open post: Empress Liu Mingyan

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan has a lot on her mind.

In the three months since Luo Binghe vanished into thin air, Xin Mo abandoned at the foot of his throne, his Empire—her Empire—has... changed. The throne remains empty, of course—to have anyone else claim it, even temporarily, would be conceding that his absence is unintentional, either accidental or, more likely, a malicious coup. Whoever did the claiming would be the prime suspect for mal intent, including Mingyan herself. So it sits, empty, at the center of his great hall, Mobei-Jun standing sentinel beside it, never to be looked at directly by any visiting dignitary or sniveling demonic petitioner.

She's been redirecting all audiences to her wing of the palace instead. Her hall is not quite so grand, but it is nearly as imposing, and her own throne no less terrible and beautiful. When Luo Binghe is in residence, she primarily uses this hall for meetings with her network of all-female spies—not because Luo Binghe doesn't know about them, in his vague and uninterested way, but because Liu Mingyan has learned from experience that if they encounter him they turn very quickly from useful and competent agents to fawning and lovestruck young maidens, and then it's only a matter of time before they join the ranks of the harem. Liu Mingyan does not resent this; there would be no point. But she prefers to conduct her business in private nonetheless.

Now, of course, even from her own throne many of her edicts must be delivered as if they're orders that Luo Binghe left for her to give. Ning Yingying has been surprisingly useful on this front; despite Liu Mingyan's disdain for what she believed a naive and trusting heart who had given up her sect loyalty to marry for love, Ning Yinging does know Luo Binghe, perhaps better even than Liu Mingyan does, offering insight into what Luo Binghe would have said, if he had in fact instructed Mingyan on how to handle this matter. Liu Mingyan does not always take this advice—she does not always want to do what Luo Binghe would have done, especially as his absence stretches from days into weeks into months, but she does not resent it, either.

In truth, what Liu Mingyan resents is the idea that Luo Binghe will return, and she will be expected to relinquish rule back to him, and everything she has built—the tenuous and confusing peace between herself and Sha Hualing, and thus the quelling of the constant threat of southern rebellion; the ease with which she receives the other wives and soothes their fears, rather than holding herself above them;¹ the shifted tenor of court itself, with fewer public displays of violence²—all of it will go back to normal, and Liu Mingyan finds she has less taste for normal every day. It's not that she doesn't want Luo Binghe to return—of course she does—but she wishes that somehow he might return different. It's a futile thought, and a disloyal one to think about a man who created this life for her, a man she cares deeply about, but she cannot deny that she thinks it.

So when she steps down a secret stairway into a corridor that should lead to her chambers and ends up in an unfamiliar hallway instead—the light entirely wrong, the architecture unfamiliar—her first thoughts are uncharitable. It seems obvious that this is the same trap that ensnared Luo Binghe. It also seems unfair to make her the one to bring him home, and be the agent of her own undoing. She'll do it—he is her husband, and while that doesn't mean the same thing to her as it does many of his wives, it does mean something significant, as undeniable as it is ill-defined—and her Emperor. But—

She sets her jaw behind her veil and wraps her fingers around Cheng Luan's hilt, proceeding silently down the hallway.

[NSFW: Susan's thread, Janet's thread]

¹ Well, sometimes she's still above them. If you know what I mean.
² Not that there has been no violence—it's just generally conducted elsewhere. Her floors are harder to clean than Luo Binghe's.

Comments

[sorrowandsorrow]

How the hell does Liu Mingyan deliver lines this this and pull it off? Janet can't help her laugh, but it's a laugh of startled delight and lingering arousal, not one meant to mock. "I fucking wish," she says, and then she snakes her hand down and slides two fingers into Liu Mingyan, easy -- she's wet and open for her by now.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan gasps, bearing down onto her fingers. She reaches up to grip the back of Janet's neck and pull her down to kiss her, let her taste herself on Liu Mingyan's tongue.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet goes more than willingly into that kiss, as open for Liu Mingyan's tongue in her mouth as Liu Mingyan is for the curl of her fingers inside her. She has just enough presence of mind to shift and readjust that hand so she can tuck the pad of her thumb against Liu Mingyan's clit, making slow and deliberate circles -- for now.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan loses herself in the kiss. The slow circling of Janet's thumb is building heat in her, steady and delicious, and she lets her hands wander everywhere she can touch, mapping out the strong, gorgeous line of Janet's body, mindless and appreciative.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Their kissing stretches out for a long while, until Janet can't taste herself anymore, until she breaks it -- but only to reapply herself to pressing her open mouth to Liu Mingyan's neck and jaw and collarbones, to using her free hand to pull at the remains of her robes and bite back a laugh at how easily everything still comes away, to speed the pace of her hand. It all feels stupid easy, hot and straightforward, to keep touching her.

[empressliu]

She may suppress the laugh, but Liu Mingyan feels the fierce grin against her skin, and it as much as Janet speeding up the working of her fingers makes heat lance through her. No one has ever laughed at her this much in bed. The only one who laughs at her at all is Sha Hualing, and that's derisive, cutting,¹ not this wondering, triumphant sort of laughter, like Janet is so pleased with her as the spoils of her victory she has no other way to express it but through mirth. It sweeps through Liu Mingyan, her thighs trembling and hands grasping at Janet's back, nails dragging against her skin as her pleasure mounts and builds.

¹ Citation needed.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet knows better than to stop or slow or change anything about what she's doing as Liu Mingyan comes under her hands, but she does bury a muffled groan into another kiss at the bright, welcome pricks of pain from Liu Mingyan's nails. As she settles, then, she lets her hand still, but keeps her fingers shallowly inside her for the time being.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan settles back, breathing hard, fluttering and twitching against Janet's hand. She can tell the enhanced strength has left her, but the continued pressure of fingers inside her feels deliberate, pinning her in place as effectively as she had on the strange grassy pitch outside. "You are a thorough conqueror," she breathes against Janet's cheekbone, the corner of her mouth.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet grins, wide and pleased with herself. "You really know how to talk to a girl," she says smugly, before withdrawing those fingers at last. "You're not so bad yourself."

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan would take offense--not so bad? several dozen of Luo Binghe's wives would beg to differ--but she's too satisfied. She runs a hand up Janet's chest again, teasing a fingertip lightly over a nipple, just appreciating the form of her rather than starting anything new.

As with Susan, she finds herself unable to understand how Luo Binghe could have let this woman go without a wedding, how anyone could turn their back on this kind of pleasure. "I believe I understand--what was the term--gay men even less than I did before."

[sorrowandsorrow]

That earns Liu Mingyan one more laugh, Janet slightly breathless about it. She rolls off her and to the side so that she can stretch out, her thighs halfway to cramping otherwise, but she keeps a hand at the inside of her thigh to show it's nothing personal. "You and me both, but I'd rather hang out with them than with straight men. That's, you know, the opposite. Men who are only attracted to women."

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan hums, idly enjoying watching her stretch. "I spend very little social time with men at all," she admits. "But--I think I would agree, if Luo Binghe and Mobei-Jun are my examples of gay men, and... the rest of the hangers-on at court are my example of the alternative."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Exactly," Janet says easily, as if she knows everything about these hangers-on and can authoritatively agree that they're terrible. "I started liking Luo Binghe a lot more when he told me he was gay, honestly."

[empressliu]

It's odd, but not unwelcome, to think that Janet might like Luo Binghe more the way that Liu Mingyan likes him than the way the rest of the wives do. "You did not enjoy his flirtation when you believed he meant it," she says, not quite a question. "Once it became harmless, it became enjoyable."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"His flirtation when I believed he meant it was terrible," Janet says with something like resigned fondness, "so, sure. I mean, I've never heard such bad pick-up lines in my life." She shoots Liu Mingyan a little grin. "You pull off the thing he's trying to do way, way better."

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan, for the second time in a day and the second time in a year at once, is startled into real laughter, brief and a little harsh with disuse. "It works shockingly well on the women of our world," she says. "His flirtation, not mine. Well, mine as well--but usually his first." She shrugs. "I am used to being alone in my disinterest."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Hmm." Janet gives Liu Mingyan's thigh a squeeze. She's trying not to look too thrilled about the laugh, and she's mostly pulling it off. "Then I guess I'm glad I came along to keep you company."

[empressliu]

Just because Liu Mingyan was alone in not being attracted to Luo Binghe does not, of course, mean she was alone in general; yet somehow after this strange day in this strange place it feels as if she has always been solitary nonetheless. She tilts Janet's face up with the tips of her fingers. "So am I," she says, sincere, and kisses her slow and searing.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Well, shit. There's no way to respond to that aside from leaning into it, so Janet does; she kisses Liu Mingyan back with her eyes shut, propping herself up on an elbow to draw it out. Liu Mingyan's skin is soft under her fingers, the musculature of her thigh just palpable, and she'll hang onto this one for as long as Liu Mingyan wants.