HYBRID

🏒Enforcer ⛸️

Xian woke up with a start only to feel grim and sweat covering his body. The same feeling had sunk in from the night of his ordeal. Unable to bear the gross weight covering his body, he quickly dashed into the bathroom and began rubbing his skin raw with hot water. What was supposed to make him feel clean, now was causing him more harm. Under the heat of the painfully burning water his tears withered away.

Did it matter?

No.

For Xian, all he wanted was that night to be washed away. If only it was possible. His yell and pain was muffled in the jet and even the grim that was non-existent did nothing to make him feel chaste.

Had it not been for a pair of warm arms embracing him, trying to take in his pain, Xian would have turned prune and pale. His tear filled gaze sought the one with whom he had grown up and shared a lifetime of belongingness. JC. His brother. His confidante.

Never before had JC ever seen this side of Xian. Watching his brother, his other part of the soul wreaking, all he could do was pull Xian close to his heart and murmur whatever he could think of.

His brother who was the strongest, right now in his arms was just a husk of a man who once had all the love in his heart. Who in their right mind could so cruelly wretch away a soul so pure?

"JC..." Xian's hiccup was getting worse.

"I'm here." Kissing his hair, JC held his brother tightly.

"It's paining... JC..."

"I'm here." JC's own tears were veild by the slucing water.

"How could he... JC?" Xian shuddered in his arms. "It's paining..."

The arms around Xian tightened, "I am here. Do you want me to take you to the doctor?"

All Xian did was shake his head.

Closing the knob; JC pulled Xian out and dabbed him with a dry towel. Making their way out of the bathroom JC helped him into a warm set of clothes and tucked him into the blankets.

His brother was a mere robot at the moment. Moving mechanically with no thought nor any life in him. The porridge JC fed him, Xian consumed them without much resistance. Once he was sure Xian was asleep, JC knew he had to make a call.

"Hey!" The man at the other end was quick to respond. "Does he need me there? Tell me and I'll bring him back here. He needs to be here and not there. JC-"

Taking a deep breath JC had to rein in his own emotions, "He needs you, but not at this moment. There will come a time when you'll be the only one to console him; Wangji."

The other side was quiet and then enquired in mere whisper, "It's past midnight. He was having a nightmare, wasn't he?"

"You're aware of his nightmare?" JC was surprised.

"Yes. I am. One reason I made sure we slept in the same room for every night we were together. For some reason, when I am around, Wei Ying does not have any nightmares."

Wei Ying... A name JC knew meant so much for Lan Wangji.

"I cannot forgive them Wangji." JC let his tears free knowing Xian isn't around to witness them. He could neither show his emotions around Ki nor Xi. "What they did to him... what they are doing to him... I can't let it go. I need to make them feel the same anguish and torment."

The moment he uttered these words, there was an eeriness he could sense from the other end. "Wangji?"

"They will pay for their sins, JC." The words were cold and JC felt his own hairs stand.