#WHAT DID I DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO TO DESERVE THISSSSSSSSS

[unfxllenone]

[LANTERNS] - HE SHOULDN'T BE HERE, shouldn't be interfering with her journey, and yet Kong remains, covered by a dusty travelling cloak as he presses through the crowds to the golden hair dancing lightly on the winds like waves. It's amusing to him in a way, the sense of Deja Vu that befalls him, like he's done this time and time again in the past, and yet he knows he has not.

Still, it's eager, shaking, hands that lift the lantern to her, golden eyes that shine from beneath the hood as wordlessly the lantern is held to her in a pale mimicry of the way others hold their lantern to those they care more about. He wants to speak that terrible phrase, the words that would doom his mission to fail, and yet he can't, continuing to pose merely as a nameless, voiceless traveller until eyes are following the lanterns to the darkened skies above.

His voice is like a whisper on the wind as the crowds begin to close in around them, allowing himself to be enveloped by the awestruck peoples so that he may once more disappear into the seas before she can chase after him.

"Happy Lantern Rite... Ying"

After all the excitement of this Rite, she's eager to simply sit and enjoy the grand crescendo of it all -- the tidal wave of lanterns due to be released to the sky. Family and friends gather around her, pressing close as the crowd continues to build, and all have the delight of that warm golden glow painted on their skin as the lanterns are lit in preparation for their release.

She enjoys her role as an observer -- understands it well -- and in moments like this, she cherishes it even for as bittersweet as it is.

She she barely notices as that stranger that strides up to her, gliding through the crowd like a ghost. There's a lantern pressed into her welcoming hands, too, making her a part of this festivity, and before she can ask why, she sees who.

" Kong-- " The breathless whisper barely escapes before he does, disappearing into the crowd as though he was never there at all.

A dumbfounded moment later, and she's shoving through the clumps of bodies with desperate fervor; the lanterns break skyward, and she stumbles, clumsy, like the flightless bird she's been forced to become. She reaches forwards and fails to grasp, like their separation centuries ago. She wishes the memories she forms with him on this world would stop their near-rhythmic predictability of just can't, just missed, just beyond her, but she will not be lucky enough to break that tune tonight.

Her footfalls come to a halt at the outside of the cluster, gaze casting left and right as though she might be able to continue her pursuit, but it's pointless. He is gone. Kong is far brighter than any lantern could ever be, far more akin to the sun in the sky, and yet he evanesces with the ease of a candle snuffed. How? How?

She can't help but to be angry at him for that. To come here, to see her, and yet to remain so out of reach -- she couldn't even get a word in. Her older brother is a fool and an idiot, and, tonight, again, he'll make her cry.

... he's alive, though. Well enough to come see her, albeit briefly, and she can't help but be a little relieved at that whispered turn of her name from a familiar voice. Even if she'd barely glimpsed his face, his expression, for her, has always been so obvious -- she'd gathered much from it in that cursory sweep. Her older brother is a fool and an idiot, and he misses her terribly, as much as she misses him.

Her hand covers her heart where it beats achingly in her chest, and she releases a sigh tinged with melancholy.

The anger disippates quickly as it appeared, and all that is left is the prickling warmth from the one she cherishes so dearly. Even if it takes another hundred years, she'll keep her promise. She'll keep chasing. Again and again and again, until they're reunited like they should be.

Her voice is quiet in return, weary but sincere, like laying an oath to rest.

"Happy Lantern Rite.. Kong."