A/N: Another one-shot. Inspired by a song, though I decided not to include that this time. The song is Nickelback's "Far Away," which was one of my image songs for Secession, too. For some reason, it just hit me very differently tonight.
Pairing: Implied Zhou Yu x Sun Ce. Set in the time after Sun Ce's death, but written largely as a memory.
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"Hey, Zhou Yu?"
He could still hear that question in his dreams. The voice that he remembered better than his own—younger then, like the amber eyes glittering in his curious face. The chestnut ponytail pooling across his shoulders and slipping down between the blades of grass beneath him, lazy and mindless as the boy they belonged to.
When he closed his eyes, the sunlight came back, strong above the summer wind and almost too warm on his dark hair. When he closed his eyes, the wide expanse of Jianye's gardens disappeared, and in its place was a rolling hill in Jiang Dong, birdsong and the faraway harmony of a flickering stream the only sounds in the world. Except one, of course—one insistent, impatient voice, accompanied this time by an equally impatient hand.
"Yu? Are you listening to me?"
In his memory, Zhou Yu rolled onto his side, and the deep smell of growing vegetation filled his senses, so strong that for a moment he had to breathe through his mouth. Eyes formerly occupied with a book slid across the carpeted ground to find his companion's waiting gaze, a small wrinkle of irritation marring his forehead.
"What is it?"
Sun Ce laughed and stretched above his head, the face still smooth with his seventeen years creasing under a smile. The hand that had prodded his best friend's shoulder rested between them, filling the scant corridor of green that their bodies left visible, thin enough that their sleeves were touching.
"Put that away already, would ya? We didn't come out here to study."
Zhou Yu felt himself sigh, the earth softening beneath him at the tiny motion. One hand reached back to close the book entirely, and the young strategist rolled up into a sitting position, one arm draped across his scarlet-clad knee.
"Hard though you may find this to believe, some of us do read for pleasure, Ce. Or rather, some of us read at all."
The boy made a face at him, a light fist falling against his supporting arm. "Hey, I can read. I've just got better things to do. And so do you, today."
Zhou Yu raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What might that be?"
Sun Ce took a deep breath, and the inhale lifted his chest, the peaceful motion as unhurried as his arms folding back beneath his head and his eyes slipping closed.
"Enjoy the sunshine."
The young strategist shook his head, glancing heavenward for a moment before looking back to the satisfied features of the boy beside him. The sun was strong, but somehow Zhou Yu found that the small smile on Sun Ce's lips was even stronger, and in the end his gaze stayed there, content to let the slight wind play through his hair and the world move around their motionless forms.
"Hey… Yu?"
Two simple words. How many questions had started with those two simple words? How many times had the man who would grow into Wu's great strategist not noticed the address, not even heard the soft syllables that drew his attention as easily as a hand on his arm? How was it that, of all the times he'd been called that way, it was this one afternoon that stood out so clearly in his memory, like a fragment of silver glittering at the bottom of a stream?
In his place on the hillside, Zhou Yu leaned back on his hands, his answer a muted sound that barely escaped his lips. Sun Ce's eyes came open, reluctant beneath the brilliant light, and his smile softened a little, thoughtful like his gaze as it moved across the endless blue above them.
"Do you ever wonder what's beyond the sky?"
Zhou Yu blinked, glancing up momentarily before turning back to his companion.
"What?"
"What's beyond the sky. You know… we're here, and the sky's up there… what comes after that?"
Zhou Yu was silent for a long moment, following the lines of his friend's familiar countenance with unwavering eyes. Then he lay back onto his elbows in the thick grass, studying the featureless face of the sky with a vague frown.
"I don't think there is anything beyond the sky, Ce."
Sun Ce nudged him with an indignant elbow, wrinkling his nose in spite of his cheerful expression. "You're a spoilsport, you know that?" The boy rolled onto his side, and a little more of the space between them disappeared, their overlapping exhales brightening the grin on the young Sun lord's face. "Do you ever get curious at all?"
Zhou Yu wasn't sure how to answer that, and in the end he stayed quiet, leaning back fully into the slope of the hill so that he could meet Sun Ce's eyes more easily. The grass prickled the back of his neck, and the sunlight made him squint, and in a moment he rolled onto his side as well, one elbow tucked carefully under his head.
Sun Ce's face was half in shadow now, but it couldn't dim his smile, still contemplative as he reached out and took hold of his companion's shirt. "I think there is," he finished after a moment, fingers fiddling with the seam of Zhou Yu's sleeve. "I think there's something beyond the sky. And something beyond that."
Zhou Yu shifted, resting his head more comfortably along the curve of his arm.
"Why?"
Sun Ce shrugged.
"I don't know. Just a feeling, I guess."
Silence. The kind of silence he never found anymore. The kind of silence he had liked best between them, where there were no words but everything else filled the void. Another pulse pressed into the skin of his arm. Another pair of eyes shining across from him. Another form rolled so close now that his breath had taken the place of the wind on the young Sun lord's face, and the same was true in reverse, the dull heat flitting over his skin in a steady rhythm.
The sunlight was caught in Sun Ce's hair, and Zhou Yu reached out to brush it away, his fingers stalling in the loose strands of chestnut hair. He slid his thumb down the bright red ribbon wrapped around a falling ponytail, and Sun Ce smiled, glancing beyond him to where the green hillside gave way to open, infinite blue.
"Let's go there someday, okay?"
Zhou Yu's hand stilled, quiet as a shadow along his companion's cheek.
"Beyond the sky?"
Sun Ce nodded.
"Yeah. Wherever that is."
The boy scooted forward, and Zhou Yu slid his arm down to rest around the Sun lord's waist instead, too close now for the limb to fit between them. Sun Ce laughed, poking his friend in the chest with one determined finger.
"I'm gonna prove it to you. That there's something up there."
The young strategist raised an eyebrow, the glittering amber holding his steady gaze. "And how do you plan to get there?"
Sun Ce shrugged again, ponytail slipping from side to side as his shook his head. "I dunno. Maybe we could kidnap a bird or something. It doesn't matter how. Just promise, okay?"
Zhou Yu looked up to the sky once more, and back to the smile waiting in front of him. A sigh escaped his lips to settle over Sun Ce's waiting face.
"All right, Ce."
His companion grinned, eyes closed against the sun and the warmth of his smile. Then the young Sun lord slipped out of his embrace, and in a moment he was on his feet, one pale hand clasped between his restless fingers.
"C'mon, Yu. Let's go catch that bird!"
"Ce—"
But his protest was ignored, and Sun Ce was unstoppable now, running down the hill with the young strategist's wrist in his unrelenting hold. Zhou Yu ran after him, cursing the hair in his eyes and the pulse beating in counterpoint to his own, too warm and hopeful to pull away from.
Where he stood on the stone stairway leading to Jianye's gardens, a much older strategist tightened his empty hand into a fist, imagining the heartbeat that hadn't been next to his in a very long time. The sun was burning across his closed eyes, asking the deep obsidian to open and regard a different sky. But only a voice could demand his attention now—not the voice he'd been listening to, but a deeper, steadier one, echoing from the covered corridor some distance above him.
"Master Zhou Yu."
Zhou Yu looked up, his eyes pausing on the face of a new lord, gray eyes peering at him beneath the shadow of a stern brow. Sun Quan crossed both arms over his chest, the slight motion tightening his entire body.
"We are beginning the counsel session now. I ask for your insight."
A small breath slipped between the strategist's lips, but he only nodded, glancing back to the garden as Sun Quan's uncertain footsteps made their halting progress back toward the palace's main wing. Then he turned and started up the stairs as well, leaving the landscape of brilliant green and blue behind him.
In the end, he decided it was just a brush of wind—just the pulse of the sun on the back of his neck, a last touch of the summer air he gave so little regard. But for a moment, Zhou Yu thought he felt a warm breath on his face, and he stopped walking, eyes closed to all but the memory whispering in his ear.
Hey, Yu.
The strategist's fist relaxed, pale fingers leaving room for the sunlight to wind between them.
Do you ever wonder what's beyond the sky?
Zhou Yu exhaled, the soft sound distracting him as obsidian eyes settled on the roof line of the palace before him, blind to everything but the endless, impenetrable blue that had seemed unremarkable so many years ago. Then he shook his head, wistful smile only for the silent cerulean.
"Now I do."