thenearshore | 34 - Love is in the Air

34 - Love is in the Air

Who: Everyone!
What: An enterprising pair of shinki is trying to spread love throughout the Far Shore with exciting blind dates.
When: February 14
Where: Hot romantic spots throughout Tokyo
Summary: Blind dates on Valentine's Day? Sounds like fun (or possibly a disaster, but everyone needs some good disaster stories.) That's not all that's going on, though. Ayakashi are looking to chow down on the negative emotions that a romantic holiday can generate, and those who aren't busy with their own dates might be sucked into helping out followers who need help to make the day go well.

The Dates

Blind Date Matchups

Date One: The Romantic Brunch.
Couples will find themselves with reservations (and pre-paid coupons for the prix fixe menu) at a swanky French restaurant with a wide balcony overlooking the lake in a central Tokyo park. They can dine on dainty pastries, sweet milk coffees, bowls of grapes and hothouse strawberries, and a selection of fancy chocolates and petit-fours-- plus, some of the trees in the park are blooming in holiday-appropriate red and white!

Date Two: The Aquarium.
Couples scheduled for this date have tickets to a rooftop aquarium in Ikebukuro: brightly colored fish, animals including penguins, seals and pelicans, a small petting zoo and plenty of shadowy, secluded nooks to cuddle in make for a fun lunchtime date. The tickets even include admission to the one o'clock penguin and seal show!

Date Three: The Amusement Park.
This date sends couples to spend the evening enjoying themselves at a seaside amusement park. Ride the roller coasters! Take selfies with the costumed attendants! Share an overpriced ice cream cone while you watch the fireworks after sunset, then wind up the night with a ride on the colorfully lit Ferris wheel with a romantic view of the Tokyo skyline.

Ayakashi Menace

dove

shadow

teddy bear

need

Praying for Love

Wild Card

In Summary:

Enjoy your dates
Fight some ayakashi
Make sure to answer prayers for a good Valentine's Day
Have fun~

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You can explain it to me later? [Fissures, he wants to ask; that time? Technology is something entirely different, but --

-- he'll ask later, and not completely derail Shen Wei's first amusement park visit by encouraging him to go on forever about things that Yunlan can barely understand at best. He kind of wants to know, though. Sometime later, he'll ask. For now, he flashes the other man a grin and leads the way around the corner of the barrels to the entrance of the ride. It's bedecked with giant mermaids, and -- just like he'd hoped -- there's almost no line.]

You said the last time you were on a date it was at a coffee shop. Did Minako not sucker you into any others today?

[Which is to say: did Shen Wei really volunteer on his own or is he only here because of Zhao's schemes? He doesn't plan to feel guilty about it either way, but he is curious.]

Well, I could, but I do have to warn you I will get technical. I may even break out a DNA chart.

[ Was that a joke about his profession? Or himself? In any case, he stopped to look at the display of mermaids and hardly a line and it looked like a lot of the boats were small and personal.

Oh. Well. Shen Wei clutched tighter at his handful of lollipops and swallowed. This might be a lot more romantic than he thought it would be. ]

Ah. Yes, I had another one with a Garry? At the aquarium? It was okay, I guess, but not really a date, date.

[That sure is a lot of question marks in Shen Wei's voice, Zhao notes, as they come into view of the boats. Which are mostly the cute little two-person tunnel-of-love variety that he had been hoping for. Pretending not to notice the way Shen Wei's Adam's apple bobs as he swallows, he continues strolling towards the entrance. They'll be there in a moment.]

Garry, Garry... I haven't met him around. The aquarium was fun, though.

[He flashes Shen Wei a quick, sincere smile as he comes to a stop behind a young couple who're taking selfies with one of the mermaid statues. The attendant finally manages to convince them to get into their boat, and the next boat in line comes floating up to the pier.]

I was there with a friend of mine. Ginia? Here's ours.

[He steps down into it -- it rocks a little, but feels like it's on some kind of rail under the water that keeps it from moving too much -- and offers Shen Wei a hand down. He probably doesn't need it, but it'd be a shame if he got that suit splashed. It must be dry clean only.]

[ It was a nice place, and he did have a little bit of fun, but he was extremely nervous about making the poor guy feel bad, so he tried to be calm and collected and probably missed out of half of the stuff there. Besides, there was a part of him that was a little unnerved by how close the animals in the tanks looked to ones he knew back home. ]

It was. They had some interesting animals there, though I would have liked to have seen more deep sea life.

[ Because those were really fascinating to his nerd heart.

He blinked at the flashes from the couple's phone in front of them and takes a moment to wonder if he remembered his phone before Yunlan was stepping into a boat and holding his hand out to him. Shen Wei switched the lollipops from one hand to the other and reached down to accept his hand. Again his skin was cool to the touch, but maybe that was because of the weather. In any case he stepped down easily enough, but doesn't actually let go right away. ]

Ginia..? Ah, I think I met her the other day when I arrived. She seems pretty nice.

She is. We're co-workers over at Ebisu's temple -- I do some temp work there because he's got the best pay rates going. Slinging burgers couldn't touch it.

[He's not letting go of Shen Wei's hand, either; Shen's fingers are if anything chillier than they'd been when they met, but his grip is strong, his skin soft against Yunlan's--

-- fucking hell, he's got it bad, he admits, and reluctantly releases Shen Wei's hand as he settles down onto the bench.]

You like sea creatures?

[Deep sea creatures, or: those creepy ones that barely look real? Somehow, it suits. The boat jolts slightly, and begins to move with purpose along its underwater track, slipping through a black curtain and into the first room of the attraction. This one is heaped with fake gold and animatronic skeletons singing some kind of sea shanty.]

I'm still not sure how the payment thing works yet, but then again, I've always had problems with keeping a bank balance.

[ He really didn't want to let go, and even when Yunlan finally pulled his hand away, Shen Wei was holding his out like he expected the hold to continue. After a second of hesitation, he curled his hand at his side and settled next to him. ]

I find them fascinating. The way they've adapted to live under the pressure of all the water and the pull of gravity, the way they adapted to their particular niches, and even some of the more interesting ways they develop connections with other species.

[ He's smiling again, half turning to look at Zhao Yunlan and sounding genuinely excited by the subject. He could have continued but the skeletons were singing, jerking a little as they moved slightly with the shanty. ]

Oh. I know this one. [ And he softly sings along with the skeletons as they passed by them. ] "O, are you a pirate
Or a man o' war?" cried we.
Blow high! Blow low! And so sailed we.
"O no! I'm not a pirate
But a man-o-war," cried he.

Wait, you must be kidding me, Prof. You're not--

-- all right, you can explain mutations to me, and then I'm going to explain to you how to balance your accounts.

[Does he have an account? He has to be all right with math, this must be because he gets distracted and not because he can't do his accounts. Zhao's distracted from a sudden spate of plans for arranging Shen Wei's finances (he can't just be left to ignore them) by Shen Wei recognizing the song.

Shen Wei, it turns out, has a beautiful voice, a clear and rich tenor; Zhao falls silent to listen, and then, cautiously, he tries to join in. He has no idea whether his voice is any good or not, and he doesn't know the song, but the tune isn't hard to follow.]

... 'O no, I'm not a pirate, but a man-o-war,' cried he...

...'A sailing down all on the coasts of High Barbary. We'll back up our topsails and heave our vessel to. Blow high! Blow low! And so sailed we.'...

[ The song fades away as they moved past the skeleton crew and with it Shen Wei's singing with it. He smiled though; Zhao Yunlan usually sang horrible pop songs when he did sing, so it was kind of cute that he was joining in. He had a nice voice with just the hint of a growl to it, not as clear as his but still pleasant to hear.

Shen Wei laughs softly, and leans back a little, looking up at the artificial ceiling made to look like the inside of a giant fish as chains and bits of rigging hang over the water. ]

I can pay my bills fine, I just not sure about the finer details. It's funny; I can create complex molecular chains but I get lost with percentages.

You're really living up to that absent-minded professor stereotype. [Yunlan's tone is fond; he's still going to insist on helping put Shen Wei's finances in better order. If things are set up at his temple like they are at Bakugou's, he probably does have some income, and minimal bills to pay, so it won't be too tough to organize.

It's kind of a nice feeling, to think that Shen Wei might need his help. Sometimes he feels a little useless around Bakugou's aggressive competence.]

-- Is that a squid?

[It's another animatronic, waving its dripping tentacles with robotic precision down between boats. Yunlan shrugs off his jacket and sweeps it hastily over both of their heads, shielding them against a spatter of droplets as the tentacle passes over their boat.

He's leaning awfully close to Shen Wei, he realizes a moment later, pressed shoulder to shoulder and with his arm around the other man to hold his jacket overhead. He looks over into Shen Wei's eyes, on the level with his, about to try a quick, awkward laugh and scoot away. All that makes it out is a little puff of air through parted lips, as he sternly lectures himself about being too pushy, and moving too fast, and what a bad idea it would be to steal a kiss. No matter how much he might want to.

No, what he ought to do is go back to that laughing retreat, and he doesn't know why it's not happening already.]

I don't try to, I just have a lot on my mind. [ How not to harm Zhao Yunlan for one, and how to really fit in here when all his life had been one of trying to balance the world he lived in and wait. He could do the same here but would it be right? He was free from his services to the Dijun Throne but can he do this? He didn't know and he felt so confused over what he was able to do next.

There were many things he was good at, but when he fails at something, he fails spectacularly. ]

A squid?

[ He had to look, and the expression that crosses his face is almost childlike in it's delight even though he knew what it was, he still found it absolutely charming. He didn't seem too worried about the water either but then Yunlan was holding his jacket over their heads and he sucked in his breath.

Because as much as he has been telling himself that he will not pressure Zhao Yunlan, that he will not be familiar with him, there was no denying the fact that this was something out of one of those wuxia dramas his female undergrads would swoon over. They were pressed close together, the line of his shoulder and side warm against him, the weight of his arm burning against his back. Shen Wei looked at him, his eyes still wide and warm even as he looked quickly down and then back up. He should be pulling away. He shouldn't tempt Zhao Yunlan to ruin.

Instead he nervously licked his lips. ]

[Stronger men than Zhao Yunlan could drown in those eyes. Shen Wei, alien, god, bioengineering professor, looks as nervous as a schoolgirl in the circle of Yunlan's arm, looking away from his gaze and back, licking his lips.]

A squid.

[The corner of his mouth tugs up irrepressibly, and he drops his hold on the jacket with his nearer hand, letting it fall over Shen Wei's shoulders. He lifts his freed hand to brush fingertips over the line of the other man's jaw, and lets his voice go quiet and intimate.]

Shen Wei... I'd like to kiss you.

[Please, please let this not scare him away. Yunlan's leaving him the opening to say no, not demanding the first move; but he can't believe that Shen Wei doesn't want to kiss him just as badly. When he's not looking at Yunlan as though his heart is shattering, he's looking at Yunlan as though he'd like to throw him down on the nearest piece of furniture and tear his clothes off.

Of the two, Yunlan prefers the second look.]

But it's an octopus.

[ Which was a dumb thing to say at that moment because Zhao Yunlan was looking at him like he had just found something rare and precious and couldn't believe his luck.

(It was a look he gave Shen Wei during quiet moments between them, sitting in in his apartment working on their separate work files. Sometimes he would look up and there it was, that soft look as if he was the only thing in the world. It hurt, but he couldn't pull away.)

He glanced down as the jacket fell and then felt the brush of Yunlan's fingers along his jaw. He let them guide him, lifting his head again to look up at him and saw the look in his eyes. A little bit of confidence, that softness Shen Wei had always cherished, and even some hesitation. He reached up to the hand on his jaw, feeling the warmth and the callouses from a hard life under his skin. ]

Okay.

[Okay, he says, but first he has to correct Yunlan's cephalopod identification. Yunlan's laughing affectionately as he leans in.

The laugh fades, and he hesitates a centimeter from Shen Wei's lips for a moment as he meets the other man's eyes. He wants to make sure. That Shen Wei's really okay with this, that he himself is--

-- it feels like a big step, somehow. It's just a kiss; maybe it means so much because Yunlan already likes him so much, his brilliance and his awkwardness, the way his smile lights up a room when it turns genuine. Or maybe he's hesitating because there's still so much he doesn't know about Shen Wei, and so many things he keeps finding himself not quite able to think about. This could be a terribly dangerous step.

Zhao Yunlan is not great at self-preservation.

He closes the last gap, meeting Shen Wei's lips with tender reverence. If his heart was still beating, it would be hammering in his ears.]

[ That laughter brought a blush to his cheeks and he felt like reaching over and just grabbing Zhao Yunlan by the shirt and tell him to just kiss him already. But then it died away and he was looking at him with that soft warmth and --

-- Shen Wei thought back on the first time he was kissed by Zhao Yunlan, when he was still young and untested. They had been celebrating something and a few of the soldiers had found instruments and were playing songs. They talked about some of the festival dances, and one suggested he showed off a difficult sword dance about a legend from before the ship crash. It was a hard dance, but he felt he did it justice and later, as they went to their separate beds, Kunlun had found him, pulled him into his arms and kissed him.

His hesitation, his warmth, the way he made him feel protected even when he was the strongest person in the room, his softness and his fierce heart. It seems that no matter what the world kept on throwing at them, they were always falling into each other's orbit.

He smiles into the kiss, tilting his head to fit them together better. ]

[They already fit together too well. Yunlan feels the smile quirking against his lips, and cups Shen Wei's cheek with his hand, breath catching in his throat before he moves to deepen the kiss.

It feels good; it feels right, even though there's so much he doesn't know about the man in his arms. It's easy to forget all of that.

Love, he remembers telling whoever that had been on the network, is being more at home with someone else than he could be on his own. If he's ever felt at home before, he doesn't remember it, but this? Right now? This could be how home feels.

He's barely even paying attention to the fish singing sea shanties around them.]

[ In the years between Kunlun and Yunlan, Shen Wei wondered why he held onto a promise so hard, why he let this man dictate his steps long before he was truly born. But slotting himself against Zhao Yunlan like this, his lips warm and soft in just the right amount, he knew.

No one else made him feel so complete.

Shen Wei took a few fumbling moments to secure the lollipop bouquet in a pocket before reaching up to tangle his fingers in Yunlan's hair while his other hand went to Yunlan's waist to pull him closer. Trying to be mindful of his strength as he does so since he wasn't sure if this Yunlan would enjoy being manhandled like he did in the past.

Then his lips parted, scraping his teeth against Yunlan's lower lip before flicking his tongue against that spot, his eyes showing a glint of both amusement and a heady need. ]

[Shen Wei shifts his weight a little -- Yunlan's not sure what he's doing but can't be bothered to care; a few seconds later there's a hand sliding into his hair and another on his waist, pulling him in with surprising strength.

Zhao Yunlan sends up a heartfelt prayer for the ride to break down and strand them here for, oh, the next half-hour, and moves his own free hand from Shen Wei's cheek to the back of his neck, playing with the fine hairs there, grown out a touch messily from what must've been a very neat and professional haircut before he'd neglected it.

Some things about him really do suit the absent-minded very normal professor image. Yunlan chases Shen Wei's tongue with his own, muffling the hungry whine at the back of his throat between their lips.

It's not his first kiss. He knows what he's doing here the same way he'd known his way around a smartphone, but it's the first kiss he remembers, the first kiss he's ever going to remember. Before this, he'd been building himself an image of Zhao Yunlan as a cool guy. Smooth, discerning, in control. That's a huge lie: it turns out he's so easy that one kiss has him ready to let Shen Wei rip his clothes off under the eyes of singing fish and security cameras alike.

Too bad the ride's not breaking down. The light changes as they float out of the last room and back into the lobby, and he breaks the kiss to catch his breath and try to will his hard-on to subside to less uncomfortable and obvious levels before they have to stand up.]

Shen Wei...

[He runs out of ideas for what to say right there, and leaves the name as a sentence, complete and reverent in itself. He's so fucked. Is Shen Wei looking at him as a rebound? Is this going to work? Should he even be wondering about the long term when the Heavens could cull either one of them any minute? Should the possibility of Shen Wei disappearing on him feel so devastating when this is only the third time they've talked?

He sucks in a shaky breath and reaches for his jacket, crumpled under their seat where he'd dropped it somewhere during their kiss. The timing is perfect: he looks away from Shen Wei's drowning-dark eyes just as something above them reaches shadowy hands down to snatch at the both of them. Yunlan's eyes go wide, and he abandons his jacket, diving to put his back between Shen Wei and the claws at the end of those too-long fingers.]

-- watch out!

[ Even without his memories this kiss was still all Zhao Yunlan. The sweep of his tongue against his, the soft little moan at the back of his throat, the taste of him. Shen Wei wanted to press closer, wanted to feel all of him, and his hand tightens as he fought back the urge to just pull his clothing off. It would be highly inappropriate (even if kissing him where everyone could see was that as well) even if Yunlan was willing.

But the ride is slowing down and the darkness fading to bright lights. Shen Wei pulls away just as Yunlan does, his breath coming in short pants and his eyes wide. A part of him wanted to sob, to scream about how unfair this was, and he swallows that urge back. It didn't matter that he forgot, not now. It mattered that they found each other again.

(He still had to be careful, to not tell him that they once lived with each other. That his love he died for was Zhao Yunlan himself. But he could do that, he done it before even if it wasn't exactly the same.)

Reluctantly letting go, Shen Wei double checked that the lollipops were still in his pocket, and felt a shift in the air. He looked up just as Yunlan did and--

-- To say the anger that hit him at that moment was sudden would be an understatement. His whole body stiffened, the muscles in his jaw tighten and the he felt the power inside of him shift. As Yunlan moved to defend him, he wrapped one arm around him to pull him close and brought his other up, a slash of pure raw darkness slicing up at those claws. ]

Yunlan!

[ If he was hurt, if it touched him, Shen Wei was not going to hold back. ]

[That's the first time Shen Wei's used his first name, and even shouted angrily Zhao Yunlan likes the sound of it in his voice. He'll have to see if he can coax Shen Wei into pet names: he'd like Ah-Lan, or Xiao-Lan, or--

-- ow, fuck: the creature's claws score thin lines across his back just above the iron grip of Shen Wei's arm, and Yunlan flinches. The blight burning in every shallow cut is blindingly painful.

Above them, the ayakashi screeches in a twisted voice, and icy liquid spatters down over them. Blood? Yunlan twists in Shen Wei's grip, ignoring the way his back screams at the movement, and slashes a borderline out between them and the ayakashi.

The creature drops heavily to the landing. It's big, easily three times the size of a person now that it's not hiding among the shadows of the ceiling, and the fake "dock" shudders with its weight. A mother, waiting in line with three children, startles in apparent confusion, unaware of the monster lurking just a few paces away.]

Shit-- I'm fine, I'm fine-- we can't let that thing get away.

[There's too many people here, and it's already reaching towards one of the kids with its uninjured arm, claws still glistening with Yunlan's blood as its shattered arm twists and re-forms like a time-lapse of healing. He grits his teeth, lets the borderline drop, and throws another to cut its good arm before it can make that grab.]

[ He hissed as a line of pain blooming on his one hand were it rested just under the slashes in Yunlan's back, and glanced around them. Too many humans, too many targets in this area, and he knew that just him and Yunlan were not going to be able to save them all once that thing started really moving.

They were at a disadvantage here in the boat, too far for any of his more lethal strikes to matter much. He couldn't use his energy blasts either, not the way it was reaching for the humans. He could cause them just as much damage as the ayakashi, maybe even more. The dark energy was not forgiven to the Haixingren and he was sure that these humans would be even worse off if he started flinging energy. ]

We can't stay here!

[ No time to think, let alone acknowledge the pain. Shen Wei kept his grip around Yunlan tight and teleported them from the boat to the dock between the ayakashi and the humans. Pulling Yunlan to his feet with him, Shen Wei curled his fingers at his side even as the ayakashi screamed as Yunlan's borderline cut into its good arm. Still not enough and he curled his fingers as he pulled in dark energy. ]

I'll get the humans to leave, make that thing stay put!

[ Another wave of dark energy, this time curving as it skipped between two artificial stalagmites, hit a wire then scorched into the fuse box. There was a pop, a flash of light and then yellows sparks. A child yelled and more lights started popping as the attendants tried herding the people out of the area. ]

You got it. [Zhao Yunlan stumbles as they hit the deck; he's still not used to that teleportation thing, he trips over himself half the time, but with Shen Wei's arm around him he doesn't fall. He spins towards the ayakashi as Shen Wei turns to take care of -- the fuse box, good idea, it'll be enough of a problem to close the ride for a few hours but not enough to be expensive or difficult to fix. The park workers are doing their job for them already.

Another kid screams, high and wailing, as Yunlan faces down the regenerating shadow-creature. Its face is indistinct, except for bulging eyes, gold irises on blood-red corneas like a guy coming off a week-long bender; he grins at it as his cutting borderline finishes dying.]

How about you mess with somebody your own size, asshole?

[It croons something that sounds like Tasty! run through a voice filter and reaches for him with two (intact, fuck, it heals fast) arms. Yunlan slashes down a borderline that takes off both its hands at the wrists and stays up, bright golden-white and glittering, as its hands dissolve into puddles of purplish ectoplasm and evaporate from the tiles.

It's getting a lot darker in here as lights pop, sizzle and die. The ayakashi blends too well into the shadows, but for those eyes catching the light of Zhao Yunlan's borderline. The wailing child behind him Dopplers away into the distance as the ride attendants keep clearing the area.]

Shen Wei, we're not going to be able to kill it like this!

[He doesn't have his god here, and Shen Wei doesn't have his shinki-- doesn't have a shinki, he'd said, hadn't he? Just one of those soulless, which...

Well.]

Name me?

[ Were the people getting out? Shen Wei gathered more energy to his hands, closing his eyes while letting his senses filter through the darkness flowing around them. There was the bright light of Zhao Yunlan's energy at his back (he would never mistake it for anything else, knowing the taste of it in his soul), the more muted lights of the humans as the last of them are herded out, and the sick, diseased blotch of energy that marked the ayakashi.

His eyes snapped open as he fully turned to the creature, his eyes showing the slight sheen of his underground heritage as they adjust to the darkness. Shen Wei's fingers twitched, the balls of energy he gathered shifting with the motion as he used it to grab water from the ride, shape it into spiked chains and wrap it around the ayakashi's body. ]

You might be right.

[ The ayaksahi hissed and jerked, the water chains barely holding it as it tried to lunge towards them. Shen Wei focused on the chains and froze them. The ayakashi grinned - a wide purplish red mouth of blackened teeth showing - as the frozen chains were broken. Shen Wei's grin was almost as chilling as he flung his hands out catching the flying ice shards and sent them all thudding into the creature's body, driving it back a couple more steps. ]

...What?

[ Zhao Yunlan was always one of the few people to surprise him in his long life. Usuaully everyone was easy to figure out. They wanted to use or control him, they wanted to either set him up or turn their backs on him. They all had levers and he figured out how to either ignore their plots or to plow through them. But Zhao Yunlan had always flipped his expectations around.

This was no different.

Shen Wei couldn't keep pulling in dark energy even though his god status gave him a slight buffer. What damage he was able to cause was quickly repaired, and the ayakashi just seem to get bigger and more focused on them the longer this kept going. None of his weapons will do any damage, and his soulless was back in the Far Chore having been ordered to 'do something with the gardens'.

He closed his eyes at the idea of forcing Yunlan to serve him and reached up to grab his pendant before remembering that he had lost it. His eyes opened and his voice grew cold. ]

Fine. But I am not holding you to me after this. [ Do not argue with him on this one. He will not move from it. ]

My name is Xuanwu. Grasping thy true name, I bind thee here. With borrowed name, I dub thee my servant. The name answers, the vessel to sound. I call thee as my divine instrument. The name, Zhao Yunlan. The vessel, Haku. Come, Hakki!

[I am not holding you to me after this, Shen Wei insists, and Zhao Yunlan doesn't exactly argue.

Instead, he glances over his shoulder to toss Shen Wei his dirtiest grin.]

You can hold me all you want--

[His borderline fails as the name gleams in the darkness between them, as red as blood, and seals itself against Yunlan's left forearm. He takes in one last sharp breath. He dissolves into light.

And then, as the bond forms between them, Shen Wei will see a different place altogether; a stone staircase in Dixing, where they'd once promised to meet, with Zhao Yunlan slumped against it with blood on his mouth.

Zhao feels himself shudder from light back into substance, rippling out into a new form. Sharp, with a powerful spine, a hilt that fits into Shen Wei's hand and a long, broad oxtail saber blade. Boy, he hopes that Shen Wei can use a sword. He'd been in a war -- maybe he should've gotten the gun, and Bakugou the sword?

His vision is clearer in this form, even in the darkness. The ayakashi is moving towards them, clawed hands grasping at Shen Wei.]

[ Why would he expect Zhao Yunlan to be any different during a life and death moment? Shen Wei huffs at that look, wanting to just shake him out of it and knowing that it would only spur him on more.

(In the game of lust and love, Yunlan would always push him to distraction and reveal in any reaction he manages to drag out of him.)

Then the vision hits him with all the force of a thousand blades. Shen Wei felt every painful moment - from the beatings and the fighting and the spark as the lantern lit up. He saw the staircase where they had promised to meet, and felt the way the earth shook and knew just how much daring it took for that final last act. Shen Wei was not prone to tears but he could feel them behind his eyes, and in the back of his throat as Zhao Yunlan's weapon form settled in his hand. He sets his jaw as he opens his eyes, the ayakashi reaching towards him, the gleam of the sword between him and it. ]

Mountain Wind. [ A weapon with nearly the same legendary name as the man who wield it. A weapon that he never seen held by the Kunlun he had met though he knew now that the blade had been buried with the true Kunlun. ]

Looks like I have no choice any more.

[ Shen Wei turned the sword around in his hand, settling it firmly in his grip and pushed back, sliding away from the snatching claws with an ease that made the ayakashi over extend its reach and fall on the icy tiles. ]

It's 'Hakki' now. [Despite how badass 'Mountain Wind' sounds. And it suits his real name, too, 'Yunlan' for the bands of clouds that swathe a mountain peak. He doesn't take too much time to preen; Shen Wei's moving, his hand closing solidly around Zhao Yunlan's hilt--

(he could try not to make that sound dirty, but he doesn't want to)

--and feet moving over the tiles underfoot with an ease that makes it clear he's a master.

The ayakashi goes sprawling, but it's not stopping, not even looking like the fall hurt; instead it ripples up to hands and feet, lunging at them again, faster. It's sheer reflex that has Yunlan drawing a borderline at and through it, cutting without his blade moving. He hadn't known he could do that, and his stunned pride reverberates through his link with both his gods as the ayakashi splits apart and struggles to reform again.]

34 - Love is in the Air

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