Hearing bells

Gan Ning snarled to himself and rested his chin in his palm, a livid scowl spread across his face. From his place on the boulder, he could see the rest of the troops resting and eating their lunches, smiles on their lips and their drives high. This just annoyed Gan Ning even more. Jumping up onto his feet, he sent a glare their way before barking out orders for them to get back to preparing to leave for the palace once more. They'd had success in the battle beforehand with Shu, with the whole deal with the Shu Commander and the princess thing, and had hardly lost any men. Except that wasn't the reason for Gan Ning's sour mood.

"Hey, Gan Ning, why the long face?"

He turned his bitter face towards Lu Meng and his gaze only hardened before he sneered brutishly and turned back to roaring at the troops who were not even five minutes into their break. Usually they'd get about fifteen to twenty minutes. But Gan Ning would be the judge of that on that fine spring afternoon.

"Whoa, what's got him so peeved?"

The ex-pirate's eyes narrowed when he heard Ling Tong's musing voice. His happiness decayed further when he heard Lu Meng mention THAT person.

"I think it has something to do with that Shu girl. She didn't half beat him to hell."

Gan Ning whirled around to face them and gave them to filthiest look he could conjure up.

"She didn't 'beat me to hell' and you know it, old man! She was injured, after all! A-and you just came at the wrong moment! One minute before-hand and it would have been the opposite of what you thought had happened!" He spat spitefully. Silence. Lu Meng and Ling Tong studied the vexed look on his face for a moment before they both began to howl out laughter and clutch their sides.

"I-I was joking, Kid. I-I didn't realise she actually g-got to ya- HAHAHA!"

Tears were almost streaming down their faces and a few of the men turned their heads to look at what was going on, smiles beginning to twitch onto their faces at the sudden mood improvement. Ling Tong clutched Lu Meng's shoulder as he bent over, gripping his stomach which contracted violently as he laughed.

Gan Ning huffed and kicked a stone like a six year old that had just been rebuked for stealing coins out of their father's money pouch to buy sweets before stalking off the opposite direction and walked until he could no longer hear the head ache producing laughter.

Gan Ning smirked when a chestnut steed rode by and a figure jumped off, landing a few metres in front of him on their feet.

He raised a brow when he observed his opponent to be.

"YOU'RE going to fight me? By yourself..?"

The girl gripped her (what looked to be) manriki chains in a tight fist and sent him a bold glare.

"Do not underestimate me!"

He rolled his eyes and scoffed. Her voice was high and delicate. She must have been in her early double digits, sixteen or seventeen maybe? He wasn't really sure. Well, by what he saw it must have been true. Whilst she had few curves, she wasn't really much to look at. She was wearing a silky green tunic with matching black trousers. Well, he couldn't think of the name for them. But they ended and her scrawny little knees. His eyes travelled to her feet and took notice of how small they were. Compared to his, that is. She was wearing regular slip on sandals that made her feet look dainty and feeble. She really was quite puny.

He had to hold in a laugh. She looked like a peasant. Her hair was probably the only thing interesting about her. Whilst the rest of her was boring and tiresome, her hair swished around behind her in a long gleaming raven braid. It travelled past her rear, which he took his time to observe despite his complaining about her looks, and ended at the behind of her thigh.

"Are you going to fight me or just stare at me, you imbecile?!"

He didn't hear what she said but was too busy raking his eyes up and down her body. He had to admit, whilst there wasn't much of her and what was there was pretty plain and uninteresting, she was cute. He smirked to himself. And who knew? Maybe when she grew a little, she'd actually grow a proper set of-

Gan Ning was cut out of his thoughts when a painful force collided with his temple. He stumbled back and held his head, feeling it throb.

"What the..?"

"HAH!"

The girl let out battle cries as she repeatedly and, might he add, quite rapidly continued to clobber him with a manriki chain in each hand. Jeez, she didn't even give him time to grab his daggers.

His arms pounded and ached from blocking her attacks and he swore to himself. He probably should have kept his eyes focused on beating her instead of screwing her.

"Surrender and I'll-I'll spare you!"

Hang on. What?

"What?"

The girl panted heavily and sweat trickled down the sides of her face. Her lids looked heavy on top of her dark eyes all of a sudden and she began to slump, her hands quivering from the weight of the chains. He smirked. She was getting tired.

This was his chance to change the tides of that little spat.

"Y-you heard me…"

Gan Ning held his arms up again to block her attacks but they were nowhere near as hard as they were before. 'Wow, this girl is pitiful'. He watched as her swings slackened and her arms began to shake from the weight of her weapons. Even though to him, they probably wouldn't weigh a thing. Why'd she keep attacking him? His eyes never broke with hers. But as hers grew weak, his just grew empty. She was fighting for something. He didn't know what, but it must have been important.

That's when she collapsed at his feet. All he could do was stare down at her as her body heaved for air.

"H-hey-"

"Shut up!"

Just then, he noticed a tear in her clothing near her waist and a dark purple patch residing on her lower back as she curled on the mossy ground slightly to catch her breath. His eye brow rose. Well, he was at least relieved that he could maybe blame her weakness being because she was injured and not because she was pathetic. But he didn't know what to do. Should he kill her? Help her? - No. That was out of the question. She was the enemy. He'd be better off killing her. Then again, she was only young… oh, hell. When has that ever mattered to him? He'd killed hundreds, a few even being children. But that was back in his pirate days. But he shouldn't hold that against himself.

He sighed.

"Look, I'll help you."

He bent down to help her up, but she quickly stood, stumbling slightly and raised her manriki chains above her head.

"GAN NING, THE BATTLE'S ENDED! LET'S GO!"

Gan Ning blocked the chains and turned to look at Lu Meng who stared from the hill in bewilderment before smirking.

"Well, well, well. Never thought I'd ever see the day when Gan Ning was down on his knees in front of a child. A female child, to be more exact."

Gan Ning looked from him and back to the girl and then back at him when panic arose to his features.

"W-wait, this isn't what it looks like…"

"YUAN!"

The girl feebly turned her head with clouded eyes at the voice as her arms shook and she began to fall. He immediately tore into a sprint towards her.

"Guan ping…"

Gan Ning huffed once more and plonked down onto the ground near a stream and rested his beck against a rock. His face twisted when he rested his arms and examined them.Dark plum bruises aligned along his forearm and he winced. She had strength. He snorted smugly. 'For like, two minutes.' He thought to himself and let out a cruel chuckle. A cold breeze danced past him and caused the bells attached to his belt to let out light hearted whistles and jingles. He breathed in the fresh air and lolled his head back into the rock, closing his eyes.

He wondered if the girl was coping with her injury. It looked pretty deep. And she'd lost a lot of blood. Immediately after these thoughts, he shook his head and scowled at a close by tree instead.

He shouldn't think like that. Who was he to care whether the wench lived or died? She was the one foolish enough to attack him on her own accord without seeking out help for her wounds. If anything, she deserved to die. It would teach her for being stupid. Then again, who was he to say things like that? He was exactly the same, wasn't he? His scowl settled and he sighed. They probably had a lot in common.

Maybe he should have captured her. While she wasn't as deadly as she thought she was and she wasn't stunningly beautiful, his lord sure would appreciate that kind of determination in his ranks. Gan Ning thoughtfully held his chin and stared up at the sky in thought, nose crinkled. Maybe next time he should try and persuade her to join him. She was a spritely little girl, that's for sure. And he could probably encourage her to buy some new clothes, more flattering weapons, and to maybe apply some make up. The corners of his lips twisted into a sly smirk.

Yeah… red would definitely suit her. Maybe he could convince her to wear a slinky, sexy little number for him. JUST him.

He once again shook his head and muttered profanities. Why did he have his head in the gutter so much lately..?

Jumping up, he inhaled deeply and swivelled on the balls of his boots, rolling his head and rubbing his shoulder and marched back to the men, allowing them rest again for a few minutes before they headed back to the palace.

Lu Xun walked into the bar and sighed, a cross expression clear on his face. He should have expected his colleagues to be here. Lu Meng, Ling Tong and Gan Ning were all sat at a table with endless gourds of rice wince before them. However, as he got close enough, he noticed Gan Ning the one hurriedly drinking most of the wine with a flushed expression. Just how long had they been here? He sighed and pulled up a chair to sit with them. Lu Meng smiled at him and raised his cup.

"Lu Xun, nice of you to join us, my friend! How are the strategies coming along for the next battle at Yi Ling?"

Ling Tong also smiled lopsidedly, the alcohol obviously taking effect. Lu Xun simply stared at Gan Ning who was cradling his head and muttering about something under his breath whilst taking another swig of his beverage before his eyes dragged back over to Lu Meng and Ling Tong who grinned at Gan Ning's behaviour.

"Oh, don't mind him. He's just stressed out because he's having woman problems."

Ling Tong nudged Gan Ning who slammed his hand down on the table and almost fell out of his chair before Lu Meng caught him.
"I t-told you," Gan Ning flushed bright red from anger, "There's no freakin' woman problems! It doesn't count if she's a Shu wench! A-and she's like *hic* 11… 12…6… man, I don't know…" before falling onto the table and slamming his head down on it. Lu Meng grabbed his shoulder and tried to pull him up but he wouldn't move. Lu Xun raised an eyebrow at the situation.

"How long has he been here..?"

He helped Lu Meng pick Gan Ning up off of the table and sat him back in his chair, him rolling his head back and letting out small snores as his eyes drifted closed. Lu Meng scratched the back of his head.

"Hmm… I'm not so sure… he was here when we got in and the maid said that he'd already had over the average amount."

Ling Tong snorted and sipped his rice wine shot.

"What a dunce. Why'd he go and do that?"

Lu Meng sighed and looked at the unconscious Gan Ning whose arms crossed over his chest while his legs were sprawled out in front of him like a ragdoll.

"I'm not sure… but I think it had something to do with his previous battle opponent, the Shu girl."

The Wu strategist raised a curious eyebrow.

"A girl? Which one?"

Lu Meng pondered to himself, ignoring the stares that they were all getting from the ruckus created beforehand.

"I didn't recognize the child. She must have been a new recruit. She was no older than sixteen, by the looks of it."

Their attentions turned back to Gan Ning when he snorted and poured another shot.

"You can say that again. The kid didn't have any assets to speak of at all. *Hic*could've confused her for a boy, if you ask me." His hiccup was obviously over riding the 'you' in his drunken statement, but the rest of them didn't really care. Lu Meng gave Lu Xun a stare which he understood immediately and five minutes later, Ling Tong was left all by himself with the cheque, muttering curses.

Mei Yuan awoke and her hazy eyes blinked slowly before they searched the tent sluggishly for an explanation.

"Ah, I see you are finally awake, Mei Yuan."

She sat up immediately at her lord's voice but gasped at a shrill pain in her lower areas and was encouraged to lay back down of by a medic.

"I apologize, my lord, that I cannot stand and give you a p-proper greeting…"

Her voice was strained and cracked at numerous occasions during her sentence. Liu Bei laughed wholeheartedly and waved a hand.

"Yuan, you have no need to do this considering your current position. I just came to check on you."

Mei Yuan looked worried before she looked away for a moment and then at the canopy of the tent. She felt ashamed. She had never wanted to worry her lord like this, but she was reckless and it had happened anyway.

"I'm sorry…"

Liu Bei sighed and walked over to her, sweeping some loose raven hair from her messed parting out of her eyes. He sighed. The girl was always too hard on herself. He'd come to find that just after recruiting her. He had to stop himself from smiling; when she'd disguised herself as a young boy just to be recruited. She'd always bow to him, apologizing when she thought she did something he didn't like and cast her eyes downwards in his presence in fear of disrespecting him. He had no idea why. Yue Ying had mentioned that the girl just had a lot of respect for him. He furrowed his eye brows. It was something more. It had to be. People showed him respect every day, they would give him gifts and money, merchants would offer him free fruit, the people would move out of the way for him on the street.

However, this girl… It was as though she was… afraid of him?

"Yuan, you fought bravely for me and for that I am thankful. There is no need for you to be remorseful. I am proud of you."

Mei Yuan's olive cheeks reddened once he'd said this and her eyes began to well up with tears. He withdrew his hand as if he'd been scorched with hot water and he stared at her with large eyes.

"I'm sorry; did you take offense by my words?"

Mei Yuan stared at him incredulously for a second before shaking her head and looking away.
"No, it's not that. I-I am just happy to hear such gracious things from my lord. But I swear on my life that next time, I will not worry you."

Her voice was sharp but he could still tell that she was trying to hide her pain from him. He sighed and shook his head.
"Yuan, it is though you mistake me for something other than a man. It is my nature to worry for those I care for."

She snapped her head back to him and stared wide eyed; whilst on the inside groaning in pain at the intense whiplash she just experienced, and didn't bother to hide the pink that adorned her cheeks once more. Liu Bei smiled at her before parting the tent curtains and stepping out. She could faintly hear him begin to socialize with Zhang Fei. Mei Yuan couldn't believe it. 'H-he cares about me..?' Her dark amber eyes never left the tent entrance for about five minutes before turning to the maid who was washing some bandages in a water basin. She was humming a tune gently and smiling to herself.

Mei Yuan's eyes softened. The woman was probably thinking about a lover. A sad smile lifted onto Yuan's features.

'If only I had someone to make me happy just like that…'