Standing under the pleasant stream of water, all that he wanted was that he could step out, make himself some tea, and then go back to sleep. But he knew that tea was out of the question, because the kitchen was No Man's Land, only that taken over. His only attempt at chasing away the Snakeboy-and-Snakegirl-cheesiness-in-the-kitchen involved (pathetically, if he may say so himself) Girl-with-cute-smile-whose-name-I-stupidly-neglected-to-ask, so, with a groan at his own enactment of how the mighty fall, he began to go through, mentally, of the work he had ahead of him for the day.
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Tomoe was used to strange sights greeting him sometimes upon coming back home, yet, somehow he managed to often become surprised anyway. He found his roommate kneeling before the transparent acrylic bathtub, shirtless, with his pet white snake hanging comfortably around his shoulders like some sort of feather boa. He was arranging some new water plants in the bathtub, and scratching the catfish that lived there behind its hypothetical ears as if it was an actual cat.
Mizuki was an odd fellow with a strange fondness for things that were damp, slippery and slimy. The tattoo of a snake that curled around his right arm undulated softly when he moved his fingers to caress the catfish's scales.
Lost in the remembrance of their school days together, Tomoe lingered in the doorsill and looked at Mizuki's peaceful face as he went about the business of making his pet more comfortable.
'Do you want a moment with Mr. Waterdance, too?' his roommate asked, finally.
'No, I don't want a 'moment' with Mr. Waterdance,' Tomoe said, under his breath, eyeing the splattering fish in the tub with a slight note of wariness. Sometimes, he wondered how he could get on so well with someone who could annoy him so much, so easily. He shrugged. 'Is Unari gone, already?'
Mizuki stood up, wiping his wet hand on a nearby towel, 'Yes,' he said with a semblance of a pout, 'And I'm already missing her. I asked her if she wanted to take Snakey with her to work today, to remember me- but then again, she's doing some research on little local fish, and she feared it might eat her test subjects.'
Unari is a marine biologist, Tomoe's memory curtly reminded him.
'A legit reason for dumping you,' Tomoe said, smirking.
'Don't ever mention it,' Mizuki said, absentmindedly stroking Snakey's head, 'My life would suck without her. By the way, she left us dinner. Come, let's go heat it, I lost track of time with Mr. Waterdance and I'm starving.'
Tomoe followed him quietly, wondering, in a scale from 1 to 10, just how normal he'd say his life was. Maybe a 5. Or a 4. The weirdness around him made up for whatever semblance of normalcy his working life could have.
'It's really good,' Tomoe commented after taking the first bite of Unari's vegetable pie.
'You kidding?' Mizuki said, chasing his own bite of pie with a sip of sake (his tolerance was both commendable and scary), 'She's a kitchen goddess. An angel. How indebted I am to Shinjirou for leading me to her, he must never know- Tomoe, swear that you won't ever tell him.'
Tomoe smirked, but said nothing. Still, Mizuki knew that he tacitly had his friend's word. They might bicker from time to time, and betray each other when it came to groceries, but they knew they could count on the other's priorities being otherwise straight.
'He ditched us, anyway,' Mizuki said bitterly, stabbing a piece of pie before chomping on it, 'Not a call, a like on facebook, nada. He went full ghost on us.'
'We've got nothing on the groupies,' Tomoe muttered.
Mizuki nodded, agreeing with his wisdom. 'He'll get it when he comes back,' he said, sneakily- 'Where was he, again?'
Tomoe shrugged. 'In Indonesia I think,' he looked out of the window- 'we'll be seeing pictures of beaches and hangovers forever when he gets back.'
'Would that he took us on his tours,' Mizuki said, sourly.
Tomoe quirked an eyebrow- 'And stand him in bitchy idol mode 24/7?'
His roommate blinked, innocently: 'Do you think he'd be able to keep it up that long?'
'I wouldn't underestimate him,' Tomoe answered.
'Nah, you're right,' Mizuki said, and poured his friend a sip of vodka. Tomoe eyed it with distrust.
'Are you trying to get something out of me?' he inquired, his suspicion slightly piqued.
'Psh, you have the oddest ideas,' Mizuki said, dismissingly, pouring himself a sip as well. 'It's for a toast. Now, rise it.'
Still not convinced, Tomoe asked him what they were toasting to.
'Why, to the lovely vacations that could result from us getting invited to touring along with "Kurama", and ditching him last minute in the airport for being a smartass.'
Tomoe smirked. 'I can toast to that,' he said.
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It was the following morning, and, before stepping into the studio, Tomoe routinely eyed the sign that hung over the door fondly: MIKAGE & AYAKASHI. It looked and sounded awesome, as if they were some kind of inner-design Bang & Olufsen.
With but a few days left to the opening reception of their exclusive client- which, now that their work was through, they could safely disclose was no other than the renowned Harusame chain- there were some formalities to take care of, some in-site supervision that Mikage and Tomoe did together, and some paperwork that fell within Tomoe's jurisdiction. Mikage, in charge of their public relations, had been busy making various phone calls throughout the morning, and, among them, had given a call to the owner of the Sengoku Jiidai store, to extend to her an invitation as a guest of their studio.
Well past midday, when he was finished, Mikage strolled into Tomoe's office: 'I rang Yukiji Suzuki, from the Sengoku Jiidai shop,' he informed his associate.
Tomoe barely looked up from the budget-checkups he was running, and nodded.
'She sounded genuinely glad that we called,' Mikage commented, 'though her voice was rather raspy. She suspected she was coming down with something. Of course I told her that she could send someone in her stead, if she preferred, or, if she didn't, I instructed her to write us an email and we'll take care of the pictures he wanted.'
'Alright,' Tomoe said, slightly distracted, 'I'll keep an eye out in case she writes to us. Anything else?'
'Oh, no, everything's like it should be,' Mikage said, with a contented sigh, 'I wish it were always this easy. So, Tomoe, if you please, print out the invite and mail it to her private address- not the store, let's be smooth.'
'Alright,' Tomoe said once more, mechanically, and continued typing, not sparing more than a glance at the file with the invitation he sent to the printer.
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Author's Note:
If you're wondering about how Mizuki and Unari came to be together, I invite you to read my other story, called 'Kindred Spirits'. It's pretty much explained there :)
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'Harusame'- I didn't want to think so I borrowed this from Shaman King, it was the sword of one of the main characters. I vaguely recall it means something like 'spring rain' or so, very poetic.
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I wanted to thank Ai Star, Foxes-Rock, Hana-Liatris, tsuki-suna and HarmonySteel for their support!
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Sometimes I think that this story is too adult for this fandom, hahaha, what with budget reviews, online banking facilities, and adult responsibilities. Hahaha sometimes I feel guilty that I'm taking the magic out of it, in a way. I hope you don't see it that way too :P