Chapter Text
Acrid black smoke billowed up from the Youchong's burning carcass. The kids, almost to the water's edge, stopped to stare at it, and then back at the fallen Envoy.
"Pool!" Zhao Yunlan hollered at them, like a reverse life guard ordering everyone into the water. "Now! I've got him!"
He dashed for the Envoy, panting for breath, stubbing his toe on every rock on the way. The Dixingren was still breathing but he was out cold, and even with adrenaline pumping his deadweight was unwieldy. Zhao Yunlan crouched, dragging him up—
Small hands helped, grasping the Envoy's dirty sleeve. Zhao Yunlan looked down to see Ah-Mei, her teeth gritted in a tiny grimace of determination. "He saved us," she said, "so we gotta save him—even if he's scary."
Zhao Yunlan in spite of everything grinned. "Yeah," he agreed, and with her help pulled the Envoy over his shoulders in a fireman's carry.
On the other side of the pool, the other Youchong—the queen, maybe?—skittered sideways and back—then lifted several mismatched legs and issued a squealing cry, like the scream of metal being twisted in a car wreck. Zhao Yunlan winced and Ah-Mei flinched, covering her ears.
"Sounds like the cavalry's coming," Zhao Yunlan muttered. It was only a matter of time anyway until the others returned; the Envoy's dark energy shadow would've gone out when he did. But they'd be booking it now, with the boss calling.
Zhao Yunlan heaved himself to his feet. With the Envoy draped over his shoulders, he might not have managed it on the gravel if Ah-Mei hadn't been there, a too-short but surprisingly resilient crutch. They lurched together to the edge of the pool—the other kids were gone, hopefully already through, and Zhao Yunlan stared down at the water. This close it was rippling, just slightly distorting their reflections. Even in the forest's foggy light, he couldn't see past the surface to what was underneath. It could've been an inch deep, or a mile.
He glimpsed motion, another reflection skating across the dark water—looked up and saw the first of the Youchong coming up over the crest of the mound before them, clacking its mandibles together.
Ah-Mei opened her own mouth to shriek. Zhao Yunlan gave her a shove and sent her into the water—she fell into it without a splash, just her body meeting its reflection and sinking into one another, until both had vanished into the smooth surface without another trace.
Zhao Yunlan took a breath—unnecessary, he hoped—and dove in himself, along with the Envoy. The surface of the pool rushed up to meet them, and then they were in it. There was a disorienting rush, like tumbling into churning waves, no idea which way was up—
—And they were through—he was standing in shadows, ankle-deep in icy-cold water and sinking, back curved over with the Envoy's limp weight.
"Zhao-ge!" high voices called, and Zhao Yunlan staggered toward them. The water tugged at his legs as he stepped out, drawing him back down into it, like sucking mud. It tripped him so that he stumbled to his knees on the rocky ground, just managed to slide the Envoy's unconscious body off his shoulders without dropping him too heavily.
His eyes were adjusting to the faint orangey light, so that he could see the kids, Ah-Liu and Lingling both, crouching by the pool. They were holding hands between them, with their other hands reaching down to touch the water, their fingers just brushing their reflections. Ah-Mei stood behind them; she had her hands on both of their shoulders, was telling them, "You can do it!"
"But where is it?" Lingling was saying, "there's nothing there to, to—"
"I—I don't know," Ah-Liu whimpered back, "that's just what it feels like—Ah-Mei, I'm trying, I can't—"
"—It's okay," Ah-Mei said. "Lingling, remember when those bullies came, and we hid in the fort in the playground? And there wasn't really a door, but I tossed those leaves up in the air, and you closed them? Like that—just pretend Ah-Liu's throwing the leaves for you—"
"Oh," Lingling said, in a different tone, "oh, okay, I—"
It wasn't quite a sound, or something Zhao Yunlan could see, or even feel—but it was not unlike the clatter of a door slamming shut, the whoosh of displaced air when an airlock seals. He knew it had worked, even before he reached his hand to the shimmering surface of the water, scooped up a wet handful that didn't try to transport him anywhere.
He grinned, but before he could say anything, Ah-Mei squeaked, "You did it! You did it, you guys are both so awesome!" and she tackled her friends, knocking them all sprawling.
Zhao Yunlan took the moment of celebration to scan their surroundings. They were in a cave, it looked like, or maybe a Youchong nest—hive? Burrow? The rocky ceiling was low, only a few meters above the pool, lit by the smolder of orange magma flowing sluggishly down one wall.
Given that they weren't burned to a crisp—in fact it was pretty chilly—Zhao Yunlan guessed this must be Dixing. But there weren't any Youchong that he could see, and only silence down any of the dark tunnels around them.
He prodded the Envoy's shoulder, and was relieved to get a groan in response. The Envoy's eyes fluttered open—he'd lost his glasses in their escape, and his unshielded eyes were huge and dark in the cavern's dull glow. "Zhao Yunlan?" he mumbled.
"Right here," Zhao Yunlan said, taking the Envoy's hand to pull him up sitting.
The Envoy blinked at him. His once-smooth hair was a tangle and somehow he'd gotten a smudge of dirt swiped across his nose, as perfectly centered as if a makeup artist had applied it. "Did—did they—"
"They did it," Zhao Yunlan said, smiling fit to hurt. The Envoy's hand was still clasped in his, so he squeezed it in reassurance. "It worked, we're back, and safe—in Dixing, I guess?"
The Envoy lifted his chin to look up at the ceiling. "Yes," he said, "this is Dixing." He started to grin back at Zhao Yunlan, bright and meaning it, and Zhao Yunlan couldn't take it anymore; he leaned over and pressed his lips to those smiling ones.
It registered what he had done—what he was doing—about three seconds later. Zhao Yunlan jerked back with a choked gasp, his hand falling from where it had somehow ended up cupping the Envoy's face. His other hand was still holding the Envoy's, their fingers entwined, so it took him another couple seconds to untangle them.
The kids all were watching them. Ah-Mei looked bored, Ah-Liu was wrinkling his nose and muttering, "Eww, mouth-cooties," and Lingling was starry-eyed with her hands clasped over her heart.
"Zhao Yunlan?" The Envoy was also staring at him, too shocked to move.
"I—I have no idea why I did that," Zhao Yunlan stammered. Sure, Da Qing might tease him about being a horndog, but the whole joke was that the damn cat knew how little action he actually got. And on the job—with the freaking Black-Cloaked Envoy of Dixing—while in Dixing—Zhao Yunlan wondered if he could blame the deleterious effects of the mirror dimension for how he'd apparently completely lost his fucking mind.
"It's..." The Envoy reached up as if to fix the glasses he was no longer wearing, briefly hiding his eyes behind his spread hand. "It's fine, Zhao Yunlan."
He pushed himself upright. Zhao Yunlan scrambled up to offer support, but the Envoy was steady on his feet now, as if he hadn't just regained consciousness. "So how do we get out of here?" Zhao Yunlan asked him. "Just pick a tunnel and start walking, or—"
But the Envoy shook his head. "That won't be necessary; I can take us to the gateway directly." He started over to the children.
"You sure you're up for it?" Zhao Yunlan asked, striding after him. "We could hang out here a bit, give you a breather to recharge..."
"We're in Dixing," the Envoy said. "Dark energy is all around, and as that's a medium for my own portals—" and he raised his hand, called into being one of those swirling vortexes of energy, and in one quick motion swept it over the children and then Zhao Yunlan and himself—
"—moving is a simple enough matter," the Envoy completed, looking just slightly smug.
The children exclaimed in excitement, jumping to their feet to join Zhao Yunlan in looking around. Rather than the Youchong nest, they were now standing on the corner of a quiet city street, lined with houses with lights glowing cozily in all the windows. In front of them was an imposing, overwrought dragon gate. That looked like the Dixing Zhao Yunlan was expecting, anyway; the houses with their cheerful illumination, less so.
He found himself wondering where the Envoy lived in Dixing—if he had one of these warmly lit homes. Did he just hang his cloak and mask on a hook on the door, stick his glaive in an umbrella stand and then put his feet up by a toasty lava-fed hearth? Somehow it wasn't as funny an image in Zhao Yunlan's head as it should be. He found himself hoping it was true. That the Black-Cloaked Envoy had somewhere he could go where he could just relax and be comfortable, when he wasn't off risking his life to save his people, plus the occasional hapless Haixingren.
"Hey," Zhao Yunlan said, and the Envoy immediately turned from the gate to focus that unique attention on him. "Uh, before we get back and have to deal with everything, I just wanted to say thanks," Zhao Yunlan said, and held out his hand.
The Envoy blinked down at it. "...You already thanked me?"
"Yeah, well, I can again," Zhao Yunlan said. "For everything, all of this—we'd never have gotten out of there without you. I'm glad we had you along."
The Envoy blinked again, brow furrowed; then he took Zhao Yunlan's hand, shook it. "I can't say I'm glad you were in danger, Zhao Yunlan," he said, "but as you were, I'm grateful that I could accompany you through it." His tone was solemn, but his lips were curving a little, and an unlikely spark of humor was dancing in his eyes. "We make a good team, I believe."
"Yeah," Zhao Yunlan agreed. "Yeah, our partnership is going to be...uh..." He should probably stop gazing into the Envoy's eyes sooner or later. "I'm looking forward to it."
The Envoy just smiled at him, then turned back to the gate—he had to tug his hand free of Zhao Yunlan's to do so, and Zhao Yunlan let go with an embarrassed start. He hid it by calling the children back over—the two Dixing kids were looking nervous, but Ah-Mei had her arm around both of their shoulders, going up on tip-toes to do so, while she reminded them that Zhao-ge had promised they wouldn't be stuck here, that they'd be seeing their families soon.
Meanwhile the Envoy was doing...something; his spread fingers and the set of his jaw implied effort, though Zhao Yunlan couldn't see anything different about the gate. But Ah-Liu and Lingling both made startled sounds, looking closely between the carved pillars.
"The gateway is open," the Envoy announced.
Ah-Mei said, "Great—let's go home!" She bounced forward, yanking her two friends with her, and all three of them vanished into the empty space between the gate.
Zhao Yunlan wondered how long it was going to take him to get used to that. He glanced at the Envoy, who nodded, and together they stepped forward—
—whirling, tilting—burning cold and brilliant darkness; black holes and starfire, and was this the vertigo of standing over an abyss, or the headiness of freefall—
—he had been here before, or he would be here later—he was standing, falling, staying, fleeing—in the very center of it, or spread all through it—boundless permeation, every drop of vacuum filled with an infinity of—
—"Zhao Yunlan"—
"—Zhao Yunlan?" A hand on his arm, strong and secure, steadying him as he hadn't needed since....
Zhao Yunlan rubbed his eyes, blinked back the dizziness of the travel. He thought his head might be aching again, but then it passed. He squinted, shaded his eyes anyway—they were standing in sunlight, painfully bright after Dixing's night, and the foggy forest before that.
The kids had their hands cupped around their eyes, looking around anxiously. "Is this..." Lingling started to ask.
"We're back in Haixing," the Black-Cloaked Envoy said, and the kids stared at him, then at each other—then started to shriek in delight, jumping up and down.
Zhao Yunlan appreciated their enthusiasm though winced at their pitch. He dug his phone out of his pocket and turned it on. As soon as it found a signal, he called Da Qing. "We're back," he said, then spoke around the cat's babbling, "—yes, we're all fine—we're at the Dixing gate—yeah, it's a long story. But we've got all three kids—not a scratch on them—okay, maybe a little light trauma, but don't tell their—yeah, sure. We'll meet you all back at the SID—okay."
He hung up, put the phone back in his pocket and pulled out his wallet instead, took out a few bills and told the kids, "There's a meat bun seller on the corner at the end of this footpath. Why don't you guys go buy as much as you want, and then we'll get you back to your folks?"
The children all screeched, louder than any of the Youchong had been; then they took off, pelting down the path. Ah-Mei only just remembered to grab the cash before dashing after her friends.
Zhao Yunlan grinned, then turned back to his companion. "So, Hei-laoge," he said, "will you be able to take us direct, or should we get a cab?"
He was watching closely, so he saw the flicker of those thick lashes at the address—so brief, and then that knitted brow smoothed out into calm courtesy. "With a little time to gather my strength, I'll be able to bring us to the SID. ...Besides, I'm not sure a taxi would stop for us now."
Zhao Yunlan looked between them, at two days' worth of wrinkles and stains on their disheveled clothes and the mud flaking off their faces. "You have a point. Okay, then let's go get some meat buns while we wait," he said, slinging a casual arm over those slightly stiff shoulders. "Unless the kids have eaten them all already..." He hoped not; his stomach was rumbling audibly with the thought of food.
Though hungry as he was, just being out in the sunlight was so pleasant he couldn't resist relaxing in it, slowing to enjoy its warmth, and the solid presence of the body next to him. Leaning on him a little—"Your leg okay?"
"It will be." A pause, and then, "Zhao Yunlan, now that we've safely returned, there's something you must know, about your injury, and your head—"
"—Yeah, thanks for that, too, by the way. Even if it didn't fix everything—getting out of there, it was definitely easier to do all of that without a concussion."
"You're welcome." It was said softly—genuine, of course, but tempered. "But you—"
"Wait, I'm not done." Zhao Yunlan exhaled, noisily driving the air through his teeth. "About our escape—what the hell was that plan of yours? Making yourself into bugfood?"
"I wasn't planning to be eaten." That, now, was sharper. "As I told you, I intended to return to the pool, once I knew all of you were safe."
"And just how were you intending to get back, unconscious, with your dark energy drained, and oh, your head bitten off by a giant bug monster?"
"They were only Youchong," and yeah, he'd hit a nerve. "It was one thing protecting the children and you, but on my own, even with my powers so limited, they wouldn't have been so great a challenge."
"What, so no decapitation? Just a little maiming—maybe a hand? An eye?"
"I would have made it back, eventually."
"You mean that?" Zhao Yunlan asked. "Getting back, that really was the idea?"
"It was." He meant it; Zhao Yunlan could hear it.
"...You know, for a legendary warrior, you totally suck at plans," Zhao Yunlan remarked. "What if you screwed up, huh? What the hell do you think I'd have done, when I got my memories back and remembered what happened—that I'd gone and let you get eaten by monsters? You were going to risk doing that to me, Shen Wei? Without even a goodbye kiss?"
"I was—" and then Shen Wei stopped, stumbling to a halt so suddenly that he nearly pulled Zhao Yunlan off his feet with his far greater strength. "Zhao Yunlan...Zhao Yunlan?"
"Yeah, that at least I didn't forget," Zhao Yunlan said, "or it could've gotten really confusing..."
Shen Wei grabbed Zhao Yunlan's face in both hands, scrutinized his eyes with desperate intensity. "You," he choked out, "are you—"
"Yeah," Zhao Yunlan said, "it's me." He smiled a little. "Guess going through the gate did a reset—it's all of me, now," and he dipped forward in Shen Wei's unresisting hands to close the last distance between their faces.
Shen Wei kissed him back, at first as tentative as he'd been in the Youchong cave, then giving into it—as Zhao Yunlan enthusiastically responded, he answered, surging, claiming. Wrapping his arms around Zhao Yunlan to yank him closer, like they were in their bedroom back home rather than in a public park in broad daylight.
Fortunately most Haixingren were still in the habit of avoiding this corner of the gardens, even if the gateway was now open knowledge rather than spooky rumor. Besides, Zhao Yunlan thought as they finally parted, it wasn't like anyone was going to recognize them anyway, between the mud and the rest. Forget the Envoy's mask; he'd bet Shen Wei's most devoted students would walk straight past him now without a second glance. The kinder ones would probably offer some cash.
Still, once separated, Shen Wei recalled their surroundings enough to take another step back. "The children," he said, "we should go make sure—"
"They survived a monster-infested mirror-dimension," Zhao Yunlan said. "They'll be okay eating meat buns in a park at noon." Besides, they were far enough down the path now to hear the kids, gleefully shouting their orders at the poor seller.
"You should eat too, Zhao Yunlan, and have more water—"
"I will," Zhao Yunlan said, "as long as you do, too."
"All right," Shen Wei said, with the patience of a partner who has figured out that mutual concession is the fastest route to obtaining agreement, and Zhao Yunlan grinned.
Then he snagged Shen Wei, pulled him closer again, off the open path and under the protective shade of a willow. Shen Wei didn't resist; he let Zhao Yunlan tip their foreheads together, his hand on the back of Shen Wei's neck.
"I'm sorry," Zhao Yunlan said quietly into the space between them.
Shen Wei was going a little cross-eyed, focusing on his face from so close, and Zhao Yunlan could practically feel his brow furrowing against his own. "What for?"
"For forgetting you. For putting you through that all over again—that's twice now that you've had to introduce yourself to me, when I should've known you. Known what you mean to me."
"It wasn't your fault—and besides, this wasn't—"
"Yeah, well, time travel, concussion—it wasn't easy for you, either way."
"No different for you," Shen Wei said, "when first I saw you, and walked away unknowing."
"You didn't even look back!" Zhao Yunlan said, but when Shen Wei would've tried to explain, Zhao Yunlan put his fingers over his lips. "Xiao-Wei, it's okay. Besides, you were trying to make it up to me right after, while I was a total dick to you. Both times now."
"Not at all!" Shen Wei fiercely protested, riled up as he never would be defending himself. "You had no reason to trust me, the first time or this one—and yet you still worked with me, still spoke to me honestly, still—"
"—still thought you were the hottest damn thing I'd ever laid eyes on," Zhao Yunlan said, which he was pretty sure was not what Shen Wei was going to say, but he didn't want it overlooked.
It stopped Shen Wei short, anyway. Zhao Yunlan could feel the heat rising in the back of Shen Wei's neck, under his palm. "Zhao Yunlan—you didn't—"
"The hero of Dixing, with the blade, and the glasses, and those trousers? The kids were probably the only thing that protected your virtue last night, if I'm going to be honest," Zhao Yunlan told him.
Shen Wei gaped at him, and that was just too tempting; Zhao Yunlan ducked in, stole another kiss from that lushly open mouth before he pushed them apart. "I've been on the clock over twenty-four hours; my shift's definitely up," he said. "Let's get back to SID and get these kids back to their folks. And then we can go home and have a real meal, and I can show you all the things I've got back in my memory now. Like, oh, that time with the feather duster and the—"
"Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei said, more than a little desperately, as if Zhao Yunlan couldn't see the color flooding his ears even through the dirt. "The children—"
"—are fine," Zhao Yunlan said. "And I'm fine, and you're fine—you saved all of us. Terrible plans notwithstanding."
"We," Shen Wei corrected. "We did it. Saved them, and yourself, and myself as well. With your complete memories or without them; now, or before—you are Haixing's hero, Zhao Yunlan, and I am—will always be—"
"I know," Zhao Yunlan said, and grinned. "I remember," and taking Shen Wei's hand, he pulled him back into the sunlight.