The Purity of White Seems To Be Red - ShiMayu One-Shots | Sousei no Onmyouji

The Spring of Love

A/N: Set a month after "The Sweet Aroma of Love", on the White Day (March, 14th) of that universe.
prompt: "how [Shimon] interacts with Sayo when they're alone with each other other than the angsty background she has" by TailGatomonX3 (fanfiction.net)

"How long is it going to take?"

Ikaruga Shimon, Heavenly Commander since almost five years, didn't fear much. There were only a few times, he remembered, having ever been scared. Being a level-headed person he was proud to be unshaken by most things. But now...

Now, he was scared and anxious about failing.

Thinking about it, the first time Shimon had ever been scared to death, had been, when he was actually facing his own, believing, he would never return to reality and see his foster-family again. He had been saved by Amawaka Seigen back then, who from this day onward became his idol.

The second time he was scared to his bones, had been when he nearly lost his little sister, Ikaruga Sayo. He had shook in fear for her life as he'd tried to heal the deep wound Hijimaru had caused on her. Never before and never after had he been so close to loose his reason, his faith and will with the threat of his sister's life. He could have lost everything back then. But thanks to Enmadou Rokuro his sister was saved and so was his reason to go on.

Then there had been the time he nearly lost her. Fear had clutched him in a lethal grip as he came closer and closer to the idea of loosing her forever, of not being able to tell her, what she meant to him, not being able to tell her, he was sorry for ignoring her. Not being able to see her awe-inspiring smile again.

The moment Mayura was saved, had been his salvation. And now that he thought about it, it had led up to today. Not only had he admitted his feelings in their full range to himself. The day she smiled again at him had be the start of something new. And he had never turned back. He had stopped denying his feelings for her and instead had waited for the day to tell her about them. Back then he hadn't known it was coming sooner than he would have hoped for.

And it was fine now. Shimon had managed to go through all these events without a crack. He had regained his composure like he did every time. He had focused on being an exorcist, a brother, a son and a friend.

But as he faced now an unknown challenge, he started to see, that not only life threatening situations can make you scared.

"Relax, Ni ni-sama. It has to cool down now," Chiiko told him as they both watched over the result of their day's hard work.

For hours Shimon had tried to make an enjoyable sample of white chocolate pralines with her help. Never would he have imagined, that melting chocolate could be such a difficult task. And he now wished, he had chosen another plan for a nice gift on White Day.

The first patch had been ruined, when they had directly burned the chocolate, not stirring the chocolate enough.

After throwing away the stinking mass and clearing up the bowl, they had again tried to melt white chocolate. Luckily they had bought more than two kilograms of white chocolate bars because they were newbies on the melting chocolate issue.

The second time they had stirred the bowl too much. The boiling water had swept over the rim of the pot swimming in the water, as Shimon swung the whisk in quick waves.

Unsure of what to do, they had looked at each other in surprise for a moment. Chiiko then had told him to stir the chocolate again and that the water may dissolve in steam.

Unfortunately, it didn't. Instead, as he'd continued to stir, the chocolate had formed itself into a hard clump. When he lifted the whisk a much more darkened, yellowish and sticky lump stuck to it.