Hey everybody! I realized I haven't updated this in like a thousand years. So I'm updating. HURRAY!
Beneath the Stars
By Gold Sparrow
Red Snow
Summary: "Why is it...That he had to break his first friend in such a way…?"
Synopsis: Koumei's lover, Ting Mei, started out as something so much more simple...And, eventually, it is his fault that the brilliant woman can never achieve the things she wants.
She's always been a weird girl.
It isn't as though she acted weird, oh no. It's just that she looks strange, if you only see her in passing in the hallways of Rakushou. Her hair is as white as bone, kept neatly tucked in a bun at the base of her neck. She has stern eyes, eyes that hold discipline and strictness in every sweeping gaze she passes over those around her. There are no exceptions to who receives this gaze, not even nobles in higher ranking than her. This, coupled with her pale skin, gives the illusion that she is, in fact, made of ice and snow.
The day Koumei meets her is a weird day as well, since she does nothing to recognize his status as a Prince. Of course, many don't, but that's because they ignore him. She's fifteen years old, and he's seventeen. Gangly and awkward, he's leaving the library to go to his chambers to sleep when he runs into her. He half-expects her to stumble back or fall, but instead she holds strong and pushes him back, glaring upwards.
"Excuse me." She says politely, but it's obvious she blames him for the entire incident.
"You're excused." Yes.
That's right.
This is the day that Koumei finally decides to try his hand at comedy.
And guess what?
HE SUCKS AT IT.
I SUCK AT IT.
The girl blinks, her face twitching with shock. Quickly, she composes herself. Smoothing down her kimono, she says in a clipped tone,
"Your obi is undone."
It's at that moment that Koumei also realizes that since his sash is undone, his layers of clothing only meet briefly at his waist. Meaning that all of his pasty, white chested glory is shown to the world. He chokes on his own spit, but tries to come off like, 'yes, this is just how I roll'.
"So?" Koumei asks nonchalantly, and the woman gives some sort of depressed, disappointed sigh.
"Goodbye." She sidesteps him and enters the library he exited.
This is one of many encounters they'll have, but she never seems to remember him despite the shockingly awkward situations they are always thrust into. He learns that her name is 'Ting Mei'. Truthfully, even though she's odd and out of place, he still doesn't try to find out more about her. He's not the type to search for gossip about a person he hardly knows, and instead works on becoming even more informed on battle strategies and intense literature.
Then, one day, he sees Ting Mei once more in one of Kou's many libraries. She's sitting in a chair with perfect posture, but strewn around her haphazardly are piles upon piles of books. Her gaze- a piercing one resembling gray steel knives- slices into him when he tries to turn away and leave.
"Do you need something?" She asks politely, marking her place in her book and addressing him. He shakes his head.
"I was looking for…" He catches the title of the book she's reading. "...That."
"You are interested in war strategies?" Ting Mei asks, curiosity piqued. "If so, you may have this when I am finished." Koumei shuffles awkwardly, not sure whether or not to point out to her that he's the Second Prince and she should really be giving it to him right away.
"Alright." He finally gives in. She studies him some more, tilting her head to the side like a curious owl.
"You're the man who forgot to tie his sash a few weeks ago, correct?" He nods. "I see."
Silence returns, and she flicks open the book once more, tracing her fingers over the lines.
"Why do you like war?" He blinks.
"Why do I…'Like' war?"
"Yes."
"I don't. But I think that war is necessary in order to obtain true peace and unity." She looks up at him oddly, lips parting.
"True peace and unity…" She echos, and smiles minisculely. It's unsuiting to her, but not because she's too proper for it. She does look like her features are suppose to be clear and mysterious, all sharp angles and sweet gazes under her lashes. But instead of focusing the beauty she was born with, Ting Mei decides to dress modestly and sit with her back straight up and down. She decides to be cold, but almost because whatever warmth she had was taken from her.
"What about you?" Ting Mei quirks her lips further, eyes still scanning the lines of the book like the darting wings of a hummingbird.
"Me? I don't have an opinion on war. I just believe that it will give me a purpose." That throws him for a loop.
"Purpose? What do you mean?"
"You have something to fight for that makes you result to war, no? Me, I feel that if I can use my skills for that, then I myself will gain a purpose...Does that make sense?" She questions him, but the tilt of her face makes him know that she already knows that answer, and is testing him.
"...No. It doesn't. To make yourself a tool for war...That's a pitiful existence." Koumei tells her solemnly, watching how her face relaxes and she smiles more.
"Alright then. I suppose I understand you now." She flips the book shut, and hands it to him. She bows slightly and tells him, "I finished. Thank you for waiting, Prince Koumei."
He couldn't understand her that well after that, even though she claimed to know him. They begin to see each other more frequently, passing in the halls and briefly discussing books. It's nice. Pleasant. She does not burden him with time-wasting conversation, and he appreciates her ability to adjust his clothes for him when he wakes from a nap in the library. He, on the other hand, can do nothing to please her. He wants to please her.
(It's a strange feeling, when you have a friend you don't want to loose.)
Then there comes a day that, in just a few strokes of fate, breaks whatever semblence of positive acquaintanceship they have into a million startling pieces.
"I am Ting Mei of the Ting Household. It would be an honor to play in this match."
He never could've imagined it would end up this way, with her swiftly beating opponent after opponent in shoji. Her eyes look so calm but so alive, her hands enrapturing him by the way they dance across the board. He forces himself to pay attention to his own shogi board. His brother and King made it quite clear that winning this shoji tournament would guarantee their father's graces for their next campaign, and he will not let Kouen down.
He just needs to win. He just needs to focus on the wrinkles of his opponent's hands, ignore the proud gazes of their majesties and his brothers, keep winning and winning and winning until-
Until him and her are the last ones left.
Across from him, Ting Mei sits. Her back ram-road straight, her gaze stern and disciplined. She had bested her side of the latter, and he had championed his side. Now they are in the finals, the last and the greatest, facing one another in front of the royal court.
"Your Highness, Prince Koumei," Ting Mei gently arcs her back, presenting to him the model for kneeling-curtsies everywhere. "It is a true honor to play against you."
"...Yes." He decides, still shocked to see her. Murmurs spring up from around the room.
"A woman playing against the prince?"
"Her skill is remarkable!"
"But a woman?"
"Isn't she the ward of the Ting family?"
He ignores all of this. All that matters is that he's about to play a match against his first friend, and he must beat her. It is a sad thing to have to do, because Ting Mei is ever-so proud, but it must happen.
The match begins.
At first he is calm. He does not waver once in any of his movements, but as time ticks on, and strategies are planned and executed, Koumei finds himself continually surprised by his opponent. Their hands never seem to cease moving, doling out new positions and new placements with wit and skill. They dance for what seems like hours the dance of war, eyes meeting once or twice in quick, indescribable moments of joy. They're having fun. They're loosing themselves in the happiness of getting to do what they love with a friend.
Then it hits Koumei.
All at once and slowly building, something so genius he didn't realize she was creating. A plan so flawlessly executed that he doesn't understand how trapped he is until he is. Ting Mei's beating him. A powerful, frightening feeling of being overpowered fills his senses. He has never been beaten before, even when he was a mere child playing against scholars. He's done things none of the minds of Rakushou have ever been able to do; he has put his mind to work on a variety of difficult and taxing jobs that he's accomplished with time and thought. Koumei is Kouen's right hand, his shadow-king, who rules in his stead and installs the necessary components of destruction in order to overcome other empires.
He's being beaten.
He launches into a counter-attack, working quick and smoothly. He tries out strategies that in the past have never failed him, and incorporates new techniques to destroy her. Each one fails. He looses more and more ground, until her final piece hits the board and she forces him out of the game. Ting Mei sits as still as she has the entire game, but now a smile begins to climb her face. She has won.
Koumei has lost.
Koumei hardly has the willpower to look his brother in the face, unable to stand that he lost. Koumei, who is only able to be as lazy and carefree as he is because he never looses. Kouen does not say a word about his loss, merely slapping a hand on his little brother's shoulder and grunting. Koumei is forgiven, but he hardly forgives himself.
The rumors circulate viciously after the tournament.
Some are about Koumei, about the famed strategist's loss.
Others are about Ting Mei.
The ones about Ting Mei...He doesn't like to think about them. He has never been one for gossip, but the pure viciousness of the stories that reach his ears repulse him. They say she cheated. They say she shamelessly distracted Koumei with her femininity. They say that she's nothing more than the strange-looking ward of the Ting family, whom some whisper the Head's wife bore for another man. "They"- the court, the harem- create ruthless explanations for Koumei's loss, bringing Ting Mei down into the mud in order to put her down.
Koumei tells Kouen to make Ting Mei a General.
It is an impulsive, strange request, but Koumei asks his brother it anyway. He knows that's Ting Mei's dream, to use herself for war. And who knows, with her fighting by their side as a strategist, they may be able to capture west far faster than anticipated. Kouen stares at him for a long while, before nodding, saying he'll talk to their father about it.
Then, something horrible happens.
Koutoku doesn't only reject the request. He personally victimizes Ting Mei.
Koumei is helpless as his father brings Ting Mei before the court and forces her to confess to cheating- in order to preserve Koumei's honor, in Koutoku's words. She is frightened, but the fear in her eyes is hidden by her hard, contracted features. The Ting family bow their heads in disgrace, the Head bitterly announcing his disappointment with his adopted daughter. Ting Mei is humiliated, shunned, and hated. It is all Koumei's fault.
Why is it...That he had to break his first friend in such a way…?
Three years later, Koumei watches Ting Mei with a familiar boy.
He is silver haired and black eyed, wearing robes of black. Swords glitter at his side, and his face promises memories of a difficult, bloody life, but Ting Mei does not seem to notice. She sits watching this boy practice his swordsmanship, yelling at him to work harder and complaining about her marriage prospects. Things have calmed considerably in the court, though Ting Mei is still known as the Cheater of Rakushou.
He misses her. His friend, his colleague.
Though war is always more pressing in his attentions and there is always something new to read, he hasn't forgotten Ting Mei. For her sake, he avoided her for years, leaving her to her proposals of marriage and a war-less, empty future. He has never apologized for what he did to her. He took her dreams and crushed them, paraded her like a prisoner of war around the court, and then abandoned her like everyone else did. He wishes that there was a way for him to take the place of the boy speaking with her so casually, so that he can say what he wants to say to the innocent woman he broke.
He should say something. Anything, really.
He turns around and goes to the library.
Koumei walks down a hallway.
He pauses in front of a door.
He leaves a book laying on the floor in front of the door. It's the newest book of war strategies by Seiryuu Ri, with a note inside written in scribbled, rushed handwriting,
"They say war is raging all around us, and it's how a good strategist deals with singular battles that determines their worth. But if we follow that logic, I fear I have failed you."
He walks away.
He is not able to make Ting Mei a General, or fulfill her dreams of working along side him on the battlefront. But he is able to give her a job as his assistant. For months she writes reports, goes to meetings for him, prepares him meals and helps him dress when he's a hopeless mess of little sleep and knotted hair. They talk about many things. They argue sometimes, but it's not the kind of arguing that makes him shrivel up and shun another person. It's about little things, like, 'yes, you can put a supply route here', and, 'if you don't like your breakfast, make it yourself!'
When he is exhausted, and his shoulders are stiff, she massages them with surprisingly adept movements.
On her birthday, he gifts her with a new, fine dress, which she takes to wearing often.
She tells him that she was adopted by the Ting family as a favor for the woman who saved her life when she was young. She also reveals to him she doesn't remember who she is or where she comes from, and was given the name "Mei" because it's common and generic.
One day, he kisses her, and she accepts him.
They cannot be together as husband and wife, he knows this. And, considering her background, he isn't sure he can even make her his concubine. But Ting Mei is his, and though he cannot give her anything in return for the millions of things she gives him, he will make her happy.
Eight years later, and they are still together.
FIN.
Hey y'all! Thanks for reading! Yes, it is a KoumeiXTingMei piece that I wrote bc I really like them together. Also, Ting Mei is going to be show cased in Asad's upcoming arc, so I figured we should have some background to it, right? RIGHT! And I apologize for the somewhat rushed/crappy ending, I'm sorta tired right now and that's the best I could come up with. Thanks for reading, once again!
Got any questions? Something wrong about the chapter? Grammatical errors, something you didn't like? PM me or leave it in the reviews, I will reply and see what I can do to make the story better/clearer for y'all to understand. ILY MY DARLING READERS!
BYE~~~~~~~