[Saiunkoku] Speculation

[runiclore]

Title: Speculation
Author: Amber Michelle
For: imanewme
Words: 416
Notes: set at an undetermined time before book 13. Written for the latest fic request meme (locked entry).

Prompt:
+ noon-thirty
+ condiments
+ Reishin and Houju

Gauntlet theme: 22 - the silence a mirror that breaks the light in two



....................................................


"I'm telling you," Reishin said, squeezing a wedge of orange over a cup of tea, "that if things continue as they are, we will have a new emperor before the year is out."

Houju stamped the bottom-left corner of a document, the imprint of his seal bright red beneath his signature. "Good riddance."

Reishin propped his chin on a hand, tossed the remains of the tangerine out the window. It landed in the flower bed with a whisper of displaced leaves. "I wonder." He sipped his tea, then tilted the cup and stared at the bottom, where bits of green leaves gathered in a swirl. A cool breath of air curled at the nape of his neck, carrying with it the scent of mud, wet wooden walkways, ice and dying leaves. "Our options aren't what I'd call favorable. If it isn't the old man--"

He pursed his lips. There were others - Seien, Yuri. The Hyou clan had tried to kill both of them many times before they found refuge in Kou House, and if they stepped outside again, exposed themselves-- well, he wouldn't allow Yuri to do it. Not if Saiunkoku threatened to collapse; not even if she wanted to. But allowing the old hag Ruka to choose their next monarch left a bitter taste coating his tongue.

"You're convinced he wants the throne, but I see no evidence to support your theory." Houju's voice was more nasal than usual, muffled by the mask, pinched by the tail end of a cold. He cleared his throat. The paper went to the top of the pile at the corner of the desk nearest Reishin's elbow, and authorization for the reconstruction of roads in the granary district caught his eye at a glance. "Even if you're right, it means nothing to us but potential severance, and in Civil Administration, at least, that would amount to no difference in operation at all."

Reishin stared at the plate of tangerine wedges between them and considered throwing one. Maybe he could get a piece to stick in one of the eye-holes of Houju's mask. "Yuushun would be stuck with him."

"Yuushun will be dead."

Houju pounded another seal onto another document. Reishin sucked the juice out of a tangerine wedge and pretended he didn't notice how sour it was, how sharp, the way it seared his tongue. They didn't speak again until Houju broke for lunch.


.

Comments

[imanewme.livejournal.com]

You're amazing. These two would talk politics, probably constantly, and yet I see so little of it in the fandom. As per usual, the devil is in the details: Reishin attempting to read the tea leaves, the mention of him tossing tangerine skins out the window, Houju's cold, what Houju's working on. These are the kinds of things that make your works unique.

The strongest impression I take from this is that Reishin, for all his asshole-ery, is apparently the ultimate feminist. Of course Yuri could make a try for the throne; it matters not that she's his wife. There's not even a speck of question for him that she could do it, either. She's not going to try for the throne because she doesn't want it; her gender doesn't matter.

Ha ha ha... Houju ever the stoic, and yet still manages to take a comedic jab at Reishin. Houju doesn't get enough love, and often when he is featured, it's absurdly OOC. They way you present him, however, is spot on. It's refreshing.

[runiclore.livejournal.com]

Hah, you know, I've never been sure where Reishin stands on the matter of women in the workplace. He was apparently against the idea when Ryuuki first proposed it, but then he turned around and supported Shuurei in every way, and it's not like he keeps Yuri cooped up in the house - she leaves when she damn well wants to, and all he does is whine. XD But we don't see him around many women, now that I think about it. Shoukun is the only other one, and his relationship with her was... strange. Like, he just sits there and lets her criticize him. That's unusual.

Houju really doesn't get enough love. XD I love his sarcasm. Scenes with him in general are really funny in the anime, and not because he acts like comic relief. (That would be Reishin. :P)

Thank you!