Bracelet.

A few minutes after Li Jun started to read the scroll, he let out a sigh and looked at Tai Yang. He was still standing awkwardly in the cage, looking around with folded hands.

"Ji Ru says you're an insomniac here. Open that box and find a black bottle with a gold moon on it. Take one and go to bed. The kitchen and bathroom are on the upper level. The faucets are all running so you can get some water there."

Ji Ru nodded and went towards the box.

"Put that in the closet. Ji Ru says you're very clumsy, so you'll trip on it… On second thought, you may drop everything. Leave it there and I'll move it tomorrow. You're so weak, you'll probably snap your spine."

"…Okay." Tai Yang said, swinging back the lid of the box. There was a book attached to the underside of the lid, but he thought better of touching it till he was given the permission to do so.

Carefully, he moved through dozens of bottles till he found the one in question. He didn't know how Tai Yang had made him swallow those pills, but as far as he knew, he needed water to take medication.

There was a floating, spiraling staircase to the upper level of the cage, and he was sure that was the only route up there. The problem with it, though intriguing, was that it had no support structure or balustrade for safety. Tai Yang swallowed.

Of course the familiar who lived in the cage before didn't need it if they were partly bird, but he definitely had no beak, and those steps were of a very short length. A fall off of that would be deadly.

'Right. You just have to step on the central point of each step.' He thought.

He bit his lip and carefully went up to find the kitchen.

When he did(thanking the Heavens that he didn't lose his concentration and fall), he filled a tall glass of water and popped the black pill. It wasn't even a minute after Tai Yang had taken it that he started to feel its effects. With jelly-like legs, he wobbled to the spiraling staircase.

'How effective, I should take some back to my Earth. These would be nice after a long day of lab work… with a nice sandwich. I wonder… did I put the pickles back into the fridge… Did I throw the peanut butter at Ji Ru or the pickles?' He thought to himself. After tottering down the first two steps, he held his head and let out a weak groan.

Li Jun raised a brow and looked up at him on the staircase.

"Apparently you get intense migraines too. If you have one now, then there's a-" He stopped midsentence when he saw Tai Yang starting to collapse sideways, off the staircase. Li Jun's expression changed into one of horror. Immediately letting go of the scroll, he hastily said "Open!", slipped through the gate, and skidded to catch Tai Yang seconds before his head could hit the marble floor of the cage.

Li Jun breathed hard, trying to calm his rampant heart. That was too close. He looked down at Tai Yang who was sleeping peacefully, unaware that he'd almost knocked his brains onto the floor. Ji Ru was definitely not exaggerating. Tai Yang really was a walking explosion and an occupational hazard. Glancing around the cage, Li Jun suddenly became hyperaware of all the ways Tai Yang could die in it. There was no way around it. They'd have to make some modifications else the clumsy man would accidentally kill himself.

Sighing heavily, Li Jun looked back at Tai Yang and clicked his tongue. "Maladroit." He muttered, standing up to carry Tai Yang to bed. He placed him down, and none too gently yanked off his boots.

"What am I, your slave? Pathetic mortal, ugh. I'll execute you someday. Just you wait." He complained, removing Tai Yang's sash, and pulling the duvet over him. As he did so, he was able to take a closer look at Tai Yang's features. There was no denying it. Tai Yang and Xiao Xia… looked identical enough to be twins.

In other words, Tai Yang was cutting close to borderline effeminate in Li Jun's eyes.

'How can they look so alike?' Li Jun said, reaching forward to remove Tai Yang's skewed glasses.

'So strange.' He said, closing the glasses and leaving them next to the pillow as he stared. Tai Yang turned his head with his hair shifting in a halo-like manner. He looked undeniably beautiful like that and Tai Yang looking that much like Xiao Xia in that position greatly flustered Li Jun.

Li Jun's face turned red, and he quickly moved out of the cage. "Shameless. Existing with that face while Xiao Xia exists. The nerve of him." He hmphed.

"Seal." He said, shutting the gate and picking up the scroll. He exhaled. "What else is wrong with him?" He murmured, glancing at the scroll. With a sigh, he took it to bed.

The following morning, Tai yang felt a weird ruffling around the seam of his pants.

'What's going on?' He thought, letting out a sound of discontentment. When he felt the back of his robes lift up, his eyes shot open and he quickly craned his neck to see the blurry outline of Li Jun who was wide awake and pulling the waistband of his trousers and boxers down.

'Oh my god. He's a molester. It makes sense now. The giant cage, the need for 4-ply tissue! He's a perver-"

With a click of his tongue, Li Jun smacked him on the top of his head with Ji Ru's scroll.

"Only you could think of something so stupid." Li Jun snapped when Tai Yang's face planted hard into the pillow with the force of Li Jun's whack. Tai Yang groaned in pain.

"Why are you in this bed and pulling my pants down then?" Tai Yang asked, feeling around for his glasses.

"Ji Ru says here that you have a mushroom-shaped birthmark on your hip, and it hurts if you poke it. I decided that I want to poke it."

Tai Yang craned his neck to at him in confusion. "If you know it hurts, why would you want to poke it?"

"How can I be sure it really hurts?"

"Why do you need to be sure of that?"

"Why shouldn't I be? My kingdom, my rules." Li Jun crossed his arms. Tai Yang ran a hand down his face and put his glasses on.

"What time is it?"

Li Jun pulled out a pocket watch. "It's 6 a.m."

Tai Yang stared at him. 'This rotten, spoiled prince woke me up at 6 a.m. to appease his curiosity?' Tai Yang had never been a morning person.

"You! I told you to stop thinking idiotic things." Li Jun snarled, yanking him forward by the back of his clothes (since he was still on his stomach) and shaking him a few times. As he did, he caught sight of something around the base of Tai Yang's neck.

"What's that?" He asked, reaching out to pull the silver chain from beneath Tai Yang's robes. Realizing the intent, Tai Yang turned the upper half of his body and caught Li Jun's hand without hesitation.

Li Jun narrowed his eyes. "What are you doing?"

"Your majesty, that's a private possession." Tai Yang said seriously, staring at him. "Show it to me." Li Jun said.

"There's nothing interesting about it. It would be unnecessary." Tai Yang said.

"It's more suspicious that you're hiding it." Li Jun said. "Snatch." He said, and the silver chain unclasped from Tai Yang's neck and landed in his waiting hand.

Tai Yang pursed his lips. That was a very sentimental belonging of his. The day before, Ji Ru hadn't noticed the necklace in his rush.

But Li Jun definitely had, and he seemed very intrigued. "This is a child's bracelet." He said, looking at the small bracelet at the center of the long chain. Tai Yang gave a quiet nod; cooperating so that Li Jun didn't damage his precious belonging.

Li Jun looked closer at the onyx and pure silver chain bracelet. There was a central, flat, silver-disk charm. There was no pattern on it, but in general, the bracelet was quite lavish for a child to be wearing. "This was yours?"

Tai Yang nodded again. "And the chain? Important? Or do you wear it to keep the bracelet with you?"

"To keep the bracelet…" Tai Yang said, starting to fidget.

Li Jun pulled the bracelet off the chain and held it. He picked up Tai Yang's wrist and looked at it. "You must have been six to eight at the time when you wore this." Li Jun said. Tai Yang nodded.

"Who gave it to you?"

"…I can't remember."

"You can't remember? Then why are you so attached to it?" Li Jun asked, looking at him with a quirked brow.

Tai Yang was quiet for a moment before he exhaled and turned over fully. "I can't remember, but I know someone important gave that to me. Look at the underside of the charm."

Li Jun looked back at the bracelet and turned over the small disk. He brought it closer to make out the engraving in the silver.

"Tai Yin?"

Tai Yang nodded. "Clearly not my name."

"Do you have a twin?" Li Jun asked.

"Not that I know of or remember." Tai Yang said.

Xiao Xia's face and his musings of the previous night flashed in Li Jun's mind. "Are you sure you've never met Xiao Xia before? Because… Your faces…"

Tai Yang shook his head.

"I'm positive I haven't, and there's no way we could be related. On earth, many new technologies have been developed. I submitted my DNA to our database and asked for my family to be located so that if any family members of mine existed, I'd be called in and notified. Xiao Xia exists on my Earth. If she was my sister, she would have possibly, even if temporarily, been in the foster care system too, and her DNA would have been taken… The DNA laws were updated in the last few decades so foster care systems submit the kid's DNA to the government's DNA database… So it would have gotten back to me if we were related."

Tai Yang fidgeted with the sheets a bit. "And if my parents died, they would have also been entered into the database. If they were criminals, they would have been there too… But nothing. It's as if they n-n-n-ever e-exis-s-sted-d."

Li Jun stared at him for a moment then leaned back on his arm.

'Well… That's… quite sad.' Li Jun thought.

Tai Yang nodded, seeing the gold letters above Li Jun's head. Realizing that his thoughts were visible, Li Jun cleared his throat. "Your stutter is back. Go find the yellow pill in the container with lips on it. Quickly. It's annoying." He said, looking at the bracelet again and then at Tai Yang's wrist. Tai Yang nodded and started to get off the bed.

"Enlarge." Li Jun said, making the bracelet change in size. "Here." He said, catching Tai Yang's wrist and putting the bracelet in his palm.

Tai Yang looked at in shock. "T-Thank you." He said, holding it to his chest and bowing low, suddenly feeling immense gratefulness to the usually nasty man.

There was a knock on the door once again. "Take a pill for your anxiety, it's in a green bottle with three wavy lines on it. And take a pill from the blue bottle with a sad face on it for your depression too."

Tai Yang winced, hearing the latter part of that statement.

"Actually, those pills are coming with me after I get that." He pointed to the door. "I can't trust you not to escape using the route to the so-called afterlife… with your so-called 'normal amount' of suicidal thoughts." Li Jun said, moving out of the cage. "Seal." He said and walked to the door.

"What?" He drawled, pulling the door open.

"Your majesty! Queen Rai Lin is flying over the Kingdom of Changying with her familiar!"

"WHAT?!" Li Jun shouted. Tai Yang who'd taken two out of three pills looked towards the door in timid confusion.

Queen Rai Lin?