Hmm.

Tōkan hangs back until he's next to the ronso. "Do you not hang out with the others much?"

Kimahri looks down at him with... some sort of a facial expression. Then he looks ahead again. "No."

"Why not?"

"I do not want to."

Tōkan should probably not draw any generalised conclusions about ronso based on this one guy.

"I'm curious about how you ended up here. Wakka and Lulu are from Besaid, right, but you seem to not be?"

"I am not."

...he needs a crash course in ronso body language. This looks like he's being stonewalled but as far as he knows this may be friendly.

He doesn't think so, but he'll try not to make many assumptions.

"You are one of Zei's guardians, yes?"

"Yes."

"So how'd you meet?"

"I took him from Bevelle to Besaid."

Zei is from Bevelle? Interesting.

"Ten years ago?" Tōkan guesses. "When his father killed Sin?"

Kimahri remains silent.

He'll... assume that means he's right.

"Why did you?"

"I was tasked to by his father."

Before his death, presumably.

Wait, if Kimahri took Zei from Bevelle to Besaid that means he's the one who's known Zei the longest out of everyone here. Even if only by a couple of months or whatever, he doesn't know how far Bevelle is from Besaid.

Huh.

Tōkan opens his mouth to ask something else but something tells him he should... actually back off, for now. He nods at Kimahri then picks up his pace a little bit after a minute (so it doesn't look like he's immediately fleeing) to join the main body of the group.

Zei's closer to the back of the group, not actively participating in the conversation between the blitzballers, and he smiles at Tōkan then.

"Getting to know Kimahri?"

"Something like that," nods Tōkan. "I don't trust my instincts about anything he does because he's not human and I don't wanna... I don't know, offend, by assuming."

"Pay attention to the tail," Zei suggests. "If you've ever met a cat, it's similar. And he'll take a while to warm up to you, and even when he does he won't really become any more talkative, but existing in his presence and not trying to push too much will make him more comfortable."

"...huh. Okay. Noted."

"Tōkan mentally adds 'befriend Kimahri' to his to-do list."

"That's not that impressive, you know, it was pretty obvious I wanted to."

...because he's used to having more friends than he currently does, i.e. arguably maybe two, and he misses it.

"Someone's prickly today."

...is he? Yeah, he kinda is.

"Sorry."

Zei dismisses it with a hand. "It's fine. You've been through stuff."

"What did you..." Wakka and Lulu can definitely overhear them, but he can't really think of a reason he wouldn't want them to. "What did you tell them?"