DISCLAIMER:
The characters belong to Sai Yukino and Kairi Yura, Kadokawa Shoten,
Madhouse Studios, etc., i.e., not me.
I'm just borrowing them for a
while to spin a tale
Perilous
Entertainment (the Author's extended edition)
By firewolf
December 2008
@>;-'-
“And you found this where?” Shuuei
asked his soon to be fellow General.
“In the barracks.” Seiran grumbled unhappily, though he rather
significantly didn’t refrain from continuing his fascinated examination
of his find over Ryuuki’s shoulder. “I never bothered with the men’s
amusements before, but I couldn’t ignore this.
“We probably have no way of knowing how long similar books have been
published.”
Ryuuki lifted the book to turn it sideways for them to better
appreciate the next drawing. “The artist is very—talented.” He blushed.
Shuuei turned his eyes back to study the beautiful yet scandalous
drawings of himself with Kouyuu. He gulped. He was a bit surprised he
wasn’t angry. However, if he was honest with himself, the pictures were
only a stark reflection of his secret wants and desires.
“Well, now we know there are others in the kingdom who are just as
impatient with you as we are.” Seiran grinned at Shuuei while Ryuuki
flipped the pages of this hefty collection of pornographic art on his
Twin Flowers.
Shuuei went quite red with the teasing. “Am I that obvious?” He asked
quietly.
“Maybe more obvious than you realised…” Ryuuki told him distractedly.
“Shuurei was grumbling to me the other day that you should just kiss
Kouyuu already, instead of riling him up and making him angry with you.”
“But it’s fun to tease him.” Shuuei protested weakly.
“Because then Kouyuu’s full attention is on you and not half on his
first love of books and reports?” Seiran teased him knowingly.
“Surely there’s an easier path of courtship?” Ryuuki looked up at
Shuuei sympathetically while he flipped the page. For a minute there
though, he wondered why Shuuei’s countenance had suddenly gone so pale
for the suggestion.
“How long do you actually believe I will live if I did that to Kouyuu?”
Shuuei’s finger stabbed at the page Ryuuki had settled on when he made
his statement.
The three men studied the sequence of pictures critically and
collectively winced. “This—really isn’t what I meant.” Ryuuki ventured
timidly. “Still, beautiful as most of the art is. This is—very
disrespectful of My Twin Flowers.”
“You think?” Shuuei asked sardonically though he didn’t avert his eyes
from the art. “It would diminish our authority and power if we allowed
any more similar books to be published.”
“It’s a pity we can’t do anything about the books already in
circulation without drawing attention to them.” Seiran sighed wryly.
“On the other hand, the men were discrete to have kept something like
this from me for—how ever long these books have been in publication.”
“Since you’re the joint subject of these books, I’m not surprised at
all.” Seiran told Shuuei honestly. “Any soldier who owned a copy
probably feared for their lives whenever you visited the barracks.
Certainly no one dared claim ownership of this book when I accidentally
discovered it.”
“Ownership of what book?” Kouyuu’s sudden flushed face arrival at the
door to the Emperor’s office nearly made the three men jump. “And
Ryuuki, I’d really appreciate it if you’d stop moving your office every
other day.”
“But I--” The emperor clutched at the book fearfully and more than a
bit wild eyed for the thought that Kouyuu had just caught them
red-handed.
“Ahh, it was just a silly book of poetry, and other love sick ditties
Seiran found in the barracks.” Shuuei quickly moved from his position
behind their emperor to stand in front of Ryuuki’s desk. “You know how
it is with manly soldiers. No one would dare claim to be the owner of
such a romantic little thing.”
Kouyuu snorted as he strode into the room. “I hope you’ve been hard at
work while waiting for me and not perusing that waste of time.”
Behind Shuuei’s strategically concealing body, Ryuuki quickly closed
the scandalous book and stuffed it into the middle of the nearest pile
of paperwork. “Of course, Kouyuu dono, We have not been idle at all.”
“Good.” Kouyuu stepped around Shuuei to reach Ryuuki’s desk. “This is
the usual pile, right?”
The Emperor actually blanched when his eyes went from one pile of
papers to the next and noted that the book of Twin Flowers porn was
indeed in the middle of the pile of finished reports he had set aside
for Kouyuu to check. “Er—Kouyuu dono--”
“What? You’re not happy about the work you completed this time?” Kouyuu
frowned unhappily at Ryuuki while he snatched up the pile of books and
papers. “You’ve been doing an adequate job of it for years now. You
should show more confidence.”
“Er?!” Ryuuki gave Seiran and Shuuei a frantic look.
“Er, Kouyuu could I give you a hand with--” Shuuei stopped short with
Kouyuu’s glare.
“I am not so weak as to need help carrying such a small stack of
reports, Shuuei.” Kouyuu stalked towards his usual seat with his
burden, completely oblivious of the almost comical scene of panic
occurring behind him as Ryuuki’s silent gestures and wild eyed glances
confirmed everyone’s fears that the aqua haired scholar did indeed have
*the* book in his possession.
By the time Kouyuu turned around, the men had composed themselves
again, but they didn’t fool him one bit. “Is something wrong? You’re
all looking quite pale.”
A rather incoherent babble of denial from the three men greeted his
words, making Kouyuu roll his eyes at them before settling into his
seat to start on the pile of work. He was in no temper to worry over
their agitation right now. If it was important, Kouyuu figured he’d
find out what the matter was sooner or later.
While all three men stayed put uncomfortably, it could not be said they
didn’t each eye the door longingly. Ryuuki had the consideration that
they were in His office. He couldn’t flee from his own office, unless
he wanted to face a three hour lecture from Shuurei later regarding
childish behaviour not worthy of an Emperor, because he knew that as a
member of the Censorate who eventually uncovered all secrets, she would
hear of it.
Seiran didn’t dare leave. He was, after all, the one who discovered the
book and brought it to the Emperor’s office in the first place. Plus
the most incriminating thing he could do right now was to leave before
Kouyuu discovered the book.
Shuuei was experiencing an extended flash back of his entire life till
this moment. He knew better than to leave and make Kouyuu look for him.
There were two moments Kouyuu never got lost; when he was drunk and
when he had a great sense of urgency about some matter regarding life
and death. Shuuei thought hunting him down to kill him would figure
into the latter category of Kouyuu’s navigational abilities. Then
again—maybe, just maybe if he made it easy for Kouyuu to confront him,
the man might be merciful and it wouldn’t hurt so badly.... Shuuei also
wondered how many people would attend his funeral.
So the three men stayed in the tension filled office while Kouyuu
quietly went through the quickly diminishing pile of reports. The aqua
haired scholar did occasionally throw them suspicious looks for their
uncomfortable silence, but for the most part didn’t say anything to
them either.
They knew the exact moment Kouyuu finally came across the book of Twin
Flowers pornography because his face flushed bright red and he dropped
his writing brush. Then for the next several minutes there was no other
sound in the Emperor’s office apart from the gentle rustle of paper as
the aqua haired scholar slowly flipped through the numerous pages of
art. The brothers would later swear that a virtual thunder cloud grew
over Kouyuu’s head as he turned the pages. Shuuei on his part was
sweating up a storm.
Now the three men were very aware that Li Kouyuu was not a swordsmen,
neither was he a fighter. But when he finally reached the last page of
the book and looked up, his black expression told them that they would
be far safer dealing with twenty hungry tigers than him right now.
It was just a tiny flicker in the aqua haired scholar’s eyes which told
Ryuuki and Seiran they had his permission to leave. And as much as they
liked Shuuei, the two men obeyed the suggestion and fled the office as
if they had a thousand devils on their tail, leaving the whimpering man
alone with Kouyuu.
Shuuei was practically frozen with fear when Kouyuu finally rose from
his cushion to stalk towards where he was seated. But gods damn it; his
body was reacting to Kouyuu’s entire countenance which had taken the
form of a dangerous creature because the man was damn sexy when he was
angry. It was one of the reasons why Shuuei liked teasing Kouyuu enough
to get a rise out of him. Now, however, he was terrifying.
“There was *no* book of poetry.” Kouyuu purred softly as he glided
closer.
Shuuei swallowed loud enough to be heard before he could find the voice
to speak. “No, no poetry book.”
“So the three of you were looking through that—’interesting’ art book
about us before I arrived?” Kouyuu’s fingers curled around the fabric
of the collar of Shuuei’s court robes.
“Y--yes.” Shuuei couldn’t remember ever being this close to Kouyuu
before. And now, he could indeed see the individual strands of
lavender, which turned Kouyuu’s normally grey eyes a rather pretty
violet when he was angry.
“Did you enjoy the art work?” Kouyuu pulled Shuuei up slightly from his
seat so that they were nearly nose to nose.
For a moment there, Shuuei thought to deny his fascination with the
work, claim that he was just an innocent bystander, and convince Kouyuu
that the subject disgusted him and that he was really as upset and
angry as his fellow Twin Flower. However, Shuuei also knew he couldn’t
say these words with any conviction. So he chose honesty instead.
“I loved it. I—it was beautiful.”
“Truly? It didn’t—disgust you?”
“Not at all.” Shuuei admitted wistfully.
“Good.” And with that last word, Kouyuu yanked his fellow Twin Flower
into a mind melting kiss.
Outside the Emperor’s office, Ryuuki and Seiran heaved a huge sigh of
relief for the noises they could now discern from behind the closed
doors. “Well, it was about time they took that step in their
relationship.”
“Kouyuu dono has a sense of humour after all.” Ryuuki laughed
nervously. “But—they wouldn’t—do ‘it’ on my desk, would they?”
Seiran leaned an ear closer to the door and blushed. “I don’t know. I
think—the book has quite—inspired Kouyuu.”
“But—but—*My* desk! The unfinished paperwork--!” Ryuuki’s face went
flaming red. “Surely Kouyuu won’t--?!”
Seiran gave his little brother a hapless look. “There were worst
locations in the book.”
“But--! What could be worse than in the Emperor’s office and on the
Emperor’s desk?!” Ryuuki wailed.
“Erm? Reishin sama’s desk when he was still Secretary of the Department
of Civil Affairs?”
Ryuuki couldn’t argue with that.
They didn’t do it on the paperwork. That was the only mercy Shuuei
could give his Emperor, because Kouyuu had been really motivated by
that naughty book. And the aqua haired scholar took it with him too
when he finally sauntered out of the Emperor’s office, leaving Shuuei
lying on the Emperor’s desk and looking thoroughly debauched,
dishevelled, and still quite stunned over his unexpected good fortune.
Even after Ryuuki and Seiran cautiously returned to pick up and
reorganize the Emperor’s scattered paperwork, the soon to be restored
General just couldn’t raise the effort to move nor wipe the silly grin
off his face despite Ryuuki’s sour looks and wails of distress over the
state of his desk.
The Emperor, of course, refused to use his desk again until the
cleaning staff scrubbed it at least five times. Kouyuu found this
knowledge quite useful. For whenever Ryuuki started to drift off in day
dreams about Shuurei, all he had to do was give the desk a sly look and
the Emperor would start blushing and steadfastly concentrating on his
paperwork again, just to get his mind off the memory of how his Twin
Flowers had consummated their relationship on said desk.
Shuuei did not forget the artist. The man had known immediately what
Shuuei wanted to talk about when the fully armoured military man
suddenly appeared at his shop, and the artist had honestly feared for
his life. To his surprise and relief though, Shuuei had graciously
thanked him for the production of the book, and even purchased his
entire remaining stock of books on the Twin Flowers.
However, Ran Shuuei also politely suggested that the man not draw
pictures of the Emperor’s Twin Flowers ever again, and asked him to
spread the word among his cohorts. Since the General had drawn his
sword and was idly examining the workmanship of the deadly blade while
he said this, it made the artist suddenly aware that he was getting off
very lightly for this brief scandalous bit of fun.
So the man swore he’d spread the word and to never draw another
pornographic piece about the two men ever again. For with this very
personal visit from one of the Emperor’s Twin Flowers, the artist
understood that his life really was at stake here. After all, it was
very apparent to him now that when it came to Li Kouyuu, Ran Shuuei
clearly did not share.
Still, there were some books which were already in circulation. So when
word eventually spread that the Emperor’s Twin Flowers finally took the
next step in their relationship, and that Ran Shogun ‘politely’ asked
all artists to cease and desist drawing the Twin Flowers in
‘suggestive’ poses, the black market value of these rare books
exploded. Owners of the said books also realised they had to be doubly
careful about being discovered by friends of the Twin Flowers too,
because these men and women showed no mercy when confiscating the
scandalous materials. And Shi Seiran and Rou Ensei especially showed
rather particular talents for hunting down the owners in their
respective ‘departments’ and appropriating the disreputable
collections. Whether or not they actually destroyed or gave the
impounded books to the Twin Flowers, however, was another matter
altogether.
Rumour had it that Jyuusan Hime and Yuri Hime had furtively amassed a
small library of such pornography. They of course refused to confirm or
deny the stories about the alleged collection. For Jyuusan knew that as
long as he didn’t know for sure, Ran Shuuei would never ask since he
was too embarrassed to talk to his little sister about anything that
had to do with his sex life. And similarly, Kouyuu didn’t want to
discuss sex with his mother. It was whispered that their friends were
very glad for this fact.
Shuuei did extract one promise from his sister though. That if such a
collection did exist, that their elder brothers would never see them.
Kouyuu did the same with his mother with regards to his father. So no
matter how curious the Ran Triplets and Kou Reishin were about the
rumoured books, they never got a chance to see them.
Among all the rumours that abound the Twin Flowers, two things could be
confirmed. One, that Li Kouyuu had been awfully cheerful of late. And
two, that Ran Shuuei was now observed to have an almost perpetual grin
on his face. Neither, however, was willing to give any credibility to
the rumour that the original book which brought them together had a
place of honour on their bedside table.
~owari~