Chapter Text
DISCLAIMER
(Short little note, this story is PRACTISE they're going to be heavy detail and emotion purposefully because i want to get more fluid at it so it may be akward and forced, thsi story is more for me to look back on my writing :), PLEASE GIVE TIPS AND CRITICISM (gently thou I'm sensitive rip))
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Ever since you heard about the traveler named Aether you had always wanted to meet him, with the stories of how he defeated the dragon terrorizing over Mondstadt, how he fought he old sea god and sent it back to the ocean floor and the countless things he's helped people with. He was a huge inspiration to everyone, especially you. You always tried your best to help, to be there for others and to listen, you always did as many commissions as you could from the adventure guild in Liyue no matter how hard or long they were, sometimes all you would do the days you had off from work is find people to help. Many people often though you did it for selfish reasons, to be seen as a hero and owed favors but that wasn't it. You knew what it was like to helpless, to be searching for help with no one to give it to you, the days spent hurt and tired, you hated seeing people struggle as you understood more than anyone what it was like. So you decided to do as much as you could to help.
When you found out that the traveler was here to find his sister you immediately wanted to help, not only because of your love for helping but because of a much bigger reason. You knew how much the traveler has done. The fact that all he wanted to do was find his sister and yet he was forced and burdened with peoples issues, you knew what it was like to lose the person you loved most, the overwhelming pain from it. How the days blurred together, how you felt empty, gone, emotionless, how you cried for so long there were no more tears left, where it was hard to find the motivation to do anything, because someone who was so involved with your life sudden was gone. How that hole just sat there, empty, dark and cold.
You never would have expected to run into him that cool misty morning roaming the streets of Liyue, hearing the chatter from vendors, the clinking of the coin on your skirt, the chirps of birds and insects. The growing warmth from the burning fiery sun rising from its bed under the horizon. You took a breath, the cold air cooling your throat, you watched your breathe dissipate out of your mouth as you exhale. The sunrise in Liyue would always be your favorite. You walked up to Katheryne at the guild.
"Ad astra abyssosque," Katheryne greeted.
"Hello, do you have any commissions for me?" You asked politely.
"Yes, there is a commission that may interest you, it's a large hillichurl camp located by Juenyun Karst, it is theorized to be two camps or more combined, possible a planned ambush," katheryne explained, "I would suggest bringing a partner, you can either find an adventure on your own or come back later to see if any are willing, I do have an adventure in mind for you, he's very experienced as well."
"Thank you, I'm going to look for someone but if I don't have any luck, just have someone come fetch me if you do find someone, I'll be located around the city, I shouldn't be hard to find," you said while waving goodbye.
You decided to go walk through the shops and market streets as you knew that if anyone needed help, they would know to call out. You looked around as you did so to see if any adventures were around, though most would still be at home or sleeping at this early time, in fact most of the vendors were still re stocking their shops.
"Y/N, over here!" You turned to see a vendor calling you, "I'm sorry to ask as I'm sure your busy but could you uh, ya know...help attract customers ..?"
You knew exactly what he was asking, your talent and job was dancing, specifically belly dancing, because it was rare to see in Liyue it was an eye catchers to passing buyers so it wasn't uncommon for vendors to hire you. After all it made you good money, though it was definitely a tiring job.
"Sure, I'm not currently busy with anything so I can spare some time," you said walking over, you walked over to the vendor and politely grabbed the quilt and bowl given to you, before carefully laying the quilt on the ground, you took your sandals off, and set the bowl down in front of you. You fixed the coin skirt, making sure it was secure on your waist, the exhaled, you let your eyes close and your mind wander to where ever it wished. You always danced better when you let your body take control instead of focusing on it. It was like meditation to you, once you were so far into you mind while dancing you had danced for hours, and while it made you a lot of money...you definitely felt it the day after.
You silently began, the streets where starting to fill in with people as people woke up and started their day, you remembered when you first started dancing how nervous and embarrassed you were to do it it public, yet now it was like nothing to you. You felt your self being lost in the movement and flow, letting your hips flow, you felt yourself losing the current time, getting lost deep in your mind, in the flowing rivers, whispering winds and fluttering leaves falling from the trees. You always had a unique twist to your dancing, you incorporated almost ballet into it, with spins and turn. It was memorizing watch you, how your body flowed and moved like water. How anyone could tell how free your mind was. It was a beautiful talent that only you seemed to be able to master.
To you it felt like no time had passed yet when you finally opened your eyes you could feel the heated mid-day sun warming your shoulders and face, the crowd watching you with intent and smiles, the chatter of shoppers and sellers. You quietly and softly came to a stop, hearing the coin on your skirt finally come to a rest, the people gave they're final bits of mora before clearing out, a bit disappointed it had stopped yet happy they were able to witness it.
As you you let a soft breathe out plopping to the ground in exhaust you watched the crowd lazily as you went to grab the bowl. But then something caught your attention...amber. Soft amber eyes staring back at you. You inhaled as you noticed the small tilt in their head, the long flowing braid down their back, you were so memorized in your eyes you didn't even notice the floating companion next to them.
You almost didn't notice them walking toward you. The way they moved, was almost as memorizing as you, they seemed out of this world, like an alien or an angel, you couldn't decide which. You silently stared up at them your lips parted in awe.
"Hello," they started saying in a quiet voice, "I saw your dance, you looked really good, I never knew that there were belly dancers in Liyue I think the only time I've seen one was in Mondstadt during the Windblume festival." The stranger gave a small smile.
"Oh- uh yea haha," you started as you scratched the back of your head and gave a sheepish smile, "I honestly think I'm the only one here in Liyue, it's a popular art from where I'm from though."
"Wait are you from Sumera?!" You finally noticed the small floating child next to the seemingly angel, "I've heard it was a popular art there, I don't think I've ever met someone from there, what it like there?? Tell me! Tell me!"
You jumped back as her eagerness, "oh uhm-" you started
"Oh don't mind Paimom, she can be a bit much at times, I'm Aether and you are?" The stranger stated.
"Oh I'm- wait, did you say your name was Aether?! Like the traveler?!" You exclaimed, leaning in closer a smile grew on your face.
"Oh, uhm yes that's me," now it was his turn to give the sheepish smile.
"Yup that's him! Pretty awesome I know, did you hear that he once-" Paimom as she was called was stopped short.
"Paimom calm down, your being to obnoxious," Aether said rolling him eyes in annoyance.
"Hmph! I was just trying to tell them how cool you are, your so rude!" Paimom huffed crossing her eyes and turning away.
Aether was shook his head before speaking again, "I heard from katheryne that there was a commission you needed help with completing? I can come along if you haven't found a partner yet," Aether volunteered.
"Sure," you stated quickly, maybe even a bit to quickly. You had never imaged Aether to be this pretty, no wonder he had looked foreign, out of this world, it was because he is. "Oh and by the way, my names Y/N"
"Alright Y/N, let's go tell katheryne we will do the commission together and then get going," Aether smiled before starting to walk towards the adventure guild. You quickly grabbed your bowl of mora, before giving a handful and a thanks to the vendor as you hurried to catch up to Aether. You would make sure you remembered to give the bowl back but for now since you had no where to put it you would just leave it with Katheryne.
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You cautiously walked besides Aether, on your entire trip to Juenyun Karst you couldn't take your eyes off of him, in fact it seems all you could think of was him, and despite Paimons constant nagging you were in a trance by Aethers beauty. In fact you hadn't even noticed that you were at the location of the commission till Aether turned and met your eye.
"Alright, so I'm thinking what we can do is have you be a distraction, I want you create as much noise as you can, probably use the skirt you wearing and try and gather up the monsters, I'll come in and take care of the smaller enemies and as you take out the samachurls so they can't heal the camp, then together we can take out the mitachurls and mages, sounds good?" Aether suggested.
"Yeah, the plan sounds great, let's start then." You said letting a breath out and you as quietly as you could walked around to the opposite end of the camp, you looked to Aether as he gave you a quick nod to start, reading his sword and moving forward.
You stood up, the coins clinking together on your skirt, "Hey!" You shouted before walking backwards a few feet. The camps attention snapped to you as they grabbed their weapons and charged, you ran to meet them as you focused on killing the samachurls like Aether had instructed as you made sure their attention was still on you.
"Run, get out of the way!" You heard him shout, you quickly jumped to the side as a anemo made tornado cut through the camp picking the hillichurls and slimes right off the ground before dissipating and dropping them hard to the ground, finishing them. You needed no signal, you summoned your spear and raced at the twin Mitachurls, you stabbed your spear straight into one of the two's thigh before twirling around and slicing against the others shield grasping its attention, as it raised its shield to hit you, you saw as a long blade pierced through the back off its heart, as it fell to the ground with a loud roar, you ducked as the one behind you swung its axe, you swiftly grabbed the end of its blade as it's yanked it back out of the split soil, you launched yourself in the air. As you plummeted back to the ground you pierced the spear straight through its thick skull, you kicked your spear up, as shards of Cor lapis formed around the point, you sent it spiraling towards the Cryo mages shield, the Cor Lapis shattering hard against it, but you didn't worry as you saw the shield weaken, Aether came up behind you and blasted it back with a blast of wind catching it off guard.
The fight finally began as the mage was caught of guard, its shield dropping, you didn't waste a second as before it even looked up a spear stabbed through it helpless body. You yanked it out and you turned and look at the enemy recruits who had just arrived.
"Welcome to the party," you laughed before charging with Aether quickly following up, your fighting synced, with everyone one of your stabs a quick slice came following up, geo shards and strong wings shattered and blew all around you. You practically danced through the enemies, dodging and ducking, it was an out powered match. As you stare at the bleeding bodies of hillichurl, mages, mitachurls and other enemies sounding your feet. You watched as they turned to floating black and burning ash, being carried by the reminding anemo wind.
You fell to the ground, exhausted, you let out a long low groan, "I shouldn't have done that dancing earlier, my entire body feels like its made of wood, I feel like if I move you'd hear creaking sounds," you lightly joked as opened an eye to stare back at Aether, feeling the soft grass against your cheek.
Aether gave a small smile as he let a laugh through his nose. It made your heart swell as you watched him collapse next to you as he stared back at you.
"Did you win?! Why are you on the ground are you dying!?" Paimom exclaimed coming out from hiding. You groaned as the short moment was ruined.
"No we aren't dying," you huffed annoyed as you sat up, leaning back with your head to the sky, staring at the circling birds, "unfortunately..." you whispered.
"Alright let's head back so I can go take a nap," you said as you stood up reaching a hand out for Aether as he lazily grabbed it. He barely managed to get up with the weak strength from your pull and his push.
You both leaned against eachother for a hot second catching you breath and last remaining bits of strength, and despite the smell of sweat and blood, you could faintly smell Aethers natural smell, no matter how hard you tried to locate it you couldn't tell what it was, it was like some sort of a masculine flowery smell. You wished you could stay like that forever but alas, in the comfort of Aethers embrace but Paimom quickly grew bored and complained as you two finally let go of each other.
"Alright let's head back before we find more hillichurl, I think at this point a fly landing on me could crush me," you joked again.
Aether gently wrapped an arm around your waist to support you as he was a bit less exhausted from not having spent energy earlier that day and also just being overall more althetic. You allowed yourself to gently put a bit of weight on him as the three of you started heading back.
By the time you got and sun was starting to lower back to its bed under the horizon as the air started to cool and the city had grown bare of its bustling streets. Katheryne welcomed you back.
"Here are your payments for completing the commission, by the way Y/N I returned the bowl to the vendor, here's the money that was in it," she said as she handed you a hefty boar hide pouch. You grabbed it thanking her as Aether grabbed both of your and his respected payments.
"There's a nearby hotel that we can stay at, I'm not sure if you have somewhere to sleep tonight but it's very close and decently cheap, plus there's free water to shower," you exhaled tiredly.
"Sure that sounds nice," Aether replied as you steered him to the hotel. You helped him check in as you offered him money to pay (though no matter your efforts he declined it and paid with his own mora, you made sure to make a note in your mind to sneak some mora into his pocket when he wasn't looking).
"I'll let you shower first as I don't want you falling asleep before you get clean, plus you need the most rest out of the both of us," Aether said leading you to the bathroom, gently setting you on the toilet seat as Paimon immediately collapsed onto the king size bed, directly in the middle, "if you need any help just ask."
"Oh uh, actually" you started looking away embarrassed, "I do need a bit of help...if you could help me undress a bit, not all the way of course!" You quickly said, "but just cause you know," you said embarrassed by your words.
"Of course," Aether said quietly wasting no time as he first took off your heavy coin skirt and setting it on the table, he slipped your sandals off, and undid the garter that held your knife to your thigh, he slipped it off and set it on the table as well as you felt his warm hands rest on your thigh. You couldn't help but to look away as you tried to hide your gentle blush, you felt him roll the single tight on your leg down and off your leg, he slipped the long arm bands off your arms as he cautiously moved to the wrapped bandages.
"Uh...may I..?" He asked, a bit flustered as well.
"Yeah, go ahead I don't mind what you do," you said still turned away.
You felt his hands move along your back, finding the edge of the bandages before gently but quickly untying them, he quietly unwrapped them trying to be cautious of where he touched, as they finally fell to the ground.
"Anything else?" He asked looking away from your chest, at the ground.
You took a second to reply, "just the shorts if you want to, I can take care of the rest.." you trails off a bit more embarrassed now than you already were, if that were even possible.
You heard him inhale a bit as his hands trailed to your hips, and then to your crotch, you prayed to every Archon you didn't accidentally(or not) get hard. He undid the top button before unzipping the fly. He grabbed the edge of the shorts as he hesitated a bit before tugging gently, you squirmed a bit, helping them off as they finally feel to the ground.
Although you knew he tried to hide it, you could see the brief flicker of his eyes to your body for a second and the now bright red blush creeping down his neck as he turned away towards the ceiling, "I'm going to turn the shower on, let me know when your in the shower so I can get you a towel and get your clothes washed," he said turning away before quickly walking to the shower and turning it on.
"Okay," you said, grabbing the sink to help you up. You watched him quickly walk out, you leaned against the sink as you squirmed out of your underwear finally letting out the whimper you had held back from the tense erotic moment. You exhaled as you swiftly pushed yourself to the shower before very carefully stepping in.
You heard a short knock at the door a few moments later as you quickly let him know you were in the shower. You listened as he quietly set the towel on the table before collecting your clothing and hurrying out.
You could feel how exhausted your body was so you took no time in quickly shampooing you hair, and conditioning it as you scrubbed your body clean, before rinsing and stepping out.
You wrapped the soft towel around yourself as you stepped out leaning on the doorway, and you saw a sight that you'd never even thought of seen, Aether was glowing, literally glowing. It was no trick of the light, you walked over to him trapped in his beauty, you didn't even notice that he had moved Paimon to the couch, or the pajamas he left on the other side of the bed for you, all the exhaustion and stress left your body as all that you were think of was Aether, the way his hair was taken out of its braid and flowed over his body, you couldn't help but kneel next to the bed, you didn't worry if he woke up or not as you were hypnotized by his beauty, without realizing you reached out with your hand to touch his cheek, his skin felt cool to the touch. You silently traced your finger down the bridge of his nose, and over the small bump on it, you let your finger rest on his lips, you almost wanted to kiss him but you stopped yourself in the thought.
You let out a shaking breath as you stood up tightening your grip on the towel as you quickly walked over and put on the pajamas Aether had set out for you, you climbed in to bed making sure to remember to hang the towel up in the morning. You turned to face Aether who was turned away from you. And even from the back he was beautiful, the moonlight from the window made him glow in a blue light even than he already did, you couldn't take your eyes of him, you once again reached forward and gently ran a hand through his hair, it felt like silk. The sight you were seeing was so beautiful you could probably cry to it if you let yourself.
You let a small gasped out and pulled your hand back gently as Aether stirred and turned over, you were afraid he had woken but you were relieved to see he was still fast asleep, you don't know when you fell asleep but you do know that not once did you take your eyes of off him, not for a single second.
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I'm very tired 👍 all i got to say is i only planned on writing like 1000 words and it's now close to 4000, but uh yeah about it, i hope you enjoyed and please leave criticism and tips or anything that could help in the comments, I'm going to try(hint word try) to post 2 chapters a week, hopefully on Tuesdays and Thursdays but with school and my depression and lack of motivation in writing it may not work out that way but I'll try, just a reminder this is more of a book to look back on my progress and current skills, if there's anything you liked about this chapter or any future chapters please do let me know :) anyways thanks for reading and goodbye!
Word count- 3913