"WAIT WAIT WAIT PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!", Jade screamed frantically, fearing for her life but also feeling the urge to snatch the knife from Taotie's hands and finish the job for him out of embarrassment, because who the hell calls a man beautiful when they're about to brutally murder them?
'Think with your head Jade, not your pussy!', Jade berated herself internally. Taotie bared his teeth at the strange girl that had barged onto his property, approached his son without his permission and then made confusing remarks about him being pretty. All of which she did in the span of less than ten minutes. That had to be a new record for 'shortest time it took to piss him off'.
"THEN TELL ME WHY THE HELL YOUR HERE! AND NO DISTRACTING COMMENTS THIS TIME!", the man screamed back at her. Jade didn't have to be told twice. She got her shit together mentally before stringing together a coherent response that wasn't a poor attempt at flirting.
"My name is Jade! I'm the Dragon Warrior! I'm here because I need your help!", Jade yelled, though not quite as loud as she had been yelling before. That response apparently managed to throw Taotie for a loop, because he pulled the knife away from her throat and looked at her with an utterly baffled expression.
"Wait, the Dragon Warrior? I didn't know Oogway had chosen one.", Taotie said, the reason behind that probably being that he lived out in the sticks surrounded by almost no people, and even if he wasn't, he didn't seem too inclined to make small talk. Jade sighed at his ignorance.
"Yeah well, he did. And now I'm here, because like I said before, I need your help.", Jade reiterated. Taotie put his hands on his hips and looked at her skeptically.
"And why would the oh-so-great Dragon Warrior need my help?", Taotie asked. Jade's annoyed and panicked look vanished as she gave him her answer, one that had him looking intrigued and more than a bit concerned.
"Because the fate of China hangs in the balance."
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After Jade made that ominous declaration, Taotie finally got off of her, ditched the knife, and invited her inside like a civilized person who totally did not threaten to unalive her and then dispose of her body. Jade watched from her place at Taotie's modest kitchen table as her host made them both tea.
"Sorry about earlier. We don't really get a lot of guests out here-watch your step, sweetheart-and the ones we do get usually aren't friendly, so you can imagine why I reacted the way I did when I saw you with Bian Zao.", Taotie said as he fixed his tea set on it's carrying tray, only stopping when Bian Zao ran past him while playing to tell him to be careful. He carried the tray over to the table, and Jade gave him a smile (albeit a weak one).
"No worries, I get it. You saw a stranger talking to your kid and you did what you had to do... though I would've appreciated being threatened without a knife.", Jade said as she rubbed the now bandaged cut on her neck. Taotie had helped her treat it after bringing her inside. The golden eyed man winced.
"Right. Again, sorry. People aren't exactly the nicest to me and Bian Zao, so I've learned to be very aggressive in social situations, even if it's not strictly necessary.", Taotie said as he sat down and started pouring the tea. Jade furrowed her brow in confusion.
"What do you mean? Why wouldn't people be nice to you and your son?", she asked. Sure, he wasn't a kung fu master anymore, but just because he was fired shouldn't be a reason for people to shun him. Taotie sighed heavily and set his kettle down.
"Because I'm dishonored. I'm sure you already know this, but I was once a master at the Jade Palace. I studied alongside Shifu and several others as a student of Oogway. But I had my title stripped from me, and was banished from the palace forever. Because of that, I'm considered a traitor to the ways of kung fu, and an untrustworthy man by the public. People shun me or harass me whenever they can, and Bian Zao by extension. That's why we live out here and avoid people, because no one can shun us if we shun them first.", Taotie said somberly, before taking a sip of his tea. Jade gaped and then scowled at the unfairness of it all.
YOU ARE READING
The Tales of the Dragon Warrior
أدب الهواةHuman!AU, SI-OC. Jade had always been a weird kid, and not in the 'I'm not like the other girls' way. It had kept her from making friends most of her life, so she spent her time practicing karate religiously, being a slut for Bruce Lee movies, and h...
