#yotou

   >> coffee

It’s a solid minute before the younger male realizes he just texted his sibling without any context, and another to calm his abrupt panic and compose an explanation.

   >> Sorry! I guess I’m more tired than I thought...    >> Yesterday you said you’d have a bit of free time today, this afternoon, right?    >> And that you may be able to help me with my stats project    >> But if you’re busy, that’s fine    >> I could get us both coffee though    >> which is why I said coffee before    >> But again, I don’t want to bother you so don’t worry about it

COTES WARD SEEMS A PLACE OF RELATIVE peace and quiet, though the ever-present city skyline does admittedly detract from the charm of it all. Still, Leo has come to visit not for sightseeing but instead a place to clear his head and think. There’s far too much that’s been pressing on his mind since he arrived, and the worries and weights seem only to pile up as time goes on. The usual method -- in which he surrounds himself by books and holes up with them in a darkened study -- hasn’t done much for his processing ability, and so here he is, surrounded by sakura.

It’s beautiful, in a surreal sort of way. He’s not yet seen Hoshido with his own eyes, only read of its splendor in books, and even peacetime has not granted him the free time with which to pay a long overdue visit -- but he imagines that there might be something similar in that country to this enormous gathering of cherry blossom trees. Despite his mixed feelings on staying or leaving this island, he’d still like the chance to visit it someday, diplomatic visit or no.

The faint swishing of footsteps through the blossom-laden ground attracts his attention, and Leo shifts slightly to see, with some surprise, the Hoshidan king approaching in the blizzard of pink petals. There’s something not quite right about his expression, but Leo can’t quite place what is off here.

<<King Ryoma... What a surprise it is to meet with you here. And I’d just been thinking of how I’d never get to visit Hoshido at this rate. A shame that we’d have a meeting here rather than over tea -- >>

IT WAS A WARNING,