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"He,s disgusting"
"Have you seen the way he eats? Like an animal! Sometimes I don,t even believe he,s human"
"You say his eating is bad? I have to share a room with him! He,s so loud, even at night. I don,t know when I last got real sleep. Always telling me about his training or our shixiong like those are always the only things on his mind. And he snorrs so loudly, if he even sleeps at all! Always complaining, saying the blanket is too heavy, too itchy, too warm, too cold. You can,t make anything right for him."
"Why does shixiong even put up him? I would be so annoyed if he clung to me like that. He,s basically obsessed with him. Only shixiong and training, nothing else."
"He,s basically nothing without shixiong so it,s clear that he sticks to him. He only does something when shixong tells him to! The rest of the time he just sitts around, blankly starring. You can,t even talk to him in that state. And if he isn,t doing that he,s training, training, training. Does he even know that other things beside fighting and shixiong exist?"
"And he,s so stupid too. Can,t do the simplest tasks unless you explain every detail. Even if you shouldn,t even have to explain it because it,s basic human sense!"
Quan Yizhen was confused.
From his place in the nearest tree he could hear his fellow desciples clearly, he understood what they were saying but not why. The blankets really are uncomfortable, he just really likes fighting and shixiong....Shixiong was shixiong. He was perfect. Why shouldn,t he like him? Did they not notice that?
Slowly, he climbed down the tree he was resting on. He couldn,t train at the moment, some of his shidis said they wanted the training grounds for themselves in the moring and would tell him when he can come back. Now it was late afternoon and they still hadn,t told him that he could train again.
So he went up here, no one bothered him here and he couldn,t bother shixiong here. His martial siblings told him he was distracting
When he was as slowly and quietly as he could trying to get closer to his martial siblings in order to hear more of their conversation he suddenly stopped. Shixiong was making his way over the grounds to the main sect building, scrolls in hand. Quan Yizhen was ready to abandon carefulness and attempts to not get seen by his matial siblings and dash over to the only persson he could consider a friend here, but the small group of people was closer to his shixiong.
"Yin Yu! Shixiong! We have to talk to you!"
And the group scurried over and started repeating every complaint they had stated earlier in a hushed tone. Like they suddenly cared about Quan Yizhen hearing them.
"Shidis, Shimeis, I know."
Quan Yizhen paused in the middle of the step he was taking towards the group. He had decided that he didn,t care about his martial siblings finding out he listended. But what did shixiong just say?
Yin Yu continued:
"I know he is annoying sometimes but he does not understand that. I can try telling him but he won,t listen."
"Don,t say that", a shimei scoffed, "everything he talks about is you. He will listen, so do something!"
Yin Yu let out a frustrated but tired sigh: "I know. But even if he listens he will probaply forget it a moment later. I can try but it probaply won,t do anything."
Quan Yizhen slowly went back to his tree to hide behind it, he didn,t want to see shixiong anymore and didn,t want shixiong to see him. Why would shixiong say that? Of course he could listen, of course he won,t forget. He will do his best not to forget, but somehow he felt like he would. Maybe shixiong was right.
"I will talk to him. Just don,t do anything to him, even if he annoys you. He might be stupid but he is a better fighter than all of you, it would only hurt you more than him."
But....he didn,t want to talk to shixiong right now. Not after what he just said about him. Why didn,t shixiong think of that?
But atleast shixiong didn,t hate him! Shixiong thought he was a good fighter, that,s a compliment right? Shixiong gave him a compliment!
A little happier, but still not wanting to see shixiong he made his way slowly to the cabin he shared with one of his shidis. He always forgets the guys name.
_______________________
He woke up confused. Wich wasn,t unusual, but this time was wierd. It has been a while since he had that dream, he didn,t like that dream.
He slowly sat up on his bed and looked around the bedroom of his palace. It is much nicer than the one he had at the sect, he could sleep as long as he wanted to even though gods didn,t need sleep and he could also snor as loudly as he wanted to without his shidi complaining. Quan Yizhen still didn,t like that shidi.
Judging by the light and shadows outside his window he slept until late noon. This also wasn,t unusual, or bad unless there was something important. Today was such an important day. It was the lantern festival as the other gods called it. Quan Yizhen didn,t see how it was important but the other gods thought it was and shixiong thinks that too so it had to be. He was quite proud of remembering this event, he should tell shixiong that and maybe ask about that dream. The times when he had that dream he had never wondered why shixiong said the things he said but he was curious now.
Because he saw all of the other gods walking around in fancy robes he too threw on his best robe, he wanted to make a good impression on this festival, he didn,t want his fellow gods to continue talking like his old martial siblings. His attempts were muffled by the slightly crocked way his robes folded and the wrongly tied belt.
*
The banquet was grand as always, gods and goddesses in colourfull atires elegantly walking along the giant table to find their seat. The seats seemed to be assigned, Quan Yizhen did,t understand why though so he just picked a seat for himslef. He ran along the table, looking for his shixiong, not noticing how he ran into a few shoulders and stepped onto a few robes or the looks that followed him for it.
When he finally found his shixiong, sitting at the far end of the table he let out a loud: "Shixiong!" . Starteling some of the gods that were taking their seats. He too eagerly sat down across from his shixiong, the place next to his shixiong was already ocupied by his assistant. The shidi Quan Yizhen once shared a cabin with and whos name he still didn,t remember. Not that he cared about it anymore.
The martial goddess Quan Yizhen now sat next to gave him a firm nod. Her name was Gongsi Shangyi. He knew that. Because he liked her. She was a very good sparring partner and wasn,t as conceited as other martial gods. He wasn,t here to talk to her though.
"Shixiong!", he exclaimed, leaning over the table a bit too far so that his ponytail got dunked into one of the soups that had been placed on it. Gongsi Shangyi carefully pulled it out of the soup while he continued:
"Shixiong, I remembered that the banquet was today." He shot the man across him a beaming smile.
"Great job Yizhen." Yin Yu gave him a small, tired smile back while his assistant gave an eye roll and a silent scoff.
Gongsi Shanyi pulled him back into his seat, his hair had swung dangerously close to the soup again. He gave in, pulling his legs into a lotus position as soon as he sat on his chair.
"I had a dream today shixiong", he continued a bit more quiet, " you were in it. And he too." Quan Yizhen pointed to Yin Yus assistant who froze as soon as he heared the words.
Yin Yus expression tightened.
"Shidi was talking with some other disciples about me. And you joined them later"
"What did we ever say about you?", his shidi spat the words like poision.
"You talked about my eating, how i barely slept and complained about the blankets, how everything I did was training, how I was distracting shixiong..." He trailed off, listing everything else he could remember his martial siblings say. The goddess besides him sat up a bit straighter as if bracing for a fight. Yin Yu tensed up and the man sitting next to him let out a sound of protest but Quan Yizhen wasn,t finished yet.
"Later you asked shixiong to do something about how I act and shixiong agreed that I was anoying and that he couldn,t do anything about it because I will not listen or forget everything."
His little monolog was starting to attract the attention of other gods walking past or sitting in their area, some stopped to listen more closely.
"And then shixiong said that shidi and my other martial siblings shouldn,t attack me because it would hurt them more than me and.....", he took a deep breath, the words now stuck in his throat even though they flowed out so freely just now, " and I wanted to ask shixiong why he said that." He finished with a shuttering breath.
Yin Yu looked at him with a horrified expression, Quan Yizhen looked back expectingly.
"I...I..", Yin Yu began.
"He said it because it was true thats why", his shidi spat over the table.
"Even if it is, it is not his fault, he can,t control that kind of behavior", the goddess finally stepped into the conversation.
"And how would you know that? He,s doing it to annoy the people around him, there is no way someone can be as stupid naturally it,s all a show to get attention."
"It is not!" Gongsi Shangyi jumped up with an furious expression, "My sister was like him. She did not fake it. He also does not fake it. I would know. "
This was another reason Quan Yizhen liked the goddess so much. She understood without him having to explain and she accepted.
" Gongsi shijie, thank you for stepping in but I think we can handle this. Shidi, please go back to the palace. " Yin Yu seems to have collected himself again and now gave his subordinate a firm look.
The one in question reluctantly got up and stormed off, not without giving Quan Yizhen a deadly glare. It was ignored.
"So, shixiong still has to answer my question. Why?", he tilted his head to the side by the last question and looked expectingly at the man across from him. While the goddess sat back down with a mumbled protest but ready to jump up again at any moment.
" Well.... You see Yizhen, shidi was right in a way. It annoys a lot of people "
"Even you? "
"Sometimes..... "
"But you told them that it's not my fault didn,t you? "
"Yes I did that once, but that was before they came with their complains to me so it didn't stick. "
"Why didn't it? "
"I don't know. "
"Why? "
"Because they couldn, t understand your behavior. "
"But you told them. Why didn, t they understand? "
"I really don, t know. "
"Why didn't, t you tell them again. "
"Because I knew it would not work"
"So you told me to stop instead? "
"Yes... "
"Why? You knew it wasn't, t my fault. "
"Yizhen. I do not know why I did that. "
"How? "
Yin Yu held his head in his hands and let out a sigh.
"Yizhen. Can you just... Stop asking? "
"No. I wanted to know this for a long time now. "
"This is to complicated to explain here. And the other gods are starring so... Let, s discuss this at my palace later, okay? "
"NO", now it was Quan Yizhens turn to jump up, " Shixiong I want to know. "
"Let me explain later", Yin Yu gritted through his teeth while massaging his temple.
" NO, JUST TELL ME IT CAN, T BE THAT HARD"
"YIZHEN. No, and sit back down! "
Why was shixiong making such a fuss? It couldn, t be that hard right? Why was this so complicated?
He kept glaring at his shixiong.
" I will explain. If you sit back down. " Yin Yu said in a tone way to calm for his current expression and poisoningly sweet.
"No" Quan Yizhen kept glaring.
"Yizhen! Sit the fuck back down! ", it was uttered in a hissing voice, not as biting as the shouting was earlier but the voice wasn,t what brought a stunned Quan Yizhen back into his chair. That was the tea cup that came flying at his head and hit him right on the forehead.
With tee dripping down his face he slowly sat back down. His eyes were blown wide. Shixiong had yelled at him before, had lectured him before but never thrown anything at him. Was this just to get his point across? It hurt way to much for that, hurt to much to just be a tea cup. His face felt damp. No only from the tea.
Yin Yu s eyes softened again, not last because of the war goddess glaring daggers at him from across the table.
"Yizhen, please don't take that to personal ok? I didn't, t mean to do that, I still like you, your still my favorite shidi, always were. But can we talk later? "
He let out a small sniff and nodded. Shixiong still liked him, everything was fine and he would get an explanation later. Satisfied with this result he started wiping of the tea on his face and put his legs back into a lotus position on his chair.
Gongsi Shangyi didn, t seam pleased with this outcome and dragged Quan Yizhen up again and away from the table.
He gave her a confused look.
"We will look for a new seat. " She said firmly and gave no further explanation.
But they stopped fighting with shixiong, shixiong sayed he likes him. So everything was fine. If shixiong liked him , why would they have to leave. He still went with her. She was usually right.
Quan Yizhen was hung up on the tea cup though. Why did shixiong do that? He said he liked him so he should not throw stuff at him right? Or do you do it like that? Is it something you do so people you liked understood better? He had never seen shixiong do that to anyone else so it had to be right. It made him feel special. And he sat down at his new place with a happy little smile and started telling Gongsi Shangyi about his last mission.
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Lantern festival banquets without shixiong were weird. He had forgotten a lot of them since shixiong left the heavens. This one he didn, t. Mostly because he didn, t sleep in as much and managed to catch the other gods scurrying past his windows like they always did on the way to banquets.
Gongsi Shangyi was out of the heavens at the moment for hunting so he was unsure where he should sit and just picked the first available spot.
The banquet went past in a blurr. He wasn, t paying attention to the conversations around him , focused on his food. So he was confused when a cup was placed in his hand and he looked at it with a stunned expression. When he looked up he found the entire table starring at him.
Oh, it was this game again. And he lost again.
He tried to let the play just go past him but the way they showed his shixiong was making him furious. Shixiong wasn, t like that, he wasn, t a clown, didn, t act like that.
He didn, t even notice how he broke his chopsticks until the pieces of wood were pressing into his skin but he barley felt it. To enraged. Not being able to tear his eyes away from the stage in Front of him.
Until it stopped. The curtain dropped and he was shaken out of the nightmare that was that play. He could feel tears fill his eyes. His shixiong wasn, t like that.
He stormed of.
His followers understood him right? He could go to them?
Maybe he should show them how much he liked them. Thank them for how they didn, t see shixiong like that. Most of them liled shixiong just as much as he did so maybe he should show them how much he liked them how shixiong showed it to him.
He remembered one time especially clear. That was even on the lantern festival banquet, Gongsi Shangyi was there to. It seamed like the perfect thing.