#also 3 it is SO apparent i love celestial universe metaphors for love WOW

[mejomonster]

Shen Wei smiles back, humored, and here on the hill in the dark under the stars with his brother, he can pretend for a little while that this is the only thing to care about. All he has to do is entertain him, make him smile, and that is all. That is the only thing in this whole world he has to do.

-

Ye Zun is leaning against him now, arm wrapped around Shen Wei’s waist, just like when they were little. Before they were - before he lost him. Before he messed up.

It doesn’t feel like any of those years ever happened, right now. It’s like they were never apart. Shen Wei wishes he could erase the memories, take back time and put everything back so that he never left. So that Ye Zun never had to be alone. 

But his brother seems content to forget about those moments.

He keeps saying, “The past is over, it’s not important. Right now everything is fine,” and pulling Shen Wei in and making him stay grounded, stay focused on the here and now. Ye Zun thinks Shen Wei worries about the future and the past too much - the way didi looks at him with worry-stricken eyes and holds his jaw, like he wants to say something but doesn’t think he can. Maybe his brother thinks there’s nothing he can say that would fix it, or change things. It’s not Ye Zun’s job to fix it.

Shen Wei knows he can’t turn back the past. No one could fix it anyway.

-

Ye Zun wants to be cheered up. Last time Shen Wei told the story, the demon prince was attacked by the other demons, and then he decided he would pay them back in kind. And so the demon prince began to kill the other demons, until he was left all alone - with only a few surviving stragglers terrified and obedient. The Prince was left alone. But he had control, and he had stopped the violence he had so despised.

This time, Shen Wei thinks, the story will not end with the prince all alone.

-

“No, he’s not. But he’s excited by the problem in front of him - he thinks, maybe if he can save the kelpie, then he could find a way to save himself.”

“So he’s going to solve the kelpie’s problem? Make it so the kelpie isn’t sad anymore? Without turning him into something else, of course.”

“Of course. The demon waits for the kelpie to say why he hates eating people. ‘Well, do you not like the taste of flesh?’ he asks. But the kelpie says he loves it, it tastes as good as it should. All the children he’s swallowed were tender and soft, and he regrets that they were so satisfying. But they should have stayed away from the water - from him. This was the only way things ended, when people came near him.”

“But not me,” Ye Zun chimes, impersonating the demon. “You won’t eat me. So here’s at least one meal you don’t have to feel bad for.”

“‘But I’m not hungry’, the kelpie says,” Shen Wei frowns, letting out a sigh like he’s the beast of the lake lamenting his nature, “and you smell sick right now. I doubt you would satisfy me.” Now Shen Wei’s voice changes, all hopeful melody, speaking for the demon: “Maybe I could find you something to eat besides people, something that would fill you up instead.”

Ye Zun is curling into him, and they move together to get closer to their little fire.

“‘I doubt you could,’ the kelpie says, ‘I’m sorry to disappoint you. I have been trapped in this lake for as long as I can remember, but occasionally I have grabbed hold of a boat, or a traveler’s bag, and I’ve never found anything to eat instead. I’ve tried seaweed, kind stranger. I’ve tried all the human food that fools who visit have thrown at me in desperation I might let them go. But none of them keep me alive. It has to be flesh. It has to be people. I can’t change that.”

“The kelpie doesn’t know that the demon is a demon, does he,” Ye Zun comments, and Shen Wei nods in return, his chin ghosting over the crown of his brother’s head. “How wonderful for the demon! For once, he’s met someone who isn’t afraid of him, who doesn’t think he’s a monster! This lake must be heaven for him.”

-

The night is getting far too cold, even with the fire. Zhao Yunlan often looks at him, almost like - he wants to somehow give Shen Wei the world itself, and all the stars, and all the cosmos, and then fall unto his knees as if that is not enough. 

-

Some quotes from chapter 7 of What Makes Monsters Stop Devouring

#wmmsd #writing #my writing #its WILD to me how much i managed to #make the demon shen wri and the kelpie ye zun #and foreshadow the emding of wmmsd and show what shen wris pov and plan is versus ye zuns #i wrote this mini story inside wmmsd cause i read a liklike victiorian era horror fae au of guardian that was phenomenal #and this was my homage to it. since it had a kelpie #2 it blows my mind how lovely i worded some stuff in this #i desperately miss that writing style and want to attempt to manage it again #guardian #weilan #ye zun #zhao yunlan #shen wei #ye old haxing #also 3 it is SO apparent i love celestial universe metaphors for love WOW