Author's Note: Happily Ever After is the title of a shamelessly self-indulgent fanfic I wrote for Saiunkoku, featuring my tremendously shiny OTP (that would be Ryuuki/Shuurei). This is another shamelessly self-indulgent fic, a kind of prequel. It's not very long, no, and it's the first of four parts. Beware the rampant silliness.
Court, and the morning, dragged endlessly. The Emperor was by turns distracted, anxious, and fidgety. He kept having to ask officials to repeat what they had said, and after that he would obviously make an effort to pay attention . . . for all of a sentence or two. Then his eyes would stray to the window, or he would absently pick up his brush only to put it down again, or he would shift his weight and start rearranging his sleeves.
One of the officials mistook the Emperor's obvious distraction for opportunity and tried to take advantage of it. The Emperor nodded along to his litany for five minutes while fraying the edge of his robe. Then suddenly his head came up, and he froze the hapless man with an eagle-sharp look as he delivered a complete and decidedly final dressing-down not only about the policy the man was trying to push through, but also his entire professional and personal record. The other attendees stared, shocked by the Emperor's utterly abnormal harshness, and when the unlucky official finally sank back into his seat, pale and shaking, it was a while before anyone had the courage to open their mouth again.
In that time the Emperor began shredding the pile of reports in front of him, and only mumbled a vague assent at the next wary request for permission to speak.
Court would have continued to limp through the interminable morning, but it was interrupted by the sudden entrance of a uniformed servant who hurried to the Emperor's side and whispered something urgently in his ear.
The Emperor came to his feet with a whoop in the middle of a violent flurry of paper fragments. He vaulted the desk in front of him, heedless of his fine robes, then cleared the table between the Senior Secretary of Finance and the Senior Secretary of Civil Affairs with the grace of a leaping gazelle and was out the door before any of them could do more than blink.
The doors swung to stillness on their hinges. The flakes of paper drifted slowly down to settle on the throne. The Senior Secretary of Civil Affairs opened his fan, then shut it with a snap.
And then the fan went flying as Kou Reishin leaped to his feet. The expression on his face was one that had never been seen in public before, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, but it was doubtful that any of the court members in their bewilderment realized just how rare and precious the sight was. "Shuurei!" he shouted, and shot off after the Emperor before his fan could clatter to the table.
A light breeze played with the drifts of papers, fluttering their ragged edges.
Kou Kijin picked up the fan and pushed himself to his feet. "It appears that court is in recess for the foreseeable future," he said calmly. "I suggest we adjourn to the Temple of the Sages and pray for the Empress's safe, successful labor and delivery."
Idiots, he thought to himself, turning on his heel and leaving the resulting pandemonium in the throne room behind.