You'll Thank Me One Day [Yao+Jin]

There were many trees surrounding the banks of Lake Eerie, and a very large oak was Jin’s favourite place to practice his climbing. Small claws dug into the aging wood as the boy pulled himself up little by little, using the faint sound of chirping to help guide him through the mess of leaves. He glanced down to make sure his pearl was still resting safely against the tree’s trunk before climbing onto the next branch, struggling a bit to find a good grip. Finally, he could see the woven nest above, as well as a pudgy bird fluttering about worriedly. Jin thought it best to keep just out of sight, so as not to startle the poor thing any further. The young dragon had no intention of bringing the bird or the eggs home for dinner; he just wanted to see them hatch.

Meanwhile, Jin's elder brother, Yao, was seated in their mansion, sewing a new outfit for Jin. Jin was a growing boy, and already, he needed new clothes! It didn't help that Jin was also a very rambunctious boy, and he tended to disregard his clothes, even when Yao would give him play clothes.

In fact, speaking of play clothes, Yao looked up out the window and saw that Jin wasn't wearing his. He sighed and stood up, ready to chastise Jin for wearing his good clothes outside. That, and it was also time for Jin to start working on his homework, followed by his culture lessons. Today, they were going to be working on reciting poetry and playing the erhu.

Yao stretched before walking out the door. "Jin!" he shouted. "Come inside! It's time for you to do your homework!"

Jin had been staring at the unmoving eggs for five whole minutes before he heard his brother’s call. He looked towards the mansion, frowning at his sibling’s annoying timing – it was always ‘time for homework’ when he was outside playing. As he moved to climb down, Jin’s foot slipped off the nearest branch, causing him to tumble a few feet before he managed to cling onto the trunk, using his claws to improve his grip.

...This situation seemed oddly familiar...oh well.

He released his hold on the tree and fell the last few feet, sticking his landing for about two seconds before falling backwards onto a soft patch of grass. Jin could practically hear the bird mocking him above.

“Gege, I’ve already finished all my homework,” he protested, shaking a few leaves from his hair. “And if you mean that dumb culture stuff, can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

"No, it can't," Yao said, wincing as Jin fell. "Because when tomorrow becomes today, you'll want to push it off until the next day. Tomorrow is a day that never comes. So come on, time to work on your culture work." He waved a clawed hand for Jin to follow him. "Afterward, we can go get some ice cream or candy. But first, I need you to change into some other clothes." Yao pointed to the dirt spots on Jin's clothes. "You know it takes me a long time to clean those stains out, and I even made some clothes for you to play in!"

The younger dragon gave an audible sigh before standing up. If it weren’t for the promise of ice cream afterwards, Jin would’ve made Yao carry him all the way back to the mansion, if he wanted him to practice so badly.

“Those other clothes you made are super itchy though,” Jin said, following his brother back into the house. “I think you need to wash them more or something.”

He slipped off his shoes as soon as they entered the foyer, undoing the clasps of his duangua as he walked up the stairs as slowly as he could without rousing Yao’s suspicion. He honestly couldn’t understand why the other was so hell bent on making him learn such trivial things; no one was going to stop him on the street and ask him to recite Owl from the Odes of Bin.

...And it was all so boring.

"They can't be that itchy," Yao said, "And I have washed them. Several times. And you still won't wear them. At this point, you're just making excuses. What, do you think they're ugly?" Alright, so maybe that question was unfair, but at the same time, he was tired of taking stains out of nice clothes, and what other reason would Jin have for not wearing them?

Yao returned to where Jin would be practicing, and sat down in order to wait for him. If Jin weren't down here in 5 minutes, Yao would get up and go look for him. He knew that Jin was forever trying to get out of his culture lessons, and while he understood that it must be boring for a little child, he knew that Jin should be well-versed in the great culture of their kind. After all, they'd never actually seen another dragon, and Yao certainly didn't want to meet said dragon and act like a complete buffoon around them. What if, in turn, the other dragons rejected them? No, if they ever met another dragon, Yao was going to make certain that Jin knew how to act properly so that they might be able to be accepted by their own kind.

Jin knew his brother was waiting for him downstairs, probably tapping a hole into the new marble countertops those weird ogre things had just installed a few weeks ago. Still, he took his time in choosing his new clothes, carefully folding the dirtied ones into a neat, symmetrical square and placing them outside his brother’s bedroom door.

He stared at his hands for a moment before realising that they were empty. Jin thought back to where he had last seen his pearl, clearly remembering setting it by the oak he was climbing. A small ray of hope cut through his immediate panic – there was no way his brother could stop him from going outside now, right? With a small smirk, he ran down the stairs.

“Left my pearl by the tree, gonna go get it before someone else finds it and throws the world into never ending chaos, ‘kay bye!”

Lessons successfully delayed.

Yao stared as Jin walked outside. He was going to call for Jin to get back inside, but as soon as Jin mentioned his pearl, he sighed. Jin needed to get his pearl back, if he didn't have it. Yao stood up and scrambled to a window to look outside and see if the pearl was in fact out there. Sure enough, Yao could see it glinting from below a tree.

He groaned and put his hands in his face. Why did Jin do this? He used to be such a nice, respectful boy.

When he was 87 years old.

Yao loved Jin with all his heart, but sometimes, Jin made him understand why humans drank a substance that altered their perceptions of the world.

Jin’s mood was instantly lifted as he felt the cool wind brush against his skin – it was almost as refreshing as an afternoon swim. As the young dragon neared the oak, he thought for a bit, knowing that Yao would be upset with him for getting more of his nice clothes dirty. Instead of trudging across the grass like he would normally do, Jin walked through it carefully, almost like a cat that was afraid of getting its paws soiled with mud. After retrieving his pearl and dusting away any dry leaves, he went back to the mansion, clutching the orb against his chest.

“Okay, I’m ready!” he called out, making sure to lock the door behind him. “Sorry for leaving my pearl outside gege; it's a good thing I got it back before anyone else got to it, huh?”

"Yes, it's a very good thing," Yao said. "You wouldn't want anyone getting to it."

He pointed to where Jin should stand in order to start his recitations. Today, Jin would be reciting a lovely poem, so Yao was very excited to hear how Jin had been working on it. ... Hopefully, he had been working on it. While Jin was reciting, Yao would be working on Jin's clothes again. He had better not say that these were itchy; Yao made certain that he chose the softest material to make this new outfit. Really, it was going to be quite beautiful once it was complete, and he hoped that Jin would like it.

Jin walked over to the spot his brother had pointed to, tucking his pearl into his sleeves (with much difficultly) before placing his hands behind his back, like Yao had instructed. He hated doing this...so much. It was so pointless.

“Orchid and Orange II, by Zhang Jiuling,” he began, his eyes flitting around the room in an attempt to make his presentation less boring than he already knew it was going to be.

“Here, south of the Yangtze, grows a red orange tree.
All winter long its leaves are green,
Not because of a warmer soil,
But because its nature is used to the cold.
Though it might serve your honourable guests,
You leave it here, far below mountain and river.
Circumstance governs destiny.
Cause and effect are an infinite cycle.
You plant your peach trees and your plums,
You forget the shade from this other tree.”

Jin rocked back and forth as he recited the poem, halting on some of the more complicated lines. He didn’t really know what the poem was supposed to mean, but at least he managed to memorise it, which was the only thing Yao seemed to be concerned with. Jin glanced at the clock and sighed a bit before waiting for his brother's critique.

Yao smiled and nodded as Jin recited. For the most part, he actually recited the poem beautifully, though he got tripped up in a few places. Once Jin was finished, Yao began his critique. "That was lovely Jin, thank you," he said, "Though, try reciting lines 3 and 7 again. You stumbled on them a little. Other than that, you did a magnificent job."

Alright, so "magnificent" wasn't really the word for it, but Yao was desperate to motivate Jin into doing his work, and maybe if Jin thought that he was actually great at it, he'd be more motivated.

Jin recited the specified lines again, only sounding more bored than when he’d originally said them...but, at least he didn’t stumble this time. He looked at the clock again, almost longingly, before turning to Yao for further instruction.

"Thank you, Jin," Yao said, and moved the outfit around in his lap so that he could sew a new part of it. "Well, you've done well enough that I think we can go ahead and move to practicing the erhu. One hour, and after that hour is complete, we can go out and get ice cream, alright? But not before that one hour is complete."

Yao knew he was far too nice to Jin, sometimes. He remembered when he was a kid having to practice for a lot longer than a mere hour, and they certainly wouldn't have taken him to get ice cream later. But at the same time, he knew that he didn't have the same authority that his own parents had, and knew that he just wasn't going to be able to get Jin to do the same stuff.

Jin silently cursed his affection for ice cream (especially the yummy arsenic flavoured kind they had in town) and placed his pearl safely underneath his chair before going to find his erhu. He rolled underneath the couch and dragged the stringed instrument out, feeling around for its bow. After pulling out the sheet music from the bookshelf, he scampered back into the kitchen and flopped onto a large red cushion.

To be honest, he preferred this to the poems; at least the music sounded somewhat pleasing, given he didn’t hit a note hard enough to shatter everyone’s eardrums. Jin wiggled around on his seat before flipping open the sheet music and paging through. He needed something long enough to fill most of the hour...maybe only play through it once or twice...

Finally stopping on a piece entitled ‘The Dream of Autumn’ (aiyaa, why did all of these have to sound so laaame), Jin began to play, glancing at the clock every so often.

To be honest, this was Yao's favorite part, too. It was always nice to have some pretty music to listen to while working on Jin's clothes, and live music certainly beat that music on those newfangled see-dee players... which, as far as Yao was concerned, was just a fancy name for records. Really, he couldn't tell the difference.

Aaah, "The Dream of Autumn." Not his favorite piece, but a lovely one nonetheless. He smiled as Jin started the song, and his sewing almost took up the rhythm of the music.

Jin neared the midway point of the piece and began playing slower, acting as if he were struggling with the more complex notes; he wanted to stretch it out as long as possible, so he would only have to repeat it once more before the hour was over. He still managed to make it sound pretty...kind of like how a classical song still sounded nice, even when played at a snail’s pace.

As Yao was sewing, he could hear that Jin was having difficulty with some of the more complex parts of the song. "Remember, Jin," he said, "the tempo of this song is much faster than that." He put down his needle and began to clap out the tempo of the song so that Jin could keep up with it. In fact, the tempo was much faster than Jin had been playing even from the beginning of the song. Not that Jin hadn't played the music well, but he certainly hadn't played it at the correct tempo.

Unfortunately for Jin, he had picked a song that Yao knew by heart.

“Oh gege,” Jin whined, pausing for a moment while he tapped a claw against the instrument, matching Yao’s beat. “What does it matter? No one else is listening...”

He sighed and began to play the song at the correct tempo, actually messing up a few notes this time. So much for ducking out of practice.

"I'm listening," Yao said. "What, you don't think I'm worth it?" There was a joking tone to his speech, but at the same time, something about his raised voice as he spoke made his statement sound a little less than a joke. "Also, you never know for whom you're going to be playing it. What if you meet a nice girl dragon, and you have to woo her with your extensive knowledge of music? ... you're not allowed to date until your 1000, by the way."

The young dragon grumbled under his breath as he continued to play. His brother always tended to take ridiculous offense to almost anything he said, as if it were a personal attack. Finally, he finished the song and checked the clock – twenty minutes left. Jin paged through the song book and chose another lengthy song – ‘Dance to the Moon’

“Girl dragons have rabies,” Jin said with a dull look, sticking his tongue out for emphasis. “And if all she wants is to listen pretty music from the 400s, she can just get a radio or something.”

He flopped back onto the cushion and began the second song, his irritation evident in the harsh notes.

Jin's irritation did not go unnoticed by Yao, who sighed and tolerated the song. "Jin, don't say that about girls," he said. "For one thing, it's cooties, not rabies. Dogs have rabies. Girls have cooties. And you never know. They may actually be nice."

If it wasn't painfully obvious, Yao had never been around a female dragon apart from his elderly mother, and had barely been around a female of another species.

At some point, Jin hit a note very harshly. "Aiyaaa!" Yao said as he pricked himself with his needle. Blood began to trickle from his finger. Aah, he pricked the finger tended to bleed the most! Of course, while he was sewing! He put his finger in his mouth so that he could avoid dripping blood on Jin's new clothes.

“Cooties?” Jin blinked. “That sounds even worse than rabies. Bleh, no way; all girls are icky.”

The boy sighed for the umpteenth time that day and focused on the piece, glancing up when he heard his brother’s pained exclamation. Jin winced a bit and muttered a sheepish ‘sorry’ before returning to his music, wanting to get the stupid song over with as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, he finished a bit too soon. Jin had two more minutes of practice to go, and he knew Yao was never going to get away with packing up before the hour was over. He moved to page through the song book once more before pausing, looking at the clock again before an idea struck. Sitting back slowly, Jin positioned the bow and began playing the same two notes over and over, a satisfied smirk crossing his lips. He looked to his brother, smiling as sweetly as he could while he continued to ‘practice’.

At this point, Jin had only 30 seconds left on the clock, and Yao knew that Jin wasn't playing an actual song. However, with only 30 seconds left, how much did Yao actually care? Frankly, after fighting with him all this afternoon, Yao was losing the ability to care. He felt like such a bad parent, but at the same time, he hated arguing with his didi, the only person about whom he cared.

Thus, he waited until the 30 seconds were up, and once they were, Yao nodded to Jin, signaling that his practice was over.

Jin let out a groan and set the instrument down before flopping backwards, rolling his pearl into his hands. The hour felt like...two hours. It was horrid! But he had lasted through it...and he was stronger for it. ...Or something like that. Whatever, the only thing in his immediate future was ice cream.

He stayed on the cool tile for a few minutes, hugging the orb tightly before sitting up, blowing his bangs from his eyes. Jin got to his feet and placed the erhu back into its case, sliding the music into the bookshelf before re-entering the dining room.

"How was I?" he asked, walking to his older brother and taking a seat next to him. "Was I better than yesterday?"