All things to all men
Prompt: 01
Pairing: Xiahou Dun/Guan Ping
Rating: K
During a battle it’s hard to distinguish your friends from your foes, even if the tactics applied to it seem perfect. And human beings commit mistakes, no matter how good they are. Xiahou Dun was in his way to the escape. Guan Ping was in his way to intercept the enemy’s escape. Both were on the bridge that was about to be burnt down and destroyed in the matter of seconds. Thus the destiny of those two warriors was sealed.
Liu Feng didn’t see that Guan Ping has delayed his own retreat to secure all soldiers’ safety and was still on the bridge. All he could see was general Xiahou Dun and his panicky soldiers. He signalled the beginning of the fire attack. The bridge was destroyed. Both warriors fell in the strong currents of the Hubei river.
When you are a warrior, no matter how arrogant you are, there is always something like the sense of justice and honor running through your veins. Xiahou Dun was always seen by the regular soldiers as a merciless and proud general, but he still held a strong sense of righteousness. If he could help a meager soldier who was in a situation as bad as his, he would do so. The currents were strong, the water was cold. But still, he helped the combatant that was struggling against the currents as he fought his way out of the water. He did not see that it was someone from the enemy units he was helping. And he only found that out when he knew both were far from Bowang. Far away from their armies. Miles and miles away from home. In a completely unknown place. But the older man didn’t want to worry about that for now. He was exhausted. He just needed a couple of minutes of rest.
If two people who hate each other are together by fate, sometimes they would find and agreement amongst their different principles in order to survive. Well, that was not the case of Xiahou Yuanrang and Guan Ping. The first held a strong grudge against the father of the other. The latter had the flame of youth and the eagerness to do the right choices burning within his chest. They were like water and oil: never to get along, no matter how stormy the situation was. Dun kicked the boy to wake him up. Ping insulted him in every way he could think of.
“I’ll just take the kid as a hostage and behead him in front of his father”, Xiahou Dun said to himself.
“Stupid Wei dog. I’ll get him in the first opportunity”, Guan Ping mumbled through clenched teeth.
But until they found their way back, they didn’t have any choice other than stick together... and survive.
It was getting late and they had walked for a while. Both were all the way thinking on how the hell they could’ve been dragged for such a long distance. It was time to take some rest though. They thought the night was going to be a long one, full of treachery and enmity, but then again, Xiahou Dun needed the boy alive and Guan Ping didn’t want to admit, but he owed a favor to the one who saved his life. Without even looking at each other in the eye, they both fell asleep.
Hours went by as they followed the path that they thought would lead them back to Bowangpo. They walked side by side like old friends, each carrying his own weapon.
Days went by and occasionally they would exchange a glance once in a while, sometimes even a word or two, but never more than the necessary. They were still enemies after all. They only were together because they needed each other in order to survive... right?
As they were walking, they found themselves ambushedand considerably outnumbered by a group of thieves... but what did numbers mean when the one-eyed wolf general of Wei and the son of the God of War of Shu were fighting alongside each other?
The thieves fell one by one without getting a single nickel from the two warriors. It was only when Xiahou Dun felt bothered by a sting in his arm that he realized he had been hit. The wound wasn’t anything too deep, but it was definitely more than a scratch. Guan Ping removed his bandanna (“Don’t worry, it’s clean.”) and tied the Wei general’s arm to stop the bleeding, who gave him nothing more than a polite smile as a “thank you”. Then, they moved on.
They were getting near their destination. Maybe two or three more days of walking was everything it would take them. Yuanrang’s wound was almost completely healed, but
“I think I should get you a new bandanna, this one is completely worthless.”
“Nah, don’t worry. It’s not like I’m gonna die without it.”, the lad replied.
They hadn’t exactly build constructive dialogs since they first started their little “journey back home”. Still, Dun had one question in the back of his mind, but just couldn’t find the right words to express himself. Once in a while, he would just look at Guan Ping and, from all the sudden, see his young self in him. The young warrior caught his glance by chance and interrogatively raised an eyebrow.
“You had several chances to kill me.”, Xiahou Dun started.“ “Why didn’t you do it?”
“You saved my life. Whether I like it or not, I still owe you one.”
A smile that was something between sarcasm as amusement was traced in Dun’s lips.
“So you would exchange your life for you honor, huh? That’s interesting.”
“It’s not just a matter of honor. It’s the right thing to do. And to kill someone who has saved you doesn’t make any sense anyway.”
The older man unsheathed his sword, pointing the blade to Guan Ping’s throat.
“And suppose that I consider you useless now and decide to take your life in this moment. What would you do?”
The son of the god of War smiled.
“You would never do that.”
“What makes you think I wouldn’t?”
“Because you would have done it if you could. Besides, you are not very different from myself.” he replied, going ahead.
“Oh, really?”
Once again, Guan Ping smiled, but unlike Yuanrang, his smile was bright and full of confidence, with not a single sign of malice.
“I can easily recognize a honoured man when I see one.”
Nearby Bowang there was a small village that offered them food, lodging and horses.
“This is where we part our way, boy.” Xiahou Dun said as he was saddling his horse. Guan Ping looked at him, somewhat incredulous, relieved and... was that sadness in his eyes?
“...what? I can take you as my hostage if you hesitate so much in parting.” the general said, amused.
“...I think I’ll let that pass.”
He laughed.
“Take care, kid.”
“Yeah, you too.”
“One more thing”, he said, right after Guan Ping finished saddling his own horse.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t let your sense of honor kill you, kid. You should fight for what you believe.”
“Umm... Understood”.
Xiahou Dun smiled and thus followed his path. And even knowing that the general would never look back, Guan Ping bowed politely. Then mounted his horse and followed his own path in the opposite direction.
They would eventually meet again in Fancheng, once again as rivals. Wu had betrayed the alliance with Shu and Guan Yu’s forces were heavily outnumbered and absolutely exhausted. This was Wei’s chance to strike. This was a unique chance. Xu Huang and Xiahou Dun headed for the Fan Castle and the one-eyed general headed straight to where his nemesis was. Then he saw a young man standing at the fort’s gate.
“I am Guan Ping, son of Guan Yu! If you want to get to my father, you will have to go through me first!”, he cried and, in spite of his wounds and the tiredness, he was standing strong, ready to fight to his last breath.
“You’re in my way! Move along, boy!”, Xiahou Dun replied, pointing his sword at his opponent. But of course he wouldn’t silently move aside. That was what he was standing for. The foolish righteousness and virtue the imbeciles from the Shu kingdom so fiercely fought for. The stupidity and naivety they would fall for.
From all the people in the world, this was going to be Yuanrang’s opponent. The irony of the situation was heartbreaking. Still, he would not hold back. Neither of them would.
Alas, something just didn’t feel right. As they fought, Xiahou Dun felt like he was being watched. But he didn’t care. He didn’t WANT to care about it. Here was this young man fighting him desperately, fiercely, passionately, not holding back. Yet, he just couldn’t hate his opponent. It was like fighting his own friend. Maybe his own son. Or perhaps even more than that.
Xiahou Dun knew, by experience, that the fight wasn’t going to last too long. For two times his opponent had faltered. For two times, he moved to the wrong side. Guan Ping was indeed a good fighter, but against a fierce general like himself, he couldn’t stand a chance.
Guan Ping made another bold move. The wrong one. And he knew it himself
The Wei general made his move, slower than usual. Perhaps he did it on purpose? That, he would never know. But unlike what he had thought, Guan Ping did not move out of his way and Xiahou Dun’s sharpened blade pierced through the Shu young general’s stomach.
“I guess... I have paid my debt.” Guan Ping said with a smile on his face as he sank to his knees, the blood running from his nose and mouth.
“Stupid kid”, Xiahou Dun thought. “Why would he commit such a stupid mistake during a fight? He wasn’t even trying to fight back...”
But as the lad fell, he could see three arrows in his back, right where his lungs and heart should be. Arrows shot by Wu soldiers and aimed
“...for me.”, the general muttered, in a bitter tone of realization, as his opponent went down.
“Imbecile!! Why did you do that?”, the general said out loud, holding Guan Ping in his arms as he would hold his own son.
“I fight... for what I believe.” he replied, his painful voice barely audible.
“What is that? Peace? That ridiculous plan to unite the Three Kingdoms?”
“...you.” Guan Ping whispered, as he closed his eyes, smiling one last time.
A drop of rain fell on the Guan Ping’s face. Then another. And another. In the following moment, it was raining. But not a single tear left Xiahou Dun’s right eye as he held that young warrior in his arms, no, because a true warrior never cries. Not for a fallen comrade, even less for a fallen foe. Yet, in his veins, his blood rushed in an utter mad rage.
-----
First of all, I’d like to thank donesschen for beta-reading the fic for me! It’s been a hell of a long time since someone else fixed my grammatical mistakes, so I never know if what I’m writing makes any sense at all.
And basically my notions of the Chinese geography suck and yes, I am ashamed indeed. The only things I know about Bowang is that it is currently known as Fancheng and apparently there is a river running through it called Hubei. I just needed a bridge and a river as an excuse to put Xiahou Dun and Guan Ping together in this fiction and... well, it kinda worked, y/y? And the funny thing is that this fic ended up longer than I wished, but still shorter than what I thought it would be. Originally, I planned to write a lot more details, but I think the story would be too boring if I did that. But again, when you want to write a “short” fiction, it’s hard to create bonds between characters in only a few words. I could’ve done like donesschen suggested and divide the story into several parts, but then I would find myself struggling to finish the story. Hell, I struggle badly even with a story as short as this one, so I don’t think I can handle bigger projects, at least for now. Well, at least this is the biggest proof that I have to read more often.
I wish I wouldn’t speak his holy name in vain, but from the various things Stephen King wrote in his book “On Writing”, there are very few things I can actually remember, and the one I remember the clearest is “kill your darlings”. If you like a part of what you wrote in your story, but it doesn’t suit it, then remove it. I think I did this with... well, pretty much the whole story. What hurt me the most was removing one part of it that struck me as really cute, where Guan Ping is hit by a piece of the bridge when he was being dragged by the currents and he complains that his eye is terribly itchy, but he can’t scratch it because he is tied up. I removed that part of the story because it was completely unnecessary, it would take the characters nowhere and it hadn’t much to do with the main story.
And... yeah, that’s it.