Chapter Text
“Stop, Master Jinshi!” Maomao struggled to pull her things from his hands, but he merely lifted them above his head and out of reach of her arms. He ignored her, continuing to walk with a pile of her clothes towards his room. Maomao turned, giving Gaoshun a glare as he watched. “Help me, Gaoshun.”
“There’s nothing I can do, Xiaomao.” He sighed, exhaustion heavy on his face as he closed his eyes. Suiren stood beside him, shaking her head in disapproval but she too did nothing to stop her Master from stubbornly moving Maomao’s things to his room.
“This is highly inappropriate, if anyone were to find out-”
“Nobody will know.” Jinshi had come back, having deposited her clothes somewhere in his room. He was returning to her room to grab more things. “It’s only Gaoshun and Suiren here and they would never say anything.”
Maomao felt her eye’s twitching, they had barely been back in his pavilion before he had made his way directly to her room and started packing it up for her. The only thing that seemed to be immune to his treatment was her drawer of smuggled medicinal herbs and minor poisonous plants that she had found around the rear palace - and that was only because she had solemnly told him it was where she kept her panties.
“Master Jinshi, can we please take a moment to discuss this?” She failed to keep the annoyance out of her voice despite the polite words, Jinshi walked past her with a huff but otherwise ignored her. “Child…” She muttered as soon as he was out of earshot.
So she could do nothing other than watch Jinshi move her things, waiting until he was far enough away from her rooms to secretly move and hide things that she knew he would confiscate from her. Neither Gaoshun or Suiren assisted him, in silent protest they watched as Jinshi moved nearly everything of Maomao’s to his room with a stubborn look on his face.
“Give him a few days, then I’ll talk some sense into him.” Suiren said, waving her hand dismissively as she turned to leave, her face caught somewhere between annoyance and amusement.
“Try to keep him in check, Xiaomao.” Gaoshun shook his head, also turning to leave until Maomao was left standing there by herself.
Blowing out her frustration she entered Jinshi’s rooms, surveying the disarray that he had left it in. Clearly he had never done any form of housekeeping in his life, though that hardly surprised Maomao. Her clothes had all been piled on the spare bed he had set up for her, while the table held all her books and odd trinkets she had collected. It was weird to see her entire life only taking up a bed and a table.
Jinshi sat at the table, looking at her things as if they offended him somehow.
“Who gave you this?” Jinshi held up the necklace that Lady Gyokuyou had given her when she had attended the banquet as her lady in waiting. Jinshi held it carefully, but was clearly upset that she had it.
“Lady Gyokuyou did.” Maomao turned her attention to the clothes on her new bed, taking the first robe from the top as she started to fold and reorganize the mess that Jinshi had made.
“And this?” She looked over her shoulder to see Lady Lihua’s hairpin in his hands.
“Lady Lihua.”
“Why did you keep it?”
“It’s rude to get rid of gifts, Master Jinshi.”
He didn’t say anything to that and for a while Maomao sorted and folded her clothes in silence. She figured there was no point in talking about things while he was throwing his temper tantrum, she would wait him out and then talk to him about the implications of her moving into his personal rooms.
“Do you like jewelry?” Jinshi broke the silence, his voice quiet enough that she had just barely heard him. She paused in her movements for a brief second before she answered.
“Not really, I have no use for something like that.” Another brief silence followed, Maomao had finished sorting her clothes and was just about to ask Jinshi where she was meant to put them when he spoke again.
“What would you want as a gift?”
“A gift for what?” She turned, finding that Jinshi had sorted out her possessions on the table into what appeared to be categories. The few items of luxury such as the necklace and the hairpins had been pushed to one side, while her books formed a second much larger pile. The third pile was her various tools for making medicines and repairing her clothing. Jinshi played with the hairpin he had given her, tapping it lighting against his leg as he refused to meet her eyes.
“For whatever.”
“I don’t need a gift for ‘whatever’, Master Jinshi.”
He pouted even harder at the table, his tapping becoming more irritated. She sighed, pulling out a chair to sit beside him. She eyed the desk again, her eyes roaming over the few meager things she owned until she found a particular book. Extracting it from the pile she pulled it onto her lap, Jinshi watched as she opened it to show him what was inside.
“My adoptive father gave me this book; it's more of a journal since he’s the one that wrote it.” Her hand traced the hand drawn diagrams of plants and their scribbled descriptions. “He made note of all the common plants and flora, describing the kind of medicines they could be used for and how to prepare them. It was the first book he gave me when he started teaching me about medicine and my most treasured possession.”
She eyed Jinshi, waiting to see if he was down pouting and had understood what she was trying to say. Though his annoyance seemed to have slipped away, he still looked at the book with confusion, as if trying to figure out what the book had to do with his question. Maomao sighed, trying to think of how to be more direct in her answer.
“This was a good gift because it was useful to me. It was neither expensive, or flashy but my father put a lot of time and effort into it.” She couldn't help but smile fondly at the pages. Luomen had presented it to her with the apology that he couldn’t give her something more proper for her birthday that year. But Maomao had spent that entire night reading the book in the corner of their little home, squinting at the pages in the moonlight, too scared to light a candle and wake up her father.
So lost in the memory that she hadn’t even noticed Jinshi smiling at her until he was tucking his hairpin into her hair with gentle hands. She looked up to find his face close to hers, his eyes gentle as he let his hand rest on her head.
“What favor did you trade the Emperor to have me stay here.” The question slipped out of her mouth, it took both of them by surprise. Jinshi blinked at her before he laughed quietly to himself.
“You were eavesdropping.”
“Lady Gyokuyou and Gaoshun were, I only got there in time to hear the tailend of whatever you were discussing with the Emperor.” Jinshi watched her face for a bit, his hand trailing through her hair absently as he thought.
“Does it upset you that I made a deal?”
“I’m grateful that I get to stay, but I worry that you may have gotten a bad deal.”
“I got you, I don’t see how that could be a bad deal.” Maomao felt heat crawling up her neck, his hand was playing with the ends of her hair but he was looking at her with a face full of honest devotion that Maomao felt herself choking on whatever she was about to say. “Don’t worry about it, Maomao.”
He leaned in, obviously hoping to kiss her while she was tongue tied but she leaned back, a hand covering his mouth.
“J-Jinshi, you really didn’t have to. My plan was going to work.”
“Your plan almost landed you in Lakan’s hands.” Though his voice was still teasing, his expression darkened enough that she knew he wouldn’t have taken that outcome very well.
“A minor miscalculation.” But she looked away guiltily, “It would change the terms of our agreement, but I would have found a way out of it.”
“You made an agreement with him?”
“Don’t worry about it.” She mimicked his words, pushing the chair back until she could stand. “It was an agreeable exchange for staying in the rear palace.” Jinshi stood as well, pulling her back to him before capturing her mouth in a forceful kiss.
Maomao didn’t resist, though she didn’t really find any desire to resist in her. She let her hands rest on his chest, inhaling deeply through her nose before pushing herself up onto her tippy toes to kiss him back just as forcefully.
Both of their minds were lost in their own thoughts.
Jinshi could hardly believe that Maomao had been willing to make a deal with the man she seemed to hate most in the world for a chance to stay near him, even if she had ended up in Lakan’s household she seemed to be more than willing. She had made it clear, in her own roundabout way, that her feelings for him were deep enough that they superseded things like her hatred for her birth father. Though she glared at him and fussed when he did things that overstepped the boundaries of what was considered proper for them, he couldn’t help but adore the redness in her face that was becoming a more common occurrence. It was as if the more she admitted her feelings, the more she felt embarrassed rather than annoyed by his affection. Though she still scolded him, it barely held half the venom she used to throw at him.
Maomao, though still confused by her feelings on the matter, knew that Jinshi was important to her in a way that few people in her life were. It was a slow realization in her mind, though she had long suspected that Jinshi held inappropriate thoughts towards her. There had been subtle changes on her end, starting with feeling comfortable enough to outwardly direct her annoyance at him and ending in her actively seeking out physical affection from him. She couldn’t help but compare him to the medicines Luomen had cautioned her against when she was learning - effective at curing pain, but highly addictive.
By the time they pulled back, they were both panting and looking at each other with their own wonder.
“Jinshi-
“Maomao-”
They spoke at the same time, Jinshi gave her a small smile before leaning down to press his forehead against hers.
“I really can’t stay in your room, Jinshi. I think Suiren might have a heart attack if you insist.” She couldn’t help the small smile that graced her face when he pouted at her.
“You’d be allowed to stay here if you were my wife.” He grumbled quietly. Maomao felt the heat that had left her rise up again, she struggled to pull herself away from him.
“I am not your wife, Master Jinshi!” Maomao yelled, her voice rising louder than she had intended. He ignored her struggles, burying his head in the crook of her neck instead where he stayed as she continued to berate him for his comment. Jinshi took all of her yelling with a smile hidden in her hair, holding Maomao tightly to him.
Suiren and Gaoshun had heard Maomao’s outburst, and though they both flushed a little Suiren merely turned to Gaoshun with a conspiratorial smile.
“I’ll bet you he proposes at least three times before she accepts.” Gaoshun grimaced, there was something about betting on his Master’s rejection that made him feel bad for the man.
“I say five, but this one doesn’t count.”
They shook on it just as a red faced Maomao stormed out of Jinshi’s rooms, her steps loud and forceful as if she could drown out her heart beating in her ears. Jinshi followed closely behind, smiling sweetly as if he had just found a new game to play and was thrilled that he was winning.
Suiren sighed.
“I may have guessed too low.”