Day 4 [LE] Mr. Warmth (Suteichi's Yurt)

[Bayushi Suteichi]

"What I can I do so that it can go well? I am not going to give up so you're just gonna have to deal with it. If I have to fight you for as many days as Akodo no Kami did Matsu no Shiryo I will. If I have to travel the entire empire like Kakita no Shiryo did for Doji no Kami, I will. And if I have to search for you, be tricked by you like Bayushi no Kami was when he encountered Shosuro no Shiryo I will. As I have said I am not a bushi. Look at me. There are so many others here and I am not one of them. I am not perfect, I am not the strongest, the swiftest, or anything. Beyond my looks, music, and poetry; I am just a man of wits and words with a determination for getting ahead. Take me as I am. I would take you as you are."

[Shinjo Liu Fei]

After the spirited response she finally let slip a small laugh, holding the side of her hand up to her mouth to steady her drink. Once that was let slip plenty more followed, "You are doing fine, if you worry so, Suteichi-san. Better than fine, you've proven plenty to me. Through word, and action. Maybe it is embarrassment getting to me, making me say things I would usually not, but it is no lie that you have been the most impressive suitor I have found here. Others do not... possess what you do."

"Together, I do actually think we could accomplish a lot. It is why, if you would choose me given the direction the displays are going this miai, I would be content. Honestly."

All that and he didn't even have to get her drunk.

[Bayushi Suteichi]

Good job. Goooood job Suteichi. You just let a Unicorn get you to spill it all.

He sat there and blinked his eyes then sipped more tea.

"Well... that was certainly...fun." a small chuckle at that. He picked up his samisen. "You know, I have met many and none of them are you. So yes," he said strumming out a few chords, "I do choose you and I want to know you more and more as this little event goes on." And he began to play a song for her.

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Perform:Samisen/Agility D4 w/Liu Fei: 25

song

[Shinjo Liu Fei]

With the song she just sat and watched him. Studied his expression as he played, occasionally glanced toward the action of his moving fingers but mostly just watched and sipped at the tea before her. Giving her just enough of a distraction from her crawling skin to enjoy the moment. When the song came to an end she had relaxed considerably, letting the Yukata hang naturally on her form as they sat there together.

There was a slight silence in the songs wake as well, then she said, "I would like to know more about you as well, Suteichi-san. If you are going to be my future husband," she said the second part largely as a tease.

[Bayushi Suteichi]

"Well, we have all night to talk. I certainly cannot allow you to enter back out into this storm and get all soaking wet again going to your yurt. Come here, let me hold you while we talk." He grabbed some more of his sweets and refilled cups.

"Come to me. And ask me anything."

[Shinjo Liu Fei]

For a second she seemed to rise but then realization took her and she looked to him, "H-hold me?" she asked, a touch defensively. Looking down at the current state of her body, red, itchy and perhaps most awkwardly of all rather revealed.

[Bayushi Suteichi]

He grabbed another blanket and draped it around her.

"Sit with me at least." he directed her to a pillow to sit upon. Suteichi sat close to her.

"I trust this is better for you. Now, what would you like to know of me?"

[Shinjo Liu Fei]

Sitting where he had directed her too, having both the comfort of the pillow and the blanket she was too busy thinking of other things to take the moment to think of why he hadn't given these to her earlier.

"A little more of your family, specifically about your siblings," she asked, looking to him before she added the next. "Both those you were born with and the one you adopted. I would like to hear more how your relationship is with them."

Remembering how he had mentioned having a brother he wasn't close to and yet a woman that was not family he considered a sister, it was different from her own experience greatly.

[Bayushi Suteichi]

"Very well then. My eldest brother died before I was born. Bayushi Kobai was his name. I never met him. My two sisters, Arisa and Yoritoko I grew up around. Arisa is part of a theater troupe on Teardrop Island and Yoriroko, my eldest sister has been in a long engagement with an Asako. She is an apprentice courtier, well trained under my mother. Her and I correspond to each other often."

[Shinjo Liu Fei]

"When you had spoken of him last it had sounded to me..." she paused, shook her head. "I had thought he was merely estranged from you Suteichi-san. I am sorry for sounding so insensitive about it just now."

After a long pause, when her apology settled in she looked to him again instead of the fire. "Then, what of the relationship between you and Yogo Mizuki-sama, your sempai? You called her your surrogate sister, how.." she struggled looking for just the right words and shifted uncomfortably at the rash that covered nearly her entire body. "Is it merely that you find you can depend on her as if she were a sister?"

[Bayushi Suteichi]

Suteichi was not upset with her at all. He looked at Liu Fei with a compassionate smile. There was a small exhale and he began.

"My...origins, are not something of a happy story. Know that what I said the other night was true. It was uncomfortable but true and now you will know the full uncomfortable truth." He held her hand and met her eyes. "I have always known the man that is Bayushi Kaneka as my father and the woman, Bayushi Hayumi as my mother. What was told to me was that I was found. My real father was a man of a vassal family of the Yogo. Vassal family means lesser family you could still use the noble name, but ultimately you are of a lower status. My natural father was a disreputable man. Ambitious but disreputable. He was involved with the wrong people to try and advance himself. My natural father fell in love with an oiran woman of Ryoko Owari. This oiran was a favorite of an oyabun who my current father was investigating. Long story short, my natural father and his true love ran off to some peasant village where they were found by this oyabun's men. I was an infant, found by Bayushi Kaneka."

Suteichi took a brief pause to sip tea and collect himself. He hated having to relive and tell this story.

"The woman who would become my mother always reminded me of how much I was both a blessing since they had lost their only boy and that I was a bastard. Quite loving of her isn't it... still, at my gempuku I chose a name that would remind me of who I am and my resolve to live. My name means first foundling. When I started at the Bayushi Courtier School, I had met Yogo Mizuki. Right from the start we grew close. She excelled and of course was a senior student. She also had a very troubled past much as I did. We had resolved that we would always look out for one another and we did. We always have shared a close bound. It was...is closer than the bond I had with my adopted sisters. Mizuki knows my secret as I know hers. You are who I choose, so now you know. I know that was quite a lot and is not something I easily bring up in mixed company. From birth I have always defied, always strived to be better and do better. That is the strength of me. The fire that is in me and the fire that attracts me to you. There is no need for an apology. You just needed to understand."

Suteichi looked down and got his tea cup again and finished the contents. He hoped that the truth he said did not scare her off or ruin anything. He sat in silence as he lifted his head to meet her eyes again to see what she was thinking and feeling. He waited for her reaction.

[Shinjo Liu Fei]

Neither his holding of her hand, his looking to her eyes, or most importantly his uncomfortable truth made her shy away. Throughout it all she sat there quiet and listening. It was easier, letting him take her hand, because it eliminated that gnawing desire to itch and rub at the still cherry red skin that lay just underneath the rather red kimono.

Still, she tried to offer understanding in the best way she knew how.

"I understand," was all she said.

[Bayushi Suteichi]

Again, he was not put off by her reaction. He was glad that she was not all patronizing. Suteichi continued to hold her hand.

"Thank you for your understanding. I am relived... We have a long night ahead of us it seems and I simply cannot allow to leave out in this. I also want you to see our physician, Soshi Taira-san. He should be able to help you. All that aside, your turn. tell me about you because contrary to what you believe, I actually do like to shut up and listen." he quipped.

[Shinjo Liu Fei]

"Let us just hope you do not get visitors in the night Suteichi-san," she said, flat but with a slight lead to the humor toned words that followed, "I do not think I would be able to manage to explain this." Liu Fei glanced down, referencing all that was mostly hidden beneath the blanket he had afforded her.

After a light laugh, she settled in to offer something rather than nothing, not really sure what made best sense to tell him about or really how to talk of herself but she felt she had to come up with something.

"Before I start, I have met Soshi Taira-san. I think he has a slight something of an interest in my sister, I will be able to find him easily enough.. I, I do not think our own healers would have encountered something like this. If I tell him you sent me, he is a friend?"

[Bayushi Suteichi]

Suteichi nodded more in agreement of her words as opposed to an affirmation of her question.

"Soshi-san is a trusted associate. He has been of assistance to myself and others. If you would like for me to accompany you to visit him I can do that. If you feel to go at this alone, that is fine. A reference from me will be sufficient."

He sipped again and awaited her to speak on his question.