Sun shines

Xei Pai should have known that commoner clothing is the least impressive MingMing's fleshed for within the next couple of weeks; she almost had a heart attack when the very same man pulled her off the street and into an alley. At first, the struggle she put up causes him his left rib until the painful groan that has a distinction of something MingMing hits her ears and she gasps at her assailant.

Doubled over, MingMing breathes in and out heavily as though performing an arduous labor like pulling a wagon full of goods on his own. Upon closer inspection, she realizes he'd been running when he snatched her off the street like a kidnapper which she initially thought he was; thus the elbowing and consequential feat to inhale.

"Is that," Xei Pai cocks her head to the side to get a final affirmation of her kidnapper and his companion, "a ladle?"

Wedged in his hand that's propped on his knee, the cooking utensil almost matches the colour of his pants, resulting for her to almost miss it altogether if not for its counter parts; a chef hat perched on his head and an apron smudged with orange stains. His dark fringe pokes out from underneath the hat, matted with perspiration on his forehead.

This time, he's disguised as a cook at the royal kitchen and for some reason two guards who were doing their rounds down the hallway enters the place clacking with pots and pans and realized the young man stirring the soup closest to the door is an outsider. Thus, the ladle. If she has scrutinized, she can almost see the vapour wafting around the air from the wooden stick from it being submerged in the pot for stirring.

"Apparently," MingMing tears the apron and hat off and discard them along with the ladle behind a crate of one of the peddlers nearby and peeks into the street, "they don't take too kindly people who aren't certified as the royal cook helper."

"How did you become a guard," impartial of the alarm still rushing through MingMing's veins, she treads forward to join society once again, "and get in trouble with your own troops a fortnight later?"

"Ah," he grins like a man who's won the lottery and maybe he does, that lottery being his impeccable escape mechanism, "I never said I was one ─"

A swarm of guards hurry past them as MingMing pulls her back into the dark. The clacking of sheath against belt is drowned out by a rapid dub-dub-dub right next to her ear, echoing through her bones as her own heart mimics its fastened pace as though she was running a marathon, burning her ears and neck with a sort of warmth that no amount of sitting by the hearth can alight.

She is not sure how many guards are there as it is hard to tell from the commotion but it feels like an eternity until the whole of them pass through. With every shout of order, she begins to stomach the consequences of being found with the kingdom's most wanted and judging from the calls, the crown must want him badly if he was along with the chase; her family, her sister and her newly wedded husband, her servants, they will all have to face the wrath of plotting against the royal family.

"Quickly men!"

"This way!"

"Your highness!"

"Did you check over there?" A ragged voice asks as the footfalls fall out of hearing but she is far from safe as a prominent clink, clink, clink approach the spot where she presses yourself into MingMing subconsciously, wishing for both of them to melt through the wall, "Sir, have you seen a young man pass through here? He looked like a cook?"

The peddler replied with a negative answer only to have the guards move on to the other stall, the one closest to the alleyway. Taking a deep breath, she lifts her head up, meeting MingMing's pleading eyes to not to as he interprets her intention but he crane her neck anyway, peering over the line of sunlight that hits the tip of his shoulder.

Xei Pai barely manage to avoid drawing one of the screaming coat's attention to where she is when she abruptly fall back into MingMing as one of them turns towards them.

"Where could the crown prince have run off to..."

Xei Pai thinks she almost combust with a myriad of emotions coursing in her bloodstreams as the seconds tick by ever so slowly before the footfalls no longer sound like they're a hair's breadth away from her and gradually disappear, their last words holding none of her attention for all the tension lifted off the air has taken Xei Pai to cloud nine.

"They're gone," she breathes in relief before her mind can even register her bodily response and it takes another heartbeat for the fact to sink in and when it does, she can't help peering up at the person who shares her rapid heartbeat; though he is the main reason her heart almost leaped right out of her throat, "MingMing, they left!"

The realization that she'd addressed him without formality barely misses her but the set of pearly whites illuminating the entire passage as he matches her lifted lips and a first string of laughter escapes him, is what reminds her of the mistake. The vibration of his chortle seeps into her, bringing about yet another concern; she close proximity to him. Xei Pai's hands, balled from the nerves, are pressed on his chest as are her arms; the latter being the only wall from having her be chest-to-chest with him. If he hadn't noticed the eyeful of her cleavage that almost seem to pop out of the front of the gown with her back curved into him, he must now as he studies the dawning of her positions on her expression.

As though reading her thoughts, MingMing's eyes sweep down for half a heartbeat before they meet hers again. The arms that have been wrapped around Xei Pai's waist slackens but does not leave as his Adam's apple bobs up and down as he swallows.

And in that moment, she doesn't think she can pass this off as a dream even if she tried convincing herself because MingMing is leaning down and swipe the tip of his tongue over his lips. Xei Pai can feel his breath fanning her skin as he hovers over her mouth, hesitantly, shyly, so very unlike MingMing but then again, it is verily MingMing of him to wait for her.

Xei Pai's fingers tremble as they grasp a handful of the front of his shirt for extra purchase, so that she knows he's here and he wishes for this as much as you do. Her stomach is a mess of flips as tilt her head up and cover her lips with his. MingMing's mouth is softer than what they look, sweeter than the honey flecks in his eyes. They begin to move yet she is a frozen statue, waiting, waiting, waiting for who-knows-what to smack her in the head and tell her what to do next because she is so new to this.

MingMing's hand lands on her for a second before it traces down her elbow, ascend her shoulder and then he is thumbing her jawline, easing her into mirroring the movements of his own lips. Xei Pai is kissing him back and it's all too surreal for only five minutes ago, their lives were hanging on the chances of the guards finding you.

"My lady?" Her maid's voice is heard from somewhere in the streets; in the process of admiring a bracelet from the stalls, she has been whisked away from her by MingMing and with her life on the line, she'd completely forgotten her.

Breaking the kiss, Xei Pai cements her fists on MingMing's chest and receive a soft whine when his chase for her lips is stopped. She have half a mind to kiss him again but another call from her clueless maid, she was stepping out of the shadows, looking over just once at the hand that's holding hers until it lets her slip into the sunshine.