Treading Dangerous Water
Author: Atthla
Disclaimer:
Warning: In case anyone still doesn't recognize the pairings I've stated in the summary, I am obliged to point out that both Sun Ce and Zhou Yu, also Gan Ning and Ling Tong are male. So, naturally, this fic contains male/male pairings. Scram now if that alerts you. As for any correlation with the book, I should say this is pretty much inaccurate. Zhou Yu and Gan Ning should not even meet if I follow the correct storyline. Last but not least, I have to warn you about the high possibility of grammatical mistakes.
Dedication: This fic I present to my beloved sister whose love for the kingdom of Wu and its pretty inhabitants is matchless. Unfortunately, your onee-sama still loves Shu more than anything XD
Notes: Finally, my first Dynasty Warriors fic. Obviously, it's kind of hard not to write about these guys once you've played the game, so...well, here it is. If you can tolerate everything I've mentioned in the warning (do read it), enjoy.
Gongjin is the style name of Zhou Yu, in case you're wondering.
In the prosperous land of Wu, among so many renowned generals, there was a young man named Zhou Yu, his intelligence outstanding and his handsomeness legendary throughout the state. He was a master both in the art of war and literature that despite his young age, he was respected to the highest degree by friends and allies as well as foes. It was no exaggeration to say that everything his lord and best friend, Sun Ce the Little Conqueror, put into his hands, the result he would receive in return would never dissatisfy him.
However, if there was a matter this formidable Zhou Yu would be very much disinclined to deal with, it was no other than the matter of heart.
To him, heart was an evil treacherous thing no one, not even its own possessor, had the power to control, as his own experience with his lord – who no longer remained merely as a master and boyhood friend – had efficiently taught him. Unfortunately, Zhou Yu was nothing if not perceptive and this one trait had led him to many details and information about people's hearts he would rather not be acquainted with.
Such was the case that a gray drizzling afternoon found him in the darkening hallway, observing a certain general of his standing by an opened window watching another general. Zhou Yu felt the smoothness of his brow developed into a frown as he noticed water starting to pool at the formerly pristine castle floor. Someone, most likely Sun Ce, would throw a temper tantrum over it later as the primary cause of him slipping.
He had his own suspicions about the two, naturally, but not once he had been faced with this kind of predicament before, where he would have intruded his fellow comrade's personal moment had he taken another step forward. Personally, he would loathe to interfere with the affairs of others, but perhaps Sun Ce and his inquisitive nature had begun to rub on him. The handsome general was holding a debate with himself whether or not he would tread this dangerous water when Gan Ning turned around and regarded him with less than friendly eyes.
Suddenly Zhou Yu had an urge to run and hide behind a random pillar. Fortunately he managed to suppress it just in time and contended himself with silently cursing Sun Ce and his influences in every language he had learned.
Long, alarming silence stretched between them until Zhou Yu had enough courage to uncomfortably clear his throat. He reminded himself of his appointment with Lu Xun in the castle library and resumed his noiseless paces, all the way trying to ignore Gan Ning's glare which became more hostile with each step he took.
"This is your damn fault."
The accusation completely halted him on his track and Gongjin turned two bewildered eyes to the other general. "Pardon me?"
Gan Ning crossed his arms in front of his chest and continued to glare at him. "That stupid archery contest. I know that's your idea."
Zhou Yu's frown deepened. Sure, the archery contest was his idea to commemorate the finding of Wu kingdom. A celebration so to say. Originally, it was to put a stop to the endless stream of Sun Ce's ludicrous ideas, which ranged from a bug-eating contest to 'Hide and Seek Lu Xun's Precious Hat'. These could be injurious either to health or temper of their officers while an archery contest surely would be able to rise the soldiers' morale, was his calm explanation, and after much coaxing and threatening, the Little Conqueror finally gave his sullen approval
As to how in earth his archery contest could revolutionize Gan Ning's already fiery temper into a field of bursting explosives, he had practically no idea.
"Do you not approve of it, General?" Finally Zhou Yu inquired with a calm, polite tone. That it was a terrible mistake was known afterward when the former pirate began to fume.
"You don't care if I agree or not, so why ask now? Of course, your ideas are the best, everyone knows that! Just get out of my sight before I hack you into pieces!"
Zhou Yu clearly was still at lost after the absolutely unhelpful explanation, if it indeed could be called as one. On the other hand, it would be the most inappropriate to ask if Gan Ning was unconfident with his skill of archery – or in other words, unprepared to face an imminent loss from his archrival, Ling Tong. Thus, he could only reply as politically correct as possible, in slight hope to soothe the other's anger. "If you find any of my judgment unsatisfactory..."
"Yes but don't expect me to explain it to you!" the furious general roared, his face red with anger. "And stop speaking like you're reading from a damn scroll!"
Wincing slightly, Gongjin decided to retreat to a safer ground and say no further. He was more than a little annoyed at the baseless rampaging but quickly took hold of his temper and convinced himself that there must be a plausible explanation about this anomaly. It was then when he carefully diverted his gaze from his irate comrade to the window and finally noticed that the object of Gan Ning's earlier attention could be seen vigorously practicing archery.
That if it was still possible to be reasonably vigorous when one was soaked to the bone in heavy rain.
Another frown threatened to crease his temple as the handsome general stared at the tall drenched figure, as if to repeatedly convince himself that it was indeed the nunchaku user who was acting so absurdly. Ling Tong might not be the best model in using a bow, but surely there was no need to push himself so far only in order not to lose from a certain former pirate. He was making a note to have a small talk later to Ling Tong about this unhealthy obsession when Gan Ning roughly cut his train of thought with a short, utterly ridiculous question.
"If I kill Sun Ce, what'll you do?"
Zhou Yu raised a pair of elegant eyebrows, unsure about the origin of this question but still gave his answer promptly and unhesitatingly. "Slay you in return, of course, and afterward present your head to his grave."
"Heh, figured." For the first time there was a short wry laugh accentuating the other general's remark. "Even if I'm still a Wu officer?"
"If you are indeed an officer of Wu, you should be serving Lord Sun Ce," Zhou Yu replied dryly. "Taking his life will be the utmost quintessence of heresy against Wu and therefore it will be impossible to still consider yourself our officer."
Another short, uncomfortable laugh was issued by the former pirate as he scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Yeah, of course. Should've think about that before." He paused for a moment, troubled eyes trained on the figure of his unrelenting archrival, before continuing with an even more distressed voice. "I guess it can't be helped. They say blood's thicker than anything after all."
Zhou Yu was in the verge of declaring that he still had no idea what was going on when Gan Ning waved his hand dismissively. "Nah, never mind that. I'm just babbling nonsense. You should do something about him though," he pointed a thumb to Ling Tong who was still repeatedly and devotedly attaching and releasing arrows from his bow under the heavy lashing of the rain.
"I shall," the long-haired general concurred only too willingly, still with a frown. Obviously they could not risk on losing another general with Lu Meng and Zhou Tai down with cold. Their relationship with Shu and Wei was not exactly congenial enough to put their guard down. He drew a long sigh. Perhaps the archery contest was not that good of an idea after all.
"Good," Gan Ning murmured, not exactly paying attention to what he said.
An actually liberal general in certain domestic matters, Gongjin started once more, "About the archery contest, if you disapprove of it much..."
"Do what you want," the other man sighed, a tired note in his voice, before then added with a growl, "just make sure you speak to that idiot. It's raining cats-and-dogs but he's still practicing like a nutcase. Maybe he's trying to get himself sick."
There was a pause, and then Gan Ning's voice dropped even lower as he muttered, "Really hate me, he must."
All of a sudden the world seemed much clearer to Zhou Yu. It was a surprisingly simple matter now that he had seen the gist of it. That it must be bitter for Gan Ning to realize that there was someone who hated him enough, or so he had assumed, to stand staunchly against such downpour without a second thought of his own well-being, for something as trivial as an archery contest. Zhou Yu was willing to put his life on it that the former pirate had actually taken quite a liking to his rival that this discovery upset him so much. The said rival himself did not seem to harbor as much revulsion as he had initially had, but then again, it was as good as impossible for anyone to put the death of his father behind him, especially in such relationship that concerned the murderer.
On the whole, Zhou Yu did not think there was anyone to blame in this quandary. It was all cause and effect with fate turning the wheel. Unfortunately, the state of Gan Ning's temper or Ling Tong's pride proved to be very much unhelpful.
The handsome general suppressed yet another urge to sigh, He began to feel that facing Lu Bu might be as well easier than this. Sun Ce had pointed out that this kind of matter was not his strong point and he could only agree wholeheartedly. He was thinking of a quick yet inoffensive withdrawal when he caught the melancholy look on the former pirate's face, and knew at once that he should do something about it before any further damage could be inflicted to his beloved kingdom's officers.
Once more Zhou Yu provided a long string of colorful curses to the heavy influences of his altruistic lord to his perfectly balanced nature, and then prepared himself to enter the battlefield again.
He cleared his throat to get the other's attention, and then uttered with a voice as unassuming as possible, "In my opinion, General, no one in their right mind will put forth the most of his ability for a person he sincerely hates.
Gan Ning's response was immediate as he eyed him suspiciously. "What d'ya mean, smart man?"
"I was saying that despite your unseemly taste of language, your personality is moderately likeable, which is weird and truly a wonder," Zhou Yu replied sourly, unable to keep viciousness from his answer. Silently he took a deep breath and gathered his self-control before resuming, "It may not be my place to say, but I do think General Ling acknowledges this fact as well while it must be difficult on his part with the incident that has happened between the two of you."
The other general seemed to be at loss at the complexity of his speech and Gongjin was wondering if he had to repeat everything in a simpler language when the former pirate spoke up, his voice strangely quiet, "You mean, he doesn't hate me."
"Not particularly is all I can certify," the long-haired general answered with a neutral tone, inwardly admonishing himself for depreciating his fellow comrade. Even though Gan Ning showed an unforgivable display of insolence from time to time, he was surely not stupid.
However, the former pirate still seemed far from convinced. "Are you sure?"
Zhou Yu sensed an approaching chance to escape and immediately seized it. He offered a little smile and said, "I am certain General Ling can provide you with a more fulfilling answer to appease your curiosity. This is as far as my opinion can go."
For a moment, there was no response coming from the former pirate. Zhou Yu could almost see the battle going on his friend's mind, a grand battle between wits and curiosity, as minutes steadily ticked by and rain kept pouring outside. And then, quite suddenly, a wide grin ended the stillness, and with a newly-acquired flippancy which Zhou Yu at once grew alarmed of, Gan Ning took a hold of his chin and challenged, "If I say I'm gonna kiss you right now, what'll you do?"
"Actually, I may have just the right answer for that one, General," the long-haired general's answer came promptly, the sweetness in his voice was so obvious that it was downright terrifying. "I have just recently finished reading a book about the art of espionage. There was a chapter that encompassed numerous valuable and highly effective means to force an enemy spy to speak. Several of them, I reckon, may be very much suitable to be carried out if such condition as you have just proposed..."
"Okay, I got it," Gan Ning cut him short, an even wider grin took a root on his face as he released the other general. Then, his grin softened into a smile and he said quietly, "You're a fine man, you know that? Despite your horribly good looks and frightening way of speaking at least."
"I will take it as a compliment," Zhou Yu replied dryly as the other general laughed.
"Take what you want, pretty boy, I have no interest to fight with Sun Ce over you anyway," Gan Ning announced with frivolous solemnity, before turning to leave. "Well then, see ya later. I got an idiot to deal with."
"Certainly," Zhou Yu nodded and watched the other man leaving with an evidently better mood. It was a never-ending wonder how heart could afflict people so deeply. He would rather have a strategy problem with virtually no way out in his hands than anything that concerned this infuriating piece called heart. Hopefully, everything would turn out right.
He was about to leave when another shout once again forbid him from taking the first step. As Sun Ce's zealous voice echoed loudly in the hallway, he began to feel that Lu Xun had to wait particularly long this afternoon before he finally arrived at the library.
"Zhou Yu! There you are!" His lord came running down the hall breathlessly. "I have been thinking– OUCH!"
Gongjin grimly congratulated himself as his ominous prophecy came true. Sitting on the floor after his graceless fall was Sun Ce, wincing, cursing, and soothing his sore spot. Accustomed to such accidents, the general offered a helping hand without a word, which was immediately taken.
"Who the hell is so stupid to put water here?" The mighty lord of Wu demanded angrily and then pointed an accusing finger to the poor puddle of water. "You almost kill me, you know!"
"Hardly," Zhou Yu snorted, earning himself a hurtful look from his childhood friend. "I thought you were looking for me?"
"Ah, yes!" Sun Ce's face lighted up, and then he declared with the astonishing persistence of a five-year-old child, "It's about that archery contest! I do think that it's unacceptable to have something as dull as an archery contest to celebrate the birthday of our kingdom! It's a big event! Where's the fun with only an archery contest? We have that every year!"
"I think I agree with you," Zhou Yu responded wearily, feeling a breeding headache as he saw Gan Ning trotting down the castle ground and without further ado, seizing the bow from Ling Tong's hand. Drained enough to witness yet another quarrel between the two, he turned his attention to Sun Ce who was staring at him suspiciously.
"Okay, what did I do now?" the Little Conqueror crossed his arms. "Did I say something wrong? Or is it because of that speech you want me to work on? I'm not going to use the phrase 'until I stick my tonfa up to Cao Cao's ass', I promise! Just tell me I won't be sleeping outside tonight!"
Trying to ignore most nonsense in Sun Ce's argument, the long-haired general explained patiently yet dangerously, "I only said that I agreed with you about the archery contest, that you may have another form of celebration as long as I concur. But what was that about a phrase in your speech?"
"No, nothing. Never mind that," the older man quickly recovered and now was looking at him with hopeful eyes. "So you're saying we can change the plan? Not an archery contest?"
"Not an archery contest," Zhou Yu repeated determinedly, almost as if to convince himself more than his lord. He spared another glance to the window and immediately noticed that the verbal fight between the two rivals was in the verge of escalating into a violent brawl. Zhou Yu resisted the urge to groan as he cursed himself for not reminding Gan Ning to keep his temper under the strictest control.
It was then when the supposedly-short-tempered general grabbed the side of Ling Tong's head and kissed him on the lips.
Zhou Yu felt his headache worsening.
No, he knew very well that Gan Ning was not stupid, but this was beyond anything reasonable. He could already picture Ling Tong came stomping to his office, demanding to know what nonsense he had been saying to the former pirate. Silently and somberly, Gongjin vowed that this would be the last time he tried to involve himself with the personal problems of others.
A pair of arms snaked its way around his waist and its owner rested a pointed chin on his shoulder. Sun Ce's amused voice came as a low sound in front of his ear. "Interesting. Never knew Gan Ning got the guts to actually do that."
Deciding that he could take no more of this, Zhou Yu whirled around, releasing himself from the confinement of his lord's arms, and pronounced with a tone which left no room for any argument. "The next time I attempt a conversation with General Gan Ning, you will lend me a hand. Do you hear me?"
Sun Ce raised his eyebrows, a laugh threatened to escape his throat as he teased, "What? Did he ask for your advice or something? And you were practically lost for words and just told him to kiss Ling Tong? I must say that's quite effective, even though too reckless."
"Just please keep your mouth shut, milord," the long-haired general smiled tartly and quickly turned away to depart, but then, as if reminded of something, he paused in his steps. Sun Ce knew that nothing good would come from it when his handsome friend turned a pair of vindictive eyes at him and afterward with an poisonously sweet tone of voice said, "And you're sleeping outside tonight, love."
With that, the formidable General Zhou Yu continued his journey to the castle library with his lord's echoes of protests trailing him.
--End--
Notes: Comments, anyone? And I will very appreciate it if someone can tell me what is actually going on between Gan Ning and Lu Xun in the previous games that there are quite a bit of their fics in this fandom. Just to satisfy my curiosity though, since I haven't played the earlier games of this series. Thanks for reading.