Chibiko

Your heart is like the ocean,

Not a ripple in your eyes,

Still as starless nights and cloudless skies.

Your heart is like the ocean,

Serenading me for days,

Your lips carrying sweet words like waves.

Your heart is like the ocean,

Your hands hold me without fear,

A calming face through worries and tears.

Your heart is like the ocean,

Unruly feelings you must hide,

Push and pulling at you like a tide.

Your heart is like the ocean,

A life lost in the Luo river,

A thousand drowned between Jing and Wei.

Your heart is like the ocean,

Gentle waters now show true colours,

Revealing an abyss full of darkness.

Your heart is like the ocean,

Your soul engulfs all who stand,

Dragging you and me down to our end.

Your heart is like the ocean,

Your debt of blood runs so deep,

The name echoed throughout the empty yard, where a figure hidden in mist stood. Its weight was lost on Qi Yan, who only wished to be regarded by Nangong Jingnu in any form. Qi Yan, Agula... it was all the same to her when they fell out her tongue. Qi Yan glanced over her shoulder and deeply smiled at the woman hurrying towards her. Spring showers promised verdant ground and bright blossoms along the thin branches stretching over Nangong Jingnu's residence. But for Qi Yan the cool showers promised the threat of illness and afternoons spent under heavy covers.

"You'll fall ill if you keep standing here," Nangong Jingnu chastises albeit tenderly with nothing more than a soft dip of her brows. The wet dirt stains the hem of her robes as she lets it drag behind her. She reaches out and clasps her hand around Qi Yan's wrist.

Qi Yan steps to the side to fully face her wife, dark stands of hair sticking to the side of her face from the rain. "I won't be out much longer," she reassures, "you need not worry." She barely catches Nangong Jingnu puffing out her cheeks before she looks back out to the ocean outside of their property. The fluffy, white foam crashed against the shore and darkened the grains of sand dividing an unmovable object. Where there should be a pang of remorse and sorrow from the sight of relentless water there is nothing.

Qi Yan no longer remembered the moment when the river almost claimed her life as it did Flowing Fire. At least, not the water in her lungs or the Wei Kingdom cornering her on the edge of the cliff. Instead, she feels nothing. Her amber gaze digs through the ocean while Nangong Jingnu clings to her arm.

She purses her lips and follows Qi Yan's gaze, taking a beat before pressing her body hers. "What are you looking for?" Her cheek presses against the damp fabric of Qi Yan's garments. Nangong Jingnu tightens her grip around her wrist; the rain could wash mountains into mud and sandcastles into dirt until nothing was left. Qi Yan wouldn't be swept away with rain, not as long as she could hold her.

Qi Yan tears her gaze away from the rushing current, focusing on the heat encompassing her fine wrist. Whatever she was searching for, a memory of a memory, a hunger to fill, she could not care to find it.

She shakes her head, wrapping her hand around Nangong Jingnu's own wrist and bringing it up to her lips. "Nothing." She smiles, pressing a kiss on her wrist.

"Let's go inside before the rain becomes heavy."