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It’s been a long, hard day for Semi. Stocking shelves all night has his back aching, his feet numb, and his head pounding. Not to mention the final hour of his shift, when they’re open for customers. He has so many asking if something is “out the back” or asking when it will come into stock.
Some customers are very angry when he insists there’s nothing out the back that isn’t already on the shelves, which he’d know, since he’d stocked them all night. And it’s not like he knows when new stock will come in. He just puts it on the shelf, he doesn’t order it in! Today, he’s had at least five of those customers, and he wants nothing more than a little bit of peace.
“Tsutomu?” Stepping into his apartment and masking a yawn, he call out to his roommate. Well, not so much a roommate as a familiar. Usually, the black Japanese Spitz familiar would meet him at the door, scampering around his feet and telling Semi all about his day.
“... Tsutomu?” He calls a little louder, confusion leaking into his voice. He shuts the apartment door behind him, sliding a lock across the door and putting a tourmalinated quartz on the handle.
It’s just safety precautions, since they live in a not-so-nice area. Other witches will be able to enter easily, but it guards against bad spirits and human break-ins. The fact it wasn’t on the handle means someone could have gotten in.
“Alright, well… I’ll just be making… Something. In the kitchen.” He grabs a small pocket knife from the bookshelf, the blade made with agate, and tiptoes towards the bedroom. What he sees makes him roll his eyes.
There on the bed, surrounded by potion bottles, squeaky toys, and books, is the Japanese Spitz he was calling for. He snores away, completely unaware of the slight panic his witch went through. Maybe, Semi thinks, he’s just too on edge.
“I need to calm down…” He sheathes the blade and puts it on his bedside table, moving to clean up Tsutomu’s mess. The potion bottles - which his familiar is very picky about - are put away on a labelled and catalogued shelf, and the squeaky toys knocked onto the floor.
What really catches Semi’s attention is the open book Tsutomu uses as a pillow. At least he’s not drooling. Yet. Easing it out from under his fluffy head, Semi gazes over the spells on the page. Tsutomu has a bookmark next to one, and the corners of Semi’s lips twitch upwards.
“A Peace Bath, huh? That does sound good.” He’ll thank Tsutomu when he wakes up. For now, he wanders around the bedroom, picking out the items he’ll need from the man shelves, stock cabinets, and the rack of plants.
A handful of fresh rose petals, with a sprig of lavender for extra effectiveness, a handful of epsom salt, a cap of cypress oil, and a pouch of dried, crushed rosemary. All he needs now is some milk, cold water, and a bow to mix it in.
“... Where does the bath come into this?” Scrunching up his nose, he only finds mention of the bath in the footnotes, instructing that the mixture was to be added to the bath just before he got in. With a sigh, he takes his ingredients through to the bathroom, turning on the hot tap.
“Whatcha doing?” He almost jump at the surprise appearance, glancing over his shoulder to see Tsutomu standing in the doorway, head tilted to the side so his ears flop over adorably, tail wagging despite how much he tries to hide it. He has a human form, but unless he’s wearing a special infused crystal, he ends up… Rather naked.
Butt naked. Which is mostly the reason he stays in familiar form, although Semi reckons it has something to do with sentimentality as well. As a young witch, just a teenager, he’d found a tiny puppy wandering the streets, covered in wounds from a battle with a werewolf. At first, he’d thought the little puppy was an ordinary victim that had a lucky escape.
Turned out, Tsutomu had actually challenged the werewolf, despite being small enough to step on. Luckily, the break of dawn had interrupted their fight, and Tsutomu had sulked off before the werewolf recovered their memories of that night.
3 years on, Semi was a much better witch, and Tsutomu had doubled in size despite not aging. He was still tiny, but nobody dared to mention it after the last offender was left with a nasty bite.
“I’m running a bath.” Tsutomu’s ears pricked up, his tail speeding up as his back legs wiggled.
“Didja find the spell I found?! I went to the coven library to get it today!” Semi makes note to text Yamagata later and check everything had gone okay. Tsutomu had a penchant for getting into trouble when he ventured out alone. It explained why the crystal wasn’t on the door handle though.
“I did, thank you, Tsutomu. I’m about to cast it, if you’d like to watch.”
“Yes please!”
“No interfering.”
“Not even to make your magic stronger?”
“... Okay, but only that.” The familiar yips with joy, hopping up onto a stool with his tail wagging a mile a minute, thumping against the ceramic toilet. Semi smiles as he puts a hand over it to mute the noise until Tsutomu sheepishly manages to stop it.
“My bad~.”
“Shh~.” He props the book up on a stand, nestling the large bowl in the sink and adding cold water. Before doing anything else, he turns off the full, steaming bath. Tsutomu closes his eyes, concentrating as hard as possible. His ears lift into triangles, fur crackling with magic and blue lightning dances over him before settling into a glittery maroon haze, leaving him looking like a nebula.
“Water ripples on the breeze…” Semi pours in about a tablespoon of milk and the cap of cypress oil, followed by the rose petals he freshly plucked, sprinkling the epsom salt and rosemary in together, dropping the lavender sprig on top so it casts dramatic ripples across the bowl.
“Thistledown flies through the air…” The mixture starts to take on a pastel lilac hue. Stirring it with the index finger of his right hand, he speaks clearly;
“Silent as the mighty seas…” He lifts the bowl out of the sink, trying not to grunt at the weight of it. Maybe he shouldn’t have filled it to the brim.
“Peaceful here without a care.” He pours the mixture into the bathtub, watching the milky lilac colour spread out like roots, changing the colour of his whole bath. He expects the colour would be extremely diluted, if it weren’t for Tsutomu’s help. Stripping off, he sinks into the bath with a warm sigh. It really does feel better than just a normal bath.
“Thank you, Tsutomu~.” The puppy opens his eyes, tongue lolling and tail wagging as he hops off the stool, his fur going back to plain black.
“I’ll take the book back to the library! See you later!” Semi sinks a little deeper into the water with a blissful sigh as Tsutomu grabs the book in his jaws, racing out the bathroom towards his satchel, which sits by the front door. It’s only as he hears the door open, Semi remembers something.
“Don’t forget your crystal!” Too late. He rolls his eyes. Whilst he’s in the bath, he’ll leave Yamagata to deal with any chaos Tsutomu accidentally creates. He smiles.
Still, having a witch's familiar that fetches books with much-needed spell out of the kindness of his heart really does make life a little better.