Work Text:
Jin Zixuan was struggling to pay attention. The summer in Lanling had been uncharacteristically warm, hot and dry and stifling, and Jin Zixuan was sweltering in her heavy gold-embroidered robes. Ordinarily she'd dress in lighter clothing for this kind of heat, but the tiresome windbag across the negotiating table from her was one of her late father's "dearest friends," the kind of man who expected a certain degree of pomp, lest he feel insulted.
Frankly, she had half a mind to send him off without the renewed trade agreement. A-Yao had worked hard to secure favorable terms, however, and his time, she was unwilling to waste. Besides, he was here suffering the hot air, literal and metaphorical, with her. Her brother had, she noted, had the foresight to wear his hair up in a topknot under his cap, and she envied him the very slight breeze on the back of his neck. Jin Zixuan, by contrast, felt the sweat gathering at her nape, behind her knees, and between and beneath her breasts.
("Boob sweat," Jiang Yanli had said, nodding ruefully when Jin Zixuan first asked if this was normal. "I'd say you'll get used to it, but it's pretty much always this gross. Only one thing for it," she said with a grin. They wound up even sweatier after that, but pleasantly so.)
A-Yao cleared his throat delicately, and Jin Zixuan realized she'd zoned out. She took her seal, hoping he hadn't been holding it out for too long, and pressed it into the document they'd all three known they were going to agree to before this pointless meeting ever started. "Jin Clan concurs with the terms," she said. "We look forward to many more years of friendship between our families."
A final round of toasts and courtesies followed, and she could feel the smirk A-Yao was suppressing by the time they were free. "Go find your wife," he teased.
On a day this hot and dry, there was only one place her wife would be. Jin Zixuan made her way through the palace to the private gardens in the family wing and up the path to the springs. Sure enough, Jiang Yanli was there, all her iridescent limbs unfurled and floating in the fresh mountain water. Jin Zixuan felt a flush that had nothing to do with the temperature as she admired the smooth motion of her many limbs flexing and swaying beneath the water, the luster of her hair, the sparkle of sunlight on her damp shoulders. Jiang Yanli was so, so beautiful in her element.
Her admiration was interrupted by a loud splash and a shout of "Mama!!" as A-Ling broke the surface of the water and waved. "A-Niang, Mama! Look, Mama!"
Jiang Yanli scooped up their extra wriggly child. "I see Mama," she laughed. "Do you think she wants to come swim with us?"
Jin Zixuan laughed and began to unwind her many belts and sashes. "Mama definitely wants to swim."
A-Ling—who definitely took after the Jiangs—cheered and waved several of his chubby arms. One day they'd be long and sleek too, but Jin Zixuan thought the short baby tentacles were awfully cute.
Even in the height of summer, the mountain spring water was cold enough to bring goosebumps to her skin as she waded into the pool. It felt heavenly.
A-Ling immediately launched himself from Jiang Yanli's arms and rocketed across the pond to Jin Zixuan. For all he was still unsteady on his feet, he was fast in the water, and Jin Zixuan quickly found herself with two arms full of writhing toddler tentacles. "Mama see me swim?" he asked.
"I did! You swim so well, A-Ling," Jin Zixuan said, dipping down to kiss his little cheek.
Jiang Yanli swam over and curled a few of her limbs, cool from the water of the pond, around Jin Zixuan's waist and legs, effortlessly holding her up as she glided them all to the deeper part of the pond. "Good afternoon, wife," she said, tilting her face up for a kiss of her own.
"Good afternoon, wife," Jin Zixuan replied, heart at peace for the first time all day as she bent to press their lips together. It was a short kiss, what with the squirming child in her arms, but oh so sweet. "What have you two been up to today?" she asked when they parted.
As A-Ling began what promised to be a very enthusiastic recounting of his morning, Jin Zixuan cuddled him close and settled back into the comforting embrace of Jiang Yanli's familiar coiling limbs, letting the headaches of the day float away in the cool water of the spring.