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aceyogurt · 19 days

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Part-time romance

Pairing: Vox x GN reader

WC: 3k

A/n: PT ONE FINALLY UP WHOOOOOOOO…. This chapter is a lot of set up so no sexual tension yet sorry guys 😔, but I promise it’s still entertaining!

Nine years you’ve been in hell, and frankly compared to others, it wasn’t the worst. When you first fell you were smart enough to gain a good understanding of hell and its system before falling into the system of power and soul exchanges. While the idea of selling your soul to an overload didn’t sound optimal, neither did being weak and likely killed in an extermination. That's why you decided to work under the contract as your best option for the time being, ten years you worked under Velvet, one of the Vee’s, and in exchange, you had protection and decent pay. Luckily you were smart enough to go over the fine print and not be a slave to them but, still, they had lots of power over you. You didn't work close to them in the beginning though so it worked out.

In your life, before the fall you were a high-positioned manager for a company. So, you had the appropriate knowledge to climb up the ladder quickly, scoring you higher pay and closer relations to the Vees. Velvet was the one who took an interest in you after you were recently promoted and met her in a meeting. She loved your sense of fashion and you guys hit off well.

So, now here you are working almost top of the ladder and friends with your boss, an overlord of hell, life was pretty nice! Well other than your love life… but let’s be real who has one in hell? Anyways you and Velvet were doing your weekly recap at a new bar and she was ranting about how much of a bitch Val was being. “And then that pissbaby fucking ruined my shoot” She stared at you for a moment snapping her fingers “Oi you listening to me? What's up with you? You never do this, out of it.” you sigh putting your phone down. “Sorry, we recently got some new hires and they've been driving me insane, plus a date I had yesterday sucked.” “I get you girl dealing with co-workers drives me insane too… As for your love life, you don't need one trust me, you're too hot for any mid-low life, plus men suck.” you laugh at her comment which was likely a means to cheer you up before, going back to the topic of Valentino ruining Velvet's shoot.

“I told you before you gonna stress yourself out if you refuse to get some kind of assistance!” velvet protested at Vox. “Vel, I'll be fine, I'm capable of taking care of things myself. I don't understand why you are so prominent about this whole getting an assistant.” It takes everything in Velvet not to slap Vox right there as she looks at him like he's stupid, “I'm not saying you have to have someone do your work but, having someone to help you manage things would sure as hell help you not be so pissy all the time! I'm just trying to give you advice and it's like the wires in you start short-circuiting at the idea!” Vox sighs, pressing a hand across his screen before replying. “Look, as much as I appreciate you trying to help, I can handle it myself, getting an assistant will just create more work for me anyway. And I'd prefer to deal with the least amount of idiots possible since we have to deal with Val every day.” Velvet opens up her phone still talking to Vox, “You bloody right about the Piss Baby but, my point is what if we get you an assistant who isn't an idiot?” Vox raised an eyebrow “Got someone in mind” Velvet smiled already shooting a text to a certain someone, “of course”

Velvet 💕

Cancel wtvr you’re doing I need to talk to u

You

Am I in trouble

???

Ok geez I'm coming

“Took you long enough girl, I thought you weren't coming,” Velvet said leaning back in a nearby chair and scrolling on her phone, “well when you ask someone mid-workday to drop everything they're doing it takes them a minute to get somewhere,” you reply slightly annoyed as you sit down grabbing a bottle of water. “Yeah yeah, let's cut it to the point so I'm not wasting your precious time. Starting Tomorrow you'll be Vox’s assistant or whatever.” you choke on the water. “I'm sorry WHAT” asked a bit louder than necessary. Velvet rolls her eyes, placing her phone down, “Vox needs an assistant to help manage his shitstorm of a workload, and because he won't settle for just anyone I figured you'd be the perfect demon for the position. After all, you don't like your job now anyway so it's a win-win!” You slump down in your seat “How am I supposed to have my current job figured out in one day? It'll be a disaster and the whole team will fall apart!” Velvet shrugs “I wouldn't worry about it I'm sure a few demons can handle not having you around.” you decide not to argue with her and head back to your office.

The rest of the day you were stressed, trying to manage everything for your departure and making sure the team wouldn't fall apart. Getting home you almost immediately fell asleep not wanting to deal with anything else for the rest of the night.

You woke up two hours earlier than you normally would, whether that was because you wanted to look good or because your nerves were getting to you. Anyways you decided on an outfit and took around an hour to do your makeup and such. Because you had extra time you decided to get some coffee on your way to work, then you headed to the office of the overlord you now work for. You only prayed he wouldn’t be upset about your earliness.

You knocked on the doors of a room that Vox was supposedly in, well it was the room Velvet told you to go to, the doors opened and you began to walk across the bridge that led to a huge TV panel-like area. Each step you took you felt your anxiety build for no particular reason, the echo of your footsteps with each step you took. When you get to the area where you assumed he’d be though, all that was placed was an empty chair. You were going to head back, “you showed up much earlier than Velvet said you were going to arrive.” holy shit you were not expecting him to be right behind you, you got frightened hard “fuck!” you shout before realizing what you said. Your boss ends up laughing at your slip-up, “Oh did I scare you, that's hilarious' ' You bit the inside of your cheek before apologizing, which Vox didn't care much for. He sat at his desk and stared at the screens in front of him, you were waiting for him to speak up but, it seemed you were going to need to make the first move.

“So, Sir, what would you like me to do…?” Vox takes a sip of his coffee staring down at his phone before blankly looking at you, “What- did Velvet not tell you anything?” you look back at him a bit embarrassed, “Not really no…” For the next tenish minutes or so, Vox grudgingly explained to you what he expected of you, which ultimately wasn't a whole lot. You knew he had other assistants in the past to just help with managing his schedule but, when Velvet told you about this job you didn't think it'd be this… But hey, surely over time it'd get better right?

Two weeks later

Yeah, are things getting better? Hell no, the first week was fairly smooth and basic the next week though you and Vox began to talk more, and god was he egotistical. You guys were constantly getting into debates with one another which usually started with you gently criticizing Vox and his decision-making on affairs but, it'd quickly spiral into you guys changing topics into how much the other sucked. Yet despite that, he hadn't fired you yet… Or worse.

Vox was going to be coming in later than usual today because of this meeting he had scheduled with the other Vees so as any normal sinner would do, you just waited at Voxs desk, knowing he was going to come late and you sat in the chair he usually occupied. Was it a bad idea, sure but what the worst that could happen? You were working on some scheduling and afterward scrolled on your phone, and being plagued by boredom you fell asleep.

Vox was on his way after finishing a ‘productive’ meeting with the other Vees which ended up being Vox stopping Valentino from one of his meltdowns, over who knows what. Being drained he just wanted to recharge and figured he’d just have you take care of any events he would need to attend. While he was initially planning to get rid of you the first chance you get because he wasn’t exactly a fan of someone being this close to him for work. Having high expectations of others wasn’t exactly something Vox had, with

good reason, well somewhat, those reasons get overshadowed by his inflated ego.

Quickly though you did end up growing on Vox as an employee, he wasn’t exactly sure what it was about you but, after giving it some thought, he figured it was the fact you were a breath of fresh air instead of the sinners he normally employed. While your attitude he did find absurd sometimes, it was manageable for him since you never stepped too much out of place… You were still more professional than 90% of sinners and overlords he worked with, and you had some brains in your head which again, was something most in hell lacked (probably because the brains they had were fried after the copious amount of drugs they take.)

As Vox was heading towards his desk he heard… snoring? No that couldn’t be right, but as he poked his screen around in view of his chair there you were, fast asleep. Vox did find the fact you fell asleep in his chair funny but, at the same time, he needed to recharge and didn’t want to put up with anyone, including you right now. That being said, it was easy enough for Vox to conjure up another chair he could recharge in for the time being while you were sleeping. If it was any other circumstances Vox probably would’ve yelled at you for the audacity you had to sit and sleep in his chair, instead of working but, that was for another day. For now, Vox just wanted a break…

When you awoke you were greeted by a sight you never expected to see, Vox asleep..? While you were just realizing the situation in yourself still, you couldn’t help but laugh to yourself. Even though the situation itself wasn’t what you’d call funny, it was the idea that he fell asleep ironic because, from what you had seen and experienced, Vox was more of a workaholic so being asleep was unlike him.

You took a picture of this moment to show Velvet later when you meet up knowing she’d want to see it herself. The most bizarre thing to you was the fact when Vox was indeed asleep that he would have one of those DVD-type logos bounce around his screen, except this was of The Vee’s logo. While Vox was asleep you thought about how you should be productive but, you didn’t feel the urge to be doing such as of now. What you did feel an urge to do is snoop around your boss's desk and see what you could find. Honestly, you didn’t wish to find anything incriminating (not that it would matter) you were just interested in the overload behind closed doors, and who could blame you?

You started with poking around the general surface area which is when you made the realization you never truly allowed yourself to be familiar with your surroundings. It was spotless with not even a particle of dust occupying the space, but to the sides of the desk, three drawers stacked on one another worked as structural support. You had checked the right side first, and to your disappointment, there was nothing of interest to be found inside. Just some extra wires and such, what’d you expect? When opening the first drawer on the left though that disappointment quickly blossomed into curiosity.

A photo of the radio demon laid flat on it, while at initial glance it might seem ordinary the more you observed it, the more that curiosity inside you grew. To the right of the paper, it was very poorly torn, while most of the image was removed, there was a part that wasn’t removed that grew your curiosity once more, an edge of the TV screen seemed to occupy the space, an older model to be clear, this photo was old. You didn’t take Vox to be exactly the sentimental type, so why would he keep such a thing? You wanted to ask him to figure out this seemingly tragic history but, a hollow pit grew in the back of your stomach because, you knew you couldn’t ask about it, for one you wouldn’t know how he would react and that kind of questioning goes way beyond your relationship with the overlord, and secondly you knew for a fact Vox wouldn’t take kindly to snooping, especially if it was something personal like you suspected. You set the photo back into the drawer the way you found it and decided that it was about time you stopped procrastinating and working.

Vox had awoken a few hours after yourself, his screen slowly adjusted to the setting around him, his vision beginning to turn on. He was greeted with the sight of you, still in his chair, working at his desk. “I see you’ve made yourself comfortable” You didn't even bother seeming scared as you hummed, “Yeah, I figured since you were asleep I'd take advantage to work more efficiently.” Vox chucked “Effectively work, sure, whatever you say.” the dripping sarcasm caused you to let out a laugh of your own, “Yep, efficient working is important!~” he nodded in agreement amused by your attitude. While this kind of behavior would usually piss him off you didn't do it to try to come off better than him or cocky.

The rest of the workday went by quickly with you and Vox both having your affairs to deal with, so you only had a small chat here and there. Getting home you slip off your shoes and switch to some comfier clothing. As you were settling down a call appeared on your phone with Velvet’s contact showing up.

“Hey girl how's it going?” Velvet inquired in her usual tone. “Absolutely exhausted Vel, I just got home and can't wait to head to bed.” the conversation went on for a little while longer before you remembered the photo you took earlier today that you wanted to show Velvet. “Oh yeah I forgot to show you, look at this.” you share on your screen as the photo was earlier taken of Vox fast asleep, as you giggled at the photo once more Velvet was kind of shocked. It's not that she had never seen Vox asleep before, or looking as silly as he was at that moment but, the fact he so openly had done it while you were still present was shocking to her. Vox wasn't exactly the type of overlord that'd let anyone see him so normal. His whole persona was a perfect entity with no need for things other sinners might lust for. Yet he so openly broke that persona and you didn't even seem to notice! Velvet played along though figuring she’d inquire about the matter to Vox at a later date.

“Hah, yeah he always looks like that when he sleeps it's hilarious girl.” Velvet soon ended the call because she had ‘matters to attend to’ leaving you in the silence of your loneliness.

“Vox get in here now!” Vox unamused musters his best-interested tone making his way to her, “Whatever could be the problem, my dear?” Velvet then hummed, completely changing her tone with a more sinister undertone, “I just wanted to ask how work has been all” Vox's grin drops, “and since when have you been one for work talk?” Velvet shrugs, “Since when could I not check up on how a friend is doing Vox, after all, you haven’t told me how things have been with your new assistant.” Vox chuckles refilling his coffee mug.

“They’re better than I expected them to be, it’s nice to know some sinners still have any kind of intelligence.” praise wasn't something that was easily given by an overlord such as Vox so Velvet hearing him acknowledge you in a way that wasn't completely condescending made her even more invested. “Is there anything else you need to bug me with, or can I go?” Before she could ask or say anything else Vox was already on his way. (Workaholic bastard-)

While Vox was a bit interested in why Velvet was so curious about your guy's relationship, he also had better things to do than try to understand Velvet’s mind. Right as Vox had gotten you out of his head a notification from your number came through, it was only the changed schedule for tomorrow though. Why would it be anything else though you are just his assistant, nothing more. That being said, why didn’t Vox dislike you, I mean usually whenever Vox has an assistant of some kind they’re not nearly as involved with his work life as you were yet they managed to agitate him much faster than you had. He wrote it off though as you being recommended by Velvet made him have a more positive impression of you. Even if it was something else he didn't care he needed to deal with the Radio Demon being back in town.

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woojoongstreasure · 21 days

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Pirate Life | Kim Seungmin

Pairing: Pirate!Kim Seungmin x Reader

Request: No. This was a part of my Halloween celebration on my deactivated account.

Synopsis: Pirate Kim Seungmin encounters his childhood friend when his crew mistakenly capture her instead of their intended target.

Warnings: Pirate things.

Word Count: 832

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"Return me to my home at once!" Y/N groans as she tries to loosen the ropes around her wrists, the fibers of the ropes burning against her skin.

"We're pirates, sweetheart. We have a reputation for not following the rules," a somewhat familiar voice comes from the staircase.

The pirate guarding her, stands up from his post and moves away from the bars of the cage she’s being kept in. The figure of a man stands in front of the cage. Y/N’s eyes travel up the pirate's form, taking in everything about him. From his buckled shoes to his slightly-nicer-than-the-other-pirate's clothes, to his dirty but handsome face. It’s a face all too familiar.

Her face contorts into surprise and confusion. She begins to question if it’s really him, her childhood best friend that had disappeared without a trace one day. He left her wondering if he had been kidnapped or worst, killed. Her life went on without but in a way, he was still with her. Not a single day had passed without her thinking of him or reliving the memories they shared in her daydreams.

“Kim Seungmin?” She finally speaks his name aloud after years of not being able to bring herself to say it.

“That’s captain to you, Miss!” the pirate that had been guarding her growls, his tone threatening and daring her to speak his captain’s name without his proper title. He’s been itching for a fight since they captured her.

“Y/N?” he asks, his stern look now matching her shocked and confused one. He quickly turns on the other pirate, a frown on his face. “You went to the third house to the left of the Salty Sea?”

“Aye, Captain,” the pirate nods. “Mr. Tang’s home.”

“What were you doing at Tang’s home?” He turns back to his former best friend.

Unbeknownst to her, Seungmin’s been keeping tabs on her since he found out she now lives in SKZ Port, Mr. Tang being one of his informants. It was known to all the pirates (and other shady people) that frequented the area that Y/N is well protected and isn’t to be touched or hurt in any way, shape or form.

“He’s my boss,” she answers, her confusion and curiosity grow as she looks between the two men. "Why are you after him? What did he do?”

“Nothing you should be worried about,” Seungmin tells her before ordering the other pirate to let her go. He does it right away with an annoyed expression. His captain ignores it and holds his hand out towards Y/N.

Y/N takes his outstretched hand and allows him to help her to her feet. She’s unsteadied at first, having never been on the water before. Seungmin steadies her and leads her out onto the deck. The pirate guard follows behind them as Seungmin gives him orders. He quickly disappears back downstairs.

“You’re living your dream, huh?” Y/N speaks as they stand beside the railing. She notices the port is slowly fading away in the distance and is stuck on a pirate ship with no way to get back home. Not that she’s complaining. She shared Seungmin’s dream of living on the ocean.

“You’re not living yours?” he asks, looking at her. She’s as beautiful as he remembers. He too didn’t go a day without her in his mind. The many times he wanted to turn around and go back home so he could bring her with him are countless.

“Yes, because working in a bar filled with grimy, seedy men and women is what I always dreamed of doing,” she replies, her tone sarcastic but the small playful smile on her lips let him know she’s teasing him.

“I’m sorry I left without you,” he apologizes. The only thing in his life he regrets and feels guilty about is not taking her with him.

“I’ve spent all this time wondering what happened to you, hoping this is where you ended up and not somewhere terrible,” she tells him truthfully as she turns to face the great big blue. She smiles as a faint gust of wind blows through her hair and the salty smell of the ocean fills her nose. “Now my mind can be at ease.”

It takes him a few seconds to remember what he was about to say as he’s entranced by the sight in front of him. No amount of gold and jewels could compare. He swallows the lump in his throat and tries to keep the sudden bout of sorrow he feels out of his voice when he starts to speak. “I can take you home, if you would like to go back.”

“Don’t you even dare,” her smile growing, she glances at him for a moment before looking back out at the sea. “I think it’s time we started living our dream together, just like we did back then.”

A large grin makes its way on to Seungmin’s face, “I also think it's time we did just that.”

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simpingland · 2 years

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To young for war, too beautiful for battles// Aemond Targaryen x Targaryen!oc

The first daughter of Daemon with Rhea has a special bond with Aemond, but his green conciusness sabotages the relationship. Romeo and Juliet could (literally) never...

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

The Black's came to King's Landing for Aegon and Helaena's wedding. They all knew that intense days were going to be happening. Uncomfortable dinners, awkward breakfasts and silent lunches. Specially for Alyssa, the first born daughter of prince Daemon, her late mother Rhea Royce was barely a memory for her, only the name her septa would say when they reminded she had a mother. Laena was closer to a mother than Rhea, but it was clear that her own daughters were her priority. Her loss pained still, again she felt like an orphan, and now she had two beautiful half sisters to care about, at least she ached in company. She was the oldest of Daemon's daughters, and the one she trusted the most, so she was the first to welcome Rhaenyra as her new step-mother. She was excited for her new brothers, Jace and Luke, lovely children, even tho, a bit naives to be true dragon blood. But she also felt like that sometimes. Alyssa was a lonely girl, she did not dare to ask too many questions to her father, knowing well that he wasn't the honorable men every girl wish for a father to be. Growing up she found herself surrounded by the King's children, Rhaenyra accepted her as her ward. Helaena was her closest friend, the only girls in the court. But the princess was too much of a dreamer to be an entertaining friend. So Aly wondered for hours through the Red Keep, and Aemond usually followed her. They had very much in commun, not only age, but also they felt outsiders in their own family. Of course, she was more comprehensive of those who ignored her,as she daughter of the infamous prince, so she never accepted Aemond's anger and eagerness, but she did understood him. She tried very hard to calm him, to talk him down, but he refused. He would annoy her, as children did, because it was the only way he thought she would notice him. They would end up bickering non stop some days, always when the family was present. But when he followed throw the Red Keep, she would catch him, and she always gave him a welcoming smile, letting him walk beside him, exploring together. Nobody really knew about their chemistry, with time, Aly realized that Aemond was the one hiding it. Many times she approached him kindly for a dance during feasts, or asked him to ride with her in the yard, and it was always him who responded rudely, as if he haven't enjoyed her company so many times. The only person aware of the bond was Rhaenyra, who caught them once in the dungeons, she saw them giggleling together and talking nonsense, but very peacefully. She even remembered the time she enjoyed Alicent has her best of friend, so she always reassured Aly when she ended the day with tears because of Aemond's bullying. Aemond regretted his behaviour Aly's father came back, he asked Rhaenyra to send her back when Baela was about seven, wishing to have her daughters together and safe. Even though he missed her, he didn't let her know it the day she saw her again, that day at Driftmark. He only looked at her. She tried to convince him not to take Vhagar, to respect the late Leana, and let poor Baela claim her. But he didn't listen and he lost an eye that day. That night, Aly saw the reason why Aemond mistreated her, why he was determined to hate everyone. It was her own mother the one to seek vengeance, the one who was blind to forgiveness, and the only one who seemed to care for Aemond. He felt so lonely that he did as her mother said, and because he did what his mother said he was becoming more lonesome. It was a circle, a terrifying one.

In Dragonstone, Aly grew into a woman, never forgetting Aemond, she dreamed of him, pitying him, his good friend and worst enemy. She felt so stupid for it, falling for someone so cruel, willing to kill his own. So she felt conflicted when she saw him for the first time in years. How can someone change so much in a few years? He was training, fencing with Ser Criston. A patch on his eye, her face longer, slimmer than last time, so tall and quite attractive. He didn't saw her until he put his sword down.

"Alyssa..."

"Aemond"

They looked at each other, Aemond found trouble to keep himself as cocky as he usually was, Ser Criston was there, and if Aly was there sure was the rest of the Blacks.

"You look sharp, my prince" smiled Alyssa.

"You look a bit prettier, I'll give you that"

"Only a bit? Well, that is because you can only see the half of me" she joked. A laugh sounded behind her. Aemond turned and saw his nephews. Jace didn't even try to hide it. Luke eyed him carefully, seeing the work he did years ago on his face. "Are you exited about the wedding?"

"I'm not the one fucking tonight and i don't enjoy drinking and dancing, so all the excitement is left to the groom" he couldn't hide the look he gave her, up and down, she looked stunning even in her simple dress. Jace and Luke explored the yard like the teenage boys they were, Ser Criston entered the Keep. Aly started to examining the weapons in front of her.

"Oh, lucky Aegon, he will jump his way into the septa" she gave a malicious grin to Aemond, knowingly.

He chucked at the comment. "Now, that part I will enjoy it at least"

Rhaenyra saw them talk and smile from a far. She now remembered herself with her husband Daemon.

The ceremony was quick, but very boring. Rhaenyra purposely let Alyssa stand infront of her, holding a very sleepy Luke as an excuse. So Aly had Aemond beside her, his shoulder very close to her face. The slow voice of the maester soother her into a sleep she didn't knew she was holding, her eyelids became so heavy...she couldn't helped it, she dropped her head into Aemond's shoulder, his long steady arm enduring her. She wasn't sleeping, but she was somehow resting like this. Aemond looked at her cautiously, she looked extremely tired. He turned to look at her mother, but she was holding tears while looking at the bride, not happy tears, sad tears, he knew that that day Alicent would be grieving the fate of her only daughter. So Aemond let Alyssa rest for the rest of the ceremony, only the applause woke her up. Confused, she apologised to Aemond, who only smirked to himself. Non of them could see the death stared Daemon was giving them from behind. Rhaenyra saw them, she will took care of that when the time comes.

The feast was another story. Alyssa loved music, and of course, she loved to dance. On very little occasions she had an excuse to enjoy it, only on name days. She found her sisters the loveliest of dance partners and Rhaenyra was always disposed to join the dance floor. Her father did too but that day he kept himself nailed to his chair. She was the first to stand and walk to the dance floor, bringing Baela with her. Almost everyone was either drunk or dancing, many were both. Rhaenyra took her husband to dance with her, to make him forget about Aemond for a bit. Aegon was so drunk it was embarrassing to watch and poor Helaena looked at her rings as if she had never see them. Alyssa saw her then, and remembered the lovely time they used to have as children. She reach for the princess and offered her hand.

"A bride should tire her feet from dancing on her wedding day"

She smiled at Alyssa and took her hand. Everybody look at both of them. Two Targaryen princesses, one with silver hair, the other with auburn locks. One dressed in a clear green dress and the other in a red gown. They spoke little, but the princess started to move through the floor, exchanging partners and laughing at the playfulness of the moment. Alicent saw her from her table, and Rhaenyra invited her to join, quickly connecting her to her daughter, she smiled when she partnered Helaena. King Viserys smiled at the image, a moment of peace, Aegon, on the other hand, felt sick, not only of the alcohol, but because of the noise. People ignoring the silent war they had. He looked at his brother Aemond. He had his eye locked into Alyssa. Aegon was about to speak to him, probably insulting someone, when the younger stood up, the music just changed, a slower dance.

Luke was dancing with Alyssa when he reach them.

"Dear nephew, mind i take your lady?" Said Aemond, already standing in front of Alyssa pushing Luke back.

"I do mind, un--" he was slowly but strongly pushed away by Aemond. He gave up, he learned his lesson in Driftmark.

"I don't see the need on being rude at every fucking moment" spilled Aly.

"You are the one swearing around ladies and lords" they had already started the dance "besides, I hold you the entire ceremony this afternoon"

"Oh, damn it...you noticed it...I should have slept under your right shoulder..." she shamelessly smiled at him.

"What a funny little lady" he smirked. "You definitely are a dragon born. Daring to mock the prince like that..."

"Good customs must never dissappear"

"Well, if you have decided to be so immature then I'll have to inform the entire court about your tendency of farting on the carriages"

She laughed and playfully hit him on his arm. He pretended to be deeply hurt.

"Oh, my prince, did I hurt you? My poor, poor prince..." she laughed.

"You keep laughing at me, maybe I'll send you to keep old Fred in company down in the dungeons for insulting your prince" Aemond remind her of old Fred, the ghost that only existed on their adventures during the Red Keep days.

"Well, many people had to dissappear before you can sit on the throne..." they continued to dance, ignoring the exchange of the partners "maybe then I'll fear for my sake, my prince"

"You see me willing to kill you, Lady Alyssa?"

"I saw you willing to kill my step-brothers" she no longer smiled.

"But I did never touch you, did I?"

They stopped dancing.

"No, but you sure remember the way you made me feel in front of everyone"

"Well, we treated ourselves as the children we were then" he obviously lied, she would never fell for that.

"That's not true, Aemond..." she did in fact, not fell for it. "You and I shared a bond, you made me laugh for hours when you dare to aproach me...but then you remembered that I was not to be trust. I cried myself to sleep so many nights. I thought you were my friend, that made it so much more painful..."

"You were a Black" he said.

"I was a child...so were you". She had tears threatening to fall on her face. He hold her hands but she pushed him away and, very quietly, disappeared from the room.

He felt his loneliness drop into his body as if someone just throw a gallon of water over his head. The music became a noise and the people became faceless. He then saw Daemon, staring at him. Aemond did admire his uncles...he admire him as much as he feared him. But Alyssa was something else. All his childhood he'd found trouble associating Alyssa to Daemon, not only for he hair, but because Alyssa was an equal. Thats how he felt with her. For him, Alyssa wasn't someone's daughter, or someone's ward, or someone's friend. She was just Alyssa, the girl she would seek for a little walk, the girl who spoke the truth in the sweetest of manners, a terrible dancer but a dedicated one. So, Daemon became a faceless person too, and Aemond decided to turn and leave, searching for his friend.

She was where he hoped she would be. In one of the secret corridors of the Red Keep. She often hid there as a child, and she showed it to Aemond in a moment of trust. He remembered that day when he saw her, just like she was years ago, Alyssa laid her body against the wall, her head down, and arms crossed. When they were six years old, Aemond found her there after she was humiliated by Aegon, the young prince did not spoke in her defence and Alyssa ran away. He took care of the little wound Aegon put on her little knee. To calm the girl, Aemond told her about that time he caught his brother jerking off, joking about the possible sexual fantasies of the boy. He made her laugh so much she forgot the pain, and she rewarded him with a kiss on the lips. Aemond was too surprised and too small to respond it, and they didn't make a deal out of it, but it was a secret, and they each kept in secret the fact that they remembered that kiss every single night before falling asleep.

"I've found more secret places in the Red Keep since you left" he spoke softly.

"I know most of them..."she had been crying.

"Why did you choose this one then?"

"This one's my favorite, so you will do me a favor if you left"

"This one is my favorite as well..." he got closer. "The ones I discovered were never as special as this...They were dull, boring...lonesome".

"I have spend my days feeling stupid for missing you...you never respected me...never appreciated me as much as I appreciated you...you have hurt my brothers and I invented so many excuses to forgive you for hurting me".

"You are right, Alyssa. We were kids, but you do understand that something bigger was over us...that we had to keep our distance".

"Can you just...apologies?" She looked at him now.

"I will admit, I have missed you" he hold her hand again. "Did you miss me?"

"You know that I have".

She touched Aemond's face. He closed his eye at the soft hand.

"As much as you love your family, I love mine as well" spoke Aemond, putting his other hand over Alyssa's. "But I do apologise, and I beg for your pardon, here, in the corridor where I felt in love with you. And I swear to you that I would never, ever, hurt you".

To say "I forgive you" would have been enough, but the emotions left Alyssa voiceless. So she kissed Aemond right there. Their lips met in a passionate but slow kiss. As if they were made for each other, they melted in an embrace. When they separated, they spend a few moments in silence. Caressing their faces and hands. They walked together through the secrets corridors. Kisses between the path and laughs and jokes. Maybe they could end the war, maybe they both die during it. But the uncertainty was the spark of passion.

The farewell came between secret walks and stolen kisses. Alyssa had told Rhenyra and Rhaenyra had told Alicent. But the response was a no. No, they would not be married. The daughter of man like Daemon. He was refusing as well, the son of a woman like Alicent. Too much pain has been already cause and no marriage will solve that. So they reunited again one last time.

"I think the gods made us enemies because they were afraid we could reach them"

She laughed softly "If I was your wife you would have locked me in a room, with babies and needles...The gods made us enemies because they love me" she joked, trying not to cry.

"I would never let you root like that, Alyssa, never"

Aemond spoke softly on her ear, moving her brunette hair aside. Alyssa pushed him away putting a hand on his chest. She looked at him in the eye. They shared one last kiss, a tear falling and Aemond could taste the salt of it. He cleaned it with soft stroke.

#aemond targaryen #aemond the kinslayer #aemond targaryen x reader #aemond targaryen x oc #house of the dragon x oc #house of the dragon #game of thrones fanfiction #house of the dragon fanfiction #aemond targaryen imagine #comrade aemond #marxist aemond #aemond x you #aemond one eye #ewan mitchell #house of the dragon imagines

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ceruleanwhore · 3 months

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So now I'm psychoanalyzing Jin, I guess

WARNINGS: Spoilers and also TW for mentions of violence, murder, and suicide.

Ever since I started thinking about how maybe Jin isn’t actually the worst, maybe he’s just badly written, I’ve ended up kind of diving into psychoanalyzing him and now I think I can honestly say that I feel bad enough for him that I don’t dislike him anymore — he’s firmly in ‘poor little meow meow’ territory and I like pathetic men. But I just wanted to share some of that psychoanalysis here because I think y’all might appreciate it.

So I started with kinda inventorying his trauma and thinking through from what’s in the text what he would have lurking in his brain and, of course, there’s quite a lot. Growing up in abject poverty is traumatizing in and of itself, but he also had to watch his mom get sick and had to provide for them as best he could at a very young age since he couldn’t and, in the end, it wasn’t enough and she died. Then there’s the matter of learning the truth of who he is and who his father is and returning to the palace where he’d then stay and live among the same people who so violently hated his mother that they basically killed her, and then there’s Bloodstained Rose Day.

The thing with his parents, though, is that it isn’t just how he had to sit there and watch his parents fall apart and eventually die because of their doomed relationship, it’s also that day in and day out he gets to hear about how his parents never should have been together in the first place. It’s a sentiment that he internalizes so much that he makes Clause 99, and yet by saying that they never should have fallen in love, everyone is also saying that Jin never should’ve been born. Clause 99 is actually fucking depressing because it’s basically Jin saying that, if he could go back in time and prevent his parents from ever falling in love, he would, even though that would mean he wouldn’t exist. We also see this suicidal streak in Luke’s route with how his answer to that whole conflict is to just stand there and tell his brother to kill him.

I think this is largely fueled by guit, both in the case of the stuff with his parents and, more obviously, in the case of Layla’s death. I imagine that Jin might have felt responsible for his mother’s death since they were so poor and just by existing he required resources and could’ve felt like that contributed to her illness and death. There’s also the part where the king wouldn’t have spiraled the way he did if he never learned of her death from Jin and, especially since his mother did tell him to never go to the palace and he was disobeying her final request of him or whatever when he told the king the bad news, he probably blames himself for the late king’s decline.

So what I’m seeing in terms of mental health is a bunch of PTSD and depression with passive suicidal ideation, but he doesn’t have the support system or tools to actually heal so he relies on unhealthy coping mechanisms, mainly alcohol and sex. I think that some of his biggest motivation is proving his value to himself and the people around him, like everything he does is more or less in an effort to somehow prove that his existence is worth it. It would probably be a massive internal conflict of guilt and self hatred vs. the desire to feel like, in spite of how things went for his parents, it was worth it for him to be born. We see in the story how hard he works and how valuable that work is as well as how he’s built relationships with his brothers and also takes the time and puts in the effort to get the people of Rhodolite to like him as well, and even goes so far as to try and help people from Obsidian too.

I think the biggest example, though, is what he does in his route right after Emma arrives in the palace of forcefully inserting himself into her daily schedule by insisting on being her tutor. This annoyed me when I read it because it felt contradictory for Jin to do that after going to such lengths to avoid catching feelings and specifically trying to prevent any future Belles from falling in love with any future princes, and forced proximity is definitely bad for trying not to catch feelings for someone. However, if we think of it in this framework and consider it as a way he seeks to gain validation of his existence and worth, it makes sense because the very first thing he does is create a situation where she needs him to do exactly what he does. She passes Sariel’s test because all the questions were about what she saw when he was dragging her around town and shit but, more importantly, she then goes back to Jin and thanks him for his help and I think she even apologizes for resisting his intrusions, which is exactly the sort of validation I’m talking about.

I also think this seeking of validation is one of multiple contributing factors to his casual relationships with women. I believe it’s a combination of this desire for validation, a fear of commitment, self-soothing for all the trauma, and trying to ignore the part of him that does want the deeper intimacy of a real relationship by engaging in more casual physical intimacy. I also think that the narrative of Jin’s story takes all of those things and puts some combination of them in every interaction he has with Emma. He flirts with her when she first arrives because he wants to literally conquer his biggest fear and just fuck and dump her before he can catch feelings, he seeks validation by helping her, he goes to absurd lengths to create situations to allow himself to be around her while also trying to maintain distance to prevent feelings from developing. It all culminates in him admitting that he does want that deeper intimacy, overcoming that fear of commitment, and letting her in because he knows she’s a safe person who can give him that validation and help heal his trauma.

Now, I want to talk about Luke, Layla, and Bloodstained Rose Day. I think they tried to set up a parallel between Layla and Jin but never fully got there and the most we really get with that is how Luke is with interpersonal relationships and the part where these two are the only people he’s ever been close to. However, I do think it goes deeper than that because I think, if it were written better, Layla would be like a physical manifestation of Jin’s inner child. Just like how Layla was mortally wounded from the building collapsing and begged him to kill her in order to stop her pain, Jin’s inner child is still bleeding out somewhere inside him, begging for death just like her. I think that, when he pulled her out of that rubble and she was then bleeding out and asking him to kill her, he saw himself in her and slit her throat without hesitation, doing for her exactly what his inner child wishes he would do for himself. In the moment, I think it was more suicide than murder but then, after he did it, he then would’ve had this moment of realization that he just killed a child and that would begin the years of inner conflict about it and would contribute to stuff like his decision to make those graves.

So yeah, going through all of that psychoanalysis really helped me reach this conclusion that Jin doesn’t suck, he just isn’t written well and now I don’t hate him anymore, which is great. I just wish that the Ikemen games were better at handling their own characters because it fucking sucks that all of this and more is hidden in the text and they do nothing with it so he ends up coming across as an unlikeable dick. Especially since he is the first prince, I think it’s a real shame they did him so dirty when they had all the makings for a deep, complex, empathetic character.

#ikepri #ikemen prince #ikemen series #cybird ikemen #jin grandet #ikepri jin #ikemen prince jin #character analysis

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marcelwrites · 2 months

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It was a lively weekend. The bar was packed with an assortment of roach like creatures in human skin. I kept them with a good supply of alcohol and received praise for killing them. A drop dead gorgeous woman was flirting with me (we'll return to her in a moment) while I made her bartender friend a drink, I was forced to listen to the friend talk about her "dinosaur" co-workers that forced her to work after 8pm. My best mate and I stood behind the bar and we nodded along where appropriate in the story. It was unbearable and I could see the entitlement dripping from her pores like noxious grease. When she had fucked off my best mate and I pissed ourselves laughing. Afterwards, the gorgeous friend asked me to guess her age, I said 20, and she replied that she was 25. She then leant in closer to me and said that her pussy was 20. I immediately thought that's what women feel like they're hit on by men. When I was closing the bar she came over to me and gave me her snapchat and mobile number. I begrudgingly accepted her snapchat and then immediately got a chat from her, I replied with, "I'm not 12, just text me," to which she responded "Your attitude is so hot." My attitude is literally just me bartending from 2 until 2, 12 straight hours, and not wanting to deal with a bunch of drunk chicks. I kept thinking about the bartender friend and why you would even work a job you actively hate. This is Australia, if you don't want to work a job you hate, you don't fucking have to. Just quit and stop ragging on your "dinosaur" [see: 40 year old] co-workers. She had that hotness that was directly proportional to how fucking terrible she was. I will say her boyfriend was a friendly bloke though and I gave him a couple of free drinks. He'll need them to deal with her. I can guarantee that she's cheating on him. I just know the type. Anyway, I just remembered that she said her family's from Croatia and they moved here to get away from poverty. Okay, if that's the case, how do you not have a shred of self-awareness. The fact that I remember all these stupid fucking details are a good indicator of how annoying she was. White dress, tanned skin, dagger nails, oppressively white teeth, and the personality of a cheese grater. I miss the days back in 2013 when I started bartending at night clubs around the city and you'd meet an assortment of colourful characters but at least they had a personality. The Scene girls were the best. God, I miss them. Bartending is one of those professions where you really jump into the deep end of the human condition, meeting the absolute best and worst of humanity. Alcohol is the great equaliser in that after enough everyone is equally insufferable. I love what I do but I'm thankful I don't drink. My life's been too eventful to fit in a reasonable sized text post this evening so I'll update you again another day.

#marcelwrites #writing #words #life #personal

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dragynkeep · 11 months

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Why wasn’t ruby’s question to jinn “what is salem and ozpin hiding?” a lot of jinns story was from both their perspectives and it was weird that ozpin knew so much of what happened to salem without her own personal bias…

It really was just an excuse to have an exposition dump around the college level gods story that MK really wanted to do, rather than actually giving us interesting characterisation for both Ozpin and Salem.

'Cause what we got was all the mystery around Ozpin boiling down to a traumatised abused man trying his best to protect the world from his abusive wife, who murdered him and his children, and a sexist bunch of tropes of a woman who was just too emotional to think logically and bumbled through her story and now wants to die ig??

And the gods are assholes. Great Greek storytelling there.

I honestly would've had the story without the gods. It just over complicated the story by adding another set of Big Bads after Salem did that to Cinder, and actively takes away Salem's agency because she's now just reacting to what all the men around her had done.

Especially since Ozpin didn't see half of what happened in the actual flashback. How can he hide something that he doesn't know? Now we got our heroes forcibly dragging someone's abusive past out, getting mad at THEM for not being able to defeat their abusive ex, physically and verbally assaulting them right after retraumatising them, and then not once showing any sympathy for him until they had to do shit without him.

Who does that remind me of? Oh, it's Blake. It's literally Blake.

The girl who hid her abusive past with an evil ex, who wants to kill her and all of humanity, and can't beat him until her friends actively show her support and understanding despite how her fuck ups personally impacted them.

The difference is how the show treats them. Blake is constantly coddled even when she's being told off, the worst done to her is Sun explaining to her how her mentality is bad for her and her friends right after waking up from nearly dying, Yang letting go of her anger long before Blake returns and only getting annoyed when she actively infantilises her, and everyone understanding why Blake left and being all happy smiles when she comes back.

But with Ozpin, everyone immediately suspects him when they find out he gave Qrow and Raven the ability to turn into birds, a power that has no downsides and is actively a gift that Qrow does not care, meaning they're overreacting again. Then they get annoyed when he keeps the secret of the relic attracting Grimm, something that isn't brought up again in the show even with them having the lamp out in the open for the rest of the time they had it.

And then they forcibly get an outside force to tell them his past, something that Ozpin/Ozma does not want to tell them because it's fucking traumatising, and then they get angry at him without any ounce of empathy for the shit he went through.

Like??? These are our heroes???? Okay.

#rwby #rwde #ozpin #salem #blake belladonna #answered #luke.txt #its not always the heroes that get coddled either cause we got ren in the atlas arc #but the hypocrisy between what their friends do and what everyone else does #is staggering

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nitrateglow · 7 months

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Halloween 2023 marathon: 22-23

Wait Until Dark (dir. Terence Young, 1967)

Blinded a year ago in an accident, housewife Susy Hendrix (Audrey Hepburn) is still adjusting to her new reality and struggling with trauma from the event. When her photographer husband has to leave for an evening assignment, at worst she expects an annoying few hours getting her bratty kid neighbor Gloria (Julie Herrod) to actually go the damn grocery for her and not play pranks. Instead she's targeted by a trio of criminals who believe a shipment of heroin ended up in her husband's possession. Led by the psychopathic Mr. Roat (Alan Arkin), the criminals are only supposed to trick and terrorize Susy psychologically without resorting to physical violence. When Susy proves sharper than they expected, it does not stay that way for long.

After watching a terrible 1967 home invasion thriller based on a stage play, I needed to watch a good variation of the same and what better choice than Wait Until Dark, a movie I consider one of the greatest thrillers ever made.

If you've been on my blog for years, you'll know I'm obsessed with I love this movie. Only a handful of movies ever actually scared me on first watch and this is one of them. It's perfectly paced and exquisitely crafted, with a strong eerie atmosphere and great acting from everyone involved, especially Hepburn and Arkin. It's one of those movies where I usually notice new little details in the background every time I see it.

This is the first time I've rewatched this movie since Alan Arkin died, so it was a little bittersweet. Aside from Samantha Jones (who plays Roat's ill-fated accomplice Lisa), the entire adult cast of this movie is no longer with us. An era is slowly vanishing.

I've always seen Wait Until Dark as a transitional movie between Classic Hollywood and the New Hollywood of the late 60s and 70s. A lot of the behind the scenes crew were old-timers with careers going back to the 1930s, and of course Audrey Hepburn was one of the greatest Classic Hollywood stars, but you have more contemporary influences creeping in, mainly with the bad guys being "criminal hipsters" (to steal a line from critic Tim Brayton) and the lack of Hollywood glamor in the costuming and setting. This isn't the fairytale New York City of Sabrina and Breakfast at Tiffany's, but a far more dangerous one.

The other thing I want to mention is just how amazing Hepburn is in this movie and how her performance bowls me over every time. It's a generally acclaimed performance, but I feel like people don't always discuss the psychological nuances of it. While The Nun's Story is Hepburn's best hour as an actress, her work in Wait Until Dark will always be my favorite because her character seems so relatable in her vulnerability. Susy isn't just adjusting to a recent impairment-- she also suffers from PTSD (fire and smoke are literal triggers for her) and deep insecurity regarding her self-image and relationships.

There's one line which stuck out to me this time. At the end of their first conversation, Mike tells Susy, "You're very lovely. Sam's lucky." Susy frowns as though she doesn't believe it and says quietly, "So's Susy." This woman's self-confidence is so low that she can't even take a compliment. She fears that on her own without Sam, she can't possibly be competent or strong. It's also why she latches onto Mike (Richard Crenna) so much: he's a surrogate for her absent husband and he's superficially helpful in a way Sam isn't.

All this adds to the stakes: even if the men don't get violent, their charade will have a psychological toll on Susy, who is so terrified that no one could possibly love her as she is, and that she's really helpless. When she realizes Mike isn't going to be her savior-- and in fact, might kill her-- she realizes she can only rely on herself to get out of this bad situation and she's more than up to the task.

That emotional arc is a major part of why this film resonates with me so much, even more than the suspense or horror elements.

The Invisible Man (dir. James Whale, 1933)

When Dr. Jack Griffin (Claude Rains) finds a way to turn himself invisible, he initially has mixed feelings. On one hand, he doesn't know how to turn himself back. On the other, you can run around naked and no one will ever know. Oh and you can commit murders easily and possibly rule the world. Unable to find a reversal, Griffin embraces the power invisibility gives him and starts a reign of terror on the local population. Will he be caught? Can he be brought back to sanity? And will the screechy innkeeper played by Una O'Connor ever shut the hell up?

With each of his subsequent horror films, James Whale injected more and more camp humor into the proceedings. Some people dislike this, but I don't, especially in the case of The Invisible Man. I always forget how much I enjoy this movie-- I check it out from the library every year to watch around spooky season, but I need to buckle down and just buy the bluray already. This is peak 1930s horror.

This movie is such a delight with its great special effects and fast-moving story, but Claude Rains as the title character is definitely the shining star of the whole thing. He's brilliant. He's hilarious. He's menacing. Dracula is sinister and remote, the Monster is tragic and vulnerable, but Dr. Griffin is just so damned gleeful once he embraces being invisible and all the power that comes with it. While the film's logic for his behavior is that the solution he uses to turn invisible also makes one insane, Griffin's backstory as a lower-class, impoverished young man hoping to make a name for himself and a rich life for the woman he loves strongly suggests this power madness was latent inside him. It's his shadow, to use Jungian terminology.

On this rewatch, I was most struck by the film's similarities to Whale's Frankenstein. Tonally, they're unalike of course: Frankenstein has moments of humor but is generally serious, while black comedy is dominant throughout The Invisible Man. Griffin himself comes off like a prankster, getting childlike joy out of bamboozling and freaking out passerby. He makes great pre-kill quips (he asks one of his victims if they have insurance before murdering them in a car wreck). The townspeople are hilarious too. I LOVE the deadpan delivery of this line from the constable after he realizes Griffin's condition: "He's invisible. That's what's the matter with him."

But back to Frankenstein. Structurally, the two films are similar, much like Dracula and The Mummy are. We have a mad scientist who tampers with nature, creates a "monster" (in Griffin's case, he unleashes a monster within himself), that "monster" terrorizes the locals, the locals form a search party, there's a love interest who represents the ordinary and unambitious world that the scientist ignores, and the film ends with the "monster"'s destruction.

(At least Griffin wasn't stuck with the unprofessional, bastardly Fritz as an assistant. Imagine how THAT would have turned out! Actually, now I want a crossover between Griffin and Henry Frankenstein. That would be a mad scientist team up made in hell.)

Overall, this is a fantastic film: well-paced, funny, creepy, beautifully shot in black-and-white, and psychologically richer than it would appear on the surface. It's a good example of why the 1930s are my favorite period for horror.

#halloween 2023 marathon #thoughts #wait until dark #the invisible man 1933 #the invisible man

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luimagines · 1 year

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Link cursed under his breath as that obnoxious chat was laughing at his latest failure. They never shut up, did they? Always joking around and making light of his situation. It seemed like no matter what he did, even when he did something well they would always laugh at it. It made him so incredibly angry. What right did they have to mock him? They had no idea what he was going through. Why couldn’t they just get out of his head???

Link’s adventure ended, and he was going for a walk in the woods near his home. While there, he slipped and fell and fainted. When he woke, instead of the usual jokes and laughter and that cursed ever-increasing number of his failures, he was met with silence. He’d been relieved, initially, at the lack of thoughts in his head. Some peace and quiet had been nice. But now, as he lay on the ground, blinking blearily, he felt disorientated.

They were so, so annoying. Always laughing and joking, talking about stir fry and counting his defeats, daring him to make stupid mistakes, and talking about things that made no sense to him.

But.

In some ways, their incessant chatter had been a constant source of comfort to him on his journey(s). Even in his worst moments, he was never truly alone. And now that he couldn’t hear them, he did have to admit that a fair bit of the stuff they said was actually kind of funny -- just, y’know, not while he was fighting for his life.

He’d rescued Zelda, saved Hyrule, and returned home. But somehow, he felt like he’d lost a dear friend. Well, multiple friends really. All the regulars who showed up in “chat” and bothered him in his head. As he lay there, head throbbing from where he’d hit it on the way down, he fought back tears. He’d never realized just how much he’d come to depend upon their non-stop chatter. The path of a hero is a lonely one, after all. Fighting back tears, he took a deep breath and stood up to make his way home.

Link got pulled into a portal and met eight other incarnations of himself. He was on another adventure. At first, he’d been excited. He’d hoped that maybe, just maybe, they would come back with this new adventure. They didn’t. He didn’t want to admit how much that upset him.

The Chain got pulled into a new portal, Link along with them. This Hyrule was strange. There didn’t seem to be any grass, and the horses were metal and made strange noises. They walked into a building with a sign that read “Cafe Courage.” After all, they were supposedly the “Heroes of Courage,” and they’d come out of the portal very close to this building. Surely this must be the Goddess guiding them.

Link walked into the building, a bell chiming above his head as he opened the door, but it was forgotten when he heard the voice from the barista behind the counter.

“Welcome to CafeCourage.” They said, “We’re actually closed right now. It’s a special get together of some friends.”

He knew that voice. He knew that voice! HE KNEW THAT VOICE!!

“Enno?” The young man asked, not daring to believe it could be true.

“Uhmm. Yes. Have we met before?” They replied, confused.

“In a manner of speaking. I’m Link.” He replied.

At that, all the guests in the cafe’s jaws hit the floor. It took quite a few minutes before everyone understood what had happened, but Link was finally with his friends again. They weren’t in his head anymore, but they were here in the flesh and blood.

He wasn’t sure if he wanted to hit them or hug them.

- glitter ✨

"ENNO!" Link recognized the girl that stood up as Pinky. "THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE HAS RETURNED!"

"PINKY SHUT UP!" Enno threw the towel at her face.

She didn't seem to care.

The chain behind him all froze. "Do you... know them?"

"Yes and no. Hello." Link waves his hand enthusiastically. He can feel his eye twitch. "I believe I have things I've been meaning to say."

Enno slowly dipped behind the counter, not wanting to face the young men head on. "Kill me... Kill me now..."

Pinky kept smiling. "This is horrific and the best day of my life."

***

Thank you glitter <3

#pinky replies #anon stories #streamer au #modern au #someone remind me to add it to the masterlist please!#We have fun in streams. You all should join us. Monday's and Thrusday's #at twitch.tv/ennosuffering :D

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overwatch-archive · 5 years

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Bastet

A Short Story: Michael Chu Illustrations: Arnold Tsang Additional Artwork: Bengal Design and Layout: Benjamin Scanlon

After days of lying in wait, Ana's target had appeared in one of Cairo's opulent, ancient palaces. Abdul Hakim was a king in his own right, one who was using his power and influence to squeeze the life from the city, making himself and his followers rich in the process. But before she had her chance to capture him, the first ghost appeared: Jack Morrison. Though he was masked and had assumed the identity of a vigilante—Soldier: 76—she recognized him immediately.

The world believed that Morrison was dead, killed in the destruction of the Overwatch base in Switzerland, but Ana had her doubts. Though Jack had escaped death, a specter followed behind him… the Reaper. A killer clad all in black, his face hidden behind a bone white mask.

Reaper had confronted Jack, and Ana had leapt to his aid. She had subdued Reaper, wrestling him to the ground. But when she had stripped off the ghoulish mask and seen the ruin of a face beneath, she recognized Gabriel Reyes, a friend and comrade she’d known just as long as Jack. Gabriel proved to be the real phantom as he’d faded into thin air, disappearing like a whisper.

She was left with the revelation that Gabriel and Jack, two men like brothers to her, were not dead.

In fairness, they thought I was, too.

She took a deep breath and surveyed the scene. Bullet marks patterned the walls, tiles on the floor were cracked, and the bodies of the manor’s security guards—muscle for Hakim’s illegal enterprise—were splayed about like children's toys. At the heart of the courtyard, Jack stood impassively.

"I got them all," Jack said as he rifled through one of the fallen mercenary's belongings.

A guard on the ground between them groaned, and in a flash, Ana drew her sidearm and fired a sleep dart into his neck.

"You missed one," Ana said.

Jack gave one of his good guy shrugs. "It’s nice to see you, too, Ana."

Ana engaged the targeting visor from underneath her cowl. The heads-up display failed to activate. She flipped it back up, annoyed. "Any idea where he went?"

Jack activated his visor and scanned the area. "Not a trace."

Something to worry about later.

"That doesn’t look good," Ana said. Jack had been shot right beneath the giant numerals "76" on his jacket. As she took a closer look, she could see that the jacket and his flesh had been ripped apart by a shotgun blast. From that range, it should have killed him, but Jack had certain advantages. His wounds could heal themselves—a legacy of his past as a test subject and an enhanced soldier in the American armed forces. She could already see the pink of new skin forming at the edges, but not completely. Where it looked the worst, his flesh had turned necrotic and black.

"I'll be fine," Jack grunted. "It just takes us some time."

Us, Ana thought. Jack was adapting quickly to the knowledge that his former best friend was still alive.

Or did he already know?

The faintest sound of approaching sirens interrupted her. "We should get going. Sounds like someone’s noticed."

Jack nodded. "Lead the way."

An hour later, Ana and Jack crouched in the shadows, watching as hover taxis zoomed by and a pair of civilians riding robotic camels made their way down the street. Overhead, skiffs and surveillance drones crisscrossed the sky, the former carrying the well-to-do of the city to their afternoon appointments, the latter mobilized by the shootout in Hakim's palace.

Ana navigated the narrow alleys, finding the routes through the labyrinthine tangle of streets and pathways, keeping an eye out for the patrols that circled like hawks. For once in her life, she was grateful for the city’s patchwork infrastructure, still recovering a decade after Overwatch's intervention. The state of Ana's home country was one of the reasons she had been drawn back to it. She felt responsible for Overwatch's legacy here, whether it had been her choice or not.

In the shade of one of the massive, derelict cooling towers, the heat from the oppressive afternoon sun was a little more tolerable. It didn't bother Ana, but Jack seemed to be laboring. His genetic enhancements should have helped him acclimatize to different conditions, the same way they should have stopped the blood that was seeping through the shirt he'd tied across his midsection as a bandage.

"You need to take better care of yourself," Ana chided him.

"You sound like Angela," Jack grunted.

Ana waited for a police car to speed by, lights flashing, and then she signaled him forward.

"Think they’re looking for us?" Jack wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Most likely," Ana said, squinting at the car's retreating form. "But there's a lot of crime here. The police are busy."

Another part of our legacy.

Jack had fallen behind a few paces, leaning against one of the walls. "Reminds me of Prague."

"I’m not carrying you this time," Ana said. "Come on, Jack. Keep up." She dashed out of the shadows and across the street, feeling the full blast of sun above and the heat baked into the stones beneath her.

Back in the shadows, she continued. "Prague was your fault. Why you ever thought Reinhardt could be stealthy is beyond me."

Ana waited for Jack to defend himself. When he didn’t reply, she turned around. He had collapsed on the paving stones, out in the open.

Not now, Ana thought as she ran back to him. She tried to pull him up. "Wake up, Jack." But he gave no response. Ana slung Jack’s arm over her shoulder and lifted him, carrying him down the alley.

Jack drifted awake. That wasn't normal. Even before the army, he'd always been a light sleeper, starting awake at the slightest disturbance. His eyes adjusted rapidly to the dim light of the room as he sat up. He was on an old military surplus cot with a threadbare blanket. His side ached like hell.

"Finally," Ana walked over, silent as a stalking cat. "Tea?"

"I'll take whiskey if you have it."

Ana rolled her eyes. "Yes, Jack, I happen to keep a bottle around just in case you show up."

"Tea's fine," Jack said in a smaller voice.

Ana stretched her shoulders. "You know, I had to carry you all the way here."

"I've been shot plenty of times. It's never felt like this." Jack grimaced as he shifted, twisting around to get a better look at the wound. Three large gashes crisscrossed his back and sides, but they'd been stitched together with dark thread.

"There's something very wrong with that wound. We should probably take you to a doctor." Ana moved to a low table with an induction burner and placed an ornate gold kettle on one of its two heating pads.

"I don't think a doctor's going to know how to deal with this." Jack looked grim.

"Dr. Ziegler's not too far away," Ana suggested. "But I’m not carrying you."

"No doctors," Jack said. "And especially not Angela." How would we even begin to explain this to her? I doubt she'd want to see us now. Two lost ghosts.

"I tried stitching you up myself," Ana said apologetically. "I never was much good with field dressing. Didn't need it very often."

He ran his finger over the jagged stitches. “Looks like a butcher went at it.”

"Well, you can take care of yourself from now on, if you like."

"It's a little hard to reach," Jack said sheepishly.

"Then don't complain.” Ana paused. "And shouldn't that be healing itself?"

Jack nodded. "It should be. Maybe the shells were laced with a biological agent?"

"You're sure you don't want to see Dr. Ziegler?"

"We'd have to explain to her that we're not dead," Jack said.

"She's the miracle worker. She's probably used to it by now," Ana laughed.

"No Angela," Jack said, and that was that.

He looked around at Ana's home, as it were. It was a mix of tactical equipment, military surplus, surveillance devices, and some light touches of domesticity. The space was more archaeological site than apartment, ancient stone chambers with worn stone columns, and the walls had been carved with hieroglyphics, though some looked like the work of more modern vandals. On a low table, Ana had set up a little display of ancient objects that had been carefully preserved: a jar with a ram's head lid made of pale, milky stone, a black and gold mask bearing the visage of a fierce cat goddess, a chipped vase of brown-red clay, and a small, brilliant green figurine of a falcon.

Jack took a closer look at the antiquities. "This place reminds me of a museum my mother took me to in New York when I was a kid." It had been one of his favorite parts of the trip, running around the transplanted ruins of an ancient Egyptian temple. He smiled at the memory.

Ana offered him a blue mug with a red plaid pattern. "It's a necropolis—a city of the dead."

"Appropriate," Jack chuckled. He motioned towards the small display. "What are these?"

"I found them when I moved in. I couldn't very well throw them away. These relics have survived thousands of years. Empires rose and fell, and they're still here. I figured I should take care of them before I sent them to Dr. Faisal."

Jack blew gently on his tea to cool it. "You've been here the whole time?"

"Ever since I left the hospital in Poland." Ana watched as Jack sipped his tea.

He made a face at the bitterness. "Any sugar?"

Ana ignored him. "When I woke up, I didn't remember who I was. I had no name to give them, so they called me, 'Janina Kowalski,' your Jane Doe. For months, I sat in that hospital room in pain and confusion. Dr. Lee told me I was lucky. Well, as lucky as you can be after having glass and shrapnel embedded in your skull." Ana felt the phantom pain of her eye even as she recounted the experience.

"We tried to find you," Jack said somberly. "I used every resource at my disposal. Gabe even put McCree on it personally. Not a trace. Everyone else tried to convince me you were gone and that I was being irrational. But deep down I knew that you couldn't be dead."

And I was right, Jack thought.

"Dr. Lee kept me out of the system. I convinced her some dangerous people were after me."

"I'm dangerous?" he asked, playing innocent.

"You're a kitten, Jack," Ana laughed. "Eventually, I was able to piece together what happened, but I don't know how much of it is real and how much I've filled in the blanks myself. I remembered the mission. We were pinned down by the enemy sniper, and I was trying to flush them out. I remembered lining up the shot. But it was almost like there was a reason why I didn't want to remember what happened next."

Jack looked down into his teacup.

"It was because I recognized that sniper," Ana said, studying him carefully. "You already know this."

"Amélie?" Jack said. "Yes." He had learned that and more over the years, but he left it unspoken.

"Poor Gérard," Ana sighed.

The pair sat in silence for a while as the steam drifted lazily from their cups and dissipated into the dusty haze of the ancient room.

"Why are you here, Jack?" Ana asked at last.

"I never forgave myself for leaving you behind. I heard about a bounty hunter in Cairo, and I hoped…" Jack set the mug down.

"You never were good at letting go," Ana chided him. "Too stubborn for your own good."

"Gabriel is out there. Talon is getting more powerful. They need to be stopped, and everything that we've suffered—everything that you've suffered—needs to be made good on. I’m going to take them apart, piece by piece." Jack's impassioned words echoed off the stone walls, and he had clenched his fists. He slowly released them. "But I can't do it alone. I need your help."

Ana crossed her arms. "You can barely stand. You fainted in the street. The only thing you need to do is recover."

"Don't let this go. Don't be like the others. They dismantled everything we spent our lives building, and then they made us into villains."

"We're not all like you, Jack," Ana said. "Some of us can move forward."

"This is moving forward," Jack growled.

"You're excited," Ana said. "You're not thinking straight. Get some more rest. We can talk after."

"After?" Jack's eyes flashed to his mug and then looked back at Ana. "Did you—?"

He collapsed on the cot.

Ana waited until Jack was deeply asleep before she lifted his legs onto the bed, tucked a pillow beneath his head, and pulled the scratchy blanket over him. He had scars she didn't recognize, and his hair had thinned and faded to a silvery white. While he slept, Soldier: 76 slipped away, and she could feel the presence of the Jack she remembered.

She picked up the empty mug and left him to rest.

Later, Ana returned to the darkened complex, her supplies in a canvas sack she carried over her shoulder. With the lights off, the place felt more like a tomb than ever. She walked through the entry corridor and into the main chamber to find, of all things, Jack, shirtless, doing one-handed pushups through gritted teeth. He'd discarded his bandages in a small pile on his cot. Ana could see the angry red and black of the wounded flesh, bound together by her inexpert stitching.

"You're going to tear those stitches out," Ana remarked.

"I was feeling a little restless," Jack explained.

"You did sleep for two days," Ana said. Hungry?

"I'd kill for a burger."

Ana gave him a look of disbelief.

"But I'm not picky," Jack flashed her that smile he used to try to get himself out of trouble. He really was like a child sometimes.

Ana pulled paper containers of food out of her sack and placed them on the low table in front of him. The rich smells drifted through the air. There was falafel and beans, and pockets of freshly baked bread stuffed with steaming minced lamb meat and onions. "It's not my cooking, at least."

"Thank god for small miracles," Jack chuckled.

In spite of herself, Ana laughed as well.

Jack attacked the food like someone accustomed to having to wolf down meals quickly. Ana helped herself to a little, but mostly they ate in silence. When they'd finished, Jack leaned back on the crate he was sitting on and settled back into his questioning.

"Why didn't you tell me you were alive?" Jack asked.

"I don't know if you'll understand," Ana said. "Gabriel would, but you're different in some ways."

Jack's expression was unreadable. "And Fareeha? You let her think you were dead."

"That was the hardest part." Ana sighed. She stood up and walked over to her desk, where there was a small framed photo Ana with her young daughter on her back. Their arms were both spread wide as though they were flying. "Fareeha would have expected Captain Amari to return, but she was gone. The moment I hesitated, I changed."

"You can't blame yourself," Jack said softly. "How could you have known?"

"Don't patronize me, Jack," Ana snapped. "Of course, it was my fault. It doesn't have to haunt me for the rest of my life, but I can accept the blame."

"It wouldn't have made a difference to us. We would have wanted you back. It turns out we couldn't do it without you," Jack said, touching her shoulder gently. "Overwatch needed you. And now I need you."

Ana read the desperation on Jack's face. "Getting revenge for what happened won't accomplish anything other than getting you killed."

"Maybe, but I still have to fight. Everyone else gave up, but not me."

He blames me, too. Ana realized. "Stubborn."

"You couldn't give up the fight either," Jack said. "Why else were you at Hakim's palace?"

"I tried to live quietly, you know. I would be near my daughter and be at peace. But the longer I lived here, the harder it was for me to escape the fact that we are responsible for what happened to this city. We shut down the Anubis project, and Egypt has never recovered." Ana stood up, turning her back to Jack. "People's lives are hard. They're being taken advantage of by parasites like Hakim. How could I let it go on when I knew there was something I could do?"

"You're fighting for justice, just like me," Jack said.

Ana's eyes narrowed. "Revenge isn't justice."

Jack threw his hands up. "We're after the same thing. Why do you think Hakim was meeting with Gabriel? He's working for Talon. The rot on this city is going to spread, and it will ruin the world just like it always does."

"Hakim runs a criminal organization that has strangled Cairo. The police and the government either turned a blind eye or they're being paid off by him. Food supplies aren't being distributed to people who need them. Medical care is almost impossible to get," Ana said. "Look me in the eye and tell me you can leave without doing anything."

"Cairo and the world will suffer until we bring them all down! You have to see the bigger picture," Jack said heatedly.

"Are you even hearing yourself? You would never have made this argument before," Ana said disapprovingly. "The way we do things matters."

"Times change," Jack said with finality. "Either you're coming with me, or I'm leaving. I've already wasted too much time."

“I’m not going,” Ana said.

For a long moment, Jack stared at her in silence. "A sniper takes the most dangerous threat out first. That was your job." Jack picked up his ruined coat. "If you want to waste your time on petty criminals, so be it. I have a war to fight."

He stormed out.

After Jack left, Ana switched on her computer. Jack had been using it earlier, and the screen was cluttered with articles about Reaper’s movements and appearances. Ana wondered who had been supplying Jack with some of this information, but that was a puzzle for another time. She browsed through the reports and remembered the ruined face she had seen behind the mask.

Gabriel… what happened to you?

One of the articles indicated that casualties in one of Reaper's attacks had suffered the same sort of wounds as Jack.

That damned scientist, Ana thought with disgust.

The other information offered little new insight on the Reaper, providing only a view into Jack's mind. He was following a spiderweb of corporations, government officials, and financial institutions, all hopelessly tangled together through corrupt arteries and shady intermediaries. It was the sort of problem that was never Jack's strong suit. He preferred two sides, concrete facts, and one clear, unequivocal decision.

The messy stuff was always Gabriel's arena.

Not as much as it used to be.

Ana considered her options. In her heart, she knew she wanted to stay. Egypt was failing. In a few more years, it was likely that it would fall into chaos, torn apart by profiteers and criminals like Hakim. As the bounty hunter Shrike, she had slowly been making a difference, little by little. If she left, all her work would be undone.

But there are other people here, like Fareeha. They're not helpless. It doesn't have to be you.

That pride again.

She looked back at articles about the vigilante Soldier: 76. One caught her attention: a break-in at LumériCo's newest fusion plant. There’d been a gunfight in the middle of the market—a number of serious injuries and property damage—all of it attributed to him. But there was also eyewitness testimony from a local girl in Dorado. Even though everyone else thought he was someone to fear, she'd called him a hero.

It doesn't have to be you, but sometimes, people need something to believe in.

Ana knew what she needed to do. She walked over to the makeshift shelf that held the treasures she'd found in the necropolis when she'd first arrived. She looked at the feline face on the ancient mask. It was the goddess Bastet.

A guardian.

Jack walked through the sleeping city. The cool night air was a pleasant break from the heat of the day. Given the late hour, the streets were quiet, even though he had wandered into the city center. The stalls selling food, scavenged omnic parts, or fabrics and textiles had all long since shut down. Curfews weren't imposed, but the city's residents were advised to stay indoors after sundown for their own protection. After coming face to face with Reaper, the dark was a pool of shadows that hid the unknown.

Jack had been on the hunt for some time now, gathering information, and tracking what leads he had. He'd had the benefit of being unnoticed, but things had changed. There was no doubt that Talon and its allies knew he was coming for them. He had gotten one good night's sleep since he arrived in Cairo, and it was the first in as long as he could remember.

I can't believe she drugged me, Jack thought.

He was uneasy now. Staying in one place for too long was risky, especially now that Gabe would be looking for him. He had to move on.

Night had crept towards morning and a full moon was hanging lower in the sky when Jack finally returned. Ana was sitting at the computer as he entered.

"Come back for the rest of your things?" she asked without looking up.

He walked over to her, "I'll help you capture Hakim. Once that's done, we go after Reaper."

"We have to make sure the city is secure," Ana corrected him. "I'll only leave with you after things here are settled. That means not just Hakim, but his followers, too. I need to know that the people will be safe."

Jack's jaw clenched as he considered the offer. "Then let's go over to his manor and round him and his men up. One quick strike before they have time to prepare."

Ana shook her head. "No rushing in. Remember how it went last time?"

"It would have been fine if Gabe hadn't showed up," Jack said.

Ana arched an eyebrow.

Jack sighed. "What's the plan then?"

"We start at the bottom and work our way up. Close the net around Hakim, starve him of his resources, and force him out into the open. We have to expose him and the people that are protecting him. Understood?"

Jack sighed, relenting. "You know, I told Gabe they picked the wrong person for Strike-Commander."

"Yes, but you meant him, not me," Ana replied.

"It could have been Reinhardt," Jack smirked.

"Let's not be crazy now."

Ever since the fight at his palace, Hakim had been reticent to return, instead moving between his safehouses in the city. Jack had been able to track down a number of them and found the one that was most conducive to their plans. He rented an apartment that overlooked it. Ana and Jack hadn't bothered with niceties: the room was furnished only with a couple beaten-up wooden chairs and a wooden crate. They took turns with one sleeping bag. After the second day, Ana had insisted on bringing a hot plate so she could make tea.

Within a week, they'd rounded up a number of Hakim's associates, whittling away at his organization. Word spread about someone targeting Hakim's organization. Whoever it was, people agreed, they meant to bring Hakim to justice. But after the initial burst, things had slowed down. Hakim went further underground. He was being more careful. There was nothing to do but wait.

The boredom wasn't so bad for Ana. As a sniper, she had more than her share of patience, and having the freedom to move around, take naps, and even go outside, made it more than tolerable. Jack was restless, though. She saw the way he looked out the window, searching the horizon endlessly, and Ana knew his gaze was fixed on one thing.

Gabriel.

"Anything?" Jack asked, glancing up. He leaned back in his chair in a way that would make a school teacher worried. There was something in his hand.

"No sign of Hakim. What are you looking at?" Ana asked.

"Oh, just reminiscing about the old days." Jack passed over the small stack of photos. They were well-worn, creased in places, and had obviously been Jack's companions for a long time.

The top photo was a picture of them with Gabriel, all three looking young and optimistic, though Gabriel already showed signs of the stress of leadership weighing upon him. They'd just won a major battle in Rio de Janeiro. "I remember the beach," Ana smiled. "We look so serious in this picture—it's funny!"

"That's why it's a great photo!" laughed Jack.

It’s good to know he can still laugh.

She turned to the next one and almost dropped the photos in surprise. She'd never seen the photo, but she recognized it immediately. Jack looked so much younger. He had just stepped off a military transport for leave. It was the other person in the picture that surprised her—a dark-haired man, dressed in a casual, black button up shirt. Jack's arm was around his shoulder.

Vincent.

"Vincent… I haven't thought about him in years," Ana said. "Still keeping a candle lit for him?"

Jack shook his head. "Nothing like that."

"You've never looked in on him? You must have been curious. All the surveillance power in the world. I bet Gabe would have put a Blackwatch agent on him if you asked," Ana said.

Jack glared at her.

"Okay, touchy subject."

Jack laughed. "He got married. They're very happy. I'm happy for him."

Ana was unconvinced. In the early days, Jack talked about him often, floating a dream that the war would end quickly, and maybe he'd have a chance to return to a normal life.

But a normal life was never the reward for people like us.

"Vincent deserved a happier life than the one I could give him." Jack sighed. "We both knew that I could never put anything above my duty. Everything I fought for was to protect people like him… That's the sacrifice I made."

"Relationships don't work out so well for us, do they?" Ana said, unconsciously running her thumb over where her wedding ring used to be.

"At least you and Gabe managed to have families."

The pair lapsed back into silence.

Ana glanced out the window to see the familiar figure of Hakim entering the apartment block. "It's him." Ana passed the photos back to Jack, who carefully slid them into the inside pocket of his jacket.

"Ready?" Jack asked as he put his mask and targeting visor on, picking up the heavy pulse rifle where he had propped it against the wall.

Ana took her own rifle, quite a bit more manageable than Jack's, and slung it over her shoulder. She clipped a few flashbangs to her belt and then retrieved the last item from her pack: the black and gold mask.

"You're bringing that?" Jack asked.

"You inspired me, Jack. Soldier: 76 is more than a vigilante. The world knows that name. Your enemies are afraid you'll find them. I don't want Hakim, Talon, or anyone else to plunge Cairo back into chaos the second I'm gone. I'm putting on a new mask. Not a hunter this time, a protector. The kind of persona that I could leave behind to keep the people safe… Bastet."

"I just thought my mask was scary." Jack smiled.

"Bastet is scarier than an old lady."

"Ana, there's nothing scarier than an old lady," Jack said.

"You would know."

One week later, Ana and Jack were packing up the necropolis base. They'd leave much of Ana's belongings behind, taking only what they needed for the journey ahead. Hakim and his network of criminals had been dismantled. The news had started to report about the movements of a guardian named Bastet who had captured Hakim and exposed the extent of his crimes. Even the government was forced to act.

"What about these?" Jack pointed at the shelf that had the Egyptian artifacts on it.

"I could barely manage carrying you, and you want me to bring all this?" Ana said. "It's well-hidden. It will just wait here until I can find a proper caretaker."

"Fareeha?" Jack guessed. "You talked to her?"

"I… left her a message," Ana said.

"You're sure you can leave things like this? It could be a long time before you see her again."

If ever.

Ana sighed. "She never responded to my first letter."

Jack winced. "She'll come around in time. She loves you. Did you tell Sam anything?"

"I will, eventually. Maybe," Ana said. "I made a big enough mess of his life without having to give him the news. None of us are very good at saying goodbye, are we?"

"We're better than Reinhardt, anyway. I'm pretty sure his life is just one long attempt to avoid saying a goodbye."

"How is he?" Ana asked.

"That's a long story," Jack said. "But I suppose we'll have time."

Ana nodded. "There's something I want to be clear about before we leave, Jack," Ana said. "I'm going with you, but I'm not convinced that this is a good idea at all. Talon, Overwatch, Gabriel… I already let go of them. It hurt." She paused. "When I first came to the necropolis, most of the artifacts I found were ruined. I saved what I could, but I had to leave the rest. That's what's most important, Commander."

"Don't call me, that," Jack groused. "And come on. We need to pay a visit to some old friends."

They left the necropolis, sealing the entrance behind them. Long after they'd left, the relics of ancient civilizations laid in wait in the darkness of that dusty room. At the center of them all was a golden mask bearing the face of a goddess. Just as it remained in the hearts of the people of Cairo, and the fears of those who would harm them: a mask and a name.

#source: overwatch media #short story #ana amari #jack morrison #gabriel reyes #overwatch #abdul hakim #angela ziegler #cole cassidy #amélie lacroix #gérard lacroix #reinhardt wilhelm #anubis #vincent #fareeha amari #alejandra #sam amari #dr. lee #moira o'deorain

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riiriii838384 · 2 months

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M̸i̸n̸d̸ y̸o̸u̸ a̸l̸l̸ t̸h̸i̸s̸ f̸i̸c̸ i̸s̸ g̸o̸n̸n̸a̸ g̸e̸t̸...e̸x̸p̸l̸o̸s̸i̸v̸e̸ 🌚

E̸n̸j̸o̸y̸, y̸o̸u̸ s̸u̸i̸c̸i̸d̸a̸l̸ m̸a̸n̸i̸a̸c̸ 🧨🩸😋 (Fanfic my best bud Tai wanted me to write)

"S̸o̸ l̸i̸g̸h̸t̸ e̸m̸ u̸p̸ u̸p̸ u̸p̸ u̸p̸!"

Monday, The worst day of the week. Tai got up out of bed. "Fuckkkk Ion wanna do this shit bruuuu I did my time" Tais edgy ass wanted to scream in a pillow she dreaded school so damn much she wanted to...blow it up 😏🧨 Tai got outta bed used the bathroom blah blah blah she got dressed, drank coffee, blck eyeliner usual emo kid shit....she got her bag and walked to school.... 15 minutes later she was hella lage to first period but she usually is she doesnt wanna be there so early anyway..."Great Mr BJs class. Kms" Tai walked in class. Mr Johnson eyed her and greeted her "Goodmorning, Tai." Tai rolled her eyes and sat on her desk slouthing her bacm and fidgeting with her pencil as the teacher explained the assighment Tai heard boys whispering making fun of her "CuT mY lIfe InTo PieAceS" "EmOo GuuRrrlll" "Yo SuIcIdE SqUaD" Tai couldnt handle it and put her earbuds on full blast theu were all gonna read a boring and useless story anyway so she didnt care. She was researching some rare illness she discovered instead of dking the assnighment and the teacher noticed and obv got mad so he slipped her a detrention slip. She was so tired of dealing with teachers, annoying kids always giving her shit it was this day she was gonna let something ignite.

-R̸e̸c̸e̸s̸s̸- Tai was hanging with her two buddies. Toby and Alan. Now Toby and Alan don't go to school because their run away psychotic hathetmen that meet her at the desolate area of her school.... anyways.... "Yo guys...I got an idea" The two Hatchet men looked at her "W-whats up Tai-?" Toby asked. "Lets fucking explode the school with fire works and gasoline and light the prison up. Im at my goddamn limit." The two looked at eachother and smiled mischievously "Hell...yes...we love that idea!" Tai smiled and explained the plan.

It was 5th period the period before lunch and tai decided to skip and escape all together. She called up her two buds and they all walked to the nearest mini mart to grab some fireworks. Toby already had Gas and lighters/Matches (ofc he did ...) so saved Tai her money. They surrlunf the school with gasoline being carful not to gey caught toby tracing the halls with gas as Tai traced the entrane with gas, Alan traced the outside of the classes full of gas. Then they ignited the fire works and they blew the hell up following like dominos the entire school blew in flames. It was like one big star of disaster. Tai didnt feel remourse no...she laughed her ass off the entire time. This was the best thing in her lifetime. Screams of so many people were heard Toby and Alan stokd there..mercyless... Tai realized how many people she killed... "Holy shit...wellllll....mosttttt of them desserved it. Asswholes." Tai hugged her two hatchet welding friends and "BOOM" The entire school in smitherines... "uhjh yeah lets go before the cops show up-" Alan said "Uhhh yeah fuck this" Toby spoke back and the 3 musketeers sprinted to all hell away from the skull as police lights were surrounding the school luckily enough they escaped and hung out for the day to celebrate Tai's accompolishment. They were in town by the mall outside the mall Alan spotted Ri & Evan

"Yo Wassup Ri!" Tai fist bumped her best friend who wasnt at her highschool today..? "Yo you didnt go to school?" Ri smiled and looked at Evan the two in sync "Fuckkkk noooo!" "Dude, Tai me and Evan skipped and decided to just go to the mall and stay here half of the day HAHA "Yeah it's pretty fucking fun!" Evan said with that evil smirk on his face. "Welll... in that case can we join ya?" Ri nodded and held Tai's arm "yeah obviously you mofoooo" then the group of misfits fucked around in either hottopic or spencers Tai and ri stole a few belts and shirts while Even was being immature asf in the back of the spencers but Toby laughed his ass off (yo if you dk wha I mean by bck of a spencer's lmk) Alan was standing besidd Toby giggling a bit. Yeah...its true this school semester did end with a BANG 🧨😏🎆🎇

#ticci toby #alan orion #habit everymanhybrid #fanfic

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hetacakes · 2 years

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the smell of qingxin and almonds is home.

xiaolumi (xiao/alatus x lumine/ying)

in which adepti, illuminated beasts with an emphasis on beasts, aren't built the same as normal humans. namely, adepti have an instinct to protect and defend that extends far deeper than their duty to the land. the conqueror of demons is the best example of this, dutifully defending liyue and its people for millennia on end. of course this eternal protector would have protective written all across his personality chart, but what no one knew was that his base instincts don't just make him protective, but specifically, make him protective of what is his. he was able to ignore the feelings of finding something— no, someone— to call his for so long, until a certain traveler entered his life and suddenly, the thought of claiming her and scenting her until she reeks of qingxin and almonds becomes more and more compelling.

aka men are WOLVES and xiao is no exception, except wolves also mate for life and xiao really really really wants to hold lumine in his arms and scent her and mark her and never leave her side. unfortunately, it seems that everyone else, even pervases, the late yaksha, but lumine is able to pick up on this.

this would not have happened had mhy not put in so many references to scents and scent marking and just marking in general but guess what

they did and now i'm here to pay the price with 14,000+ words of xiao being sad and pining so hard people can literally hear it

idfk what pining sounds like but i can assure you everyone in liyue hears it at max volume when xiao comes around

(u know i put the Canon Xiaolumi Scene™ as the gif here i was legally required to do it)

warning for angst because it's xiao, mentions of murder because... it's xiao, like one cuss word, and mentions of suicide because it's xiao and he's dramatic and will kill anyone that hurts lumine even if it's himself

word count: 14,190

disclaimer: i'm a horrible writer and wrote this when 1.3 barely came out but barely finished it now, and most of it doesn't make sense by 2.7 logic, so i had to change the setting of this to be around v1.6, and as much as i wanted to include the perilous trails archon quest i knew it just wouldn't make sense/flow correctly ㅠㅠ tl,dr: timeline funky

Breathe in, breathe out.

Eyelids flutter shut as feet dig into the earth, grounded.

String drawn taut, and then…

"Dream Trawler… what a weird name," Lumine hummed to herself as an arrow sliced through the air, hitting her target straight on. It was reassuring to know that even though she was stuck as a sword user in this world, her skill with other weapons hadn't completely disappeared. After all, she didn't spend hundreds of years perfecting them just to forget it all in a year or so, which felt like a blink of an eye to celestial beings like her.

(Plus, being leagues better than a certain annoying ginger, who claimed to "have mastered all other weapons, but be least adept with a bow" at said forms of weaponry was much too satisfying for her to get rusty at her craft.)

Snapping back to reality, Lumine watched as the blue-tinted apparition of "Starsnatcher" appeared out of thin air. She had to admit, the view he was greeted with was definitely comedic out of context (and was probably one of the things that eventually made the wannabe adeptus realize she was trying to prank him): she stood directly in front of him with her sad attempt at an unwavering straight face as she put her hands on her hips, leaning forward in an attempt of intimidation; it could've passed as genuine seriousness, had her shoulders not have shaken every time there was a crack in her facade as she barely held back her excitement. To her left and slightly behind her was Xiao, who was the complete opposite to Lumine's sheer glee; he had no problems standing stoically still with his arms crossed and face relaxed into his naturally perfect poker face. Truly, it was the worst case of failed "good cop, bad cop" in history.

"Guess what? You're already dead," she said gravely as she fought back a smug smile at the look on his face, glancing back at Xiao for confirmation, covertly winking at him to play along. She pouted as he shook his head at her theatrics, missing the fond smile on his face as she turned back to the phantom in front of her, quaking in his boots.

Even if Xiao didn't back her up, she was still immensely satisfied to hear the adeptus poser repeat what she said in anguish as he fell for it hook, line, and sinker, the smirk finally succeeding in appearing on her face.

However, her face fell to a look of mild annoyance when Starsnatcher realized he wasn't actually dead, but was just dreaming.

Well, that's no fun.

Just as she was about to make up something to further convince him of his mortal demise, Starsnatcher suddenly raised his voice, an underlying threat clear in his words.

"Huh? What is the meaning of this?! Do you truly think that one will permit such insolence in one's own dreams?"

Startled, she took a step back, unconsciously hiding herself behind Xiao, who still stood steadfast, his posture not having changed in the slightest. Her actions registered to her only after a few moments had passed, and she faintly heard Paimon saying something about taking him down a peg as she wished to disappear. What in the world was that? She wasn't some helpless maiden; she was an otherworldly traveler— no, the otherworldly Traveler— that survived so many things far more dangerous than some rando flouncing around with a piece of magical paper. Still, she couldn't stop her instincts from making her shuffle closer to Xiao, immediately using him as a shield when the man had raised his voice at her, before she shook her head and adjusted her stance, drawing her sword.

Xiao stood back, true to his word about not spilling mortal blood, watching proudly as his Lumine was both able to protect herself and hold her own in battle as well as rely on him for protection and comfort.

Mh, what a perfect little mate he's managed to find for himself.

… Wait—

It wasn't often that Lumine was able to sit and relax on the roof of Wangshu Inn, free from responsibilities, and it was even less so that she was able to be sitting there spending that time with Xiao. But today was turning out to be a good day, and Lumine found herself doing just that, lightly swinging her legs as she recounted her meeting with Pervases after delivering the Sigil of Permission to the last Yaksha, the scent of sweet desserts and dewy flowers drifting in the breeze.

"Oh! And he said to 'send the Conqueror of Demons his regards'," Lumine piped up, eyes sparkling as she raised a finger in the air and did her best to deepen her voice and imitate the late adeptus, unaware of the implications a seemingly simple comment could hold.

"...?" Xiao silently prompted, raising an unimpressed eyebrow.

"Yeah! He knew you sent me."

"And how did he know?" Xiao clicked his tongue in annoyance. "I have trouble recalling when exactly I told you to tell the whole world you were temporarily acting as my errand runner."

'Seriously, does this foolish girl mention me every chance she gets? How did he know she was coming straight to me? Did she say something misleading?' Xiao internally debated with himself, fighting the red tint threatening to creep up his ears even as his outward expression looked as neutral as always.

"N-No, he said something about being able to sense your aura on me or something? That, and also your karma…"

Lumine had trailed off at the end of that sentence, but it didn't matter, as Xiao had already been cursed with hearing the first part and the suggestion the late yaksha was implying there; knowing Pervases, he could already picture the way he would raise his eyebrows with an expression that clearly planned to cause a stir. He choked on his tea, almost dropping the cup and having to will it to disappear with a wave of his hand as his face flushed, the tips of his ears finally giving in and turning an embarrassed scarlet. 'Has having her so often in my presence really been making everything that obvious? No… no! Not obvious… been giving off the wrong idea? I swear I only marked her once or twice before entering that karma infested cave, so the corrupted monsters would stay away from my energy signatures on her…' he frantically thought to himself.

(He, in fact, did not just mark her once or twice, but rather a lot of times. His subconscious is his best wingman, it seems, and it loved making sure the pretty traveler was walking around thoroughly doused in the scent of freshly-picked mountain flowers and sweetened desserts, along with a few extra invisible wisps of dark green anemo, just to be sure.)

"Hm? Are you okay, Xiao?" Lumine, bless her heart of gold, asked him with heartwarming concern, hand reaching out to lightly touch his forehead.

He quickly swatted it away, ignoring how nice the warmth of her dainty hands felt on his skin while mumbling something about having no respect for adepti, invading his personal space whenever she felt like it. "I-I'm fine, just… what exactly did Pervases mean about 'my aura'?"

"I mean, he was super vague, and that didn't really make sense to me, so I honestly have no idea…"

"He probably meant someone's specific scent on her! You know you and the other adepti, always using fancy words like 'aura' instead of 'scent' or 'mark'," Paimon teased after deeming the dilemma Xiao was quickly finding himself in more interesting than her pocket dimension and appeared from literal thin air, winking and sticking out her tongue mischievously, sending a knowing look to the handsome and deceptively youthful-looking adeptus.

Lumine looked at her with a confused look, to which Paimon only explained with an, "Oh, don't worry about it, it's just an adepti thing!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! Do you want me to explain?" Paimon offered gleefully, pointedly ignoring the searing glare and cutthroat motion Xiao was fervently sending her way.

"Yes, please," Lumine answered immediately, so politely and nicely, it made something in Xiao's heart swell that his mate was so elegant and obedient and— wait… what? No! Xiao furrowed his eyebrows as he shook his head like an Etch-A-Sketch, wondering why these intrusive and ridiculous thoughts seemed to plague him recently. Him, having a mate? Even further, having someone as wonderful as Lumine as his mate? The notion was beyond delusional, and anyways, adepti, illuminated beasts as they were, didn't need to have mates or partners to survive, like the rest of the lesser fauna; he had, has, and will do just fine without one for the rest of his life (though a treacherous voice in the back of his head that sounded suspiciously similar to Madame Ping reminded him that it would be a great idea to repopulate the yaksha race). He only knew of a handful of mated adepti pairs, with only two being an adeptus and human bond: the parents of Ganyu and Yanfei. Even then, he knew that a Yaksha like him could never even dream of having a mate, much less a mortal mate, if he wanted to keep them alive and sane.

'... Yes, exactly,' he reassured himself. In any case, someone like him didn't deserve someone to call his, didn't deserve a happy ending, not after the eons of bloodshed that was wrought directly from his tainted hands. And he especially didn't deserve to even consider someone as perfect and sweet and nice and beautiful as Lumine as a friend, let alone a lifelong partner.

"Hehehe! It's kind of like when Childe gives you his jacket with like ten times the normal amount of his cologne on it, like jeez he probably washed it in the stuff and threw it in the ocean, so everyone knows to back off because he already called di—"

"Ahem!" Xiao cut in with one of his characteristic growls, clearing his throat and sending a death glare to the incessantly chattering fairy, who was obviously trying to rile him up at the mention of the Fatui harbinger and whatever that child did in his pathetic attempts at courting Lumine. Even more infuriating, he found it to be working, awakening an irrational feeling of jealousy he had never ever felt before in all his long years of living — an irrational feeling that compelled him to talk first, think later in order to clear up the supposed misunderstanding (though Paimon's explanation was actually not that bad, but because she had mentioned Childe, he wasn't going to accept it). "As I've said before, adepti are not the same as most mortals, and have stronger constitutions that have adapted to accommodate such a vast amount of power…" he trailed off, wondering how to best put it to her without revealing too much — the consequence of opening his mouth without thinking, he supposed.

"So… am I listening to another 'humans are puny and inferior' rant?"

"If you'd let me finish—" he snapped, but watched as she was unfazed with her small but radiant smile still settled on her pretty pink lips, already used to his behaviors. He didn't know if that pissed him off even more or pleased him, knowing that his hostility still didn't deter her kindness, much like how a cat's owner is undeterred from the occasional swipes of their cat's claws and is always more than happy to accept the remorseful headbutts afterward. Not that she was his or he was hers or anything, but once he 'accidentally' made that connection in his mind he couldn't help but mentally facepalm as he found himself being a little too fond of the notion and decided to just forcefully forget about it. "Humans aren't granted power from Celestia the same way gods and adepti are. Even vision-bearers barely come close to the power of an adeptus who has had lifetimes to hone their power and wield it wisely, much less that same adeptus but with a vision."

"What about me?" Lumine asked with an infuriatingly genuine expression, meaning that she truly was just so innocent and curious about Teyvat. She pointed a finger at herself, and Xiao briefly wondered what part of this world or under which rock she came from, since she knew so little about who and where she was now.

"You are still human, so you are still very different from me." He continued with a mumble, "... but I admit, you are the most impressive human I've ever met."

"... Ehe, thank you," she smiled, face blushing a slight pink at having received such an honest compliment from someone who never gave them, and Xiao looked away, having a reputation to keep. If he had kept looking, he would've noticed the slightly embarrassed look Paimon and the Traveler shared between themselves at him calling her "human", but that was neither here nor there.

"Think nothing of it. In any case, simply put, adepti are of an ideal form in order to withstand their own strengths. Inevitably, someone with such concentrated elemental power would have it radiating from them, permeating the air and whoever they come into contact with, not unlike the traces made visible when using your Elemental Sight. Meaning that when you spend too much time with me, my presence rubs off on you intangibly in the form of my energy signatures and tangibly in the form of my… natural scent, you could say."

"Is that bad?" Lumine asked, tilting her head to the side like his— um, a cute— er, a completely normal stupid little baby kitten.

Archons, she was dangerous for his heart.

"For other adepti? Not at all. You can spend as much time with Ganyu or Cloud Retainer as you like, and you'd be fine." He glanced at her surprised face out of the corner of his eye. "Don't be so baffled. I know those two love inviting you over to Mt. Aocang to sit and gossip," he huffed in annoyance, crossing his arms.

"Are you, perhaps, watching me?" she asked him with a teasing smile, putting her weight on her hands as she leaned forward into his chest and stared back up at him with those big ol' eyes.

"Don't be absurd. When I said I'd act as your protector, I believed it to be clear that included watching over you," he scoffed, turning his face and looking irritatedly into the horizon. The view of her honey eyes peering up at him from underneath long lashes, with a look similar to that of a begging pet, her lips curled into a beguiling smirk, and with her chest dangerously close to his was too tempting — the epitome of the sweet innocence of gentle sin.

"Ew, do you watch her even when she bathes? Pervert," Paimon butted in again, crinkling her face in mock disgust before she switched back to her signature "I'm-up-to-no-good" face; the face of pure mischief, and a face he had wisely learned to dread.

"That's— that's absurd! I am only aware of your general location, and don't directly perceive you going about your little mundane life." He scoffed, immediately shooting down such a ridiculous idea. "In any case, the other adepti's presence should not have an ill effect on you, especially since they are either vision-less full adeptus or half mortal with a vision. I, on the other hand, have both full adepti blood and a vision along with great karmic debt, which is… survivable for me, but deadly to everything else. Thus, my aura is not only stronger than most, but deadlier as well. Those hilichurls that fake adeptus was struggling with are familiar occurrences when they stick around the inn for too long or attempt to fight me," Xiao explained monotonously, but both Lumine and Paimon caught his hesitation and the slightest hint of a sigh at the end of his sentence, a testament to just how long the Vigilant Yaksha, Conqueror of Demons has had to endure such pain and suffering. It broke her heart knowing of all he had to go through, and she was determined to do whatever it takes to ease his pain and share his burden (though taking care of him and sharing his struggles was and will never be a burden — not if it's his, never if it's him).

"Yeah, Pervases did mention that too… but Cloud Retainer says it's not that bad and not to worry about it. Why is that?"

"Why are you discussing such things with Cloud Retainer? Do you truly mention me at any chance you get?" Xiao asked, finally voicing his initial suspicion.

"H-Hey, you're making me sound creepy! Like Albert," she muttered and he couldn't help but wonder who the hell was Albert and if he was bothering her, queen, because he would gladly take care of it for her (he doesn't spill mortal blood but a sufficiently long bout of induced unconsciousness was really persuasive). "And no, I don't, it's actually Ganyu and Cloud Retainer that invite me over for tea or something just to start talking to me about you. It's always, 'you've been spending much time with the Conqueror of Demons' and 'oh, is that a scent mark I sense?' and 'did you know that carrying an adepti baby is very different from a human one?' and—"

"That's— that's enough," Xiao coughed, unable to continue hearing the unbelievably embarrassing gossip about him and his apparently blatantly obvious affections for Lumine; affections that definitely did not exist, thank you very much (which is a total lie; they very much did exist, but he was never ever going to admit that to anyone, not even himself). Paimon tumbled in the air and snickered, forever grateful she decided to accompany the Traveler to all of those chit chat sessions instead of staying behind with Xiangling at Wanmin Restaurant like she had desperately wanted to at the time. "I warned you not to stay around me, since all that would await you was regret, yet you insisted. For some reason, your mortal body—" A small cough from Lumine interrupted the middle of his sentence, but he ignored it. "—is as resilient as mine to such heavy karma, so the detection of my presence is still there, but not manifested with malignancy like it usually does on other living things. I warned you of this, and yet you decided to ignore my words of caution." Xiao shook his head, before continuing, "It's too late. The connection between us is too strong. Even if you wanted to, it's too late to sever it." He sighed, but the Traveler's look of contemplation and odd glance sent his way caught his attention. "... What?"

"Why would I want that? Why would I want to end this relationship between us?"

Xiao decided to ignore her phrasing of what he had settled, for his own sake, to be a normal friendship as a 'relationship' for now; he has enough time to agonize over it late at night when he couldn't will himself to sleep. "You've never thought to sever it?... This eternal dance of demon subjugation... my fight goes on, possibly for as long as I have left to live, possibly for forever. How curious and irredeemingly stupid of you to want to aid me in such a long and endless battle… but if you insist, then I will not stop you."

Then she smiled at him, luminously, with a glow that rivaled that of the stars in the sky at its clearest hundreds of centuries ago that still shone brightly in his memory, a shine that was still easily upstaged by Lumine's own brilliance by a landslide, and even he (in all his denial) could sense the soft notes of qingxin misted in morning dew rubbing off on her and staking his hidden claim on her, unwilling to let another dare to even dream of taking what's his.

"You," he said, pointing an accusatory finger at the one and a half adepti in front of him, "need to stop spouting nonsense to the Traveler about me."

Cloud Retainer scoffed. "And what does one mean, exactly, when one says 'nonsense', pray tell?" She craned her neck and straightened her posture, looking back at the last yaksha with a challenging look in her eye.

"... I think he means when we tried convincing Miss Lumine that the Conqueror of Demons had already started an adepti courting ritua—"

"That is exactly what I mean!" Xiao interrupted Ganyu, sending the both of them a glare. "Do you really have nothing better to do than to sit and gossip like adolescent schoolgirls?"

"One is not easily fooled, Conqueror of Demons. One has seen the way you have imprinted on her," Cloud Retainer noted haughtily. "Even a blind man can see it."

"Oh, yes! It's very much like when a baby duckling imprints onto whatever happens to be nearest. He would surely follow her to the ends of the worlds, and then some."

"One agrees."

"That is completely… baseless and absurd!" Xiao stalled. "I have not marked or imprinted on anyone. I am not beginning a courting ritual with anyone, and I am not taking a mate now, or ever, for that matter," Xiao said with finality, challenging the two in front of him to argue otherwise.

"Hmph. One thinks the Conqueror of Demons is in denial." Cloud Retainer slowly spread her wings and flapped away, decisively adding her last words on the matter before attending to other things — a total drama queen, as always.

Ganyu watched as her white figure slowly disappeared into the distance, and stood awkwardly, shuffling her feet from side to side. "I can't say I disagree with Cloud Retainer, Conqueror of Demons. You're lucky, Miss Lumine really is one of a kind," she said with a smile as light chimes began singing through the air, courtesy of her crystalline blue timepiece, telling her it was time to open her glider and make her way down the mountain and back to Yuehai Pavilion.

Xiao scoffed as he saw how both Cloud Retainer and Ganyu made such theatrical exits, leaving him no space to get his final say in. Still, he summoned his polearm and stabbed it into the ground, looking protectively out over the horizon as he had done hundreds of thousands of times before, watching as the sun barely peeked but a sliver of gold over the hazy line. Their words had sounded preposterous to him, but if he was being honest, being mated to Lumine was quite the dreamy fantasy…

Then, with such convenient timing that allowed him to yet again shove this matter to the corner of his brain to ignore and put it off as much as possible, he heard Lumine whisper his name from somewhere in Lingju Pass.

Except instead of allowing him to avoid the subject, it seemed to force him to meet it head on, because as soon as he arrived, he was met with the sight of Lumine stumbling to the ground with both an apologetic look and crimson streams smeared on her face before lying worryingly still as a Ruin Guard walked towards her targeted form, with Paimon clutching on her sleeves tight enough to rip them off and looking at him with furrowed brows and shiny tears.

He doesn't remember exactly what he said, but he knew that it was some sort of insult and that he shouted it angrily as he summoned his spear and donned his mask without hesitation, even as he knew she couldn't — or worse, wasn't able to — listen.

"Don't do this to me!" is what he would've yelled to Celestia above if he hadn't come in time— did he even come in time?

"Don't do this to me!" is what he would've said when he took a closer look at her heartbreakingly motionless body.

"Don't do this to me, please," is what he would've begged to the stars, her brethren, pleading with them not to take away what was most precious to him when he let his polearm clatter to the ground as he cradled her in his arms.

The few seconds in between movements stretched into an eternity, with no sound, just the dust settling from the enemy's fallen form and a ringing in his ears that threatened to pierce through his skull and corrupt his mind, a sign that his only saving grace from karma was on her last thread.

He fumbled as he felt for a pulse before giving up and pressing his ear directly to her chest, appearances be damned. For a few seconds, he could hear nothing, and the thought made him taste bile in the back of his throat.

Then, slowly but surely, he heard the smallest hints of a beat, unsteady and fragile, and easily missed had his focus not been solely on it.

Once he confirmed she was still alive, just unconscious, he felt a wave of relief crash over him. He couldn't help but hold her impossibly closer as he slumped over her, uncaring that Paimon had pressed herself between them and was currently sniffling into a gross wet patch of snot and tears on his shirt.

A simple heartbeat: what was usually an insignificant rhythm of the beating of a mortal heart had become his saving grace in a matter of seconds. However faint it was, it was still there, and that's all he could've asked for.

He made the trip back to the Wangshu Inn as he carried her in his arms — far, but he didn't want to risk teleporting and nauseating her — and laid her down on a bed, before he immediately appeared in Bubu Pharmacy, relaying the jeopardized health of the Traveler to Qiqi, who immediately got teary-eyed and demanded Xiao take her to see her immediately, quiet but melancholy whispers of "Lumine jiejie, please be okay" echoing in his ears as he rushed back to her. Opening the door and nodding his approval to Qiqi at his side, who was grasping tightly onto his hand, she immediately threw herself at the sleeping Traveler and hugged her with as much might and force a little zombie girl could muster before opening her kit and gathering her medicines, softly cleaning and wrapping the countless bruises and cuts marring the traveler's skin, smoothing ointments and creams whenever necessary (which was concerningly often).

Once Qiqi told him she would be fine after lots and lots of rest (and proceeded to surprisingly climb into the bed with her), he left them to sleep as he made his way to Jueyun Karst and gathered the other adepti. With a wave of his hand, he showed them the fragile state of the Traveler through the use of an adepti art.

"Who dared do this to the Savior of Liyue?" Moon Carver asked in an eerily static tone, but Xiao couldn't tear his eyes from the sight of her barely moving form on the bed, making sure her chest continued to rise and fall.

"It was none other than herself. It's clear to me that she had overexerted herself." How he wished it was the fault of someone else, was an attempt at the Traveler's life, so he would be assured she would be fine once they were eliminated.

"One fully believes a certain Fatui Harbinger played a part in encouraging her overexertion. Knowing the harbinger's tendencies for bloodlust and loyalty to his archon, one would believe it to be part of a prolonged attempt at her life. One is not adverse to permanently eliminating this threat—"

"Then what shall we do?"

Mountain Shaper asked, cutting off Cloud Retainer's blatant suggestion of literal murder, and Xiao turned to him to gauge his reaction, before looking at all three of them.

"Well, Madame Ping told me…"

"X-Xiao, you don't need to bring me here!" Lumine exclaimed, fully expecting to be taken to the Qixing to meet her legal demise. "I'll just stay in a room at Wangshu Inn sometime, or at the inn Mr. Zhu's running..."

"Don't listen to her, Xiao, she's lying! She said the same thing to Paimon two weeks ago, and she hadn't stepped foot into either of those places until you brought her there! And you saw how she fainted to the floor right in the middle of fighting that Ruin Guard!" Paimon yelled, throwing a tantrum in the air. To be fair, her outburst was very justified, since she must have been mentally and physically exhausted from worrying over the Traveler who didn't seem to listen to her, and probably felt guilty for only being able to watch helplessly as she ignored her own wellbeing, unable to do something, anything, because of her miniature size.

"Shut it! Just… follow me," was his curt response, but both Paimon and the Traveler knew that while it was full of anger, it held no malice towards them. It was obvious that the news Paimon just revealed to him, which explained the terrifying ordeal that happened a mere few days ago, greatly upset him, and Lumine had the decency to look away in shame when they both turns to glance at her as if she would escape their sights any moment now, a scathing look of chastisement in their eyes.

"W-Well, why are we going to Yuehai Pavilion? Don't you hate the crowds? Am I finally gonna be arrested?" Lumine asked nervously, wriggling in Xiao's hold. As dumb as it was, she had tried to escape when she realized he was taking her to Liyue Harbor, fearing the worst, aka the Wrath of either the Rock or the Qixing— an idea that, in hindsight, was a terrible one, but seemed like a good option at the time. As a result, he had pulled her into his side by wrapping a firm arm around her waist, and no matter how much she squirmed and tugged at his arm, his grip didn't let up. Effectively, she was stuck.

"All the charges had been dropped against you; you know this already. Yanfei herself even informed you of this, did she not?"

"Well, yes, but she mentioned it only because she was disappointed she didn't get to take my case. She seemed a little too excited at the thought of me being a criminal… what if she reopened it?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Yanfei, as stubborn as she is, knows when to accept that things have settled. Regardless, we're here," he said, walking over to an adeptus they both knew well with Lumine in tow.

"Madame Ping, hi! How are you?" Paimon exclaimed, mirroring the excitement on Lumine's own face at seeing the lovely old woman. They did always have the most interesting chats over a cup of tea, after all.

"Me? I'm doing well, but Traveler, what about you? The others told me of the unfortunate event that happened a few days ago," Madame Ping lightly scolded her, waving a finger in her direction.

"'M sorry, that was a one time thing, I promise!" She couldn't help but hang her head in shame, twisting her toe in the ground as she directed her gaze downwards. So what if Lumine had a soft spot for kind and sweet old people and felt like crying when something bad happened to them? Even though she was fully aware of just how powerful Madame Ping actually was, she still couldn't help but want to cave in every time the "elder" of the two asked something of her.

"It better be, young lady."

"Is the teapot ready?" Xiao interrupted, wanting to get straight to the point so he could leave before the growing crowd among them became unbearable.

Sensing his discomfort, Madame Ping smiled. "Yes, here it is," she said, before pulling out a teapot, a teapot that was noticeably not Madame Ping's but was similar nonetheless, and placing it in Lumine's hands. "Traveler, here is your very own Serenitea Pot."

"Serenity Pot?..."

Before Lumine could ask who came up with such a punny name, Xiao covered one of her hands with his own, the domain within immediately responding to its owner's power. Soon enough, the world around Lumine began to warp, and suddenly she was glad she was plastered to his side as everything made her head spin and stomach churn.

When she mustered up the courage to peek one eye open, Lumine found herself in front of a huge Liyue-style mansion. Taking in her surroundings, she noticed that she was standing on one of many towering plateaus, each connected to the other by simple but sturdy wooden bridges. The landscape, she noticed, had a striking resemblance to Jueyun Karst, the home of the adepti.

"What is all this?" Lumine asked in amazement, looking around at the world within, not realizing she was still tucked into his side, as if loathe to let even air keep them apart.

"This is for you, since you apparently don't know how to keep yourself alive," Xiao mumbled, averting his eyes to avoid another blush rising across his face. It was nice, having her so close to him; it felt natural, almost too natural, as if this was their destined place in the universe: together. "Madame Ping had already made plans to make an adeptal realm similar to her own teapot, and after seeing how irresponsible you are, the rest of us decided to help. Madame Ping provided the physical teapot, while Cloud Retainer modified the mechanics to be a bit more advanced. For instance, you can change the landscape to another of your liking." He demonstrated this with a wave of his hand, and Lumine watched in amazement as the scene around them shimmered between lush green mountains and floating islands connected with golden bridges made of pure energy. "The materials to make this were sourced by Mountain Carver, Moon Shaper, and Yanfei, which included the Smaragdus Jadeite you both were looking for. Ganyu and the Qixing were in charge of constructing the house, and I created the domain, so only you and I may enter." Theoretically, Lumine could allow other people into the teapot as well by placing her energy signature on them, but since the domain only responded to its owner's adeptal power and thus considered her signature as a weaker extension of his, they would only be briefly allowed in the teapot with direct approval, whereas he and Lumine were free to come and go at every whim for as long as they so desired.

(Though the traitorous voice in the back of his head pointed out that by completing the Rite of Union and sharing his adepti powers with her, her signature would no longer be just a weaker extension, and the domain would begin to respond to their singular, shared signature).

He conveniently left out the fact that the reason the plan stalled in the beginning was because no adepti was willing to give up their domain. Obviously, for there to be a domain within the teapot, an adeptus had to be the creator and owner of said domain, sustaining it with their power. Unfortunately, most of the other adepti already had their own personal domains, and the secrets and treasures kept inside said domains were too important to be relocated to the physical world just yet. Thus, the plan was seemingly abandoned, until Xiao volunteered his own domain. He had already prepared his reasoning, which was that he rarely used his domain and that there were no important artifacts or weapons among its contents, but the other adepti had immediately accepted his offer, saying, "We should've asked the Conqueror of Demons in the first place! He is bound to share his domain with his mate!", which was again completely false, but if sacrificing his personal domain and dealing with the other adepti because of it meant she would be safe and he'd never have to witness another near-death experience, he would gladly do it all over again in a heartbeat.

"... Thank you, Xiao. Really," Lumine spoke after an emotional pause and smiled, genuinely, heartwarmingly, charmingly, beautifully, and every other positive adjective, yet all of them together still couldn't accurately describe the small yet sweet upward curve of her lips, a smile he believed he didn't and never would deserve but was blessed with anyway.

"I-It's nothing. Just— take care of yourself," he stammered, before disappearing into thin air, wisps of anemo and karmic energy dissipating in his wake.

"She seems to like your gift, Conqueror of Demons."

Xiao grumbled, with only the words "whatever" and "Lumine" being audible to the other adepti. ("It's whatever; it's not as deep to Lumine as it is to you," he had said.)

"You are very dedicated to this traveler, Vigilant Yaksha."

"You are… misunderstanding. You're the ones that welcomed her to Jueyun Karst in the first place. Had it been me to be the first to see her step foot upon this land, I would've turned her away immediately."

"That is true, one was and still is very fond of this traveler. Perhaps one should begin a courting ritual?"

"Don't even think about it," Xiao hissed, his tone telling others to back off of what was his.

"Conqueror of Demons is the fondest of the traveler out of all of us, Moon Carver. One thought that he had been courting her this whole time."

"That seems to be true, Cloud Retainer. It was unnecessary for her to need the sigil anymore anyway, as the Conqueror of Demons has adequately staked his claim and marked her."

"But of course. One sees that the Vigilant Yaksha was the first to lay claim, and one respects that."

"Is that why Miss Lumine always smells like the Conqueror of Demons? They have finally officiated their bond?"

"Precisely, Miss Ganyu—"

"Definitely not." Xiao interrupted Cloud Retainer, shooting her a glare. "She persists in insisting on accompanying me or vice versa, and that is what caused her to receive some of my scent and energy traces. That is all, just coincidental proximity, nothing more." Xiao huffed, even as his ears started to adopt a barely noticeable pink tint.

"One can't be fooled, yaksha. One knows that scent is transferred through closer contact than merely walking together, and one has seen a bed be shared many times between the two of you."

"Oh my, Cloud Retainer! Do you mean we're finally going to see a baby adept—"

"Absolutely not! She suffers from nightmares, and I took it upon myself to relieve her of them. It is her who insists that I must rest alongside her, and it is her who is fond of physical contact."

"The Conqueror of Demons says she is the only one to initiate, but he also does not refuse or reject. One thinks the Conqueror of Demons is as fond of physical contact as the traveler herself."

Xiao looked away, crossing his arms and yet again mumbling something under his breath, something that none of the other adepti, and half-adeptus, present could interpret. ("I'm only fond of it if it's with her," was his unheard admission.)

Cloud Retainer, with a mischievous glint in her eyes, cleared her throat and changed the subject. "Well, it seems that the traveler's date of birth is arriving soon. I'm sure the Conqueror of Demons has something special planned for her."

Xiao narrowed his eyes. "If, on the off chance I do give her a gift, it will be a simple one. At most, I'll give her an artifact to ward off evil, something useful. There is no difference between the day she was born and any other day."

The other adepti paused, before skeptically nodding their heads. They had no reason to believe Xiao to be lying, as what he said did seem very in character as something he would do, though they were hoping for a more romantic answer. Even Cloud Retainer seemed satisfied with his statement, as she accepted it without inquisition and probed no further.

"Should we also give her something? I think we could all give her a self-replenishing vial of our adeptal energy as a, y'know, quick boost of energy when the going gets tough. Maybe we can use the cor lapis on your island to put it in a bottle that can withstand the pressure from the power within, Mountain Shaper, and Cloud Retainer can craft it, since she's always tinkering with things in her domain anyway. The rest of us can…"

Xiao tuned out the rest of the conversation, watching as Ganyu pitched her idea to the others, who seemed to be in agreement with her plan. His focus, instead, was on the gingko leaves drifting in the wind, as green as jade.

"This mortal concept of commemorating the day of your birth… really is redundant," Xiao grumbled, arms crossed with a displeased look wrinkling his brow.

Lumine laughed. "Well, if the day of my birth hadn't happened, then I wouldn't have met you, no? Don't you think that's why it's worth celebrating?" Lumine asked, stifling another giggle at the way Xiao reluctantly muttered his agreement. "Unfortunately, mora doesn't make itself, and even on my birthday I have commissions to do. I'll be right ba—"

As she turned away, Xiao reached out and grabbed her wrist. "Wait. Have this. It's… a butterfly I made from leaves," he stammered, placing the gift in her hands. "Okay. Take it. It's an adepti amulet — it staves off… um… 'evil'."

Lumine examined the necklace carefully. True to his word, it was a butterfly made from "leaves", in that the wings seemed to be shaped in the form of gingko leaves. However, only a complete idiot would believe the hard, perfectly smooth texture of the pendant to be that of a real leaf.

"Xiao… I hate to be the one to tell this to you—" Xiao immediately froze, slightly panicking as he prepared himself for rejection because yes, it technically was his courting gift to her, but nobody but him needed to know that. "—but this is not made from leaves."

"You—!" Xiao sighed, the tension leaving his shoulders all in one breath. "I am aware. I meant that I made it from leaves; that is the truth."

Lumine looked once more at the butterfly, inspecting it a tad closer. Indeed, there were veins in the wing pieces, veins that were too delicate and too small to have been carved into a normal piece of jade, even if painstakingly done by hand.

"I've never seen a leaf this solid… you could've fooled me and said it was pure jade." Lumine winked with a laugh, knowing that Xiao used his powers to transform the gingko leaf into jade, like water to wine.

She ran her thumb over the completely smooth, unmarred surface, watching as the sun hit it just so, scattering perfect green refractions into the air. She shyly looked back up at Xiao from under her eyelashes, before looking away as her face flushed red. "Thank you Xiao. I… I love it," she whispered, almost too quiet for him to hear, but it sounded loud enough in his ears. "I'm honored that you took the time to make this for me. Here," she said, whirling around and dropping the necklace back into his hand. "Can you put it on me?"

And when she asked so nicely, looking over her shoulder with her sparkling round eyes and pleading look, how could he ever refuse her? Brushing her hair away, long enough to get in the way but too short for Lumine to hold away, Xiao noticed the way she shivered when his fingers grazed the nape of her neck. Biting the inside of his cheek and shaking away inappropriate thoughts that centered heavily around other ways he could make tremors wrack her petite body with just his touch, he looped the necklace around her neck before fiddling with the clasp, letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding when it finally locked into place.

(And if she smelled a lot like a certain type of mountain flower and soft dessert dish, well, he was never one to pass up a perfect scenting opportunity.)

She turned back to him, looking down as she held the pendant in the palms of her cupped hands. "And this will ward off evil? How?" She looked back up at him, eyes shining with curiosity.

He coughed awkwardly, bringing up a hand to partially hide his embarrassed face. "It, uh… jade represents longevity and wisdom, and this piece of jade has a lot of yang energy, which repels ghosts and… evil spirits; this is why the people of Liyue like to call jade 'stones of luck and happiness', since it has such a deeper meaning to them." Technically, that was partially true: jade did indeed have deep meaning in the culture of Liyue, but he had lied in saying the yang energy of the stone would repel "evil spirits". Though he did imbue it with such energy just in case, it was actually the aforementioned "deeper meaning" that would repel the "evil spirits", with said "spirits" actually being those that approached her with romantic intentions. The butterfly on her neck would tell others that she was taken, and it being jade marked her as deeply committed and basically engaged, which he supposed was the most similar mortal concept to adepti mating. It was a perfect plan: he essentially subtly proposed and she accepted. Now other potential suitors will have no choice but to back off and he didn't have to face the embarrassment of directly confessing his feelings and being rejected— a win-win scenario, if you asked him.

"And why did you pick a butterfly? I don't usually receive butterfly-themed gifts, but I find that I actually am really fond of this one," Lumine murmured, eyes gazing at the sparkling pendant with a softness she had seemingly reserved only for him, when the only presences were their own, and the only disturbance in the air was their synced breaths, whispers of meandering conversation floating up to the stars.

"... No reason," he said, y'know, like a liar. "Do you… know what butterflies mean in Liyue?"

"I don't know about specifically Liyue, but I do know that butterflies are usually a sign of change because of that whole metamorphosis thing."

"Good," he sighed internally, grateful that she didn't understand the true meaning of him putting a jade butterfly on her.

"So?"

"So what?"

"Tell me what a butterfly means, please?"

Her wide, expectant eyes, exactly like a curious kitten, looked up at him, and he was 90% sure that she didn't know what her pleading expression did to him, didn't know that her begging eyes compelled his base instincts to answer and soothe his mate.

"In Liyue, a butterfly being gifted from one to another means… uh," he fumbled for the right words. He wasn't actually planning on answering, as that would expose him and his feelings, but Lumine just appealed to his desire to please his mate so well, so perfectly that he automatically responded to whatever she asked for.

The perfect opportunity presented itself to him. He could tell her how he felt, explain the story of the butterfly lovers, right here, right now. He could ask her if he could begin courting her, and then she'd laugh and say something funny to diffuse his nervousness, something like she thought he already was courting her, and then he would blush and ask if she was willing to be his mate, and she'd say yes, and for once in his goddamn life he would have something precious, someone worth fighting for, someone worth living for.

Or… she'd say no, reject him, and turn away, leaving him to bury himself in the deepest hole possible and die of humiliation. She'd say she already had her eyes on someone else, or that she was already taken, or, even worse, that she was single and didn't have anyone in mind but would rather die a thousand deaths than be with him. Because why would she want to be with him? Him, a cursed demon. Him, someone with so, so much blood on his hands. Him, someone who just corrupted everything around him. Him, who drives every mortal being near him to madness. Him, who was good for nothing but bloodshed and chaos and evil.

Him, who never had and never will deserve something precious, someone worth fighting for, someone to live for.

He blinked, and suddenly his millennium long internal conflict was over in mere seconds. He looked down, and she was still there, still staring up at him, still tugging at his heartstrings. Oh, how badly he wanted to tell her the truth, to tell her the story of the butterfly lovers and replace Liang Shanbo's name with his and Zhu Yingtai's with hers.

… Who was he kidding, thinking of confessing to her like that. He knew it was just going to be another fact he takes with him to his grave, if it even exists (but at this point he knew there was no denying it anymore: he was utterly and irrevocably in love with Lumine). He knew that he shouldn't— couldn't— tell her, because she was too good for him and deserved someone who wasn't a deadly threat, a ticking time bomb, a force that would just corrupt her if she stayed by his side for too long.

"... It means that the gifter is wishing the receiver good luck on their journeys. When saying 'butterfly' as '蝴蝶 (hú dié)', the first syllable, '蝴 (hú)', sounds very similar to that for 'good fortune', which is '福 (fú)'. Though it varies from person to person, some also associate it with prosperous journeys, since butterflies are well-known for migration." He traced the strokes of the script into her hand, partly to demonstrate to her what he was trying to explain but mostly just to feel her tiny hand in the palm of his own.

Technically he wasn't lying, what he said is in fact true. It just… wasn't the actual meaning he truly intended to convey.

Lumine nodded along, fascinated by the word's etymology. "Wow, the Liyuean script is so complicated…"

"... That is true. Many have said that it's truly very difficult for non-natives to learn."

"Aww, but I want to learn…"

His eyes flickered up to her, her own golden eyes avoiding his as she fiddled with her fingers, a nervous habit of hers he had long since picked up on.

Although, learning a language was hardly something to be nervous about, especially when she hadn't even started yet.

"Why would you go through all the effort for basically nothing? There is nothing for you to gain from learning, especially since you've been getting along just fine without it."

"It's not that… I just… wanted to learn it better, learn more than a few phrases… for you," she mumbled, finally turning her doe eyes up to meet his. For a moment, he was lost in the swirling gold, contemplating her words. She was always too kind, too selfless. Always so sweet and perfect.

Always this, always that, always everything good in the world.

Then he turned away and scoffed; she was also always ridiculous, it seemed.

"That is unnecessary. I've long since learned the common language of all Teyvat; there is no language barrier here."

"It's not that there's a language barrier here, but… you're always doing things for me to 'understand me better', and I… would like to do the same for you," she admitted, and his heart cooed at how adorable she was being. "I heard that saying things in your mother language makes it more meaningful, and I'd like to make our conversations more meaningful to you."

Well, she wasn't wrong. The nuances in other languages change the meaning of every phrase. In Fontaine, for example, one doesn't say "I miss you," one says, "Tu me manques." For someone who speaks both, the first just says, "Hey, I miss you; it's been a while since I've last seen you," the second says, "You are missing from me; I am experiencing a lack of you." The meaning and usage is the same, and most Fontainians don't see it as that deep. But for someone who grew up with Fontainian and began to speak it less and less over time, the two are different in a way that's more profound than just translation errors.

For saying "I love you" in everyday life to remind friends and family of how much you treasure them is thoughtful, but saying "我爱你 (wô ài nî)" is too personal, hits too close to home, as if admitting that would irrevocably sear it into his soul, into the very fabric of his being. Because his native language was home, it was with whom he was born and raised and lived and loved in his earliest years, before harm could take that away from him. By confessing that to her, he would be wearing his heart on his sleeve and letting her catch a glimpse at his former self, at the tiny yet untainted part of him that he kept locked away, lest the karma fully consume him, his feelings for her becoming an irreversible truth.

And that would make her rejection all the more unbearable, because he maybe could move on from an "I love you," but he could never hope to move on from a "我爱你".

So he settled with telling her, "That's not necessary. I… find our conversations to be meaningful enough as they are."

But then she pulled out the puppy dog eyes that begged him to reconsider, and his resolve crumbled like a sandcastle in water. He had his suspicions that she knew he could never say no to her, especially when she did that (and yes, she was aware of this fact).

"Fine; I will teach you some of the Liyuean language," he relented, and was sufficiently compensated for his troubles with the sparkle in her eye and smile on her pretty pink lips. "To say hello, which literally translates to 'you good', you say…"

It had been a week since he gifted Lumine his proposal gift— ahem, her butterfly necklace— and the results were already going exceedingly well. For example, less and less people started approaching her with love letters and flowers; most people that caught a sight of the jade pendant in between her collarbones took less than a second to look away, not wanting to risk pining over someone else's intended. Life was going great: nobody was trying to steal away his lovely little mate, and he could keep fooling himself into thinking he wasn't in love with her, but was only looking out for her safety, since he no longer has his bouts of jealousy to prove otherwise.

Men were wolves, after all.

Unfortunately, that all came crashing down when he was summoned to another meeting of the adepti: something he learned was never a good sign.

"Oh this is so exciting! It's been so long since the last official adepti courtship and Rite of Union," Ganyu gushed from where she stood next to Cloud Retainer.

"If there was ever anyone who could complete the Rite of Union and share the Conqueror of Demon's powers, it is indeed the Savior of Liyue," Mountain Shaper mused.

"We are surprised but gladdened that an adeptus like yourself is finally able to find happiness in the Traveler," Moon Shaper chuffed, clapping a hoof on his shoulder.

"Please stop, you are severely misinterpreting the situation."

"One thinks one interprets correctly; it is far too late to try to deny it now, Conqueror of Demons. The only thing missing is her bearing your physical mark and the birth of the fruition of your union."

He sucked in a breath at that, because while yes, adepti were also called illuminated beasts, beasts they still were, and his beastly instincts were currently busy imagining a Lumine covered in his marks and claims, with the most prominent and beautiful one being the bite mark destined for the junction where neck meets shoulder. Hearing the other adeptus' words only added a spark to the flame, and it took an embarrassing amount of willpower to stay rooted in place and not immediately stalk off to find his mate and bring his fantasies to life right then and there.

"Cloud Retainer is right, little yaksha. My, does this mean we have to start preparing for a new baby adeptus?"

"Oh, that's right, Madame Ping! Awe, I would love to babysit for you two," Ganyu squealed. "Your child will definitely be the cutest!"

He could already feel his face heating up (because yes, the children of him and his lovely Lumine would be his pride and joy). "I… don't know what you all are talking about."

"Now now, young one, we at the harbor all have seen the Traveler walking all around Liyue with both a jade butterfly necklace and your scent heavily on her," Madame Ping teased, reaching out and pulling at one of his cheeks. Maybe this was why she chose to take the form of an elderly woman; though Xiao enjoyed seniority among the adepti due to either age or experience or both, and thus didn't fit the "young one" moniker, it felt disrespectful to get angry at a little old woman, even if said woman's hands were starting pinch just a little tad bit too hard.

"And ones in the mountains saw the Traveler gathering flowers and herbs just this morning, among of which was more qingxin," Cloud Retainer continued.

"No need to hide it, Conqueror of Demons. Though shocking that it actually happened, nevermind so soon, one is more than rejoiced that you have finally found a lover."

"One thinks it's even more romantic that the Traveler will be both your first and last courtship."

"It's just a necklace…" he tried arguing back against Moon Carver and Mountain Shaper weakly, despite knowing it was in vain. Because yes, while most of the people of Liyue today didn't understand adepti mating rituals and courting gifts, he forgot that the other adepti did.

He also forgot that said other adepti were insufferable, and no amount of denying their claims could change their minds.

"Hey Celestia, it's me, Xiao, again. Can you please just strike me down right where I stand? Thanks."

"Hey Traveler, it's been a— shoot, it wasn't just a rumor?! I don't have a gift!"

"Hey Yanfei, and it's fine! Just because it's been some time— we've been busy, after all, doing commissions all around Liyue, not just the harbor— doesn't mean you need to get us a gift."

"Uh, speak for yourself! Paimon wants some of your My Way tofu! It's the best Crab Roe Tofu ever!"

"No, it's not that— oh thanks Paimon, I'll make sure to make you some— but it's not that! But they told me he was denying it… ugh, I'm so rusty on adepti things, and I don't even know where to start on what to give… I'll be right back! Congratulations on the engagement!"

"Wait, Yanfei— and she's off," Lumine deadpanned, hand outstretched uselessly in the air. "What engagement is she talking about?"

"Paimon doesn't know either. She said something about 'adepti rituals', so maybe one of the adepti got engaged?"

"But who? I didn't know that any of them were in relationships…"

"Paimon bets it's one of the adepti back in Jueyun Karst! We haven't had a commission there this week, and we don't know much about them personally, so it makes sense that we didn't know about something like an engagement."

"Oh… yeah, that makes sense. Kinda weird that she was talking to us so cryptically about it… maybe we're supposed to be involved somehow, since we've helped out during an adepti rite before?"

"Oh no, what if we are?! Paimon doesn't want to be disrespectful to the adepti, Paimon doesn't wanna get cursed!"

"Calm down, I'm sure it's not that bad—"

"Quick, we need to go to Jueyun Karst now! We need to find out who got engaged and what we need to do, and we need to make sure everything goes perfect-er than perfect! Let's go, let's go, let's go!"

"That's too far!" Lumine complained, shoulders sagging. "All our commissions are far from there. Let's just go ask Madame Ping; she's also an adepti and they're her friends, so she should know."

"Alright, hopefully she doesn't tell them that we didn't know we were supposed to do something about it…"

Though the walk to Yujing Terrace from the southern part of the harbor was at most half an hour, as Lumine and Paimon couldn't resist straying off course in favor of collecting items like Glaze Lilies and lotus heads, that seemed to have been ample enough time for Madame Ping to hear the news of the mystery engagement.

"Hi, Madame Ping! It's been a while!" Paimon waved enthusiastically as Lumine reached the top step, smoothing the front of her dress as a gust of wind flew by, mischievously tugging the ends upwards. She made a mental note to pinch Venti's cheeks for trying to pull that on her yet again, though she did wonder what business the anemo archon would have in Liyue.

(Somewhere in Mondstadt, Venti sneezed, grumbling that he felt like someone was blaming him for something one of the actual anemo vision holders did.)

"Well, hello, children. You're here to talk about that engagement announcement, I presume?"

"Hello, Madame Ping," Lumine greeted politely, while Paimon went straight to the point.

"Wow, Granny, you're spot on! How'd you know?"

"Yanfei just ran by in a complete hurry. Knowing her, I assumed she was just busy and overbooked with work as usual, but she came up to me and told me I needed to prepare an engagement gift, and so I did." She reached into her teapot and pulled out a golden box wrapped in a beautiful red silk ribbon. "I've been preparing to give this to you ever since I saw you walking around the harbor with the courting gift, but I never had the chance to confirm it for myself, especially since your intended is a stubborn boy who refused to say anything. Here, it's a golden tea set I've been saving for another adepti union. With the teapot, all tea made in it will be brewed to perfection, and with the tea cups, the tea inside will always stay at the perfect temperature."

"Are you sure there's a whole set in here? Paimon feels like there's only one cup at best…"

"Paimon, haven't you learned? We already established that with Madame Ping, there's always more than what meets the eye."

"Haha, very perceptive as always, Miss Lumine. Indeed, the whole set is in there, and I guarantee that it won't get lost or break unless you place it elsewhere."

"Wow, adepti magic is really something else…" Paimon gasped in amazement as Madame Ping just shook her head and chuckled fondly.

"Well, off you go! I know you must be headed to Jueyun Karst to see the other adepti, and I'm sure they will be very pleased now that your union has been confirmed. Congratulations, Traveler," the elderly woman smiled at her, gently pushing at her shoulders and ushered her off. She had already taken out her map and pressed the waypoint nearest Mt. Aocang when she realized:

"Wait, my intended?!"

"You have kept one waiting for far too long," Cloud Retainer's voice boomed at them the second they reached the edge of the lake at the top of the mountain.

"Ack! We're sorry, so sorry! We didn't mean to be late!"

"Be at ease, one was merely joking."

"Cloud Retainer! We're supposed to be congratulating the Traveler on her engagement, not scaring her half to death; her fiancé will kill us if he finds out how you're treating her, especially since he's being extra protective now…"

"Hmph, one would like to see him try, but one heeds your advice, Ganyu."

"So, about that engagement… who—"

"Hold on! Before we discuss the details about the Rite of Union ceremonials— and human wedding bridesmaids, if you want to do both— let us at least give you our gifts!" Ganyu frantically interjected, pulling out a small rectangular red box. "Here, I got you a gold chai with a butterfly made of the finest quality jade the Qixing could find."

Ganyu gently removed the lid to the box, and revealed a gorgeous two-pronged hairpin; it was smooth, solid twenty-four karat gold, and each leg was adorned near the top with lilies fashioned from a lighter karat gold, presumably ten. At the point where the two sides were joined was a large qingxin flower made of light green jade, the petals carved to perfection. A big, beautiful butterfly, perhaps a Queen Alexandra's Birdwing, was perched on the flower, its dark green jadeite contrasting the pale nephrite of the flora.

"I don't know how much you know about hairpins in our cultures, but this specific type, called a chai, is considered a token of love. When you guys are separated, you break the hairpin in half and keep one part each, and reunite the pieces when you meet again; I used some adepti magic to make it so that the pin can be broken cleanly in half as many times as you need, and when rejoined, it will reform as if it was never broken in the first place. So, since you're a traveler and he's stuck in Liyue and everything, I thought this would be a nice gift," Ganyu blushed. "Oh archons, I hope I don't sound too much like a hopeless romantic right now, but… do you like it?"

"It's beautiful, Ganyu! How could I accept something like this?" Lumine gushed, swatting Paimon's grabby hands away with a soft, "No, you can't sell it!"

"No, no, I insist; it's the least I could do to celebrate your engagement!"

"About that…"

"One will not let Ganyu upstage oneself! Here, accept this," Cloud Retainer interrupted, and with a flick of her beak, a parcel wrapped in white and pastel blue paper appeared, floating in the air. Another wave of her beak had the package delicately unwrapping itself, revealing a red velvet box. All of a sudden, the top and bottom drawers opened forward and backwards respectively, showcasing two identical golden mirrors resting on plush velvet.

"These mirrors are intended for you and your mate. When the bride peers into the mirror, she will be able to see the whereabouts of her groom. Similarly, when the groom peers into the mirror, he will be able to see his bride. Should both of you be looking into the mirror at the same time, a connection is formed, and both ends of the mirrors will be able to speak directly to each other. Make use of this on your travels."

"Aww, that's so sweet! Paimon thinks adepti give the best gifts!"

"But of course. Do not fret about breaking this mirror, for as long as your love remains strong, the mirror shall, too."

"Guys, these are all lovely gifts, but I'm still confused… why are you giving me such elaborate gifts? And why are you talking about it as if it's my engagement? Shouldn't you give this for the adepti's engagement?" Lumine asked, nervously rubbing circles with her thumb on the smooth surfaces of the gifts in her hands

"But we… are?" Ganyu replied, confusion evident on her face.

"Oh, I get it! Are you asking me to pass the messages and gifts on to the other adepti? I can do that, though you didn't have to worry about me keeping it verbatim and—"

"No! These gifts are for you, Traveler!"

"Yeah, Lumi, listen to Ganyu! Let's keep these gifts, they sound so cool!"

"But aren't these gifts kind of… romantic-type gifts?"

"But of course; one should receive gifts of the adequate type to celebrate such a momentous occasion."

"It's just as Cloud Retainer said: an engagement deserves to be celebrated with engagement-type gifts!"

"Well yeah, but… who's engagement are we celebrating?"

"Yours!" Ganyu and Cloud Retainer said in unison.

"Mine?! I'm not engaged!"

"Oh, perhaps the two of you were serious in wishing to keep the courtship a secret… hmph, he shouldn't have given you such an obvious courting gift, then," Cloud Retainer huffed amidst Lumine's panicking. "Everyone in Liyue knows the true meaning of butterflies: they are a sign of everlasting love. A gift of a jade butterfly from one to the other is tantamount to giving away one's heart to the keeper of one's affections. And though the people of Liyue have long since forgotten, we adepti are fully aware of the steps of an adepti courtship, and one knows a gift of intention when one sees one."

"True meaning of butterflies?"

"Oh no, was the engagement actually supposed to be low profile? I'm sorry, we just got so excited when we got the news that it was confirmed," Ganyu added solemnly, face full of remorse.

"Oh, please don't feel bad, I'm just… a little overwhelmed, is all," Lumine consoled Ganyu; even though she was still confused about everything, she hated feeling like she was the reason her friend felt so guilty.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Thank you for the, um, gifts," she said with a smile, watching in relief as both parties in front of her seemed to lighten up.

"It was our pleasure; now go, share these gifts with the Vigilant Yaksha."

"Yes, I… will? I mean— I will. Goodbye Cloud Retainer, goodbye Ganyu." She waved, not letting out the breath she didn't even know she was holding until they were long gone.

"Paimon, do you mind staying with Xiangling for a bit? I… I think I need to talk about this with a certain somebody…"

It had been barely a day and a half since the disaster gathering at Jueyun Karst, which was, unfortunately, not enough time for Xiao to fully recover from the events that transpired. It didn't help that he hadn't seen his Lumine recently, as he had increased the frequency of his patrols to try and forget the literal torture he had to endure at the hands of Cloud Retainer and Madame Ping.

Just as he finished eliminating the last samachurl from a hilichurl camp, he heard a familiar soft yet sweet voice whisper in the wind.

"Xiao?"

In a flash, he teleported to the source of the melodic voice, quietly observing with a wry smile as Lumine's head turned from side to side, scanning her surroundings on the top floor of Wangshu Inn.

"What do you need?" He stepped out of the shadows, crossing his arms as he watched her whirl around at the sound of his voice. His heart fell to his stomach at the sight of what she held in her hands.

Multiple bags were hanging from her dainty wrists, and he could see the corners and tops of more than a few boxes peeking out of the tissue paper. Knowing it was not her birthday, nor was it a big event, he could only assume the gifts were for one thing, and the signature red gift wrap, that cursed shade being one he only saw in weddings, confirmed his worst fears:

He was not the only one the adepti called to a meeting.

"Lumine, I—"

"Um, hi, Xiao," Lumine started, and he immediately shut his mouth in favor of listening to what she had to say first. He would always put her first.

"So, um… the adepti at Jueyun Karst gave me these to celebrate… 'our engagement'? And I was wondering if you happened to know anything about that…" she trailed off, shuffling her feet as her cheeks began to heat up with what he assumed to be embarrassment.

"D-Don't mind them, they're just— don't take what they say to heart," he stammered, cursing his past self for naively thinking he could get away with giving Lumine his heart disguised as a simple birthday gift. He wasn't sure if the giddy excitement and satisfaction of secretly claiming his mate as his was enough to outweigh the sheer mortification he had unfortunately set up for himself right now.

(As long as he could clear up the "misunderstanding" in the next ten minutes, then he would definitely consider it worth it.)

"Oh, um, really? Because, um, when Cloud Retainer gave me this gift, she said something about the 'true meaning of butterflies'." Her sentence became quieter and quieter as it went on, and by the last word, he was sure it was only due to his enhanced hearing that he was able to understand it. She took in a breath to steel her resolve as she continued, "She said that 'everyone in Liyue' knows they are a sign of everlasting love, or something like that, so, you know, I just thought that, maybe…"

This was it: this was the moment he really, truly wished to disappear off the face of Teyvat. Not when he became the last yaksha, not when he first became a slave to his master before Rex Lapis, not even when he was trapped and interrogated by the other adepti just yesterday; no, it was this exact moment where he fervently wished he could just disintegrate into thin air. Archons, he was way past the point of dying of embarrassment and shame; no amount of his torturous karma could ever amount to the sheer terror and dread that struck his very being at that moment. If his heart fell to his stomach earlier, it definitely fell out of his ass and was stomped on right now, because she knew now, she knew. She knew what his butterfly gift meant and she knew how he felt and she knew of his stupid plan and she knew, she knew, she knew.

He doesn't know when he turned away from her, but he's glad he did: he wouldn't be able to handle seeing as her eyes darkened with disgust and her lips curled back in a sneer. He would never be able to handle watching as the sparkle in her eyes dimmed just a little bit, and was replaced by the damning hellfire that only appeared when she faced off against her enemies, only this time, they weren't focused on a dancing samachurl or chanting abyss mage; no, they were focused on him. And he didn't know which was worse: knowing he had become one of her enemies, or that he was the only exception— the only other entity— she despised aside from hostiles.

He also didn't know when he clenched his fists, but he could feel his fingernails digging marks into his skin even through the tough leather of his gloves, and yet somehow that bit of pain was nothing compared to the way his heart wrenched in his chest. For the briefest of moments, he felt his veins burn with something red hot and searing, something that the lingering wrath of bygone gods latched onto and fed into. He was going to find Cloud Retainer, he was going to drag her out of her mountainous hiding place and he was going to positively eliminate her from existence, no, from the eyes of time itself.

But just as quickly as he was consumed by the scorching anger, it disappeared, doused and drowned in freezing water, leaving him but an empty shell of a being. Because yes, a Golden-Winged King of Illumination he was, even the proudest Vermilion Bird amongst the constellations was still a bird, and birds of a feather always flocked together for a reason: they would die otherwise. His kind was the type that loved once and loved hard, the type that could and would die from heartbreak.

It was already getting harder to breathe; although he probably wouldn't die from this, seeing as he had already become accustomed to loneliness, he would be but a laughable husk of a person: she was and forever will be the light in his life, even if she hated every atom of his being.

"... That's the first I've heard of it. Don't believe the fairytales they are feeding you; there is nothing past it being an object of protection," he finally replied, because maybe, just maybe, if he could undo everything the others told her and convince her that he didn't have feelings, even though he did, he wouldn't have to hear her explicitly say she didn't feel the same way, or she already had someone in mind, or anything of the sort. If he could dissuade her from the truth, then maybe she'll just laugh it off and things could go back to normal and he could continue protecting her from a distance.

"O-Oh, is that, is that so? Oh, okay, yeah, I mean— I should've known, that you're not that type of person." If he could get any more delusional, he would believe her tone of voice to be sad, melancholy even. "I just— I shouldn't have— I shouldn't have let them get my hopes up… of course it would be too good to be true, there's no way you'd like me back or anything…"

A soft crash of boxes and bags falling to the floor made him whirl around, and his heart stopped as he saw the state he put Lumine in.

She was wringing her fingers, as she always did when she was nervous, as she kept her gaze stubbornly downwards, her hair acting as a golden curtain that hid her face from him. The gifts were indeed on the floor by her side, and in between them he could see tiny droplets falling, darkening the wood at her feet.

She was… crying? Because… she thought he didn't feel the same?

Nothing could describe the waves of relief that rolled over him. If he was half-dead and despondent earlier, he was the exact opposite right now: his heart was beating faster than it ever had, skipping a beat every time he merely thought of her name. Never in a million years did he consider that she felt anything more than tolerance for him, never considered that his little fantasies had the chance of becoming reality. He felt like shaking his wings and taking to the sky in the hopes that soaring among the clouds could use up the adrenaline in his blood and calm his excitement. Never ever had he felt like this before, but right now he wanted nothing more than to sweep up his wonderful little mate in his arms and show her off to the world, bragging with the biggest smile to the rest of the world that she was his and he was hers; simply put, he had never felt more alive.

"I'm sorry for taking up your time, I'm sure you're busy keeping Liyue safe and all, so… I'm gonna— I'm gonna go now, I think. You should probably give all these gifts back, it would be… weird, if I did it, I think," she mumbled, and her words snapped him back to reality; this time, he didn't need to be the slightest bit disillusioned to hear the sob threatening to break her voice. "Your— your gift is still nice, though! I think I'm gonna stop wearing it, you know, so people don't get the wrong… impression."

He had never moved faster, stepping forward as she turned around and catching the wrist that snuck to the back of her neck, no doubt ready to unclasp the necklace and keep it elsewhere. Already he felt a displeased growl rise up at the notion of his courting gift being off her neck, but when he pulled and turned her around, all that was forgotten as he saw her face.

To him, her beautiful golden eyes, the ones he'd come to love so much, were shiny with the threat of tears, the ones she couldn't hold back having left slight streaks on her cheeks. Her eyebrows were bunched together, and he couldn't stop the hand that rose to smooth out the crease, chasing away the wrinkles. Her lower lip was trembling, and he wanted to throw himself off a cliff at her small sniffle, her nose scrunching and reddening at the action. He was going to stab himself in the side for being the cause of such anguish, and then he was going to kill himself again for being the worst mate ever for even allowing such hurt to come her way.

To her, he never looked more tragically beautiful: his whole face was flush with life, his cheeks a shade of jolly red. He was panting, as if he had run a mile, but he had barely taken a step; no, instead, he was panting simply from barely containing his excitement. And his eyes— oh, his eyes— they had never looked more mesmerizing. His golden eyes were wide and sparkling with something similar to adoration, and it took her breath away. Yes, she had seen that sparkle in other people, but it was both better and worse to see such raw passion and affection in those red-lined eyes: eyes that belonged to someone she loved so much but was still so unattainable.

"W-Wait, I— I lied," he said, stumbling over his words as he pulled her to his chest. Her eyes widened at both the barely contained happiness and meaning in his words.

"You… you lied? So, that means—"

"Yes, the story about butterflies is true," he soothed, the croon in his voice hoping to calm her down and quell her fears as his hands cupped her cheeks and wiped away her tears.

"So— so then the feelings—"

"— Are mutual, yes." Now that he had her, he couldn't stop himself from nuzzling her nose with his the same way two cockatiels nudge their beaks against the other's.

"Are you… are you sure? You… you like me back?" She tilted her head up to him, rubbing her cheek against his palm like a cat as she asked her question, hope evident in both her tone and eyes hidden under long lashes.

"Yes," he assured, yet the smallest hint of uncertainty remained, peskily dampening her luminosity, and that just wouldn't do. "I— I like you." And though he'd rather have said it more confidently, less embarrassedly, and without the stutter, watching as her face finally fully brightened with nothing holding her back was more than rewarding, and so he said it again in the hopes of getting another similar reward.

"I…" she started, but couldn't finish, instead burying her face into his neck, which provided him with the perfect opportunity to openly scent her as her official, actual mate, an opportunity he gladly accepted. He doesn't know when he started, but her giggle alerted him to his apparent cooing to dispel her embarrassment as he rubbed his cheek to the top of her head, his arms having pulled her impossibly closer and secured her in his embrace, his hands keeping her under his chin and running up and down her side.

She slightly pulled back, and though he was loath to part with her, her words made it worthwhile.

"I like you, Xiao," she said with her petal pink lips tilted up in a smile, her cheeks dusted with the most beautiful shade of hopelessly-in-love red, her eyes shining with a mixture of love and adoration and happiness and sheer joy at being at the right moment at the right time. He made sure to burn the image into his memory, knowing full well that a simple Kamera picture would do her an injustice.

He smoothed her hair away from her face, giving him enough real estate to press a kiss to every inch of her face he could reach. "I like you too, Lumine."

"I really, really like you, Xiao," she laughed at the ticklish feeling of him peppering kisses all over her face, and he swore he never heard anything more perfectly melodic than her laughter like light, chiming bells, making him feel as if he weighed even less than the air around them

"I really, really like you too, Lumine."

And as he sealed the deal by capturing her lips with his, relishing in the feeling of her soft and plush lips against his, he thought that maybe, just maybe, all that embarrassment and shame and awkwardness from earlier was more than worth it. And when he chased her lips again immediately after she broke away for air, he thought that even if he had known beforehand all the trouble he'd have to go through just to claim this wandering star as his, he would do it all again and again in a heartbeat.

(And maybe, just maybe, he would let Cloud Retainer live unscathed, and when she found an untagged box at the entrance of her domain filled with materials and parts for various machines, maybe, just maybe, it was from him.)

Bonus:

“Hey, Xiao?”

A noncommittal hum from the man currently holding her hostage in his arms prompted her to continue, still entirely too focused on rubbing his face across every square inch of the skin of her collarbones and shoulder blades. She huffed in fondness as he kept going back and kissing the bite mark at the junction where her neck sloped into her shoulders, courtesy of said man behind her. He had given it to her around a few days ago, saying something about mates and claiming and marking, or something. She was too busy crying and begging for him to stop teasing at the time to pay attention to what he said, but it was healing nicely, so she didn’t really mind.

“I know you said I didn’t have to learn your language, but when you taught me how to say ‘hello’ I figured out how to say something else, so... wo ai ni?”

Xiao froze, completely halting all movements as he stayed eerily silent. She began to worry that she somehow messed it up, and began spouting apologies.

“I’m sorry, I probably messed that up really bad, and I didn’t even try to match the accent; did I say something offensive? I’m sorry—”

He cut her off by abruptly standing and gathering her in his arms, carrying her in a bridal carry as he promptly turned and walked in the direction of their now shared bedroom, throwing her on the bed and wasting no time climbing over her.

“Xiao? What are you— ah!”

“我爱你,” was his only reply as he continued what he was doing.

“W-Wait, but we just— hahn!” She cut herself off with an embarrassingly loud whine, and he rewarded her with a soft coo of his own.

The bite on her neck was healing a bit too nicely, he thought to himself. Therefore, the only remedy was to redo it.

THIS IS SO LONG BUT I FINALLY FINISHED IT I LOVE XIAOLUMI MY BABIES <33333 i might crosspost this to ao3 so don’t worry if u see this there it’s probably me

#genshin impact #genshin impact lumine #genshin impact xiao #Lumine #xiao #xiaolumi #xiao x lumine #xiaolumi fic #genshin fanfic #xiaolumi my beloveds #finally finished this its so long wtf #timeline who? don't know her

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