Title: Mating Season
Rating: PG
Genre: General/Humor
Pairings: Shima/Medicine Vendor
Word Count: 271
I.
Shima was with child.
Upon hearing the news, she was overjoyed, full of smiles and twittering goodness and splendid ideas about different outfits she could dress the baby in.
Shima's father, on the other hand, was furious. "Who's the father?" he demanded, pushing the many clothes out of his way. "Is it that monk?"
"Oh, no, father!" Shima cried. "Not Miroku-sama."
"Then who! Who did this to you?"
"The rain!"
Shima's mother burst into tears, blubbering through her sobs about insanity and how Shima had always been such an odd, odd girl.
"The rain?" Shima's father said in confusion.
Shima sighed wistfully and draped herself across her bed, limbs askew, kimono twisted.
Her father's face turned red at her undignified posture.
"Yes," she breathed, caught in memory. "The rain."
He had been such a tall, handsome man, with a dazzling rich smile that had captivated her instantly. He had been dancing in the rain and when he invited her to join him, telling her of some sort of celebration involving mosquito mating season or something, she had been unable to resist his charms.
They had made love in the rain. Softly, gently, while the thunder rolled around them. And then, when it was all over, he bit her neck and disappeared. Shima never saw him again.
Shima's father glared at the dreamy look on his daughter's face, bristling. "There's only one way to solve this," he said assuredly. "We must find the one man who can cure her."
"Who?" Shima's mother sniffled.
Shima's father grinned and tapped the side of his head at his brilliant idea. "The Medicine Vendor."