Reborn To Live Without You (and other stories)

In This Life, It Wasn't Meant To Be (part one)

The room was white, a crisp, clean white with no unnecessary ornamentation distracting from its purity. In fact, the room was very sparse of furnishings at all. There was just a chair, a medical pod and two small air filtration units attached to the ceiling. These machines hummed faintly, barely audible, especially as the medical pod was pouring out its on cacophony of beeps as it measured the pulse, temperature and brain waves of its occupant.

The person inside of the medical pod was not old, in fact he was only a little over sixty years, but in this time where life expectancy was nearly a hundred and eighty years of age for a man, his time had most definitely been cut short and he was very aware of the fact. And very bitter. He turned his head to one side as his laboured breathing fogged slightly the glass casing covering his vision.

Beside him, there was a man. This man was also just over sixty, his hair still black and shiny and his skin still smooth. However, he was a little shallow of cheek and there were shadows beneath his eyes that spoken of restless nights and the dying man felt his bitterness expand for him as well as grievance for what might have been. A shame that the future he might have once briefly imagined for them will now never come to fruition and he could only wallow in self pity and blame.

"I see my wife still hasn't the time to visit," the two words describing his spouse was heavily doused in sarcasm, clear even despite the barrier between them.

"She said to tell you that it was a critical time for Xiao Lin," his companion said, his tone as comforting as always. "That she had to continue accompanying her so the girl could continue focusing on her studies without too much disruption."

"So I'm a disruption, am I?" The other growled, before coughing fitfully. A small hiss sounded as purified and slightly misty air was injected into the atmosphere within the medical pod and his cough eased a moment or two following. "And let me guess, my mother cannot come due to space disorientation sickness, my father naturally cannot breathe without her permission so he'll have to remain by her side and my dear, darling older brother is too busy playing house with his little wife while fucking mine."

His companion said nothing, what could he have said when both men knew the truth of it.

"What of Jing Yi?" The encapsulated man asked, longingly.

The other smiled, his curving of his lips like the sun rising above the horizon in the east, so warm and filled with hope. "Jing Yi is well," the man said, his soft voice filled with affection. He was not surprised that it was Jing Yi that Shao Fen asked after him rather than Xiao Lin or her brother Xiao Lei, both the latter born of his legal wife. His eyes caught the other man's, finding himself reflected in the lone black eye, while its misty white partner revealed nothing. "Would you like to see him, Fen?"

The man shook his head, coughing a little, but he soon gained control of his breathing before replying verbally; "No. He doesn't know me, it wouldn't be right to confuse him." His words dampened the other's expression, but they both understood that this was the consequence of their decision ten years ago following the miracle of the child's birth.

"Grandmother would not agree with you," the black-haired man sighed as he glanced away.

"No, I know she does not," he chuckled, as he recalled how the woman had recently stormed into the sterile hospital room like an avenger seeking justice, but with the poise of an Empress. He'd always been in awe of her, ever since he was an infant. In fact, he did not believe he would have lived to this day were it not for the ostentatious woman. He had always wondered how his own mother could have ever been birthed from her body.

His companion watched him for a long moment, feeling in his heart that he knew just what was going through the man's mind. They had been together for so long after all. Even if they had never shared a womb, never shared a father, they had been as close as brothers growing up, closer perhaps and despite the obstacles that should have ensured the fine line between them remained, they had eventually crossed it in sin.