When the dark of the night came around, and the silent wind sent biting shivers down Wei Ying's spine through the hanfu attire he wore, he wrapped his arms tightly around Lan Zhan's waist from behind the CBR bike from where he sat as they drove to the place downtown where the cosplay convention took place.

Ignoring the stoplights, Lan Zhan bent past cars and bikes, swayed from left to right through the hectic roadway like he had many lives to spare, and did not give a damn, sending the ancient costumes they wore to flow almost heavenly at one with the chilling evening breeze.

Wei Ying gasped and grabbed hold of Lan Zhan's flimsy white robes when Lan Zhan made another dangerous U-turn. Heart beating a mile a minute, he wasn't only afraid for his own safety, but Lan Zhan's too. "Lan Zhan!" Wei Ying yelled, hoping his voice would somehow manage to find Lan Zhan's ears, "Slow the hell down!" And as expected, Lan Zhan chuckled, enjoying Wei Ying's scared out of his witted face and went faster. "Lan Zhan!"

----------

The bike pulled to a stop at the convention center, and when Wei Ying's feet hit the floor that was covered in glitter, he couldn't help himself from blurting out, "What a bunch of weirdos. Lan Zhan, I never took you as one of them." 

It was something foreign to him, a place where hidden freak-shows were allowed to be themselves. Wei Ying looked at the twirling robes he wore and realized he too would be joining the freaks, possibly forever since Lan Zhan was one of them. 

From outside, in the crowds, people in costumes of all descriptions - anime characters to superheroes - mythical creatures to cyborgs, were roaming around. Some even behaved as though they'd lost their minds. Regardless, they all looked so smash.

"Mmm," Lan Zhan replied, jumping off the bike and removing his helmet. 

Having his robes flowed about, he looked ethereal compared to the others, and when a few young ladies dressed as the power-puff girls stopped by to take pictures of him and the bike, Wei Ying couldn't contain the jealousy. Butting in front of Lan Zhan and chuckling nervously. "Nothing to see here, girls." He waved his hands in the air, shooing away the teens, "Now carry on."

"Wei Ying," Lan Zhan placed a hand on his shoulder, "That's normal at a cosplay convention," he ensured. When Wei Ying's eyes widened, almost popping out of his eye socket, Lan Zhan regretted his choice of words.

"So, you like them swooning over you?" Wei Ying tsked, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. "Gosh, Lan Zhan. I thought this was supposed to be a date."

"Are you perhaps jealous?" Lan Zhan teased, his breath of mint frost fanning at the back of Wei Ying's ear sending goosebumps through his flesh. 

When Wei Ying jumped forth and said, "Me? Jealous of you? Ha, not a fat chance." He knew his lie seemed futile when his face tinted a deep shade of red. Wanting desperately to change the topic, Wei Ying trained his eyes away from Lan Zhan until he caught a glimpse of a robot that looked awfully too real to be seen in a place like this and said, "Hey, would you look at that!" As soon as Lan Zhan looked in his direction, Wei Ying clutched the older man's hand and pulled him inside.

"Wei Ying, wait." Lan Zhan halted before they could enter. "I have something for you." Lan Zhan drew out a finely wooden crafted black flute from the inside of his robe and handed it to him. Wei Ying blew out an astonished whistle at its sight. "It's another one of my family heirlooms. For you."

Wei Ying already knew what Lan Zhan meant by 'another one.' Before they left home, Lan Zhan had shown him one of his so-called family heirlooms. A sword, unlike any Wei Ying, had ever seen. It's halt made of silver, encrusted with snow crystals, and the blade - priceless, made of transparent jade, beautiful, yet deadly. 

Lan Zhan said it was passed down to his family for generations. That's why Wei Ying didn't understand why Lan Zhan chose to take such beauty to a cosplay convention. Lan Zhan had argued he had nowhere else to use it, and the sword worked well with his robes. 

"Lan Zhan," Wei Ying breathed out, fingers tracing over the finely crafted relic. "You shouldn't have."

Lan Zhan smiled, definitely pleased. "What's mine is yours."

"Ugh," Wei Ying rubbed at his temples. Lan Zhan sure can act dumb sometimes. The older man hadn't even thought of the disasters that would happen if he lost such priceless artifacts. "Awe Lan Zhan, what if it gets lost?"

"It won't," Lan Zhan assured.

"Hmm," Wei Ying hummed, taking the flute out of Lan Zhan's hand and began twirling it between his fingers. "And how can you be so sure of that?"

"Because I know you'll take good care of it," Lan Zhan replied, leaving Wei Ying speechless.

"Lan Zhan," Wei Ying said. "There's something I've been meaning to ask. Ah, this probably isn't the time for that." When Lan Zhan took hold of his hand and gave it a small squeeze, beckoning Wei Ying to continue, he nodded and went on to say, "What does it mean to be soulmates? What I'm trying to say is, where does it come from?"

"Hmm," Lan Zhan smiled, recalling back to the time when he wondered the same. "I've read somewhere, in one of brother's old scrolls, it came from being past lovers."

Wei Ying, "So does that mean, we were together in the past life?"

Lan Zhan, "Hmm, I think so, yes."

Inside was worse than outside - in a good way. Everything was a filthy hot mess of glorious people who weren't afraid to flaunt themselves as though they were the center of attention. 

As Wei Ying stood still, observing the convention for himself, he felt the adrenaline rushing in, making him all giddy on the inside. He was finally beginning to understand why Lan Zhan was into this stuff. It was fun, entertaining, and accepting of everyone.

"Wow," was the only word Wei Ying found himself saying. 

"Do you like it?" Lan Zhan asked, despite already knowing the answer from Wei Ying's dropped jaw. "I knew you would. Come, let's have a look around," Lan Zhan said, taking hold of Wei Ying's bewildered hand and pulling him toward the first box that caught his eyes - the photo booth. 

"Pictures?" Wei Ying questioned. There were so many new things to discover and the first thing Lan Zhan brought him to was a photo booth? Lan Zhan bolted the door and nodded. “Fine,” Wei Ying shrugged and plopped himself on the sitting chair. 

Inside the tiny photo booth, blocked from prying eyes, Lan Zhan revealed his purple eyes to Wei Ying, "Show me yours," he said.

"Lan Zhan, what are you doing?" Wei Ying whispered. "What if someone sees you?"

Lan Zhan sat down beside Wei Ying and threw his arm around the younger man’s shoulder, "No one will care," he pressed the timer button, "It's a cosplay convention, remember?" Turning Wei Ying's face toward the camera, "Now, show me yours," he said again. In, out, Wei Ying breathed before nodding. When he opened back his eyes, they were a dark lilac, and the camera flashed. 

“Well, that sucked,” Wei Ying pouted when he saw how their eyes glowed, almost blocking their faces enterally in the first frame. “Let’s try something different -” Before Wei Ying could get the words out, the camera flashed for a second time with Lan Zhan’s chilled lips against his cheek. Surprised, Wei Ying shut his eyes and laughed at the tickle sensation. 

And before the third frame could roll out, Lan Zhan asked, "Wei Ying, remember you said you'd kiss me again?"

“Are you asking for a kiss from mu'ah?” he answered, pointing at his flushed cheeks from where Lan Zhan's lips were at seconds ago. 

“Yes,” Lan Zhan blushed.

“Mmm, let me think.” Wei Ying said, pretending to be in deep thought as he internally laughed at Lan Zhan's inner nervousness when the timer beeped, indicating they only had a few seconds left before the final shot. 

“Wei -” Eyes widened, Lan Zhan gasped when Wei Ying slammed his lips against Lan Zhan’s own. When Lan Zhan finally came back from his high, he closed his eyes and they kissed. 

It was their second kiss. However, this time Wei Ying wasn’t drunk and Lan Zhan wasn’t having second thoughts about Wei Ying being drunk. Being cooped up inside a tiny booth with little to no breathing space, this time, it was different - better even. This time, their chest pressed against each other through the clothed robes, their hearts joined together, beating as one.

When the camera flashed, capturing the unforgettable moment, they didn’t stop. At that moment, the world around them no longer mattered. Everything stopped, as Lan Zhan took Wei Ying’s breath away, drinking up his life essence. Wei Ying did the same, he took - everything that belonged to Lan Zhan. At the same time, while feeding off of each other’s hunger, they gave back in return. Wei Ying pushed his own source of life into Lan Zhan's body, and Lan Zhan did the same.

Soon, hands snaked their way into each other's hair. They tugged and groaned in harmony. Sweet whines fell from the cracks of their mouth and lovely moans filled the empty space inside the booth.

They were only forced to pull apart when someone, a woman, banged against the photo booth’s door while yelling for them to get out. “You two have been in there forever, there’s a line out here, you know,” she nagged. And so, Lan Zhan and Wei Ying found themselves laughing, grabbing the reel of pictures before making their way outside.

After that, they visited a few more booths, had cotton candy and bubbly soda. Lan Zhan introduced Wei Ying to some of his favorite comics, and they played games together. Claw crane, Horseshoes, Balloon pop. Wei Ying lost count on how many times he won the balloon pop. Too bad he nor Lan Zhan could carry all the little figurines he won in prizes. So instead of keeping the pint-size toys, he chose to give most of them away. 

----------

By midnight, both Lan Zhan and Wei Ying were hype. Having the time of their lives, It was the most fun they had without any conflicts or feeling deprived of revealing their true selves. They were soulmates, and tonight they seemed to have embraced that better than ever before.

Holding hands, they skipped from one booth to the next, chattering away about unimportant things. Being too mesmerized by Wei Ying’s blabbering, Lan Zhan failed to look where he was going and unintentionally bumped into someone. However, it was more like someone bumped into him on purpose.

Clad in a similar white robe as Lan Zhan's own, the man, tall and elegant in his movements, had a blindfold over his eyes and a cane in his hand, indicating he was blind. Skin resembled cotton, "My apologies," he whispered, a small smile parted his cherry lips. His voice, delicate like silk, he seemed almost breakable. Yet, despite all this, beneath the blindfold, eyes of starking red lingered and a mind of pure evil. His name was Xiao Xingcheng, belonging to the Shuāng pack. He came here with his equals, Xue Yang and Song Lan.

Feeling guilty of having knocked a blind man aside, Lan Zhan bowed. "No, my apologies. I should've been more careful."

Xiao Xingcheng smiled, nodded his head, and walked away. Like Wei Ying, Lan Zhan failed to pay attention to the man whose smile dissolved as soon as he parted ways from them. Then again, even if Lan Zhan had paid better attention, there was no chance he could identify any of the men who had almost killed his brother. Xichen told him to keep his eyes out for anything strange or unusual, and Lan Zhan did. If only he knew what the trio looked like, things would've been different.

Xiao Xingcheng made his way outside, where Xue Yang and Song Lan were waiting. The further Xiao Xingcheng had gotten, the faster his footsteps went. When he stood a good distance between the convention center and the parked Benz in the driveway, he ripped the white fabric away from his eyes, tossing it on the glitter-covered ground before jumping in the back seat of the tinted car.

"We should kill them tonight," he said, heaving out a sigh. When the car fell quiet upon his return, he spoke again, "Hello, did you two just hear what I said? Those two need to die tonight."

While Song Lan remained silent, Xue Yang tsked before replying. "I don't want to." The second those words fell from his mouth, he was rewarded with a slap behind the head by Xiao Xingcheng. “Ouch,” he complained, rubbing at the back of his head.

"Did you not hear them in there," Xiao Xingcheng said in annoyance, "They're soulmates. Yang-Yang, do you know what soulmates mean for us? It means, death."

Xue Yang groaned. Xichen was one of the most powerful alpha they ever came across, that’s why they had to get rid of him and his so-called pack. Unfortunately, Xue Yang only managed to kill that tiny dimpled kid Xichen and Mingjue had running behind them wherever they went. 

They’d been stalking Xichen and Mingjue intending to kill the pair ever since the trio found Xichen hiding out at his brother’s house. They didn’t expect to run to soulmates - the strongest among the werewolf species. In fact, despite all their stalking, they had no idea Xichen’s little brother had found himself a soulmate until tonight. They only knew he turned someone into a werewolf. A werewolf, who at the beginning was of no threat to them, till now, that is.

"Yeah," Xue Yang replied, blatantly obvious, "I'm aware of that, but they haven't marked each other as yet."

"How can you be so sure?" Song Lan finally voiced, from the passenger’s seat.

"Well duh, did you smell any kind of power off of them? No, you didn't. That's proof they're not mated for life. I’m telling you, those two are soft as melted butter."

Xiao Xingcheng sighed, "That's why we need to kill them now, while they're at their weakest because the minute they mark each other we're done for, and so is the idea of wanting to be the strongest pack."

"I agree with Xingcheng," Song Lan said. 

When Xue Yang rolled his eyes, he received another slap from his company in the back seat. "Goddammit Dao Zhang, just give me a few days okay? I wanna play a bit. Don’t you want your Yang-Yang to have some fun?” Xue Yang pouted toward his friend in the back seat. “They're dense, especially that new wolf - what's his name. I can smell the stupid off them. Just let me fuck with them for a little while and then we can kill them, alright?"

Although Xiao Xingcheng still sat weary about his companion's ridiculous choice of decision, he said nothing, for Xue Yang was known to be a troublemaker. Despite that, Xue Yang never slumped from his words, so Xiao Xingcheng knew that after Xue Yang had his fun, Lan Zhan and Wei Ying would be the first to die.

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