:Well! He's gotten more done in a day than I've managed to get done in nearly a decade!: Yuka thought.
Yuka partly wished she was of a station to join in the celebration, for servants brought out bottles of wine and hot sake and all of the dark-robed ministers and officials began cheering and celebrating. Several of the high-ranked officials announced that larger parties would be held to continue the celebration in their quarters. Yuka had a feeling that these parties were going to last even far past dawn and into the next day. She might have thought about possibly blighting one of the lesser parties with her presence (because she too wanted to celebrate a little bit) but she caught Taiki's worried look as he rose and hurried off so instead she followed after him.
The familiarity of their long association guided her steps as Yuka worked her way methodically through Kaname's favorite hiding spots. He wasn't in the painting hall, nor in his kings rooms in Seiden Palace, he wasn't at the koi pond, or at his favorite balcony over looking the sea of clouds. At last she found him in his favorite corner of inner Seiden garden, curled up in a bower made of the roots of his favorite tree and seveal trained flowering vines, weeping into the sleeves of his court zhishen.
:Sweet boy, but he's always been a bit of a crybaby...: Yuka thought.
Sometimes it had seemed to her that she'd spent half of her time as Royal Consort drying Taiki's tears when he got upset over something; either his master not waking up, the northern lords fighting with them, or someone spoke too harshly in court.
"Gy- Gyousou-sama..." Taiki sniffled. "Gyousou-sama is sending me away! What did I do? Is he angry?"
"Now now," Yuka soothed settling in beside him and pulling out a handkercheif from her sleeve to help him dry his tears. "You know that it isn't so. Your Gyousou-sama loves you, you know that."
"Then why.. why is he sending me away?" he asked quaveringly.
"The land is even more unsettled than it was when he took the throne the first time. You know as well as I that if he's to have any hope of settling matters then he needs to act quickly," Yuka said gently, stroking his hair as he settled himself on her lap and to let himself be comforted. "He's sending you away because while he's gone he knows that palace will be even more vulnerable than usual. He doesn't want what happened last time to happen this time so he's putting you someplace out of reach where none of his enemies can get to you."
"How come you get to stay Yuka? You're not a Taiho!" Taiki sounded unusually petulant for him, but it was only to be expected.
Happiness to Taiki meant being close to his master, unhappiness meant being far away from him. By his standards, Yuka got to be happier than he was because she would still be in the same country as his master while he was sent to another land.
"Well," Yuka said, with a gentle smile as she combed her fingers through his soft dark strands, admiring its silky texture as she always did. "Since he has such a useful placeholder in me, the throne won't be vacant when he has to leave Hakkei Palace to settle the kingdom. He can leave the palace confidently this time. He can afford to send you on a diplomatic mission to smooth over Han-ou's ruffled feathers, you know how important they are as a trading partner. Now of all times Tai can't afford to lose the income from Han's appetite for our gems. He's given you something really important to do Taiki."
"Why doesn't he send you?" Taiki asked, a bit resentfully.
"Two reasons," Yuka replied frankly. "One, leaving you in the palace without a ready defence force to protect you would be a disaster and two... you saw what happened with that Go Ranjou when he visited here, and that was even right under Tai-ou's nose! I do hope your dear king would have a good deal more sense than to send me off into a lion's, or in this case potential letcher's, den."
"Oh. Right," Taiki said, a little subdued.
He was still distressed at having to be sent away from his master, but it was clear to him now that part of the reason that his master was sending him was to ease his mind while he himself had to be away from the palace. And if it was to ease his king's mind, then Taiki would be willing to brave anything.
Soothing Taiki often had the salubrious effect of soothing her own nerves as well. His hair was so soft and pretty! Whent he light hit it just right it often had a dark metallic sheen to it, like sunlight striking on a bar of black steel. It was even softer and smoother than satin, Yuka could have spent hours just combing her fingers through it. She found herself humming a soothing little song softly as she played with his hair.
Taiki sighed contentedly. In the years when he had not been able to be with his master, sometimes being with Yuka could be almost as good, or at least, it often took the edge off the loneliness.
Yuka could only imagine how strange it must ave looked to Gyousou when he rounded the corner of the garden and found the shaded little bower filled with Yuka in her finest gourt gown settled on the root of a tree with a supine Taiki, like an overlarge puppy, settled in her lap being petted like a cat. He did blink for a minute then smiled softly.
"I hope I am not intruding," he said as he stepped into the shaded little nook.
"Of course not!" Taiki reassured him animatedly.
Taiki was so patently happy to see the intruder that Yuka was willing to let it go for his sake. Kaname had been like a beloved little brother to her for many years now, and she had developed some sort of strange sense of competiton with Gyousou because of Taiki's continued adoration of him, but she knew in the end it was his happiness that mattered. Being with his king was part of a measure of Taiki's happiness, she was simply going to have to learn to be accustomed to sharing her dear friend with him.
Taiki made room for his king on the ground next to him and Gyousou settled himself with the aura of a man who was accustomed to being comfortable in rough conditions and didn't let it bother him overmuch. The Royal Tai even managed to sit on the ground with an air of dignity, but it wasn't the same sort of overly refined, slightly self-conscious sense of dignity that the former King of Kou had exuded when Yuka had served under him. That man's had been a very cold sort of dignity, as if it should be clear to anyone that everything was very much beneath him. Yuka couldn't help but frown a bit however, when Taiki abandoned her lap in favor of his king's lap as soon as Gyousou had settled in. She was pleased to see the affectionate look that Gyousou gave Taiki as he began to pet the kirin's hair the same way Yuka had been doing a moment ago but still... she felt a bit abandoned.
"I came to reassure you that your assignment was not a punishment, but it seems that I've been beaten to it," Gyousou said with a small smile.
"Yuka knows where all of my favorite hiding places are," Taiki replied, mirroring his king's smile with a larger one of his own.
:Look at him, he's positively glowing,: Yuka marveled. :It's so good to see him truly happy again.:
The whole time she had known him, she'd always sort of associated Taiki with a pale, weak sort of emotion, a sadness permeated everything he said and did and made his presence feel like walking in very wan moonlight. Now instead of thin moonlight, Taiki glowed like a miniature sun with happiness and Yuka was willing to accept his king if only for the fact that he made Taiki so very happy.
"The court is so happy to have you back Gyousou-sama," the kirin continued. "Everyone is throwing a party! I'm happy you're back too, and so is Yuka."
Yuka absently massaged her neck which had grown very sore from supporting the weight of her hairstyle with all of those gold pins and the headress and combs and jewels, which had been very awkward and heavy. The multiple layers of red silk made heavy with gold embroidery also weighed on her limbs and the wide sash and stiff front panel made the elaborate court daizhishuan difficult to move in easily. If anyone were to attack her right at that moment, she might have to rely on the king for protection, for there was very little manuverability in her current court robe.
"I might change clothes and go crash one of the parties," Yuka said wistfully. "It feels like ages since I've had any fun. Then again, some of the ministers are real letchers, or at least that what my maids tell me, it might be better to raid the kitchens for some cake and finally get to read my book. The book I never got back to, thanks to a certain someone."
Yuka gave a very significant look over in Gyousou's direction. He raised his hands appeasingly.
"I beg your forgiveness Lady Yuka," he said, sounding amused.
"Sadly, in the interests of national harmony, I have little choice but to forgive you," Yuka replied tartly, but secretly there was a little part of her that was very pleased with the attention.
The kings of Han and En sending inapproprate attention her way were more of a nuisance and did not please her. Somehow though when he looked at her, she was not annoyed by him.
"You're all graciousness," he assured her with an amused look.
"And don't you forget it," Yuka replied pertly as she rose to her feet in the intimate, leafy space of the bower to depart to her own quarters.
Yukahad to be very careful as she rose, for with as many hairpins as she had sticking out everywhere, she could easily get caught in the low hanging branches of the shallow bower where Taiki had hidden himself. One hand resting against the trunk of the tree that formed the support of the kings back and the other hand raised slightly above her to try to keep the elaborate couiffure that Taiki had arranged for her from tangling in the branches.
"Now I know how stags must feel," Yuka joked lightly as she bowed her head to manuever out of the bower.
Despite her best efforts however, one of her hairsticks, one with a small curtain of beads hanging down from it, did become caught and she froze, reaching up to try to untangle herself.
"Here," Gyousou said, rising beside her and signalling that she should remain still. "I do not believe there is any point in saving it now."
With deft movements he removed the headress and all of it's attendant hairsticks, pulling her hair down and loose from the heavy style.
"Every year I promise myself that I'm just going to cut it all off and have it short like it used to be and just wear wigs to court like a sensible woman," Yuka said, trying to disguise how very nervous she suddenly felt with the unaccustomed presence of a man so very close to her. It might have been her imagination, but it was almost like she could feel his presence radiating out from him like warmth from a sun.
"Whyever for?" Gyousou asked, sounding surprised. "Your hair is lovely when it is long like this."
Yuka gave a small embarrased shrug.
"Vanity, I suppose. That and it would feel too much like giving in. If I cut my hair with the intention that it would be a weakness in battle, it almost seems like saying I don't have enough confidence in myself to protect my pride. That and..."
She gestured to the kirin.
"Gyousou is right Yuka," Taiki said brightly. "Your hair is lovely when it's long. And I can fit plenty of these in it and style it up."
"Well there we have it I suppose," Gyousou said with a look of shared amusement at Yuka when he handed her the handful of jeweled hair accessories to take back with her.
"Goodnight then Taiho, and your majesty," Yuka said with a small bow, her now loose hair hanging down over her shoulder.
"And you as well,"Gyousou said, settling himself back down with his kirin.
She smiled over her shoulder at the rather adorable picture they made sitting there on the grass in the moonlight, Taiki looking like a well-fed and happy puppy while Gyousou looked every part an indulgent king. It really was too cute.