Title: Mischief
Author: xtrek
Rating: G (if you squint you might find a bit of Shuei/Kouyuu here)
Warnings: Set in a future with Shuurei and Ryuuki married. Could be considered AU.
Word Count: 750
Disclaimer: I don't own Saiunkoku Monogatari, although I would very much like to own all those bishies.
Summary: Uncle Kouyuu gets caught up in the children's games.

A/N: This takes off from mysticerzengel's drabble that she wrote for my birthday. It's not necessary to have read it before reading this one. You can find it in her lj (it's in German btw) and in our writing community (link in my author's profile).
The contents of Angel's drabble in short: Shuurei reveals that she is pregnant and Ryuuki freaks, thinking she is sick. Really very hilarious. My ficlet is set a few years later.

I'm open to constructive criticism. Just leave me a comment with what you liked and what you did not. Please enjoy!

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Mischief

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Ryuuki watched the twins play in the palace gardens. Children really grow up fast, he mused. Not too long ago all they had been doing was crying, eating and sleeping. Crying for food, crying because of soiled diapers and some more crying just for good measure.

Now he could smile at the memories of himself panicking because of the twins' constant crying. He had had no idea how to deal with two wailing infants. Sometimes Shuurei must have felt like she was raising three children instead of only her twins.

Ryuuki consoled himself with the knowledge that the other males in the palace did not fare much better when handling the babies. Only Shouka seemed to have a slight advantage because of his experiences in raising Shuurei.

Shion and Yuki had grown strong under the watchful eyes of their parents and everyone living in the palace. Ryuuki was proud of his children. His family was his everything and he would do anything to keep them save.

Ryuuki was startled out of his peaceful musings when the twins began shouting excitedly. They hastily made their way over to the nearest veranda where Kouyuu Ri had appeared, one of Shuurei's famous bentos in his hands.

Shion had grabbed his younger brother's hand and pulled him towards Kouyuu. Kouyuu had taken to the twins pretty fast. Just as they liked to play with Ran Shuei which was more horsing around and mock-fighting, they liked to listen to him or Shouka telling stories.

He was not that happy about the twins' fondness for playing hide-and-seek with him. After finding out about his orientation problems they ruthlessly tried to abuse said knowledge and had great fun in making him look for them for hours.

Today he came over to the royal family's quarters to bring over a bento for the twins and to deliver a message from some foreign diplomats to Ryuuki.

With the twins clutching at his robes, all the while dodging their attempts to get the large bento box, he made his way over to Ryuuki.

"Your majesty, here's a message forwarded by the foreign secretary," he managed to say apparently unfazed by the children's antics. Ryuuki took the scroll, qickly scanned the contents and turned to enter his quarters. "I'm sorry Shion, Yuki, this is important. I'll leave you with uncle Kouyuu for the time being. I'll see you later."

Yuki made a move to follow his father but Kouyuu gently stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Why don't we eat the bento together by the lake?" With that he found himself surrounded by happy cheers and the twins dragging him off towards the lake.

This promised to be another afternoon trying to keep the energetic kids from fighting over the food and distracting them from the appealing idea of playing hide-and-seek again. Hopefully the twins would not end up in the lake somehow.

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He had worried needlessly. It was not the children who had ended up in the lake after semi-peacefully eating their bento. Somehow Kouyuu had been pulled into a struggle between the twins and had found himself maneuvered into the shallow water of the lake. The boys had stopped their mock-fight and looked surprised for a moment before they had then taken off laughing.

After making sure that the palace guards would bring them to their quarters, Kouyuu had started his quest to find himself some dry clothes. Of course he got lost in the process.

The late evening had him dripping and shivering in front of Ran Shuei's room. Somehow he had ended up here after aimlessly wandering the palace grounds.

He knocked and Shuei quickly ushered him inside.

"Kouyuu, what happened to you? You're freezing! Come on and get out of those wet clothes!"

Kouyuu felt slightly uncomfortable in this embarrassing situation. He was not happy to always be rescued by his friend. He tried to protest weakly but Shuei wouldn't hear anything of it.

And in the end he didn't mind Shuei's warm hands prying him out of his sodden clothes. He did not even protest when Shuei insisted on putting him to bed. Although he blushed and indignantly tried to keep Shuei from climbing into the bed with him. Shuei kept saying that it was to share body heat. Continually mumbling his protest he slowly started to relax. Maybe being out-maneuvered by those children had its good points after all.

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END

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