(expecting)

His eyes hurt.

Hikaru stood in front of a window, his eyes closed. He could feel the cold wind coming in from outside, feel the light of the moon on his face. Feel the throbbing behind his eyes, and in his hand. Who knew writing a coherent system of philosophy could be so hard?

He took a deep breath, shoulders rising and falling beneath the perfect fit of his kimono. The day had been full of stresses, including the everpresent threat of Lady Doji's illness. It weighed on him, sapping his joy from ordinary efforts. They would find a cure. They would.

Silently, Hikaru continued to look out the window without sight, resting his eyes if not his spirit.

Walking through the corridors Ko found herself uncertain where to go where there was not too many people. All the eyes on her while she wrote was overwhelming, and she nearly felt as if she wished to crawl back up into her quarters. However, there was work to be done that would not get done without her and thus was her decision made. After all, she wouldn't want to needlessly worry Satsuki more.

However, though this thought drifts across her mind, her attention is grabbed by Hikaru. Earlier went pleasantly enough with such a stranger... maybe it would work again? Mustering herself up Ko approaches from behind him, and just off to the side. Standing there for about a minute, or however long it would take Hikaru to notice her.

It was long, but not too long; Hikaru was deep in thought, and Ko was quiet, but a warrior needed to be aware of his surroundings. Slowly, Hikaru opened his eyes, and then turned, just as slowly.

His eyes widened, just the tiniest bit, as he saw an unfamiliar face. "Good evening." He said, eyebrows going up. "Is there anything I might assist you with?"

"Hello," she says, looking to him. Pausing at that for about five seconds or so. Raising her hands into the space between them, the wrap creating gloves across her palms. Looking down to them, and then to him, "You are writing too, yes?" she asks, her head tilting a little to the side with the question.

Hikaru tilted his head, partially in unconscious imitation, partially as he studied her raised palms. Was this a greeting of some sort.

"I am, yes." Hikaru sighed, just a little, brushing back his white lock of hair. "Although I'm finding to be the work harder than I expected. It's been quite a while since I've written this much."

He bowed to her. "My name is Doji Hikaru." He said, straightening.

"It is a lot," she says. Rising slowly, falling slowly, but altogether the smile that followed was brief. Looking down at her hands she flexes them, inhaling and exhaling. "It hurts," she days, looking back to Hikaru sharing that moment of kinship. "I've never written this much before," she adds on.

Raising one of those hands, dropping the other to her side, she places it on her chest, "Wu Ko," she says. Regarding Hikaru and his bow her brow furrows. Eyes widening a little in realization she returns an unpracticed bow.

Hikaru's lips shifted, after a moment, into a gentle smile. "I have not for some time. Not since I was learning my characters. My tutor was fair, but very strict. Still, I would not be as good as I am without his help.

He waited as she performed her bow. "One of the Dragon. I believe Togashi Satsuki-sama mentioned you, in fact. She is..." There was a pause as Hikaru considered a number of widely ranging adjectives, "-very spirited." He finally said.

Ko smiles with Hikaru's own, a little wash of pride from the made connection. However, as he continues she tilts her head with the the pause. Uncertain about the reason for it the revelation brought her back straight. Glancing down a moment, then up and eyeing Hikaru, "She is spirited?" she repeats, a very brief but similar tilt of her head. Bringing her hands together in front of herself her right thumb rests in her left palm.

"She is.. she is.." she raises a brow, then furrows both. "She is still young. But, she is grown in a lot of ways. I am proud to have been there for her," she pauses, corrects, "to be there for her. She is a friend. Also, a good person," she smiles, one that lasts and is warm.

Hikaru inclined his head. "That is meant as a compliment." He pursed his lips a moment. "In truth, I do not know that all among the Crane would see it so. But I find..." a moment, and he shook his head. "Well, it is enough to say that I have enjoyed meeting her. And yes, she is a good person."

He watched, his pale eyes curious, as her expression shifted, as she gestured. "It is good that she has friends." Hikaru ventured. "The Dragon seem to be a friendly sort. I visited your lands not long ago, but unfortunately I had to turn back before I reached any of your cities. It is a shame; your Saru are reputed performers even among the Crane."

Looking to him, she nods. A compliment then. Though as he goes on her brow furrows slightly but relaxes when he finishes, a brief smile. Something else, ever fading and shifting. Tilting her head as he goes on the brows furrow as well. "They are not my lands, and I am not a performer," she says, placing a hand on her chest. Regarding Hikaru for a moment as she parses a thought.

Feeling, perhaps, that she has erred slightly, she adds, "It is a shame though.. that you had to turn back. Back home is a beautiful place. I do miss it when we travel, but seeing other places has been a blessing too."

"No..." Hikaru murmured, his forehead creasing. This was looking like another strange conversation. Not that that meant unpleasant...

"It is, what I say." Hikaru said softly. He half turned, looking out the window. "There is much beauty in the Empire, and it will only become more beautiful with time."

His forehead creased as he looked at her. "May I ask, then, if you are not a performer... are you a mystic of some sort?"

Ko's brow furrows at the question, but she raises a hand slightly as if to give pause, in a manner like an instructor might. Tilting her head, "I do not believe the Empire has any bearing on the beauty of the world," she states, straightening herself. "Forests. Rivers. Woodland streams," she smiles, shaking her head with that certainty to her. "They will not grow because of the Empire but..."

She nods, "Mystic, maybe?" she says, reaching to her side she pulls the hanging dagger sheath from amidst the flowing robes. Pulling it up into her hands she places it on display. "I make exchanges with spirits. If that is what you mean?"

Hikaru considered that a moment. "I see." He said. "Do you see any beauty in gardens?" He asked in his soft voice.

His brow furrowed as she brought out the dagger, but he understood a moment later, his pale eyes glinting with realization. "That is an answer, anyway." Hikaru said, inclining his head respectively. "Although I am learning as of late that the mystics of the Crane are different from those of the Dragon, are different from those of the Bat."

He pursed his lips a moment. "For most of the past year, I have been traveling. It has been... revealing. And I have seen many beautiful sights in nature." He inclined his head again.

Ko's brow furrows in throught as he asks his questions. A nod, briefly, for the piece about the differences between the different mystics representing the different peoples. Settling her dagger back gently against her side Ko takes a step toward the window closer to his side so she might be able to see out of it. Enjoying the air, for a moment, she looks to him with a brief smile.

"Why do you find things beautiful?" she asks, as if it was the simplest question in the world.

Ah, that brought a hint of a smile to Hikaru's lips, and a glint to his pale eyes. "A very good question, Wu-san." He frowned as he considered it.

"One can only know something is beautiful by seeing it." He said. "It evokes a feeling. That... is harder to describe." Hikaru looked out the window, gesturing with one arm. "I see the moon, shining down on the garden. I see the way the moonlight glistens on the snow. The way the snow blankets the trees. The way the trees sway gently in the wind."

He looked back to Ko. "These are things I find beautiful. Why? Because..." His forehead creased again, "-they speak to something in me. I cannot explain it better than that."

Ko raises her hand to her chin thoughtfully, appraising Hikaru. For more than half a minute she regards him, and then the rest of the minute is spent looking out the window in thought. When her thought was finally finished she looks back to him, a calmness on her expression. "I think it is strange. When you speak of beauty, you speak of many natural things," she pauses, looking for that glimmer of recognition. "I agree," she shakes her head, "But a garden is not natural, is it?"

"It appears beautiful. But, is it? Nature trapped into a space. I do not see..." she glances away, tracing after the right word to use, "vibrancy. Is a caged wolf still majestic? Is a snared rabbit still inspiring?" she posits, wondering herself for a moment but her own answer comes rather quickly by the way her brow relaxes into it's simply neutrality. Looking to Hikaru with a seeking to see his own thoughts come to bear.

"I have never seen a caged wolf." Hikaru said. "But I think I understand your meaning."

He looked out the window again. "But do you not see beauty in gardens as well? Under the tender care of the gardener, a beautiful flower might thrive where it might otherwise be overrun by weeds, or turn to dust from want of watering. A garden can be a pleasant place, where someone might sit peacefully. Nature can be dangerous, violent..."

Ko thinks for some time, a minute or just a bit more. Wondering as she gazes out the window. Looking back to him she focuses, "Nature is dangerous, violent. It is the exchange of life. One to another," she says, raising her hands and cupping one over the fist made from the other. "Give, receive, give to another," she says, looking to meet his eyes in seeking the joined understanding. "Existing in the cycle is beautiful. Natural. Existing outside," she furrows her brow in thought again. "Can something be beautiful if it is completely dependent on the other? If it has no control over whether it exists or does not. At the mercy of another? I am not certain," she wonders, looking back out of the window for the briefest moment, merely a couple of seconds.

Returning her gaze to him she regards Hikaru, "You carry a blade with you. Can not this- separation from nature also be dangerous? Just in a different form, I think. Maybe better? Maybe not."

In Hikaru's pale eyes, meeting hers, Ko would see... something of understanding. something of confusion. But interest, at least.

"Perhaps." Hikaru murmured, his already soft voice soft. "There is a beauty in both happiness and sadness. In dependency and independence. Is a mother holding a babe not beautiful? What about the old farmer, tending to his field for the ten-thousandth time?" He smiled gently. "Or so I find it. Not everyone sees beauty the same way."

Slowly, he nodded. "It can be. I don't think of myself as a person of violence. Swordsmanship is as much about the art." A hesitation, and he nodded again. "But you're right that I am more concerned with the violence of humanity than of nature."

"Humanity can be cruel," she comments, looking down first on a trajectory toward looking out the window once more. Seeking a comfort in the sight of something that the snow did not provide but offered another view instead. "Nature is never cruel. Nature just is," she says, a brief and mirthless smile, the lips moving out of a felt need to rather than for any real purpose. Inhaling the fresh air, a sigh.

"You are right. Beauty is in many things. Some more than others," she thinks, her brow furrowing a moment. "Is a garden more beautiful because it has been tended and made to have the most striking flora?" she looks to him, "Or is a grotto more beautiful because everything there has made a place for itself against the struggle of nature. Maybe.. maybe even that it is fleeting?" she questions more on the last, uncertain at least on that.