A Sweeter Song
Giggles, snickering and loud shushing set off the neighborhood dogs in a cacophony of noise that had Ryuuki retreating from the Kou manor gate.
"Get back here!" Kouyuu demanded, his face flushed and his voice hoarse from one too many hits on the sake bottle.
"Shhhh," Shuuei reeled sideways holding a finger to his lips.
"Don't shush me!" Kouyuu turned his anger on the drunken general. "He dragged us down here, and now he's going to turn tail and run?" He twisted his disgusted countenance toward the cringing emperor. "Are you a man or aren't you?"
"But Kouyuu…" Ryuuki cleared his throat nervously.
Shuuei snorted and threw his arm around Kouyuu's neck. "Don't listen to him, Your Majesty. This guy can't even be in the same room with a woman. I took him to Kouchou's once…"
"Shut up!" Kouyuu shoved Shuuei off him, and his friend fell back against the battered estate wall, slid to the ground on his backside and started chuckling again.
"Shuuei's drunk," Ryuuki stated, wavering unsteadily and squinting at his trusted advisor slumped on the ground and giggling into his voluminous blue sleeve.
"Foolish Elder Brother #4 is an embarrassment," Ryuuren sighed wearily. "Still, our mission cannot be completed without him. Up, Brother Shuuei!" Ryuuren grabbed his brother by the front of his robe and hauled him to his feet. "Do your duty for your king!"
"Maybe we should forget this," Ryuuki laughed nervously, taking a few wobbly steps backwards.
"Get in here!" came Kouyuu's demanding voice, as the front gate swung open to reveal him breathless and panting on the other side.
"Kouyuu! How did you get in there?!" Ryuuki exclaimed looking for the ladder or door that permitted Kouyuu entry. The notoriously directionally challenged official couldn't normally find his way back to a room he'd just left, let alone discover a secret entry to a strange estate in the middle of the night.
"He's like that when he's drunk," Shuuei noted, leaning on his younger brother for support.
"Don't accuse me of your bad habits!" Kouyuu turned up his nose at his friend. "I've never been drunk in my life."
Total silence followed the last statement, and Kouyuu cast questioning eyes around the group, until the other three started laughing hysterically. Every now and then when the small group found themselves together with nothing to do, a similar sake party would break out, resulting in Kouyuu doing something he later regretted, instigated by the others. Most of the time, he couldn't remember anything, but Shuuei always offered to fill in the blanks, usually exaggerating or completely making up awful details that made Kouyuu run out of the room.
"I'm leaving!" Kouyuu insisted, pushing past his friends.
"We are too!" Ryuuki sighed in relief.
"Unsightly one!" Ryuuren pointed his flute dramatically at Kouyuu. "The cause of love demands your service! You have vowed to serve your king. Will you break your vow?"
"He's good," Ryuuki nodded to Shuuei, who beamed with well-lubricated pride.
"That's my little brother," he sniffed and wiped a tear from his eye.
Kouyuu growled in frustration. "Fine! Let's go!" He marched toward the gate, grabbed Ryuuki under the arm and dragged him forward onto the grounds of the Kou residence, followed by the two Ran brothers.
Something of a hush fell over the group as they tip-toed unsteadily down the garden path toward the house.
"Which room is hers?" Shuuei asked in a loud hiss that was supposed to be a whisper.
"Oh…hmm…" Ryuuki looked back and forth along the house, appearing to be confused. "We recall…her window looks out at the garden. But we could be wrong," he added nervously and swallowed hard.
"This way," Kouyuu tugged the emperor roughly, heading directly for the small vegetable patch and fruit tree grove behind the Kou manor. Ryuuki threw a desperate look over his shoulder at Shuuei and Ryuuren, who followed in stumbling procession behind them.
"Shuuuu-ei…" Ryuuki pleaded like a child.
"We're behind you all the way, Your Majesty," Shuuei assured him, raising a faltering fist in solidarity.
Finally, Kouyuu came to a halt and pushed Ryuuki forward to stand alone beneath a darkened window. Kouyuu stood with his arms crossed, glaring at him sternly. Ryuuki glanced anxiously from the window back to the small group watching him through bleary eyes.
"Don't you remember the words I taught you?" Ryuuren asked when Ryuuki started to walk back toward them.
The emperor stopped in his tracks and looked back at the window yet again. "Yes, we remember," he admitted.
"Do you love her?" Shuuei asked, a warm smile touching his lips.
Looking up at the dark, shuttered window, Ryuuki envisioned Shuurei smiling at him, scolding him, encouraging him.
"We love her very much," he answered in a firm voice and squared his wide shoulders.
"Then sing!" the three said together, and Ryuuren began to blow into his flute, launching an uncharacteristically rhythmic tune, the feathers in his headdress bobbing along with the beat. Shuuei began to clap his hands in time with Ryuuren's music and was soon joined by Kouyuu.
With a deep breath, Ryuuki poured into his voice all the love in his heart:
"I've
got sunshine, on a cloudy day.
When it's cold outside, I've got
the month of May.
Well, I guess you'll say, what can make me feel
this way?
My girl," Ryuuki sang.
"My girl," added Shuuei.
"My girl," Kouyuu echoed.
"Talkin' 'bout my girl," Ryuuki finished with a harmonic "my girl" in unison from his back-up group.
He beamed a tremendous smile, emboldened by the power of his love. His voice grew in strength and decibels.
"I've got sooooo much honey, the bees envy me," he crooned.
Kouyuu and Shuuei, still clapping along to Ryuuren's flute, began to shuffle back and forth in time with the song, at least somewhat steadily.
"I've got a sweeter song, than the birds in the trees," Ryuuki sang, clutching his hands together under his chin.
"We-ell," Ryuuki roared, spreading his arms wide, "I … guess … you'll … say, what can make me feel this way? My girl!"
"My girl."
"My girl."
"Talkin' 'bout my girl."
"My girl."
"Oooooh-hooooo," Ryuuki hummed, joined by Ryuuren's flute.
The Twin Flowers chanted in time, "Hey, hey, hey," as they spun in circles, snapping their fingers, "Hey, hey, hey."
Carried away by the surge of passion (and sake) coursing through his veins, Ryuuki fell to his knees and belted out:
"I don't need no money, fortune or fame!"
His arms reached up to the woman behind the window.
"I've got all the riches, baby, one man can claim!"
He jumped to his feet, spun in a circle, stopping on a dime, his arms splayed out with dash and style.
"We-e-ell, I—guess—you'll—say, what can make me feel this way? My girl!"
"My girl!"
"My girl!"
Talkin' 'bout my girl.
"My girl!"
"Talkin' bout my girl," Kouyuu and Shuuei leaned in close to each other, savoring their harmony.
"I've got sunshine on cloudy day, with my girl," Ryuuki sang to the gods.
"My girl," the twins hummed.
"I've even got the month of May…." Ryuuki's voice trailed off to silence as he watched the dark window and swallowed the lump in his throat. Soon Ryuuren's flute stopped as well, leaving Kouyuu and Shuuei's voices to trail off awkwardly. They all watched the window, expectantly, fearfully.
Ryuuki's breath caught in his throat and his eyes widened when he heard a scratching sound at the latch of the window's shutters. They each took a hesitant step forward when the shutter opened.
"Oh, Your Majesty!" Shouka stuck his head out the window. "It's you!"
Ryuuki's shoulders sagged, before sudden realization burned his embarrassment into his cheeks.
"Shouka-sama," Ryuuki muttered, his voice cracking.
Kouyuu immediately ducked into the shadows, imagining his adopted uncle sharing this little incident with his adopted father. Shuuei started laughing, burying his face against his brother's shoulder. Ryuuren rolled his eyes.
"That was a lovely song, Your Majesty," Shouka praised him. "Is that General Ran and his brother with you? And Master Kouyuu?"
"Erk," Kouyuu groaned and stepped forward to wave and smile painfully at his uncle.
"You're all very talented!" Shouka exclaimed kindly.
"Shouka-sama," Ryuuki interrupted awkwardly. "Is Shuurei sleeping?"
"Oh, Shuurei is visiting Kouchou and won't be home until tomorrow," he replied. "Shall I tell her you came to see her?"
"Eh…" Ryuuki sighed, beyond humiliated at this point. "No, no, Shouka, please don't. We will call on her at a decent hour when we can."
"Ah," Shouka nodded. "Well, good night then, Your Majesty."
"Good night," Ryuuki inclined his head and watched as the older man drew his head back inside and relatched the shutter on the window.
Shuuei rested a comforting hand on Ryuuki's shoulder.
"Well, Your Majesty, love stinks," he observed.
"Ya," Kouyuu sighed. Ryuuren added a jarring toot on his flute in agreement.
The four friends gathered together and walked dejectedly toward the gate. Ryuuki wondered if there was any more sake back at the palace to drown his broken heart. Shuuei pondered a quick visit to Kouchou's before sun up. Ryuuren wondered why penguins can't fly. And Kouyuu found himself stone cold sober at the thought of Reishin finding out about tonight.
Just as they reached the gate, each lost in his own thoughts, they were brought up short by a low, sinister laugh.
"Did you really think you could wake me up in the middle of the night and then just leave?" Seiran asked, leaning against the gate in the shadows, his arms crossed over his chest.
The quartet swallowed hard all at once.
"Aniue…" Ryuuki mumbled in wide-eyed fear. "We…we can explain…"
Meanwhile, back inside the house, Shouka lit a candle in Shuurei's bedroom.
"Do you think I'm awful, Papa? Asking you to lie to Ryuuki like that," Shuurei bit her lip, her cheeks flushed and glowing.
"You have your reasons, child," he added. "Only, it was a nice song, wasn't it?"
Tears welled in Shuurei's eyes and she beamed a happy smile at her father. "It was a very nice song."