I Am Going To Get You - Watch Out!

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Summary: After the first movie Mulan gets called back to the army in the times of peace.

Pairings: Mulan/Shang

Ratings: T

Disc.: Don't own Mulan

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Chapter One:

The Struggle For Balance And Perplexed Mulan

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Just three weeks after the day Mulan defeated Shan-Yu, she had been called by the emperor to return to the camp held at Wu Zhong.

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The battle against the Huns had cost all of the China's great imperial troops and though there seemed to be no threats in the immediate future it was understandable that they would be rebuilt. As to why she was needed however she had no idea.

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She hated having to leave her parents to do all the work alone, but being at the camp was surely to have its upsides also. For instance, her best friends would be there.. and how right she was. Three of them were already running towards her.

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"Mulan!!" they shouted. She could have sworn that she saw tears of joy springing from their eyes. "Hi guys!"

And then they made their trademark group hug, which felt as good as ever.

"It's good to see you", she told them sincerely.

"Hey, Mulan.. Shangie guy here has reserved a spot beside his tent specifically for you.. now why could that be?" Ling asked using a sly tone and quirking one eyebrow sky-high much like he often did.

"Idiot, for the same reason we are seated near him!" Yao growled smacking his friend's head.

"I agree, she is going to get promoted", Chien-Po said good-naturedly.

"Haha. Whatever. Have I missed much? Any good games or brawls that I should know about..?"

"Come come, we'll tell you along the way", Yao said and glanced towards Ling, "all the good parts."

Ling glared at his short friend.

And smiled. "Oh yeeeah. All the good parts."

It was Yao's turn to glare.

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8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8

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Li Shang, her fourth friend, and now her general had made her his captain.

"...You are to start training tomorrow. Congratulations." He handed her a very skilfully crafted sword.

"Thank-"

"Not so fast. You didn't actually think I'd let you command the troops with your regular outfit?"

Mulan looked at him baffled and shook her head hesitantly.

"Here. I got you a fine red cape, similar to my own.. let's see how it fits you."

She stood up in a daze and let Shang drape the cloth over her shoulders.

"I tried to get it to fit your size, but it seems that I didn't remember quite how short you actually are.."

That woke her up from her haze. Mulan glanced down where the cape sure enough reached the floor easily. Lifting her eyes from the ground she saw that he had an annoying, arrogant grin plastered on his face. With just one move of her arm she could punch it away... Maybe she could have a sparring with him later on the day, but for now she would resist the temptation.

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Her brow must have twitched because his grin widened further!

"I see you've had your fun. You have done enough for me and for my new cape - I can shorten the rest myself, thank you."

"Ooh, the advantages of being a woman. I don't suppose you could trim mine a bit, along yours?"

What was this? Was he teasing her? No, was he flirting with her?! Whatever was this new game he was playing?

Curse it, even while being annoying he just had to look as handsome as ever.

"You can easily send it to a seamstress. Now, you wouldn't mind moving away from the opening so I can take my leave?"

"That would be impossible Mulan, as you see... I've found out that you can play Xiangqi, and if I'm to believe my resources, you play well."

"Where did you-" Oh, those three idiots!!

"So you could just take few steps back and sit down, we aren't quite done yet."

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8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8

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She was a natural. She had to be a natural, for no one could think of such bizarre, unexpected moves that seemed to come out of nowhere.

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It made sense. The sudden move in the battlefield, had been crazy but ingenious. So creativity was her style. But just as she hadn't studied actual war strategy, Shang could bet that she hadn't been taught to play Xiangqi either. It made her think more open-minded, but also made her thinking more scattered. And this discovery made him suddenly think of Yin and Yang – how their ways of thinking were different but the game was still so evenly matched. Yin and Yang, a wife and a husband... he found himself staring at her pretty face. She lifted her soft eyes to him and..

"Shang, are you alright? I made my move over centuries ago. You look feverish, I could check your temperature-" "No no. I'm just.. it's just little hot in here, that's all." He must have been blushing. But was it really that strange after staring at those soft, slightly pink-tinted lips too long..?

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Hot? What was he blabbering about, the air was down-right chilly in the tent! No, she was going to check him for fever, say what he may. Determined, she stomped over to him.

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Suddenly she vanished from before him. Shang felt a smooth small hand pressing against his forehead, and he sighed contentedly. Could he ask her to..? Couldn't he just pull her down for a kiss and lay down to his bed with her? Absolutely not. He shook himself out of his lewd unacceptable thoughts.

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"You are warm, but don't have a fever. Keep spacing out like that and I'm gonna get your marshal sooner than you'd want."

"Oh? Does that mean that you're seriously thinking of winning?" Pulling her down for a kiss.. wouldn't be proper. No!

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What was wrong with Shang? He was clearly distracted by something. Though he was looking at her it seemed that he heard none of what she was saying.

"Shang?" No answer. She started biting her lip in frustration.

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"Don't - don't do that", he said weakly.

"Eh?" Her mouth opened slightly, and it was even worse than that delicious biting - he stood abruptly and marched out of his tent, leaving a very dumbstruck Mulan sitting on one of his pillows.

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8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8O8

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A cold river would hopefully clear his head.

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It had been a terrible idea to have Mulan as his second in command. Though no matter how she was ranked the emperor had ordered her to be there.

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He would just have to learn to control himself around her - he couldn't, whenever being in near vicinity to her, fall daydreaming about how he would pull her into his lap and kiss her senseless.

He hadn't had trouble in controlling himself before, why would he start now? He had never felt such pull towards women species.

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Sons of such wealthy families by his age had usually had their share of women. He actually felt shame for some reason that he too, had had few nights usually after his father had held feasts. But maybe it was rather to his advantage, that he would be able to properly please Mulan -

He understood. It wasn't that she was some woman, it was that she was Mulan, and none else. He was crazy about anything Mulan and that was his problem. This affection and madness, was it love? He decided that it could as well be.

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At home soon after the war, he had once again turned down a marriage proposal, and this time the girl had been very good-looking, he supposed. And rich and well-mannered. There had been no good reason to turn her down at the time, but now he knew that ever since after meeting Mulan, there couldn't have been any other person like her. No other would do for him anymore, even if he was frightened that he himself wasn't good enough for her. He wanted to marry her. But that didn't mean he could go and shame her at the camp. Couldn't he just.. send her away or something? Send her to a mission?

Send his sweetheart to scout the borderlines.. definitely not.

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Think if all his troops thought the way he did! Now that was a scary thought. And an unwelcome one, because that would mean that he'd have to massacre his own troops or at the very least hit them into oblivion.

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Maybe he should just go and have a talk with the emperor. He could then humbly admit everything and the wise emperor would hopefully bless him with some good advice - though he would be probably irked that he had already given him his say in the matter earlier. In fact the words had been quite clear; the emperor had practically told him to go marry Mulan. But he couldn't marry her at the camp, nor could he stand being at the camp with her without marrying her.

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It would be okay to leave for the imperial palace for few days - he fully trusted Mulan to be capable of training the recruits.

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Shang needed some mental balance and quickly, because he couldn't continue acting idiotic around his subordinates, some leader he would be.

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End of ch1.

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Poor Shang. Though he is quite bad for thinking such naughty things about Mulan. Does it worsen, or can he escape it? Is the emperor extremely pissed off with Shang's stupidity or will he good-naturedly smile like the sun? Stay tuned for.. ok, not. :D

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What is handsome? What is desperate? It's Shangie head over heels in love with Mulan but not able to do anything about it. Me and my humour, really.

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'cough cough'

To serious business.

Xiangqi, Chinese chess, also called elephant chess. I myself like traditional chess very much, but have never played Xiangqi. I left the game less space because I don't think that anyone would have liked to read a detailed Xiangqi match... "He had trouble deciding whether to eat the soldier or to move to protect his cannon", or "He debated over where would the best position for his cannon be", do not sound that interesting. Besides, I would have to first introduce the game and that would interrupt the storytelling badly.

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I'm sure that at the beginning of the movie while they are singing:"...by striking a good match.." Mulan moves a piece at a board game, which looks exactly like the ones they use at Xiangqi. Sure enough by searching for Chinese board games I immediately found Xiangqi, it being a quite popular game even ages ago.

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I'm going to a scouts-camp that will take two weeks, so no updates for a while (though I've almost finished the next chaps to previous stories). No, we don't use personal computers in the forest, sorry. :D