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He snickered. “Some things we never forget.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She straightened and pulled out of his grasp. “How about you grab the gear and I’ll find something to set up in the field as targets?
“I thought we’d just use the tree.”
Mei Lian gasped and smacked him on the arm. “Have you not even noticed the trees since Rei started living with us? They look amazing. Their leaves are so lush, and I swear they’ve all grown at least a meter. You can’t hurt them with arrows and knives!”
Throwing up his hands, Yichen took a step back. “All right! All right! No targeting the trees. Got it. Go find some targets we can put holes into. I’ll grab the weapons.”
A squeal escaped Mei Lian and in a flash, she disappeared down the hall on silent feet. Yichen dropped his hands to his sides and huffed out a laugh. He might complain about how things had changed while he was away, but there were some things that had not. Gao Mei Lian being a ball of unpredictable energy was one of those things.
He turned down a different hall and headed to the armory. During the past weeks, he’d spent many hours in this room polishing the weapons and checking to make sure they were all properly cared for. Not that he believed the rest of the clan wasn’t keeping up with things. It was more that the repetitive actions helped to clear his mind.
It just might be one of Rei’s favorite rooms as well. The elf would ambush him in there at random times and beg to hear stories about each and every weapon. All while he was wrapped in Yichen’s arms with Yichen’s chin resting on his shoulder.
His lover was a strange creature. Like a magpie, he loved soft things, pretty things, shiny things. But he also loved weapons of all shapes and sizes, particularly a well-crafted bow or an elegant blade. Of course, Rei had grown up pampered with all the soft, pretty things while also being bathed in the blood of betrayal. Both sides were the very cornerstone of his life.
Yichen snagged a pair of bows from the rack he’d been staring at for the past few minutes. Was it wrong that he spent so much time thinking about Rei?
No. Not anymore. Rei was his and his alone. He could think about him all he wanted now.
After snagging a set of throwing knives and two full quivers of arrows, Yichen headed to the orchard behind the house in hopes of locating Mei Lian. A little practice was going to do them some good.
At least, that was what he’d thought until he discovered Mei Lian’s idea of targets.
Near the rear of the property close to the wall, he found her wedging woven baskets into the limbs of trees. But the fronts of the baskets were not painted with the typical bull’s eye with the red center. No, there were color pictures of real people and animated characters.
When she caught sight of him, she skipped over, a broad grin on her lips. “What do you think? This’ll work, right?”
“Sure. But who are these people?” He pointed at the targets with the tips of the bows in his fist.
“Oh, well, he’s really hot, but right now he’s playing this evil villain on this drama I’m watching. It’s making me want to shoot him in the face,” she explained, motioning toward a man with dark hair and a bit of a smarmy smile. She moved over to an Asian woman who looked frail and delicate. “And she’s playing a character who’s trying to separate the two leads by telling both of them lies. I really want her to die. And that guy has been telling lies to get my favorite main character kicked out of school.”
Yichen winced but still inquired. “And the green guy with the horns?”
“Anime. He’s just annoying.”
A long, tortured sigh escaped Yichen from the very bottom of his soul. “These…aren’t real people, right? This is all TV?”
“Well, yeah, of course they’re real people, but I’m talking about the shows I watch them on. I’m mad at their characters. Not them personally.” She snorted and prodded him with her elbow. “Come on. I don’t stalk and plot the murder of people in real life.”
With a roll of his eyes, Yichen thrust one of the bows at her. “I’m sorry I asked.”
She was still giggling at him as she took the bow and tied one of the quivers to her waist. He wasn’t going to question her about the baskets. If Meimei had chosen baskets that Ming Yu was actively using, she was going to be the one to deal with the consequences. Not him.
Stepping away, he watched her take her stance and fire three arrows at the targets. She hit the basket each time, but not the center. Considering that neither she nor the target was moving, her aim should have been much better.
“Stop,” he ordered as she drew back a fourth time. “Lower your elbow.” With the instruction, he tapped the elbow drawn as she held the nocked arrow. “You’re releasing on an inhale. It should be done on the exhale. Take more time to aim. Speed can be added when your accuracy has improved.”
Mei Lian grunted softly as she took in each of his instructions. She lowered her elbow, paused in her aiming, and exhaled as she released the arrow, which rocketed straight for the center of the horned man’s face.
“Excellent,” Yichen praised as he prepared his own bow.
They shot in silence for several minutes, lazily shooting one arrow after another at their targets until they were full. It was a comfortable thing to just get lost in the repetitive motion. His mind cleared and some of the tension that had pulled the muscles tight in his shoulders was sliding away.
Setting aside their weapons, they walked toward the targets to pull out the arrows. That was when his sweet but evil meimei hit him with a sucker punch.
“Can I ask you a question about Rei?”
