Spending the Night Together

The town which Lee and the God of Strength arrived that evening at looked almost exactly the same as the one that they had come from.

There was one central street that ran through the centre, with a large crossroad at the centre, with two exits to travel down, West and North respectively.

Market stalls - selling all sorts of various wares, ranging from sweets and various regional street food, both medicinal and culinary herbs; metal and clay pots and pans; little fragile metal trinkets for decoration with ivory and jade embedded inside for luck and goodwill; hair pieces with inlaid gold and silver with jewellery studded with precious gems and stones, and to the classic high quality paper and ink stones - lined the streets with various people, the elderly and the young alike, both men and women, manning them.

One older looking stalls, manned by a man and a woman looking almost virtually identical to each other, their wrinkles occupying the same place on both of their faces, both selling steamed buns on stalls next to each other, began furiously arguing, shouting out competing prices against the other, their wares drastically decreasing in price as they continued their little price war.

One small child, Lee supposed him to be the grandson of one of them, stood awkwardly in the middle, waving his arms about and crying for his mother, as he rushed between the two trying to diffuse their argument, ineffectually.

A sharp knock to Lee's ribs knocked him out of the scene, and he turned to face the God of Strength next to him, who bared a grinning face.

Lee turned to look away, scowling slightly, only for another jolt to his now slightly sore ribs to keep his focus on the deity next to him. He felt a hand on his back push him towards the stalls, and into the focus of the bickering salespeople.

Lee tried to turn around to glare at the God of Strength, ready to raise his fist in response for the jab, but was suddenly pulled into one of the stalls.

A tight hand had wrapped around his wrist and Lee looked over to its owner, his teeth gritting and eyes widening as he saw that it was the old woman.

"Oh hello, would you like some steamed pork buns, freshly made, young man. And perhaps a few extra for your travelling companion," she crooned into Lee's ears, pulling him down to her own height, reaching only his chest.

"Hey!" the old man yelled out in indignation," I saw him first, so he's my customer, you old hag!" he decreed, marching out towards them.

"Who are you calling an old hag, you wrinkly sack of bones!? I've got his arm, so he's my customer!" she countered, waving her fist at him, just like how Lee wanted to wave his fist at the God of Strength for pushing him into this situation.

"Wrinkly sack of bones! Have you seen yourself? No wait, you can't, you blind, old fool!"

Lee looked down to the ground for the small child that he had seen before.

"At least I don't have to sit down whenever it rains, you creaky mess of a man!"

That small child could at least give him a sale, even if these two eristic, argumentative morons weren't going to.

"A mess! Your bedroom is a mess! You have mould growing on your ceiling!"

Besides, the rates on these items were going to save him loads of money, and he could push back the day that he would need to begin digging into his rice reserves by a few days.

"At least I don't stick my feet over the fire whenever your daughter cooks at home!"

That boy had to be here, somewhere, maybe he was ducking behind the stalls, trying to blot out the noise of his guardians fighting.

"Well at least I didn't scare your nephew in law into leaving the house out of the back window, on the first day after his wedding, by raging like an angry bull on the front lawn!"

Ah, there he was. He was hiding behind his grandfather's stall, nibbling on one of his wares, while waiting out the conflict above his head.

"At least I don't look like an angry stalk whenever I have temper tantrums when the food is too salty!"

Lee hissed towards the boy to get his attention, letting a smile break out on his face when he looked up and noticed Lee.

"You get mad over stupider things! You tried to skin the butcher alive for charging you a delivery fee to move your fat cow to the shack you call a house!"

Lee crouched down to the best of his ability, considering the vice wrapped around his wrist, and whispered to the little boy about packing him up ten steamed buns to travel.

"We live together you crazy woman!"

The small boy nodded a few times before scuttling off to get the order ready for Lee.

"Yeah, because somebody has to take care of you, you idiot!"

Lee reach out upwards, twisting his arm into his travel pack, peeling his copper pouch away from the rest of his belongings, finally learning the proper etiquette of travel packs, his money source too high for small children to steal, and placed to his back, so he would know if ever his money went missing.

"Take care of me! Who takes the spiders out of the house whenever there's one in!"

The little boy came back with the steamed buns and Lee paid for them gladly, a smile on his face as he did so, collecting them all up in his arms, as they were being ferried to him by small hands, one by one.

"Yeah! 'Cause we need to all earn our keep! You think your daughter can work in her state. She's going to give birth any day now! Again!"

When the little boy was done, Lee smiled down at him, thanking him, before standing up to his full height.

The old woman, who had grabbed his wrist, startled slightly, until she saw the armful of buns that Lee was carrying.

"Thank you for your service," Lee told her, before stepping backwards, awkwardly, shuffling away to the God of Strength, a little further up the road.

...

So there really could be arguments in jest.