Despite one of the categories being "humor" for this story, I suppose I would consider it only slightly humorous.
Short little oneshot, written for BlueSun91 on the occasion of her 16th birthday. I put Lu Xun in it for you! I hope you like it, and have a really Sweet 16! Warning: some fluff at the end!
Disclaimer: I own nothing. If I did, I'd have lots of money and be rich. Then I could buy Blue a present instead of writing her one like this. XP
Xiao Qiao awoke to a fair breeze blowing through her window and soft sunlight dancing upon her skin. She smiled contentedly, but didn't open her eyes quite yet. Drinking in all the soft, warmness of her bed, she snuggled in even deeper, knowing she'd have to get up soon, but she didn't want to -- not yet.
He wasn't there, she knew he wasn't; he always got up before the sun rose and went off to work on battle strategies or plans for war and the like. They hadn't even been married for that long, and she already was starting to notice those little peculiarities about him that made her find him so amusing, and attractive at the same time, including the way he was so particular about getting his work done before he would even think about spending an evening with her in a nice, relaxing sort of way. She didn't hate him for it, as Zhou Yu was usually done his work by mid-afternoon anyway, but it did get sort of bothersome after the first day or two.
Sighing, for she didn't feel quite so perky and happy as she did when she first woke up, she reluctantly opened her eyes and sat up in her bed. She looked over to the other side, where Zhou Yu had neatly smoothed out his pillow. He probably would have made the bed, even with her right there sleeping in it -- that was just the type of person he was -- but at the same time Xiao knew that he was much more thoughtful than that.
Sliding out of bed, and recoiling ever so slightly when her bare feet hit the cold floor, she quickly put on some slippers and made her way down to the Dining Hall to eat breakfast. On her way there, though, she passed by Zhou Yu's study; it was as silent as the grave, of course, and she decided to put a hold on eating for the time being. Peeking her head around the half-open door, she observed her husband as he poured over maps and scrolls, stopping every once in a while to write down a note or two on a nearby parchment.
"Zhou Yu," she said rather calmly, compared to her normally chipper demeanor. "You're busy again, aren't you?"
He turned around and met her with a rather tired looking face, as he had no doubt been up for hours already, and smiled haggardly as he responded. "Yes, Xiao, I'm always busy. A strategist's work is never done."
"What are you working on?" she asked as she approached him. Placing her hand on his shoulder, she peered over, only to see countless maps and parchments that meant nothing to her, besides work that took her darling husband away from her every morning and sometimes afternoon.
"Oh, the usual…" he responded. "Battle tactics, war strategies, trying to predict Wei's next move, that sort of thing."
She nodded automatically, as his answer was almost always the same; word for word sometimes, and she never had anything to say in response. But this time, she thought of something.
"Well, you'll be done by tonight, right?"
He sighed before answering. "I hope to be. Waking up early and then going to bed late, and never moving from this spot all day -- it's not something I enjoy doing, as much as you might think it is," he said with a somewhat sly smile.
She could only half-heartedly smile back. "I know," Her unusually dull face suddenly lit up, and her features seemed to glow again. "But that's okay! Make sure you're definitely done by tonight, Zhou Yu. And then meet me by the garden as soon as possible!"
"Now, there's the Xiao I know," he said, giving her a chaste kiss on the cheek. "I'll be there, for sure."
"I know you will!" she said as she ran out of the door, her energy renewed and her vigor rehabilitated. An idea had crossed her fair mind, and she wanted to make sure everything was perfect. As she was running through the hallways, she just to happened to not be looking where she was going, and she inadvertently bumped into Lu Xun.
She gasped as she fell backwards onto the floor, watching as Lu Xun's paper and parchments flew everywhere, the young tactician losing his hat in the process. Xiao immediately stood up and helped him off the floor, and then proceeded to pick up various scrolls and letters.
"I'm so sorry!" she said, handing him a parchment. "I should have been watching where I was going!"
"It's alright, Xiao," Lu Xun responded as he bent over to pick some his lost scrolls as well. "I wasn't watching where I was going, either, as I had a large stack of papers piled in my arms."
"Do you really have that much work today, Xun?" she asked, though she didn't wait for a reply. "Zhou Yu seems to be swamped, too! Is everything here in Wu all about the war lately?" She knit her eyebrows into a furrow as she picked up the last dropped scroll.
Xun smiled knowingly. "Actually, war is a full time commitment, and every single one of Wu's strategists are hard at work to find a way to win it. Although," he said when he saw Xiao's scowl deepen. "I can understand that you're upset."
She didn't respond, already knowing that she had every right to be upset, as she believed it was a woman's prerogative to be so when something was not going her way.
"You know what though," Xun said with a tone in his voice that Xiao could not interpret. "I just realized that Zhou Yu is probably working on…" he paused, really not knowing what the man was working on. Though he deduced that by being broad about his statement, he could easily dupe someone who was not learned in the ways of the strategist. "…war strategies, isn't he?"
Xiao's eyes widened. "Why yes, he is. How did you know, Lu Xun?"
"Because I'm supposed to be helping him at the moment," he lied, although Xiao didn't detect it. For one normally so honest, it was surprising that he could lie with such ease. Came with being a strategist, he supposed. "I should get down there and help him right away."
"In that case," Xiao said, brightening up. "Tell him that I'll meet him for lunch in the garden!"
"Oh, perhaps you'll be able to meet him for breakfast."
"How would that happen?" Xiao asked, thoroughly confused.
"I understand some geographical information about the war strategies that Zhou Yu finds rather arduous to comprehend, as the capacity of his memory has been somewhat reduced due to the long hours he has spent in his studies," Xun rambled, hoping to confuse her with big words. "Therefore, to accept his assistance in such an intricate matter would hinder myself and the advances I could theoretically make without him."
Xiao merely stared at him, and Xun could only hide a smile, glad that his use of complicated words had the desired effect.
"And that means…?"
"I can do that work all by myself without his help!" Xun said. Although he knew this meant piling the workload on himself, he figured it would do his soul good to know he made someone happy for a day.
"Really? That's great!" Xiao said, a smile gracing her face. "I'm going to go prepare breakfast for us in the garden. Please, stall him somehow for about an hour to give me time to get things ready."
"Will do, Lady Qiao, will do," Xun replied, already knowing what he would do. Xiao smiled at him, and ran off to begin the preparations.
Lu Xun sauntered down the hall, and entered Zhou Yu's study. Upon hearing him come in, the strategist turned around to look at him, watching curiously as Lu Xun placed his papers down on the large table and picked up the thickest book on a nearby shelf.
"Oh, hello Lu Xun," Zhou Yu said tiredly. "I've been working for a while on these tactics. If you don't mind, I'd like to get your opinion on--"
Whack! Lu Xun promptly brought the great book down upon Zhou Yu's head, and the tired man immediately fell unconscious, his face hitting the table with an even more amusing noise than the book had produced when it made contact with his head.
Lu Xun sat down in the chair opposite Zhou Yu, and organized the papers in front of him, and began working on both his studies and Zhou Yu's battle strategies. Looking up after a second or two, he smiled to himself as he saw the unconscious Zhou Yu.
"It feels good to help people," Xun said with a decidedly amused smile.
Meanwhile, Xiao Qiao was busy cooking up a feast for her and Zhou Yu. She prepared all kinds of delicious delicacies, knowing the chef wouldn't mind because he hated his job anyway.
"Now, how much milk am I supposed to put in this?" she said aloud as she prepared a favorite dish of Zhou Yu's. Shrugging, she poured in as much as she wanted, and decided it looked good enough. She continued for the next fifty minutes, working vigorously and stopping for nothing.
When she was finally done, she took the next ten minutes to pile the food on a silver tray and carry it outside to the garden. Unbeknownst to her, the tray, when loaded down with food, weighed more than she could handle, and she took to throwing off various, then-decided extraneous pieces of food as she slowly and exhaustedly made her way to the garden.
As she neared the garden, she saw that Zhou Yu was already sitting there, rubbing his head as he waited for her to arrive. She sat down rather recklessly next to him, and some of the food spilled off the tray and onto his lap.
"Oh, Zhou Yu, I'm sorry!" she said, dropping the tray to help clean him off. But when she did so, the large and heavy tray hit her foot, and she found it necessary to hop around on the uninjured foot as she clutched the damaged one for a few minutes before settling down next to Zhou Yu. By that time he had cleaned himself off, acceptably enough, at least, and had started eating off the tray.
"So, weren't you glad that Lu Xun said he could do all the work himself?" Xiao asked as she watched him eat. He started coughing rather violently at the moment, and she watched concernedly until he calmed down.
"Um, yes, I suppose. He actually offered to do the rest for me, commenting on how tired I must be if I suddenly fell asleep right on top of my work." He paused to rub his head. "And I think that all that hard work and lack of sleep gave me a headache."
Xiao smiled, thinking that her husband should have known better. "So, is the food good? I made it myself!"
Zhou Yu's pained face twisted into a smile, and he laughed forcibly. "Of course it's good, darling. Why, I've never tasted better."
"That's wonderful!" she said. "Then maybe I should just start making you the meals myself and bring them to you in your study. That way we can eat together."
"Oh, but you wouldn't want the chef to be out of a job, would you?" he asked nervously. "Lord Sun Quan needs some sort of reason to pay him, after all."
Xiao laughed. "You're funny, Zhou Yu."
At that moment a couple squirrels, close to four or five, that had been following the trail of food Xiao left behind, closed in on their prey, and jumped onto the tray that was sitting in between the two. They start ferociously eating the food, and the whole time Zhou Yu was trying to violently brush them off as Xiao Qiao stood up and screamed while she once again balanced herself on one leg. Normally she liked little rodents, thinking that they were cute, but squirrels had big, scary teeth, and she would rather not get bitten.
She started to run away, towards the pond in the garden, and she called after Zhou Yu to follow her. "Come on, Zhou Yu!"
He immediately stood up and started coming after her.
"What about the food?" she screamed when she saw that he didn't try to pick up the tray.
"We'll have to leave it behind," he said, not even bothering to glance back as he continued toward her. When he reached her, continued running until they reached the pond, and the two of them collapsed underneath a large tree that graced the edge of the water.
After catching their breath, Xiao turned to her husband. "I'm so sorry, Zhou Yu. Everything's been going wrong today and it's all my fault."
"But Xiao," he said. "It's only barely past breakfast."
"I know! And I'm already ruining everything!" she said, and her lip began to shake as she looked as if she would start crying any second now.
"No, no, no!" he said soothingly as he pulled her into a hug. "Everything's been perfect. The food was good, until the squirrels came. And I didn't even mind that you dropped some of it on my favorite robe."
"You didn't?" Xiao asked, sniffling a little bit.
"No, I didn't," he said, continuing. "Besides, now we have to whole day to spend together, because my work is being taken care of for me right now." A strange image of Lu Xun standing above all his plans with a lighted match in hand crossed his mind, but he immediately shook it off.
Xiao smiled and leaned up against the tree, resting her head on Zhou Yu's shoulder. "I'm glad you think everything went okay," she said. "Because I could have sworn you were having a bad time."
"With you, darling," he said, moving closer, "no minute is dull, that's for sure," He smiled as the two of them just sat in silence, enjoying the other's presence. Life with her was exciting, and that was the truth. But sometimes, it was necessary to tell a little white lie here and there.