Chapter 125: Do not leave me alone (+18)

After some time We came down from the tree as the last of the light went. The plain was cold underfoot. Captain Ru wanted everyone back inside the veil before full dark. I told qing yan I was staying. She looked at me for a long moment, then at the crack hanging in the sky, and didn’t argue. Jiang Wei opened his mouth. But she looks at him and move her head so he couldn’t say anything and then he closed it without saying anything.

Qing Yan didn’t ask. She just swung down from the horse and started gathering dry scrub for a fire.

" what are doing right now ?!" I said.

"Nothing , just staying here."

"No, you can’t, don’t you see–"

"I can see everything."

"Captain Ru—"

"He Can leave without me." She struck a spark. The dry grass caught with a soft *whoosh*. "If you are going to stand out here and stare at that thing all night, someone should make sure you do not fall into it."

We argued about it for another minute. It wasn’t really an argument. She had already decided, and I was too tired to make her change her mind. In the end the others rode back. The sound of the horses faded. And in the migy The fire settled into a low, steady burn. We sat on either side of it with the crack hanging above us, a violet seam that didn’t move with the wind.

I watched toward the crack. I didn’t mean to go quiet. It just happened. The numbers in the corner of my vision had stopped once I looked away, but I could still feel the pull under my ribs, like a hand resting on the inside of my chest. Somewhere on the other side of that line there was a door. I didn’t know. I only knew it was counting down.

"Barry?"

Qing Yan said my name once. I didn’t hear it the first time.

She said it again, louder. "Barry."

I blinked. The fire had burned lower. She was watching me across it, arms wrapped around her knees, gold earrings catching the light. Her chest rose and fell under the thin outer robe.

"Sorry," I said. "What?"

"I asked if you were cold."

"No–no i am not."

She studied me. The fire popped. A loose piece of armor clinked somewhere out in the corpse field.

"You are hidding somthing aren’t you?," she said.

"what? No–i mean–"

"Barry. You know something about that crazy right ?" She said in a serious tone.

"It’s just a hole in the sky. I don’t know what it is." i replied

"You are lying."

I didn’t answer. The silence stretched. She waited. After a while she stood, came around the fire, and sat on the sand beside me, close enough that our shoulders almost touched. She didn’t look at the crack. She looked at me.

"Tell me," she said.

I thought about lying again. It would have been easier. Then I thought about the ten days she had sat by the bed, and the way her hand had rested next to mine like she was afraid to take it, and the promise I had made in a cave when neither of us had known what it would cost.

"I’m not from here," I said.

She went still.

"I woke up in this world in a battlefield. Before that I was somewhere else. Another world. I don’t know how I got here. I don’t know how to get back. But There are people there who are probably still waiting for me, or who have stopped waiting. I don’t know which." I nodded at the seam above us. "That thing up there... the System said the countdown was synchronized. It recognized something in me. I think it might be a way through. Or a way home. Or something different? . I don’t know. But when it opens, I’m going to go look."

Qing Yan didn’t speak for a long time. The firelight moved on her face. When she finally did, her voice was smaller than I had ever heard it.

"Then–You–You are going to leave?."

"I don’t know when. I don’t know if it will even work. But yes. If there’s a door, I have to see what’s on the other side."

She looked down at her hands. They were clenched in her lap. Her shoulders had drawn in.

"I–I will go with you wherever are you go."

"No–You can’t. It might be dangerous."

"I can."

"It might not let you through or It might lead somewhere worse than this."

"Then I will still go." She lifted her head. Her eyes were bright. "You said you would take responsibility. You said you would not leave me alone. Did you mean it, or was it only something you said because I was looking at you?"

"I–I meant it."

"Then do not leave me behind." Her voice cracked on the last word. She swallowed and kept going, faster now. "I have already lost one home. I will not sit in this valley and watch the sky open and wonder if you are on the other side. If you go, I go. Even if it is dangerous. Even if you tell me not to. I am not asking."

I stared at her. The fire popped. Somewhere far off, something shifted in the wind.

"Qing Yan—"

She moved before I could finish. She came up with her hand on the ground, onto her knees in front of me, between my legs, back arched so the curve of her ass lifted under the robes, and leaned in. The kiss was sudden and a little clumsy. Her mouth was warm. I felt the wet edge of a tear against my cheek.

My hand try to reach for her waist but i stoped mid way and try to push her but she noticed it all.

"I do not want to hear the rest," she whispered against my lips, voice shaky. "Please. Do not say anything that will make me think you are going to walk through that thing and never come back."

Her hands found mine where they had stopped halfway to her waist. She pulled them the rest of the way and set them on her lower back, then leaned forward until her entire body pressed against mine. I could feel her breathing, quick and uneven. Her chest rose and fell against me, soft and full. Her eyes stayed open. Wet with tears.

"I do not care about the other world," she said, the words tumbling out between short breaths. "I do not care who is waiting. I care that you are here. I care that you looked at me in that cave and did not look away. If you leave, I will follow. If the gate will not take me, I will sit on this plain until it does. You said you would take responsibility. So take it. Do not leave me alone. Please... I want to stay by your side. Forever. I do not care about anyone else."

I opened my mouth to say. She kissed me again before I could speak. This one was slower. Her lips parted with a soft, wet *smuch*. A small, shaky "hmm~" left her throat when I kissed her back. Her fingers tightened on my wrists, holding my hands where she had put them.

I slid one hand lower to her back, She flinched hard. A sharp little "ahh— caught in her throat. For a second I thought she would pull away. She didn’t. She stayed where she was, body arched over mine, and let my palm settle over the curve of her ass through the thin fabric. Another sound slipped out of her, quieter this time. "Uhmm". Her hips shifted, just a fraction, pressing into the touch. The fabric was warm under my hand.

We kept kissing. Slow. Open-mouthed. The wet sound of it was soft in the quiet — the faint *hngg* smooch * of lips meeting and parting, the occasional catch of her breath when my hand flexed. Her tongue brushed mine, hesitant at first, a slick little slide that made her gasp into my mouth. "Ngg—" Then again, less careful. I felt the tremor that ran through her when I squeezed her ass gentle at first, then a little firmer. She made a low noise into my mouth, almost a whimper, "hngg... uhmm", and leaned in harder until there was no space left between us. Her chest pressed fully against mine now. Every breath she took pushed her soft breasts against me.

Her eyes stayed open. Wet and Watching me.

I kissed her deeper. Our tongues met properly this time — wet, slow, the soft *slurp* of it audible in the still air. She moaned into it, a broken "ahh... mmm", the sound vibrating against my lips.

When my other hand finally settled at the back of her head, fingers sliding into her hair and pulling her a little harder, she made a surprised little "hngh," and melted closer, hips rocking once against me without meaning to.

My hand on her ass flexed again and squeezed them harder now, She gasped, "ahh— uhmm", a wet little sound escaping as our mouths stayed locked. Her tongue slid against mine with another soft *smuch-slurp*, and a shaky "hngg... mmm" spilled out of her when I squeezed the soft curve under my palm. She didn’t pull away. Her body stayed pressed tight to mine, warm and trembling, every small movement of my hands drawing another quiet, surprised sound from her throat.

The fire burned lower. Above us the crack in the sky kept its slow, patient count.

She kissed me again, deeper this time, tongue sliding against mine with another soft, wet sound, and didn’t pull away. Her body stayed pressed to mine, warm and trembling, my hand still resting on her ass and squeezing and touching them. And she didn’t resist wherever i touch her .