House Kougarou [Saiunkoku Monogatari, Ryuuki/Kouyuu, PG (to increase later)]
Title: House Kougarou
Author/Artist: grey_damaskena
Rating: PG at the moment; will go up later
Warnings: crack!
Prompt: Saiunkoku, Ryuuki/Kouyuu: harem - one of many.
Word count: 1,243
Summary: Another take on Saiunkoku, based on a single question: what if Saiunkoku were matrilenear?
A/N: I couldn't finish this on time because it ended up being a great deal longer than expected; my humblest apologies. Nor is it exactly in line with the prompt, or it only complies in a loose sense. As usual my brain is long-winded and full of crack. I will try to post the rest as soon as I finish it; that's the part with the pron, so the rating will go up. Yet another random AU on my part, and I do sincerely apologize.
House Kougarou
Temporary insanity, Kouyuu concluded to himself. That had to be it, it was the only explanation. Only insanity would have him here at the beating heart of the red light district, guards and attendants given the slip for the night. If it got around at court-- if his mother found out--
Kouyuu sighed and admitted to himself that if the Empress did hear of it, he would be in for merciless but good-natured teasing. It might last the rest of his natural life, but that was the extent of it. Empress Yuuri just took an unholy delight in making her adopted son blush the same shade as the cushions on her throne.
He was only really doomed if his father, the Emperor-Consort Reishin, found out.
Prince Kouyuu hitched his cloak higher, and his courage with it. There was a reason he was here, after all, and it wasn't just defiance, or an angry answer to the challenging gleam in Ran Shuuei's eyes. He had to know, one way or the other. On something this important, he couldn't trust anyone's judgment but his own.
With that resolve firmly in mind, he set his chin and his resolve at the angle drilled into him by years navigating the royal court, and strode across the bustling street to the glowing, welcoming front door of House Kougarou.
The guards opened it before him with every inch of the deference he usually encountered in the palace, and the beautiful woman on the other side sank gracefully down into a deep bow on the polished floor within. When she lowered her hands to complete the gesture he had an excellent view down the front of her rather scandalously low-cut dress at an expansive landscape of pale skin.
"Master Li, I presume?" she said, her voice as soft and rich as cream, and he yanked his eyes up to her face with a guilty jerk. She was smiling at him, but it was a sweet and uncondemning smile on her pretty face, with an impish and unexpected flash of dimples. Something about it set him at ease even despite her revealing clothing and ample curves.
"Um, yes," he said, feeling himself smile in response and hoping that he wasn't blushing too terribly. "I, um. I have an appointment. With, um. With--" he was definitely blushing now, why had he said 'appointment?' But what did one call it? 'Assignation' just didn't seem right for something that was also a business arrangement.
"Of course," she said warmly. "We've been expecting you. Would you care for something to drink first, some refreshment?" As she spoke an unobtrusive servant whisked off his cloak and disappeared with it into an annex.
"I . . . no, I'm fine. I just-- um--" he didn't really know what he wanted was more the problem.
"Right this way, then, if you please," she smiled, taking his arm with casual ease and leading him down the hall.
Snatches of laughter and music drifted from the rooms along the corridor, and he caught glimpses of richly-dressed nobles laughing and enjoying themselves with beautiful men and women-- the courtesans of House Kougarou, rumored second to none in the capital, and thus the country, and the world. They were the jewels; the house was the setting, furnished with expensive paintings and luxurious fabrics, polished stone and smooth-lacquered wood that drank the light of the fragrant oil lanterns. But the woman who lead him did not take him to any of the rooms off the main hall; instead the corridor brought them to a sweeping stone staircase with a polished teak railing. It went up to the second floor, where it was quieter, and many of the doors leading off the hall were closed. She lead him unerringly to one of them, carved with a motif of bats and coins, and knocked with the ring set above the handle.
"Come," the voice from inside was light and muffled but undeniably masculine, and not what Kouyuu had been expecting-- not that he had been expecting anything, of course. The courtesan who had lead him through the house pushed open the door to reveal a good-sized sitting room, expansive but still small enough to be intimate, and decorated with carved wooden furniture, plush cushions, and an elegant folding screen painted with an exquisite garden scene. A low table held a ceramic jug and matching cups; a desk bore a fine scholar's set.
"Mei-ki, can you help me with this?" the voice came from the next room, divided from the sitting room by an embroidered hanging that covered the door.
"You're still not ready? Honestly--" the woman made an elegant bow to Kouyuu, somehow conveying without words both apology and resignation before she hurried through to the next room.
Which left Kouyuu rather at loose ends-- was he supposed to go through the door, too? Or should he sit at the table, or perhaps on one of the elegant chairs? Uncertain, he found himself looking around again, and his eye caught on a set of shelves behind perforated carved doors. Intrigued, he crossed to it and tugged them open, and his guess proved correct: the spines of neatly arranged books and racks of scrolls greeted his eyes, all of them well-bound and elegant.
He pulled one out at random and his eyes went wide. Not only was it a beautiful edition, it was also an incredibly rare one. The Three Hundred Songs was hard to come by, but done in the hand of the great calligrapher Fu Xian? A book like that he might expect in a prominent scholar's study, or even in the Imperial Archives-- certainly not here in a courtesan's room. He pulled out another book, another rare work, and then a scroll with jade fixtures caught his eye and proved to be an original by Den Sou, complete with illustrations and the seals of past owners. That one he had to open.
He was so absorbed in it that he didn't notice when the door curtain lifted and the woman named Mei-ki returned. She smiled at the sight of him absorbed in a scroll, satisfied, and quietly let herself out of the room. Kouyuu didn't even hear the door closed, so engrossed in the lines of text, the graceful calligraphy that gave so much weight and meaning to the classic rhythms of the poetry; nor did he notice when someone else entered the room until he spoke.
"I see Your Highness has found the bookshelf."
Startled from his absorption in the characters, Kouyuu's head jerked up. Leaning against the doorway to the other room stood another man, one with rare and fine golden hair bound in a loose braid over one shoulder. He was not tall-- perhaps even a fingerspan shorter than Kouyuu stood-- but attractively broad in the shoulder and narrow in the waist, with fine bones and good carriage. He wore his robe belted, but open at the neck to show perhaps more honey-tinted skin than was appropriate. His face, too, was a vision-- undeniably masculine but yet almost too lovely to be male, with a full mouth and well-set golden eyes shuttered by gilded lashes.
He met Kouyuu's eyes boldly, and Kouyuu realized he was staring and blushed. "I'm sorry, I-- that is, you are-- ah--"
"Ryuuki," the courtesan said, and bowed. When he raised his head it was with a smile that turned his face from beautiful to a more approachable handsome. "Welcome to House Kougarou, my lord prince."
Author/Artist: grey_damaskena
Rating: PG at the moment; will go up later
Warnings: crack!
Prompt: Saiunkoku, Ryuuki/Kouyuu: harem - one of many.
Word count: 1,243
Summary: Another take on Saiunkoku, based on a single question: what if Saiunkoku were matrilenear?
A/N: I couldn't finish this on time because it ended up being a great deal longer than expected; my humblest apologies. Nor is it exactly in line with the prompt, or it only complies in a loose sense. As usual my brain is long-winded and full of crack. I will try to post the rest as soon as I finish it; that's the part with the pron, so the rating will go up. Yet another random AU on my part, and I do sincerely apologize.
House Kougarou
Temporary insanity, Kouyuu concluded to himself. That had to be it, it was the only explanation. Only insanity would have him here at the beating heart of the red light district, guards and attendants given the slip for the night. If it got around at court-- if his mother found out--
Kouyuu sighed and admitted to himself that if the Empress did hear of it, he would be in for merciless but good-natured teasing. It might last the rest of his natural life, but that was the extent of it. Empress Yuuri just took an unholy delight in making her adopted son blush the same shade as the cushions on her throne.
He was only really doomed if his father, the Emperor-Consort Reishin, found out.
Prince Kouyuu hitched his cloak higher, and his courage with it. There was a reason he was here, after all, and it wasn't just defiance, or an angry answer to the challenging gleam in Ran Shuuei's eyes. He had to know, one way or the other. On something this important, he couldn't trust anyone's judgment but his own.
With that resolve firmly in mind, he set his chin and his resolve at the angle drilled into him by years navigating the royal court, and strode across the bustling street to the glowing, welcoming front door of House Kougarou.
The guards opened it before him with every inch of the deference he usually encountered in the palace, and the beautiful woman on the other side sank gracefully down into a deep bow on the polished floor within. When she lowered her hands to complete the gesture he had an excellent view down the front of her rather scandalously low-cut dress at an expansive landscape of pale skin.
"Master Li, I presume?" she said, her voice as soft and rich as cream, and he yanked his eyes up to her face with a guilty jerk. She was smiling at him, but it was a sweet and uncondemning smile on her pretty face, with an impish and unexpected flash of dimples. Something about it set him at ease even despite her revealing clothing and ample curves.
"Um, yes," he said, feeling himself smile in response and hoping that he wasn't blushing too terribly. "I, um. I have an appointment. With, um. With--" he was definitely blushing now, why had he said 'appointment?' But what did one call it? 'Assignation' just didn't seem right for something that was also a business arrangement.
"Of course," she said warmly. "We've been expecting you. Would you care for something to drink first, some refreshment?" As she spoke an unobtrusive servant whisked off his cloak and disappeared with it into an annex.
"I . . . no, I'm fine. I just-- um--" he didn't really know what he wanted was more the problem.
"Right this way, then, if you please," she smiled, taking his arm with casual ease and leading him down the hall.
Snatches of laughter and music drifted from the rooms along the corridor, and he caught glimpses of richly-dressed nobles laughing and enjoying themselves with beautiful men and women-- the courtesans of House Kougarou, rumored second to none in the capital, and thus the country, and the world. They were the jewels; the house was the setting, furnished with expensive paintings and luxurious fabrics, polished stone and smooth-lacquered wood that drank the light of the fragrant oil lanterns. But the woman who lead him did not take him to any of the rooms off the main hall; instead the corridor brought them to a sweeping stone staircase with a polished teak railing. It went up to the second floor, where it was quieter, and many of the doors leading off the hall were closed. She lead him unerringly to one of them, carved with a motif of bats and coins, and knocked with the ring set above the handle.
"Come," the voice from inside was light and muffled but undeniably masculine, and not what Kouyuu had been expecting-- not that he had been expecting anything, of course. The courtesan who had lead him through the house pushed open the door to reveal a good-sized sitting room, expansive but still small enough to be intimate, and decorated with carved wooden furniture, plush cushions, and an elegant folding screen painted with an exquisite garden scene. A low table held a ceramic jug and matching cups; a desk bore a fine scholar's set.
"Mei-ki, can you help me with this?" the voice came from the next room, divided from the sitting room by an embroidered hanging that covered the door.
"You're still not ready? Honestly--" the woman made an elegant bow to Kouyuu, somehow conveying without words both apology and resignation before she hurried through to the next room.
Which left Kouyuu rather at loose ends-- was he supposed to go through the door, too? Or should he sit at the table, or perhaps on one of the elegant chairs? Uncertain, he found himself looking around again, and his eye caught on a set of shelves behind perforated carved doors. Intrigued, he crossed to it and tugged them open, and his guess proved correct: the spines of neatly arranged books and racks of scrolls greeted his eyes, all of them well-bound and elegant.
He pulled one out at random and his eyes went wide. Not only was it a beautiful edition, it was also an incredibly rare one. The Three Hundred Songs was hard to come by, but done in the hand of the great calligrapher Fu Xian? A book like that he might expect in a prominent scholar's study, or even in the Imperial Archives-- certainly not here in a courtesan's room. He pulled out another book, another rare work, and then a scroll with jade fixtures caught his eye and proved to be an original by Den Sou, complete with illustrations and the seals of past owners. That one he had to open.
He was so absorbed in it that he didn't notice when the door curtain lifted and the woman named Mei-ki returned. She smiled at the sight of him absorbed in a scroll, satisfied, and quietly let herself out of the room. Kouyuu didn't even hear the door closed, so engrossed in the lines of text, the graceful calligraphy that gave so much weight and meaning to the classic rhythms of the poetry; nor did he notice when someone else entered the room until he spoke.
"I see Your Highness has found the bookshelf."
Startled from his absorption in the characters, Kouyuu's head jerked up. Leaning against the doorway to the other room stood another man, one with rare and fine golden hair bound in a loose braid over one shoulder. He was not tall-- perhaps even a fingerspan shorter than Kouyuu stood-- but attractively broad in the shoulder and narrow in the waist, with fine bones and good carriage. He wore his robe belted, but open at the neck to show perhaps more honey-tinted skin than was appropriate. His face, too, was a vision-- undeniably masculine but yet almost too lovely to be male, with a full mouth and well-set golden eyes shuttered by gilded lashes.
He met Kouyuu's eyes boldly, and Kouyuu realized he was staring and blushed. "I'm sorry, I-- that is, you are-- ah--"
"Ryuuki," the courtesan said, and bowed. When he raised his head it was with a smile that turned his face from beautiful to a more approachable handsome. "Welcome to House Kougarou, my lord prince."