The first pale rays of morning sun were bathing the Hakurei Shrine in white light as Letty sat down on the porch, half anticipating that spring would assault her the moment she looked up.
No such thing happened, of course. The air was relatively mild and free of spring-heralding fairies. Still. Letty had seen the signs. It was going to be a warm, bright day, with a yellow sun that would dye the sky in rich blue. In other words, Letty's time was coming to an end.
She closed her eyes and summoned a cocoon of cold air to counteract the drowsiness that came with excessive warmth. During winter, she was awake night and day, feeling no fatigue as she travelled the frost-filled lands. It only made sense sleep would catch up to her come spring. It didn't usually bother her; it was merely a part of her existence.
Even so, she found herself daydreaming that she might stay forever awake.
There was still some snow on the shrine's roof, half-melted remnants of the thick white sheets that had shrouded it in the heart of winter. More lay in uneven clusters in the shadow of the trees by the edges of the courtyard, where it had lost its pristine whiteness: the snowbanks were dotted with dark fragments of bark and other imperfections.
Letty could have covered them up, summoned a final snowfall to create a fresh coating of frost. She wasn't so sleepy yet she couldn't extend winter for another day.
Instead, she stayed where she was and waited.
It wasn't long until she heard the door behind her slide open, followed by a protracted yawn.
"Did you go out at night?" Reimu's voice was rough with sleep as she padded over to Letty.
"Briefly." Letty waited for her to sit down. "I saw the first anemones in bloom."
"Mmm." Reimu's eyes drooped back shut. "Are you sure it's today?"
"Now I know you're still asleep." Letty couldn't help but smile as the warm weight of Reimu's head fell against her shoulder as soon as she was done speaking. She let her rest and looked at the skies again, taking stock of her life.
If someone had told her five years earlier that she would willingly spend so much of her time with a human, she would've frozen their extremities in retaliation. That it would be the very human who had trounced her at the end of the blessedly long winter would have been inconceivable.
But as Letty watched Reimu stir and wipe sleepy tears from her eyes, she knew she wouldn't have had it any other way.
"I'm awake now." Reimu did look more alert, shocked out of slumber by the cold emanating from Letty which she could subdue but not entirely dissipate.
"Are you really?" Letty teased, and smiled at the fond eyeroll she received in response.
They sat in companionable silence listening to the wind, as they were often wont to do. Even so, the usual quiet was heavier than normal. Wistful. They both knew it was time.
Just as Letty thought that, the silence was punctured by a bush warbler's song in the distance.
It was better this way. Letty had heard Reimu talk enough to know that through the other three seasons, she led a different kind of life. She spoke often about both the joys and hardships of spring, summer, and autumn, and while she hadn't mentioned it, the quiet chill and risk of frostbites which Letty brought to the shrine seemed to make her friends keep away more often.
Based on Reimu's next question, her thoughts were dwelling on a similar topic. "What do you do when you're not here?"
"I sleep." More specifically, she found herself a cool shadow in the nearest forest and drifted off. She presumed that her body likewise faded from view, but obviously, she wasn't around to witness it.
"I know that. I meant, do you just hibernate? Or do you see dreams?"
"I have never thought of that. Maybe I do dream."
Reimu said nothing more. The quirk of her lips suggested that she was thinking of something, however.
Letty felt a pleasant chill. She allowed it to fill her, then stood up. "It's time for me to leave."
"Right now?"
"I'm going to melt if I stay with someone as cute as you for much longer." It wasn't quite true, either literally or figuratively. Rather, she wanted to be able to say goodbye on her own terms rather than at the whims of the seasons. The previous year, she had lingered for so long she had barely been able move by the time she had left the shrine.
Letty held her hand out to Reimu. Reimu got up without taking it, then reached for it when she was already fully upright. A woman of paradoxes. Letty took her hand and leaned in to give Reimu a peck on the forehead. "Thank you for this year."
"Don't give me that." Reimu grabbed Letty by her vest and pulled her into a full-blown kiss.
When their lips parted some moments later, Reimu turned away and clutched her temples. "Ow."
Letty struggled to keep her expression level, pulled in one direction by amusement and in another by empathy. Despite her best efforts to moderate her iciness when Reimu was near, when it came to kissing, brain freeze was almost inevitable.
She began manipulating the cold, not wishing Reimu's final memory of her for that winter to be a painful one. The chill quickly coalesced into a crown of frost flowers. She waited for Reimu to lower her hands and then settled it on her brow.
Reimu gave the translucent petals a tentative touch. "Anemones again?"
"I don't know many flowers." Letty smiled. "See you next winter, my strange human."
Although she told herself not to, she couldn't help looking over her shoulder as she reached the steps. Reimu stood on the porch, looking like a winter fairy with her new crown. She didn't cry — Letty had never once seen her cry. In fact, once she noticed Letty's gaze on her, she gave her a smile, which broadened as Letty responded in kind and waved before beginning her descent.
It was a good image to press into memory. Just in case Letty discovered she could indeed dream through the seasons.