No Rain, No Flowers: a Jun Wu x Xie Lian

Homecoming

Xie Lian thought it was just another day as he went through their little routine, finding himself straightening up the living room after playing all morning while Hong-er had his afternoon nap.

Bending over to pick up a toy laying on a rug, he suddenly felt nauseous when he stood back up, needing to sit down for a few minutes before everything stopped shaking.

Rubbing his honey eyes with his hands, Xie Lian took back up and continued cleaning up, not thinking about how weird that had been.

When his toddler woke up from his nap a short time later, the scrap god knew right away as he could hear Hong-er making his way down the hall, having gotten out of bed by himself in search of his mother.

"There you are, San Lang." The brunet greeted, picking him up and resting him on his hip, and continuing to clean up

The toddler seemed especially affectionate today, like he knew something Xie Lian did not, spending the day wanting to love on his mother rather than play.

That just made Xie Lian smile and kiss his head, "You are so snuggly today, baby. Is something wrong?"

Hong-er shook his head, looking at the brunet with his big dark eye, "No, mama."

Xie Lian just laughed slightly, settling back down on the couch after finishing the clean-up, "Are you sure? Are you feeling sick?"

The scrap god was not even sure if Hong-er could get sick as a ghost, but he was also still a toddler and children could get sick so easily.

Still, the little Ghost King insisted he was fine and just said that, "Mama hugs feel special today."

***

The rest of the day was no different then the way they typically were and the little family of three soon sat around the table to have dinner: zha jiang mian topped with shredded cucumbers, radishes, carrots, and bean sprouts.

Roughly three-quarters of the way through the meal, Jun Wu spoke for the first time in a while, "We will be returning to the other realm tomorrow."

Xie Lian's honey eyes widened somewhat at that, having not thought they would be going back for the foreseeable future, "So soon?"

"It is unfortunate, but I have been neglecting my duties for too long." The older man sighed, "Though, do not fret, I plan to for us to make visits back here every now and again to 'get away'."

The brunet nodded, that seemed fair enough, though he glanced to Hong-er and then back to Jun Wu, "How do we explain him?"

"A starving orphan we discovered while cultivating together." Jun Wu replied, "You fed him one night and he continued following us like a lost duckling. Eventually we grew attached and kept him. And if anyone discovers or suspects the truth, direct them to speak with me and I will handle it."

Xie Lian nodded, his eyes looking back to Hong-er, "Alright."

***

In the morning, they had a simple breakfast of 'egg in toast' with fried sausages and cleaned up all the dishes, putting everything away for when they returned next.

After that, Jun Wu opened a drawer that had been locked for the past few months and pulled out three folded bundles -Ruoye flying out of the drawer the second it opened and wrapping around Xie Lian's wrist.

The white silk nuzzled against Xie Lian's hand affectionately, before curling back into its dormant state to await his next use of it.

Xie Lian was given his usual white cultivator robes, which he quickly changed into, and then helped Hong-er change into ragged grey robes and frowned at the state of them -despite knowing they were needed to 'sell' the story.