"Would you like this rose jam, Utena-sama?" Anthy smiled broadly as she held the jar over. Still reading her Sylvia Plath poetry, Utena reached out and took it, dipping one finger in then licking it clean. "Is it good?"

"Good," Utena muttered. "Not as sweet as I'd expected."

"Oh, dear," Anthy murmured, putting her hand to her cheek. "I'm sorry, Utena-sama. Should I make a new batch?"

"It's fine," Utena said, and closed the poetry book. She had something of a frown on her face. "You know, I looked up some symbolism for this poetry I was reading, right?"

"Yes, Utena-sama?"

"Freudian stuff. And, like..." She gestured across campus, to where the Ohtori Tower rose, turgid in the hot, moist summer air. "They say that going up stairs or elevators is a sexual symbol."

"Is it, Utena-sama?"

"That's what they say." She sighed, picking up the book again, and dipping her finger into the jam, swirling it around. "And flowers are, um... female imagry."

"Female?"

"You know, the... parts."

Anthy tilted her head, smiling. "Oh, my," she said. "I wonder why that is."

"The flower," Akio said, leaning over the table and startling them both, a violet twirling in front of his face as he sniffed at it, "has both male and female qualities. The stamen is clearly a male attribute, while the pistil is obviously feminine. The gentle, delicate dip inwards--"

"Akio-san!" Utena clutched at her heart. "When did you show up?"

"Just now," he said. "I had some business with the student council." He looked over his shoulder to Touga. "Isn't that right, Mr. President?"

"Very much so, Chairman." Touga peeled a banana, rolling the tip of it under his lips as he sniffed, inhaling its fragrant aroma. "We got quite a bit done."

"A little of this and that," Akio agreed, as Touga slid the tip of the banana between his teeth.

Utena frowned. "That aside," she said, "you know an awful lot of sexual imagry in flowers."

"Well," Akio said, smiling. "I do know how to read flower-language, and I'd say that sexuality is one of the earliest forms of communication of them all, wouldn't you?"

"Yes, Brother," Anthy said dutifully, smiling brightly.

"Eh," Utena said. She pushed the jam away with one hand and picked some cherries from the bowl, rolling them between her fingers idly. "I don't know, it seems a little like... why do people need all these symbols? Can't they just be blatant?"

"There's a value to subtlety," Akio said, smiling. Behind him, Touga moved further down on the banana. "Are you going to be eating those?"

Utena blinked down at the cherries she hadn't quite realized she'd picked up. "Nah, not very hungry."

"May I have your cherry, then?"

"Go ahead."

Anthy smiled. "Oh my," she said, tone hinting at some scandal, but nobody was listening.