The Nine-tailed Fox thinks the little dragon is cute

Wu Yun extends an arm towards Lan Tian, and he slithers up towards his wrist, wrapping around his forearm in the same pattern as the scar Bai Xiaoli's whip left.

He brings Lan Tian up to his face and looks into his blue scaly face, watching the slitted pupils with curiosity. "You're very cute like this."

Lan Tian opens his mouth and Wu Yun can see his tiny fangs, and a long serpentine tongue. He lets out a sibilant hiss but doesn't seem able to say any words. 

"Why can't he speak?" he asks Wan Mi.

"I've never seen dragons this small unless they were newborns, so I think he must be in a really primordial form," she says, peering over the crook of Wu Yun's arm at Lan Tian's amber eyes.

Lan Tian's short front legs and hind legs have small nails that tickle Wu Yun's skin when he slithers on his arm, even through the layers of robes. His long tail and neck coil around in every direction, as if they have no vertebra. 

It really is a very endearing sight. Especially because the shape of his protruding brow bone, and the spiky scales that crown it, makes him look as if he's frowning.

"Can he hear us? Does he know he looks like a sweet, little baby?" Wu Yun asks, cooing at Lan Tian.

Just then Lan Tian opens his jaws in a tiny roar, and bites Wu Yun's thumb, softly.

Wan Mi laughs, watching Wu Yun hiss and bring his finger to his mouth to suck it and pretend to soothe it. "I think he does."

"Why did you bite me for saying you were sweet?" 

Wu Yun pats Lan Tian's scaly head, and while he seems reluctant at first, he eventually starts moving up, towards the motion of Wu Yun's hand.

"How long will he stay like this?" Wu Yun asks, letting Wan Mi inspect Lan Tian closer, and cautiously pet him.

"Shouldn't be long, aren't the two of you taking the antidote? He's probably going to switch back and forth between forms." 

Wan Mi lets out a sudden giggle when Lan Tian nips her fingertips.

"He doesn't like it when you pet him, he only likes when I do it." Wu Yun says, smirking when Lan Tian closes his large amber eyes when he uses a fingertip to scratch the soft scales under his chin.

"I don't want to pet him, anyway," she says with a huff. "Are you going to train with me, or not?"

"Sure, I'm going to impress Lan Tian with my light-stepping abilities."

Lan Tian climbs up Wu Yun's arm and perches on his shoulder, where he can more easily observe where they're going.

Wan Mi brings them to a jagged protruding rock formation, with flat, eroded summits, on the east side of Kunlun. Wu Yun only needs to look up at the tall rocks to understand that he's supposed to, somehow, jump up from the ground to the top.

Wan Mi's smirk almost climbs up to her eyes when she sees Wu Yun's look of apprehension.

She throws him a challenging look over the shoulder and then approaches the tallest rock, takes a deep breath, and jumps up halfway in the opposite direction, supporting her weight in protrusion in the shortest rock, and building up enough momentum to jump up to the flat top of the tallest one.

"Now you try!" she screams down, beaming in defiance.

Wu Yun isn't feeling very hopeful about his chances, despite his earlier bravado.

Lan Tian stretches his long neck to look up at the rocks, his large eyes narrowed while his mind calculates probabilities.

He turns to Wu Yun and opens his mouth to let out a "gah" sound.

Wu Yun isn't sure if that is supposed to be encouragement or a warning, but it sure is adorable. He tries not to visibly squeal while scratching Lan Tian's chin.

"I'm going to go for it," he says, determined to impress Lan Tian, who replies by wrapping his tail around Wu Yun's neck for stability.

Wu Yun takes a deep breath, as Wan Mi did, and tries to focus on his golden core, trying to draw energy from it and call it down to his legs and feet. He can't be sure if he's being very successful, because he can barely feel his golden core, to begin with, and since taking the antidote, it has become volatile and unstable, like a volcano about to erupt.

He follows Wan Mi's strategy, aiming for the rock next to the one he wants to climb. 

While he manages to gain some altitude it isn't enough and he has to hang on by the tips of his fingers not to fall to the ground. He waves his feet around trying to gain some footing, but he keeps scrapping his boots on the rocks without finding a stable foothold.

"Raise your right leg, at knee height, there's a stoop."

Wu Yun scrambles around until he manages to find a slight protrusion in the rock.

"Now what?" he asks, letting out a tired breath. He feels like he ran a thousand li just from the exertion of trying not to fall 20 zheng on his face.

"Get down and try again!" comes Wan Mi's answer.

Wu Yun has to bite his tongue not to swear at her.

---

Wu Yun does try again. 

On the second try he must manage to access more qi than he was counting on, because he jumps so high he goes over the rocks entirely, going several zheng above the tallest. But everything that goes up must come down, and so does he, screaming and skinning his hands and knees on the rocks trying to get purchase to stop his free fall.

"Less of that, maybe," Wan Mi says, extending him an arm to help him up onto the platform.

Wu Yun crawls on his hands and knees, heaving desperately.

He shoots her a glare. "You think?"

Around his neck, Lan Tian lets out another chirp, and nuzzles up to Wu Yun's ear.

Wu Yun pats his head fondly, and says, "Thanks for trying to cheer me up."

On his last try he decides to forgo the first rock and try to jump straight to the tallest one.

"A little kiss for good luck?" he asks Lan Tian, only half-joking.

Lan Tian nips his ear softly, and Wu Yun smiles at the feeling of his needle-sharp fangs scraping against his soft lobe.

He gets ready for the next attempt, trying to manage the flow of qi, and focus only on drawing as much as needs for the jump and no more.

Wu Yun envisions his legs propelling him upwards, and then landing gracefully on his feet, and jumps.

He only manages half of it.

The jump has enough power to propel him over the rock's top, but the landing could use some work. He needs to use his arms to break his fall and prevent his face from dragging on the dusty flat surface of the summit. 

Since he's feeling generous with himself, he decides to consider it a resounding success, all the while ignoring Wan Mi's giggling.

---

He insists he deserves a treat for his good showing, and while Wan Mi disagrees she eventually takes him to the peach orchard at the edge of the plateau.

They sit under a peach tree and watch the sun sinking into the clouds, bathing everything in warm tones of orange.

Wan Mi insists on feeding Lan Tian pieces of her peach, which he refuses, fluttering his whiskers and turning his head in a look of haughty superiority.

This being the perfect opportunity to annoy her, Wu Yun can't let it pass.

He breaks off a piece of his own peach and offers it to Lan Tian, "Here, little dragon, have some of mine."

Lan Tian looks up at Wu Yun's face, his nostrils flaring in rebuff, and his eyes wide with disbelief.

Wu Yun waves the peach in his face with one hand and scratches his chin with the other. "For me?"

Lan Tian sighs and and takes a small, despondent, bite of the peach.

"Of course he'd do it because you asked," Wan Mi says, hugging her knees to her chest, and looking away at the setting sun.

Lan Tian lets out a huff and shakes his head, he crawls up into Wu Yun's arms and crawls across his shoulder to reach Wan Mi at his side.

She startles when she feels his tiny claws on her arm, her emerald eyes wide. 

Lan Tian slithers down her arm and towards her hand. Wu Yun watches amused as he takes a bite of the peach still clutched between her fingers.

He twists his neck around to give Wu Yun an indecipherable look, that somehow still makes Wu Yun let out a sharp laugh.

"Thanks for the candied hawthorn," he says, once Lan Tian is once again nestled in his shoulder, head resting on the hollow of his collarbone.

Wan Mi shrugs. "It was nothing, I only had to fly to Jinping to get some."

"Even so, thank you." Wu Yun notices with amusement how she blushes and averts her eyes, more used to being admonished than thanked.

They sit in silence for some time. Lan Tian manages to fall asleep on Wu Yun's shoulder. Wu Yun thinks it must be tiring being such a small dragon in such a big world.

"He really likes you, you know?" Wan Mi says, breaking the silence suddenly. "He was very upset when you were unconscious during that whole month. He stood by your side night and day, talked with you even though you never answered. And cried when he thought no one was watching."

It's not that Wu Yun is surprised to hear any of that, but it still makes his chest seize with a tender pain, to know he put Lan Tian through all that.

Wan Mi too, although he decides not to mention that Lan Tian told him she cried too.

They're alike in that way. Always willing to point out each other's compassion, but never their own.

Wan Mi doesn't notice Wu Yun's small smile, as he hugs his knees and lays his head on them, to look at her from the side. 

Her eyebrows knit in concentration above her eyes, and she takes in a long breath, before saying, "So, don't go paying attention to that Crane. I don't know who he is, and I don't want to, but he could never care about you as much as Lan Tian does."

Wan Mi's solemn expression fills Wu Yun with an overwhelming surge of fondness. 

There's nothing to do but tease her. "Are you afraid he's going to come between your parents' marriage?"

She sputters and gets up to her feet, her face red as a beet, and her hands balled into fists at her side. 

"Whose parents? I don't have any parents, stop talking nonsense. It's getting late, I'm going back to the Phoenix's Perch!"

She leaves with stomping footfalls, even kicking a rock to the side in her anger.

The rock lands on its back and reveals itself to be a tortoise with a moss covered shell, it snaps after Wan Mi and ambles in her wake, shouting profanities.

Wu Yun scratches under Lan Tian's brow bone, disturbing the spiky scales that crown it, he looks up at Wu Yun with half-lidded, sleepy eyes.

"Hey, Lan Tian, children grow up so fast."

Lian Tian can only blink in confusion.

---

On the way back to their rooms Wu Yun starts feeling the tell-tale signs of the aphrodisiac starting to take effect.

The previous night was better, with Lan Tian by his side, to whisper sweetly into his ear, and kiss him hungrily.

As soon as they get into the cave, he leaves his robes on the upper floor and jumps into the cold pool.

He watches Lan Tian swimming around happily, blowing bubbles out of his nostrils, and diving before coming up to the surface, twisting his spine into harmonious arches above the water level.

 As much as he thinks it's adorable to see him like this, he wishes he had his human, or at least mixed-form, back. Not only because he wants an outlet for the desire burning under his skin, but because there's nothing better than falling asleep in Lan Tian's arms.

He sighs and pillows his head on his folded arms over the pool's edge. "Lan Tian, I've had your kisses for such a short time, it's cruel to deprive me of them so soon."

There's movement in the water behind him, and he assumes Lan Tian must be amusing himself somehow.

That is, until he feels a strong arm wrapping around his waist, and pulling him against a chiseled chest. 

"I would never deprive you of anything."

That familiar smooth voice washes over him like a caress, making him shiver.