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As reluctant as Yu is to say anything good about Chaldea, staffed by humans and former-humans as it is, she will say this without hesitation: they have welcomed Xiang Yu. Whatever he was in life, whatever he did, here he is merely another Servant, another ally, accepted by his peers.
She is not precisely surprised, therefore, to find a couple of Servants braiding flowers into Xiang Yu’s mane and tail. More caught off guard.
He turns his head, careful not to disturb Fran’s work on his mane. “Yu. You have returned from material farming early.”
“It was easily done, my lord.” Yu looks between him and the surrounding Servants. “…What are you doing?”
Nezha, who is holding Fran up so she can reach the top of Xiang Yu’s mane (a difficult thing to do even when Xiang Yu is seated), says, “Fran wanted. To welcome. Xiang Yu. With flowers. She called. For assistance.”
Danzou, weaving blossoms into Xiang Yu’s tail, asks, “Would you like to join us, Lady Yu?”
None of these Servants were ever human, Yu recalls, and that makes it easier to sit next to Danzou and pick up a flower from the pile. Red poppies.
“Xiang Yu. Said poppies. Were his. Favorite flower.” Nezha lowers Fran to the ground, and Fran takes her turn boosting them up instead.
Of course he said something so sentimental. Yu feels her face flush, and busies herself braiding poppies into her husband’s tail. “Where did you get these?”
“The Wandering Sea keeps a garden for alchemical ingredients.” Danzou’s hands work with robotic precision and speed, even when it comes to something like braiding hair. “We were told that we could pick flowers as long as we left at least two of each species.”
“Uu, uuu,” says Fran.
Xiang Yu translates: “Fran wishes to know if you would like flowers in your hair as well.”
“Me?” If it were an offer from Xiang Yu, of course she would be delighted to have his hands in her hair for any reason, but to be given flowers by someone else… “Why would you do that? I tried to kill all of you last week, remember?”
“You are. An ally. Let bygones. Be bygones,” Nezha says.
“If I may offer an opinion…” Danzou turns to look at Yu. “Many Servants in Chaldea have been former enemies, often opposing us for reasons less understandable than wishing to live in peace with one’s love. Even those who feel the most strongly about the future of humanity cannot find fault with that.”
Yu grips her dress tightly. “Why are any of you even fighting for humanity’s sake? None of you ever were human, so why should you care about them?”
Nezha tilts their head to one side. “Humans have. Good sides. And bad. You have. Seen only. The bad.”
“It is true that not every human has been the kindest, but… the clan who created me accepted me as one of their own,” says Danzou.
“Uuu, uu uuu,” Fran says emphatically.
Yu sighs. She supposes she should have expected this. “…I don’t need flowers.”
“That is a shame. I would enjoy matching with you, my wife,” says Xiang Yu.
And that’s how Yu ends up spending the rest of the afternoon having poppies braided into her hair by three mechanical Servants, while her husband looks on and smiles.