"- I'll come back....Watch the stars...with you...
- Promise?
- Yes... Promise"

***

It was summer, the sister of one of his close friends had invited Emile to attend the evening of the tenth anniversary of her marriage. To keep an eye on his little brother, she had told him. Dressed in a beautiful fir green suit, with a glass in his hand, Emile watched the happy woman dancing with her husband without much concentration. He did not know why but since the beginning of the evening, he felt troubled almost... Lost. As if something in his old memories was stirring his soul. His intuition had never failed him. The more the minutes passed, the more his heart beat madly. Until he saw him. Him.

It was a man of good stature, not unlike his own, but at that moment it seemed bigger. It was not even five minutes that the man had entered like a king in the room that Emile still could not divert his eyes from this man. Who in spite of him, reminded him of the man he had once loved, a long, long time ago, that he had forgotten a good part of it.

When Gabriel had entered the room in company of his friends a silhouette with the hair cut in square had interpellé him. His own heart was then released from its cage and memories that had accompanied him from one time to another had resurfaced.

Their eyes met and stayed glued to each other for a few minutes, which seemed like hours. With trembling legs and shortness of breath, Emile withdrew from the beautiful eyes of the man he recognized: Gabriel Hano, the sole heir of Hano's Hostel Company. With a beating heart, Emile fled from that bewitching look that reminded him of many sorrows and joys. Joys so heady, so bewitching that he left not without throwing a last glance at the silhouette surrounded by people.

Gabriel watched helplessly as the man he had been longing for months or even years fled. Not that he would tell his acquaintances that he had stalked him as soon as he had regained his memories, having recognized him because Emile looked like his body did over a thousand years ago. It was especially those falling eyes filled with a burning fire that had attracted him during their first meeting as Emperor and Vassal.
Coming to his senses, Gabriel excused himself and headed for the place where his little runaway Emperor had moved.

Suffocating, Emile looked for a place where he could calm down, away from the music and especially away from the man who reminded him of his lost love.
He went out into the hotel gardens and sat on the edge of a fountain. There he allowed himself to breathe and relax. Emile relaxed his legs, leaned against the edge of the fountain and looked up at the glistening sky.

A light breeze picked up and Emile began to hum a tune he knew by heart and used to sing when he felt in a hurry. He was so concentrated in his thoughts that he did not hear shoes crunching on the gravel of the garden.

On his side Gabriel had tried to avoid the friendly calls and taps of the people on his way. On the way he had discussed a few quick minutes with the groom, one of his friends, but the desire had become pressing. This desire so primordial that he felt in the presence of his Emperor. His own.
And especially what he had never forgotten, not even for a moment: this promise that left him trembling just thinking about it.

The first memories he had of his Emperor was when they had both met for the first time, they had hated each other. So much so!

Their two strong personalities had not helped them, quite the contrary. Over the years he as a prime minister and blood prince and WāngBaí (Emile) as a young emperor had forged them. The passionate discussions they had had were for him, what he liked to recall when his feelings had become too heavy to bear.

Over time he had discovered in the one he took as his friend, a kind of melancholy that he could not dissolve despite his efforts to do so. Then during a starry night, HanYuè (Gabriel) had decided to take this charismatic man out for a short ride on horseback, they had found themselves on the outskirts of the Capital of the Empire of HangZhou to contemplate its lights. And it was right there under the stars that his Wāng-er had declared to him his sorrows, his desires, and above all his love. It had then become the night of their first kiss, a kiss so sweet yet so strong, that they could not imagine at that moment that their story was meant to last.

Having managed to escape the room and its occupants, Gabriel found himself in the silent garden. His steps led him near a fountain. There he stopped dead, a soft melody pierced the evening silence. He knew this tune very well, so much so that his heart clenched just by hearing it. And that voice that sang it, that voice so deep and warm that he had missed so much after that fateful, tragic night. His sad thoughts took him back several centuries.

It was an evening that was supposed to start out very well, to say the least, when they had been suddenly betrayed by WāngBaí's closest aide. The meeting the lovers were to have to plan a counterattack on several corrupt ministers was cut short when a state of alert was sounded. A fire had broken out toward the throne room, a sign of the Emperor's omnipotence.

As WāngBaí and HanYuè hurriedly made their way to where the smoke column was rising, they were quickly surrounded by a large number of guards. WāngBaí and HanYuè, the emperor and his vassal, both drew their swords and stood back to back, guarding against possible treachery.

Weapon in hand, straight and proud, they rushed towards their enemy, the chief boresher Li and his followers. Not a word was spoken, but their fury in battle spoke volumes about who they were when their identities as Emperor and Vassal fell.

Two men who were similar yet so different. Two souls who loved each other with a fire so hot, so passionate that it was difficult to pull them apart.

The battle or rather the butchery was bloody. As soon as a man approached one of them from behind, the other would kill him, spilling as much blood as there were bodies. But as we know, fire is powerful, but it only takes a spark to end it all. All it takes is one slash, one shudder, one growl for everything to end.

Turning around HanYuè, his clothes bleeding, witnessed a scene that, a few thousand years later, even after all this time, still followed him in all his nightmares.

The sword of the chief ennuke Li, the emperor's closest aide WāngBai, stuck itself hatefully into the chest he once considered his master. Startled WāngBaí could not believe what was happening but it was already too late. He fell heavily on the ground filled with corpses and dust.

HanYuè rushed towards his emperor, his Wang-er, but a blade was already sinking into his side and then into his back. In spite of these wounds, general Yuè continued to advance, forcing himself to go further, to join his beloved but a fatal blow made him fall.
He crawled towards his lover with all his strength, drawing on his fierce will to reach the man he loved. His task was accomplished when their hands touched. Pulling on those last few forces, WāngBai the fallen Emperor of HangZhou opened his mouth to draw out a few words but no sound came.
HanYuè slowly approached exhausting his remaining strength and embraced with a burning embrace the man he had loved and still loved. The Emperor who behind his coldness, hid a wise man and of an extreme kindness:

"- I'll come back....Watching the stars...with you. He declared with difficulty
- Promise? WangBai asked silently without being able to say a word.
- Yes... Promise."

WangBai stopped breathing and the traitor Li took one last swing at HanYuè's heart. And that was the end.

Emile felt someone approaching him until he could hear nothing more. His calmed heart began to beat deafeningly again and with extreme caution he turned around. In front of him, a man of the same size, the short hair stood frozen, right. The name of Gabriel came to him in first but something in his spirit said to him, begged him to call this name which returned to him.

After many and many doubts he decided to call him. Him. This person who reminded him so much this man to whom he had dedicated a so strong emotion, so burning, so passionate.
Because the person in front of him, was simply the man that he had wanted to find. The one that he cherished for his protection, his fire of heart so ardent, so warm. In him he had found all that he did not have, all that he asked for. Just to be loved for the man he was and not for the Emperor he had once been.

His heart pounding, his lips trembling, Emile finally had the strength to pronounce the ancient and magical name of his lover. Not Gabriel but HanYuè, his sun, his Yuè.

- HanYuè smiled with tears running down his cheeks.

Gabriel, or HanYuè finally came out of these dark memories, this voice like a magic formula enlightened again his world. The two men looked at each other, devoured each other's eyes until they could no longer bear it.

Past and present, WangBai and HanYuè, Emile and Gabriel. Two souls so strong, so similar but yet so different, just by the strength of a promise, a promise to the stars.
But above all by the power of their love they fell into each other's arms and as if each of them had found a lifeline, they kissed each other breathlessly.

Their lips loosened, their eyes met and their souls vibrated together. They had come together after a thousand years of pain, united by fate, by the promise they had made to each other and by the stars that had been willing to protect this love, this desire of one man for another.