She had never considered grooming to be a leisure activity, Bao Qingling thought. However, recent experience required recategorization. The brush currently running through her hair paused again, teasing at another tangled knot.

“Honestly, how long ago was the last time you bothered to comb your hair?” Meizhen huffed, though it was without any real frustration.

They were within Bao Qingling’s personal chambers at her workshop, a long oblong chamber that contained few furnishings and even less decor. Hastily commissioned cushions and carpets now sat before a long web-supported mirror set into the chamber’s wall.

“As long as it remains clean, there is no need for anything more. I have many head scarves and coverings,” Bao Qingling replied.

Sitting this close to the reflective surface, even her reduced vision could see the lines of her reflection. In the mirror, she saw her sallow skin and dark circles around her eyes. Her hair spilled a short way down her back. It was growing uneven. Time for another cut soon, she supposed.

She sat cross-legged, and Bai Meizhen knelt behind her. One hand rested gently on her shoulder, the other on the lacquered handle of the brush in her hair.

Bao Qingling drummed her fingers on her outstretched knees. She could feel the other girl’s breath on her neck as she leaned in. Distracting.

“I suppose it is part of the image you choose to present,” Bai Meizhen murmured.

Bao Qingling felt a faint tug at her scalp as the tangle came loose, and the teeth of the brush lightly touched the back of her neck.

Her gaze rested on the reflection of her companion. Bai Meizhen was so pale that she almost seemed to glow in the dim light. A pure and deadly shade, she was only enhanced by the gleam of light reflecting from her golden eyes. Bao Qingling was not one who discarded aesthetics entirely. Appearances were important in her craft. If a client’s expectations went unfulfilled, they might be dissatisfied with even a perfectly working project. Bai Meizhen’s features were more exquisite than any sculpture. Her thoughts were rambling. Irritating.

She did not regret allowing this, even if she did not quite understand what the other girl got from it. Grooming was servant work, and Bao Qingling did not like servants. She rarely went beyond the minimum and not even that, if her peers’ whispers were allowed. But as the brush rose again, working through a new patch of her tangled hair, she could admit that this was enjoyable.

She sat in silence for some time with only the tuneless humming from the other girl’s lips filling the chamber. Bao Qingling’s attention returned again and again to the reflection to the gleaming serpent and the angular and awkward thing beside it. Irritating that such thoughts would come back from banishment. Truly, the third realm was insufficient in carving away weaknesses.

“What do you want from this?”

“Hmm?” Bai Meizhen glanced up.

“This. All of this,” Bao Qingling repeated. “Where will we go in the future, if you have your way?”

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“I could ask the same of you.”

The brush caressed her neck again, and she shivered.

“I don’t know,” Bao Qingling said, and the words felt like sandpaper on her tongue. She hated the uncertainty there. Her vision for the future had gone askew, and it itched in her mind.

She had no regrets in choosing this.

“But I want it to continue.”

***

It was a terribly intimate gesture. To do this with an outsider, someone she had known for such a short time at that, was most transgressive. But Bai Meizhen had slowly become used to transgression in the past two years.

Gently, she wielded the brush, and she savored the warmth of her paramour's skin under her fingers.

To allow another at her back to aid her in such private practice as personal hygiene was among the most intimate of practices. She knew that outsiders allowed their servants to do this and had always felt faintly revolted by the idea. No, there were only a few places where such vulnerability was acceptable. Parent and child, serpent and viper, and occasionally, usually in tales, husband and wife.

Yes, this was transgressive indeed.

The conversation though was just as much so.

She laid the brush down beside them and leaned closer, catching the scent of Bao Qingling’s hair. It was a sharp sort of spice, invigorating like the toxic warnings of deadly beasts of the lakes and fens.

“I want it to continue too,” she agreed quietly.

She felt a warmth on her hand as Qingling awkwardly put a hand over hers, not turning away from the mirror. Bai Meizhen’s eyes lingered on their reflection. Her own face was average in appearance with little to distinguish her from her cousins. Bao Qingling’s sharp features and defiant eyes drew her much more. Qingling was taller and more solid than she as these southerners often were, but she was still pleasingly slim and graceful unlike many that dwelled here in forest and mountain.

Even if Qingling did need to take better care of herself from time to time.

“I have been in communication with my aunt. I will be receiving tutelage from our ambassador.”

“Good. That’s a step toward your goals.”

Bai Meizhen allowed herself a smile. No hesitation. Just immediate congratulations. “I will be showing our support for the Cai’s project in the south.”

She heard Qingling let out a breath of understanding. “I see.”

Silence fell again for a time.

“I will look into some options,” Bao Qingling said. “Irritating to pull those kinds of threads, but… Worth it.”

“Thank you,” Bai Meizhen murmured. She pulled back, straightening up. She already missed the close warmth. “I think you are done. Will you now return the favor?” she asked casually, as if it didn’t really matter.

“I am not skilled in these arts,” Qingling said, not yet moving. “But if you ask, I will attempt it.”

Bai Meizhen chuckled to herself as she gently pushed Qingling out of the seat. “I trust your precision, Qingling. I know you won’t allow yourself to perform poorly.”

“As you like,” the other girl replied.

Bai Meizhen took her seat, gazing into the mirror as the dark shadow of Qingling knelt behind her, raising the brush in one hand haltingly. She stifled a small laugh as the girl regarded the brush with an exacting gaze like some new and complex tool she was required to master. Sheforced herself to relax as the brush made its first pass through her long hair, and she felt Qingling’s breath tickle her ear.

“Meizhen, it will continue.”

She allowed her eyes to drift shut, giving only a small nod. It would.