"Who knows?" He shrugged again, an innocent look as he dragged of his cigarette. "Maybe you really don't have an idea even after saying all that."

He leaned back and emptied his cup.

"If you'd said something like i want someone who can leave the bathroom in recognizable shape after use, then I'd see you had enough sense when you started talking about...well...everything you said." he shook his head, kind of amused. "I know, though. I really do. And I believe you when you say those things, but...well. That's your selfish wish? I think you need to learn to be a little greedy."

Ishiyo pressed her lips into a line, "I am a woman who has a lifetime of getting what she wants materially." She sighs, "What do you want me to say they should be handsome, dashing, and other such shallowness?"

"...besides I have servants foh making sure the bathroom remains in its correct shape." Her smile was back, "Does Dai-got-su-sa-ma have to clean his own bathroom?"

"Only if I trashed it, and a few times in training for running my mouth." He blew smoke. "And I think you're taking me too literal. It's not about the bathroom, it's about things you've learned over time that actually annoy you."

Ishiyo turned her head, "I am not taking you too literal...I just do not feel like answering you-eh question so I act like I take it too literal." She stuck her tongue out, then sighed, looking back to him sheepishly. "And I mean...I am sure something will annoy me about who I choose, and I am sure something about me will annoy them."

She cover her mouth with a sleeve, giving the most haughty impress and again exaggerating her accent. "Thouhgh wahteveh could be annohying about myself...I can hardly imagine. Eh, Dai-got-su-sa-ma."

"Whatever indeed. It couldn't be your stubbornness,", he judged. "I actually find it adorable."

"The Daidoji withstood the assault of the Matsu for yeahs," Ishiyo turned her head and smiled, a little red on her cheeks, "Of course we are stubborn."

She looked back at him, "Most people do not call stubbornness adorable though." Her eyes narrowed a little, "You enjoy this, needling me foh a reaction then labeling it cute. Seeing how much of that stubbornness you can weah down."

"Well, naturally", he replied easily. "Breaking down stubbornness is a pathway to the Daidoji Ishiyo-san that will tell me how feels, or better, she'll show me."

Ishiyo leaned forward, "Oh? And what are you hoping to find if you a way through my stubbornness?" A smirk on her face, "A demure and eager to please maiden? Surely you have not spoken to me all this time to hold such a belief."

"I was more thinking you'd hit me when everyone is around, and smile when it's just us. I would face a hundred Hiroshi-gunso for that privilege."

He put the cig out and held his hands out and away, like he'd just played his last card in a game of trump.

"But I'm also the last person to expect a sudden change. You still won't trust me, even after last night."

"I am not a Hida," Ishiyo shrugged, then frowned, "It's not that...I mean you are something of a scoundrel but..."

She sighed, "If I did not trust you I would neveh have asked you about what life as a Spideh would be like."

"But I...just do not know what you want from me. I was raised a propeh Crane, even if I do not always show it...I can not just turn that off like some kind of setting on a machine. My full emotions...I can not just let them out, every fiber of my being presses against that."

"What do I want from you?" He said with a grin, now leaning on his hand again. "Being honest, having children, knowing I'll see you as you grow older. I want to see the relief under your proper welcome when we each come home from deployment. I want to be proud of you, and myself."

"You chide me for not being selfish enough." Ishiyo frowned, "And then respond with some generic picture of domestic bliss. Is that really all you want?"

"Well children certainly is plural, I was planning on a lot."

He sat up again.

"Really, I do want to see a little less elegance, if only privately, that sort of thing takes time. And it's not like I think it's bad, but I do think it's often an unnecessary barrier. It wouldn't hurt if you courted me back a little, either."

Ishiyo blushes, "Well...yes...I suppose the process..." She takes a moment to compose herself.

"Well I mean...is not this dinner something of a courtship?"

And so now they've come to it, he supposed.

"Is Daidoji-san saying she invited me here because she likes me? I thought you were simply being honorable and proper after what happened last time."

Ishiyo frowned again, "I am a polite person...but not that polite, if I did not wish to speak to you I would have ignored you a long time before this meeting."

"Well, even if you say that, we're still asking each other why and showing open misgivings", he said, a little annoyed. He didn't scowl at her, though. "I'd like to get past all that, wouldn't you? Of course, mind you", he put his hands up between them. "I don't expect you to pretend i'm in the only one you could possibly marry at this miai, I have a bit more respect for you than that. Though I have to admit getting that feeling from you would be something that would make the rest of my days here special."

Ishiyo sighs, "You are a greedy man. Very well. I like you, not as much as some others I have met still you are one I consideh if the choice of spouse is mine. And all this even as rumors of indiscretions between a Crab and Spider flood the halls."

Her frown deepens, "Do you expect me to kiss you and plead for you-eh tendeh touch? That is simply not going to happen. And if you believe it is so...then I am sorry foh wasting you-eh time."

"I think I know you better than that", he said with an amused grin. "After last night, I know there's no way. And I know liking someone is worthless in a marriage decision too."

His grin widened.

"But I have to say it's nice to be liked. And whatever people say about me and a Crab is their business. We both have other picks regardless. Yet i'm not the one who keeps bringing that up."

Ishiyo smiled back, "True, but I am not the one making the courtiehs hearts go flutteh flutteh eitheh."

"...in truth both ouh marriages may fall back on what is politically expedient instead of what we might wish."