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“Yo, I’m here!” you call, waving your hand to try and catch your friend’s attention. Said friend was currently absorbed in training, a rare sight to see; her eyes were closed in concentration and she was hovering about a foot off the ground, stationary. When you yelled, however, her eyes snapped open and she fell out of the air quite abruptly, like a marionette with its strings cut.
“Oh, it’s you,” she says as she walks over, stretching with her arms up, then shaking her head to get her bangs out of her eyes. She looks rather tired, you notice, but she’s obviously trying not to show it. Well, you’re kind of tired, too; you’ve been up since sunrise with your own training after being unceremoniously pulled out of bed by Mima (no, literally -- you were caught up in the blankets and wound up falling on the floor when she tugged on them, all while greeting you with a loud and intentionally, almost mockingly zealous “good morning”).
Now, the sunlight reflects brightly off the snow, the warmth causing icicles to melt on the roof of the shrine, and you’re all set to spend the day with a certain young miko.
“Yeah, it’s me. Surprise! I mean, we only agreed to hang out today like, last week.” You throw an arm around Reimu’s shoulder when she comes within reach, and she sighs, letting herself be pulled up against you.
“I didn’t forget, you know. I just thought you were going to be here earlier, so I was starting to suspect that you had forgotten.”
“Hey, it wasn’t my fault that I’m late this time! It was Mima-sama, blame it all on her.”
“I blame everything on her anyway. What’d she do this time?”
You laugh. “Okay, yeah, that’s true. Anyway, she literally dragged me out of bed for spell practice and then a danmaku battle.”
“Did you win? Wait, why did you specify that it was a danmaku battle? Isn’t that kind of obvious?”
“No, I most certainly did not, and because, my dear Reimu… because it isn’t always with her.”
Reimu blinks. “I don’t think I want to know. The thought of you trying to fight her in a physical duel is kind of disturbing, to be honest? She’s sort of big. And strong. And fast, for that matter. I mean, I bet I could beat her in a full contact battle if it came down to it, but that doesn’t mean I particularly like the idea of trying.”
“Could you? Could you really?”
“I basically did before! You know, with the yin-yang orb? That basically counts.”
“It really doesn’t.”
“Yes it does! Whatever.” Reimu shakes her head, trying to dismiss the topic. “In conclusion: Mima sucks. Moving on.”
“Does not,” you argue, and Reimu smacks you on the head with her gohei.
“Does too, don’t lie. It’s not nice, Marisa.”
You cross your arms defiantly. “Plot twist! I’m not nice, I’m actually really mean and scary. And I’m also not lying.”
“Coming from the girl who cried when I beat her.”
“Okay, for one, screw you , and for two, what the heck do we even have planned for today, again? I’m pretty sure it didn’t involve arguing about Mima-sama. Or did I miss something?”
“That wasn’t in our itinerary. Well, we don’t have an itinerary, but it still wasn’t.”
“Oh, okay then. So what are we gonna do today?”
“Well,” Reimu begins. “I was kind of thinking about having Genji drop you in the middle of Misty Lake and seeing if you can swim or not.”
“Oh, you wanna go down there? Sounds fine by me.”
“So you can swim?”
“The lake’s frozen, Rei. It doesn’t matter if I can swim or not.”
“So you can’t, gotcha.”
“It’s freakin’ frozen! We may be able to skate, but we sure as hell aren’t doing any swimming today. Ugh, that sounds awful, anyway, can you imagine?” You shudder for emphasis.
“I’ve actually had to swim in winter before, so I can imagine. It wasn’t very fun.”
“Oh, wow. Did you die?” You ask seriously, eyes wide.
“Yes,” Reimu tells you solemnly. “As you can see, I absolutely died.”
“And to think, all this time, that my best friend was a ghost! It’s like I attract phantoms or something, wow.”
Reimu rolls her eyes. “So anyway! We should get going if we want to skate, it’s going to be kind of warm today and I don’t want to risk the ice breaking on us.”
“Oh, yeah, I kinda forgot about that.” Whoops. “Maybe we should go sledding instead. How does that sound?”
“Where would we even go?”
You consider it for a moment before answering, “Youkai mountain.”
Reimu pulls herself out from under your arm and puts both her hands on your shoulders, looking at you directly.
“No,” she whispers empathetically.
“Damn. Well, there’s a hill not too far from the village that should be fine. I don’t think anyone goes out there because it’s sorta near the forest and thus scary, so we’ll have the place to ourselves!”
“Do youkai go there?” Rei asks, twirling the gohei in her hand.
“Not that close to the village, I don’t think so. Sorry, I know you must be so disappointed.”
She sticks her tongue out at you. “What do we even sled on?”
“Lemme go back to my place and I’ll grab some mats that should work, I think I saw them just the other day.”
“And what if you don’t find them? Should we just use Mima? She’s probably big enough.”
You snort a laugh. “Somehow I don’t think she’d go for that, even if she is practically taller than both of us combined.”
“She’s not that tall, Marisa. It just feels that way because she floats, remember?”
“Close enough. So, wanna go?”
“Alright, just let me get some warmer clothes on. I’ll be back out in a minute!” Reimu waves as she runs to the shrine and goes inside. A few minutes later, she emerges wearing a coat and a scarf. She’s even replaced her usual ribbon with a red hat topped with a pom-pom.
“Ready?” You ask her, smiling. You’d never admit it out loud, but she looks really cute in her winter clothes on.
“Ready,” she confirms. You let her climb onto your broom behind you and then kick off from the ground once she’s on, her arms wrapped around your waist. The air is cold, and she’s still not quite accustomed to flying in wintertime, so as a solution she presses her face up against your back to shield herself from the wind. You make a mental note to tease her about it later, but right now the warmth of her pressed up against you is honestly really nice in this chilly weather. Actually, your cheeks feel a bit warm as she clings to you tightly, and you’re beyond grateful that any blushing you may or may not be doing will just look to be rosy cheeks from the cold.
When you reach the Forest of Magic, you choose to fly between the trees to get out of the wind a bit, weaving expertly between them. Reimu always hates when you do this, but you’ve only ever crashed twice doing so, and she wasn’t with you either of those times, so there. When the cabin you share with Mima is in sight, you slow down and come as smoothly to a stop as you can, allowing Reimu to hop down before you do so yourself, carrying your broom over your shoulder as you lead her through the door.
Inside, Mima is seated at the table, which is forever buried in books, the tip of a fountain pen at her lips as she frowns at something on the page before her. You notice a spot of black ink on her deep red lipstick, and grin as you throw your arms around her from behind.
“That’s a good look for you. Ya know, the black ink mixed with your lipstick. Very original.”
“Back so soon, Marisa?” She asks without looking up, and you’re a little disappointed that she wasn’t at all startled. Well, it is extremely difficult to surprise her, after all, so you didn’t really expect much, but oh well.
“Just for a bit. You seen those mats we had lyin’ around like, last week?”
“Which mats are those?”
“Uh. The mats. Like. I think they were bamboo, maybe? I dunno, I wasn’t paying attention. Anyway, I need those.”
She hadn’t yet looked over at you, but now she does, turning to raise an eyebrow in your direction.
“What do you need them for?”
“Rei ‘n I are going sledding over by the village. We just need something to sled on, you see.”
“Hm,” she seems to consider it for a moment. “Why not take some floor cushions from the shrine and use those?”
“No!” Reimu interjects loudly. “Those are all I have.”
“So?” Mima smiles at her teasingly, and Reimu rolls her eyes.
“So, we’re not using those! Come on Marisa, let’s go find something else to do.”
“Aw, and I was just getting excited about Mari finally bringing her girlfriend home with her.”
“What?! No-”
“She’s not-”
“We’re not girlfriends!”
“We’re not dating!”
Mima just laughs at your stuttering, apparently satisfied by the minor chaos she has caused.
“Mmhmm, sure you’re not. All that blushing and hurried denial means nothing. Just two teenagers who spend nearly all their waking moments together, that’s all, and nothing more.”
“Let’s go, Marisa!” Reimu says, tugging on your hand. “This is stupid.”
“Well, alright. You two have fun,” Mima winks with the obvious intention of making things worse. “Oh, by the way, Marisa, try checking the attic, I believe I may have moved the mats up there the other day.”
You roll your eyes. “Thanks, Mima-sama.”
Removing Reimu’s hand from your wrist, you run upstairs, grab the mats from the pile of boxes they were stacked on top of in the attic, and then run back.
“We’re leaving now!” you call as you grab Reimu and drag her out the door before Mima can say anything else. Not letting that happen any more today, with “that” being Mima saying things.
The flight to the hill outside the human village is just as cold as the flight to the forest was, and Reimu clings to you as much as physically possible as you land, setting the mats down on the snow before you.
“Uh, Rei? You’re going to have to let go of me sooner or later here. You know that, right?”
She holds on tighter in response. “It’s too cold, this was a bad idea.”
“We’re already here, though. No turning back now.”
“Actually, we could absolutely turn back now. We’re not really all that far from the shrine, you know.”
“ Rei. ”
“Alright, fine! I’ll slide down this dumb hill with you. I’m not even totally sure I understand what the appeal is, though. Sure, it’s fun for little kids, but aren’t we kind of too old for this?”
“Reimu. Look. It’s going fast… on snow. Understand now?”
“You can fly faster, though.”
“On snow ,” you repeat slowly, emphasizing your words. Reimu just shakes her head.
“I suppose that is just like you…” she mutters, letting go of you so that you can sit down on one of the mats.
“Hey, wanna ride with me?” You pat the space on the mat behind you. It’s really not big enough for two people, but who cares? Certainly not you.
“I guess,” says Reimu, taking a seat behind you and wrapping her arms around your waist, her legs on either side of yours. You grin.
“You’re just pretending to not like this so you can maintain your cool persona or whatever, right? Well, I hate to break it to you, but I already know you’re a dork. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is.”
You hear her blow a raspberry from behind you. “Just go already!”
“Don’t have to tell me twice.” With that, you push the mat forward until it begins to slide downhill by itself, smoothly gliding across the snow. Or… it does that at first, at least.
“Marisa!” Reimu yells, but there’s not really much you can do about the large snow drift at the bottom of the hill, the one that you’re about to hit head on. You both tumble to the ground, flung forward into the snow by the sudden loss of momentum, and you land face-first in the snow drift.
“Whoops,” you say, wiping snow off your face.
“Did you do this on purpose?” asks Reimu accusingly.
“Huh? Nah, but it sure was fun, wasn’t it?”
“I got snow in my eyes.”
“I got snow everywhere, welcome to the club.”
Reimu just glares at you, and you smile at her for a few moments before speaking once more. “So… wanna go again?”
She sighs. “Yes.”
You practically cackle as you pull her to her feet, grabbing the mat and beginning to run up the hill the best you can, dragging Reimu along behind you so you can go again.
A little under three hours later and your clothes are soaking wet, your hands numb and your bangs caked with snow; you and Reimu fell no less than fifteen more times, but it was always fun to tumble down the hill with her and land awkwardly in the snowdrift, often with one of you ending up on top of the other. Indeed, you don’t really want to stop, but Reimu has started shivering violently. Her clothes are lighter than yours with only an ill-fitting coat protecting them, a scarf and hat to protect the rest of her; you, on the other hand, have a warm turtleneck shirt beneath your dress, thick stockings and a heavy cape, and a hat and boots. Even you are getting cold and wet, though.
“Ready to head back to the shrine?” you ask her, and she nods slightly, trembling as she stands from where she was sitting in the snow.
Dammit, she looks kind of pathetic. Sighing, you pull off your cape and put it on her instead.
“Better?”
Another nod. “A little. Thanks, Marisa.”
“Don’t mention it. Now, come on, let’s hurry back so we can get out of these wet clothes.”
“What are you going to wear?” Reimu asks you, wrapping her arms around your waist again as you kick off from the ground and fly up above the treeline, not wanting to go too high because of the cold.
“Huh? Whatta ya mean?” You say distractedly, looking down at the village as you fly overhead.
“Your clothes are all wet, too. What are you going to wear instead? You haven’t left anything at the shrine recently.”
“Oh, hm… can I steal some robes from you?”
“No.” Reimu’s voice is flat as she answers. “I doubt they’ll fit you anyway.”
“Then I guess I just gotta go naked until my clothes dry.” You say cheerfully, shrugging in a goofy manner.
“Ugh, fine, I’ll see what I have that you can wear, if only because you’ll die if I let you go without. I don’t really have a lot of winter clothes though, as you know. My stuff’s always getting ruined in battles anyway.”
“Eh, it’s fine,” you tell her. You were just joking, after all. “I can drop you off at the shrine and then fly back home to grab something else to wear.”
“And go that far in this weather, wearing wet clothes? Are you trying to catch a cold?”
“Jeez, you’re soundin’ a little like Mima-sama there. She’s probably gonna say pretty much the exact same thing when I get there. ‘What are you thinking, flying halfway across Gensokyo when you’re soaking wet? You’re just asking to get sick!’”
“Well, she’d be right. For once.” Reimu adds on the last part quickly, as an afterthought. “Just stay at the shrine, maybe you can fit into a nightgown or something. It wouldn’t be great, but I do have a lot of blankets, so you can wrap yourself in those, too.”
You smile. “Sounds good to me.”
Upon reaching the shrine, Reimu runs past you to get inside first, with you following behind at a less frantic pace. She practically flings her boots off and then disappears deeper into the shrine at once, leaving you to step inside, shrug, and sit down right where you are to wait for her.
She returns ten minutes later with a big armful of blankets, and has changed her clothes already. The blankets get dumped into a pile in front of you, which is then dug through by Reimu until she finds a long sleeved nightgown and tosses it onto your head.
“There, you can wear that. Do you want tea? I’m going to make some regardless of your answer, just so you know.”
“Sure, I’m always up for tea,” you tell her as you pull the nightgown off of your face.
“Good. While I’m in there you should change your clothes. I promise I won’t look, I don’t need to see your dumb butt anyway.”
“Jeez, what did my ass do to you?”
“Squashed me like six times while we were sledding, that’s what.”
“Okay, that’s fair,” you admit.
“Once you’ve changed I’ll take our clothes and put them in the kitchen to dry by the stove.” She snatches your hat off your head before you can stop her and then heads for the kitchen, taking it with her. Rude.
Reimu’s clothes never quite fit you right, always at least a little too big, but the nightgown she gave you to wear is pretty close, and you suspect it might be a bit on the older side. Rarely do her clothes last more than a year, but given that this is just pajamas, it got a chance to escape the potential destruction all the rest of her stuff faces. Once you’ve pulled it on, you wrap a blanket around yourself like some kind of weird cloak and leave your own clothes in the kitchen alongside hers to dry. She presents you with tea a few minutes later, bringing you back into the other room to sit alongside her and drink it together.
“It’s so warm, oh my god, I didn’t even realize how cold I really was until now. It’s like drinking… I dunno, liquid sunshine or something? Whatever,” You say to Reimu upon taking a sip of the tea, causing her to laugh, her face lighting up. You need to try and ensure she retains that expression; genuine happiness is a good look for her. She’s just so precious and needs to be protected at all costs (even if she can kick your ass in a battle 75% of the time).
“You like tea, Marisa?” Reimu jokingly asks, and you set the cup down so you can place your hands on both her shoulders and give her a solemn look, just as she did to you earlier today.
“Reimu. I freakin’ love tea. You should know that.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve already figured that out,” she reassures you.
“Good.” The room goes quiet as the conversation ends naturally, leaving you both to just sip at your tea in comfortable silence.
When you think about it, this shrine is almost like a second home to you now, given how much time you spend here visiting Reimu. It’s practically a daily routine for you, flying over to the shrine when you get a chance to pester/hang out with Rei for a while. She doesn’t complain about your presence, but your presence often brings Mima’s, and that she will complain about, as if Mima didn’t already practically haunt the shrine anyway. She’s backed off some now, though, and with their conflict reaching something of an impassé, they eventually came to an agreement that basically boils down to “you don’t mess with me, I don’t mess with you”. Well, it’s better than nothing, you think.
It’s nice, though, being able to come here so often. You love your home in the forest, you really truly do, but sometimes it just feels a bit… chaotic? No that’s not the word you’re looking for. You’re not entirely sure what it is, really, but on days when there’s no trouble brewing at the shrine, the peaceful environment is a nice change of pace. Of course, it’s rather rare for there to be no trouble at the shrine, but at least that keeps things interesting.
Getting to spend the time with Reimu is the best part though, hands down. You feel lucky that Mima is okay with you hanging out with her, despite the rivalry between the two of them. Of course, even if she didn’t approve, you’d do it anyway, sneaking out if you had to, and she probably knows that it’d be pointless to try and stop you, too. Still, it’s a lot easier for her to just let you go than it is having to make a fuss about it. Besides, to be completely honest, you’re not sure that Mima dislikes Reimu at all anymore, anyway
.
You’re pulled from your thoughts and back to reality when you hear Reimu mumble “hey, Marisa?” in an uncharacteristically soft voice.
“What’s up, Rei?” You ask her, starting to worry a little. She’s sitting there on the cushion beside you with a blanket pulled over her head, and maybe that’s just because she’s cold, but what if she’s really upset? Did you do something wrong? Is she getting tired of you?? Does she actually secretly hate you and has decided she wants you out of her sight as quickly as possible???
Well, maybe that last one isn’t too likely, but….
“Can I ask you a question?” Reimu continues, voice just a little louder.
“You just did,” you point out automatically, then shake your head quickly. If she’s upset you probably shouldn’t be making annoying jokes. “Sorry, go right ahead.”
“Ah… why are you here?”
So she is getting tired of you, isn’t she? You are kind of an obnoxious and unpleasant person to be around, after all. However, you also kind of have a tendency to overreact sometimes, so chances are you’re completely misreading this situation and totally off here. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened.
“Oh, uh. I dunno, I guess I’m bored?” You respond with a carefully casual tone. “Change of scenery and change of company, you know? I can leave if you want, though, just tell me to shove off whenever you get sick of me.”
“No! I’m not sick of you and I don’t want you to leave. It’s kind of the opposite, actually. I guess I didn’t word that very well, did I? What I mean is something like… why do you want to spend so much time with me? I mean, I’m just going to be sitting around doing absolutely nothing for the rest of the night, so I’m probably not that fun to be around.
“Nah, that’s not true,” you reassure her, scooching closer. “You’re plenty fun to hang out with. Besides, I kind of like this? Just doing nothing. You would think that it’d be really boring but I guess just the fact that it’s with you makes it nice.”
“Oh,” she says, before laughing a little. “I feel the same way, actually. I guess we’re just weirdos.”
“Hell yeah, we’re weirdos, have you seen us? We’re about as weird as it gets.”
Reimu laughs again, louder. Good, she’s not as nervous, starting to cheer up again. “That’s true, we are pretty strange.”
“Strange doesn’t even begin to cover it.” You laugh too, and you’ve slid so close to her that you can put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her up against your side. She is generally pretty okay with you doing this, and this time she surprises you, but not by pushing you away, oh no. Instead, she wraps both arms around you tightly in a sideways hug, leaning her head against your chest as she holds onto you. You’re so stunned that you don’t even move at first, instead just sitting there with eyes wide, but after a few moments, when it becomes clear that Reimu isn’t planning on letting go anytime soon, you hug her back, kind of awkwardly pulling her into your lap so you can hug her from a better angle.
“Well, this is new,” you remark in a genuinely cheerful voice. Reimu laughs and looks up at you.
“I guess it is, isn’t it?”
“That’s definitely not a bad thing, though. I mean, damn, this is actually pretty cozy. Why didn’t we think of this sooner?”
“Because we’re losers who can’t express ourselves very well.”
“True, very true,” you admit, your tone still upbeat. “Well, there’s a first time for everything!”
Reimu shifts her position so she’s sitting upright a little more, but still is in your lap. The two of you are now face-to-face with each other. Her bangs are falling in front of her eyes, and you reach up to brush them aside for her. Wait a second… hm....
You poke one of her hair tubes and then lift up the piece of hair, draping it over her head in a silly fashion.
“Thanks, Marisa,” she says sarcastically. “I really needed that.”
“You sure did!” You grin at her, and she shakes her head so that her hair falls back into place causing her bangs fall back in front of her eyes. Once again, you brush them out of the way, this time leaving the rest of her hair be.
“Huh. You know, your hair’s kind of purple,” you tell her suddenly.
“No duh. You just noticed that?”
“Nah, of course not. I do think it’s gotten a lot darker though, hasn’t it? I remember your hair being brighter than that when we first met.”
“And I remember your hair being red. What happened to that?”
“Bleach happened to that.”
“But it was pretty cute.”
Reimu thought your red hair was cute? That’s almost embarrassing, and you blush a little, all the while trying to brush off this feeling before she notices.
“I got sick of bein’ a redhead, though. So, I changed it. I like this a lot better, anyway. I was originally going to put color in it after I bleached it, but decided I liked it the way it was.”
“How often do you have to bleach your hair?”
“Um… like, every ten months, maybe? It’s not just a normal chemical mixture, it’s technically a potion that combines a chemical reaction with a magical reaction, so I don’t really have to mess with it much. It just kind of wears off after a while, that’s all.”
“That’s convenient. You’re right though, my hair is getting darker. I guess it’s one of those growing up things, like how sometimes kids are blond as children but have dark hair as adults? It’s the same idea, I think. I don’t know, this might be something that runs in the family? I wouldn’t know.”
You shrug. “I dunno either. Looks cool, though. I like it.”
“Thanks, Marisa.” She sounds genuine, and you notice her cheeks are a little bit pinker than they were before. Oooh?
The two of you fall quiet again, and you just hold Reimu in your lap a while, enjoying her warmth and the closeness, until you finally think of something else to say.
“Hey, you know, it’s probably gonna be clear tonight.”
“Yeah? It was sunny all day, it should be clear until at least tomorrow morning. Why?”
“Do you ever go stargazing?”
“Oh! Not really, actually. I’d give an excuse but I don’t even have one, I guess I’ve just never thought about it before.”
“Well, do you want to go stargazing?”
“It’s going to be even colder tonight than it was today.”
“Hey, I’m not done explaining my idea. I was thinking that we could just take a bunch of blankets with us and sit on the roof of the shrine, where the snow all melted off today. We can even bring out something to drink if we decide to, and go back inside if we get too cold. What do you think?”
“Huh. That’s actually a pretty good idea, Marisa.”
“I know, I’m full of ‘em.”
Reimu ignores that and keeps talking. “I think I have a blanket we can set out to sit on, too. Yeah, okay, let’s go out stargazing tonight.”
“Cool. Do you know any constellations or specific stars or anything?”
“Of course not,” Reimu says, as if this were obvious. “Do you ?”
“Yeah, actually. I kinda love astronomy and stuff.”
“Oh. OH. You know, that explains a thing or two about your aesthetic.”
You laugh. “Yeah, Rei, I like stars. How nice of you to notice. Anyway, I can point some constellations and stuff out to you later if you want.”
“That sounds kind of fun. It’d be a sort of sky tour, provided by Marisa, local astronomy expert.”
“I wouldn’t call me an expert,” you point out, making sure she doesn’t get the wrong idea here. You’ve only been studying astronomy for a couple years, and, naturally, magic takes up most of your time and effort when it comes to academic matters, anyway.
“I’m still looking forward to it now. You’d better not disappoint me, Mari!”
“Oh, jeez, pressure. I’ll do my best to not disappoint, but sometimes life is just disappointing. Be prepared for that possibility.”
She laughs, and then the two of you fall quiet again for several minutes, Reimu leaning against you.
“I kind of wish it were night now,” Reimu says finally, not sitting up. “What are we even going to do in the meantime, just sit here?”
“Sure? I mean, why not, we’re already doing that.”
“It’s boring ,” Reimu complains. “As much as I’m having fun here, even cuddling gets kind of old after a while without anything else going on.”
You note her choice of words, ‘cuddling’. Why? Who knows. “Well, um. I kinda don’t wanna move, and I kinda can’t anyway because you’re sort of on top of me and are showin’ no signs of moving yourself anytime soon. Here, though, I can try to entertain you a tiny bit while we wait for nightfall?”
You hold out one hand and gather up magical energy, visualizing what you intend on creating in your mind. You prefer to use a wand when making danmaku, so you can direct the energy more precisely, but you’re fine without, and should probably get used to not using one, actually.
After a moment, you release the gathered energy, letting it form into a small loop of purple star-shaped bullets.
“Please don’t break anything,” Reimu says immediately. “I’d rather you not use danmaku in the shrine at all.”
“Hey, these are harmless. There’s barely enough energy there to form them at all, look.” You direct one out of the loop and let it hover above your hand, presenting it to Reimu.
“I’m not touching that.”
“Fine, then I will.” You grab the bullet with the same hand you were manipulating it with, causing it to burst into little streams of light that fade away after only a few seconds. “See? Totally harmless. These bullets are really inactive.”
“You could be lying to me, maybe that actually hurt and you’re just hiding it!”
“I’m not lying, what would I even gain from intentionally touching an active bullet? Pain, that’s what, and I’m not particularly interested in that.”
“Alright, I’m just teasing you. I believe you. So… can you make any other colors? I’ve only ever seen you make those purple. I know there’s not really a point to making them fancy and colorful, but it might be kind of fun to see. Those bullets are kind of cool, after all. I’m a little jealous, except not really, because they don’t really match my theme.”
“I could try? I mean, I’ve never really thought too much about it. I have seen Mima-sama make star bullets with different colors, though.”
“Try it, then.” Reimu encourages you, and you nod.
As you gather energy once more, this time you focus on the colors as you visualize the bullets in your mind’s eye. When you let the energy go and take shape, some of the stars have taken on very pale shades of blues, greens, yellows, and reds, so light that they’re practically white.
“Um. I tried?”
“That actually looks pretty, though. If you practice you’ll probably get them to be brighter, too.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I guess I’ll keep messing around with it and see what happens.”
“Let me watch!” Reimu demands, and you laugh.
“I’ll practice right now, just so you can see,” you tell her as you manifest more star bullets, letting all the others twinkle out of existence. Reimu makes different color suggestions as you practice, and a couple hours of practice later, you’ve figured out how to effortlessly create the bullets in bright, vibrant rainbows that swirl all around the room.
“Yeah okay, that’s enough of that,” you say finally, dissolving all the bullets. “Don’t wanna tire myself out before it’s even night.”
“It is getting dark out, though. It’s probably even after sunset now.”
“Oh, hell, you’re right, it is getting dark. Nice, I managed to waste our time long enough there. That counts as a success, I’d say.”
“Come on, our clothes are probably dry enough to wear by now.” Reimu pulls herself from your lap and stands, taking hold of your hand to pull you with her into the kitchen. She’s draped your clothes over a line that she’s strung across the room, in front of the stove, and you grab your stuff off of it quickly. Some of it’s still a little damp in spots, but it’s wearable, so you don’t care.
After you’ve gotten all your clothes back on, you meet Reimu outside, where she said she’d go set up for the both of you. However, you find her just standing there, staring up at the roof.
“Uh, is something wrong?” You ask as you walk up to her.
“I don’t want to climb. It’d be too slippery.”
“And you still haven’t gotten flying down yet, have you?”
She shakes her head. “I could probably fly down from there, but I don’t think I can fly up, and I don’t want to bother Genji.”
“Allow me.” You pick her up under her arms and let yourself float up to the roof, where you land and set her down. Well… you tried to make it look effortless, but flying without your broom remains a huge challenge for you. Even though you technically can, you psyche yourself out too badly, hating the sensation of being unsupported in the air, as if you could fall at any time. The broom itself is unremarkable save for the growths that have formed on it as a result of exposure to your magic, but it helps you a great deal. You don’t fly on a broom only for the aesthetic.
“Oh, yeah, I forgot that you can fly there for a moment. Wait though, you can fly without your broom?”
“I can, I just don’t like to.” You explain before jumping down from the roof, slowing your descent just enough as to not fall or accidentally hurt yourself, and run inside to retrieve some more blankets. Once you’re back up, you wrap a large one around you and Reimu and sit down on the one she’s laid out. However, it’s not quite dark enough for very many stars to be visible, so instead the two of you sit together under the blanket and wait, occasionally making idle comments to pass the time.
It doesn’t take too long for it to get completely dark, and once you notice, you start scanning the sky automatically for things you can point out to her; after a minute, you’ve put together a mental list of objects to point out to her, plus a few plans on what to say about them.
“Hey, so, if you look over there,”— you point to the eastern sky—”You can see a really bright star, which is actually part of a constellation. That’s Sirius, the dog star, making up part of a dog. The constellation is a dog, I mean. Canis major. Nearby, you see those three stars all in a row? That’s called Orion’s belt, part of the constellation Orion, which is like, a hunter? Something like that, I’m not good at remembering all the stories that go with the constellations.”
Reimu nods as you speak, her gaze following where you point.
“Then, over there, just above Orion’s belt, you can see a red colored star, called Betelgeuse. That star is a red supergiant, and it’s really bigger than you could even possibly begin to comprehend. Eventually, its core will collapse and the star will explode in a supernova, and when that happens, it’s going to be extremely bright, brighter than the full moon and visible even in daytime for a few months before disappearing from sight altogether.”
“It’ll explode? What happens then?”
“To Betelgeuse? It’ll turn into a supernova remnant and we won’t be able to see it from Earth anymore. It’s really far away, see, and the reason we can see it so well here it’s because it’s absolutely massive. Once it explodes, the remaining matter will be much smaller and darker.”
“Oh, whoa. Okay, go on.”
“Um, where was I…? Oh, right. So, up to the north there, kinda northwest,”— you point again in the right direction— “Is sort of a zig-zag shape.See it?”
“Uh…” Reimu searches the sky. “Wait, I think that’s it.” She points, and you nod.
“Yeah, there you go. That’s Cassiopeia. I can’t remember the story for that one, but I know it’s really dramatic. I just like it because it’s so easy to pick out once you know what it looks like. Wait! Damn, if I’d brought my telescope, I could show you Andromeda, too. The Andromeda galaxy is right over there, a bit south of Cassiopeia, and you can see it without a telescope if you know what to look for, but it’s cooler to see it with. I know, you should come over to my place sometime and we can go up to the observatory, I’ll show you then.”
“That might be fun,” Reimu agrees. “I can’t see it at all now, though.”
You try to point to its location, but Reimu can’t pick it out. Oh well, you’ll have to just show her another time. For now, you keep moving around the sky, pointing out everything you can think of. Reimu mostly just listens, occasionally asking questions for clarification on things you say, and you start to worry that she’s just entertaining you, but when you look over you find that she’s smiling as she leans against you, and she’s even holding onto your left hand. Reassured, you keep talking, losing track of time along the way as you tell Reimu everything you can remember about the cosmic objects in the sky.
After what must be at least a couple hours, Reimu bumps your shoulder to get your attention. You look over, having just been trying to think of more to say, and notice that she’s looking pretty sleepy.
“You want to go inside?”
She shakes her head. “Not yet, but I don’t think I’m awake enough to remember everything you’re telling me right now.”
“Oh, well, that’s fine, I’m kinda running out of things to say anyway, so it works out. You wanna just stay out here a little while longer?”
“Yeah, I’d like that.” Reimu squeezes your left hand and leans her head on your shoulder. Silence falls, the winter night as still and peaceful as ever.
“Hey, Marisa?” Reimu breaks the silence after a while, and you hum in acknowledgement. She continues. “You know, before you starting coming here, I didn’t really have any friends. I didn’t have time for friends, and I doubted there’d be any human kids who’d be able to keep up with me or understand me at all, anyway. When you showed up after our battle, smiling at me even with bruises and scrapes visible on you from the fight, I was really confused. I thought you were up to no good, remember, with me trying to chase you off, but you were determined to stay and talk to me for some reason. I know now that you were lonely and didn’t really have anywhere to go with Mima sealed, but back then I didn’t understand. I’m glad I gave up after a while and let you stay, though, because now we can do… this. If I’d refused your friendship, I’d probably still be alone out here with no one but Genji and the occasional troublemaking youkai or Mima to keep me company. Why did you go to me in the first place, though? After all this time, I still haven’t figured that out.”
“Hm…” you begin, considering how to respond. “I guess I kinda figured that we had more in common than we did different? Like, obviously our first encounter with each other was pretty damn antagonistic, but like, you were a powerful human kid, I was a powerful human kid, we kinda had that going for both of us and so I assumed we’d have more things in common because of that. And I mean, I was right, too. We’re pretty different, but we’re also really almost the same, if you think about it.”
“Yeah...” Reimu agrees. “I don’t know, I’m just happy you’re here. I- I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Well, I’m not goin’ anywhere anytime soon, so you don’t have to worry.” You wrap the blanket more tightly around you two, pulling Reimu even closer in the process.
“That’s good.” A pause. “You know, I, ah… well. I… really like you, Marisa.”
You can only think to respond with a “Hm?”, not sure where this is going to lead.
“Yeah, I just. You mean a lot to me, and I really, really like you. I… I guess what I should say is,” Reimu’s voice drops to a low whisper, barely audible. “I love you, Marisa.”
Did… did you just hear that correctly? Reimu’s staring pointedly down, looking almost scared, and you reach over to tilt her head back up to look at you.
“What did you say?” You ask, and she looks away again for a moment before answering slowly.
“I… said I love you.” You can practically hear an apology tacked onto the end of that, and Reimu really does look nervous now, afraid that she’s messed something up by saying that.
You, meanwhile, are trying (and failing!) to not tear up some. Ugh, get it together, Marisa!!
“Reimu, look at me. I wasn’t ever going to say anything because I always sort of figured that you’d get tired of me sooner or later and want me out of your life, but … I love you, too. I don’t really know when that started to be a thing, but I noticed it a while ago. I just didn’t want to even admit it to myself. I never thought that you’d like me so much, that you’d even love me. I’m not a very likeable person, you know.”
“Of course you are, Marisa. I like you, so obviously that makes you likeable. I’m never going to get tired of you, either. You always make things interesting, no matter what they are, and it always brightens up my life a little.” The look she gives you is loving, her smile warm, and ugh, that’s too cute, you can’t handle this. You cover your face for a moment, utterly failing in all your attempts to not cry, and Reimu grabs hold of your wrist in concern.
“Are you alright?”
You look back up at her and laugh. “Yeah, I am. I’m more than alright. I just can’t freaking handle this, no one’s ever said anything like that to me before. You have no how much it means to me for you to say that.”
She smiles softly, reassuringly, moving to be in front of you instead, still under her part of the huge blanket. When she’s close enough, she puts her hands on your cheeks, wiping away some of your tears. “You shouldn’t cry about it, even if they’re tears of joy. They’ll probably freeze to your face.”
You snort another laugh, and she giggles as well, leaning forward so her forehead rests against yours. She smells of incense and tea leaves and power, the sort of faint, ozone-like smell you sometimes notice around people in possession of great magic or other energies. You’ve never really thought about it before, but her scent is reassuring to you.
Your eyes are closed, but they blink open when Reimu moves slightly, leaning back a tiny bit and looking right at you. You gaze back, noticing the way strands of hair fall in front of her face and how her lips look soft and OKAY Marisa, that’s getting too gay, even for you, time to tone it down a bit. You’ve never even kissed a girl before! You’re only 14 to Reimu’s 15, after all! You need to chill!
You would chill, except you catch Reimu’s eyes flicking down to your own lips, and you blush a little. You never really thought you’d ever be this close to a girl, especially not in an obviously romantic situation. Some small part of you had always hoped you’d grow up and discover an attraction to men so you could at least be a little bit normal, but… that’s not happening, is it? Girls are just too pretty, and you are too weak. And honestly, screw that standard of normalcy. Like you were ever going to be the type to settle down, marry a human man and have kids. Nope, no freakin’ way.
Youkai don’t exactly mind same-gender relationships; most youkai are women anyway, so of course they don’t. Humans, on the other hand, do care. But, that doesn’t really matter. You’re never going back to living in the human village, after all; hell, you live in a house with an evil spirit as your mentor. Like she cares.
And Reimu…? How does she feel? She must not mind, or if she does, she loves you more than that, it would seem. Would she want to be in a relationship with you?
Reimu’s still gazing at you, her hands resting on your cheeks, and she whistles quietly to get your attention.
“Are you awake, Marisa?”
“Yeah, sorry, kind of spaced out. I guess this is just a lot to take in and think about.”
“I understand. Uh… yeah.” She falls quiet before completing her thought. Instead, she just looks into your eyes for several long moments, then smiles again.
“I really do love you,” she whispers. “I don’t know when it happened, either, but I do.”
“And I really do love you too,” you whisper back.
“We’re kind of a weird couple, aren’t we?”
“We are, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
You lean in closer to her, not entirely sure what your intention is, but you can feel Reimu’s breath from this close. Without thinking, you lean in just a tiny bit more, closing the gap between you two with a soft, brief kiss.
When you pull away, Reimu looks stunned, but she quickly recovers and pulls you close again to kiss you back, her lips lingering on yours for longer now. You kiss her with more confidence, and find yourself getting lost in the moment, the clumsy, inexperienced kisses shared between the two of you feeling just so right. You’re happy and safe and loved, and you have this adorable girl to thank for all that.
You and Reimu lose track of how much time passes as you cling to one another, kissing and hugging and occasionally laughing in the still night air, your noses cold and your cheeks warm. Eventually, though, you reluctantly pull yourself away from her, knowing that you ought to be heading back inside.
“It’s getting really late, I think.” As you speak, you stretch your arms above your head and end up yawning. “We should head back inside. It’s not like we can’t continue this there, after all.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Reimu agrees, detangling herself from the blanket, and you do the same. She stands and gathers it up, having you move off the blanket she laid down so that she can pick up that one as well. When ready, you pick scoop her up the best you can (you are not very strong) and step off the roof, the two of you floating down gently to the ground.
“This was really fun,” Rei comments as the two of you head back inside. She leads you to her tiny little bedroom, dumping the blankets in the corner and then gesturing for you to join her on her futon.
“Is this even big enough for two people?” You question.
“Who cares. Come on, let’s go to sleep. You’re warm and I fully plan on exploiting that tonight.”
You laugh as you join her beneath the blankets, letting her wrap her arms around you once you’re settled in.
“Goodnight, Marisa,” Reimu whispers through the darkness. Her voice is soft, but affectionate, and you feel a fluttering in your chest listening to her. You breathe deeply, completely relaxed and content.
“Goodnight, Rei.”
*****
Mima teases the two of you the following day, immediately picking up on how you two have been acting even closer than usual and prompting you to tell her about your newfound relationship. She boasts that she was right when she called Reimu your girlfriend before, and you don’t bother trying to argue with her, because doing so just delights her further, eliciting even more teasing. She’s obviously just joking with you though, not really trying to upset either of you. This is just standard Mima communication.
You somehow end up keeping the nightgown Reimu let you borrow, even though you didn’t actually wear it to sleep, storing it at the shrine to wear when you end up staying the night and don’t have anything more suitable.
Upon showing off your colorful star bullets to Mima, she praises your effort and then instructs you to practice with other kinds of bullets, saying you don’t have a large enough repertoire and that you need more variation in your patterns. The colors can sometimes be overwhelming to opponents, she adds, especially in extremely thick waves of bullets, but you think that it mostly just looks cool. Besides, when would you even need to focus on the aesthetics of your patterns above all else? You love to show off with flashy displays of magic, but you tend to focus on power more than anything in battle. (You still do as she says, though. You get the feeling that she’s right, and that you’re going to need this kind of skill one day.)
When the weather gets warmer, you and Reimu make a regular habit of stargazing on the shrine roof. You cuddle and talk for hours, sometimes all the way to sunrise, and you wouldn’t have it any other way. ☆