After the final test, Ahiru had headed to the baths for a well-earned wash and soak. Probably a bit too long of a soak too as she needed the peace and quiet to come down from the stress of the tournament. For all intents and purposes, it was over for her, which was a bittersweet feeling. She had wanted so badly to reach the finals, but known all along it was a long shot as she didn't have the training most suited for it.

Anyway, she had managed to get rid of most of those thoughts as she dressed in plain clothes and headed back to her quarters, to return some things to her room and also begin preparations for the feast later.

Standing just outside of the Crane quarters were not just one, but two, minor clan samurai. Hirame and Rin, chatting with each other.

When Hirame spotted Ahiru, he both grinned and tensed, and then muttered something to Rin. "Oh, hey Ahiru-san." He said, exaggeratedly casual. "I didn't see you there." His lips twitched with the effort of not grinning more.

Subtle, Hirame was not.

Rin tries to greet the Crane politely as well, but the effect is completely ruined by the Sparrow clearly trying to suppress giggles behind her sleeve.

"Ah, um, Kakita-sama..nice..umm..day...to be here."
She makes the Mantis look like a master courtier.

"Suzume-san," a bow. "Hirame..." a pause as she gave him a suspicious look, then bowed.

"Yes, fancy meeting me here. Outside where I live. And what are you two doing here?"

"Oh, you know." Hirame said. There was a brief pause. "Stuff." He had changed out of his fine new clothes, and was wearing something that it wouldn't matter if someone threw things at him.

He cleared his throat. "Anyway... don't let us stop you! You've probably got stuff, too." He cleared his throat again, but it sounded suspiciously like a chuckle.

"Y-yeah...you should keep doing what you're doing and we'll um, keep doing what we're doing...which was important I think."
Rin furiously fusses with her sleeves to avoid eye contact.

This all seemed... terribly suspicious.

But she couldn't just outright say that they were acting suspicious! That was rude and impolite.

"Yes, of course..." she looked at Hirame with narrowed eyes, then stepped forward to open up the door.

Please, let it not be crabs...

Mentally she was also wondering what people would think if she chased Hirame and Rin with a bow and arrow.

It was not crabs. It was straw.

But it wasn't haphazardly piled straw. It was little dolls made out of straw in the shape of all of the furniture in the room. A little tiny straw futon. A straw table, with tiny straw cushions next to it. Over in the corner, a little triangle of straw for the missing daisho stand; unused of course. Wall-hangings? Little strings of straw.

Her belongings themselves seemed untouched, except for occasionally being moved off of something. Of course, anything that was inside furniture would be missing along with it.

Hirame did his best to watch her out of the corner of his eye.

Ahiru, predictably, froze in her step at the sight, because she had not been prepared for what she saw.

Her pretty face went through a series of emotions in one go; shock, confusion, outrage, sadness, and then some form of acceptance. Hirame and Rin couldn't have known the reason why it kind of hurt.

Turning to look at the culprits, she glared at first for a split second, but quickly there was that polite expression she'd been taught to have. "Where," the fuck!!! "are my things? What did you do?"

As Hirame saw the look on her face, his own smile faded. Something about this was more serious than he'd expected... he looked at Rin, his expression confused, then back to Ahiru. Had he hurt her, somehow? The thought was like a punch to the sternum; actually, he'd had one of those yesterday; it was a good comparison. But he kept his own expression steady.

His chin tilted up as she glared at them. "One door down." He said simply. No good continuing a prank if someone wasn't laughing.

Her shoulders rose for a moment, she nodded, and then smiled, laughing a little bit. "... How long did this take you to make?" she asked, pressing a hand to her mouth to keep her chuckle down.

Hesitantly, Hirame offered a sheepish smile. "Stayed up late, woke up early. Ate breakfast in about two bites." He shrugged. "If we'd have had more time, we might have tried bigger ones, or some of your things... but we did want to be careful about what of yours we touched, too."

Whispering at Hirame

"You didn't say she Kakitaa-sama was so scary when she wanted to be! Dang near had my heart jump out of me there."

A big sheepish still, to Ahiru
"Took some doing, but Hirame-sama was real proppa about the whole thing. Good clean prank...just uh, glad it wasn't really the last straw for you."

Rin's little pun made Ahiru snort a small laugh. "Ah... the last straw."

"No, no, I'm fine. Sorry, I should've appriciated the effort you both put into this. Please, let me call for some tea, and then afterwards... you can both carry my stuff back to where it's supposed to be, hm?"

"Tea sounds great." Hirame sighed. "And we'd be happy to move it back."

He looked at her, eyebrows going up. "Unless you'd like to just switch rooms? We did recreate yours exactly; that was part of it. Rin-san has a great memory, and I'm good at organizing things."

Brightly
"Ain't hard to remember. Kakita-sama's room was very tasteful, so you just gotta think tasteful when you're putting it back together. What goes with what, how the light works. But um, we'd definitely be happy to move it all back if yah want...we're both pretty good at lifting and carrying. Still...new room does have better light."

Rin tries to look innocent which just seems to involve making her eyes big.

"Oh, and I thought we'd sit here and take in the details of your work." She made sure to give Rin a sincere smile there, to assure her she was not in trouble.

Hirame though, maybe he was still in trouble.

"But, sure. You can carry the things back, as I get the tea ready?"

"Right." Hirame agreed, smiling with a sigh. "Let's get to it!" He said, giving Rin a cheerful wave.

As he stepped into the neighboring room, he looked back at the other two. "Uh... did you want to hold onto the straw stuff? Or should we get rid of it? Maybe keep some of it?" He shrugged.