Chapter 10- Waistcoat.
Mulan had used Archie's sudden leaving as a chance of doing the same. There was only so much pretending a girl could do in a day. Pretending that was going to get her into a whole heap of trouble if she couldn't keep it up. She'd lost the only person she could talk to about it and it was certainly hard to not go insane with such a secret. It wasn't as if she could tell anyone else. They would surely rat her out and where would her family be then?
Why did he have to make it so hard for her though? There would be a point when she thought that everything was under her control. She had every man in the camp fooled and that was the way she knew it would stay. Then suddenly, one pair of glasses and bonnet of curls later and she was stumbling and blushing like a pink blossom in spring. She just couldn't darn well help it! Stupid man and his sensitive nature. It wasn't like she hadn't had a crush on a man before but the feeling was intensified because she knew it could never be possible.
'I know I'm not meant to but I can't help it can I?' Mulan voiced her trailing thoughts out loud to her horse as she led the stallion down to the lake. 'I'm not really a man and I won't have to continue pretending forever…' The last words diminished to whispers as she saw his clothes hanging from the tree. She was rooted to the spot, heart thudding in her chest as two colliding fears screamed in her head. One, she had just blurted out the secret that could mean her death. Two, she had just blurted out the secret that could mean her death to Archie Hopper, who wouldn't be wearing any clothes…
She was about to quickly retreat and just pray that he hadn't heard when he emerged from the lake. He rubbed the water from his curls and acted surprised to see her. Whether he was acting that he hadn't heard her she didn't know but annoyingly she naturally reddened at seeing him without his clothes on. Men wouldn't be embarrassed! But thank the ancestors he had kept his small clothes on.
'P-Ping, where did you come from? I thought I might have caught the lake alone while everyone was still eating.' He explained and she breathed a shaky, inward sigh of relief that he didn't march her up to the Captain and tell him what she had just said.
'Mr. Hopper sir I-I didn't…' She stumbled but tried desperately to get it together. She was a warrior now after all. 'I used your leaving as an opportunity to get away.' She admitted more confidently with a smirk. If only she could have harnessed those acting skills with the matchmaker.
'I'm glad I could be of service somehow,' He smiled as he waded out of the water. She watched silently before looking away to brush her horse's mane with her fingers so he wouldn't see her blushing. He rushed to retrieve his glasses and towel and swiped the lenses before pushing them onto his nose. 'That's better, I can see you properly now.' He said and Mulan was quick to notice that oddly she wasn't the only one blushing.
'Uh, sorry to disturb you. I'd best be getting back.' Mulan covered in her practiced masculine but hesitant voice. She didn't want to stay and focus on him getting dressed. How weird would that be to him? He quickly shook his head as he quickly pulled on his shirt.
'Oh don't apologise. I was going anyway,' He reassured her as if he were in more of a rush than she was. He had already stumbled into his trousers, despite him still being wet. 'The water is a tad cold; I wouldn't stay in there long if I were you.' He added with a small laugh and he grasped at the rest of his belongings.
'I'll take your word for it Mr. Hopper.' Mulan answered with a short laugh of her own and before she could say anything else he sidled past her and tripped slightly as he headed back up into the camp. Damn. Sensitive, intelligent and clumsily adorable. The complete opposite to what was expected of men in her land and that was one of the very reasons why he seemed so attractive to her. His leaving was almost a bittersweet moment. She had wanted to practically run away with embarrassment but also she could have talked with him for hours. He was that kind of man. His conversation was always interesting. She had often listened into snippets of his talks with the Captain whenever she could.
'Oh and do call me Archie, Ping!' He turned around to call back to her and then moved swiftly out of sight. She couldn't help but shake her head with a smile as he left and buried her face into her horse's mane to push back the want to tell him her secret. She wished she could tell someone, she wished she had Jiminy back.
A few seconds later and she had recovered from the ordeal and debated on whether washing as she had planned. She looked back once more at the path that led to the lake and seeing no one, loosened her bun so that her shortened hair fell to her shoulders. She had only just taken off her shoes when she noticed that there was still something snagged on the tree. Slipping her shoes back on to hop over some of the stones, she went to investigate.
Where Archie's clothes had been hanging it looked as if he had left his waist coat behind. She pulled it down and out of girlish curiosity held it to her nose to briefly smell the faint aroma of tea smoke. It was then that she noticed the intricate stitching on the emerald green fabric. She brushed her fingers across the patterns of golden thread but tilted her head as they became clearer to her. Crickets? Odd thing to have on a waistcoat but then again Archie Hopper wasn't a normal man was he?
The warrior spirit that had been trained into Mulan over the past days had given her the courage to skip the horrific icy bathing and return the waistcoat to Archie instead. She returned her prize stallion back to her own little tent up on the hill and regretfully tied her hair back up. The fact that she didn't look the way she would have liked to go see him irritated her slightly, well maybe a bit more than that.
'Archie.' She called to him from outside his tent. She remembered his last words to her earlier and called him less formally. She could see his shadow from inside so she knew he was awake and stifled a laugh as she watched the shadow do a double take.
'Ping?' He answered as he drew back the canvas flap of the tent. He looked to be surprised by her visit but he was smiling so that gave her an incentive to not just throw the waistcoat at him and run. 'What can I do for you?'
'Are you missing something?' She asked with a faint smirk as she held up the waistcoat. His eyebrows raised and he patted his shirt before chuckling.
'It seems I am, please come on in,' He grinned and held the flap open for her. She ducked underneath and smiled to herself when she noted that his tent was filled with the sweet fragrance of tea. 'Excuse the mess; I've been rather busy of late.' He added as he sidled past her. She wanted to roll her eyes at that, the tent was practically spotless. The only 'mess' was the pile of papers on a low wooden table. She held out his waistcoat for him and he took it gratefully and he pulled it straight on with a stroke across the material.
'Crickets.' She said with a small gesture as she was still oddly curious about it. She had never seen something like that worn here and it reminded her of her brief but not forgotten encounter with one.
'W-What?' He asked as if she had said something outrageous and then as if realising a mistake he looked down at his waistcoat. 'Ah of course yes, crickets.' He quickly covered up the strange reaction.
'You don't see many men, I mean people wearing crickets, unless that's not so unusual where you're from?' She inquired pretending his little hiccup hadn't happened although she had been intrigued.
'Pretty unusual everywhere I imagine, not something you see everyday…well you hear them every night I suppose,' He glanced up at her with a smile before hastening to hand her a cup of tea he had just made. 'I also heard they were lucky and given the circumstances I thought we could use a little of that.' For a moment Mulan was left with her mouth slightly agape as if trying to register what he said. To anyone else that may seem a harmless phrase but it had meaning to her.
'I'm sure it depends on the cricket.' She mused out loud as she sipped the tea, being careful to keep her charade up. Just the littlest details could give her away and that couldn't happen even if she sometimes wanted it to be so.
'Is it possible for one cricket to be luckier than another?' Archie questioned and she looked up at him from the brim of her cup. It was such a silly question but he had asked it as if the answer would be important to him somehow.
'Judging from experience I would say so,' She answered with a tilt of her head. 'I have a feeling we might have to create a bit of our own luck though.' She added remembering Jiminy having said the same words to her once. Archie smiled and he opened his mouth to say something but must have changed his mind because he changed the subject.
'An important day tomorrow, I have faith in every one of you.' He said and that just reminded Mulan about how nervous she was about it. An inspection of some sorts but even if they passed it was just as frightening. If they passed then their unit would be sent out. It was what they wanted, they wanted to fulfil their duty but the thought was enough to make her stomach churn.
'We wouldn't be here without you though and I think even the Captain will have to admit that,' She smirked but that was when she noticed something in the corner of the tent. It was propped up against a vase and would have been lost if she didn't recognise it. Her gaze was focused on it and Archie furrowed his brow before glancing over his shoulder to where she was looking. A few beats of silence passed between them before it became almost painful before they both caught each other's eyes. 'H-How is that possible?' Her guard was down and if she had jumped to the wrong conclusion then all would be lost. In the corner was an umbrella, unmistakably the umbrella belonging to Jiminy Cricket.