Archive of Our Own ^beta

Tomas was talking about something animatedly, and Kuai Liang felt relaxed and content. It did happen sometimes, on relatively carefree days like this one. Sometimes he barely registered the words themselves, simply losing himself in the pleasant sound and timbre of the other man’s voice, not because he didn’t care what Smoke had to say, but because him talking like that created a sense of cosiness and comfort that Kuai Liang couldn’t help basking in (something he couldn’t help comparing to a frosty, calm and sunny morning when the snow was brightly illuminated and made a person squint). If Tomas was speaking his native language that he now remembered, Sub-Zero would’ve had the exact same reaction, even if he barely understood a word. He simply found himself brimming with affection when they had moments like this.

Everything suddenly went quiet.

“You aren’t even listening, are you?” Smoke chuckled after being struck with the realisation. He was facing the mirror and paused getting himself ready for the day. That got Sub-Zero’s attention. He got up, approached him from behind and wrapped his arms around him, pressing his face against the side of the other man’s head.

“I am listening,” he murmured, so content he closed his eyes. “In a way,” he then admitted and kissed said head affectionately.

It had been more than a year since their reunion.

During their first nights together after Tomas’ unexpected return, they both had woken up now and then, as if having a subconscious need to make sure that the other was there and they were, indeed, together again. He often rubbed the naked body pressed against his own soothingly to reassure his lover (and himself), and they were back asleep in no time. And if he was the one needing a reassurance, his partner had never hesitated to provide it. Eventually, it had stopped and they slept soundly together in their marital bed, because the two had actually gotten married several months after the reunion, which was something only a handful of people knew.

Kuai Liang wasn’t sure why they even needed to take that step at all. It hadn’t really brought anything new to their relationship, as they’d already had a very close bond, so becoming spouses to each other seemed… unnecessary, especially given the fact that, as far as he knew, many people’s marriages were failures that turned bitter and sometimes ended up in divorce, so the romantic aspect of it was often an illusory and quite idealised concept, all things considered. And yet, they’d still done it. He couldn’t tell that it had made the two of them closer than before, but, deep inside, he still liked the idea of the two of them taking this extra step to, supposedly, secure their bond.

It didn’t make any difference when it came to the fact that he couldn’t get enough of Tomas, as if he was trying to make up for more than two decades of the two of them being separated. Smoke sometimes teased him affectionately about his libido:

“Again?! Shouldn’t old men like you, um… I don’t know, slow down a little?”

“Or, perhaps, you’re the one who should try harder to keep up with this ‘old man’?” Kuai Liang joked back.

In truth, it was quite mutual; Smoke was enjoying the attention and couldn’t, in turn, keep his hands off Sub-Zero. The clan was blissfully unaware that their leader and his now second in command had used nearly every opportunity to become intimate for, at least, the first couple of months after reuniting. Eventually, they had calmed down, but only a little and only because it had, finally, caught up with them that, yes, they were both alive and together again, and while they, by no means, took it for granted, they no longer felt as if it could all be taken away from them at any given moment, or turned out to be some sort of devastating illusion.

They were stronger and more secure than ever; they had all known bases covered when it came to the Lin Kuei, too, because, while the work was never done when you ran something as big as that, the clan was powerful and influential, thanks to Kuai Liang’s hard work and meticulous planning. And now, with Tomas being such a considerable support for him, Grandmaster was even more pleased with the results. All of the hard work was paying off. There were many people eagerly and enthusiastically serving the Lin Kuei now.

Only a few of them knew who Smoke was before he had returned to the clan. Those people had escaped the Cyber Initiative and were lucky and skilful enough not to get caught, getting lost in the outside world, or not considered important enough to be hunted down; not the former leader’s highest priority anyway. After deciding to reform the Lin Kuei, Kuai Liang had tracked them down and offered them to come back. Curiously enough, all except for one had agreed (that one had a family and no wish to leave his wife, children and grandson), because they had, for the most part, failed to find their place in the normal world, and the clan’s hold over them was strong; they had been raised by it, and being free was something that they had never really gotten used to. It came as no surprise that, while many of the Lin Kuei were quite good at blending with regular people outside the clan, even for a lengthy period of time, if necessary, as they’d been specifically taught to do during their missions to avoid attracting any attention to themselves, actually leading a normal life was not something the majority of them would be able to accomplish.

Despite that, they had been very hesitant to trust Kuai Liang at first after what had happened to the clan that they’d had no choice but flee. But, eventually, he had managed to earn that trust, so most of those people were high-ranking clan members now, and their loyalty to him was indisputable.

They had been quite surprised to see Smoke back, especially with him looking so young after so many years. It was odd and unexpected. But they weren’t surprised when he had, almost immediately, been made Grandmaster’s second in command. They remembered Tundra and Smoke being joined at the hip since very young age and how well the two complemented each other as partners. Nobody dared to question anything about their personal relationship, but it wasn’t exactly a secret to those original clan members that the two now shared Grandmaster’s quarters.  

After Smoke’s return there was a quiet, but fairly innocent, gossip among the younger, more curious and impressionable people of the clan that Grandmaster had left the palace on his own, whenever an opportunity presented itself, but not to clear his head and think in quiet solitude, but to have secret romantic dates with this younger man, whom he had, finally, brought back with him one day. It wasn’t exactly a widespread rumour that everyone believed (most people didn't even think the two were romantically involved), and things had, eventually, quietened down, as everyone was, pretty much, used to Tomas’ presence. Smoke had actually found the gossip amusing, taking it in good humour and using it to tease Kuai Liang afterwards (“Is that true? You seduce and sweep younger men off their feet to bring them into your clan?”).

For once, Tomas was happy. He had no idea what he would’ve done if Kuai Liang hadn’t accepted him back into his arms after so many years apart. Seeing him as an older, very mature and completely self-reliant man who had a very clear purpose in life now, and, quite possibly, no longer needing Smoke, not even as someone to fight alongside him, had made the younger (now much younger, both physically and in terms of life experience) man very hesitant to approach him, not to mention very anxious. What if he no longer meant anything to the man he loved so much? Time healed and people moved on. What if coming back to him would just complicate said man’s life? What if they could no longer have anything they’d used to have? Their closeness and love had still been fresh and strong for Tomas when Delia had brought him back to life, whereas for Kuai Liang many years of living without him had passed. Smoke would’ve had nowhere else to go, he wouldn’t have wanted to go anywhere at all anymore, nothing to look forward to, had he not been accepted back. He couldn’t even imagine… He didn’t want to imagine anything as distressing as that, because it was a dark place that he didn’t want to visit; their love had survived death, after all, and, just like being alive again, Smoke didn’t take it for granted.

As Kuai Liang left their quarters, Tomas was almost ready for the day of work as well, now fully dressed in front of a full-length mirror in their bed chamber. He was starting to notice that it was a little harder for him now to keep his hair in order, as much as it could be applied to the hair that constantly moved, because it was too long and in need of a haircut for a while now. But it was a pattern that went throughout his entire life: when he was, more or less, comfortable and in good spirits, he subconsciously let his hair grow way past his shoulders. When he had just been brought to the Lin Kuei as a boy, he had no hair at all and no idea if he was even supposed to have it. But then, he had much more serious things to be concerned about at the time: his lasting confusion, his inability to communicate with others and understand them (mostly because he hadn’t known their language, but also because he had been so wary of everyone) and a complete lack of memories of who he was and what had happened to him. But, as he had started to adapt, found a friendly support in the otherwise harsh conditions of the clan, he, at first, had some soft, light-grey, downy hair starting to grow on his head that felt strange and slightly ticklish against his scalp, before it slowly turned into a thick, constantly moving shock of hair, unlike anybody else’s.

In addition to his unusual abilities, it was something that had cemented other people’s suspicions that he had some relation to certain creatures from hell. One of the speculations was that he had been conceived by one of them with an Earthrealm’s woman or man (was that even possible?), making Smoke only half-human. He had happily “humoured” those who liked to discuss it by surrounding himself with a visible cloud of smoke, making a “scary” voice and promising to drag them all to the Netherrealm if they didn’t stop annoying him with their gossip. Looked like his acting skills and performance were good enough to result in older people shaking their heads and leaving, some of them looking uneasy, while others had probably seen exactly what he was doing, and younger people fleeing in fear. Even more importantly, it had resulted in Kuai Liang almost splitting his sides laughing, which was a very rare occasion for such a composed person, as young as he had been back then.

Kuai Liang had always accepted him, not at all caring what he was. Apart from his friend’s personality, he did like Tomas’ abilities and Tomas’ hair. Eventually, Smoke had intentionally started to use the latter to make the other teen’s eyes linger on him, because he really wanted that new, at the time, kind of attention from him, despite being unsure what it even was at first. Tundra had made Smoke feel better about himself by telling him that he believed that Tomas had simply been born with his power, just like Bi-Han and Kuai himself had always possessed theirs. And, while Tomas knew now that it wasn’t the case, he still appreciated the acceptance his partner had always displayed towards him. Most people would want nothing to do with anything demonic.

He decided to save the fond memories for later, leaving his hair be as a lost cause, because there was a lot of work for him to do today, and he’d rather not spend more time on boring things than strictly necessary.

Kuai Liang had a meeting with one of the clan’s spies who was supposed to come back with some important information; good news, hopefully. Smoke was often present during such meetings, or any other type of meetings for that matter, and Sub-Zero often asked for his input. But today the younger man decided to busy himself with some paperwork instead, because the more workload he took off his Grandmaster’s shoulders, the more free time said Grandmaster had to lavish Tomas with attention later.

Apart from the aforementioned spy, they didn’t expect any visitors today, but not long after Tomas had started the monotonous task of sorting the paperwork out, an assistant knocked on the door and informed him that there was another visitor waiting, and he required an audience with Grandmaster as soon as possible. Smoke decided to deal with it himself, since Kuai Liang was busy and would be for a while, so he told the assistant to let the visitor into the study.

It turned out to be one of their recruiters, also known as trackers and seekers in the past. People like him constantly searched for suitable recruits for the clan. They also tracked down specific people the Lin Kuei were interested in finding for one reason or another. This one was one of their oldest and most experienced ones.

“Grandmaster is busy, but whatever business you have, I can make sure he learns about it when he’s available,” Tomas told him once they greeted each other. But, as soon as he took a good look at the man, it was starting to become very clear to him what the business was when he saw some sort of sling tied to the man’s front and a very small hand sticking out of it and loosely holding the fabric of the sling in said hand. There was an infant in it, Smoke realised, his eyes widening.

“My business is not urgent, but he needs to know about it as soon as possible,” the recruiter replied.

“Why is this infant here?” Tomas demanded.

“She’s a cryomancer,” the man explained, unperturbed. Because that was a good excuse? Smoke started to get angry. They no longer abducted children, and this man was well-aware that it was no longer allowed. Had he broken the direct orders his Grandmaster had given everyone who did this particular job for the Lin Kuei?

They did have children in the clan, true, quite a few, actually, but those were all orphans or abandoned children that nobody wanted, and all of them showed some serious promise, which is why the Lin Kuei had taken them in to begin with, and continued to do so. Naturally, that meant that none of them were even remotely as young as this little girl. To many of them, as Tomas, had learned, the life in the clan was a big improvement, comparing to what they’d had before, despite the strict discipline. Regardless, the clan was neither a charity, nor did they practise snatching children away from their families anymore.

As if anticipating the accusations, the man started to calmly explain the situation, before Tomas had a chance to put his disapproval into words.  

Upon becoming Grandmaster, Kuai Liang had studied all the documents he had discovered, and, among many other things about the clan and its people, he learned that several bloodlines, including his own, had been closely monitored for centuries, all newborns secretly examined, because they were all the descendants of the original cryomancers. And, while the gene lay dormant in the vast majority of them, Bi-Han and Kuai Liang were an oddity to both be born with their powers, one after another. It was practically unheard of for the powers of their ancestors to manifest themselves in such a short period of time.

That was why they had been abducted.

Kuai Liang had absolutely no memories of his family, because he had been only a few months old back then. Tomas had always known that Tundra strongly suspected that Bi-Han, being older, had had memories of their life before the clan, had answers whether they’d had parents and a home, but refused to utter a single word about it, even getting angry once when his younger brother had tried to insist.

So, not long ago, Grandmaster had decided to investigate it. Turned out, his parents were both still alive and had a more-or-less comfortable life, supporting each other in their golden years. The mother, unlike the father, was still full of health, despite the old age; she was, likely, the one who had passed that gene down to her sons. Years after the abduction, they’d had another son, whom they dotted on and were anxiously protective of, terrified that they would lose him like their other sons. They had found comfort in their youngest, even though the trauma of losing their other boys had been haunting them throughout their lives and scarred the entire family. But, since that third son hadn’t inherited the cryomancy, he was of no interest to the Lin Kuei at the time.

Tomas knew all about it, and was determined to support Kuai Liang if he decided to reconnect with his family, even just to see them once; even just to tell them that he was alive and well. Because… why not? Sub-Zero, however, had decided against it in the end. He believed they had moved on and there was no reason to bother them now, after so many years. He also believed that it would’ve been like opening a tin of worms, and there wasn’t much point in starting anything, since he couldn’t exactly tell them the truth anyway (about the clan, about himself, let alone Bi-Han, and about anything that had happened to the two of them after the abduction), and he didn’t want to meet his family in person, only to tell them a lie after a lie. Tomas didn’t insist, knowing that it was for Sub-Zero alone to decide. He understood the reasoning behind the decision.

That should’ve been the end of it, because Grandmaster didn’t want to spend any more of the clan’s resources and time on such a personal matter, but the man currently explaining the situation to Tomas had continued his investigation, unbeknown to Kuai Liang, because while he had been investigating that particular family, some things had drawn the attention of the professional eye of the seeker and encouraged him to dig further.

Bi-Han and Kuai Liang’s youngest brother, as it turned out, had a daughter. In the university the young woman had had a secret romance with a student from Sweden. The couple had broken up and the young man was back to his native country, but, later, she learned she was pregnant. Afraid of her parents’ reaction, she’d given birth, still away from home, and, immediately, given the newborn baby up, wanting nothing to do with her daughter. As a tracker who had been active in the days of the Lin Kuei before the Cyber insanity had started, the man knew the unusual signs to look for, taking the family’s history into consideration, so it hadn't taken long for him to come to the conclusion that the little girl was a cryomancer. It was just as unusual as both Bi-Han and Kuai Liang inheriting it in such a short period of time, because having one cryomancer born within the same bloodline in one century was lucky enough, and this particular bloodline had now produced three.

The infant hadn’t yet been adopted by anyone and, while, yes, she had been, essentially, abducted, it wasn’t from the arms of loving parents.

The small hand moved slightly, but the girl seemed asleep, mostly hidden from Tomas’ view. Upon hearing the story, he went from just feeling bad about an unfortunate child who had nobody, like most people would feel, to being immediately interested and protective of her, because he felt like that about anything and everything in any way connected to Kuai Liang. And this child was his blood relative! It didn’t matter whether she was a cryomancer or not.

Smoke told the man to leave her, gave him some money and told him to go to the nearest town and buy everything necessary for a child of this age, whatever it was that she needed, because, frankly, he had no idea. The tired, old man wasn’t particularly happy that he was assigned for such a task, but he bowed respectfully and quietly left after untying the sling from his body and carefully putting the loosely swaddled infant onto the desk. Smoke had to admit he revelled in the man’s displeasure a little, because he knew that said man had participated in the abduction of children to bring them to the original clan, children just like Kuai Liang and himself.

Tomas took a brief look into the girl’s papers that the recruiter had also brought with him. Her name was Dongmei. Thankfully, she was still asleep, because he wouldn’t know what to do with her if she wasn’t. He was afraid to even touch her. So, he let her stay on the desk and returned to the paperwork, even though his eyes often wandered towards her sleeping form. He hoped she wasn't going to be scared of him when she woke up.

The recruiter came back several hours later with his younger apprentice who was helping him to carry the things, supposedly required for a little child, including a book on how to take care of an infant, which Tomas had also told him to buy. Dongmei was starting to stir, probably from some noise and movement in the chamber when Smoke was examining the supplies. They would probably need more things for the girl, but, hopefully, these things would be enough for now. He couldn’t make sense of some of them and what they were for, but he hoped the book would help.

Before leaving with his apprentice, the recruiter warned Tomas that the infant was likely going to be hungry once she woke up, and Grandmaster’s second didn’t have a chance to ask how to feed her before the door was hastily closed from the other side. He sighed and decided to open that book now, before he did something wrong.

As he was quickly looking through the pages of text and pictures for general information, determined to give them more attention later, to his surprise, the girl sat up with some effort, trying to untangle herself from the blanket. She was, likely, too hot in that blanket, not to mention the clothes she was wearing underneath; it was a one-piece garment, light-cyan in colour with white dots all over it, that even covered her feet, and it looked typical of what children of her age wore in most places of their realm; or so Tomas imagined. He freed her from the offending blanket, letting her sit on it instead, then carefully smoothed down her dark hair that was sticking out in every direction, before taking a good look at her. She seemed a little pale, but not in an unhealthy way. Looking back at him with curiosity in her wide, brown eyes, she started to babble something unintelligible that he had no idea how to interpret.

According to her papers, she was going to be seven months old in just a few days, and, according to the book, she, most likely, could crawl, but it would take a few more months for her to be able to start walking. He decided to test it: picked her up, using the instructions in the book on how to do it right, and put her up on her feet. She seemed quite happy about the activity, if the smile and the noises she was making were to be believed. It made Tomas chuckle. He wasn’t sure if he was biased or not, but she seemed prettier than most of those infants in the pictures the book was full of.

She couldn’t, indeed, walk yet, but she was clearly trying to, as he was encouraging her, so long as she had support, and for someone so young, her legs weren’t giving out under her, even though she was quite unsteady, and, again, required support to just remain standing.

“Well, you’re strong. It runs in the family, isn’t it?” He was only half-serious, of course, because it wasn’t just about the bloodline. Tomas, like no one else, knew how hard Kuai Liang had worked to become as strong, agile and fast as he was.

He lowered her back onto the blanket, where she was now sitting with her hand in her mouth, her eyes looking around curiously. A few times she tried to crawl away to explore on her own, but Tomas, while he was busy reading the book, prevented her from doing it, as it could result in her falling from the desk. In the end, it earned him a short noise of displeasure.

“Just give me a few more minutes,” he told her. Eventually, Dongmei stopped her attempts and found herself another occupation: smiling and giggling, she managed to catch a strand of his ‘funny’ hair in her hand and tried to pull it towards her mouth. He freed his hair from her grasp just on time.

“Looks like this, too, runs in the family,” he shook his head at her before returning his attention back to the book. He did need that haircut, he thought, amused.

“What runs in the family?” Kuai Liang asked, as he was entering the study.

“The uncontrollable urge to touch my hair,” Smoke replied distractedly, carefully studying the part about feeding an infant of Dongmei’s age. Grandmaster, meanwhile, blinked at the unexpected sight of a child sitting on his desk and was speechless for a few seconds, obviously trying to understand what it was all about.

“Alright, I give up. What’s going on?” he, finally, asked, deciding to take a closer look.

“Oh, Kuai, meet your relative. Her name is Dongmei, and she’s a cryomancer, too.”

“My… relative.”

“Yes, I think it’s called, um… great-niece, or something like that.”

“I’m afraid I require some more information, if you don’t mind,” Grandmaster said, a little louder now. Tomas then closed the book and put it aside, realising that Kuai Liang probably thought he was a little too nonchalant for a situation like this when, in fact, he had been simply preoccupied with learning so many new things at once.

He then explained everything to his surprised partner without any interruptions.

“This is no place for her,” the older man shook his head, once he had all the information Smoke could provide.

“We can’t exactly throw her out, can we?” the latter frowned.

“I wasn’t suggesting anything of that sort,” Kuai Liang promised, putting up a placating hand. 

To Tomas, it was clear that they couldn’t return her to the outside world now. What if some cruel people took interest in her because of her cryomancy? Kuai Liang and Bi-Han had been snatched away from their terrified parents by such people for that exact reason. There could be other interested parties they didn’t know about, not to mention the fact that, if Dongmei ended up being adopted by someone, who knew what kind of individuals would have her at their mercy, regardless of her innate powers that weren’t yet developed anyway? She was Kuai Liang’s relative, and Tomas couldn’t bear the thought of her having a bad life. Smoke, of all people, knew what could happen to a defenceless child. He knew it full well. There were much worse people out there than the Lin Kuei, and he was trying to convince his spouse that they weren’t a bad option for her.

“You said you needed an heir, no?” he tried again. He had only heard Kuai Liang mentioning it once, and it was a somewhat half-hearted statement. At first, Smoke wasn’t very happy to hear that statement, because that implied Kuai Liang stepping down someday (or much worse things that Tomas didn’t even want to think about), but now that they knew about the surprising longevity in his bloodline when it came to a natural lifespan, uninterrupted by accidents, being killed and things like that, Tomas was a little less worried about it. He knew that Kuai Liang simply wanted to be on the safe side when it came to the clan’s future. And, as much as Tomas joked about him being an ‘old man’, Sub-Zero was still in his prime, and, according to the family history, would be for quite a while.

“Tomas, I was talking about a successor that could be prepared for the position. Somebody young who shows promise, respect and loyalty to the clan’s path. What you’re talking about is parenthood. We don’t know the first thing about that; neither of us does, but especially not me,” the older man explained, sitting down next to his partner and squeezing his forearm comfortingly. What he meant by that was that now Tomas, at least, remembered his Mother, who had, most definitely, loved him, so, while he, by no means, knew how to raise a child, he, at least, had some idea of what parenthood looked like from a child’s perspective (which probably wasn’t enough anyway), whereas Kuai Liang only knew about it as a general concept. 

“Obviously, she is staying in the clan. I never said she wasn't,” Sub-Zero promised, clearing up the misunderstanding. “And, as a cryomancer, she’s going to need my guidance. Nothing will prevent you from being a part of her life as well, if that is what you want. But, to raise her, she’s going to need somebody else,” he concluded. It was a good compromise, and Smoke was aware it was probably for the best, even though something in him didn’t entirely agree with that last part. He looked at Dongmei, who was sitting in front of him with her fingers stuck in her mouth again, and sighed.

At least, they could try and find the best people available to raise her. Tomas thought it would be best not to drag it on, so he decided to busy himself with it after they had a dinner and the girl was fed, too. He had meticulously followed the instructions in both the book and on the jar with that powdered food. It seemed to have worked, and he felt a little proud of himself. Changing her was a little more challenging, but he managed that, too. Thank goodness, in the outside world they had detailed instructions written on everything, even though he thought that the warning ‘do not eat’ on the package of wet wipes was a little excessive.

Kuai Liang and he discussed their options. Among the very few good candidates on their radar there was a married couple discovered by the clan in Hong Kong years earlier. They had used to be vigilantes fighting a criminal organisation that had bankrupted and destroyed both spouses’ respective families when the two had still been young children. As successful as they had been in their mission throughout the years, their vigilantism had not just enraged criminal bosses who had lost a lot because of them over the years, but also got them in trouble with the law. So, almost in their forties, the wife and the husband had been in a serious trouble with both forces closing in on them, so much so that being found and taken into the Lin Kuei was their personal version of settling down, despite the missions they now eagerly participated in for the clan.

While they’d never had a chance to have children of their own, perhaps, they would be interested now? They had been seen helping some young trainees. And, as people who had come from the outside world, they, at least, had an idea of what it took to raise a child.

They didn’t look very impressed when Tomas brought Dongmei to them and explained the situation.

“We understand. If these are Grandmaster’s orders…” the woman replied tonelessly, bowing her head in respect, but her mouth was a thin, straight line. Her husband didn’t look much better. That, pretty much, told Tomas everything he needed to know.

He apologised for bothering them then, and left. Behind his back, he could actually hear them sighing in relief. No, that definitely would’ve been a mistake. Their hearts may be in the right place, at least in many regards, but those hearts clearly weren’t in the idea of raising this little girl. Smoke was not an expert, putting it mildly, but he was quite positive that happy and normal children weren’t raised by reluctant people who didn’t want them. He wasn’t sure if giving the couple more time to think it through and make a decision would do any good. They’d feel somewhat pressured anyway now, even given a free choice on the matter.

Dongmei was upright against his chest, facing him (because she seemed more comfortable to be carried like this), and he looked down at her, carrying her to another potential candidate, ignoring the surprised members of the clan he occasionally met on the way.

“You know, you could’ve helped me out a bit,” he said to her in a mock accusatory tone. “You could’ve given them that disarming smile of yours to win them over”. She did give that smile then. To him.

The next attempt was even less successful. There was a man who had two children before joining the clan. Tomas had once been in the man’s chamber for some business he couldn't even remember now and seen a framed picture of him holding both of his children in his arms, all three of them looking quite happy. Back in his life before the Lin Kuei, he had been recognised as a skilful martial artist and a sensei, so now his primary job was training the newbies. Not only he had a solid parental experience, but the young trainees seemed to connect with him quite well.

The man’s reaction to Tomas’ question (he’d made sure it didn’t sound like an order this time) whether he was willing to raise a child was… odd, to say the least.

“If this is all about Qiang, I’m well-aware of his problems. I’ve already started to work extra time with him for him to succeed in his training and catch up with his peers,” he promised with some nervousness in his voice. Smoke had to take a pause to comprehend what it had to do with anything, until he realised that the man was thinking that being saddled with the infant was a punishment for one of his pupil’s lack of progress! Unbelievable…

Maybe it had been insensitive of Tomas to offer him anything like that in the first place, since the man had lost all connection with his now grown-up daughters who had both moved to another country a while ago? Especially now that he was in the Lin Kuei, which, pretty much, meant that his ties with his past were severed. In any case, this was another unsuccessful attempt, and Smoke was quickly running out of good options.

Dongmei was getting a little fussy now, so Tomas decided to stop his attempts for today and brought her back to the quarters he shared with Kuai Liang. One of the things the recruiter and his apprentice had bought was a bassinet, which was quite small and would, undoubtedly, become too small for Dongmei soon, not to mention, Smoke was quite sure she wouldn’t have had much trouble getting out of it and crawling away if she decided to do so. But they had no other options for now. He set the bassinet up in one of the chambers, close enough that they would be able to hear her from their bed chamber when she woke up. He put it on the floor, making sure it was steady, safe and low enough, so that, if she got out of it, she wouldn’t fall from a height or injure herself in any other way.

She was asleep in no time, letting them finish their work for the day, only briefly checking on her, from time to time.

As they lay in bed, sleep wouldn’t come, because Tomas was deep in thought. He knew Kuai Liang was also still awake.

“What’s on your mind?” the older man, finally, asked. Smoke took a few long moments to put his thoughts into words.

“I know we aren’t like most people, and our upbringing leaves much to be desired, but do you really think it’s such a bad idea for us to have a family of our own?” he asked. “Other people’s lives are full of danger, too, but many of them still take this step.”

“Please, don’t tell me you’re talking about that insufferable Cage brat,” Sub-Zero groaned, sounding almost appalled.

“I wasn’t talking about her, specifically,” Tomas chuckled, “She’s spoiled, alright. Very,” he wrinkled his nose. “But she’s an adult now, and…”

“That’s debatable…” Kuai Liang murmured. The younger man ignored the interruption:

“…And she seems happy and capable of standing up for herself. And, it seems, she loves her parents very much. So, they must have done something right, don’t you think?”

“My heart, you and I, we’re not like others, we’ve always been different; you’re right about that,” Sub-Zero replied after a pause. That, on itself, could be his answer, but Smoke wanted to press for more.

“But now our situation is very different, too. We’re in control of our lives, as much as anyone can ever be. Why do you think we can’t make it work? Unless, it’s just something you simply don’t want.” He was making sure it didn’t come off as if he was accusing his partner of anything, because he wasn’t, but he wanted to know what the other man thought.

“It’s something that requires some serious consideration,” Kuai Liang, finally, answered. “Just don’t give me any more examples of dysfunctional families. That doesn’t help your cause at all.” Tomas huffed out a soft laugh at that and kissed his spouse’s cheek and temple before straddling him…

It was, indeed, something to mull over; and it had to be done with the girl’s best interests and safety in mind. But, while they did need time to find an optimal solution, Dongmei required care and attention all the time. There was no way to put her on a shelf for her to wait until her fate was decided.

She had been staying in their quarters for a few days now, and things weren’t going well. Instead of the happy-sounding cooing and smiles Tomas had seen and heard from her in the beginning, she now cried. A lot. Keeping her comfortable, well-fed and clean clearly wasn’t enough. Sometimes she just cried (and, gods, was it loud!), sometimes, in addition to that, she sounded indignant, as if she was complaining about something and trying to explain what the problem was, and they did listen, carefully, but, sadly, those weren’t real words for them to understand, so they were soon out of their depth. Just a few days, and Smoke already felt sleep-deprived. Dongmei had not been fussy during her first two days here, so he dejectedly thought that he wasn’t doing a very good job of taking care of her if she was so unhappy now. He had been trying to keep an emotional distance between himself and her, because he was so unsure of what was going to happen, so he didn’t want to get too attached to her, but he was getting used to taking care of her anyway, even though, judging by her frequent crying, he was failing at that.

He was fully aware that the infant and he looked comically similar this morning: dishevelled and sleepy. To his spouse, Tomas’ general appearance, his tired eyes, were obviously betraying the lack of sleep last night, which was even worse than the previous ones. Kuai gently kissed the back of his head and whispered into his ear with a sigh:

“I told you, we aren’t cut out for this.” He was both slightly amused and sympathetic, as well as a little sad, probably on Tomas’ behalf, knowing how hard he was trying. The younger man wanted to reply that it wasn’t like Sub-Zero to give up, but he doubted he would be able make it sound convincing right now. This wasn’t a competition or a challenge, because the priority was to find a solution that would be best for Dongmei.

Grandmaster, who had a lot of work to do, then left, but not before giving his partner another comforting kiss; this time on his lips. Smoke wasn't even sure when or if he was going to be able to join him today. As if in confirmation of Kuai Liang’s words, as soon as the door had been closed after him, the dummy fell out of the infant’s mouth, and Tomas closed his eyes, already knowing what was about to happen. ‘Please, no…’   Several loud, short whimpers were followed by an even louder wail.

No matter what he did, she cried until she was red in the face, and then she tired herself out and fell into a restless sleep that he knew wouldn’t last.

He was seriously considering going to the nearest town and finding a doctor, just in case, especially after he had just seen the girl pulling at her own ear and hair with the most piercing cry he had heard from her. Her actions had startled him quite a bit. The clan had good medics, but Tomas wasn’t sure they would be able to help someone so young. He would have to ask around anyway. He also had half a mind to find the infant’s mother and try to knock some sense into her (not literally, of course) for abandoning her daughter to the care of complete strangers.

He remembered himself as a little boy seeking comfort from his Mother, and how she had managed to make everything better when he was upset about something or down with a cold. But that was all in another life, left behind a long time ago, the life that he preferred not to think about too often, because it inevitably led to the memories of how it had ended with him burning to death. Besides, he didn’t even remember how she had done it, exactly, only her soft voice and touch, her arms around him, and how it had always worked. Sometimes all of that felt so distant that he almost started to think he had imagined everything, his mind creating false memories to give him some comfort, especially given the fact that said memories had been locked up inside his mind for many years before resurfacing. But, deep inside, he knew it had all really happened before being abruptly taken away by the people with such unimaginable darkness in their hearts that it was questionable whether they’d had any hearts at all.

Still, despite the memories of his Mother being a good parent, he was realising now that it was too presumptuous of him to even imagine that he was capable of raising a child, especially with just some stupid book for a guide. Kuai Liang was probably right, after all, and they really weren’t good for this.

Speaking of the book... It claimed that children of Dongmei's age were supposed to sleep for about fourteen to sixteen hours a day in total. Whether it was a deliberate lie or a mistake, he couldn't tell.

He was quiet the following night, and fell asleep in the comforting arms of his understanding partner. But, of course, it didn’t take long for Dongmei to wake up again and start crying in the next chamber.

“Sleep. I’ll take care of it,” Kuai Liang whispered, getting up. Tomas was so tired, he just made a content, grateful noise in response, because, as always, he really appreciated it. He heard the quiet rustle of the other man putting on some light clothes, but then fell back asleep.

The next time he woke up, probably not much later, Sub-Zero still wasn’t back in the bed. But it was blissfully quiet now. Tomas, despite the tiredness, decided to get up, throw some clothes on and see if everything was okay. He rubbed his shoulders, feeling cold when he exited their bed chamber. It wasn’t a freezing cold, but he was just out of a warm bed, still sleepy, so it wasn’t exactly pleasant. Still, it was colder than it should have been. Was Kuai Liang using his cryomancy? In their quarters? Why? Was there any danger? The thought chased the rest of his drowsiness away.

The scene he was met with instantly made him relax. Kuai Liang was sitting at the table, writing some message (because, of course, he was working even now…) and holding sleeping Dongmei upright against his front, the side of her small face pressed against his chest, and she looked cosy and comfortable. Clearly, the cold he was producing had a soothing effect on her. And, undoubtedly, it was working for… whatever the problem was. He turned his face to Tomas to answer the question before it was even asked.

“Her gums look inflamed, and there’s a visible tooth already. She’s teething,” he explained. Tomas almost groaned. Of course. Something about it was in the book. How hadn’t he thought about it before, especially after a few times she had insisted on chewing on a collar of whatever clothes he was wearing, leaving it wet, messy and rumpled?

“Looks like I’m going to need some more warm clothes, since I’m going to live with more than one cryomancer now,” he joked. But that was a joke with a clear implication that he was still hopeful, despite everything. Kuai Liang still looked unsure about the whole idea, but he wasn’t protesting this time, wasn’t giving any arguments, as sound as they were, against the idea.

Smoke knew him well enough to see that he was going to be convinced, sooner rather than later. All Tomas had to do was give it time.