Hibiscus and Sparrow [Fuuen, Yugiri]

"I would not deign to dishonor either you or my art by drawing you for such a base reason. It would be a rather grave failing, don't you think?"

Fuuen certainly watched her little gestures, and his gaze became a touch more sly as he did so. He was not a fool, after all, and he understood the nature of what was happening. But he would much prefer to match her than to simply accept it, and so leaning a bit against the bar, he spoke in a bit more lighthearted a tone.

"Sharing this evening with the subject of such a beautiful piece is already quite more than I would expect. Why sully such pleasantry?"

"Good."

She said assuredly though his second sentence destroyed her confident smirk and she felt a small blush come on. What did he say? That was more than what she thought they were doing up until this point and she found herself on the retreat.

"Um... Yes, no need to sully it."

Yugiri reassured with the noticeable stagger in her tone before she recovered her composure and went to take another sip. A not so smooth recovery.

"Precisely."

Her confident smirk had been lovely, but this expression was just as much so. Did Fuuen enjoy seeing her react in such a way? Admittedly, yes. Not so much for the sake of his own ego, but simply because it was an exceptionally charming expression, and it meant that his own end of this banter had been a success.

"That would only poison any future evenings such as this, after all, and I would hate to think I might ever do that. You are a wonderful conversational partner, and there are far too many more discussions to be had. "

Well wasn't this just the most frustrating thing that he'd flipped it back onto her. She got to thinking about how to get him back, someway to acquire the upper hand in this social situation and leave him staggered. Nothing exactly coming to mind besides ideas that she was sure would flower into the best possible result!

"That's right, though you sure like to talk a lot for someone who's art and passion is in the motions of your body."

She jeered which didn't quite seem right considering there was still her cheeks being full of the food that she had eaten after making the comment. It kind of took away the seriousness of it and made it look a little comical.

Was that intentionally bold on her behalf? While Fuuen would have admittedly called that a rather welcome thought, he was also not nearly so naive as to think it would be. If anything, she was simply biting off a bit more than she could chew, but that was rather cute in its own right.

"My deepest apologies if I have spent too long on flowered words. Are you asking that I move on to matters of the body, then?"

It was words in such a way as to be completely genuine, and his tone gave little away, but the small smirk he wore made the whole affair much more obvious. She had enjoyed her time teasing, and now Fuuen was willing to take his turn.

Did he? That rascal. Well Yugiri had faltered before but she wasn't going to let him have the last laugh here. No way, her pride demanded that she stand up against this man and his attempts to be charming - at least what she thought it was. No way would she play along with the sound of this piper's tune.

So her response was a statement. A simple one that declared that she controlled the flow of the tempo here when she nodded to his question and reached forward to pull him closer to kiss him. Naturally she didn't linger too much, she wasn't that kind of person that'd just sit in a random public place and start making out like a floozy.

"No but since you asked."

It was a good thing she was not sentimental or nostalgic, she might've cared that he was her first proper kiss outside of family. Like Kokoro was kind of like her first real one but that was entirely platonic, for her anyway and she wanted to show her sincerity towards her little relative. Fuuen though was done on a whim and Yugiri was sure to put up the façade that she was completely unfazed by what she had done.

Well, it certainly seemed he had baited the line a bit better than he himself had anticipated. Not that Fuuen minded at all what had come from that, of course, but it certainly surprised him. He still maintained his cool exterior, of course, and the small, charming little smirk he wore only grew a touch more after the kiss had ended.

"My, and here I had thought you had no intention of poisoning the arts with physical desire... Well, I suppose I can call this inspiration, given you were the one to do it."

Taking a sip of his tea to collect his thoughts on this, he had to concede she'd taken the upper hand rather soundly. Though, given how she had done so, he couldn't say that he was too terribly upset at having lost the more immediate battle of wits.

"I suppose I will have to have something worthwhile to show you from such inspiration, yes? Perhaps by our next meeting it will have come to mind."

The beauty in transience was of course one of the greatest beauties of all. It was the appeal even of a simple thing such as her lips to his, or this evening they were sharing. He could certainly have aimed to be ever more charming, but it would have felt outright crass to do so, crude and lacking in any of the elegance that Fuuen preferred in his every action.

"Oh? You mean you interpreted that as an act of desire? Interesting."

She teased, a lot more confident in her spot now in this situation. Though it did still feel a little strange, it was as one would say a spur of the moment thing and an act born of impulse regardless of intention behind it. It accomplished her goal though and that meant it was fine.

"Inspiration? Next meeting? Show me? My, should I be concerned of what you might have developed because of that? "

"I would never make such an accusation, naturally. But regardless of intention, desire still springs forth where it chooses, invoked outside our control."

Fuuen was far from the sort to feel particularly shy about stating something so plainly, though to be entirely fair, it was not as if his manner of speaking was ever what could be called "plain." Still, he found it more amusing than anything else to have this little back and forth, and it was not as if admitting something like that was to say anything terribly uncouth.

"Concerned? Far from it, I should think. After all, this is still a matter of artistic expression and aesthetic. It is simply a bit more personal than the norm."

In truth, he had not the slightest idea what that meant, but it sounded appropriate enough a response that he did not regret saying it. The minutiae could be discerned later. With a faint bit of amusement, he tapped the counter briefly, and ordered another drink a bit stronger than the tea they had been drinking.

"A sweet potato shochu, if you would. And two cups, of course."

When it arrived, Fuuen filled both drinking vessels, and sipped from his own with a faintly sly expression. Would Yugiri partake as well? He certainly hoped as much.

Naturally she had forgone her older behaviours, or rather she just didn't think about it too hard. Sipping down her shochu with no real restraint, it wasn't that she needed to sip at it slowly. Yugiri was just impatient and she sure regretted asking for another promptly and sipped down another one. Though she could be forgiven in her overzealous behaviour by the fact that she did not drink very often as a noble and it did taste good. Even if she did sway a little bit in her seat while leaning forward for an additional bit of stability. Oh dear.

"You're right. Nothing wrong with some expression. Haven I ever told you about my Rashomon Ken?"

She asked, feeling eager to show off just that little bit more and tell him all about her super secret moves that were the aces in her sleeve. A trump card that she would pull out as a preening peacock about her own talent and hard work manifesting with her skills.