Come Up Smiling [Ira, Kasha]

Well, it was that time of the month, eh? Ira would freely admit at this point that he looked forward to these little meetings, but he'd be less inclined to admit exactly why it was. He didn't even keep it a secret or anything, he'd definitely already talked to Yugiri and Ehefra about it. He still just felt a little weird about being into Kasha like that, but he was pretty tired of just stepping around the issue, too.

So, this time, as he made his way into the Koizumi estate and toward their usual meeting place, Ira resolved that he wasn't leaving today without at least trying to make some moves. How hard could it be, really? He knew plenty about all this romance stuff. Not that he'd ever applied it to a guy before, but hey, how much harder could it be? A lot, actually, or he'd probably have brought it up already.

"Heyo, Kasha. I keep ya waiting too long?"

On the bright side, regardless of how out of sorts he was internally, Ira definitely wasn't the type of guy to let that show.

Well this had become something of a monthly ritual hadn't it? Not that he was upset by it, it was nice having such a peculiar friend which he meant in the most complimentary of ways. All others were in some way a Soul Society noble or family yet Ira was such an outlier that it made the whole thing refreshing and unique.

"Not at all, Ira. You do fret about that quite a bit though, I wonder if I ought to show up later and surprise you sometime."

Even though he was aware of the fact it might make Ira a bit self concious to point it out he was just trying to engage in a bit of friendly banter but he was a lot worse at it than Kyo. That man had quite a bit of tact that he was lacking in this department.

"How have you been?"

"Damn, you'd do that to little ol' me? That's cruel, I'd never've thought you were capable."

Even if Kasha's banter was a bit lacking, Ira wasn't the sort of guy to give him shit on it. Honestly, he'd gotten better at it even over the past couple of months. He'd dealt with plenty more awkward than this, and it was far easier to simply play off him.

"Been good, not really busy or anything. Mostly training and traveling, same as always. Working a little more on my cooking in my free time."

Ira had always been at least a competent cook, but given he was usually the one making dinner for him and Yugiri, he'd started putting a little more effort into it, not to mention learning desserts. It was a fun enough little hobby.

"Anything exciting happen up here with you?"

"I'm afraid not. Things are quite simple up here, division duties and all the like."

Kasha explained with a shrug. There wasn't anything particularly interesting about those duties either to him. At the same time he was hesitant to ever share them, the sensitive nature of the fifth division made him prefer to not make a habit of sharing much about what he did in it.

"Cooking is quite the pleasant pursuit though. I can't say I have much experience with it myself but there is an artistic quality and a discipline that requires care and patience to it."

"Yeah? Oughta cook together some time, I'll show ya the ropes."

Ira hadn't actually thought about what he was saying until he'd already said it, at which point his cheeks flushed just a tad. That only made him a little annoyed with himself, considering that was an entirely innocuous thing to say. He was the one thinking further into his own sentence. These hormones were killers, he wanted this whole part of his life to be over already. Oh well, just play it cool like he always did. One of his best traits, if he said so himself.

"Specially if you don't have much else going on. Gotta be boring sitting around here and having all your meals made for you, yeah?"

Frankly, he didn't quite grasp such upscale living as he saw around the Koizumi estate. Sure, it was nice getting all luxurious now and again, but a man of the sea like him couldn't imagine life without a whole lot of work to make the pleasantries seem that much nicer.

"I don't really think about it much though cooking with you would be delightful."

He said with a smile, it wouldn't be that bad in his head to learn how to cook with Ira. Like anything it was a skill to take pride in and expand one's repetoire. Something that would surely have value in the future for him whether in his duties or personal life.

Did he hear that right? Yeah he definitely heard that right, but Ira hadn't exactly expected an assessment like 'delightful.' God, and with that smile? He'd meant to, you know, wait until this whole thing was over, ask at the end, but he wasn't actually so sure he could wait that long anymore. Man alive, this was heavy.

"Well, great, that's good to hear. I, uh..."

Scratching the back of his head awkwardly, Ira avoided Kasha's gaze for a bit, not exactly willing to meet that charming smile head-on. Of course, he had to eventually, and he braced himself as he turned with a smile himself.

"Listen, you want to get dinner some time? Er, not like we've gotten lunch before. Like, a date."

Just throw it out there before he had time to second guess it, that was the best approach.

What a troublesome question was the immediate thing that came to mind before he had to think past it, his face remained unchanged while he kept smiling. How did he say no... Well, not no but let me think about it. Such a question left him a lot to think about and it seemed like Ira would be hurt if he said anything other than yes. Sure, he could maybe do the Koizumi thing in this situation and talk in a complicated and multi-faceted way where the meanings were unclear but that was just disrespectful to Ira.

"Hmm. I'm not one to go into things haphazardly and on an impulse. After all, I'm think I'd be quite awful with romance."

Kasha's head tilted and he closed his eyes for a moment to ponder the scenario. It was additionally frustrating because he felt it would be insincere to do anything like this, how much did he conceal or hide from others? Far too much to ever feel like something like this could work.

Thankfully, Ira wasn't the young lady that his face suggested, and even if Kasha might have expected him to be hurt by an answer other than yes, he'd certainly been turned down in far more meanspirited ways than that. Honestly, he didn't even really take it as turning him down, per se.

"Yeah, I can believe that. Well, don't think of it like it's committing to something serious right from the jump. If you're bad about romance, that'll come up on a date, yeah? And if it goes bad, we just don't do it again. Nothin' to it."

He wasn't really trying to convince Kasha or anything, he wasn't desperate. It just didn't really seem like Kasha actually knew how to answer, so he figured he ought to make his own position a little more clear.

Ah there was a good bit of wisdom to that, despite the fact that Kasha imagined that Ira's status would sit ill with the noblepeople which had surrounded him in his upbringing there was truly something pleasant about this experience which could only be acquired through a free and different lifestyle.

"Hmm, you do make quite a good argument. Anyone would struggle to come up with a retort unless they were already opposed from the beginning."

He gave a chuckle while doing a small shrug. Kasha's eyes went back to Ira and nodded.

"I suppose I would be willing to go on a date sometime, not immediately however."

Despite that though he did leave out the detail that he would not have it in public. The last thing he wanted was for Ira or his images to be sullied by the perceptions of others. Other people had a way of injecting their own opinions where it wasn't needed.