Warning: this is pure Yoko/Rakushun - if you don't like the pairing, you probably won't like the story.

This is probably AU but since we're never gonna get the translations of the later books in English, oh well.

"Class is dismissed," Tokutou said, gathering his papers from the lectern and nodding to the seniors. "If you want to discuss signatures, then please meet me in the office."

It was three days before the end of the year and graduation at the University of Kei. Most of the students had joined in the last few years, after the new Empress ascended to the throne. She was indulgent towards the university, and command them to open the doors to all promising scholars, regardless of age, nationality, and most importantly, wealth.

The school had introduced the concept of "merit scholarships" at her recommendation – the nation itself would pay for their schooling, provided they kept up their grades. Additionally, students who tested in at the highest levels of the university could work part-time in exchange for money to support their families or to save up for after graduation. It worked out well for all parties involved – the quality of students at the university improved, and the school grounds were well-kept, the food delicious, and the entire place was squeaky clean from top to bottom.

And then there were the hanjou.

There were at least four of them in the school now. The eldest was Rakushun, a student now in his fifth year at the University of Kei, after spending a year in the University of En. He was gifted, and rumor had it that he was here at the personal request of the Empress herself, although he never mentioned it. He did, however, have a rare silver message bird that was worth as much as all four years of tuition at the school. And he was not a scholarship student – someone was paying the full price of his tuition. No one knew who except for Rakushun himself, and he would not discuss it.

The other candidates for graduation in his class joined Rakushun as they walked with Tokutou toward his office. One by one they went in, and one by one they came out. You could tell by the look on each of their faces what the outcome of Tokutou's judgment was.

In order to graduate, each student needed the approval of each faculty member at the school. Some classes were easy to get – literacy, law, archery – whereas some were far more difficult.

Tokutou taught government philosophy. It was considered one of the harder classes, since it required a little original research and a lot of critical thinking. The graduates of the school were all destined to work for the country's massive government infrastructure – the merchant class in Kei was still small, and one did not need an expensive education to till the fields or sell wares. The university graduates would become the country's doctors, engineers, and military strategists.

The new empress had already had a strong influence – she favored progress and modernization. Her largesse toward the school had spurred research and innovation into improved agriculture. She had also invited architects and designers from other countries to teach the students in the best that all of the Twelve Kingdoms had learned.

Rakushun was the last to enter Tokutou's office. He handed the processor his card. It was nearly full of signatures – Rakushun had paced himself to get as far as five signatures every year. He had his three needed to stay in school this year, but without Tokutou's signature, he could not graduate.

"Saving the best for last, eh?" the old man said with a faint wisp of a grin.

Rakushun stared at him with his black, guileless eyes. The young man was quite attractive in his human form but preferred his beast form, saying he was more comfortable that way. The new Empress was sympathetic to hanjou, and like En she wanted Kei to be a land where people walked around freely in whatever form they chose. One of her generals was said to be half bear. There were also the rumors surrounding Rakushun himself, but the young man was careful never to speak directly of her in anything but the most abstract terms.

The old professor gave him a final nod, then took his card and signed it.

"Thank you, sir," Rakushun said simply.

"Why did you wait so long to ask me?" Rakushun had been attending his class for nearly three years.

"Because you were the one who had the most I could learn." Rakushun blinked, his whiskers twitching. "In fact, there is much more I could learn from you. If I could, I would stay here another few years, just to make sure I learned everything I possibly could."

Tokutou smiled then. "Even if you stayed here a hundred years, you could not learn everything. And then you would be an old man." He patted Rakushun's card, filled with proof that his professors all recommended him to the government. "Graduate now. Take the placement exam. Earn your contract of immortality. Then you can enjoy a long lifetime of study, and stay young forever."

The hanjou bowed very low. "Thank you, sir," he said again. Then he took his card, and left.

Only after he closed the door did he let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

The graduation ceremony was held a few days later. There were fifty students in all who had the approval of the professors. Many of them were approaching middle age already. Rakushun were his human form – even if they had made the graduation robes in his rat size, they would have been hot and uncomfortable. The robes were the classic design of the Kei Imperial scholars – black with long sleeves, and a skull cap with decorations related to each major – philosophy, literature, agriculture.

The students were lined up expectantly, in two rows, preparing to enter the school's main hall, when a great murmuring started from behind the lobby area. Suddenly, everyone was dropping face down on the ground, kneeling before the important person who had entered unexpectedly.

"The Empress!" someone behind Rakushun hissed. Rakushun panicked for a second before reluctantly joining them in the kow-tow. Every single person around them was face down on the ground. Yoko hated it when they knelt on the ground; she had asked that people instead bow in mutual respect, so she could see their faces.

But he had kept his relationship with her secret, and this was one of the formal occasions where the kneeling might still be expected. So he joined them on the ground, but kept his head lifted slightly to watch the cluster be escorted inside.

"Honored graduates," the herald said nervously, "Her Royal Majesty, the Empress of Kei, has graced us with her divine presence. We are greatly honored to have her observe our ceremony today."

They began to walk down the hallway, soft slippers muffled further by long silken robes.

Her entourage was small, but they'd wisely brought their own chairs, carried by servants who walked behind them. Three women – that would be Yoko, Suzu, and Shokkei. He glanced up, and saw them approaching from the side. Rather than forcing the university to rearrange their elaborate stage, they set up Yoko's portable throne dais off to the left of the stage. She was there to witness, not to participate.

As they passed, he caught Shokkei's eye. She winked at him, and titled her head slightly toward Yoko. Yoko herself was wearing a carefully blank face – she had once called it her "game face" that she put on when she was trying to be as emotionless as possible. That is, whenever she was in "empress mode." But Shokkei was not bound in such a way, and by her gestures, he knew that Yoko had been informed by someone that he was graduating and insisted on coming to see.

The thought made him happy. A more emotional person might have called it giddy or gleeful, but Rakushun was tempered in his emotions and they never swung to anything that extreme. However, he knew he showed his own emotions too readily in human form, so he did his best to hide his enthusiasm.

Although their lives had taken wildly divergent paths, he still thought of her as the beautiful, scrawny, half-dead girl he'd found in a puddle and nursed back to health. Little did he know at the time that the kakyouku was the chosen, if lost, Empress of Kei. He had fallen in love with her wild spirit and determination to survive. He'd nearly had his heart broken when he found out her real station in life, although he had been very happy for her as well. But she had told him nothing had changed between them. The only distance between them would always be physical.

"Graduates, please rise and take your positions."

In exchange for finding the lost Empress, the Emperor pf En had given him the opportunity to study at the university. Then after Yoko had gotten the situation in Kei under control a bit, she had personally asked the Universities of Kei and En to let him transfer, so they could be closer to each other. All the traveling had been detracting from his studies, she had said, but he wanted to believe she really just wanted him in the same city with her, even if they did not talk that much more.

They marched forward, and the ceremony continued as planned with one slight alteration. Instead of bowing before the magistrate of the university after being presented with their scrolls, they found themselves bowing before the empress as well. She was resplendent, as always. She and Keiki, her kirin, wore matching severe expressions, but when it was Rakushun's turn, her expression softened. She was trying very hard not to smile.

"Congratulations," she mouthed to him, before he moved on to let the next student see her.

Afterward, the new graduates gathered at their favorite pub, drinking and rejoicing in their achievements, all still in their robes and hats. Several pretty girls still in school themselves had joined them – if a lucky girl managed to marry a magistrate, she could attain immortality without necessarily having to pass the exam herself.

Rakushun was part of a small group of friends, mostly older men, drinking quietly in the corner while the younger ones danced and partied.

"Good job, young man," one of the oldest of their group said. "I was wondering if you were going to beat me in getting out of here, actually." He chuckled. "My wife didn't believe I'd ever make it."

"I'm surprised you took so long as well," another said. "What class held you up?"

"Archery."

Rakushun gave an involuntarily shudder as all the older men groaned together. "I took it for all four years as well," he admitted. He flexed his human hands around his drink, remembering the humiliation of that first year of archery in En. The instructors there had been merciless, and since he was still unused to his human form, he had been the most clumsy student they could recall. "When I transferred to Kei after my first year of archery, I pretended I had never taken it at all in En – and they certainly believed I was a rank beginner."

The men around him laughed.

He had been terrible that first year, and merely bad the second year. He'd somehow improved – despite himself. So he'd pushed himself, and practiced and practiced. By the end of the third year, he'd started to approach good – and he'd been very, very good by the time his instructor was satisfied last month. He was no warrior, but he had good hearing and an animal's instincts and could keep his aim true even with his eyes closed or his head turned away, an unusual skill that had impressed even the battle hardened instructor at the University of Kei.

He had just lifted his glass to take another sip when he heard, "Oy, Rakushun! You have some visitors!"

There, standing at the door, disguised in plain clothes, were Yoko, Shokkei, and Suzu. Kantai was there as well, probably because letting the three most precious flowers of the palace enter a pub without some kind of bodyguard was a very bad idea. Rakushun drew in his breath.

"Pretty girls? Let them in!"

Yoko's outfit was not the disguise of "Yoshi" that she had worn during the early days when she wanted to travel incognito, but a much more feminine look. Most of the kingdom now knew of their empress in disguise, and young girls could buy dolls of "Yoshi" that came with empress clothes as well as her peasant clothes.

Instead, Yoko wore a strange outfit he'd seen her in only once before – she had called it a yukata and had had the palace tailors whip it up as a surprise for Suzu during the summer festival a few years ago. The robes were colorful, with wide bands of silk worn high on the waist. Both Suzu and Shoukkei sported them as well, although for once it was Suzu who wore it better with her slender figure.

Yoko had also dyed her hair – her brilliant red locks were by far her most distinguishing feature, so with them dulled to a more common brown, she looked like a well-to-do subject rather than the ruler of the country.

The disguised inner court of the empress ran inside, in a giggling flurry of sleeves and flowing hair.

He set his drink down and stood up, mesmerized.

"Rakushun!" Yoko called joyously when she spotted him, and ran across the crowded room to him. She stopped just short of flinging herself around him, although he could tell that she wanted to. She knew that it embarrassed him.

"What are you doing here? It's not safe," he warned quietly. Some of his classmates could probably devour beautiful girls whole.

"Sure it is," Yoko said with a smile. "Kantai is with us. He'd never let anything happen to us… especially not Shokkei."

He looked back toward the door at the former princess of Hou, who was laughing merrily with the leader of Yoko's security forces. Suzu, the plainest of the three but also the most exotic with her hourai features, was talking much more quietly with the underclassmen who had snatched her immediately. Technically Suzu was the eldest of them, topping out at over a century. But while her mind and body were immortal, she had only recently blossomed into maturity. Shokkei was almost fifty now although she didn't look a day over twenty. She had refused to sign another immortality contract, preferring to let herself grow older in the way she had been denied as a child. Yoko herself was nearing twenty-two. She, like Suzu, would wear the look of a sixteen year old forever.

She slipped onto the bar stool that Rakushun had vacated.

"I wanted to tell you congratulations in person." She flashed a gold coin at the bartender, and called out, "A round for everyone on me!"

The room erupted into cheers. The elderly man who had been sitting beside Rakushun took the first pour from the bartender, and left his stool, motioning for Rakushun to replace him since the wealthy young woman was his friend.

He slipped onto the chair, and waited until the bartender had served Yoko before grabbing the mug he'd been working on before.

She took a sip of the beer, wrinkled her nose, and continued. "I didn't want a stuffy, formal audience, and it's so hard to sneak you into the palace. Koushou said that you guys would probably have a party here – or so Sekki told him." She gestured to the youngest person there, Sekki, who was listening to Suzu's conversation in rapt attention. The young man had been given the first scholarship to the university, as repayment for his elder brother's work during the early tumultuous days of Yoko's reign. "Kantai agreed to let us come if he could escort us." Yoko's eyes were shining in pride and happiness. "Keiki is going to kill me if he finds out, but I was getting tired of being cooped up. All he knows is that I went out with my 'ladies in waiting' for the evening." She rolled her eyes at the term – to her, Suzu and Shokkei were merely good friends.

The rowdy students around them would no doubt quake in fear if they knew their empress stood among them, but none of them had any suspicions. A few of them did keep throwing jealous looks at Rakushun, the hanjou with the pretty brunette talking to him.

"I also wanted to give you a gift," Yoko continued, and reached into a pouch hanging from her belt. handed him a velvet sack. "I'm sure you will earn a wonderful position in the government with your upcoming exam, so you will need this soon."

Overwhelmed, Rakushun opened the package to reveal a beautiful seal stamp with the characters for his name on it. At first glance it appeared rather plain, made only of polished black wood and ivory, but the craftsmanship was exquisite and on closer inspection there was a second layer of inlaid jet making a decorative pattern on the outside. From a distance it was utilitarian, but it was costly and had taken a skilled artisan many months. She had indulged him, while still respecting his modest tastes.

"The artisan was in En," she explained. "He assumed that this 'Rakushun' must be a very high ranking official." Yoko grinned and pressed the seal into his hands. "Maybe someday soon."

"It's perfect," he said, grateful that he had prevented his voice from cracking.

"I thought it would suit you. No nonsense on the first glance, but with hidden depths." She blushed a little as she said that.

"Thank you."

Rakushun suddenly regretted the fact that he was not in his rat form. In this human form, he had uncomfortable urges when it came to Yoko. Such as now, when he really just wanted to lean forward and kiss her. His rat form had no such instincts – or rather, they were dulled and suppressed. He felt things more keenly as a human. He still felt all the same emotions he did as a rat, but as a human they were so much stronger.

She was the empress, he reminded himself. She was also his best friend in the world. For the moment, he was nothing but a jobless graduate until he tested into a position. He certainly wasn't worthy of kissing her.

She would not see it that way, however. She never did.

Rakushun carefully put his new name seal into the velvet bag and put it into his pocket.

He made his decision, and took two steps toward her so that he was close enough to touch her.

"Rakushun…?" she asked breathily. "What are you-"

He embraced her warmly, and said in her ear, "I'm closing the distance between us."

They were both blushing fiercely now. This was uncharted territory. Yoko had never been in love before, she had told him, and he had never had any friends at all, let alone someone of the girl variety.

"Aren't you the one that is always telling me to have more modesty?" she murmured against his shoulder.

He could feel her heartbeat pounding wildly. But she was right. This was not the place for anything beyond this fierce hug.

"Ahem," Kantai said, not too far away. Shokkei was hanging off his arm, grinning widely at her two friends.

Reluctantly, they broke apart, both still crimson. Kantai just shook his head at them.

For the rest of the party, they held hands, but did not embrace again. Before long, under Yoko's generous purse (her allowance money, she'd explained), everyone was tipsy or flat out drunk and having a merry time of it.

The alcohol lowered both their inhibitions and their defenses. They talked as they had not since those early days, when he was an outcast of Kou and she was a foreigner on the run.

"I'm going to take the exam in one month," Rakushun told her. "I have a pretty good feeling about it, but I don't want any favoritism or anything." He shook his head. "I want to earn my position in the government."

Yoko nodded. "In Japan, we call our introductory level government workers 'interns' – because you are still learning, but it is internal to the government. I understand that it is much the same here. It would take something extraordinary for someone, even you, to enter at a higher level." She smiled. "I swear on my throne I haven't told anyone in the palace about you."

He sighed in relief. As always, she understood him completely. "The kingdom of Kei has already done so much for me. The next few steps are ones I must take on my own."

"No pressure, but I will be keeping an eye on those exam results."

"Yoko," Kantai called from across the room. "We're going to have to head back now."

She squeezed his hand. "Good luck," she whispered. Then, not caring who was watching, she kissed him quickly on the cheek. A few of his classmates saw that and cheered, as the three pretty girls were escorted away by their bodyguard, leaving the new graduates alone.

Later that night, Rakushun was having uncharacteristic impractical thoughts at odds with his practical nature. Thoughts like, "I will never wash this cheek again." The analytical part of his mind told him that it was impossible to leave half a face unwashed, and even if he did so, it would result in an outbreak of acne. He wanted to sleep with his new seal under his pillow, but he was aware that it would be uncomfortable and could even damage the delicate ebony and jet woodwork.

He had loved Yoko from the moment he had laid eyes on her, and ever since. But now, for the first time, he was experiencing the effects of being in love, which were much different. The emotion was hotter and wilder and almost painful.

They were muted when he was in his rat form, but it was really his human form that resonated and sang when she was near him.

He was no longer sure which form he preferred.

The good news is that the whole first half of the story is written! The bad news is that it was written terribly the first go round and needs major revision. I'll do my best to get the next chapter out before February.

Reviews are author food. Nom nom nom.