snarky_panda (snarky_panda) wrote in mulanficspace, @ 2007-07-21 01:03:00 |
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Current mood: | content |
Current music: | Psyche |
Entry tags: | 30_kisses |
30 Kisses: Mulan and Shang, Part Ten
Written for the 30_kisses challenge.
Title: Celebrations, Part 1: Gardenias
Author: snarky_panda
Fandom: Mulan
Pairing: Li Shang/Fa Mulan
Theme: #11, gardenia
Disclaimer: All characters, etc. from the Disney movie belong to Disney.
It was a symbolic activity. The Double Ninth Festival was an auspicious day, traditionally celebrated by the ascent to a great height. Whether climbing a mountain or to the top of a high tower, it was done in hopes of prosperity for the future. Members of the nobility, the Emperors themselves, would climb the highest mountain peaks on this Ninth Day of the Ninth Month.
Shang and Mulan also had made a representative journey up to the top of the highest hill near the Li compound on this day, the first Double Ninth Festival that they were celebrating as husband and wife.
The chrysanthemums were in bloom at this time, and they had become a focus of the holiday as well. People drank wine or tea made from them, admired them where they grew and decorated their homes with the bright and cheerful flowers. His new wife, in the spirit of the festival, had brewed them chrysanthemum tea that morning and their house was decorated with vases and wreaths of the flowers.
Strangely enough though, Mulan smelled like gardenias today, not chrysanthemums. Shang loved gardenias. The fragrant flowers grew all around the grounds of the Li home and he wondered at the strong scent of them on his wife, a lovely and intoxicating fragrance.
As they sat together at the top of the hill, arms around each other, Shang turned and leaned in, nuzzling her in the arc between her collar bone and her chin.
“Mm, you smell beautiful. Did you bathe in gardenias?” he asked somewhat facetiously.
“I thought it might entice you,” she purred coyly.
He sat up and blinked at her in surprise.
“I bathed with the petals in the water. Lots of them,” she continued, reaching out a hand toward his face.
She seductively ran a finger slowly along the bottom of his chin. He felt his heart begin to race and the heat rise in his belly, and lower, from the combination of the look in her eye, her touch and the intoxicating scent of her that was making him dizzy.
Leaning in to nuzzle her again he brought his mouth to her neck, beginning to nibble on the pale skin of her smooth, elegant throat. Just under the surface he could feel her pulse as it quickened. A jolt went through his body and he grabbed her shoulders, pushing her down onto the grass and pouncing on her. As she wrapped her arms and legs around him, pinning him against her, he began to kiss her passionately. It wasn’t long before the hushed stillness of the sunny afternoon was pierced with moans and squeals from the top of that hill.
Later, as the servants brought out chrysanthemum wine and husband and wife sat together admiring the yellow flowers that were arranged on the window ledge, Shang decided that chrysanthemums were indeed lovely flowers.
But he still preferred gardenias.
(Link here to continue)