Tokyo, Japan. Ueno Onshi Koen Park, Saturday Morning.

[dojima_hime]

Normally it would be a bit early in the season, but Hanami was almost in full-swing at Ueno Onshi Koen, and Yurika couldn't pass up the chance for a picnic. She'd even put on her favorite blue sakura-patterned yukata for the occasion.

"The night-viewing won't start for another few days," she said to her companions as she spread out the blanket. "But the cherry blossoms are already off to a good start, ne?"

[OOC: For the boy and the blonde ninja!]

Comments

[withoutverona]

"I'm not 20 yet, oh aged one," Romeo pointed out. "And I'm already rich." Not through his own doing, but still!

More thoughtfully, he added, "I don't see you with a poet, Ino. A fighter, perhaps."

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Happy birth~day to meeeeeeeeeee!" she sang, reaching for some chopsticks. "Even if it is a few days late."

"I'm not old, either. Just perfectly-aged!"

[intraspective]

"And you'll still be perfectly aged in a year, right?" she teased, tucking the blossom behind one ear and stretching to claim her own bento. Mmm food. "That seems a bit unfair to those of us trying to catch up--even if you are the birthday girl."

Ino was just going to... not answer the comment about her type from Romeo. That left her a bit jittery for some reason. A fighter, right?

[withoutverona]

"You'll catch up when you're both 29," Romeo said. "I expect to be older than she is, after that."

He reached up to pick a few flowers as he spoke, planning to give them to the girls.

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"I'm fine with being young, beautiful, and thirty forever," Yurika admitted without shame. "Just no older than that."

[intraspective]

"Thirty's too old," she said comfortably. "How about twenty-five? It has a nice sound to it."

[withoutverona]

"I wouldn't say no to staying 25, come to that," Romeo agreed as he took his eat with a pile of flowers at his side. "Yurika, do you think I'll look like my father when I'm older?"

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Your father is a very distinguished looking man for his age, koibito," she answered diplomatically. "But I wouldn't mind if you stayed looking like yourself."

[intraspective]

"What kind of a question was that to ask anyway?" she said lightly. "It's you she loves, not your father!"

[withoutverona]

"A silly one," Romeo conceded. "I'd worry if she did love my father."

He flicked a flower at Ino's nose.

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"I like your father just fine. What scares me is that so does Father Juliano," Yurika replied as she made a face. "I don't like it when a priest gets involved. I usually end up listening to lectures on propriety from my father."

[intraspective]

"Hey!" Ino protested as the flower bopped her and she rescued it before it could hit the blanket. "Flowers deserve your respect! Especially delicate ones!"

She wasn't talking about the cherry blossom, no.

"Does that happen often?" Ino asked curiously. "You getting lectures 'bout that?"

[withoutverona]

Romeo laughed, leaving Yurika to answer the question.

To Ino, he said. "I apologize. Are you a delicate flower now?"

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"More than he'd like to give them, and more often than I like to hear them," she laughed. "If you listen to my father, I am a most scandalous and unworthy daughter, and is opinion of Romeo is only somewhat higher."

"I fear this lily doesn't get much respect."

[intraspective]

"A very delicate flower," she said, with a nose wrinkle that was a bit more serious than her words.

Ugh.

"I don't think dad's are supposed to like the boys their daughters bring home. Something in their contract, I think? But I promise I'll respect you."

Laughing now, though. So much for respect.

[withoutverona]

"Two years," Romeo observed, "and he's finally stopped calling me gaijin instead of my name. I think that's as much acceptance as I'll ask of him."

Romeo found Yurika's father vaguely terrifying. "I respect you too, Ino."

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"We are all very respectful people. When we feel like it," she decided, picking up another flower to place it behind Romeo's ear. "Which is how it should be, for a sakura festival."

[intraspective]

Ino laughed softly.

"A friend back home is named Sakura," she volunteered. "Her hair is the same colour as the blossoms. I don't need your respect, but I do appreciate it."

And maybe she did need it, but that was a story told only in her smile.

[withoutverona]

"Pink hair?" Romeo asked, returning the smile. "Is that common in your world?"

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Strange hair color is common anywhere with overtones of Japan," Dojima laughed. "That's what I think. Have you seen the harajuku girls?"

[intraspective]

"Green and blue are more common," she admitted. "But pink isn't particularly rare either. Purple too."

... Pretty much, if you opened a box of crayons, you'd find a hair colour she recognized from Konoha.

"What are the harajuku girls?"

[withoutverona]

"Blue?" Romeo wrinkled his nose. "Harajuku girls -- we have to go see them. They wear the most fantastic, outrageous clothes you can imagine."

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"They look like a fashion disaster exploded," Dojima said bluntly. "It alternates between hilarious and eye-searingly horrible, with occasional flashes of couture brilliance."

[intraspective]

"I want to see!" she decided, laughing. "Because that sounds amazingly ridiculous. And yes, blue hair. Hinata's got blue hair!"

Very very dark blue hair, though. He could hardly be blamed for not remembering that when it masqueraded so easily as black.

[withoutverona]

"... I thought it was black," Romeo admitted, as if he read narrative. "But, yes. We should go after lunch."