Kiori was taken aback by Rylee's assumption about his hesitation. Shy about a woman's body? No, he had gotten past anything of the sort long ago. The Assassin's Guild makes sure to satiate the primal urges of all its members, providing a steady flow of courtesans as a reward for successfully completing contracts. Needless to say, Kiori was quite familiar with female anatomy, even desensitized to it so that it would be nigh impossible for a target to escape via seduction; perhaps that was part of the guild's machinations as well. "Ah, no, it's not--" but Rylee had taken the supplies and walked away before Kiori could correct that misconception. Now that he thought about it, though, he never had looked at Rylee with those kinds of eyes before; the Assassin's Guild had taken him before he had the chance to.

So, with Rylee not permitting them to discuss survival strategies and only a menial task at hand, idle curiosity managed to squeeze its way into Kiori's mind. He wondered what would have happened if the guild never scouted him. He probably would end up doing the same grunt work for the guilds that his father did. Rylee too; there was no way she would willingly take on the role of an idle house wife. He then wondered what their future together would be like. There would be no reason for them to move, and there were too good friends to simply drift apart. Then, in his reverie, he saw a young Rylee donning the blue constable's coat. Would she?

Kiori remained quiet when Rylee returned to finish setting up for the night, but his mind was abuzz with new questions. He remembered how as kids they could share literally anything with one another with complete confidence. Never had they betrayed one another's trust and never had they let a secret fall onto the wrong ears. Now, after all the swathes of blood he had wades through, Kiori realized that he wanted that back. But, he couldn't just pretend that a decade and a half hadn't passed; that unconditional trust was no longer there. All forms of trust had been gone from his life for so long now, that he almost forgot it ever existed. How could he get that trust back? He had no idea, but perhaps the first step was just to talk.

"Hey Rye," he said, breaking the silence that never would have existed between them as children. "When I saw that you were hiding in a tavern, do you know what my first thought was? 'I wonder what she likes to drink?'" His voice was gentler now, real interaction with another person kneeding the stiffness out of his voice. Sure, it wasn't a very funny or clever remark, but for the first time in the gods knew how long, Kiori heard a human voice come out of his mouth.