Amid a typical midday crowd in the lounge area of the hotel, Akihiko had commandeered two small tables and nudged them together. On one sat a handful of Fantasy Fight "decks," and on the other sat his new prize, an actual Fantasy Fight console. Feeling protective of both his things and his guest, the Lion waited seemingly patiently while watching the door.

Said guest bounded through the door, slowing down at the entry before coming in properly. She's dressed similarly casually to the other day, carrying a set of bentos as she looks around the room for Akihiko. Finally spotting him, she walks over with a smile and a bow. "Sorry for the wait, Akodo-sama." She set one box down in front of him as she looked over the spread of electronics. "Wow, this is cool."

Akihiko rose quickly to bow in reply. He smiled at Shizuku, motioned for her to sit as he shifted the console aside so they could eat first.

"Isn't it?" he said, showing a little more pride than is usual for this Lion. "I mean, I'm glad that I could share this with you." He smiles in the warm way she's used to seeing. "Things like this aren't worth having unless you can share them with a" -- panic flashes in Akihiko's eyes as he realizes the sensitivity of his next word choice. "With... you," he finishes very un-coolly. Smooth, Goldenboy, he hears from the back of his mind. Only later does it occur to him he was perhaps too quick to speak so informally.

She chuckles at that, smiling as she said her blessing, then picked up the bento and her chopsticks. She gestured a little with them. "I agree. And, um... I mean... We've spent at least a little bit of time together every day since we met, and..." How to put it without being totally weird? "... Well, things might change, but I think at this point I'd be happy to continue seeing you each day for as long as you wanted. So however you want to refer to me is fine." She couldn't help the light blush that crawled up her cheeks despite her attempted casual tone.

Akihiko simultaneously looks pleased and alarmed. He swallows hard to try to reset himself. "Ye--I--ah, yeah. I," he babbles, finally closing his eyes and laying a hand on the table. He breathes, calming himself. When he speaks, it's slow and controlled: "I really. Enjoy our time. Together." He pauses, then says quietly, "I don't like..." He chooses his eyes again, but continues. "I don't like. The idea. That someone... else... might..." Akihiko doesn't finish the thought, but forces his eyes open to try to make what he's saying clear. Quietly but quickly, he rushes out, "the other night I was jealous, and I made a stupid scene, and I apologize."

She listened and nodded, looking to the side a little. Her voice was soft, letting the crowd muffle her for anyone else's ears. "Um... Yes... To be honest... You don't have to worry. I can't blame you for what happened. A miai is so uncertain... You have to wonder when someone's getting along with someone, if there's a risk that maybe the other person likes them more. I sometimes worry that I take too much of your time, but I also don't want someone else to take your attention. So I think I'm a little jealous, too, because... I didn't come here expecting to connect with anyone, but you really turned my thoughts about all this around."

She turned even more red. "Sorry. I might've been a little too direct, or made this too serious."

The Lion nods in relief, then scans the room for eavesdroppers. Satisfied they're not drawing attention, Akihiko looks into Shizuku's eyes. "You are right, and I worry because, this is an uncertain place. Nothing is certain until the matches are set."

He hesitates, then continues: "I worry also, how you might weather a future in my clan. Should our conflict with the Mantis expand, I might find their allies, the Crane, on the battlefield against me." His eyes make clear how troubled he feels.

"Hai... it is. That's my concern, too," she admitted. At the discussion of the battlefield, she concentrated her gaze on one of the floor tiles to the side. "The same could happen if I were to marry within the alliance and things broke down. It's new and fairly tentative, after all." She looked back up to meet his eyes, expression serious. "I don't exactly match all the stereotypes of my family, but I am practical. I can handle it."

"Besides..." She shrugged, breaking into a small smile. "Asahina Fusako-sama said that we can make most matches work well. Far be it for me to contradict her in her area of expertise."

Shizuku's smile puts Akihiko at ease. "I'm not familiar with Asahina-sama, but if Daidoji-san respects her opinion it must be well-taken." He smiles, a little forced, but happy to move from such serious topics.

He bows his head, just a moment, over the food in front of him. "Thank you, Daidoji-san, for bringing lunch. We'll want to be strong and focused for our work today." He is smiling easily now, although he's not joking that they have work ahead of them.

She raised her chopsticks with a grin, flowing right back into a brighter demeanor. "Of course! An army marches on its stomach, as the saying goes," she replied.

After light conversation as they eat...

"So I usually play Fantasy Fight on my densai, but I thought that as a game designer, you'd appreciate getting the full console experience." He reaches for one of the "decks" and connects it to the console. "I thought we'd start at the beginning, with just a starter deck as we're talking about things." He stops for a moment. "Um, but so you can see, you should sit beside me." He eyes the distance between the seats that Akihiko had moved next to each other, raising now how close they'll be sitting. He takes a deep breath to steady himself. "Yeah."

"Oh, definitely," she agreed. She grabbed her densai and hopped up, heading over to the seat. She didn't hesitate to sit down and lean over a little to make sure she has a good view. "All right. So, how does this start?"

Akihiko looks pleasantly and uncomfortably surprised by the quick response, although he shouldn't be. With a hard swallow he forces his attention from the Crane to the machine.

"Right, so once you've selected your deck, you'll come to the main play screen -- looks almost identical on densai, just calls for zooming and scrolling..." As Akihiko explains the types of cards and the turn sequence, he's a little dry in delivery, but covers everything that Shizuku needs to know. And he manages to not be too distracted by how close she's sitting.

She listened attentively, often asking questions. She's not sure if he minds the constant need for social response, but it keeps her from losing herself in the middle of the explanation. That would've been even more rude.

"Okay... I've been playing with it a little on my own, but you really helped clarify things. The actual console helped, too. Honestly, the pan and zoom features are pretty useful - if I get into it more, I'll have to get one." She doesn't feel the need to move away at all just yet, eyes still studying the screen.

The Lion is probably more distracted by Shizuku's proximity at his elbow, happy that her questions show continued in interest.

"The starter decks are good for learning the game, even playing casually, but a constructed deck can really show son me of the depth of the game." He connects a different deck to the console, impressing her with some common card combos.

"Oooooh."

Her eyes sparkled at the introduction of the new cards and she looked over the game mechanics to see how they might synergize. "I think just looking at the combinations is getting me a pretty good idea of how the game works. Your explanation was also good, but this helps demonstrate what you were saying."

"For the tournament they're having, you could borrow one of these tournament decks. It can make the game more fun when your deck is focused on doing a particular thing, instead of a little bit of everything. I mean, if you want to play, after seeing all this," he half-jokes.

She bumped her shoulder lightly against his. "Of course I want to! Especially after seeing all this! You're a good teacher, Akodo-sama."

She raised her densai. "Want to play a practice game?"

He looks at the bumped shoulder for a moment, then smiles at her. "Of course," he says a little too intensely, but quietly enough that only Shizuku can hear.

After a moment, he leans forward to disconnect the deck from the console. "Do you want this one? Or uh, the middle one there is another tournament winner." Akihiko reaches across the table to pull his densai closer.

She nodded at the other one. "Sure, just give me a minute to look through the deck." She accepted the middle one he mentioned and plugged it into her own densai, looking through the deck intently.