Body in Flames; Home in Paradise (TGCF HuaLian)

Chapter 8

Silence fills the dance hall of Paradise Manor and in that silence Xie Lian has a chance to properly take in all the damage that has been done to the once beautiful room. The walls are blackened by soot and ash and cracked and pitted with holes from Lang Qianqiu's attack. The floor is covered in bits of fallen rubble. The whole place looks nothing like the opulent hall Xie Lian entered at the beginning of the night. Has this all truly been just one night?

Perhaps if he were alone right now Xie Lian would feel exhausted and unable to face the world ...But he's not alone is He?

Xie Lian looks up at the man standing beside him, his arm still tight around Xie Lian's waist in a way that makes the god flush slightly but doesn't make him want to pull away.

"San Lang..."

"Are you all right, Gege?"

Hua Cheng smiles softly down at him and Xie Lian feels his heart melting at the sight. He's real... He's really... He's real. Xie Lian still can't quite wrap his mind around that, not so suddenly and after all this time, there's so much he wants to say and do and...

"San Lang, can we go somewhere and just talk for a bit?"

Hua Cheng inclines his head. "Of course."

He unwraps his arm from around Xie Lian's waist and even if the ghost's touch could never be anything other than cool Xie Lian still feels cold at the loss. He looks up and finds there's a slight tension in Hua Cheng's shoulders now. It's such a minor thing that he doubts most people would notice it, but he is not most people.

"This way, Gege." Hua Cheng gestures back down the hall they came from when they heard Lang Qianqiu's intrusion. "Most of the rooms here will need to be cleaned up before they are fit for your highness again so I hope you won't mind if we talk in your guestroom?"

Xie Lian nods and follows Hua Cheng. As they walk his hands ich to reach for the ghost. He's missed him so much for so long, mourned him so much for so long, and now having him back again... Ever since he made the discovery they seem to have been touching at every moment, hand around his waist, his arms around Hua Chang's neck, his hand caught in the ghost king's. Now the loss of that contact makes him ache in some way he can't quite describe. He desperately wants to reach out and grab the ghost's hand but part of him worries that that might be too much or too strange or too forward.

Wu Ming should hate him.

The thought makes his heart ache in his chest and yet... And yet somehow, miraculously, it isn't true, as impossible as it is for Xie Lian to believe, it simply isn't true.

'I believed in your highness because it is what you deserved. I believe in your highness because you are the only god worthy of the title. I will forever be your most devoted believer.'

Those words, those beautiful impossible words, float through Xie Lian's mind again echoing over and over inside of him.

How can San Lang still have so much faith in him? How can he still believe in him, still care for him, still want to be by his side? No matter how deeply Xie Lian thinks about it, it simply makes no sense.

Hua Cheng pushes open the door of the guestroom and holds it for Xie Lian to enter. Not sure what else to do Xie Lian crosses the room and seats himself back on the edge of the bed. Hua Cheng follows but stops in front of him rather than sitting down. The tension is still in his shoulders and his eye flicks toward Xie Lian then to the bed and then away again. It's as though, despite the way he had his hands on Xie Lian only moments before, he's now concerned about getting too close.

Xie Lian pats the mattress beside himself. "San Lang, will you sit?"

"En." Hua Cheng nods and does so, settling himself next to Xie Lian. Xie Lian notices that Hua Cheng makes sure to sit far enough away that there is space between them and his heart aches for the sudden distance. A moment ago they seemed so close and now...