A Gentle Torment

Beyond the Gates (Emissary)

"Mo Yuan told me that you know I'm pregnant with twins."

She says it so casually that it almost annoys him.

"Yes, Xiao Wu, Zhe Yan found out from your star. Why don't you actually come home so we can talk about it?" Bai Zhen pours himself another serving of Zhe Yan's wine. He doesn't have to even reach out to realize that she's projecting herself. Her abilities must have at least increased twofold since going to Kunlun mountain -- he can barely see any flaws in the image before him. 

Not even a faint transparency.

"I can't right now." Xiao Wu murmurs slowly before rising, walking over and tugging on his sleeve despite the fact that her hands pass directly through the fabric, "Si Ge..."

She's trying to be cute with him. How much trouble has she actually gotten herself into, this time?

"Xiao Wu, Xiao Wu, you know you can always come home."

Like she had as a pup, she sits down on her knees before looking up at him with big, hopeful doe eyes, "Si Ge~ this is important. I can't leave yet."

"Why not?" Bai Zhen arches a brow curiously, looking down at the pitiful little pout on his only sister's lips.

She knows how to play her game well.

"The person I'm with has helped me a lot, I owe it to her to repay her." It's a weak move to play; and while it's the truth, it's not the whole truth.

She wants to return and take care of her little black snake spirit until she can find a way to convince whoever banished him to their tiny mountain to allow him to return.

"Okay. I'll take your word on that for now. What do the twins have to do with all of this? You're not going to... you're not going to give my nieces or nephews up to them as repayment, are you, Xiao Wu?"

"Of course not, Si Ge! I was getting to that-" His sister pouts as she rests her chin on his arm, "One of my pups had trouble growing. My... friend wanted to put the other to sleep until it could catch up, but her Grandmother had a better solution. It'll be in a lotus until after the other is born. Si Ge, if it shows on the star, can you tell Mother and Father not to worry?"

"Mother and Father are going to worry regardless of what I tell them. They haven't stopped worrying ever since Mo Yuan came to tell us what is going on."

"Shifu went to Qing Qiu...?"  As if being pulled out of her own thoughts, Bai Qian quickly shakes her head, "My focus is wavering, I'm sorry. Do me a favor, can you put my largest luminous pearl and a small trunk full of some of my others on my bed in the fox den? I need to repay her Grandmother and I might be able to strike up an alliance--"

o~O~o~O~o

"A-yin?" Li Jing stops in his tracks when he catches sight of a familiar set of Kunlun robes by the lotus pond, "A-yin!"

"Your majesty," Xuan Nu turns, keeping Bai Qian's face plastered to her features as she offers him a girlish courtesy.

"A-yin! Where have you been?" He could almost cry with relief! She hasn't spoken to him since she stumbled upon him and Xuan Nu in the cave. Even though she avoided him a while back when he visited the mountain only to be intercepted by Dong Hua Dijun, she must have worked through her own emotions to forgive him.

Why else would she be standing here? 

"A-yin," Wrapping his arms around the slender figure when he joins her side, he watches her with relieved, joyful eyes, "A-yin, let's get married. I didn't know you were of the fox clan. If I knew-"