he liked to tease Wu gently whenever he returned about Wu missing him, he missed him doubly, triply so. He would never be able to be like the great dragon spirits, he decided as his body passed through clouds, the tip of his tail scattering them as he coasted downard. He would only be able to give all of his inspiration to one person, he knew that in his heart.

And, when the time should come... he would take Wu's spirit after it left his mortal body, bring him up to the spirit realm, and make him a dragon as well.

Perhaps then he could spread inspiration to all. The both of them could.

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Wu was very predictable in ways. He seemed to be convinced that he was very odd and nothing he said could be predicted but, the longer Quan spent with him, the more he noticed his habits, what things would set off a particular behaviour.

Every time, regardless of how often he was knocked down, he would await Quan's return on the balcony, his arms outstretched wide. He always wore a determined look, as though today was the day that he would finally catch Quan without falling. It was a charming expression: compressed lips, dark eyes narrowed under severe eyebrows, hair loose as he didn't like tying it up before bed.

Quan, secretly, thought it was funny that Wu did his best. He liked knocking him over, liked seeing Wu splayed out for that second, red-faced and sullen with his black hair framing his face. It was adorable, and he'd never had a person like Wu... never, ever. And he never would again.

But today, feeling quite charitable, Quan slowed his flight until his front legs could rest upon the balcony's railing and until he could curl his clawed fingers around them. He floated there for a long moment, bowing his head down to give Wu a whiskered kiss in his dragon form, nuzzling against him and gently shoving him with his weight as Wu huffed a startled, flustered laugh.

"Quan," he stammered, but his lips were twitching into a smile.

Quan trilled long and low in his throat, affectionately, and then took his human shape, bounding down from the railing and leaping straight into Wu's chest.

"What's wrong?" Wu asked. "Not going to knock me over today, are you, you devil of a dragon?"

Oh. He had realised Quan did it on purpose.

The dragon had the decency to blush and laugh, ducking his head down sheepishly before smacking a kiss into Wu's cheek. "Not today. I feel like being sweet to you, since I missed you so much."

Wu's cheeks reddened and he compressed his lips with a suspicious look. It wasn't very nice to be suspicious of his lover, but Quan admitted that sometimes... all right... so quite often, he played with Wu a bit more than he should. It couldn't be helped. Wu was so in love with him and he was so eager to go along with Quan while pretending that it had been a part of his plan all along. Therefore it was all too easy to string him along, to make Wu do exactly as he hoped he would.

"Really. I was thinking about a lot of things on the way back." Quan gently cupped his cheeks and Wu met his kiss with a sigh. "Like... well. I'll tell you later, Wu."

"That isn't fair," Wu retorted immediately, severely, as Quan knew he would. "You've just returned and you're keeping secrets from me? Surely it won't take but a minute to share your thoughts with me."

"Hehe, I thought I would kiss you some more first."

Wu stared crossly at a point over Quan's shoulder, visibly pretending he wasn't blushing deeply.

"I suppose," he capitulated eventually, grumbling as Quan sought out another eager kiss.

He would ask him about becoming a dragon. He would ask him if he thought less of Quan for not being able to provide anyone with inspiration but him. He would ask if Wu would give up his afterlife to spend eternity at his side.

However, at the moment he reassured himself by having Wu in his arms, refusing to consider the types of answers he dreaded... but knew that he would never hear.

Of course Wu would spend eternity with me.

Quan believed in him above all others.