[Day 9, Early Morning] A Wonderful Country to Learn Patience In (Expecting)

[Shiba Raizo]

"Where will we be? Rolling into one of these ponds, naturally. Besides. You're... enough like me that I think I'm just using my compliments to shore up the damage your internal self-criticisms are doing."

[Usogawa Narumi]

She smirked bitterly. "I hate that you know me so well." She didn't. Not at all.
Taking a deep but slightly shaky breath, she shifted her weight from foot to foot and stood taller, tilted her chin up some in a practiced air of confidence that didn't meet her eyes.
"And you? Your ronin is full of surprises, like winning the pot at Uguisu’s."

[Shiba Raizo]

If only you knew!

"That she is. She's also... sort of inadvertently forced me to stop tearing myself down so much, because if I were really as awful as I'm used to thinking I am, it'd mean she's making a mistake by... well. Returning my attentions. And I'm not about to put that on her."

He sighed.

"I... wish I'd known what we'd signed up for, at the sumai. She deserved better. Just as skilled as I am, in terms of technique, and much, much braver, given what she was up against. But nobody's gonna remember that. They're gonna remember that she didn't win a single bout because her opponent was so much stronger than she was."

[Usogawa Narumi]

"Hm. I don't think that's true. In how her performance will be remembered, that is. What will be remembered is the obvious fact that you protected her. Even though I know, I know, she's capable and doesn't need protecting. But a husband should honour his wife. And your actions honoured her. I don't see how that can be seen as a detriment to either of you."
Narumi spoke gently, glancing back at him as the layers of this particular onion peeled away.

[Shiba Raizo]

"Still bugs me."

He grimaced.

"This whole thing bugs me. Because all of your worries, all of my worries? Might involve people the Deer decide to pair elsewhere. And if that's how this works, then why this whole song and dance, you know?"

He let his breath hiss out between his teeth.

"I came here with nothing to lose. And now... now it's not so easy."

[Usogawa Narumi]

"Hai. It's incredibly... frustrating."
He echoes entirely what's been bothering her as well, and she doesn't like hearing it said aloud. "I much prefer my way of matchmaking. Being on the other side of the proverbial desk. Just one-on-one, not dealing with... all of this pageantry." she gestures a hand at the Great Hall's direction.

[Shiba Raizo]

"Especially when a lot of what you would do is probably still weighed in the balance... like, if a Lion and a Crane were to fall for one another here, getting married would still be incredibly awkward given the drift of the clans' relations."

He gave the Great Hall a glance of his own.

"And they have to know that we're a bunch of young idiots who're going to do damn fool things like fall in love."

[Usogawa Narumi]

She nodded a few times, letting her head bobble. "I wager they're counting on it."

[Shiba Raizo]

"Bastards."

He started laughing.

"Everywhere I go, bastards."

[Usogawa Narumi]

She grins widely in return. Was this the first time she's heard him laugh? "It's almost like they're drawn to you, like flies to shit."