Chapter Text
Maomao, in an uncharacteristic moment of weakness, launches out her bed and to the door, yanking it open while the knocking continues.
Though it couldn’t have been anyone else in there, she still feels a physical jolt at the sight of him, a tightening of her chest that leaves her breathless. Jinshi stands wide-eyed, hand raised mid-knock, just inside her bathroom.
She had thought about this moment several times over the last few weeks, what exactly she would say to him when he returned. Now that it was happening, it felt far more surreal than any other moment since meeting him. Jinshi really had come back. While her memory had done him justice, seeing him before her once again paled.
Before she can stop herself, Maomao is moving the final steps towards him.
Rather roughly, she grabs him by the front of his stupid, weird robes and pulls him close until their noses nearly touch. Given she is not a woman of many words, she entertained the idea of ignoring him purely for retribution, but she usually settled on ‘what the hell’ as the most succinct way to begin their reunion. She has every intention of giving him a piece of her mind, but instead finds herself pressing her mouth together in a line to keep from doing or saying something she’ll surely regret.
And only in that moment of closeness, does the steady hum of the vibrator make its way to her ears, the pulsing of the thing audible in their silence. Slowly Jinshi’s fine eyebrows draw together in a mockery of fear, and his gaze lowers and lowers to the hand not gripping his collar, until he’s staring down at the vibrator as if he’s seeing a ghost.
Then, horribly, his eyes go lower, right down the ground, where her underwear hangs wearily from one ankle.
As if he were a frightened cat, Jinshi springs away from her, back into the bathroom, practically slamming the door on her.
Maomao has the wherewithal to turn the toy off before she pounds on the door . Hold on, this is my bathroom -
“I’ll wait until you’re done!” These are his first words to her upon his return, and gone is the dulcet voice her mind had proved in his absence. Instead he sounded almost shrill. It seemed Jinshi remained eternally flustered.
“I’m not -“ Maomao drops her head against the door, feeling several sorts of frustration. “Can you get out of there already?”
“I don’t know, are you decent?” He calls back. To think she had once believed this guy to be a pervert!
Nonetheless, she hasn't been waiting for him to show up again just so he could hide out in the bathroom. So Maomao chucks the toy to the bed and reaches for her underwear, calling out yes! even as she hunts for a legitimate pair of pants. When she hears the creak of the door just as she’s snapped her leggings into place, Maomao glances over to the bathroom.
Once again, Jinshi lingers there, half hiding behind the door. He sounds petulant, like a child, when he pouts, “You spooked me, you know.”
“That’s something, coming from you.” Maomao doesn’t say anything else, not willing to be any more vulnerable in this than she has already been. She also finds she doesn’t entirely know what to say. Nothing seems like enough, now that he is here again. Silently she hopes he too can’t find the words, uncertain what sort of door that may open. They really had enough to worry about at the moment.
The two stare at each other from across the small space for a long stretch, until Jinshi finally steps out from around the door. “Maomao, I didn’t mean to -”
“I need you to do me a favor.” Maomao interrupts.
Jinshi glances around. “Right … now?”
“Yes,” She affirms, ignoring the way he almost deflates. Even she can tell he wants to say more to her at this moment, but she doesn’t wish to hear it. Not now, when she’s certain she’s on to something far more important. If it still matters after that, he can say it then, but first she needs his assistance. “It shouldn’t take long, but I can’t do it alone. I believe that you can; however, we first need to test a theory to confirm.”
At this he eyes her wearily. “I suppose you mean you’d like to experiment on me more, when I’ve only just returned.”
“Precisely. Now, do you know if you can carry an object, even when you hide?”
She made sure to emphasize hide - while she needed Jinshi out of sight, she did not need him vanishing entirely again, whatever the reason.
Jinshi considers it. “I haven’t tried but I’m fairly certain I can.”
“And when you hide, you are able to move through physical structures, correct?”
“Yes...”
Maomao nods, balling her fists, feeling genuine excitement. “Excellent. Then what we need to do is combine the two - I need to confirm that you can carry an object through a structure while being undetectable, without damaging it. Or losing it once you stop making contact with it, like what happened to your clothes. Understand?”
He nods. “Simple enough.”
“Alright,” Maomao claps her hands once before looking around. In a perfect world, she’d give him something of similar composition to the object in question, but she has absolutely nothing remotely close to a hunk of precious gemstone. So she reaches for the nearest thing, which would happen to be her previously discarded sex toy. “Here, take this and pass through the bathroom door, then return back - ”
Suddenly, Jinshi reached for her with a yelp. “Absolutely not!”
“It’s fine,” Maomao waves their test subject in the air between them, dodging his hands, almost giddy at the prospect of confirming her hypothesis and getting her hands on that tablet. “I can manage without, if you ruin it.”
“Put that thing away, you animal!” Jinshi growls, grappling with the wrist of the hand still holding the vibrator and shakes it over the still open drawer of her nightstand. “Drop -”
He stopped his sentence and movement abruptly, staring straight down into the drawer. “How did you get this?”
Maomao looked down as he let go of her to reach inside with both hands. Laid across his palms, was the silver hairstick, the one she had discovered in the boiler room. She had put it there for safe keeping. “I found it.”
“Where?” One thumb traced the design gently. He almost sounds nostalgic.
“That’s what I’ve been wanting to talk to you about,” she grumbled. But you’ve been avoiding me…
Jinshi huffs, but he doesn’t look up, still turning the hairstick over in his long fingers. “I wasn’t avoiding you, which you would know if you’d let me talk. I was trapped in the plane between life and death.”
Maomao finally drops the vibrator with a clatter and snatches the silver ornament away, annoyed she’d spoken aloud what she meant to keep to herself. “That isn’t funny.”
“I’m not laughing,” he finally looks up, and Jinshi’s gaze is far more intense than it was peeking around her bathroom door, once again shedding his skittishness for a sudden solemnity. That pensiveness upon such a heavenly face, marred only by his singular scar, was all the convincing she needed that he was the spirit of an imperial prince. In moments like this, he truly carried an otherworldly regality. “Do you know what this is, Maomao?”
Maomao nods. Unnecessarily, she wonders how the hell he had gotten anything done when he was alive, with a face like that. “A hairstick.”
“Yes, but…” Jinshi’s brow furrows. “Well, it’s my hairstick. Or it was, once.”
The metal in her hands feels so cold that it stings as those words sink in. “You were wearing this the night you died?”
Jinshi shakes his head slowly. “No. That’s the thing. I left it behind when I left for Verdigris. I didn't want to risk being identified by it.”
Idly, she taps the stick against her chin in thought. “But then how did it end up here?”
His hand comes to close around hers, trying to pry the stick back. “You mean you found this here?”
“Yes, of course,” Maomao twisted away, but it only pulls him in towards her. Despite the all-encompassing coolness of his body at this non-existent distance, she doesn’t mind the sensation. “Where else would I have found it? It was in the ceiling of the boiler room -”
“The boiler room?” He repeated unnecessarily, while still attempting to reclaim the hair accessory, crowding her as she tries to hold it aloft, though she’s hardly tall enough.
“- with a jade tablet.”
Jinshi stopped his fussing and merely loomed, right there up against her. “Show me.”
“I can’t!” Maomao pushes forward, and the pointy end of the stick pokes into Jinshi’s chest, causing him to let go. He rubs the spot, looking equal parts confused and affronted. “I wasn’t able to get it at the time.”
“Then let's get to it now.”
Maomao waves her hand back towards the nightstand. “That’s what I’m trying to do! But I still need to confirm you can get it out first without losing it entirely.”
“Fine,” Jinshi shuts the drawer, still holding his hairstick. “We’ll use this to conduct your little test. Wait here.”
Then he shoves the silver rod through his hair bun, and disappears.
While she knew this was part of the experiment she specifically requested of him, the sight of him blinking out in front of her, as mind-boggling as it was to witness, sent what Maomao knew consciously was a wave of panic through her body. Likely a subconscious reaction to the sheer absurdity of the action. But for one brief second, as her chest tightened and her vision blurred, she genuinely thought she was dying.
Jinshi was gone.
Whatever she had felt in the time that Jinshi had appeared in her room, had been unexplainable, as was the nature of dealing with something so unnatural. But this reaction, a total uncovering of systemic loneliness, was extensive. It went beyond their time together. No logical thoughts permeated her brain, only a raw hurt inside of her that she earned a long time ago, back when her mother cut her finger and her uncle died in his sleep and her life burned down, swelled up from deep inside, a wave of grief.
I’m all alone here.
Only when she felt the whisper of fingers, one she’s only just dreamed about, grazing her wrist, a scintilla of sensation, did the wave recede. Though she could not see him, she felt the weight of his other hand, palm to her collar bone. Like this, the pressure and the cold eased the physical hysteria, enough for her to count her breaths.
“It’s alright, Maomao. I’m still here with you. I’ll only be a moment now.”
Perhaps these words she did want, need, to hear from him, for when the chill dissipates it is not immediately engulfed by the sting of fear. Nonetheless Maomao feels as if she holds her breath for the longest minute, looking ahead to the blank television instead of watching the bathroom door.
Between one blink and the next, Maomao’s vision is eclipsed once again by Jinshi’s reappearance. He kneels in front of her; at some point she must have sat down on her bed. His hands rest on her knees and his eyes upon her face. Glinting in his hair, is the silver ornament. Maomao wordlessly reaches for it, inspecting it closely in the space between them. It looks as it did before, nearly as immaculate as its owner.
“It works,” Maomao murmured. She couldn’t even begin to understand the science behind it, but it was irrelevant so long as it was successful. At least for now. She holds the stick out to him. “Here.”
Jinshi takes it silently in between his thumb and forefinger. “What now?”
“We need to go down to the basement to retrieve the tablet.”
The pair rises, Jinshi hovering closer than before as she finds her shoes. Again, he looks as if he has something to say. Maomao no longer knows what it is she wishes to hear from him, another thing she cannot fully understand.
As she reaches for the door handle to the hallway, he does indeed speak from behind her. “Don’t move.”
On instinct she abides, body tensing with her back to him. Maomao feels his presence, both a comfort and a confusion, and then an unexpected sting. “Ouch. That hurts.”
Something sharp drags along her scalp, sending a tingle across her head and down her neck, but it stops quickly. Maomao reaches up to feel for the damage, but her hand bumps into the metal of Jinshi’s hair stick, now skewered in her own bun. Before she can pull it out or turn towards him, his voice, soft and velveteen, pleads in her ear. “Leave it, please.”
The tingle continues across her chest and down low into her center. As she grips the door handle again, all she can do is nod.
The lost cause…
The little black cat understands her place in this life is beside Ka Zuigetsu, Moon Prince.
Gaoshun, however, has dried squid in his pockets just for her. He never tries to pet her belly, unlike the naughty prince, even when she offers.
This is why it is Gaoshun she trots after that afternoon, as he makes his way out of her master’s home. If she were to glance back, she’s sure she would see the young man pouting but he will survive without her for one afternoon, though a part of her does worry. Something weighs on him, something that causes him to pull at his hair and shut out his attendants.
In recent months, he often looks tired, melancholy. Most of his time is spent withdrawn to his study, pouring over countless scrolls or practicing his forms with his sword. Late at night, the prince would walk the gardens with her when he should be sleeping. He would ask her unanswerable, unfathomable questions, wondering aloud if she would be happier somewhere else, if he had been someone else.
She knows he does not recognize her like this, even after all these years, to know better than to make such rudimentary queries. It isn’t a matter of happiness that keeps them together, but fate. She will know him as so many versions of him, some better than others, but all of them hers.
So when the prince tells her how he wished so desperately for things to be different that he thought it might kill him, it causes the cat such grief. The emotion is too big and human for this small form, and always leads her to swat at his outstretched hands.
Perhaps some other poor soul would take offense and shoo her off, but her temperamental nature seems to ease his mind.
Yet despite her worries, the cat leaves the prince behind to follow Gaoshun. She needs a moment away from his hovering. Truthfully, she is still cross about this morning, when she’d allowed him to scratch under her chin, and he took the opportunity of her raised chin and closed eyes to kiss her right upon her forehead, like a fool.
Gaoshun leads them some ways around the court to a building somehow grander than the one the prince occupies, though they do not enter. Instead, he moves around the perimeter until they come across a young woman waiting near a gate. “Hello, father-in-law!”
“I wasn’t expecting you,” Gaoshun nods. “Were you looking for me, Chue?”
“No, no,” the lady said, crouching down to peer at Xiaomao. Xiaomao peered back, sitting on her haunches. She thinks perhaps she has seen the woman before, but she is not so good with faces. “I was only relaying a message. What an interesting cat.”
Gaoshun looks down at her and does a poor job hiding his smile when she begins to involuntarily purr. “She is quite the character.”
The lady hums. “That doesn’t surprise me one bit.”
A frog hops onto the pathway just past the lady’s legs, and the cat pounces after it on instinct, tuning out the rest of the humans' conversation. Only when she is bapping at her small adversary, does Gaoshun call out at the end of a long sigh. “Is that necessary, Xiaomao?”
The cat is too busy eek-eek-eeking at the frog to heed his question, so Gaoshun sighs again and continues on his way around the building. She considers taking her prize with her to follow him, thinking perhaps he might like to keep it himself if she offered, but in her moment of indecision the creature finally escapes her. Xiaomao bounds after Gaoshun just as he rounds a corner into an unfamiliar garden.
Standing in an ornate pavilion, is a very regal looking man. He also looks familiar to her, but in a different way than the woman. She stops several paces away and sits, raising one foot to clean it with a sudden urgency. Gaoshun continues up the couple of stairs and bows. “Your Majesty.”
Her ears twitch - she’s heard the prince talk about His Majesty before, but he usually sounded sad. There was a period of time, before he left only to return with a scarred face, that the prince was angry every time he spoke of His Majesty, but now he does not even speak of him at all.
“Gaoshun, you seem to have been followed.”
Both men look at her. She offers a quiet chirp, and the attendant smiles. “Xiaomao enjoys keeping me company, when she can sneak away from the Moon Prince.”
His Majesty’s eyes light up. “So this is Zuigetsu’s infamous kitten then? She’s a scrawny thing.”
“But plenty fierce,” Gaoshun offers. “She gives him quite a bit of trouble because of it.”
“Deservingly so,” His Majesty sighs wearily, one hand coming to pull at his beard and the other gesturing towards the seating. “That boy will be the death of us all. Sit Gaoshun.”
Gaoshun does. Xiaomao waits only a moment before trotting after him and hopping into his lap, tucking her feet. She closes her eyes as he says, “He’s not been a boy for quite some time now, sir.”
“And yet he’s not made a man of himself and performed his duties with any of the flowers. At this point I’d settle for him choosing a weed amongst the serving staff so long as it produces a son. Which brings me to my point, Gaoshun.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Zuigetsu can not evade this. He will lead Li to far greater heights than I, and he will fulfill his role as a sire to this nation. Even if he was not my only child, I would wish to see him do so. And so this means we must protect him, at any cost.”
“Of course, Your Majesty. The Moon Prince’s safety has always been of utmost concern, second only to yours.”
“No longer shall that be true.”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand, sir.”
“I have accepted responsibility in deceiving the court of Zui’s position in the imperial house and my failures to produce any more viable children. I intend to abdicate to Zuigetsu as soon as he bears a son of his own. It is the only way forward for Li.”
“Your Majesty, I don’t -”
“Hear me clearly: should it be him or I, it’s Zuigetsu who must be preserved.”
“That is an order, Gaoshun.”
Xiaomao feels the way the attendant’s hand stills from where he had been petting her. She mraoows once, pawing at his sleeves, to remind him of her presence. “I understand, sir.”
A long, drawn out exhale seems to come from His Majesty. “The truth of the matter is the court remains dissatisfied with its sole crown prince, uncertain of his origins and displeased with his inaction. His rejections of viable brides is beginning to scorn many, and his valiance in war is not enough to make it up to this country. If my will is to be followed, it's imperative he acts swiftly before something irreparable occurs.”
“You sound as if you have an idea as to how to do so, Majesty."
“Gaoshun, are you familiar with the Verdigris House?”
“In reputation only, sir. It is said to be a palace amongst the brothels of the pleasure district, home to the three princesses.”
“Precisely. I intended to arrange contact with the Madame, to procure the whole damn roster of women if necessary, to encourage Zuigetsu along. The Mi were directed to vet the establishment prior to doing so but they’ve uncovered something of concern. Amongst the princesses, is a woman who possesses a jadeite tablet.”
“I imagine if you’re disclosing this, they have certified its authenticity as well.”
“Yes. Based on our information gathered, it matches the archive’s description of one that went missing long ago, when an imperial blooded man was exiled.”
The cat stands up on Gaoshun’s lap and arches her back in a much needed stretch. For a brief moment, she considers leaving to investigate the unfamiliar gardens, but then a yawn overtakes her and she simply curls back up. The afternoon sun feels nice, but there are dark clouds on the horizon. “Can we determine if the woman is a descendant of the tablet’s original owner, or merely in possession of it?”
“In time, though I would rather not confirm the former. Illegitimacy amongst the imperial family has plagued my bloodline. Look what it resulted in with the Shi clan. This must be contained and controlled, for Zuigetsu's sake. I cannot allow anything to pose a risk to his claim or to encourage the court to rally for an alternate heir, should they learn they may exist.”
“You believe it will come to this, Your Majesty?”
“It already has. I had our informant make contact with the Madame to proceed with the negotiations as intended, and to secure both the tablet and the princess in the deal. The Madame informed us that she was willing to part with any of the women, but not with the tablet. She claims it already has a buyer.”
“So we will need to acquire it with force, then.”
“Not quite. I imagine I can kill quite a few birds here with one precious stone.”
“Sir?”
“The Madame alleges they do not know the identity of the buyer, otherwise we wouldn’t have to act so covertly, but they will arrive at Verdigris tonight to collect the tablet. We’ve made arrangements, at quite a cost, for them to be terminated.”
Once again Gaoshun’s petting stops. Xiaomao croaks once more but he does not resume. “Your Majesty, you don’t wish to take them into custody and investigate the matter further before executing the buyer? They may be in possession of more information.”
“That may be the logical approach but I can’t bring myself to see this with anything but emotion. I have allowed for the compromising of my son’s bloodright once before. I cannot be complicit in doing so again.”
“There’s a possibility the buyer doesn’t seek it as a threat against the Moon Prince’s claims to the throne.”
“Perhaps, but the very existence of the tablet outside of these walls makes it one, as does idle knowledge of it. I’ve already bought Verdigris House’s silence. They will comply with the plot to assassinate the buyer. I must eliminate any who oppose Zuigetsu’s ascension, Gaoshun. No matter the cost.”
The little black cat will think nothing of this conversation on the slow walk home, distracted by bugs in the long grass. She will not concern herself with the plans and politics of the humans, while she watches birds in the branches of the magnolia trees overhead. Not even that night when she sits upon the railing of the back garden walkway waiting for her companion, will she reflect back on it.
Not until a moment too late.
A shadow approaches her, footsteps familiar.
“Hello, little thing,” the prince whispers into the darkness. “Are you watching the moon tonight?”
The cat only blinks at him slowly. She is always watching the moon, but he cannot understand that in this form.
“I must step out. I’m sorry.” He smiles softly, lovely in a way that transcends this lifetime. “Listen here, remember how I told you about my research from the archives, on the breeches in the imperial lineage? Well, I believe I’ve found our first real lead, Xiaomao, at a place called the Verdigris House. I’m headed there now.”
It's instinctive the way her ears pin back as awareness prickles at her. Verdigris House. His Majesty had said…
“Wait for me, please. I won’t be long.”
And then Ka Zuigetsu, under a waning moon, slips out of the palace and into the night.