Utena finished up issuing her final orders for the day,
dismissed the troops, and then came over to join them with a broad grin
and an arm to put over each of their shoulders.
        "I was telling Corwin earlier, we should've done it this way all
along," she said as they went to the table where the rest of the old
gang was already installed.
        "Yes, you should," Anthy replied.
        "Why didn't you tell us if you already knew?" Utena wondered,
but Anthy only smiled.
        "I have to let the two of you make your own mistakes," she said
sagely.  "It's the only way you learn."
        Corwin laughed and disengaged to take a seat.  "Hey, Mitsuru,"
he said, nodding across the table to Tsuwabuki.  "You getting along OK
with Maki and her crew?"
        Before Tsuwabuki could reply, Kardon Felz let out a booming bark
of laughter and said, "Are you kidding, boss?  Those girls are -into-
our boy MT."  He elbowed Tsuwabuki and waggled his eyebrows.  "Fifty
zorkmids says they stash him in their luggage and take him with them
when they leave."
        "Thank you, Kardon, that will be all," said Tsuwabuki dryly.
        "Of course, Master Tsuwabuki," Kardon replied, wide-eyed.  "At
once, Master Tsuwabuki."  Wielding an imaginary teapot with exaggerated
delicacy and an extended pinky, he went on, "Would you care for more
tea, Master Tsuwabuki?"
        "I -will- turn you into a frog, Kard," Tsuwabuki grumbled,
reddening.
        "I think it's cute," Anaximandra Drax put in from a couple of
seats to the other side of Tsuwabuki.  "Not what Kardon's doing," she
qualified after a moment's thought.  "That's just his usual juvenility."
        Kardon sketched an elaborate seated bow to her.  "Your servant,
my shadowy flower."
        "I mean the way the outlanders react to Mitsuru," Ana went on as
if he hadn't spoken.  With a faint, sly smile, she added, "Particularly
the greenest ones."
        "No pun intended?" Kardon joked, drawing a giggle from Peri
Took.
        "I'm sure Commander Maki and her colleagues are only extending
professional courtesy," said Tsuwabuki a tad stuffily.
        "You want to watch yourself with that one, Mitsuru," Corwin
smilingly cautioned him, reaching for the basket of rolls.  "She bites."
        "And just how would you know that?" Utena wondered archly.
        "I respectfully decline to answer on the grounds that my
response may tend to incriminate me," Corwin replied, buttering a roll.
"I always forget how much I love the rolls in this place," he observed
after the first bite.
        "Don't change the subject," said Utena mock-severely.
        "Too slow, already did," Corwin cheerfully rejoined, and
everyone laughed.