Wen Reian

2005 years after The Long Night

The Spirit Orchard

It was a particularly freezing day in Jingshén, so much so that extra firewood was sent up to all the dorm rooms and master's chambers, everyone lighting fires to melt away the frost on their fingers. There was one room however, that had no fire lit. No one inside, from midday to dusk. And that was because, on a day like today, there was sure to be no one else visiting the river...

Wen Reian smiled from where he lay on the blanket, curled up in his warmest cloak and staring sidelong at the man dozing fitfully, arms crossed, stirring every few moments to complain about the cold.

Laughing, the boy reached out and nudged the King.

"If you're really so uncomfortable, we could have stayed inside and rested."

Xie Yi-jun was the one who had suggested this in the first place, Reian not understanding why until finally the King rolled over and grabbed the boy, pulling him close and wrapping them up in his own coat.

Wen Rei grinned, the heat on his face rising as he was stuffed rather tightly against Yi-jun's warm chest, eyes just barely peeking out to wander over that handsome, familiar face.

An excuse to hug me... I can't say I'm surprised.

Ever since the New Year's Festival, Xie Yi-jun had been more than a little clingy. Always finding the right moments to grab Reian around the waist when no one was looking, play with his hair, hold his hand...

Wen Rei closed his eyes, breathing in deeply and nearly drifting off to sleep in their own little world, when something strange caught his attention.

Tugging at the corners of his mind, was a sensation not unlike one he'd felt before in dreams, where he practiced healing with Songcai.

Someone nearby is hurt-

"Reian?!" Xie Yi-jun huffed in surprise as the boy suddenly rolled away, sitting up and blinking several times at the scenery around them like a wild animal that had suddenly caught the scent of something.

The King sat up too, clearly confused, but it wasn't a moment later that both of them finally heard the noise. Yi-jun's eyes widened and Reian stood at once. It was a sound he ought to be used to, after so many children passing through the doors of Jingshén in the last twenty years of his life...

A baby is crying.

"Wen Rei!"

Yi-jun called after him, as Reian had immediately bolted towards the sound. Hearing the cry growing louder, feeling the fear of the child heightening the longer it was left out in the cold, Reian was soon running through the trees at the bank of the river like a madman, the King following close behind.

There-

Underneath two fallen trees half under the water, a cradle made of sticks and leaves was being rocked gently by the waves...

Heart racing, the boy was already bending down and taking off his cloak, shouting for Yi-jun's help at the same time as he was trying to catch the basket from drifting away or tipping.

The suddenness and horror of seeing a newborn out here like this was pushed to the back of Reian's mind, as all he could think about at that moment was how cold it was, and how the baby was only covered in several dead leaves.

"Yi-jun!"

Reian shouted just as the King appeared, wasting no time to wade several steps into the river and pick up the cradle. Xie Yi-jun sat it on the bank but the baby was still crying, thrashing her curled hands and feet, nose as red as a holly-berry.

"What should we-"

Yi-jun's question was answered when Reian suddenly picked up the child, laying it gently atop his cloak and wrapping it securely as he'd done to others he'd cared for in the past. Never had his hands shaken so much, or moved so fast...

"The longer we're out here the worse it will be," Reian hurried to stand, quickly helping Yi-jun out of the water.

They walked as fast as they could while Reian held the little one close to his body and Yi-jun kept his hand on Reian's shoulder. Like that, they made it to the castle in only minutes and Reian was immediately rushing to where he knew they would be safe.

"Wen Rei?"

Master Hao and Master Byo both looked up from their desks in the library when they hurried inside. It was an off day for the boys so Reian knew the masters would be here.

"Please, help!" Reian spoke in a rush; "We found it in a basket in the river, it's freezing-"

Both men knew what the boy meant at once. They'd seen countless children in baskets, in blankets. Tossed out into the woods with only a name-tag, or nothing at all... a cradle and some leaves is a mercy-

The men took the bundle from Reian's arms and gently set the now eerily silent baby on the table. As Reian watched, he felt his eyes water as he recalled how he himself had been found in the woods. Wrapped in dirty laundry, tossed out into a place no one would bother looking... his parents had wanted him to die.

"Reian?"

Not even Yi-jun's voice in that moment could cut through the boy's pain, his fear that this child would not end up being as lucky as he had been. To survive...

"I just," Reian shook his head, shrugging off the King's hand and then stumbling a little as he went for the door.

"I need a minute."

It was several hours later, past sunset when Master Hao found Wen Rei drying his tears under the stairs. A lot of the boys went there to cry because it was too public to do so in your bed. If you stumbled across someone weeping under the staircase, it was an unspoken rule to just keep walking... Reian couldn't remember the last time he'd been here.

"Master?" He blinked when he realised the man was holding a very alert-looking and un-frozen baby.

It had been wrapped in proper bedding and had a cap upon its head. Wen Rei breathed a sigh of nervous relief as he saw his master smile.

"Come out now and meet your baby sister," the old man chuckled. "I'm letting you name her. Take her to the kitchen and prepare a bottle, yes? Someone will be in shortly."

Speechless, unaware until now that the baby was a girl as he'd been far too busy to check, Reian only nodded, wiping the remainder of his tears and going to take her from his master's arms.

It was several minutes later that he'd settled into the rocking chair in the corner of the kitchen with a bottle, and was cooing at the child to help her fall asleep.

I've never been more grateful for my gift than in this moment, the boy thought.

"There you are..."

Xie Yi-jun's exasperated sigh was followed by surprised silence, as the man came into the kitchen and found Reian sitting there, holding the little bundle.

Yi-jun took a few cautious steps forward, then said; "I thought Master Hao took her-"

"Shh!" Reian hissed softly, his one free hand continuously patting the child's back.

The young King seemed to watch the two of them in the partial light coming from the hallway, his eyes fixed upon the baby.

Reian could feel that there was something different in Yi-jun's heart at that moment. He wasn't sure what it was. Confusion, or maybe even regret? Surely sadness for the poor thing's state, but also an emotion much deeper that Reian couldn't fully understand.

Seeing the way Yi-jun kept opening and closing his fists by his side, the boy smiled a little, offering the baby out to him with a gentle laugh.

"Here-"

The King's eyes met his. Reian could see the way Yi-jun's brow furrowed as he stared at him.

"What?"

"You looked like you wanted to hold her,"

The King's eyes widened that much more...

"Her?!"

Reian cradled the baby back against his chest and looked down at her face, nodding.

"We've only had two other girls here my entire life. Master Hao says that even poor families who can't afford to feed their children will still keep girls for chores and housework," Reian frowned, raising a hand up to carefully adjust the baby's blanket.

"-it's not fair..."

While he'd been talking, Xie Yi-jun had come a little closer. Near enough to lean down over them and examine the little one's face.

"She's... small. How old?"

Reian shrugged. "Less than six months-"

"Hell..."

Looking up to see the conflicted expression on the King's face, Reian couldn't help from trying again. He felt that Yi-jun needed this for some reason.

"Do you know how to hold a baby?"

Yi-jun paused for several seconds too long.

"...yes."

Smiling at his apparent hesitance, Wen Rei took the next few moments, carefully and quietly coaxing the child into Yi-jun's arms. He held her at first with extreme tension visible in his body and face. After Reian had adjusted his grip on the baby's back however, Yi-jun seemed to relax.

Curiously, it was mere minutes later that Xie Yi-jun was pacing slowly back and forth around the kitchen, the child pressed against his chest as he gently rocked her.

Reian was impressed, and quite enamoured by the King's sudden display of caretaking knowledge. He watched the two for a while in silence, trying his hardest to remember from the few books he'd read, if Xie Yi-jun had had any young relatives to care for like this.

Realising with a sense of shyness that he could in fact just ask the man, Reian gazed warmly at the way Yi-jun was now swaying side to side in place, his eyes closed as if he was lulling himself to sleep as well.

"Looks like you've done this before," Reian whispered.

He heard the King sigh; "Not really..."

Biting his lip, Reian tried again. Asking the question he realised he truly wanted the answer to-

"You were never a father?"

Xie Yi-jun stopped, his eyes opening slowly but not meeting Reian's. Instead they gazed past him, into the darkness, a sight that was as understandable to Wen Reian as it was heartbreaking.

The King answered with a resigned shrug, and the words; "There was never any time for that sort of thing."

Blinking, Reian was more than eager to continue prying, his curiosity and longing to know Yi-jun deeply overwhelming even his most basic courtesy.

"And if there had been time?" He said softly, "After the war?"

Unbeknownst to him, Xie Yi-jun was smiling. Reian only finally saw it when the King turned slowly and his expression was revealed amid the shadows and partial light.

Yi-jun continued his gentle little waltz around the kitchen, only replying to Reian when he was quite far away...

"If only we'd been so lucky,"

Reian thought for a moment. He understood the King's words after processing them. Their meaning settled deep into his heart, both warming and freezing it at the same time.

He means Songcai. Jin Songcai and him were going to have a family. They were going to build one, somehow. All that, their future, their lives together... the potential to grow and change and love one another, and be fathers, and teachers, and husbands. All that was taken away in an instant.

Reian had of course always felt pity in a way, for both Yi-jun and Songcai. For a while, even sorry that he himself wasn't the King's reincarnated lover. Now, after knowing Xie Yi-jun better, after loving him, Reian's soul wept for the loss of all that potential beauty and life that the King could have had.

Even if that life would have been with someone else... I mourn the loss of all of it, for Yi-jun. Because in loving him, I see just the smallest bit of what that potential means.

After several more minutes of the silence slowly gathering like frost on a window, Xie Yi-jun swayed slowly back toward Reian.

The baby was fast asleep, one of her arms had even fallen out of the blanket she was so relaxed...

Wen Rei smiled and stood, holding onto Yi-jun's arm with one hand while his other gently tucked the child's little fist back in. When he was done he gazed down at her delicate features, her dark eyelashes and pouty lips. Reian knew the pain of being abandoned in this world at such an age. Because of that, he would make sure the little one grew up knowing only friendship and love.

"What's her name?" Yi-jun whispered.

Reian blinked, finally looking up into the King's eyes. Within them he saw the strangest combination of joy, and despair. The kind of feeling Reian imagined a parent would have upon realising their child, while in this world finally, was still inevitably mortal...

Reian frowned. Master Hao had tasked him with looking after her for the time being, until she could be cared for by one of the Masters. Master Hao had told Reian that he should spend some time with her, get to know her, and then give her a name.

Seeing the little one's innocent beauty, her life that was a blank page, a story now full of potential, a story that Reian would be certain to fill with the purest of love, there seemed to be only one name fitting.

Smiling softly, he went to rest his hand above Yi-jun's on the little one's back, the King holding her tightly as if he'd never let go.

Reian only nodded, feeling his and Yi-jun's spirits swirling and settling against one another where their skin touched-

"Her name..." he said. "Her name is Song-jun."