Prompt #01
Two banners billowed in the wind. The bright green of Shu was a vivid contrast to the dark blue hue of Wei.
The sun set slowly, dyeing the battlefield a brilliant gold with splashes of blood red.
The clashes of steel and the screams of the injured and dying were as common as bird song to them, they who had stood on more battlefields than they could be bothered to remember.
“Yield, Zhao Yun!” The voice was as imperious and commanding as its owner.
He sat on top of his black steed like he had been born in the saddle, one hand casually resting on the reins. The other held his infamous twin swords which had drunk the blood of countless soldiers and still refused to dull. His pose was relaxed, weapon lowered and eyes fixed almost lazily at the man in front of him.
Zhao Yun tossed his waist length hair behind his shoulder with a shake of his head and readied his spear before he charged forward, “You wish! Your life is mine Cao Pi!”
Blocking the charge easily, Cao Pi vaulted off his mount and forced Zhao Yun back multiple steps with a few swings of his weapon.
Gritting his teeth, Zhao Yun moved out of the way of a particularly close swipe, feeling the blade of his opponent just miss the top of his head. However, he failed to notice the deeply rooted rock directly behind his foot and tripped, falling backwards.
The next moment found him sprawled in the dust with the point of one of Cao Pi’s swords at his neck.
Cao Pi’s back was to the setting sun, casting his face into a deep shadow. Zhao Yun couldn’t make out his expression as he stared upwards defiantly but he knew that the other was smirking.
“Yield.”
“You’ll have to kill me first,” Zhao Yun spat, raising his head a little higher, allowing a clearer view of his throat, daring Cao Pi to end his life right then and there.
Cao Pi stared down at this man, the only one who dared to block his path and refused to back down in the face of his anger, and he smiled, drawing his blade back.
When Zhao Yun opened his eyes again, Cao Pi was once again mounted, watching him with unreadable eyes.
He furrowed his brows, eyes narrowing in anger, “I don’t need your pity.”
Cao Pi didn’t even bother looking at him, instead turning his mount away, presenting his back to Zhao Yun, “I pity no one.”
Confusion. “Then why?” Zhao Yun didn’t understand why Cao Pi would let him, a sworn enemy, go unharmed.
A low laugh answered him, “You are the only one in this chaotic world who interests me.”
***
Lashes fluttered in the dark, blinking open to stare upwards at the ceiling that was shrouded with the mantle of the night.
How long…
How long had it been since he had dreamt of this?
Cao Pi brushed his fringe off his sweaty forehead, leaning forward, pressing his face into his knees. How long had it been since he had seen him?
He slid out of bed, padding over to his kitchen, pulling open the fridge and pulling out a bottle of spring water.
Removing the cap, he tipped his head back and drank deeply, as if hoping to wash away the memories with it.
The clock on top of the microwave blinked at him, telling him that it was just after 4 in the morning.
He stared at it, both seeing the green numbers and not seeing it at the same time.
He had been searching for him for almost ten years now, ever since he had regained his memories when he turned eighteen.
Not a whiff.
Sure, there were countless people who shared a name with Zhao Yun, but with his own methods, Cao Pi had discarded all of them. They weren’t the right Zhao Yun. They weren’t the man who stood opposite him on the battlefield almost two millennia ago, golden eyes sorrowful and slender fingers clenched around his spear.
Cao Pi dropped the now empty bottle into the bin and turned into the bathroom.
He turned on the faucet and splashed his face with cool water, shaking off the last vestiges of sleep. Closing the tap, he stared at the mirror, examining the face that hadn’t changed much over the years.
Strong brows sat on top of eyes that could freeze a man with a single glance from its glacial depths. His nose was sharp and his lips were thin. Coupled with his high cheekbones and tall but not muscled build, Cao Pi was the poster image of the cool, unobtainable type that women sighed after.
And it was exactly the same face that stared back as when he had looked into a glassy stream from when he still wore his hair long and wielded his double swords a long, long time ago.
All this time…
Sometimes he wished that his dreams were merely that, a dream. Mere dreams he could learn to let go of, but dreams that used to be reality… They were something that he could never erase.
He braced himself on the edge of the cool, marble basin and closed his eyes.
***
“Will you not yield your highness?” There was an edge of sarcastic humour to Zhao Yun’s words, putting particular emphasis on the honorific.
Cao Pi watched him calmly, seemingly unperturbed by the spear at his throat. His own weapon lay some distance away, buried in the dirt.
“You know the answer to that better than I do,” a lazy smile curled at the edge of Cao Pi’s mouth. He pushed himself off the ground, ignoring the press of metal at his jugular. A trickle of blood ran down his throat.
“Don’t move!” Zhao Yun steadied his weapon, shifting it backwards almost unconsciously at the sight of blood.
The other man didn’t freeze. On the contrary, he stepped forward, eyes hooded with an unreadable expression. One hand brushed the spear away carelessly, as if it had been no more a toy than a deadly weapon tested on numerous battlefields, and the other came up to cup Zhao Yun’s cheek gently. He was somewhat surprised at the unexpected smoothness of the skin under his fingertips.
“You’re still too soft.” The smile was plainly visible now, somewhat different to the cool smirk that Cao Pi usually wore.
Zhao Yun froze, hand clenched so tight on his spear that it was almost white, as he brought it up in a strike, “You…!”
Intercepting the hand that held the weapon calmly, the Crown Prince of Wei held it delicately but firmly, pushing it back down, “You can’t kill me.”
Zhao Yun glared at him balefully, somewhat unsure how the situation had spiralled out of his control, struggling in the other man’s hold.
“If you let me go, I can prove just how willing I am to kill you,” he almost snarled.
In response, Cao Pi just leaned closer.
Their noses brushed and breath mingled in the cold winter air. At this distance, Cao Pi could see his own reflection in golden-brown eyes. It gave him a small thrill to be able to be this close to a man who had intrigued him for years.
“What do you want?” Zhao Yun’s voice, whether from suppressed rage or uncertainty, was soft and shook just the tiniest fraction.
Cao Pi’s lips twitched again, he watched in fascination as the tip of Zhao Yun’s tongue darted out to wet his dry lips.
“I…” A small frown replaced his fascination and amusement. What was it he wanted from this man? From his enemy? From an opposing general who stood on the opposite side of the battlefield?
The image of the first time he had seen Zhao Yun appeared in his mind; mounted on a pure white steed, a brilliantly white cape flowed behind him and the delicate green and gold embroidery melding with the white on his armour. With the splash of darking blood across one cheek and his head held high, their gazes had met and clashed across a barren battlefield.
As soon as that image appeared in Cao Pi’s mind, he knew what he wanted.
He looked directly into Zhao Yun’s eyes, wanting partly to see his reaction but mostly so that the other man would recognize his seriousness.
“I want to possess you.”
***
Cao Pi re-entered his bedroom and settled into a seat near the large floor to ceiling window, staring out into the nearly-dawn cityscape.
They hadn’t been lovers. They hadn’t even been anything close to intimate. But there had been a sharp connection that linked the two, unbreaking.
He could’ve passed it off as a fanciful whim if not for that one moment of perfect clarity when he had leaned down and kissed him.
It had been no more than a brush of lips against each other, but the memory had haunted him for a lifetime.
There had been so many things left unsaid and undone during that life.
Broodingly, Cao Pi watched the lights flicker on and off in the buildings in the distance and the sky slowly lighten minute by minute.
Perhaps it was time to bury the past back into the corner where it had lived for the first eighteen years of his life?
With a bitten back snarl, Cao Pi sprang from his seat and paced restlessly before coming to a stop before the two weapons that sat demurely on their rack in a specially designed glass case.
The lengths he had gone to so he could procure these two living pieces of history had been extraordinary. His father had more or less watched the entire process with amusement. Bribery, threats, blackmail, calling on favours… What hadn’t he done?
But it was worth it in the end. Wasn’t it?
Zhao Yun’s spear stood side by side with his twin swords. Their blades were long rusted beyond measure and worn with the passing of time, but Cao Pi could still see echoes of past glories etched onto their very essence.
His eyes shuttered.
In the end, he still couldn’t give up… if only because of him.
***
Life was never without regrets.
During the last few weeks of his life, Cao Pi had wondered if he had any in his lifetime that didn’t involve him.
He thought long and hard. There wasn’t exactly much he could do. He could barely feed himself without help and no amount of cursing had alleviated his helplessness.
In the end, in those final, crucial days, Cao Pi had come to the startling conclusion that he lived a life that he didn’t regret. And if there was anything that deserved regret, it was for not meeting him sooner.
Maybe things might have been different then.
So in the end, beyond passing his last decree as Emperor which named Cao Rui as his successor, Cao Pi wrote one last letter.
It had been a far cry from the elegant, bold lettering that had once been the envy of most but he hoped that it conveyed what he wanted to say adequately.
The letter had been given to Sima Yi.
No matter how untrustworthy Cao Pi had found the strategist to be, he knew that he would honour this last request.
“See to it that it’s delivered to…”
Sima Yi had bowed low. Cao Pi had been a generous lord after all, “I know, your majesty. I will see it done.”
A smile reminiscent of the one he had given in his prime tugged at the corners of his mouth, “I will honour that pledge I made to you twenty years ago; you may do as you wish.”
Another bow, this time to hide any expression, “Your majesty.”
“Leave. I would like to rest.”
Cao Pi closed his eyes, listening to the receding footsteps then the quiet opening and closing of the door.
He sighed and opened his eyes once more, staring unseeingly upwards at the heavily decorated ceiling. The dragon and phoenix motifs curled around one another made him smile and ache at the same time.
He had ordered them to be painted shortly after his coronation. He doubted anyone but Sima Yi had figured out the reason. Everyone else just thought him to be enamoured with these two mythical beasts that brought luck and fortune.
There was a shadow of lament behind his calm acceptance of his fate. He was only just past forty, there would’ve been decades left to him. But no matter how good one was at avoiding disaster, the heavens had their own ideas. The illness had struck him down just over three winters ago and he had never recovered.
His eyes shuttered again.
Some flowers bloom too late and wither away too quickly. I can only hope to meet you again in our next life together.
***
The opening of the new exhibit at the museum was a roaring success.
Or so his advisors told him.
Cao Pi snorted. Anything Cao Enterprises did was a roaring success. But his actions belied his detached exterior.
He had been planning this exhibit since obtaining those weapons. Cao Pi admitted to himself that this was a last ditch attempt to draw out Zhao Yun and if it didn’t work… Then…
He stopped, brows furrowed. He didn’t know what he would do if this attempt failed.
Finding the other man had become the entire point to his life, his obsession.
The press of people around him annoyed him less than usual, caught up as he was in his personal thoughts.
Cao Pi eyes searched the crowd on autopilot, looking for the shadow of a man who had haunted him for over a millennia and a half…
…And he found him.
He stood in front of the weapons exhibit, eyes fixed on the spear and swords standing side by side inside their intricate cage.
From his angle, Cao Pi could see the longing and memories of the past glittering in his gold flecked eyes. He raised a hand, touching the polished glass with his slender fingers, his other hand clenching at his side, as if recalling the feeling of the weapon held in them.
This was all recorded, remembered and seen with Cao Pi’s own eyes.
Finally. This time… He took a couple of steps forward.
Zhao Yun…
“I’ve found you!”
A young boy attached himself to the man who Cao Pi watched covertly.
He smiled down at the child with a sheepish look, “Sorry for wandering off.”
The youngster pouted, a spitting image of the man he looked up at, “Mother was worried when we couldn’t find you.”
A gentle hand petted the young boy’s hair, “Let’s go and find her. It wouldn’t do to get your mother angry would it?”
Cao Pi froze, feeling the babble of the crowd dim and vanish behind him. His focus was completely on the man who picked the young boy up in his arms.
Was he always destined to find him last?
In their previous life, he had been serving Liu Bei. And in this life he was… married with child.
Cao Pi wondered if he ever read that letter and if he ever wanted to remember the past.
A sweeping look was sent his way and detachedly, Cao Pi saw the light of recognition flare in Zhao Yun’s eyes.
But it was only for a moment and it was he who looked away first, unable to meet the eyes of a man who couldn’t be his this lifetime either.
“Zihuan…”
The name was dropped softly as they brushed past each other. Cao Pi turned his head over slightly. Zhao Yun had never called him that. It was always something derogative or his title in a mocking tone.
“Zilong.”
The smile that curved Zhao Yun’s lips made everything worth it.
He murmured something just as quietly before he walked away. Cao Pi spun around to stare at his back, rooted to the spot.
Then his own smile bloomed, so different to the cold curve of his lips that had been the sole expression of amusement before today.
I’m glad you remembered.
OMAKE
“Who’s the boy?”
A teasing smile, “My nephew.”
“Your…” A sigh, “He looked so much like you that I thought…”
A raised eyebrow, “You thought he was my child?”
Nothing. But no denial either.
Amusement, “What would you have done if he had been my son?”
He expected a glower and some show of anger or denial but he didn’t expect the shuttering of the other man’s expression and the averted eyes.
A gentle hand brushing over a cheek, “I’m sorry.”
Silence again and that hand was captured in a slightly bigger one and their fingers entwined together.
An arrogant smirk tugged at the corners just like before, “Don’t be. I have you and I’m not going to let go.”
A brief struggle.
“Wait! What are you doing? Why are you taking me this way? LET ME GO!” Fists struck broad shoulders uselessly.
The smirk grew wider, “Heh. Didn’t I just say I wouldn’t let go? You’ve made me wait for a long, long time Zhao Zilong.”
Golden brown eyes widened as he caught the meaning, “What? No! We just met…”
“There’s almost two thousand years of history between us.” This was pointed out in a completely reasonable tone of voice. It completely belied the way he held the other man over his shoulder, striding towards the bedroom.
“… I’m going to bite you!”
Merry Christmas \o/ ♥
The sun set slowly, dyeing the battlefield a brilliant gold with splashes of blood red.
The clashes of steel and the screams of the injured and dying were as common as bird song to them, they who had stood on more battlefields than they could be bothered to remember.
“Yield, Zhao Yun!” The voice was as imperious and commanding as its owner.
He sat on top of his black steed like he had been born in the saddle, one hand casually resting on the reins. The other held his infamous twin swords which had drunk the blood of countless soldiers and still refused to dull. His pose was relaxed, weapon lowered and eyes fixed almost lazily at the man in front of him.
Zhao Yun tossed his waist length hair behind his shoulder with a shake of his head and readied his spear before he charged forward, “You wish! Your life is mine Cao Pi!”
Blocking the charge easily, Cao Pi vaulted off his mount and forced Zhao Yun back multiple steps with a few swings of his weapon.
Gritting his teeth, Zhao Yun moved out of the way of a particularly close swipe, feeling the blade of his opponent just miss the top of his head. However, he failed to notice the deeply rooted rock directly behind his foot and tripped, falling backwards.
The next moment found him sprawled in the dust with the point of one of Cao Pi’s swords at his neck.
Cao Pi’s back was to the setting sun, casting his face into a deep shadow. Zhao Yun couldn’t make out his expression as he stared upwards defiantly but he knew that the other was smirking.
“Yield.”
“You’ll have to kill me first,” Zhao Yun spat, raising his head a little higher, allowing a clearer view of his throat, daring Cao Pi to end his life right then and there.
Cao Pi stared down at this man, the only one who dared to block his path and refused to back down in the face of his anger, and he smiled, drawing his blade back.
When Zhao Yun opened his eyes again, Cao Pi was once again mounted, watching him with unreadable eyes.
He furrowed his brows, eyes narrowing in anger, “I don’t need your pity.”
Cao Pi didn’t even bother looking at him, instead turning his mount away, presenting his back to Zhao Yun, “I pity no one.”
Confusion. “Then why?” Zhao Yun didn’t understand why Cao Pi would let him, a sworn enemy, go unharmed.
A low laugh answered him, “You are the only one in this chaotic world who interests me.”
***
Lashes fluttered in the dark, blinking open to stare upwards at the ceiling that was shrouded with the mantle of the night.
How long…
How long had it been since he had dreamt of this?
Cao Pi brushed his fringe off his sweaty forehead, leaning forward, pressing his face into his knees. How long had it been since he had seen him?
He slid out of bed, padding over to his kitchen, pulling open the fridge and pulling out a bottle of spring water.
Removing the cap, he tipped his head back and drank deeply, as if hoping to wash away the memories with it.
The clock on top of the microwave blinked at him, telling him that it was just after 4 in the morning.
He stared at it, both seeing the green numbers and not seeing it at the same time.
He had been searching for him for almost ten years now, ever since he had regained his memories when he turned eighteen.
Not a whiff.
Sure, there were countless people who shared a name with Zhao Yun, but with his own methods, Cao Pi had discarded all of them. They weren’t the right Zhao Yun. They weren’t the man who stood opposite him on the battlefield almost two millennia ago, golden eyes sorrowful and slender fingers clenched around his spear.
Cao Pi dropped the now empty bottle into the bin and turned into the bathroom.
He turned on the faucet and splashed his face with cool water, shaking off the last vestiges of sleep. Closing the tap, he stared at the mirror, examining the face that hadn’t changed much over the years.
Strong brows sat on top of eyes that could freeze a man with a single glance from its glacial depths. His nose was sharp and his lips were thin. Coupled with his high cheekbones and tall but not muscled build, Cao Pi was the poster image of the cool, unobtainable type that women sighed after.
And it was exactly the same face that stared back as when he had looked into a glassy stream from when he still wore his hair long and wielded his double swords a long, long time ago.
All this time…
Sometimes he wished that his dreams were merely that, a dream. Mere dreams he could learn to let go of, but dreams that used to be reality… They were something that he could never erase.
He braced himself on the edge of the cool, marble basin and closed his eyes.
***
“Will you not yield your highness?” There was an edge of sarcastic humour to Zhao Yun’s words, putting particular emphasis on the honorific.
Cao Pi watched him calmly, seemingly unperturbed by the spear at his throat. His own weapon lay some distance away, buried in the dirt.
“You know the answer to that better than I do,” a lazy smile curled at the edge of Cao Pi’s mouth. He pushed himself off the ground, ignoring the press of metal at his jugular. A trickle of blood ran down his throat.
“Don’t move!” Zhao Yun steadied his weapon, shifting it backwards almost unconsciously at the sight of blood.
The other man didn’t freeze. On the contrary, he stepped forward, eyes hooded with an unreadable expression. One hand brushed the spear away carelessly, as if it had been no more a toy than a deadly weapon tested on numerous battlefields, and the other came up to cup Zhao Yun’s cheek gently. He was somewhat surprised at the unexpected smoothness of the skin under his fingertips.
“You’re still too soft.” The smile was plainly visible now, somewhat different to the cool smirk that Cao Pi usually wore.
Zhao Yun froze, hand clenched so tight on his spear that it was almost white, as he brought it up in a strike, “You…!”
Intercepting the hand that held the weapon calmly, the Crown Prince of Wei held it delicately but firmly, pushing it back down, “You can’t kill me.”
Zhao Yun glared at him balefully, somewhat unsure how the situation had spiralled out of his control, struggling in the other man’s hold.
“If you let me go, I can prove just how willing I am to kill you,” he almost snarled.
In response, Cao Pi just leaned closer.
Their noses brushed and breath mingled in the cold winter air. At this distance, Cao Pi could see his own reflection in golden-brown eyes. It gave him a small thrill to be able to be this close to a man who had intrigued him for years.
“What do you want?” Zhao Yun’s voice, whether from suppressed rage or uncertainty, was soft and shook just the tiniest fraction.
Cao Pi’s lips twitched again, he watched in fascination as the tip of Zhao Yun’s tongue darted out to wet his dry lips.
“I…” A small frown replaced his fascination and amusement. What was it he wanted from this man? From his enemy? From an opposing general who stood on the opposite side of the battlefield?
The image of the first time he had seen Zhao Yun appeared in his mind; mounted on a pure white steed, a brilliantly white cape flowed behind him and the delicate green and gold embroidery melding with the white on his armour. With the splash of darking blood across one cheek and his head held high, their gazes had met and clashed across a barren battlefield.
As soon as that image appeared in Cao Pi’s mind, he knew what he wanted.
He looked directly into Zhao Yun’s eyes, wanting partly to see his reaction but mostly so that the other man would recognize his seriousness.
“I want to possess you.”
***
Cao Pi re-entered his bedroom and settled into a seat near the large floor to ceiling window, staring out into the nearly-dawn cityscape.
They hadn’t been lovers. They hadn’t even been anything close to intimate. But there had been a sharp connection that linked the two, unbreaking.
He could’ve passed it off as a fanciful whim if not for that one moment of perfect clarity when he had leaned down and kissed him.
It had been no more than a brush of lips against each other, but the memory had haunted him for a lifetime.
There had been so many things left unsaid and undone during that life.
Broodingly, Cao Pi watched the lights flicker on and off in the buildings in the distance and the sky slowly lighten minute by minute.
Perhaps it was time to bury the past back into the corner where it had lived for the first eighteen years of his life?
With a bitten back snarl, Cao Pi sprang from his seat and paced restlessly before coming to a stop before the two weapons that sat demurely on their rack in a specially designed glass case.
The lengths he had gone to so he could procure these two living pieces of history had been extraordinary. His father had more or less watched the entire process with amusement. Bribery, threats, blackmail, calling on favours… What hadn’t he done?
But it was worth it in the end. Wasn’t it?
Zhao Yun’s spear stood side by side with his twin swords. Their blades were long rusted beyond measure and worn with the passing of time, but Cao Pi could still see echoes of past glories etched onto their very essence.
His eyes shuttered.
In the end, he still couldn’t give up… if only because of him.
***
Life was never without regrets.
During the last few weeks of his life, Cao Pi had wondered if he had any in his lifetime that didn’t involve him.
He thought long and hard. There wasn’t exactly much he could do. He could barely feed himself without help and no amount of cursing had alleviated his helplessness.
In the end, in those final, crucial days, Cao Pi had come to the startling conclusion that he lived a life that he didn’t regret. And if there was anything that deserved regret, it was for not meeting him sooner.
Maybe things might have been different then.
So in the end, beyond passing his last decree as Emperor which named Cao Rui as his successor, Cao Pi wrote one last letter.
It had been a far cry from the elegant, bold lettering that had once been the envy of most but he hoped that it conveyed what he wanted to say adequately.
The letter had been given to Sima Yi.
No matter how untrustworthy Cao Pi had found the strategist to be, he knew that he would honour this last request.
“See to it that it’s delivered to…”
Sima Yi had bowed low. Cao Pi had been a generous lord after all, “I know, your majesty. I will see it done.”
A smile reminiscent of the one he had given in his prime tugged at the corners of his mouth, “I will honour that pledge I made to you twenty years ago; you may do as you wish.”
Another bow, this time to hide any expression, “Your majesty.”
“Leave. I would like to rest.”
Cao Pi closed his eyes, listening to the receding footsteps then the quiet opening and closing of the door.
He sighed and opened his eyes once more, staring unseeingly upwards at the heavily decorated ceiling. The dragon and phoenix motifs curled around one another made him smile and ache at the same time.
He had ordered them to be painted shortly after his coronation. He doubted anyone but Sima Yi had figured out the reason. Everyone else just thought him to be enamoured with these two mythical beasts that brought luck and fortune.
There was a shadow of lament behind his calm acceptance of his fate. He was only just past forty, there would’ve been decades left to him. But no matter how good one was at avoiding disaster, the heavens had their own ideas. The illness had struck him down just over three winters ago and he had never recovered.
His eyes shuttered again.
Some flowers bloom too late and wither away too quickly. I can only hope to meet you again in our next life together.
***
The opening of the new exhibit at the museum was a roaring success.
Or so his advisors told him.
Cao Pi snorted. Anything Cao Enterprises did was a roaring success. But his actions belied his detached exterior.
He had been planning this exhibit since obtaining those weapons. Cao Pi admitted to himself that this was a last ditch attempt to draw out Zhao Yun and if it didn’t work… Then…
He stopped, brows furrowed. He didn’t know what he would do if this attempt failed.
Finding the other man had become the entire point to his life, his obsession.
The press of people around him annoyed him less than usual, caught up as he was in his personal thoughts.
Cao Pi eyes searched the crowd on autopilot, looking for the shadow of a man who had haunted him for over a millennia and a half…
…And he found him.
He stood in front of the weapons exhibit, eyes fixed on the spear and swords standing side by side inside their intricate cage.
From his angle, Cao Pi could see the longing and memories of the past glittering in his gold flecked eyes. He raised a hand, touching the polished glass with his slender fingers, his other hand clenching at his side, as if recalling the feeling of the weapon held in them.
This was all recorded, remembered and seen with Cao Pi’s own eyes.
Finally. This time… He took a couple of steps forward.
Zhao Yun…
“I’ve found you!”
A young boy attached himself to the man who Cao Pi watched covertly.
He smiled down at the child with a sheepish look, “Sorry for wandering off.”
The youngster pouted, a spitting image of the man he looked up at, “Mother was worried when we couldn’t find you.”
A gentle hand petted the young boy’s hair, “Let’s go and find her. It wouldn’t do to get your mother angry would it?”
Cao Pi froze, feeling the babble of the crowd dim and vanish behind him. His focus was completely on the man who picked the young boy up in his arms.
Was he always destined to find him last?
In their previous life, he had been serving Liu Bei. And in this life he was… married with child.
Cao Pi wondered if he ever read that letter and if he ever wanted to remember the past.
A sweeping look was sent his way and detachedly, Cao Pi saw the light of recognition flare in Zhao Yun’s eyes.
But it was only for a moment and it was he who looked away first, unable to meet the eyes of a man who couldn’t be his this lifetime either.
“Zihuan…”
The name was dropped softly as they brushed past each other. Cao Pi turned his head over slightly. Zhao Yun had never called him that. It was always something derogative or his title in a mocking tone.
“Zilong.”
The smile that curved Zhao Yun’s lips made everything worth it.
He murmured something just as quietly before he walked away. Cao Pi spun around to stare at his back, rooted to the spot.
Then his own smile bloomed, so different to the cold curve of his lips that had been the sole expression of amusement before today.
I’m glad you remembered.
OMAKE
“Who’s the boy?”
A teasing smile, “My nephew.”
“Your…” A sigh, “He looked so much like you that I thought…”
A raised eyebrow, “You thought he was my child?”
Nothing. But no denial either.
Amusement, “What would you have done if he had been my son?”
He expected a glower and some show of anger or denial but he didn’t expect the shuttering of the other man’s expression and the averted eyes.
A gentle hand brushing over a cheek, “I’m sorry.”
Silence again and that hand was captured in a slightly bigger one and their fingers entwined together.
An arrogant smirk tugged at the corners just like before, “Don’t be. I have you and I’m not going to let go.”
A brief struggle.
“Wait! What are you doing? Why are you taking me this way? LET ME GO!” Fists struck broad shoulders uselessly.
The smirk grew wider, “Heh. Didn’t I just say I wouldn’t let go? You’ve made me wait for a long, long time Zhao Zilong.”
Golden brown eyes widened as he caught the meaning, “What? No! We just met…”
“There’s almost two thousand years of history between us.” This was pointed out in a completely reasonable tone of voice. It completely belied the way he held the other man over his shoulder, striding towards the bedroom.
“… I’m going to bite you!”
Merry Christmas \o/ ♥