Something felt different once Cirno returned to the Hakurei Shrine. Sure, Cirno's head still rang from the beatdown she got from Kasen, but even in her deluded state, she could feel something to be off from the norm.
The place looked presentable.
The trees had been trimmed down, and nicely even all over, and their fallen leaves collected into bags that were waiting in a corner to be dumped off later. The land itself also got a nice cut, and the shavings were also collected into bags. All the buildings on the ground looked to have been given a nice bath and given a nice sheen when the sun shone down. Even the air had a nice smell lingering around: a slight hint of jasmine. Cirno felt like she stepped into a different dimension, one where the Hakurei Shrine actually had constant donators and the shrine maiden weren't a lazy, greedy ass.
Speaking of the ass…Cirno blushed as she spotted Reimu near the entrance to the shrine. The shrine maiden was actually putting some real effort into sweeping; like she actually wanted to clean the place up instead of moving the dust around. But while the grounds were quite nice and well-dressed…Reimu wasn't. Her outfit barely hung on her. And going by a quick look towards her shoulders and her plumber's crack (Nice) she had forgotten a crucial aspect of everyone's clothing.
"Uhh…hi?" Cirno greeted with a curious finger resting on her cheek. "Did something…interesting happened while I was gone?"
"Oh?" Reimu pleasantly sighed out. "Oh, it's nothing. Hey…" She pleasantly stated as she leaned on her broom. "You sure you want Yuyuko? I think Yuugi would be a better choice. You know…" Reimu made a few curving motions towards her chest. "…sure, Suika doesn't got that, but man…onis in bed…" Reimu drooled out.
"Okay." Cirno blanked out. "But I'm sticking with Yuyuko."
"Eh, suit yourself." Reimu shrugged. "You don't know what you're missing out on." She went back to her job of seemingly mindlessly sweeping while Cirno went past her to go inside the shrine.
But the weirdness of overly-happy messy dressed people continued inside. While Suika spent most of her time drunk, she didn't act like a total snob, even more so once she married Reimu and lived full-time at the shrine. Now, it looked like the clothes wanted to escape. Might as well be wearing a kimono much like her old pal Yuuka. Suika was currently working on tonight's meal; more salmon by the looks of it. But the smell of jasmine came on stronger…jasmine rice then?"
"Oh hello dear daughter…" Suika cooed. "How was school?"
"The teacher beat me up…and I'm pretty sure I left my lunch behind." Cirno stated, remembering she had forgotten her lunch back at Kasen's dojo. "But other than that, I'm fine."
"Great ~"
"What did you do two?" Cirno asked, furrowing her brow in mild anger and annoying. "You're both so spacey…"
"When you get married, you're going to be just as spacey as us…"
"I hope not." Cirno lifted her nose and sniffed. "More salmon and…I'm guessing some jasmine rice?"
"Bingo!" Suika 'booped' Cirno on the nose. Cirno reeled back and held her nose with both hands out of embarrassment. "Spent a bit more for the stuff, but me and Reimu both believe we deserve something special today." She breathed out a very satisfied air with her hands on her hips.
"The two of you are the weirdest people in the entire land." Cirno shook her head as sat down at the table.
Suika turned her head at this. "It's not time for dinner yet. Why don't you go outside and play?"
"…with what? The bags of leaves?"
"Ah, go and help Reimu then." Suika gently nudged Cirno to head outside. The little fairy took the hint and went back the way she came. She found Reimu still going at the sweeping game strong. The way she powered through the dust of the dust, you thought she were practicing for a curling match.
"Hey, need any help?" Cirno asked as she approached the way too interested Reimu.
"Yeah, sure!" Reimu tossed her broom up into the air, raced over to the side of the shrine and grabbed a squirt bottle of cleaning fluid and a washcloth, and returned to Cirno's side to grab the broom before it landed on the ground. "Could you do me a favor and go wash the top of the gate? I completely forgot to do so earlier."
"Okay…" Cirno sighed. Two days in a row of waking up, grabbing a quick meal to eat, going to school, coming home, eating dinner and going to bed. And now she had to do chores? Ugh.
"Thanks dear." Reimu leaned in and kissed Cirno on the forehead. Again, Cirno reeled back. When did everyone get so touchy-feely around here? Wiping her head clean of the kiss with a spare hand, she took the cleaning materials and flew to the top of the shrine gate.
Cirno shook her head as she squirted away and rubbed down on top of the wooden arch. Okay, she did know she had to help around the shrine as part of her keep, but could Reimu be less creepy about it? Geez! Cirno sighed as she got down on her knees and scrubbed against the thick wooden surface. Just touching it made her skin crawl. When the day comes when she and Yuyuko are together…
…which came today as soon as Cirno looked up from her duty, having heard some footsteps. There laid the ghost lady and her bodyguard, looking up at the gate having noticed the bright blue fairy standing on top of the solid red gate. Youmu had a eyebrow raised in question while Yuyuko had a nice smile on her face.
Up to this point, Cirno had been going by a fuzzy memory of Yuyuko as part of her quest. Just enough to recall the basic features and such. And there Yuyuko stood, looking up and smiling at her. Cirno just sat there, lost for words.
Never did she expect Yuyuko to exceed her expectations. There were not a single thing wrong about her in the young fairy's eyes. Her dimples, her pudge…for whatever reason that Cirno never once considered, she found that to rather attractive. Cirno almost wanted to jump down and caress her…
"Hello?" Youmu shouted. "Is Ms. Hakurei in? Or is it Ms. Ibuki now? Regardless of her name, is the shrine maiden in?"
"Oh." Cirno blinked a few times to bring herself back to reality. "Yes. She's sweeping over there." Cirno pointed behind her towards the shrine itself. Yomu thanked with a shrug of her head before moving on her way. Yuyuko stayed behind, still smiling at Cirno.
"You must be Cirno." Yuyuko called out.
"Uhh, yes." Cirno muttered out.
Somehow, Yuyuko overheard that and replied with, "It's been a while. I'm Yuyuko Saigyouji. I heard you want to court me."
"…yes?"
"We brought a gift basket of food." Yuyuko pointed ahead to Youmu. "We can have dinner together, talk with each other." She motioned over to the shrine. "Shall we go, or do you…"
"I'm done, yeah, yeah." Cirno stammered as she jumped off the gate and hovered in the air. "Let's go…?"
"Sure!" Yuyuko chirped as she bounded up the steps. A very nervous Cirno audibly swallowed as she followed Yuyuko. Up ahead, Cirno could see Youmu talking with Reimu, still sweeping away.
"Ms. Shrine Maiden!" Youmu gasped as she spotted Reimu's shabbily dress-code. "Your outfit…have you fallen into the lifestyle of a street-walker?"
It took only a second for the new happy Reimu to turn back into the perpetual groaner Reimu. Then it took another second to destroy Youmu's face. At the very least, the grounds were still clean even after Youmu's beatdown.
