by crystal tiara
Disclaimer: I don't own Dynasty Warriors; Koei does.
Author's Notes: These are just some short Zhuge Liang/Yue Ying drabbles that I couldn't fit anywhere into my next fic, so I just put them together here into a collection of drabbles. Hope you like 'em. Please leave a review and tell me what you think!
Unlikely Union
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He is the type of man that most parents would want their daughters to marry. Intellectually superior to everyone else, he has a bright future ahead of him.
She, on the other hand, does not possess enchanting beauty, but she certainly isn't ugly. But she is likely to be overlooked by most men. They would probably choose a better-looking girl, who'd be able to please them and bow to their every whim. Most likely, they wouldn't want to deal with her. She wanted to have a bit more freedom to do whatever she wished to do. She doesn't know when she'll marry, and if she ever will. She doesn't really care, for she doesn't really like most of the men in town anyway.
But he seems to likes her. She doesn't know why. In fact, he's almost always there. Always trying to stir up conversation with her. It's almost as if he's pursuing her. Courting her, even.
And yet, there are several women out there, who could surely have both beauty and brains. She doesn't know what he sees in her, and although she doesn't know how to react to him, she secretly likes the fact that she has caught his eye.
Then, out of the blue, he proposes to her. "Will you marry me?" he asks.
What to say? Where to begin? She knows her father has approved of him. All he are waiting for is her response, and then they shall be united as husband and wife. "But... why?" is all she manages to say. Why her, of all people?
"Must you ask why I chose you? Is it not enough to leave things as simple as they are?" he asks, with the familiar twinkle in his eyes, and repeats the previous question.
"Yes," she says, this time sure of her answer.
Matrimony
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"What's on your mind, my wife?" he asks, as they sit down to dinner.
She gives him a slight smile. "I was just talking with the town girls a while ago," she says, "and all they talk about is marriage. It was interesting to note how enthusiastic they were about getting married."
The refined young man laughs at this statement. "Is that so? I wouldn't really think about rushing into marriage that quickly."
"I know," comes the reply, and nothing is exchanged between them for a moment as they resume with their meal.
"Kongming?" Her voice breaks the ice. Her husband looks at her, wondering what she has to say.
There is hesitance in her tone. "Well... I never really believed that the greatest thing a woman could accomplish in life was marriage. Pleasing her husband, doing all the housework, and having children--- and then what? Was that the only thing a woman was good for?" She pauses, waiting for her husband's opinion, but the look on her eyes says that he wants her to go on.
"I feel like I... want to do more with my life. I wish to study with you and share our knowledge with each other... and perhaps someday, put my abilities to use as well."
Silence. "I'm sorry," she apologizes, "did I say something out of the question?"
But instead of apprehension, there is a look of amusement on his face. "Is that not what our marriage is for?" he tells her, smiling. "Didn't the old folks say that in marriage, we were supposed to face whatever comes our way together, and to do things not only together but as equals as well?"
"Indeed, my husband. You are right."
Perfect Match
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Everyone says that they are made for each other. A match made in heaven was how some would call it. It was like he was one half, and she was the other. And people who knew them would say, "A marriage like that would last forever."
It's an odd relationship the two of them shared. Neither he nor she could tell whether they fell in love first before marrying or the other way around. But was it really love, or did he only marry her for her mind?
She had never heard him whisper sweet nothings or "I love you"s like the other men did, but somehow she felt that he loved her as well. It was what she liked to believe, and if she was wrong, then she hoped that maybe someday, he would learn to love her too. Still, she was very much sure that he did love her. She could tell, and she was confident that he saw her as more than a comrade or an equal. In the same way, she'd never been particularly affectionate towards him, but she loved him; she really did. Even if they didn't say it or show it, their hearts were clearly one.
It was funny how two individuals could be in love, and yet never find the courage to admit their feelings to each other.
Clearly, they were a perfect match, with their hearts and minds connected as one but still distinct in their own ways.
If the Feeling is Gone
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Once you fall in love, you're bound to it forever, said the old folks. According to them, if you felt like you fell out of love, then what you felt wasn't true love but infatuation.
But in those days, true love was hard to find. Zhuge Liang never knew what he was in for when he learned to love her. He had spent most of his life devoted to books and studying, and thought that love was out of the question. But things changed, and he felt something. It wasn't lust or infatuation. Somehow, he couldn't explain it fully, but he knew it was love.
"How long will you love me?" He brought up the topic once, during one of those nights they spent watching the stars.
"I don't know," she answered. "How long is forever, anyway?"
He laughed, but inside he was nervous. He was no romantic fool, but he feared the day that she would grow tired of him. "Will you really love me that long?"
She didn't know what to say. "Yes, I suppose so."
"What will happen if the feeling is gone?" he asked. He knew that sometimes, as people grew older, they would lose interest in their partners. Perhaps it was true that familiarity did breed contempt.
"My husband," she replied, "did you really think that my feelings for you were like a candle that would eventually fade out?" She sighed, but she wasn't hurt at all. "The feeling won't be gone. You know what they say about true love, right? It's not something that passes by and fades away. And I think... what we have is a true love."
He was silent, awestruck, at the immense wisdom his wife possessed.
"Sometimes I wonder," she said, "how and why we fell in love. And if the feeling will never really go away."
"Me too." And he hoped that the feeling would forever be there to stay.