RP: YSS Miharu Prologue, Day 3

Tom sat up a bit and slid his body against the rim of the tub. His chest was well-toned, and the muscles extremely defined, but they weren't very large. It was a necessity, as he needed to be as flexible as possible to dance.

"It went very well, actually. We had dinner and danced. It was great fun and all. Yukari is a really wonderful person..."

He made sure to keep eye contact with his superior.

"I'm aware." Kotori nodded slightly. "She's been my lover for more than a week now."

Tom shook his head incredulously, a light laugh escaping his lips. It was something that basically said, without words, 'Now why the hell would you say that?'

"Well, you've done more than I have, if that's what you're getting at."

He cleared his throat and continued.

"But it's more than just that, I think. Yukari is a good person, and I can see it, feel it in her."

Kotori tilted her head to the side slightly. Catlike ears - little black pointed tuffs, really - flicked twice.

"I wanted to make something clear to you before you got too far and suddenly found out Yukari and I were lovers. I don't mean to be an obstacle to you - I only want to save you embarassment and apprehension." She giggled. "I am a Ketsurui, after all. Some people might expect that crossing me could mean I'd have them castrated or something."

"I don't care about that at all-- the sexual relations that you two have had," Tom said. "I've done my share of those kinds of things."

He looked at Kotori rather plainly.

"With all due respect, ma'am, it's just that I'd rather that she be the one to tell me these kinds of things. That is how trust is built."

Kotori frowned in indignation, though she wasn't really angry - more displeased by seeing what she considered good intentions backfiring. "This concerns me too, Tom. If Yukari spends time with you, it is time she is not spending with me. I am trying to avoid you discomfort by giving you my take on it."

The nekovalkyrja pushed herself up. The conversation really hadn't taken a turn she had wanted it to take. She really hadn't meant to do Tom a disservice in trying to get a little talk with him - but now it looked like she had actually been an hindrance. "But if I'm being a hindrance, I'll close the subject at that. That's the last thing I wanted to be to you and Yukari."

"Oh please," Tom said cheerfully, waving his hand. "It's not like we're engaged or anything! You don't have to go to such lengths!"

He laughed a bit more openly now. He understood Kotori's intentions, but it seemed a little strange to him.

"It may be more of a cultural point than anything else. Back at home, we tend to speak our mind. There isn't much room for secrecy. But I feel you spoke on Yukari's behalf more than your own, and that was what confused me. But yes, the matter does concern you, quite deeply, I may add, and I appreciate your honesty. My apologies for the confusion."

Somewhat mollified, Kotori turned her head back to look at Tom - she had been just about to leave the bath.

"Yukari and I are really just friends. We turned to one another because we were hurt badly and had no one else to turn to. I feel devoted to her, but I do not actually love her: I think it is the same for her." She turned to face him. "I've made a point of encouraging her to find someone nice: she was looking for someone of integrity - we both are, really - and you, Tom 'Tap Happy' Freeman, seem like you might fit the bill."

"Thank you. Your compliment honors me."

Tom jabbed playfully back at her.

"Well now, if things don't work out with Yukari, I know I have at least one other person who I have a chance with!"

"I'm not ready for another male lover." Kotori despondently replied as she lowered herself back in the water.

"Dige, Leutre. Dige."

James leaned back against the wall and stretched.

"By the way, did anyone else see Tom just charge by here in a towel?"

"Yeah, Didge, got it. Now, what's this about a Tom? And a Towel?" Leutre raised an eyebrow and gave him a curious look. "In my limited experience, someone running around in a towel ususally means either lovers' quarrel or a fire. Either way there's going to be a mess. And a good show."

Nyton chuckled a bit but retained his composure over Tom's spectacle. "I'm certain Freeman is just having his version of a good time." he said. Nyton then recalled something else. "I believe Kotori is still bathing in there as well. I suppose we could either stick around and watch the results, or we can all go and have some breakfast so we can be ahead of the game." Nyton then cast a glance towards the bath as Yukari exited. "Or we could join them. Mind you, I am rather hungry."

"I believe food is appropriate right now!" Yukari said in a high, rushed voice. "Let us go to the mess so we can greet our home with happy stomachs." The Chui walked through the crowd of people a bit awkwardly, but she still walked.

Nyton smiled inwardly but showed no reaction to Yukari's desperate attempt to draw everyone away from the baths. "Well, like I said before, I'm hungry. See you at the dining facility." he said and he turned away to catch up with Yukari.

"Ah, oh, wait!" Leute cried out. Taking one last glance over his shoulder, he hurried to catch up with Nyton and Yukari. "Mayhem is pleasant, but hunger just takes all the fun out of it. That, and it'll probably take me another hour or two of wandering before I find the cafeteria on my own. I don't think I can survive that much longer without a plate of stroganoff."

"So she leads, so shall we follow," James quipped as he tailed behind the procession of crewmembers.

"Food does sound delicious, though. Maybe a nice bowl of chicken noodle soup and a sandwich. Think you can survive for another few minutes there, Leutre?"

Tom nodded gently, his voice softening as he saw the depression in Kotori's face.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

"After Taisa Sydney brought me to the Sakura, the gunship he commanded in the First Expeditionary Fleet, he began courting me. We became something like lovers." Kotori replied flatly, her eyes closed as she humored her bathing companion. "A couple of weeks passed before the Taisa went into another vessel we were docked with... which was promptly shot at by a mishhuvurthyar gunship's tunneling cannon: the ship was lost with all hands, including him."

The nekovalkyrja's golden eyes peeked out from half-opened lids. One nailless hand came up to carress down the wet black hair which flowed down her shoulder. "Rufus Sydney had a ST backup done once before, but one in which he remembered only a day of the two weeks we had known each other. The days that came after that had been very defining to me: they were important into making my carreer what it is now and he remembered none of it: nothing about why I was made an officer; nothing about what we had been pitted up against; nothing about the relationship that developped between us."

The hand withdrew back into the water and Kotori looked back to Tom. "Since he was so out of loop with our current assignment, the Mistress Taisho transfered him out of the Sakura. To me, he was a mentor, a father figure and my lover come back from the dead. To him, I was just a pretty stranger. I had something to fight for that he didn't share, so, unlike the Mikomi, I did not follow him out." Kotori's golden eyes seemed to harden before she said the next words. "The last memory I have of him is a stinging slap across the left side of my face."

Masako stood there for a moment with her eyes wide a toweled Yamataian rushed past her into the bath area. "Etou...I believe so Dige-hei," Masako replied before shaking her head. "Anyway, I slept well...it's just I feel really sore now...I guess it's easier for that to happen in an NH-29 body than in a NH-17 body...I don't know for sure," she explained with a sheepish smile.

As the others began to mention food, the young Neko couldn't help but nod her head in agreement. Following after the Chui, the warrant officer kept to Yukari's rear left as she walked.