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Jiang Xi likes swimming. It’s something that makes Baba happy – he doesn’t smile much, but there’s a little quirk of the lips that both he and Ling-ge know is his version of a smile. “It means you’re a real Jiang,” Baba says, because that’s Very Important To Him. “You’re like a fish in the water.”
Ge is just as good in the water, too, and it means Jiang Xi likes the summer months. A lot of the disciples complain about how hot it is – the lower and middling ones, the higher ones don’t and Jiang Xi is pretty sure it’s because they learn cool cultivation stuff to, well, keep cool – but Jiang Xi and Ge don’t have to keep all their robes on and can strip down to nothing and jump in the water. Nobody cares!
He doesn’t want to get old enough that everybody cares, and he tells Ge that.
“Nobody cares here,” says Ge, face all scrunched up while he thinks. “But people’d care at Koi Tower.”
Jiang Xi has never been to Koi Tower. Sometimes Ge says things that make it sound like the most magical place on earth, covered in gold, with his kindly Shushu that runs everything and always has a smile on (which is soooo hard to think about, cause Baba’s a sect leader and never smiles, but Ge says that Sect Leader Lan and Sect Leader Nie smile a lot too so maybe Baba’s the strange one). But sometimes Ge says things that make it sound awful and strict, about his very sad Shenshen and the way no one talks about why she’s sad, and about his Jin cousins who all sound very mean.
“Then here’s better,” Jiang Xi says with a nod. “Ge, you should just stay here forever.” He thinks that a lot. It’s always really sad when Ge has to go to Koi Tower for a while, and it makes Baba sad, too. Angry sad. And then Ge gets back and Baba is angry happy.
(Ge is JUST like Baba, which makes Jiang Xi feel weird cause he’s not like them he doesn’t think, but they’re not mad about it so he guesses it’s okay.)
“I can’t,” says Ge, frowning very hard. “I’m gonna be the next Sect Leader Jin. So I gotta go there and learn… and I like Shushu and Shenshen.” He doesn’t say he likes his mean Jin cousins, and Jiang Xi takes that as a win.
“Are you sure you gotta? You could be the Sect Leader here.”
“You want him to take your job?” asks Baba from overhead, and the two jerk in the water and spin around. He stands on the pier behind them, arms folded, one eyebrow lifting. He looks kinda scary, but that’s just Baba.
“If it meant he’d stay here forever, yeah!” That does- something to Baba’s face, some weird twist that Jiang Xi doesn’t understand, but he shakes his head after a moment.
“No. You’ll be the next Sect Leader Jiang, and Jin Ling will be the next Sect Leader Jin. You’ll work well together.”
Jiang Xi GUESSES that’s okay… they won’t fight, at least. Neither of them will be like the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation and betray the other person. (Baba has never told them the stories, but he never had to. Everybody else has told them. They’re both pretty sure that’s why Baba is always so angry, and it makes them angry, too.)
“You should come to Koi Tower,” says Ge, not for the first time. “It’ll be fun. Fairy likes it there!” She barks at her name from where she’s perched on the pier, and Jiang Xi wants to splash her but Baba’s right there and he might splash Baba, too.
“No,” says Baba immediately. Jiang Xi never ever gets a chance to say if he wants to or not. “He’s too little.”
It’s not that Jiang Xi really wants to go – he does, kinda, just to see it because it sounds good and bad – but he doesn’t like it when Baba says that. He’s not that much littler than Ge!
Ge doesn’t like that either and starts to argue and Jiang Xi decides that if he’s little… well, nobody can blame him if he decides to act little, right?
He splashes them.
Fairy starts barking immediately, getting up on her feet and being loud. Baba stands there very, very still. His legs are wet, and some water managed to get high enough to hit his chest, too. Jiang Xi and Ge go very still, too, and the only one making any noise is Fairy until she whines at the silence, at how everybody’s ignoring her.
“You brats,” says Baba finally. “I’m going to break your legs.” He pulls off his robes, kicks off his boots, and jumps in. Ge and Jiang Xi shriek, splitting up and swimming in opposite directions. Jiang Xi’s going so fast he keeps sucking down water and coughing and sputtering and then a hand wraps around his ankle and yanks. He gets a mouthful of water as he goes down, but Baba releases him pretty fast and he kicks back up to the surface, sputtering and spitting up water. Ge surfaces a second later, looking like a drowned puppy which is exactly how Jiang Xi feels.
Baba smiles his tiny little smile. “Don’t challenge me if you don’t want consequences,” he says. Jiang Xi and Ge look at each other. It’s on.
It takes them forever to be successful in dunking Baba’s head under the water, but once Ge grabs him and Jiang Xi climbs completely on top of his head, they manage. Fairy barks the whole time, and after that they manage to get her into a boat to float along with them. She whines a lot at first, but then Jiang Xi starts feeding her lotus flowers and she likes that and calms down.
The sun shines overhead, and it’s nice and warm. Nobody cares at them splashing around in the water – nobody cares that the sect leader is. Yeah. It’s much better than Koi Tower here.
And then Ge splashes him in the face with water. Jiang Xi sputters, blinking quickly, and Ge cackles and takes off. “Meanie!” Jiang Xi yells, and starts kicking after him, resolved to dunk him. He will get his cousin.