AN: Okay, so what was supposed to be a short bit of XingYue turned into this monster. I swear those two hijack my brain and my fingers, forcing me to write words on the page while refusing to let me go. It seems I've become your friendly, neighborhood XingYue dealer, so enjoy today's hit of the good stuff. Tomorrow will be the tying up of the last main loose end, then we'll have the epilogue.

Chu Qiao rested her head contentedly on her husband's shoulder as he strode towards the area along the wall that he was taking her to see. When he'd told her about the evidence he'd found there, she'd naturally wanted to take a look for herself. He'd refused to tell her all of the details, though, saying that he wanted her to be unbiased when she was examining the scene.

While she was perfectly capable of walking out to the wall herself even though she'd just given birth the day before, she'd worked out a compromise with her protective husband to walk on her own until they were out of sight of the main area of Green Hills and to let him carry her the rest of the way. She'd put up a few token protests, but she couldn't really object to any part of her current situation outside of the implications of what they were going to investigate.

After all, when your husband was as strong and handsome as hers was, why wouldn't you take advantage of the situation? Besides, she knew that underneath that placid, impassive exterior, he was enjoying carrying her as much as she was enjoying being carried. Chu Qiao knew that she probably could've gotten him to put her down if she'd made a serious fuss, but she'd finally given up on denying them both the things they wanted based on some personal code of toughness or nobility.

I've spent so much of my life not letting myself accept these things that Yuwen Yue wants to do for me that I refuse to do so anymore. That doesn't mean, however, that I can't have a bit of fun in the accepting.

"Is this part of your training session?" she asked, unable to resist the temptation to needle her husband.

"Of course," he responded. "Surely you don't think I'd be wasting my time with you otherwise."

"Ah, yes. I'm sure that this is an essential part of your exercise regimen."

"As a matter of fact, it is essential. I need the practice, you see."

"Practice? For what?"

"For carrying you, of course. You get into so much trouble and need rescuing so often that I need to keep my strength up."

"I get into trouble? How much of that trouble is caused by my being around you?"

"You're trying to blame me for the trouble you've gotten into over the years? The first time we met, you were in trouble. Where would you be if it weren't for me?"

Chu Qiao's face went serious as the conversation stopped being funny for her. She lifted a hand and traced her husband's strong jawline, idly musing that he'd only grown more attractive since the first time she'd met him.

"I don't even want to think about where I'd be," she said huskily, looking him in the eye.

"Then don't," he said softly, bending his head and kissing her as they conveniently entered the stand of trees near the wall.

Only too glad to obey her husband in this instance, Chu Qiao allowed herself to lose herself in her husband's embrace. Her hands had wound themselves around the back of Yuwen Yue's neck of their own volition, but she saw no reason to correct their positions. Her husband finally pulled back and looked down at her with a smug grin on his face.

"Is that also part of your training regimen?" she asked, her breathlessness somewhat ruining the sarcasm she'd wanted to convey.

"Of course it is. I want to be able to hold you in my arms and kiss you even when I'm old and gray, so I need to make sure that I build up those muscles now while I'm still young."

"How do you know I'll still want to kiss you when you're old and gray?"

Her husband merely replied with that intense look that always made her eyes widen and her pulse race, and this time was no exception.

"I guess I should be asking you if you'll still want to kiss me even when I'm old and gray—and fat from all of those children that you want me to have with you," she said, a bit of insecurity sneaking into her voice.

Yuwen Yue gently set her down on her feet but still held her close, his hands held possessively at her waist. His heart was in his eyes the way it only ever was when they were alone together—or when the situation was dire enough for him not to care.

"In our line of business, Xing'er, what do we do when we have a question? We gather information about the subject of the question until we have a satisfactory answer. Then we test the validity of the information we've been given so that we know that we have the right answer."

"Oh," was all Chu Qiao could manage.

"We can't truly know how we'll be when we're old and gray, but you can still tell from the shape of your body that you just gave birth to our child recently. Have I given you any impression that I find you less desirable even though you have a bit more weight on you?"

"No," Chu Qiao said softly.

"So there's your information and your observations, Xing'er. Maybe we should also conduct a test to be sure."

While one of his hands stayed at her waist, the other moved around her shoulders as he pulled her in for another kiss. Her husband's kiss left no doubt in her mind about how much he desired her, and he took his time addressing all of her insecurities. After he ended the kiss, he pulled her into a hug and held her there.

"So you've gone from physical exercise to conducting tests on information you've gathered? How professional of you."

"Yes," he murmered into her ear. "These tests are very, very important. In fact, I intend to continue conducting them frequently."

"Just as long as I'm the only one you conduct these tests on, I suppose I could keep helping you with this part of your training also."

His arms tightened around her in response and they stood there peacefully for a few more moments.

"Yuwen Yue," Chu Qiao said suspiciously, an idea forming in her head. "Did you actually want me to see something you found or did you just want to get me alone out here?"

"A good spy knows how to take full advantage of every situation."

"Of course you'd say that."

"No, I actually did want to get your opinion about what happened near the wall. In fact, we're not far from where I want you to start."

Chu Qiao followed her husband as he led her to the edge of the stand of trees and stopped. He stared at her expectantly, and she had a question on the tip of her tongue when a faint but familiar scent reached her nose. Her eyes widened in shock as she tilted her head back to look up into the tree where she figured her old friend must have crouched.

"Zhong Yu," she said decisively, not surprised when Yuwen Yue nodded his head.

"I thought so, but I knew that you'd know for sure. Her identity was the one I was least certain of."

Chu Qiao focused on the other scents around her, carefully walking around what was obviously the sight of an intense fight. Her eyes widened as she saw the trunk of the tree that still had scuffs and bloodstains on it.

"Meng Feng fought someone who actually almost beat her? But who-?"

The question died on her lips as she caught another smell in the area. Memories from long ago assaulted her as she remembered greeting a veiled woman at that long-ago lantern festival, following and fighting her in the inner sanctum of the Eyes of God, and battling with her in the arms dealer's store and hideout.

"Xiao Yu?" she asked, wondering why she was feeling so shocked given their history with the Liang princess.

Yuwen Yue nodded curtly, his jaws clenching visibly.

Chu Qiao walked over to him and hugged him, unsure of whether she was giving or taking comfort. She broke away from Yuwen Yue and walked around the site, coming to most of the same conclusions that her husband had reached and having him confirm them.

Wordlessly, she let him pick her up and carry her back into the stand of trees, the tighter clench of his hands and arms around her body telling her all she needed to know about his state of mind. She put her arms back around his neck, rested her head back on his shoulder, and made a quick decision.

"Who said you could put me down?" she asked her husband in a lofty voice when he went to set her down near the main area of the Courtyard.

"That was our compromise," Yuwen Yue said, looking down at Chu Qiao questioningly.

"Well, I have decided that I do not want to walk back to our rooms today. You shall have to carry me all the way back to my bed."

"I think that can be arranged with a bit of extra effort," Yuwen Yue said, his face impassive but his eyes twinkling.

"I knew I count on you to—Yuwen Yue! You! Where are you going?"

"If you want to actually be able to enter our rooms without my putting you down, then someone else is going to have to open the doors for us. Many of our guards are still resting from the hard work they did last night, but surely there will be someone who can help two such esteemed people as us."

"Right you are, husband," Chu Qiao said, assuming as regal a posture and expression as she could given the circumstances.

Her husband, of course, had his mask on and looked for all the world as if carrying his wife around in his arms was a normal, everyday occurrence for him. They entered the main courtyard and were recognized instantly although nobody really seemed to know how to greet them. The guards and servants stared at them in bewilderment, making Chu Qiao laugh inside even as she held her haughty expression.

Yue Qi was the only one who managed to maintain a straight face. Maybe this was because he'd only recently woken up from the nap that Yuwen Yue had forced him to take after standing guard all night and was still sleepy, or maybe he'd simply grown used to the unpredictability of his master where his master's wife was concerned.

"Open the door at once, Yue Qi," Chu Qiao said in her best "bored, bratty princess" impression. "The master and I need to enter our rooms."

"At once, Chu Da Ren," her husband's personal guard said in a creditable impersonation of one of her Xiulis, adding a bow in for good measure.

Yue Qi opened the door for them with a flourish and closed it behind them once they'd walked inside. Husband and wife stared at each other for a few moments before Yuwen Yue put Chu Qiao down gently. They would've continued looking into each others' eyes, but the mood was shattered by a familiar yet somewhat tired-sounding voice.

"The idiots are coming! The idiots are coming!"

"Ah, you're awake," Yuwen Yue said to his bird. "You slept a long time. Why were you so sleepy?"

"Long night," the parrot said, making his best innocent face.

"Hmmm, yes," Yuwen Yue said, walking over to his bird. "I think you had a very long night, indeed. Would you care to tell me about it?"

In answer, the parrot pretended to fall asleep, even making human-sounding snores. Yuwen Yue pulled out a single, dirt-stained feather from his robes, held it in front of the parrot's face, and tapped his head. He let out an indignant squawk that turned into a squeak when he realized what his master was holding.

"What are you doing, Yuwen Yue?" Chu Qiao asked in puzzlement. "What's that you're holding? Why are you interrogating your parrot?"

"Fool! Fool! Fool!"

"Never mind, husband. Feel free to interrogate him all you want—and any way you want."

"How did Meng Feng escape from the base of the tree last night?" Yuwen Yue asked the room at large.

"Badass! Badass!"

"Yes, she is," Yuwen Yue agreed with his bird. "But I found this at the site of a large fight that happened near the wall last night."

Yuwen Yue held up the dirt-darkened feather, making Chu Qiao gasp in shock as she realized the implications.

"You can't be serious, Yuwen Yue. There's no way..."

"I think Meng Feng and Zhong Yu had some help last night. I think Xiao Yu had Meng Feng beaten at the base of that tree where Zhong Yu couldn't throw her darts. I think something flew into Xiao Yu's head, which caused her to stumble back just far enough for Zhong Yu to have a clear shot with her darts."

Chu Qiao almost started teasing her husband about the ridiculousness of his ideas, but she couldn't stop herself from verbalizing a fundamental truth of their relationship.

"Well, that wouldn't be the weirdest thing that's ever happened around us."

"Sadly enough, that's true," Yuwen Yue agreed.

Chu Qiao walked up to her husband's bird and lightly stroked it on the head.

"Thank you," she said softly.

"Xing'er! Xing'er! Xing'er!"

"From all of us," she said after a baby's cry sounded from the nursery area.

The parrot ducked his head and gave the impression of blushing—if a bird that was already red could blush.

Before Chu Qiao or a servant could get her son, Yuwen Yue had already picked him up and brought him over to the bed she'd already gotten into. The sight of her husband cradling their child so gently and looking down at him with such love was as captivating to her as she'd figured the sight of her feeding their son had been to Yuwen Yue. Their eyes met, and the emotional pull between them seemed almost physical. He gently undid her robes for her before handing her their son.

Obviously trying to regain his composure, he went back to his desk and sat down in the same chair facing their bed that he'd been in early this morning. She watched in amusement has her husband picked up the same briefing he'd been looking at early that morning.

"Going to read that Eyes of God report again?" Chu Qiao said from the bed, holding their son to her breast. "You seemed to find it so interesting this morning."

She smiled as she watched her husband trying to retain his dignity as he unrolled the report and began to read it. Not that his eyes seemed to move all that much—at least not in regards to the briefing.

"Maybe you'd get more done if you came over here," she said, deliberately widening her eyes in innocence.

Yuwen Yue cocked his head as if he were thinking hard. With slow, deliberate motions, he stood up and walked over to the bed, report still in hand. Chu Qiao knew she'd never get tired of watching her husband approach their bed, especially when he had that look on his face. He placed his empty hand on her back and gently pushed her forward, ignoring the baby's indignant squawk as he settled in behind her and pulled her and their son back against him.

He held the report up in one hand and made a show of reading it, not fooling his wife for a second. Chu Qiao figured she'd give him his dignity, though, and remained silent, once again finding no reason to complain about her current circumstances.