#{Bloodstained Sentiments Lost To Time || Huaxiu and Qingshan}

[arcxnumvitae]

Shoutout to Angie for providing me a tag replacer so I can do this mini tag dump for relationships between my own muses. Since I have a bunch I need to name too, I’ll probably be coming back to this and editing it.

[arcxnumvitae]

Right after this hot mess

She stared numbly down at the unconscious body that lay prone and bloody on the ground before her. Her student. With her sword in his chest. The betrayal in his eyes, his voice echoing in her ears.

‘Why?!’

‘Xiao-xiu...’ Her lips form the endearment, but no sound comes out. A memory flashed by, of him young and earnest, still untainted by the world. Both eyes determinedly locking with hers and a wide smile on his lips as he called out ‘shizun’. Shizun. His teacher. And this was what she had done to him in return. The dragon thought she had long since moved past guilt and accepted the monster she’d become. So why... why. Why did it hurt so much to look at what she’d done to her precious student?

Oh how far she had fallen.

[arcxnumvitae]

Eye of the Storm

Interlude pt. 2, the past

“Honestly, Xiao-xiu, drinking so much to where you can barely walk? I know you’re not used to wine but still...” The one on her back made a low noise but still two brilliant eyes gleamed down at the woman carrying him. 

“My apologies, Shizun,” though he didn’t sound very sorry she noted, especially with the slur of his words from the alcohol, “I’ll be sure to drink in moderation the next time.” She raised a brow at that.

“Oh? ‘Next time’? So you’re already planning your next outing? Even after getting so drunk you had to call your teacher to come pick you up? I’ll be surprised if you can find it in you to show your face in there again after having lost so much of it with this.” Although, glancing back at the tavern they left behind, her little pupil’s expensive tastes shined through even here. Just where did he get such a taste for luxury from...?

Huaxiu at least had the decency to blush. “M-maybe not back there but I already said I’d drink in moder--” He suddenly cut off and another noise came from his, this one decidedly less pleasant than the former. “Sh-Shizun...?”

“...Yes?”

“Please put me down.”

-----------

A hand gently patted his back while the other brushed a few misplaced strands of dark hair back from his face as she squatted beside the dragon on the side of the path that they had been walking on. “Poor dear Xiao-xiu,” she cooed, unable to hold back the laughter in her voice. “Can’t even hold all of that fine, expensive liquor, how tragic.”

Huaxiu was in considerably less cheerful straits than he had been just a minute prior. “Please...forget that this night ever happened, I beg of you. How mortifying...” 

“Mmmm, no, I think this will make a fine story for Jianhuren. I know they’ll get a nice, hearty laugh from it.”

“Shizun...”

“Now come on,” she patted his back, “let’s go back to my house. I can make you a nice bowl of congee to settle your stomach.”

“I’m not a baby...”

“You certainly just spat up like one.”

“I--! Shizun!”

[arcxnumvitae]

Now where was that-- well, he’d finished his training, yes, but he would still always be her student to her. And right now in the press of the crowd for the festival that she’d dragged him to to show her around, Huaxiu had vanished. He had always been better with these mortal events and happenings than she was and the dragon scanned the crowd in search of him. There, in between two stalls, and he seemed to be talking to someone. She approached and rolled her eyes once she noticed their body language, the grins on their faces, and the way the other man unabashedly eyed Huaxiu. She supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised, with his elegant and obviously expensive clothing along with the veil of his weimao pushed back just enough to display his features (odd as it was to think that of someone whose features looked exactly like hers) and a cocky grin, Huaxiu did make quite the picture when walking among the festival-goers. Not that that meant she was willing to have her guide swept away from her from some hormone-addled young man.

Qingshan stopped a few feet away and cleared her throat, watching with amusement as Huaxiu seemed to choke on whatever suave words he was responding to the other man with once he noticed his teacher standing there and waiting. Huaxiu tried to regain his composure even as a hint of red entered his cheeks at apparently being caught in the middle of shamelessly flirting and he quickly said his goodbyes to the obviously disappointed man who watched as the two swept away back into the crowds.

“Ah, apologies, Shizun, I had been looking for you when I got somewhat distracted.” He cleared his throat and straightened even as his gaze slid away in embarrassment. It made Qingshan want to bully him a little.

“And what a distraction it was, strong enough to let your forget your poor, dear teacher among this heat and these crowds. Who knows how long I would have spent wandering among the mortals had I not chanced upon you flirting with your distraction.” Huaxiu flushed an even deeper shade and politely bowed his head. She knew sincere apologies were about to leave his lips so she waved her hand with a small chuckle. “Never mind it, I’m not upset. Let’s just find that food stall you were telling me about.”

[arcxnumvitae]

The door shut softly behind her. “The woman’s memories have been altered, she will regain consciousness soon.”

A quiet exhale left his lips. This whole ordeal was mortifying and he wanted it to be over as soon as possible. A cool night breeze brushed against his warm cheeks and he turned to give Qingshan a deep bow. “I, ah, thank you for the assistance.” The elder dragon eyed him shrewdly.

“So you lost your temper and she saw?” Huaxiu bit his lip and found himself unable to lift his eye to meet her gaze but a nod was all the answer Qingshan needed. The way his eye changed, his appearance, there was no explaining away something like that to a mortal. She grew frightened. There were enchantments that could help modify a mortal’s memory, to an extent, but he was still far too young and inexperienced to have yet mastered them.

Qingshan never took her eyes from him. Jianhuren had far more mastery over enchantments, he could have easily called them instead. She watched as Huaxiu’s hand lifted to brush absentmindedly against the patch of fabric covering where his eye had been. Well, she couldn’t blame him for being too embarrassed to call Jian, she would have been as well if she had been in a situation like this. And she couldn’t say she blamed Huaxiu for growing so irate, not if she was correct in her hunch that the woman had been far too nosy for her own good. 

A sigh left her, breaking the silence between them, and the hand that suddenly clapped down on his shoulder nearly made the younger jump in surprise. “Well, let this be a lesson to better control that temper of yours. It wouldn’t do to have to constantly come fix mistakes made with your bed partners.” Was she giving him a bit of a hard time? Maybe, but it still was amusing to watch the red fan out across his cheeks as he averted his gaze yet again.

“I-I will.” He bent into another low bow. “I will take it from here and I thank you again for you help.” 

She tossed her head back and laughed. “Lighten up! We all make mistakes, just do not make them a second time. I will see you later, Huaxiu.” And with that, she left, leaving Huaxiu standing alone in the night.