Work Text:
Mulan sat listening to their families, gathered about her in a cluster, arguing loudly as they ate. Not bad for a celebration, she thought to herself, catching Shang’s eyes over a plate of steamed dumplings. She thought they'd be throwing chairs by now.
He swallowed nervously and gave her a grin. It was beyond odd to see him uncertain of everything, so used was she to seeing him settled astride a horse shouting orders to his troops (and formally to her, though their positions were now quite reversed). But beside his quiet mother and his commanding father he seemed shorter, certainly more obedient. She wondered if she in turn seemed different sitting beside her father, and her mother at the head of the table, with Grandmother Fa calmly commanding the entire process from behind the opposing side. Undeniably, she felt like a different woman than the dutiful daughter who had once sat at her mother’s heel and submitted herself to the process of matchmaking. She’d gained a new confidence that would never leave her now that she’d grown.
“The women in your family speak at length, Fa Mulan,” General Li observed out of the blue, over warm black tea and poppy seed treats.
“No more than the average man…General sir,” Mulan said quickly, nervously, and she felt Shang grope for her hand under the table to squeeze it.
Grandmother laughed. “And so do you fellas!” she replied, apparently totally ignorant of the fact that most of the men at the table had been completely silent in comparison to their female counterparts. “You should hear Zhou when he gets going.”
Zhou - Mulan's father - silently lifted the tea to his lips and added nothing to the conversation.
“In my family, women speak when they are spoken to,” the General said. “Isn’t that right, honey?”
“Yes,” said his wife, staring into her tea.
Silence filled the atmosphere. Then Grandmother Fa spoke up again.
“Nice family you got,” said Grandmother. “Very first century.
“Grandmother, please,” Mulan’s mother whispered. She knew what that tone of voice meant, and that the conversation wasn't headed in a positive direction.
“It worked fine for my father and it worked fine for his father!”
“Is that why they’re all dead?” Grandmother shot back.
“My mother is still alive, and I don’t have to put up with this insolence! Shang, we’re leaving.”
“Father,” said Shang, “please understand. The older woman is…bold beyond bearing on occasion, but a fine woman!”
“Just like her granddaughter, unfortunately,” said Shang’s mother so suddenly that Mulan actually fell back a stitch in dismay.
“That boldness served the emperor well against the Huns,” Mulan observed calmly – and Shang bobbed his head once, taking her side, rational as always.
“Bold soldiers are worthy. Bold women, however…” he made a sound of disgust.
“I see where stuffed britches gets his snobby side from,” said Grandmother archly.
“I think that maybe we should take a walk,” Mulan said, “and let our parents and grandparents -and probably our ancestors - work everything out alone.”
“Yes, a walk could only do us good,” Shang said. “Excuse us,” he said, properly expressing his honor to both parents with a quick smile before fleeing with his fiance.
***
“I had a feeling it would turn out this way.”
“Did you? Why didn’t you warn me?” Mulan asked. Shang combed a hand through his tied back hair and sighed. “They’ll figure it out,” she said. “After all they love us.”
“Sometimes I wonder,” Shang admitted ruefully. “We’ve been dutiful but not very obedient. I should not have agreed to marry you without consulting them.”
“But it worked out,” she pointed out. “I think they’re glad we weren’t.” She eyeballed the house, where her parents were speaking in pointed tones with Shang’s father. “And you wouldn’t marry an obedient woman."
“I love my mother. She’s a good, honorable woman.” He took Mulan's hand and squeezed it gently. “But if I wanted ‘biddable’ and sweet I would have married the first woman the matchmaker introduced me to.”
“You’ve been to the matchmaker?”
“My mother’s idea,” he said. “But I didn’t have time for a wife – or even courtship – before I met you.”
“I don’t think I’m going to be happy sitting home tending the house,” she admitted, finally speaking the unspoken truth.
“You wouldn’t be you if you were only a wife. And I want you, Fa Mulan, more than any woman in the empire.”
She flushed. “I think we should go back inside before we have to pull them apart with our bare hands.”
Their own were still clasped together as they entered the house, and the first words they heard were Grandmother’s. “…Scaring off the kids like that.” She stopped and gestured toward the door. “Let them have their fun, for heaven’s sake! And let them form their own family the way THEY want to do it!”
“But…”
“Oh stop it, Li,” Shang’s mother suddenly said. “You’re embarrassing yourself in front of company!"
“Dear, don't upbraid me in front of our extended family!”
Shang's mother said nothing, but her expression suggested mutiny. Li knew when he was beat; the Lieutenant sank into place with a moan.
Grandmother Fa’s smile was well-knowing and serene. “Some steamed dessert buns, dear?” she asked Shang's mother.
“Of course.”
Mulan and Shang sat down to the table, relieved and quiet. Shang couldn’t help but be impressed by Grandmother Fa’s strength, instead of vaguely unsettled by it as before.
He could imagine Mulan being exactly like her in seventy years. And he wanted to be there to see it.