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"Aha...Right, this way." Masaru replied, again...ignore...the nickname...

He began leading her towards the room once he was sure Aoi had all of her snacks, giving a laugh as she said no more piggybacks.

The room he led her too was rather traditional, a low table with cushions was off to the side for when rest was needing, or when there was tea to be had. There was an adjoining room, smaller, where everything needed for calligraphy, such as paper, ink, and brushes, were kept.

"You can set your snacks on the table, and I'll get everything we'll need."

Aoi gave as much of a salute as she could with her hand full, but she somehow accomplished it. Following Masabutt with a small happy humming, she wondered how one really did calligraphy. Did you put the ink like paint and such? She'd seen the fruits of such labor but never in person.

This was exciting!

A familiar room to her, Aoi lived entirely traditional for the most part, she moved to set things down and then got comfortable on a cushion while eating the cookies. "Kaay Masabutt. I shall wait."

As Aoi went to set down her snacks, Masaru went to preparing everything, gathering the brushes and ink they'd need, along with the paper before setting it out how it was meant to be in the room.

"There, ready if you are, Aoi." Masaru stated after a bit, having seated himself where everything was laid out, looking over at Aoi with a smile.

Aoi scooted closer as Masa came back. Her eyes were big as she stared at the brush, the ink... What did he do to do this?

Laughing lightly in amusement, she nodded as he spoke. "Ready then! You must show me~ What this magical calligraphy really is."

With a nod, Masaru turned to take a brush, the paper having already been laid out; to demonstrate for Aoi, he brought the brush, now full of ink to the paper, and wrote the characters to his name down onto the paper.

"You can write anything really, this is good for relaxation sometimes."

Aoi leaned over the table, carefully watching Masaru and committing to memory how he moved the brush. It looked...sloppy. But wasn't it supposed to be?

"Anything? I can write anything?" Aoi tilted her head, looking down at the characters for Masaru's name and getting a small idea.

"Mhmm, you can write anything you'd like."

He'd written his name to demonstrate, but really, anything could be written. Due to the brush, it'd come out looking a bit sloppy, but he'd only meant to demonstrate, not make a masterpiece.

"Mmmmm..." Aoi's smile grew. Rin would recognize it as a mischievous smile that caused more than a few incidents that livened up his exciting life. Masaru might not.

Taking her set of ink and brush and paper, Aoi began using the brush in a sloppy untrained manner but was rather meticulous in this. There could be no mess ups.

Masaru watched as Aoi reached for her own brush before moving on to write more of his own, being a bit more careful and neat with his brushstrokes than before.

He had feared Aoi might find this boring, but she seemed interested, and she was smiling...so he felt some relief at that.

Aoi hummed lightly as she worked, obviously working hard and making progress. She was concentrating utterly, leaning over it and hiding her work from view if Masaru looked over.

Finally...Finally though she completed it. Sighing happily, she smiled over at Masa. "Aha! To thank you for showing me your name, I wrote it for you too! In English this time. The brush looked pretty so I wanted to try it. See?"

And then with that evil little grin Aoi smiled and held up her wonderfully beautiful Calligraphy.

Spoiler:

With a short glance over, Masaru noted Aoi....hiding what she was doing? He couldn't understand why, but she was working hard on it...whatever it was, so he went back to his own paper and continued writing.

It wasn't long though before he heard a happy sigh; she'd written his name? Masaru blinked, waiting for Aoi to show him what she'd been working on.

...

His expression looked almost bored-like, aside from a small twitch of his eye before sliding the cushion out from beneath him and bopping Aoi lightly in the back of the head with it.

That...that damn nickname...

That eye twitch was the most beautiful thing in all of existence. Was Masabutt annoyed just a little bit? Good. He needed to show such feelings more. Aoi was holding back her laughs, her chest shaking as she held them. However that quick movement... Thwap to the back of her head.

She had NOT expected that. Looking at Masaru in shock, she then fell over laughing while still holding that beautiful masterpiece. "Aahahahah! I have never seen you so annoyed! You never get annoyed, this is a treat~"

"A...h..."

Masaru went to respond to Aoi, but she was laughing so strongly...she'd even fallen over in amusement. She'd...wanted to see him annoyed!?

"Th...That nickname's...embarrassing." He replied, blinking as she continued laughing.

"It is. You try to be so calm and Mr Noble but you have such a dorky side! So it suits you." Aoi sat up as quickly as she'd fallen over, smirking as she spoke. Masaru seemed to have no idea how to take this.

"I mean you are such a workaholic but sheeesh there's like a pure layer of uber dork just hiding. No one really gets to see it Masabutt." Smiling, she teased more and nodded as if thoughtful. "I am surprised someone as gorgeous as Mia even went for you. You did fall out of a tree right? Nozomi was telling me about it. How incredibly dork filled first meeting."

"Grk!" D...Dork...

That...That wasn't something the head of the Shirakawa clan should be! That...dorky...He...He...So what if he'd fallen out of a tree! He'd just been trying to introduce himself after trying to locate Nozomi...and...and he'd seen them talking and hadn't wanted to interrupt so he'd waited!

Aoi laughed at the reaction she'd gotten from Masa. That sound was not very dignified~ In fact...

"So Masabutt can make dorky sounds in addition to being a dork? What DID possess you climb up that poor tree and snap off one of its arms?" Aoi looked down at her nails, pretending she wasn't intentionally annoying him. Annoyed Masaru was a treat! Her body was just a bit tense though, well prepared to have to dodge or run anymore such attacks from him.

"I....I was trying to find Nozomi, she left the mansion's grounds so I was worried...then I heard talking and decided to see, I just used the tree as a stand to see over the wall." Masaru replied, explaining the situation as it'd happened.

That was why he'd climbed the tree! He'd needed to see over the wall!

"You could have peeked around the gate or something. You could have OPENED the gate and seen. You musta been standing there a bit to break the branch though." Aoi was trying to hold down laughter. "Best first impression? Laying on your butt in the dirt after having fallen. How did you even get a kiss?!"

"I-If I'd opened the gate I would have interrupted them!" Masaru replied, "Other than the entrance the only way to see past the wall is looking over it!"

The tree had been a height boost he'd needed to see over! That was it! He'd just...misjudged how sturdy it'd been.

"Mmm you could have listened inside the gate too. I know for a fact you can hear rather easily past it~ Only a dork would think 'I'm gonna climb this tree and look over!' when there is no reason to. The Shirakawa head... Is merely a dorky young man. Very dorky. No cure." Aoi tsked and shook her head sadly. Her arms raised up in a 'what can you do?' motion.

"Mmh...gh..." He...He'd needed to see though! I...To see who Nozomi was talking to! If...If it hadn't been Mia it could have been someone dangerous that...that...just because they were in the Seireitei didn't mean it was safe for children to be wandering around alone!

He'd...n-needed to look over the wall...

"I hit the mark. Masabutt can't make coherent words and sentences~ I think I shall make another masterpiece of calligraphic amazing to commemorate this moment." With a small smirk, she giggled before turning back to the table. Picking up the brush, she hummed a happy little tune.

Masaru sputtered a bit, unable to come up with a proper response...but after a moment he completely silenced himself, realizing that sputtering definitely wasn't helping with any claims towards him being an apparent dork.

Spoiler:

Maybe it did not top the first.

But it still got the point across.

Aoi held up her second masterpiece with a smug grin and closed eyes! Maybe she should save these for Nozomi and Mia?

Masaru felt his eye twitch again at Aoi's next piece, his face a little less composed than it had been as the pillow came back to Aoi's head. D...He...he could be ridiculous sometimes but...but dork!? That was...