"That's what the recipe calls for." Sanae's eyes were glued to the recipe book. The strange, multi-coloured cover revealed it to be an artifact from the Outside World. "Next, we should add half of the sugar, the baking powder, and the vanilla sugar into the bowl and mix it all together."
Reimu eyed the ingredients with weary suspicion. She didn't really have cause for complaint: Sanae had gone through the trouble of procuring everything they needed and had made it clear Reimu didn't need to repay her in a somewhat condescending but not actively offensive manner. Besides, Reimu didn't hate the idea of trying out baked goods from the Outside World as long as they went well with tea. Even if she'd recently had enough of the Outside World and its endless piles of junk to last a lifetime.
Sanae, on the other hand, was glittering with contentment. She bustled around, wholly at home in Reimu's kitchen, shuffling the various ingredients she had already gathered together as though performing a ritual. Sometimes Reimu wondered which dark powers she had petitioned for all her boundless energy (okay, their names were most likely Kanako and Suwako), but she had to admit it was fun to watch her in action at times.
"Are you good at cracking eggs?" Sanae pushed the small basket at Reimu before she was even done nodding. "We need four. I'll get started on the frosting."
Reimu cracked the eggs and mixed them together, then listened to Sanae hum as she melted the butter (butter, really? How had Sanae gotten all this stuff? Somehow, Reimu doubted she had persuaded Yukari to go on a shopping trip in the Outside World for her) and added the rest of the sugar into it.
It was all so... simple. Almost as if Sanae had always been there, working side by side with her, flicking her wrist as she mixed the ingredients and pushing a loose strand of hair back underneath her kerchief as casual as could be.
Reimu dismissed the thought. Simple, really? Not only were they baking something weird, but Sanae herself was weird, taking both too much and too little space at once, seemingly everywhere while also not quite there. There was a reason why Reimu still sometimes felt a sudden urge to push her away.
But the really annoying part was that she didn't actually want to do that. It was as though she still thought vexed thoughts about Sanae by habit, but the sentiment which had originally fuelled them was no longer there. Instead, more often than not Reimu thought that...
Her eye trailed off to the far end of the table, where Sanae had stacked several bags and jars of colourful sugars and sprinkles. "Do we need all of those?"
"Probably not." Sanae's smile turned inexplicably wistful. "But decorating has always been my favourite part of baking."
"Really?" Reimu struggled to imagine anyone whose favourite part wasn't eating the results.
"When I was little, there was a confectionery shop in town that sold the most amazing ameizaku. It was a lot like the one in the village here, really. I always wanted to go and see the sugar flowers and beautiful animal lollipops on display. I never wanted to eat them — I don't think I could have. But I could have looked at them forever." Sanae set the bowl of frosting down and smiled at the decorations. "These aren't the same, of course, but they're still pretty."
Reimu tried to follow Sanae's reasoning. "So you find sweets easier to eat when they look nice, but not too nice?
"That's right." Sanae paused as though the thought had never occurred to her before. "Is that weird?"
"Really weird. But it's cute, too."
Sanae flushed and looked away, busying herself with the baking.
Reimu followed suit. She hadn't spoken with the intent to tease, but seeing Sanae react so strongly made her feel tender, almost raw. Had this unspoken feeling between them always been this heavy? Definitely not.
She attacked the mixing bowl with renewed vigour. Enough. She had told herself she wasn't going to go there today. Her intuition would tell her when the moment was right. Assuming it ever would be.
Soon enough, Sanae clapped her hands together. "Okay, we're almost done! Next we need to shape the cakes, and then we just need to put them in the oven and..." She scooped up the bowl of frosting, then trailed off with it still in hand.
Reimu said nothing. She didn't need to point out the obvious when it was clear from Sanae's expression that she had already pieced it together. Only after the silence stretched on did she speak. "Do you have an oven that works for this at the Moriya Shrine?"
Sanae stirred back to action, still looking dazed. "Well, yes. But it takes forever to heat up. I'd completely forgotten I've never done this without electricity."
"Can you miracle it to be warm?"
"...That takes even longer than heating it up the normal way."
As Sanae continued to stand there, clearly feverishly considering their options, Reimu scooped up a fingerful of dough from her bowl and tasted it. It was less sweet than she had expected, but surprisingly pleasant. She tried the frosting in Sanae's bowl next and found it equally tasty. "Change of plans."
Not much later, they were sitting on the porch with bowlfuls of frosting-covered raw dough.
"It is pretty good," Sanae admitted after another spoonful of their concoction. With all the sprinkles and coloured sugars she had loaded on top of her portion, it looked like an exploded rainbow. Not that Reimu's was much different.
Reimu scooped up another spoonful, making sure to get at least one star-shaped sprinkle into each bite. The crunchiness of the coloured sugar helped make the end result seem slightly less unfinished. It was ridiculously sweet, of course, but not too sweet for the occasion. "Is this better than the cake would've been otherwise?"
"Maybe. I still wish I could have shared the real thing with you."
"Next time."
"Mmm." Sanae paused with the spoon in her mouth, her mind drifting elsewhere.
Reimu left her to her thoughts. She set the bowl aside to take a long sip from her cup instead, cutting the sugariness with some refreshing bitterness.
As she drank, she looked at Sanae. In the damp air, the way Sanae's hair curled up seemed to change not just between movements, but between glances. Her eyes were bright as they stared ahead, observing something visible only to herself. Her skin had looked really healthy lately; even though she hardly ever noticed such things, Reimu felt a tiny stab of jealousy.
It didn't take long for her to begin fixating on the lone anomalous thing: a bit of frosting stuck near the corner of Sanae's mouth, complete with a blue star-shaped sprinkle still clinging to it.
Reimu didn't have a name for the feeling which manifested as a shiver just beneath her ribs. She was aware, however, that it was that feeling which made her put her cup down, reach out, and wipe the frosting off Sanae's fingers.
She licked it off her fingers. "Sweet."
Sanae stared at her with wide, wondrous eyes. Reimu was suddenly very aware of how closely they were seated, that Sanae's arm was mere inches from hers, that if she leaned forward Sanae's fringe would tickle her brow.
Neither of them moved.
Then, just as Reimu was about to sigh and break the awkward silence for good so that they could go back to pretending nothing was going on between them, Sanae cleared her throat.
"Reimu." Her tone was a shade too bright to sound natural. Still, it held the usual straightforward confidence Reimu expected from and liked about Sanae. "I don't know if this is the best time to say this, but... I really like you."
And just like that, which such simple words, the pretence was over between them.
For a long while, Reimu could only sit there and think. Or try to think, anyway.
It was strange. She had always imagined such confessions as chains. Instead, her body felt as light as the spring wind.
Sanae was still looking at her, her eyes as wide as Reimu had ever seen them, pupils dilated and quietly luminous. Looking at them, Reimu felt her intuition nudging at her. "And here's what I think about you."
In the end, it was actually Sanae who leaned in first, closing the small gap which remained between them. But it was only after Reimu had already taken her hand and come close enough to feel Sanae's warm breath on the bridge of her nose.
And so it came to be that their first kiss was sweeter than sugar.