Choices

25 - Confession

A/N: Should I name my muse Gungun? Because lately, she (or  is it a he? I don't really know anymore) is on a roll *eyeroll*

Corny puns aside, over the weekend my muse decided that she will not let me do much housework or homeschooling, and fed me one inspiration after the other. The result: unkempt house + kid running free + hubby binging on takeout + unfinished work assignments = one happy writer (which, I hope, translates to happy readers). :)

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It felt real, yet somehow she knew it was not. The scene was familiar, for it was in the viewing terrace of the stone palace in Bihai Cangling, back when Dijun took her there to recuperate from Miao Luo's seduction spell. While they did share many intimate moments here, she couldn't remember ever having this exchange.

The feeling was pleasant, though, so she let herself get lost in it.

"Forgive me, Xiaobai."

His voice was but a low murmur, as noiseless as the flapping of butterfly wings. But she was a fox, and so she heard, even if she was too dazed to give a proper reply. "Hmm?"

There was a chuckle, and gentle hands shifted her from where she lay, boneless and pliant, beneath messy sheets and discarded robes. A breeze blew through the stone terrace, cool and pleasant, and she snuggled deeper into the sheets, too tired to care about her state of dress, or the lack thereof.

Hair like silver silk glided on her bare skin as he pulled her snug against him, so that her head rested on his chest, right atop his heart. "We really need to work on your stamina."

She wanted to tell him that what he needed to work on was his insatiable appetite, but she was too worn out to speak, and so she simply opened one accusing, bleary eye and poked out her tongue at his direction.

Another chuckle, deep and true, so rarely ever heard from lips that only ever spews words as sharp as his sword. "Wake up and indulge me, and I will ask Liansong to give you a gift."

That had her eyes open. She sat up, unmindful of the way the sheets slipped to reveal one milky shoulder, and asked with suspicion, "What kind of gift is it? Why not give it yourself?"

Donghua lifted the sheets so that it covered her properly again. "I'd like to give it in person, if only I could. It's something I had made especially, to help you understand."

"Understand what?"

"Why I am asking for your forgiveness."

Poignant silence stretched between them, interrupted by the chirping of the luan birds that Donghua summoned to sing at Bihai Cangling during this time of day. "Dijun..."

"I have something to ask. Will you hear me out?" At her hesitant nod, he continued, "I have bequethed you and our son the full run of my domain in the demon realm, as well as Taichen Palace. Bihai Cangling, too, though you would have to wait until the spell that hides it is lifted, which will happen as soon as the three poisons have been thoroughly cleansed, and the starlight ward dissolves."

Her brows furrowed in confusion. Starlight ward? Three poisons? "I -- "

A finger was raised to her lips. "It is my wish that you raise our son to know his father. I know I have done many inexcusable things, and you have every right to hold a grudge, but I hope you will remember one thing." A gentle finger went up to ease the furrow between her brows, and a smile of pure affection lit up his handsome face. Donghua dropped his forehead into hers and murmured against her lips, so low that she had to strain to hear, "I love you. In my heart, no one else is more important than you*."