Hello everyone! Back with chapter 3^^

I have to apologise for the lateness in this update ;s I know I said I'd have it up by the end of the week but even though exams ended.. I ended up getting distracted. Sorry!

Anyway, to put a long story short, this also took even more time since the first draft of this was about to be submitted when I decided that I didn't like it and changed a big chunk of it - it was far too cringey (or just too corny maybe) in my opinion..

SPEAKING OF CRINGEY.. Ah. I'm so embarrassed that my 'hint' for this chapter was: "things get steamy" / HAHA. Wow. Guys, don't let me do that again..

Anyway, please enjoy the third instalment of this Da Qiao/Sun Ce fanfic & of course, thank you so much for the positive reviews. I will try hard to make the next update sooner :3 In the mean time, I would still love hearing from you guys!

Good Morning

- "The rate at which a person can mature is directly proportional to the embarrassment he can tolerate." [Douglas Engelbart]

Her eyes opened as sunlight leaked into the room. She felt extremely tired; perhaps she was on the brink of catching a cold. The delicate young lady hoped this would not be the case. Other than the fact that she'd feel terrible, it would just be a major inconvenience. However rather than guess at the current status of her health, Da Qiao inhaled deeply through her nose. Luckily, air passed freely through with no hint of trouble. She supposed the minor head ache she was experiencing was due to not having enough sleep.

Shifting her body up against the head board of the large bed, she looked around the room as she collected her thoughts. This time of day always seemed something like a reflection period to her. It felt important to think about what she wanted to do, what she felt like doing, about her friends and family, and even about the day before…

As her thoughts shifted onto this, her eyes caught something which set the neat and tidy ambience of her room off. Scrutinising the object further she remembered all too well about the previous day.

It felt like a hug. The kind of comforting hug a mother gives her child when scared. The kind of hug that made her feel that everything would be okay; nothing could go wrong. It was a kind of warmth that felt like she would freeze to death if it was taken away suddenly.

The rest of the walk was concluded in silence, but there were so many things buzzing through her head. It felt silly as well because she barely knew the man. Although they had made eye contact for a brief moment, she felt as though she had stared right into his very core. It was like she was really seeing 'Sun Ce' for the first time. Any previous opinion she had of him seemed to have fizzled away..

She let out a sigh unknowingly and then felt stupid for doing so. Although, she had to admit, she supposed even someone like that man could act like a prince charming every now and then. Smiling at this thought for a little while, her slender legs crossed on her bed, her expression changed as remembered the whole of yesterday.

"Hold on. What am I thinking? That.. That man hadn't even wanted to see me in the first place!" she thought aloud to herself.

Now that she did think about it, that nice gentlemanly act that she witnessed yesterday was but a snippet of the day she had had. It could not be forgotten that Lord Sun Ce had in fact abandoned her to go off and, do what exactly? Well it didn't matter too much anyway; it wasn't like she cared. However she could not believe the audacity he had to leave a young lady such as herself all by herself in one of the many rooms in the Wu palace for so long. Looking back on that little fiasco, Da Qiao realised that she would have to return to apologise for her awful behaviour. She buried her face in her hands, wondering how she was going to face the leader of Wu.

"How will I face Lord Sun Jian?" she groaned into her palms, not liking the sense of frustration she was feeling so early in the morning. It definitely could not have been healthy.

Nevertheless, the day had to go on. Whether she was feeling a little bit anxious about actually being in a situation where she had to apologise to the leader of a kingdom or not, the day had to continue. With this in mind, she knew that there was a bath waiting for her right now.

x x x x

He must not have realised how exhausted he had been. In fact, after the maids had shown him to the luxurious guest bedroom of the Qiao residence, he had murmured something along the lines of leaving him alone and the next moment he had opened his eyes it was bright as day outside and he had not even gotten out of the clothes which were still somewhat damp from the previous night's little.. 'adventure'. Alas, now he had found that the maids had prepared a rather relaxing bath for him and he was enjoying the soothing experience of the warm water surrounding his body.

While he was enjoying the therapeutic scents of the bath oils and the way the steam in the room seemed to make everything seem all that more private, the young lord could not help but let his mind wonder about the main reason why he needed to be comforted this much, well at least in his opinion, in the first place. The current situation felt certainly less than inconvenient to his schedule, although he had to admit that postponing the inevitable scolding he would receive from his father was something he would gladly do.

Breathing out heavily and splashing his face with water, Sun Ce couldn't help but smile at recent events that had occurred. He definitely had to admit that the girl had a lot of guts to just leave the palace like that. Heck other girls in the kingdom would probably have stayed sitting there for three days straight, if he stayed away for that long. Then again, this only reminded the young man that Da Qiao did not seem to show him the same mannerisms that she provided everyone else with. While he had seen her politely speak to the vendor on the first day they met even though it had been that guy who had gotten them in that situation, the most he ever got was simply a snide comment masked with some kind of innocent tone that fooled everyone around them. But not him, no… He was on to that woman's little act.

Then again, he did have to correct himself on this one. Snide comments hadn't been the most he'd received from the young lady. Actually, he couldn't help but recall how she had acted when he shielded her from the rain. For a while she had been almost pleasant and, dare he think it, but maybe sort of.. Cute? There was just something in the way she had looked at him from under his cloak and the way the silence afterwards did not seem to carry the same awkwardness it had before.

The rest of the morning hygiene routine seemed to go on without any complications although it was when he got out of the bath with a bathrobe loosely hanging off of him he realised that the clothes he had gotten out of had not dried yet. Frowning, he was not too sure what to do about this. Of course in times of battle, putting on rain-dampened clothes would not have bothered him.. But as a guest of a house, he felt silly. For a while, he wondered whether he should just hang his clothes out over the window for a while and waited for them to dry. On the other hand, he decided against it since that would just take too much time. Would it be too strange to walk around in a silk bathing robe?

In the end, fate decided for him. As if on cue, the door to the room opened and a curious Sun Ce wondered who it could have been that entered the guest house so rudely.

x x x x

She had not even had breakfast yet and she was already being given a chore to do. It wasn't the fact that she was being given a chore, the only problem Da Qiao felt there was was that the chore which seemed to be rather a minor task was being treated as though it was of great priority.

Da Qiao had been heading towards the dining room to attend breakfast with her family when she saw her father talking to a maid with a basket in her hands. The attention of Qiao Xuan seemed to be caught by his daughter and he beckoned her over.

"Da Qiao, Da Qiao! Come over here, my child."

Smiling at her father, she did as she was told and walked over to him. "Good morning father."

"Here, take this basket. Mei Ling has something to attend to." He begun as he motioned for the maid to give the basket to Da Qiao. Of course she took it, no questions asked, but did wonder why she was holding it. Peering inside, there just seemed to be garments in it. Cocking an eyebrow up, she looked up at her father and waited for she assumed that he had something else to say. "This basket needs to go to the guest house. Please take it there now."

There was an expression on his face that gave the raven-haired girl the idea that this was something that could not wait for some reason. Why he wanted a basket of clothes to be brought to the guest house was beyond her, but she could only assume that there was perhaps a guest coming to stay that evening. Then again, her and Xiao Qiao would have been told earlier to prepare for a guest. Still, a menial task such as the one she had received was not too hard for her to do and she soon found herself nearing the sliding door of the guest house near the main house.

"What is father up to this time…" she simply murmured quietly to herself as she slid the door open. She ventured into the room that she felt she had not seen for a while, after all she didn't really find it necessary to enter the guest house seeing as she did live in the actual house. Taking the time to look around on the spot, she looked at the beautiful paintings and tapestries on the walls, the brilliant architecture, the man dressed in the bath robe, the interesting architecture and… Da Qiao literally had to do a double take. Had she really seen someone? Taking in the bigger picture she noted that the bed had been ruffled up, clearly someone had been sleeping there; she had been asked to take clothes to the guest room, obviously for this person standing in front of her.

A terrible inkling crept up on her as her morning mind realised something with a groan.

"Good morning to you too, Lady Da Qiao…"

"Lord Sun Ce." She nodded her head curtly. Although she had not seen the lopsided grin he had on, the elder Qiao just knew he was displaying it; she could feel it in his tone of voice. Looking at him with a hint of confusion she couldn't help but express with her face, she had to say. "I did not expect you to be here. Although I probably should have guessed what with the clothes I was asked to bring." The latter of her statement was more for herself as the understanding sunk in somewhat. She snapped out of her reverie to remember why she had come to the guest house in the first place. "Oh! These are for you, I suppose." She held out the basket of clothes at arms length, feeling silly for being embarrassed as she noted the man before her appeared to be only wearing a bath robe.

Of course this embarrassment did not go unnoticed by the heir to Wu kingdom. He smirked, always quick to catch on to these types of things, and felt suddenly compelled to tease the girl about this. "Sneaking a peek then, are we?" His teasing continued as he mocked bashfulness. "Da Qiao.. But we've known each other for only a short while.."

The provocation to get her to fight back had clearly worked as the young girl's doll-like face blushed a little more than she had before. Obviously, any form of gentlemanly behaviour from previous events was clearly a fluke. No, she would not let him win this argument over her, so she countered his little act with one of her own.

"But, My Lord, maybe it was you who planned this. Did you wish it so that I would come over with the clothes myself?" She already had the blush, so she had just added a rather convincing timid expression.

Maybe her little act had worked, although he wouldn't admit this to himself. Any embarrassment felt was momentary as he soon realised what she was doing. His jokey bashful behaviour changed and he now had a look which definitely meant trouble. Da Qiao's eyebrow cocked up with curiosity, and was suddenly shocked as although Sun Ce looked as though he was going to reach for the basket he firmly, but with a somewhat gently touch of his masculine hands, pulled her close and leaned in.

"You caught me." He held her there as she wondered what to do for a while with a fair amount of panic. What was he going to do - kiss her? Her head seemed to automatically shy away from him as he got closer only to stop as his devilish grin turned into a soft chuckle. Her blush went up a notch tenfold as she realised what had just happened. Shoving his hand away she stormed back to the sliding door, fairly humiliated as she could hear his laughter behind her.

No. She wouldn't allow him this victory. Turning on her heel, just to salvage what pride she had left from the brief encounter, she said "There is breakfast at the dining room, Little Conqueror." The use of his nickname seemed to catch his curiosity for a second and she took this time to allow her eyes to scan his body so that the desired effect of her next line would be produced. "There must be some reasoning as to how you got that nickname." She finished with a smug grin which she could only make look like a fallen angel's smile. Before anything else could be said, the door was closed and the young Sun Ce was left to feel like he somewhat deserved the last comeback. He sheepishly scratched the back of his head as he sighed and looked at the clothes he had been provided with.

x x x x

She nibbled on her fruit salad as she watched her sister eat her own, noting as she looked around from time to time as though she expected something to happen any moment.. The girl could not help but feel a little worried. Sure she was supposed to be the unobservant and slow one, but it really wouldn't have taken a genius to see that, as of late, Da Qiao did not seem to be feeling at the top of her game. In fact, her usually calm and collected sister looked a little frazzled. Was that the right word to be using? Perhaps, just a tad worn out. Well, however her sister's emotional state seemed to appear, it obviously wasn't good.

Yet what was this feeling within? For some reason, and she certainly felt bad for admitting this to herself, but she found it all so amusing. Her dearest father had already told his youngest daughter of his and the leader of Wu's plans for their eldest children to be wed. Certainly no one had expected it to be this difficult. Naturally, back up had to be called in; this backup came in the form of the one and only, sweet Xiao Qiao.

Her decision to partake in this match up was not extremely recent either. The sisters had their connections, and to say that the little Qiao had a few reliable sources updating her on the activities that ensued within the palace and around Sun Ce was an understatement. Of course, finding out anything to do with her sister did not require any spy work; all she needed to do was ask her herself. Speaking of inside sources, the girl had found that a letter was now placed before her as a maid handed out mail to everyone around the table. The girl smiled as the subject of what she held in her hand was the very thing she had just been thinking about. Catching a curious look from her sister across the table, Xiao Qiao was beginning to wonder whether it seemed too suspicious that she had been receiving so much mail lately.

The girl had been about to make something up about how a friend who lived quite far away was doing when a slightly awkward looking Sun Ce waltzed into the room, trying his hardest to appear non-chalant as he also obviously avoided eye contact with her uncharacteristically uneasy sister.

At this point in time, Qiao Xuan had also stepped into the room with the usual cheerful ambience surrounding him.

"Good morning my daughters! Ah, Sun Ce, I see you are wearing the clothes we got for you. Are they alright? Were you comfortable last night?" Before the young man could answer, the head of the household was off again. "It was really an honour to have the heir of Wu in our household" Da Qiao looked sceptical as her father seemed to direct that title in her direction with raised eyebrows "That guest room will always be open for you or your family!"

"Thank you Qiao Xuan, although the family of Wu is quite large; we wouldn't want to cause any impositions."

Ignoring the scoff that came from the direction of Da Qiao, and the giggle from Xiao Qiao as a reaction to her sister's obvious opinion of this idea, Qiao Xuan continued on the conversation with a smile.

For quite a while, Qiao Xuan was the one who was making idle conversation asking about how the family was doing and what he was planning to do. Xiao Qiao would pipe up here and there with her own statements and the clearly moody Da Qiao remained silent for most of the time, only producing answers as simple as possible when asked a question.

However this was short lived as a maid entered with a bow reminding Qiao Xuan of some matters he'd had to take care of. Nodding his head at the maid, he smiled at the young people before him and rose with a bow of his head.

"Well, I must be off to deal with my own affairs. Sun Ce, once again, it really was a pleasure to have you here. When you wish to leave, Da Qiao will call the carriage for you. By the way, you do not need to worry about any trouble with your father; a late-night messenger was sent back and forth informing Sun Jian of what was going on. He's perfectly fine with everything."

With that all said and done, the elder gentleman left the room and a silence settled over the three. The only thing that could be heard was the gentle clatter of cutlery on the chinaware as they ate their meals. Every now and then, the adorable Xiao Qiao would inhale as though she wanted to say something. Of course the other two would look up straight away at the idea of some sort of distraction to the awkwardness, but then the youngest of the trio would then shut her cherry lips as she realised she had nothing to say.

After a while, the tension in the room had apparently become too much for Da Qiao. She wasn't obliged to stay in the room, was she? She was under her own roof; there was nothing to stop her from leaving. Being as pleasant as she could to a man who apparently mirrored her feelings towards the other, her slender hand rested the fork horizontally over her plate.

"Lord Sun Ce. I will call the carriage for you now; when you wish to leave, it will be waiting outside for you." she finished with a nod and went off to go about this.

Sun Ce couldn't help but watch her walk away. The way she spoke so diplomatically to him in public after they had had a little spat in the guest house really confused him. Sure she was acting pleasant enough, but it sort of freaked him out how the girl could put on this façade.

"Don't worry about her." Xiao Qiao's high, melodic voice made him turn his head away from the door. "I'm sure she likes you, you just need to give her a chance. Sis really isn't a bad person at all." the young girl said with an energetic smile.

The younger Qiao appeared to be the complete opposite of her sister. Well, sure, they had their similarities.. But this sister just seemed so carefree from the way she chose to wear mandarin coloured shorts as opposed to what other girls her age and background wore. Not only that, she seemed way easier to approach than Da Qiao. Now why couldn't that girl be like this? Everything would have been fine if this was the case.

Finding himself relaxing around her, he replied honestly with a scoff, "I'm not worried at all." He caught an amused grin playing off the girl's face. "What?"

"You sound exactly like her…" she said with a little giggle. "Oh Lord Sun Ce, I'm sure, if at the very least, you two will become the best of friends in the future. This is the first time I've ever seen someone manage to break my sister out of her shell of courtesies and organisation." As though she had somehow realised something.. "Yes. This is healthy for her."

Sun Ce raised an eyebrow up at this sister. Well, she may have been easier to talk to, but she was certainly some kind of weird. Xiao Qiao had decided to leave it at that and with a playful curtsey and bow of her head, she skipped off to find something to do.

The man sighed and got up from his chair, feeling silly for being alone in the room. What kind of hospitality was this anyway? Well, there was no point in hanging around the place any longer. If what Da Qiao had said was true, then a carriage to his palace should have been waiting for him already. Plus, now that there was no danger in his father scolding him for his previous actions he decided that the sooner he could get out of this place, the better.

He hoped his father's marriage prospect wouldn't appear in his life again, at least for a little while anyway.

x x x x

Up from her bedroom, she could see him entering his carriage. Finally, she had thought he would never leave.. Although she wanted to go read a book, her eyes made her stay sat on the window seat and watch as the carriage disappeared out of sight - just making sure he was actually gone.

Once again, I'm so sorry for this late update. Next time I say something will be up in a week's time - it will be up in a week's time haha..

Anyway, what did you guys think of this chapter? I know the story doesn't seem to be getting anywhere, but trust me it WILL!

Thank you so much for all the supportive reviews ^^ It's nice to know some people have been reading!

Annie x