A/N: Bit of a transitional chapter this week to connect Mulan and Mushu. Don't worry, the action and mystery picks up soon!
Part Three
"Ah ha, there you are, you little lizard." Mulan snatched Mushu up before he could disappear under a plant in the garden. She looked at him critically. "Where have you been all day?"
Mushu wrung his claws as he thought up an answer. "I was…shooting…pigeons?"
Mulan blinked. "O-kay…and why are your eyes red?"
"My eyes aren't red."
"Yes, they are too red." Mulan kneeled down beside him and an incredulous look spread over her face. "Are you crying?"
"NO I'M NOT CRYING!" Mushu cried, then worked up a fake grin. "That's ferocity you see there. Fire in my eyes. Better beware girl, hehe…."
Mulan shook her head, deciding to disregard the little discourse, which was sure to lead to nothing but nonsense. "Mushu," she told him seriously, "I have a problem."
"More problems than one…" Mushu mumbled, but Mulan didn't hear him.
"Mushu!" she cried, shaking him into attention. "They've arranged another matchmaking session!"
Mushu forgot his troubles for a minute in excitement. "Really? Aw, I didn't get to see it when you flunked the last one…oh, okay, I'll shut up now," Mushu trailed off when Mulan looked at him like he was an idiot.
"Thank you. Now come with me." She stuck her head through the kitchen door to make sure the coast was clear, then hurried with Mushu to her bedroom.
"Come on, Mulan," Mushu said once she set him on the windowsill. "It's not like you're gonna somehow magically succeed and make some guy fall head over heels in love with ya!"
Mulan glared at him. "Thanks a lot."
Nobody ever understood Mushu.
"The point is," he went on peevishly, "that that matchmaker lady will probably have just as hard a time, or she'll put it off or somethin'."
"I don't know," Mulan fretted, pacing across the room. "I guess you're right."
"Yeah," Mushu said. "I know. Hey, what's that?"
Mushu slithered over to the edge of Mulan's bed and watched as she pulled out a carefully folded piece of red cloth.
"It's…part of Shang's cape."
"Mulan," Mushu asked suspiciously, "where did you get a piece of Shang's cape?"
Mulan was playing with her hair again. "You know how, the last time he was here, I offered to hang it up for him?" she said sheepishly. "There, uh, just so happened to be a…pair of scissors nearby. Oh, Mushu! You don't think Shang is gone forever, do you? I mean, I didn't try to pour tea…all…over him." She sighed. "It sounds worse when you say it out loud."
"Well, you sorta kinda saved his life. I think he'll still like you even with tea on his trousers."
Mulan couldn't help but laugh. "I hope so." She folded the cloth up again and laid it on her lap, tracing the fold of the familiar fabric. "Mushu, I know Mama is only doing what she thinks is right for me. But it seems like I'm right back to ground-zero."
"Are you gonna sing a song about it? Cause if you're gonna sing a song about it I have somethin' to do in the garden."
"If you would sing every once in awhile maybe you wouldn't have anger issues," Mulan retorted. "But what I'm trying to say is that it just seems like me being the hero of China is nothing compared to me being a bride. That's exactly the way it was before I went to war!"
"Well, nobody around here treats you like a hero," Mushu reminded her, "cuz none of them know."
"Why hasn't the news reached us yet?" Mulan demanded. "It's been nearly a month!"
"Well first of all it takes a couple a days to travel here from the Imperial City," Mushu explained, working out, as he went, what must have been the Emperor's plan. "And besides, the Emperor prob'ly had to issue a proclamation, and get it passed, and put it on the calendar, and it's kinda hard to rename New Year's Eve "Fa Mulan Celebration Day", and he doesn't want a riot in the streets, cause then they might shoot a horse, and animal rights would be after 'em, and no one would be able to make duck sauce anymore, so these things just take time."
"Or he may not want anyone to know that the hero of China is a woman," Mulan said dejectedly.
Mushu gave her a pointed look. "Oh yeah, that's right. Doesn't want China to know you're a hero, mm-hm. That's why he and all the visitors in the Imperial Square bowed down to you. They don't like women. Come on, girl, if that's what you think, why haven't you told anybody yourself?"
"Mushu, you know they won't believe me. They don't even believe I went to a relative's house! Well, they do. But they don't think it was just a casual visit. You know how it is."
"You know, you're kinda whiny? Anyway, I think that's sorta the point. I think Fa Li's just trying to set you up for a normal, lay-low kinda life, in case the Emperor doesn't get that proclamation passed. Maybe. Or somethin'. You kinda got some unfinished business here, too, y'know."
Mulan gave Mushu a wry look, but once she considered what he said she brightened again. "You're deeper than you seem, Mushu," she smiled. "I guess I could live without being called a hero. I mean, I did for seventeen years before, didn't I? I know I'm a hero, and that ought to be enough. I didn't go to war to be a celebrity."
"See, I did. That's the difference between you and me," Mushu nodded. "Hey, be careful!" he screamed suddenly. "You might strangle yourself!"
Mulan had wrapped the cape around her neck. She slowly unwound it. "Sure Mushu. Whatever you say. Hey, you know what else? The matchmaker hates me. She'll probably flunk me again for the fun of it," Mulan added, growing more optimistic by the minute. Maybe things had changed since the last time. Now she didn't even care to pass the matchmaker's test. "Of course, it's not like I never want to get married." Mulan pressed the cape up to her face, then jumped and flung it out the window as her door creaked open.
"Mulan?"
"Baba!" Mulan ran to open the door for her father, who had a hard time because of his leg, then she flung her arms around him.
Fa Zhou always lived by the principle "Govern a family as you would cook a small fish - very gently." Something had happened to Fa Zhou while he was in the war many, many years ago as Imperial General, and it had changed his life, though he never spoke to any of his family members about it. Sometimes Mulan thought he was discussing it with the ancestors when he was praying. But whatever it was, it had made him view his family differently than many Chinese men, so he treated his daughter and wife less like he owned them, and allowed them to voice their opinions – most of the time. Mulan still winced when she thought of her hasty actions when that moron Chi Fu had come to draft her father. She never wanted to take too much advantage of her father's kind heart.
"I suppose you heard the good news," her father said, looking guilty himself. "Maybe you'll do… better this time than last time."
Or maybe not. Mulan cast a mischievous smile to Mushu, who was dutifully slinking under he bed with the shred of red fabric in tow. But she said to Fa Zhou, "Oh – oh, yes, Baba, I heard the news."
"Well, there's more news. You are going to have some male visitors tonight."
"Some male visitors?" Mulan blinked. She shuddered at the thought of spilling tea on her father's company. Again. Then she realized something. "I'm going to have some visitors? Are they –" she asked, gulping, "suitors?"
"You'll just have to wait and see. They inquired at the door yesterday." With another stroke of Mulan's hair, and the mistaken belief Mulan might actually be excited, Fa Zhou stiffly turned to leave.
"Oh great!" Mulan groaned, throwing her hands in the air. "Suitors? Coming here? To see me. Now what am I going to do?"
"Someone's gettin' a boyyyyy-friend," Mushu sang, entirely forgetting Mulan's approaching demise in his own joke (he was good at compartmentalizing). "Bachelor one loves watching tearjerkers, taking moonlit walks on the beach, and discussing his feeeeelings."
In the middle of humming the wedding march, Mushu suddenly found himself hurled outside into the garden. Mulan shut the window behind him.
"Cri-Kee, this is all your fault."
Mushu had the habit of blaming all problems on Cri-Kee, and most of the time he seriously thought about squashing the cricket and putting everyone out of their unlucky misery. But Cri-Kee was a listening ear, wherever those ears were, and he always agreed with Mushu. Or at least let him talk in his immediate vicinity.
"See, here's the prob," Mushu said despairingly, arranging his feet on one of the garden leaves so he could be more comfortable as he discussed his dilemma. "I have to tell Mulan she's gonna die! Me. It's 'cuz the ancestors like to make fun of me. Yeah, they don't even care Mulan's gonna die. They think it's another member of their party. But I'm not gonna have any friends if Mulan dies!"
Khan, who was grazing nearby, gave him a look that clearly said, "Well that was selfish."
Even Cri-Kee gave a feeble chirp, expressing the hope that maybe he was Mushu's friend.
"No, no, I'm a loner in this cold world," Mushu wailed, and wouldn't hear otherwise. "And I'm short. So the girls pick on me too!" He hid his face in the leaves.
Cri-Kee wondered if maybe there was some way they could reverse the curse.
"Now, Cri-Kee, that's a good idea. Yeah…" Mushu paced back and forth, rapidly thinking out all the possibilities. "It could be pretty easy. We could…nah, that won't work. Or what if we…naw, too dangerous. Hey Cri-Kee, you have a sweater?"
Don't answer him, was Khan's advice.
"Okay, Heffa, that's enough from you. All I was gonna ask was if Cri-Kee would be up for a little…say…expedition. Yeah, that's it. An expedition. The frozen north ain't that bad, now is it Cri-Kee?"
Khan made a sharp point here. Didn't Mushu realize that there were hundreds of ancestors thousand of times smarter than the puny dragon? Why hadn't they broken the curse yet?
"Because they don't have the world's greatest reptilian/mythical mind, that's why, genius. You eat hay. Lack of protein. Never even had a dumplin'. So you can't say anything."
Khan raised his hoof to grind Mushu into the ground, but Mushu, who had bigger plans cookin', turned to Cri-Kee again.
"By the way, buddy, I got a favor of you. Can you maybe make Mulan flunk her matchmaking appointment thingy tomorrow? Thanks."
Thought you said he wasn't lucky, Khan snorted.
"Will you please be quiet and let a dragon get a word in edgewise? Thank you! Now Cri-Kee, here's the time to prove yourself. I know Mulan survived the war, but that was mainly 'cause of me, we all know that. She really wants to marry that Shang guy. Not that I see anything particularly dashing in him, but his head is really lumpy so that may just be distracting me. See, Cri-Kee, I want Mulan to be at least a little happy before…before she…"
Mushu was too emotional to finish the sentence.
Cri-Kee and Khan were also truly affected, and even Khan admitted, in his snorting way, that hopefully they could somehow reverse the curse. Mulan had too much life to live.
