SaiMono fic, "Sweetest Dreams" Ch.08 (rough draft, partial)
Story Title: Sweetest Dreams
Chapter: 08
Author: Moor (or ‘beyondthemoor’ from LJ)
Length: approx. 1600 words
Genre: General/Comedy/Romance/PWP
Rating: I’ll say T
Fandom: Saiunkoku Monogatari
Pairings: Shuurei x Kijin, Shuurei x Ryuuki.
Summary:A sequel to “Manjuu Magic.”
Disclaimer: I have no ownership of “Saiunkoku Monogatari”.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER! I am making this story slight-AU in its timeline : In "Sweetest Dreams", Shuurei held her job in Kijin’s department prior to taking her position in the harem. (Please, go with it?)
AN: I hope you enjoy this sequel, thank you for reading!
(break)
In the Finance Department…
Shuurei looked up from the desk where she worked on double-checking the accounting entries from a grain-tax levy. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Seiran tilting his head and looking into the hallway; a signal that he needed to talk to her privately. His usual requests for her attention were more forward and obvious… so his subtle behaviour that morning left her some concern.
Excusing herself politely, Shuurei tidied her desk and went for a ‘break’ to the gardens, letting Kijin know she’d be back soon.
The golden-robed councilor nodded and watched her leave curiously before turning his head back to his own work, his mask remaining impassive.
When he heard Seiran’s voice coming from the same direction Shuurei had left in, however, he straightened slowly and listened.
(break)
“My Lady is trying out a new look,” remarked Seiran in his usual friendly tone when they were alone in the hallway, some distance from the Ministry where Shuurei was working. He took in her shapeless robes and trousers, and the way the kerchief in her hair did nothing to hide the graceful, feminine lines of her neck and chin. The men in the department had to be blind not to notice her, he thought to himself not for the first time, and realized with some concern that that was partly why the department was being investigated in the first place…
“What’s wrong? Has something happened? How did you know I was here?” she asked, glancing back around the corner to make sure no one had followed them.
The soldier sighed good naturedly. He wanted to reach out and pat her on the shoulder to reassure her, but he could only protect her so much before she did need to face things herself.
With an apologetic grimace, he held out a scroll with her name in beautiful calligraphy scrawled across one side. It wasn’t that he meant to ignore her questions or dismiss her, but it was best not to delay with the document he held.
“I believe My Lady knows who this is from,” he said as she accepted the letter.
Seiran watched her as her eyebrows knit together; then as her face darkened with each passing moment while she skimmed through the contents of the elegant scroll.
Her hands shook; her knuckles went white; her face fluxed purple and she seethed, “Why those meddling….”
With a small burst of disgust, she glared at the words on the scroll one last time before whipping it at the wall angrily.
“Can I confirm you’ll be attending, then, My Lady?” asked Seiran self-consciously.
A decidedly unlady-like gesture of agreement was uttered from the woman who stomped back to work.
With a sigh, Seiran bent down to pick up the invitation the Sages had issued to Shuurei to attend the Grand Guardian Special Intensive Marriage Counselling Session, Dinner Theatre and Role-Playing Practice. Dress : Formal. It was scheduled for supper that night.
Seiran made his way to the next stop on his Invitation Tour…
(break)
“They’re going to help bring Shuurei and Us together!?” exclaimed the Emperor happily when he read the second scroll his brother had held.
Seiran hoped his brother didn’t recognize the flinch that crossed his face at the obvious enthusiasm the invitation had triggered. He couldn’t help but pity Ryuuki when the man before him would realize that Shuurei viewed the situation from an entirely contradictory horizon.
“They are concerned that you haven’t been spending enough time together, what with the Imperial Responsibilities, the daily runnings of the palace…” hedged the silver-haired man; it wasn’t a lie. One didn’t lie to the Emperor.
But something about the situation seemed suspicious to the younger man as he looked over the invitation again.
“What do they mean by 'role-playing'?” he asked, reflecting a moment.
What indeed, wondered Seiran with some trepidation.
“Ah… for example, when children play ‘House’, --or ‘Palace’ in this case-“ he clarified at his brother’s confused expression, “and a girl plays the mama and a boy plays the papa, and the younger children usually play their children,” or their pets or the stable horses, explained Seiran, remembering playing ‘big brother’ to Shuurei when she was young. The moment the words were out of his mouth, however, he realized his horrible mistake.
“Seiran!” yelled Ryuuki, leaping up to grab his brother in a tight hug. Seiran really did wince this time at the force of his brother’s emotional assault. “No, I mean, ‘Big Brother’! You can really be Our Big Brother, and Shuurei can be our Wife, and…”
Seiran was just in time to pull back and catch the look of wonder and hope that passed through his brother’s eyes.
Oh no, he’s not…
“Quick, to the archives!” Ryuuki bellowed with all the authority vested in him, and in a flurry of violet robes dashed out of his private office, past his personal staff, to find…
“Shouka-san! Shouka-san!”
“Your Highness!” called Seiran, fearfully, rushing after the mad Emperor. “Your Highness, we need to discuss this!”
But the younger man was already out of sight.
Seiran imagined the palace layout as fast as he could, trying to find the shortest distance between himself and Shouka.
It was as he was passing a group of very young servants, probably only just inducted into the palace staff, that he realized with dread the next target on his brother’s ‘family’ list to acquire.
From a short distance away (as he was very close to the archives now), he heard a wildly enthusiastic Emperor declare proudly, “Shouka-san! You get to be the Grand-Shouka-Papa!”
Seiran groaned.
…And rubbed his callous-roughened palm down his face when he heard the twittering of excitement from some of the female serving staff who’d been passing by the archives.
Not again…
“We’re having children!” explained the Emperor at maximum volume.
There was a dramatic pause, and just as he’d expected, Seiran saw his brother rush out of the archives and spin around to see him, only to exclaim, “Seiran! We need ‘children’! Now! …Where’s Shuurei?”
It was at that moment that Seiran realized Shuurei would probably kill him in his sleep that night.
(Of course he knew that his brother had only meant they needed ‘children’ to play ‘Palace’… but the rest of the palace itself didn’t know that…)
Seiran smiled benignly and suggested to the Emperor that perhaps He should reply to the Sages’ letter first and accept the invitation before inviting more people to play.
Ryuuki’s smile brightened to ten thousand lanterns’ power, and nodded vigorously.
Seiran made sure he oversaw the reply his younger sibling wrote the Sages, and stood at his side in the Emperor's private office again.
“No, Your Highness, you don’t need to worry about sending out your own invitations yet to play ‘Palace’, let’s focus on getting this reply back to the Grand Guardians first, and have a little play before bringing Kouyuu and Shuuei in… Yes, I’m sure they’ll want to join in, too… Yes, we’ll find good roles for them to play… They’ll be thrilled to play the palace’s pets, yes…”
The reply to the Sages sent (high priority, at Ryuuki’s insistence), Seiran vowed privately to speak to the other two men as soon as possible anyway, just in case the sneaky Emperor sent some kind of official missive to each of their colleagues commanding them to come play the ‘dog’ and the ‘horse’ for the Emperor’s game of ‘Palace’.
"Hmmm, what can we make Reishin?" wondered the Emperor aloud.
"Worry about that later, Your Highness. Please," added Seiran, trying to get the nation's leader back on track with his work.
"A-ha!" he cried, coming to some kind of momentous private decision.
"Your Highness?..." Seiran really didn't think he'd want to hear this.
"We'll make Kijin the dungeon prisoner and Reishin can be the jailer. He'll like that."
Against his will, Seiran had to admit that at this moment, Reishin probably would enjoy that arrangement.
(break)
Meanwhile, back at the Ministry of Finance’s accounting stacks…
“Shou-kun, the words will fall off the pages if you keep smacking them around like that,” remarked Kijin as he stood behind her and watched her slam another book back into place on the shelf.
For her part, Shuurei startled at how close he’d come to her, and she realized she must have been making a tremendous noise with her tantrum if she hadn’t heard him approach.
“Ahahaha… I apologise…” she said in a gruff, embarrassed voice, her neck and ears burning in shame.
Behind his mask Kijin’s eyebrows furrowed; the colourful plate hid his concern, however, and he passed by with a nod in her direction, accepting her apology. He returned to his desk, and kept his ear out for Shou-kun’s movements for the rest of the afternoon.
He had to admit, she’d been quite diligent in her work since her discussion with Seiran. It would be perhaps in all their favour, however, if she did not terrify the rest of his employees while she was so worked up; her productivity had tripled, and her physical movement around the department had been erratic and rushed. It was like she’d ingested one too many pots of Lung-jin (dragonwell) tea.
When the book-slamming started up again an hour or so later, he rolled his eyes and glanced at the shadows growing outside. The work-day could officially end.
His underlings thanked him sincerely when he dismissed them that day, and they left in a bit more haste than usual in their effort to avoid the demonic work-horse hiding in the stacks.
(still working on this chapter; posting to make back-ups)
Ok, not sure why this is bolding itself when I copy-paste it in to LJ today... Hmmm... Won't 'un-bold' either.