Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was the first really clear day in almost a week, and the air was sharp and cold, with a few dead leaves still clinging to branches here and there. But the thick hedge of the rose maze was evergreen, though a touch bedraggled by the weather, and it was there that Kyouya Ootori retired for lunch at a calm yet purposeful pace.

He settled in at the gazebo and opened his bento box to begin eating as he waited.

Shiny was not entirely wrong in her assessment of his motivations; Kyouya had sought it out for a private conversation ...

"Mm." Kyouya was halfway through a bite of shrimp when she'd arrived, and it was perhaps habit that made the midday sun glitter across his glasses. He leaned on the hand that wasn't holding the chopsticks, surveying her with quiet amusement. "Yes, actually. Fortunately, she's arrived."

"Perhaps so, but you rarely do," Kyouya pointed out, going back to his lunch. "Usually only if it's raining, or if the dining hall is under attack by rambunctious first-years." He mentioned no names, simply took another bite of his rice, considering how to phrase the answer to her second question.

He settled for being direct. "I felt that I'd prefer to thank you in person for my birthday gift, in the style in which it was presented. Thank you. I've been enjoying it."

Chili and mashed potatoes .... well ... not something he'd expect to see together, but he supposed it made an odd sort of sense, and they were certainly warming on a raw day like today. He'd settled for curry shrimp, which was perhaps more of a habit than anything else.

"I appreciate that, actually." There was a quiet twist of his lips -- perhaps mild disdain. "I dislike others flaunting their wealth on my behalf, regardless of whether it was meant to impress either me or my guests."

The question about the language earned her his full attention. "The writing style is different than I'm accustomed to, and I'm having to use a dictionary, but it's understandable, with patience. I'd have much more trouble if Tamaki hadn't insisted I learn the rudiments of French already, through constant exposure if nothing else. It's a pleasant challenge, when I can apply myself to it."

"Mm. I will ask you, then, should I come across any. I haven't yet found one I couldn't puzzle out through later context, but it's certainly a possibility."

There was a soft pause as he continued to pick at his lunch. "I have to admit, I found the bookmark you left me intriguing as well." He slid his hand into the pocket of his overcoat, and brought out the flyer. He spread it open with one hand, still eating with the other.

"You thought correctly. I haven't been to see it yet, although I suppose there's a fifty-fifty chance it's a collection of piled trash. Modern sculpture can be very hit-and-miss." Still, there was the implication that he was curious enough to at least spend a bit of his valuable time there. "Have you already been, then?" he asked, not quite looking at her -- her words seemed to imply that she might have been.

Kyouya might, perhaps, have looked a touch amused at her use of one of his preferred words. "Well, I was thinking of going tomorrow," he said, toying with a bit of pickled vegetable. There was a hint of soft, yet calculated speculation under his next question. "Perhaps you'd care to come along, to see if the works you missed previously are of equal caliber?"

Kyouya considered this question for a moment, then reached for his phone to double-check his schedule, out of habit. "I suppose that depends. Tomorrow is one of those rare occasions I have mostly free." If she looked, she could see the checkered pattern of appointments and scheduled events that filled his calendar, but there was a distinct emptiness on Monday.

"If you'd like, we could just take one car, and leave directly from here." His delivery was purely practical; parking in Tokyo could be a nightmare, even for the ridiculously wealthy. "Of course, if you have other plans that would require your own driver afterwards, I could meet you there."