(no subject)
The battle in the council room raged on. Princess Tezuka and his future Co-Regent Fuji sat side by side on the Regent's Throne. Tezuka was dressed in Seigaku's court dress, layers of sumptuous embroidered robes, in white, red and blue. Fuji was dressed in his customary white, with just a single priceless jade piece hanging from his silk belt.
The future Co-Regent had finally wrangled the Seigaku court's agreement to a winter wedding, of which the biggest benefit was that he and Tezuka would be wed that much faster. As a result, he didn't much care about the details, so long as Tezuka and he showed up at the same place on Winter Solstice and are finally wed in the eyes of the world, and more importantly, finally dash the final flickering ember of hope of Tezuka's other suitors, like Atobe of Hyotei and Sanada of Rikkai. Mine, mine, all mine, went the gleeful litany in Fuji's mind. Fortunately all that showed was a rather possessive hold on Tezuka's hand, and a brilliant upcurved smile.
Princess Tezuka, on the other hand, looked much the same as always, which is to say, he was mostly expressionless. Currently, he has listening to the Lord of Ceremonies argue with General Oishi with a decidedly blank look on his face.
'How do you expect our Seigaku princess to go to his wedding on horseback?! It's totally beyond the pale! It's against tradition! The princess's modesty!!!' The Lord of Ceremony spluttered.
General Oishi signed and massaged his forehead. 'It's the depths of winter,' he explained wearily, for the fifteen time that morning. 'The mountain pass is practically impassable for carriages and wagons, and the river is too perilous for boats, what with the possibility of ice. The only way is horseback.'
The Lord of Ceremonies snapped back. 'It is the Princess' Royal Wedding Procession. You cannot expect to have the bride gallivanting around the countryside on horseback, for every commoner to see! It's Not Done!'
A tiny frown furled on Princess Tezuka's brow. He spoke, for the first time that morning. 'I need to go practice now. The wedding procession shall go on horseback; and since it is not traditional for the bride to show his face in public, I shall travel underwater*, using the water route. I am certain no one except the fishes would see.' He stood, pleased to have once again, derived a solution that was both practical and meet with all the dictates of Tradition.
'Coming, Fuji?' The Princess asked.
Fuji beamed. 'Of course,' he stood and tucked Tezuka's hand into the crook of his arm. 'Now that you've mentioned it, it'll be like our journey to Rikkai all over again. Ah, all those fishes!'
* Please refer to the last part of the original Princess Tezuka fic, where Princess Tezuka, Fuji and Ryoma (and Momoshiro) escaped from the marauding Rikkai troops by dint of walking underwater in a river.