Dancing with the Blossoms
Chapter seven
"Ce how could you do that to my Yuie bear!" Xiao Qiao cried, running her hand through Zhou Yu's short hair. She draped her arms around Zhou Yu's neck and squeezed tightly, succeeding in cutting off his air supply. The strategist, unable to take in enough breath to talk, let alone keep his heart in motion, just rolled his eyes at the nickname.
"Oh com on! Why is everyone blaming me?" Sun Ce asked defensively, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at the food on his plate scowling. But then he smiled. "If it was me," Sun Ce leaned over the table and grabbed some of Zhou Yu's silky black locks, "I'd have left only a little in the center and shaved everything else off."
Zhou Yu gasped and pulled away, "You wouldn't!" Only to regret it moment's later when Xiao Qiao squeezed harder on his abused neck.
"No! Sun Ce you're lucky I don't make you bald!" she cried cutting Zhou Yu's oxygen off completely. Sun Ce grinned cockily.
"Oh yeah? And your lucky I don't take my knife and cut off your little pig tails!" Ce took out his knife and made a slicing gesture with it. "I'm sure we can make a wig out of it, since all these people are going bald lately, right Huang Gai?" Sun Ce elbowed the old general next to him laughing.
Huang Gai chuckled, "Kid's these days...You know when I was your age I had a full head of hair!" Sun Ce chuckled.
"You? Young? No way! I cant imagine the great Huang Gai being under fifty!"
Xiao Qiao squealed, "Sun Ce you're a horrible meanie!" She threw her rice bowl and hit Sun Ce full in the face. Ce made a 'gack' noise as he fell backwards off his chair and clattered to the ground. He hopped up a moment later, wiping rice off his face.
"Oh, you're gonna get it!" he loaded his arm's with Meat buns and threw them at the dodging bullet called Xiao Qiao. And missed, hitting Zhou Yu more times than none.
"Ce!" Zhou Yu cried picking up a bowl of soup and tossing it Sun Ce's way, smacking Huang Gai in the chest. Everyone stopped dead, staring at the old general as he picked up the bowl off of his chest, grabbed a napkin and slowly wiped himself off. Then he looked up and chuckled.
"It's been a while since Wu has had a food fight," The general piked up two bowls of soup, send one at Ce, hitting the little conqueror in the face, making him topple over, and the other hitting Zhou Yu in the chest, succeeding in knocking him into the tent wall, and sending noodles and broth all over the floor.
"Yuie bear!" Xiao cried, then turned to face Huang Gai crossly. "How dare you hurt my Zhou Yu! I'm gonna beat you up now!"
"Bring it on pipsqueak!" Huang Gai's voice boomed, chuckling.
"I'll show you!" Xiao cried, grabbing a pie from the table and jumping on it. Huang Gai hurtled the meat buns at her as she ran along the table, trampling Sun Quan, Taishi Ci, and Lu Meng's food as she did so. Then, just as a meat bun missile was about to hit her she threw the pie, smacking Huang Gai in the face as she fell to the table, falling on the soup and chicken and veggie's, getting a face full of a plate of meat buns.
"Zhou Yu, you alright bro?" Sun Ce leapt over the table, running towards the Wu strategist. Suddenly he slipped on a noodle and went flying right into the Strategist, knocking out one of the tent pole's and sending the tent out of proportion.
"Every body out!" Huang Gai yelled, still laughing as he heaved a food covered Xiao Qiao over his shoulder and running out, Taishi Ci, Lu Meng, and Sun Quan, the late eaters, right behind him.
"Cripes! Sun Ce cried, as a beam slammed him down onto Zhou Yu's...lips!
The strategist floundered under Sun Ce's heavy body, face turning red from embarrassment and lack of breath. Sun Ce managed to roll off of the male turned woman strategist, just as the tent came down around them, plunging them in total dark.
Moment's later, Zhou Yu found the tent edge and pulled it up, a beacon for Sun Ce, who appeared beside it moments later. "Sun Ce?" Zhou Yu looked at his lord a moment, before going red and looking back to the tent edge.
"Yeah Yu?" Ce asked hoarsely, coughing slightly.
"We never mentioned what just happened again, alright?"
"Got it," Sun Ce said, spitting some saliva out of his mouth, crawling out of the tent edge, Zhou Yu following moments later.
"Ce," Da Qiao stood in front of him, worried tears running down her face. Sun Ce couldn't hide his surprise.
"Da? What's wrong?" Sun Ce asked, hoping to his feet and pulling his wife into a hug. The elder Qiao hiccupped, but started to calm down in his arms.
"I can't find Lu Xun anywhere!" She cried. "Me, Gan Ning, and Shang Xiang have been looking for him all morning but we can't find him!"
"Lu Xun is missing?" Zhou Yu asked, heaving himself up, unconsciously rubbing his hurt shoulder as he came up beside them. Da Qiao nodded, drying her eyes on the non food covered part of Sun Ce's outfit.
"He was last seen at the river, bathing. Shang Xiang and I went down there a few minutes later, but he was no where to be seen."
"Right across the river is the Shu encampment," Zhou Yu said hurriedly, looking over into Da's eyes. Da Qiao nodded.
"Shang Xiang is over there looking right now."
Zhou Yu thought a moment. "While Xiao, Ce and I go change, go tell Lord Sun Jian about Lu Xun's disappearance and meet us at the river. Tell him I request that he send someone to Wei to spy on them." Zhou Yu turned on his heel and headed toward's his tent at a quick pace. Ce hurried to catch up with him.
"You don't believe that Shu kidnaped him?" Ce asked Zhou Yu, walking along side his sworn brother.
"No, Shu has no reason to." Zhou Yu said, "It is Wei I'm concerned with. However, we might need help looking for him. If Lu Xun is over there. I just hope he didn't decide to look for the cure to our dilemma himself.
"Yu, Lu Xun can take care of himself you know." They stopped before Zhou Yu's tent.
"I know that!" Zhou Yu snarled, going in to his tent and closing the door behind him.
Zhou Yu scowled, throwing his food caked clothes to the floor and donning a white under shirt. Then he donned a red outer robe and tied it off at his waist with a purple sash, winding it quickly, not noticing how many times he had to wind it. He pulled on his white pants and tied them off at the knee, winding the cloth three times instead of the customary two. He slipped into his boots and them glanced a the mirror, stopping dead a moment later.
He looked back at the mirror, advancing to the mirror and stopping dead inches before the glossy surface. Was it just him...or was he shorter than he used to be...much shorter...in fact, he was as short...as the Qiao's. "What in the three kingdom's is going on with my body?" He swore, tying his headband around his forehead, the shorter raven colored locks waving slightly at the movement.
Sun Ce opened the tent flap, sticking his head in, "Come on! Lu Xun's waiting!"
"Ce do I seem short to you?" Zhou Yu asked, advancing to the door.
"You've always been shorter than me, grab your sword and move it!" Zhou Yu grasped the sheath of his sword and tied it off around his waist as he ran after Sun Ce.
At the river
"Anyone see anything?" Zhou Yu called, knee deep in water as he waded around the river looking for any type of clue, his boots on the edge of the river so he wouldn't trip over them.
"I found his clothes," Ce called, from the riverbank. "Which means wherever he is, he's wandering naked.
"Nope, nothing up here," Xiao Qiao called from the top of the tree's.
"I think I found something interesting my lord!" Da Qiao called from the opposite side of the river. Zhou Yu sloshed through the almost neck high river and then ran beside Da Qiao. Only to have Xiao Qiao fall on him as she slipped, knocking both of them to the ground.
"Zhou Yu have you shrunk?" Xiao asked as she stood up, followed by her husband moments later.
"I don't know...but why is everyone falling on me recently?" Xiao Qiao attached herself to his neck.
"Because everyone loves my Yuie bear!" Xiao Qiao cried, "And you have shrunk, I couldn't to this to you when you stood up before!"
"That's not important right now Xiao, Lady Da Qiao, what did you find?" Xiao Qiao rolled her eyes.
"Yuie bear, call her Da! 'Daa!'" She said again, trying to implant it into his brain.
"This, Lord Yu," She pointed at a pile of undergarments, "Xiao and I got these for him."
"Hey look at this!" Sun Ce said, right behind them. He lifted up a hair for everyone to see. "This looks like one of your hairs Yu!" Sun Ce said. "Yep, you're the only person in Wu to have long black hair, this has gotta be your's!" Xiao let go of Zhou Yu's neck a moment as the strategist examined the hair.
"Well this one isn't!" Xiao cried, pulling a long piece of hair off of a bush. "This one I too long!" Xiao said, holding it up next to the hair Zhou Yu held.
"Not only hair, but before I got here, the area looked like it had been used many times before, as the grass was trampled and everything."
Zhou Yu frowned and looked at the prints in the mud. There were three, though it irked him, smaller prints, one with bare feet. One was large and booted, Ce's and then there was another, slim, yet long, the print looked old, but it was still there, and leading to the river. Zhou Yu turned and followed the prints carefully, as they hit the water, and then, continued a small ways away, dragging something...
"Wei camp," Zhou Yu said, "The prints are leading to Wei camp. I'll go follow them and find where they," He stopped as a hand landed on his shoulder.
"Yu, go get some people from Shu and meet me there, alright? I'll follow the tracks, okay? You worry about Shu. Anyway...you're the one who knows how to negociate, not me."
"But you also cant stay still for more then five minutes." Zhou Yu scowled.
"I'll go with him and make sure nothing bad happens Lord Yu." Da Qiao said, squeezing Ce's arm.
"See, Da's going with me, its all good now!" Ce smiled. Zhou Yu nodded reluctantly, turning to slosh back across the river.
"Come on Xiao, lets get moving," Zhou Yu said, watching Ce and Da disappear through the long grass.
"Okay Yuie bear!" Xiao cried happily, bounding into the water happily after her husband.
TBC....
I guess dancing with the blossoms has suffered a lot because of the lack of updates huh? Well anyway, next time, to whoever wanted Shu to be in this...sorry I'm not on the net right now, their coming up next, as well as Wei and Lu Xun...who I couldn't fit in...sorry Lu Xun fan's, but I needed Zhou Yu (cuddles) Anyway, yes, Shu and Wei and all those good things in the next one! Please don't forget the review!
Oh, and seeing as I have a lot of reviewers that are happy that this is a non yaoi fic, I'm keeping it that way, though if you want to pretend their friendship is more than that, you're certainly free to do so...and that kiss thing...was nothing more than an accident...
n/n