Short and sweet! Finally managed to write something under 1000 words...
Mei-Mei
"No."
Mei-Mei did her absolute best impression of a puppy. "Please?"
"No. We are an ancient Bey temple in China, Mei-Mei, not an American shop."
"But it'll look so pretty!"
"And I said no. We are not decorating American-style."
"I'm with Mei-Mei on this one," said Chao Xin, poking his head around the door. "Not on the tinsel thing, sure, but we've got all the Americans visiting this year. It would make it more homely for them if they had something they recognised."
"Not you too," Da Shan groaned. "I've seen your capabilities for decorating and I'm not letting you anywhere near tinsel."
Chao Xin stuck his tongue out. "Spoil-sport."
"Chi-Yun is on Da Shan's side," Chi-Yun said from the other door, folding his arms. "We should respect the traditions of this place. The Americans are coming to us, not the other way around. They should recognise our customs, especially as we don't even celebrate their version outside of the big cities."
Mei-Mei looked from one boy to another, suddenly feeling a bit awkward. All she had wanted was to put a plastic Christmas tree up in the corner of the courtyard. And a string of tinsel around each pillar. And lights over the gate.
Okay, maybe that was quite a lot. But they were indeed hosting the American contingent of Masamune, Toby, Zeo, Chris and – weirdly – Tsubasa over the holiday season, and Mei-Mei really wanted them to feel at home, especially the ones who had never been before.
And then Da Shan had refused. And now they were in two camps, Chao Xin and Mei-Mei all for decorating the walls and rooms of the Temple, and Da Shan and Chi-Yun standing their ground.
Da Shan turned to Mei-Mei. "Why is it so important to you that we decorate the Temple?" he asked.
Mei-Mei took a breath. "We want them to be welcome," she said. "If there's nothing that they're used to seeing, they might feel out of place. They're coming to train with us, we should give them something small that they agonise."
Chao Xin laughed. "I think you mean recognise," he said.
"I don't see why it has to be one of their weird green plastic trees," Chi-Yun grumbled. "I don't get their customs."
"That's expactly my point!"
"Exactly, Mei-Mei."
"Exactly my point! We don't get their customs, so why are we expecting them to get ours? Putting some decorations up would give them something familiar."
Da Shan looked like he was actually considering it this time. "A good point, Mei-Mei," he said at last. "But I still don't think it would bring honour to the temple. Like Chi-Yun said, this place is sacred. Putting a cheap plastic tree in the corner won't reflect the history and lineage of this place."
"Look, we're a team, right?" Chao Xin said as Mei-Mei's face fell. "We've done this before. We can compromise and work together, that's what we do. That's what we're best at."
"Chi-Yun has an idea," Chi-Yun said suddenly, holding up a traditional red paper lantern. "What about these?"
.
The Temple looked stunning. Da Shan was secretly quite proud of how quickly his bladers had managed to get it ready in the end. Every wall was lined with dozens of traditional lanterns, strung between pillars and casting a warm glow across the whole courtyard. But these were no ordinary lanterns, as the visitors immediately noticed when they finally made it up the mountain.
"Is that Santa?" Masamune asked, pointing at a red lantern with black boots and a white beard painted on.
"We call him Shen Dan Lao Ren," Chao Xin told him. "It means Old Christmas Man. But yes. Basically, that's Santa."
"You've painted all the lanterns," Tsubasa said, sharp eyes noticing details far quicker than the others. "Baubles and Christmas trees and snowmen and… how did you even come up with the idea for this?"
Mei-Mei smiled. "We worked together," she said proudly.
"It's perfect," Toby breathed. "It fits here with all the tradition, but it's still new and different." He winced suddenly. "Not that I meant that our version of Christmas is better! It's just… I like seeing new things but it's nice to have some callbacks to the old things I'm familiar with too."
"Tradition and moving forwards in one," Da Shan said. "We do it all together." He tilted a half-smile in Mei-Mei's direction. "Eventually."
