(D3, EE) To the Tune of an Open Book (closed)

[Kuni Yasu]

The way he fills her senses is intoxicating, her smile has a half-drunk, entirely satisfied, and slightly bemused about the feeling quality. His lips on her fingers draws her breath in, sharp and shivering. "Mine wasn't fierce enough to phase you though," she says when she has the breath for it, then matching his kiss with evident yearning and a lack of care for how much pigment she's leaving behind.

"Never stop being excited at the smallest things. I want to share them." She shifts around the table, knowing that she wants to be closer, and knowing too, that if she keeps kissing him it's very likely that they're going to stop caring about even the lower level of required propriety observed in a geisha house. She curls beside him, resting her head on his knee, developing one sort of distance and another sort of closeness. She looks up at him, almost apologetic, as she brings their still-entwined fingers to her lips. "Like watching you play today. The way you moved through the game, and your eyes only seemed to half track the ball..."

"Ok, maybe that's not little. But you know what I mean."

[Susaki Tanabe]

He smiled, a bit of a grin actually "Well maybe it would have if I didn't know how beautiful you were beneath it already." he said with a small chuckle roughened a bit and deeper than normal due to his passions burning so hotly in his chest. Part of him wanted to act on them but knew this was not the place "But it suits you, it is fierce and intimidating but also works with the beauty of your face."

He smiled at her while she shifted and curled to rest her head on his lap his free hand coming to rest on her hip it was more intimate than before, the vulnerability of her laying in front of him like this. "I do, and I would be happy to share every little excitement with you Yasu. Watching you play today was fun for me as well, you were focused but also having a lot of fun out there it seems. Every time I see your light. Your cheer or happiness and you tell me about the darkness you come from, what you've had to endure. It impresses me more each time."

[Kuni Yasu]

"Tch..I'm no beauty, but I won't stop you saying it. Might be you're biased, Tanabe-kun." She tastes the affectionate construction, sampling variants, "Tana-kun, Tan-kun." Her hand covers his at her hip, companionably, with a small shivery sense of wanting to guide it elsewhere, while not being entirely sure where that should be.

When he talks of her cheer, she looks up at him. "Endure. It's not like that so much when you're just raised in it. Today you keep the children inside because the wind howling from the south has voices in it and they haven't yet learned not to listen..so it's kind of a day like most others. But it can wear on people." Shifting a bit, she looks into his eyes, still smiling. "Say I survive the decades, and it eats my cheer away, will you still want to be there with sour, stooped Yasu? Play your tiny shamisen to cheer me? Line the children up to sing about farting tanuki?" Her grin grows with each absurdity, then she pauses. "We did that last one as kids...in case it seemed strangely specific."

[Susaki Tanabe]

His smile widens a touch and a low chuckle comes from his lips "Well I believe the poets say things about beauty being in the eye of the person looking or something like that. You may not see yourself that way but I definitely do. I told you at the baths you were pretty and that was true enough, but pretty brings to mind something delicate and fragile and while parts of you seem soft and gentle there are many others that are fierce and strong. Beautiful is a much better word I think. But what do I know I am not one of the great poets."

"Of course, right now your light shines and while it may not seem like endurance it certainly looks that way to me from the outside." He said with his hand rubbing gently along her side "and should the years strip the joy from you I would work to bring as much joy into your life as I can, playing my tiny shamisen, or dancing, or bringing you your favorite flower, anything I can do to bring at least one smile to your lips everyday."

[Kuni Yasu]

This smile lights her face. "I guess it is hard to imagine losing my cheer with a brilliant, dashing Otter trying to make me smile." She reaches up to caress his cheek, a bit awkwardly from this position, shifting beneath his slowly stroking hand. "Aaaand, I also guess I have to just admit that eye of the beholder stuff makes you right." She doesn't sound displeased at the concession.

Her gaze shifts a bit more serious as she asks,"What are nights like this like on the river?" If someone had asked, she couldn't have said how much the question came from honest desire to know, and how much from reminding him of what he lost if they gained one another.

[Susaki Tanabe]

He smiled as she did his happiness reflecting her own in that moment and he leaned into the touch. his hand on her side moving lower onto her hip and a gentle squeeze.

At her question his head cocked slightly, a look of thought moving across his features "Well, I suppose that depends on what you mean. If we have guests there will be entertainment either song or dance or maybe a play. If we are simply on the move it is just doing chores, cleaning, gathering what we can from where we stopped in the night, fishing to shore up stock." He explained slowly, his voice a little softer as he spoke "we have one or two people on guard, though we have much less chance of being raided on the river but if we went ashore we will be more vigilant."

[Kuni Yasu]

There's a happy sigh as she reaches for his other hand, bringing it to her lips as she listens to him over the quiet notes of another river tune. "mmm, right, folks'd have to get out on the water first and you'd see or hear them coming," she murmurs against his fingers. "Entertaining's only for guests? I guess you might get enough of it practicing..."

Even at her most out of sorts, Yasu can be an endless font of questions. Here, where each is a chance to hear Tanabe's voice and lengthen the time spent probing the edges of propriety with him? She'll take full advantage of their allotted time.

/fade on to conversation and light petting? XD

[Susaki Tanabe]

He chuckled "Well not only for guests but its not like every night is a party. Most nights are just....survival. making sure we get from a to b, make sure everyone is fed, and ensure the boats are in good shape." He explained while he smiled down to the Crab.

He had never lied to her and wouldn't start now, no matter how many questions she had, on whatever topic sprang to mind He would answer with a smile. He just enjoyed the closeness of her, feeling her near him and feeling content to be where he was. The outside world melted away, for the time being there was only her and the soft sound of the music.

/FtC