Ide-al company (D8LE CLOSED - Amayas)

[Ide Amaya]

She frowns at him, earnestly, "Hideo, you have nothing to prove."

[Seppun Hideo]

"Forgive me" Hideo looked down at his hands "I just look back upon this miai, and I think of the great joy that I have experienced with you, but yet...I should be performing better."

[Ide Amaya]

She shakes her head, confused. "Have you not comported yourself to the best of your abilities? Have you held anything back in your efforts?" Frowning, she places her hands over his and prompts, gentle and kind, "do you care more for points than you do me? Or has something changed since the standings were posting this morning?"

[Seppun Hideo]

"I care about you more than points...more than anything" Hideo looked up from his hands to her face "however I look at the lists, and...I feel ashamed to not be performing better. I am of the Imperial families...and you deserve the best."

[Ide Amaya]

Her smile is gentle and kind, "I have the best, I don't need some post board to tell me that."

[Seppun Hideo]

Hideo smiled a little at that. "You are too kind. I truly have the best woman" he brought a hand up to stroke her cheek gently.

[Ide Amaya]

She gives a small, unhappy laugh, dropping her eyes, "it seems like so much to ask, doesn't it? To spend the rest of our lives together."

[Seppun Hideo]

Hideo shook his head. "I don't think so. Not at all. We are well suited to each other, both in a dutiful and a loving sense. Why shouldn't we hope to spend the rest of our days together?"

[Ide Amaya]

"I was speaking to Yasuki-sama this morning, and he was telling me that it would surely have been easier to put all the men in one line and all the women in another, and pair them off. Have the ma-ai over in one day instead of ten."

[Seppun Hideo]

"Ah, Crab pragmatism" Hideo chuckled "it would certainly have been simpler. Then I could introduce you as Seppun Amaya, and see you looking beautiful in Imperial green again."

[Ide Amaya]

"I wish the desires of our hearts counted for more. Yasuki-sama potentially faces a difficult choice, I can see how the standings would be needed; but for me there is no choice. There are no other men at this ma-ai," she says, no matter how tempting the Crab makes his life sound, she mentally adds.

[Seppun Hideo]

"And to me, there is no other woman in this miai" Hideo said without hesitation, as he leans forward to place a gentle kiss on Amaya's lips "because you fill me with joy, and with happiness."

[Ide Amaya]

"When you sang for me yesterday, especially when so few others reciprocated the feelings of those who declared for them, I had thought it would have been nice if I could have granted you the point I was awarded. A cooperative sort of gift for those of us who let our hearts decide for us."

[Seppun Hideo]

"If only such a thing was possible" Hideo sighed "that is very thoughtful though, that you wished to do such a kind thing and that my singing hasn't put you off" he chuckled

[Ide Amaya]

She gave him a stern look, "you sang beautifully. That you don't have a decade of bellowing from horseback with Moto cousins shall not be counted against you."