Xiao sat beneath the canopy of night, brushing strands of hair from Yujin's flushed face. The stars seemed to pulse quietly, like old secrets humming in the sky. Yujin lay close, shirt loose, still catching his breath. His soul bird—a silver-feathered thing with a tail like falling threads—rested curled near his chest. It pulsed with the same rhythm as his heartbeat.
Xiao didn't speak. His fingers were tangled in Yujin's hair, thumb tracing slow lines across his temple.
"You're staring again," Yujin mumbled, not opening his eyes.
"I'm watching the moment I'll never forget," Xiao said softly. "It's rare…to feel someone belong beside you. Like a wing beside wind."
Yujin's smile came slowly. "Do wings belong to wind, or does wind follow wings?"
"Both," Xiao murmured. "Like you and me."
They had already stopped pretending they needed reasons to share a bed. Ever since the ghost rain incident, when Yujin nearly shattered himself protecting Xiao's soul, there was an unspoken softness between them—one that didn't need declarations anymore.
Yujin touched the edge of Xiao's sash. "Should I make tea?"
Xiao leaned down and kissed him instead. Not hurried. Not wild. Just enough for Yujin to forget the world entirely.
They were in an inn near Yue Ridge, the borderland where cultivator clans avoided staying too long. Too many curses. Too many tales of lost ones.
But they chose this place.
It had a balcony. It had space. It had silence.
Later that night, Xiao sat with Yujin in his arms. The bird was asleep on the pillow, wings half-spread.
"I think it's growing," Xiao whispered.
Yujin nodded. "When it trusts someone, it gets bigger. Brighter."
"And it trusts me?"
"No." Yujin kissed him on the neck. "It trusts you and me. As one."
And that they are already the same bridges two sides..like made for each other