Title: The Bad Influence
Author: beyondthemoor on LJ
Word Count: approx. 2,300 words
Genre: PWP, fluff, humour, crack.
Pairing/Threesome: Shuurei x Kouyuu x Shuei
Warnings: Maybe some language? OOC? Allusions to sex/bad innuendo.
Rating: T for the above
Prompt: Unconventional
Summary: An addition to the Shuurei x Kouyuu x Shuei threesome series. Shuei's been a bad influence on them all. In court. Right under Ryuuki's nose…
Disclaimer: I do not own SaiMono. This story is completely fictional. And cracked.
AN: Written for the May 2010 saiun_challenge second anniversary! Apologies for errors & OOC, I wrote this in one sitting this afternoon. And I think my orange juice had fermented, going by how PWP-ish this is.
Trying to maintain a perfectly calm, blank façade under Ryuuki's scrutiny was very difficult in that moment, Shuurei found.
To her left, Kouyuu was holding up admirably well, though the slight colouring to his cheeks was a bit of a giveaway. She almost wanted to feel bad for him; he just wasn't having a good day. Well…, her gaze wandered lower, to his belt-line for a moment, before reconsidering. It had its up and downs, she supposed.
To her left, Shuei's glinting eyes more or less undid all the work her cajoling and pleading had accomplished a few minutes earlier.
Shoulders slumping slightly, the young official looked forward again to the Emperor who sulked as he paced the small anteroom, his disappointment in them evident in his every line.
This was all Shuei's fault, she decided in a huff, then and there. He was a bad influence.
(About half an hour earlier)
"—but we need to be in court in less than twenty minutes, and you know I have to go find Kouyuu first, which means-," Shuei took her lovely hand in his larger one, and smiled reassuringly. They were alone in the long, echoing corridor, and he allowed himself the familiar gesture.
"It'll only take a minute, I promise. And Kouyuu's already waiting for us with the evidence."
She eyed her husband warily. "He's still there, are you sure? You know how he sits down for a nap and wakes up in a different room… What is this about? Evidence of what? I thought I already—"
"I told you, you'll see when you get there; we found a lead on a certain something we think you should see, but the walls have ears," he murmured the last bit against her earlobe, before giving it a quick kiss.
That enticing, promising kiss should have warned her he was hiding something, but she was too rushed to think on it further. She had just under twenty minutes, so whatever it was, she could take a look and they should still have time to make it to the assembly.
"All right, but we need to be present for the vote to support His Highness."
"Of course."
(Which led to…)
"I need to-!"
She gasped as the last tremors subsided, her breathing harsh as she rested her forehead on Shuei's shoulder. Behind her, she felt Kouyuu's hands retreat from her sated skin, leaving soft caresses in their wake. "You two will be the death of me."
"Only the 'little death', my love," smiled Shuei, kissing her brow. "Hold still, I'm trying to fix your hair."
"I'm ready to put your middle-robes back on, just hold out your arms…"
Still behind her, Kouyuu held out the voluminous fabric and wrapped it around his wife's slender, still slightly sweat-dampened frame as fast as he could, clumsily leaving folds and wrinkles in his haste.
"Stupid, stupid cloth, why aren't you working!" His brow furrowed adorably – or it would have been adorable, if Shuurei hadn't been in such a rush to get back to work; really, they all needed to hurry back, as soon as they could! And damn Kouyuu, he had better start getting dressed again himself if they were going to—
"Time?"
"Four minutes, we'll make it."
"Is my make-up smudged?"
"Not very much – blame it on a morning snack."
"Shuei, put on some clothes!"
He just smirked as he put the finishing touches on her hair.
"How was this a good idea again?" she grumbled ungratefully, slapping Kouyuu's fussing hands away and pointing to her over-robe. As he bent over, she gave a quick tug to the back of his own robe, to untuck it from where it had hitched to his inner-belt underneath (he'd dressed in the blink of an eye, and again, Shuurei found herself jealous of how much easier her husbands had it in the wardrobe department). Much better, she thought approvingly, shooting a quick glance at his posterior, unbeknownst to him. Not that she hadn't seen a fair bit more of both of them, while they'd been… collectively distracted by 'Kouyuu's evidence'.
So that's what Shuei's new name for it was.
"You weren't complaining three and a half minutes ago…"
Her eyes flashed murderously at Shuei's smug grin. Despite her best efforts, she could feel her still-pinked cheeks going redder, felt the way her robe pressed against her now-unbound chest (they didn't have time for wrappings), her still-sensitive body responding to his taunting all over again. Damn him. Thank goodness Kouyuu was still semi-functional.
Then she noticed even he was taking pause, staring at the gap in the front of her robes with hungry eyes.
With a pointed look, she tightened the robe with a quick tug, snapping him out of his daze. "Eyes up here, Kouyuu."
His voice a bit husky, the aqua-haired man forced his eyes upward with a small grin, and they remained steadily on hers as he held up the last piece of clothing. "All right, arms up again, and we'll just have to come back for the rest." He turned to their husband with an exasperated groan, then. "And Shuei, at least put on your pants, we're opening the doors!"
(And that meant…)
The speaker rose, and the room fell silent as Emperor Shi Ryuuki entered and sat majestically on his throne, overseeing the process. His golden eyes looked over the assembly with patient assessment, and while his expression remained blank, he wondered what on Earth had happened to his friends?
They'd said they'd be there, and he knew at least Shuurei and Shuei were never late… But perhaps they'd had to go looking for Kouyuu again? Was that it? Really, he was going to assign that man a shadow…
His glance flickered over the crowd again, concerned.
But this was important!
All eyes were on the speaker as he raised his hand to commence the session.
"As was discussed, we will now commence the voting, all in favour, say-."
Ryuuki wondered if they were all right, and felt his heart constrict a moment. Had something befallen them?
Before he finished the thought, however, the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps pounded on the tile floors and echoed through the large room, accompanied by harsh panting and gasping as three of the Emperor's most trusted, respectable councilors careened into the chambers on a dead run, skidding to an undignified, hasty (and still gasping) pace as they crossed the floor.
"Excuse me, pardon me, excuse me," a polite feminine voice whispered as she took her place on the level. She parted her fellow officials as she moved through them, a soft murmur of voices following her path.
Kouyuu and Shuei, appearance distinctly more askew than just an hour or so earlier when he'd met with them in his private conference room, took their places at his side.
The speaker looked at them curiously as the murmurs continued, and glanced up at his Highness, seeking his permission to continue.
Ryuuki nodded, his eyes forward but catching glimpses of his closest friends out of his peripheral vision. Even Shuei looked worked over.
Had there been a scuffle? On the grounds?...
"We will now commence the voting…"
Ryuuki listened with half an ear, but now with his friends beside him, his worries had for the most part vanished. And as always, with his friends' arrival, they had brought with them the scent of his most beloved Shuurei. While he and she couldn't interact as much now as they used to, he found it almost soothing that her husbands often carried the faint traces of her perfume on their clothing (from living together, he assumed; though today its subtle scent seemed quite a bit stronger, he noticed…).
Returning to his more relaxed state, he eyed them all out of the corner of his line of sight, and wondered again at their disheveled conditions.
He'd find out later, if it mattered.… and it looked like Kouyuu had some scratches on the side of his neck. There was a reddish-pink mark… He wondered if he needed a medic.
To his other side, Ryuuki noticed that Shuei had similar marks on the opposite side of his throat.
They'd fought hard to wear such obvious signs of a passionate struggle – marks to the neck were so telling, he found.
And their faces were still a little red, though that was because they'd just exerted themselves quite physically. Obviously from running to court…
And yet, why was Kouyuu's mouth so red? His eyes so bright, so dark? His hair bound off to the side instead of centered? It must have been quite a brawl… He'd only ever seen Kouyuu that worked over when he'd come back to work in the palace following his month-long honey-moon with…
Wait a second.
Suspicion formed low in the Emperor's belly, and his brows drew together minutely as his gaze fell on Shuurei, before him.
Her face was as impassive as it always was in court, but he noticed the warm, encouraging look in her eyes as she looked up at him and met his gaze.
… and the way it softened, and her eyes darkened, as she looked at her husbands, on either side of him.
His eyes focused on her mouth, where he noticed the smallest trace of her smudged lipstick… the same colour as… wait, he'd just seen that pinky-red colour.
Twice.
Very, very close to him.
Ryuuki tore his eyes away from her mouth before he fell under their spell.
He couldn't let her distract him!
As always in court, her hands were tucked into her sleeves, but he saw a finger dart out to tug gently on the gold cord around the obi that wrapped around her waist. Her waist which was accentuated differently that morning…
Hm. Why were her proportions off?
Then it dawned on him. She wasn't wearing…
Back to the obi! Back to the obi!
Swallowing hard, the Emperor backpedaled quickly. He should not dwell on a married woman. A woman who was married to not one, but both his best friends.
Yes, the obi. A nice, safe obi. It was fine to think about obis. And cords.
It was almost imperceptible against her usual canary-bright obi; didn't she normally wear a more contrasting colour? He was sure he'd undressed her often enough with his own eyes to notice such a detail as that. Where was her usual crimson tie?...
But then, Ryuuki's eyes shot to Shuei's waist suspiciously, an onyx cord where normally he wore gold; and then to Kouyuu's, a crimson cord where he usually wore black.
Why were they all wearing each others'…?
His eyes widened as understanding finally dawned.
"…Motion passes, all dismissed until after the noonday meal…"
He hardly heard the words. He gave a quick glance at Shuei as he stood and departed for his own rooms, knowing the other man would gather his two colleagues—spouses—and join him there.
(Which brings us back to…)
"Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to come and vote this morning," Ryuuki's hurt tone conveyed all the disapproval and understanding he felt, and Shuurei almost sighed. Not this again. She was hoping the man would have gotten over her marriage, as unconventional as it was, by now…
"Shuei, We admit We aren't surprised. In fact, We've kind of expected this of you," confessed their ruler and friend, more animatedly. He turned to Kouyuu next. "And under Shuei's bad influence, We understand a bit how Kouyuu must have fallen prey."
Shuurei couldn't help it, her mouth dropped open at how openly Ryuuki attacked her husbands' characters. Did he really think so poorly of his most trusted advisors?
"Your Majesty," she began heatedly, taking a step towards him, "we apologise for our tardiness, but I feel this kind of personal-."
He whirled to face her, his desperation obvious in his wide eyes and earnest, pleading tone.
"And Shuurei! Why didn't you tell Us!"
Shuurei was thrown for a loop. "Your M-."
"Call Us Ryuuki!" he cried, bordering on tears of frustration. "If only We'd known! If you'd told Us that you felt that We couldn't have satisfied you by Ourselves, certainly we would have been hurt, but if this is why you refused Our proposal, We could have arranged something to your liking!"
Oh no, he wasn't going there…
A gleeful, maleficent troll from the far recesses of her mind suddenly popped up to contradict her own thoughts, shouting, Oh yes, yes, he was!
Like a horrible caravan accident that gained momentum as it tumbled down a mountainside, the emotional young man seized her hands in his and held on tightly as horror bloomed across Shuurei's face.
"We could have invited them!" he exclaimed regretfully. "We could have gone to any room you wanted in the entire palace! During working hours!"
Oh gods it was getting worse.
"If you would have only accepted Us, we could have called aniue—I mean, Seiran, in to join us!"
In the shadowed corridor behind the Emperor, the sound of a large metal sword clattered noisily to the ground, accompanied by the sound of a broad hand loudly palming a handsome, silver-fringed face.
"Your High—er, Ryuuki, you need to stop this-."
"But Seiran's really good! We've heard the rumours!" His voice dropped an octave and he leaned closer to whisper conspiratorially to her. "Much, much better than your husbands, according to-."
A loud, angry coughing and a menacing glare erupted from the direction of said-husbands.
Flushed with embarrassment, but full of brotherly adoration, Ryuuki turned to the men to shout, "Well, it's true! Seiran is better than-."
"You know, this isn't how I expected to get reprimanded this morning," muttered Shuurei to the ground as her eyebrow ticked in annoyance. Ryuuki still refused to relinquish his hold on her, though he, Shuei and Kouyuu now stood nearly toe-to-toe, arguing about which two men she should have married. "I'd really hoped for an uneventful day…"
Of course, there was one man who hadn't missed a word she said.
"Oh, how did you want to be punished?"
"Oy! That sparkle in your eye is indecent! Don't say things like that around my wife!"
"Our wife."
"She should have been Our wife!" howled their proud nation's leader. Ryuuki still held her hands, as if by keeping her captive he could physically make her stay by his side in spite of her consummated bonds of marriage. "Or even Our and Seiran's wife!" he added enthusiastically, obviously warming up to this option the more he thought about it. (There came the suspicious sound of someone coughing and tripping nearby, though there were only four of them present in the room…)
"Your Highness," ground out Shuei as he finally started losing his temper: Probably at the repeated mention of the Kou family's personal retainer. "Please apologise to my husband and wife… and return our wife to our custody."
As they continued to debate which pair of men would have made her a happier, more 'respectable' wife in a fine, upstanding ménage-a-trois, Shuurei again wondered at how in all the heavens she'd ended up in this situation in the first place. And also, why wasn't Seiran coming to help her? He was just around the corner. She knew he was, she'd heard his stupid sword fall! That coward!
(-In his defense, it was true that Seiran's sword was giving him problems.-)
Shuurei gave her hands a tug, but Ryuuki held fast. Too tired to fight much more, she sighed, her shoulders slumping further. As usually happened, she was a bit worn out, what with the afterglow and all…
The men's voices got louder again, and she winced.
Gods, not this argument again…
Because sure, many men had multiple wives or concubines. But she was the only woman with two husbands that she knew of.
Hooking her foot around a nearby stool, Shuurei leaned, hopped and dragged it close enough to sit down upon it. It would be a while.
No, things had never been the same since that unfortunate ice storm.
AN: Yes, this fic ranks right up there in maturity. XD For any who enjoy this series, there are two more installments in the works. Yes, the honeymoon is one of them. 8)