Chapter Three
As they returned to the Fa home, Shang stopped and put a hand to his side before pushing his other hand back over his hair. "Wow," he said with a laugh and Mulan tilted her head to the side whilst watching him. "I'm so sorry but wow…"
"Yes, I'm sure that the simplicity of our markets is really not of the grandeu-" she began but Shang stopped her. He put one hand to her shoulder and grinned in a slightly clumsy manner. Mulan watched him, her heart pounding as she tried not to blush and show how she was a dichotomy between her father's precious blossom and the warrior for the empire.
"I think that your village is lovely," Shang told her and Mulan nodded listening to him. "You have two great heroes of war who live in your family and I have often been one to think that you should not judge how others are progressing to deem your own strength and worthiness. The tallest trees can sometimes grow in dirt others would consider inferior, that's not why I'm laughing."
Mulan blinked again. So, this wasn't about her poor upbringing? Shang was a commanding officer who was son to a commanding officer, he had no doubt spent his early years living with a semi-luxury which she had never imagined. She wasn't trained to dream above her station and had sometimes been told not to even dream outside of her family home. She had been fearful that maybe Shang had sensed something about how she had lived that made her not good enough anymore.
"These people have really underestimated you," he grinned. "I can't wait until you prove them wrong. I've always wanted to see it."
Mulan stopped as she looked at him. He was laughing because Chunhua had insulted her?
"I spent a lot of time by myself, there were a lot of people who I made friends with and I was always rather good at chess but the traditional roles for a woman…I wanted to spend my days having fun and enjoying life. I wasn't really one of the popular kids," Mulan tried to defend herself and Shang stopped himself.
He looked at her in a very disappointed manner, but he wasn't disappointed in her, he couldn't be. He had said something that had come out wrong again. Maybe he was always respected as a child and he was popular but that was because he was his father's son. He was expected to live up to the level of greatness that his dad had, to follow that already paved path. He hadn't meant to insult the woman he loved, the woman who impressed him in a million and a half different ways.
"Mulan," he said gently, "That's not what I meant. I didn't mean to say that there was anything wrong with you. If I gave you that misunder-"
"You were probably brought up to marry someone more like Chunhua," Mulan said and Shang sighed.
"I was brought up to do a lot and be a lot that I wasn't. As for whether I would find pleasure with someone who exhibits that lack of intelligence and tact in conversation," Shang squeezed the bridge of his nose as he heard himself. "I'm not such a great conversationalist," he apologized, "Everything was done for me as a child. I suppose that I lack a lot of tact too but what I do know is that I find you enchanting, Mulan." He walked towards her and placed a hand on her shoulder. He kissed her forehead and deeply inhaled her scent as the moon beamed down upon them.
"I was raised in a family which had expectations for my entire life. I was raised by people who knew that I was going to follow in my father's footsteps. I was allowed freedom on an every day basis but not for life. If I disappointed someone or deviated from my path, then I was to be considered a disappointment and people would ask my parents what went wrong with me, why was I so different from my father and grandfather…I was never allowed to be an individual," he told her before laughing softly. "But you seem to see me as one. You're truly unique and I think it's beautiful how you've achieved things that nobody ever will again and you did it by being yourself."
Mulan looked at him. She knew that some people in the army thought about Shang being distant, following rules, focusing on his work. She still could see his smile when she knocked him back, the way his eyes glimmered with excitement as the training took hold, she could feel the sadness within him as he lost his father. She had seen him in so many ways that despite how he might appear, he had a heart and character as unique as her own.
"There are some things that others wi-"
"You should never change who you are," Shang told her as he held one of her hands in his own, he brought it up to his lips and Mulan smiled as he kissed the back of it. "I promise you that I will spend my life standing up for you and defending who you are. There is nobody like you out there. I promise to protect you."
"And you're happy that -"
"That you're being recognized, not as some matchmaker's whore but as someone with real substance who has a worth built from much more than what might be seen as ideal. I am just looking forward to seeing how they feel when they know they've underestimated you. I want to see them become impressed by you in the same way that I was impressed when that arrow fell at my feet."
"Shang," Mulan said before looking into his eyes and he gently cupped her cheek, he used his thumb to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear and then brought her chin up so that he could kiss her in a romantic manner. She smiled and threw her arms around him. Maybe people in the village would say that this was indecent. Right here they wouldn't say that. Right here she was in her family's home where she could really be herself.
MuShMuSh
As the morning air seemed to settle in, Mulan knew that soon she would be away from home again. This time though she had a plan, she had permission, and she had a nice guy who would accompany her. Her grandmother was right, there was definitely a sense of luxury in having a man like Shang around in her life. She stepped out to the front of the house where she could see her family all seeming to hide behind a pillar whilst watching Shang train. He was training still? Hopefully there wouldn't be cause for doing the amount that they were doing. His body did cause her to feel attracted to him and stimulated.
She blinked and tried to bow her head. Seeing his muscles and bare chest wasn't supposed to be making her feel this weak. No. She had to try to get that out of her head and think about how he could see her as an equal. She saw her grandmother swoon and grabbed a bone for Little Brother. "Good morning," she smiled to him and he turned to her, making sure not to kick her as he practiced different techniques.
"Good morning," he said before reaching out to grab his shirt. "I hope that it wasn't too forward of me to be out here like this, I've never gone a day without training before and…."
"And I think that it's incredibly thoughtful of you to be wanting to keep your body in shape. I hope that it doesn't become too much of an inconvenience to you if I start training with you. I wouldn't want to be in your way," she laughed and saw that he had turned red himself. He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Yeah. I think that'd…" he smiled in a way that Mulan found extremely sweet especially for a man with his muscular build, "that'd be good. Training together and…"
"And hopefully I wouldn't have to disguise myself as a gu-" she coughed putting on her 'Ping' voice, "as a guy, you know, with all the spitting and the scratching to uh…make you take me seriously."
Shang moved over to her and grinned playfully, "You know that you don't have to do that, I'd prefer for you to be just who you are and -" he leaned forwards but Mulan put a finger on his lips keeping him from kissing her in even a playful manner.
"My grandmother is watching you," she whispered before they heard a voice calling back to them.
"No I'm not!"
Shang chuckled weakly before putting his shirt back on and then saw Mulan walk over to the dog and give him a bone. He continued to follow after her as she got a bucket of chicken feed. "Here," he said as he reached out for it. "I can do this. It's the least I can do since you let me stay the night."
"I would have been worried had you been on the streets," she winked to him and they walked together towards the ancestor's temple. "I think that I want to introduce you to someone, a friend of mine. He's got a huge ego and a very unique personality but I think that you'd be fine to meet with him. He's incredibly important to me."
Shang stopped suddenly as he looked at her. Incredibly important? There was some other man in Mulan's life that he should try to avoid being jealous of? He was only being told this now when he had already spent time with her and her family. He looked at her as they finally got to the Fa family shrine and Mulan walked over to one part of it.
Shang watched as a cricket hopped onto her finger and Mulan started speaking to it as if she were talking with a young child.
"Can you go and find Mushu for me?" she asked and Shang blinked confused. He saw the cricket jump off her finger and laughed, awkwardly rubbing the side of his neck yet again.
"This, Mushu, should I be worried about him?" he asked and Mulan smiled.
With a playful and teasing smile, Mulan nodded, "Yes, very much so. Mushu is quite a character with a larger than life personality."
"Larger than life personality is right," the small red dragon said and Mulan gently picked him up causing Shang's eyes to widen. What was that? He had seen pictures of dragons but he didn't ever think that he would see a real one and one that was that small too.
"A lizard?" he asked as he stared towards Mulan and the red creature in her hand.
"Did Prince Charming just say lizard?" Mushu asked as he gestured to Shang. Shang's eyes widened. This lizard could talk?
End of Chapter Two
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Thank you to the reviewers of Chapter One
ElsaAnnaSnowQueen, Guest (x2), kotoko-98, LilRed1221,
