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Shizuru looks beautiful today.
Well, she's beautiful every day, but Botan can't keep her eyes off of her more than usual. The warm summer evening has Shizuru wearing a tank top and shorts. Botan keeps tracing the lines of her long arms and legs with her eyes; Shizuru has to notice, but she doesn't say anything.
They're also both a little tipsy, since according to Shizuru, day drinking is the spice of life, so they had some alcohol with lunch — and have been drinking on and off since. Botan's had some sake in her day, but damn, this wine is sour. When she expressed this, Shizuru just laughed and said she'd offer her some beer if she could.
“Hey, Botan…” Shizuru says, taking another swig straight from the bottle. “Is it pretty up there?”
“Hm?”
“In the night sky.” She points up. “Are the stars pretty?”
“Oh, of course!” Botan grins. “But it was way prettier before you humans went and invented these fancy city lights.”
“Don’t you fly high enough to—” She takes a drag of her cigarette. “— to avoid all the light pollution n’ shit?”
Botan gasps in understanding. “Oh, you mean when I'm flying! Yeah, I'd say so. But I usually don't get time to look at the stars… I have stuff to do when I fly around, haha!”
“That's a shame.” Shizuru points the lit cigarette at her casually. “You're probably the last person who can actually see the stars here.”
“Yeah. That is a shame.” Botan frowns thinking about it. “I miss nature… The human world used to be entirely nature.”
“You can always visit Genkai if you miss it so much.”
Botan dissolves into giggles. “She'd probably tell me to fuck off, or something like that.”
“I could go with you. She likes me.” Shizuru smiles wistfully. “Though it's probably just because Kazuma can't stay out of trouble and I keep him under control. Well, mostly.”
Thinking about the idea of a remote vacation with Shizuru makes Botan blush.
“I dunno, I don't get many vacation days…”
“Sounds like you Reikai people need to unionize,” Shizuru says, laughing as Botan guffaws.
“We could never do that! B-besides, I like my job.”
“So do I, but I’d hate it if I never got a day off.”
“Huh, I guess.” Botan pouts as she imagines it. “No, I think Koenma-sama would just say I’ve been spending too much time with humans.”
Shizuru huffs dryly. “He seems like a swell guy.”
“Koenma-sama isn’t a bad leader, actually. Much better than his dad…”
“That’s not a good metric.”
“I guess. But he’s nice.”
They fall into silence after that, drinking, smoking on Shizuru’s part, and watching the TV. Nothing good is even on, according to Shizuru, but the novelty of human TV still hasn’t worn off on Botan, so she watches with rapt attention as the contestants try to make their way through precarious obstacle courses.
As Botan’s favorite man loses, much to the ire of the audience and judges, Shizuru speaks up.
“Botan, would you… would you mind taking me to see the stars one day?”
Botan blinks, still reeling from the loss of her favorite player. “Oh, of course! That would be— well, it would be—” Botan’s drunk brain processes what Shizuru is talking about, and her face goes even warmer. “Um, it would be really nice.”
Shizuru grins. “I know, right? I’m too much of a youngin to have seen the stars out of the countryside. ‘Course, Kazuma thinks I’m old, but I bet both of us are babies in your eyes, huh?”
“Well, he definitely is, but…” Botan huffs and looks up. “Most humans your age are still pretty immature, but you’re not.”
“Really?” Shizuru looks genuinely surprised.
“Yeah. You have a stable job and you look after your little brother. That’s pretty responsible to me.”
Shizuru laughs dryly, putting out her cigarette in the nearby ashtray. “If I was responsible, I think I wouldn’t be a smoker any longer.”
Botan frowns. “You know those things are designed to be addictive. I was there for their invention, you know.”
“I know. Still, shouldn’t have started in the first place.”
“How old were you?”
“Hmm, good question.” Shizuru slumps further into the couch, deep in thought. “When did Mom and Dad leave…? I was sixteen, I think.”
Botan gapes. She quickly censors her expression and looks away. “That’s… a while.”
“This conversation is depressing,” Shizuru says. She quickly stands up, taking the wine bottle from Botan and tossing it aside. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Huh? Where are we going?”
“To the sky, obviously.” She grabs Botan’s hand with a smile. “You said you’d fly me there.”
“I didn’t know you meant right now!”
“Neither did I.”
Botan gasps — she’s not really sure why, it’s not really a gasp-worthy scenario, but she gasps nonetheless. Well, it is, actually, since this is definitely out of character for Shizuru. She's not really an impulsive woman. “I'm still drunk!”
“You're some kinda immortal spirit, can't you just un-drunk yourself?”
“N-no?!”
“Hmm, that will be a problem…” Shizuru frowns deeply. If the expression was on anyone else, Botan would call it a pout.
“Aah, but I think it’ll be fine! And if anything goes wrong, I can save you!” Botan gives her a thumbs up and summons her paddle. “Come on, get on!”
“Should I get on the front or the back?”
“The back. You’ll have to hold onto me. Tightly.”
Shizuru nods. “Got it, boss.”
Botan blushes. “Pshh, you flatter me too much!”
They both clamber onto the wooden paddle, Shizuru wrapping her arms around Botan’s waist. Her warmth is incredibly welcome — since the sun set, it’s gotten chilly. It makes Botan’s take-off rather awkward. She’s just so distracted.
Every nook and cranny of Shizuru’s body pressed against hers is overtaking Botan’s mind. Her breathing right next to Botan’s ear, her arms tightening once they’re high enough in the air, her impressed sounds when the stars come into view. Botan can’t focus on the stars, even though she hasn’t looked at the beautiful tapestry of colors in so long.
She apologizes and says they need to land.
“No, that’s fine, I don’t want you flying distracted,” Shizuru says, not nearly as disappointed as Botan expected. “But are you okay?” She elegantly dismounts.
“I’m fine!” Botan says quickly. “But, uh, I was pretty distracted, ehehe…”
Shizuru chuckles as well. “So was I.”
“Huh? But you were so excited to see the stars!”
“Yeah, but…” Shizuru rubs the back of her neck, her face going a little red — redder than she already was because of the alcohol. “I saw something prettier.” She puts her finger on Botan’s nose, smiling.
Botan swears she’s burning up. “M-me?” she squeaks.
“Yeah.” Shizuru’s smile is infinitely soft. “Your face in the starlight… I couldn’t look away.”
Botan stammers for a good few seconds before managing a response. “Y-you— since when are you such a romantic?!”
“Oh, I’ve been a romantic. I’ve just never liked anyone this much before.” Shizuru tentatively puts her arms around Botan’s waist again. Her heart starts racing even more. “You looked pretty distracted too. By me?”
“Umm—!” Botan puts her face in her hands. “A little bit? A-a lot?”
Shizuru laughs, her low voice making Botan nearly crumble. “Was it a good distraction?” She asks it like she already knows the answer.
So Botan does the same. “Can I kiss you?” she asks instead, shakily but knowing Shizuru will say yes.
Shizuru doesn’t respond either, leaning down. Botan reacts on instinct; she throws herself forward, wrapping her arms around Shizuru’s neck and pressing their lips together. It’s drunk and clumsy and Botan loves it. She hasn’t kissed many people in her thousands of years, but she still knows that she’ll never kiss anyone as good at kissing as Shizuru. It tastes of sour wine and tobacco, a combination that grosses her out at first but it’s just so inherently Shizuru that she can’t dislike it for more than a few seconds.
“Mm, Shizuru,” she whispers, licking her lips and catching her breath. “What— what is this?”
“What do you mean? I’m hoping we’ll go back inside and make out some more.”
“No, I—” She groans while trying to find the words. “Do you like me?”
“I’m trying to make out with you,” Shizuru says playfully. “I’d sure hope I liked you.”
“I like you too.” Botan starts leading Shizuru back inside, grinning so much she can barely see. “I also like your idea of making out some more.”
“Yeah?”
She nods. “The couch?”
“I don’t really care where, but if you want that.” Shizuru sets Botan on the couch and crawls on top of her. “Want another drink?”
“Haha, I’m okay.” Botan puts her arms on Shizuru’s shoulders again. “Oh, if we were in a cheesy romance movie, I’d say, ‘I’m drunk on you already, baby.’”
Shizuru laughs, then clears her throat and makes her voice even deeper. “I’m drunk on you already, baby.”
And Botan knows it’s supposed to be funny, but… Ah, that was kinda hot. She looks away to try to hide her blush.
“Wait, did you like that?”
“A little,” Botan admits sheepishly.
Shizuru hums and leans down to nuzzle her neck. “You’re so cute…”
She whines as Shizuru laughs again.
(Botan quickly kisses the smug expression off her face. Then promptly forgets about the whole thing.
Turns out her mind is also wiped when she’s being kissed so well.)