Impulse Shopping

Prompt: "One Color"

Wandering down the street after having finshed a couple of jobs that were honestly demeaning of his capability, the vagabond god clutched the five-yen coins and sighed. What he truly desired was to be a god who could bring others happiness. But what he was stuck doing amounted to mere whims of human fancy and superficial tasks brought on by others' laziness. He didn't feel fulfilled in his godly duties, and his heart ached for something deeper and intensely satisfying.

Yato pondered his options and came up with little more than what he was already doing, seeing as so many other gods had all the more grandios tasks covered. Getting depressed, he kicked a coffee can out of his way as he walked. The only thing that ultimately mattered to him was making Hiyori happy.

When did I become such a single-minded deity? he asked himself as he considered his heyday a few hundred years prior. As he persistently tried to think beyond the present, he came up flat. There was one singular reason he felt the way he did. After years of searching for a new niche, Iki Hiyori pointed the way with ease and precision.

His right hand gripped the neck of the sake bottle full of coins as he made his way back toward the shrine and Kofuku's place, he and his shinki's temporary abode. He brilliant azure eyes caught on a dress in a window. It wasn't just any window, and to him, not just any dress.

It was that color. The rich magenta of the center of a sakura blossom. Like a deep blush, much akin to wine, that dissipated into a warm and inviting pink. The realization repeated endlessly in his head: It was that color. He continued to think of the color of her aura, which burned brightly in her eyes and often in her spirit's 'tail'.

It vaguely reminded him of her favorite piece of clothing, her scarf, but more intense. The distracted deity tried to slap his cheeks to jostle himself out of his daydream. But he couldn't shake it. When he saw shades of a magenta-pink like this, all he could envision was her. It was her color, one that he found strangely entrancing. His feet commanded to back pedal and enter the shop door.

Later that day, Hiyori stopped in at the shrine to say hello on her way home. When she slid the door open the shoji, looking for familiar faces, she discover a wrapped box with a bow. She looked at the tag out of curiosity, and to her pleasant surprise, it bore her name.

The young brunette sat down and proceeded to open the gift, which hadn't revealed the sender's identity. From the moment she beheld the garment, which had be coupled with some lovely jewelry in the deep violet shades, her breath alluded her. Hiyori had no clue where anyone else had gone off to, but she decided to at least try on the delightful present.

As she exited the bathroon, she practically ran into the gift bearer himself. Yato was about to give her hell for being late for her study session with Yukine. Then his eyes fell upon the dress, perfectly fitting her from her shoulders and chest, the skirt portion flowing gently from her waist down to her knees. He nearly tripped over himself as he stepped back, accidentally kicking the now empty coin bottle against the wall with a hard thud.

"D-do you you like it?" Yato stammered, giving himself away as his face heated up. She smiled up at him and nodded.

"It's beautiful, Yato," she replied meek and unsure of the meaning of the gift. "Arigatou."

"It was quite worth it. It's a color I've never been able to appreciate on anyone else," he admittedly quite awkwardly. "Consider it a 'thank you'...for everything you do for me-I mean us." The enamored god tried to hide the fierce blush he knew he couldn't rid himself of.

Hiyori came up to him and kissed his feverishly warm cheek, giving it a pinch.

"Well, for future reference, it looks good on you, too," Hiyori said with a swirl of the dress as she turned to go and find Kofuku and the others.

Despite revealing his embarrassment, Yato couldn't help the satisfied smile that seemed suddenly stuck on his youthful face.