Wedding at Fire Shrimp Village an L5R PbP

This was a... different Crane party indeed. After it was finished and most lights were off, he opened a shoji to view the empty street and the moon, listen to the sea... Tranquilizing. Good atmosphere to arrange things to meet one's beloved. He closed it after he was finished.

He slipped his door aside to check the corridor. Empty. Dark, if not by the moonshine diffused. Relief over his shoulders, expectancy on his torso. He was fleet of foot, as he had proved earlier to his eyes only... And some ronin or forest spirit.

It was with slight relief that he scratched on Yuuwaku's door, still on his spring kimono from earlier.

The door slides open. There is only a little lamplight showing within.

Darkness cast got familiar to his eyes. The sudden bright light made his eyes reajust, a sharp contrast that cast most of the bedroom's shadows invisible.

The door slid open. He looks parallel to it.

"Come." He whispers.

Yuuwaku steps into the light from beside the door, her form silhouetted by the light. She is still dressed, though the jewel glints atop a cracked mirror on a chest, and her hair is down.

"Sana-kun," she breathes, "do come in."

And she steps aside to allow him to enter.

He enters, moving to the corner he was looking to before, allowing her to close the door behind him. He then smiles, freely as he usually does not.

"Fine afternoon, great evening, better night." He bows deeply still. With his eyes adjusting to the light, the bedroom got more evident as a whole and his head drifts in the direction of the broken mirror, reflecting the light in many shards at this angle.

When she shuts the door, she stands behind him, and her arms reach around him as best they can, her head resting against his back as she leans against him, embracing him.

"Mhm," he lets out when he processes what happened, "please greet me more like this."

Yuuwaku chuckles against his back for a moment, turns him around, pulls on the lapels of his kimono to bring him down to her.

He complies, lowering himself, self-aware. Then it is his time to hug her. His hugs were weak.

Yuuwaku puts a hand on his cheek.

"Sana-kun," she whispers, "are you afraid?"

"Me," Yuuwaku replies. "Us. This. What might be."

He kisses her forehead. "I don't know. In which sense?"

"Yuuwaku?" He asks, taking a long time to say anything else, his mind drifting many thoughts. "I believe I need to ask your pardon."

"Why?" she whispers back, looking up at him.

She leans her head against him, takes a deep breath, sighs it out.

"Nor should I ask it of you, knowing your wants. So I must apologize to you, instead."

"I accept your apologies, Yuuwaku-chan." He replies with another kiss on the forehead, this time where the head jewel used to be.

She leans her head against him again, hands upon his chest.

"Sana-kun," she says, "I..."

She trails off, not knowing what to say in the moment. Her shoulders shake a bit, and she sniffs softly.

He hugs her again, holding her head against his chest, turning it to the side. "What is it, love of mine?"
And when she cried, something inside him melted.

Yuuwaku draws a couple of shuddering breaths, tries to bring herself back under control. It takes a bit, but she succeeds.

"I just...Sana-kun, it's too much. I just can't even," she says.

"What happened, what happened? I thought you would like to dance earlier today..." His voice carried worry in a way his on usually did not allow.

"I did, and it was lovely," Yuuwaku says, her self-control returning more fully. "But it has mattered so little, here, and the things I have tried to do..." She shakes her head as she trails off. "I do not think the sensei will be happy with my performance."

"You can count on my help to make it matter, Yuuwaku-chan. I will open to you the stage at all opportunities I have until we leave this festival." He lifts the hug as she seemed to be normalizing.