"How about these?"
Before Reimu had time to comment, Sanae had already waded into the flowers. She snapped the stem of the nearest forget-me-not close to the ground and returned to Reimu. "They will go well with the daisies."
Reimu frowned at the tiny sky-coloured blossoms without overt enthusiasm. "Is anyone even going to notice them?"
"It's about the overall effect." Sanae smiled at the flower the same way she smiled at children and animals and scenery she found especially enchanting, then stashed it in her basket. "And they're lovely, anyway."
Reimu decided to take Sanae's word for it. She wasn't sure why Sanae had been so eager to help decorate her rival's shrine with flowers for the upcoming festival, but her efforts were so obviously sincere Reimu couldn't find it in herself to suspect her motives. Sadly, her hope that the outing would distract her from how barren her pantry had been lately had come to naught. "Do we have enough yet? I'd rather be looking for edible plants than decorative ones."
"Um, no. But we can gather anything edible we see along the way." Sanae perked up. "Like those dandelions."
Reimu watched Sanae make her way uphill, practically skipping across the meadow. Depending on the day, Sanae's sunniness could be either wearisome or welcome. That day, as foul as Reimu felt, it was a comfort. It was nice to know some things could stay the same. All the more reason not to complicate things.
Suddenly, someone poked the back of her neck with an icicle. On instinct, Reimu whirled around. Her fist struck air before she saw exactly who she was facing and relaxed. "Oh. It's just you."
Yukari smiled her usual smug cat smile and leaned further into the meadow from the gap she had opened above it. "And good afternoon to you as well. Is everything going according to plan?"
"The plan for the festival? Why do you care about that?"
Yukari didn't respond. Her eyes followed Sanae, who was far enough to not have noticed the intrusion and was still busying herself with dandelions. "What I mean is, is today finally the day?"
"I don't speak cryptic statement."
"Of course you don't." Yukari perched her elbows on the thin air as though it was a tabletop and propped her chin up with her hands. "You should make your move while the pair of you are still young. You're not going to live forever."
Reimu had never once managed to make Yukari back away no matter how withering she had made her glare. She shot her a look of pure murder regardless. "I'm not even going to pretend I know what you're talking about."
"How sweet. You still believe your feelings aren't obvious to everyone who knows you." Yukari nodded in Sanae's direction. "Well, perhaps they aren't to our other person of interest. She doesn't seem all that quick on the uptake."
"Did you come here to make insinuations and mock my friends? Because if that's what this is about, I'd rather do it at home with a cup of tea in hand."
"I'll take you up on that offer later. But that's not why I'm here now."
Another gap opened mere inches from Reimu's chest. Yukari's hand emerged from it, holding a large, fiercely orange rose with petals like flames.
Reimu sniffed the air in suspicion, half expecting the flower to explode. It smelled normal, at least, if unusually fragrant. "What it is?"
"A gift. Not for you," Yukari added as Reimu reached for the rose. "But for you to pass on."
Reimu took the rose without much enthusiasm. While the other thorns had been carefully shorn off the stem, one remained close to the blossom. A message, she supposed. It's fine for now.
She glared at Yukari. "I wasn't looking for your permission."
"Of course you weren't."
"Knock it off. The last thing I need now is parenting. Especially from you."
Yukari's laughter was bright and young and wholly un-parentlike. "There go my plans for adoption. It would have been too much work, anyway. Enjoy yourself, now."
The universe righted itself, or rather, Yukari righted the universe. The meadow was once again just a meadow, with mundane flowers and grass and everyday fairies hovering nearby.
"Reimu? Is something wrong?"
Sanae stood nearby, her basket barely clinging to her fingers. Reimu wasn't sure how long she had been watching her and Yukari talk, but no length of time entirely explained the nauseous look on her face.
"It's nothing. She keeps bugging me because she's bored." When these words did nothing to dislodge Sanae's sudden tenseness, Reimu frowned. "What's with you? You look like you swallowed a bee."
"It's nothing." Sanae glanced aside, trying and failing to hide that it was very obviously something. "I've just... had some bad dreams lately."
Reimu gave the meadow an assessing look. "We could pick some herbs for a sleep remedy while we're here. Unless you'd rather get your drugs from Eientei?"
"It's nothing that serious. But thank you."
Sanae's smile remained obviously pained, but Reimu shrugged. If she wasn't going to talk about it, then she wasn't going to talk about it. "Fine. Let's keep going."
Sanae nodded with fake enthusiasm. "I think I saw some wood sorrel towards the woods."
As she hurried towards the trees, Reimu took the opportunity to turn the rose in her fingers and watch the flames dance. Such an ostentatious flower. Had it come from the Outside World? Sanae might know.
In any case, Reimu had half a mind to dash it onto the ground and stomp on it until the petals turned to mush. Where did Yukari get off meddling in her private life like this, as if Reimu didn't know precisely what she was doing? As if she had not made a move precisely because—
Well. For so many reasons, really.
In the end, she clutched the stem of the rose and watched the thorn burrow into her skin. The whole thing was ridiculous. But as ill-advised as it was, not giving the rose away felt wrong. And maybe, just maybe...
She hurried after Sanae. "Hey, Sanae."
Sanae flinched, then tried to pretend she hadn't. "What is it?"
"Here." Reimu presented the rose and watched Sanae's eyes widen. "Stay still for a moment."
Sanae did as she was bid, and after some consideration, Reimu attached the rose right above the frog ornament. As she pulled back to inspect her handiwork, it looked like the amphibian had suddenly sprouted a shock of fiery hair.
Sanae's hand hovered by the rose without quite touching it. "This is..."
"Just a flower. It clashes with your hair, but it still looks nice."
"...Thank you." Sanae lowered her hand. Her voice was softer and more subdued than usual, and the creases on her brow showed no sign of easing up. Reimu almost hoped Yukari would come back so that she could chuck something at her.
"Come on, let's go grab that wood sorrel." Spurred on as much by her urge to move on from the situation as anything else, Reimu took Sanae's hand. "We'll be stuck here the entire day otherwise. I still want to try that tea you brought me."
Sanae's face flushed. The tension curling her shoulders up eased ever so slightly, and she didn't protest as Reimu began dragging her along.
And now what was getting simple is once again complicated. Thanks a bundle, Yukari.
But even as Reimu thought that, she discovered that she really, really didn't want to let go of Sanae.
She sighed and kept holding on. Whatever happened next, perhaps the gods would allow the rest of the afternoon to stand on its own as a good memory.