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Shisui stepped into her home and stretched her arms. It was a long shift at the restaurant as is, with unruly customers and her probably-in-love coworkers having a tiff she had to work around, but on top of that, the hapless detective showed up.
Ever since she settled down in this town beyond the shores of Li, she'd been dragged into all sorts of misadventures by a local detective who needed her to solve his cases. This mystery was easy enough, but she wished he'd learn how to do his job himself. Maybe if more of these cases involved bugs, she'd be more interested.
Speaking of which, there was still a way to turn the day around.
With a glint in her eye, Shisui grabbed a cage she had prepared and dashed back out the door, heading past the town's boundary into the woods. Within an hour, she returned with an exquisite specimen held inside it: a black beetle with a long protruding horn that split into two branches at the end. Humming in delight, she sat at a table, placed the cage on top, and pulled out a brush.
Shisui, or rather the waitress named Tamamo, was sociable and had many friends, but it was times alone like this that she could truly recharge. She really did enjoy being with other people, but even with her closest friends, she was pretending about something. There was no one in this country who she could show everything, that knew her true name.
The door slid open and Shisui's heart lightened before she even looked. The one exception was here.
Maomao walked in in a daze, her head slowly rocking back and forth. Shisui smiled. "The old lady gave you a hard time, huh?"
Maomao groaned and nodded, practically falling onto a stool.
Technically, Maomao's official purpose for coming to this country was to study medicine, so once she discovered Shisui's location, she was obligated to find a teacher nearby. A local doctor was willing to take Maomao as an apprentice, but she quickly grew dissatisfied by his relative lack of knowledge. Instead, Maomao's true teacher turned out to be a nice old lady who lived nearby and happened to know a lot about local plants. She was much less nice when it came to imparting her knowledge. Add onto that Maomao's struggles with this country's language and her well-documented timidity around old women, and you got a tired apothecary every day she has lessons with her. The apothecary was particularly withered this time.
Shisui's eyes widened. "Wow, she really did a number on you today. You look like you're going to fall over."
Maomao pinched the bridge of her nose. "She had me go out and gather herbs, but if any had the least bit of damage, she'd send me back. On top of that, she forbade me from using the Li language at all when asking questions and drilled me on a bunch of local words."
"Ah yeah, the language part must have really taxed you."
"It was worth it though," Maomao said, sparkles forming around her tired eyes. "I learned about a new way to treat headaches with herbs, and they leave a nice tingle when you eat a lot of them."
Shisui narrowed her eyes. "OK, now I'm guessing the real reason you're this tired is that you poisoned yourself again and she chewed you out."
Maomao continued sparkling. "You guessed right."
With an exasperated sigh, she said, "I'll get you some tea, and after that, you need to rest. I don't care how resistant to poison you are, you don't look good right now."
"Sounds good," Maomao said dreamily, and formed a frankly indecent smile.
The apothecary clearly reliving the experience of her poisoning, Shisui chose not to converse much as she prepared the tea. She soon placed a cup in front of her and she quickly drank it.
Despite Maomao's glee, Shisui maintained a neutral expression. "I don't have any place to lay down other than my bed, so you can feel free to use that."
Maomao wavered on the stool. "Yeah, I think I should do that."
Shisui reached out her hand and the apothecary took it. She got up and they slowly made their way to the bed, where Maomao promptly collapsed on top of the sheets and closed her eyes.
Shisui tilted her head. "Honestly, if you weren't you, I'd be worried you were dying."
Shisui pushed Maomao's dangling legs up on top of the bed and placed a blanket on her. She watched the blanket shift slightly with each breath, Maomao's mouth partly open with her cheek squished.
With a gentle smile, she reached over and brushed strands of hair away from her face. Maomao's breath changed. Shisui paused for a moment, then returned to stroking her hair. Maomao settled after that.
Satisfied, Shisui stepped back to the main room and sat in front of her caged beetle. "I bet you're smart enough not to poison yourself, huh?" The beetle had no response.
With a smile, she dipped her brush into ink and carefully drew the insect's image.
Shisui stirred a pot of stew over a small flame. Vegetables, mushrooms, and bits of chicken bobbed up and down: more than usual, since she was cooking for two. It was strange, knowing that Maomao would be eating with her soon. They had certainly done things that could be considered more intimate, but doing something this normal got her oddly excited.
After all, there was only so much time left for them.
Shisui tensed up. That was just her nerves talking, she knew.
The fact of the matter was that Maomao was just there temporarily. The plan was to study here for a year then return to Li, where people were waiting for her. Even if Shisui wanted to, she couldn't go with her. And she didn't want to. Even five years later, too much about that country pained her. Even disregarding the chance that she'd be executed—
Her heart started thudding. She could be executed. All the work she put in since she got her chance to survive, it could end in an instant. Surely people were sent to secretly tail Maomao, and they learned that Loulan was alive and her days were numbered and maybe that wasn't so bad because she shouldn't have survived in the first place this was all borrowed time anyway and since the story would be cleaner if Loulan died back in the stronghold they'd kill her here without her even getting a chance to see her sister and—
Shisui took in a breath. It was fine, this feeling was temporary, it always was, it'd pass if she did her best to calm herself. Maomao had been with her for several weeks, nothing has happened. The Moon Prince had a positive opinion of her anyway. When he gave permission for Maomao to journey here, he was fully aware that Maomao was looking for her and not-so-subtly gave permission to romantically pursue her.
Not that Maomao even realized that's what he meant until Shisui helped her go over what he said. Such a silly girl.
Yes, that's what she needed to focus on. Not the fact that she could die and probably deserved—no, focus! Maomao's expression before she slept was so adorable, wasn't it? She was so pleased with herself, it was impossible to get upset at her.
She could feel the tension in her body releasing. She was no longer gritting her teeth. She released a breath she didn't know she was holding. She felt fine now. She felt good, even. She could view her concerns objectively now without her thoughts spiraling.
In fact, saying she felt good was an understatement. She felt warmth against her back and around her waist, as though she was being hugged and—
Shisui looked back over her shoulder. "Maomao?!"
She was so focused on her thoughts that she didn't even notice the apothecary approaching. Maomao pressed her face into the back of Shisui's head. She could feel every inch of bodily contact as intensely as if she shoved herself into the pot. Maomao's gentle breath basted her neck. She was boiling alive.
Face surely flushed red, Shisui said, "Maomao, what are you doing?"
Maomao blinked away sleep and groaned. Her eyes now clear, she slowly turned them to what she was holding and then shot away, holding her palms up to show they were empty. "Ah! Sorry, I didn't mean to do that!"
Shisui sighed, displeased by the broken contact. Turning, she said, "Maomao, you don't have to apologize. I was just surprised."
Maomao looked away and rubbed her scalp. "I'm serious, it... just happened. I was walking out of the bedroom, basically sleepwalking, and I saw you and I thought you seemed upset. And I was thinking about years ago when you said you'd give me a hug if I needed one. Then I was there."
Shisui lit up. "Maomao, you remembered that?"
"Of course. That was basically our last interaction before you kidnapped me."
Hearing Maomao put it so bluntly made Shisui sink down. If Maomao noticed this, she didn't make it obvious.
Maomao continued, "Look, I was still half-asleep. I'm normally not a hugger, you know that."
There was a twinkle in Shisui's eye. "You hugged me because you were half asleep... so it's the sort of thing you'd do in your dreams?"
Maomao pointedly didn't look at her. "I suppose."
Shisui smiled gently. "Maomao..." She spun away from the apothecary and pointed down over her shoulder. "Get back over here."
After a moment, Maomao shuffled toward her.
"Now hug me the same way as before," Shisui ordered. After a second's hesitation, Maomao obeyed and her arms returned around Shisui's waist. She melted into her warmth.
"Am I doing it right? Are you comfortable?" Maomao asked.
"Yes, very comfy!" Shisui grew a sly grin. "So, if this is what you dream of, what happens next?"
Shisui expected a flustered response, or for Maomao's dream to involve poison or mushrooms at this point. Instead there was a pause, and then she felt Maomao tug at her robe by her collar, slowly exposing her neck and then her shoulder. It took everything she had to keep control as she first felt breath, but then Maomao's soft lips pressed right where the neck met the shoulder and Shisui made a small gasp.
Maomao's nerves seemed to disappear as she asked, "Did you enjoy that?"
"Yeah," Shisui exhaled. "Are we sure I'm not the one dreaming now?"
"How about I check?"
Shisui sensed Maomao's right arm rise from her midriff and then felt a pinch on her cheek, then said cheek pulled as far as it could stretch.
"Gah! Maomao, couldn't you have done something more romantic, like bite me?"
"I'm not a biter."
"Even though you're a cat?"
Maomao's mouth twisted. "I'm not a cat."
Shisui giggled and reached up to Maomao's hand with her left, then held the other hand with her right. She twirled around so she and Maomao faced each other, causing minor changes in the latter's expression that, to a trained eye, read as clear flusterment. "Now, how about I show that you aren't dreaming?"
Maomao frowned. "Don't bite me."
"Who said I was going to bite you?"
"My investigative instincts. And the fact that you bite me basically all the time."
Shisui squeezed her lips and glanced away. "No, I was going to..."
She didn't say anything after that.
"Didn't have a backup plan, huh?"
Shisui hummed then shrugged, rubbing her fingers on the backs of Maomao's hands. "Maybe I'll make it feel even more like a dream instead."
She leaned in and pressed her lips against Maomao's. The first kiss was short, but they quickly kissed again with greater intensity, melding into each other with hands gripping tightly and tongues caressing each other before they pulled back again. Shisui caught Maomao's lower lip with her teeth and she held it there for a moment, enjoying the feeling. Finally, she let go.
After taking a second to recover, Maomao gave her narrow eyes. "You just bit me."
Shisui stuck her tongue out. "Oops. Guess it just slipped my mind. But now we know we're both really here." She put her hand on Maomao's cheek, who leaned into her touch.
"It's still hard to believe. Us finding each other again, I mean," Maomao said awkwardly, touching the back of Shisui's hand. She was clearly unused to speaking her thoughts like this. "When I wake up, I keep expecting to find myself back in Li, having dreamt all this."
Shisui smiled. "Same here. I keep expecting..." Shisui decided that what she expected wasn't an appropriate thing to bring up. "Well, same as you, I suppose." That wasn't a lie, really. "I'll tell you what, until both of us can accept this is reality, we can keep biting each other."
"You're really in a biting mood today. Even more than usual."
Shisui's lips parted a bit as her gaze washed over Maomao's face. "I don't know why, but I really want to bite you more. Something about..."
Something shifted inside the pot, making a sloshing noise.
"The stew! Dinner! I completely forgot!" Shisui said.
"I guess standing next to food explains that," Maomao said wryly.
Shisui didn't want to separate from Maomao, but between the two of them, she had the unfortunate role of actually keeping them on track with meals. She filled two bowls and brought them to the table, motioning for Maomao to sit with her. The apothecary sat in the stool opposite her. While Shisui dug into the stew, not bothering to wait for it to cool—and having to let her mouth hang open before swallowing as a result—Maomao blew on her spoonful before taking a small bite.
"It's good," Maomao said simply.
Shisui sparkled. "Thank you! I learned the recipe here, so I'm glad it was to your taste."
"I know some herbs that you could use next time." She scratched her cheek. "I might do some experimenting with dishes myself, if you want to taste them."
Shisui's eyes shined like the sun. "Maomao cooking?! How could I say no?"
They worked their way through the stew as Maomao talked about possible recipes. Their ingredient options weren't nearly as extravagant as at the palace, but that left room for her to consider unusual ingredients.
"Actually," Shisui said with a smirk, "you know that insect I was painting when you came in?"
Maomao narrowed her eyes and said with trepidation, "I didn't really get a good look."
Shisui excitedly got up and placed her art on the table. "This is a rhinoceros beetle. You can actually find them in Li too, but they're all over the place around here. And I'm sure you already know this, but their larvae can be used in medicine to treat diseases."
Maomao looked at the drawing. "I've heard that, yes. By the way, this is really well drawn."
"Aww, thank you. They're nocturnal, and I knew I had to capture his sleepy face. Anyway, something you may not have known is that their larvae are edible as is, and quite nutritious!"
Maomao's mouth twisted. "I figured this is where you were going."
"It's an acquired taste, though. I tried some myself, and it's really bad. Buuut, if we work together, maybe we can figure out a way to make it palatable!"
"Health benefits or not, maybe we should start with something that already tastes good to start with."
"Oh come on, how much of the poison you enjoy so much actually tastes good?"
"Poison is poison, we're talking meals here." After receiving a pout from Shisui, Maomao added, "But if the larvae have medical benefits, then I don't have any objection to making the drugs easier to swallow."
"Yay!" Shisui said. "It's actually mating season right now, so in a few months, I'll gather up some larvae for us to experiment with."
Maomao rubbed her chin. "Maybe we could do something with yeast..."
"In fact—" Shisui's face fell "—oh right, I was actually planning on going out tonight to watch the beetles fight over mates. I found a bunch of them earlier, and it's a clear moonlit night, so it's a good opportunity. Plus I need to return the one I captured so he can join the fray." She put her pointer fingers together. "I don't suppose you'd like to come with me?"
"I have to be honest, watching bugs fight doesn't seem that interesting to me."
"Oh. Yeah, I suppose it wouldn't be for you. You probably want to go back to your place anyway. So we'll be saying 'see you later' in a bit, huh?"
Maomao tilted her head as she finished her bowl. "No, I'll still be here when you get back."
Shisui blinked. "Huh? You're staying over?"
"Walking all the way back to my place seems like a big pain right now. Besides, I left a book here by accident that I'd like to finish," Maomao said, getting up and walking to a shelf. To Shisui's amazement, she then reached on top without looking and pulled down a book.
Shisui smiled brightly. "By accident, huh?"
"Yup, by accident."
"You don't have to make excuses, you know."
Maomao's face changed color and she looked away. "I'm working on it."
Shisui closed an eye, lifted up a finger, and moved it over the top of Maomao's head.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm picturing you with a giant horn."
"Don't only the male beetles have those?"
"I'm granting you one as a special favor."
"You're a strange woman, you know that?"
Shisui giggled. "Says the woman who was in bed for hours because she intentionally poisoned herself." She stretched onto the table, looking at Maomao with an affectionate smile. "Maomao, if we were both rhinoceros beetles, would you fight other beetles to be with me?"
"We're really doing this?" Maomao sighed. "I don't have much confidence in my strength. Can I whip up some pesticide?"
"Sure! Smaller rhinoceros beetles tend to be sneaky anyway."
"Then I'd win."
"That's what I like to hear." Her smile flattened. "But Maomao, what if these beetles were good insects and I did something to wrong them? Would you still protect me?"
Maomao blinked, then sulked with an exaggeratedly annoyed expression. "There's your bad habit again, assuming people can read your mind instead of just saying things clearly." More gently, she added, "Is this what you were upset about? You being brought back to Li to be executed?"
Shisui glanced away. "Can you blame me? Every day has been wonderful since you found me, but that was always the other side of the coin."
Maomao walked back to the table and placed her book on it. Then she stepped to Shisui's side and touched her hands, making the other woman look up in surprise. "Shisui, I let go of you once. That's never happening again. I swear I'll protect you, and if they try to take you, I'll burn everything down."
Shisui blinked in amazement. "You'll burn everything down? I didn't realize you were so romantic."
"I'm not. I'm a realist," Maomao insisted.
Shisui sputtered out a loud laugh, eliciting a frown from Maomao. "You're amazing, Maomao."
"I meant what I said."
"I know, I know. I just..." Shisui couldn't stand to be in the same room as Maomao in that moment. "I need to go now if I want to see those beetles. Have fun with your book!" She could barely squeeze that out before giddiness overtook her. She trotted out the front door, doubling back moments later to get the beetle cage.
"And make sure you wash up after," Maomao called out. "I don't want that outdoor smell in bed."
That meant Maomao was going to share a bed with her! Shisui wanted so badly to tease her about that, but she wasn't capable of that right now. Instead, she continued out the house, giggling to herself and then breaking out into a rambunctious skip once she was far enough away.
She'd come down from this high eventually. Eventually she'd start fretting over her fate again. But for now, she was in love.