DISCLAIMER: The characters belong to Sai Yukino and Kairi Yura, Kadokawa Shoten, Madhouse Studios, etc., i.e., not me.
I'm just borrowing them for a while to spin a tale
Submitted to the Saiunkoku Fic LJ's Fic Battle

Prompt 40) Any Cast: crack AU of your choice
By firewolf
September 2008

Of all the things to finally confound him, Shouka was quite incensed to being made a fool of by a pair of finches. Shouka couldn't begin to understand what they were doing in the barren icy wasteland of these god forsaken mountains. Didn't birds go south for the winter? Thieving Birds! He couldn't believe how neatly they had stolen his travel pass from off his lap.

Coming up over a hill, he finally spotted his dark travel pass dropped upon the soft snow near a stand of dead trees. As he triumphantly strode nearer though, the snow cleared enough for him to notice a sinisterly recognizable figure.

Shouka swore as he ran forward to cut the ropes tying the frozen child to the main tree. Picking up the travel pass was practically an afterthought as the man quickly tore off his winter cloak and wrapped it around the little boy.

Startling violet eyes blinked open to stare at him from behind frost tinged lashes. "Are you all right, child? What is your name?"

For a long moment, only silence greeted Shouka question as he trudged through the snow back to where he had left his family in a sheltered encampment. So soft was it that he almost missed the boy's reply. "Kou."

"Well, Kou. You'll be all right now." Shouka assured the boy when he spotted the warm lights of his camp ahead of them.

"Shouka! Just what have you fou--" Shoukun started as she stepped out of the tent at her husband's approach. When she saw Shouka carry the boy swaddled in his winter cloak though, she ducked back in immediately and Shouka entered to find her putting a pot of ice on the fire.

"Seiran, I have spare winter tunics in my bag. Please bring me one." Shoukun quickly called to the wide eyed and staring boy seated in the corner while Shouka unwrapped his precious burden nearer the fire.

"I have them, mother." Shuurei called from where she stood nearer the luggage.

From the corner of his eye, Shouka saw the silent boy approach his daughter to take the warm clothes from her. He didn't pay the boy anymore attention until Seiran came to stand before him.

"Let me take him." Everyone stared at Seiran in shock. This would be the first words the boy had ever spoken to anyone since the day the Kou family found him lying in the snow not so many months earlier.

"Let me take him." Seiran repeated as he sat near the fire, laid the tunics over his lap and opened his arms in welcome.

Shouka solemnly gave the near comatose boy into Seiran's care. Shoukun caught his eye with a significant smile. It appeared their family had grown by one more.

*~*

"Give it up, Kouyuu. He's your boss." Seiran sighed at his younger brother to stop his continued rant about the creepiness that was their adopted uncle Kou Reishin.

"But Seiran, it's not—"Kouyuu turned towards his best friend to cajole his assistance. "You tell him, Shuuei. Reishin Sama's obsession and avoidance of Shuurei is just not healthy!"

"Your brother has a point, you know?" Shuuei offered lazily from where he lounged against a tree in the still painfully bare gardens belonging to Kou Shouka's family. Kouyuu and Seiran's salaries had gone a long way to help pay for the restoration of the family estates, but the old beauty of the time before the succession wars was still a far off goal. "You have more than enough things to worry about than a pretty harmless uncle whose obsession isn't even affecting your sister's life. Now if, on the other hand, he was trying to hang out with her all the time…"

Seiran had a gleam in his eye as his hand fell on Kanshou.

"Stop that!" Kouyuu frowned fiercely at his older brother. "He's still Shouka sama's little brother."

"Well, what do you propose to do about him then, Kouyuu?" Shuuei asked with some curiosity. He understood his best friend well enough to know that he didn't often expound on the parts of life where he was helpless to do anything. The fact that he called them into the garden for a private chat told him that the aqua haired scholar was on to something.

"Seiran, do you recall Shouka sama telling us that your-- Ryuuki's aunt, Yuri Hime used to stay with the Kou's?"

Seiran frowned in thought. "She was masquerading as a boy then. As Yuzuriha."

"Well, do you remember Ryuuki telling us about Yuri Hime reminiscing over that time, and her words about Reishin sama?"

Seiran did a double take as he looked from the amused smile on Shuuei's face to the calculative gleam in his little brother's eyes. "Shi Kouyuu! Has Shoukun sama been filling your head with her fairy tales and love stories again?!"

"Oh lighten up, Seiran." Shuuei laughed as he clapped a hand on his fellow general's shoulder. "Your brother may have something going here."

"Yes, he does." Seiran looked at Kouyuu with exasperated fondness. "A *disaster* in the making!

"Kouyuu, *please* tell me you didn't run this by Ryuuki first?"

Speaking of the devil… "Kouyuu! Kouyuu!" Ryuuki dash into the gardens with a cheerful lack of any of the elegance or dignity Yuri Hime was constantly trying to drill into their future Emperor. "It could work. I just found out she's still been keeping his letters!"

Seiran buried his face in his hands as he wondered how he ever came to have such a taxing pair of younger brothers.

~owari~

Thanks for reading.
Cheers, firewolf

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