"If you want me to go on a walk with you every morning then I'm going to insist morning starts a lot later than it currently does"
Ye Hua had called it family time, he'd insisted that A-Li needed to spend time with both of them together as well as separately. Logically, she knew he was right but spending all that time chatting with him wasn't doing her resolve to stop loving him any good.
He kept his pace much slower than he would like to match hers. She'd dragged her feet every morning but she came along and slowly increased her part of the conversation from grunts and nods to smiles and now words. He'd take her words over silence even if they were complaints.
"I wonder how it feels to have siblings" He said out loud as he worked to release the clump of his hair A-Li had grabbed on to.
She eyed him briefly then reached for the baby who gave up the hair as he leaned towards her. "You compete for everything and everyone tries to stop you from doing things" then she laughed. "That's not completely true nor is it all of it but I was the runt of the litter and the only girl, only fourth brother allowed me to roam around as much as I wanted. Everyone else tried - unsuccessfully - to keep me reasonable. They all gave up eventually. My father always said he aged more in my first 25,000 years than in all the years before that and the old phoenix agreed with him"
"Of course they realized soon enough that telling what not to do was merely giving me a list of things to do. Mother made arrangements to send me to ... "
She sighed as she realized what she had been about to reveal. When she looked up at Ye Hua, she realized they'd stopped walking and he was standing really close.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked taking a small step back
"You've always been good looking but you look amazing when you're happy. The immortal glow also adds a bit"
"I ..." She looked away and focused on the baby in her arms
He smiled, Qian Qian didn't take compliments as well as Su Su did. It was a lot easier to get her flustered.
"Let's head back" He said as he started walking. Because he knew she wasn't going to continue her monologue on her childhood or ask about his, he started talking.
"We had very different childhoods. I did everything that was expected of me, followed all the books and spent a lot of time reading"
"That must have been boring. Didn't you feel lonely?"
He stared at her like he'd been struck. Everyone always marveled at how much he accomplished at such a young age but no one ever asked how he felt
"You don't have to ans...."
"I never thought about it. Everyone was happy, I got more freedom to do things. It sort of worked out"
"That explains your family dynamic well" she said with a sigh thinking he'd have made a poor fox, foxes rarely did as they were told. He was mature for his age, too matured. But he hadn't figured out how to deal with the dysfunction in his family. She couldn't fault him though, her niece Fengjiu was older than him but still traipsing all over the world and unlike him who was already a high god, Fengjiu was not even a high immortal yet.
"I'm going to cook lunch today" She said then laughed as she saw the fear creep into Ye Hua's eyes
"Qian Qian, the last time you cooked, you burnt down this hut"
"And yet here it stands"
"Maybe I should come with you"
"You don't trust me?"
"I do, its ..."
"You're about to put your foot in your mouth, dragon" she laughed and sailed into the kitchen.
What could go wrong? Ye Hua sighed and decided to hold on to A-Li rather than settle him into his crib, faster to get everyone out that way. At least she was happy and talking to him
She didn't burn down the hut and she had food come out of the kitchen. Ye Hua studied the food in front of him and wondered which was braver; eating the food out of love or not eating it and risking her getting hurt or angry at him.
He decided to try the food and she laughed as he picked up his chopsticks. He looked at her with questions in his eyes
"You're brave to try it. I won't hold it against you if you don't"
"You went through the trouble, I'll eat it. I can then say I'm the only one you ever cooked for"
"Not entirely true, you'll be the only one that has eaten it. I've cooked for my family before, none of them ate, not even my father and. Even Mi Gu did not eat. Father says its the only thing he can't do for me" She laughed
He bit tentatively into the food and swallowed out of determination rather than in response to the taste. She watched him eat the barely edible food with the gusto of one eating at a banquet fit for the king. She knew he ate it out of love and she felt her hear stir in response.
Later that night, she asked herself why she was so masochistic as to love him again, not again for she never stopped loving him.
YOU ARE READING
Through it all (a ten miles of peach blossoms fan fiction)
Fanfiction[Complete] Bai Qian has returned from her mortal trials with her memory and her newly elevated powers. She wants her son, she wants her eyes and she wants justice. This time, she has everything she needs to make it happen I recently watched the Chin...
