NIce To Meetcha! [Asami, Nao]

"Eh?"

Proper business. Ah fooey. Who cared about business? She hang out with people all the time and it went just fine, though you could hardly say that Nao followed the traditions of a noblewoman. If anything she behaved more like a boy from the Rukongai but she was a down-to-earth kind of girl.

"Well, if ya insist. I'll put in a good word anyway. My parents will love your spirit. So whatcha like to do in your spare time? Ever tried kintsugi? They don't call me the guilded hands for nothing."

Just how many different titles did Nao have and how many of them were coined by others and not herself? That was the real mystery of her various titles but up to Asami to figure it out.

Asami mulled upon the words she had just spoken for a long moment. Words she had spoken absentmindedly, and not for the first time, and yet she had missed their importance. There was a question that she hadn't asked herself before and yet it jumped to the forefront of her mind.

Nao spoke some words, but she didn't hear them. There wasn't really much that she could hear as that single thought bounced around her head like a pinball going for a high score. It was so obvious, and yet she hadn't even considered it. He hadn't considered it either, but she knew why he had not done so. And that was not the same reason as her.

A hand waved dismissively in Nao's direction as Asami suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. The fascinator shrunk as it too seemed to come to the same revelation as she had, the ends folding in on themselves as it curled up.

"I think so too. Uh. Sorry. I think I left something in Kyo's quarters."

There was a sudden flatness to her voice, it had sprung from nowhere and would return to it in time. Still, she afforded Nao another smile before she turned to hurriedly depart.