What killed the cat

[flemmings]

Dec 15 prompt, only a dozen days late.

Wu Zi Xu approaches with a smile on his face, like a cat who's caught an especially plump and tasty mouse. Fu Chai braces himself.
"Good day, your Majesty."

"Good day, my lord Chancellor."

"I trust your Majesty sleeps well these days."

"Thank you, we sleep very well."

"Your new chamber servant is satisfactory in all respects?"

"We have no complaints of him."

"And has he offered you the left-over peach yet?"

"Left-over peach? Why would he?"

"Why, because his tastes run in that direction."

"What tastes?"

"Surely your Majesty knows?"

"No, my Majesty does not. Stop playing games, Chancellor. What are you talking about?"

"The love of men for men."

"What? Like one's father or older brother--"

Wu Zi Xu is shaking his head. "Not that kind of love. When a man loves another man as if he were a woman."

Fu Chai looks blank. "Why would he? When there are women to love?"

"I have no idea. But Gou Jian is such a man."

Fu Chai snorts. "Somehow I have difficulty believing it."

Wu Zi Xu laces his fingers together. "Does your Majesty know which men of Yue accompanied Gou Jian here?"

"His generals, the men who waged war on our country. Who else?"

"Yes, his chief generals. And his body servant, Ku Cheng."

"What, Gou Jian brought his own servant with him? Then why did we spare him two slaves from our own household? Did the queen bring any of her women? If she did--"

Wu Zi Xu looks unaccountably annoyed.

"No, your Majesty. Ku Cheng himself insisted on following Gou Jian here, so he was made prisoner with the other hostages and lives in the barracks now."

>"What a waste. Send him to wait on Gou Jian."

"I don't think your Majesty understands. Ku Cheng insisted on coming because in Yue he shared the king's love and the king's bed."

" The idea is clearly percolating through Fu Chai's brain. "Like... like a concubine? How odd." He frowns. Wu Zi Xu waits in satisfaction. "Well then, I suppose the queen won't want him there- not in their present situation."

Wu Zi Xu sighs. "Ku Cheng isn't the only one. There's Fan Li, Gou Jian's main advisor. He insisted on coming too."

"The man of Chu? That was loyal of him, I suppose. Though in Gou Jian's place, I'd rather have my loyal counsellor back home looking after my country."

"Indeed. Which would argue, would it not, that loyalty wasn't what brought Fan Li here?"

"Then what else?"

"Love, your Majesty, as I've been trying to tell you. The two passed many nights together in Gou Jian's chambers. You can imagine what they did there."

"Mh- mm- no. Actually, we can't. How can you love a man as a woman? There's no-- no place to put it!"

Wu Zi Xu leans forward, and in a very low voice tells him. He pauses for a moment to observe the king's rigid features and white-faced shock, and smiles benignly.

"And that, your Majesty, is what your Majesty has placed beside his bed every night. Does your Majesty still think it well-advised?"

Fu Chai makes no answer-- can make no answer.

"Your servant will take his leave," Wu Zi Xu says gently, and turns and goes.

Thinking, And that should put an end to Gou Jian's midnight conferences.

Comments

[feliciter.livejournal.com]

Ah, WZX, it takes a man of Chu who renders loyal services to a foreign king one to know one.

(Isn't there a tale somewhere about the cat undone by his own cleverness?)

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

*giggles* - *claps hands* Heeee! ^_____^

ahem - sounds like that should be some kind of follow up ^_~

[rasetsunyo.livejournal.com]

Oh god and Fu Chai is so dense I want to kick him. Not that much different from canon, I have to say.

(Eh heh heh WZX what have you let yourself in for.)

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

In this case I don't think it's denseness so much as innocence. Like finding out where babies come from. Can't see a period king first being told 'Oh yes, loyal retainer, that means his king is putting it in his bum' and going 'Oh wow cool neat.' 'He does WHAT???' is the only IC response I can come up with for Fu Chai.

I agree, the scenes in my head are looking very much like the canon character.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

You're ringing bells at me but I can't pin it down. Maybe when I'm awake.

And of course, nothing says these favourites who were loved by their lords, or rather loved by their lords like *that*, were engaging in penetrative sex. Some people just don't like the idea, then as now, or even now pre-AIDS. If Helu had a tendresse for WZX I can't see it going past what the Greeks did. Or could that be down to the age of the actors, cause man, old marrieds is them.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Oh of course there's follow-up. Poor Fu Chai can't let such a disgusting fascinating disgusting intriguing disgusting idea alone.

[incandescens]

That does feel the right/IC response, yes. And me snickering over here.

[paleaswater.livejournal.com]

Hmm... maybe Fu Chai did know how it was done, and was just feigning shock...

Espcially with WZX, who thinks he always know what reaction he can get from Fu Chai, but usually turns out to be wrong in the end.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

maybe Fu Chai did know how it was done

Quite seriously, how would he? It's not a natural part of a straight person's world, except in cultures like ours that never stop talking talk freely about sex. Barbarian Wu may not have been the strait-laced PRC, but still. A taste for m/m sex will affect only a small part of the population, and straight guys talking about sex together will talk about women. So who'd tell Fu Chai?

Not to mention, who says ancient China's upper class m/m practices weren't the same as ancient Athens'-- frottage and fondling, but only animals would put their precious male roots *there*.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Of course there's the question of which Fu CHai it's IC for- series or A/U. But I suppose A/U Fu Chai must overlap the canon one somewhere.

[paleaswater.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wasn't really thinking about the mechanics of how he actually acquired the knowledge. More along the lines of how your Fu Chai is more like Gou Jian than the Fu Chai of the tv series, and either Fu Chai seems to know instinctively how to play with WXZ. I suppose he could have overheard people snickering about the dissolute king of Qi.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

What strikes me about series Fu Chai is how little he knows and how easy it is to keep him out of various loops, which suggests he doesn't get to have unbuttoned conversations with many people. Hell, *Yue* knows WZX entrusted his son to Qi before anyone in Wu does. Scuttlebutt just doesn't reach him. Maybe one of the Gongsuns might have mentioned Jing of Qi, but I can't see either going into details.