Chapter Text
A finger drunkenly prodded Marisa in the arm.
“C’mon, Marisha, you’re being quiet again!” Reimu complained, slurring her words through the sheer amount of sake she’d imbibed. The two of them sat around the table in the shrine’s main room. A muggy summer day had given way to a comfortably warm summer night, and they had been drinking for most of it. Reimu’s face had turned as bright red as her robes. “We’re supposed to be celebrating, dammit!” she said.
Marisa’s head had started to swim from the sake. She burped. “What were we celebratin’, again?” She might have forgotten, but she had a feeling Reimu had spontaneously come up with this celebration very recently, like maybe in the last five minutes recently.
“Us!” Reimu proclaimed, crawling around the table and draping herself over Marisa. She laughed with delight, and took another drink.
Marisa pulled Reimu close, smiling as her girlfriend shook with laughter, and kissed her.
“Ahhh, Marisa, you’re so pretty,” Reimu said. She slid down Marisa’s side and flopped back onto the tatami mats, giggling. “Your picture should-hic-should be on the front page of the paper eeevery day.” She reached up and twirled a strand of Marisa’s hair around her finger.
This side of Reimu hadn’t exactly been a surprise for Marisa, since she and Reimu had regularly gotten absolutely sloshed together long before they started doing it in a romantic context, but Reimu had somehow managed to become an even goofier drunk since they’d been together.
“You hate that paper, though,” Marisa said.
Reimu wagged a finger at her. “Only ‘cause you’re not in it!” she said. “If you were, I’d read every issue.” She looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully. “I’d read the headlines, at least,” she said, before dissolving into laughter again.
Marisa took another drink. Seemed like she’d probably be spending the night tonight, after all. She looked over at Reimu, who had doubled over on the floor with laughter, hair in disarray all over her face. Marisa smiled. Yeah, staying over sounded pretty alright to her.
“You’re thinking again,” Reimu complained. “Less thinking, more drinking!”
“Ah, you caught me,” Marisa said, laughing softly. “Sorry, I was just thinking I’m probably not goin’ home tonight.”
Reimu crossed her arms, pouting. “ ‘Course you’re not going home tonight. Are you dumb? It’s not good enough for you here?”
“C’mon, Reimu, don’t be like that,” Marisa said. She flicked Reimu on the forehead, to show she wasn’t serious. “I love it here. You know that.”
“And you love it here ‘cause?”
“ Cuz you’re here, Reimu,” Marisa said. She pulled Reimu up from the floor and into another kiss.
Reimu smiled happily. “That’s right,” she said, bopping Marisa on the nose with her finger.
“Anyways, it’s no problem,” Marisa said. “I’ll fly over real quick in the morning to take care of what I need to do, and then come back later.”
“S’gotta be a little annoying to go back and forth all the time, though,” Reimu said.
“Well, it’s a little inconvenient, if I’m bein’ honest,” Marisa said. “But it’s no big deal, really. I’m real fast, after all.”
“Hey, Marisa, I’ve got a really good idea,’ Reimu said, sitting up and swaying back and forth happily. “Why don’t you just move the-hic-the whole house here?” she asked.
Marisa’s brows scrunched up.
“Huh?”
“You’re smart, Marisa,” Reimu said. “You know what the words mean.”
“Well, yeah. But, first of all…where would we put it? It’s not like we’re living in the village here. This is sacred ground, right?”
Reimu twirled a finger in the air. “Sacred shmacred,” she said, and laughed.
“Reimu, feels like I shouldn’t be the one tellin’ you about the importance of respecting the sanctity of the Hakurei Shrine,” Marisa said.
“Didn’t mean put it right next to the shrine, silly.” Reimu gestured expansively around the room. “All the land around here belongs to the shrine. We can find a nice, dark, depressing spot in the woods nearby.” She hiccuped again. “Just the way you like it.”
Well, maybe…
“You’re just saying that because you’re drunk,” Marisa said. “You wouldn’t actually want my weird old house breathing down your neck up here.”
Reimu shook her head. “It’s not ‘cause I’m drunk. I’ve been thinking about asking you for a while. It’s just easier to actually say it when I’m drunk.” She giggled again.
“That’s basically the same thing.”
“S’not.”
Marisa let that one go. She could see that this wasn’t an argument she was going to win.
She turned the idea over more seriously in her mind. It would be awfully convenient. She’d wondered increasingly often if she might end up moving into the shrine, considering how much time she spent there already, but she simply had way too much magic junk. Reimu probably wouldn’t even mind, she was like that, but Marisa just didn’t like the idea of the shrine overflowing with all of her books and gadgets. Didn’t feel right, you know? Maybe a book or cauldron here or there would be okay, but the shrine should stay the shrine. If the shrine was just a few minutes’ walk from her house, though, there’d be no problem at all.
Marisa spent more time than ever around the shrine anyways, and even when she wasn’t at the shrine, most of the time she wasn’t home. These days, she mostly only went home to do research. What’s more, the idea of having her house that close to Reimu’s was just plain nice. Her cheeks, already flush from the sake, warmed up a little further at the thought.
“Okay, I like the idea,” Marisa said. “I mean, I’ve been thinking about moving too, y’know? It makes sense.” Reimu beamed and hummed happily.
“But if I agree,” Marisa continued, “how the heck would we move the house?”
“You’re a witch,” Reimu said. “Can’tcha just do a, a move-your-house spell?” She waved her hands in the air haphazardly for emphasis, as if that were her idea of witch magic.
“Doesn’t really work that way,” Marisa said with a sigh.
“S’okay,” Reimu said. She smiled confidently. “Don’t worry. I had a plan already anyways.”
Reimu wobbled over to an open door, braced herself against the doorway, whacked her cheeks to wake herself up, stuck her head outside, and hollered, “SUIKA! I know you’re out there, you worthless drunk oni! Get down here and have a drink!”
After a few moments, mists swirled together on the veranda despite the total lack of wind, and coalesced into a diminutive figure with two long horns and a face even redder than Reimu’s.
“Evenin’, lovebirds!” Suika said, taking a deep draught from her gourd as she staggered past Reimu and into the room. She took in the number of discarded bottles, and shook her head with disapproval. “You can do better than that,” she said. “Anyways, what’s goin’ on? I’m always happy to drink, but I figure you got something in mind, callin’ me like this.”
Marisa wasn’t sure what exactly Reimu had planned here, but figured she might as well let it play out. As far as Gensokyo’s youkai went, Suika tended to be pretty agreeable.
Reimu tossed back another full cup of sake, as if to prove a point, and jabbed a finger at Marisa.
“Marisha here thinks that you wouldn’t be able to move her house from the forest up to the shrine,” Reimu said to Suika, choosing each word with the exaggerated care of the extremely inebriated. “But I told her you could do it easily, ‘cause you’re so strong and tough.” Reimu swayed over to Suika, and patted her on the head. “So, who’s right?”
So that was her plan. Well, Suika probably could actually do it easily. She’d most likely see through Reimu’s blatantly transparent, sake-drenched attempt at goading her into helping, of course, but Marisa figured Suika would probably still happily agree even if they asked her straight out. Suika loved to show off, after all.
Reimu leaned in towards Suika. “Plus, we’ll have a big welcoming party at the shrine once the move’s done,” she stage-whispered.
Suika flashed a sharp grin. “Sure, I’ll help ya out. Won’t even break a sweat.” She swigged from her gourd. “Hell, I’ll go get it right now. Watch!”
Marisa waved her hands to forestall Suika. “Hold on just a second!” she said, a bit panicked that Suika would disappear in a puff of mist in order to go rip her house right off its foundation. “We haven’t even decided if we’re doing it yet.”
“Yes, we have,” Reimu lilted, drawing out the words, then giggling again, as she collapsed back down to a sitting position around the table.
Suika shrugged. “Doesn’t really matter to me, but it’s a lot more fun around here than the forest, ain’t it?”
“Reimu, are you absolutely sure about this?” Marisa said. “Seriously, this is your shrine. Won’t having my place around here end up being a pain?”
“You’re being dumb again,” Reimu said, with another pouting frown. “Don’t be dumb. You’re too smart to be dumb. You’re here all the time already anyways, aren’t you? Having you around makes me happy.”
Between the giddy haze of the sake and Reimu saying things like that, it was becoming very difficult for Marisa to remember why she wasn’t just agreeing. Wasn’t this what she wanted, anyways? A laugh welled up from deep within her and broke free.
“Why the heck not,” she said. “Let’s do it!”
Reimu flung herself at Marisa with a smile a mile wide, and they tumbled to the floor together, laughing uproariously. Suika effortlessly set them back upright with one hand each, handed them cups, and poured.
“I’ll drink to that!” she said. “That party better be a good one.” Reimu and Marisa clacked their cups together with Suika’s gourd, and all three of them drank deeply.
“We are gonna make sure we’re both still on board with this in the morning, though,” Marisa said with another laugh. The room wobbled around her, and she shifted to lean on the table. “Y’know, better make that the afternoon.”