“Not just me but shorter?”
Dusting off her clothes with great puffs

“I was always very focused on my duties, very stern and I grew early. It was not easy.”
Shrugging
“And obviously as a Murame my duty was to serve and support the Ikoma, so my status was a little lesser.”
Sounding almost wistful
“Of course, the tall girl who spends too much time practicing in the dojo could take care of herself, and most of the Matsu there were actually pretty friendly when they finally grew up. I made a few friends by the end, we even got into trouble once or twice.”

Yul smirked. "Matsu Hide is you but shorter." The smirk faded. "Only... not really, at all." They were both strong Lion women, but there were oceans of difference besides that.

He shifted, resting his elbows on his knees, and his chin on his hands. His expression was interested as he listened. "That does sound like you, just shorter." He murmured with a smile. Then he blinked. "What what kind of trouble did you get into? You?" The corners of his lips turned up, just a little.

Nodding”Matsu-san certainly is shorter.”

She raises an eyebrow at his stance, but it was cooler close to the ground and the ‘Yul-philosopher’ look wasn’t a bad one.

“Oh yes. Lots of trouble. Once I stayed up past curfew, something I still regret. Another time I drank some sake in the dormitory.... I don’t remember much of the rest of that evening. We all woke up in the stables.”

Causally “And of course, then there was the whole of dojo food fight...”

Yul snorted. "Yeah. She's cool, though."

His lips twisted as she described staying up late, and an eyebrow was cocked, not at drinking sake, but at ending up in the stables. "Okay, getting better..."

The last one made him laugh. "Wow, okay. A whole dojo food fight okay." He nodded to her. "Well, I hope you're not gonna keep me in suspense all day, are you?"

“Mmmhmm, I had considered it. Perhaps I’d drop little hints here and there, leaving you to discover the mystery you of the good fight...”

Tossing a clump of dirt into the air
“But that seems unnecessarily cruel, I wold enjoy myself too much. You see, it was the day before our dojo formal and everybody was stressed. Then someone in class A made a comment about Class C needing extra makeup to tell them apart from the horses. That was when the first plate was frown.”

Sighing
“Cold noodles followed by pudding. It was a perfect good fight storm. By the end of it the hall was trashed and everyone was put on probation. It was the largest single disciplinary action in the dojo’s history.... and we showed those class A kids what it meant to mess with true samurai.”

"You'd better not." Yul grinned. He gave Shoan a curious look. Digging a little deeper under the exterior was a pretty good sense of humor. Huh.

His eyebrows went up. "Wow. Okay. Noodles and pudding. Two foods that are definitely gonna get all over the place. But hey, it seems only fair." Grimacing, Yul shook his head. "I've dealt with that type before. A facefull of pudding sounds like the right thing to do to them."

After a moment, he smiled again. "So... what disciplinary action did you face?"

Shoan looks back, digging a little deeper under Yul's exterior there was a whole lot of farm dirt now.

"Since it was the whole class at fault, we all got put on double secret probation. They tried to get us to turn against eachother, to reveal who threw the first noodle bowl."
She crosses her arms
"But we did not break, none of us would betray whoever through the first bowl and eventually they let us graduate. Ever since then I've kept my wits about me in a mess hall."
And learnt well the lesson of throw first and ask questions later.

Her voice ever so slightly teasing."It's a shame, surely such a renowned pilot as yourself never got into trouble in the dojo, so you probably don't have any stories to tell?"

"Double secret probation?" Yul frowned doubtfully. But, well, if it was Murame Shoan saying it, she probably meant it. "Well, that's good that no one would break. That's the way it should be."

He snorted. "Yeah. Me. Never get into trouble. That's right." He pursed his lips, considering. "Okay, a funny one, right?"

Finally, he nodded. "So, back in the Academy there was this big fountain out front. I kept saying it was big enough to swim in. My friend kept saying no. So I stripped down, and jumped in..."

Yul shrugged. "I was right. But she stole my clothes and ran. I didn't realize until she was already out of sight. So, I jumped out of the pool, and made a run for the dorms." Yul grimaced. "And just happened to run into the training unit's XO coming the other way."

Shoan works furiously to keep a grin off her face as her eyes water.
"Of course, you were right. How were you to know it was a devious trap?" Public nudity and casual dressing? What a twisted life the Unicorn had led.

"What did you say to the XO?"

"Well, I stood at attention." Yul considered that a moment, and then cleared his throat. "Uh, what I mean is, I bowed formally."

His cheeks reddened. "So, she just looked me up and down. Definitely down. And smirked. And then she just said... oh yeah, her assistant was right there behind her. She said 'Gunso, make a note. The latest batch of trainees has some very obvious shortcomings'. And then she just... went on her way."

Yul sighed. "Next morning, I was on kitchen duty, too. I'm not sure which one was worse." He tilted his head, then nodded. "No, actually, I am sure."

“.....”
Shoan just looks at him.... and looks.. and looks until there’s a loud snort followed by a second. The lion completely unable to contain herself as she collapses into peaks of laughter.

“Maybe she was” gasping for air “just pleased to see you standing up for yourself?”

As Shoan laughed, Yul found himself laughing as well. Hard enough that he fell back, lying on the ground.

"Actually, she was pretty hot. I was definitely thinking about cold showers and, well, baseball." Slowly, he straightened again, once more brushing just from his fine uniform.

"So, yeah, there was that." Yul said. "There were other things, too, but I definitely remember that one. Hmmm..." Yul frowned, rubbing at his chin. "I guess there were a few times I got in trouble after I graduated, too." A shadow passed over his handsome features, but he shook his head. "Nothing that good, though."

“Baseball is well known as the least erotic sport.”
Objective fact.

“I’m glad you recovered from all that... and we can stick to the good sorts of trouble for now. The sun is shining, my clothes will require a wash and....I think it’s almost time for lunch. How do you feel about xeno-sushi?”
Shoan gestures over to the cooler and umbrella.

"Sounds good to me." Yul said. He rose easily to his feet, brushing himself off... somehow, it seemed that not much dirt was clinging to him.

"Xeno-sushi?" Yul was willing to let Shoan take the lead, walking along with her. "It sounds like something I'd be willing to try, anyway."

Stupid unicorn dirt resistant clothes.

Shoan walks ahead and digs into the cooler, emerging with two cans.
“Iced-tea, Iced-coffe or-“ glancing back into the store “iced orange juice?”

As for the xeno-sushi
“The fish is local and I understand was caught fresh this morning; apparently from some kind of gigantic spiny fish creature. It should taste good with wasabi.”

Yul's eyebrows went up. "Iced tea, thank you. You've come very well-prepared, Shoan-san. I suppose that makes sense, from " He smiled. "I wish I'd... well, never mind." He shook his head.

"That sounds good." Then Yul frowned. "Wait, how big of a spiny fish creature? Are we talking..." He spread his hands apart as far as they could go, "-or, like, one makes a hundred servings of xeno-sushi?"

She tosses him a can, raising an eyebrow at the wishing.

“The later, a very sizable creature. So big that Nakauchi-san tells me you’d try to fight it one on one.”

Yul caught the can easily, giving him plenty of time to focus on Shoan's words.

"Yeah..." He smiled wryly. "She told me you guys talked about that. I don't know if she told you the whole story, but she saved my life." Yul looked briefly away, a whole swirl of emotions crossing his handsome features ever so briefly.

He looked back to Sloan. "I feel I should apologize that I've never managed aquatic monsters any of the times we've seen each other." He joked. Mostly.

“She was characteristically modest. I was the one giving you a hard time, if I recall correctly.”
She starts arranging the fish on two platters

“You are fortunate she is such a talented healer, had I been the one with you... things may have been difficult.”
Mildly“ I would have liked to fight a monster alongside you, but I am not unhappy that you and Nakauchi-san have many years of fighting monsters ahead of you both.”

Yul's lips parted, then closed. "Sloan-san..." Yul said, looking at her, his eyes wide.

After a few moments, he smiled gently. "That means a very great deal to me. Thank you. I won't deny that that is very much my hope."

His lips quirked. "I will say that anyone, myself included, would be lucky to be paired to you at the end of this." It was true, even if his heart was elsewhere.