A Starlit Reflections sidestory
by Raye Johnsen
****
"Fushigi Yuugi" is copyright Watase Yuu, Flower
Comics, Studio Perriot, Pioneer Entertainment and Viz Communications.
This fanfic is written for entertainment
purposes and not for profit in any way. If it was, Tamahome would undoubtedly
snaffle it all.
****
I managed to get away rather early that afternoon. Many of my afternoons were taken up by meaningless council sessions, where two councillors would argue a point while I stared out the window and counted clouds. Or, if it was a bad day, the various ways I could get out of the room and how far I'd get before I was 'invited' back.
Nuriko regularly tried to fail to appear at council. He maintained that he was merely a token councillor and that his presence or absence didn't affect anything. I didn't let him get away with it, though. If I had to do it, then, as a loyal star-brother, he should lend me support, I told him. Often as I was herding him to the council room.
Today, though, he had managed to vanish after luncheon and I had been forced to sit alone through some of the most boring drivel I'd ever heard. One councillor wanted to raise the taxes on imported dyes, while another argued that taxing imported cloth would be better for our domestic clothiers. I had been forced to pay attention to the pair of bores, and I didn't even have Nuriko's commentary to distract me.
He - the rotten little skite! - was fast asleep under one of the trees in the Palace garden. I began to stomp up to him, but as I got closer I slowed and stepped more lightly, until I was all-but-tiptoeing as I came up beside him.
It had been six months since he had come to Court. Six months that taught me just how empty the past sixteen years had been, without an unconditional friend and ally at my side.
I stood beside him for a long moment, watching that delicately moulded face sleep.
As he lay there in the grass, unconcerned about responsibility or sunburn, I couldn't keep my anger. Flopping down beside him, I sighed.
"You should have skipped out like I did," Nuriko said, without moving or opening his eyes. "They would have had the argument without you."
"And then I would have to sit through it tomorrow," I sighed. Then I twigged. Deliberately keeping my face blank, I quickly stripped a fallen twig of leaves with the hand on the other side of my body. Sitting forward, I swung my arm across my body - not-so-incidentally sending the handful of half-dead leaves straight into his face.
Nuriko sat straight up, spluttering words I'd never heard before, spitting leaves. I smirked at him. He glared at me.
Then we both laughed, and the tension was broken. "Ah, I guess I deserved that," Nuriko finally conceded.
"Yes, you did," I decreed.
He fell back again, sprawling across the grass, ignoring everything save trying to absorb as much of the thin autumn sunlight as he could. I poked him. "Wake up," I told him. "I'm free for the rest of the afternoon, wake up and do something!"
"I don't juggle, never got the hang of it," Nuriko retorted flatly, rolling over away from me.
"I meant us. We're going to do something."
"So what are we going to do?"
"Wake up and help me think of something."
He rolled back over and opened one very skeptical eye at me. "What are you without me?" he asked rhetorically.
"Bored and hopeless," I shot back. "I want to go somewhere! What's on in the city?"
He shook his head at me. "The thing is, there isn't much to do. It isn't a festival, market day was yesterday and the weather isn't so clear that the city has gone boating or something."
"All right," I sighed. "What did you use to do on days like this?"
Nuriko let out an equal sigh and sat up, stretching his arms forward. "Days like today, I used to bug Elder Brother. Driving him crazy was fun, he used to get more and more sarcastic as I pushed and pushed him."
"So that's where you get it from," I replied, as if enlightened.
Nuriko Looked at me. I gave him my best 'innocent' look. It probably didn't work; he knows me too well. I gave it up.
I blew my breath out through my nose. Nuriko never spoke of his parents, but almost every second sentence was 'Elder Brother said...' or '... when Elder Brother was...' or 'Elder Brother thinks...' and I was desperately jealous. Nuriko was the youngest of three and he loved his sister and brother so much. I had an elder half-brother (who was making trouble, because he wanted the throne) and four younger half-sisters, and I barely knew more than their names. To have a brother who I cared for and who cared for me... Nuriko was my star-brother, but still, it wasn't the same.
"I'd like to meet him sometime," I murmured. So I can put a face to my envy, I thought to myself.
He sat up suddenly. "That's it!" he said suddenly. "OW!" he added, as he put his hand down on a sharp rock.
"What? What? You're bleeding!"
I wasn't really listening to him as I pulled out a kerchief. That's the good thing about five layers of clothing; I look like a rather wide multicoloured rag doll, but nobody notices if one of the underkimono doesn't have its kerchief tucked into the obi.
Wrapping the kerchief around Nuriko's hand took a little time. As I did, he explained. "My parents and Elder Brother are in town. When both Kourin and I became part of the Court, they moved to Eiyou. To take advantage of the fashions we'd set." His voice fell and became bitter on the last phrase.
"It sounds as if... you don't get along with them well," I ventured, looking up from his hand.
He gave a hollow bark of laughter. "No, we don't get along. Elder Brother has a lot more patience than I do. I don't know how he puts up with them."
"Perhaps I-"
"NO!"
I stared at the suddenly flushed face of my best friend. "No," Nuriko continued, calming down, "don't get involved. There's... a lot between my family. Stuff that... isn't good. Don't do anything. Don't talk about it, don't ask, don't get any of it on you. All right?"
I shrugged. "There's always dirty linen in every family. The stuff I could tell you about mine - yours can't be any worse."
"Yes, it can." Nuriko said flatly. "But anyway, I was going to tell you that we can go visit Elder Brother. If you want."
"Yes," I said decisively. "I want to meet your brother."
****
Sneaking past the gate guard was easy. I just changed clothes and took down my hair.
That's another thing about being Emperor. Everyone knows that the Emperor is tall and dignified, wears elegant kimono and the Imperial Crown. (Which is a gloriously beautiful treasure and does not look like a bejeweled bucket.)
"It does, too," Nuriko told me irreverently from my outer chamber.
"Shut up and help me find a plain thing in here," I told him, standing in front of my closet.
He didn't come in. "What about the scarlet surcoat you wore to the birthday parade?"
"Good idea," I replied, fishing it out.
"Wear it over a white under-robe and breeches."
"What colour breeches?" I called. Of course I knew what he'd meant. But he never would come into my inner rooms; it made me wonder. What was so frightening about my bedroom?
"White, of course!"
"All right."
I changed into the chosen garments. "How do I look?"
"Come and show me."
"Come and look."
He came to the door. "Very nice."
"And ordinary?"
"Not with your looks."
"Thanks."
"It wasn't a compliment. Now, we're going to have to work on our timing. When I distract the gate guard, you walk through. Then I'll catch up."
"Why don't we walk through together?"
"Do you know how to refuse a proposition?"
"He wouldn't dare!"
Nuriko sighed. "He wouldn't dare approach the Emperor, no, but you're a handsome noble who might not be adverse to a quiet meeting later this evening."
"Oh yes I WOULD be!"
"But how can he tell just by looking? He's a nice guy, who knows how to take 'no' as a 'no' and doesn't talk about the 'yesses'. The thing is, if he sees you, he's going to ask. And I don't think you want to be asked. Do you?"
"No."
"Then just do it my way, all right?"
"All right."
So we did. I saw the guard begin an animated conversation with Nuriko, while I quietly glided past. I walked on, to the first bend in the road. I stepped off the road and into the shade of a tree. They kept talking.
And kept talking.
The guard finally picked up Nuriko's right hand, pressing a kiss onto the back. He'd been aiming for the palm, but Nuriko flipped it at the last second. They both laughed, and Nuriko finally began to saunter down the road, past my hiding place.
"Enjoy yourself?" I asked coldly.
He had the grace to look embarrassed.
I made a mental note to have that handsome young guard promoted, somewhere far away from Eiyou. Somewhere where there were lots of girls.
****
Nuriko's family were - ironically enough - clothiers. He'd pulled me through a maze of streets until we stood before the Chou Cloth Emporium.
Nuriko pushed open the door.
A boy of my age was sitting behind a counter opposite the door. His hair was the same deep, rich purple as Nuriko's, and his features were a little heavier. His face was as finely modelled as my own, but, looking from the elder brother to the younger, the younger was slightly more delicate, more... feminine? I shook my head.
Then he lifted his head, and I was confronted with the same eyes - warm, clear lilac, fringed with impossibly long black lashes, making the lilac that much brighter and more clear by contrast. But the eyes themselves....
They glowed with warmth, with care and affection. The boy smiled at me, and it was Nuriko's smile. I felt as if I and my friendship was valued by this young man, as I had felt valued by Nuriko.
"Hello, Ryuuen," he was saying. Then he cocked his head at me, and - without losing the friendliness in any way - a hint of humour entered his voice. "And I presume this is your star-brother... Sai?"
Nuriko grinned at him. "Yes, Elder Brother," he said. "This is Hotohori. But his name is -"
"- Sai." The older boy interupted him firmly. "Father and your mother are home, just out the back."
Nuriko lost his smile.
I blinked. 'Father and your mother'. Hmm.
But the boy was continuing. "But where are my manners? I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Lau Rokou, and I'm very pleased to meet you. If my barbarian of a younger sibling hasn't scared you off the entire family..."
"ELDER BROTHER!!" Nuriko howled in not-quite-anguish.
I laughed. I couldn't help it.
"HOTOHORI!!" He turned to me.
"Still, you are obviously the forgiving sort, which is fortunate for Ryuuen -" giving aforesaid sibling's hair a light ruffle, "- so I would be honoured if you would take tea with us. Ryuuen, go get the tea things."
"But the store's open -"
"- and we have a guest. Go get the tea things, Ryuuen."
Nuriko went and fetched the tea things. I didn't recognise any of the words he was muttering under his breath, which meant they were worth memorising. Nobody ever swears around the Emperor, so my vocabulary is woefully short of profanity.
And so we sat, surrounded by bolts of cloth and thread, sipping tea. Conversation was odd, to say the least. Rokou's sense of humour was very similar to Nuriko's, and he was quieter. This wasn't to say that he didn't deflate Nuriko with somewhat depressing regularity. (Well, depressing to me, who had been trying to do it for the past six months, without success. To anyone else, it would probably have been a relief.)
And yet, listening, there were a lot of gaps. Not one word, apart from enquiries about the health of Nuriko's twin sister and the request to pass on greetings to her, was said on the subject of family. Also, where it is common custom for a person to be referred to by the position they hold in the family, Rokou never called Nuriko 'Younger Brother', only 'Ryuuen'. Not one word was said about the family business. And yet their eyes danced and flickered between themselves, with no apparent connection between the conversation and their movements.
"There is a lot between my family... stuff that isn't good," I remembered Nuriko telling me. It appeared he hadn't told me the half of it.
After a while, Rokou blinked and then smiled at me. "Oh yes. I have something for you." He stood gracefully and moved into the back of the store.
"Well," I said sarcastically, "I appreciate the warning."
Nuriko blinked at me. "You're welcome."
"What is it between you two, anyway?"
Nuriko sighed. "I never wanted to be a clothier. I was a poor apprentice, but still, we were apprentices together. Then, the earthshake happened, I joined the Court, and I left my apprenticeship. Elder Brother... didn't like it. He felt betrayed. We've talked about it, but... he still hurts."
I looked down at my cup. If the earthshake had never happened... I had thanked Suzaku for it, for Nuriko, but I had never thought that in sending him to me, Suzaku had taken him from someone else.
At that point, Rokou returned. "Here," he said, presenting me with a flat, wrapped bundle. "I think you will find them a lot more useful than I would."
I unwrapped it, and two short swords fell out of the cloth.
Picking them up reverentially, I examined them carefully. They were made of excellent steel, well tempered. Whoever had bought them had both a good eye and a lot of money. The tip on the secondary blade was precisely placed and the tips were well-honed.
"These sai... they're...." I was lost for words.
Rokou shrugged. "I've always been better with a quarterstaff," he replied. "Besides, they suit you."
I smiled. "My teachers say a long sword suits me best."
"No," Rokou replied, "a sai is a last-ditch weapon. Easily concealed. When mastered, it's deadly. It's often overlooked and usually underestimated." He paused, and then smiled, the smile of one having a private joke. "Much like yourself... Your Majesty."
I stopped smiling. "You... are a dangerous man," I said slowly.
"So are you... Lord Sai," he replied, looking into my eyes.
Looking at the sai again, I smiled slowly. "Indeed," I answered. "I'm glad you are my friend."
"I'm glad, too." He sipped his tea. "There was a time when I wasn't."
"And for that time, and for that which caused that time, I owe you." Never give away an advantage, my strategy teacher had drilled into my head, but I owed this man Nuriko, and Nuriko's friendship was worth my life.
Rokou nodded gravely, accepting the debt. "Guard my sister, then."
"I will," I swore, accepting the charge. "And all your family besides."
Rokou smiled oddly as we finished our tea.
****
Nuriko was quiet as we walked back to the Palace.
"That was intense, even for Rokou," he finally said.
I shook my head. "It was important to him."
"He seems to think that you'll marry Kourin, or something."
I frowned. That hadn't been the impression I'd gotten. It was as if Chou Kourin had not been involved in the conversation at all. "Hmmm," I said, noncommittal, as the Palace came into view. "Are we late for dinner?"
Nuriko said a word I did recognise, but could never use in mixed company, and we both ran through the gate.
******
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