[Day 6 Late Afternoon] Before you, failure.

[Ide Amaya]

Her heart thudded painfully, she lowers her eyes and her fan. "it is true," she confesses, "I lay with the Imperial last night." Then she lifts her chin and straightens her shoulders, "I love him, and I will not be shamed by tongues that wag over things entirely outside their business," she states, defiantly. Her stormy-coloured eyes flash with determination, as if the lightning of the other night had returned and lent her its light.

[Matsu Nintoku]

"Good for you," he stated plainly as his eyes shifted back to glance at the sky.

"So I guess," his tone was still calm "Actually I guess nothing. I don't know what to answer."

[Ide Amaya]

She swallows, and brings the fan back to her face. Her eyes glint, as if she were about to say something cold. Instead, her voice is gentle, "I'm sorry Nintoku-Sama. But my heart is with another. You deserve to know that. I still care for you, if that means anything." Lie to me, she thinks, desperately, say that it does. I never wanted to hurt you!

[Matsu Nintoku]

"You used me and lead me on," he sighed turning his eyes to her. "I will not comfort you with a lie."

[Ide Amaya]

Anger flares in her eyes, and her voice is low and dangerous. "Used you? For what end did I use you? I have been honest with my words and my intentions, and you speak to me in accusations? You stole the kiss from my lips, it was not the other way around."

[Matsu Nintoku]

He remained calm at her accusations "I shared some of my innermost troubles with you and in a moment of frailty I succumbed to my baser needs."

He rose and turned to her "I was outsmarted by you. You learned about my dreams and made me think you enjoyed our time," he sighed. "I do not blame you though. I blame myself."

[Ide Amaya]

"You speak from pain, Nintoku-Sama, and for that I will not take your words to heart," though in truth, his words have wounded her deeply.

Somehow, she manages not to say the stinging words on her tongue. "I have enjoyed spending time with you, and I truly wanted to help. If you believe the forked tongues that hiss of what goes on in the privacy of a man's yurt, then surely you can believe me as well."

[Matsu Nintoku]

He sighed "Did the kiss even meant anything?"

[Ide Amaya]

She looks up at him, seeming smaller, somehow, "it meant something to me."

[Matsu Nintoku]

He looked up at the sky and sighed. Why were the two unicorn he liked so complicated.

"It didn't mean enough"

[Ide Amaya]

She could argue that with him, but what would be the point? It was already too late. She loved Hideo, deeply, and the idea that they might not be married was too strange, too abstract, to even consider. It didn't matter how deeply she cared for the Lion, it wouldn't change their situation.

"Will you ever find it in your heart to forgive me, Nintoku-Sama? I should so like to remain friends." She groaned internally at the way the words came out.

[Matsu Nintoku]

"There is nothing to forgive," he replied "I have no control over what you decide or what you feel."

[Ide Amaya]

A soft sigh, "by my actions, you have been hurt. For that I require forgiveness."

[Matsu Nintoku]

"I am not hurt," he sighed. "Disappointed? Perhaps but not hurt."

[Ide Amaya]

She brings her fan up to her face once more, saddened, regretful. Never again would this Lion smile for her, and she felt it was a disservice deeper than any scar. Her eyes glint as tears prick at them. "I should leave you to your thoughts then, Nintoku-Sama. I am sorry to have interrupted."