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Beidou had finished her personal, quiet break looking to the sea from the decks of the Alcor. The few swigs from her goblet had the captain feeling that little bit warmer against the nip of the night-time ocean air.
This captain is very much, a people person. She has the greatest respect for her crew, they have unwavering respect and loyalty to her. Beidou would protect them at all costs. She often tells them, "men, if any of you have an issue or a problem, come to me and I'll help you deal with it. We don't do things alone in the crux." The crew half-jokingly tell hes she's "so much like a big sister." The captain appreciates their genuine fondness.
"It's sweet of people to see that much in me," the captain was sat on a nearby crate, leaning back, with a half-smile on her face. This was partly from the booze. "I wouldn't have seen myself as someone with that much..." Her thoughts trailed off as she noticed Kazuha approaching with that gentle smile.
"Hi, Miss Beidou," his voice was so soft and gentle, was this really the same boy who fought off countless shogunate on his escape from Inazuma? The exhaustion in his eyes could really show.
"Hahaha, Kazuha. I know you call me Miss Beidou out of respect, its in your culture, but Beidous fine by me y'know, not much need for many honorifics out on the open ocean."
"Plus considering you're not an official member of the crux yet, theres no need for you to call me captain either."
"I'm aware" the boy said, with his eyes closed and head tilted towards the floor, a soft smile on his face. "But you saved me Miss Beidou." "I'm very grateful for that, im sure you understand." This boy sounded so genuinely thankful. Beidou's heart felt touched.
Beidou had ever been the good judge of character, she could read people and read them well. She knew if anyone had bad intentions with her, she saw the kindness that people had in their hearts and she always knew, from the looks inside peoples eyes, from their body language, from... whatever it was, that invisible thing that let Beidou know that someone had so much pain inside that they kept buried, hidden away in the past.
"Tell me Kazuha, running from Inazuma, thats a pretty big thing, a dangerous thing, and with the decree and everything bad thats happening there, you might not be able to get back in. If you were ever caught, hell, I'd say the electro archon herself would come find you to make you pay for all those shogunate you sliced down. Didn't you have a family back there? I'm sure you had friends, are you okay with leaving them in Inazuma? If I were you, or atleast back when I was around your age, and less toughened, i'd be frightened, and i think that you almost certainly are too, is going to Liyue really what you want?"
Kazuha's soft smile depleted to not quite a frown, but just enough for Beidou to confirm that this boy was scared, worried, and alone.
Beidou came and joined him on his crate, offering her simple, warm company of just sitting beside him, a gesture of kindness to let this ronin know, she was there with him, not alone. Kazuha placed a hand over one of the many bandaged up wounds he had accrued from his lengthy escape to the Inazuman port. Beidou personally treated these wounds as the Alcor set sail, with haste too, as the captain recognised the danger that could come after she spotted this lone samurai, short of breath, dirty and with many cuts and bruises arriving at the port.
Having a caring figure next to him was almost too much for Kazuha. He could feel the welling up of emotions from the very bottom of his pumping heart. The lump in his throat growing and growing, blocking all the things that he wanted to say. That he *wanted* to say. The urge to open this buried past of his had not come in a long time, not since ... before Kazuha's best friend back in Inazuma died months before he started his escape. The death affected him, so much.
Months of solitude and months of hiding with not one soul to speak with. Even his own home, Inazuma wanted him to suffer. The main thing that drove the boy to fight for so long, to persist with his refusal to hand his vision to the shogunate was one of the last lessons his friend taught him before his vision flickered dark. "Your vision was a gift to you from the anemo archon, it's such a blessing to recieve that recognition and to be given the ability to be free on the wind. Dont let them take it Kazuha, noone decides if you're free or not."
Beidou was... just like him. From everything she would say, to even the manner in which she spoke. She was unbound. She was tough. She was caring, in her own, protective way.
The moonlit cheeks of the boy befell two silent tears. Captain Beidou brought back so many memories of the passed friend, and Kazuha had so much just waiting on his tongue that he wanted to tell her, but nothing could come out. He can't do this, he can't dig up the hurt in his heart, the thought of his pain resurfacing, it's too frightening, but he longs to, to this forthright captain who is just like the friend he loved.
"Miss Beidou, I listen to the sound of these ocean waves and they remind me of my home, they're not dissimilar to the rustling of the bamboo leaves in the trees near my old home. I will miss it, I'm outside of Inazuma now, and when I arrive in Liyue, I'll find a place to be... I suppose... alone..." Kazuha grew quieter and quieter. "I miss him."
Beidou felt so empathetic to this fragile, weeping boy before her. She saw much of her younger self in him. She saw a boy hunched over burying his face into his hands and leaning into his knees. And felt such a wishful desire to take all that pain away. She knew it wasn't that simple.
She gave him a hug, she turned him around and wrapped her strong arms around him and brought his head towards her heart. "What do you say you stay here with me, eh? In the little time you've been here you've offered to help with a lot of work so i know you'd be good to have aboard, and plus, I... want you to stay here, you told me you'd be fine on your own but that's not good enough for me. I want you to join me and my crew and stay. You... dont deserve to be alone again. It's scary... so scary."
Those words, those simple, soft words. An offer of companionship from a genuine, kind soul. Kazuha wrapped his arms back around Beidou and sobbed into her shoulder, it was quiet, and such a gentle cry that Beidou thought he seemed scared to make any noise. The tears were staining the red cloak around Miss Beidous shoulder's, the faint smell of alcohol and slight scent of the glaze lily perfume left in the threads were a somewhat comforting thing to Kazuha, reminding him of the sake from back home.
"Beidou, I- " he choked out over his cries.
"Shh, it's okay Kazuha, you dont need to talk about or explain anything."
"I dont think i'm at all capable of just getting rid of your pain and... fixing all of your problems. But i can be here for you, i *want* to be here for you, you can and, you should stay with me and the Alcor."
With a tighter squeeze, Kazuha let out a phrase gentle enough to simply rest in the air. "Thank you."
The two sat together in mostly silence, watching the moon dip down over the horizon as the sky started to warm up. Beidou had an arm draped over Kazuha's shoulder, resting his head softly against her own shoulder.
"I don't suppose I can call you Kazu? Can I?"
"Heh. You may, and I hope you don't mind that I continue to call you Miss Beidou, it's a way of me showing you the respect you definitely deserve."
Beidou smiled from ear to ear. "Of course, kid."
"I wouldn't have seen myself as someone with that much... effect on others." This thought inside Beidou's head began to fade.