After Dinner: Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I don't own Disney's Mulan.  I'm not making any profit by writing this story.

By: Susan

Summary: "Would you like to stay for dinner?" "Would you like to stay forever?" Whatever happened during Shang's dinner with the Fa family? Was it a quick meal or something a bit more drawn out?

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"You like the Captain, don't you Mulan?" Fa Li asked.

"Mama, please, it won't help. What does it matter if I like him?"

"It matters a lot, Mulan dear."

"Mama, if you're thinking of marriage, you're being ridiculous. The matchmaker will never approve, and Shang..." She stared out the kitchen window and his profile, silhouetted against the moon.

"Mama, why would he like me? Look at me, I don't even look like a woman anymore. My hair is too short now, and I'm too-" Fa Li placed a gentle finger upon her daughter's lip, but Mulan thrust it away. "And let's just say he doesn't care for my outside appearance. What am I inside?"

She closed her eyes painfully. "I'm not sure I like what I am on the inside." She took a deep breath and continued in her distraught demeanor. "I always say what I feel... Men don't like that, I know it." She raised her arms and began to walk out the door to take the scraps from dinner to the pigs. She crashed into her grandmother and slipped to the floor. "And I'm clumsy, and that's such an highly regarded trait in women these days."

"Mulan," her grandmother said, pulling her to her feet, "Did you notice that your Prince Charming out there is ten times clumsier than you are, and he can barely speak in front of you without turning bright red? He stared at you for most of dinner, and right now, he's outside making up lame reasons as to why you don't like him, just as you are doing the same in here." She took a deep breath and sat down at the table.

"Dear, you're-" Fa Li stopped, trying to find the right word, "one of a kind. If Shang cares for you in the same way you do for him-"

"And trust me, he does," Grandmother Fa said loudly.

"Mulan, if he cares for you, he will respect you. Mulan, he witnessed you save our whole country, as well as the ruler of it."

"Yeah, if he doesn't respect you now, you should ditch him." Grandmother said. They shot her dirty looks. "Okay, okay. I'm leaving, I'm leaving."

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