An afternoon at the shrine
Things are as they usually are. Yae Miko sits on the floor of one of the buildings of the Grand Narukami Shrine, a cup of tea right besides her and a light novel in her hand.
The sun shines through the open door and every now and then a shrine visitor greets the Guuji as soon as they notice her.
She takes a sip of her tea and focuses back on the novel, which well… isn‘t really a hit but it‘s not bad either, just one of these average romance stories everyone seems to love these days. She never really understood why humans are so obsessed with them.
But after a while of reading she suddenly finds herself being more interested in how it‘s going on than she would‘ve expected.
She was so focused on the story that she didn‘t even notice that someone entered the room, until that person sits herself right besides her and glances over her shoulder into the book.
Yae shrugs a little before she manages to look up into two purple eyes that look right into her own.
„What are you reading there?“
„Ei? How did you manage to sneek in here like that?“
„Sneek in?“ Ei lifts an eyebrow.
„Well usually as soon as you place a foot into the Grand Narukami Shrine, the tension setting in is nearly touchable and one of the shrine maidens tells me, panicking, that you arrived“ Yae looks at her questioning.
„Now you’re making fun of me… but well i didn‘t intentionally sneek in but you’re right… I didn‘t want to drag so much attention today.“
„I see“ Yae says with a slight touch of curiousity, but she doesn’t ask further, not yet at least.
She stands up and closes the nearby door, telling her shrine maidens to not disturb her. Then she sits down next to Ei again.
„So, what is this book about, you were so invested in? It‘s very unusual for you to fade out your surroundings so much.“ Ei asks curiously.
„I didn’t fade out, my dearest Ei.“
„You didn’t?“ Ei says in disbelieve.
„Now you’re the one making fun of me.“
Miko straightens her back and then offers Ei a cup of tea who gladly accepts.
„It‘s not really that interesting to be honest, just one of those average romance novels.“ She says quite uninterested.
„Tell me about it.“ She looks at Yae who needs a second to figure out if it is more an order or a request. Something is off but she can’t quite figure out what.
„Sure, if you wanna know it that badly… It’s about a warrior who falls in love with a girl but they can‘t be together because the warrior has to go to war and fulfill their duty, so they start writing letters to each other where they express their feelings and fears… It’s basically a story about a love that lasts even over decades of seperation… Well, I guess it will end like all the other stories, the warrior gets back home to the love of their life and they will be happily together for the rest of their lifes.“
Ei smiles a little „I’d never thought you like such stories.“
Miko frowns „I said it‘s not that interesting, Ei.“
Ei takes a sip of tea but doesn‘t take her eyes off Yae „Seems different to me, Miko.“
Yae rolls her eyes.
„Seems like someone is in a good mood today, hm? Maybe you should try reading it too, getting in contact with some silly human emotions now and then wouldn’t be so bad, would it?“
Ei raises an eyebrow.
„Well to be honest with you, I actually enjoy reading those silly human romance stories from time to time. They have something comforting I think.“
Now Miko is truly suprised.
„The Almighty Narukami Ogosho God of Thunder is into romance novels?“ she says in disbelieve.
Ei laughs „If you want to put it that way“
„Why didn’t I know about that?“ Yae is still a bit shocked.
„Well I just thought it wouldn’t be something important.“
Yae leans her head slightly to the side „My my, Ei, keeping secrets from me, I can’t believe it.“
Ei raises an eyebrow.
„I wasn’t keeping it secret, Miko. I just didn’t see any necessity in telling you.“
Yae places her cup of tea on the ground. Somehow there was a change in the atmosphere and Ei couldn’t tell if it’s a good one.
Then the Kitsune get’s closer to Ei, her left hand on the ground next to her to support her balance, while she brings her face close to Ei‘s, her nose nearly touching Ei‘s skin.
Then she starts speaking in a soft tone, not much louder than a whisper „But what if I wanna know, Ei? What if I wanna know that you‘re into silly romance novels and cheesy little stories? What if I wanna know everything about the things you don‘t see as so important?“
She looks up into Ei‘s eyes who looks back into hers, a slight blush on her cheeks.
Ei isn’t sure of what to say at first, she needs some seconds to collect her thoughts again „Then I would tell you, Miko. I would tell you everything.“
Yae looks at her with a satisfied smile.
„Good“
She snaps her ring finger against Ei’s forehead, which caught Ei completely off guard, and stands up.
If it would’ve been anyone else the archon would’ve introduced them to the blade of her polearm.