While sleeping in her armchair wasn't exactly what Alice would call a pastime, it was still something she enjoyed doing after a long day's work. She wasn't a heavy sleeper, though, so all it took to wake her up was a light knocking on her door. She pretended to be asleep, despite being awake, to see who it was. If it was one of the fairies (or the whole group) then shouting would happen. If it was Marisa, she'd just knock until Alice came to the door, getting louder with each successive knock.
When the knocking turned into pounding, Alice simply opened her eyes and sighed. Marisa was at the door, which meant the witch wanted something. She was the type of neighbor who just wouldn't go away until she was welcomed or until she was blasted with danmaku. Alice didn't particularly feel like picking up debris, so she chose the former. Sighing again, she got up and walked to her door, undoing the locks and opening it, letting in not only Marisa, but a hefty flurry of snow. "Hurry up before you let all the heat out," she ordered, stepping aside as Marisa rushed through the door.
"Thanks Alice. Letty must be working overtime, today," she quipped about the weather as Alice shut the door. "It's freezing out there!"
Alice gave a light chuckle and smirked. "Rumor has it she's been more active than usual because of a crush," she claimed. "At least, that's what Cirno says."
"And you really trust what that little ice cube says?" Marisa asked with no small amount of skepticism in her voice.
"Well despite her reputation, she's actually a fairly decent house-guest." Alice slipped off to her kitchen to set up a pot of tea. "And Letty is like a mother to her. There's no reason she would lie."
"Yeah, well, I don't like her," Marisa retorted before flopping down in one of the few padded armchairs Alice didn't favor. "I mean, after she beat me, even though I told everyone I was going easy on her, I still had lines of weak youkai challengers going around my house from my door, probably because of that idiot fairy going around spreading rumors."
Alice shrugged as she brought out the freshly-brewed tea. "At least when she visits, I know I'll have all of my books when she leaves," the puppeteer countered. "Speaking of, please put down that tome on pocket dimensions. That's my only one, seeing as the others are either collecting dust in your house or being put to use by Patchouli."
Marisa grinned sheepishly and put the book in question back on Alice's bookshelf. "I was only gonna borrow-"
"Borrow it, yes, I know," Alice cut in, giving a teacup and saucer to Marisa before grabbing a teacup and saucer for herself and going to her chair. "Only, with you, 'borrowing' means 'stealing'." She took a gentle sip of the tea. "Maybe if you returned the other ones, I'd let you take that one. But not before."
Marisa took a sip of her own tea and shrugged off Alice's remark and offer. "Well anyway, that's not what I came here for," she explained. The black-white witch shifted in her chair and reached into a knapsack that Alice was sure hadn't been there when she'd gone into the kitchen. From it, Marisa pulled a pair of white boots with thin steel blades attached. "I, um, got these off of Kourin," she explained. "I've seen some of the shows Letty puts on, and I wanted to try it for myself, so he gave me these."
"So you want to try ice skating," Alice summarized. "What's that got to do with me?" She finished up her tea and set it aside, waiting for Marisa's response.
The witch took her time in replying, trying to keep from blushing. "I don't really wanna ice skate alone, you know?" Marisa explained. "You were the first person to come to mind."
Alice breathed out softly through her nose and closed her eyes to think. "Do your skates fit?" she asked after a minute of silence.
"Huh?"
"The ice skates you got from Kourindo. Do they fit?"
"Well, uh, I think they do," Marisa stammered out. "I mean, they look like they fit."
Alice just sighed. "Alright, then," she said. "Take off your boots. I'm going to fit you for these skates."
Marisa blushed and did as she was told while Alice got up and arranged the skates to match the witch's feet. "They do fit, right?" she asked, unusually uncertain.
Alice slipped one of the skates onto the witch's left foot. "A little bit snug, but that's how it should be," the puppeteer confirmed, slipping the other skate onto Marisa's right foot. "You lucked out. They fit rather nicely."
"So will you skate with me?" Marisa asked excitedly.
Alice looked up into her friend's eyes. With a blush, she realized that the way she was kneeling was very resembling of a marriage proposal, something Marisa had joked about and seriously considered more than once in the time they'd known each other. "I suppose," she said, hastily standing and brushing herself off. "I'll need to dig out my own skates, though."
Alice tried to remember the last time she'd actually spent time on the ice. It had, of course, been with Mai, who could put any skater to shame with her skill and artistry. It had been just before she'd left Makai for Gensokyo with her mother's blessing. Mai had roped her into one last skating duet, using the excuse that she'd never be able to get anyone to skate with her after Alice left. Typically, Mai had shown off her skating technique while Alice had been content to just glide around the ice surrounding the ice witch's home. Despite her own artistry, Alice had never had the desire to apply it to the ice, unlike Mai, whose every other move was practically an axel or a lutz.
Snapping back to reality, Alice quietly wandered to her room while Marisa looked on, perplexed. Apparently Alice had been standing there, blankly reminiscing for more than just a couple seconds. "I'm going to look around my room for my skates," she explained, pausing in the hallway.
Marisa nodded and slipped her skates off for her boots as Alice disappeared into her bedroom. The witch considered the shyness she'd displayed in front of her puppeteer friend. It wasn't like her at all to be like that. Normally, she was confident to the point of arrogance as a front, but in her efforts to get Alice to be her skating partner, Marisa had slipped into her genuine personality. She was sure of herself, yes, but she was also very insecure when it came to her inexperience in things. It tended to make for awkward conversations whenever the witch wanted to try something new. She wanted to fix it, somehow, but Reimu often remarked that it was Marisa's cutest feature, so she didn't make as much effort as she would on something else.
A loud clattering from Alice's room brought Marisa out of her introspection. She got up out of the chair and rushed back to her friend's bedroom, where she found the puppeteer scolding one of her Shanghai dolls. The skates Alice had gone after were on the floor, laces splayed in every direction. "Something up?" Marisa asked, alerting Alice, and by extension the doll, to her presence in the doorway.
"Ah, no," Alice replied, brushing some hair behind her ear. "It's just been a while since I've had my dolls carry something so heavy and I forgot about the weight of the skates."
Marisa nodded softly. "So, are we ready?" she asked just as softly, leaning on the door-frame.
"Almost," Alice remarked, picking up her skates. "I just need to change into my winter dress, and we can head to Misty Lake." She halfheartedly shooed Marisa out of the doorway and shut the door so she could change in private, still reminiscing slightly on Mai. The ice witch was best described as socially awkward with her cold personality and general mistrust of others. It had taken most of Alice's life to get Mai to open up to her, but they quickly became fast friends once it happened. Yuki, in particular, was glad Mai was able to find a skating partner who could actually skate. Alice recalled Yuki as enjoying skating, but lacking anything resembling grace or ability on the ice despite being a competent dancer.
Finishing up her changing with a yank on the laces of one of her boots, Alice simultaneously finished her reminiscing with a memory of herself, Yuki, and Mai all skating together. Alice and Mai had taken turns picking Yuki up off the ice, much like Alice figured she'd have to do with Marisa. With everything finished and prepared, Alice picked up her skates, slung them over her shoulder, and stepped out into the hall, where Marisa had plopped down against the wall. "Let's go," she said with a smile.
Marisa finished tying up the laces on her new skates (with Alice's help) and stood awkwardly. The packed snow helped support her somewhat, but she still wobbled in all directions, trying to stand. Alice, on the other hand, was walking as if she was wearing normal shoes. "I'll hold your hand as we step onto the ice, and I'll help you up if you fall, but that's it," she said.
"Alright," Marisa replied shakily. She briefly wondered why she'd have this much trouble staying upright on two narrow blades when she had almost no trouble standing on her broom like a skateboard. After a few wobbly steps towards the ice of Misty Lake, she figured it out. At least with her broom, she had room to spread her legs without any part of her body hanging over either end of it, and she could hook the heels of her boots around it so her feet didn't slip. With the skates, her weight was balanced on two much narrower blades that made the witch feel like she'd fall over if she even shifted her weight.
Alice lightly took hold of Marisa's hand to steady her and stepped onto the ice. "Your turn," she said, shifting her skates back and forth. She had to admit, she'd missed the scraping sound her skate blades made on the ice. She quickly shifted as Marisa slipped and fell, taking the opportunity to wrap her arms around Alice's waist to keep off the ice. "Careful," Alice warned gently while pulling Marisa back to her feet. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah," Marisa said, letting go of Alice's waist.
Alice moved to start skating away, but stopped to tell Marisa how to skate. "Push off with one foot and glide with the other," she said. "Does that make sense?"
Marisa hesitated, but nodded. "Yeah, it does," she said. "Go on ahead, I'll catch up."
Alice nodded and skated off, leaving Marisa to stand awkwardly at the edge of the lake. It took a minute, but Marisa finally worked up the courage to try and go forward, doing exactly what Alice had said to do. She'd later claim it wasn't her best move. She hadn't even mastered standing on two skate blades yet, so why had she thought she could glide on just one? The fact that until she'd tried to bring her free skate down, she'd been doing fairly well, for one.
When bringing her skate down to push off again, the toe pick got caught in the ice, stopping that foot's progress and forcing Marisa to let herself fall forward unless she wanted to do the splits. Having experienced crashes and hits from danmaku before, it wasn't painful for Marisa so much as it was cold and wet. Irritated and almost shivering, Marisa pushed herself onto her knees and stayed kneeling for a moment so she could gather herself. Alice was off in the middle of the lake, skating quickly and far more gracefully than Marisa had ever seen. She wagered the puppeteer hadn't seen her fall, so she felt she didn't have to worry about her pride being injured by someone seeing her fall.
Finally deciding to get up, Marisa tried to push herself back onto her feet by planting one skate firmly on the ice and trying to stand up on it. Unfortunately, the skate had other ideas. Marisa had shifted her weight while standing, sliding the skate forward and landing Marisa in an awkward half-split. She wasn't usually the type to give up, but in this case, she felt like trying to get up without help would be a futile effort, so she shifted her legs around so she was sitting cross-legged on the ice. "Hey, Alice?" she called, hoping to get her friend's attention and help.
Having seen Marisa fall the first time, Alice was already on her way by the time Marisa had called for help. Instead of helping, though, she just stopped in front of the witch for a moment and crossed her arms. "I thought you'd have tried a few more times before asking for help," she teased. "That's usually the case, anyways."
"The more I fail to get up, the wetter I get," Marisa explained. "I don't feel like going home with a cold."
Alice rolled her eyes and smiled, despite knowing that Marisa wasn't joking. "Alright," she said, holding out her hand. "Come on, up you go."
Marisa took Alice's hand and awkwardly stood up on her skates, refusing to let go to avoid falling again. "Can I make a confession?" she asked as Alice led her along the ice.
"Go ahead."
"I wanted to make this a date," Marisa said. "That's why I got the skates from Kourin. So we could skate together in a romantic sense." She chuckled softly under her breath. "I should've learned to skate first."
Alice chose to ignore what Marisa said about a date and addressed Marisa's lack of skating skills instead. "You'll learn if you keep at it," she encouraged.
"Yeah, well, I wanted it to mean something," Marisa huffed, letting go of Alice's hand to cross her arms. She regretted that decision instantly, her skates sliding out from under her, dropping the poor witch onto her butt. "I wanted it to be romantic, you know? It's not romantic if I'm always being picked up and carried around."
Alice scoffed and skated around Marisa in a tight circle. "Is that to say you don't want my help?" She stopped behind the witch. "I can always leave you here. Is that what you want?"
"No!" Marisa whined. "I didn't mean it like that!"
"Then what, pray tell, did you mean?"
"I meant I'm not good enough for you!" Marisa opened and closed her mouth wordlessly, somewhat shocked at the words that had come out of her mouth. What she had said was, in a way, true, but at the same time, a lie. Marisa did feel she wasn't good enough for Alice, and she was afraid she wouldn't be able to fix that. At the same time, though, Marisa looked up to Alice, privately. She'd never admit it to anyone, especially not to Alice herself, but it was true. Setting all that aside, though, she looked to see Alice's reaction only to find the puppeteer was no longer on the ice with her.
Alice was nowhere to be found.
Marisa reached up to her face where something wet was rolling down her cheek. Was she crying? A short sniffle confirmed that she was. Sighing shakily, Marisa pulled her legs up under her chin and wrapped her arms around them, deciding to just sit there in case Alice ever came back.
She didn't.