Mulan (More Than a Story Book 2)

Returning Home

I walked my way around the empty palace till I found everyone gathered back at the very front of the palace. Looks like Li did a good job with evacuating everyone safely.

Once they saw me coming , they all ran to meet me half way. Poe lifted me in the air by my waist and rocked me back and forth while hugging me close. "Your alive!" He exclaimed. Li and Yao joined in on the group hug, so I was being smushed in between the three soldiers.

"Guys!" I gasped. "I can't breath!"

They all let go but were still crowded around me. " Are you hurt?"

"Is that his sword?"

"I cant believe you killed him all by yourself!" They all asked their questions at once.

Li put a hand on my shoulder and looked me straight in the eye. "Tadashi would have been so proud."

I nodded solemnly. "I would hope so." Was all I said.

Not to far away, I saw Shang staring at me, as if he wanted to say something but was too afraid to.

"We'll uh, Catch up with you later Mulan." Yao said smugly. Li made a confused face but he and Poe nodded towards Shang. His mouth formed a big O and the gang trotted off somewhere else to give us privacy.

I walked over to Shang. The closer I got, the more my head had to tilt up to look him in the eye. 

"I'll catch you later." Mushu said as he walked away with his lucky cricket in his hand, now in his human form.

"Where's the Emperor?" I asked softly.

"He's on his way to the hospital." He replied just as softly.

"Oh." I could barley focus on anything except my beating heart. All the blood was rushing from my head to every other part of my body and I couldn't think straight.

"Mulan?" He said, a little too loudly.

"Yes, Captain?"

"You..." He paused and just stared at me for a while. "You fight good." He said patting me on the shoulder awkwardly.

I barley held back my giggle with a small smile. Was he...nervous? The idea of Shang being scared to talk to me was flattering to say the least. "Thank you." I said, looking away from his face for a moment.

"Im sorry." He said after a while. "For not believing you about Shaun Yu."

I shook my head. "You had a good reason not to. So there is nothing to forgive." I played with the fabric of my dress with my sweaty palms. "But I'm the one who is sorry. For pretending to be someone I'm not, for not being honest with you, and for coming here in the first place."

Shang stood there for a long time, just looking at me with thoughtful eyes. I was beginning to loose my nerve so I turned to leave, when he quickly reached out to grab my hand.

"You had a good reason to. So there is nothing to forgive."

My eyes grew as wide a saucers as I watched a small smile spread across his face. He looked down at my palm and caressed it with his calloused  fingers. "Your hurt."

I shook my head. "Its nothing, I'll be fine."

He nodded in understanding, still running his thumb over the wound. "Even though there is nothing to forgive, you still owe me something."