The Concubine's Cannon

Chapter 13: Written Issues

"Mulan....Mulan, let's stop here." She doesn't listen. "Mulan! We've got training. And even if it's night someone could catch us." She finally nods in understanding. A bow later they walk into the room. He's never yelled at her before. Had she gone too far again? She walks in behind him, the dim lights of lanterns illuminating the place. The girls giggle as if they're having a slumber party. He rolls his eyes and begins the training.

"I'm not going easy on you now." He warns his lover and she nods her agreement. "Let's just hope you can keep up." They bow their respects and step into place. Mulan makes the first move. They dodge and punch, aim and kick, they match each other perfectly, yet something is off.

"I thought you said you weren't going to go easy?" She finally states her accusation. "I'm not." He aims for another hit though she easily dodges it. This was supposed to be a demonstration for the rest so why were all of his advances so poor? "What did I say our first day of training? Treat me like one of your soldiers." She stops in her tracks and takes a relaxing pose.

"What are you doing, Mulan? I'm not going to hit you." He gets into a regular, having his arms crossed. "Fine." She says this right before she draws her leg up for a kick to the head. While it would open her up a lot that's what she wants. It would be easy to attack and beat her right there but nope. He throws her leg back and stumbles a few times before straightening up and going to attack again. "It's not going to work," he tries to warn her but she doesn't listen. She just does the same move over and over and over again.

"Seriously Mulan. Sto..." his words halt when she finally kicks him in the stomach. He stumbles back but luckily catches himself. "You shouldn't talk in the middle of a match." She giggles till a swift punch knocks her down. "And you shouldn't let your guard down. So a real match?" He raises a brow and they agree. Though she quickly loses because of her fatigue from the previous attacks she's happy he finally went all out.

"Maybe we should spar more often." She grins at the idea only to get a roll of the eyes from Shang. "You only want to so you can pin me to the ground again." She giggles and touches her hand to the door. A sigh escapes their hold and she opens it. "Mulan?" He notices the shrunken look on her face. "What's wrong?" She turns to him with a sympathetic, apologetic smile. A finger is held to her lips. He nods and they continue on their way.

"GUY!" The short captain runs over. "I think he's drunk again," Shang grimaces. "He looks sober enough," Mulan notes. They hadn't seen the man all day. "Haha. Very funny, but I'm being serious! They're planning on moving the troops early." Her jaw drops and Shang tenses. Needless to say, they're both shocked. "But they weren't supposed to move out until a week after the supplies came. What happened?" Her brows furrow and Mang just shrugs. "I guess they decided it was best to send them out sooner in case they tried to invade while they were still here." Mulan presses a hand to her head. Shang massages the bridge of his nose.

"Okay, okay. Mang, I'll need to give you a list of people you need to blackmail. Bring some of your sex-driven friends as well, I'll bring one of the women with me. Shang, get your troops. I'll dress as Ping and talk to them all at once. Bring them around to the entertainment hall. No one would expect this kind of meeting to be taken place there. I expect them there tomorrow." Her heart pounds in her chest. Mang nods and runs off. She switches her direction from her room to the archives.

"Where are we going?" The general looks down at her, both are wearing a worried face. "We're going to the archives. I didn't realize... crap. Remind me to ask him when they're moving out." She opens the door and the shelf filled room is exposed. Only about three other people are in there. "We need to hurry." She grabs several of the maps she previously had along with a few blank scrolls and pieces of paper. She takes a seat at a table with Shang across from her. Bathing her brush into the ink she pulls it out and begins to make it sweep across the page. They only had so much time left.

"I suggest writing a list of people you need to speak to." She eyes him from above the paper. He had been staring at her for ten minutes now. "Right." He grabs a piece of his own paper and begins to write as well. The two sketch along the lines, their heart beating fast. They had no idea when the troops were going to leave or if they had time to cover all of them. Their illness had already spread fast across the girls, even some of the servants had begun to play pretend. Whatever the soldiers had to say in order to get out from being sent they surely would think it was the quick-spread disease.

They write and write and write. By the time the sun was up Shang had already laid his head down and was sleeping. Mulan taking no note of it was still working. Plans and names, angles and tactics some were risky while others were brilliant. She had already started to fidget an hour into this, at this point she was rocking to keep her mind from drifting off. She needed every possibility to be covered before she could go asleep. Every... Her head slams into the wood and she jerks back up. The peaceful Shang finally catches her eyes. She envies him.

"Shang," her voice is dreary and her arm is weak. "Shang!" She gets a bit louder. "Shang!" He lifts his head only slightly at the small cry of her voice. "Come back to bed...." His words are slurred and his eyes close back. She sighs and caresses the side of his cheek. He smiles and leans into the touch. "So nice," he whispers. Her lips form a smile until they force themself to frown. She pinches his cheek and he jerks up. "Ow! Okay, okay..." He continues to trail off and the sleepiness dries over. "I'm up," he announces.

"Good." She pouts and continues to look down at the map. "Can you take over the planning? I think the dizziness is getting to me." She drifts off and leans her head onto her hand, one of the few breaks she's given herself. "Were you up all night?" She ignores his question and prompts to grabbing another scroll. She does a last check of the names and stands up. "I'm going to give this to Mang and then get the maps from Ai. I still need to blackmail some people later, then tell the women what's going on, and I'm going to need to fake an illness soon, don't forget..." "Slow down," he places a hand on hers and she nods submissively. She loved the control she had over him while kissing but this was something different. It wasn't the same submissiveness during training, something completely different. Something that makes her heart melt, her head spin, something sick and twisted, and yet she loves it.

"Right." She nods and takes a breath. "We need to give this to Mang first. We'll deal with the rest as we go." He nods and then stands. He takes out his hand and sticks it out to her. "Let's send some death threats." She laughs at his humor and takes his hand. Pulling her up they walk out. "We'll do this together." We'll. We. How he loves that word now. Never in his life was he able to use it before and now... He had a fine partner to say the two-letter word to him every day if he pleased.

"They'll listen. If not we'll make them."

Author: Okay... So I didn't use the title I said I would, but hey! Written Issues sounds so much cleaner. Either way I hope you enjoyed and I have some exciting news! The story is almost finished!!! I'm planning on my next story being a Jake and the Neverland Pirates story. I've been working on it for a while and I feel like it's almost ready to be posted. But for now, you'll just have to wait!

Do you guys prefer Zootopia or Brave/Jarida? I'm thinking about doing a story for both of them but I don't have too many ideas yet. I just want an opinion on the matter.