The tumble off of the Otori had roughed him up more than he had expected. Dust had caked into his hair, and he would have to get his field uniform cleaned.

So while waiting for that, it seemed the perfect time to check put the bathhouse. After the pre-bathing wash and scrub, Ryuu easily chose the hot bathing pool. A towel rolled and user behind his neck as a pillow,nrelaxing against the edge of the pool, soaking away the concerns of performance for the miai.

He had plenty of time still.

Ichika, after the efforts down with the Otori, bid farewell to her bird for the time and came here, to the bathhouse. Seeking comfort she made a whole affair of the first half of the process, making use of a nice smelling herbal soap and leaning into the massage showers for a while. Really releasing any of the built up tension prior to entering the baths. Once she was patted down, a towel around her chest, she made her way into the baths. Seeing some occupied she went toward the center one, but upon getting closer saw it was in fact Ryuu in the heated first.

With a small smile she crept over to that pool, and seeing he was relaxing, lowered herself in carefully first. Getting beneath the water as she called out from across, softly, "Daigotsu-san," she waited till he looked to her and then waved.

His eyes slowly opened at hearing her voice. "Doji-san. Did you enjoy your ride with the Otori?" His voice was quite relaxed, as his head leaned forward, looking to her. He smiled easily, though looked odd, coupled with the aura of dread that accompanied him. Ryuu sat up a little taller, moving to fully engage in conversation.

"Mmm," she replied non-verbally. "All of the Samurai really seemed to be enjoying themselves, trying to show off. I just tried to do my best really," she chuckled awkwardly. "I got to tame mine but I don't think too many of those watching thought it was all that interesting. Better than falling though I guess," she laughed, still a little awkward.

"They really are majestic creatures, aren't they?" she said with a soft smile, glancing down at the waters surface. Letting a pleasant sigh slip as she got comfortable in her space.

"They are. I appreciate their strong will. The control they have over themselves, requiring a partnership with the rider." He shrugged regarding showing off and being thrown off of the bird. "It is a miai. We are not just trying to showcase our own skills. There are potentials to impress. Our Clans and, in a way, each other, are trying to make deals."

He looked to her. "It requires risk. I gladly take those risks, if I am to be considered a good and proper potential. I am already not exactly prime material. I am not gentrified. I have no holdings. All I have is my duty, and my vow to be loyal and dutiful to whomever I choose, or more than likely, chooses me."

Ichika craned her neck, looking at Ryuu for a moment when he finished speaking. Glancing around the pool she slipped and scooted her way over half the way toward Ryuu from where she originally sat. This time much closer, but still at something of a proper distance. Leaning in a little so she could speak softly, "It's alright, Daigotsu-san," she said with a soft smile.

"What you have is more than enough, yea? Whether you choose, or are chosen, you'll make a good Samurai and spouse yet. Yea?" she added, another smile.

He didn't seem bothered by her approach. Ryuu was grateful for her lower torn. "Good enough only gets one so far. I would not want my partner to believe they only settled for good enough." He looked to her eye.

"Or worse. To resent me if they ended up joining the Spider."

"Why are you so hard on yourself, Daigotsu-san?" she asked, her head leaning right and back a little so that she was more looking up at him. "You sound like someone who is determined to be a good spouse. A good husband," she said with a light smile. "That's.. more than they might expect anywhere else in all of Imperial Space. Regardless of where you start your duty is just to do the best with what you have, yea? Serve as well as you can."

"Because I am Spider. If I marry out, I will always be looked at with disdain and distrust. If someone marries in, they will be exposed to a harsh and cruel life." His gaze was intense, as if boring into her soul.

"In the first, I will have to exceed every expectation every day of my life. In the latter, I will have to provide a good life for my spouse, to help them adapt and overcome. To falter in either task is a failure. There is no failure in this Clan."

He tilted his head. "I will not fail. I have the strength and the conviction and the drive."

For a moment Ichika looked to Ryuu, her brow furrowed and she seemed to look at him but not at him. As she was thinking more than simply being present. Like a little spark, her eyes lit again and she looked to him directly, "Daigotsu-san, does.. does that promise of our room extend to here? To now?" she asked, her voice soft.

"It does. We are roommates, our clans are allies. I feel confident to say that we are friends." He nodded.

"From what I've learned.." she said, scooting back up properly into her seat. "I.. when I spoke with one of your clan-mates the other day, he said something that I haven't really been able to forget. Now that you speak of this.. hard life that a spouse who marries you would have to lead, I.. I wonder what it really is like to live as a Spider," she glances aside, putting her hands just over her lap under the water. Fiddling with her index finger underneath the water.

"How.. when Kuchiki Tsugiharu-san spoke of it, he spoke of being hit as if it were a.." she thought on it, remembered the moment, "alike a light-hearted joke. Something about how it was 'caring'.." she looked to Ryuu, but then glanced down. "I don't really know.. or.. I don't really think he was joking anymore."

He didn't say anything for a moment. "We live on hell blasted worlds. My home on Shiragiku. It is plagued with fiends from the Realm of Gaki-Do. Our priests deal with them handedly, but bad things happen sometimes." He spoke quietly, taking in a deep breath after.

"Other places are barely habitable. Tidal locked or artificial stations. We have to be hard people to live in hard places. I sometimes think how my mother adjusted when she married in."

The Spider Magistrate in training looked up to the ceiling, a faraway cast of his vibrant, disturbing icy blues.

"It is rewarding. But it is not easy."

Ichika opened her mouth to reply, but then didn't. Settling into her seat she merely looked to the waters surface for a spell. Leaning a little back she listened to the sounds in the distance, other people doing other things. How the water moved and washed into the pools. Warmth on her skin being.. normal, in the here and now. All of it collected and then faded, for just a few.

He paused, watching her trepidation. His lips pursed into a hard line, and then a sigh. "I am honest with you because there is a good chance in all of this, a Spider chooses you. Or you choose a Spider. I would not wish a friend to be surprised, Doji-san."

He looked to her. "And why it is important that I strive to be a good husband. I look to my parents. My mother was a Doji. She married in. My parents... they worked to work together. To build something. She is jappy. He is happy. They are happy, and they compliment each other very well. I want to be able to provide that."

Looking up, she looked to him with concern, but not for herself, "You will do well, Daigotsu-san," she said with a little smile. "I.. I do not think I will be the one choosing, in the end. If I'm even able to.." she shook her head, that wasn't what she wanted to say.

"I would like to follow your mothers example, Daigotsu-san," she said, that small smile. "If I leave here with a Spider as my husband.. well, I would be happy to make something of the life like she has," she said this, regarding Ryuu.

He nodded. "It did take time, for my father and mother to earn the blessings they have. From what I have been told, they still work to be worthy of them every day. You truly deserve a partner who would converse and work with you, Doji-san."

He paused, looking to her features for a long moment. Taking in her eye, the slender length of her neck.

"I... appreciate your faith and confidence in me." His voice lowered to a whisper.

Clearing his throat, he sat straighter. "Would you mind if I asked you about your family? How are your parents?"

"I-" she paused a moment, glanced away. "No," she shook her head. "I would not mind, Daigotsu-san. Only fair that you spoke about yours, yea?" she looked back, tilted her head back and to the right a little to look up at him.

"They are.. well, serve as they must. My mother runs the house and my father is a diplomat with great experience. Our home wasn't- well, we weren't well off as many of the other Crane families are. Yet, we had our luxuries and my family expended much of what we had on raising me well."

He nodded as he listened, attention focused entirely on her. "Any siblings? I have two. My younger sister, who is fourteen winters, Ayame, and our younger brother, five, Sanjiro." He smiled at the mention of his siblings.

"My father is a Clan Magistrate. My mother runs logistics for one of the farming conglomerates. My sister is studying to be a diplomat and ambassador. My brother watches cartoons."

"That's wonderful Daigotsu-san," she said with a bright smile. Nodding, glancing off passed him, "My mother and father invested heavily in only me because they never had another. So.. I gotta be sure that my match here makes them proud," she says, a half-awkward chuckle.