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

[quote_gentle_unquote]

For a moment, the bite renders Susan useless, her mouth open and working against the air. And then she comes back to herself: a desperate, needy thing. Liu Mingyan is so decisive; Susan likes it very much.

"Like what you see?" she asks, aiming for teasing but sounding more hoarse than anything.

[empressliu]

"Mmh, more than you know," says Liu Mingyan. She digs her thumb into the spot she'd bitten, not letting the pain fade, and lowers her chin to fuck into Susan with her tongue.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan's breath hitches. Oh, it has been a while since she's lain with a woman. She finds that she's missed it terribly, and indulges in a few long moments of just letting herself feel what Liu Mingyan is doing -- the purposeful and talented movement of her tongue, the ache where she's pressing her thumb into Susan's thigh, the way that she keeps touching Susan's nylons. Susan is a well-mannered woman; she'll become more participatory in a moment. But for now she'll let herself lose herself to the sensation.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan is perfectly satisfied with this; she has enjoyed Susan's touch, of course, but this is one of the things she likes doing most in the world. If Susan does nothing else but submit to pleasure, she will be perfectly content. She keeps up a steady rhythm, working her open, then shifts to lave the flat of her tongue over her clit, snapping the straps on her thighs again as she does so.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan, meanwhile, is beginning to wonder why she hasn't had sex with her garter-belt and nylons on before. She presses herself up against Liu Mingyan's mouth, hips working in abortive little shifts, seeking that warm pressure.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan sets up a rhythm—flickering her tongue over Susan's clit, then slipping back down to her entrance, then back up over her clit again, snapping a different strap each time so her skin never gets used to the sting. Her own hips are twitching against nothing, her clit throbbing with the sounds of it: her mouth against wet flesh, the tiny snap, the hitch and sigh of Susan's breath. If she had a hand free she would touch herself, bring herself off in unison with this beautiful stranger, but she can wait; she enjoys the feeling of it too much, her fingers fumbling from one strap to another, made clumsy with eagerness, with the heady musk that fills her mouth.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Very well, then; Susan shall allow herself to lose herself in this sex. Her thighs are stinging deliciously, and she is floating on the feeling of Liu Mingyan's tongue. Her hands are clenching around air; she moves one, unfocused, until it is clenching around Liu Mingyan's hair, instead, fingers tangling in and tugging at the soft strands. Her other arm she brings across her face, where she bites at the side of her forearm to give her mouth something to do. Warmth unspools throughout her body as the tension in her center grows.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan sighs against her as Susan's legs begin to tremble. She shifts up to concentrate on her clit, sucking lightly, licking over her quick and steady, and slips two fingers inside her where she is so, so slick and hot and open from her tongue.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan sighs into this touch, driving herself down against Liu Mingyan's hand. She'd assured Liu Mingyan that she was awake, but now Susan feels rather like she's dreaming, to be here so quickly and so exquisitely. As in her sex dreams, she's close, fast and effortless; it'll be barely the work of a moment to come. If it weren't for the sting in her thighs from Liu Mingyan snapping her stocking suspenders... but the sting is there, and it is good, as good as the soft weight of the hair around her fingers and the sharp ache of her own teeth in the flesh of her arm.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan moans as Susan rides her hand and mouth, driving herself to orgasm as much as Liu Mingyan is bringing her to it. The twisting of her own hips against nothing becomes more and more desperate.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

When the tension crests and Susan shakes apart, she does so as quietly as she ever does, but her thigh flexes against Liu Mingyan's cheek and she shudders, mouth falling lax against her own wrist. She wants to luxuriate in the aftershocks, to lie languid under Liu Mingyan's tongue for a while longer, but she also wants -

- she tugs at Liu Mingyan's hair, hard enough to pull her mouth away. "Come up here," she says, equally eager for whatever Liu Mingyan might read into the words. "I want to--"

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan lets herself be drawn up Susan's body. She captures her mouth again, licking into it to let Susan taste herself, and tangles their bodies together, eager for skin against her skin. She presses her own wetness against Susan's thigh, so she can see how pleased she is with her for her beautiful, silent orgasm.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan wiggles a little, until she can get her hand on Liu Mingyan, fingers stroking through, purposeful and firm, until they brush against her clit. She pushes firmly against it for a moment, then catches the nub of it between her fingers, rolling gently.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan bites at Susan's mouth again, breathless, grinding down against Susan's hand. "I will not take long," she tells her; this, too, a compliment to Susan's beauty, to the gift she had given Liu Mingyan when she trembled apart against her tongue.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan takes the compliment precisely as intended: she has felt the same way with multiple partners at multiple points in time. She kisses Liu Mingyan hungrily, working her hand swiftly, wanting to feel her fall apart at her touch, too.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan drives herself down into Susan's hand, every kiss taking her higher, and true to her word it doesn't take her long. She latches her mouth onto Susan's collarbone when she comes; a mark to remember her by, though she suspects it may be one of several.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan keeps her hand on Liu Mingyan, but she gentles her touch, giving Liu Mingyan the space to draw away if she should like to. She feels as if every fiber of her is buzzing, and dips her head down to capture Liu Mingyan's mouth in a softer kiss.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan sighs into the kiss, drawing her hips slightly back and shifting her legs so she is curled against Susan's side rather than on top of her. She would tangle her hands in her hair, appreciative, but it is still tightly bound atop her head--though perhaps not as tightly as it used to be. She opts for running a hand down Susan's flank instead, from shoulder to still-clothed knee. "Gorgeous," she murmurs, against Susan's mouth.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"As are you," says Susan, with a heavy glance over Liu Mingyan's body that's more sated than it is titillated. She shivers at her touch still, though.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan smiles at her. "Thank you." She sits up, a little, rolling her shoulders, her body satisfied, her spiritual energy balanced. "Truly, your hospitality does you credit, whether or not you call the house your own."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan watches as Liu Mingyan stretches. "It's my pleasure to pull out all the stops when welcoming a beautiful woman."

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan shifts to the side of the bed, reaching for her clothes. "I could not agree more. Were you visiting my home, I would be cancelling all appointments to make sure you knew exactly how welcome you were." She sighs, beginning to shrug into her robes. "Here, however, I'm afraid I must find my husband."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Of course you must." Susan draws herself up, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. The ornament Liu Mingyan had been wearing in her hair has fallen in between the folds of the covers on Susan's bed; she retrieves it and holds it out as she casts her gaze about the room, trying to remember where Liu Mingyan had put her veil.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan takes her guan, exchanging it for a quick, appreciative kiss, and stands so she can pull up her trousers.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Oh, there's the veil! Susan wrests herself out of bed, walking unselfconsciously nakedly (save, of course, for her garter belt and nylons) over to where it's draped against her doorknob so she can retrieve it and - ideally - put it on Liu Mingyan for her.