Bing’s perspective.

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Bing found herself being crushed against Feng and Meng. Kat had found them five minutes ago, tops, and then handed over a tracking slip. Meng had then dashed towards them so quickly that a section of the caves had collapsed on the way. Something Meng was completely unconcerned about. "Ooh, my babies it’s so nice knowing you’re safe," said Meng as she tightened the hold. Bing felt the life slowly leaving her body… or maybe that was just the air being squashed out of her lungs.

"Please get off me," said Feng, uncomfortable with the display of affection, especially after solidifying his opinion on Meng.

"Bah, now that I don’t have to pretend I believe all the shit about ’the sect coming first’ and ’nobody is above the law’ I can be more affectionate! I’m not letting this chance go," said Meng.

Bing winced internally. Even if she was completely fine with the hugs… that wasn’t what she wanted to hear. *It sort of hurts now that Feng has explained everything properly. I wish he was just being an angry piece of shit… but he has a good point. Not one that I can bring myself to care about all that much… but one I can’t argue against. And then Meng had to just go and CONFIRM IT. Poor Feng… I don’t know what he’s going to do… but I can’t imagine him putting up with Meng hovering over him for the next decade as we try to start a new life.

Dammit… and if he leaves what the fuck am I supposed to do? Meng might be my mother, but I can’t just hide behind her robes for the rest of my life like a child too scared to interact with the other kids. Feng will probably need all the help he can get… and Meng… doesn’t. Fuck, I’m going to have to talk to her about this before it becomes an issue and plan things out.

Of course, the problem with that plan is that Meng will definitely follow us both if we leave her alone. And if Feng figures that out, he’ll insist I stay behind. Urgh, things have gotten rather complicated all of a sudden. I wish I could just blame Feng for it… but I can’t. Kat seems fine as well, so I can’t even remain angry at him for that slipup earlier, even if Meng will likely punish him for it…

Which god, that’s a bunch of mixed messages isn’t it? Meng see that as unacceptable behaviour, but Feng sees Meng as someone who considers everything acceptable. To him, she’ll look like a massive hypocrite. God dammit. How am I supposed to mediate that? They’ll both just talk past each other, unless Feng just sulks, but that will do nobody any favours.

I might have to ask Kat and Sue for help… but I don’t even know how long they’ll stick around. Are they going to be on the ship with us to the Mountain Shaker sect? I can’t remember if they ever said when their contract ends… I would assume when Bodeir gets back home, but perhaps they were just responsible for him while he’s HERE but needed to be summoned earlier.

Fuck. This is all so complicated now.* Meng, being a properly attentive mother and expert in reading body language from years as a spy could tell her children were both rather uncomfortable at the moment. Bing’s comfort had been jumping around though, so it might not be the hug itself. Feng however, looked like he wanted to be anywhere else…

Meng couldn’t find it in herself to care though. Her children were safe. They were in her arms. Meng was certain that escaping the sect there would be no further fighting. The fact that she could just hug them both like this was wonderful. Now they just had to find Lian, and everything would be perfect. "Kat, I’m going to break my way out of here going straight upwards,"

"As long as you keep the two in the bubbles safe that’s fine, I did here you collapse that section of cave a that’s a bit back," answered Kat.

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Meng blinked uncomprehendingly for a few seconds before Kat groaned and pointed to Bodeir and Voldar that happened to be floating nearby, still asleep of course. "Oh… um… woops?" said Meng with a smile.

Kat groaned, "Dammit Meng, I had to move them both out of the way before you charged straight through them, and I can’t even see the balloons properly! We’re lucky they were fine and my contract didn’t start playing up. Please remember that my real job here is to get Bodeir home safely. I do feel for you, and I’m happy to help, but please consider my position."

*Oof, that’s another point to Feng’s way of thinking. It wouldn’t have been hard to be just a bit more careful about those two… which… admittedly I’d sort of forgotten as well. Man am I glad Meng tied those to me, I’m certain I would’ve forgotten about them if she hadn’t. Which would be… bad yes.*

"Sorry Kat," said Meng lacking in any real remorse. Kat just sighed and made a ’get on with it’ gesture.

In the end, Meng just formed an illusionary drill and dug her way up throw the rocks. Kat followed closely behind, bashing away bits and pieces of stone that fell down, protecting the bubbles where Meng failed to. With this, it didn’t take long for the group to get to the surface, where Meng turned to Kat and asked, "So… which way to grab Lian?"

Kat rolled her eyes and pointed off in the distance, then the group headed off once again. *Ok… I get it that you’re out of crisis mode Mum… but can you show a bit of compassion for Kat’s situation? Or are you just at your limit for caring about other people? Actually… how stressful has today been for her? The answer might be… very. Probably best not to push the stress-out assassin… oh god but I have an idiot for a brother.*

Bing turned to face Feng from her spot on Meng’s lap. Meng had summoned an illusionary flying boat just large enough to hold three seats. Meng was at the back with Bing on her lap, Feng was sitting up the front trying to be as far away as possible and Kat was flying beside them because she couldn’t see the damned thing properly.

Bing pursed her lips, trying not to frown as she tried to figure out how to warn Feng not to piss of the stressed assassin. *Which is a bit of a rude thing to think about your mother, but what else am I going to do? It’s not like there’s a magic answer for stress.* Except of course for the fact that Kat could relax people with a flex of her aura. Something Bing didn’t know.

With Meng leading the charge, and the boat to protect them from the wind, it didn’t take long to make it to the correct mountaintop with Bing no closer to finding a way to warn Feng then before. The issue was that Meng simply paid them both too much attention. Not that Bing was feeling uncomfortable about that fact… she just needed some way to secretly pass a note to Feng before he stopped his brooding and went back to being angry.

*And then what am I going to do? Seriously? It’s not like Feng doesn’t have some valid points, I understand that… but Meng cares about us, and having Feng constantly try to distance himself from her is not doing Meng’s mental state any favours. Everything he says is really hurtful to her because she genuinely cares.

Just the fact that she won’t let go of me proves that fact. Obviously she doesn’t want to push things… but how much rejection can she really take? Even if Meng would regret it afterwards, a simple backhand at full strength would KILL Feng. Meng knows this… but she also doesn’t have training for dealing with belligerent children, just the experience she’s had with us…𝒇𝑟e𝗲𝚠𝚎𝐛𝗻𝐨νel. 𝒄om

And Feng is pushing things. I really hope that Lian is as accepting of this as I am, because if she isn’t… Meng might do something that we’d all regret. Her emotions are clearly all over the place at the moment, so… what can I do? I suppose I can either force her back into the mask… or try and reassure Meng about her place in our lives…

Which might not be possible because in Feng’s ideal world she wouldn’t HAVE a place in our lives. But like… what is he going to do about it? It’s not like he can report her to the sect police. Plus… plus if it really did come to a fight like that I’d have to side with Mum. Sorry Feng, but Meng isn’t going to kill you if you lose, and I’d rather not support any idiocy.*

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