An ashen dark sea of clouds rolls with faint thunder, subtle flashes threatening to break through the foreboding sky at any moment.

     ‘Okay, one more time. Pace yourself.’

     Kansi runs his fingers through his hair tensely and sighs, pacing about the barren wilderness with fidgety restlessness. ‘My name is Kansi. I'm the prince's closest confidant. I've known Yuan since childhood, and served him closely in the celestial realm. He's just been exiled to the mortal realm for twenty years, so he's bound to be... a little upset. And I vowed to stay with him... If he can prove he's more than the ungrateful, privileged royalty that disgraced his entire household while living among mortals and demonstrating charitable character, he can be re-admitted to the heavens...’ He stops to look toward the gloomy sky, bracing himself, but it still only rumbles quietly with a demure flash contained within for now. ‘And this is where we agreed to meet, any minute now.

     ‘Dragons are weather spirits, right? This one is just especially stormy... I have to keep him from using his powers as much as possible. He's been handed everything he's ever wanted since the moment he was born. And if I fail to guide him down a respectable path...’ He clenches his teeth with a dry swallow and a bead of sweat down his face, dreading the years to come already.

     “Man... why the fuck did it have to be me?”

     As if hearing him, a bright flash cracks across the sky abruptly, the thunder rolling swiftly behind, drumming deeper; Kansi jumps, trembling. He tries to hold his own. ‘Calm down. Calm down! Remember, you're just meeting back up with a long-time friend! He has no reason to think any differently. It's not the first time I've had to play my part.’

     Another, even more vivid flash brightens the entire grey sky for a brief instant, immediately followed by a droning CRRRACK! Kansi draws his sleeve across his clammy forehead, clenching his fist and taking a deep breath. ‘It's just the first time my part has been so... demanding.’

     At that moment, the entire sky is suddenly alight in a blinding radiance.

     ‘He's here.’

     A streamline of white-blue glare sails from beyond the clouds to the the ground instantaneously with a compounding drumroll of blaring thunderclaps, like fanfare for the arrival of an ungodly fearsome entity. The earth itself shudders in an explosive collision of gleaming light. The mere man only a few hundred meters away is nearly swept off his feet, shielding his eyes from the flash with his arm. ‘Definitely an entrance befitting of a fate-splitting beast.’

     Even after the strike that cracked the ground vanished just as soon as it appeared, the perimeter is still alight with crackling blue snapping through the air of glowing white, as if the first strike was only to deliver the storm directly to the earth. The ethereal shape of a serpentine beast carved from the light itself towers massively overhead in snaking coils. Kansi slips a peep from behind his arm, both awed and terrified by the sight of such a breath-taking and terrible creature before him. A pair of gleaming azure eyes snap open to meet his gaze directly, like the moment had been anticipated—Kansi's heart jumps in his throat, shirking back reflexively. He grasps at his own chest, trying fervently to steady his uneven breaths and furiously pounding heart.

     ‘Holy fuck...’

     The serpent unfurls its body, seeming to diminish rapidly amid waves of cyan currents through the gradually dimming atmosphere, until it blends into the glow so thoroughly its form is indistinguishable.

     ‘It's definitely... the thing I saw in that vision. But outside of that, I don't even know what this prince actually looks like...’

     A new shape is carved from the gleaming white, a small and lithe figure emerging with graceful, slow precision, bit by bit—an arm glides forth, poised feet step soundlessly to the stone, a narrow torso guides a delicately fine body ahead as the dissipating light curls into fluttering folds of silk that envelope the figure with a dainty embrace. A soft face lifts up through the fading glow, opening a vivid blue gaze against a porcelain-faced youth. With the air cleared, the sky resumes its sullen, steely grey, the somber scene now accentuating the fair young man standing draped in sapphire silk and glistening beads. He lifts a hand to brush back the snowy locks from his face, the rest sitting loosely braided over his shoulder as he narrows an icicle glare to meet his companion's. In that instant, Kansi's arm drops, gawking and awestruck by what he'd just witnessed. For a moment he loses the ability to think as he only blinks dumbly, mouth agape. After getting a good look at him, the boy suddenly beams at Kansi with a fang-toothed, closed-eyed grin of almost childlike excitement across his face.

     “Kansi! You're here!”

     Still too astounded to recall words just yet, Kansi blinks again and only manages a slow nod. The gleeful young man leans back leisurely and crosses his arms.

     “I knew I could count on you. The other gods and spirits were mocking me, swearing up and down you wouldn't show—PAH! Who's the foolish-looking ones now, huh?? Ahh, I wish I could see the looks on their faces!” He shifts his weight to the other leg, turning to a lamenting pout with a shake of his head. “It's no fair they get to badmouth my dear friend and faithful servant when I don't get to show them up for it! Am I just supposed to take such bold disrespect right to my face like a chip on the shoulder??”

     Having some time to school his thoughts while the prince rambled on, Kansi clears his throat, assuming a more lax but refined posture. “... Need I remind you what it is that brought you here in the first place, my liege?”

     “I know, I know!” Yuan humphs and plants his hands on his hips, whipping his head aside to grumble. “But am I really supposed to just take it? How am I expected to be down here proving an ‘upstanding morality’ when they're the ones deciding?! The whole thing is a sham!”

     Kansi maintains his distress with a grimace and a closed-eyed deep breath. ‘... My god, I'm going to die on this assignment.’

     “Um, why don't we just... settle to rest for the night?”

     Yuan straightens up, dropping the matter pretty swiftly to go along with his friend's proposal in pleasantry. “Great! What kind of place are we staying in?”

     Kansi opens his eyes grimly, dumbfounded by the stunning lack of awareness. He doesn't know how to break it to him.

     Suddenly at a different time and place as he's ripped from that memory, Kansi stands with the same dumbfounded exhaustion as a pallid hand waves wildly in front of his face.

     “Kansi! Hello! You sleeping with your eyes open, or what?”

     His companion blinks nonchalantly, looking to the prince while unaffected by his obnoxious antics. “No, just thinking. I'm sure that's why you don't recognize what it looks like.”

     Yuan plants his hands at his hips with the pouty scowl of a temperamental elementary girl. “What's that supposed to mean?!”

     “That you have to ask is the answer in itself.”

     He turns to tend their supplies, having packed away much more than the last time. He ties it all up securely in the tree as the forest descends into darkness, a small fire between the two shoddy mats. Yuan brushes his off with his hands, dressed down to sleep. “So where are we headed in the morning?”

     “Wherever the help is needed.”

     The prince lays on his side, propped up by an elbow to look across at his partner as Kansi sits and lets his hair loose. “So we're just drifting aimlessly...”

     “Pretty much.”

     While Yuan lays back under the only real cover, Kansi fixes the makeshift stick shield he'd thrown together to half-cover himself. “I suppose there can be fun in drifting, too...”

     His companion lays back with a sigh, an arm under his head as he closes his eyes. “Whatever you want to count as ‘fun’, as long as we're actually doing what we're supposed to this time.”

     “I know, I know! Come on, you said you'd take my word, Kansi!”

     “Mmm...”

     The prince looks over at him with a hint of a sweet enthusiasm, although his partner still keeps his eyes shut. “I definitely want to make it a legend worth telling! It won't be interesting if I don't really try.”

     “Whatever you say. Now be quiet and get some rest.”

     Yuan still smiles toward him as he lays back with his own eyes closed. “Goodnight, Kansi.”

     “Mm. Goodnight.”

     ———

     The morning is ripe and gleaming, merely a day after the earth was shaken by the arrival of a heavenly storm. Snow-white hair is twisted into neat and careful braids, one thin at the side of the face, one to gather the rest over the prince's shoulder as always. Beaded ties are wound around, royal blue ribbon wrapping them up with firm delicateness, then followed by the slow precise hand that paints fine azure lines to border his fair lashes. Then comes the rings, then more of them, many, many more than any sane person would deem reasonable, the bangles and necklaces of brilliant unsullied gold and the heavens' most exquisite beads crafted from the immortalized hands of legendary artists... and he just keeps going. Truly how many state-of-the-art and priceless masterpieces can one adorn themselves with before they're not all that special anymore? Thoughts like this most certainly never cross the mind of the young lavishly adorned royal as he smiles with an almost innocent radiance—or ignorant bliss, depending on who's asked. Kansi is doing his best impression of a toy water bird as he really struggles to keep his grasp of consciousness while this procession of obscene extravagance is extravagantly taking its sweet time to play out. He rubs the drowsiness from an eye with a half-hearted fist and a wholehearted yawn.

     “You almost done? The sun's moved further across the sky than we've gone on the ground already.”

     “Almost!”

     With a begrudging sigh, his companion scratches his head, bowing drearily. “You know you're here for 20 years, right? Don't you think it would have been wise to travel a bit... lighter?”

     The celestial royalty laughs rather merrily for such an inquiry, currently tying his ornamental belt. “Of course, that's why I toned it down!”

     The way Kansi gawks at him for such brazen words is almost detesting of a remarkably arrogant obliviousness. “You call this ‘toning it down’?”

     “You know my usual dress takes at least three times as long!” The prince remains undeterred, foolishly assuming they're of a shared perspective. “How many robes have you fetched me for how many mornings, huh?”

     Kansi says nothing to this as the boy continues about obliviously, only sweeping his eyes aside. ‘... As much as it would have helped to be there for even a fraction of his last days in the celestial realm, even with the ludicrous power to send a person to a specific time at specific coordinates, we're still limited to the human world... I can't afford to give myself away.’ A mournful breath escapes him as if his own soul were trying to sneak away with the pinch of his brow.

     “These will be the longest years of my life...” mutters the man already weary of his first day on the case. ‘So I'll really be pissed if they're my last.’

     ———

     Groggily, Kansi rouses from sleep while swatting a bug off his face, scrunched up from the unpleasant sensation that pulled him from his slumber. Shifting around with a grumble and rubbing his eyes, he looks over as he sits up to see Yuan fixing himself in the same manner as that memory, almost done. ‘At least he started getting up early to do all that instead...’ Kansi scratches his head with a sleepy yawn. ‘I guess he learned something, after all.’

     “Good morning!” The prince looks back over his shoulder joyfully as he's winding the last beaded tie around his braid. “You sleep better this time?”

     Getting to his feet, Kansi stretches with a faint grumble. “I guess so.” ‘Any memory is better to dream of.’

     As he shakes out and rolls up the mats to pack away, Yuan rises to his feet with hands planted on his hips triumphantly. “All set?”

     One of the packs is handed to him with an amused scoff; the prince looks to his companion's hint of a cheeky smirk with curiosity.

     “What?”

     “I'm just amazed you're actually ready. How early did you have to get up, three hours?”

     Yuan takes the pack with an unafflicted turn of the head. “Only two.”

     A laugh escapes unexpectedly as Kansi ties his hair back, already dressed to go. “Only two? Hope your eye paint's even, rushing like that.” He shoulders the other half of the supplies, including the bow, as the prince snaps back with a trace of indignant blush.

     “Oh, shut up! My paint's always even! I have an incredibly steady hand!”

     His companion grinds out the embers of the fire before he starts walking off, waving nonchalantly. “Too bad you've got no upper body strength then, or you might not suck with a bow so much.”

     “I'm not that weak!” The petite royal quickly falls in tow, yapping after him as they trek through the trees. “I'm carrying a pack too, aren't I??”

     “And you'll be whining about it in an hour.”

     “I can hold my own!!”