AKA: The reason why it's bad to be on my favorite characters list /sobs
The drawers rattle and the sound of a thousand chirping birds resonates in her ear.
She steadies her shaking hands, taking in a calming breath. She lets her hands hover over the quaint little containers, eyes trailing to the one made of lustrous capiz from a country down south. She brings it out carefully, tracing the gouge along the edge before snapping it open.
She remembered the way her father had cupped her cheek in his large, warm hands and gave her a large, warm smile. You have your mother's face, she remembers him saying, with nothing but adoration in his eyes.
She stands on the chair in front of the dresser and dips a tiny finger into the red paste. She looks at her mother in the mirror and remembers the way her father looks at her lips.
The door rattles open and she snaps the capiz container close, throwing it back into the drawer and shutting it with unnecessary force. She wipes the telltale red on her hands onto her skirt, and scrambles off the chair and under the dresser. But it is useless, as she has already been found out.
"Oh, Hakuei," her mother lilts and gracefully glides over to where she cowers and tries to blend herself into the shadows. Her mother sits down on the chair, gently egging her out from her hiding place. "Come here, sweetheart."
And she acquiesces, because this was the woman even the emperor of Kou could not refuse.
Gyokuen sits her on her lap, and pulls open the drawer. She picks out the capiz container and snaps it open. The red paste inside looks blindingly bright against the empress's pale finger. Her mother smears an apple stain along her lips, and Hakuei can taste the maturity of it.
"There we go. Oh, you're such a beauty," her mother coos.
There are two faces in the mirror, but the difference is so little that they might as well be one and the same.