Author's Note: I never knew how many readers I have all over the world! It's amazing! I have people from China, India, UK, and all over the world reading my stories! I'm glad you guys are reading it! Thanks! But I think this is one of my favorite chapters. But then again it's only the 3rd chapter I've written so far. Thanks for all the reviews! I appreciate it! tell me what you think about this (what I should work on, whether you like it, etc.) R&R!

Special Thanks to:

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Mei Lin- I'm glad you like this story! Thanks for reviewing!

They stared at her from across the room, tormenting her with their every movement. Who knew something so small could cause so many problems, so much stress, and so much anger? The mud they brought in, the pain it caused you when you hit it, and especially the mess they created, was often too much for Mulan. She couldn't help it, she chose this. But those big brown boots caused too much trouble.

Okay, so maybe, Mulan was being a little bit too dramatic. But how could she help it when that was the biggest strain on her cleaning and anger? The mud would often go all around the house, and by the time Shang realized it, he created mud paths all over the house. And when he noticed, Mulan would be there, with a mop glaring him viciously. But Shang would laugh and show that lopsided smile that always made Mulan go weak at the knees and make her heart melt. He would then shrug and say "oops" innocently and kiss her gently on the lips as if that was how he made it up. So she would clean up after him, and that was greatly her fault too because she never complained about it, and would allow him to get away with things like that by just smiling! Yet this didn't just happen once, or twice, or even three times. It happened at least once a week. And every time Shang would get away with doing it. But he did get better, often stopping in the kitchen, instead of walking all the way around the house. And one time he actually took off his shoes outside, but at the time it was raining, so he socks got wet and instead of mopping the floor, she had to clean it and then dry it, which was worse than mopping after mud. Then to top it all off, Shang got a cold, and Mulan had to tend to him for a week.

Long story short: she hated his big dumb combat boots. She hated them a lot, but it was no reason to give him an ultimatum, "me or the boots?" Though she was pretty sure, she'd win over the boots.

It was a Friday afternoon when she finally had enough of it. Now Mulan was ending on her monthly visitor, if you understand what I mean. But she was still moody, stressed and tired. Mulan had finished dinner, cleaned the entire house spotless, and went to work on some preparations for her good friend Tai Lin. She and Tai Lin were good friends at childhood, but after her family moved, the girls' relationship drifted apart, yet they still were good friends. Tai Lin's marriage was fast approaching and Mulan had until tomorrow to finish her gift. It was a beautiful elaborate dress. Mulan was not the greatest tailor, but her mom helped her a lot. All she had left to do was sew a couple of designs on the dress. Fa Li was going to be back soon to help her out after buying some silk from the market. But for some reason her mother was taking longer than expected and Mulan was just stressing out from work overload. If anything came in that would either stress her out or frustrate her, she would take them down.

And as Mulan sewed in the living room near the back door, Shang walked in with his more than ever muddy boots. Now in Shang's defense he had been training hard with these soldiers. They were disciplined and strong, but still careless in their routine and fighting stance. He was tired and only wanted to relax before his training started again in three days. On the steps of the back door, he wiped most of the mud off his shoes, but was too tired to wipe it all off before entering the house. He hoped Mulan wouldn't mind, especially once she saw how tired he was. She always understood when it came to that.

Mulan saw Shang enter from the corner of her eye. He grunted as if he was like a Neanderthal. All she wanted was peace and quiet so she didn't question him about that. "Don't slam the door. Don't slam the door." She repeated in her mind, silently hoping Shang wouldn't do it. THUD. She quietly growled, low enough for Shang not to hear it. He stood at the door loudly dumping his bags on the floor near the door in a disorganized fashion. She winced a little but just stayed quiet.

"What's for dinner?" Shang glumly asked as he walked through the kitchen.

Mulan scoffed. He didn't even greet her hello, or kissed her cheek when he entered asking how her day was. All he wanted was dinner.

"What's for dinner?" Shang asked louder and more impatiently. Mulan didn't even greet him when he entered. She refused to look up from her sewing, to even take just five minutes from her work to see how tired he was.

Mulan sighed in frustration. "I heard you the first time," she replied in the same tone he had asked the second time. Sometimes Shang could be so self-centered. "Your dinner is on the table."

"Thanks," he muttered and immediately walked to the table. From the reflection coming off of the glass windows, she could see him sitting and eating. She scowled and glared at him looking straight at the glass window, hoping he would see her reflection. But to no avail did this occur.

"Aren't you going to invite me to eat along with you?" Mulan asked sourly.

"Yeah," Shang replied with food in his mouth, "Come sit down and eat." He took a bite of the food and ate as if he could careless; being completely clueless of how rude he was acting.

Mulan was about to lose her cool. But she then thought about how his day might have been, realizing that he may have had a rough day. Just as she calmed herself down, she looked to the floor and saw the mud tracks. Forgetting all about what she thought about, she screamed in frustration and anger. "I've just about had it with you!" she screamed at him. Shang watched in confusion with his mouth completely full with food. "You come in here, not even saying hi to me, but just asking where the food was. Then you eat without even inviting me to dinner, when I myself cooked all the food?"

Shang immediately swallowed his food, "Okay," he replied calmly, "I'm sorry. Just calm down and sit down and eat."

"No!" Mulan yelled back at him. "I'm tired and stressed out! You know I've been working on helping Tai Lin with her wedding decorations and wedding gift! I've also kept this house spotless with some of our servants away on family business! The least you could do is help out by not bringing dirt in!"

"What is your point Mulan?" Shang asked angrily.

"I hate your big dumb combat boots!" she screamed at him, "They bring mud in! And who is the one that has to clean it? I am! And when your boots are muddy, I clean their bottoms so that way they are clean by the next day! Those boots cause a mess! You just leave them just about anywhere! At night, when I get up from bed, I hit those stupid boots with my bare feet! And it hurts!" Mulan picked up his boots and threw them at him, one almost hitting his face.

"You know," he replied, standing up from the table, with his basket in his hands, "I'll talk to you when you are calmed down." And with that, he quietly left the room to go somewhere else.

When he left the room, Mulan screamed and kicked her house walls in frustration. Boys never will understand why cleaning is such a hassle, especially when they don't have to do it. She breathed in a few deep breaths to calm herself down. Mulan looked around and saw that in her anger, she herself had created a mess, causing mud to fly when she threw his boots. She slowly walked over to the boots to pick them up. In a flash she zoned out.

She could see Shang for a moment training hard with these recruits. And in one second later, everything flashed. Mulan no longer saw Shang. She looked down at her body and realized that she was Shang, training like she had been wanting to do instead of cleaning. The soldiers were rowdy, loud, and crazy. They had little to no respect for authority at all. And she preferred this to cleaning? Maybe not. In this way, she realized how hard Shang's job really was.

FLASH.

"General Li!" Chi Fu shouted at him. "This is not acceptable at all."

Mulan, who was still obviously in Shang's body, looked to the Emperor. He did not say much at all. She heard herself say, or actually Shang say, "I wish I was at home with Mulan. I miss her. At least I know I can come back to her and she would greet me with open arms." Mulan sighed.

"Do you understand this?" Chi Fu shouted at him. And Mulan realized why Shang hated Chi Fu so much.

FLASH.

Mulan found herself staring at none other than, herself. She was shouting at Shang. Mulan could feel Shang's urge to fight back, but something told him that she was having a bad day also and not to take out his bad day on her. What love it took for Shang to do something like this, especially for her. He could have easily argued back, but instead waited for her to calm down. So he did what she should have done, walked away.

"Mulan," she heard her voice calling out to her…

"Mulan," she heard it a little louder…

"Mulan," she shook her head and found herself staring right in front of Shang. He was holding a mop. She immediately looked to the floor and saw that it was clean. Mulan could easily tell that he was exhausted, and that he shouldn't have been cleaning. She looked up at him, wondering what he would say to her. "Listen," he told her, and then looked down, "I'm sorry. I caused a mess a couple of times and I should have cleaned up after myself. I'll leave my boots outside from now on."

Mulan smiled. But instead of feeling happy, she felt sad, and the need to apologize.

"But I want to ask," He said finally looking her in the eyes, "why are you wearing my boots?"

Mulan laughed and immediately gave him a hug.


Later that night…

"What?" Shang immediately got up in bed, once he realized his wife was no longer in his arms. He looked out of it and was completely confused, especially while he was looking around in the dark.

Mulan giggled. They had worked out everything, with more than just apologizing. She walked back to the bed and kissed him gently on the lips. He held her hand and attempted to pull her back in. "Shang," she tried to protest and sighed.

"Where are you going?" he asked, finally letting her go.

But Mulan sat down on the bed looking at him. "I'm just going to urinate," she laughed, "I'll be back. Don't worry." She gave his hand a tight squeeze and walked to the door. Shang did not move and watched his wife leave. "Watch out for the boots. Watch out for the boots," Mulan constantly reminded herself as she walked towards the door. She knew Shang always kept his boots by the door. As soon as she got to the door, she paused and stepped to the side and walked to the door. THUD. She hit the boots.

Shang kept quiet and watched to see how his wife would react. He braced himself for screaming and the reprimanding that usually came with it. When she turned around, her face was expressionless. He knew he had it bad. However, instead of screaming, she started laughing. And though Shang was feeling a little uneasy about this, he laughed too, but nervously. "I thought you hated my boots, but now I find you laughing?" he asked curiously.

She sombered a bit but was still smiling. "I do. I really hate your big dumb combat boots."

"But?" he looked to her for more, with one eyebrow raised up.

Mulan sighed, as if she was getting a load off of her shoulders, "But after walking in those shoes of yours, I can't complain. I see that you have some heavy shoes to walk in," she smiled, "literally." They both laughed and Mulan walked out the door overlooking them.