Choices

5 - Temptations

A/N: A taste of something sweet, steamy, and spicy. =P

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When Fengjiu first made the deal to stay at Xiaoyan's palace to be his stand-in chef as they waited for Fanyin Valley to open, one of her biggest concerns was how to pass the time when she wasn't cooking. The demon realm, while vast, was a pretty dull place for a fox, with its harsh terrain, perpetually dark skies, and extreme weather patterns. In short, there is little fun to be had, whether inside or outside Xiaoyan's castle.

But four months into her stay and having the full run of Donghua Dijun's vast domain, Fengjiu found that she was not short of things to do. In fact, she was having a pretty swell time rediscovering all the places she knew and didn't know about the place that Dijun had chosen as his permanent residence following his retirement.

She's been to every nook and corner of this majestic, dark stone palace as Dijun's pet fox, but the sights and sounds are different, indeed, when viewed from a human's perspective.

Her favorite place, however, whether as a fox or as a human remained the same -- the indoor hot pools, located at the southern part of the palace complex. It was a natural thing of beauty, heated by the underground lava trenches of the demon realm's volcanoes, and nestled in a relatively secluded area surrounded by foliage that only Dijun's cultivation could enable to grow in the Southern Realm's parched land.

As she bathed in the warm waters, hair loose about her shoulders and clad only in a thin bathing robe, Fengjiu's mind wandered. Idly, she thought of how things might have been had Donghua chosen to remain in Jiuchongtian and kept the ways of the gods. Would things have been easier between them? Would there be some sort of fate between them at least, if that was the case?

The memory is clear as if it happened only yesterday, when she first laid her eyes on Donghua's face as he looked down at her on his lap, on the day she strayed back to his palace in the fox skin given by Nie Chuyin.

"Awake?" A soft voice asked, from thin lips that looked so soft yet so cold. Dark eyes framed by thick lashes peered down on her in an assessing manner, and silk-like tresses of silver tickled the nose of her borrowed skin. Gentle hands - its fingers nimble and calloused - scratched her ears, earning a purr from her throat.

A smile lifted the corners of his lips at the sound she made. He lifted her up to inspect her on eye level. "I once saved an ungrateful little fox from being eaten by a beast in Qin Yao mountain. It's a millennia late, but I'm glad you know how to find your savior and show gratitude."

He remembered? Most importantly, he recognized her? But this isn't her true fox skin...wait, weren't her tails twisted into one fluffy bundle back when he saved her? Perhaps Dijun recognized her fairy energy, but not her fox form?

Hmmm. This could work in her favor. Since the her whom Dijun rescued was a fox, then she could still repay him even when in this form. And since this skin is borrowed, she won't be recognized, and thus won't go against her family's strict prohibition against catching Donghua's eye.

Mind made up, Fengjiu did the only thing she could at that moment, in an attempt to convince him to keep her and not throw her out - yipped, and stuck her tongue out to lick shyly at his nose.