At times the whole thing seemed like a bit of a raw deal. Sure, there were the obvious issues: they were marooned and away from all their family, trapped in a parallel dimension or alternate world or something like it.
That was bad enough, but reinstating the daily grind, so they couldn't even relax and enjoy the tropical environment? Awful. The world's rules necessitated a medium of exchange. Or rather, Mizuho's refusal to give freely obligated a medium of exchange.
That she could give but chose not to… well, of course, it inspired animosity. She didn't particularly mind, happy to stand alone. Well, mostly alone.
She had her own group of friends, who received her favor, who received gifts instead of purchasing things. Premier among that lucky few was Nagara…
Rajdhani had dragged Nozoni off to do some testing regarding her ability- something about feeding data into computers and triangulation. Mizuho, of course, had no interest in running all over the island, and Nagara had stayed behind with her.
Despite his indolence hunger eventually struck, and he looked to Mizuho and the small mountain of snack food her cats had accumulated. He reached for one…
"Ah, ah, ah- what are you giving me in exchange, Nagara?"
"What?"
"You can't be living off of freebies forever, Nagara. You've got to show work ethic. Guts!"
He gave her a questioning look. "You want something, then?"
Mizuho smiled, curling up in her chair in a distinctly catlike fashion. "What can you give me for it, Nagara?"
"What do you want me to do, send you to another world?"
"No thanks." Mizuho leaned her head on her hand, and spent a few moments attempting to bait one of her cats into her lap, with limited effect.
It gave him some time to think, but he didn't come up with much. "I don't…"
"What's Nozomi's deal?" She asked him.
"What?"
"You know. She's been sticking with you. Why?"
"I don't know." He sighed. "I mean, it's Nozomi."
Mizuho laughed. "Of course." For some reason, he didn't think she was talking about Nozomi…
"Why ask?"
"You're not dating?"
"What?!"
"Come on. She orbits around you."
"That feels a bit… strong."
"God knows why," Mizuho muttered, "But I think this means we can make a deal."
Why would she need to know if he and Nozomi had a thing…? Oh. Suddenly, he was looking at the pile of snacks a little more analytically. Were they worth it?
"Way to make a girl feel appreciated." She scoffed. Of course, he wouldn't want to. Nagara didn't do initiative. He stayed silent, and a worrying thought crept into her mind. He didn't think… she didn't want him to think…
"Look, I'm not gonna starve you, I just wanted to-" She wasn't quite sure if her courage would have lasted through the whole sentence, but she was saved from that particular problem when Nagara spoke.
"Sure," Nagara said. "Is this… compensated dating?"
"Don't say it like that." Mizuho scowled. "Maybe I should have just asked Rajdhani…"
Rumors spread around the island pretty quickly, considering that there wasn't much else to talk about. Well, there were other topics of conversation, but gossip about who was sneaking off into the bushes with whom was a lot less heavy than other topics. Family and most hobbies were gone, the future was a hazy impossibility, and they were practically trapped…
The four- Rajdhani, Mizuho, Nozomi, and Nagara- were a subject of a large part of that discussion. They were just far enough away to give fertile room for rumors to sprout up, and there was a pretty considerable betting pool going on about Nagara and Nozomi. It was almost considered a given.
What started the rumors was a new pair of boots. 'Well, they might need boots for exploring alternate worlds,' you could say. Completely fair. Mizuho supplied a lot of those expeditions; however, it wasn't hard to notice the new clothes that came with the boots, the obvious quality of everything he owned.
Everyone knew he was one of Mizuho's favorites, but the sudden change was mostly unexplained until someone managed to snap a photo of the two. Nagara climbing up a ladder and Mizuho hanging down from the floor above, lips touching. The rumor mill practically exploded.
(Mizuho had proposed it imagining something like fair trade. She would get some affection- more than what cats could provide, perhaps the only affection she'd get for no one knew how long- and Nagara would get stuff. Fair as any agreement in this world. Sometimes she almost believed it was just transactional.)
I'm watching this show weekly with a club so I have no idea if this makes sense later on but I couldn't leave it sitting in my docs til December. Update: please don't tell me go-old glasses sunk the ship
I'm always uncertain about characterization the first fic in a fandom, but…