An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
I just realised I forgot to post the last chapter here!
Rating: General Audiences
Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Liu Sang & Wu Xie, Liu Sang/Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling, Wang Pangzi & Wu Xie & Zhang Qiling
Characters: Liu Sang, Wu Xie, Zhang Qiling, Wang Pangzi
Additional Tags: Animal Transformation, tomb adventures, Curses, Humor, ferret wu xie, Liu Sang Needs A Hug, wu xie being shameless, pre relationship pingxiesang, established relationship (pingxie), First Kiss
Summary: When Liu Sang heard about a long cleared-out and picked over tomb that had some interesting architecture, he thought it would be a perfect opportunity to get to know Wu Xie better by taking him to the nice, safe tomb where nothing could go wrong.
Of course he should have known that if there was any lingering trap or curse that the multiple groups of previous tomb raiders had missed, then Wu Xie would be the one to find it. Now he has to deal with Wu Xie the hyperactive ferret while he tries to figure out how to fix all of this - preferably before the rest of the Iron Triangle finds out about it.
Liu Sang paused just inside the doorway, staring at the sight in front of him.
Pangzi was sitting on the floor, with an entire box of ferret toys half emptied beside him - balls and bells and ribbons and half-chewed soft toys. And some brand new soft toys, from the looks of it, which had to have been bought in the expectation of another ferret transformation, since no-one had left Wushanju since Liu Sang and Wu Xie had arrived. Wu Xie was running in excited circles around the room, dragging one of the smaller toys along with him, as Pangzi put together an elaborate system of pet tunnels. Not just one pet tunnel, oh no, Liu Sang counted at least half a dozen of them, all of which had connectors on the ends and on the sides, and Pangzi was putting them all together into a complicated maze while Wu Xie made excited shrieks through his mouthful of fabric and stuffing.
“You love me the most, don’t you, Tianzhen?” Pangzi was saying as he worked, and Wu Xie dropped his toy to give another excited shriek and launch himself at Pangzi, climbing up the man’s back. “Ouch! Claws, Tianzhen! You have sharp claws, and I’m only wearing a T-shirt!”
That didn’t seem to bother the ferret at all, who kept climbing up onto Pangzi’s shoulder, then half hung off him, making little grabby gestures with his paws at the tunnel construction. Pangzi laughed, holding the thing up off the ground.
“Is this what you want? Is it? Is it?” he asked, each question punctuated by another ferret shriek. “Have you been a good ferret?”
“No,” Liu Sang said immediately, drawing both of their attention. “He’s been an absolute fucking menace all week.”
“Good Tianzhen!” Pangzi praised, putting the structure down on the ground. Wu Xie made a derisive chitter at Liu Sang, then jumped down and disappeared into the nearest tunnel entrance while Liu Sang looked at Pangzi in outrage. “I’m so glad that I’m not the one who had to put up with the worst of it this time,” Pangzi said cheerfully, over the sounds of the excited ferret barreling through the tunnel maze. “The second time it happened, the time that made us realise the curse hadn’t gone away and it was just the transformation that we could undo, it took us two weeks before we could turn him back because we thought we had to go to the original tomb where he got cursed in order to reverse it.”
Liu Sang thought about having to put up with the ferret menace for another whole week, and shuddered.
Read the rest on AO3
