A step forward, then another. That's what Nanami told herself. Just keep breathing, just keep surviving. Even if that meant having your hand held by some man (or woman) you didn't love.
Just pay the fee, thought Nanami. And you can stay with me. Just don't fall in love. Love hurts you.
Those thoughts nearly distracted her from seeing the snake she was about to step on, but luckily, she noticed just in time to avoid crushing it.
Nanami took a moment to nudge the little white snake into some grass with the toe of her boot, and then hurried to catch up to her client.
Nanami began her routine.
She woke up.
She got dressed.
She saw a strange man standing outside her window.
She ate- Wait.
Nanami walked back to her room, bowl of cereal in her hand. The man, who had white hair and white eyebrows though he looked as young as her, waved and smiled.
Nanami lived on the third floor.
Needless to say, Nanami did not open the window.
She barely had her foot out the door when that man appeared right in front of her. Appeared with a poof! Like magic. Nanami stared at him. Did she know him?
She looked down as he ran at her and grabbed her in a bone crushing hug. Was he one of her clients? They sort of blur together after awhile.
"Thank you for not stepping on me!" He cried. Oh.
"Snake?"
The man smiled.
"Yep. My name is Mizuki, and guess what?" He didn't say anything, and it occurred to Nanami that he was waiting for her to guess.
"What?" She asked, as enthusiastically as she could. He grinned, then, poof, a snake was on the ground.
"I'm a familiar!" The snake said. Most people probably would have fainted. But Nanami was strong. Tough as nails, some might say.
She just walked away.
He chased her.
"Wait up!" He said. He was a person again. "Nanami!"
He knew her name, it seemed.
"You said you're a familiar, right?" She said, not bothering to look at him. An exuberant, "uh-huh!" Was her answer.
"Then why don't you go back to your master?" The footsteps behind her stopped. Nanami glanced back to see him with his head hung low, bottom lip trembling.
"She's dead," he whispered.
Nanami wasn't mean. She had a good, kind heart, once you got past the barbed wire.
"Fine," she said with a sigh. "You can follow me."
She didn't go to school, like most girls her age. No, Nanami went looking for customers.
Old or young, male or female, it didn't matter as long as they could pay.
Nanami stood in her normal spot, but none of her normal buyers would show. It occurred to her that the guy next to her might be a slight deterrent. It even crossed her mind to ditch him, but then she remembered his sad face, and her heart just wouldn't let her.
She sighed, (Nanami sighed a lot) and sat down on the curb. Mizuki patted her shoulder, and she looked up to see him holding a token from the arcade they were sitting next to. Nanami took it with a smile, and kissed his cheek.
They got home, and Nanami shed her jacket like a snake shedding its skin. She kicked off her shoes and walked in to find her father passed out of the floor.
She crouched down and smelled his breath. It smelled of alcohol, just like it always did.
Nanami sighed, threw a blanket over him (he was still her dad, no matter how much money he wasted) and walked to her room with weight of the world on her shoulders.
Nanami opened her eyes to sunshine. The rays of light shone through her ripped curtains, onto Mizuki's face. She'd stolen some of her father's pajamas and let him sleep in bed with her.
It wasn't every day she was actually fond of who she was under the covers with.
Nanami stood, her heart cheerful for the first time in a while, and opened her door to find her dad gone, and a note on the floor.
Sorry, Nanami. I have to go. I won't be coming back.
That was it. Nothing more. The one thing that stayed the same was that he always came back. Drunk, yeah, but he still came back. If he had left, that meant that he couldn't pay the rent.
Nanami took one long, shaky breath, grabbed the money she had stashed behind the fridge, and started packing.
Nanami had one foot in the taxi when Mizuki found her.
"Where are you going?" He cried. Out of breath, hair sticking up every which way, still in pajamas, he looked adorable. That was why it was so hard to say the next few words.
"Somewhere to start my life over," she said softly. Gently. Painfully.
Mizuki grabbed her wrist.
"You can't leave me!" He said desperately. Her smile turned even sadder.
"I'm sorry," she whispered tearfully. Nanami got into the taxi. "Goodbye." Her window was open, and she kissed him. And the taxi drove away.
Mizuki almost gave up. He almost hung his head and cried. But you couldn't win by giving up. He ran, faster than he ever had. And you know what? He caught up.
He jumped, turned into a snake, and flew through the open window and right onto Nanami's lap.
"How?" She asked, her voice a mixture of disbelief and joy. The snake smiled, somehow.
"I love you!"
And for the first time in a long while, the armor around her heart fell away, and Nanami felt love.
Author's Note: A very uncommon pairing. But then, I like uncommon pairings.