Paper

Author: Nogamo

Haru was in a black mood. He sat at his commander's desk, fuming as he penned a particularly difficult document.

When he had become commander, he knew there would be responsibility attached to the post, but no one told him there would be mountains of paperwork. It was great and all to have negotiated a free trade treaty with the city's merchant guild, but committing this agreement to official papers was a real headache.

"Arrrrgh!" Throwing up his hands, he crumpled up his fourth attempt and tossed it into the hearth opposite his desk.

"Wasting good parchment I see." Haru looked up and turned towards his open doorway. Shion poked in her purple head. "We have firewood, you know," she piped with a teasing grin.

"Not funny, Shishi," Haru sighed. "Come here, help me! I can't write this!"

Shion strode into the room with a laugh. "No way! I can't write that stuff, who do you think I am?" Nimbly, she vaulted herself onto his desk. "Anyway, this is your job, commander."

Haru grumbled unintelligibly in response. He yanked out a new piece of parchment and vehemently began writing again. Shion leaned over with interest, observing the curls of ink. "Your handwriting looks like Sansan's feces," she pointed out.

Haru looked up with a glower. "You're blocking my light."

Shion hopped off the desk and skipped to the fireplace. "Well of course, with such a pathetic fire running. Here, let me."

"Hey wait don't--" Haru scrambled out of his seat, just as Shion tossed a handful of white powder into his hearth. The fire instantly glowed white and swelled to twice its size, filling the room with light. "Useful, aye? Just a little something I've been work--"

BOOM! The hearth exploded behind Shion, sending white sparks zipping through the room and momentarily blinding both soldiers with bright light before extinguishing altogether with a loud "pop". The two stood wordlessly in complete darkness for a few seconds.

"Ahem... It's still in the works," Shion said finally. "...as you can see." She struck a match and lit the oil lamp on Haru's desk.

"My manuscript! What have you done?" Haru exclaimed, gaping at the pile of cinders upon his otherwise empty desk.

"Uh... One of the sparks must've landed on it," Shion said with a strained laugh. "Well, you were just going to throw it into the fire like all the other ones, right?"

Haru gave her a face of exasperation. "Did you come here just to annoy me?"

"No, actually. I came to say I'm proud of you," she replied.

"You...what? OUCH!" he yelped as Shion gave him a hearty clap on the back.

Shion looked away. "I'm proud of you," she repeated, more sheepishly. Before the surprised boy could reply, she grinned once more and headed to the door. "Now I'll leave you to your exciting work. You know, before I do any more damage," she added quickly as she exited.

Haru returned to his desk and pulled out a fresh sheet of parchment. He started to write, but had to stop. He couldn't read what he was writing. The tears were making everything blurry.