I discovered the amazing wonderful awesome discovery that is LingFan week yesterday and decided that there was never a better time to go ahead and finally sit down and actually write the Mulan AU I've had for these two for *forever*. And it just so happens that each of the chapters actually does match one of the prompts from the week, even if they'll be late and out of order.

Their name was on the list.

There was no denying it. There it was. Right after Mong and before Nijing.

Mu Family

All of a sudden, Lan Fan couldn't breathe. Her heart felt like it was sitting in her throat, blocking her airways.

"Every family on this list must contribute at least one man to aid in His Majesty's effort to keep our country safe from invading tribes. They are to report to their Clan Capital for their assignments by the end of the week. No exceptions."

There had to be a mistake. They didn't have any men in her family, it's was just her, her mother, and… well, her grandfather. But they couldn't possibly expect him to join the campaign, could they? He couldn't fight! He was old and had already fought in several of the campaigns. Surely the Emperor had to understand that. He would only get himself killed and that would benefit no one.

"There has to be a mistake," she said, staring at the list and then at the man who had just posted it along with the announcement. "My grandfather cannot fight."

"Then send your father."

"My father died in the last series of wars, and I don't have a brother, it is only my mother and grandfather."

"Then he will fight."

"But he can't!" she emphasized. "He is already very old."

"Lan Fan," her mother, standing next to her holding the groceries that they were in town to collect, chastised quietly.

"One man from every family," the recruiter simply replied, the looked away.

"No! He cannot fight!" she said again, now raising her voice. Why didn't he understand?

"Be gone, you stupid girl!" he shouted, then slapped her across the face with the back of his hand, as if ridding himself of an annoying fly. It was so unexpected that it knocked her off her feet, making her fall down on the ground. Lan Fan's mother hurried over to her and tried to help her up, but Lan Fan rejected her help and got up on her own. All the same, her mother grabbed onto her arm, keeping her from marching right back to the man and continuing to argue with him.

"Grandfather cannot fight, Mother," she hissed, even as her mother tried to drag her away from the recruiter.

"I know… but he must. If you father were here… or if we had had a son, but… but this is the way it must be, my daughter."

Lan Fan stared at her mother in disbelief before pulling her arm out of her grip and marching off. Surely she of all people wasn't about to let her own father go off into a war that he couldn't fight. The Emperor would just have to do without one more soldier. And like she said, her grandfather was so old that he couldn't be of much help to the Emperor anyways, so why go and bog down the army?

"Lan Fan!" he mother called after her.

Grandfather hadn't been there in the town. If they avoided telling him at all, he wouldn't know and therefore couldn't go and fight. Lan Fan knew that if he got word though, there was no way they could keep him from going. He was always so concerned with honor that the idea of not going and helping the war effort would kill him as surely as going. But if he didn't know about it at all…

"We can't tell him," she said, turning around rapidly on her mother, who was still hurrying to catch up with her.

"What?"

"We can't tell Grandfather. If he doesn't know, he won't go."

"Lan Fan!"

"Mother, he can't go!"

"It's our duty and an honor!"

"He'll die!"

Lady Fa squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. "Then that is what the gods wish."

"What if they want us to stop this now! If he doesn't know, he won't go. We can avoid it entirely!"

"And bring more shame upon our family after your catastrophe with the Matchmaker?" she snapped back.

Lan Fan flinched.

That was a low blow.

"Mother."

She took a deep breath. "Perhaps that was… uncalled for. But even if we were to hide it from Grandfather until after the time for all the soldiers to come, he would find out eventually. And the shame of it would not only break him, but eventually everyone else would find out. And then we will never find you a husband. Even now, the prospects are bleak."

"It did not go that horribly," Lan Fan muttered under her breath.

"You nearly set the house on fire with your poor cooking skills."

"I managed to put it out! I feel like a man should be interesting in having a wife who knows how to put out a fire if their house were to catch while he was away."

"Not if she's the one starting the fires from burning all of his meals!" Lan Fan had to look away again, causing her mother to sigh. "Child, I just want to know that you'll be provided for. And no man will provide for you if you continue to act this way. Arguing with officials from the Capital!"

"So I have to send my Grandfather off to die to make a man want to marry me?"

"Lan Fan!"

"That's what it seems you're saying."

"How did we manage to raise a child such as you! Your father indulged you too much as a child, you've grown wild with your fantasies as he did!"

"Mother!" Lan Fan said, honestly aghast at her mother. Lady Fa seemed taken aback at her own words, throwing a hand across her mouth. "How can you…"

"Forgive me, my gracious husband," she muttered quickly. "I meant no ill."

"How can you say that about Father?"

"I meant no offence."

"You have an interesting way of showing it! Is that what it means to have a man provide for you? Take their protection and shelter, bare one of their children, and insult them after their death, and then send your own father off to his death? If that's the case, I want no part in it!"

"Lan Fan!"

"He can't go!"

"He has to!"

"No!"

"Our Chief has commanded it, Lan Fan!"

"Only because Xing has told him to!"

"That doesn't matter!"

"Xing isn't even one of us, Mother! Why do we have to fight for him?"

"Our Clan allied ourselves with him and his growing Empire, Lan Fan, and only good has ever come from it. We are safe and more powerful than we ever were as a lonely Clan."

"Father's life wasted on a campaign to annex more Clans is a good thing?"

"It has kept us safe! They will not attack us if they are a part of us!"

"And how long will that last, Mother? Several of the clans already speak out against him. What will happen then, when they rebel? They won't be so much a part of us then now will they?"

"Child!" her mother shouted threateningly, but in their marching along the road from town, they had already reached home, and Lan Fan turned around again after mounting the steps to the front of their home.

"I refuse, Mother. I will not watch him die."

"Watch who die?" an sharp voice asked from behind her. Lan Fan turned to behold none other than her grandfather, an old man with grey hair that had a mind of its own and a sharp mustache that almost always pointed directly down in disappointment.

"I don't know how anyone ever convinced themselves she was my child when she was obviously a headstrong mix of you and her father!" Lady Fa shouted in response, throwing her arms up in the air.

"Oh, I'll take that as a compliment, won't I?" Fu said in amusement as he looked back and forth between his daughter and granddaughter. Then his face turned serious. "What have you done this time, Lan Fan?"

Lan Fan bowed her head in respect for her grandfather, but all the same said nothing.

"Leave, Child," Lady Fa said wearily after a few moments of stubborn silence. "Your grandfather and I have much to discuss."

"Mother—"

"Your mother said 'leave'!"

Lan Fan stared at the two of them, back and forth, before turning on her heel, and leaving.

She didn't even have to ask when she saw their faces at dinner.

Her mother had told him.

He was going.

"I understand you don't like it," he said the moment he saw her appearing around the corner. "But there are things bigger than me or any of us. It's an honor to fight for my Clan."

She wanted desperately to snap back that he wasn't even fighting for their clan, he was fighting for Xing. And if she heard all of the rumors correctly, a unification under Xing. A single country. But she had already pushed her lucked incredibly far with the argument with her mother today, snapping at her grandfather would accomplish nothing.

So instead, she kept completely silence, eating her meal as quickly as she could and then asking to be dismissed. She received permission to leave, then disappeared around the corner, and pressing herself against the wall.

"When will you go, Father?"

"They will expect me by the end of the week. The Capital is about a day's journey from here, so I will leave in three days' time."

"Father… when you go… if you don't… don't—"

"If I don't come back, know that I loved you." There was a choked sob, and Lan Fan squeezed her eyes shut. "You will always be my favorite daughter."

"I'm your only daughter, Father," her mother said shakily.

"Exactly."

Lan Fan pulled herself away from the wall, hurrying down the hall away from the only family she could really remember. None of this was fair at all. There had to be something they could do! But nothing came to mind. She couldn't exactly complain to the Chief himself. There was simply nothing they could do.

Perhaps she could accept it better if she thought it was actually fighting for their Clan. But it wasn't, it was a man who was too greedy for more land and power to stop wasting the lives of his allies. And unfortunately, their clan was one of them. Xing was powerful though, so it wasn't likely that they were going to be ending the alliance any time soon.

She ran until she found herself standing in the small garden her mother insisted on keeping. Grandfather had always thought it was a bit unnecessary, but Lan Fan found it relaxing. Whenever she found a situation becoming too much for her to handle, she would come here, and allow herself to calm down until the problems became easier to deal with.

"I thought I'd find you here."

Lan Fan spun around, shoulders slumping when she realized that it was her grandfather.

"Grandfather." She bowed, but kept it as curt as she could before turning away and sitting down on a nearby bench.

Her near rudeness apparently did not do the trick however, because she felt him sit down next to her a short moment later.

"Come here."

"What?" She turned, and found him doing something she wasn't sure she had ever seen him do before. Her grandfather was a brusque, usually rather intense man who didn't give much to feelings other than anger and amusement. But his arms were open wide, obviously inviting her to hug him.

"Come here, child," he said, more soothingly. Lan Fan felt the tears starting to prick at the back of her eyes, so she threw herself into his arms, which closed around her in a tight embrace.

"One day you'll understand." She only sobbed harder, pressing her face into his chest. He patted her back comfortingly, pulling her close until her shaking eventually subsided and she pulled away.

"Do you remember what I would tell you when your father would leave?"

"You would take me into the city and let me buy any one thing I wanted."

"Yes, but do you remember what I would tell you?"

Lan Fan shook her head. She had been so young when her father would leave regularly, before he died fighting against the Bao clan. She only remembered the gifts because that had been the first time she had asked for a knife. True to his promise to get her anything she wanted, her grandfather had bought it. He also proceeded to train her to use it.

"I told you that love is sacrifice. Your father went away and gave his life because he loved you and your mother. He wanted to keep you safe, and bring honor to our family so that you'll be provided for one day. And because I love both of you, I will do the same."

"But it isn't fair."

"No, my little warrior. It's not."

Little Warrior. It had been so long since he had called her that. Easily since before her father's death. It threatened the tears coming back, but she quickly blinked them away.

"I don't want to lose you."

"I know, Warrior. I know."

Lan Fan leaned her head against her grandfather's shoulder, and he put his arm around her.

"Is there any way we could avoid this?" she breathed, desperately searching for some way out. She hadn't been able to think of anything, but perhaps her grandfather could, he was so wise…

"The order was very clear. One warrior from every family." The words seemed to electrify her. "If your father were still alive, or if you had a brother, perhaps, but I am the only one left."

"What if I were to go?"

The idea came so quickly to her that she said it without thinking. Her grandfather stared at her, taken aback. Even Lan Fan was surprised, but as soon as she said it, it sounded… right. Of course. They only wanted a fighter. And they assumed that that fighter had to be male, but she was a good fighter. She was strong and had never had much of a shapely figure… If she were able to convince enough people…

"What?"

"What if I were to go, Grandfather?" she said, sitting up straight now so that she could face him. "Instead of you."

"You're a woman," he said. She wasn't sure if that was him dismissing the suggestion or him being confused.

"But I don't have to be. If I were to hide it, pretend to be a man…"

"That would not work," he said flatly, but the idea had already begun to possess her mind.

"It could! Grandfather, you've trained me yourself, you know I'm a good fighter."

"You're better than I was when I was your age," he confirmed. "But you can't just tell everyone you're a man and expect to get away with it."

"Why not? I tell everyone that I'm your grandson, that my parents had a son they didn't talk about much. They will not question it."

"If they find out though, Lan Fan, they will kill you. I cannot let you do this."

"Grandfather, if you go you will die. I'm younger and stronger and a better fighter. Let me go."

"I am much older. I've lived my life. My death will mean little, while you'll lose so much. And if you're discovered, you'll only bring shame on our family."

"What would you be saving my life for though, Grandfather? After this war, there will be two women for every man. And with the way I am…. I will never find a husband, whether you die for honor or not. I will become old and die alone, ending the family in shame anyways. Is that what you want, Grandfather?"

"There cannot be so many idiotic men in the Clan that that would happen. The idiots will be killed, and leave only the men who can see something good when it's in front of them."

"Grandfather… really." He could only purse his lips and stare at her. She knew that she was right. He couldn't possibly argue against her, especially not when it could save his life.

"Lan Fan, this is madness."

"But it could work."

"It's madness!"

"It could work!"

For several long minutes, the only sound between the two was that of the wind rustling through the trees.

"You told me that love is sacrifice. I love you, Grandfather. Let me do this for you."

Another pause.

"We cannot tell your mother."

And just like that, she had won.