Frozen Out Of Time.

Love and Fate

Three days later, they told Wangji to prepare himself; that the next evening would be his last day in the future. He had been grooming himself for many weeks, but the news shocked him anyway. He found himself drinking in the faces around him that had become so precious.

Wei Ying's happy, an incandescent smile that somehow always made the worst seem not too bad at all. His silver eyes shone with a constant delight in everything.

The calming beauty of his grown brother, perfect without artifice or falsehood, radiating devotion and peace.

Wen Ning's childlike innocence and all-consuming compassion.

Wen Qing's tough façade, whose heart ached with the intense pain she absorbed every time she came in response to someone's desperate pleas.

And his older self, Lan Zhan, strong, loyal, and unwavering in his resolve to live a righteous life of bravery and rescue.

How lucky was the fate that guided one small, broken boy to the people who could help him most? He was humbled and grateful. Each time that he heard the hours chime by, he had to look around at them all and stiffen his spine. If they could face separating from him for his own good, then it was the least he could do, to follow their lead and see this through to whatever end was waiting for him. He was Lan, after all, and determined to do his duty.

That final day, he began to smell the scent of sandalwood incense as burners were lit in every room, the purifying aroma settling deep in his bones. He helped place talismans around precisely as Wei Ying instructed him, his silver eyes sad and worried. Ying could not help stopping to give a reassuring hug now and then.

Wangji took the beautiful man's hand. "Thank you. Wei Ying. "

"Whatever for, Wangji?" 

"Stopping for me that night. I will be eternally sorry for giving you such a hard time."

"You think that was hard? Wait until you meet me when we are 15. You will be abominable at that time!"

"I cannot imagine..."

"Oh yeah. But I deserved it. I was a pesky little moth drawn to this aloof, arrogant flame..."

"TMI. Ying. I don't think I am old enough for any sort of details about that sort of stuff."

"What sort of stuff?"

"S.E.X."

"Deal."

Lan Zhan came into the room at that moment and look at them suspiciously. "What are you two up to?"

They both blushed and shouted, "Nothing, " at the same time.

Wei Ying looked at his soulmate with wide and innocent silver eyes. "Honestly, we were just discussing the night he and I met!"

"Mhn! Which one? There have been a thousand."

Wangji watched carefully as they smiled at one another. Too young to fully understand, he found himself wondering for the first time, what his future held regarding this funny, irrepressible, and handsome man. Obviously, a lot. Ying sauntered away as he blew Lan Zhan a kiss.

"He likes you a lot."

"Mhn."

"And you like him?"

"He is my everything"

"Will he be that to me?"

"Yes."

"I see. The love between soulmates seems strange to me."

"There are many kinds of soulmates. Past-life soulmates like us and Ying. Karmic soulmates who bring changes through negativity, such as an old enemy. Soul families, familial relationships like Lan XiChen and us. Teacher soulmates like Wen Qing and I. They may appear in one life, some or all."

"So, I must return so that, if I survive this, I may keep coming back to them all. I see. There really is no other choice, is there?"

There was a period of silence as he tried to make sense of what was to come this evening. Lan Zhan sat next to him and held him close. "I don't want to leave this all behind me."

"Then keep it in your heart and draw what you need from this time."

'How?' The boy thought. How? When I will lose it all as soon as I return to Cloud Recesses? When they will cease to exist in all my recollections?

Wangji began to sob. Lan Zhan wrapped him up as tight as he could as if trying to absorb all the misery the child was feeling. He rocked him as his mother had rocked him, soothing him and trying to ease his worries.

"Shhhh. It is alright. You will go back stronger than before. You will learn to outthink and outwit Uncle. And if you are betrayed and injured by him again, and you will be, you will survive it and rise in triumph each time. Staying true to your nature is always going to be the key, Wangji, and the rewards cannot be measured in return. You will find love beyond imagining. You will see and experience suffering but will conquer that as well. And you will be happy, in that lifetime and a thousand lifetimes more. That I know and that I swear to you. And when you think that love is gone, I promise it will always be there somewhere, because all of us will be loving you from a distance over many, many years."

He looked down and the child was staring at him with topaz eyes, calm again, and hanging on to every word.

"You must rest, Wangji. You need your strength tonight."

"Alright. But only an hour. Wake me in an hour. Time is running out in this lifetime for me. I don't want to waste a single minute more than I have to. And let me fall asleep here, with you, then you can take me out to the bed."

Lan Zhan could not have spoken at this point, not even if he had to. He held on, rocking until he was certain that Wangji was asleep, then walked out and laid him on the Murphy bed.

As he stood looking at him, Wei Ying walked up and hugged him tightly around the waist. "How is he?"

"Worried. Sorrowful. Pretending to be strong but cracking apart. This must work, Ying. This pressure is massive, and he is so young. He also acts as if he is holding something back but will not speak of it."

He heard Wei Ying give a snort of laughter. "Oh, kind of frustrating, isn't it?"

"Sarcasm noted. Am I really that way? "

"You have mellowed out considerably, my Love."

"How did you ever put up with me?"

"Just lucky, I guess. My Love, please lay down and nap on the couch. I will wake you both up in an hour, as promised."

"No. There is too much to do. Is the array ready?"

" Yes, and triple-checked by Wen Ning and Wen Qing. All in order."

"Good. I will purify and set up the bedroom as needed."

Ying sighed as Zhan walked away, back straight and with purpose in his stride. His heart ached. He knew him so well. Finding any way possible to control a situation, especially one so precarious, was his only way to deal with things. And if that meant being the one to prepare the room from the ground up, setting his stamp of perfection over it; doing everything possible to make sure it was Wangji's final place of safety in this lifetime, then that was going to be that.

And the silver-eyed beauty turned to the kitchen to begin a farewell dinner, his mind seeing only a lone child standing in white robes in the middle of a blizzard.