Chapter Text
(2013)
It had been around six years since the Moriya Shrine incident, and not too much had changed between Reimu and her rival. At least, nothing obvious.
Despite their unshakeable fondness for one another, Reimu and Sanae still got annoyed at each other pretty often. Maybe too often. Reimu especially, found herself increasingly irritated at Sanae's routine faith-peddling and showy, faux confident attitude.
"What is with you two? Always this weird tension in the air." Marisa scoffed one afternoon as Reimu stuck her tongue out at Sanae, who was preaching in the Human Village.
"Same as always, she always gets all this faith and attention even though she's so fake."
"She's good at it!" Marisa smirked and giggled. "She should have taken part in that religious war thing, she seems like she'd be really good at popularity contests."
Reimu rolled her eyes. "Great, now I'm starting to wonder if I was acting just like Sanae throughout that whole thing."
"She rubbing off on you? Seriously though." Marisa raised an eyebrow as they drew away from the crowd and headed outside the village "Even though we get along pretty well with her nowadays, you still always get like this about her way too often. 'Specially when she's workin'."
Reimu pouted at Marisa. "That's exactly the problem. The more I get to know the real Sanae and the more I like her, the more distant I feel from that fake posturing attitude of hers'. When she helps us with incidents or gets drunk with us she at least shows a little more of her real self."
"That last incident was pretty dangerous, though... the youkai were all really riled up and we couldn't even use our weapons properly..." Marisa mused, thinking back to the incident that had occurred just the other week.
"Yeah... don't get me wrong, I'm glad Sanae wasn't involved, but lately I almost feel like I miss her. Seeing her doing all that overacting... doesn't help."
After mentioning acting, Reimu chuckled to herself as she remembered the religious wars earlier in the year and the troublesome youkai behind it. "That fake public persona Sanae wears... it's kinda like a mask, like with that mask-happy menreiki girl."
"Kokoro was plenty genuine enough in the end too." Marisa rested her hands behind her head. "And Sanae's just doin' her job. If it bugs you so much, why don't you just talk t' her about it?"
Reimu sighed and gently rubbed her temple. "I probably will, I guess. She just seems to be the kinda person who would get upset by that sort of thing."
"That's never bothered you before, Reimu." Marisa gently elbowed her friend. "Everyone likes you for some reason d'spite how brazen you usually are, 's not like you say unnecessary things often either."
The shrine maiden pouted again "Yeah, yeah I know... I dunno. Maybe I'm just frustrated that Sanae always seems so far away, both literally and as a person."
Marisa pouted and scratched the side of her head "You're thinkin' way too hard about this! You've always been plain weird about Sanae, remember when we first met her you said she was cute?"
A light shade of pink decorated Reimu's cheeks. "And? What's the big deal?" she replied almost defensively.
"You blushed! You never blush unless you're drunk or wrong about something!"
"Shut up! I'm allowed to think she's cute!"
Marisa sighed with a mischievous grin "Anyway... If you're gonna get philosophical on me, I can't help." then giggled "But considerin' she's your rival, Sanae sure is fond of spendin' time at your shrine. Maybe if you just... be Reimu, like always, instead of bein' weird about it? Maybe she'll find it easier to be Sanae."
"Don't you always say that I am weird?"
"You are weird, Reimu, but when you're bein' weird it's like. Double weird."
"Thanks, that makes soo much more sense now Marisa."
"You're welcome bud."
Reimu rolled her eyes but couldn't help but smirk. Somehow, Marisa always knew how to make her feel better. "Ahhh dammit, you're right though. Fine! I'll just get drunk with her at the party this weekend and we'll have a good old fashioned bonding session!"
"Whooo booze!" Marisa punched a fist into the sky playfully, before waving to Reimu and heading off home.
As was often the case, Reimu and Marisa were planning a party of sorts at Hakurei Shrine to celebrate the successful solving of another incident.
It had been a pretty busy year, with the most recent incident involving a mallet and a bunch of powered up youkai trying to overthrow society or something.
The incident was resolved without causing too much of a mess around Gensokyo, but this meant that Reimu's actions went largely unnoticed and her shrine remained unpopular. She hoped that by throwing a party, people would find more reason to worship at Hakurei Shrine - even if just for a short while.
But admittedly, Reimu was really hoping to spend a little more time with Sanae too. After Sanae had helped with a few incidents over the last half decade, her absence during this year's events had made Reimu feel strangely lonely.
But!! That was nothing a little alcohol couldn't fix!!
At least, that's what she thought.
"Uuugggh... what's up, Reimu?" Marisa mumbled as she stumbled up to the shrine the day after the party.
Reimu was nursing a hangover with the help of Kasen Ibaraki, a hermit woman with a bandaged arm and pink hair in Chinese buns. Despite how much drinking had been done the night before, Kasen seemed significantly more awake and composed than either of the younger girls.
Seeing Marisa turn up with a hangover, Kasen held her hand to her mouth and chuckled. "You two are hopeless! Why aren't you at home resting after how much you drank last night, Marisa?"
"I can't remember like... anything. So I came t' ask Reimu if she ever got t' talk to Sanae." Marisa sleepily grinned, slouching over as she sat next to Reimu on the shrine walkway.
Reimu and Kasen both stared at Marisa as if she had just made a really insulting joke.
"What?" Marisa pouted. "I'm hungover, be gentle..."
"You really don't remember anything, do you?" Kasen laughed awkwardly. "Reimu and Sanae had a really, really big argument... about alcohol, of all things."
"I really messed up..." Reimu groaned. "I just wanted to drink with her and get closer to her, but she was being so annoying and dumb that I just ended up insulting her. I'm still annoyed at her, too."
"You were both being dumb. We just talked about this." Kasen sighed. "Alcohol can be a good ice-breaker, but it can also flare up tensions that were already there."
Reimu huffed and stared at her feet, chewing her bottom lip. "First, she was acting all flippant about the incident, then she called me old fashioned for wanting her to drink with me? Why'd she have to get so defensive and personal like that!?"
"You're both like that." Kasen gave Reimu's head a gentle pat. "You contrast in a lot of ways, but you both get pretty defensive about differences in worldview too. It's one of the few things you have in common." the woman giggled.
"Have in common, huh?" Reimu flopped over onto her back. "I wish we had more in common, maybe then we could finally relax around each other a little more..."
"It's fine!" Kasen smiled warmly. "Don't worry about it, sometimes bonds forged between different kinds of people are really special. That's where the saying 'opposites attract' comes from, right? There's always next time."
"Oh my god." Marisa clasped her fist to her other hand. "I remember! After you guys argued I got so stressed out that I drank even harder! Holy crap."
Kasen laughed awkwardly while Reimu groaned even louder. "I'm sorry guys..." Reimu mumbled. "I dunno how I'm even gonna talk to her next time I see her, let alone bond with her if she doesn't want to drink with me."
Kasen stood up, getting ready to leave. "Just because she doesn't want to drink with you, doesn't mean she doesn't want to spend time with you. Maybe she'll be more comfortable being herself and opening up if you just... accept her for how she is. That's how you usually make friends with strange youkai, right? Try it on a strange half-human sometime."
"That's like the advice I gave her the other day!" Marisa grinned. "It's good advice!"
"Fine fine, I get it already!" Reimu made a shooing motion at Kasen. "Are you gonna leave, or are you gonna keep lecturing me?"
"I'm done, I'm done." Kasen smirked. "I'll see you two later, take it easy okay?"
"That's one thing I am good at." Reimu grinned weakly, giving Kasen a thumbs up before flopping down on her back again as Kasen flew off home.
Marisa playfully poked at Reimu's head to distract herself from her own pounding headache. "You really do act different around Sanae compared to most of your friends, huh?"
"I act different around you too, y'know."
"You know what I mean, Reimu. We've known each other since forever, it's different."
"Ahh whatever." Reimu pouted. She lifted her forearm over her eyes to shade it from the sun slightly, and to cool her heated head.
She was sobering up fine, but her head still felt hot.
'Why... do I have such a hard time seeing Sanae for who she is?' she thought, as Marisa and Kasen's advice became increasingly frustrating to think about.
Sanae dominated Reimu's thoughts a little more than usual in the following days. Luckily, Reimu didn't have to wait too long before Sanae visited again.
As a peace offering, Sanae had brought Reimu some sake. Supposedly, this sake was actually pretty fancy, too! It had been brewed by some inchling god, or something? She couldn't remember the details. Either way, Reimu was quickly excited to throw another party with it. Not just to show it off, but to make up for that previous disaster!
Though... after Sanae delivered the sake, she spent the rest of the afternoon stiffly hanging around Hakurei Shrine until other guests turned up for Reimu's reattempt at a party.
So the afternoon was - in a word - awkward. The memory of the argument from the other day still fresh in their minds, both shrine maidens kind of kept to themselves. Sanae even did some odd cleaning and sweeping, just to keep herself occupied.
"You really don't have to do that... What's the point of cleaning if it's just gonna be messed up again in a few hours, right?" Reimu asked her with an awkward smile, raising an eyebrow.
"O-oh well... you know!" Sanae stuttered, rubbing the back of her head and forcing a weird laugh. No, Reimu didn't know! But... she wasn't about to start another argument.
Reimu's mood was actually pretty good, but she found it difficult to start a conversation with Sanae the whole time. In fact, Sanae almost seemed to be avoiding her a little? And every time their eyes met while Sanae was cleaning, or while Reimu was preparing for the party, they quickly averted eye-contact again.
Being around Sanae while she wasn't in faith-gathering mode was enough to more or less dispel Reimu's anger towards her though. It was actually kind of nice to spend the afternoon as just the two of them, even if it was mostly in silence.
This Sanae... even though she was quiet and still seemed unnerved from the argument... this was the real Sanae. This was the endearing, strange, cute shrine maiden Reimu had become so fond of in her head.
It kinda made Reimu even more upset that Sanae wouldn't drink with her.
Still, in a big relief to both Reimu and Sanae, not to mention Kasen, the party was a big success! Even though the sake was... actually pretty unexceptional, and had a plain taste. Moods were light, and a pleasant buzz drifted through the atmosphere as the evening drew to a close.
A mostly sober-seeming Kasen gave Reimu a gentle shake on the shoulder before she left. That woman was really amazing at holding her liquor. "Tell Sanae she did a great job with the whole sake thing." She grinned knowingly. "I think parties are much better when there's more harmony in the preparation."
Reimu, on the other hand, was definitely drunk. Not nearly as heavily drunk as at the last party - but still much too drunk to even suspect that Sanae had tricked her with completely ordinary Outside World sake. Instead, the black-haired shrine maiden beamed warmly at Kasen, and waved to her as she headed home.
Ever the delightful companion, an equally drunk Marisa sauntered along and gave Reimu a nudge in the stomach. "Reimu... don't forget the. Thing. You gotta do."
Reimu lidded her eyes at her friend and took another sip of the sake. "I know! I've been thinking about it all evening I just... didn't wanna try talking to her while it was still so busy, in case we made another scene."
"You won't!" Marisa smirked, shoving Reimu towards Sanae perhaps a little too hard and making Reimu buckle over a little. "Go forth, mighty miko!"
"Asshole." Reimu grinned back at Marisa before taking a deep breath. "Hokay... just gotta tell Sanae she's cute, right?"
"What?" Marisa squinted. "No, you were gonna tell her she's annoying. That's what you were worked up about last week? But like, whatever works!" the blonde snorted a giggle. "Just... be Reimu! Be Reimu!"
"Be... Reimu." repeated Reimu with a determined expression, before collecting herself again and finally approaching Sanae.
Sanae was completely sober. Reimu had ultimately refrained from pressuring her to drink that evening, partially because she didn't want Sanae to get upset again or... point out her lack of knowledge on the 'special' sake they were serving that night.
Despite Reimu's worries though, Sanae was able to relax a lot. Infact, Reimu had been more fascinated than ever by Sanae throughout the night.
Even without alcohol, the green-haired shrine maiden mingled and laughed with both humans and youkai. She performed weird, intricate dance routines Reimu had never seen before. She did silly impersonations of characters and people Reimu knew nothing about.
Actually, no one knew anything about them! But everyone was so endeared to Sanae's peculiarities. They all begged her to do more impressions even after she insisted no one would get them. Reimu especially loved the one where Sanae held her fingers above her own head and squeaked "Pika, pika!" or something? How was it possible for such a weirdo to be so intoxicatingly cute!?
Focus, Reimu. Focus. Sanae had gotten a little worn out from hours of partying. She was sat by herself on the side of the shrine's walkway, illuminated by the flicker of fires still lit in the courtyard.
Either Sanae was drunk on atmosphere or she was just in a really nice mood, because despite being as awkward and shy as ever she was leaning her chin in her fists with a goofy smile on her face. She kicked her legs back and forth carefreely as she watched the few remaining youkai at the party dancing and drinking themselves into a stupor. Her relaxed vibe made her much easier for Reimu to approach - and the drunk shrine maiden plonked herself down next to Sanae.
"Oh! Hey Reimu!" Sanae chirped, her expression noticeably lighting into an exuberant smile as Reimu sat down. "Didn't the party turn out great in the end?"
"Y-yeah..." Reimu relaxed back slightly, suddenly forgetting what she was supposed to be talking about. She had been so focused on how happy she was to spend time with the real Sanae, that she...
Oh, yeah! That was it!
"It was great! And y'know why you had so much fun? It's 'cause you finally relaxed a bit!" Reimu grinned playfully at Sanae, to which Sanae rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.
"Y-yeah... well, you know! I couldn't have relaxed this much if you hadn't accepted me for who I was! S-so thank you..." the green-head awkwardly poked her fingers together and giggled.
"Mhm, mhm! It's important to me that you get to be yourself." Reimu crossed her arms, perhaps a little too proudly, and nodded. "All that faith peddling and preaching you do all the time makes you seem like a seriously annoying person, so you really just need to chill out a bit!"
Smooth.
"...Wh-what!?" Sanae squeaked, taken aback. She shuffled away from Reimu and defensively rose her fists to her face. "W-well! I'd much rather be preaching all the time than be some unmotivated shrine maiden running a faithless youkai shrine!" she snapped back.
"Speak for yourself! My 'youkai fine' gets by just shrine- uh, fine!" Reimu couldn't help but argue clumsily back.
Wait! No! No this wasn't meant to happen! Were they going to argue again, just like last time!? It was as if they had spent the whole evening on guard towards each other, arming themselves with arguments and comebacks in their heads, waiting for their truce to collapse again.
Reimu blinked, a little wide-eyed, as her face reddened. "W-wait, see! There you go again! I really wish you'd chill out!"
Sanae's jaw was clenched, her own face reddened and tears building a little in her eyes. "Telling me to 'chill out' doesn't make me feel better, Reimu! Especially not after you called me annoying!?" she bit her quivering lip and looked at the ground, as her heart slumped into her stomach.
"Sanae." Reimu tried to put her hand on Sanae's shoulder, but the other girl jerked away, holding her fist to her chest as she glared hurt daggers at the brunette.
"You know what, Reimu...? If I'm so annoying to you, I wish you'd just told me years ago." Sanae's fists trembled slightly "I always asked you! I always said, I'm not a bother, am I? Or a nuisance!? If you had just told me... it would have been so, so much easier on both of us. I never w-would have-..." Sanae stuttered, her eyes struggling to maintain contact with Reimu's as the built-up tears began to trickle down her cheeks.
"I never would have g-gotten so invested in thinking we were f-fr-" Sanae choked, before hiding her ashamed, reddening eyes behind her wrist and whimpering. "R-Reimu...! Uughh!!" she cried out in frustration, her voice cracking as panic began to overwhelm her.
Now Reimu's own heart was sinking. She was normally so good at telling people exactly what she meant... her bluntness was usually so refreshing to the people she met. Why was she so bad at handling Sanae? Why was this going so badly?
All she could think about in that moment was how this was the first time Sanae had worn her heart so plainly... but she seemed to be in so much pain. She was crying... she seemed really, seriously hurt. Ugh. Seeing her like this made unfamiliar, uncomfortable knots bunch up in Reimu's stomach.
After hiding her face and failing to hide her throat's whimpers, Sanae shot a pained glare at Reimu's shocked, speechless expression. No, it was too much for Sanae to handle, she had to get out of there. She wanted to run away. Anywhere was better than staying here, heartbroken and humiliated.
But as Sanae hurtfully got up to leave, Reimu clasped after her hand to stop her. "S-Sanae, please listen to me! I really, really like you! More and more all the time! So please, don't stop visiting me?"
The red-faced Sanae angrily wiped her eyes with the long-white sleeves of her robe. "Wh-what are you talking about? You literally just said I was annoying! You must hate spending time with someone like that... and I've been bothering you all this time!"
"It's the opposite!" Reimu tugged gently at Sanae's hand, pulling her to sit again. "I want to see more of you, I want to see the real Sanae way more than I get to! J-just... not that act you put on for worshippers."
Sanae hesitantly slumped her butt back down onto the walkway next to Reimu, aiming a mopey glare at Reimu and sniffling, tears still slipping from the corners of her eyes. She took a deep, sharp breath, and gently punched Reimu in the upper-arm.
"Telling me you dislike the way I act while I'm working doesn't make me feel good, you know. It doesn't matter if it's 'fake', it's still me. Not only is it hard work, but it's a habit I can't easily shake when I've been doing it for so long."
"S-...sorry." Reimu pouted, taken slightly aback by Sanae's defense and trailing circles with her finger on the boarding next to her. "I just... think that your normal si-"
"All of me is my 'normal' side!!" Sanae pouted back and punched Reimu's arm again, this time with surprising force.
Ow! Sanae must have been really upset... because that actually really stung. Reimu rubbed her arm awkwardly.
"S-sorry your... the side you show at my shrine, at this party, right now. The side that isn't afraid to hit me." Reimu smiled sheepishly, to which Sanae laughed awkwardly back and wiped more tears from her eyes. "That earnestness! I-I just... I find it really cute."
Blink. Blink blink.
"C-...cute!?" Sanae's eyes widened again, her face reddening again, but this time sweat beading on her face.
Reimu nodded, her face lighting up excitedly and a huge smile spreading across her face as she indulged in Sanae's adorable reaction. "Yeah!? Like, whenever you do those cute impressions, it makes me want to... I dunno!" Reimu giggled and began to invasively pinch at Sanae's cheeks.
"H-hey! Reimu!" Sanae's face only became an even brighter red, but she couldn't help but giggle back.
"Your face is so soft, what the hell!?" Reimu blurted out playfully in between giggles, wearing her drunkenness on her sleeves as she continued to get handsy with Sanae's face.
"Reimu, that kinda hurts!?" Sanae giggled again before shoving her own hands at Reimu's face, pinching at Reimu's cheeks herself for a short while and giggling together with her. At least, until her face really started to hurt, and she used her hand to shove Reimu away and regain her breath.
"Ahhh... you're so weird, Reimu!" Sanae kept giggling, holding her hands to her aching stomach. "How are you so good at endearing yourself to people even though you can be so mean?"
"I-I'm not trying to be mean!" Reimu pouted, shuffling herself closer to Sanae again and wrapping her arm around the girl. "But when you're like this, that, just then!"
"Y-you mean when I was pinching your face..." Sanae muttered, her jaw hung open as her face reddened again.
"Yeah! It makes me feel like you're really weird and endearing too, and I just don't know the real you at all! Does... that make sense?" Reimu rubbed the back of her head with her free arm.
"U-uh..." Sanae rolled her head back and awkwardly looked at the sky, trying to ignore Reimu's arm around her. Something about being called 'weird' by Reimu was... weirdly comforting. "I guess... I'm still upset, though..."
Reimu hung her head slightly on Sanae's shoulder and pouted again. "I-I'm... I'm sorry." she had never been great at apologising, but Sanae's tears still stung for some reason, burned into her mind. "You've just... you've been on my mind a lot lately."
"Because of our argument?" Sanae turned towards Reimu, smiling sheepishly.
As she playfully pulled a strand of Reimu's hair from out her face, Reimu noticed the firelight illuminating Sanae's rosy pink cheeks, her reddened eyes, her adorable, fun smile despite the fact she had been crying with such hurt just moments earlier. Sanae's long, green hair shimmered in the night's breeze, strands appearing to glow a golden yellow in the light of fire.
Reimu's eyes widened, her face increasingly red. Actually, come to think of it she had been thinking about Sanae a lot lately. And now that she had said it out loud, now that Sanae was here and she was looking at her, she couldn't help but think about Sanae even more! How sweet her voice was, how soft her skin was, how gorgeous she was, Reimu hadn't really thought about 'her type' in a while, but sort-of-serious taller girls with long hair, that was 'her type' wasn't it? Had Sanae always been-
"Reimu?" said Sanae's slightly cracked voice as she raised an eyebrow and smirked, very attractively, at the other shrine maiden's blank-faced staring. Reimu shook her head as she snapped back to reality, accompanied by a sudden urge to wrap her arms around Sanae's neck. So she did that, of course.
"R-Reimu!?" Sanae's expression melted into redness again, her mouth wobbling, as she held her hands against Reimu's shoulders to keep her from getting too close. "H-how drunk are you?"
"Y'know what?" a delighted, blushed-smile spread across Reimu's face as she clung to Sanae's shoulders. "I just realised you're the kind of cute that makes me want to kiss you!"
A little bubble in Sanae's head went 'pop', and redness no longer did justice to the intense flustering she was experiencing. "A-ah, ah, ah, ah!" Sanae stuttered. "W-wait, wait, are you c-c, confes-, no, there's no way, you're kissing, uh, k-kidding, right!?" she continued to hold Reimu's very eager, drunk face at bay as she tried to wrap her mind around what exactly was happening.
"Sanaaee, I wanna kiss you! Your cute face!" Reimu tried to push closer to Sanae in a very much un-majestic way. "I really like you in the 'I want to kiss you' kinda way, I think!?"
"Ahahahahaha, ahaha, ahhh!!" Sanae couldn't help but giggle, awkwardly but genuinely, at Reimu's complete lack of composure, and the green-head found it impossible to keep this big stupid grin off her beet-red face. "R-Reimu, my head feels like it's about to explode!? I-I... uhm...!" in a moment somewhere between panic and composure, Sanae pulled Reimu into a hug over her shoulder rather than letting Reimu get at her face.
"Do you... not wanna kiss me?"
"I-it's not that!" Sanae blurted out, before slapping herself on the forehead in embarrassment. "It's just that, uh, you being this drunk... it's so unromantic, and it's uh, it doesn't feel right, right?"
"Mmmph." Reimu mumbled irritably, but her drunkenness made Sanae's amazing-smelling shoulders and hair feel way too comfortable. This was a frustratingly Sanae-way to turn down a kiss... but this hug definitely softened the blow. "You got a stick up your butt still."
"Tch." a grimace briefly snuck into Sanae's goofy smile as she hugged Reimu's head. Reimu was an absolute mess... but it was nice. And stupid though this situation was, Sanae felt... well, she thought maybe she could salvage it.
"Hey, Reimu..."
"Yeah..."
"I'll come visit the shrine again next week... s-so... if you still want to, ask me to kiss you again then, okay?"
"Ugh... what the hell..." Reimu clung a little tighter to Sanae, clutching the backs of her robes in her fingers, but she seemed to be finding it increasingly difficult to keep her eyes open. "F-fine..."
Sanae gave Reimu a gentle squeeze back, before edging away from the hug and ruffling the other shrine maiden's hair. "A week from today, got it? You'll have plenty of time to think about it." she placed her hands over Reimu's once more before letting go and turning to leave.
"But, you'd better be sober!" she briefly turned around and winked.
Maybe it was the hug, maybe it was the overwhelming hot feeling in her head, maybe it was how gorgeous and reliable Sanae looked with her back silhouette illuminated by fire and the moon... but Reimu's mouth hung open, unable to argue.
In the warm light of the fire, and the deep, pink and stressed stupor their faces shared, the red-white and blue-green shrine maidens both looked very red as they parted ways that night.