Time stood still.

Wei Ying couldn't breathe.

He was dimly aware of Kedou taking Shui from his arms, of his feet taking him to where the other half of himself lay.

Lan Zhan didn't seem to be breathing.

He just lay there, and for once, Wei Ying didn't know what to do. His hands fluttered uselessly above Lan Zhan's body, his mind a mess of jumbled thoughts, refusing to believe what he was seeing.

"Lan Zhan?" He whispered, hesitantly shaking him. "Wake up...please!"

Lan Zhan's hand fell open and the coin that Li XiWang had given him fell on the ground.

Wei Ying couldn't care.

"Child. Child!" A voice next to his ear, and a shake of his shoulders, had him looking into violet eyes.

A white haired woman smiled kindly at him.

"Take him to your daughter. She's the only one who can help him now."

When Wei Ying didn't do anything, she realised he was still in shock.

"NOW!" She shook both of his shoulders, jarring him out of his stupor.

He stood up on shaky legs. "Where is she?"

"He took her to the shore."

There was something about her that had Wei Ying trust her.

"I can take you. It will be faster." Suanni said, and then he threw back his massive head and roared.

That did it.

Wei Ying picked up Lan Zhan into his arms and flew to sit upon the wide shoulders of the gigantic beast. Seconds later they broke through the water, and flew towards the little crowd on the shore.

********

JingYi had pointed to a huge creature, bigger than the dragons that were, in his mind, the biggest ones he'd seen. They had all turned to see what he was looking at, but then it dived into the sea and they were left wondering if they'd actually seen something that big.

"You saw it too, right?" Jiang Cheng asked Jin Ling for confirmation, who still had his arms around SiZhui.

"I don't know." He murmured, looking out across the sea.

JingYi squealed.

And then he was laughing and crying. "My babies!!"

He had been standing, watching the phenomenon that was Suanni enter the ocean...and then something licked his face. He was surrounded by three red faces, eagerly pushing each other to lick him first and more, their bodies curling around his in a possessive way, and JingYi looked up to see the proud dragon parents staring at the four of them a distance away.

"I'm not sure you can still call them that..." Jin Ling smirked.

"They will always be my babies," JingYi cried, hotly, before stroking two faces sweetly and lamenting that he didn't have a third hand for the one that was left out, who decided he could still be licked.

"Look! It's coming towards us!" SiZhui cried, but he recognised his father, and then the person he was carrying.

They all stepped back as Suanni settled on the ground. XiChen was startled by the noise.

Wei Ying flew down from the back of the magnificent creature  with Lan Zhan still held close to his chest. Tears streamed down his face.

"Didi!"

"Father!"

Voices called out to him, but he could only look straight ahead. As he neared, Li XiWang opened her eyes. They were silver, a bright white around black pupils, and not her own burgundy ones.

"Bring him to me." She said, but it was not her voice. This voice was deeper, richer and filled with ages of experience.

Wei Ying silently placed Lan Zhan's body in front of her.

Her white eyes blazed with a white fire, her hands glowed with a white light, and she placed them palms down upon the where Lan Zhan's golden core should be.

The white light grew until it shone blindingly, covering her and Lan Zhan completely.

The spectators looked away, for it was too bright for naked eyes. The air around them hummed, vibrating as if...giving something up. The light absorbed energy, bursting into tiny pieces, as if unable to contain it, and then there was silence.

Li XiWang slumped forward, falling onto her father.

Wei Ying hadn't stopped looking, so his eyes needed to get used to natural light. When he was able to focus finally, he saw Lan Zhan lift up his hand to cradle her head. Her hair had changed; one lock of hair was startlingly white, amid the blackness of the rest.

"Lan Zhan!" Wei Ying fell upon both of them, crying.

Jiang Cheng couldn't take his eyes off Suanni.

"Is he...is he bowing?" He asked XiChen, because Jin Ling was useless at giving him answers.

"I think he is."

They watched as the not so mythical beast bowed his huge head reverently.

SiZhui had joined his family. He didn't understand what had happened, but at least they were alive, and here now. He helped Lan Zhan sit up, who was staring at Wei Ying.

"Are you hurt?" His voice was hoarse with not speaking for so long.

Wei Ying could only shake his head briefly, before tucking it back into his neck, holding onto Lan Zhan as if he'd never let go. Lan Zhan discreetly checked his body for injuries, while his husband steadily cried.

"Will someone please tell us what's going on?" Jiang Cheng finally yelled, at the end of his patience.

******

They were sat against the huge and warm body of Suanni, who had decided to stay. Someone had thoughtfully made a bonfire, and they were waiting for Jiang Cheng and XiChen to get back from town; they were bringing food because suddenly everyone was hungry, and Jiang Cheng had forbidden them to talk about anything before he got back.

Wei Ying had snuggled into the open arm of his husband on one side, and Li XiWang sat on his lap, with Lan Zhan's other arm around her little shoulders. SiZhui sat as close as he could to Jin Ling, their fingers intertwined.

Jin Ling watched the flames reflected in the chocolate brown eyes of his boyfriend, smiling at the word in his mind. The peace that his epiphany had brought, sat strongly on his shoulders and in his heart; he was in no rush now. But a small part of him wondered if SiZhui had heard him at all.

He couldn't blame him if he didn't, after all, SiZhui was going through too much, on his own, and his emotional outburst was a sign of it. SiZhui was always calm, always reasonable, but he had been pushed to his limits these past few days.

"I heard you," he whispered shyly now, cheeks red.

Jin Ling pulled him closer so he was almost sitting in his lap. His lips drifted over those hot cheeks, before settling over equally hot ears.

"Good." Jin Ling whispered, allowing hot air to pass through his lips to caress the too warm skin.

SiZhui shivered.

"Get off my nephew!" Jiang Cheng called out, annoyed, as he and XiChen came over the dunes.

SiZhui scrambled off, his face redder than the flames in front of them, but Jin Ling pulled him back.

"I'm cold!" He yelled back, but his eyes were drinking in the form next to him.

"It's time to eat!" Jiang Cheng shoved packets of food on laps and then deliberately sat between his nephews, pulling XiChen down next to him.

"Ah..." he fake sighed. "This is so nice. After all that travelling." He stared pointedly at Wei Ying.

"That reminds me!" XiChen exclaimed. He handed his food to his husband and started searching his robes. He withdrew a package and handed it to Wei Ying. "Uncle Qiren sent this for you." Then he smirked and said,"nothing for you, Didi."

Lan Zhan realised what he meant, and smiled broadly. Uncle Qiren had finally, really and truly, accepted Wei Ying.

Wei Ying was staring at him now, when he turned to look at his husband. Wei Ying reached up and kissed the side of his mouth.

Lan Zhan was worried about him. He hadn't really spoken since they'd sat down.

"Let's eat first, and then we can talk." XiChen said, smiling at his brother.

Rules were hard to break when they were embedded into brain.

Lan Zhan opened Wei Ying's packet first, after watching his little girl begin to eat.

"Wei Ying."

"Oh, sorry, Lan Zhan."

Wei Ying smiled but it was a shadow of his normal one. He ate absentmindedly, while Lan Zhan watched him covertly as he ate too.

When everyone had finished, Jiang Cheng collected all the rubbish and sealed it away.

"Now." He settled back into his husband's arms. "Tell us everything."