Burning Bridges | | Jing Yuan X Reader | |

In Your Embrace

"General! What happened?" Yanqing rushed, hair still disheveled and untamed as he ran up the stairs of the imperial prisons. Sun had barely broken over the lines of the palace walls, still rigid with the air of night in its midst.

"Calm down Yanqing." He commanded. 

"You stabbed Y/N!?" Yanqing cried, practically pulling out his hair at the messy entanglement that you'd gotten into. 

"Enough!" 

The boy froze, holding his tongue as it dared to spill out of his mouth. 

"I will go check on them." Jing Yuan sighed, secretly wishing to see your face more than ever. The regret from his poor judgement began to weigh upon him. To apologize to you would only be the beginning of his endless repentance. "There is nothing I can do to fix this, is there?" 

"It's important to try, General." 

Nodding, Jing Yuan took a heavy breath. Walking through the icy walls of the prison, he didn't feel it. Now worried that you might be cold, he quickened his pace past the countless cells. Readying his cape to wrap it around you, even if you refused, he couldn't stand the thought of you freezing alone. 

"Why is it so dark?" The General cursed, squinting in the absence of light. 

"Uh, here." Swiping a torch against the ground it refused to ignite. "I suppose we'll have to navigate it by ear." Yanqing sighed. 

Frowning at the absolute depravity of light he had subjected you to, his heart began to thump loudly. It was too quiet. He had never known you to be one to wait in the bitterness without making a snide remark or two. 

Jing Yuan missed those moments of endearment from you. Laughing at the smallest things with a vibrancy that could melt the freezing depths of his heart. Within your eyes you held the sun, his entirety and his endless love. 

Running through the halls, he threw open the cell door. Seeing you sitting up against the bars, he dropped all his defenses. 

"Y/N please, I know you're upset. I just want to talk." Ripping off his cloak and his cape, he shoved it through the bars. "Put this on, please." Expecting you to at the very least scream at him, when you said nothing, he became scared. 

"Y/N? I'm so- sorry. I know I can't apologize enough...I've betrayed you- hurt you! I just need to see your face again." He begged, looping his arm through the bars around your shoulders. Wanting nothing more than to feel your warmth, when you slumped against his arm, he thought it was originally because you had forgiven him. 

The relieved smile dropped into a lucid terror as he felt your ice-cold skin. "Y/N!" Throwing open the cell doors, he grasped at your fallen form. Screaming in horror as you could not respond, he brought his hand to your frozen cheek. 

"Yanqing get the doctor, NOW!" He cried, picking you up in his shaking arms. Never until this moment had he felt such a vivid fear. Tearing at his heart and killing him from within, he rushed you outside. 

Clenching his teeth, the General could not think straight. Running straight off the stairs and tripping, he held your face tightly to his chest. Wrapping his arms around your limp body as he tumbled violently. 

The blood that poured down from the cracks on his skull were nowhere near as painful as the lack of a heartbeat in your chest. "Y/N!?!" 

Screaming and hollering like an abandoned dog, he would not let the doctors near you without him. They desperately tried to pry you away from him. "Get away!" 

"General please! They need to examine Y/N!" Yanqing held him back by his arms as he violently fought back. Too distraught to properly fight, the doctors finally managed to tend to you. Lifting you and hurrying you to the clinic, where they began to work on you. Pumping out the poison from your stomach.