#Also Xichen's injury is literally nothing from canon it's just a plot device and he's gonna be fine

[guqin-and-flute]

And A-Fu Makes 4--Chpt. 5 [3zun Raise Jingyi Au]

[Ao3 Link] [Series] [More 3zun Raise Jingyi AU]

“Gege! Gege!”

The cry came from behind them, from a little gold figure clumsily running toward them down the pretty open air hallway that had blue and gold flowers made of tiles everywhere. A-Fu scowled, especially when A-Qiang’s fat new spiritual dog puppy scrambled around the corner after him. Beside them Little Fairy’s tail started wagging. Grabbing for A-Yuan and A-Kui’s hands as A-Ling stopped, A-Fu tried to drag them along faster, shouting, “Ugh, run!”

“But--!” A-Kui started, even as he sped up obediently.

A-Yuan, though, dug in his heels, stretching A-Fu out between them before he pulled his hand out. “Don’t be mean, A-Fu!”

"Quit being a turd," Jin Ling added angrily over his shoulder as he knelt down, arms out to A-Qiang as the Jin nanny slowly came around the corner after him, patient and quiet.

Grumpily, A-Fu let go of A-Kui and slowed down, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms. "A-Qiang is the turd. Why can’t he leave us alone? He’s not a big kid."

Even as he said it, A-Qiang tripped over his own foot and fell flat on his face. A-Kui hissed in, A-Yuan winced, and the nanny rushed over as A-Qiang raised his head back up and started wailing. Unbelievable. A-Fu scowled harder as all his friends and the dogs ran back to him. He followed too, slower, his heart and brain all stormy and dark. This was dumb. He didn’t get the whole fuss over little kids--he wanted to go play.

"Ohhh, it's okay, it's okay," A-Kui cooed in a soft, high voice when A-Ling reached his brother and heaved him up into his arms. "Poor QiangQiang, it’s okay!”

“I got him,” A-Ling told the nanny confidently, even though A-Qiang was more than half his size and his arms were overflowing and he was bent backward to support him.

“Alright, xiao-gongzi,” she nodded with a smile and faded back to stand like one of the gold curlicues of flowers up the wall by the window as the rest of the boys crowded around.

A-Qiang sobbed into A-Ling’s shoulder, arms wrapped around his neck, loud and annoying. A-Yuan patted his back as A-Ling bounced on his heels, almost falling over from the weight. “You’re okay, A-Qiang, lemme see.” With difficulty, he craned his head back farther and smeared the ends of his brother’s hair back from his spit and tear wet cheeks, inspecting him. “You’re not hurt, see? It’s just a bump,” he assured, giving him a kiss right above his red dot. “All better, right?”

Back down the hall, A-Fu uncrossed his arms to recross them again, harder. “Then can he go now?”

“He’s just sad ‘cause the babies are taking up all the attention from a-niang and a-die,” A-Ling said, like he knew anything about why babies did dumb things; it sounded like something a grownup said and he was repeating. “He just wants to be with his gege, right?”

Tearfully, A-Qiang nodded, sniffling. “Gege!”

“But we don’t want a didi with us, right?”

“I don’t care!” A-Kui said, brightly. “Babies are funny.” Of course A-Kui would think so--he was already an Uncle from his oldest 2 sisters, so he was used to them ruining everything.

“A-Qiang isn’t a baby,” A-Ling informed him. “He’s 1.”

Ugh, A-Fu had to be the reasonable one around here. “A-Yuan?”

His other cousin shrugged, kinda uncomfortably, like he knew what A-Fu wanted to hear but it wasn’t what he was gonna say. “Um. I dunno. I’m okay. We’re just paddling in the pond, right?”

With a huge, angry huff, A-Fu gave up and yelled, “Fine!” spinning back around and stomping down the hall. Behind him, A-Qiang’s new puppy yipped excitedly and ran up to jump at his heels. “Go away!” he snapped at it, even though it didn’t listen because it was a baby and also a dog. Instead, it just lolled out its tongue and yipped again.

“Ugh, what is your problem?!” Jin Ling snapped at him as he waddled with A-Qiang, sounding just like his Uncle Jiang Cheng did when he was grumpy (which seemed like all the time). “You’re such a poo-head!”

“Well, you’re a poop and a fart! In your pants!” A-Fu yelled back, because it was the worst insult he knew, the one that would get him A Look and so many chores.

With that, he darted around the corner, leaving them all behind. A little way down the sunny hall, he flapped a tapestry of some guy away from the wall and hid behind it as a lump where it was dark and just a little too warm.

Dust and sweat prickled in his collar as he heard A-Yuan say, wisely, “Jin-er-bobo said A-Fu is having a tough time, right now.”

That’s for sure. How could he not be having a tough time!?

First, he found out that Yellow-Father gave A-Qiang a dog and not him. That was both Jin Ling and Jin Qiang! And not him! His own son! Blue-Father had told him it was because they don’t allow dogs at the Cloud Recesses or any sort of pets, but that was stupid! He had two whole other homes and the dog could wait for him there! “Part of owning a pet is the responsibility,” Blue-Father told them when Yellow-Father had offered to have servants take care of it for him. Yellow-Father had tried to persuade him again, but Blue-Father did his polite I’m Not Going to Change My Mind voice, so that was final.

A-Fu had got so, so mad about it that he stomped his foot and said that Blue-Father was doing it on purpose and just didn’t want him to have any fun and A-Fu wanted to go live at Koi Tower forever. Blue-Father had raised his eyebrows calmly like he did and made him go stand in the corner until he calmed down, which just made all of A-Fu’s mad turn all ugly and grimy like a rock in his tummy. What’s worse was that A-Yuan was there for the whole thing. He was staying with them while Uncle Wangji was on a trip somewhere, so A-Fu got extra embarrassed to get in trouble in front of him. He stayed furious and quiet the whole rest of the night, refusing to talk to either of his fathers.

Then, Blue-Father had gone on an emergency Night Hunt the next day.

A-Fu had only said that stuff ‘cause he was mad. He really didn’t want to go live with the Jin forever, even if it meant he got to spend more time with Yellow-Father.

But maybe a god or an evil spirit heard him because Great-Uncle Qiren came to get him and A-Yuan from school instead of his yellow or blue fathers and told them there had been an accident. “Lan Xichen is in the infirmary,” he had said, laying a warm hand on A-Fu’s shoulder. His voice had been calm and quiet. “You don’t need to worry, the doctors have him stabilized, but I wanted to tell you before you found out through other means. Would you like to see him, or would you like me to call Jin-gongzi to take you back to the Hanshi?”

“I’m…” A-Fu had swallowed hard, his tummy full of cold and squirmy worms, looking at A-Yuan, who grabbed his hand and looked just as scared as he felt. “I wanna see him.”

Great-Uncle Qiren had nodded and held out his hand, and A-Fu took that too. “What happened?” A-Yuan had asked, timidly.

“He was injured by a beast with cursed venom that makes it impossible for wounds to stop bleeding without the antidote. It is not something we have encountered in this region before, so the research is taking some time.”

“Is…is he gonna die?” A-Fu had squeezed out, very small. He didn’t want to go live somewhere else, he didn’t want Blue-Father to go away forever! He hadn’t really meant it! He was just mad!

He didn’t want him to leave like his birth parents!

Great-Uncle Qiren’s hand squeezed a little and he looked down at A-Fu. His eyes had been really kind, just then. “Your fuqin is strong and our doctor’s are diligent. He will just need to recover in the infirmary once the antidote is found.”

But this had just made A-Fu feel even worse. Because that meant that it was time.

He tried to be brave about it, but by the time they reached the Infirmary, he was blinking and sniffing so much. A-Yuan had anxiously hugged his arm like he hugged grownup’s legs, but he just didn’t get it. With a big, deep breath, A-Fu let go and walked into the quiet infirmary ahead of the other two, trying to keep his head up and his shoulders back, like his teacher would remind him--just like how a Clan Leader should walk.

When he flung open the door to the small private room in the back, he found Yellow-Father kneeling beside the bed with a book open in his lap, and both he and Blue-Father looked up. A-Fu couldn’t see any bloodstains or hurts anywhere--and he looked at him real carefully. In a white undershirt and white headband against the white blankets, A-Fu’s blue father looked just as white, pale and sleepy, leaning back against the headboard on a pillow. But he still smiled when he saw who was at the door. A-Fu had almost forgot his mission and run to throw himself into one of his father’s laps, but he remembered at the last second and made himself walk in, slow and calm and responsible.

“Fufu, A-Yuan,” Yellow-Father had said, warmly, folding the old book away and putting it to the side, lifting one of his sleeves out of the way for them to sit on his lap. “Come here.”

But A-Fu hadn’t joined A-Yuan in ‘coming here’--he had blinked back his tears bravely and bowed to them both, very serious and grownup, and asked, “W-where do I go to do the zongzhu things? Do I…do I gotta get my own house or…?”

Both fathers blinked at him, Blue-Father pretty drowsily and, behind him, Great-Uncle Qiren had said, “What?”

Then a thought had occurred to A-Fu and it sounded just so miserable, he couldn’t stop his lip from quivering and the tears from getting in his voice when he asked, “Do I gotta walk to the Cultivation Conferences? I can’t fly yet, do I--”

“Oh. Oh, little one, I think you’re confused,” Blue-Father had interrupted and held out his arms. “Shh, come here.”

And even though he had been really trying to be brave about the whole thing, A-Fu felt his sobs rush out of him and he flung himself up onto the bed, even though Great-Uncle Qiren and Yellow-Father both made a loud, cut off noise like, “Don’t--!” making A-Yuan squeak in alarm.

His Blue-Father had let out a quiet grunt when he landed but had pulled him up to snuggle against him anyway, his long hands tucking his hair back behind his shoulder to pet his cheek. “I’m sorry I said all those mean things!” A-Fu wailed into the air. “I was just mad! I don’t really wanna go live at the Jin forever! Don’t die!”

“Shh, Fufu,” Yellow-Father reached out and rubbed his ankle where it hung off the bed. “Be gentle with your die. Don’t squeeze, don’t wiggle, be good.”

Blue-Father had kept stroking his cheek and he could feel him nodding above him. “I know. I know. Listen, A-Fu. I’m still zongzhu, I will still be able to attend to things. And even if I couldn’t, there are adults who would be taking care of it first. It’s not something I want you to worry about--it’s not your responsibility.”

He pulled himself back to look up into his calm, pale face. “But! But I’m gonna be Lan-zongzhu.”

“A very long time from now.”

A-Fu had heaved a huge, tearful breath and asked with dread, “How tall will it be?”

“How--?”

“Fufu,” Yellow-Father had cut in helplessly from next to them when Blue-Father and Great-Uncle Qiren looked over at him, confused. “Please, it’s--I’ve tried telling you, your height does not determine when you will die or how old you are.”

At this, Great-Uncle Qiren had ‘hmph’ed with a small smile and Blue-Father had huffed out a realizing laugh. Then he had winced and sat back, closing his eyes, breathing shallow and fast. The grownups gathered around real close at that, Great-Uncle Qiren putting his hand on his shoulder, but Blue-Father had shaken his head. “It’s nothing. No. A-Fu, listen to me.” He had opened his eyes and smiled softly, even though his mouth was now about as pale as the rest of him, and his words kinda crawled together, like he was really tired. “Right now…I want you to go pack to stay at Koi Tower for a little while. As a treat. Wangji-shushu will pick you and A-Yuan up on his way back to the Cloud Recesses in a few days. You’ll stay with him until I’m all better. Alright? That’s all you need t’think about. Can you do that?”

“But…”

“But?”

A-Fu looked around, at A-Yuan snuggled in Yellow-Father’s lap and Great-Uncle Qiren looking so serious and Blue-Father looking so so tired and still smiling at him. “So I don’t gotta be zongzhu for you while you get better?”

“No.”

Beside them, Great-Uncle Qiren shook his head when A-Fu looked up at him, then back to Blue-Father. “But…I’m your succession.”

“My…? ...Ah. Yes, you are my heir, but I’m still…I don’t want you worrying about that, right now. You are still a child. Go play. I love you very much.”

Yellow-Father gathered A-Yuan and him up to take back to the Hanshi just as the doctors came in with a stack of books, talismans, and cloth. They all looked very serious and focused, which A-fu supposed was a good thing, except it made all the calm Blue-Father’s calm had given him escape, a little. Great-Uncle Qiren stayed behind with his hands tucked behind his back, watching everything carefully.

All the time packing and all the way to Koi Tower, Yellow-Father had been happy and bright with his words and smiles. They could have stayed with someone in the Cloud Recesses, he had told them, but both Blue-Father and him had thought they might like to see their friends, because A-Kui was visiting with Old Clan Leader Ouyang. Yellow-Father had chatted and stroked their heads in the carriage on the bumpy road and even brought out some cards to play as A-Fu hugged his Little Fathers dolls and wished so hard he had a Blue-Father one to hold onto, too.

And he had even forgotten to pack the pinwheels he had bought with Uncle Huaisang back at the Unclean Realm.

So yeah. A-Fu was having a hard time, even if he did get to see all his friends. And he still didn’t want stinky A-Qiang to hang around them. Sometimes he smelled bad and he couldn’t run as fast as them and that did not make him mean! It was just true! Everyone should just give him a break, okay?!

He was so busy fuming and sniffling behind the tapestry that he didn’t hear the rest of them come up and lift it up away from him. He blinked up at them in the new sunlight, glaring. When A-Kui saw that he was trying not to cry, he crouched down next to him and threw his arms around him, saying, “Oh, poor FuFu! It’s okay, it’s okay!” just like how he did when A-Qiang cried, but it actually felt kinda nice for someone to say ‘poor Fufu’, cause he did feel like a poor FuFu, right now.

A-Yuan went down on his other side and hugged him, too, and even A-Qiang chirped, “Oh, oh!” from Jin LIng’s arms, which was also kinda nice. The Jin nanny leaned over him, blocking out the light from the window and kindly asked, “Are you ready to go to the pond now, Lan-xiao-gongzi?” And A-Fu guessed he was.

Things got a lot better in the sunshine and the clear pond and so many of A-Fu’s grumps went away. They all 4 splashed around in the shallows, hollering and giggling, trying to catch the fish. When they couldn’t, they started throwing little pebbles deeper into the water where all the fish had swum away to hide, making their palms all dirty and gritty and pulling weeds--until the Jin nanny rushed over with A-Qiang on her hip and said to ‘stop stop!’ and that they weren’t weeds but water plants there on purpose. Plants were plants were plants, in A-Fu’s opinion, but, like, okay. “What plants can we pull?” he asked. There were always plants to pull in Uncle Huaisang and him’s garden back at the Unclean Realm--lots of weeds his uncle got mad at.

“None,” she replied, all horrified, like he was putting her under a lot of pressure or something. “This is a garden.”

Wasn’t that a part of having a garden? A-Fu had definitely pulled up plants in here before and opened his mouth to say so when he saw A-Ling looking over at him with huge eyes and a grimace, so he thought for a second. Then he closed his mouth again. ‘Cause they had definitely pulled those plants in here together. “Uh, okay,” he said instead. “Then…I won’t.”

When she turned back around, A-Ling heaved a big sigh of relief and grinned, so A-Fu grinned back and jumped on him to wrestle around a bit in the mud on the side shore. Usually when they rough housed, A-Ling would end up complaining that he was losing and hit him too hard and ruin it. But since they had escaped danger together and all of A-Fu’s bad mood was pretty much gone, they just rolled around and cackled, knocking over A-Kui into the shallows and making Little Fairy and the new puppy yap excitedly at them.

“A-Kui! Are you okay?” A-Yuan anxiously bent down to help haul him up from the steps leading down to the pond where he had been sitting, dipping his feet in the water, since he didn’t like to get as dirty as the rest of them.

Spitting water and scrubbing his face, A-Kui tottered to his feet, then laughed, “Yeah!” and flopped back down again backwards with a huge splash, this time, on purpose.

Ahhhh, this is the life, A-Fu thought, as he rolled away from Jin Ling, flopping down on his back on the warm stone path, panting. He had heard Uncle Huaisang sigh this with a big smile at times when they laid on the grass outside and looked at the shapes in clouds or when they came back from a shop with their arms so full of stuff, so he knew that it meant everything was super good. The air smelled good and fresh and he was with his best friends ever. Even the worry deep in his tummy for Blue-Father was far away, like it was underwater with the fish on the other side of the pond. And even when the new puppy came to lick at the water on his face and a shadow came across him from over his head and he saw that it was A-Qiang looking down at him curiously, he didn’t get annoyed like he usually did--though maybe that was because A-Qiang wasn’t crying at him.

Empathy, said the little Blue-Father in his head, so he heaved a huge sigh and said, “Hey, A-Qiang. What did you name your new puppy?”

“Puppy!” A-Qiang exclaimed, clapping his hands before jumping to belly flop onto A-Fu’s head.

It took a long time of crying and yelling from A-Fu and A-Qiang--who people said didn’t understand what he did, but how could he not understand that he had totally crushed A-Fu’s nose?!--and A-Ling, who was defending his stupid brother, and a lot a lot a lot of treats from the Jin nanny, but everyone eventually got all calmed down and laid around on the shore, letting their muddy, wet clothes dry off in the sun while they munched on candied ginger and fruit. “Is it bleeding?” A-Fu asked A-Yuan again, turning his head and tilting it up so he could see up his throbbing nose.

Because he was the best, A-Yuan leaned in close and peered at him intently, holding a half eaten plum in his fist, before declaring, “Nope.”

“He said sorry,” Jin Ling griped, his arm still around the horrible A-Qiang who sat in his lap, shoving a loquat into his stupid face.

“I don’t think that he really knows what that means,” A-Kui piped up from laying flat on his back, looking up at the sky. “‘Cause he kinda screamed it.”

“He wanted to play like we did,” A-Ling insisted, just repeating what the Jin nanny had tried to soothe A-Fu with. “He wanted to wrestle.”

Looking down his nose at the kid as he happily smeared loquat juice all over his face, A-Fu snorted like Gray-Father and said, as coldly as he could, “Well, that’s not how you do it.”

A-Yuan reached out and patted A-Fu’s shoulder sympathetically. “I know, I know. We’ll teach him, ‘cause that’s what gege’s do.”

“I don’t wanna be a gege,” A-Fu said darkly, but went back to eating his own loquat, with way more cleanness and dignity, just to show A-Qiang who was boss.

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly, though--they all took a bath together and got fresh clothes. They played Hide-And-Seek--which A-Fu won every time, because he was just the best at sneaking--and Evil Doctor, a game A-Yuan made up where he chased them around as the fierce corpse of a doctor and threatened to prick them with needles if they didn’t behave. Even though they saw Jin Chan and his gang one time, it was across the courtyard, and so all A-Fu and A-Ling had to do was stick out their tongues and disappear back inside, so nothing even that bad really happened.

Then, when dinner came and they all sat around eating some soup that wasn’t as good as Aunt Yanli’s, they talked very seriously about choosing a name for their group when A-Ling, A-Fu, and A-Kui were all Clan Leaders. All the cool grownup groups had names; like A-Fu’s fathers, the Venerated Triad, Uncle Wangji and Blue-Father, the Twin Jades, and Yellow-Father and Uncle Zixuan, the Twin Treasures.

“Well, A-Yuan’s gonna be by my side,” A-Fu announced, confidently. “We’re gonna be, like, the Twin Jades…Again. We already swored to each other that we’re gonna stay together forever. We’ll have the same fates.”

“Right!” A-Yuan nodded happily,.

“Wait! Imma be zongzhu too!” Jin Ling exclaimed, all indignant, soup spoon freezing on its way to his mouth. “I want A-Yuan, too!”

When A-Yuan opened his mouth, he was interrupted by A-Kui wailing, “What? What about me? I’m gonna be Ouyang-zongzhu! Me too!”

A-Yuan tried to start again, but A-Fu scoffed. “Look. A-Yuan’s a Lan. Laaan Yuan, Laaan Fu, right? Right? We live together, so he’s gonna be with me.”

“Okay, but--” A-Yuan started.

“That’s not fair!” A-Ling shouted and he banged his fist down on the table, making the soup in his bowl jump.

“A-Ling,” came Uncle Zixuan’s warning voice from the next room where he was helping put all the babies to bed, but he didn’t come in, so A-Ling just repeated in a fierce whisper, “That’s not fair! We’re all best friends, we’re all gonna be sworn brothers--the same! Equal!”

A-Fu pursed his lips up, doubtfully, looking at the 3 of them. He loved them and all, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to raise a kid with them like his fathers or anything. Was that a requirement? “I guess…” he said, slowly, but A-Kui suddenly sat up straight and held out a super important hand, palm out.

“Wait,” he announced, all dramatic. “I have an idea.”

All 3 turned back to him, and he pointed into A-Fu’s face so he had to go cross eyed to see his finger. “Your die’s gotta share you, right?”

“Yeah?”

“We can share A-Yuan the same!”

A-Yuan wrinkled his nose and grimaced a little. “I don’t--”

“I get him in the summer,” A-Fu hurried to blurt. “I call it.”

“I call winter!” A-Ling almost jumped up to his feet in the excitement.

“Guys--”

“I need extra help,” A-Kui said thoughtfully, thinking hard. “Maybe I get spring and autumn?”

All of a sudden, A-Yuan banged his hands down on the table and hollered. “HEY!”

“A-Ling!” Uncle Zixuan hissed, poking his head out around the fancy doorway, face stormy and tired. “Stop.”

Jin Ling shoved his hands up in the air indignantly and mouthed things back at him--probably, ‘it wasn’t me! Really really!’ Even though no one was really that scared of Uncle Zixuan, he was still a grownup, so they all stayed quiet and hunkered down until he shook his head and took away his sharp stare. Then, everyone looked over at A-Yuan, who was sitting with his hands over his mouth, staring at the doorway Uncle Zixuan had gone back around. Then, he peeked his face back around his fingers and whispered loudly, “Do I get a say?!”

“What else are you gonna be doing?” A-Fu demanded, just as quiet.

“I dunno! Night Hunting! Traveling with die! But I’m not--I’m not a doll or something!”

They all checked the doorway, which stayed empty, then huddled back together over the table, heads in. “Well, we just love you, A-Yuan,” A-Kui explained.

“Yeah, you said you were gonna stay forever,” A-Fu added, anxiously, reaching out and squeezing his arm. “You’re so really good at numbers and writing and music reading and stuff and I’m so really good at fighting so we’re a good pair, right? We’re gonna watch each other’s backs, right?”

“Well, yeah, but--!” A-Yuan squinched up his face, like he was concentrating. “But like! I dunno! Maybe sometimes I wanna be alone!”

They were silent as they thought about that. A-Fu definitely didn’t like being alone and he wasn’t sure he liked the idea of A-Yuan going and doing his own thing somewhere away from him. But maybe people were different? That was a weird thought. “Huh,” A-Ling said.

“I’ll still help, though. I’ll help everyone,” A-Yuan added hastily. “We should still have names.”

They all brainstormed until all of their grownups came to pick them up for the night. A couple of the names were promising, like The Band of Awesome and Fireworks Gang (because they liked fireworks) and Justice Squad but none of them sounded quite as grownup as ‘The Twin Jades’ or anything, so they all agreed to keep thinking on it. A-Kui waved cheerily back at them as he skipped away into the purple and orange and blue sunset, holding his father’s hand. When Yellow-Father stepped over the threshold and opened his sleeves to let all 3 of them crash into him with a hug that knocked him back half a step, Aunt Yanli quietly stepped out of her room with a tired smile. “Oh? Are the rowdy boys bedding down for the night? You’re sure that we can’t take them for you?”

Yellow-Father smiled back and bowed hello around them with difficulty. Then he looked down at the grinning faces peeping up at him, all crowded together, laying his hands lightly on their heads. “Oh, I’m perfectly happy and I wouldn’t want to impose, especially since you have your hands full already. In fact, would you like me to take A-Ling for the night?”

At this news, all of the kids excitedly turned back to Aunt Yanli and were going to clamor and jump when she held her hands out, palms down, shushing them. “Shh, shh, the babies.”

She smiled while she said it, but it was very sleepy, like the twins were taking all the awakeness out of her like blood-sucking ghosts. “I wouldn’t want to impose….” she trailed off, saying those same grownup words that Yellow-Father had while looking over at him--and it sort of sounded to A-Fu like she was hopeful.

“It’s no trouble,” Yellow-Father assured her and A-Fu punched the air, wiggling happily, and super silently, making his father shoot him an amused look.

Tilting her head, Aunt Yanli heaved a big sigh and reached out to stroke down Jin Ling’s face as he eagerly ran over to wrap around her belly. “What do you think? Do you want to stay with your xiaoshu tonight, A-Ling?” Instead of answering, he nodded his head so hard that he jumped in time to it, grinning all big. “Oof. Alright, go ask a-die to help you get on your pajamas and pack you some robes. You’re sure?” she asked Yellow-Father again even as Jin Ling raced away down the dim hallway to his parents room.

“Of course!” he answered easily and A-Yuan and A-Fu broke away to dance in a circle around him, giggling as silently as they could, whisper-shouting, “Sleepover sleepover sleepover!”

Laughing quietly, Aunt Yanli folded her hands across her belly and said, “I’m happy you’re happy, boys. Oh, and A-Fu, I read your letter and you’re right! How could I have forgotten to add in a Blue-Father? How silly of me. They’re a set, yes?”

This night couldn’t get any better! A-Fu wiggled and jiggled over to give her a huge, squeezy hug that she accepted with her hands patting his back. She smelled like flowers and spices and old milk, which was confusing, but not necessarily bad, and she was still really squishy--definitely even squishier than when she had all those babies in her belly. But he knew better than to mention that in front of any grownups again. “Yeah! All the die’s all together always!”

“...What do we say?” Yellow-Father prompted calmly from behind him, but he couldn’t see him through all the sleeves and stuff.

“Thank you thank you thankyouthankyouthankyo--!”

Again, Aunt Yanli laughed, and booped his nose with her knuckle all gentle when he beamed up at her. “You’re very welcome. Speaking of, is there any news of…?” she looked back up, hands rubbing little circles on A-Fu’s shoulderblades.

Yellow-Father’s voice came again through the fabric cave--he sounded a little more tired. “It has been challenging, apparently. But it’s still under control.”

A-Fu twisted around to demand, “Who? What?” as A-Yuan hugged onto Yellow-Father’s thigh happily.

Yellow-Father put his hand onto A-Yuan’s head, smiling at A-Fu. “Nothing to worry about. Ah, A-Ling! Are we ready?”

As she fixed A-Ling’s collar and bent down to kiss his forehead, Aunt Yanli asked, “Did you have fun today? You’ll have to tell me all about it in the morning.”

“Yeah! We’re all gonna be sworn brothers!”

“Never parted!” A-Yuan added brightly, as A-Fu finished, “Yeah, we’re gonna have a fancy name and A-Yuan and me are gonna be like…like twin heroes!”

As Yellow-Father shepherded them all away out the door into the cool night with patient hands and A-Ling started to complain that he and A-Yuan should get a team name too, A-Fu saw Aunt Yanli standing in the doorway behind them with the gold light coming out around her all soft and cozy. One hand pressed flat over her belly and one leaned on the door, like it was holding her up and all of a sudden, her face looked shocked and…really lonely. It went away pretty quick, though, and she called with a wobbly smile, “Take care. Have fun. Goodnight….Love you.”

A-Ling jumped on his toes and waved back as they disappeared into the dark.