A month had nearly passed and O-Ren Ishii was no closer to figuring out what had happened to her than when she had kissed Arya for the second time
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Not quite as quiet as a mouse, then. Then again, perhaps O-Ren would have heard the mouse, too.
No matter; she'd been looking for O-Ren, after all. She'd been thinking. She'd been thinking a lot. She still wasn't entirely sure what she was doing, or what she intended to say or do, but she'd never been one for sitting back and thinking things to death.
Then again, it had been a month, maybe she had thought it to death and now the only thing to do was attack the problem and see if it yielded.
It wasn't much of an attack. She stopped a few feet off, digging a slight hole in the sand with her right toe, and said, "Hi."
Time slowed down for a moment, as it seemed to do in all the important moments of O-Ren's life. She blinked, brushed a strand of hair from her face, and finally, like the beat of a butterfly's wing, time resumed its pace.
O-Ren felt her stomach drop out, but she bit down on her lip, and nodded. "Sou desu. What have you been thinking?" She slid over on the rock, offering the spot to Arya.
"Date," repeated O-Ren. "I guess that's the right word, but I don't know how to do that, or-- there's no right word." She couldn't find it in either language.
Arya turned her head to glance at O-Ren's face at that last, filing it away. To what end, she didn't know.
"I don't know how to do it, either, really," she said. "That's what I was thinking about. Flowers and poetry and crap like that, I'm not interested in that. That's not for me."
The edges of Arya's own lips started to curl up before she stopped them.
"The wildlings north of the Wall do courting a little differently," she said. "If they want someone, they don't try to trick them into liking them with pretty presents or words. They steal them."
"They steal them," O-Ren repeated. She'd stolen plenty before, but never a person, and generally she knew that taking a person didn't mean you were about to keep them. "How does that work?"
"Like it sounds," Arya said, as a way of dodging the fact that she wasn't entirely clear on all the mechanics of it. "They sneak in and take them out of their village, and that proves they're strong enough and interested enough to be worthwhile."
She paused. She thought that was the gist of it. Maybe she should have talked to Ygritte. "It doesn't have to be their village, my brother Jon stole a girl who was on watch, but you get the idea."
"But before they do it, do they get some idea of whether the other person wants to be stolen?" As much as O-Ren could see the value of cutting through the boring extra details, she would have rather fallen on her sword than do to anyone what Matsumoto did to her mother.
"Probably?" Arya said. It had made sense in her head. "I think it's very hard to steal a wildling who doesn't want to be stolen. Not without someone ending up knifed, leastways."
No matter; she'd been looking for O-Ren, after all. She'd been thinking. She'd been thinking a lot. She still wasn't entirely sure what she was doing, or what she intended to say or do, but she'd never been one for sitting back and thinking things to death.
Then again, it had been a month, maybe she had thought it to death and now the only thing to do was attack the problem and see if it yielded.
It wasn't much of an attack. She stopped a few feet off, digging a slight hole in the sand with her right toe, and said, "Hi."
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"Hi," she said softly.
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"I've been thinking," she announced.
Maybe not right into it.
"About what you said. What you want."
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"You want to... be with me, right? Court me. Date, that's what you Earth-people call it, right?"
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"You make me feel things."
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"I don't know how to do it, either, really," she said. "That's what I was thinking about. Flowers and poetry and crap like that, I'm not interested in that. That's not for me."
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O-Ren was quiet for a few seconds, and then asked, "Well, what do you want?"
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"The wildlings north of the Wall do courting a little differently," she said. "If they want someone, they don't try to trick them into liking them with pretty presents or words. They steal them."
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She paused. She thought that was the gist of it. Maybe she should have talked to Ygritte. "It doesn't have to be their village, my brother Jon stole a girl who was on watch, but you get the idea."
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It did settle it, really.
"Hai," she said, standing, and giving a tiny nod. "Ganbaro.
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