milothatchspeaking:

Milo was so intent on his map that he hardly noticed where he was going, or that he was wandering into the side-streets of a populated village. That is, he didn’t notice until a young woman crashed straight into him. Milo stumbled back with a yelp, flailing his arms in an attempt to keep his balance and, consequently, dropping everything he’d been precariously carrying onto the street. Milo managed to keep his balance by some miracle, and, after taking a moment to recover from the shock, stared down at the shorter young woman standing in front of him.

“Oh, no, i-it’s fine,” Milo spluttered, reaching up to adjust his glasses, dusting off his clothing and checking to make sure his satchel was still there, “I…guess I wasn’t paying attention, either,” Milo said with an awkward chuckle, reaching up to rub the back of his neck with one hand in embarrassment—despite the fact that she’d been the one to run into him, he still felt like it was his fault for not paying enough attention.

That was when Milo seemed to remember the fact that he’d dropped everything he’d been carrying. The scholar quickly got down on his hands and knees, picking up the map and the compass, and stuffing his notebook back into his satchel. After a few moments of this, Milo stood, glancing around at the side-street and the buildings he didn’t recognize, before looking at the woman he’d run into. “Uh…” Milo began slowly, unsure if he was being too straightforawrd, “Could you possibly tell me where I am? I-I was with this expedition group, and, um…got lost.” Milo smiled sheepishly, unable to make eye contact.

Mulan blinked, realized she was staring and dropped to her knees as well, gathering the stranger’s things together.  She might recognize his possessions only vaguely as the tools of a scholar, but even Mulan could hand him papers without making a mess of things.  That is, she hoped so, because a quick innocuous glance over them proved that his documents weren’t even written in Chinese.  If she hadn’t been so conscious of the awkwardness of the situation, Mulan might have stared - she’d hardly ever traveled, let alone to somewhere so far away that even the writing was so different.  She didn’t even know anybody who’d traveled that far!

When they had finished picking up the traveler’s belongings, Mulan clambered to her feet, brushing the dust from her skirts.  She nearly stepped on them in the process too, because it was difficult for her to take her eyes off of the man, in his long trousers and strange jacket, with a contraption on his eyes that Mulan thought must be made of wire and glass.  After a few moments, though, watching turned into staring, and she blinked when she realized it, feeling her cheeks burn.  "Um - you’re in Juexizhen,“ she told him, slowly, because she began to wonder exactly how lost he was.  Especially if he was from outside of the Middle Kingdom - why, Mulan was certain not even the magistrate was sure where Juexizhen was, it was so small!  She bit her lip, rubbing one hand self-consciously along her arm, and after a moment offered, "Where is the rest of your group?”