115 Chapter One Hundred and Fourteen - Together as One (2/2)
The more a marriage progresses, the more differences in opinion begin to occur. Where to live, how household chores are divided, over income and expenditure and of course over children, raising, discipline, school... where there is balance and discussion in many marriages, these arguments could be settled, resolved to a degree, but where there are two people who do not wish to give ground, there is nothing but a swiftly crumbling foundation that is literally relying on faith and scripture to hold it up.
Cole was the second oldest of three children, each would be shaped differently in this toxic family environment. For instance, Cole rebelled strongly, got into fights to vent his frustrations, ended up putting another youth in the hospital and ended up serving a short time in prison. His older brother had sheltered in their faith to the point that he was planning to give up the rights of marriage and adorn a priests frock, while their little sister submissively accepted a proposal of marriage to a man who, in Cole's opinion, was a Neanderthal in his concepts of women's rights that even his old man should have frowned upon. Unfortunately, at that time, Cole had already been excommunicated from the church and disowned by his parents, only receiving the news from his older brother, who for his own reasons did not try change the girl's mind.
Cole didn't know what had happened to his family after the End, but the marriage date had been due after the apocalypse, so chances were that it hadn't gone ahead and zombie or otherwise, Catherine was free from that man... he cast aside any other thoughts regarding her fate or the fate of others he'd encountered in his life. In this Era, it was better to consider the present, better for one's survival and sanity.
Anyway it was safe to say that Cole came out of that environment, not hating marriage but hating marriage without divorce.
Yet basking in the glow of fulfilment and contentment, enjoying the heat cast by his lover, that hatred had become nothing but a wisp of memory. In fact, over the weeks in which he'd dwelled upon it, he'd come to realise that divorce happened to couples that chose to part due to their own reasons. True, he'd thought that divorce would have been the best thing to happen to his own parents at that time, but reality was that it may also have not been the best thing... regardless, that had been his incompatible parents' choice. If he had to chose parting from Chang Min? He really couldn't do that.
Ignoring the slight discomfort in his arse and hips as he moved, Cole curled his glistening arms about his lover, who willingly curled into his embrace with a joy felt hum. ”Tell me more about Dao Companionship,” Cole murmured after a moment or two.
”Really?” Chang Min giddily questioned, his lips spread wide in smile. Cole's heart skipped a beat and he nodded, feeling that this was definitely right. Chang Min didn't give him time to change his mind either, instead rolling on top of his man and lowering his hips in order to take his lover's hardening part into the warmth of his body this time. Cole felt an instant rush of pleasure and couldn't help but groan; Chang Min was so tight and hadn't prepared himself well, yet that somehow didn't stop the man from completely enveloping him.
Chang Min murmured joyfully into his ear, slowly explaining everything he needed to know, answering his stuttered questions as he tried to forget the warmth, the delicious sensations that were being transmitted to his brain more easily than his lover's instructions. It seemed like an eternity into their joining when Cole's mind finally felt enlightened enough for them to proceed and Cole closed his eyes in relief as he began his cultivation, the focus of which stole him away from the torturous pleasure.
Cole's inner sea landscape was made of elements of earth, just as Chang Min's, though the latter was of an imposing mountain when in its normal state, Cole's was more fluid. At the beginning, one could see a landscape of gold and red sands interweaving before dusting over soil, chunks of dry clay, pebbles, rocks, flint, which surrounding outcroppings of chalk, limestone, marble... it was primitive, unformed and seemingly random, yet there was also an attractive rawness to it.
Excited by the cultivation process, the tiny grains of sands and soil swirled around chunks of clay and stone and two large moving columns began to dominate and consume the landscape before particles were swept from both towards his meridians... and towards Chang Min's. In exchange, particles that at first glance did not seem any different from his own poured into him in a wave of unexplainable ecstasy. The flavour of them was definitely distinguishable from his own, thick with potency and he unconsciously gasped as they entered his inner sea, interweaving with the remnant energy in the earthen columns.
Possible, he'd been on the edge of breaking through anyway, but within moments of the energies mixing, he felt as if he was unable to hold back; the entire crumbling mass of the columns exploded outwards, tearing through his body. But there was no pain as he might have expected for a brief moment, only a sensation not unlike a heady orgasm ripping through him and deafening and blinding him for that prolonged moment. Indeed, his body did interpret things this way and as he collapsed into unconscious, he softened inside Chang Min's body.
Chang Min was startled, but thinking over matters, couldn't help but giggle. Shaking his head, his eyes filled with warmth, he lifted himself off of Cole, kissed his unmoving lips then fell asleep beside him. They were now considered as one.