Title: Teamwork

Author: Imanewme

Genre: Gen

Word Count: 569

Rating: G? Okay, maybe T

Characters: Ryuuki.

AU/Cannon: AU, OOR

Theme: Broken

A/N: This is in the One Red Ribbon universe midway through Jyuusan-hime's first pregnancy. The doctors have figured out she has twins. They don't know its triplets yet, so please bear with me. Also, I beg of some leniency with the garden and its contents. I did research a little about seasons and what fruit grows where, so if there's something planted in Ryuuki's garden that shouldn't be there, I beg a thousand pardons. Thanks!

Disclaimer: Saiunkoku Monogatari and all the characters contained within belong to Sai Yukino. They aren't mine. I simply borrow them for entertainment purposes only. I do not make money from these stories.

Sweat caked with mud smeared his brow as the sun broke over the horizon. Tiny droplets glistened on the vines while the garden rustled out of slumber with the breaking of dawn. Unable to sleep, Ryuuki donned his brown gardening clothing and had been pulling weeds away from the unwieldy grape vines tucked away in the empress's private gardens.

A low chuckle escaped him as he surveyed the modest plot of land. The agricultural division of Sa Province's top school developed many of the techniques that made this small bit of paradise flourish. Squash and tomatoes hung low on burdened branches. Green beans grew long and tender and his tangerines were juicy and honey-sweet.

Turning his attention to the grapes, his smile grew wider. These juicy black pearls were currently the favorite of his very pregnant empress. He chose each bunch carefully picking out those with the biggest and blackest berries and pinching off any berries with the smallest blemish. Only the best would do for his love and his progeny.

Since the doctors confined her to her bed for the safety of the pregnancy, he delighted in serving her breakfast every morning. Every day with her was another chance to see the swell of her belly and possibly see a tiny foot pressed against her fragile skin. He hated it that she couldn't leave her chambers.

Jyuusan-hime was accustomed to freedom and self-sufficiency. Depending on others to bring her food was wearing thin on the soon to be new mother, but she was growing at an alarming rate and her health and the child's could not be chanced.

"Well, children," Ryuuki thought happily. The doctor determined that his love was pregnant with twins, but forbade him to tell her.

"It's imperative to keep her majesty calm," the doctor warned, "and the news of a multiple birth would be too distressing for her."

He didn't know how long he would be able to keep it from her. She was a strong woman. He was certain it would take much more than news of twins to cause her "distress." Worry gripped his chest and his breath caught in his throat remembering the doctor's grave expression. He could not, would not, consider a world without his empress and his children.

Yet keeping the secret was becoming unbearable. For the first time in their marriage Ryuuki saw something he never thought he'd see in her ocean blue eyes: fear. The worst part was that she knew he was keeping something from her, and her daily questions were growing more and more frantic as she tried coaxing information from him about why she had been ordered to bed.

His hand shook as he lifted another luscious bunch from the vines. A single tear slipped down his cheek as he considered that not telling her was causing far more "distress" than the doctor was protecting her from. It wasn't fair. She had a right to know about her own body and children. He cradled the grapes gently in his palm and wondered how much she had already guessed.

"We have to tell her," he thought resolutely. She spent three years convincing him he could confide everything in her and he wasn't about to stop now. Whatever ire he raised from the doctor and staff nurses he would just have to endure. They were a team. Their bond was unbreakable. They would face this together.

She was a strong woman. He was certain…."distress" For him, the only question that remained was how to tell her without raising the ire of his staff doctor and nurses. There had to be a way.

After picking a couple of oranges, his eye lit on the cherry tree. Hanging from the branches were two blood red cherries. Unable to resist, he plucked one from the branch. The other came off the branch with it and in his hand he held two perfectly shaped fruit. They were seemingly identical.

"Like twins," he murmured to himself. Oh yes, today the empress would know there was more than one on the way.