(D11, LE) Quantum of Solace (Expecting)

[Asako Yuki]

Yuki shook her head at that. "No, not at all. I love you Butaj, but there are ways to solve this without forsaking everything." She paused. "I could... maybe, retire? Become a nun. The marriage would be null and void, then."

[Moto Butaj]

"Nun?" He looks at her with loving inquisitiveness, wondering what's on her mind. "What do nuns do? Can I love you if you're a nun?"

[Asako Yuki]

"They are monks. They oversee the shrines and temples, that sort of thing." She paused. "There are some orders that do not require a vow of celibacy." She smiled a little.

[Moto Butaj]

He rubs his stubble in deep thought. "I don't need a priest to make my vows to you. I'd rather avoid those now. If i were yours in body, heart and mind and not in duty and name, the life in such a place - monastery - would it be bearable?" He leans in to nuzzle at her temple. "Would you bear our children then?" Butaj lays his hand on her belly.

[Asako Yuki]

Yuki leaned up a little and kissed his chin, she frowned a little at the stubble she found there. Wouldn't be kissing that again.

"I would not mind a life devoted to the temples, even if you were not in it. With you it would be sublime." She paused at the next question. "I don't need children if I have you Butaj. If I were to be so blessed though, I imagine they would be welcome at the Temple, though I suspect some of the Monks would be most unhappy with me." She paused at that.

"And... there is our duty to consider." She looked pained. "I would be betraying the Phoenix, breaking my word to the Unicorn."

[Moto Butaj]

"My family long forsook me, now traded me to a witch, I think I owe them nothing back. Surely I owe nothing to that little shit Baatar anyway. I would strangle him before he would lay his hands on you." Butaj frowns darkly. "I spoke with Hirase about what it means to be a Scorpion, and I don't really care. I can shape my place. With Kitaku and Khulun becoming Scorpion, I will have friends." He feels a pinch in his chest seeing her pain. "But Butaj is Butaj. You are a more noble soul than me." He says nothing more at this, just kisses her hair.

[Asako Yuki]

Yuki paused at that. "I... didn't know you had such hate for him. He... seemed like an earnest young man, when I met him. Please don't kill anyone over this Butaj." She holds him a little tighter for a moment. "I don't want someone to die over our failures."

[Moto Butaj]

"You my learn soon enough how 'earnest' his attitude toward me is." He groans in painful exasperation. "The witch will have none of me, not one bit. I will add this failure of duty to my other failures so that I can be true to you." He embraces her, trying not to prevent her from breaking away from him. "She will have no kindness coming from me at all until she somehow makes up to us for what she has destroyed."

[Asako Yuki]

Yuki smiled a little. "Even if another does have my body, they will never have my heart, and they will never have my first." She says with conviction.

[Moto Butaj]

Butaj doesn't know how to respond to this. He can't handle all the loving thoughts and all the abhorrent thoughts that rush in with Yuki's statement. So many people have struggled to explain to him the divergence love and duty almost always take in Rokugan, and the compromises one must make to have a shot at a bit of happiness with their loved ones. They all have failed so far and his stubborn heart refuses to accommodate that reality even now, when all but a glimmer of hope is lost. For a moment he tries to say something, but in his unyielding folly he refuses his love for her to budge the way she is pointing to. So he just kisses her deeply as if there was no tomorrow, for there well may not be. He kisses her with passion so complete that in a better world, the one his soul visited just two days ago, it would make bad things just go away.

[Asako Yuki]

No more words. Yuki returns the kiss with passion. Breaking it only to whisper. "Kumis, to help me not lose my nerve." She is shaking, torn between desire, worry, sadness, and the knowledge that this is at least somewhat taboo.

[Moto Butaj]

As passion engulfs them both, it indeed does abstract them from the problems of tomorrow. They have kissed long enough for him to push back all inconvenient thoughts and stick them into the unseen corners of his mind. The brightness of her loving presence prevails over gloom. "Sure." He whispers back. "Or you can trust me that you don't need it." He smirks playfully, letting his eyes tell a thing or seven about his desire, the fire reflected in them. "That I know how to help your resolve surge." His fingers press along her nape, underneath her velvet hair.

[Asako Yuki]

Yuki let out a little whine at the touch. "It is not you I do not trust." She bit her lower lip in frustration and confusion. Her hands slide up around Butaj's neck, sliding under his collar and then she brought her hands down, opening his vest a little. "Please, just a little. I don't want to forget this moment, ever, but I don't want to faint away." She giggled a little and tilted her head up to kiss Butaj again, briefly.

[Moto Butaj]

He smirks and relents, remembering that kumis has not been the best worst influence on her the last time. "How about I set up the tent then? It will take a moment." His mind tells him to get up but his hand begins to brush and fondle her nape by the hairline while his lips travel along her jaw.

[Asako Yuki]

Yuki sighed contentedly and tilted her head slightly to one side to allow Butaj easier access to her jawline and neck. "Hai, and I'll enjoy the fire, and watching you build the tent."

Still, she didn't make any move to stop him either. Her hands tugged a little on Butaj's vest to open it completely.