Snow mixed with the ash that fell from the sky slowly.

Hei Xianying stood alone in the extinguished ruins of her home, gazing up at the clouded sky as the smell of smoke hugged her robes.

Someone screamed in darkness, chains ringing against empty walls.

"Arushi. The day you've had enough, seek her out, didi."

"What if I've already had enough?"

A young woman laughed softly, a smile in her voice. "Then the moment you are able to do so."

"I will, jiejie. I promise."

"I know you will."

•••

It took a faint effort for Qing Xiashu to get his eyes open, he yawned and sat up first, stretching before he managed to peek through his scratchy eyes. All of this before he registered what had awoken him.

Whatever it was, it smelled like heaven, fried food, good fried food.

Whipping around, Qing Xiashu discovered Hong Chunji at work in the kitchen. Frying something. He slowly stood and moved to peer around the man to see what he was working on. "Good morning."

The head disciple blinked and looked up to Hong Chunji, a little surprised to hear him initiate conversation. "What are you making?" His tone edged on suspicion.

"It's a northern recipe... Jianbing... I'm not sure how well they're coming out..." The prince murmured, carefully picking up one of the completed little concoctions and handing it off.

"Whoa." He murmured softly, taking a few bites. It really wasn't accurate, it was saltier, smaller, nearly bite sized, but it was heavenly nonetheless.

"I'm sorry."

Qing Xiashu blinked and looked up from his food again, confused by the sudden shift in tone.

"For upsetting you again." Hong Chunji clarified, scowling down at the pan before him. "I wasn't really sure how to..." He hopelessly gestured about with his hands, as if that might help him come up with the correct words.

So the woman had been correct after all.

A smile split its way over Qing Xiashu's face. "Next time, just say anything. Talking is better than being quiet."

Hong Chunji nodded. "As soon as we're done eating we should get our new robes and head out, you wanted to get across the river bend by tonight right?"

"Mm!" Qing Xiashu grinned, Hong Chunji was so hopelessly terrible at communicating his feelings. "I adore you."

"You are especially shameless in the mornings, aren't you?" Hong Chunji asked in amusement.

"No, just the same as always, just less filter."

"Uh-huh..."

"Don't look so doubtful, I won't say anything I don't mean, just maybe what I wouldn't say otherwise. Like if I feel like saying I adore you it's going to happen in the morning."

A long beat of silence followed his statement before it was broken. "And do you really adore me?"

"Of course, it's comparable to A-Ying. You both make me happy. I'd keep you both on a little cottage if I could. Somewhere safe and quiet."

Another long beat of silence hung above them.

Maybe he shouldn't have said that exactly.

He finally spun on his heel, wordlessly turning back towards the table to extract his kongjian project and not focus on all that...

"I see..." Hong Chunji said softly, pretending like he hadn't spoken at all.

Qing Xiashu forced himself to ignore the kick of embarrassment and instead begin to plot out the charms he'd need to embroider into the silk, scratching over the new parchment with a small chunk of charcoal picked from the bottom of the oven. He grumbled quietly to himself as he bore through his memory for all of the necessary charms.

Truth be told, Qing Xiashu had never made a kongjian bag before.But he'd studied them during one of his surprisingly strong bursts of productivity. He remembered most of the charms, but the gaps that needed filling out were going to take more thinking than remembering.

Then of course there was the seams to think about, he'd have to embroider all the charms first and sew everything together later.

Ah!

Embroidery is so much work...

It was a good thing he'd have so much time on the horses to work on stitching. As long as they didn't get spooked he'd have no issues with the needle work.

Besides, if they did spook, he'd have much bigger problems than a pricked finger. Primarily, Hong Chunji was bound to spook worse than the horses.

So far though, their horses seemed very calm and self assured so he could set that concern on the back burner.

His fingers were coated in charcoal by the time food was placed before him, but he'd sketched out ninety percent of the charms that he would need, next was just organizing and patching them together.

"Go wash your hands." Hong Chunji instructed, looking down at Qing Xiashu's soot-covered fingers with a faint grimace as he set out a few dishes with different snacks.

"Ah yes, yes, I'm going~" Qing Xiashu hummed with a faint song in his words. As he stood he teasingly reached toward Hong Chunji with his stained hands, laughing when the prince dramatically dodged away from the filth.

"Un-uh! Go! Get!" The prince scolded, pointing to the doors.

Qing Xiashu felt like Hefeng shooed from a room, scampering away as he snickered. He ensured his hands were perfectly cleaned before he returned, even picking the blackened soot from under his fingernails just to be sure.

By the time the head disciple returned, more food was laid out for him on the table, still hot and organized in a delicate array.

"Clean?" Hong Chunji asked, glancing over his shoulder when Qing Xiashu re-entered their shared space.

"Mm!" He held up his hands and flipped them to display both palm and knuckle, circling to his side of the table and plopping down. "Where'd you find this recipe anyway?" He asked as he portioned himself some food from the plates.

"Ah-..." The prince stalled, averting his eyes as he seemed to do nearly constantly. "I asked around."

"When?"

"While you bought more parchment."

"Eh? That long ago?" Qing Xiashu chuckled softly.

The wisdom of a little old woman...

Never to be underestimated.

"I thought it might help, so I asked some of the street vendors."

The head disciple laughed quietly as he ate. "You're a kind person..." He noted, eyes falling towards the table.

It was a true shame they were on track to be on opposite sides of the eventual clash.

Qing Xiashu should be wary of the next few months... He could be approaching his death at a hurdling pace.

Though maybe that beat seeing Hong Chunji and Xue Feiyi coming to a head.

And if he himself was fated to fall due to it, which way would he go? Burnt? Eaten? Or flayed?

Already things didn't quite add up. The timeline was wobbly.

Multiple deaths occurred congruently and nothing lined up logically.

If Qing Xiashu had all the control with the world, Hong Chunji would let go of his hatred. Xue Feiyi would explain himself. And Hei Xianying would live in a time of nothing but peace.

But something told him that was a chance so slim it could be called akin to nothing. A feather had more weight in the cosmos than the chance of a peaceful outcome to this chaotic chain of events.

He wasn't sure which of the two most likely paths were worse.

On one hand, a guilt laden Xue Feiyi may greet Hong Chunji's rage with surrender, giving up his life to sedate the situation as quickly as possible.

On the other hand, the frozen palace master might find his teeth and bite back far harder and faster than Hong Chunji, godly bloodline or not, was prepared to manage.

Neither option was appealing to his sensibilities.

He'd lose one or the other.

Depending on how he prepared himself, he may also lose himself if he chose to stand beside the wrong one. If he chose Hong Chunji, Xue Feiyi was sure to mourn him. And Hong Chunji would probably not hesitate to cut him down if he sided with his brother.

If he could just find a way for them to reconcile this wouldn't be a problem...

Perhaps with the use of those manuscripts Xue Feiyi once mentioned...

But those were supposedly charmed to high heavens. Moreover, there wasn't likely a chance to get those in contact with Hong Chunji before everything went wrong.

"Here you are!" The seamstress chirped, setting a small stack of robes into Qing Xiashu's arms.

The head disciple blinked.

Wait.

What?

Someone was chuckling off to his left.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

That drew his attention.

"Have you finally come back from outer space?" Hong Chunji asked with an amused smile when Qing Xiashu looked over at him.

"Eh?"

The prince only laughed again. "You haven't said a word since breakfast, you didn't even thank the innkeeper when we left."

"Eh?"

"Calm down." Hong Chunji said with a shake of his head. "They were understanding." He assured as they left the tailor.

Outside were both horses waiting fully packed to go. Honestly Qing Xiashu had hardly remembered getting on and then off and trailing behind Hong Chunji, holding his hand like he was a toddler being pulled around on a leash.

"A-ah..." Qing Xiashu really needed to get a grip on that zoning out thing. He climbed back up into the saddle of the horse and took a deep breath, smiling.

Everything would end up just fine.

That's what he told himself.

Because if he didn't believe that, he really might fall back into that weird depressive hole that he lived in for a good few months after their first falling out.

Their journey diverged from the river to jump the bend.

Thankfully it was filled with snickering instead of arguments.

The number of times the demigod stabbed himself with the needle while they worked on embroidering the kongjian charms was absurd.

"See, riding isn't so hard." Qing Xiashu commented, a smile in his voice. It had been almost an hour of Hong Chunji remaining perfectly calm on the horse's back... Albeit fussing over his needle work.

"It isn't so bad." Hong Chunji agreed. "But it's still uncomfortable."

Humming in understanding, Qing Xiashu reached across from his horse to carefully uncrumple the cloth Hong Chunji was working at, trying to help him ensure that he wouldn't accidentally stitch through more than one layer of fabric.

"Focus on your own!" Hong Chunji scolded, holding his project away from Qing Xiashu's reach.

"Alright, alright, I get it." The head disciple held up a hand in teasing surrender, sitting upright again. He was lucky the horses were so tolerant of his shenanigans.

He tipped over.

Hung off the horses.

Moved about.

Twisted around.

And the horse didn't mind.

Even Yun Qiu would have set him straight by now, bucking or simply stopping until Qing Xiashu started behaving correctly and stopped wiggling about.

Hong Chunji scowled at him dramatically. "Sit still you'll freak the horses out."

"They're fine." Qing Xiashu tucked away the sewing project and bounced off the horse. "But you have a point. Isn't it about lunch time?" He asked, pulling the quiver and bow they had bought from the saddle bags, pulling a string into place. Nocking an arrow and bouncing along the road until they found a nice spot to perch and hunt rabbits for a while.

The prince sighed over his antics and slowly climbed from the horse to stand beside both animals.

They were all forced to wait for Qing Xiashu to get all his wiggles out.

He wasn't used to riding so s l o w l y . . .

Most of his time was spent galloping full speed while chasing Xue Huayu about or trotting along just behind Xue Feiyi. Not sticking side by side with someone who got nervous the second any element of suspension was added into the horse's gait.

But maybe it was best to go slow and steady when working long distances with cart horses, especially given Hong Chunji's discomfort.

Still, the slow pace was making Qing Xiashu almost jittery to do something.

He felt all too much like Hei Xianying stuck on a horse that first time.

A flicker of movement had Qing Xiashu loosing an arrow into the chest of a wild rabbit, it didn't have the chance to even shriek. "Lunch!" He called when he picked up its body, skinning and gutting it quickly enough. "How should we season it?" He asked the prince as he walked over, wiping his hands off on a scrap from their old robes.

"What's wrong with just salt?" Hong Chunji asked.

"Nothing I suppose." The head disciple shrugged, lighting a small fire with a talisman and crouching on the ground to rotate the rabbit over the flames.

Hong Chunji chuckled quietly and sat down in the grass that bordered the roads. Stretching out and rolling his shoulders, popping stiff joints until he released a comfortable sigh. "How long do you think that was?"

Qing Xiashu hummed and glanced upward towards the sun's position, unconcerned by it dipping behind a small cloud. "About five and a half hours probably."

"Almost half way..."

Their hour-long lunch break didn't last nearly long enough if you asked either one of them.

While the fresh meat was quite nice, the prospect of being on a horse for the next six hours was nightmarish.

To avoid their fate, and to similarly avoid fatiguing the horses more than they were already going to, they decided to walk themselves the next few hours.

The weather had been agreeable so far, not to mention the summer rains to the north had stopped so they were safe from the slugs.

Thank fuck for that...

A shudder ran the length of Qing Xiashu's spine.

Cursed gastropods...

"Are you afraid of anything stupid?" He asked curiously, he always prayed to find someone who got it but seemed to never manage it.

"You mean you aren't considering my fear of horses stupid?"

"Not really. That's like fearing dogs or heights, it might be just a little bit much at times, but inevitably it isn't baseless. Horses are large, if they wanted to they could break plenty of bones." Qing Xiashu hummed, patting the forehead of the horse off to his side. "Well maybe it's baseless for you, you're a demigod, I doubt a horse could take you out."

The prince chuckled softly. "Then I'm not sure what you mean." He said, hesitantly adjusting his hold on the reins in his hand and watching the horse beside him "I can't say that I can think of a single fear that is truly baseless."

"I'm afraid of slugs."

Best be out with it quickly. Qing Xiashu couldn't remember when the fear first showed itself. He was hesitant to call the incessant revulsion a phobia, but whatever it was it always made him want to vomit.

"Slugs." Hong Chunji echoed, a bit bewildered. "Of all things? Not the dark? Or ghouls? Or spiders? Or deep water? But slugs?"

"I've never really been scared of anything else, except maybe dying in a room of strangers, but that's not a thing, that's more of a concept or event. A lot of things in this world are understandably terrifying, I mean, ghosts, but they're so beatable and predictable. But slugs just show up."

Hong Chunji snorted. "I don't mean to laugh, but you realize they're too slow to really surprise anyone."

"Exactly! They were there the whole time! And they're just so icky! Like what is grosser than a slug?"

"A corpse."

"Zi slugs eat carrion!"

"Ah... Alright, perhaps you have a point."

"Thank you!" Qing Xiashu tossed his arms up in celebratory exasperation.

Hong Chunji chuckled, giving Qing Xiashu an amused smile, head tipping when he did. "Slugs could carry diseases, that's scary." He reasoned.

"Mm, it is!"

"I'm a bit afraid of being alone in spaces that are too big and empty." The prince admitted, rubbing one of his cheeks habitually. "It's just the foreboding, not much else."

Qing Xiashu agreed wholeheartedly. "I understand." He said with a nod. "Sometimes they're just overwhelming, tucking yourself away somewhere little is secure."

"Mn, that's precisely it." Hong Chunji murmured, still fiddling with the reins in one of his hands.

Qing Xiashu displayed a smile and turned on his heel, walking at a bit of a quarter angle to look into his travel companion's face with more ease. "You know, I'd be happy to hide away with you."

The prince's freckled face heated slightly but for once he didn't break his eyes away, but that wasn't to say he was making eye contact.

Hong Chunji is no less allergic to eye contact than he was yesterday.

He was gazing at Qing Xiashu's mouth, focus flickering between there and his cheeks.

In a swift motion Hong Chunji caught the head disciple's arm, pulling him to a stop.

Qing Xiashu knew better than to say anything now, he might break whatever spell seemed to have come and taken control of his dear sweet disastrous A-Ming.

The horses stopped beside them patiently.

"You really shouldn't say things like that."

"Why not?" Qing Xiashu didn't quite understand the concern, though perhaps Hong Chunji was a bit more conservative than he realized.

"Someone might get the wrong idea."

"Who might get the wrong idea? We're in the middle of nowhere, I promise the horses don't judge." Qing Xiashu quickly thought to add. "Not words anyway-"

Horses totally judged.

"Me! I might!" The prince shook out Qing Xiashu's arm a little desperately, as though trying to get him to see something he was missing.

Qing Xiashu didn't miss a thing. His face must have displayed that smug self assurance because Hong Chunji huffed at him.

The head disciple continued his harassment campaign. "I don't think you'll get any wrong ideas from me." He said, glancing down at the hand still grasping his arm, running the fingers of his free hand up the prince's wrist before slowly glancing back up to his face.

Hong Chunji looked about ready to blow a gasket. Face burning so hot Qing Xiashu had half a mind to try frying an egg on it.

The head disciple's smile widened into a grin. He almost voiced his amazement that Hong Chunji was actually holding his eyes for more than a split second.

That is, however, probably the fastest way to break it.

Instead Qing Xiashu raised his arm and simply flicked some reddish curls off the prince's shoulder, clearing the way to place his hand there and sharply tug him closer, Hong Chunji's hand tightened on his arm momentarily before nervously releasing now that he had been brought nearly face to face with Qing Xiashu.

"Act on your "ideas" and I bet we'll have more fun than we otherwise would. Alright?"

"Alright--" The prince practically choked out, eyes finally flitting off to the side.

Qing Xiashu snorted and quickly leaned up to peck Hong Chunji's forehead before turning to continue their walk, leaving the poor prince struggling to keep up with his respiration.

Hooh!!

He needed to flick out his hands.

Seriously, when did he gain the confidence to do that?

The darkness of the day's end was growing as they arrived at the other end of the river's turn.

To their "camp site".

Qing Xiashu wasn't looking forward to sleeping outdoors without blankets in early autumn, but compared to the North and its endlessly frigid temperatures, he might as well be sitting beside a hearth.

What he was looking forward to however, was getting into the river. It sounded like a lovely time, and soon the stars would be out in full swing and he could do a little more shameless star gazing.

"Ugh!" Hong Chunji had plopped down on the grassy bank surrounding the river.

"What?"

"My legs are tired!" The prince groaned, dropping himself onto his back with his arms outstretched, ignoring the way fine dirt was mussing his hair.

"Come now, Chunji ought to behave himself."

"Hey now. Who's misbehaving?"

"Right, just pouting."

Hong Chunji narrowed his eyes at the incredibly unhelpful, and arguably rather detrimental, head disciple. "So you say."

"So I say. Now if you don't mind, I'm getting in the water and washing off!" Qing Xiashu had begun stripping out of his robes before he finished his sentence, leaving the last few syllables muffled but still coherent.

And really he still wondered when all this boldness had appeared.

"Aaaand this is where I call you shameless." Hong Chunji mentioned flatly, pointedly turning his gaze towards the sky to avoid the view.

"So you say!" Qing Xiashu teased as he stepped into the water.

"So I say." The prince echoed calmly.

Being a river of glacial melt water, it was understandably chilly, but he found himself acclimating to it almost instantly. He slowly laid himself into the water until nothing but his face was exposed, the rest being swallowed by the river.

The current wasn't very strong in this section of river, but it was bound to get rocky downstream, so he would need to make sure he didn't drift too far.

Turning his eyes upward killed his motivation for concern. The stars were starting to break through the dwindling sunlight, leaving only the brightest able to penetrate the dusty sky. Most of these were of the pinkish or yellowish variety. But there was one that showed a bright orange, it was bigger than the rest, and distantly Qing Xiashu wondered if it was a planet rather than a star.

Maybe he should name it...

So far it seemed to be a star that perpetually resided in the North, circling whatever axis the planet held.

If it was an effective compass star he could test it with a compass over the next few weeks. And perhaps he could find a library on the way to the East.

People had enough interest in stars, but any names or mythology for them were based entirely on locale.

Maybe he'll just call it--

A hand grabbed his ankle, sending him panicking and kicking, momentarily choking on water before someone was pushing his head up out of the river. "Relax."

Yes... his beloved pest would be a decent namesake for a mystery star.

"Are you trying to kill me? Or get yourself killed?" Qing Xiashu hissed at the prince who had a wildly amused grin.

"Sorry." He definitely did not look sorry. "You were getting kind of far away and didn't answer."

"I was thinking."

"You usually are."

Qing Xiashu huffed, leveraging himself up a bit on Hong Chunji's shoulders.

Qing Xiashu wasn't sure if he could touch the river bed with his feet while keeping his head above the water, but based on where the water met the prince's chin, he doubted it. And even if he could have, the prince had both hands hooked under his knees. Eventually he decided to just bend his legs and place his weight into Hong Chunji's hands, leaning his head into his shoulder and letting himself look back into the sky. "Chunji?"

"What?" Hong Chunji sighed as he carefully moved them back towards their makeshift camp, carrying the unhelpful head disciple along with him.

"Do you like stars?"

That wasn't exactly what Hong Chunji had probably been expecting because he sounded a confused noise. He glanced up to the darkening sky as he waded through the gentle current. "I suppose."

"Do you know the name of that bright orange star?"

"No." The prince admitted with a simple shake of his head, leaving Qing Xiashu to observe the dizzying galaxy coming into full view above them.

Hong Chunji stopped moving when they grew parallel with their belongings on the beach, running a hand against Qing Xiashu's back to carefully alert him that they had arrived back to where they ought to be [https://img.wattpad.com/fcd28eaa1ababe44a03aa10935ad83134eee01ac/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f5253752d4273542d684876735a513d3d2d313439373031383030322e313830393438323166386132333365363138323132383037323536342e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]

Hong Chunji stopped moving when they grew parallel with their belongings on the beach, running a hand against Qing Xiashu's back to carefully alert him that they had arrived back to where they ought to be.

He didn't acknowledge the pause.

Instead the he rested himself fully against the prince's chest and shoulders, utilizing the man's hold to remain in place while he stared upwards.

He wondered if his dreams would ever reflect these stars and the patterns that he had begun to draw in them.

The sky darkened further while they rested in the water, until the stars showed themselves in full intensity. That orange star did remain the brightest, some far off sun.

"I'm going to miss this when we leave for the East." Qing Xiashu murmured.

"We have time..." Hong Chunji murmured, swaying in the gentle current. "We have something around a month and a half."

"We do." Qing Xiashu agreed.

When that time came he wouldn't have an excuse to pretend he could stop Hong Chunji and Xue Feiyi from crossing blades...

•●•