The Curse Love

chapter 2

''I don't understand."

He hadn't realised that he had been speaking out loud until he heard his own thoughts echo in his ears like the reverberation of a gong. It was like he had been thrust into ice cold water. He had always been intensely frantic, almost too excessive. He had become used to a mind bursting with ideas, theories, hypothesises, but it was as though the ground had fallen out from under him. Like he had been ripped apart from the soul, again and left in a horrible haze of not here not there nowhere real.

He breathes and comes back to life.

"How, how can the curse not be lifted? It should have vanished when you touched me, it's a true love curse isn't it?!"

Lan Zhan reached out, maybe trying to soothe him, but he was already lost in a panic spiral. Thoughts ran and crashed against his skull, fear rising like the tide.

"Could this be something else? Another curse, or something different with a separate solution? I can-"

"Wei Ying."

Almost intuitively, like a reflex he quietened. It was like a built in reaction, to trust his husband when he spoke, holding quiet until he finished speaking. He looked up at his husband who looked horrifically calm. A flicker of hope burst forth. Maybe Lan Zhan was about to say that the final curse had a different deactivation protocol, or that it required extended contact.

"The curse will be removed when the cursed object is destroyed. If it gives you any trouble up until that point, we will handle the symptoms as they come, but it is too dangerous to destroy here."

His voice is like when he talks to civilian victims, and it feels wrong directed towards him. He wants Lan Zhan to stop. His husbands voice has never hurt like this before. He regrets falling quiet immediately.

"But, why is the curse still active. You've touched me, and it's still here." A note of visibly pained pleading entered his voice, but even the affected tone seemed to have no impression on Lan Zhan. He reaches out, wanting to hold his hand, but he looses control of his arm and settles for grasping at his sleeve like a child.

Lan Zhan gave out one of those imperceptible smiles, one that seemed completely unsuited for the current crisis. His own hand curled around Wei Ying's and he pressed a kiss to the curve of the thumb.

"Think about it. The curse will be deactivated by the contact of the one you love the most."

Incredibly unhelpful, and no new information. And, it still didn't explain why the curse hadn't been lifted. Wei Ying couldn't think of anyone he loved besides his husband. It wasn't a sliding scale, it was a pedestal for one. He vocalised the thought and Lan Zhan rested a hand on his forehead, as though forcing his mind to calm, like how you would sooth an overactive horse or donkey.

"Rest. We are packing for our return trip and will wake you when it is time to leave."

He left Wei Ying alone and childishly he reached out to his husbands back, as though quietly pleading him to stay. But Lan Zhan had swept out of the room, leaving only a palpable chill and the horrific realisation resting in his mind. He wondered if this was some sort of rejection. But, who rejected who? Wei Ying, for being such a failure as a husband that he apparently didn't love his husband? Or Lan Zhan, who might have written Wei Ying off.

That wasn't fair. Lan Zhan would never do that. Before he had ever been Wei Ying's partner he had loved him quietly, without expectation of reciprocation. He never would have said anything. Until Jin Guangyao smeared his secret like it was dirty paint, and the whole world had fallen into sharp relief.

Perhaps... But, it couldn't be. There was no way Lan Zhan could have expected this, right?

'I thought you knew I loved you. I thought we were past this.'