Title : Extra Extra Sweet
Disclaimer : I don't own Saiunkoku Monogatari. It belongs to Sai Yukino.
Rating : T
Genre : Friendship/Humour/Angst(a little)
Warnings : Yaoi
Pairing : Koyu/Shuei
Summary : Ryuki advises Shuei on what not to do in his relationship with Koyu.
Time-fit: Koyu and Shuei are new-ish lovers. After Non-Existent Breasts.
"What's the saucer of sugar for, Your Highness?"
"Eh? You've not eaten lotus seed paste manju with Shuei before?"
Koyu shook his head, his brows raised in a silent question. Ryuki laughed knowingly, earning a glare from Shuei.
"Just watch, Koyu."
Ryuki grinned, casually dodging a silver chopstick missile.
Koyu's turned his large pale grey eyes on Shuei. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to be watching for. He leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and waited.
Shuei, just a little pink from the unwanted attention, proceeded with his lotus seed paste manju routine. He broke the bun down the middle, set one half down, and using a pair of chopsticks, emptied the lotus seed paste filling onto the saucer of sugar. He did the same with the other half of the manju.
Koyu watched in disbelief as Shuei folded in ALL of the sugar into the lotus seed paste and stuffed the mixture back into the two half-buns.
"Shuei! You can't take all that sugar! You'll end up with a host of health problems!"
Koyu snatched the two half-buns from Shuei's plate.
"Come on, Koyu, I only take this sweet for lotus seed paste, not for anything else. Give them back!"
Resting his chin on his hands, the young emperor watched his two Royal Advisors fight over the manju. He decided to help Koyu. He clapped his hands to get their attention.
"Shuei, your status has changed. Spare some thought for your new lover. How do you expect Koyu to kiss a mouth full of decaying teeth? And you do know, don't you, that one of the problems faced by diabetics is erectile dysfunction?"
The manju, newly wrestled from Koyu, fell from Shuei's nerveless fingers.
"Ah. So you don't know."
Ryuki laughed, shaking his head.
"You really need to read more, Shuei. Here, have a normal manju."
He pushed the pile of manju towards Shuei.
Shuei, still looking stricken, waved it away.
"No thanks, Your Highness. I'll do without."
Shrugging, Ryuki turned to Koyu.
"I've known him a longer time than you, Koyu. It's true he only takes this sweet for lotus seed paste manju. Not yam paste, not red-bean paste, not mung-bean paste. Weird."
"Why?"
"Huh?"
"Didn't you think to ask him why, Your Highness?"
Ryuki's golden eyes opened wide. He laughed.
"No. I never thought to ask why."
Shuei shrank from the two pairs of eyes looking at him expectantly.
"None of your business!"
Koyu looked to Ryuki for permission.
"May I, Your Highness?"
"Oh! Are we talking sex-torture? Carry on, Assistant Secretary Li!"
Red-faced, gasping, and with sweat rolling down his neck, Shuei caved in.
"Alright, I surrender! Get your hands out from under my clothes!"
Two cups of tea later, Shuei related his story.
"Good god! You have the most awful elder brothers! That was a brilliant idea, to make your share of your favourite lotus seed paste manju too sweet for them to eat. Your mother's a genius."
"They are not that bad, Your Highness. Just unthinking, I guess. And I did eat abnormally slow. Koyu, what are you doing?"
Koyu had picked up one of the half-buns. He bit off a small chunk of lotus seed paste and savoured it slowly. He frowned absently, eyes faraway.
"It's gritty. The sugar grains are not dissolved."
"Of course not. I only folded in the sugar. Koyu?"
[Four
"Koyu is later than usual today, even accounting for getting lost. Did you two put in too much overtime last night? The lamp in Koyu's office burns late these days."
"Ah, haha . . . so Your Highness knows about the hardworking lamp in Koyu's office."
Ryuki chuckled.
"An emperor needs to know everything that happens in his palace. And Shuei, why are you burning my palace lamps? Don't you have lamps in the Ran Manor?"
Shuei laughed. Then he fell silent.
"Your Highness, do you think Koyu's ready for that?"
"You're asking me that question?"
"Yes, Your Highness. I have no one else to ask."
Ryuki examined Shuei's profile.
"You don't think he's ready to commit? No, Shuei, that's not even the question, is it? What's wrong?"
"I don't know. I think I'm suffocating Koyu. The last few nights, he ended it early, saying he needed to do some research at home. I offered to help. He said I'll be in his way."
Shuei smiled ruefully.
"I don't even understand what that means, Your Highness. Koyu can never be 'in the way', not for me. Our expectations appear to be very different. I want to spend every single minute with him. I want to shower him with attention, gifts, whatever. More often than not, my efforts end up irritating him. And now this. Wouldn't research be done in the Archives? I'm just wondering if Koyu's feeling suffocated."
Ran Shuei, whatever am I going to say? Ah well, you will know why Koyu's been busy soon enough. But there's the other thing . . .
"Shuei, if you are not careful, you're going to end up a clinging vine, just like your . . ."
Seeing Shuei turn pale, Ryuki had to force himself to say the rest.
". . .just like your mother."
Shuei flushed.
"How dare you say that about my mother! You were not there to see her suffer! You didn't see her lose a piece of herself every time my father took a new woman! You didn't see her humiliate herself ranting in the courtyards of the new concubines! You didn't see her cajole and threaten the guards placed by my father to keep her under house arrest! You didn't see her pace her own courtyard like a caged animal! She wasn't always the mad woman the grapevine made her out to be. She wasn't that way until after Ryuren was born, until my father got his precious Ran "dragon", and had no more need to keep his rightful wife happy! You don't know anything, you arrogant, royal bastard!"
Ryuki looked at Shuei levelly.
"Sit down, Shuei, and don't bother to apologize. Just listen."
He waited till Shuei had seated himself and calmed down.
"Shuei, I don't like this system any more than you do. It starts with royalty, of course. The emperor is expected to have one rightful empress, and a whole harem of concubines. It will not happen with me. I will have one empress, and nothing else. And I know your mother suffered. The Ran brothers are all affected, aren't they? Ran Setsuna is scrupulously monogamous, and Ran Ryuren appears to be celibate. But that is not my point. My point is, Shuei, you have to be stronger than your mother. Your mother made loving your father the only thing in her life. When that was gone, she disintegrated."
Ryuki paused.
"Now, about Koyu. I think you chose a very strange one to fall in love with, Ran Shuei. I am myself more than a little afraid of him! He's fiercely independent, and private to the point of being eccentric. And your gifts! Really, Shuei, how could you even think that covering his office with five hundred roses would please him? I seriously don't think Koyu appreciates such public displays of love. Whatever extravagant plan you have, Shuei, make sure it's PRIVATE!"
"So . . . extravagant is alright, so long as it is private?"
"I'm guessing 'yes'. The other thing is, just because Koyu prefers to do some things on his own, doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy your company. As you already know in your gut, Shuei, don't suffocate him."
"Do you think I'm too late? I mean, about suffocating Koyu? These last few nights, is Koyu trying to get away from me, Your Highness?"
Before Ryuki could formulate an answer, they heard Koyu's footsteps approaching. Koyu entered with a food carrier, apologizing for his lateness.
Shuei stared at the proffered manju, speechless.
"Koyu, perhaps you should feed him as well. You've spent the last four nights trying out recipes, adjusting ingredients, hogging the kitchen, terrorizing Lord Reishin and Lord Kijin with batches upon batches of tooth-numbingly sweet lotus seed paste buns."
[Flashback]
Clutching the side of his face, Reishin's eyes squeezed shut in agony, letting out a not-quite-human high pitched squeal. Kijin reacted swiftly. He poured a cup of tea, strong enough to curl anybody's hair, and placed the rim of the cup against his lover's lips, making him drink it.
Reishin wiped his lips, then threw the napkin down on the table in exasperation.
"What is wrong with that boyfriend of yours, Koyu? I can't take anymore of this! All this sugar is making Kijin friskier than normal. It's not just toothaches, my butt hurts!"
Kijin watched in amusement as Reishin blushed at his own slip, and Koyu went a deep red at the information overload. After a couple of minutes enjoying their discomfort, he decided to help out.
"Koyu, I think this is it, the dough is perfect."
He laughed.
"And I'm not just saying this to stop the sugar-torture!"
Koyu smiled in recollection, brought back to the present by Ryuki's laughter.
Ryuki stopped laughing.
"It's just one small step more to feed him. He appears to need some help!"
Koyu broke off a bite-size piece.
"Say 'Ahhhh' . . . good boy. Now, isn't that better? Nice and smooth, no grittiness."
Ryuki flushed, averting his gaze. He couldn't stand to see a grown man cry eating extra, extra sweet lotus seed paste manju!
The End
Notes : Shuei's unpresentable way of eating his lotus seed paste manju was inspired by my sister. When we were kids, she used to eat stuff in really unusual (and disgusting!) ways. Some examples are scraping/gnawing on the edges of Ritz biscuits to wear the disc down, compressing sponge cakes till totally flattened, eating up the chocolate in chocolate-covered almonds and leaving the almonds for another time! The particular memory that inspired Shuei's habit is how she would squeeze out the red-bean paste filling from the bun, and eat that first. FOR THOSE NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE SAI-MONO FANDOM:
Shuei's younger brother, Ryuren, is the youngest and fifth son. He, over and above his four elder brothers, was deemed worthy of the "dragon" name ("ryu" means "dragon"). This name was only given to the successor of the Ran clan.
Apart from the five Ran brothers by the rightful wife, there were many other siblings by other women. In the anime Season 2, Shuei's half-sister , Jyusan-Hime("jyusan" means "thirteen", and "hime" means "princess"), was offered to Ryuki as an empress-candidate.