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Post by Bayushi Chiyo on Jan 28, 2018 1:18:06 GMT -5
Chiyo's brow twitched as she scanned the menu. News travels pretty fast. She shouldn't be too surprised as the Iweko in question happens to be involved. It's an innocent question. Girl talks to the Crown Prince and inquiring minds need to know. What is the Prince like?
"He was fairly normal," she says, tracing down the menu as she addresses the more important matter of what to eat. "He likes to talk, bent my ear for a good half-hour. Has hobbies and interests like any other student might, just less time to engage in them with every passing year. You know, you might end up in a class with him." Chiyo glances over the menu to spy Yoshi's reaction to that.
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Post by Tamori Yoshi on Jan 28, 2018 8:54:24 GMT -5
"I... haven't so far," Yoshi says, half shrugging. "I guess it's good he likes to talk, because... I don't know what I'd say to someone like him." He puts down his menu, looking at the cover, lost in thought for several moments.
"You know...," he starts, very softly, "...when I saw you having lunch with him, I remembered you coming over to have lunch with me on my first day here, and I told the people I was with that you were nice... that you welcome and help new students. But... then I imagined you calling him at night... and having dinner with him... and..." (he swallows uncomfortably, clearly not liking the thought of her doing those things with someone else, but unable to voice it) "...if that's just what you'd do for anyone, that's fine; you're very kind and generous. I appreciate and am honored by the time you've given me." He swerves the opposite direction of his feelings, trying to capture the elusive high ground, while a very large part of him still hoped that these weren't the sort of lengths she'd go to with anyone else... even the Prince.
"Anyway, I'll have the... um... vegetarian pocket," he finishes, only a bit louder. So, there it was. There were no questions, no pressure to address the matter with haste, but everything he'd been wondering about where he stood with Chiyo was implicitly on the table, for her to pick up in her own time.
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Post by Bayushi Chiyo on Jan 28, 2018 11:24:15 GMT -5
This newt is a lot bolder than I took him for, she thought, fully drawing her attention away from the menu in front of her. I can’t let that stand. I’m the one in control here. To be challenged in such a way only drew out the worst in her, as Tamori Yoshi would soon find out.
“I don’t understand, Tamori-san,” she said, dropping the niceties. “Just what are you implying? That in showing courtesy to our Prince my kindness may be nothing but a means to an end?”
A shout peeled from behind the grill. ”Aimi-san! We have customers! They’ve been sitting her for five minutes already!”
An apology soon followed, then another and another as a young woman came out from the back with pen and ticket. She bowed to the two at the table, introduced herself as their waitress, and awaited the contents of the order.
Chiyo’s tone shifted to one of...almost benign indifference. “I will take the crab pocket and an iced tea. Tamori-san will be having the vegetarian pocket and...?” She looked to him expectantly. “To drink?”
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Post by Tamori Yoshi on Jan 28, 2018 12:02:19 GMT -5
"W-water... please...," Yoshi says, still reeling from Chiyo's accusation. As soon as the server is gone, he leaps to clarify, "But no, I... I meant the opposite, Bayushi-sama! I meant that you were kind to everyone, no matter their station, because of your goal to be a good person." He tries to use logic in puzzling out where he had gone wrong in conveying his thoughts to her.
"I did not mean you had selfish reasons to talk to either of us," he continues trying to explain, hanging his head. "If anyone was selfish... it was me. I think... if you heard in my words an implication that you had deeper motives for your kindness, then it was because I hoped you did... for your kindness toward me, not him." He stares hard at the counter, jaw set, trying to keep his On and hide his shame.
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Post by Bayushi Chiyo on Jan 28, 2018 16:02:27 GMT -5
Good. She struck the fear of a Thunder into this kid. The waitress, somewhat oblivous to the tension that suddenly erupted or pretending not to have noticed for the sake of courtesy, reluctantly offered to take the menus. Chiyo passed hers over with her eyes still locked on Yoshi. His initial attempt to defend himself didn’t appear to disrupt her scrutiny. She still seemed to be quite upset, up until he continues on to reveal that his statements had be made for more selfish reasons.
“I see.” She sighs, then offers a weak smile. “I still have much to learn about this...tempo of conversation. I am used to playing up offenses and defenses so often that carrying out a simple dialogue with someone who means me no ill will presents a sort of difficulty.” She carefully maneuvered around answering the real question posed, that of their relationship and what it meant. She was not ready to be Tamori Yoshi’s girlfriend now, nor ever. But he’s a lot bolder than I thought he would be.
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Post by Tamori Yoshi on Jan 28, 2018 17:08:32 GMT -5
"You don't have to be on your guard around me," Yoshi tells Chiyo in a tone both comforting and urgent. He hands off his menu to the waitress as well, though he doesn't know what else to say immediately. Instead, the wheels of his mind turn in silence, searching for how he might make it easier for them to communicate but, considering his repeated recent apparent failings, coming up with nothing.
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Post by Bayushi Chiyo on Jan 29, 2018 0:25:07 GMT -5
Chiyo was not entirely sure how to continue herself. If she picked up the conversation again, it could eventually lead down the same path. She didn't have to wait very long for the pockets to be ready, but until then they had maybe about eight minutes and nothing but each other for company or entertainment. This would usually be about the time she says something scathing, something mean, or something quite outlandish.
"Thank you," she manages, as if the words don't get used often enough in such a genuine way. "I apologize for my defensive response. I really did make what ought to be a pleasant evening rather awkward, didn't I?" She smiles sadly to herself, looking downcast.
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Post by Tamori Yoshi on Jan 29, 2018 9:19:52 GMT -5
"It's still pleasant," he says, giving her a smile of his own. He looks away thoughtfully, and it grows a little as he remembers a conversation from earlier in the day. "I just need to... be more honest and open about my feelings... especially with myself. I guess... that's one of the things that could... be "good" about me." He seemed to be getting back around to the topic of finding the good in him, which Chiyo had alluded to them doing tonight.
"It might even... help you too... to do the same?" he offers tenatively. Like a dog with a favorite toy though, he was also still firmly latched on to probing Chiyo's own feelings as well.
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Post by Bayushi Chiyo on Jan 29, 2018 12:44:32 GMT -5
He’s doing it again. Fishing for compliments. Or trying to get me to talk about feelings or whatever— She was beginning to find this altogether irksome. Is this what real couples talk about? How much they WUV one another? How much they yearn for this or fear for that? Nah. No way. Not in one million years is she going to fall into this trap. The Bayushi thought up a reply that wouldn’t make her sick to her stomach, and she thought it up quick.
“We are taught to keep our feelings behind the mask,” she says, though she has no mask on this evening to tap. “And for very good reason. Our duty comes first and well, feelings don’t even get to come in second.”
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Post by Tamori Yoshi on Jan 29, 2018 15:05:31 GMT -5
"You're not performing a duty now, though," he counters. "You're just having dinner with a... with me." He hesitated and corrected before the last word, not even sure he had leave to call Chiyo a friend at this point.
"A samurai has his or her On, yes," Yoshi concedes, "but it doesn't mean we should deny or completely conceal our emotions, from ourselves... or from those we trust." For all his efforts, Yoshi kept wondering what he was doing wrong that Chiyo remained metaphorically at arm's length.
"As we were getting off the bus, you said you were going to help me see what was good in me," he finishes. Quietly but firmly, he tells her, "I just want to do the same for you."
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