A 'phoenix' and a dragon (Boyxboy)

Heart of the Azure Prince

"Xiao Yue"

"Go away. Don't be more stupid than you already are."

Sighing, the Azure Prince humbly left his half brother to re-indulge in his book. Lately, their youngest prince had gained this bad attitude. As if he wasn't notorious enough for his 'heart of ice' already, now he was beginning to get morose. This morning, he had slapped one of the palace servants for 'being disrespectful'. She merely carried out her daily duty of bringing him tea at dawn in the library- and precisely 8 minutes after he was awake- just the way he liked it. Sleepy as he was, a subtlety such as a lighter colour did not go pass his observant eyes. At once, he threw a temper at the terrified girl, hurling accusations and death threats for daring to bring him diluted tea. In truth, he just checked the beverage earlier than usual. Whenever the servant brought him the drink, he typically nodded as she set the tray down, prepared it and she was dismissed. A few minutes later, the aroma followed by the realization there was TEA within a one foot radius was what got him to take a break in his quest for knowledge. Today started very differently.

He thought of throwing the thick book at her. Then he thought it through and deduced that it had a better use than to be flung at someone else. Setting the book down, he got up, closed the distance between him and the girl, raised a hand and it fell on her right cheek.

She sat down on the floor after that, sobbing piteously, her hand cupping the place the young prince's hand had made contact. Luckily for her, their crown prince happened to be not very far away. He heard a few incoherent shouts but the familiarity of it revealed the culprit to be none other than the young prince himself. Abandoning his 'morning training', he hastened to the library. It was Yao Yue's voice. There was no doubt. However, for him to lose his temper just like that must've meant that someone made a grave mistake somewhere on something.

He was wrong in all his points.

"Ah...... What is the matter? What happened, Yao Yue?"

Both turned their heads the same time the crown prince made his appearance. As if snapping out of a trance, Yao Yue hung his head- almost shamefully- and silently went back to peruse more reading material. This stunned his older brother a bit. He had assumed one of his brother's 'beloved' books got stained by tea at some place. Even a drop proved to be a sufficient spark for his temper to flare.

But nothing.

Despite being confused, he did not show it. He went over and knelt beside the trembling servant. Coaxing her to get up with him, he accompanied her out and away from the dreadful place, comforting her afterwards to forget the whole incident and pardon the bad manners shown by the young prince just now. He made up his mind to talk to him about it but Yao Yue had not cooled off one bit. He remained fixated on his book (it's anybody's guess whether the act was pretense or not), brushing off his brother's good intentions. A few more pleas and the Azure Prince got the ambience that his little brother was now steaming like the tea he downed.

He tried again during evening and got warned irritably away.

This wasn't like Xiao Yue at all. Up until a few weeks ago, he always had the idea that Yao Yue lived for two things:

1. Knowledge

2. Lang Yue (The crown prince himself)

He tenderly recalled how they had met. That time, he wasn't even aware there was a new, little presence that existed inside the palace. It was none other than shy, little Yao Yue. He kept himself hidden away for a year from his 'da ge'. When he did finally reveal himself, he was dressed as a girl, (the attire, accessories and maquillage stolen from a concubine) and he had kicked the Crown Prince in the shin, much to the horror of the servants and officials who were at a polite distance from them.

The Crown Prince's mistake? He derogated osmanthus by calling it a generic name given to all flowers by ignorant people. Technically, he called it a flower. In actuality, he knew the name of it. He just did not expect someone so young (much less a concubine) to know it's name. He was even more surprised when the 'girl' spewed out the parts and uses of the flower. Then, she went on to name the poems the flower was used in followed by the names of the poets themselves. It was most surprising that someone of her stature possessed such discreet information to the point, silly as it looked, he stood obediently and allowed himself to be lectured by a '10-year-old' in a garden. Then a voice calling the name 'Yao Yue' cut her off and she ran away.

He admitted, to himself, by then, he was enchanted by the brute honesty displayed.

The next few days, everyone in the palace, except the unfortunate guards who could not leave their posts, searched high and low for a little child called Yao Yue. The next surprise was the fact he eluded them for 5 days. Be it a minister or a simple servant, the child outsmarted them all. In one day, he heard various reports of how they almost caught him; ranging from luring him out to chancing upon him to silently sneaking up on him when he was asleep in a giant fruit basket..... the list went on.

Finally, after some hard thinking, he sat down and wrote a poem (in it he mentioned osmanthus) on scented paper. After the ink was dry, he folded it and placed it in a wooden box along with a set of ornate, gold plum blossom hairpins. Then he went, without anyone accompanying him, and left the box the same place they met. Like a fish attracted to lure, Yao Yue met him the next day. This time, in court, as himself. After that, they got to know more about each other. Years passed and from Lang Yue's perception, Yao Yue usually focused all his energy in intelligence. If not studying or chasing (sometimes) groundless theories, he was chasing after him. It was so obvious he tried to garner special attention from his big brother. His 'Da ge' complex was really severe to the point he got extremely jealous when Da ge appears to be having more fun interacting with someone else for more than 2 minutes in front of him. As he got older, his infatuation was still swinging though he showed his displeasure less frequently. This episode was the first time it had gone to a complete stop.

* * * *

The next day, was even worse. He locked himself up in the library and no one was allowed to see him. This was not the first time he had done that but this was the first time he made no exceptions; he meant it when he said no one was allowed to disturb him. Yes, the Silver Prince stood with the others facing the door. He thought about breaking down the door but immediately after that decided that it was best he respected his decision. Perhaps space and privacy as well. Yao Yue is at this 'age' after all.

As if some of the ministers behind read his mind:

"Hai...his health will suffer if this continues. And at such a time, it would be terrible."

"Your Majesty, shall we call for the royal physician?"

"No," the crown prince sighed. "He will not come out on his own accord. I....I will talk to him first.""Of course. But what do you intend to do now?"

"Aughh... .. Get some rest. "

They watched in silence as he left them, a dark aura emanating in his trail. Only until his qi pulse was out of range did the maids began to whisper excitedly and the ministers smirked. No wonder the rumours about those two are so widespread.

* * * *

Evening.

Lang Yue had lost count how many times he passed by this place. A meagre 5% of the chart showed that it was really just 'passing by' while the other portion was him walking towards that place on his own mindset. The rest of that morning and afternoon had him thinking of what to say and what to ask followed by how to say and how to ask. Whenever he thought up of something brilliant, he would rush to the library only to find himself in front of the door with nothing in his head. After several experiences of 'to and fro and nothing', the next time he worded his ideas, he made sure the walk there was put to use by refining his ideas. But whenever he got to his destination, half the time he felt what he had to say was somewhat unimportant and silly and the other half was that his thoughts became muddled. This time, he resolved, would be different.

He walked up to the door and noticed that, this time, it was not completely closed.