(D9 ME-expecting) A Bird...by a Bush?

[Asahina Hoshiko]

Her grey-blue eyes are merely dark in this light, and can't seem to look away. What might she miss of those tiny shifts of emotion at play on the usually stoic face? It's too fascinating. But she does look down as she takes her turn with the cup, overreaching to just brush his wrist, to thumb, to the cup once more. That energy hums with the connection. A shivery and unfamiliar thing, but not unwelcome.

Does she count as a mystery then? Does she want to? "You're right, I haven't asked anyone else. Who else would I? Your cousin, the Emerald Magistrate? Though she probably would, now that I think on it."

She looks to the cup a moment, head tilted, and turns the tiny cup very deliberately 180 degrees. Is this silly? Part of the game? Stepping a bit past 'game' to something else? She isn't entirely sure, as she sets her lips where his were a moment before and drinks the ever-cooler tea. Her eyes remain downcast, half-lidded as she considers the moment, and finds herself to nervous to watch the reaction. If she's overstepped, he'll no doubt have his expressions back in that neutral to amused zone she can handle.

Pouring the tea is almost meditative, and an excuse to keep her eyes on the task, lest she spill. "I appreciate that you find a distinction between unusual and disturbing." The gentle slide across the table seems louder, and leaves no more reason not to look up. "I find myself wondering what I need to do...to remain a mystery" her voice is low, almost speaking to herself as she searches his face, "while also learning more about you than these sparse notes."

[Daidoji Ryu]

Just a little touch, and yet Ryu found it... electrifying? Intoxicating? Or perhaps it was like a spark between them, igniting both. Ryu was collected enough to keep his reaction minimal at the touch, but his eyelids did shiver a little.

The sudden reference to his cousin made him chuckle, low and quiet. "Oh, she would." There was a brief pause as Ryu considered his words. "She's very traditional, but she's also not afraid of hard work. Where the two are permitted to overlap, she's rather unstoppable. An honor and a terror to watch at work."

But Ryu's attention was mostly on Hoshiko, and what she was doing. His grey eyes flicked between her eyes and her lips as she drank from the teacup, instantly marking the significance of her action. When she did look back to him, his expression does, in fact hold gentle amusement. But that spark is still visible too; in fact, it was brighter. Hotter.

"Hmmm." For a moment, Ryu's expression turned completely serious, and he looked at Hoshiko thoughtfully. Was that something she wanted, truly? He wanted to know, and yet he wouldn't insult her by asking. Eventually, that small, secret smile touched his lips again, the briefly sheltered spark flaring again.

"No one has all the answers." Ryu reached out, taking the cup, Touching her hand. "Some mysteries are best explored alone. But some, well. Perhaps it is just something that we'll need to study together." Now it was his turn to lift the cup, turning it about, and bring it to his lips, holding her gaze all the while.

[Asahina Hoshiko]

Just a little touch, and yet Ryu found it... electrifying? Intoxicating? Or perhaps it was like a spark between them, igniting both. Ryu was collected enough to keep his reaction minimal at the touch, but his eyelids did shiver a little.
She is slower to release the cup this time, letting the touch linger, taking in that spark and letting it settle--warm and glowing--within her chest. Her eyes remain on his, sharing that moment and a blush that only grows deeper as his lips settle on the cup.

A memory of tales of tanuki taking the shape of teapots leads very easily to wondering if one has ever been a teacup, and she has to press her lips tight against the laugh that threatens.

Instead, she take a steadying breath. "Where does one begin with those mysteries? I'm used to research." As the mostly forgotten pages before her attest. "Is it time to ask about your family, or training, or what you find in dreams? Or what other mysteries you're used to pursuing?"

[Daidoji Ryu]

Ryu, of course, knew nothing about tanuki teapots. He only knew that it was an enjoyable private moment that had them both smiling.

"Hmmm..." Ryu's gaze went distant, but his lips still smiled. "It's not too unlike research. A question leads to an answer, and leads to another question. Let's see. I can start with family. You've met my cousin. I have more. Most of them are shorter." He lifted the cup up towards his lips, but didn't drink yet. "My parents are bushi. I have a younger sister. She's a bit of a brat." The fond smile on his lips suggested that his feelings were warmer than his words might suggest.

He hesitated a moment, then went on. "Unlike my parents, I actually trained with the Daidoji scouts." There was a tiny bit of worry in his eyes at sharing that fact. It wasn't always well-regarded. The worry faded as he brought the cup back to his lips, drinking the liquid, repeating the kiss-by-proxy.

He set the little cup back down. "What happens when we run out?" He murmured softly, even as he refilled it, tilting the pot quite a bit to coax more liquid out. "Your turn." He said as he slid the cup back, a little closer to her than before, passing questions back as well as tea.

[Asahina Hoshiko]

At the question, without a pause, Hoshiko reaches, not for the cup, but for the lid of the solid tetsubin. She rattles it a bit aggressively, certainly making some noise, and sets it back down askew. "We signal for more," she says decisively, certain that somewhere there is a servant who would take care of things.

As it happens there is a servant, but they are not the sort who can run to the kitchen. They're there tidying the gardens, raking fallen needles away, resetting pebbles unsettled by the quake, and the like. But they hear and send their apprenticing son off to the kitchens with a message. The boy is 15 and may be distracted along the way....but eventually, a new pot will arrive.

In the meantime:

Hoshiko lifts the cup and feeds kindling to the little fire within by tasting the gentle floral tea from the same spot Ryu had. A dozen years from now, if someone asks, she'll remember the feel of the delicate edge of the cup and every sensation of these sips of tea with at least as much clarity as her actual first kiss.

When she lowers the cup, it takes a moment to settle back on some kind of conversational track. "My turn? To answer my own question? Hmm..well that gives you time to think of another, because I won't do all the asking," she says emphatically.

There's a small pause before she begins. "I am my father's remaining child, as my sister and two brothers wait in Meido." It is said with a flat, matter-of-factness that does not invite pity. "His sister's family thrives. One of my cousins is betrothed to your cousin here, as I imagine you know."

"The spirits made their favor known fairly early, so that training was a given. I showed some affinity for the arts and the spirits inclined to inhabit them, and thus have a bit of training that not all Asahina shugenja take to. I met Yasuki Masaki there, as she trained with my family." Her head tips in curiosity, and she sips the remaining tea from the cup, meeting his eyes as she lowers it to ask, "You'll forgive me that I'm only distantly aware of the different ways that bushi may train...the scouts are, well trained to do scouting I assume? Less likely to be in the midst of the main battles?" Apparently she's forgotten to make him take up the next question asking assignment.

Careful of the uncentered lid, she pours and passes the cup, turning it as she does, in a small act of offering convenience, perhaps.

[Daidoji Ryu]

A problem given, a solution found. It occurred to Ryu that they could probably also request a second cup. He chose to remain silent on that fact. It was not the same as actually kissing Hoshiko, but once again, the shared secret added an extra spice that made it similarly intriguing.

"Hmph." The corners of Ryu's lips curled up at that. "Fair enough. Especially since a lot can be learned about a person from the sorts of questions they ask. I'll take my turn."

And with that, he went back to watching as she spoke. It was habit for him, of course. Normally he watched while someone spoke to his cousin, or even Lady Doji. Or for himself, but the goal was still the same. Watching for weakness, deception. Vulnerability. Okay, and sometimes shared interest. This was different. Very different, Ryu thought, following each change in expression, mentally tracing the shape of her lips... she would see a flash of feeling in his eyes when she spoke of her losses. Feeling, but not pity.

This time, when Hoshiko offered him the cup, Ryu brought it immediately to his mouth, as though shortening time rather than distance brought their lips closer together. This sip was slow, almost tender, his eyes on hers.

And then he lowered his cup. "They are. And yes, we do not form the main line. That is for samurai like my cousin." He took a breath, gaze briefly unfocusing, or perhaps focusing on the past. That may mean we're off to the side. Behind the lines. Or perhaps we did our part hours ago, our part entirely unseen..." His lips compressed; that thought was like an old wound.

A moment passed, and he set the cup down, lifting the pot... but it was gone. Empty. Yes, another pot was on its way, but it was a little reminder that all things came to an end.

"Why Emma-O?" Ryu asked, his voice soft. "Is that another aptitude that was discovered? Or..." He made a vague gesture. Speaking of the Fortune of Death made the shadows seem deeper, the night seem colder... but Hoshiko's presence took the edge from those things.

[Asahina Hoshiko]

Hoshiko brought one finger to her lips, pressing with one knuckle to keep them still as she watched Ryu drink. It stays there as she listens. She's practiced at listening, to mourning friends and relatives, to teachers, to her father. She can hear the pain tucked in there somewhere, as there must always be when leaders turn to battles to solve problems.

She smiles a bit at the empty pot, looking up with a small shrug. "Ah, the poor teacup, growing chilled in the winter air with neither tea nor lips to warm it now," she says quietly. "If it had ears to hear, I'd like to tell it such a state will not last long."

But there was also a question to answer while they all waited. An offer of connection in the chill of a fortune whose presence Hoshiko finds familiar, if not comforting. "Why? The marks were always there." She rests her right hand flat on the table between them, the missing pinky very obvious. And now...now she feels a bit of that lonely chill creep down her spine, stealing the heat of that new little flame. Difference can be very isolating in their world.

But it's there now, and she goes on. There's no sense hiding herself if she want to keep that warmth. "Four fingers, and a head of pure white hair. And death carried my mother away before my eyes could focus. But that didn't make me want to know him; much the opposite, really. Then Takara died and I would have done anything to find her one last time. I thought I had so much to tell her still." There's a quiver of old hurt in her voice, and a softness to her gaze. "I studied and spent more and more time visiting Meido trying to find her, talk to Emma-O and..." she scoffs..."I don't know, I think I was going to beg to have her back."

"Then Yoshiro drowned and I thought I was being punished for my pestering. I was very young." She straightens a bit with a long breath that loosens shoulders she hadn't realized were held tight. "I learned better. The Fortune does not have time for such pettiness. I'd have needed to be much more annoying. But it was because of those deaths that I did that learning, and understanding, and...I found a place that fit me well." There's a vulnerabilty as her posture loses it's guardedness. "I admit it seems strange to most."

While she doesn't ask a question, it almost seems there's one that won't bear something so coarse as words to ask.

[Daidoji Ryu]

Ryu looked at the empty pot, then over to Hoshiko. "I hope you are right, Yamada-san." Ryu murmured. "If it had ears to hear, I'm sure it would be pleased to hear that." That spark in his grey eyes was very bright indeed.

But for a little while at least, the chill remained. Lanternlight seemed to flicker as Hoshiko told the stories of her losses. Once more, feeling flashed in Ryu's grey eyes. "I'm sorry." He said, his voice a gentle whisper. Sympathy, not pity. There was often a sort of dignity in loss, once the wound was no longer fresh.. Ryu knew that, and he recognized it in her. He sat very still as she finished, his expression difficult to read, as it so often was.

"It is strange." Ryu finally said, still speaking softly and slowly. "How a setback can change our course. I've had a few setbacks. No great losses, thankfully, but in seeking to understand them I did walk a different path." Was it right to compare his career misfortunes to the loss of her siblings? No, but also yes, in that those things brought them here, as the people they were.

Then Ryu gave her a smile; gentle, not amused. "And I think I understand something about finding a place that fits. Even if it doesn't fit everyone. At least it fits you well." And him.

Still smiling gently, Ryu slid the empty cup across the table. He kept his hand on it, clear invitation for another touch.

[Asahina Hoshiko]

She nods a bit, at the last lines. "Thank you. Unless that's a polite way of saying it's a strange role for a strange priestess," there's an amused tilt to her lips that takes some seriousness from the line. For a moment it seems she might simply move her right hand toward his, but force of long habit, has her withdraw it to reach with her left, resting it almost as if holding an invisible cup, the backs of her fingers so lightly against his that it might be the touch is imagined from the bit of skin warmth that lies between them. The connection completing a circuit that is at once exciting, and comforting.

Hoshiko settles a bit straighter, releasing a breath she hadn't noticed herself holding. "It sounds like you feel you've found that sort or fit. Were you able to chose that? Chose walking a different path?" There's an honest curiosity. "I always think of bushi being more constrained in their choices."

And then there's the polite scuff of someone approaching who might normally be servant silent, but has likely found more than a few interesting meetings in the hedges. It's winter court, overhearing some of those meetings could be dangerous.

This one might be dangerous in a different way, and Hoshiko moves with only slightly startled haste to withdraw from their touch and take up her chalk once more as a new pot of tea arrives, steaming in the chill air.

[Daidoji Ryu]

Ryu's lips quirked. "Actually, I believe the word I used before was 'pretty'. A pretty priestess." The touch was very light, so light Ryu felt as though he might be feeling her heat, her presence, rather than her skin. Once again, it was shared moment and shared secret both, and quite pleasant for that.

Ryu's lips parted, then pressed together. "I was, yes. Of sorts. War defined me in one way. Once it was over, I found that I didn't like that definition. In peacetime, I felt that I had two choices. Prepare myself for the next war, or redefine myself for peace. I chose the latter."

He sighed, his gaze going distant. "I've done well enough as an advisor. But perhaps I should follow my cousin's example. Doing it my own way, though. Not her way."

The reappearance of the servant did not startle Ryu so much, or at least not so visibly. He shifted, moving his hand casually away. "And more tea returns. Just as foretold." He murmured, casting Hoshiko a quick smile.

[Asahina Hoshiko]

Those smiles were rare enough to pay some attention to, worth returning as encouragement certainly. So she smiles as says, "I'm not usually an oracle, but this seemed a safe bet." But waits until the servant withdraws to add, "I also predict you'd be getting poems from half the ladies at court if that smile made more frequent appearances."

"As to following your cousin's path...as a magistrate? At the clan level or Emerald?" The questions are light and conversational, but there's always that spark in the meeting of eyes, and barely veiled eagerness for Ryu to pour the fresh tea and pass the cup once more.

There was at least a pot's worth of questions and answers, touches and glances, to share out between them as they

/fade to very courtly flirting? (and many thanks for the scene!)