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It starts like this:
She gets called to the Jade Chamber, and Beidou doesn’t know what to think. Yet at the same time, a million thoughts race through her head with such blurring speed that Beidou finds herself back right where she started, unable to comprehend any of it.
It just makes no sense in the most amusing of ways. And now, she’s just gravely, gravely curious.
There’s no name attached to the summon, just a Qixing messenger waiting as her ship docks after a long journey instead, but there also doesn’t need to be— as famous and revered as the floating palace is, every citizen and their ancestors know that the Jade Chamber belongs to the Tianquan of the Liyue Qixing, and the Tianquan alone.
Now, what on earth would the highly revered Ningguang want with the captain of the Crux Fleet?
“The Lady awaits your response,” the messenger informs her with a deep bow, and she raises an eyebrow at that.
“My response?” Beidou echoes, deeply amused. “I wasn’t aware I had the option of saying no to a summon from the Tianquan herself.”
“If I may offer a word, Captain Beidou—” The poor messenger seems to shift from foot to foot, anxious.
“Speak.”
“I would highly advise against it.”
Beidou can’t help it— she tosses her head back and laughs.
“Don’t you worry.” She grins. A gust of wind blows by, the chain of her God’s Eye hanging around her torso chiming in the breeze. Winds of change, huh? “I have no intention of turning down Lady Ningguang’s request, especially since she seems so eager. Just give me a time, mister. I’ll be there.”
--
For all her bravado, there’s nothing quite like standing at the floating palace’s entrance itself. Beidou has heard tales of the Jade Chamber, and even more tales of the Tianquan herself— how Lady Ningguang spends days locked inside with only her trusted confidantes beside her; how she scatters good fortune below to the merchants of Liyue with her sharp mind and intellect, “like ink stains in white snow.”
Perhaps Beidou has a steep reputation – she definitely has the titles to prove it – but Lady Ningguang has legends on par with the Archons themselves.
So maybe, just maybe, Beidou’s just the slightest bit intimidated.
Most people don’t get the chance to even lay eyes on the Jade Chamber, let alone enter.
Her hand twitches, and there’s a spark of lightning— just enough to shock herself, make sure she’s in the present. Beidou is a pirate, she’s meant to be on the sea. Just what is she doing in the sky?
But then the gates are parting, and her time for pondering is over.
Three women stand beyond the threshold.
“The Lady awaits you.”
Beidou holds her head high and walks right in.
(Somewhere in the distance, the wind blows and lightning crackles.)
--
Deep within the Jade Chamber, Ningguang beckons for Beidou to take a seat and pours her some tea. Naturally, it is Ningguang who breaks the silence first.
“How did you find your journey here, Captain?” The white-haired woman asks, casually setting down two teacups with a smile that sings mystery, and Beidou lets Ningguang’s voice circle into the space between them.
“It was beautiful, Lady Ningguang,” she responds honestly, because it was. “I have spent most of my life on the open water, so I had never seen such sights from the air. Truly, this palace has the best view in all of Liyue.” She pauses, then adds, “The storytellers were right when they called the Jade Chamber your masterwork— that which bridges the earth and sky.”
“You flatter me, Captain,” Ningguang replies lightly, although Beidou can hear the underlying pleasure in her tone.
“The Lady of the Jade Chamber has made quite a name for herself as Tianquan.”
“You should speak for yourself,” Ningguang hums, raising her teacup before regarding Beidou pointedly, “O Uncrowned Lord of Ocean.”
Beidou chuckles. Her own tea remains untouched.
“I’m sure you didn’t summon me here just for us to toss pleasantries back and forth,” she says.
“Of course not.” Ningguang sighs, and the sound is almost yearning. “But could you blame me if I had? You’re the first non-Qixing-related figure I’ve spoken with in over a week.” She shakes her head. “Never mind me, let’s cut to the chase, shall we?”
So Beidou finds herself leaning back, listening to Ningguang and her tantalizing voice for the half-hour. The Tianquan speaks of her duty as the Qixing, of the public eye on her every move, and of the duty she holds towards the Archon and the Adepti. Beidou interjects here and there, asking for clarification, or simply just digging deeper because she can— not many have the opportunity to sit down for tea with a member of the Qixing.
By the end, Beidou feels exhausted just hearing about it all.
“So you need someone to do your dirty work,” Beidou finally surmises.
“That’s probably the best way of putting it, yes,” Ningguang replies, surprisingly straightforward.
“You have the whole Millelith,” the seaborn captain states, and the Tianquan bobs her head from side to side in consideration, before nodding, as if relenting that admission. “You have the entire Millelith of Liyue to do your bidding, and yet you choose the Crux Fleet?”
“No,” Ningguang says simply. “I choose you.”
“Me?” Beidou points to herself, disbelieving.
“Yes, you.” Ningguang absently twirls a long strand of white hair around a finger. “I choose you, specifically. However, I am also not foolish. I know that by choosing you, I end up choosing all that you bring with you as well.”
“So you’d be backing all of us.” Beidou furrows her brow. “The whole fleet?”
“Essentially. I give you what you need, and clearly, what you need is support for the Crux.” Ningguang shrugs, disinterested eyes suddenly snapping, sharp, to Beidou’s figure. “But make no mistake, any collaboration between me and your fleet is completely incidental.”
“And you should keep in mind that I have no superior, either,” Beidou replies levelly. She meets Ningguang’s stare across the table with her own, never backing down. “If you want me to become your collaborator, we must be doing this on equal footing. I get to choose whether to take on one of your tasks or not, and you must give me the right to back out.”
“Deal.”
Beidou immediately raises an eyebrow.
“Really? Just like that?”
Ningguang nods, serene. She dips her head, closing her eyes as she takes a sip of her tea.
“Just like that.”
Beidou stares at the Tianquan, transfixed— perfect in posture, poised even when drinking tea, picturesque in her palace in the sky, Ningguang had turned out to be everything the storytellers sang their praises of, and yet, more than that in her entirety.
Glancing down, Beidou finally lifts her untouched tea to her lips, letting the warmth of the liquid wash through her body in waves.
From across the table, Ningguang peers at her as a genuine smile caresses the rim of her own cup, and it feels like the land has shifted on its foundation.
--
It continues like this:
Beidou receives her orders directly from Ningguang in her floating palace herself. They don’t discuss in meeting rooms like Ningguang does with her other collaborators— instead they talk over tea and desserts. Ningguang always asks how the seas fare, and Beidou has all but dropped the formalities. Sometimes, they even argue, and it can go either way.
Nevertheless, Beidou finds herself coming back to the Jade Chamber again and again— someone of Ningguang’s intellect and personality is… refreshing, in its own unique manner. Frankly, Ningguang is incredibly charming, and despite their occasional disagreements— a meeting never seems to end on a bad note.
“My advisors seem to want to eat you alive, my captain,” Ningguang tells her one day, a sly smile on her lips. “It’s been quite a few months and yet they still ask me why I continue to do my dealings with someone so rogue-like and unpredictable.”
“I can’t say I blame them for wondering,” Beidou merely replies, shrugging. She downs her tea. “How could I when even I, myself, don’t understand why you chose me?”
“Do you wish to know?” Ningguang asks.
Beidou has never asked before. She doesn’t ask now.
“I want to know what excuse you came up for me instead,” she tells the Tianquan in amusement.
“I merely told them how it is,” Ningguang says breezily. “I simply told them that you’re the most reliable person in Liyue. I speak my truth, you listen, and then we go from there.”
Beidou lets a laugh escape at that. Perhaps it’s just because she doesn’t revere Ningguang in the same, careful way that most seem to tread, but she finds it hard to believe that her advisors would sit down and give up after such a reasoning.
“What?” Ningguang gazes at her, a challenging quirk to her smile. “Have you been proving me wrong?”
“We’ve butted heads plenty of times,” Beidou points out.
“Yes, and you’ve been able to point out flaws in my plans time and time again.” Ningguang dismisses the claim with a wave of her hand. “There’s nothing wrong with our disputes— if anything, we both leave this table with a better understanding of our goals and each other. Isn’t that right, my captain?”
“You’re not wrong there,” Beidou relents, chuckling under her breath.
“Drink your tea before it gets cold,” Ningguang orders, but there’s no heat behind her words as she clearly fights back the urge to smile. Beidou rolls her eyes playfully but does as she’s told.
She isn’t entirely sure how it happens, but eventually, these meetings with Ningguang become her favorite part of her week.
--
Today is… different.
“Will you go somewhere with me, my captain?” Ningguang had asked that afternoon, when Beidou slipped into her chamber to report back on her prior task. “I have a rare, relatively free afternoon.”
“Of course,” Beidou had replied without thinking. It had been a strange exchange— there hadn’t been any long explanation, no attempt to persuade her. It had been just Ningguang and her request, and there had been an unfamiliar look in the Tianquan’s eye that had Beidou already complying before she’d even known what she was agreeing to.
But then they’re taking a teleport waypoint to Qingyun Peak, and before she knows it, Beidou finds herself high above the earth, sitting on a floating pavilion with a view so beautiful she can see all the way to the mountain peaks of Mondstadt.
(Briefly, Beidou wonders how her acquaintances from their neighboring nation are doing. She’s met Jean, the Acting Grandmaster of the Knights of Favonius, as well as their resident librarian, Lisa, in the City of Freedom on many occasions when she had been doing business in the area.)
She is, however, surprised to find worn, yet well-kept books awaiting them on the pavilion table as Ningguang motions to take a seat.
“This floating island served the basis for the Jade Chamber,” Ningguang explains. She runs her hand over the leathery pages of one of the books left on the table. “I had already known about the phenomena of Plaustrite before, with its levitational properties, but I’d never seen it in person until I came across this place in my travels. Someone had built it to serve as a private sanctuary; as an escape from the world. From the written words they left behind, you could say I was… inspired.”
“You really took an initial idea and expanded upon it,” Beidou comments, running her hand over the oldened wood of the pavilion. She looks over at Ningguang, who had taken a seat by her side. “It must’ve been a lot of work, bridging the earth and sky.”
“Well, you can’t say I was the first to do it,” Ningguang laughs lightly, although her tone takes on something melancholic, “But it was a lot of work, yes. It took a lot of Plaustrite, and at first, no one could comprehend what I was trying to create.”
“I wish I could’ve seen that drawing board. It must’ve been phenomenal.” Beidou shifts to give the woman who’d so swiftly become her friend a hard look. “And you know that I don’t just say things to merely flatter you.”
“I do,” Ningguang agrees. “I can always count on you to be truthful.” She pauses. “With that being said, may I ask you something, my captain?”
“Of course. Anything.”
“You are often out traveling at sea, are you not? And when you stay in Liyue Harbor, you often just go back to your ship to sleep. Do you consider your ship as your home?”
It takes a moment for Beidou to find the right way to word her answer.
“I wouldn’t consider my ship my home, no.” It hadn’t sounded right coming from Ningguang’s lips, and as she’d continued to ponder it, Beidou finds that she can’t really pinpoint anything in particular. “I suppose the closest thing to home would be the ocean, if it counts. I’ve spent my whole life sailing, and sometimes I don’t know if I’ll ever fully get my land legs back.”
“Do you not like coming on land?” Ningguang questions.
“No, it’s not that. It’s more like—” Beidou searches for more words. “It’s more like the ocean was the only one to accept who I was and what I wanted to do. I wanted to travel. The ocean let me come and go as I pleased.” She halts, and the pieces fall together. “A lot like you, actually.”
For a heartbeat, neither of them say anything. Then—
“Is it so wrong to want to bridge the earth and sky with the water as well?” Ningguang asks wistfully. She stares out over the edge of the pavilion, staring at the bright orange sky of the setting sun. The captain doesn’t know how to respond to that.
“Ningguang,” Beidou finally says, slowly, after what seems like an eternity. “Just why did you choose me?”
“Why not?” The white-haired woman’s retort comes quick, only for her to sigh a moment later, a hand encircling her own God’s Eye. Ningguang runs a thumb over the Geo emblem, heaving a breath. “Perhaps it was because you have a type of freedom that not many can obtain.”
“A type of freedom?” Beidou echoes. That hadn’t been what she’d expected at all.
“Yes,” Ningguang smiles, as light as the breeze, as grounded as the earth. “Perhaps you wield an Electro Vision, but you run as free as the water that parts for your ships to cross. You… You can go wherever you want, my captain. Collaborators we may be, but you are not bound by any formal contract. You make your own decisions. You do whatever you want, whenever you want. It is a type of freedom that most in Liyue will never get to experience— the type of freedom that I used to dream of.”
“I never—” Beidou shakes her head. “I never would’ve guessed,” she admits. “You’ve done so well for yourself. You’ve accomplished so much.”
“When I saw that freedom in you, I refused to take it away,” Ningguang tells her, and suddenly everything clicks into place. In front of them, the sky turns red. “When I was younger, I thought I could carve out my own kind of freedom. I worked hard, earned more than my keep, made the right decisions, and made a lot of Mora. I thought it would be fulfilling enough, but as time went on and I was given more and more responsibilities, I found myself craving a reprieve.” She laughs dryly to herself. “But even the Jade Chamber, which was supposed to be my sanctuary, ended up just another workplace for me.”
“It’s wonderful, though,” Beidou immediately says, and Ningguang glances at her, curious. “The Jade Chamber is still wonderful. You, and everything you’ve accomplished, has brought so much good.” She frowns. “I probably don’t have the right to say this, but despite all the difficulty, I don’t think you should have any regrets. You—” Beidou suddenly finds her mouth dry. She takes a deep breath. “You’re really wonderful, Ningguang.”
Ningguang’s smile softens.
“Thank you, Beidou. It means a lot to hear you say that.”
“That’s the first time you’ve called me by my name,” Beidou acknowledges, unable to stop herself from marveling.
“Was it?” Ningguang tilts her head, and eyes flickering from Beidou’s eyes to… slightly lower. There’s a glint there that hadn’t been present before. “I hadn’t realized. I’d wanted to call you that for awhile now.”
“Have you?”
When had their faces gotten so close together?
“I’m quite positive.”
Somewhere along the way, Ningguang’s fingers intertwine with her own; electric.
“Oh, good. I very much like the way you say my name.”
Beidou kisses Ningguang surrounded by a crimson sky. As it turns out, she likes more than just the sound of her name on the other woman’s lips.
--
That night, Beidou takes Ningguang back to the Jade Chamber.
She stays until morning.
It’s the best rest she’s had in years.
--
The next time Beidou returns from a request, Ningguang meets her at the gates. Beidou eagerly steps in, and the moment she’s past the threshold, she’s tugging Ningguang into her arms, kissing her behind the curtains in the corridor, hiding from the sparse attendees that Ningguang keeps around, and they’re laughing like school girls despite it all.
“Welcome back, my captain,” Ningguang whispers with reverence against her lips, and something inside Beidou melts into a pile of mush.
Beidou’s favorite part has to be when the dying afternoon light hits Ningguang’s face just right, the golden glow illuminating her smile, elevating her laughter, and she’s just so beautiful that Beidou hardly knows what to do with herself.
(That’s not much of a problem, though, when nighttime hits and Ningguang is quick to pull Beidou to her bedroom.)
Every subsequent visit has Beidou staying until morning.
None of the attendants dare to question it.
--
“If Abyss mages are involved, I’d prefer to approach them myself,” had been Ningguang’s exact words.
Unsurprisingly, things had gotten unruly real quick.
“As expected from the Abyss,” Beidou mutters under her breath, swinging her claymore about to clobber a stray hilichurl that had somehow been coerced into this madness.
She doesn’t care much about the Abyss mages— as petulant as they are, they’re no major threat, especially when Beidou has faced much larger, much stronger foes out at sea.
No, the trouble is Ningguang herself. As much as the other woman had clearly wanted to keep it hidden, it was no secret to Beidou that the Tianquan had been overworking herself these past few days. With the Rite of Descension only a mere month away, Ningguang had been trapped in endless meetings with the Qixing, as well as having set aside time for consultations with merchants who were looking for guidance in light of the Abyss Order and their strange movements causing more and more attacks on the roads.
“You should stay in the city and rest,” Beidou had whispered when they'd caught a rare quiet moment of reprieve to themselves. They'd sat on a quiet stairwell, Ningguang letting her impassive facade of elegance crumble as she'd leaned over to rest her head on Beidou's shoulder, closing her eyes for but a moment. “I can handle the Abyss Order, but you need to grapple with your lack of sleep.”
Ningguang, as stubborn as the earth she represented, had shaken her head.
“I’m not letting you go alone, that’s not a gamble I’m willing to make.”
“I can ask Keqing to assist me,” Beidou insisted, naming the only other Qixing who had actually extended a hand out in friendship to her. “She’s skilled with her blade, and any Abyss mages would be no problem for the two of us.”
“I know that, silly.” Ningguang had murmured, and Beidou had felt her lover’s fingers twist into red fabric. “Both of you together would light up the sky with lightning. Keqing is so busy herself, and yet she’d willingly go help you if you asked. That girl,” she laughs fondly. “A skeptic, but so long as she's making a difference towards her goals, she doesn’t know how to refuse. She’s a lot like you, my captain.”
“Is she?” Beidou had never considered it. Her, a pirate, being compared with one of the revered Qixing? She had taken a moment to think it over, before fondly realizing that Ningguang had so elegantly diverted them off topic. Nevertheless— “You’re still insisting on accompanying me, aren’t you?”
“Of course I am,” the Tianquan had admonished, smiling against the skin of Beidou’s neck. “Any excuse to get out of this stuffy place.”
And that had been the end of that discussion.
Now, they stand atop a cliff near Nantianmen, and as Ningguang creates a Jade Screen of gold to block incoming fiery projectiles, Beidou grits her teeth and decides she wants to end this fast.
Calling upon a burst of lightning, Beidou darts out from behind the Geo screen, directly in the path of the last remaining Abyss mages’ spells. Grunting, she thrusts her sword forward, calling upon Tidecaller as fireballs barrage against her blade, the energy storing itself within its steel.
“Ningguang!”
With a final shout, Beidou surges forward, releasing a pulse of electricity that has her foes falling from their place in midair, right as she sees Ningguang release a final Starshatter, her gems rocketing through the air and hitting their marks with ease.
The final Abyss mage dissolves before their eyes, and Beidou takes a moment to exhale a breath of relief. With the taunts of their enemies gone, Niantanmen returns to its usual peaceful atmosphere, leaving Beidou to survey the land, take in the cool breeze that brushes by.
The sound of Ningguang sighing has Beidou turning around, and she chuckles to herself at the sight of this elegant, poised woman sitting so unceremoniously on the ground, legs strewn out in front of her as she picks aimlessly at a blade of grass.
“You look tired,” Beidou observes, smiling.
“Perhaps I’ve overdone it recently,” Ningguang admits. She stretches her arms out to Beidou, making childish grabby motions with her hands as she whines through her teeth. “Come here, I’m exhausted.”
“Who knew you’d get so needy in this state?” Beidou teases, but she acquiesces sooner rather than later, eager to pull the other woman into an embrace. “You’re lucky I’m not tired at all, so you can rest now, I’ll carry you back.”
“I wish I could sleep from now until tomorrow night.”
“Lady, if I had it my way, you’d be sleeping from now until the Rite of Descension.”
Ningguang huffs out a quiet laugh but doesn’t deny it. Her arms wind themselves around Beidou’s neck, sighing once more as she lets the captain take complete hold of her.
“Let’s go home,” Beidou whispers, cradling Ningguang close to her chest, smiling softly as the white-haired woman’s eyes start to droop from exhaustion.
“Home?” Ningguang echoes sleepily, catching the word falling from Beidou’s lips.
“Mmhm.” Beidou nods. She stands casually, carrying the other woman with ease. Once at her full height, she takes a look around, mentally mapping out the area, taking account for where the closest teleport waypoint would be located.
“I thought your home was the ocean.” The words are said with an uncharacteristic mumble, but Beidou hears Ningguang nonetheless.
“Ah, that.” If Beidou had a free hand, she’d definitely be rubbing the back of her head, sheepish. Instead, all she does is offer the other woman a cheeky grin, which Ningguang blinks up at with bleary eyes. “I had said it was the closest thing and, well, you could say that I’ve reconsidered since then.”
“You did?”
“Yeah.” Beidou hums, nonchalant. She pivots on one foot, sets her sights on the horizon— on Liyue, the city that became more than just a dock, and the Jade Chamber, the palace she’d come to enter like second nature. “I did some thinking and all that, realized that home might just be wherever you choose to be.”
“That’s funny,” Ningguang mumbles, right on the brink of sleep. “I was just thinking the same of you.”
And Beidou feels that giddy feeling in her chest expand to something even wider than the valleys of Liyue’s Jueyun Karst. She wonders if this is what the Archons or Adepti feel like— she has so much energy, she could probably walk all the way back to Liyue Harbor.
“How can you say such things right before passing out on me?” Beidou muses aloud to no one, a wide, wide smile on her face. Ningguang is Beidou’s home, and Beidou is Ningguang’s in turn. The sentiment just feels right.
Perhaps they can give each other a freedom to which none can compare.
--
It will continue like this:
She wakes up to a warm body reluctantly pulling away from her own.
“No,” Beidou grumbles, not even opening her eyes. The arms she has wrapped around Ningguang tighten, tugging the other woman closer, and she tangles her fingers in white hair as Ningguang’s soft laugh fills the air.
“I have to get up soon, my captain.” An adoring hand cups Beidou’s cheek, Ningguang’s thumb stroking over the soft skin right beneath her eyepatch.
“Absolutely not, you’re staying with me today.”
“I have meetings to attend,” Ningguang reminds her with a giggle. She presses their foreheads together, and Beidou feels her heart ache in the best way at the gesture. Seeing Ningguang in action, in her element, is always a sight to behold, but there’s something so incredibly special about these moments when they’re alone, when all pretenses have been dropped, and her lover can shed the responsibilities of Tianquan if only for a little while.
In the early morning, with her light turning her white hair to a honey gold, Ningguang is so beautiful that Beidou almost wants to sob. What did she ever do to deserve something so good? Surely Ningguang will tire of her sooner or later, won’t she?
Beidou despises the ugly feeling rising in her chest.
“My heart,” Ningguang whispers gently, nose nudging the underside of Beidou’s jaw. “You’re thinking too hard. Mora for your thoughts?”
“Hm?” Beidou blinks, easily slipping out of her daze. She smiles down as amber eyes blink up at her. “Never thought you of all people would throw money my way for something as simple as my thoughts, but I mean, if you say so—”
“You are truly intolerable,” Ningguang states, deadpanned, but she ducks down to bury her face into Beidou’s shoulder as her face burns red, trying to smother a smile down as her lover’s warm laugh rings through the bedroom. She taps the side of Beidou’s bare arm. “Beidou?”
The sound of her name grabs Beidou’s attention. It’s not often that Ningguang uses it.
“What is it?”
“I love you.”
There’s a beat of silence.
Beidou’s mouth parts in surprise, eyes going wide.
Ningguang slowly turns to meet her gaze, the normally calm and composed woman looking uncharacteristically shy.
“Something about just now,” she says quietly, “Perhaps it was how quiet you were, perhaps it was the frown on your lips— it didn’t sit right with me. Something about just now, it made me want to tell you how I really feel.”
Beidou blinks back tears that prick at the corners of her eyes.
“I love you, too,” she tells Ningguang hoarsely, feels her heart expand and bloom into a thousand cherry blossoms at the smile that courses across Ningguang’s face, and she surges forward to mold her lips against the woman she’s come to love so terribly, terribly much, politics and social-standings be damned.
(They’ve kissed before, of course they have, but this kiss – this kiss in particular – is everything and more. It’s good morning ’s and you better stay safe ’s, and I wish I could keep your ears from bleeding in those meetings with your advisors ’s, and I know we’re from different worlds, but I want to see them all with you ’s, and there’s no more doubt in Beidou’s mind now, Ningguang is it.)
“You really know how to read me like an open book now, huh?” The captain can’t help but muse to herself as she pulls away.
“I’d like to think not everyone can keep up with a pirate.” A cheeky smile quirks at the corner of Ningguang’s mouth that has Beidou barking out a laugh. “My attendants and advisors certainly find you quite the handful.”
“And yet you keep me around just the same,” Beidou grins.
“Only the Archon know why,” Ningguang shoots back teasingly. Then a thought seems to occur, and she pushes herself up with one elbow, seemingly looking around the room in confusion. “Speaking of my attendants, why hasn’t anyone come to get me this morning?”
“Oh, that.” Beidou shrugs. “I might’ve requested for you to have the day off.”
“You?” Ningguang’s eyes go wide before she quickly backtracks. “I mean no offense, of course—” Beidou snickers, “—but I find it mildly hard to believe that you managed to convince any of my rock stubborn, contract-driven advisors that I should be given a—”
“That’s because I didn’t go to your advisors,” Beidou explains, a full-blown grin on her face like she’d just stolen the prized treasure. “Last night when you were finishing that report, I went and sought an audience with the Yuheng.”
Ningguang’s jaw drops.
“That girl—”
“—And I have a lot in common, as you said,” Beidou informs her lover with a chuckle. “I told Keqing what happened yesterday, and she agreed with me that you deserve ‘an entire day of repose.’ She promised to take care of everything.”
“Keqing sounds like she needs a break herself,” Ningguang mumbles. Seemingly having accepted the inevitability of a lazy day, she sinks back into the bed, molding her body against Beidou’s; magnetic. “Though, I suppose it only makes sense that we all get some time off once in a while.”
“We’re staying in bed until at least noon, my light.” Beidou presses a swift kiss to Ningguang's temple. “Let the other Qixing handle things for once.”
“But I’m not tired anymore,” Ningguang giggles under all the attention.
“Who said anything about sleeping?” Beidou reasons, smirks when she sees that telltale glint in Ningguang’s eyes.
Yes, Beidou would not mind if things continued like this.
End.