#things I never thought I'd write: a joukai xianxia AU

[alectoperdita]

i’m watching love between fairy and devil on netflix. i do think kaiba should be cursed to be nice to jounouchi and nurture his heart and feel his emotions and fall in love with him because he’s learned to be a human being again in jounouchi’s presence. i want a thousand fics just like that

I just looked up the synopsis for that one, and oh boy! Patricide? Forced psychic/mystical bond? On top of everything else you described? That is one delicious setup for this ship. <3

Gotta admit reading that did inspire me a bit. I didn't have time to watch the show itself (will maybe give it a try when I have the time to read subtitles), but I took a stab at writing a short drabble inspired by that premise. I'm sorry if I've missed the mark due to my unfamiliarity with the original source material, but I hope it entertains you.

Flower imagery, classical Chinese poetry, and plenty of footnotes ahead.

🌕🌻🌕🌻🌕🌻🌕🌻🌕🌻🌕🌻🌕🌻🌕🌻

The Moon Supreme.

What a pompous title for a pompous blowhard.

With a name like Kaiba, he should've been one of the Dragon King's retinue. But otherwise, the epithet was a fitting one for the ethereal being—cold, distant, and unfeeling. And if the legends bore truth, a cold-blooded killer down to his core.

All that stood between the tall, imperious creature and the destruction of the Three Realms was Katsuya. Plain, old Katsuya, the lowest of the blossom xians [1]. While the others of his kin bore heads of lovely reds and blues and purples, as vibrant as plum, peony, irises in bloom, his hair was colored yellow like wheat.

Hay-head, the other blossom xians had mocked him in their youths.

Nor was he delicate and slim-limbed. His arms were sturdy as tree trunks, his palm as broad as lotus pads. His face, perhaps handsome enough for mortals, didn't carry the same dignified features that greater painters drove themselves into a frenzy to capture.

Hardly beautiful.

A xian in mere name.

His temper flared. He kicked a stray stone into the pond, disrupting the reflection that gazed up from the water.

"You're moping." A deep voice piped next to him.

Katsuya jumped and spun to face the intruder that dared to impinge on his solitary reflection. Speak of the devil. Kaiba loomed, a lanky monolith in his ice blue hanfu, in the shadow of the nearby willow tree. The slender vines and verdant leaves swayed in the warm breeze. The same wind ruffled Kaiba's chestnut locks, pulling back the curtain of long bangs to bear his ocean blue eyes.

The verse rose within Katsuya's mind, unbidden.

"Green, green, the riverside grass, Dense, dense, the garden willow." [2]

Kaiba arched an elegant brow at the sudden couplet, but he answered with the next lines.

"Dainty is the maiden upstairs, Shining bright through the window." [3]

Just as quickly, Katsuya's mood soured again. Dainty maidens, his ass.

Kaiba winced. A grimace cracking the flawless marble of his handsome face.

Faintly, Katsuya wondered how the man processed those feelings of inadequacies that didn't belong to him. A superior asshole like Kaiba probably never felt deficient, even before he sacrificed his ability to feel emotions. But he pinned Katsuya as moping before, so he learned enough to put a name to that feeling.

Perhaps their time together wasn't a complete waste. Kaiba could learn, however slowly. But would it be enough to stave off his thirst for vengeance?

He turned his back on Kaiba, bending down to sort through the stones on the rocky banks. Kaiba hung back, safe from the mortal realm's sun under the willow tree's protection. It took a few seconds, but Katsuya finally found a suitable flat stone. He wound his arm back, throwing all his strength into launching the stone across the water's surface. It skipped no less than a dozen times before sinking into the center of the sizable pond.

Pride bloomed in Katsuya's chest before it withered twice as quickly.

That finally spurred Kaiba into action.

Katsuya listened as the man stomped forward, grabbed his elbow, and hauled him to his feet. Soon, he was dragging him away from the riverbed and uphill toward a grassy knoll.

Katsuya fought. But even his strength failed when matched up against the Moon Supreme's stubbornness. "What are you doing? Lemme go!"

Kaiba did not let him go. He seemed intent on bodily dragging Katsuya, if it came down to it.

"Where are you taking me?" he snarled.

This time, Katsuya threw a punch with his free hand. It collided solidly with Kaiba's shoulder, and had he been something other than a cold-blooded bastard, it would've hurt. But as it was, he merely shrugged off the hit.

"To the city. To feed you. Distract your simple mind with simple amusements. Whatever needs to be done to rid you of this wretched malaise," Kaiba spat out past his gritted teeth.

"Leave me alone. Maybe I wanna mope. Maybe I want you to feel as bad as I do!" he shouted.

With teeth bared, Kaiba stopped and spun toward him. He dropped his inhuman grip to Katsuya's wrist and squeezed. Were Katsuya not divine or weaker in constitution, it would've crushed his bones. Instead, his wrists twinged.

"As long as I'm stuck with you—as long as we're entangled like this—I'll do what I must. You don't get a choice," snapped Kaiba.

Katsuya glared back. He supposed if another of his kin were subjected to this, they'd burst into tears. He'd do no such thing, though. "You still don't get it, do you? You can't just force people out of their bad moods. You can't just snap your fingers and make them feel better. Especially when the only reason you're trying is for your own sake!"

Theirs was a wretched arrangement. It may be Kaiba's curse, but Katsuya was being no less punished for it. It wasn't fair.

Everyone expected Katsuya to fail. That hurt more than anything.

Never being enough.

His pain sharpened. Kaiba grunted and dropped his hand like hot coal. Katsuya hugged his wrists close and sank to the ground again.

He stared at the grass, heaving heavy breaths. "You think I wanna feel like this? You think I enjoy this?"

Kaiba said nothing. His feet remained locked in place on the periphery of Katsuya's vision. "Then why won't you let me make this better?"

"Because this isn't something you can fix. You can't fix me, Kaiba. You can't make me a proper blossom xian," he muttered.

The wind picked up again. A lark sang in the bushes. They said nothing to each other in the wake of Katsuya's declaration. The pain dulled to an ache inside Katsuya's chest. A worn and familiar feeling that pressed on his heart.

Grass crunched as Kaiba shifted. To his surprise, Kaiba joined him on the ground. "Who's to say you're not a proper blossom xian? You are one because it's your nature."

His gaze snapped up to Kaiba's face. "Please, you've seen me, you've seen the others. I mean, just look at this—" He tugged a tuft of yellow hair at his temple. "The color's so plain. So common in flowers. They used to call me 'hay-head.' Some of them still do."

"Chrysanthemums are among the Four Gentlemen," argued Kaiba. [4]

Chrysanthemums also came in shades of white, pink, and violets. But as soon as he opened his mouth to argue, his temple stung. He gaped as Kaiba withdrew his hand with several strands of Katsuya's hair clasped between his lithe fingers.

Kaiba looked him straight in the eyes, entirely serious and without a hint of mocking. "You're the only blossom xian I've spent time with. As far as I'm concerned, you're the only proper one."

Something in Katsuya's chest fluttered.

An odd expression flashed across Kaiba's face. He surely felt it, too. Without breaking eye contact, Kaiba transferred the hairs into his palm and made a fist before drawing from his considerable well of qi. Katsuya stiffened, alarmed by the overt use of power. But he was even more shocked by what Kaiba revealed when he unclenched his hand.

A sprig of osmanthus blossoms in the exact shade as Katsuya's hair. [5]

His breath hitched when Kaiba next spoke, low and melodious in his recitations.

"A pale wash of light yellow, gentle in substance and character. Aloof by nature, yet its fragrance carries afar. What need is there of light cyan or pale red blossoms? This one ranks first among all the flowers." [6]

Despite himself, warmth flooded Katsuya's cheeks. He could only dumbly accept the flowers when Kaiba offered them to him. He could feel the frosted bite of Kaiba's qi within them. But it didn't make them any less beautiful.

A slow smirk spread across Kaiba's lips. It was impossible to hide the fact that Katsuya was charmed when he literally felt what Katsuya did. But Katsuya couldn't find it within himself to be annoyed or mad. He twirled the sprig in his fingers.

"Is there really an osmanthus tree on the moon?" he asked instead.

Kaiba's smile turned mysterious. "Perhaps you'll find out one day."

------

[1] I've never been very hot on the translation of xian to fairy. Not that I have a much better suggestion, but thankfully, the rise of western C-Drama fandom has made it easier to use the original terms.

[2] [3] Translations of lines 1-4 of 《青青河畔草》 from 《古詩十九首》, an anthology of classic Chinese poems with no attributed authors. Lines 1-2 were taken from Pleco’s translation because I really like their alliteration. Lines 3-4 was translated by me since I couldn’t find better ones. ^^;;;

青青河畔草，鬱郁園中柳。 盈盈樓上女，皎皎當窗牖。

[4] The Four Gentlemen are the plants most commonly depicted in traditional ink paintings. They include the plum blossom, the orchid, bamboo, and the chrysanthemum.

[5] Osmanthus flowers are often associated with lunar legends in Chinese tradition. It's said that an osmanthus tree grows on the moon, which is why Katsuya asks Kaiba that at the end of the story. It was just too perfect of an association to pass up! Jounouchi's blond! Kaiba's from the moon! It writes itself!

[6] Ronald Egan's translation of a poem about osmanthus flowers by Li Qingzhao.