Author ask: for me and your girlfriend playing dress-up at my house, BTS or Million Dollar Question: how did TLJ explain LQG to SXY??
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Those were Su Xiyan's first words to Tianlang-jun once all the dust, proverbial and literal, settled. A faint smile ticked up the corners of Tianlang-jun's mouth.
"Hate to break it to you, furen, but you're not quite the spotless peony yourself."
During his travels to gather up all the things he needed for Su Xiyan's resurrection, Tianlang-jun had of course wondered what to say to her upon her return. He would be patient and explain everything that conspired if she was confused, he'd decided—but she wasn't. He would be gracious and loving if she was apologetic—but she wasn't.
Instead, she was...normal. As calm and cool as she'd always been (except for the tremble in her folded hands, which Tianlang-jun didn't call her out on given the state of his own helpless full-body quaking). Faintly affectionate, but with that familiar edge that seemed to constantly suggest she could end that affection whenever she damn well chose.
Yes, this was Su Xiyan, but was this really...it? It wasn't like Tianlang-jun wanted to make a scene but would they really just go back to normal?
...Would that be so bad, actually? They could be as they'd always been until Tianlang-jun's life force gave out. Bicker and smile and love with all those unspoken things until they took their final breaths, two beings designated for death years ago.
Tianlang-jun watched as Su Xiyan stood up from the dirt and patted herself clean. When she offered a hand down to Tianlang-jun, she'd sheathed more of that old edge, her affection grown less faint.
"That won't do at all, will it? The peerless immortal Su Xiyan and her consort being blemished?"
Tianlang-jun laughed and took her hand. It was dizzying to stand, and she stared at him through the long moments he needed to clear his vision. Her hand tightened on his, and Tianlang-jun concentrated to offer a single weak squeeze back.
"No it won't. And whose job is it to provide me for me, hm?"
Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Tianlang-jun, Su Xiyan kept his hand and started walking them forward. Her revived body was weak but becoming steadier with each of Tianlang-jun's inhales. Against her, Tianlang-jun supposed he was like a cut flower: ornamental, gasping for breath, rapidly shriveling.
"Mine, I suppose. If only my consort was seductive enough to find another provider though, instead of dragging this immortal back from restful death."
Tianlang-jun gasped in loud dramatics and Su Xiyan stood still to let him, because he could barely walk and breathe at the same time.
"Furen! Infidelity is out of the question! I have never ever dreamt of sleeping with anybody—"
As if he was under some truth-compulsion spell, the words caught conspicuously in Tianlang-jun's throat. He blamed the physical toll of the resurrection array because he was usually a lot smoother, dammit. Now he was stuck trying to cover up the falter with a series of blood-ridden coughs, which were very real. But too bad his wife was stone-cold clever and above being hoodwinked by trickery like this.
Eyes gleaming with excitement, Su Xiyan wiped the blood off Tianlang-jun's chin with a bare, sweet hand.
"So there is somebody. Who are they?"
Su Xiyan imagined she could foist him off on some poor still-living soul and convince him to let her go without killing himself. That was both obvious and obviously not going to work.
"A pale imitation of you, furen," Tianlang-jun shot back with a mental apology to Liu Qingge, wherever he was. "A lust object and nothing more."
"Have you bedded them?" Su Xiyan asked, eyes narrowing.
"Nope." That was a triumphant hum. "He won't let me. All he wants to do is fight."
"Take home the head of the great evil heavenly demon?"
"Few living beings are a match for the great Bai Zhan War God. He likes to challenge himself," Tianlang-jun said, shrugging. Su Xiyan turned and began walking them down the path toward the nearest town again, her expression contemplative. Long enough time passed that Tianlang-jun knew she was plotting something.
"I don't want him," he said honestly. Not enough to quit halfway through his plan of resurrecting the dead love of his life and spending their final months in the mortal realm together.
"But he wants you," Su Xiyan answered simply.
But what could he do? Tianlang-jun smiled but did not say this. Instead, he wove his fingers through Su Xiyan's and slowed their steps some more. Su Xiyan indulged him. The sun was beginning to set before them, and Tianlang-jun's blood, staining both their hands, faded in color as the light burned orange.
"Can't we just travel?" he asked, as gentle and happy as he'd ever been in his lover's company. Su Xiyan stared at their softly swinging hands, then at his face.
"'Forget everything'—" She quoted him from once upon a time. "—'and just go sight-seeing?'"
She'd been so willing to do so without explanation just moments before, Tianlang-jun thought with amusement. Peak Lord Liu had lovely potential yes, but he was simply not relevant enough to overshadow what amounted to Tianlang-jun's dying wish.
Sure enough, moments later, Su Xiyan touched a knuckle to the underside of Tianlang-jun's chin.
"Alright flower vase," Su Xiyan murmured, threads of regret woven into the calm indulgence in his eyes. Tianlang-jun kissed them away, and Su Xiyan left the blood staining her eyelids. "Let's go see if this face of yours can really shame the moon as promised."
"Sorry, you signed a no return agreement upon purchase."
"Appalling! Servants, come bathe this demon in swallow's milk and virgin's blood then. I'm damn well getting my money's worth."
Tianlang-jun got to laugh this time, bright and throaty, for a whole three seconds before breaking down into coughs again. He didn't acknowledge the upset clench of Su Xiyan's jaw before Su Xiyan worked up a smile of her own.
"Furen's prescience is astounding," he spoke, "mentioning virgin's blood so swiftly on the heel of talking about Peak Lord Liu."
It was Su Xiyan's turn to laugh.
"Will you tell me now of his good looks that pale only in comparison to me, and what a shame it is that he will let nobody between his legs?"
"He who bears good looks that pale only in comparison to my wife, oh what a shame he et cetera et cetera—shall I tell you though of his appeal? A body sculpted by the gods, naivete begging to be desecrated, pectorals designed for grabbing and molding—"
"—so you have bedded him."
"—not quite. Allow me to tell furen a tale of heroism, cross-species congeniality, and your dear husband being ridden like a horse, hahaha, perhaps it reminds you of scrumptious and unscrupulous past exploits..."
