loong | a great escape;

a great escape;

[ this planet.. is a tranquil one. lonely, but peaceful. there are no intelligent species here, but that is, perhaps, for the best - dan feng's penance continues, after all. in escaping the luofu he was not attempting to escape general punishment, only the molting rebirth. fear of losing himself, of losing his memories, his sense of self..

perhaps it made him a coward, to flee, but warm memories are all he has now, and he could not bear to part with them just yet.

so here he waits, alone in his own beautiful purgatory, awaiting the end of his days, nursing his ailing mind, existing in torment and in bliss in equal measure. his hatching rebirth will come in time, and only then, perhaps, will he be free of his sin, or at the very least, free of his pain. the crime of the previous life must be atoned for in the next, but.. his memories of the quintet would vanish, save for in dreams, and his reincarnation could live on.

it's a lush, lovely planet, where he has escaped to, slowly orbiting the glowing deep of a black hole, where time, for him, runs more slowly, dragging out like a string of sticky molasses. there are thick forests and vast wetlands, eighty percent of this world is water, and there is no sign that intelligent life has ever existed here. no ruins. no scrawled paintings in caves. no hidden chambers beneath the seas. three hundred years he has spent combing the globe and found nothing to suggest that anyone but he has walked the earth here. only animals. insects. fish. they make decent company, but dan feng still keeps to himself, living out of a modest shelter built near the water's edge.

three hundred years, and he speaks to no one, says nothing, until the day the majestic luofu blots out the light of the diffracting black hole.

the sight of it stills his heart in his breast, and dan feng finds his throat running dry, but when the small starskiff lands he is standing quietly, watchful and calm, the tip of his tail swaying behind him as he watches jing yuan disembark, resplendent in his general's clothing. he takes a deep breath.. releases it. ]

.. you must have been very keen to find me, to brave the dangers of the black hole.

[ for time.. time is a precious thing, every hour he spends here could be a year on the luofu. ]

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[ blade may not remember, but dan feng does. gift giving had been yingxing's love language. he'd crafted so many beautiful things with his skilled hands, and given them to those closest to his heart. dan feng himself had so many things that his beloved had created, and jing yuan, too, still has that little lion, and of course, his starfall reverie. he had loved all of the things that yingxing made, and dan feng had as well, still does, had loved being spoiled by him and spoiling him in return.

blade's reaction, however, makes dan feng gasp as he's pinned back to the rock, that cock driving deep. his hands slide over his ample chest, squeezing, then upward, arms coiling around his shoulders. after all this time, his beloved still smells the same. ]

Mmm. Both of them.

[ he teases softly, his thigh hooking over blade's hip as his own rock forward, taking him deeper with a low groan. as for his further words, they sting dan feng's heart. that he cannot remember what he enjoyed, all the things that they did together, all the love that they shared.. it makes him want to weep. instead, he smooths his hands through blade's dark hair, scratching at his scalp. ]

You liked to be rough. You liked when I sucked your cock. You liked when I told you how good you were.

[ prideful man.. but dan feng was just as bad. ]

[Blade grips Dan Feng's hips and begins dragging him deep on his cock and then begins to slowly rock into him, keeping the other man still as he takes him leisurely for the moment.]

Rough sounds right... [Picturing the face in front of him sucking his cock also seems right.] Yingxing was a prideful man. [Some small things are starting to click into place.] When it came to his craft. His partner. How he would take said partner.

[He removes the bandages hand from Dan Feng's hip to make an attempt to grip the back of his head, forcing his fingers to curl and fist the long dark hair, tilting the vidyadhara's head upward to look at him.]

In the little time we have here... Show me. Show me and I will try and hold onto it for when we meet again.

[For when they meet one last time as three. His promised death. Jing Yuan's inevitable fall to mara. Dan Feng, too, must be near the end of his life... It would be nice to enjoy their final in full.]

[ dan feng watches as blade works through the fragmented memories, trying to recall the man he once was, so long, long ago. the man he left behind, that was torn from him by jingliu's sword. it makes his heart squeeze painfully in his chest, it makes him angry that his beloved saw such torment, angry at himself, for allowing it all to happen in the first place, for his guiding hand in it. he grieves deeply for yingxing, and for jing yuan, the two he loved most dearly shattered by his own foolishness.

when blade's hand seizes in his hair, dan feng gasps, and his first instinct is to submit out of shame, to give blade whatever he wants, because he deserves it. but that isn't what yingxing would have wanted - he would have wanted for dan feng to fight in in return, to hiss and spit and make him work for what he desired.

so after a moment he bares his teeth, dragon's fangs glinting in the moonlight, his hands holding tightly to blade's shoulders, nails sinking into his skin. ]

Work for it.

[ he says roughly, then surges forward, kissing his once husband roughly on the mouth while his hips snap forward, taking his cock deeper. both hands slide past his shoulders and down his back, nails raking, drawing red welts in blade's skin as he writhes and bucks, trying to shove yingxing off of him. ]

[Blade snarls in return as pain flutters across his skin at the claws and the rough kiss that he's suddenly met with. Instinct takes over and he looks to bite down on the plush lips beneath him. His hands can't grip the man under him as well as they used to. The piled up injuries specifically on the one hand struggles to even bend, good now only for cutting into. And while that should make him easier to move there is more bulk to Blade than there was to Yingxing.

The blacksmith had strong arms from long endless hours at the forge. But Blade has trained. He has trained with Jingliu for endless hours. Every finishing blow with her ended with the end of his life. And with Kafka who struck him down again and again. Once the mara was calmed he began to go on missions. Constantly having him moving and fighting. His chest is larger so much so that the faithful jacket he's died in a thousand times barely closes over it. The pants tight around his thighs. But nothing worth replacing as it hardly matters to him.

Such extra bulk can be felt as he bears down on Dan Feng, not allowing an upheaval of positions. Not without some extra force from the Vidyadhara.]

[ this is a little more familiar.

of course, there were plenty of times when they would make love sweetly and gently, when yingxing would kiss every inch of his body, touch him tenderly, as if he were the only person in the world.. until jing yuan came along, at least, and warmed both of their hearts so completely. nevertheless, despite all of that, there were still plenty of times when they would all but tear into each other in furious passion, ferocious as they kissed and pushed and fucked, fighting for dominance. the full moons often brought this out in dan feng.

yingxing had been strong back then, with arms like corded wire, strengthened by the hammer's stroke, but he's even moreso now, heavy and thick all over, strong as an ox as he rams dan feng back into the stone behind him, shoving a gasp from his lungs. ]

Ai de - [ he whispers harshly, his heart pounding as his body arches, their kiss heating, fangs clashing with teeth, hands groping and grabbing and shoving. he could use cloudhymn to get what he wants, to blast blade away, but that's too close to a real fight, and he doesn't want to provoke the mara. instead he tries to use his own strength, which is formidable compared with most average people, but much less so beneath blade, a wall of muscle and fierce willpower.

a whimper is lost between their mouths, dan feng's cocks twitching with arousal, both of his legs wrapping around blade's waist as he's pinned back against the stone behind him. his tail lashes, coiling around blade's leg and squeezing tightly as his vent pulses, gripping, both hands lost in that thick, dark midnight hair. ]

[Seeing Dan Feng flail along the rock he has him pinned against does spark something very animistic inside the other. Something hungry and predatory. He tears away from their kiss to bite at his husband's neck instead. Teeth sinking in to draw blood right against their mating mark. Reclaiming over and over and will do so again a dozen times over while they're here together. It makes his mind feel electric all over. Like the haze of mara is being cleared away for a brief and glorious moment.

But for all the heavy wall of muscle he has become there are delicate parts on his body that did not exist once. Grave injuries that do not heal properly even after lengthy bouts of time. That are still bandaged tightly and occasionally the thin skin that managed to stop the blood flow tears and inevitably leaks again. His hand is the most notable place and the most inconvenient. But there's one on his bicep, his thigh, his chest and around his waist.

Dan Feng bringing his legs up brushes across one such injury. Not hard enough to cause a noise and the pain is. of course, second nature. But it causes his breath to hitch for the briefest of moments, his strength sapped for just a fleeting moment and allowing an upper hand should it be wanted still.]

[ the bite to his shoulder earns blade a sharp cry as those teeth sink deep enough to draw blood. he gasps, arching, pain and pleasure both streaking through his body, his grasp on his lover redoubling, his veins flooding with hormones in response to being bitten in that particular spot. cocks throbbing, dan feng snaps his hips hard, aching for more, turning his head aside to reveal more of his shoulder for his husband.

he cannot see the injury he brushes, only notices the sudden falter in blade's strength for a moment, and he takes his chance to counterattack.

bucking hard, he shoves blade away from him, hands on his shoulders pushing, turning them around until blade is the one against the rock, with dan feng pressed against him. urging his lover back onto the flat part of the stone, dan feng crawls over him, straddling his hips and forcing them down, taking him deep, deep into his body. his vent clenches, clutching all around blade's cock, its heat searing inside of him. ]

Now, be a good boy for me..

[He's winded at the sudden change in positions and can do nothing but groan at the feeling of Dan Feng sinking deep onto him. The words make him feel heated and a deep animal like growl tears from the back of his throat as he bucks his hips hard in an attempt to dislodge the other and regain control...

But Blade is not the deeply carnal being he once was. At that fire doesn't last nearly the way it used to. After the initial claw back for power he settles. He's learned to be docile during his time with the Hunters. Kafka finally reigning him in and giving him his mind a chance to rest. That he can live without being coiled tight and on the edge of being sprung.

There's something about this position in particular that's similar to how things are these days. Kafka pressing her weight to his chest with a finger at his lips. Listen. She'd say. Be good for me, Bladie~

Here he has Dan Feng heavy on his hips. Be good... He can be good. He's learned. Blade rests his hands on the other's hips, the touch feather light and terribly gentle. That beast that rampages across the galaxy in a haze of mara and violence also knows calm and obedience and he's showing it now, bearing his own throat for the other.]

[ this is.. unexpected. perhaps it is just one more way in which yingxing and blade are different, but his husband would have not given up so easily, would have fought tooth and nail for dominance, not allowed himself to be so easily cowed by dan feng. but blade stills beneath him, offering his throat, and dan feng must admit that there's something incredibly enticing about that, something beautiful in watching his feral husband submit.

so dan feng will take charge. his thighs tighten around blade's hips as he begins to move his own, rocking them downward in a deep, hard rhythm, riding blade's cock hard and deep. dan feng's cool hands smooth over blade's skin, still so hot in comparison with his own, his palms and fingers sliding over scars.. so many, many scars..

his heart aches for what has become of his beloved. for what happened because of him. his choices. his sins. no apology could make up for his agony.

but he can't think about that right now, not when he is meant to be showing blade the way back to him, reminding his battered body of what they once had. so he keeps moving, keeps rolling his hips downward, taking blade's cock in fully with every hard thrust, and from his hands his cloudhymn magic begins to emerge, cool waters crawling over blade's abdomen and chest, soothing his hurts, reminding him of who dan feng is, who he truly is, and how powerful their love had been. ]

[Blade's hips thrust upward into Dan Feng's vent, meeting the powerful thrusts down on his cock as best he can. It's intense and rough and it feels very good. He can't deny that. The body likes what it likes. And it desires what it desires.

His hands find purchase on Dan Feng's hips to keep the other steady on his cock as they fuck intensely. And to stop him from moving completely when he feels the cloudhymn magic coiling around his skin. It's fine for the brief restoration of their refractory periods. He'll allow it. But not to undo the aches of his body. Those are his to bear and they should no be magicked away.

His damaged hands squeeze the other, keeping him still and stopping his riding completely.]

Don't do that. [His voice is deep and soft. About as aware as he's been all evening. The scarlet of his eyes gleaming in the darkness.] Leave them as they are. They are my sins. Every mark a reminder that this body cannot die despite its many attempts. And if you cannot bear to see them then that is just as well. They serve as a reminder for you too.

Of what we did and cannot undo.

The man you came here for is dead. This broken husk is all that remains. You can accept that for what it is or not... But do not dare attempt to fix me.

[ blade's words cut deeper than any sword or spear ever could, hitting with such terrible intensity that it kicks the breath from his lungs. hot tears sting his eyes. how can he possibly bear this? his yingxing would never have been so cruel. he has a harsh man at times, but - ]

Stop. Just stop.

[ dan feng's voice falters, his body going still as he bows his head. this ache in his heart is a thousand times more painful than his torture at the shackling prison had been, he would take a lifetime of those terrible nails through his body over this pain. the guilt that dan feng carries over the sins that they committed is deeply entrenched in his soul, he does not need blade to remind him of it, not when it is always at the forefront of his mind. ]

Calling him dead is hypocrisy on your part, when you have chased my reincarnation across the stars, when you would not let him know peace. If Yingxing is dead, then Dan Feng is, as well. If Yingxing were dead, he would not feel grief, he would not feel pain and regret for what he had done. He would not hate me so passionately.

[ his fingers curl, white-knuckled against blade's chest, his breath rushing. ]

[The look he gives Dan Feng is blank. Lacking in genuine emotion or sympathy for the scene before him. There is some logic to this. He has set out with a vengeful heart. Of five names three must pay a price.

He'd explain how he is nothing more than an instrument but knowing it would upset the other to an even deeper level stops him. There are other ways to get the point across.]

How can you look at this husk and see anything but? He's gone. What memories that haven't been devoured by the mara have been erased by Kafka. This body is not how you left it. It holds none of the warmth it once did. You who are unchanged by time looking just as you once were with your memories in tact... [It's a different argument they used to have. That he is aging and that's something that has to be understood and accepted. He will change and change quickly and Jing Yuan and Dan Feng would just have to accept it. The candle of his life has been extended but the price...? It was everything. His memory. His body. All that he had was forfeit.] The shards of the past that you see on me are not enough to create a whole person. Not enough to recreate him.

[ the look on blade's face, the complete lack of recognition, of empathy..

dan feng didn't want to believe it. jing yuan prepared him, told him what to expect, but words alone could not have been enough to really, truly prepare him. this man who wears his husband's face, who walks with his body.. can it really be true? is he truly gone? is there nothing left to be salvaged? if that is the case.. why is he bothering? why is he trying? is any of this worth it at all? dan feng feels numb. his heart bleeds profusely.

he made a promise to jing yuan, a promise that the three of them would be together again, but how can it be worth it, if one of them is gone? if the love between them is broken? blade does not remember him, he does not remember how fully and desperately they loved each other, he does not remember the laughter or the warmth, how they would lay together under the moon, how he was one of two people in all the cosmos that could make imbibitor lunae smile as bright as the sun.

he doesn't know what to do. ]

All right. [ he says softly, hollowly, because what else can he say? blade will continue to insist that yingxing is gone, no matter how much dan feng aches for it not to be true. he doesn't have the strength for this. closing his burning eyes, dan feng's hands again relax, the fight going out of him like a fire extinguished. this, perhaps, is the torment he truly deserves. ] I will do as you say.

Hmph.

[Is the only answer he gives to Dan Feng's acceptance to what is. That makes all of this easier. No need to bear the weight of feelings that have long slipped through his mangled fingers.]

Do you wish to continue? [He is hilt deep in the dragon before this all came to a stop.] Or should I go?

[Kafka expected them to mingle together longer but things feel as icy as the water they're currently in. The sooner they depart from one another the better, no? This will only gnaw at his mara and he needs this moment to be erased by Kafka's threads sooner rather than later.

What else can be done here or said? What does Dan Feng even want from him if Yingxing is dead? To start anew? That's worthy of a scoff. How would that even work? And with Jing Yuan who looks at him like a specter when he thinks he isn't looking.]

Don't go.

[ he shouldn't cling on to something that is too shattered to repair, but.. dan feng is nothing if not stubborn. he cannot return to jing yuan empty handed. he cannot let this man go, either. both mean more to him than all the stars in the sky. he can't give up, no matter how this hurts. even if yingxing is changed beyond recognition, dan feng is committed to him, even if all he has left is this - the broken pieces left behind.

he will put them back together again even if it kills him.

lifting his hands, dan feng cradles blade's jaw, thumbs tracing the strong line, and draws him in close, fangs sinking against blade's lower lip, tugging. long fingers slide into blade's dark hair, and dan feng kisses him hard, deep, licking into his mouth with renewed vigor. ]

[He lets out a "hrmp" at being told to stay. He'll listen, do as he's told and what's expected. He snaps his hips forward, preparing to continue their rutting.

Blade lifts his chin at the touch, allowing Dan Feng to touch and take him in. There's nothing left of the man he once knew and the sooner he understands that the better. Every part of him tainted and torched by the Mara. What he doesn't expect is the tug forward and the fangs that bite into his flesh. The sudden heat behind everything.

He growls at the fierceness of it, participating in full. He bites back and surges against Dan Feng to return the kiss and take control. Fighting to lick into his mouth instead, his hips doing short meaningful thrusts into the other man.]

[ perhaps he is delusional, but dan feng will never believe that there is nothing left of yingxing. he is changed, surely, and greatly changed at that, transformed into something beastly and painful, but there are flickers of the flame that dan feng once knew. it's there in his stubbornness and his ferocity, in the way that he kisses so fiercely - yingxing had burned like starfire, and blade is no different, whether or not he wants to believe it.

the soul that twists beneath dan feng's hands is still a shape that he remembers. ]

That's better..

[ he whispers against blade's lips, hooking one thigh over blade's hip to hold more tightly to him, to allow him to thrust even deeper still, his vent tight and pulsing all around the thick length of his cock. dan feng's claws hook and drag, trailing fiery welts down blade's back as he leans back against the stone, allowing it to shoulder his weight so that he might wrap both legs around blade's hips, squeezing tight as a vise. ]

Good boy.. don't stop.

[He growls at the endearment, his thrusts turning fast and brutal in the familiar vent. There are faint memories on how they used to fuck. How both his lovers liked to be pounded senselessly. He remembers how easy it was and is to slide into this slick vent. How it took too long to get Jing Yuan loosened up for either one of them and how he was far too eager and to his own detriment sometimes.

Memories linger and buzz at the corner of mind. They're warm... Flaked in gold. But the pleasure keeps the madness from slipping in. The desire to find release in the depths of his former lover is enough to keep him grounded. It just makes his thrusts erratic and desperate.

Their past is one he can barely hold onto. The faces and fleeting moments flicker in and out. Impossible to hold onto... Those days are far behind him now. He can't give either Dan Feng and Jing Yuan what they want. He can never return to who he was. And he's not sure either of them will be okay with that. The sadness in Jing Yuan's eyes. The past in Dan Feng's...

He can't follow them anymore.]

[ no, he cannot return to who he was, any more than dan feng can. the man who was once the proud high elder is gone, undone by his hubris and foolishness. blade has been too deeply harmed to ever simply.. snap back to the person he once was. but that does not mean that dan feng will give up on him, will stop loving him. he will always carry a flame for this man. for all of them.

their bodies crash together in the water, dan feng's arms tight around blade's strong shoulders, his fingers slipping into that dark hair, scratching at his scalp. dipping his head, dan feng presses hot kisses along blade's throat, over his pounding pulse, sucking bruises there that will heal too quickly. ]

Come for me.

[ he whispers against hot skin, heel digging into the back of blade's thigh as his vent tightens, squeezing, hot tears burning his eyes that he refuses to release. still, his tone is imperious nonetheless. ]

Let me feel you..

[Mentally, Yingxing is a lost ember. That love they had will never return or ever be the same. Too much time has passed and it has eroded and become marred and tainted. But the body... The body remembers a great many things. Even if this shell he walks in is a different beast. Every mark, scar, blemish carved into his flesh.

It remembers the feel of Dan Feng. The wet feel of his vent. How he liked to touch and be touched in turn. The command of the High Elder's voice when he wanted him to go harder, faster, gentle and of course when he demanded that he come is engraved in him even if he can't recall mentally. This broken shell forgets nothing...

Those words are uttered and his body obeys. His hips thrust upward once more, his cock deep in the depths of the slick vent where it stays as it unloads rope after rope of hot seed. He fills the slick cavern as he had done countless times in their long lost past. And he releases much the same as he did before. Silently, with his cock twitching deep in the depths of his partner, never one for pulling out of either of his lovers. He always enjoyed making a mess of them, watching it drip out of them or pushing it back in their abused entrances.

He remains still after he releases, letting the old memories come and then slide off his mind. Needing not to be drawn back into these moments lest the mara coil around him and he drowns them both in this lake.]

[ the man yingxing once was may be lost, but blade is still here, and however much he may wish to run from his past, dan feng will never let go, will never stop chasing him, or loving him, no matter how different he becomes, no matter how much blade despises him in return. a dragon's heart never falters, never releases.

and so he holds on tightly, latched onto blade as their bodies move together, easily remembering all of the things that had been lost between them. ]

Very good..

[ he whispers, when he feels blade beginning to tense, when he feels his cock twitch and spill burning heat into his body. dan feng groans, sinking his fangs against blade's shoulder as he rides him, falling into the warmth of the pleasure as he finds his own peak, his vent tightening, squeezing, tail lashing behind him, then curling around blade's back.

humming, he laps at the wound left behind by his fangs, a deep purr in his chest. ]

[Despite his best efforts memories do slide in. He remembers moments like this. The heated vent around his cock. The fangs. The moans. The scents. A long time ago it was just the two of them. But those memories are faded because...]

It's not the same...

[He murmurs out the words, his fingers digging into Dan Feng's smaller waist. It isn't the same. There's a warm body missing. A mess of hair. Someone rambunctious and loud and over eager...

Someone they loved very much.

Jing Yuan, of course... His head gives a violent throb. Gold sparking in the corners of his vision for a moment but he holds it back as best he can, trying to grab for these old memories.]

We need...

.. I know.

[ dan feng's answer comes softly, gently. ]

We need him.

[ things will never be the same with only two of them, no matter which two it is are together. they are three of a kind, and should not be apart, no matter the circumstances.. this is a promise that they made long ago.

but dan feng's time is growing short. he lifts his hands, taking blade's face between them. ]

Take some time to yourself, now. And when the time comes.. find us. We will be right where you expect us.

[This flood of memories is hard to parse. Hard to decipher. He's struggling, trying to let things slip through his fingers as he shouldn't hold onto these seemingly precious things.

Three of a kind. Two pair. Ace... They have always meant to be three.

He lets his face be taken, the water sloshing around them and his back being bent to meet the former high elder's gaze. They will be right where he expects him. Old memories churn and slosh, flashing gold and red in his mind as he tries to put the pieces together of where he's meant to be.

When he thinks of Jing Yuan he thinks of the Loufu. He recalls all the scripts and the path they're in danger of taking. Propagation. When he thinks of Dan Feng... it's muddled. He thinks of the train. The Trailblaze. The former companion they're always following and keeping an eye on. But that's not quite right... Because this isn't who he's been tailing the past decades. Not quite, anyway.]

I gave my word to Destiny's Slave...

[Because Dan Feng might not know these important things. How different his life is from before. How its bound to others. New people. New friends. A new family. They are a group both different and similar from what he knew before. He cannot go back on what he swore to Elio. But after these promised conclusions...

His brow furrows, uncertain how they all meet at the end of this. How many years away the finale will be.]

Jing Yuan is old now. And you must be too. [The blunt truth must be said.] And the fate of the Xianzhou alliance rests on the edge of a knife... You don't know what I know.

[And Dan Feng should know if he intends to return there... Perhaps the script will know what to do with this new element that is the former High Elder.]

There is no need for you to abandon your word. No need to leave anything behind. Continue on your path until it reaches its end. And then..

[ and then, find them. dan feng is a selfish creature, he would have blade with him now if he could, but he is no fool - making demands would only shatter this moment, and drive this man further away, even if dan feng would damn the universe to keep all of them together, if it came to it. so he believes. ]

.. we will wait for you. For the right time.

[ blade carries a weight now, a new heart, a new reality that he cannot be forcibly separated from. it is tempting to simply.. join him. to take up arms with this elio as well, if it meant staying close to him, for he knows that their parting will tear up his heart.

but he could not do that to jing yuan. he loves them both so fully, so completely, and he cannot abandon one to chase another. his thumb smooths over blade's cheekbone, over his lower lip. ]

a great escape;

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