. . .

A sweet moist smell fills the senses of  Lan Wanji as a soft sensation touches his mouth. He, being in slumber licks the thing slightly. It is sweet as honey-laced lotus. The little Jade Dragon was hungry and bites onto it. 

Suddenly a loud gasp makes him open his eyes. There laid a boy in dark robes, eyes welled with tears as he shakes in fear and hatred. 'NO' Lan Wanji can have hurt him, he promised not to. He can not see his face clearly though he knows he is important. 

Lan Wanji tries to reach out to the little boy hovering in pain, seeking him with his hands. He wants to explain. He can see the small sobbing figure disappearing in blurs and the mist that covers. He wants to explain. He tries to reach out. ' NO,' He tries to scream, but no voice comes out. He touches his throat, trying hard to speak, to stop him from going. To stop him from hating.  He tries to get closer. 'NO, NO NO' He can not be stuck at this time. His limbs stay unmoving, his troat mum. His head is in frantic desperation as if an important part is being separated from him. His body crashes down in pain as he sees 'his hope' 'his friend' disappearing in the back dark mist. It is taking him far, far away. ' NOOOO' His heart sobs as tears stain Lan Wanji's impassive face. 

Lan Wanji jolted awoke in the Jingshi at midnight. Panting hard. 'It was a dream' He gasped, rubbing his temples. The 150-year-old Jade dragon almost wakes up like this every thunderstorm. For he remembers his first-ever encounter with his fated one. Well, the first and last. 

Lan Wanji gets off his bed, taking his outer robe as he walks solemnly to his study. He knows sleep isn't gonna come by. He takes his Wanji, his guqin and runs his slender fingers onto its strings as the melody elopes the Jingshi accompanying the sound of the rain that washed violently on the porch. Raging and cold. Just as that day.

The sound of guqin was long, the melody he played said the sorrow of a lost friend. An unsaid connection of childhood, and maybe it was much more now. It was short, brief, yet somewhat it was unforgettable.

He plays as he reminiscents the dusk he spent with that one friend when he was just twelve. That chatter and his 'mhn's, The toothy charmful smile and his fascination, The sweet smell of lotus and their shared half-eaten peach blossom, and lastly the help and his mistake.

Under the raging winds, the melody of his guqin said the story of the past. There lied something more than longing for his friend in his strings. Lan Wanji played softening and raging with tunes as the rainstorm that raged and softened pitter-pattering in the Jinshi's roof. Matching the rain, the melody paced as the weather till it could no more. The strings strung apart. 

He sighed. Looking at the broken strings. Getting up quietly he pulled up a small jade box engraved with a lotus from racks. It had a beautiful red ribbon, embroidered with inlaid lotuses in deeper red just at the end. 

'Wei Ying' He called softly, as he caressed the old tattered ribbon as he remembers his conversation with his brother.

- years back- 

" Wanji, Wanji, WANJI" His brother called his didi as Lan Xichen brisked through the mountain forests searching in the rain. No avail. His heart was throbbing with worries as his 14 years old brother again went missing. 

" Wanji, Wanji, WANJI, Where are you?" The crown prince of the Su clan called his brother again. 'Has Wanji again went to the same cave again?' He wonders. It has been years it is like this. Since when he was 12 Wanji's missing episode on every rainstorm has started' Although Lan Xichen is mostly busy learning the responsibilities of the crown prince. He is immensely worried about his little brother. For the first time, he can not understand his didi. Wanji was acting as if he was missing something or someone important. But all his family and people are here. It has become a matter of concern now.

" " Wanji, WANJI, Answer me A Zhan will you?" He called again.

"Bro_t_her" A small voice called him from behind. Lan Wanji was quivering in the rain, his robes drenched, ears warm red as he sat curling beneath the peach blossom. As the trembling 14 years old held onto a big vined leaf over his head. Which was barely covering him from the rain.

Xichen's heart quivered with worry as he saw his little didi like that. Rushing to him quickly, he pulled his little brother under the umbrella.

" Wanji A- Zhan, What is wrong with you? Were you practising here again?" Xichen asked him with concern.

Lan Wanji shook his head denying him as he takes out a small white lotus under his robes and shows it to Xihchen. "Can't Find" Wanji states as he looks to his brothers with eyes welled with desolation.

Xichen now understands what his brother trying to find. Or more precisely whom.

"Come," He says gently as they fly home.

------

" Tell me A Zhan, What is wrong?" Xichen asks gently patting dry his little brother's long hair. As they both sat Hanshi in dry robes, nearby a crackling fire that lit the darkroom with warmth.

" I_ Uh _ I  li_ke Wei Ying's scent" Lan Wanji confesses to his brother, turning a little red at his ears.

"Wei Ying?  Is that your friend Wanji" Xichen asks.

"Ye_ No, Mhn _ D_on't Know" Lan Wanji utters.

"Okay, So you met a new friend, and you can't find him," Xiachen asks again.

" Mhn" Wanji nods.

"But what that has to do with the lotus. Is that how he smells?" Xichen asks in concern doubting a certain theory. Wanji nods again as Xichen furrows. He turns Wanji to face him and asks again.

"Wei Ying smells like a white lotus to you?" He wants to confirm again. No matter what species they are, they must smell like the spirit animal associated, not something else. Unless...

Although  Lan Wanji stays silent to the question, Xichen gets the answer through Wanji's eyes.

" A Zhan, What is Wei Ying?" Xichen asks again remembering the prophecy that was predicted when his brother was small.

"uh_ a_ Nine-Tailed" Lan Wanji whispers. 

Xichen's eyes widen but then he smiles and whispers to his little brother. 

"Wanji You have found your mate," Xichen tells him.

''Mate?'' Wanji asks.

Mostly semi humans do not have a fated mate or connected being. They were as free as normal beings, But if a semi-human has a connected mate. It is the wish of the heavenly realms for a greater purpose. Jade Dragons tend to know the matters of heavenly realms deeply but Obviously, a fourteen-year-old jade dragon knows nothing about what were mates. It was age-restricted. They are still too young. For a normal being 14 is a teenage, but for jade dragons and semi-human species who live hundreds of years. They are still toddlers.

Xichen smiled gently as he explained. 

"Mate _uh it's like a friend, a best friend or more precisely it's the one person in the whole realm of the living who shall know you better than anyone else, deeper than everyone else, see you through the things you never reveal. And someone who shall make you a better being or spirit.

More intently, they don't make you a better person but you do that yourself_ just for them. As they inspire you and make you believe the impossible spectres of you are capable which you might not believe yourself.

It is someone who you carry with you forever, through ages, through time and sometimes beyond stars. They shall always be the one person that shall know you, through your lightness as well as your darkness, and accept your spirit the way you are. And believes in you before anyone else or everyone else in the whole realm

And no matter what happens you always love them, and they, you. Nothing can ever change that."

Wanji's eyes gleamed with interest as he nodded.

-the present-

Lost in thoughts Lan Wanji slept off on his study holding onto the red tattered ribbon. It did not have any of his smell now. The fabric laid old, tattered and almost giving up the strength to hold through the fibres. Just as Lan Wanji's fate. 

For what his brother did not tell Wanji that he is destined to kill his mate. It was predicted upon his birth festive.

" Shall thy Jaded core met upon the destined dark tails,

 thou must rake the cores of misted lotus bloomed, stained as thy."

It was the prophecy, the wish of the heavenly gods, and being the balance of nature a 'jade dragon' Lan Wanji must do what it takes to satisfy the wish of the heavenly realms.

 For it was not a regular white nine-tailed. It was dark, black and demonic. Once reached full culmination, no one shall be able to stop it. Wei Ying was a black nine tailed-a devil's incarnation. And there laid the sole reason why in 100 years Lan Wanji never wanted to search for Wei Ying. His sole wish was to let his fated curse smile as much one could, that warm heart-throbbing toothy smile.

'Why?' This was the question the now sleeping jade dragon pondered over years. He searched books, looked for a way through. All pointed in one direction. 'To Kill' But Can he? 

What it was the real destiny? To kill Wei Ying. Lan Wanji yet does not love him but knows not how could a brief moment of the past hold a deep connection that still remains un-interpreted.

An unknown emotion, a repayment for his 'kiss of healing', a past string of fate. What does the future hold? Will it be misery? Or will it be a rebel against? It was anything but inevitable.

. . .

A/N- Again an unedited, break writing. And I am still telling myself. It is a short story I swear.