Work Text:
It haunted Feng Xin the next day. Flashes of the night before riddled his mind, setting fire to the places they'd touched. He tried to relax unsuccessfully.
Mu Qing. Mu Qing. It's always him. He left. Feng Xin didn't know where, or why.
He had woken up on the forest floor alone, with no sign of Mu Qing. He searched the surrounding areas and found no trace of him anywhere.
Did he regret the night before? Was it possible he didn't feel the same as Feng Xin, and so he decided to leave before he woke up?
This made Feng Xin's heart twist in his chest. He put down the scroll he wasn't reading and took a deep breath as he closed his eyes.
No. Mu Qing wasn't someone who would do a one-night stand, especially with his cultivation path. There was no way, after the sweet whispered confessions during sex, that he wouldn't care for Feng Xin.
So where had he gone?
That question was answered pretty fast when Feng Xin went to a meeting and found him standing on the other side of the room, twiddling with the hem of his sleeve.
Feng Xin’s heart skipped a beat. He hoped that Mu Qing would feel his stare, but if he did, he chose to ignore it.
When the meeting was done, Feng Xin shoved through heavenly officials straight toward him. Mu Qing caught his stare suddenly. His eyes wide, his face turned a deep scarlet before he turned to leave.
By the time Feng Xin reached where he had stood, he was gone.
At Mu Qing’s palace, Feng Xin found himself in a similar situation as he used to; banging on his door until he got a response.
*What do you need?* Mu Qing asked through the communication array.
*Why are you avoiding me?* Feng Xin tried to keep the irritation out of his voice.
There was a long pause.
*I can’t see you right now.*
*Can you at least talk to me? Especially after we -*
*I can! Just…not right now. I’m taking care of some things.*
Feng Xin huffed. *So you can’t even talk and work at the same time?*
*How on earth am I supposed to do that?*
*Mu Qing, it’s really important that we talk. I know you said it was fine, but your cultiv- *
*IT’S FINE.*
He cut the connection. Feng Xin found himself standing dumbly outside his palace doors, unsure of what to do.
The next time he saw Mu Qing was once again at a meeting. This time he stealthily snuck over, coming up behind him.
Suddenly Mu Qing collapsed.
Feng Xin caught him, but Mu Qing shoved him away, breathing heavily, landing squarely on his back on the floor. Other heavenly officials assumed it was a fight between them - as usual- and stepped aside. Only Pei Ming appeared before them, scooping Mu Qing into his arms. At this point, Mu Qing’s head was bobbing lifelessly.
“It’s best if you stay away for a bit, General Nan Yang.”
With that, Pei Ming strode out of the hall with an unconscious Mu Qing in his arms.
Later, Feng Xin stood pacing outside of Pei Ming’s palace, biting his cheek until he felt iron in his mouth.
Pei Ming stepped outside.
“Where the fuck is Mu Qing? Why did you carry him away from me -”
Pei Ming put a heavy hand on his shoulder, looking rather regretful. “He can’t see you right now.”
“WHY? That’s what he said! No one is giving me answers! He’s obviously sick, why can’t I fucking see him?!”
Pei Ming sighed when Feng Xin shrugged off his hand.
“He asked me not to tell you. Just that he’d be fine.”
“That’s not a fucking answer.” Feng Xin was furious, two seconds from punching Pei Ming’s face.
“You should go. There’s no use pacing around when he doesn’t want to see you.”
“Doesn’t want to see?”
Pei Ming paled. Then he sighed. “Leave, Feng Xin.”
With that, he closed the door in his face.
Feng Xin’s palace was quite abused that evening. This was before he had gone out to his personal training grounds to work out his frustration on the unsuspecting dummies.
Eventually, he found himself on all fours on the ground, panting. He was furious. There was sweat dripping from his face, wetting the ground below him. A little more than usual, he noted. When he sat up he wiped it off his face, eyes burning.
In his bath a bit later, he found his mind drifting toward that night. The way Mu Qing tasted, the clumsy, enthusiastic kisses. The way he wiggled as Feng Xin had touched him. And most of all, the mumbled confessions. How Mu Qing said his name, unable to finish the word “love” while he was moaning through each thrust.
It wasn’t the first time Feng Xin had imagined that night, his hand around himself. Then the image of waking up alone. The image of Mu Qing crumbling in his grasp. That made the moment pass, and Feng Xin was left with nothing but sadness.
The next day he tried Pei Ming’s palace again.
*He’s not here.*
*Then where the fuck is he?*
There was no reply.
He had no answer from Mu Qing’s palace. His attendants said he wasn’t there.
Ling Wen confirmed his suspicion that he was on a mission. Feng Xin stalked out of her palace, landing in the mortal realm where she had said he vaguely was. How could he be on a mission when he was sick?
He disguised himself as Nan Feng and rushed toward the village. He was able to gather that there was a ghost up in the mountains kidnapping children. Feng Xin made his way up the mountain.
He heard grunting and yelling.
He turned the corner, watching as Mu Qing glided around the ghost. She was taller than him, which meant she was huge, with a sword. They fought for a bit, Mu Qing obviously more powerful. He could end the fight at any moment, why was he stalling?
“Where are the children?!” He yelled.
The ghost laughed in a high pitched tone that hurt Feng Xin’s ears.
“They’re dead. Do you want to see it? It’d be easy enough for me to vomit -”
Mu Qing’s expression grew dark, his fists shaking.
He charged forward and of course, she dissipated in one hit.
Mu Qing stood breathing heavily, not moving as he sheathed his saber. He stared at where the ghost had been. After a few moments, he bent down and gathered up the leaves and dirt where she had fallen. He pulled out a bag and placed the dirt inside.
“Mu Qing!”
Mu Qing stiffened and turned to look at Feng Xin. His eyes widened.
“Leave!”
Feng Xin stopped in his tracks.
Mu Qing was backing up, eyes wide as he clutched the bag to his chest.
“P-please just leave.”
“Why? Why are you avoiding me?” Feng Xin started walking closer as Mu Qing backed away.
“I - I can tell you later. I promise. I promise. Let me do this first.” He gripped the bag. Feng Xin had never seen him plead before, and he stopped.
“Do what first?”
Mu Qing moved back a little more. “The children. They deserve a proper burial.”
“I can help.” Feng Xin offered, reaching out a hand. “Mu Qing…do you not - did you not mean what you said?”
Mu Qing blushed a little, looking down. “I meant everything. I just need to figure some things out before we can -”
“Why won’t you tell me what those things are?”
Mu Qing tensed even more.
“I can’t.”
Feng Xin dropped his hand. His chest was tight with hurt. “Fine.” He turned to leave. A small part of him hoped Mu Qing would call out to him. But he didn’t.
A week passed before Feng Xin saw Mu Qing again. He tried not to stare. He didn’t notice Mu Qing’s glances, pain on his face. The meeting was boring as fuck. Feng Xin wasn’t paying attention at all.
Suddenly, a voice was in his head.
*I’m sorry. *
Feng Xin looked up, but Mu Qing was looking away. He cut off the array before Feng Xin could reply.
Later that day Pei Ming approached him as he was practicing archery.
“Mu Qing needs help.”
“Yeah, no shit.”
He let loose an arrow and it hit its mark.
“He found a ghost that granted wishes.”
Feng Xin had nocked another arrow, but he lowered his bow at that. “What?”
“I shouldn’t be telling you this.” Pei Ming said urgently. “But he’d never admit something was wrong to the point that he was suffering more and more.”
“Just fucking tell me what’s going on. What sort of wish?”
“You have to go to the ghost to find out. Even I don’t know all the details.”
Feng Xin went to the general area where Pei Ming said the ghost resided. It wasn’t in Ghost City, luckily, but in a remote mountain, in a clearing covered in grass and lush bushes.
A woman was tending to the bushes, her back to Feng Xin. He called out to her. "Excuse me, are you a ghost that grants wishes?"
The woman paused and then laughed softly. When she turned around, Feng Xin stopped breathing.
"Hello, General Nan Yang."
Jian Lan smiled at him, but there was something off about the way her mouth spread across her face. He knew this wasn’t the real Jian Lan.
“Why are you stealing people’s faces? Who are you?!”
The ghost turned to put down her gardening tools, making sure to move slowly and arch her back a bit as she bent over.
Feng Xin latched onto her collar and shook her.
“TELL ME WHAT YOU DID TO MU QING.”
The ghost looked a little surprised, then she smiled, and very suddenly before him was Mu Qing, glaring back at Feng Xin.
Feng Xin let go and took a few steps back.
“Oh, this is the face you prefer.”
The ghost moved closer, eyes full of lust, the too-long mouth licking its lips.
“You can’t hurt me. Not with the face of the one you love.”
The next moment the ghost was flung across the yard, landing roughly in the bushes against the fence. The force of the punch bent its face in, losing a bit of the illusion of Mu Qing’s face.
“You fucking idiot, I’ve punched him almost every day for 800 years. Your illusion isn’t doing shit.”
He grabbed “Mu Qing’s” collar. “Now what the fuck did you do to Mu Qing?”
The ghost rolled its eyes, to which it earned another punch to the face. It spits out blood and continued to smile at him.
“Do you wish to know? Truly?”
Feng Xin straightened, still holding the ghost’s collar. He dragged the ghost towards the cottage and threw them onto the porch.
“I’m not falling for some fucking trick. Get inside. Tell me how you do this or I am dissipating the shit out of you.”
“If you want your love to remove the consequences of his wish, you need me alive. I wouldn’t threaten so lightly.”
Feng Xin’s jaw tightened. “Fine.”
Inside, the ghost sat at a table. It was covered in candles half melted with wax rolling over the edge of the table on either side. The table looked like it was beautiful once, but the gold was rusted and the wood splintered.
Feng Xin hesitated to sit down after the seat was offered. He did in the end, tense and ready to attack at any moment.
“What happened, your lover made a wish sitting just right there, and then he promptly left. What more do you want?”
“I want to know what he wished for.”
Suddenly, a voice echoed in his mind.
*FENG XIN. STOP!*
Feng Xin decided not to reply, but he kept the array open.
“He doesn’t want you to know.”
“EVERYONE KEEPS FUCKING SAYING THAT. TELL ME HIS WISH!” He was breathing heavily at this point, almost standing out of his seat.
*Feng Xin. Please stop this.*
Feng Xin cut the array.
“His wish - it was rather childish. He wished to be with you ‘at least once.’”
The ghost smiled wide, still wearing Mu Qing’s face.
“WHAT THE FUCK DOES ‘BE WITH YOU’ MEAN?”
“Ask him yourself. Because it was vague, he got a vague outcome. Because he said ‘at least once;’ he also got his wish. Now he can’t be with you, because he already had his wish fulfilled.”
Feng Xin sat silently, staring at the bruised face of Mu Qing in front of him. He was stunned. Why did Mu Qing feel the need to get a wish just to…be with him?
There was a crash and the door flew open. A furious Mu Qing blew through the room and punched the ghost in the face. The ghost hit the wall, and Mu Qing’s face slowly disappeared into a disgusting old…something with large eyes and no nose. It had a mouth that spread across it’s whole face.
Feng Xin didn’t have long to focus on it though before he was dragged out of the cottage and thrown down the hill into the bushes. He heard yelling up above and then one final scream before everything went silent. Once he was able to climb back up, Mu Qing was hunched over ashes, setting them on fire.
He turned once he heard Feng Xin and rushed over. Feng Xin wasn’t expecting to be thrown back into the bushed down the hill. As they rolled, Mu Qing was punching him as best he could in their current circumstance. Feng Xin tried to grab his fists before they made contact, but he missed a few, and they hit squarely in his jaw.
Once they hit the solid ground they both got the wind knocked out of them and were rolled away from each other. The distance was quickly shortened when Mu Qing came and kissed Feng Xin harshly, grabbing his face and pulling his hair as his tongue dived into his mouth aggressively.
Mu Qing straddled him, and while usually Feng Xin would be glad to continue this situation, they had a lot to talk about.
He tried his best to sit up, pulling away from their kiss and holding onto Mu Qing’s shoulders.
“Why did you wish to be with me?!”
Mu Qing stopped protesting and was suddenly still. He studied a rock that was to the side of Feng Xin.
“Mu Qing. What does ‘be with him’ mean?”
Mu Qing climbed off him and roughly sat on the ground, trying to face away. Feng Xin grabbed him and forced him to turn back.
“Mu Qing.”
“It just meant - to be with you.”
“That’s so fucking vague!”
“Well, we wouldn’t be in this mess if I could articulate it!” Mu Qing was breathing heavily, tears welling up in his eyes.
Feng Xin sighed. That was true. Mu Qing did have a track record of not saying what he means. Maybe sometimes that’s because he doesn’t know how.
Feng Xin pulled him into a hug, holding the back of his head on his shoulder. “You didn’t need to make a stupid wish to be with me.”
“I thought you hated me…so.” Mu Qing sniffed.
“Well, I didn’t, idiot.”
He took his face in his hands and gently kissed him. “If - if we’re going to be together you need to tell me shit.”
Mu Qing glared at him. “Well how was I supposed to say ‘sorry I made a wish with a creepy ghost and worded it wrong so now I can’t be near you?’” He rolled his eyes.
“YES, SAY THAT! LITERALLY THAT! That’s what people do when they’re in a relationship!”
Both of them paused. Wait. They never actually talked about being in a relationship.
“Oh, sorry, that was - presumptuous! I know you can’t - with your cultiva-”
“Fuck you, Feng Xin. Of course, we’re in a relationship. I fucking killed a 1,000-year-old mystical world-renowned ghost so I could be with you.” Mu Qing glared.
Feng Xin blushed and nodded.
They made it back to Heaven, hand in hand, rushing towards Feng Xin’s palace. People gave them weird looks as they passed, but shrugged, thinking it was another one of their antics. Which, technically, it was.