A/N: Hello everyone! Thank you so much for your supportive comments. I'm so happy to hear that everyone is intrigued with the story. So, as some of you have guessed, this is within the actual anime timeline, but this is a stripped of magical elements as well as the original ending. I wanted to explore what it might've looked like in a slice of life lens. Post days may migrate to Thursdays (PST), but do not fear! You will get your weekly dose of this story. Have a great rest of your week everyone. Remember, I'm rooting for you!
Chapter 3
"More tea."
Natsuki ground her teeth, but got up to leave her comfortable roost behind. Her first day on the job proved to be the most trying, though not because it was difficult work. Natsuki did her best not to slam the empty kettle back on the stove top, nor did she mean to add a touch too many leaves to steep, but being summoned every half hour by telephone call just for tea deeply grated at the blunette's nerves.
"What was the whole point of that bravado when the work isn't even all that hard," Natsuki grumbled, the water sloshing in the kettle as she set it down. Natsuki was still miffed at the last three times where Shizuru didn't even acknowledge her presence. The blunette knelt by the sliding door of Shizuru's office space, her wrist ached, but Natsuki refused to favor it. "Your tea."
Moments later, Shizuru met Natsuki by the door, kneeling as well. "Thank you," Natsuki blushed and looked away, ignoring the recently awakened butterflies in her belly. Instead, Natsuki covered a hand over her aching wrist. "You should ice that. I will not be asking for anything more for the time being."
The door slid closed and Natsuki went straight to the fridge. Natsuki sighed as she grabbed an ice pack. It wasn't that she didn't want to nurse her wrist, she just wished it was better already.
Shizuru never touched a drop of Natsuki's tea. The scent alone was already too bitter. The older woman hadn't cared for the tea, really, not in comparison to the person who brewed it. Shizuru always had the little fantasy of Natsuki bringing a fresh pot of good tea to share every morning, except in the fantasy, Natsuki actually wanted to do it. Shizuru picked up her pen to continue on her chapter, but sighed a few moments later when her mind drew blank.
It was selfish of Shizuru to ask Natsuki to perform menial tasks just to see the blunette and it was obvious that the blunette's wrist bothered her. This wasn't even what Shizuru typically called her assistants to do. Shizuru meeting her publisher's deadline had become severely handicapped since the older woman was doing everything on her own without delegating anything to her current assistant like she normally would, but the older woman didn't mind. What was a looming deadline to being around the person she truly, and always loved, even though it was absolute torture?
The answer: peanuts.
Something flashed underneath her window, moving to see better, Shizuru saw that Natsuki found the garden. Like a trained voyeur, Shizuru closed the blinds just enough to make it seem like she wasn't watching Natsuki poke around the plants and flowers.
Shizuru was content with watching until Natsuki readjusted the ice pack on her lame wrist. The older woman turned away and stared at her hands. "I always end up hurting you, don't I?"
…
Natsuki tried to decide what to do as she laid in bed, listening to the incessant heavy click of the typewriter's keys in the next room. In a week's worth of work, Natsuki had gone from brewing tea five times in the morning to doing absolutely nothing. Natsuki sat up and balled her fists. Which she could do now with her right hand. "I request admittance," Natsuki bellowed beside Shizuru's study.
"Request denied," Shizuru immediately called back with not even a hitch in the sound of clicking, clacking keys.
"I'm not an invalid." Natsuki ground out, "I'm here to work. And that is what I will do. I will not act as your charity case."
Shizuru placed her hands on her thighs. Shizuru hastily scribbled a note for herself in a nearby notepad, hoping that by the time she came back to her perch, the story that was developing in her head would still be there. Scrambling to stand, Shizuru slid the door just enough to toss the small purse over to her assistant.
"Here," Shizuru produced a small coin purse that hung from her kimono. "Take this for groceries. I'll have more for you to do when you return."
The blunette huffed at the dainty purse in her hand, but left with a decided pep in her step. Shizuru looked at the manuscript in progress; the ruby-eyed woman took in the growing mountain created by each looseleaf page stacked on top of each other.
"This is going to be a long three months."
Shizuru shook her head. Even three months was much too soon to produce something with quality, but what other choice was there? Coming down to the sitting area, Shizuru walked right up to the enormous glass tank. "I'm not sure I can do this, Kiyohime. I've underestimated my lingering feelings." The black King Cobra lazily unfurled its body, tongue flicking every so often. "I haven't been so good to you either lately, have I? Would you like to go on my shoulder?"
Shizuru allowed Kiyohime to wrap herself along the outstretched arm within the tank. Although Kiyohime was docile, and had her venomous glands removed, the serpent still had fangs making a bite painful. Shizuru had adopted the King Cobra back in highschool when one of her neighbors couldn't care for the animal anymore. More like the neighbor had become frightened at how large Kiyohime had become.
Although Shizuru felt a bond right away, Kiyohime was a lot more reluctant. It took months before Shizuru worked up the nerve to stick her hand into the tank without offering food. It was a long and arduous process, but when seventeen year old Shizuru finally felt the cool scales of Kiyohime's hood underneath her fingers, Shizuru knew it was more than worth every patient moment.
Shizuru wrapped Kiyohime around her shoulders. "If only I was just as patient with Natsuki back then," Shizuru spoke softly to Kiyohime as the cobra found a comfortably warm place around Shizuru's neck burrowed underneath tawny hair. "Maybe it was because I was impatient, I learned to be more careful with you. Shall we tend to the garden a little?" Kiyohime's head had already poised itself to point in the direction of said garden. "I know I have barely taken you out lately. But I can't have you terrorizing the block again or my current writing assistant. Oh, I know, " Shizuru planted a kiss on the smooth head that rose level with her warm cheek, "You're not trying to be scary. It's just that people don't want to get to know you. And it's too bad because they don't know what they're missing."
Kiyohime and Shizuru spent the better part of their afternoon in the garden. When the rev of Natuki's motorcycle sounded in the distance, Shizuru quickly returned Kiyohime back into her tank. "I know, I know. I will make sure you have more outside time. C'mon," Shizuru tried to coax the lingering snake off her arm. "Let go, sweet pea."
Natsuki frowned at the voice coming from the sitting room rather than from upstairs. "Shizu- woah. You kept her?"
Shizuru managed to close the lid before Kiyohime curiously raised her body at the new person in the room. "Well, I mean," Shizuru fussed with her with her kimono, "you still have Duran."
"...Yeah, I guess you're right. I brought this for now," Natsuki raised a couple grocery bags waist level. "I forgot how little I can carry on a motorcycle."
"I'll call a car on Sunday. Kiyohime's stock is a little low."
Natsuki hummed, but was busy staring at Kiyohime. "She's gotten much bigger since-"
"Yes, she has."
Natsuki pushed herself to stand stiffly before scurrying off into the kitchen. Taking the opportunity for some last second conversation, Shizuru closed the sliding door to speaking to Kiyohime in a hurried whisper.
"I don't know how much longer I can take, Kiyo. I-she's...it's too much for both of us."
Natsuki plopped the bags onto the kitchen table. Ears perked at the sound of the sliding door, and Natsuki's shoulders didn't stop tensing until after she was able to follow the sounds back to Shizuru's study, where the older woman stayed for the rest of the evening. The blunette sighed and rubbed at the tension building behind her neck. "I don't know how much longer I can take, Duran. This is getting a bit much."
