Ping sat quietly by himself, his hands gently petting Mushu. He had given up trying to interact with the others. The cold shoulder that Captain Li was giving the young man was difficult to deal with, but Mushu had not left him alone since the handsome man had so angrily snapped at him.

He was desperately trying to rationalise how the man could do that; after all, while Ping wasn't a brilliant soldier, he certainly had improved. He curled his knees up to his chest, dislodging the dragon.

"You ready for bed there, Ping?" asked his guardian, who was still calling him by his name, as opposed to a nickname.

"I guess…" he sighed, eyes drifting over to the main campfire in the camp, where most of the soldiers where sat chattering away together.

"Hello." A soft voice permeated through the fog that clogged his mind.

"Huh?" Ping stirred, his eyes dragging up to the worried face of Chien-Po.

"Are you feeling ill?" The man sat on the floor next to him, and Mushu quickly disappeared up his tunic and up to curl against the back of his neck. "You always look unhappy."

"Everyone hates me." Ping said, tears suddenly welling up in his eyes. He scrubbed furiously at them, annoyed that the misery had overwhelmed him out of nowhere.

"No they don't. It's ok. I don't hate you. Shh…." Comforted the large man as he shuffled closer to pat Ping's shoulder.

"I'm not blind, and I'm not an idiot." He hissed, angry that the man would lie to him.

"No. No… Why would you even think that?"

"Simple. No one will talk to me, they would rather fight me when we train."

"Yao fights everyone. He mocks you because he doesn't mind you. Don't worry."

"He mocks me because he likes me?"

"Well… Maybe, doesn't mind you, rather than like you…" Chien-Po looked uncomfortable.

"Fantastic." He grumbled, reaching one arm to rub behind his neck, fingers skimming comfortingly along Mushu's scales.

"You could join us? Then people might get to like you?"

"I doubt it. I always get things wrong." He shook his head, wondering how to explain that he had always been clumsy, that he had always struggled to focus on whatever it was he was meant to be doing, that he enjoyed being with his sister and helping with her duties more than his parents with comfortable with… that he had never been anything more than his sister's shadow.

"Not always. I see you out practicing every morning."

"Yeah. So soon I'll able to run but I won't be able to do anything else." He battled a smile though, the encouraging smile from Chien-Po giving him a warmth that had long since been missing.

"I have another idea." The man smiled at Ping and leaned close. "One morning you jog, the next we practise archery."

"Practise? I've not done any archery, Captain Li won't let me." He found himself unable to keep this lip from curling at the idea.

"Then I will help you learn."

"Away from the camp. I don't want to kill anyone. I'm pretty useless at things. Captain Li said so…"

"The captain is stressed." Chien-Po gave him a kind look. "Chi-Fu is threatening to tell the General of every problem and the captain is frightened you will hurt someone."

"That's no excuse."

"No. It isn't."

"How do you even know?"

"I listen. Everyone drinks at night, but I sit off to the side and listen. You notice a lot that way."

"Thank you, Chien-Po. Goodnight."

"Good night."

Ping hurried off to his tent, a smile gracing his lips. He began tugging off his clothing as he stumbled in.

"Well, someone is happy." Mushu tried to sound casual, but the grin was evident in his voice.

"Maybe he doesn't hate me!" Ping said, wriggling into a comfortable position on his mat.

"Chien-Po?"

"What? No. Captain Li!"

"You want pretty boy to like you?" Mushu scrambled over his shoulder to settle on the pillow next to his face.

"Don't call him that!"

"Sorry. You're prettier than him."

"Wow. Thanks Mushu." Deadpanned Ping.

"You are in a better mood. If better moods translate into better… moods… let me know in advance." Mushu flicked his eyes down Ping before looking up to meet his eyes.

"I don't like him like that." Ping muttered as his eyes flickered shut.

"Hold still." Whispered a hot breath, low and seductive in his ear. Two strong hands pinned his wrists down as a weight pressed down against his back.

Fear spiked through him, and he moaned gently. He was hot, his skin burning as those hands moved to rub over his ribs. He wanted to roll over, to feel more.

"Please." He whimpered, rocking his hips. "Please."

He gasped, feeling those hands roam his body again.

"Stay still." And he trusted the voice, it was a voice he knew.

Ping frowned and turned over, his mind suddenly wondering who the voice was. All he heard was a yelp as he rolled over onto Mushu, the muggy grey colour of his tent filling his vision.

"Ow!" grumbled the dragon, squirming out from under Ping's shoulder.

"If you want to go now Mushu? I'm in one of your 'better moods' now." He informed his guardian as he rolled back over onto his belly.

"What? Really? And I was all comfortable… It had better not be about Captain Pretty!"

Ping grinned and waited till dragon had gone.

"I just need to improve. I'll show him." Muttered Ping, as he shut his eyes and his mind conjured up the image of Shang Li.

It was a sentence he repeated in his head hours later, when terror flooded his veins as he accidentally knocked Ling out when they were practising the simple kata. It shouldn't have happened as they were only learning the stages and moving slowly through them, but Ping had tripped over.

He cringed, body tensing up as the Captain moved over to them.

"Yao, Jian? Go take Ling off to be looked at. You? Stand next to Chien-Po. You're too small to knock him over."

But Ping's limbs were trembling badly as he continued on. He always messed up! It was even worse now that they were actually doing something interesting. It had been 3 weeks since archery training had started, and just 1 week since they had started combat training, weapon free for the time being. He didn't want to get kicked out of this one too. He couldn't have any more mistakes.

"Calm." Chien-Po smiled over at him. "Like soup, simmering gently on the fire. There is heat in it, but the only evidence of this is the stream drifting gracefully up."

"More like soup bubbling over and scolding anyone who gets in the way, regardless of whether they were just nearby or actually trying to get it off the fire."

He wondered if Captain Li would get in trouble for this, if Chi-Fu would note that one of his recruits had been injured due to carelessness and lack of attention.

He hoped not.