From Earth to Heaven, From Heaven to Earth (TGCF HuLian)

Chapter 8 A Local Habitation

"Because your highness is my prince and my only god and I will always be your most devoted believer." There is still so much certainty in Wu Ming's voice as though what he's saying is obvious, nothing more than simple facts.

"But I'm not a god or even a prince anymore. I'm..." A calamity, a disgrace, an ill omen, a wandering beggar with nothing to my name but a cursed sword and a bamboo hat. "You know what I've become and what I almost did so why..."

Wu Ming's arms tighten around him and he gets the distinct impression that the ghost is trying to protect him, from the world, or maybe from himself?

"Your highness will always be your highness to me."

Those words draw a dry sob from Xie Lian's lips. It's not the first time Wu Ming has said that exact thing to him but back then Xie Lian spit the words back in the ghost's face just like he did with everything else back in those days.

"I'm sorry..." Xie Lian whispers the words into Wu Ming's robe. "I was so awful to you..."

"Your highness has nothing to apologize for."

"Yes I do." Xie Lian's voice is a little louder this time, filled with sudden fierce determination. "I do. I treated you terribly and I should apologize for it."

"Your highness never did anything that bothered me." The ghost replies stubbornly and Xie Lian almost has to laugh. Wu Ming has always been so incredibly stubborn, it's one of the things Xie Lian loves about him.

The thought slips through his mind easily, naturally, as if it's always been true, and it catches Xie Lian completely by surprise, turning him to ice and stone in Wu Ming's arms.

Loves? What is he thinking? Have his years of loneliness and days of tending Wu Ming alone in the cave and all of his musings on Wu Ming's beloved really effected him so much?

By all the gods all of this only started because Wu Ming has a beloved, one he's so devoted to that he's been willing to renounce the peace of death and bind himself to this world all for the sake of that beloved.

What is Xie Lian doing, clinging to him as though his devotion means more than that of any mortal to their god?

...But what mortal has ever gone so far for their god as Wu Ming has gone for him?

The thought only flusters and confuses him farther and in a desperate attempt to exert some control over his own mind Xie Lian hastily releases Wu Ming, stumbling backward away from the ghost's embrace, but in his rush and agitation he's not careful of his injured ankle and his foot comes down wrong and buckles beneath him. For a moment Xie Lian thinks that he will crash to the ground but then there's a hand grabbing his arm and another one wrapping around his waist, catching him, supporting him, holding him up.

The way Wu Ming always has.

"Your highness, what's wrong?" The worry is sharp in the ghost's voice and Xie Lian hastily tries to reassure him.

"Ah, it's nothing, it's nothing." He's just being foolish. He needs to stop. He's here to help Wu Ming. That's all. Nothing else.

"Your highness, forgive this servant for contradicting you," Wu Ming's voice is gentler now, but ah, there's that stubbornness again, "But it's /not/ nothing. You're hurt."

"It's only my ankle. Nothing to worry about." Xie Lian tries to wave the ghost's worry away, his cheeks burning with acute awareness of the feel of that arm around his waist.

"No, it's not. Your highness, how badly have you been hurt?"

"Ah..." Xie Lian pauses, collecting himself, glancing down at the many small injuries that cover his body, filling the back of his mind with a constant dull haze of pain. The blush fades from his cheeks as he really takes in his own sorry state, the torn bloody robes, all the bruises, some of them stinging with the beginnings of infection from how he neglected them in favor of caring for Wu Ming.

What has he been doing? Getting so flustered? What need does he, a ruin of a former god, have for being flustered? Dwelling on such impossible things as love is childish and he has left his childhood far behind, buried in the bloody soil of a Xianle battlefield.

"I'm alright, really." His own voice is quieter now, more certain, and yet even as he says it he sways a little on his feet, his body giving the lie to the words. Maybe it has reached the end of its endurance, or maybe it just recognizes that it's finally safe for him to collapse.

"Your highness, when was the last time you ate? When was the last time you slept?"

"I..." Now that Wu Ming asks, Xie Lian can't quite remember. It's been 3 days since they parted from the travelers. Has he eaten since then? Has he slept? He's been so afraid to let Wu Ming out of his sight, so afraid that he'll vanish again if Xie Lian so much as blinks...

"Your highness!" There's worry in Wu Ming's voice and the arm around Xie Lian's waist tightens and the god belatedly realizes that it's because Xie Lian's leaning more into Wu Ming now, barely managing to keep his feet.

"Don't worry." Xie Lian's voice sounds muzzy and unconvincing even to his own ears. "I'm just ...a bit tired."

He expects the ghost to call him on his obvious lie but he doesn't, he only nods. "Alright, then may I take your highness somewhere you can safely rest?"

There's an odd trepidation, maybe even fear in Wu Ming's voice as he asks the question, but Xie Lian's senses have already blurred out too much for him to take any notice.

"Alright." Xie Lian slumps weakly into Wu Ming's body and the last words to leave his lips before darkness claims him are, "I trust you."