[D2 EE] Perfectly Proper

[Shiba Jiro]

"Well, I don't mind sharing, but if I can get away with eating a whole desert myself I don't complain," he says with a chuckle. His fingers work diligently and he only glanced down once for a moment.

[Yukikaze no Kasumi]

She grinned.

"So that's how ya think'a me? Just a bit'a mochi?"

[Shiba Jiro]

"Not quite. More like everything else is rice and you are the pleasant sweetness that I look forward to after," he offers with a slight shrug and a smirk.

[Yukikaze no Kasumi]

"Y'tryin' t'make me blush, Shiba-san? 'Cause it sounds like y'are..."

[Shiba Jiro]

"Maybe I'm not trying hard enough," he says with a laugh. "But that sounds like you might want me to succeed..." he says, raising an eyebrow.

He continues his work the paper making its way down into quite a small, compact form, still not revealing what it will end up as.

[Yukikaze no Kasumi]

"Well, makin' a Mantis blush is somethin' t'brag about, however y'do it..."

She leaned across the table a bit. Nothing improper. Well. nothing seriously improper.

"But why'd you wanna do somethin' like that?"

[Shiba Jiro]

"Because I get the feeling that you may be doing the same thing," he says, and smirks. "Like it's a bit of a competition."

He leans on an elbow and rests his chin on his fist, which wasn't really odd. But it was an indicator that he had stopped folding. He was gently palming something in his other hand.

"Ready to meet the new friend I made for you?"

[Yukikaze no Kasumi]

"Y'have my undivided attention."

Which neither confirmed nor denied his prior statement about her behavior.

[Shiba Jiro]

He grins a bit.

"Say hello to Shokushu-sama," he says, revealing the small origami animal.



Which for him was certainly a result of their talking about them the previous day and her stated appreciation for their intelligence. But he was not aware of the song she kept avoiding mentioning either, locked away in her thoughts.

[Yukikaze no Kasumi]

She clapped a hand over her mouth... and giggled, since, well, the Octopus Song was, well, the Octopus Song.

"Pleased t'metcha, Shokushu-sama. I think I'm supposed t'refuse your company a couple of times, so... uh... maybe you should stay with your maker, t'remind him of this conversation?"

Kasumi understood the game of refusals, but she HATED it.

[Shiba Jiro]

And he immediately got the sense that she didn't like it from the quick turn around. So he didn't extend it too much more than he had to. "As if I could forget a conversation with you Kasumi-san. Also Shokushu-sama will likely not get to see the ocean with me." He playfully mimics the octopus dancing across the table towards her.

[Yukikaze no Kasumi]

"But he's so new, an' young. He should be in more respectable company 'til he knows right'n'wrong."

There. Refusal two.

[Shiba Jiro]

"I'm sure that it'll be just fine in your care, Kasumi-san. I know I can't teach him to swim," he says with a smile, handing it over.

Once it's in her hands though, he chuckles. "But don't actually try to teach him to swim. That's not wax or sealed paper or anything."

[Yukikaze no Kasumi]

"He can guard the tea set."

Her smile was an open, cheerful thing.

"And a'course, tell me alla your secrets..."

[Shiba Jiro]

"Well, that's going to be disappointing," he says with a chuckle. "He's got nothing to say on that since I don't really have any secrets. Plenty of things that lots of people don't know, but I'm not hiding anything."

[Yukikaze no Kasumi]

"'Zactly what a guy with a pile'a secrets would say!"

[Shiba Jiro]

"Well, there's keeping a secret, then there's letting something go unspoken. For you? Only the latter, and you can always ask."

[Yukikaze no Kasumi]

DO NOT ASK HIM THAT.

"Well, then."

She took another drink of her sake.

"What scares ya th' most?"

[Shiba Jiro]

"Oh? Is this the first in a series of three questions then?" he asks, referencing the creation myth and the sins of Fear, Desire and Regret. "Would it surprise you to know that it's much the same as the original fear? Loneliness. Other people make life worth living after all, in so many ways."

[Yukikaze no Kasumi]

"Y'don't strike me as the sort cut out t'be lonely. A guy who goes'n learns how t'dig clay for pottery is gonna know people. An' a guy who wants to can keep 'em close."

She cocked her head to the side. She really hadn't meant to tackle the Three Sins, but since he'd asked.

"An' your greatest regret?"