"Let's sit back down", he said after rising and escorted her off the dance floor.

well shit

"Are you feeling alright?" He asked. Maybe an excuse was needed, he offered it anyway.

"Mm," was Ichika's reply. Walking she found herself looking ahead at the ground, feet that were in front of her. Off the dance floor he asked, and she looked up, but she couldn't meet his eyes. "I.. I'm alright, Daigotsu-sama," she said, sheepishly.

Clearly, she's fine. I only shooed away one dog, then acted like one myself. I wonder if she's been dealing with assholes like me all day.

He got her settled back to her chair, trying not to make too much fuss. With a look at the bar he made a very sharp gesture to the staff, drawing them over to bring some water.

"If you're sure, but even at night it's hot out and I've had you dancing without thinking you might have been a little tired already."

He sat down across from her and water was placed down in a glass for each of them by a bartender.

Sitting Ichika collected up her purse, holding it in her lap as she sat. Looking toward Shokomaru, but unable to meet his eyes, her own cast down.

"You are kind to be concerned for me, Daigotsu-sama," she replied, sheepishly. Glancing up to the glass but hesitating for the moment.

"Well...", he stopped, not wanting to say something, but saying it anyway. "All I can really do is guess, but I think I might not be your first encounter of a gentleman trying to garner your affections", he said, scratching the back of his neck. "Well, not even the second..."

he cleared his throat, he'd seen the most recent before he showed up.

"So, well...considering others isn't something my clan is particularly good at."

Kinda trying here, though.

He looked away thinking that as he drank his water.

Looking up Ichika regarded him for a moment, "I-" she didn't really seem to see him so much, as try to look at him. "I'm sorry, Daigotsu-sama.. I didn't mean to make you feel this way. That you even consider me someone worth.." she looked down, away from the table, feeling the word catch in her throat.

"I'm.. honored, Daigotsu-sama," she fiddled with her index finger as it lay in her lap.

Well he'd gone from doing too much to saying too much.

Straightening out his cuffs a little and loosening his tie some. He smiled at her and thought of what would make a difference in that moment. They were there, he'd done whatever he wanted and stepped all over her, she'd said she was honored. It seemed about right given the distance in their rank, he supposed.

Well obviously he hated that, but he couldn't just level with her, that would only make it more awkward.

"Well, then, now you know", he said after another drink of water.

He cleared his throat.

"You danced well." Though what he meant was It felt nice to dance with you, and that I won't apologize for. Though he wasn't sure if it was just her agreeable manner or something more.

"Mm," she vocalized, nodding her head on the point. Seeing him grab his glass she thought to do so as well. Taking a bit more than a simple sip, a proper drink. "Thank you, Daigotsu-sama," she dipped her head at that, looking down at her glass and then setting it down.

"You speak well of me despite-" she caught herself looking up but, on that note, looked down at the glass again. Inhaling a little, exhaling slowly between her lips. Ichika looked up, offered a sheepish smile, "You dance well too. I.. hadn't expected you to be as decent as you showed you were after you spoke on it before, Daigotsu-sama," she tried another, still the smile was sheepish.

Is she screwing with me? Naw...maybe she...well.

He hadn't exactly let her see how he danced. If she could take a step back and watch, her opinion would have been a great deal lower, he was sure of that.

He had no idea of what he was really doing, he just had a lot of confidence he didn't deserve.

"It's good to be appreciated", he allowed. Then, placing his glass down he looked at it a moment, watching condensation run down to the table. He felt like it was the back of his neck.

"Well, I'm sorry, being a bit rude...say, ah...", he stopped. There were things he wanted to ask, but the small talk seemed to slip away. "You know, I tried asking someone this before, and it's a bit...well, I understand why they didn't answer, but I feel like it's a good question for a miai, because well...", he looked sideways. "Well, we're trying to find someone to marry, and if you only ask about nice, happy things, I think you'll just end up being misled about who you're dealing with so...ano...Doji-san, is there anything you hate?"

"A-anything I hate Daigotsu-sama.." she looked down, furrowing her brow as she watched his glass. Bringing the glass up she took another drink, letting the glass rest in her hand and looking toward her own instead. Already the glass was half empty. Setting it down she let her hand rest on the table for a second before looking back to Shokomaru.

"I.. concepts," she answers, a sharply spoken word, but it wasn't aggressive. Merely, the word came out just as the thought formed, "I mean like.. there are things I hate, Daigotsu-sama, I am only human, but they are not things or people or places. I never really feel hate, I don't like being angry- but.." she shook her head. For a moment her hand twitches, stopping short from moving it.

"Just, concepts." Looking up to him she focuses a little, then narrows her gaze downward to the glass resting by her hand. "I hate the idea that someone might miss the potential of happiness because they don't think to look for it. I hate that people suffer." she looked down. "I hate sadness.. and- and cruelty," she left that note hanging, inhaling deeply through her nose and letting the breath slide out between her lips.

He smiled at that. That was some real honesty. He gave her a slight bow to indicated his appreciation.

"For myself, this will sound odd, but I really hate war."

Ichika looked up to him, seemed to pause and then raised a brow, "I'm not sure if that should be a surprise or.. expected.." she chuckled sheepishly, glancing down a little.

"Maybe you don't know many bushi", he shrugged. "People trained to fight are usually looking for one."

He effected a proper prebattle speech voice. "Battle is honor in victory, glory in death. There is no defeat!"

He slumped a little and drank the last of his water. "I can politely agree and rationalize that kind of talk if I need to, but don't ask me to believe it."

"No.." she shook her head, "I mean, you are right.. I don't really know too many Bushi. What I meant though.. you're a commander, right? Sending yourself into battle to risk it for glory.. it's easy to be able to look for it, appreciate it. You send others in though, so," she fiddled with her index finger.

He chuckled. "I'm not daishogun Shokomaru, Doji-san. Chuui have what the military calls compulsory courage. Even if I didn't want to be with my troops under fire, I'm required to. And i don't look for glory. The 5th company is worth more than that when I have a say, but even as the CO orders for objectives come from above me."

"Lesser degree's than how I made it sound.." she said, smiling sheepishly. "Well.. if that's not it, Daigotsu-sama. Why is the reason you hate war?" she asked, looking and raising a brow.

He wanted to blurt out a lot of things, but he didn't want to say it so carelessly that she'd be offended or just get up and walk away.

He tapped the table a few times and though he had it figured well enough.

"When I was in the army officer corps, I learned a lot of things. Most of it was procedures, some of it was tactics, I met a few people that I could get along with enough that we didn't want to kill each other." he shrugged. "Spider school."

"Anyway, there was this guy, much further up the ladder, he was going to take a big command on graduation essentially. Protected by the older officers who wanted to see him succeed so no one could push him out. That's normal nepotism i guess. I'm guilty as well, for all my complaining. Though even more normal is that these people never learn anything or have perspective." He looked at his empty glass and scowled.

"See, I grew up without much worry but I recognized the disconnect I had from most people even in my own clan almost immediately after taking my station. This guy, he's a psychopath. I like to think I've made the adjustment, to balancing the pride of my troops with my own wish to protect them, but this guy...he'll grind every last soldier in his command into pulp to take a meter of ground because of his pride. Because he deserves respect due to his station."

He folded his arms.

"Samurai serve, we'll die with every last ounce of our strength to make it fucking spectacular, but that service used to assume that their lord was also putting it all on the line. And somewhere along the way...that seems to be the case less and less. Privilege is coming with a lack of responsibility as time goes on, and it makes war vanity. Which is disgusting."

Makes war vanity, Ichika held that thought for a moment. Let it sit with her and melt in. "Yea.." she said in her bit of agreement. Looking down to the glass of water she had. Watching it for a moment before she slowly took it up in her hand and finished off what was left. Setting it back aside she looked at it, empty as it was, for a moment before looking back to Shokomaru, but she didn't seem she knew anything else to say.

Yeah, way to go with the honesty there. This is why small talk gets you laid and having a real chat makes you friends or uncomfortable acquaintances.

Well, it was a way of speaking, as much as he seemed to have an interest in Ichika, the last thing he was going to do was try to suddenly chat her up out of nowhere.

"Well, I rambled on", he said by way of poorly smoothing it over. He wasn't going to apologize for any of that though. "So I guess we both hate concepts." he smiled. "Do you want another drink? I wouldn't mind, I feel like I could talk to you for a while longer."

it was getting late, but he wasn't her babysitter.

Putting a hand back on her purse she thought, then dipped her head, "I.. if it's alright with you, Daigotsu-sama.. I think the day is catching up with me. Starting to find everything feeling a bit sluggish," she said with a half-chuckle, sheepish.

"Maybe.. we can continue this discussion another time?" she asked, looking up to him.