AU. After a love letter gets misplaced, Mizuki ends up doing a friend a favor in a rainy day. First part in the "Of Honor & Lost Causes" series. {Mizuki x Unari}

kindred spirit

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What a thing, rainy days. They were like a blessing to him.

Under his charcoal umbrella, he felt like an outsider to the world, like he could observe it and analyze it and partake in it through the water, all simultaneously. Enticing scents rose from the earth and the air turned cool and clean.

It relaxed him.

Actually, relaxed was Mizuki's default setting. He walked down the street with a simple smile dancing on his lips, a smile that sat on the edge of goofiness, thinking of the good deed he was about to perform, and replaying the honest gratefulness with which his friend had looked at him earlier that day.

When it was still early, and it wasn't raining yet.

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With downcast eyes, Shinjirou, one of his best friends, had come to knock at his apartment door, exclusively to ask a favor of him. Disregarding his sleepy roommate's look of utter loathing towards him, the purported fallen angel had sunk into the sofa and molten into a glamorous disarray.

'It's such a mess,' he'd groaned.

A little later, when the three of them (his foxy roommate always interested in their friend's misery) found themselves with a comforting (and appeasing, in Tomoe's case) cup of coffee in their hands, Shinjirou narrated the event leading to his current misfortune.

Which Tomoe summed up rather precisely, by snidely noting that, 'Only you would be idiotic enough to send a love letter to the wrong girl.' He'd punctured his statement with a little amused smirk.

'L-look, I don't go around writing to people, it's usually the other way around…!' his friend had exclaimed, in shameful abatement.

The voice that rose was Mizuki's, the only one that had not yet been heard, not counting him offering to make some coffee earlier.

'It's natural that you'd be inexperienced, you've not had that much lovers, after all.' A little mirth was woven into his words.

That had not appeased Shinjirou, who'd turned his frantic, failing self-vindication speech from Tomoe to him, going on about how successful he was with exclusive one-night stands.

The bickering continued until Mizuki´s roommate cut it short with icy words: 'I still fail to see why you're here, angel-boy.'

Shinjirou straightened. 'It'll seem stupid to you, but you're not super-popular idols with a reputation to keep. I've had word that the girl that got the letter is the ugliest, most reclusive girl in campus. And, you know how it is with reputation and fame, I didn't sign the letter yet somehow everybody knows I sent it…'

(At this, both Tomoe and Mizuki could picture in their heads a very not-sneaky celebrity trying to go undercover into the university section reserved for the ladies' lockers. Followed by a trail of paparazzi.)

Tomoe blinked, mildly vexed at the importance that his friend gave to such an, in his eyes, trivial matter. 'Well, then, just don't meet her,' he said stoically. He'd run out of coffee, and soon he'd be running out of patience, too.

'Well, that's the thing,' Shinjirou admitted sadly, 'My letter had a return address, and she replied to it, saying how she was so happy because she's always so lonely and distant. And I can't just stand her up after that, it eats away at my conscience. But what could I do. But, then I had a great idea!' he said, suddenly brightening up, 'I thought, you guys are my bros. I'd back you up with anything, and you'd back me up with anything too, right?'

Silence followed.

'Right! So, I thought you wouldn't mind meeting her? Either of you? Preferably Mizuki? Then she'll be fine, my honor will be intact, and the paparazzi will be desolate. It's only a win-win situation.'

Expectant, he looked at his friends. Tomoe's little 'go ahead and try and make me' smirk made him swallow uncomfortably, but Mizuki's thoughtful eyes told a whole different story.

'You'd do it?' Shinjirou asked him simply.

'I guess so, yes,' Mizuki sighed, 'So long as I can read first that letter she sent you back.'

His friend blinked slowly, almost in disbelief. He'd never thought he'd get such a relieving answer with so little begging, and no blackmailing at all. He ceremoniously produced the letter from his pocket, where it was neatly and safely folded.

Mizuki read it in silence.

'Yup,' he said eventually, putting the letter away into a pocket of his own, 'I'll do it.'

Shinjirou sighed, relieved, an honest smile hanging on his lips.

'I'll be heavily indebted to you, you know,' he noted.

'Oh, it's nothing, really,' Mizuki said nonchalantly, a subtle smirk tugging at the edge of his lip, 'Depending on how it goes, I'll tell you how many times this year you'll do grocery-shopping for me.'

Shinjirou had laughed mirthlessly under his breath.

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Fortunately for him it had eventually started to rain; and, by the time Mizuki set out, large water puddles dotted the sidewalks. It made him very happy stepping on them with his rain boots, shielded as he was from stray little raindrops by his long coat. But happy as the weather might make him, reminding him of his distant home, a tightness in his chest kept the happiness from being too deeply rooted. Although he was glad that he could do a favor to his friend (nevermind the glorious, grocery-free time that awaited him afterwards), every now and then, the words in the girl's letter kept coming back to him, and they made him remember the times when he was also lonely and evasive, clammed up inside himself.

It was easy to tell who the girl waiting for him was. She was the only person in the park, pouring as it was, and she sat on a bench right under the rain, completely soaked. She could be the incarnation of misery, with her huge hat drooping over her face, and her long, dark hair clinging to her thin body like a second skin. And although the fabric of her clothes had become almost see-though, and her shape would have been appealing to his eyes, Mizuki could only think of the deep compassion that the sight stirred within him, and he just stood there and watched her -safe under his umbrella, whose boundaries stopped his sympathy from overpowering him and where his confusion kept him in check.

He wondered, detachedly, why he felt the need to figure himself out first. He took out the letter and read it again, as if it would still his thoughts. Little droplets quickly stained the ink, and he swiftly put it away. He surprised himself by somehow regretting not having brought any flowers to offer her. It would have been nice. Flowers.

His feet carried him on his own towards her.

She only noticed him when he stood directly before her, looking at her from above with unreadable green eyes. With a smile, he positioned his umbrella to cover them both.

'Hello,' he greeted, 'Have you been waiting for long?'

She blinked, shaking her head slowly. Water trickled from the edges of the huge hat, that wilted, heavy with rain, and that she wore like a veil or a shield.

'Who are you?' she asked, at length, 'Was it you who sent the letter?'.

Out of the corner of his eye, Mizuki caught a faint gleam, and recognized it for what it was. The flash of a camera. Indeed, despite the rain, there were paparazzi hiding in the bushes, just like Shinjirou had said. Well, he thought with cool mirth, they'd be sorely disappointed.

'I'd like us to talk about that,' Mizuki said, 'But I'd rather not do it here. So what do you say? Would you like to have a drink with me?'

'For… real?' the girl asked. He could only see her mouth, pretty and small, and it hung slightly open after she was done speaking, as if she didn't really give credit to what was happening.

'Of course!' he said, offering his hand for her to stand up, 'I also happen to know just the place for a day like today.'

Hesitantly, she took his hand and stood up. It was just as cold as hers, and, for a moment, it felts as if they were two watery beings in a shifting, watery world. She tilted her hat softly, and it elegantly felt over one of her eyes only. Her other eye, shockingly blue, inspected him with unguarded innocence. He also took her in, and he thought he kind of liked how the water trickled down her pale face and pooled between her bluish lips.

He smiled gently. 'You look like a sea nymph,' he said happily, genuinely relishing her blush and asking her to hold the umbrella for a moment.

His raincoat was off him and on her bare shoulders in no time, deepening her blush and widening his smile. 'There!' he chirped, 'Much better. The sea-creature theme looks good on you, but it'd be awful if you got sick. Shall we get going?'

She drowned in blush and disconcert. This effusive stranger, who'd come out of nowhere into her life, had in five minutes managed to pick apart all of her solidly grounded resolutions. Trust no one. Men are always up to no good. Confusion is weakness. And so on. And she didn't even know his name. She was sure she'd never seen him, ever, not even once, in her entire life. And yet, his scent was wrapped all around her in the form of his coat, suffocating and liberating, and mixing with the scent of dampened earth. And she aloofly thought that no one had shown such simple kindness in many long years.

'Don't worry, we're not going too far,' Mizuki reassured as they walked, 'and I expect they'll have towels. With a day like this…'

He didn't know her name, and didn't know really how to ask her without being too forward, so he went for the second best.

'By the way, my name is Yonomori Mizuki. I graduated some years ago and I work in human resources now. It's quite interesting.'

And what about you? he would have liked to say, but he let the silence speak for him.

'I am Umihime Unari,' she told him slowly, with what Mizuki understood to be slight shyness, 'I'm a Marine Biologist. I work in a research institute, but I'm back in the university doing a Masters in Evolution. It's also… very interesting.'

Mizuki was grinning openly. 'That's a fantastic job, Unari! … I may call you Unari… right?'

She nodded wordlessly.

'It must be really fun! Do you specialize in any kind of animal? Or plant?'

Slowly, he was succeeding in getting her to open slightly more to him, or so he thought. It was an easy thing to talk about, what one does every day. There's no challenge in that, and, Mizuki supposed, it should be within everyone's comfort zone.

'I do a bit of everything,' she said. Glancing at the man walking next to her, she caught the curious look in his eyes, that encouraged her to go on talking. Casting aside her blush for the moment, she explained, 'Well… the sea… it's all interconnected, you know? It has a balance. And we, as humans, we do so much to tilt that balance to our liking, that everything ends up falling out of order. And it's really sad. That's where we all came from, after all…'

Mizuki nodded, so she added, 'That's why I want to be everywhere. I want to protect every living thing in the ocean. Even if I have to be intimidating to people around me, I want to be the one that never wavers.' Such determination as gleamed in her words was opaque by the sheepish 'so… yeah…' that she added as an afterthought.

Again, he smiled broadly at her, a gentle, understanding smile. He was glad to see that such passion bubbled beneath her light-tight shell of insecurity.

'You're wickedly intriguing!'

Even he was surprised when the words left his lips. He'd better be careful, he thought, he had a quicksilver tongue and he wasn't sure what he wanted from that afternoon... Unari blushed impossible shades of a red that paled though the rain, but before either could say anything (Mizuki would have liked to add an explanation), they were at the entrance of a quaint and quiet café, and he said, casually,

'Well, here we are. Shall we go in?'

'Oh, yes…' she answered, weakly, with a half-smile. That was good enough for him. He opened the door for her, closed his umbrella and followed her in. They were offered towels, as he had anticipated, and warm, dry slippers.

It felt indescribably wholesome to breath in the scent of fresh-made coffee and warm scones; and they could pick almost any place they wanted, because the rain had chased most of the usual customers away.

He had always been very gentlemanly. He held the chair for her, the coat they'd already taken at the entrance. After some hesitation, she had even surrendered her large hat.

He looked at her in the eyes briefly before they ordered something to drink, reassuring her, and only looked like that at her again when they'd asked for something warm and something sweet.

She had enchanting eyes. Or so he thought, at least, because he could only see one of them. A glistening, clear blue eye, with thick, dark lashes. Beautiful, his mind spelled on its own.

Traitorous mind, he thought, wondering when he'd stopped doing this for Shinjirou's sake and had started doing it for his own.

'I am glad I came today,' he said. 'I am glad to have met you, Unari.'

It was probably more a closing phrase than a conversation starter, but he had to be honest with her. From the start. He decided it was for the best.

'I…' he faltered, the right words to say eluding him. 'About the letter…'

The air was thick with expectation. It pained him to see how much this meant to her, because although she'd been rather silent on the whole thing until then, a… something hung around her, a quiet hope… It really did pain him. His heart was bothered at the thought of having to wound that hope that danced in her eyes despite herself.

But at precisely that moment, the waiter brought their tea and their cinnamon cake, and Mizuki was spared the pain, and given the chance to think it over as she serenely stirred the tea leaves in the teapot.

'Do you always stir them?' he asked, curious.

She smiled cutely. 'Yes. Three times, for good luck…'

The silence was at risk of becoming heavy, but Mizuki decided to avoid that by manning up and stopping with this newfound anxiety that (unduly) churned his stomach.

'Unari, look… I wanted to tell you about the letter you got. I'm sorry that you had to come all the way here. It pained me to see you there, sitting in the rain, waiting. I came here in behalf of a friend, to apologize. He misplaced it, it…' He sighed. 'It was meant for someone else. I'm sorry.'

She blinked at him, slowly. Wordlessly, she cast her eyes down, probably shaken, almost certainly embarrassed.

'I should have thought…' she whispered. 'It was foolish, thinking someone would notice me just like that.' She avoided looking at him, 'It's just that it was a nice letter. And I thought… I hoped… oh, well…'

She slowly made a resigned motion to get up, but, again, Mizuki found himself thinking and speaking at the same time.

'Wait, Unari, please don't go. Please.'

The emotion in his voice got her to eventually look at him. It shocked her, the sincerity in his eyes. He quickly found her letter, slightly torn and blurry after being handled so much, and slipped it over the table to her.

'I wrote this…' she noted, her voice rather emotionless.

'Yes. And it… well, it moved me, Unari. You seemed so lonely, and so hopeful. And I remembered that there was a time when I felt like that, too.' He paused. 'It was terrible.'

'But a helping hand was offered to me then, and I thought, I might be the helping hand offered to you. And I meant it,' he stressed, 'I am glad to have met you. I'm thinking that, by now, I could even have sent that letter myself.'

He stressed his point by reaching across the table and tucking a dark strand of hair behind her ear. Both of her eyes focused on him then, and he didn't notice the terrible scar that went from her forehead to her chin. He could only see the trembling in her lip, and the blush that slowly rose to her cheeks.

'I… I don't think I can really believe you, just like that. Just like I never really believed that letter. I had hope…' she trailed off.

'Unari, look at me,' he said, gently. And his fingers, that were still hovering around her face, tilted it up. Then, he could finally look into her eyes, both of them.

'I mean what I said. I really do. I'm glad that that stupid Shinjirou misplaced that stupid letter.'

And she saw he was serious; and, slowly, she beamed at him.

'That's more like it!' Mizuki said, returning the smile. 'Now, lovely Unari, should we call this a date?'

He thinks I'm lovely, her mind sing-sang. She felt that, with time, all her insecurities and loneliness could come to scurry away, like shadows displaced by a bright light.

And Mizuki, seeing her smile, recalled seeing her sitting alone in the park, under the pouring rain. And he was glad. Maybe he'd let Shinjirou off of this one.

Maybe he'd end up doing his own grocery shopping, maybe he wouldn't even mind.

.

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A/N: Nice. It's been a while since I wrote anything, and I wanted to flex my muscles and scrape some rust off my pen. I'm getting there.

Well, I'm just planning on writing a series of unconnected one-shots about different characters in this "Of Honor and Lost Causes" AUverse where Tomoe and Mizuki are roommates, 20sth, and pretty much normal humans. Kurama remains a glamorous rocker and never ever, no AUverse will ever change that xD

I hope you enjoyed the story. I really liked what Mizuki and Unari had going on in the manga, and if you don't know who Unari is, she's really cool, Google her ;)

See you next time!