Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The end of a work shift for a wolf tengu was never a flashy affair. Couldn’t afford to be, make a scene about how much you hated your job and you would be called out for defying the status quo. It was just a matter of heading back to your home and allowing whoever was on night duty to take your place. The monotony of a wolf tengu’s life was something that they would always hold onto and remember.

So when Momiji made it home after a lengthy day of work, an extra long shift for extra pay, she wasn’t expecting anything special. Certainly not a crow tengu standing in her doorway, and especially not Hatate.

“H-Hatate? You’re not usually here this late at night.”

“Well guess who has a question that needs answered?”

Momiji blinked as she watched Hatate walk over to the kotatsu in the living room, completely unprompted, and sit down. Damn her smug nature, Momiji thought to herself as she kicked off her geta and moved to sit across from her. What could she be asking at this hour?

“Ask away, I guess.”

“Right. So I was talking to Aya – never hurts to learn more about your rivals, right – and she starts telling me about an encounter the two of you had recently. Said you were glaring at her the whole time. And can you believe what she tells me?”

“Nothing good, I take it.”

“She starts telling me ‘I think Momiji might have a thing against crow tengu.’”

Momiji sighed and nearly shifted to lying on her back when she heard that. Of course Aya would try to spread some malicious rumor about her, it was such an Aya thing to do that to someone she didn’t like. All she could hope was that the crow wasn’t spreading it to everyone she knew.

“What makes her say that?”

“Oh, she said ‘oh, Momiji thinks we’re so high-and-mighty, that we’re all a bunch of rude, nosey types who rub our higher social standing in their faces’. Yeah, she did not have very kind things to say about you Momiji.”

Yeah, figures that was what it would be about. Something about social status; Momiji always took Aya as being someone who hated tengu’s strict caste-based social structure, so she figured she’d be a bit more sympathetic to her feelings on the whole thing, but no, spread lies about her as being some kind of crow hating jerk, that made sense.

“Say it ain’t so, Momiji. I know you’re not some bigot, but why do you two hate each other so much? Doesn’t make any sense to me, I didn’t think my personality was that much different from hers and you’re willingly dating me.”

Oh. Oh no. That’s the one question that Momiji didn’t want to have to answer. Anything but digging into the whats and hows of why her and Aya’s relationship is so sour. That was going to take more than a little effort to find the right phrasing for, but if Hatate was asking, then the wolf tengu needed to suck up her pride and figure it out, and fast.

“...can you give me a minute?”

“Not too long please, I’m starting to get sleepy.”

Great, a time limit. Now Momiji really needed to figure this out. She crossed her arms and got to thinking, her tail smacking against the soft floor behind her. Just how exactly was she going to explain this? Would she sugarcoat the whole ordeal? Nah, that’d be blatantly dishonest, Hatate could see right through her. Same with her trying to make Aya look bad. No, as much as it hurt, she had to be thoroughly honest with her.

“...Hatate? I think I need to confess something.”

“Oho, a confession. Lay it on me, fuzzball.”

“...oh no, this is really embarrassing. Hatate, I…”

Momiji took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Just spit it out, just spit it out…

“Aya and I used to date… many, many years ago.”

Hatate held a hand to her face, though Momiji couldn’t tell whether it was in shock or to hide a smirk. She could at least tell that the crow was surprised by her answer, and maybe even a little amused.

“Hah, you and Aya dated? Maybe you just have a thing for birds. What happened with that?”

“Nothing special. It was just a particularly nasty break up… honestly, it was so long ago I don’t remember exactly what caused it. And by long I mean centuries, it’s been ages since I’ve even considered her an ex instead of an annoying pest.”

There was a look on Hatate’s face. It was… remarkably smug, more than usual in fact. Like she’d just gotten the scoop of the century and knew that she had the power and knowledge to do whatever she wanted with it.

“Well, I’m sorry about the breakup,” she very suddenly said in a sincere tone. Where did that arrogance go? “Truthfully, I don’t like her much either, but what can you do? I’ll see about finding ways to get her to leave you alone. Maybe I’ll get Megumu on her case.”

“Megumu?” It took a while for Momiji to remember who Megumu was – she was the crows’ boss, not her own – but once she did, she couldn’t help but smirk along. “Oh, that’s diabolical. That’s one more reason to add to the list of things I love you for.”

“Haha, that’s what I love to hear. Now since it’s getting late, how about we go do that other thing you like me for while we lie down? Y’know, the brushing?”

“...you know what? Sure, after today I think I’ll take it.”

And so Momiji stood up and strolled off to her bedroom, Hatate in tow. Honestly, talking about her past with Hatate turn out to not be such a bad idea after all; perhaps this was what it meant to have a healthy relationship. Just talking about your issues rather than bottling them up. Hatate sure seemed to have that figured out already. It got Momiji thinking, though.

Just what were all those other couples across Gensokyo doing this summer?

Chapter Text

“Really? That’s what you’re most proud of?”

It wasn’t often that Minoriko Aki had visitors over to her home. It was a rather ramshackle place built on a field fairly recently, basically just had the basics for herself and her sister Shizuha, plus maybe one guest if they didn’t mind the small size. But, well, this wasn’t any other visitor. This was a rather cute maneki-neko that she’d recently hired to help with her sales, but… well, something just clicked. Maybe it was her savvy, their shared taste in warm colors, or maybe she was just pretty. But after a few days of working together, the pair couldn’t bear to keep their partnership strictly professional.

Of course, that didn’t mean they had to agree on everything.

“Yep. Once you see how much money I’ve been making from that card trade, you’d get it too.”

“Really, money of all things.” Minoriko rolled her eyes as she worked on baking something. “No wonder you call yourself a cat-pitalist. It’s always money with you.”

“Hey, I started from nothing, lived my life and eventually got to become something. It just so happens that money’s involved in it! And besides, don’t act like you weren’t also getting in on that card trade.”

“H-hey, I just… wanted to use it as an excuse to sell more sweet potatoes, okay?”

“Right, right.” Mike smiled as she moved to sit down. “But anyway, what are you proudest of?”

“Me? I can think of a few things.” Minoriko got to thinking as she placed the results of her work in a wood oven. “I’m proud of the work I do for the autumn season. As a deity of the harvest, I’m proud to be able to work with the few villagers who do worship me, to be able to grant them bountiful crops every year. Though…”

“Though… what?”

Minoriko stepped away from the oven and smiled. She moved to sit next to Mike and scratched behind the cat girl’s ears, prompting a murring noise from the latter.

“What I think I’m most proud of is my cooking. You’ve had my sweet potatoes and such, but I’d like to think I’m talented enough to be able to handle even non-autumn dishes perfectly.”

“Your cooking, huh?” Mike glanced over at the oven. “Well, we’re about to see how justified that pride of yours is, huh?”

“Don’t give me that competitive tone, we both know how you feel about my cooking. You know what they say,” Minoriko said as she held up a finger. “The best way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach.”

“Hah… haha… right.”

Mike blushed and went silent. Now it was just time to wait for this thing to finish baking. Using this silence as an opportunity, Minoriko stood back up and walked over to a small box on the floor. Inside the box was ice, and a lot of it, but more interestingly was a small container sitting on top of it. Reaching down, the goddess picked it up and set it atop a table, before opening it. Inside was something akin to cream, though it was lighter, almost airy.

“What’s that you got there?” Mike asked with visible intrigue.

“I just took some heavy cream and very quickly mixed it. It’s something that Western maid taught me about when I visited last autumn. Same with this dessert I’m about to give you. I sweetened it too to make it a bit more flavorful, I’m sure it’ll go great with it.”

“We’ll see about that.”

There Mike was with the teasing. That was the one annoying thing about her, she just kind of always insisted on being right. Maybe that card market was starting to give her a swelled head after all, but now probably wasn’t the time for that conversation. Now was the time to wait for food. So back and forth Minoriko would go, switching from checking on the oven to scratching Mike’s ears, on and off until…

“Aha, it looks done to me.”

Minoriko put on some mitts and slid the finished dessert out of the oven. The result was something resembling a bowl of an orange-ish custard, except between the custard and the bowl was a layer of browned pastry. Mike clearly didn’t recognize it.

“What’s that?”

“The person who told me about this called it ‘pumpkin pie’. Apparently it’s a popular dessert in the Outside World during the autumn months. The filling’s based on a type of squash you’d see out there too, I’ve started growing them as of last year as a matter of fact. Never hurts to expand your culinary tastes.”

“I guess so.”

Minoriko nodded and moved to cut out a slice from the pie. As she did so, she glanced down at Mike.

“So, just to be totally clear. Are you proud of the money you’ve earned, or, uh, or the work you put in to get there? Because if it’s the latter, you sure fixated on the former a lot.”

“Well, I’m… I’m… huh.” That seemed to catch Mike off guard. The maneki-neko leaned forward, hands on her face, and paused. “You know, when you put it like that, I’m… actually not sure?” I feel like… huh. Are my words and my thoughts just completely mismatched? I feel like…”

“Go ahead, think it over. I’ll give you time.”

The next minute or so was mostly quiet outside of a few grunts from Mike, as if they were the sound of the wheels turning in her head. Eventually, there was a nod.

“I think I was thinking of the latter. I’m proud of the work and the results of said work, not just the money itself.”

“Alright, alright. Thank you for the clarification, that’s a lot more understandable. Now, please try this.”

Minoriko finished slicing up the pie and placed one onto a plate. She dabbed some of the whipped cream on top and passed it off to Mike with some silverware; she was gifted some and found it was helpful for some of the more out-there foods she tried making, this being an example. She cut some for herself as well and moved to sit back down with her partner.

“Don’t have to wait for me to start,” Mike commented, “you can go ahead and eat.”

“Well gee, thanks.”

The pair both dug in at the same time, each taking a fairly small bite at first. The room fell silent with their chewing, neither knowing how the other would react. It wasn’t until Minoriko caught a small, rumbling noise coming from next to her that she had an idea of what her partner felt.

“Hey, are you… are you purring?”

“W-what? What? It’s good!” Mike leaned back and gave Minoriko the absolute most sheepish look the god could imagine; it even made said god chuckle. “It’s sweet, but it’s not super, uh, sugary. It’s one of the best desserts I ever had. I think the only thing that may beat it is your sweet potato stuff.”

“Oh, it’s that good? Thank you, I’m glad it’s up to par.” Minoriko finished her first bite and smiled, before taking another. “I wondered if I had the spices messed up, but no, it’s exactly how I wanted it.”

The couple would work on finishing their pie slices, not even bothering to take it slow given that they had another several slices for later. No time to savor the flavor when the flavor was that savor-able as it stood. Eventually they finished, leaving empty plates in front of them and their stomachs full. The pair sighed and leaned back, before Mike eventually spoke up.

“...y’know what, Minoriko?”

“Hmm?”

“...you know, I’d be way prouder of this if it were my talent.”

“Ah, don’t let yourself down. You’re a hard worker, Mike, you deserve credit there.”

“...yeah, you’re right.”

Minoriko got up to cover the pie and put it in the ice box, before moving back to sit near Mike and return to petting her. That conversation certainly ended better than expected, and they both felt remarkably cozy afterward. Sheesh, the deity thought, if only every conversation ended like that.

Chapter Text

Another boring day at the temple, Shou Toramaru thought to herself. She had just finished reading that book from the Outside World that Mamizou had gifted her and was largely out of things to do. So what was a youkai to do other than to loiter around the Myouren Temple grounds and perhaps look to see if anyone was being a worse Buddhist than she was. Because if there was one thing she was good at, it was reprimanding people.

“Hmm. Don’t see anything…”

The grounds were remarkably quiet this early in the morning. Kyouko Kasodani was off cleaning her section of the yard as usual; Shou couldn’t help but admire her work ethic, as much as Byakuren seemed dedicated to eliminating whatever leisure time she had. Besides her, she only saw a handful of monks and monks-to-be training outside, nothing too surprising given that the sun had barely risen. Yup, seemed today was going to be a perfectly quiet, ordinary day.

And then she heard a squeak.

“Huh?”

Shou turned and looked around for the source of the squeak, but to no avail. It wasn’t to her left, it wasn’t to her right, and if it were at her feet she were sure she could feel it. Which probably meant she was going to have to go on a little journey to figure this out.

Shou began to wander the grounds, specifically looking for where the squeaking would be loudest. Wandering out to the gate, she caught absolutely nothing, and so she wandered back around to the building: There we go, there’s the squeaking again. That confirms that whatever she heard was coming from inside. Taking this knowledge and running with it, Shou walked into a side door, where she would begin walking through the halls in an attempt to locate the source.

Eventually she would come across a door to her right. Oh, the squeaking was real loud coming from there, the chances of her turning, entering, and seeing some giant mass of rats were very suddenly not zero. Only one way to find out though, so Shou soon turned and poked her head into the room next to her.

“Hello?”

Ah, so there was the reason the squeaking was so loud. It wasn’t a mere mouse or rat, but a group of several. They were all scurrying around the room, a few either carrying dust clothes or sliding around on them. And who else would be among them but the giant rat… err, mouse… that makes all of the rules? Nazrin, a youkai like Shou, was currently using her dowsing rods for a variety of purposes: The one in her right hand had a dust cloth attached and was cleaning a high shelf that even the massive Shou had a bit of trouble reaching, while the one in her left hand had some cheese on the end and was leading some mice along a lower shelf.

“Nazrin?”

The sound of Shou’s voice visibly caught the mouse youkai’s attention. Nazrin swiveled around to face her tiger partner and looked up for eye contact; truth be told, the height gap between them was pretty much entirely a result of Shou herself being incredibly tall, maybe around two meters tall.

“Yeah, love?”

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m just cleaning. I know you get annoyed when I don’t pitch in to help take care of the shrine whenever I stay over, so I thought I’d have a little fun with it.”

“Oh, you’re being charitable?” Shou cracked the smallest of smiles at that. “Thanks Nazrin, I appreciate it. Mind explaining how you’re doing it then? This all seems pretty complicated, and lady Hijiri’s already gotten on my case about drinking too much.”

“It’s quite simple, dear Shou!” Nazrin walked forward and held her hands out to her sides, briefly twirling. “As you can see, these kind mice are manipulating their dust cloths, quite handily in fact. Because there’s so many clothes and so many mice, even if they retread ground they’re not about to drag any dirt around because they can just pick it back up! And for those who lack motivation… behold!”

Nazrin held up the cheese-ended dowsing rod, waving it in front of Shou’s face. The tiger could very clearly tell she was just doing it for dramatics, but hey, who didn’t like a little dramatics once in a while?

“Food rewards! You and I both know that mice aren’t particularly motivated by the possibility of being reborn in a better standing in the next life, they just wanna live a long life now, so I’m motivating them with food. Not even just this cheese either, I have a whole stash lined up.”

“A stash, huh? That’s quite interesting.” Shou fidgeted with her sleeves as she though of what to say next. “So, uh… would you mind telling me where you got that food?”

“Oh, wouldn’t you like to know? I, uh… I have my methods. Which I’m not sharing, so there.”

“...I see.” Shou could take a wild guess as to what Nazrin meant by that; as much as she liked her, she knew Nazrin wasn’t exactly a morally upstanding character. “And, uh, besides that high shelf, have you done any of the cleaning yourself?”

“Mm? Myself? Why would I need to worry about that? They’ve got a hang of it, don’t you think? And it’s not like I’m not doing anything Shou, I’m still leading them. There’s nothing you need to worry about love, I’ve got this all under control-”

Nazrin’s sentence was very suddenly interrupted by a crash. The noise causes the mouse to leap back and toward Shou, practically leaning against her to seek some sort of comfort. Sighing, Shou patted her partner on the head and looked to see what broke; as it turned out, it was a single ceramic bowl that had broken into a few pieces. Nothing too unmanageable. All of the rats had already scattered to the other end of the room.

“...so, great Napoleon,” Shou remarked, “how did relying on the mice to do everything work out for you?”

“Eurgh, it was fine until that happened. And who’s Napoleon?”

“Someone in the book Mamizou gave me.” Shou casually avoided mentioning that Napoleon was a military leader whose hubris was his ultimate downfall; truthfully, the height had nothing to do with it, as even the book mentioned that Napoleon wasn’t particularly short.

“Sure, sure. Uh… I’ll… I’ll clean that up-”

“No, no, I’ll get it.”

Shou walked over to the mess and knelt down to pick up the large shards of the bowl. With a groan she stood back up and disposed of the remains of the bowl into a waste bin, then turned back to Nazrin, who was already in the middle of trying to feed the visibly shaken rodents. Sheesh, Shou thought, maybe her little jab was a bit insensitive. With that thought in mind, she walked over to Nazrin and stood next to her.

“Hey, points for creativity,” Shou told the mouse. “It wasn’t practical, but I can only imagine how much effort it took to orchestrate all of that.”

“A fair bit, actually,” Nazrin admitted with a groan as she finished distributing the food, then snatched Shou’s arm. “It’s a lot harder to motivate mice when the food reward isn’t immediate. But, uh, what do you think of the finished results?”

“Hmm? What do I think?” Shou took one quick look around the room. Actually, there was hardly any dust at all, if there even was any. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so quick to judge the mice for the one mix up. “Looks good. Give the mice my regards, but first, let me give you mine.”

Shou leaned down and gave Nazrin a kiss on the cheek; the intimacy was enough to turn Nazrin’s face as red as could be, almost as red as her eyes if you wanted to exaggerate. Shou couldn’t help but admit to herself that seeing her flustered was fun, both because it helped to deflate her ego and also because she just found it cute.

“So how about some breakfast? I hear Ichirin’s cooking.”

“F-fine, fine. Probably beats what I had before getting here.”

With that, Shou helped Nazrin out of the room and off to the temple kitchen, while the other mice dashed out of the room to parts unknown. It was kind of a miracle that Nazrin was able to figure out how to wrangle them all, Shou thought to herself.

She supposed they didn’t call her the Tiny Clever Commander for nothing. Even if she really wasn’t that tiny.

Chapter Text

“Okay, so how are we going to get you to quit?”

That was the big question of the day that Keine Kamishirasawa had proposed as she settled in for the night. Her partner Mokou, who was sitting next to her, was staring at something on a nearby table: A carton of cigarettes, as it turned out. There was a restless look on the immortal’s face, something that Keine was all too familiar with. Mokou had tried quitting cold turkey, but some habits, especially addictions like this, were particularly hard to break.

“Wild that we’re… finally doing this, huh?” Mokou just sat and sighed, her hands visibly fidgeting with the phone sitting in her lap. “I moved in with you… what, last year? And here we are, finally dealing with this whole smoking thing. It feels like we should have addressed this ages ago, and yet…”

“...it was hard figuring out how I was going to help me,” Keine admitted. “Truth be told, I’m still not sure I know. But I think if we just… start by talking through it, I’m sure we’ll figure out a solution.”

“Yeah… yeah, that’s what I’m hoping.”

The duo sat in silence for another minute or so. Keine looked up at the currently turned-off TV in front of them; maybe some background noise would help. She nabbed the remote and turned the set on, revealing a news program. Well that wouldn’t do, that’d just be too depressing; she moved over to a documentary station instead. That would work a lot better.

“Okay, so… I guess we can start with… how you feel right now?”

Mokou looked at Keine with a tired, half-lidded stare, like she hadn’t gotten any sleep in days. It was apparent from her face that she wasn’t doing well, but Keine figured she’d ask anyway just to be totally clear.

“...I simultaneously feel restless and exhausted. Like I want to sleep but can’t. Like I’m hungry but also… can’t feel bothered to eat. It’s not a fun feeling.” The immortal rubbed her eyes. “It makes me miss smoking.”

“That seems right. And…” Keine reached for a glass of water and handed it over to Mokou. “How did smoking make you feel?”

“That’s a tricky one to answer. I guess… they make me feel relaxed? They let me focus on things I wouldn’t be able to otherwise, it feels like. And then a bit later I start to feel bad again and need to go for another one. Of course I know those positive thoughts are a load of crock, but that doesn’t really change my feelings before, during and after.”

“Well thank you, that helps me a lot actually.”

Indeed, Keine was already working to take this knowledge and apply it to try and figure out the best way to help Mokou kick this habit. Very clearly cold turkey alone was giving her trouble, but she wasn’t sure if weaning would do much for her either. Maybe there were some alternate methods they could try?

“Well, maybe we can start going out more? Do you think spending some time away from home would-”

“Nope.” Mokou shut Keine down almost immediately. “Don’t get me wrong, going out more would be great, I wouldn’t want to spend time alone with anyone else. But even on the few times we do go out, I still have to deal with it.”

“...ah, right. Last time we went to eat out you had to step out for a smoke…”

Keine wanted to beat herself up for forgetting about that. Maybe she’d eaten a bit too much history lately and just couldn’t remember that day. Probably would have helped her figure things out for her first guess, but at least that was a bit more knowledge to add to the pile. So simple distractions weren’t going to work, huh? This was going to be harder than she thought.

“...Mokou?” Keine decided to ask. “Can you think of anything else that sort of… makes you feel like how those little death sticks make you feel?”

“I assume you mean the positives,” Mokou said with a half-chuckle. “Give me a minute to think about that… hmmm… well, I do like sitting and looking at nature. Urbanization hitting the Human Village like a brick hasn’t done me any favors, but sometimes I’ll just walk out and find, you know, somewhere more peaceful and just relax. Why do you think I spend so much time loitering around that old bamboo forest?”

“Hey, that’s something.” Keine patted Mokou on the back and smiled. “We can start heading out there together maybe. I can be there to help keep you in check, help you feel safe… anything you need dear, I’m hear for you.”

“...thanks.” Mokou rubbed the back of her neck. “Though… what do we do if you’re busy, or I’m busy, or, uh… y’know, neither of us are really in the mood? Can’t just spend all our time loitering outside.”

“Oh, that’s a fair point actually…”

Guess that meant they needed to do some more thinking. There was probably something else that they could do to help, though what exactly? Damn it, Keine’s knowledge was all based on history, not anything like this. Maybe her knowledge base wasn’t enough to figure this out, maybe she needed to just… urgh, but…

“...sheesh, if only there was like… a pill or something for this. Is there?”

A pill? That’d be convenient, wouldn’t it? Would’ve been convenient if she’d thought about it sooner, but with her youkai blood-triggered extended lifespan, she was still pretty oldfashioned… but wait, Mokou was even older. Damn it, she couldn’t even use that as an excuse for her forgetfulness. Completely out of ideas, Keine decided to ask Mokou a question.

“Hey, can I borrow your phone? Mine’s still charging.”

“Sure?”

Mokou handed her phone over to Keine, who began making the search. As it turned out she didn’t have to look for very long, as indeed there were numerous medications available just for that sort of thing. Prescriptions could be gotten from doctors, and there were some weaker over-the-counter treatments available as well. Maybe combining those might do the trick…

“...Mokou, I think that might be the right idea.”

“Had a feeling.” Mokou lied down and groaned. “Mind handing me my phone back? I’ll book the appointment myself.”

Keine obliged and returned the phone to her girlfriend’s clutches. She looked over and watched as Mokou did exactly as she said, making an appointment with their favorite semi-local doctor. Turned out there was a slot available tomorrow, how convenient.

“It’s during your job,” Mokou admitted, “but I’ll be fine going over myself. I’ll just take my bike, told you the yakitori money wasn’t gonna go to waste.”

“Alright, dear. Even if I’m not immediately there, remember that you can always message me and I’ll respond whenever I’m able. And of course I’ll be here for you to help, even medicated I want to make sure you’re doing your best.”

“Thanks, Keine… love ya.”

“Love you too.”

With the appointment made, Mokou set the phone down on a nearby table and closed her eyes. Keine soon followed suit, and the pair would eventually drift off to sleep. Whether this would for sure work out or not, neither could confirm, but they had hopes. This habit was breakable, just needed to work at it. And by the Gods, would they work.

Chapter Text

Lunasa Prismriver had a secret that she was rather ashamed of. The only people who knew about it were her younger sisters, and even then the two agreed to never really bring it up. It was something that tainted her self-image as a performer to such a degree that it was partly responsible for her own reserved nature to begin with.

Okay, perhaps this was a little dramatic. But the fact that no matter what she tried, she couldn’t figure out how to play any other instrument besides a violin was still really embarrassing. She could only imagine what her capabilities could be if she just knew how to play literally anything else.

Fortunately, she had someone who could help her: Raiko Horikawa. Initially just a collaborator with her band, the tsukumogami was a warm enough presence that Lunasa found herself naturally drawn to her, even to the point of romance. It was a blessing that Raiko was willing to help her learn how to play at least one different instrument. What may not have been a blessing, however, was the berth of options she presented to her when she made it to the sisters’ manor.

“Raiko?” Lunasa found herself staring at a massive pile of instruments sitting in her front yard. “How many instruments did you bring?”

“Enough,” Raiko responded with a sting on her drumset, before stepping away from it. “But for a more serious answer, about… thirteen.”

“T-Thirteen? How do you expect me to get through them all?”

“I don’t. Just pick out whichever ones interest you and I’ll handle the rest. We’ve got woodwinds, we’ve got strings, we’ve got percussion, I tried my best to stick to mostly Western-style instruments, I know that’s the sort of stuff you’re more comfortable with.”

“...thanks, I think? I guess we can bring these inside when we’re done…”

Lunasa walked over to the pile of instruments, all laid out on a tarp. There was indeed quite the variety to work with, each of the thirteen was rather distinct from each other. Figuring she’d start with a random one, she picked up a clarinet and looked it over.

“It’s black. I like the color.”

“Most clarinets are,” Raiko responded with a chuckle. “That’s a classic right there, goes great in any orchestra, like your violin. And it goes great with your outfit. Want to give it a try?”

“Sure.”

Raiko nodded and slipped out some sheet music from behind her back, readily handing it off to Lunasa. The poltergeist nabbed it and read it quickly; being a trained musician, she had next to no problem learning how to read sheet music on its face. Taking a deep breath, Lunasa recalled how she saw someone hold one of these once and mimicked it okay enough. The moment of truth would come when she began to actually play it, and…

It was a mess. She only got through five seconds of a song before she had to stop herself, she was hitting the notes but it all came out wrong. There was something about this instrument that she just wasn’t vibing with and she did not get why at all. Sighing, she placed the clarinet back down.

“No, no…”

“What, you gave up on it already?”

“It felt wrong, didn’t feel good to play. I didn’t… I didn’t connect with it at all.”

“Huh. That’s… concerning. I guess it happens though, I don’t even really like playing note-based percussion, for example… ah, here, why don’t you try this?”

Raiko strolled over and hoisted up what looked to be a snare drum, just a really simple drum that anyone could probably play.

“Here, come on over and try this. Nah, don’t worry, I won’t count this as cheating on me, aha.”

Damn Raiko and her jokes. Lunasa obliged and made her way over to the snare, which was already in the process of being held up by a stand. Looking up, she saw Raiko conjure up the sticks to her drumset, then pick up another set of sticks off the ground and hand them to Lunasa. Looks like they’re going to do a collab, the poldergeist thought to herself.

“Alright, I just need you to repeat after me.” Raiko prepped her sticks and implored Lunasa to do the same; her partner promptly obliged. “I’ll do a rhythm, and you just need to follow along, okay?”

“I can do that.”

Nodding, Raiko began a simple rhythm, and Lunasa repeated verbatim. Unlike the tsukumogami who was playing with fluidity and gusto, Lunasa’s movements were rather rigid, terse and overly careful. It was as if she were somehow afraid of getting anything wrong, and it was to the point where it was negatively impacting her mood during the performance. Noticing this, Raiko stopped and patted Lunasa on the shoulder.

“Everything alright?”

“...honestly, Raiko, I don’t think the drums are for me… I-I mean the instrument, not the, uh… the you. You’re wonderful.”

“I know what you meant,” Raiko said with a laugh. “I think I have one more ace up my sleeve that should be able to help.”

“And that is?”

“Maybe the trick we need to get you to learn some extra instruments is just to get you to play an instrument that’s really similar to the one you’re already good at. Branch out a little before you go all out. In fact, I have a few here that I should be able to recommend handily.”

Walking over to another corner of the mat, Raiko knelt down near a trio of instruments. One was only slightly bigger than her usual violin, while the other two were considerably larger. She extended her hands outward as if she were doing some sort of grand presentation.

“Behold. The viola, the cello, the double bass. All in perfect working order, all for your viewing pleasure. Now tell me, which of these instruments will you-”

“That one.”

Without hesitation, Lunasa pointed to the cello. The viola seemed too familiar while the double bass just looked unwieldly. The cello on the other hand, that was unique, but it looked doable. Like she could figure out how to make it work in a matter of second. Shrugging, Raiko picked it up, strolled over and stood it up next to Lunasa, getting the poltergeist to hold it up for her.

“Want some sheet music, or…”

“I think I’ll give this a test first. Just to get a feel for it.”

“Alright. I’ll be over by my drums if you need a beat.”

Raiko made her way back over to her drum set, just close enough for Lunasa to still be near. The violinist looked over the cello up and down, as if she were sizing it up, before she took its bow and got into position. She looked over at Raiko for approval, with the tsukumogami giving her a thumbs up in response. With that, Lunasa went ahead and began.

The resulting tune was… simple. Short. Somber. But within that melody lied something that wasn’t there whenever Lunasa attempted to play the other instruments: Heart. She was quite visibly enjoying performing with this cello; not to the point of being ecstatic, but she wasn’t frowning, or straining, or anything of the sort. She seemed like a natural.

“...Raiko? Could you…”

“...ah, yes. Anything for you, Lunasa.”

Raiko hopped onto her main drum, a rather large, taiko-like bass drum, and held up her sticks. She began to perform a simple rhythm on the floating set circling around her, something that would go well with just a lone instrument. And so, the duet would begin. A poltergeist and tsukumogami, working together without the ghost’s sisters for a smaller, more intimate performance. The passion was very clearly there from the both of them.

“That’s it, that’s it.”

The song continued, rising and falling as any song with grander orchestration might in a show of Lunasa’s talent. Even Raiko picked up in volume while not necessarily increasing speed to give the show a more bombastic tone. As this improvised performance reached a climax the duo gave the song everything they had, accelerating in intensity until there was nothing left to accelerate. There was just one part left, and so with one last hurrah, the pair played, then paused, then played again, until at last, drawn out note ended the whole affair. At last, it was done.

“Bravo, Lunasa, bravo.”

Raiko hopped off the drum and gave Lunasa a standing ovation. The poltergeist, visibly blushing, did a bow in thanks.

“T-thank you, Raiko, truly. I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to learn another instrument, and yet here you are, pulling out all the stops for me. You’re truly a lovely person.”

“As are you, Lunasa.”

Raiko then moved over to Lunasa and pulled her into a tight hug. Yeesh, the poltergeist thought, Raiko was a strong hugger. Must’ve been the strength from all the drumming. At least it helped her feel a little more relaxed after all that effort she went through. Raiko’s hugs always had a way of doing that.

“Here, I’ll help bring the rest of this stuff inside. Don’t worry, I’ll get the heavy stuff.”

Oh. Right. There were still several other instruments they needed to bring inside. Oh well, all good things had to come to an end, and with that thought the duo broke the hug and began dragging each and every instrument inside the manor and toward the nearest storage closet. Sure, the epilogue was a tad disappointing, but neither was about to complain about how the initial ending played out.

On the bright side, at least they probably wouldn’t have to get all 13 out next time Lunasa wanted to try one.

Chapter Text

The moment that Sannyo walked through the door that night, Misumaru knew the ensuing conversation was going to be deeply awkward. The fact of the matter was that both women loved each other rather dearly, being on the older side by Gensokyo’s standards meant they had a lot in common and enjoyed talking to each other more than anything. They’d even moved in together recently, which was not something either of them had taken lightly. So what was the issue?

It was that damn cave. The Rainbow Dragon Cave, the place where dragon gems were harvested to create ability cards. Those gems were a resource far older than Gensokyo itself; in fact, they were instrumental in the creation of magatama, a fairly potent artifact that could copy a portion of a portion’s soul for safekeeping, whether it be their memories, feelings, or even their powers. Misumaru thought this power wasn’t something to be trifled with, and yet those in charge of the market were doing just that, trifling. Sure, she’d participated in the market once, but she had a very clear purpose; she was investigating. And now that she was done, she wanted no part in it.

Sannyo, meanwhile, didn’t really mind that these caves were being stripped of an ancient, powerful resource just to give cheap paper powers. Rather, she saw the card trade as a whole to be an incredible boon for the region where she lived and worked, improving the economy twice over. And she wasn’t sure whether that would be the case if those cards didn’t have some semblance of power to them; after all, folks in Gensokyo tended to be rather obsessed with their own ability to beat someone in a one-on-one fight, so cashing in on that just made sense in her eyes.

Needless to say, the couple were at an impasse on the topic, and neither seemed willing to budge. They were able to get past it relatively well enough by just not talking about it with each other, though now that Sannyo was walking in with a new set of ability cards and a small sack of money, Misumaru figured it would only be a matter of time before she slipped up, said something stupid, and caused another conversation over it. She was going to try to focus on anything else in the meantime, better than another one of those conversations.

“Good evening, Misumaru,” Sannyo said with a light groan as she walked over to their kitchen. “How’s your day been going?”

“Rather… swell,” the God responded, her voice slightly strained. “Is something amiss?”

“Not currently. I just had a rough day of work.” Sannyo leaned against a wall, sighed, and reached for her tobacco pipe. “That trio of tengu got rowdy again today. I swear they have to have it out for me or something, or maybe even that tanuki friend of mine.”

“That’s the unfortunate thing about tengu society,” Misumaru responded. “Exceptionalism to a fault, I’d say. That’s just a trio who took that mentality and ran with it unquestioningly. It’s frustrating.”

“I’ll say.” Sannyo took a quick smoke. “So how has today gone for you, dear?”

“Well enough, honestly. Spent most of today catching up with my fellow deities and assorted old folks. Lot of people around here don’t exactly look their age, y’know.”

“Oh, of course, I know that well.” Sannyo half-laughed and moved to sit near Misumaru, shuffling the cards she was holding. “So tell me about how that went.”

“Hmm… well, I started it off by having a little chat with Yukari. You know of her, right? We had a simple conversation about how Reimu’s doing?”

“Reimu? The shrine maiden?”

“Yes, her. I’m regretting not having gotten involved in her life sooner, because sheesh, she is… a mess. You know how long it took me to convince her I wasn’t involved with the tengu during that whole card incident? More than a while! I think that girl gets too caught up in her own head and it leads to her getting too stubborn. She’s… what, 20 years old now? But she acts like a headstrong teenager, it’s ridiculous.”

“I mean, the difference between 20 and 19 isn’t that big, Misumaru, cut the girl some slack.”

Misumaru shrugged, sighed, and slumped in her seat. She supposed Sannyo had a point, but that didn’t mean it had to feel good to admit it. She really just wanted the best for Reimu, to see that shrine maiden who wielded one of her finest creations become the best damn shrine maiden she could be. It was just frustrating seeing her stagnate in her eyes, that was all. So what if she were a bit dramatic about it?

“But… yes, we just talked and… that was about it. We talked about Reimu like I said, about recent incidents…”

“Oh, recent incidents? Which ones?”

“Oh, you know. Mostly the…”

There was a pause. Misumaru knew exactly which incident they were talking about; it was the card incident. But unfortunately, she just walked herself right into a trap. She was gonna have to talk about this now, Sannyo could tell when she was lying; dealing with people constantly bluffing in gambling made her rather observant. All she could really do was delay it, but would that even be worth it?

“...Misumaru? Are you there?”

Damn it, Sannyo noticed. Looekd like she had no choice after all.

“...we were talking about the card incident. And how it seems to have died down since Chimata took back control of the market. Ability cards might finally start slowing down…”

“...hmm.”

Just then, Sannyo’s eyes seemed to perk open. Misumaru glanced at her in confusion; what made her so alert all of a sudden?

“Ah, that reminds me. Thank you for bringing that up, I wanted to show you something. Here, look at these cards.”

Sannyo finally held up the cards she was holding and showed them to Misumaru. The god leaned forward to look closer at them; yep, they sure looked like ability cards, though… something was up with them. They looked… cheap. Flimsy, actually.

“...what’s the issue with these?”

“Take one out. Don’t worry about damaging it.”

Misumaru obliged and picked a random one, lifting it and holding it up to her face to analyze it more closely. Indeed, it was rather cheap and flimsy, but also… powerless. This wasn’t a normal ability card at all; it was a fake. Not a single dragon gem was used in its production.

“Sannyo, this is… a fake card. Why do you have this?”

“To be entirely clear, I still disagree on the issue of the cards,” Sannyo started, “but I get how important this issue is for you. So, I’ve decided to pack it in with the real card trade and move onto the recreational, playing card trade. It’s not as much money, but… well, you being comfortable is important to me, I’m willing to give on that whole thing if it helps you sleep at night.”

Huh. That took a while to sink into Misumaru’s head. So the cards were fake, and Sannyo was… abandoning the card market. For her? That felt… odd to hear, for some reason. Maybe she was expecting something a bit more dramatic, like an actual fight; not that she wanted one, but it felt odd for their little conflict to just… end like this. Maybe even a little awkward, but…

“...really? For me, you really didn’t-”

“Hey, some extra money isn’t worth the strain in our relationship. You deserve to be happy too, don’t forget.”

“...right. Of course.” Misumaru closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and worked to regain her composure. “I thank you, Sannyo. Truly.”

“Of course. For now, I think I’m ready to head off to bed. Ready to turn in, too?”

Misumaru didn’t even need to say anything. She just nodded and stood off, and Sannyo proceeded to head off toward their shared room with the god in tow. Sheesh, even if that conversation didn’t get heated, just the thought of it was enough to stress her out. At the very least this chapter in their relationship was over and they’d be able to move onto simpler, happier topics.

Like whether Sannyo should quit smoking. That certainly won’t cause any issues.

Chapter Text

The Hakurei Shrine was awfully quiet at this time of morning. Sounds of birds chirping and wind rustling trees were all that inhabited the grounds. Not even Aunn, famously adorable guard dog, was around; apparently she was spending the weekend at the Moriya Shrine. This left any potential ne’er-do-wells an ample opportunity to go in and cause a ruckus of any sort. And oh boy, was there quite the pair of ne’er-do-wells ready for some nonsense.

“Are you sure this is even going to work, Tenshi? What if Reimu’s not even home?”

“Trust me Shion, I know what I’m doing.”

A blue haired duo, one tall and one short, had made their way up the steps to the shrine and were looking around at the area. This would be a perfect place for a prank, the short one thought as she arrived. The tall one, meanwhile, was fairly nervous, but overall just happy to be here.

“Could you please give me a reminder of what we’re doing? I kind of forgot…”

“Oh, it’s easy. Remember the container I gave you?”

“O-oh, this?”

Shion held up a large, circular tin she was holding. It was covered by an equally circular lid, meaning that Shion had no idea what was inside.

“Alright, now open the lid. I swear, it’s gonna be great.”

Shion obliged, opening the lid to reveal its contents. There was a large dessert inside, very sweet smelling, filled mostly with a colored crème and topped with a white, whipped topping. Of course, it was a crème pie, perfect for use as a projectile.

“When she steps out of her shrine, I’m gonna stand to the side of the doorway. And when she gets next to me…” Tenshi performed a single, loud clap. “Bam! There it is! Right to the face! The look on that mug of hers is gonna be priceless once the pie drips off!”

“Hah… haha… yeah, it’s… it’s priceless, Tenshi…”

Shion forced a laugh as she stared at the confection she was holding. It looked rather amazing, and miraculously it wasn’t tainted at all by her presence. It just about looked good enough to scrap the prank idea altogether and just sit down and eat it… but alas, the prank was a go. She sighed and gave up the pie to Tenshi, who promptly got into position by standing near the doorway. Shion herself would stand right behind her, her nerves already getting the better of her. Yep, it was time.

“Alright, now we just have to wait.” Tenshi was already lowering her voice. “Remember to keep it down, we don’t want to give away our cover.”

“O-okay, Tenshi. I’ll do my best.”

And so the pair began their wait. They knew Reimu would emerge from that doorway any minute now, it was just a matter of when. So they stood quietly in anticipation, hoping Reimu would be out sooner then later. And then they would wait some more. And then some more. Perhaps this next minute would be different?

“…”

“…”

...no. There was just more waiting. Reimu was nowhere to be seen. Whether she hadn’t awoken yet or wasn’t even home, neither girl could say, but this was certainly mysterious regardless.

“This is odd, I would usually hear her complaining around now when I lived here…” Shion walked over and took a look inside the shrine; she didn’t see anyone from her brief check either, but before she could get a closer look, Tenshi had pulled her back away from the door.

“No, no, don’t show your face there. You’ll blow your cover.”

“B-but I just wanted to check to see if she was even here. If she’s not home, then what even is the point?”

“There would be no point, but that’s the thing Shion, we don’t know if she’s home. If you’d walked in there and she was just getting up… heck, she may have seen you, and this whole thing would have gone up in smoke.”

“I-I don’t think she minds having me around though, I don’t think she’d…”

“I think the sting of betrayal would cause her to lash out and attack you. And if anyone’s getting beaten up here, it’d better be me, not you.”

Shion held a hand to her cheek and sighed. She wasn’t usually this bad at pranks and general mischief, but she was just feeling remarkably off right now for whatever reason. And unfortunately, Shion wasn’t having any luck figuring out a possible reason for it. Was she out of practice? That could have been it, after her last scheme with Joon failed she’d been rather down on her luck. Still, that could only account for so much on its own; maybe there was something extra going on. Something like… ohh, that’d need to take a bit more time.

The pair eventually started to wonder about things to pass the time with. They couldn’t exactly leave their spot, after all if Reimu showed up they wouldn’t be in prime pieing range if they stepped away. They just looked at each other, unsure of what to do. In the end, they decided to simply hold hands and wait it out.

Eventually though, even that grew to be too boring. Holding hands felt nice, but it wasn’t much of a recreational activity.

“...Tenshi, can we just… come back another day? I think we should probably just give up and go home. Or to an inn.”

“You’re ready to give up already? But we haven’t been here that long.”

“Tenshi, there isn’t even any orange or purple in the sky anymore, it’s all blue. The sun’s definitely rose, if Reimu were here she’d already be up right now.”

Tenshi, who up until now had been oddly unobservant, finally stopped looking toward the doorway and instead back up at the sky. Sure enough, the sun was about as high in the sky as it was ever going to get. It was probably a little late for anyone to be waking up, so maybe Shion was right. Maybe Reimu really was out; whether she was solving an incident or seeing her girlfriend at the Moriya Shrine, no one could say but it was probably easy to guess that the shrine maiden probably wasn’t around.

“...ah, shoot. Maybe you’re right. This was a waste of time, wasn’t it?”

“I-I mean… uh… I guess it depends on how you feel, but… I enjoyed it. Even if it were only a few moments with you, any moments is good moments as far as I’m concerned. Plus, we are still holding hands, and we do have the idea still, I think that sort of makes this trip worth it on its own.”

Tenshi looked down and blushed. Shion always had a perception of her as being cool and extra competent, so seeing her show a bit of emotional vulnerability like this was a rare sight. It was… honestly endearing in a way, Shion had to admit to herself. Tenshi was a goofball, sure, but she was her goofball.

“Well, thanks for letting me know this wasn’t a waste. Did you want to do anything else?”

“...I…”

Before Shion could come up with an idea, she heard a rumbling. She looked down, figuring she knew exactly where the source was, and sure enough, it was her stomach.

“...I… skipped breakfast again before we met up. Can… can we eat this pie? I don’t know if it’s going to stay fresh next time we try to do this.”

“Gee, you almost have me thinking this whole conversation was a ploy to let you eat the pie.” Tenshi let out a small laugh. “Don’t worry, I’d let you eat it anyway if you asked. Sure, let’s go do that.”

Shion’s face lit up with a very muted sort of joy; the sort without a grin, but a warm smile. Tenshi responded by grinning herself, then leading Shion by the hand off to somewhere else. And once more, the shrine grounds were empty. Not a sound but the wind and the birds once more, and still not an Aunn in sight. It was downright peaceful without the wannabe pranksters loitering about place. At last, all was well.

“Mm? Who was that?”

Eventually, a brown haired figure still wearing what was very obviously sleepwear walked out of the shrine door and took a look around at her surroundings. She thought she heard a noise, perhaps some laughing or giggling, but a cursory glance showed nothing that could possibly point to a source. Not even a fairy or two to pin the blame on. The shrine’s sole permanent resident yawned.

“Oh well, guess I should get up to greet the day. Here’s to hoping it’s uneventful.”

With that, the shrine maiden returned to her chambers. Thus ends the notable events of the day, a cute bit of nothing that just happened to make a couple of people happy. But is life not full of these cute nothings, these inconsequential but ultimately pleasant and meaningful experiences that add up to help us deal with those darker moments? Cherish those smaller moments, because you can hopefully always look back at them and smile.