D5EE, Flocking Together (closed)

[Asahina Sanaharu]

"I... I think you weren't even asking about that. Pardon me, Yuuwaku-chan." He nods. "Every five minutes I'm ruining the conversation a different way."

[Kakita Yuuwaku]

"Then let us start again," Yuuwaku replies. "We have known one another too long and too well to let a little awkwardness come between us so."

She closes her eyes, breathes deeply once, twice, thrice, and opens her eyes again. They shine as they look up into Sanaharu's.

"So, Sana-kun, what can I do to help you?"

[Asahina Sanaharu]

He agrees, and too closes his eyes when he sees that Yuuwaku closed hers. Not knowing when she had opened hers, however, he only did so when she was already on the middle of talking.

"I wanted to see if you liked my gift, Yuu-senpai. At first I thought you did not, but now I am not sure."

[Kakita Yuuwaku]

Yuuwaku nods.

"Sana-kohai, I appreciate them. But I do not know what I have done to deserve more of a gift from you than having you as my kohai already is."

[Asahina Sanaharu]

Was she feigning ignorance? Was him subtle enough that she did not notice? Did she want him to tell so she could end with the matter quickly? But then... Why would she...
"I thought the message was clear on the second. I'm sorry it was not, Yuu-chan."

[Kakita Yuuwaku]

"Perhaps, Sana-kun," she replies, "there is a delight in hearing your voice suit itself to words. You always have had a way with them, after all."

She folds her hands together, waiting.

[Asahina Sanaharu]

He smiles faintly. They restarted, but everything from before still happened, and it was hard to get a good ōn. "I have always been rather found of you, Yuuwaku-chan. But this found is... Different, and started after our friendship."

[Kakita Yuuwaku]

"Oh?" Yuuwaku says. "How long ago, or how long after?"

She remains with her hands folded, still waiting for him to get it all out in the open.

You'll never be able to deal with it unless you do, Sana-kun, she thinks. And you'll never be at ease until you deal with it.

[Asahina Sanaharu]

"Sometime before the noodles incident... I think it started sometime before..." No, you can't use this as a time marker! "Do you know that kabuki convention there was once, with the Shiba? It started somewhere nearby this time. Weak, but growing if fed, like a fire. But a fire tended, not one that spreads without control. I'm not one who drinks myself inebriated on dreams."

[Kakita Yuuwaku]

"My first time dancing those dances," Yuuwaku nods. "Some time, then, to tend such a flame.

"But why have you never spoken to me of it before? If I had known..." She trails off, breathes deeply. "I would still be your friend, and there might be more. Who knows?

"There might still be more. It is not too late, Sana-kun."

[Asahina Sanaharu]

If he was a dog, he would have lowered his ears. No, that's incorrect — they would already be low. "It was just never... Something I considered important, or pressing. I always had in front of me something to dedicate my energy to, not always the Academy. In the middle of everything that was happening, pursuing something such seemed unlikely to succeed at best, even if I spared energy to do so, something I ill afforded as well. I was trying to find ground, even, before wanting to run over it."

He looks down to meet her eyes, but the sensation was such as if he had looked up. "It is not too late, indeed."

[Kakita Yuuwaku]

"Then do as your heart bids you, Sana-kun" Yuuwaku says. "And I will support you in it."

She looks up at him, and her smile flashes more brightly than the jewel at her forehead. Her hands unfold, open out to her sides with palms up--giving or accepting, or both at once.

You will be greater than I one day, Sana-kun, she thinks. And I will be glad to have helped you.

[Asahina Sanaharu]

He froze again on what to do. Why are you giving me choices. Just do something that I will be able to follow, please. But the entirety of the thing seemed for him to do something. Yuuwaku knew him, really.

She didn't mind physical contact, though, so maybe... he could... even...
He puts both of his hands over hers, palm down.

"Would you teach me how to dance?" He answers the smile with another.

[Kakita Yuuwaku]

Yuuwaku starts slightly at the touch, but after less than a heartbeat, her hands grip his.

"I can show you something," she says, and begins to lead him through steps. It should be easy enough for him to follow (41); she is making her steps plain and clear--and, to help matters, she is pressing her body against his, using her slight frame to push against his larger one as they tread the steps together.

But you really want more, don't you, Sana-kun? she thinks.

[Asahina Sanaharu]

The grip surprises him, but he does get up with her and follows the steps. He was doing surprisingly well on following her teachings — Orokos even gave him a 9 and a 10 on an unskilled roll. Although he was pretty sure that, in the Academy, people didn't teach with so much body-pressing.

...Ah. I guess she wants more touching.

He would not be vulgar enough for some kinds of touching, no matter how pertinent they were now, of course.

He started things by putting a hand over a shoulder. Maybe for balance, but such would not be necessary — his balance was good.

D5EE, Flocking Together (closed) - Dancing with Yuu-senpai: 3d10 21

[Kakita Yuuwaku]

Yuuwaku smiles up at him, nodding as his hand finds her shoulder.

Not necessarily a dance regularly taught in Tsuma, she thinks, although there was one of the senior students who claimed to have it from a Tortoise.

She continues to lead him along, moving her hand to his hip when his finds her shoulder. She gently pushes it when the dance demands.

"You're doing well, Sana-kun. Move your body with it; feel your rhythm and mine together."

And perhaps another that lies within you.

[Asahina Sanaharu]

...Different dance. Maybe it was something like the sarcastic poetry that poets did when they reunited for fun — dances more vulgar like this, done for fun, although he knew not anymore how much was dance and how much was her doing. Maybe she was even inventing a dance right now.
...And it was a very interesting dance to learn, regardless.
"This is new. Crab-style?" He asked. "Seems like something that would be popular for people here."

[Kakita Yuuwaku]

"I can imagine it might be," Yuuwaku responds. "But I did not learn it here, no, nor many other things that I know.

"But you seem to like it. Have you danced other dances, Sana-kun, when I was not looking?" She smiles up at him, winks a bit. "Or have you not ventured into such performances?"

[Asahina Sanaharu]

"I wanted to train in dance once, but I was too tall. Either I would need to be some kind of central figure every performance, and for that, I would need to specialize in or dance alone. I chose to train singing and my voice instead. But this is something I feel some joy on, which is something I do not find on oratory or singing both."

He realized that he never told anyone this, although it was no great fuss. Too withdrawn.

"I would like to specialize in dance if I had the opportunity, actually."

Maybe it is one of the things that drew me to you.

[Kakita Yuuwaku]

Yuuwaku nods.

"You might be able to do it, in time," she agrees. "And there are dances you would do well, with your frame. At the least," she adds, "you would not have to struggle to gain others' attention--and then to struggle against the assumptions that follow from that work."

Why am I saying this to him now? she wonders.

"I am enjoying your partnering me now."

[Asahina Sanaharu]

"They would never let me take it as a primary because I have a good voice, and that would be a waste or something." He sighed. "But I never asked either, as I feared hearing a reaction I already knew. Maybe they would let me, not being Kakita. Too late to think on that now."

He looked to her face more directly.

"Do you have to struggle for attention?"

[Kakita Yuuwaku]

"No," Yuuwaku replies quickly. "Rather, I have to struggle against the kind of attention I often get.

"I know how I look, and I know what value that has. I know, too, my inclinations, and I know what associates itself with them even as I indulge them." How much do you know about them, Sana-kun? "But I am not merely some little slip of a thing, an ornament to be taken up and set aside."

[Asahina Sanaharu]

"This is attention, I believe, I do not experience as often." He nods in answer. He couldn't remember anyone that liked him aside from that Hida girl and one random visitor at Lord Haruka's court, really. "This... This was a concern I had for a time regarding marriage. If I would not be able to exercise my skills anymore if I married but an artist or a courtier. I believe you had luck in this field." He smiles slightly. This was the best he could relate with. "Do you feel often thrown away for some special reason?"

[Kakita Yuuwaku]

Yuuwaku shakes her head.

"Not often," she says as she alters their steps. "I work hard that it would not be often, to ensure that others know I am more than merely...what I am taken to be. More than the pleasure there is to find."

She looks up at him again. "But I think you would not be a bad husband, Sana-kun. Rather the opposite. And the more so for the right woman."

[Asahina Sanaharu]

He broke his on to chuckle. "You are extremely talented, trustworthy, dutiful, and fun to be around, Yuu-chan. Let never the opinions of others be the opinion you take to have of yourself."

He takes her hand out of him. The dancing was starting to get him in a familiar strange way. "I liked this dance. Thank you for teaching it to me."