Kris nodded. "How many siblings do you have?" She was rather curious. She didn't have a family, after all. Well. Not blood family. Not people she'd grown up with.

"Too many," Hisoka admitted with a bit of a smile. "I was brought up within a very large family, and I was one of the middle children, so there were always those older and younger than I to interact with." He didn't mind her curiosity at all, and to be honest, he didn't mind talking about his family much.

Kris nodded. "It sounds... noisy." She snorted. "Interesting." She ate slowly, taking her time, thinking if there were any other questions she wanted to ask right now. Since he seemed to be in a talkative mood.

"It was very noisy," Hisoka agreed. "And sometimes highly entertaining." He loved his siblings, he really did, and they were always good for a laugh, but he also appreciated being 'solitary' for the moment. As solitary as an adviser could get, at least.

Kris snorted again and shook her head. "And how long have you known the dogs?" It was a fair question, without outright asking how old he was. It was a very diplomatic question. Clearly he was rubbing off on her without her noticing.

Hisoka just gave her a slight smile.

"Quite a while," he replied. Then, deciding a little more information than that couldn't hurt, he added, "Since his lordship was perhaps Shippou's age."

Kris looked briefly surprised. Oh yeah, Hisoka was definitely older than her. By quite a bit, if she was right.

"Huh," was all she said instead. After a moment she got up and went over to wash the dishes.

Hisoka got up as well.

"I can take care of that, if you like," he offered. He'd cooked, after all, it was only fair for him to wash what he'd used.

"You can dry," Kris decided after a moment. She nodded to the towel she had hanging off to the side, already done washing a few dishes.

Shippou watched the two of them, watching to see what Hisoka did. He stll needed the showing off phase from the cat to be entirely sure, but he was mostly sure what his decision was going to be.

Hisoka nodded and picked up the towel to start drying the dishes. He was already turning over some ideas in his mind as to how he would handle the courtship. Rather than lavishing Kris with gifts that she would have been able to afford on her own, anyways, he had something different in mind. He was rather well-traveled, after all.

Kris was completely unaware of the plotting between the two males, and so she finished washing the dishes and put everything away.

Now, of course, she wasn't sure what to do. She figured Aura was still doing fine, and she didn't have a legitimate excuse to go check on them. But she wasn't one to just sit around and watch movies, either.

"I'm curious," Hisoka said after a few moments, well aware he was leaving himself open to cat-versus-curiosity jokes, "Do you like to travel, Kris?" Her answer to that would tell him how to proceed from there.

Kris was quiet for a few moments. "I like to, but I can't often," she admitted quietly. Not that it was her fault, of course. But not very many people liked hanyou, which meant she had to be extra careful away from home. Which she'd learned the hard way.

"If you are interested," Hisoka said, choosing his words carefully, "I have been to quite a few places over the years. I would be pleased to take you to some of them." There. He'd extended the invitation, the rest was up to her. He had a pretty good idea of why she didn't travel often, and he intended to make this experience better for her.

Kris hesitated for a moment. She'd have to talk to Aura about it, and figure out what to do about Shippou, but...

"That sounds fun," she said carefully, glancing over at him. "Thanks." Yeah, she was definitely going to take him up on that at some point.

Hisoka nodded. Fair enough. She hadn't refused, and he hadn't asked for any sort of immediate, concrete answer. Now to see how long it would take to put that 'first date' together.

Kris glanced at him before she busied herself with a little bit of putting things away. Not much, but just a few things. Enough to keep herself busy. Because she didn't know what else to do around him.

A few days later, Aura was back to frantically digging around in her wardrobe for something nice to wear. This time, however, she was looking for something (anything) that she could wear to a festival. She owned woefully few festival-worthy things.

Kris snorted when she heard Aura digging around. "Try the skirt with the shades of blue, and that silver and gold and white tip," she called from her own room. She had already decided on the silver and burgundy youkai-made thing she'd gotten a while back. First time she really had occasion to wear it, actually.

"But--" Aura started to protest, and then stopped. Normally, she thought that the shirt was terribly gaudy with all of the metallic details, but for a festival, it might just be perfect. She didn't protest the blue skirt, though. It was a lovely skirt made of mostly satin that shimmered in the light, making it almost seem to ripple like water. She hardly ever had an excuse to break it out, and she loved it to death. Digging out the clothes, she put them on quickly and then worked on her hair. There was only so much she could do with her hair, but she still wanted to make it look nice.

Kris grinned when she heard the protest cut off all on its own. Yup, she knew she ruled. When she had brilliant ideas like this.

She left her own hair mostly alone, leaving it down for once instead of in a braid or a ponytail. For now, anyway. And then she went to go check on Shippou.

Once Aura was mostly satisfied with her hair (except for that stubborn bit on her temple that refused to obey and lie flat), Aura went downstairs to see what her friend was doing. They still had a little time before Sesshoumaru and Hisoka showed up.

Kris fussed a bit with Shippou's hair before tying it back. "There. Now we're ready." Because, even if she refused to admit it, she was a little nervous. It was almost like a double date. Almost.

"Relax, Kris," Aura said as she came downstairs. She was a bit nervous too, in spite of her words, but she tried not to show it. Festivals were supposed to be fun, darn it, and so were dates, so a date to a festival should be even better.

Kris snorted but didn't say anything, just grumbling something under her breath before she picked up Shippou. "Alright, they'll be here in a minute or two. We should probably be ready to go."