A Trial by Halves

Shame

Walking in behind her, Mo Yuans footsteps faltered.  The thought of what she had done had brought his anger back to the fore and as far as he was concerned, he had every right to be.  But for a few moments, he watched on as one hand gently ran his brothers hair through her fingertips while the other tried to sneak in behind his head to hold him closer.  And for a while longer he felt as if he were intruding on an intimate moment, only the much smaller hand of their son that was lightly rubbing her arm, had him moving closer to put an end to it.  They needed to talk and he was not going to wait.  

He might have fed Ye Hua his energy while in Lotus Form but it came nowhere near to the battle Ye Hua had fought to save him from the Chaos.  Not when he himself would have also been injured.  And nor was this a matter of who owed who.  For everyone else, the matter may have seemed quite complicated, but not for Mo Yuan.  Ye Hua was his responsibility until the day he died.  That was the oath he had made back then when he had taken the Lotus from his father.  Whatever trials he faced, he would always be there to ensure he overcame them.

And one of the main reasons that once again had his anger rising again, was the pain of having to watch him die in the first place which had unsettled him so much because he had not been there to help him.  Not long before he had scattered himself, he had promised Ye Hua that he would return and he would be there for him.  To then come back and have to watch him die before his own eyes and be utterly useless to prevent it had him vowing all over again that he would bring him back.  And if that meant giving up twenty thousand years in order to cultivate for the fungal grass, then that was what he was going to do.

But to see her there crying over his body as if she alone was in pain for him angered him beyond reason.  Yes her trial was horrendous and yes Ye Hua had done all he could for her and she may have also been his wife, but she was also Er Lis mother.  

And this was the underlying reason for his anger.  To have lived his entire life without his own mother, he understood how devastating it would have been for the child had he lost her.  Not to mention his brother, who could have returned to a dead wife and everything he had undergone to keep her safe while also sacrificing himself for a trial that wasn't even his, would have been for nothing.

Now closing the gap, he slowly lowered himself to her side and gently placed his hand on her shoulder.  Her face was tear streaked and the hair that wasn't beneath the bandage that was wrapped around her head, was matted with dried blood having yet to be washed.  This was not a sight that Ye Hua would want to wake up to, and no sooner did he feel her flinch, then he was just as gently forcing her up.

"Seventeen..." his soft voice whispered down at her.

"Shifu....." she whispered back as her head turned to look up at him.  A smile began to form, only to be quickly turned upside down at the look in his eyes.

She had spent twenty thousand years under him so knew every single one of his looks, and though his voice was soft and his manner gentle, those normally soft brown eyes were swirling, so she didn't need to be told that she was in big trouble.

With her hand still tangled in Ye Huas hair it took a few seconds for her to realize that Mo Yuan was trying to get her to stand up.  For several moments her mind had gone back to the aftermath of that war and the sight that met her when her husband came into view.  Large clumps of hair had been burned away from his head which had left uneven patches around his face, only it seemed as if the Sea of Innocence had given him back everything he had lost.  His hair was back to how it was, his face unblemished and his bare chest free from scars.  To her eyes, he looked exactly how he had always looked to her.  Perfect and beautiful.

But those swirling eyes above her soon had her rising to her feet and bringing Er Li up with her having felt his uncles anger the moment he returned with tea and refreshments which he had laid on the side table before forcing his mother up.