[Jan 15] [Twelve Kingdoms] Perfect Artwork

[italicsinindigo.livejournal.com]

Title: Perfect Artwork
Theme: 15/1/09 - 'One Wish Granted'
Series: Twelve Kingdoms/ Juuni Kokki
Pairing: Taiki/Gyousou - older Taiki
Rating: T
 

 

 Perfect Artwork

One of his young servants knocked at the half-open door.

“Taiho? Your guest has arrived.”

“Yes, Shikei, I’ll be there presently.”

Taiki quickly finished rinsing the paint splotches from his hands. Where was…ah. Hurriedly, he cleared up his work surface and checked that he hadn’t dropped anything on his formal black robes. Once everything was in its proper files, he smoothed his clothes down and hurried into the main palace.

His master was waiting in the formal reception hall. When he heard his companion’s footsteps, he looked up from his chair and broke into a slow smile.

“Ah. There you are. I was just about to come looking for you.”

Taiki returned the smile from behind a curtain dark hair, the light washing over it like fine steel.

“I was just in the art studio Master Gyousou so kindly built for me.”

His master leaned forward intently, in one long movement. “Is that so? What have you been painting?”

“Oh, nothing special. I was thinking that perhaps my anatomy needs a little more work…”

Before either could say anything else, the doors at the end of the hall opened, and a familiar figure came strolling through.

“Kei-Taiho! I’m so glad you made it.”

Behind him, Gyousou gave a small huff of irritated amusement.

“I hope you are well?” Keiki asked in his usual monotone, the only indication of his pleasure a slight relaxation of the eyes.

“I am, thank you. It’s so good to see you again. We certainly have much to talk about. Tell me, how is Nakajima-san?”

“The Empress is…busy.”

“I’m sorry she couldn’t come. Can I offer you some tea?”

Gyousou got to his feet and cleared his throat. He dipped his head in acknowledgement to their guest.

“Kei-Taiho, I can see you have matters to discuss with Kouri. If the formalities are now out of the way, you will excuse me…”

“Of course.”

Taiki followed his master out of the room with his eyes.

“You are happy, I trust?” Keiki asked anxiously, looking down his stern nose at the younger kirin.

“Oh, yes.”

“That is good to know.”

            “Would you follow me? I’ve been meaning to show you something for a while now.”

            Keiki walked beside him in utter silence as they crossed the courtyard. Peering nervously up at him, Taiki couldn’t help but notice a faint scowl on his old friend’s face. He felt his heart sink in disappointment..

            “Keiki… are you sure you’re all right? You look upset about something.”

            “Perhaps there are one or two things on my mind…”

            “Oh, I see. I won’t intrude on your privacy.”

            There was a small building with a black-tiled roof sweeping up at the corners, tucked away in one corner of the Imperial Gardens. There was a mirror-quiet pool wrapped around it, reflecting twisted black pines and sculpted shrubs.

            “Master Gyousou had this set up for me as a surprise,” Taiki explained, opening the door, “because I once mentioned how much I’d liked painting when I lived in Hourai.”

            The room inside was airy and light, and simply furnished. A small table with the equipment for making tea stood against one wall. There was a desk, and easels, and boxes of paints lined next to bamboo brush racks, inkstones and coloured pigment sticks with gold decorations. Several tasteful paintings and scrolls were hung on the walls.

            “…He went a little overboard,” said Taiki, blushing slightly.

            “He obviously cares about you very deeply,” said Keiki, a touch too solemn.

            Taiki glanced up at him. “Taiho, you really do sound strange today. Are you sure there is nothing wrong with you?”

            “I am in perfect health,” Keiki intoned, staring at a jug overflowing with scarlet camellias.

            “Well, if you’re sure…”

            The older kirin appeared to snap out of it, giving a strained little smile. “Of course I am. May I see some of your work?”

            “I’m not that good,” said Taiki modestly, trying to hide his pleasure and relief. He unrolled a delicate watercolour before his guest.

“I painted this last winter. Master Gyousou took me down to the city in disguise so I could observe the people.”

            Noticing a renewed scowl on Keiki’s face, he continued in a rush, “but I have better ones…”

He stole a glance behind him as he selected a folder full of uncontroversial sketches.

            “These are the pavilions by the lake-”

            “Very skilful.”

            “And the court ladies in summer...”

            “Well done.”

            “And this is….oh. Oh.”

            They both stared at the drawing for several long, silent moments.

            “I…forgot that was in there,” he explained weakly.

            Keiki looked wide-eyed at the portrait. At Gyousou’s broad, sculpted frame, the powerful pose. At the wide shoulders, the contours of the muscles running across his arms and his back and …down.

            His eyes, half-closed, glittered darkly from the paper.

            Keiki swallowed. “The shading is indeed very competent.”

            “Oh…um, thank you. Life study, is, of course, an important discipline in the education of an artist…”

            “…The, the muscles are particularly so. There are…so very many.”

            “Kei-Taiho…” He shifted on his feet and tenuously glanced up. In fascination, he watched a deep blush suffuse the Kei-Taiho’s face.

            The older kirin looked up, a expression of utter shock in his eyes. “Taiki-” he whispered, voice shaking slightly.

            Taiki took a deep breath.

 “Oh, come on Keiki,” he said, slightly impatient as he whisked the offending portrait away. “Just because you keep a steel rein on yourself doesn’t mean we all have to.”

            “But-”

            “All the others do it too, you know – well, almost all of them. In fact, it was En-Taiho who-”

            Keiki hurriedly shut his eyes. “Please, no.”

            “To be frank, we were all beginning to get a little worried about you.”

            “Taiki!”

            “As long as you keep it quiet from the ministers, nobody kicks up a fuss-”

            “Taiki-” Keiki took a few deep breaths. “But…but…”

 He swallowed again.

“But – Tai-Ou seems like a very honourable man.”

            “Yes, he is.”

            “A man who would not wish to take advantage of his kirin in any way.”

            “No, of course, not. Keiki, where are you going with this?”

            “A man, in fact, who might actually need a little encouragement before he deemed the act… acceptable.”

            “Oh,” said Taiki in sudden comprehension. He glanced at the jug of red camellias and blinked. “Oh, Keiki. I have so much to tell you.”

 



 

            “You’ve been very quiet lately, Kouri.”

            “Have I, Master Gyousou? I’m sorry. I’ve just had things on my mind.”

            “Because the Taiho of Kei has returned home? Are you that lonely?”

            Taiki approached his master’s desk, sitting down on the chair at his left-hand side. “How could I be lonely,” he replied, smiling a little shyly. “When I have you?”

            “That reminds me. The Empress of Kei sent you something.”

            “Nakajima-san?”

            Gyousou pushed an intricately carved wooden box across the desk. “Yes. A courier delivered it an hour or two ago.”

            Taiki curiously opened the lid. There, on a bed of thick white silk, lay a single paintbrush. There was a note neatly placed on top.

            I owe you a big favour.

            Taiki laughed out loud. “He actually worked up the courage?”

            “What’s this?” asked Gyousou, leaning in curiously.

            “Sorry,” said Taiki, withdrawing the brush and closing the lid with a soft click, one black silk sleeve trailing over the wood with a faint whisper. “Kirin confidentiality.”

            “Sometimes I think you confide more in that Kei-Taiho of yours than you do in me,” said Gyousou, a dark smile beginning at the corners of his mouth. “Perhaps I should start becoming jealous.”

            Taiki leaned right back in his chair, hair spilling down his shoulders and catching the light, silvered. He gently laid one leg over the other, twisting his ankle round in little circles. The shoe began to slip off. He touched the fine point of the brush to his lips, beginning to curve upwards.

            Gyousou’s attention slid to the graceful foot bobbing at the corner of his vision. He frowned and leant over attentively, eyes fixed on the exposed white skin at the hem of the deep silk.

            “What in…”

            Taiki carelessly flicked his shoe off. It landed with a clatter behind Gyousou’s back.

            “There is,” he said, leaning back a little further so that the hem of his outfit slid further up his leg, “No reason at all for you to be jealous, Master.”

            Gyousou bent over and gently took Taiki’s foot in his hand. There were flowers painted on the ankle, vivid in dark velvet petals of deep crimson and dusky pink. They budded in a vine vanishing beneath the hem of his robes.

            Gyousou pushed the silk up a little further. There were the flowers again, lush and deep and just unfurling from their tight buds. He pushed the robes a bit further, and the flowers were opening up…

            “How far do these go?” He asked in a deep voice, raising his eyes, amused and dark, to meet Taiki’s.

            Taiki leant forward until his face was just a few inches in front of his master’s, until he could feel the heat from his skin. He lightly touched the soft tip of the brush to Gyousou’s lips.

            “Why don’t you find out for yourself?”