Work Text:
On the roof Fei Liu answers to no one.
“Fei Liu,” comes the exasperated call from below. “I know you’re up there. Come down.”
The boy pauses.
Of course no one can make him come down. No one can make him do anything, Fei Liu thinks with pride, because no one possesses the strength or the skill to fight as well as he does. No one ever comes up to the roof with him, either.
Today he’ll come because he feels like, not because he was asked.
Fei Liu leaves the roof in one graceful leap. The fall is short, too short to be much fun, and he lands on the edge of the courtyard lightly. Standing, he looks up for the one who called him.
The general is framed by the doorway. He waits, arms folded across his chest, for Fei Liu’s attention before continuing.
“I am aware that no one can control you, because you have no mind to listen to anyone but your master.”
The corners of Fei Liu’s mouth quirk up, not quite into a real smile.
“However,” Mengzhi says with authority, “Mr. Su is not well this morning, and we are not to wake him before noon as per the phsyician’s orders. You are to behave today, and if you will not heed an order from me then consider it a request on Mr. Shu’s behalf.”
Fei Liu manages an expression of almost solemnness. He dips his head in an imperceptible bow, enough to satisfy the general so he turns around and goes back into Mr. Su’s room.
No one will notice if he’s gone today.
--
“No one saw you come in?”
Fei Liu whips around, clutching the handful of twigs.
The man watching him is too young to be the emperor- one of the princes, then.
A prince is a prince and it doesn’t make much of a difference which one this is, Fei Liu reasons as the young man approaches, because Su-gege is the only master he follows anyways.
“This is the royal family’s inner garden, but surely you must already know that if you are here.” The prince draws nearer, stopping at a pace or two away before speaking again. “If my father or one of my brothers were to find you then you would be considered an intruder.”
The boy cocks an eyebrow in response.
Jingyan stares him down. He doesn’t quite smile, but despite Fei Lie’s rudeness he seems to relax some.
“Not to me. You are Mr. Su’s bodyguard. His arrival was not announced so you must be here alone, but for what purpose?”
Fei Liu holds out a flower.
“Stealing?”
Fei Liu shakes his head. Jingyan reaches out to touch a petal but the boy takes a step back. His eyes narrow in defiance, daring the prince to take them from him.
“That is Mother’s favorite tree,” Prince Jing points out sternly. “She has been worried for its health because the branches this year are sparse. So you are the culprit? I doubt you are old enough to be giving gifts to a woman, so you must be taking these flowers for sport.”
The boy’s brow crashes down and his bottom lip sullenly sticks out.
“Am I wrong?” The prince, much taller than Fei Liu, reaches up to pick from the bottom branch without having to climb. “Are they for somebody after all, then?”
The flower Jingyan decides on is smaller than most. The petals are delicately pink and still damp with morning dew. He cups it in his palm to admire the color for a moment.
Fei Liu points to a thin branch a little past the prince. He glares at Jingyan, shaking his extended hand for emphasis.
Jingyan snaps it easily. Although small, the branch boasts many blossoms of larger size. It will look grand displayed in a vase.
“Su-gege,” Fei Liu answers in thanks when Jingyan gives him the branch. “Can’t play today.”
Jingyan, covering Fei Liu’s hands with his own, cups the collection of branches together until the boy catches onto the idea. Jingyan unrolls a length of string hidden in his sleeve.
Fei Liu huffs in laughter, realizing that the prince intended to help him all along. No one usually takes enough notice of him like that. He holds the branches tightly and is silently thankful that taking them will be easier to hide this time.
“No doubt a display of plum blossoms will raise his spirits,” Jingyan says as he winds the string around the bundle of branches. “When I was younger, like you-”
Fei Liu eyes the sun breaking over the roof-tops and only half-listens as he holds the bundle together. The prince isn’t talking to him, not really.
“I had a friend who took flowers, too. He insisted they were for a woman but-“
The prince finishes tying with a plain knot.
“-I think he just liked the color.”
--
Morning comes and goes, and it is noon before Fei Liu returns home.
The entrance to the inner room is open. Fei Liu perches on the edge of the rooftop and cranes his neck for a look inside. Su-gege sits within wrapped in his cloak despite the day’s warmth.
When Fei Liu successfully sneaks up on his master undetected he wins the game. Sometimes he is given a toy or an orange, but today he loses. Su-gege looks up, catching Fei Liu’s eyes before he can hide himself again.
“There you are,” he says, sounding amused, when he knows Fei Liu is in earshot. “Will you come down? What is it that you have?”
“Uh-huh!” Fei Liu lights down in front of his master, and bounces back up in excitement. “Look!”
Changsu instantly recognizes the flowers that Fei Liu proudly holds out to him. He accepts them from the boy with a smile. “These are from Prince Jing’s palace. Fei Liu, did you take them?”
Fei Liu giggles at the way Su-gege is obviously pleased with his gift. “I had help.”