[Day 9, ME] Double That Date

[Matsu Hide]

“Well, we both attended a miai on Asakaze a handful of months ago. But we met on the shuttle to Asakaze. Along with some others that we made friends with.” Hide couldn’t help but smile at the memory fondly. “There was the most energetic Fox I had ever seen. My roommate while we were at the miai, an Osprey who loved to tease but in general loved helping even more. And of course, a Hare with the worst taste in shirts I have ever seen.”

Hide looked over to Eriko, smile widening before turning to the other couple. “We actually had a very adventurous time there. And I’m ultimately glad things worked out for us after all of the gunfire and mushrooms.”

[Susumu Yakumo]

"Adventurous time, gunfire, and mushrooms?" her eyebrows rose with some surprise. "That does sound like quite the eventful way to meet your future wife. Sounds like there's more to the story?"

As one of the servers came over, Yakumo placed in her order for a Stinger. "Oh, anyone want something to eat? It's on me."

[Kuni Koyuki]

"One of those doesn't sound like the others," was Koyuki's brief comment before she herself turns to the server. Placing in her own order for the drink she'd previously mentioned with a touch of whatever something they had to eat in an establishment like this. Not quite picky, she just figures something out quickly on the spot with the server. Leaving her to have her brief little side-conversation off on the side while she keeps an ear on the table itself.

[Matsu Eriko]

Eriko mirrored her wife's order and figured that she would also order some fried bean curb crisps if the Spider diva was willing to pay for the table. Certainly not the most expensive on the money but it seemed to go hand in hand with alcohol, at least for someone born a Crab.

She nodded along to Hide's tale. "Well, my wife told most of it already. She's the best storyteller here, I think. There's always more to the story but I don't know how much I want to ruin the evening with the tiny particulars. There might have been some restricted ruin diving, a retrieval of a lost ancestral sword of my lineage, then the awkward discovery that someone was living in those ruins and they totally weren't happy with us visiting. Yet, they planned a trap for some reason. So, I'd like to think that he was really happy that we visited, otherwise those plans would have been for nothing. We planned on paying him a visit again and things happened..."

"You know..." she said with a shrug, like it was nothing at all. "Unexpected kidnappings."

[Susumu Yakumo]

Yakumo ordered some miniature spring-rolls as well as teriyaki skewers, making it clear that she was ordering the shared platter of these.

"Kidnappings?" that was quite a surprise. She knew she moved in very different circles and lived a very different lifestyle than these people, but their lives did also seem incredibly dangerous. "It's my understanding kidnappings tend to be unexpected, but goodness... that sounds like a lot of drama in a very short span of time!"

"How fortunate you were to not only able to overcome all those challenges, but to also marry eachother. Sounds like you should get a movie made out of this story."

[Matsu Hide]

“Yeah, pirate assholes.” Hide looked towards her wife with a more serious look in her eyes. “But they messed with not just Eriko, but also me when she got taken like that. So, got a few friends and some guns. Not gonna make light of the situation. One wrong move and they would have escaped in the van with her in tow.”

Hide’s mood lightened considerably as Yakumo mentioned the whole movie bit. “That’s what I said! Towards the end of the miai I mentioned that we need a screenplay written.”

[Susumu Yakumo]

"I am honestly surprised that the Ikoma have not picked up this and put it into production right away." In fact, noble Lion samurai saving a plucky investigator in over her head against pirate assholes sounded like some sort of propaganda-flick the Ikoma would be all over, considering the conflict in the Crossroads system.

Maybe the Lion just were dumb and didn't see the potential. Present company excluded.

"I'm sure there must be someone in this city who knows a screenwriter..." damnit, Hashinako probably would've, but she had disappeared off the radar again. "Isn't there a Scorpion actress of some sort attending the winter court...? Bayushi something."

Yakumo willfully forgot the name.

[Kuni Koyuki]

"Bayushi Mariko," Koyuki adds helpfully to some but not all, and is distracted.

"Wait- so not only did you go to the modernly rare event that is a miai to get married, but you also experienced.." she was about to rattle them off, but just let the presence of the space dictate the repetition in it's own way. Looking between both women, imagining that for them. "Shit."

[Matsu Eriko]

"It was something I kind of never expected to rear its ugly head around me, to be honest. It was already a lousy coincidence that I ran into what I did when I did some diving in the ruins. Also, you'd expect that someone would have some decency when someone is sorting out their marital affairs. Not once, but twice, even!" She said as she gave a glance at Hide.

"Which as much taking up and down Akodo Akihiko-sama was doing, you'd think that there would be a movie made by now. Or at least a placeholder for one, potentially. Coming soon, in the future..." She said pensively. "I think they're maybe saving that one until we get more recognition or a promotion. I'm sure the Ikoma is all sorts of busy trying to get stories done for the last generation of heroes and the Lion has a lot of them, right? It might be a bit of wishful thinking but I would love the idea, personally. Even if like, Bayushi Mariko ends up playing me or something. It's a lot, I know."

"Now...I have to do the married woman thing and ask you both, how about your marital affairs? How are those being worked out, eh?" She popped the question out of nowhere, not even rolling to stop herself there. "In the far-far future, of course!"

[Matsu Hide]

"Haha... Yeah, shooting up our wedding was a dick move." Hide looked back and forth between her wife and the other couple. "But that could be like... Saved for the sequel?"

But then Eriko shifted the conversation, which surprised her a bit. She rose a brow and turned her attention fully on Koyuki and Yakumo.

[Susumu Yakumo]

It was a good thing drinks hadn't arrived yet, because it prevented a great spit-take disaster from happening.

"Ah," Yakumo chuckled a bit awkwardly, trying to recover from her initial surprise at such a question this early in. "Who knows? I'm not... well, it's up to my lords, and I assume they'll want to take advantage of my fame for an important marriage or something. So we'll see. I'm still young and can still build my career further, so I'm not too concerned about it yet."

She resisted the urge to look for that waiter, as she kept her pleasant courtier-face on.

[Kuni Koyuki]

Itty bit of the tension iceberg slips as Yakumo's able to take the initiative with her answer, Koyuki stunned a little by that prospect. Still, she manages to collect those fleeting ghosts of thought well enough by the time that Yakumo finishes. Given the time to present herself, and-

"There were talks for me before I was lost on a mission. For three years they thought I was dead, and so they moved on. As I've only been back for the last two years they're still searching for someone able to fit me into their workload, and figure something out. Maybe I never will, duty or otherwise. Unique circumstance making the whole thing.. problematic," was perhaps the best word she could have come up with. Hands beneath the table she fidgets idly with the edge of her kimono, feeling that heaviness for herself alone.

Koyuki, already, showed her tendency to look toward Yakumo in those moments of disquiet. Not for this one.

[Matsu Eriko]

"Right, I guess there is that potential Imperial arrangement in the future, I recall we talked about at the cat cafe. Only if what the tabloids say proves to be true. So no immediate plans. Sorry, Yakumo-sama. I'm not trying to sound like the press, or anything." She smiled sheepishly.

At Koyuki's explanation, she would merely give a few small nods on the matter. It was a touch too formal of an explanation, especially from a Crab to a former Crab. For once, the gears of a Witch Hunter began to turn in her head as she looked between the two of them in consideration. "Interesting. Very loose and uncertain marriage goals. Well, I suppose that was very much until they shipped me out to a miai. Who knows what would have happened otherwise. I would likely be in the same place."

After a beat, she just merely went to the direct question without talking in circles. "...Is this a thing, right now?"

[Kuni Koyuki]

Eriko was definitely a Kuni, or just a Crab. At least by Koyuki's standards, which she considered to be optimal. Yet as easy as that question felt like it should seem there was a tug of a memory there that stayed Koyuki's hand when it came to answering. Swallowing she gives herself pause. Pause enough that she ultimately cedes the opportunity answer fully to Yakumo. With that little bit of hope that she would clarify it best without Koyuki's need to clarify. If Yakumo answered, she could follow whatever path she set. Still- in those microseconds of time before the answer there's that heated flush flashing across the back of Koyuki's neck.

Thankful, at least, she wore the facepaint of a Kuni. So she might better hide the impact that'd held. After all, Koyuki didn't even know her own answer. Just that she was still a bit afraid of what she wanted it to be.

[Susumu Yakumo]

"Ah don't worry about it, Eriko-san," she opted for the more personal name, considering she was speaking with two Matsu, and it was easier to keep them separate like this. "I guess it's only natural to be curious."

The continud questioning made Yakumo raise an eyebrow though. She had suspected it would happen, and it had been one of the apprehensions she had had about this double-date thing. "I mean..." she looked to Koyuki for a moment. "We're both here now, mhm? Sometimes two paths cross for two interesting people - and sometimes one follows that crossed path together to see where it leads."

[Matsu Eriko]

"Ahhh, I see, I see..." Eriko said in realization with a few nods as she mostly got a better answer than she was hoping for. For a Crane-trained Spider, she half expected that Yakumo would have talked about the eastern winds blowing on the golden fields to create a particular situation when met with the lower pressures of the winter. That's the best imagining Eriko could up when it comes to feudal courtly talk.

"Well, I guess sometimes you have to follow those leads and see where it goes, right?" She flashed a smirk at both of them. "Sometimes those roads just take you back to where you started and sometimes it just leads you to particular paths, full of twists and turns. I think hanging out with a massively popular celebrity is already great, of course! One of the few occurrences this season anyone can be thankful about! But again! Me without my album, Yakumo-sama! You can imagine me kind of being caught unawares on that one."

[Kuni Koyuki]

"Far as this path has gone already, I am better for it," she says, almost half a heart to her words as the drinks were now arriving. Getting placed in front of each of them one by one. Breaking up the flow of that particular bit a while, and giving Koyuki distance from the natural inclination of where that thought would trend. Wasn't exactly the cheery topic one should bring up around a lighthearted evening like this and Koyuki wasn't a boor enough to not recognize that.

"What was it like?" she asks, as the server finishes up setting out the drinks. "Taking part in a miai like you both did. I can't help but be curious how to such a thing proceeds. Marriages always seems such banal affairs in the background, mere transactions. Seems a miai is far more chaotic than the typical," she says, a slight lead to it. It was interesting enough, after all. Purely a unique event she'd have the good fortune of never having to encounter it personally.

[Susumu Yakumo]

"Well actually!" Yakumo began as Eriko brought up the topic of something to sign. Because Yakumo knew who she was supposed to meet tonight, and like a proper idol, she had come prepared.

Holding up a finger to indicate to give her a moment, she picked up her purse and rummaged around in it a little bit. Meanwhile the drinks were placed down on the table. The food would be a little bit longer. "Since Koyuki-san told me who I'd be meeting tonight, I took the liberty of preparing a little something."

From her purse Yakumo presented two rolled up posters. It had been the ones the Wicked Wasp had made at a short notice to promote the concert, featuring her along side Soshi Kazumi and Asahina Hinata. Signed by Yakumo herself. "It's not a signed album, but this would be a rare treat to have still, I wager?"

[Matsu Eriko]

"Oh, wow," Eriko blinked when she was offered the posters by Yakumo, which came a bit unexpected. She smiled at the offer and reached to accept them. "That's a pretty nice gesture of you, Yakumo-sama! You're twice as prepared than I was for tonight! I'd say this is very much the next best thing, especially when it commemorates that super special limited-edition concert I got to attend with Hide. How about that? We could even get these framed and point them out in a few years time when you get even bigger! This is a nice touch, thank you very much!"

Eriko would accept her horny toad and return back to the topic of the miai after the bit of Yakumo's stardom had caught her attention momentarily. "Ah, well...Hide could probably tell you most of it. I know there were a lot of events and games where you had to prove yourself. Me being me, I kind of ducked out most of them to do some investigating and research on the side, very time-consuming Kuni stuff, you know. I did manage to show up for the wrestling exhibition match they did there. Uhm...I don't know who won but I'm pretty sure The Menace jobbed to Hida Hikaru if she kept her belt when it was all said and done."

[Matsu Hide]

"Oh, that is a very nice gesture, Susumu-san. Framing it would make for a nice memento for our time here as well, especially since the concert was very enjoyable."

"With all that was going on outside of the whole miai events, I kinda didn't participate a whole lot myself. But that's the gist of it. I did decent at the obstacle course deal." Hide took her own horny toad and decided now was as good a time as ever to start in on it. "Couple of my friends were able to place consistently in the events. I never did, though. That helped decide the order of priority of who got to select their spouse. Pretty sure you actually started ahead of me, right?"