| [Aug. 16th, 2010|01:19 am] |
"Any girl foolish enough to set her heart on me probably deserves to have it broken," Ginta said with a dismissive hand wave. "I think the only hearts I've really broken are my mother's and grandmother's." He watched the fish instead of his companion, but he could feel a sympathetic flinch telegraphed through the wooden railing of the bridge.
"But yeah," he went on after a moment, "the tea meetings are brutal for everyone except the matchmakers. Those old biddies could probably get jobs in Shida's basement. The girl has to sit there in seiza, too, and none of the girls they propose for me are ninja. You and I, we can sit seiza for a long time — well you probably can. I can when my leg heals. Shit, I bet it's gonna hurt like a bitch when I try the first time — but anyway the girls have to sit there all dressed up like doll festival toys, keeping perfect posture. I can practically hear their knees weeping, and all for what? A chance to marry the gay son of a rich family who's probably gonna get his ass killed serving his village? I mean, yeah, Grandmother wants me to produce an heir, but there are ways to do that that don't require..." He shrugged. "I think that's why my stepdad hates me, actually. If he and my mom had a kid, everything would be way easier."
Under the water's surface a bright yellow koi, larger than the rest, surfaced for a moment, then slid under, ceding its place to an even larger blue fish with a bright red splotch on its nose. Ginta tossed a handful of pellets towards them. "That's Tanuki Fish. He's one of the ones I bred. The yellow one is Grandfather's." He finally turned to look at Hiro again, bringing up yet another topic before Hiro could pursue the stepfather angle.
"How can you be nothing? Everyone's something. I mean, just because you aren't actually getting any can't mean you don't have dreams or whatever, right? You've got some beard..." He eyed Hiro's jaw critically. "Okay, not much, but some. So you're past puberty. Don't tell me Hyuuga are so refined they don't have wet dreams." |
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