Beauty and the Bowl [Asami, Kyo]

It had taken longer to clear her schedule than she had intended, but Asami was the type of woman that would never renegade on her word on pain of death. Kyo had never pestered her about it too, not even once, and that had been one of the many get-out clauses that she had installed into the imaginary contract for this meal. Then she had sent a single message, a date and a two-hour window of time, and now she was here.

Arriving at the Jin-Roh Teahouse near ten minutes ahead of time, the Officer of the Fifth Division looked notably different from her usual business attire. Gone was the suit and tie, replaced with a long dress of deep crimson that wrapped tight around her body in all the proper places for a lady of both elegance and poise. It was a sharp number, but it did have something of a suggestive cut running up the side of her leg that certainly showed just a little skin. This was not the primary function of the cut though, as it gave her legs more than enough room to deliver a clean heel kick if need be.

The first few moments of the date would define how everything went. When Kyo arrived. How he arrived. And what his first precious words to her were.

Kyo, of course, was ready for whenever that fated message had arrived. There was no point that he'd questioned if it might never arrive; he simply knew that it would, whenever she was free now. And, indeed, the day came, and he prepared more than adequately. Most men would have worried about their appearance, their entrance, but he had absolute confidence in himself. He knew that what he chose would be as good as it could possibly be.

As he strode through the door to the Jin-Roh Teahouse, his stride was confident, sure. His attire was, compared to Asami's far less modern, but by no means was it any less remarkable in its appearance. An iromontsuki, colored in such deep violet that it seemed nearly black, and patterned with the Sawachika family mon along with a simple tree-branch design, was accompanied by a black hakama and haori. Dark, certainly, but properly formal for a meeting with a woman of her standing. He had considered the kuromontsuki as a statement, but such overformality would have made him look a fool.

"Good afternoon, Miss Furukawa. I would have brought flowers, but I didn't want to inconvenience you during a meal by having to attend to them. You look lovely."

Polite, formal, but certainly no less confident than Kyo always was. After all, while he was plenty confident simply taking a girl to the bar and plying her with drink, that was only for girls he had no serious interest in. And Asami, frankly, was far from that. He was a noble, after all, and he knew courtesy like the back of his hand.

Asami was, in her own mind, an easy woman to please. She was rather old fashioned compared to most of the other ladies whose company she often found herself in. Her ideal date would arrive in formal attire, sincere but to the point, would come bearing a pleasant gift and waste no time in complimenting her looks. There was a certain level of vanity to those requirements, she admitted, but a partner had to meet certain noble standards and she did not have the time to walk the uninitiated through those customs one by one.

When she has mentioned Kyo Sawachika in passing to her various gossip circles, it had left her wondering if he would even meet the bare minimum of her standards. Still, she had not been so rash as to cancel based purely on the words of others and especially those words spoken in secrecy. But it was quite a shock to the lady, though her face would never show it from behind a perfect mask of polite sincerity, when Kyo arrived and quickly set about working down her mental checklist with impressive efficiency. He was dressed appropriately, as she had insisted so long ago, but more important than that was the manner in which he wore the outfit. One could easily garb an ogre in the finest of silks, but it would still clearly be an ogre by mannerisms alone. Instead, Kyo carried himself with a surprising grace, amplified perhaps by the confidence he was exuding.

So he passed the first test. A polite smile quickly stretched across her lips, cheeks flushing ever so slightly with red at his compliment, before she returned the courtesies.

“And to you, Mr Sawachika. I am pleased to see you took my recommendation to heart, it suits you well.”

The flowers would certainly have been welcome, despite requiring some attendance and distraction, but this was all quite the gift in itself. Now, if only he took such a formal attitude to workplace attire.

“What a lovely little place you have found. I must say it is very impressive. Shall we?”

As they currently languished by the entrance, a hand extended to motion for Kyo to take the lead now. This was his show, after all, and she had no intention of letting him off the hook so easily.

Of course, Kyo had his own standards when it came to considering a woman seriously worth his time and efforts, beyond the casual interest he tended to have in most. They weren't quite as situational as Asami's, perhaps, but they were every bit as important to him. She ought to carry herself confidently, present herself in a way that he would have no qualms about bringing her home to his parents at any given moment, and perhaps most importantly, she had to speak intelligently and with purpose. Despite his demeanor, Kyo was a man who put a great deal of value on one's intellect.

"Of course. I wouldn't want to waste either of our time with something second rate."

He led the way on toward the table, not yet offering her his own hand. After all, it'd be rude to move immediately to physical intimacy, wouldn't it? But, of course, he pulled her chair out for her, and didn't even think of sitting until she'd done so first. That was what a gentleman did, after all, but he still gestured to one of the teahouse's staff and spoke evenly, surely. He'd made sure to study the menu inside and out so he didn't look ill-equipped.

"A pot of the jade pearls, if you would."

It wasn't the most expensive tea on the menu, but in Kyo's opinion, it was unilaterally the best. Not only an earnest appraisal of the tea, but something of a test of the woman he'd brought to lunch. He didn't expect her to be the sort that might have preferred the most expensive item, but it was still worth making certain.

Tailing behind Kyo as they approached the table, Asami left a polite gap between them that affirmed to anyone who would look their way that they were together without giving a false impression that they were further involved. She did not want to admit that she was impressed yet, though the fact that she was even considering it at this point was already somewhat alarming. Taking a long breath, whilst still tucked out of his view, it was all she needed to regather what little composure she had lost.

There was less than a moment's notice before Kyo was pulling out the seat for her, which was naturally to be expected. With another pleasant smile, Asami let him tuck her seat in to a satisfactory degree and that moment was the closest the pair had been. Kyo's hands were wrapped around the back of the chair which she had leaned back on. Obviously, they did not touch, though there was maybe an inch between them now. She handled the situation with an elegant calm, paying it no attention outside of her thoughts and leaving that on him to deal with in his own way.

There was no need for words, really, just a pleasant hum that denoted her satisfaction with the gesture.

Tucking herself in the rest of the way, which was not much of a distance at all, she straightened herself out before giving Kyo the slightest of nods that confirmed that he was welcome to sit down. She had not had a chance to look at the menu, though neither had she expected to. It was a teahouse date, the gentleman should already have assessed the breadth of the menu and determined which of the plethora of leaves would suit the lady best. They were both respectable individuals, took care of to look after their physiques certainly but also appreciated the finer things.

"Jade pearls?"

She probed gently at his choice which had been made with such bold assertion that she could not help but be intrigued, a hand now delicately framing her face between a finger and thumb. It was not one with which she was intimately familiar, perhaps it was a seasonal variation.

"Are you a tea aficionado, Kyo? Colour me surprised. "

Switching now to his first name now was to be expected, as it was improper to use full names once they had exchanged greetings and situated themselves properly. Asami plucked the menu and leisurely began to scroll through the options available, taking note in particular of the Jade pearls as she did.

Now didn't that make Kyo feel a bit of pride swell up in his chest? Even such a faint sound of approval was more than enough for Kyo to know he'd done well in her book. And, by extension, that she had a refined understanding of these matters. His smile grew a bit more self-assured at Asami's question, though it was a far cry from the typical cocksure grin he typically wore in his day to day life.

"I do make a habit of following the harvests and the blends from the finer growers. There's something appealing about keeping track of the varieties across the years, knowing that even the same blend might be completely different from one harvest to the next just on account of nature."

As with everything that he cared even the slightest bit about, Kyo had committed an extensive amount of his energy and mental faculties to keeping track of tea. Not nearly to the point of obsession, of course, seeing as that would be far from ideal when he had so many other things to attend to.

"In my line of work, the beauty of impermanence isn't something you get to admire very often. Tea's special that way, so it's always nice to share it with someone who can appreciate the meaningful things in life."

He knew that if he spoke too much longer, it would quite easily become rambling, and that would simply be unacceptable. So, instead, he simply gestured to the menu in her hand, and spoke briefly on that particular matter.

"I recommend either the otoro or the mitarashi dango with this blend, depending on your palate."

Her brow rose softly, delicately, at that further explanation from Kyo. Of course, it would be easy for one to simply lie about such a thing as following the harvests, but Asami could tell from his delivery that such was not the case. This was not something that he had studied for just to impress her, which would certainly have had the opposite of the desired effect should such deception have been uncovered. No, this was something that he genuinely kept an interest in and that was most admirable. One should play to their strengths in this careful game of cat and mouse that was courting, and there was no need to linger behind the illusion that this was not that anymore. She was invested.

"Impermeance is often the source of so much beauty, for even with all our years we are still fleeting creatures compared to the infinite. The thought that something can only be appreciated once before it is lost forever is always fascinating."

It did strike her that he mentioned only his line of work, though. She knew his specialisation, certainly, having handled a good deal of his paperwork when he had transferred into the division, but perhaps that was something worth commenting on.

"Comparable, if not truly similar, to that of a perfected martial arts technique. Watching it grow, shape, transform, just for that one single moment of delivery. I see the beauty in that too."

But now she too was threateningly close to rambling, and so she burrowed her face a little behind the menu. Nodding along with his recommendation, she traced a finger over the list of potential flavours of dango available. There were others that she might have preferred, certainly, but there was simply no option other than to adhere to his advice, if it complemented the tea then it only enhanced the experience and if they mixed poorly then she knew he was simply blowing steam.

"The mitarashi dango will do fine. I trust you not to lead me astray, Kyo."

Kyo, really, didn't know a single thing about martial arts. Well, that wasn't entirely true, he knew the broad strokes from what his parents had taught him, especially Mother, but he had to imagine that Asami knew more than he did. No sense in pretending he knew about it, though.

"I agree. There's something to be said about that, the fact that there can't ever quite be a replication of something like that. I guess in a sense that's one of the downsides of architecture, eh? I can't exactly work for impermanence, or people would be awfully unhappy with me. So I look for it in other things. Poetry, food, tea. I wouldn't mind studying martial arts a bit more fastidiously, either, now that my time at the Academy's pretty much over."

Of course, he wasn't asking Asami to teach him or anything, nor was he even feigning some overexcited interest in the matter. That'd have been disingenuous, and if there was one thing Kyo unilaterally would not do when with a woman he was interested in, it was be disingenuous.

"I'm honored you'd trust me like that. Not that I'd want to dictate the whole meal, of course."

Batting her eyelids, Asami was pleased to see that her strategy had once again drawn the proper response from Kyo. He did not downplay his lack of knowledge in the area, nor did he feign over interest to the point of infatuation. She had not offered the information out there as a chew toy, for him to ravage like some wild beast, rather it was the subtle implications of her own hobbies and pursuits so that he might gauge if she was interesting enough for his tastes.

"I would not wish to detract from your craft, though. For there is also a satisfaction to be had in a perfect mirror, a faultless reproduction that does not need to stand out alone to be impressive."

Placing down the menu, she left her hands on the table between them but not so far forward as to suggest that they were seeking something more from her companion. That would be most improper, after all.

"Though, if you wish to widen your studies, it would only be proper that I offer my services. Much as I would now come to you were I to have any inquiries regarding finer teas and lunchtime destinations. It is the least I can do, after all, for a curious individual like yourself."

And there she was, offering him a chance for them to see more of each other outside of a professional setting. Hopefully, that was bold enough, for now, to let him know that he had most certainly passed her little icebreaker test.

Oh? Such an offer was one that Kyo understood quite well, for the intricacies of one's craft were hardly lost on him. He knew that it was no simple task to teach another, that she was offering a not-insignificant portion of her time to him. He quite appreciated that, really, and his smile grew the faintest bit as he made his reply.

"Then, Asami, I'd certainly be honored to study under you when you have the time. And, naturally, you only need to give me a day and a time, and I'd have all too happy to show you to any of the Seireitei's finest destinations."

A confident, forward approach, to be certain, but not one that could be called improper. After all, he had said nothing untoward, and even the one thing that could perhaps be taken in some crude way had clearly not been intended in such a capacity. Well, almost entirely. It would be a lie to say that Kyo would not be interested in studying under Asami in that particular manner, but he would not even think to say something so crass.

"Forgive me if this question comes across as a bit out of the blue, but was your dress done by one of the Seireitei's clothiers, or by your family? My eldest sister would be furious if I didn't ask on her behalf."