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With the last of their bags unpacked, Hideyoshi finally let out a sigh of relief. Eva had drilled him on how to approach his first meeting with her family; from eating etiquette, to proper forms of address for the various people on Rokkenjima, she didn't overlook a single detail. He was quite lucky to have a fiancée so thoroughly prepared. It was hard to tell what Kinzo thought of him, but the fact that Krauss and Rosa seemed receptive was a good sign.
"So, was it anything like you expected?" Eva prompted. She was sitting on their shared bed, that knowing smirk on her face. She had played up the meeting so much that Hideyoshi had gotten pretty anxious about it, despite her assuring him that, so long as he didn't commit a serious faux pas, he'd be fine. Hideyoshi laughed.
"I was more nervous meeting them than I was starting my business!" he unabashedly proclaimed. Eva giggled at his honesty. She didn't have a lot of nice things to say about her siblings, but she'd been spot-on about Kinzo. Hideyoshi thought he had the art of winning over potential investors down to a science, but that man was a tough nut to crack.
"That's just how it is for us," Eva said, nonplussed. What betrayed her own nerves was the way she fidgeted with her fan. She started toying with it shortly before they boarded the boat, and had barely put it down even since leaving the island. Good to know he wasn't the only one worried. Eva was just better at keeping her feelings hidden. "Hey..." her voice dropped, taking on a serious tone.
"Hmm?"
"All the successor talk... It didn't bother you, right?" she asked. There had indeed been much talking over the matter of the Ushiromiya family's successor. It was expected that Natsuhi, Krauss' wife, would produce an heir early into their marriage to cement her place in the family. But the couple had been having fertility issues, and no child to show for it. It was clear, even to a newcomer like Hideyoshi, that Kinzo wasn't at all pleased by the situation.
"It didn't make me feel any different," Hideyoshi waved the concern away. "Your brother and his wife will have luck here in the next few years, I'm sure. So there's nothing to worry about." Eva raised a skeptical eyebrow at his dismissal, but didn't see fit to call him out on it.
Natsuhi had been interesting to meet. She was rather cold and distant. She spoke maybe a handful of sentences to him, most clipped but polite, and generally stayed out of the talking except when Eva dragged her into things. Hideyoshi wasn't sure what to expect out of another person who had married into this most eccentric family, but Eva had whispered to him that hers wasn't a marriage of choice. She was reparations to the family for her father being unable to pay back a debt. Nothing more.
Maybe it was presumptuous of him, but Hideyoshi felt bad for her. She was younger than Eva, thrust into a position she had no inclination towards and pressured into producing a male heir after a very brief courting period between her and Krauss. It was no surprise she was so detached, that she stayed out of any and all talks concerning her role in the family. As if reading his mind, Eva chuckled darkly.
"You know, I never got the impression that those two were ever all that interested in each other," she remarked. "Let alone in being parents together. I can't imagine any child of theirs without seeing a miniature Krauss running around wreaking havoc." Hideyoshi furrowed his brows.
"But didn't you say that they used to be lovebirds?" he questioned. Eva rolled her eyes, wordlessly scolding him for his naïveté. Hideyoshi distinctly recalled her saying that their courting phase was - in her words - unbearable because of how sweet they acted around each other.
"Sure, before Father put all that pressure on them to produce an heir," Eva replied matter-of-factly. "They can act the part of a functional married couple, I'll give them that, but there's nothing between them now. Their act is impressive, but it lacks any depth."
"Huh, I figured that they were just having a spat," Hideyoshi mused. It wouldn't be all that surprising, what with how intense the family head could be. But now that Eva had pointed it out, he realized that he hadn't seen the two be intimate with each other in any capacity during their entire trip.
They sat a fair distance apart, never touched even for casual things like holding hands or kissing each other's cheeks. They barely acknowledged each other at all, in fact. And Krauss did the majority of it while speaking to Kinzo about Natsuhi, like the woman wasn't even there.
"I suppose there's that, too. I can't imagine Natsuhi's all too happy about Nii-san bending over backwards to appease Father," Eva said, mostly to herself. That was something else Hideyoshi had noticed. Eva's tone turned darker, sharper when discussing her brother and sister-in-law. At first, he chalked it up to her resentment of her brother's position. She wasn't shy in disclosing to him that she felt he wasn't worthy of being Kinzo's heir.
But there was another layer to it. Eva, for the most part, could care less what her brother was doing at any given time. Yet, she seemed to focus an inordinate amount on Natsuhi. She'd known the woman longer than Hideyoshi, had been introduced to her via her induction into the family before Eva and Hideyoshi even met.
Meeting her in-person, Hideyoshi could see that Natsuhi wasn't just a passing interest to Eva. She'd come up in conversations all the time. When discussing Eva's family, Eva naturally began talking about Natsuhi first. It bordered on obsession, the way she could easily rattle off the younger woman's nervous ticks and bad habits. Why was she so interested in what her brother's wife was doing?
All at once, it hit him. Ah, now he could see. Eva wasn't just jealous of Krauss for his position of power in the family, or angry at him for how he treated her over the years. She was also jealous of his spouse. Jealous that Krauss got to keep Natsuhi to himself.
Hideyoshi knew that he was chosen by Eva because of their quick friendship and his successful business ventures. Not once had she shown an inclination towards him beyond that of intimately close friends. Soulmates, perhaps, but of a platonic sense. She knew she'd eventually be expected to have children, and had chosen Hideyoshi as her husband because he was palatable to her, not because she was physically attracted to him.
Eva had been very upfront with all of that, laying out each term and stipulation for him to review before they'd gotten engaged. Hideyoshi had been glad for that. Truth be told, he thought Eva was an amazing woman and considered himself lucky to have her, but he wasn't too hard-pressed to start a family very soon either.
So the idea that Eva was attracted to Natsuhi wasn't all that hard to wrap his head around. Looking back on it, she did seem to gravitate towards women rather than men. He'd assumed it was because men so often looked down on her, and perhaps that played a part. But if she was interested in women, that'd make even more sense. The way her eyes would follow Natsuhi in a room, her investment in the other woman's emotional or physical state, if backhanded.
It also struck Hideyoshi with a profound sense of tragedy. Eva often bemoaned not being born before Krauss, or at least being born a man. That way, she'd have a fighting chance at contesting the headship before Kinzo passed it on. Ironically, if she had been the firstborn son, she'd have been married to Natsuhi instead. But fate wouldn't allow it, giving Krauss Natsuhi's hand in marriage instead and leaving Eva to find a settle-for spouse.
How cruel fate could be. But sadly, there was nothing to be done now. Studying Eva, it dawned on him that she didn't seem to fully recognize the state of her own feelings towards the other woman. Either that, or she chose to willfully ignore how she felt. Natsuhi's situation weighed heavily on her regardless. If there was something they could do... An idea formed in Hideyoshi's mind.
"You know," he began, drawing Eva's attention, "we could always try for an heir first. Take some of that pressure off of Natsuhi-san. We'd have to bump the wedding up, of course, but now that I've met your family that shouldn't be a problem." Eva crossed her arms, her posture deathly serious.
"Are you sure? It's not our responsibility to bear, you know," she reminded him. "Besides, I don't think Natsuhi would appreciate the gesture." She smiled tightly. "She'd probably just see us as competition, or assume we're taking advantage of her situation." Hideyoshi shrugged.
"Let her think what she wants," he said, unbothered. "All I know is that she needs a helping hand, and we're in a position to offer one. She can hate us for it, but I know I'd start feeling awful if I were in her shoes right about now." Eva brought a hand up to her chin, contemplating.
"She can hate us all she wants, huh?" she echoed. The crease in her brows finally vanished as she flashed Hideyoshi her first properly warm smile since they'd returned home. Before she even spoke, Hideyoshi knew that, whatever thought had crossed her mind, Eva was now convinced. "It's not a bad idea. Let me think about it."