Hide arrived at the garden entrance, having made sure to drop by her room and get a change of clothes for what would hopefully be a nice date with Eriko. A nice black button-down shirt and some slacks would do nicely. It was a date at the gardens, so nothing too fancy or they’d stand out.

Was she a few minutes early? Oh most definitely.

Hide was indeed early for their date together! Even past midday, the garden was still frequented by locals and visitors both strolling the grounds or taking a break to appreciate the partially-illusionary grandeur made possible by the Scorpion illusionists. This was likely Eriko's idea, considering that she had been staying in the city long enough to know a few of the good spots around the city. To many, the garden was a change of scenery, especially the congested nature of living in a condensed city such as the World of Dreams.

...A few moments would pass and Eriko would still not make her appearance. She hasn't discussed her work in the city at length but it seemed the Lion Clan had some idea of her nature and kept her working at the office of the embassy rather than on the field. However, that didn't stop her from venturing out whenever she wanted. She could be probably anywhere right now.

Hide had to remind herself that she herself arrived early. No need to get worried. Yet.

At least the location was nice. Hide was tempted to go in and poke things to see if they were real or illusionary. But she had some self-control, so she remained still with her hands not trying to touch anything.

Yup, hands in pockets. Just waiting around. Not getting worried.

As Hide waited around for her wife to make her appearance, hopefully. The visitors at the Garden of Mists continued to go about their daily business. It wasn't particularly out of place that Hide was there, considering how cosmopolitan the city was, even if it was a Scorpion city. Even a Kuni sat crossed-legged at a base of a tree as she was fiddling with her densai and playing Fantasy Fight. The tree gave her plenty of shade for her comfort.



"Hah! Get wrecked! You never stood a chance!" She would exclaim at her game before shaking her head dismissively. "What a waste of time...Easy game."

And of course, there was an Eriko too! She was seen walking over a bridge to lead to where Hide wasted for her. She was dressed in a light blue suit with a long blazer coat.

"Hey! Hey!" She would call out at Hide as she walked over from afar, giving her a wave with a high hand. "Sorry, traffic was murder getting here! Actually, I think someone might have actually gotten murdered on the way here..."

The Crab certainly seem to be sending more Kuni than Hide thought they would.

“As long as you aren’t the victim of the murderous road rage, I think I can manage.” Hide put her communicator in her pocket and stood up straight to meet with her date. And her mood dramatically improved. “What kind of spot you wanna get? Been here before?”

Eriko walked up to meet her with a big grin on her expression. "Me, nah, not me. I wouldn't give them a chance. Besides, I can't risk you tearing the city in half if anything did happen." She gave her a wink with a playful nudge at her side. "Doing my part to keep the goodwill to the Scorpions and all that."

"Oh, yeah. A ton of times. I almost feel like I have a pretty good idea of all the fake bushes around here, just don't ask hove I've found out. Still, you can only have so much fun when you're on your lonesome. It feels like it's always been forever since I've seen you. But before I get too sentimental, why don't we just go on a stroll? I think I know of a good spot where we can grab something to nom on." She said, giving a tilt of her head to indicate the way forward before she started walking down the path that followed the artificial river. "It's kind of a cheat day for you, right?"

Hide followed Eriko, keeping pace with her despite how she found herself distracted by trees that she wondered if actually existed. "Cheat day? Well, it can be if need be. I do like some something tasty on a little stroll, after all."

With a bit of wonder in her eyes, Hide looked between the artificial river and her wife. "Man, it's really hard to tell what's real or not. I'm half-tempted to like... Poke everything. Would that be weird?"

"Well, if it can be then it will be," she said as that pretty much made the decision. "There's a stand around here that makes a really nice black sesame waffle. You can have it with ice cream if you want but I prefer it by itself, good finger food and all that. Don't want to eat too much if you're going to be drinking later, right?"

Eriko took the pace leisurely and they went toward their destination. "Eh, I think they would lump you in with the other tourists, which is I guess a bit embarrassing but not too bad. To be honest, I did kind of do a bit of that on my first few days here. I think I would have gone stir crazy just taking certain things for granted around here."

"But...the true mystery I want to solve today is, well, you!" She smiled eagerly at her. "How are you holding up?"

"I might just have what you're having. Sounds good by itself. Haven't really decided what I'm doing tonight. I might just come back to the Embassy early and all." Hide rose a brow as she gave Eriko a curious look. "I'm not gonna spend every night out."

She relaxed a bit, stretching her arms above her head as the pair continued their stroll towards their destination. "As far as how I've been... Well, I've been okay. Though, I have missed you a lot. A month is waaaaaay too long."

"I'm not going to stop you from doing what you want to do, you know," she smirked at her, in case she thought that she was upset with her being out at night. "Some nights, I'll actually go out with you, of course...but with you being the popular one, I'm not going to stop you from doing what you do best and gather people are your court. Seems a bit unfair. Besides, it'll stop you from meeting wonderful people like Kuni Koyuki, who seems to have a very good idea of us already..."

"Oh, me too, me too," she said as she place a hand on her back for a quick second as an affectionate gesture. It was perhaps not a good place to show public affection in a park but it was between doing that and a hug. She made her choice. "It's been pretty bonkers being here by myself. Not completely by myself, because I have much of my honourable Clan around me but I guess I found myself a bit lost trying to get into the grove of it. You make it look so effortless because you've clever and here I'm just trying not to make a mistake, hah!"

“Wh… How did… I. Huh.” Hide’s brow knitted in confusion. “I take it you must have run into Kuni Koyuki-san. I talked to her briefly, yeah. Reminded me a lot of Mumei-san, oddly enough.”

A frown crossed Hide’s lips as she looked down at her feet for a second. “So… I guess you’re having a bit of trouble getting settled in? Anything I can do to help?”

"Haah, yeah," she laughed on that note as she casually put her hands in her pockets. "We might have had ourselves something of a tradition Kuni Moot. You know, we both gathered around an operating table, hunched our backs, and cackled all menacingly-like while we dissected a subject. You know, Kuni stuff."

She tapped her elbow on Hide's side a few times and gave her a wink. "That's totally a joke, by the by."

"Aw, well..." She let out a slow sigh as she looked outwards as she walked on, trying to see the sky from the towering buildings on the horizon. "I wouldn't say I'm having trouble or getting in trouble, you would know from the writeups and sitreps I would have gotten. I guess I'm just trying to find my way in and stuff. Maybe if I made friends with other Lion it would ease better for me."

“Friends? Hmmmm…” Hide thought about it for a moment. Who here would be someone Eriko could get along with? Well, aside from Hide that is. “Ikoma Nishi and Akodo Inasa seem a bit more laid back in ways. Kitsu Kanna is a journalist so her snooping might actually be interesting to you, as long as the snooping is towards others. Of course that’s what I got from the meeting. I could be very wrong.”

Hide then offered Eriko a big smile. “Oh! And of course you have me here now.”

"They seem like an interesting bunch, maybe you can break the ice with them first and round them up for karaoke like you usually do?" She smirked at the idea.

"But of course, more importantly, I do have you here!" Eriko matched her smile as she strolled into her to brush against her for a quick moment. She gave her a quick wink. "Hah, clumsy feet, sorry!"

Eriko let out a wistful sigh as she continued walking. Hide could perhaps see ahead of them there was a viewing area where the artificial river was at its widest. There was a viewing area and a few small stands were set up to serve refreshments and other snacks, gathering a good share of customers from the garden visitors. "It's really swell to have you around. Because you know, you. But how long is that going to last now? I guess we're a bit a weird pickle when they could ship you right out after this and I'll be back to shuffling around, huh?"

“I mean, for at least this amount of time I’ll be here. And who knows! Maybe I’ll get to stick around after! Maaaaaybe I’ve been stationed here for at least two months because some doctors don’t want me getting shot in the same shoulder for the third time this last couple of months and they don’t trust my math skills for inventory duty.” Hide was very very bad at hinting.

“As far as karaoke goes… Know of any good spots? I would love to do some of that again.”

Eriko made her way over to line up for egg waffles, which seemed to have a good enough line that they would have to at least wait for a bit. The scent of eggy-waffle mix was wafting from the stand and it smelled pretty delicious if anyone remotely enjoyed the treat.

"Two months, eh?" She brought up curiously. "It's a while but not a while enough. I mean, who's going to help me on my adventures afterward? Maybe we could consider getting a second opinion somewhere..."

She considered her options. "I know that the Golden Frog did it once but I think after a while, they've realized that karaoke night clashed against its swanky atmosphere and some customers were leaving after all of the noise. They might have some spot at Horogai mall, if you don't mind doing karaoke in a closet!"

“Well, we definitely need to figure out how to spend this time wisely!” Hide did enjoy the scent of the waffles, and now she was keenly aware of how hungry she was. “So, outside the karaoke with some of the other Lion, have anything else you want to do?”

Eriko smiled sheepishly and looked around on an anxious note. "Anything else that I want to do. Well, that's kind of a loaded question to be asking me, don't you think. Not that I'm upset that you've asked me, or anything. Actually, I'm kind of glad that you did because I might just have a few ideas of my own regarding that. Do you remember what I promised you a while back?"

With a slow blink, Hide gave Eriko a very bewildered look. It took her a good moment before she could possibly respond to that. “Ummm… I admit that I’m not quite able to jog my memory well enough. And now I feel really bad.”