At first Wu Ming can't believe his own senses. Time seems to slow around him, flowing backward until he's not a savage ghost already a decade dead but a living child, small from hunger and neglect, clutched safe in the arms of the only person who has ever found him worth loving. There is no way that this can be real. It's a hallucination, an illusion, a trick or a trap or a wish or or...
How can his highness be here?
How can he have appeared to catch Wu Ming just as he did all those years ago?
How can he have saved him yet again?
There's just no way that this can be real.
...And yet...
And yet some deep central part of him is ringing like a struck gong and it knows, oh it knows. This is his prince, his Dianxia, his god. Wu Ming would know him anywhere.
And so, head spinning in utter shock and confusion, Wu Ming lets himself be carried, lets himself sink into that warm safe memory, and for just a moment he is at peace.
Then Xie Lian lands lightly back on the snowy ground, Wu Ming in his arms, and looks down at the ghost in his arms and Wu Ming is caught by those beautiful golden eyes, eyes which hold no fear and no hatred and no disgust, only, warmth and worry and Wu Ming feels his dead heart attempting to beat again at the sight.
"Wu Ming? What's happened? What went wrong?"
The world seems to tilt and spin at the question. His highness sounds so... So concerned about Wu Ming, so unsurprised by the ghost's presents in Mount Tonglu, as though they parted only hours before...
"I- What?"
"Why did you fall? Did something go wrong? Did someone push you?" Something protective flickers in Dianxia's eyes and Wu Ming feels the color rise in his cheeks. Dianxia is asking what happened to him. Dianxia is speaking as though the thought of someone pushing Wu Ming bother's him. Dianxia is...
... Dianxia is /here/.
That's when it really hits him. His highness is really here. This is all real. He's found him again, no, rather, Dianxia has found him, Dianxia remembers him and he's found him and he's talking to him and holding him in his arms and and...
"W-would your highness put this one down?" He stumbles over his words, somehow unable to get his tongue around them any more than he can get his mind around what's happening.
"Ah, of course. Sorry." Wu Ming isn't sure what shocks him more, the sudden pain in his god's eyes or the 'sorry'. It's all so wrong. His highness shouldn't be apologizing to him, not for anything, not ever!
Xie Lian lowers Wu Ming gently to the ground then makes to step back but before he can the ghost catches his god's hand in his own, bowing over it as he sinks to his knees before his god.
"Your highness, forgive me."
He knows he's being presumptuous, knows that he's underserving, but he can't manage to resist. Just as when he was a child who clung to Xie Lian's robes with all that he had, Wu Ming just can't manage to let him go. He expects a sharp reprimand, for that perfect hand to be jerked from his, perhaps even a blow. What he does not expect is the soft sound of his highness's breath catching in his throat. What he does not expect is the feeling of his god's hand shaking in his own. What he does not expect is...
"Wu Ming, what are you doing?" There's so much emotion in his highness's voice, destress, and worry, and what sounds terribly like hope, and it steals the thoughts from his mind like it might steal the breath from mortal lungs.
"Your highness?" Wu Ming says it weakly, not sure what else to say.
"I..." Xie Lian starts than falters. He tugs weakly at the hand Wu Ming still holds, still bowed over, a black figure, a wreath of savage malice kneeling before a god all in white. There is an echo here, a memory, but this time the ghost kneels not on a night stained battle field but in the endless blankness of the snow and this time there are no masks between them.
Xie Lian tugs again and this is more what Wu Ming is expecting. He lets go easily only for his god's hand to close around his own, refusing to let go. In shock Wu Ming's head snaps up, eye searching his god's face for any of the disgust he expects to find there but again he finds ...nothing.
"Get up? There's a cave, we can talk inside, if you.. if you want to talk. We don't have to. I can... I can leave if you want me to, only its got to be cold in the snow and I know you're a ghost but you're injury is still healing and you really don't need to do that, to kneel, anymore, so please..."
There are tears pooling in his god's beautiful eyes now and Wu Ming is so stunned that he can't do anything but let himself be pulled to his feet.
"Your highness..." Again his voice comes out weak and uncertain. He clears his throat and tries again. "Your highness, what's wrong? Has someone hurt you?"
His eye roams quickly over Xie Lian, searching for injuries, only to widen as he finds them, /lots/ of them. Xie Lian is covered in half healed cuts and bruises. His robes are ragged and torn and dirt stained. Worst of all one side of his chest is crusted with dried blood as though from a far more series wound, and even though he landed lightly after catching Wu Ming the way he stands seems slightly off balance, as though favoring an injured ankle or foot. Now that Wu Ming is looking for them he also sees the deep circles under his god's eyes and the pallor in his cheeks and he looks far too thin and...
And if it wouldn't mean leaving his god alone again Wu Ming would go charging right back up to heaven and break the faces of every richly clothed comfortably housed fully fed piece of heavenly trash who has the audacity to sit in comfort and plenty while his god suffers hunger and pain and want.
How dare they
How DARE they.
"What? Oh no, it's nothing. It's nothing" Xie Lian wipes hastily at his eyes.
But it's /not/ nothing and Wu Ming might be nothing more than a worthless ghost but he's better than that heavenly trash at least.
/He/ won't treat his god's pain like it's nothing.
He won't ignore it.
He won't let him face it alone.
"Your highness mentioned a cave?" He needs to get his highness somewhere safe and comfortable as quickly as he can. A random cave on the side of Mount Tonglu won't be much but it will be better than standing out in the snow.
"Ah, yes." Xie Lian turns quickly and, hand still holding Wu Ming's, begins leading the ghost in the direction of a dark gap in the nearby cliff that rises above them.
For the deration of the walk there is silence between them. Wu Ming has no idea what his god might be thinking but for his own part it's less that he's thinking and more that he's trying not to think, about the warm hand in his, about the sword callused palm, about those long clever fingers, about shaping and sculpting them ...about what else he's imagined them doing...
There's pink in his cheeks again. He knows it. He tries to will it away but it doesn't obey. This shouldn't even be a problem for him anymore. He's a ghost. His heart doesn't beat. Why should he be able to blush? ...Yet he bled when he ripped out his eye and that shouldn't have happened either. Maybe subconscious memories of what his body should be like are affecting his form somehow. He'll have to get control over that ...later, once he can think about more than that perfectly formed hand, the light brush of knuckles, the...
As they step into the mouth of the cave Wu Ming freezes, his attention pulled abruptly from his god's hand as he stares at the space in front of him. It's a small cave, nothing special, nothing like the vast network he's turned into a temple to his god, but its size isn't what catches his attention, no, that honor goes to the small fire in the center of the cave and the thin blanket laying just behind it and a bit of bloody bandaging on the ground next to it and...
'I've got you. You're safe now. I won't let anything hurt you.'
Words spoken by an illusion, warm arms around him, catching him, lifting him.... Snippets of memory, of gentle hands, bandaging his wounds, caressing his cheek, stroking his hair, of a gentle voice, comforting him and soothing his pain, of words only half remembered.
'Forgive me, your highness...'
'Shh, rest now, my Wu Ming. There's nothing to forgive."
Slowly Wu Ming turns to his god, his eye wide and staring, and when he speaks his voice is nothing more than a whispering rasp.
"It was real...?"
Xie Lian blinks at him, clearly startled by the question, and then his expression softens and he must guess what Wu Ming means because he nods.
"You were delirious. I'm not surprised you don't really remember."
Wu Ming feels the world shifting beneath him again, the mountain giving way, leaving him in free fall.
His highness's fingers on his cheek, in his hair, his highness nursing and caring for him, his highness, calling him... calling him.... 'My Wu Ming.'
The shock of the memory alone is enough to knock him back down onto his knees and if he bows his head partly to hide his blush, well, that's only for him to know.
"Wu Ming, what are you..."
"Your highness, this servant apologizes for requiring such care. This servant shouldn't have burdened you..."
"What? No. Please don't talk like that. You're not a burden and it's not your fault. It's mine. If I'd gotten to the front of the crowd sooner I could have helped you fight and you wouldn't' have had to hurt yourself like that..."
Get to the front of the crowed? What is he talking about? What?
Wu Ming raises his head and gazes wonderingly up at his god.
"Your highness, what are you /doing/ here?"
Xie Lian blinks down at him, beautiful eyes filled with equal parts sorrow, guilt, and worry.
"I came looking for you."
"W-what?" The question leaves Wu Ming's mouth in a shaking whisper but he's given little chance to process the impossibility of the words before his highness is tugging at his hand again.
"Now, Please get up. You really don't need to do that."
Numbly Wu Ming obeys. He can never disobey his god.
For a few moments Xie Lian just looks at him before trying to speak.
"Wu Ming I..." He trails away, shaking his head, a soft sob falling from his lips. Wu Ming starts at the sound, unsure what's bringing the tears to his god's eyes, but it has to stop, he has to make it stop, no matter what, he...
His thoughts come to a stuttering halt as, to his utter shock, Wu Ming feels that warm hand pulled from his only to have both of his god's arms wrap around him as he is pulled into an embrace.
"Dianxia what..." What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Why are you holding me? Why are you even touching me? You saw my face, when you cared for my wounds, don't I disgust you? Why would you come looking for me? Why would you even remember me? Why...
Slowly, carefully, as if acting on their own volition while his mind is distracted by chaos, Wu Ming's arms rise to wrap tentatively around Xie Lian.
For several long moments they just stand like that, arms around each other, and Wu Ming feels his god's warmth all around him and it's the most wonderful thing he's ever felt and part of him still thinks this is a dream because how can this be real? How can this possibly be real?
His gods words echo over and over again.
'I've got you' 'I won't let anything hurt you' 'My Wu Ming'
Wherever else he's been today Wu Ming is sure that /this/ right here is heaven.
At last it is Xie Lian who speaks first, voice soft and filled with worry.
"Wu Ming, what happened? Why did you fall from heaven?"
The question is so unexpected that it startles an honest answer out of him.
"But I didn't fall, your highness. I jumped."