Song of the Spring Moon Waning (6 page)

Liu Yi stopped, pressed his hand again his chest again, his breath coming in ragged gasps. Wen Yu stopped too, holding the umbrella above both of them.

"Is there anything I can do?"

Liu Yi shook his head. "Nothing, but thank you."

After a moment, he let his hand fall and started towards the palace again. When they reached the massive stone walls of the outermost gates Liu Yi turned right and circled the wall until they came to a smaller wooden gate. Liu Yi rapped on it and waited as it was drawn open by a very wet-looking guard.

"Liu Yi." The guard nodded to him and threw Wen Yu a questioning look.

"He's with me." Liu Yi took hold of Wen Yu's sleeve and tugged him through the gate into the courtyard beyond. Across the wide, stone-paved courtyard, Liu Yi pulled open another door and ushered Wen Yu through.

The room he stepped into was small, decorated with a wooden writing table against one wall, with a carved wooden chair next to a low table in the center of the room. There was rug in red and gold on the floor, and the birdcage Wen Yu had given Liu Yi hung from the ceiling in one corner, the small thrush sleeping in it.

Liu Yi walked straight through the room, opening an ornately carved door at the far end, and disappeared. Wen Yu was not sure what to do. He set his umbrella aside to dry and removed his boots so as not to get water on the floor.

There was a window on either side of the long narrow room, Wen Yu saw. The shutters on the window to his left were closed, but the window near his writing desk was open. The window was not covered in paper, although there was a wooden lattice over it. Wen Yu could still see through the window out into the courtyard. A long, low bench ran under the window just at the right height for someone to sit and look out, and a liuqin was propped against it.

The instrument would get wet if the wind picked up; he padded across the room to pull the shutters closed. Turning from the window, Wen Yu saw Liu Yi come back in through the doorway.

"Thank you." Liu Yi bowed to him. "For escorting me here."

"It was nothing." Wen Yu looked away, rubbing one hand along his opposite arm.

"May I get you some tea?"

Wen Yu shook his head. "I really should be going, I have studying."

"Yes, of course." Liu Yi bowed one more time as Wen Yu pulled on his boots and picked his umbrella back up. "Travel safely."

"Thank you." Wen Yu bowed to him then let himself out.

There were two guards when he passed back through the smaller gate and onto the street. They watched his progress but did not try to stop him.

It was still raining; the amount of water now flowing through the streets had increased, and the stone-tiled banks of waterways that ran through the city were swollen with it. The limbs of all the trees were heavy with rain. Wen Yu put his head down and headed back towards his own little room.

*~*~*

Liu Yi was beautiful, educated, and more than a little mysterious. He was like no one Wen Yu had ever met.

In his little room, Wen Yu stared at the place where they'd sat together, drunk tea, and played liubo. Liu Yi would have beaten him, Wen Yu was sure. He'd never met anyone who could beat him at liubo. Wen Yu hoped Liu Yi was feeling better, and that he was all right.

He imagined touching Liu Yi's hair, brushing it away from his face, imagined touching Liu Yi's cheek. What would it feel like to kiss Liu Yi? Would Liu Yi allow himself to be kissed? Eunuchs were forbidden from having affairs with women, but not with men. Men married women and sometimes had affairs with men, but not usually with eunuchs. Wen Yu supposed that was one benefit from being different from other men; he could choose not pay attention to those rules.

Right now, he very much wanted to know what it would be like to kiss Liu Yi.

Liu Yi had been nervous their second meeting, wanted them to meet at a nicer house, dressed up just for Wen Yu. Why, Wen Yu wondered? To convince Wen Yu to help him? To make a good impression? Or was there something more?

Flopping down on his little makeshift bed, Wen Yu stared at the ceiling. It was pointless to think this way. He could not have an affair with Liu Yi. Doing so would mean risking everything he had worked for. Wen Yu covered his face with both hands. Not to mention, he could never stand to see the look on Liu Yi's face if he were to learn the truth. He would look at Wen Yu the way Wen Yu's father did.

Wen Yu would not be able to bear that.

But maybe,
a voice whispered in the back of his head
, maybe it wouldn't be that way. Maybe he would still look at you the way he does now, sit with you and play liubo, laugh, smile, and drink tea with you.

Wen Yu closed his eyes. In his mind, he kissed Liu Yi, who kissed him back, smiling, hair falling free around his shoulders. Liu Yi tasted like tea, mouth hot and soft; his hands fell against Wen Yu's shoulders and then slid around the cup the back of his head, tangling in his hair. Wen Yu kissed him deep and desperate, like taking something forbidden. Liu Yi's hands gripped at Wen Yu's hair, then back down to his shoulders, before, with more confidence, pushing up underneath Wen Yu's tunic.

Outside of his head, Wen Yu's hand traveled to the waistband of his trousers, and he paused. The imaginary Liu Yi kissed him hard and demanding, shoving his hands up underneath Wen Yu's tunic to grope at his chest and pinch his nipples. Would it be wrong to touch himself while thinking of Liu Yi? Wen Yu wondered briefly. But it wasn't as if he would ever actually get the opportunity to kiss or touch Liu Yi outside of his own mind. He so rarely felt comfortable bringing himself pleasure; what could be the harm?

Shucking his trousers, Wen Yu spread his legs, hand going down to his cock. He rubbed it, trying to get himself hard. He was already a little wet, the slick spreading itself across his palms and between his thighs.

Liu Yi was still kissing him, kissing down his neck, hands still touching his shoulders and chest.

His cock was so small; Wen Yu worked his shaft, trying not to think about it. Not that he'd seen many other men's cocks, but still. He supposed at some point he'd have a partner he trusted, maybe even loved, enough to show his cock to, but he couldn't imagine it.

With a sigh, Wen Yu let his hand fall away from between his legs. This wasn't working.

Wen Yu tried to clear his mind of worries and anxiety. Then he reached down between his thighs again, pinching his cock between his thumb and forefinger and pumping it until his head fell back against the bed. Letting go, he rubbed over the head with his thumb, flicking it back and forth, before rubbing it again with the flat of his hand.

Taking a quick breath, Wen Yu eased two fingers slowly into his now wet front hole. It was an awkward angle, but he managed to pump them in and out shallowly. His other hand came to down to play with his cock, rub it and flick it.

Arms wrapped around him from behind, holding him close to someone else's body, hands ran up and down his chest and stomach as his own hands worked between his legs. He drove his fingers harder into his hole, eyes squeezed shut as he thumbed his cock hard.

Wen Yu rolled over from his back onto his hands and knees, holding himself up on one elbow while he pumped his fingers in and out of his slick hole. Stopping every once in a while, he rubbed his thumb over the head of his hard and swollen cock until he thought he wasn't going to be able to bear it.

He pulled his fingers free and rubbed back between the cheeks of his ass, pressing his ass up and chest against the bed as his other hand continued to play with his cock. His back hole was clenched tight, but even so, it was sensitive enough to make Wen Yu groan weakly into the blankets. He pressed and rubbed the fragile skin around his hole with his still-slick fingers until it began to relax, soften, and give. At the same time, he pressed hard against the very tip of his cock with his thumb.

His climax came all at once, sudden and so strong as to be almost painful, causing his hips to jerk as if to push against and away from his hands at the same time. Mouth open, Wen Yu pressed his face into the blankets, trying to muffle his strangled moans.

After a few moments, he rolled back over, pulled his tunic up over his head, and cleaned himself off with it. Naked, Wen Yu stared up at the ceiling and let cold reality wash back over him. He had work to do, the examination looming in the near future, and a secret he could not afford to let anyone know if he wanted to ever work as a scholar bureaucrat.

Wen Yu pushed himself up to his feet and went to find himself a fresh change of clothes.

There was a knocking on his door, and Wen Yu blinked up from the pages he'd been reading and then stood to answer it.

He opened it to see Liu Yi's serving boy standing on the other side.

"Yes?" Wen Yu frowned.

"I have a note for you from Liu Yi." The young man bowed and handed Wen Yu another folded piece of paper.

"Thank you." Wen Yu was already opening the note.

I would be honored if you were to meet with me at the tea pavilion on the road that runs by the emperor's canal this afternoon.

To see Liu Yi again, for them to speak together and drink tea—he shouldn't, but he wanted to.

"Tell him yes." Wen Yu scrabbled around his desk until he found a brush and an ink stone with which to jot his reply on the back. "Tell him yes I'll be there."

He handed the paper back to the now grinning young man. "I will tell him." He bowed once more and left.

Wen Yu smoothed one hand down the front of his tunic, realized he had ink spattered across one sleeve, and went to change into his robes.

The tea pavilion Liu Yi had mentioned in the note was small and elegant, with a sloping roof and carving around the eaves, door, and window frames. It was built close to the canal overlooking the water and surrounded by willow trees. The tables were under a tiled overhanging roof but still open to the air so that customers could look out over the water.

Liu Yi waved to him from one of the little tables as soon as Wen Yu was close. Not that Wen Yu would have been able to miss him; Liu Yi was as ever the most expensively dressed person in the room, wearing his embroidered little hat again over his topknot.

It made Wen Yu feel ill at ease, the way his heart leapt in his chest at the sight of Liu Yi.

He sat at the other end of the table, and Liu Yi waved at one of the young serving boys

"A pot of plum tea, please, for my friend and I."

"Of course, honored sir." The boy bowed and headed back into the enclosed space of the tea pavilion.

"This tea is their specialty. And one of my favorites," Liu Yi said with a little smile.

Liu Yi looked elegant as always, sitting on the other side of the table, outlined in gold by the afternoon sun. Wen Yu had not even seen many eunuchs before he'd met Liu Yi. Liu Yi always seemed remarkably put together, though, like a female courtier, especially in the way he dressed. Wen Yu had not failed to notice that the cut and style of Liu Yi's robes tended to be more like a woman's than a man's. Not that Wen Yu minded, or indeed thought it was his place to judge.

The boy came back, putting two tiny tea bowls next to each of them and then a pot on the table. He bowed again and stepping away.

"Shall I?" Liu Yi reached for the teapot, pouring himself some and then Wen Yu.

Wen Yu picked up his bowl and sipped carefully. The tea was a beautiful pink color like plum blossoms. Even though most of the tea Wen Yu had drunk was sweetened with a little plum juice, this tea was sweeter and fruitier than he was used to.

"Do you like it?" Liu Yi was watching him over the rim of his own bowl.

"It's sweet." Wen Yu took another sip. "But good."

"I like sweet things; it's a weakness of mine." Liu Yi was smiling now.

"Are you feeling better?" Wen Yu took another sip of tea.

"I am. My periods of illness come on suddenly but don't last long." Liu Yi lifted his little tea bowl.

"So," Wen Yu watched him from across the table. "Was your invitation for me to meet you here business or pleasure?"

Liu Yi cocked his head to the side. "I thought it would be nice to simply buy tea with you." He looked down at the bowl in his hands with its delicately pink liquid. "I enjoyed when we were playing liubo, and I wanted to see you again."

A little bit of tightness in Wen Yu's chest, that he hadn't realized he'd been carrying, loosened at Liu Yi's words. "I enjoyed our game of liubo too, and I welcome the chance to spend more time with you."

An older man in scholar's robe and a young, pretty man dressed like a courtier stepped off the street and into the pavilion arm in arm. Wen Yu watched how they leaned in to each other, touched each other with ease and familiarity. He watched the way the young man smiled over the top of his tea bowl.

When he looked back, Liu Yi was watching him, something Wen Yu had never seen in his expression. It made heat creep up Wen Yu's neck and onto his face, made his breathing catch.

What would it feel like to kiss Liu Yi?

Wen Yu wanted to look away, stop himself from wanting to reach out for Liu Yi, but Liu Yi held his gaze, dark eyes intense. Swallowing dryly, Wen Yu finally dragged his gaze away.