Lovely Aori helped me whip this fic into shape for your eyes to consume. Many thanks to her and check out her Bleach time travel fic called "one step forward" on ao3 that I beta-ed for her if you're interested.
Cultural Note: In Ancient China, men having multiply wives is a very normal thing. The jealously that begets from that is also common place.
"I'm not marrying him!" Yusuke hissed, eyes wild with fury and indignation. "How dare you ignore my existence for all this time and then when there is a problem with your family, you toss me to the sharks."
"You ungrateful brat!" his father's second wife shrieked, a face that could have once been considered beautiful twisting grotesquely with anger. "We gave you things others could only dream of and treated you well. Is this how you respond when we ask you to repay us?"
Yusuke matched fire with fire head on. "If I'm really going to repay you, I would start by calling you a 'son of a whore' behind your back, or maybe travel back in time and do stupid stuff like destroying the little toys you had and fucking trip you up whenever your father is not looking. Treated me well, sure! "
By the time Yusuke finished his little tirade, the second wife's pretty little face was red and purple, a sight that Yusuke fucking relished in. "Y-you!" she exclaimed, taking a deep breath like she wanted to go at it again, only for a loud command to echo across the room.
"Enough!" his father's voice boomed. Every eye flickered to the master of the Urameshi house, yet despite his father's powerful voice, Yusuke couldn't help but think the man himself was a sorry sight. At the age of sixty-two, his once powerful body had atrophied with age, causing his back to slope and his hands to tremble. He was no longer the general that commanded hundreds of soldiers, only a man that could barely hold onto control in his own household. "Mineko, Yusuke owes us nothing. It's only natural for a father to support for his son, so please don't imply otherwise."
Second Wife looked like she was about to protest, only for Third Wife, slick as an eel, to finally intervene. "Please don't be angry, my dear lord," she said, voice full of sickening concern. "Your health is more important, and Mineko-nee-sama surely didn't mean anything by her suggestion other than hoping to alleviate one of your many problems with an obvious solution."
Second Wife threw Third Wife a suspicious glance for her unexpected rescue since they were usually at each other's throat, but took the lifeline offered anyway. "Yes, my lord, please don't be angry at me." She batted her eyelashes cutely at his father, intending to distract. "I only had your best interest in mind."
And my worse interest, Yusuke mentally added. He would have voiced them aloud – he had no qualms about having another round of shouting match – but he looked at his father, at his drooping eyes struggling to stay awake and the heavy bags that were under them. Stress had further deepened the furrow at his brows and Yusuke knew that if his mother was present, she would have pressed her fingers at it gently and try to massage them out, while fondly saying to Yusuke, "Watch out for him alright, my little spy, and don't give him too much trouble."
"I know," his father said tiredly, no doubt sick of the numerous internal family disputes he had to mediate over the years. It didn't help that their country, Miyako, lost the war and for weeks the Urameshi family agonized and feared that people of the new regime were going to come and take revenge for being an active participant in the war against their invasion.
When words were finally given that the new Emperor was going to spare the lives of the Urameshi family and moreover, let them keep their current status, it came as an incredible relief to everyone. There was, however, one condition attached to it: all families with noble standing from the old regime must present one blood member of the family to be married to the Emperor.
Diplomatically, the stipulation was placed in order to make the transition from the old regime to the new regime go smoothly by actively integrating them. In layman's terms, it means the new Emperor needed insurance that the families won't rebel against their rule and that the insurance came in form of a direct blood-related family member. In other words, whoever was going to be sent to wed the new Emperor was essentially a hostage. Under such turbulent and uncertain times, who could say what would happen to those people who were sent?
Hence, although under any other circumstances, the Second Wife would have leapt at the chance to send her daughter off to marry the Emperor to secure a good connection, she was pushing forth Yusuke instead.
"Whatever you are thinking, it's not going to work, however," his father continued, drawing Yusuke out of his thoughts. "Although it is not uncommon for males to wed each other in our culture, there are no such practices in Senkaku. If we present Yusuke, they may think of this as an insult, which would be the worst possible outcome."
"But my lord," Second Wife whined, her pitch high and pitiful, "surely you don't intend to send Keiko. She's our only daughter!"
At the sound of Keiko's name, Yusuke's stomach dropped. That was right. Keiko was the only daughter of the Urameshi household, so she would be the default choice to wed to the Emperor. The thought of any harm befalling on his two-years-younger sister made his stomach clench uncomfortably.
"It can't be helped," his father said, calm despite the racket his second wife was making. "She is of age to marry anyway. Only her stubborn refusal to do so has left her unwed at the age of nineteen. I have yet to astonish you for spoiling her, leading her to be so out of control as a girl."
"My lord, I'll teach her well from now on," Second Wife said as tears welled in her eyes. While Yusuke had no doubt that she was forcing those tears out by sheer will, he also knew that some of those were not fake. Second Wife love Keiko dearly, everyone in the Urameshi household knew, especially since after giving birth to Keiko, she could no longer conceive and her first son died a year after the war started. "Please, let her stay."
"Mineko, don't be like this," his father said, eyes and tone softening. His father was too utterly susceptible to charms, especially to those of his wives. Sometimes it seemed like he picked the craftiest of vipers to stay by his side to sway him this way and that. Atsuko said he knew that he was being beguiled, but love for his wives tempered any guards he would otherwise have against them. "We're sending her to marry. It should be a happy occasion."
"Well, it's not," Second Wife sniffled. "At times like this, I would like her to stay by my side. Oh, if Daichi was here…"
Shadows crossed his father's face and Yusuke knew that he was blaming himself for the death of his and Second Wife's first born. Had Daichi lived, he would have been the proud heir to the Urameshi family. Everyone had such high hopes for him, to the point that when Daichi asked to lead one of his father's troops, his father allowed him. That ultimately left a weak link in their command and when Daichi failed to hold their position with his troops, he lost his head and a crucial battle for the resistant force that, to this day, left a mark of shame upon their family name.
"My lord," Third Wife added, no doubt trying to add oil to fire, and his father's face twisted painfully as she began to give her argument.
"Enough," someone said, and it took Yusuke a moment to realize that it was him. All eyes went to him, even the servants that were pretending not to be eavesdropping. "I'll go alright, now shut up. "
Second Wife's face blanked, as though having to have so suddenly drop her tearful mask that she didn't yet have time to pull up a new one, while Third Wife elegantly raised an eyebrow in mock surprise. It was his father who he was really paying attention to, however.
At the sound of his announcement, indescribable emotions flickered across his face, too fast to be identified closely. His mouth parted slightly, but no words came out as he just stared at Yusuke like he had never seen him before. At last, he said softly, "Are you sure?"
Yusuke looked at the wives, who all glanced at him with sincere hope stemmed from selfish reasons, and then at his father who would – while not love him – at least try to respect his decision on the grounds that he felt that he owed Yusuke: for not playing the part of a father, for knowingly allowing some of the petty abuses thrown at him in the name of keeping peace within the family, for not doing the honorable thing and marrying his mother when Yusuke was conceived, for taking him away from his mother at the age of eight in the name of for Yusuke's sake when he certainly hadn't given a damn when Yusuke was born, for throwing Yusuke in a viper's den that forced him to fend for himself.
Yusuke looked at his father's face, wrinkled with age lines, and thought of the times when he would visit Atsuko and Yusuke at the brothel where Yusuke grew up in, despite the ugly rumors that would follow every visit about how he had a son with a whore and what a damn shame it was that the Urameshi name was dragged through the mud for such people. He thought about how, although his father didn't marry his mother, he made it no secret that Atsuko was the mother of Yusuke. How he brought Yusuke into the Urameshi family after his eldest-brother-who-Yusuke-had-never-met died in an accident and the First Wife died of heartbreak after her son's death made his father value family even more. He thought about the shouts and the terrible fights that followed when his father tried to properly marry Atsuko and give her the surname Urameshi, and the commotion that the wives made until his father was all weary and utterly defeated, looking like he had aged thirty years within the time span of three hours of shouting. Finally, Yusuke's mother pulled him aside for a few words - "Watch out for him alright, my little spy, and don't give him too much trouble" – and then she left, leaving Yusuke behind in his father's care.
His father tried to care, Yusuke knew, except with two pairs of sharp eyes on him and three other children that were not bastards to watch over, clamoring for his attention even more insistently at their mothers' behest, his father barely had any time or energy to watch him. Because of Yusuke, even more than ever within his own home, his father had to tread carefully and diplomatically, always careful not to lean too far one side or the other.
Twelve years is enough, isn't it , Yusuke thought. Enough to experience a father's distant love, by means of small gestures and making sure he had enough to eat and wear, occasionally telling the kitchen to prepare Yusuke's favorite food despite the glower he would receive back in his own chamber with his wives, the little gifts he would unfailingly pass to Yusuke every birthday, none of which Yusuke really wanted because those gifts were hints of what his father expected of him and their estrangement that led to his father never clearly seeing what Yusuke actually wanted, but–
But the fact that his father expected something of him, him who was the son of a whore and whose very existence was considered dishonorable and of the lowest class… That was enough.
Yusuke forced a smile on his face and thought of the first time he came across Keiko and seen her smile, their instant attach-at-the-hip and her insistence to be with him despite her mother's protest and the stigma that came with it, and said, "Yeah, I'm sure. I'll go marry the Emperor."
Yusuke fell to his knees and ignoring everyone else, kowtowed to his father with his forehead knocking soundly against the floor of the mansion and said, "Thank you for your care," as he fought to keep tremble out of his eyes and voice. His lips curled, bland and inflectionless, as he voiced, "I'll be leaving the nest now."
I started this a long time ago, aka at least three years ago. Was first inspired by the drama Empress of China, but then my plot bunnies just suddenly all died. Recently came back to it because I remembered how much I love Yomi/Yusuke after writing a different fic on them, and because the drama Nirvana In Fire reminded me how much I love ancient Chinese court drama. I actually still don't have much inspiration to write this, but I'm hoping I would get some after posting what I have.
Updates will be once every two week, until I run out of whatever I have prewritten. Then we'll see if my inspiration for this fic comes back, which means a quick warning that this just might go into a temporary hiatus if the answer is no. Lastly, this fic is in form of a drabble series.
Thanks for reading!