#sindel and Jerrod are also big heart eyes for him

[bruciemilf]

Im gonna pump out some fan art of this OC I have in mind later, but for now, I’m gonna go a bit insane about Bi-Han’s mother. (Mind you this is is wholeheartedly not canon lol, my hyper fixations are just WOOOSH)

I think we can safely assume the Lin Kuei in MK1’s timeline are a little more progressive than their previous depictions. Yes, women can become members. But what of the girls born with crowns on their heads, and a legacy of nothing on their shoulders?

What if Bi-Han’s mother was a royal born who couldn’t participate in training even if she WANTED to?

What if she was purchased courted as a domestic servant for the Grandmaster? Because I can imagine that woman. a titan of ice and a scowl like fire. I imagine her, lonely, brutal, and dejected, with two children at her chest, asking what was she supposed to do with them?

“Love them.”

“And what will YOU do?” She spits at the Grandmaster. And he says he’ll rule. And she’s left wondering why the roles can’t be reversed. How is a child supposed to thrive when broken raises them?

Bi-Han is born first; He doesn’t make a sound, almost as if he can’t be bothered to.

She does feel a sparkling of something, but it could’ve been the blood loss. She has no idea this tiny thing will befriend the seed of a god one day.

Now, imagine your glaring son walks up to you one day, and says his father, your husband, got his shit ROCKED at the farmer’s market by a drunken, womanizing rancher.

The same rancher who vehemently opposed the Emperor when he demanded more grains from the South, for their pointless religious offerings. The same rancher who, apparently, found a child abandoned right in the middle of his peach orchard.

A child, a baby girl who radiates this bothersome, glowing warmth. A baby whom Bi-Han likes. A lot. “And you just found her in your orchard.”

“I know, it was bizzare. But we don’t have law inforcement in the south, and Jerrod, the bastard, won’t believe me either! I’m telling you, — she’s a God’s daughter. Was. She’s mine now, and I’m not giving her back, but it’s clear she’s no regular child!”

He’s a handsome man. Sharp lines curve his jaw, ans his hair is smooth, kissing his tanned shoulders. It’s almost hard to believe the Lin Kuei grandmaster forfeited under such a man.

She can understand why her husband would be infatuated.

“And you had her for how long?”

He peels oranges for her while Bi-Han chases the baby. Talia, her name is. Tai Ling never claimed to be particularly inventive, seeing as he never PLANNED for kids.

“A couple weeks! At first I thought I just drank too much, but, after she was still there for a few days, I realized I couldn’t really… Entertain my habits anymore.”

“You mean drinking and whoring?” She bored.

“Gah! At least I’m doing SOMETHING!” He argues with a twinkle in his eye, handing her the fruit. She takes it. Oftentimes, she’ll wonder how someone who has nothing is willing to give everything. “What do YOU do to be happy?”

She doesn’t have an answer for that.

“I had him for four years. I still don’t know what to do with him,” she confesses, watching Bi-Han run after Talia with all the drive a toddler can have. “Is it terrifying? To now know what they’ll become?”

To her surprise, he shakes his head. “I know what Talia will be. I’m not worried at all.”

She snorts. “Good for you,” still, his words bring a nameless and weightless comfort into her core. “…If you were me…What would you do?”

“If I had YOUR life? Probably sleep till I’m 100.” He laughs at his own jest, teeth smiling under the sun’s generous light. She never liked heat. But talking to him is almost worth the discomfort. “I think you’re doing great.”

“I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“But you’re trying your best, right?”

She nods once.

“Then that’s enough. It always is.”

A pause stagnates between them. “The man you fought at the market. He’s my husband.”

Tai Ling surprises her with a nod, “I know. “

“…Then why are you being kind with me?”

“A woman isn’t the men in her life. If we eat one spoiled apple, we don’t throw away the whole orchard.”

“…What?”

He laughs.