Through the stars

December 8, 2020, 23:26 Beijing, China

Dung casino

It's not like YuNing doesn't enjoy a night out in a club, on the contrary, he likes being surrounded by music and people who are out of their sanity. YuNing however doesn't enjoy a single bit of the body stenches that fill up the tight dance floors and seating area, where people usually do each others at instead of just sitting and talking like normal humans would.

YuNing heads to the bar and orders four shots of the cheapest whisky that there is because, well he's a broke college student and his ego is too big for him to ask his father for money, specially after their last talk when YuNing could tell that something is going on with him, be it financially or mentally, he couldn't tell that much. He was joined by ZiYan, NianZu, QinYu and Liling not long after he was done with two shots. NianZu, being the annoying one he is, downs one of the remaining shots without a permission or a heads up, which is fine because YuNing wasn't going to finish them on his own anyways.

They sit there for a while, QinYu and Liling breaking the news of them being together, ZiYan shooting a look of I told you so at NianZu because yes they had a bet on it like everything else that happens in their lives.

After a couple of rounds of shots, YuNing excuses himself to the bathroom to throw up the inhumane amount of alcohol he just downed, muttering to himself under his breathe that he'd never do that again.

He decides to take a different route on his way back and to go outside from the back door for some fresh air and a cigarette, as there are normally no people there unlike the front door.

YuNing lights up his cigarette and takes a long inhale with it between his lips, exhaling the smoke out and already feeling the tension in his shoulder blades relax. He stays like this for a while, sitting by the stairs right under the door, head and shoulder leaning sideways to the cold metal. Its a peaceful night, one that he doesn't wish to ruin in any way. He pulls out his phone and delays the last contact in his recent, his mother.

"Hello?" AiLin's voice is heavy with sleep and YuNing feels at ease knowing that she is resting sleep and sound.

"Hey ma."

"Hey, is everything alright there?"

"yeah it's all good, I was just checking up on you." YuNing takes the last inhale of the cigarette before throwing it to the ground and turning off the flame by stumping on it.

"don't wor-"

YuNing doesn't get to hear what his mother was about to say as someone has shoved the door open and literally made him fly to the other end of the alley with its force.

"Ningning is everything okay?" YuNing could hear his mother's voice but just as he was about to reach for his phone, he looks up at a horrified young lady. The woman is mumbling something in a language he doesn't understand but he reckons she's apologising. His hands are about to pick up his phone when he sees the woman reaching for it too and their heads bump into each other, which makes the woman slip on her heels and fall backwards onto the ground. YuNing couldn't help a chuckle escaping his mouth and he can sense her doing the same.

YuNing picks the phone and tells AiLin that he's okay and that he'll call her later.

With that out of the way, YuNing takes his time to study the woman as she gets up and dusts herself off. He can't see much of her face, as she's wearing a mask, a hood and eyes hid behind curtain bangs. He could tell however that her eyes are green and that her hair is white. Even without seeing almost anything from her features, something about her aura tells him that she's just naturally beautiful and real.

She seems to realise her mistake after hearing YuNing bid his good night to his mother and turns her speech to mandarin and apologies again.

"I'm really sorry I shouldn't have opened the door this abruptly." She stutters in her words, it's cute, YuNing thinks.

"I'm in one piece so its all good." YuNing shoots her a cheeky smile while waving his hand in the air, and he isn't sure if what he saw was real or if it's just his sleep deprived mind that caused the illusion of shock on her face.

The woman doesn't say anything for like twenty seconds, staring down at YuNing's arm, too intensely that YuNing had to look at his arm too to make sure nothing is wrong with it.

She takes her mask off and goes up to him and reaches out her hands, a soft smile playing on her lips.

"Evdokia." She introduces herself.

YuNing was taken back from her face, the most beautiful face he's ever seen in his life, so real and animated right in front of his eyes. Shit.

"YuNing. " he says back with a calm smile, heart racing that he could hear its beat in his ears.

"YuNing huh." YuNing notes that she's telling herself more than to him.

"You're not from around here are you?" he asks instead.

"No," she gestures her face, "if you couldn't tell from the accent." She lets out a small laugh sound, and oh YuNing is down bad. "and you?"

"I'm not, I'm just here for my studies. "

"oh? What do you study?"

"Music." An embarrassing part of him wants her to ask him to listen to one of his songs.

"that's..cool." well that was disappointing.

"would you like to listen to one of my songs?" he tries instead, internally cringing at himself for actually saying it out loud. YuNing doesn't really know much about love, but he feels like he's standing on the door steps of it. Maybe this is what they call love at first sight, he thinks. And so if he's going to say a cheesy thing or two to win her over he's up for it. The sane part of him is also telling him you're moving too fast and that he shouldn't be this open with some random person that almost caused him a concussion but he ignores that.

She parts her lips for an answer but she never gets the chance to say it because her phone rings suddenly, making YuNing flinch from how loud it is. Evdokia answers the phone and her face changes from calm and smooth to a deep frown with a hint of anger. She doesn't think twice after ending the call and heads straight into the door.

She stops in her track and turns around and waves at YuNing with a smile, and YuNing's heart does a silly little flip, and he also realises that he's an idiot and he never asked her for her number.

*

May 1, 2021, 1:08

Beijing, china

Mogra safehouse

Evdokia watches LiQin's sleeping body as his chest rises and falls at a steady pace. He's back to his human form but they still have him chained just in case. LiQin is known for being a fairy, but only a handful of people know that he has wolf blood in him as well. She noticed that his wolf wasn't exactly sane and almost ripped his son's throat. She doesn't blame him, their shapeshifting memories doesn't always align with reality, not when he probably hasn't shapeshifted in years.

She could clearly see the wrinkles on his face, making him look a little over fifty years. Fairies don't get wrinkles, not unless they settle down and give up their immortality, which he clearly has done. Evdokia thinks that through, the great LiQin, best wizard to ever exist, but also a reason of the worst wars to occur is alive, before her eyes.

She'd be lying if she was to say she doesn't miss him, after all, he was the one to teach her every spell she can cast till this day, every single one. He was also her trainer, by far the best one she had encountered, because all the ones that came after him were just below her own abilities and couldn't compare.

LiQin calls out a name in his sleep, but her ears couldn't catch it, she assumes its AiLin. It leaves Evdokia wonder if LiQin ever told AiLin who he really is. It goes against the laws the creatures have put to protect themselves from viscous humans. But how much does LiQin actually care about creatures laws anyway?

Evdokia thinks if Jean was a human, she'd open up her heart for him with no fear, but she also know Jean is an idiot and he'd freak the fuck out when she tries convincing him she's a real moonfolk by floating up in the air or something.

Evdokia chuckles to herself at the thought of it, oh how much does she love that man.

Robin walks into the garage with more medical supplies in his arms to treat LiQin's wounds when she's covering LiQin with a blanket.

"He looks worn out, doesn't he?" he states more than he asks.

"absolutely."

"Do you think he ever regretted it?"

Huh. Does Evdokia think LiQin ever regretted escaping imprisonment for life and finding his true love and building a family in a different realm than the one he's hated in?

She thinks he did, at some point, if he ever heard about the war, or thought of the consequences of his escape, especially involving Amara into it.

Evdokia watches Robin treating his wounds, attentively so.

"yes, I think he did, at some point, he definitely did."

*

YuNing doesn't realise that he has blacked out until he wakes up.

He didn't have nightmares this time, that's new.

The world around him is silent and dark. He lifts up his head to see that he's resting on a couch, the room smelling like toasted bread. He can hear voices around him, muffled yet clear.

"We'll be staying here till Valodya secures us a ride to the CPA."

A pink haired guy throws his head backwards so hard in annoyance that his back practically bends in half with ease and bounces right back to a mutual posture, not even flinching slightly with how unnatural that bend was, "uh, can't we just drive there?"

No one answers him which makes him groan again, almost throwing a tantrum like a child. The man in question is beautiful, his features soft and feminine, pink and blue eyes contrasting with the powdered pink hair and slightly blushed skin, and if YuNing's eyes weren't tricking him, the guy was almost shining against the minimum amount of light in the room like the insides of a potamilus purpuratus.

On the other side of the room, a tall broadly shouldered guy was fumbling around searching for something in big black bags.

"No we can't." the man says, voice grim, " we can't afford getting ambushed again here."

Again?

"I agree, that would be the easiest way to shed light on us." A tall man with blueish black hair says. He looked like he was checking for the junction boxes since it was too dark in here and no one attempted to turn on the lights until he pulled something against the wall.

"can't you guys call for backup?"

Everyone in the room turns their head to ZiYan and honest to god, YuNing has no fucking idea what is happening. Everyone are just sending an unamused look towards ZiYan.

"No we can't, dumbass, this isn't the F-." Ira shrugs, lips pressed into a thin line.

"Ira." another man with sky blue hair grumbles and slaps Ira on the back of his head.

"Okay but how about using a bathyscaphe?, just say the word boss and I'll get us there with a snap of my fingers. " Ira suggests with a wide grin on his face.

The tall broad guy mumbles something sternly from where he was standing by a large window, his face illuminated with faint orange lightning coming from a lantern outside of the mansion. His face is filled with scars, and YuNing would be lying if he said he wasn't curious about the story behind them.

Ira pouts and drops it, walking up to the couch YuNing is laying on and throwing himself backwards at his legs. He turns his head and looks at YuNing, squinting his eyes at him.

"Boss, he's up." The man shouts.

A woman shouts back got it from the inside of the house, and something about her voice sounded familiar to YuNing.

The sky blue haired man falls to one knee in front of YuNing, his arm busy carrying a first aid kit.

"Name is Robin, I need to check your injuries, if you don't mind of course." YuNing automatically nods his head with no second thoughts. He didn't even discern that his forearm and lower abdominal were covered with medical gauze until he moved his legs off the couch.

Robin unwraps his forearm, the skin already regenerating and yes it makes YuNing freak out and scream.

"This was deeply dug out. This had my bones showing." His voice is shaking and loud, moving his arm away from his body like he's scared of it and trying to get it away from him. Robin is quick to nail him down to the couch, both hands planted onto YuNing's shoulders.

"I know, Mizuki burnt the skin closed." Robin's voice is calm and collected, and keeps YuNing grounded, even if his heart is hammering between his ribcage at the moment.

"You're welcome for that." The man with dark blue hair, Mizuki, shoots from where he's munching onto something by the room's door.

Robin proceeds observing YuNing's arm, applying a cream and numbing it. YuNing's breathe doesn't slow down until his arm is covered again. He takes a few deep breathes, aware of all the eyes digging holes through him around the room.

He's so fucking confused but thankful.

The last thing he remembers was being loaded onto a back of the truck Before he passed out. The hit he got on the back of his neck is still tingling and he's now conscious of what made him black out then.

He expected himself waking up in another underground dungeon or an attic, but he's instead on somebody's couch, safe and sound, wounds being taken care of and all. It's unsettling, specially after what ZiYan and him have gone through throughout the last week.

"Jean, nice to meet you." The man with the largest frame in the room comes up to him introducing himself, hand reaching out to shake his, and YuNing interchanges the gesture.

"YuNing." Voice thin and fragile. From a first glance, the man looks terrifying, but when he smiles at YuNing during their hand shake, the blizzard melts off and he looks soft and lovely. It warms YuNing's heart even though his current situation is anything but comfortable.

The man is about to say something when they hear keys shuffling against the house's door, and YuNing's first instinct was jumping off the couch and running next to ZiYan, where he was standing by the dining table. YuNing could tell ZiYan wasn't any better than his because the second YuNing is beside him, his hands grip onto YuNing's.

"Did you seriously have to work this out in this weather." A woman with a wedged bob hair cut grumbles as she walks into the house, pulling back the hood of her windbreaker while she takes off her muddy boots.

She's followed by two other men and a teenage girl.

"I'm also fine, thank you darling. " Robin says in a sarcastic tone, walking up to the woman and crushing her into a hug.

The woman sighs heavily and melts into Robin's arms. One of the two men who followed her rolls his eyes at them.

"Enough with your lovey dovey shit, we have work to do." Jean walks up to them and goes as far as separating the couple -YuNing assumes-.

The woman huffs and slaps Jean onto his chest.

"where are the boys and girls?" She asks no one in particular.

All the people who were previously in the room faces fall, and YuNing's heart drops to hell and comes back up, and he knows ZiYan feels the same.

Robin steps to the side from where he's blocking the view from the woman and gestures with his palm towards YuNing and ZiYan.

"Fuck." The woman mutters under her breathe.

"only two.." the man who earlier rolled his eyes at the hug and seemed cold, now looks almost scared for his life.

"What happened to the rest?" the other man steps up his arm falling off the little girl's shoulder where it was.

"We were just about to ask them." A white haired woman emerges from the house's main corridor, and that's when YuNing realises where he has heard that voice before, where he has seen this haunting face before.

*