Chapter Text
The sun's creeping over the horizon, slowly bringing colour to the buildings and gardens of the inner court. It's been a a few hours since she decided to stay and sit there with Jinshi. His tears have all dried, but he hasn't let go of her yet. Maomao doesn't mind much, she surrendered to her fate of being Jinshi's personal teddy bear hours ago. She hears a light snoring; he must be asleep. It's early morning, and nobody's up yet, but soon enough the inner court will be bustling with life, and she's not too keen on being seen with a sleeping Jinshi lying on top of her. She tries to wake him up multiple times to no avail. She really hopes nobody sees them like this; the misunderstandings that would arise would cause her enough problems for a lifetime.
Maomao is sitting on his lap, his arms are wrapped tightly around her, and his face is very delicately smooshed against her back. She can feel his warm breath tickling her neck. His eyes are closed, slightly puffy from crying; there's a sad expression on his sleeping face that's hardly noticeable, but it's there. The warm sunlight dances over his smooth, well-defined features. Even when he's dead asleep he still manages to be effortlessly gorgeous, which annoys Maomao slightly less than it should right now. He looks like the subject of a renaissance painting.
Maomao hears feet brushing against grass and someone rounds the corner. To her relief, it's Gaoshun who stumbles upon the oddly picturesque scene. If anyone else saw Jinshi like this, they would faint. Gaoshun is used to this, however, and only seems tired and somewhat amused.
"I went looking for him because he hadn't returned to his residence yet. Xiaomao, why is Jinshi-sama sleeping on your back?"
"He got incredibly drunk, grabbed me, and hasn't let go since." She doesn't mention the crying to Gaoshun out of consideration for Jinshi. It's not really any of her business anyway.
Gaoshun sighs as he crouches down next to the two of them, "Jinshi-sama," he shakes him gently, sighs, then shakes him harder.
"I don't think he's going to wake up any time soon. Can you just pry him off me? I've been up all night."
"Alright."
Gaoshun grabs Jinshi's arms and pulls them off of Maomao, taking a surprising amount of effort, and getting a small grunt from Jinshi. He stirs a little, then wraps his arms around her waist once more, he's still asleep. Multiple more attempts are made after that to separate the two of them, but every single time, they go back to square one.
Eventually, (after more attempts than he'd like to admit) Gaoshun successfully gets the sleeping man off of the poor apothecary's back and hoists him onto his own.
"Xiaomao, could you make something for a hangover? He's going to need it."
Maomao lights up at the mention of making something, like she always does. She rushes off to find some herbs.
He waves goodbye to her and carries his master all the way back to his residence.
~~~~
Jinshi opens his eyes and immediately regrets it. The moment the light streaming in through the window hits him, he squeezes his eyes shut and lets out a small groan. The room is spinning and he feels like he got repeatedly whacked over the head with a stick. Just what in the world happened last night?
He was drinking a lot at an official's house.
The host left.
Came back.
Dismissed Jinshi.
So he went for a stroll.
And then?
He can't remember. And now he's in his bed with the worst headache of his life and so much brain fog he can't even think three feet in front of him.
...wait.
Anyways, the point is he doesn't really remember what happened last night and he has a nasty hangover. He should ask the apothecary to make him something for it.
He drags himself out of bed, not surprised that he's already fully clothed; he must have slept in them. He reeks faintly of alcohol and there's a bitter, acrid tang at the back of his throat. It's gonna be a long day.
~~~~
Jinshi finally manages to traipse along to his office. Not without everyone stopping and staring at him though. That's normal, of course, but this time he can't tell if it's because he looks good, or awful. He still keeps his practiced smile up. One of the mid-level consorts approaches him and asks if he'd like to have some drinks with her tonight. He politely declines, he thinks he's had enough drinking for a while and makes a mental note to include her in his report to the Emperor.
He opens the doors to his office. Gaoshun and a pile of paperwork on his desk are there to greet him. Gaoshun says hello as Jinshi goes to sit down. He takes out a brush, ink, and some paper and immediately forgets what he's about to write. He puts his hands up to his head and massages his temples while letting out a dramatic sigh.
"Gaoshuuuun..." he whines.
"Yes, Jinshi-sama?"
"Can you go to the apothecary and ask her to make me a hangover cure?"
As if on cue, Maomao knocks on the door.
"Come in."
"Here's something to help with the hangover, Jinshi-sama."
She walks over to his desk and puts down a tray with a bowl and a cup of water on a spot clear of papers.
"Mm," is all he say in response.
Maomao bows, turns, and takes her leave
He looks down at the food and stirs it a little. It's a simple rice porridge. It has a slight green tint to it and smells strongly of medicinal herbs and a little bit of ginger. He guesses she added something to help with his symptoms. He brings to spoon up to his mouth and the smell hits him even stronger this time. He takes a sip of it. He's pleasantly surprised; it doesn't taste as bad as he expected it to. His brain finally processes what she said.
How did she know about his hangover?
~~~~
Jinshi doesn't seem to remember the events of last night. On one hand, Maomao's glad he didn't, but she's also curious about what made him cry like that. She reminds herself not to pry, it's not her place, and besides, she has other things to do. She's busy making Jinshi some tea with some ginger and herbs. Gaoshun informed her that he was nauseous, so she's making this to help alleviate some of that. She asked Gaoshun to keep her updated on his condition and make sure he drinks water.
Aside from bringing him his tea and porridge, Maomao's been avoiding Jinshi- more so than usual. It's just awkward to be around him after he was so vulnerable in front of her. Sure, he was drunk, but she can't help but feel it means he trust her enough to let his guard down around her. Now he's back to his normal self, albeit a little more grumpy. She's also been seeing this childish side of him more as of late. It's in stark contrast to the sparly facade he puts up for everyone else. It seems there's more facets to the man than Maomao originally thought.
She's doing her chores in the Jade Pavilion, though she doesn't have many as the other ladies-in-waiting are adamant in their refusal to give her any strenuous jobs. She's on laundry duty again. She's grateful to Hongniang for giving her something to do, and even more grateful because she gets to pick up herbs along the way. She takes her time on the way back to stop and smell the proverbial roses or (in this case) herbs. Exactly how she manages to pack the basket full of herbs and even pile more on to without it toppling over is a mystery to everyone.
She's been able to ignore it until now, but as she's prepping and storing her herbs, she can't stop thinking about Jinshi. At first she could just chalk it up to her being concerned about him as a doctor would be for a patient, but she's thinking about him as much as she does herbs and poison, which is to say: constantly. That's too much for it to just be doctoral worry. She doesn't even know why she's even concerning herself with his wellbeing like this. She usually finds even the thought of him annoying most of the time, but now she can't even look at herbs without wondering what she could make with them to help with his symptoms.