When the day broke, they would talk, sharing stories and dreams, their laughter filling this small courtyard. The flickering candlelight that cast a warm glow over their hunger the night before, illuminating the bonds that seed unbreakable, would make way for sothing stronger.
FengLi, Brother Jian, and Dong Yang would no longer be just individuals; they would once again decide to beco a unit, in the most real way. A team that could face whatever challenges the future held... except death. They couldn’t fight death.
No one could, not while one was mortal. But they were all chasing immortality, weren’t they?
As Xu Feng watched over them, he felt a sense of peace, but he knew it was just the calm before the storm. He was part of this journey, part of this evolving story that would eventually shatter years down the road. The past, present, and future were intertwined, and at the sa ti, he was so detached from it all.
It was all a mory after all. One he wasn’t aware of until today, whatever was happening today was resurfacing experiences he never knew were his own.
Above the mixed emotions he felt for his past self, Xu Feng was unsure of how to feel for the tall dragon beside him. Xuan Jian watched the scene with disgust and self-loathing that Xu Feng couldn’t ignore even in his detached state.
The man had never made a face like that in their ti together in Dong Yang’s estate—in the past, in this past life, when they lived together on Dong Yang’s property on the edge of Nanshan mountain, and in another life when they once again found themselves together all three in the Nanshan Estate once again.
Sohow, history had repeated itself nearly to a T.
"Repeat..."
The one word caused the "Xuan Jian" beside him to whip his head around and stare at Xu Feng with shock and then disbelief. Then his gaze grew more and more hopeless as he seed to stare past Xu Feng.
"I miss you so much, Feng Feng." He sighed before looking back at the three bodies in the distance.
Xu Feng’s heart was in his chest. He wanted Xuan Jian to look at him again, but at the sa ti, he didn’t want to face those pained eyes head-on... it felt too real, more real than when he was in the first-person mode of the mories unfolding before them in the distance.
This Xuan Jian had an even greater effect on him.
This Xuan Jian’s clothing felt familiar. Well, Brother Jian’s clothes also felt more familiar, but this Xuan Jian’s clothes felt like sothing he’d seen and touched more recently.
Xu Feng felt like he even knew exactly what each embroidered edge would feel like under his fingers. The sll of the robe after Xuan Jian wore it for a morning versus the sll after Xu Si aired it out in the courtyard were both taking turns teasing his senses...
Xu Feng couldn’t help but frown. As he tried to chase these newer mories, his head ached, but when he let them co on their own, it was a different story.
He needed to stop fighting and allow what would co to co, but he didn’t like this feeling. He was so out of control, everything was just beyond his fingertips.
"I wish you could co ho." Xuan Jian spoke again, his voice much lower as if he were afraid Xu Feng would hear him. "I wish we could all live in Dong Yang’s ho for a little longer. I know it is selfish..."
It took a few more ragged breaths before the Dragonborn continued his confession. "It is selfish and vile, and I deserve to live through this curse every night. I know how our story ends, and I still want you and him. I am greedy."
"What curse?" Xu Feng asked, trying to keep his voice steady. He felt as though he could spook the other man if he asked the right question in the wrong way.
Xuan Jian looked back at him with hollow eyes, before averting his gaze. "I see this dream, this lifeti of love and pain almost every night since I returned to Dongzhou. I didn’t know about our past before then, but it seems the land conspires to remind of my greed and loss at every step.
When I awake, I forget what I’ve dreamt and continue living my life, but once night cos, I realize the foolishness I’m walking into."
The smile on Xuan Jian’s face was much wearier and more self-deprecating than Xu Feng had ever seen or desired to see. He wanted to comfort the other man... but also wanted to hear more.
"You can’t rember anything during the day?"
"Not just during the day. When I am awake, I forget our past encounters. Not every dream is fraught with tragic experiences. Sotis I dream of nothing, and I am at peace; sotis I dream of other lives and other adventures, but while I’ve been in Dongzhou, I dream of this life, our last life in Dongzhou, at least half the ti.
I fall in love with you all over again. We et Dong Yang, and we rember all the things we shouldn’t." At this, the dragon shut his eyes and clenched his fists but continued on.
"We build a life together despite it all. You forgive us despite everything we put you through... and life only gets better with us all together. Then... then you get pregnant, we’re all happy, but things don’t get better."
Xuan Jian finally looked at Xu Feng again. "And in this new life, we made the sa mistake. We lost you once again."
Xu Feng was only confused for a mont before his mories seed to line up. There was another lifeti he should know better than any other. The life he was currently living as Xu Feng.
He had two children, his dragon cubs who needed to be hatched.
The first thought that resounded in his mind like alarm bells was the urgency needed to find an energy source for his children. How would they hatch in the current climate of Dongzhou? His children needed an abundance of spirit energy!
In the life they were watching, his children didn’t survive; they perished with him. But this ti...
"They didn’t die?" Xu Feng asked with a building fear. Nothing else seed more real than this. His children’s safety was more important than his life, his pain, and their (Jian’s, his, and Yang’s) happiness.
Xuan Jian seed to pause for a mont too long before answering. "They are still alive."
He seed to ponder his next words before continuing. "They are big and healthy, growing bigger and bigger with each passing day. They’re more than big enough to hatch. Xiao Long is quite mischievous and likes to—"
Xu Feng had broken so sort of barrier in Xuan Jian because, with that one prompt, he poured out countless stories about Xiao Long and Da Long while barely pausing to take breaths. He was a proud father gushing about his sons to Xu Feng.
Xu Feng listened quietly. All of this was strange, but this news about his children felt the most strange. He had no phantom mories of Xiao Long and Da Long doing these things. It felt unreal. How could it be true if he didn’t rember?
Sothing in him told him it was true.
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