#so baby Mobei can teleport roughly 600 kilometers and Yue Qi really needs a drink because that's very far

[tcfactory]

Today I remembered that Mobei-Jun is roughly the same age-range - possibly even a little younger - than the Qing Peak Lords.

[2400 words, smol bean Mobei and big bro Yue Qi traipsing through the countryside to rescue Xiao Jiu]

So please imagine young Mobei Wu, approximately ten years old, stranded in the human realm after yet another of his uncle's murder attempts and too tired or not yet skilled enough to portal back from one realm to the other without a tear in reality to capitalize on.

And instead of Huan Hua cultivators or any other danger, he stumbles into Yue Qi. Yue Qi who is about fifteen, just got out of the cave and is on the way to try and rescue his Xiao Jiu. Yue Qi would never hurt a child smaller than him, not even a demon one. Especially not one that admits, after some careful coaxing with smiles and sweet treats, that it's his uncle who's trying to kill him. Yue Qi can't imagine someone wanting to harm a child who places their trust in him, anyway please call him Qi-ge. What's your name, little one? All right, A-Wu, not so little. (He is very little. Yue Qi is very tall for his age, but this demon is objectively tiny and maybe a little malnourished too.) What a coincidence, they are both named after numbers. Do you want Qi-ge to carry you for a bit?

Yue Qi figures that the least he can do is look out for this kid until he can go home - A-Wu is very reluctant about specifying what's preventing him from leaving right now, but Yue Qi knows it's best not to push a boy that age - so they travel together for a while. He sticks cooling talismans on the inside of the little demon's shirt to prevent him from overheating or stripping off his (already too few, by the standards of human decency) layers, so for most of the journey he's carrying a halfway dozing little snowball of a child like a backpack. Yue Qi tells him all about Xiao Jiu, bolstered by the little hums Mobei Wu makes to show that he's paying attention.

"Where did you get the scars?"

Yue Qi stops mid-sentence and peers hesitantly back over his shoulder, meeting a pair of incredibly vivid blue eyes. "Scars?" It could be that A-Wu noticed the fading slave mark on his neck.

"En. I can feel them all over." So not the slave mark, then.

"Even through my robes?"

"En. They feel... spicy. Wrong." He crunches up his face as he tries to find the right word. "Like lightning."

It could only be the scars etched over his meridians, still overflowing with unstable qi. Yue Qi hesitates, but figures that demon tales are probably much more gruesome than what happened to him, so he tells A-Wu everything - the sword, the cave, the dark, all of it. It's a relief to put the nightmare into words, even if his audience is a precocious demon child who looks at him with big sparkling eyes like he's telling a tale of glory or great adventure.

"Cool. All for your... Jiu?"

"Yes." Mobei Wu seems to approve greatly of that.

"You are cool. I will help you."

It makes Yue Qi smile. Such a shame this kid will likely grow up to be something bloodthirsty eventually. He's really too cute right now.

----------

Qiu manor is gone, burned to ash, and Xiao Jiu likely ash along with it. Yue Qi's world is coming down around his ears and he can't even hear what the kindly old merchant is telling him about the incident. It's only when A-Wu tugs on his sleeve when the world comes back to focus.

"They found no dead boy. Only dead men. He can still live."

True, he can't give up hope just yet. What Mobei Wu says is really logical - but where could Xiao Jiu go from here?

The old lady finally notices the unnaturally blue tint of Mobei Wu's skin and takes a fearful step back. "...Demon?"

"No!" Yue Qi steps between them quickly, shielding the boy with his body. "My little brother just ate a cursed fruit, that's all! It will wear off in a day or two."

He's been trying to live a righteous life since he joined the sect, but to someone like him lying comes as easy as breathing.

"Oh, that's all right, then. I thought you might be like that horrible demonic cultivator who lurked here before."

The mention of a cultivator - even a demonic one - makes Yue Qi perk up. He makes some careful questions, about the fire and when they last saw the demonic cultivator in the area, where he might have left for, whether he had someone with him... By the time he says his thank yous he's certain of it: if Xiao Jiu lives, he is with this Wu Yanzi.

They regroup on the edge of the city, where Yue Qi hands Mobei Wu a stick of tanghulu and rolls out a map to figure out where the demonic cultivator could be if he's traveling on foot with a teenager in tow. The demon is fascinated by the map, asking all sorts of questions about distances and directions in as few words as possible, his face scrunched up in another frown.

"We should probably get you home before I go after Xiao Jiu," Yue Qi says with a sigh, circling the most likely area. "We are a week behind them and I can't fly by sword yet. I will need to buy a horse or catch a cart if I want to catch up to them."

Mobei Wu growls, then looks up from the map, wiping a sticky hand on his shirt before he points east. "That way?"

"Yes, I think so." Before Yue Qi can ask anything, the ground opens up beneath him and he's falling through a cold, dark void.

It doesn't last long. He lands in a lake with a huge splash, just outside of one of the cities halfway to their goal. Mobei lands on top of the water - did he flash freeze it? Such a cool kiddo - with the map safely held in his arms and a very, very smug little smile.

"So, were you aiming for the water on purpose?" Yue Qi asks some time later as he tries to dry his clothes with a fire talisman.

"En. You count distances differently than we do." It's a big lake, allowing a bigger margin of error than portaling straight into the city and getting stuck in a building, probably.

"Smart."

"En." Smug little thing. When he's smirking like that he looks almost like Xiao Jiu.

"How far can you go?"

Mobei seems to think this through, his eyebrows pinched together as he calculates from whatever metric the demons use. "2000."

"2000 bu?" That was a good distance. They could easily catch up to them with that kind of skill, even if Wu Yanzi and Xiao Jiu haven't lingered anywhere on the way.

"Li." Yue Qi chokes on air as he tries to comprehend that distance, but thankfully Xiao Wu doesn't seem to take note of it. "But only in one realm. And only after I eat."

"We'll find you something nice to eat then. What would you like?"

"Meat." A-Wu's smile widens, showing sharp teeth.

"Let's get you some dumplings then. Sounds good?" A-Wu considers it for a long time before he nods.

"En."

Having a teleporting little rascal with him really speeds up the search, even if keeping up with A-Wu's appetite is eating (heh) into his travel funds. Whatever ancestral magic this is, it takes a lot out of the kid, leaving him endearingly dazed and sleepy between jumps. They quickly establish a cover story: the demonic cultivator cursed Yue Qi's little brother to look like a demon, so he's hunting the man to force him to undo the curse. A good sob story always makes people so much more willing to cooperate, especially when it involves a cute child and Mobei Wu is, objectively speaking, cute as a button. Old grannies and grandfathers ooh and aah over him and are quick to point them towards Wu Yanzi's trail.

In the end, they find them much sooner than Yue Qi expects. They walk into a shady looking inn on the edge of a small town and he immediately spots Xiao Jiu, hunkered down in the shadow of a scarred man with a dark mane of hair.

Their eyes meet and everything becomes a blur for a while, his awareness narrowed down to Xiao Jiu. Yue Qi hold him close and murmurs nonsense reassurances into his hair - he's never letting Xiao Jiu go ever again.

Even through the happy fog of the reunion, the sound of a sword being drawn is unmistakable. "Where do you think you are taking my disciple?" Wu Yanzi asks, eyes narrowed. Xiao Jiu spins around, to yell or to fight, Yue Qi will never know, because A-Wu chooses that moment to open another portal and whisk them away. He's getting very used to the feeling of suddenly falling through a frigid void.

It's another lake, this time somewhere much further away. "Xiao Wu, you need to stop opening those underneath people," Yue Qi scolds the unrepentant demon child as he drags the angrily splashing Xiao Jiu to the shore.

There are questions and answers, tears and hugs and no small amount of yelling. They strip their wet clothes off so it's impossible to hide his scars, stark red lines all over his skin, and in the face of Xiao Jiu's anger he caves and tells him everything. While they talk Mobei Wu falls asleep curled up on Yue Qi's miraculously dry bedroll and when they are done they curl around him from both sides too, shielding their precious little helper from the elements.

When the wake up in the morning the child is gone, as if he was never there. He has left behind a string with two beads, cool to the touch from familiar chilly qi.

"A token of thanks? One bead for each of us." Yue Qi suggests.

"Don't be ridiculous. As if a little demon would thank a cultivator for anything," Xiao Jiu scoffs, but he takes one of the beads anyway.

"I hope he gets home safe."

"Think about whether we get home or not! Stupid, soft-hearted Qi-ge. Do we even know how far away we are from your sect?"

Yue Qi can't help but beam down at him, fully aware that he's smiling the awkward, lopsided smile he trained himself out of because his shizun found it unattractive. He missed his thorny Xiao Jiu.

"You are right. Let's go home."

----------

Years later, Sect Leader Yue follows indulgently after his favorite shidi, Shen Jiu deep in the middle of a rant.

"If you are worried about Shang-shidi's safety, you are allowed to say so, shidi," he cuts in with practiced ease.

"Who's worried for that shifty vermin?! I worry for the sect! There is something going on with him and I suspect a security breach." Shen Qingqiu practically kicks down the door of the leisure house, startling the man inside into jumping and dropping the armful of books he was holding. "'Shang-shidi, we need to talk."

"Shen-shixiong, Zhangmen-shixiong, this is not a good time. I'm actually really quite busy..."

"Make time for us."

Yue Qingyuan indulgently follows Shen Jiu inside, noting that Shang Qinghua's eyes keep flickering all over the room, everywhere except towards the closed door of his bedroom. Highly suspicious.

Shang Qinghua is still stammering out excuses and making pleading eyes at Yue Qingyuan to please make his shidi go away. Yue Qingyuan lets him squirm for a few minutes before he interrupts, with his kindest smile.

"Shidi, we are simply worried for your health. Your head disciple reported that you have showed up with more bruises than usual."

Shang Qinghua mumbles something that sounds suspiciously like 'traitor'.

"Shidi," Yue Qingyuan tries again. "You know that you can trust us. I promise that you are not in trouble." Shen Qingqiu huffs, but refrains from commenting when Yue Qingyuan sends him a look. "Please, allow us to..."

A lot of things happen all at once. The bead Yue Qingyuan wears on a simple string around his neck turns so cold it almost burns, and based on the low hiss coming from Shen Jiu the same thing is happening to his. Ice climbs up the walls and the door, blocking their way out of the house. The door to the bedroom is kicked open and good gods that's a very big, very muscular ice demon staring at them with very bright blue eyes.

"My king?" Shang Qinghua squeaks, his eyes bouncing between the ice demon and his two shixiongs in alarm.

The demon ducks into the room and stalks towards them, every step spreading the ice further. There is something familiar in his face, but Yue Qingyuan is much more occupied by the sight of really quite a lot of uncovered skin and the many, many freshly treated cuts all over him.

Finally, he stops just outside of sword range and almost hesitantly rumbles: "Qi-ge?"

Oh. So that's why he was so familiar. He smiles up at Mobei Wu. "It seems I really can't call you 'Xiao Wu' anymore, can I?"

Mobei Wu huffs, the corner of his mouth lifting in something that could be a smile, and the ice encroaching on the room starts melting. "Mobei-Jun." He raises his hands in a salute. "Nominally, for now. Since yesterday."

He can tell the exact moment when Shen Jiu connects the dots - that the little teleporting rascal that helped Yue Qi track him down through half the countryside is now the Northern Demon King. His carefully cultivated mask cracks and he collapses next to the tea table with a wordless sound of outrage. "Shang Qinghua!"

Their shidi startles, once again dropping the books he just started picking back up.

"Yes, Shen-shixiong?"

"Be a good host and make us tea. And then explain how this,-" With his closed fan he gestures between Mobei-Jun and Shang Qinghua. "- happened."

"It's a long story," Mobei-Jun supplies, taking place next to the table and sprawling in a decadent, demonic fashion.

"That's all right." Yue Qingyuan joins them, briefly running his hand down Shen Qingqiu's tense back to soothe him. "We have the time to listen."

It's an unexpected reunion, but not necessarily a bad one. Xiao Wu was a good kid and when he looks carefully he can still see him in Mobei-Jun, despite the years of stoic frost that settled over his features.

There are much worse allies one could have than the Prodigious Demon King of the Northern Realm.