Nine Tails of Twin Brothers

Shifu

Mo Yuan's legs carried him in that direction without any conscious thoughts or efforts. He'd left the house for a stroll, while he was no longer in seclusion, he spent most of his time in meditation. He had no schedule for the first time in as long as he could remember and it was both exciting and thrilling. It had been Ye Hua's idea to leave his days open and decide when he woke up what he wanted to do. He'd usually spend part of the day with said twin, either in meditation together or with each doing their own thing. And that had become a routine of sorts for him but today, Ye Hua had obligations in the nine heavens that he had to attend to personally so here he was with no idea what to do and an entire day to do it. He'd thought about taking a stroll then coming back to his meditation and because it had taken him a long time to get to a decision, he immediately started walking while thinking about other things. Somehow he ended up here.

"Shifu"

The voice brought him out of his head and he took a quick minute to get his bearings. He was in Qing Qiu, in front of the small structure by the stream where he'd had drinks more than once with Zhe Yan and Bai Zhi but neither man was there now, instead Bai Qian sat surreounded by scrolls and unopened letters.

"Bai Qian, that seems like a lot of reading" He said, turning from the path in front of him to walk towards the structure where she sat

Bai Qian cocked her head to the side and looked at Mo Yuan with a strange expression on her face "Shifu, are you well?"

"I am. Why do you ask?" Mo Yuan asked as he made his way into the small shed and cleared out a seat for himself. There seemed to be no order or logic to the way papers were scattered to fill all available space

"You called me Bai Qian" She said quietly

"It is your name" Mo Yuan replied. It wasn't a conscious decision but it was one of the things he had been thinking about. He needed to get her away from thinking of him only as her master and the best way he thought of was to stop calling her seventeen and to get her to call him by his name.

"Yes but you always call me seventeen" She said with a pout that made him want to agree with whatever she asked.

But, Mo Yuan dug in "You were my disciple for most of our interaction before my emperor bell incident and I did not have time to adapt to you being the monarch of Qing Qiu, now that I'm back, I can fix that"

"Shifu, I'll always be seventeen. Teacher for a while, teacher for life" She replied

Mo Yuan frowned briefly then poured some tea, the discussion wasn't going the way he planned and he was getting frustated. He sighed and changed the topic "what are you working on?"

"I'm reading non-urgent correspondence that piled up over the last month"

"That's a lot, wouldn't it be better to deal with them as they come in?"

"Who has the energy for that, most of them are unimportant in addition to being non urgent and I refuse to extend my daily work by reading them daily. There's usually some in the pile that puts me in a bad mood, imagine having that on a daily basis. I'd abdicate!!" She

Mo Yuan laughed at the old joke. Bai Qian had been threatening to abdicate before she became monarch and who knows, she may yet do it one day. He settled into his seat and watched her over the rim of his tea cup.

"Shifu, can you help me with an issue?" She asked.

Mo Yuan nodded.

"A small territory affiliated to the nine heavens , I believe, has been encroaching on my southwestern border. Usually, when I talk to small territories and remind them that Qing Qiu defends her borders, they adjust their behavior but this ones are stubborn and I'd like to consider all alternatives before I wipe them out"

"Seventeen!" He blurted then mentally slapped himself for reverting to old habits and calling her seventeen.

"Shifu, they are idiots, they think a marriage alliance with Qing Qiu can be forced and I know that is their end goal" 

Maybe he could go wipe them out instead he thought but remembered he was a venerated elder and a member of the ruling class of the nine heavens which unfortunately never fought with allies unless there was proof of treason. "You should still not wipe them out" He began "maybe give them just a small taste of what could happen if they do not back off"

"Hmmn, I like that. Thank you, Shifu" She said as she stood up, dusted herself and started to navigate around the piles of paper on the floor

"Where are you going?" Mo Yuan asked, barely concealing the urgency in his voice

"To the southwest border"

"Now?"

"No time like the present"

"Only bad students use their Shifu's words against him in an argument" Mo Yuan said with a straight face, sipping is somewhat cool tea

Bai Qian smiled widely "But Shifu, that's proof that I did not forget your lessons"

Brat Mo Yuan muttered under his breath "So you'll abandon this old teacher to go play with people you do not even like"

"I suppose I can deal with them later." she replied, walking back to her seat. "Shifu, I never asked, what brings you to fox den today?"

I wanted to see you. My legs took me where my heart wanted to be. He thought but said "I took a walk and let my legs lead me to where I was needed. I ended up here"

"You took a walk from Kulun to Qing Qiu, not that it's impossible but that doesn't sound like something you would do without a plan"

"I was not in Kulun, I have been staying in Zhe Yan's house since the wedding"

"Bai Qian did not know. I'll have Feng Jiu bring some food by the next time she cooks" 

Mo Yuan considered telling her it was unnecessary as Ye Hua cooked practically everyday but that would require telling her Ye Hua was also there and while he was sure she had no feelings for either of them and that he was not going to sabotage Ye Hua's chance, he also didn't feel the need to help his brother. So he smiled and nodded.

"If Shifu doesn't mind leftovers, we can share a lunch of xiao Jiu's previous cooking" Bai Qian said. 

Mo Yuan agreed and followed walked with her into the mouth of the cave.