Guardian: Returns

17

Luo was lying in bed with his hands under his head, staring at the ceiling. It was already past midnight, but he was wide awake, listening to Feng's calm breathing. After the kid had joined him in bed, he simply bid him good night, lay on his back and fell asleep immediately.

Luo turned to the side, propped his head on his hand and admired the perfect features of his friend. How could anyone look so perfect? Luo sighed, returning his head to the pillow and closing his eyes. It would be amazing to fall asleep to this calming breathing every night. He fought the urge to move closer and embrace the sleeping teenager. No need to freak him out. Luo sighed again and slowly fell asleep.

Xin Bai appeared before the bed and reached out, and his dark energy slowly engulfed both sleeping boys. The silver-haired boy had been feeding Luo the dark energy for some time, hoping to trigger his past life memories. Judging by the dreams the kid was having, it was working. Now, looking at the sleeping teenagers, he decided to up the game, and influence his brother's dreams, too.

Luo grabbed the mask covering Feng's face. He laughed.

"Aia. It's rather delicate, but it's still a good piece of chiselled skin."

The Black General seized the mask and was about to put it back on when Kunlun's words stopped him.

"I mean, you're perfectly fine, so why do you insist on wearing that ugly thing?"

"Whan I kill my enemies, I feel fear. When I put on this mask, they can't see my expression. They think I'm not scared. And they can fear me instead." The Black Envoy grinned suddenly, and Luo's heart ached. How can a person so young say such horrific things? He forced himself to grin back.

"You cover your face," he said, waving an unwrapped lollipop vigorously. "What if your hand starts to shake?"

"Then my blade must be swift. Before the enemy notices..."

Luo Fei, who was looking intently at Black General's soft lips, inserted the lollipop he was holding into the opened mouth of his speaker and laughed.

"Swift!" he repeated, clearly satisfied. "Sweet?" he asked.

"What is it," The Envoy reflexively took the lollipop out and asked, clearly confused.

"Um... It's... Something you can eat." Kunlun nudged him. "You lick it," he added, showing how to do it.

The Black general smiled shily. "Thank you," he finally said, putting the lollipop back into his mouth.

They both woke up with a start and sat on the bed, breathing heavily. Luo blinked and looked at Feng.

"Holy crap. You have no idea what I dreamed about."

"The generals," the boy blinked back.

"Y... yeah. And you were there."

"I had the same dream," Jiang Feng suddenly blushed. "You gave me-"

"A lollipop," they both ended the sentence. The boys stared at each other. Finally, Luo Fei laughed awkwardly and scratched his head.

"This is what happens when you focus too much on the homework."

"You think it's just that?" Feng asked, his eyes wide in fear. He felt sudden nostalgia as if the person sitting right in front of him had been the missing piece of his life.

"Sure it is. What? Did you think it was our past lives? I admit it would have been awesome."

"N... No. It's just strange that we had the same dream."