A Great Escape

Chapter 14: Friends and fiancées

The two of them passed the time by just talking after that. Lanying spent a while explaining her family history, telling Shen that she and all of her ancestors were "green peafowl" from the island of Java and that she had been the first child to be born outside of her homeland. Her parents had immigrated to Gongmen City shortly after Shen's banishment, competing with many other visitors from around the world for a position of power. Even though they hadn't exactly ended up high on the political totem pole, they had decided that they preferred China to Java, accepted the political adviser positions offered to them, and made a home for themselves. As a result, Lanying had never met any of her other relatives.

"And if they're anything like my parents," she said, with a touch of bitterness creeping back into her voice, "then that suits me just fine."

"Have you ever tried talking to your parents about this?" asked Shen. "I mean, it won't make things perfect, but if you at least gave them an idea of what you're going through…"

She wrinkled her beak. "Really? You're suggesting talking now? Since when has talking ever helped make anything better?"

Since never, Shen wanted to say, but he held his tongue.

"I'm done with my parents, whether they realize it or not. They turned me down without a second glance when I was a scared child just begging for them to hold me, and it only got easier for them to do things like that as I got older. Sure, they gave me food and shelter and bought me art supplies when I asked for them, and sometimes they assure me that they love me and only want what's best for me. But I don't believe them. I'm twenty-six years old, and for the past twenty-one years of my life there's been no sympathy…no affection…no love from either of them. They're too wrapped up in their own troubles to think of me as anything more than a thing that requires maintenance sometimes. So no, I don't think I'll be talking to them anytime soon. I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them."

Shen looked away, thinking in silence for a moment. "Lanying…there are ways to deal with this besides bitterness. Take it from someone who knows, getting pushed aside by your parents hurts, but letting it control your life will lead to decisions you'll regret."

"But how can I not let it control my life?" Lanying spread her wings out wide, gesturing to the room around her. "Look at where I am. I'm in my parents' house, where I've been stuck for the majority of my life. Every day I'm forced to deal with their idiocy. There's no reprieve, no friends to come and visit me, no Prince Charming about to come up to my window and whisk me far away on his noble steed."

He cracked a wry smile. "Well, I'm no Prince Charming, but I'll certainly whisk you far away, if that's what you want. I'll take you to a place where you have a chance, where your panic attacks won't soil peoples' perceptions of you."

She sighed, her head tilting towards her small bedroom window. Compared to all the magnificent paintings surrounding it, the view looked desaturated and uninspiring. "Anywhere but here," she said.

"I think you'll like the Valley of Peace," Shen assured her. "It's a nice place, very small, very intimate. There's plenty of other artisans there, so you'll certainly be able to find some form of employment. I mean, look at all this!" His eyes swept around the decorated room once more.

Lanying studied her unfinished portrait of him thoughtfully. "I know I'm not the best at what I do. I mean, I know that I haven't had a proper art tutor and that's not a good thing, but I've never thought that my paintings were all that awful, either. But I suppose they must be, since no one wants them…"

"Oh, come on. Nothing good will come of thinking that way." He approached her, tucking his hands into his sleeves. "You can't always let what other people say affect what you think of yourself.."

She rolled her eyes. "Everyone says that, but I have yet to find a person who can actually ignore harsh criticisms."

A soft knock sounded from the direction of the door, and Jie popped his head into the room without waiting for his daughter's permission to enter. "Lanying, it's time for dinner," he told her.

Lanying's crest rippled in irritation, her eyes narrowing, but all she said was, "Fine."

Jie cleared his throat as his eyes settled uncomfortably on Shen. "I would invite you to dinner, but we didn't realize you were coming, so my wife didn't prepare enough food for four people. Of course, if you really wanted to, we'd be happy to – "

"It's fine," Shen assured him. "I'm expected home for dinner, anyway. Well, not home, but – you know what I mean."

"Dinner arrangements might be a good idea, though, for sometime in the future," Jie suggested cautiously. "Sometime before you leave the city, perhaps. It would be a good way for our families to get to know each other better…"

"My entire family isn't here at the moment, but yes, that sounds lovely," answered Shen. "I'll have to speak to Masters Storming Ox and Croc about it, to discuss when and where, but I don't think that will be a problem. I'll be in touch with you soon."

"Sounds fine," agreed Jie as he shut the door.

Lanying heaved an exasperated sigh. "Well, I had better go wash up for dinner and change into something that isn't covered in paint. Goodbye, Shen. It was nice seeing you again."

"It was nice seeing you, too." He smirked a bit. "I knew there was a nice person somewhere in there."

She smiled back at him. Her eyes darted quickly from side to side, as if to check that her father had truly gone downstairs and wasn't listening at the door; then she stepped towards him, pursed her beak, and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Shen automatically tensed – even after all these years, sudden signs of affection often took him off guard – and raised his hand to his face disbelievingly. "Um," he finally managed. "What was that for?"

"For being such a good model," responded Lanying smugly, gesturing to her painting. "And for taking me away from here."

His face continued to burn brightly all the way back from her house.

…

Shen made it back to the dormitory just before dinner was served, and everyone could tell that he was in a better mood than usual. He greeted Masters Storming Ox and Croc pleasantly, didn't even roll his eyes when the soothsayer rumpled his crest affectionately, and had a faint but constant smile on his beak throughout the entire meal. He was too contented to notice that Xun was shooting him a continuous semi-glare.

Finally, the wolf set down his chopsticks and asked sarcastically, "Have fun at your fiancée's house, lover-boy?"

"Yes, actually," answered Shen, not even bothering with the "she's not my fiancée" comment. "We talked a bit about her family heritage, and she showed me her paintings. She's a brilliant artist, did you know that? She had a few landscapes of Gongmen City that were absolutely stunning. And she was doing a portrait of me…done from memory, but very accurate nonetheless. I'm actually quite surprised that she hasn't found work yet, what with her talent…"

This was exactly what Xun didn't want to hear. His ears flattened, and he remained uncharacteristically silent through the rest of dinner. Not that Shen noticed; he was still cheerfully oblivious to his friend's glowering gaze.

The soothsayer was wise enough to recognize that Shen was exhibiting obvious symptoms of infatuation, which she had known would eventually happen. But Xun's behavior didn't escape her notice either. After dinner, once she had finished helping their hosts clear the dishes away, she glanced out a window and spotted Xun outside, standing perfectly still, his arms folded stiffly over his chest and his single red eye glaring up at the dark night sky.

She hobbled outside, leaning heavily on her cane, and peered at Xun from the top of the steps. She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Are you getting cold feet, pup?"

"H-huh?" Xun jumped a bit, snapping his head around. His hackles descended when he saw that it was only her, and he wiggled his toes a bit. "No, my feet aren't cold…"

The soothsayer gave him an incredulous stare until the meaning of her figurative language sank in.

"Oh…you mean, am I getting…oh." Xun sighed, and his breath became a white wisp in front of him. It was surprisingly cold out tonight. "It's just…we came here so that Shen and I could make cannons and fireworks and stuff, right? So I don't get why Shen is getting all worked up over some…girl! He's said multiple times that he's not really gonna marry her, and yet he keeps blowing me off just to go spend time with her. What does he know about this chick, anyway?"

"My, my, Xun," chuckled the soothsayer. "This is quite a change. You're not usually the work-minded one."

He exhaled roughly. "Yeah…well…"

"Tell me, what's really bothering you more? The fact that Shen isn't focusing on the task that you came here to do…or the fact that you feel like you're his best friend, not Miss Xifeng, and yet he's been spending much more time with her recently?"

Xun's eye dropped to the ground. He hadn't had the most attentive parents in the world as a child, so the soothsayer had been an unofficial nanny to him in his youth, raising him and Shen together as practically brothers – which of course meant that she could still read both of them as easily as a couple of children's picture books.

"Well, yeah," he admitted. "I mean, considering that I stayed friends with that stupid peacock even though he threw me aside, and yelled at me, and abused me, and tried to freakin' kill me…yeah, I'd appreciate a little acknowledgment from him."

She smiled knowingly, tottering down the stairs. "Xun, I promise, he's not about to forget you. You're his best friend. Just think of Miss Xifeng as a shiny new toy right now – he's enticed by her because she's new and exotic to him, but once he's around her more often, he'll once again be able to balance his time between her and everyone else. This is only a temporary situation at most."

"I guess you're right." Xun dropped his arms to his sides. "I just wish Shen hadn't gotten mixed up in this to begin with. I mean, just doing something to be nice is great and all, but this is getting really complicated. And just when I thought our family couldn't possibly get any weirder…"

"Oh, there's always rooms for things to get weirder." She shivered a bit. "It's chilly out here, isn't it? Come on, let's get back inside. You'll see, soon things will go back to normal…or whatever counts as normal for us."

"If you say so. I hope your magic Nana powers are right this time."

"Well really, have they ever let you down before?"

A/N - At last, it returns!

Well, I was uninspired to write for a while, but I finally got a bit of my muse back and cranked this out. I hope I didn't lose my readers from not updating for several weeks, but last time I checked you were all hanging on edge for the next installment, so...yeah. Please remember to review so that I know you're still there!