ohhh pretty please may i request mbj/zzl for 1. promised at birth
OOOHHH YYEA YEA YEA
Arranged Marriage Prompts
wángchǔ = crown prince
(also on AO3)
~~
When the Emperor of the Unified Demon Realm returned to his palace with a young child and declared his heir, every noble and royal family scrambled to tie themselves to that bloodline. Very few had children in the right age range that were not already promised to another. By great fortune and clever words, the current Mobei-Jun convinced the Emperor to betroth his heir to the child Mobei-Jun's wife would soon bear.
From the moment after Mobei-Wángchǔ was born, a red band looped around his wrist. Zhuzhi-Lang, who waited in the antechamber with his uncle, received the matching band. Each was decorated with the emblem of the other's line, and were bespelled to grow with the wearer.
Seated on Junshang's lap, Zhuzhi-Lang carefully held the one he would someday marry. Awe filled him as the baby blinked up at him with big, dark blue eyes. Here was someone who would stand by his side no matter how ugly his origins. Junshang promised that, so it must be true.
The Emperor and Heir often visited the North during Mobei-Wángchǔ's childhood. Zhuzhi-Lang was a fun playmate, not afraid to toss the younger boy around yet always careful with him. When Zhuzhi-Lang solemnly whispered why they wore matching wrist bands, Mobei-Wángchǔ was glad he would never have to give up his friend. One time, Mobei-Wángchǔ's uncle forgot him in a human marketplace; it was Junshang and Zhuzhi-Lang who found him. Mobei-Wángchǔ got to eat all kinds of strange treats until they returned him home. His uncle didn't play with him as often, after that.
Zhuzhi-Lang had long shot up past Mobei-Wángchǔ in height. He was lithe and elegant and Mobei-Wángchǔ trained every day to be as strong and tall as his betrothed. When he hit his first teenage growth spurt, he smugly showed off. Zhuzhi-Lang still laughed and called him cute, which made Mobei-Wángchǔ's face heat with rage. He would show him! Next time they visited, he would be taller than Junshang, just like his mother had been! He would definitely be taller than Zhuzhi-Lang before their wedding, which the elders were already planning auspicious dates for.
But Zhuzhi-Lang did not visit again.
News reached them of a human cultivator ambush. The Emperor had been lured in and crushed beneath a mountain. There was no sign of the Heir.
Mobei-Wángchǔ donned ashy gray for the Emperor, but he refused to mourn Zhuzhi-Lang. His band had not fallen off, as the court sorcerers insisted it would if the other party died or broke the contract. Even as the Demon Realm fractured without a Heavenly Demon to lead them, even as his uncle became more crafty and cruel in his attempts to remove Mobei-Wángchǔ from the succession line, even as the years went on and he grew taller and gained an uncanny, unasked-for spy in the human realm, the red band remained firmly around his wrist.
His father recommended they cut the band and marry him to another. Mobei-Wángchǔ refused. After he skewered a spy who tried to forcefully cut the band in his sleep, he wore thick bracers to protect it. Only his human spy/advisor/kingmaker Shang Qinghua saw his bare wrists now. The human had startled at the red band and asked a few questions, but after Mobei-Wángchǔ refused to answer, he did not bring it up again for years and did not touch the band.
Living in the southern-most palace of their territory was annoying, not the least for his uncle and the constant press of memories. After setting up his own court in the Aurora Palace far in the north, many began to call him Mobei-Jun. Shang Qinghua did something with his paperwork, and more and more of the business of the country went through his court. Though he had not yet been crowned, to all but his father and uncle he was Mobei-Jun now.
A year after their somewhat-successful attack on the Immortal Alliance Conference, Shang Qinghua paused after removing the gauntlet that hid Mobei-Jun's betrothal band. He lightly touched the pale skin beside the band; Mobei-Jun suppressed a flinch at how sensitive that skin was.
"My king, how many demons use this method of marking betrothals?"
The question surprised him into answering. "Very few. It fell out of favor years ago. Some older pairs may still have them." They would be edged in gold and voidstone embroidery, additional bands tied on during the wedding. Mobei-Jun sometimes looked at the set that had been made for himself and Zhuzhi-Lang in the vaults when he wanted to press on the bruise of that hurt.
"I see..." Mobei-Jun thought that was the end of it, until Shang Qinghua tentatively spoke up again as he brushed Mobei-Jun's hair. "You never told me who you are betrothed to."
"Shang Qinghua did not ask." That was a lie; he avoided answering the few times it had come up in the past. Tonight he felt nostalgic enough to humor the human.
"Ah, well, this servant is merely curious. That is, why has my king not married her yet? This servant thought such weddings were not delayed."
"He is missing."
The comb stilled for a breath then scraped pleasantly against Mobei-Jun's scalp as Shang Qinghua brushed harder. "Ah?"
"He will return." Mobei-Jun put every bit of confidence into the statement. "This king's band has not fallen, so he still lives."
"You would marry him if he returned? You don't think he is trying to get out of a marriage he does not want?"
Mobei-Jun slammed a hand onto his vanity, making Shang Qinghua jump and fumble the comb. He glared at the human through the polished obsidian mirror. "Zhuzhi-Lang was my closest friend. He spoke fondly of our future together, as did his uncle. If it were not for human interference, we would have wed seasons ago." His throat ached; he swallowed the emotions down and froze them inside his heart.
Shang Qinghua fell into a deep bow, babbling apologies. Mobei-Jun sighed and stood. He was tired. Shang Qinghua scrambled after him, insisting on helping prepare him for bed, until Mobei-Jun snapped at him and sent him away.
He watched the human leave. In another life perhaps he... But his contract with Zhuzhi-Lang was intact and he would not betray it.
-----
"--telling you, killing me is not the way to go! What did I ever do to you, anyway?! Ungrateful!"
Shang Qinghua was not in the location of his summoning stone. Mobei-Jun scooped the blue stone belt decoration from the ground, where it had fallen when the cord was cut. He followed the sound of Shang Qinghua's voice to a clearing shaded by a large rocky overhang. A large pile of rocks from some rockslide long ago filled half the space. The human crouched on his sword high above the ground, shouting down at the rocks. Movement in the shadows put Mobei-Jun on high alert. Shang Qinghua noticed him and drifted over, staying well above the ground.
"See! Just as I said, Mobei-Wángchǔ is here!"
His old name surprised him. Who would not know him as Mobei-Jun at this point?
Shang Qinghua nudged Mobei-Jun's shoulder. A conflicted look twisted the skin around his eyes. "You'll have to go to him. It's still too bright out here, even in the shade."
Who-?
Mobei-Jun entered the narrow cave formed by the jutting rocks. At the far end, a shaft of light fell upon a section of earth with small greenery and mushrooms growing. Between that and the entrance, a hissing creature snarled and squirmed threateningly. Mobei-Jun half turned to frown at Shang Qinghua, who hovered in the opening behind him.
"Take off your gauntlet, my king," he said. His flat tone gave nothing away.
Shang Qinghua gestured him on when Mobei-Jun stared at him, incredulous. Slowly, he turned back to the serpent-like demon in the dark shadows of the cave. A suspicion, a hope, flickered in his chest. He unlaced his gauntlet methodically, not taking his eyes from the shadows, looking for any flash of color. Shang Qinghua may seem whimsical and nonsensical to other demons, but Mobei-Jun knew the man did everything with a purpose. He had seen his plans work time and time again. If Mobei-Jun had been brought to this place, told to reveal this treasure, Shang Qinghua had a very good reason. If not, he would die today, no matter Mobei-Jun's feelings.
As the bracer slipped off his arm, the creature in the shadows stilled. Slowly, to not startle it, Mobei-Jun tucked the gauntlet away and rolled up his sleeve.
The red of his betrothal band shone brilliantly in the faint sunlight, red like blood, red like celebration. the edges were worn smooth from his fingers, the area around the family crest darkened from the oils of his touch. Mobei-Jun reached that hand out.
The creature gasped and huddled in on itself, making pathetic noises. Something hard and round pressed into Mobei-Jun's other hand; a night pearl, provided by Shang Qinghua, already glowing as dimly as it could. Shang Qinghua nodded solemnly at him, then glided back, disappearing from sight.
Mobei-Jun walked further into the cave, night pearl shuttered in his hands so only a glimmer of light escaped. It was enough for his eyes to see in the almost-dark. The demon cried out again, raising stubby limbs as if to hide its face.
On one of them, a red band.
Like a moth to a beacon in the weak light of the night pearl, Mobei-Jun was drawn to that slash of red. He reached out, not letting the other demon flinch away before he could trace the emblem of his family on that dirty red band.
"Zhuzhi-Lang?"
One luminous yellow eye peeked out from behind a coil of tail, framed by ratty hair and uneven splotches of scale. Though the form was unfamiliar, the recognition within that eye was.
Mobei-Jun dropped the night pearl, spilling pale light over the twisted form of his betrothed, rendering each strange twist in harsh detail -- but he didn't look at that. He was too busy gathering the protesting demon into his arms. Breath squeezed through his tight chest. He had been right to hope, to trust.
He did not know how long he knelt in that pathetic excuse for a cave, holding onto his composure and Zhuzhi-Lang. Long enough for the snake demon to stop trying to hide his face from view.
"Zhuzhi-Lang, what happened to you?" His only answer was a shake of the head. "Are you cursed?"
"That's his true form," Shang Qinghua replied for the demon, stepping into the shade of the cave. He looked down at the demons, his jaw clenched. The night pearl cast shadows up his face, making him otherworldly and cold for a moment. Then he sheepishly grinned and rubbed his head. "At least, that's what I gathered. I saw him on a, uh, mission."
Mobei-Jun stood. Zhuzhi-Lang's tail dragged on the floor, twice again as long as Mobei-Jun was tall. He tucked his cloak carefully around his fleshy upper body. "Come. I will take you home, you can recover there."
To his surprise, Zhuzhi-Lang thrashed. Mobei-Jun was forced to set him down or drop him.
"Junshang," Zhuzhi-Lang rasped, the first word Mobei-Jun had heard him form in over a decade. He turned his face to the cleared ground at the back of the cave. Mobei-Jun gathered his tail more carefully this time, looping it over his shoulders before picking up Zhuzhi-Lang's upper body. Together, they went to the patch, lit gently by sunlight filtering in through the rocks. Shang Qinghua was already crouching in a patch of sunlight by the mushroom patch, his clothing and skin glowing in the dimness of the cave. He poked the mushrooms with a stick. Zhuzhi-Lang hissed at him, constricting around Mobei-Jun, but Shang Qinghua started talking before the snake demon could strike out.
"Sun and Dew Mushrooms. The ones Cu- erm, Shen-shixiong gave you, right? They're planted well, given your, uh, lack of thumbs right now." Zhuzhi-Lang settled with a distrustful grumble. Shang Qinghua stood, dusting dirt off his knees. "I have a small amount of experience with this fungus, my king. I'm not sure who he's growing-" that had to be a lie, Shang Qinghua knew nearly everything, certainly everything important "-but this servant would be happy to tend to this garden in Zhuzhi-Lang-dianxia's absence. I have already warded the area so no demons or humans can wander in."
Zhuzhi-Lang still hesitated, so Mobei-Jun rubbed his back through the cloak. "If you desire, I can teleport you here whenever you wish."
At last, Zhuzhi-Lang nodded. Mobei-Jun ripped a portal directly to his bedroom, snagging the back of Shang Qinghua's robes before stepping through. The human coughed, rubbing his neck where the fabric had dug in, but set to work as soon as he got his wind back.
"We'll need a secret room, to protect him while he's this vulnerable," Shang Qinghua muttered as he dug through one of the storage chests tucked in the corner of Mobei-Jun's room. He removed a number of thick knitted dogwool blankets and pelts, ones Mobei-Jun had originally gotten to keep Shang Qinghua warm when he fell asleep in this room. He stood on tiptoe to tuck the blankets around Zhuzhi-Lang, still thinking through his mouth with a frown creasing his forehead. "It will need to be warm. Over the kitchens, maybe, I'm sure there's a heat sink storage room I can clear out. Pelts won't be an issue, maybe an everlit brazier? Oh, a big flat rock, I think snakes like rocks? There was something about temperature regulation..."
His plans devolved into incomprehensible mumbles, but his hands were sure and steady as he dragged out a brazier Mobei-Jun didn't know was in this room and lit it. In short order, a comfortable nest was ready beside the bed. Mobei-Jun carefully lowered his betrothed into the pile of pelts. For a moment, their red bands overlapped. The last insecurities within Mobei-Jun settled. His lips tugged into an unfamiliar shape as he stroked a hand down Zhuzhi-Lang's head.
"I am glad you are home," he said quietly. Zhuzhi-Lang stared up at him, big eyes reflecting the light, before leaning into the touch. He looped the end of his tail shyly around Mobei-Jun's ankle. Mobei-Jun's chest went white-hot with emotion before settling into a warmth that filled him like a sunrise.
It took only an hour for Zhuzhi-Lang to fall asleep. Reluctantly, Mobei-Jun extracted himself from the tangle of tail. Shang Qinghua was out in his office, in the outer ring of rooms within his suite. A pile of requisitions and orders stacked up beside him, fresh ink ready to change the world to suit Mobei-Jun's vision. The human jumped to his feet when Mobei-Jun entered the room.
"My king! Is he--"
Mobei-Jun grabbed Shang Qinghua by the back of the neck. He leaned down to press their foreheads together, intimate and closer than he would get with any other save for the one he had just found. Their shaky breaths mingled in the scant space between them.
"This Mobei-Jun thanks Shang Qinghua," he said solemnly, sincerely. "You have done me a great service."
Shang Qinghua squeaked, but Mobei-Jun felt how he leaned into the press of heads. "I told you," he whispered, "I'm yours for the rest of my life."
That may be true, yet equally Mobei-Jun's life was in Shang Qinghua's capable hold. He had delivered on every promise of the future declared at their first meeting and beyond. This human, with clear sight of the future, had used a single detail to sew Mobei-Jun's life back together. If he held true to Zhuzhi-Lang's policy of repaying a drop of kindness with a torrent, he owed Shang Qinghua a flood.
