Author notes: Mmm, so this story kinda came out of left field... XD I was working on a few other ideas, but then this little plotbunny swung in while I was on my drive home. Hmm, this fic kind of bookends well with the last chapter though.

Bit of mature content here, het (Wolf Boss/OC) with a side of slash (Wolf Boss/Shen), and a whole lot of melancholy sprinkled on top. I'd say this story is set about a year before the second movie. Shen's plans are coming together, and his and the wolves' exile is nearing its end...

.

.

When Lin arrives back at the mountain foundry, he's travel-weary but bearing more metal than expected. It's good metal too and will need less refining than some of the wolves' past hauls. This is fortunate considering plans have been laid to finally move on Gongmen City next spring. Any amount of time saved in the meanwhile is a boon. Shen is clearly delighted as well, and he and Lin exchange reports but also casual conversation.

It's the most words the duo has shared in a while, and there's just enough friendly banter to suggest that maybe the peacock might've missed Lin, but the encounter leaves the wolf feeling even more tired somehow. Instead of being pleased, their words leave Lin thinking of old times when he never would have doubted that he had been missed.

The wolf retires to his quarters early, but even clean and stripped of his dusty armor, Lin nonetheless can't shake off a sense of restlessness.

It's this odd mixture of being weary but needy that brings Lin down to the village at the base of the mountain and into the parlor of the Moon Flower. The wolf general thinks that's a painfully overdone sort of name for a brothel, but the workers are good, and the place is well-kept.

Lin bargains for a vixen's services tonight, and when an agreement is amiably reached, she takes his elbow in her slim dark paws and leads him to one of the rooms upstairs. The curtains are drawn against the cool air of early spring, and a partly-covered lantern is set on a table near the bed. In the amber half light, the wolf lowers his head to nuzzle against the fox's cheek and neck while her hands make quick work of his belt and tunic. She's wearing just a cream-colored robe, and Lin sends it easily cascading down her shoulders.

Clothes discarded, Lin and his companion move to the bed. Paws touch while bodies entwine. Lin lets her do most of the work, and he is not disappointed by her skill.

The two sprawl on the bed together when they're finished, and Lin looks up at her as she's still half straddling him. She's clearly pleased to have him breathless on his back, but her body language suggests that the tryst was at least somewhat pleasurable for her as well.

The light floral of her perfume competes with the smell of smoke that lingers on Lin, and even preoccupied by the fox's presence, the general can't quite forget about the foundry. Or about Shen.

Still, he is at least somewhat distracted. The vixen carries herself well, posture neatly poised, and Lin admires that. He also likes the way his paws fit over her hips. (How would Shen feel in his arms?) Her fur is soft and downy (the choice of that second adjective is not lost on Lin), and there's a fluff of white fur at the base of her throat that Lin presses his muzzle against. He lightly touches her there and wonders if Shen's feathers would be half so soft...

"You're aaaages away from here, dearie," the vixen eventually says with an easy laugh.

"Hnn," Lin grumbles half-heartedly, stroking her shoulder gently in passing as he shifts away a little.

She rolls to follow him though, curving to him, and Lin is touch-hungry enough to give in and be pliant beside her. "Don't be sore," she purrs. "Most people don't come to brothels to romance the whores after all. Who is she that you're thinking about? ...or he."

Lin's expression must've shown surprise because the vixen laughs again. "I've seen you here twice before, dear soldier, and the last two times you were here for one of our gentlemen. I'm rather surprised you took an interest in li'l old me..."

He was surprised too. It had been an accident that Lin had even taken notice of the fox. She'd been by the window so inquisitively looking at the stars—it was an unusually clear night for this cloudy region—and her expression had reminded him of that tender curiosity Lin still sometimes sees on Shen's face. His heart had twinged at her look, and no one else in the room had caught his attention after that.

"You remind me of someone, but only a little bit." Wrapping an arm around her, the wolf adds, "It's also refreshing to have someone at least close to my age."

His lady seems to be about forty, still elegantly beautiful but lacking that fresh blossom look of youth. Lin is pushing fifty soon himself, just a few years now, and the older he gets, the more he prefers an experienced partner rather than one of the young ones. They're pretty, sure, but most of them are half his age.

"I take it your would-be lover is your peer...?"

"In a way. He's...someone I know." A year ago Lin might still have responded with 'he's my friend', but as time passes, the wolf grows less sure. What is he to Shen? Truly, what?

Shen has always been wedded to his ambition, and Lin knows that, would have been willing to share priority in Shen's life. However, now the wolf doesn't even think he'd be given that much. If Shen would even want him at all.

Once upon a time Lin had thought there'd be a moment where he could tell Shen his feelings, a moment of victory when it was all over and he and Shen could stop pushing forward. Perhaps when they made their triumphant return to Gongmen City... But years became decades, and slowly 'Gongmen City' became 'China' became 'the world', and now Lin knows there is no end. The peacock will die before he stops pushing onward, and where does that leave Lin?

In spite of everything though, Lin still loves Shen...but only because he can't help it. The prince is a part of the wolf's life as much as a limb, and to be without him is unthinkable after all these decades.

"Hey you..."

Lin snaps back to the dim room, sparse but clean, and to the vixen's paw tilting his head up. She looks serious now, not the jocular courtesan—and that's what she is; Lin recognizes quality above that of the average whore—of a few moments before.

"Don't be so melancholy," she tells him gently, trying to coax a smile. "People will think I don't treat my customers well."

Lin almost does smile at that. "It isn't you, madam." A thought strikes him then. "Hmm, if I pay you double, will you sleep the night here with me?"

She bows her head graciously. "I would gladly do so—especially since my dear officer is known to pay handsomely for any services."

"I do," Lin concedes. No doubt the two males whose company he'd previously enjoyed here had boasted about how well he'd paid. Lin is a general though, and Shen is a mostly reasonable employer when it comes to wages so Lin certainly has the money to afford some quality... If he was interested in just a cheap fuck, he could go down to the seedier part of town and get what he wanted for practically free. But the wolf wants something different than base gratification—though that has its uses too. "I'm willing to pay a bit more for a comforting kind of pleasure."

"And have you found any?" she asks, sliding against him as she shifts position.

The sleek feel of her body tempts the wolf to have her again, but he really is tired from the travel back to the foundry and would rather just rest. "I suppose I have. Until morning at least."

The vixen lies a little above him so that Lin's head is pillowed against her breast. Perhaps she is not the partner he most wants, but the wolf is far from dissatisfied. The fox toys with his ears, paws lightly stroking them, and Lin rumbles a soft sigh of contentment as he closes his eye.

~fin

.

.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this!