Chapter Text
The moment Wei Ying heard the familiar frightening sound of barks, he ran away as fast as his little feet could carry him.
He had heard from some of his martial siblings that they found a box of puppies abandoned by their gates three days ago. They cooed at how energetic they were despite the neglect in the rain and the apparent injury of one of the five puppies. Even Wei Ying was sad to hear that they had been left hungry and wet, and he was happy for them to be found quickly, but...
Since the puppies started running around in the courtyard, Wei Ying was afraid to step foot in that section of the manor. It came to the point that one of his martial sisters who was a year older than him thought his fear of dogs stupid and brought up one of the puppies to his face. To make him get used to them, she had said, but Wei Ying had frozen on his feet instead, his face white as a sheet.
Wei Ying had been avoiding her and the puppies since then. It was fine, he thought, even if they didn’t want to play with him anymore because he didn’t find the puppies cute and adorable. He was often a good distance away from them these days, mostly watching them play outdoors through the window. While Wei Ying couldn’t understand what was fun being chased around by the dogs when they could bite you painfully, the giggling of his friends was infectious.
“Aiya, I wondered where you were,” said someone who entered the shed. It was Wei Ying’s da-shixiong, smiling as he crouched down next to him, peering at his level over the window. “Don’t you want to join them?”
“I’m scared,” Wei Ying said quietly, “of the dogs.”
His da-shixiong hummed. “You know, I used to be scared of them too. I was bitten on my leg when I was, hmm, maybe as old as you. My da-ge carried me on his back for two weeks even if the bite healed after a week. I liked being carried by him,” he recollected. Wei Ying listened, the window momentarily forgotten. “I guess I just got used to them eventually after not seeing dogs for a long time.”
Wei Ying lowered his eyes. “Shixiong, I don’t think I will get used to them,” he told him honestly. “What if when I’m big like you and I’m still scared?”
Chengling was quiet for a moment, and when Wei Ying looked up at him he was still smiling kindly. “That’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with being afraid.” He laid a hand on his head, patting it gently. “Come with me. I’ll show you something.”
Wei Ying faltered. “Dogs?‘
“No, A-Ying,” Chengling said patiently, taking Wei Ying small hands and rubbing his knuckles soothingly. “It’s a surprise, but no dogs. Promise.”
Wei Ying followed closely his da-shixiong’s back, clutching his bigger hand. He trusted his da-shixiong to shield him in case they came across the dogs. He was puzzled, however, when Chengling led them to the back of the kitchen where there were dusty and huge clay pots taller than Wei Ying.
He scrunched his nose at the different smells within. As far as he remembered, this was one of the places that A-Xing didn’t encourage them to go to and where only the people at the kitchen and A-Xing were allowed to enter.
In between two large covered pots, there was a space for a small crate. Sensing Wei Ying’s apprehension to look closer at the tiny wriggling mass, Chengling leaned down first, beckoning him to follow.
Wei Ying was greeted by mewls and was surprised to see small kittens whose eyes were closed. The one on Chengling’s palm with brown fur and dark stripes sniffed his hand and snuggled further when it was brought to Chengling’s chest.
“That’s their mother,” da-shixiong said, pointing at the large gray cat with black streaks on the limbs. “She gave birth to five of them, each with different colors but with her stripes.”
True enough, there was a white one with a black tail, a gray that resembled the mother cat, a black with orange patches on its face, an orange kitten with dark mottled ears and back, and the brown one that his da-shixiong was holding. Their mother stared at Wei Ying, though she didn’t seem to mind the new presence, yawning widely before feeding her kittens.
“Do you want to hold them?” Chengling asked.
“Will their mother be mad?”
Chengling shook his head. “She’s pretty relaxed and doesn’t mind the company,” he said. He tilted his head, smiling reassuringly. “But if you don’t want to, that’s alright. We can watch them first.”
He told him how he discovered the newborn and their mother a week ago next to the kiln where it was warm. They liked the warmth, more so the kittens, but being so close to extreme heat would be dangerous for them so Chengling moved them somewhere safer, somewhere with the right temperature and not exposed outdoors. He said that the scraps of cloth that were their makeshift bed were from his old torn robes.
Eventually, Chengling encouraged Wei Ying to scratch the back of the ears of the brown kitten. With shaky hands, he poked the part between the kitten’s ears and found the spot soft. Emboldened, Wei Ying trailed his finger at the kitten’s small back, also soft, then went back to its head, between its closed eyes, and tapped its tiny button nose.
“Would you like to see them again tomorrow?” Chengling suddenly asked. “You can help me look after them.”
The kitten didn’t wake, and Wei Ying thought it looked rather cute. He wouldn’t mind seeing them again tomorrow and looked forward to them growing up.
He grinned at his da-shixiong excitedly. “Okay!”