Hey, it's Valentine's Day! Not that it means anything to me, having never received anything for Valentine's Day, ever (sniff, it's just so sad, lol,) but it's an excuse to write this, so I'm not complaining. Yes I know, I've added yet another fic without updating What are you fighting for, sorry about that, but I am working on it I promise! And of course they wouldn't have had Valentine's Day in Ancient China, but I'm not going for historical correctness here, just a little bit of fun, for me and hopefully you too. Oh, and credit goes toNatalia173, whose story gave me the idea in the first place.

Mulan woke to the sound of cooking from the mess tent, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Oh great she thought army rations, just the thing to make you crawl out of bed in the morning Shivering a little she quickly pulled on her clothes and strode out of her tent.

One of the perks of being an officer was that you got to wear a cloak, a luxury that Captain Fa made full use of, pulling it around her as she hurried to the dining tent. Once inside she headed towards the smallest table, where three oddly assorted people were already eating.

'M-morning guys' Mulan stuttered as she sat down, noting gratefully that the chef had chosen to serve something warm for breakfast.

'Morning Mulan' replied Chien-Po, but the other two figures didn't seem to notice her.

'I'll have you know that I have piles of them, every year, something that you, my bite-size friend, know nothing about!'

'Does it take long to write them to yourself, Ling?'

'What are you two going on about?' Mulan asked. They looked towards her for the first time.

'Don't you know what day it is?' Ling said, looking shocked.

'Well I kinda thought it was Tuesday..

'It's Monday' said Chien-Po quietly

'…but apparently it's Monday,' she carried on, not missing a beat, 'so don't think I do, no.'

'But you're a girl, I thought you were suppose to know all of this stuff!' said Ling exasperatedly.

Mulan just raised an eyebrow at him.

'Not that I'm saying anything about girls,' he added quickly. He had learnt surprisingly swiftly that when talking about girls you had to be very careful if Mulan was about. She guessed it was related to what happened after he'd made that 'women' comment once…

'What stuff am I suppose to know?' she asked. Seeing that Ling was starting to back away a little she sighed. 'I'm not going to do anything, I promise, just tell me what day it is will you?'

'It's Valentine's Day' Yao commented, not looking up from his porridge.

'Is it? Oh, that came quick' and she started on her own breakfast.

'What? Is that it?' Ling exclaimed, again; he seemed to be in a very expressive mood today.

'Is what it?' asked Shang, putting his bowl down next to Mulan's.

'She didn't know what day it is.' Ling said wearily.

'Apparently it's Monday' Mulan said around her breakfast

'I was sure it was Tuesday' Shang shrugged 'Oh, well'

Ling gave his commanding officer a long-suffering look. 'I wasn't talking about the day of the week!'

'Give me a moment then,' Shang thought for a little while, ' Hey, it's Valentine's Day isn't it?'

'See Mulan!' Ling cried triumphantly 'Even Shang remembered it'

'What do you mean 'even Shang'?' Shang growled, sending Ling a death-stare.

'You know, you and Mulan have a lot in common.' Yao said, making everyone stare at him.

'Yao, what exactly do you mean by that?' Chien-Po asked, standing in for the other two who were struck momentarily speechless.

'You're both great at scaring the life out of Ling' Mulan had to laugh at Ling's face when he said that.

'About the whole Valentine's Day thing,' she carried on, trying to get back to the point 'why should I be bothered anyway? It's not like anybody's going to send me anything, so why should I spend a whole day pining over it? Even if I am a girl.' She added, smirking.

'If it wasn't for the fact that none of them would ever dare' Yao said, actually putting down his food in the morning, which was nothing short of a miracle, 'You'd have loads of gifts off the recruits, most of them have a thing for you.'

Mulan's jaw dropped about mile. 'Yao,' she said in a would-be-calm sort of voice, 'Please tell me you didn't just say that!'

'Sorry, he did.' Chien-Po asserted.

'Yao I have to go and train those guys in a matter of minutes, I really could have coped without that little bit of info!'

Yao just shrugged. One of the things about this guy was that nothing seemed to embarrass him. Unfortunately this left him a bit short on the tact front.

'I don't think that was useful, Yao' Shang said, in his Marshal mode, the position the Emperor had given him after the invasion.

'I don't think it's just the soldiers who have feelings on the subject' Yao continued, in a meaningful sort of voice.

'What are you talking about,' Mulan said brusquely, 'This is an army camp, every one of us here are soldiers, even me.' Getting tired of the conversation, and having finished her meal she decided to go start warming up. She felt like she'd missed something anyway, and she hated being left out of a conversation.

'Well, see you later everyone.' She said, standing up 'I'll wish you all a happy Valentine's, just so Ling doesn't totally despair of me.' And with that she walked off, huddling into her cloak as she went outside.

She didn't see much of the officers for the rest of the day. She was busy training her recruits and so were they. Trying to practise archery with frozen fingers wasn't easy, but she managed to get it sorted. Next she set them to do some sparring sessions in an attempt to warm up, but after Yao's remark at breakfast she didn't let any of her partners get within a foot of her. Several hours' hard work later and the sun started to sink too low for them to continue, and the troops were left to rest their aching muscles. When she asked Ling about his Valentines in the evening he mumbled something incoherent, and suddenly found that he had an urgent job to do. Mulan was glad to get back to her tent that night, the training took its toll on her too.

When she walked in she'd meant to just collapse on her 'bed', but something on the desk caught her eye. Picking the paper up, she realised it was a picture of some sort, but it was too dark to see anything. Fumbling with the matches Mulan lit the lamp. She sat down and looked at it carefully. It was beautiful; it reminded her of some of the prints she had seen in the Imperial City, or caught a hurried glimpse of during her short time in the palace. There were two pictures on the page, one of a delicate tree in full blossom, and the other of an eagle, it's wings outstretched. Each was done in rich colours and the steady strokes of an experienced artist. She sat there and stared at the parchment in her hand.

Suddenly she wondered where it had come from, who had brought her the beautiful picture. Gazing at it, it struck her that she recognised the tree, its pink petals were her namesakes, Magnolia flowers. Her mind hooked on the enigma in front of her, she guessed that the eagle stood for something too. She eagerly racked her brains for an explanation, but none came. It felt like she'd sat there forever, and she still couldn't figure it out. Thinking about it, she realised that she had finally had a Valentines, at least she guessed that's what it was, but even that happy thought didn't help. After a while she had to admit defeat.

Well, who are you? she questioned the figure, You're sitting there, looking all proud and majestic, soaring through the sky as smugly as if you know how baffled you've got me. Who are you? Something stuck. She went over what she'd just thought again and her brain went into overdrive. Soaring… Soar. No surely it couldn't be

'Shang?' she whispered to the painting.

'I was wondering how long you'd take' came a voice from behind her. She spun around.

Yes, that's the end, I leave the last part in the capable hands of your imagination, if you wish to continue. If this isn't very good my excuse is that I only came up with it on Sunday, and I'm no good at speed writing, especially when the small matter of that English Coursework that I had gets in the way. Not that fluffy is it, but fluffy was never my best point. So Happy Valentines Day people, and happy single awareness day to everyone else : D !