Third Move Of Goldust [Asami, Kyo]

It did feel strange to be concerned about something like this, and yet Asami could not quite hide the fact that she was flustered. The Sawachika Estate was certainly all too familiar to her, she had grown to enjoy it over her fleeting visits, so she wasted little time heading back to Kyo's quarters after her abrupt meeting with Nao. His sister had been perfectly respectful, so she hoped that her sudden disappearance had not left too much of a black mark on her name.

It had not been that long since she had left, intending to spend the afternoon training as she often did but, for some reason, she felt a need to discuss this matter right now. It had no business being as pressing to her as it was, they were not even remotely close to the time where this was relevant. The thought process was almost surreal to her, that she would be hooked up on it at all was a revelation in itself.

"Kyo, I'm back." What else was there to say really? Should she just blurt it out? "I was just thinking about something..."

Her voice trailed off as she called out into his section of the estate, hoping quietly that Kyo had not already headed off to take care of his own business.

Kyo hadn't quite expected to hear that voice again so soon, and he'd already gotten back to work chiseling away at one of the many pieces of stone he kept in the small garden outside of his quarters. Wiping his hands off, he made his way toward the lovely woman who'd called out to him, the typical wide grin firmly in place as always.

"Asami! I'd hardly complain about seeing you so soon. What's on your mind?"

He could tell that there seemed to be something more serious to talk about, and as such, he didn't give her quite as overly boisterous a greeting as he otherwise might have. Kyo was a lot of things, but inconsiderate wasn't one of them.

Asami stepped toward Kyo as he approached her, a little of that doubt was almost immediately suppressed by simply seeing his face. She was not quick enough to suppress a flush of pink from spreading across her cheeks as she took note that he had been hard at work. But that innocent thought actually stung more than it should have. She might have previously leaned in for a more intimate embrace but, instead, she just offered out her hand for his.

"I think I have already mapped out this entire conversation in my head, but I wanted to run it by you anyway."

This was not going to be a pleasant discussion to have. She had been wondering so far ahead of where they were that it might make things weird. Let alone the rest of what she had thought about. Kyo was a forward-thinking guy though, so perhaps that was why she wanted to believe that he would be fine with it. But then he probably wouldn't be fine with everything else. Ugh, she felt like a child trying to wish away all her problems with a magic wand. That was not who she was.

"I got to thinking about the bigger picture of us. What comes further down the line and all that." She paused for a moment, realising they were still standing almost at the threshold. "Let's take a seat. I don't want to do this standing in your garden."

That was something she was sure about, as she moved past Kyo and started to head in the direction of the bedroom. She certainly knew where that was.

"Further down the line, huh?"

Kyo'd been more on the mark than even he had fully realized, and his expression grew a bit more serious as he walked with her toward his room. He wasn't nearly so foolish as to think this was going to be some nice little casual talk now, but he wasn't a pessimist, either. As they reached his room, he did indeed take a seat, and he looked to her curiously, though not expectantly.

"So, what's this bigger picture you've been thinking about look like?"

"Yeah, something that is quite a bit ahead of where we are now."

Asami clarified just a little, her expression going equally serious as she looked for where exactly to sit. Perhaps she should give him space and take a seat a little further away, but she was also not one to flee from any confrontation. Not even this. So she sat right next to Kyo, almost close enough to sit in his lap if she wanted.

"If I were to just forget about it, let it go, then it would not come up for months if not years. So, before I say it, do you think I should?"

There was a part of Kyo that could certainly sense this conversation wasn't going to be a pleasant one. Call it a man's intuition, or, more practically speaking, call it the simple fact that Asami's demeanor wasn't quite what he was used to. He almost wanted to tell her no, not to worry about that now and to just let it come up when it mattered.

But that wasn't the way a man handled things.

"I think you should. If something needs to be addressed, it's better to do it right away than to wait until later, when it might be a bigger issue."

He wasn't specifically speaking about their relationship at the moment, of course, just generally. But he had a faint suspicion that this wasn't exactly going to be a topic of conversation he enjoyed.

Asami had known that he would say yes, of course. That was the type of man Kyo was, it was the type of man that she wanted her partner to be. The one who ran into an issue and faced it, rather than cower in fear. But she would have been lying if she did not acknowledge the voice in the back of her head that told her to make up something truly unimportant. The voice that clung so desperately to threads that were slipping through her fingers.

“Well.”

She paused. That was a good start, feeling the words catch against the back of her throat. Her brow furrowed, marking upon it a little of the frustration she felt.

“I am the head of the Furukawa Clan. The future of my clan was entrusted to me when my father passed on, and it is expected that I will pass that legacy on to my children.”

By now it was likely crystal clear as to where this particular conversation was going. But Asami knew that it would come up sooner or later. Just like she knew how Kyo would respond. But she wanted to hope. That quiet voice wanted to hope.

“It will be expected that, were I to marry another noble, that our children would take the Furukawa name. They would be the heirs to my estate, I would want nothing less of them.”

Ah.

Kyo realized quite quickly that, even having deduced this was a serious matter, he hadn't quite grasped just how serious it was going to be. That wasn't to say the gravity of it was lost on him, though, far from it in fact. He knew, perfectly well, that there was no way he could simply lie to her about his response to that. That he was proud of his family name, and that he would want to pass it down to his own children,

But, then again, he also knew that she wasn't nearly so foolish as to expect him to say anything else.

"I guess that is to be expected, yeah."

It was, ultimately, one of the reasons that the Sawachika had always been something of outliers among the nobility. No matter who married them, they were expected to take the Sawachika name. Few nobles were willing to do such a thing, of course, but the Sawachika had long known that the love of a common woman was every bit as meaningful as a noble.

"I don't intend to deny my children the pride of the Sawachika name. It wouldn't be right of me to my family."

The Sawachika were, after all, not a large house. They were in fact at the very bottom of the hierarchy when it came to nobility. They wouldn't bend a single inch to the traditions of others, when their pride was already nearly everything to them.

There it was, that knife in her gut that twisted, and yet Asami could not feign surprise. This was Kyo. She knew him like she knew the back of his hand, for he was like an open book. But she liked how that book read, right up to this point.

“I would not want to ask you to do so. For I understand all too well the pride there is in a name.”

Honest words that came to her easily, because she wished quite dearly that she did not have that same pride right now. But she did. Her sister was too delicate for marriage, her father already gone, there was no one but her that would continue the legacy of the Furukawa. A small house, a small estate, a small legacy, but it was hers.

“But.”

No, there was no ‘but’. Her mind knew that. This shouldn’t be something that even needed a discussion. They could file this away as something that had no right being as good as it had been, but it had never been meant to last.

“But I will still ask again. Because I want to hear your affirmation that our position will, at some point, become untenable.”

Despite the pain of the situation, Kyo wouldn't run from the question, nor would he look away as he spoke. There wasn't pride in it, but there was confidence, assuredness even as he said what he knew would make him quite unhappy for a while Better to have it happen now than later on, when they'd become comfortable, complacent.

"It will. Even if right now it's great, that's probably not something we'll ever be able to settle on. That's not a fight I'd want to have."

But it would happen, if they made it to that point. And if they stayed together, it would come to that, because he knew that they were both assuredly going to want children.

"I'll miss you."

It wasn't really necessary, but Kyo still felt the need to say it. After all, it was true. He didn't want her to feel as though he had any regrets about their time together, and he certainly didn't want it to seem like this had been anything other than real.