A deal. He'd struck a deal..a deal with the highest of the angels..a deal he did not regret..a deal that he would be allowed to enact out soon..once the snow melted away, and the grass once more rose beneath his feet.

Bare branches loomed over him under a clouded dove gray sky. He lay on his back, against the snow, feeling nothing but the silence that resonated so loudly around him.

This place was so undisturbed, so..peaceful..perhaps just a bit more peaceful than true heaven..

And he felt his eyes shut, his pale skin and white shirt matching with the snow, blonde hair standing out like sunlight. 

And he wondered..he wondered..as he often did, what did the other feel now? Had he done as ZiTao had so kindly asked him to do..

No. ZiTao knew the answer. He knew-because even after almost a year, the other still made his way here, with flowers, with notes..with things he would leave behind, though ZiTao didn't touch any of it..he didn't need to. And he'd finally understood why he was trapped here..

This was the connecting place. The bridge for him between Heaven and Earth..this was the place that Jiaheng himself had dug the earth and laid him to rest eternally..and soon..soon he would be given the chance to reunite with his love..

It was strange to ZiTao..that though their love was tragedy, they were each other's clarity..

And after several moments, he realized, he had been here longer than usual..and the other had not arrived yet.

His brown eyes opened as he sat up and search