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Chapter Text

~~~

Thin ribbons of incense spooled from the ornate gold burner swaying under a weathered beam in an old, old shrine, tucked away in the highest reaches of a mountainous border region on the edge of a great Empire recently expanded in war. A biting cold wind swept through the temple and scattered the smoke in an instant, shaking a set of ancient chimes in a dissonant clash as if to ward away human life, not meant for these sacred stones.

Muted glows of light began to gather, and as the gusty breeze settled, even more incense spewed from its golden cradle and pooled slowly around the gathering spirits, as if resting upon their intangible forms, unseen by the eyes of the humans who trampled their lands and stole their treasures. It had been years since they had all gathered here at once, and the occasion was both great and grave.

“Speak, Shinsou Hitoshi,” called the eldest of the spirits, and to whom the incense gravitated the most, spewing heavily now fuelled by deeper power than any mere flammable material. “A great burden weighs upon you.”

“I wish to leave our lands and take back what was stolen from us,” Shinsou declared with a flare of purplish light within their swirling shapeless form. “I will return The Tip of The High Mountain.”

The spirits rippled like windswept waves. It was their sacred memorial stone, the very tip of the highest mountain that had been broken off by a strike of lightning more than a thousand years ago, and came to rest in the spot where this shrine was eventually built, housing the spirits who had gathered there over the centuries, fuelled and propagated by the stone’s power. Until it had been taken from their shrine less than a month ago.

The eldest among them declared gravely, “You are still young, Hiroshi, and too audacious for a mission of this magnitude.”

Another spirit chimed in, "The Tip of The High Mountain was taken as a spoil of war by the great General Aizawa in the name of Emperor All Might. You cannot expect to charge into the Forbidden City and simply take it back."

"It belongs in our ancestral temple, not the mantlepiece of some passing Emperor!" Shinsou blustered, stirring a fresh breeze around the ancient posts and stones that housed the spirits tied to this land for far longer than any one ruler could last. “I will reclaim it, and furthermore, I will take revenge on those who took it from us.”

"It is a long way, fraught with danger, and you are still in training,” warned another of the elders, one who had fostered Shinsou closely as a young spirit, and to whom they could consider a bond of close family.

“I can shapeshift well enough to deceive those foolish humans, and I can defend myself as good as any of us,” Shinsou countered, and in truth had become their strongest hunter despite being but a juvenile spirit, mere decades of their life passed in this quiet mountain sanctum. “Without The Tip of The High Mountain we will all slowly fade and scatter,” Shinsou entreated, “we are doomed if the stone is not returned.”

“Life ebbs and flows, for us as any other,” remarked the elder. “Perhaps it means that our time is come.”

“No!” Shinsou beat, flashing a brilliant pulse of violet, certain at the injustice of those who had lived longer choosing whether to cut the lives of others short. “If we are to just meekly accept our doom what have I to lose by trying? Let me leave the mountains, and I swear by the heavens I will return with our treasure.”

“I fear you cannot steer Shinsou from this path,” consoled Shinsou’s guardian spirit to the elder. “They will leave our lands with our permission or without it.”

The spirit of the elder flicker as if to sigh, and then agreed, “Very well. You may leave our homelands, Shinsou Hitoshi, and travel great distances to seek our lost treasure, The Tip of The High Mountain. But… be careful.”

“I will,” Shinsou promised, and moved towards the edge of the shrine platform where they had all gathered, and might never all gather again.

Shinsou could sense the weakened state of the older spirits already, in the mere weeks since their sacred relic had been taken as a trinket for humans who could not comprehend its power. Shinsou would not allow them die out like unblown embers.

With new resolution Shinsou reached the border of the shrine and stepped out, laying a single solid paw in the snow that blanketed the land. The cold struck their footpads in a rush of sensation, white dust against their dark fur tinged with a purple sheen. Shinsou laid another paw forwards, and then another, shifting from spirit form into that of a fox, sleek and fast, senses heightened as they passed from one plane of existence to another.

Just a few steps away from the shrine, transformed now from the tip of their nose to the bushy end of their tail, Shinsou turned back and faced the cluster of lights anyone could think was no more than a trick of the eye.

Shinsou couldn’t speak in this form, but did not need to do so for their intention to be conveyey.

“I can do this,” Shinsou swore, ears cocked high and tail swishing proudly. “I will bring back our stolen treasure.”

“Take what you need from our supplies, and may the winds of heaven carry you to your fate,” answered the elder in parting.

Shinsou scampered to the storehouse where offerings over the years had been accumulated, including many coins of silver and gold, which they pushed into a soft velvet pouch that could be carried round their neck. Funds to acquire human clothing when the time for such things came. First, Shinsou would set off to the nearest human village and observe them in fox form, until an opportunity to slip in arose.

With no further ceremony Shinsou set off at a great speed away from the shrine, past the boundaries of the temple and onto the narrow mountain path human feet had to risk to reach this scared place.

Once the last sight or sound of Shinsou’s fox form disappeared, the remaining spirits dwindled a while longer in contemplation.

The elder raised the question, “Do you think Shinsou remembers him?”

“No,” answered the spirit who’d been Shinsou’s closest guardian. “Hitoshi cannot recall their other lives, not consciously at least.”

“Something deeper then,” mused the elder, a foreboding tone from their unspoken voice. “Who among us knows what may be sparked if they are brought together again?”

“Hitoshi is loyal to us,” the guardian insisted. “It will take more than the buried memory of other lives to break their ties to this tribe.”

“For all our sakes, I hope you are right,” concluded the elder spirit, while the incense burner’s smoke dwindled, and with the next cold burst of air, all were blown away without a trace.

~~~

In the nearest village to the mountain shrine, which locals scarcely disturbed for fear of wreaking habit among their fortune and livelihood, a few young girls gathered around a sedan drawn by horses warmed by their thick fur, steam rising off them and melting any snowflake that landed on their dark noses. The families of the girls had gathered to send them off, packed with supplies and a few keepsakes, for there was little they would be able to take with them when they entered the Forbidden City as palace maids.

“It is a great honour for you to serve the Emperor,” the parents told their young daughters, at most fourteen or fifteen years old, and on whom many hopes could be laid. “You must bring prestige to our families and people, show those in the capital that we are not the uncivilised savages they take us to be.” This event had been a topic of much discussion recently, making it easy for an eavesdropper to take advantage.

One girl among them, her round cheeks flushed red from the cold, bobbed her head and bowed earnestly before her parents. “I will work hard, mother and father, and send back my salary the first chance I get.”

“We will miss you dearly, Ochako,” said her mother, “but we can be proud, knowing that our daughter will serve the Emperor All Might, who drove the barbarians from our land.”

“Technically, it wasn’t the Emperor who did that,” pointed out another girl, who did not relish this honour as much as her peers from the village. “Wasn’t it the son of the famous General Endeavor, Todoroki Shouto who vanquished them in battle?”

“You forget it was the Great General Aizawa who drove the enemy forces up to the mountains in the first place, so that battle could be won by General Todoroki, and anyway, they did so in the name of the Emperor, so what’s the difference?” replied Ochako boisterously, excited to see a world so much bigger than the small village in which she had been raised on very little.

The splendour of the Imperial court seemed like a far away paradise from here, and if she was lucky and worked hard, she might rise up through the ranks and attend to one of the glamorous women of the Imperial Harem, or even catch the eye of some noble son and ascend even further. If she was favoured by a wealthy noble, her parents would be lifted too, and not need to suffer so bitterly to survive these hard circumstances.

“I just hope we even make it to the capital,” said Tsuyu with a worrisome gulp. “Bandits from the defeated armies still roam the mountain paths.”

“We are going to meet an escort of General Todoroki halfway down the mountain,” Ochako countered, “what could go wrong before then?” It was a hope, rather than a promise, but she was ever the optimist.

In the background no one noticed the dart of a sleek fox behind the cluster of snow-draped houses, which leapt up into a window of one of the houses and disappeared inside. As the sedan was readying to leave, a slim figure coated in a large robe with a heavy hood stepped out from behind that same building, quickly drawing the attention of the close cluster of villagers and relatives.

“Good day to you all,” greeted the mysterious robed figure, setting back their hood to reveal a young girl, fifteen or so years of age, with striking violet hair and pale eyes, almost white against the snowy backdrop. “My name is Shinsou Hitoshi, I grew up in a small village on the other side of the mountains. The barbarians took everything we had in the war, and my family heard that a group of maidens would be travelling from here to enter the Imperial Palace, so I came here in the hopes that I might be able to join you.” From a pocket in the robe Shinsou produced the purse of coins, holding them out to say, “I can pay for my own food and shelter, if only you’ll take pity and allow me to travel with you.”

There was a momentary suspicion among the group, as they were unfamiliar with those from across the mountain, and wary of outsiders as a matter of course. However, the borders had changed very recently, bringing new people into the kingdom that were unknown to them before, and they understood the hardships brought on by living in territory that had become a warzone overnight. A little extra money might keep their daughters healthier and better fed, and perhaps if they were attacked, the outsider might be taken instead of them.

“Very well,” agreed the villagers after a short discussion, and Shinsou Hitoshi was permitted to join them. One by one the four girls climbed into the sedan, then the rider whistled and the horses began the slow, winding descent down the mountain.

“I never heard of a village on the other side of these mountains,” Ochako spoke first as they set off, the most outgoing of the group, and intent to spend the long hours of travel as easily as she could. “The conditions are so harsh over there.”

“They are,” Shinsou agreed easily. “We struggled to even survive, so it was difficult to make contact with any nearby villages until the war was over.”

“You were on the side of the barbarians, weren’t you?” Tsuyu remarked, and Shinsou nodded. “So you’ve only just become part of the Empire.”

“Indeed,” Shinsou replied stiffly, disguising ire behind a steely face. “The war stripped my family of everything, and now… we belong to the Emperor, I suppose.” Or so did their fate, sitting on a shelf somewhere in the vast Forbidden City.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to make your family proud,” Ochako comforted. “My name is Uraraka Ochako by the way. We’ll be travel companions for some time, so we should share in our fortunes and support one another.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Shinsou replied dutifully, going around introductions with the other two girls, Hagakure Toru and Asui Tsuyu, and finishing with the promise, “I’m sure we will all become good friends by the time this journey is over.”

~~~

In the heart of the Imperial Capital, at the centre of the expansive complex of palaces known as the Forgotten City, the Emperor All Might sat in a golden yellow robe upon his throne. The gold of his clothing matched the long blond strands of hair falling either side of his face, a fine red tasselled hat balanced atop his head.

Across from him, the great General Aizawa stood and bowed deeply, stiff on an injured leg that had been lost to wars past, seeing with the one eye that had not been given in service of the Empire’s expansion over the past decades of All Might’s reign. He had been given the title Eraserhead in recognition of his feats on the battlefield many years ago, and the weight of his own legacy was a heavy burden to bear.

“Your servant greets the Emperor,” Aizawa said in a low, coarse voice, while behind him an attendant stood with a gilded box on a tray. “Victory in the mountain borders against the barbarians has been great, and I return with this treasure to present personally to Your Majesty.”

The attendant stepped forward and held the tray out to Emperor All Might, his figure thinner and more solemn in these years since the tragic loss of his beloved Empress Midnight.

“I thank you, General Aizawa, and will reward this victory well,” he replied, lifting the box and opening it to reveal a dull stone carved with old symbols, worn by time and weather. He studied the object carefully, noting the slight sparkle under light, and then set it back in its cushioned case. “Hm, could this be…” he remarked, looking up with wonder and then back to the simple stone, “The legendary Tip of The High Mountain?”

“Your discernment is as excellent as ever, Your Majesty,” Aizawa replied. “It is indeed that famous relic. The ancient shrine was discovered by my scouts in the final stages of the battle. It is surely auspicious that such a treasure was discovered at the time of our great victory, so I instructed them to bring it to me, and returned it to the capital by my personal escort to present to you in honour of the great expansion of our nation.”

“You have excelled, as always, General Eraserhead,” Emperor All Might said, and though their words were cordial, a note of tension thrummed between them like a zither wire.

They had not agreed upon this campaign, General Aizawa reluctant to send soldiers such a long way for what he had described, at the time, as a miserable strip of sharp stones and cold snow. He had not persuaded the Emperor, though, and the equally famous General Todoroki Enji, personally given the name Endeavor by the Emperor for his blazing victories on the battlefield, had ardently supported the campaign, offering his youngest son, the newly appointed General Todoroki Shouto, to deliver victory against the barbarians.

General Aizawa had yielded at that time, accompanying the untested General Todoroki to the battlefield, acting as an advisor and protector as the boy met his first victory in battle. He set them up for success by strategically driving the enemy into disadvantaged terrain, and there the young General had vanquished them in what was described as a storm of fire and ice. A great triumph for some miserable sharp rocks and cold snow.

“It is an honour to present this gift to Your Majesty,” delivered General Aizawa, the latest Lord Aizawa from a long line of nobility, responsible for the prosperous lands his family had ruled for generations, since before the ascension of Emperor All Might, and even of the seven Emperors that had come before him. “Now I must beg to leave the Forbidden City at once, as my wife summons me back to Aizawa Manor.”

It would be insulting for a high ranking official to excuse himself from the company of the Emperor on the mere call of his wife, but in this case, it brought only a thin smile to the lonely Emperor’s face.

“Give my regards to my cousin,” replied Emperor All Might, born of the name Yagi Toshinori into the Imperial Family, successful in taking the throne above the rival heirs some twenty years ago. “I know her presence is greatly missed by the Imperial Harem.”

“I am certain she will pay a visit to the Forbidden City soon, Your Majesty,” Aizawa replied, and bowed again to depart with the words, “I will leave first.”

The Emperor inclined his head, and after General Aizawa moved away, Toshinori opened the lid of the gilded box once more to inspect the stone sitting within. To the untrained eye it was nothing remarkable, but there were many stories that made mention of The Tip of The High Mountain and the blessings come to those who held control of it. The Emperor touched the stone, then lifted it to hold in his hand again, noting its warmth in his cold gaunt hand.

It would be good to see his cousin again, he mused. The Lady Yamada Hizashi, before she was married, now Aizawa Hizashi. She was a famous beauty, champion of the arts and talented opera singer, and brought great life to the women of the Imperial Harem as a close friend to the late Empress. She had grown up in the Forbidden City from birth, daughter to one of the Empress Dowager’s brothers, and was betrothed to Lord Aizawa at a young age. She spent much time back in the Forbidden City over the years after they married some fifteen years ago, particularly when her husband was away on many a martial campaign in the Emperor’s name.

Toshinori Yagi sighed, setting the stone back into its box and instructing it to be taken away and stored securely. Hizashi had barely been back since Nemuri died, and the liveliness of the Forbidden City had never been the same.

The pressures of choosing a new Empress loomed ever present in the rational mind of an Emperor, but Toshinori’s heart still ached too much to think of who among his Consorts should be chosen to step up to his late wife’s legacy. Furthermore, whomever he chose to promote to the rank of Empress, her sons would have an emboldened claim to the throne.

Should the fierce rivalry of Princes Izuku and Katsuki be fuelled any further, Toshinori feared setting in motion a great chain of events that would force his hand in naming an heir. Declaring a Crown Prince, whoever it was, posed a threat to all other heirs to the throne, and might upset a fragile balance that Empress Midnight was no longer here to keep steady.

A great pressure weighed upon the Emperor, to which no auspicious gift from the farthest reaches of the kingdom could bring relief. But, he supposed with a wiry purse of his lips as his gaze lingered on the gilded box containing The Tip of The High Mountain, it could be of some small comfort.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

The sedan of young girls travelling from the mountains was still some way from the encampment of General Todoroki when the first call to arms was heard from the forest around them.

“What’s that?” murmured Ochako as the faces of her companions paled.

“Bandits,” Tsuyu murmured fearfully, hunching down in the wooden carriage that had borne them some days already, making a couple of stops at small camps or the occasional tiny village down the mountain path. They had been sent with armed guards as an escort, but not enough to match a roaming group of enemy soldiers turned bandits, the sounds of which grew ever closer to them.

“What do we do?” Toru asked fearfully. “Hide? Or run?”

“Run first, then hide,” Shinsou answered quickly, biting her lip with determination at experiencing a setback so early in her mission. This had not been part of her plan, these early days important for settling into her shapeshifted female form and learning what she needed to pass the social cues and expectations for an ordinary human girl in this position. Fighting bandits definitely wasn’t part of it, but thankfully Shinsou wasn’t an ordinary girl in that respect.

Shinsou shoved open the sedan door facing away from the sounds that had broken out, scuffling and cries of combat, and pointed to the dark trees in the distance. “Run as fast as you can,” she ordered, climbing out herself and kicking off her dreadful platform sandals and ripping off the pointless socks they wore beneath, touching the earth again with her bare skin for the first time in days. “Stay low and lie down if anything comes near you.”

“Should we stick together?” Ochako asked.

“No, split up, we’ll be harder to find,” Shinsou said, and they didn’t need to be told twice, all fleeing the sedan and scattering to the woods for fear of their virtue and lives. 

Shinsou had not quite stolen the first female clothing she appeared in, leaving some money behind in its place, not that she knew what the things she took were worth. With the rest of the money taken from her shrine, she had just about been able to buy more clothes at their first resting point, helped by her companions after discovering that she had no more to wear than what was upon her back, which Shinsou hadn’t really known was a problem until they found it out. At the last stop, in secret Shinsou had also acquired a short blade for protection, from a young man in the village who had been easily charmed into giving it up for a few smiles and batted eyelashes.

The appropriate clothing Shinsou had strived to get was now her biggest challenge, shedding the cumbersome outer robe and stripping down to just her underclothes as she ran among the trees. Coming to a stop, Shinsou carefully hung the outer robe on a low tree branch, hoping to fool their attackers into coming to investigate.

Setting the short dagger between her teeth, no more than a basic metal blade bound to a bamboo handle with rope, Shinsou scaled the tree quickly, scampering up the branches and then called to the night with a girlish shriek.

It worked, soon drawing a bandit carrying a torch and long blade nearby, who caught sight of the shadow of Shinsou’s robe near the tree and prowled closer with a demonic chuckle. Silently Shinsou crept along the branch, her weight far less than a real human, not disturbing even the snow that clung on its branches. When the bandit was close enough to see that the robe was empty, Shinsou was all but directly above him, and dropped in an instant, a hand gripping the dagger tightly diving straight into his neck, the other hand closing around his mouth to smother his yelp of surprise.

Shinsou rode the man’s back down to the ground, blood pulsing from the deep puncture in his neck, twisting and ripping the blade back out with a hot spurt that landed on the frozen ground, feeding his essence to the earth. 

A smile crossed Shinsou’s face, satisfied to bleed one of the creatures who’d scourged her homelands, and took up his fallen blade, leaving the torch extinguished where it fell. Shinsou could see far better by night than these muddling humans could, and as their escorts fell to the practised blades of the bandits, Shinsou would see them fall to hers.

By the judgement of their footsteps, loud in Shinsou’s ears like drums, there were a dozen or so, not including the first she had slain. As they searched for the other girls, Shinsou stalked them from the trees, treading lightly on the ground where she could not move between crossing branches. Two together almost discovered Ochako, but Shinsou got behind one and slit his throat with the long sword of his fallen comrade, then drove the point of the blade into the other’s chest, felling them both on the same sword by cover of darkness.

With many more to go, Shinsou followed the clumsy footsteps of another barbarian, for whom she had no greater love, less, in fact, than the armies of the so called great Empire who had expanded over the lands of her shrine. This bandit was more alert than the others, sensing he was being followed and turning just as Shinsou leapt for him, so she plunged the trustworthy dagger she had bartered for with some small pity and affection deep into the man’s eye socket and killed him before he hit the ground.

Another bandit was not far, standing out like a sore thumb by the light of his torch, so Shinsou ripped the dagger back out and pursued him quickly at ground level to build speed. She ran up a tree and leapt from a high branch onto his back, causing a sound she could not muffle as her blade bit into his neck from the back, cutting him through to his throat which gurgled as he fell forward, realising a moment too late that she heard the galloping hooves of a horse approaching.

A figure atop horseback swam into view through the dashes of light and shadows, the Imperial uniform recognisable as the horse thundered closer. For a second by the dropped torch in the bandit’s hand they were both lit in the same glow, until Shinsou kicked snow over the flame and disappeared back into the trees with a single leap.

If she was not mistaken, Shinsou could have even believed it to be the famous General of Fire and Ice himself on that horse, based on what the other girls had said of Todoroki Shouto’s distinctive appearance for the split second they saw one another.

Shinsou fled through the trees quickly, taking a long route far away from the approaching Imperial soldiers who cleared through the rest of the bandits and discovered those who had been slain, attributing it to their otherwise ineffective guards.

Returning to the site of her abandoned robe, Shinsou pulled the heavy fabric up into the trees and moved away from the body that lay beside it. Hastily she wrapped the clothing around her body as she skirted barefoot along the branches as far as she could get. When the branches ran out and she was forced to the ground, no sooner had Shinsou landed than a call of “Who’s there?” came through the trees.

Shinsou quickly stashed the bloodied dagger in her inner robe, mind whirling as she clumsily fastened the outer one around herself and ducked behind a tree trunk, trying to come up with a plan.

“Help, help me please!” she cried out shrilly, watching the shadows shift as an individual came close on foot, holding up a flaming torch.

“You are safe now, under the protection of the Imperial Army,” the voice replied, strong but cool in tone, like old mountain faces worn flat by the beating of wind.

Shinsou scrambled into view and immediately bowed on her knees so her face touched the ground, in part to use the snowy floor to remove any trace of blood that might linger there and shield her face from recognition.

“Thank you, thank you, to whom do I owe my life?” Shinsou said to the ground, feeling the melting snow against her skin and listening to each footstep come closer. Eventually Shinsou lifted upward and glanced at the one who almost discovered her.

“General Todoroki Shouto, at your service,” announced the young man, no older than Shinsou’s companions, which was sixteen at most. She knew him by the description of his hair, red on one side and white on the other, and a scar that covered one corner of his face, irises mismatched and flashing by the shifting torchlight.

For just a second, the young General’s eyes narrowed, searching Shinsou intently for something. Suspicion hung in the air like fresh blood on the ground, and Shinsou's nerves sharpened, ready for action.

Shinsou moved suddenly, but only to bow again, intensely. “A thousand thanks, General Todoroki,” she gushed, peeking up again to find the same piercing stare upon her.

“You are alone out here?” he asked, stepping closer and surveying the area Shinsou had been caught in.

“I was… found by one of those bandits,” Shinsou lied quickly, grasping for the fastenings of her robe she hadn’t been able to do up. “He wanted to rape me, but I managed to escape and ran away to hide, I thought I was going to die.” Shinsou’s eyes filled with tears on command, streaming down her face as she continued to kneel on the cold dirty ground.

“You managed to escape,” Todoroki repeated as if considering the viability of such a story, and held his torch out to one side, casting light to the corpse only a little way away. “Do you know what happened to that man?”

“I… it all happened so fast, one of the guards must have got him as he was trying to chase me,” Shinsou fabricated, certain that this young man would not be her downfall on this night, even if she had to cut his life short to preserve her cover story. Shinsou reached into her robes and clutched the handle of the dagger, but released it again a moment later. Rash actions couldn’t be returned, and General Todoroki’s face had lost some of its harshness at the sight of her girlish tears.

The young General came closer, and his nerve softened, tone more comforting as he said, “Can you stand? It is over now, they’re all dead.”

“Thank the heavens,” Shinsou said, continuing to cry the false tears and backing away when Todoroki got too close. “Please, I am not decent,” she begged, and the General’s eyes widened in shock, realising what he was doing.

“Forgive me,” he said clumsily, turning away as Shinsou quickly refastened her robe properly and concealed the dagger more securely, wiping her face and neck of any stray blood that might betray her. With his back turned, Todoroki continued to say, “The other girls said that they were told to run and hide by an outsider, was that by your instruction?”

“Yes,” Shinsou answered honestly. “I’m from a village across the old border, so we are used to attacks by bandits. I knew we stood a better chance if we ran than if we stayed.”

“You likely saved all their lives tonight,” Shouto reported, turning back as Shinsou stepped over to show she was ready, a small pause before he added, “If not that of your guards.”

“If it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t have gotten away at all,” Shinsou claimed, signalling her decency and pretending to need warmth by stepping closer to the flame of Todoroki’s torch. After lingering on her face, long enough that Shinsou had to wonder if she had missed some blood on it, the General’s gaze hurriedly dropped down to her feet.

“You are… barefoot,” he said plainly, as if not knowing what to make of such circumstance. Shinsou cursed internally, having discarded her stupid sandals and split-toed socks back at the sedan for better grip on the forest floor and climbing trees. How wonderful it had been to feel the ground as it was supposed to be for a short time.

“I had to run as fast as I could,” she explained bashfully, and the young general had looked away again anyway, as if sensing some impropriety.

“Can you walk?” he said with the back of his head to Shinsou, wearing a round pointed hat covering most of his strikingly colourled hair. “It is very cold underfoot.”

He meant to carry her, Shinsou realised at once, but then the knife hidden in her clothing might become obvious, or the fact that Shinsou didn’t know what a normal human girl was actually supposed to weigh, and her companions were definitely all lying about it. The young General’s suspicion was already piqued, and could not be allowed to sour.

“I’m fine,” Shinsou insisted. “I’ve walked barefoot in the snow before, and after this experience I cannot feel much of anything.”

“Very well,” Todoroki accepted, just about, and escorted Shinsou back to the sedan, where a troupe of Imperial Guards now stood in a ring around the three girls who had been recovered safe and sound.

“Shinsou! You’re alright, thank goodness, I thought they had gotten you when I heard you screaming,” Ochako rushed, and thankfully this played into the story Shinsou had just fed the young General, whom Ochako recognised a moment later. “Oh! General Todoroki, what an honour it is to be personally saved by you!”

“Yes, we are just girls from the village, surely we’re not worthy of your great military talent,” Tsuyu chipped in, while Toru remained silent, shaken by the exchange or unwilling to divulge her true feelings otherwise.

“You are subjects of Emperor All Might, who is the father of the nation, so it is the duty of his armies to protect all his citizens,” Todoroki answered stoically, glancing at Shinsou where his gaze stuck like it was trapped by tree sap, “no matter who they are.”

Shinsou took the opportunity to bow again, a move copied by the others, then recovered her discarded shoes and socks, getting back in the sedan to resume the long and ever-more dangerous journey to the Forbidden City.

~~~

Far beyond the walls of the Forbidden City, less than a day's ride for an experienced horseman but several for any sedan, up on a hill strategically overlooking its historic lands lay the prestigious Aizawa Manor. An old fortress expanded and improved over the generations, it was now under the management of one Lady Hizashi, close cousin of the Emperor and best friend of the late Empress Midnight.

Before her marriage to Aizawa Shouta, under the name Yamada Hizashi she had for a time been a renowned opera singer, but management of Aizawa Manor was no small task, and Lady Hizashi took the opportunity to bow out on a high note as she took up control of the household. Theirs was a politically sound match, strengthening ties between the Imperial Royal Family and one of its oldest and most powerful clans, but it wasn't exactly without emotional attachment either.

Lady Hizashi lounged across a large cushioned bed draped in a loose robe of bright turquoise silk, releasing a theatrical sigh as her doorway darkened once more with the shadow of her husband.

"You took your damn time," Hizashi greeted cattily, not exactly the warm welcome of a devoted wife.

"If you're trying to guilt me then you're wasting your time," Aizawa replied with typical bluntness. "You know it wasn't my decision to go."

"You're away for half a year fighting another one of my cousin's pointless battles, and that's all you have to say to me on your return?" Hizashi scolded her poor husband, who had returned from the battlefront in the mountains and paid his respects first to only the Emperor himself ahead of his wife, and still that was not quite enough for the Lady of Aizawa Manor. "It wasn't my decision to go," she played back in an imitation of his voice.

"It wasn't," her husband echoed, weary from the journey on horseback between the Forbidden City and his home. It was only a day's ride, but came at the end of a hundred days riding before that, and more before that. "If you'd exerted more influence over your cousin then perhaps I wouldn't have had to go babysit the Todoroki boy in the first place."

"I suppose you have a point," Hizashi relinquished, mostly because it was a testament to her power, and therefore a compliment. She laid her face to rest against a golden silk pillow and merely watched her husband undress, rather than help him with it the way a dutiful wife was supposed to. They had attendants for that, but Hizashi had sent them away so that she and Shouta might speak freely, and he had taken care of himself this long, hadn't he? He could manage it a little longer.

"No, no, don't help me," Shouta muttered dryly as he fumbled with the many ties and fastenings of his official military robes with stiff fingers from hours of gripping reins.

"The view from over here is better," Hizashi retorted with a wicked grin, while the weight of her husband's words settled slowly.

She had barely been back to the Forbidden City since Nemuri died, and if she had done more to support her cousin in their shared grief, perhaps he would not have agreed on an expansion campaign that risked her husband's life over some miserable snow covered rocks.

"I haven't been back to The Forbidden City as much,” she said more somberly, “since… you know."

"I know," Aizawa Shouta echoed, and he too mourned the untimely passing of the last Empress. "Toshinori says the harem misses you." Using the Emperor's personal name was a serious crime, but no one was there to hear it, and to the two of them he would always still be Yagi Toshinori under all the regality.

"I know that bitch Mitsuki surely doesn't," Hizashi countered, eyes narrowing at the last layers of Shouta's official state robes and underclothes all dropped to the ground. She scanned his bare body, asking with a lilt, "Still in one piece?"

It was their term for any serious injury, such as the horse that fell and took the proper use of his leg, or the blade that had claimed his eye. Lady Aizawa Hizashi would lose no more of her husband's body to his nation, she swore, and was a fearsome woman to cross.

"Why don't you be the judge of that?" Shouta murmured, warm but weary as he climbed finally into the bed alongside his wife.

Hizashi rolled and soon came to rest on top of him, her long golden hair pooling alongside his dark hair. With grace like a swan over water she dipped down to kiss him, feeling the release of stress from Shouta's body at the touch of their lips, knowing it meant that he was home at long last.

With a sly teasing smirk, Hizashi moved her mouth over Shouta's ear and said, "I know exactly what to check first."

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

It took many dull weeks of travel to reach the Imperial capital city, and Shinsou counted no less than five occasions where murdering the famous General Todoroki Shouto had crossed her mind. Shinsou was confident that he was about to reveal that she was not who she said she was and force her hand. He would stare at her when no one else was watching, and insisted on escorting their little sedan all the way to the very gates of Forbidden City, despite many instances that someone of his rank was far above such a task.

Each time Todoroki would reply that it was merely his duty, referencing his need to present himself before the Emperor anyway, and that it was no trouble to bring them along with the returning army. Particularly after they had been attacked on the way by the remaining forces he had been hunting down in the region.

Shinsou was all but convinced that General Todoroki intended to arrest her the moment they arrived for the crime of deceiving a high-ranking officer, but was given no opportunity to take his life and get away with it, so ever closer they came.

When they reached the imposing gates of the Forbidden City confrontation seemed all but inevitable, but General Todoroki’s final words to Shinsou were spoken a few steps before. His horse was conveniently riding alongside the sedan on the side Shinsou was sitting, a coincidence that had seemed to occur throughout this journey regardless of where Shinsou sat.

“This can be a hard place to survive,” he said coolly to the carved wooden lattice between them. “Take care of yourself.”

"I always do," Shinsou responded, then heard the command and clatter of hooves as General Todoroki rode off to meet the Emperor.

"What was that all about?" asked Tsuyu, and Shinsou gave a shrug, though sideways looks between the village girls conveyed their belief otherwise.

It was a mysterious and for the most part confusing interaction, but fortunately, it was over. Shinsou joined Ochako, Toru and Tsuyu with the newest intake of palace maids. There were dozens of them in total, all lined up and kneeling before a senior maid who strode up and down with a long orange ponytail swinging over one shoulder.

“Alright, listen up girls, I’m Kendou Itsuka, Senior Supervisor of you fresh palace maids,” she announced energetically, setting a fist into an imposingly large palm. “I want you all to understand that you now represent the model behaviour and conduct of the Emperor, so any dreams you may have come in here with about rising up through the ranks or finding yourself a husband, abandon them now. This is not a playground for social climbing or romance, you are here to work hard and see to the proper care of this place and people living within it. Let that be your satisfaction, and the next ten years will pass very easily.”

“Ten years?” Shinsou repeated in a whisper, this detail not coming up in their discussions of palace life so far. “What happens then?”

“You didn’t know?” Toru responded, barely moving her lips so as not to be punished and thrown out before she even joined the palace staff, though she might not have minded. “Girls can leave when they turn twenty-five, they aren’t bound to this place forever.” They were far away from the still lecturing Kendou and didn’t get caught for talking, soon to be divided up into groups with another supervisor.

All four girls from the same sedan remained in a group, as were others that had arrived together, the bonds of familiarity intended to help one another to adjust to palace life. Their immediate supervisor was a girl with a dark purple bob and long earrings, who came along to collect them after being assigned by Supervisor Kendou.

“I’m Jirou Kyouka, and I’m not here to cover for your mistakes,” was her brutal introduction, but she proceeded, “but if you do well then we can all succeed together, so let’s work hard.” 

By her side stood a girl with bright pink hair and arms crossed over her front, looking stern and senior and nodding along with Jirou. Despite them all being of a similar age, some girls entered the palace a year or two earlier and the little extra time and experience had gone to their heads.

“This is Ashido Mina, she’ll show you the ropes,” Jirou handed over, the third such delegation in a short space of time, which left Shinsou wondering when they might meet the person who would actually be instructing them.

Thankfully, this turned out to be Mina, who, once Jirou had left, proceeded to smile brightly and said, “She worries about things a lot, but it’s actually pretty easy work once you get used to it. Follow me to the dorms to drop your stuff off, then we’ll get your palace robes fitted and start right away.”

Each girl was assigned a bed in a large dorm and given a few uniform robes in dark navy, along with a few other items to wear in-between or underneath. They were warmer and better made than what Shinsou had scraped together for this journey so far, so it was already an improvement.

It also turned out that the work of palace maids was not terribly challenging, consisting of a lot of sweeping, cleaning, light gardening and a huge amount of washing laundry. All chores Shinsou had never needed to do before, and had to marvel at the ability of humans to preoccupy themselves with absolutely pointless busywork.

Shinsou learned quickly that palace maids could travel pretty widely around the various parts of the sprawling Forbidden City, and could overhear a great many things that way. However, there were many places they could not go, each palace with its own assigned staff, and gossip was strongly discouraged. Consequently, it was all the more thrilling so everyone did it.

In no time at all Shinsou was caught up with the drama playing out on the stage of the royal court. There was a power vacuum in the harem after the tragic death of the last Empress, a void yet to be filled for fear of confirming which of the Emperor’s sons would become the next Emperor.

The two strongest candidates, Princes Izuku and Katsuki, had grown up together, engaged for the most part in ardent competition with one another, earning their father’s delight as much as his exasperation whenever they quarrelled, which was often. Prince Katuski’s mother Mitsuki was the highest ranking woman in the Imperial harem without an Empress, a Noble Consort, while Izuku’s mother was only a concubine from a much more humble background. However, Inko was more favoured by the Emperor than Mitsuki, especially since the passing of Empress Midnight, and Prince Izuku’s temperament was said to be much better.

Shinsou saw some of this famous temperament one afternoon just a couple of weeks after she started as a maid, assigned to sweep the inner courtyard of Bakugou Palace one day when a Go board full of stones came flying out one of the windows.

“BULLSHIT!” fiercely shouted someone within the room, while several maids and attendants burst out of the nearest door in a hurry. Shinsou kept sweeping with her eyes turned down, but spied them from the corners of her vision with ease. If she happened to sweep corners that had already been swept to keep such events in the corners of her eyes, that was just a coincidence. “CHEATER!” came the next fiery shout, and by temperament it could be safely assumed that was the voice of Prince Katuski.

“How could I cheat?” was the response Shinsou could discern quite easily, though her hearing was much better than the insensate humans around her. This voice was calmer but still a little teasing, as Prince Izuku responded, “You’re just more predictable lately.”

“You got lucky!” Prince Katsuki responded. Outside the window servants were busy trying to gather the scattered pieces that had flown across the courtyard, while the wooden board had bounced into a small pond where a palace eunuch was frantically trying to fish it out. Knowing the extravagance heaped upon the Emperor’s heirs and Noble Consorts, everything was likely of tremendous value, meaning little to Princes raised in the veritable lap of luxury. 

“Royal Father says fortune is earned not given,” Prince Izuku responded, and while Prince Katsuki gave some manner of growl in response Shinsou spied a small white token that had skittered all the way to the edge of the garden bed she swept round and around in a circle. Carefully Shinsou bent down to pick it up, knowing an opportunity when she found one, and cautiously approached the palace door with her head tilted down.

On her way over a young blonde man in the uniform of a senior eunuch came storming across the courtyard from another wing with an air of impatience, looking around and barking orders as the eunuch who’d managed to fish the go board out rushed up to hold it out to him.

“I saved it from the water as fast as I could, supervisor Monoma,” the attendant pleaded urgently, and other staff quickly came up to return the lost pieces they had managed to collect so far, which wasn’t many.

“If you were as good at your job as I am, then you would have known to close the shutters when the princes were playing a game together,” the supervisor named Monoma returned aloofly. “That way things stay indoors when they start getting thrown around.”

“Thank you for teaching me, supervisor Monoma,” the attendant enthused with a bobbing head. “I’ll remember for the next time.”

Shinsou had approached by then, her steps limited by the tapered platform sandals that were a massive source of frustration to one used to running on all fours, while the blonde supervisor turned his gaze onto with great scrutiny.

“And what do you want?” he demanded curtly, but Shinsou had been taught by the other girls and kept her ears open, learning the way to speak to superiors in such a strange place as this.

“Forgive me, supervisor Monoma, I’m just a humble palace maid, but I found this while I was sweeping over there and wanted to return it.” Shinsou held the silly little thing out, and with a steely look Monoma gave a nod and reached out to take it from her hand.

“What’s your name?” he asked, tilting his head to see her bowed face more clearly. “I haven’t noticed you around here before.”

“Shinsou Hitoshi,” Shinsou answered quickly. “I’ve only been here a couple of weeks. I’ll leave now,” she rushed, already backing away when the young eunuch’s hand darted out and took a very light grip on the edge of her sleeve. Nothing too scandalous, but more enough to stop her retreat.

“Not so fast, you’ve done a good deed, haven’t you?” Monoma remarked much more slyly, a grin on his face that had Shinsou sensing danger. “It deserves a reward.” Holding out an empty hand, one of the Bakugou Palace maids presented a large silk pouch, which Monoma deposited the returned stone into, as well as the others that had been gathered already. “Take this, and collect all the missing pieces,” Monoma instructed, handing the item to Shinsou with an amused smirk. “You can present them when you’ve found them every last one.”

“Yes, supervisor Monoma,” Shinsou said diligently. “I will make sure that every lost piece is retrieved.”

“It is a great honour for you to collect these objects, you know,” he reminded her suavely. “Many pass their whole lives without touching something held by the hands of the Princes.”

“Thank you,” Shinsou replied with a bow, in fact thrilled to have just been given permission to snoop around the inner courtyard and even inside the palace itself, considering some pieces were likely spilled in there too. That was worth more than any concern with the merits of objects touched by the hands of Princes.

One by one Shinsou sought out the lost pieces, small stones in black or white, which had fallen into crevices, flower beds, and a few into the same pond that had almost sunk the board, Shinsou pulling up her sleeve to plunge an arm into the chilly depths. Over two hundred pieces she tracked down outdoors, and for the rest must seek them within.

Timidly, waiting to be stopped by someone only to find her existence was all but ignored, Shinsou made her way through the extravagant hall of the palace of the Noble Consort Mitsuki, mistress of Bakugou Palace. It was the most lavish of any Consort in the Imperial Harem, barring the Emperor’s Immortal Palace, or that of the late Empress Midnight before her passing, her home now converted to a memorial and not as decorated as Bakugou Palace now was.

There was no one in the room where the Princes had been playing their game, a long ornate hall with two spacious seats and a table between them where the board must have rested. Calculating from where Prince Katsuki launched the board, Shinsou inspected all around the room and added one by one each scattered piece to the pouch that became slowly heavier.

At the sound of approaching footsteps, Shinsou dropped to her knees and lowered her head in a bow, certain that anyone walking in would be of higher rank than a palace maid and it being sensible therefore to bow preemptively.

“Hm, what’s this?” remarked Prince Katsuki, by the timbre of his voice, which rasped like freshly broken branches by storming winds. “What’s a lowly palace maid doing inside my quarters?”

“Replying to Prince Katsuki, your servant was tasked with collecting all the Go pieces,” Shinsou explained, remaining in the bow out of wariness for this Prince’s fiery temper, displayed only recently when he lost a simple game.

“You mean to do that with your face against the floor?” the Prince responded, and there went the plan to just keep bowing until he went away. Shinsou lifted up and found the red eyes of the Prince directly on her, averting her gaze quickly so as not to be accused of staring at someone so far above her rank. His hair was a straw yellow, untamed in contrast to the meticulous royal robes he wore, a long black tunic embroidered with a pattern of flames.

“No, Prince Katsuki, I– your servant will be thorough in collecting all the pieces,” Shinsou corrected clumsily, impatient with the pointless twists and turns these strange people warped their words into.

“Get on with it, then,” Prince Katsuki ordered, words not quite so twisty as the others, perhaps.

Shinsou moved around on her knees, which was much better than her feet in such ridiculous footwear, to continue the meticulous task of picking up all the scattered black and white stones, another fifty at least still to find. She felt the Prince’s gaze following her around the room, and wrote it off to the novelty of something new and unexpected, for even splendour could be tiresome, as Shinsou was already learning.

“Kacchan?” rose the voice of the other Prince from the next room, getting closer as he continued, “Have you finished reading the war manual that Royal Father lent to you? I wanted to study it before…” when the footsteps arrived in the room the Prince’s voice trailed off, and Shinsou stopped her work to bow, again, wondering how productive these humans might be if they learned to spare each other this nonsense.

“Greetings to Prince Izuku,” Shinsou relayed methodically. “Your servant was assigned to collect the Go pieces.”

“Oh! Let me help you,” Prince Izuku offered unexpectedly, and Shinsou dared to glance up at the boy, also of around the age Shinsou was supposed to be as a maid, as was the Prince Katsuki. Shinsou had more than double those years technically, but experienced time differently in the shrine as a spirit, such that they were still a teenager by either standard.

Prince Izuku had rich green hair and his eyes were no less striking than his half-brother’s. Contrasting ruby and emerald gazes that met over Shinsou’s bowed form, and then slowly moved to each other’s.

“What are you even saying, Deku?” Prince Katsuki scoffed, Shinsou noticing that they still used nicknames instead of their titles despite her being there. “Would you deprive this maid the merit of picking these pieces up for us?”

“She would not have to do that if you had just accepted defeat gracefully, Royal Brother,” Prince Izuku responded, finally catching up some formality, though he had already begun picking up any pieces scattered in the direction he entered from, which was not especially princely.

Shinsou appreciated the help anyway, bored with this task and having had her fill of seeing what the interior of one of these palaces was actually like. This ornate splendour had nothing on a raw range of snow-topped mountains, but that was just Shinsou’s preference.

“What successful leader could accept defeat so amiably?” Prince Katsuki declared, strolling over to the seat and slumping into it, resting his chin on a fist and watching the two of them hurriedly gather the remaining pieces. As the last lost pieces dwindled, Izuku approached Shinsou clutching the ones he’d found.

Shinsou noted the scars on his young hands, seemingly unlike that of what a Prince’s should be, unblemished and soft to the touch. Prince Izuku’s fingers bore callouses clearly from archery and practise with swords, so Shinsou had to concede that he may well possess skills other than the fortune to be born the son of an Emperor.

“I cannot thank you enough, Prince Izuku,” Shinsou delivered routinely. “A lowly palace maid is not worthy of your help in this trivial matter.”

“I was the cause of the pieces being thrown so carelessly, so this much is only my duty,” Prince Izuku answered cleverly, a grin in his mouth that matched the scowl of his brother’s. He had won their game, and for such fierce rivals any small victory was a victory nonetheless.

Shinsou held out her hands to collect the pieces, which Prince Izuku handed over with the faintest brush of his fingertips against her palms. Shinsou had barely got them in the pouch before another great shout from elsewhere in the palace shattered the moment of calm.

“KATSUKI!” went the terrible yell, and moments later the Noble Consort Mitsuki strode into the room wearing an astonishingly glamorous robe woven from only the finest pink silks, embroidered with beautiful flowers and birds all over, her dusty blonde hair held up by a number of jewelled ornaments. Consort Mitsuki was another famous beauty, her looks rivalled only by her fierce temper, so Shinsou was glad not to be in the way as she approached her son with a threatening aura.

“What is it now?” Prince Katsuki drawled, only for his mother to yank up the sleeve of her gown and backhand him across the crown of his head.

“You threw the priceless Go board gifted by your Royal Father into the koi pond! Have you no respect?!” she berated, her son shirking away from the punishment irately. “You should be thankful Supervisor Monoma reported this to me first, or word could have gotten out that you are an ungrateful son not deserving of your Royal Father’s favour!”

“Don’t blame him, Noble Consort Mitsuki, it’s my fault,” Prince Izuku offered eagerly, scurrying away from Shinsou, on whom the Consort’s eyes barely dwelled. “I lured Kacchan into a trap and won our game unexpectedly, so his reaction was very passionate.”

Consort Mitsuki whacked her son on the head again, scolding, “You still act like a child, Katsuki, throwing away his toys when he doesn’t get his way! I raised you better than this!”

In a low amused tone, Prince Katsuki muttered, “You fuckin’ didn’t.”

Shinsou heard the next backhander forcefully, timed with a belt of the word, “Disrespectful!” from the Consort’s mouth. “You dare to speak to your own mother that way?!”

With a great huff, the Prince yielded. “Forgive me, mother, I spoke out of turn, and was too fiery in my temperament.”

“Tch, you talk pretty only when you need to,” his mother scorned, then turned to address the other prince. “If only he followed your example better, Prince Izuku, and conducted himself well in the face of defeat.”

“I learned such graciousness only by losing to Kacchan so many times over the years,” Prince Izuku replied, and with a dash of his gaze at his brother, concluded, “Perhaps I can see that he loses to me more often, and improve his disposition that way.”

Prince Katsuki gave a displeased snarl, but was glared into further submission by his mother, who only then turned her attention to Shinsou, clearly already aware of her task and reason for being there, if she had spoken to Supervisor Monoma.

“Have you finished collecting the pieces that my undisciplined son lost?” she asked stringently.

“All but one,” Shinsou reported, having scoured outdoors and now in here without finding the last black stone.

“Hm,” scoffed Prince Katsuki, shifting in his seat tellingly. “I think I might know where it is.”

Shinsou sensed Consort Mitsuki preparing to scold her son again, but having more than enough of this spectacle, picked herself up and walked over to the Prince directly. With hands used to tearing life from living creatures, to seek and retrieve one small playing piece dropped on a seat was no difficult task. Shinsou’s hand darted between the Prince Katsuki’s widely spread legs to snatch the piece back from under his thigh and toss it into the silk pouch. The weight and warmth of his body against her hand was only temporary, and as she made the lightning fast movement, Shinsou met Prince Katsuki’s eyes once more as if to ask whether this is what he wanted by making such a comment.

The shock of the movement struck the air in the room like a gong, not expecting such audaciousness from a lowly maid. Shinsou used that to her advantage, pulling back and bowing her head to hold the pouch out to Consort Mitsuki.

“I have collected all the pieces now, Noble Consort Mitsuki,” Shinsou declared hurriedly, handing the pouch over and backing away in haste. “Your servant will leave now, thank you for this honour.”

Then Shinsou was gone before any of them could get another word out.

~~~

“You did what?!” Ochako gasped when Shinsou relayed the story over their evening meal.

“I got the last piece out from underneath him,” Shinsou repeated.

“You touched Prince Katuski’s body?” Mina clarified, having become good friends with their little group already, to the point of rarely feeling her seniority and more like that of a big sister, despite all being the same age. “They actually allowed you?”

“I did it very quickly, and then left as fast as I could,” Shinsou explained. “It was what he meant for me to do anyway, trying to put me in a difficult position like that.”

“You’re lucky to be back here with us unscathed,” Jirou told her, a worried expression for fear of repercussions. “Most maids would be severely punished for touching a royal body without permission.”

“I was merely doing as Supervisor Monoma instructed and collecting all the pieces,” Shinsou reasoned. “Prince Katuski being on top of one of them was not my fault, I was just following orders.”

Walking by and hearing this exchange, their Senior Supervisor Kendou scoffed, “Hah, you’re an ambitious one, Shinsou Hitoshi. You better hope Monoma doesn’t hear you blaming him.”

“Blaming me for what?” cut in the smarmy Supervisor himself, strolling through the maids quarters confidently.

“Nothing,” Kendou covered, crossing her arms and turning to square up against her contemporary. “Have you come here on some business, Supervisor Monoma?”

“Why yes, Supervisor Kendou,” he answered coyly, “I’m here regarding that maid you were just talking to, as a matter of fact.”

His gaze bore into Shinsou like a pickaxe mining for precious gems. 

“Why?” Kendou demanded.

“Consort Mitsuki told me how thoroughly she carried out the task that I gave to her, and it is truly rare to find a maid of such quality. She wants Shinsou Hitoshi to clean the outer court of Bakugou Palace every day now, as she says it will give her comfort to know the task is assigned to a girl of such…” he paused a moment, eyes finding Shinsou’s, “fortitude.”

“Bakugou Palace courtyard is too big for one maid to clean daily,” Kendou countered, and gestured to the group of them sat at the table. “I will send this group together every day, so Consort Mitsuki can be at ease.”

“Very well,” Monoma agreed, and from then on Shinsou and her friends were responsible for menial tasks around Bakugou Palace, much to the annoyance of the established maids who worked within the Palace, and saw the new group as trying to uproot them.

This was less so in regard to Consort Mitsuki’s attention, who was a demanding mistress and ruled Bakugo Palace strictly, for all the good it did her son, but moreso in the visitation of the many Imperial Guardsmen to and from the palace, who were familiar with the established maids.

Prince Izuku was also frequently found in Bakugo Palace, rather than his mother’s own more modest Midoriya Palace, so it was commonplace for guards to seek them both there, which meant a great array of high ranking officials would come to and fro, as well as the Emperor himself on occasion, though he would favour Midoriya Palace to visit his favourite concubine Inko.

Shinsou learned that the warnings they had all been given about socialising with guards were not quite as they’d been told. While palace maids were instructed not to seek out and converse with Imperial Guardsmen, who were largely from well off families for their sons to have the honour of guarding the Forbidden City, the same order was not applied in the other direction, and guards would often chat with the young female staff of the palace, many from families of good background seeking a higher station in life.

Their group was attending to the gardening and sweeping of the Bakugo Palace courtyard one morning when a young Guardsman with yellow hair and a sharp black streak came to visit and recognised the last among them Shinsou would have predicted to be friendly with a Guard.

“Well well well, fancy seeing you here, Jirou,” the young man declared cheerfully, strolling over as if the last concern in the world could be a palace made and guard fraternising.

More unexpected yet was Jirou's response, which was an exaggerated eye roll without stopping the weeding of the decorative flower bed that lined the front courtyard of Bakugo Palace.

After a moment or two though, once the energetic Imperial Guard in his striking red uniform strode over and stood much closer to them, Jirou did offer a stilted, "Did you forget where we are, Kaminari? You can’t be so friendly with me, it’ll cause rumours.”

“Rumours?” he echoed playfully, “Is there anything to them?” This caused Jirou to scowl and blush as she ripped weeds crossly out of the earth.

“Stop fooling around or you’ll get us all in trouble,” she scolded, but Shinsou was pleased for an excuse to take a short break. Why humans insisted on this bizarre ritual of choosing which plants were acceptable to grow where she’d never know, and for the most part mourned the poor weeds, feeling more affinity to them than the delicate flowers who barely survived these irrationally pampered conditions.

“You two know each other?” Shinsou asked, and the fresh faced Guard Kaminari set his eyes on her with great intention.

“Wow, you must be the prettiest palace maid I’ve seen around here in ages,” Kaminari declared dramatically, which was not what Shinsou had been expecting to hear. Her shapeshifting was supposed to be unremarkable, being easier to blend in, so if she was, as he said, ‘pretty’, it could be a real inconvenience. “What’s your name, cutie?”

Shinsou winced at the sound of Jirou tearing a huge weed out of the ground, and awkwardly answered, “Ah… Shinsou Hitoshi. I’ve been here almost a month now.”

“You’re lucky to have Jirou looking out for you,” Kaminari continued obliviously, unaware or unacknowledged of the furious scowl on the person he was praising’s face. “She always protects the people around her, even if it means suffering herself.”

“You seem to know each other really well,” Shinsou returned to, still not quite sure how the rules strictly prohibited affairs between guards and palace maids, yet no one appeared in the least bit troubled by the familiar conversation happening in the very courtyard of Bakugo Palace. Shinsou was starting to get to grips with these humans’ strange habit of saying things they didn’t mean, but it was peculiar at the best of times.

“We’re childhood friends, both from the same city in the South,” Kaminari revealed. “There was even a time when the two of us were supposed to be…”

Before he could get another word out Jirou shot to her feet, grabbing Shinsou’s wrist at the same time she announced, “We have a lot of chores to do, so we’ll leave first,” and all but dragged Shinsou away.

“What was that all about?” Shinsou asked plainly, noting that Jirou hadn’t brought the others with them, and removed Shinsou alone, perhaps worrying that Kaminari would continue to talk to her if she remained, which she probably would have.

“Nothing. He’s just an idiot I know from back home,” Jirou insisted, which Shinsou sensed was more of that human thing of saying one thing and meaning another in practice.

“It’s clearly more than that,” Shinsou observed, now dragged well out of sight into an empty laundry area on the side of the palace. Being away from prying eyes, Shinsou could see how terribly Jirou was blushing still, her normally pale skin flushed red all the way down to her neck.

“It’s history now, he’s just stuck in the past,” Jirou muttered, and more painfully yet said, “We can’t all be like Yaoyorozu Momo.”

“Who’s that?” Shinsou asked.

“She used to work here before you joined, when I had just started,” Jirou explained. “She was far beyond being a palace maid according to her background, but for some reason it was the only way she could enter the Forbidden City, so she did. She’s the wife of a high state official now.”

“Really?” Shinsou could hardly believe such a thing, after hearing so much about status and the impossibility of a lowly servant to become a noble lady.

“It was a one in a thousand thing, and State Advisor Iida risked a lot to make someone like that his legitimate wife, he asked the Emperor’s permission especially,” Jirou rationalised for some reason Shinsou could not divine, fascinated by the strange intricacies of human relationships with each other.

“So Kaminari couldn’t do that with you?” Shinsou surmised, only for Jirou to clap her hand securely over Shinsou’s mouth.

“You can’t say something like that around here! Not even as a joke! You’ll get us both in trouble!” she hissed, and Shinsou understood this was a serious matter, but to Jirou it seemed to be even more serious than that. “I’m only telling you this so you know to stay away from someone like Kaminari if he tries to seduce you,” she warned, so sour Shinsou could taste it in the air as she added, “which he probably will, knowing him.”

Not knowing how to respond to that, except that it would take a little more than that to seduce Shinsou, she consoled Jirou as best she could.

“Let’s finish this work and go back to the dorms, I won’t talk to anyone else, I promise,” she swore. Jirou nodded glumly, and the chatty Imperial Guard was already gone by the time they returned.

~~~

Prince Katsuki stood at the window and watched the cluster of palace maids cleaning up the outer courtyard, noticing the striking hair colour of a person whose hand had been between his legs not a few days ago.

“What’s she doing here?” he asked his mother, who was sitting nearby studying calligraphy painting, and, in her own words, keeping an eye on her troublesome son.

“Who?” Consort Mitsuki remarked innocently, knowing exactly who her son referred to but playing dumb for the theatre.

“That maid who dared to touch me,” Katsuki confirmed.

“Oh, I had them send her here to keep the courtyard clean,” Mitsuki explained nonchalantly. “If she can put up with your bullshit, she might last longer than the others.”

“What’s that meant to mean?” the son accused his mother, and source of all his hotheaded nature for that matter.

“Do we need to go over the number of servants I have had to let go because of you?” Mitsuki said acerbically. “You terrify them because you think it’s funny.”

“It is funny,” Katsuki responded. “I barely ever hit them.”

“You don’t need to, they’re scared enough as it is,” his mother countered.

“That’s not just my influence and you know it,” Prince Katsuki responded, and they shared a look.

“I thought that Shinsou girl was interesting,” Mitsuki revealed.

“Was she?” posed the son.

The mother’s knowing answer was, “You certainly seemed to think so.”

“Tch,” Katsuki just scoffed, looking away from the far off Shinsou Hitoshi. “She’s nothing special.”

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

It had been four months since Shinsou entered the Forbidden City as a palace maid, and she was no closer to finding The Tip of the High Mountain. However, she was closer to someone who could probably find out where it was, so it wasn't entirely hopeless.

"Shinsou! Shinsouuuu?" Monoma's voice rang out shrilly, calling for her across the palace maid dorms with absolute confidence. In this time the other palace maids had gotten more than used to Monoma singling out Shinsou for various tasks. "Where have you gotten to this time?"

"I'm here, I'm here, keep your hat on," Shinsou declared impatiently, clomping up in the platform sandals she had eventually gotten used to moving around in, but still didn't have to like or see the point of. "What is it?"

"I have a new job for you,” Monoma trilled, his eyes meeting Supervisor Kendou’s across the room but nothing more coming of it. As long as Monoma kept her girls out of trouble he could favour whoever he liked. And with a face like that and sharp mind and even sharper tongue, it wasn’t surprising that Shinsou had quickly become a favourite of his.

“What is it this time?” Shinsou asked dully, not as enamoured of the senior eunuch’s favouritism of her as he was, or the envy it drew from other maids who had tried without success to rocket to such a position in so little time.

“We’re reorganising the Imperial Household Stores and taking care of precious items,” Monoma told her. “I need someone with an exquisitely delicate touch to clean some of our most priceless artefacts.”

“You should take someone more experienced then,” Shinsou told him plainly, not really interested in jobs where a single mistake could cost her so much human nonsense. Though there was a chance she might find out where The Tip of The High Mountain had been taken, Shinsou had learned from the last time Monoma singled her out for a task like this, the stores of the Imperial Household Department were vast, too vast to hope to find a single object from all the others in casual searching. Not to mention that Monoma watched her like a hawk when she worked, so short of killing him she wouldn’t be able to steal the stone undetected even if she knew where it was.

“What kind of attitude is that?” Monoma replied, taking hold of Shinsou by the wrist with utter confidence. “This is a great honour, I’ll have you know, come along now.”

“Fine,” Shinsou huffed, but allowed herself to be led off by the senior eunuch, snatching her sleeve back before it drew even more gossip. A favoured maid was one thing, but if they were touching each other in public it all but confirmed they were having an affair. Whether they were or not it was strictly prohibited, and would cost Monoma harshly too, if not as much as it’d cost Shinsou who would be lucky to get off with 'just' caning.

Shinsou hadn't expected that Monoma was going lead her right to the Emperor's Immortal Palace itself, but slowly they approached it, growing before Shinsou like a great dragon of human construction. Whatever Shinsou thought about human society, they did manage to build things of magnitude, and Emperor All Might’s Immortal Palace was a perfect example. The Immortal Palace of One for All had been the seat of the seven rulers before Yagi Toshinori took up the mantle, and each had expanded on the building in some manner or another, making a truly incredible sight.

"I thought we were going to the warehouse,” Shinsou said quietly, walking just behind the senior supervisor with the rhythmic click clock of her sandals on the paved walkways of the Forbidden Palace, high whitewashed walls and tiled roofs that would be hard for even her to climb without some assistance. This was a place even spirits had trouble escaping.

"I said we're reorganising and maintaining the inventory, which includes any items that are on display in the various palaces," Monoma corrected, then with a suave tone added, "though if you're so keen to go to the warehouse with me, I'm sure it can be arranged."

"No need," Shinsou deflected, quite aware of her error in assuming this shapeshifted form that attracted far too much attention for the apparent beauty of her looks. Even though Monoma was a eunuch and supposedly not concerned with such matters, this did not appear to deter him one bit, and he'd made all kinds of subtle advances on Shinsou that she'd demurely tried to discourage.

It wasn't that Shinsou wouldn’t indulge in human pleasures given the chance, but the repercussions of being caught were too great to risk for something so minor. Shinsou hadn't explored the full depth or breadth of what her human body offered in that department, and it seemed a waste to try now when she had more important things on her mind.

The Emperor's palace was even more impressive than Bakugou Palace, every hallway decked out with carved arches and fine panels, like moving through the inside of a great golden dragon. The walls were lined with expansive paintings and calligraphy art, some depicting fierce rocky landscapes that Shinsou had been missing all the more as time passed since leaving home, especially late and lonely at night. Nighttime was the only time Shinsou could walk around barefoot freely, which she’d do in secret, wandering the slumbering dorms and staring up at the night sky, the only thing she could still see beyond this godforsaken Forbidden City. 

"Do you like it?" Monoma asked, making Shinsou aware that she'd been staring at a particular mountain landscape painting for too long.

"Hm? I suppose," Shinsou answered, turning on to follow Monoma further into the palace, adding under her breath, "They almost got it right."

"You're from a place like that?" Monoma suggested, and it seemed to Shinsou like he had chosen her for this task in order to be the first to show her the splendour of the Immortal Palace more than any excuse he may have fabricated.

"Sorta," Shinsou answered sullenly, and wouldn't reveal any more than that for fear of drawing more savage humans to their doorstep. 

Then without the least bit of warning, Monoma led Shinsou into a hall panelled in dark varnished wood with an enormous desk in the middle, and behind which sat Emperor All Might himself.

"Good evening, Your Majesty," Monoma announced with an elaborate bow, which Shinsou mirrored urgently, both lowering themselves all the way to the floor in front of the tall man dressed in long robes of royal yellow. "We are here to tend to the precious ornaments on display in your Royal Study."

In a voice much more unassuming than Shinsou expected of an Emperor whose legend stood so large, the lanky human man said quietly, "Carry on."

Monoma rose up and moved over to a dresser, on which stood a carved jade lion that Shinsou had no doubt at all was incredibly cursed. He beckoned Shinsou to come with him, and warily she approached the statue that some foul spirit was still locked in, screaming and beating itself against the jade that had become its prison.

"Don't just stare at it, start dusting," Monoma ordered, producing a set of fine feather and horse hair brushes to hand over to Shinsou for the task.

If it weren't for the Emperor sitting right there, Shinsou would have laughed in his face and said she wasn't touching that thing in a million years, but it also gave her the pause to realise they really couldn't tell there was a spirit locked in the statue at all. Perhaps it caused the odd headache, for the sensitive, or made tempers more easily lost, or maybe they were all too numb to feel a thing.

Whoever had trapped the spirit in the statue did so thoroughly, because when Shinsou started ticking the dust out of its crevices with a feather the spirit started to laugh despite its fury. Shinsou couldn’t tell if it was a pleasure or torture, but supposed it didn’t really matter, as at least it was something different.

"Would Your Majesty like to change any of the items on display in your study?" Monoma queried, and for a magical moment Shinsou wondered if the Emperor would ask him to bring out The Tip of The High Mountain. As if she could snatch it somehow and just flee this place for good, despite it being the first thing she was warned against expecting on this mission.

If only it could be that easy, Emperor All Might merely saying, "No, leave everything as it is."

Shinsou wouldn’t recommend anyone share a study with a loathsome enraged spirit trapped inside a jade statue, but it was not her place to say such things to a high and mighty Emperor, and it served him right for stealing relics in the first place.

Monoma attended to the care of some other items in the office while Shinsou cleaned the cursed jade lion. After tickling it senseless she used a cloth softer than the clothes she got to wear to polish the lion, which the creature seemed to like a little more and even settled, somewhat, though it was still inescapably malevolent.

Shinsou heard footsteps approaching long before another eunuch came to the door to announce, “High State Councillor Iida has arrived, Your Majesty.”

“Bring him in,” Emperor All Might replied, after which a young man, tall and imposing beyond his tender years strode into the study and bowed before the Emperor. He was wearing the ceremonial robes of a State Official, which were a metallic turquoise with a sash around his shoulders that detailed his rank and title.

“Greetings to Your Majesty,” Councillor Iida said first, continuing, “I’m here to discuss the matter of war relief for the new citizens who have been brought into our great nation.”

“Yes, how is food collection going?” the Emperor asked, looking up at last from the memorials he had been carefully writing with a long calligraphy brush. Shinsou was surprised to hear any discussion of the people affected by the Emperor’s latest military campaign, and wondered if the parents and families of Ochako and the others would really receive anything for their misfortune to fall underfoot of an expanding Empire.

“We have accumulated sufficient rice, but the conditions are harsh in this region, so I fear sending this will be costly on our men while providing only short term relief,” Councillor Iida delivered stiffly. Shinsou stole looks at him as she carried on with cleaning the dresser on which the lion statue stood, knowing what she had been told by Jirou about his bold action of making a palace maid his legitimate wife. He was young to have achieved such a high ranking in the Emperor’s advisors already, but not without good reason, albeit inheriting the position from his equally brilliant brother.

“What do you propose, Councillor Iida?” asked the Emperor. An Iida had been part of his state officials for as long as Toshinori could remember, since Dowager Empress Nana and Emperors En and Banjo before her. Iida Tenya was young, but it also made him eager to prove his worth.

“A more sustainable solution ought to raise the prosperity of the people long term,” Iida explained. “I believe we could send flocks of goats, which can endure the tough climate and provide a long term source of food, as well as products made from their skins and fur. They will breed and continue providing livelihood to the villages for years to come, demonstrating that the Emperor cares for his children not just for one day, but their whole lives.”

Shinsou visibly rolled her eyes at the furniture she polished, wondering if these silly humans really believed a couple flocks of goats would solve the problems of people trying to live in places they were not made for, better left to the spirits and animals that belonged there.

“I like this plan,” All Might declared. “Spread my degree asking for a donation of goats from the most prosperous shepherds from the surrounding areas, to be herded up the mountains as a gift of war relief to the villagers.”

It was at this time that another person suddenly entered the study, someone who was not announced or did not wait to be announced, and spoke directly as he approached without greeting anyone in the room. Shinsou had known him by the weight of his footsteps from the moment he set foot in the Immortal Palace, used to the stomping pattern of an unruly prince around Bakugo Manor where she swept and gardened daily.

“How many of those animals do you expect to survive the journey, State Councillor Iida?” Prince Katsuki questioned harshly, striding into the office and adding his opinion with no more than a tiresome sigh from his father. “The bandits will grow fat on so many animals offered up to them for the taking.”

“General Todoroki has reported that the bandits in the area have been wiped out,” Councillor Iida replied stoically.

“Can he really be so sure? He came back earlier than expected, didn’t he?” Prince Katsuki pointed out, which Shinsou found… questionable, given General Todoroki’s insistence at the time that he was already due back in the Forbidden City while accompanying Shinsou every step of the way.

“Hm, send for him,” Emperor All Might said thoughtfully, and Monoma’s head popped up and nodded eagerly.

“Yes, Your Majesty, I will summon him at once,” he jumped in, backing away and leaving Shinsou to hope no one paid her any notice, especially not Prince Katsuki, who had of course noticed her already but sufficed so far in the heated stare he often followed her around with in Bakugo Palace.

“Have you come for a reason other than disputing Councillor IIda’s advice, Prince Katsuki?” the Emperor asked wearily, and only now did the Prince bow.

“Yes, Royal Father,” he replied woodenly. “I wanted to discuss matters of the next Imperial Hunt with you.”

“We’ll attend to that after,” the Emperor settled, and with astonishing quickness Shinsou heard several sets of footsteps approaching in haste.

“Announcing General Todoroki Shouto and Prince Izuku,” Monoma called energetically as they arrived in the room, both boys dressed not in their official robes, but plain clothing for the practice of martial arts, each with a sword hung from their hips.

“Greetings, Royal Father, I was sparring with General Todoroki in the training yard when Supervisor Monoma came to summon him,” Prince Izuku explained politely. “Forgive me for imposing on state matters.”

“It is no trouble,” Emperor All Might soothed with a light touch. “Your brother did not let it trouble him.”

“Hah,” Prince Katsuki huffed under his breath and then pointed out, “An imposition with an excuse still isn’t an invitation.”

“Settle down, boys,” said the Emperor sternly, and turned to Todoroki. “Are you alright, General Todoroki?”

Shouto said nothing, at first, his gaze riveted on Shinsou kneeling in the corner of the room, who was wishing for a moment she could shapeshift into fox form and run out of here never to return. The look on General Todoroki’s face to find her in the Emperor’s study while they were discussing state matters was somewhere between astonished and infuriated. Shinsou didn’t know how to get out of this, so just continued polishing the lacquered furniture, which was thankfully unpossessed by any foul spirit.

“General Todoroki?” Prince Izuku prompted, and he remembered himself, looking forward and bowing.

“Greetings Your Majesty, what command do you have for me?” Todoroki recited as if he’d only just arrived.

“Prince Katsuki is concerned that bandits still roam the mountain regions, and war relief supplies will be raided before they reach the affected people,” Emperor All Might laid out.

“Replying to Your Majesty, the Prince need not fear such a thing,” Todoroki answered coolly. “The majority of the enemy forces have been slain or driven back beyond the mountains.”

The Emperor mused, “Then you judge the route to be safe?”

“As safe as any within our Great Empire, Your Majesty,” Todoroki assured, and his eyes drew again to Shinsou. “In fact, the last larger group of bandits who had been terrorising the region attacked the sedan of this young maid here, and they all fell to the sword.” Some to Shinsou’s specifically, as it happened, but thankfully such details were not open knowledge.

“This maid here, you say?” Prince Katsuki echoed with new interest, and Shinsou forced her face out of the scowl that wanted to threaten it right now, instead turning around and bowing to avoid the sight of these humans powerful by their own laws, who could make Shinsou’s life in this place very easy or very difficult.

“Yes, Prince Katsuki,” Todoroki confirmed, and looked at last away from Shinsou, but only to direct to Prince Katsuki, “I personally came to her aid.” He didn’t sound like he totally believed it, but that was neither here nor there.

“Then you must have saved her life, how fortunate,” Prince Izuku determined cheerfully, and Shinsou felt the burn of the Todoroki boy’s stare come back to her.

“Yes,” he echoed like a long deep cave, “fortunate.”

“This is quite the coincidence if it’s true,” the Emperor remarked, and Shinsou felt obliged to speak.

“Replying to Your Majesty, it is true,” she answered. “Myself and three other girls were attacked on our way down the mountain. General Todoroki arrived just in time to kill the bandits, then escorted us personally to the Forbidden City.” Shinsou lifted and bowed again, for effect, catching Momona glaring at her from across the room, as if displeased by this discovery he had not been privy to, and Prince Katsuki didn’t look too thrilled either as Shinsou said, “I owe General Todoroki the debt of my life.” She didn’t, but whatever, tell the silly humans what they want to hear.

“So would you go back there now without fear, if Todoroki says it's safe?” Prince Katsuki put her on the spot, and Shinsou was new to this, but was fairly sure that it was not normal for a Prince to call upon a maid like this. She would go back in a fucking instant, but not without The Tip of The High Mountain.

“Replying to Prince Katsuki, I am but a humble servant,” Shinsou evaded as she’d heard Monoma use on many a slippery occasion. “I would not dare to speak of things beyond my station.”

“Don’t put her on the spot like that, Royal Brother,” Prince Izuku lightly scolded. “It must have been a horrible experience, just let her get on with her work in peace.”

“Thank you for your grace, Prince Izuku,” Shinsou jumped upon the opportunity given to her, bowing again and starting to shuffle backwards. “Your servant will leave first.”

Shinsou got out of the room before they could interrogate her any further, scrambling to her feet and all but running down the hallway, as if one of them would come to drag her back.

Dashing blindly into the first room she found, Shinsou leaned back against the wall and let out a great sigh of relief, not realising that the room was already occupied.

“My my,” said a voice with the texture of the best quality silk, and warmth like summer sunshine, “and what are you running from?”

Before she had the thought to bow, Shinsou was looking right at a beautiful blonde woman wearing a bright emerald green robe, who sat across the room with an attendant by her side and a cup of tea on the small table by her hand. Her hair was twisted up high above her head and decorated with ornaments, while the last two fingers on each of her hands had long decorative covers on them, a demonstration of how delicate and light a noble woman’s burden should be, to only need the first few fingers for such things as lifting a teacup to drink from.

Shinsou dropped to her knees and bowed instinctively, blurting, “Your servant begs forgiveness, Lady…” and then trailed off upon realising she had no idea who this glamorous woman was.

“You foolish maid,” scolded the attendant, a girl with long green hair in many braids. “You don’t know that this is Lady Hizashi of Aizawa Manor?”

Shinsou heard the name Aizawa and felt a pulse of white anger in her heart. So this woman was the wife of the man who’d ordered their ancestral relic to be taken. “Forgive me, Lady Hizashi,” Shinsou ground out, jaw clenched and knuckles blanched. “I will gladly take punishment for my mistake.” To not recognise her enemy in advance.

“How about you sit up first and let’s take a look at you,” Lady Hizashi remarked smoothly, unbothered by her attendant’s frown. Shinsou rose to rest on her knees, and had heard by reputation about the fearsome cousin of the Emperor and mistress of Aizawa manor, but had not expected reality to so easily surpass it.

Lady Hizashi cut an imposing figure, tall and sharply featured, but even more than her beauty was her presence, which was as loud as the beating of a thousand drums. Shinsou was used to understanding something about the humans she met by the sense of their spirits, most of which were weak, lurking things, but not so with Lady Hizashi. Her strength was a deafening roar, and Shinsou knew from a moment in her presence that she was not a woman to be trifled with.

“What has you in such a hurry that you would barge in on Lady Hizashi waiting to meet with her cousin the Emperor?” questioned Hizashi’s attendant snootily.

“I was tasked with attending to the precious objects stored in the palace by Supervisor Monoma, and was in a rush to complete my chores,” Shinsou explained while concocting the furious rant she would subject Monoma to next chance she got for dragging her into this mess.

“Is that so?” Lady Hizashi responded slyly. “So you weren’t running away from the Emperor’s study like your life depended on it?”

“Forgive me, Lady Hizashi, I did just come from the Emperor’s study, but I was too hasty to fulfil my tasks, that is all.” Shinsou bowed again, and heard the woman’s laugh like the drop of gold coins against one another.

“You talk quite well, for a green girl,” Hizashi remarked, knowing already that Shinsou was fresh to the palace. “How long have you been in the Forbidden City?”

“Replying to Lady Hizashi, I’ve been here four months,” Shinsou answered.

“Stand up and come closer, little violet,” Hizashi coaxed, and Shinsou was forced to her feet, approaching the glamorous woman whose radiance shone like a sun, which meant blistering raw power. It was not hard to see that Hizashi was the cousin of the Emperor, both in the colouring of their similar golden hair, and stature of how they carried themselves. If anything, Shinsou could have said Lady Hizashi was more regal in nature than the Emperor. “What’s your name?”

“Shinsou Hitoshi,” Shinsou provided, forgetting her conventions for a moment to give just a plain answer.

“Shinsou Hitoshi,” Hizashi repeated, and not since her unfortunate meeting with General Todoroki, or perhaps Prince Katsuki, had Shinsou felt so intensely scrutinised. “What brings you to the Forbidden City, Shinsou Hitoshi?”

“I… came from one of the villages newly brought into the Empire by the last war,” Shinsou sort of told the truth. “I entered the Forbidden City to earn merit for my family, and strengthen the ties of my people.” Strengthen them by returning their stolen treasure, but no one needed to know that part.

“A mountain wildflower?” Lady Hizashi purred, tilting her head askew. “This is a rarity, is it not, Shiozaki?”

“Yes, Mistress Hizashi,” answered the attendant, who for the most part looked sorely displeased by Shinsou’s invasion, or moreover, Hizashi’s resulting interest.

“Perhaps I should ask my cousin to let me take you,” Lady Hizashi suggested to Shinsou, who didn’t really understand what she meant, and had the inclination that Hizashi did not mean for her to truly understand either. “It would be nice to have some fresh blood in Aizawa Manor, wouldn't it?”

“Yes, Mistress Hizashi,” Shiozaki responded like it was the last thing she thought.

Too late to be much help, Monoma reappeared with an impatient, “Shinsou? Ah, Lady Hizashi,” he reverted quickly, bowing in greeting.

“Supervisor Monoma,” Hizashi returned with an aloof distance. “How fares Bakugou Manor?”

“A riveting challenge as always, Lady Hizashi,” Monoma returned, and Shinsou had heard that Consort Mitsuki and Lady Hizashi did not get along to say the least, so a loyal servant of Consort Mitsuki was unlikely to be trusted by Lady Hizashi.

“Are you responsible for this young maid?” Hizashi inquired, tilting her head at Shinsou.

“I am,” he replied without formality, a surprise to Shinsou who knew Monoma to always mind his manners where he needed to, suggesting that with this particular company he did not need to. “I selected her to care for some of the treasures in the place, as she has a very delicate touch.”

“And delicate looks, more importantly,” Lady Hizashi pointed out, and Shinsou was quickly getting a measure of this infamous character. “I was thinking that I might ask my cousin to allow her to attend to me in Aizawa Manor.”

Monoma, to his credit, smiled at this, despite Shinsou knowing with great certainty that he must surely oppose her being taken out from under his control. He bowed dutifully and agreed, “I am certain she could tend to your Ladyship most delicately.”

The Lady Hizashi’s eyes circled Shinsou like a bird of prey preparing to dive, and with an air of great implication remarked, “I am quite certain she will.”

~~~

News of Shinsou’s transfer came through within the day, as the favouritism of Emperor All Might to his cousin was well known, and he would not refuse Lady Hizashi’s request for a lowly palace maid to tend to her. It was a saying of hers apparently, that beauty enhanced beauty, and as such all her attendants were blessed with good looks whether male or female.

It was not part of Shinsou’s plans to leave the Forbidden City and be taken away to Aizawa Manor, far from the presumed holding place of the Tip of The High Mountain. However, Shinsou did not know for certain that the Emperor had even been gifted the stone by General Aizawa, or if he had kept it for himself, or was yet to present it. As the one who’d ordered the stone to be taken, getting close to Aizawa also gave Shinsou opportunity to take the revenge sworn upon him, though, for that matter, General Todoroki’s part was not without guilt either.

Shinsou didn’t know what to expect from this untimely promotion, much less that the rules should be so bent for her to permit a girl to leave the Forbidden City mere months after joining, though she remained in Imperial service technically. Shinsou heard from other maids that Aizawa Manor was set in beautiful rolling landscapes surrounded by forest, and had become sick of being trapped by the high walls of the Forbidden City, so the thought of leaving it for anywhere was a little hopeful.

On the afternoon before her departure, to be met and escorted to the Aizawa Manor in horse drawn sedan by some of the Aizawas' household staff, Kendou pulled Shinsou aside, and she finally got an idea of what to expect.

“You must be careful with Lady Hizashi,” Kendou warned, and Shinsou did not need to be told such things to know that well enough already.

“I understand, Supervisor Kendou,” she replied ordinarily, but Kendou took her by the shoulders and held her square, meeting Shinsou’s eyes with great seriousness.

“I mean it, Shinsou,” she said in a way that betrayed she knew by more than reputation. “She’s a rose with sharp thorns. You must be wary.”

“I will,” Shinsou promised, though what she truly thought was that Lord and Lady Aizawa ought to be wary of her.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

After spending several months in the Forbidden City, Shinsou had not expected to think much of Aizawa Manor, which made it even more unexpected when she first arrived and it took her breath away.

It did not have the high walls or imposing statues of the Imperial Palaces, but the land sang an old, old song that Shinsou could feel in the soles of her feet even through several inches of her wooden platform sandals. Aizawa Manor was a large complex, though much smaller than the Forbidden City, but in the green spaces between the buildings stood trees that were centuries old, birds sang that had been there as long as they could remember, and a natural spring fed a series of pools that were crossed by a beautiful arched bridge in the central garden around which the main buildings were laid out.

Shinsou arrived by sedan along with a number of supplies from the Imperial Household Department that Lady Hizashi had asked for and been unhesitatingly granted, Shinsou one mere item among the inventory. 

It was a surprise to feel as strongly as Shinsou did setting foot for the first time upon the land that had been the seat of the great Aizawa Clan for longer than Shinsou’s spirits had been in their mountain shrine. The dark tiled roofs blended against the darkening night sky littered with stars, already evening by the time Shinsou completed the day-long trip from the Forbidden City.

Shinsou could understand why this place had been an impenetrable military fortress back when the wars for these lands were still being fought. It sat high up on a natural hill, bordered by forests and overlooking the fertile river-fed lands around them, safe from the inevitable threat of floods. The whole complex was big enough to serve as a refuge for most of the surrounding population when the occasion called, as there was a large paved forecourt that had been the training base of the Aizawa armies once upon a time, made up from lesser noble families who had served the Aizawas for generations. 

Now with the need for home armies behind them, soldiers went instead to the farthest reaches of the Empire for vanity campaigns and the courtyard was empty, though on occasion it would be used to build a temporary stage when Lady Hizashi was disposed to opera again. It had been some years since this inclination had occurred, before the death of Empress Midnight, and though the historic Aizawa Manor household was still managed very well, it had lost a little of its liveliness while the Lord and Lady were in mourning for their dear friend. Not the first they had lost, but the most recent.

Shinsou was collected by a quiet maid who didn’t even introduce herself and taken straight to the most senior attendant, Shiozaki Ibara, who had been with Lady Hizashi at the Emperor’s Palace.

“We live by one rule here,” she told Shinsou with a judgemental attitude that didn’t feel entirely merited. “Keep the Mistress happy.”

“Sounds simple enough,” Shinsou remarked, and didn’t know what to make of the peculiar smirk on Shiozaki’s face as she said it.

“We will find out how you fare on that front,” she replied cryptically, and Shinsou decided to just let it go, not having much patience for the human attachment to double meanings and withholding information just to be smug about it.

The work of an attendant to a Noble Lady was a little different to that of a palace maid, Shinsou discovered, consisting of dressing and caring for their Mistress throughout the day compared to care of the property in which she lived. With a large staff in charge of serving the basic needs of the entire household, it appeared that a personal attendant to Lady Hizashi was a companion moreso than a practical role.

“Lord and Lady Aizawa have already retired for the night, so your services won’t be required until the morning,” Shinsou had been told by Shiozaki, and was surprisingly released onto her own time until she was called upon the next morning.

Rather than a large communal dorm, Shinsou now had a small private room in a staff accommodation building, surrounded by the other female staff who worked around the Manor.

As the dusk fell to darkness, many of the lights were extinguished across the expansive walled complex. Shinsou shed her loathed platform shoes and split toe socks, and even her outer robe that restricted the free swing of her legs. Wrapped in just a light inner robe that shielded her soft human body from the elements, Shinsou stepped out barefoot after dark and explored the slumbering Aizawa Manor. The light of the moon, which would strain the muddled eyes of humans, was more than enough for her to see by, so she could move easily without being caught.

There were many gardens in the Forbidden City that Shinsou had tended to in her time there, but the gardens of Aizawa Manor had not been planted. The trees that stood had always been there, the brook and ponds were fed by natural springs and merely landscaped to enhance their original function. The buildings had grown up around this nature, rather than the nature being artificially brought in once the connection to the land had already been cut, and it made all the difference.

At the edge of the main pond stood the oldest tree of the garden, a gnarled ancient thing, whose spirit warmed when Shinsou put her hand to its bark. Climbing up the trunk into the boughs, shielded by leaves and certain there was no one around to see the secret magic, Shinsou shapeshifted to the form of a fox, leaving her robe concealed in the tree branches as she leapt down to the ground in fox form and felt the earth against all four of her feet once more.

Coming to the edge of the pond, Shinsou dipped down to drink from the cool water, and spent the whole night exploring the place by paw and nose, returning before dawn came to wake the humans for the new day. Shinsou went back to the same tree as a fox and descended a human redressed in the robe she was wearing, if ever discovered able to claim she was just sleeping in the boughs of the tree and didn’t know anything about any fox.

As Shinsou slipped into her new bed to sleep a few hours before her services were to be called upon, she had for the first time since leaving home, the faintest of smiles on her face.

~~~

In the master bedroom of Aizawa Manor, Hizashi was wearing an unconventional piece of jewellery. The temporary pearl necklace, a gift given most lovingly by her husband any night he was there, which was not as many as she'd like. It wasn't Shouta going away that Hizashi minded, but the possibility of him being mortally hurt or dying on the battlefield thousands of miles away. It made the time he was here fraught with the fear of the unknown when he was not, fanning the flames of passion that were rarely quenched before he was called away again.

They had been fucking for hours, a convenient alignment of Shouta making up his absence to his wife and serving his own selfish needs from being away. Lord Aizawa was particularly insatiable, and persistently uninterested in taking on a consort or concubine to lighten the load, so to speak.

"Now will you finally let me sleep?" Hizashi sighed, as if her pleasure hadn't been her husband's sole focus for the majority of the evening, his own release delayed over and over until he could finally hold back no more.

"By all means, sleep," Shouta remarked huskily. "I'll keep going."

Hizashi scoffed, knowing it was all talk and that he would be asleep within minutes of cumming as he always was.

"Mind that you clean me up after if you do, I have a new girl starting tomorrow," Hizashi said lazily. "It might be too much if her first job is cleaning your cum off my tits."

Shouta smirked at the thought, but did clean his wife up with a few wipes of a warm wet cloth before he lay down and let the soothing blanket of fucked out sleep take him. "New girl?" he echoed fully, already slipping under.

"Yes, her name is Shinsou Hitoshi," Hizashi remarked casually, not that she expected Shouta to remember. She got through attendants like snack food, and Shouta rarely took the time to know them personally.

Little did she know the only words that sunk with Shouta into a deep, primal sleep were Shinsou Hitoshi.

~~~

Shinsou was rudely woken far too soon by Shiozaki, who demanded Shinsou get up, wash and dress, despite Shinsou thinking she was plenty clean from swimming in the garden pond last night as a fox and already had perfectly functional robes from the Forbidden City.

“Those are not the robes of Aizawa Manor staff, it would be an insult for you to wear them here,” Shiozaki lectured while roughly brushing Shinsou’s hair, an experience Shinsou thoroughly hated. New robes were laid out for her even more luxurious than the last, and Shinsou quickly came to understand that the attendants of Noble Ladies were expected to dress well too, as Lady Hizashi needed to have the most beautiful attendants of all.

“A flower looks best surrounded by other blooms, does it not?” Shiozaki declared before hurting Shinsou with another tight hairpin too close to her scalp. Shinsou’s new garment was a pastel grey, embroidered with a beautiful crane in one corner, and was the most expensive thing she'd been given to wear by far, which mostly increased Shinsou’s stress level about damaging it in some way.

Shiozaki reported that Lady Hizashi had slept in some of the morning, and her own bathing and dressing was already being attended to by other servants. Shinsou’s first task therefore was to bring her new Mistress a cup of tea on a small tray as she sat in one of the halls of the main Aizawa Manor building, which seemed easy enough.

Shinsou had finally gotten comfortable enough walking on the tall platform sandals these humans were obsessed with to carry the small tray with the single porcelain teacup without wobbling. This room was defined as an entrance hall, but acted in effect as Lady Hizashi’s office, being the first place visitors would go upon being allowed to enter the walled Aizawa Manor through one of the gates, and there were a lot of visitors on any given day.

As the general manager of the Aizawa Clan’s household, a not undaunting task considering the legacy they carried as one of the oldest clans across the Empire, Lady Hizashi took a strongly hands on approach to the day to day affairs. Or as her husband more fondly termed it, control freak.

Hizashi had a formal study with a desk that she used on occasion, but she told people what to do far more often than wrote anything down, so operated far more efficiently from the entrance hall, stationed to be the first face an outsider saw. It made sense, when Shinsou thought about it, that Lady Hizashi took special care to have beautiful people accompanying her, to further wow visitors with something beyond mere riches. Things could be bought, but beauty could be borne from the harshest circumstances of all, like the jagged rocky mountain faces that begot Shinsou.

Hizashi watched Shinsou approach with an eye as sharp as the talons of a diving kestrel, waiting for her to get all the way to the side table where the cup of tea was to be laid before remarking, “You walk like a donkey.”

Shinsou’s first instinct was to ‘spill’ the tea on her new mistress out of spite, but managed to suppress this urge and answer stiffly, “I apologise, Lady Hizashi.” The silly platform shoes these human women wore would get a person killed in the mountains, where the terrain was challenging enough even when Shinsou was on all four legs and covered in fur, much less wrapped up in expensive silks shuffling around on ridiculous tapered wooden soles. But that could not be disclosed, so Shinsou just said, “I am still getting used to things here.”

Like having to wear her human hair twisted up tightly on top of her head and pinned with hard ornamental pins that pulled at her scalp, the pain fraying Shinsou’s nerves before she’d even really started attending to Lady Hizashi. 

Shiozaki might have been onto something when she expressed doubt over whether Shinsou could do this, because she wasn’t sure she could either.

“Ah yes, my little mountain wildflower,” Hizashi remarked melodically, each careful twist of her voice like the song of a bird. She was wearing a red robe today in contrast to the green one she wore when Shinsou first met her, both equal in artistry and beauty of the embroidered bird motif that flew across Hizashi’s shiny silk robe. Shinsou realised all of a sudden that they matched, the crane on Shinsou’s grey robe and birds on Hizashi's, as well as Shinsou's purple hair complimenting Hizashi’s golden blonde hair twisted into even more elaborate and beautiful turns and decorated with jewelled ornaments.

It gave Shinsou the image of being set alongside Hizashi like flowers in a vase, living things cut from the earth and placed as objects to be admired before they were engaged as people. But she could recognise this was a power Lady Hizashi chose to wield, using the weapons of her sex.

“I don’t suppose you can do much, can you?” Hizashi continued with the same rather demeaning intonation. As if to beat in the offence like striking a cane across Shinsou's back she listed off, “Recite poetry? Paint? Sing? Play zither?”

What pointless skills, Shinsou thought, when she could hunt and kill and steal what belonged to her by right.

“No,” Shinsou answered coolly, wondering if should get herself dismissed and be sent back to the Forbidden City, closer towards her ultimate goal really, even if she might find valuable clues here considering General Aizawa had been the one to bring The Tip of The High Mountain into the heart of the Empire.

“So what can you do?” Hizashi invited, looking up sharply at Shinsou, who was standing before her without ‘remembering’ to kneel or bow, since Shinsou had no inclination to do either, making it more of a refusal than a case of forgetting.

With the same fine precision as Hizashi’s sharp reflexes, Shinsou swooped like a hawk with a single word, said powerfully.

“Learn.”

Hizashi’s face was blank for a moment, then relaxed, a twitch of amusement gracing her mouth for the bat of an eyelash. 

“And that’s all you need, isn’t it?” Lady Hizashi purred, flashing that blink and miss it smile again. “Clever girl.”

~~~

Lord Aizawa was taking a stroll in the central garden when he laid eyes on his wife’s new attendant for the first time, and he almost walked straight into the pond. Such was his distraction to lay a foot so far from boundaries he'd had memorised since birth, growing up in Aizawa Manor his whole life, yet nearly falling headlong into the pond among the carp.

Shouta knew it was Shinsou Hitoshi not because his wife had told him about taking a new attendant and the girl’s name, but because he recognised on a level impossible to explain that it was Shinsou Hitoshi. A primitive thought had darted across the back alleys of great General’s mind and told him with great certainty, in a language of pure emotion, oh no, or maybe not again, it was hard to tell for the bolt of knowledge was gone as fast as it came. What he knew was that his gut twisted in on itself and he forgot the paths he’d known all his life, narrowly saving himself from tumbling into the central pond.

Lord Aizawa steadied himself by resting a hand on the old tree on the water’s edge and felt every hair stand on the back of his neck. He watched his wife walking with the slender teenager just behind her along one of the walkways bordering the central garden. It was an exaggeration to say that the earth stood still, but it was instead as if Shouta instead became aware of its movement, a great sway of dizzying momentum, as if he felt their motion through the cosmos from a single point that stood still.

Hizashi’s newest attendant walked neatly beside her mistress, if a little unfamiliar with the footwear, wearing a beautiful grey robe that made the pureness of her lavender hair stand out all the more, no doubt his wife’s doing. As with all Hizashi’s attendants, Shinsou had been turned out like a beautiful little doll, but that was simply the packaging. It was Shinsou’s face that Aizawa knew, somehow, the almond eyes with the slight darkness underneath from the tenderness of her skin, youthful round cheeks with a hint of delicate cheekbones.

Aizawa stood completely still and did nothing but stare as they walked by, not noticing him. Never before had General Aizawa Shouta, Lord of Aizawa Manor, looked at a person and known all at once that they were pure trouble.

He raised this concern with his wife at the earliest opportunity, which was unfortunately not until that evening, after their servants for the night had retired and the two of them were alone at last. 

Shinsou had been accompanying Hizashi all afternoon, Shouta glimpsing them several more times, and not necessarily feeling the same spark that had awakened the first time he saw Shinsou, but each subsequent viewing had reinforced his doubts, such that he had no concerns in the slightest at the first words out of his mouth being, “I don’t have a good feeling about that Shinsou Hitoshi.”

“What?” Hizashi replied indifferently, more focused on undressing than her husband’s complaint. They could let the servants undress them but it took the fun out of getting naked in front of her husband, most of the time.

“That new attendant you’ve taken on,” Shouta said. “There’s something off about her.”

“What?” Hizashi repeated mirthfully, a smile and laugh not yet breaking the surface like a bubble in water. “You haven’t even met her.”

Somehow this fact felt wrong to Shouta, despite him knowing that it was true. He had not met Shinsou Hitoshi. Yet?

“You took her from the Forbidden City, didn’t you?” Shouta recalled. “Give her back.”

Hizashi laughed openly now, sliding the next layer of her robe off and noting her husband’s lack of reaction, uncommon since he was often already between her legs already by this point in the evening. “What’s gotten into you, Shouta?”

“I don’t know,” he grunted, slowly starting to undress as well, but with a sluggish quality, as if his body remembered the motions while his mind was elsewhere.

“My attendants are my business, I’ll have you know,” Hizashi reminded him, lowering the upper part of her last layer of underclothes theatrically, pleased to see that exposing her bare breasts still managed to draw her husband’s distraction.

“I guess so,” Shouta replied halfheartedly, the feeling about Shinsou going away as he recalled that he could be doing more pleasurable things right now than complaining about some new attendant Hizashi had taken on.

But even then, in the bottom of his gut there was the lingering sensation that there was more to Shinsou Hitoshi than met the eye.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Lord Aizawa's disapproval of his wife's newest attendant only made Hizashi more determined to take Shinsou on. What fun could she have if not defying her husband's order? Lots of things, technically, but that didn't diminish Lady Hizashi's satisfaction with drawing Shouta's ire for her continuing choice of handmaid. Lord Aizawa's objection to Shinsou didn’t diminish, and in fact grew stronger the more Shinsou was around.

Shinsou felt the familiar return of an obsessive stare following her around Aizawa Manor, much like General Todoroki had done, but she had given Aizawa no reason at all to suspect her as deeply as he did. And he did suspect her. Nothing Shinsou did was without a double intention Shouta could read into, lobbying his wife more than once that she was bringing an untrustworthy person close to her.

Hizashi relished the conflict this brought to her marriage, a little spice for their fifteen years together, and made sure to be all the closer with Shinsou for it.

The one thing Shinsou had said she could do was learn, and this capacity she demonstrated in abundance. Whatever task Shinsou's new mistress gave to her, Shinsou could master it with seeming ease, though in truth Shinsou's opinion was that these humans were very easily impressed. Learn a few poems and plays, figure out plucking a tune from a zither and Shinsou was a genius, apparently.

Shinsou’s capacity to memorise text was particularly amusing to her mistress, which for Shinsou was no stretch when recollection of the oral history stretching for centuries of the spirits in their shrine was much more complicated, but perhaps it was another of the limitations of these humans to forget things so easily. Shinsou could read well enough but was not very proficient in writing, which Hizashi encouraged her to practise, though more often Lady Hizashi would give literature to her new attendant to read and then recite.

Lady Hizashi’s latest assignment for Shinsou was called The Fragrant Companions, a story whose subject matter Shinsou found quite interesting. It concerned two human women falling madly in love with each other, and scheming to both be married to the same man in order to be together.

Hizashi was a strict mistress, judgemental and unforgiving of small errors, so maintaining her satisfaction was in fact a difficult challenge to endure. Shinsou made mistakes, but she was good at finding and correcting them before Hizashi did, and if they were discovered, their already being mended kept her in her Lady’s good graces.

Shinsou learned to brush Hizashi’s long golden hair without breaking a single strand or tugging on her scalp, a useful skill she was able to apply to herself to spare Shiozaki’s brutality with a comb. Shinsou learned how to apply Hizashi’s makeup, and how to dress and undress her, carefully placing each priceless stretch of fabric and fastening it in place. 

The only time Lady or Lord Aizawa did not want any help with undressing was when they went to bed at the end of each day, which was a little unconventional Shinsou could tell by the way the other servants talked about it, but their master and mistresses' wills were not to be tested. As a close attendant of Lady Hizashi, Shinsou heard the two of them occasionally behind closed doors, and also learned how to cover the marks on Hizashi’s skin that would appear overnight, crude impressions of Lord Aizawa’s mouth on her neck and down her chest.

It could have been paranoia, but Shinsou started to believe Aizawa went to special effort to mark his wife when Shinsou was attending to her the following morning, as the other attendants who still carried out the task on other days said they rarely encountered such things, yet when it was Shinsou’s chore Hizashi’s decolletage would always be scattered with the bruising kisses like fallen petals. 

One morning some weeks after Shinsou joined Aizawa Manor, she was called by her Mistress to enter their bedroom in the morning. This was nothing special, it being usual for Lord Aizawa to have risen early and departed before his wife, but instead Shinsou was confronted with the sight of them both completely naked in bed together, only a silky blanket twisted between them providing some minor cover of their most private parts. Shinsou’s eyes widened and she quickly turned away, certain that no good could come from looking on them any longer.

“What orders do you have for me?” Shinsou asked awkwardly, trying not to flinch as she heard the subtle noises of movement and a pitchy sound from Hizashi.

It was not Hizashi who replied, but her husband, his voice coarse and grating in accusation in the form of a single word, “Disrespectful.”

“Yes, where are your manners, Shinsou?” Hizashi teased. “You must bid your mistress and master good morning before you ask what I want to do with you.”

Losing her patience with this strange spectacle all at once, Shinsou decided to give them what they apparently wanted, since humans seemed to love their little games of humiliation so much.

Shinsou whipped around to face the two of them without fear, since she was more comfortable naked than clothed as it happened, and saw that Lord Aizawa had slung an arm around his wife’s waist and drawn her to him.

Looking right at them without a flicker of a reaction, not embarrassed as she ought to feign for her position, Shinsou got to her knees and bowed far more extensively than she needed to or usually would, lowering her forehead all the way to the ground and back up, so that she was staring at the two of them in bed at almost eye level.

“Good morning, Lord and Lady Aizawa,” Shinsou performed hyperbolically, being trained by Hizashi already in performative speaking and overemphasising her humility. “What orders do you have for your servant today?”

“We are hungry,” Hizashi replied, smirking between the fearless girl in front of them and her husband’s arousal gaining firmness at her back. Shouta swore that he disliked Shinsou thoroughly, but that was only his word for it, and he had never been the soundest interpreter of his own emotions. “Instruct the kitchen to prepare some snacks for us and bring them here.”

Shinsou bowed again, replying, “I will do so at once, Lady Hizashi,” and dared, for a moment, to make direct eye contact with Shouta, who as always glared at her with a burning great intensity.

Shinsou noticed his arm tighten around Hizashi’s waist, dark hair on the back of his forearm folded across Hizashi’s paler skin, and if the great General Aizawa meant this as a display of possession, Shinsou wondered what on earth he felt the need to demonstrate it to her for.

Getting up and leaving expediently, Shinsou scowled once she was out of the room and resolved to think no more of it, leaving them to whatever strange game Lord and Lady Aizawa wanted to play. 

~~~

“Was that necessary?” Shouta questioned his wife, grunting in the back of his throat as she pressed on his stirring arousal.

“You tell me,” Hizashi retorted. “I wanted to see what she would do.”

“She’s unruly, forgetting her manners and acting sarcastic with us,” Shouta grumbled, but it turned into a groan as Hizashi’s hand moved behind her and gave his cock a firm squeeze. 

“So would you care to explain this?” Hizashi teased, turning around and draping over her husband’s battleworn body. It was in her nature to meddle with things, and Shouta’s campaign against Shinsou did not seem proportional in the least, so naturally Hizashi would find ways to test what was really going on.

“It happens every morning,” Shouta excused, being held and stroked now in Hizashi’s palm. It was familiar and comforting, if not for the sight of Shinsou looking right at him burned on the inside of his eyes. “Ah,” he panted, giving a particularly potent throb and yearning for the moment Hizashi would climb onto him and they would race to finish before someone came back with their breakfast. Would it be Shinsou, he wondered, mind foggy and confused as his guttural instinct to keep thoughts of Shinsou away fought with the sexual satisfaction being rendered to him in increasing earnest.

“Just admit it, Shouta,” Hizashi whispered over his mouth, not delivering a kiss or increasing the speed of her hand to relieve him any further. “You say you don’t like her, but I don’t believe you.”

“I don’t trust her, it’s different,” he corrected, and it wasn’t a dislike of Shinsou specifically, but the feelings provoked whenever he was around her, telling him instinctively that something dangerous was nearby.

“Who says we have to trust her?” Hizashi replied, taking mercy on her husband by straddling him at last, though without yet settling him inside her. “Perhaps I’ll get a taste of her first, hm?”

The images flashed wildly through his mind, and before he knew it, all Shouta could think of was his all consuming lust.

“Hizashi,” he delivered with a strained wince, uncertain of how he’d become so crazed and desperate in such a short space of time. He gripped her thighs spread over him and urged her into place. “Please.”

“Well, husband,” Hizashi purred, sliding herself over him in anticipation of settling snug, “since you asked so nicely…”

~~~

Shinsou arranged for someone else to deliver Lord and Lady Aizawa’s breakfast snacks, then made use of every trick she’d learned since leaving home to be kept away from either Aizawa for the rest of the day, and the day after that. 

Shinsou did not care about seeing them in a state of marital intimacy, only the irritation of not understanding why she had been made to see it.

The longer she lived as a human, the more convinced Shinsou was that they made no sense at all.

As an excuse to be alone awhile, Shinsou returned to study of the latest play Hizashi had assigned her to learn. As she leafed through songs of sapphic adoration in The Fragrant Companions, Shinsou dared to wonder what her mistress was really planning.

~~~

“Shinsou,” summoned Shiozaki an evening some days later, when the tensions of the previous interaction had settled down to more of a simmer. “The mistress requests you to help her bathe.”

“Oh,” Shinsou replied, having helped her mistress with this task before, but not since whatever it was that happened had happened a short while ago. "Right now?"

"Does Lady Hizashi request things at any other time?" Shiozaki said aloofly, so Shinsou got up and took herself over to the bathhouse, a private building attached to the main house for the exclusive use of Lord and Lady Aizawa. 

Lady Hizashi was already in the bath when Shinsou arrived, which meant that someone else had been helping her before that point, and now she deliberately chose to switch Shinsou onto the task. Shinsou also couldn't help but notice the room was already absent of anyone else, Shiozaki merely informing Shinsou of her duty rather than escorting her or supervising in any way. Perhaps as if she had been doing it until that point and been summarily dispatched to send a newer toy to their mistress.

"There you are," Hizashi announced as Shinsou entered, though she wasn't facing the door through which Shinsou came. It demonstrated her absolute faith that if she asked for Shinsou to come help her bathe, no one but Shinsou would dare set foot in the room. "You shouldn't get the nice clothing I gave you wet, so better remove it from your upper body at least."

"Yes Mistress," Shinsou replied dutifully, unfastening her robe and lowering it to hang around her waist. It was quite nice to bear some skin for once, though she supposed many humans in this position might feel uncomfortable.

The bathtub was a beautiful carved wooden creation, varnished and painted on the outside, the water inside warm and heavily fragranced as it swaddled the Mistress of the Manor. 

Hizashi's hair was wet and lay in a long sheet behind her, the golden blonde colour darkened by the water to a burnished bronze. Her calculating eyes met Shinsou's for only a moment before dropping down to Shinsou's exposed chest.

It was only while looking at Hizashi's bare breasts, round with pink nipples raised to a tight pucker from sitting above the water line, that Shinsou gave an ounce of thought to the size of her own in this form. Hizashi's were fuller and somehow more intimidating than hers, but before Shinsou had any longer to dwell on it her mistress ordered, "Get over here and wash me."

Shinsou realised she'd just been standing there also staring at Hizashi’s breasts, and rushed to her chore, sitting down on the short stool already set up by the bathtub, next to which was a side table set out with the many tinctures that were used to preserve Lady Hizashi's enchanting good looks. On a few legendary occasions before she was married, Yamada Hizashi had wowed audiences in male roles under the stage name Present Mic, during her fast and furious stint as an opera singer, and her features could easily go either way. Seeing Hizashi's face without makeup made Shinsou all the more aware that so much of her femininity was painted on, tricks Shinsou could replicate if she wanted to draw even more attention for her looks than she already did, which she currently didn't, but she didn't know what was around the corner and needed to pick up every bizarre human skill around here that she could.

Shinsou picked up an impossibly soft washcloth that was to be used on Hizashi’s porcelain skin, along with a mixture that included purest jasmine flower essence. The smell filled the air as soon as the bottle was opened, mingling with the other fragrances that lifted with steam from the bathwater that rose to midway up Hizashi's ribs and lapped at them, flower petals floating on the surface here and there.

Hizashi sat up and scooped her hair over one shoulder as she leaned forward and presented her back to Shinsou, drawing up her knees to rest on as she settled in the position.

Shinsou had no qualms about touching or washing another person, human bodies still novel to her, having never been so up close and personal to a real one. So she methodically lathered up the washcloth and started rubbing it across Hizashi's back in firm strokes, reminiscent in the slightest with the grooming licks of foxes.

"Mmmm, nice and firm," Hizashi complimented, giving a sigh as she stacked her hands over her knees and rested her face on them, turning to be able to watch Shinsou carry out her task with lazy half lidded eyes. "Have you finished your latest reading?"

Shinsou broke into an amused scoff, and when the air was left silent she felt forced to explain herself, "You're kidding, right?"

This brazenness gave Hizashi a moment's pause, no other servant ever speaking so directly to her before. As if they were two people in isolation to the world and society around them and not bound by its endless rules.

"What would I be kidding about?" Hizashi remarked innocently, eyes with long tinted lashes blinking slowly at the soothing strokes in a circle around her back.

"Asking me about that now," Shinsou remarked indifferently, submerging the washcloth in the water and then dragging it up to the base of Hizashi's neck to squeeze a rinsing cascade of fragranced water down her back. The smell of jasmine was powerful now, along with the warm air coming off the water making Shinsou feel funny, as if this whole thing wasn't quite real.

"I don't know what you mean," Hizashi lilted, though she did in fact know what Shinsou meant. 

"Are we the fragrant companions then?" Shinsou said wryly, adding more jasmine soap to the cloth and waiting as Hizashi uncurled and lay back again in the tub. Unhesitatingly Shinsou reached out and stroked it across her chest, wondering at the firmness and distinctly round shape of her breasts.

"Depends, doesn't it?" Hizashi remarked playfully. "Did we fall madly in love with each other at first sight like they did?"

Shinsou dared to quip, "You did take a liking to me right away."

Hizashi smiled, not denying it because doing so didn't serve her purposes, merely relaxing as Shinsou dunked the cloth again and swished warm water over Hizashi's chest, circling each breast with extra care before the washcloth somehow inexplicably slipped from her fingers.

Shinsou had done very little in the way of touching her human body for anything more than functional purposes, but touching someone else's was much more interesting. She traced the shape of Hizashi's breasts with her fingertips, felt how impossibly smooth and soft her mistress's skin was, and when not stopped or dissuaded in any way, dared to give one a gentle squeeze.

"Done this before, little wildflower?" Hizashi asked temptingly, and Shinsou's head shook. Hizashi's grin widened, like that of the tiger before the pounce. "Go lower," she urged and Shinsou's hand dipped below the water.

With Shinsou's aptitude to learn, she let her mistress guide her hand, and soon her fingers were down between Hizashi's legs coaxing her to pleasure. Shinsou felt the full folds of Hizashi’s pussy, slick and warmer than the surrounding water, and watched her face in fascination as each stroke brought her mistress into greater delight.

Would it feel that good for her too, Shinsou wondered? It felt good when Hizashi finally lifted a hand to break the water's surface and touched Shinsou at all, crudely grabbing one of her breasts to give a teasing pinch, rolling her head to look right at Shinsou and murmur, "Still growing these little things?" 

Shinsou made a noise as Hizashi tweaked her nipple, even less friction of her fingers in a part of her mistress that was conventionally reserved for her Lord. The thought made Shinsou bolder, or more reckless, fuelled by a spiteful memory of Shouta's possessive displays with Hizashi not long ago.

Without thought more refined than revenge, Shinsou put her mouth to Hizashi's neck and sucked it hard, eliciting a lovely moan. Hizashi's fingers fumbled over Shinsou's to steer her into rubbing just the most sensitive part of her more rapidly, bringing her to the edge of climax, only tipping over it when Shinsou's eager mouthing had traversed all the way down to Hizashi's breasts, sucking a nipple while her mistress finally came.

As Hizashi shuddered and subsided, she pushed Shinsou's hand away from her carelessly, slumping down in the tub with a great sigh.

"You can leave now," she informed Shinsou matter of factly, whose indignation showed despite her mistress not paying it the slightest bit of notice.

"That's it?" Shinsou dared to say, but didn't dare to go further by arguing that this was not exactly becoming behaviour of the fragrant companions. If Hizashi meant for Shinsou to fall madly in love with her, lacking reciprocity was not the way to go about it.

"Oh?" Hizashi queried lazily. "You want to be touched too?"

"I didn't say that," Shinsou said evasively, not sure what she was expecting or trying to ask for, but knowing she was being cheated nonetheless.

"Maybe next time, wildflower," Hizashi taunted affectionately, still dismissing Shinsou without returning any favours.

~~~

Since it was Shinsou's duty to care for her mistress's happiness, she wasn't actually owed anything, despite what the headstrong young Shinsou may have thought. Some attendants wouldn't have even wanted such attention, but Shinsou clearly wasn’t one, a thought that Hizashi relished like a delicacy to be savoured and not wasted.

Lady Hizashi waited until a night Shouta was away, attending to matters in the Forbidden City for a day and not to return until the following evening, before she invited Shinsou to attend to her in bed.

"Tonight I will need your help undressing," Lady Hizashi announced simply to Shinsou, who nodded obediently and dodged looks from Shiozaki, who'd been around long enough to presumably know what it meant, whether that was from first or second hand experience.

In truth, Lady Hizashi hated to sleep alone, but it was hard to find the right help in her rather extensive experience. She watched Shinsou set herself to the task of undressing her mistress, and wondered if she'd be able to capture anything more than passing interest, or rarer yet a chance to be considered by her husband. Only the most promising candidates would get anywhere close to interacting with Shouta, and he tended to prefer none of them as much as his wife, making him a rather uncooperative party in the matter of recruiting a concubine.

Shinsou methodically undressed and put away Hizashi's outer robe without an inappropriate touch, careful not to crease or damage the previous clothing she'd only have to tend to later for her mistakes. Once that had been taken care of, for the removal of Hizashi's less precious inner robe Shinsou was markedly more handsy, stroking and groping her mistress inquisitively as she plied the fabric from Hizashi’s body.

"I finished The Fragrant Companions," Shinsou reported over her shoulder with a sultry weight to her voice.

"What did you think?" Hizashi replied, not because she actually gave Shinsou reading material for her opinions in the first place.

"They got what they wanted by the end," Shinsou remarked, unfastening Hizashi's last layer without removing it entirely. "Must be nice."

"Are you alluding to something?" Hizashi teased, turning around to face Shinsou and looking down at the pastel green robe that she'd chosen for her to wear that day. "You're overdressed for it if so."

Shinsou's hands moved quickly to unfasten her own robe, and Hizashi had to laugh at how eager she was. It had been a long time since a servant's self interest stood out so clearly, and while Hizashi heard her husband's disapproving voice in her head saying it was evidence of Shinsou's disobedience, Hizashi found it quite endearing.

"You want me to touch you, little wildflower?" Hizashi asked coquettishly, not helping to undress Shinsou but by all means reaching inside her robes as soon as the outer had been cast off and the inner one was open. Hizashi went straight between Shinsou's legs of course, not being one for beating around the bush when she could have her hand in it so to speak. "Feel your petals?"

Shinsou made a small noise, stifled by her tightly sealed lips, but they could be loosened soon enough.

It was onto Shinsou’s mouth in this moment that Hizashi sealed a kiss, as if to bottle her gasp of elation. After a moment of pressure between them Hizashi lifted again.

"So wet already," Hizashi complimented in the way of a mistress addressing her servant, as if Shinsou's physiological anticipation in this respect was in fact the correct action. The best attendants anticipated the needs of their mistress, and Shinsou had definitely been held in anticipation.

The marital bed of Lord and Lady Hizashi lay just a few steps away from them, an intimidatingly large and cushioned platform lined with beautiful pillows decorated with shiny embroidered beads and golden tassels. Thought of any significance to their location might have escaped Shinsou if not for the other morning, after seeing, or being shown, actually, husband and wife in bed together both post and pre coitus. Now it seemed an overly perverse piece of orchestra that Shinsou was in the very place they made love while Hizashi guided her by the pussy back onto the bed.

"I'm only showing you how to do this properly so you'll know how to do it to me, so pay attention," Hizashi announced confidently as she settled between Shinsou's legs, kneeling on the floor in an alarming subversion of roles while Shinsou perched on the edge of the bed in wide eyed anticipation.

Hizashi spread Shinsou's pussy with her fingers and looked up at her first, admiring before she moved her mouth in close and ran her tongue over her for the first sweet taste. Shinsou's moan wasn't stifled this time, escaping as the pleasure jolted through her, and she wondered why she hadn't done this sort of thing in human form any sooner.

"So sweet," Hizashi marvelled, Shinsou's pussy tasting unlike any she'd sampled, which was plenty over fifteen years of unsuccessfully trying to find Shouta a second wife, ideally one who could bear him an heir that Hizashi could raise instead of risking her body and life giving birth to any more children of her own. Only their daughter Eri survived still, living safely in the Forbidden Palace being raised happily with the other royal princesses, and with the fortune to be particularly favoured by Prince Izuku. Hizashi’s pick for the Crown Prince, as it happened, but that was just a simple coincidence. Nothing to do with Mitsuki being her bitter rival whatsoever.

"I thought you were going to show me how it's done," Shinsou declared poutily, and with a burst of delighted mischief Hizashi bit her inner thigh.

"Impatient," she scolded, teasing a fingertip around Shinsou's entrance and toying with the idea of shoving deep into her suddenly, taking the girl's virginity roughly in a greedy snatch.

Not just yet, as there was more to be savoured, and Hizashi showed Shinsou in earnest how she wanted to have her pussy eaten. Every clever lick and suck on Shinsou's cute swollen clit until she was shaking uncontrollably around Hizashi’s shoulders.

"Ah, mistress… Hizashi…" Shinsou sighed, her inner robe crumpled around her and the feeling very extremely good. She might have to be shown this more than once to really get it down.

Hizashi finally resisted no longer and penetrated Shinsou with a finger, the way in hot and wet but astonishingly tight, just a single digit permitted to be accepted to barely the knuckle.

Shinsou's back arched and she gave a short yelp, pleasure tearing through her body like a wildfire while Hizashi just blew on the flames.

Lifting her lips only enough to talk, and still brushing over the sensitive slick folds of Shinsou's pussy, Hizashi remarked with her famously critical air, "Tight, aren't you?"

Hizashi brought her thumb to rub side to side over Shinsou's clit, causing her to shudder and gasp ever deeper. It took some effort to push that second finger into Shinsou along with the first, feeling the young girl's inner walls stretch, and Hizashi found herself teasing, "If you can barely take my fingers in this pussy, how would you ever fit my husband's cock?"

Shinsou didn't care what Hizashi was saying meant, just how it made her feel, which was an emotional avalanche, something shifting far beyond Shinsou's lucid comprehension, reaching an apex that left her soaring and then crashing down.

In the freefall after the climax, Shinsou processed what the words really meant. Watching Lady Hizashi grin up from between her legs with that sly malicious edge, still two fingers deep in Shinsou's cunt, she remembered all of a sudden Kendou's warning.

Well, probably too late for that now, Shinsou concluded, and caught her breath for a moment before saying, "I'm sorry, mistress, but I lost concentration. Could you show me again?"

Hizashi nipped Shinsou's thigh again, climbing up onto the bed but remaining between her attendant's legs, "Lucky for you we've got all night, Shinsou, so pay attention this time. I won't let you sleep until you do it perfectly for me."

Moaning as Hizashi put her lips back on Shinsou's pussy again, she warbled a pretty, "I'll do my best, Mistress."

It took until the early hours of the new day, dawn light creeping over the Manor of Lord and more importantly Lady Hizashi, but Shinsou would assuredly master this skill too.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Shinsou’s quest for The Tip of The High Mountain was not exactly furthered by her fucking Lady Hizashi, but it wasn’t actively hampered by it either. Sleeping with her mistress could be said to have an exactly neutral effect on Shinsou’s search for word of the stone’s whereabouts, and it was better work than most other chores, so she carried on doing it.

Granted, it wasn’t as easy to carry out her search for the stolen relic from between Hizashi’s legs in Aizawa Manor, but Lady Hizashi reportedly still visited the Forbidden City from time to time, and was also privy to all kinds of gossip and secrets from the visitors who passed through the manor on a daily basis bringing news or correspondence.

So far there had been no mention of a sacred stone being gifted to the Emperor at all, and if Shinsou hadn't known it was taken it could be easy to believe that no such relic ever came into possession of General Aizawa or the Emperor All Might. Shinsou was fairly certain the stone was not in Aizawa Manor, since she'd inspected most of it and would have sensed if it was near or had ever been kept somewhere for a while, so it had to be in the Forbidden City, the question was just where. 

Shinsou did find out that Lord Aizawa kept diaries, so if she could find some reference to when exactly the stone was presented to Emperor All Might it might narrow down the search through the huge Forbidden City and massive collections of object in the Imperial possession. Any contact could strengthen Shinsou's connection with The Tip of The High Mountain and rejuvenate her spirit power, hopefully making it easier to steal and escape without detection, but first she had to find it.

It was late one night when Lord and Lady Aizawa had gone to bed early that Shinsou dared to enter the General's study alone. She couldn't get in as a human without being noticed, but a fox could jump up and crawl through small spaces no human could ever fit. Once inside the study, foxes couldn't pick things up or go through drawers with such useful things as fingers and opposable thumbs, so Shinsou shapeshifted back to human form and began the search.

Having entered the room as a fox, Shinsou was naturally naked as a human, which wasn't an issue as long as she wasn't caught. She found the diary after a short search, and though her night vision was good, it wasn't quite enough to read with, so Shinsou was forced to risk lighting a lamp and started to flip through the pages of Lord Aizawa's neat notes. It was the diary of a military man through and through, methodical statements with limited information other than various state affairs that were probably of immense value to anyone who wasn't Shinsou. The only thing Shinsou cared about was The Tip of The High Mountain, flipping through the pages to the time of the military campaign and finding with an instinctive scowl an entry that noted the 'discovery' of the stone by scouts and it coming quickly into General Aizawa's possession.

Turning the next few pages, Shinsou found the confirmation she was looking for in the form of a simple entry that the Emperor had ‘liked’ The Tip of The High Mountain, even writing the characters for its name correctly, sending a strange shiver up Shinsou’s spine at seeing the strokes by his brush. This confirmed the date that the stone officially entered the Imperial inventory, so if Shinsou could get access to the records for that day she'd hopefully find out where it was stored as well, since the Emperor's personal collection required careful management and was in near continuous rotation.

Shinsou was so wrapped up in the diary that she didn’t hear the sound of someone coming up to the room until they were already entering it, their footsteps quiet for a human.

"Hm, must have left the light on," mumbled a husky voice from outside the door, Shinsou realising it could only be the owner of this study and there was nowhere to escape to. She could have shapeshifted back into a fox and tried to bolt, but they would probably catch and kill a wild animal found in a place like this as a pest, so Shinsou quickly shut the diary and put it back as she found it, only just enough time to do that and step out from behind the desk before the door opened and she was eye to solitary eye with Lord Aizawa.

Shinsou didn't have the faintest idea of what to do or say to explain this, but Aizawa at first seemed the most concerned with Shinsou's complete lack of clothes, staring intensely at her naked body by the dash of lamplight Shinsou had needed to read the diary.

To Shinsou's relief, Lord Aizawa spoke first, offering a shocked, "Is this how you try to seduce me?"

Sure, Shinsou thought, let’s go with that.

“Yes, I… forgive me, Lord Aizawa,” Shinsou replied awkwardly, considering a bow but thinking that it would be strange to do so while she was butt ass naked, so just bobbed on the spot and said, “I was too forward.” 

“You think?” he retorted as if by reflex, an overly casual and direct response towards someone so far below his station, and whose lack of courtesy had been a gripe of his since Shinsou arrived some months ago in Aizawa Manor.

Sensing an opportunity for escape, Shinsou quickly covered her breasts with one arm and her crotch with the other, not because she had any genuine shame at her nakedness but because she knew it was how she’d be expected to act. If she could just get away with this as a failed seduction attempt, which was truly the farthest thing from her mind, though perhaps not Lord Aizawa’s, who was looking at her like a hungry wolf about now.

“Did my wife put you up to this?” Aizawa demanded suddenly, and Lady Hizashi had most certainly not instructed Shinsou to hide naked in her husband’s study late at night, so Shinsou wasn’t going to get herself in trouble with her mistress for claiming any such thing.

“Not exactly, My Lord, I was mistaken,” Shinsou excused quickly, starting to edge towards the door as if embarrassed from a simple misjudgement.

“Mistaken how?” Aizawa asked, and when Shinsou got a little closer he moved forward suddenly, blocking Shinsou’s escape and backing her against the wall.

In the few moments Shinsou had been spared to string this story together based on Aizawa’s initial assumption, she batted her eyelashes and feigned embarrassment.

“Lord Aizawa often stares at me, so I thought you might like me,” Shinsou confessed with false humility, looking down at the space between them and for the first time feeling the significance of nakedness, her vulnerability by comparison to the simple black robe wrapped around Aizawa’s body, as if he had been naked himself earlier and put something light back on to make this ill timed trip back to his study for some stupid reason.

Lord Aizawa reached a hand to Shinsou's face, setting a single finger under her chin, and something odd happened. Like a ripple on the surface of a lake, the space around them seemed to shift, and Shinsou had the strongest sense that they had somehow been here before.

"You thought I might like you," Aizawa repeated slowly, as if straining somehow, "so you snuck into my study completely naked?"

In the dim light Shinsou could make out every line in his face, the stubble on his chin and plain wrap that covered one eye. He looked at her hard enough with the other, and Shinsou felt particularly defenceless at this moment in time, as if the wolf would just eat her and be done in a few bites.

Shinsou replied meekly, "It was a better plan in my head." Her plan hadn't been to be caught at all, but Aizawa wasn't to know that.

To her surprise he just laughed, a deep chesty sound that made Shinsou's skin tingle.

After what felt like an age, Aizawa stepped back and muttered a raw, "Go."

Shinsou didn't need to be told twice, fleeing as fast as her bare feet could take her.

~~~

Alone in his study once more, Shouta leaned an arm against the wall where Shinsou had been and released a ragged, confused breath.

Never mind what Shinsou was thinking, what was he thinking?

Under any circumstance, if it were anyone else, Shouta would have dismissed a servant on the spot for doing something as ambitious as stripping naked and waiting to be discovered by him. Especially without his wife's permission, such a bold social climber would be cut off at the roots, and yet Shouta had just let Shinsou go.

Worse yet, letting Shinsou go was the only thing he could force himself to do over other, much baser urges. When Shouta first recognised the Shinsou beside his desk, the only thought in the decorated General's head had been bending her over that desk and shoving his cock in her whether she was ready for it or not. The strength of the urge frightened him, never before experiencing a sexual impulse that strong and clear for someone he barely knew.

Even if it didn't feel as if he barely knew Shinsou, especially when Shouta got close to her and still his mind was plagued by thoughts of giving into the urge and fucking her against the wall. As if he already knew what it felt like, how it'd look when he pulled out and his seed spilled messily from Shinsou's eager holes.

Shouta could have fucked Shinsou then and there, let the seduction be successful, if not for the knowledge that Hizashi would lose her shit, especially once Shinsou confirmed it was nothing to do with her. Shouta wouldn't have put the scheme past his wife, so it was a bit of a disappointment to tell the truth. Alongside his wife's wrath was Shouta's undiminished mistrust of Shinsou and whatever scheme she was trying to pull by seducing him, as the voice in his gut reminded him at all times that Shinsou Hitoshi was nothing but trouble.

Taking a few minutes to calm himself, the raging in his blood stirring him in ways he wasn’t proud of, Shouta returned to the bedroom where Hizashi was not yet entirely asleep.

However, she woke up fully when Shouta announced without ceremony, “Your attendant just tried to seduce me.”

“What?” Hizashi snapped, lifting her head and furrowing her brow at him. “Which one?”

“Shinsou,” Shouta answered as if it needed to be questioned, since none of Hizashi’s other attendants would dare to try such a thing. “She was waiting naked in my study.”

“WHAT?” Hizashi belted as she bolted upright, Shouta flinching from the shrillness of her shout before he awkwardly nodded. 

“I didn’t do anything, I just let her go,” he offered without justifying why he didn’t punish her for the indiscretion. Shouta knew that if he had tried to punish Shinsou in that moment, it would have certainly involved putting his cock in any number of her holes, and that wasn’t really a punishment, was it? “I asked if it was your idea and she said no.”

“It certainly fucking wasn’t,” Hizashi retorted, scowling as she accused, “You just let her go?”

He nodded again meekly, reluctant to explain exactly why he spared Shinsou for further infuriating her. “Your attendants are your business, as I recall,” he pointed out gruffly, and Hizashi gave a curt nod.

“I’ll see to it that she gets exactly what she deserves.”

~~~

Shinsou wasn't sure what to expect after the narrowly averted disaster of being caught naked in Lord Aizawa’s study, but it wasn't for Lady Hizashi to walk up and slap her in the face in broad daylight the very morning after.

Hizashi's palm stung on Shinsou's cheek, shocked to be struck in public out of blue sky nowhere, Shiozaki nearby among others as Shinsou had just been walking one of the pathways around Aizawa Manor in the morning trying to lay low.

"You dare to offer yourself to my husband?" Hizashi spat bitingly, and, Shinsou supposed, at least they all solidly believed that was what she'd been trying to do.

"I thought it was what you wanted?" Shinsou insinuated lowly, because the occasions in which Hizashi had talked about 'training' her for Lord Aizawa were frequent enough, usually while trying to fit her whole fist in Shinsou's cunt, something she’d yet to get anywhere near close to, but oh, she kept trying.

Hizashi slapped her again, backhand across the other cheek, and was clearly very very angry, but whether it was because Shinsou tried to fuck Lord Aizawa, or just that she tried to fuck someone other than Lady Hizashi remained to be seen.

"After everything I've done for you," Hizashi seethed, and when Shinsou had the lack of discretion to snort at this, she venomously bit, "What?"

"Nothing, just thinking about everything I've done for you," Shinsou replied quietly, knowing this wasn't how a servant ought to conduct herself in front of her mistress, but already having realised that if she got dismissed from Aizawa Manor then she'd probably get sent back to the Forbidden City, so it could be said that getting spectacularly fired was actually a step in the right direction.

"Were you raised by wolves up in those mountains?" Hizashi said cruelly, and Shinsou couldn't help but scoff again.

"Not quite," she quipped.

The next time Hizashi attempted to slap Shinsou, which had now become tiresome, Shinsou lifted a single finger to stop her making contact with her face, and that one finger was more than enough.

“How dare you raise a hand to me,” Hizashi scolded, and Shinsou rolled her eyes.

“Just a finger, Mistress,” she said pleasantly, and as if she truly meant every word explained, “I was worried you might hurt your delicate hand if you struck me any more.”

Hizashi smiled, and turned her palm over to brush the back of her knuckles over the smarting stung pinkness of Shinsou’s already slapped cheek. But her voice was pure malice as she delivered, “Sweet talk won’t save you now, Shinsou.”

“The thought never crossed my mind,” Shinsou assured Lady Hizashi. “If you wish for me to leave your service then I understand, as I made a serious misjudgement.”

“Leave?” Hizashi chuckled, lowering her hand while Shiozaki looked what could only be described as shit eatingly happy. “Before I’ve finished punishing you?”

“Punishing?” Shinsou trailed off, it occurring to her all at once that Hizashi might have worse things in mind than firing her.

“Go to my study and kneel,” Hizashi ordered, and Shinsou had been so confident of being dismissed for this offence that she didn’t have a backup plan other than doing as she was told.

“Kneel?” Shinsou echoed. “For how long?”

“Until I get there,” Hizashi answered aloofly, and swatted Shinsou away with her hand while also nodding to a guard. “Go with her and make sure that she does it.”

“Yes, Lady Hizahshi,” answered the guard with steely grey hair and stoic demeanour, silently marching Shinsou over to Hizashi’s formal office. Not the entrance hall that was her acting seat of power, but a large empty room dominated by a desk that showed few signs of use, and in front of which Shinsou had to kneel and just… wait there.

It was part of Hizashi’s punishment, she understood, but decided that things were only punishments if Shinsou chose them to be. Why not kneel for hours in an almost empty room? There were worse things she could be doing.

For now.

~~~

Many leagues away behind the walls of the Forbidden City, Emperor All Might faced a problem. A not uncommon problem since his two most promising sons had come of age.

“Royal Father, I want to lead the second banner army for the Imperial Hunt,” Prince Katsuki demanded, and his mother had been lobbying the Emperor for as much every night he visited her for a month already.

“Unacceptable,” coolly declared Prince Tomura, of the Palace Shigeraki in the Forbidden City. A prince of the first rank, meaning one of Toshinori’s brothers who was not selected as heir and managed to survive the various upheavals and assassination attempts that came with any transfer of power. He was calculating and clever, and more importantly, the biological son of Empress Dowager Nana, unlike Toshinori, who had been raised by her from a young age after his biological mother died, a lower ranking concubine in his father’s imperial harem. The brothers were close, but the relationship could be strained at times.

“Prince Tomura speaks correctly,” agreed Prince Izuku, with his own low ranking concubine mother, and who reminded the Emperor very much of himself many decades ago. “It would be improper for you to command the second banner army over a prince of the first rank.”

“It is not unprecedented, and I will never be able to prove myself as a military leader if I am not given the opportunity,” Prince Katsuki argued, and the subtext was of course clear for all to see. When Toshinori was made Crown Prince, he was allowed to command armies on ceremonial occasions such as the Imperial Hunt above other princes of high rank, and Prince Katsuki of course believed his name was already carved on the throne.

Toshinori looked at his brother, untidy grey hair and chapped lips, eyes that had suffered many blows in their time. “It is your honour, Tomura,” he said calmly. “You have led the second banner army for the Imperial Hunt for many years now.”

“It's true, Royal Brother,” Tomura replied, but there was an air of the calculating in his tone. “However, my health is not how it used to be, as you know, so perhaps I would consider stepping aside for someone else to lead this year.” Prince Katsuki was already celebrating when Tomura cut him off with a crisp, “however, I think that I should choose my substitute, shouldn’t I?”

“This sounds fair to me,” the Emperor said, wondering what scheme Tomura might have, or if he simply wanted to get under Prince Katsuki’s skin a little. “Who would be your substitute?”

“I cannot determine such a grand matter so easily,” said Prince Tomura, looking at the other royals in the room with a sickly smile. “I shall need to test the princes, I think.”

Prince Izuku hurriedly bowed before them, and said, “I am honoured by the offer, Prince Tomura of the first rank, but I cannot accept this generosity. May you test my brother Prince Katsuki for this task.”

“No, no, Prince Izuku,” Tomura chided. “I must test you both, it is the only way.” He flicked a glance at Prince Katsuki and said, “We cannot allow your royal brother to simply have his way by throwing a tantrum, can we?”

“I didn’t!” Katsuki spat, before hearing himself and realising he would only prove the point, and corrected into a bow of his own and stiff, “I accept this arrangement honourably, Prince Tomura.”

Looking back to Toshinori, Tomura asked, “Now, how may I properly test the military capability of these young princes?”

“Replying to Prince Tomura of the first rank, you could consider sending for General Aizawa,” came a voice from the back of the room, where General Todoroki Shouto had been stood quietly as the representative of his father, High General Enji preferring to send his son to attend to the more everyday matters of the Emperor’s court these days. He was still involved in these everyday matters, naturally, but through the tool of his son’s presence.

“Is that so, General Todoroki?” Tomura answered coyly. “What is your reasoning for summoning General Aizawa away from Aizawa Manor?”

“General Aizawa is fair and honest, and furthermore, while I was accompanied by General Aizawa on our latest campaign, I learned the extensive training techniques he uses with his men to ensure they meet the highest standards and discipline,” General Todoroki explained. “I believe many of these techniques could be passed onto other parts of our military and improve our martial power even more. Perhaps if General Aizawa was summoned from the Manor, he could take the princes on an excursion and demonstrate these techniques to them?”

“And the prince who masters them the best will lead the second banner army?” Prince Tomura suggested with an inkling of a smirk. “Yes, I like this plan.” Turning to the Emperor, he said, “With my Royal Brother’s approval, of course.”

Toshinori nodded, knowing that his cousin would be likely annoyed at her husband being called to the Forbidden City on such petty manners, but since it was not deploying Aizawa to the battlefield, her anger might be contained.

If General Aizawa was not to be sent to the battlefield anymore, as Lady Hizashi persistently lobbied, then moving him to a position of training and passing on his great military skill would be a sensible process to begin.

“Very well,” Emperor All Might settled, decreeing in a fixed tone, “Call for General Aizawa.”

~~~

It was hours before Lady Hizashi finally came to call on Shinsou, who had been left to kneel in her mistress’s study for all that time, an experience that would become increasingly uncomfortable and even painful.

Or, it probably would’ve, were Shinsou’s body not made of different and more resilient stuff than any ordinary human body, though for functional purposes she did have the same structure and composition of a human. All the muscles and bones and nerves were there, organs and biological parts and sensations that went with them, they’d just been around for longer, and had been lots of different things for different periods of time since the original coalescence of intangible energies that created a newborn spirit a few decades ago or so. Time passed differently as a young spirit, and became more consistent when taking human form and living among them.

This wasn’t to say that Shinsou was entirely comfortable from kneeling so long, certainly stiff, annoyed, and aching a little at the knees by the time Lady Hizashi finally came to deal with her. The guard stationed to make sure Shinsou didn’t leave didn’t pose much threat had kept quiet the whole time, and she considered overpowering him and hot footing it back to the Forbidden City herself, but Shinsou’s gut was against abandoning her cover and making a break for it so soon. Not without the certainty that she could land on her feet again and still find The Tip of The High Mountain.

Irritating or not, Lady Hizashi was the cousin of the Emperor, and Shinsou knew that when her mistress chose to visit the Forbidden City there would be many more places she could go that Shinsou had been unable to as a humble palace maid. If Shinsou had learned anything in her time living in this curious human society, it was that rank and influence were powerful forces in their world, and she would be wise to pursue the accumulation of both.

Shinsou had also contrived of the idea to shapeshift to a male human form and disguise himself as a palace eunuch like Monoma, but it would raise questions just turning up out of nowhere, especially looking like a maid known to many who’d recently disappeared. So Shinsou had concluded it would be unwise to lose her current cover story and position on the unknown promise of something else.

In short, Shinsou needed to stay on as Hizashi’s attendant a little longer, if her mistress would have her.

“Have you reflected on your actions?” Lady Hizashi directed at Shinsou as she finally entered her formal office, dismissing the guard with a wave of her hand.

“Yes, mistress,” Shinsou recited dully, more bored than anything and hopeful to get off her knees. “I am willing to be punished for my mistake.”

“That’s good to hear,” Hizashi replied, walking around Shinsou slowly and then coming to stand at the edge of the desk Shinsou was kneeling a little way in front of, “because I’m definitely going to punish you.”

Shinsou caught the double intention in Hizashi’s tone like a fragrance in the air, recognising with a simmering curiosity that this would be punishment, but also something else.

“Thank you, mistress,” Shinsou said without thinking too clearly, mimicking what she had heard and observed from other servants in obedience and humility.

Hizashi smiled, indicating this was a good response to give, and said with a feline grin, “Take off your robes.”

Shinsou kept her face deadpan as she followed orders and disrobed with practised efficiency, much better and quicker at all the specific steps and ties to undo in quick sequence now she had to do them several times a day sometimes, if her mistress so desired.

Shinsou’s mistress was reaching around the desk that wasn’t used for any kind of work as far as Shinsou had ever seen, all Lady Hizashi’s business carried out from her greeting hall, and from behind it withdrew a long polished cane, artisanal in its fashioning with embellishments on the handle Shinsou spotted before being wrapped firmly in Hizashi’s palm.

Shinsou winced a little at the change of weight from movement on her aching knees, but it was a bearable kind of grudge, and surely denied Lady Hizashi some satisfaction.

“Sore?” Hizashi asked aloofly.

“Not really,” Shinsou answered dully, stripped naked and resolved to take whatever punishment her mistress should decide to dole out to her, but that didn’t mean she had to perform any particular show of remorse.

Shinsou hadn’t actually tried to seduce Aizawa, but if she had, it would have only been because of Hizashi anyway. Anyone would believe the thought of Aizawa fucking Shinsou turned Hizashi on, since she mentioned it nearly every time she had her fingers in Shinsou’s cunt, practically pavlovian training Shinsou to associate those timely references with orgasm.

“Bend over the desk,” Hizashi ordered, giving a brisk slice of the cane through the air and hearing it cut with a smile of satisfaction.

Shinsou obliged, and got up to hop and lay herself over the pointlessly large desk, a nice relief from being on her knees for so long, and allowing her lower half to dangle loose from the edge, bare feet not even skimming the floor.

“How many strokes for trying to seduce your mistress’s husband?” Hizashi asked the air before she sliced it again, standing and turning to face Shinsou from the side.

Before Shinsou could answer, Hizashi whisked the tip of the cane against the back of Shinsou’s calf and distracted her, pausing a moment before being able to amend, “Without your permission.”

Instead of the cane, Hizashi’s hand touched Shinsou next, palm coasting Shinsou’s back and finding just the right spot to exert enough pressure for Shinsou to be pinned should she attempt to thrash or break free.

“Without my permission,” Hizashi repeated austerely, bringing the length of the cane just to touch the back of Shinsou’s thighs and stroking it up and down, tracing the shape of Shinsou’s ass and then returning to the sweetest tender spot where it just started to curve into her legs. “So you know you need it?”

“Yes, mistress,” Shinsou answered obediently, but then just as soon added an insolent, “I got the fucking message.”

It was a moment of pure ecstacy as Hizashi lashed up the cane in indignation and brought it back against Shinsou’s skin, feeling the jolt up her spine at its bite. Anyone could take punishment, but Shinsou also knew how to earn it, and that made it so much more delicious.

Hizashi struck her four more times, then paused to watch the lines rise, a little disappointing actually, and by the last Shinsou barely even flinched.

“Tickles,” Shinsou commented dryly, but that was about all that was dry. Being that she was naked and bent over a desk, Shinsou’s pussy was on show in rather spectacular fashion, and Hizashi could practically taste how wet it was from here, the glisten and few tear tracks that made their way through Shinsou’s dusky violet pubic hair and broke against the inside of her legs.

Lady Hizashi resisted temptation no longer and trailed two fingers through the sopping folds on the hand that carefully held the cane, remarking not so innocently, “You don’t appear to be complaining.”

“Of course not,” Shinsou replied, eyelids fluttering at the different kind of tickle as Hizashi toyed with her but didn’t deliver much in the way of satisfaction. “You didn’t order me to.”

“Clever girl,” Hizashi retorted, moving her hand away to wind up for another strike of the cane. “We’ll see how long you stay clever.”

~~~

Shinsou took more strikes of the cane than Hizashi had ever seen a person take without breaking the skin, her dewy smooth flesh turning a deep plum and swelling from the beating, but not spilling a drop of blood to much amazement. Hizashi abandoned the pursuit in favour of more direct satisfaction long before Shinsou wearied of taking it.

For Shinsou’s part, the pain had become strangely calming after time, taking her to more primal feelings than the day to day human existence usually allowed her to be. Animals dealt in pure pain and pleasure, so it was a very little bit like being a wild fox again, submitted to another with her throat bared and mated with.

Shinsou was riding on Hizashi’s fingers while she rubbed Hizashi’s clit furiously, her mistress close to climax and Shinsou almost there as well. Hizashi lurched there first, cumming greedily with an arch of her back and moving her own hand away from Shinsou completely in the process.

Usually her mistress might only be selfish for a moment and deliver Shinsou from the precipice, but that was before she was caught trying to fuck Aizawa without Hizashi’s permission.

“That will be all for your punishment tonight, I think,” Hizashi declared with the cruelty Shinsou knew all too well, and so close already, Shinsou touched herself in an attempt to get off anyway. “Ah ah,” Hizashi scolded, hand darting to catch Shinsou’s wrist and pulling it away from her swollen throbbing clit. “You’ll have to wait until you get dressed and go back to your room for that, naughty girl.”

Shinsou made only a noise of frustration, Hizashi laughing and scooting aside to start putting her own clothing back into place. She could make Shinsou redress her, of course, but that would lessen the sting of her being sent so immediately from this place with her tail between her legs, and Hizashi did love a cold rejection.

“Make sure to think of me when you do cum, my little wildflower,” Hizashi remarked with a toss of her head over one shoulder, throwing her outer robe on and striding from the room with full confidence no servants would dare to be anywhere near here and look on her in such a state.

Shinsou groggily pulled herself together and half-dressed to scamper back to her room in the back alleys and shadows of the manor, stumbling into her private room unsure if she’d been violently punished or just had almost the best sex of her life, granted she’d only had sex with Hizashi and only started doing it recently.

Collapsing onto her bed, Shinsou didn’t even bother to remove clothing before shoving her fingers urgently between her legs to frantically chase after the climax she’d been denied several many minutes earlier.

Shinsou didn’t mean to, but she could think of nothing other than Hizashi as she finally cataclysmically came.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

General Aizawa was announced prior to his entering the study of Emperor All Might in strides long but measured, carrying him to the front of the Emperor’s desk and stopping to perform a stoic bow. For the sake of his bad knee, and stiff from the hard day’s ride on horseback from Aizawa Manor to the Forbidden City, he spared kneeling and only bowed from the waist up.

“Your servant humbly greets Emperor All Might,” Aizawa recited as he leaned over.

“Rise, General Eraserhead,” replied the Emperor, and Aizawa did as he was instructed, straightening up to meet Toshinori’s tired but bright eyes, piercing the depths of the darkness that shadowed them from the Emperor’s heavy brow and sunken sockets. He spoke of the hidden offence in this occasion with the offering, “I am sorry to have to call you away from Aizawa Manor so soon after returning from war.”

“With all due respect, Your Majesty, I hope it’s for a good reason,” the General returned evenly. His parting words with Toshinori before he left for the latest expansion campaign of the Empire, an expansion Aizawa had openly opposed even as he left with General Todoroki for the front, were along the lines of this being the last war he’d fight in All Might’s name. The waters on how much he really meant it were still being tested.

“We shall know soon enough,” the Emperor remarked. “It was General Todoroki who recommended I call you here, so if you deem it to be for too small a reason I can punish him accordingly.”

“In that case, I am sure it will be just,” Aizawa said. “He's serious to a fault, and would not disturb my peace lightly.”

“Serious indeed,” the Emperor agreed, and began winding like a story, “His military career has gotten off to a blazing start, while yours has burned brightly for many years.” 

The weathered General with his one good eye and leg to show for his so called glorious years gave a nod and wryly advised, “If you mean to suggest passing the torch, Your Majesty, I would do so a little more directly.”

“The Imperial Hunt is just a few weeks away,” Toshinori cut more to the point, “my brother intends to delegate command of the second banner army to one of my sons, and as to which, General Todoroki suggested that you lead a training exercise to test their ability.”

It was not the worst request it could have been, considering the Emperor could try to command General Aizawa back to war, knowing it would be treason for him to defy it, but they wouldn’t come to that if they had to. 

“Furthermore,” the Emperor continued unwinding, “if you are to step away from active duty it makes sense to transition your post into one of training and guidance for the next generation of military leaders.”

“It makes sense, Your Majesty,” Aizawa agreed solemnly.

The Emperor quoted, “It is easy to find a thousand soldiers, but hard to find a good general.”

Aizawa was a great general, so if he meant to retire, he would need worthy candidates to replace him, though the Emperor did not have to say it openly to be as binding as any decree he could put on paper.

“A wise proverb,” Aizawa agreed, realising he would be away from the Manor regardless with the Imperial Hunt coming up, and already thinking about how he would explain this to his wife in the hopes of dampening her rage at him for leaving again so soon.

When they argued, which was inevitable when he was going away, Hizashi would tell him that all Shouta ever did was leave her. The worst part was that he couldn’t blame her for feeling that way sometimes, years passed in which he spent more time with the army than he ever did at home. Shouta would not have it that way had he the choice, but, he supposed, if babysitting some royal brats could take him away from a destiny of dying on the battlefield, he could bear it for a while.

“Then you will take Princes Izuku and Katsuki on a training expedition in preparation for the Imperial Hunt, and report to me on which you believe most capable of leading the second banner army,” the Emperor subtly checked, having expected more objection to a task of little overt consequence. It was probably the not so overt consequences, like the assumption that whatever Prince led the second banner army over his brother was the more favoured by the Emperor for the Crown Prince, at least at that particular moment in time.

“I would also bring someone to give the Princes a proper military standard to measure themselves against,” General Aizawa finally offered some conditions, and with a slight lift of a smile in the corner of his mouth suggested, “General Todoroki, perhaps, since it was his idea after all.”

“His intention all along, mayhaps, but no matter,” the Emperor settled, lifting up his calligraphy brush to begin issuing the decree. He paused before making the first stroke, looking over at Aizawa, and as something more than an Emperor and his servant remarked, “I do hope Hizashi won’t be too angry about this.”

“Oh,” Aizawa replied openly, addressing him as the Toshinori he had known before he was Emperor All Might, and who’d suffered his cousin’s forceful personality on many an occasion, “She’ll be furious.”

~~~

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Hizashi belted, true to promise at the news that her husband was going to be leaving already to play teacher to a pair of princes. This was delivered in the bedroom just before they got into bed that night, Shouta only just arriving back from his marathon round trip and ready to collapse in his wife’s less than accommodating arms.

“It’s better than me going back off to war, isn’t it?” Shouta lobbied, tired from spending more time riding a horse between here and the Forbidden City than he’d actually spent in the Forbidden City, there and back in barely two days, if only to stay at Aizawa Manor less than that before he returned again to collect his wards.

“If you say so, Shouta,” Hizashi waved off, choosing ice over fire on this occasion, because it burned differently and he hated it that much more. “You might as well not come back before the Imperial Hunt then, if that’s your game.”

“The Emperor is transitioning me away from active service,” Aizawa tried to explain, shucking off layers of robes packed with dust from the roads. “I can’t just stop fighting his wars, but I can train those who would go in my place.”

“So they get to die instead,” Hizashi cut harshly, a traitorous conversation if one had ever been, but they were alone and none would dare to speak of anything they overheard between these walls.

“So I teach them how to live, like I did,” Shouta retorted, temper also raised, frustrated and sympathetic and exhausted all at the same time. “Unless you’d like to be married to a traitor and live in poverty and disgrace, you know I can’t just fucking quit, Hizashi.”

Hizashi didn’t fly off the handle, holding her tongue in observation that she did in fact accept they couldn’t just fucking quit, despite how tempting the prospect appeared from time to time. Run away and live in obscurity, not beheld to this world and all its rules and hierarchy, even though they sat on one of the highest levels.

“Fine,” she settled resentfully, huffing and determined to still be annoyed at him for some time. “But I’m not staying here either.”

“What?” Shouta murmured curiously.

“I’m sick of waiting for you to come back here for months on end,” Hizashi announced surely. She’d actually been planning to do this anyway, but it did help to have a good excuse at her disposal. “I will return to The Forbidden City while you’re away.”

Shouta hadn’t expected that, his wife mostly avoiding the Imperial Harem and all its politics since the death of the Empress nearly three years ago. “You will?”

“Yamada Pavilion is still kept in the condition it was when I left,” Hizashi remarked frostily, “I am sure they will be happy to have me back.”

Lady Hizashi had, on occasion, over her fifteen years of marriage, moved back to her childhood home for reasons of political influence and almost always some degree of marital punishment. If Hizashi meant to let her husband know of her displeasure with him, she would visit’ Empress Midnight and not come back for weeks, or until Shouta returned from wherever he was in person to collect her. It had been a long time since one of those stints, and Shouta was further frustrated to face one now, when he was doing everything he could not to give his wife cause to do such things at all.

Shouta found himself peculiarly bitter, enough to accuse, “If you go back to Yamada Pavilion, perhaps you'll finally have some trustworthy servants around you again.”

“Hah!” Hizashi scorned, knowing exactly which ‘untrustworthy servant’ he was referring to, and retorting spitefully, “Don’t worry, I’ll be taking Shinsou with me.”

“You should have dismissed her by now,” Shouta pointed out dourly. Or let her fuck him if that wasn’t the real issue, because if it was then Shinsou wouldn’t still be at Hizashi’s elbow most hours of the day, and Shouta wouldn’t be forced to look at her and know in his bones he shouldn’t have her. He didn’t know why he knew that so certainly, but the force of his raw attraction was warning enough.

“I’m not finished punishing her,” Hizashi replied caustically.

“You’ll punish her until she does something else to deserve punishment,” Shouta observed with a false neutrality. Shinsou had become quite the point of contention between them lately, so it wasn’t that strange for an argument about him leaving to have accidentally become one about Shinsou staying.

“What do you care?” Hizashi shot to exactly that point. “You’ll be gone again by tomorrow night, at least Shinsou will still be by my side to keep me warm.”

The picture this painted in Shouta’s head drove him over an edge he hadn’t known he was standing on the edge of. He stormed his wife like a cavalry charge, lifting Hizashi and laying her on the bed beneath him as he bore down on her with heavy intention. This had the unusual effect of striking his wife speechless for a moment, enough for him to threaten, “If I didn’t know better, Hizashi, I’d think you’re trying to make me jealous.”

“Is it working?” Hizashi taunted, kissed in the next moment with white anger, as if the touch of Shinsou that had lingered there could be tasted still. Her husband’s hands moved greedily to push up the underclothing Hizashi hadn’t taken off, because if he was leaving, angry or not, they would fuck half the night away regardless.

“You could play a less dangerous game and achieve the same results,” he replied huskily, putting his mouth low over Hizashi’s ear and warning, “There’s more to Shinsou than you think.”

“That’s my business, isn’t it?” Hizashi suggested, lavishing in the position underneath her husband spitefully, thighs parted around him and feeling the enraged swell of his cock, pushing against it for a moment as if forcing the truth to the surface with the question, “Do you want me to get rid of her because you don’t like her, or because I do?” 

The jade dragon writhed in Shouta's chest, heart pulled in too many confusing directions to make more sense of than a need to kiss Hizashi again, sear his memory into her so no amount of distraction would remove the trace. His cock was pulled free and found the perfect slick kiss of her pussy, testing Hizashi’s entrance before the inevitable brute shove in.

“Do you like how wet I am?” Hizashi teased her husband further, breaking his resolve like a string to be tightened til it snapped. “I had Shinsou help get me ready this evening before you got back, perhaps it’s her saliva you feel.”

And finally there was the brute shove, Shouta’s cock thrusting into Hizashi with a twisted moan.

Feeling the intensity of Shouta’s lust and desire on her like an all consuming fire, Hizashi posed dangerously, “Or are you just angry I won’t share Shinsou with you?”

“Why won’t you?” he shot too fast for the aim to be off, and began fucking his wife the way that was only his.

“She tried seducing you without my permission,” Hizashi reiterated, words stretched and jostled by the first pumps of Shouta’s cock in her, and for this offence she would never forgive Shinsou, just keep her around until her uses ran out. Try to fuck Hizashi’s husband behind her back.

“So you should have dismissed her,” Shouta reminded her in turn, and then made his own cutting observation. “Is it me of Shinsou you’re really jealous over?” He squeezed one of Hizashi’s breasts, memorised its touch for when he’d be gone too soon, and his wife would keep fucking her new plaything. “Did you want her to only look at you?”

Hizashi dug her nails into Shouta’s shoulders and rolled, an action he cooperated with to change their positions and sit her straddled on top of him, riding his cock with the radiance of her fury all but confirming what they wouldn’t speak.

“You leave that little bitch’s punishment to me,” Hizashi seethed, setting a ravaging pace atop him, Shouta’s head thrown back and crumpling under the weight of pleasure.

“So you do know she’s trouble,” he groaned slyly.

“Of course I do!” Hizashi spat, still riding Shouta in her own form of horseback, “Look at her! No one with a face that pretty uses it only for good.”

“Told you so,” Shouta muttered. “Just make sure she’s gone by the time I get back,” he said, and with a wild growl added, “Or I won’t be responsible for what happens.”

“Fine,” Hizashi agreed.

“Fine,” he returned.

Either Shinsou would be gone by then, or they’d find out what would happen if she wasn’t.

~~~

Todoroki Manor was situated a short distance from the Forbidden City, so close it was often treated as an extension beyond the official walls of the palace complex, and so fine and majestic was the architecture of the prestigious home to the Todoroki Clan.

Imperial Guards would regularly pass between the Forbidden City and Todoroki Manor, carrying news to the decorated General Endeavor, now a high ranking state official to the Emperor. One such guard had come to relay the Emperor’s latest decree, received by two generations of General Todoroki in their luxurious greeting hall at a late hour.

Father and son had been playing a game of Go, not by fanciful desire or a drive for companionship, but because General Todoroki Enji used the strategy game to test and compete with his son obsessively. Every night they would play for as long as Shouto could remember, and his father would usually win, but if he didn’t, the consequences were far worse.

The tired looking guard unfurled the handwritten order and read out, “Emperor All Might has decreed that General Aizawa will lead a training exercise for the Princes Izuku and Katsuki ahead of the Imperial Hunt, and they will be attended by General Todoroki Shouto to set a standard of military excellence!”

Both Todoroki Generals had impressive scars over their faces, though the stories of their acquisition differed in many respects, and the elder’s injury was more recent than the childhood earned burn that mottled Shouto’s skin around his left eye. Enji’s split his face down the left side also, longer and larger, crossing his mouth as the corner lifted in a sinister smile.

“That will be all,” Enji dismissed the guard, who left again in a hurry thankful to not be tarried any longer on his business. They were not supposed to leave the Forbidden City so easily to deliver news to outsiders, but General Endeavor wasn’t really an outsider, and everyone feared his wrath for not being kept informed of his designs on matters of state.

“Then it worked,” Enji remarked once the guard had gone, moving a piece to block off Shouto’s expansion.

“It wasn’t really your plan, old man,” Shouto replied with cold intensity. “You just said you wanted General Aizawa to finally retire.” He moved a piece in counterattack to his father’s predictable aggression, a mild pause before continuing, “I was the one who thought of recommending him to train the Princes.”

“Which you will be there to assess, as I predicted,” Todoroki Enji wasn’t really capable of offering a compliment, but this steely recognition was the most his son would ever get, and far more than he’d taught himself to hope for. “It is important for us to back the future Crown Prince, Shouto. Whatever you see of the Emperor’s intentions in this exercise, you must act accordingly.”

“Yes, father,” Shouto recited dryly, years of rote platitudes and obedience built up on their relationship like a bridge close to collapse. Had collapsed at least once or twice, but somehow his father would bash the pieces back together enough to hold a little longer.

“You’re too close with Prince Izuku already,” his father lectured, a more familiar tone by far. “It makes us appear aligned to him.”

“I don’t believe so,” Shouto dissuaded gently, half fixed on the conversation and the rest on the game. He might actually beat his father at this one, if he was clever and careful, and thought of what General Aizawa would do. Much to his father’s irritation, Aizawa had won the vast majority of games of Go they’d ever played, and it meant so much more to General Endeavor than it did to General Eraserhead as old military rivals.

It could be argued that the Todoroki Clan had won this rivalry by far, more decorated and closely involved with matters coming and going from the Forbidden City. Except that was not how General Aizawa acted, seeing it as his success to not be so under the thumb of the Emperor, and it made Todoroki Enji all the more bitter.

“Don’t spend the whole trip sucking up to Aizawa, either,” he commented unpleasantly, jealous of his son’s success under another’s command, even if it had been satisfying to see Aizawa sent to battle against his will. It had rankled Enji that his objection only changed when Shouto was decreed to go, as if he had to claim some piece of Todoroki glory one last time.

“No, father,” Shouto replied placidly, reminding himself that he would be free of this overbearing presence while they were engaged in General Aizawa’s training, so he might breathe a little easier for a short while.

Shouto lost the game of Go that evening, but only by intention, and once he knew how he could have won.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Shinsou could hardly believe her luck.

“We’re going to the Forbidden City?” she asked Shiozaki in disbelief, despite Lady Hizashi’s dressing room clearly being in a state of total disarray and a great many things being packed into trunks of all sizes around her most senior maid. “Really?”

“Lord Aizawa will be away until the end of the Imperial Hunt, so Lady Hizashi is returning to Yamada Pavilion in the Forbidden City while he is gone,” Shiozaki explained curtly, and had begrudgingly accepted Shinsou’s presence by Hizashi’s side, seemingly comforted by the fact that their mistress never gave Shinsou any real responsibilities. Not beyond getting her off, at least.

“And we all get to go with her?” Shinsou said wondrously.

“It’s not as special as you think,” Shiozaki retorted, mistaking the cause of Shinsou’s reaction as the attachment expected of a lowly attendant gaining the favour of a powerful noble. For most humans this would be the opportunity of a lifetime, since Lady Hizashi was the Emperor’s cousin and the wife of Lord Aizawa, one of the few clans truly capable of rivalling the Imperial family, and for which reason their commitment to cooperate for many generations was an important political allegiance. Hizashi’s marriage to Aizawa Shouta was one of the most important links in this era, making Hizashi herself an extremely influential figure. “It’s our duty to take care of Lady Hizashi wherever she goes,” Shiozaki lectured in the true model of her mistress. “Don’t think you’ll be getting to slack off once we get there.”

“Of course not,” Shinsou answered, as if her duties at the moment consisted of much more than menial household chores done between rousing bouts of ‘punishment’ from her mistress. Whenever the inclination took her Lady Hizashi would summon Shinsou to her study, or simply order everyone else away from whatever room they were already in, and then exact arbitrary amounts of physical punishment on Shinsou, or require Shinsou to pleasure her mistress with her mouth or fingers, sometimes both at the same time.

Shinsou had settled into the routine surprisingly well, but considering the labour of servants was often uncomfortable and caused pain in some way or another, it made less of a difference to her daily life than expected. Shinsou derived no sexual pleasure from cleaning or gardening chores, which was sort of a perk to the punishments, with the caveat that Lady Hizashi made a point to let this result in actual sexual satisfaction for Shinsou as little as possible, never letting Shinsou forget that she was being punished for the unforgivable crime of trying to fuck her husband behind Hizashi's back.

If Hizashi couldn’t trust Shinsou with her husband, she wasn’t going to trust her with much else, and so Shinsou wasn’t given any important tasks in the household, making her out of favour within the favour she still tenuously held, but also not burdened with anything difficult to do most of the time. Lord Aizawa’s distrust of Shinsou clearly had some sway over his wife, if not enough for Shinsou to be dismissed from their service just yet.

Lady Hizashi’s determination not to let Shinsou climax while keeping her on the edge of it for as long as possible, a particularly intense form of sexual torture, had led Shinsou to be very good at concealing orgasms from her mistress. Hizashi in turn had gotten exceptionally good at spotting them, and made sure to punish Shinsou all the more mercilessly when she disobeyed her mistress by cumming without her permission.

This Hizashi claimed that this was ‘training’ for Shinsou, though for what other purpose than more fucking Shinsou couldn’t fathom. And while Shinsou was proficient at finishing herself off with her fingers once Hizashi was finally done with her, sometimes right outside the room she’d just left, leaned up against the wall in a nearby shadowy corner, or back at her private dorm if it was going to take a little longer to claw back to the precipice, it was starting to get a little tiresome, especially when Hizashi had every opportunity to let Shinsou get off and could stop being such a bitch about it, but that was unfortunately exactly Hizashi’s intention.

Shinsou wondered if going back to the Forbidden City as Hizashi’s attendant would bring any change in that routine, but more importantly, how best she could leverage this opportunity to get closer to The Tip of The High Mountain. If she was able to find and steal it, Shinsou could be away from this place heading back home before Lord Aizawa even returned from the Imperial Hunt, and something told Shinsou that not having him around would make her secret mission infinitely easier.

Lady Hizashi swept into her chaotic dressing room in a particularly impatient mood, her hair spun up into a top knot on top of her head that was becoming dangerously loose and full of flyaways. Casting a critical eye cast around the unfinished packing she demanded, “Why is this not done yet, Shiozaki?”

“Forgive me, Lady Hizashi,” Shiozaki replied with nerves of steel, and her mistress’s gaze barely dwelled on her before shifting to Shinsou. 

“You’re being distracted, it seems,” Hizashi accused coolly, and Shinsou was starting to notice how quick her mistress was to stop anyone else from talking to her for too long. If Shinsou was just another possession to Hizashi, it must be that of an exotic plant meant to be kept in a glass case shut off from any others.

“My apologies, Lady Hizashi,” Shiozaki said with a halfhearted bow, since another benefit of the current arrangement was that any shortfalling displayed by Lady Hizashi’s other attendants was taken out on Shinsou, which was probably the main reason Shiozaki had become more tolerant of Shinsou’s presence by their mistress’s side. “I will ensure the packing is finished right away.”

“Come with me, Shinsou, you’ve caused enough trouble here,” Hizashi ordered, and sometimes Shinsou swore her mistress wouldn’t be happy unless she was the only person Shinsou ever spoke to. Talk about an overreaction to something that didn’t actually even happen, not that Hizashi was allowed to know the last thing on Shinsou’s mind at that time was trying to have sex with Aizawa.

If Shinsou had known what a pain it would be losing her mistress’s trust by allowing that assumption to be believed, she might have come up with some other excuse. Not that she was sure there were any other excuses for being found naked in Lord Aizawa’s study at night, but Shinsou could have just killed him, she supposed, and left the manor that night to pursue her mission in some other way.

However, if she did that, Shinsou wouldn’t be poised to return to the Forbidden City now in an even better position to seek out the stone without raising alarm, so she bit her tongue and followed her mistress obediently out of the room and along one of the sheltered walkways that bordered all four sides of the beautiful central garden of Aizawa Manor. If Shinsou left this place, one thing she would miss would be this garden, which she would roam by night in fox form whenever she felt her connection to the natural world starting to wane too much. In human form Shinsou’s feet didn’t even touch the ground, so after time her senses started to numb, as if becoming more and more like these dull witted creatures.

“We’ll be leaving the Manor this evening,” Hizashi began telling Shinsou. “Pack whatever things you need to take with you and then wait by the sedan for me.”

“Yes Mistress,” Shinsou replied, and was curious enough to ask, “Are we to travel at night?” Not a concern for Shinsou, of course, but she found it strange since these humans couldn’t navigate in the dark, much less a noble like Hizashi who travelled only by sedan, and the danger from bandits was much greater, as Shinsou had learned on her first trip down from the mountains all those months ago.

“We’ll begin before it gets dark to get a start on the journey, then rest overnight on the way,” Hizashi informed her, and then with a completely deadpan matter of fact tone continued, “You will also be sleeping with me from now on, so fix any bad habits you might have like snoring or tossing and turning.”

This announcement threw Shinsou a little, but then it occurred to her that these were surely lengths Lady Hizashi took to avoid sleeping alone in the bed she usually shared with Lord Aizawa. It pleased Shinsou to realise that all for her mistress's harsh attitude and cruelty, she too had a soft underbelly after all.

“Yes Mistress,” Shinsou said calmly, considering that she might be able to earn her way back into Lady Hizashi's good books if Aizawa wasn’t around to keep criticising her and his wife was lonely. Perhaps if they shared a bed Shinsou might also get a good fucking orgasm for a change, though she wasn’t holding her breath just yet.

Hizashi gave Shinsou a cutting look, narrowing her eyes as she remarked in a low tone, “You’re being very obliging right now, but I know it won’t last.” After all, if Shinsou stopped defying and speaking out of turn with her mistress, she wouldn’t have as much reason for punishing her. Shinsou had long since realised that earning the punishment was as much a part of her duties as receiving it.

Flashing a faint impish smile for Hizashi’s gaze alone, disappearing before anyone else could notice it, Shinsou repeated, “Yes Mistress.”

~~~

It was a strange feeling coming back to the Forbidden City. As if Shinsou saw it with new eyes when they arrived in the misty morning after two nights on the road travelling with Lady Hizashi and a truly incredible amount of luggage. The great yawning brick walls and terracotta tiled roofs, filled with a maze of pathways and beautiful palaces for all the noble descendents, courtiers, and of course the Emperor’s Imperial Harem.

It was a strange feeling becoming Hizashi's bedfellow too, not that Shinsou had exactly been expecting anything in particular. Sleeping in the same bed as Hizashi for the first time was softened by the fact that it was an unfamiliar one for them both, the comfiest rooms for hosting travelling nobles on the road between Aizawa Manor and the Forbidden City.

It was also tiring being on the road, surprisingly so, even though they merely sat in the sedan being drawn by horses the whole time. Shinsou found her body more stiff and awkward than after some of Hizashi’s more zealous punishments, and anything she felt was far more draining for a human, so much to Shinsou's surprise Hizashi didn't want anything in the way of pleasure or pain inflicted on Shinsou for those nights they shared on the road.

Lady Hizashi simply ordered Shinsou to change her into her bedclothes, then put her head down and fell asleep by Shinsou's side, which really, all things considered, was the most unnerving and confusing thing she could have done. More and more Shinsou had noticed that Aizawa's absence left Hizashi less vibrant and more withdrawn than when he was here, as if nursing a hole within herself that could be filled by no fingers or tongue. Wouldn’t even dare to try, not in the mood for anything but sleeping next to Shinsou.

Once asleep, Shinsou would find Hizashi entangled with her by the morning, slender limbs and sharp face burrowing into the groove of Shinsou’s neck to hide her eyes from the morning light. Even this didn’t lead to anything sexual, despite Shinsou sort of hoping that it would, but she had to get her mistress and herself ready and get back in the sedan as soon as possible, so maybe it was better they didn’t.

When they finally arrived at the Forbidden City even more surprises were in store for Shinsou.

She had heard other servants refer to someone by the name Eri on a good number of occasions since joining the Aizawas' service, but it was only when they were met by a young fair haired child at the gates of Yamada Pavilion that Shinsou realised exactly who this was.

"Welcome, mother!" The little girl declared excitedly, dropping into an emphatic bow, accompanied on one side by a blue haired woman at her side who was presumably some kind of nanny, and the other a blonde eunuch who was seeing to their security. Both bowed with their little mistress, repeating the greeting with the amendment, “Welcome to Yamada Pavilion, Lady Hizashi.”

"Mother?" Shinsou echoed under her breath in shock, it having never occurred to her for a moment that the woman who had been sexually torturing her for weeks could have any children. Lord and Lady Aizawa had been married for a long time though, so it would be strange if they had no children, Shinsou supposed, though had assumed they would have been at Aizawa Manor in that case, not so far away in The Forbidden City. It would be no fate Shinsou would wish on any child of her own, not that such things need ever be a worry.

"Hello darling," Hizashi replied fondly, confirming that the young girl of six or seven was in fact her daughter. When Shinsou looked closely she noticed some signs she had not taken in at first glance. The girl's hair, so fair it was almost white, was fixed with a beautiful hairpin that had her mother's style, and her features bore a resemblance in some indistinct way. With a sterner tone Hizashi asked, "But shouldn't you be in lessons now?"

The girl pouted and Shinsou saw a much stronger resemblance with her mother in that moment. With her eyes on the ground Eri drawled, "Yes, but I really wanted to welcome you…"

"Well you have now," Hizashi steered with the iron discipline Shinsou knew in a very different capacity, "so go to your tutors, Eri. I will see you later."

"Yes, mother," Eri answered obediently, and quickly went away with her nanny and the beady eyed eunuch who was escorting them.

This matter being dealt with, they finally entered Yamada Pavilion, which Shinsou found a sure rival to Bakugo Palace in grandeur and beauty, if a little smaller in size. There was a beautiful pagoda in the forecourt and the main building had a distinctly beautiful roof, the carved and painted beams supporting it like an elegant petticoat under a great skirt. Shinsou could feel it was only appropriate that such a place produced a great beauty like Lady Hizashi, since, as she famously believed, what could enhance a beauty more than being surrounded with beauty?

The first order of business was unpacking the great many cases and trunks of belongings that Lady Hizashi travelled with, Shiozaki commanding this process while their mistress retired to her chamber to rest from the journey.

"Come, Shinsou," Hizashi said as she walked through the hall in the direction of her bedroom from childhood until her wedding, some half of her life to date.

It was clear this residence wasn't in active use, as it had a cold and lonely air, much like its mistress of late, but it was clean and well kept, also like Hizashi. It was a nod to her power at all that such a building would never be given to another while she might still have use for it on occasion, a hidden shadow of power that none would dare to step on, certainly not in the wake of Empress Midnight’s death, whose residence was converted into a memorial hall not far from Yamada Pavilion.

The bedroom of Yamada Pavilion was smaller than the marital suite of Aizawa Manor, designed to accommodate just one person, though still a noble of royal blood. There was a large dressing table with an ornate mirror standing on it, all dusted and well kept, across from which stood the bed boxed in with beams of dark lacquered wood and soft drapes that hung down from on all sides.

The drapes had been drawn back before their arrival, a silver silky gauze that light could just barely pass through. Hizashi walked steadily to the edge of the bed and lifted her arms on either side, an unspoken command to be undressed.

Carefully Shinsou removed Hizashi's outer robe, a deep navy blue for today with only a few flowers of embellishments, her mistress's equivalent of a dressed down outfit for travel. As soon as it was off Hizashi moved to flop down onto the bed, laying on her front in the white underclothing robe worn beneath.

"My shoulders are stiff," Hizashi announced into the thick cushion that sat upon the wooden platform of the bed in the way of a mattress, her head turned to the side looking away from Shinsou.

Quickly Shinsou removed her own outer robe and climbed up to kneel beside her mistress, smoothing her palms across Hizashi’s back and feeling the tensest muscles to work loose. If Shinsou had known that travelling would tire Hizashi out too much to torment Shinsou she might have tried to exploit it more, though orchestrating opportunities for them to travel was probably more difficult than tolerating Hizashi's idea of punishment, most of the time.

Shinsou massaged Hizashi's shoulders firmly, as she liked most things to be, and felt a sigh from her that seemed to release more than a long and weary journey. A return to the only other state known to her in life other than being Aizawa’s husband, perhaps.

Deciding to be daring, and also knowing she'd never get a better time to ask, Shinsou questioned simply, "Why does your daughter live here?"

Hizashi didn't respond right away, so Shinsou thought she wasn’t going to answer and would act as if she heard nothing, but then she delivered in a slow, sluggish tone, “This is a better place for her.”

“Is it?” Shinsou let her tongue loosen, a mistake perhaps to pry so obviously, but she already suffered enough under Hizashi’s command and it probably couldn’t get much worse.

“She has the best tutors in the Empire here, and can bond with other noble children her own age,” Hizashi answered, adding a sly, “and a little older too.”

Lady Hizashi was speaking freely about a personal topic that Shinsou might not have gotten an answer to otherwise, were she not expertly kneading her mistress’s back at a time when she was clearly tired and more vulnerable than usual. If only Shinsou could think of a way to use this state to further her search for The Tip of The High Mountain, and not just pry into family matters for no reason other than curiosity, but all information held power in some way, it was just a matter of getting it first and figuring out how to apply it later.

“Is she your only child?” Shinsou asked next.

“Only one still alive,” Hizashi returned dully, which made Shinsou wonder how many hadn’t made it. Humans seemed to be such fragile things, easily broken for even the richest and most powerful. Hizashi continued with a plain, “She has more opportunity here for advancement than in Aizawa Manor.”

“She’s still so young,” Shinsou commented, shocked that ambition could be a consideration for a mere child, especially by her own mother. If Hizashi herself had grown up here, perhaps it made sense that she’d choose the same for her daughter, and Shinsou could agree that it might be lonely in Aizawa Manor for a young child without any brothers or sisters.

“In the Forbidden City there’s no such thing as too young,” Hizashi replied, showing the edge of someone who knew this all too well, but lulled gently as she drifted off to sleep, “Never forget that, wildflower,” 

~~~

Much to Shinsou’s disappointment, Lady Hizashi was back to her old self after a solid nap, and by that evening Shinsou found herself bent over and bound by the wrists and ankles receiving punishment for ‘speaking out of turn’ with her mistress earlier in the day.

Often Hizashi used her favourite cane or other tools to strike Shinsou, but these presumably not being among the items Shiozaki packed for Hizashi to take with her from the manor, she had to suffice with her bare hands. With her full bare palm she spanked Shinsou’s behind over and over until it was hot and stung with each contact, making Shinsou shiver and shudder with every subsequent touch, no matter how soft or hard.

“You must think you’re very cunning, asking me about my daughter while my guard was down,” Hizashi scolded, squeezing Shinsou’s raw cheeks together as a drip of telltale juice leaked from her pussy. If Hizashi had trained Shinsou in any capacity, it was to get wet in response to pain, and there was no possible purpose that could serve other than getting fucked. “Don’t you know that no good deed goes unpunished?”

“I do now, mistress,” Shinsou gasped, trying to hold herself still, certain that she could cum silently if Hizashi touched her just a tiny bit, but Hizashi was onto that game too, and left Shinsou wanting.

Worse yet, because she was now sleeping with Hizashi as well, there was no chance to sneak away and finish herself off when they were done, which was uncoincidentally moments after Hizashi had just come from rutting on Shinsou’s thigh.

Shinsou had to wait until Hizashi eventually fell asleep, only then able to squeeze her fingers between her legs and rub her clit until she came, barely more than a few strokes before she felt the wash of release over her, and only then could fall asleep herself.

~~~

The next morning saw the first visitors arrive at Yamada Pavilion from among the Imperial Harem, Lady Hizash’s return being an event of some significance. The first of these was Noble Lady Inko, a lesser concubine to Emperor All Might but the mother of Prince Izuku, whose promise far outshone any lowly background.

“Greetings Lady Hizashi, welcome back to The Forbidden City,” Inko offered politely, bowing before the fine chair on which Hizashi was sitting to receive her callers.

“Thank you, Noble Lady Inko,” Hizashi replied, indicating with a graceful turn of her hand that the lower ranked woman could rise. “You appear very well.”

“You flatter me, Lady Hizashi,” Inko said, a pleasantly plump woman of no outstanding beauty but great warmth and kindness of character, a trait which had drawn Emperor All Might close to her as he mourned the death of Empress Midnight. “Who could compare to your beauty? I know that every time you return to The Forbidden City you have become even more glamorous.”

“Oh, stop,” Hizashi said as if to mean absolutely do go on, but instead steered the conversation where she wanted it to go with a courteous, “How is your son? I hear of his accomplishments often.”

“Prince Izuku is very well, thank you for your concern,” Inko replied, still standing in the greeting hall with her attendants by her side. She seemed like exactly the kind of person to have raised Prince Izuku, Shinsou thought. Honest and unusually sincere for a place of this much superficiality.

“Please, sit down and tell me all about him,” Hizashi invited expertly, ushering Inko into the chair next to hers. “My daughter is so fond of your son, it’s only natural we ought to be close too.”

“Thank you, Lady Hizashi,” Inko said brightly. “Miss Eri is such a sweet and bright child, how could Prince Izuku not dote on her?”

“It gives me much comfort to know that she has both of your consideration,” Hizashi sounded authentic, enough that Shinsou could suspect she really did value having kind benefactors for her daughter in this unforgiving place.

It gave Shinsou a little comfort too, from what she had seen of Prince Izuku and his mother’s characters, though with Prince Izuku’s promise for the throne there was certainly a political side to it as well, especially considering that Lady Hizashi and Consort Mitsuki famously clashed. Before Shinsou could muse further on these intrigues, Hizashi harshly commanded, “Pour Noble Lady Inko some tea already, Shinsou, you don’t attend me just to stand around there being idle all day.”

“Yes, Mistress Hizashi,” Shinsou answered, having been threatened by Shiozaki on pain of death not to dare show her ‘usual disdain’ for Lady Hizashi’s orders when she was interacting with her mistress in front of those from the Forbidden City. What Aizawa Manor staff had gotten used to was not for the eyes or ears of these people, Shiozaki insisted, and Shinsou could understand why.

In this Forbidden City information was power, and Lady Hizashi sought to be the most powerful of all.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

On a wide open plain of grassland several hours from The Forbidden City stood a temporarily erected military encampment, or a passing example of one, as they were close to the Imperial Capital where there were no wars to be fought anymore. It was the site of General Aizawa’s new training grounds, built and run for the benefit of the General’s new students and a unit of guards.

They had been there almost two weeks already, and a habit had formed that the two Generals among their ranks would play a game of Go in the evening, once the exercises of the day had been completed and the princes had gone to their more extravagant temporary dwellings to argue over which of them performed better in the day.

This was almost like Shouto’s routine of playing Go with his father every night, the ritual imprinted on him now to become something his mind expected and felt strangely lost without, but here there was one key difference. The games Shouto played with his father were always finished in one sitting, fast paced and demanding as they were forced to reach a conclusion no matter how late the hour, loss or victory required to be determined before Shouto was allowed to sleep.

The game of Go that Shouto had been playing with General Aizawa had been the same one they started on the second night after camp was set up. Each move was considered very carefully, so much so that most evenings they made no more than a handful of moves before the time ran out.

It was not about winning, Shouto understood after the fourth night of this strange practice, but the art of the game. No wonder Shouto’s father always lost to Aizawa, Shouto thought as he sat across from the stern general who had been silently contemplating a move for some fifteen or so minutes without moving so much as a muscle. They played with completely different philosophies, and General Aizawa’s way was superior by far. If Shouto didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought this was a better training on strategy than any exercise Aizawa had given to the two princes and Shouto in the day.

Aizawa’s training regimen in the day had been rather more of a facilitated competition between the two princes than anything, so Shouto had wondered more than once if these games each evening were the true training by design. That this was the salvage from an exercise that was in reality a little silly, but obliged the Emperor and his sons, while Shouto appreciated the guidance of a more experienced General outside of life or death situations.

Their game was nearing its conclusion, and though Shouto had already unequivocally lost, he no longer saw that as of any importance. Battles would be lost too, and the art was understanding how to lose competently as much as it was to win. Each move Shouto made was in consideration of how to obstruct his opponent’s victory in the most effective way possible, and when Shouto went back home he was going to be able to completely infuriate his father with everything he’d learned. It would be glorious.

As if a statue was coming to life, General Aizawa made his move, and hoarsely remarked, “There will be some time between the Imperial Hunt beginning and the end of this training.”

Knowing how long he had to make this move, Shouto took his time with the question and possible moves to take next, pausing a long time to reply, “Will you return to Aizawa Manor?”

“No,” the General replied. “I’m going to the site of the hunt directly, to oversee preparations before the Emperor’s party arrives.”

“Surely that can be handled by someone else,” Shouto remarked, still contemplating which move from here would be the bigger thorn in Aizawa’s side in consideration of his most recent move. That was something else this exercise had taught him too, not to plan too far ahead when every move his opponent made could change his best course of action. They had plenty of time, unlike the battlefield where there was little time to deliberate.

“I have no need to go home,” General Aizawa said coldly, and took a sip of the cup of tea by his hand. They played in General Aizawa’s tent in the encampment, which was divided to have both a bedroom and an office to conduct official matters from, the Go board set up in one corner of the latter. “My wife is in The Forbidden City right now.”

Suddenly, Shouto couldn’t think about even one of the moves he had been considering making. Because didn’t that mean… 

“Lady Hizashi is back in Yamada Pavilion?” Shouto echoed quietly, the move to be considered with great depth being how best to phrase his next question to get the information that he truly desired without revealing what it was he wanted to know. With a forced calm he questioned, “Does she intend to be there for some time?” Time enough that she would take her attendants with her, so it went.

Because of course, Shouto was aware of why Shinsou Hitoshi had vanished from The Forbidden City overnight. One could even say he had researched this matter thoroughly, worried at first that something bad had happened to her, then worrying second that what had actually happened was indeed something bad. Lady Hizashi’s reputation with her attendants left something to be desired, and Aizawa Manor was so far away from The Forbidden City it gave Shouto no comfort.

“Until the end of the hunt,” General Aizawa replied simply, but noticed the younger general’s distraction.

“So then, her attendants would have gone with her,” Shouto couldn’t help but want to confirm, a slip of composure that would not go unmissed.

“Yes…” General Aizawa replied suspiciously, because when it came to his wife’s attendants there was one who trouble always managed to find first.

Shouto made his next move decisively, and it was the worst possible thing he could have done. An open invitation to be massacred, bringing a quick end to the slow death he’d been pursuing until that point.

“I have some business to attend to in The Forbidden City, now I think about it,” General Todoroki, the younger, announced as if he had just remembered this critical information. “I should really return to spend some time there before departing for the Imperial Hunt.”

Out of nowhere, or so it’d seem, General Aizawa asked, “You wouldn’t know my wife’s attendant Shinsou Hitoshi by any chance, would you?”

“What? Yes,” Shouto answered in a state of unsettled duality, not expecting the name he’d tried to tread so carefully around to be dragged viscerally out into the open. “I happened to save the sedan of girls she was travelling with from bandits when she first made her way to The Forbidden City.” Why would Shouto deny such a thing? He had nothing to hide, and had repeated the story in front of the Emperor already, so it would be ridiculous for him to disguise this plain fact from General Aizawa just because he had asked so unexpectedly.

“That person is nothing but trouble, Todoroki,” Aizawa said bluntly, and Shouto felt his eyes widen uncontrollably as General Aizawa made his move quickly, brutally setting in on the opening Shouto had just given him. 

Shouto made his next move right away, another brilliantly awful one, and questioned defensively, “What makes you feel the need to give me such advice, General Aizawa? I didn’t mention Shinsou Hitoshi.” Not by name, anyway.

“That person tried to seduce me back at Aizawa Manor,” Aizawa told Shouto as he made his own next brutal move, ill-tempered by the instant suspicion that Shinsou was behind this change in the young General. “I have no doubt that she’s looking for someone to climb up the ranks with.” 

“Really?” Shouto asked with a strange new turbulence churning in his gut. “Shinsou really did that?”

“She was waiting in my study naked, if you must know, so you can be sure that the girl has no shame,” Aizawa delivered like a death blow, himself falling victim to a turbulent storm of emotions as the two of them played the bloody ending of the game out in mere minutes. “You’d be wise to keep your distance from Shinsou, she’s more than she seems.”

Shouto shocked Aizawa this time with his reply, which was a completely certain and unhesitating, “Oh, I know that.” He made his final move surely, and then announced, “We are finished here, are we not, General Aizawa?”

Not just the game, but the farce of the princes' training, which for a winner Shouto had long since realised Aizawa would make no passing judgement. He’d let the two decide among themselves and report back to the Emperor when they’d settled the matter, and this time he’d spent with Shouto was the goal all along. Time now cut short.

Staring back at Shouto as if they were on opposing sides of a battlefield for the very first time, Aizawa offered a resistant, “I suppose we are, General Todoroki.”

“Then I will leave first,” the young General of recent acclaim stood urgently and bowed before making his way out.

They both knew, without saying a word, that he would be riding for The Forbidden City by first light tomorrow, and there was not a thing that either of them could say to convince one another otherwise.

~~~

Even if Shinsou hadn’t known about the tragic death of Empress Midnight a couple of years ago, she would have known just by setting food in what was once Kayama Palace that this was a place of deep grief. The building itself seemed sad, from the tiled roofs and dark wooden beams right down to the stones it was laid on, as if the whole structure had mourned its mistress since the day she left this world.

Lady Hizashi had only been back in The Forbidden City for a couple of days before announcing her intention to visit the palace now serving as a memorial hall for the deceased Empress. Shiozaki seemed worried by this but kept silent, accompanying Hizashi on one side supporting her arm as Shinsou walked on the other.

They were often silent as they walked, but this silence felt particularly heavy to Shinsou, as if the void of Lord Aizawa’s absence was further deepened by the reminder of this great loss. Shinsou had never been told as much, but could tell from inference that her mistress still dearly missed her close friend, not to mention another tool of her soft power, since the Empress had the Emperor’s ear in private.

There was a large portrait of Empress Midnight hung in the hallway of the Kayama Memorial Hall, a dark sedentary structure further dampened by the cloud that hung over it. She was beautiful in portraiture, though it could be assumed anyone would be with such fine artists, but Shinsou had also heard of her stunning beauty and sharp wits in life. Despite never being able to provide a living heir for the Emperor, he had loved her the most of all the harem, and it was a testament to this love that a new Empress was still unnamed among his consorts.

An offering table was kept before the late Empress’s portrait, tended to daily by the servants who remained to take care of her former residence, and before this Shinsou witnessed the surprising spectacle of seeing her mistress kneel and give a humble bow.

“You may both leave,” Hizashi ordered but there was no bite to it, and as Shinsou and Shiozaki walked away, far out of earshot for a human but not for Shinsou, she heard their mistress say in a soft voice, “I’m sorry I didn’t visit sooner, Nemuri.”

Shinsou and Shiozaki didn’t wait more than fifteen minutes before they heard the footsteps of many attendants and guards, dropping to bow as none other than the Emperor approached the gates of Kayama Memorial Hall.

“Greeting Emperor All Might,” Shinsou spoke alongside Shiozaki as the long strides of the Emperor blew past them, surrounded on all sides by servants, though these too were left outside as the Emperor went in. Glancing at Shiozaki, Shinsou asked, “Did Lady Hizashi plan this?”

Shiozaki shrugged and said, “If she did, I didn’t know about it.”

Shinsou looked after the Emperor and wondered how many more secrets their mistress could be keeping from them.

~~~

The Emperor approached Empress Midnight’s portrait slowly, watching the rigid form of his cousin kneeling in silent devotion. She may have noticed someone enter, maybe even guessed who it was, but did not break from facing the portrait to greet him.

“Has it really been three years already?” Toshinori asked quietly, and Hizashi turned to look at him now, registering his presence and dropping forward into a bow.

“Somehow it has, Your Majesty,” she answered reservedly, rising without instruction to look at Toshinori again. “I came to apologise to her for not visiting sooner.”

It cut at Toshinori’s heart, for he had been much closer than Hizashi and still not visited often enough. So he too got to his knees, next to his cousin, and bowed before the portrait of his late wife.

“Forgive me too for not visiting sooner,” he said devotedly, and then let out a deep sigh, remaining on his knees beside Hizashi, both facing Nemuri’s portrait.

They were silent for some time, not needing to say anything, but reflecting in the memories and sadness of their shared loss.

Toshinori was the first to speak again, offering a muted, “I ask myself sometimes who she would have put forward to succeed her as Empress.”

“She wouldn’t have,” Hizashi responded. “She’d have said she’ll live forever and need no successor.”

Toshinori nodded, and only if it were so. “Then if I could speak with her now, I’d ask her who she’d recommend.”

“You’ve made Mitsuki Imperial Noble Consort, haven’t you?” Hizashi pointed out. This rank was below an Empress, but rarely existed unless there was no Empress in post, so allowed Consort Mitsuki to act with the authority of an Empress and manage the harem and palace households in the way Hizashi managed Aizawa Manor. The Forbidden City was bigger, but Mitsuki also had a lot more help.

“It has been three years without an Empress,” Toshinori replied, meaning the full mourning period for his legitimate wife had already passed. “If there was a time to name another, this would be it.”

“What are you waiting for then?” Hizashi said plainly, free with her words as they two could be only when they were alone, reminiscent of their younger days when Toshinori was just a prince with hopes for the throne and Hizashi a princess of the palace.

“I am uncertain of the choice,” Toshinori revealed, and in absence of his wife, or his mother, the departed Empress Dowager Nana, Lady Hizashi was one of the few people with whom he could share some confidence regarding the Imperial Harem. “That’s why I wish I could ask her.”

“She would say to do whatever makes you happiest,” Hizashi said simply.

Toshinori gave a weak laugh, musing, “And what would make me happy, I wonder?”

WIth bitter regret Hizashi told him, “She can’t come back, Toshi.” A statement of shocking informality, punishable in more ways than could be dreamt of, but that did not mean it wasn’t what the Emperor needed to hear.

Toshinori gave a great sigh, and shared, “I am comforted when I’m with Inko, but I fear that is a product of my grief more than sincere attachment, and I’m concerned she couldn’t handle management of the harem.” Much less to have to take it away from the comfortable claws of her rival for the position of Empress.

“Then choose Mitsuki,” Hizashi countered, not that this was something she actually supported, since their dislike of one another was famous, but even Hizashi could be above such petty matters on occasion, and perhaps recommending it would set the Emperor more against the course of action by the rule of reverse psychology.

The Emperor was certainly quick to air the problem with that option, “Then Katsuki becomes the Crown Prince even if I don’t announce it officially.”

“So name Izuku Crown Prince at the same time,” Hizashi suggested trivially, as if such matters could be decided so easily, but pretending for the conversation as if they could. “A win in one hand and a loss in the other. It should keep them occupied in Bakugo Palace for some time figuring out whether to celebrate or commiserate.”

A thin smile touched Toshinori’s face. “I’ve missed you, Hizashi.”

Letting her own deep sigh escape, Hizashi glanced over at her cousin and said, “I’m sorry I didn’t visit sooner.”

~~~

Lady Hizashi was particularly blue after leaving Kayama Memorial Hall, her talk with the Emperor seeming to accomplish nothing more than making them both more sombre than before.

As much as Shinsou begrudged admitting it, she felt a little sorry for her mistress, and disliked being around her in such a sullen mood. So Shinsou decided to do something nice for her.

When they were back at Yamada Pavilion and there were no more visitors for the day, Shinsou was tasked with serving tea to Lady Hizashi, collecting a solitary cup on a fine tray to carry out and place beside her.

Shinsou took a few steps into the room, the main hall of Yamada Pavilion where Lady Hizashi received guests, and looked around to check that there was no one else in sight.

Then Shinsou held her hands out in front of her and released the tray, allowing it to slam to the floor and spill the delicate cup, which broke upon impact and cast the mildly brewed tea across the tray.

Hizashi’s gaze shot over at the sound, her eyes sharp as she formed a scolding, “Shinsou!” without even thinking of it before the word left her mouth. “How can you be so clumsy?” her mistress scolded, ordering, “Clean that up at once.”

Not moving a muscle, Shinsou looked her mistress in the eyes and said, “Clean it up yourself, I’m tired of tending to you today.”

Hizashi was silent for a moment, which Shinsou knew was a sign she had achieved the blind shock and rage that actually left her mistress speechless.

Slowly, a smile returned to Lady Hizashi’s face. A twisted, sinister smile, but a smile nonetheless.

“Go to my bedroom and kneel,” Hizashi commanded. “I will come and deal with you once this mess has been taken care of.”

Shinsou bowed and said, “Yes mistress,” before she left, going straight to the bedroom and taking the liberty of removing her outer robe first before she kneeled in the middle of the floor, and waited to receive her punishment.

It was not much, but it might cheer Hizashi up, or at least take her mind off her melancholy.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Shinsou had been disobedient on purpose to earn her mistress’s wrath as a way of cheering Lady Hizashi up from punishing Shinsou, but this was getting ridiculous.

When Lady Hizashi finally came to deal with Shinsou, her first order was for Shinsou to strip entirely. It was spring but not yet warm enough for Shinsou’s human body not to react to this exposure, her skin tingling and hairs standing on end as her nipples hardened without a touch.

The second step was for Hizashi to start binding Shinsou in the most elaborate way yet, using a huge coil or finely woven silk rope that she produced from a box sitting on top of her dresser Shinsou had not noticed before, which Hizashi looped around Shinsou’s arms and torso and knotted in intricate patterns. Tight enough to dent her skin but not restrict the flow of blood, Hizashi framed Shinsou’s torso with a pattern of lines in the ropework and bordered around each breast so their little soft shapes stood out against her chest.

Hizashi bound Shinsou’s upper arms to her sides, but her legs were still free, and from here Hizashi sent Shinsou to lie on the bed on her back. Her mistress spread Shinsou’s thighs and bent her knees up on either side of her, using another rope to fix Shinsou in this position, her wrists fixed to her inner legs.

Unusually Hizashi had not hurt Shinsou yet, or threatened her or even talked to her about her disobedience. Her mistress seemed terribly serious as she worked, as if she were replicating something from memory that she had to focus in order to recall.

Finally, when Shinsou was trussed up and immobile from finger to toe, Hizashi addressed her at last.

“I just keep on punishing you, Shinsou, and you never seem to learn,” she announced sternly, and the lack of immediate pain was more worrying than Shinsou expected, fearing the unknown more than any familiar foe. “So I asked myself what Nemuri would have done with you,” she explained, “and then when I was visiting Kayama Memorial Hall today, I recovered some of her possessions that had been kept in a secret place only she and I knew about.”

Hizashi got up and walked over to the box on the dresser, which Shinsou had not seen leaving Kayama Hall with them, but then that would have been too obvious, and a Lady of influence like Hizashi could surely see to the movement of objects more discreetly than walking out the front door with them.

“She would have liked you,” Hizashi remarked with that same solemnity that Shinsou had foolishly supposed could be cured with a light misdemeanour. Instead of taking her mistress’s mind off her grief the two had merged into this strange beast. Hizashi traced her fingertips along the ridges of the rope binding wrapped around Shinsou and gave a wistful sigh. “We used to have all sorts of fun with naughty girls like you.”

“If I wasn’t so naughty then you’d be bored,” Shinsou dared to reply, and Hizashi reached up to hold Shinsou by the chin and hold her gaze steadily to her own.

“Disciplining you is an impossible task,” she said, then released Shinsou’s face and went back to the box. “But I know what you need to behave, it’s what Nemuri would have told me if she was still here.”

Shinsou hadn’t expected to find this sort of thing out about the late Empress, who everyone spoke of as elegant and responsible, and not the sort of sex fiend who tied girls up and did dirty things to them. But then, no one spoke of Lady Hizashi that way either, and just look at her.

Hizashi lifted something from the box that Shinsou couldn’t understand at first, a carved object polished to a fine dark shine. It was curved on both ends with a bulge at each tip, and not having seen the thing it was modelled off before, Shinsou was slower than most to recognise the phallic shape.

Shinsou’s first naive thought was that Hizashi might strike her with it, and it was only when her mistress put one of the ends up to Shinsou’s pussy and worked it back and forth that she realised what was to be done with the thing.

“Nemuri would’ve told me you just need a good fucking, Shinsou,” Hizashi announced, wetting the head of the sex toy with the plentiful juice of Shinsou’s pussy. If she’d been trained for nothing else, it was to be wet when her mistress wanted her to be.

After nights and nights of not being fucked to a satisfying conclusion, Shinsou was a little on the side of needy as she moaned, “Fuck yes.”

“Yes what?” Hizashi questioned, rather than punish Shinsou for the slovenly manner of her speech.

“Yes Mistress,” Shinsou corrected, feeling the strange difference of the solid object beginning to push into her, much colder and harder than Hizashi’s fingers. It was pleasurable though, while the ropes held Shinsou in place so she didn’t have to support herself, just enjoy the pressure and pleasant stroke from within.

Hizashi slid the thing in to almost the halfway point and stopped. There wasn’t any further it could go into Shinsou, so the other half stuck out and curved forward in a reflection of the side buried inside Shinsou’s cunt. Then Hizashi started undressing herself, an oversight earlier in her dedication to tying Shinsou up, and it finally clicked for Shinsou what the other side was for.

“Now be a good girl and hold still so I can fuck myself with you,” Hizashi said coolly, and sometimes Shinsou was certain Hizashi thought of her as a possession more than a person, and this was definitely one of those times. “Don’t you dare cum without my permission.”

“No promises,” Shinsou huffed, because she’d learned that if she waited only for her mistress’s permission to climax she might never get off.

“If you persist in speaking disobediently your mouth will have to be stopped,” Hizashi warned, and had just the thing for it. She straddled Shinsou’s face once she was naked and all but sat on her, facing towards Shinsou’s body so she could move the sex toy with her hand and fuck Shinsou with it as she ate her mistress out.

When Hizashi was finally wet with spit she turned around and positioned herself over Shinsou, pulled into position like a piece of furniture with the protruding shape of the sex toy. Hizashi pulled her pussy lips apart with her fingers and pushed herself onto it, sliding down the length until she was flush against Shinsou’s soaked lips on the other side.

With a gentle heave of breath and experimental flex against the shape that connected them both, Hizashi declared, “Not quite Shouta’s, but it’ll have to do.”

Shinsou had never heard Hizashi call him Shouta around her before, not with all the talk before of fucking her husband. Shinsou had to believe that she was more an object than ever in her mistress’s mind right now, a mount to be used for her own satisfaction, and a person didn’t have to hold back around mere objects.

Hizashi fucked herself on Shinsou with a slow, serious pace, leaning over Shinsou to get the angle just right and moving on the toy that was held in place for her by Shinsou’s cunt. This permitted a little penetrative movement for Shinsou, but not as much, the fit of the toy much tighter and holding it firmly for Hizashi, as instructed.

When their bodies came completely together their clits would touch briefly, and this sensation combined with the stretch and small movement of the cock shaped toy within her gave Shinsou pleasure enough to think this wasn’t much of a punishment at all, at least not in the way of physical pain. Perhaps it was mental or emotional punishment, or Hizashi recognised that Shinsou had only done what she did to distract her, and wasn’t angry enough to really punish Shinsou for it.

Shinsou felt herself get close to orgasm from just this little inadvertent contact in the course of her mistress’s selfish pleasure, the added stimulation from being penetrated making that little contact of their clits almost enough. The ropes held Shinsou still already, so she could only steady her breathing and chase the point of no return, hoping that she could jump over before Hizashi made it.

This focus was shaken but not deterred when Hizashi’s hand came to rest around Shinsou’s neck, one of the few unbound parts of her, if only because it would be constricted with her mistress’s fingers squeezing tight.

“I can tell you’re trying to cum, Shinsou,” Hizashi threatened, but didn’t stop thrusting herself onto Shinsou with the double ended toy, “Don’t you fucking dare.”

Oh, Shinsou fucking dared.

The pressure around her neck and direct order not to climax was more than enough to cum as Hizashi kept on bouncing into Shinsou, while Shinou she forced herself to remain still and didn’t even flinch, eyes open and making direct contact with her mistress’s as she disobeyed her one more time. Only the slightest unevenness of Shinsou’s breath gave her away, but it would discredit Hizashi if she missed it.

“Disobedient little slut,” Hizashi accused, and carried on relentlessly until she came herself with a long shuddering moan from deep in her throat, the overstimulation driving Shinsou half out of her mind while she got there.

When the frenetic activity finally stopped, Hizashi pulled herself off Shinsou and dragged the sex toy from her crudely, and did at least unfasten the rope bindings, since Shinsou was incapable of doing it herself and no other servant could be entrusted with the task. The indentations left on Shinsou’s skin were a plummy colour, and it felt strange returning to a relaxed position again.

To Shinsou’s surprise, Hizashi made no further threats or punishment for Shinsou’s supposed disobedience. She merely curled up by Shinsou’s side and slung an arm and a leg over her body, holding her close as they both fell quickly into stupefied sleep.

~~~

The following morning Lady Hizashi did seem to be in better spirits, though Shinsou could not say for sure it had anything to do with the previous night. Perhaps Hizashi was merely better after a night’s sleep, though it had to be said that her mistress was even more clingy with Shinsou during said night’s sleep than usual.

Shinsou understood now better than ever that her mistress hated to be alone, whether through an absent husband or deceased friend, and held onto Shinsou all the tighter for it. Arguably, far too tight.

It was notable if not surprising that Imperial Consort Mitsuki didn't come to visit Lady Hizashi and welcome her back to The Forbidden City, but equally, Hizashi didn't go to visit Consort Mitsuki either, which arguably she ought to have done, since Mitsuki was the most senior Consort responsible for management of the harem. Neither willing to give the other first advantage, it was the neutral ground of one of the many ornamental gardens in The Forbidden City where they finally crossed paths. 

"Why Lady Hizashi," Consort Mitsuki called out first as the two women and their entourages approached from opposing sides of the same paved pathway, which in Consort Mitsuki's case included Supervisor Monoma, who greeted Shinsou among Lady Hizashi's attendants with a piercing look. "I didn't realise you were back in The Forbidden City." A slight, of course, to Hizashi not visiting her first to pay tribute.

"Consort Mitsuki," Hizashi responded aloofly, a fixed smile on her beautifully painted face remaining flawless as she remarked, "I would have expected you to be aware of such a thing as part of managing the affairs of the inner palace."

The flicker of annoyance was detectable on Mitsuki's face to those looking for it, but she recovered well.

"There are so many matters for me to take care of, so this trivial one must have been handled by the Imperial Household department without troubling me," Mitsuki delivered with an equally biting smile. "Of course there's no way you would have been able to return to The Forbidden City without our oversight, is there, Supervisor Monoma?"

"No, Your Highness," he answered smoothly. "We naturally made all the preparations for Lady Hizashi's stay in Yamada Pavilion."

"Then I must thank you for your careful work, Supervisor Monoma," Hizashi handled excellently, a sharp look at Mitsuki before continuing, "No wonder Consort Mitsuki feels she can be uniformed of small matters going on in The Forbidden City, when she can trust in someone like you so completely.” With a sly smile Hizashi elaborated, “Unfortunately, I cannot trust my staff so wholly and must be involved in even the smallest matters of Aizawa Manor."

"That must be challenging to manage now, from so far away," Mitsuki replied in a way that reeked of victory.

"In the model of my dear cousin the Emperor, true power is not diminished by distance, so I manage no matter the distance," Hizashi replied confidently. "Not to mention that the business of the Manor is much lesser when myself and my husband are away, and so many things are redirected to Yamada Pavilion already, but of course," she said with a sly look at Monoma, "you will already be aware of such matters."

"Of course, Lady Hizashi," Monoma replied icily.

Having measured up against one another and traded blows, the two women could then resolve to get along, or pretend to at least. 

"Why don't we take a walk around the garden together, Consort Mitsuki?" Hizashi offered cordially. "You can tell me all about your son and his latest accomplishments."

"Of course, Lady Hizashi," Mitsuki replied stiffly, accepting the grace of an invitation to boast about her son, and a little more privacy that might afford them the chance to trade morsels of information, for the right price in return. "Why don’t you all wait here for us," she instructed their attendants, who stood in a small covered area and watched the two glamorous women set off together for a turn around the garden.

“I thought they didn’t get on,” Shinsou naively remarked.

“That has nothing to do with anything,” Monoma replied with a scolding air, and Shinsou had to suppose it didn’t. “Consort Mitsuki and Lady Hizashi will be parched once they have completed their walk, why don’t the two of you go to fetch them some tea for when they get back?” he addressed to Shiozaki and Mitsuki’s blonde attendant who had so far not uttered a word.

The two of them departing on his order, this left Shinsou alone with Supervisor Monoma, and by the look on his face this was his intention also.

“Well well well, look at you now,” Monoma complimented, head tilting as if to appreciate Shinsou better from an angle. “Lady Hizashi certainly knows how to elevate a beauty to her level.”

“Thanks?” Shinsou said unsurely, certain Monoma was angling for something more.

“That’s all the gratitude you have for me?” Monoma said, “After everything I did to help you to this position?”

“You did?” Shinsou replied blithely, and Monoma took a solid step towards her.

“Why yes,” he insisted suavely. “It was I who allowed you to take on tasks that set you apart from the other palace maids, and I who invited you to the Emperor’s Palace the time you met Lady Hizashi, who whisked you away at once.” He stepped closer again, and Shinsou noticed that they had lost sight of their mistresses too. “If not for me, Shinsou Hitoshi, you would still be pulling weeds in the garden beds.”

Shinsou decided to err on the side of safety and lowered herself down to show Monoma a partial bow, accompanied with the words, “I thank you, Supervisor Monoma, for your assistance in these matters.”

“Hm,” Monoma huffed with a cynical look. “Words are easy to say, what are you willing to do to show your appreciation?”

Without the coat of etiquette that Shinsou found didn’t do as much for her in this place as everyone supposed it should, Shinsou fired back, “What do you want me to do?”

Monoma gave a chuckle, and reached up a hand to Shinsou’s face and brushed his first two fingertips under her chin, as if to hold her up to admire properly. “That’s more like it,” he said warmly. “Since you’re staying in The Forbidden City for some time, come to find me when you’re free of attending to Lady Hizashi and I believe we can work something out.”

Shinsou had an idea of what Monoma wanted now, educated by her mistress’s lascivious nature to recognise this breed of interest, and if Monoma did indeed desire her that way, it could be very useful indeed.

“That might not happen often,” Shinsou warned, “My mistress is very demanding.”

“Oh, I know,” Monoma assured her. “But perhaps we can arrange some ways to keep her occupied without requiring your presence, hm? If you’d be willing to compensate me for my assistance, of course.” 

“Of course, Supervisor Monoma,” Shinsou replied cannily, and flashed him an encouraging smile. “In fact, I think you could help me in quite a few ways, and I’d be happy to make it worth your while.” It didn’t make a lot of sense to receive his help in order to make time to repay his other help, but that wasn’t too much of a concern to Shinsou, as anyone willing to help her could be used to further her mission.

“That’s what I like to hear,” Monoma said, and lowered his hand and stepped back from Shinsou primly, prepared with plenty of time for the return of the other attendants and their mistresses of course.

However, this assumption did not account for Shinsou's mistress hiding behind a shrubbery to spy on her attendant, and obviously, Lady Hizashi didn't like what she saw.

The spectacle amused Consort Mitsuki greatly, who commented, "They're just servants, Hizashi, let them have a little fun."

"You know as well as I do it's against the rules," Hizashi replied tersely.

"He's only a eunuch, what's the threat?" Mitsuki pointed out humorously, and of course, familiarity between her most senior eunuch and Hizashi's close attendant could be beneficial to her too, especially trusting in Monoma far more than Hizashi trusted Shinsou.

"That's not the point," Hizashi replied bitterly, and with a more threatening aura concluded, "Shinsou needs to be taught how to conduct herself properly."

~~~

Hizashi's lesson, of course, required Shinsou to be tied to the bed and mercilessly whipped later that evening. Shinsou didn't know what she'd done wrong at first, until her mistress said she'd seen her with 'that boy' and just knew Shinsou was 'up to her usual tricks'.

Shinsou claimed she didn't know what tricks Hizashi was talking about, which her mistress didn't believe of course, and the punishment for which was, unsurprisingly, more whipping. Hizashi used a soft leather braid that stung as it struck but as ever Shinsou's supple skin wouldn't break and barely even bruised anymore, or what little there was would heal by the next morning. This advantage of Shinsou's true nature thankfully wasn't investigated or suspected by Lady Hizashi, believing Shinsou to just have a natural fortitude that made her such a satisfying plaything.

Lady Hizashi also did not like her things to be played with by other people, and the flirtatious appearance of Shinsou and Monoma's conversation observed in secret was enough to merit extremely stern discipline. This meant Hizashi was on high alert for Shinsou's habit of trying to steal a secret climax from under her mistress's nose, and Hizashi had never been more determined to tease but not satisfy her attendant with such wandering affections.

Hizashi's husband was right about Shinsou, in her eyes, but until Shouta returned Hizashi would not sleep alone, and even an unfaithful bed companion was better than none. Besides, Shinsou required extensive punishment for her wayward nature.

What Hizashi hadn't accounted for was that she had pushed Shinsou too far at last. Not with the whipping or any amount of physical pain, which Shinsou tolerated with no more than her trained arousal response, but the unfulfillment. Having Hizashi between her legs for so long and then being left hanging, all for one conversation with someone who she met before Hizashi ever swooped in and took over her life, was finally too much for Shinsou to bear.

All she had to do was wait until Hizashi’s guard was down, letting her mistress believe she had submitted to this punishment. Lady Hizashi seemed to think Shinsou should be careful to even breathe without her permission, much less converse with anyone her mistress didn’t approve of. Patience was a bitter plant, but its fruit was sweet, because Hizashi could still not bear to be alone, and untied Shinsou to sleep beside her that night as every night before.

This, of course, was when Hizashi’s guard was finally down, having fallen promptly asleep with her punished plaything by her side, only to wake up in the enfolding darkness of the bedchamber with Shinsou’s slight weight but surprising strength on top of her.

They were both still naked from the earlier games, and wet and overstimulated, Hizashi obviously satisfied, more than once in fact, and Shinsou far from it. So when Shinsou locked their legs together, one over and one under at a slight twist, she could grind against her mistress under her and get the pleasure she’d been denied in full.

Hizashi was under her, pinned by the wrists to the cushioned mattress, and as she groggily awoke and realised what was happening, Shinsou murmured, “If you won’t give me what I want, Hizashi, I’m just going to take it.”

Shinsou rutted against her selfishly, and the confused slip from sleep into this state along with her sensitivity from being obediently pleasured by Shinsou earlier had Hizashi thrust into a confused haze of intense sensation. It was pleasurably overwhelming as her little wildflower finally snapped and showed that feral nature for once.

“Good, then take it,” Hizashi gasped, enraptured by being used the way she’d taught Shinsou to use someone.

“Shh,” Shinsou hissed crossly, not wanting her mistress’s encouragement or even blessing to do this, as if it was still part of her complex games of reward and punishment. Just once, Shinsou wanted things to be straightforward between them.

“Make me, then,” Hizashi tempted, surprised by the strength in Shinsou’s body, much smaller than her in build yet there was no way Hizashi could have escaped the pin. “Shut me up.”

“I will,” Shinsou retorted, frustrated that Hizashi could steer her even from underneath, even when Shinsou was supposed to be in control, as if this was something she enjoyed just as much as being in control.

Shinsou knew one good way to stop her mistress talking, which was to move her lower half further up Hizashi’s body and straddle her face instead of her crotch. Releasing the grip of Hizashi’s wrists in her hands, Shinsou pinned her arms with her knees instead, and pressed her hard swollen clit to her mistress’s half open mouth. This time Hizashi wouldn’t be able to pull away just before the moment of orgasm, as only Shinsou could decide when to move back, which would not be until she had cum full and proper.

Hizashi did know how to get Shinsou off, just chose not to do it much of the time, but in this position Shinsou could just move herself and ride Hizashi’s face to cum whether she participated in the act or didn’t. However Hizashi participated, in earnest, sucking and licking Shinsou’s clit until she was shaking and cumming hard, curling over her mistress and moaning as the captured force within her was finally released. Hizashi felt Shinsou swelling and pulsing against her tongue, the sweet peculiar taste of her juices, and marvelled that she’d held out this long before finally snapping.

It was a long, shuddering orgasm that filled Shinsou from her spinning head to the tingling tips of her toes, exhausted her, the debt at long last paid. In true show of the selfish example set by her master, Shinsou rolled off Hizashi and lay down to fall asleep without care for reciprocal pleasure.

Hizashi allowed this, denial pleasurable in its own right and satisfied earlier already, so dozed off with an indulgent smile.

She would punish Shinsou for this insubordination later.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

There was a small period of time, little more than a week, after the conclusion of General Aizawa’s training and the start of that summer’s Imperial Hunt. General Aizawa himself went directly to the site of the hunt to oversee preparations, while the princes returned to The Forbidden City to join the official convoy of the Emperor, which would not depart until everything was ready for them.

Unbeknownst to most, General Todoroki Shouto, who had participated in the training of the two princes as a military representative, had left shortly before the princes’ training was complete, since it was after all a fruitless exercise. General Aizawa never decided on a victor between the two princes, too clever than to obviously state any alignment of the Aizawa Clan in a matter such a this, and forced the princes to decide between themselves which of them would take on command of the second banner army for the great spectacle of the Imperial Hunt, also itself a training exercise for the Imperial Armies on a grand scale.

When the Princes returned to The Forbidden City, they informed Emperor All Might that they had come to an agreement. Prince Katsuki would command the second banner army, as he’d wished, on the promise that Prince Izuku would take the command the following year, and in this way they would share the honour. This amicable resolution impressed the Emperor, which disappointed Prince Shigaraki, who had hoped to create more conflict between the princes.

Shinsou Hitoshi was aware of the princes’ imminent return to The Forbidden City, but knowing as she did that Lord Aizawa would carry on directly to the hunt, had thought this was the rule for all generals.

She had not, therefore, expected to see General Todoroki a full day before the princes’ expected arrival back at The Forbidden City. Much less that he would be at the gates of Yamada Pavillion first thing in the morning.

Shinsou not being trusted with any real responsibility, she answered the unexpected caller at the gates over Shiozaki who was attending to Hizashi in person as part of her morning routine.

Todoroki had no certainty that Shinsou would be the one to answer, but it was a wonderful coincidence, since it was her he’d been hoping to see by coming to Yamada Pavilion in the first place.

“General Todoroki?” Shinsou said in alarm, believing he was miles away from The Forbidden City and therefore surprised to see him right in front of her, also with an expression like he couldn't quite believe his eyes.

"Shinsou," he greeted formally, even dipping his head towards her respectfully, as she had risen in status since they were last in a room together. Not by too much, but an attendant to Lady Hizashi was still higher than a simple palace maid.

"What are you doing here?" Shinsou asked, looking around just in case Hizashi was spying on her again.

"I have just returned from training with General Aizawa, who informed me that Lady Hizashi had taken up residence here in The Forbidden City while he was away, so I came to welcome her," Todoroki explained, but without waiting long enough to disguise his eagerness followed up, "and you, are you well?"

"I'm fine," Shinsou responded, a little puzzled that a General like him would bother to visit Lady Hizashi as such a matter of urgency, when even Hizashi's own husband hadn't returned to see her. "I'll go and inform Lady Hizashi that you're here."

With a sudden urgency Todoroki asked, "She's a good mistress to you? Lady Hizashi?"

Shinsou hesitated, wondering for a moment if he could somehow know about Hizashi's controversial style of discipline, then answered, "Of course, it is a great honour to serve Lady Hizashi."

"I didn't ask if it was an honour," Todoroki countered, "I asked if she's a good mistress."

Evading the question, Shinsou backed away and said, "I'll just go and announce you now, General Todoroki." 

Perhaps that was answer enough, as Todoroki's eyes followed Shinsou away with an increasingly longing gaze.

~~~

Back at Todoroki Manor that evening, Shouto was demonstrating his new strategies with his father in their nightly game of Go. Having made his father wait a full five minutes for Shouto to make his first move, this was increasingly frustrating him and it was amazing to see how it impacted his father's game on that element alone.

"I can tell you've been spending time with Aizawa," Enji's comment was meant to be dismissive, but Shouto took it as a compliment, seeing as his victory was measured today in his father's irritation.

Rather than start the game in typically aggressive fashion, steaming towards victory in the most direct and complete way possible, Shouto moved in response to his father's predictable approach and sought to erode and confound him. Not a lighting victory but a long grinding down. They might not even finish the game tonight, Shouto considered with a wry smile.

"That was the purpose of my joining General Aizawa's training, was it not?" Shouto posed, carefully contemplating his next move without hurry.

"The purpose was for you to evaluate the situation between the princes," Enji reminded him.

"It is no different to before," Shouto remarked indifferently, and finally made his next move. "If someone had hoped this would tip the balance between them, they would surely be disappointed." As to who might hope for something like that, such names were best not spoken, even between a bond as close as father and son.

"Very well," Enji accepted, moving fast when Shouto went slowly. It would be possible to win this game, Shouto could tell, but it might be even more gratifying to lose it very, very slowly. Shouto’s father added unceremoniously, "You visited Yamada Pavilion today."

"I did," Shouto could not deny it, since his father did not ask. "Lady Hizashi is cousin to the Emperor, and since the passing of Empress Midnight is one of the few close enough to be his confidante, especially while she’s staying in The Forbidden City," Shouto explained methodically. "I thought it would be wise to pay my respects to her in Yamada Pavilion."

"Hm," Enji murmured, "so it had nothing to do with that attendant of hers you like to concern yourself with."

Coolly, on the outside if not within, Shouto replied, "Which attendant would that be?"

"Shinsou Hitoshi, isn't it?" Enji said smugly, since his son's careful nature could escape the knowledge of most, but not his father.

"Oh, I saved the sedan that person was travelling with down from the mountains when they were attacked by bandits," Shouto said, and had repeated the story enough times now that he believed it, and not that he had arrived at a scene where someone was already attacking the bandits and mysteriously stopped when he arrived. "Once we arrived at The Forbidden City we rarely crossed paths after that."

"I see," Enji remarked, considering his next move a little more carefully, since his son was determined to slow the game down to a crawl. "It hasn't stopped you keeping an eye on her."

It hadn't, and Shouto knew his father better than to assume his sources would be unreliable. Presumably anyone whom Shouto could ask to report on Shinsou's whereabouts or wellbeing would also report to his father about what they reported to Shouto about.

"I exerted some effort in keeping Shinsou alive," Shouto replied calmly, also something he had repeated to himself enough to almost believe it, along with the refrain that his concern for her was of a brotherly nature. "Then she suddenly disappeared from The Forbidden City, I'm just checking that my work didn't go to waste."

"Hm," Enji grunted again, but it had the particular tone this time that told Shouto he didn't believe a word of it.

Thankfully, before he could interrogate any further a servant came to announce General Todorok, the senior, had a visitor.

"At this hour?" Enji questioned with a pretence of suspicion, but they both surely knew who it would be at this hour.

Shouto knew certainly already, even before the casual call of, "Yo," preceded the announcement that General Hawks was his father's late night caller.

“Is that how you greet your superior?” Enji announced sternly, but the young man of small stature with russet blonde hair didn’t bow to this, just slumped against a door post and looked at the father and son on opposing sides of the Go board.

“Two generations of General Todoroki at once? It must be my lucky day,” remarked General Hawks, as he was awarded for his fast and successive victories on the battlefield. Tamaki Keigo came from a little known family and was orphaned at a young age, so his military prowess had to be great for him to rise to such a level despite his family background. 

No wonder then, that he clung to General Endeavor so closely, for the prestige that his own origins could not afford him.

“What do you want, Hawks?” Enji asked directly, an informality that was telling for Generals who had campaigned together on the same battlefield, and won.

“I came to discuss the latest military reports with you,” Hawks said with his deceptively friendly and easygoing attitude, a smirk more than a smile as he tilted his head at father and son and remarked, “or is this a bad time?”

Shouto took the chance, interjecting, “It’s not a bad time at all, General Hawks.” Gesturing at the unfinished game, he said, “My father and I can finish this game on another occasion, so please, go ahead and discuss these more important matters with him.”

With the lack of protest from his father as the tacit confirmation of this course of action, Shouto got up from the table. Enji would not like it, of course, leaving a game unfinished and being interrupted from his questioning of Shouto’s interest in a lowly servant, but nor would Hawks be dissuaded from seeking General Endeavor’s attention when he desired it.

“Very well,” Enji accepted, and what was notable was his tolerance for this favouritism, having deterred and often demoted anyone seeking to climb the ranks or elevate themselves through close association with him. General Hawks was accomplished in his own right, but with the support of General Endeavor this was all the greater. “We’ll go to my study, I have all the latest reports.”

“Whatever you want, boss,” Hawks lilted in a way that betrayed any sense of superiority between them, the inflection and choice of words improper for someone addressing a higher ranked General. That was the most unusual of all, as no one outside of Shouto himself got away with speaking so casually to the great General Endeavor, yet he did nothing but sigh as he stood, allowing Shouto to escape their nightly ritual.

Shouto had to wonder what General Hawks did to afford himself this relationship, much less that it could be flaunted so fearlessly in front of General Endeavor’s son. So as Shouto departed to retreat to his own room, he made sure to meet his father’s eye with a look that reminded him that Shouto was not the only one with partiality.

~~~

In one of the hallways of the Emperor All Might’s Immortal Palace, Shinsou stood patiently outside the door of the room where Lady Hizashi was having tea with the Emperor within, and to put it bluntly, she was bored stiff. Not being trusted meant she could not be permitted to accompany her mistress while she was talking with the Emperor, but not being trusted, nor would Hizashi allow her to stray very far.

Shinsou’s boredom did not last, thankfully, since a familiar figure turned the corner and approached her with a sly grin.

“What a chance meeting this is,” remarked the figure approaching in his crisp blue uniform.

“Supervisor Monoma,” Shinsou greeted with a quick dip of a bow. “What a chance indeed.”

Shinsou didn’t know how Monoma could have known or even influenced Shinsou to be left alone in this particular part of the palace at this exact time, but she didn’t need to know. The amusement and opportunity was enough.

“I have a small chore for you,” Monoma announced. “Come with me.”

“I don’t know what my mistress would think of that,” Shinsou replied warily, not looking to get any more punishment for just talking to someone, much less doing whatever it was Monoma wanted her to do for him.

“Lady Hizashi will be busy with the Emperor for some time,” Monoma assured her. “They won't know you ever left your post.”

“Sounds like something you’d say just to get me to leave my post,” Shinsou pointed out.

“Do you doubt me?” he replied smarmily. “You think I don’t have the influence to excuse you from this boring duty for a few mere minutes?” Turning his chin at her, he said, “Perhaps I was wrong about you, if you’re truly so short sighted.”

“Alright, alright,” Shinsou sighed. “But if I get in trouble then I’m going to blame you.”

Monoma held up three fingers to swear an oath and promised, “You will not get in trouble, Shinsou.”

Satisfied that if she did go down she'd at least take him with her, Shinsou followed Monoma into a small room accessed behind a gilded panel that pushed open smoothly. One of the many discrete doors and connecting rooms that allowed servants to navigate the palace without taking the same pathways as the nobility they served.

Shinsou was no more than a few steps into it when Monoma’s arm braced against the wall next to her to bar further passage.

“Now, what was it we’d been discussing before?” Monoma prompted suavely, and Shinsou had admittedly seen this moment coming.

“It was how I’m to repay you, as I recall,” Shinsou answered, and wondered on a scale of the villager she’d only had to smile and be a little flirty with to be gifted the knife she’d used to defend herself, to Lady Hizashi the nymphomaniac sadist, where Monoma would fall.

“Undo your robe,” Monoma said, and Shinsou smiled.

“Alright.” Promptly she unfastened the delicate ties of her robe for the day, chosen as ever by Lady Hizashi.

“And the one beneath it,” Monoma quickly requested.

“Yes, Supervisor Monoma,” Shinsou replied, assuming that as with most of these humans, subservience was part of the pleasure. In a short time, Shinsou opened the upper part of her outer and inner robe, exposing her breasts to the taller eunuch’s greedy eyes.

Greedy eyes were followed by greedy hands, one of Momona’s coming to cup Shinsou’s breast and squeeze it pleasantly. A far cry from pinched nipples and tight bindings, Shinsou actually enjoyed the softness of his touch, eyelashes fluttering at the warmth as he measured the shape of her in his palm.

“You don’t seem very shy,” Monoma observed, adding a sly, “Have you done this before?”

“Of course not,” Shinsou lied, meeting his eyes up through her own half lidded. “I just know that I can trust you, can’t I?”

“You better hope so,” Monoma responded, switching to grope Shinsou’s other breast, brushing her nipple with the back of his fingers and drinking her in with his eyes. His other hand was delving into his robes, which tented forwards in anticipation.

Sensing her moment of opportunity, Shinsou suggested, “If there was something I wanted you to do for me, Monoma, could I earn it in advance?”

“I think we can certainly work something out,” he replied, driven by desire and easily led into more promises for greater reward. Unfastening the key parts of his own clothing, Shinsou laid eyes for the first time on the sexual organ gripped in his hand. “Why don’t you kneel and show me how committed you are?”

The parts were a little different to the human form Shinsou was experienced with thus far, but from observation of how Monoma gripped his firm shaft and stroked it up and down, Shinsou could deduce what was pleasurable for a human cock in this instance.

“I thought you said you had a small chore for me,” Shinsou remarked when she came eye level to his organ, surprised at the length of it up close. Flushed and hard, with a thicker rounded head to the taut and veined shaft, Shinsou saw the parallels to the toy she had been penetrated with by Hizashi, but still wondered at the notion that something like that could fit entirely inside her body.

“You’re a smooth talker alright,” Monoma purred, holding himself by the base and enjoying the flattery. “What else can that mouth do?”

Shinsou started with a curious lick, the feeling of his hard cock strange and very different to the solid toy Shinsou had experienced before. Though normally Hizashi put it in Shinsou’s cunt, on a couple of occasions she’d filled Shinsou’s mouth with it, almost always after it’d been in one of them first under the auspices of cleaning. This practice fortunately informed Shinsou of the act she attempted now by enveloping the head of Monoma’s flesh and blood cock in her mouth.

“Ah, that’s very good, Shinsou,” Monoma praised breathily, and though other servants might come across them here, his confidence and seniority among eunuchs was such that they had little to fear from those of a lower station, and those of higher would not be found in a place like this. “Suck it deeper, like this,” he urged, slipping more of his cock into Shinsou’s mouth.

Not even half of it was in before Shinsou gagged, throat protesting the unfamiliar intrusion, backing up she coughed, leaving Monoma wet with a trail of saliva drawing between them.

“Not bad for a first try,” Monoma said warmly, bringing his fist to the end of his cock and stroking it down with the lubrication of Shinsou’s spit. “Keep it up and you’ll learn in no time.”

“As long as you give me what I want too,” Shinsou replied, and in this case Monoma had far more useful things to offer her than the return of any sexual satisfaction, though it wouldn’t hurt, certainly.

“Yes, what is it you want?” Monoma questioned powerfully. “I can decide how much you’ll need to do for me to earn it.”

Looking up to meet Monoma’s eyes past the steady pump of his cock, Shinsou named her price.

“I need a eunuch’s uniform.”

“Do you now?” Monoma murmured curiously, settling his hand at the base of his cock again and squeezing it. The rest of his body was still covered by his robes, only the necessary parts exposed, which he presented back to Shinsou’s lips to kiss with the tip of his cock, which leaked a clear salty substance. “Then you better open wide.”

Shinsou did as she was told, able to withstand a few gentle pushes back and forth of Monoma’s cock in her mouth this time before she gagged again, taking a breather and returning to the task with more success. Her body quickly desensitised to the feeling the same way Hizashi’s punishments had become tolerable, then eventually pleasurable. Perhaps this too might become pleasurable in time, though mostly Shinsou just focused on not retching any more. 

“Ah, yes, what a good girl you are,” Monoma panted, pumping the part of his cock that Shinsou’s mouth couldn’t reach, then backing away entirely and stroking the full shaft as he veered towards climax. “Show me those pretty tits again.”

Shinsou did as he asked, arching her back to raise up her breasts for him to see. Not having experienced it before, she did not at all expect liquid to shoot from his cock and land in misty streaks over her chest, expertly missing the precious robes that Hizashi would destroy Shinsou for damaging in any noticeable way, and she could be trusted to notice everything.

“You could have warned me it was going to do that,” Shinsou scolded, yanking back her sleeve and scooping the gooey mess under control with her bare hand.

“And miss the look on your face? Here,” Monoma said smugly, handing her a cloth to clean it up and wiping the drip pooling from his tip with his hand, tucking himself back into his robes with the indifference of recent satisfaction.

“If Hizashi notices even a drop of something that shouldn’t be there you’re dead,” Shinsou warned, and it wasn’t an exaggeration. Hizashi would absolutely have him sentenced to death, and the Emperor would probably allow it. “I’ll tell her you forced me.” Not that she would believe it, but Monoma wasn’t to know that.

“Don’t worry, I’m a very good shot,” he swore, and after wiping the messy substance up from her bare skin and then carefully refastening the layers of her robe, Shinsou had to attest that he was right. 

Monoma helped Shinsou to her feet and carefully smoothed out every last slight wrinkle, his expert eye a match for Hizashi’s any day in putting Shinsou back together as immaculately as she’d been. He returned her to her post some twenty minutes at least before Hizashi finally emerged from her audience with the Emperor, and as he swore, it seemed as if nothing had been amiss.

“Greetings, mistress,” Shinsou offered politely, dipping in a short bow when the door finally opened and Hizashi stepped out.

“I hope you behaved while I was gone,” Hizashi said idly, Shiozaki behind her as ever looking judgemental.

“Yes, mistress,” Shinsou replied with another shallow bow, and there was a tense moment while Hizashi looked her up and down, Shinsou’s stomach writhing with sudden fear of being found out.

However, Hizashi’s narrowed eyes relaxed again and she just said, “Good, keep it that way.”

Shinsou was smarter than to show any visible sigh of relief, holding it in until she was once more out of her controlling, jealous mistress’s sight.

After everything Hizashi put Shinsou through, it felt good to actually get away with doing the things she was accused of and punished for. If Shinsou was going to do the time, might as well do the crime.

Shinsou took special care to wash herself thoroughly before joining Hizashi for bed that night, in case a lingering trace or smell of anything remained. It paid off, as Shinsou even took a little less punishment than usual, since, according to her mistress, she had been ‘good’ that day. Hizashi even let her get off as a reward for aforementioned good behaviour.

So Shinsou slept soundly with a rare satisfaction, well deserving of a reward for all her hard work. Not only had she successfully deceived her mistress, but her mission to recover The Tip of The High Mountain was moving forward step by tiny step.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Shinsou only needed to give Monoma a couple of blowjobs before she had a full eunuch’s uniform hidden in her room at Yamada Pavillion, since he was determined to make her earn it piece by piece, including the wide brimmed red hat. However, on the last of these trysts they had become careless, apparently, some minute hair out of place or crease on Shinsou’s robe after a stretch of unaccounted for time that had set Hizashi onto them.

This was how Shinsou found herself in her present circumstances, to say, naked and tied to the bedpost early in the morning.

“Since I can’t trust you, you shall have to stay here today,” Hizashi explained indifferently, having given Shinsou a particularly rousing bout of punishment last night. Shinsou was actually starting to enjoy it, though, and at least it was properly deserved now. No pain no gain, as they said.

“Yes mistress,” Shinsou replied dutifully, rather than annoy her further by claiming that she could in fact be trusted. Especially when she couldn’t.

The Imperial Hunt was starting soon and preparations were ongoing for the Emperor and his royal entourage to depart, which was going to include some members of the Imperial Harem, but not Hizashi, though whether that was by the Emperor’s design or her own Shinsou couldn’t say. This meant it was going to become rather more lonely even here in The Forbidden City, and as ever, if Lady Hizashi was to be feeling lonely, Shinsou could surely expect to be disciplined extra harshly.

“At least I will know where you are for once,” Hizashi lectured, as if Shinsou wasn’t usually within arm’s reach of her all day every day. “Perhaps a day in here without food or water will teach you the importance of loyalty.”

“Without food or water?” Shinsou echoed with sudden interest. “So I’ll be completely alone all day?”

“There’s going to be a guard stationed outside the door, but they’re not to speak or look at you,” Hizashi confirmed, since of course she hated people speaking to or looking at Shinsou most of all. “You can last like this until evening and reflect on your disobedience.”

Disguising her true elation, Shinsou bowed her head and said, “Thank you for your punishment, Mistress.”

Hizashi huffed disapprovingly, and said, “We’ll see how you feel about that twelve hours from now.”

Of course, once her mistress left, Shinsou waited, oh, maybe forty minutes before she shapeshifted into a fox and no longer fit the careful bindings Hizashi had put so much work into fastening to be inescapably tight for even a flexible human like Shinsou to slip. A fox’s form slipped right out of them, though, and once she was free Shinsou hopped up to the window opening, too small for a human naturally, and was able to wiggle right out.

Still in the form of a fox, Shinsou carefully made her way around Yamada Pavillion to get to her room, knowing the place well and the pathways its people took. There were less staff around when Hizashi was out, which Shinsou had confirmed by the departing procession of her footsteps some time ago.

Once she was in her room, Shinsou shapeshifted into human form again, but this time, it was different.

The powers of shapeshifting by fox spirits held to certain points of reference, a copy made from observation of ‘real’ human subjects. So having seen a great many number of young men around The Forbidden City working as eunuchs and guards, Shinsou’s human form as a boy was modelled on their example.

He was a little taller as a boy, which was quite a nice bonus, and his hair was much shorter, unable to pull into the tight bindings that had been so loathsome as a girl. The colour remained the same, a lavender brush of wayward tufts that Shinsou ran his fingers through as he looked himself over in this new form. His chest was flatter, without breasts but not totally flat, soft pecs and more muscular arms that would properly fill out the uniform he’d illicitly procured.

Shinsou had considered simply wearing the eunuch’s uniform as a female for disguise, but it would’ve been too big and matters such as her hair and figure would have stood out. The point of a disguise was to blend in, so to be most effective it was right for him to stretch his skills with shapeshifting to this new form and appear as innocuous as possible.

Having interacted with Monoma’s cock on several occasions, having his own was a novelty, though it seemed much different to the condition Shinsou usually found Monoma’s to be in. Shinsou’s dangled soft and small between his legs, cushioned by the balls that seemed a little larger and fuller than Monoma’s, but he was a eunuch so Shinsou actually had no idea if he was even supposed to have anything at all. Thankfully that much wouldn’t be obvious under the uniform, so without getting too distracted with his new human anatomy, barring a curious prod of his flaccid dick, Shinsou put on the eunuch’s uniform and carefully snuck out of Yamada Pavillion.

He couldn’t allow himself to be spotted by anyone in Yamada Pavillion or they’d instantly be suspicious, but he knew the place like the back of his hand already and was able to slip out unseen in the mid morning to pursue his true mission.

Shinsou knew the date that The Tip of The High Mountain had entered the Imperial inventory, so the first thing he needed to do was go to the records department and find the logs for that period. It was going to be a little challenging walking into the place dressed the part but totally unknown to the other people working there, but since there were hundreds of eunuchs working across The Forbidden City it didn’t seem so impossible that he could slip through without being questioned. New people started all the time, so he’d just claim he was one of them and apologise for anything suspicious he was caught doing as being new and not knowing how things were supposed to be done.

At least, that was what the plan had been. Everything had been going fine, Shinsou finding the administrative centre of the Imperial Household department and strolling through the compound of many buildings without anyone looking twice at him. Things were so busy with preparations for the Emperor’s departure for the Imperial Hunt that no one was looking beyond their own immediate tasks, and Shinsou easily wandered between buildings bowing to others if they looked important and keeping his head down from anyone else as he searched for the records building.

Even if Shinsou didn’t find the exact record today, it was a start. If Hizashi continued with this new form of extremely convenient punishment then Shinsou should have plenty of opportunities to get familiar with the records department and track down what he needed in an undetectable way. That was much better than a quick in and out that could blow his new cover entirely, so Shinsou was listening and blending in more than he was rushing towards a goal when his plan proverbially blew up in his face.

It was all going well, right until Shinsou turned a corner and came face to face with General fucking Todoroki Shouto.

He was accompanied by Councillor Iida, the two side by side and attended by a number of eunuchs carrying various supplies and papers. Everyone but Todoroki carried on walking at first, but the General froze on the spot, eyes riveted on Shinsou as Shinsou’s were on him.

Councillor Iida was the first to notice, stopping and following the General’s gaze towards Shinsou, then himself becoming curious.

Remembering his manners belatedly, Shinsou bowed and declared, “Greetings to General Todoroki and High State Councillor Iida.” His voice was deeper in this body, and sounded strange to him, as if he didn’t know how to intone it properly to sound convincing.

When Shinsou dared to look back up, both Todoroki and Iida were still staring at him with totally perplexed looks, and Shinsou’s mind was whirling through ways to get out of this one. Ways that didn’t involve murder or running away.

Then Councillor Iida said, as if delivering a gift from heaven, “You look very familiar, do you have a sister working here?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Shinsou said too eagerly, forgetting his manners and then blurting an awkward, “Councillor Iida has excellent discernment to recognise family resemblance in lowly servants such as myself and my sister.”

“Your sister,” Todoroki repeated, speaking finally, as if the ability to do so had only just come to him. He was staring at Shinsou in that way of his again. The one that was somewhere between suspicious and obsessive, and had motivated Shinsou to plot his death more than once. Might have to revive those plans now. “Shinsou Hitoshi is your sister?”

“Replying to General Todoroki, yes she is,” Shinsou repeated, bowing again mostly because it hid his face. His features were different in this form, but probably not enough to sway someone already far too suspicious.

“But she travelled to The Forbidden City without you,” Todoroki pointed out. So, death for him after all, probably.

“Yes, she did,” Shinsou fumbled, “I only arrived recently in The Forbidden City. I followed my sister after our family received word of her success as the attendant to the great Lady Hizashi.”

“Well then, it should be a happy occasion for two siblings to be reunited after coming such a long way,” Councillor Iida remarked.

“Thank you, Councillor Iida, it is indeed a great thing,” Shinsou affirmed, glancing around from the corner of his eyes to identify the best route away from this interaction. “Please don’t let me keep you from important preparations for the Imperial Hunt any longer, I’ll leave first,” he excused, backing away while Todoroki stared at him like he was moments away from grabbing Shinsou to keep him there, or drag him off somewhere else entirely.

“Of course, where were we, General Todoroki?” Iida began to say as Shinsou escaped with his cover intact, and thankfully, Todoroki seemed content to let Shinsou go.

For now.

~~~

Shinsou was being followed, which got in the way of his plan to snoop around for the records pertaining to The Tip of The High Mountain, but that was okay, because he had a new plan.

This plan involved luring the person following Shinsou into a private area and confronting them, which, as Shinsou skulked down a pathway towards a storage building he believed to be empty, was working fairly well.

Opening the door, Shinsou looked around the simple hut lined with shelves, mostly bare, and confirmed there was no one in it. Foolishly he had not brought his knife with him, not expecting to need to use it, and nothing around the room would make a better weapon than his bare hands.

That said, one could not just murder someone in The Forbidden City and get away with it, especially not someone important, so as much as it worried him to consider, Shinsou knew he would need to try and talk his way out of this before it came to blows.

The footsteps following him had been a persistent companion for the hour or so that Shinsou had led this person around, confirming that he was indeed being followed and trying to lose them in several manner of ways, none of which had worked. This person was persistent, and as their footsteps got ever closer to the door of the storeroom, just one window covered with a worn paper screen to let a little light through, Shinsou prepared himself for anything.

At least he was alone, the door opening to reveal Shinsou’s unconventional shadow.

“General Todoroki,” Shinsou remarked, a little flat in energy because he had a strong instinct telling him that deceiving this person wasn’t going to work. “Any reason you’ve been following me?”

Interestingly, Todoroki stepped inside and shut the door first. He was wearing his military uniform as ever, a deep red set of robes and sword on his hip, which put Shinsou at a strong disadvantage should it come to conflict.

General Todoroki Shouto looked at Shinsou directly and said, without doubt, “You don’t have a sister.”

“Of course I do,” Shinsou lied, not that he really expected it to work. Stalking him for an hour and cornering him alone, whether lured into it or not, was not the behaviour of a person convinced of a lie.

“You’re Shinsou Hitoshi,” Todoroki said with that same absolute confidence, not a question but a statement.

“How can that be?” Shinsou replied, holding his arms out as if to present this new body for his inspection. “Do I look like a girl to you?”

“No… but you are Shinsou Hitoshi,” Todoroki repeated, and walked closer to Shinsou like he was going to take him up on that inspection. But rather than reach for Shinsou, Todoroki’s hand drifted to his sword handle and he asked, for the first time, this time, “What are you really?”

Shinsou had a choice. But of the choices available to him, one of them had not worked particularly well so far, so it seemed irrational to continue lying when everything pointed to General Todoroki not believing him.

So Shinsou did the only thing left that seemed reasonable.

“I… ‘m a… fox spirit,” Shinsou confessed, the words terrifying and awkward as he revealed something he’d been taught to never admit to humans, but this was just one human, and if things went badly, well, Shinsou could probably just kill him after all. "I came here from the mountains to recover something precious that was stolen from our shrine."

Todoroki looked like he'd wanted an answer, but this wasn't the one he'd been expecting. His eyes of different colours widened and he said nothing at first, just carried on staring at Shinsou like he was waiting for him to shapeshift before his eyes into a fox and prove it.

Eventually Todoroki repeated what seemed most pertinent to him, a habit Shinsou had started to notice. He mouthed the words, “Something stolen from your shrine,” as if solving a puzzle in his head, then added, “Do you mean the relic that General Aizawa took?”

“Yes,” Shinsou confirmed, since he’d come this far now. “Its name is The Tip of The High Mountain.” Maybe Todoroki knew that already, but as few people seemed to have heard of it at all, it appeared that General Aizawa had kept the matter relatively quiet.

At the very least, General Todoroki hadn’t drawn his sword or gotten angry with Shinsou yet, though there was plenty of time for both. Instead, he said, “You came all this way just to get it back?”

“Without it in our shrine, all the spirits whose power is drawn from the stone will fade from existence, and they’re… the closest thing I have to family,” Shinsou put in terms that made sense to humans, if not really to other spirits, but if it could help to persuade Todoroki not to turn him in, surely it couldn’t hurt.

“Including you?” Todoroki asked right away.

“What?” Shinsou replied, not following.

“You’ll… fade too?” he clarified.

“Yes,” Shinsou confirmed. “I'd last longer because I’m closer to it here than the others, but eventually I would disappear too.” Spirits didn’t refer to it as dying, although it seemed about the same, since the end state of nonexistence was no different.

“No one else knows about this?” was Shouto’s next question.

Shinsou shook his head. “Only you.”

“Why?” he said. “Why tell me?”

“You haven’t given me much choice,” Shinsou pointed out, remembering that although he hadn’t taken part in stealing The Tip of The High Mountain, it was General Todoroki’s battle that brought them to the mountains, and his victory that was used as an excuse by General Aizawa to take it. “And I thought I might just kill you, if you wouldn’t keep the secret.”

“Kill me,” Todoroki repeated, his eyes narrowing a little and hand still resting on his sword. “Like you did those bandits?”

“Until you turned up and got in the way of my plans, yes,” Shinsou dared to confirm, since it seemed Todoroki had known it deep down from that first moment they caught sight of each other by a second of dying firelight. “Question is, whether you’re going to get in the way again now.”

“What is it you intend to do?” Todoroki questioned, defensive, but not yet on the offence.

“Find where The Tip of The High Mountain is stored and take it back,” Shinsou could tell the truth, but not the whole truth. Not the part about getting revenge on those who stole it, since that would surely set Todoroki against him for good, but perhaps he could understand Shinsou’s mission to save his own life and those who depended on him. “When it’s returned to the shrine the spirits will be safe again.”

“It won’t be easy to take something that has been gifted personally to the Emperor,” Todoroki remarked, as if Shinsou didn’t know that already, or Todoroki was actually contemplating letting Shinsou get away with this admission of monumental proportions.

“What do you think I’m doing here?” Shinsou replied. “I’m looking for any records that would tell me where it could have been stored in this vast Forbidden City.” Rather than let it go any further in doubt, Shinsou put to Todoroki, “So you’ll let me go?”

“Not so fast,” the young General responded, and began to walk slowly around Shinsou as if to observe him from all sides, putting together in his head that while it was hard to believe, this explanation was the only one that could answer how he knew the same Shinsou Hitoshi he’d met as a female palace maid stood before him now as a male palace eunuch. “I’m still figuring out what to do with you.”

“If you’ll keep it a secret I’ll make it worth your while,” Shinsou said persuasively, wondering if Todoroki could also be swayed with favours like Monoma.

“Will you now?” Todoroki remarked, cool but only on the surface, like the heat still lay beneath. “What would a fox spirit have to offer someone like me?”

“Depends what you want,” Shinsou replied, mimicking Todoroki’s reservation and lack of forward advance as a sign not to make the first move either. Frankly, Shinsou didn’t quite know what a first move would be, especially not in this body, or if that was even something that’d persuade the young General.

“Alright,” Todoroki declared before Shinsou could give it any further thought. “I’ll keep this between us, but… you’ll have to do something for me.”

“Sure, anything,” Shinsou offered. “Just name it.”

“Not yet,” Todoroki said.

“What?” Shinsou puzzled.

“I’ll keep your secret now, and tell you what I want another time,” Shouto explained.

“Can’t you think of anything?” Shinsou asked, a little put out by the thought of being vaguely indebted to someone with more power over him than anyone should have.

“I want to take my time deciding,” Shouto told him patiently. “A favour from a fox spirit could be useful, couldn’t it?” Smarter than he looked, this boy.

“Fine,” Shinsou agreed, “But don’t think I won’t still kill you if I decide you can’t be trusted anymore.”

To Shinsou’s utter shock, General Todoroki held up his fingers in an oath.

“I swear on my own life that I will tell no one of your secret, Shinsou,” he pledged. “Furthermore, I will help you any way I can to reclaim this relic you are seeking.” Shinsou was stunned by this for a moment, not expecting Todoroki to swear so solemnly, or promise to actually help him in his mission. Then he continued with a sudden flare of cocksure confidence as he lowered his arm, “Also, don’t think you could kill me so easily.”

Considering this an unnecessary provocation, along with curiosity over whether he could back a claim like that up, Shinsou darted towards the General and reached for his sword arm.

Todoroki jerked away, but not fast enough for Shinsou to catch him by the wrist and force his sword to remain in the sheath. Shinsou’s other hand flew towards Todoroki’s neck, but he intercepted this with his other hand and blocked. Though Shinsou weighed a little more as a boy than a girl, it wasn’t nearly as much as Todoroki did by comparison, so when the decorated General abandoned the grab for his sword and simply struck Shinsou with an open palm in the abdomen the force sent Shinsou staggering back a good few steps.

Lucky for Shinsou, then, that he managed to snag Todoroki’s sword from the sheath as he was thrown back, drawing it and attempting to gain control, an attempt foiled when Todoroki adopted a fighting stance and kicked the sword from Shinsou’s grasp with surprising speed and strength, for a mere human. Perhaps his reputation as a soldier was more than just talk, because as Shinsou scrapped with him a few blows more, each met and derailed before either of them took a full hit, it was a more even contest than Shinsou had expected.

“Are you really trying to kill someone who just swore to protect you?” Todoroki queried between strikes, catching Shinsou’s fist in his palm and spinning him around to bash up against the wall of the storage hut, which was not so study as to withstand such a blow without a shake of the structure, which creaked and dropped dust on them in protest.

“If I wanted to kill you then you’d be dead already,” Shinsou claimed, though he wasn’t so confident of that right now, turning his body in towards Todoroki’s and shoving him back with all his weight. This didn’t take him far, the study form of the General barely staggering as he wrapped Shinsou from behind and just restrained him.

“Are you sure about that?” Todoroki said right behind Shinsou’s head, and with a full body jolt Shinsou leapt up and ran his feet up the side of the wall, vaulting and flipping over Todoroki to escape the hold.

Raising his hands on either side, Shinsou said quickly, “Alright, alright, enough, I was just testing you out a little.”

“Interesting approach you have,” Todoroki commented, and though he hadn’t seemed too unsteady in the fight, Shinsou could see he was out of breath a little, his pupils widened and a dew of sweat across his face.

“Only a useful person’s assistance is helpful,” Shinsou told him, standing still as the general collected his sword that had been lodged down the side of one of the shelves that were a little disorganised now after being bashed into and around quite a bit. “If you can hold your own against me then maybe you’re not as useless as most humans.”

“That’s the first thing you’ve said that makes me believe you’re really not human,” Todoroki observed, looking at Shinsou as if in a brand new way, his stare as ever, intense and searching.

Meeting his eyes, Shinsou asked directly, “Can I actually trust you?”

Somehow, having fought with Todoroki made him easier to believe, as if the physical contact and exchange of blows let Shinsou understand him in a way nothing else would accomplish. That he was not a person who would just yield at the first challenge, and though his military career didn’t suggest he was that kind of person anyway, it was better to experience it in person.

“I promise, Shinsou,” Todoroki said with all the weight of the world in his tone. “You can trust me.”

Shinsou found himself wanting to believe him.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Having been caught once and forced to admit to their true nature and mission in The Forbidden City, Shinsou didn’t risk any further trouble and went straight back to Yamada Pavilion after the confrontation with General Todoroki. 

Things had ended amicably with Todoroki at least, after swearing that Shinsou could trust him and he’d help any way he could. Any ally could be useful, especially a General from a powerful family. Shinsou still didn’t know what Todoroki wanted in return for that, which was unsettling, but as long as he wasn’t calling the debt in now Shinsou supposed he could live with it.

Having delayed a lot of presumably important matters of state to follow Shinsou around half the afternoon, General Todoroki had to return with haste to his official duties and parted ways with Shinsou at the small storage hut where everything had been revealed. Shinsou could have kept looking around after that, but their scuffle had taken up some unexpected time and Shinsou decided the last thing he needed was to risk Hizashi discovering he’d snuck out and doubling down on punishments, so he went right back to Yamada Pavilion with his tail between his legs.

The front gate of Yamada Pavilion was monitored for visitors coming or going, but Shinsou had learned which of the internal walls were best to scale, and with the help of a long bamboo cane was able to climb up and over swiftly, landing in a small side channel between the servants’ area and the compound wall. Rather than risk going inside and getting caught, Shinsou stripped down naked right there, placing the folded eunuch’s uniform in a spot underneath the foundations of Yamada Pavilion that would keep it out of bad weather and where no one would think to check unless they were purposefully looking for it. Shinsou would try to return at another point with a protective sack to wrap the useful and hard earned uniform in, but for now it would do.

Shapeshifting into fox form, Shinsou wriggled into the cavity under the pavilion foundations and used it to get closer to Hizashi’s room, where she had fortunately been left tied up naked as a girl, so had no need to retrieve other clothes to replace the ones just hidden. Squeezing out through a hole big enough to fit a fox’s sleek body and jumping back up to crawl in through the window, Shinsou thankfully found all the same as it had been left in the room, right down to Hizashi’s choice of restraints lying empty around one of the bedposts.

Rather than let Hizashi know she was able to escape such methodical bindings, Shinsou stepped into the empty loops and positioned herself carefully before shapeshifting back into a human girl. The fit wasn’t exactly right the first time, but there were still hours to go before Hizashi was supposed to return, so Shinsou had plenty of time to shapeshift back and forth and try to improve the result.

It was fortunate that Shinsou did decide to come back early, as despite swearing that she would endure twelve hours of this boring punishment, Shinsou’s mistress returned by the late afternoon. Perhaps Lady Hizashi had felt a little guilty, or at least concerned for Shinsou, as she was carrying a pot of water when she entered the room alone.

“Right where I left you,” Hizashi said contently, and Shinsou had gotten all the ties back into their proper places just about, but not exactly.

“Of course, mistress,” Shinsou replied assuredly, “How could I escape this?”

Walking over, Hizashi inspected her and said, “Didn’t stop you trying, I see.” The slight movement of the ropes, which hadn’t been possible to get back exactly, could be interpreted as the result of someone trying to struggle free.

“I was merely uncomfortable and moved a bit,” Shinsou explained. “I wouldn’t dream of trying to escape your punishment.”

“Too right you wouldn’t,” Hizashi shot quickly, but then raised the container of water to Shinsou’s mouth and tipped it to allow her to drink. Shinsou was no human, but knew by this society it was a shocking move indeed for a mistress to tend to a servant in such a way, even if it was only because she had restrained Shinsou in the first place.

“Thank you, mistress,” Shinsou said in respect of this fact after the water had been moved away, then Hizashi set it down and sat on the edge of the bed next to Shinsou, beginning the task of unfastening the knots that held this complex piece of bondage in place.

“Do you know why I had to discipline you so harshly, Shinsou?” Hizashi asked with surprising gentleness, perhaps even tender, as her soft fingertips started working the ties loose.

“I was disloyal,” Shinsou suggested, and gave a fairly mild version of events with the phrase, “Talking to someone without your permission.”

“Not just someone,” Hizashi corrected, and with a lower tone added, “and not just talking either.” Shinsou shrugged, which timed with the removal of the ties from that part of her body, and though she’d only been bound like this for a short while, she needed to let Hizashi believe it’d been a lot longer. “Monoma is aligned with Bakugo Palace,” Hizashi continued, and Shinsou felt her tracing the indentations left in her skin with a fingertip. Hopefully they were deep enough not to betray that Shinsou had in fact been out of them longer than she’d been in them, but it seemed her mistress was in a sentimental mood, so perhaps she wouldn’t pick something like that up.

“So?” Shinsou asked, not quite sure why that made it such a big deal, given the only sensitive matter addressed between them was Monoma’s cock.

“I can’t allow anyone close to me to be associated with Bakugo Palace,” Hizashi told her. “No matter how trivial that connection might be, it cannot be tolerated.”

“Why?” Shinsou asked.

“Because Bakugo Palace represents Prince Katsuki as the Crown Prince,” Hizashi answered with surprising transparency.

“And you don’t support that?” Shinsou tested.

“Would you?” Hizashi responded, and, Shinsou supposed, she had a point. 

“Then you support Prince Izuku?” Shinsou queried.

“The Aizawa Clan is neutral in matters of the Imperial Family,” Hizashi replied. “They have to be neutral, or it would be very harmful to our status.”

“Because you’re not allowed to interfere in things like that?”

“Exactly,” Hizashi confirmed. “That’s why I have to punish you like this, Shinsou, so you understand how even your actions smallest actions could cause problems for us.” The ‘us’ meant herself and Lord Aizawa of course, the current head of the Aizawa Clan. “You must behave, wildflower, or there’ll be nothing even I can do to protect you.”

“You call this protection?” Shinsou mocked, finally coming free of the bindings and stretching to lay flat on her back on the bed, Hizashi sat beside her leaning on one arm watching with a knowing glint in her eye. “Here I thought you were just jealous that someone other than you took an interest in me.”

Leaning further over Shinsou with a lascivious air that told of what was coming next, Hizashi responded with full confidence, “Oh, that too.”

~~~

Back in Todoroki Manor that same evening, Shouto was having a crisis. As much as he tried to focus on the nightly continuation of his game of Go with his father, his mind was nowhere near those black and white pieces or their significance on the board.

Shouto’s mind was up in the mountains where he’d met Shinsou, knowing now that Shinsou wasn’t the girl he’d met barefoot in the snow, or the boy he’d seen for the first time today when his heart all but stopped. Shinsou was a fox spirit, not even human, and that feeling Shouto had when he first laid eyes on Shinsou and felt something was different about her… him… them, he supposed, wasn’t wrong.

Shouto had suspected Shinsou that time when they were still in the mountains, because he’d sworn he saw Shinsou for a moment in that flash of dying light near a mortally wounded bandit, but the crying girl his eyes perceived had thrown him off. He’d stayed close to Shinsou, watching ‘her’ and trying to figure out what it was that hadn’t settled with him, along with the compelling urge to see to her safety because it was within his power to do so.

Over time Shouto had convinced himself it was a feeling of brotherly concern, and that was why he’d followed Shinsou so closely, as well as his curiosity about the girl from the mountains who it turned out was not really a girl.

When Shouto had first seen Shinsou as a boy, the concept of feeling brotherly had gone out the window. Or if it was, it was a perverse kind of brother. Just remembering the fight he’d had with Shinsou had Shouto’s blood stirring, even as he sat opposite his father pretending he was thinking about his next move, and not how Shinsou could be so attractive as any gender.

For Shouto, it was Shinsou as a boy that’d set his blood on fire, something he had privately concluded about himself in theory, but never in practice, or not like this.

“What’s wrong with you?” Shouto’s father asked, or demanded, in his vernacular.

So many things. But currently, it was obsessing over a boy who wasn’t even a boy, but that didn’t stop Shouto thinking about him like one. 

Shouto never imagined Shinsou could fight like that either, even suspecting what he did about the bandits Shinsou put to death, it was different experiencing that in person. He hadn't expected Shinsou to snap so suddenly and come for him the way he did, claiming he was testing Shouto in combat for his worthiness as an ally. It should have insulted Shouto but it excited him, especially because of the genuine challenge, how fast and wild Shinsou was and the strength in his light body, the unconventional way of his movement, and agility in countering an opponent.

"Shouto?" his father prompted again.

"Hm?" he responded.

"You're not focused," Enji said sternly.

No fucking shit.

Shouto made his move, having planned these last few moves already and not bothering to reexamine them like he would if he cared about anything except rerunning every moment of his exchange with Shinsou on a loop in his head.

"I'm just tired," Shouto excused. "I've been busy." He had been doing a lot to prepare for the Imperial Hunt this year, taking on responsibilities for the Todoroki family that his father had used to do. It was supposed to be a good thing, Shouto stepping up while his father stepped back, but it also gave the elder Todoroki the opportunity to judge and criticise when things weren't done exactly his way.

"Busy running after that girl," Enji accused coolly.

"No," Shouto was able to say entirely truthfully, since Shinsou was a boy today and Shouto hadn't had to run while he followed him around. "I've been taking care of things at the Imperial Household department all day, nowhere near Yamada Pavilion."

"Hm," Enji grunted, as if he couldn't counter this but knew that Shouto was still defying him somehow. “Just make sure that you’re focusing on your responsibilities and not getting distracted.”

Oh, Shouto was trying, but tonight’s was a losing battle.

Rather than suffer through this flagellation all evening, Shouto decided to call it now. “I’ll go to rest now, in that case,” he excused himself from the game, a new privilege he was starting to exercise instead of letting his father’s will overrule his own every time. "We can continue our game tomorrow."

"You said that yesterday, and the day before that," his father replied irately.

"I know," Shouto answered. "Refreshing, isn't it?"

"Very well," Enji permitted. "But tomorrow I expect you to be here fully, not with your head a thousand miles away."

"I understand," Shouto said, bowing to bid his father goodnight and then retreating to his room.

Once alone, Shouto gave into his urges and immersed himself in thoughts of Shinsou, and the secret he alone possessed about what Shinsou really was and his purpose for being in The Forbidden City.

At the same time Shouto's hot blood began to cast sparks, kindling the kind of burning desire that couldn't be ignored. Even if his mind wanted to focus on more noble things, Shouto's cock had other ideas. Throbbing and hard within minutes, Shouto surrendered to the call of his body and touched himself as he remembered Shinsou as he was that day, the captivating boy who'd thrown himself at Shouto, if not in exactly the way he'd like.

Halfway undressed on his bed, Shouto pumped his fist over his cock and pushed down any feelings of guilt, not that they could do much against his overwhelming arousal in the heat of the moment. When he finally spilled over, spurting into his hand with a few cut off gasps, the guilt got an upper hand and he was ashamed of himself for masturbating over Shinsou so flagrantly.

This was… going to be a problem.

~~~

Shouto had resolved of course never to let his improper urges towards Shinsou show outwardly, certainly not to the extent that was within his control. It not only stood to get them both in trouble, should such relations be acted on and discovered, but Shouto also had no idea if Shinsou even felt anything like that in return, or if that was just another ‘human’ thing that a fox spirit would never concern themself with.

However, this didn’t have to stop Shouto from keeping contact with Shinsou, and though he went back and forth with himself over it, he found he could not let himself leave The Forbidden City to participate in the Imperial Hunt without bidding Shinsou goodbye. So on the day of his departure here he was again at Yamada Pavilion, hoping to catch a glimpse of the person he thought about whenever his mind was left free, like a familiar perch for a bird to rest upon.

Neither of Lady Hizashi's personal attendants were managing the door when he arrived, which wasn't quite as convenient as Shinsou answering the door like last time, but was far better than it being the other girl who'd surely report back to her mistress if a General was snooping around after one of her attendants. More than that, it'd get back to Shouto's father, though he always seemed to know what Shouto was up to regardless, so it seemed pointless to even try to hide anything from him.

Shouto told the servant who greeted him at the gate that he would see himself in and not to announce his arrival, an instruction that puzzled the young guard, but being that he worked at Yamada Pavilion, he knew better than most not to question the orders of his superior and allowed Shouto in without ceremony.

It was still early in the day, and the morning chores were underway. Shouto walked around the main building keeping an eye out for a glimpse of purple anywhere. He caught it after a few minutes of covert hunting, spying Shinsou walking with a bowl to collect water from the main building towards the back.

"Shinsou," he called out quietly, seeing her turn and the look of surprise as she recognised him. It was strange how he still recognised her, knowing intrinsically as he had yesterday that he was looking at the same person no matter how they looked on the outside.

"What are you doing here?" Shinsou asked uncomfortably, not expecting Shouto to be there or see her in that state. Shinsou was dressed, but not for outside eyes, her robe only casually fixed and her hair not tied, hanging long down her back with various stray flyaways framing her face. 

"The Emperor's party leaves for the Imperial Hunt today, so I'll be going soon," Shouto explained, and it was easier to be around Shinsou in this form, or less distracting in the specific ways that Shinsou distracted Shouto as a boy.

"So? I know that," Shinsou replied casually, and Shouto for the first time noticed some discolouration on Shinsou's skin, low down on her neck near the border of her robe. A bruise of some sort, but from what?

"I came to… say goodbye," Shouto awkwardly told her, "and to make sure you'll be alright."

"You did?" Shinsou asked, seeming even more confused by this attempt at explanation, which surely failed going by the bemusement showing on her face. "I'll be fine, there's going to be less people around here so if anything it’s better," Shinsou responded pragmatically. "Did you come all the way here just to tell me that?"

"Well… I…" Shouto tried to find words that didn't sound quite so… blatant. He couldn't just say he didn't want to leave without telling Shinsou, when there was meant to be no relationship between them to merit such behaviour. "I was… worried you might need my help with something and not know where I'd gone, but I… realise now I'm saying it how obvious it is.”

Shinsou did something unexpected and offered Shouto a smile, small though it was, but disarming all the more for not anticipating the butterflies it put in his stomach.

"I appreciate the thought, General Todoroki, but please don't come back here again."

The firmness of these words didn't quite match with the softness of Shinsou's expression, and took Shouto a while to process, accounting for his delayed response of, "Wha– why?"

The shift in Shouto when Shinsou answered was sudden and intense, as if all the butterflies spontaneously burst into flame the moment she said, "Hizashi can't see me talking to you or she'll…" Shinsou cut herself off, but she'd said too much already, and Shouto was already overcome with indignation.

"Or she'll what?" Shouto demanded urgently. "Does she mistreat you? I meant it when I asked if she was a good mistress–"

"Shhh!" Shinsou hissed like a stepped on snake, flinching away from Shouto as if he were about to grab for her, which, to be fair, he had been considering. He only didn’t out of respect, for both Shinsou and the rules of The Forbidden City, which forbade relationships between servants and Imperial soldiers. “I can handle myself just fine if you remember, so if you want to help me then don’t try to help, just stay away from me.”

Shouto did remember. But it wasn’t this form of Shinsou that he’d gotten such a hands on demonstration with yesterday, so it must have been Shouto’s internal bias that made him feel Shinsou was more vulnerable as a female than a male. It was harder for girls entering the palace than boys in a lot of ways, so Shouto felt he was entitled to be a little more concerned for Shinsou under this guise than as the eunuch he’d roughhoused so freely with yesterday.

“Like this?” Shouto said presumptuously, desperate to clarify that it was only the girl known to be Lady Hizashi’s attendant that he was banned from pursuing. That, Shouto could live with.

“What do you mean?” Shinou asked.

“Stay away from you like this,” Shouto said. “If we… crossed paths under different circumstances… then it would be okay?”

“Hm, I guess so,” Shinsou acknowledged, “But you’re about to go away on the Imperial Hunt anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.”

“No, I suppose not,” Shouto admitted, seeing his missteps more clearly now, fooled into thinking he could just come find Shinsou in the day without it being a liability, just because it was what he wanted. “I’m sorry to impose on you, Shinsou,” he said sincerely, bowing and resolving to leave right away and hope no one would question what he’d been doing in this moment of delusion. “Goodbye.”

“Bye, Todoroki,” Shinsou said in return, not addressing Shouto as general, just by his name, which was exciting to have even that little scrap of informality. Looking left and right, she ordered, “Now get out of here before anyone sees you.”

Shouto did as he was told.

~~~

“Bring the wine!”

One thing was for sure, Hizashi needed a fucking drink. No, Hizashi deserved a drink, because everyone who was anyone who’d been at The Forbidden City while Hizashi was staying there had now left for the Imperial Hunt, and a month at least stretched out ahead of her being bored and angry about it.

Hizashi could have invited herself to go along to the Imperial Hunt, if she wanted, but she did not want. She’d been to enough of them before to be sick of the military spectacles, and she was not sleeping in any temporary structure no matter how nicely it was made up or whether her husband was occasionally there or not, Shouta’s attention forever on military matters over marital for that time. Those years were behind her.

This was a chance to spend time with her daughter, at least, but Eri was in classes for much of the day and could not stay up late, so Hizashi’s time with her each day was limited to a few hours at most. By evening she was always bored, and worse yet, her newest plaything was misbehaving again.

“You’re sure?” Hizashi had questioned Shiozaki when first presented with the facts that afternoon.

“Yes, mistress,” Shiozaki confirmed with her steely no fun attitude as ever. “General Todoroki Shouto visited this morning and spoke briefly with Shinsou before leaving.”

Hizashi hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, but she didn’t need to. Of course it had to be a fucking Todoroki now. She didn’t know how Shinsou managed it.

“Shiozaki, where’s that fucking wine?!” Hizashi snapped impatiently, and since there was no one important around here anymore, it didn’t really matter what she did.

So Hizashi got drunk.

It was no fun drinking alone, though, so after Shiozaki brought the warm flask and Hizashi had enjoyed the first few small cupfulls of rice wine herself, she summoned Shinsou.

“Sit,” Hizashi commanded, and apart from the report of her secret visitor this morning, Shinsou had been as good as gold all day. It was even more infuriating that she behaved in sight and misbehaved out of it. 

“Are you sure?” Shinsou questioned, likely fearing a trap of being unruly by sitting with her mistress as if they were of equal status. Hizashi had played that trick on her before, to be fair, but there was no one who mattered around here anymore for such things to have any relevance.

“Yes,” Hizashi insisted, pouring a second cup of rice wine and ordering, “Drink with me.”

“Is everything alright, mistress?” Shinsou asked with the implication that she could tell it wasn’t.

“Just drink, Shinsou,” Hizashi huffed. “We’re going to be seeing a lot of each other for the next month while everyone else is gone, so might as well have some fun.”

Shinsou sat down at the other chair beside Hizashi's table where she took all her meals, lifting the cup Hizashi poured for her and sniffing it delicately, then made a face and asked, “What is it?”

“Rice wine,” Hizashi answered, asking, “You’ve never had it before?”

Shinsou shook her head, and this brought a little enjoyment to Hizashi’s mood. Some more firsts to take from her little virgin who was not much of a virgin anymore. Watching the girl take her first timid sip and grimace at the taste, Hizashi could even muster a smile.

Raising her own cup, she moved it towards Shinsou’s and toasted before draining it entirely, gesturing for Shinsou to do the same.

Shinsou tried to drink again, making the same awful face, and asked, “What’s it for?”

“It gets you drunk, wildflower,” Hizashi said fondly. “You never had any in your village?”

Shinsou shook her head again, and asked the wonderfully innocent question, “What’s getting drunk for?”

“Oh, you’ll see,” Hizashi promised, topping up both their cups.

It was about half the flask they drained, mostly Hizashi, before the effects had taken hold in full. Whatever small amount Shinsou drank had flushed her face, eyes glassy and dilated as she wobbled in the chair beside Hizashi’s. She did it so naturally as well, sat with someone so far above her status as if they were equals, or as if such things didn’t matter to her at all.

A thought surfaced and tumbled from Hizashi’s mouth, loosened from drinking and bitterness, words slurring slightly as she declared, “You’ve no idea how spoiled you are, do you?”

“Spoiled?” Shinsou scoffed. “How’d you figure that?”

“Just look at you,” Hizashi said. “Wearing the best clothes, drinking my wine at the table with me, you even sleep in my bed.” Hizashi put to her, “Who else of your background would get to live like that?”

Undeterred, an effect surely of the alcohol, Shinsou looked directly at Hizashi and replied, “I wear what you choose for me, do what you tell me to do, and sleep where you tell me to sleep.” Shinsou propped an elbow on the table between them and slumped her face against it. “I can’t decide a thing for myself, there’s nothing spoiled about that.”

“If you think freedom is a luxury to be spoiled with then you shouldn’t have entered The Forbidden City,” Hizashi told her. “No one’s free here, not even the Emperor.” It was a treacherous thing to say, but it was true, and Toshinori would agree with it. The Emperor was bound to serve the nation, even as the most powerful person at the heart of it.

“Then what’s the point?” Shinsou asked. “Living a bound life just to be able to bind others?”

“Speaking of binding others,” Hizashi deviated, taking a nonchalant sip and remarking, “Don’t think I won’t tie you to the bedpost again if you keep straying.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Shinsou replied confidently.

“Tch, you always look innocent on the outside, but you can’t fool me,” Hizashi accused. “I know about your secret visitor today.”

Hizashi saw it, just for a moment, but the reaction in Shinsou’s face that confirmed what Hizashi had been told.

“What visitor?” Shinsou claimed.

“So do you have a thing for Generals, or are you just attempting to jump to a higher status and only Generals will do?” Hizashi accused. First Lord Aizawa, and when that backfired the heir of the Todoroki Clan, it had to be said, Shinsou was certainly bold in her ambitions.

Shinsou sighed, and must have resolved to drop the cute act, since it wasn’t fooling Hizashi.

“I’ve never done anything to encourage General Todoroki, he just came to see me out of nowhere,” Shinsou told her abruptly. “I told him to leave me alone and not come back here, so are you happy?”

The confession outraged and delighted Hizashi in equal measure. She grabbed the remaining flask of rice wine and stood up, grabbing Shinsou in the other hand and pulling her over.

“Come on, let’s go,” Hizashi urged, the two of them stumbling and almost falling off their shoes to make it from the hosting room where they’d been drinking to the bedroom. Not Hizashi’s marital bedroom, which was cold and empty hundreds of miles away, but the room she’d grown up in, and had been hers entirely, to fill with whom she pleased, or could get away with in this impossible place. Shinsou’s love of freedom inspired her in that aspect, but for something so beyond her, Hizashi resented it as well.

“What are you–” Shinsou got out, but never finished the question because Hizashi smothered her mouth with a kiss, not even at the bedroom yet but close by, pressing Shinsou to the wall of the corridor without care for who might notice. Perhaps it was as Shinsou said, and freedom was the true indulgence. To do something not just in objection to the rules, but as if they didn’t even exist.

Hizashi tasted the rice wine between them, opening her mouth to touch Shinsou’s tongue with her own, kissed her deeply, the way she usually only did with Shouta, but Shouta wasn’t here and Shinsou was.

Releasing a startled breath over Hizashi’s damp mouth after they parted, Shinsou gasped a surprised, “Mistress, what if we’re seen?”

Hizashi kissed her again for the sheer defiance of it, and then stumbled the rest of the way into the bedroom. Swigging directly from the flask, Hizashi wet her mouth and pressed it to Shinsou’s again greedily, then backed away just to present the flask to the dazed teenager.

“Drink,” Hizashi commanded, and Shinsou did her best, putting it to her lips and tilting her head back to try and tip a small amount into her mouth, but her bared neck was too tempting, and she jerked when Hizashi ducked in and licked her. Spilling the wine over her face, and some down onto Shinsou’s robe, Hizashi backed up a little and tutted her tongue disapprovingly. “We’ll have to get you out of those soiled clothes,” she said lustily, all but pulling the robes off Shinsou and struggling out of her own, putting the flask of wine down by her bed and tumbling into it on top of Shinsou, who moved clumsily and panted as if unable to catch her breath.

“The room is… spinning,” Shinsou murmured, the alcohol getting the best of her, along with Hizashi very shortly.

“Did you drink too much?” Hizashi cooed, as if it hadn’t been her plan all along. “Poor flower.”

“Only ‘cause you told me to,” Shinsou argued sluggishly, letting herself be moved like a ragdoll by Hizashi to sprawl naked on the bed.

Holding herself over Shinsou, Hizashi took advantage of their loosened inhibitions and asked, "Now tell me truthfully, what did you do with the Todoroki boy?”

“Nothiiiing,” Shinsou whinged, rubbing her face with a palm and then pulling the pins clumsily from her hair, scattered around her on the bed as the lavender coils turned loose.

“Then why did he come here?” Hizashi demanded, unfastening her own hair to tumble over her shoulder, almost touching the bed beside Shinsou’s head. “You must have done something to lure him.”

Shinsou shook her head adorably, pouting and looking more childish than usual. Hizashi crawled across the bed for her box of tricks, and withdrew the double ended dildo with a wicked glee.

“He’s followed me since we met on my way to The Forbidden City,” Shinsou told her, still flat on her back like an overturned tortoise. “He asked if you’re a good mistress to me.”

“Oh he did, did he?” Hizashi remarked, keeping the dildo to hand while settling herself back on top of Shinsou, kneeling between her splayed legs that Hizashi nudged further apart. “And what did you tell him?”

“That it’s an hic- honour to serve you,” Shinsou answered.

“You’re damn right it is,” Hizashi affirmed, the alcohol fuelling the jealousy she usually tried to downplay and convince herself otherwise of, not supposed to feel so strongly for a low ranking servant. Shinsou’s small breasts almost flattened when she lay on her back, but there was enough to fill Hizashi’s palm when she grabbed one and squeezed to feel the softness hidden there.

“Ahh,” Shinsou murmured, eyes closing and remaining heavily lidded even when they were open.

Hizashi groped and pinched Shinsou’s breast as she indulged herself in the freedom of speaking her mind, “You didn't have anything before I found you, Shinsou, never forget that. If it wasn’t for me you’d still be sweeping floors and taking that eunuch’s empty cock for a sliver of a servant's favour.”

“Hah– Hizashi,” Shinsou panted as Hizashi’s hand slipped between her legs, fingering her expectantly wet pussy.

“I raised you up, taught you how to do everything, gave you the finest things," Hizashi continued, "So now you belong to me, wildflower, because if it wasn't for me you'd be nothing." Shinsou just moaned, and Hizashi pushed two of her fingers into her and hooked them just right, pistoning her hand back and forth to see if she could make her squirt.

"Don't you dare even think about betraying me again, because you're mine, and if I don't want you anymore I'll break you just to stop anyone else from having you," Hizashi threatened, watching Shinsou come apart in her hands, and then just cum. She soaked Hizashi's hand in spurts, shuddering and squirming against the bed, a perfect picture of depravity.

"I won't," Shinsou drawled, half conscious with her head lolling to the side. "I'll be good, mistress."

"You will because I won't give you the chance to be anything else," Hizashi countered, not even close to done with Shinsou and pulling out her fingers only to pick up something bigger to replace it with. "You belong to me, and I do what I want with my belongings."

Only a little stretched from being vigorously penetrated with Hizashi's slim fingers, Shinsou moaned as Hizashi put the tip of the dildo to her entrance and firmly pushed it in through the slick wetness she'd drenched her mistress and the bed with. Shinsou's cunt was always so tight, no matter what Hizashi put in it, and she gripped the phallic shape forced into her tightly. She was an excellent anchor for that reason, but all good things in time.

Shinsou's next sound was almost a scream, arching as Hizashi rubbed her hardened clit and fucked her slowly with the dildo. To keep her quiet Hizashi straddled her face, finally pressing her pussy to Shinsou's wine sweet mouth and grinding against her selfishly. Shinsou was too drunk to eat her out skillfully, but it didn't need to be skillful, and the sloppy licks and sucking was more endearing overall.

Hizashi rode her face and fucked Shinsou until they were both close to cumming, then switched and forced Shinsou's thighs up either side of her, settling over one and under the other at a diagonal as Hizashi pushed herself down on the other side of the dildo. Their clits kissing, Hizashi stilled for a moment and drank in the sight of Shinsou under her.

Hizashi's husband had given her an ultimatum, which was to get rid of Shinsou or share her by the time he was back, and Hizashi could tolerate neither of those things, but one was worse than the other.

"You're mine, Shinsou," Hizashi repeated, moving slowly and then starting to circle her fingertips over Shinsou's clit aggressively. "Even if I cast you away, you'd still be mine. Say it," she ordered.

"Yours, mistress," Shinsou delivered on command, already so close to cumming so quickly. "I'm yours, even if we're apart– fuck, I'm cumming," she sounded out, clenching hard and wailing her overwhelming pleasure as Hizashi stroked it out of her touch by touch.

Shinsou sighed through her whole body as she came down, eyes shut and unresponsive.

"Shinsou?" Hizashi questioned, then reached for her face to grasp, trying to stir her and merely confirming that the girl was out cold.

Not letting that deter her, Hizashi kept using Shinsou, bouncing on the cock shapes that held them together and rubbing herself off on Shinsou's clit until Hizashi came too, quivering over the unconscious Shinsou before finally hauling herself off, the dildo sliding out of Shinsou's drenched cunt.

Hizashi only just managed to lay down beside Shinsou before passing out herself. In the morning she'd feel rough, but for that glorious night of freedom, it'd been worth it.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Shinsou woke with her very first hangover the next morning, sick to her stomach and completely unconvinced of why any sane human would do such a thing to themselves. It made sense to do to one's enemies, which was maybe part of the point, although it had to be noted that Hizashi was in no greater state than Shinsou come the morning after.

"What happened last night?" Shinsou asked groggily, hoping that Shiozaki wasn't going to barge into Hizashi's bedroom and see them in this sorry condition.

"What do you remember?" Hizashi asked, also looking worse for wear but enduring it with far more grace than the inexperienced Shinsou.

"Not much," Shinsou answered, "just that we were… kissing." Shinsou felt herself flush, and blamed it on the alcohol, which she was certain hadn't fully cleared her system. Somehow kissing seemed the more indecent act, since Hizashi rarely did it, at least compared to the other more sexual things she did to Shinsou on a much more regular basis. Shinsou had the familiar aches to testify that some of those things had definitely been done to her, but she had no recollection of them in the light of the new day.

"Is that all?" Hizashi asked with a mix of amusement and disappointment, though with many long weeks of very little going on in The Forbidden City while the Emperor and his party were away for the Imperial Hunt, there would be nothing but time in the heat of summer to waste away.

"Did I forget something important?" Shinsou queried, a vaguely familiar sense of possession in her mistress's eyes on her. This time should have been a great opportunity for Shinsou to search for The Tip of The High Mountain, but she had the strong suspicion that Hizashi wasn't going to let Shinsou out of her sight for much of it.

"Very important," Hizashi said, not reaching to touch Shinsou, who lay half an arm's distance beside her on the bed. They were both too sick and sweaty to enjoy it, but it would wear off, and they weren't going anywhere. Assaulting Shinsou with her eyes, Hizashi promised, "I'll have to teach you again."

Shinsou would learn who she belonged to if it was the last thing Hizashi did.

Which it would be, in a way.

~~~

It was quiet in The Forbidden City, true to expectation, without the Emperor there or his sons, or his favoured consorts and the many attendants who took care of them. However, true to Shinsou's expectation, Hizashi kept her close, so much so that they spent all their time together from the start of each day until its end and through the night.

Shinsou should have minded this more, but it was summer, and the heat of this lowland country and manmade complex of structures was close to unbearable. Shinsou longed for the cool mountains of her homeland, but could not even sneak away in the middle of the night to explore the gardens or swim, since Hizashi slept entwined with her and would wake if Shinsou ever tried to leave.

It was not as intolerable as it could have been though, because Shinsou lived as Hizashi's companion by leaps and bounds more than any attendant, even by the already lax standards she'd come to expect before then. 

Shinsou soon realised that as long as she stayed close to Hizashi and devoted all her attention to her mistress, that was as far as their relationship of master and servant needed to go. As soon as other servants left the room, the few still around tending to the palaces and their remaining residents, Shinsou could eat with Hizashi, tease her, and say or do pretty much anything she wanted without enduring the usual consequences. When it was just the two of them together, one could almost dare to say it was like they were something else, dare they say equals.

They slept together, got ready together each morning, Shinsou helping Hizashi first and Hizashi guiding Shinsou in choosing clothes and getting herself ready after. They ate together if no one was watching, and walked around the lonely pathways of The Forbidden City together. Shiozaki was increasingly left back at Yamada Pavilion tending to other duties, but after a while of her disapproving looks, Hizashi had the bright idea, suggested by Shinsou, to grant her leave to visit her family, a round trip that would take weeks to complete.

Although it was boring to begin with, and Shinsou was a little frustrated that her search for The Tip of The High Mountain was impossible to pursue when she was with Hizashi every minute of the day, this didn’t matter as much as the summer heat kicked in and Hizashi’s strictness began to wane. Perhaps she couldn’t be bothered to discipline Shinsou when it was so damn hot, or it didn’t matter when there weren’t other people around, or she just didn’t feel like it.

They also fucked less, especially when it was too warm to get hot and bothered, but were intimate far more in other ways, touches and squeezes of affection Shinsou’s mistress would give her in idle moments of thought, and secretive kisses Hizashi stole as if taking something she wasn't meant to have.

All the while this somehow seemed to reinforce the notion that whatever it was between them, or what it was becoming, couldn’t possibly last.

~~~

The final days before the end of the Imperial Hunt were the peak of an intense heatwave that had been building for some time. Too hot to even stay indoors and flee the burning sun, the buildings of The Forbidden City turned into intricate ovens to bake the people within them like buns. In an already quiet period, even less activity was undertaken than usual, and Lady Hizashi chose that time to bring her attendant with her to visit the Emperor's pleasure garden.

Rather than endure a long ride in a sedan carried on the shoulders of heat delirious eunuchs who might keel over at any minute, they took a leisurely walk just the two of them in the morning, Shinsou holding a large parasol to shade her mistress and also herself, since they walked side by side with their arms linked together for stability. It took longer, but there was nothing to do, so wasting time was almost the name of the game, and they made it before the middle of the day when the sun peaked in the sky.

"Wow, look at this place," Shinsou said as they passed through the gate to the walled gardens for the personal use of the Emperor. The Emperor not being in The Forbidden City, it was empty, and no one was supposed to visit it in his absence, but Lady Hizashi was close family to the Emperor, and no one was there to stop her.

"Ah, you haven't seen these gardens before, have you?" Hizashi remarked idly. "While I must confess I prefer the garden at Aizawa Manor, it does have a certain wow factor." Shinsou also preferred the Aizawa Manor garden, since as beautiful as this was, it didn't have the same soul, but kept this agreement to herself.

"It's huge, is it even a garden?" Shinsou said instead, glancing sideways at Hizashi and back out at the meticulously laid pathways winding around a large lake, in the middle of which stood an island with a beautiful gilded pagoda on it.

"A series of gardens, really," Hizashi replied. "Let's go round this way, there's a shaded platform for the best view of the lake and pagoda."

They walked around the stone pathway until a wooden structure dipped out from behind a corner as Hizashi promised, the way lined with beautiful plants that Shinsou could see had not been as strictly kept as they'd be when the Emperor was in the palace. This was his pleasure garden by name, so it ought to be enjoyed by someone, in any case.

Shinsou carried a soft pouch of water in her gown sleeve, producing it for her mistress to drink from as they settled under the shelter and took in the view. Ornamental carp drifted lazily through the waters stirring barely a ripple, old trees overhung the water, their branches heavy with leaves, and the shining red and gold pagoda stood in the middle as a strange testament to human nature, that they would place it there for their enjoyment and not see it as a folly of mankind.

Hizashi drank from the water given to her, warm though it was, while Shinsou had her own ideas about how to stay hydrated.

Having looked around carefully and listened with her far sharper senses, Shinsou had determined that not a soul was within these walls within these walls bar the two of them, so they were absolutely alone.

With an ordinary motion Shinsou began undoing her sweltering hot robe, an act Hizashi obviously noticed with the comment, "What are you doing?"

"Cooling off," Shinsou answered straightforwardly, an expert at getting out of her clothes by now. She hadn't been immersed in water since she was back in Aizawa Manor, missing the feeling of it on her skin and more importantly, an escape from this maddening heat.

"Shinsou," Hizashi gasped in her scolding tone, but it lacked commitment, lazing as her mistress was against a carved wooden bench trying to stay beautiful despite sweating profusely. 

"There's no one around, which is why you brought me here, isn't it?" Shinsou replied surely, by then ready to peel her damp inner robe from her skin, followed by her sandals and socks, and the few ornamental hair pins she had tolerated Hizashi choosing for her that day.

"You can't really be…" was as far as Hizashi got before Shinsou was naked as nature intended and took a long graceful leap off the edge of the wooden platform, her hands flying forwards as she dove into the crystal water and slipped under the surface with barely a splash. The water was a little warm from the incessant heat of the sun all through this heat wave, but when Shinsou swam down underwater it got colder, and for a glorious moment as she glided along the lake bed she was refreshed and gloriously cool. 

Shinsou knew she could get in trouble for this, it surely being an offence for a servant to swim naked in the Emperor's pleasure garden, no pun intended, but the concept of 'trouble' had lost any real meaning to her. In these past weeks especially, Shinsou had a feeling it was the same for Hizashi too. Whatever happened, it was definitely worth it for this moment, Shinsou knew without question when she finally came back to the surface, breaking through with her head tipped back and wiping water from her eyes to see Hizashi standing by the edge of the platform looking almost concerned.

"Heavens, Shinsou, I thought you'd fucking drowned," she said emphatically, and after looking around carefully herself, took off her outer robe only and lifted the bottom of her inner robe up past her knees, also removing her shoes and socks and then sitting on the edge of the platform to dip just her feet in the water.

This alone was an act of tremendous danger, daring to treat the ornamental pond of the Emperor's pleasure garden as a footbath, but of course that wasn't enough for Shinsou.

"Water's lovely," Shinsou posed, submerged in it herself to just above her bare breasts, still visible through the clear water that lapped at them jealously.

"I can tell," Hizashi replied, swishing her feet back and forth as she dreamed of what it might be like to not be too damn hot for just a moment.

She didn't have to wonder much longer, though, since a devilish glint in Shinsou's eye caught her mistress's attention.

"Shinsou," Hizashi started in warning, "don't you even think about–"

It was too late, as Shinsou grabbed her by the calves and pulled Hizashi clean off the edge of the platform to land in the water with a yelp and a splash. Shinsou didn't let go of Hizashi, who didn't know how to swim, but the water was shallow enough to stand in, and Hizashi scrambled to her feet soaking wet with her white inner robe stuck to her and see through.

"You're in so much trouble, young lady," Hizashi attempted to threaten, but Shinsou was right and the water was a wonderful change from the oppressive heat of the air. Lowering down to crouch with the water higher up her body, Hizashi accepted the pointlessness of the wet robe she wore and peeled herself out of it, throwing it up to dry on the railing of wooden platform, which it would in no time in the direct sun.

Letting the water caress her skin in a way no bathtub could, the experience only comparable to hot springs Hizashi had visited a few times in her life, it was hard to maintain her anger at being dragged into the water now she was in it.

"I knew it was the only way," Shinsou replied cheekily, as if she knew her mistress so exactly she could read her thoughts in that moment, and liberated Hizashi from her begrudging adherence to the rules, or some attempt at it.

"I can't swim, what if I'd drowned?" Hizashi asked Shinsou, who moved in the water like it was natural to her, gliding gracefully like an ethereal creature.

Shinsou shrugged, only after remarking, “I wouldn’t let you drown.”

“I wouldn’t have thought you such a confident swimmer,” Hizashi pointed out. “Aren’t you from the mountains?”

“There are lakes in the mountains,” Shinsou explained, not thinking it too dangerous to reveal something like that from her background. Not compared to what she’d revealed to Todoroki, anyway. “Deep ones, and icy cold.”

“Sounds wonderful,” Hizashi remarked, as even these waters were warmed by the intense glare of the sun all these days. It was better than the air, but only just. Shinsou didn’t say anything in response, just looked at Hizashi awhile, enough for her to prompt, “What?” with a surge of awareness.

“Nothing,” Shinsou claimed. “You just look different like this.”

“You threw me in a fucking lake,” Hizashi retorted. “Of course I don’t look perfect anymore.”

“Is that what you call it?” Shinsou challenged, swooping closer to her mistress with a few kicks of her feet.

“Of course,” Hizashi insisted.

“But it’s false,” Shinsou observed, all Lady Hizashi’s ornaments and beautiful robes and careful makeup that was loosened now by the water, showing her true complexion and more striking androgynous features.

“That’s what perfection is,” Hizashi responded, "just an illusion."

Shinsou shook her head, "I disagree, there are plenty of perfect things in the world."

"Like what?" Hizashi inquired, close enough almost to reach Shinsou in the water, warm and balmy but still refreshing.

"Things most people take for granted, or never stop to notice," Shinsou said, narrowly remembering to say people instead of humans as if she wasn't one of them. "The mountains where I'm from are perfect."

"How romantic," Hizashi teased, or tried to, because somehow she could believe that they were perfect and Shinsou was merely reporting the truth. Mountains were raw natural power captured in stone and ice, not beholden to any force but nature itself, unchangeable in increments and ever changing over the years in hundreds and thousands. Mountains were perfect, because if they weren't it meant they could be improved in some respect, and there was nothing that they could do any better to be the essence of what they were.

"Other things can be perfect too," Shinsou continued, finally reaching for Hizashi to lace their fingers together. "A moment in time, like the sky at first light of dawn." Shinsou hadn't witnessed one of those in a while, glued to Hizashi's side every night, but she caught a number of sunsets, which could be just as beautiful as they bathed the structures of The Forbidden City in glimmering evening light.

"Or a moment like this," Hizashi suggested, drawing Shinsou to her with the weightlessness of floating in water, cool for a wonderful moment despite the blistering heat.

"A moment exactly like this," Shinsou agreed, drifting into Hizashi's arms and curling one of her own loosely around her mistress's neck. More than ever, it did not feel as if they were a master and servant abiding by the rules of status and etiquette. This time they'd spent together was unrestricted, acting as they pleased and not as they ought.

Right now it pleased Hizashi to kiss Shinsou, and it pleased Shinsou to be kissed. 

This wasn't how wives of high ranking generals were supposed to act, or cousins of the Emperor, gallivanting around in the pond with a servant girl, but that was what made it so exquisite, the softness and warmth of Shinsou's mouth on Hizashi's tongue, the slight weight of her arm around Hizashi's neck holding them together.

The kiss deepened and became cloying, then hungry. Even though all they'd had was each other for so many consecutive days, it had done nothing to dampen their appetite, perhaps even the opposite. Desire grown by what it fed on, until they were entwined tightly together and drifted until Hizashi's back touched the edge of the wooden platform and was pressed there just firmly enough to wonder at the strength in a frame so delicate to look at. Shinsou was slight in build, but powerful and needy, holding Hizashi hostage with affection until the inevitable hand moved between her legs and began to stroke Shinsou through the slickness still detectable underwater.

When their lips parted on a steamy gasp, Hizashi murmured a delirious, "You're going to get me in trouble, wildflower."

"Good," Shinsou retorted, "where's the fun in behaving all the time?" She let out a soft moan as Hizashi's fingers slipped inside her, pushing and stretching to be able to delve deeper and reach the sweetest spot within her.

"You would say that," Hizashi commented, but carried on doing it anyway, fingerfucking Shinsou in the water til she was whining and twitched against Hizashi, panting into her mouth as drew Shinsou expertly towards orgasm.

"Ah, I'm close," Shinsou said, voice fluttering with the strain of reaching for climax.

"I know," Hizashi purred, and could have taken Shinsou to the edge and left her there, had on many occasions. She used to want nothing more than the torment of leaving such a wild and undisciplined person unfulfilled, but not anymore. Now Hizashi only wanted to watch Shinsou closely as she came by Hizashi's touch and Hizashi's touch alone. Holding eye contact throughout, Shinsou climaxed from Hizashi's dexterous fingers and then sighed, releasing the held tension with a luxurious smile.

"That was nice," Shinsou said dopily, gazing around the bank of the pond and seeing a nearby inlet with a soft sandy ridge the water rocked up on gently. "Let's go over there," she invited, pulling Hizashi with her towards the shaded bank and climbing part way out of the water.

Beached on the edge like mermaids, Hizashi laid on her back as Shinsou delved between her legs, using her fingers and holding her breath to use her mouth underwater for periods to return the favour delivered so generously to her, bringing Hizashi to a powerful orgasm in the aptly named pleasure gardens. Wild and uninhibited, just like Shinsou, they fornicated as if where and who they were meant nothing, and for that short lived moment, it did mean nothing.

It was perfect.

~~~

After what happened with Shinsou in the Emperor's Pleasure garden, Lady Hizashi of Aizawa Manor knew that under no circumstances could her husband find out about them.

Not that Hizashi had sex with Shinsou, which Shouta was already very aware of and had never been a major concern, but all the rest that Hizashi had never done or felt with anyone other than her husband. Worse yet, Hizashi's affair with Shinsou was intoxicating enough to sway her from proper conduct becoming of her position. How she let Shinsou treat her as an intimate partner, a girlfriend, and not a mistress to whom she was subservient.

Shouta could not be allowed to find out that Hizashi had caught feelings for Shinsou, and let her behave however she wanted because that was one of the things that made Hizashi fall for her in the first place.

On the golden banks of the Emperor’s Pleasure garden, Lady Hizashi knew that her husband could never see her like this, and consequently, Shinsou had to go before she left The Forbidden City.

~~~

“The Imperial Hunt is almost over,” Shinsou remarked the evening after their dalliance in the Emperor’s Pleasure Garden, “When do we leave for the Manor?”

This had actually been of some concern to Shinsou, who couldn't work out how her search for The Tip of The High Mountain could continue back at Aizawa Manor in such close company of Lady Hizashi, though she also suspected that her way of acting with Hizashi of late could not continue after the return of Lord Aizawa regardless.

Little did Shinsou know, she had nothing to worry about.

“I will leave tomorrow,” Hizashi replied stiffly, seeing the opportunity and having made up her mind as to what she had to do. “You, however, Shinsou, will stay in The Forbidden City.”

Shinsou’s mind went blank, sure she’d failed to understand human language for a moment, and stared vacantly before prompting, “What?"

'You won’t be coming back to Aizawa Manor with me,” Hizashi said austerely, for the first time in a long time bearing herself as Shinsou’s superior and not her lover. “I am sending you to the palace workhouse.”

“Really?” Shinsou said, dazed, on one hand not believing her luck at being given the exact thing she needed to further her mission, a respite from being by Hizashi’s side all the time and way to remain in The Forbidden City, but on the other hand, the shock of separating from Hizashi after things had seemed to be going so well. “Why?”

“You disgraced the Emperor’s Pleasure garden with your conduct, how can I not punish you for such a serious offence?” Hizashi announced as if she too hadn’t also been part of the disgracing.

“So did you,” Shinsou pointed out justly.

“How dare you accuse me of such a thing,” Hizashi replied surely. “I would never do something like that, and even if I did, why would I then punish only you for it?”

“That’s what I’m saying,” Shinsou tried to argue, but it was hopeless, not just because Hizashi had already decided what she was going to do, but also because Shinsou knew she shouldn’t be so foolish as to talk her once mistress into changing her mind.

If Hizashi chose not to punish Shinsou, and took her back to Aizawa Manor, they might still be together, but things couldn’t be the way they had until now, and Shinsou’s mission would continue to languish. There were others depending on Shinsou to succeed, so despite the shock of being broken up with for the very first time, Shinsou knew it was a necessary evil. 

Forcing herself into a bow, Shinsou ground out the words, “I willingly accept your punishment, mistress.”

Just relieved enough to show it in her face, uncertain she would have been able to follow through if Shinsou had tried any harder to persuade her otherwise, Lady Hizashi replied with a bittersweet tang, “That’s more like it.”

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

As Shinsou discovered, the palace workhouse was a just step above the department of careful punishment, which was basically The Forbidden City’s prison, and only by a little. It was a place people were sent for punishment by hard labour, and given all the most unpleasant tasks in The Forbidden City. For Shinsou, this was quite a shock in contrast to the lap of luxury she had unwittingly become so accustomed to.

All the beautiful clothes, ornaments and makeup were no more, replaced by rough robes that Shinsou didn’t remember being so coarse on her skin, and the languorous frittering away of time was now hard work from sun up to sun down regardless of the searing weather. It was liberating in a way not to need so much time getting ready in the morning and making herself look beautiful, but being put straight to work scrubbing emptied commodes was a far cry from her days as Lady Hizashi’s close companion.

Shinsou was also the subject of intense gossip, ostracised for being someone who had flown so high and close to the sun only to crash down unceremoniously in a place like this. Shinsou had to remind herself regularly that this was exactly what she wanted, and that not having Hizashi breathing down her neck every minute of the day was a very fortunate turn of events for her mission, but she could do without the sidelong looks and watchful eyes of her new peers in this place for the disgraced and deceitful.

Shinsou heard all manor of rumours as to what she had done to land herself in the workhouse over the first days of her arrival, some of which were true, like her naked swim in the Emperor’s Pleasure Garden or general lack of respect for her mistress, and some were partially so, like her supposed attempt at seducing Lord Aizawa. Others were totally false, such as the claim that she had stolen from her mistress, or less mundane than that. Shinsou heard some whispers from afar, no one in the workhouse realising that she could hear everything they said even if their voices were hushed, that she was actually sent to the workhouse for offering herself as a prostitute to a number of palace guards in exchange for jewellery and other riches.

Shinsou hadn’t the time to offer herself sexually to random palace guards when she was fucking her mistress round the clock, but that particular rumour about her and Hizashi was barely mentioned at all, which surprised Shinsou when they had not been particularly discrete about it, certainly not towards the end of their affair, which is what Shinsou understood it to be now. It was a testament to Hizashi’s influence that such rumours were almost unrepeatable, and Shinsou’s punishment seemingly cleared her mistress from suspicion.

Hizashi had not disguised the fact that she had fucked other girls in the same position as Shinsou, but it was strange to realise Shinsou was not so different in that respect as she’d naively believed herself to be, and no one dared to speak against someone of such prestige and influence, compared to slandering a wanton servant who was discarded without a second thought.

The first night sleeping alone without Hizashi, it had to be said, was a lot more lonely than Shinsou liked. Even sharing a dorm again with a lot of other lowly maids in the workhouse, Shinsou felt cold and frustrated, and it took her a long time for sleep to take her.

~~~

The journey between The Forbidden City and Aizawa Manor was never enjoyable, but this one was especially fucking miserable. Hizashi didn’t bother to find a replacement bed companion for those couple of nights before she’d be back home with Shouta again. She could have made Shiozaki do it, but it felt insulting to all involved, and Hizashi knew she would do nothing except lie there resenting whoever was not in the space that had been Shinsou’s until so recently.

It had to be done, Hizashi told herself over and over for those long hours on the road, and longer hours at night, alone and coldly missing the person she should not have gotten fond enough of to miss at all. Shouta would have flipped if he’d seen what they became in his absence, or worse yet, he’d have wanted to fuck Shinsou too. Shinsou, being unscrupulous and disloyal, would have eagerly welcomed it, sidlining Hizashi in favour of her husband and the promise of greater prestige if she became his concubine, which would happen over Hizashi’s dead body.

For someone who had consumed Hizashi’s affections so fast and fully that she’d convinced Hizashi to swim naked in the Emperor’s gardens and fuck her in the open air without caring what came of it, there was no way they could be allowed to start sleeping with Hizashi’s husband. Not only would Shouta fall just as badly or worse for Shinsou, but Hizashi would have a love rival she never planned on having. Two, even, one for her husband in Shinsou, and one for Shinsou in her husband.

No, there was no way it could work, Hizashi had decided, and so Shinsou had to go. Better she rot in the workhouse than rot Hizashi’s marriage with her dangerously enchanting ways.

It was for the best, even if it wasn’t at all what Hizashi really wanted.

~~~

After two days in the workhouse, Shinsou had worked out a few opportunities to return to her search for The Tip of The High Mountain, but she’d been far too exhausted to take advantage of them. Hard labour was as described, hard, and Shinsou would’ve traded it for a day tied to the bed being punished and fucked by her former mistress in a heartbeat.

Such options were no longer available to her, though, and Shinsou knew she would adjust to this new norm, it was just slower than expected while she tended to the emotional wounds of her sudden break with Hizashi. Wounds Shinsou hadn’t accounted for, and told herself were mostly the product of being surprised by Hizashi’s decision, not that Shinsou was really attached to a simple human, no matter how much Hizashi had taught her about pleasures of the flesh or the ways of their strange society.

By the third day, Shinsou had been tasked with digging out hard rocks and jagged tree roots from a deep bed in one of the gardens, when she wasn’t scrubbing shit from toilet pots, so she was filthy, hot and exhausted. No mind to continue her mission, and little chance given the domineering supervisors of the workhouse driving them at all hours.

Shinsou’s only opportunity to roam free was at night when everyone was sleeping, one improvement since parting ways with Hizashi, though she might still be caught by patrolling guards, and was too tired for anything other than a dead sleep on her hard futon missing the touch of another between her legs.

It was on this third day, however, that Shinsou’s fortunes changed.

“Well, well, well, how the mighty have fallen,” came a velvet voice Shinsou knew perfectly, turning over her shoulder in the yard of the workhouse where she sat in a daze after a morning with her head in a ditch, covered in dirt to her elbows and all over her face.

“Supervisor Monoma,” Shinsou greeted, seeing the pristinely kept eunuch approach with long strides of his slender legs, watched from all around by people who aspired to the position he’d achieved in The Forbidden City. “What brings you down to these depths?”

“I just had to see it for myself,” Monoma replied smugly, tilting his head at Shinsou with a devilish smirk. Shinsou dared a flicker of a cheeky smile back at him, wondering if Hizashi not being around anymore might allow other prospects to flourish more productively, if the dirt and smell of shit didn’t put him off. “Whatever did you do to deserve this?”

“Well apparently, I was disloyal to my mistress,” Shinsou remarked caustically, eyeing Monoma with the accusation of exactly who she had been so disloyal with. One might even say he was culpable.

Clicking his tongue at her, Monoma shook his head and said, “What a terrible attendant you are, straying like that.”

“Yeah, well, hopefully the person responsible does something about it,” Shinsou dared to hint. “Since it’s kind of their fault I ended up here.”

“Yes, you’re here, and not all the way back in Aizawa Manor,” Monoma reminded her, like perhaps he’d considered what would happen to Shinsou should she be dismissed, and no longer be a hundred miles away where he couldn’t reach her, “how terrible.”

“It’s not all bad,” Shinsou admitted with a shrug, then gestured with her head at the stacks of cleaned commodes to be taken around The Forbidden City and dirtied again, only to be cleaned again in an endless futile cycle. “I’ve seen whole new sides of The Forbidden City.” 

“I didn’t come just to witness your fall from grace, as it happens, I actually have a task for you,” Monoma told her, which Shinsou had expected from the moment she heard his voice. Someone of his rank wouldn’t come down here just to pity her, and knowing Monoma, he wouldn’t be of a mind to walk away without taking Shinsou with him for some trivial matter. “Come with me.”

“I should clean up first,” Shinsou said, concerned about being seen with him as well as being in such a filthy state, making their appearance together even more suspicious. He outranked all of the supervisors here by some way, so no one would interfere with him plucking some disgraced attendant for a special task, but they would definitely talk about it.

“Not necessary,” Monoma corrected, “just come along now.”

Without any grounds to object, Shinsou did as she was ordered.

~~~

Lord Aizawa arrived back at the Manor before Lady Aizawa, but only by a couple of hours.

His biggest surprise upon watching his wife descend from the horse drawn sedan was the singular attendant by her side.

“Where’s Shinsou?” Shouta asked openly, too disarmed by this development to think of any other words to say first.

“How charming, hello to you too,” Hizashi retorted, waving away Shiozaki and walking quickly to their bedchambers with Shouta at her heels. A tradition their servants were more than used to, Lord and Lady of the Manor retiring to their bedroom immediately after being reunited after time apart, and given a very healthy amount of space.

“Sorry, it’s good to see you, I just…” Shouta fumbled.

“Shinsou’s not with me anymore,” Hizashi said bitterly, deciding to let her irritability from travel cover for her general irritability about Shinsou and her whereabouts.

“What?” Shouta said blankly, arriving with Hizashi at the bedroom and noticing how she all but slammed the door behind them.

“I said, Shinsou’s not with me anymore,” Hizashi repeated crossly, turning to face him with her expression hard over the fatigue from two miserable days of lonely travel. “I sent her to the workhouse.”

“What?” Shouta repeated in shock. “You dismissed her?”

“Forgive me, husband,” Hizashi said sourly, “but isn’t that exactly what you told me to do?”

“I…” Shouta murmured, trying to remember what he’d said all those weeks ago, weeks that his mind had since been filled with fantasies of his wife and Shinsou together, and the presumption that he would finally get access to Shinsou on his return.

“You said to get rid of her by the time you were back,” Hizashi reminded him frostily.

“I said get rid of her or I wouldn’t be responsible for what happened,” Shouta finally pulled together.

“Yes, so I got rid of her,” Hizashi replied.

“Oh.”

“What, didn’t you think I’d actually do it?” she challenged.

“Well… no,” Shouta said. “You didn’t get rid of her all the times I ordered you to before.”

“Then you can be happy that you finally have an obedient wife who does as you want,” Hizashi shot, as if she suspected all too well that it was not really what he wanted, what either of them wanted.

“Of all the times for you to decide to do as I ask,” Shouta murmured, and took a step closer to Hizashi, looking closely at his wife for some sign of what was really going on. If Hizashi hadn’t wanted to leave Shinsou behind then she would still be here regardless of anything Shouta said, which meant something had to have happened to change her mind about keeping Shinsou by her side.

“Tch,” Hizashi scoffed, “You were just banking on me not doing it so you could finally fuck Shinsou, weren’t you?”

“And you don’t want me to,” Shouta observed, never knowing his wife to be so jealous and possessive of a simple attendant before, going so far as to dismiss said attendant and sentence her to the workhouse rather than share her with him. Shouta knew his wife well, knew her tendencies and deeper feelings, how she reacted to things that made her uncomfortable or were beyond her control. It meant there was one explanation above any others that rationalised all this behaviour, summed up in the single accusation, made without haste, “You fell for her, didn’t you?”

Hizashi didn’t respond verbally, staring back at Shouta with fury in every line of her expression. A fierce scowl with tired eyes, and alone, which she hated more than anything, and could only mean that she wouldn’t be satisfied with just anyone beside her.

“You’re the one who was so set on Shinsou being trouble,” Hizashi finally said stiffly, neither confirming nor denying what her husband could see even with just the one good eye. “I merely did as you commanded, husband.”

Shouta hadn’t expected himself to be so frustrated, even angry, about this discovery. Whether it was because his wife clearly had feelings for someone else, or because she’d kept Shinsou away from him when he’d been dreaming of fucking her when he got back here for many long weeks, was difficult to say.

Whichever it was, the end results were more or less the same, and despite the tension in the room, nothing deterred Lord Aizawa’s arousal from many long nights without the relief of his wife or her little plaything she wouldn’t share with him even at her own loss.

“Well then, wife, as you wish,” he said gruffly, reaching for his clothing to unfasten with the determination that Hizashi would take everything that had been coming to Shinsou until just minutes ago. “You get me all to yourself.”

~~~

Being one of the most senior eunuchs in the whole Forbidden City, Monoma had his own private quarters within the residential area used by their ranks when not residing at particular palaces. Shinsou had been marched in there without a second thought, but plenty of eyes watching as Supervisor Monoma led a filthy maid from the workhouse to his personal lodgings.

It wasn’t anything extravagant, nothing like a noble’s home, but Monoma had several comfortable rooms in a separate building from the others. In one of these stood a tub of bathwater that had seen previous use, though it was clear enough and tepid from the still overbearing heat, if nothing on the heatwave that had broken after Lady Hizashi left The Forbidden City, whatever that meant.

“I need this tub emptied and cleaned,” Monoma announced matter of factly, and Shinsou, being in private again, didn’t disguise her look of sceptical confusion.

“That’s what you dragged me all this way for? To empty a bathtub?” she accused, not put off by Monoma’s smirk and little chuckle at her ire.

“After the things they’ve had you doing I thought you’d be grateful for any easy job like this,” he said smugly, tipping his head to one side and lilting in a particularly suggestive tone, “besides, I don’t mind if you want to use the water first, since you’re… well.”

“Oh,” Shinsou responded, realising now what he was getting at. Of course someone as well kept as him wouldn't want anything to do with her covered in all kinds of questionable dirt, so of course he’d contrive some excuse like this to get Shinsou exactly where and how he wanted her. “Very well, supervisor Monoma,” she said dutifully, resolving that one master was as good as another, so long as they could keep her comfortable and take care of her in at least some useful ways. “I better take my clothes off, since they’re very dirty too.”

“Yes, good idea,” Monoma agreed professionally, though Shinsou caught the heat in his eyes as she stepped forward and started to undress. To her surprise, he quickly announced, “I’m going to attend to some matters in the other room, so report to me once you’ve finished as I have another task for you.” He paused just before he went, waving a hand at a folded white cloth on a chest at the side of the room and saying, “There’s something fresh for you to wear after.”

“Thank you, supervisor Monoma,” Shinsou repeated in an attempt at seductive subservience, which had almost always worked with Hizashi.

“You can just call me Monoma,” he cut off, not responding to the play at all. “No need for formality when it’s just the two of us, is there?”

“Alright then,” Shinsou relaxed into, reminding herself that humans weren’t as predictable as she might think. “I’ll get started.”

“Hm,” Monoma murmured, turning sharply on his heels and leaving Shinsou to her work.

Shinsou set aside some water in buckets, washing the worst of the dirt from her body first rather than sully all the bathwater, and emptying them out at an opening to a drain on one side of the small tidy room. Once satisfied she wouldn’t turn the bathtub into a mud bath and make her own job harder down the line, Shinsou set a little more clean water aside and climbed into the leftovers, a sign of her fall from grace more than any other she’d acknowledged so far. To be so grateful for a tub of someone else’s bathwater, but Shinsou happily swam in ponds and lakes, so it really wasn’t that bad.

Lowering herself into the water, Shinsou felt the relief of its touch and cooling embrace. She hadn’t planned to be so viscerally reminded of her last time with Hizashi in the pleasure garden, but the moment Shinsou sank below the water it took her body over like a possession. Wondering why, above all, Hizashi had chosen to send her away so suddenly.

Shinsou ached between the legs, dreaming of the things Hizashi taught and did to her, wondering if it would be at all similar with Monoma, if it even went that way with his slightly strange behaviour so far. Being too proud to be reduced to masturbation over the memory of someone who’d spurned her, Shinsou scrubbed herself clean in distraction, appreciating the refreshment and escape from the layer of filth the workhouse had coated her in from just a few days grind.

Getting out of the bath and emptying the water into the same drainage channel, Shinsou being strong enough to move and tip the whole tub despite it weighing more than she did, she used the remaining water set aside to scrub the inside of the tub itself with a bristled brush likely set out for the task. Dry by the time she’d finished with it, Shinsou lifted the garment Monoma had set out for her to find it was a reasonably soft and well made inner robe and matching slippers, much nicer than the filthy things she’d shed in a sad smelly pile in the corner.

Feeling a little more herself, but also a little less herself too, rather out of sorts and full of a strange yearning she couldn’t place, Shinsou stepped out of the room and looked around to find Monoma sitting at a desk reading papers by the light of a pretty lantern. Still in his full uniform, the one relinquishment being the first fastenings on his collar undone and loosened to reveal his slim throat and adam’s apple.

“I finished cleaning the tub,” Shinsou announced more timidly than she meant to sound, and Monoma’s eyes lifted to examine her unhurriedly.

His expression fixed, scrutinising her carefully, Monoma remarked, “Good,” and then, “for your next task, my bed is in the next room, I want you to warm it for me.”

Shinsou thought it must be another of those moments where she didn’t understand human language, blinking a couple of times and saying, “What?”

“Warm my bed,” he repeated unwaveringly, and Shinsou was baffled.

“Why?” she asked.

“Because I told you to,” he responded curtly.

“But the weather is already hot,” Shinsou replied, not sure why she felt compelled to argue with this order other than it not seeming to make any sense to her.

“It’s not the same, I like my bed to be warmed to body temperature,” he explained, and then finally letting the first signs of something more show, added a softened, “preferably by a pretty thing like yourself.”

So, Shinsou concluded, it probably would end up like that after all. He was just a lot less direct about it than Shinsou’s last lover.

“Very well,” Shinsou agreed, backing away and going to the next room where as instructed, a simple but spacious bed was set out on a raised wooden platform, a number of books and manuals set out beside it, telling tales of Monoma’s more usual bed companions. As much as he spoke as if this wasn’t unusual for him, Shinsou didn’t believe he had a different bed warmer every night, since such things could not go in The Forbidden City for even someone like him without causing rumours, and as far as anyone ever reported Supervisor Monoma was an upstanding and diligent model of behaviour for others to follow, as that’s exactly what he told everyone to say about him or else.

Shinsou had to admit, as she sat to take off the clean slippers also set out with her robe, then climbed onto the bed and crawled under the neat cover laid over it, this was far more comfortable than being back at the workhouse.

Without meaning to, she was asleep in less than a minute.

~~~

“So, are you willing to admit it yet?” Shouta asked, despite his wife not being in much of a position to give him an answer, being that her mouth was entirely occupied by his cock. He steadied one hand on the crown of her head, not setting the pace but ensuring she couldn't back away without him allowing it, and urging if he needed her to take him a little deeper. Normally he might not need to be so assertive, but his wife had decided in her infinite wisdom not to let him fuck Shinsou, so now she'd let him fuck her like he would've fucked Shinsou, and this particular act in this exact fashion was very much on the list.

Shouta couldn't quite place when the assumption that Hizashi would choose 'or else' over dismissing Shinsou, and he'd finally have her when he returned to Aizawa Manor had been set in so surely in his mind, but Todoroki going running back to The Forbidden City at the first news that Shinsou was there had started the process, and missing his wife while knowing just what, and who, she was doing in his absence did all the rest.

Allowing Hizashi a respite, relaxing his hand and allowing her to back off his painstakingly hard cock with a guttural sound, his wife collected herself for a moment and then replied guiltlessly, "Admit what?"

With more than a little spite Shouta pushed himself back into Hizashi's mouth, since she wasn't doing anything more worthwhile with it than sucking him off.

"Admit why you really left Shinsou back in The Forbidden City," he said with a grizzly rasp as he pushed all the way to the back of Hizashi's mouth, permitted down to the entrance of her throat without gagging. As if she were reminding him in her own less than subtle way that she could do everything Shinsou could and more, so he shouldn't need anyone but her. “You would rather neither of us have her than share her with me, it’s not like you to be so possessive of a simple attendant.”

Backing off Shouta with a slick sound and wiping some drool from the corner of her mouth with her fingertips, Hizashi looked up at her husband through her long lashes and told him, “We both know that Shinsou is no simple attendant, don’t we?”

Steadying his cock with his thumb and forefinger circled around the base, Shouta traced the wet cushion of Hizashi’s lower lip with the tip of his cock, testing her mouth before sliding back into it greedily. 

“I guess we do,” he confirmed gruffly.

This was going to be a long night for Hizashi, and she’d only herself to blame.

~~~

Shinsou woke in the darkness with Monoma climbing over her, his weight and shape starkly different to Hizashi, though he was still of slender build, for a man.

“Asleep already, hm?” Monoma spoke in a low, smooth tone, holding himself above Shinsou with a hand on either side of her, distinguishable in the darkness to Shinsou’s heightened senses. He had finally taken more of his uniform off, but only the outer layers, the two of them dressed in light underclothes and separated by the covers over Shinsou.

“I didn’t know if you were coming or not,” Shinsou murmured drowsily, disorientated by the depths of slumber she’d fallen to only to be woken in this way.

“This is my bed, you know,” he reminded her, his weight a comforting press over Shinsou even with the layers between them. “I wasn’t gifting it to you out of the kindness of my heart.”

“You didn’t seem very interested,” Shinsou explained, having an idea of what to expect from this, but only based on dirty talk from Hizashi that had never been followed through in reality.

“Is that so?” Monoma said with suave amusement, leaning closer over her until his mouth was separated from hers by just a breath. “You think a man isn’t hungry just because he waits to eat?”

In that moment, Shinsou finally understood Monoma’s hunger.

Only as his lips touched hers for the first time did it occur to Shinsou no one other than Hizashi had ever kissed her, and the inescapable curiosity arose of what Hizashi was doing right now.

~~~

Bent over on all fours, her long loose hair wrapped around her husband’s fist, Hizashi’s back arched and she shook with the hard pound of Shouta’s cock into her with each aggressive thrust. If this is what Shinsou would’ve gotten, she almost felt justified in taking the burden herself, since her husband’s carnal intensity and stamina was relentless tonight even by his own rather extreme standards.

Hizashi couldn’t believe this was all intended for Shinsou, as she felt the punishment in her husband’s rough handling of her, consequences for denying him something he had foolishly assumed would be his to take on his return. More the fool him. Hizashi clenched around him tightly, not from pleasure necessarily but to fight him in her own way, force him to fuck her harder to stay deeply buried in her, to vent his anger that he must suffice with his wife and not her lover.

“Fuck,” Shouta growled, slowing out of harsh necessity, to delay his orgasm and prolong this pleasure punishment. Releasing her golden hair in favour of gripping Hizashi tightly by the ass with both hands, as if trying to spread her wider and relax the jealous clutch of her cunt around him, he rasped, “Is this what you wanted, Hizashi?” and began to slowly move again, agonisingly so.

“Of course,” she answered defiantly, hanging her head and breathing heavily, wondering what Shinsou was doing right now, if she had already been taken in by someone else, probably that Monoma, given his sniffing around her, or worse, General Todoroki. It wasn’t a thought she relished, but it was better than Hizashi being left cold on the side while Shouta threw all this feral energy at Shinsou instead. Breaking into a moan as her husband’s cock penetrated at a particularly unforgiving angle, causing her to twitch and spasm around him in forceful pleasure, Hizashi sounded out a wobbly, “This is exactly what I wanted.”

~~~

“You don’t have to worry about any consequences of doing this, I’m unable to have children so you won’t get pregnant,” Monoma assured Shinsou, unprompted, since she hadn’t worried about that given she knew it was highly rare for a human to impregnate a fox spirit in human form. It was something she could prevent by will if needed, not that the thought had occurred to her until he mentioned it.

“I thought eunuchs were supposed to be castrated anyway,” Shinsou replied, feeling the press of his clearly not castrated arousal through the layers that still separated them.

“I was born like this, so with a little bribery I escaped the knife,” he told her openly, which might explain why he became a eunuch in the first place, if he already met the key criteria and wanted a way to gain status without having children. “It all still works down there, though.”

“I can tell,” Shinsou answered. Being with Monoma had been disarmingly unlike her experience with Hizashi, even though many of the steps had been the same, if done in a very different order. Monoma kissed her first rather than last, on the mouth and neck, for what felt like a long time before he touched her anywhere else, feeling her breasts over her clothes and taking even longer to climb under the covers with her, the bed thoroughly warmed by this point. 

He tasted different, kissed different, and even moved and breathed differently to Hizashi. Despite not wishing to feel that way, Shinsou missed the familiarity of what she’d had with Hizashi, the knowledge of each others’ bodies and lack of fuss, a straight to business approach Hizashi took when it came to pleasure. If she were with Hizashi, Shinsou would have cum by now, whether Hizashi wanted her to or not, yet Monoma had barely touched her below the waist, instead favouring himself, and only now undressing them to move forward in any meaningful way.

“It’s not unusual if it hurts a little, since you’re a virgin,” he told her, which Shinsou felt was a very bold assumption on his part, but then, she was absolutely supposed to be a virgin, and technically was, with a man at least.

“It won’t hurt,” Shinsou replied confidently, and felt him pause at her surety, offering the rationalisation, “I’m tougher than you think.”

“I can believe that,” he said, stroking Shinsou’s thighs with his palms, still soft by comparison to Shinsou’s roughened skin after several days of hard work, but rougher by far than Hizashi’s delicately cared for touch, and ticklish as a result. Where Hizashi used blunt force and pain as her tools of stimulation, Monoma was all light touches and soft kisses, which left Shinsou desperate for something firmer, pushing up against him and writhing for harder contact. “You’re needy for a virgin,” Monoma commented, only now, at long last, touching two of his fingers between Shinsou’s legs and feeling the waterfall of wetness that sat there, “and so ready for me.”

“Just do it already,” Shinsou huffed, fed up and almost as tormented as Hizashi’s worst orgasm denials, if not quite that bad. “No more teasing.”

“Teasing?” Monoma echoed with amusement, tilting his head at her with a svelte, “eager thing.” 

He didn’t hold out on her longer, though, and guided Shinsou’s thighs either side of him, settling between her legs and tracing the tip of his cock along her wet pussy. It was different in all ways to the carved sex toy Shinsou had been accustomed to using with Hizashi, in shape, size, and texture, but given Shinsou’s famously tight cunt, the thickness was more than enough to stretch her as he slipped the head of his cock inside.

“Ah,” Monoma panted, pausing before he went any deeper. “So tight… I can tell you’re still a virgin.”

He could tell nothing, but Shinsou knew she couldn’t correct him without revealing that Hizashi’s reputation for what she did with her attendants was even more scandalous than anyone dared speak of, a testament to her power that it was still so unthought of despite her publicly fucking Shinsou in the Emperor’s personal gardens less than a week ago.

A human cock felt curiously different to Shinsou, still hard, but not in the way a solid object had been. It filled her pleasingly, if he’d get on with it and put the rest in, Shinsou wriggling and arching into him to encourage the process along, which had him chuckling and tutting at her desperation.

Even once he had accomplished that part, and Monoma began to fuck Shinsou in the way she’d been expecting, moving his hips back and forth to push his cock in and out of Shinsou’s cunt, Shinsou anticipated but soon realised he wasn’t going to do anything else for her but that. Accepting therefore that she would have to do something herself if she wanted it done right, Shinsou resorted to touching her clit herself, working her hand between them and rubbing it to complement the otherwise pleasant sensation of his cock in her.

“Ah, aren’t you naughty,” Monoma commented, laying more clumsily over Shinsou but at least not preventing her from seeing to her own needs in his shortfall. Shinsou had to fight her own urge to be so dissatisfied and compare him unfavourably with Hizashi, who would never leave her unstimulated in that way, but perhaps that was just the difference of men and women, Shinsou reasoned, or at least these two particular ones.

It was… something, Shinsou couldn’t deny. Better than nothing, and as Monoma pumped away at her, Shinsou’s mind drifted to what her once mistress and ex lover was doing, if Hizashi was with Aizawa right now, and if Aizawa was any different to Monoma in performing this act on his wife. It was this thought, shameful as it was, which allowed Shinsou to shudder through an orgasm, much missed since her last, and not nearly as good as the one Hizashi had given her in the waters of the Emperor’s Pleasure Garden.

Monoma’s climax was a strange thing to behold, Shinsou alarmed at first to hear him groan and feel the pulsing of his cock and sensation of something filling her within, his thrusts coming to a rutting halt and his weight over her becoming almost oppressive.

Hizashi was a hundred miles away in Aizawa Manor, Shinsou reminded herself, not for the first and certainly not the last time, and The Tip of The High Mountain was here, in The Forbidden City.

So this was, Shinsou tried to convince herself, if not very successfully, exactly what she wanted.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Far from the luxurious late mornings in bed that Shinsou had enjoyed so much as Hizashi’s pampered companion, she was woken in Monoma’s bed at the crack of dawn with a simple shake of her shoulder and the words, “You ought to get going if you want to be back at the workhouse before the others are up.”

Every day Shinsou was reminded how different a person’s lifestyle could be in The Forbidden City, especially for someone like her with no background to rely on for status.

However, she wouldn’t complain, because she’d been able to wash and been given fresh clothes and a comfortable bed to sleep in, all for the low price of some vaguely inspiring fornication. If that was what it took, Shinsou supposed she could keep on doing it, as any mild improvement in circumstances was an improvement nonetheless.

She got back to the workhouse as the sun was just beginning to rise, and despite the huge amount of rumour mongering that had accompanied her first arrival in the workhouse, no one seemed bold enough to say a word about her being chosen by a high ranking eunuch for some personal chores last night and only returning the next morning. A testament to Supervisor Monoma's power here, and good reason for Shinsou to hope to keep nurturing his attention. His attention rather than anyone else’s, not that Shinsou could do much about who followed her around when he thought she wouldn’t notice.

Another testament to Monoma's influence in the ranking of servants that ruled over the workhouse was that Shinsou was given lighter work to do that day, tending to laundry in one of the large areas for the mass washing of the servants' bedding. This is how she was occupied when General Todoroki inevitably revealed himself.

"Shinsou… you're really here," announced the young Todoroki General in greeting, and Shinsou watched him walking up with a growing sense of trouble.

"What are you doing here?" Shinsou asked bluntly, stirring a pool full of bedding with a long pole.

"I heard Lady Hizashi dismissed and sent you here to be punished, but I wasn't sure I believed it," Todoroki replied, arriving beside Shinsou dressed in his full military uniform, presumably stepping away from official duties to make this inadvisable visit. "I would've come to see you right away, but I didn't want to make a scene."

"I wouldn't worry about that," Shinsou quipped, pausing her work and leaning on the pole to look at Todoroki sideways. "You're making a scene by coming here any time."

To his credit, Todoroki looked genuinely surprised by this, claiming, "Really?" as if someone of his status could ever meet with someone of Shinsou's status without causing ripples.

"Why would a successful General trouble yourself with a person like me?" Shinsou pointed out to him. "People will talk." They'd say this was yet more evidence of why Hizashi threw Shinsou away, most likely, and accuse her of trying to lure General Todoroki, when it was truly the last of Shinsou's intentions. In fact, if Todoroki could stop running after her at every opportunity that would be great, since Shinsou's reputation didn't need any more scandal to be added beyond what was already there.

"I… just wanted to make sure you were okay," Todoroki said meekly, and Shinsou almost felt bad for him. "I thought it was being Hizashi's attendant that meant you couldn't be seen with me… like this," he added subtly, a quiet nod to his knowledge of Shinsou that no one else had.

"It's not that simple," Shinsou told him. "I'll be accused of trying to seduce you if you come to visit me here, so even with Hizashi out of the picture it’d be better if you stayed away."

"Like this?" Todoroki clarified right away. "It'd still be alright if you were, ah, different?"

"I guess so," Shinsou answered hurriedly, a little sympathetic, and a little bit giving him what he wanted so he would leave her alone in the short term. Shinsou shooed the acclaimed general with a wave of her hand and the words, "now go before anyone else sees you.”

"Very well, and sorry, if I caused you trouble again," Todoroki accepted, apologising for the imposition and departing while Shinsou wondered if such an eager young man would be more of a hindrance or a help on her mission to find The Tip of The High Mountain.

~~~

The morning after the reunion of Lord and Lady Aizawa, husband and wife’s issues had been for the most part fucked out, They were once again closer, made stronger for the troubles rather than weakened by them.

Hizashi lay in the crook of Shouta’s arm, sleep deprived from being kept up all night and pounded within an inch of her life. She had missed it, missed him, terribly, as she always did, so at least he was back, and at least he was still wholly hers.

Their conversation, though, still lingered on the cause of all this trouble.

“So then, Shinsou's in the workhouse now,” Shouta murmured, sedentary and more than satisfied, so Hizashi didn’t have to worry so much about him longing for someone else. That part had been well and truly confirmed from their many rounds last night, in which Hizashi had made her husband call out her name repeatedly, just so he knew who his allegiance was owed to when it came to where he spent his seed before all others.

Hopefully Hizashi wouldn't end up pregnant again from this, a rigamarole she hadn’t the heart to endure only to lose another child before or after the life threatening ordeal of giving birth, but if she did it was a fair price to pay for the renewal of their commitment to each other.

“It was the only thing to do,” Hizashi told him, sharper edges finally dulled by the daze of a long night fucking. “Shinsou had gotten too wild and disrespectful.”

“Which you allowed to happen,” Shouta pointed out, reports that had gotten to him about his wife’s excessive indulgence of her attendant while he was still away for the Imperial Hunt.

“I was bored,” Hizashi replied simply. “I would’ve tolerated it too, if she hadn’t been disloyal as well.”

“Disloyal?” Shouta asked with greater interest, as if he too could be offended by someone betraying his wife’s precious affection. “With who?”

“Fucking Monoma,” Hizashi delivered bitterly. “I punished Shinsou and tried to make her understand what being close to someone aligned with Bakugo Palace could do to us, but it was no good.”

“Isn’t he a eunuch?” Shouta said incredulously.

“You tell him that,” Hizashi retorted. “Didn’t stop him sneaking away with Shinsou whenever he thought I wasn’t looking, conniving bastard.”

“Could Shinsou have told him anything?” Shouta checked.

“No, I don’t believe they did much talking,” Hizashi replied sourly, “and I never let her know anything that could damage us if it came to Consort Mitsuki’s ears anyway.”

“Are you sure?” Shouta impressed more clearly, his duties to the careful management of the great Aizawa Clan always first and foremost.

“Only that her son’s temperament leaves a little to be desired compared to Izuku,” Hizashi admitted coolly, “which Mitsuki already knows, so a reminder of the eyes on Katsuki’s behaviour shouldn’t hurt.”

“Very well,” Shouta settled, trusting in his wife’s ability to manage such delicate matters. Thinking of the princes, and the time he’d spent with them before the start of the Imperial Hunt, and who else had left early to go running back to The Forbidden City, brought another thought forward. Apropos of nothing more than who they were discussing, Shouta remarked, “You know, Todoroki Shouto is attached to Shinsou too.”

“Oh, I know,” Hizashi confirmed sourly. “Why do you think I had to send her to the workhouse? He wouldn’t risk sniffing around her there.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Shouta replied frostily. “The second he heard you were in The Forbidden City with Shinsou he went running back to see her.”

“Of course he did,” Hizashi huffed, settling herself deeper in her husband’s embrace and reminding herself that what Shinsou did now ought to be no concern to them, even if it was. “Well, his father will never allow it.”

“We can only hope,” Shouta murmured, tracing his thumb along a silken stretch of his wife’s skin. “That person is too dangerous to be allowed any opportunity to climb up.”

“Ageed,” Hizashi confirmed, and if this was the new dynamic for their marriage that’d become dull without some developments here or there, so be it. “We’ll have to keep an eye on her.”

“We will,” Shouta echoed like the call of a distant gong.

Shinsou might not be permitted to be with them right now, but she also wasn’t permitted to be with anyone else either.

~~~

After a couple of weeks in the workhouse, Shinsou was starting to settle into her new routine. Monoma didn’t summon her every evening for his bed warming service, only a few times a week, and in more discrete ways than the first. Todoroki stopped visiting too, at least to Shinsou as a maid in the workhouse.

While the work lightened a little thanks to Monoma’s influence, Shinsou also toughened up again as well, no longer a spoiled pet but a working creature, and got better at carrying out her tasks with energy to spare at the end of the day.

If Monoma hadn’t called for her, Shinsou would go to sleep with the other girls in the workhouse, and wake back up after midnight, sneaking out and refamiliarising herself with The Forbidden City. She recovered the eunuch’s uniform hidden under the foundations of Yamada Pavilion and would walk around as a boy to get a better understanding of the place. Occasionally, when her powers were weakening and Shinsou needed to renew her bond with the natural world, they shapeshifted to a fox and walked the grounds on four legs and keener senses.

Renewing Shinsou's spirtual power was harder to do in The Forbidden City than Aizawa Manor, the latter’s connection to the earth much stronger than this huge artificial complex, where even the gardens themselves were severed from the power that had borne them. Shinsou found it took much longer to recuperate spiritual energy, the best way being to hunt as a fox for live prey, as the rats and birds they caught had life that could be consumed and supplement Shinsou’s waning power. They also didn’t feed them that well in the workhouse, so the extra sustenance went a long way to fuelling this double, sometimes triple life Shinsou had to lead.

It was one night such as this, Shinsou going out to hunt in the largest of The Forbidden City’s green spaces, a curated forest with pathways winding through it and some open plains, that they lost track of time, and dawn’s light came too soon.

Stranger yet, there were already people in the area, Shinsou sensing them walking around very quietly, perhaps themselves also hunting at this tranquil time of day.

Finding themself cut off from their route back to the workhouse by these intruders, Shinsou attempted to bypass them stealthily, only to hear a voice they knew remarking, “I think I see a fox!”

Of course, it had to be Prince Izuku coming to practise his skills at dawn in the Emperor’s miniature hunting grounds.

Shinsou froze, ears perked and senses sharpened from all angles, trying to pinpoint where they were and being ready to dodge an arrow.

Then came a voice Shinsou knew even better than the first.

“A fox?” Shouto queried, standing slightly behind Prince Izuku as his accompaniment for this early trip, then making the connection all too suddenly. 

Prince Izuku raised his bow, drawing back the string with an arrow loaded, his eyes keen and his aim excellent. “I wonder how a fox got into–”

Shouto lunged for him urgently, grabbing the bow in one hand and the arrow with the other, wrestling the both from their course as he blurted, “Don’t! Don’t shoot!”

“General Todoroki?! What are you doing?” Prince Izuku cried out bemusedly, and a short distance away they both heard the snickering sound of the fox dashing away from them, heard rather than seen by the dim dawn light.

“It’s… we don’t know why a fox may be here,” Shouto tried to excuse awkwardly, still gripping Izuku’s weapon as if he might try to pursue the creature still. Perhaps it was just an ordinary fox, but that was a risk he couldn’t take, and an explanation he couldn’t give, grapping for alternatives that made sense and landing on, “What… what if it was brought as a gift to the Emperor? Or intended for pest control of the rats?”

“I see, you may be right, General Todoroki,” Prince Izuku relented, forgiving the lower ranked Todoroki for his boldness inherently. “Good thing you considered such matters, I would not have wanted to kill an animal presented to my Royal Father for something like that.”

“Yes, of course,” Shouto confirmed as if this was truly his concern, when it wasn’t in the slightest. Looking up at the sky, he suggested, “It will be light soon, perhaps it’s time to stop anyway.”

“So it is, I lost track of time again,” Prince Izuku acknowledged, putting away his bow and setting Shouto’s turbulent heart at ease.

Rather than cause even more suspicion by getting away from Izuku as soon as possible, especially if he might question this rationale and consider trying to hunt the fox again, Shouto accompanied him to the edge of the grounds and made sure he was returning to Midoriya Palace before he dared to return alone and search the grounds. As with most parts of The Forbidden City, it was walled, and with the sun almost risen Shouto questioned if Shinsou would risk climbing them, if it was indeed Shinsou he’d saved in a moment of blind panic.

There was a groundskeeper’s hut not far from the entrance where Shouto had parted ways with Prince Izuku, and as he approached it slowly, muted sounds appeared to be coming from within.

Knocking carefully on the door, Shouto said quietly, “Shinsou?”

A moment later the door jolted open, and Shinsou’s face appeared in the gap. Even from the small sliver shown, not least the height it appeared at, Shouto knew Shinsou was in male form, and his heart started beating a little faster.

The accusation came with a sole narrowed eye through the opening, “What were you and the prince even doing here?”

“Hunting,” Shouto answered simply, looking through the small opening and believing that Shinsou was, in fact, very naked behind that door. Looking around, partly as heat flooded his face, and also to check no one was around, he said lightly, “Perhaps I should come in, you know, in case anyone walks by.”

After a moment of hesitation, the door opened enough for Shouto to step inside. Moving in through the narrow gap to the empty hut filled with tools, Shouto confirmed that Shinsou was in fact, totally naked.

Turning his face so as not to stare, no matter how much he wanted to, Shouto asked, “Where are your clothes?”

“I didn’t come with any,” Shinsou answered impatiently, brushing it off like it was nothing. “I didn’t realise you and one of the Princes would be wandering around trying to kill me.”

“Sorry about that,” Shouto said quickly. “When I heard Prince Izuku mention a fox I made sure to stop him.”

“Yeah… thanks, I suppose,” Shinsou said reluctantly.

“What were you doing here?” Shouto asked in turn.

“Same as you, hunting,” Shinsou replied.

“Hunting?” Shouto repeated. “Why? Are you… not being given enough to eat at the workhouse?”

“No, it’s not like that,” Shinsou settled, clearly not as concerned with his nakedness as Shouto was, leading Shouto to dare snatching a look or two over in his direction. When Shinsou wasn’t bothered by these little looks, Shouto dared to turn to face him, keeping his gaze on Shinsou’s face, lest he get distracted by straying any lower. “Hunting live prey helps replenish my power, or it’s the best way to do it here.”

“Power? You mean your… spiritual power?” Shouto said almost under his breath.

“Yes,” Shinsou returned with a nod. “Normally it’s enough to strengthen my connection with nature by just walking around in fox form, but here… it’s all so artificial, even the trees and grass aren’t connected to the earth’s energy anymore.”

“Oh,” Shouto murmured. “That makes a lot of sense actually.” Perhaps it was why he’d always felt like nothing here was real. “So why is hunting different?”

“Prey are alive, their spiritual energy becomes mine when I make a kill, so it’s enough, at least for now,” Shinsou told him.

The image was unusually striking, Shinsou with the jaws of a fox taking life with the snap of a neck. Perhaps just knowing that Shinsou also understood what it meant to kill, as Shouto did, the requirement of a soldier.

“It reminds me of home too,” Shinsou admitted, perhaps because Shouto was the only person here he could admit it to. “I was one of our best hunters back there, so I’ve missed it, along with everything else.”

“What was it like where you come from?” Shouto dared to ask, since by the rules Shinsou enforced, it was alright for them to talk like this, and Shouto would take what he could get.

“Peaceful,” Shinsou replied. “We had some rules, but not nearly as many as here, and everyone worked together for the good of the tribe based on their strengths, instead of exploiting each other's weaknesses to get ahead as individuals.”

Shouto snorted softly, thinking it might be one of the most concise summaries he’d heard of life in The Forbidden City. “It sounds wonderful,” he admitted, indulging in another honest question. “What’s it like to be free?”

Shinsou shrugged, balanced shoulders raising and lowering, luring Shouto’s gaze to the curve of his collarbone on each side of his chest. He could almost forget he was talking to Shinsou totally naked, if it wasn’t a point of inescapable knowledge. It didn’t seem proper to stare at his genitals, though the odd accidental peek of his soft penis among a bush of violet pubic hair had had chanced Shouto’s vision once or twice. His own softness could not be spoken for, but thankfully he had layers of clothing to cover for that.

“It’s what I always knew, before coming here,” Shinsou explained, and turned it around on him. “What’s it like not being free?”

Shouto sighed, shrugging himself and echoing, “It’s what I’ve always known. Duty to my parents, to the Emperor, to my role as a general.”

“Sounds awful,” Shinsou commented, and that was freedom. Being able to speak so openly about something so unthinkable by human society.

“It is,” Shouto confirmed. “It wouldn’t have been so bad if my older brothers hadn’t left, but now I’m all my father has to rely on for our clan.”

“What happened to your brothers?”

“My eldest brother Touya defected to the rebels several years ago,” Shouto revealed. “My father and I may face him in battle one day. Then my middle brother Natsuo became a monk, which brings some prestige to the family, but he can’t marry or have children, so my father expects me to continue our lineage now.” Sighing again in the midst of this sudden family history unravelling, Shouto added, “I haven’t the heart to tell him I never intend to do such a thing.”

“What do you mean?” Shinsou asked. “You don’t want to marry or have children?”

Shouto shook his head. “I couldn’t bring a child into this world to experience what I’ve had to. It’s too cruel.”

“Did you have such a bad childhood?” Shinou questioned. “Most people would be jealous, wouldn’t they? To be born into a rich and high ranking family.”

“Better the cottage where one is merry than the palace where one weeps,” Shouto recited a proverb he’d mused on many a time. “With that coveted status comes pressure to perform, and bring honour to my family. Everything becomes a competition, and every action is scrutinised and criticised by others. It was too much for my mother to bear, and she…” it was not Shouto’s intention, to pour out his heart and backstory in some groundskeeper’s hut to a naked boy who wasn’t even a boy, yet the words flowed now as if spring had finally come to a frozen river, touching his fingers to his face as he revealed, “gave me this scar of mine, when I was four years old.”

“Your own mother?” Shinsou said in shock. “Why would she do that?”

“She lost her mind, and believed she was… purging me,” Shouto said blankly. “I think she was too scared to retaliate against my father, and ended up taking it out on me.”

“Even though you were so young? I didn’t think human mothers were that cold,” Shinsou remarked.

“Hah, my mother knows cold,” Shouto said bitterly. “She also went to a monastery, after that, to protect our family’s reputation while also removing her from the home. My sister managed the household for a while, but then she married, so now it’s just me and my father.”

“You humans are so complicated,” Shinsou commented.

“We are,” Shouto agreed, liberated by the admission somehow. “I’ve hated being a child of the Todoroki Clan, why would I want to do that to anyone else?”

“Where I’m from it’s a lot simpler,” Shinsou commented. “If one of the tribe wanted to have a child then they would, and all of us would help raise them, not that it happens all that often.”

“Is that how you were… born?” Shouto asked, unsure if that was the right word.

“No, I just came into being by myself,” Shinsou said. “It’s quite common for spirits, I formed in the shrine one day, and the elder spirits mentored me and raised me.”

“Sounds nice,” Shouto said, blinking slowly and heaving a gentle sigh. “I wish I could know what it’s like.”

“Yeah, well, they’re all doomed if I can’t bring back The Tip of The High Mountain,” Shinsou reminded him, or even both of them, with a final, much deeper sigh. “At least I’m here now, rather than back in Aizawa Manor.”

“Yes,” Shouto agreed wholeheartedly. “At least you’re here now.”

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

"Where have you been, Shouto?" General Todoroki Enji demanded as Shouto stepped in through the doorway of Todoroki Manor. "You didn't attend breakfast and left no word of your whereabouts."

"I accompanied Prince Izuku on an early hunt in the Emperor's grounds," Shouto answered dutifully.

"Hm, I thought you were chasing after that servant girl again," his father lectured.

"I swear on our family's honour that I didn't see her," Shouto promised, and was of course telling the truth, because Shinsou had been in male form, although that presented problems all of its own. Shouto had been hoping to retreat quietly to his room and indulge himself while the memory of Shinsou's nude body was still fresh in his mind. An interrogation at the hands of his father was rather disruptive to that.

Shinsou had insisted he could get back to the workhouse by himself, without assistance and without clothes, so Shouto had left him as he was and returned to Todoroki Manor as a matter of personal urgency.

"Why were you spending time alone with Prince Izuku anyway?" his father criticised. "I've spoken to you before about appearing too close with Midoriya Palace."

"Prince Izuku asked me to accompany him, are you saying I should have refused him?" Shouto retorted. "He hunts with Prince Katsuki as well, but he couldn't make it this morning. Stop overanalyzing and let me act as I judge best, father, isn't that what you trained me all these years to know how to do?"

This stumped Enji, who indeed had invested great time and energy into his son's training and knew he was supposed to take his hands off such a firm steer at some point, but hadn't imagined the time would arrive what felt like so soon.

"Very well," the elder Todoroki relented, allowing his son to carry on with his business for the day unhampered.

This afforded Shouto the chance to lock his bedroom door and shove his hand down his robes without fear of interruption, fantasising about things that could have happened between him and a very naked Shinsou. Things Shouto didn't dare to actually do, and preferred the knowledge he'd gained of spirits and their unique ways of life, but that was no trouble to a fantasy, whose purpose was to live out the impossible within the bounds of his imagination.

Shouto wondered if Shinsou had been touched sexually as a boy, knew the pleasure of a hand on his hard dick, or heavens forbid a mouth. Shouto didn't know what that felt like, never acting on the urges he kept to himself so far, but he'd like to with Shinsou, and to give pleasure just as much as receive, maybe even more. Knowing what it'd feel like to hold Shinsou's cock in his mouth and satisfy him, if Shinsou would cum like a human too, if it'd taste the same as Shouto's.

These thoughts were more than enough for Shouto to climax from, making a mess of his uniform in his urgency and distraction, and requiring him to change before he went back out to resume the life full of obligation and rules of a Todoroki.

~~~

Shinsou returned to the workhouse in the form of a fox, thankfully encountering no more princes trying to shoot them or generals who tracked Shinsou down in their hideout and wanted to talk to them at length and stare at them naked as if it was some kind of a rarity, when Shinsou's male form was presumably pretty similar to Todoroki's anyway. 

Shinsou wouldn't have changed form at all if possible, but he couldn't very well talk to anyone as a fox, so had to shapeshift into a human to respond to Todoroki, choosing the male form since he'd been telling the overly eager general not to bother him as a girl, so at least talking to him as a boy upheld the rules Shinsou was trying to keep him to.

Shinsou hadn't meant to divulge so much information about his past and the ways of spirits, but it somehow seemed to tumble out of him around Todoroki, as if the young general's sincerity drew out Shinsou's in turn. It was hard to believe someone born to such a privileged position in this contrived human society could resent it so much, but it was hard to believe a mother would harm her own child badly enough to leave a lifelong scar, so Shinsou had to acknowledge that human lives were not so simple or easy to understand. Much less the curious Todoroki, who swore he wouldn't bring a child into the same life of suffering he had known, yet still devotedly performed his own duties and showed filial piety to his father, serving as he was expected to when it seemed by his eyes as he asked Shinsou what it was like to be free that it was freedom he truly wanted.

Humans were confusing, Shinsou reminded himself, and didn't make sense, so it was best not to fret over them too much, and certainly not Todoroki in any particular way. Shinsou had a mission to focus on, and as long as Todoroki didn't get in the way too much that was all Shinsou needed.

Returning to the workhouse secretly as a fox, finding the uninhabited storeroom Shinsou had stashed her maid uniform and transforming back into a girl, she redressed and was on time to slip in among the other workhouse maids, ready for another day of servitude.

For the first time that day, Shinsou considered that everyone in The Forbidden City, no matter their rank or position, was bound to service in some form or another.

It had to be said, humans were weird.

~~~ 

Shinsou was appointed to gardening duties in one of the many ornamental gardens of The Forbidden City that day, and was hard at work pruning a thorny bush when she heard the voice of the prince who'd nearly made a prize out of her fur that morning, and his mother.

“You don’t need to trouble yourself accompanying me, Izuku,” Noble Lady Inko said politely.

“How could I not?” Izuku responded. “You troubled yourself to give birth to me and raise me, I should be a filial son and make sure you’re alright whenever I can.”

“You’re a good son,” the little concubine said fondly. Shinsou was still and quiet, hearing that they were walking almost exactly around the thick grouping of shrubs that Shinsou was tending to. If she was caught she’d certainly be accused of spying, which, technically, she was, but only opportunistically.

“You’ve been such a wonderful mother, I have a lot to live up to,” Prince Izuku said. It was just the two of them alone, it seemed, and Shinsou was curious to know what the workings of their family were like, after discovering the apparent misery of the prestigious and well regarded Todoroki Clan.

“Don’t pressure yourself,” Inko told him. “For you to be healthy and happy is all I could want.”

“But you could want more,” the Prince dared to say to his mother in this apparent privacy. “Royal Father dotes on you, if you asked for a higher rank I’m sure he would promote–”

“I wouldn’t trouble the Emperor with something like that,” Noble Lady Inko insisted. “My rank is appropriate for someone of my background.”

“Yes, but…” Prince Izuku trailed off, and Shinsou actually knew enough about their society now to read between the lines. To truly aspire to be the Crown Prince and inherit the throne, Prince Izuku’s mother should be more than a noble lady.

“I’m glad that you agreed to let Prince Katsuki lead the second army for the Imperial Hunt,” his mother continued in the absence of the words her filial son wouldn’t say out loud. “It’s important not to appear as if we are overshadowing Bakugo Palace.”

“I don’t, mother, but I still want to…”

“I know you like to compete with Prince Katsuki, but you must be careful, Izuku,” Inko lectured carefully.  

“I am,” Izuku answered, “but I have to do my best too, I can’t hold back with him just because you’re afraid to aspire to more than your current status.”

“Imperial Consort Mitsuki manages the harem very well, I would not dare to challenge her,” Inko said meekly, while Shinsou was soaking every word up. Even a relationship that seemed as kind and balanced from the outside as Prince Izuku and his mother's had its share of troubles and conflict.

“You say that as if you couldn’t,” Izuku pointed out. “You’d be just as capable as Imperial Consort Mitsuki if you tried, and Royal Father favours you more than her.”

“Don’t say such things, Izuku,” his mother scolded. “It would make my life very difficult if anyone were to overhear you speaking like that, and I won’t tolerate you disrespecting the capability of Imperial Consort Mitsuki’s management of the harem.” Lucky that only Shinsou was overhearing them, being a person of no consequence.

“I’m sorry, mother, I spoke too wildly,” Izuku apologised, their voices becoming more distant with their steps as they led away from Shinsou’s hideout. If only to be approached by others.

Shinsou couldn’t very well hide in a bush all day, and backed out as the distinctive paces approached.

“Well well well,” purred Supervisor Monoma as Shinsou emerged from her cover backwards. “What were you up to in there?” Perhaps the assumption that no one of consequence overheard Prince Izuku and his mother wasn’t so certain after all.

“Performing my assigned duties, of course,” Shinsou insisted, with her own sly, “Why, what are you doing here?”

“Come with me, I seem to recall needing your help with something,” Monoma instructed stoically, leading Shinsou to a guard house and dismissing the eunuch posted there on some thin excuse of reporting to the Imperial Household Department for new duties.

The door being shut firmly, leaving just the two of them alone in the small room with a chair and a low cushioned bench that guards definitely used to take naps, Shinsou asked practically, “So, what help did you want from me?”

“Tell me what you heard Prince Izuku and Noble Lady Inko talking about,” Monoma directed shamelessly.

Driven by instinct partially, and the rest remembering Hizashi’s warning to her about Monoma, Shinsou’s response was a guileless, “Oh I don’t know, I wasn’t paying attention.”

“You can’t fool me, Shinsou,” Monoma said suavely, stepping up to Shinsou and reaching to pick a dry leaf from her hair. “You must have heard something.”

“Weren’t you also listening?” Shinsou accused, somehow strengthened in her resistance to disclose the private conversation to someone as sneaky as Monoma.

“You were there for longer than I was,” Monoma said. “If you knew your place then you’d be a good girl and remember.”

Shinsou, choosing the more radical option to get herself out of this, reached to take hold of Monoma by a fold of his uniform and guided him towards the chair. He was scheming, but he was only human, and could be distracted.

“I thought I already was a good girl,” Shinsou remarked, pressing against Monoma’s chest to urge him to sit, pleased to find that he allowed this and moved down into the chair with a curious look on his face.

“That’s different,” he said quietly, breath hitching as Shinsou settled herself over his lap, sitting sideways with her legs hanging over to one side, feet dangling above the floor.

“Is it?” Shinsou asked coyly, her face more level with Monoma’s than their usual height difference had them at. “I’m just a simple servant girl, going about my work, I don’t know what the Prince and his mother were talking about.”

“I find that impossible to believe,” Monoma replied in a low tone, his pupils dilating and his hands settling around Shinsou’s waist. He normally didn’t touch her in this manner without requiring Shinsou to wash and change into fresh clothes, but perhaps she was loosening him up at last. “There’s nothing in the least bit simple about you, Shinsou.”

“You flatter me, Monoma,” Shinsou did some purring of her own, and knowing what she’d learned about him to date, exploited that fondness for kissing by pressing her conveniently positioned mouth to his. They couldn’t be expected to talk about things heard from eavesdropping with their lips locked together, and Monoma’s desires got the better of him, kissing Shinsou back and grinding his crotch against her with the anchor of his hands around her waist.

Shinsou would stop trying to fuck her way out of problems when it stopped working, though it hadn’t necessarily worked with Hizashi, but it had at least got them from one problem to the next most of the time.

“You can’t distract me like this,” Monoma said grouchily when their mouths parted.

“Can’t I?” Shinsou countered, getting up but pulling Monoma with her, tugging him by the uniform to put on his back on the napping couch. Truth be told, Shinsou had been thinking it was time to be a bit more assertive with Monoma in bed, since his usual nighttime routine left a little to be desired on Shinsou’s part, and there was no time like the present to put things into practice.

“Just tell me if they talked about Consooort Mitsuki,” Monoma groaned, drawing the sounds out as Shinsou’s hand worked into his robes and squeezed his hardening cock skin to skin.

“I don’t know, I don’t think so,” Shinsou lied, not quite sure why she wanted to protect Prince Izuku and his mother when it was none of her business, but perhaps feeling the injustice of helping someone already as powerful and established as Consort Mitsuki.

“You’re lying to me,” Monoma muttered, then stopped with a guttural noise as Shinsou bent over him and pulled his cock into her mouth, wetting it with saliva to speed up the ease with which she could sit on him. Until now Monoma had always been on top of her, setting a pace and angle that suited his pleasure more than Shinsou’s.

Pulling off him briefly, Shinsou asked as if shocked by the accusation, “Why would I lie to you? You’ve been so good to me.”

“Ahh… yes, I have,” Monoma drawled, distracted by Shinsou’s mouth returning to his cock, now hard and leaking bitter juice on her tongue. Bunching up her robes around herself, Shinsou climbed over him and rested on her knees, letting his cock fall flat to rest against his stomach and pressing her pussy against it. She and Hizashi had cum from just rutting against each other, and if Monoma wasn’t going to offer then Shinsou would have to impose. “You’re being so assertive,” he panted, expression twitching as Shinsou ground against him for a change.

“Are you complaining?” Shinsou posed, her eyelids fluttering as she finally got some selfish pleasure from him for once. Sure, Monoma was enjoying it too, but only as an afterthought. The spit left on his cock from Shinsou’s mouth provided just enough friction, and in no time she was adding to it with her own slickness, almost forgetting herself why she’d sent things in this direction.

“Not at all,” Monoma replied, looking at Shinsou over him with a newfound respect. “I just won’t forget what I actually wanted from you.”

“Is that so?” Shinsou challenged, feeling good and wet enough to decide that penetration would be a nice development right about now. She lifted just enough to reach between them, holding Monoma’s cock upright and easing herself back and forth on it at first to wet the tip.

“Ah, Shinsou, you, uh,” Monoma gasped unevenly, very much at Shinsou’s mercy now and clearly not objecting to it at all. Enough that Shinsou thought she could try and turn the tables on him.

“Why does it matter if they were talking about Consort Mitsuki?” Shinsou asked as she lowered slowly onto Monoma’s cock, fitting him little by little into her famously tight cunt. “Isn’t she powerful enough not to worry about people like that?”

“No one is powerful enough not to worry in The Forbidden City,” Monoma replied, eyes rolling back in his head as he slipped into Shinsou like a sword to a sheath. “So they were talking about her?”

Shinsou shrugged. “You believe they were, so what do you need me to confirm it for?” She came to be seated on him fully, preferring this position on his cock much more than her other experiences, as well as being able to keep rubbing her clit uninterrupted, determined to cum before she gave any thought to his orgasm. Hizashi hadn’t spent all that time training her for nothing, even if she clearly hadn’t intended Shinsou to use what she’d learned on other people.

“If there’s any plot against Consort Mitsuki I have to knoooow of it,” Monoma tried and failed to get out straight, instead moaning as Shinsou rocked on his cock and stroked herself greedily.

“I don’t know, I didn’t hear anything,” Shinsou repeated mindlessly, chasing a climax that had failed to be as satisfying since Hizashi, and determined to prove to herself she didn’t need Hizashi to get off. “I’m just… just… ah, cumming.”

Monoma gave out a great sound of surprise as he felt Shinsou clamp around him, continuing to rock on his cock still buried deep within her as she rode it out and crashed down like wave, finally rolling out lax along the shore and sighing deeply.

“That’s better,” Shinsou murmured, rolling her head to one side with lazy satisfaction.

“Better than what?” Monoma asked bemusedly, reminding Shinsou he was actually still here and could hear her.

“Nothing,” she said quickly, leaning over him to rest on her hands and lifting up on his cock to start bouncing on it energetically, which had the desired effect of shutting him up immediately and absolutely.

“Sh-Shinsou, fuck, fuck,” he blabbered, holding onto her for dear life and writhing as Shinsou fucked him mercilessly. He came quickly, dick throbbing inside Shinsou and shuddering as his grip tightened urgently to still her movement. 

The effects of gravity and their bearing on this position only became apparent to Shinsou when she tried to climb off Monoma and a long string of gooey cum dripped between them, staining his usually pristine eunuch’s uniform. Uniforms that more than anyone in The Forbidden City weren’t expected to have such excretions on them, but that hadn’t stopped him before.

“That was… different,” Monoma said with loose, deep breaths, his chest heaving a little and glassy eyed as Shinsou made a passing attempt to clean herself up but decided that it wasn’t really worth it to try. She’d been crawling around in bushes before now and had other dirt to show for it, so she’d wash up later and no one would be any the wiser for it, assuming Monoma didn’t want her back for a repeat performance. Going by the dazed, wondrous expression on his face right now, Shinsou could imagine it going either way. Perhaps he needed time to recover, or maybe she’d managed to show him a thing or two after all and he'd be back for more.

“I better return to my duties, or they’ll accuse me of slacking off,” Shinsou said while Monoma was still lying with his dick out and a messy patch of spilled cum on his rumpled clothing, which would slow him down from trying to follow her. “I hope I was able to satisfy your curiosity, Supervisor Monoma.”

“Uh,” was all the reply Monoma stumbled through before Shinsou let herself out of the room and swiftly escaped.

~~~

Monoma did call for Shinsou’s services again that evening, and more frequently after that, sometimes climbing on top of her, but other times letting her get on top of him and repeat the performance he had so enjoyed. When he was on top of her, he was more assertive and firmer than before, having learned Shinsou wouldn’t break and in fact liked it a little rough. More than a little, actually, but Shinsou hadn’t gotten to that point with him just yet.

To keep her close for times when these increased inclinations took him, Monoma had most of Shinsou’s duties reassigned to Bakugo Palace, returning to chores in a lower position than before. It was for this reason that her old friends among the palace maids did not speak to her except when there was no one else around, communicating secretly to confirm that she was well as were the rest of them.

“We all couldn’t believe it when you became Lady Hizashi’s attendant,” Ochako had told her in a quiet gossipy catch up session they managed to snag one day between tasks. “I saw you and her walking around together once, it was like something magical.”

“While it lasted,” Shinsou pointed out, not bitter, well, very bitter actually, but reminded that she did in fact want and prefer to stay here in The Forbidden City instead of being away in Aizawa Manor at her former mistress’s whims.

“Yes, we were all so shocked again when we heard you got sent to the workhouse,” Ochako told her, braver than the others in talking to Shinsou despite the risk of their being caught idly chatting, or the damage for Ochako’s already lowly status talking to someone as sullied as Shinsou.

Being part of the workhouse, Shinsou was dirty enough to do the chores the other maids wouldn’t be demeaned with, such as cleaning the bathrooms of Bakugo Palace.

Of all these, Prince Katsuki’s was by far the worse, as aim did not appear to be a quality the fiery prince put much stock in when it came to relieving himself. Shinsou had scrubbed commodes with even worse than that in, though, and it was funny in a way, knowing that a Prince’s piss was no different to any other’s.

Being that Shinsou had been demoted and disgraced, the Princes wouldn’t acknowledge her beyond a few glances stolen here and there, and Shinsou kept mostly out of their way. General Todoroki too would visit Bakugo Palace and cross paths with her, but had taken Shinsou’s instruction to heart and did not bother her and draw any unwanted attention.

This stretch of new stability afforded Shinsou a few more opportunities to further the search for The Tip of the High Mountain, though she didn’t get too much time off to be able to change into her male disguise and snoop around the records department. After a couple of excursions Shinsou was fairly sure she'd figured out their record keeping system and the building where the records for the Emperor’s personal collection were kept, where she could hopefully locate the records on the date found in Lord Aizawa’s diary should he get the chance. However, the building was closely monitored and Shinsou would get in trouble for just wandering around in there, so needed to choose an opportunity wisely rather than rush in foolishly.

When it came to opportunities, they could turn up in all sorts of places, though Shinsou’s quiet ways of working and excellent hearing certainly helped in that respect.

Shinsou was tending to the less than appealing task of cleaning Prince Katsuki’s bathroom one day when she heard both princes entering his room adjacent. Despite the tensions between Princes Katsuki and Izuku, they still spent much time together, usually competing in any way they could.

Prince Izuku mostly visited Bakugo Palace compared to the other way around, so it was not that unusual for him to be there, or to join Prince Katsuki in his private quarters, but in this case they didn’t know Shinsou was on her hands and knees in the bathroom scrubbing out piss, likely because she was out of sight and very quiet, and also did not immediately announce herself the moment they walked in.

From behind the half-closed screen door Shinsou heard Prince Katsuki saying, “I won this time, Deku, you know what that means.”

Shinsou heard some funny sounds after that, or sounds she only recognised in a certain context, the weight of two bodies moving together, clumsy or somehow careless.

“I know, Kacchan,” Prince Izuku replied, his tone teasing and unlike he usually sounded. “Who says I didn’t let you win for that very reason?”

Then Shinsou heard the most damning words yet from Prince Katsuki, a raspy low toned, “Get on your knees, nerd.”

Shinsou had frozen when she heard the Princes coming and not moved a muscle when they came into the room, wondering what would’ve happened if someone else had been in her place. They would have probably announced themselves and bowed when the princes had entered the room, apologising and excusing themselves for fear of being punished if they were caught spying.

Actually, what was Shinsou going to do if she was caught spying?

That thought, however, was not as potent as Shinsou’s curiosity to find out if she was really hearing what she thought she was hearing.

Creeping very carefully, Shinsou peeked around the edge of the door and got more than an eyeful.

In a surprising, but not totally unbelievable turn of events, the two princes famed for their fierce and passionate rivalry, half brothers raised together as close as any two potential heirs of the Emperor could be, were having a secret affair. Izuku was on his knees in a position Shinsou knew well, Katsuki’s cock wrapped in his hand and mouth, eyes almost shut as he bobbed on his brother’s erection.

Katsuki’s head was tipped back against the wall he rested against, a smirk on his face as he took his reward, not that Izuku appeared to be a dissatisfied loser. By the growing bump under Izuku's robe that he palmed with his free hand, he was an extremely gracious loser.

Shinsou was still figuring out how to get out of this without being noticed when the wooden structure of the palace let out an unwitting creak under her, and Katsuki glanced over only to lock eyes with Shinsou peeking out at them.

"You…" he said gruffly, and Izuku stopped and looked over too, his eyes bulging as he saw Shinsou and realised what she had witnessed.

Shinsou didn't try to explain what she was doing there because it didn't matter. If anyone had every caught these two before then they must have been silenced, something that wasn't hard for two princes to do to a lowly servant. No, they were past explanations now, Shinsou was ready to bargain.

"I won't tell anyone what I saw, I promise," Shinsou offered immediately, sincere mostly because there wasn't any benefit to her mission served by revealing a scandal of this nature. She didn't even have anyone to tell in the first place, or wouldn't be believed against the word of princes who'd presumably deny such a thing and have her punished for slander.

"Get over here," Prince Katsuki ordered, and Shinsou crawled over quickly, still on her hands and knees. Prince Izuku was blushing bright red, clearly mortified to have been caught in his incestuous indecency, but no such shame clouded the Prince of Bakugo Palace's face.

"No one would ever listen to a lowly slave like me, I'd be put to death for even saying anything, so why would I do that?" Shinsou reasoned, looking between the two Princes and wondering if this was why Katsuki always threw such a fit when Izuku beat him at their contests. "I'll just leave quietly and pretend I never saw anything."

"No you won't," Katsuki contradicted immediately. "You're part of this now, whether you like it or not."

Shinsou noticed two very important things at that moment. The first was the presence of that tone of interest she'd learned to recognise in humans. The second was that despite the absence of attention being given to it, Katsuki's cock was as hard as it'd been the moment it hurriedly left Izuku's mouth.

Shinsou could try to bargain in other ways, of course.

"I… understand, I think," she said modestly, trying to work up to it instead of shocking the poor boys with her lack of human decency. "Since I witnessed something inappropriate, the only way for you to have confidence I won't speak of it is if you witness me doing something inappropriate too, right?"

"What?" Prince Izuku murmured nervously, still blushing like there wasn't a drop of blood left in his body for anything else.

"Yeah, then we'd all share indecent secrets together, and you'd never be able to tell without ruining your own reputation," Katsuki reasoned, but it was a horny reasoning, and Shinsou understood what she needed to do.

Placing one hand over Prince Izuku's crotch, much diminished since his untimely discovery, and reaching the other to wrap around Katsuki's still hard cock, Shinsou said, "let me show you I'm sincere, Prince Katsuki, I'll do it just like Prince Izuku was."

Shinsou heard the little gasp from Izuku next to her as she put her mouth on Prince Katsuki's cock, which was different to Monoma's in difficult to place ways. Similar in size, but not exactly the same, with a fuller head and different curve to the infertile eunuch, the biggest difference between them being the size and fullness of Katsuki's balls nestled below the base of his erect cock. A cock Shinsou took deeper into her mouth and hoped this was going to work out like she was hoping it would.

Shinsou would stop trying to fuck her way out of problems when it stopped working, because Prince Katsuki's ruby eyes closed pleasingly and he let out a contented noise.

"Get up Deku, you should get in on this too," Katsuki rasped breathily, grasping his brother by the shoulder and pulling him to his feet. Shinsou wasted no time in finding Prince Izuku's cock under the layers and fastenings of his robe, a little more practised at it by now due to Monoma's persistence lately, and was alarmed to feel the thickness of Izuku's cock when it was still so soft, drawing it out alongside his brother's and switching over to swaddle almost all of Prince Izuku's half hard cock in her mouth.

Izuku let out a stifled squeak, and Katsuki chuckled, kept going by the stroke of Shinsou's hand over his cock while she sucked on Izuku's to fullness, stretching the limits of her jaw and causing her to gag in surprise.

"Look, you made poor Shinsou choke on your fat cock," Katsuki said lewdly, and to Shinsou's surprise, she was getting kind of into it as well. This was an act of desperation, but the scene of what Shinsou knew to be a taboo love between the two princes, rivals, brothers and more, with the feeling now of the two of them before her with their hard cocks ready to go was an unexpected turn on.

"Kacchan, how can you say such dirty things," Izuku admonished, but he also didn't tell Shinsou to stop choking on his cock either, and was watching enamoured as Shinsou switched back to Katsuki's cock with greater vigour.

Humans might be weird, but, Shinsou had to conclude, a lot of them weren't that hard to manipulate, certainly not the male ones.

Shinsou sucked the two Princes' cocks enthusiastically, seeing how they'd jerk themselves off with their hands while watching her with each other, and thanking the heavens that humans were such a repressed, fucky lot after all, saving her much trouble trying to get out of this one any other way.

Her experiences with Monoma had prepared Shinsou now for male orgasms, which were different enough to her female ones that Shinsou was almost curious enough to try it out the next time she shapeshifted into a boy, though surely one climax was not so much different from the other in the end.

Prince Izuku came first, filling Shinsou's mouth unexpectedly when she was sucking him off, backing away as more of his princely cum shot into Shinsou's open mouth and glazed her bottom lip. The sight of this was more than Prince Katsuki could endure, stroking himself furiously and going about it the other way around, shooting the first heavy shot of his load over Shinsou's face first, then slipping the head of his cock into her mouth to deliver the rest.

Shinsou imagined it was probably considered an honour to receive the seed of two princes, and better not disrespect them by spitting it out, so she swallowed both in one gulp, wiping the rest pasting her cheek and mouth into it after and following that down too.

"Y-you… ate it all," Izuku stammered admiringly.

"Dirty girl," Katsuki said with all the delivery of high praise. "At least you know what that mouth is for."

"Of course I do," Shinsou said surely, and if fucking Lady Hizashi had raised her status by so much so fast, even though it tumbled back down again once Hizashi dumped her, Shinsou could only imagine how useful fucking the Emperor's two favourite sons was going to be to her mission.

Things were looking up again, even if she was down on her knees.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Supervisor Monoma was minding his, and everyone else’s, business in the courtyard of Bakugo Palace when Shinsou came charging up to him burning with intention.

“Shinsou?” he greeted curiously, noting the urgency of her steps and determined expression. “What’s the matter?”

“Come with me,” Shinsou demanded, grabbing Monoma by the sleeve and pulling him away with her to the rooms he used as an office while he was attending to Bakugo Palace, which was quite a lot. This in itself was very audacious and could be seen as incredibly disrespectful, as well as inappropriate for a lowly workhouse maid to lay a hand on a senior eunuch, but everyone in Bakugo Palace had learned to look the other way when Supervisor Monoma was interacting with Shinsou, so if anyone had been asked, they’d have said they saw nothing.

“Care to explain what this is about?” Monoma questioned aloofly, not that he seemed too offended to be dragged off by Shinsou in the middle of the day.

He was, however, rather taken aback when Shinsou’s reply was simply, “Fuck me.”

“What?” he said in a moment of blankness, having been enjoying Shinsou’s recent surge of sexual appetite and assertiveness, but never to this degree of extremity.

“Fuck me,” Shinsou repeated bluntly, looking up at him impatiently, as if she were annoyed that he wasn’t already doing it. “Now.”

Needless to say, this shameless demand to be fucked went straight to Monoma’s dick.

“Alright,” he said, tone short and clipped, as he laid eyes on his desk. Already starting to unfasten his robes, he directed Shinsou, “Go there and bend over.”

“Bend over,” Shinsou repeated thoughtfully, wondering what purpose that served when she had only done it face to face before, but did as she was told anyway.

“Lift your robes,” Monoma instructed next, moving aside and undoing only what he needed to of his clothing to expose his cock and the bare skin just around it, learning already from experience that he wanted to try and avoid staining on fabric in the immediate vicinity, as he hated having to clean it himself and he couldn’t very well ask anyone else to do it. Anyone else but Shinsou, of course, but he usually had better things for her to do for him than his laundry. Now being no exception.

Shinsou got the rough idea once she hiked up her layers of robes until she was exposed from ass down to her feet in socks and sandals, legs slightly spread as she rested over Monoma’s desk and felt him step in behind her. She still had the taste of the Princes’ cum in her mouth, so perhaps it was better not to be in a position where Monoma might want to kiss after all. 

Having satisfied both Princes Katsuki and Izuku before being summarily dismissed, Shinsou got nothing back in the way of satisfaction herself, not that she’d expected any when she sucked off the two princes as a way to earn their confidence about their secret affair, and not for her own gratification. However, Shinsou had found herself unashamedly turned on by the whole thing, and luckily she had an obliging partner in Monoma to see to her needs where the princes hadn’t.

“I’d say I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but I’m about to,” Monoma said suavely, seeing even before feeling how wet and ready Shinsou’s pussy was. Whatever the cause he’d happily enjoy the spoils, sliding eagerly into the wet hug of her cunt with one smooth push.

Shinsou moaned gratifyingly, muffling the sound against her arm folded in front of her, and sneaking the other down between her legs to press on her clit.

Monoma wasted no time, since there wasn’t too much they had to waste, and knew now he could fuck Shinsou roughly as he liked, slapping his hips against her pert ass with each frictionless thrust. Shinsou groaned unintelligible nonsense against the desk and her arm, fingering herself until she came quickly and hard, thinking of the princes’ cocks over her and in her mouth while Monoma’s rammed her from behind. It didn’t take much, Shinsou quivering over the desk and swallowing a particularly needy noise, Monoma following not long after with his own grunt and the slow pulsing as he came inside her.

Pulling out with a sigh of satisfaction, and reaching for a cloth to clean himself up, Monoma remarked, “Whatever got you into that mood, Shinsou, keep it up.”

Tingling from the afterglow, Shinsou answered with a smug, “Oh, I intend to.”

~~~

“That Shinsou, can we really trust her?” Izuku asked, lounging on Katsuki’s bed resting his face against his curled fist, Katsuki sitting beside him with one leg crooked and the other stretched out long.

“What do you think?” Katsuki turned back around on his rival, brother and lover, if not always in that order.

“I don’t know, which makes me think the answer must be no,” Izuku fretted, wrinkling his brow as he spiralled into speculation of what one loose end could do to their carefully guarded secret.

Then Katsuki poked him in the forehead and said, “You didn’t seem too worried about it earlier.”

“I was distracted,” Izuku excused, adding aside, “and that was all your idea anyway.”

“She’s just… interesting,” Katsuki remarked thoughtfully. “Besides, if we end up needing to execute Shinsou to silence her, it’d be a shame not to have a little fun with her first.”

“Kacchan no! We can't do that!” Izuku protested, lifting his head and scowling at his brother while Katsuki flashed a wolfish grin.

“So then you don’t want to get rid of her,” he observed. “That means we have to trust her, doesn’t it?”

“Fine, you have a point,” Izuku grumbled, settling back down. “It still seems risky.”

“Don’t worry,” Katsuki said with a foreboding that carried a simmering heat. “I’m going to make sure to keep her close.”

“Hm,” Izuku mumbled, sedentary with concern like a silt riverbed, and then with a hint of petulance, “It’s almost as if you like her more than me.”

Pinching Izuku’s cheek and tugging it, Katsuki teased, “Who says I like you?”

Daringly Izuku answered, “Your cum in my ass.”

Izuku was lying on his front, so it was an easy shift for Katsuki to move from sitting next to Izuku to sitting on him, throwing a leg over his brother and settling straddling Izuku’s muscular thighs, bending down over his back so his recently satisfied cock still pressed over Izuku’s aforementioned rear.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about beating you earlier,” he promised crudely, face just behind Izuku’s ear, almost brushing his curling deep emerald hair. “I’m still fucking you tonight, Deku, a deal’s a deal.”

Satisfied with this proposition, Izuku arched back against the brother he’d spent most of his life trying to beat in any capacity he could, and somewhere along the way fell in love with both winning and losing to him. “I’d be offended if you didn’t.”

~~~

The following morning Prince Katsuki enacted his plan to keep Shinsou appropriately close, which served first and foremost his need to keep an eye on someone who could reveal the biggest scandal The Forbidden City would have ever known, and at no cost could be allowed to get out. It did, however, also serve his interest in Shinsou. In fact, the Prince felt rather entitled to this exploration, since Shinsou had caught his attention a long time ago and been plucked away to Aizawa Manor without his consent.

Prince Katsuki addressed this by announcing to his mother in the morning, "Now that Shinsou is back in The Forbidden City, she should be assigned to Bakugo Palace again."

"My, is that what you think?" Imperial Consort Mitsuki remarked, though it was motherly teasing before genuine scolding. "That person was sent to the workhouse as punishment, what would it say about us if she was promoted to Bakugo Palace?"

"Monoma already has her working here most of the time anyway," Katsuki countered, which was in fact true, or she wouldn’t have been lurking in the Prince’s bathroom to catch him indulging in his illicit affair in the first place, "and it'd say that Lady Hizashi overreacted by sending her to the workhouse, and you're a magnanimous person."

"Unlike her, you mean," Mitsuki finished her son's implication, considering the prospect as well as the consequences of letting her unruly son get access to a maid he wanted permanently assigned to the palace, the reasons for which could be counted on one hand, if that hand was missing a few fingers. Weighing the differences up and resolving them, Mitsuki gave her son a smile and said, "I think you might be right for once, Katsuki. Perhaps the girl deserves a second chance."

"Thank you, mother," Katsuki offered diligently with a bow, and this performance of a good son was more telling than any other behaviour.

"You must like her, if you're willing to be so filial to me," Mitsuki observed slyly, and spotted her son's resulting scowl.

"Of course not," he growled. "Being filial is my duty, not something I do to get what I want."

"You might seem more convincing if you did it at any other time than when you want something, but no matter," Mitsuki dismissed easily, waving an ornate hand delicately. "I'll see to it she's assigned to Bakugo Palace and made… presentable." Eyeing her son carefully, she added a wary, "Try not to get the poor thing into too much trouble."

True to the word, Katsuki answered with an echoing, "I'll try."

~~~

Shinsou still returned to the workhouse at night, as it was where she slept when she wasn't 'helping' Monoma, only to be called on by him the very next morning.

"Pack your things Shinsou, it's been arranged that you will transfer permanently to Bakugo Palace," Monoma announced across the full yard of workhouse servants, many of whom turned jealously to look or glare at Shinsou. People didn't usually leave the workhouse for any reason, much less getting promoted to work in the largest and most important household after the Emperor's palace itself.

Some people get all the luck, went the mutters as Shinsou quickly packed up her things and prepared to leave. Others suggested she was using her beauty and seductive talent to get herself transferred, which, Shinsou supposed, was true.

"Why the transfer now?" she dared to ask Monoma as she walked alongside him to Bakugo Palace with her things bundled in her arms, not that there were many of them to worry about.

"It wasn't my doing," Monoma said bluntly. "The order came from Imperial Consort Mitsuki." The way he spoke made it sound like Monoma didn't favour this arrangement as much as the one that had existed until now, presumably because he couldn't carry on with someone under Mitsuki's direct supervision like he could a disgraced person in the workhouse. “You're transfering to be a household maid of Bakugo Palace, so you better be ready to have her as a Mistress.”

"It can't be that bad," Shinsou said, "I used to have Lady Hizashi as a mistress after all."

Monoma laughed violently at this, which wasn't a good sign. "Nothing can prepare you for having Consort Mitsuki as a mistress, Shinsou," he said ominously, "especially not Lady Hizashi, whatever it was that you passed off for serving her.” Spoken as if he suspected very well what went on between them, since he was a sore point for Hizashi’s jealously, even if no one would ever dare to speak of it aloud.

"Tch, how much worse could it get?" Shinsou challenged.

"Oh," Monoma chuckled, "much worse."

~~~

To Shinsou's surprise, and mild disappointment, because Monoma has set her up to expect something tremendously dramatic, she was shown to her new accommodation in the servants' area of Bakugo Palace, which was overall a fine and grand building, if nowhere near as pretty as Yamada Pavilion, and then sent straight to the bathhouse.

Shinsou hadn't had her own bathwater since… Aizawa Manor, probably, since she'd shared baths with Hizashi once they came to The Forbidden City, including their last one in fresh water and open air.

Summer was coming to an end, thankfully, and the warm water of the servants’ washing facilities was pleasant to bathe in, as Shinsou scrubbed herself properly for the service of a noble lady, and not some workhouse nobody. Getting out of the water and squeezing her long violet hair into a tail over one of her shoulders, Shinsou walked naked to the adjacent changing room in search of some fresh clothing or material to dry herself with.

"Ah, you're ready," remarked Monoma, who was lolling back in a chair in the maids’ changing room with his feet propped up, reading some papers as if this were his office. He probably thought that it was, since it was a room in which business concerning Shinsou happened, and he seemed to believe Shinsou was always his business.

"You're still here?" Shinsou said cheekily. "Don't you have anything else to do?"

"This matter is incredibly important, I'll have you know," he replied assuredly, sitting up and getting to his feet to examine Shinsou carefully by eye, naked from head to toe. "You need to be made presentable on the order of the Imperial Consort, so I'm here to make sure you meet her very discerning standards."

"Are you now?" Shinsou teased, glancing at her nude body and then up to him. “Is that entirely appropriate, Supervisor Monoma?” She only called him by his title mockingly in private, though still used it in public as she ought to. 

Unlike with Hizashi, who liked to be shown respect and seniority when they were intimate, sometimes especially so, Monoma seemed to prefer the opposite and disliked being reminded of his status. Not really that surprising, considering the difference in Hizashi and Monoma’s statuses, and that Monoma was a eunuch, even if he didn’t do the role much justice, given the tent he was already pitching in his robes watching Shinsou stand before him naked, not that he acted on it in a hurry.

“If I don’t give Consort Mitsuki my personal guarantee that you’re suitably prepared for her son, am I really doing my job properly?” he asserted confidently.

“Her son?” Shinsou echoed with a bolt of concern, assuming this meant it was somehow known she had engaged in sexual acts with Prince Katsuki, if not his brother.

“Of course, it was Prince Katsuki’s request to his mother that you be transferred to Bakugo Palace,” Monoma explained patiently, swinging down his legs and standing up. “You had already caught his eye before that, but with Lady Hizashi taking you away for so long only to throw you aside, this is just a natural restoration to how things were before.”

He walked not to Shinsou, but to a cabinet with a sliding panel door, pushing it aside to reveal a number of robes hung within. Nothing as luxurious as what Hizashi allowed for her personal attendants, but pretty robes in different colours with a moderate amount of embroidery embellishment, appropriate for maids of the palace of the highest ranking woman in the Imperial harem.

“I caught his eye,” Shinsou continued to repeat key phrases, long since learning this was the best way to get them clarified by whatever human she was talking to.

“It’s rare for Prince Katsuki to take a liking to anyone, much less a simple maid, so Consort Mitsuki was gracious and agreed to his request to bring you into service at Bakugo Palace. You must be sure to thank her for being so generous,” Monoma schooled expertly, examining the different robes and looking over at Shinsou as if choosing which to give to her.

“I will,” Shinsou answered, watching Monoma peruse the options before commenting surely, “The grey one.”

“Hm?” he murmured inquisitively, coaxing his head over his shoulder to look back at Shinsou, who had perched back against a half-empty table, one side of it piled up with folded inner robes she had yet to take for herself. No point, when she didn’t expect to get one on without needing to take it off again before leaving here. If she had learned one thing from Monoma, it was not to mistake the time he took sitting down to eat for a lack of appetite.

“It’s for me, isn’t it?” Shinsou said straightforwardly. “The grey robe will look the best.”

“Hmm,” Monoma hummed, carefully removing the pale silvery silk robe with a simple border around the collar and sleeves, and a violet few flowers embroidered at the bottom. Lady Hizashi had taught Shinsou a lot of things, many of which didn’t serve much purpose outside of the bedroom, but one of them that did was how to dress herself to be most beautiful, and in that respect no one could claim to have a better eye than the famous beauty herself. “No,” Monoma decided after a pause, setting it back and continuing to look.

“Why not?” Shinsou asked, confident in her choice. “It’d be the most flattering on me.”

“It’s to Lady Hizashi’s taste,” Monoma corrected austerely. “Consort Mitsuki would hate that,” after a moment, he conceded, “even if you are correct.”

Shinsou huffed, a little proud and a little put out, as well as self conscious that even her taste could have been moulded by Hizashi so tellingly that it would be obvious to someone like Consort Mitsuki.

“This is more Bakugo Palace’s style,” Monoma declared, setting out a black robe with orange embellishments that Shinsou thought would clash with her hair and eye colour, but apparently playing to her natural gifts was too obviously Hizashi’s taste, so whatever.

“Thank goodness I have you to guide me in these matters,” Shinsou remarked, lifting herself up to sit on the end of the table and crossing one arm over her stomach, resting the other on it to curl her fingers against her cheek. “However shall I repay you?”

“An excellent point,” Monoma said, setting the chosen robe aside and finally walking over to Shinsou, their eyes more level than usual from her seat on the table. Shinsou’s hair was drying in the warm air, but leaked a few lone beads of water that rolled down her chest and left a moist track in its wake. Reaching for this with his fingers, Monoma rubbed it gently dry, then shadowed the curve of her breast in his palm, squeezing softly like a man who savoured every bite of each meal. “Prince Katsuki’s going to have fun with you,” he said in a low, drawling tone, seeming to suggest that even if it wasn’t confirmed that Shinsou had already dallied with the fiery prince yet, she would be expected to henceforth.

Which brought Shinsou to a point of curiosity she couldn’t resist exploring.

“You don’t mind?” she asked, watching Monoma’s face as he stepped more fully between her legs, sliding his other arm around Shinsou’s waist and tugging her naked body to press snug to his.

“Mind what?”

“That the Prince has taken a liking to me,” Shinsou used the words he had, trusting in them not to betray anything she shouldn’t. “Aren’t you, well, jealous?”

Chuckling smugly, Monoma remarked, “Not everyone is as jealous as Lady Hizashi, you know.”

“I know that much,” Shinsou confirmed, since it surely wasn’t possible for anyone to be a more jealous woman than her former mistress. But this didn’t really answer the question she’d asked. “You just seem to be enjoying it.”

“What’s not to enjoy?” Monoma questioned, unfastening his own robes with a careful pace. “I’m the one who gets to have you first, and preparing you thoroughly for the Prince is my duty, so I have to ensure you’re able to do everything he might want you to do.”

“Is that so?” Shinsou responded, starting to see where Monoma was getting his kicks from this. Perhaps it was like when Hizashi used to talk about preparing Shinsou for her husband, not that she ever made good on that promise, though not all humans worked exactly the same, as Shinsou had painstakingly learned. “We better get started then, hadn’t we?”

“Exactly,” Monoma agreed, twisting his mouth down to cover Shinsou’s in an assured kiss, as if he were going to tread each step Prince Katsuki might take before he took it, not knowing he was walking exactly in another’s footsteps. Monoma kissed far more than Hizashi, making them seem cheaper somehow by merit of their numerousness, but he did know how to make them enjoyable. This time he was particularly tonguey, probing Shinsou’s mouth deeply and reaching for one of her breasts to grope while the other hand held his cock in position to find the junction of Shinsou’s legs.

The table was set at just the right height that Monoma could penetrate Shinsou easily, bending his legs a little and guiding his cock into her with a familiar hum of pleasure.

“You’re still so tight, Shinsou, if I don’t loosen you up for Katsuki he might never get it in,” Monoma said sordidly, and Shinsou forwent telling him that their cocks were much of the same, but it was Prince Izuku she might worry about considering his was more girthy than his brother’s by a noticeable amount. If anything, Monoma and Katsuki would be preparation for that, assuming Shinsou could expect to be fucked by both princes even if one of them was an open secret and the other was a closely guarded one.

“Better do it hard then,” Shinsou provoked, always looking to bait Monoma into being rougher with her than his inclination. He obliged very nicely on this occasion, pushing Shinsou onto her back on the table, legs lifted up to rest over his shoulders, and fucked her hard, thrusts enough to shake the table on its own legs, which they’d have to hope no one overheard and thought to question why Supervisor Monoma was taking so long to choose clothes for the new maid or why he was making all those banging sounds while he did it.

“Fuck, fuck,” Monoma panted, a familiar refrain while Shinsou sprawled back and enjoyed the change in sensations that came from each different position she was fucked in, this one especially good and deep when Monoma bent over her and folded her legs up even higher. 

Shinsou didn’t even feel the need to touch her clit on this occasion either, enjoyable enough being fucked on its own to not be bothered with the additional effort, and just arched her back and let Monoma’s cock as deeply into her as she could, which was noticeably more than when she wasn’t trying to do it or was clenching tight from cumming with her clit.

“Ah, Shinsou, you’re really sucking me in,” Monoma said breathily, seeming like he’d very much like to cum inside her any moment now but being conflicted about doing it. Preparing her for someone else to fuck might be taken too far if he left his cum in Shinsou’s cunt, so at the last moment he pulled out and stepped around her to the side, pumping his cock with his hand and cumming over Shinsou’s exposed tits that had been bouncing ever so slightly with each of his hardest thrusts before climax.

It was warm as it fell against her, the sensation of human semen curious but not unpleasant, and spurted from his cock in a few long pulses and then fell to a trickly. Shinsou would have to clean herself up again, but supposed it was easier to do so off her tits than inside her, and couldn’t complain too much when it’d been so enjoyable.

While Monoma stood back to observe his pearly handiwork over her chest, Shinsou wryly asked, “So, do I look ready to serve the prince?”

Reaching for her breast and smearing a globule of his cum in the process, Monoma answered with a sarcastic, “Oh, most definitely.”

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Dressed in her black and orange gown that clashed with Shinsou’s natural colouring, cleaned up, again, and after styling her hair and putting on a little makeup, skills she was glad to have gained under Hizashi’s tutelage after all, Shinsou was finally sent to meet the Imperial Consort.

In contrast to Lady Hizashi’s management of Aizawa Manor, which was conducted primarily from her greeting hall, while her study was used almost exclusively for delivering oftentimes sexy punishment to Shinsou, Imperial Consort Mitsuki had a grand office in Bakugo Palace and oversaw management of the harem and palace household from there. The Forbidden City was naturally much larger than Aizawa Manor and more vast in what needed to be managed, but as Shinsou had heard Hizashi say on a few occasions, Consort Mitsuki also had a similarly vast amount of help. In fact, in Hizashi’s exact words, no one in Bakugo Palace needed to so much as wipe their own ass if they didn’t want to.

Presenting herself to Imperial Consort Mitsuki, the closest thing they had to an Empress since the death of Empress Midnight, Shinsou bowed deeply and recited, “Greetings Imperial Consort Mitsuki.”

“Rise,” Consort Mitsuki ordered from behind her vast desk, and Shinsou lifted from the deepest part of her bow, remaining on her knees so as not to stand taller than the seated woman, blonde hair styled and decorated with excessive beautiful ornaments, and a robe of Shinsou’s own orange and black colouring. Monoma had known what he was doing after all. Observing Shinsou for a moment, Consort Mitsuki pronounced, “You do clean up nicely, I’ll give you that.”

“Thank you, Imperial Consort, you’re too kind to flatter someone such as me,” Shinsou replied, remembering the other advice Monoma had given her. “Your servant also thanks you for promoting me to attend to you in Bakugo Palace, a thousand years would not be enough to repay you for this honour.”

“Oh, and you talk nicely too,” Mitsuki commented sharply, and Shinsou was reminded of her first interactions with Lady Hizashi. Somehow Shinsou didn’t expect Consort Mitsuki to want the same things from her as Hizashi had, but then, she’d been wrong before. “Don’t think you will be able to get away with just standing around looking pretty and doing no work, like you did when you were serving Lady Hizashi.”

So, Shinsou wasn’t wrong after all, and it would be different to how it was with Hizashi.

“I would never dream of it,” Shinsou said politely. “I know the Imperial Consort has many responsibilities to manage the harem and affairs of the many palaces, so I will work hard to assist you and lighten your burden any way I can.”

“You can drop the bullshit, kid,” Mitsuki said abruptly, startling Shinsou for a moment. “You’re here because my son seems to like you, but I’m warning you not to rely on that. You have to earn your keep the same as anyone else here, with hard work and diligence.”

“I’ll do my best to impress you, Imperial Consort Mitsuki,” Shinsou told her. “I know you run Bakugo Palace strictly, please teach me the right way to do things.”

“I certainly do run a tight ship,” she confirmed. “You’ll start with cleaning the west hall and rooms on that side of the palace. Slack off and I’ll know, so you better make sure they’re spotless.”

Shinsou bowed again, for good measure, and said, “I will carry out your orders to the word, Imperial Consort.”

Huffing, Consort Mitsuki declared, “Good, then move along now, I’m a busy woman.”

Shinsou left promptly and set herself to the task, cleaning the rooms she’d been ordered to clean from top to bottom. True, she was following orders, but also, she wanted to make it a point of pride that she could do more than ‘stand around and look pretty’, as if Hizashi hadn’t made her work hard too. Shinsou was educated enough now in the fancy talk of these humans to understand the slight on her former mistress in her new one’s instruction, and felt compelled to prove that Hizashi had been far from a relaxed mistress, if not in the most conventional of ways.

And even though Consort Mitsuki acted as though working at Bakugo Palace wasn't going to be anything like serving Lady Hizashi, it was definitely no accident that the area Shinsou was assigned to clean included Prince Katsuki's private quarters, where she had only recently had a compromising run in with both princes. Knowing this wasn't coincidence, Shinsou left cleaning it to the last, also in part because it needed the most thorough cleaning too, as the prince wasn't always terribly careful with his belongings.

Shinsou was still meticulously dusting surfaces in Prince Katsuki's room when she heard his dulcet tones, footsteps not alone of course, and braced herself for whatever this was about to be.

"You only won today's archery contest because you've been hunting every morning with Todoroki," came the distant argument of Prince Katsuki's rationalisation for his latest loss.

"Yes, Kacchan, that's how practising works," Prince Izuku replied smugly, their footsteps drawing closer. "You could've joined us, but you didn't want to get out of bed before sunrise."

Shinsou rather preferred that Prince didn't go hunting with them, considering Todoroki had to stop Izuku from trying to shoot Shinsou on one of those morning trips, and might not have been able to snatch the bows from two princes at once, though he'd surely have tried.

Their footsteps finally reached the room, and Shinsou adopted the kneeling bow that was expected of servants about to be in the presence of their superiors.

The door opened and laying eyes on her, Prince Katsuki remarked, "Well, look who's hard at work already."

"Greetings to Princes Katsuki and Izuku," Shinsou said politely, glancing up at them and seeing Prince Katsuki shut the door behind them securely.

"Oh, you're here again," Prince Izuku remarked with an edge of something Shinsou couldn't read in his voice, a little clearer when he turned to his brother and reminded him, "I still won today, Kacchan, don't forget it."

"I won't, Deku, relax," Prince Katsuki cajoled, grabbing his brother's shoulder to shake teasingly. "Doesn't mean we can't have some fun with this cute maid as well, does it?" 

With a sigh that was almost disappointed, Izuku confirmed, "Of course not."

Shinsou had the distinct feeling that bedding two princes was going to be far more than twice the trouble of one.

~~~

The rules spoken of by the princely brothers and secret taboo lovers were, as far as Shinsou could determine, whoever had lost their latest contest submitted sexually to the winner.

Prince Katsuki hated to lose, but he didn't seem to hate sucking Prince Izuku's cock quite so much, because he ordered Shinsou to suck his while he was doing it so Shinsou knew exactly how hard he was before her mouth got anywhere close to the prince's erection.

This was why Consort Mitsuki had accepted Shinsou into the service of Bakugo Palace and then commanded her to clean the wing containing her son’s bedroom, so Shinsou didn’t question her circumstances and did exactly as she was told, remaining on her knees and keeping Katsuki’s cock in her mouth as Izuku steadied a hand on the back of Katsuki’s head and thrust his cock into his brother’s mouth. Katsuki was sitting on a low cushioned chair, Shinsou on the floor between his legs, and Izuku standing to the side of her, though Shinsou could almost believe Prince Izuku might have been more content had she not been here, monopolising his brother’s inglorious loss.

“Focus, Kacchan,” Izuku seemed to scold his brother, who Shinsou had a clear view of over her taking all of that thick cock in his mouth as if it was nothing. His eyes narrowing in spite, Shinsou heard a wet gulp and was shocked to see Katsuki bring his lips all the way to the base of Izuku’s cock, taking him far deeper than his mouth could surely hold, forcing it into his throat. Izuku gave a moan and his knuckles whitened in Katsuki’s hair, and Shinsou had to admit to being impressed that Katsuki didn’t gag or stop, though he surely couldn’t breathe, and kept Izuku’s cock swallowed until his brother’s grip loosened and he backed away of his own volition, withdrawing from Katsuki’s mouth fully with his cock shining with spit.

“How’s that for focus, Deku?” Katsuki baited, and Shinsou almost stopped to ask him how he could do it like that, but feared the repercussions of no longer warming the prince’s cock as she’d been ordered, so kept to her own task accordingly. Maybe another time, when Katsuki was in a more agreeable mood.

“If you think you’re going to get me to cum early, I hate to disappoint you,” Izuku replied aloofly, his cock drooping under its own weight, lifted with a circle of his finger and thumb around the base, and raised back up to tease his brother’s mouth. “I fully intend to claim my victory prize.”

Whatever Katsuki’s reply was going to be, the words were muffled entirely by Izuku’s cock filling his mouth, at which Shinsou felt the throbbing of Katsuki's within hers and knew it was nothing that she’d done to cause it.

When the fiery Prince's eyes finally returned to Shinsou, obedient between his legs, Katsuki freed his mouth of Izuku's cock momentarily and said, "Take your clothes off."

Shinsou couldn't easily do that with Katsuki's cock in her mouth, so backed away from him and offered an obliging, "Yes, Prince Katsuki."

She disrobed quickly, but not so quickly as to make it seem like she did it all the time. One thing she'd learned about these humans was that despite wanting to fuck all the time, they had to pretend that they didn't, and Shinsou ought to seem as if she was a virgin every time she was with someone new to preserve their strange prudishness over the layer of nymphomania that Shinsou actually experienced most of the time.

Katsuki murmured approvingly as Shinsou undressed, teasing his brother's cock by mouthing it without taking it all the way in as he admired Shinsou's round perky breasts, slim waist with a soft stomach and hips, and the lavender nest of hair between her legs.

"Sit in my lap," he ordered next, and Shinsou did that too. She could have sat directly on the Prince's cock, but it'd seem then like she knew what she was doing and had done it before, which she had, but he wasn't supposed to know that, so Shinsou averted her eyes and looked embarrassed as she straddled Prince Katsuki's lap, his cock pressing up against her pubic mound.

"Like this?" Shinsou said timidly, wondering what would happen if she had just gone for it and started bouncing on his cock right away. He probably wouldn't have minded, based on his character.

"Not quite, but it's a start," Katsuki replied playfully, red eyes flitting up to Izuku, who was looking impatient and frustrated, amongst other things. "Help me suck Deku's cock so he'll stop pouting," he finished.

"Help?" Shinsou echoed curiously, not sure how one really assisted in giving a blowjob, but decided that doing the same kind of thing Katsuki was doing seemed like the right course of action. 

Positioning Prince Izuku's cock between their two mouths, Shinsou licked and sucked one side of it while Katsuki did the same to the other, being that there was plenty of it around for two people to be occupied with at once. Fat and flushed a deep ruddy colour, with several thick veins running along it, Prince Izuku's cock was a little intimidating to tackle without a partner.

Shinsou hadn't been as turned on by this whole thing just yet, or not as much as the last time, when the shock and taboo was a little fresher and more exciting, but the sounds Izuku started to make as they worked his cock from both sides were getting her on the right track, and the brushes of Katsuki's lips and tongue together around Izuku's cock didn't hurt either. Shinsou had tried different kinds of kissing with a couple of different people, and grazing mouths with Prince Katsuki while they both sucked Prince Izuku's cock was an interesting one to add to the collection.

Katsuki's hand groped for and squeezed one of Shinsou's breasts, barely breaking contact with Izuku's cock to demand, "Put my cock inside you," and by then Shinsou didn't need telling twice.

Lifting herself up and reaching to hold his cock in place, Shinsou positioned the head Katsuki's cock at her entrance and coasted it around to get it wet, then began the slow tight slide down onto his pulsing angry erection.

"Fuck, she's so tight," Katsuki groaned, clearly addressing his brother before Shinsou directly, but Shinsou could forgive him that much, because it was titillating to watch the Prince gaze up at his brother with such desperation as he pushed into Shinsou's famously snug cunt. "You're really missing out if you don't try this, Deku."

Prince Izuku reached for Katsuki's face, hooking his thumb into his brother's mouth and staring down at him with an intensity Shinsou found unnerving.

"No I’m not," Izuku replied surely, as if he knew he would be getting something just as good or much better.

~~~

Shinsou’s fantasy of taking a cock from either end got fulfilled that day, as Izuku conceded to letting Shinsou suck him off while Katsuki carried on fucking Shinsou, bent over between them and held up off the ground by the hips and shoulders respectively, since she weighed so little. It lived up to Shinsou's imagination, two Princes definitely better than one, and more than enough of a turn on for her thighs to run with beads of juice from her pussy as Katsuki's hips slapped against her backside.

Perhaps it was Hizashi's training that had taught Shinsou to feel aroused by being used like an object, but it was as if this human body was a doll the Princes used for their own pleasure, eyes locked with each other as they fucked Shinsou's holes from each end.

However, it wasn't to last, because Izuku pulled out with a sudden urgency, as if stopping himself from cumming in Shinsou's mouth, his cock soaked in her spit, and announced, "Time to claim my prize for beating you today, Kacchan."

"Go on then," Katsuki grunted, bending over Shinsou and lowering down until they were both kneeling on the floor matting, still keeping his cock buried in her. "I'm not stopping you."

Shinsou wasn't sure what they planned to do, only that Izuku got behind Katsuki, and Katsuki's face pressed to the back of Shinsou's neck and he moaned as his brother did something to him.

Shinsou had been in male form, and knew what they had and didn't have, so it was only when Prince Izuku said, "Relax, Kacchan, you're squeezing me too tightly," that she realised where he was trying to put his cock.

"Easy for you to say," Katsuki snarled, his cock momentarily softer inside Shinsou, but still sheathed by merit of their front to back sandwich. "Yours is much bigger."

"It's not that much bigger," Izuku claimed

And for whatever reason, though she hadn't really been part of this in more than a physical sense, Shinsou chipped in, "It is so."

"Haha, see?" Katsuki's scoffed, as if pleased to finally have an ally and witness in this matter. If he was doing what Shinsou thought he was doing, Shinsou could understand why he hated losing to Izuku as much as he did.

But Katsuki just heaved a few deep breaths, and Izuku hummed approvingly, "Ah, there you go," as he worked his cock into Katsuki's ass. 

Somehow, the fact that this hole could also be used for sexual purposes had escaped Hizashi's education of Shinsou, so she found it strange and a little shocking, mind reeling with this new information.

"Do you like being in the middle, Kacchan?" Izuku said in that lighter, teasing voice Shinsou heard him only use in private, scandalising further by adding, "Your cock in Shinsou and my cock in you?" Prince Katsuki's cock gave a telling twitch inside Shinsou, and she felt Izuku's fingers brush her as he grazed them down Katsuki's sides. "I think you do."

"I think you should hurry the fuck up, Deku," Katsuki growled, "Or I'm going to finish before you and leave you to jerk yourself off alone."

Izuku clicked his tongue disapprovingly, commenting, "That's no way to speak to your brother," before proceeding to do some very unbrotherly things to him, grinding his cock into Katsuki, who ground his in turn into Shinsou. When Izuku finally started to move back and forth, shallow thrusts that became deeper, Katsuki bounced into Shinsou with the force and became limper between the two of them, Shinsou holding him up from below more than he held her underneath him.

"Hng, fuck, I am gonna cum first," Katsuki panted, muffled moans in Shinsou's hair. He supported himself with his hands on the floor either side of them and started to thrust into her more determinedly, pressing back on Izuku's cock then into her cunt in either direction, speeding up and groaning louder as he got closer and closer.

"Ah, Kacchan, let's do it together," Izuku said, a slapping sound of their flesh coming together and peaking at the same time, like two waves rolling together to break as one.

Katsuki's cock throbbed and released inside Shinsou, feeling like more cum than Monoma's usually made, which wasn't unsurprising considering Monoma wasn't even really supposed to have a dick, much less be able to fuck anyone with it.

They stayed like that for a moment, then Katsuki hissed through his teeth as Izuku backed away and pulled out of him.

"Sorry, I did it inside again," Izuku said apologetically.

"You say that like you don't do it every time," Katsuki replied sharply, not that he was one to talk really.

"It feels too good, I can't help it," Izuku explained, mellow and not very penitent it had to be said. He settled into the chair that had been Katsuki's, lazy half lidded eyes as he watched his brother pull out of Shinsou at last, and the long spill of his cum that followed immediately from Shinsou's cunt.

"Finish cleaning up in here and then leave us," Prince Katsuki told Shinsou, glancing often at Izuku in a way Shinsou could sense but not understand, something between them that created a tension she couldn't place. A conversation they had in looks and minor gestures, as if the words weren't to be spoken around a lowly servant, even if she'd just been fucked by them both all the same.

Knowing better than to push her luck or try and evade orders of her superior, Shinsou bowed, still totally naked with the Prince's load dribbling out of her, and said, "Thank you, Princes, I'll finish my work quickly and leave you two alone."

Even though truthfully, Shinsou would have been curious enough to stay behind and see what happened next.

~~~

Once the Shinsou had left, redressing and finishing her chore quickly, it took Katsuki all of ten seconds to pin his brother with an accusatory, "What?"

"What do you mean, what?" Izuku replied mildly, though he'd been sitting in Katsuki's chair the whole time and not stopped pouting once.

"What's with that fucking expression, Deku, that's what," he put savagely.

"You planned this," Izuku said coolly, his own accusation terms much less aggressively.

“I didn’t, you’re being paranoid,” Katsuki insisted, rolling his shoulders for a soft click and squaring off against his perennial rival. “You won today and you got what you wanted, didn’t you?” His aching fucking ass for the next two days would testify to that much.

Resting his face against his curled fingers, looking like he didn’t know what he wanted, Izuku replied sullenly, “I suppose so.”

“If anyone was behind Shinsou being here then it was my mother,” Katsuki pointed out.

“Only because you asked her to transfer Shinsou to Bakugo Palace,” Izuku countered, followed by the more revealing comment, “She thinks you like her.”

“It’s better than having her executed, isn’t it?” Katsuki reasoned, and stepped closer to Izuku, the two of them half-dressed in unfastened robes of black and green, respectively. Bluntly he added, “And so do you.”

“What?” Izuku queried.

“Think I like her,” Katsuki clarified. “That’s what you’re sulking about, isn’t it?”

“I’m not sulking,” Izuku murmured exactly in the manner of a person who was sulking.

There wasn’t enough room in the ornate chair for two people to sit side by side, so it’d have to be one on top of the other. Katsuki kneeled either side of his brother’s splayed legs, resting across his lap broadly, and pressed him back in the chair with a hand splayed over his chest.

“Relax, nerd,” Prince Katsuki breathed over Izuku’s mouth, which turned up to his needily, straining towards contact that Katsuki held just out of reach before closing the distance with a searing kiss, “I still like you the most.”

Kissing back passionately, tongue darting forth to tangle with Katsuki’s, Izuku broke away in the clash of their lips to mumble, “That means you do like her.”

Though arguably Katsuki was preoccupied in continuing to kiss Izuku, he could’ve disagreed if it wasn’t true at all, but he didn’t.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

The following morning, Shinsou was woken early by Monoma. This was in Shinsou's latest bed among the servants' quarters in Bakugo Palace, not in the large workhouse dorms, or Monoma's more comfortable one, where Shinsou doubted she would be spending the night again any time soon with Consort Mitsuki’s discerning eye over the palace.

“Get up, you’re to see the Imperial Consort,” Monoma ordered unfeelingly, giving Shinsou little time to prepare herself and be presentable enough to go before her new mistress.

As such, Shinsou was still a little worse for wear as she tottered into Consort Mitsuki’s study early in the morning still rubbing the sleep from her eyes, hair full of flyaways and robes only hurriedly fastened.

If it had been Hizashi, Shinsou would have been eviscerated for daring to appear before her mistress in such a slovenly state, and would’ve been summarily stripped naked and punished harshly for the disgrace of blighting Hizashi’s eyes with a less than perfect appearance. Taken apart completely, then meticulously put back together, that was her style.

However, as Shinsou was learning, Consort Mitsuki was not like Lady Hizashi at all.

There was a small tray set out on a rare free space across the Consort’s expansive desk, on which sat a small bowl of a steaming herbal mixture Shinsou smelt strongly from across the room.

Without looking up from the papers she examined behind her impressive desk, Consort Mitsuki said as matter of factly as any item of the day, “So, you’re fucking my son.”

Shinsou might’ve fallen over, were she any less practised in her wooden platform shoes than she was and any less awake, but that comment alone thrust her into a state of full consciousness and more than a little alarm.

“Ah, Imperial Consort Mitsuki, I… dare not lie to you,” Shinsou fumbled awkwardly, not expecting such brutal directness from these humans she’d come to assume always worked in circles and underhanded comments. Not this family, it would seem.

“Relax, Shinsou, I transferred you here for the sole purpose of fucking my son, didn’t I?” Mitsuki remarked casually, and finally looked up to make eye contact with Shinsou, before directing her gaze to the tray on the corner of the desk. “Drink that.”

Shinsou didn’t want to question a direct order, but also wasn’t sure about just drinking mystery liquids given to her by domineering women, or not after her experience getting drunk with Hizashi, anyway. She settled on a compromise, which was to walk over and confidently lift the small bowl and drain the contents, warm and pungent, and then ask only after setting the empty container back down, “What is it?”

“Contraceptive soup,” Mitsuki answered straightforwardly. Shinsou might’ve told her there was no need to worry about that sort of thing, since most humans couldn’t impregnate fox spirits, but that’d give the game away, so she just nodded and played along.

“I see,” Shinsou said, thoughtfully adding, “Thank you for considering such things.”

“Oh, not keen to get a prince’s heir in you?” Consort Mitsuki dared to tease, Shinsou thought. Perhaps it was a real question disguised with a hint of humour, as these duplicitous humans liked to do.

“I would never dare to aspire to something like that,” Shinsou answered, using what she had learned of this strange society, though it wasn’t true at all, only what humans wanted to hear. Shinsou had no desire to bear any human a child, certainly not in this fucking madhouse. “I know my place.”

“Good, that saves us the trouble of reminding you of it then, doesn’t it?” Mitsuki commented, looking down and moving a few papers around then back up to face Shinsou. “Frankly I’m just pleased that Katsuki is showing an interest in putting his cock in someone other than Izuku, but that doesn’t mean you’re entitled to climb up the ranks by bearing his child just yet.”

Shinsou just about got the sentence in full, but was blindsided mostly by the everyday reference to the secret relationship between the two princes, so just stared at Consort Mitsuki with wide eyes and her mouth slightly open.

“You… know about that?” Shinsou said in shock.

With a maniacal cackle Mitsuki replied, “I’m his fucking mother, of course I know about it. Those two aren’t exactly subtle at the best of times, so if it wasn’t for me the whole Forbidden City would know about it.”

“I… see…” Shinsou said in a daze, having thought that Hizashi was a piece of work, only to find that this woman was on a whole other level, “then you don’t mind?”

Consort Mitsuki shrugged, surprisingly allowing the questioning from someone so far below her, perhaps because Shinsou was obviously in on the secret, which might be known by only the two of them. “It's a way for them to vent their frustrations with each other without causing trouble in public, and it’s not like they’ll get each other pregnant.” If not for lack of trying, especially on Prince Izuku’s part from what little Shinsou had seen so far.

“I suppose so,” Shinsou vaguely agreed, feeling sure she’d been led to believe that this affair being incesteous was more of a big deal than Consort Mitsuki was making it out to be, though admittedly Shinsou was hardly a good judge of such human matters either. Still, she had a feeling that Mitsuki was a far more terrifying person than she’d originally judged, if she could blink an eye so casually at her son fucking his half brother on the basis that it only mattered if someone could get pregnant. Even then, Shinsou could supposedly get pregnant, and she had a solution prepared for that too.

Shinsou realised she had much more to fear and respect of Consort Mitsuki than she’d ever imagined.

“Anyway, you’re to report to me every morning at this time to take this medicine in my presence,” Mitsuki ordered, “So don’t you dare think about trying to avoid it and get yourself knocked up by either of those foolish boys.”

Bowing at her, Shinsou said emphatically, “I have no intention or desire to get pregnant, Imperial Consort, so you can be assured that it definitely won’t happen.” Not least because humans couldn’t get a fox spirit pregnant, unless the spirit wanted them to.

“Hm, you’re an interesting one,” Mitsuki remarked, tapping her fingertips on top of the desk thoughtfully as she looked Shinsou up and down. “Most girls in your position would want to do everything they could to get a royal heir in their belly.”

Shinsou shook her head determinedly and said, “I am not most girls.”

Not, actually, technically, even a girl, but that too was giving the game away.

With a faint sinister smile, Mitsuki’s eyes lingered again on Shinsou one last time before returning to her work and softly said, “I see now why my son likes you.”

~~~

Hundreds of miles away from The Forbidden City, Lord and Lady Aizawa walked around the paths of the central garden of the Aizawa Manor. A place they both missed when they were away, and savoured the chance to spend time in when they were together.

They came to stop at a carved stone bench set underneath one of the larger trees, sheltered from the sun with a beautiful view of the rest of the garden, the surface of the central pond stirred by the natural spring that fed it. Wild birds darted between the trees, singing not for any particular reason, but because they had a song to sing.

Hizashi had dismissed Shiozaki to other duties for the afternoon, leaving her alone with her husband, and this was how they liked to be. She sat on one end of the bench, and in a rare relaxation of proprietary, considering they were at home with most servants dismissed or attending to duties elsewhere, Shouta sat on the other and lay down to rest his head on her lap, using Hizashi’s thighs as a pillow to look up at the boughs of the great tree heavy with leaves.

Apropos of nothing, bar this intimate pose, Shouta remarked ordinarily, “I notice you haven’t taken on another attendant.”

“I haven’t felt inclined,” Hizashi replied simply.

“Is that another way of saying you’re still not over Shinsou?” he suggested, and Hizashi tweaked the end of his nose.

“Why do I need someone to replace you as my companion when you’re here?” she turned back on him.

“Didn’t stop you before,” Shouta pointed out, not that he was still bitter about it. Well, maybe a bit.

“I just don’t feel like it,” Hizashi insisted. “It takes so much effort to train them, and all they do is disappoint or leave me.”

“You made Shinsou leave,” Shouta observed, not that he was still bitter about it. Much.

“Because she disappointed me,” Hizashi said with a sigh. “All that hard work training her gone to waste. Besides, Shiozaki performs all her tasks well and has been with me the longest, I don’t need anyone else to attend to me.”

“She’s probably pleased by that,” Shouta remarked, comfortable as Hizashi’s hand came to rest on the crown of his head.

“I’m sure she is,” Hizashi agreed. “She never liked Shinsou anyway.”

“Understandable,” Shouta murmured, as he too, had disliked Shinsou intensely at first, and ordered his wife to dismiss her on many occasions. Strange how it had shifted into such an intense longing, worsened when he realised that Shinsou had been moved out of his reach, perhaps forever. Enough to keep picking at the fact that his wife was clearly longing for her too.

Lifting up her hand up and flicking his forehead, Hizashi asked, “Why are we even talking about Shinsou again?”

“She changed things,” Shouta mused. “It’s natural to comment on someone like that.”

Hizashi huffed, unable to say that Shinsou didn’t change anything, because she certainly did, or Hizashi would’ve replaced her without a thought and Shouta wouldn’t have anything to pick on.

“You’re all I need, Shouta,” Hizashi finally said, brushing her fingers against his cheek and over the coarse brush of his stubble. “Really.”

Shouta hummed thoughtfully, then eventually asked, after a long moment of convalescence in the slow afternoon they were enjoying in each other’s company, “What if you get pregnant again?”

“Where’d that come from?” Hizashi scoffed.

“We’re together more,” he said, which was true. Between him not being called off to battle or summoned by the Emperor for silly errands, they could actually be together as husband and wife for more time than they’d have been lucky to spend in an entire year in the past, and all the nights and sometimes days of fucking that went with it. Fifteen years of marriage certainly hadn’t done anything to reduce their desire for each other physically, and if anything was experiencing a new high since Hizashi was refusing a new attendant.

“We’re careful, most of the time,” Hizashi said, meaning her husband would cum almost anywhere except inside her pussy, although they did still sometimes get caught up in the heat of the moment and take the chance. Hizashi could take contraceptive medicines, but they disagreed with her and were unpleasant to use day in day out without an end in sight, so they left it up to fate.

“That’s not what I meant,” Shouta murmured, since the implications were far deeper than whether they let it happen or not. If Hizashi wasn’t going to get pregnant again, someone still had to, and her attendants had been a form of screening for the alternative.

“So only after I say you’re all I need do you warm up to the idea of a concubine?” Hizashi mocked.

“I haven’t warmed up to it,” he contested. “There’s just still the question of an heir.”

“There is,” Hizashi sighed. Fifteen years was a long time to be with someone and only have one surviving child to show for it, a girl, who would be better with an advantageous marriage into another family than the struggle of trying to inherit the Aizawa Clan’s legacy. Eri also loved The Forbidden City too much to leave it behind for Aizawa Manor, in truth, and Hizashi had plans that would allow her to be able to stay there as long as she wanted.

Addressing the unspoken tension, and connecting thread between their conversation about Shinsou and sudden leap to questions of concubines and heirs, Hizashi acknowledged, out loud, for the first time, “Shinsou wouldn’t have been suitable as a concubine.”

“No, she wouldn’t,” Shouta agreed. “She was untrustworthy.”

“And disloyal, with no family ties, or background or status, just some nobody from the mountains,” Hizashi reeled off expertly. “Not to mention she wasn’t maternal in the slightest.”

“Still a bit young for that,” Shouta added, though not so young as to not be a prospect, since an attempt was made after all, “and improper, the way she tried to seduce me behind your back.”

“Don’t fucking remind me,” Hizashi muttered, not that she was still bitter about that, except that she was. “Cheeky slut thought she could catch a ride on the dragon’s back with that pretty face of hers. There’s no way she could have ever been worthy to take on as a concubine, much less a second wife capable of bearing an official heir for me to raise.” That was still Hizashi’s preference, after too many miscarriages, or pregnancies carried to term only to lose their child to illness in the early years. 

It was too much heartbreak and physical strain to endure any more, so the least she could do is let someone else take on the burden of carrying the child, and who might have a better chance at doing it more successfully than her. Plus, she had her beauty to cultivate, which didn’t involve ruining her figure for another child that could be borne by someone else and raised by Hizashi. Nurture was far more important than nature in her books, and as long as it was Shouta’s child the Aizawa Clan wouldn’t mind if they were born to a second wife. 

“I agree,” Shouta echoed, “Shinsou’s totally wrong for the role.”

Then they both fell to a long silence, heavy with the notion that they both knew, and knew the other knew, that none of that would have mattered enough to stop them.

~~~

Rather than risk the new adjustment in her status, and learning her lesson from Hizashi of the consequences for disobeying her mistress one too many times, Shinsou opted to keep her head down in her first few days in her new role at Bakugo Palace over seeking opportunities to pursue her mission in haste. Stability first, then exploitation of the weaknesses she would find in time, as long as she was patient and observant.

Shinsou carried out the chores assigned to her thoroughly, satisfying Consort Mitsuki’s infamously high standards in tending to the upkeep of Bakugo Palace. She hadn’t any interaction with Prince Katsuki since the last time, his attention seemingly monopolised by Prince Izuku, or their paths not crossing by chance, though Shinsou had come to believe there wasn’t such a thing as chance in The Forbidden City, but she reported to Consort Mitsuki every morning regardless. Not going might be seen as an attempt to evade the contraceptive and get pregnant, even though it was the farthest thing from Shinsou’s mind.

On the third of these visits, Consort Mitsuki having ignored Shinsou on the others bar watching her drink the remedy, confirm her chores for the day, and dismiss her, the Imperial Consort was in more of a mood for conversation, or should it be interrogation.

“So, how does Bakugo Palace measure up to Aizawa Manor?” Consort Mitsuki questioned, and Shinsou was naive to human conversation and their tricky ways of talking, but she wasn’t stupid enough not to see a trap laid out in front of her.

“Of course, Bakugo Palace is much more grand and impressive than Aizawa Manor,” Shinsou replied obligingly, which was true, and omitted the information that Shinsou herself preferred the understated and practical nature of Aizawa Manor, a fortress first and residence afterwards, compared to the indulgent glamour of The Forbidden City, built solely to house the Emperor and Imperial Harem in luxury and splendour.

“And Lady Hizashi?” Mitsuki queried. “Do you miss her as a mistress?”

“Replying to the Imperial Consort, Lady Hizashi could be a difficult mistress to serve at times,” Shinsou said, which was also true. “Consort Mitsuki is very clear and direct in her instructions.”

“You didn’t answer the question,” Mitsuki pointed out. “Do you miss her?”

The truth was, yes, even though Shinsou wished she didn’t, resented that she did, and pretended most of the time that no such feelings could exist for a fox spirit.

Lying for the first time, Shinsou answered, “No, Consort Mitsuki.”

“So then, you disliked her?” Mitsuki led on.

“I’m just a lowly servant, I wouldn’t presume to have an opinion on something like that,” Shinsou evaded, not sure why she was so reluctant to admit something that she had often thought to herself in moments of frustration with her former mistress.

“You used to be very close to Lady Hizashi, I’m sure you must have seen or heard things that other people didn’t,” Consort Mitsuki probed. “If you remembered any of those things it could be very helpful for your position here, you know.”

A bolt of lightning shot up from Shinsou’s gut as if earthing through her heart, at the full realisation of what Mitsuki wanted from her at last. Nothing so simple as physical pleasure, or complicated as emotional entanglement or a cure for loneliness, just a means to gather power against a rival.

Shinsou had not thought of herself as the least bit loyal towards or protective of Hizashi, until that exact moment.

To hide her expression, should it betray her momentary indignation over this discovery, Shinsou bowed to Consort Mitsuki, saying while she was down there, “I am sorry, but I have nothing to offer the Imperial Consort of this nature, I was a simple attendant to Lady Hizashi, and she did not give me any important duties to take care of.”

“Oh now, I think she gave you some very important duties,” Mitsuki countered slyly. “Keeping the Lady of Aizawa Manor company is no simple chore, and the two of you were practically inseparable while you were here in The Forbidden City.”

“That may be so, Consort Mitsuki, but my mistress never revealed anything to me that she didn’t want me to know,” Shinsou answered coolly, though her temper was fiery within.

“I am your mistress now,” Mitsuki corrected fiercely, and at that point only did Shinsou realise what she’d said.

“Yes, of course, my apologies, mistress,” Shinsou blurted, raising up and bowing again humbly. “I am willing to be punished for my mistake.”

Hizashi, if it were her, would’ve spared no mercy for a slip up like that and beaten and fucked Shinsou until she begged for mercy, which she’d never do, so they’d be at it all night. It would’ve been glorious.

Consort Mitsuki simply swayed her hand and said, “I don’t have the time to punish you for a simple slip of the tongue,” She looked up at Shinsou, fixing her in that piercing ruby red stare she shared with her son. “Just remember who you work for now.”

Bowing again, Shinsou gave a strangely conflicted, “Yes mistress.”

~~~

By the end of Shinsou’s first week in Bakugo Palace, Prince Katsuki hadn’t said so much as a word to her after they’d fucked the day after she arrived, and Shinsou was starting to wonder if she really still needed to be downing contraceptive medicine every morning for sex she wasn’t even having. Except with Monoma, of course, but he insisted he was infertile anyway, so it didn’t serve much point. In fact, if it wasn’t for Monoma sneaking off with Shinsou for a quick fuck every now and again she’d be climbing up the walls in frustration.

Whenever Prince Katsuki was around Shinsou, so was Prince Izuku, and the green haired prince seemed to have an excuse every time for why he needed his brother’s attention alone, or a reason to go somewhere outside of Bakugo Palace where Shinsou wouldn’t be with them.

If Shinsou didn’t know any better, she’d think that Prince Izuku was threatened by Prince Katsuki’s interest in putting his cock in anyone other than him, to paraphrase Katsuki’s mother. Shinsou had to wonder if it was such a good idea being transferred here after all, if the favour she was supposedly receiving was really going to be that fleeting, and she was far more scrutinised here than she was in the workhouse. At least in the workhouse she got to spent nights in Monoma’s bed, getting fucked and sleeping comfortably, and not being ordered back to work and then away to sleep in her own uncomfortable bed after being fucked and discarded by the princes.

Then, one afternoon when Shinsou was almost resolved to tell Consort Mitsuki the next morning she didn’t need the contraceptive soup anymore, Bakugo Palace had a visitor.

The man was dressed in the robes of a prince of the highest rank, black and gold with an intense embroidered pattern across the fabric that looked like hands grasping him all over, yet slouched in a varnished hardwood chair in the entrance hall as if he were a common farmhand.

Passing through the hall on the way to attend to a chore, Shinsou noticed him sitting alone and stopped to bow, questioning the stranger, “Greetings, have you been announced?”

"Hm, you're new, aren't you?" responded the man with a dry mouth laced with thin scars, and long hair that was particularly unkempt for someone dressed as his status.

"I was recently transferred to Bakugo Palace," Shinsou answered, wondering who this person was and why he'd seemingly strolled into the palace unannounced and taken up such a casual position.

"Is that so?" the pale stranger remarked, his stare seeming to strip Shinsou not just of her clothes, but peeling off skin and muscle too, down to the bone. "Aren't you the girl who was attending to Lady Hizashi before?”

“Ah… yes, that’s correct,” Shinsou confirmed warily, not sure where this was going or why someone among the nobility would know her to this level of detail.

“And now you’re here in Bakugo Palace… interesting,” the man remarked in a low, throaty tone, scratching behind his jaw. “Very interesting.”

“Forgive me,” Shinsou began, knowing it was an impropriety not to know who a noble was without needing to ask, but having no other way of finding out. “So that I may announce you to the Imperial Consort, who are–”

“Prince Tomura,” came a shout from just outside the hall, followed by Prince Katsuki pacing into the room with a sense of urgency. “How is it that the servants didn’t announce you, Royal Uncle? My apologies for their oversight.”

“It’s no trouble, Prince Katsuki,” said the man, Prince Tomura of the Palace Shigeraki, Shinsou now knew, his gaze still clinging sidelong at Shinsou. “I was just getting to know your newest maid, so I didn’t allow her to announce me just yet.”

“Shinsou, go report to my mother that Prince Tomura has come to visit,” Prince Katsuki ordered, a ferocity in his tone that had Shinsou confused, seeing as he’d barely acknowledged her existence after cumming inside her about a week ago and promptly losing all interest. “I will keep Prince Tomura company while he waits.”

“Shinsou?” Prince Tomura repeated delicately, his red eyes flitting between Katsuki and Shinsou intensely. “A pretty name for a pretty girl.”

“Go now,” Katsuki demanded and Shinsou quickly backed away from the room to carry out her task.

After Shinsou had announced the visitor to Consort Mitsuki, she was planning to return to her chores, but had barely resumed cleaning one of the reception rooms of Bakugo Palace than Prince Katsuki was storming back up to her.

“Prince Katsuki?” Shinsou inquired politely. “Did I do something wrong earlier?”

Getting all the way up to Shinsou, less than a step from her, and reaching for her wrist with his hand, Katsuki pulled Shinsou even nearer to him, close enough to see every detail of his fierce expression, many of his features resembling his mother, but a few from his father the Emperor too. He was a handsome young man, Shinsou knew by the palace gossip before she judged such human matters, but in that moment she finally recognised it for herself.

“Never allow yourself to be alone with that man,” Katsuki warned her seriously.

“Prince Tomura?” Shinsou queried, though she had to assume it was him since she’d been alone with no other man to Katsuki’s knowledge today. “Why not?”

“Just don’t,” Katsuki answered, still holding her tightly, and looking around as if fearing they were being watched, or his brother might leap out from a chest and drag him away for some other triviality. “He’s… it’s not safe for someone like you.”

“Like me? What does that mean?” Shinsou questioned, surprised that the prince whose interest in her had seemed so temporary was now being so… it didn’t appear to be jealousy, not the way Shinsou had learned to recognise it, but… protective?

“You should know what it means,” Katsuki replied, raising his other hand to cup the side of Shinsou’s face, his own looming in closer, and it occurring to her only now that perhaps it was a little premature to tell Consort Mitsuki she wouldn’t be needing contraceptive soup every morning anymore.

Katsuki kissed Shinsou for the first time, the heat of his mouth sudden over hers, face angling to lock their lips together tightly. Then in a flash like heat lightning it was gone again, taking the fiery prince away with it.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

That Prince Katsuki had kissed her was Shinsou’s only indication he still had any interest in her, because the Prince of Bakugo Palace didn’t summon her for any particular duties, or take advantage of her going about her work around him in the days after he did it, but the looks he gave her now and again suggested he might like to.

The obstacle, Shinsou came to recognise, was Prince Izuku, who was by Katsuki’s side perennially and no sooner had Katsuki set eyes on Shinsou than Izuku found means to draw his brother’s gaze back to him. In short, Shinsou realised that Katsuki had been protective of her, but it was Izuku who was jealous, wildly so, if he couldn’t tolerate Katsuki having anything to do with Shinsou, even after she had been with both of them twice already in some degree or another.

However, as much as he might like to, Prince Izuku couldn’t be at his brother’s side every hour of the day, and chance arose when he was away all the same.

Shinsou was less exhausted by the work at Bakugo Palace than the workhouse, so she was able to enjoy some walks around the place at nighttime, in human form so as not to get in trouble as a fox for being a pest, so she’d learned. All the palaces of The Forbidden City were different in the dead of night, when the servants and nobles who occupied them took the meaning away from the buildings. When all was still, Shinsou felt they were more cryptic and curious in nature, these complicated ornate structures that sat without eyes upon them or footsteps around them for the stillest hours of the night, though reportedly the Emperor’s Immortal Palace rarely stopped entirely, making her quest for The Tip of The High Mountain more complicated, of course.

It was on one of these pensive evening walks that Shinsou heard the shouts of Prince Katsuki, tucked away in his comfortable private quarters in the heart of the west wing of the palace. Fearing an assassin, always a possibility in this treacherous place, Shinsou rushed to the scene, and found that it had not been breached, letting herself into the Prince’s room to see him thrashing awake on the bed in a terrible panic.

“Prince Katsuki, are you alright?” Shinsou called out, shutting the door behind her and rushing over to him, seeing that the prince’s eyes were screwed shut and his fists were clenched.

“Get back!” the prince shouted without opening his eyes, and Shinsou realised he was having a bad dream.

Grabbing his arm, holding firm despite his violent shaking, Shinsou squeezed him and said, “You’re sleeping, Katsuki, wake up.”

“Bastard! Stay away from him!” Katsuki snarled, and Shinsou wondered who the ‘him’ was in his nightmare. Not able to stir him yet, Shinsou kicked off her shoes and climbed onto the bed, crawling over the sleeping prince and holding him by both shoulders.

“It’s not real, it’s just a nightmare,” Shinsou told him again, and shook the prince more violently.

Katsuki’s eyes opened and a split second later his fist surged upward, and would have hit Shinsou square in the face had she not expertly dodged. A normal maid would have been knocked unconscious, probably, but she tilted her cheek away to miss it by a hair.

“You’re safe, it’s only me here,” Shinsou continued, seeing the focus come to the prince’s hazy eyes as the terrifying cover of sleep was ripped back.

“I… I…” he panted, withdrawing his hand to rub his face. “It was a dream?”

“I heard you shouting from outside, so I came to investigate,” Shinsou explained.

“There’s no one else here?” Katsuki asked, struggling to sit up, forcing Shinsou to back up in response, and looking around as if he feared the assassin of his dreams might have followed him into this world.

“No one, I already checked,” Shinsou reassured him, hands still resting on the prince’s broad shoulders. “I promise, Prince Katsuki, you were only dreaming.”

“I thought that…” he murmured, trailing off and looking around again, “What time is it?”

“It’s the hour of the tiger,” she answered, then saw the squint of scrutiny come to his eyes. “I… couldn’t sleep, so I was walking outside to get some fresh air when I heard you shouting.”

No mention of the fact that she heard him from much further away than a real human would’ve, but it seemed enough to satisfy him, the shadow of suspicion passing. He flopped down on his back, Shinsou’s hands finally leaving him, and she noticed the sheen of sweat over his face, and darkened patches on his clothes.

“I’ll fetch you some fresh clothes to change into,” Shinsou offered, sliding off the bed and crossing the room to the storage trunk of robes specifically for the prince to sleep in, which were finer than what most of the palace wore on their best day, but such was the way of this world.

Being that he was a prince, Katsuki didn’t undress himself at all to assist with this process either. He just lay there breathing deeply and waited for Shinsou to come and undress him, the fresh clothes set out on the corner of the large cushioned bed.

“Funny coincidence that you were the only person to come,” the prince murmured, eyelids sinking down and watching Shinsou through his lashes as she unfastened the ties down his chest methodically.

“Is it?” Shinsou remarked. “What’s funny about it?”

“We haven’t been alone together until now,” he said, and Shinsou still failed to see what was funny about that in the slightest, but suspected it was one of those human things where the words they used weren’t what they actually meant.

“Perhaps it’s just lucky,” she proposed, finishing undoing the Prince’s robes and commanding, without really thinking about it, “Sit up.”

Katsuki actually did it, rising up to sit while Shinsou pulled the dark sodden robe away from his torso, and seemed a little startled himself to have obeyed so easily. Servants didn’t give orders to their masters, but then, Shinsou wasn’t much of a servant truthfully.

“Why’s it lucky?” he prompted in a low, curious tone, watching Shinsou carefully as she removed his soiled clothes, and didn’t immediately reach for fresh ones.

“Because we haven’t been alone together before,” Shinsou turned back on him, daring to meet the prince eye to eye, despite the supposed insult this held, for a commoner to look at a noble as equals. “It’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” she suggested.

The look in Katsuki’s eyes said that it was what he wanted, but he resisted initially, as if conflicted about this want, looking away from her gaze as if shamed.

This was resolved, however, by the prince announcing to the empty room around them, “I’m too disturbed to sleep right now, find some way to relax me so I can fall back asleep.”

“I’ll do my best,” Shinsou promised, and turned her attention henceforth to the prince’s soft cock, just recently exposed by his undressing. It was the first time Shinsou had been so close to someone else’s cock in this state, usually they were hard by the time she got close, and touching it flaccid was a curious sensation. She fondled it a little, the prince not complaining or encouraging her either way, and then leaned down to explore it further with her mouth, eliciting a soft sigh.

It was much easier to fit a soft cock in her mouth than a hard one, and Katsuki gave a pleased groaning sound as Shinsou took him into it and sucked gently. The sensation of his cock hardening was slightly bizarre, as if inflating to fill the space given to it, but certainly satisfying, especially knowing that Prince Izuku had nothing to do with it, for once.

“Ah, good,” Katsuki sighed, writhing as Shinsou bobbed her mouth on him as he got harder and harder. Though initially not thinking about doing anything in particular, by the time she’d sucked him to full mast, Shinsou was in the mood for a little enjoyment herself, and started undoing her own robes and wriggled out of them quickly.

Her mouth left the prince’s cock as she clambered over him, and without waiting for instruction, or really caring if Katsuki was intending to give her any, held his cock upright with a hand and worked the wet tip back and forth across her entrance, slicking it just enough to pick up some of her own wetness along with her spit and start the careful slide in.

“Fuck,” Katsuki gasped as if surprised by this development, a little more than an object himself as Shinsou seated herself on his cock, resting over him on her arms and testing for the angle to be just right. One of Katsuki’s hands rose up and cupped her breast, squeezing it greedily, then he lurched upward and claimed Shinsou’s mouth with his own, even knowing where it’d just been. Though he put his brother’s cock in his mouth all the time, so he probably wouldn’t have minded anyway.

Shinsou moved on him selfishly, rocking back and forth on the prince’s enjoyably hard cock, which pulled their mouths apart only to clash back together again. Katsuki made noises of approval drawn between their lips, a hand on her breast and the other coming to grip her ass, riding Shinsou’s motions without complaint, not that there was much he had to object to about being ridden in the middle of the night to ‘help him sleep’, so the supposed rationale ran.

Playing with her clit a little, Shinsou wasn’t in a particular rush to cum, but Katsuki apparently was, changing his hold on Shinsou to grab her by the hips and starting to thrust up into her faster. This left Shinsou freer to pleasure herself too, fingers massaging her clit as the prince pounded up from under her, the slapping together of their skin becoming louder and wetter in the quiet of the room.

Trained expertly in cumming without showing it, bar the involuntary winding of tension and release when she finally came, Shinsou got off nicely, enhanced by the steady pistoning of Katsuki’s cock into her as she rubbed herself to orgasm.

“Ugh,” the prince grunted as Shinsou squeezed him through her climax, perhaps not knowing what she did or why, but undeterred in any case, holding Shinsou steady above him and thrusting even faster as he neared his own orgasm. Held over him, resting now on both arms either side of his head, Shinsou’s chest was close enough to his face that Katsuki was able to capture one of Shinsou’s breasts in his mouth, sucking it as his thrusts became unsustainably faster and then stuttered, turning to uneven jolts to try force his cock deeper as he started to cum, as if intending to fill Shinsou’s cunt as deeply as possible with his precious royal seed. Not that it would come to anything, but it was nice of him to try.

Feeling the long pulses of his cum releasing in her, Shinsou waited until all had become still once more, then carefully lifted off the prince, rolling onto her side to prevent it spilling out of her immediately and making a mess. She moved towards the edge of the bed, intending to clean up, dress the prince again and return to her own bed, when his hand caught her arm in an inescapable lock.

“Stay,” he commanded drowsily, clearly affected as intended by this prescription for sleep.

Returning to his side, Shinsou lay back down again, then was swaddled in Katsuki’s arms as he rolled onto his side and pulled her body flush into the shape of his, tightly wrapped and very much trapped as the prince fell immediately into a peaceful sleep, one that Shinsou had no alternative but to follow suit.

~~~

Shinsou woke with the coming of early morning light, comfortable and still entwined with Prince Katsuki, who rivalled Hizashi for clingy sleep companions, and had not let Shinsou out of skin to skin contact the rest of the night. His bed was certainly far more comfortable than Shinsou’s own one in the servants quarters, albeit not quite as cosy as the smaller bed Shinsou had shared with Hizashi in Yamada Pavilion for so many nights, but comparisons with Hizashi were a losing game, Shinsou had learned. No one had kept Shinsou in greater comfort, been more clingy, jealous or fucked Shinsou as thoroughly as Hizashi, and she was starting to wonder if anyone ever could.

Prince Katsuki did give it a good attempt, though, and unlike Monoma, who was generally satisfied with one round and by morning rose before Shinsou and was onto his work for the day, the times she’d shared a bed with him, by morning Katsuki’s cock was full and hard against Shinsou’s backside, the half awake prince pushing against her lazily in the early hours of the morning.

Shinsou didn’t do much, actually, she did nothing, except spread her legs when the drowsy prince rolled Shinsou onto her back and climbed on top of her, his ready cock finding its way back inside as if homing instinct guided it. Katsuki seemed to wake more as he was already fucking her, movements getting harder and faster and his gaze becoming more focused, looking right at Shinsou under him, taking his cock without qualm or question.

In fact, Shinsou had a few questions for the prince, but didn’t feel this was the time to ask them, not least because she was enjoying their morning tumble. It'd surely spoil the mood if she asked whether this meant Katsuki was going to start acknowledging her existence in the presence of Prince Izuku again, for which the answer she suspected was going to be no.

As it turned out, acknowledging Shinsou’s existence was going to be an unavoidable reality for Prince Izuku that morning. At least they’d already long since finished fucking, a quicker bout of easy pleasure and few extremes, but princes didn’t need to get out of bed until they felt like it, or princes like Katsuki didn’t. This meant Shinsou also didn’t have to get out of bed, remaining in the comfortable warmth and covers fit for the son of an Emperor, tucked securely under one of Katsuki’s arms enjoying her first lie in since Hizashi dumped her.

For almost anyone, barging in on Prince Katsuki in his bedchambers unannounced was unthinkable. Unless, of course, you were his mother. Shinsou had heard her coming, the thought registered in some part of her mind, along with other footsteps of attendants and at least one guest, but it didn’t occur to her that she needed to do anything about this information, since Prince Katsuki’s favour afforded her the right to be where she was, in bed naked with him still, and not scrambling for clothes or to get out of sight should she be discovered. She had, after all, by the Imperial Consort’s direct admission, been transferred here for the sole purpose of fucking her son, and after quite the dry spell, Shinsou was finally doing just that.

“Katsuki?” declared Consort Mitsuki, throwing open the doors of her son’s bedchambers wide. “What could be keeping you in bed to such an hour?” And here, the unavoidable reality to crash into. “Your royal brother Prince Izuku has come to vis– oh my,” sounded Mitsuki dramatically, standing with Izuku at her side and a glint in her eyes Shinsou knew all too well. The same kind Hizashi used to have when she was plotting punishments for Shinsou, or pretending in public those punishments would involve anything other than what they did.

“Hey! Since when didn’t anyone ask before entering a room around here?” Prince Katsuki barked, but Shinsou saw the fear in his eyes, then glanced over at Prince Izuku, whose face was utterly blank, but this was somehow the most intimidating of all. Not being able to read him whatsoever. Katsuki probably knew what Izuku was feeling, being so close to him, so Shinsou took his expression as the cue, which was to be very, very concerned.

“My apologies, Consort Mitsuki,” Shinsou said awkwardly, sitting up and grabbing her discarded robe from the floor beside the bed and covering herself with it, though not before exposing her naked upper body to everyone. Which at this point, included the two princes, who’d seen it all before, Consort Mitsuki, who raised her eyebrows distinctly, and some three or four attendants accompanying them, the lone eunuch among them blushing deeply. Monoma wasn’t there, thankfully, though whether that was fortunate or not who could say. He’d seen it all before too, and would probably just be smirking through the whole thing, which Shinsou could do without.

With a steely discipline, Consort Mitsuki said, “You have nothing to apologise for, Shinsou, being favoured by Prince Katsuki is a great honour.”

“Yes, of course, thank you?” Shinsou said bemusedly, hearing Katsuki scoff a little behind her, though nothing too unrestrained, considering he’d been caught straying, in a sense, though Shinsou couldn’t know what the expectations between the two princes really were. Just because Izuku tried to keep his brother from Shinsou didn’t mean that Katsuki had agreed to it, and the Prince of Bakugo Palace certainly didn’t act like he thought he was doing anything wrong when he’d asked Shinsou to ‘calm him down’ in the night, or fucked her again in the morning just because he could.

“Come with me, Shinsou, I have an important matter to discuss with you,” the Imperial Consort ordered firmly, and Shinsou had no issues with that, gathering up her things hurriedly and loosely wrapping her inner robe around herself to leave with Mitsuki, accompanied by the gaggle of attendants who were one by one sent off to different tasks on the way to Mitsuki’s office, such that it was just Shinsou alone who arrived with her at the Imperial Consort's impressive study.

“I’m not in trouble, am I?” Shinsou was cautious to check, following Mitsuki into the room and seeing the usual cup of contraceptive medicine set out. Considering the evidence was quite, well, evident, Shinsou went over right away and drank it, showing her commitment to her new mistress’s rules.

“In trouble? For what?” Mitsuki queried, walking around to sit behind her desk with a grin that was on the worrying side of maniacal. “I brought you here to reward you.”

“Really?” Shinsou asked.

“I was beginning to lose hope, you know,” Mitsuki remarked, gesturing for Shinsou to sit, which she did, albeit nervously.

“In what?” probed Shinsou.

“In your ability to persuade my son to fuck anyone except his brother,” Mitsuki replied, shocking Shinsou as usual with the candid nature of her answers. “However you managed it after all, so well done.”

“Prince Katsuki had a nightmare,” Shinsou explained. “I happened to be awake at that time, so I went to check on him, and he asked me to calm him down so that he could sleep again.”

“Clever, though you can’t expect him to have a nightmare every night, so keep thinking of new ways to entice him,” Mitsuki advised. “I said I’d reward you for today, though, so you can have the day off.”

“Thank you,” Shinsou replied, not questioning any gift so valuable as free time in The Forbidden City, especially not in exchange for doing something she didn’t have any intention of doing until she did it. Deciding to push her luck just a little further, she inquired, “May I ask you something, Consort Mitsuki?”

“Since you’ve achieved a merit today, then yes, go ahead,” Mitsuki granted.

“Did you bring Prince Izuku to see me with Prince Katsuki on purpose?”

Laughing boldly, Mitsuki answered, “Of course I fucking did. It’ll be far more effective than just letting the rumours get back to him.”

“More effective at what?” Shinsou dared to ask.

“Prince Izuku covets my son’s affection, but there’s no way he could or would ever accept being anything like a consort to Katsuki, not to mention the lack of an heir,” Mitsuki explained plainly. “They both need to grow up and realise their little indiscretion can’t last, or if it does, they’re going to have to take wives and concubines either way.”

“I see,” Shinsou said thoughtfully. “You’re using me to try and drive a wedge between them?”

“I don’t really care what ends up between them,” Mitsuki replied as if she knew that Shinsou herself was one possibility. “Katsuki must get used to being with someone capable of becoming a wife and giving him an heir, and Izuku must get used to Katsuki doing that. However they resolve that between themselves is of little concern.”

“So you forced a confrontation,” Shinsou observed, and bobbed her head at Mitsuki in an echo of a bow. “I understand your motivations now, mistress. I’ll do my best to support your wishes.”

“Good girl,” Mitsuki praised. “Remember, if you play your cards right and Katsuki comes to like you enough, perhaps I’ll let you be his concubine one day.”

Sensing an opportunity to steer her fortune into calmer or stormier waters, Shinsou bowed again and said, “I would never dare to aspire to something so far above my station, Consort Mitsuki. I am happy to merely play a small role in this matter, as I’m sure there are others who would be better suited to being Prince Katsuki’s concubine.”

“You are an interesting girl, I’ll give you that,” Mitsuki remarked. “Don’t you have any ambition?”

“Of course, Imperial Consort,” Shinsou replied. “Just not that.”

Narrowing her eyes at Shinsou, as if to delve her ambitions with a single stern gaze, Mitsuki let her off again after a tense moment.

“Either way, my son is interested in you for now, so you’d be wise to take advantage of it,” she advised Shinsou.

“I will, mistress,” Shinsou confirmed. “Thank you again, for giving me the day off.”

“You better not use it to get up to any trouble,” Mitsuki warned.

“Yes mistress,” Shinsou said, but that part wasn’t in the least bit sincere.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

The air in Katsuki's room could be cut with a knife, but Izuku's stare sufficed, slicing the tension as if two halves coming away clean from the edge of a samurai sword.

After a painful silence, the two princes staring at each other from their respective positions, Izuku just inside the door, Katsuki naked in bed, Katsuki shot a bitter, "Just say it already."

"Say what?" Izuku replied with pretended innocence.

"You're angry with me for fucking Shinsou," Katsuki supplied.

"I'm not angry," Izuku said calmly, but it was a calm that could exist in the middle of a storm. With an air of dignity, if a little petulant, he added, "I am a little hurt, though."

"I… it just happened," Katsuki sighed. "I had a nightmare last night and she was there to wake me up."

"So you had sex with her," Izuku remarked dryly.

"She started it," he insisted, even if it wasn't exactly, entirely true.

"She would," Izuku said curtly, aware of Shinsou's reputation as a person talented at cultivating the favour of powerful people. "I just thought…"

"What?" Katsuki pressed.

"I wanted to believe I'm enough for you," Izuku continued dishearteningly, "but obviously not."

"It's not that big of a deal," Katsuki tried to downplay. "We've both been with Shinsou before, and you weren't mad about it then."

"It was your idea those times, Kacchan, and I went along with it because you wanted to," Izuku told him. "I'd hoped that it meant you wouldn't need to go behind my back, but I was clearly wrong about that."

"Behind your back?" Katsuki echoed incredulously. "I know you're upset, Deku, but you realise you're being kinda ridiculous, don't you? She’s just a servant." And therefore incomparable with any son of the Emperor, but Izuku ought to know that without being reminded. Slowly Katsuki grabbed for something to cover himself with, not that it was really an issue being seen naked by Izuku, but the mood was definitely wrong and he wanted to avoid rubbing salt in the wound.

"A servant who knows about us," Izuku pointed out tensely. 

Draping an unused sleeping robe around his shoulders, Katsuki pointed out, “Which is why I’m keeping a close watch over her.”

“Very close, apparently,” Izuku countered, moving finally from the doorway and crossing over to sit in his usual chair, across from Katsuki’s where they’d play Go or other games for the right to be on top that night. Perhaps that was the problem, Izuku feared. He’d been beating Katsuki more and more recently, and maybe if he’d let Katsuki be the one to fuck him more often, he wouldn’t have jumped so eagerly to fuck Shinsou.

Fastening the robe loosely around himself, Katsuki shifted to the end of the bed and gave a gruff sigh. “Look, I’m sorry you had to see it like that, Deku, but I can’t be sorry I did it.”

“Can’t you?” Izuku asked, fixing him with a doleful look.

“No,” Katsuki replied solidly. “My mother agreed to transfer Shinsou here with that intention, didn’t she?”

With his turn at a deep sigh, Izuku admitted, “You’re right.”

“We can’t… if it isn’t Shinsou, it’ll just be someone else, sooner or later,” Katsuki acknowledged.

“I know,” Izuku sighed again, folding his hands in his lap. “But does it have to be now?”

Katsuki shrugged, and then got up, walking over to Izuku cautiously. “It was you I dreamed about, if it's any consolation.”

“What?” Izuku said.

“My nightmare,” Katsuki explained. “Someone was trying to hurt you, that’s why I woke up scared.”

With a wry hint, Izuku remarked, “How endearing, except that you fucked someone else afterwards.”

“What do you want from me, Deku?” Katsuki snapped.

“I don’t know, try not fucking Shinsou when I’m not around?” Izuku retorted.

“Well you won’t fuck her with me when you are around either,” Katsuki countered, and that much was also true, though Izuku hadn’t expected to be called out on it so blatantly.

“That’s not… okay, maybe I was trying to avoid it, a little,” Izuku admitted.

“A little?” Katsuki scoffed.

“Fine, more than a little,” Izuku huffed. “But you could have talked to me about it first, instead of doing it with her the first chance you got.”

“It wasn’t the first chance,” Katsuki defended, though it sort of was. He could have pursued Shinsou more deliberately and made it happen, but he also didn’t really hesitate as soon as they were alone together.

“You took the opportunity as soon as it came along,” Izuku accused, looking away from Katsuki. “If you’re so interested in other people then just keep doing whatever you want with whoever you want, I suppose.”

“C’mon, Deku,” Katsuki appealed, getting closer and reaching for his brother’s shoulder, only for Izuku to shake the touch off violently.

“Don’t touch me!” Izuku snapped, his sulking frown turning into something closer to a scowl. “I can smell her all over you.”

Getting frustrated, Katsuki turned his back and stormed across the room defiantly. “Fine, then! Throw your tantrum, see if I care.”

He did care, which they both knew, but Katsuki was stubborn enough not to admit it out of spite.

“Fine then,” Izuku echoed, standing and regretting both coming here and not coming soon enough, as if he could have stopped it happening somehow, even if the forces were already in motion, and last night was just the culmination. “Go have your fling, see how long it takes before you’re bored and miss me.”

“Miss you?!” Katsuki baited with a coarse laugh. “We’d have to spend some time apart for that to be possible.”

“Exactly,” Izuku declared, walking over to the doorway. “I’m going to go see Eri, she’s been begging me to go for a walk with her in the gardens all week.”

“Good,” Katsuki bit, conflicted on one hand with seeing Izuku walk away from him with such resentment, but on the other resenting his brother for making such a problem out of something that could have been enjoyable for them both, if he hadn't been so possessive and idealistic about the kind of relationship they could’ve had, being who they were with the status and obligations that they did.

“Good,” Izuku echoed bitterly, and they parted ways at that.

~~~

Blessed with the luxury of a day off, Shinsou carefully packed the eunuch’s uniform and left Bakugo Palace, walking to a deserted corner of The Forbidden City not too far from the records department, and found a vacant building to sneak into and change. Both Shinsou’s clothes and body were swapped, reemerging as a fresh faced boy on a mission.

He set off to the Imperial records department with a determined air.

Shinsou knew where they kept the records that related to the Emperor’s personal collection, but the building was supervised and wouldn’t let just anyone wander in. So he was carefully rounding the building, looking for a way to sneak in unnoticed, when a familiar voice pricked his sensitive ears.

Looking around and identifying the direction, Shinsou walked over a few steps and caught sight of the sole holder of his deepest secret.

General Todoroki was accompanied by another guard and several eunuchs, but as if sensing he was being watched, turned and caught sight of Shinsou, who tilted his head in a subtle greeting.

Todoroki dismissed the people around him immediately, waiting until they were gone before he walked up to Shinsou with a subtle twist of happiness to his soft mouth.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Shinsou greeted first.

“I’m surprised to see you too,” Todoroki returned, and in a quieter voice added, “You serve at Bakugo Palace now, isn’t your absence going to be missed?”

“I’ve been given the day off,” Shinsou replied in the same quiet tone, and then turned over his shoulder to the building holding the records for the Emperor’s belongings. “You wouldn’t know how I can get into there, would you?”

“And are you well?” Todoroki inquired instead, looking Shinsou over as if to check him for signs of trouble, though his new mistress was surely much more lenient than his last when it came to the style of their discipline.

“I’m fine,” Shinsou answered quickly, looking back to meet General Todoroki’s eyes. “Can you help me or not?”

Taking this as a challenge, Todoroki squared his shoulders and declared, “Yes. Follow me.”

Falling in step after Todoroki, Shinsou walked after him as the General strolled up to the front door of the building, something Shinsou couldn’t do alone, but certainly could in the company of a titled General from a prestigious and powerful family.

“Greeting General Todoroki,” said the guard on duty stiffly. “What brings you here?”

“My father gave the Emperor a gift some months ago, a golden lion statue,” Todoroki said stoically. “I have been asked to check where it is stored, so that it can be taken out and put on display when my father next visits the Immortal Palace.”

“Yes, General Todoroki, of course,” the guard said eagerly, stepping aside to let them both through.

Once inside, Shinsou allowed them to get a little distance from the door and earshot of anyone outside it, then said, "Well that was easy."

"Glad to be of service," Todoroki replied politely, slowing to walk alongside Shinsou instead, and then asked, "So, everything is going alright for you at Bakugo Palace?"

"Yeah," Shinsou answered, used by now to Todoroki’s incessant inquiries after his wellbeing. "Consort Mitsuki is strict but very direct, which I appreciate." 

"And Prince Katsuki?" Todoroki said in a way that was loaded with implication. Everyone talked about everyone in The Forbidden City, and Todoroki tended to keep tabs on Shinsou, so it was likely he already knew exactly why Shinsou had been transferred to Bakugo Palace. "Is he treating you… well?"

"Sure," Shinsou replied, thinking that he'd already revealed more to Todoroki about his true nature and mission than anyone, so it would be strange to shy away from divulging something like this, as long as Shinsou preserved the secret of the true relationship between Katsuki and Izuku. Shinsou had also long since realised that Mitsuki’s decision to bring Shinsou to Bakugo Palace to court her son’s favour was a smokescreen to distract others from speculation over the closeness between the Emperor’s sons, one that appeared to work very well. "He ignores me a lot of the time, but we had sex last night so I got today off as a reward.'

"Oh," Todoroki responded, and when Shinsou looked over at him saw the flush of colour in his face. "You were rewarded for doing… that?"

They were walking along the shelves of records, of which there were many covering just the Emperor's huge number of possessions, labelled by the time period of their entry into the Imperial Collection. As this started at the beginning of the record keeping system for the Emperor's possessions and he had been on the throne for decades, this was a lot of shelves to walk past.

"It's Imperial Consort Mitsuki's wish for me to entice her son, so that's why I was rewarded," Shinsou explained plainly, finally arriving at the shelves housing records for the dates he sought.

"Is that… do you… mind… having sex?" Todoroki asked bashfully.

"Why would I mind?" Shinsou said, walking down the shelves and noting the smaller time periods each stack contained.

"Is it something that, uh, your kind usually do?" suggested Todoroki.

"Sex?" Shinsou said curiously. "Sure, it's not that big of a big deal for us." Considering how everyone acted about it, he added, "Not like it seems to be for you humans anyway."

"Ah," Todoroki said thoughtfully. "Yes, it is a big deal to a lot of… us humans."

"Heck if I know why," Shinsou remarked, finding the correct shelf and starting to go through the files methodically for the exact date that Lord Aizawa noted in his diary. "It's fun and feels good, why make it complicated?"

"I suppose so," Todoroki said in a muted tone, adding an even meeker, "not that I'd know anything about it."

"No?" Shinsou inquired, glancing over at the young general and a thought occurring. "Want to change that?

"What?" Todoroki said, seeming mortified.

"I haven't done anything in this body yet," Shinsou admitted, pausing his search to lean against the shelf and look at Todoroki through the dim light of the dusty storeroom. He wasn't an unattractive boy, though very reserved, and clearly embarrassed by this proposition, which was rather endearing in its own right. "Kinda curious, if you wanna give it a try and mess around."

Todoroki's eyes widened, and for a moment he made no sound, though his mouth hung open for several seconds.

Shinsou was about to check if he'd said something wrong when Todoroki replied, "Thank you for the offer to, uh, ah, Shinsou, but I have to decline."

"Oh, okay," Shinsou agreed casually, returning to the records and drawing out the file for the day in question. He’d thought Todoroki might have been interested in him, considering how obsessive his behaviour could be around Shinsou, but it seemed that wasn’t the case after all.

Despite not being asked to elaborate, Shinsou was back to scanning the neat rows of item storage details when Todoroki said, "I only want to do that sort of thing with someone if we're in love."

This prompted Shinsou to ask, "What's that?"

"What's what?" he replied blankly.

"Love," Shinsou specified, wondering why it would stop Todoroki fooling around with him, especially when he was getting pretty curious about what it'd feel like getting his dick sucked instead of doing the sucking for once, and Todoroki was the only person who knew Shinsou in this body enough to experiment with in that way.

"You don't know about love?" Todoroki said incredulously.

"Should I?" Shinsou replied with some scepticism.

"Well, it's when you care for someone deeply, beyond selfish desires," Todoroki began to explain, still very flustered and tripping over his words. "You'd… do anything for them, and want to be with them as much as possible, or know that they're happy even if you can't be together."

"Oh," Shinsou said thoughtfully. "And is it always a sex thing?"

"No, it doesn't have to be, humans can love each other as friends or family and it's not sexual, but romantic love… usually is," he elaborated awkwardly. Shinsou was wondering what that meant for Katsuki and Izuku, who were family but also had sex, when Todoroki asked, "Don't your kind have anything like that?"

"Sort of, but there's no specific word for it," Shinsou replied. "There are ties that bind spirits to each other, but I've never known it to be called love."

"I see," Todoroki said, sounding sad somehow.

"Aha, found it," Shinsou declared, seeing the characters naming the treasured ancestral relic with a victorious shiver. "Gifted by General Aizawa, The Tip of The High Mountain was placed in the personal vault of the Emperor in the Phoenix Hall at the Immortal Palace."

"What about your mission, then?" Todoroki questioned as Shinsou was still scouring the parchment for any other morsels of information he could use in said mission.

"What about it?" Shinsou said, determining that he’d seen everything there was to see and setting the record carefully back in its place.

"What's your motivation to reclaim The Tip of the High Mountain, if not out of love for your family?" Todoroki phrased.

Shinsou chuckled at the notion, novel as it was to consider something in such human terms. Love for his family. Perhaps?

"Well, I suppose it's… justice," Shinsou thought out, grasping for the words from human vocabulary as best he could. "It's not fair for us to stop existing for the sake of an object the Emperor keeps locked away." Not to mention Shinsou’s revenge on those who took it, but he kept that part to himself still, one more secret held back from even Todoroki.

"Very securely, by the sounds of it," Todoroki commented knowingly.

"Really?" Shinsou said worriedly.

"Oh yes, the personal vaults of the Emperor are only accessed by his closest aides on his direct orders," he explained. “No one else is to set foot in there.”

"Damn," Shinsou murmured. "So how would someone get in there?"

"They probably wouldn't," Todoroki answered, the strange moment of tension after Shinsou propositioned him seemingly passed. "The Emperor would have to call for the item to be taken out, either to put on display or to lend it to someone close to him who’d asked to borrow it.”

"Hm, then that's what I'll have to do," Shinsou reasoned, and faced Todoroki head on. "Thanks for your help."

The flush rising in his cheeks again, Todoroki bowed to Shinsou and said, "Not at all, I'm happy to be of assistance."

"Have you decided what you want from me in return yet?" Shinsou put to him, and Todoroki's blush returned in full force with a vengeance.

"No, I… ah, I'm still thinking about it," he mumbled, pressing back against the stack of shelves behind him as being edged up against it by Shinsou.

"Well, be sure to let me know when you figure it out," Shinsou told him, and then started to walk back out towards the door, hearing Todoroki release a held breath into a long exhale.

~~~

Having newly learned about the human concept of love, Shinsou kept thinking about it throughout the rest of his day off, trying to reexamine the relationships around him through the new lens of what Todoroki had described as romantic love. He returned to the storehouse he’d changed shapes in and returned to the guise of a maid in Bakugo Palace.

Did Hizashi love Aizawa, Shinsou wondered, and was that somehow part of why Hizashi broke up with her? What about her daughter Eri, who Hizashi sent away to live here in The Forbidden City because it was a better life for her? And what could be said of Katsuki and Izuku, who were brothers and lovers?

Whatever was between those two, It appeared to have cooled significantly after Izuku saw Katsuki with Shinsou in the morning. Izuku wasn't to be seen around Bakugo Palace for the next few days, and Katsuki took to summoning Shinsou to 'serve' him as often as he felt like, which was pretty often when Izuku wasn’t around.

There was nothing Shinsou could be doing that Katsuki wouldn't interrupt, sometimes simply lifting the back of Shinsou's robes when she was going about ordinary cleaning chores and pulling out his cock to put into her. Consort Mitsuki didn't reward Shinsou again each time they fucked, or Shinsou would have every day off for the next six months, but her chores were definitely lightened, since there weren't too many things she could get to the end of without the prince interrupting and preventing her from finishing the task.

However, Prince Izuku's absence was still noticeable, almost moreso than if he was still around. The energy that had been put into earnest competition with his brother, and the secret arrangement between them regarding the reward for the victor of each small contest, was now directed wholly at Shinsou, who took her contraceptive medicine every morning now with a good justification, even if she didn't actually need it.

Prince Katsuki was firmer with Shinsou than Monoma, but less attentive, which was saying a lot considering Monoma wasn’t very attentive either. So although Shinsou enjoyed being used with such indifference in some ways, she'd have preferred to get a little more on her own part, but Katsuki really didn't seem interested in providing it. Katsuki didn't seem interested in anything but shoving his dick in Shinsou whenever he felt like it, and even then, it wasn't really Shinsou he was interested in most of the time.

This was never more obvious than when Katsuki called Shinsou by Prince Izuku’s personal nickname that only he used, Deku, during sex. The first time Shinsou wrote it off as an accident, but by the third time it'd happened she realised that Katsuki was missing his brother much more than he let on, certainly when they actually saw each other, when both princes were formal and distant with each other, as if competing in a new way, to see which of them could show the greatest indifference and be the last to crack.

Shinsou assumed that Consort Mitsuki's plan to use her to drive a wedge between the two brothers had therefore been successful, but then Shinsou learned an important lesson about love.

About a week after the first falling out of the two princes, Shinsou was dusting in the rooms around Katsuki's bedchambers when the Prince charged up to her and grabbed Shinsou by the wrist.

"Come with me," Katsuki ordered, dragging her with him to his room. This was a little unusual, since Katsuki didn't normally bother to take Shinsou into his room if he wanted to do something with her, and the other staff around Bakugo Palace had learned to be good at not entering rooms if they were already being used in that way.

What was different this time was that Prince Izuku was there, having not been in Katsuki's room since the morning he walked in on Shinsou in bed with his brother and whatever else they were to each other.

Shinsou wasn't expecting to see Izuku, and his expression was neutral as ever, large green eyes watchful and his face still. Shinsou didn't know he was even here, not hearing him announced by anyone, much less that he’d come to Katsuki's room already, so she wondered if he'd snuck in, and nobody else knew he was here at all. Maybe Katsuki had gone to his room for some reason and found Izuku there waiting for him, and then come to fetch Shinsou with such urgency.

"Right, she's here," Katsuki declared crossly, indicating that Izuku had asked for Shinsou to be summoned, usually the opposite of what he’d wanted, already putting this whole thing into even more unfamiliar territory. "Now what?"

"Shut the door, Shinsou," Izuku directed, sitting, it had to be noted, on the edge of Katsuki's bed.

Shinsou followed his command, heart beating a little faster than usual out of anticipation for what would happen next, and unsure what her role would be. Something she wasn't alone in, given Katsuki's line of questioning.

To both their surprise, Izuku lowered his head and said, “I’m here to apologise, to the both of you.”

“What?!” Katsuki snapped, releasing Shinsou and charging over to him. “Seriously?”

“I’ve taken some time to reflect, and I regret my actions, Kacchan,” Izuku said cordially, and his gaze tore away from Katsuki to Shinsou. “I haven’t treated either of you fairly, especially you, Shinou.” Pausing momentarily, the teenage prince raised his hand in Shinsou’s direction and said, “Would you come here please?”

Unsure of what was happening, Shinsou did as she was told, as she usually did, and walked over to Izuku, passing Katsuki on the way halfway between the door still and his own bed, where Izuku now sat as if to reclaim the territory he’d only given up temporarily.

“You haven’t had much say in any of this, and I allowed my frustration and jealousy to get the better of me,” Izuku told her calmly. “Can you forgive me for that?”

“I… of course, Prince Izuku,” Shinsou replied strangely. “I’m just a servant, someone of your rank doesn’t need to beg me for forgiveness.”

“That’s not true,” Izuku continued, his hand still held out open, inviting Shinsou’s to be placed into it. Glancing over at Katsuki, whose face was locked into a tangle of too many knots to unravel, Shinsou took the risky path, and laid her hand delicately in Izuku’s. His grip tightened into a squeeze, but no further than that.

“What are you trying to do here, Deku?” Katsuki asked tensely, and then all of a sudden, Izuku yanked on Shinsou’s arm and tugged her to turn and land in his lap.

“I just realised that it’s better for me to accept Shinsou for your sake and be with both of you than not have you at all, Kacchan.” Izuku’s arm was firm and strong around Shinsou’s waist, and his reserved confidence was almost unsettling, as if she didn’t know what he was going to do with her from one moment to the next, but that was exciting too.

Izuku’s other hand raised to Shinsou’s face and held her by the chin, turning her to face him and examining her face up close, as if documenting every aspect of it. Shinsou could hope he’d never noticed Shinsou running around The Forbidden City as a boy, or he might notice their unbelievable similarity.

“After all, it’s not like she’s difficult to like,” Izuku remarked delicately, and Shinsou felt quite out of place with all of this, the encompassing nature and intensity of the prince’s emerald stare making her heartbeat quicken.

Katsuki moved at last, taking several more paces towards them and stopping just out of reach, the fury spiralling off him as if he could smoke with a little blowing. What volatile cocktail of emotion drove him remained to be seen.

“You think you get to just decide all this whenever you want, shitty nerd?” Katsuki hissed, as if Izuku was here to take Shinsou away from him entirely, which, it felt a little like he could, in this exact moment.

Izuku looked away from Shinsou’s face back to his brother, and shook his head solemnly. “No, Kacchan, that’s why I came to ask for your forgiveness. If you don’t want to, I’ll leave and let the two of you carry on however you want.”

He started to shift, as if to move Shinsou off him and get up, but there wasn’t true intention in it, and he’d barely started than Katsuki spat, “Don’t you fucking dare.”

Settling again, Izuku reached with the arm wrapped around Shinsou’s waist and grabbed the skirt of her robe and started slowly pulling it up. “So then, you forgive me?” he posed suavely.

Katsuki closed the remaining distance between them and dove for Izuku like a hawk, spitting, “You fucking asshole,” but undermined this sentiment by grabbing Izuku’s collar and holding him in place as Katsuki planted a searing kiss on his mouth.

Shinsou being between them, literally, got a bit squished in the process, but Izuku kept a firm hold of her and continued dragging up the bottom of her robe until it was well past her knees.

This, Shinsou had to conclude, was what love was. That Izuku was willing to put aside his selfish wish to keep Katsuki entirely to himself and took the initiative to reconcile, including Shinsou not because he wanted to be with her, but because it was what Katsuki wanted.

Unlike before, when Izuku’s engagement with Shinsou was always at Katsuki’s direction, this time it was Izuku who backed away from his brother’s deep kiss, edging back on the bed to make space between them and offering a teasing, “Don’t forget about Shinsou, Kacchan,” and turned his mouth away to lick up Shinsou’s neck, making her squirm in his lap, which was used as an opportunity to haul her further into it.

Shinsou felt the intimidating press of Izuku’s cock underneath her, growing by the moment, and had been exposed now mostly from the waist down, her robe bunched up and no doubt horribly creased, not that either prince cared for such things right now.

“Stop teasing me,” Katsuki growled, climbing onto the bed as Izuku shifted back, dragging Shinsou with him and slinging her around and down to flop on her back in a pile of her own rumpled robes.

“Don’t be so easy to tease, then,” Izuku countered, and was hit next with the full unbridled force of his brother’s infuriated affection. Both princes could be stubborn, Shinsou knew, but Izuku’s temperament was famously more measured than Katsuki’s, so it made sense that it he had been the one to take the first step to mend their rift, though equally he had also been the one to cause it in the first place.

Katsuki climbed on top of Izuku, straddling his lap on the bed, and held Izuku’s face in his hands and kissed him ferociously. Love wasn’t always sexual, Todoroki said, but theirs clearly was, and it went on so long that Shinsou wondered if she’d just slip out unnoticed, except that at her first movement both brothers shot out a hand to grab her by the robe.

“Not a chance,” Katsuki said raspily as he broke his mouth from Izuku’s, crawling away from him further onto the bed and over Shinsou. “You’re in this now too, Shinsou, properly this time.”

Shinsou wasn’t sure what ‘properly’ meant, until she had two sets of hands unfastening and pulling away fabric to expose her naked body, two mouths fighting to kiss hers, or one attached to each of her breasts. Rather than Katsuki drawing Izuku somewhat reluctantly into exploring Shinsou’s body, Izuku now led the expedition, while Katsuki showed off what he’d been doing while his brother was away. Shinsou was dragged into Katsuki’s lap and unceremoniously onto his cock, facing away from him while Izuku kept touching her breasts and kissing her. Now Shinsou felt the difference between what it’d been like before with both princes and now as if comparing day and night, Izuku’s passion instead of his reticence, and their mutual focus on her instead of each other more than covered what ‘properly’ meant.

Overwhelmed with the doubling up of attention that had previously been nowhere to be seen, and aroused by the display of strong emotion between the two princes, Shinsou was horny enough to start touching herself as she bounced on Katsuki’s cock, and Izuku wasn’t one to miss it, as his fingers soon arrived alongside her own.

“Does it feel good, touching there?” Izuku inquired in the sweetest possible way, at odds with the lewd look on his face, a high blush across his freckled cheeks and glazed, dilated eyes behind the licks and curls of his deep emerald hair hanging across his brow.

Shinsou nodded, not able to answer verbally without moaning more than speaking, and moved her fingers with Izuku’s so that he might observe the technique and learn it for himself.

“Ah, what’re you doing?” Katsuki grunted, lying on his back behind Shinsou holding her by the hips to thrust up into her. “She’s squeezing my cock.”

“Oh really?” Izuku remarked playfully, shuffling his body further down the bed as if to look more closely at his work. Shinsou felt his hot breath on her first, then realised she could dare hope for what he might do as the words came up, “What happens if I do this?”

Shinsou had been trying to keep it down, unusually self conscious about making noise in front of Izuku for some reason, but the last person to lick her pussy had been Hizashi what felt like a very long time ago, so when Izuku’s tongue swirled her tender clit curiously there was no stopping the moan that escaped Shinsou’s body like the exorcism of a demon.

“Hng, how come you never made sounds like that with me?” Katsuki grunted behind her, changing the thrusting of his cock up into Shinsou for a slow grind while pushed in as deeply as he could go, as if countering any attempt by Shinsou’s cunt to force him out as she tightened around him with the waves of pleasure that came from Izuku’s mouth on her clit.

“You didn’t, ah, lick there,” Shinsou answered in a wobbly voice, twitching and writhing as Izuku’s tongue stroked her over and over. “If you keep doing that I’m gonna…”

“Fuck, she’s so tight now,” Katsuki gasped, his fingers digging into Shinsou’s hips and holding her up as he started fucking up into her more deeply again. “Whatever you’re doing Deku, don’t stop.”

“Y-yeah, don’t stop,” Shinsou agreed, getting the best of everything as one prince’s cock worked her within while another’s mouth pleasured her without, for the first time in a long time close to cumming by something other than her own hand, not since the last time with Hizashi in the Emperor’s pleasure garden.

Izuku wouldn’t go against both of them encouraging him so, and kept licking and sucking Shinsou’s clit while Katsuki’s cock pumped in and out of her from below, supporting Shinsou’s weight so she didn’t have to hold herself up as her pleasure finally hit the summit and she came with a great moaning shudder.

Shinsou’s cunt spasming around Katsuki’s cock milked it of his own climax, the blonde prince groaning and thrusting erratically into Shinsou as he filled her with his cum.

“Ah… enough,” Shinsou said as she came back down and no longer needed Izuku’s mouth on her, guiding him back gently and catching the prince’s lusty gaze up at her, as if drunk on the power he’d discovered he could have over Shinsou.

When Katsuki’s cock stopped throbbing inside Shinsou, she leaned further and further back, eased down to lie on top of his chest, face up as his cock slipped out of her. Izuku was still down between her legs to watch as Shinsou became empty, seemingly fascinated as Katsuki’s cum started to dribble out.

He raised a finger to touch the slick mess spilling from Shinsou, shuffling higher as he said in an openly complimentary way, “You came so much, Kacchan, it’s all coming back out already.”

As if he knew exactly what was on Izuku’s mind, which he surely did, chest rising and falling gently underneath Shinsou as if he were serving as her mattress, Katsuki responded, “Do something about it, then.”

As Izuku raised himself up on his arms, surprisingly muscular for a noble, not to mention scarred, Shinsou saw the full and intimidating swell of his fully hard cock. It wasn’t much of a leap from there to think of what he was supposed to do with it.

“Is it alright?” Izuku said almost shyly, flustered and blushing despite the fact that he’d given Shinsou her first orgasm not by her own hands in forever, so as far as she was concerned he could do what he liked. Although that didn’t mean Shinsou was sure he’d actually be able to fit that thing in her, but he might want to try anyway. “I mean, Shinsou, can I really?”

“Go for it,” Shinsou said, surprised that he should feel like he needed to ask permission, since his brother never did, and they’d done almost everything but that already.

This thought had to be held when Izuku pressed the head of his cock to Shinou’s supple entrance, and despite being fucked out by Katsuki to completion, the stretch was more than obvious from just that pressure.

“Ah, it’s… big,” Shinsou breathed, feeling Izuku’s cock fill her past capacity, her body giving way only by force of what it was up against.

“Damn right it is,” Katsuki chuckled sinisterly just behind Shinsou’s ear, while his hands slipped down to hook around Shinsou’s thighs and lift them higher and wider, spreading her for Izuku with a devilish, “and you’re gonna take it all.”

“I can’t,” Shinsou panted with an urgent edge, unconvinced she would be able to take Izuku wholly without her body somehow splitting in two.

“You can,” Katsuki asserted, spreading Shinsou’s thighs even wider with his hands. “If I can then you can.”

“Kacchan, I can feel your cum inside,” Izuku gasped in amazement, and truth be told if it wasn’t for the added lubrication provided by Katsuki’s leavings, Izuku’s cock would certainly not have fit any deeper into Shinsou’s body, yet somehow it did, tiny thrusts working him in bit by bit.

“Hah, is that so?” Katsuki rasped. “You like my sloppy seconds that much, Deku?”

With this Izuku gave a final desperate push, Katsuki’s urging making him more forceful, Shinsou giving a shrill yelp as he bottomed out in her at last, mumbling needily, “It’s all in, Kacchan.”

“Good,” Katsuki praised, which of them he was praising not clear, probably both. But it was to Shinsou, tickly in her ear he posed, “How long do you think he’ll last?”

Shinsou had the perfect view of Prince Izuku, the dark verdant green of his pubic hair pressed up against her violet hair, a flush covering him from the tips of his ears down to his chest, and glazed look in his dark eyes that was almost deranged.

With confidence, taking the pause gratefully to adjust to the size of his cock in her, which now it was in didn’t seem so bad after all, Shinsou quipped, “Not long.”

Baited by them both, Izuku began moving his cock, not too fast at first, but speeding up with each pull back and snug push in, forcing some of Katsuki’s load from Shinsou’s pussy that clung to Izuku’s crotch and dribbled down Shinsou’s ass.

“Shinsou… Kacchan…” Izuku whined, eyelashes fluttering, his hands covering Katsuki’s gripping Shinsou’s thighs, their fingers overlapping. “I can’t hold back much longer.” 

“Don’t,” Katsuki said, and Shinsou could certainly agree, exhausted from being double teamed by the princes in a whole new way, as if before it had been different and this was what it truly meant to be with both of them at the same time.

“Can I do it inside?” Izuku had the courtesy to ask.

“Would you really do anything else if I said no?” Shinsou commented.

Katsuki laughed behind her and said, “See, she gets it.”

“Ah, too late, I’m gonna–” Izuku blurted, shoving his cock into Shinsou extra deep as it pulsed, filling her again in such a short space of time. A small pearly flood fell out of Shinsou after Izuku pulled his cock out, her hole stretched wide and unable to contain it within, and the bashful prince muttered, “There’s so much.”

“That’s what happens when you both do it inside,” Shinsou remarked, finally freed from being spreadeagled on top of Katsuki and rolling over, grabbing her already somewhat soiled inner robe to try and staunch the flow before she left a huge stain on the bed that she’d only end up having to clean later. Exhausted, but recognising her place, Shinsou made some tentative movements and said, only halfway a question, “Should I go?” As had usually been the case when she was with them before.

Except before was not at all like now, as Izuku flopped down on the other side of her, an arm pinning Shinsou down as it bridged to rest against Katsuki, and the two of them said, in perfect unison for once,

“Stay.”

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Shinsou had come to accept that it was simply the nature of The Forbidden City that when one problem was solved, another came right along to fill its place.

In this case, the conflict between the two princes had only recently been settled, Shinsou finding some kind of balance between them, quite literally, when she unexpectedly ran into Prince Tomura in Bakugo Palace on an otherwise ordinary day.

Prince Katsuki had warned Shinsou never to be alone with the younger brother of the Emperor, whose gaze would stalk Shinsou around like a predator pursuing prey whenever he paid a visit to Bakugo Palace. Shinsou had taken this to heart and kept a wary distance, but hadn’t expected to cross paths with him in one of the deeper areas of the Palace, unusual for an outside visitor to be in, and especially alone. It was near one of the rooms displaying particular treasures Consort Mistsuki had on display, and Shinsou had been assigned to clean the hallway outside when Prince Tomura turned a corner and almost crashed into her.

“Oh, Prince Tomura, my apologies,” Shinsou said lightly, backing away from the broad chest she nearly collided with dressed in a pure black robe embellished with golden thread embroidery, a luxury reserved only for nobility of direct relation to the Emperor. It didn’t escape Shinsou’s knowledge, uninformed as she was on these human political matters, that in another world it could have been Emperor Tomura on the throne, which felt an unsettling prospect.

“Well, well, look what we have here,” the prince remarked slyly, stepping around Shinsou as if to circle her, and importantly, putting himself between her and the way out. “Prince Katsuki’s beloved plaything, all by herself in the palace.”

Prince Katsuki’s warning to Shinsou rang in her ears, never to allow herself to be alone with this man, reasons for which were rapidly revealing themselves.

Unafraid, however, Shinsou dared to look Prince Tomura in the eye and asked, “And what are you doing here, so deep in Bakugo Palace all by yourself?”

If he thought that he could intimidate Shinsou, this mere human was sorely mistaken.

Sensing her challenge like an unwelcome prick of a needle, Prince Tomura responded forcefully, a scowl crossing his dry lips and scarred mouth. A rough hand whipped up to grab Shinsou by the face and hold her gaze to his.

“You dare to speak to me in such a way?” he accused vitriolically, not glaring so much as he was devouring Shinsou with his eyes. “A mere slave to the blood of an Emperor?”

Prince Tomura did not, Shinsou couldn’t help but notice, give any reason for what he was doing in this part of the palace. His hand was strong, stronger than she expected, and the grip on her jaw would’ve hurt a girl of Shinsou’s appearance, were she not made of stronger stuff. 

“My mistake,” Shinsou replied stiffly, mouth pursed in his calloused hands, and questioning, if only for a moment, her instinct to confront him instead of immediately grovelling. “I merely wondered why a Prince of your rank should be unaccompanied in a private area of Bakugo Palace.”

“Oh you did, did you?” the Prince said ominously, then glanced around, a confirmation Shinsou already had that they were alone in this remote part of the Palace. He walked forward, pushing Shinsou back by the tight grip on her jaw, until they were in the shadow of an impressive doorway, even further from the sight of passing eyes, not that there were any to see them like this, and the grip of his hand slid to sit instead around Shinsou’s neck, which he could almost circle in his imposing, calloused hands. “Are you kept here to think about such things, I wonder?”

After holding his blood red gaze for so long, it felt intensely intimate to see it lower, sliding from Shinsou’s face to her body, the Prince of Shigeraki Palace’s wet tongue slipping out to salve over his parched mouth.

“It was my understanding,” Prince Tomura led on intimately, “that you’re no more than Prince Katsuki’s cum dump.”

Shinsou had never heard such a term before, but it was evocative enough to paint a compelling picture, and not exactly untrue either. As Shinsou’s understanding of just why she shouldn’t be alone with Prince Tomura grew, so too did a vein of illicit excitement at what he might actually do.

However, Shinsou knew how she was expected to act according to the rules of this society and her presenting gender, or she’d raise even more suspicion than her current reputation already afforded. More importantly, if anyone did overhear or catch them, she could only imagine how Consort Mitsuki would take to Shinsou flagrantly betraying her son with another man, especially someone who seemed determined to stir up trouble for Bakugo Palace wherever he could, so at all costs she had to appear as if she was unwelcoming of such politically inappropriate attention.

Averting her eyes, Shinsou made herself sound bashful and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Prince Tomura, and I’m sorry for offending you with my words.”

“You call that an apology?” Tomura glowered, releasing Shinsou’s neck finally, but his hand did not go too far, lowering to rest on Shinsou’s chest. It paused only a moment before moving further to roughly feel her breasts through the layers of her robes, the touch becoming ever more of a grope as he continued, “You should be begging for my forgiveness, or did you forget how?”

“I didn’t,” Shinsou blurted, dropping to her knees, partly from instinct, and partly to stop him molesting her further. Not that being on her knees would change much, but it was what Prince Tomura expected, going by the sick smile that poured down on her like a long drizzle of sticky tree sap, ready to cast Shinsou in amber and preserve her there forever.

Lowering her upper body all the way down to the ground, Shinsou bowed at the Prince’s feet and said, “I beg you to forgive me for my disrespectful words, Prince Tomura.”

“That’s more like it,” he purred, shifting a foot clad in a golden embroidered slipper to touch Shinsou’s cheek, pushing her face back up to meet his burning glare. “You remembered your place, far below someone like me.” Shinsou stayed down on the floor, amazed at the exquisite feel of the very fabric of his shoes, finer than anything she’d worn on her body even under Lady Hizashi. On the topic of being under people, Prince Tomura continued, “Just because my brother’s son fucked you a few times doesn’t make us the same.”

“I would never dare to think something like that,” Shinsou answered, and was able to deliver the next part with total sincerity, barring the hint of a hidden blade under the silk of her tone, “I know we’re not at all the same.” 

Shinsou raised her upper body but remained on her knees, looking up at Prince Tomura and wondering what he would be daring enough to try and get away with right here in the open at Bakugo Palace itself. Only Katsuki was brazen enough to be intimate with Shinsou outside of private rooms and locked doors around here, but it seemed that Prince Tomura knew that much already, since his next remark was, “From what I hear, Prince Katsuki does whatever he wants with you wherever he wants.” With decidedly more of a threat, he continued, “It makes me curious about what would happen if someone decided to spoil his favoured thing.”

As she felt her blood quicken from some potent mix of fight and flight, along with the other option she’d learned humans liked to use, fuck, Shinsou also knew that she would be very foolish to openly encourage this sort of thing, especially if it was a trap, or they were caught. For propriety alone she had to plead, “I beg you to forgive me and let me return to my chores, Prince Tomura.”

“You must beg harder than that, Shinsou, wasn’t it?” he murmured with a dangerous tone, while his hand that had grabbed and groped at Shinsou’s body now stroked across the front of his own robe, slowly beginning to pick at the fastenings. “You don’t sound like you’re sorry at all.”

That would be because Shinsou wasn’t sorry, and this prince was perceptive enough to notice it, or at least not care if Shinsou was sincerely apologetic for accusing him of being up to no good, which, categorically, he was.

“I’m very sorry that you don’t find my begging sincere enough,” Shinsou tried out, and it was perhaps the wrong nerve to touch, or the right one, depending on which impulse she was catering to. The sensible, reasonable, cautious part of Shinsou who’d been trained as a human girl, and knew better than to provoke a powerful noble with a feared reputation, or the wild fox spirit who longed for games of risk and reward, bored by the endless rules and confines of this so called civilised society.

“Pathetic,” Prince Tomura breathed scathingly, as his hand moved inside the opening of his robe and shifted under the fabric tellingly. “You ought to prove your remorse to me with your actions, not your words.”

Shinou had to decline, or at least say so, replying with a shake of her head and worrisome, “I mustn’t, Prince Tomura, since I belong to Bakugo Palace so it wouldn’t be right.”

Because it wouldn’t be right, Shinsou had learned, to let herself be interfered with by Prince Katsuki’s uncle, and that was what made it secretly so appealing.

“It’s too late for that now, you’ve already offended me,” Tomura said in a low voice, the shape of his fist moving inside his robe, while his other hand reached out and grabbed Shinsou by the bound ornament her hair was wrapped around and pinned with. Pulling ungraciously, he yanked Shinsou’s face closer to his crotch, and finally dragged his swelling cock out from his robe. It was more veiny than others Shinsou had seen, and quite a bit longer, if not as girthy as some, but most of all it was the shock of how brazenly he presented it just inches from her was incredible.

“I can’t,” Shinsou protested, fascinated by Prince Tomura’s reaction to her show, however convincing or not, of refusing. It only seemed to inflame him more, and while she spoke, the Prince of Shigaraki Palace, who might have been Emperor had his older brother not surpassed him for the throne, merely used the opportunity to rub his cock over the opening of Shinsou’s mouth.

“You let Prince Katsuki do it, don’t you?” he murmured down at her, Shinsou’s stomach twisted with excitement at this new and transgressive experience, unsure if the Prince could tell she didn’t mean what she said, or truly believed he was forcing her. “Why shouldn’t I have the same things he does? I’m older than him, it’s only right I get to try what he’s so enamored with,” even more sordidly he finished, “see what the big fucking deal’s all about.”

Shinsou dared her boldest objection yet, looking up at the prince and saying, as much as she could sound out the words around the rubbing of his cock against her lips and the lower half of her face, “Please stop, Prince Tomura, I’m begging you.”

“Now, that’s what proper begging sounds like,” Prince Tomura complimented, and at that moment, Shinsou’s mouth was left open enough, as it happened, for him to push the head of his cock all the way in, letting out a huffy sigh as his twitching member slid across Shinsou’s tongue.

Shinsou had been getting a little… bored, to tell the truth, with the affectionate, tender lovemaking of Princes Katsuki and Izuku, which was becoming a tad predictable. As pleased as she was to find someone willing to go down on her again, and for that Prince Izuku had risen considerably in her esteem, Shinsou struggled to get through to the young princes, who competed with each other to get their own way far more than giving Shinsou much opportunity in the bedroom to try anything different to their impassioned teenage fucking. It was fun, sure, but was it exciting? Less so.

Monoma also didn’t have as many chances to fulfil Shinsou’s untapped needs now she was so indulged by the princes, and he was still generally too soft, as a rule, even when Shinsou encouraged him otherwise. Shinsou found it was not the same having to coach someone to harshness as it was being subjected to it without question.

All that to say, when Prince Tomura forced his cock into Shinsou’s mouth, she felt a sudden gush between her legs, eyes rolling back with a thought that at long last, here was someone since Hizashi who might finally give it to her rough enough.

Shinsou had also been Katsuki's understudy in sucking cock lately, since he was the undisputed champion of deep throating his brother's huge one, and these skills were fortunately transferable to Prince Tomura's long one, reaching the back of Shinsou's mouth and beyond to her throat without gagging as he pushed her onto it by the grip on the back of her head.

"Hm, I just knew you'd be properly trained to take a prince's cock," Tomura said throatily, holding Shinsou pressed firmly right down to his stomach, preventing her from backing up or taking a breath. Shinsou could hold her breath for minutes and had learned how to master her human gag reflex, not to mention she could have gotten away if she wanted to, not that she did. However, she did need him to think otherwise or anyone who might theoretically catch them, though the truth was probably that Shinsou was more intrigued by the notion of being forced and wanted to explore it further than any of the excuses.

This was why when Prince Tomura finally groaned and pulled Shinsou's mouth off his cock, which was now considerably harder than it was when he'd pushed it in, Shinsou's first words were, "If anyone catches us I'll be sentenced to death, please let me go."

"You think I don't know that?" Prince Tomura replied greedily. "Why else would I be doing this, if not to make sure you’d never tell anyone about seeing me?"

The part of Shinsou's mind that wasn't becoming increasingly obsessed with how far he could be provoked took note of this key detail, which was that Prince Tomura did actually want to keep Shinsou's silence about his whereabouts. It was even the same rationale Prince Katsuki had used when she caught him with Izuku, assuming a palace maid would be too fearful of admitting to having sex with him to tell anyone about what she'd seen. Which meant, of course, that Shinsou had actually seen something compromising.

"I won't tell, I swear," Shinsou pleaded, secretly hoping it wouldn't make any difference, which it didn't, naturally.

Prince Tomura nonchalantly thrust back into her mouth and said, "You've gotten me started now, so I'm not going to stop no matter how much you beg."

The ache between Shinsou's legs got more powerful and needy, while spit ran down her chin as the Prince fucked her mouth in deep, sloppy strokes that filled her down to her throat each time her nose was pressed hard into the thick white pubic hair of his crotch.

As her mouth was used as no more than a hole to fuck, one that was dangerously close to being filled already by the sounds coming from the Prince, Shinsou approached the problem of how she might get him to put his cock in another hole when she wasn't supposed to want him in any of them.

The solution was simple, in the end. When Prince Tomura next let up on relentlessly fucking Shinsou's mouth, she announced with an especially pitiful whine, "Alright, I'll do this for you, Prince Tomura, but please don't make me do anything else."

Could it be that easy to manipulate the brother of an Emperor?

It could, apparently.

Prince Tomura tilted Shinsou's head back to look up at him, and there was a conflict of some kind, momentarily in his eyes. Perhaps he was taking more of a risk than he let on by assaulting a favoured maid of Prince Katsuki in his own Palace.

"Naturally, if I'm going to sample my nephew's cum dump, it should be done in full," the Prince said pensively, and proceeded to haul Shinsou up onto her feet.

"Stop, you can't," Shinsou secretly egged on, believing that Prince Tomura's sensitivity to his position, particularly in relation to the Emperor's sons, would only fuel him further to take what he perceived to belong to Katsuki.

"Can't? We'll see about that," he replied predictably, stooping down and scooping Shinsou up while also pushing her robes up to her waist. "You’re so light," he commented, and Shinsou wasn't wearing any underwear that'd get in the way of someone fucking her, since it was a Prince's prerogative to put their cock in her around here. Any Prince, it turned out.

"No, please don't," Shinsou begged as Prince Tomura shoved her back against the wall, holding her by the legs he forced apart and steered his cock between them. Shinsou could have crushed him between her thighs if she really thought about it, but instead showed only a fraction of her strength as if trying to resist by closing her legs, requiring the Prince to push them wider.

Shinsou couldn't help but shudder when she felt his cock dragging across her soaking wet pussy for the first time, though expected this could be attributed to fear or disgust instead of arousal.

However, she couldn't disguise her need entirely, since the Prince was quick to comment, "You keep saying no but your cunt is so wet, it seems like your body does want this."

"I don't, I– ahh," Shinsou broke into a moan as the long pump of his cock into her gave her other things to think about than meaningless human words.

"Shut up, are you trying to bring everyone in the Palace over here?" Prince Tomura hissed, which if Shinsou had wanted to do she'd have been screaming since he first started feeling her up.

Not having enough hands to cover Shinsou's mouth with one, the Prince resolved to stifle Shinsou's mouth with his, primarily with his tongue, which he pushed deeply into Shinsou's mouth while his cock did the same in her cunt.

“Ugh, so tight, has my nephew even fucked you properly?” Prince Tomura grunted when he pulled back, a response to the famously tight grip of Shinsou’s body on his cock, but for a change he didn’t respond to this by slowing down, just thrust harder to be sure he hit Shinsou’s deepest depths each time, causing a wet slap between their bodies that stung and pressed on Shinsou’s clit dizzyingly.

Not wanting to make noise and interrupt this titillating experience, Shinsou covered her mouth with her hand. This also had the benefit of seeming like she was barring him from kissing her again, since Prince Tomura’s tongue, also long like his cock, came back out and licked across her knuckles, prying between her fingers to get into her mouth regardless.

The pressure and position Shinsou was held in, combined with the particular shape and length of Prince Tomura’s cock, and his determination to go in as deep as he could with every stroke, pressing on her clit each time in greater and faster frequency, had Shinsou dizzily close to cumming without any other stimulation. This was unprecedented, at least in her dalliances with men, only rutting with Hizashi using the double ended dildo having a similar effect of stimulating her enough to climax without the use of fingers or a tongue.

And Prince Tomura didn’t relent, which was perfect, no matter how much tighter Shinsou squeezed him as she whimpered and winced with the pleasure.

“Look at you, so pitiful,” he cooed dirtily. “Are you going to cry?”

It was an interesting suggestion, one that Shinsou took to action without seeming as if she could turn the waterworks on at will, which she could of course. Slowly she let her eyes fill with tears, as if humiliated by this experience and not pleasured, and this seemed to please Tomura too, as he licked the tears from her cheeks and grunted with each thrust.

Shinsou wasn’t in the position to try touching herself for an easy orgasm, but with that way not pursued, the firm press of Prince Tomura’s muscular body against her clit with the deep thrusts that seemed to reach all the way to Shinsou’s guts built slowly and surely to a peak she couldn’t escape from.

Gasping and twitching with each shock of sensation that came from the quick and hard pistoning into her, Shinsou’s wet eyelashes fluttered and she was pushed to the precipice and fell over more than climbed her way up and jumped off, making the experience rather different.

“Aren’t you lewd?” taunted the Prince, pounding into her all the more relentlessly, “Are you really going to cum from being raped?”

Whatever that meant, the answer was a resounding yes, Shinsou screwing her eyes tightly shut, forcing a last few tears from her eyes as she climaxed through Prince Tomura’s continuing thrusts, pressing her head back against the wall and swallowing the sounds she would have made were this not supposed to be happening.

“Fuck, you’re really… squeezing me so tight, are you trying to make me–” Prince Tomura delivered in an incoherent grumble, himself thrown off the peak of orgasm and pushing his cock all the way in as he released his cum deeply inside Shinsou with a resounding, "Fuck."

Not kissing her at this moment, Tomura went for an altogether more violent option and bit Shinsou’s exposed neck, his teeth pressing in hard as his pulsing cock filled her to the brim. It might have broken the skin if Shinsou weren’t tougher than the average human, and she was still tingling and dazed from her own orgasm, limp and doll like in his hold, slumping down the wall when the Prince finally pulled his long cock from her and let Shinsou go, his seed spilling from her and the indent of his mouth on her neck.

“There… you’d never dare to tell anyone else about this now, or your life would be forfeit,” Prince Tomura tried to threaten, but as Shinsou looked up at him, she saw his own dazed confusion and a sense that this had gotten away from him, collecting himself hurriedly and looking around as if shocked they’d not been caught.

“Yes, Prince Tomura,” Shinsou repeated shallowly, knowing she couldn’t be discovered in this state but wanting to preserve the glow just a little longer, since it was rather a blinding climax, and so different to what it was like being with the princes. “I’d never dare to tell anyone else about this.”

After all, if she told anyone about being raped by Prince Tomura, he presumably wouldn’t get the chance to do it again.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Shinsou barely got the chance to clean herself up before she met someone else in Bakugo Palace after her run in with Prince Tomura, but it was thankfully only Monoma, and she’d only cleaned up enough for his first words to be, “What the hell happened to you, Shinsou?”

“Nothing,” Shinsou denied promptly, despite her hair and robes still being quite a mess, and the bite mark on her neck having no intention to fade quickly apparently. She’d managed to refasten her robe straight and stop herself leaking Prince Tomura’s cum all over the palace floor, and that was about it. She had far more important matters to worry about, so hurried onward to tell Monoma, “Something may be amiss around here, go check that everything is where it’s supposed to be.”

“That’s rather cryptic,” Monoma replied aloofly, his eyes narrow as he scrutinised Shinsou, himself no stranger to seeing her in the aftermath of Prince Katsuki’s whims, which was different than Shinsou’s present state, and also informed of the young master’s whereabouts, leading him to comment, “Prince Katsuki’s away from the Palace, so who’s gotten to you that you don’t want to talk about?”

“Obviously someone I don’t want to talk about,” Shinsou batted back at him, confident now that the prospect of other men didn’t ruffle this one at all, and usually had quite the opposite effect. “Just go check the hall of treasures, Monoma, I have a… feeling, that’s all.”

“Hm, as you say,” Monoma consented, smart enough to take the hint and knowing that trouble in the palace was far more important than trouble with a mere maid. “In the meantime, I suggest you clean yourself up, you’re lucky it was only me who saw you like this.”

With a cheeky smile Shinsou echoed back at him, “Lucky you.”

~~~

Not being foolish or wishing to jeopardise her position at Bakugou Palace for any bit of careless fun, save for Monoma, who wouldn’t reveal her indiscretion since he also counted as a bit of careless fun, Shinsou carefully made her way to the private washroom in Prince Katsuki’s chambers to clean herself up from Prince Tomura’s not so little indiscretion.

Prince Katsuki had been out training with his brother and wasn’t expected back for a while, since they usually ran late getting competitive with each other then came back all fired up and dragged Shinsou into the resolution. That wouldn’t be for a while yet most likely, so Shinsou cleaned herself up methodically rather than in a rush, making her startled when she heard Prince Katsuki return unexpectedly early, and alone at that.

“Prince Katsuki?” Shinsou called from the washroom, quickly checking in a small mirror that the bite mark on her neck had thankfully faded at last, having spent quite some time scrubbing it to at least even out the redness of that area and disguise the telltale pattern of another man’s mouth.

“Ah, you’re here already,” Katsuki greeted lazily, striding to the edge of the washroom and leaning against the doorframe to catch Shinsou in a sticky gaze.

“What are you doing back so early? And where’s Prince Izuku?” Shinsou questioned without ceasing from washing herself slowly, since it gave Katsuki a little show to be entertained and hopefully distracted by.

“Direct as ever,” Katsuki scoffed, his smirk souring as he answered, “He went off with Eri on one of their silly walks, if you must know.”

“Oh,” Shinsou replied, hoping that Katsuki’s gaze on her was the familiar kind, and not the suspicious one. She had done what she could to empty the other prince's cum from inside her, but Prince Tomura's long cock had inserted it particularly deep, so she couldn't be confident that gravity had fully taken its course.

"What, disappointed?" Katsuki suggested, prickly as he usually was when his brother was in question. "Is one Prince not enough for you now?"

Not even two, apparently, but Shinsou couldn't let that slip, and shook her head certainly as she was supposed to.

“Of course not, Prince Katsuki," she said dutifully. "I was just curious, that's all."

Shinsou reached for a fresh inner robe to put on, only for Katsuki to remark extra casually, "I wouldn't bother with that if I were you."

Stilling her hand, Shinsou settled on Katsuki's stare being the usual kind, believing his desire to have overrun his observational skills. It was lucky that Izuku wasn't here on this occasion, since he was more level headed than his brother, especially around Shinsou, and would likely notice the things that lust overlooked in Katsuki's case.

"You've been so spoiled, having both of us dote on you at the same time," Katsuki announced, stern ostensibly but with a hidden softness to his tone as he walked over to Shinsou standing naked in his bathroom, an opportunity that he couldn't be expected to let pass him by.

He trailed a hand around Shinsou's bare waist, anchoring his grip by the pinch of fat around her hips and squeezing as he pulled her close to him. His other hand reached around Shinsou’s body and slipped between her legs, fingers rubbing over her clit and down to the entrance of her cunt, still engorged and sensitive from the brutal fucking Katsuki’s uncle gave her not long ago.

Shinsou shivered with the contact, Katsuki’s fingers dragging back up and centering over her clit as she squirmed, then pulled ever more closely into the shadow of his body.

“You like it when Deku touches you here, don’t you?” he said teasingly, the swell of his cock against Shinsou’s back steadily increasing as he pinched her clit with his fingertips.

Shinsou almost responded that she liked when anyone touched her there, but it would suggest that she let anyone touch her there. Which she did, pretty much, but Katsuki couldn’t know that, so she amended this thought to, “I like it when you do too, Prince Katsuki.”

“Of course you do,” he replied confidently. “I can do anything better than Deku does.”

“Can you?” Shinsou dared to tease, figuring she could wrangle more from Katsuki than some unpracticed fingering if she pushed the right buttons. “Prince Izuku uses his mouth on me.”

"Tch, I can do that too," Katsuki retorted immediately, surely aware he was being manipulated but not caring about it as much as his desire in the moment to prove himself over his brother in any category that could be counted.

He backed off Shinsou and turned her around, then she perched on the thick edge of the generous bathtub of Prince Katsuki's quarters for the rare event of a prince kneeling before her. Princes weren't supposed to get down on their knees for a mere servant, but this didn't stop Katsuki as he moved between Shinsou's legs on his knees, hooking her thighs over each of his shoulders one after the other, and pressing his mouth obediently to her pussy.

Anything Katsuki's brother could do he would do better, so if Izuku could lick and suck Shinsou's clit until she came, he would do the same, until Shinsou's fingers tangled in tight handfuls of his dusty blonde hair and the sweet juices of her body ran past his chin and trailed down his throat in long streaks. It was almost like drinking rice wine, clouding his mind and restricting all his senses to focus only on Shinsou and her reactions, guiding her to climax against him with quivering, shivery movements and light gasps of pleasure.

“Ah, I’m cumming, Katsuki, don’t stop,” Shinsou urged selfishly, forgetting to address him by title in the heat of the moment, and finally loosening her grip as the pleasure washed back and left her lucid once more.

Katsuki didn’t comment on her indiscretion, though the haze in his red eyes cleared a little, and he moved back from between Shinsou’s legs to take a few steadying breaths.

“My turn,” he said shortly, standing up and pulling his robes off quickly to expose his deeply shaded and weeping hard cock.

Shinsou anticipated his urgency, turning around and bending over to hold onto the edge of the bathtub with her hands, presenting her backside and exposed soaking pussy to him from behind, an offer the Prince accepted without hesitation. He stepped up to her, a hand guiding his cock, and slid into Shinsou’s cunt with a growling sigh.

The intense pounding that Shinsou had received at the hands, and cock, of Katsuki’s uncle before this had left her sensitive, overly so, and she moaned in surprise from just the ordinary penetration of Katsuki’s cock in her.

“Hah, you like that too?” he gloated, drunk on his own satisfaction, unaware that he was riding on benefits set up by another. He held Shinsou by the hips, bent over with her ass angled up towards him, and fucked her with rough sloppy strokes. It was nowhere near as violently as his uncle had done it, but this was surely a good thing, as Shinsou was raw enough already that it was as much as she could bear, and let out all kinds of undignified noises as Prince Katsuki fucked her indulgently over the bathtub.

It didn’t take Katsuki too long to cum with the speed he was going, groaning and filling her cunt with a few deep thrusts, but little did Shinsou know that after the first orgasm he wouldn’t be satisfied. His cock stayed hard, and they merely moved to his bed, taking far longer after that to continue fucking, Shinsou on her back with her legs up over her head, feeling totally worn out by the end of it, Katsuki cumming in her a second time, well and truly filled, and collapsing by her side with a satisfied huff.

They lay on the bed together in an exhausted tranquillity, and after a moment of reflection, Shinsou decided to set the record straight.

"I'm not spoiled, by the way."

"Tch, of course you are," Katsuki scoffed, "being favoured by an Emperor's son is a big deal for someone like you."

"Did I ask to be favoured?" Shinsou reminded him curtly.

"Not exactly, but you did proposition us, as I recall," Katsuki's response prickled.

"Because I saw something I shouldn't have and needed a way to keep you from executing me," Shinsou pointed out daringly.

"We weren't actually going to do it," Katsuki claimed.

"Did you decide that before or after I sucked you off?" Shinsou posed.

"Uh… before, just about.”

“No one ever asked if I wanted to be transferred to Bakugo Palace either,” Shinsou carried on.

“You were in the workhouse before,” Katsuki replied scathingly. “You’d rather stay there?”

“I’d rather someone had asked me,” Shinsou told him. “You say I’m spoiled and favoured because I get doted on by you, but that was something you decided to do by yourself.”

“Then you want me to stop?” Katsuki said with a hint of danger in his voice. “I can always have you sent back to the workhouse, you know.”

“Just don't call me spoiled,” Shinsou asserted, looking away from him with a pouty expression, “because I’m not.”

Katsuki lifted up to rest on his elbows, looking at Shinsou carefully, then said with a little amusement, “Didn’t think I would ever see you get so sulky.”

“I’m not sulking, I’m just correcting you,” Shinsou told him… sulkily.

“You’d dare to correct the son of an Emperor?” Katsuki opened with a characteristically bold challenge, adamant as ever that he was the centre of the whole universe.

“If I don’t do it, who else would dare?” Shinsou returned, unafraid of any boy whose value came from his birth and not his achievements.

“Hah, maybe you’re right,” Katsuki indulged, resting back down to perch his chin on his folded arms. “It’s good to keep people around who will challenge me.”

“You can definitely count on me for that,” Shinsou assured him.

Katsuki grinned, leaning over to give her a peck on the cheek, his mouth hovering close to her ear to remark, “If you want to be asked about things first, then I’ll ask. It’s not hard to do.”

“Then you should do it,” Shinsou lectured him, “instead of assuming that no one would deny you because it’s never happened before.”

“It has never happened before,” Katsuki pointed out.

“Then which of us is actually spoiled?” Shinsou put to him, and the challenged prince rested his face against his hand thoughtfully.

“You’re an interesting girl, Shinsou,” he commented. “I wonder what kind of things you'd stir up if you officially became part of my household.”

“Am I not already part of it?” Shinsou puzzled.

“You work here, and I favour you, but it’s not official,” he replied.

“What makes it official?” Shinsou asked, assuming this was one more of those strange arbitrary things humans loved concerning themselves with, but this question managed to baffled Katsuki a little, seemingly not expecting to need to explain it.

“Well… if I took you as a wife, obviously,” he answered.

“Becoming your wife? That's what'd make it official?” Shinsou clarified.

“Not my main wife, of course,” he amended. “Maybe not really a wife at all, exactly.”

“Wait, so what’s a main wife?” Shinsou queried further.

“You really don’t know about this?” Katsuki said disbelievingly.

Shinsou shook her head, making the excuse, “We didn’t have anything like that where I grew up, don’t blame me for not knowing all of the ways here.” Stupid, pointless ways as it happened, but leave that part out.

“Oh, right, I… just assumed everyone knew how things work here,” Katsuki said awkwardly. “An important man has one main wife, like Empress Midnight was for my Royal Father, but he can have other wives, like my mother, and Lady Inko. Additional wives are called consorts, or lower than that are concubines, depending on their rank.”

“What would I be then?” asked Shinsou, out of curiosity more than anything.

“Hm, well, if I asked and you wanted to,” Katsuki was keen to emphasise, “then you would be my concubine.”

“That’s the lowest, I’m guessing,” Shinsou remarked, since Hizashi had always led her to believe that she was coming from the proverbial bottom of the ladder, since she was always accusing Shinsou of trying to climb upwards. That would also be why he described it as not exactly a wife the same way as the others, though they were all equally insignificant to Shinsou in the bigger picture.

“Yes, but you’d be the concubine of a Prince, which is higher than even the main wife of people of lower rank,” Katsuki explained, and boldly continued, “then when I’m Emperor you’d be even more powerful, only outranked by the Empress and Consorts, which isn’t bad for a little girl from the mountains.”

It was meant to be fond and teasing, Shinsou knew, but she found the whole thing so bizarre, and it only then occurred to her that these questions might make Katsuki think she actually wanted that, rather than just being bemused by all the strange rules of human society. It hit Shinsou all at once that if she got married to a prince, unofficially or not, she’d be expected to stay here in The Forbidden City with them and behave according to the rules and expectations of someone in that position, which couldn’t possibly be allowed to happen for all kinds of reasons.

So, rather than encourage the idea too much, she quickly thought of a way to deter him.

“When you’re the Emperor?” Shinsou repeated innocently, as if wondering if she’d missed some announcement confirming him as the heir to the throne, or if he was just being presumptive as was his nature. “What about Izuku?”

“What about him?” Katsuki retorted.

“Couldn’t he become the Emperor instead? And then his concubine would outrank yours, wouldn’t they?” she reasoned, only to get a fierce scowl in return.

“So you’d only marry whichever one of us is named the crown prince, is that it?” he said sharply. “I heard that you were a social climber, Shinsou, but I didn’t expect you to be so obvious about it.”

“I’m not,” Shinsou claimed, though it had absolutely been her intention to plant this doubt in his mind, knowing it was a way to put him off the idea of taking her as a wife, just as Hizashi had been outraged when she thought Shinsou was trying to ‘climb’ by seducing Aizawa or Todoroki, respectively. “I was just wondering, since Prince Izuku also has a chance to become the next Emperor, doesn’t he?”

"And you think my father's going to pick him, is that it?" Katsuki accused as he pushed himself up and climbed out of bed, the nerve Shinsou touched being quite a bit more sensitive than she anticipated if he was getting this agitated about it. "Good to know where your allegiance really lies."

"You're reading into this too much, I don't have any allegiance," Shinsou tried to say, which was absolutely true, since which of the two brothers became the next Emperor didn't matter to her one bit. "I was just asking questions, I didn't mean anything by it."

"No allegiance?" Katsuki echoed coldly. "Then you're not loyal to me?"

Sensing the crossroads at her feet, Shinsou remembered what she had just discussed with the fiery prince about challenge being good for someone in his position.

"I am my own person, Katsuki," Shinsou declared firmly, sitting up and looking right at him. "More than a potential concubine to you or your brother, and more than a servant you decided to favour because you find me interesting. Where I come from it doesn't matter who the Emperor is, and I have no business taking sides in something so far beyond me. If that offends you then you can just send me back to the workhouse right now."

Katsuki jumped up to stand beside his bed, totally naked after fucking Shinsou not once but twice, and the shock and awe of his expression was something to behold. Shinsou supposed, he'd probably never been spoken to like that before, at least not by anyone except Izuku, who he loved enough to tolerate such blunt honesty from. Izuku was also of equal station to him, instead of many miles below the lofty mountain he sat on while Shinsou was supposed to crawl on the ground, not knowing Shinsou was herself a creature of mountains far higher than his.

If Shinsou got sent back to the workhouse for this, so be it. At least she'd done something worthwhile to earn it this time, and more importantly, she wasn't going to be taken as anyone's concubine there and bound to this terrible place for the rest of her supposedly human life.

Prince Katsuki’s mouth opened as if to speak, but made no sound, as if stunned beyond words. 

Then all of a sudden the bedchamber door flew open and Monoma stood across it, unabashed and unconcerned by the naked individuals within.

“Get dressed and come with me right away, Prince Katsuki,” Monoma delivered, bold enough to command a prince, which could only mean the order came direct from his mother.

Sensing something wrong, since something had to be wrong for Momona to appear and act under these circumstances, Katsuki asked simply, “What’s happened?”

And then anything Katsuki and Shinsou had been arguing about became trivial and meaningless, because Monoma replied,

“Someone attacked Prince Izuku and Eri.”

And it felt as if time stopped.

 ~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Until the moment Shinsou heard the news, every word she had ever spoken about having no loyalty or allegiance to any particular human in The Forbidden City had been true, or she had believed it to have been true.

Yet, when Monoma delivered the fateful news, and while Shinsou and Katsuki both hurriedly dressed, each urgent for their own reasons, Shinsou was forced to rapidly reevaluate this belief.

Shinsou had not spent a lot of time with Eri, most of it just standing by while the child interacted with her mother, but she was the daughter of Lady Hizashi and Lord Aizawa, and someone in this wretched place had actually had the audacity to try and harm her.

“You don’t need to come too, Shinsou, this only concerns the Prince,” Monoma tried to tell her.

“I’m coming,” Shinsou responded bluntly, not divulging to them the exact reason why she felt so compelled to go to the scene as soon as possible, since she barely wanted to divulge it to herself. But the instinct was there, and so was the rage so strong it could blind her.

“Was anyone hurt?” Katsuki demanded, himself also rage blinded, but holding it together admirably, by way of not screaming or throwing anything.

“Only the person who attacked them,” Monoma answered concisely. “Prince Izuku almost killed the man, as I understand, and he’s been taken for interrogation now.”

“That bastard better pray he tells them what he knows before I get to him,” Katsuki threatened, and Shinsou could’ve added her own pledge for vengeance to the mix, but that did nothing to ascertain a young girl’s safety, surely scared and a hundred miles or more away from her mother and father.

“You’re sure no one else was hurt?” Shinsou checked.

“I haven’t heard all the details, but it sounds like they attempted to snatch away Eri, but Prince Izuku intervened and injured the would be kidnapper severely,” Monoma relayed, and by then they were both ready. “We'lll find out what really happened once everyone has gotten there, so hurry up or you may miss something important."

"We're coming, we're coming," Katsuki shouted crossly, storming out of the door past Monoma with Shinsou keeping pace. He did, however, have time enough on the way still to murmur to Shinsou, "What was that you were just telling me about loyalty? Are you that worried about Deku to rush over so shamelessly?"

"I’m not worried about him," Shinsou returned stonily, and that clearly surprised Katsuki, who was of course eclipsed by his own devotion to his brother and perceived competition with Shinsou, along with the usual outrage that any assassin would trifle with either of the princes under any circumstances.

"Then you're concerned for Eri?" Katsuki deduced incredulously. "But you broke ties with the Aizawas."

"She's just a little girl," Shinsou retorted crossly, "and didn't Monoma say it was her they tried to abduct?"

"Hm, we'll find out soon enough," Katsuki settled suspiciously, following after Monoma who led them to the Emperor's Immortal palace, where a small crowd was already gathered. The spectators parted with the approach of Prince Katsuki, and Shinsou followed in his wake, coming finally to the front where the Emperor stood surrounded by attendants and guards. Somewhere in between them all was Eri, and nowhere to be seen was Izuku.

"Eri," Shinsou called over when she laid eyes on her, and the young girl’s eyes locked onto Shinsou like finding a light in darkness.

“Shinsou?” Eri responded shakily, and Shinsou didn’t even know if the girl was aware she wasn’t with Hizashi anymore, but that didn’t seem to matter now. Shinsou was someone familiar, someone linked to Eri’s mother at a time when Hizashi was a long way away, and something terrifying had just happened to her.

That was why when the Eri flew away from the familiar people who attended her towards Shinsou, she dropped down to catch the fair haired child in a desperate hug.

“Where’s mama?” Eri asked Shinsou distraughtly, probably hoping that if Shinsou was here then somehow Hizashi wouldn’t be far, and clearly not informed that they had broken ties, as Katsuki had put it.

“She’s back at Aizawa manor,” Shinsou answered, aware of the eyes that riveted to them now, surely asking all the same questions as Katsuki had about Shinsou’s supposed allegiances. Strange, trivial humans that they were, drawing something like that from an act of compassion towards a child.

“I was so scared,” Eri said with her face pressed tightly to Shinsou’s robe, one of Bakugo Palace’s pieces, and not fastened properly in her rush to get here. Let anyone notice and think what they wanted to think of Shinsou’s behaviour, it didn’t matter, not really.

“Are you alright? You didn’t get hurt?” Shinsou checked, steadying a hand on Eri’s back and rubbing it slowly. Eri shook her head, and kept clinging to Shinsou, as if finding some substitute for Hizashi in her, when Shinsou was anything but.

“Where’s my brother?!” Katsuki demanded harshly, which Shinsou had been wondering as well, if far back in her mind over comforting Eri.

“Be calm, Katsuki, he’s with the captured assailant at the department of careful punishment,” the Emperor told him. Being addressed by his father, and glared at by Consort Mitsuki at the Emperor’s elbow, seemed to remind Prince Katsuki of his senses.

“Sorry, Royal Father, I was just concerned with my Royal Brother’s safety,” Katsuki said apologetically, offering a stiff bow, clearly restraining himself. “Has the person who ordered this assassin been discovered?”

From the edge of the courtyard a new party arrived, among them Prince Izuku, and, interestingly, Prince Tomura.

“It’s funny you should say that, Prince Katsuki,” Tomura called out as they approached. Shinsou avoided his gaze, but looked over at Izuku, who had a terribly stern expression, though it softened a little when he saw Shinsou comforting Eri.

“Why?” Katsuki asked bluntly, and Tomura gestured to the guards accompanying him.

“We searched the assassin’s person and discovered his payment,” the Emperor’s younger brother announced, and one of his personal guards approached with a tray covered with a cloth. “May my Royal Brother uncover the object and identify it for everyone.”

Emperor All Might reached one of his wiry hands to land like a crane on the thin piece of fabric and lifted it, and a gasp rang out across the gathered crowd. On the tray sat a small golden bird sculpture, embedded with two jewels for its striking red eyes.

“This is the ruby oriole that I gifted to Consort Mitsuki on her birthday,” the Emperor recited ominously, and Shinsou now realised why Izuku looked so concerned. “How did it come to be in the assassin’s possession?”

“You are too magnanimous, brother, why else could this be if not as payment to commit this treacherous crime?” Prince Tomura said starkly. “Prince Izuku discovered the treasure on the assassin’s person himself, did you not?”

“I… I did,” Izuku answered shakily, and Shinsou saw the tension of the look between him and Katsuki, full of fear and questioning.

“Ridiculous,” Consort Mitsuki intervened harshly. “Why would a precious gift I received from the Emperor be used as payment for an assassin? Clearly this person stole that item before going to commit their terrible deed as a way to frame me.”

“You mean to say that a thief penetrated the deepest parts of Bakugo Palace and stole an item personally gifted to you by the Emperor, and no one detected it?” Prince Tomura remarked incredulously. Shinsou’s eyes widened, hidden by the cascade of Eri’s long silvery hair hanging down her back, at the thoughts that occurred to her, and her only. “Only someone from Bakugo Palace could take out such a valuable item unnoticed, or do you truly have such incompetent guards that a thief could go in broad daylight and steal it from under your nose?”

Consort Mitsuku had no answer for that, silent as the accusation weighed in.

Who, indeed, could penetrate deeply in Bakugo Palace, and not be stopped? Shinsou knew from an extra personal experience. However, just as Prince Tomura had schemed, she could not dare to speak up and say what had happened, as she would disgrace herself or be called a liar by Prince Tomura, likely both, and this would help no one.

“Consort Mitsuki has been with me today,” the Emperor said calmly, looking to his most powerful consort after the death of his beloved wife. “She could not have been involved in this.”

“Unless someone else did it at her instruction, Royal Brother,” Tomura said ominously.

“How dare you accuse me!” Mitsuki snapped.

“Then perhaps it was your son, Prince Katsuki,” Tomura suggested instead, looking over at Katsuki who was stood out from the crowd with shock and fury painted over his features. “He stands to benefit the most if Prince Izuku was killed.”

“I would never!” Katsuki snarled.

“Calm yourself!” his mother barked, and the young man’s rage was tempered, somewhat, biting his lip while his eyes darted from Izuku to his mother, and angrily at Prince Tomura. “Your Majesty,” Consort Mitsuki said, stepping in front of the Emperor and bowing to him, “please forgive my son’s temper and investigate this matter fully.”

“Be assured, Consort Mitsuki, I won’t suspect anyone without evidence,” Emperor All Might soothed.

“Evidence, Royal Brother? An item belonging to Bakugo Palace was found on the assassin’s person,” Prince Tomura said coldly. “If he hadn’t been so severely wounded by Prince Izuku, we would have been able to interrogate him further and get a confession, but do you really need more evidence than this?”

“You are being too presumptuous, Prince Tomura,” Consort Mitsuki retorted. “Why are you so keen to slander my reputation, have I ever offended you?”

“Don’t be coarse, Consort Mitsuki,” Tomura replied slyly. “I am merely thinking for the Emperor’s sake.”

“We don’t even know what happened yet,” Consort Mitsuki asserted, and looked over at Izuku. “Prince Izuku, you were the one who faced the assassin, please tell us what you witnessed.”

“I… was walking with Eri in the gardens, after finishing my daily training with Prince Katsuki,” Izuku began to explain. “I sensed someone following us out of sight, so I directed us to walk to a clearing where they would have to come into the open, and that’s when he attacked.”

“What do you believe was the assailant’s intention?” the Emperor asked.

“He tried to grab Eri and pull her away, so I drew my weapon and…” Izuku hesitated, looking around.

“Go ahead, Prince Izuku,” Tomura urged. “We have the man’s body as evidence of what you did.”

“I cut off his arm,” Izuku confessed after the prompting, seeming uncomfortable to admit this in front of so many people, many of whom’s faces palled at this information.

“This was an extreme reaction, don’t you think?” Prince Tomura suggested. “You wounded him severely in that moment, and hampered further investigation,” with a darker hint he continued, “you weren’t trying to kill him sooner, were you, so that he couldn’t speak of his true orders?”

“I don’t know what you mean, Prince Tomura,” Izuku responded stoically. “Please don’t muddy the waters like this. I believed that Eri was in danger and defended her swiftly. I wasn’t thinking of anything else.”

“Izuku always speaks honestly, Tomura, stop leading him on,” the Emperor scolded, and Tomura closed his thin lips tightly. 

Eri still clung tightly to Shinsou, crying softly against her, and Shinsou tried to think of a way to clear the accusations that wouldn’t be instantly dismissed.

“Once I had immobilised the attacker, I bound his arm to prevent further blood loss, specifically so that he could be questioned,” Izuku resumed calmly, and Shinsou had to admit, she was pretty impressed if he’d taken a man’s arm off for daring to grab Eri with it. Perhaps he deserved more credit from her after all. “We arrived at the department of careful punishment, and I questioned him on his orders but he wouldn’t speak of them. It was after searching his person that I discovered the ruby oriole.”

“And then what happened?” Prince Tomura piped up again, a devilish glint in his eye, only to be silenced again by a stern look from his brother.

“I asked where he acquired it, and he…” Izuku glanced at Katsuki, desperately, and back to his father, “he said that Prince Katsuki gave it to him.”

“What?!” Katsuki shouted, but dropped to his knees before the Emperor and bowed to him passionately. “I never did this, Royal Father, it must be a lie!”

“You accuse your own brother of lying to slander you?” Prince Tomura remarked as if shocked, and not vindicated at the storm he had whipped up so expertly. “Then you believe Prince Izuku set this up in order to frame you?”

“Of course not!” Katsuki yelled, looking up at the Emperor. “I would never harm him, Royal Father, he’s my biological brother who I treasure.” And then some, but of everyone gathered here, only Shinsou and Mitsuki knew the true depths of that.

“Where were you after training with Izuku?” Emperor All Might asked.

“I was… back at Bakugo Palace,” Katsuki answered, and turned over his shoulder to look at Shinsou.

“Who is your witness?” Prince Tomura demanded.

“Shinsou,” Katsuki was forced to answer, staring at her with panic in his eyes. “I was with Shinsou the whole time.”

“It’s true,” Shinsou said obediently, on her knees with Eri’s arms wrapped around her neck.

“She’s his favoured servant, Royal Brother, of course she would vouch for him,” Tomura dismissed casually. “Who’s to say Shinsou wasn’t his accomplice in this matter? See how she’s comforting the girl now, showing her guilty conscience.”

Filled with a sudden pillar of burning rage, Shinsou stood upright, lifting Eri with her to hold around her waist, and said, calm and clear as the ring of temple windchimes, “You speak falsely, Prince Tomura.”

“Do I?” he countered, a sick smirk on his face. “What gives a servant like you the position to accuse me?”

“I was a close attendant of Lady Hizashi, and helped her to take care of her daughter while she was staying in The Forbidden City. I would never want harm to come to Eri,” Shinsou declared.

“Lady Hizashi punished you by sending you to the workhouse,” Prince Tomura responded. “Of course you would want to take revenge on her after something like that.”

“I am not a monster who would harm an innocent child in retaliation against my former mistress,” Shinsou countered, knowing now wholeheartedly who the real monster was, even if he did have a big dick that had been pleasurable to fuck. 

What would her former mistress do, Shinsou thought, racking her mind for some way to prove that Prince Tomura was involved in this matter, when he would surely deny anything she said about seeing him near the hall where the ruby oriole was kept, and of course they had no way to prove it.

Then Shinsou’s eyes came to Monoma, standing stiffly in the back, mouth closed wisely, not sticking out his neck in a matter that could ruin his career over the rise and fall of royals far more privileged than him, unless there was sure merit in it for him. One servant alone wasn’t much, but more than one of them, especially one with influence, might just be enough.

“Supervisor Monoma,” Shinsou called. “You checked the inventory of Bakugo Palace today, did you not?”

Monoma’s eyes flared, the whites widening as he realised the implication of this comment, pieces fitting together over why Shinsou had so cryptically sent him on such a seemingly random errand.

“Yes… I did, and…” Monoma looked at Consort Mitsuki, and stepped forward to continue, “the Ruby Oriole was no longer on display in its usual position.”

“It wasn’t?” the Emperor inquired.

“No, Your Majesty. I believed that it had been placed back into storage without my knowing, so I had made a note of it and was going to confirm this when I heard about the attack,” Monoma explained, “The records at Bakugo Palace will confirm this.”

“So what you’re saying is that this item was reported missing the same day it was used to pay off this supposed assassin?” Consort Mitsuki seized on, and turned to Tomura. “Why would a servant mark an item as lost if it was going to be used as payment for a crime, Prince Tomura?”

“You… this could have been unrelated,” Tomura tried to evade. “Monoma could have been instructed to make those notes to avoid suspicion.”

“Supervisor Monoma is a trustworthy individual working for the imperial household department, why would he risk his position for this?” Mitsuki declared, also the same reason he hadn’t volunteered this information until invited to, likely also concerned about being dragged into this or accused of lying if he’d jumped in to defend his benefactor.

“I would never be so bold,” Monoma asserted, addressing the sly Prince’s brother instead as he pledged, “I serve His Majesty the Emperor.”

“Furthermore, if Monoma had been bribed to make false notes, there would be payment as evidence. Have you been given any such rewards, Supervisor Monoma?” Mitsuki questioned.

“No, Consort Mitsuki,” he replied, and bowed to the Emperor. “Your Majesty is welcome to search my belongings to confirm this.”

“It’s an out of the ordinary event to do an inventory,” Prince Tomura caught onto, as the frustration in his voice was becoming evident. “Why did you decide to do it today of all times?”

“You mean to tell me how to run my household, Prince Tomura?” Consort Mitsuki intervened.

“There’s something else, if I may dare to speak,” Shinsou offered cautiously, feeling that now the tides were tipping and she could risk making such a comment without completely destroying herself.

“Go ahead, Shinsou,” the Emperor invited.

“Well… wasn’t it Prince Tomura who visited Bakugo Palace earlier today?” she suggested, and saw a vicious flash in his eyes on her. Shinsou wouldn’t dare to tell anyone that she’d been raped by Prince Tomura near the hall where the Ruby Oriole was on display, but she didn’t have to tell them that part. Surely someone else had seen him enter or leave, and that was enough.

“How dare you accuse me!” Tomura snarled at Shinsou, but the Emperor turned to look at him curiously.

“I have heard enough for today,” Emperor All Might announced. “Everyone return to your palaces and close the doors to reflect, I will pursue this matter myself.”

Katsuki bowed low, his head touching the floor, and said, “Thank you, Royal Father, I’m sure that you can find the truth of this matter.”

With a tired nod, the Emperor dismissed them all. As they started to walk away, Shinsou stalled with Eri still in her arms, and slowly Izuku approached.

“Ah, I can take Eri back,” Izuku said quietly, at which Eri lifted her face from Shinsou’s shoulder and turned to look at him with reddened sore eyes.

“Izukuuu,” the child wailed softly, and Shinsou wordlessly handed her over to Izuku’s arms, Eri clinging to him as she’d clung to Shinsou and sobbed for her mother.

“Thank you for taking care of her,” Izuku said gently, and perhaps he too was giving Shinsou more credit than she’d had before, as he sounded more admiring when he added, “I didn’t know you were so close.”

“Not particularly,” Shinsou downplayed. “Eri is the daughter of my former mistress, and Lady Hizashi took care of me when I was new to this place, so I ought to repay that kindness by caring for her daughter while she’s away.”

“For now,” Izuku commented, and something in Shinsou’s gut twisted.

“For now?” Shinsou repeated, feeling strangely light having lost the weight of Eri hanging from her, as if her hands didn’t have anything to do anymore.

“Yes, once word gets to Lord and Lady Aizawa I expect they’ll come right away,” Izuku explained, and the twist in Shinsou’s gut became a heavy stone. “Whoever did this should pray they’ve already received punishment before they arrive.”

“I see,” Shinsou murmured. However, she knew who was responsible for all this, and neither Katsuki nor Hizashi or Aizawa would have much left to do with him if Shinsou got to him first.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Being part of Bakugo Palace when the Emperor gave the order for confinement, Shinsou was required to return there directly with Prince Katsuki and Consort Mitsuki. According to the Emperor’s instruction, the large wooden doors were firmly shut while the matter concerning Eri and Prince Izuku being attacked was investigated. No one went in, no one came out. The same would apply for Shigeraki Palace.

Shinsou peeled away from the others once they were inside Bakugo Palace’s walls, or attempted to, because she’d barely gotten a few steps when Mitsuki called out, “Not so fast, Shinsou, you’re coming with us.”

Biting the inside of her cheek, Shinsou changed course and replied, “As you wish, Mistress.”

She followed Mitsuki to her office along with Katsuki, neither speaking a word until the doors had been closed behind them. Mitsuki went to sit down at her desk, while Katsuki took one of the chairs on the side of the room, and Shinsou stayed where she was standing.

"So then," Mitsuki began. "You gained merit today, young lady, by pointing to the evidence that cleared Bakugo Palace from suspicion, but how on earth did you know that item had gone missing?" The suspicion in this shone like a beacon on a mountain top, and Shinsou knew to watch her step carefully.

"I didn't," she answered blankly.

"Monoma already told us that he only carried out the inventory because you told him to," Mitsuki said coolly. "So I’ll ask again, why did you do that?"

"Oh, I just had a feeling," Shinsou tried, but Mitsuki wasn't buying it.

"A very conveniently timed feeling," she said suspiciously. “If you’re working with Prince Tomura then it’ll be better for you to admit it now.”

“Working with him? Of course not,” Shinsou countered adamantly. 

“Then how did you know something had gone missing?” Katsuki spoke up, and after their tense conversation earlier about loyalty the accusation rolled off him in waves.

“I already told you, I didn’t,” Shinsou insisted. She knew she needed to give more of an explanation if she was to escape further incrimination, but also couldn’t tell them everything if she wanted to escape punishment for having sex with someone other than Katsuki or Izuku. “However… the truth is that I did see Prince Tomura in Bakugo Palace today, near the hall where the Ruby Oriole was kept. He seemed to be acting suspiciously, so that’s why I told Monoma to check everything was correct, I didn’t know he’d taken something.”

“You saw him?” Mitsuki questioned austerely. “Did he see you?”

“No,” Shinsou lied quickly, seeing an easy way out of the situation. “He was by himself and in a rush to leave, which is why I thought it was strange and suggested to Monoma to look things over and make sure everything was alright.”

“Hm, very well,” Mitsuki seemed to accept, Shinsou breathing out a sigh of relief. “Your conveniently timed feeling was fortunate for us, so I suppose I don’t need to investigate it further.”

“Thank you, Consort Mitsuki,” Shinsou said with a polite bow.

“That will be all,” Mitsuki decreed.

“Wait, mother, a good deed deserves a reward, doesn’t it?” Katsuki offered caustically, clearly not entirely over his earlier issues with Shinsou, but not quite in the position to exploit them either, since Shinsou just got him off the hook of some pretty serious allegations.

"No need, I'm just happy to serve you well, mistress," Shinsou excused.

"No, no, my son makes a good point," Mitsuki decided. "If you're not rewarded for merits then what example does that set? So, how would you like to be rewarded?"

"May I think about it first?" Shinsou asked, since the one thing she actually wanted was something she couldn't ask for. At least, not without choosing her opportunity very carefully.

"Of course, you can just let Katsuki know when you've decided," Mitsuki said, glancing at her son with a calculating look. "I'm sure he'll be able to find something that will satisfy you."

Eyeing Shinsou like he wanted to take a bite out of her, Katsuki murmured, "I certainly will."

~~~

With the Emperor putting all involved parties on lockdown, there was nowhere to go and nothing much to do, and definitely no way for Shinsou to escape Prince Katsuki. After Consort Mitsuki was satisfied and dismissed them, Katsuki took Shinsou by the hand and all but dragged her back to his bedchambers, as if to finish their argument exactly where it'd left off.

This time Katsuki's opening question was, "So are you going to tell me what really happened?"

"I did," Shinsou claimed.

"No you didn't," Katsuki retorted. "My mother let it go because she doesn't care if you lie about something like that, but I do."

"Lie about what?" Shinsou acted.

"Whatever happened with my uncle," Katsuki said flatly. "I don't believe for a second you just saw him leave without being noticed and that was enough to raise your suspicions."

Shinsou knew with all certainty that she could not let Katsuki find out she’d had sex with Prince Tomura. If Hizashi had punished Shinsou for barely fucking Monoma and not even fucking Aizawa by sending her to the workhouse, then there was no way the punishment from Katsuki for actually fucking Tomura was going to be better, and almost certainly worse. Shinsou didn't plan on accepting any punishments that involved being beaten in a non sexy way, or worse yet being executed. Not that she'd ever allow these humans to decide when to end a fox spirit's life, but she needed to assuage Katsuki's suspicions as much as possible if she was to carry on here effectively.

There were two ways of going about this, one being to admit that they had interacted but nothing sexual went on between them, but considering Katsuki already had reservations and failed to believe Shinsou the first time, this seemed doomed to failure. So, Shinsou had to pursue the other option, which was to challenge him on suspecting her at all.

"Why won't you believe me?" Shinsou said defiantly. "Is that any way to show gratitude to someone who helped you out of a bind?"

"Why did you help me?" he shot back so fast it seemed that this was the real problem.

"You were innocent," Shinsou replied straightforwardly. "We were together at that time, and I know you wouldn't do anything to endanger Izuku."

This caused a flicker of emotion on Katsuki's face, the existential peril of being known, and particularly the depth of his love for his brother, but this quickly reverted to his harsh glare of accusation.

"You already admitted that you have no loyalty to me, so why would you risk yourself to protect me?" he said stonily.

"Because it was the right thing to do, Katsuki, " Shinsou retorted bluntly. "Just because I'm not blindly devoted to you doesn't mean I have no morals."

"Don't you?" he said lowly.

"Oh for fuck's sake," Shinsou exclaimed, crossing her arms with an impatient sigh. "If you don't trust me then it doesn't matter what I say, so I might as well not bother."

At Katsuki's open window there came a voice saying, "Not bother with what?" and they both looked over to see Izuku crouched in the window.

In an instant Katsuki's whole body language transformed from closed to open, resentful to devoted. Hate to love.

"Deku! What are you doing here?" Katsuki rushed. "Aren't you supposed to be back in Midoriya Palace?"

"I am, but I had to come," Izuku responded, climbing down from the window eagerly. "I needed to see you."

Katsuki’s expression softened, something that only ever happened around Izuku, and he stepped forward and offered a heartfelt, “I didn’t have anything to do with that assassin, Deku, I would never–”

“I know,” Izuku interrupted softly, raising his hands up and also stepping closer. “I know, Kacchan.”

They came together with the grace of paired swans, Izuku’s hands splaying either side of Katsuki’s face, his pressing against Izuku’s chest, and just their foreheads pressed together for a charged moment.

Shinsou understood with sudden clarity that this was one of those occasions where her involvement would be supplementary, because the love they had for each other was greater than anything and anyone else, and probably always would be.

And frankly, Shinsou had better things to be doing.

“Since Prince Izuku’s already here, there’s something important I have to do,” Shinsou quickly started to excuse, edging away from the pair.

“Wait–” Katsuki turned to try and look at her.

“Let her go,” Izuku soothed, steering Katsuki’s his gaze back onto his.

Shinsou caught Izuku’s green eyes on the way out, just a glance thrown her way before he locked lips with Katsuki, but she was sure she spotted a flash of gratitude in them before she slipped away.

~~~

In her not often used room in the servant lodgings at Bakugo Palace, Shinsou changed her restrictive formal attire for a simple black robe, and unfastened the ornate decorations from her hair to sit in a simple ponytail down her back. It was a pity she didn’t have any weapons handy, but she didn’t really need them, so it wasn’t that important.

By the cover of night she snuck out of Bakugo Palace, as Izuku had snuck in, and carefully made her way to Shigeraki Palace. It was an old and imposing set of buildings built in dark wood, carved with intricate mythical creatures whose lifeless eyes watched anyone that dared to pass within. A feeling of being haunted permeated the place, and Shinsou sensed dark spiritual energy that emanated from the grounds.

However, there were some things Shinsou felt compelled to know, and Prince Tomura was the only one who could satisfy her. Like whether he was indeed the mastermind behind the whole scheme, and if so, what could motivate him to stoop so low as to target an innocent child? Not to mention whether he was trying to move against the Aizawas for some insane reason, and most of all, Shinsou wanted to confront him for daring to try and harm anyone Shinsou had only just realised she cared about.

The gates of the imposing Shigeraki Palace were closed, per the Emperor's orders, but doors were a human concept and Shinsou had no trouble scaling the walls and running silently along them until she identified the private quarters of Prince Tomura.

The Prince was still awake in the connected rooms that included his bedroom, dark halls decorated in black lacquerware and kept messily, as if he didn’t permit servants in to clean them very often.

Shinsou moved all but silently, approaching Tomura who was sitting in a chair next to a stack of books, but it was not enough to escape detection, the cascade of white hair stirring very slightly as the Prince asked, deep with suspicion, “Who dares to disturb my reflection?”

“And what is it you’re reflecting on?” Shinsou asked scathingly, and she definitely wasn’t who Tomura had expected, as his head whipped around to face her with shock in his blood red eyes.

“How an insignificant palace slut managed to foil my plan,” he replied unabashedly, and Shinsou’s pulse beat hard through her limbs, tossing back and forth the many nasty things she could do to this man in an instant, but also some of the nasty things he could do to her.

“So you admit that it was all your plan,” Shinsou said calmly, circling around Tomura with careful steps of her feet across one another.

“You must have told Monoma to carry out an inventory check after I left,” Tomura deduced, eyeing her as if reassessing exactly who he was dealing with. “That’s a remarkably coherent thought for someone who’d just been raped.”

Shinsou shrugged, still not exactly sure what that term meant exactly, but assuming it had something to do with the way they’d fucked, and that it was intended to incapacitate her more than it did. “I’m tougher than I look.”

“I see that now,” Tomura said thoughtfully, curling his fist and resting a sharp cheekbone against his knuckles. “So, what are you doing here?”

“Why did you target Eri?” Shinsou demanded. “Do you have something against the Aizawas?”

His eyebrows lifting, Tomura said, “That’s what you’re curious about? Don’t the princes matter to you at all?”

Shinsou didn’t know why everyone assumed she cared so much about Katsuki and Izuku. Perhaps it was a trait of their society, since everyone else seemed to care about them above all else, the fate of the Empire caught in an ever passionate tussle between the pair.

“She’s just a child, what could you possibly have against her?” Shinsou said fiercely. “It must be the Aizawa Clan you're opposing.”

“Why should I tell you anything?” Tomura replied with what seemed like boredom, eyeing Shinsou full of resentment and simmering anger. “Because of you I’ve been set back in my plans again.”

“Your plans,” Shinsou repeated forebodingly, stepping even closer to him. “Then tell me about them.”

Prince Tomura gave a derisive scoff, slumped arrogantly across the carved wooden chair still managing to look down on Shinsou despite being lower than her, and challenged, “Make me.”

Venting just a little of the fury she felt for him, Shinsou planted one foot securely on the floor, wearing flat shoes for once and not awkward wooden platforms, and raised the other to land a kick square on the Prince’s pec with such force that the air was forced from his chest and his chair shunted back across the floor.

The shock on Tomura’s face was exquisite, as if everything he thought he’d known about Shinsou had just been violently disproven.

“Tell me what I want to know, or it’ll be far worse than that for you,” Shinsou threatened as the scheming prince wheezed and grasped the spot she’d kicked him.

“You… how are you…” Tomura gasped, recovering quickly from the blow Shinsou had given him and struggling to his feet, adopting a wary fighting stance as if his assessment of this situation had just changed entirely. “Who sent you?”

“No one, I came of my own desire,” Shinsou said coldly, narrowing her eyes at him. “I want answers, Tomura.”

Offended by Shinsou’s lack of formal address, almost as much or more than her kicking him, Prince Tomura scowled and snarled, “Try and get them, bitch!” as he lurched towards Shinsou while winding up a punch.

If his fist had ever made contact with Shinsou, she’d no doubt it would’ve been quite painful, the force of his muscular arm like a batter ram hurtling at her, but Shinsou slipped around it like the caress of a breeze. When the bulky Tomura staggered forward after not hitting his target, Shinsou used the side of her hand to chop him hard in the neck, then spun and kicked the back of his knee, sending the man tumbling to the ground.

“Who the hell taught you to fight like that?” Tomura growled, getting back up and meeting Shinsou more warily this time, his technique becoming more disciplined and the strikes he tried to land more calculated, though Shinsou was able to dodge, deflect or block each in time. “You’re no mere palace maid.”

“If you told anyone they’d never believe you,” Shinsou replied victoriously, flashing him a sick grin. “How does it feel?”

“Even if my brother has ordered me to close the doors of my palace, you won’t get away with assassinating me,” Tomura warned Shinsou, gaining ground against her with heavy punches that forced Shinsou out of the way lest she endure the power of breaking them with her body. “You’re not the first to come for my life.”

“I don’t want to kill you,” Shinsou retorted, jumping out of the way of his fists and seeing his frustration grow. “You can’t tell me anything dead, and your suffering deserves to be much slower.”

Shinsou saw an opening and tried to kick him in the throat, an immobilising hit if she could land it, but Tomura grabbed Shinsou by the ankle and swung her around, throwing her all the way across the room. Shinsou flipped in the air and landed with her legs spread wide against the wall of the room, absorbing the impact into her thighs and perching on the vertical surface for an impossible moment, then sprung back in the other direction. Shinsou hurled the not so substantial weight of her body into the Emperor’s scheming brother, managing to get both her hands on the collar of his robe and shoving him to bash into the wall behind him.

Able to pin him for a moment, Shinsou demanded again, “Why did you try to hurt Eri?!”

“So loyal, even though your former mistress cast you aside,” Tomura observed in a rusty tone. “Whatever did she do to you to earn such devotion?”

“The child is innocent!” Shinsou snarled, not ready to admit to any such devotion or loyalty to Hizashi, even if it must be at least part of the reason her blood still boiled so furiously.

“No one is innocent in The Forbidden City,” Tomura responded, “and nothing is too far to go for the chance to gain some power.”

“So that’s why you did it?” Shinsou spat, still holding Tomura to the wall by the collar, not that it would last much longer. Quickly he grabbed both of her wrists in his large, rough hands and flipped their positions, slamming Shinsou forcefully against the wall and spreading her arms either side of her head.

“Everything I do is in pursuit of power,” he rasped, his breath heaving deeply from the strain of their fight and his blood red eyes burning on her.

“Everything?” Shinsou said scathingly, inescapably reminded of what had happened just earlier today when Tomura last had her up against a wall. “Then what power did you hope to gain from fucking me?”

His mouth splitting into a grin of a different undercurrent, Tomura answered, “The power to control you, of course.”

Defiantly Shinsou replied, “How well did that work?”

Tomura moved his whole body closer to hers, and in particular, his knee pushed between Shinsou’s thighs and pressed up against her crotch, still tender and swollen between his and Katsuki’s earlier efforts.

“You’re here now, aren’t you?” Tomura leered, and in the next moment stuck his tongue as far into Shinsou’s mouth as it could reach, which was almost the back of her throat in his case, or what felt like it as he invaded her with less of a kiss and more of an oral violation.

Undecided over whether she would fight him off or let this trajectory play out, Shinsou scraped her teeth over Tomura’s scarred lower lip in protest, but this action only elicited a coarse groan from Tomura, who ceased the assault of his mouth to rumble, "I'm starting to understand why Katsuki favours you."

Deciding that if she couldn't beat the information she wanted out of him, there were other methods of persuasion, Shinsou wrapped her legs tightly around Prince Tomura's waist and ground selfishly on him, announcing, "Tell me what I want to know and I’ll show you exactly why he does."

"What could you show me that I can't just take?" Tomura countered, and then lifted Shinsou from the wall he had her pinned against, if only to slam her back against it forcefully, this time with his crotch pressing more deliberately against hers, the effects of their tussle more than evident.

Grabbing a handful of the back of his long white hair, loose and uncombed, Shinsou pulled hard and told him, "I'd like to see you try."

The most worrying part was that she actually meant it.

Tomura finally stopped pinning Shinsou’s arms to the wall, one of his hands going to her ass, and the other to her hair tied back in a ponytail, yanking on it just as forcefully as she’d pulled his hair, tilting her head back and baring her neck to him. It felt dangerous, an act of submission in the physical language of beasts like foxes, yet she allowed it, baring her throat with the understanding that Tomura would take it in his mouth, which is exactly what he did, biting down hard enough for Shinsou’s face to twitch, a slight disruption in her breathing, and much stronger reaction between her legs.

Shinsou wasn’t quite sure how they made it across the room, suffice to say that her brain stopped working for a moment, as if held by the scruff by a larger animal, and with a few staggering steps Tomura’s bed was now beside them. Rather than letting go of Shinsou, which surely afforded her the chance to claw back the upper hand between them, they tumbled onto the bed together, Tomura’s broad torso and solid weight more than enough to keep Shinsou in place underneath him, at least for now.

The change in Shinsou’s clothing afforded much easier undressing than the many layers of robes she normally had to wear, and this was taken full advantage of. Tomura’s grip on Shinsou’s hair released to roughly pull this simpler clothing loose, deep heaving rolls of his chest and a potent throbbing of his cock under his robes against her.

“What did you even hope to gain from accusing Katsuki?” Shinsou tried to question, shifting and wriggling to allow Tomura to greedily tear the clothing from her chest, exposing her breasts, which he didn’t hesitate to sink his teeth into next, the wet heat of his his mouth on her nipple and pressure of his teeth on the soft flesh around. Not being in the position to answer, Shinsou speculated for him, drawing on the scheming she had observed and started to learn of this place, “Did you want to damage his claim to the throne?”

This seemed to disturb Tomura enough from feasting on Shinsou’s tits, having marked both with neat purple and red rosettes from his mouth, if only to mutter demeaningly, “Are you blind or stupid? Of course that’s why,” and get right back to it, dragging his tongue over Shinsou’s nipples until they hardened and rolling them around until she couldn’t help but squirm.

“Then why drag Eri into it?” Shinsou managed to question, not that Tomura would be able to give much of an answer with his mouth full. Addressing this, Shinsou grabbed him by the hair again and used it as an anchor to pull him off her, the hoarse noise of complaint the prince made more like a growl than anything. If they’d fucked as animals, it probably wouldn’t have been much different, Shinsou theorised.

With a special exertion of force, dragging Tomura especially hard by the hair, very much by the scruff of his neck, Shinsou rolled him over onto his back and settled straddled on top of him, holding this position by the power of her thighs gripping his sides and the grinding of her swollen pussy over his cock, if not her weight or strength compared to his.

Methodically Shinsou started to undress Tomura in turn, concluding that if it was leverage she needed to get him to talk, she could get more of it with his clothes off than on.

“Why do you care about the Aizawas anyway?” Tomura questioned raspily, adding a cruel, “They clearly don’t care about you.”

“I just want to know if you targeted Eri for a reason, or if she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Shinsou replied, pulling back the robes she wasn’t meant to even touch, much less handle so carelessly, and bearing Tomura’s chest. It was broader and more muscular than others she’d seen so far, covered in a light blanket of white hair and pattern of scars that told a story of the dangers a potential heir to the throne survived to make it successfully to this age.

“Would it change anything if I did have a reason?” Tomura responded, and Shinsou wasn’t sure.

Taking the window of opportunity in her pause for thought, Tomura sprung up and flipped them back over, using the movement to shed the remainder of Shinsou’s clothing and escape his own robes entirely. This revealed the long hard flush of his cock, twitching and dripping with clear liquid, while Shinsou’s pussy was also slick and wet as the damp fabric stuck to it was pulled free.

“Why even stay at Bakugo Palace if you care more about the Aizawas’ brat than Katsuki?” Tomura commented, placing a palm over Shinsou’s neck to hold her down and just an indication of pressure. “Maybe I should keep you here at Shigeraki Palace, since you clearly need a real man to keep you in your place.”

The combative side of Shinsou’s personality battled against the horny part, the former outraged by this suggestion and latter excited by it, even moreso for her own objection in the rational part of her mind. Maybe she did need someone to put her in her place, as Hizashi always had, and nothing had been quite the same since.

On the other hand, Tomura was a despicable man who'd put Hizashi's beloved daughter and only living child in danger for the sake of a power play that didn't concern her, and Shinsou wasn’t that desperate for a good fuck. Yet.

So spitefully Shinsou told him, "It'd take more of a man than you to control me."

Returning only a sick smile, Tomura's grip tightened and he said, "We'll find out, won't we?"

With a hand on Shinsou’s neck, Tomura thrust his long hard erection into her, catching Shinsou’s scream in the palm of his other hand. Shinsou had gotten a little time to recover since fucking Katsuki, and more importantly Tomura the first time before that, but it was the third time today, so it was all she could do not to let her eyes roll all the way back in her head and keep her eyes on the prize.

The prize, contrary to reason, wasn’t the hard, angry fucking Tomura gave Shinsou, although it was an excellent bonus, but the fact that he was fucking her meant he would become more vulnerable, and all Shinsou needed was a moment of it to seize on.

Finding her moment as Tomura's thrusts became frenetic, with the speed of a bolt of lightning Shinsou’s hand lashed out for Tomura’s own neck. Grabbing him by the throat she rolled them back over so she was sitting on his cock, and kept bouncing on it with the same intensity and aggression he’d shoved it into her.

“Fucking… slut…” Tomura groaned deliriously, one hand going to grab Shinsou’s bouncing breast while he kept choking her out. Shinsou didn’t need to breathe as much as humans did, but she was in human form, and that did need to breathe eventually, so aside from being dangerously satisfying, her head was beginning to spin.

“What do you have against the Aizawas?” Shinsou demanded hoarsely, and the next time she should have dropped down on the long pillar of Tomura’s cock until it felt like it would press out of her stomach, Shinsou stayed up, letting the scheming prince howl with denied pleasure, the vibrations tickling Shinsou’s hand where she kept the same chokehold on him as he kept on her.

“Stupid slut, thinking I must have something against the girl’s parents when it’s all her own doing,” Tomura rasped as Shinsou loosened her grasp just enough to let him speak.

“How?” Shinsou urged, and to keep him going allowed herself to sink all the way back down on his cock, pressing so deeply inside of her, and ground on it a couple of times, but then stopped again and wouldn’t be moved. Squeezing him with her cunt, sure that he’d get no pleasure from friction unless she permitted it, Shinsou said, “I can do this all night.”

That actually sounded kind of great, if something she might not live through.

“Eri’s close to Izuku,” Tomura grunted, hips trying to buck under Shinsou but failing to satisfy. “It makes her an easy target.”

They did spend a lot of time together, Shinsou already knew, and if there was anyone who Izuku might be persuaded to side with over his brother, it could have been Eri. Clearly it wasn’t, since Izuku was secretly fucking his brother, but the diabolical man who hatched this scheme didn’t know that, and could never be allowed to.

“That’s all?” Shinsou said, shocked and horny in equal measure, her desire to fuck up Tomura battling against her desire to just fuck him, the one of them that she was currently doing likely to win out in this particular moment.

“It’d be better if she wasn’t an Aizawa,” Tomura admitted, and Shinsou’s pause for this revelation allowed him to start thrusting up into her, bending his knees behind Shinsou to get the most leverage to slam into her. “I’m not so foolish I’d willingly go against the Aizawa Clan if there was a better option available.”

Between the strong, immobilising grip Tomura kept on Shinsou’s neck, and the hard shunt of his hips against her body and cock deep in her cunt, the urge to fight back finally returned.

“A better option?” Shinsou repeated vacantly, and put a hand against Tomura’s hard stomach, forcing him to stay against the bed and no longer thrust as her will hardened to a glare. “Don’t fucking do it, how’s that for an option?”

“Tch,” the eschewed Prince scoffed. “You are just stupid slut after all.”

With a burst of movement Tomura rocked and threw Shinsou off him completely, the rip of his cock from her body causing them both to gasp or groan. He threw Shinsou sideways, falling onto the bed facing away from him, and had barely released her neck than he pinned her down by the spread of a wide palm over her head, bringing himself in behind Shinsou sprawled on her side, the musky smell of Tomura closer and more overwhelming than ever as her face was shoved into the bed.

“If I do nothing then my brother will one day choose one of his sons to be crown prince, and I’ll lose any influence I once had,” Tomura muttered greedily, Shinsou feeling the tip of his cock meet her entrance less than a second before it was buried to full depth inside her, the clap of his skin against her ass echoing around the imposing room.

“So that’s why you wanted to… accuse the princes,” Shinsou said in muffled, distracted words as Tomura resumed harshly fucking her, the feeling of which was almost too overwhelming to keep trying to draw information from him. Shinsou had been yearning for rough sex, but this could almost be too much, at least on any more than isolated occasions. “If you can damage their claim to the throne then…”

“I’m next in line if Toshinori has no viable heir,” Tomura finished for her, his groping, greasy palm on Shinsou’s face moving back to her throat, pulling her a little more upright by the neck and pounding her even more in earnest. “If you help me to do that I could make things very nice for you, Shinsou.”

“Never,” Shinsou ground out, even though she knew that her own mission wouldn’t be threatened if she changed her allegiance, and perhaps he’d even be able to help her, since stealing valuable treasures from Palaces in broad daylight was apparently his thing. But she couldn’t stand to do it, not a person who’d risk a child’s life for their own selfish gain, and not someone who Hizashi would be so furious to find out Shinsou had thrown in her lot with that she’d truly never forgive Shinsou.

“Never?” he echoed sordidly, squeezing Shinsou’s neck a little tighter and feeling her cunt squeeze him in return. “Are you sure? I can keep you pampered and full of my cum, what else would you need? Maybe you’ll even give me a son.”

Shinsou’s body was building to something, but it wasn’t the same kind of climax as the others, stimulated not on her clit but within. Tomura pummelled Shinsou so deeply inside that she lost all thought and reason, cumming just from being penetrated with a flood of wetness soaking them down to the bed.

“See? Bet my nephew can't make you do that,” Tomura urged, so slippery now that no matter how hard he fucked Shinsou it was frictionless, sprinting madly for his own climax as Shinso continued to gush and squeeze out more liquid, something she hadn’t realised this body could do, not even with Hizashi’s most thorough exploration of it.

“Fuck,” Shinsou could only pant, forgetting for a moment why she was here beyond doing this again, wanting to try it at least one more time, just to see what it’d be like compared to their first hurried encounter, which was even harder and rougher and more dominating.

Tomura’s grip on Shinsou’s throat tightened further, his other hand joining to circle her neck completely in both hands as he neared orgasm, choking her enough to make it impossible to breathe for those moments. Shinsou could hold her breath through it, but someone else might have passed out, or worse, and she had the distinct feeling that whether she lived or died was secondary to Prince Tomura’s climax in that moment, grunting and growling as he fucked her deeply and finally kept his cock pushed right into her as he shuddered and came, filling her completely.

It was a good thing Shinsou couldn’t get pregnant as easily as a real human, because it certainly felt as if Tomura had gotten all the way to her womb and filled it with his cum.

He let go of Shinsou’s neck as the orgasm dropped off, his long cock pulsing inside Shinsou as he kept filling her, and she snatched a deep breath, head clearing enough to realise what she was doing, and pulled herself off him to scramble away while Tomura was still indisposed.

There was a large wet patch on the bed where they’d been, the white haired prince lying sluggish now with half lidded eyes and a crooked grin, his monstrous cock sagging but still twitching and dribbling cum, the rest of which would trail from Shinsou’s cunt where he’d planted it.

“If you ever try to hurt Eri again, I’ll actually kill you next time,” Shinsou threatened, or tried to, as much as she could while blinking the black edges out of her vision and gathering her clothes hurriedly.

“Is that so?” Tomura remarked with groggy amusement, dazed enough post climax that Shinsou could have ended him then and there, but it just seemed more sensible to get out of Shigeraki Palace as soon as possible, before she got distracted and had anymore groundshaking sex with him without meaning to. “Not if I kill you first.”

Shinsou didn’t have the slightest doubt that he meant it, and was rapidly drawing the conclusion that this was someone she needed to stay away from. Katsuki had been right to warn her, if not for the exact reasons he’d meant.

Gathering the rest of her clothes in a hurry, struggling into them with numb, tingling extremities and a throbbing sensation around her neck, Shinsou fled Shigaraki Palace decidedly worse for wear than the state she’d entered. She had done what she went there to do, and was satisfied in more ways than planned on, though perhaps she’d always expected or hoped things were going to get sexual again, just hadn’t banked on how rough it was actually going to be, feeling like she’d escaped a conflict in which preserving her life wasn’t a certainty.

Still dazed and reeling from the encounter, aching in her neck, not to mention between her legs, Shinsou hoped she would make it back to Bakugo Palace to clean up without being summoned by Katsuki, who was thankfully most likely balls deep in Izuku or vice versa and should have forgotten all about her.

However, not everyone was so easy to distract from their fixations on Shinsou, and it was of course like this, fucked senseless and half stumbling through the pathways of The Forbidden City in the dark, that Shinsou was caught out by her most dedicated shadow.

She knew him from the patter of his steps, the shape of his shadow as it crossed her path at an intersection of walkways, and the air of intensity that he brought with him everywhere he went.

“Shinsou?” he said simply, and in it asked everything else he didn’t have to say about what she was doing here, at this time, coming from the direction of Shigaraki Palace.

With a heavy sigh, Shinsou accepted she couldn’t escape this one.

“General Todoroki.”

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

If it were anyone else, except for Monoma, of course, Shinsou would have worried about disguising her state in that moment, unkempt and wandering The Forbidden City alone in a sexual daze when a curfew had been explicitly placed on her household. But it was Todoroki, so Shinsou just slumped up against the walkway wall and asked, "What do you want?"

"I should ask you the same thing," Todoroki returned, remaining stoic and military, though his eyes betrayed something more desperate and longing. "What could you possibly want that would motivate you to defy the Emperor's orders and be leaving Shigaraki Palace at this time of night?"

"Aren't you also defying the Emperor's orders?" Shinsou challenged.

"No, my family isn’t involved in the affair with the Ruby Oriole, so we’re not under confinement, and furthermore I am on guard duty tonight," Todoroki explained strictly, but then more informally latched on, "What's your excuse?"

Having long since given up concealing truths from this person, who seemed to see through them at every turn, Shinsou replied, "No excuse, then. I went to question Prince Tomura."

"Question him?" Todoroki suggested, perhaps noticing that Shinsou was only partly wearing some of her clothes, but choosing not to comment on it just yet. "About what?"

"I wanted to understand why he involved Eri in his scheme," Shinsou answered.

"And what did you find out?" Todoroki inquired.

"We shouldn't talk here," Shinsou pointed out while looking around, as though it was quiet, there was no such thing as assuming someone couldn't pass by and overhear them talking, which would get her in several different kinds of trouble all at once.

Shinsou had thought this might deter Todoroki's inquisition, but instead he nodded and stepped over to her, murmuring, "I agree.” He reached for her arm to grasp without hesitation, saying, "come with me," before tugging her away with him.

Too dazed to fight it, Shinsou let Todoroki lead her to an empty guard house, lit with a small fire burning under a tea kettle and lanterns. Closing the door, he said, "We won't be disturbed here," and directed Shinsou to sit down.

Still a little unsteady on her legs after her bout with Prince Tomura, Shinsou took the opportunity to rest while she had it, collapsing to sit on a padded chair and tentatively prodding her sore neck.

"Would you like some tea?" Todoroki offered politely, and at least Shinsou didn't have to worry about Todoroki wanting to have sex with her, since he'd turned it down before and even given his reasoning. Shinsou didn't have it in her anymore, not tonight, but a little aftercare couldn't hurt.

"Sure," she consented, watching as he took the kettle from the fire and poured two cups of tea, leaving them to cool as he took a seat on a nearby stool.

"So what happened to you?" he asked first, his concern for Shinsou's welfare superseding his interest in Tomura's motivations at this time.

"Ah, just a bit of interrogation with the Prince," Shinsou tried to downplay.

"Is this your normal technique for that?" Todoroki suggested, reaching to pick up one of the teacups and lifting it close to his face as if to sense the heat, then blowing on the surface before he offered it to her. "You look like you've been strangled half to death." In all honesty, that’s exactly what had happened to her.

"It depends on the person," Shinsou replied nonchalantly, leaning over to take the cup, their fingers brushing for a moment, "but for him, sure, it got a little… lot… rough."

"I see," Todoroki said, intentions hidden deep under the still lake surface of his expression, sitting back and reaching for his own cup. "Then what did you find out?"

"It was Eri's close relationship with Izuku that caused him to target her," Shinsou reported. "He doesn't have a grudge against the Aizawa Clan."

"He will now," Todoroki remarked offhandedly. "I can't see that either of them will forgive him for endangering their daughter like that."

"If it can be proven he was responsible," Shinsou mentioned, trying not to think or dwell on whether Lord and Lady Aizawa would be coming to The Forbidden City or what would happen to her if they did. 

"Even if the Emperor finds out it was his brother's doing and chooses to protect him, can't you just tell them the truth?" Todoroki suggested.

"I don't really think… Hizashi probably doesn't want to see me," Shinsou explained awkwardly, "and I don't think she would believe me anyway, especially not if the Emperor says it wasn't Tomura's doing."

"True, they are cousins," Todoroki replied thoughtfully. "Why did you go then, if you knew no one would believe you?"

"I just wanted to know for my own sake," Shinsou asserted, feeling the defensive clench of not knowing why she did something beyond her gut demanding that she do it, "and I… wanted to vent my anger at him."

"Did you achieve that?" Todoroki questioned suspiciously.

"Sort of," Shinsou deflected, and thought, since she had him here and the opportunity to ask questions she couldn't to anyone else, might as well try to clarify one thing. "I was wondering actually, what's being raped?"

Todoroki was about to take a sip of his tea, but instead froze solid, his eyes widening in a sheer horror before he rapidly brought the cup back down to the table.

“What? Who did that to you?!” he bolted, alarmingly urgent as hot tea splashed outside the brim and splashed his fingers, not even flinching.

“What? I don’t… what does it mean?” Shinsou said warily, since she couldn’t know if something had been done to her unless she knew what it actually meant.

Seemingly harrowed by the need to explain this to her, Todoroki hesitantly said, “It’s… it’s being forced to have sex with someone against your wishes.”

“Oh,” Shinsou replied, trying to work out if that applied to her or not. “Like, for pretend?”

“What?” Todoroki repeated.

“Is it when you pretend not to want sex, but you actually do and it’s just a game?” 

“No, that’s…” he fumbled, looking ever more conflicted by the moment, his face colouring to almost match the red half of his hair. “It’s if you really don’t want to have sex with a person, but you have to anyway, because they’re forcing you or you’re too scared to say no.”

“Oh,” Shinsou pondered. “Then no, I haven’t had anything like that happen.”

“Is that… was it Prince Tomura?” Todoroki said fearfully, leaning closer to Shinsou with ever growing intensity. “You can tell me if it was, I know he’s an important person, but I–”

“No, no,” Shinsou interjected before his heartfelt outpouring became too intense. “I wanted to, I just thought it was a pretending thing,” she tried to assuage Todoroki’s very clear and intense concerns. "Is that really something humans do to each other?"

"Yes, unfortunately," Todoroki responded morosely, and kept his eyes trained on Shinsou with a burning passion. "Promise me you'd never let anyone do that to you, Shinsou."

"Uh… sure, of course not," Shinsou answered uncertainty, off kilter from the force of his sincerity, especially in contrast to just being with someone who cared so little about her wellbeing. Clearly, Tomura probably would’ve raped Shinsou if she didn't happen to want it, the complete opposite of the earnest and worriesome Todoroki. "I'd kill someone before they made me do anything I really didn’t want to. You know that."

"I… yes, alright," Todoroki relented, rubbing the furrow of his brow with his fingers, no doubt remembering that he met Shinsou due to his catching her in the middle of a murder spree against armed bandits. "As long as you know that your consent always matters, whatever is happening to you." More solemnly he appended, "Even if this place doesn't care about it a lot of the time."

"Yeah, I've noticed that," Shinsou agreed, starting to relax a little, finally, from what felt like a long time in danger mode. She drank a little more tea, breathing deeply, and said, "I find myself explaining a lot that I'm not spoiled if I didn't ask to be favoured."

Todoroki gave a thin smile, remarking, "It's difficult for others to understand that sort of thing, since they assume anyone would want to be so privileged."

"Like you?" Shinsou suggested, wanting to check if she was reading his implication correctly, the subtlety of humans often lost on her. Like whether or not she was engaging in an exciting form of role play or actually being raped, still uncertain if Tomura could tell she was playing the part or if he’d have done it all anyway. Shinsou wasn’t sure it was a good idea to find out.

The young general simply nodded, his expression becoming even more wistful than his usual sombre countenance.

"If only someone who actually wanted to be the Todoroki heir could've been born in my place," he mused solemnly, "or maybe if I’d just not been born at all."

"Why do you pity yourself so much?" Shinsou countered. "If you don't like something then don't do it, isn't that what you were just telling me?"

"Ah," he murmured, caught out by his own words with a pained smile. "It's easier said than done, especially when it’s all you’ve ever known."

With a tilt of her head, Shinsou remarked, "Now who's making excuses?"

"Hm," Todoroki huffed, staring out with a distant echo of what might have been a laugh. "You're right, maybe I should abandon my family and just…” his gaze flew back to Shinsou, mouth barely moving to deliver the words, “run away to the mountains."

Meeting his eyes, one blue and the other grey like clear or cloudy skies, Shinsou determined that she'd never met anyone who seemed more trapped in this Forbidden City than Todoroki Shouto. The only person she’d ever wanted to save.

Shinsou pictured him in the mountains, how they'd first met, free from the forced privilege and obligations that weighed down his too light soul. It made far more sense than how he was now.

Softly, the dwindling dregs of her tea going cold in the bottom of her cup, Shinsou responded, "Maybe you should."

~~~

Hell hath no fury like that of Lady Hizashi after learning that her daughter had been endangered.

“I’ll kill him,” Hizashi muttered as she packed her belongings into a large trunk, no time to wait for servants to do it when they intended to leave Aizawa Manor within the hour to set out for The Forbidden City.

“Kill who?” Shouta asked coolly, himself already packed, since this consisted of several sets of the same black robes that he wore with little variation, and which had already been placed in the trunk before Hizashi’s things were haphazardly dumped on top.

“I don’t know, but when I find out, I’ll kill his whole family,” Hizashi grumbled, glaring at her husband despite the fact that it was her they were waiting on.

“They say she wasn’t hurt,” he reminded her.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Hizashi retorted, her anger directed at her husband brushed off, since he knew she was just venting entirely understandable emotions. Pinballing from mad to sad in a sudden moment, Hizashi stared at the latest robe she’d thrown in the trunk and said, “Maybe it was a mistake to have her stay in The Forbidden City.”

“It seemed best at the time, and she begged us to let her,” Aizawa remarked, getting up and approaching Hizashi from behind. His hands settled over each of her shoulders, and with a release of tension she leaned back into him. “They say Izuku defended her fiercely.”

Huffing, Hizashi admitted, “I suppose so.” Then after a momentary pause, “She’ll be even more devoted to him now.”

“True,” Aizawa agreed, leaning his face over Hizashi’s shoulder and holding her, forced to still for a moment. They would arrive no sooner or later for a moment of comfort. “She’s still alive, that’s the most important thing.”

“This time,” Hizashi replied worriedly.

“Yes, which is why I’ll investigate it thoroughly, and decide if she should come home.” His mouth brushed the base of Hizashi’s neck, then lifted and craned out to catch her eye. “Alright?”

Turning the rest of the way and straining in turn to press a light kiss over his mouth, Hizashi murmured, “Alright.”

~~~

By the following morning Shinsou could shirk her duties no longer, and, having recovered from Prince Tomura’s violent fucking, the marks on her neck and elsewhere on her body thankfully healed quickly due to her spiritual power, she returned to attend on Prince Katsuki.

Katsuki had also thankfully already been well attended to since last night, as Shinsou entered his room that morning carrying a bowl of water to find that Izuku had not returned to his own palace, and instead remained in bed naked with his brother, tangled up together as only lovers could be.

Katsuki was on the inner side of the bed while Izuku was closer to the edge, facing up with Katsuki half over and the rest wrapped around him. Possessive, as Shinsou had surely learned him to be.

She moved quietly, but it was still too much for the emerald eyed prince, whose dark green lashed eyes opened slowly and settled onto her. Shinsou placed down the bowl of water and bowed silently, keeping her distance from the two princes. She noticed some markings of their own, deep purplish prints of mouths on both of their necks and shoulders, and some yellowish shadows of fingerprints on thighs and hips. Being human, they didn’t heal like Shinsou did, or she’d be more than matching them in this department.

Knowing her place more than ever, Shinsou quietly asked Izuku, “Would you like me to leave?”

She knew what Katsuki’s answer would be, but Katsuki was asleep, so it wasn’t him she was asking.

Prince Izuku, though, sighed deeply, starting to shift from under his brother and replied in a hoarse morning voice, “No.” When he’d gotten a little further extricated from Katsuki, he added a soft, “Let’s talk, Shinsou,” and her gut gave an anxious squeeze.

“Of course,” she replied obediently, and waited for Izuku to escape his entwining with Katsuki without his brother waking, which was no easy feat.

Sitting finally on the edge of the bed, Katsuki tucked away behind him still sprawled and sound asleep, Izuku patted the space next to him in invitation. “Come sit.”

Shinsou did as she was told, stepping over and turning to sit next to Izuku, careful in her steps and movements not to cause too loud a sound, though she surely could’ve if she wanted to wake Katsuki and derail whatever this was about to be. Being that it was Izuku wanting something with Shinsou alone, the last thing it seemed likely to be was sexual.

“I wanted to thank you,” Izuku said first, looking forward as Shinsou settled beside him. “For what you did yesterday.”

“So did I,” Shinsou responded, and sensing Izuku turn towards her curiously, explained, “Wanted to thank you, also, for protecting Eri.”

“Ah,” Izuku sounded out, as if piecing something together with meticulous care. “I didn’t realise you were still so close to the Aizawas.”

Honestly, for once, Shinsou replied, “Neither did I.”

“Hm,” Izuku murmured pensively. “Well whatever your motivations, if it wasn’t for you then Kacchan would be in far more serious trouble from this whole thing. We both owe you a debt of gratitude.”

As if pulling something that had been blurry before into focus, Shinsou found her opportunity. A way to ask for the thing she wanted most in the least direct way possible.

“Consort Mitsuki told me I could have a reward, if I wanted one,” Shinsou started to explain, “and there is something, but I don’t really know the proper way to ask for it.”

“Really? What is it?” Izuku queried.

“Where I’m from, there’s a… there was an important relic, which was brought to The Forbidden City as a gift to the Emperor,” Shinsou dared to tell him, though this wasn’t going to be quite the confession she’d given to Todoroki.

“Oh, I think I heard about that from my Royal Father,” Izuku confirmed. “He said it’s of great significance.”

“It’s… just an old stone called The Tip of The High Mountain,” Shinsou forged forwards uncertainly. “It’s silly, really, but I… miss my home, and that’s the only thing for miles around that’s part of my homeland, so I wondered if I might be able to… see it, possibly.”

“You want to see that relic?” Izuku considered, and the caution in his voice told Shinsou it was as significant as she’d been led to believe. Even though humans didn’t know the first thing to do with an artefact of such power, they recognised on some level its importance.

“I know it’s a lot to ask, but I thought if I could just be close to where I’m from for a moment it would give me some comfort,” Shinsou continued, half convincing herself it wasn’t going to work and all she’d done was revealed her objective to someone she couldn’t trust, especially since Izuku’s loyalty was to his family above all others.

But instead, Izuku’s expression had softened when Shinsou dared to turn sideways and glance at him, offering her a gentle, “You are a long way from home, aren’t you?”

Shinsou nodded, something about the even and understanding tone of the prince leaving her choked up all of a sudden, as if admitting to such a thing summoned all the feelings she normally kept locked away.

Touching a hand to her face, covering an eye before it could come to water, Shinsou admitted, “It feels like such a long time since I left there.”

“Do you miss it terribly?” Izuku suggested.

Shinsou’s efforts were in vain, since she felt the involuntary filling of her eyes anyway, this stupid human body betraying her, making her voice even smaller and more fragile, choking out even a single word, “Sometimes.”

Shinsou felt Izuku’s palm settle over hers, resting between them on the edge of the bed. His hand was warm and strong, laced with a pattern of unique scars. His fingers curled around her hand and squeezed it, and for a moment it was all Shinsou could do to stop herself falling against him and sobbing.

“I’ll have to think about the best way to approach it, but if that’s what you truly want, Shinsou, I’ll do my very best to make it happen,” Izuku pledged.

“Really?” Shinsou said, regaining her composure a little.

“Yes, just leave it with me,” he assured. “You helped Kacchan a lot, and you also looked out for Eri, so I owe you for both of those things. If I can’t do something like this for you, what kind of person would that make me?”

“A good person for even trying,” Shinsou pronounced suddenly, the need to state it coming upon her, while the weight of his hand around hers felt like a promise made with a royal seal. “Thank you, Prince Izuku.”

Izuku smiled, naked of course, and stripped from the royal regalia and things that denoted his position as the son of an Emperor, he seemed like such a normal human. As if he could be any cheerful spirited young man out in the world, with a smile like a ray of sun and heart of gold.

“Don’t mention it,” Izuku replied fondly, and at last the slumbering lion behind them stirred.

“Don’t mention what?” came a sleeping mumble from Katsuki, and at the very same instant Izuku and Shinsou snapped their hands back from each other, Izuku turning behind while Shinsou looked forward.

“Nothing, Kacchan, I was just thanking Shinsou for yesterday,” Izuku said surely, twisting and reaching for his brother as he rolled onto his front and stretched.

“Hmph, is that all?” Katsuki drawled, a drizzle of what could be possessive, or at least suspicious as he carried on, “Seemed like more than that t’me.”

“Of course not, you must have been dreaming,” Izuku asserted, climbing over Katsuki and running his palm down his lover’s muscular chest and stomach, not stopping until he reached Katsuki’s cock, hot with blood and full first thing in the morning. “Apparently it was a nice dream you were having,” Izuku teased.

“You’re trying to distract me,” Katsuki commented.

“Am I?” Izuku said innocently, his hand closing firmly around Katsuki’s erection and stroking it with a long learned familiarity. “Is it working?”

“Hmph, maybe,” Katsuki huffed, and his red eyes shifted over to Shinsou.

Prompting his desire, Izuku climbed all the way over Katsuki and turned around to face Shinsou, who was still sitting forward but half turned to keep an eye on the two princes.

“Why don’t you help me with this, Shinsou?” Izuku invited cheekily, his own cock rapidly hardening, and now sitting implicatively close to Katsuki’s face.

“Of course,” Shinsou confirmed, innately understanding Izuku’s purpose, and knowing that he’d only be so welcoming of her in Katsuki’s bed if there was some other reason for it, in this case a diversion from their moment of unexpected sincerity.

Shinsou put her mouth to Katsuki’s cock without hesitation, watching as Izuku presented his own to Katsuki’s mouth, preventing any further questioning by Prince Katsuki in favour of both sucking and being sucked off.

It might not be much, but at long last Shinsou felt she may have made important progress in her mission.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Shinsou’s hard work did not go to waste, as hard as any work could be keeping two princes sexually satisfied for an entire day, in which the princes were hard more often than Shinsou.

By the end of the day following the incident with the Ruby Oriole, The Emperor’s order for Bakugo Palace’s doors to remain shut had ended. Prince Katsuki had actually enjoyed his temporary confinement, considering that most of it was spent in bed with Izuku and Shinsou engaged in various indecent acts, unbothered by the trivialities of daily life in The Forbidden City.

Less happy about being cooped up, Consort Mitsuki set out to visit the Emperor in his Immortal Palace as soon as the order was lifted, looking especially beautiful and burning with determination. She had been slighted by this incident, not insignificantly, and would certainly be using that leverage over the Emperor to restore her status as soon as possible, lest she lose it to some other rival, not that she had much to worry about in that department.

Shinsou never saw what Izuku did or knew how he managed to do it, given his time in Bakugo Palace was secretive and spent almost entirely in the company of his brother, but when Consort Mitsuki returned she brought with her a train of the Emperor’s personal attendants and guards carrying a line of different gifts, among them a box that hummed with overwhelming power. A thronging pitch Shinsou had not heard for a long time, yet knew from the surge of longing that ran through her that it was none other than The Tip of The High Mountain held within.

Izuku hadn’t spoken a word to Consort Mitsuki as far as Shinsou could tell, nor had she noticed him talking to Katsuki about it, though Katsuki had been summoned to talk to his mother briefly in the evening. Shinsou hadn’t been with them all day after confessing to Izuku what she wanted in reward for helping Katsuki, a few small chores to attend to in her duties as something more than the Prince’s pleasure slave, but she had been with them for most of it, and the talking they had been doing during those times was limited in subject matter and vocabulary.

Yet there was Consort Mitsuki leading the procession escorting the highly valued relic, and when Shinsou met Izuku’s eyes across the Palace Courtyard, he winked a round emerald eye at her, taking credit without appearing to have lifted a finger on the surface. He had been at Bakugo Palace since his arrival the night of the incident, as if to remind all those around them not to test the strength of the bond he had with his brother, or his ability to influence matters without stepping into the spotlight himself. 

There was no mention of Shinsou in the matter of the relic being brought to Bakugo Palace either, so Shinsou concluded that Izuku had been so skillful as to have influenced The Tip of The High Mountain to be brought there without involving her. As an Emperor, if he ever managed to claim the throne, Shinsou had no doubt Izuku would be truly formidable.

Shinsou was closer than ever to her goal, but still too far, since The Tip of The High Mountain remained closely guarded, a select few servants entrusted to attend to it, and she couldn’t go running to see it for no reason.

Although Shinsou attempted to go back to her own bed that night, intending to sneak out and find her way to the relic by cover of darkness, Katsuki was having none of it. Izuku had been at Bakugo Palace nearly a day, and could stay no more without it becoming a matter for gossip. He had already bent the rules somewhat by coming to Bakugo Palace during confinement in the first place, though the Emperor would never act against his sons for something so minor, and done out of their deep brotherly love for one another.

However, there was still a line of propriety to tread, so whether he liked it or not, Izuku had to return to Midoriya Palace, and Katsuki wasn’t intending to sleep alone. Shinsou was surprised to find herself feeling distinctly guilty about it, seeing the frustration in Izuku’s face when he finally had to leave, knowing Katsuki would continue to use Shinsou as he pleased. It felt ungrateful somehow, after Izuku had done something so significant for her, more than he could even know.

So Shinsou tried to repay Izuku in some small way, and claimed to be too exhausted from attending to the two of them sexually all day to be able to perform properly for Katsuki again that night, leaving him frustratedly rubbing off against her and complaining, but ultimately giving up before any attempts to force her. Unable to leave for her own bed, Shinsou slept little, mired in her own frustrations from just how close her ancestral relic was without being able to reach it.

The next morning Katsuki was ready to resume what he’d felt was unfinished from the night before, groping Shinsou and pressing his hard cock against her insistently, but she quickly made excuses about needing to attend to her duties and left him to stew. Hopefully Izuku would be grateful for all her work trying to hold off the horny teenage prince, as it wasn’t long before Izuku came running back to Bakugo Palace.

This time he did so in a more formal way than climbing in through the bedroom window. He also brought company, someone else who’d found a more formal way to see the object of his fixation than sneaking around The Forbidden City in the middle of the night.

“Prince Izuku, General Todoroki,” Shinsou greeted the pair at the gates of Bakugo Palace, since attending to her duties in the Palace Courtyard was about the only acceptable way to stop Katsuki interfering with her, as he was bold enough to do so indoors at Bakugo Palace, but not outside. At least not yet.  “Welcome to Bakguo Palace, I will announce you to Prince Katsuki.”

“No need, he’s already here,” Katsuki called from across the courtyard, appearing from the grand adorned doorway of Bakugo Palace’s entrance hall, two golden painted lion statues on either side of the door by his sides like escorts. “What brings you both here?”

“General Todoroki and I were returning from our morning hunt when he mentioned that he had heard the Emperor allowed Consort Mitsuki to borrow a famous relic from the Immortal Palace,” Izuku announced compellingly for someone who was presumably back here to continue staking his claim on his brother, while Todoroki was here for his own compulsion towards Shinsou.

“It’s as Prince Izuku says,” General Todoroki stated, and with barefaced bravery carried on, “Is it true The Tip of the High Mountain has been put on display in Bakugo Palace?”

Shinsou almost let a reaction show in her face, but restrained herself at only making eye contact with Todoroki and letting the intensity of their gaze do the talking. Such was the product of their circumstances that he could say something like that so openly without causing a fraction of the suspicion that Shinsou would if she were to open her mouth and ask after the relic.

A fraction was still something, though, since Katsuki narrowed his eyes and said, “What’s it to you?”

Undeterred, Todoroki replied, “General Aizawa gifted that item to the Emperor as a tribute from the mountains after my victory in battle, did he not? Haven’t I the right to ask after something taken in my name?”

Without saying it openly, the young general reminded the princes that he had seen real battle, unlike anything that valuable and sheltered royal heirs had been exposed to. He was more in touch with the real world for that, even though it was that same real world experience that had justified Aizawa to steal the ancestral treasure of Shinsou’s clan and seal their doom if she couldn’t get it back.

“Fair enough, I suppose,” Katsuki begrudged, turning around and leading his visitors into the palace, Shinsou walking behind them all waiting to see how things played out. If she knew Izuku, and she was slowly getting to, he was about to find a way to get his brother alone, and hopefully relieve some of that pent up frustration Shinsou had been nurturing in gratitude for what Izuku was hopefully about to do next.

“Royal Brother, I wanted to have a talk with you first, if that’s alright,” Izuku interjected right on time, his hand appearing surely just above his brother’s elbow, softly grasping his upper arm as if to anchor him to Izuku. “Shinsou knows where that item has been put on display, don’t you? Why don’t you escort General Todoroki there first to view it, and we’ll catch you up?”

“That sounds excellent, thank you, Princes Izuku and Katsuki,” Todoroki said so bluntly it was a wonder he didn’t fall over his own words, bowing to them both hurriedly and reaching for Shinsou as if to also grab her arm but diverting a moment later, turning it into a gesture and invitation, “Please lead the way, Shinsou.”

“Of course, General Todoroki,” Shinsou confirmed politely, almost not believing her luck as she quickly led Todoroki towards the hall of treasures, past the spot she had her questionable run in with Prince Tomura.

They walked in silence for a little while, until it was certain they were far away enough from the princes not to be overheard, and it was then that Todoroki said, “Did this have something to do with you?”

“It might have,” Shinsou alluded, hesitant to openly admit it was Izuku she’d revealed her desire to, lest it lead Todoroki to question why Izuku would be inclined to help her so much.

Although anyone could guess that Shinsou helping Katsuki escape suspicion might merit some reward, and even gratitude from Izuku for defending his beloved brother, just how beloved that brother was should be kept secret. The scale of the reward Izuku had pulled strings to get for Shinsou spoke to the scale of his gratitude, and therefore devotion to his brother. Moreover, Todoroki seemed a bit too sharp to miss when Shinsou was involved with someone sexually, so the less said about the whole thing the better.

“Either way, it’s here now,” Todoroki mused quietly, while Shinsou steadied herself against the growing power of nearing the precious relic, an energy that got under her human skin and shook her by the bones as if to remind her that this was not her natural form. “You must be thrilled.”

Shinsou nodded, her blood coursing around her body at breakneck speed, pushed by a heart that was beating many times faster than a human’s could, almost a continuous hum. With a voice strained from the effort of keeping to words and not a primal howl as they reached the doors to the hall of treasures where The Tip of The High Mountain had been put on display, a pair of guards stoically on each side who’d never question anyone accompanied by the great General Todoroki, Shinsou directed, “After you, General.”

Todoroki pushed open the door and a wave hit Shinsou like a gust of biting cold mountain wind. Nothing stirred in the room, not a hair on Shinsou’s head or tassel on Todoroki’s ocean blue military robe, but Shinsou’s steps wobbled as she stepped inside.

“Is that it?” Todoroki asked, and Shinsou nodded again, lacking the ability to form human words at that exact moment. Todoroki closed the doors behind them, a lapse in propriety since Shinsou as a servant ought to be doing such things, but Shinsou was instead moving step by shaky step towards the pedestal on which the stone was stored in a black lacquered box inlaid with a mountain scene.

There was a wild thought in Shinsou’s mind to snatch The Tip of The High Mountain and just start running, fight her way out and not stop until she was home. The desire itched on her palms and prickled the hair on her neck, but before she could get any closer Todoroki was beside her, and this time without anyone watching there was nothing to stop him reaching out to touch Shinsou, holding her by the wrist as if to stop her from grabbing wildly for the stone.

As if he could read her mind, Todoroki said clearly, “You wouldn’t make it out of The Forbidden City alive with it.”

“I would,” Shinsou countered, still staring at the box of the unassuming relic that contained enough power to foster an entire clan of spirits, “If I had it.” 

If Shinsou had the stone on her person, no human would be able to touch her, much less harm her.

“Maybe so, but…” Todoroki continued, and Shinsou finally could tear her eyes away to look at him, finding their bodies close to one another, their faces apart by only a small stretch of space. It was the closest she had been to him since they fought, and under dramatically different circumstances. There was more time to notice the discoloured shine and mottled skin of the scar that covered his face, the smooth unblemished skin elsewhere, and the flecks of darker colour in each of his eyes, one turquoise and the other a stormy grey. Strange in a way, that he should have seen battle and emerged unscathed, yet be marked so deeply and visibly by his own family.

“What?” Shinsou challenged, waiting for a reason good enough to stay her from the wild option, from taking the risk now and being home again in a matter of weeks. It would mean never seeing anyone here again, Todoroki included, and by the conflict in his expression it seemed he knew that too.

They were still standing so close, and Shinsou’s senses were so heightened, just by proximity to the stone, that she could feel Todoroki’s own heartbeat, also much faster than a normal human rhythm.

Todoroki’s mouth opened first, no sound coming out, and then at last, he said, “Ah… General Aizawa, he wouldn’t allow you to take it.”

“He’s not here,” Shinsou countered.

“He will be, any day now,” Todoroki told her, and that fact alone instilled something of a fear in Shinsou’s gut, knowing as she did it would mean bringing Hizashi with him too. “If you disappeared at the same time it went missing, everyone would know it was you. General Aizawa would rest at nothing to hunt you down and bring it back.”

With a sway of a force that could rival The Tip of The High Mountain’s pervasive power, if only for a moment, Shinsou knew Todoroki spoke the truth. That Aizawa would chase Shinsou to the ends of the earth, and he already knew where the stone was kept. Shinsou would achieve nothing but leading the famous General right to their clan’s doorstep.

Under her breath Shinsou muttered a reluctant, “You’re right.”

“I am?” Todoroki phrased first in curiosity, then stirred himself more firmly and repeated, “I am.”

It wasn’t something Shinsou knew from any direct experience or knowledge of Aizawa that made sense, it was something Shinsou just knew innately, as if the knowledge had been passed on in some intangible way and was as true as the laws of nature themselves. That if Aizawa knew or even merely suspected that Shinsou had stolen something over which he felt any sense of responsibility, he would stop at nothing to find Shinsou and take back everything he felt entitled to.

“I have to be patient,” Shinsou told herself more than anything, frustrated by the goal just beyond her reach. “There will be other chances.”

“Of course,” Todoroki reassured Shinsou, his hand still inexplicably curled around her wrist, as if to stop her running away in a moment of abandon. From this he finally seemed to notice the inhuman thrum of Shinsou’s pulse, the way her body seemed to vibrate more than it beat steadily. “Are you alright, Shinsou?”

Moving a step towards the stone, Shinsou said, “I will be, if I can just… hold it, for a moment.”

Allowing Shinsou to slip from his grasp, though he held her still in his gaze, Todoroki nodded and said, “I’ll stand guard and keep watch for you.”

“Thanks,” Shinsou murmured, only half listening to either of them as she finally approached the lacquered box and reached out to touch the lid, lifting it smoothly to see The Tip of The High Mountain laying within on a yellow silk cushion.

As if drinking fresh water for the first time after weeks of sucking moisture from rags, Shinsou breathed in and out a chest full of air infused with spiritual power, replenishing what had dwindled and been receding ever since the relic was taken from their shrine, a river that had almost dried finally experiencing torrential rains.

Over the animal instinct in her head to snatch it and run, Shinsou extended her hands towards the stone and lifted the relic carefully from the box. It was a dark, jagged thing with flecks of reflective minerals in it, heavier than it would be supposed to be by the weight of power contained by it. Shinsou had prayed to it many times as a younger spirit, but never held it like this in human form, and the difference was palpable.

Power flowed into Shinsou’s body as her delicate human hands cradled it, doing more than refreshing and refilling her reserves. Shinsou was emboldened, empowered and infused with fresh spiritual energy, yet subtly changed, as if the nature of The Tip of The High Mountain had shifted by merit of its journey, influenced by the keepers who had overseen it since the looting from its resting place. A stream of Emperor All Might’s golden steady character, mixed with threads of inky darkness that could only be Lord Aizawa.

Shinsou closed her eyes, tilting her head down a little, and began to channel the power into a deliberate form, taming the wild rush to an organised chaos that could be absorbed. Ever changing rings of luminescence began to surround her, difficult but not impossible for the human eye to perceive. Then as Shinsou lifted her chin and tipped her head back, her feet rose from the ground, coming to float suspended above the varnished palace floor.

Flattening both of her hands, palms turned upwards, The Tip of The High Mountain hovered between them. The relic funnelled down heaven sent power that flurried around Shinsou, and for the keenest of eyes, the many tails of a fox flourished around Shinsou’s human body, formed not of organic material but spiritual.

Shinsou’s eyes opened, looking to the heavens, and a lilac light shone out from them in a flaring burst, then faded. As a tide receded back from the high point, Shinsou touched back down to ground, the stone settling down to be held once more in her hands, and the whirling lights faded to mere glimmers.

Carefully, Shinsou laid The Tip of The High Mountain back in the ornate box, as it was, and closed the lid, turning only then to see Todoroki’s bewildered eyes upon her.

“If you’re keeping watch, aren’t you supposed to be looking the other way?” Shinsou questioned, not that it was a required service anymore.

“I…” Todoroki mumbled, mouth hanging open and his eyes still wide and wondrous. “I saw… you… what did you do?”

“I charged my spiritual power from the stone,” Shinsou explained, feeling full and confident, as if she could take on the entire world. She walked away from the relic towards Todoroki, seeing him in a new level of detail, every crease on his military uniform, every white or red strand of hair on his head, the yawning of his pupils as she came closer.

“I saw your… tails,” Todoroki fumbled, as if the words to describe what he’d perceived didn’t make sense, because what he saw wasn’t something that human words were meant to capture.

“Hm, that can happen,” Shinsou commented, getting in front of Todoroki and stopping. She could feel his heartbeat thumping in the air between them, every shallow breath from the moment it touched his lips to the depths of his chest, but even more than that. Something beneath mere mortal sounds, like the melody of his soul, a sad yet beautiful song. “How many?” she asked.

“How many what?” Todoroki replied blankly.

“Tails,” Shinsou said, curious to see if her power had grown by as much as it felt like.

“I couldn’t… didn’t count,” he answered, and the twanging song of his soul changed key, finding a solemn lightness, as if the fluttering of a flute joining a zither in harmony. “You… really are a fox spirit.”

Smiling, Shinsou tilted her head and remarked, “You didn’t believe me?”

“I did,” Todoroki responded, blinking heavily, as if he’d forgotten the involuntary act for a short time, or struggled to look past lingering lights still burned in his eyes. “I just never thought I would see it like that.”

“Not every human would be able to,” Shinsou remarked, wondering if Izuku and Katsuki were ever going to come calling on them, or that was just an excuse and they were already sidetracked past the point of remembering what they were supposed to be doing. The latter seemed far more likely. “It means you have some aptitude, if you could perceive my spiritual form.”

“Oh, I… that’s good? I think…” Todoroki had never seem so disarmed or flustered than that moment, and Shinsou had seen him pretty flustered before, so it was quite the achievement.

Surging with contentment from being so restored and even enhanced, leaving her feeling distinctly playful, Shinsou lifted a finger and tapped the end of Todoroki’s nose, an act that made him startle rather endearingly.

“It’s good,” Shinsou confirmed fondly, appreciating for a moment that she had at least one true confidante in The Forbidden City. Someone who knew Shinsou as she truly was, and not what she merely pretended to be. 

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Shinsou parted ways with Todoroki near the entrance of Bakugo Palace, having seen no sign of either Prince despite their supposed intention to ‘catch up’ with Shinsou and Todoroki. This clearly being an empty promise, Shinsou could easily guess what preoccupied them instead, and newly charged with a great fountain of spiritual power, she was feeling distinctly energised. Todoroki had only come to visit Shinsou in the first place, so after talking as long as they could without suspicion, which wasn’t very long, he departed Bakugo Palace.

The areas surrounding Prince Katsuki’s quarters were quiet, as they usually were, and Shinsou passed fewer and fewer guards and attendants as she made her way to the Prince’s private rooms. As a favoured servant of the Prince, Shinsou was allowed to pass without question, eventually approaching the doors to Katsuki’s bedroom and letting herself in unafraid.

It was quiet from the outside, but Shinsou knew better than to think that meant nothing was going on within.

“It’s only me,” Shinsou announced as she walked in, passing a carefully placed ornamental screen to block direct view of the bed. Katsuki and Izuku weren’t on the bed, as it happened, but they weren’t far either. Izuku was pinned to a comfortable chair by the weight of his brother over him, at which the corners of Shinsou’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch.

“Took your time,” Katsuki said gruffly.

“As I recall, it was the two of you who were supposed to come to find me, not the other way around,” Shinsou pointed out, tilting her head slightly and using her supercharged powers of observation to examine the two princes. Katsuki was straddling Izuku’s lap, hands linked around his brother’s neck, and Izuku appeared thoroughly drunk on his attention. A little reward for his help to Shinsou’s mission, since no good deed went unpunished.

“That doesn’t sound right,” Katsuki replied, thighs twitching as he ground down on Izuku, whose mouth, as it appeared, was too devotedly attached to Katsuki’s neck to offer any words of guidance himself.

“If you say so,” Shinsou replied as if she didn’t believe a word of it, which she didn’t.

Seemingly unprompted, yet delivered as if it flowed on from this exactly, Katsuki declared, “I know the two of you like to think you can control everything around here, but this is my palace I’ll have you know.”

“Come again?” Shinsou questioned, not rushing to involve herself with Izuku and Katsuki since they didn’t rush to involve her. She was definitely interested in trying out her new and improved human form after powering up with The Tip of The High Mountain, but to assume that point wouldn’t come unless she initiated it herself was foolish.

Katsuki finally pulled himself free of Izuku’s mouth, the wet skin of his neck parting Izuku’s lips with a smacking sound followed by a needy gasp. He tried to follow the already reddened skin he suckled but was pushed back by Katsuki’s hand against his chest.

“It means you two thought you could work together against me,” Katsuki accused, and a stone of dread dropped in Shinsou’s stomach that he had cottoned onto Shinsou’s interest in The Tip of The High Mountain, but it was a fear unfounded, since his next comment was, “You conspired that Shinsou would refuse to satisfy me until Deku came back.”

Finally finding eyes for someone other than Katsuki, Izuku glanced at Shinsou to say, “We did?”

Quickly Shinsou interjected, “You’re reading into it too much, Katsuki, I was just tired and didn’t want to have sex with you. It had nothing to do with Izuku not being here.”

However, the look in Izuku’s eyes on Shinsou’s said otherwise. 

Snorting, Katsuki retorted, “A likely story,” and shifted his weight on what had to be Izuku’s commanding erection. “Well, two can play at that game.”

Shinsou rolled her eyes, while Izuku asked, “What does that mean, Kacchan?”

“It means if you want to put your cock in someone today it’s not going to be me,” Katsuki answered. “My ass has taken enough of a pounding from you lately.”

“But Kacchan,” Izuku twisted into a disappointed whine, but Katsuki just leaned in to playfully bite his cheek.

“Tough luck, Deku,” Katsuki teased, salving the dents of his teeth in Izuku’s freckled skin with his tongue. “Serves you right for trying to manipulate me.”

It was safer allowing Katsuki to believe he’d seen through a scheme about sexual politics and disguise the real one he hadn’t noticed. Bringing The Tip of The High Mountain to Bakugo Palace was no small feat, and Katsuki was the only possible route Izuku could have had to influence Consort Mitsuki to ask the Emperor to borrow such a precious relic, so it was better he never knew he’d been used in such a fashion.

“Alright, Katsuki, maybe I did resist you because of Izuku,” Shinsou admitted to the small thing so that the bigger one might stay hidden, “but only because he seemed so sad to be parted from you yesterday.”

“Hah! I knew it,” Katsuki barked.

“That was sweet of you, Shinsou,” Izuku said softly, having known about the bigger scheme and all but masterminded the trickier parts of it, but never knew about the smaller kindness Shinsou had done for him in return, not that it was appearing to have worked particularly well.

“Don’t take her side,” Katsuki rasped jealously, and pushed himself further away from Izuku. It had been him who’d wanted Izuku and Shinsou to get along more than they did initially, but not like this, apparently.

“Either way, I’ve recovered now,” Shinsou tried to smooth over, less interested in the squabbling of the princes as she was giving her newly energised human form a test ride, for which there was no challenge like two horny teenage boys. “I’m sure I can satisfy you both fully now.”

“See that you do,” Katsuki said bossily, climbing off Izuku entirely and starting to unfasten his robe. “Get to bed then.” Flashing a sultry look between Shinsou and Izuku, he appended, “Both of you.”

Shinsou was in the business of taking orders from the princes, when she felt like it, but Izuku was of equal status to Katsuki and really didn’t have to do what his brother said unless he felt like it. However, Izuku was far too aroused to contest anything and was led by the cock all but literally to sit on the edge of the bed.

“Undress him,” Katsuki ordered Shinsou, “and yourself.” He took care of himself on that front, disrobing as Shinsou shucked her own clothes and carefully unfastened the delicate embroidered silk robes of the son of an Emperor. Unlike other times, Izuku’s rich emerald eyes were on Shinsou instead of Katsuki, and his thick hard cock twitched as Shinsou’s wrists brushed it in her work.

Ending up on her knees to remove Izuku’s trousers and slippers and socks, naked herself, Shinsou felt Katsuki’s hand on the back of her head, pushing her in the inevitable direction of Izuku’s crotch.

“If you two like working together so much, then at least do it where I can see,” Katsuki said next in a more husky and distracted tone.

“Kacchan, it really wasn’t,” Izuku tried to explain, faltering when Shinsou obliged by stretching her mouth around his cock. Girthy as Izuku’s instrument was, in her revitalised form Shinsou found her joints more flexible, jaw and gag reflex obeying intention to make the swallowing of Izuku’s cock a far easier task than before. The connection of Shinsou’s mind and body had been heightened, as if her spiritual energy better understood the form it took, and could manipulate it better at will. Even breathing was not as necessary as before, when taking Izuku’s cock to the base filled the back of Shinsou’s throat and closed off any chance of taking a breath. This body was not a human body, and did not need human things like a steady supply of air to keep going.

“Fucking hell,” Katsuki muttered, a hand already stroking his cock and devilish things in his eyes.

“Sh-Shinsou,” Izuku stuttered, his fingers clenching in Katsuki’s sheets as he writhed against Shinsou, strong thighs twitching either side of her head.

“Stand up,” Katsuki said as he reached for Shinsou’s hips and lifted them, anchored still by her mouth around Izuku’s cock. “I’m doing what you wouldn’t let me do while I still have a chance, before Deku stretches you out.” He bent at the knees a little to get to the right level without lifting Shinsou’s feet from the floor, something he could absolutely do, and pushed his hard cock into Shinsou like putting on a slipper.

Stuck between them hard and fast, Shinsou gave in and let herself be bounced between them awhile, until at last her mouth lifted free from Izuku’s cock with a gasp and long trail of saliva. Katsuki pulled out of her a moment after, straightening her up and turning around to face him.

“Sit on him,” was Katsuki’s next instruction, backing Shinsou up and guiding her down to Izuku’s lap. Between her new body, the amount of spit and Katsuki’s enthusiastic fucking beforehand, Shinsou’s cunt slipped around Izuku like the fit of a slightly more snug but still appropriately sized slipper, a little shiver running from Izuku through to her, both their eyes devotedly upwards at Katsuki.

Izuku edged further back onto the bed little by little, moving into Shinsou from below or Shinsou bouncing on him from above, his cock slipping out of Shinsou to be replaced by Katsuki’s alternately, the two becoming so interchangeable that it wasn’t so long before one or the other of them, probably Katsuki, said something about Shinsou being able to take them both at the same time.

“Do it,” Shinsou commanded this time, leaning back on Izuku with Katsuki crawling over her.

“Really?” the two princes chorused, and Shinsou nodded.

“I can handle it.”

With Izuku buried to the hilt, Katsuki was able to work his cock in alongside, eased by the obedient give of Shinsou’s body and limitless amount of lubrication it produced.

“Ah, you’re really, I can feel Kacchan’s…” Izuku gasped, Shinsou’s head rolling back over one of his shoulder’s as she revelled in the overwhelming fullness, stretched to new limits, and happy to admit that perhaps the princes had a trick or two for her yet.

They began to move, careful not to be forced out, the sensation of their cocks pressed so tightly against each other new and delirious, until they could both fuck into Shinsou ardently. Katsuki came first by only a stroke, his cock pulsing and shooting his cum around Izuku’s, the feeling of which brought his brother to climax a moment later, both filling Shinsou’s cunt past full, the mix of their cum pouring out when their cocks finally left her gaping and empty.

“That was… impressive,” Shinsou panted, unbothered with anything more than rolling into a comfortable position on Katsuki’s expansive bed and drifting off to sleep. After all, another round with one or the other of them couldn’t be far away.

~~~

At an inn on the road between Aizawa Manor and The Forbidden City, the Lord of the Manor was wracked by strange and terrible dreams.

He dreamt of being split in two, and when he tried to find what had broken him apart, his hands grasped rough stone. An object he had held but a few times in his own hands, yet knew the weight and feel of it at once. The Tip of the High Mountain, tearing him apart.

Yet instead of being a painful experience, the agony was of a confusing nature. In Shouta’s dream, it was almost pleasurable being split apart, and when he woke it was clear his body had interpreted it this way too.

“What’s wrong?” Hizashi asked drowsily, disturbed by her husband’s violent tossing and turning before he shook himself awake with a strangled groan.

“Ah, bad dream,” Shouta muttered, dragging his fingers across a sweaty brow, hair cold and pasted to his forehead. “I dreamt about The Tip of The High Mountain.”

His wife’s fingers meanwhile found other parts of him.

“Tip of the the hard mountain, more like,” Hizashi quipped, a simple brush leading to an inquisitive grasp of his aching hard cock. “Want me to do something about this?”

“No, I was… it wasn’t like that,” Shouta claimed, though his body felt otherwise, responding eagerly to Hizashi’s handling with a weeping throb.

“Forgive me for not being convinced,” Hizashi replied, but released her husband’s erection and rolled onto her back with a sigh. They had been on the road a couple of days already, travelling by laborious horse drawn sedan with an escort of guards.

The thought of returning to The Forbidden City was fraught with fear and fury over the welfare of Eri, and an undercurrent of anticipation at seeing certain people again, on which point Hizashi was still decidedly sore.

If Shinsou knew what was good for her she’d stay well away from Hizashi and her husband, but Shinsou so rarely did know what was good for her, and even more rarely did it, so it was all but inevitable they would see each other again.

Shouta fell asleep again easily, but Hizashi lay awake for some time, staring at the darkened room and fighting with her feelings.

~~~

Shinsou was lucky to sleep most of the night undisturbed, the pent up tension of the princes released by fucking her in the same hole at the same time a markedly effective sleep aid.

It was just before dawn that Shinsou was roused by some movement, which in comparison to the usual experience of it being someone grinding on her, was Izuku grinding on Katsuki, who was in turn asleep wrapped around Shinsou like a body pillow.

Katsuki was deep asleep and displeased to be disturbed. It was more typical for him to go for additional rounds at the start of the night and sleep all the way through to morning sex, not to wake in the middle of the night with carnal inclinations.

It was for this reason he grumpily mumbled, “Leave off, Deku, m’sleeping.”

“But Kacchan,” Deku whined, and though Shinsou couldn’t feel his erection herself, she could feel the transferred force of his undulations pressing Katsuki’s soft body against her back.

Katsuki, however, had a solution. One that allowed him to return to his slumber undisturbed any further.

“Just use Shinsou,” Katsuki declared, rolling over so his back was no longer to Izuku and bringing Shinsou around with him, swapping their places and all but forcing them together face to face.

“Oh, I,” Izuku huffed, clearly a little surprised with the instruction and shoving of Shinsou at him. “I couldn’t.” However, his hard cock pressed into Shinsou’s stomach, far less concerned than he with exactly who or what stimulated it.

For Shinsou’s stimulation, the order to ‘use’ her hit just the right nerve, so she keenly pressed herself closer to Izuku and said, “Please go ahead, Prince Izuku, I’m happy to pleasure you.”

Truth be told, Shinsou had been increasingly interested in pleasure concerning Prince Izuku since he all but single handedly delivered The Tip of The High Mountain to Bakugo Palace, and maimed the man who dared to try and hurt Eri if that wasn’t enough.

“Ah… if you’re sure,” Izuku said hesitantly. Katsuki’s only answer was a snore, having already rolled to the edge of the bed near the wall and taken most of the covers with him, which they didn’t need since Izuku’s body was hot all over.

Shinsou gave her answer in the form of a kiss, silencing Izuku’s uncertain words with her mouth and lifting a leg to hook around his body, pulling her crotch to press against his throbbing cock in case he needed any more encouragement.

He didn’t, thankfully, already worked up and eager to go from humping the now blissfully sleeping Katsuki, and accepting of Shinsou as a substitute. Without further questions or objections Izuku rolled on top of Shinsou, letting both her legs wrap around him, and sunk his cock into her, hot inside Shinsou and pulsing.

“Hng, feels good,” Izuku whispered, breaking from Shinsou’s mouth with their foreheads pressed together. It did, Shinsou could agree, but it could feel better, and Izuku knew how. Before long his fingers arrived between them in search of Shinsou’s clit. The more generous of the brothers in general, this extended to Izuku as a lover, and planted between Shinsou’s legs, he murmured some of her favourite words. “I want to feel you cum around me.”

“Like this,” Shinsou guided eagerly, as Izuku already knew how to do it, but in the dark and with a straightforward sense of urgency she could direct him to the shortcut rather than taking the long way around. “I want to… cum around you too,” she returned in gaspy whispers, arching her back to raise her hips and rut against the steady rapid movement of his fingers.

It was not what Shinsou expected, in this heated moment, for Izuku to spill a soft, “Thank you, Shinsou, for not fucking Katsuki while I was away.”

“Ah… no problem,” Shinsou panted, a little more focused on reaching climax, and struck by the irony that Izuku should say this while they were fucking without Katsuki, though he’d evidently given more than his blessing for the union. “Thanks for… you know what.”

“I know,” Izuku echoed, dipping to kiss Shinsou again and letting it linger, almost like he wanted to feel the moment of Shinsou’s orgasm from both openings.

This wish was easily granted, Shinsou letting climax shudder and break through her, squeezing around Izuku’s thick cock with an ecstatic sigh.

Even though he couldn’t see her, it was enough to make Shinsou’s toes curl that Izuku offered a doting, “Pretty,” before he kissed her again, also moving his cock in her more determinedly.

The whole thing was surprisingly intimate for what had been advertised as a substitute for the sleeping Katsuki, but Shinsou didn’t feel at all like a substitute, especially since she’d been used as one for Izuku by Katsuki when they were fighting before. It wasn’t Izuku’s style to be focused on anyone except exactly who he was with, so Shinsou was confident it was her in his mind and not Katsuki when he thrust to a lazy orgasm spilled inside her, simple satisfaction pursued directly.

In a way, it was the most shocking thing they could have done.

~~~

Lord Aizawa woke again fitfully come dawn, more confused dreams in which he knew the involvement of two things and only two things. 

Shinsou.

And the Tip of The High Mountain.

“Don’t you dare tell me not to be jealous this time,” Hizashi commented, already awoken by her husband’s moaning and confused thrusts in the air. “I heard you saying her name.”

“Shinsou,” Shouta confirmed, sitting upright in bed and seeing it was almost first light, the dawn poised to break at least. “We should leave.”

“What?”

“Now. If we set off now on horseback, we’ll be at The Forbidden City by sundown,” Shouta explained. They would have taken only one more night on the road by sedan, but even that delay seemed unacceptable now.

“You’re that keen to get to her?” Hizashi accused, a cruel and trapping proposition.

“No, it’s not like that,” Shouta insisted. “My dreams are full of Shinsou and that relic, it means something, it must. I have to get to The Emperor and ask about it.”

“About what?”

“The Tip of The High Mountain,” Shouta confirmed. “There’s something connecting it and Shinsou.”

“And you,” Hizashi observed bitterly, but, a day less travel was not objectionable to her. “If we’re there faster I can go to Eri sooner, so very well, but don’t get any ideas about that girl.”

“I’m telling you, it’s not like that,” Shouta insisted.

“This part of you begs to differ,” Hizashi said as she squeezed his cock in her hand. “Now will you let me do something about it, or do I have to have it poking me in the back all the way to The Forbidden City? I am still your wife after all.” And jealous, as ever she was.

It was a practical point, Shouta supposed, and a night of confusingly aroused dreams took its toll, so it was easier to get rid of that way than to wait it out.

“Make it quick,” he urged, looking at the skyline until his eyes fluttered shut with the feeling of Hizashi’s mouth wrapping efficiently around his cock. “We ride at dawn.”

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

The Lady of Aizawa Manor was not much of a rider, not of horses anyway, but her husband was, and it was bouncing in his lap on the back of a black shiny stallion that they covered the last stretch to The Forbidden City in a single day’s solid ride.

Hizashi had thought it was uncomfortable travelling by sedan, cramped and bored for hours on end, but this was nothing to the ache of her thighs and the poor beaten pussy between them bouncing up and down on horseback for hours on end, Shouta at her back stern and unyielding. Had Hizashi not been accustomed to many of these conditions under different circumstances, a stoic husband behind her, aching thighs and pussy pounded to within an inch of its life, then she wouldn’t have made it. Only the thought of being with her daughter that much sooner kept Hizashi going, not to mention the chance to tear apart anyone who was responsible in allowing harm to almost come to her with her bare hands.

Suffice to say, when the tall walls of The Forbidden City finally appeared in the distance, Hizashi was already in a sour mood, and by the time they passed the imposing gates, almost ready to close for the night with the setting of the sun, it was distinctly foul.

“I’ll go to The Emperor,” Shouta said as they finally reached the end of the ride and could stiffly dismount with weak and aching bodies.

“I’ll go to Eri,” Hizashi agreed, supported by Shouta for a few steps as she got her bearings. Normally she would go first to Yamada Pavillion and make herself presentable, but there was no time or fucks to give for that. Wild and dirty from the open road, hair all but blown out of its binding to fly away from her face in all directions, it was the last way anyone here had seen or would expect to see her, but she’d waited days and nights already to be with her daughter, and was not going to wait a minute more for the sake of frivolous appearances.

With a nod from Shouta they parted ways, each to their respective battlefronts.

~~~

Shinsou was experiencing an ordinary day in Bakugo Palace, as ordinary as any could be, and hadn’t believed Lord and Lady Aizawa were expected yet in The Forbidden City, until a eunuch from the Emperor’s Immortal Palace arrived in the evening with a large escort of guards.

“Apologies, Imperial Consort Mitsuki,” said the bashful eunuch from the Immortal Palace, meeting Mitsuki in her entrance hall where Shinsou was doing some light dusting work, since her duties in this place couldn’t only be to fuck the princes, much as they might think to the contrary. “His Majesty can no longer receive you tonight.”

“He can’t? Well, I suppose that can’t be helped,” Mitsuki said curtly. She’d been visiting the Emperor as much as possible since the recent scandal, but his was a busy position. “I will send someone with you to bring him some nourishing soup instead.”

“Many thanks, Imperial Consort,” replied the eunuch with a bow, and then still nervously said, “There’s something else too, his majesty has commanded that, well…”

“Spit it out,” Mitsuki ordered, not expecting what was about to come next almost as much as Shinsou, who almost dropped her duster.

“It is the wish of Emperor All Might that The Tip of The High Mountain be returned to the Immortal Palace,” confessed the eunuch.

“So soon? I’ve barely had it a day, but very well then,” Mitsuki consented, not nearly as aware of the significance of the item or attached to having it as Shinsou was. “You’re here to take it now?” she assumed, with eyes on the guards who had arrived with him.

“Yes, I was instructed not to leave Bakugo Palace without it in my possession,” confirmed the eunuch.

Shinsou knew, intrinsically, inexplicably, but still undeniably, that it could mean only one thing.

Lord Aizawa was back in The Forbidden City.

And that meant so was Hizashi.

~~~

“Mama!” Eri cried as she flew into Hizashi’s arms like an arrow. Direct hit, straight to the heart.

“I’m here, I’m here,” Hizashi said desperately, guilty and relieved and furious all at the same time. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there.”

“It’s okay, I’m fine,” Eri said, seeming more grown and mature every time Hizashi saw her, even though it hadn’t been long since she was here for a prolonged period seeing her daughter every day. “Prince Izuku saved me.”

The cynical part of Hizashi knew that was something to value, that her daughter’s close bond with a hopeful for the throne would be even stronger for this event, but there was no price she’d pay with a risk to her sole living child’s life, so she couldn’t find it in herself to feel anything but regret.

“You shouldn’t have needed saving,” Hizashi told her, offering next, “If you want to return with us back to Aizawa Manor…”

“No, please mother, I don’t want to leave,” Eri declared. It could have been a surprise, how much strength and fortitude she showed at such a young age, but of course she did, look at her parents.

“If you’re absolutely sure,” Hizashi tested, gathering Eri into her arms and lifting her, then, being weakened from the journey and her daughter getting bigger and heavier every day, sat down and rested Eri on her lap, keeping her close because anything less was not enough to quell her maternal fear.

“I am, I like it here so much, really,” Eri insisted, and Hizashi ought to be grateful her daughter thrived so much in this environment, but in that exact moment, it was a bitter pill to swallow.

“Very well,” she sighed, cradling Eri close to her body, comforting herself more than her daughter, since the event was already done and over with for Eri. Instead, Hizashi turned her mind to revenge, addressing Eri’s closest attendants. “Who has been deemed responsible for what happened?” she asked.

“Ah, the Emperor is still deliberating it would seem,” answered Nejire awkwardly. “There’s no official conclusion of his investigation.”

“Hm, I’ll have to see to that,” Hizashi grumbled. “Who is suspected, then?”

“Well, at first both Bakugo and Shigeraki Palace were ordered for confinement, but then suspicion was cleared from Bakugo Palace, so it seems only Shigeraki Palace remains under scrutiny.”

Hizashi’s mouth tightened, grip tight on her child. If Prince Tomura was involved, and he could well be, no wonder there had been no formal conclusions drawn against him. The Emperor's own brother, how could Toshinori be expected to rule against him? Hizashi’s own cousins, no less, but the blood of her only child was worth more than even those ties.

“What happened to clear Bakugo Palace?” she inquired, since a scandal hurting their standing would have been a fortunate thing, but perhaps that had been Tomura’s plan, not that the price was acceptable.

“Oh,” Nejire replied awkwardly, evasive about something Hizashi could’t understand, at least at that point. “Well… evidence was produced to absolve Prince Katsuki by, um, Shinsou.”

Hizashi’s heart was not the warmest of creatures, a cold blooded animal any day of the week, but at this it froze solid.

“Shinsou,” she repeated, hating to hear that name yet hungering for it at the same time. She hadn’t expected it to happen so soon, mere moments back in The Forbidden City before her presence was made known to Hizashi.

“Yes Lady Hizashi, Shinsou came as soon as she heard something happened to Eri, and she knew about some evidence that proved Bakugo Palace’s innocence.”

“Shinsou was really kind to me, mother,” Eri added eagerly, sensing Hizashi’s displeasure in the way only children could sense their parents. “Don’t be mad at her.”

Too late, almost.

“How would Shinsou do that? A lowly maid from the workhouse.”

“Well, you see, Lady Hizashi,” Nejire said shakily. “Shinsou is serving at Bakugo Palace now.”

Hizashi’s ice heart turned to solid stone.

“She what?” Hizashi accused.

“Shinsou attends to, uh, Prince Katsuki,” Nejire admitted, flushed red in the face and clearly hoping not to be punished for bearing this awful, terrible news. Hizashi had thought disgracing Shinsou and punishing her to the workhouse would have kept others away from her, or some of them, but Mitsuki’s audacity really knew no bounds.

Sliding Eri off her lap carefully, keeping hold of her hand as she stood up, Hizashi tucked one of many stray locks of hair behind her ear and declared, “I need to see the Emperor at once, help me clean myself up a little first.”

Relieved to not be in the firing range of Hizashi’s building fury, Nejire replied dutifully, “Of course, Lady Hizashi.”

~~~

After seeing it in his dreams so vividly, The Tip of The High Mountain was strangely underwhelming in person. As if Shouta perceived it now only on the mortal plane, and what had been in his dreams was something far more profound.

"I wouldn't have let Mitsuki borrow such an artefact normally," Toshinori remarked, "only, after the situation with the Ruby Oriole, when she asked I couldn't really say no."

"Why did she ask?" Shouta questioned. "It isn't the kind of thing she would normally take an interest in."

"I didn't think to ask," Toshi replied. "She merely said she wanted something of exceptional value, to match both the cost of the Ruby Oriole that was stolen as well as the damage to her reputation, so why not lend her The Tip of The High Mountain to have on display and let everyone see my trust in her is absolute, to allow something so valuable to be in her care."

"I wonder who gave her the idea," Shouta mused, knowing who his gut said had to be behind such a thing, but not having the faintest clue why he believed so adamantly that Shinsou would or even could cause The Tip of The High Mountain to leave the Emperor's possession, since she was no more than a disgraced maid in the workhouse.

Or so he'd thought.

Before Toshinori could respond, a distressed eunuch charged through the door without warning and burst, "Lady Hizashi is coming, Your Majesty, she insists on speaking with you."

This puzzled Shouta, since they'd agreed he would deal with Toshi and Hizashi would take care of Eri.

"She is? When?" Toshinori questioned, and but a moment later it was already answered.

"Right now," Hizashi declared, blowing into the Emperor's study like it was her own office. Her appearance was much neater than before, but to Shouta's eye he could see it was little more than a superficial gloss coat, and more than that, she was fuming.

"Welcome, cousin," Toshinori greeted, and got no further than that.

"Under whose authority was it decided that a servant I punished should be transferred to Bakugo Palace?" Hizashi demanded.

In an instant, Shouta knew exactly what had happened, even if he couldn't describe the exact steps.

"What?" said Toshinori.

"Shinsou was transferred to Bakugo Palace after I sentenced her to the workhouse," Hizashi announced, the jealous fury spiralling off her. "This was a direct violation of my orders, what gives Mitsuki the right to overrule that?"

"Shinsou?" Toshinori repeated, then recognised who was being referenced. "Oh yes, that servant has been favoured by Katsuki lately."

"Well not anymore," Hizashi said viciously. "Shinsou must be returned to the workhouse or myself immediately."

Shouta had to admit, even he was a little surprised at that. Not even Hizashi was supposed to barge into the Emperor's office and tell him what was going to happen in his Forbidden City.

"Hizashi, we're tired from a long journey, why don't you take a moment to collect yourself," Shouta dared to urge, before his wife made any more of a scene. That said, she wasn't wrong, and if Shinsou really was being favoured by the Emperor's son, it must be stopped at once. There were just more subtle ways of approaching it. Meeting his wife's gaze with a look that said they would handle this, Shouta suggested, "If it was Imperial Consort Mitsuki who transferred Shinsou from the workhouse, she must be called here to resolve the matter."

"She must?" Toshinori echoed, clearly a little bemused by the escalation of a simple servant girl to this level, but Shinsou was far from a simple anything. Seeing Shouta was serious, to say nothing of the daggers being glared at him by Hizashi, he said, "Oh, very well," and to the eunuch directed, "Please call Imperial Consort Mitsuki here."

"With Shinsou," Hizashi added, glaring at anyone who would dare meet her gaze. "Mitsuki isn't going to hide her away in Bakugo Palace where she thinks I can't reach her."

Worrying that even Toshinori might start to wonder why Hizashi was going into a blood rage over a trivial former attendant, Shouta stood and took his wife by the wrist.

"Don't lose your composure, Hizashi, I'm sure this is some kind of misunderstanding."

Hizashi didn't like it, but she caught enough of Shouta's intention to keep her temper from flying any looser, though her eye twitched in irritation.

"Very well," the Emperor assented, glancing between the two of them with suspicion, mitigated by the long established knowledge that some of the things that went on between those two were best left to them.

~~~

Shinsou knew her number was up from the moment The Tip of the High Mountain was reclaimed, and it was just a matter of time. So she did the only thing that made any sense to her to do before facing Hizashi, and made herself look good. Really good.

Refastening her hair, cleaning her face completely and reapplying makeup to a standard she hadn't needed to bother with since leaving Hizashi's service, Shinsou picked out a grey robe that brought out the purple in her eyes, and waited for the axe to fall.

Not long after she'd finished, Mitsuki stormed in with a face like thunder and, after a cursory once over of Shinsou’s appearance and a crooked twitch of an eyebrow, said, "Come with me."

Shinsou didn't ask why or where because she already knew the generalities, if not the specifics, of what was going to happen.

It was a little surprising, though, to go directly to the Immortal Palace, since this meant the Emperor was involved, and Shinsou began to dread that The Tip of The High Mountain had been traced back to her somehow.

They walked through the compound gates of The Immortal Palace, guarded on either side by jewelled golden dragons, while a magnificent phoenix spread its wings across the doorway. Aside to Shinsou as they walked, no sign of it shown in her demeanour, Consort Mitsuki hissed, “When we get in there just remember who threw you down and who picked you back up.”

“Yes Mistress,” Shinsou replied obligingly, despite the part of her that yearned for any treatment from Hizashi, sometimes especially her punishments, over anything else from anyone else. But that was Shinsou’s secret.

They were escorted directly to the Emperor’s study, which Shinsou could tell was where The Tip of The High Mountain was now being kept as they approached. This increased proximity of the stone raised Shinsou’s awareness ever higher, so much so that she sensed who was in the room before they were even close. It was as if they were touching her from afar, tingling on Shinsou’s skin, perfume in her nose and mouth.

Emperor All Might, of course, and both Lord and Lady Aizawa.

Taking a deep breath, steadying both her nerves and wrestling control over the higher amount of spiritual energy in the air, Shinsou followed Mitsuki into the room looking dead ahead at the Emperor, and immediately bowed before she could meet anyone else’s eye.

“Greetings, Your Majesty,” Mitsuki introduced, sparing a quick glare at Hizashi. “To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?”

“It has been raised to me that you contradicted Lady Hizashi’s orders when you removed Shinsou from the workhouse to be a servant at Bakugo Palace,” the Emperor related. “How do you respond to this?”

“It was not my understanding that Lady Hizashi holds power over the servants of The Forbidden City,” Mitsuki responded calmly. “They are within Your Majesty’s domain are they not?”

“This is true,” Toshinori agreed. “However, the girl in question was my cousin’s close attendant, and was punished by her for a reason. It is Lady Hizashi’s view that you should not have chosen to undo that punishment.”

Taking no more than a moment to formulate her response, a worthy adversary to Hizashi if there were ever one, Mitsuksi countered, “Lady Hizashi chose to sentence Shinsou to the workhouse, dismissing her as an attendant and returning her to The Forbidden City, where she had first started work as a maid. As I recall, Shinsou was already carrying out duties in Bakugo Palace as a servant when Lady Hizashi chose to take her in the first place.” Mitsuki stood firm, unafraid of a fight and clearly here to take Hizashi on toe to toe, continuing to argue, “If Lady Hizashi wanted to retain control over Shinsou, then she should have kept her in the service of Aizawa Manor and punished her there, not released her back to The Forbidden City, the management of which falls under my jurisdiction as the Imperial Noble Consort, does it not?”

“It does,” Toshinori agreed, and then invited his cousin’s counterattack, “Hizashi?”

“I… did not presume that anyone would be so daring as to take a maid disgraced by me and elevate her to such a high position,” Hizashi accused after a moment to collect herself. Shinsou didn’t look at Hizashi directly because she couldn’t, knowing if she did that her ability to restrain herself in such proximity to The Tip of The High Mountain would be lost. The thronging power of the stone surrounded her, invaded Shinsou’s senses like a sound bath of gongs. It was in her ears, on her skin, shaking her very bones. “It is a blight on the dignity and reputation of The Forbidden City to have a person of Shinsou’s character so close to the Royal Bloodline.”

“It was not known to me why you chose such a severe punishment for Shinsou in the first place, Lady Hizashi,” Mitsuki challenged her nemesis. “I thought you’d merely tired of the girl and she had offended you in some small way, so I believed Shinsou had spent enough time carrying out hard labour in the workhouse on your command. If there is something more serious that you wish to reveal to us then please let us know, and I will gladly revert to your original punishment.”

“It does not matter why I chose to punish Shinsou, only that I did,” Hizashi insisted, and though she seemed composed on the surface, Shinsou could see deeper. With the power of The Tip of The High Mountain, Shinsou could see the glisten of sweat on Hizashi’s face, the flush in her skin under her makeup, and the irate hammering of her heart. Oh yes, without a doubt, she was pissed. “Furthermore, it is unacceptable to me that Shinsou serve in Bakugo Palace.”

“It is not your will that determines who works where in The Forbidden City,” Mitsuki retorted, and appealed instead to the Emperor. “Our son Prince Katsuki is most fond of Shinsou, Your Majesty, and favours her often. Was I to deny him this mere servant who took his interest because she had once displeased Lady Hizashi?”

“Yes, I have heard of Katsuki’s… attachment to Shinsou,” the Emperor admitted, choosing a polite word for what had probably reached even his ears in more impolite ones.

“Why, if it’s so unacceptable that Shinsou is a servant in Bakugo Palace, then perhaps she should not be one,” Mitsuki proposed slyly. “Your Majesty, I know Prince Katsuki would be thrilled if Shinsou was given to him as a concubine.”

“No!” declared both Lord and Lady Aizawa in such unison that from the first sound to the last they were in perfect alignment.

“No?” Toshinori repeated, clearly a little shocked at their blunt intrusion, particularly from Lord Aizawa as well. “Then you object to my son taking Shinsou as a concubine?”

“Yes, very much so, Royal Cousin,” Hizashi rushed in.

“So what do you propose to do with her?” Mitsuki challenged. “Since you have so many opinions on what shouldn’t be done with the girl.”

There was a pause, and Shinsou dared another glance at Hizashi, who appeared to be in that rare state of being completely speechless. It was here Shinsou considered that Hizashi knew what she didn’t want, but dared not to say what she did want.

Fortunately for her, Hizashi wasn’t alone.

“Shinsou should become my concubine,” Shouta declared, and everyone in their company, the Emperor included, turned to look at him in surprise.

“Is that so, General Aizawa?” Mitsuki remarked. “From the rumours I heard, wasn’t Shinsou reprimanded for making advances at you that were above her station in the first place?”

Taking control of the situation with the dragon’s courage that had made him a living legend, Shouta declared, “It was my wish that Shinsou be dismissed and punished harshly, my wife was merely following my orders.” Not exactly true, but he said it, for some reason, leaving the others to wonder why, until he explained, “I did not trust Shinsou at that time, but her character has since been proven, so I am willing to rescind my earlier objections.”

“That’s right,” Hizashi jumped back in. “Shinsou attended so kindly to our daughter after the recent attack, Your Majesty, and this has changed my husband and I’s opinion of her. That is why she should be returned to the Aizawa household, and…” just a pause, a small one, but one nevertheless, “promoted as my husband’s concubine in reward for her good deed towards our child.”

“I see,” Toshinori mused.

“Shinsou also earned merit for myself and our son in that incident, Your Majesty,” Mitsuki fought bravely. “It is Katsuki’s wish too that Shinsou be rewarded with a promotion to his concubine, and they have been most fond of one another these past weeks. It would be very distressing to him if Shinsou were taken by another.”

“Forgive my boldness, Imperial Consort, but your son is not yet married,” Hizashi interjected. “It would be more proper for him to find an official wife before he goes into taking concubines, or there would be outcry in The Forbidden City. By contrast, Lord Aizawa and I have already been married for a long time, and we have been unable to raise any children besides Eri. For my own health and the longevity of the Aizawa Clan, it is important that he take a concubine and be able to produce a healthy heir.”

“Of course, Lady Hizashi, the prosperity of the Aizawa Clan is important,” Mitsuki acknowledged. “But why must it be Shinsou?”

“That is not for my wife or myself to justify,” Shouta cut in harshly, and addressed the Emperor as someone on whom great responsibility had been placed for many years, and great service given in return. “Your Majesty, I do not ask favours from you often, but I must plead for you to give Shinsou to me.”

Toshinori did something none of them expected, and turned to look straight at Shinsou.

“What do you say, Shinsou?” he asked. 

“Me, Your Majesty?” Shinsou replied nervously.

“Yes, I cannot be made to choose between my own biological son and most loyal general, but it is your life and service being given as a concubine, so what is your choice?”

“Your Majesty!” Mitsuki entreated, but Emperor All Might, just and fair, just raised his hand to quiet her.

“Every subject of the Empire is like a child to me, as the father of the nation,” Toshinori said firmly. “I would not wish for any daughter of mine to be voiceless in who she should marry, and both Prince Katsuki and Lord Aizawa are excellent prospects, so it is my decree that Shinsou may make this choice for herself.”

Shinsou supposed that picking neither of them wasn’t a popular option, although she could have tried it. Moreover, they were both an opportunity for even greater status and power, not to mention an escape from the lower levels of servitude. Shinsou would flee this place once she had The Tip of The High Mountain in her possession, and becoming a concubine could only improve her chances of obtaining it, couldn’t it?

“If I must choose…” Shinsou began quietly, and looked around from Mitsuki to Lord Aizawa, The Emperor, and then, finally, at Hizashi.

Their eyes met and it was as if the strings of a zither had been struck all at once, a clanging and ringing that muddled Shinsou’s head and pulled on her heart as if a song were being played on it beyond her control.

There were many reasons for making the choice, the status and power of the one she would marry, the potential it had to help Shinsou’s mission, but in the end it was none of those things that put one above the other.

It was an impulse from deep within Shinsou, one that she couldn’t stand to admit to even herself.

“I choose Aizawa,” Shinsou blurted, and saw the inevitable scowl on Mitsuki’s face . “I mean, Lord Aizawa. I choose Lord Aizawa.” She bowed, partly because she felt herself blushing embarrassingly, and said to the floor, “Thank you, Your Majesty, for considering my feelings.”

“Then it is settled,” Emperor All Might decreed. “Shinsou will become the concubine of General Aizawa.”

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

It wasn't until they got back to Yamada Pavillion and reached one of the deeper rooms that Shouta and Hizashi were finally alone, and the silence until then had been positively deafening. Even resolving the matters of Eri’s near abduction, and the confused scheme around it that seemed to end at the closed doors of Shigeraki Palace, was a matter for no talk compared to this latest development. After all, they were both on the same page about the danger their daughter had been in, but this was something else entirely.

Shinsou was returning to the Aizawa household, and in a more compromising position than ever.

“Well… that didn't go quite as I expected,” Shouta spoke first.

“Oh really?” Hizashi replied sharply. “Could've fooled me.”

“Why do you say that?” Shouta asked calmly, as a man staring into a storm that he knew would drench him regardless of what he did.

“You mean this isn't exactly what you wanted?” Hizashi accused. “Shinsou delivered directly to your bed?”

“You would rather she's in Prince Katsuki’s bed instead?” Shouta posed.

“That's not what I meant!” Hizashi snapped, bitter for more reasons than his being absolutely right.

“Then what did you mean?” Shouta challenged coolly. “If you didn’t care what happened to Shinsou you then wouldn’t have blown in there so full of thunder, but you were adamant Mitsuki couldn’t have her, so I put a stop to it, like you wanted.”

“I don’t want anyone to have her!” Hizashi accused, glaring at her husband who had so neatly managed to make his supposed charity be of such personal benefit. “Even you.”

“Let me guess, she’s for no one except you?” Shouta retorted dryly.

“Yes! No! That’s not the point,” Hizashi evaded. “You were the one who demanded Shinsou be your concubine, Shouta. I just wanted her away from Bakugo Palace.”

“Making Shinsou my concubine was the only way to do that,” Shouta said with a level head, ever the famed tactician, both on and off the battlefield.

“You don’t know that,” Hizashi tried to claim.

“You know it as well as I do,” Shouta responded, and let the silence of that sit a moment. Hizashi did know it just as well as he did, she just didn’t like it.

“Fuck,” Hizashi spat in the end. “Well, it’s done now.”

“It can be undone, if you want Katsuki to take her back,” Shouta taunted.

“No!” Hizashi burst, and in that moment with the Emperor, they had both responded the same way, felt that same possessive lurch for Shinsou to be theirs before anyone else’s. 

“Then it’s settled,” Shouta posed, and Hizashi gave a great sigh.

“You’re right,” she huffed, settling down onto a cushioned bench in one of the more private rooms of Yamada Pavillion and putting her head in her hand to sulk. “I suppose you’re going to want her to yourself the first night, aren’t you?”

“It would be customary,” Lord Aizawa replied aloofly, taking a seat across from his wife in a lacquer armchair. “Not to mention, you had Shinsou all to yourself the first, oh, six months?”

“So?” Hizashi challenged.

“So? It's only fair I get my turn,” Shouta pointed out, and while he was in the business of making observations continued, “You can't be so in love with her you'd deny me one night.”

“I am not in love with Shinsou!” Hizashi burst.

“Of course not, just look how rational you are about her,” Shouta observed disbelievingly. “You know, you might feel less troubled if you just admitted it to yourself.”

“You're the one with the fixation,” Hizashi hurled back. “You had to find a way to make her yours because I wouldn't let you have her, and now you're trying to shift the focus onto my feelings to cover your own.”

“If you say so,” Shouta said, semi convincingly. 

“I hate you and I hate it here,” Hizashi accused, venting her anger to see if it would help while Shouta remained ever steady, ever composed, and ever her rock, knowing she didn't really mean it. He just waited until she could make her peace. “Fine, be like that,” Hizashi finally relented with a hiss like a cornered cat in an especially foul mood. “But after that first night, Shinsou is only yours after I’m done with her.”

Shouta gave a shrug that could have been interpreted as indifference, but held more subtlety than that. It was the shrug of a man accepting a fate that was really not so disagreeable to him, not even at all, since it amounted to his wife making sure his concubine was good and ready to be fucked by him when he wanted her, which was not such a terrible burden to bear.

Except the first night Shinsou finally came to his bed. That was all for him.

Without any hint of reluctance, Shouta agreed, “As you wish.”

~~~

News spread like wildfire in The Forbidden City, such that Shinsou arrived back at Bakugo Palace to be greeted at the gates by Monoma, who had her things all packed up in advance, and met her with the words, “You must be ever so pleased with yourself.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Shinsou replied, having made her own way back to Bakugo Palace since Consort Mitsuki all but stormed off after Shinsou cast her choice. She knew it meant burning bridges with her current Mistress, but in the moment there was no other choice Shinsou could have made, and even now, she couldn’t find it in herself to regret it.

“Well, you were always more fond of the Aizawas than you let on, so I suppose I can’t be surprised you picked them,” Monoma said as if in consolation, handing Shinsou’s things to her. “Consort Mitsuki says if you set so much as a finger back in this palace she’ll remove it, and I wouldn’t test her resolve.”

“If it’s worth anything, I appreciate everything she and Prince Katsuki did for me,” Shinsou offered dourly, knowing it was likely no good. Katsuki and Izuku would be upset with her choice too, the former likely far more than the latter, who might even find some clever way to thank Shinsou further, but Katsuki and Izuku still had each other, and Shinsou would’ve always been on the sidelines compared to that at the end of the day. “I just…”

“You don’t have to justify yourself to me, Shinsou,” Monoma said with the indifference of a servant who had allies and loyalties to suit his own aspirations, but at the end of the day looked out for himself before he took offence over the politics of nobles. “I just hope you know what you’re getting yourself into.”

“I… think so,” Shinsou said uncertainty. “Then, if I’ve been cast out from Bakugo Palace already, where do I go now?”

“There are some preparations to be made before you are officially given to Lord Aizawa as a concubine,” Monoma explained, and rather than walking back into Bakugo Palace, set off away from it, gesturing Shinsou to follow on with him. “So for the meantime you’ll need temporary accommodation somewhere else, and I’ve got just the place in mind.”

Sensing where she was being led, figuratively more than literally, Shinsou said suavely, “It’s not your bed by any chance, Supervisor Monoma?”

“You would scorn my generosity!?” he exclaimed, apparently confident no one would overhear them while walking these paths at this time, or maybe just not caring. If he ruined Shinsou’s reputation now it would not amount to much, nor would Shinsou expect the Aizawas to let her go over it. She should be so lucky to escape being effectively married off to Lord Aizawa, and to that effect, had little to lose by flaunting her wantonness on the streets of The Forbidden City. “I’ll have you know the bed of a senior eunuch is a great kindness to a palace maid without a place to go for the night, after all, who would take advantage of you there?”

“You would,” Shinsou pointed out, and Monoma rolled his head to look at her sideways, his signature smug grin stretching from ear to ear.

“Well, you’ve got me there.”

~~~

Shinsou’s last night with Monoma, assuming it would be the last, which was a grand assumption considering he’d had his dick in some part of Shinsou even while she was still with Hizashi, and surely wouldn’t be deterred now she was going to become Lord Aizawa’s concubine, was surprisingly… mellow. The senior eunuch was first and foremost interested in Shinsou undressing him and helping him bathe from a practical point of view, even going so far as to slap Shinsou’s hands away from his crotch when they strayed that way, assuming it was what he’d wanted.

“Lewd girl,” he scolded, clicking his tongue and settling himself back in the bath unmolested. Sometimes, Shinsou was certain he enjoyed refusing and criticising her for being forward as much as any sexual gratification she granted him, which sort of made sense, if she thought about it.

Assumptions, Shinsou learned, and would be taught even further, were always a risky bet in The Forbidden City. Anyone would have thought Monoma wanted the companionship of Shinsou being with him as much as putting his dick in her, since it took his famously long time before he was ready to retire to bed, long after Shinsou had started to warm it for him, and some time yet from joining her in it before he was ready to indulge in that lewd pleasure he’d been so quick to refuse earlier.

“I suppose I better,” Monoma appeared to sigh as he climbed on top of Shinsou in the depths of night at long last, as if he were performing this deed for her benefit. “You’ll need a good deal of preparation before being given to General Aizawa, after all.”

“What’s he like?” Shinsou asked, curious for an insider’s knowledge such as Monoma, even as he teased and finally slipped his cock into her lazily. 

“Ferocious, from what I’ve heard,” Monoma replied, uncaring as always of discussing the other men Shinsou had or would have sex with. If anything, his cock throbbed a little harder inside Shinsou as he began thrusting it back and forth, perhaps imagining what Shinsou had yet to experience.

“Really?” Shinsou asked, attempts not to sound worried hollow even to herself.

“Look at his exploits on the battlefield,” Monoma pointed out. “If he fucks anything like he fights, then you’re in for total domination.” Shinsou didn’t react on the outside, but there was a little clench on the inside that didn’t go amiss, given the sensitivity of where they were connected. “Oh? Are you excited or scared?” he teased, fucking Shinsou as someone enjoying a familiar comfort, rather than making and grand statement or send off.

“A bit of both,” Shinsou admitted, ever more unclear on just what she was getting herself into.

~~~

If Shinsou hadn’t known what she was getting herself into by becoming Lord Aizawa’s concubine, his wife made it her mission to make that absolutely, terrifyingly clear.

Shinsou’s morning consisted of being summoned to a part of The Forbidden City she’d never been to before, a building used by noble ladies who did not reside within one of the existing palaces to get dressed and made up. Now that she was becoming the concubine of an esteemed General and powerful Lord, Shinsou was considered among those noble ladies, though this did not make her feel any more comfortable as she entered the bathhouse and dressing rooms to see Hizashi stood in the doorway with her arms crossed and a look like she could set Shinsou on fire with a single glare.

“Well then,” Hizashi said austerely as Shinsou approached and bowed, half expecting a sword to take her head off at the neck as she lowered it in front of her once more mistress. “You certainly fixed this one up nicely for yourself.”

“I don’t know what you mean, Lady Hizashi,” Shinsou said shallowly, knowing the words weren’t convincing, but that to not say them was a worse insult. “I am honoured to be taken as Lord Aizawa’s concubine and return to the service of Aizawa Manor.”

“We’ll see how long your gratitude lasts,” Hizashi replied cruelly, then turned on her platform heels and strode off with a bark of, “Follow me.”

Shinsou had expected to be cleaned and made up if she was going to be presented as a concubine to such a powerful person, but even experiencing Hizashi’s ruthless demands before with regards to physical appearance, this was something else entirely. Mixed most likely with the fact that Hizashi seemed determined to make sure Shinsou was as uncomfortable as possible and hurt at every opportunity, whether it was plucking out hair from different parts of her body, squeezing her body into layers of robes, or pulling her hair and scalp with the most elaborate and heavy hairstyle yet.

Never did Shinsou complain, not out loud, but she only needed to show it in her face for Hizashi to know how she felt.

“If you think this is bad you won’t last the night with my husband,” Hizashi told Shinsou in an ominous whisper, delivered while leaning close to her ear while driving some new hair ornament directly into Shinsou’s brain, or so it felt. Shinsou didn't think it was normal for Hizashi to be so hands on with preparation of a concubine, given the confusion of the girls working in this part of the palace, but Hizashi merely brushed them off and insisted only she knew what her husband's exacting taste called for, and therefore only she was qualified to put all the finishing touches on Shinsou.

“He wants to stab me with hair pins all night?” Shinsou dared to respond, getting a sharp tug on the pin in Hizashi's hand for her trouble. If Shinsou had ever expected some reaction from Hizashi other than a return to her biting cold cruelty those notions had long since died. Rather than being at all pleased at Shinsou's return to her household, Hizashi seemed more determined than ever that she should suffer.

“No, the thing he'll stab you with all night is much bigger,” Hizashi replied lowly, circling around Shinsou like a bird of prey waiting for the right moment to dive.

Taking a delicate brush dipped in red pigment, Hizashi applied the colour to Shinsou's upper lip, and being so close to her after so long apart was… confusing.

Hizashi told her, “I'm sure you think you can handle what's coming to you, Shinsou, but you have no idea.”

“Is that so?” Shinsou replied when the brush finally left her mouth, knowing the consequences of speaking before Hizashi was done painting her.

“Lord Aizawa is a real man, not some boy you've messed around with,” Hizashi said forebodingly. “Which I'm well aware you've been doing.”

Deciding if Hizashi was going to be spiteful and bitter then two could play at that game, Shinsou reminded her caustically, “Isn’t that what you trained me for?”

With a point like one of those hairpins slid through Shinsou's tightly bound hair, Hizashi phrased with ice cold beauty, “To be a slut?”

Anyone who'd been trying to assist Hizashi or Shinsou in this preparation ritual had long since fled the room in fear of the Lady Hizashi's fearsome aura, so it was only as Shinsou met Hizashi's eyes in defiance that it struck her there was no one in here besides the two of them.

Hizashi hadn't wanted Shinsou to serve Katsuki at Bakugo Palace, that much was clear, but it was also clear that she wasn't too thrilled on Shinsou serving her husband either.

“Exactly,” Shinsou declared, since it was Hizashi from the very start who'd pulled her into the world of carnal pleasures, then ripped it all away without so much as an explanation. A proper explanation, not the bullshit she claimed it was.

Shinsou wanted to be angry with Hizashi more than anything, and she was. She was furious that the wound had never healed, just scabbed over ready to be torn open again, a further act of spite left for her by her fickle mistress.

But when Hizashi raised an empty hand slowly towards Shinsou's face, and clasped her jaw ever so delicately, there was still a part of Shinsou ready to just melt into the touch.

“I trained you to be my slut, Shinsou,” Hizashi delivered with all the overwhelming radiance that she'd honed and cultivated over so many years, the power to amaze and terrify in the same instant, “and you better never forget it.”

Shinsou felt dizzy, unsure if it was the tightness of the robes binding her body or the tightness of her hair, or the breath from Hizashi's mouth close enough for her to inhale.

Her lips moved silently at first, then fumbled a disoriented, “I…” and trailed off before she said something awful, like how much she'd missed Hizashi since the day they were parted, or that she didn't make her choice based on the man she'd be with, but the woman she'd get to be close to once again. Even though Shinsou shouldn't care so much or want so much, she did care and want and hated Hizashi for being so harsh to her and hated herself that it didn't make her want Hizashi any less, maybe even more.

“Now, Shouta’s going to have his way with you tonight,” Hizashi told Shinsou like it was her punishment, and maybe it already was, because he wasn’t her, “and you're going to regret ever trying to entice him in the first place.”

The swell of Shinsou's want finally passing the high water mark, she drew back into defiance once more.

“Lord Aizawa is just one man,” Shinsou acted tough, “I'm sure I can manage for a night.”

Hizashi's gaze shifted in nature, beautiful, calculating eyes taking on something almost soft for a moment, her touch on Shinsou's face almost a caress before she withdrew her hand.

“Famous last words,” Hizashi warned, giving Shinsou a last look up and down and a nod of approval. “You'll see.”

Whether she liked it or not, and she honestly couldn’t tell if she did, Shinsou's trepidation grew ever stronger.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

It somehow took a whole day for Shinsou to become Lord Aizawa’s concubine, despite starting out in the morning and foolishly believing it would be as simple as going back to Yamada Pavillion and picking up where she’d left off. Nothing seemed further from the truth, since after getting dressed up beyond her wildest dreams and psychologically intimidated by Hizashi, Shinsou had to get into an ornate sedan carried by palace servants, which was the way noble women got around The Forbidden City if they didn’t care to walk, like precious items on display.

This was just one of many signs that Shinsou was becoming part of the nobility she’d once served as a humble maid, though she was of course still dirt beneath the feet of those born noble and whom Shinsou would still undoubtedly serve, being of low birth and taken as a mere concubine of a powerful Lord. However, to the people of The Forbidden City who were largely born to good backgrounds, Shinsou was a rare diamond in the rough, so showing her off at her most decorated was part of the pomp and ceremony that went into most everything in The Forbidden City.

Shinsou felt strange being carried on the shoulders of eunuchs she’d once worked alongside, herself holding up a weight of beautiful jewelled hairpieces and dressed in a gold decorated robe of bridal red, despite knowing that she was not actually getting married to Aizawa in a legal sense, which would have made her his consort and not just a lowly concubine.

However, the rules of status in this world within a world meant even a concubine of a man such as Lord Aizawa was more powerful than many others in The Forbidden City. Shinsou had not really appreciated that until seeing basically the entirety of The Forbidden City lined up along the route the sedan carried her to watch her go by. Shinsou herself had become a display of wealth and power to be envied by others, and she felt the weight of that envy on her tour. The sedan must have taken the least direct route to Yamada Pavillion possible, and also involved a brief stop off at the head of the Imperial Household Department, where Mitsuki’s envoys with a frosty reserve ended Shinsou’s time of belonging to The Forbidden City’s workforce once and for all.

The rest of this spectacle being what it was, Shinsou could appreciate no longer needing to be a servant, and for giddy moments even indulged in the human enjoyment of the moment. Since she arrived in The Forbidden City Shinsou had been accused of a being a social climber of the highest order, and while this was not the truth, and exploiting the hierarchy of this place was simply a method to get closer to her true goal, flaunting her success at it to those who’d looked down on or tried to bully her was ever so gratifying.

While Shinsou’s route avoided Bakugo Palace of course, surely for the best, since neither mother or son would be good at holding back their contempt of Shinsou for her choice, Prince Izuku was there with Noble Lady Inko outside Midoriya Palace. Unsurprisingly, Prince Izuku was grinning widely, a smile Shinsou returned as she trotted on by, sealed with a look of unmistakable understanding. Her route also necessitated passing Shigeraki Palace, which was still under confinement due to Prince Tomura’s unacknowledged guilt, and thankfully the doors were fast shut and no one came out to see Shinsou passing in the sedan, though she might have felt a cold chill after passing the gate and no longer being able to turn back and check if anyone’s head popped out.

The last familiar face Shinsou saw on her lap of honour was one she had been dreading for some reason, not quite knowing why until the moment she set eyes on a soldier’s uniform and knew with a sharp pulse in her chest who it was.

The look on General Todoroki’s face as he saw Shinsou on her way to become Lord Aizawa’s concubine could be described only as utter betrayal, though Shinsou couldn’t imagine why he felt that way. Todoroki had never expressed any kind of interest in Shinsou that would lead her to believe he’d be offended by her becoming Aizawa’s concubine, yet the way he looked at Shinsou was an undeniable mixture of confusion and hurt. Shinsou took a breath and steadied herself, pushing forward with the certainty that Todoroki would come to find her at some inopportune time, and she’d get a chance to ask him why he looked so horrified.

Yamada Pavillion was the de facto arm of the Aizawa Clan in The Forbidden City, being the lifelong residence of Lady Hizashi as the Emperor’s cousin. As if it wasn’t enough already being head of one of the most powerful clans behind the Emperor’s bloodline itself, and proven on the battlefield time and again as the ferocious General Eraserhead, Lord Aizawa had married directly into the Imperial family to cement his position as one of the most powerful men in the Empire.

For all that power he rarely flaunted it, a valuable resource to be called on only when required, making it all the more surprising that he had chosen to call on this status to steal a concubine from the Emperor’s own son for himself. This was of course what everyone gossiped about while Shinsou went past them, seeing with their own eyes what all the fuss was about, passing whispered judgements that Shinsou heard in great detail.

By the time Shinsou actually arrived at Yamada Pavillion she felt more like a piece of treasure than ever, furthered by the fact that she was registered by the Aizawa Clan there like any other object gifted by the Emperor.

Lord and Lady Aizawa merely watched Shinsou arrive at a distance from the gates of the main building, standing side by side with the husband supporting his wife by the hand. Lady Hizashi was as beautifully put together as ever, but even Lord Aizawa had smartened up from his usual appearance, wearing formal robes and his own hair pulled back and tied neatly, accentuating the cross of scars around his eye covered by a patch that was even specially embroidered to match with the rest of his robes.

No one said anything to Shinsou as she arrived, both husband and wife walking back into the main building while Shinsou was shown to an outbuilding within the Yamada Pavillion compound, which featured some other pretty buildings as if decorations to further enhance the majestic beauty of the main building. Shinsou was shown to not a bed in a dorm, or a room of her own, but an entire building that was for her use from now on, equipped with an attendant or two who’d made it ready for her and would see to it being kept clean and managed while Shinsou was there. 

That was a little strange, since Shinsou had expected to be taken directly to the bedroom she’d lived in with Hizashi when it had just been the two of them here. But, it couldn’t be forgotten, it was not just the two of them here anymore, and it wasn’t Hizashi that Shinsou was being given as a concubine to.

Shinsou found out from her attendants after arriving that Lord Aizawa would come to her bedroom ‘at night’ and nothing more specific, leaving Shinsou to rid herself of the excessive clothing and decoration that had her neck aching from holding her head up in such a position for so long. Shinsou was tolerant of a lot of pain, but the agony of a tight hairstyle and heavy pins and ornaments was something even she found difficult to bear.

It was late afternoon by the time Shinsou arrived at all to Yamada Pavillion, two hours further that it took her to get unmade up from the morning, then put back together presentably enough to receive Lord Aizawa, and longer even than that before he decided to make an appearance. The anticipation of knowing he was on his way but not knowing when was a torture that must have been by design, so exquisite was the agony of jumping to alertness at every set of footsteps only to be disappointed by them merely passing by. 

No doubt, business with the Emperor or his wife kept Lord Aizawa occupied, and as a concubine, Shinsou should be so fortunate as to receive his visitation at all. However, Shinsou was not of the patient type, so when it was already dark by the time Lord Aizawa came to Shinsou’s residence the words she met him with were a churlish, “Took your time.”

“Apologies,” Aizawa replied to Shinsou’s surprise, since such offence to Hizashi would be akin to requesting her immediate despise, but all made a little more sense when Shinsou’s not quite husband tipped his head at her and said, “I didn’t realise you were awaiting me so eagerly.”

“The only thing I’m allowed to do today is sit in and wait for you,” Shinsou countered, turning to walk through the main sitting room of her new quarters and straight to the bedroom at the back of it, having already made herself comfortable and unpacked the few possessions she had, which were themselves things given to her while working in The Forbidden City, since she’d set out on this mission without even the clothes on her back. “So yes, I’d rather get on with it.”

“I see,” Lord Aizawa remarked, following her and closing the door of Shinsou’s bedroom, a simple room with a dressing table and a spacious bed. “You have some other urgent business around here to attend to?”

Shinsou froze for a second, realising that her carelessness around a person whose suspicion of her had been second only to Todoroki was perhaps unadvisable, and turned around to face Aizawa with a fresh smile.

“Of course not, I was just… eager to finally be with you, like you said.” It was perhaps not her most convincing performance, but that did not seem to matter to Aizawa, who brushed it off and came to a stop in the middle of the room.

“Help me get all this off,” Aizawa requested indifferently, as if ordering some servant and not a new concubine on their first night together.

Shinsou had been promised many things about this man, and was now closer than she’d ever been to finding out which of them were true.

“Yes… my lord,” Shinsou phrased clumsily, realising before she said it she’d put no thought into how she was supposed to address him now.

Shinsou set to her business, carefully removing the layers of robes Aizawa had been dressed up in for this occasion, albeit far fewer and simpler than the monstrosity Shinsou had been put through. She had already changed thankfully, and expecting easy access wore just a simple robe tied loosely around her waist. Eventually just Aizawa’s innermost robe remained, and this Shinsou left as it was, as she didn’t have the guts to keep going at that exact moment.

“Shall I take down your hair as well?” Shinsou checked instead, having done the same herself, even though many ladies kept their hairstyles for as long as possible to preserve the glamour, even sleeping in them. Shinsou expected no style to survive the night after what she’d been told of General Aizawa.

“Please,” he said simply,  walking over to sit on the stool by the dressing table so that Shinsou could reach his head. 

The lack of speech between them only increased the tension, along with the strange feeling Shinsou got around him, more so than anyone else. There was an anticipation of being in Aizawa’s company that Shinsou couldn’t control, as if its root was from the very core of her being, and nothing based on this frivolous world around them.

Something about this peculiar feeling peaked after Shinsou let down his hair, falling long and dark around his shoulders, ruffled as Aizawa raised his hands to run thick fingers through and scrunch his loose locks looser.

“So then,” Aizawa announced, turning around on the stool to now face Shinsou, looking up at her with a truly unreadable expression, “this is what you wanted, right?”

Shinsou couldn’t answer for a moment, because it was as if the question echoed in her ears over and over, words said before, heard before, felt before.

“Yeah,” Shinsou responded after a delay, swallowing with a dry mouth and knowing that’s what she would always say, like following a groove worn in a stone over centuries. “I want this.”

As Shinsou remaind motionless, Aizawa reached for her sleeve and gave it a tug, coaxing her down to sit in his lap, his arm around her waist to hold her steady as his other hand gently pinched her chin, tipping her face from side to side to examine her up close.

“Why are you so familiar to me?” Aizawa breathed quietly, and Shinsou’s eyes widened at the realisation that he felt the same way.

“You too?” she replied, and from then on, the only thing that could come after was the curious press of Shinsou’s mouth over Aizawa’s.

The shifting feeling stopped, as if finally finding the fit it had been searching for, and a flurry of images blew through Shinsou’s being as if channelling the power of an undiscovered relic. It was difficult to make out, but Shinsou saw themself and Aizawa, over and over, as one thing or another or another, but always together, and always, inevitably, like this.

Flashes stronger than the others stood out, seemed to dominate the landscape made up on the flutter of a million butterflies’ wings. Shinsou, wearing strange foreign clothes unlike anything seen in this land, Aizawa, all in black with a mantle of white around his shoulders. There was a feeling with these images that Shinsou knew intensely, words that felt bonded with those feelings, of their being together in another time and place than this.

Shinsou pulled back from the kiss like a shock, and was too stunned to think about what she was saying and just said straight from the unconscious, “Sensei?”

Aizawa was looking back at Shinsou with the same wide eyed astonishment, perhaps not as clear on what they’d experienced as a well honed spirit, but clearly knowing something beyond the realm of a mere human.

Especially since he responded, “Yes,” to this address, murmuring, as if words in his sleep, “I was your teacher…”

“How?” Shinsou asked, realising only now she’d clasped her hands behind his neck, and thought nothing of sitting like this with him, legs spread across his thighs, weightless in his hold.

“I don’t know,” Aizawa replied, and the heat in his solitary eye flared. “I just know…” and this time he kissed Shinsou deeply, leaning over and pulling with his arm to draw her in and capture Shinsou’s mouth. The canvas of butterflies dispersed into a chaotic storm of raw emotion, a need that was not cultivated lightly, but grew on a cosmic scale, and could only be assuaged by the two of them together.

At some point Aizawa stood up and carried Shinsou over to the bed, and at some point he pulled her robe untied, and his mouth on Shinsou’s mouth became one on her jaw and neck, then collarbone and chest, covering her breasts and then descending her stomach as his rough palms mapped out her inner thighs and rose up between her legs.

“I know what you like,” Aizawa said huskily, not as a bold or unfounded claim, simply a statement of knowledge. He did know what Shinsou liked, whether it was similar to what Hizashi liked, who had trained Shinsou so well for pleasure, or because he already knew it the way they knew each other beyond normal comprehension. He fingered Shinsou’s cunt like checking up on an old friend, easily drew pleasure from her like the resumption of an unfinished conversation.

Shinsou barely knew how he did it, but with a mouth on one of her nipples and his fingers working her clit, she climaxed in no time at all, so expertly was her tune picked by his masterful fingers.

“One,” Aizawa said, tone low and cloying.

“What?” Shinsou murmured.

“Count, one,” Aizawa instructed.

“One what?” Shinsou said no less groggily.

“You’ll pick it up,” he insisted, and by the time his mouth made it between her legs and brought Shinsou easily to orgasm again, and then followed it with the word, “Two,” she knew what to count.

~~~

Time after that got fuzzy, edges all erased by the powerful mix of pleasure and continued stream of cosmic energy that burst in Shinsou at Aizawa’s every touch. For a man who’d taken long enough to even come to her bed in the first place, he took longer still to take her fully.

By the time Aizawa was finally naked, his cock thick and impressively hard, and spread Shinsou’s shaking thighs out to settle himself between them, a thumb idly stroking her clit as he forced his way into her quivering, twitching tight hole, it was all Shinsou could do not to howl like the wild animal she was.

“F-five,” she stammered instead, while the shape of his cock stroked every inch of her insides as Aizawa pushed it sure and deep to bottom out within her.

“Just from putting it in?” he remarked teasingly, and Shinsou nodded when words failed her.

Shinsou finally got to see more of what made him and Hizashi such a tightly bound couple. A love for sexual torment, especially Shinsou’s, though their methods were vastly different. While Hizashi pursued and denied a single climax of the greatest quality, her husband marshalled sheer quantity. Whether large or small, it was the volume and frequency of Shinsou’s orgasms that he tracked, or more accurately insisted throughout that Shinsou keep count.

The more time turned into a blur of colours and animal desire, the more Shinsou realised that none of the warnings, not even Hizashi’s, had been anything close to the reality, and that reality was her power to do anything but get off while in Aizawa’s presence was nonexistent. His stamina was perhaps the most outstanding feature, since Izuku had been bigger and Tomura had been rougher, but the precision in the way Aizawa used his cock and his seemingly being made of stone made it beyond even the complete domination Monoma had foretold from the General’s exploits on the battlefield. Aizawa pounded Shinsou so relentlessly without a moment of respite that she knew nothing else, barely even her own name, knowing that only because it became the only thing either of them said, just to call each other’s names. First Shinsou and Aizawa, but then, somewhere after orgasm eleven, Hitoshi and Shouta.

Aizawa’s own orgasm seemed to be nowhere in sight, and in sexual performance, he outlasted and outperformed over time anything done to Shinsou by any other man. One woman, of course, and deep in the night, when Shinsou had counted past her own age in years, the door of the bedroom opened. The person entering was lit from behind, known to both Shinsou and Aizawa from the outline of her figure.

“I did try to warn you,” Hizashi announced in the smuggest possible tone. 

Shinsou was on her back underneath Aizawa, held up by the waist in each of his broad strong hands, supporting her body in the most comfortable position for him to rock into over and again while kneeling down close to the bed. Rolling her head to see Hizashi come in, Shinsou noted she didn’t even close the door behind her, though everyone was likely asleep by now anyway. Hizashi was dressed up in a nightgown herself that was well fastened against the chill of deepest night.

“Easily pleased, isn’t she?” Aizawa remarked, and by this stage Shinsou’s entire pussy was so tender and swollen, slick and oversensitive, that it took only the lightest teasing brush of her clit for her to be writhing in pleasure, a show that husband put on for his wife, whose response was just to roll her eyes.

“A glutton for it,” Hizashi concurred, as if it hadn’t been her who’d broken in Shinsou in the first place. Coming up to the side of the bed, Shinsou’s head not far from the edge, Hizashi sat down and perched next to Shinsou, reaching over to brush her hand down the side of Shinsou’s sweaty cheek and hold her face, holding it up to look into Shinsou’s glazed eyes for herself. “Perhaps you were with boys before, but my husband is a real man.” It was only then Shinsou accepted fully that Hizashi had come here for no other purpose than to goad and gloat. “It’s going to be nice for me having you around to take care of his needs now, it’s really rather exhausting to have done it all by myself all this time.”

“You loved it,” Aizawa retorted confidently, and Shinsou had gotten used to being in the middle of a couple from Katsuki and Izuku, but it felt completely different being between these two.

“Ah, yes, but it can be hard on the body sometimes, and Shinsou’s ever so good at taking punishment,” Hizashi cooed.

Aizawa’s cock still moved in Shinsou rhythmically, but even fully dressed, barely touching one of them, Hizashi had pulled all the focus, exactly as she wanted. Despite coming seventeen times already, perhaps eighteen with the showpiece for Hizashi, there was nothing Shinsou wanted more at that point than to feel Hizashi do it to her, and as proven, she wasn’t the only one who felt like that.

“Then show me,” Aizawa said gruffly, his chest heaving and the pulses of his cock more animated in Shinsou’s cunt. “Show me what you’d do to her.”

But who was Hizashi, if not a bitter and possessive bearer of grudges? 

“Oh no, you wanted her all to yourself for the first night,” Hizashi announced assertively, now using what had once been a concession she’d made into a weapon to punish, since no one knew how to do that better than she did. “I’m just here to see that you don’t kill her.”

“Takes more than this to take me out,” Shinsou responded, intending to sound more confrontational and less fucked out, but accepting it either way.

“There’s time yet,” said Hizashi dismissively, standing up again with a last brush of Shinsou’s wild and damp hair. “You know this is only about the halfway point for a special occasion like this.” Turning back to her husband, wearing a coy smile that met his begrudging respect of her refusal to get involved, Hizashi remarked, “I don’t recall you letting me sleep at all on our wedding night, did you?”

“Likewise,” Aizawa deflected, while Shinsou let her head fall back lax again and surrendered herself to whatever she was in for. Almost like they had been here before. All of them.

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

True to form, what little sleep Shinsou got the night she became the concubine of Lord Aizawa may have been gotten while he was still at the very least inside her, slipping in and out of consciousness as the infamous General showed Shinsou what he meant by total victory.

By the time dawn’s light slipped the horizon, any instruction Aizawa gave would be obeyed without a second thought, since a second thought required a first, and Shinsou had zero. She lost track of everything except Aizawa himself, even her mission for The Tip of The High Mountain, and that was scary. Shinsou had to be careful around anyone powerful enough to eclipse her mission like that, but she hadn’t wherewithal to be wary either.

When morning came Shinsou was finally allowed some rest, since it was technically daytime, and the busy Lord Aizawa left after taking barely more than a nap beside an exhausted Shinsou, rising while she was actually asleep and departing for his business of the day. This was always to be present as the Emperor’s advisor, a running order for the famed General wherever he was in The Forbidden City, a rare thing he’d sought to make rarer, concentrating the little time he did make himself available in service of the Empire worth it while it lasted.

Shinsou was woken up, sore and groggy, by an attendant who had been sent to fetch her to come to Hizashi’s room. This was thankfully on the later side of the morning, Hizashi herself prone to sleeping late, and Shinsou managed to get some much needed rest.

A little confused by the summons, Shinsou got herself presentably dressed as quickly as possible and crossed over to the room she’d been tied up in and spent many a pleasurable and painful hour, finding Hizashi asleep in her customary pile of blankets.

“Mistress… uh, Hizashi, I was told to report to you,” Shinsou announced herself mildly, not knowing what side of Hizashi she was going to get.

Rolling herself half up on her hands, posed like a stretching tiger, Hizashi yawned and said, neither fierce or gentle, “Help me get up and dressed, Shinsou. Obviously.”

“Oh, yes, of course,” Shinsou fell into pattern, since no one had completely explained it to her satisfaction, but Shinsou loosely understood the purpose of her role as a concubine was to help take care of Lord Aizawa, a responsibility that fell first and foremost to his wife, so serving Hizashi was still part of her role, even if she was no longer a servant in quite the same way as before, complicated as all these things were.

“You’re remarkably chipper,” Hizashi observed as Shinsou got back into a routine she’d gotten so accustomed to when they’d been here before. She tidied the bed once Hizashi had gotten out of it, taking the sleeping robes Hizashi deigned to remove herself this morning, a new outfit already set out for the next day and hung nearby, as if with the preplanned design that Shinsou would be here to put it on her.

“I bounce back quickly,” Shinsou excused, finding herself incapable of being anything except what she’d become around Hizashi when it was just the two of them, which knew no roles or status. “Nice try, though.”

“Hm,” Hizashi murmured, concealing whether she was impressed or disappointed with Shinsou’s fast recovery from what was admittedly a night of hard labour. It ended only when Aizawa finally succumbed to his own selfish pleasure and came inside Shinsou, from that point passing out almost immediately, dick still inside her as it softened at long fucking last. “You never did respond to that kind of discipline.”

“Punishing me with sex?” Shinsou inferred, lazily brushing out Hizashi’s hair in preparation for fastening it into the style of the day, not really servitude so much as habit. “It’s a bit counterintuitive, isn’t it?”

Turning suddenly and snatching her wrist holding the brush, Hizashi locked eyes with Shinsou and told her, “Not when you do it right.”

Hizashi knew how to do it right. She was the only one who did.

Shinsou had gotten the message loud and clear from Hizashi that they were not simply going to pick up where they left off, and just because Shinsou had wormed her way back here didn’t mean Hizashi wasn’t still cross with her. But Hizashi was always annoyed with Shinsou about something or the other before and that had never been the problem, it was just that they weren’t resolving the tension properly.

Shinsou could’ve waited, could’ve tried to earn her mistress’s favour back the honest way, and accepted Hizashi’s refusal to be with her again until she deserved it.

But Shinsou didn’t want to deserve it, and had learned from her mistress to take what she felt entitled to before she waited to be given it, since Hizashi wouldn’t give up much that wasn’t snatched away. Anything Shinsou was willing to wait for she didn’t want enough according to Hizashi, and Shinsou wanted her mistress far more than that.

With a desperate lunge Shinsou threw herself at Hizashi, dropping the hairbrush in favour of grabbing the sides of Hizashi’s face as she lurched forward to crush their mouths together, knowing as she did Hizashi would attempt to jerk back at first in outrage at Shinsou daring to initiate something she’d made it clear she wasn’t allowed.

Hizashi had been the first person to kiss Shinsou in this life, and doing it again was a reclamation of what Shinsou had allowed to be taken away. First this, then The Tip of The High Mountain, all would be hers again.

Shinsou felt Hizashi’s scowl on her mouth, then the turn of that fury onto her directly at long last, the long stare into the sun. After a short hesitation, Hizashi’s resistance yielded, and she kissed Shinsou back as fiercely as Shinsou had thrown herself onto her. But before it could go further Hizashi grabbed Shinsou by the collar and pulled her down hard, until she fell to her knees before her seated mistress.

Hizashi would’ve said something cruel, something vindictive, something about making Shinsou pay for everything she’d done since leaving Hizashi’s side, having sex with her husband included.

Shinsou decided to say something instead.

“I chose you,” she confessed to Hizashi, believing that nothing less would sway her than an admission of what Hizashi loathed most of all. Weaknesses, such as attachment. “It wasn’t Lord Aizawa that I picked, I just wanted to be closer to you again, whether you wanted me or not.”

Hizashi’s eyes were angry still, ill at ease with anything that wasn’t entirely her idea, but she’d held onto Shinsou tightly, and had kissed her back when she’d been kissed.

“You think that’s enough?” Hizashi posed dangerously, as if nothing less had been expected of Shinsou than to come crawling back to her whether she was wanted or not.

“I don’t care anymore,” Shinsou confessed. “I just want you, no one else is the same.”

“Of course not,” Hizashi purred, sinister but softer, and leaned over to lay a teasingly light kiss on Shinsou’s mouth. “I’m the one who made you, remember?”

Shinsou nodded, pouring herself over Hizashi desperately, even and especially knowing it meant her own obliteration.

~~~

An hour later, Shinsou was tied up in her own robes, spread out on the bed and shuddering with every touch to any part of her body, marks of her mistress’s hands in perfect pink calligraphy on her skin.

“Now then, Shinsou, you’re going to tell me everyone you were with while I was gone,” Hizashi explained to her worst behaved disciple, “as well as the ones you wouldn’t tell me about while I was here.”

“You only want to know so you can punish me,” Shinsou accused.

“Exactly, I need to know just how much you deserve to suffer,” Hizashi replied sweetly. “So tell me if you ever want to cum again.”

Making some calculated judgements, Shinsou gave up partial territory. “Prince Katsuki.”

“Everyone knows that,” Hizashi said boredly, and reached to twist one of Shinsou’s nipples. “Tell me someone I don’t know.”

“Uh, ah… Supervisor Monoma, ahh!” she moaned as Hizashi pinched her nipple and tugged it for answering incorrectly.

“He’s been around since before Katsuki, try again,” Hizashi shot.

Shinsou could have admitted she had sex with Prince Izuku without it being immediately apparent that the two princes were having an illicit affair, but it seemed too great of a risk, although the other option wasn’t exactly the best. But Hizashi wanted a name, so Shinsou had to give one up.

“Prince… Prince Tomura…” Shinsou allowed to be tortured out of her, adding the claim, “He, ah… he raped me,” Shinsou failed to convince even herself with this latter part, and Hizashi saw straight through it too.

“You can’t rape the willing, Shinsou,” Hizashi retorted unkindly, then added with more gravitas, “So you actually fucked the Emperor’s brother, did you?”

“Yes, but I only did it to find out why he targeted Eri in his plan,” Shinsou proclaimed vindictively, ready to reveal her true motivation if only to rub Hizashi’s face in something. “He admitted it was just because she’s close to Izuku, and he’d have preferred she wasn’t an Aizawa but had no choice.”

“Hm, you found out all that?” Hizashi said pensively, bringing her fingers to Shinsou’s pussy and slipping a couple of fingers into her. “Seems this cunt made itself useful while I was gone,” Shinsou whimpered at the stimulation, while her mistress continued, “however, it doesn’t change the fact that you were disloyal to me.”

“Then you shouldn’t have gone,” Shinsou blurted out, no shame left when she could grovel for her mistress and be rewarded with the pleasure only Hizashi could give her. 

“I might have believed that, if you hadn’t been messing around behind my back while we were still here,” Hizashi remarked idly, using her nails in a light scrape over the sensitive skin of Shinsou’s side.

Shinsou didn’t have an answer for that, because it was true she’d played around with Monoma, and would’ve done it again, as long as her mission stood to benefit from it.

But there was something she could say that might counteract the depth of her betrayal in Hizashi’s eyes. It was worth a try.

“I missed you.”

“Shut up,” Hizashi snapped briskly, leaning over Shinsou and looking her soulfully in the eyes. “Don’t say that.”

“It’s true,” Shinsou retaliated, pushing herself on Hizashi’s fingers as if to prove her need. “There wasn’t… no one else can do it the way you do.”

“Naturally,” Hizashi gloated. “You were foolish to ever think you could find a substitute for me, Shinsou.” 

“Yes Mistress,” Shinsou submitted ecstatically, falling back into the known embrace of Hizashi’s willful ways.

“Don’t try to be obedient now,” Hizashi said, pinching Shinsou’s cheek with her hand not buried between Shinsou’s legs. “It’s not going to reduce your punishment.”

“I don’t want it to,” Shinsou declared. “I want you to punish me.”

“Good girl,” Hizashi let slip, herself drawn back into those same habits they’d formed without trying or meaning to when it had been the two of them here for one hot and heady summer.  “Then we’ll get started properly,” she announced, at long last unfastening her own robe to reveal her glistening cunt, a strip of carefully maintained golden hair leading the way. “You can show your devotion first of all by eating me out.”

“Yes mistress,” Shinsou returned obligingly, never more gleeful for her face to be Hizashi’s seat.

Hizashi didn’t have to say it, because by the time she was rutting against Shinsou’s tongue, gasping and shaking with a fist tight in Shinsou’s hair, wrapped up in her own powerful orgasm while Shinsou’s would be dragged out to die for as long as she saw fit, there was no doubt in Shinsou’s mind that Hizashi had missed her too.

~~~

While his wife and new concubine were enjoying themselves, Lord Aizawa was hard at work. Although Hizashi had insisted to him in the morning when they briefly met up that nothing would happen ‘except what Shinsou deserved’ while he was attending to business with the Emperor, Shouta knew his wife too well not to already know exactly what Hizashi thought Shinsou deserved, whether she admitted it or not.

Between the many meetings Emperor All Might had daily, which General Aizawa joined as a respected and rare presence, there was only a little time they could carve out to speak in private. It was one such hollow of time that Shouta chose to raise a matter of great importance.

“So, what have you done with The Tip of The High Mountain?” he inquired.

“Since I took it back from Bakugo Palace at your insistence?” Toshinori remarked evenly. “You never did explain why it was so important I return it to The Immortal Palace.”

“It's safest here,” Shouta explained. “I was having dreams on the road about it and believed someone was… it's too precious to be loaned out, not even to the Imperial Consort.”

“If you feel so strongly about it then I'll honour your wishes, since it was you who found and brought it to me, General Aizawa,” Toshinori said magnanimously. “I'm surprised you've given it any further thought at all, surely you've been more occupied with your new concubine than worrying about religious relics.”

“That's actually why… never mind,” Shouta brushed off, not trusting himself enough to find the right words to explain what he felt. “Yes, ah, I'm very happy with Shinsou, thank you for allowing her to join my household instead of giving her to Prince Katsuki.”

“Yes, well Katsuki is still young, who knows how long those infatuations last,” Toshinori commented. “I'm sure you and my cousin can take excellent care of Shinsou.”

“Oh yes,” Shouta agreed. “I'm certain we will.” Hizashi was probably doing it right now, knowing her.

“That Shinsou is a charming looking girl, and she does seem to have an effect on people around here,” the Emperor continued, sipping tea and enjoying some small informal conversation between the next set of meetings governing things of far greater importance. Even he could enjoy being a gossip now and again when afforded the luxury, “Why, aside from yourself and Mistuki on behalf of Katsuki, even my brother Tomura has inquired about giving that girl to him.”

“He has?” Shouta said, barely covering his shock.

“Yes, well, I wasn't going to do something like that, especially since they were both involved in this business concerning the attack on our children, but I was surprised that Tomura would even ask, I didn't think he so much as knew her.”

“No, I had no idea,” Shouta murmured, battling demons of jealousy and outrage that the Emperor's brother either wanted to or more likely had already fucked Shinsou, as he'd never be asking after her unless he knew what was at stake. Heaven knows he’d spent only one night fucking Shinsou and would kill an army single handed to make sure he could keep on doing it.

“Anyway then, The Tip of The High Mountain, I've decided to place it on display here, since only a few people managed to visit it at Bakugo Palace.”

“You… Your Majesty means to display it?” Shouta reached for clumsily, almost forgetting his place in his distraction.

“Why yes, there's nowhere safer than here in my Immortal Palace, and such a treasure can't stay hidden away forever. Consort Mitsuki can come to see it here, and it'll make up for my indiscretion at allowing her to borrow it only to take it back again so quickly.” A look Toshinori gave him made it clear just who caused that particular discomfort.

“Of course,” Shouta agreed, since he had no other option at that point. “An excellent idea, Your Majesty.”

It was a terrible idea.

~~~

By the time Shinsou finally came, was permitted to cum, because only the orgasms that Hizashi let Shinsou have were the best ones of all, she didn't feel like there was a bone left in her body.

Shinsou wasn't sure Hizashi would even let her get off, so the fact that she did was Shinsou's proof once and for all.

Laying in a sweaty mess on the bed and tingling all over, Shinsou let out a great sigh and said, “I missed this.”

“You already said that,” Hizashi remarked groggily, herself an only slightly more composed pile next to Shinsou.

“I missed this, us,” Shinsou specified. “I tried not to, but it didn't do anything.”

The weight of Hizashi's own sigh brushed over Shinsou's skin like a silk scarf, offering her own humble admission, “I know, wildflower, I… missed us too.”

“Oh really? I absolutely definitely couldn't tell,” Shinsou teased, and rather than roll on top of her and start the whole delicious cycle again, Hizashi rolled to the edge of the bed and dragged herself up, the bare expanse of her back like cliffs down which her golden hair fell.

“I do actually need to go out today, so help me get ready for real,” Hizashi instructed.

“Alright,” Shinsou agreed, extracting herself from the mess of her robes and bedsheets and sliding to the edge of the bed after Hizashi. “Should I come with you?”

“No, no, it's just some palace business I need to show my face at, you'll be bored stiff,” Hizashi replied. “Stay here and recover, you're going to need your strength later.”

“I see,” Shinsou said quietly, trying hard not to seem overly pleased or displeased by this order, lest Hizashi get suspicious. “I am pretty worn out from the two of you.”

“Hmph,” Hizashi huffed. “We've been taking turns so far, just you wait until it's both of us abusing you at the same time.”

Not at all dishonestly, Shinsou responded, “I can't wait.”

~~~

Of course, Shinsou could wait a little while, since she'd been fucked every which way to within an inch of her life and back again, and she'd just been given unprecedented freedom for the rest of the day.

Better yet, once Shinsou had prepared Hizashi for the world outside their bedroom and sent her off to it, perhaps a tactical move, lest her power seem usurped by the presence of her husband's new concubine by her side, a quick inquiry of the latest palace gossip confirmed that The Tip of The High Mountain had just been placed on display in the Immortal Palace. As a powerful General's new concubine, Shinsou need only walk up and ask to see it, but she could be cleverer than that.

Waiting until things had settled down around Yamada Pavilion, and telling her new attendants she was tired from serving Lord and Lady Aizawa and would be taking a nap, Shinsou changed into plain clothing and with a special bundle slipped carefully away from Yamada Pavilion. Finding a quiet area on the other side of the high walls that had been easy climbing for her, especially in her energised state, Shinsou stripped off and shifted form to a human male, then changed into the eunuch’s uniform she'd carefully brought with her hidden in her other things.

If she wanted, Shinsou could probably be away from this place with The Tip of The High Mountain tonight.

The only problem was she wasn't totally sure she wanted to.

~~~

It was almost evening before Shouta made it back to Yamada Pavilion, despite his efforts to hurry back, and he was met at the gates by Hizashi.

“We should talk,” Hizashi said quickly, keen to steal him away.

“I agree,” Shouta responded, taking Hizashi by the elbow and setting off to a little pagoda in the corner of the compound that they liked to sit in as the sun was setting over The Forbidden City.

“Fun day?” Hizashi asked.

“Not really,” Shouta replied dourly. “Not compared to yours, I'm sure.”

“Oh don't be jealous, I had to go out and deal with palace business today as well, you know,” Hizashi soothed, though she'd gotten her piece of Shinsou and then some.

“After you were finished with Shinsou,” Shouta pointed out.

“Yes, well, she was very insistent, dear, I did what I could to resist,” Hizashi dismissed, “more importantly, I found out something interesting about who she’s been sneaking around with while our backs were turned.”

“Oh, you mean Tomura?” Shouta remarked indifferently, and Hizashi slapped his arm.

“How did you know?!”

With a smug twitch in his mouth he replied, “You have your sources, I have mine.”

“Well, either way, I pulled you aside because we have to make sure to keep those sorts of people away from Shinsou from now on.”

“Agreed,” Shouta said. “Is that all you wanted to say?”

“Yes, but… I didn't know you'd already found out about Tomura,” Hizashi drawled on uncertainly, “and you don't know Shinsou like I do.”

“Ah, so that's what this is about,” Shouta observed, recognising his wife’s constant need to have more of his new concubine than he did. “You're going to have to come to terms with sharing her sooner or later, Hizashi.” Even if it was only with him, though probably not, knowing Shinsou. Which Shouta did, know Shinsou, though exactly how he did he struggled to explain.

“That's what you think,” Hizashi retorted, her possessive streak showing no signs of flagging yet.

“So then, where's Shinsou now, if you're so concerned with her whereabouts?” Shouta challenged.

“I… only just got back recently, she stayed here while I went out,” Hizashi answered.

Scoffing a little, Shouta said, “And you believed that?”

Staring in shock at her husband for a moment, Hizashi grabbed his arm and spat, “Oh fuck.”

They both turned and rushed over to Shinsou's quarters, ignoring the flustered attendants who tried to inform them Shinsou was sleeping, and burst into the bedroom to find it predictably empty.

Hizashi and Shouta turned to look at each other and just said, “Dammit.”

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Shinsou made it all the way to the Immortal Palace, almost.

Because of course, of course, Shinsou would be on the approach to the palace, fully prepared with his male form and eunuch uniform ready to infiltrate the Immortal Palace and seek out The Tip of The High Mountain, when a familiar figure crossed his path. If Shinsou were ever on the way to or from something important, and especially if he didn’t want to be seen, this person could be counted on to make an appearance.

Shinsou had been smart, or so he'd thought, and wasn't even approaching from the main entrance at the front. But the quiet servants entrance he'd staked out was also being guarded this evening, and by his old familiar shadow no less. Less of a guard patrol, and more of a guard who happened to be waiting for Shinsou. Someone who knew Shinsou would come for The Tip of The High Mountain the first chance he got, and would most likely try to come at it from this particular spot, in this particular way.

“Todoroki,” Shinsou called out, his voice a little strange to him in this body, slightly lower, and mixed with something he couldn't put his finger on. “I was wondering when you were going to show up.”

But rather than his usual restraint, General Todoroki barrelled up to Shinsou and grabbed him firmly by the wrist.

“I need to talk to you.”

“Okay.” Shinsou was taken aback. He’d seen Todoroki briefly on his tour as Lord Aizawa’s new concubine and the young General had looked so shocked and horrified, but that was nothing to the intensity of Todoroki right now. Everything from his contrasting eyes that did not seem to know burning hot from freezing cold, the tight lines of his expression, or the desperate grip of his hand on Shinsou’s arm, everything about Todoroki was unlike any time Shinsou had known him before, as if his soul were mere moments away from bursting into flame.

“Not here,” he said briefly, and all but dragged Shinsou away with him. Shinsou could have fought him, he supposed, but he was caught off guard by this sudden willfulness from Todoroki, someone he’d come to know as measured and thoughtful. Not the type to suddenly grab Shinsou by the arm and haul him to an empty building used as guards’ quarters, all but slamming the door behind them and then locking it without question. Not without asking first, at least.

“What’s this about?” Shinsou managed to get out, but nothing more.

“Why did you do it?” Todoroki burst, that spiritual incineration point reached such that Shinsou could almost swear he saw it swirling around the young general, though humans rarely held enough power within them for something like that to be noticeable. If anyone could, though, it made sense to be Todoroki.

“Do what?” Shinsou asked, awed more than anything in that moment.

“Became his… a, concubine,” Todoroki filled in the gaps Shinsou couldn’t understand, didn’t even think would have crossed his mind at all, much less spur him to such an impassioned response.

“Really? That’s what this is about?” Shinsou questioned incredulously. “Is that why you were looking at me so strangely yesterday as well?”

“Why did you do it?!” shouted Todoroki so despairingly, and Shinsou’s face fell blank, shocked by hearing him actually raise his voice.

“I… didn’t have much of a choice, to be honest,” Shinsou answered tentatively. “It was Aizawa or Katsuki, so I picked Aizawa.”

“You were forced?” Todoroki jumped on, and every shift of his expression was more heartwrenching than the last. “You promised me you’d never let anything happen to you that you didn’t want, Shinsou, you promised.”

“I didn’t! I mean… I had to pick one of them in if I wanted to move up in status, and it would have been suspicious if I’d refused,” Shinsou laid out awkwardly, not expecting he’d have to justify himself like this to Todoroki of all people. “I did it willingly, it just wasn’t something I’d planned on doing.”

“But you… you’re a… I didn’t think your kind would ever do something like that,” Todoroki babbled, flushed and furious. “It’s like being his wife, you know?”

“Not exactly, I’m led to believe,” Shinsou remarked dryly, already aware of the nuance that stood between a lowly concubine and an official wife of a noble, which would have netted the title of consort, but nevermind.

“That’s just the technicality, now everyone thinks you’re supposed to stay with Aizawa for the rest of your life now, bear his children, that sort of thing,” Todoroki explained bashfully.

“Oh, I know, but I won’t be around long enough for any of that,” Shinsou brushed off.

“Really?” Todoroki seized on, as if this were some great hope. “Then it meant nothing?”

Shinsou wished, in a way, that was true. But the night he’d spent with Aizawa was not nothing, nor was Shinsou’s undeniable attachment to Hizashi, counterproductive as it was to his mission.

“Not exactly, but my mission remains the same,” Shinsou explained. “Why else did you think I was trying to get to The Immortal Palace?” Before he so ardently interrupted.

“I know, I just couldn’t believe you’d… I thought that wasn’t something you’d ever do, Shinsou,” he admitted painfully, and there was one thing Shinsou couldn’t figure out.

“Why do you care?”

“What?” Todoroki said blankly.

“Who I’m sort of married to or not,” Shinsou phrased. “Why does it matter to you?”

Todoroki had never looked quite so terrified than in that moment.

And his answer was not what Shinsou expected.

“I… ah, figured out what I want from you at last,” he announced with quiet certainty.

“What?” Shinsou puzzled.

“You promised me something in return for keeping your secret,” Todoroki reminded him. “I know what it is now.”

“Oh? Took you long enough,” Shinsou teased lightly. “What is it then?”

Todoroki had been lingering by the door he’d slammed shut and locked for good measure, while Shinsou stood a few paces into the simple room that was set out with closed shuttered windows. It was set up with a wide bench bearing a cushion for napping, and some chairs strewn around a table.

When Todoroki took a solid step closer, Shinsou’s stomach turned over.

“I want you to be mine like this.”

“Eh?” Shinsou responded.

“In this form, as a… boy,” Todoroki phrased awkwardly, and stepped closer to Shinsou again. “If you have to be Aizawa’s in that form, be mine in this one.”

“Yours?” Shinsou still struggled to grasp. “But I… thought you didn’t want to?”

Todoroki shook his head, which was the first surprise. The second was the confidence with which he stepped forward again reached for Shinsou’s face to hold between his hands.

“I just didn’t want it to mean nothing,” he said quietly, his gaze devouring Shinsou up close. 

All at once, Shinsou realised he’d made a serious misjudgment about Todoroki.

The only sound Shinsou managed to make was a barely formed, “oh,” before Todoroki moved the rest of the way and kissed him. 

It was nothing like Shinsou would've thought kissing Todoroki to be like, because there was nothing of the cool and collected boy he'd gotten to know since their first fateful meeting over bloodstained snow. In every place they touched Shinsou felt Todoroki’s desire and passion like an animal howl, til Shinsou was sure that no one had ever kissed him with as much want as Todoroki did right now.

Shinsou reevaluated all his interactions with Todoroki, not that it was so easy to do while being swept away by a torrent of breathtaking kisses. He quickly concluded that it was not Todoroki’s lack of interest or desire that had caused him to decline Shinsou’s careless offer to experiment sexually, because not meaning nothing meant it had to mean something.

And, Shinsou could tell, to Todoroki this meant everything.

There was no art in Todoroki’s mouth on Shinsou’s, such that Shinsou could guess this was the first time the young general had kissed anyone, but it lacked no urgency or confidence. Every movement of Todoroki’s lips and tongue greedily searching for Shinsou’s tongue told of a need to consume, of unfulfilled want built up over months and months until it finally ruptured.

Yet when they broke apart there was desolation mixed in Todoroki’s expression, some sad longing that could’ve broken Shinsou’s heart.

“Even if it’s just once, I have to have you, please, Shinsou,” he fumbled, separating incoherent begging with soft wet kisses. “Please be mine, just once.”

What on earth was Shinsou supposed to do in response to that? 

“Yes, yes, of course,” Shinsou found himself promising, his hands finding Todoroki’s chest and feeling for the fastenings of his uniform. “I didn’t know that’s how you felt, Todoroki, I…”

“Call me Shouto,” he interjected, pressing his forehead to Shinsou’s for a heavy breath, unprotesting as Shinsou slowly picked free the first ties of his jacket. “Can I… call you Hitoshi?”

“Yes,” Shinsou said, rapidly discovering that he was not disposed to refusing Todoroki much at all, and more than that, was himself quickly becoming dizzyingly aroused. Shinsou felt things he’d never felt in this body, especially with the difference of anatomy, like how good it felt to even lightly press his swelling crotch against Todoroki, no, Shouto, as he’d asked to be called.

Loosening the last fastening on Shouto’s uniform jacket, Shinsou pushed it open and used the opportunity of his hands on Shouto's chest to urge him towards the cushioned bench.

“Why didn't you say anything?” Shinsou asked between kisses, moving to sit on the bench and bringing Shouto with him.

“I wasn't sure… I didn't think it would be wise,” Shouto confessed, shrugging off his clothes and pulling away Shinsou’s in turn.

“Maybe not, but we could've done this much sooner if you had,” Shinsou replied warmly, eager to fall out of his clothes and touch Shouto skin to skin, amazed at how new it all felt, not just because of the different body he wore, which couldn't be responsible for everything changed between this experience and Shinsou's others.

It was Shouto's adoration that changed things, made Shinsou feel the farthest thing from an object, which is how he'd gotten used to being made to feel by this place and its people. More than ever, Shinsou knew that Shouto didn't belong here. 

“I wasn't going to act on my feelings, but when you became Aizawa’s concubine I couldn't bear it,” Shouto confessed, dragging Shinsou's bare skin into the open and following it with his mouth, a clumsy drag of his lips over the contours of Shinsou's body. “I told myself if you can be his like that, then you can be mine like this.”

“You should've told me,” Shinsou murmured as Shouto fumbled with the last of Shinsou's clothes. It was curious to explore a new side of a person he was already familiar with before having sex, of being friends with Shouto before becoming lovers. It allowed Shinsou to understand him and what this all meant more than if they’d just tumbled into it without thinking.

“Why?” Shouto questioned despondently. “I couldn't have stopped Katsuki favouring you, or Aizawa making you his concubine.”

Not knowing why he said it, other than the lapse of coherent thought from Shouto's first inquisitive brushes of Shinsou's erection, Shinsou blurted, “You could've tried to claim me for yourself.”

“I don't want you as a concubine, Hitoshi,” Shouto explained patiently, moving downwards as Shinsou laid back on the bench. “I want you like this, not as a woman of The Forbidden City.”

In the next moment Shouto took Shinsou's cock in his mouth, and Shinsou got an idea of exactly what Shouto wanted about him most like this.

“So you're not attracted to me as a girl?” Shinsou dared to ask, as thrilling and pleasurable as it was to feel Shouto's mouth wet and warm over his cock.

Lifting just enough to speak, Shouto answered honestly, “Not like I am to you as a boy.”

“Ah, I can tell,” Shinsou panted, collapsing into a moan and writhing as Shouto dropped his mouth back onto Shinsou's cock. “Hng, that feels really good, Shouto.”

It appeared that either the praise or use of his name was stimulating in its own right to Shouto, who groaned and let Shinsou's cock fall free of his mouth’s intoxicating embrace. No wonder the men Shinsou had been with were all so keen on this act.

“Is this your first time?” Shouto asked eagerly, then amended himself, “In this body, I mean.”

“Yeah,” Shinsou huffed, and it felt like a first time, as if the sense memory was brand new in this other form. “You?”

Shouto just nodded at first, then confirmed Shinsou's suspicions, “I’d never even kissed anyone.”

Shinsou understood, hard and fast, why Hizashi had so loved taking her virginity all that time ago. 

Coaxing Shouto away from worshipping Shinsou's cock, Shinsou put his arms around him and guided Shouto back until their faces were level, mouths barely separated as Shinsou whispered, “I'll have to teach you.”

Shouto fell on him open mouthed, and Shinsou led by example, Shouto a dedicated student, and mimicked Shinsou's teasing artistry with his tongue. It’d been learned in greatest part from Monoma of all people, since he was the one who spent the most time making out with Shinsou, rather than charging too inevitably towards the end goal.

Shinsou did want to get to the goal, whatever that was going to be between them, but to rush it would break his heart for Shouto's sake, so for him Shinsou wanted to be generous and take as much time as they could spare without either one of their absences being noticed. Or at least, before their noticed absences became a full blown scandal and risked their being discovered.

There was something especially intoxicating about touching Shouto and knowing Shinsou was the first to do it, sliding his hand over the desperate straining bulge of his cock in his uniform trousers, now the only clothing left between them.

“So no one ever touched you here?” Shinsou said softly, only to hear the answer as he slipped his hand into Shouto’s trousers and rubbed his cock.

“Only myself,” he huffed, pushing into Shinsou’s hand and falling flat on his back in an act of surrender.

“Did you think about me?” Shinsou asked greedily, pulling the last vestiges of clothes off with his other hand and revealing Shouto’s neediness in the golden afternoon light filtering through the closed shutters of the guard room. 

“All the time,” Shouto answered obediently, precum trailing from his cock down Shinsou’s fingers. His wasn’t so big in any particular direction, but had a curve that Shinsou hadn’t seen before, and a shapely full head that Shinsou wondered what would feel like inside him, should they try an act that neither of them had done before, and that felt special too.

For all Shinsou’s sexual experience, being with Shouto felt like being a virgin again.

“Do you want to… can we try putting it, um, inside me?” Shinsou said more awkwardly than he’d wanted, and Shouto’s eyes widened.

“Really? Is that… alright?” he replied anxiously.

“I don’t see why not,” Shinsou assured him, knowing from Katsuki and Izuku’s ever enthusiastic demonstrations how two boys did that particular deed. He’d even been a little jealous, since they only ever did it with each other, given Shinsou had another hole they’d stuck to using exclusively.

Shinsou climbed over Shouto curiously, balancing on his knees and probing his asshole with a couple of fingers, finding it supple and not quite as slick as a cunt, but a little willful manipulation of his spiritual form could fix all that, not to mention a healthy donation of saliva he spat into his hand and smoothed over the head of Shouto’s cock in anticipation.

“Hitoshi, ah, can you really?” Shouto moaned delightfully, and of course Shinsou could, adjusting his own body to give way without too much resistance as he steered the tip of Shouto’s cock to his hole and started to press down.

It felt like a distant relation of what being penetrated had been like when Shinsou had a pussy, close but no cigar. Shinsou’s asshole was much tighter than even the first times he’d been fucked as a girl, and responded differently to the invasion of a cock.

Shouto moaned an incoherent jumble of Shinsou’s name and how good it felt while Shinsou sat on him slowly, letting out a few of his own incoherent moans until he took Shouto’s cock completely up inside him.

“Oh, my… you made that look easy,” Shouto commented sluggishly when Shinsou was seated on him fully.

“It wasn’t so bad,” Shinsou responded, and then when he gave an exploratory roll of his hips, that curve of Shouto’s cock pressed something inside him that was like having a flash of orgasm, and Shinsou gave a guttural moan. “Ah, ah, that was…”

“Like this?” Shouto picked up quickly, way too quickly, putting his hands on Shinsou’s hips and grinding that way again, pressing his cock against that spot as if it had been made for that job alone. Perhaps it had.

“Yeah, like that, oh fuck,” Shinsou babbled, starting to move up and down and each time getting another dizzying stroke of Shouto’s cock inside him. It was too much, too fast, and before he knew it he was blurting, “I’m gonna, I think I’m gonna–”

Shinsou already knew what happened with male orgasms, in graphic detail, but only as a spectator. It was another thing entirely to feel it for himself, and being stimulated in a different way than most, though Katsuki and Izuku had done their fair share of cumming while the other one was fucking them, so Shinsou knew it could be like that in theory, though practice was utterly illuminating.

Feeling it throb through his body like lightning Shinsou came over Shouto, landing over his stomach in spurts, which Shouto seemed to very much enjoy, as he started to thrust his hips up and fuck into Shinsou even more eagerly. As it felt like all the bones in Shinsou’s body started to melt, not that they had too much substance to begin with, Shouto carefully rolled them over and got on top of Shinsou, Shinsou’s legs folding up and out then spreading to hook loosely around Shouto’s waist.

Shouto started thrusting into Shinsou, deeper and harder with every stroke it felt like, and said so many things over and over about how much he’d wanted this and how good it felt that Shinsou finally started to understand what it meant to have sex with feelings. Where it meant something. 

Because it wasn’t just about feeling good, it was about who was being made to feel good. For someone usually so reserved, and who so rarely seemed to really enjoy himself, it was amazing to be solely responsible for Shouto’s pleasure.

“Hitoshi, I… I can’t last much longer,” Shouto gasped, leaning over Shinsou and barely brushing his mouth over Shinsou’s, an act of such wanton tenderness that Shinsou was stimulated by it in ways he’d never imagined. To think that emotional pleasure could do so much to enhance the physical, building in him already despite cumming the first time so recently.

“Me either,” Shinsou returned, wrapping a hand around his cock this time and stroking it, bizarre in a way to finally do to himself what he’d done to others. It felt so good combined with the push of Shouto’s cock in him, he was soon panting, “Don’t stop, Shouto, don’t… ahh.”

They must have come within moments of each other, Shouto inside Shinsou and Shinsou over himself this time. Unlike the other human men Shinsou had been with who came a second time within the same session, mostly Katsuki, to be fair, there was no decrease in the volume of cum from Shinsou’s first time, maybe even more actually, and it had a strange pearlescent quality that glimmered unlike human ejaculate as it shot all the way up to streak over Shinou’s chest, his soft firm pecs instead of jiggling breasts in his other form.

Shouto stilled, coming down to rest his weight over Shinsou, not worrying like others might about his weight, knowing Shinsou could easily support him, and their bodies remained connected.

“Was it everything you imagined?” Shinsou dared to ask in the smothering tranquillity, no longer bothered about the interruption of his attempt to get near The Tip of The High Mountain. He hadn’t even known what he was going to do if he’d made it, and only really went because he had an opportunity rather than knowing what to do with it. Even halfway hoped that Shouto was going to find him, since he usually sprung up whenever Shinsou was up to no good.

“More,” Shouto answered simply, face over Shinsou’s shoulder, but turning to find Shinsou’s mouth for a doting kiss. “I’ll never forget it.”

“You make it sound like it’s the last time,” Shinsou said lightly, squirming as Shouto shifted and pulled his wet cock from Shinsou’s ass, then came down to lie next to him on the bench and kept Shinsou held close with his warm arm.

“Isn’t it?”

Shinsou gave him a playful pat on the pleasingly plump muscle of Shouto’s bicep, still not used to seeing his body without clothes on, disguising his natural form with the artificial. “Not if you don’t want it to be,” Shinsou told him, hoping he didn’t sound too obviously keen, trying to downplay it with a cooler, “After all, I’m not gone yet.”

“You will be, though,” Shouto said, and that Shinsou couldn’t deny, “and they’ll be taking you back to Aizawa Manor soon, you realise.”

“Shit, they will,” Shinsou murmured. “I’ll have to get the stone before then.”

“In which case you’ll be gone forever,” Shouto pointed out, and why did the way he said it make Shinsou’s heart hurt so much?

“I… suppose so,” Shinsou admitted, though it sounded wrong in his mouth, like the words didn’t fit.

“So then,” Shouto sighed, tracing his fingertips along the grooves of Shinsou’s body. “What else can I do but believe it’s the last time?”

Shinsou couldn’t stand it, not a moment longer, so pounced to roll Shouto to his back, lying on top of him and holding Shouto’s face in his larger male hands.

“I promise you, Shouto,” Hitoshi said, and that much felt right, a promise that he hadn’t asked for, but was freely given. “This is not the last time.”

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

It was admittedly not easy to leave Shouto’s side and return to Yamada Pavillion that night, but it did have to be done, just as Shouto had to go back to his family’s residence and keep up appearances. So Shinsou snuck back in a little after night had fallen, the cover of darkness making it easier to sneak around and, more importantly, shapeshift back to being female, changing her clothes just outside the Pavillion and slipping back into her bedroom through an open window unnoticed.

Or so Shinsou thought.

“Hm, deigned to return, have you?” came a voice cutting from the dark like a hidden throwing star, and Shinsou realised all at once she was so totally fucked, and froze on the spot only halfway through the window.

“M-mistress…” Shinsou said awkwardly, spotting Hizashi by her silhouette sitting on the corner of Shinsou’s bed in the darkness that had done nothing to conceal her indiscretion. Then again, Shinsou didn’t expect Lady Hizashi of Yamada Pavillion to be waiting for her in a completely dark room like a fucking psycho. There was Shinsou’s mistake.

“Who were you with?” Hizashi asked, ice and sharp steel. Shinsou finished climbing through the window and made her way over to the bed, being that it was one of the few pieces of furniture in the room, and it was too dark to do much else. She’d end up there anyway, might as well cut the bullshit.

“No one,” Shinsou lied immediately, and wouldn’t admit it for the world, would lie before she gave Shouto up, or just take the punishment, since her silence wouldn’t do much to worsen what was already likely to be harsh. In acceptance of this fate, though, since she did secretly love it, Shinsou sat down on the bed and wriggled back into the middle, tousling her already loose robe, since it was only tied mere minutes ago.

“I’ll be the one to decide that,” Hizashi accused, and then had Shinsou flat on her back in a surprisingly quick movement for a supposedly delicate woman without combat experience. Hizashi’s jealousy just burned that bright, seething over Shinsou as her hands began to greedily examine Shinsou’s female body, quickly getting access through barely tied robes and probing her fingers intently for Shinsou’s cunt.

Had Shinsou been fucking Shouto as a female, of course, she’d be stretched out and wet right now, and filled with cum at that. But Shinsou hadn’t. Had Hizashi bothered to check Shinsou’s ass things might be different, but it wasn’t entirely clear how much actually transitioned between shapeshifting, though Shinsou was fairly sure she did still hold Shouto’s load up inside her somewhere, not that Hizashi would be likely to find it the way she was checking.

“See, Mistress?” Shinsou attempted to persuade. “I’m dry and clean, how could that be if I was out being unfaithful? I just wanted to get some evening air.”

“Why did you climb in the window then?” Hizashi shot.

“Because I knew you’d be jealous if you heard I’d gone out from the servants seeing me leave,” Shinsou noted. “I thought if I snuck out without anyone noticing then you wouldn’t be mad.”

“A clever plan for a stupid girl that got caught,” Hizashi replied viciously, and, it must be noted, she hadn’t actually stopped fingering Shinsou after her initial check of her pussy, and was instead rubbing and teasing her until Shinsou got properly wet, since she hadn’t come to her mistress already in that state, technically both good and bad behaviour for their twisted rules of play where any answer was the wrong one if you looked hard enough.

“I’m sorry, Hizashi,” Shinsou said audaciously, addressing the person she knew, felt like she’d always known sometimes, the same way her husband’s permanence resonated with Shinsou’s spirit. “If you weren’t so possessive then I wouldn’t have to go behind your back.”

“If you weren’t so disloyal then I wouldn’t have to be so possessive,” Hizashi retaliated, her mouth floating barely over Shinsou’s. Luckily there was no way to know who else she’d been kissing, or Shinsou would’ve been had already.

“You can’t have me all to yourself, you know,” Shinsou decided to argue a bit, since it wouldn’t make much difference to what Hizashi did to her, or, more accurately, she’d enjoy what Hizashi did to her either way. “I’m your husband’s concubine, remember?”

Hizashi gave a cruel laugh, “You think he cares what I do with you?” There was a pause, and Shinsou felt something coming like the whisper of air before an arrow occupied it, Hizashi remarking, “What do you reckon, Shouta?”

Shinsou realised with a jolt there was the sound of someone else’s breathing in the room, focusing her spiritual senses properly to confirm who was slumped comfortably in a chair in the darkest corner of the room, watching the two of them by the dim light of the open window.

“No complaints as long as I get my turn when you’re done,” Shouta said not quite indifferently, as Shinsou could divine the lust in his tone, and apparently quite enjoying the show his wife was putting on for him with his new concubine.

“There you have it, Shinsou,” Hizashi said curtly. “There’s no escaping me.”

Arching into Hizashi’s practised fingers, more excited than she cared to admit knowing Shouta was getting off on this too, Shinsou murmured, “If I actually wanted to escape then I wouldn’t come back, would I?”

“That’s a point,” Shouta said huskily, and if Shinsou wasn’t too naive, she could believe he had a hand on his cock right now. In fact, it seemed all but impossible he didn’t. She was a little surprised he was happy to be just a spectator, but then he’d said something about getting Shinsou after Hizashi was done, so it was perhaps a game of patience rather than denial.

“Oh shut up, no one asked you,” Hizashi batted back with such familiarity that Shinsou couldn’t help but marvel at experiencing the two of them at their most unguarded together, how they really were.

“Don’t make me come over there,” Shouta remarked in such an underhandedly threatening way that it made Shinsou shiver, and Hizashi’s attention returned to her fiercely.

“I felt that you little slut,” Hizashi scolded, and for all the things Shinsou did just so Hizashi had something to punish her for, being a slut was one of the best.

Hizashi punished Shinsou the way that only she could, teasing and pinches and slaps all over until Shinsou never knew whether she was coming or going, being brought to the edge of orgasm so perilously that tipping over the edge was truly a matter of accident. She also rode Shinsou’s face extra dramatically, something she already liked to do but really made a show of it for Shouta’s viewing pleasure. 

It didn’t occur to Shinsou until that point that she hadn’t actually experienced the Lord and Lady in full, just one or the other doing their piece of the puzzle. Together, Hizashi worked Shinsou up and left her wanting, more than satisfying herself in the process, then delivered the leftovers directly to Shouta, who made Shinsou cum over and over while he pounded away for what felt like forever, before eventually surrendering, if not before Shinsou tagged out for Hizashi with something like jealous pity a couple of times.

Being with Shouta still felt like some ancient eternal act, as if they already knew how to do it exactly right and just needed to find the familiar groove. One particular groove was epitomised when Hizashi did her last handover from serving underneath her husband instead of Shinsou, announcing, “There Shouta, be sure to finish inside her, you’re trying to make us an heir, after all.”

Shinsou felt used in the most obscene and delightful way, hadn’t the heart to tell them that no Aizawa heir was coming from her unless she willed it, and indulged in the ever so human fantasy. Then again, it did feel somewhat potent, Shouta grunting in that way of his as his thrusts sped up and then locked in as he came inside Shinsou, like they both knew exactly what it took to make a baby.

By the time Shinsou was finally released to fall into an exhausted fucked out sleep, Hizashi and Shouta returning smugly to the main building to sleep together, Shinsou knew without a shadow of a doubt that separately Hizashi and Shouta had each been a handful, but together they were fucking unstoppable.

~~~

The next morning Shinsou made a renewed attempt to get close to The Tip of The High Mountain, this time remaining in her female form as the new concubine of Lord Aizawa, since the item was on display at The Immortal Palace now, and her status was more than high enough to be able to go and view it. This form was Shinsou’s more accepted and familiar persona around The Forbidden City, and also less likely to be dragged away for passionate sex by General Todoroki, not that Shinsou would have exactly minded, but no such luck there.

Unfortunately, Shinsou’s reputation as a female in The Forbidden City came with history. Lots of it. Some of the most recent being around a corner Shinsou turned just before reaching the Emperor’s Palace, having gotten up and dressed with Hizashi as expected and surprisingly parted ways. 

Hizashi had matters to sort out regarding Eri still, doing her own interrogations and meeting with all her attendants and tutors. Hizashi didn’t care to have Shinsou accompany her for this, as in her own words, Shinsou would ‘only use the opportunity to keep on trying to usurp her’. Shinsou didn’t even know what usurping Hizashi meant, but it probably didn’t matter, since it was always something or the other with her.

If Shinsou had gone with Hizashi then she wouldn’t have been where she was now, feeling a pang of regret at seeing the Emperor’s two sons emerging from the gates of The Immortal Palace that morning.

“Shinsou,” Prince Izuku announced first, echoed by his brother a moment later, and much more thunderously. 

“Shinsou.”

Shinsou wasn’t exactly sure of the status difference between them anymore, but she was definitely still inferior to the Emperor’s direct bloodline, so bowed accordingly in the presence of the two princes.

“Prince Izuku, Prince Katsuki,” Shinsou greeted in the order they’d spoken to her, keeping her head bowed out of modesty but mostly to avoid Katsuki’s furious glares. “I hope you are both in good health.”

“Thank you, and of course we hope you’re well too,” Izuku returned politely.

“We,” Katsuki echoed scathingly, and Izuku slammed him in the side with an elbow. There were attendants or guards accompanying them both, and while it was expected that Prince Katsuki might be a little bitter at his favoured maid being taken away, he still ought to act civilly with Shinsou, since not doing so was as good as insulting the Aizawa Clan.

“Congratulations, of course,” Izuku elaborated, and Shinsou could tell that he was sincerely pleased for her. Not only because Shinsou choosing Aizawa meant Izuku had his brother back to himself, but also because Izuku had gotten wind of Shinsou’s lingering attachment to the Aizawas after what happened with Eri, so in a sense, he knew Shinsou was where she was supposed to be. “I’m sure you’ll be a wonderful concubine to Lord Aizawa.”

“Tch,” Katsuki muttered, and Shinsou dared to look at him at last, accepting that at very least, it was only what she deserved.

“I’m sorry, of course, if my choice caused any inconvenience,” Shinsou attempted to mend, not that she expected it to do much good. “Bakugo Palace treated me very well, I just felt…”

“I know what you just felt,” Katsuki intervened when Shinsou left too great a pause. “Fancied a more sure bet with a General, right?”

“That never entered my mind, actually,” Shinsou replied sternly, deciding to give Katsuki some kind of closure whether he wanted it or not. “Lord Aizawa was actually there at the moment when I was given the choice, and where were you?”

“Oh.” Katsuki’s ruby eyes widened, because not only was his mother the one in his place at that time, but who else would Katsuki have been with than the beloved brother at his side? “So that’s why.”

Because even Katsuki could understand why Shinsou might not choose to always be after someone else in his heart, and seemed content not to argue any further.

“I wish the both of you the very best,” Shinsou declared, bowing again in the hopes of excusing yourself. “If you don’t mind my leaving first, I was going to visit the new relic the Emperor has placed on display.”

“Of course, don’t let us keep you,” Izuku made up for his brother’s poor manners, parting from Shinsou amicably and releasing her back to her journey into The Immortal Palace.

Shinsou had barely gotten ten steps away from them before she bumped into another familiar face, though this one was not particularly troublesome.

“Ah, Shinsou,” greeted Monoma casually, as the Princes with their entourage had moved on already and Shinsou was thankfully unaccompanied in her approach to the Palace, given she wanted more than anything to have another chance alone with The Tip of The High Mountain. If she got another shot at charging her spiritual power off it she’d be able to accomplish something big, Shisnou felt convinced.

“Supervisor Monoma,” Shinsou returned cordially. “Prince Katsuki went that way.”

“He knows where he’s going, I’m sure he’ll make it back to Bakugo Palace without my guidance,” Monoma dismissed, regarding Shinsou with interest. “What brings you out of Yamada Pavilion all by yourself anyway?”

“I wanted to view that special item Emperor All Might has reportedly put on display,” Shinsou explained.

“Oh, The Tip of the High Mountain? I know where it is, let me guide you,” Monoma declared, gesturing with his hands to invite Shinsou to walk with him rather than actually laying hands on her. Which he would do, no doubt, just not where so many people could see him do it and report their relationship to be unbecoming of a high ranking eunuch and newly titled concubine of an important noble.

“I’m surprised you’re still helping me,” Shinsou commented as they walked, the Immortal Palace astounding as always in its grandeur. “Didn’t I join up with the enemy?” 

“I have no enemies, Shinsou, I serve the Emperor,” Monoma replied indifferently.

“Won’t Consort Mitsuki be annoyed if she hears you’re still assisting me?” Shinsou questioned.

“Only if she finds out,” he remarked, glancing sideways at Shinsou with a wink. “Besides, I have this feeling that you can still help me, so why wouldn’t I continue to help you?”

“True,” Shinsou admitted. “In which case, you could help me a lot, if you wanted.”

“How?”

“I’d like a moment alone with that item,” Shinsou told him quietly, knowing she couldn’t touch it with other attendants or guards present.

“Alone? Whatever would you want that for?” Monoma said suspiciously.

“It’s from the mountains where I was born,” Shinsou told him, reviving the old explanation that had worked for her before. “I get homesick sometimes, so being close to it for a moment would greatly comfort me, that’s all.”

“Hm, and what would I get from you, if I granted such a grand favour?” Monoma postured.

“You haven’t already gotten enough favours from me to cover it?” Shinsou challenged, considering how much she and Monoma had fooled around to date.

“Ah, I suppose,” Monoma conceded, arriving at a set of grand doors set out with guards in front. “Please open the doors,” he asked the guards. “The Concubine of Lord Aizawa wishes to view the Emperor’s treasures.” The guards bowed to Shinsou, which was a bit alarming, but supposed made sense, and opened the doors, letting out a rush of spiritual power that vibrated Shinsou’s bones. “No need to come with us, I’ll accompany her,” Monoma dismissed aloofly, and being that he had such trust and status in The Forbidden City, was not challenged on this.

As the doors closed behind them, Shinsou was almost alone again with The Tip of The High Mountain, placed this time on a special stand in the middle of a particularly ornate room.

“So then, off you go,” Monoma told her, making Shinsou believe he was not going to be letting her out of his sight, since only so much leniency could be allowed for an item of such value.

Oh well, Shinsou resolved, she’d just have to risk it.

Walking up to the stand, Shinsou reached out and lifted the Tip of The High Mountain Carefully, feeling its power charge through her and absorbing it like rain into endless desert sands.

“What are you–” Momoma hissed, walking over urgently. 

Shinsou didn’t have long so charged her power not carefully but as a wild glutinous gorge, taking no care to channel or shape it but taking the full force into her being like staring into the sun. The power rolled off Shinsou in waves, the spiritual tails of a fox flapping around the edges of her vision, but still, she fed.

Growing stronger by the second, it took at least five for Monoma to reach her and crossly pull the item out of her hands, shutting off the torrent and apparently unaware of anything that had happened.

“You can’t put your grubby mitts all over something as valuable as this, so as hard as the notion may be for you, Shinsou, look but don’t touch,” he scolded quietly. Having not started ranting and raving about Shinsou growing a bunch of luminescent tails, he must lack the aptitude to perceive such things. Just Shouto, perhaps. Shinsou herself still noticed the tails, glancing over her shoulder for a quick count before they faded entirely. Up to five now, not bad, but could be better.

“Sorry, I got excited,” Shinsou apologised, feeling as if she’d gotten almost enough, but not quite. Monoma also still had the stone in his hands, not that he knew what to do with it, so whatever, Shinsou could improvise.

Shinsou reached for Monoma’s hands and clasped them on either side, skin to skin contact, just a small span of human flesh separating Shinsou from The Tip of The High Mountain, and continued to absorb its power passing uselessly through Monoma’s hands, unable as he was to do anything with it.

“You won’t hold it against me, will you?” Shinsou asked sweetly, drinking her fill of raw power, tinged only slightly by the human it passed through, like a tang of rice wine.

“Well, I suppose I can’t bear a grudge against you for too long,” Monoma remarked, moving to put the stone back before Shinsou was done.

Resorting to emergency measures, despite being in the Immortal Palace of the Emperor All Might himself, Shinsou lunged up and kissed Monoma before he could do anything else.

This slowed things down nicely, and Shinsou got an added boost of absorption through their joined mouths, like drinking the stone’s power directly from Monoma’s lips. Letting it go for a minute or so, until Shinsou felt at last saturated and ready to let go, surely another tail added to the collection with this boost, Shinsou withdrew first, hoping that her ethereal glow wasn’t too noticeable as she dropped down off her toes.

“Hm, shouldn’t you put that back already?” Shinsou suggested, and the dazed Monoma remembered who and where he was again, hurriedly replacing the stone on its pedestal, blinking heavily. Perhaps he didn’t perceive the immense power he had just been used as a conduit for, but it might have some lingering effects, as he wasn’t his usual talkative self as Shinsou led them away from the scene of the somewhat crime.

“We better part ways before anyone else sees us together,” Shinsou suggested once they were past the gates of the Emperor’s palace. Confirming they were alone with a glance around and check of her ever heightened senses, Shinsou added, “Hizashi is onto you, by the way.”

“That’s unfortunate,” Monoma replied, finally starting to recover his senses again. They stalled in a quiet corner of the high walled walkways, ducking into the alcove of a closed gate. Shinsou was sure he understood her implication, and that to preserve his precious standing at The Forbidden City, he best not keep fooling around with Lord and Lady Aizawa’s beloved new concubine. “We had a good run though, didn’t we?”

“Oh, a great run,” Shinsou agreed fondly, finding this a satisfying way to wrap up what had always been lighthearted fun between them. Monoma had looked out for her when no one else could, understood this place like no one else had, and taught Shinsou well in all kinds of areas. Shinsou was confident he didn’t begrudge the conclusion of whatever it was they’d been, easy come, easy go. A final act of protecting him from whatever Hizashi would do if she actually caught them together was the kindest thing Shinsou could do, and she did it gladly.

It was a little sentimental, but Shinsou risked a last gesture of affection, leaning over to give him a light kiss on the cheek and saying, “I’m sure you’ll accomplish great things here.”

Triumphantly, grinning his maniacal grin, Monoma declared, “Shinsou my dear, I’m certain of it.”

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

For the first time in… ever, maybe, it was Shinsou who went looking for Shouto, and not the other way around. After waiting for Hizashi and Shouta to go out for the day, each to their respective business around The Forbidden City, Shinsou left as the concubine of Lord Aizawa, but went to the hiding spot where the eunuch’s uniform was stashed and changed into his male form and disguise.

Finding Shouto wasn’t hard, even in an expanse of palaces and pathways as great as The Forbidden City. Shinsou was so empowered by his last charge with The Tip of The High Mountain that he could sense Shouto’s presence like the prick of a needle hidden in a haystack, something unique about him that could be distinguished from the muddle of other humans.

Tracking him down like prey, Shinsou finally reached the practice yard where General Todoroki was overseeing some guards’ training, and his eyes were already turned towards Shinsou the moment they came into view of each other, as if Shouto had sensed him coming too.

“General Todoroki, sir,” Shinsou announced himself diligently, bowing to the boy whose cock had been in his ass the other day as if none of that had happened, though it did and might hopefully again. “There are some small matters concerning the Imperial Household Department that require your attention.”

“I see,” Shouto replied coolly, though his eyes showed excitement at Shinsou seeking him out for once. Addressing the guards he said, “Continue your practice as instructed, I’ll return once I deal with this.”

Leading Shouto away, only once they were out of earshot did the infatuated young general ask, “Is everything alright?”

“Yes, don’t worry,” Shinsou soothed. “There’s just something I want to try and I need your help.”

He guided Shouto to the nearest empty storehouse, not unlike the one they’d had their first direct confrontation in, when Shouto had figured out the same Shinsou by his side now as a boy had been in his company as a girl and demanded answers.

“What’s this about?” Shouto asked once they were secure, showing his characteristic restraint rather than pouncing on Shinsou at once. Shinsou wouldn’t have minded the pouncing, honestly, surprising himself with how drawn to Shouto he was, craving more of what they’d had before. Shouto’s devotion and passion, and the intensity it brought to having sex with him.

“I got to hold The Tip of The High Mountain again yesterday and enhanced my power even more,” Shinsou explained patiently, telling himself that if they got to business first, they could get to the other kind of business after.

“I see,” Shouto replied, and asked a loaded question, “So what do you need me for?”

Shinsou was finding he needed Shouto for more than he’d realised, but his mission came first.

“I think I’ll be able to shapeshift to impersonate someone now,” Shinsou explained, “but I need you to tell me if it’s convincing enough.”

“To impersonate someone? Like who?” Shouto asked.

“You’ll see,” Shinsou said, and took off the outer part of his eunuch’s uniform, lest it get ripped by any changes in Shinsou’s build should this work. “Turn around, I can only change forms if no one is looking.”

Shouto did as he was told, obedient as ever, and Shinsou trained all his breadth and depth of power on his task. He focused on Shouta wholly and deeply, someone he knew, someone he’d been with time and again, and whose body was familiar to him as his own. Shaping himself to fit that outline, Shinsou’s form settled and he said, in a voice unfamiliar coming from his own mouth, “You can look now.”

Turning around, Shouto’s mouth fell open as he set his sights on none other than General Aizawa.

“Did it work?” Shinsou asked. “Do I look like him?”

Shouto nodded, saying after a stunned pause, “It’s a very convincing likeness.”

“It’ll have to be, if I’m going to fool his wife,” Shinsou remarked, looking down at himself from a greater height than usual and seeing Shouta’s body.

“Fool Lady Hizashi?” Shouto echoed worrisomely. “Why?”

“I need them to decide to stay here longer, since the Emperor’s not likely to return a relic he was gifted to the person who gave it to him,” Shinsou explained. “I was going to impersonate each of them to the other, and persuade them to stay here and spend more time with Eri.”

“I see,” Shouto murmured, then with an innocent curiosity tipped his head and asked, “Can I see Hizashi then?” Shinsou made a motion and he turned around again, and this transformation came easier than the first, Shinsou gaining practice at reshaping himself to another person’s mould.

“Done,” Shinsou announced, Hizashi’s voice bizarre from their mouth.

Shouto turned and gave an impressed smile, shaking his head as if in disbelief and saying, “You really are amazing.”

“Thanks,” Shinsou said, looking at Hizashi’s body in half an eunuch’s uniform and imagining what the real Hizashi would think to see herself like this. “Do you think it’ll work?”

“I’m not sure,” Shouto admitted, leaning back against the wall. “There’s more to imitating someone than just their appearance.”

“What do you mean?” Shinsou asked, more grateful than ever he’d sought Shouto out to test this plan and not charged right in.

“The way they move, their choice of words, every little aspect of their behaviour has to be copied,” Shouto pointed out. “Especially between a husband and wife who know each other so well.”

“I see what you mean,” Shinsou acknowledged, gesturing for Shouto to look away again so he could return to his own male form. It felt better being back in his own skin, his human one anyway, whereas impersonating others was like wearing someone else’s tailor made shoes. “I’ll have to be careful how I go about it.”

“Even so, it may not work,” Shouto warned.

“It’s got to work, I don’t have another plan,” Shinsou despaired, willing to be a little vulnerable around this person and this person only, since Shouto was vulnerable with him too.

“Hm,” Shouto murmured.

“What?” Shinsou prompted.

“Nothing, well… I might have an idea, but I don’t know how feasible it’d be just yet,” Shouto revealed cautiously.

“What is it?” Shinsou asked.

“I don’t want to get your hopes up,” Shouto said. “Let me look into some things first, and if your plan doesn’t work then I’ll let you know what mine is.”

“Fine,” Shinsou agreed with a pout, only letting it go because there was something he wanted more. Walking over to Shouto, Shinsou pressed close and splayed his hands across Shouto’s chest, inviting, “So are we going to do it or not?”

Shinsou not only saw the physical signs of response in Shouto, the dilation of his pupils and touch of warmth in his porcelain skin, he sensed it as well. Like a fire flaring up to meet him from within, as if Shouto’s spirit were reaching out for Shinsou’s.

“We don’t have time for that,” Shouto said with restraint pulled taut.

“Not with that attitude we don’t,” Shinsou replied.

“I have to get back to my post,” Shouto insisted, though it could be noted his hands did settle around Shinsou’s waist.

“A quickie, then,” Shinsou proposed, more desperate than he thought he’d be or liked to admit.

“It’s not worth rushing,” Shouto replied stoically, but leaned in and pressed a kiss of such tenderness to Shinsou’s mouth he could’ve melted. “If we’re together I want to take my time.”

Shinsou made a frustrated noise, wanting Shouto to take his time as well, but accepting that he was perhaps unwise in this desire for indulgence. After all, Hizashi or Shouta could come back unexpectedly, and he needed time at Yamada Pavillion to prepare clothing for each of them.

Despite it being Shinsou’s mission, Shouto was the one putting it first.

“Fine, you’re right I suppose,” Shinsou accepted begrudgingly, though none of this had stopped his cock getting hard at even a kiss from Shouto, and the thought of him taking his time with Shinsou, in his own words.

“Weren’t you the one who promised it wouldn’t be the last time?” Shouto reminded him.

“Not if you keep on refusing me,” Shinsou retorted, but had accepted his fate, parting from Shouto with one last lingering kiss and the words, “I’ll let you know how it goes.”

~~~

Hizashi came back to Yamada Pavillion before Shouta, and Shinsou was ready.

While Hizashi was naturally suspicious to find out Shinsou wasn’t there, and went to her bedroom to sulk, this was as predicted. Shinsou did return to Yamada Pavillion shortly after, just wearing someone else’s skin.

Thankfully Shouta wore the same identical black robes most days, and Shinsou had obtained a spare already to put on prior to his ‘arrival’ back at Yamada Pavillion.

“You’re back already?” Hizashi spoke first, and Shouta wasn’t the most talkative of men a lot of the time, so Shinsou just made an indifferent noise at first, walking over to the bed he’d spent many a night in with Hizashi as Shinsou and sat down on the edge.

“I wanted to talk to you,” Shinsou announced as Shouta, and Hizashi was seated at the dressing table removing some of the heavier ornaments from her hair. Shinsou would’ve helped, but he wasn’t meant to be Shinsou right now.

“About?” Hizashi prompted.

“Do we need to rush back to Aizawa manor?” Shinsou posed. “Perhaps we should stay here a little longer.”

“What makes you say that?” Hizashi questioned, turning around now and giving her supposed husband a very intense look.

“Eri went through a lot, I understand if you want to stay and spend more time with her,” Shinsou said, then fell quiet as Hizashi got up and walked over to him.

“How thoughtful of you,” Hizashi purred, and put her hands on Shinsou’s much broader shoulders, then kneeled either side of his lap and settled in it. Shinsou had to admit, it was a bit of a turn on being bigger than Hizashi, not to mention having a cock and what Shouta got to do to Hizashi with it.

“Just a thought,” Shinsou said vaguely, it not seeming to matter as Hizashi kissed him after that, pushing Shinsou, or Shouta, as she thought, back in the bed.

“Since you’re back here so early, we can have a little fun,” Hizashi remarked, grinding on top of Shinsou in Shouta’s body, his cock responding enthusiastically.

“Sounds good to me,” Shinsou replied, letting Hizashi take control and undress them both quickly, since he knew that was a wife’s responsibility usually.

Shinsou had never felt what it was like putting his cock in any kind of hole, so the hot wet kiss of Hizashi’s pussy over the head of his, sort of, cock was alarming, and it was all Shinsou could do not to cum in Hizashi right away. Shouta wouldn’t do that, so Shinsou had to be strong, as strong as he could be watching Hizashi’s tits bounce up and down as she pleasurably rode his cock.

It was in the throes of this delightful experience, being with Hizashi in a whole new way, that she said, plain as anything, “My husband would never offer to stay longer in The Forbidden City, by the way.”

“What?” Shinsou replied distractedly, losing focus and feeling the building urge to cum with the relentless slide of Hizashi’s tight pussy around his cock.

“I don’t know who you are or how you’ve done it, but you’re not my husband,” Hizashi accused coolly, and then slammed down harder and faster than ever on Shinsou’s cock, driving him to climax with an undignified gurgle.

“Fuck, gonna cum–” Shinsou groaned, the feeling of doing it in Hizashi’s cunt incredible.

It took him a second to realise what she’d said.

“You… know I’m not your husband?” Shinsou said tentatively.

“My husband doesn’t cum inside me, for starters,” Hizashi replied aloofly, unseating herself from Shinsou with a disapproving look. “Not without my permission at least. I’m going to need contraceptive medicine now thanks to you, whoever you are.”

“What do you mean? Of course I’m… me,” Shinsou tried to lie, sensing all the while he needed to escape before Hizashi figured out who he actually was.

“If you say so,” Hizashi agreed indifferently, getting up and going over to fetch a cloth to clean herself out with.

Not knowing what else to say, Shinsou muttered, “I should go,” and got out of there with as much dignity as he could muster.

~~~

Sensing that things weren’t going exactly his way, but reluctant to back out of it just yet, Shinsou decided to seek Shouta out for the reversal of his plan. Just because it hadn’t worked with Hizashi didn’t mean it wouldn’t with Shouta, and if Shinsou could convince him they needed to stay in The Forbidden City it might still salvage the plan.

Sneaking out with one of Hizashi’s outfits already stolen ahead of time, Shinsou shapeshifted to look like Hizashi and got dressed, leaving Hizashi back in Yamada Pavillion and seeking Shouta out at the Emperor’s Palace.

Shouta wasn’t with the Emperor at that point in time, so when Shinsou announced herself as Lady Hizashi and that she desired to see her husband, the obliging attendants showed her right into a panelled room with a desk where Shouta sat behind piles of reports and memorials.

“What brings you here?” Shouta asked as Shinsou entered as Hizashi, not seeming to clock her right away, which was something.

“I wanted to talk to you,” Shinsou announced, imitating Hizashi to the best of her ability. “I know it’s not your preference, but I think we ought to stay here a little longer, for Eri’s sake.”

Shouta set what he was reading down and looked up at Shinsou finally. “Is that so?” he remarked, and beckoned her over.

“She went through a very traumatic event, so what’s another week or two here?” Shinsou argued. “Besides, you’re still busy with matters for the Emperor.”

“How considerate of you,” Shouta said, waiting until Shinsou was close and scooping her into his lap with an arm. “I didn’t know my wife was so caring.”

“Don’t be silly, I’m just thinking of the advantages we could gain from staying longer,” Shinsou evaded, then felt the first bristly press of Shouta’s mouth on her neck.

“A devoted wife deserves a reward, doesn’t she?” Shouta murmured, nipping Shinsou’s neck and pulling up Hizashi’s robe.

“I suppose she… oh,” Shinsou yelped as Shouta flipped and bent her over the desk.

Shinsou had been fucked by Shouta before, but not as Hizashi, so it still made for a different experience when he bent her over his desk and thrust his cock in her with little preparation.

Having learned from her mistake before, Shinsou was ready this time to say, “Don’t cum inside, Shouta,” when she felt he was nearing climax, not taking too long this time considering they were literally in the Immortal Palace.

But Shouta leaned over her until his mouth was right behind Shinsou’s ear and said, “But you’re not my wife.”

“Wh– fuck,” Shinsou moaned as he pressed a hand down on the middle of her back and kept pounding her relentlessly, and did not do as the person supposed to be Hizashi asked, cumming inside Shinsou greedily.

“I hope that’s a lesson to you,” Shouta said coolly as he pulled out of Shinsou and sat back down, tucking himself back into his robes as Shinsou scrambled out from in front of him.

“You… how could you say that? Of course I’m your wife,” she attempted to accuse, still getting that same sense that the gig was up.

“Not my Hizashi,” Shouta remarked boredly, back to reading already. “She wouldn’t bother me here over anything less than an emergency.” Glancing up and narrowing his gaze, Shouta said, “You, however.”

“Me? Look at me, who else would I be?” Shinsou evaded, but felt somehow that Shouta saw right through it, recognised her anyway.

“Indeed,” Shouta agreed, staring into what felt like Shinsou’s soul. “Who else would you be?”

Time to abort the whole damn thing, Shinsou concluded. “Oh fuck it,” she spat, and turned tail and fled.

~~~

Shinsou hoped that Hizashi and Shouta weren’t going to tell each other they’d had sex with an imposter, since it was an admission of infidelity outside their usual agreements, but it wasn’t a safe enough bet.

No, Shinsou needed to disappear as soon as possible, assuming they were both onto her. Hopefully Shouto’s plan was going to be a good one, and he’d be able to help Shinsou hide in The Forbidden City until she could escape with The Tip of The High Mountain, because she was running out of alternatives.

Returning to Yamada Pavillion in her female form, albeit wearing Hizashi’s robe, Shinsou went to her rooms right away intending to collect a few belongings and then escape for good.

Then again, what had Shinsou said before? If she’d wanted to escape, she wouldn’t have come back.

“Hello, wildflower,” Hizashi announced no sooner than Shinsou was a single step into her room. Shouta wasn’t hidden this time either, and had somehow beaten Shinsou back to Yamada Pavillion and gotten to Hizashi already. Shinsou did have to stop and find a place to change back to her own female form, but it hadn’t been that long. He must have sprinted, and even looked a little out of breath.

“Um… hello,” Shinsou returned warily. “What are you two doing here?”

“Oh, just wondering what you’re doing,” Hizashi remarked, looking over at Shouta in a way that confirmed without a doubt they’d told each other everything. But just in case there was any doubt, she said clear as day, “It’s not every day we have sex with each other’s likenesses, you know.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Shinsou denied.

“You’re still wearing Hizashi’s robe,” Shouta announced. “Drop it, Hitoshi.”

Giving up all at once, Shinsou sighed and said, “Fine.” She’d fight her way out if she had to, but didn’t really want to, so maybe she could talk her way out first.

“So, what are you?” Shouta questioned. “Fox spirit?”

“Y… yes,” Shinsou admitted awkwardly, surprised he guessed it so directly.

“And why did you come here?” he asked next. “To steal The Tip of The High Mountain?”

“To retrieve it,” Shinsou snapped, not holding back anymore, since the gig was up. “You’re the one who stole it.”

“What?” Shouta said, appearing uncertain for the first time since Shinsou got caught.

“Your men stole it from my shrine. That’s where I’m from, why I came here and did all this,” Shinsou revealed bitterly. “Am I supposed to let my whole clan die because you wanted to give the Emperor a prestigious gift?”

“Die?” Hizashi repeated suddenly. “What do you mean?”

“Without The Tip of The High Mountain in our shrine, where it’s meant to be,” Shinsou emphasised fiercely, “all of the spirits that live there will fade away.”

“Including you?” Hizashi said.

“Yes,” Shinsou confirmed brutally. “So it’s true, I tricked you both, and lied, and cheated, but I did it to save myself and others, so if you’re going to try and punish me for it just know that I won’t accept it easily.”

Shinsou expected Hizashi to be the first to retaliate, but not for her to storm up to Shinsou and slap her only lightly in the face, so soft it didn’t even trigger Shinsou’s instinct to defend herself.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Hizashi spat.

“What?” Shinsou yelped. 

“You should have told us,” Shouta asserted.

“What?!” Shinsou repeated more brashly. “I couldn’t!”

“Of course you could,” Hizashi countered. 

“It’s not something my kind admits to just anyone,” Shinsou protested, and the look Hizashi and Shouta gave each other and then Shinsou was explosive.

“We are not just anyone,” Shouta told Shinsou disapprovingly. “You should’ve been honest with us.”

“Why? Are you going to help me?” Shinsou dared to ask. It had happened before, so maybe it wasn’t totally out of the question.

“Of course,” Shouta answered resolutely.

“Really?” Shinsou breathed, the heat taken out of her temper with the promise of assistance.

Hizashi gave her a scolding slap again, but the back of her hand lingered on Shinsou’s cheek, saying, “If we’d known you were in danger, of course we would.”

“Oh,” Shinsou murmured, heart racing as Shouta walked over too. She’d been with both of them today, as each other, but this felt different, felt like something entirely new.

“We do have a condition, though,” Shouta warned, and Shinsou sighed, knowing there had to be a catch.

“What is it?”

Hizashi looked at Shouta and said, “You tell her.”

Without a flicker of doubt, Shouta said, “We want you to be our wife.”

“Officially,” Hizashi added. “It’ll make you a consort, and… you have to stay with us.”

Shinsou didn’t know what to think, couldn’t believe it was real.

“You want me to… really?”

“Yes, really,” Hizashi confirmed.

“If you agree, we’ll help you return The Tip of the High Mountain,” Shouta continued. “But you have to come back to Aizawa manor with us and continue being my consort.”

“Our consort,” Hizashi corrected.

“Ours, yes,” Shouta agreed.

“But… why?” Shinsou asked. “Would you really do all that just for me?”

“Yes,” Hizashi answered instantly.

“A thousand times over,” Shouta added, and it felt so strangely as if they had already done it a thousand times over. As if all three of them, like this, was how things were meant to be.

Shinsou thought it over. But not for that long.

“Alright,” she said humbly, bowing her head in defeat, but only of a sort. “I accept your terms.”

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

Of all the things Shinsou had ever imagined when they set out on this mission, admitting their true nature and then agreeing to marry not one but two already married humans was not one. Yet here Shinsou was, committing to becoming Lord and Lady Aizawa’s Consort in exchange for help with their mission.

“How are you going to do it?” Shinsou asked, surprisingly not falling immediately into bed with Shouta and Hizashi after making their deal, but going elsewhere in Yamada Pavillion to have some tea after an admittedly long day.

Shinsou had to hope Shouto wasn’t going to be too upset when he found out Shinsou was going to get married officially as well as unofficially, but maybe it would be a softer blow after the first, especially if Shinsou was still promised to him as a boy. Shinsou might need to talk to Shouta and Hizashi about him at some point, but they’d get to that later.

“Do what?” Hizashi asked, pouring tea for them all herself rather than letting attendants do it, leaving them alone in the dining room so they might speak freely.

“Get The Tip of The High Mountain back for me,” Shinsou explained, feeling strangely at peace, now things were out in the open. Any help would be appreciated, that much was for sure.

“Just leave that to me,” Shouta said smoothly. “My actions put you and your clan’s existence in danger, it’s my responsibility to make it right.”

Shinsou’s heart gave a throb, thinking that maybe Shouta was their husband after all.

“Ah… thank you,” Shinsou said awkwardly, looking between them. “Both of you. I… didn’t think you’d understand if I told the truth.”

“Don’t underestimate us, we’re not totally heartless,” Hizashi scolded, glancing between them. “Not all of the time.” More time together with the two of them also wasn’t a bad price to pay, Shinsou had to admit.

“So then, there’s no need to stay here any longer, if you’re going to get the stone for me,” Shinsou pointed out.

“How long do you have?” Shouta asked. “To return it?”

“Well I’ve been away a long time already, so the sooner the better, honestly,” Shinsou admitted.

“Very well,” Shouta said, finishing his tea and standing up. “I’ll go to the Emperor now, in that case.”

“Really? Right now?” Shinsou questioned disbelievingly.

“The sooner it’s resolved, the sooner we leave,” Shouta explained. “We’ll head home with the stone first, and once the official wedding has taken place at Aizawa Manor you’ll be free to leave and return it.”

“Really?” Shinsou said yet again, all of this happening so fast.

“As long as you come back,” Hizashi pointed out. “Trust me, we will find you if you don’t.”

“I understand,” Shinsou acknowledged. “I made a promise to you both. I’ll return.”

“Good,” Shouta affirmed, smoothing his robes. “Then I’ll be back later.” Looking over at Shinsou and Hizashi before he left, he remarked, “Don’t have too much fun without me.”

“Oh, we won’t,” Hizashi teased, while Shinsou felt equal parts excitement and sheer relief.

Shinsou was finally going home.

~~~

General Aizawa approached The Immortal Palace late that night, which was when his pupil on the battlefield made his move.

“General Aizawa,” he called out, walking over.

“General Todoroki,” Aizawa responded, not breaking step. “I have some urgent business with the Emperor, forgive me for not stopping.”

“Actually, I must insist,” Todoroki said, reaching for Aizawa’s sleeve to delay him. “It directly concerns your business with the Emperor, you see.”

These were two people who had planned together, fought together, and won together in harsh conditions. Military men, bonded by hardship, and sharing many things of importance, one in particular.

“Hm, I always thought there was something going on between you two,” Aizawa remarked understatedly, no need for frivolous confirmations out loud to say what they both clearly knew already. “You showed too much interest in her.”

“Him, actually, but that’s besides the point,” Todoroki remarked, guiding Aizawa aside. 

“What?” Aizawa said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Todoroki breezed onwards, “We should speak in private.”

“Very well,” Aizawa conceded, walking off with Todoroki to a quiet spot. “Let’s hear it.”

~~~

By the time Shouta returned to Yamada Pavillion, Shinsou and Hizashi had had quite a lot of fun, but put this on hold when Shouta returned.

“What happened?” Shinsou asked eagerly, despite being tied up and attached to one of the bedposts.

“It’s settled,” Shouta said simply. “We’ll depart for Aizawa Manor tomorrow with The Tip of The High Mountain in our convoy, along with some other gifts the Emperor intends to bestow for our upcoming marriage, as well as offerings to be made at your shrine.”

“Really? How did you pull it off?” Shinsou couldn’t help but marvel. “You didn’t tell him what I really am, did you?”

“Of course not,” Shouta settled. “I simply explained the dreams that have been plaguing me recently concerning that relic had finally become clear, and I had committed an error in taking it from its true home, which had offended the gods. We discussed the matter and the Emperor agreed with me that the only way to resolve it was to return the Tip of The High Mountain to its original site with some offerings to make up for the mistake.”

“That’s amazing,” Shinsou said. “You really…”

“And,” Shouta interjected. “I agreed with The Emperor that as you’re from the same region and know the lands well, and since I dislike to travel long distances these days if it can be helped, it would be appropriate if you are the one to deliver The Tip of The High Mountain back to where it belongs.”

“Wow,” Shinsou admired. “You really thought of everything.”

“Almost everything,” Shouta said cryptically, and then turned to matters more perverse. “Now then, what did I interrupt?”

“Oh, just punishing Shinsou for lying to us all that time, and tricking us into having sex while disguised as each other,” Hizashi explained, brushing Shinsou’s breast with her fingertips and then pinching the nipple to make her squirm.

“Good, I didn’t miss too much then,” Shouta remarked as he began to undress. “I’ll help you this time, since she needs to be strongly disciplined for such behaviour.”

Yes, things were really looking up for Shinsou.

~~~

Shinsou’s biggest regret was not having time to say goodbye to Shouto, considering how busy everything was from then on. The Tip of The High Mountain arrived at Yamada Pavillion the next morning and was entrusted directly to Shinsou, who took to keeping it in a pouch she could wear under her clothes, keeping it safe, not to mention fully stocked up on spiritual power.

Finding Shouto to say goodbye would’ve let Shouta and, more importantly, Hizashi know about the two of them, and Shinsou didn’t want to put Shouto at risk like that, knowing Hizashi’s jealousy and temper. It would also be… painful, to be honest, saying goodbye to Shouto, especially not being able to do it properly, like they wanted, so maybe it was better to just disappear. Shinsou was committing to remain as a Consort to the Aizawas, so she’d be back, and would have chances to see him again and make up for this.

Shinsou had promised Shouto their first time wasn’t also the last, and intended to keep that promise.

More important was Shinsou’s mission to return the stone, with an arduous spectacle of a journey from The Forbidden City Aizawa Manor to make first, though the three of them found plenty of amusement on the way. Being truly honest with Shouta and Hizashi was electric, as if the trickle of connection they shared with each other before had been widened to a wide and powerful river.

Shinsou hadn’t expected to be so emotional returning to Aizawa Manor either, but it felt like meeting an old friend after a long time apart. Not to mention, preparations for Shinsou’s official marriage were already underway by the time they arrived, so there wasn’t a moment to rest, especially since the time they spent resting was all given to fucking every which way.

The wedding ceremony was even more elaborate than when Shinsou had been given as a concubine, with gorgeous red robes that had been handed down through the Aizawa clan for generations, and both Shouta and Hizashi waiting hand in hand to receive Shinsou as a bride and consort. It felt good, felt right, as if things were as they were meant to be… more or less.

That night, Shinsou’s wedding night, officially, was the first time Hizashi and Shouta persuaded Shinsou to show them his male form, bittersweet as it was to remember who Shinsou had promised that to. However, any guilt was swept away in the moment, and by the feeling of being able to put his cock in Hizashi again, really as himself. Shinsou came inside Hizashi more than once through that long and energetic night of matrimonial fucking. Shouta did the same to Shinsou as a female, pumping her full of cum while they all made delirious promises about creating an heir to the Aizawa Clan, and certainly did the deed enough times to put the point across.

It was their first night together after Shinsou became their consort, and last before Shinsou left, having agreed to start the return journey the following morning to return The Tip of The High Mountain at long last.

As a Consort of the powerful Aizawa Clan, Shinsou couldn’t even do that much without some ceremony, a horse drawn sedan arranged to carry Shinsou out of the gates and on her way.

“Well, this is goodbye, for now,” Shinsou declared to Shouta and Hizashi, standing by to send Shinsou off with the dignity that their status required.

“Just for now,” Hizashi was keen to remind her. “I expect you back by spring.”

“I’ll be here,” Shinsou promised, and they’d made their physical gestures of affection earlier, out of sight of the attendants, who might be a little bemused by Shinsou kissing both Lord and Lady Aizawa goodbye so passionately. Though perhaps the entire night of fornication had been their long goodbye.

“Safe travels,” Shouta said simply, and Shinsou bowed to them both.

“Thank you, both of you, for all you’ve done for me,” Shinsou told them sincerely, standing up again to say, “I’ll see you in spring.”

They both nodded, and Shinsou climbed into the sedan.

“I arranged an escort for you, by the way,” Shouta called over to Shinsou only once she was in the carved wooden sedan.

Shinsou would’ve asked what he meant by that, but Shouta had already sent the sedan off, and Shinsou was on the way, passing out the gates of Aizawa Manor and turning the corner to follow along the expansive outer wall of the onetime fort.

At the very corner of Aizawa Manor someone sat on a rock in a large brimmed hat, who Shinsou couldn’t make out at first, yet sensed like the ring of a familiar gong.

It couldn’t be.

There was no way.

Slung over a boulder sat a young man wearing the clothes of a soldier, carving a piece of wood in his hands with a small knife.

He looked up as Shinsou’s sedan approached, and there was no one else it could be at that point. Not with hair split down the middle, red and white, and not with those eyes and the unmistakable scar across his face.

“Shouto?!” Shinsou burst in complete disbelief, scrambling out of the sedan and almost falling over to get to him. Let the driver think whatever he wanted to, Shinsou didn’t care, and had been assured of the individual’s discretion considering the sensitivity of Shinsou’s mission. The sedan would only be accompanying Shinsou as far as the next major town on the way out to the mountains anyway. “What are you doing here?!”

“Didn’t General Aizawa tell you?” Shouto remarked with a secretive smile. “I’m your escort.”

“What?!” Shinsou yelped in disbelief. “He said something a moment ago about arranging one, but… but…”

Shouto just kept smiling, and it hit Shinsou like a lightning strike.

“You planned it… this was the idea you mentioned before?” Shinsou realised as she said it.

“Yeah,” Shouto admitted, then flinched when Shinsou punched him in the arm.

“Why didn’t you say anything?!” Shinsou barked.

“I wanted to surprise you,” Shouto responded.

“I thought… I thought I’d left without saying goodbye,” Shinsou confessed, looking down at the ground in self inflicted shame. “I was worried you wouldn’t understand, but you… you’d already realised…”

“I know General Aizawa pretty well,” Shouto remarked with a subtle grin. “I guessed that your attempt to deceive him would alert him to your true nature, and suspected that if he knew what I knew then he’d be sympathetic, like I was. I also know he hates to travel long distances from Aizawa Manor these days, since I’ve done that with him too, and he complained bitterly the whole way.”

“But when did you…”

“I got to him just before he saw the Emperor the night before you all left The Forbidden City,” Shouto explained. “He and I saw the Emperor together, where I explained that because it was my victory in battle that had been used to claim The Tip of The High Mountain, I too felt a debt to the gods and wished to go beg for forgiveness in person, as well as providing guarded escort for General Aizawa’s soon to be Consort on such a long and difficult journey.” Shouto concluded gratifyingly, “His Majesty being a kind and understanding Emperor, naturally he granted my request.” Then more lightly he added, “Besides, I can check up on any rebel activity in the region while I’m there, and build relationships with the villages that have come into the Empire.”

“So you… we… we’re going together?” Shinsou said, too good to be true, but maybe it was true.

“Yes.”

“All the way back to my home? To return The Tip of The High Mountain together?”

“Yes.”

Shinsou had been happy, but this was something else. Like a pair of caged birds being freed, setting out into that big open sky.

Shouto gestured at the sedan. “We can keep talking, but let’s be on our way. We’ve got a long journey ahead.”

Shinsou agreed, half numb by this revelation, blindsided completely, much less able to process that it meant Shouta also knew about Shouto, and not only didn’t have a problem with it, but helped to arrange this of all things. That they would be travelling together, not just for hours or even days, but weeks, months, of just each other.

They were escaping The Forbidden City, where Shinsou didn’t belong and Shouto had never belonged. It was beyond Shinsou’s wildest imagination.

Once they were both seated back in the sedan, not much space on the wooden bench to squeeze side by side, but they did anyway, after the driver urged them on again Shinsou turned to wrap her arms around Shouto and hugged him tightly.

“I’m so grateful,” Shinsou confessed over his shoulder, Shouto’s arms firm around her back. “To you, to them, all of you who’ve helped me.”

“We were happy to do it, Hitoshi,” Shouto said softly, holding Shinsou like the true treasure, and not the ancient relic stashed close to her heart. “You’re worth it.”

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

To Shinsou’s disappointment, and steadily growing frustration, for the first days of their journey Shouto was nothing but a gentleman. Aside from their hug in the sedan, which was hardly much, he was a model escort and treated Shinsou with all formality as the Consort of a powerful lord.

This was wise, Shinsou supposed, as they passed people who would know both General Todoroki and Lord Aizawa, especially at the start in lands overseen by the long established Aizawa Clan, but even so, it was annoying. Behind closed doors Shouto was just as formal and polite, bidding Shinsou goodnight each evening and going to separate rooms to sleep. As someone unaccustomed to sleeping alone for a while now, and more to the point, having regular sex, this change in circumstances was both perplexing and infuriating.

Shouto was thinking of the reputation of Lord Aizawa, most likely, as it would be a terrible scandal should it get back that his Consort was seen with her escort going in and out of her bedroom at night, but that assumed they would be caught. Shinsou was more than careful and aware enough to know when they were and weren’t being watched, and Shouto maintained the same distance regardless.

That was, however, only until Shinsou realised what ‘she’ had been doing wrong.

It was about a week after they’d set out, on their last stop before leaving behind the sedan that had been a boring necessity of the journey thus far, since a Lord’s Consort didn’t travel on foot or horseback like a peasant or a soldier. Shinsou had checked everything, certain that the upper floor of the inn where their rooms were located was vacant aside from the two of them. Shouto’s room was down the hallway from Shinsou’s separated by a couple of empty rooms. There was no one to see them, no one to hear them, no one who could report anything amiss.

Shinsou did what needed to be done, and shapeshifted to the form that belonged to Shouto, or so he’d promised. Give or take some fucking around with Hizashi and Shouta on their wedding night, but they’d been ever so insistent and Shinsou could hardly refuse them.

Walking out into the hallway and down to Shouto’s room, Shinsou felt far too excited, need bubbling up within him that had been building without release for some time. He knocked on Shouto’s door, waiting for him to answer, which he did half dressed, meaning clothed from only the waist down, providing a treat for Shinsou’s eyes. He didn’t expect to be so worked up without sex for a mere week, but the sight of Shouto’s bare chest was enough to make Shinsou salivate.

“Hitoshi?” Shouto said groggily, half asleep as if Shinsou had woken him up, which he probably had since it was late enough that everyone in the inn had gone away for the night. “What’s… you’re…“ Shouto mumbled, recognising with a telling shift which Shinsou he was facing this evening.

“This is what you wanted, right?” Shinsou put to him, leaning up against the doorway and giving Shouto a persuasive smile.

Shouto grabbed Shinsou by the collar of his robe and yanked him inside, flipping the door shut quickly but quietly.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Shouto breathed warningly, though he kept his grip on Shinsou and leaned in close over him, pressed up against the back of the door with Shouto’s mouth hovering over his. “Someone might see you.”

“See who? Some guy going to your room?” Shinsou suggested, and Shouto’s strong exhale over his mouth was answer enough. “Besides, there’s no one else here, I already checked.” Shinsou found some space between them, somehow, to run his hand over Shouto’s chest, feel the warmth of his flesh and blood, the stampeding of his heart. “Why don’t you just give in already, Shouto? I know you want to.”

“Fine,” was all he said before falling onto Shinsou like a flood. Kissed him up against the door like his life depended on it, before tumbling into bed together in a frenzy that reached a fever pitch.

There was nothing but time now, so although they rushed at first, Shouto took his time after that, worshipped Shinsou all night long like Shinsou had known he wanted to. He’d just held back until now and didn’t let himself have Shinsou because it seemed to be Shouto’s instinct with everything he wanted. As if he was afraid of it, of happiness, of taking what he wanted.

“I can’t wait for you to see my home,” Shinsou told him quietly in the early hours of the morning, aching all over in the best ways, naked and tangled together in the bed. Shinsou would sneak back into his room later, and emerge once more as Lord Aizawa’s Consort, but for now it was just them.

“Me either,” Shouto replied warmly, his face buried in Shinsou’s neck, arm around his chest. “We can travel on horseback from here on out, then go by foot once we reach the foot of the mountains.”

“Sounds good,” Shinsou replied. “We don’t need to follow the roads through all the towns and villages either, we can just take the most direct route and hunt for food as we go.”

“Works for me,” Shouto murmured, pure bliss coming from him in a steady stream. “You don’t hunt like this, do you?”

“Oh no, not unless I have to,” Shinsou answered. It had been some time since he’d used his fox form, and that too would be exciting, to reconnect with nature so powerfully. “Just don’t get confused and shoot at me.”

“I would never,” Shouto insisted, about to drift off for a precious few hours of sleep before they hit the road again. “I’d know you, Hitoshi… any time, any place, anywhere.”

For most Shinsou would take it as an empty promise, but from Shouto, he believed him.

~~~

It was Shinsou’s nature to trick and tease, so it was natural that the first time he appeared to Shouto in fox form, Shinsou didn’t forewarn him. Shouto had said he’d know Shinsou any time, any place, and anywhere, and Shinsou felt compelled to test that.

They’d reached the offroad part of their journey, bringing a couple of horses along with them who far preferred Shinsou riding them than Shouto, both since Shinsou weighed much less and could also communicate with them in a way Shouto couldn’t. They camped at night and hunted in the evenings for food to take them through each day, and as a soldier Shouto was more than at ease with this simple lifestyle, even seemed to prefer it to the pomp and spectacle of his life in The Forbidden City.

Shinsou had gone away to hunt while Shouto tended the fire and cooked their kills thus far. Shinsou didn’t need to eat the meat cooked, not as a fox in any case, but had been doing so thus far because it was nice to keep Shouto company, and admittedly, Shinsou had gotten pretty used to human food after living as one for so long.

Normally Shinsou turned himself back into a boy by the time he returned to camp, it being easier to carry things that way. He’d all but abandoned travelling in his female form, since Shouto’s preference was clear, and it was unremarkable for two men to travel together whereas any kind of lady, especially a somewhat noble one, would cause a stir with anyone they passed.

Shinsou had not been successful at this particular hunt, though they were stocked enough for a day or two, so trotted back into camp as a fox empty jawed. He didn’t approach too confidently, as if to give the game away, but moved slowly and stealthily, as if he were a true wild animal that had scent of their kills and wished to scavenge or steal.

But it was only the moment that Shinsou’s fox eyes met Shouto’s that he said, unhesitating, “Hi Hitoshi.”

Accepting the outcome, Shinsou dropped the act and came the rest of the way to the fire, unspeaking, as foxes were, and unchanging in his form, to see what Shouto would do.

Shouto just cut a leg from the rabbit they had not yet cooked and offered it to Shinsou’s jaws raw, which he took delicately, noticing how closely Shouto scrutinised him.

“As I thought,” Shouto remarked, taking his own cooked food to eat while Shinsou began to tear the flesh from the bone of the rabbit leg. “You can’t help but be beautiful in any form, can you?”

Shinsou couldn’t help but be moved by that, swishing his tail proudly and lifting from his meal to look at Shouto. They couldn’t speak as humans might like this, but with Shouto, they didn’t need to.

~~~

Although Shinsou slept most nights in his male human form, occasionally doing so curled up as a fox in Shouto’s arm since this was something he was also more than agreeable to, as their journey continued Shinsou found himself waking up as herself more and more.

This was a little puzzling, as it meant Shinsou was changing forms while asleep, but it wasn’t anything too serious, and wrote it off as a habit after living as a girl for so long.

They were on the closing leg of their journey by then, traversing the rocky mountain paths or climbing the cliffs when they were suitable. Shouto kept up with Shinsou as a point of pride, impressing Shinsou time and again with his tenacity and adaptability to these wild circumstances.

“Sometimes I think you belong here more than you do in The Forbidden City,” Shinsou told him one evening, enjoying the sight of Shouto peacefully drinking tea by the fireside of their camp for the night.

“Oh without a doubt,” he answered simply. “Why else do you think I went along with my father’s wishes to become a soldier? It was to get away from that place.”

“Too bad you have to go back,” Shinsou remarked, and Shouto shrugged.

“If I work hard I can have a long military career and be away more often than not.”

“But you’ll be forever fighting, forever risking your life,” Shinsou had to point out. “Wouldn’t it be better to live in peace?”

“It would, but then I’d have to abandon everything,” Shouto explained. “I’m not quite ready to do that yet.”

“Yet?” Shinsou questioned. “Then you would consider it?”

Shouto looked around them at the rugged, beautiful landscape, and blew steam over his warming tea.

“Relinquish everything I’ve ever known and come to live in a place like this in peace for the rest of my days?” His eyes slid down to Shinsou, and it made something swell and squeeze in Shinsou’s chest whenever he did. “Yes, Hitoshi,” he admitted quietly. “I would.”

~~~

It was already Shinsou’s plan that Shouto accompany him all the way to his home shrine, returning The Tip of The High Mountain at long last to where it belonged, but by the time they arrived he was more determined than ever that Shouto come with him every step of the way.

Bringing a human into the shrine was a controversial move, and Shinsou sensed the dismay of the spirits as they finally approached one crisp autumn morning, but the presence of the relic on his person was more than enough to make up for it.

“I’ll return the stone,” Shinsou told Shouto, and gestured with his head to the main platform carved in the mountainside where the offering shrine stood, “Make your pleas there.”

Shinsou knew what he intended already, so it was no surprise to him, but Shinsou sensed the confusion and amazement of the other spirits when Shouto went directly to the offering altar and got onto his knees to bow three times, remaining with his forehead to the ground on the last.

“I am Todoroki Shouto, and come to beg the forgiveness of the spirits for the damage done by my kind in removing The Tip of The High Mountain from its sacred resting place. Please accept my sincerest apology.”

As Shouto’s face was down to the ground, his eyes were obscured and it was possible for the elder spirits of the temple to slowly take human form, revived as they were by Shinsou placing the stone back within the carved nook in the mountainside that it belonged in.

“Why did you bring this one to us, Hitoshi?” asked the greatest of the elders, whose human form Shinsou had not seen for some decades, an even more wizened old man than before.

“He brought himself,” Shinsou explained. “It was his wish to plead for your forgiveness.”

“Hm, rise, young man,” the elder instructed, and Shouto lifted up with tentative amazement upon seeing the elders assembled in human form around him. “You speak true?”

“I do,” Shouto replied. “I wasn’t informed of the intention to take your relic from here, but that is no excuse. It was my victory in battle that prompted this sacred site to be looted, and I humbly beg forgiveness for the harm caused by myself and the other humans for whom I speak.”

“Well well, if this isn’t interesting,” spoke up the elder who had been like Shinsou’s parent since they were a young spirit. “So then, Hitoshi, aside from this boy, what do you have to say about the other life you’ve brought here?”

“What?” Shinsou said blankly.

“The one growing within you,” answered the elder, and Shinsou’s eyes widened.

“Within… me…” Shinsou repeated blankly, looking down and wondering if that was the cause of the peculiar feeling they had noticed but paid no great attention to, aside from puzzling why he kept waking up in female form of late.

“What does that mean, Hitoshi?” Shouto asked.

“I see, then you’re both unaware of this matter,” remarked the elder, who took a seat on the temple ledge and rested their face in their wrinkled hand. “Hitoshi returns to us with the child of Aizawa Shouta seeded in them.”

“You’re pregnant?!” Shouto yelped, and to the amusement of everyone except Shinsou, the spirits around them laughed.

“But that shouldn’t be possible!” Shinsou insisted. “Humans and spirits, you always told me they can’t conceive children!”

“I told you they can’t unless the spirit wants it, Hitoshi, and you know that very well,” their parent elder reminded Shinsou. “So the fact remains that you must have wanted it.”

“I didn’t think that.. I didn’t realise it’d actually…” Shinsou babbled, hands going to his stomach worrisomely. Sure, he’d gotten pulled into Hizashi and Shouta’s talk of producing heirs, and they’d fucked more than enough times with that intention, but Shinsou hadn’t expected it to actually work.

“Your enduring connection to that man would have made it easier to conceive,” advised the most senior elder. “That would also explain how you could do it without being consciously aware.”

“Connection?” Shinsou repeated. “You mean that feeling I’ve known him before?”

“Indeed,” the elder confirmed. “You and Aizawa are bonded souls, together over many lifetimes.”

“Wait, you all knew about this?!” Shinsou burst.

“We did,” the elders replied.

“And you still let me go?” 

“You were quite insistent at the time, as you’ll recall,” reminded Shinsou’s parent, “and you’ve succeeded in your mission, so in any case this is a cause for celebration.”

“Quite right,” the other elder declared, “tonight we celebrate the return of our most precious treasure by the spirit Shinsou Hitoshi and their human companion Todoroki Shouto!”

~~~

Shouto found Shinsou on the edge of the temple as the festivities were at their peak, perched on the edge of a narrow pathway with his feet dangling over the edge.

“Are you alright?” he asked gently.

“Yes, probably, it’s just… not what I planned,” Shinsou admitted.

“I was surprised too,” Shouto shared, setting his hand on Shinsou’s. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yes, I mean, I already promised Shouta and Hizashi I’d go back and stay on as their consort, and they always talked about me giving the Aizawa clan an heir, I just didn’t think it’d actually happen.”

“We’re not leaving right away,” Shouto consoled, though they would set off in time, once the winter had passed and paths were navigable on the mountains again, though that was a bit of an excuse. “We… don’t have to go at all, if you don’t want to,” he tempted, and Shinsou knew, if he asked, that Shouto would stay as well.

“No, it’s alright, I’m just adjusting still,” Shinsou told him. “I do care for them both, and I know they’ll be thrilled that I can give them a child.”

“I see,” Shouto said with quiet acceptance, the way he’d seemed to take on anything Shinsou threw at him without complaint. “So your child, they’ll be half human, and half fox spirit?”

“Yes,” Shinsou confirmed. “It’s not unheard of, I’ve even known a few before.”

“Do they have the same powers?” Shouto questioned.

“It depends,” Shinsou said. “They have the potential of both, but can take after one side or the other more strongly depending on how they’re raised.”

“Interesting,” Shouto murmured. “So a half spirit and half human raised here might be different to one raised among human society?”

“Yes, very,” Shinsou affirmed. “Though I expect Hizashi will want to raise this child in Aizawa Manor, at least until they’re old enough to go to The Forbidden City.”

“Of course,” Shouto conversed freely with Shinsou, adding, “Lady Hizashi can raise any child of her husband’s consorts as hers, it’s normal in The Forbidden City.”

“It is?” Shinsou asked.

“Very,” Shouto explained. “It can be challenging to bear and raise healthy children, so those without a biological child may adopt one, or raise the child of their husband’s consorts and concubines as their own. Many of the Emperors have been raised like this, you know the Empress Dowager Nana was not Emperor All Might’s biological mother either.”

“I didn’t know that,” Shinsou replied, pondering what this meant for the future, or what Shinsou wanted it to mean, more accurately. It was a bit of a relief, to be honest, hearing that it was entirely likely Hizashi would want to take on the brunt of raising this child, as Shinsou already knew she was a firm but caring mother, and far more ready and equipped for the responsibility than Shinsou felt at this point. A sudden need possessed Shinsou, turning to Shouto to ask, “What would you do?”

“Me?”

“Yes, if… I don’t know, if you were in my position, or if this child was yours?” Shinsou didn’t really know why he even said it, perhaps just to acknowledge there was a world in which it could be Shouto’s, not that they had done the right acts to have produced such an outcome, nor held the intentions that Shouta and Hizashi had impressed so strongly that Shinsou had ended up wanting them too, enough to get accidentally knocked up. 

“Don’t ask me that,” Shouto said coolly, turning his face to look away into the dark depths of the mountainside forest.

“Why not?”

“Because I’ve told you before how I feel about raising children the way I was,” Shouto delivered, and Shinsou suddenly recalled the seemingly casual conversation of so long ago. “If I were to ever… if it were our child, Hitoshi, I would want them to be born and raised out here, where they could live in freedom and grow up as a spirit, not a miserable human trapped by circumstance like I am.”

“You’re not trapped,” Shinsou told him emphatically, “not if you don’t want to be.” Maybe that was why Shinsou said it, actually. To see if Shouto would say what Shinsou thought he would, which of course he did.

“It’s fine,” Shouto soothed, his fingers curling around Shinsou’s hand. “That I can be with you at all and come here even once is more than I ever hoped for. It’s enough, for now.”

“Just for now?” Shinsou tested.

“In time my feelings may change,” Shouto admitted, “but right now I have duties to uphold.”

“Like what?”

“Well, I promised General Aizawa I would return you to him safe and sound,” Shouto remarked with a gentle smile. “He’s done a lot for me and I respect him deeply, so I would not break that promise unless it was your explicit wish that I do so, and I don’t think that you do.”

“No,” Shinsou confessed, sighing as it all sank in. “I wouldn’t do that to him.”

“Then it’s settled,” Shouto concluded. “We stay the winter here, and set out to return in spring. Will you be alright to travel in your condition?”

“Yes, it’s not a danger for spirits like it is for humans,” Shinsou explained. “I’ll be fine.”

They sat in silence awhile, then when he could stand it no more Shinsou turned to Shouto fully and said, “Thank you, Shouto. For being here with me, and being so… understanding about everything.”

Shouto gave another of those soft smiles and rocked his head to one side as if to take Shinsou in fully from a particular angle. “You make it sound like it’s hard, Hitoshi. It’s not.”

Shinsou moved forward to hug him tightly, felt the kiss Shouto pressed against his temple, and thought that if Shinsou had inherited a soul bond with Shouta, and something of the sort with Hizashi, what was to say new ones couldn’t be formed? Hadn’t already formed, without intention or open acknowledgment, because if there was one person Shinsou didn’t need to say things directly to and still be understood, it was Shouto.

If Shouta and Hizashi were Shinsou’s soulmates from another life, why couldn’t Shouto be Shinsou’s soulmate in this one?

~~~

Chapter Text

~~~

One unfortunate byproduct of Shinsou’s ‘condition’, as it were, was that in preferring the female form again, especially as her pregnancy started to show, Shouto was back to stoically refusing to have anything to do with Shinsou sexually.

Shinsou could and did change forms back to male to bypass this resistance, but discovered that of course the parts of their human anatomy tied to the development of their child remained the same, internally if not externally. This is to say, Shinsou’s growing stomach was visible in both female and male forms, and both Shinsou and Shouto agreed that it was a little unusual when Shinsou was physically male with a distinct baby bump. Not so much that they didn’t still fool around, but Shinsou sensed the resistance of their body to staying in the male form too long, getting harder the more time passed, and when Shouto found out he all but banned Shinsou from shapeshifting simply to please him.

“It’s not you I’m trying to please, Shouto, it’s myself,” Shinsou nagged, back in female form with a hand resting over her growing belly. “You won’t touch me like this and it’s infuriating.”

“You are the consort of General Aizawa, a man I respect deeply,” Shouto explained. “It would be wrong of me to… be with you in that way.”

“You just don’t like girls,” Shinsou accused.

“That too,” Shouto admitted with a smirk.

“You know I’m still your beloved general’s consort when I have a dick, don’t you?” Shinsou challenged. “It’s all still me.”

“I know,” he acknowledged, bickering while they walked the mountains one day preparing supplies for the return journey that was soon to start. Shouto had become at home in Shinsou’s homelands so fast it was as if he too had returned to the place he belonged, and the other spirits had come to accept him in no time, even praising Shinsou for finding a human with such a natural aptitude for spirits. One spirit in particular, Shinsou could’ve joked, but knew it was more than that. “I know it’s arbitrary, Hitoshi, but it’s how I feel.”

“I know,” Shinsou returned with a sigh.

“It may also be important to the Aizawas,” Shouto pointed out. “Have you been with either of them not in your female form?” Shouto had always seemed to understand there was more between Shinsou and Hizashi than a normal main wife and consort, but their conversations over the months they spent here together had confirmed it openly.

“Yeah… well, except for one time,” Shinsou confessed, and Shouto flashed a rare look of jealousy that Shinsou had to guiltily accept got her excited. Blame Hizashi, alright, for making it so erotic.

“One time?”

“The night before I left, my, uh, wedding night, you know,” Shinsou explained, a little embarrassed to be bringing this up now, especially since it was all but certainly the night that got her pregnant. “Shouta and Hizashi had asked before and I said no, but I was about to leave and they were so insistent, so I… did it with them in both forms.”

“Them, wait, then you mean you… were with both of them… at the same time?” Shouto laid out as if astonished.

“Obviously,” Shinsou replied. “I thought you knew that.” Yet Shouto’s immediate blush and awkwardness suggested, no, he did not. “You thought I only had sex with them one at a time?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t think about it at all if I could help it,” Shouto blurted as he coloured as red as half his hair. “It never occurred to me that when you said them it was… that you all together did… that stuff.”

“It’s fun, you should try it,” Shinsou teased, an endlessly amusing pursuit, since Shouto was still so easily flustered, something Shinsou could never hope to do to Shouta or Hizashi. The two of them were menaces who’d fluster Shinsou instead, an unstoppable duo that Shinsou couldn’t deny missing, as wonderful as this time had been back home with the other spirits and Shouto’s companionship free of rules and restrictions.

“I had no idea…” Shouto murmured, eyes on the ground ahead of him and bright red cheeks.

“So you’ll think about it?” Shinsou pressed. “Since they did it with me as a boy, it’s ok if you do it with me as a girl, isn’t it?”

“I… suppose,” Shouto conceded, catching furtive glances at Shinsou as if he couldn’t resist imagining this new information to him, of fucking Shouta and Hizashi not one by one but at the same time. “I’ll think about it.”

Shinsou was absolutely sure he would.

~~~

Shouto gave in eventually, as Shinsou knew he would, it just took some time. They were well into the return journey to Aizawa Manor, and Shinsou’s belly had been growing, enough that she was starting to sense the new life that had been born within her by Shouta’s potent ability to put a baby in Shinsou specifically. She would have to talk to him about that, because Shinsou had no intention of repeating this event any time soon, and even if she did, might not choose him anyway, considering who had been by her side all this time and also happened to want a different upbringing for any child they might one day have.

With Shinsou’s pregnancy came intense mood swings, one mood occurring more often than others, and reluctant to see her suffer, Shouto finally conceded to being with Shinsou as a girl when she was uncontrollably horny, a sacrifice that was not too hard for him to make. He already loved Shinsou and had long since been accepted by Shinsou as a soulmate, something Shinsou had confirmed ordinarily when Shouto dared to ask one day if he was special to Shinsou, letting a moment of doubt and insecurity get to him the closer they’d gotten to Aizawa Manor.

Shouto only used his fingers first with Shinsou, guided around her female body to please her as efficiently as possible, but started to understand it was still his Shinsou no matter what, and became more accommodating of being with her when the need for pleasure overwhelmed their need to cover as much ground as possible in each day, considering they had left the shrine a full two weeks later than they should’ve out of reluctance to move on from the idyllic existence they’d carved out there together. Shouto rode out now and again to visit villages and patrol for bandits, sometimes with Shinsou and sometimes without, and also spent much time in the shrine studying from the spirits as well, interested in anything they were willing to teach him. As Shinsou’s soulmate, whether it was officially announced at that point or not, Shouto was allowed more knowledge than any other human would’ve been, especially given his natural spiritual aptitude, also able to enrich himself with the power of The Tip of The High Mountain after meditation practice, though nowhere near as potently as the spirits themselves could.

It was only past the midway point of their journey that Shouto finally let Shinsou fuck him in the fullest sense, Shouto’s cock a desperate necessity in her sensitive cunt from pregnancy. He took care around Shinsou’s belly, though she often told him there was no need to, since the children of fox spirits were far more hardy than humans, even though this one was half of each.

The final part of their journey Shinsou knew she’d have to do without Shouto’s services, since he would resume the formality their titles merited and could not risk being reported to be fucking Lord Aizawa’s pregnant wife on the way back to Aizawa Manor. Before it ever came to that, Shinsou went into labour one evening on the outskirts of a town, and directed Shouto to take her to the nearest shrine, which was deep in the surrounding forest. The spirits there attended to Shinsou for the birthing process, Shouto forced out as a human unknown to those particular spirits, despite Shinsou’s attempts to argue for him to be allowed in, and he had to pace worriedly around the building as Shinsou brought Shouta’s son into the world.

Tiny with surprisingly long black hair for a newborn, Shinsou emerged at last with the child in a sling and Shouto jumped up eagerly.

“Are you alright? Is the baby? Did everything go okay?” he unloaded madly, and Shinsou laughed wearily and patted the sling.

“It was fine, they took good care of me,” she soothed, following Shouto to some accommodation within the shrine compound where they could rest until morning, setting off the next day despite Shouto’s many insistent attempts to persuade Shinsou to rest after giving birth so recently.

Shinsou managed to convince him that it was not so harrowing or dangerous for spirits, and they set off. Though in recognition of the energy she’d expended giving birth to Shouta’s son, Shouto was tasked with carrying the child while they were on the move, since Shinsou had carried him all the way before that point.

The child breastfed like humans did, Shinsou’s female body ready to supply the physical need of her half human baby, and slept most of the time soundly against Shouto’s chest while they walked the roads or rode gently on the same horse, Shinsou and the baby’s weight not much in addition to Shouto’s.

The end of Shinsou’s pregnancy also brought an end to the more intense mood swings, no longer as indescribably horny as she’d been while pregnant, though there was one evening Shinsou did sneak into Shouto’s room, shapeshifting at long last back into a boy again, something that he hadn’t been able to do for many months, and they made love while the baby was sleeping back in Shinsou’s room.

Shinsou knew that they made love instead of just fucking because it was the first time Shouto actually said he loved Shinsou, gasping the words while his cock was deep in Shinsou’s ass where it belonged. Shinsou said the words back, actually knowing what they meant thanks to him. 

That was the last time they were together before arriving back at Aizawa Manor one afternoon. Shouto didn’t want to come in with Shinsou, passing her baby back to her and having already kissed Shinsou goodbye in privacy earlier on.

Shinsou had tried to get him to come and stay at Aizawa Manor at least for a short while, unprepared to be without the companion she’d come to rely on so much over the better part of the last year, but Shouto insisted he had to return to his father and The Forbidden City. He promised to see Shinsou again soon, brushed away her tears and told her it was not so bad as all that.

At least, that had been Shouto’s plan, but Shouta and Hizashi were already outside the gates when they arrived, and neither would take no for an answer, offering Shouto an invitation to come in that he couldn’t refuse. Which is how they all came to be seated at a pavilion in Aizawa Manor with cups of forgotten tea in front of them.

Their initial greeting had been formal, as to be expected, so it was only once they were all alone and able to speak freely that the real exchange began.

“So, you’re going to introduce me to my child?” Shouta remarked with a gesture at the bundle in Shinsou’s arms.

“Your son,” Shinsou informed him, getting up to pass the child over but being intercepted on the way by Hizashi, who all but stole Shinsou’s baby off her and peeked into the wrap of soft cloth.

“Oh thank fuck his hair is black,” Hizashi sighed, and Shinsou made a puzzled face.

“Why is that important?” Shinsou said.

“One, it means he’s actually Shouta’s,” Hizashi said with an accusatory glare at Shouto, ever possessive although she’d presumably had months to come to terms with Shouto’s presence by Shinsou’s side.

“I resent that accusation,” Shouto remarked coolly. “I never laid a hand on General Aizawa’s Consort at the time of her falling pregnant.”

“And after that?” Hizashi shot, going over to Shouta to hand the child over for his promised introduction.

“Indeed,” Shouta contributed, reaching out to take his son and smiling as he looked down at his sweet round face, his expression becoming stern again as his gaze returned to Shouto. “Just how much have you been fucking my wife?”

“Our wife,” Hizashi corrected sternly.

“Our wife,” Shouta acknowledged.

“Less often than Shinsou asked me to,” Shouto reported frostily, and then with a distinctly vindictive air added, “and you started it by fucking my boyfriend first.”

“What?” said Shouta, while Hizashi was just glaring daggers.

“Stop this, all of you,” Shinsou tried to protest.

“I think you know what,” Shouto retorted regardless. “Hitoshi is married to you as a girl, but he is promised to me as a boy.”

“This is ridiculous,” Shinsou argued, while Hizashi just laughed, a shrill cackle like a hunting bird.

“Is that so, young man?” Hizashi asked him viciously. “Tell that to the son your so called boyfriend put in me.”

Shinsou, this time, was also caught out.

“What?” Shinsou and Shouto managed in unison.

Hizashi gestured, and an attendant finally came over with a similarly sized bundle of far more beautiful embroidered fabric. Hizashi took this from the attendant before shooing them away again, and walked over to Shinsou to place it in her arms.

“Your son, wildflower,” Hizashi announced with an underlying shine of pride in her tone.

“You mean you… that night when we…” Shinsou babbled.

“I didn’t think to take contraceptives after because you assured me that spirits couldn’t impregnate humans,” Hizashi lectured disapprovingly. “Your son apparently didn’t get that notice.”

Shinsou’s eyes widened, having gotten used to the idea of being a mother, but not at all prepared for also having become a father in the same night.

“Sorry, I didn’t… it was a surprise to me too, getting pregnant, I mean,” Shinsou said bashfully, peeking into the wraps to see her other son sleeping soundly, his head carefully covered in a silk hat with a pattern on it worthy of Hizashi’s standards for beauty.

“Check under the cap” Hizashi suggested caustically, and Shinsou reached to lift it from the sleeping baby’s forehead, revealing hair that was an unmistakable shade of purple. “Any doubts about whose he is?”

“No,” Shinsou answered bashfully, and looked over at Hizashi worriedly to ask, “Was everything alright with your health and the pregnancy?”

“Yes, thankfully,” Hizashi replied, softening a little and returning to her seat with a sigh. “Your spirit nature must have done something, I’ve never had such a safe and easy pregnancy or birth.”

“That’s a relief,” Shinsou breathed, watching her son’s eyes open slowly and look up at her curiously. “Uh… sorry, again.”

“It’s our own fault,” Shouta offered sagely. “We were the ones who wanted to be with you in your male form.”

Shouto glared at this, but said nothing, recognising matters that were above his petty jealousy.

“You were also the ones who kept on at me about making an heir,” Shinsou pointed out while they were in the business of attributing blame. “That stuff makes a difference, so I found out.”

“As did we all,” Shouta replied, and turned again to Shouto. “Especially given this development, I want to thank you again for taking care of Hitoshi all this time, General Todoroki.”

“Please, just call me Shouto like this,” he replied with a sigh of slight exasperation. “We’re a bit past that by now I think.”

“If you’ll also drop formalities, then,” Shouta agreed. “Still, I mean it. You brought Hitoshi back as I asked.”

“And you let me accompany Hitoshi, as I asked,” Shouto returned. “So thank you again… Shouta,” he sounded it out uncomfortably, but not so much that it was impossible to adapt.

“No one asked me anything,” Hizashi put in bitterly.

“Because you’d have said no,” Shinsou pointed out.

“You’re damn right I would’ve!” Hizashi shot, pointing at Shouto. “You had her to yourself for over nine months, and you got to fuck her while she was pregnant!”

“Why is that your biggest complaint?” Hitoshi asked in resignation.

“Well, Shouta got to fuck you while you were pregnant, so we’re even,” Hitoshi suggested.

“Oh no we aren’t,” Hizashi retorted, “we’re not even being close to even, you and I.” Shinsou couldn’t help it, grinning at her until she barked, “What?”

“Nothing, I just missed you,” Shinsou offered, and looked over at Shouta. “Both of you.”

“On that happy note, might I be able to go now?” Shouto interjected. “My father is going to throw a fit if I’m not back at my family home right away.”

“You’ll never make it back before nightfall, even if you left now,” Shouta advised. “Stay tonight and set off first thing tomorrow.”

“I’d rather not,” Shouto said awkwardly, finally getting to the root of the matter now his excuse had been dismissed. “You’re back with Hitoshi after a long time apart, I’ll just be in the way.”

“You should’ve thought of that before you got yourself involved, because you’re in this now whether you intended to be or not,” Hizashi informed him matter of factly, and this was news to him and Shinsou both. “You’re staying tonight, and we’ll take responsibility with your father.”

“If… you’re sure…” Shouto remarked uncertainly while Shinsou’s grin kept widening.

“I did once tell you to try it, didn’t I?” Shinsou reminded, and Shouto looked at her with fear in his eyes.

“You don’t mean…” He looked over at them, Shouta cradling his and Shinsou’s baby, Hizashi giving them her sexiest dangerous look, and then back to Shinsou.

“I also said it’s fun,” Shinsou tried to soothe, unexpected as this development was for both of them, though she was better equipped to deal with it than poor stunned Shouto.

“I…” Shouto said blankly.

“Of course, you don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to,” Shouta also seemed intended to comfort Shouto, the next closest to him after Shinsou. “But you don’t need to feel excluded, as Hizashi and I have discussed this already and you’re welcome to join us.”

“Yes,” Hizashi huffed with only a touch of disapproval. “As much as I would oppose it usually, I have to admit I’m curious about you two together.” Shinsou held it together as best she could, meeting Hizashi’s eyes with fire. “What, do you have a problem with that?”

“No, the opposite,” Shinsou said keenly. The most possessive jealous person Shinsou knew actually admitted to wanting to see her with someone other than Shouta, so what Shinsou and Shouto had must be special. “It might be the hottest thing I’ve ever heard you say.”

Hizashi scoffed, but she smirked too. This was the last thing Shinsou had expected, but she certainly wasn’t complaining.

“We have some business to attend to first, while Shouto thinks that one over,” Hizashi took over professionally, a master of ceremonies as ever she was. “Due to the appearance of the babies, I’m going to be telling everyone that the dark haired one is my and Shouta’s child, and the one you have now is yours and Shouta’s child. I’ve been covering our son’s hair since birth myself, and very few of our servants have seen him, so no one is going to notice if we swap them around since they look alike in the face.”

“Makes sense,” Shinsou said, understanding that it wasn’t going to be possible or acceptable in any way for it to be known that the baby in her arms was the child of Shinsou and Hizashi. “When was he born by the way?” she asked of the child she held.

“Three weeks ago exactly,” Hizashi said, and Shinsou gave a broad smile.

“Then they both arrived on the same day,” Shinsou confirmed, and Hizashi reflected her satisfaction.

“Perfect, they’ll be just like twins,” she complimented. “You didn’t decide on a name yet?”

“No,” Shinsou said with a shake of her head. “I thought you’d want a say.”

“Naturally,” Hizashi praised, seeming much softened by recent motherhood. “A fortune teller will come soon and advise on the best names for each of them.”

“I’m guessing you’ll want to raise them here together?” Shinsou suggested tentatively. Meaning among human society as true heirs of the Aizawa clan.

“Yes,” Hizashi confirmed. “And I suppose you’ll want to continue returning home?”

“I’ll have to,” Shinsou also affirmed. “My powers can’t be sustained unless I return periodically to my ancestral lands.”

Hizashi directed to Shouto next, “I imagine you’ll want to continue accompanying her?”

“Yes,” Shouto replied, functioning at a low level as he processed in his own way an invitation to the bed of his soulmate’s husband and wife, whatever sense that made. “As long as I’m able to.”

“Better you accompany Hitoshi than anyone else, or she go alone,” Shouta remarked, jiggling his son in his arms fondly, the twin that was actually of his blood, not that he would be the type to begrudge any child of Hizashi and Shinsou’s. “At least I can trust you to make sure Hitoshi comes back.”

“It’s the… least I can do,” Shouto answered, still a little bashful, and getting more so as he continued, “Actually, after some consideration I believe I can accept your offer to… stay the night.” Unsaid went the implication of his also accepting everything that went with that offer.

Shinsou knew he’d come around, since Shouto could be relied on to choose any option that involved being with Shinsou over an option that didn’t. He’d always been generally accepting of Shinsou having sex with other people anyway, give or take his possessive streak over Shinsou’s male form.

“I’m glad to hear that,” Shinsou said, glancing furtively at the father and mother of their children, respectively. “I’m sure they’ll be able to show you a good time while you’re here.”

Shouto had already been flushing, but he blushed fully now, looking away as if to try and regain some lost composure. “Thanks, I, uh… look forward to it.”

With relish, Shinsou declared, “Me too.”

~~~

“Now then,” Hizashi directed to Shinsou, the twins put to bed for now, and the four of them retired to the Aizawa matrimonial chamber. Shouto was brought in through a back corridor that not even the servants knew about, sure, but he was here now. “Show me what you see in this boy, wildflower.”

Shinsou had already shifted into his male form to play to Shouto’s weakness, so went over to where Shouto was sitting and took his face in his hands and said gently, “Don’t think about them, just look at me.”

Shouto didn’t seem too convinced he would be able to ignore Hizashi and Shouta, given they were sitting in the other chair in this discrete seating area of their bedroom in Aizawa Manor. There not being enough chairs to go around for the current occupancy, Hizashi was sitting comfortably across her husband’s lap. Shinsou could sense their increased closeness after his absence, but supposed he’d done the same thing with Shouto so didn’t have much to complain about.

“You love me, don’t you?” Shinsou asked Shouto, knowing the answer but seeking the affirmation to draw him out. Maybe also to show off to Hizashi and Shouta a little bit.

“Yes,” Shouto answered obediently, and mirroring Hizashi sat in Shouta’s lap, Shinsou settled in Shouto’s, resting an arm around the back of his shoulders and moving close to his mouth but stopping short.

“And you know I love you too,” Shinsou continued, lips moving barely a hair’s width from Shouto’s.

“I do,” he responded, leaning up to brush their mouths together in an initial shy kiss, still getting used to the presence of others while revealing something so personal and technically forbidden, though Shouto had all the permission he needed to be with Shinsou at this point.

The heat of Shouta and Hizashi’s gaze was driving Shinsou crazy, so he deepened the kiss quickly, letting Shouto become distracted by the familiarity of their bodies together. His hands moved to Shinsou’s back and trailed up it, finally starting to relax and not be so stiff, at least not where it wasn’t needed.

Even Shinsou forgot about anyone else being there for a moment, focused instead on the gift of one more time with Shouto before he had to go, and it was only Hizashi’s little chuckle that brought him back out of it.

“What do you think, Shouta?” Hizashi asked teasingly. Shinsou broke from kissing Shouto and hugged him tightly while looking over at them, Shouto content to nuzzle Shinsou’s neck silently. “Should we let our consort keep her little pet?”

Shouto stirred a little at this, but Shinsou kept him trained to his neck, knowing it was just Hizashi’s way of speaking, to demean and degrade because it was her pleasure to do so.

“I think so,” Shouta murmured, playful in his own way. “What’s a consort for than to be pampered?”

“And they do love each other,” Hizashi cooed only a little patronisingly, and to hear her speaking it so clearly was beyond Shinsou’s wildest dreams. “Young love is so intoxicating, isn’t it?”

“It was for us,” Shouta confirmed in a gravelly voice, and Shinsou looked at them both, feeling the pull more strongly than ever. They knew exactly what they were doing, making Shinsou want them so sorely, want to be between them again, with or without Shouto, but preferably with.

Shinsou threaded his fingers through Shouto’s hair and coaxed him back, finding his eyes searching upwards for Shinsou’s, hazy and full of lust and love in equal measure.

“You okay?” Shinsou checked, and Shouto nodded. Looking back to Hizashi and Shouta, Shinsou suggested, “What do you say we move this over to the bed already?”

“Keen as always, wildflower,” Hizashi complimented, getting up and crossing over to them with sleek graceful steps like a prowling tiger. She brushed Shinsou’s hair first, then lower down to Shouto’s, and Shinsou hadn’t known how they were going to interact with each other, Shouto and Shouta being a more known quantity, but at least Shouto got this more gentle, maternal Hizashi for an introduction.

Speaking of maternal Hizashi, it hadn’t escaped Shinsou’s notice that her breasts had gotten much bigger, full of milk for their son sleeping soundly with his half brother next door. The difference was more than Shinsou’s female body, and Shinsou wanted very much to crawl into her mistress’s arms once more and get reacquainted with the unexpected mother of Shinsou’s child.

Shouto kept hold of Shinsou tightly, perhaps sensing the threat of Hizashi so near, but still cooperated, wary yet curious as Hizashi brushed his hair back and guided his gaze up to her.

“I’ve never seen boys fuck before,” Hizashi told him, devilish and greedy and the single most arousing person had ever known. Shinsou loved Shouto, had loved Shouta for lifetimes, but no one turned Shinsou on as hard or fast as Hizashi. “Will you show me how you make him feel good?”

This was addressed specifically to Shouto, a perverse request that had Shinsou’s blood burning in his body. 

Shouto nodded with blown pupils, experiencing something that until recently he had clearly never thought would actually happen to him, but as Hizashi and Shouta said, he should’ve considered that before he fell in love with Shinsou.

They made it to the bed, shedding clothes along the way, and it hadn’t occurred to Shinsou before that Hizashi would be so perversely curious about male on male sex, though it made sense given it was the only kind she couldn’t have. Even when Shinsou had been male with the two of them, the interest was more on Shinsou fucking Hizashi than Shouta fucking him, and there was clearly something Hizashi liked about Shinsou and Shouto specifically, as if the novelty was different than Shinsou just being with Shouta in some other capacity, which was old news in even a cosmic sense.

By the train of Hizashi’s commentary as they got started, Shinsou realised it was also their youth that enticed her, Shouto and Shinsou’s teenage bodies compared to her and Shouta’s adult ones. Hizashi laid back against the head of the bed, unfastened robe but not removed, her body still sensitive after giving birth so recently, whether it was an easy birth or not. Though she did still delicately play with herself as Shouto got behind Shinsou on all fours and slid his spit slick cock into Shinsou’s well practised ass.

“I can’t believe you never tried this, Shouta,” Hizashi told her husband, himself admiring them from another spot on the bed, though for now only rubbing his hardening cock through the robe he also wore loosely tied.

“I’ll admit the temptation crossed my mind once or twice on longer military campaigns,” Shouta replied, his gaze clearly focused on Shouto with the addition, “Especially with pretty boys.”

“He is a pretty one, especially like this,” Hizashi agreed. “I see why our consort likes him.”

Being so close to Hizashi was torture, and of course she knew that, but Shinsou wasn’t the most patient of people. “Hizashi,” he murmured, on his hands and knees close enough to see and smell but not touch her. “Want you… please…”

“Missed me, wildflower?” Hizashi basked in.

Shinsou nodded, heaving against the well practised act of Shouto fucking into him from behind, and promised, “I’ll be good, Mistress.”

“Alright, I’ll let you lick me, but be careful because I’m still healing,” Hizashi granted, the softest and most generous Shinsou had ever known her to be. Perhaps it was becoming a new mother, or maybe she missed Shinsou too, but whatever it was he didn’t care. Hizashi moved closer, as did Shinsou, to bury his face devotedly between Hizashi’s legs, ever so careful and tender as he licked and tasted her after so long without.

While Shinsou lavished attention on Hizashi, it was Shouto that Shouta closed in on, tapping into something that had been nothing but mutual respect between soldiers before now, but took on new life. Shouta brushed the backs of his fingers over Shouto’s cheek, the other hand going to Shouto’s hips to add force as he pushed into Shinsou.

“Will you let me fuck Hitoshi after you?” Shouta poured raspily into Shouto’s ear, as keen for leftovers whether they came from his wife or not, and definitely taking particular pleasure in trying to coach Shouto up to that precipice, the same way he’d have mentored him in battle, only this was a different kind of victory.

“I, uh…” Shouto gasped, disarmed by hearing such things come from the mouth of someone he’d always known to be stoic and proper, not a depraved sex monster, an opinion of Shouta that was rapidly about to change. “Yes, I mean… of course.” It was in his military training to yield to a superior, and something of that came through here, unthinkable to deny a senior official, only these were not the orders Shouto was used to.

Shouta pulled Shouto’s face to look at him from under his chin, intense and all encompassing as ever. “Good, then you’ll cum in Hitoshi first for me, fill him up so he’s loose and wet.”

“Ah,” Shouto sounded out rawly, “Yes…” he locked eyes with Shouta, and seemed to know without instruction what to say, just as Shinsou knew to call Hizashi Mistress, “General Aizawa.”

“Good boy,” Shouta affirmed, and even Shinsou had to stop eating out Hizashi at that point and look over his shoulder to watch Shouta coax Shouto into kissing him. Hizashi was right, watching two men together was titillating, since Shinsou didn’t really consider himself truly male or female.

Shouto let it happen, flushed cheeks and shallow, needy thrusts into Shinsou as the man he’d so often spoken of his deep respect for corrupted their pure relationship into a sordid one. The kiss was light at first then deepened, Shouta leading the charge by opening his mouth and delving his tongue into Shouto’s. Soon Shouta’s hand moved from Shouto’s hips to grasp his wrist, moving his hand over to Shouta’s cock where it emerged from his robes.

They all heard Shouto’s moan, but Shinsou also felt the throbbing of his cock inside him, and Shouto had always been clear that he was most attracted to the same sex. So stroking one man’s cock with his hand while he fucked another’s ass was still within his self professed preferences, he’d just never dared to think of something like that was possible for him.

Unsurprisingly, Shouto was the first to cum like this, least prepared for the overwhelming experience or potency of Hizashi and Shouta together along with his beloved Shinsou. Shouto shuddered and came in Shinsou’s ass, falling away shivering and dazed, though he was praised further by his mentor before Shouta took his place, eager to fill Shinsou’s ass before Shouto’s seed could drip free from it.

“You and your sloppy seconds, darling,” Hizashi commented, fingers twisted in Shinsou’s hair as she held his mouth between her legs, since that part was the same regardless of Shinsou’s body from the neck down.

“What’s not to like?” Shouta challenged roughly. “Hitoshi’s perfectly stretched for me and slick with cum,” he turned aside to congratulate, “good job, Shouto.”

Shouto was on his back not far from Shinsou having a small existential crisis, but not a bad one, it didn’t seem.

“My pleasure, General,” he replied breathily, rolling his head to the side and finding Shinsou’s eyes while Shinsou sucked ever so gently on Hizashi’s clit. “You were right, Hitoshi… I never thought it’d be so… that I could enjoy something like this so much.”

Lifting from Hizashi, Shinsou complimented, “They know what they’re doing.”

“Damn right we do,” Hizashi insisted, and pushed Shinsou’s mouth back against her pussy. “Now focus, I’m getting close.”

Hizashi came next, delicate and careful ministrations from Shinsou’s tongue plucking a quivering climax from her, and then there were two.

Shinsou came after that, and after that. But then Shouto came again, this time fucking Shinsou’s mouth, when watching Shouta pound Shinsou’s ass good and hard proved too much for him to resist without becoming aroused once more, provoking comments from their older parties about the tenacity of youth. At last Shouta was finally sated, finishing in Shinsou with his characteristic grunt of satisfaction.

They’d barely all parted from each other than a quiet cry could be heard from the next room, Hizashi and Shinsou both getting up instinctively.

“I’ll go,” Hizashi insisted, urging Shinsou to stay back, “I’ll call for you if I need you.”

“Alright,” Shinsou agreed, accepting both the relief of childcare and getting used to Hizashi taking on a more senior role in the care of the twins, as was expected. Crawling up next to Shouto, he remarked playfully, “You still with us?”

Shouto nodded, looking like he’d just experienced enlightenment, while Shouta lounged contently against the edge of the bed that met the wall. “Just wondering how I’m going to explain my delay to my father, since I can’t very well tell him the truth.”

Shinsou and Shouta both chuckled, clear that their enjoyment in inducting Shouto to this new arena of sexual experience was a mutual one.

“You’ll tell him I detained you,” Shouta offered calmly. “I have some matters to discuss with you for the Emperor on my behalf, since I won’t be returning to The Forbidden City for some time.”

Shouto looked over at Shouta curiously. “You do?”

“I do, actually,” Shouta replied. “I’ve needed a trustworthy envoy to act for me in The Forbidden City for a while now, so if you’re agreeable to it then you’d be coming back and forth between here and there more often.”

“Really?” Shinsou and Shouto chorused at the same time, and Shouta gave another warm chuckle.

“I thought you’d like that,” he admitted, glancing between them, “both of you.”

“He hates the Forbidden City,” Shinsou shared.

“Smart boy,” Shouta praised, and Shinsou could see what that praise did for Shouto in a very particular way. Definitely something they’d have to explore further. “We could go to my study now if you’re up to it, Shouto, there’s various things to go through.”

“Yes, of course,” Shouto replied appeasingly, sitting up and then looking at Shinsou a moment later.

“I’ll go keep Hizashi company,” Shinsou explained, wanting to get more acquainted with his other son anyway. He was desperate to shapeshift back into female form too, some biological imperative, along with the sapphic one to be a girl again and crawl into her Mistress’s arms and give in to her completely.

“Good,” Shouta declared. “Then we’ll meet back here in an hour or so and do that all over again.”

“I never took you to be the joking type,” Shouto remarked, glancing at Shinsou with confusion then worry, “he is joking… isn’t he?”

“Oh no, he means it,” Shinsou assured Shouto. “But don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.” There was a reason Hizashi and Shinsou both ended up pregnant on the same night, after all.

Shouto looked like he didn’t know if he’d been given the best or worst news, though it resolved itself into a tentative smile. Like he was finding a place somewhere he thought he’d never belong, and slowly starting to trust it.

“I see,” Shouto acknowledged, “I’ll, ah… do my best.”

“Don’t worry,” Shinsou soothed, going up to him and giving him a soft kiss. “We’re going to take good care of you.” No doubt about it, this was going to be all kinds of fun.

Shinsou’s mission had been completed, but the best was yet to come.

~~~