It was, as some might say, a bit muggy on the World of Dreams today. The heat had even bludgeoned through to Hinata's awareness, so he'd come to the beach to try and enjoy it.

He was in his blue swimsuit and currently trying to decide what flavour of ice cream he wanted.

Normal samurai go to the beach and enjoy the sun, water and ice cream. Nishida was not a normal samurai. He had secured himself a place under a sunshade with the Imperial Mon, which housed a mini-fridge with unknown contents, his Densai, which was playing a playback of the concert from two days ago (he wanted to give this pop music a chance) and had set up a Go board on which he was probably playing a game against himself. All this would have been bizarre enough, if his two bodyguards, also in rather airy clothes, were not standing guard, while the fine gentleman had just left for a round of swimming and a, very strongly panting, Shiba Inu was lying on one of the deck chairs under the sunshade....

So after Nishida returned from the water, wet and his long hair sticking to his body, he saw another young samurai buying ice cream. He seemed to have gotten a craving for the sweet dish himself (and apparently there was no ice cream in the mini-fridge) and moved towards the samurai he didn't know.

"Greetings," he said formally, albeit a bit more informally than usual, given the circumstances that he had nothing on but his bathing suit, "What kinds of ice cream is available here?" he inquired.

"Loadsssssssssssssssssssssssssss . . . I can't decide . . . "

Hinata answered, sounding a lot like a certain fox, before realising he hadn't asked that question of himself . . . and that meant someone else was here. So he looked around, found the tall Imperial, bowed on reflex just in case it was the Intense Otomo, and then looked at the identifying mons.

"Oh, hi Miya-samaaaaa, I'm Asahina Hinata!"

"Ehem," he cleared his throat. He remembered the voice he heard there. An investigative glance at the legs of the samurai in front of him confirmed his suspicions as he struggled with the rising blush on his face. To avoid an awkward silence, he finally said, "Um, nice to meet you Asahina-san, I'm Miya Nishida."

He tried to avoid eye contact and stared at the various types of ice cream that were on offer, there were many fruity varieties among them, mango, lichee, vanilla, strawberry, raspberry,... More than one could have ordered in one go.

Nishida's voice was familiar too, but Hinata had talked to or overheard lots of people in the last week so he didn't make any connections.

"Oh . . . I'll have the Beach Stinger Special please!"

Having not being able to make up his mind, he'd chosen the special with multiple flavours.

"Have you decided yet, Miya-samaaa?"

Nishida, who usually had a calm exterior and interior, suddenly wasn't so sure. "Um... I think I'll have strawberry and mango," he said.

He watched as Heimin processed Hinata and his order respectively. Nishdia, who couldn't think of anything else to say at the moment, stared at his feet with interest and asked, "Um, do you come here often?"

Hinata, whose feminine swimsuit probably wasn't helping matters for Nishida, was very wide eyed and grinning at the ice cream placed before him. Multiple scoops in a glass and two spoons as the heimin obviously expected this dessert to be shared between at least two people.

"Oh wow! No, Miya-samaaa this is only my second visit down here to the beach after the Oshidama. Oh wait! Did go to the party at the Mantis Embassy but that wasn't beach. Do you?"

The first spoonful of cherry ice cream with popping candy went into his mouth with a blissful expression.

He looked in surprise at the huge portion of ice, which he was not convinced the little crane would eat. He himself took his two scoops of ice cream in a small plastic cup.

"I was actually at the party, it was a grand affair," for a Mantis party, he thought to himself, almost blabbing, focus Nishida, focus!
"There were a lot of samurai there, I think I talked to a few of them, but unfortunately I didn't find any very meaningful conversations there. I did notice a kaiu jumping into a pool," he laughed briefly, "and the faces of a few pissed off scorpion samurai.

He himself took a small spoonful of his ice cream and ate it thoughtfully.

"Oh I was in that pool!!! But he missed me!"

Hinata, however, had no doubt the ice cream was going to be devoured. Every spoon of it and all the sugary sauces and toppings as well.

"Weren't you at the concert too?" he asked and was pretty sure he had seen Hinata on stage.

"Oh yes! I was part of it! Singing with Yakumo-samaaaaa! So much fun."

He found more of the cherry popping candy ice cream and there was a small series of firecrackers in his mouth.

To be honest I've only heard of you since the concert" he admitted nonchalantly, "Have you been particularly successful?" he asked with interest, "especially on the flyer it said something about Omasu Drop?". I think?" he asked to distract himself a bit. He continued to eat his ice cream very slowly, perhaps to stall for time, who knows?

"It's Usagi Drop! Miya-samaaaaaa!!!!"

He gestured with his ice cream spoon.

"We're really successful in Crane space and Hare Space and we're even voice actors in the Inu Tai cartoon."

"Oh forgive me" he said chuckling, "I didn't know you were the voice actors in the Inu-Tai cartoon, an old acquaintance would probably murder me if she knew I was talking to one of the voice actors".

Nishida looked around a bit, "It's surprising though, you seem to be a famous and sought after samurai, did they just leave you without escort?" he asked with interest.

He nodded, mouth full of ice cream and spoon. After swallowing he replied. Talking with his mouth full had gotten him enough punishments during his schooling to be an ingrained no no.

"I do the voice for Nousagi the Bunny Drop Trooper!!! But the singing is what we're really famous for. An escort? Why would I need one?"

He looked at Hinata a bit incredulously, and was a bit stunned that he had to explain this to, of all people, a celebrity from the Crane "Haven't you ever been threatened? Your honor attacked? I thought the Kakita took care of their cousins in case something like that happened."

He blinked.

"Oh there's a Kakita at the Embassy for that kind of thing. The honour thing at least."

He puzzled a bit. There had been Akuta-sannnn, but he'd just shown what he would do if there was any trouble, not actually threatened him.

"I did have some security at the concert and Usagi-samaaaa provided some as well, but I really don't think I need anything else. The Scorpion would never let guests get hurt."

Nishdia wondered if Hinatat was just acting innocently, maybe that was his defense mechanism?

"Hmmm, that's what some of the samurais on Asakaze thought too," he muttered, eating some of his ice cream, "Anyway, what brings you here? Are you here to start a solo project?"

"Oh . . . no, I couldn't do that. I'm part of Usagi Drop! until they break us apart."

He stopped mid spoon to mouth and considered that.

"Oh I mean break us apart permanently, not break us apart just for Winter to send us to five different courts like they have here."

"Ohhhh then you are an official part of the Winter Court?" concluded Nishida. Yep, Hinata's way had to be a farce. It was not unusual for the Crane to play such games.

"If you don't mind me asking, what are the Crane's interests these days?"