Rei had gotten the communication that Koyuki wanted to hang out, just the two of them. In his experience, that sort of thing was often prelude to a pass, a confession of feelings, or an attempt at espionage or murder.

With Koyuki, Rei REALLY wasn't sure what to expect. Except none of those.

The only place he knew of to hang out privately was his place. It was small but not tiny, sparsely decorated, but immaculately clean. Airi napped in her little bed up on one of the shelves. Rei waited, dressed in his nice grey dress outfit, definitely overdressed for an evening in drinking with a friend.

It had been a communication sent from one of the staffers at the embassy, some poor schmuck delegated to doing all the calling that no-one else could be bothered to do. Koyuki had apparently had the call sent much earlier in the day for Rei to call the Embassy and give her a location, or tell her it wasn't a good day. Having gotten a location she wound up here, in front of his door. Dressed with all the usual casual flare of a woman who hadn't risked death two times in as many nights.

Finding the door, she buzzed to get his attention and let him know she was here.

It was a small apartment. It didn't take long to cross to the door and open it.

"Hey, Koyuki-san." Rei said as the door slid open. He stood casually out of the way. "Come on in. Have a seat."

As a senior attaché, Rei did have a separate bathroom. Rei gestured to the little dining area next to the small kitchen, cushions around a low table. Besides that, the tiny sofa was technically a place to sit, as was the futon in the corner.

Koyuki gives a dip of her head, and nothing more. It wasn't a slight as it might have been to another. For her, merely, Rei seemed to occupy that place that they never really separated in a sense. Hello's and goodbye's didn't quite feel like they had meaning. Simply, she'd found herself another Rikako. Whether or not she would ever be able to realize that herself, the truth was written in the pages of her life.

"Everything we have been through, and I haven't seen your place once," she offers, as if to merely suggest the idea to grant the thought implied. Stepping around inside his apartment she gave it a cursory look around. Making out what little details she could manage to piece him together a little bit more.

Rei shrugged. "It's not like its great for having people over. There's a reason I usually go out to a bar to meet people. Or sometimes Akatsubaki, but only when I'm in the mood."

There wouldn't be much else to be gleaned from looking around. What possessions he had seemed to be put neatly away, Rei taking the same care with his apartment as he did with his appearance.

Moving over to the kitchen, Rei glanced back at Koyuki. "Drink?" He offered.

"Yea," she answers, half distracted by reading into that sparseness of the room. Told a lot about the man in question, and revealed the presence of things hidden beneath. Finding herself mindlessly checking the dust on the top of one of the empty surfaces. Would her room have been this empty if she had a place of her own? Probably. Maybe not though? Had she had a place of her own who was to say she wouldn't be an entirely different woman. Her mom always had things around, after all. Would she paint?

"You know I got banned from there?" she says, and leaves the space for him to ask the obvious question. Where. Then, continued, "Akatsubaki. Moriko approached me there. We fought."

Rei got out a bottle from the refrigerator. That would give Koyuki a glimpse of the contents, mostly alcohol and protein drinks, and a single leftover takeout box. There was a tiny bit of dust, but it seemed like it had been cleaned no more than a few days ago.

He pulled out a fairly nice bottle of shochu, setting it on the counter. Glasses and ice were quickly assembled, revealing frozen meals in the freezer. He poured a moderate amount in each.

Walking back with one glass in each hand, Rei offered her one. "Oh? You okay?" Rei frowned. "When did that happen?"

"Before I met you last so- yea, I'm fine," she says, and takes the glass from Rei with a quick dip of her head in thanks toward him. Barest hint of a curl of her lips like there was a smile lingering underneath her rather typically stoic demeanor. Shrugging her shoulders she looks out over his room again.

"Lot I could say about it. None of it feels important at all," she says, and the flash of the memory of the footsteps in the background plays in her mind. Swallowing down a drink from the glass she comes back with a slightly more pensive expression as she stares at a bit of Rei's wall. Sighing with an ease she looks back to him.

"You know what's fucked up?" she asks, that blunt edge to her voice.

Rei briefly raised his glass towards her before taking a sip. He settled down at the table next to the kitchen, watching Koyuki's expression change. Rei's walls had no particular answers, but seemed as clean as everything else.

"What?" He asked curiously, expression matching his tone.

"You're probably my only friend."

There's a pause there, like she wasn't sure herself why she really said it. Looking to him with a look of a woman who was so over the fact that she'd realized this. It was sort of tired, but also sort of welcoming. Koyuki wasn't sure about a lot of things but she'd felt drawn to Rei in that way and she couldn't ignore that fact. Something about the bastard.

"There are others I care for, of course. Matsu Eriko and her wife, of course. Just-"

Well, she didn't feel like she could ever bring herself to rely on them too much. She wanted them protected, always. That was where they were best suited far away from the danger that infests her life. Maybe it wasn't the greatest thing to be considered her friend, then. Someone she cared about.

Well. Rei wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that. He looked at her for a few moments. "Cheers." He said, clinking his glass against hers before taking a drink.

He was silent a few moments, then shrugged. "You're a good friend, Koyuki-san. I mean, I still want to shoot you about half the time we talk, and think you might want to shoot me the other half." Rei chuckled. "But when I had my problem, you were still my first call."

Taking to the opportunity for the toast, she matches his and the clink resounds. Taking down a hefty gulp considering how absolutely awful that whole mess felt to say. Back of her neck heated enough to call attention to itself while she tries to keep her focus forward.

"I am not that violent, actually," she offers, the slight tease of it evident but there's some truth to that fact. Looking down at her glass in her hand, still half-raised toward her she ponders on the thought. One that comes up like a sack of bricks, "I don't know how long I'll be staying here. However long I am though, I can help you with your wife? Whatever you need."

Rei chuckled. "I'll adjust your percentage down a few points, then."

He sighed, closing his eyes. "Thank you. If you could examine her again, I would appreciate that. I think it is not a physical or mental illness, but a spiritual one. Nothing else could explain the shadows that can sometimes be seen on her skin." Rei shuddered, just a little.

Briefly, Rei's eyes opened, long enough to guide the glass to his lips. They closed again once he lowered it. "If she can't remember more, I almost wish she'd forgotten me. That would have hurt, but..." He shrugged. "She takes comfort from my presence, and seemingly little else. And so I'm torn between my past and my future. I don't recommend it." Rei managed a wan smile at that.

"Strange thing to say," she comments idly, finding her way to one of the rooms seats and claiming it properly for herself now. Lounging back with her eyes focusing up on the ceiling above Koyuki doesn't respond right away. Simply letting the thought sit with her for a while to make sure she had herself straight first.

"What would be different if she'd forgotten you?" she asks, looking to him now and catching his eye if she can. "For you. Only difference is how hard it would be to let her go. If you aren't going to be involved in her life after this, and you don't want to be," she shrugs. "You clan has healers, there's plenty on this planet itself. Someone will take care of her. Not like she only has you. So, why do you strap yourself down with this weight? You don't owe her anything."

"Is it?" Rei frowned thoughtfully, looking at her. Maybe it was.

"She has to go off-planet." Rei said, frowning. "And I did marry her." He chewed his lip thoughtfully. "I don't know. Maybe." He sighed. "It is hard for me. I won't deny that."

"Pros and cons," Koyuki says with a sudden uplift to her voice. Standing from her seat she moves across the room to where Rei had retrieved the alcohol from. Helping herself to removing a bit more so that they had it handy and ready for consumption. Little preparations given to the space she even seems keen on finding what she might be able to in here to give the drinks a little more fun flavor or spice to it.

"We take turns. Label a pro? I drink. Label a con? You drink. If you got anywhere to be I'll keep you from getting wasted.." she says, and with a smirk raises up a hand as if to suggest something but it might not be evident considering he wasn't aware of all her abilities.

Yes, Koyuki was about to insight the kami to sober Rei up before she left. While it might have been a rather improper use of it in most cases, she let herself slide on this one because it was all with the intent of helping Rei process out his feelings best he can.

Rei made a strange face. "I guess that's one way to handle it..."

He looked like he was about to object, until Koyuki made her offer. "I do have someplace to be, actually. A very important date. So yeah, it's actually extremely important that I not be too drunk for it." He pursed his lips, looking at Koyuki. "I, uh, sorta thought that you'd be off doing the same thing?" Rei gave her a curious look.

But then he shrugged. "Anyway. Okay. You go first?"

"No," she responds, her voice tense on that point. Stiffening slightly in her endeavor she pauses before turning around somewhat suddenly. Leaning back against the counter she puts both hands back so that her palms could anchor her there.

"Saw her earlier," she said, far too short for that to be the whole story. Inhaling deep, exhaling slowl, "But that's me, we're here for you right now. Don't hold back getting drunk, you need some time to relax and before your big date I swear to you that you won't leave this apartment being anything less than stone cold sober."

With a glance, she indicates his glass. "First, you don't love her anymore..."

And so the game would beging. Koyuki would always find some way to add another con, and Rei would always find some way to add another pro. A game that was sure to get them both absolutely blitzed out of their minds. It did, it most certainly did, and the night would have been just two friends solving at a problem together and nothing worthy of interrupting with bringing to the screen. Save for one moment in the middle of their game, once they'd both gotten properly shitfaced enough for Koyuki to broach the topic.

----

Koyuki was laying down on Rei's couch by this point. Head propped up with a pillow against the arm of the chair. One of her legs rested up with her heel on the back of the couch itself while the other rested down on the floor to her left side. Glass precariously resting on her chest with one hand there as a guide to keep it from sliding anywhere or tipping over. She'd been like this for the last ten minutes as they were working through their game.

When it came time for the next con from Koyuki, she didn't give one. Instead, she says, "Yakumo's okay with leaving."

Rei, on the other hand, was leaning against the wall. It was an awkward, heavy lean, but he was upright. "Mblergh." He muttered, one hand reaching up to brush across his face, making sure he was still awake.

"What?" He said, followed a moment later by "Oh." Rei frowned at her, squinting. "I take it you don't mean leave the planet." He said, voice thick with alcohol.

"But I acknowledge it cannot last forever," she repeats the words, and thanks to her drunken state she doesn't actually give them any additional inflection save for the slight hazy way of speaking she had while this blitzed. Leaning to take another sip of her drink she lets her head back and closes her eyes.

"I don't know how to give up. She doesn't know how not to give up," she says, with some clarity to voice. Voice shifting, gaining a little more vitriol, "Was stupid anyway... falling in love with a Spider. Real fucking stupid. Shoulda just listened to Rikako," she huffs, and settles. Not quite seeming to realize that last little slip of what she said.