[Fic: Saiunkoku] Favorite Winter Pastimes
Done for saiunkoku_fic 's 2009 Secret Santa exchange.
Title: Favorite Winter Pastimes
For: everlaughter
Warnings: none for the story.
**
It was a perfectly beautiful day - snow in the night before and the chill that remained even after dawn meant everything was still covered in a thick layer of the white flakes. The sun was shining cold and bright overhead when three young men made their way towards a certain Kou residence in the Capital.
"I wonder if Shuurei'll make any manjuu," Ryuuki sighed dreamily for the fourth time since the carriage had dropped them off in Kiyou's downtown. They had made some purchases that morning, as well as completed some investigations, and now, as it was getting to be early afternoon, they were on their way to their last appointment for the day.
"Doesn't she always?" Kouyuu muttered under his breath as Shuuei laughed.
"She will." Shuuei reassured his emperor. "After all, Shouka-sama mentioned in his missive that Ensei is visiting from Sa Province, I'm sure the spread Shuurei-dono is preparing for lunch would be quite impressive."
Thus motivated, the Emperor and his two Flowers arrived at the Kou residence in high spirits. Alas, the mood did not last, for almost as soon as they announced themselves at the open outer gates and prepared to enter, there came a high shriek from somewhere within the residence and the sound of running.
"Shuurei?!" Ryuuki cried in alarm as he bolted through the threshold, searching for both the lady in question and the reason for her cry of distress, Shuuei and Kouyuu following hot on his heels. They almost ran straight into the emperor's back when he stopped dead in his tracks.
There was the sound of several somethings whizzing through the air, impacting against flesh, and Ryuuki yelped. The three of them were nearly bowled over as someone ran past them.
"ROU ENSEI, I'M GOING TO SKIN YOU AND FEED YOU TO THE DOGS---your Majesty?!"
Ryuuki blinked from where he had dropped into a defensive half-crouch, the remnants of at least three snowballs crumbling away from his robe and hair. "...Seiran?" he asked, confused.
Ensei ducked back and took cover behind Ryuuki, peering around the emperor in a rather comical sight. "You just hit the emperor with snowballs!" He called over to Seiran, who was rooted to the spot, looking utterly mortified. Without missing a beat, he scooped up some snow and packed it into a ball before shoving it into Ryuuki's hand. "C'mon, throw it back!" he said encouragingly.
"...." Ryuuki blinked and looked askance at Shuuei and Kouyuu, the former just lowering his hand from the hilt of his sword. When no help on the snowball throwing topic was forthcoming from that front (they were just as confused and surprised as he was), he turned back to Seiran, who was busy apologizing and looking like he wasn't sure if he needed to throw himself to the ground to beg for forgiveness.
"Your Majesty, this humble one is very sorry--whoa!" Seiran looked up from his bow just in time to see Ryuuki squeeze his eyes shut and lob the snowball in his general direction. It was a rather weak throw, but unfortunately his response to incoming projectiles was already firmly ingrained in his muscle memory, and he dodged without thinking.
Ryuuki opened one eye to peek, just in time to meet Shuurei's absolutely dumbfounded expression. The white powder dusting her face and hair was all that was left of the snowball he aimed at Seiran.
There was another extended moment of silence as everyone took in the scene and digested what happened. Finally, Shuurei very carefully reached up to wipe her face with her hanging sleeves, before she bent down to scoop up double handfuls of snow.
".............eep!" Ryuuki squeaked. Shuurei's dark eyes, usually so sweet and gentle (in Ryuuki's mind, at least), glinted dangerously. Even Shuuei and Kouyuu recoiled a little.
"Snowball fight!" Ensei cheered.
**
They got the full story after the battle concluded: Shuurei had finished making lunch as planned, but Ensei had been getting underfoot as he was wont to do, and dropped some snow down the back of her robe as a prank. That was the cause for the shriek that Ryuuki, Shuuei and Kouyuu heard when they first arrived. Seiran, in an effort to defend Shuurei and get revenge (and maybe he just wanted an excuse to hit Ensei), chased him out of the kitchen and pelted him with snowballs...until of course a few of them unfortunately ended up hitting Ryuuki instead.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
"You didn't have to hit me so many times, it's cold!" Ryuuki whined a little as he huddled into a blanket, wearing one of Shouka's old (and dry) robes.
Shuurei rolled her eyes as she served them all hot tea to ward off the chill that resulted from their battle. She had left the meal preparation to make sure that Seiran wouldn't really kill their guest...luckily nothing burned despite her unexpected time away from the stoves.
"Oh, stop being a baby," she said without much sympathy. "That's why I'm giving you tea now."
"Hime-san is really good!" Ensei laughed, wearing one of Seiran's larger spare shirts. As the instigator of the whole event, he was pretty much the favorite target (if not the easiest to hit), and thus ended up even more soaked than Ryuuki. "I never expected her aim to be so great!"
Shuuei grinned wryly - indeed, even though everyone had been throwing around snowballs as fast as they could make them, it really was surprising how many of them connected given that they were all running around madly. "Kouyuu too," he nudged his friend with an admiring smile that only held a hint of teasing. "I guess that time when you almost hit me with the book wasn't a fluke."
"Shut up," Kouyuu retorted without much heat, wrapping his hands around the teacup that Shuurei gave him gratefully. He was starting to feel a vague ache in his arm that would undoubtedly turn into full-on soreness tomorrow, but it had been vastly satisfying to hit Shuuei repeatedly with snowballs, so it was completely worth it. "Now, if we're all done with this foolish business, let's have lunch like we originally planned."
**
End
Fun Facts:
1. The original draft was chugging along, getting wildly out of hand. Somehow the prompt of a snowball fight had mutated into a full on snowball war, with snow forts and teams and battle strategies...At the point where Kouyuu started explaining the finer details on the structural integrity of a wall built from snow and Shuuei started telling his story about Ryuuren spending the winter in a cave with hibernating bears, I threw in the towel and wrote this instead.
2. Ensei's so fun to write. My favorite line is undoubtedly him telling Seiran he hit the emperor with a snowball and then encouraging Ryuuki to throw one back.
Majo
Title: Favorite Winter Pastimes
For: everlaughter
Warnings: none for the story.
**
It was a perfectly beautiful day - snow in the night before and the chill that remained even after dawn meant everything was still covered in a thick layer of the white flakes. The sun was shining cold and bright overhead when three young men made their way towards a certain Kou residence in the Capital.
"I wonder if Shuurei'll make any manjuu," Ryuuki sighed dreamily for the fourth time since the carriage had dropped them off in Kiyou's downtown. They had made some purchases that morning, as well as completed some investigations, and now, as it was getting to be early afternoon, they were on their way to their last appointment for the day.
"Doesn't she always?" Kouyuu muttered under his breath as Shuuei laughed.
"She will." Shuuei reassured his emperor. "After all, Shouka-sama mentioned in his missive that Ensei is visiting from Sa Province, I'm sure the spread Shuurei-dono is preparing for lunch would be quite impressive."
Thus motivated, the Emperor and his two Flowers arrived at the Kou residence in high spirits. Alas, the mood did not last, for almost as soon as they announced themselves at the open outer gates and prepared to enter, there came a high shriek from somewhere within the residence and the sound of running.
"Shuurei?!" Ryuuki cried in alarm as he bolted through the threshold, searching for both the lady in question and the reason for her cry of distress, Shuuei and Kouyuu following hot on his heels. They almost ran straight into the emperor's back when he stopped dead in his tracks.
There was the sound of several somethings whizzing through the air, impacting against flesh, and Ryuuki yelped. The three of them were nearly bowled over as someone ran past them.
"ROU ENSEI, I'M GOING TO SKIN YOU AND FEED YOU TO THE DOGS---your Majesty?!"
Ryuuki blinked from where he had dropped into a defensive half-crouch, the remnants of at least three snowballs crumbling away from his robe and hair. "...Seiran?" he asked, confused.
Ensei ducked back and took cover behind Ryuuki, peering around the emperor in a rather comical sight. "You just hit the emperor with snowballs!" He called over to Seiran, who was rooted to the spot, looking utterly mortified. Without missing a beat, he scooped up some snow and packed it into a ball before shoving it into Ryuuki's hand. "C'mon, throw it back!" he said encouragingly.
"...." Ryuuki blinked and looked askance at Shuuei and Kouyuu, the former just lowering his hand from the hilt of his sword. When no help on the snowball throwing topic was forthcoming from that front (they were just as confused and surprised as he was), he turned back to Seiran, who was busy apologizing and looking like he wasn't sure if he needed to throw himself to the ground to beg for forgiveness.
"Your Majesty, this humble one is very sorry--whoa!" Seiran looked up from his bow just in time to see Ryuuki squeeze his eyes shut and lob the snowball in his general direction. It was a rather weak throw, but unfortunately his response to incoming projectiles was already firmly ingrained in his muscle memory, and he dodged without thinking.
Ryuuki opened one eye to peek, just in time to meet Shuurei's absolutely dumbfounded expression. The white powder dusting her face and hair was all that was left of the snowball he aimed at Seiran.
There was another extended moment of silence as everyone took in the scene and digested what happened. Finally, Shuurei very carefully reached up to wipe her face with her hanging sleeves, before she bent down to scoop up double handfuls of snow.
".............eep!" Ryuuki squeaked. Shuurei's dark eyes, usually so sweet and gentle (in Ryuuki's mind, at least), glinted dangerously. Even Shuuei and Kouyuu recoiled a little.
"Snowball fight!" Ensei cheered.
**
They got the full story after the battle concluded: Shuurei had finished making lunch as planned, but Ensei had been getting underfoot as he was wont to do, and dropped some snow down the back of her robe as a prank. That was the cause for the shriek that Ryuuki, Shuuei and Kouyuu heard when they first arrived. Seiran, in an effort to defend Shuurei and get revenge (and maybe he just wanted an excuse to hit Ensei), chased him out of the kitchen and pelted him with snowballs...until of course a few of them unfortunately ended up hitting Ryuuki instead.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
"You didn't have to hit me so many times, it's cold!" Ryuuki whined a little as he huddled into a blanket, wearing one of Shouka's old (and dry) robes.
Shuurei rolled her eyes as she served them all hot tea to ward off the chill that resulted from their battle. She had left the meal preparation to make sure that Seiran wouldn't really kill their guest...luckily nothing burned despite her unexpected time away from the stoves.
"Oh, stop being a baby," she said without much sympathy. "That's why I'm giving you tea now."
"Hime-san is really good!" Ensei laughed, wearing one of Seiran's larger spare shirts. As the instigator of the whole event, he was pretty much the favorite target (if not the easiest to hit), and thus ended up even more soaked than Ryuuki. "I never expected her aim to be so great!"
Shuuei grinned wryly - indeed, even though everyone had been throwing around snowballs as fast as they could make them, it really was surprising how many of them connected given that they were all running around madly. "Kouyuu too," he nudged his friend with an admiring smile that only held a hint of teasing. "I guess that time when you almost hit me with the book wasn't a fluke."
"Shut up," Kouyuu retorted without much heat, wrapping his hands around the teacup that Shuurei gave him gratefully. He was starting to feel a vague ache in his arm that would undoubtedly turn into full-on soreness tomorrow, but it had been vastly satisfying to hit Shuuei repeatedly with snowballs, so it was completely worth it. "Now, if we're all done with this foolish business, let's have lunch like we originally planned."
**
End
Fun Facts:
1. The original draft was chugging along, getting wildly out of hand. Somehow the prompt of a snowball fight had mutated into a full on snowball war, with snow forts and teams and battle strategies...At the point where Kouyuu started explaining the finer details on the structural integrity of a wall built from snow and Shuuei started telling his story about Ryuuren spending the winter in a cave with hibernating bears, I threw in the towel and wrote this instead.
2. Ensei's so fun to write. My favorite line is undoubtedly him telling Seiran he hit the emperor with a snowball and then encouraging Ryuuki to throw one back.
Majo