drakensis said:
"The hideous truth is, you are the closest thing I have to a friend. I'm as shocked and dismayed by this as you are, but there it is. I need a friend, and I need a patriot, and you are both. Will you help me, please?" - Londo Mollari, Babylon 5
---
How old the tea-house was, neither of the men knew. Only that it had been there when they'd first come through the town as far back as thirty years ago, and still didn't look like it had changed one bit.
Oh, the faces had.
The faces always did.
It was one of those things you faced when 'blessed' with a life that just didn't seem to want to end no matter what.
All the same, though, everything important had not.
It was still comfortable, still out of the way, and still very very discreet.
It was, one of the men thought, perfect. After all, one did not talk about such things in just any place down the road.
Hajime Saito sipped from his cup after saying the words, waiting for a reaction.
Amber glinted in the faint lighting from the face of the man sitting opposite him.
They were both too old for this world, even if their bodies seemed intent on defying the fact all the way into the realms of sheer ridiculousness, and they both knew the true horror that came with conflict of any significant size.
And that was withough figuring on so called modern technology adding to the equation.
Saito already knew what he would do, no matter the answer, but he felt he owed this much to one of the few friends he'd ever had. More, he owed it to his only still living friend, no matter how odd it was to even think of the man as such.
"So?" he finally asked.
"Was there ever any doubt, de gozaru?"
And so the Wolf of Mibu and the Hitokiri Battousai stood, paid, and left.
To change the course of history.
It was an early morning in January, 1941, and the two swordsmen had a job to do.
A government to topple.
And a war to prevent.
---
Don't worry. Anything we discuss is strictly between you, me, and anyone else I tell. - Lewton, Discworld Noir
Mr Scoplett: Well, I'm afraid my memory isn't very good... I need... Something to jog it...
Lewton: ...Would a crowbar work? - more Discworld Noir
-Griever