Work Text:
The work was rather tedious. Unfortunately for Baryou, the Moon Prince as of late was getting a swathe of petitions from ministers across the court regarding unrest from the factionalism that had been plaguing the palace in recent days. Yue, as the Moon Prince had pleaded with Baryou to refer to him as in private company some weeks ago, wished for Baryou to piece together precisely who was under what faction in order to try and get a better picture of the state of the palace. He felt it necessary to understand the position of even the most minor of court official. It had been proving rather difficult, however, to try and glean the hidden intent behind all these petitions from their words alone. Baryou was far more comfortable with the long and detailed reports he would receive from Lahan, over these overly flowery, gratuitously written pleas. Along with this, the Emperor's workload had also been foisted onto Yue as he recovered from his operation. The combination of these factors had been causing Baryou and Yue to have rather longer days than was typical, even for him, and he often had not been returning home until twilight dawn.
To add further distress to this day in particular, several ministers had seemingly decided to plea to the Moon Prince in person, rather than simply send a missive. After Basen had politely encouraged the twentieth visitor to leave by noon's end, Baryou was unfortunately reaching the limit of his capability to deal with people. The paper divider that separated his small world from that of the unrepentant ministers unfortunately only did so much.
The door slid open with a crash. Baryou looked up to see his brother relaxing as he identified the intruder. The theatrical swishing of sleeves clued him in to the culprit being that of his wife Chue.
"Deepest apologies Moon Prince for Miss Chue's sudden transgression," she announced with a sharp bow, "I fear you have been working my dear husband too hard as of late, Miss Chue simply wishes to ensure her husband stays in tip-top shape for your highness. Therefore Miss Chue wants to accompany her husband for a short while to ensure his rest. Do not fear, a replacement has been acquired for a few hours!"
It was then Baryou realised Chue was indeed accompanied by a certain cat, observing her silhouette standing politely to Chue's far side through the paper lattice. It would seem that Chue really did want him to have this break. Despite being embroiled in untangling the mess of tedious bureaucracy, Baryou knew there was little point in arguing with her, as she produced a string of flags from her sleeves, flitting around Maomao.
"I suppose this is an opportune time, Maomao your opinion would be helpful on a matter concerning some herb shipments for the medical offices," Yue responded, smiling that smile Baryou has realised he reserves only for her. He swore he saw the shadow of cat ears twitching at this information upon her head, sure that a small smile would be appearing on her face too, failing to hide her glee. He really was puzzled at how his brother still could not see Yue's adoration for the girl, it seemed rather obvious to him.
"Baryou you may take a few hours break, I will be fine with Maomao and Basen," Yue concluded.
Before he could give Yue his thanks, his wife interjected while jumping around the divider.
"My that is awfully convenient! Miss Chue shall take her dear husband and leave you two in peace to work your magic," she chirped, attempting to drag him to his feet. "Untangling these papers can wait dear husband! Come along!"—glancing at the messy spread atop his desk.
Baryou relented and gave a quick bow as he and Chue left. As he slid the door shut, he smirked as he watched Maomao scamper round to Yue's side, brushing up against him far too familiarly to begin the task ahead of her, but not before chiding him for his lack of sleep. He was glad Yue had somebody to look after him, too.
Chue skipped down the path towards the Ma clan mansion, chirping about typical Chue nonsense. Baryou followed along attempting to ignore the gazes from passers by at the strange woman and, by extension rather unfortunately, him. Her bad arm was hanging limply at her side. Baryou remained upset at her injury, although was glad it wasn't much worse and that not only had she done her duty as a Ma, and Mi, in protecting her charge, but that Maomao had also been able to at least save her arm enough to avoid amputation. Her motion over weeks of therapy had slowly been improving, but Baryou had little knowledge of what Chue thought and felt of her current abilities, she never spoke of that sort of thing much. He remembered when, after finally seeing her again, she spoke of divorcing him now she was useless. He had tried to reassure her that she was nothing of the sort, and since then she'd never brought up her ailment again.
His wife interrupted his thoughts as they walked.
"Dear husband, do you remember Miss Maomao's new colleague at the medical offices Changsha? She is rather intriguing to Miss Chue, seems she is quite sharp when it comes to reading people. Miss Chue is worried she may be able to piece together the nature of the cat and the moons relationship and see past the silly excuse of personal physician. The excuse does seem rather flimsy still to Miss Chue, afterall, why would a medical assistant be entrusted with the care of such an esteemed patient!" Miss Chue rambled, "Maybe Miss Chue should play a little prank on her new friend to ensure her allegiances lie in the correct place…"
Feeling a certain degree of dread at her antics, Baryou exasperatedly responded, "Please be careful Chue, the last thing I want is you catching the ire of the Moon Prince, it would make my job rather awkward."
Fortunately by this stage they were approaching the entrance to their home.
As he slid their chamber's door shut behind behind him, Chue pulled him by the sleeve with her good arm towards the bed.
"Now now dear husband lets get you into bed," as she pulled off his outer robe for him, and curiously her own.
As he got between the covers, his wife followed behind him.
"Miss Chue shall have to rest here as well and ensure her dear husband does not scamper back to his work, what a shame," Chue said in answer to his thoughts.
She slowly snuggled up against his side, as if approaching skittish prey. Baryou allowed it, he secretly had come to rather enjoying cuddling with his wife in bed.
"Miss Chue has been missing her personal heater these past nights, it's already beginning to get cold."
Baryou reflected that it was already nearly winter, and that this time last year Chue and himself had been stuck in the much warmer Western Capital, attempting to prevent all sorts of plots. He responded to her feeble excuse, "Please Chue, you do not need to create such a silly excuse to cuddle your husband in bed."
She chirped slightly in response.
They lay there in tranquil quiet for some minutes finally allowing themselves to fully relax after what seemed like months of unrelenting work.
After some time, Baryou felt dampness on his shoulder. Looking down at her, it appeared that Chue was silently crying.
"What is wrong Chue?" he whispered, stroking her hair in an attempt to soothe her.
Attempting to compose herself, seeming embarrassed, she responded, "Miss Chue is tired, husband. Tired of being useless now. She hates this stupid arm," whispering into his robe to hide her face. "Miss Chue can't even pour tea properly anymore. What kind of lady-in-waiting cannot do that?" her walls crumbling as she spoke, "Never mind the fact Miss Chue cannot sufficiently protect Maomao anymore, or climb and sneak around at all. Master Lu should get rid of her already. I'm sure he will cast Miss Chue aside once she finds him a replacement… At least she can still be a baby factory for Taomei—"
At this last point Baryou disrupted her ranting by lifting her up to face him, wiping the wet tracks from her cheeks as he cradled them. He remembered how fiercely she had refused to allow their children to imprint themselves upon her and did not want her thoughts to continue down that path. He started speaking, carefully, "Chue please do not talk of yourself this way. I understand it has been hard for you to adjust but you needn't minimise yourself to this. It is easy to think of only what one cannot do, I am guilty of that myself, but please, you can still do so much. You can still read people better than anybody I know, you get information out of people others could only dream of. You still retain your silliness and sense of humour I have come to adore so much."
Her eyes flitted around the room, not wanting to settle on his, she was uncomfortable being complimented so, he knew, but he continued nonetheless as he addressed her woes specifically: "If you wish to not have any more children, I will speak with mother. You have more than done your dues for her already. I am truly sorry, I know you ideally did not wish to have any at all. Neither of us were designed to be parents, even with Maamei adopting our spawn. I am hoping Basen will finally propose to his paramour, he would suit fatherhood more than we suit parenthood."
"Miss Chue has been trying to get them together to get Taomei off her back but Basen is too blind."
"I know, Maamei is trying as well. I apologise for my brothers dull-witlessness. I do despair sometimes."
Chue let out a small smirk at Basen's expense as Baryou continued.
"Master Lu to my knowledge has said nothing to you to adjust your mission or admonished your capabilities to carry it out, neither has Lady Ah-Duo. They both must still see you as capable. I have faith in you to continue to protect her and do not be dismayed I know you will never have to be a traditional lady in waiting. Maomao will be glad her lady-in-waiting is unable to do silly tasks, you know how she is, she would hate for you to treat her like an actual princess. She values you for who you are instead, and more than anything you protect her from her own thoughts. I know she appreciates you as a friend."
"Did Miss Chue ever tell her dear husband it was her who received Miss Maomao's first love confession? I could make the Moon Prince very jealous" giggling sweetly but with tears still falling. It was a strange sight to see her like this but at least it appeared his words were comforting her.
"You did not, I would be careful saying as much as he would. Whenever Rikuson is mentioned his face still is a storm of anger. I heard he had simply asked her a dance years ago at this point."
"Well he did ask Miss Maomao to marry him when we were in that village during the plague. Miss Chue suspects Master Rikuson enjoys messing with the prince."
"I see, he must enjoy playing such a dangerous game tempting fate like that."
Chue hummed and feeling less anguished, snuggled back into his chest, relaxing to his steady pulse.
After some peaceful moments, Baryou once more spoke up, "I wish my Chue could see how special she is," he whispered into her hair, her hand gripped his robe tighter in response.
"Thank you husband," she muttered into his heart, "Mis… I… I am just so very scared of the future again. I thought that feeling had stopped when I had married you," her voice falling to a whisper as quiet as a mouse. It was so very rare for his wife to refer to herself in the first person. He swore too he faintly heard her accent slip to something resembling Shaohnese as well. He had never asked her of her upbringing as he could sense it was too painful a subject for her, but he'd had some suspicions over the years he had known her.
"I will always be here for you, I'm not going anywhere," he said, kissing her hair softly.
"Thank you Baryou," Chue drowsily replied, as sleep took her. It seemed she was the one who needed the rest more than he afterall.