Author's Note: FINALLY! Chapter 7 is up. Took me a while because I had writer's block. Other than that, this is totally not my best chapter. =/ Tell me what you think of it! Open to suggestions and ideas. =)

Disclaimer: I do not own Mulan or any character from the movie Mulan. I only own Li Xieng.

Chapter 7: The Porridge Making Chef.

It had been already over 3 months that Shang and Mulan had been married and that Fa Li had been helping her daughter. Mulan had indeed improved her skills in the kitchen and she learned how to maintain the house clean, but she still was her clumsy self and had a lot to learn. The following month, Fa Zhou came down with a terrible flu which limited Fa Li to perform her daily duties. Mulan didn't think it would be that bad of a flu, but she was completely wrong. Days went by and Fa Zhou wasn't getting any better. Fa Li overworked herself to help her daughter, but there came a point she couldn't handle all the pressure.

"So you can't help me anymore?" Mulan said as she began to panic and pace around the family room at her parent's house. Fa Li was sitting down across her nervous daughter. She folded her hands and sighed. She told her daughter, "Mulan, I committed myself to helping you for a week and I went beyond that. I helped you out of love, but enough is enough! You have to hold yourself responsible for this!" Mulan kept pacing back and forth. There was nothing she could really do. Her mother had already given her all the family recipes, all she needed to do was simply follow the directions and not skim through them like she usually does. Mulan was left with no other choice but to thank her mother for all her help she had given her. As soon as she left her parent's house, she rode back home. At home, she sat in her bed, trying to think of a good excuse to get her out messy situation for the night. She paced back and forth, scratching her head, talking to herself. Mulan pretty much ran out of time once she heard Shang's horse from outside of the house.

"What am I going to do?" she said to herself. This left her to no choice, but just come clean with the pure unadulterated truth.

Shang came in the room and greeted his wife with a kiss. He chatted with Mulan about his day until he noticed that there was no sign of dinner. With a confused look on his face, he questioned his wife about the situation.

"Mulan, didn't you cook today?" he asked as he scratched his head. Mulan took a deep breath as she was ready to embrace him with the truth.

"Shang. We need to talk." she said she lowered her head and sat down.

"About what?" Shang asked as he began to feel even more confused. He sat down and moved closer to Mulan and put his arm around her. He tried to look in her the eyes, but she turned her face. She took a deep breath once more and began, "The truth is that -"

"The TRUTH is that you're overworking MY baby girl!" Mushu said as he mysteriously appeared on Mulan and Shang's windowsill. The couple was both surprised to see him as he stood there with his arms crossed with Cri-Kee by his side. "Oh great, Mushu's here again." Shang thought to himself. Mushu hopped off the windowsill and climbed on the bed.

"Don't you know my baby girl is sick? And you expect her to do her duties when she's sick!" Mushu continued as he got closer Shang. Shang was already annoyed to see him, but hearing him nag him as if he were a child, he crossed the limit.

"She didn't tell me." he said as he rolled his eyes. Mushu shook his head in disappointment.

"And to think I hooked you up with my girl." Mushu said as he wagged his finger at him. Shang pushed his claw away and looked at Mulan. Mushu hissed at him for doing that and muttered under his breath.

"You didn't tell me you were sick. What's wrong?" he said.

"Oh the usual! She upset stomach, nauseous here, nauseous there. You know the usual." Mushu intervened once more. Mulan groaned and laid back on the bed as Mushu kept going on and on about her supposed sickness. Shang apologized to Mulan for not having had asked earlier and told her he would have his sister take care of everything. Once Shang left the room, Mulan groaned again and covered her face.

"Mushu, why must you lie to Shang?" she muffled as she still covered her face.
"I don't like how that boy's demanding you for his stuff. And lately, it's all about pretty boy. 'Shang! Shang! Shang! Shang! Shang!' I'm getting sick of that boy." Mushu said as he paced around on the bed throwing his arms in the air. Mulan scolded him for always using lies to get her out of a situation, but Mushu used his "duty of guardian" excuse and smiled proudly and twirled his whiskers as he told her. Cri-Kee scolded Mushu for his lying habits as well, but Mushu rolled his eyes and flicked Cri-Kee away. "I think it's time for you to get some cooking lessons, from the great, the indestructible, the desirable MUSHU!" Mushu said as he spread his arms open and smiled big. Mulan uncovered her face and sat up. She raised his eyebrow as she looked at him with a confused face. Mushu? Teaching her how to cook? she thought. Mushu didn't give away enough details but he made Mulan promise to stick to his plan and to sleep early because she was going to rise early. Mulan had nothing left to do but to do what Mushu had instructed her to do. She changed into her pajamas and went to bed.

The next day, as soon as the sun began to rise, Mushu was already ready for his lesson with Mulan. Mushu snuck into Mulan and Shang's room and climbed on their bed.

"Wakey wakey Mulan! It's time to get this show on the road!" Mushu said as he stood on her bed. Mulan barely opened her eyes and sat up. Her vision was still blurry as she looked around and laid back down and put her head under the pillow. Mushu lost his patience and tried to pull the pillow away from her.

"I think you're forgetting about our compromise!" he cried out as he was still pulling the pillow.

"Can't we leave it for another day?" Mulan muffled as she kept holding on tight to the pillow. Cri-Kee pleaded Mushu to let her sleep, but Mushu didn't give up so easy. He uncovered Mulan and told her for the last time to wake up. Mulan sat up once more and rubbed her eyes. She stretched and looked over her shoulder and saw that Shang was still asleep. Mushu had been right in the past; he was a heavy sleeper, since Mushu is pretty much loud. Mushu told Mulan to meet him at the kitchen and to make it snappy. Mulan slowly got up and dressed herself. She dragged her feet to the kitchen as she rubbed her eyes once more and saw that Mushu had her whole kitchen set up.

"What are you doing, Mushu?" she asked as she rubbed her eyes once more.

"I'm going to teach you how to make porridge!" Mushu said as he was dressed in an apron and holding his wooden spoon on his left claw.

"Porridge?" Mulan asked dully.

Mulan wasn't interested in learning how to make porridge, but she did promise Mushu she was going to learn, after all, a promise is a promise.

As much as Mushu tried, the porridge cooking lesson didn't go so well. Mulan didn't want to follow his instruction and he kept losing patience with her.

"Just what are you doing?" he asked as he put his claws on his hips.

"Adding more salt. You barely made me put salt on this thing" she said as she sprinkled some more salt from her hand into the porridge.

Girl, do you not know how to follow directions?" he questioned her as he smacked her hands with his wooden spoon. "Get your hands away from the porridge!"

Mulan quickly jerked her hands away from the pot and began rubbing them after Mushu had hit her with the hot spoon. Mushu instructed her to start cooking the eggs and bacon in order to add the finishing touches to the dish.

"Alright, so let me see your finish product!" Mushu asked excitedly as soon as Mulan had finished the porridge. Mulan proudly grabbed the bowl of porridge and smiled as she showed it to Mushu.

"You call this porridge?" he asked he looked at it in an odd way.

"What's wrong with my porridge?" Mulan asked as she brought it back closer to her. Mushu shook his head of disappoint. "Ancestors! Where did I go wrong?" he said as he threw himself to the floor.

"Mushu! Seriously...it's fine!" she said as she extended her arms out showing the porridge again.

Mushu got up and took a look at it once more. "What is that?" he asked as he pointed to the bacon and eggs.

"Well, that's a smiley face." Mulan said as she shrugged.

"More like a tragic face." he muttered.

"Mushu!" Mulan exclaimed as she put the bowl down.

"Her cooking is to DIE for, and when I mean to die for, I mean really you'll die." Mushu whispered to Cri-Kee who laughed as he heard Mushu's comments towards Mulan. Mulan had heard what Mushu said but before she could even say anything to him, Shang had already walked in the room, yawning and almost half asleep. He greeted Mulan and began to chat with her,

"EXCUSE ME; there are OTHER people in this room besides your wife." Mushu interrupted as he folded his arms and tapped his left foot. Shang rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Mulan, does this lizard have to follow you ALL the time?" he questioned as he pointed at Mushu.

"Listen Pretty boy, I'm a DRAGON, a DRAGON, not a lizard. I don't do that tongue thing for the hundredth time." Mushu said as he hissed at Shang. "Besides, I'm the girl's guardian, I have to guard her from people like you" he said as he scoffed and turned his back on Shang.
"I'm not even going to bother answering." Shang said as he began to walk away from the kitchen.

"You just did lemon head!" Mushu said as he turned around and shook his fist at Shang. Shang disregarded what the fiery dragon had said for Mulan's sake, to avoid any drama. Mulan scolded Mushu for being so blunt and harsh on Shang, but of course Mushu always had an excuse for his actions.

After dealing with Mushu, Mulan was ready to serve breakfast. She first brought the pot of tea to the table and greeted her sister in law, who had joined them a few minutes after. Then the big moment came.

"Here ya go!" Mulan said as she placed the bowl in front of Shang and Xieng. Xieng looked at the bowl with disgust.

"What the hell are you feeding me? she questioned as she pushed away the bowl. Mulan pouted and folded her arms.

Shang had mixed feelings about his breakfast. Discreetly, he asked his wife what was the breakfast because he couldn't quite distinguish it.

"It's porridge for crying out loud!" she cried out as she continued pouting.

"You call this porridge?" Xieng questioned as she covered her mouth, insinuating that she was getting nauseous from the breakfast bowl. Shang scolded his sister for her rudeness and ordered her to try it with him. Mulan eagerly smiled as she saw both her husband and sister-in-law take the first bites of the porridge.

"Well?" she asked as she kneeled down looking at both with her eyes widen.

Shang coughed hard and swallowed hard the first bite of porridge.

"Mulan, you overdid it with the salt." he said as he coughed. He quickly took a cup of tea to drink down the bad taste of the porridge.

"Are you trying to kill me? Ghee Fa Mulan, this is the worst thing I've ever tasted." she said she got up. She excused herself and left the room.

Shang thought it was odd that her porridge would taste so bad. He thought to himself that it was probably a common mistake and didn't bother questioning about it. After awhile, he soon got ready to go off to meet with the other generals. Mulan as always walked him to the stables.

"Oh Mulan, I can't believe I almost forgot!" he said to Mulan as he placed his helmet on his head.

Mulan with a puzzled faced, raised her eyebrow.

"Forgot what?" she asked.

"I've been bragging about what a wonderful wife you are, so I invited them over for dinner tomorrow night." he said as he began to mount his horse.

"TOMORROW NIGHT?" she cried out as she was caught by surprise. Her eyes widen as she had a shocked look on her face.

"Is there...a problem?" he asked with a concerned look on face. Mulan shook her head no and quickly said goodbye to Shang before he got into further details about what he had done. As soon as he rode off to the city, Mulan sat on small stool that was on the stable, with still a shocked look on her face.

"So now you have to do a banquet for pretty boy's friends, huh?" Mushu asked as he climbed on Mulan's shoulder. Mulan was left so speechless; she didn't even know what to say.

"You got me into this, so you're helping me with this!" she yelled at Mushu as she glared at him.

"Don't look at me girl. I only know how to make porridge." he said as he climbed off her shoulder.

Mulan groaned and hit her head.

"What did I get myself into?" she questioned herself. She sighed and went back to the house, hoping to find something that could get her mind off what Shang had told her.