踏雪尋梅
Tà xuě xún méi
To walk in the snow to view the flowering plum.
Enjoy plum blossoms in winter.

*~*~*~*~*~*

The season started to change, and with it, the relationships in the cabin.

"Is it true... that you once defeated a whole army with a toss of your head?" Sanli asked me, as we sat around the table in the cabin one day, playing with the faded five color cards.

"A toss of my head?" I snorted. "That is ridiculous. Why would you even waste your breath asking if that is true?"

Now that all the men knew of my hidden identity, Sanli had taken to asking me questions at odd moments like this when I could not escape.

He had always been curious about my past, but I couldn't help but feel that his questions seemed to have become more... intrusive, as of late. More demanding.

"It isn't?" Sanli persisted. "You didn't slay a thousand soldiers with a single glance?"

"Of course not!" I said, exasperated.

Outside it was snowing hard. Recently the snow had been starting to thin, till in places our boots would sink down to hard earth. Today it seemed winter, ashamed of its shabby appearance, had decided to paint the world fresh white.

"What about the story where you—"

"Oi, San, why don't you let her relax and enjoy the game, alright?" Zakhar stepped in.

"Why don't you pay more attention to your cards? Perhaps then you wouldn't always lose to me so badly," Sanli retorted.

Zakhar glared but said nothing.

"I'm going to win this hand," said Kageyama quietly.

In fact, the kitsune did a round later, laying his cards down in triumph.

Now I was the only one who had yet to win. "Again," I said irritably.

Sanli dealt the cards, and we began a new game. It seemed with the new game, the prince had also decided to renew his questions.

"What about the story of you being lovers with Liu Zhua? And the Golden Emperor? Are those both true? Or was it just one of them? None of them?"

"A gentleman doesn't ask a woman about past lovers," I said, discarding an unwanted card.

"What about present ones?" asked Sanli, eyeing Zakhar.

"Watch it, prince," Zakhar growled back.

"Oh my, did I say something I shouldn't have?" asked Sanli innocently.

"Constantly," said Kageyama, discarding.

I picked up the kitsune's card, and then lay down my own hand, complete. Sanli looked surprised.

"Perhaps you should pay more attention to your cards, prince. And then you wouldn't lose so badly?" I asked.

We ended the game with that.

Zakhar stood. "Well, I'm going hunting."

Sanli frowned. "It is snowing. And we have plenty of meat."

"I'm going anyway. Care to join me Ao?"

"I will, in a moment. I'd like to speak to the prince."

Zakhar gathered up the things we would need and left. Kageyama took the hint and made himself scarce.

Sanli had moved to the kang, where he sat, staring into the fire as though there were no one else in the room.

I sat beside him. "Look at me, prince."

Sanli turned his head like a sullen boy who knows he has done wrong.

I bent so my eyes met his own. "When I made you that promise, in the cave, to stay with you, I meant it."

Sanli's eyes widened a fraction, then he looked away.

"I will not leave you. However, that does not mean I have to endure your whims, or be with you every moment. And I will not tolerate your rudeness, toward me or Zakhar. Do you understand?"

Sanli murmured an answer that I took for affirmation.

"Good. I do not like jealous men, remember. Do not make me regret agreeing to stay by your side. And do not pout so, wrinkles will form between your eyes."

I reached out and poked the lines between his brows, and Sanli flinched, dropping his scowl.

I laughed, standing. Then, because the lines had still not vanished completely from between Sanli's brows, I quickly bent and kissed there.

I laughed again at Sanli's expression. "Do not make me regret my promise," I repeated.

"I won't, Ao," said Sanli quietly as I left.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Outside Zakhar was waiting for me at the bottom of the steps.

He lifted his arm, the bearskin thrown over it, to shield me from the falling snow.

"I am fine," I told him, but Zakhar did not lower his arm. I fell into step beside him, crunching through fresh drifts.

"What is wrong?" I asked him, seeing the distracted look on Zakhar's face.

"Nothing," said Zakhar, as we turned and started making our way to the meadow. "I just don't like the way Sanli talks to you. It's as though your life is a game for him to play."

"He doesn't mean anything by it," I said. "If I am not bothered, you should not be either."

Zakhar grunted and raised the bearskin higher to keep the snow from my hair.

We did not have to go far. After a short walk into the wood, we reached the meadow.

Our hide waited for us, but it was no longer the simple nest Zakhar had dug in the snow beneath the fir tree. He had built it up, using buckets of pressed snow as blocks, and then sealed in the gaps between using more snow as mortar.

Finally, using snow as plaster, he had smoothed the whole thing over, till it resembled a little hill nestled under the fir tree.

There was a small entrance facing the meadow that I had to crouch through, and Zakhar had to crawl through. Inside we had furnished our snow hide with everything we needed. A lantern hanging by a hook drove through the icey ceiling. A large mat of woven rushes to protect from the chill of the frozen floor. A crate we sealed up to prevent animals from touching, containing a clay teakettle and a jar of dried herbs which served as tea for lack of real leaves. A small table Zakhar had built from branches lashed together, on which our chess set sat.

There was even a brazier Zakhar had made from an old pot, raised on a stand of bound branches. Zakhar lit a fire in it now, and I sat beside it on the bearskin to warm my hands. Small though the fire was, it warmed the space, and gave it a cozy feel.

Zakhar, bent double by the low ceiling, moved to sit beside me. In the recent weeks, it had become so that he and I were spending almost as much of our time here as in the cabin. Some nights, when it was not so cold, we even stayed, Zakhar sealing up the entrance with snow to deter animal visitors.

Ostensibly, we were night hunting, but it was pretty clear to everyone by now what we were doing.

I studied Zakhar beside me, as he fed another stick into the small fire, then another. His brow was furrowed, as the little prince's had been. I wondered what he worried over.

No matter. I knew how to remove those lines.

"Shall we play a game?" I asked Zakhar, motioning to the table and the chess set.

"Alright," said Zakhar, snapping from his thoughts. He brought the little table to sit between us on the bearskin. "And what does the winner get?"

"Why, the loser of course," I said, with a smile so sly Zakhar's ears reddened even as he laughed and agreed.

I won the game. Or perhaps Zakhar let me win. It did not really matter. We both got what we wanted in the end.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Afterwards we lay on the bearskin, a blanket and more furs pulled over us.

Our clothes were piled in a messy heap to one side. We were still warm from lovemaking, and so did not need them, but as the afternoon drew to evening even the coziness of our hide would cool, necessitating their return to our bodies.

For now though I savored the feel of Zakhar's skin against mine, his warmth soaking into every part of my body as I lay against him.

I turned, to see what was left of our chess game, the pieces toppled as the board had been hastily shoved to one side. I thought of something.

"Is it alright if I bring the chess set back to the cabin? I want to play with the little prince. Perhaps he will not sulk so every time we leave."

I knew from the feel of Zakhar's out breath on my neck he was not pleased. "You are becoming as bad as Kageyama, always giving in to his moods."

I thought of Sanli's crying face, in the cave, begging me not to leave him.

"As you grow to know a person, it becomes easier to forgive their faults."

Zakhar grunted.

I took his large hand in my own, fanning out the fingers, tracing the lines inked on the back of the knuckles.

"You are an officer," I said. "A captain, no less. What mission were you sent on again? It must have been important to warrant an officer."

I could feel Zakhar's frown, on the back of my neck. "How do you know the ranks?" he asked.

"You are not the first lover I've had in the Black Lord's army." I threaded our fingers together and clasped them tight.

Zakhar said nothing, but I could sense his surprise. Insensitive. He did not need to know that, I thought.

But when he spoke, I realized it was not mention of a previous lover that had surprised him.

"We're lovers?" asked Zakhar, voice quiet.

Oh, that is why he is surprised. "We are friends, of course—" I began.

Zakhar's chest shook behind me, and his arm pressed me tighter to it. And to other parts of his body.

"Oh no, it is too late to take it back now," he said in my ear. "We are lovers."

I awkwardly slapped at the ink covered arm wrapped around my waist. "Do not tease. And careful what you ask for, 'Big Boy'. Friends are for always. But lovers are just as easily left as kept."

Zakhar's laughter settled. "I'm sorry, I'll stop. Don't leave me, I'll stop."

"Humph. Good."

I yawned, the pleasant, drowsy feelings that followed intimacy creeping over me. That plus the warmth radiating from Zakhar's limbs and sleep was stalking ever closer.

Just before my mind started to drift, I thought I heard Zakhar's voice above me, the laughter in it still.

"I suppose it is true then, what they say. Men and women can never be just friends."

*~*~*~*~*~*

After my words to him in the cabin that day, Sanli stopped his provocative talk. But it seemed his resentment of Zakhar grew.

Small, annoying accidents happened constantly. A portion of meat Zakhar had been saving dropped to the floor. A whole pot of tea accidentally spilled on Zakahr's bed roll. And one morning Zakhar's boots, left on the deck of the cabin, had snow fallen into them, when none of our boots, sat just beside his, did.

All things small enough to cast doubt as to whether or not they were intentional or not. But I knew from the prince's smug countenance they were planned.

Zakhar for the most part ignored these petty attempts to anger him. But even he could not stay calm forever.

"Ao, I was thinking the plum trees up the valley might be close to blooming. Perhaps we could go cut a branch, and bring it back to the cabin," Zakhar said to me one day, about a week after our card game. The snow from that day had already thinned considerably.

"I would like another visit to the hot spring," I said, pausing the chess game I was having with the prince. "Let us go there first, and stop by the plum grove on the way back."

"Agreed"," said Zakhar with a broad grin. "Let's leave tomorrow, before the snow returns."

Zakhar turned toward the door. As he did he stumbled over the stool that had somehow appeared in his way.

A small smile spread over Sanli's face, and I realized he was the cause.

After what had happened before when I had struck the prince, I had sworn not to hit Sanli or anyone I cared for again. But at that moment I was sorely tempted.

And Zakhar was more than tempted.

"That DOES IT!" Zakhar roared, rounding and slamming both his hands down on the table. The blow rattled the whole cabin, and set our chess pieces rolling across the table.

Zakhar grabbed the front of Sanli's shirt, pulling the prince to his feet. "Outside, now," he growled.

I stood, but before I could intervene Kageyama was there, pulling the two men apart. "Unfortunately Zakhar, much as I would love to let you knock some sense into him, I have sworn to protect him from harm," said Kageyama.

Zakhar took a deep breath and pointed a finger at Sanli. "I am tired of your stupid little pranks. We are not children fighting over the same toy!"

Sanli slapped Zakhar's pointed finger away. "I am tired of YOU, pretending you have claim to something to which you have no right!" Sanli near yelled back. The prince's voice shook.

My eyes narrowed.

"ENOUGH!" yelled Kageyama. "I am tired of the both of you. And I'm sure Lady Ao is as well. You two need to figure out how to make it through the rest of the winter without driving us all mad."

Sanli and Zakhar both glared at each other, fists tight, lips pressed in flat lines.

"You better have this sorted out by the time we come back, or you're both sleeping in the stables. And I mean sorted with WORDS, not fists like drunken imbeciles."

Kageyama gestured to me. "You. Come with me. We're going hunting."

I decided not to question him. Gathering my things, I followed Kageyama out into the snow.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Here is some fantastic art by SwayWayWay ! The colors are amazing. I really feel like I'm in the water with Ao. Look at the detail on those rings! And I love the dragon, because it looks like a Japanese Giant Salamander, my one true love. Thank you Sway!