A Tear Frozen in Time

A Warmer Smile

And in a flash, Mo Yuans arms were about her shoulders and leading her back into the den.

"Visits are over.  Clear them out." he gave the order to Mi Gu who instantly began to the long and painful task of forcing out visitors that did not want to leave.

With her head down and her shoulders hunched beneath his arm, Mo Yuan led her straight to her chamber.  The den was empty save for Feng Jiu who was busy preparing more tea for their visitors, while her parents and Zhe Yan had already left for the marketplace for more produce for more produce for the soup they were also serving.

Not even bothering to tell Feng Jiu their visitors would not be staying, he guided Bai Qian straight into her chamber before raising a privacy barrier then forcing her towards her bed, he pulled back the covers and gently eased her down.

"I feel so foolish...." she finally said after lying down for sometime with her eyes lowered and unable to look at him.  Her outburst would only have increased the gossip and having yet to speak to Guotin herself, the last thing she wanted was for him to hear of whatever conclusions they had reached.

"Well, I did expect better from you." Mo Yuan replied with soft smile despite the sarcasm which made her wince as he sat down beside her.

When she had left, the world was under the impression that she was Guotins because of the marriage trial, and because he had closed down the Demon Lands immediately after her death, the world had assumed that he was too heart broken at his loss which only fueled the gossip.  And though the majority of the world deemed Guotin to be their enemy, that she had supposedly been in love with him, only made Mo Yuans position somewhat precarious, so in their eyes dangerous.  In fact, most had considered the match as a possible end to centuries of war between the Demons and the Celestials thus bringing everlasting peace to all of them.

  None who survived that war would forget the battle between Mo Yuan and Guotin either.  In their minds, Mo Yuan was the one usurping the Demon Overlords bride because she had been his disciple, and this was something she was going to have to deal with.

"I had left so many things unsaid.  I will need to visit with him so he can let go properly." she said without looking up.

"You do what you must do, all I ask is that you rest first.  What issues are still standing, you can deal with later.

"But I heard hes been in seclusion all this time.  If I don't go and see him, he won't leave.  I never gave him a proper farewell or even an explanation." she said softly before raising her eyes to look at him.  "The world thinks hes some kind of monster, a blood thirsty rogue who cares nothing for the safety of the world and was only using me to bring about the destruction of the world or at least their peace.  But that wasn't the man I knew Mo Yuan...... He just doesn't deserve all the hate." she said stubbornly only to once again lower her eyes at the way he was looking at her.

To Mo Yuans mind, t was clearly obvious that she had returned with her love for him still intact, only she had perhaps moved beyond the feelings of friendship with Guotin otherwise she wouldn't be looking at him so helplessly.  And suddenly his heart clenched.  To allow her to once again go to that man knowing she might actually be swayed yet again, had his fists clenching at his side and a vehement refusal on his lips ready to explode.

"I promise, I won't be gone for more than morning Mo Yuan, I need to do this." she whispered while her hand tightened around his own.

"Very well, but I'm not taking any chances this time.  I will give one morning, and I come in after you." he said after a short deliberation.

And so in silence, they merely stared at each other.  Her eyes felt heavy and her body so tired, that it would have been so easy to close them and sleep for a month, only those soft brown eyes of his that remained constantly warm and tender, kept them open and her mind fully on him or rather where they were going with their relationship now that she was back from a place that would also leave her feeling weak and fearful just thinking of it.

"Do you think that what what that man said held any truth?" she asked after a very long moment of just losing herself to the warmth of his presence and the loving gaze that never faltered.

"And what exactly did he say that held truth?" he merely smiled at her.

"That there is a deeper meaning to be found in our shared experience." she prodded him, because this was something she too had been wondering only her mind had yet to come up with a plausible answer.

"I think, that regardless of us having a shared history and having fought and won against that place alone, in the end it was each other that brought us back again." he whispered as his head lowered towards her.

His words were exactly what he himself needed to hear, because the anxiety of allowing her to return to the Demon Lands were still playing on his mind just moments before.  But when looked at in this way, he knew without a doubt, that this time, she really would come back to him.

"Your eyes were all I saw in that place.  They were the only light I had...." she whispered back at him as she finally allowed herself the time to dwell on that place having firmly put it to the back of her mind in order to get through the coming days of her ressurection.

In fact, she had wanted so much to just think about that place, the horrors of it, and the desperate struggle to return, when all she had was the memory of his soft eyes to guide her back.  And like him, she came close to giving up many times, like she had done so often as a child when things got too difficult and sleep seemed the easiest way out.  Yet through all the agony, his eyes had been with her the entire time, as hers had been with him.

How many tears have these eyes cried for him, she wondered as his face drew even closer.  The world had called her Ice Queen for seventy thousand years and the tears she had shed, before eventually refusing to give him anymore was where it had all begun.  And so for seventy thousand years her eyes remained dry as if her very tears really had frozen solid, yet at that very moment, as his beautiful eyes began to hood over then the warmth of her tears spilled down her face as his lips lightly brushed against her quivering ones.

It was the first kiss since her return, and though that too was warm, it came nowhere near to fierce fire that suddenly erupted.  He had wanted her to rest, and the overwhelming tiredness her body had felt, had almost forced her eyes closed.  Only that kiss, awakened the that same intense passion they had once shared in the valley of flowers.

Her arms rose to draw her closer, her lips lightly parted as they pressed in on his own, and whatever thoughts of sleeping she'd had, were all but abandoned when Mo Yuan quietly slipped in between the sheets and dragged her body towards him.

He knew that she was a woman who needed to cut ties cleanly, so at that moment, he accepted that a talk between her and Guotin was just as important as the talk she would also have to have with Ye Hua.  But as her tongue slipped into his mouth the moment her dress gave way, then those thoughts were pushed to the back of his mind, as the valley of flowers quickly took over.  It wasn't exactly where he had wanted to take her, in his mind, it should have been on Kunlun Mountain in that valley, but as his own robes gave way and her kiss became more heated, Mo Yuans eyes finally closed and his body took over.