On fire within

My name is Fa Mulan, I'm a Dumot’s Skewl of Majek graduate and I'm currently attending Storybrooke Academy.

[magic-awakens-beauty]

Aurora decided to try the food before adding anything to it, if for no other reason than to appreciate the taste for what it was before singeing off her taste buds. Instantly, she regretted not having tried Chinese food LONG before. Without even realizing she was doing it, she made a low sound of pleasure in her throat. The food was a little spicy, but not enough to challenge, and she knew she’d have to enjoy this bite for now before taking Mulan on with the hot sauce.

[tranquilalchemist-blog]

Mulan laughed at the noise Aurora made and covered her mouth. "I guess I don't have to ask if you like it." She smiled and her eyes flitted to the bottle of hot sauce and then back to Aurora. Once Aurora was done with that bite it was ON. Mulan was going to trounce her in this battle of the taste buds, she was sure of it. She poked at her food and  built a little pile that she would tackle first while she waited.

[magic-awakens-beauty]

Aurora, unable to help herself, broke into a huge grin, another rarity. “You helped me pick up my books, too, remember? So…there’s that.” her eyes glittered and there was a childlike joy in her face at this little victory. At the comment about spicier food, she folded her arms across her chest and tossed her hair. “No you’re not.” she replied succinctly. “Not a CHANCE.”

[tranquilalchemist-blog]

"Oh, you wanna bet?" Mulan smirked and picked up the tray that held their food. "I will trounce you." She says making her way to her favorite table by the window. She placed the tray on the table and plopped down in one of the chairs before picking up the hot sauce and presenting it to Aurora like it was something gourmet a chef had brought out on a silver platter. "Use it at your own risk." With that she added it to her food and placed it down on the table for her.  

[magic-awakens-beauty]

“If anyone’s apologizing, it should be me for causing you minor electrocution.” Aurora replied smoothly, pulling her credit card from her pocket quickly and handing it across the counter to the woman. “Besides, you taught me some Mandarin today, too, so I can always use the excuse that I’m paying you back for the lesson.” she smirked. The need to pay for Mulan’s food had crossed out of the boundary of wanting to do something generous for a new friend and into the territory of wanting to simply win.

[tranquilalchemist-blog]

"Hey!" Mulan looked indignantly as the woman  tried to look innocent as she swiped Aurora's card. "I feel betrayed, wounded even." The woman waved her away playfully and Mulan frowned over at Aurora. "You taught me some french though!" She was so going to buy Aurora lunch sometime. Then we'll see who's looking smug and victorious. "I'm at least going to eat spicier food than you."

[magic-awakens-beauty]

Aurora’s eyes flashed, and a smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “Hurt myself, huh? Oh, it’s on.” she felt so relaxed for a change, and more importantly, felt like herself. It was a rare feeling, and she liked it. And she liked Mulan for bringing it out in her.

She noticed Mulan pulling out her wallet and reached out to touch her hand, intending to sort of push the wallet down in an “I’ve got this” gesture, but wound up static-shocking the both of them. “Ouch! Sorry…but let me get this. As a …thank you, for showing me this place.”

[tranquilalchemist-blog]

Mulan chuckled at Aurora's declaration and then started laughing harder when Aurora shocked her. She rubbed the abused hand and shook her head. "Nope! I've got this, I should pay as an advanced apology if you find the food too spicy." She wiggled her eyebrows and started pulling money out of her wallet to show that she wasn't going to back down. 

[magic-awakens-beauty]

Aurora thanked her for holding open the door and breathed in deeply as they entered, inhaling the aroma. Her stomach growled. “It smells great.”

She smiled at the woman, then followed Mulan closer to the counter and looked. When Mulan mentioned spicy, Aurora looked over at her with an eyebrow raised. “You think I can’t handle spicy food?” she asked, the corners of her lips twitching as she fought back a smirk.

She glanced back at the display and eventually decided on the one simply labeled ‘Spicy Chicken.’ 

[tranquilalchemist-blog]

"I uh..." She hadn't really meant it as a challenge, but now that Aurora seemed so determined to prove herself she figured teasing her couldn't hurt. "I just wouldn't want you to hurt yourself." Mulan shrugged dramatically. "If you really want spicy you should try some of the hot sauce at the table with it." 

She grinned and pointed to the General Tso's Chicken, if they were doing spicy she wasn't going to just add hot sauce to a non-spicy dish with Aurora added it to her spicy chicken. She also ordered a Boba tea and pulled out her wallet.

[magic-awakens-beauty]

Aurora shook her head. “No, she was born in Boston, like me. My father was born in France, but came over here when he was young. Her French is better than his.” she shrugged in a “go figure” sort of gesture. She looked up ahead. “Is that the place right over there?” she asked.

[tranquilalchemist-blog]

Mulan laughed softly. "Kind of funny how that turned out." She turned her head in the direction Aurora pointed and a soft "oh" escaped her. "Yeah, that's the one!" She'd been so wrapped up in talking that she'd almost forgotten where they were going. She sped up into a jog and swung open the door. "Like I said this place is great."

She waved to a woman behind the counter who seemed excited to see her and started rambling off in a thick accent. "Yes, it's been a while. I just thought I'd bring my classmate since she'd never had Chinese." 

"Oh, well you like it here." The woman said with confidence.

Mulan gestured for Aurora to come closer and pointed at the glass between them and the food. "So what kind of meat were you thinking? There's chicken, and beef, and that over there is pork." She pointed at some of the dishes. "Some of it is spicy so you have to be careful."

[magic-awakens-beauty]

Aurora nodded. “My mother taught me French and English simultaneously so I grew up bilingual.” she explained. She didn’t mention that had she not been magical, she would probably have been expected to attend an expensive, elite college just to major in French as her mother and grandmother had done. She was grateful for that, because as interesting as languages were to her, she had no interest in spending years to get an essentially useless degree in one. 

[tranquilalchemist-blog]

"Is your mother from France?" It would be pretty interesting if they had living with a family member from another country in common. Although she did appear to be from a wealthy family, and if movies and television had anything to say about the matter, rich people learned French. She doubted that really happened, though.

[magic-awakens-beauty]

“That’s ‘I love you’ in French. ” she explained, not noticing Mulan’s awkwardness. “And to introduce yourself, you’d say ‘Je m’apelle Mulan.’ My name is Mulan.” She’d decided to exchange the exact phrases, or as close as possible.

[tranquilalchemist-blog]

"O-oh." Mulan decided against saying I love you in French and repeated the second phrase, stumbling a little over the pronunciation. "I'll practice that one." She scratched the side of her nose. "Your French sounds really good, are you fluent?" 

[magic-awakens-beauty]

Aurora repeated her carefully, then broke into a huge smile. "I'll trade you, one language for another." She said, looking her in the eyes. "Je t'aime." Her French accent was lovely, and she took pride in it.

[tranquilalchemist-blog]

"H-huh?" Mulan blinked, unable to maintain eye contact during that. If she wasn't mistaken that went 'I love you' in French. A language for a language was one thing, but did she have to pick that to teach her?

[magic-awakens-beauty]

Aurora's cheeks flushed slightly pink. "That makes sense. I think I know how to say it in about 5 languages... well, 6 now. Maybe you could teach me some more, though. I don't imagine that would be a phrase I'd use with more than one person, really, unless I plan to make a lot of strangers uncomfortable. " a tiny smile crossed her cheeks at her own joke.

[tranquilalchemist-blog]

"Ah, sure. Say Wǒ shì Aurora." Mulan enunciated the rising and falling of the vowels carefully. "It means 'I am Aurora.'" She smiled, feeling less embarrassed teaching her something less intimate. "Normally you'd put your family name first. Wǒ shì Fa Mulan." She placed her index and middle finders on her collar bone to indicate she was speaking about herself, mostly unconsciously since Aurora already knew who she was. 

[magic-awakens-beauty]

Aurora liked the sound of the language and repeated the sentence softly. "What does it mean?" She asked, hoping she hadn't just learned her first Mandarin swear word or something. Not that she thought Mulan's grandmother would be teaching her that, but one never knew.

[tranquilalchemist-blog]

"I love you. It, uh, it means I love you." She clarified and tried to discretely fan herself with her shirt. "She said it to me all the time and I wanted to know what it meant." She tried not to think too much about Aurora repeating it softly, like she was trying to memorize it, and failed spectacularly. "It's what made me interested in Mandarin as a child."  

[magic-awakens-beauty]

 Aurora perked up at the mention of Mulan’s grandmother teaching her Mandarin. She had always been fascinated by languages. She was fluent in French and spoke a fair bit of Italian and Spanish as well. “Really? What was the first thing she taught you how to say?” she asked, curious. 

[tranquilalchemist-blog]

Mulan could feel her face heating up at the question, but she tried to look nonchalant. "Um...Wǒ ài nǐ." It really shouldn't be that embarrassing, but saying it to a girl she'd just met was a little odd for her, even if it was just to answer a question. It felt intimate, probably because she only ever spoke Chinese to her family.

[magic-awakens-beauty]

“Thanks.” Aurora said softly. “Tell me about you. You mentioned your grandmother. Is your family all pretty close?” she smoothed a strand of hair back behind her ear, then slid the strap of her bag back up her shoulder when it fell.

[tranquilalchemist-blog]

Mulan smiled. "Yeah, for the most part. There are some cultural differences between me and my grandma, but we get along pretty well anyway." She sped up a little and let her hands fall to her sides. "My grandma came here from China not long after my dad was born. She actually taught me a little Mandarin." She paused. "I've never met my mother's parents, so I don't know much about them, other that they were magic users." 

[magic-awakens-beauty]

Aurora sighed. “It’s not that I dislike them, it’s just…to put it simply, I don’t like being forced into their mold, if that makes any sense.” she glanced up at her, straightening her shoulders, a trace of the “princess” reappearing in her posture. “Sorry, I shouldn’t talk so much…you probably don’t wanna hear about all of this.”

[tranquilalchemist-blog]

Mulan nodded. "It does. Parents don't get to decide who their kids become." She shrugged. "I don't mind. Sometimes you just gotta... spill over." She could tell that the girl's parents had some affect on her, but she didn't want to judge people she'd never met. "But we can talk about something else if you feel uncomfortable."

[magic-awakens-beauty]

“…Less than you might think.” Aurora said. “In fact, this is going to sound really awful, but I haven’t even told my parents I can Apparate, or what Apparition is, or they’d insist I come home every weekend.” she realized she’d just admitted a rather large, personal secret, and instinctively covered her mouth with her hand, much the way a little kid would if they’d blurted something out that they shouldn’t. 

[tranquilalchemist-blog]

Mulan slowed her pace and frowned. She reached out to pat Aurora's shoulder. "Uh, it's okay. Not everyone has a good relationship with their parents." She retracted her hand and wrapped the fingers on her other hand around it. "It's not a bad thing to not want to see them all the time." She tried to smile reassuringly. "You're not awful, don't worry."

[magic-awakens-beauty]

Aurora raised her eyebrows. “You’re pretty far from home here, then.” she mused. “I grew up in Boston, about 4 hours away from here.” she tucked her jacket under the same arm as her bag, thinking briefly about home. She’d never have told her parents this, but she was grateful she’d turned out to be a witch. It had rescued her from being sucked into all the social responsibilities and other nonsense that came with the territory of being the typical Boston heiress. True, she still had a fair bit of that that she was dragged into when she visited, but it still could have been much worse.

[tranquilalchemist-blog]

"Yeah, things are a bit different here, but it's not bad." Mulan shrugged. While she did miss it, Maine had it's own charms. "That must be nice. I guess you visit your folks pretty often." She thought about her own parents, last time she'd been there her dad's leg was acting up, but he insisted on continuing to work. She'd have to write them an owl after her classes today. She'd be sure to mention introducing Aurora to Chinese food. They'd get a lick out of that.

[magic-awakens-beauty]

  “Yes, I’m rather fond of my limbs, I think I prefer them attached.” Aurora remarked. “So where are you from, Mulan?” She asked, curious. She slowed her pace somewhat as she had to move her bag from shoulder to shoulder while she removed her coat. The day was warmer than she’d expected.

[tranquilalchemist-blog]

"So do I." Mulan half-smiled and looked over at Aurora. "I'm from Louisiana. Lafayette, lots of swamps to play in. Ah, that's not really advised though." She slowed down to Aurora's pace as she removed her coat and pushed up her own sleeves, suddenly realizing it was getting toasty. "What about you?"