]]>Yui curled up on the bed, one hand propping up her head, and watched Shuurei pace the room, sleeping robe fluttering around her ankles.
"And then! And then! He said we couldn't do anything about Haruki, even if he is taking bribes, because he has a patron from the Heki clan, and I should know that the Heki are going to be the deciding voice in the land redistribution this year!" Her brown eyes snapped like sparks; Yui felt she might warm her hands at that fire of Shuurei's, melt the ice out of her bones, where it had settled years ago.
]]>"Of course she loves you." He leaned back on the pavilion bench and passed the sake bottle back over to his Emperor. "Thing is... you're asking her to not love all of you."
Notes: Contains consensual sibling incest.
]]>"Ryuuki." Seiran's voice was husky in the silvery dark. Intimate, and Ryuuki flushed a little to think that. He looked up with wide eyes as Seiran's arm tightened around him, pulling him close.
Notes: Contains consensual sibling incest.
]]>"Come here, Ryuuki." Seiran held his hand out, and the command in his voice made Ryuuki's breath catch.
]]>When Shou Yousei stopped in to see how his newest Emperor was doing, he expected to find Seien in a bad temper.
Notes: Contains consensual sibling incest.
]]>Here, with the darkness pressing so close, Ryuuki didn't want to hold back or bite his lip and bear it all. He kicked away the tangle of his covers and burrowed into his brother's chest.
Seien's anger made his voice a growl. "You spent years and years fighting to reunify the country, to break the power of the great clans until imperial law ruled everywhere again." His control slipped and he slammed a hand against the wall. "And you almost lost it all just because you ignored what was happening in your own inner courts! Why?!"
]]>
]]>My Dear Most Honored and Respected Elder Brothers Who Almost Got Me Killed,
]]>Shuuei's lips quirked. "Shou-taishi was certainly right that you don't much need anyone else's sword to guard you from attackers," he admitted. "But I hope, my prince, that you will allow me to guard you from this." His gesture took in their match just finished, the blood that had come very close to being spilled.
]]>Seien sighed; some days he felt more like a nursemaid than any kind of ruler, even one in training. Keeping the ministers away from each other's throats sometimes reminded him quite a lot of trying to keep a five-year-old Shuurei from dunking herself in the fish pond.