A Gift of Many
Author's note:
I know this fic is a DW section, however, I would like to note that the Dian Wei that is portrayed in this story is within his Romance of the Three Kingdom form. So, he is actually a very furry/hairy guy instead of being the bald bold guy he is in the DW series.
This fanfiction is a one-shot. There will not be any additional chapters or sequel to this. Unless you missed some major notes on the summary, this fic contains mild YAOI hints, featuring the pairings of Xiahou Dun and Dian Wei. If you don't like yaoi or rather despise this pairing, you can still turn around and leave. Others read on.
This is also historically incorrect. The entire story, except for the setting and the characters, is all fictional (100 FICTIONAL!).
The dusty door creaked open as mere sunlight flashed into the house and a beautiful maiden was on her heels as within her timid fingers, the young girl held a tattered bag of gold pieces. Her eyes only looked hopefully to her master as he entered with an unappreciated groan as he stretched his muscle under a saturated shirt after a good workout under the burning sun of July. However, the dirt on the crude man only made him uncomfortable as he struggled against his own sweaty, worn shirt.
"Lord Dian Wei." The girl greeted and mildly bowed before the entrance of her master; the mighty scruffy bodyguard of the Emperor of Wei. His eyebrows were fierce like tigers, but under his bushy hair and beard, it was with compassionate and armed with a warm smile toward the hardworking girl... that was before he spotted the clinking bag of coins.
"What is that?" Dian Wei's eyebrows drew together as he saw spark of the gold coins reflect the light to his eyes.
Handing the bag of the mysterious gold, the serving girl immediately told her lord the source of the coins, "Lord Xiahou Dun had sent one of his guards while you were away. He left 200 gold coins for you." Pausing momentarily as the famed bodyguard nodded in approval, she carefully added her next part, "In addition, my lord, the bath is ready."
The wide grin that grew on the dank face allowed the maiden to know that she had done her job right, "Good, good. You are new here and you are already doing fine. Keep it up."
Seeing that his compliment had hit home in the girl's heart, he turned to leave for his bath; leaving the serving girl in a happy bliss that she had pleased her master in the right way as he disappeared into a mere silhouette with the bag of clinking gold pieces ringing behind him.
But those were just memories under the rippled water of the bathing facility to the fierce man.
Dian Wei finally allowed himself to surface as those memories flashed in his eyes just as tides of the warm water swallowed the bathing floor to his sudden movement. Trying to wipe away the water away and pushing his soaked hair away from his eyes; the former bodyguard of the glorious Wei army had unknowingly tried to wipe away a memory that would haunt his life.
It didn't help that there was exactly that faithful gold coin right at the edge of the bath, glimmering at him; mocking him.
Giving into the urge of his senses, Dian Wei picked up that coin with his callused fingers; allowing the edge of that coin to catch the gleams of the daylight, flicking a beautiful shine to its already perfect look of a coin. However, the warrior only let it slip away from his fingers, letting it to dive deep into the lukewarm current of the bath, letting it to clink against the marble tiles of the steaming current.
As it slipped deep into the water with little to no sound, the rigid man closed his eye at the only sound he want to hear of that coin.
Why am I such a fool...?
To him, the bathing water was a sea. The coin will disappear in the deep blue depth of a sea, slipping into an eternal darkness that no one will ever seek; sharing the same fate of the man who had gave him that coin within that man's mind.
A grin spread into his face, despite that his shift-made eye-patch hide a bit of his toothy grin. Tossing the ragged bag into the air, the coins clinked against each other, making music to the general's ears. With a snap of his arm, the heavy bag was caught again in the earthly grip of the general.
It was a quiet time; there haven't been any battles against Shu or Wu. It was something worth questioning, but the one-eyed prefect wouldn't complain about it as much as he was in haste of helping his cousin to unify to the battle-worn land. Opening his singled-eye, he looked at the pair of guards behind him, "Perfect-timing. I was about to call one of you two in." Hurling the bag to one of the guard as the inexperienced boy clumsy caught it, Xiahou Dun allowed his guard to catch the gleam in his eye, "Present this to General Dian Wei. Say it is a gift from me."
Loyally and hastily, the boy bowed to his master with respect, before disappearing with the other guard as the door slid shut; just as the prefect slid his eye closed, sentimentality seeped into his thoughts.
It had been a year and six months since he first saw that fierce man that slew two tigers with his bare hands.
Though it was a tough fight, he clearly remembered the warrior killed the beasts with little to no wounds. It was for that sole reason he remembered approaching Dian Wei and asking him if he was interested in serving for the great empire of Wei. Soon, he rose in ranks as a loyal bodyguard that will stand beside his lord with no questions; ready to place his life before his lord's. With the honor, came the experience and the friendship between the prefect and the warrior.
It had scared Xiahou Dun when the Battle of Wan Castle happened. When he had arrived into the scene to assist his lord into escaping, Dian Wei was a walking "bloodfall". Blood oozed from the numerous deep wounds should have clearly spell fatal death to the warrior. However, he managed to survive and was back to his position and condition within a flash of a few weeks.
Except as of this moment, the prefect had a bloody thirst for the warrior.
Xiahou Dun let a sigh escape his lips.
This was how he spent his days lately; at least the routine he seemed has adapted to the recent ten months that had gone by due to the quiet odd year in the era of chaos. The city was in absolute peace and after sending a bag of gold coins to Dian Wei every month, he would lapse into a serene memory of the past; especially ones focusing on that warrior... from the moment where he mercilessly dashed the blood of the tigers onto the ground with his bare hands to the part where the prefect was yelling obscene languages at the aftermath of the warrior's status...
The elder Xiahou only blinked his eye when a loud knock rasped on his door. There was only one man that would announce his arrival to the commanders with roughness; even when he was trying to sound polite.
"Dian Wei here."
"Come in, Lord Dian Wei." 'Brother Dun' replied generously as the door flung open with little to no objections of the visitor; it almost caused the one-eyed general of Xia Pi to raise his eyebrow and glared at the warrior, "Please, doors can be expensive to replace."
"Don't give me that crap, Dun." Dian Wei shot back hotly, his eyes growing vicious as his eyebrows stretched to a greater level of ferocity he had never seen on the man, only except when one betrays his lord. Looking confused for a second until he saw that same frayed bag, the older man immediately frowned.
Was he offended by his tenth gift?
The prefect's question was only answered further when the angered warrior shoved the bag into his sight.
"What is the meaning of this, Dian Wei?" Xiahou Dun immediately demanded dangerously, determined to show the warrior who is in charge of this place; of this city. He no longer cared to remain polite to the warrior in front of him, and that was clear by the gleam in his single eye and the lack of prefix to the famed man's name.
A forced laugh broke out of the rough voice of the tiger-slayer, "What do you mean by, 'What is the meaning of this'? You know what the hell I mean. What's the meaning of these bags filled with stones you are giving me every single month?! Are you insulting me, Dun?"
A confused look crossed the older general's face as he tried to follow by what did the bodyguard meant by 'stones', however it was gone as soon as it came when a breach of laughter echoed from the hallway. Dian Wei only continued glaring at the prefect; evidently ignoring the mysterious joy to the outside of the room. Realizing he had been played as a fool, Xiahou Dun let a mere growl escape his throat at the corruption that had developed in his guard without his knowledge.
His 'faithful messengers' had swapped the gold pieces with stones as the furious general immediately tore the bag open to see what he had expected to see.
Tattered pieces of road pebbles laid there silently, unknown to the crime itself had committed.
"Well! You are not going to say a word about it? Do you really think I am such a fool?!" Dian Wei exploded in front of his own eyes, seeing the one he thirst for broke into a mad frenzy made Xiahou Dun's palm sweat for a mere second before his thoughts recollected itself from his own shock, "I have been enduring this for nine months, while you still act like you are a goddamn good old friend to me, it sickens me! How someone could do something so insulting and still act so friendly to the one he insulted is something I bet even Zhuge Liang has no idea of!"
"W-wait, Dian Wei, give me a chance to explain this!" Xiahou Dun spoke hurriedly, not wanting a misunderstanding to be the fall of the deep friendship they have obtained within the past years of being comrades; and not wanting anyone outside to hear the noise within here, "I have a perfect explanation!"
"Sure you do, Dun," The bodyguard scowled darkly, "The villain always have a perfect explanation."
If you would stop being so stubborn for a second, I can tell you what happened between all these.
Xiahou Dun did not yell those words out to the warrior, but fell silence; lost of words to say.
Did he just hear one of his closest friends call him a villain?
"The great Xiahou Dun... lost of words? Got caught of what's beneath that entire act you put up in the front?" Dian Wei mocked, shaking his head with clear disappointment, "I thoughtyou were a man who loves all man! Guess beneath the act, that's not what it is, huh?"
The prefect only continued looking at the warrior monotonously, wanting to hear what's more to be said between them.
The yelling ceased finally, when the bodyguard finally let his feelings be his face, "This is it between us, do not go and send some stupid messenger to me and then act totally innocent... You and I know better." With those final words, Dian Wei exited the room without a single goodbye. The room that had shared much laughter between the duos now carried a solemn darkness within it.
Those were the last words ever said between them that the lost prefect could ever hear with those two ears he was granted. Within in that one single minute that passed in silence after the dispute, Xiahou Dun couldn't help but reflect on those bitter trades of words that had happened between Dian Wei and him more than any other moments in the friendship they are known for.
Not even the hilarious moments where Dian Wei couldn't help but to quirk a grin up when Xiahou Dun yelled all those inappropriate words to him and Zhang Xiu after the battle of Wan Castle.
After a long moment of shock, Xiahou Dun finally let out a ferocious cry; the very same cry he was known for when he first saw his eyeless socket in a mirror. A cry that shows pure madness and that all senses have left the prefect's mind, the older ones knew when to shudder and run when they hear it. The younger ones were less fortunate however.
Quite unfortunately, the guard that stole all the gold pieces was a younger one and with a flash of rage when the one-eyed general found his scimitar, just like the mirrors before him, he saw that murderous look the prefect wore on his face and immediately he knew he was going to die for his crimes. The younger man dropped onto his knees, tried begging for his life, even told the general where the gold pieces were; but Xiahou Dun insisted on butchering his former guard.
And in moments, he was shattered just like the rest of the mirrors that had dared to show the general what his face had became.
The other guards became horrified when blood was shed with splatters over the place where their fellow companion was; the prefect gave no mercy to his crime and had slaughtered his guard better than any butchers could have done with a pig.
The amount of blood showered could easily send the witnesses of the scene into coma. However when Xiahou Dun snapped at the servants to clean up the mess, they didn't disobey or hesitate since it was obvious stealing goods from the lord himself was a severe crime; it only became more obvious when the lord retrieved his missing gold pieces from his former guard's sacks.
The guard deserved his death by committing a crime worthy of death.
Within his ferocity, Xiahou Dun left the room with the wake of his anger and fury and a heavy weight upon his heart; for he knew that no blood slaughter would regain the trust that he had forged in the past year.
Dejected, the scarred general allows his head to drop as soon as he reached the halls of his own castle.
Dusts were starting to cover Dian Wei's table.
The fierce bodyguard of the famous Hero of Chaos only looked impatiently at the table that contained a scroll and a heavy bag of unknown. He continued to look on as if the bag would suddenly reveal what it carried inside.
Tact had never been his forte, and Dian Wei knew this by heart. Politics and relations had always been dealt by other officers that had more of a charm than his gruff appearance and manners could ever hold. He had always dealt people with wine and drinks. Talks, tavern ballads, and wine were always his ways of knowing people around the country. He had never been much of a person that will just talk and share a deep bond aside from the wine that had spilled.
However, Xiahou Dun was different.
Despite the fact that he only had one eye remaining and that her wore a made-shift eye patch across his empty eye socket, Xiahou Dun had been one of those that spoke with charm and was an utmost gentlemen to most people, including commoners of the city he watched as a prefect.
He had always thought that these kinds of people were not true men due to their sly manners. There had been no better way to prove this thought wrong with Xiahou Dun however. The one-eyed general carried a fierceness that one cannot possibly hope to match in battle; he wielded his scimitar to battle like a dangerous dragon that tore enemies' armies like if it was paper.
There were, of course, those facts. However, Dian Wei mused quietly, it was probably more due to the fact that this scarred general often spoke sincerely. It was not an act of slyness when Xiahou Dun spoke. It was the manners of virtues that held deep honesty and honor towards that deserve it.
Having stared at the bag for three days, with dust very slowly leaning layers upon the scroll and the bag, Dian Wei finally reached for it. As his thumb roughly swipe through the surface of the scroll, the hefty bodyguard immediately realized how tarnished the scroll looked. While it could not had been written earlier than four days, there was a weary aura from it. Rotating the scroll by a few angles, Dian Wei then noticed what was weary about it.
His finger gingerly touched the crusted patch on it, which it shone an eerie crimson.
His heart flipped at the realization of what exactly was on the scroll.
Numerous conclusions raced into his mind as he stared blankly at it. Thinking had never been his forte either, but recent rumors had said that Cao Cao's right arm was severely sick. Could it have been blood from his cough?
Flippant imaginations flashed across Dian Wei's eye as he tried to put his conclusion together. But the image of Xiahou Dun laying on his deathbed never left him, even worse that his last thought of the bodyguard was that he hated him deeply.
His feelings could never be anymore false than what was stated between them.
Very slowly, with a deep fear residing within him, Dian Wei untied the scroll. With its bounds loose, the scroll revealed its content to the eyes of the bodyguard.
After a long while, though reading wasn't his forte either, a deep guilt resonated in his soul... as a rare tear dropped involuntarily and splashed on the bamboo piece of the scroll and wiping the ink away from the stiff piece, a splash that echoed as the golden coin had submerged deeply into the abyss of the water once came across from the bathroom.
And Dian Wei seized his own breath as a resounding clink disrupted his thoughts.
Now staring at his own reflection across the water that he himself had submerged in, his mind went briefly over what had happened again as water dripped from his hair. It was just mere minutes that he read the scroll, but he had felt like if it was eternity. With nearly two-thousand pieces of gold sat silently behind his head in a burlap bag, Dian Wei felt lost to what to do.
Looking back at the bag of gold, he scrutinized the rough texture of the bag slightly. He had a hefty amount of gold sitting behind him and the closest thing he knew was about to die.
It didn't seem wrong to invest the gold and pay a slight interest fee for the misunderstanding to the person that gave him the gold in the first place.
"Um... ah... Sorry, Dun, I didn't mean to lose my temper like that."
Dian Wei kicked himself on the head as he phrased the awkward feelings he had jumbling inside him.
Tact was really never his forte from the start as his onyx eyes flared slightly with mild frustration of how he sounded. Thus, for that reason, here was he practicing his speech at a corner near the one-eyed General's place before making his entrance.
Again, he cleared his throat for the fifth billion times.
"Uh... Dun, I know this is sudden... But I heard you were ill and finally read what you wrote on the scroll. I am really sorry for what happened and that I lost my temper so quickly." Dian Wei took a greedy gulp of air as nervousness caused his brows to sweat beads. This sounded better than his previous rehearsals though, "Look, I bought this for you... um... hope you will be feeling better soon, we... I mean... um... I need you to be kicking around."
Feeling as if this was about right, Dian Wei turned away from the stony wall he had been rehearsing his speech too and prepared himself to enter the halls of his comrade's place.
He just didn't expect to see that very general standing there, looking at him puzzled however.
Very healthy, Dian Wei secretly noted to himself as he let out a small yelp and stumbled a few steps backward.
Xiahou Dun merely chuckled at his antics though, "You know, if you want to say those things, it is better if you said it to the actual person."
The one-eyed general's humor went amiss however as Dian Wei spluttered in disbelief that the general might have heard everything he said, "They said you are sick!"
The sole eye of the general looked confused immediately as his lips twitched downward, revealing that the general had absolutely no clue what the bodyguard was talking about. Dian Wei's eyebrows only furrowed in a mild frustration, as his heart threatened to beat out of his ribcage, "They... they said... Cao Cao's right hand man is sick..."
Before the most trusted officer in the Wei Army could reply the bewildered bodyguard, he then remembered one thing, "How long had you been listening to me rehearsing?!"
A small smirk graced Xiahou Dun's features, as his reply gave the one last necessary blow to Dian Wei's poor heart, "Long enough."
It was actually rather humorous for the one-eyed general, to see the fiercest man in their army sweating and stammering loudly at everything that had happened between them. The hefty man no longer looked like an unshakable pillar, but a shaky leaf. That thought made Xiahou Dun smiled however. As he looked at the package of medicine Dian Wei had bought for him though, he let out another chuckle; this time louder.
"My dear Dian Wei, it is my brother Yuan that is sick. Not me. You misunderstood!"
If it was anymore possible to see the fiery beast transformed into such a harmless appearance, the fact that Dian Wei's went red did not actually looked threatening to Xiahou Dun. Finally realizing the usually loud warrior had went mute with his shaking embarrassment, Xiahou Dun clasped his hands onto Dian Wei's shoulder, "Don't worry about it, Dian Wei. It wasn't anyone's fault."
Dian Wei looked at Xiahou Dun's eyes, his embarrassment almost forgotten then.
There was that same serenity he first heard in the general's voice.
The one-eyed general gave him a toothy grin then, "Come now! You bought medicine... and I was about to visit Yuan anyway. Come along." And with a reinforced tug, as Xiahou Dun's arm comfortable went around Dian Wei's shoulder and forced him to walk out of that isolated corner.
As isolated however, Xiahou Dun mildly looked back at the corner, there were now memories there.
Indeed, he and Dian Wei had a long way to go.
Author's Note: I blame this twisted idea's existence on Xiahou Dun's pride and kindness in Romance of the Three Kingdoms X to Dian Wei as an 'elder' oath brother. X.x; Drop a review please, would appreciate it. It is very fast, you just need to click the button below...