Warmth

By AliceUnknown

Don't let yourself grow hungry now
Don't let yourself grow cold
Fox in the snow

It was an inexplicable, constant feeling of joy and contentment. Being around her. He didn't quite understand it, but he felt like it had some correlation with how she would smile at him.

The strange thing about it was that no other smile had this effect on him. They were all merely a stretch of lips that held no connection to any sincere sentiment. He'd lived lifetimes of people smiling, and while he couldn't say they were all emotionless, they weren't full of life and other things that seemed too big to fit inside one little girl.

But when she smiled, it was her conveying these huge amounts of love and kindness that were much bigger than her. When she smiled, all the color that had so monotonously seeped from life had burst back in full throttle, and suddenly, everything was alive again. Everything was filled to the brim with warmth and colors that he'd never been able to see before. It was the strangest thing to be around her when she smiled from her heart, because it made everything beautiful. He got a sense, when seeing her like that, so innocent and honest, that she was everything he wanted the world to be.

It was only when she was around him, consistently smiling, only to wander off somewhere around the shrine, that he could take a good look around himself and realize that he'd lived there for years and had never seen such blue skies reigning over the vicinity, and even the grass seemed to be happy once more. Though that little section of the world had been fresh and lively when Mikage had lived there, it couldn't compare.

So it was extremely easy for him to discern when her smiles were genuine and when she was troubled. When she put on an insincere grin, the warmth that had previously emanated from her faded, and the world slowly returned to being bleak.

"Something is wrong, Nanami."

"Huh? Oh, no, I'm fine!"

"It wasn't a question."

She brushed her hair back a bit, and Tomoe caught a slight tremble in her fingertips. "Aha, really-"

"It'd be better if you didn't try and put on a mask in front of me." He softened a bit. "What is it?"

Contrary to what one might think, this wasn't a one-time conversation. They'd frequently had talks almost exactly like this. What differentiated each one was how Nanami proceeded. Sometimes, she'd be stressed over school, and sometimes, she'd feel like she wasn't living up to her expectations as Land God. Tomoe always found it remarkable that someone who held such animosity and such positivity was so doubtful of themselves. He'd remind her, when she confessed these things to him, that she had amazing strength as a human being and that he truthfully believed she could never fail him. He said this with a straightforward attitude, not bothering to be shy about it. She usually blushed and returned to smiling, brighter than ever.

But, in the most recent occurrence of this, she didn't exactly smile. There wasn't as much elation in her mouth when it twitched up this time. "You..." she began. "Do you really believe that?"

He was taken aback by this question. She'd never asked him if he thought of her like that before. "Of course," he answered. There was no hesitation, no need for him to have hesitation.

She looked at her feet, and after staring with the vaguest hints of tears in her eyes, she nodded. "Okay."

He looked at her, inquisitive. "Why do you ask?" he questioned out of a sense of curiosity.

She shook her head. "I just don't really get it."

"Get?"

"How you can see so much in me. I'm just..." she almost trailed off, barely whispering the end of her sentence. "I'm just a girl."

And these were the times that Tomoe couldn't understand Nanami, because she had to know that she was so much more than just a girl. "That's not true," he replied, almost taking offense to the statement. "You are a Land God."

"Who's just a weak human," she timidly laughed.

Almost frustrated with her, he narrowed his gaze. "You are the best Land God this shrine has ever known."

She was stunned into silence, but the kind of silence where she was so overly-abundant with gratitude that she couldn't say a word. And so she cried into him, and he was happy, even if he couldn't muster a smile as buoyant and effervescent as hers.

Everything about Nanami had become life to him. He thought he had understood what life was, that it was a test of endurance and suffering, but he had been so completely far off. It was sensitive and delicate but so powerfully beautiful that it could nearly knock the wind out of him at times. And it was changeable and that was more than okay. When it was bad, it was bad; but when it was good, it filled him with a sort of happiness that went straight through any mortal part of him and engulfed his soul.

So the thought of her leaving one day was far too much for him. He couldn't let the thought get remotely close to him. He would stay where she was forever, because there was nothing else for him anywhere else. He'd follow her to the corners of the universe if she asked him to, and he couldn't be happier to oblige.

A/N: The song at the beginning is Fox in the Snow by Belle and Sebastian and it's the bEST, so you should check it out!

Well, just a little thing I wrote because I've had it with these two and how much I love them. I guess I secretly have a thing for guys who are completely and obsessively in love with the lively, enigmatic girl. Argh. Dammit. I think I've ruined myself, first with SoMa, then with Kei and Hikari, then with SatoMaya, and now with these two. Why do I do this to myself.

I hope you enjoyed! c: (Sorry I know there are probably a TON of mistakes and it's really short but it's like 1 a.m. here so sORRY.