youfightgood:

As commanding officer, Shang was required to avoid making friends within the lowly group of recruits. It was unwritten protocol. After all, if they saw him as a friend, one of them, his orders would not be nearly as effective. The boys were much more inclined to obey an intimidating, authoritative figure - a facade he was determined to continue exuding. 

He quirked an eyebrow at Fa Ping, and his mouth pinched into a thin, unimpressed line.

“I’m sure you don’t know what I want,” he said, flat and unsmiling. This particular conscript had been trying his patience since day one, and it looked as if that wasn’t going to change anytime soon. Ping behaved so demurely, refusing a simply stroll with his commanding officer like a blushing, unmarried girl who was afraid of tainting her reputation. Shang scowled. 

Had they sent him daughters in lieu of sons?

“Once around the camp’s perimeter.” And he began to walk, without consulting Fa Ping further.

Ping pressed his lips together to smother the sigh that’d welled up in his throat and stared helplessly at his feet for a second before moving them to trudge after the captain.  He swung his fists for momentum, which Ping knew made him look more manly, since a woman was supposed to walk with her arms held at her sides.  But it also helped Ping to catch up to Captain Shang, where he found that he had to almost trot to keep up with the man’s longer strides.  His fingernails dug slightly into his palms.  Training might be exhausting, but the first part of Ping’s walk had been pleasant by comparison.  The morning was beautiful and cool; he’d felt refreshed from a serene night of sleep and there were worse things than walking with sore muscles and food cramps.

Such as hurrying to keep up with the captain that didn’t like you, with sore muscles and food cramps.  As he struggled to accustom himself to the new pace, Ping’s breathing slowed and he could glance at the captain occasionally…as long as Shang wasn’t looking at him.  Mushu had a point - Li Shang was a handsome man, just because Ping was pretending to be a man too didn’t mean he was blind - but it wasn’t often that Ping was even this close to his commanding officer.  And seeing as the captain only ever came this close when Ping was doing something wrong, it was hard to get flustered about it.  With Captain Li Shang watching your every move critically (thought Ping), there wasn’t a single false move you could afford.

Ping was deep in debt, then.  

But it was just like the captain said, wasn’t it?  How was Ping supposed to know what Shang wanted to see?  How was Ping supposed to impress him when he, Ping, was already trying his hardest?  Five minutes ago, Ping had felt hopeful: as if in a few more weeks, maybe, he’d get the hang of things.  But just being in the captain’s presence made Ping feel like the burnt rice at the bottom of the pot: good for nothing, sent out to the pigs.