Illusions of Grandeur
Heather, Bell Flowers, and the Scent of Honey:
or, That Depressing Version of Jingyi's Sad Baby Love Tree
Jin Ling wakes up to sounds of desperate sobbing and the world comes crashing down around his ears. It was all an illusion conjured up by his desperate mind.
"He's gone!" Lan Sizhui practically screams through the tears. "How could we let this happen?"
Jin Ling doesn't know. He reaches out to touch the Lan Jingyi but Lan Sizhui smacks his hand away. "Don't touch him!" he screams. "Don't you dare," Lan Sizhui practically hisses at him, "If you had just listened to me… this wouldn't have happened! Look at him, Jin Rulan! This is what we were missing! This is why you were never enough! And now he's gone!"
Jin Ling's hand falls limply back into his lap. He doesn't say anything in response. He doesn't move or look away from the still form in front of him, even as his vision begins to blur from tears.
He is still sitting there quietly when they come and try to take Lan Jingyi away from Lan Sizhui. He glances up with a dead look in his eyes and watches as his husband fights to keep their omega and fails as Lan Jingyi is ripped away from them. Still, he does nothing. He doesn't move to comfort his soulbond in either word or action. Jin Ling has no will to move or breathe.
Lan Jingyi is gone. His little omega and best friend, abandoned all of his life and left to die alone.
It was all his fault.
It's been months now and Jin Ling no longer knows how to go on. Nothing is the same. The world feels darker, more subdued, without them by his side. Sunshine no longer exists to him as he wanders the halls of Lanling Jin alone.
In the old darkened rooms of his and Lan Jingyi's shared living space, Lan Sizhui cries himself to sleep every night, face buried in a pair or robes that no longer carries the familiar scent of lemongrass.
This was what they were missing.