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“This,” Kazuha says with an unusual degree of force, “is going to end poorly.”
Beidou straightens up from where she had been tucking spare buckets and towels into the seat compartment on the boat, “why do you say that?”
“Look around,” he spreads his hands towards the scene in front of him, the old wooden boat barely big enough for two people let alone three, and Beidou’s grease-stained cargo shorts, “You told them that this was going to be an anniversary dinner, not a fishing trip to catch their own food. They’re going to show up in finery, expecting a reservation for The Pearl Gallery.”
“No, they’re not,” Beidou tosses her dark hair over her shoulder and brushes off his concerns, “they know me well enough to know what I was planning. No one plans a trip to the Pearl Gallery this early in the afternoon, now quiet down and toss me that rope.” Kazuha sighs heavily but does as he’s told, resigned to letting the woman continue on with her delusions that her aristocratic partners were ready to go fishing with her. She continued getting the boat ready, piling in fishing rods and a bucket full of squirming bait, each step making the small wooden vessel shake and shudder.
“Sure you don’t want to come?” Beidou asks, deciding the boat is set and stepping back up onto the dock.
Kazuha laughs once, tucking his hands into the pockets of his cardigan, “no thank you, I plan on heading home and beginning to draft a speech for your funeral since I doubt Eula and Ningguang will let you leave this trip alive. I’ll have a cup of sake in your honor.” Beidou is about to tell him off again when she feels the hair on the back of her neck stand up, two figures appearing at the end of the dock.
By the time Ningguang and Eula reach them, Beidou is considering jumping into the harbor and swimming away. Both women are dressed in beautiful dresses, radiant as goddesses in gold and blue, stepping carefully across the planks of the dock so their precarious heels don’t slip through the cracks. Their makeup is impeccable, even from a distance, illuminating their beauty and the sharp, cold glare they are casting at her.
Kazuha steps off to the side, all but fading into the background of this mess as Eula and Ningguang finally reach her. The knight raises an eyebrow, trying her best to stay composed as she takes in Beidou’s shorts and tank top, “is that appropriate attire for dinner? I was told this was a formal affair.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say formal,” Beidou wracks her mind for a solution that won’t get her killed as Kazuha has claimed, “more like…”
Ningguang pinches the bridge of her nose, agitation tightening her features, “what kind of game are you playing here, Beidou?”
“There’s no game! We’re going fishing!”
At this, Eula turns and begins to walk away without another word. Ningguang is quick to follow and Beidou hurries to intercept them.
“Wait, wait!” She manages to get infront of both women and hold her hands out, effectively blocking their exit, “you’re both already here, and I’ve done so much preparation, let’s just go! It will be fun I promise!”
“Fun?” Ningguang tosses her hair over her shoulder, looking like she’s ready to shove Beidou into the harbor, “what part of being cramped on a small boat attempting to fish is fun ?”
“Catching your own food is rewarding,” Beidou argues, planting her hands on her hips, “and you know what I think it would be good for you to get off your high horse and try something a little rustic!”
“Rustic?! This is barbaric!” Before Ningguang can protest further, Eula holds up a hand. She had been silent since her initial retreat from the boat, but now she stood tall with a considering look in her eyes.
“It’s not ideal,” Eula lowers her hand, mouth twitching up into a grimace, “not ideal at all, but I won’t have my time wasted like this. I’ll go.”
Beidou tries not to let her jaw drop, “really?” Eula huffs, turns her nose up, and swivels on her heel to stalk towards the boat. She breezes past Kazuha, who is standing off to the side pretending to be extremely interesting in the wood boards below his feet, and hicks her skirts up to step into the boat.
Beidou smirks at Ningguang, willing to accept this as a victory despite how miserable Eula looks sitting in the boat. The Mondstaters arms are crossed tightly over her chest, her mouth pressed into a tight miserable line. Ningguang curls her long nails into a fist, casting a withering glare at Beidou before she turned and followed their girlfriend down the dock to the boat.
She pauses beside Kazuha, who turns back around to join the conversation, “did you know about this?”
“I tried to warn her,” he holds up his hands in surrender, “she was convinced you all knew better.”
Beidou hurries up behind Ningguang and plants both hands on the woman's shoulders, urging her into the boat, “yeah, yeah, shouldn’t you be heading home kid?”
He watches her all but force the Tianquan into the boat before bowing, “have a nice evening, ladies.” His gaze slides over them with an easy smile, hiding whatever thoughts were actually rolling around in his mind before he heads back towards the harbor.
Beidou shakes herself and begins untying the boat, ignoring the way Ningguang and Eula seemed to be stewing despite having agreed to this. Once freed, she pushes away from the dock she hurries to take the oars, hoping everything will smooth over once they’re all trapped out at sea.
Great plan.
Eula and Ningguang are silent the entire time Beidou spends rowing out into better fishing waters, responding to her attempts at small talk with silence so cold it could freeze the harbor.
Halfway through the trip Beidou gets a text from Kazuha. It contains a single picture: a notebook resting on his knees with a few haikus penned on the white pages.
-
Captain Crux: You’re grounded
Kaedehara Kid: I’m just preparing to eulogize you properly :)
Kaedehara Kid: Hah, Eula-gize
Captain Crux: I’ll haunt you when I’m dead.
-
Beidout tucks her phone back in her pocket with a huff, blowing some hair out of her face. She can imagine what he’s up to, curled on the couch in his crowded apartment with a hockey game on, bottles of sake, and Sumeru rice wine on the table as friends chat around him. To be fair to him, she has to admit that the haikus were pretty good.
If she were to die at least her funeral would be nice.
Beidou lets the oars drag in the water, coaxing the boat to a stop, “have either of you fished before?”
Ningguang shakes her head and Eula picks a bit of leaf off her skirt, flicking it away with manicured nails, “no. Amber has tried to get me to go fishing with her but I’m often too busy.”
“So this will be a good learning experience! You can go back to Amber and show her what you know, I bet she’ll be impressed!” Convincing Eula of something was a skill Beidou had gotten very good at. All it took was a little maneuvering, some pressure on the right topics and the woman was sold.
The idea of impressing Amber dangled like bait before the woman, and she swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
Eula holds out a hand, “give me a rod. But know that if I end up covered in water or I get hit with a fish I will have my vengeance.”
Beidou sets a rod up for Eula, showing her how to properly attach bait to a hook without cutting her fingers on the sharp edge. Ningguang pretends not to watch, but after Eula leans into the experience the Tianquan begins to take note. Much like how Eula could be coaxed to an activity by the idea of admiration, Beidou knew the Ningguang hated being left out of the loop. If she didn’t hold all the cards then she couldn’t control the situation.
“Alright,” Beidou maneuvers herself behind Eula without rocking the boat too much, taking the woman's hands in hers, “you want to bring it back slowly, and then cast out quickly to get the most range. I’ll do it with you this first time so you ge the feel for it.”
Eula nods, her face a mask of determination as she stares out at the sea to aim. It’s an adorable expression, although Beidou knows she’ll get slapped for insinuating the woman is cute. She brings their arms back together, enjoys the way that Eula’s muscles tense and flex even beneath the silk trappings of her sleeves and then casts the rod forward. The hook sails out in a beautiful arc and sinks into the waves with a gentle splash.
“Now you wait to feel a strong tug, gentle tugs will fake you out,” she releases the woman and turns to Ningguang, “are you ready?”
Ningguang turns her nose up, “I suppose since I’m here I will give it an attempt.” Beidou shakes her head, trying not to outwardly laugh at how hard the woman is trying to be stern. She assembles a rod with everything Ningguang needs before assuming a similar position behind her. The woman's long nails make holding the rod a bit difficult, but Beidou manages to find a way that feels comfortable for both of them before casting out.
Once all three of them have settled in to wait, the conversation flows between them. Beidou knows she isn’t getting out of this one without paying for her mistake, but Ningguang and Eula both seem to be enjoying themselves.
After a few minutes, Ningguang’s rod bends and she lets out a gasp, “I think I’ve got a bite!” Beidou reaches out and helps her reel it in while Eula shouts out unhelpful advice about turning the rod towards the fish and easing up on the line. It takes some battling, but eventually, Ningguang and Beidou manage to yank their prize from the water.
A decent-sized Medaka dangles in the air in front of them, twitching on the hook. Ningguang’s mouth is slightly agape, forming an expression that Beidou liked to call ‘first catch face’.
“Well done!” she reaches out and detaches the fish from the hook, tossing it in a bucket, “we might actually eat tonight!”
Eula slaps the captain's thigh, “not funny.”
Together they manage to catch a couple more fish, nothing for the history books but certainly enough that Beidou can make a wonderful dinner for them. The sun starts to set over the harbor, the buildings lighting up in gold and white as lanterns turn on for the evening. They rest for a few minutes in the sight before Beidou breaks the silence.
“Shall we get going? I don’t think you want to row back in the dark.”
Eula and Ningguang share a look before turning back to her, “that sounds like a great plan save for one thing.”
Ningguang tents her fingers, “as punishment for this… misunderstanding, you have to swim back.”
“That’s what I figured was going to happen,” Beidou says with a sigh, standing and moving to the edge of the boat dutifully. Eula rises from her seat and approaches her, tucking back the long edges of her silk sleeves as she prepared to push the woman overboard. The water was decently warm and it wasn’t a very far distance to swim, so she was counting that as a blessing from the Geo Archon. Had she brought them out any further and she might have been towing the boat back.
Just before Eula shoves her back Beidou thinks that, in the grand scheme of things, being cast into the water by a beautiful woman is the way to go.