[D7 EE] Too Long

[Shiba Jiro]

Jiro sits in the tea house, sipping and looking at a piece of paper, thinking about what he would turn it into. And then thinking about Kasumi, and then thinking about Natsuko, and then getting lost in the tumultuous feelings he had.

Sip.

[Kuni Mitsuko]

A skinny Crab girl with a somewhat urgent expression behind her traditional heavy makeup appears in a seat on the opposite side of the table at some point during the Phoenix's wandering in feelings. In a plain, steel grey kimono and with her hair up but somewhat unruly, she looks slightly like a vengeful spirit as she waves for additional tea service while maintaining a focused look at Jiro.

"Shiba-san, I am rudely interrupting you," she says matter-of-factly, when she grows sufficiently impatient.

[Shiba Jiro]

"Kuni-san," he says looking up from his paper, smiling gently at her. "I am interrupted. But it is welcome, even if you consider it rude."

Her intensity inspires him, and he begins slowly folding, without looking to the paper, keeping his attention on Mitsuko. "You sound like you might have something you wish to say."

[Kuni Mitsuko]

Jiro's apparent calm makes the Kuni narrow her eyes, but she remembers this is his way and relents. More or less.

"I have... a couple of conversation topics," she begins. "But I expect one will make you unhappy, and I'm not sure that I should begin there, although it's the more... pressing concern." Her mouth twitches faintly as she realizes the poor word choice, but Mitsuko keeps her eyes intense and focused. "If you have a preference, I would honor it," she says, tone suggestive of a judge about to render sentence on a criminal.

[Shiba Jiro]

"Always been a bad news first type," he says with a nod.

And happiness is relative.

[Kuni Mitsuko]

The Crab nods, then pauses as tea service for two arrives. The server seems to hesitate about whether a fresh pot of tea is superfluous - and the Kuni's glare suggests it isn't optional. Once the server is scrambling away, Mitsuko looks at Jiro again, her expression partially calmed by intimidating a random innocent.

"Shiba-san, I understand that you are engaged in a conflict of the heart," she says, volume such that only he will hear her. "I would like you to stop seeing my friend." Seeming perhaps like a Yasuki who has just laid out their opening offer, she pours the fresher tea in a new cup for him and then fills her own. She waits patiently for the response.

[Shiba Jiro]

"I don't plan on stopping seeing any of my friends unless they request it themselves, Kuni-san, but I do appreciate your concern for her," he says, taking a sip from the cup, before his hands move back to his paper.

"We all are driven by emotion from time to time. And I suspect you know how that feels. You act now, in an attempt to care for a friend."

He smiles softly. "I won't say I will stop seeing a person based on someone else's request. But, if you can convince her to ask it of me I will not see her again. That is what I can promise you."

[Kuni Mitsuko]

The Crab narrows her eyes, clearly displeased by the response.

"We both know that you are more than friends, and if you had seen her as I have and were her friend, you would make this request with the same level of expectation that I have." She looks at the impassive Phoenix for a moment before adding, voice lowered another notch, "You know that she will not ask you, but you also know why she should."

[Shiba Jiro]

"I think that you are misreading the situation between her and I. We are not professing love. We are not trying to spend each waking moment together. We both know that certain things are as close to impossible as they can get."

He smiles more warmly at the Kuni.

"The little happy moments that people share together in a world designed to keep them from doing so should be enjoyed and their memories cherished Kuni-san. That is why neither of us will walk away. She'd say it differently, let's see..."

He thinks for a few moments.

"Gotta take what y'can get if'n y'can get it. Don't always come 'round again."

When he spoke, it was not mocking or critical at all. He seemed to have an actual appreciation for her sailor rhythm. He had been spending a lot of time listening and talking with their mutual Mantis friend.

[Kuni Mitsuko]

The Kuni is clearly unamused by his impression, and her narrowed eyes become a full glare.

"Shiba-san is quite the expert on the world and how people's feelings work. And you think your future marriages will work just fine with those memories of others, those whispers of what 'might have been' floating around to haunt your quiet moments of reflection?" Mitsuko seems more troubled than would be expected, and she takes a long drink from the tea cup to help settle herself.

[Shiba Jiro]

"No more than they would for anyone else exploring their feelings when unattached Kuni-san. There are likely others here that feel things towards each other. And they are not at all likely to be arranged into marriage with each other. To their clans' nakodo, the competitors here are political pieces to be wielded in negotiations. They will be no more or less haunted by memories than she or I will be," he says.

He thinks to what Haru had said.

"Are you interrogating me in this way because you hope I will give an answer you might use to answer the same questions of yourself?"

[Kuni Mitsuko]

"The situations are not the same, Shiba-san, yours to mine or to any other unbetrothed competitor," she says sternly. "For you the decision is made, yet you act as though you're entitled to act as one who is unattached." Mitsuko sneers his word quite unpleasantly. "That doesn't sound much like duty to me, but even if it did - 'no more or less haunted'? A lofty goal for the well-spoken Phoenix," she mocks.

The Crab gives a grumpy exhale, then softens slightly. "It will help you and the family you will have none at all that in other homes a wife wonders why her husband is always late to bed or a husband worries at how much his wife stares out the window. It will matter to your family and to her family how much... burden you carry away from here. So consider that, please, Shiba-san. That your future children won't understand, and you'll probably never say, but they will know whether all of you is there with them or not." Mitsuko finishes her tea cup, refills it, and nearly drains it immediately. When she looks at Jiro again, there's a steady certainty in her eyes, saying she knows what she's talking about.

[Shiba Jiro]

"It's more alike than you imagine. Saying otherwise is just being in as much denial as I am," he replies. "It is a thing I struggle with and don't take lightly. It is something that she and I need to work through. But I am not going to simply stop meeting with her because someone observing from the outside looking in says to. You have said plenty that I appreciate, and I understand your point. But as I said, I am going to work through it, not ignore it and pretend it never happened. Personal responsibility for failures is important, because it is how we learn and grow so we don't repeat errors," he says.

[Kuni Mitsuko]

Mitsuko's jaw twitches slightly, and her eyes narrow again.

"Do please educate me, Shiba-san," she says, voice grim, "on these similarities beyond my imagining."

[Shiba Jiro]

"You see it as one being mostly innocent, the other being less because of the status of attachment, with is true, there is a difference there. But the feelings are just as raw, just as driving. Do you enjoy the sound of her voice? Do you smile at the scent of her hair? Do you get lost in thoughts about her? And will your clans have you marry one another, will you spend your lives apart, will you write and keep in contact because you shared a connection that meant something to you?"

He looks at the table.

"I am not saying it won't hurt or that everything will be alright. I am saying that I am making a decision to keep someone important to me as a friend. And it may come with pain. Probably will. We are human and we make bad decisions."