EE6 Paint Party III (Crane quarters)

[Asahina Sakura]

"My esteem is something you've already won," she smiles, and leans in a bit to watch him paint, offering an encouraging nod now and then.

"Oh," she says somewhat flatly when his painting is completely, and then sits up straighter, raising her eyebrows. "Your effort does not go unnoticed? And this is not a competition in the same way the events are; there's no right or wrong way to show appreciation and reverence to Kisshoten-no-Kami," she offers, reassuringly. "We each have our own strengths."

[Seppun Urusai]

Urusai chuckles.

"And mine are clearly in other areas," he says. "But that's not ill, in itself. No, if I have an artistic skill, it's in stories; maybe we'll have time to share some together?"

He looks at her, smiling, and says "I'd like that quite a bit, truly."

[Asahina Sakura]

"Would you really?" she said shyly, though she thought she knew the answer by now. "Whenever you have time."

[Seppun Urusai]

Urusai nods, then glances about.

"Is...is there more tea?"

The voice in his mind suggests that he enjoy things but that he not get too involved at the moment, let things develop. No need to rush.

But you delayed, Uncle.

And the voice makes a comment about upstarts.

[Asahina Sakura]

She gives a smirk at the silent comment, and rises, "Of course, if Seppun-sama would like to set his painting down on the table to dry, we can have more, um, tea?"

Sakura would walk with him, and pour his cup for him, holding it gently for him to take. Her expression a friendly, if thoughtful one, given what she'd seen in his eyes earlier.

[Seppun Urusai]

Urusai's hand grazes--no, it's more than a graze, given its lingering caress--hers as he takes the cup from her with a word of thanks.

"Can you tell me about this blend?" he asks her.

[Asahina Sakura]

Sakura tried to reign in a wide smile. And totally didn't almost drop the cup in their exchange.
"Oh. It's um, an understated blend? Uh. Not brash or bold? A soft bouquet but maybe surprising in its complexity that takes time to um, bloom? Subtle, but still worth having, at the end of the day, um? The.. tea.. is something I think Seppun-sama's sensibilities would enjoy?"

[Seppun Urusai]

Urusai nods, smells of it, tips the cup to his lips, sips therefrom.

"Very much to my taste," he says. "A variety from your home, then?"

The voice in his mind asks if he knows how to do this at all.

Not in the standard curriculum, Uncle, and I've been a diligent student.

[Asahina Sakura]

WHERE IN HEAVEN did that come from?! Who are you and what did you do with my Saku-chan?! THIS is how you woo an IMPERIAL! Not that bullshit you two were floundering around in earlier!

OH NO, he's terrible at this too....

Had she tea, herself, Sakura would've choked on it at her chaperone's ghostly exclamations.
"It is," she blinked.

.... SERIOUSLY?

[Seppun Urusai]

"Then I'll savor it," Urusai replies, taking another deep breath of the rising steam and sipping slowly at the tea again.

He sighs in contentment. "Do you know the name of the blend, by any chance? I'd like to be able to get more of it after this is done."

[Asahina Sakura]

Oh, he's good.

"It's... just Cherry Blossom Tea, Seppun-sama. Surely too common for one of your status to ..." she tapered off, as her gaze dropped from his features.

[Seppun Urusai]

There it is, the thing that always comes up with members of the Families when speaking with those outside them.

Urusai takes a deep breath, holds it a moment, sighs it out silently.

The voice in his mind suggests that she believes it, that she's being fittingly humble before him, and asks if she has been responding merely to their difference in station.

I doubt it, Uncle, Urusai thinks. I think she'd be more polished, more Otomo, if it were the case. And she's not, not that I've seen.

He takes another breath.

"Why wouldn't I appreciate such things, presented honestly and without the artifice that so often clogs up...things?" he asks. "Even the mightiest are swayed by such, after all."

[Asahina Sakura]

Sakura took a moment to listen, her head tilting so slightly to one side. There was a simple, single heartbeat of silence before she replied, though with a slightly dropped gaze from Urusai's face, slightly off to one side, it must be clear it's not directly to him she's actually talking to..
"She isn't simply being humble, Seppun-sama. Her answers have been thoughtful, respectful, differential, but above those, the truth is they have been heartfelt."

Then her tone shifts as her eyes flick back to meet his, and her expression is one of hopefulness to combat the loneliness she'd seen there reflected from him: "If only it were as simple as tea, and whose cup said tea belonged, where that tea should end up once our Championship has reached its end and these competitors scatter once more across Rokugan. If you could take this tea with you, and drink from it, the tea could not think of anothers' lips that it would want to be kissed by?"


EE6 she's so bad at this... Air 3 Courtesy 1, Benten's Curse | TN: 2 | Success: 2 / Opportunity: 1 / Strife: 0

[Seppun Urusai]

Urusai looks intently at her, straining to take in her words and their import.

"Then perhaps...arrangements might be made on that score," he replies. "Perhaps it might be that my lips would greet a cup of cherry blossoms in the evening moving forward."

He nods. "Unless, of course, there are objections to such an arrangement?"

[Asahina Sakura]

"No... There's no objection, at all," Sakura pressed her lips together in a line before smiling.

[Seppun Urusai]

Urusai nods slightly.

"And I wonder how well this tea might grow amid bamboo on the east coast," he adds, venturing the idea. He takes another slow sip of the tea, looking her in the eyes as he does so. "Unless it is meant to be cultivated in other soils?"

[Asahina Sakura]

"I'm sure it could be happy wherever Seppun-sama might wish it to take root."

[Seppun Urusai]

Urusai nods.

Uncle, I don't know what to do.

The voice in his head says that a visit to the magistrate tomorrow might be a good start.

"Er, might a more senior planter need to be consulted about such gardening as that?" he asks, not handling the metaphor entirely adeptly.

[Asahina Sakura]

Her head tilted to one side in an attempt to follow, "I uh, I-" she blushed and her gaze searched his features, "If Seppun-sama is serious about his.. desire.. to keep this tea, it might be a good idea to arrange a consult?"

[Seppun Urusai]

Urusai nods again, and he flushes in turn.

"Unless I am being overly hasty? I wouldn't want to uproot a young plant before its time, nor take it to a place where it would not thrive."

The voice in his head urges him to stop dithering.

He cannot seem to do so.