Nine Tails of Twin Brothers

Mo Yuan

Mo Yuan expected the flux of applicants when he announced at the start of the year that he was going to stop taking disciples at the end of the year. What he did not expect was for his brother to bring him an applicant or for said applicant to be the daughter of one of their other brother; disguised as a man of course. He was ready to send her off as he'd done to countless others when the Yuqing Kulun fan which had rejected everyone including himself and current disciples chose her. That was the start of chaos and disorder in his life and his mountain. Bai Qian was as undisciplined as they came and even growing up with her father whom he had considered unruly did nothing to prepare him for the whirlwind she was.

She bent every rule that existed, never actually broke them just always found a loophole or an interpretation that worked for her needs. He was intrigued by her mind, where every other disciple accepted his take on things and asked questions to understand, she pushed him to really question the motives and assumptions behind decisions and accepted norms. He spent many evenings with her alone or in the group with other disciples just discussing. He finally felt like he had room to be himself to try things not just be the god of war who was supposed to have all the answers.

She brought mischief and laughter back to the mountain, there was always something funny or fun that she could do, she found pleasure from the smallest things. She'd roll in a field of flowers and try to sneak in without getting questioned about the stains on her robes. And she drank like a fish in water; he blamed that on Zhe Yan but she rarely acted drunk except for that one time she goaded him into opening his collection of old wines - not his best moment but still that should have clued him into his feelings.

It shouldn't be here when he was moments away from losing his life to the emperor bell and looking down at her and his twin that he realized he was in love and that his only regret was not taking a chance at love in any form. He should have told his twin he loved him and that he was glad he no longer was alone with their legacy. He should have told Bai Qian he loved her, when he told her he knew her real identity and made her announce it to the world so she could keep the magical artifact that still refused to be parted from her but he'd been in denial and had lived within his self imposed inhibitions. Yet he'd missed the chance, it was done and this had to be done so he smiled at them and vowed internally to find a way back to try to live the life he'd have loved to live.