Dark Edge Village

Yuuru received a note from Yukarin at the start of the day asking for him to meet her at the shrine that evening. The events of the past few days made him a little bit concerned what it may be about. From all indications it appeared that Yukarin was the most eligible bachelorette around. Yuuru started to wonder if what he was would be enough for her.

And so as he stood at the shrine's entrance he waited for his partner to arrive, half worried and half excited.

The sun was at Yukarin's back as she walked towards the Shrine, not yet low enough to start streaking the sky with colours but low enough to make her shadow low in front of her. Seeing a familiar shape already there she smiled to herself and picked up her walking pace, waving as she approached even if she knew such was not very familiar here back in the Empire.

"Goood evening, Yuuru-san. How has your day been so far?"

He smiled and nodded, "Infinitely better now that you're here Yukarin-san."

He bowed warmly, "How are you feeling today?"

"Better..."

She gives a small sigh but her smile doesn't leave, "Just a little bit under the weather yesterday; Had a meal with some courtiers from other Clans and they forgot to mention they had something called 'oysters' in the soup... Fortunately I had a very understanding puppy to watch over me while my stomach recovered."

He smiled, "If you had sent me a notice I could have come and helped. I even have thumbs to carry stuff around for you."

He chuckled.

A soft chuckle, "I would say you would have been a distraction from getting the rest I needed... but no more so than the puppy I suppose. Not that he wasn't the perfect gentleman in cuddling with me even though I was being finicky and gross."

He chuckled, "Now you're just trying to make me even more jealous of that puppy. I thought I'd only be competing with the droves of men who are your admirers, I didn't think I'd be bested by a dog though."

He laughed warmly.

Her hands went to her hips, "Come come... if I was to end up with you and found myself deprived of the ability to get a cat, surely you wouldn't deprive me of a fuzzy little dog at least. Right?"

He chuckled and smiled, "A whole kennel of them if it'd make you happy."

"Mmm... and children and puppies make great companions..."

Nodding to herself Yukarin drifted over to a bit of masonry and took a half seat, hands going behind her on the broken limestone pillar.

"Did you train your own dog then yesterday?"

He nodded, "I did. He did alright. Not well enough to place unfortunately. But I liked him; I named him Saru."

He chuckled, "A dog named 'monkey' yeah... I know, it's weird."

"Could be more odd than that certainly... I named mine Fuwafuwa."

He smiled, "I don't find that odd. It's an adorable name given by an adorable woman."

He came and sat next to her on the masonry and sat close by for several seconds.

He rubbed his hands a bit nervously and looked down at his feet.

Without even bothering to look around for other pairs of eyes Yukarin leaned in to Yuuru, her side touching his even if she resisted the temptation to fully lean against him in such a public place, "...only one more sunset left, hm..."

He smiled weakly and looked up to her as he felt her lean in, "I hope not..."

He slowly moved his eyes back to the horizon where the sun was starting to drop with noticeable speed. His comment was obviously referring to more than just the miai itself.