rattlerofthestars:

The assumed scholar rolled his eyes upward. Yeah, school was great when it wasn’t being blown up by the SEC. Man, how ‘bout them good ol’ days. He felt rather bitter towards the entire situation. A lot of this just sucked. Especially this- walking down some random mountain in China with an awkwardly girlish soldier.The “oh” hung in the air above them as they trudged on. It was funny, actually. Here he was waving an imaginary scholarship around and he never even graduated.

“Heh.” Jim peeked over at Morph before kicking a rock in front of them. “Guess you could say I’m both. I love learning new things but I kick just as much ass." 

The cockiness had returned but he hoped it would pass the time. He didn’t mind light questions like this. Just as long as they got to the camp. He wasn’t exactly sure how it would all go down. Obviously, he was not from this country. How would an army of Chinese soldiers react to him just waltzing in with Ping? He was partly worried he might get him in trouble.

At least he had something handy in his pocket, in case anything got too heavy.

Since he was looking away from Jim - squinting down at the distant camp in case he could tell what was going on, actually - Ping allowed himself a slight eye roll at the arrogant tones of Jim’s voice.  Maybe all scholars were that satisfied with themselves - again, Chi Fu was another good example - but of course they had every right to be satisfied.  Just not to show off about it, maybe.  Especially if they were training both as a soldier and a scholar.  It was almost unfair.  Ping pursed his lips, fiddling with a loose thread on his jacket.  He would have to tie that off later, before it unraveled, but not while the others could see.  All of the soldiers had quickly become acquainted with mending their own clothing, but only one had been taught to do immaculate mending and intricate embroidery.

But he couldn’t help mulling over it all, as if he were small again and had a loose tooth he’d probe again and again with his tongue.  "Did you choose to study both?” Ping wondered aloud, looking curiously at Jim.  He knew all too well the ambitious hopes a family might have for its children.  "Do you enjoy them?“  If Jim was Ping’s superior, he might just tell the recruit that it was none of his business - but he’d wait to be told he was being impertinent.