Crush
By Strych9serenity
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Dynasty Warriors characters, yadda yadda yadda, so on and so forth.
(A/N: I wrote this crazy thing one night cause I wanted to do a really wacky pairing I hadn't seen yet. Also to irritate a freind of mine by torturing her favorite character! Warning: what lies ahead is Vastly NOT CANNON and goes on premise that Wu won in the end.)
"Do you think he's noticed yet?"
"Not a chance."
The sound of jingling bells marked their conversation as they strolled through the castle gardens, observing what had become a daily occurrence in the Sun family household. Zhou Tai sat in meditation on the edge of the koi pond, while Lady Sun Shang Xiang sat with her ladies in waiting in an arbor a few yards off and polished and sharpened their weapons and armor. The entire time her highness, princess of Wu, and now all of china, watched the stoic warrior out of the corner of her eye and tried not to get caught. Zhou Tai, deep in his contemplation of the waters, remained completely oblivious.
"How long do you think it will take before this reaches our Lord?"
"Any day now. He would have known already if he weren't so busy. He always could read his kids like a scroll."
"Pop's going to blow his top."
Gan Ning chuckled at that sally as Sun Ce, Sun Jian's eldest son and heir to the throne of China, sauntered over to join them. In his court robes and lacking his tonfa, he looked much more like a civilized noble and couldn't look less like the holy terror he was on the battlefield. He tossed an amused glance at Zhou Tai, who stubbornly resisted all but the most ferocious attempts to persuade him to abandon his armor and appear in court in civilian get up. It usually took a direct order from the new Son of Heaven to even get him to remove his dress helm on state occasions. It was probably on the first such occasion, when Sun Jian had finally gotten tired of hinting and gotten around to commanding, that their wayward princess had noticed the fact that Zhou Tai, as well as offering her respect warrior to warrior, wasn't that bad to look at after all. Shoulder length blue-black hair combined with piercing black eyes and sharp cheekbones gave him a somewhat villainous look that was only compounded by the line of scar tissue bisecting his left eye. Far from frightening the ladies of the court, this hint of danger seemed to draw them like flies. In most cases, Zhou Tai managed to appear not to notice and so avoid trouble with husbands, fathers, and brothers of the ladies involved. On the few occasions where a lady would not desist, he switched to obviously ignoring her, and only when this too failed did he let it be known that he was not interested in the most abrupt, cutting, and out-right humiliating remarks possible. This time though, the Lady in question was not actively pursuing him (yet), and he really did not seem to notice. The three of them discussed his possible reaction to this when he was finally confronted with it with much mirth and amusement at his expense, and were just beginning to speculate on what Her reaction would be when Zhou Tai stood abruptly from his seat on the rocks by the pond and exited the gardens with out a backward glance.
"Ten minutes. I bet you three gold."
Sun Ce looked at Jiang Qin in confusion for a moment before Gan Ning's nod in his sister's direction clarified the statement.
"Nah, I say maybe five."
"Fine, you stay here and watch, and we'll settle out at dinner. Is it a bet?"
"Sure."
Gan Ning shook his head at his fellow former pirate as they strolled off after the third former felon in Sun Jian's court.
"Is it really wise to rob him that way? One of these days he's going to be emperor, and you're going to end up on the block my friend."
"Perhaps. But I'll enjoy spending his money 'til that day dawns. Besides, the future Emperor of all China should learn better than to gamble with a pirate!"
bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!
Four hours later:
" How did you know you mangy river rat? Five minutes after you leave she starts packing up and five more and they're out the gate and off to the practice grounds to train, right across the square from our poor, hunted comrade! Here's your coin by the way; and if you ever offer me a bet again, I'll have the good sense to say no."
The two ruffians laughed and gestured for him to join them in a companionable after dinner dice game, but he only repeated his earlier statement and cracked jokes about pirates and loaded dice until a tall figure in the far corner caught his eye.
" So, Qin, would you mind telling me just how you knew what she would do earlier? And how long this has been going on?"
" Easy enough, my Lord. You know Tai and I are former shipmates, and we still spend a lot of time together. A few months ago I started to notice that Lady Shang's daily routine was starting to mimic ours more and more, to the point where every time I saw him, she was there too. After that all I had to do was ask a few questions and observe . . ."
"Nice to know someone else is paying attention, because even though Shang and I get along all right, I didn't notice until about a month and a half ago, when she started fishing around in my brains for answers as to the origins of a certain fearsome ex-pirate!"
Gan Ning laughed good-naturedly at the memory of his own shock when Qin confirmed his theory, and even harder when he thought of his reaction to Qin's other revelation. He had had time to think back over some of his conversations with Tai over the last couple of years, and had to admit that clues had been scattered like raindrops all about him, but he had simply failed to put them together.
" At least she's being circumspect. Even the Court Nobles haven't picked up on it yet. But there'll be hell to pay when they do"
Huang Gai's gruff voice brought smiles and another pass of the wine skin. Sun Ce laughed aloud and commented on the crushed hopes and stung pride of the young dandies that had so far made attempts at winning his sister's hand, and then on the quiet steaming of the older Lords who had also been rebuffed. They all grew a bit more sober at that. It was well known that those of the Court who had not fought beside her felt that Sun Shang Xiang was nothing more than a thoroughly spoiled girl chit who needed to be put in her place before she disgraced her name, her house, and China as a whole with her outlandish behavior.
"Almost a pity it wouldn't be allowed. But all the politically acceptable officers are either married or to closely related. And those left," He paused to nod his head at Qin, Ning, and Zhou Tai in his corner. "Are ex-felons and ne'er-do-wells that would cause a civil war if they wed our princess."
The others grew grim and silent at that for a moment, until Qin snorted and said, "Pity none of us is a pirate and a blueblood, hmm?" He gave Gan Ning a nudge in the ribs with his elbow as he said it, and winked at Huang Gai. The very idea was so ridiculous that they all cracked up laughing again.
" Lords finance pirates boy, they don't become them!" Huang Gai slammed down his drinking horn in emphasis and bid them all good night.
(A/N : That's all for now folkseses! What will poor Zhou Tai do when he finds out? More to the point, what will Sun Jian do? Read and review please!)