@theprettiestboy said: ok but now i want to know nhs's response to finding out da-ge beat him in the fashion race
[Well here you go, then!]
“And I’m a seven?” Huaisang asked, curiously, having overheard a snippet of conversation about fashion of all things in passing their door and decided to poke his head in.
Three sets of eyes traded slightly wary, confused looks and then they nodded, as one.
“Out of what?”
“Ten,” A-Fu replied obediently and Huaisang just had to hear this reasoning, stepping all the way in, leaning on the door.
“A seven? That’s...hmm. I suppose...that’s not terrible. I’m quite fashionable, so I think I would have to disagree with you. What about Er-ge?”
A-Yuan offered, helpfully, “Bobo got ten out of ten,” just as A-Ling and A-Fu held up all ten fingers.
Huaisang nodded, letting this prompt answer soothe his stung pride slightly, because he would have probably given the same. “And Da-ge?”
This time, all three of them raised their hands, each of their ten fingers splayed out and Huaisang nearly yelped in indignation, “Da-ge outranks me?” He scoffed and began fanning himself rapidly in agitation from his crossed arms. Then, he snapped the fan shut in realization. “Ah. It’s because they’re your father’s, isn’t it? You’ve all given your fathers--”
“No, they gave my die a five,” A-Yuan interrupted, raising up on his knees, clearly so aggrieved by this indignity that his polite Lan manners went out the window. “They said he was boring.”
While Huaisang had to agree that his fashion sense was a little on the simplistic side, they were always exquisitely tailored! With fantastic fabrics and kept spotless! That had to count for something! Huaisang was almost offended on his behalf before realizing that he was already offended on his own. “And San-ge?”
“Seven,” A-Fu supplied readily. “They didn’t like his hat but his belt is cool and he has sparkly embroidery.”
“I have sparkly embroidery!” Huaisang insisted, thumping his chest with the tip of the fan.
“You’re also a seven,” A-Ling reminded him and Huaisang scrunched his nose up in what was only partially a mock-scowl.
“Well! I don’t--! Why on earth does Da-ge get a 10?!”
“Baxia,” A-Fu and A-Ling said at once as A-Yuan nodded eagerly, then supplied, “And cool epaulets.”
Then, A-Fu gathered his hair in 2 hands and held them up. “His braids, too.”
“What the hell, child, I have braids!”
“Yeah, we gave you points for it!” A-Fu raised his voice right back as his brows drew down, hair still in bunches, jaw growing stubborn. “Your braids are cool!”
“Thank you!” Huaisang’s tone was practically aggressive before he remembered that he was, in fact, an adult, and they were, in fact, children and took a deep breath. “I--yes, thank you.”
A-Ling made a circle over his own little gold hairpiece with his fingers, staring up at him almost challengingly. “His ornaments are cooler.”
Huaisang deliberately bit his cheek to keep from insisting that his were also cool, so as not to sound like a sullen teenager. Again. “They are very nice,” he agreed through gritted teeth.
“But it was mostly Baxia. And the fact that you have fans instead of a sabre,” A-Fu concluded with a knowing nod, as if he were supposed to agree with them. “We don’t get it.”
By the gods, Huaisang was quickly being convinced to never have children if all of them could stab home quite so exactly and bluntly, staring at you with big innocent eyes. A-Yuan seemed to have caught onto the look on his face and quickly added, “But I like your fans. They’re very pretty. I give them nine out of ten!”
With as much dignity he could muster, Huaisang flipped open his fan, gathered himself up and declared, “My fans are ten out of ten! The highest quality!” and quickly fled the room before any more of his sense of self could be so casually decimated by these monsters who call themselves his nephews. Before he decamped completely, he yelled back down the hall, “I’m telling San-ge you rated him a seven!”
