Chapter Text
Four boys gathered around Cao Cao and the stool he sat on, peering down at the baby cradled in his arms. A tuft of black hair adorned the top of his head, and big grey eyes stared up at them curiously.
“Not too close,” Cao Cao reminded them, and they all backed up half a step, before almost immediately crowding back around the infant.
Not understanding his actions, Cao Zhang reached out to gently squeeze the baby’s chubby cheek, causing the infant to start fussing and writhing and whimpering within the tight layers of fabric swaddled around him.
“Zhang-di!” Cao Ang scolded, smacking his brother upside the head. When Cao Zhang yelped, Cao Cao chided his sons - the younger for his actions, the older for hitting his brother - while Cao Zhi and Cao Pi simply laughed at their brothers’ plight.
Thankfully, Xiahou Dun saw fit to step in, calming the waves of the wild Cao family with practiced ease. “Zhang-er, that’s enough. He’s a baby, have some sense!”
Cao Zhang rolled his eyes, but Xiahou Dun ignored him and continued. “It is your duty - and I'm speaking to all of you,“ he said, glaring down at each of his nephews one by one, “as the clan head’s sons to guide the younger children, including your cousin sitting here in your father’s arms. Am I understood?”
“Yes, Dun-shushu,” the Cao boys replied in unison, Cao Ang and Cao Pi sounding far more enthusiastic than their younger brothers. Cao Cao looked at each of his sons and took note of their reactions to Xiahou Dun's warning, noticing in particular that, despite their quietness, Cao Zhang and Cao Zhi's eyes glimmered with eagerness and ambition.
“What’s his name, Father?” Cao Pi asked, stepping forward to peer down at the infant. The baby's cheek was still a little bit red where Cao Zhang had pinched him, but his cries had faded into soft coos as he stared up at his elder cousin in awe.
“He still has only a milk name,” Cao Cao said, adjusting the swaddled child in his arms so that he could more easily meet Cao Pi’s eyeline. “It’s Rongzi.”
Cao Zhi pushed in alongside his brother, standing on his toes to hold a finger out and waggle it in the baby’s face. With a grunt, the infant managed to wrench his arm out of the swaddle and wrap it around the digit waving around in his face. “Hello, Rongzi,” Cao Zhi greeted with a smile.
Watching his youngest brother in amusement, Cao Ang stepped up behind Cao Zhi to peer over his shoulder. “I remember when Zhi-di looked like that,” he laughed.
“Ang-gege!” Cao Zhi whined, cheeks flushing red with embarrassment, but this only encouraged his elder brother to continue tormenting him.
“Don’t you remember too, Pi-di? He was really red, and his cheeks were super chubby.”
“As red as he is now!” Cao Pi teased, poking his brother’s flushed cheek with an outstretched finger and ignoring the resulting protests and squirms. The teasing had improved Cao Zhang’s mood, although he hadn’t been old enough to remember what Cao Zhi had looked like as a newborn.
Cao Ang laughed and nodded. “And Father named him Qiangqiang, because he was as red as a rose and had pretty eyes, but no spirit wants to take a baby boy named after flowers.”
“Even if he’d been given an amazing name, no spirit would want him,” Cao Pi scoffed as he ruffled Cao Zhi’s hair, much to the amusement of Cao Ang and Cao Zhang.
“Leave me alone!” Cao Zhi growled, frantically swatting at Cao Pi’s hand. With even Cao Cao and Xiahou Dun now laughing at his plight, the boy only got angrier, and slaps quickly turned into punches.
Disturbed by the scuffle, Rongxi began to wail in Cao Cao’s arms, halting Cao Pi and Cao Zhi in their tracks as they froze in place with their hands tangled in one another’s clothes and hair. Xiahou Dun grabbed both by the collars of their robes, hoisting them into the air like a mother scolding her naughty kittens. “Look at what you two have done, your baby cousin is crying now! Come on, we’re leaving. Now. Ang-er, Zhang-er, you too.”
All four boys whined in unison.
“But Dun-shushu, there’s real food here! I’m tired of wearing dirty clothes and starving!”
“You weren’t tired enough to avoid picking fights with one another!” Xiahou Dun countered. “Out. Now.” Xiahou Dun ushered the grumbling boys out, hands on their arms to keep them from hitting each other. “Hands to yourselves!”
“Yuanrang, wait.”
Xiahou Dun finished shoving his rowdy nephews out into the hall as he turned back to Cao Cao. “Aman?”
“I know what you’re doing.”
Xiahou Dun stood firm, save for a quick glance to the floor from the corner of his eye. “I think the baby’s crying has messed with your head, cousin. All I’m doing is disciplining my misbehaving nephews.”
“I know you too well, you can’t lie to me - I know you’re going to give my brats food after you leave here. They’re starving, and that’s why they’re so cranky and irritable.”
Xiahou Dun’s long, awkward silence told Cao Cao all he needed to know, and he laughed aloud, causing the infant in his arms to start giggling along with him.
“I won’t give them much. Just enough to settle their stomachs and minds,” Xiahou Dun muttered.
“It’s fine. I don’t want my sons killing each other, and food is needed for that - but I still want them to experience the people’s suffering, so don’t give them too much, either.”
“Understood, Aman.”
“Yuanrang, thank you. I couldn’t be doing this without your aid.”