hi vae may i possibly,,get some pianjeong? 🥺 (also the way i considered going on anon for this and then realized u would 100% know who i was. brain egg. fried) -abby
ok this will be interesting bc idk what the established tropes are or not (i’ve read a handful of pianjeong fics but 🤔)
setting: post canon. they knew each other before jeong jeong’s desertion, but only in passing in military service. maybe they were trained in the same cohort, but separated according to bender status
i feel that although they are both very perceptive and observant, it would be jeong jeong who notices piandao more, back then (because piandao is a star pupil, right? he’s an excellent swordfighter and tactician)
(but maybe that’s jeong jeong’s perception, that piandao doesn’t notice him. but jeong jeong is also an excellent cadet during training, and piandao IS observant, but also subtle. jeong jeong maybe overestimates his ability to gauge other’s perceptions of him)
(SO after training is done and they are all deployed separately, and news breaks YEARS later of a high ranking officer defecting, piandao recognizes the name. he remembers on some level the young man who trained parallel to him in the bending troops)
FAST FORWARD that’s all just the setting
post canon. they have recaptured ba sing se. pakku and iroh and bumi have other things to do (including not leaving a 16 year old in charge of a country alone, but that’s another thread) SO i mean is piandao gonna let his new/old comrade just go back to living in the forest when there’s no need???
so jeong jeong comes to piandao’s castle. which i imagine this a common theme? :) idk
but he still has his issues with firebending. and he’s a bit standoffish because this man he’d always noticed from afar has invited him to his castle but he doesn’t even know who jeong jeong is (but he does)
so while they take meals and tea together, very little conversation happens for the first week or two. piandao finds it enjoyable but jeong jeong finds it uncomfortable
AT SOME POINT they do talk,, and piandao discovers jeong jeong’s feelings about firebending and offers to teach him swordsmanship as an alternative ??? outlet? a non-traumatizing physical outlet ?
so he teaches jeong jeong to paint, and to do calligraphy in an expressive way, not just utilitarian writing they were taught in school. painting is not very engaging for jeong jeong, but he’s good
calligraphy is much more difficult. he has very good handwriting but it is not expressive at all, so the lessons stretch from an afternoon to several days to a couple of weeks, focused on calligraphy.
cue... piandao helping him with his grip, pointing out ways he could improve or what he’s already improved on. instructions expanding into quiet conversations as they took breaks for tea and meals
listen you see where this is going. jeong jeong asks finally when they’re going to move to swords and piandao shrugs. maybe never. why learn another skill just to kill. i want to see what calligraphy you can create
and jeong jeong realizes how meditative it’s been, practicing calligraphy and chatting with piandao, and also realizes that piandao has stayed with him, giving weeks of attention to jeong jeong, teaching him, pouring his tea, guiding his hands..................... and it clicks (or maybe it has been clicking, slowly)
in the end i think it’s kind of a silent understanding between them that this has grown from mere onesided observation, then comradery and mutual appreciation for arts and whatever in the white lotus, to........ more
and i imagine this comes after an evening calligraphy session, with the windows thrown open and the sun having set over the mountains in the distance and the light disappearing from the sky yet no candles lit in the study yet, and one of them (both of them) lean in and kiss
