Chapter Text
Of all the people it could have been Marco did not expect to find his soulmate in the Chinese woman who had tried to kill the empress and live to tell about it. He had passed her in the hallway as she was escorted back into her prison and she had looked him in the eye daring him to look down upon her. She had been wearing a simple robe, her hair in slight disarray, her hands heavily shacked and the bruises were still present on her face but she stood before him as regal as any queen who ever ruled.
“Is your world so dull that you would find me fascinating, round eye?” she hissed angrily making the guards shift. Marco had been surprised not in the bite of her words but that she spoke the sentence that ran across the bottom of his stomach. Suddenly filled with wonder Marco gave a respectful bow and spoke with completely sincerity.
“Forgive me, My Lady. I did not mean to offend you with my gaze.” Marco looked at Mei Lin and when she raised her head in acknowledgement Marco had felt breathless. He had memorized where she was located before continuing on his way to avoid suspicion and waited with baited breath before he went to her room in the middle of the night.
It was a dangerous game he was playing but Marco could not find himself to truly care when he was in her presence in their stolen moments. Marco sometimes thought she was not worth the risk when she glared at him with cold eyes and sliced his skin with her sharp words that dripped poison that would burn hours later. However, when Mei Lin would allow him to place his head on her lap and would sing Marco songs as her fingers petted soft curls or allowed him to curl close to her and braid her hair with gentle fingers was enough to make Marco forgive her everything. No matter how her words hurt Mei Lin never raised an hand to him except for the first time he visited and she realized he would never harm her. The former concubine did not judge him when he told her how his mother was a noble woman who was disowned when she married a middle class merchant nor how he was raised by an aunt, the bastard daughter of his maternal grandfather, who had never hugged Marco but worked her fingers to the bone so that he wouldn’t starve. When the Latin revealed how his father had sold him as chattel to the Khan in return for trade routes he later lost to greed, the Chinese woman raised Marco’s head till their gazes met and said “Your father is fool and you are better without him.”
It was many nights before Mei Lin would tell him bits of her life before. She spoke of living poor in the slums where her father would beat on her mother when he was not passed out in the floor and how her brother had been an idiot who looked to her for direction. Marco learns her mother passed from sickness when she was six and her father killed in a street brawl a week later. Mei Lin briefly mentions the time after that was filled with cold and starvation before a common street whore that had once been an orphan girl took pity on her. Marco is horrified to learn she had been forced into prostitution from a young age but he masks his expression when Mei Lin pierces him with a look that challenged him to pity her.
Sometimes when he had free time Marco would find Ling Ling in the garden and discreetly watch her in what she does, learns what she likes and makes notes on the progress of her healing feet. Sometimes the Empress allows him to sit with Ling and listen to stories about her home and in return Marco tells her about his. Ling is amazed at the thought of a city built upon water and he does his best for her to describe the churches, markets, fancy clothing, music and dancers. He remembers all the things he seen in his travels and lays it out for her watching her eyes fill with wonder.
Later he sits behind Mei Lin brushing her hair and tells everything that happened in the garden. Marco’s words allow her to see Ling in her mind as the Latin saw her hours before: healthy and comfortable. It is these nights that Mei Lin would lay her head on his shoulder and weep in both joy that Ling is fine and grief that they are separated. It inspires Marco to collect things that Ling has dropped which he stashes away in till he sees Mei Lin again. It is simple things: a button, a ribbon, a brush that had been used to paint flowers, and picture of a swan Ling never finished. Mei Lin takes them all, running fingers over them in till she has remembered every inch before giving it back to Marco because the consequences will be dire if she is found with them.
On the more quieter nights Marco would simply lay on the floor by her side and tells her the same stories he had told Ling to distract her mind from the prison. Sometimes Mei Lin would pretend she is not listening and others she would study him like a cat would study a mouse. Once her fingers caressed his curls and she remarked about knowing whores who would kill to have hair so soft. She pokes Marco’s stomach occasionally and claims he is getting fat which encourages the Latin to sneak her a salt cake when he notices how slim she is. It is oddly his hands that Mei Lin find the most interesting about Marco’s person.
“Your hands are soft and delicate like a woman’s hands.” She stated. “Pure, untouched like snow. Have they ever held a woman, Latin?” Under her gave Marco can only be truthful and tells her of how Khutulun had stolen his virginity by riding him into the dirt. She chuckles and says “Like a common whore.” Marco does not ask if she refers to him or Khutulun.
The first time he truly touched her skin was when Mei Lin asked him to rub some suave on her recovering wound from the queen’s arrow. Marco would forever deny how scared he was to do so every time she slightly flinched under his care for the Latin had no doubt she could break him.
“You touch me as if I’m he most priceless of gems and tentatively as if I’m the most venomous of serpents. You fear that I’ll bite you? Is that what you want?” She had asked when he had finished his task.
“I do not want to be bitten.” Marco answered quietly.
“So you fear I’ll bite you? Leave you broken and lifeless?”
“I think I would be a fool not to. You are truly as deadly as you are beautiful.” He stated before holding up the comb as a silent offering to braid her hair. She stared at him for a long moment before turning her back so that Marco could start his new task.
The thing he hated most was leaving Mei Lin in her cell each early morning. Marco never promises to be back and she never asks him to return because they both know there is no certainty that either will still be alive come nightfall. He has memorized the guard rotation so avoiding them was child’s play and he wears soft shoes to make as little sound as possible. There is one time that Marco thought he was doomed when a guard caught him leaning against a wall waiting for the soldiers down the hall to leave. The man looked ready to run him through with a sword but he was saved by Byamba who happened to be taking a midnight walk around the palace. His friend had claimed Marco was waiting for him so that they could get a snack from the kitchens and has escorted the Latin away.
“I hope you are not up to no good.” Byamba had hissed from across the large table in one of the smaller kitchens where he was making a snack. Marco had tried to make an innocent face but Byamba’s expression told him it was not working.
“Do you really want to know?” he had asked.
“No, I do not.” The Mongolian replied as he separated the food onto two plates and slid one to Marco where they ate in silence.
After that Marco had been more careful since it would be stupid to depend on Byamba to save him a second time. Almost every night he sneaks across the palace to her cell where he knocks twice. Mei Lin always tells him to leave so Marco knows it is safe but he is also aware that the night when she tells him to enter is when he should flee. These meetings they have is dangerous but as long as Mei Lin allows him to sit at her side Marco would risk it. These stolen moments are as precious to him as the Knick knacks from Ling Ling are precious to Mei Lin and he can’t bear to lose them as he lost so much already. Marco knows that they could be caught and executed or that she would bite him with fangs more poisonous than any snake but for now he will live for these moments where he can curl into Mei lin’s side, tell her of her daughter and faraway lands, and relax in the knowledge he is not dead because she does not want him to be.