pridewrite day 16 (shhh we're ignoring the calendar). this one got away from me a bit.
day 16: fake relationship, ft. bai-feng-hei-xi/feng qiwu
It starts as a ruse.
Which feels...strange. Deceptions and intrigue aren't at all Bai Fengxi's strength nor preference. It's not that she necessarily finds them distasteful, always, anymore. She can see the benefit a good man can get from even the sneakiest of-- But! Not Bai Fengxi.
Yet now she has been dragged back into a court setting, at least for a time, and it is indeed a good, sneaky man that she's realised she's after. Besides, the ruse is completely harmless.
Being both impatient for that Hei Huli to make his move and determined to force his hand rather than be the one to give in, Bai Fengxi had a stroke of inspiration for it; she is familiar with romance stories, too. Feng Qiwu was amenable. Amused, even. Whether it even succeeded, they'd at least have a good time of it.
Plus, seeing Hei Huli bothered and nonplussed is one of the great joys of Bai Fengxi's life and she suspects jealousy will suit his haughty features just as hilariously. (Feng Qiwu assures her that he has already been jealous, and Bai Fengxi is so put out that she missed it. The concept is unfamiliar enough to her that she supposes she simply wasn't paying attention.)
Though it started as a drunken idea, she was still quite taken with it in the bright sunlit morning and the deal was struck. Feng Qiwu bowed so gracefully, and took her hand, and Bai Fengxi didn't stop grinning for an hour.
It's easy, really; they like each other well enough so it can't be a hardship to spend even more time together, fawning over each other's hair and clothes and good looks, doing each other's makeup, latching on with arms linked and heads together to giggle and flirt and make merry. Don't they practically do that anyway?
It's the perfect fake relationship--until it's not.
Feng Qiwu is so beautiful, and clever, and strong-willed. It's so captivating watching her open up like a flower in the sun when Bai Fengxi plies her with good food, drags her giggling like a little girl down another market street, gifts her a hairpin. Can Bai Fengxi really be blamed for the way she forgets herself and her ruse entirely?
Sometimes she wonders if she's being a little too obvious, though Feng Qiwu would certainly tell her if she thought so. And most of the time she's still alert for Hei Huli's watchful presence when she grabs Feng Qiwu's arm and boldly declares her the rarest of flowers, making sure he's within hearing range when she devises poetry on the spot to back up her declaration of courtship. But on a night like tonight, when the lights reflect in her lady-love's eyes like stars and she looks so unbearably sweet sitting close to the rippling water beside this pier, Hei Huli is the last thing on Bai Fengxi's mind.
Her own face goes soft, her eyes lifting to take in the wondrous woman who's proven these weeks to be as good at fun as she is at business. Her lips are parted, lingering on the end of a sentence she doesn't remember to finish, and her hand reaches out of its own accord toward Feng Qiwu's cheek.
Feng Qiwu smiles a bit more--which is only encouragement--and then Bai Fengxi is touching silky skin and then they are kissing, slow and warm.
It's a good kiss, flushing Bai Fengxi's skin and sending little cascades of tingles down her arms and legs. Probably Bai Fengxi could go on kissing like this for hours, just lost in the closeness, mind adrift and uncomplicated.
"He's not here," Feng Qiwu says after a moment, pulling back just enough to speak. There's a smile under her words, and a question.
It takes Bai Fengxi a moment to figure out what that question is. The two of them are only the space of a breath apart and she can feel that breath shared between them. It feels important so she doesn't let that distance become greater, doesn't remove her hand from where it's fitted to a slim face, doesn't even open her eyes.
Bai Fengxi is a noted hedonist; she chases good food and good wine and good feelings. And easygoing as she is, if she finds something she truly wants she reaches out and holds on. Feng Qiwu is one of the most loyal, strong-willed, crafty, delightful people Bai Fengxi has ever met. How could she not want to hold on to her?
So Bai Fengxi whispers into the space between them, like a promise made to be breathed in and kept, like a sugar-glazed vow painted across red lips.
"I know," she says simply.
"Good."
And then Bai Fengxi is being kissed thrice as hard. Feng Qiwu's hands grip her shoulders, slip up to her head to angle it how she wants and all Bai Fengxi can do is let out a muffled laugh.
For a long, long while the slow river reflects dancing lanterns, and twinkling stars, and two figures melted into one.
--
Feng Qiwu feels drunk when she lets herself into her residence later that night and throws open the doors to her upper terrace, heart light as air and mouth still pleasantly tingling.
She feels drunk, but she is not, in spite of Bai Fengxi plying her with sips of good wine; there are few occasions, now, where Feng Qiwu allows herself the luxury of fully diminished senses. Which is how she hears the footsteps on her balcony, thief-quiet and strangely slow.
Affecting ignorance, she finishes lighting the lamp. Familiar warm glow suffuse the space. Feng Qiwu takes one casual step back from it and then abruptly spins on one foot, falling into an attack stance, sword in hand and point-first before she's even fully leveled it at--
"Dianxia!" Feng Qiwu lowers her blade and resheaths it immediately, bowing to Feng Lanxi.
By this point in his service she knows that he is not the sort to expect an apology for something like this, which is just as well because she would be unlikely to give it. She is still quick to attention, though, and turns to business without fuss.
"What do you need?" she asks. "Has something happened?"
Feng Lanxi sighs and dismisses her concerns with a terse, "No."
When Feng Qiwu looks back up she registers properly that he is garbed as Hei Fengxi: jianghu-style robes, hair down, posture tellingly relaxed in spite of the tension wrapped around his shoulders like a cloak. If nothing has happened then what urgent matter brought him here at this hour in such a clandestine way? Feng Qiwu's brow furrows. She waits.
One hand rigidly at his back, Feng Lanxi--Hei Fengxi--paces back and forth a few times in front of Feng Qiwu and finally stops to turn and face her.
"Feng-shangshu, if it was anyone but you, I would suspect an intentional retaliation in the wake of my rejection," he says all at once. Feng Qiwu does not quite have the self-control to keep her mouth from falling open. "If it was anyone but you," he repeats, "I would be suspect of bad intentions."
"I--" Feng Qiwu begins to speak but is cut off by Hei Fengxi's piercing eyes--more the fact that they are doing that open, soft thing they do when he's being determinedly sincere, than anything.
"It cannot have been secret from you that I seek Bai Fengxi's hand." Hei Fengxi is straightforward and dispassionate, regal, but there is a familiar sourness to his tone.
Ah, Feng Qiwu thinks. That makes things a bit more clear.
Hei Fengxi continues, "But you are the most loyal, upstanding person in Yongzhou. You have proven this to me many times over. And her affections are genuine, and strong. Not a passing dalliance. If yours are as hers, I will step back from my pursuit and harbour no ill-will."
Feng Qiwu meets his eyes with a smile. It seems to be unexpected. She smiles a bit more for the fun of it.
"Dianxia," she says, and lets out a fond breath, still tasting Bai Fengxi's wine in the air between them, "you may not want me, but it seems to me that Bai Fengxi would gladly have us both. I'm afraid I must now reject your proposal; it is considered unwise to disappoint one's lady companion, and I couldn't bear to move against her when she works so hard to provoke you."
It is Hei Fengxi's turn for a shock. Though he does have the self-control to keep his mouth shut, his back goes straighter, his eyes a touch wider. Feng Qiwu turns from his shadowed surprise to light a second lamp by the table.
"Perhaps instead I could offer my lord a cup of tea and a word of advice. As an ally. And a woman."
She has, after all, pledged her loyalty to him first.
By the time she meets his eyes again, Hei Fengxi has composed himself. He looks younger, dressed like this. Or perhaps she is biased by the small smile gracing features that have set down their mask; a quiet gentleness rarely seen directed at her. She feels as much thrill seeing it as she did catching him off-guard.
"Very well."
Feng Qiwu smiles, feeling a resurgence of giddiness. Perhaps she was always meant to remain unwed; there is no more satisfying place in all the world than caught between these two.
