[A/N: Mature content. Reader discretion advised.]

YiJun's POV

To be full: full of joy, warmth, and contentment is all I have ever craved for since Xian came into my life. Of all the years that I spent next to him, not once did I believe that it was possible to have him all to myself without fear or guilt.

I still can't believe it, to be honest. To be with Xian, abandoning all inhibitions, apprehensions, and restrictions, all of it seems like a dream.

Xuan cried over me, and Jian pitied me, but father was different. He knew that for once in my life, I was happy.

Did it matter that I don't have my wings anymore? No, not at all.

Did I care that I couldn't bask in the sun anymore? No. I didn't enjoy it much anyway.

Did I regret Xian choosing us over heaven? Not one bit.

We were free. Free to love the way we wanted. Or at least, that's what I thought before Father entrusted me with a mission.

After taking my wings, Father gave me something to replace them with, something unique. I could tell that in the light of what had happened, my father trusted me now more than he did before. Thus, the only thing I had given up was my freedom to enter the heavenly realm as and when I pleased.

Father was as crafty as he was benevolent.

The reason, why my father had not only absolved my sins, but also blessed me with new weapons became clear shortly.

As soon as I was released, without even giving me a chance to reunite with Xian, he sent me on an errand to seek out the unclean and other demons that Hei Chi had let loose on humanity before laying siege on heaven. My last 'official' service to heaven was to catch them and bring them back to where they belonged: in cages.

Meanwhile, Xian, blessed with The Voice, was to stop more of the underworld residents from escaping.

"Once you have established peace, you can start your life with Xian without obstructions, YiJun," I recalled my father's words as I fought and captured the demons relentlessly and waited (patiently) till I had rid the human realm of every last one.

As I make my way through the darkest pits of the underworld, I wonder how Xian is doing all on his own. After all, he is just eighteen.

Wasn't it a little unfair on Father's part to entrust him with such a big responsibility?

I regret the wayward thought instantly. Father had been kind and generous. His words and actions had shown that he had accepted Xian and had forgiven me. It was I who was selfish.

Selfishness was an inconvenient emotion I had picked up in my stint in the human realm. I knew it would take me ages, if not millennia, to overcome it.

"General," A voluptuous demoness addresses me and bows. Bora, I think that's what she had introduced herself as the day before. She and others like her were power-hungry and were willing to side with the new authority figures: Xian and me.

"Where is the king?"

My query replaces her perfectly plastered smile with a frown. She schools her features almost immediately and licks her lips seductively.

Does she think that her charms will work on me?

"Your quarters are ready. Would you like to rest before meeting with the King?"

I glare, and she fumbles, "I...we thought you would return tomorrow." She sounds guilty and scared.

My hackles rise, "Out with it," I command, unsheathing Bitchen from its confines.

The demoness covers. "The King asked for you. We thought he looked stressed. I...I mean, we were merely looking out for him."

"Where is he?" I stress every syllable and advance upon her, brandishing Bitchen in her face. My sword was infamous more than I was. It had tasted blood and taken the lives of countless demons like her. Now with my rage powering it, my sword vibrated with celestial energy.
She must have felt its power, for, an instant later, she kneels at my feet, "On his way to the pleasure hall." She confesses and pleads. "Please show mercy, General."

"Take me there. Now. Quick. Your existence depends on it!" I bellow, and she nods; turning on her heel, she sprints towards what I presume is the pleasure hall.

The pleasure hall turns out to be exactly like what my jealous, concerned mind had conjured up: a place where the residents went to sin. The only difference was that it was expected and encouraged by those that called the underworld their permanent residence.

I realized at this moment that as their leader, it was natural for Xian to indulge in the acts.

Ya, right.

I burst through the flimsy door. The security is terrible, as expected. I raise a brow, and Bora wipes hers, "General, it's something we take pride in doing. There is no need to lose your temper over it. It is how we stay powered up, you know."

"Oh," I mutter under my breath. And run my eyes over the naked, intertwined bodies seeking pleasure and giving pleasure in a desperate search for Xian. During my time among humans, I had never once come across something this over the top and downright filthy. I could tell that not all acts were consensual, but it was beyond my jurisdiction. I was here to keep the residents from escaping.

'But what about Xian?' A small voice in my head nudges.

"Where is your king?" I growl, and the moans of pleasure or otherwise cease.
"Jun?" Xian calls from somewhere behind me. I turn, and before the scene in the room can taint his innocent eyes, I pull him towards me and turn him around.

The fragrance of vanilla and honey washes over me in waves as his arms wrap around me and his breath fans my neck, "Jun..." my name drops from his lips again, like molten lave it seers my very soul. The need to be alone with him overpowers everything else, and without a second to waste, I drag him out of the sinful place.

My prince follows without hesitation or question. Once I have put enough distance between us and everyone else, I stop and look at him.

Xian looks the same; I can't help but steal a kiss. I am glad that I do, for it makes him smile up at me. "I can see that you missed me too."

"Yes. I missed you." I reply and move in for another, but he turns away.

"Why didn't you come to see me before?"

"I couldn't. I needed to make sure that nothing comes between us when we are together."

"Mnnnn. I see." He makes a show of scratching his chin, pretending to be in deep thought. I can see through him. He wants to punish me for keeping him waiting.

"My prince, let me make it up to you." I plead, ruffling his hair. I regret it immediately.

I don't know why I keep forgetting that he hates it. I guess old habits die hard.

"I am sorry." I apologize, trying to appease him, but it backfires. He huffs and starts walking away.

"Xian, you said a while back that you had had your fill of waiting." I tease, and he stops dead in his tracks. Turning around, he jabs a finger in the middle of my chest, "That was before you started taking me for granted. Now all I want is for you to wait!" Then, stomping his feet and snapping his fingers, he disappears into the dark corridor.

With him gone, gloom and darkness creep into my heart unexpectedly. I summon my wings to seek comfort in them as a reflex, realizing too late that I had already traded them for my life with Xian.

Had I gone too far?

He was a king now, the supreme ruler of the underworld. The question was, was I enough?

Doubt knocks at my heart, and I let it in. I knew for a fact that down here, I wasn't the most attractive being by any means. The underworld used temptation to attack their prey; it was in their job description to be desirable.

I try to shrug off the negative feelings and drag my feet towards my chamber, on the other end of the realm. However, before I can get anywhere close to my destination, a pair of arms wrap themselves around my middle.

"My Jun, you were doubting yourself again, weren't you?" Xian demands, turning me around. I had lost my ability to lie to him long ago. So, I nod and don't offer any other explanation.

Xian sighs and closes the distance between us, capturing my lips in a lingering kiss. "I love you, Jun. Only you. Always, only you." He traces my lips and smirks, "Don't worry; I didn't see anything." He adds, referring to the pleasure hall and taking my arm possessively, starts leading me towards my room!?

I don't stop him. I had promised to serve him. I was technically under his protection, yet when he leaned into me and took my shoulder as his temporary pillow, I was once again his guardian, Wang YiJun.

"What happened to Hei Chi?" He questions, and I tell him how Father had saught my help to understand his heart while being imprisoned.

Having failed to take heaven's throne, when Hei Chi had begged for death, father had wiped his memories, taken his essence and guided his soul so that he could enter the cycle of life and death in the mortal realm.

Xian gestures to me to continue and I explain to him how the demoness Hei Chi had loved and lost so long ago had found her way to the mortal realm as well.

"Hei Chi will finally get to live the life he always desired...the life he thought was stolen from him." I finish, and he nods, looking impressed.

One after another, Xian bombards me with questions, and I, like a good subordinate, answer them all.

"You and your siblings are brave. I can't believe you guys tricked Grandfather into thinking that you were dead!"

I peck his cheek, "I guess we were lucky. Remorse and guilt had already left him weak and unsure. He knew he was being unreasonable when he punished me with the chains of agony. He did not like that I was continuing to hide the truth from him. Anyway, if Xuan and Jian hadn't interfered, my father would have killed me that day."

"What was the truth that you were hiding from him?" His innocent eyes meet mine just as we reach the ash-colored door that leads to my chamber. His brows knit when I don't answer immediately. "Are you not going to answer your King?" He challenges.

"I never said I won't, my king" I shrug and lift him off his feet. I kick the door open and step inside. As if reading my mind Xian smirks and closes the door shut with a snap of his fingers.

"I like the perks this job offers." Xian admits, snapping his fingers again.

A split second later, I find us on the bed that looks exactly like the one at our house. Surprisingly, Xian is pinned under me, smirking.

The look on my face makes him laugh.

Beautiful...perfect, and just for me...Mine and mine alone, I remind myself still in disbelief.

The fact that he was mine for the days, years, decades, centuries, and evermore, makes me join in. And we laugh till our stomachs hurt, and then we cry till there are no tears left.
We hold each other to our heart's content and fall asleep in each other's embrace.

I wake up to Xian kissing my jaw. "Jun," he shifts closer. "I am cold." He grumbles, nuzzling into my neck.

"No, you are not. You are in the underworld, remember." I remind him, and he nips my jaw playfully, "Yes, I lied. So what?"

"Lying is a sin." As soon as the words leave my lips, a sting at the base of my neck makes me moan. It's tantalizing.

"Yes, Jun, I am aware. But I don't care. I never did. And I am ready." He confesses, kissing the now throbbing redness: the hickey that he had given me moments ago. Then lifting his gaze, he asks. "How about you?"

"I am not sure I can stop at making you feel warm, my king." I shake my head, understanding him but pretending not to.

I hear a snap, and an instant later, our clothes disappear. We had switched our positions as well. It's good to know that some things are still the same.

In all our years as guardian and his charge, I had never been able to teach him patience. I was glad for it now.

"I wish you would stop taking things away from me, Xian. I am quite capable of undressing us." I reprimand playfully and turn us over, once again, loom over him. "To be honest, I enjoy it." I tease him with words before doing the same with my fingers.

"You know, I can redress us. It's simple really, all I have to do is-Ah!...Jun!" Words dissolve into moans as I wrap my fingers around him and start stroking the hard leaking length. Without giving him a chance, I lean in and claim his lips. He reciprocates but not before playing hard to get. I make him cum, before seeking permission to do more.

Our eyes meet and hold for a long moment in the dimly lit room. And then, just like Xian had done before in the bamboo shelter, he parts his legs. Unlike last time, however, there is confidence in his dark almond orbs this time around. When he nods giving me consent, I know that it's not because he is scared that I will leave (he is aware that I won't) or his refusal will upset me.

This time he wants me, just as much as I want him.

I can sense desire wafting off of him. The scent of honey and vanilla saturates our surroundings. If my desire for Xian was a flame, it would have been strong enough to turn the three realms to ash.

His lips taste like nectar, and I can't get enough of them. Without releasing his lips, I prepare him to receive me.

Drawing urgent, desperate, and broken moans from him, I thrust, first my knuckle and then my fingers into him one at a time. Halfway through, he cums again. Feeling embarrassed, he turns away. The blush coloring his cheeks and neck travel lower. I almost abandon my ministrations in favor of tasting and kissing the tempting expanse that lies before me. Hanging to the last shreds of control and making sure not to hurt him, I push into him. A gasp is all the warning I get before he clenches around me and cums. The act spurs me into action.

My chamber fills with disjointed sentences and needy moans. "More, faster, Yes, Again." are the only words that make sense as I continue to thrust in and out of the one who held my heart and owned my soul.

Unable to understand his pleas, I capture his lips and slip my tongue inside. Vanilla and honey assault my senses and push me over the edge. I hear myself growl as I come deep inside him. He follows soon after.

Completely spent, I slump over him. I can tell that he doesn't mind the weight, he savours it.

His arms map my back and move to my shoulder blades, "Did it hurt?" he whispers in my ear.

I knew that after he had chosen and before he was sent to rule here, father had spoken with him. He had told me how Xian had begged him not to take my wings, "Not at all. Not even in the moment they were taken from me." I reply and try to leave the bed.

Except, before I can do so, Xian reading my mind, snaps his fingers and cleans us and the mess alike. "I told you there are perks. Stay. Please." he requests and I oblige.

I open my arms and Xian buries his face in the crook of my neck. "You still smell like sunshine."

"Sunshine? Really?"

"Mn." he nods, "That, and sandalwood."

I smile, "I hope you like it."

"I do." He replies and places a chaste kiss over my heart. "I love it."

As I pull him closer and stroke his back, I expect him to fall asleep. It surprises me when he asks, "Jun, now that we won't be returning to our old lives, what will our friends and acquaintances think?"

"We will be erased from their memories. It will be like they never saw or met us."

"What will happen to your books?"

"Same, I suppose."

Xian bobs his head, "I wish we could check up on our friends." His fingers caressed my arm before wrapping around it like he wanted to make sure that I wasn't going anywhere.

I know the feeling, Xian. I understand.

"We can do that if you want, but I suggest you don't. Unlike us, our acquaintances will grow old and perish; they will not miss us or think of us. In the end, forming ties with humans will only bring us pain in the long run."

His face falls a little as understanding dawns on him. I wonder who he will miss the most, but before I can dwell on it, he throws another question at me, "Can you tell me now what you wanted to hide from Grandfather?"

My eyes linger on his almond orbs, his thick arched brows, and bow-shaped full lips. I catch the bead of sweat rolling down his temples on the tip of my finger and blow it away, "I wanted to hide the truth. I didn't want him to know that the one thing I can't and won't give up is you."

A mischievous smile turns Xian's eyes into crescents, and he asks a question I already knew he had the answer to, "And why is that, Jun? Why can't you give me up?"

I tilt his chin up, catch his eye, and drinking the elixir of happiness from his deep, dark pools I confess, "Because, my prince, you are mine. Mine, to protect and serve."

{Note:- 😭😭😭😭😭
It's done. My most challenging project till date is done after two years!

I hope I did justice to this story 😭

I want to thank everyone who supported this story and stuck with it even though there were so many delays. (づ￣ ³￣)づ♥

I need hugs. For I am emo af!

Please ⭐Vote⭐ on this update if you have enjoyed it..}