i soar, pure azure.

Jade Sea, Blue Sky

"I-- Hang on... Who...? Oh."

The Mourning Actor considered the Fool with a sigh, realizing he'd been without his mask in that moment. The redhead simpered with a bright, puckish expression that reminded him of a fox. Vulpine, swift, sneaky, and with enough wit and charm to displace the composure of an Actor like him. Perched atop a rooftop in New Londonium, the lights of the cityscape sprawled and twinkled like a tapestry of stars, the atmospheric tolling of the clock tower they'd stolen away in still causing his tapered ears to ring. Dan Heng regarded the Crimson Mistress skeptically, plucking his mask from the edge where the two had been occupying.

Guilt twisted in Dan Heng's breast at the thought of what they were leaving behind, but Mr Yang and Himeko had passed decisive judgment: they had done everything they could, saved as many survivors as they could, but the Voracity was awakening and there was nothing else they could do. Pearl had ushered them towards salvation, and the only solution was to withdraw to Astropolis, behind the protections of the IPC, and strategize from there. They had just emerged from the savage battle against the Demon Lord, and though victory had seemed to have been won, it didn't feel like they had completely.

It reminded him too keenly of Amphoreus, when he had felt the planet and all its life perish in the instant that Irontomb had, a death so profound it had felt like his heart had been torn, pumping and bleeding and raw, from his chest. Amphoreus was coming back, and he could feel the stirrings of life within, as new and tender as it was.

Strangest of all was the faith Ren's presence gave him, that had once been a source of extreme terror and slaughter. Now, the flames he manifested were welcome, not unlike the patron demigod of forging he had become, a synergy felt within the magma and heat that had once been his cradle, his genesis in Amphoreus' newest cycle.

Hesitantly, digits shyly sought and found Ren's hand, taking it briefly and giving it the faintest of squeezes.

Dan Heng's normally unflinching gaze flickered, shuttering as he blinked away that overwhelming, staggering truth that could crush him in an instant. He understood Shufeng came from a place of compassion, a basic show of empathy that most people were capable of executing. He knew that. Yet, perhaps it was the sheer outlandishness of the question paired with the inalienable bizarreness of his lifestyle since birth that had placed above and beyond the mundane ken. Not as some show of divinity, but as a pawn that was untouchable, manipulated and unable to be saved.

He didn't know loneliness because there was nothing to contrast it to. He didn't have friends; he was hated and had that fact reinforced before he'd ever learned to speak. There was nothing, and no one. That fact reminded him often; too often, perhaps. Dan Heng's hands clenched until the knuckles blanched beneath voluminous sleeves, shaking from the pressure.

"...You are?"

Dan Heng blinked in surprise when Jing Yuan said that offhandedly as they wandered through Aurum Alley's streets, striding with a hand behind his back as he typically did, shoulders back and a regal beacon for the townspeople who passed them by with hellos and smiles in equal, contagious measure. He looked proud to be among the people he loved, in the home he treasured, an emblem of strength and one of the Luofu's strongest pillars. The two of them had been shooting the breeze after Jing Yuan had caught him in the middle of his walk of shame back to the Petrichor Inn his friends were staying at, the night spent in the company of... someone else. Shame had caused him to linger slightly behind Jing Yuan, but that admittedly blindsided him.

It seemed like such an outlandish thing to say, if because it dawned on him that he didn't know Jing Yuan as a man outside of his role. The noble, forthright general who acted in the name of justice and the glory of the Xianzhou. It wasn't ridiculous; he just wondered what someone in Jing Yuan's position had to be jealous of.

Within the remains of Perdito Station, the distant sounds of the apocalypse had culminated in an uneasy silence that was the closest thing they had to peace. Leaning against the central column, exhaustion weighed heavily in his bones after the hours spent healing people with Cloudhymn. Maybe it was his own fault for his stamina not being par with his predecessor's yet, as he'd once been capable of healing legions and summoning the deadliest tsunamis in its wake. Maybe he could brood on his slights later, but then and there, Dan Hen couldn't keep his eyes open despite how desperately he wanted to remain alert for any new arrivals, but he couldn't. Slowly, Dan Heng sank to the cold tile, arms folded tightly around him, sleeping while sitting that had once been his reality, years ago--

Dan Heng had been so deeply entrenched in sleep that he hadn't heard the soft clacking of a cane against the floor, the rustling of a blanket unfurling outside of his notice. As the downy fabric draped over him, it took Dan Heng a second to stir awake, the person responsible unseen, but not unknown.

At such a wildly dichotomous phrase, it didn't quite process in Dan Heng's mind at first. First came guilt, anticipating some apologetic spiel on his part that might segue into a thoughtful and honest dissection of their bloody, violent past, but as Ren continued to smirk while speaking, a flush crept up his nape as embarrassment of another kind burgeoned in its place. Ever since what had felt like their tumultuous courtship began in earnest, Dan Heng had quietly put an end to his admitted promiscuity and sought to find another outlet for his involuntary lusts.

That being, of course, fornicating with Cloudhymn constructs that happened to look and behave like the man seated next to him in the Archives, last night's going in the exact same direction that Ren was flirting about.

But now, his mind was spiraling into imagining the genuine article, the efforts from the night before completely unwinding as hot, impatient arousal trickled into his body and made him abruptly stand up, growing in intensity as the heat and impatient, antsy feeling became unbearable. At first, Dan Heng had half a mind to respond offhandedly while feigning interest in one of the external consoles, but he circled back and stood behind the swordsman, instead. Deftly, Dan Heng cupped the underside of Ren's sturdy jaw and forced his gaze upwards, crown resting against his stomach while Dan Heng gazed down at him, enigmatic and vaguely disapproving. Yet, that slender, elegant hand sensually caressed from the soft underside of his jawbone to his throat, remembering where the gory slash had been made.

"That... among others," Dan Heng mused, blatantly cupping one of Ren's pectorals in hand, fondling the fleshy muscle. "There was also here." Gliding from one pectoral to the orifice above his heart, that hand slid down Ren's muscular abdomen, fanning his fingers on his navel and daring to skim the waistband of his trousers. "...And here." Just as he was about to caress even lower, Dan Heng tauntingly moved away and back towards the console, leaving the space where he'd been slightly cooler and empty.

"There was... more than that. I'm not sure if I can remember them all."