Eon returns to the temple in the beginnings of his fourth Spring.
At first, he does not know what to make of it.
Tian, now one of the youngest masters next to Dashi himself, is at first conflicted at what his presence would bring upon his life here.
He is not scared of being overshadowed. He is not concerned over what his brother has been getting himself up to in the past six months of his wandering. He is not in the very least worried about the delicate balance that lays between his brother's arrival and the current war against the Heylin.
Guan speaks to him after the feast held in his honor, away from the festivities and loud bouts of laughter and away from Dashi who is riddling the older ex-Yong with stories of his students. He sits next to him, silent. The two wordlessly listening to the world around them.
The mountain is filled with the chorus of joyous voices and sounds; the instruments his brother brings hold the monks' attention with rapt curiosity and even now he can still hear the younger children's loud singing ringing through his ears. There are weirder things in this world Tian has now experienced, and yet, it is not this that holds his current state of mind.
Eventually it isn't even Guan who breaks the silence- it's Dashi's dragon Dojo who does.
"Brothers, what's wrong?" The green serpent asks, slithering across the grass before winding himself around the back of Tian's neck. He does not comment on the accumulated fat weighing against his braid from the feast, instead he lets out a long sigh that is unfit of a monk of his stature.
Dojo is warm and a comforting presence. Alongside Dashi, the two are the first he's bonded with since climbing the mountain. Dashi, who treats him less of a student and more like a brother bordering father. And Dojo, who immediately takes to his master's two beloved students and gives them a tour through the constellations on the nights they cannot fall asleep.
"I am conflicted," he confesses, unease leaking in waves the longer the silence grows between them. Dojo makes a small noise akin to a whimper but he continues, fearing if he does not let go of these conflictions then they will weigh him down in the future. "Eon and I used to be close. I do not know what we are now..."
Once upon a time, there was a Yong Huai Tian looked up to his talented si-ge. The manor always buzzed whenever he'd come home from lessons or guard duty. His older brother, though not as spectacular as their 大哥[da ge, eldest brother (to be born)], had a sort of charisma to him that attracted crowds and attention. His smile set the heaviest minds at ease- Eon had always been the one to calm their father down. And surprisingly enough, it was Huai Tian who the jewel of the house chose to dote on the most.
The memories of the two sneaking into the kitchen to steal steamed buns still weighed on his conscious. He remembered the smells and the schemes, the careful whispers and the adrenaline coursing through their systems every time the Head Maid threatened to reveal their presences. He remembers Eon tutoring him on his brush stroke, watching 阿姨 [Ā-yí, aunt] play the guzheng. He remembers New Years and the Ghost Festivals, the Dragon Boat Races and the nights spent sore beyond belief but not tired enough to fall asleep.
"Brother, perhaps it is time to think less of him as a brother and more as a fellow monk." Guan murmurs only to be hushed by Dojo. He backtracks in silence before he decides that he has the right words this time, "路遥知马力，日久见人心. [lù yáo zhī mǎ lì, rì jiǔ jiàn rén xīn (as distance tests a horse's strength, so does time reveal a person's real character)]"
"I've had my whole life to learn what Eon was capable of..." He snorts, "da-ge couldn't have changed all that much."
"You haven't been separated for a time as long as this. Absence makes the heart grow fonder after all."
He does not voice out how that was what he was scared of.
Instead, he closes his eyes and hopes the firecrackers could mask his beating heart.