Far enough down the hall from the Stag party that it was relatively peaceful, Akodo Kawauso sat in her room fretting about having company. She wasn't unprepared, but she also wasn't used to much of anything associated with the castle or anything much beyond her home village.

Frustrated, the Lion stopped herself, and took two steadying breaths. "Having a friend over for a game is not weird. It is not scary. It is just nice," she said quietly to herself.

Surveying the small table in the center of the room, the small pot of calming tea and cups on that table, and then the other small table with a few game-related items off to the side of the room, she decided she was ready.

Sasori scratched the door to announce herself. "Akodo sama are you in?"

A couple quiet footsteps are heard, and then Kawauso is opening the door. "Of course, Bayushi-san. Please come in," she says, smiling happily.

Inside, she waves the Scorpion toward cushions beside the center table with the tea pot, although she says, "I had tea made, in case you'd like some. Very mild, to help with sleep if you've had a busy day."

Sasori came in and closed the door behind her. "I am quite tired Akodo sama... Fishing, studying... court... people talking here and there... watching more people... It is exhausting." She sat down on the cushion and sighed. "How was your day Akodo sama?"

"It was..." she thinks back over the eventful day and the attention she had been receiving. "Ummm..." She seems to be genuinely unsure what to say.

Without really thinking about it, she starts to pour tea. "Honestly, I think the day may have been, um, more than I know what to do with..."

Sasori chucked. "Unicorn sama has a lovely pair of otters." Sasori smiled. "I wish it wasn't winter so we could swim with them."

"Pair? Oh, she has three. Mmm, but the young one maybe isn't trained to fish yet? I should have paid more attention this morning." After a pause, a brief look of self-irritation, she waves that away. "But yes, swimming. In the spring, or this summer perhaps. If your kind father permits, of course. But it's not that far up the river from my village to hers. You could visit... really any time you like..." Kawauso looks very positive about seeing her scorpion friend again, especially on more familiar terrain for her. "I mean, um, it's not very fancy. At all. Father's kind of working on that, but, uh, it's not exactly his highest priority," she admits, still smiling at Sasori.

"I have to find him first." Her demeanor changed. Her seating position from seiza to her knees on her chest and feet flat on the pillow. She seemed to be analyzing as her chin on her knees. "I don't know if I'll be here by the summer. I don't know where I will be next week."

Kawauso's demeanor also changes, turning protective. The knees pulled to chest position reminds her of Kotsu-chan when she'd be scared when they were younger. The Lion's face is mostly curious, looking to understand the problem before it can be solved.

She immediately slides around the table and into seiza beside her friend. Kawauso's left hip is close to Sasori's right, but not touching. The taller woman leans away just slightly, so she isn't looking down at such a hard angle.

"He, um, is missing? I didn't realize. When did you last see him?"

Sasori sighed. "Two years ago..." She looked up and then back down. "I need to find him. I have so many questions...why does it hurt so much?" She was holding back the urge to just leave to go and continue her research. "Bayushi no kami knows where he is but he doesn't want to tell me." She leaned onto the Akodo's lap.

Kawauso's mouth hangs open, words completely escaping her. But her immediate reaction is to hug Sasori, letting that be a start.

"That's... Sasori-san, I'm so sorry. Can... Why is Lord Bayushi not telling you?"

The hug is well received and returned. "It is not you fault..." Sasori sighed. "It is a game for him or so I think. Also a lesson for me." She shook her head. "I just hope I find him soon..."

The Lion eases out of the hug, so she's not smooshing her friend, but gives gentle rubs of her neck and shoulders. She still can't make much sense of this, but soothing can't be a waste of time.

"So you're looking," Kawauso says, trying to be encouraging. "Do you... feel like you're getting closer?"

"Yes... and no..." She sighed. "But we are here to have fun nya." Sasori moved behind Kawauso and started to play with her hair. "So, the Stag prince, is following you or you him?"

The Lion, completely lost at the transition of subjects, takes a while to recover. "Bleeh, ah... I..." She looks down and giggles a little. "I don't know... I think a little of both? I mean, I'm not... really... Ok, I guess I am at least a little bit... But it's not like this ever happens! And when I start talking to him, he keeps talking to me. And when I say something embarrassing, he acts like everything is great..." It's a while before Kawauso's mind slows down and she realizes that Sasori is playing with her hair, which is quite long in the back but only barely tied up tonight. As she feels what is essentially a thick, two-foot long low ponytail swaying behind her, Kawauso pauses her Genji chatter to say, "You can braid it. Or let it loose if you wish."

Sasori had already began to braid the hair. "I told you, you are quite the catch. I guess you won't believe me. Is it the name or the clan? I am just kidding." She sighed as she shook her head. "You should write him a letter."

The Lion gives a sad squeak. "I'm sorry Sasori-san. You are right that you told me... This is all just very strange. Including having a friend to tell me it's possible."

Her left hand drifts back to pat Sasori's knee. For the moment she ignores the letter suggestion, instead asking, "Do you think... people who want to be free... can be happy being married?"

Sasori gave it some thought. "I think so... mother is quite happy. She always wanted freedom and she got it... I guess." She hug the Lioness from the back. "You worry too much." She whispered in her ear. "Besides... You are the one to decide... nya." She returned to her original position of finishing the braid.

Kawauso's breath catches during the hug, the whisper of breath tickling her ear as well as her imagination. After Sasori moves back and the Lion remembers to breathe, she repeats breathlessly, "The one to decide..."

She sits still for a time, the pleasant sense of Sasori tending to her hair warring with her mind's debate of all topics related to marriage. "I mean, it wouldn't be up to me with someone important, like..." She hesitates to say the thought out loud. "Like one of the kami-children," she says obliquely. "They have... lots of rules, it seems like," Kawauso says, attaching much scorn to the word 'rules' in the middle of a sentence that mostly just sounds sad.

"There we go... nice and pretty, nya." She pulled the Akodo lightly so she can use her lap as a pillow. "Come on... shouldn't these Kami children be allowed to choose their partners such was their parents decisions." She pouted. "Then again you have that cute Dragon guy..." Sasori giggled. "Seems you also have plenty fish to choose from."