rattlerofthestars:

Jim was glad to hear Ping laugh again. It sounded almost childish. He began to wonder exactly how old the soldier was. He seemed very young, especially in the face. If he had to guess, he would say sixteen or seventeen- buuut, he had been wrong before. He figured he might wait until he found out through conversations later.

If there were to be any.

Gradually they had approached the base of the mountain, but he hadn’t even noticed since he was so busy talking. Now that he saw the men of the camp, he felt his skin prickle. Oh man, he was way over his head. He was an outsider. A foreigner. He looked nothing like them. It was worse that he stomped around with big (functional) boots while theirs were all uniform. He looked like a complete mess. More than likely, his forehead was sweaty and he looked pretty scuffed up from the crash. What were they going to think?

Juuuust don’t behead me in the mountains.

“Oh- yeah! Shouldn’t take long at all, actually. So, uh…where’s the captain…located…around here?" 

The closer they approached to camp, Ping realized, the more attention he and Jim drew.  The obvious reason was, of course, that the stranger didn’t look anything like the rest of them - cropped hair, brown clothing, round eyes and an unhealthy-looking pink flush to his skin.  Trust the runt of the litter, the laughingstock of the camp, to be the one who befriended somebody who also stuck out like a sore thumb.  But it was worse than that.  Under their glares, Ping remembered with a jolt the excruciating jog through the mountains they’d all set out on together - and the way he’d wandered off, only to turn up coolly with Jim at his side.  His stomach felt as if it was crowding into his mouth, and Ping thought for a moment that he might be sick.

As if on cue, Chi Fu bustled up to them at that moment, looking furious.  Ping only had a moment to be thankful that it wasn’t the captain before Chi Fu started in on him.  "When your comrades returned from the mountains, you were not with them,” he hissed, as if he was concerned that Ping had not noticed.  "The captain will not be pleased to hear that your delay wasn’t injury or attack.  Where were you?  Did you stop to talk to this, this stranger?“

He jabbed an angry thumb in Jim’s direction, and dimly Ping realized that Chi Fu must chafe at having to be the one who scolded Ping.  Was Captain Shang so angry that he couldn’t do it himself?  With that impression in mind, Ping bit his lip so hard that he tasted blood.  He wasn’t going to cry.  He would not cry!  "I - I, uh, that is - ”