It's A Wonderful Life

Zhou Li took them to meet her shifu—her teacher. Ira turned the sound up high on the background music he'd put on, the sound cresting like waves on the shore. It was a beautiful and haunting autumn tune and it instantly made his mood better.

Recently, Ira had had a revelation. He could turn on music whenever he wanted to! It would enhance any view, make any annoying situation easier to bear. Things would be so much easier; he didn't understand why he'd never done this before. Maybe because he'd still been trying to work? But he'd given up on that now, he was feeling more and more ready to officially retire.

Not immediately, obviously. No, he was still going to do a couple of more missions. But... he didn't see a reason to do a job he hated, surrounded by people he hated. He was good at his job, yes. He successfully scared the psychos to smithereens and made them see reality instead of the fuċkėd up delusion they were living in. But—that wasn't enough.

Not anymore.

He found no joy in scaring them, no joy in kicking them off their high horse. No joy in utterly obliterating their fantasies of the world revolving around them. It had been fun once, a great way to take out his anger on them and still work. But now it was just exhausting.

He didn't want to deal with humans. He didn't want to deal with more shitty Hosts. He didn't want to endure their stupidity and their arrogance and their inflated sense of superiority.

Ira was tired of them. He wanted out.

And he was so incredibly old. He'd done this job for literal eons. He'd worked and he'd worked and he'd worked. And sure, he'd taken lots of vacations but—it wasn't the same. He didn't want just a vacation anymore. He wanted to quit. He wanted to not do this anymore.

It was kind of funny, when he thought about it, that just a couple of centuries ago he'd found joy in screwing with his Hosts; in watching them fail. And now he couldn't dredge up even a milliliter of emotion for them, he was just... tired. He was tired of his Hosts. He was tired of thinking about them.

Just ... tired.

Ira zoned out during the entire conversation with Zhou Li's shifu. He had no idea what was said or agreed to but apparently the meeting went well, as they weren't immediately kicked out. Rather, Ira and Xiao Wei walked out of the meeting hand in hand, with Zhou Li leading the way.

"I'll take you to the guest quarters," Zhou Li said. She defrosted a little during their long walks across the sect—this sect was gigantic and they were keeping a slow pace. When they'd walked past the beautiful garden and one of the woman who were working there, Zhou Li had practically melted.

The woman had waved at them. Zhou Li had grinned back, bright and happy. They'd continued walking, but Zhou Li had been in a much better mood.

"Are you also getting married, Zhou Li?" Ira asked, after having given it some serious thought.

Zhou Li looked back at him. Her lips hooked up into a smile and she said, "I am already married. Her name is Wang Jie, we were accepted into the sect at the same time. We've known each other for over two decades now, and she once saved my life on a night hunt. It was absolutely glorious; I don't think I've ever seen anything more beautiful."

Ira blinked. He glanced at Xiao Wei, who smiled at him when he noticed Ira looking but otherwise appeared uninterested. "She's a gardener?" Ira then asked. Would it be rude to add how can a gardener save you?

Probably.

Zhou Li beamed at him, "Yes! She's in charge of the garden for the poisonous and demonic plants. She was recently promoted you know, because she grew a new hybrid plant that did really well defending the sect."

... Ira wasn't sure how to take that.

"She seems cool," he finally said.

He looked back at her, and she was now in the middle of digging in the dirt. Which did seem cool; plants that could kill were obviously the superior plants. Ira imagined that growing them would be a little like raising tigers in the zoo. Only the best caretakers would be able to handle it. Ira approved of this woman that he'd never met. .

Zhou Li smiled at him, her eyes glittering at the compliment. Ira enjoyed seeing her so obviously happy; it made his ċhėst feel lighter. It was nice, to see evidence that her life was good and she was enjoying it. Even if it meant that he now had to be on his best behavior to not make problems with her sect.

They arrived at the guest quarters not long after. Zhou Li left them alone to settle in, giving them a weird look when she saw they'd share a room. But she didn't say anything about it so Ira wouldn't either.

He liked sleeping with Xiao Wei. Xiao Wei had a lot of fat that made him excessively soft to cuddle with and Ira adored it. In fact, he'd even go so far as to say that Xiao Wei was the most comfortable of Silas' incarnations to cuddle with. Ever. If there had been a contest, Xiao Wei would have gotten first place, no problem.

"I love cuddling with you," Ira said. He even added, "You're my favorite person to cuddle with."

Xiao Wei turned to him. His eyes were wide, and he bit his bottom lip before he abruptly grinned. "I love cuddling with you as well," Xiao Wei somberly said, still grinning. He took several steps forward and when he was within arm-reach, stopped. Licking his lips, he asked, "Can I hug you?"

Ira nodded. Instantly, Xiao Wei laughed and picked up Ira, spinning him around in the air. And Ira wasn't made of stone, okay.

Ira laughed, too.

When he was put down, Ira was dizzy. He swayed on his feet and the only reason he didn't fall over was because Xiao Wei still held him. Smiling, he pecked Xiao Wei's cheek and grinned up at the other man.

Xiao Wei scratched his own neck and beamed at him, asking, "What are you gonna do now?"