Ash and Honey [BL]

Fu Ran was suddenly alert. He didn't draw Shi Wei Ji, but he pulled himself into a defensive stance and pushed the dark robes to the side to reveal the glistening white blade.

Familiar voices filled the little shrine area. Meng Xiao, annoyed as ever, and Lin An, crying, as always.

"Lin An, please stop cryin', okay? We gotta be getting closer, 'cuz we already walked so far."

A little girl's incoherent babbling responded to his anger, broken up by sniffling and sobbing.

All worry vanished in an instant, and Fu Ran breathed out a sigh. They were late, but not nearly enough to warrant any punishment, so he would simply give them a hearty, "Good job," when they arrived.

"Children! This way! Watch out, there are—" His voice trailed off when his disciples started to show from behind the bush.

Fu Ran froze mid-sentence, the words trailing with less vigor now. "…there are holes…"

The children's condition was terrible. How had this happened in only a few hours? He started walking before he even thought to do so, and then he ran.

"Children!" Fu Ran called.

Meng Xiao had practically fumbled his steps out of the bushes but shakily caught his feet on solid ground. He carried Lin An on his back, and her arms were wrapped tightly around him. She had tears streaming down her cheeks, smearing the dirt from where it looked like she had fallen on her face.

What stunned Fu Ran most was the presence of red on both of his disciples.

Meng Xiao had red staining his lips and the front of his shirt. It would have been hard to see on the black fabric, but the front of his robes was cut open messily, revealing a large gash down the front of his chest. Lin An wailed louder as she met eyes with Fu Ran.

"Shizun! Shizun! Shizun!" she cried and practically fell from Meng Xiao's arms. In seconds, she clung to her teacher instead.

"Lin An… Meng Xiao, by the gods, what happened?" Fu Ran motioned to pet the small girl's hair, but it was chopped just below the ear. All of her pretty pink and purple flowers were missing, and she was so dirty and messy.

The first was coughing up blood and had to carry his Shimei. The second was severely cut and probably had a hard time moving her arms. And the third was—

"Where is Wan Yu?" Tian Han spoke.

"He got taken," Meng Xiao said, as if it wasn't a horrifying shock.

Fu Ran didn't know whether to comfort, question, or provide medical attention first. Only a small word escaped his lips in disbelief. "Kidnapped…?"

***

The shrine porch was now filled with four cultivators sitting on the red-leaf-covered wood. They hadn't gone inside, as it was still abandoned and dusty.

Despite Tian Han's earlier harsh and uncaring expression, he took gentle measures to look after Lin An, even bandaging her with careful ease, like he had done this many times before.

Fu Ran caught himself staring at Tian Han, but his attention was quickly brought back to the squirming teen in his arms. Meng Xiao just would not sit still long enough for his injuries to be checked.

"Stop moving. This Shizun isn't done with you yet." Fu Ran stared down the bridge of his nose, judgmentally. "So tell me, why do you keep playing evasive when this Shizun asks such simple questions?"

"You won't believe me even if I explain!" Meng Xiao argued. 

Fu Ran wanted to bite back in a somewhat snappy tone. A simple "try me" would have sufficed, but instead, he plucked up Meng Xiao's ear. The boy whined in dissatisfaction.

"Ow! Ow! Okay, okay!! He was taken… by Shizun," Meng Xiao explained.

Fu Ran furrowed his brow, and his face showed that he, in fact, did not believe what the boy had just told him. "By me?"

Meng Xiao responded with a huff and gritted his teeth, his fingernails digging into the light wood serving as their seat. "I knew you wouldn't believe me."

"I believe you." Tian Han reassured him and raised his hand to ruffle Meng Xiao's intertwining black locks. "I'm guessing that you don't think that man was really your Shizun, correct?"

Meng Xiao nodded. "I'll explain," he said, before loosely recounting the past events.

The disciples had gone their separate ways in search of information and gotten dragged into a situation by a man that looked like Fu Ran. Lin An was jumped while investigating alongside Wan Yu and remembered little before she woke up. Meng Xiao stated that he stupidly followed this fake Shizun because he thought he was being "tested."

Upon both being knocked out, they woke up on the floor of a ratty old farmhouse. If not for Wan Yu saving them, they would still be tied up now.

Meng Xiao was one of the more powerful disciples during the entrance exam because he had actually managed to combat one of the Fall Corpses before being terribly injured. It was shocking that someone in a city like this had the capability to overpower him.

Fu Ran was frustrated. The recounting of the disciple's story left him with one major thought: Why me?

Choosing Fu Ran as a target to masquerade as made no sense. Of all people to impersonate, why a Peak Master with no achievements in the outside world? Fu Ran had little to no presence anywhere outside of An Xian Yun Peak. He had little to no presence even inside An Xian Yun Peak, for that matter.

Any "presence" he did have was made up of idle things over the last three years. Things like: sitting underneath the little red umbrella outside his back door, hoping to enjoy some morning tea, or watching over the koi he had cultivated in his pond.

What would someone gain from using his face?

More concerning, how did they know him and become acquainted enough with his looks to copy him? Even some Peak Masters on the mountain hadn't seen him in ages. It was just illogical.

Meng Xiao looked pensive, and his nails cut lines into the boards of the porch. "The guy had some good fightin' ability. Don't underestimate him. If he wasn't good, I wouldn't have let him get the baby."

"Any idea why he was targeting you? You're all fresh disciples, and there's no reason for someone to be after your heads." Fu Ran spoke with worry.

"To capture Wan Yu, I think," Lin An interrupted. "I am so sorry, Shizun. I am so sorry, Tian Shibo. If I had been stronger or even faster," she said, not being able to finish before her eyes welled with tears.

Fu Ran brushed her bangs from her eyes. "Saying things like that is counterproductive. 'Could have' or 'should have' are phrases best saved until after everyone in a mission is safe. Once Wan Yu is returned, we can talk about it together and come up with ways to better handle future events like this."

She nodded and wiped her eyes with her light blue sleeves.

After questioning his disciples, only one thing was evident: neither he nor they had found anything involving the current mission. Really, based on what Fu Ran had been told, it might have been more shocking if they had made huge leaps and bounds in their investigations.

"So, no one saw where the kidnapper went?" Tian Han asked. He had remained awfully silent while the previous conversation went on. Somehow his face was even more thoughtful than Fu Ran's.

"No… Isn't Tian Shibo really angry with us?" Lin An asked.

Of course, he probably would be. After all, Wan Yu was his family. Fu Ran couldn't imagine him being fine, but the way the Tyrant Emperor responded seemed to go against this line of thought:

"It's okay. There is a positive, at least."

"A positive?" Fu Ran furrowed his brows, and his voice turned accusatory. "How could there be any positives when your family is missing?" He didn't bother hiding his annoyance.

Tian Han raised his hand up defensively without giving Fu Ran a chance to voice more bitterness. "We have a face here that looks exactly like the man who took Wan Yu."