"Well, Hopefully I'll land on something to break my fall." He offered with a chuckle, before bringing a cigarette to his lips and lighting in.

Tilting his head back he closed his eyes and took a long slow drag from the cigarette, holding it in for a moment before exhaling slowly, that was just what he needed. Opening his eyes he turned them on the Ikoma, his lips curled into a half smile as he spoke. "Unfortunetly I love kittens, though if you recall I'm allergic. As for playing loud music at night? Not really. I probably drink way too much coffee though."

“....I hate you have so many positive traits and even your negative ones aren’t terrible.”
One of her hands brushes his underneath the beige cloth

“Please work on developing more personal faults, I’ll do the same on my end.”

He didn't flee from her touch, instead shifting so he could hold her hand under the blanket. "Perhaps I can try my hand at developing an obnxious laugh?"

His lips curled into a teasing smile. "Or take to constantly blowing cigarette smoke in people's faces. Completely by accident ming you."

She gives the hand a slight squeeze

“Now... that. That is good. Of course, that just means you’re also good at brainstorming being bad. Which is also good. True bad habits have to come from the soup, it seems.”

"Ah, I will endeavor to let them develop naturally then." He returned the squeeze of her hand.

"Though i might not be too good at that. Which is a good thing?"

"Sadly, yes."

Shoan looks over at him before turning her gaze back over to the sky
"There...are not a lot of suitable partners at the miai, it is more challenging than I expected."

"I would have to agree." He returned softly, looking like he was about to say more. In the end he didn't though. "But a samurai us supposed to overcome these obstacles though."

Drily "You'll have to let me know when you do, I could use some advice on how to do that.....oh fortunes, I might end up marrying a Hare."

"Ujina Jin?" Hayato asked his interest piqued a bit. "I will let you know though, i would like to count you as a friend, if that's not asking too much."

“Hai, Ujina-sama... even with his unruly hair.”
A true crime

“Hmm?”
She turns back to look at Hayato
“Friends? Of course, who else will bring me Otori?”
Her hand rubs the back of his knuckles for a moment
“I was considering investigating you as a marriage prospect, that at least qualifies as you as friend.”

"He does have a great mop of hair on him." There was a momentary pause. "Oddly enough I have something of a date with him tomorrow. Though I could cancel, as to give you a bit better chance."

He smiled at the warmth of her touch. "So I am a professional Otori fetcher now? I suppose that works. Still I'm happy to hear." He still expected to get thrown at some point though.

“Oh no, it’s your date Tsuruchi-san. It would hardly be fair for me to Snatch it from you. Besides, I can just flash the line of my neck at him.”

She mimics a vigorous neck stretch.

“You’re a skilled Otori fetcher. It’s probably quite an esteemed position on Asakaze, lots of honour in being a hunter of fried chicken.”

"You'll woo him in no time with a move like that." Hayato offered somehow managing to keep a straight face. "I've no chance at all of competing." He finished with a sigh.

"I'll keel that in find if I find myself wooing one of the local women. I suppose the will think it's especially impressive."

“It is good of you to take your defeat with such good grace. I will make sure to let any local women know you understand chicken and necks to an excellent degree. If I am impressed they will be ecstatic.”

"I could never ask you to go through that much trouble for me." Hayato replied with a chuckle.

Separating his hand from hers under the blanket he rose to his feet. "Shouldn't we get to our dinosaur hunting though?"

“We should, before the evening grows too long. If we linger other samurai might strike up similar but inferior picnic setups.”

She stands as well and starts cleaning up for the two of them. Any attempt by Hayato to interfere will be met by a gentle but firm hip check. He’d brought the food after all.

It only took one hip check for him to relent and leave the cleaning to the Lion. "That would be quite dastardly of them. Trying to copy our superior camping setup with a mere picnic piece."

“They would be shamed by the effort, and we cannot have that.”
With a satisfied look she finishes bundling all the trash up and begins rolling the tarp and cloth

“Then they’d go on to be meeting by dinosaurs having failed to achieve true campaign.”

"It would be terrible of us to allow such a thing." Hayato agreed, placing the rolled up cloth beside the cooler, they could collect it when they wanted to leave.

"If they could even achieve the meeting with such failure on their mind, they'd likely wish to go to the bar instead and try and drown their sorrows away."

Faux gasp
“But Tsuruchi-san, what if they don’t drink? I know from experience how hard it is to drown one’s sorrows in sofa water.”

The lion gestures towards the garden with a ‘lead the way’ gesture.