"Did you have fun?" Feng Jiu greeted them when they returned. "Oh my, you even brought back fruits," she eyed the basket Gun Gun was holding with happiness, eyes curving to moon crescents as she ruffled her son's hair affectionately.

Gun Gun ran towards her and gave her the fruits. "Mother, can you make me lots of delicious cakes? I'm very hungry," then he whispered. "Also, can I hunt with Prince Fenrir?"

"It'd do him a lot of good, Teacher," remarked Fenrir who was munching on an apple, a hunting bow already on his back, which looked very comical since he was bearing the appearance of a four-year old mortal. Gun Gun, who was millenias younger than him, looked older than him in the meantime.

If he did that bearing the appearance of a twelve or fifteen year old mortal, he would have looked alright, but currently, he looked like a dumpling trying to scare off someone with a pout.

Feng Jiu clapped her hands in delight. "Good idea. You can hunt, and we can have a feast to celebrate your arrival here," she conjured a sword in her hand. "While you hunt, I can prepare for desserts," she passed the sword to Gun Gun. "Take care of that, because that right there is my personal hunting weapon," Gun Gun cheered and raced outside, accompanied by Fenrir claiming it was necessary that someone watch over Gun Gun.

"Mask his appearance well, Cheng Jiao," it would do no one good if someone thinks that Gun Gun would be a valuable hostage just because of his hair color. While she was confident that Cheng Jiao could handle those nuisances effortlessly, she'd rather not deal with the ruckus after it would be all over the kingdom.

Cheng Jiao got on one knee to pay his salutations and reached into his robes, pulling out a letter. "It is from Grand General Canterbury, My Lady."

Feng Jiu shook her head as she unrolled the parchment. "Cheng Jiao, you should call him Demon Lord Gu. We are not in the same realm anymore," she smiled, reading the contents. "Run along after them then," Cheng Jiao did not waste anymore time and hurried after both Gun Gun and Fenrir. Jormungand was not with them because he was currently purifying the Northern Deserts.

Blessings and graces be upon Her Highness, Bai Feng Jiu,

I write this letter to you, to give my words of welcome to the young prince Gun Gun...

Did that mean that every other from the Nine Realms knew of his arrival? It unnerved Feng Jiu, as she did not even sense it. But that was probably because she was retrieving Fenrir somewhere in the Demon Lands after that failed attempt on him.

... may the young princes be blessed with a happy, healthy and safe stay in the Nine Heavens.

Best of wishes,

Demon Lord Gu XiaoYu

Feng Jiu set the letter aside, mentally reminding herself to write a reply to it after she was done and sighed, reaching for the mind of one of her summons. Through its eyes, she sees Fenrir and Gun Gun traipsing through the woods, dutifully guarded by Cheng Jiao, before disconnecting.

Once again, she sighed, this time, resting her chin onto her propped up palm.

Something was amiss.

She did not know who or what it was, for that something had too little presence for her to single out and analyse it carefully. There was something in this realm, something so out of place, so out of time, and so, alongside Gun Gun's banquet, she had also been keeping her ears open through the realms to hear anything from anyone - rocks, flowers, animals, demons, fairies, mermaids, even mortals, anything that could give her information.

But so far, there was none. Perhaps, this something was veiled from their eyes? Which would be a curious thing indeed, a rare singularity in this world.

There is something in this anomaly, something that calls her soul, pulls her ichor in many ways that it had not been since many years ago. It feels comforting - which is something phenomenal, since the number of things that make her feel as if she is safe can be counted with one hand - like the warmth of the sun after the winter. This feeling of apricity was foreign, but it was a welcomed one.

Perhaps she can make time for this. After Gun Gun's banquet, that is. Perhaps she should also enlist the aid of Gu Xiao Yu for this matter - his tracking skills, after all, had been one of the best.

For the third time, Feng Jiu exhaled a sigh, pushing herself to a stand. She directed the books sprawled open in her study to close, placing them in a neat pile in one of the tables. With these many things weighing her mind, it appears she cannot find any motivation to proofread the books Fenrir and Jormungandr had co-authored - not even for the many hilarious translation mistakes that led to amusing results.

Oh well, Hela had always been the quick learner among the lot.

A knock breaks Feng Jiu out of her reverie. Her gaze to the entrace of the Fox Hole, a frown graces her lips, wondering who would be seeking audience with her. Nevertheless, she strode to the entrance of the cave.

Perhaps it was the lack of rain again in the Southern Border. Zhihe could be petty when she wanted to, but her pitiful attempts of getting even with her was so insignificant that Feng Jiu could afford not batting an eyelash to her direction at all.

A curt greeting was upon her tongue, but the moment she saw her guest, the words died immediately, fear blooming in her heart as she looked at Dong Hua's unmistakeable white hair and purple robes.

Time slowed to a standstill around the two of them, and for a few brief moments, Feng Jiu allowed hersef to look at him properly. The years had been long, but time seemed to not have affected him at all.

And then it was over. Feng Jiu willed herself to forget she ever did that, steeling her heart and her resolve.

"Greetings, Your Majesty. To what honor does the monarch of Eastern Qing Qiu owe you this visit?" greetings between master and subordinate, but not one that would be exchanged between former spouses - too cold, too curt, too distant.

"Xiao Bai..."

The fox monarch's cordial smile stiffened hearing the name she grew to love and loathe over time. Still, she kept the trembling of her wrists in check, pinching the soft skin, not trusting herself to be able to remain calm after hearing that damning endearment.

The cordial curve of Feng Jiu's lips lessened for a bit, before she finally allowed herself to look at Dong Hua eye-to-eye. "His Majesty should not use such a familiar nickname. Our time as spouses, after all, had come to pass."

The notion was clear. You hurt me. I have decided to cut you off from my life. You are in no position to act familiar with me.

She was never going to let herself fall again. Pearl or no pearl.

::

Natasha knew that the moment she had agreed to that Avengers Initiative clusterfuck that Fury had all but shoved in her face - if only to get him off her back, to be honest - things were bound to get... messier. Messier as in aliens and other worlds, seeing a real God face-to-face, and then getting blown off a building and off-world.

The last one, she was speaking quite literally.

Honestly, she shouldn't have expected of anything less when they put together this whole schtick - arrogant genius philanthrophist billionaire playboy, (Tony's words, not hers), super-serumed super soldier from a century ago, a scientist who could transform to a green rage monster, and then, she and Barton.

She was not playing favorites. It just so happened that she and Barton were the most normal people on the team - as normal as being secret agents of a secret organization can be.

Still, quite unfair that only she was blown off-world.

Had Natasha been a lesser human, she would have already lost her damn mind by this point. How many years had it been since she landed into this world with no assets to her name and armed with only the clothes and weapons on her back?

Oh, right, only a couple of decades. Specifically, three. That was 30 years in total.

What the fuck, actually.

"My Lord, it's good to see you are well enough to go to office again."

And so, here she was, playing a long term undercover mission under the name of Lan Wu You, county magistrate of Shennong of the country Da Ping.

Keep in mind that Natasha may have played long term undercover in the political sector in Earth - or Midgard, as the Thunder God Thor called it - and was damn good playing that game, did not mean she enjoyed it.

When one was navigatng the muddy waters of politics, the luckiest they could get away with were stress lines.

Natasha turned to look at the mousey haired boy and nodded, careful to keep her voice low and gravelly, like a man on his way to his sixties - just as her disguise had intended. "Well, I've rested for far too long. Can't waste such a good day to spend it on my bed."

"The Minister of Audit arrived yesterday, and he wishes to speak with you. I would have informed you immediately, but the Minister himself had said that he was in no hurry, and he does not wish to impede your recovery."

Natasha's smile froze on her face. Darn it. That brat still wasn't giving up? Hoo, even after all those times she abandoned decorum to speak frankly to his face that no, thank you very much, but she was on the way to retirement, and even if Lan Wu You would not be retiring, he wouldn't have the patience for court life.

There was a perfect residence waiting for her once she can arrange Lan Wu You's 'death', and consequently, a much preferred life. Nothing extravagant - a simple hut warmed enough so she wouldn't freeze to death in winters, a garden for her to tend and to eat, just a place where she can spend many years in leisure without any worry in the world.

A plan that would take longer to fulfill if that pretty boy continued to cling onto Lan Wu You like an overgrown barnacle.

Why oh why did she have to have a bleeding heart that she saved this brat ten years ago from drowning in the river? Oh right, Black Widow she may be, super-serumed assassin with too much red in her ledger, it was too much for her conscience to watch a child drown to death in front of her.

Which led to this... little bit of problem.

For the umpteenth time since she had landed in this godforsaken ancient world, Natasha wished that SHIELD's very prized research department, and Tony's genius were hustling their asses to try and find her way back. For God's fucking sake, even though her reports say that she has a high adaptibility rate, there was only so much adapting one who was used to the convenience of technology can do.

It's been a long time since Natasha found herself asset-less, probably about... hmm, let's see... over a century ago, when she was newly defected from the Red Room.

She feels displaced in this world, an accurate feeling to what she truly was. Alien, foreigner, interloper, otherworlder.

"Best to get it over with then," she huffed under her breath. "Where is the Minister now? I will speak with him."

"He has been staying in the Moonflower Inn. Now that I think about it, shouldn't someone like the Minister be very busy?" Xiao Liu wondered aloud.

Natasha internally rolled her eyes. What Xiao Liu said was true, but faced with the super genius of someone like Hong Cexui, paperwork was but a lesser opponent in his eyes.

Natasha waved her sleeves and stood up. "Sort my paperwork while I'm gone. I will go to the Marquis."

::

"It seems highly unlikely that my Gun Gun would be Your Majesty's son. He is 200 years old, far too young for you to have fathered him. He should, at the very least, be 18000 years old."

Feng Jiu is an excellent liar. Has been since her awakening in the Nine Realms. A proof of that is how she mentored the God of Lies and Mischief to who he was today - Feng Jiu liked to think that Loki inherited her cunning from her. Queen Frigga, although deserving of the title of a Grand Sorceress herself, had been more on the elegant side, and less on the cunning side.

Lying to the face of the most powerful deity in existence throughout the realms in this plane, as well as being the representative of the primordial race, and also her ex-husband to boot... was laughably easy.

It was practically like second nature to her at this point.

She had mastered the art of lying so well that if those Midgardians - or anyone, really - had hooked her up to any lie detector test known to any being in existence, she'd pass with flying colours, even without the use of magic.

Gun Gun's parentage is a tricky matter. As a child born from a heavenly trial, it was inevitable that Gun Gun inherently took more of Feng Jiu's traits from when she had been in the Nine Realms, which made it easier for her to say that he was half an immortal and half an Asgardian. She had already lied and made up a story of his missing father - read [dead] - in order to throw off suspicion, but she already feared what would happen should Gun Gun stay in this place for any longer.

After all, Gun Gun was born in the Nine Realms, and in such a situation, it suppressed his immortal abilities since it was incompatible with the essence in the Nine Realms. However, the longer he stays in this place, the more the shackles of these immortal abilities would be unlocked. If that happened, when the time comes when his essence is finally fully unveiled, there is no denying anymore that he was Dong Hua's son.

Feng Jiu was not stupid. She was not someone who was foolish enough to place her hopes in luck to wish that if ever the shackle on his immortal abilities would be fully lifted, Gun Gun's immortal essence would take after hers. Dong Hua had always been the more powerful one between them and if ever he gets a whiff of his immortal essence in Gun Gun, the play was done.

She needs to be careful, because once Dong Hua becomes interested, there was no escaping from his eyes.

The only buffer that stood between Dong Hua and the truth was the fact that he didn't know how much time had really passed for her in the Nine Realms.

'No matter, no matter. I have always been an excellent liar.'

Dong Hua, of course, as the most powerful person in all of the realms, had gotten an invitation to Gun Gun's banquet - who somehow interpreted it in another way. Whatever happens from now on, Feng Jiu would rather shoot herself in the foot rather than admit that ugly truth.

The two held each other's gazes, both unwavering. Finally, Dong Hua stopped the sliver of disappointment that was about to paint itself on his face as soon as he saw his ex-wife's impassive face. This time, getting the divine fungal grass was an easier task compared to getting an answer out of Feng Jiu through her expressions.

'But then again, I only have myself to blame,' he sighed lamentably in his heart. Feng Jiu's shift in attitude, he himself had a lot of part in it. Had he only been more patient, more just - had been less blinded in the promise he made to Ji Heng's father, perhaps this would have not happened at all. Perhaps Feng Jiu would still have remained his Empress, the mistress of Taichen Palace, and perhaps... a little prince of their own could've been running in those halls by now.

Unfortunately, that was a future he himself had vanquished. Quite foolish of him, really.

He pursed his lips. "All right. I will stop pursuing the matter of Gun Gun's origins. However, the matter with the luminous pearl..." it was a subtle reaction, one he would have missed had he not been observing her intently. Her eyes narrowed by barely a hair's breadth, obviously displeased by his knowledge about the probably forbidden magic she dabbled in.

Magic that had been unknown even to him.

"Rest assured, Your Majesty. I am not a child, I knew what the consequences were when I used that magic. Do not fret, for I am not so foolish as to use it for a second time."

Unable to say anything more, Dong Hua forced himself to nod, then slowly walked back to the Fox Hole's entrance. His presence was unwelcome here, one he was already made aware of several times. He didn't have the heart to villainize himself in Feng Jiu's eyes any further.

::::::::::::::::::::

It has been twenty-two chapters, but Natasha has finally made her entrance! I love, love, Natasha Romanoff and was ugly sobbing when she died in Endgame!!!  q(≧▽≦q)

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