Not So Different [Day 10, ME, Grey Carp]

[Kuni Koyuki]

"Could tell us everything about him, or nothing about him. Told me enough that I'm willing to trust Yakumo knows what she's saying," she says, and seems to pause to drink as if she knows that's not actually the reason she trusts Yakumo's word. It was a silly deflection from the truth, a little meaningless difference from the reality of it, and Rei knew that better than anyone other than the two women themselves.

"I do as well. I have not spent time in the dojo in years but the Lord Magistrate's training had drawn my attention at the time," she says, and stirs her drink with a swaying of the glass.

[Usagi Rei]

"Hmm." Rei said, frowning. "Well, it's still nice to have a second opinion." He trusted Yakumo as well, and was quite aware Koyuki did, but still.

"Hmmmm..." He repeated, finger tapping his finger on his glass thoughtfully. "He's an interesting one. I wonder if he ever has any doubts about himself? Why his missions end up as such bloodbaths, or what really happened that day. I don't suppose we'll ever know. Scorpion do love their masks."

[Kuni Koyuki]

"They're not the only ones," she comments idly. Finding herself agreeing with that rather fundamental stance point that built the Scorpion looooong ago. Hard to disagree with it in their line of work, after all. That was the game they played with their lives.

"What do you do after all this?" she asks, raising her glass toward her lips but not drinking. Looking to him over the edge of it, "Just go back to the way you live now? Any.. crazy plans?" she almost chuckles saying it like that.

[Usagi Rei]

Rei took a deep breath. "I don't know." He said honestly.

He flashed her a quick... grimace, it was closer to than smile. "Thank you for last night. Or this morning. Whatever. You were the only person I could trust to help." He managed a very wan smile at that. "I got her squared away, but I don't know what happens next. She needs help... can she get better? I don't know. And I don't know what this means for me, or the woman I started seeing. Except that I don't want that to stop."

Rei sighed, grimacing again. "Shit. Sorry. I don't mean to..." He waved a hand vaguely.

[Kuni Koyuki]

"Don't mean to what?" she asks, there's a little edge to her tone. Eyes narrowing on him her brow raises. "Dump all your problems on me? Fret at the difficulty of your situation?" she scoffs, shaking her head. "Unless it's something else and not one of those Usagi-sama, there is absolutely nothing to apologize for."

"Would be an awful fucking hypocrite if I judged you for airing out your shit after I finally air out mine a bit," she says, and treats Rei to a truly rare occurence. Koyuki laughs, more of a chuckle, but it's legitimate all the way through and maybe a little shocking.

"Especially when I asked," she says, and drinks heavy from her glass as if to say: And that's all I have to say on that.

[Usagi Rei]

Rei chuckled. "It was dump all my problems on you. But okay. I take it back."

He shrugged. "But anyway, those are my plans. Figure out how to deal with all of that. Then, figure out how to move forward. I guess that's it, right? One step at a time." Now he finally drank again, taking a sip from his glass.

[Kuni Koyuki]

"Let me know if you need me again," she says, more like she was telling him with that edge of 'you better' to it. Wouldn't be a happy Koyuki who found out someone like Rei to her went about a problem that needed her help and she wasn't asked. That kinda thing was off limits.

[Usagi Rei]

"Yeah..." Rei chewed his lip for a few moment. "I mean, of course." His mind was slightly elsewhere.

He looked at her again. "Umm, you saw her. And I told you what happened. Do you think that's your Clan's sort of business?" Talking about it made Rei tense, his knuckles slightly white as he gripped his glass with both hands.

[Kuni Koyuki]

"If it was my clans business you'd need a lot more of this," she says, and pulls her collar to the side to reveal the string where her necklace was affixed to. That jade hidden beneath her shirt holding close against her chest by her heart. Eyes losing focus a moment the fact that might have seemed harsh washes over her.

"S-sorry, no. No I don't think so," she offers, and gives a brief shrug of her shoulders. "We could look into it together though.. sometime?" she offers, with that awkward edge of a woman who wasn't quite sure what she was offering.

[Usagi Rei]

Smiling wanly, Rei shook his head. "You don't need to apologize either. Honest evaluation was what I asked for. And it's very much what I need."

He sighed. "I want to do the right thing. But I don't know what I can do for her. And... I don't love her anymore." A tiny shrug. "But I don't hate her, either. I care about her. Like a distant memory of love, maybe."

[Kuni Koyuki]

"Complicated thoughts," she says, setting her glass down dead center of the table in front of herself. Looking at the rim of it with a bit of focus for a moment, a focus point for her thinking. Knit brows knit even further until they relax, and Koyuki looks back to Rei. "Maybe you are thinking too emotionally? Tell me her condition, as much as you can."

"And.. have you talked about that with her? How you-" she wanted to vomit even suggesting it, and the word didn't sound right coming from her mouth. That sorta sound that just made the word feel disingenuous. "- feel?"

[Usagi Rei]

Rei's eyes flickered about with a grimace. "Some of it is unfit for public discussion." He said, his voice pitched low. "But most notably, she remembers very little. That we were married. A little of what we used to do together. But not much, and little more." The ninja, and the darkness that flickered over Yuria's wound, Rei would have described last night, when they were alone.

He grimaced again. "I seek a cure, of course. But I recognize that there isn't always one to be found."

His gaze went back to Koyuki, and Rei winced. "No." He said. "Many topics seem to upset her. I don't wish to upset her without cause. Not until I know more."

[Kuni Koyuki]

"How do you expect to know more without asking her?" she adds, bluntly. There wasn't a harshness there though, she'd heard him and understood leaving simply the fact he needed to face that. Taking up her drink she hides the fact of her worry at how he might take that with the effort of drinking.

Adding back to her grit, "You worry too much about her feelings."

[Usagi Rei]

"One step at a time." Rei said. "I hope that once she's more comfortable, she'll be more willing to talk. Right now, she's too afraid. Of that thing, of the past..." Rei gave a vague sort of wave.

The latter statement first made Rei grimace. Then give Koyuki an extremely dry look, one eyebrow raised. "Really?" He said wryly.

Then he sighed. "I did marry her. It's hard not to care about her feelings. Even if my feelings are different now."

[Kuni Koyuki]

"Didn't say that," she said, sighing into the edge of her glass before setting it down. Running her palms across the top of the table in a brushing motion before bringing them under the table and setting each on her lap. Head resting back against the booth type seating.

"I said you care too much. Not to not care at all. There is a world of difference there, Usagi-sama," she says, and looks back to him. "You don't not set a broken leg because it might hurt the person, you set it and know you're helping them. Your wife? She needs more than just waiting to hope she feels okay enough to talk about it," she says, with a bit more edge to it than he probably deserved but she was angry about it and for his benefit over anyone else's.

[Usagi Rei]

Rei glowered at her a moment, then shook his head. "There you go, verbally kicking my ass again. I guess you said you wouldn't stop, so there you go."

This time, he did toss back a significant portion of his drink, setting it back down on the table with a solid thump. "I know what I have to do. But it's been a day, and she's scared. If I need to, I'll push, but I want to make sure she won't break."

He glowered at her again. "Oh, and call me Rei, damnit. I think we're past formality, aren't we?"

[Kuni Koyuki]

"Sorry I think you're better than the way you're sounding, Rei-sama," she says, half-mocking but not in the way that there was any edge to it. Subtle as it was, Rei would hopefully have had time to tell when Koyuki's jabs had their edges dulled.

"It's also not just formality," Koyuki says, and though she doesn't raise her hand or wear glasses one might have been forgiven for mistaking her words for 'well, actually.' However, they weren't, and she finished, "It's propriety. I will happily call you Rei-sama if that's what you want, however, Rei-sama," she says with that same sorta edge that hides the fact it's humor.

[Usagi Rei]

"Oh, Fortunes." Rei half-groaned, half-chuckled. "Well. I'll definitely help guard you from your evil ex. And then there's about a fifty/fifty chance I shoot you myself. But don't worry, I'll help protect you first."

He tossed back the rest of his drink. "So, what about you? Once you're done with all of this."

[Kuni Koyuki]

"I- don't know," she says, her hand finding her glass. Fingers tensing against it. At the time, she hasn't spoken with Yakumo yet. So, what her future meant? That was something that was still fresh an opportunity. Underneath that exterior she put on it would be a lie if she were to say she wasn't picturing a future at the woman's side who'd captured her heart. A part of her didn't believe she deserved it. There was the complication of those two fighting while neither could even be certain that Yakumo would want that.

Especially since Koyuki had started to suspect that. Yet, only time would tell when she visits her right after this little outing. Then whatever happens next would be set in stone, but only then.

So for now.

She didn't know.

"Live, I guess?" she says, half humored in the intent.