title: not as though it was yesterday
fandom: Guardian
length: ~400 words
relationship: Da Qing & Shen Wei
contents: AU: near canon; spoilers

summary: Da Qing remembers.



When Shen Wei returns that night to the teacher’s dorm, his room isn’t empty. A fat black cat lounges impatiently on his desk, waiting. Shen Wei lets the door fall shut behind him with a click.

The cat doesn’t bother to stand up. “All these years in the SID, and you never came to see me.”

Shen Wei doesn’t bother to turn on the light. After all, they both see well enough in the dark. “I didn’t think it was you. How could it possibly be you, after ten thousand years?”

Shen Wei would like to say that the years roll back, that it feels like yesterday in his memories, but that isn’t true. Even with Kunlun’s hand in his, the time between then and now spooled away like a river a thousand miles from its spring.

The cat’s tail lashes, hard enough to thump against the wood of the desk. “I guess that’s fair. I didn’t think you could be the same Hei Pao Shi, no matter what the Regent said.”

Shen Wei feels his eyes sting, but blinks back the tears before they can form. If he could watch the lack of recognition in Kunlun’s face today without weeping, then surely this reunion is no cause for it. But his voice still cracks when he tries to speak. “Da Qing--”

He barely has his hand stretched out before the cat gathers his feet and leaps. Da Qing lands with a thump against Shen Wei’s chest, hauling himself up to Shen Wei’s shoulders without pause, claws digging in briefly against his suit jacket.

He’s heavier than Shen Wei remembers; but then, Da Qing was so young, ten thousand years ago. They all were.

The cat breathes softly against the back of his neck, sniffing at the collar of his shirt and twining back and forth from shoulder to shoulder. “Shen Wei. Shen Wei!”

Only two people have ever said his name that way, as if the words themselves were something to be treasured.

Shen Wei has a million questions he wants to ask. Who is Zhao Yunlan, and why doesn’t he remember? How did Da Qing survive so long? What does it mean, the three of them meeting again?

Da Qing purrs rapidly, almost frantically, a fierce rumbling pressed into Shen Wei’s skin everywhere they touch. He closes his eyes and lets himself breathe into the moment.

There will be time for questions later. That, too, is a gift.