Saiunkoku: The Age of Silver: Peaches and Thorns

[branchandroot]

Fic post from my archive.

Peaches and Thorns

Shoukun and Seien talk about freedom, and she gathers a promise from him. Drama, I-3

She sighed. "My little Seiran." Very quietly she added, "If the palace will be such a cage to you, I will be sad to see you walk back in and pick up your chains again."

Comments

[lazulisong.livejournal.com]

♥

I love how Seiran mentally qualifies everything.

Also I looked it up and it's specifically 'a yellow close to white' that Ryuuki gives Shuurei for the roses.

[branchandroot]

*heartsback* Thank you! *wry* Seiran is /such/ a cynic, by this point.

Oo, now that's fascinating. Innocent affection, perhaps? She might be the only one he /can/ feel something like that for, besides his Aniue.

[lazulisong.livejournal.com]

Possibly. The funny thing about the scene is that it's stated explicitly that Ryuuki is acting childlike several times -- he holds the flowers like a child, for one thing. He isn't just holding them, he's got his fist wrapped around them. And then he gets scolded by Shuurei and sits down and gets thorns taken out of his hands. >____>

ALTHOUGH this is also the scene where you realize he deliberately went to her quarters dressed in a thin nightrobe specifically so she would feel that she had to let him in.

[branchandroot]

Yeah, when I thought they were just white, I was pretty much thinking "oh, hey, what a /thorough/ ploy to look innocent". It's one of the things that fascinates me about Ryuuki, that he can scheme so well and be so genuinely childish and tactless and poorly socialized in the next moment.

[senbonbongenma.livejournal.com]

the thing I like about ryuuki is that there is this fine line (which he plays oh so well) between innocence (or idiocy) and cunning (or genius). so, he knows some things - but not all things.

which i think is very realistic considering his upbringing and his status in SaiMono society.

[senbonbongenma.livejournal.com]

sorry to interrupt... but... in a way, Shuurei and Ryuuki are alot alike b/c they lack maturation in love - to differing degrees.

So that, when it comes to heartfelt romance, it could be argued that both are quite hopeless - and don't know how to go about it the right way! :P which is quite adorable!