• Rating: T
• Categories: M/M
• Fandom: 天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
• * Pairing:* Huā Chéng/Xiè Lián
• Characters: Huā Chéng, Xiè Lián
• Additional Tags: Ficlet, Amnesia, Established Relationship, Fluff
• Status: Complete
• Wordcount: 1077
• Published on AO3: 2021-03-16

Notes: Xie Lian and Hua Cheng might not know who they are, but they know they’re in love.

Disclaimer: I do not own 天官赐福 or any associated trademarks.

Hua Cheng wakes up and—something is missing. There is a gap, a hole, a chasm spread over his heart. His body is on fire, his soul colder than ice, his heart caught in a cascade of emotions too complicated for him to name. Something inside him cries. Something else laughs victoriously. There is a—jaggedness to his feelings when he tries to examine them.

He doesn’t know where he is.

This is the second thing he realizes. The first is that he doesn’t know who he is but that’s of lesser importance. He—needs to find something. There is something missing and he needs to find it, and in the wake of that unrelenting need… some lost memories really isn’t that big of a deal.

He climbs to his feet. He’s in a forest somewhere; he doesn’t recognize a thing around him. That’s fine. He’s looking for something; something that is everything to him.

Hua Cheng knows his name. This is a thought that occurs to him while he’s looking through comically overgrown trees for—what he’s searching for. He knows his name. It’s Hua Cheng. Why he knows his name and nothing else, he doesn’t care to think about.

The searching is important. He can’t stop until he finds—

Somebody.

Yes, it’s a somebody. Not a something, but a person. He needs to find them and until then, every question he has will just have to go unanswered.

It’s morning, the sun in the middle of rising, when his search reaches its end.

There are footsteps up ahead, a voice on the wind he doesn’t recognize—but his dead heart speeds up at the sound of it. His feet tramples on the uneven ground, his eyes growing wider as he gets closer. There; between the trees, around that bend, beyond that rock, near that river… is a god.

An actual god, Hua Cheng isn’t just being dramatic. He can feel it; this man is a god. He’s a god and Hua Cheng is a ghost, long since dead. He can feel this too.

”Is somebody there?” the actual god asks, sounding fretfully uncertain. This is not okay.

Hua Cheng bursts out from the woods onto the riverbank.

The actual god blinks at him, looking him over, and then he—smiles. Softly. His eyes brightening to an unfair degree. He stands up from the river and turns fully to Hua Cheng, taking a hesitant step closer. He’s clothed cheaply, a straw hat on his head, and he smiles, smiles, smiles.

Hua Cheng thinks he might have died again. But if so—it’s worth it.

A burst of warmth is worming its way out of his chest, pooling in his stomach; his throat; his arms and his legs and his lungs and more body parts than he thought he possessed. There is—something inside him that begs to be released.

”Hello,” he croaks out. His voice rasps, the vocal cords abruptly deciding to stop working.

The actual god takes another step toward him and says, ”Hi.”

Heart attacks feel like this, huh. He clenches a hand over his heart, feeling it beating erratically. That’s fine, he doesn’t need it to live. Let it beat out of his chest and display itself at the feet of this god; Hua Cheng will support its ambitions.

”Do I know you?” The actual god tilts his head and smiles beatifically at him.

Hua Cheng says, ”I don’t remember. But…” he lets the sentence hang in the air between them, uncertain of what to say. They must know each other—it wouldn’t feel as it his very soul was quivering otherwise. But he can’t think of a way to say that without sounding like a maniac.

”Ah, it’s just…” the god scratches his cheek and laughs. ”I’m fairly certain I’m in love with you.”

Hua Cheng has died. For like the fourteenth time. This is—not real; not unreal.

The god is still talking— ”…my heart is pounding when I look at you, and I feel the need to hug you and I want to tell you about the things I saw coming here. Did you know that there are very peculiar wolves living in this forest? And I wonder if might be interested in having a meal with me?”

”Yes,” Hua Cheng says. He’s not entirely certain what he’s saying yes to, but that doesn’t matter. Anything this god says, anything this god wants, anything—Hua Cheng will give.

”I’m Hua Cheng,” he tacks on while the god is floundering at his speedy response.

The god smiles softer (how is it possible?) and he says, ”My name is Xie Lian. I appear to have lost my memory, and have no idea where I am.”

He does not sound concerned about this.

”We match, then,” Hua Cheng says.

He crosses the final bit of distance between them and holds out his arm. He does not know why he does it, but when the god intertwines their arms, he thinks he understand.

This is an actual god. How did Hua Cheng fall in love with a god?

Surely, a person like this is too good for him.

With their arms connected, the warmth within him spirals out of control. He feels—like he’s going to combust. His eyes water, for some reason. There is a beat in his chest spelling out joy; endless, agonizing joy. The kind that takes him over and makes him smile and he grins and he leans forward and he says, ”Shall we solve this mystery together, my dear?”

And something in him breaks. It shatters into a thousand little pieces, the puzzle of his identity lost to the knowledge he acquires. Hua Cheng is love with this person. With Xie Lian.

He loves him.

Xie Lian’s answering smile is bright and shining and for a moment it blinds him; ”Of course,” he says, and he crosses the last bit of distance between them and presses a quick kiss to Hua Cheng’s cheek.

It’s warm and soft and gentle and a part of him sits up and takes notice—who cares about the malicious intentions surrounding them? Who cares about the bloodlust he can feel gathering around them? Who cares about the interrupted ritual spilling its discontent in the air? Who cares about the weapons and the anger and the pain?

Hua Cheng is in love with this man. He wonders how much it costs to hold a wedding.