Sapphire Ambassadors

Choudai had fully expected to be spending more time at the bar, but between one thing and another, he actually hadn't been back since Asano's "lesson" four days prior.

Never thought I was cut out to be a sensei.

Of course, I'm not cut out for a lot of things.

He ordered a bottle of something decent but not too pricy.

Not much of a bushi.

I won't be much of a husband, in the final analysis.

I'll never be a smooth political operator, and being a spy takes too much of a toll for me to sustain it for long.

And I'm damned sure no hero, on any level.

But...

He drank off his first cup.

I am a man lucky enough to have found his missing half. Even if we won't marry in this life...

"To finding each other sooner next time."

After all, they weren't slated for Yomi just yet. It'd be nice, but they shared crimes in addition to everything else.

He drank off the second.

I'm a damned good chef.

"To your lessons, Obachan."

He wasn't sure what his grandmother would make of the rest of his life, but he knew she'd be proud of his cooking at least. Even if she had plenty of advice to improve it.

Choudai is not alone.

A leaning Mantis raises a glass.

And then he drains it.

Choudai turned, raised his own, and drank it off.

"Dunno if we've met. Bayushi Choudai."

The Mantis stands, perhaps a bit shakily, and bows.

"Yoritomo Tomodachi."

A slight pause and a somewhat pained expression amid it, but only for a moment.

"A pleasure."

Another pause, and a bit of weaving.

"To whom are you drinking?"

"Ah, Yoritomo-san, that'd be telling. And it'd be a long list, to boot."

He motioned to join him.

"And you?"

Tomodachi makes his way over.

"Lost opportunities," he says, seating himself. "To answer the question. Lots of lost opportunities.

"Damned shame, really."

"Ah, I know that feeling well!"

He poured the Mantis a fresh one.

"For me, timing. I'm often too late. By a year, a month, you name it."

Tomodachi tops off Choudai's cup, as well.

"Ever been too early, Bayushi-san?" he asks. "It's a different thing, really. Should wait, but can't necessarily do so. And then what happens--ah, it's not so good as might be thought or hoped."

He picks up his cup. "Not something to be wished."

"Too early? Can't say I've managed that one all too often."

He sighed, looked into his cup.

"Mostly feel like the choices were all made before I was even born."

"It's possible they were," Tomodachi says in the expansive way the moderately inebriated often do. "Every wave and blast of wind predetermined, preordained, and the footing beneath us made by others' hands.

"Still, you can't but reach for the rigging to try and steady yourself, can you? Any of us, really."

Choudai's experience with maritime travel of any sort whatsoever was, to be charitable, intensely limited.

"Rigging?"

"Oh, right," Tomodachi says. "Landlubber.

"So," and a small belch punctuates, "pardon--er, rigging's the ropes as keep the mast and what all's on it in place where the skipper wants 'em. There's a lot of parts on a ship as needs, needs t'be able t'move, so it can't be put in place th'same way's a house can. Hence it's rigged t'gether."

"So you advise holding into something that's kind of unsteady, but as secure as the shipwright could make it?"

Choudai blinked. Then raised his cup.

"I'll drink to that."

"Kampai!"

Tomodachi drains another cup.

"And there's this, too; you can sometimes tie the rigging better. Just have to know your knots real well. O'course, that's always the trick, and sometimes the line'll go awry on you."

"Since I didn't know what it was until just now, I'd leave any adjustments to someone else..."

"See, Bayushi-san," Tomodachi expands, "it's a metaphor. You've built the ship of your life--using timber and line your lord's given you, yeah, and to their plan, but it's still your own work. If y'look, y'know the rigging best of all."

"Then I think we can all be grateful I'm not a shipwright."

He knocked back another cup, appearing disinclined to elaborate.

Tomodachi shrugs and tops off the drink.

"So, Bayushi-san," he says, "where are y'from?"

"Kyuden Bayushi by birth an' training. Then a did a bit of time in th'Painted City. Kinda my first duty station? Then I went to Naishou. Now I'm here."

He paused.

"You?"

"Port Akari on Haraji Island," Tomodachi replies. "Mother administers it, Father is harbormaster there. Served on the Lightning's Hand with my brother a while; 'fore that, was on the Light Flower."