A/N: Written for the seven_virtues challenge on lj. Also posted on lj (link to journal in profile).

Last one. :) And what do you know: it's the shortest.

Fuel to the Fire
Prompt #006 – Liberality

As a child she had oft wondered how love felt to the heart. Even in her adulthood she found herself wondering so on occasion. She had met many people, most through the church or her line of work, but few were memorable and fewer still were ones for which she could proclaim love.

It was difficult to say, at her age, whether she loved her mother or not. Whether she loved that kindly priest – for she was certainly grateful to him and he warmed her heart, but the ticking feather that few others provided were absent.

She hadn't noticed until the interviews were finally concluded as well as their temporary acquaintance that Aoki Seiichiro was in fact the only person she knew to fulfil all criteria she had attributed to love. The fluttery feeling in her chest. The warmth in her heart. The heat in other areas of her body. The fantasy to be in his heart despite the aversions that stood in her way – and somehow, that tiny bit of her was stubborn, no matter how she pushed and shoved at it. But most importantly, it was important to her that he was happy.

Which is what had led her to ask him in their final meeting: 'are you happy?'

Aoki-san had appeared surprised at the question, but his answer had been affirmative and honest.

She smiled at that and said her farewell.

Seiichiro was somewhat taken aback by the abrupt farewell; he knew their business was over, having extracted all the information his writer required, but somehow he hadn't expected their parting of ways to be so…abrupt.

He also could not grasp why it was so important; he had met many other people in such interviews after all. Some of them he could not wait to get away from – even if he would only mention that fact to his wife. Kasumi-san however proved to be a far more appeasing companion, even if she did possess an ability, somewhat like Shimako except with a fiery flare, to fluster him at the best of times.

Eventually, he had to admit they had developed a friendship of sorts and he would thus miss her.

Perhaps that was what prompted him to leave his card with her when they departed – forgetting she already had his contact details from the little interlude wrought around his umbrella.

The Soapgirl however accepted the slip of paper. He however did not receive a call from her till 1999.