[ this memory would be so funny to have in the cemetery but we're going to do warm fuzzies in the petting zoo. chang geng is bemused by them, and comes closer to where vax is, prepared to say something.
and then the bubble happens. hooray!
the winter chill is heavy in the air - even early in the day, even with stoves and lamps burning all across the capitol, it permeates even to the bone. but you have much to do, too much, it feels like. yifu is going to be leaving, soon, leaving with your supposed brother, and no one knows when he'll be back.
anxiety bubbles up in your chest, but you have to push it back down. no distractions. don't think about it. he'll come back. you'll blink, and then he'll be trying to drag you out of your room again, saying the wrong thing without thinking, saying the right thing without meaning to.
he'll be back, and it'll be home again.
yifu has been getting up earlier and earlier every day, heading to the palace, and coming home later and later. you're not sure how much time you'll have to prepare, and you also don't know when he'll be home, but at least you have help. uncle wang does the best that he can, toddering along and finding the old silks that cao niangzi runs up to you with, wanting you to help decorate the training puppet.
ge banxiao makes a comment about how it shouldn't match the fake girl, and you look away when cao niangzi punches him in the arm, going to direct the puppet to the best place to greet yifu when he comes back. they can decorate it - you don't mind.
you do mind having to figure out everything else, though.
as such a picky eater, you don't want yifu to eat something that he won't like, or will turn his nose up at, because -
(you can't bear the thought, actually. how embarrassing. how mortifying. you don't want to think about how upset you would be.)
- because it's his birthday. you want to celebrate that.
while cao niangzi paints blush on the puppet, standing on tiptoe to reach its blank face, ge banxiao helps prepare the longevity noodles, fanning the fire and slopping the ingredients in. it's enough to splatter broth on both of you.
you'll have to change. you give him a dour look, while he apologizes and says it's alright, big brother, he won't notice a drop missing! we'll get it cleaned up, and you can add the egg, no trouble!
you can help it - he'll definitely notice this kind of thing! but it is alright. you have time.
considering how long it takes for him to come home from the palace, you maybe have too much time. but you think you have it gauged right -
"big brother, the marquis is back!"
your heart jumps into your throat, in the middle of fiddling with some of the decorations that have livened things up, here at gu manor, and you scramble to get the noodles and the egg into the bowl for serving. distantly, you can hear them talking in the courtyard - cao niangzi, general shen, and yifu, coming closer.
"- general shen has also come, just in time, we can all eat noodles together."
"very well, it's better to arrive on time than to arrive early!"
you've trained with this puppet so many times, now, that it's easy to understand what you need to do to have it carry the bowl. it's hysterical, and you know that yifu will have something to say about it, but ge banxiao had grinned with the suggestion, and considering...
it moves forward, lights and flowers and silks so terribly out of place, soulless and comical, and yifu predictably has something to say immediately:
"bastards, is the sword training puppet for you all to play with like this?"
"marquis, sir, the fake girl applied the blush. i helped make the fire for cooking the noodles, and big brother put in the egg!"
yifu stands there, looking... stupefied, maybe. there's something amused in you to see him dumbfounded and struck silent, for once in his life, as you observe everything. he makes no move to take the bowl right away.
lightly, you say, "yifu, eat the noodles first before entering."
it hides the nerves, you think. you hope he likes it.
if yifu notices, he, for once, does not point it out. instead, he simply says "alright," and takes the bowl. he looks your way, and without any further comment... he picks out the egg, first.
you have to bite the inside of your cheek as he begins eating, but there's no hiding the way that a smile starts to pull at your mouth as he neatly finishes everything.
your heart is so warm, it causes the cold of winter to bleed away.
except all he can really feel is a combination of numb nostalgia, with that. ]
the way i had to stop myself from writing gu yun in my reply to you instead of vax like ten times
vax blinks, as the bubble around them pops, and it leaves him feeling...
...warm. warm, like spending time with vox machina can, like being with vex does. the memory was touching, sweet, and he rubs absently as his chest, turning his head to chang geng to give him a smile. ]
... 's your actual family, huh?
yifu was here, in this the only happy memory i've written so far
[ chang geng huffs a little laugh, though it's not as humorless as past ones have been. despite whatever complicated feelings he has, for what comes after the memory, he's still...
it's still a good memory. it's the best one he's seen so far, from his own collection of them. ]
Mm, it is. My yifu - the man that you got me to swear over, actually - isn't the sort to celebrate his birthday. It was a good night.
[ oh. he chuckles a little, too - can't really help it. ]
Looks like it. 'Yifu'? [ the man with the armor and the snarky voice. he can still feel chang geng's warmth from looking at him, and honestly, it's... it's nice. vax's family's long gone, except for vex'ahlia, but it feels like being with vox machina. what a sweet memory. ]
In Great Liang, it's a sort of... honorary title given. It and imu, for women, are given to those that are put on the same level as your parents. An honorary, named parent, in a way, but technically without the obligations. We're a filial country and culture - it's an esteemed thing, to have. You pay them the same respects you would your parents.
He'd saved me when I was a handful of years younger than that memory, and my - mm, my father by marriage was grateful. They'd tried to pass the credit of it onto General Shen, the other man in the memory, but the title still fell to him because of the kind of people they both were.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wk 3; monday
and then the bubble happens. hooray!
the winter chill is heavy in the air - even early in the day, even with stoves and lamps burning all across the capitol, it permeates even to the bone. but you have much to do, too much, it feels like. yifu is going to be leaving, soon, leaving with your supposed brother, and no one knows when he'll be back.
anxiety bubbles up in your chest, but you have to push it back down. no distractions. don't think about it. he'll come back. you'll blink, and then he'll be trying to drag you out of your room again, saying the wrong thing without thinking, saying the right thing without meaning to.
he'll be back, and it'll be home again.
yifu has been getting up earlier and earlier every day, heading to the palace, and coming home later and later. you're not sure how much time you'll have to prepare, and you also don't know when he'll be home, but at least you have help. uncle wang does the best that he can, toddering along and finding the old silks that cao niangzi runs up to you with, wanting you to help decorate the training puppet.
ge banxiao makes a comment about how it shouldn't match the fake girl, and you look away when cao niangzi punches him in the arm, going to direct the puppet to the best place to greet yifu when he comes back. they can decorate it - you don't mind.
you do mind having to figure out everything else, though.
as such a picky eater, you don't want yifu to eat something that he won't like, or will turn his nose up at, because -
(you can't bear the thought, actually. how embarrassing. how mortifying. you don't want to think about how upset you would be.)
- because it's his birthday. you want to celebrate that.
while cao niangzi paints blush on the puppet, standing on tiptoe to reach its blank face, ge banxiao helps prepare the longevity noodles, fanning the fire and slopping the ingredients in. it's enough to splatter broth on both of you.
you'll have to change. you give him a dour look, while he apologizes and says it's alright, big brother, he won't notice a drop missing! we'll get it cleaned up, and you can add the egg, no trouble!
you can help it - he'll definitely notice this kind of thing! but it is alright. you have time.
considering how long it takes for him to come home from the palace, you maybe have too much time. but you think you have it gauged right -
"big brother, the marquis is back!"
your heart jumps into your throat, in the middle of fiddling with some of the decorations that have livened things up, here at gu manor, and you scramble to get the noodles and the egg into the bowl for serving. distantly, you can hear them talking in the courtyard - cao niangzi, general shen, and yifu, coming closer.
"- general shen has also come, just in time, we can all eat noodles together."
"very well, it's better to arrive on time than to arrive early!"
you've trained with this puppet so many times, now, that it's easy to understand what you need to do to have it carry the bowl. it's hysterical, and you know that yifu will have something to say about it, but ge banxiao had grinned with the suggestion, and considering...
it moves forward, lights and flowers and silks so terribly out of place, soulless and comical, and yifu predictably has something to say immediately:
"bastards, is the sword training puppet for you all to play with like this?"
"marquis, sir, the fake girl applied the blush. i helped make the fire for cooking the noodles, and big brother put in the egg!"
yifu stands there, looking... stupefied, maybe. there's something amused in you to see him dumbfounded and struck silent, for once in his life, as you observe everything. he makes no move to take the bowl right away.
lightly, you say, "yifu, eat the noodles first before entering."
it hides the nerves, you think. you hope he likes it.
if yifu notices, he, for once, does not point it out. instead, he simply says "alright," and takes the bowl. he looks your way, and without any further comment... he picks out the egg, first.
you have to bite the inside of your cheek as he begins eating, but there's no hiding the way that a smile starts to pull at your mouth as he neatly finishes everything.
your heart is so warm, it causes the cold of winter to bleed away.
except all he can really feel is a combination of numb nostalgia, with that. ]
the way i had to stop myself from writing gu yun in my reply to you instead of vax like ten times
vax blinks, as the bubble around them pops, and it leaves him feeling...
...warm. warm, like spending time with vox machina can, like being with vex does. the memory was touching, sweet, and he rubs absently as his chest, turning his head to chang geng to give him a smile. ]
... 's your actual family, huh?
yifu was here, in this the only happy memory i've written so far
it's still a good memory. it's the best one he's seen so far, from his own collection of them. ]
Mm, it is. My yifu - the man that you got me to swear over, actually - isn't the sort to celebrate his birthday. It was a good night.
daddy....
Looks like it. 'Yifu'? [ the man with the armor and the snarky voice. he can still feel chang geng's warmth from looking at him, and honestly, it's... it's nice. vax's family's long gone, except for vex'ahlia, but it feels like being with vox machina. what a sweet memory. ]
die
He'd saved me when I was a handful of years younger than that memory, and my - mm, my father by marriage was grateful. They'd tried to pass the credit of it onto General Shen, the other man in the memory, but the title still fell to him because of the kind of people they both were.
panic! at the backtag
that makes vax smile a little, corner of his mouth lifting. damn chang geng you get to have two dads ]
Sounds like you've got family coming out the ears. 's nice.