Chapter Text
Jia Baoyu’s grandmother has been absent lately.
It hadn’t been instant. But their usual daily visits to the Elders have all but stopped now, as have their breakfasts together. Jia Baoyu isn’t sure why.
What he is certain of is that he probably doesn’t want to know. All that matters is that their visits to the secret labs had also slowed, then stopped, leaving Jia Baoyu’s schedule mostly free once more.
Maybe all the test subjects died, and that’s why she had to stop. Jia Baoyu thinks. The thought makes him feel awful, but… it would be better for them all. At least then they’d stop screaming. They’re in a less troubled world now, one presumably free of conniving grandmothers and bloody cells, and Jia Baoyu hopes that they are able to find tranquility wherever they are.
A nudge to his shoulder startles Jia Baoyu out of his thoughts. He glances left, then down, shoulders already loosening from what he knows he’ll see.
“Xichun.” Jia Baoyu greets. His little sister grins up at him, stained with mud and soil, and he reaches up to wipe at her grimy cheek with the edge of his sleeve. The layer of dirt proves persistent, but he is able to cut through it a bit at the cost of his white sleeve staining brown.
“Gege!” Xichun giggles. She bounces from foot to foot, squirming beneath his careful ministrations. “I brought you something!”
“…Really?” He blinks slowly at her.
“Uhuh! It’s a gift- I found it myself!” She bats at his hand with balled up fists, straightening with an air of great solemnity. He recognizes that stance, the words she begins to say.
( She’s imitating the others, Jia Baoyu thinks with a pang of sadness.)
“This is a gift from the house of Jia, to the bel- belo-“
“Beloved.”
Xichun pouts in frustration. She smacks him with a grubby fist, and Baoyu privately kisses this set of silk robes goodbye. He doubts anyone will be able to get the dirt out of them.
“Sorry. I won’t interrupt again.” He placates, and Xichun subsides, continuing.
“-to the beloved, precious Jade of the family!” Xichun nods. “We hope that it’s to your liking, and that the relations between our houses will continue to blossom eternal!”
Xichun grins up at him, pleased as punch that she’d gotten the entire thing right.
Jia Baoyu doesn’t have the heart to remind her that they are from the same house, and that she had memorized the wrong speech.
“That’s great Xichun-“ He starts, before pausing at the way her eyes narrow at him. He changes tracks. “I mean- I see. The house of Jia will remember this gift, and the generosity expressed by Lady Xichun. We thank you for your time and effort.”
Xichun beams, mollified. “Yes, yes!!” She thrusts her little fists forward. Her eyes glitter with delight. “Now you can get your gift!”
Bemused, Jia Baoyu offers his own hands, letting her shove something into them. He glances down.
It’s a fistful of worms.
“Ah- thank you Xichun.” Jia Baoyu manages to smile. One of the worms attempts to make a run for it, but he squeezes his hands as gently as he’s able so it stays put.
“I got you worms!”
“I see that.”
“I dug all day for them!”
“You did?” Jia Baoyu makes a note to check in with his little sister’s nanny, who is meant to shadow her at all times. He’s touched and all, but he remembers it raining this morning, and if Xichun were to get sick…
Ah, but she’s still waiting for a response. “Thank you Xichun. I’ll treasure them.”
Xichun giggles. The sound is so bright and clear that Jia Baoyu can’t help but feel dirty, in more ways than one. He may be the precious jade of the family, but his sister has always been the real flower between the two of them, and he wants desperately to see her bloom.
(A rock may maintain its appearance given attention, but it’s only living things that can grow, can thrive.)
“Happy birthday Gege!” Xichun smiles as she says it, the gap between her teeth on full display. “I wanted to get you something before anyone else!”
Oh. So that’s why she’d gone through all this effort. He’d forgotten.
Jia Baoyu returns her smile with one of his own, feeling his cheeks dimple and his eyes shut from the force of it. On a whim, he draws her into a hug.
“Happy birthday Xichun.” He whispers to her softly, knowing that later, she will be blowing out candles; will be eating cake and fish and rice; will be on his lap, fingers sticky around her pork bun, and Jia Baoyu will not regret for even a moment giving her his seat at the table.
This is the only part of this year that will be worth celebrating, in his eyes.
(He is wrong, but Jia Baoyu doesn’t know that yet. Doesn’t know that somewhere in the distance, his grandmother is making decisions that will alter the course of his destiny, the flow of the river of time- that soon, Jia Baoyu will be able to make a choice for the very first time- something that he and only he can do, the precious Jade of the family.)
(But that will be much later, somewhere with the fetid smell of blood and danger around every corner, in a way that will remind him very much of home.)