[D6 EA] Not Tested On Animals (open, but expecting)

[Shosuro Hatsuki]

"Certainly not. You're as committed to your duty as anyone I know," she observed.

The fact that they were here, being mostly polite friends (if probably closer friends than is strictly normal) was testament enough to that.

"Which is part of the problem, when others don't share that value."

[Bayushi Choudai]

"Or indeed, really any values."

He sighed.

"You know, she despised me for no reason, but I like to think i gave her a reason yesterday. But after the... thing she did to you and Nadeshiko-san, I..."

I wanted to beat her face into the floor until her skull cracked. I wanted to rip the eyes out of her head and make her eat them.

"... may perhaps have asserted my personality."

[Shosuro Hatsuki]

She looked at him, raising her eyebrows to encourage him to continue as she ate.

What does that mean?

[Bayushi Choudai]

"I believe, among other things, I told her what she had squandered- what I had been more than ready to do for her to let her find what happiness she could in our arrangement- and when she claimed it didn't matter, that nothing mattered, that life was nothing but pain and misery, and that I was an evil cad for forcing her to face the object of her obsession instead of letting her hide in her room preparing to do her duty, I may have informed her that publicly whining through artwork seen by half the province is hardly doing your duty in silence, and that she should send me a note when the time came for her to dramatically take her own life, as I would hate to miss the show."

He paused. Chuckled.

"I may have also mentioned that for all of her claims that I was not important, that she had painted me exactly as often as she had painted Nadeshiko-san, who does matter to her quite a bit."

[Shosuro Hatsuki]

She almost chokes as he described what he said to her. Surely, a better artisan of the Crane would have done so from shock.

She managed to swallow properly and cover her mouth with one hand to avoid showing her amusement.

Terrible Crane, really. Probably for the best that she married out, even if it wasn't to her preferred spouse.

"My my... Quite an acid tongue," she observed.

[Bayushi Choudai]

"Well."

He sighed.

"She made me mad."

I don't care about much, but for putting the look of despair on your face and the feeling of hopelessness into your heart, I would cheerfully see her boiled alive in her own blood.

[Shosuro Hatsuki]

She smiled softly toward him and shrugged.

Watching her effect on you was terrible. That pain.

"It is what it is. Those who go looking for trouble most often find it."

[Bayushi Choudai]

"But that smile she had on her face when she uncovered that painting? I got rid of it. And that was the most satisfying part of the whole ordeal."

He sighed.

"But I suspect, if she doesn't curl up in her room and refuse to come out, that her... displays will only grow more... pronounced."

[Shosuro Hatsuki]

"Hmm... Well, I'm less concerned if she keeps it to that," she said after listening, taking a few more bites as she had.

"If she's taking other action, I'll be more worried."

[Bayushi Choudai]

"I suppose we'll have to see. I just hope Nadeshiko-san's... situation doesn't worsen."

[Shosuro Hatsuki]

"I hope not, as well," she agreed. "We should be ready to help if needed. She's been a good friend to us."

She let out a breath.

"Though that poem the other day... Not that it was her fault."

[Bayushi Choudai]

"It hurt, in part, because it was so damn good."

He glanced at her, trying to hold everything in his memory.

"I'm going to go copy the transcription at some point. It hurts, but it also felt... personal. Like it belongs to us on some level."

[Shosuro Hatsuki]

She nodded. "I should see about copying it from Nadeshiko-san, as well... It really was stunning, as I told her. Powerful. I was doing my best not to cry."

[Bayushi Choudai]

"Painful. A good pain, though, I think. The kind that reminds you you're alive."

Especially when we'll be apart.

He sighed.

"Dangerous as it is, sometimes it feels nice to be, well... seen."

[Shosuro Hatsuki]

She set aside the box with the food she had finished, laying her hand to rest on the bench near him.

"Yes... it feels like a sort of acknowledgment. Our story is as old as the Empire, after all. It's as much a part of the fabric of our society as anything."

If this isn't our first life together, it might really be as old as the Empire.

[Bayushi Choudai]

"Makes you wonder how many tries it takes to get it right. Our society, after all, seems to have scant sympathy, despite telling the story over and over again..."

[Shosuro Hatsuki]

"I know there are some people out there who manage it. Though you'd think the Clans would notice the increased efficacy, if nothing else," she sighed and shook her head.

One hand rested on her lap, against the bottom of her obi - the curve of her stomach. "Still, there are some things I can't complain about."

[Bayushi Choudai]

He gave her a sidelong smile.

"True. Sometimes even we get lucky."

But not lucky enough to raise their child or children together. Apparently that was too much to ask of the universe.

He was so tired of it, all of the polite lies, the obfuscations. He just wanted to be able to tell the world, and it was a thing he could never do. Ever.

He set his own hand on the bench, and, oops, a little contact there.

It's all worth it, though. All of the pain, the misery, the crimes we've both committed and the crimes we will commit going forward. It's all worth just one moment of this.

[Shosuro Hatsuki]

"Sometimes we do."

She shifted her hand, the very tips of her fingers resting between the tips of his. Not close enough to be intertwined, but the closest they could be for that. She'd have to accept it.

She took in a deep breath.

The flowers did smell especially lovely today, though.

[Seems like a place to /scene?]

[Bayushi Choudai]

[Indeed! /Scene, and ]