Forgotten love?

A'Xian hesitated just inside the door, his fingers still curled around the handle as if reconsidering.

"Come in."

The voice interjected his thoughts and he snapped to reality.

His room was, again, thick scented but unlike yesterday, it was noticeably triggering to the senses.

A mix of woody and sweet air filled the quarters, this fragrance being the actual luxury of the room.

A'Xian subconsciously took a deep inhale, stuffing the scent inside his lungs full upto the brim.

Ji Haoyu smelled just like this, the day he had visited A'Xian in his chamber. Their bodies pressed close, against each other and while Ji Haoyu left kisses on his shoulder, this scent was the second trigger which had intoxicated him.

A'Xian felt the lingering heat of that day, still caressing him on his body and he shook his head slightly before coming back to reality.

Is this scent meant for intoxicating me?

Ji Haoyu stood near the window, his golden eyes reading every emotion A'Xian was going through.

Confusion then rejection and then submission.

Not to mention the seductive effect he had on A'Xian just by leaving the trace of his scent.

He knew all of it. And the way it had been seducing him in return.

"Come in." Ji Haoyu called out once again and A'Xian obeyed before he could think.

It wasn't compliance. It was inevitability.

His slow steps, his face, his stance, the tension in his shoulders. Ji Haoyu wanted to see that indefinitely.

"You questioned your brother so openly," he murmured. "I did not think you had it in you."

A'Xian finally stopped by the curtain and lifted his eyes to look at him, smiling by the window.

He exhaled slowly. "If you called me here just to mock me—"

"I didn't"

"Huhh?"

Ji Haoyu walked towards the table, lifting up the wine flask, "I didn't call you here to mock you."

He poured two glasses of wine, letting the sound of trickling liquid fill the silence between them.

He brought one glass to A'Xian, "I'm expecting that you can hold your liqor well"

"I don't"

"You don't?" Ji Haoyu pitched his voice, "perhaps.... you're already tipsy"

He eyed A'Xian through the transparent glass as he sipped wine. He kept staring at him while A'Xian avoided looking at him.

Because he remained puzzled even as he stood there like a mocking figure. He might look like a shy child in a stranger's presence, as if not looking at him in the eye would make you invisible. But he was equally tangled inside.

The more he had been interacting with this man, the crown prince of Yonglan, the more he felt like he knew this man from beyond timelines.

There was something about his aura, something about the way he made A'Xian feel, that he couldn't brush off this strange feeling of familiarity.

A'Xian lifted up his gaze. Ji Haoyu was still devouring him with his eyes. Those golden eyes, which once looked at him with love. The hands which now held the glass filled with red wine, were interlaced with his, deliberately binding a red thread connecting their wrists-

"Hold this for me."

A'Xian subconsciously reached out his hand to hold the glass he gave.

Ji Haoyu stepped towards him, his fingertips tracing A'Xian's jaw lightly. He tilted his chin up, forcing him to meet his gaze. "Why?"

A'Xian's cheeks flustered. He wanted to protest, step back. But his body knew something his mind did not.

"I had called you here because I couldn't wait any longer."

A'Xian stiffened. Wait for what?

Ji Haoyu withdrew his hand from A'Xian's face and slid both hands against his waist, locking him into his grip.

A'Xian flinched, raising up his hand to not spill the drink over himself.

Ji Haoyu leaned forward, reading A'Xian's face for the last time before he let himself fall for temptations A'Xian had been flashing since the moment he had entered this room.

Ji Haoyu kissed him.

Not aggressively but intensely with a claim, a demand, a key turning in a lock that A'Xian hadn't realized was rusted shut.

His knees nearly buckled. His vision wavered as if mere fumes of wine had made him drunken.

Ji Haoyu caught him, arms wrapping around his waist, dragging him closer until there was no space left between them. Lips moved hungrily against his, parting only so that breathless gasps could escape between them.

"A'Xian…" Ji Haoyu's voice was hoarse as he dragged his mouth lower, to his throat, his collarbone, his skin burning where lips and teeth left their mark.

A'Xian should have resisted. But his body responded in ways that terrified him. His hands curled into Ji Haoyu's robes, gripping hard yet he wasn't sure whether to push him away or hold him closer.

Why does he…

Memories occupied most of his mind. A different place. A different time. An amber eyed man beneath the pure heavenly sky.

Lips whispering his name with affection.

A'Xian gasped as his back hit the mattress, Ji Haoyu's weight pressing him down.

He watched Ji Haoyu kiss him, explore the places of his body with senses of touch and taste, his hands sliding beneath A'Xian's robes. But he couldn't bring himself to push the man away.

His fingers slowly retracted from their tight resisting grip and almost fell on his sides, on the mattress with a plop.

Ji Haoyu looked, his eyes noticing from the upper margin as he licked A'Xian's raw abs below.

A'Xian closed his eyes. Ji Haoyu had been his before.

No—they had been each other's.

His heart slammed in his chest as pleasure surged through him, drowning out all logic. Ji Haoyu worshiped him with lips, with hands, with the slow, deliberate way he explored him.

By the time they were skin against skin, A'Xian had stopped thinking altogether.

And that made him focus on Ji Haoyu like he never did before. It was a slow claiming where none of them rushed, as if enjoying the rediscovery of something that had been lost.

Ji Haoyu was relentless, whispering against his skin, tracing every curve, every scar, as if committing him to memory all over again.

"You're mine."

He said before entering the third finger immediately after second one, his patience wearing thin.

A'Xian trembled beneath him, but not from fear. From a truth he had ignored for too long.

When Ji Haoyu finally entered him, the last of his resistance shattered.

It wasn't just pleasure but remembrance. A thousand lifetimes crashing into this one moment.

A'Xian closed his eyes as his back arched a little. His hands clenched the bedsheet under him, which was soon replaced by a hand pinning them above his head.

Ji Haoyu watched A'Xian giving in to pleasure as if he desired it from within. He frowned, having seen A'Xian move with his each push had just made him aroused more.

The way he had been tempting him since earlier and now moaned in pleasure under slightest touch, Ji Haoyu felt a sense of achievement.

He leaned forward, not letting his movement get any slower and showered A'Xian with kisses.

He shifted his legs over his shoulders, making his waist move with more curve and force.

"I found you again."

A'Xian opened his eyes swiftly when he heard those words whispered in his ears. He saw Ji Haoyu covered in sweat, his muscles firm and his gaze fixed onto the sight of union between the two.

A'Xian covered his eyes with hands, flustered by their position. The feeling inside was weird but pleasing, but was too shy to admit that.

He peeped through two fingers and looked at Ji Haoyu once again. He was smirking, his eyes getting shut every once in while in pleasure and his low groans that made A'Xian redden again.

If he didn't say those words, who did?

But that didn't matter. A'Xian was the one who remembered the past lives he had lived. And there was no mistaking that this man was his lover in each one of them.

I remember.

So all he did was pull Ji Haoyu closer, letting the past claim him once more.

Long after the heat had faded, A'Xian laid awake, staring at the ceiling as Ji Haoyu's breath warmed his shoulder.

Everything was different now.

But most of all, there was no escaping the past.

Because it had always led him here.

To him.