Beefleaf Hurt/Comfort Piece - "Just This Once"
“M-Ming-xiong! What are you doing here?” Shi Qingxuan winced, realizing his voice was louder than he meant it to be. There was an edge to it, which he should have hidden better.
“You didn’t come to our designated meeting spot. We were supposed to go down to the mortal realm, remember?”
The Wind Master’s eyes widened, accentuating the eye bags under his eyes. “Oh, Ming-xiong, I’m so sorry. I haven’t been able to get much sleep this past week.”
He Xuan knew that. He was the reason why. Bit by bit, he had the Reverend of Empty Words slowly feed Shi Qingxuan nightmares. His plan was finally coming to fruition.
So why was there a strange tug of his heart as he saw a drained Shi Qingxuan, wilting against his bed frame.
This is part of the plan. This is part of the plan.
The calamity repeated that phrase like a mantra as he squashed down any feeling of pity for the drained god.
The Wind Master hadn’t even bothered to get up and draw the curtains back, so the light of his bedroom was minimal. Shadows hugged the contours of his body, and it was a look unbefitting of the bright heavenly being.
“I’ll come back when you’re feeling better then.”
“Wait!” Shi Qingxuan’s desperate voice rang through the silent room like a gong.
The false Earth Master felt a tug of his sleeve, only then realizing that he had bridged the distance between the tired god. He had moved from the entrance to his bedside without meaning to.
He peered down at Shi Qingxuan’s vulnerable doe eyes. “Could you… could you stay with me… just for a little bit?”
He Xuan should leave and let the man bear this alone. Shi Qingxuan should taste a dosage of the suffering that had been inflicted upon him for hundreds of years.
But like the tides to the moon, He Xuan’s body moves with the pull of an unspeakable and unknowable force.
“...Fine. Just this once,” and for whatever reason, that admission felt like a lie. It sounded like a falsity to himself of all people, which was strange since he had centuries of experience deceiving everyone around him—but never himself.
(That was a fallacy which would prove to be his downfall, but no one knew it yet.)
He Xuan climbed into the bed next to Shi Qingxuan and was awarded with the Wind Master’s first smile of the day.
A silence settled between the two elemental gods, which should have unnerved the Earth Master since this was the longest Shi Qingxuan had ever been so quiet. But He Xuan was too busy wondering why he had heeded the brunet’s request. Maybe his missing heart would have known the answer.
Something must have possessed Shi Qingxuan right then, since there was no other reason to why he began climbing into He Xuan’s lap of all things.
Without a word, the Wind Master laid his head onto his friend’s chest, hands curling into the black velvet of his robes. He gazed up at him, wondering if the Earth Master would push him off and his bottom would harshly meet the cold tiles below. But He Xuan’s arms had unwittingly wrapped around Shi Qingxuan’s waist to secure him. He truly was no better than Shi Wudu, giving into this spoiled god’s indulgent whims like this.
“Just this once, Ming-xiong…” His voice was soft, the whisper repeated like a secret.
He Xuan remembered now that his heart was supposed to be beating. It had stopped when he felt Shi Qingxuan’s warmth seep into his body. And he only recalled that it needed to start back up when the Wind Master turned his head to press his cheek to his chest.
And with that, the two fell asleep, slipping into a darkness where both found peace—if only for just this once.
guilherme-rm
