Tortoise and Fox [BL]

4.11

"Amari—have courage to believe in me."

In the darkness, a dim, translucent gold orb pulsed, swirling as if liquid lived beneath its marble sheen. Arctic winds shuddered the dilapidated house he was in. Bullet shells littered the floor like fallen confetti. And then, the hands holding the orb. It wasn't Li. It was Ume. And the gun's muzzle, pressed against the Angel's glowing heart.

Li thrust his hand out, crying out to Ume to move, to resist, to do anything in order to struggle.

"Please, you're going to die! Please, please, I don't want you to die!"

The world fell to a standstill as, in a single moment, the crashing understanding of mortality. The mortality of Ume. How, if the orb was blown apart into shrapnel, Li would lose it all—his entire world would fall to its knees. Ume had to live. No matter what, Ume would live.

Li threw his weight onto Ume, causing him to stumble back. The gunshot shattered Li's eardrums with a deafening bang. White-hot fury of pain shot through his shoulder. Ume's desperate, pleading cries faintly followed.

Amari woke up with a start, his hand shot out in front of him. He let his hand fall to his side with a cushioned thud, before covering his eyes with the back of his arm.

"Was it the least I could ask for a restful nap after Jun left..."

After several deep breaths, Amari stepped out of bed. He combed his hair with careful strokes, watching the darkening sky. But like a wraith, the deathly memory hungover him. Amari tightened his grip on the comb. It snapped, material too brittle to handle the increased tension. A dull throb followed the line of his palm and blood dripped to the floor.

Amari stared blankly at his hand. He placed the comb down and pressed a cloth tight to his hand, before calling out to the waiting servant in the nearby hall. Except, when Amari opened the door, Leishan stood at it, hand raised to knock. A wave of flustered emotions flew back and forth in Leishan's gaze, before it found Amari's increasingly bloody hand.

"Let me find a servant to help you. Keep applying pressure on it."

The firm order left Amari nodding, unable to decline the offer to search himself. After another minute, Leishan returned with a servant holding a small box of bandages of herbs. The room was silent. Amari sat in the chair, waiting for the servant to finish treating the cut. Leishan stood to the side.

Leishan had a healthy pallor—if he were to get hurt, he'd bleed out too. In an instant, life can disappear from the world. Amari's throat tightened and his fingers curled in slightly, looking away through the windowed scenery. The idea of Leishan's lifeless body gripped his heart for a thickly intense moment, as if the image were a branded mark behind Amari's every blink. What he thought was an iron resolve became as brittle as the broken comb.

Amari chewed on his lip, only stopping before it began to swell and break. He thanked the servant, who stood up from an uncomfortable kneel. The servant nodded happily, and opened his mouth, about to question Amari regarding what happened. However, when he caught how Amari and Leishan glanced back and forth with the tense, offhanded stares, he closed his mouth. The servant wisely decided to bid farewell and dart away without any further pleasantries.

"You're finally looking at me."

"You put too much value in a simple glance," Amari scoffed. "Why haven't you left?"

Leishan lowered his head. He played with his own fingers, folding and unfolding his hands.

"Don't say it's because you hoped to invite me to the festival again."