Archive of Our Own

They say that the universe would end in four ways — destruction, nihility, harmony and remembrance — for the universe is ever expanding and must come to a fitting conclusion, one that makes the biggest impact.

However, no one ever talks about the aftermath of such an end.

What happens when the curtains fall? When the universe ends? Does it remain stagnant, lifeless and dim or does it born anew? The cycle of life and death repeating in infinite computations. Dan Heng wouldn't know, because he is a long-life species and for him the universe is unending. Rebirth after rebirth, new sufferings to trouble him rather than existential dread and crisis for the universe hasn't ended yet. And it never will for a Vidyadhara.

Until it does.

Abruptly and painfully, as most endings come, wrenched from his hands at the speed of light. He is left gasping, hands torn apart and bloody. They are shaking, and his vision is blurry. There is an ache in his body that can only be explained through the words of death.

And Death arrives with an acrid smell of blood permeating through the wrecked car as it spewes out dust and smoke, choking him. Dan Heng had never had to experience death first hand, perhaps through a loved one dying sure, he thought he had when he was Dan Feng, when he was so hell bent on reviving his friend and prolonging the life of the person he thought he'd spend his life with but now he understands that it was nothing compared to when Death actually arrives.

When it takes something from your soul instead, and you're left trembling and gasping — begging for relief, for mercy but it listens naught to your pleas or your anger. It snatches away the thing you didn't even know was a part of your being.

Dan Heng feels it then, in the core of his heart — something stolen from him uninhibitedly, without explanations, without farewells — he struggles to his feet, groping blindly for direction in the darkness, searching for what was suddenly missing, for warmth, for light, for him.

Dan Heng listens for noises, perhaps to glean where he was but he could only hear deathly silence, the echoes of life slipping away. Dan Heng hisses as he moves, everything feels like there was something broken. There was a sudden groan then, of the train car shifting, as if it was stuck on a cliffside.

Dan Heng's blood went cold. He had to find him and he had to find him now. He tried to use his cloudhymn magic to make the search and his journey easier but it failed him as well.

He bit his lip as frustration welled up, he dragged his body forwards, searching manually. He could feel the metaphorical clock of life ticking away, one slow second after the other and Dan Heng couldn't find him anywhere.

Panic began to set in, there was a thick smoke in the car now, and Dan Heng was unsure if the car wouldn't explode in front of his eyes any second now. His shoulder felt like it was on fire and his breaths came in with much effort but he carried on.

He had to. He had no other choice.

"Caelus…" He called, hoping that Caelus was miraculously conscious and able to call back, but the silence persisted, mocking him. The ticking in Dan Heng's head got louder. The deformed components in the car blocked his path but Dan Heng couldn't give up. He couldn't. Not when he hadn't found Caelus yet. Fighting through excruciating pain he removed all the obstacles he could, one by one.

He hissed in pain and wasn't surprised to see warm blood trickle down his fingertips, but that was nothing compared to what really terrified him, it was then he finally saw him.

The familiar frame of Caelus, unmoving, and covered in soot. He looked as if he was asleep and the clock in his head chimed ominously. The panic that was barely simmering beneath the surface burst forth.

"No!" Dan Heng stumbled towards the body — no, Caelus, it wasn't a body, it couldn't be.

He fell to his knees, his shaky fingers digging into the side of Caelus's neck, to find the jugular, panic worsening when he felt the pulse was thready.

Dan Heng doesn't waste a second, putting one palm upon another and starting chest compressions, one - two - three till 30 and then tilting Caelus's head back and exhaling air. If it were any other time he would have laughed at the irony — the parallels to when they had first met — but it wasn't funny.

Caelus's chest didn't quiver with laughter and neither did it respond to Dan Heng's breaths, he tried not to grow positively hysterical.

He started the compressions again, one - two - three, he was chanting alongside his efforts to keep pushing down Caelus's chest, just as he had learnt, all in hopes to jump start Caelus's feeble heart – "No, no, no please, no — how is this possible, breathe!" He had reached 30 compressions again.

He grew more methodical as time passed and he felt the sinews of his rationaity come apart one by one the longer Caelus stayed unmoving . He tilted Caelus's head pinched the nose, breathed in. All practices movements, no misstep.

Rinse and repeat, again and again, one, two, three. One-two-three. Till thirty, then tilt and breathe. Dan Heng kept at it until he felt the pulse get a bit stronger — he didn't know if it really was getting stronger or it was just his delusions speaking.

He had no time to waste however, the car groaned and seemed as if it would cave in on itself, the smoke too had thickened and burned his throat and eyes. Dan Heng needed to relocate Caelus and he did just that. Yelling in pain at the extra weight but not giving up, he dragged and half carried the man out of the caving wrecked car and took out his emergency medical supplies as well.

He administered the medicine but the injuries looked too deep for it to be helpful. All avenues seemed to be becoming futile and his own consciousness was fading. Fast.

Dan Heng slipped to the ground again, cradling Caelus's face in his lap as his shoulders shook with a barely restrained sob, he needed to keep it together. He could not afford to break down at that moment.

He resumed chest compressions, keeping the tears at bay, locking away the errant thought about never getting to confess his feelings to Caelus after this. He needed to trust in Caelus at the moment. He needed to trust that Caelus would wake up.

Dan Heng put his forehead against Caelus's, letting a sob push its way out of his throat as he felt the exhale of Caelus's breathing on his face.

His hands were trembling as he caressed the face that was marred by blood, in some sick way Dan Heng hoped it was his, that he was the one to die rather than the star that had graced Dan Heng's universe with its light.

"Open your eyes, please. Please, I beg of you. Caelus, open your eyes."

There's a distant roar of monster in the background and Dan Heng freezes in fear, unsure of what to do, his hands shake as he looks for cloud piercer, determined to die protecting Caelus if it meant giving him more time to regain consciousness.

The closest bush rustles and Dan Heng takes a defensive stance, swallowing back the cough of blood he could feel in his throat, scratching at his oesophagus.

The grass parts and — Dan Heng jolts awake with tears in his eyes and harshly panting.

He finds himself disoriented with the darkness all around him, unsure where he was at the moment. Paranoia and fear grips him tight, with claws digging into his skin.

He rushes to stand and uses his cloudhymn magic to at least light the room and then blinks in slight surprise and belated relief when he notices that he is back in his room.

The Data Bank humming near him. Familiarity should tingle within his spine but instead an ache greets him. An ache in his heart that doubles every second that he notices that he can't see him again.

Dan Heng stumbles out of the room and in the parlour car, eyes wide and his entire body trembling. It's decidedly night and Dan Heng is unsure what is happening — he doesn't even remember coming back onto the astral express and now the only thing that could somehow render him calm was missing. Like a chunk of flesh misplaced.

A piece of his soul that he had willingly tied to another person, nowhere to be found.

Dan Heng wonders if he is back in the memoria tide yet again, searching endlessly, just to get him back but unable to find him no longer the distance he walked. Perhaps his wait hadn't ever reached an end. It was possible that he had somehow deluded himself into thinking he had found him, that Dan Heng was whole, that he was back into his binary star orbit.

He walks in that empty car, no pompom or any of the other members present. A chill travels down his spine at the thought of the rest of the members being affected by something too but as he notices the dimmed parlour car lights Dan Heng reasons that the rest of the members present must be sleeping. Such a thought brings him some clarity and comfort.

He looks outside the window to see Amphoreus in all its glory and his mouth falls open in surprise when he sees the mobius strip broken, light pouring out of it in a brilliant radiance and Dan Heng cannot remember the last time he saw something so beautiful or haunting.

He looks and keeps on looking. Dazed and amazed. Amphoreus had changed him drastically but he wouldn't say he would miss it — the people he had met and befriended, the sights he had seen, he would remember them all but he did not want to go through that kind of suffering yet again.

However there was a small voice in his head that said it was worth it all because it was for him, it was with him. It has always been about him and Dan Heng took years to understand it fully.

"Can't sleep either?" He heard and it felt like he could breathe better again, pure oxygen filling his lungs rather than the murky sadness he was choking on the entire time, borne from yearning.

He looked back and his newfound breath was caught in his throat upon seeing him again.

"Caelus…" Dan Heng breathed, felt his heart stutter and tumbke around in his chest cavity at finally being able to see Caelus again, in all his beautiful glory. He was illuminated by the radiance of Amphoreus outside the astral express and Dan Heng couldn't help but feel that Caelus was made for this.

He was born for being bathed in the lights of the universe.

Caelus doesn't get disheartened at Dan Heng's lack of reply and hums. He walks beside Dan Heng, looking at the broken Amphoreus with twinky eyes.

"Beautiful, isn't she?"

"Yes."

Dan Heng turns towards Caelus and gives an affirmative reply wholeheartedly but it's obvious he isn't even looking at the scenery outside the window anymore. Something much more ethereal has captivated him heart and soul. His entire body feels alight and he can feel his tail thumping excitedly at the mere chance of being near Caelus's presence.

Caelus smiles but there's hints of sadness still present in his countenance that makes Dan Heng almost throw up at the mere suggestion of something that was bothering his beloved star, his very own supernova of brilliance.

"What's wrong?" Dan Heng can't help blurting out, his hands itch and long to trace Caelus's form but he keeps them to himself though every fibre in his being screams at him to keep Caelus close and never let go. To keep him hidden, away from worries and any more trouble that Caelus would surely attract in due time.

"I miss them," Caelus mumbles, his head against the cold window. Ever the naive innocent angel to speak his mind, he doesn't hide anything from his family that he had made for himself on the astral express.

"Don't you?" Dan Heng could lie, could have made Caelus feel better but he never wants to deceive his star, the burning in his soul refuses to let him, as if it were fire borne from Caelus himself, demanding utter devotion that Dan Heng is prone to give up readily.

Dan Heng shakes his head and leans against the window to still look at Caelus who stares at him from the corner of his eyes.

"I miss you." that pulls Caelus out of his sad reverie and makes him focus harder on Dan Heng.

Dan Heng seems to come alive at the barest hint of attention from Caelus, breaths comes easier, the ache of abandonment subsides and the heat in his body grows stronger.

"But I'm right here?" Dan Heng swallows at that and all he can taste is a millennia of separation, and the thick soot of abandonment coating his lungs. Dan Heng has to inhale sharply to remind himself that the one in front of him is real but that nary is a thing that comes easily.

"Dan Heng," Caelus says, his voice sad and affectionate at the same time and he steps towards Dan Heng fully, finally giving the dragon some grace. It scares Dan Heng however, that simple gesture, that perhaps it was all a sham — that it would all disappear in an instant, so he steps back, hesitant to touch, to take.

"Don't. I'm not ready to know yet,"

"To know what?" Caelus asks, voice pained and Dan Heng trembles, he remembers the hallucinations, because of course he'd see Caelus everywhere.

He saw Caelus in every reflection, every ripple in countless lakes, in the scattering of light, in the ever present dawn of Okhema, and in the dark shadows of his own form. He had felt Caelus when Dan Heng had huddled on the ground, fire crackling around him, lighting him but never warming him, his solitude eating away at him, leaving him cold and lifeless.

Even then, Caelus's presence had haunted his being. The phantom sensations of the errant breeze at the back of his neck as if they were back when they had first landed in Okhema, sitting on the warm terrace with sunlight filtering through.

They had decided to laze around that day, letting the hedonism of the people of Okhema affect them in particular ways, specifically Caelus with his enthusiasm. Caelus had demanded cuddles, he wanted to wear a chiton to really emulate the people around him but Dan Heng refused and they decided on just sleeping on the terrace floor.

Caelus had asked to be the big spoon and at that time Dan Heng had underestimated what bliss and curse he had taken on by agreeing to it.

Those short sleepy exhales on his neck at that time were nothing more than a small comfort but later had him obsessed, absolutely bereft with madness those long years of yearning, of being lost.

Dan Heng does not remember the sheer number of days he had spent walking just in search for those soft snores against his back again. To have Caelus's arms around his waist again, his back warmed by the stellaron's destructive heat again. He wanted all of it, wanted it in a way that drove him insane with sheer want.

Even now, though every instinct in his body raged at him to bite, to take, to claim — to love, Dan Heng is still unsure if all this isn't a dream from when he passed out in the rain, his tail in his arms like a mockery of the man he wanted to hold protectively in his arms, the same man that was standing in front of him now, in the dark, illuminated by just the stars outside and not by the ever morning from the dawn device of Okhema.

In the darkness however, Caelus looked more ephemeral than ever, a ghost that Dan Heng was afraid to touch, and he clenched his hand, ignoring how his gauntlets were digging into his palms and probably drawing blood.

His blood getting spilt was still eons better than accidentally touching Caelus and watch him disappear in front of his very eyes.

"If you're real or not —"

"I'm real." Caelus insists, like a particularly fucked up delusion Dan Heng's mind had conjured up. "I'm real, Dan Heng. I'm right here."

Dan Heng gasps when Caelus with his ever determined figure reaches out and captures Dan Heng's face with his warm hands and the dragon cannot help but make a keening sound when his body registers that ages old stellaron heat radiating like a furnace from Caelus's hands. The hold on his face is tangible and a little bit painful but it's all Dan Heng's ever wanted for those millennia of searching.

His body sways when the full force of the instincts and feelings he had been repressing catches up to him. He bows his head forward, further into that hold and presses his cheeks into Caelus's real and warm palms. Dan Heng's hands, which were still clenched, open and grasp Caelus's wrist with the gentlest of touches. Careful not to nick the skin with his gauntlets.

"Caelus…" He mutters, reverently, almost like a prayer. Then he says it again, and again and again, each time inching closer and closer towards Caelus until the man is within Dan Heng's hold, secure and real.

So, so very real.

Dan Heng's tail which is corporeal and heavy, as well as being prehensile and much more expressive than the reserved dragon, wags happily before twisting around Caelus's leg. From the left thigh to the ankle, squeezing and sliding up and down happily, siphoning away heat from the stellaron vessel.

Caelus gasps softly and Dan Heng shudders at that small voice as he bumps his forehead against Caelus's. Dan Heng is breathing heavy, his eyes closed, letting his new senses imprint the very presence of Caelus's existence onto his body. He feels Caelus about to say something but then he doesn't, content with letting Dan Heng do whatever he wanted and if that wasn't something that set Dan Heng on fire with want — pure and unadulterated longing subsuming everything.

The smell is the first thing that hits Dan Heng, he had been trying to ignore it all this while but now as he lets his sense of smell sharpen he can taste it, the smell of burning fire, of leather and metal. All things that Dan Heng has always associated with Caelus. Then there's something sweet that draws in Dan Heng like a helpless moth towards the buning fire of salvation. Dan Heng swallows at that and this time doesn't taste the wet ground from the millenia in the memoria tide. He moves on in fear of missing out on the other sensations he can glean from Caelus.

Next comes the breaths, the sound of Caelus's exhales — Dan Heng subconsciously mimics it, syncing in rhythm set by his star, breathing in pace perfectly. They are once again orbiting each other in this way, a binary star system, made up of the same dust-cloud, rotating together, revolving the other eternally.

Then it's the beat of Caelus's heart, pumping blood, sustaining his life and at this Dan Heng finds himself at a loss, for in his nightmare he had lost this very thing but here was Caelus, providing the proof of his being willingly. Dan Heng feels himself tear up, emotions cascading over him like waves enveloping him, the similar taste of salt and water fills his lungs and he can only hug Caelus tighter, the sole straw to remain afloat in the tempestuous sea of his feelings.

He feels marooned with Caelus the only reason to exist anymore.

It doesn't make sense — he had never been the kind of person who felt so intensely, so obsessively but the mere idea of Caelus being away from him makes him want to render his flesh from his skin and do things he had never even thought about — things that would put the stunt he pulled to land himself in the shackling prison to shame in contrast and he doesn't understand how to articulate without sounding insane. He even understands Evernight, with her sick way of thinking that perhaps imprisonment would keep March safe from all the harm the universe has to offer because right then Dan Heng would rather die than let Caelus brave the dangers of trailblazing again.

Not after what had happened, not after Caelus had been taken away from Dan Heng — cold, lifeless, dead —

"You're thinking about it again," Caelus mutters, he can sense the way Dan Heng's thoughts by the way he had stiffened and his breath has shuddered as his tail tried to twist more firmly against Caelus in order to remember, to realize that Caelus is here, real and alive.

Dan Heng doesn't open his eyes and instead hides his face in the crook of Caelus's neck, breathing in the scent more, feeling the jugular vein's rhythmic pulsing — his teeth itches with the urge to bite, to take and consume to reassure himself forever, eternally, bind the orbits that are written in stars with something more concrete, with blood and spit.

Dan Heng burrows himself further at those thoughts making Caelus let out a puff of laughter, it warms Dan Heng because he appreciates the fact that he can still somehow make Caelus laugh like the old days, that he hasn't turned into a monster fully, that there is still some hope.

The laugh however makes Dan Heng tear up too, because he hadn't remembered if he would hear it ever again. He had been afraid, so very afraid that it'd disappear, dissolve with the winds of Amphoreus, never to be found again and so he lets his tears slip, his arms balling into fists against Caelus's back because he wants to dig his fingers into the man's skin but his hands are clawed and marred, changed by the very thing that sought to take Caelus away from him.

It was necessary then, to be able to find him, to get him back, to pull back his star from his slumber but it had been Caelus instead who had found him. Caelus had been watching, the entire time, because of course he had been, and Dan Heng was so, so grateful Caelus let himself be found.

Caelus feels tears soak his coat but doesn't say anything, rubbing Dan Heng's broad back that feels more solid than it should be — like Dan Heng had borne the suffering of thousands of years in the memoria tide when he shouldn't have, all for him. The atlas in the sky was never Caelus's alone, the deliverer, but Dan Heng too had shared his suffering for a thousand years.

"Dan Heng, look at me," the dragon makes a muffled noise and shakes his head, Caelus lets a small giggle again at the antics but tries again, he wanted to make Dan Heng realize that he is real. That they were alive and triumphant. Caelus understood now that the time for regrets is some other day when Dan Heng is not plagued by the trauma of losing him to death and then the memoria tide, both things that Caelus is himself unsure how he returned back from.

"Look at me," Caelus tries again and this time Dan Heng listens. He leans back and opens his eyes. Those silverine eyes that are changed now — in an utterly bizarre fashion mirroring Caelus's chosen color pallete — with gold pupils that are almost reptillian now, perhaps because Dan Heng is focussing less on controlling his enhanced dragon features. It fascinates Caelus immeasurably. He wants to see how those pupils reacts differently to stimuli and perhaps he shouldn't have spent too much time with Anaxa in Amphoreus with his penchant for Dromases but he's captured, hook line and sinker by the dragon holding onto him like he is the only safe haven Dan Heng has left.

And perhaps, that is true in some way. Caelus puts his hand on Dan Heng's chest, blinking a bit when he feels them changed too, they're bigger now, but more solid and focus — Caelus only wanted to feel Dan Heng's heartbeat, the fact that his chest is in front of it is not really his fault perse — he notices that Dan Heng's heart beats are slower than usual as well.

"I am real and right here, there's nothing to take me away from you again," Caelus doesn't really know if this were the right thing to say to the anxious dragon who looks three seconds away from crying again at the mere thought of being abandoned but he says it anyway because try as he might he cannot lie to himself and say he did not enjoy being in Dan Heng's arms, his tail wrapped around him like an anchor that wouldn't let him slip away because for the longest of time, with his artifical body made a vessel for the stellaron it was very easy for Caelus to slip away. To feel disconnected to reality, the worlds they had travelled to weren't much help either.

Now, that Dan Heng's entire being focuses its gaze onto Caelus it is much like the gazes of Aeons, something permanent that renders Caelus's artificial body into something human, more alive. It makes the furnance inside his heart burn warm and bright, but not painful — Caelus feels soothed. He doesn't want to make Dan Heng let him go, selfishly desiring the man keep him forever, if that is what it takes to ensure Dan Heng doesn't spiral into his worries again.

"What if it's best for you to not be with me —" Dan Heng questions, his voice strained and eyes guilty as he looks away from Caelus's fond gaze, Dan Heng's instincts warring within him to jump over all boundaries known to man, because the star in his arms is his by divine law and astrological calculations — from the very birth of the universe the two of them made up of the same quarks and dark matter pushing them together, and such a belonging doesn't take anything into account, much less Dan Heng's trepidation at confessing his feelings, his urges and his devotion.

"I — I can't, I know you don't understand but I was so —" Dan Heng breaks off, and Caelus knows what the dragon would say, what he wants Caelus to understand and he does because whatever may be, his and Dan Heng's souls speak the same language. As much as Dan Heng's soul belongs to Caelus in the grand scheme of the universe, so does Caelus's.

In reply, Caelus does something stupid.

Not in action he'd say but in thought. Such moments should be brought about after grand gestures of love and affection, at least that is what he had learnt through watching trashy interstellar soap operas with March but Caelus figures if Dan Heng feels anything for him that must include his impulsitivity as well because Caelus just smiles and taking Dan Heng by his neck, pulls the dragon close to kiss him.

It's not anything spectacular, just the softest of touch from Caelus's lips against Dan Heng's but it bursts open the dams that Dan Heng had painstakingly tried to close the entire time.

Dan Heng cannot physically stop himself from inhaling sharply, his hand — made dangerous by his gauntlets — still mindful of the potential hurt they can cause, slip to Caelus's waist in an instant and squeeze softly. Dan Heng cocks his head to the side just enough to push against Caelus a bit more firmly, dizzy from the lack of control over his own body as his instincts guide him to devour.

Caelus lets out a muffled noise of surprise when something long and slippery brushes against his lips but it's gone too soon because as soon as he made that noise Dan Heng is wrenching away from him. Frantic and scared. His hands twitch in the air uselessly and his tail thumps to the ground and slides around despondently, perhaps searching for Caelus again.

"Did I hurt you?" Caelus tries to speak but Dan Heng doesn't let him, he's too caught up with his own emotions and need that every action of his feels like a blight upon the world and most importantly Caelus.

"I'm sorry — I, " Dan Heng turns and starts to walk away, hurried in his steps and trembling. Caelus doesn't know if Dan Heng is angry, on the verge of a panic attack or already crying and such a strong whiplash of emotions leave him breathless, too stunned to even move for a second before his brain catches up and he runs.

He runs and grabs hold of Dan Heng's coat. Dan Heng's tail, perhaps already knowing his familiar source of warmth is back, wrapping around Caelus's ankle readily, almost desperately and Caelus would have laughed at it but he has more important things to deal with.

"Has no one ever told you it's bad manners to kiss and run?" Caelus quips, trying to diffuse the situation and make Dan Heng understand that he isn't mad or hurt or anything like that — Caelus is curious. Perhaps a bit smitten and on the verge of throwing a fit if Dan Heng doesn't use his new found height to his advantage and take advantage of Caelus right this moment. There are only a few things Caelus is normal about in this world and unfortunately for Dan Heng, he is not one of them.

Dan Heng looks back and his eyes are already red, trembling, like he is trying his best not to have a breakdown and Caelus smiles back, open and trusting, making sure Dan Heng understands that there is nothing to feel guilt about here, not in the astral express and certainly not with Caelus. Caelus isn't some idiot from the Xianzhou who not only would look a gift horse in the mouth but even spit on it — absolutely not. Caelus wants Dan Heng and there's no way in Nihility he was letting this moment flutter away.

"I can't control it, I don't —"

"You don't want me?" Caelus asks and it's a wild enough question that completely throws Dan Heng off his rhythm, he'd have to thank Welt for teaching him how to pull someone out a panic attack for that one, Caelus was just unsure if this is how that tactic was supposed to be used.

"No!" The yell is panicked and Dan Heng fully turns towards Caelus again, his movements slow, deliberate, as if he's some predator that is trying to appear approachable. Caelus has never been more turned on, not even sure if such deep feelings of love and lust has ever sprang forth in his existence, even before his life as a vessel for the Stellaron.

"I do, Aeons, I do — But I wanted to tell you about my feelings before — I know this is too sudden for you but I've waited so long —" Every time Dan Heng speaks it's stilted as if he is physically restraining himself from losing control again, as if Caelus's chaste kiss flipped a switch that would never go back the same way it was before.

Not that Caelus wants it to.

He is sure that if Caelus were to say that all of this was a mistake, Dan Heng would simply nod and walk away, not looking back once and come tomorrow morning he'd act the same way that he did before but Caelus would know the wound on his heart would fester like an infected wound, and rot, destroying him on the inside, never in all the centuries to come does Caelus want Dan Heng to suffer like that, alone and yearning for something he cannot have within his arms — not if Caelus has any say in it and he does, he has all the say this time.

Caelus takes Dan Heng's hand and tugs, Dan Heng, obediently quiet, simply follows. Caelus is released from the tail and with no time to waste, starts walking towards his room.

He doesn't want whatever is to come next to be in any place where March can walk in and if Caelus's thoughts were of any indication the best place for the rest of the conversation would be Caelus's giant room.

Dan Heng doesn't try to pull away, just lets Caelus lead and something tells him that if he were to lead Dan Heng to literal Destruction, Dan Heng would still follow, wordlessly and happily. Caelus looks back for a moment only to see Dan Heng's tail happily wagging like a dog and a trance-like content expression on Dan Heng's previously worried face.

Caelus still doesn't understand how such sharp changes of mood isn't driving Dan Heng insane but he leaves that to some other day.

They soundlessly make their way to Caelus's room before Caelus opens the door and pulls Dan Heng inside. He had been half anticipating Dan Heng shoving his against the door like in those soap operas Caelus had decided were his new obsession but Dan Heng doesn't — of course he doesn't, that is how Dan Heng has been since the dawn of time, since they first met, even thousand years of yearning hasn't transformed Dan Heng into someone who claims without guilt or reproach, someone who doesn't look at every relationship with the perspective of someone who destroys it with his own hands — and Caelus has no excuses to provide to himself for his disappointment.

Dan Heng freezes the moment he steps inside and the door shuts behind him. Caelus lets his hand drop. Dan Heng closes his eyes as if he was hit by something too stimulating to even let him speak. His entire body trembles and his hands and tail twitch. Dan Heng's hand close in a fist again, physically resisting at whatever was influencing him and leans against the door, his body shaking.

Caelus is confused before he gets it by the way Dan Heng's nose twitches cutely. He should have been weirded out but he can't complain when there's a certain lack of coldness in his vacant and huge room.

"Too overwhelming?" He asks, sweetly enough and Dan Heng's cracks open one singular eye lazily, exasperately enough that Caelus giggles.

High on Dan Heng being affected to some degree by simply taking in Caelus's smell. Dan Heng opens both eyes and Caelus can see how dilated Dan Heng's pupils have suddenly become, the yellow overpowering the silverine eyes.

Caelus gulps down a mouthful of saliva pooling at the mere concept of a Dan Heng overwhelmed with supposed lust — lust for Caelus.

"Just give me a minute. I hadn't expected this." He says and closes his eyes again, breathing slow and savouring the moment.

Caelus chuckles again, tries to be normal and succeeds because even if all of this was intense, it was still comforting — Caelus was concerned that with the ascension and assimilation of the core flame Dan Heng would no longer act the same way or it would be awkward in the end because after he had found Caelus from the memoria tide they hadn't really talked about the whole ordeal.

"How does this even work, are you still a Vidyadhara?"

Dan Heng shakes his head and when he opens his eyes again his pupils are back to normal, Caelus feels the sting of disappointment again.

"I am, but think of this as a more elevated form? I am more in tune with my dragon side than ever before, everything is more intense now."

Dan Heng stops at that and bites his tongue on something else he was about to say, looking away embarrassed and … guilty?

"What is it?"

"The coreflame, it changed me a lot." Dan Heng iterates and lights the doubts that Caelus had back up like the engine of the astral express.

"Changed how —"

"It's unbearably hard, for starters, to stay in your room like this without going insane."

Caelus breathes, he wasn't expecting Dan Heng to approach the elephant in the room first though there was certainly not elephant present physically — sometimes the language Caelus had learned through the synthesia beacon was the most ludicrous thing ever but he was going on a tangent — in response to that Caelus holds Dan Heng's hands, they're still enclosed in a fist and turns his wrist delicately so as to unfasten the gauntlets.

Dan Heng doesn't move, he stays uncannily still, overwhelmed perhaps with the probable direction Caelus wants this to go.

"What else?"

Dan Heng answers, eager in a way to answer everything that Caelus asks of him. "Your smell —"

Caelus looks up as one gauntlet falls down to the ground and he moves to the other. "What about it?"

"I never could before, you know, smell a person but now I can, everyone, and I tune them out – I already learnt how to do that but yours — yours hypnotises me, draws me in."

"What do I smell like?" And it's an absurd question and Caelus should have been a little grossed out by it all but he isn't, in fact he feels more affectionate and horny than ever before.

"Like a burning star." Caelus blinks at that, his eyes filling up with tears a little and the second gauntlet falls to the ground. Dan Heng now uses his soft, but still strong hands to caress Caelus's face with his fingers, his touch fleeting and adoring, as if Caelus is the literal light of his universe and touching such a miracle would make it go away. Caelus shudders and tries to step closer, turning into that soft touch.

"And right now I can smell your want for me too, it smells like metal, like the smell of rust," Caelus smiles at that, it's good that Dan Heng can smell it because he does want Dan Heng, Caelus wants him so badly that it's taking everything in his head to not start whining as to why Dan Heng hasn't taken anything from him yet, why does he remain still and prudent.

"It makes my feelings intense as well. Feelings I had repressed all along, perhaps from the beginning. They gnaw at my bones now, to do something."

Caelus eyes grow heady at that and he turns his face towards Dan Heng's hand to nuzzle at them, hoping it would be enough of a sign for Dan Heng to jump into action.

"You can."

Dan Heng free hands twitches again and the tail wraps around Caelus's body, bringing them closer but still not close enough. The tail around his waist feels comforting, like a weighted blanket March lets him use when the stellaron in his chest acts antsy.

"I don't think I'll be able to remain sane. I am afraid the coreflame changed my nature as well," Dan Heng finally confesses, as he looks deep into Caelus's eyes and professes what he believes to be his sin.

Caelus doesn't look away, he is sure that whatever Dan Heng's new nature might be he wants him regardless. He can take it if Dan Heng does as well.

"It made me greedy, I want — in ways I cannot quite say."

"Tell me." He orders and Dan Heng for all his new found avarice obeys ungrudgingly.

"I want you to never be able to think of anyone else. I want to mould you into someone who is made for me like you have changed me. I want to claim you so that anyone who meets you will know of me first. I want to sleep under your skin, coiled around your heart to finally make myself believe that you're here, alive and real. I want to become an inherent part of your soul. So that there might never be another time where we are separated and I do not know where to find you." Caelus's eyes flutter as the stellaron heart inside his artificial body warms with the heat of a thousand suns at the mere thought of being bound in such a way to one person.

And then he remembers the hurt that still lingers in his brain about the loss of his friends from Amphoreus, how he probably couldn't even grasp an iota of understanding about how Dan Heng felt when he had journeyed for a thousand years looking for him. And he wants it, wants it in a way that he is sure he wouldn't ever regret it but he has his own confessions to make, his own secrets to tell – he can't ask Dan Heng to tie his soul to something that perhaps might never be real.

"This body is artificial," Caelus blurts out, a little out of sorts but desperate to let Dan Heng know, for him to understand what it means.

"I don't know how but it was solely made to host a stellaron — I don't, I don't know how it functions or if it is human —" Dan Heng smiles, suddenly adoring. Caelus can understand that emotion now, hopes it reflects back in his face as well.

Dan Heng comes close to peck Caelus's forehead. "Do you remember when I told you what happened when he first landed in Amphoreus?" Caelus nods, his forehead tingling from the kiss and Dan Heng's velvet voice enveloping him.

"You had died that day. You were bleeding. Blood that red and was staining my hands and clothes. And then you died again, and this time I couldn't even feel you, find your —" Dan Heng closed his eyes, inhaling a trembling breath and opens his eyes and Caelus gasps at how they shimmer and shine.

"I couldn't even hold your body."

Caelus swallows, his artificial heart aching, wondering how Dan Heng had endured so much and still demanded practically nothing from him. Even now, Dan Heng could have taken advantage of Caelus's unstable emotions, Caelus would have allowed anything the man might have done but here he was, explaining in the plainest words what he wanted to do to Caelus.

"I love you." He finally states, it is not a whisper but a declaration, a statement that sounds like a universal truth that Caelus just happened to hear today. Like the galaxies you can find anew even if they were made at the beginning of time. I love you — the you said in such a tone that there isn't a hint of doubt in Dan Heng's soul.

You, like he means it. And, he probably does.

It feels like the words are not adequate for the sheer depth of emotions Dan Heng tries to convey in his singular you, not sure the synthesizer can properly translate it either but it is enough and it makes Caelus emotions swell up, the same he had repressed, was trying to ever since he stood in front of the window and saw a broken Amphoreus — tears started filling his eyes and dripping down his cheeks as he laughs and sniffles.

He doesn't understand why he is crying but he is and Dan Heng doesn't say anything, he just unwraps his tail, pulls him closer and then wraps his tail around them both, binding them together. Caelus buries his head into Dan Heng's firm and broad chest and Dan Heng merely soothes Caelus's back as Caelus cries to his heart's content. The reversal of what he had done to Dan Heng mere minutes ago and such a thought soothes him as well. The way they can depend on each other, that they're both capable of being vulnerable and strong in each other's presence.

It's an outpouring of emotion both from losing his friends and for leaving Dan Heng alone to search for him for a thousand years.

He sniffles and tries to keep his tears back but it's of no use, Dan Heng's coat is already wet from his snot and tears.

After a few minutes, though it feels like hours, Caelus calms down and leans back a little to look at Dan Heng's face, who is still looking at him like he's the star of his orbital system, even when Caelus probably looks awful after crying like a little child.

"I love you too." Caelus says and Dan Heng's smile widens. "You might think I am joking but I think Inhave loved you for a long time now, I just never realised it but I do now and I'm scared." Caelus looks up at Dan Heng's eyes, some unknown emotion filling his lungs as he realises their newfound size difference once again.

"I am scared of you leaving me as well. I don't ever want to be alone again," Caelus whispers next as he looks down, overwhelmed by Dan Heng's gaze.

Just as Dan Heng had been abandoned, in a sense, so was he — he remembers what he had seen in the memoria tide, an astral express without him, Dan Heng back on Xianzhou Luofu, not concerned with him at all, and Caelus doesn't want that, ever.

"Bind us together, I don't know how something like that could ever work but I want it, I want you. You can't leave me alone again."

"I never did and I never will."

Dan Heng's heart beats faster than what he has come to find normal after his ascension, he looks at Caelus with all the yearning and burning love of a thousand years — his teeth itches with the urge to bite, his nails ache with the urge to claw into the others' skin to render flesh until all he can feel is the warm blood enveloping him — and all of it scares him but here was Caelus, providing Dan Heng his salvation, a path to blissful absolution.

He keeps his urges in check and caresses Caelus's cheek with all the gentleness he had to teach himself anew after the shackling prison but he has left those days far behind, now only he remains, his life's epochs divided into before and after Caelus.

"It's dangerous right now though —" but before he can finish that sentence Caelus raises an eyebrow and shushes him with a finger on his lips.

"Are you chickening out on me now?"

Dan Heng chuckles sardonically and takes away the hand to peck the fingers lightly as he brushes his tongue in between Caelus's middle and ring finger. He only licks it a little, not even unfurling his tongue entirely and Caelus trembles like a leaf on a windy day.

"You can't run away once we start you know? The dragon is close and he can't, doesn't want to stop."

Caelus's eyes flutter gorgeously at that and he gasps sweetly, Dan Heng feels dizzy, the cold blood in his body travelling to his nether regions as their warm breaths mingle. Every small effect of Caelus drives Dan Heng up against the wall.

"Fuck me." Caelus finally demands, his eyes open, bold and steely, and Dan Heng lets Caelus watch in real time as his pupils dilate and his iris transform into slits like a dragon, it makes Caelus feel hot and bothered, and Dan Heng can feel it on his tongue, the cloying scent bury into his very being and it is by sheer will that he doesn't push Caelus against the wall and fucks him within an inch of his life.

His tail twitches and finds its way against Caelus's ass and Dan Heng can already know he wouldn't be able to control himself.

"You're going to be the death of me."

Caelus smiles cheekily, Dan Heng's hand caresses Caelus's throat, his nails are suddenly slightly long which scratch the skin but never draw blood, Caelus draws a shaky breath.

Dan Heng knows he probably looks feral but Caelus looks at him in such a way that it not only stokes the fire within Dan Heng's gut but pours fuel on it. They are like two fusion atoms, coming together despite the promise of destruction and Dan Heng cannot hold it back anymore, and the way Caelus draws closer, into Dan Heng's hold against his throat, neither can he.

"You need a way to make me stop if it gets too much,"

Caelus heady eyes which were quivering and had almost shut, opened again and he brought his hand to the side, with a metallic whooshing sound something hard made contact with Caelus's outstretched hand — it was the metallic bat that Caelus had found when they first met and Caelus had wordlessly summoned it right then ; such a blatant show of strength leaves Dan Heng bereft, he is sure that he is unbearably hard right now because how could he possibly forget.

Caelus was almost a pure being of destruction and Dan Heng should kneel before him because Caelus already had the strength to make him do that anyways. It makes his throat wet with slobber, the itch under his skin to touch intensified.

Caelus watches Dan Heng's quiet awe with a smirk and lets the bat fall noisily before he's grabbing Dan Heng's coat and pulling him in for a sealing kiss.

Their negotiations are over, and Dan Heng lets himself go, lets the dragon within him claim its treasure, lets it languish itself in the heat of its star like an enamoured moth. The kiss which Caelus had initiated gets dominated quickly by Dan Heng's insatiable desperation.

Dan Heng surges like a tidal wave against the shore that is Caelus, his fingers dig into Caelus's waist as he pulls him in, his tongue slithers inside, all wet appendage, wrapping itself around Caelus's which draws out a muffled sound from Caelus again but this time Dan Heng doesn't wrench away instead he pushes further, turning them both until he has Caelus crowded against the wall of his room.

They pull apart to draw their breaths as Caelus's hands pull open Dan Heng's tied hair, it is longer and teal at the end and Caelus is immensely fascinated to know what else have changed. He digs his fingers into Dan Heng's scalp, the pressure burns like fire within Dan Heng, making him groan and look at Caelus with barely restrained lust. Caelus only winks slyly in return.

Dan Heng wants Caelus to cry in that moment, choking on him, pleading and begging and so he kisses him again and lets his tongue travel deeper inside Caelus. Almost into his throat, much like a cock and Caelus's throat convulses around it, choking and his eyes water with the suddenness of it. Dan Heng draws his tongue back, taking some pity on his dearest fate but then hears Caelus moan sweetly and rethinks his decision to go back to fucking Caelus's throat with his long tongue. Caelus trembles and grasps onto Dan Heng's neck and shoulder for dear life as Dan Heng's new found oddity explores his throat owing to Dan Heng's ascension.

Caelus's eyes roll to the back of his head a little when he feels Dan Heng's tongue scrap the walls of his throat and mouth and it probably doesn't help the fact that Dan Heng has Caelus pressed up against him and — Caelus doesn't know when but — he also has his knee in between Caelus's legs, rubbing into him and Caelus feels so close to cumming already, and that's when he feels them.

It starts as a slight pricking at first before he feels then fully on his lower lip, digging into him and drawing blood. Caelus hisses in pain and Dan Heng leans back, tucking his tongue back from Caelus's throat.

Caelus looks at the scene in front of his very eyes — A long spit string connecting him to Dan Heng's outstretched multicoloured tongue, and his fangs, by god they were the longest set of teeth he had ever seen and they had blood on them, his own blood, Caelus realised — Dan Heng was panting, his face as red as searing steel blades dropped by searing prowlers, and his eyes were entirely silverine with a tint of his signature sea green, his iris completely slit like, boring into Caelus like he was a particular tasty snack that he couldn't wait to get his hands on.

And then Caelus is shaking, he groans softly as he rubs against Dan Heng's leg, chasing the sudden pleasure that batters into him like a warping train, he feels the wet spot over his pants and it doesn't take someone of Ratio's acumen to guess that Caelus just came in his pants at the mere sight of Dan Heng who had only thoughts of devouring in his mind.

Dan Heng is shocked as well though as he looks down in genuine surprise and curiosity and brushes his thumb against the wet spot, Caelus jerks a little at the sensitivity and gasps sinfully.

Dan Heng looks up, his eyes wide, Caelus is already sure he doesn't want to hear Dan Heng's next cheeky remark but it's to late because Dan Heng smiles, and puts the same finger he had used to swipe Caelus's cum into Caelus's mouth, keeping his mouth open and pliant.

"Did you just cum from me fucking my tongue into your mouth?"

Caelus blinks several times as his mouths falls open a little even more at Dan Heng's choice of words but then he grows embarrassed at his little stunt — he hadn't expected how much more intense it would be and technically this was the first time he would be having sex — not that he knew what he had done before his body was a vessel.

Remembering that small bit of information however makes Caelus's chest ache but only momentarily.

"In my defense this is the my first time as far as I can remember," he says so back to Dan Heng's and incredibly Dan Heng groans at that.

He leans down his head inside the crook of Caelus's neck and his finger which was in Caelus's mouth slides to Caelus's jugular and the other hand wraps around his waist.

Caelus notices Dan Heng's tail, which seemed as if berserk, wagging at extremely high speed, flitting from one side to another.

Caelus can also feel the outline of Dan Heng's cock through their clothes since they're so close now and Caelus doesn't have Dan Heng's tongue inside his throat to distract him anymore. The size of it however feels distinctly inhuman. Caelus wants to question it before Dan Heng bites his neck and any other thought than Dan Heng's fangs digging into his flesh escape Caelus's head like water in a fist.

Caelus is pretty sure Dan Heng's fangs draw blood but then he's also lapping up the wound with his saliva that feels pleasantly soothing.

Caelus groans and lets his body lean further into Dan Heng's embrace, the dragon's knee and arms being the only things holding him somewhat upright. His breath stutters when his slowly hardening cock comes in contact with delicious friction again, he's already overstimulated but with the way Dan Heng pushes into him, bucking up into his warmth even with the layers of clothing obstructing him, with his tongue licking Caelus's neck and fangs doing their best to bite each and every inch of his collarbones tell Caelus that Dan Heng's just getting started.

Dan Heng feels dizzy with desire, like he's positively going insane, the scent of Caelus's release clouds the rational part of his brain and there is a singular chant of mate, mate, mate, mate going around in his brain that is getting harder and harder to push back.

He also realises that what he wants to do next is not really conducive to do against the wall for Caelus's first time as he had oh so helpfully notified so Dan Heng's tail gets to work, supporting Caelus's body with power as Dan Heng strong hands pick up Caelus in an instant.

Caelus yelps at the elevation and holds on for dear life as Dan Heng resolutely walks them towards Caelus's bed.

"Can't hold back anymore?" Caelus still has the energy to be brazen as he gasps when Dan Heng lets him go on top of the bed and climbs up behind him. He settles comfortably in between Caelus's legs and takes off his clothes without replying back but the way he looks at Caelus is answer enough.

Caelus feels his vigour return back when he sees Dan Heng's new muscular body, it's much more well endowed and he can't help himself from sitting up and touching Dan Heng's abdomen, feeling his abs and he swallows his drool. He is sure he's hard again and Dan Heng smirks at Caelus's reaction.

"Like what you see my star?"

Caelus looks at Dan Heng and rather than quip back he takes off his coat and shirt too and it's his turn to watch Dan Heng loose his cool. Dan Heng eyes follow every small movement of his muscles as he takes his clothes off and then he leans back against the headboard in what he hopes is a seductive pose, open and inviting.

He still has his pants on with their wet spot and his dick tenting again but as he looks at Dan Heng he knows for sure that he is in a worse position.

"Do you?" Caelus asks, impudent and smirking and Dan Heng is stunned for a second before he nods.

He brushes his hand against Caelus's chest, his sternum and then his nipples before moving down to where his navel is before sliding down further where the happy trail should have begun but there is no hair there.

He looks up at Caelus with his head cocked in question and Caelus bites his lip and looks away, embarrassed about something.

"I told you, it's an artificial body. It doesn't have hair anywhere else." Dan Heng raises his eyebrows.

"Anywhere?"

Caelus nods and frowns. "Is that a problem?"

Dan Heng doesn't reply but leans down and licks the area from beneath his naval to where Caelus's pants are.

"You're beautiful."

He leans up to lick Caelus's collarbones again, and Caelus smiles and shudders against Dan Heng's ministrations. Dan Heng's fangs biting and marking Caelus like a teething toy and Caelus groans as he holds Dan Heng's head and tries not to buck up from simply being bitten like a freak.

Dan Heng makes his way to his chest and Caelus moans quite loudly when Dan Heng's fangs pierce his nipple, he is not sure if Dan Heng's teeth actually pierce it but he feels pain which is followed by mind-numbing pleasure. Dan Heng's mouth plays with his left bud, sucking and licking it while his hand pinches the right, making sure it perks up and becomes redder that aforementioned searing blades.

"I like everything about you, from your voice to how these turn red," Dan Heng comments and before Caelus couldn't have thought that Dan Heng could say such things in bed but he feels as if he is stuck in a lucid dream as Dan Heng sucks up a bud in his mouth and pinches the other with his hand.

"Shu – Shut up." Caelus mewls in sync with Dan Heng sucking on his chest like a newborn baby and it embarrasses him so much it makes him want to die, but it turns him on just the same and that makes him want to die even more.

Dan Heng bites harder and Caelus squeaks in pain as he glares down at the insasitiable dragon.

"Dan Heng, your fangs!" He exclaims and that somehow encourages Dan Heng to suck even harder, he changes the bud he's stimulating with his mouth in every few seconds before he leans back and admires his handiwork.

Caelus lies there in his bed, arms fisting the bedsheets, legs open and trembling, upper body bitten raw and nipped red as if he had been tortured and Dan Heng licks his lips, the urge to bully Caelus even more holding him hostage.

Caelus kind of figures what Dan Heng must be thinking about so he open his legs even more and raises them slightly to make himself more irresistible to Dan Heng's dragon.

"Please, Dan Heng — I want you." Caelus pleads and Dan Heng shudders at that, his tail thumps against the wood of the bed loudly before he reaches to pull off Caelus's pants off of along with the boxers and then Caelus is naked.

Caelus doesn't feel shy and instead looks at Dan Heng with heady eyes, hypnotising him, his body a magnet that pulls in Dan Heng —and the gold hungry dragon within him, gnawing at the metaphorical cage Dan Heng was still trying to trap it in — to kiss Caelus again, his fangs biting into Caelus's lips and his tongue tangling with Caelus's.

Caelus moans and with his arms wound around Dan Heng's neck he arches up into Dan Heng's unnaturally huge cock and both of them groan at the drag of skin against cloth.

Dan Heng leans back and leans further down, his long tongue licking all the way through before he reaches Caelus's dick which is, as mentioned, devoid of any hair.

"You don't have to do that, I want you inside," Caelus breathes and Dan Heng chuckles, his warm breath tickling Caelus's cock and his entire body vibrates at the sensations and what is to come.

"I think you can cum a few more times before you can even think to take me in here." Dan Heng says as he presses against Caelus's lower abdomen and Caelus whines at that action, his gut clenching at the sensation of wanting Dan Heng in him.

Caelus starts to say something but Dan Heng doesn't wait for a reply and wraps his long tongue around Caelus's crown, squeezing precum like pearls.

The tongue is slippery and rough in texture that drives Caelus up the wall and he is already hard again, his breath heavy and he hiccups slightly when he watches Dan Heng swallow his dick little by little into his mouth.

"Ah— Dan Heng please, oh aeons, fuck."

Caelus knows he is not the most endowed man but it's still considerable but Dan Heng breaks no sweat, instead he looks directly into Caelus's eyes as he slides his head down, saliva coating Caelus's dick and then Caelus moans when the dragon hollows his cheeks to drink him up, wanting to let nothing go to waste as he sets a brutal pace and sure enough Caelus feels himself quite close to cumming again.

Dan Heng's eyes shine brilliantly for a split second and while his mouth still moves up and down Caelus's length, mouth slick and warm, Caelus feels Dan Heng's finger prod at his entrance, they are wet and slick as if lubed up but Caelus doesn't know how Dan Heng did it as he couldn't see a bottle of lube anywhere.

His curiosity fails him however when Dan Heng starts abusing him at two fronts. His mouth is still moving at a fast brutal pace while his long finger languidly slides into him, easing the ring of muscles to spread them.

Dan Heng uses his other hand to fondle Caelus's balls then and Caelus, unable to stave off his pleasure anymore warms Dan Heng with a disjointed cry.

"I think i'm close, Dan Heng! Wait — please, ah —" Dan Heng doesn't and instead sucks harder and moans around the cock which makes vibrations travel across Caelus's spine and he short circuits.

Caelus comes again with a loud shout, his body jerking in time with his cock spurting cum directly into Dan Heng's mouth which the dragon swallows entirely while not letting go of intense eye contact and as he leans back to swallow and lick his lips Caelus realises that Dan Heng's fingers in his ass have turned from one to two.

He scissors them, spreading the hole with his wet long fingers and Caelus whines, unable to keep being patient anymore.

"Enough, want you inside, please."

Caelus tried to be domineering but Dan Heng doesn't listen and instead smiles genially and leans down to kiss Caelus again, their tongues tangling together and Caelus can taste his own release in Dan Heng's mouth while a third finger joins the other two in his entrance.

It's a tight fit and Caelus can feel a slight burn before Dan Heng does something that lights up Caelus's body like a charmony festival decoration. It feels akin to electricity zapping him as Dan Heng's fingers touch the bundle of nerves that send off sparks of pleasure throughout Caelus.

He moans, loud and guttural and Dan Heng, rather than stop at this point simply laughs joyfully and batters that area again and again. There's squelching noises coming from his hole that makes Caelus blush at the sheer mess he just knows that must be making of Caelus's sheets and he wonders in passing how the hell is he going to explain his next laundry batch to Pompom.

Dan Heng suddenly turns his mean streak on and batters that singular point with more force, digging into it with an inch of his life and Caelus arches off the bed, his toes curling at the honey like pleasure dripping down his body. Caelus keens at the force of the next orgasm that is wrenched from him. His body twists and jerks around Dan Heng's fingers, the walls of his entrance squeezing Dan Heng's fingers and he's already exhausted without Dan Heng not even filling him.

He wants to feel disappointed but really can't when Dan Heng caresses his head and pecks his forehead and then kisses him sloppily while murmuring praises just for Caelus.

"You took that so well, such a good boy. My precious starlight, you can take me too right?"

Caelus nods, bleary and body still spasming slightly as Dan Heng's fingers are still lodged within his hole but eager to feel more of Dan Heng. Forever. Dan Heng frowns then slowly takes out his fingers, Caelus whines at the instant loss he feels travel through his warm, boneless body and Dan Heng shushes him up by softly peckng him again and again. When his fingers are free, his hands travel to his pants and he finally takes them off and Caelus realises why Dan Heng needed him to be absolutely relaxed because the thing he notices in between Dan Heng's legs is a behemoth.

"We don't have to," Caelus gulps but shakes his head adamantly, he needs it even more. Needs to know how it would probably puncture into his lungs, if he'd feel the force of it in his throat. Caelus sits up with great effor but hesitantly slides his fingers against the appendage. Dan Heng hisses and trembles like he's been burnt but instead of shying away from the touch he bucks up into it. His hands are fists against the sheets in retraint again and Caelus feels his drool l8ke a particularly hungry dog.

"I swear on Akivilli's name, if you don't give it to me I will explode on the spot." Caelus threatens but it doesn't sound scary at all when his voice trembles in amazement.

"Turn around, it will be easier."

"But I want to look at your face," Caelus complaints but still obediently turns around on his hands and knees. Dan Heng chuckles and his large hand pressed down on Caelus's back until his face is against the pillow and his ass in the air, ready to take Dan Heng and his monster inside.

"Don't worry I'll flip you over eventually once you get your bearings."

Despite his tall claims Caelus feels a bit apprehensive but that goes away a bit when he feels Dan Heng's warm breath over his ass cheeks and then feels the fangs against his skin again, biting and sucking on the soft flesh and around his rim. Caelus gasps when the next thing he feels is Dan Heng's long slippery tongue dipping into him. He groans loudly when it slides deeper in and it already feels like he's getting fucked so viscerally that Caelus can only moan and take it, ass wiggling and bucking back against the tongue for more.

When Dan Heng feels Caelus is as ready as he'd ever be with all of this, he slips his tongue out and Caelus heaves with exertion, against all odds he was hard again and at this point unsure if it's not Dan Heng's new body acting like a literal aphrodisiac for Caelus.

"I'm going in," Dan Heng mutters his dick's fat head rubbing against Caelus's hole and Caelus tries to relax as he feels it breach him.

"Please, inside." Caelus breaths.

The both of them groan at the stretch and tight fit because even though Dan Heng tried his best to prepare, the coreflame had seriously changed a lot.

Caelus made a mental note to himself to ask if Dan Heng's dick was different before his ascension but such irrelevant thoughts fly out of his mind when Dan Heng slips in deeper and Caelus literally feels it in his throat.

"Ah! Dan Heng!"

He moans and it's almost a low scream with how all air gets punctured out of him as the dick travels impossibly deeper. Dan Heng pumps Caelus's dick as he thrusts in even more, folding his body over the back and gnawing at Caelus's nape. When Dan Heng is settled to the hilt inside Caelus, Caelus cannot stop breathing heavily and feeling close to cumming as Dan Heng's dick is girthy enough that it pushes against Caelus's prostate without even trying.

"Breathe Caelus," Caelus tries to sync his breathing with Dan Heng's as he graciously gives Caelus an example on how to breathe and when he feels he is getting acclimatised, Dan Heng turns Caelus's head by his chin to kiss the man under him deeply, his tongue tangling with the other's.

"Good boy," Dan Heng compliments but before Caelus can appreciate it, Dan Heng pulls his dick back and thrusts in, bullying out a scream out of Caelus's throat at such a volume that it was a miracle if he doesn't wake up everybody in the express.

"You can do it starlight, you're taking me so well. You're such a good mate. The best."

Dan Heng doesn't slow down and merely huffs out a slight laugh accompanying such an act and his words before his fangs bite into the shoulder and his hips set the brutal pace that has Caelus understanding why Dan Heng had been warning him this entire time.

The thrusts do not leave any space for Caelus to even breathe and at one point Dan Heng's hands go back to his dick while the other around his mouth in order to muffle his continuous screams. The added pleasure with the pressure against his prostate makes his eyes roll to the back of his head, not that Dan Heng's groans and the sticky squelch of their bodies connecting was of any help.

"Fuck." Dan Heng hisses in part pain and pleasure as he bites his lip and draws blood, trying to stave off his orgasm that Caelus's body almost milks out of him.

Caelus spams around Dan Heng's dick when he comes as if his release was wrenched away from soul rather than drawn out of his body and that scares him but Dan Heng holds him through the train wreck of pleasure, his hips regain their pistoning pace, in and out of his hole once Dan Heng feels sane enough and Caelus's hole doesn't suck him in like a black hole. The pace Dan Heng sets now though is even more brutal, he feels high strung as if holding a live wire in his bare hands, the dragon selfishly chasing his own pleasure and Caelus rendered a toy in his hold.

Caelus is overspent and on the verge of crying due to the overstimulation when Dan Heng flips him over so that they can watch each other and no matter if Dan Heng's body were some type of aphrodisiac or not, his face certainly was because looking into those reptilian eyes, Caelus felt himself heat up yet again.

He then noticed two very prominent and incredible things, Dan Heng's eyes were glowing gold and so was his horns and Dan Heng's tail wraps around his waist so that Dan Heng can thrust in easily.

Caelus seemed to be in a trance ; his legs wounding around Dan Heng's waist to catch his thrusts deeper into him, baring his neck for the dragon's fangs to sink into any untouched expanse of skin — for him to claim and own — his one set of fingers digging into his back, scratching red hot marks and the other hand holding on for dear life onto Dan Heng's horns.

Dan Heng's one hand is bruising up Caelus's waist and when Caelus looks down there he lets out a loud groans escape when he sees his stomach bulging due to Dan Heng's sheer size.

Dan Heng's other hand is on Caelus's headboard so that he can maintain his balance, all the while his hips move with a feroucious strength, more than what he can muster, which steadily brings Caelus to another orgasam, this one untouched.

"Fuck, you're still so tight. So perfect. My beloved — mate."

Caelus is pretty sure he is screaming and crying readily now at the overstimulation but he still doesn't let Dan Heng go, holding onto him like a drowning man would a raft. His entire body moves up and down with the thrusts as if he's stuck in tempest and finally he finds Dan Heng's rhythm falter as Caelus too gets closer to another peak, one, that he knows will kill him, change him or both of those things and coming morning he would be born anew.

"Ah, Dan – Heng — too much,"

Dan Heng replies with shallow thrusts, perhaps not wanting to part from Caelus too much at the pinnacle of his pleasure either. Caelus hears a cracking sound. And as Dan Heng grinds into Caelus's bundle of nerves with a superhuman accuracy and brings Caelus to yet another orgasm, whose number he had already forgotten, Caelus screams and the cracking sound gets louder as his whole clamps around Dan Heng's dick again, this time, on a mission to bring him to cum as well.

And he does, breaking the wooden headboard under the force of his hand when warm liquid fills Caelus finally and he feels himself sobbing in relief and love, some dust falling on his head but not going into his eyes as Dan Heng comes up to kiss Caelus as he lazily grinds into Caelus, his dick still spurting copious amounts of semen, Caelus feels bloated after a point but also so warm that he doesn't say anything. He feels a certain kind of sleepiness overtake him suddenly as if he were drugged.

"Perfect, you were so perfect." And all Caelus can do is sob and whine, he wants Dan Heng to remain inside him forever however Dan Heng slips out slowly and Caelus doesn't have any energy left to pull Dan Heng back so all he can feel is some amount of cum slipping out of his hole, coating his thighs.

"My mate" is what Dan Heng says as his eyes and horns glow.

Caelus smiles and the glowing horns is the last thing he remembers seeing before promptly passing out.

When he comes too, it is still night and the two of them are still in Caelus's bed but Caelus lies on top of Dan Heng's chest while Dan Heng watches him with glowing eyes and a soft smile on his face, his fingers playing with Caelus's hair.

"What happened?" Caelus's voice is hoarse and he knows it to be cause by his sobbing and screaming. Dan Heng simply sits up, taking Caelus with him, still on his lap and wordlessly offers a glass of water which Caelus graciously takes.

"We bonded I think,"

Caelus hands the glass back which Dan Heng keeps back on his bed side table with the help of his tail and Caelus smiles at that action before Dan Heng's words sink in.

"You think?"

Dan Heng hums and shrugs a little, "There is not much precedent to Vidyadharas finding their bondmates, it almost never happens, so I don't exactly know what happened except the fact that we're connected now."

Caelus blinks in suprise at that and cocks his head in confusion. Dan Heng understands what he wants to say.

"How do you feel?"

Caelus frowns and thinks about it, he feels relaxed and calm, as if nothing can change his mood, in the same vein he also feels happy after what had occured – but when he was thinking about what Dan Heng had asked he feels another emotion, which feels foreign, not his but not dangerous either, it feels like brief moment of apathy overtaken by yearning and love, love that consumes him Caelus for a second and makes him feel lightheaded. He gasps and falls into Dan Heng's hold more and has to take a second to regain his senses before he can pull away and look at Dan Heng with more questions in his eyes.

"What you felt right now, were probably my emotions."

"Something like that is possible?" Dan Heng shrugs again and it feels unreal because Dan Heng is supposed to be the one person aboard the Astral Express to know about such weird anomalies, so the fact that such a things has Dan Heng stumped too it was unheard of and a little scary.

"Don't be scared," Dan Heng says suddenly, and Caelus realises that he must have gleaned that emotion from the bond. Dan Heng tucks Caelus's hair behind his ear and lands a peck upon Caelus's lips softly which instantly makes Caelus feel better.

"We'll figure it out along the way, the bond isn't malicious but just another way of communicating, this way I would know if you were ever in danger. We can only feel each others' emotions if we focus hard."

"But — Dan Heng, your emotions —" Dan Heng puts his head against Caelus again and pulls Caelus deeper into his hold.

"There's a centuries old story amongst the Vidyadharas, of a dragon and his beloved," He starts instead and Caelus wants to say something but he understands that this was important. "The beloved wasn't a long living species but, with every reincarnation the dragon would meet this beloved of his again and again. Different iterations of them but the dragon would know, inherently pulled to that person to fall in love with them again and again. That beloved of his was the first and one of the few bondmates we Vidyadharas have known."

"It's a myth that all Vidyadharas have known, but none of us have seen it come to fruition in our lifetimes, there have been some mention in elder scrolls but nothing that makes it real."

Caelus listen, enraptured by such a concept. Dan Heng sees the universe sparkle inside Caelus's eyes. Dan Heng's tail wounds around Caelus's waist and squeezes, almost playfully and Caelus smiles a little as his hands wound around Dan Heng's neck their foreheads still against each other, breathing in the other's oxygen.

"For a Vidyadhara, connections and love are all momentary things, a small ripple in the ocean of our lives. We are born anew, with no previous memories and thus it was understood that perhaps no Vidyadhara is capable of attaining such affections. Capable of loving someone to the point of destruction. Love that consumes our very soul, one for whom we would try to change the balance of the world. For someone we would try and become immortal, living and suffering eons just to get another glimpse. It is was impossible, unreal and stupid." Dan Heng closes his eyes and takes a shaky breath, Caelus kisses Dan Heng softly, showing that he was still listening and that he understands a little now.

"I used to think so as well but then I found you." Dan Heng opens his eyes and they are yet again glowing, and Caelus feels that destructive love consume him once more, but this time the fire feels warm and doesn't scorch him.

"I have found you my beloved mate, my burning star, you have my very soul entwined with yours and I have tied us together for all eternity. I found you in the memoria tide and I will find you in your death and after mine."

Caelus's eyes fill with tears again, his sobs soft and his eyes full of love as he leans forward and kisses Dan Heng again.

A simple press of their lips against each other, wet with tears.

Caelus pulls back and nuzzles their noses together which makes Dan Heng chuckle. He wipes the tears making marks on Caelus's cheeks with his thumb and pecks Caelus again.

"I am yours. For eternity. So don't burn alone okay? I love you."

Dan Heng smiles and hides his face in the crook of Caelus's neck, his fangs slightly biting the sore skin there.

"Of course, does that mean we can go for another round?" Dan Heng asks cheekily as he grinds upwards to elicit a response and laughs when Caelus suddenly groans and pushes his face away, pretending to be indignant and annoyed but laughing just the same.

Later, when dawn will come and the closest star will shine its light towards them and the broken Amphoreus outside the express windows, Dan Heng still wouldn't know what way the world would come to an end but as he would gaze upon the sleeping figure of Caelus in his arms, he would figure that it doesn't matter much when his world was right there, safe and with him.