Disclaimer: I do not own Touhou Project.

A/N: It's been a long while since I wrote anything for a Touhou, so sorry about any personality traits being off. I thought it would have been easier to write for a series that gives you alot of freedom with depicting the characters and such, but it's usually always more difficult than intended.

It was early morning in the land of Gensokyo. The sun had just begun to rise, the wildlife was awakening in search of food, and a cold draft still remained in the air from last night. Many of its denizens were still fast asleep in their beds, at least those who weren't vampires or ghouls or something similar. A human with such an early-waking agenda, however, was Hakurei Reimu. It was apart of her daily schedule that she had to wake up early every sunrise to prepare her shrine for the day ahead. It was practically tradition.

Her lover, Yukari Yakumo, wouldn't have any of that.

Reimu, clad only in her underwear, had barely dragged herself out from underneath the covers that morning before she heard Yukari's voice.

"Reimuuuuu...where are you going?"

"I told you last night that I was going to have to wake up early, Yukari," Reimu replied without looking back. She hated it when the youkai didn't listen. If only she had known ahead of time that Yukari had a tendency to act very lazy and childish when she wanted to. Of course, she still loved her, but it was difficult to handle sometimes. The blonde was very clingy about keeping Reimu nearby, too.

"Don't go...it's so cold under the futon without you! You have the perfect body temperature to keep me warm! And I wanna snuggle some more!"

"I have a job to do! I can't waste time lying around in bed with you all day,"

This time, Yukari sat up in bed, looking puzzled. "Why not?"

"I'm the miko who runs the shrine. People from neighboring villages come here to pray every day! You know that!"

"I do, but...why can't you just close shop for awhile? Where's the harm? I mean," Yukari put on the best 'puppy-dog-eyes' look that she could muster, "Wouldn't you rather ravish my sexy body instead?"

Despite herself, Reimu started to blush. She had been so distracted by her desire to follow her schedule that she forgot about the impressive uses of her boundaries that the youkai had revealed last night. Now the erotic memories were rushing back all at once. "Please don't bring up sex right now, Yukari...I'm still-"

"Ha ha ha, you're still feeling the after-effects after what I did to you last night, eh?" Yukari immediately went from pouting to grinning with cocky pride. Reimu's face became even more flushed.

"L-Look, that's not important right now! Being a shrine maiden may not seem like a big job, but it's still a job! You have responsibilities too, you know. Like, whatever happened to Ran and Chen? They're your shikigami, and as far as I know, you haven't even interacted with them once for the past month!"

Yukari stood up. She was completely naked; Reimu quickly turned her gaze away to avoid being turned on even further. "Hey, I'm not so inconsiderate that I'd just forget my loyal servants! They're living out somewhere in the forest at the moment, waiting for my return...as far as I know..."

Reimu sighed. "They could just stay in the shrine with us-"

"And risk having them, especially that twit Chen, interrupt our sexy time together? I won't allow such a thing!"

"Then why can you make rules, but I can't? You're being insensitive!"

The two women stared at each other with deadly glares. Reimu greatly disliked having her schedule interrupted. It was almost 5:30, and she was supposed to be busy making breakfast already. She had even saved some left-over rice, just in case. Although she was willing to put with most of Yukari's antics, the youkai's attempts to interrupt her routine and keep her from running the shrine efficiently was getting on her last nerve. This wasn't even the first time that this has happened.

'What can I do to make her understand...?' Reimu pondered. She didn't want her relationship with Yukari to go sour. She just wished the youkai would understand her more often than simply during the times they were having sex.

Suddenly, before their argument could continue any further, Yukari did something that completely caught her younger lover off guard; she just shrugged her shoulders and replied, "...Okay, fine. If you really want to get out of bed this early and prepare for the day, I guess I can't talk you out of it. I'm sorry for bothering you like that."

Reimu blinked. "Uh...thanks?" She was still trying to wrap her mind around Yukari's words. This was quite unexpected.

"You're welcome. Now I think I'll be going back to sleep."

Yukari slithered back into the warmth underneath the bed covers without another word. It was as if the entire conversation had never happened. The older woman shifted herself over so the sun wouldn't get her in eyes, and consequently, so Reimu couldn't see her face. Reimu wanted to say something, to ask about this sudden change of heart, but decided against it. She stood frozen for a few seconds, her gaze transfixed upon the back of Yukari's head. The silence was quite eerie.

"Well...alright, then. I'm going to get dressed, and then get to work." Reimu said aloud, more so to herself than Yukari. However, the blonde still replied without missing a beat.

"Just make sure to close the blinds before you leave, alright?" Yukari waved back to her.

"Yeah, yeah..."

The next few hours passed by in total silence for the young shrine maiden. Her bare feet shuffled noiselessly across the cold, hard floorboards from room to room. She got dressed, boiled some rice and soup for a small breakfast, and raked a few fallen leaves off of the shrine steps. She already prepared some tea leaves in case Alice decided to visit, or watered-down sake if it was Marisa. It was just like any other day.

Every now and then, in the midst of her mind-numbing boredom, Reimu's thoughts would return to her spat with Yukari. The youkai was still hidden away in their bedroom, presumably sleeping like usual. At any other time, Reimu wouldn't have been concerned, but right now she was beginning to grow worried that there might be something wrong. Yukari had a tendency to simply brush off most criticism about her laziness and unladylike behavior; she never openly agreed with anyone about such complaints. This morning had been the first time. Was she secretly angry with Reimu for yelling at her?

'No, that can't be,' Reimu quickly told herself, 'She may act childish sometimes, but she's still a grown woman, far older than even some of the Gods who live a few blocks down. I doubt she would be upset so easily...'

However, there was still no guarantee. Reimu sighed and returned to her work; she would just have to wait until Yukari finally woke up to speak with her about it.

Reimu grew tired of waiting for her lover by the time lunch rolled around.

"Is she asleep or is she in a coma, for crying out loud?" the miko shouted at the top of her lungs.

Reimu blew apart the bedroom door with a barrage of danmaku, leaping into the room to physically whack Yukari awake with her broom, only to find that the blonde had vanished. Reimu blinked. She couldn't believe she had forgotten about Yukari's ability to travel between boundaries. She could feel someone's warm breath against the bare nape of her neck. This was soon followed by a pair of thin, yet powerful arms wrapping around her waist.

"I didn't know you liked to get so rough, Reimu..." Yukari purred into the shorter girl's ear.

Reimu scoffed. "I came in because you've been sleeping for way too long, and...and the way you just agreed with me earlier this morning...you don't usually do that. I couldn't stop thinking about it, and then I had a feeling that-"

"What? You thought that maybe I was pissed off or upset with you yelling at me about it?"

Reimu hated the idea of admitting that she had believed such foolish assumptions, but at the same time she couldn't deny it. She simply nodded in response. Suddenly, Yukari leaned forward and gently nipped Reimu's neck.

"Geez, I finally decide to give in and let you do what you want, and it ends up making you think I'm going to dump you or something? I was too tired to put up much of a fight, anyway," The youkai rolled her eyes. "You really need to stop being so uptight, Reimu..."

"W-What? You're serious?" Reimu's cheeks became the same color as her outfit upon being told the truth. She was so surprised, and embarrassed, that she didn't even care that Yukari was effectively groping her at the moment.

"Of course I am. You know I care about you, Reimu! I love you!"

"Yeah...you do...and so do I,"

"Sometimes I'm a bit selfish, I admit that, but I'm not trying to control you or anything! This is was your house first, after all."

"I guess I'm still trying to get used to the relationship. I've lived alone for so long until you moved in with me..."

"Exactly! I'm a much better youkai than Yuka, Yuyuko or all the others seem to claim I am! I love nothing more than being able to help you and make you feel alright, don't I?"

"Yeah - wait, what do you mean by 'making me feel alright'?"

"Heh heh...just hold on a moment...I need to rework a couple of boundary holes here...ah, there we go!"

"Oh!"

For the first time in years, Reimu decided to close down the shrine for a few hours.

Meanwhile, at that exact moment, somewhere far in the depths of the neighboring forest...

Ran and Chen, wet, cold and hungry, sat in front of their small campfire in silence. It was a tiny, pitiful fire; hardly enough to bring them the warmth they so sorely needed. They both had frozen hotdogs on sticks held over the fire, but it obviously wasn't doing any good. Ran's face was contorted in a disturbingly intense expression, whereas Chen was ready to burst into tears at the slightest provocation.

"...Ran-sama?"

"What is it, Chen?"

"W-When...when is Miss Yukari going to come back for us?" the little youkai sniffled.

"I don't know."

"But it's been so many weeks! I've hardly slept at all, and it's been raining alot lately, and I think something is stalking us in the bushes-"

"Chen!" Ran snapped, her eyes practically digging into her familiar's soul, "We obey the orders of Miss Yukari, and if Miss Yukari wants us to wait here in the forest for her, then we shall do so! And that also includes eating your wieners without crying!"

"But I hate wieners!"

Ran shook her head and turned away so she wouldn't have to look at the pathetic, sniveling pile of a youkai. She prayed to the Gods of Gensokyo that Miss Yukari would come back soon, or else she might have to start strangling some whiny cat-girls.