Work Text:
Yanfei was having a rough time.
Okay, it wasn’t a rough time. She never had a rough time with anything, because she’d bet her own oath-swearing right hand that she was the best goddamn lawyer the city had seen in a long while even though she’d only been on the field for a few years. But she hated divorce cases, especially the ones that kept her up at night crying tears of frustration and gave her vivid images of wilting roses and severed pinkies. Broken hearts, broken promises. She thought of herself as a cheerful person, but that was the only thing that ever made her consider quitting her job. Maybe it really was a rough time after all.
After getting nowhere with her work at the office, Yanfei wandered the city until she decided to spend her afternoon at the history museum downtown. Her cousin Ganyu gave her a yearly pass some time ago, and Yanfei felt guilty that she never used it. She had everything with her from her desk, so she might as well work in a place where she could get a decent balance between effective distraction and relative solitude.
The vast halls stretched long and empty, exhibits winding into paths all around, labyrinths of knowledge so unknown to her. Yanfei tore her eyes away from a gorgeous red halberd in a glass display because Archons above, she had to prioritize this painful case, and she settled comfortably on a couch in the ancient war exhibit, pulling out her laptop and some headphones and getting to work.
Hours went by without much of a hitch until she convinced herself to give herself a break from trying to grind out an entire report in an afternoon. The setting sun filtered through the windows down the hall, painting all those archaic suits of armor in a bloody crimson. The halls have also emptied significantly; her little exhibit was poorly lit save for the windows, and it wasn’t like a history museum had many patrons on a Thursday evening in the first place. She found herself sitting alone with her laptop, with just the marble horses standing guard at the doorway to accompany her.
Yanfei didn’t mind this, of course. She yawned, setting her things to the side and stretching her hands. Her brain fog seemed to have cleared partially, and she stared proudly at the work she managed to get done. Of course, the case was still excruciating, and every bit of it made her head hurt. But at least she was ready to debrief everything to her client again. And maybe all those disturbing dreams of wilting roses and severed pinkies will finally leave her alone again and-
“Do divorce lawyers always work in crop tops and skirts?”
Yanfei nearly jumped out of her skin. She immediately tore her headphones out and leaped to her feet, scanning around for the source of the voice to no avail.
Suddenly, a light shone in her eyes, and her eyes landed on their target: a young woman, no older than she was, with a black uniform and a matching cap, holding a flashlight in her hand. She was leaning on the display case with the flame-colored spear Yanfei noticed earlier as if it wasn’t containing a priceless artifact, and there was a lazy, catlike smile stretched across her face. Yanfei frowned.
“You really outta have a bell or something,” She grimaced, smoothing out her skirt and sitting back down. “I nearly knocked my laptop off this bench. These divorce papers aren’t gonna write themselves, y’know.”
The museum guard let out a good-natured laugh and leaned on her hand. Yanfei noticed with a tiny smile that her eyes were like flower petals.
“A bell for a museum guard. I think it’d be more appropriate for the taxidermied bats on the third floor. You know those things come alive at night.”
Yanfei stared at her skeptically. “I don’t believe you in the slightest.”
“Ha! Seeing is believing, pretty lawyer, and trust me, I know what I see at night.” The guard flashed her light under her chin to add to her point and made a face that she probably thought was very spooky, but Yanfei only saw it as endearing.
Against her better judgment, Yanfei laughed, and she forced herself to ignore, ignore, ignore the comment the cute museum guard made and forced herself even harder to stop the flutter in her chest.
“What are you even doing here? The museum isn’t closed yet, is it?” Yanfei shut her laptop and put it in her bag in case that stupid, adorable museum guard tried to scare her again.
Said stupid, adorable museum guard got up from the display case and stepped around to stand in front of Yanfei. Her shiny nametag read “Hu Tao” with a big cartoony smile drawn next to it in Sharpie.
“Well, no, but it closes in about an hour. I started my rounds a while ago but it’s so boring because there’s no one to talk to this late, except for the stressed-out moms who go around with their kids to get their money’s worth and look at everything.” Hu Tao flicked her flashlight on and off a few times and tucked it into a holster.
“And then I saw you! So I watched you work for, like, fifteen minutes now.”
Yanfei blinked in surprise. “You were here for fifteen minutes and didn’t even say anything?”
Hu Tao held out her hands in defense. “You looked busy! I didn’t want to bother you,” She said.
Yanfei sighed, but couldn’t help but smile again. Somehow talking to this eccentric museum guard for just a few moments made her feel better than she’d felt all day. She packed the rest of the things into her bag and got to her feet.
“Well, I appreciate your kind, sweet gesture to scare the living shit out of me after I finished up my report.” Yanfei paused. She extended out her hand, to which Hu Tao raised her eyebrows at her.
“I’m Yanfei, by the way.” She avoided her usual greeting of proudly declaring herself to be the top legal expert in Liyue because that was reserved for clients. Hu Tao was just… Hu Tao. The cute, mischievous museum guard she met five minutes ago who was already stealing her heart.
“I’m Hu Tao!” Hu Tao took her hand and shook it, and Yanfei enjoyed the warmth of her hand that was gone before she could even savor the contact. “Pretty name. Reminds me a little bit of the sky right now! You don’t get this kind of color in this hall very often.” Hu Tao said wistfully.
Yanfei was about to go into the explanation of this phenomenon - she did her research one day many months ago and it stuck in her head ever since - but she stopped herself from going off on a rambling tangent. Maybe in a little bit, she’d tell Hu Tao all about the scattering of light across the visual spectrum that causes such beautiful pink skies in beautiful museum halls with a beautiful girl. Yanfei wanted to slap herself.
“Don’t you have work to do?” Yanfei said playfully. “I shouldn’t be the reason why you’re slacking off.”
“Eh, it doesn’t really matter, this is a side gig anyway. Plus I already finished everything.” Hu Tao retorted.
Yanfei hummed in approval, sitting quietly for a moment before suddenly blurting out: “Well if we’ve both got nothing to do, how about you show me around here? I could keep you company until the museum closes.”
Hu Tao beamed.
—
Yanfei noticed she learned more about Hu Tao in the span of an hour than she had learned about anyone else, but she quickly discovered that she was simply extra attentive when the bubbly museum guard spoke. But who could blame her? Everything about her was just so fascinating.
She learned that Hu Tao’s main job was a funeral parlor director (which was honestly astounding considering her sunny personality) and that she was a year younger and a bit of a troublemaker. She learned that Hu Tao had named the stone lions in front of the museum “Whiskers” and “Mittens”, and that when she was a little girl, she’d come here and clean them and talk to the lions when there was no one else around to give her attention. She learned that Hu Tao liked to sing to herself and that out of every flower in the world, she loved plum blossoms the most.
And Yanfei found it all beautiful.
The two of them wandered around the museum exchanging stories, and sometimes their hands would brush against each other and Yanfei could’ve sworn she saw Hu Tao reach towards her hand once but pulled away. Yanfei’s mind had immediately begun to ignite with this mystery, trying every possible way to figure out why Hu Tao had done that, questions flooding every inch of her thoughts, but as soon as Hu Tao laughed and cracked a joke, it all dissipated, and an unexpected serenity replaced the anxiety of wonder in her brain. For one rare moment, Yanfei pushed her desperate need for logic and answers aside for later, and she let her mind settle.
In the dim light of the exhibits, Yanfei would point out historical figures that she recognized, and when she rambled on and on about all the things she knew and all the things that came into her mind, instead of talking over her or telling her to stop, Hu Tao listened. She followed along with everything Yanfei was saying with rapt attention, and whenever Yanfei looked over at her, those keen, big, crimson eyes were staring right back at her. Despite having a mischievous streak, everything Hu Tao did was truly earnest.
It was criminal just how pleasant it was to spend her free time with a girl she just met, someone who made conversation feel as natural as breathing or holding hands with someone you care about.
Yanfei occasionally thought about the idea of a broken promise. It was muscle memory at this point of the day, where it was after she finished working, but didn’t quite finish preparing dinner yet. She thought about all the heartbreak she had to deal with in her career, in her lifetime. But tracing those thoughts were Hu Tao’s beautiful fingers, neutralizing them with a touch as if she tried to protect her from all the evil of the world.
The next time their hands brushed against each other, Yanfei gently wound her fingers into the spaces between Hu Tao’s, and an unspoken promise was signed into existence.
—
The hour went by much faster than either of the girls had anticipated, and a moment of a tender silence in front of a dinosaur skeleton was interrupted by the intercom brutally announcing that the museum would be closing in ten minutes.
Yanfei broke her stare from the intricacies of the enormous creature’s horned skull to turn and find Hu Tao staring right at her. The two of them laughed and Hu Tao rubbed the back of her neck with a sheepish expression.
“What’s with that look, Tao?” Yanfei poked her teasingly. Hu Tao swatted away her hand and put her hands on her hips.
“Well it’s almost 9, and I have to kick you outta here before I get scolded again by my old geezer of a boss.” Hu Tao snickered. She made a disgruntled face and deepened her voice. “‘Hu Tao, you know you should make sure all the patrons leave by closing time.’ Like, I know, Mr. Zhongli, but we work in one of the most popular museums in Liyue, so it’ll take a while.”
Yanfei laughed at her impression of her boss and turned her gaze back to the dinosaur. Suddenly the gaps between its ribs felt a little more empty.
“Yeah, let’s head back to the entrance.” She said. Hu Tao turned around with a skip and looked over her shoulder to invite her to follow along. Yanfei tore her eyes away from the dinosaur again and the two of them walked side by side through the museum’s cavernous halls.
They got down the stairs and to the entrance sooner than Yanfei wanted them to, but the whole hour that they spent together went by in such a flash that she barely felt any of the time go by.
Hu Tao stopped in the middle of the main hall, grabbing the sleeve of Yanfei’s cropped hoodie with both of her hands, and Yanfei stopped next to her, ceasing her idle talk about what she was planning on doing once she got back home.
“I’m kind of bummed out to be leaving you so soon.” Hu Tao admitted, rocking back and forth on her feet. Another thing Yanfei adored about her.
“It’s not like I’m leaving you forever, silly, you work at a museum. I can come see you whenever.”
“I knowww but I’ll miss you. My nights are gonna be so boring without you geeking out over some ancient scrolls and trilobite fossils. You’re almost as big of a nerd as my boss.” Hu Tao flashed her a cheeky grin. Yanfei couldn’t help the sarcastic smile that eased its way onto her lips.
“Yeah, yeah, good to know you think so highly of me.”
“Hey, wait, Yanfei,” Hu Tao interjected. Was she nervous? Yanfei blinked at her, waiting for her to continue.
“If you’re free on the evenings during weekdays… you should come see me here. Put that museum pass your equally nerdy cousin gave you to good use, yeah?”
“Of course I will,” Yanfei said, rolling her eyes.
Hu Tao’s eyes remained trained on her, and then she pouted and playfully stuck out her pinky. “Promise?”
Yanfei froze, her eyes darting between Hu Tao’s bright eyes and the invitation that lay on the tip of her finger. For a moment, her mind went back to all the thoughts of promises and pinky swears and how in the city of contracts, they were often broken so easily, like porcelain smashing into the floor. But somewhere in the hour they spent together, Yanfei was sure that this one would be kept.
She extended her pinky without a second thought and their fingers linked together in a childish promise to see each other again. A promise to not let them go back to being strangers. A promise to build off of whatever they had right now.
Yanfei watched Hu Tao pull her hand back and slowly did the same.
“Hey, you better not take it back either, Tao, a promise is a promise,” Yanfei warned. Hu Tao laughed.
“I wouldn’t dream of it, darling. Of course, there’s always ways to see me outside of work too,” She winked. Yanfei groaned, but couldn’t help the slight hint of a blush that spread to her cheeks.
“In your dreams, stupid,” Yanfei said affectionately. Hu Tao simply smirked in response.
The intercom went off again, this time loudly announcing that the museum was now closed. Their eyes met again and Yanfei opened her mouth to speak, but Hu Tao beat her in saying something first.
“Well, I gotta go, it’s almost time for us to start locking up.”
“Yeah… I’ll see you later, Tao,” Yanfei said sadly. She watched Hu Tao wave and start heading back into the museum, and her mind suddenly stopped in its tracks. She didn’t have any of Hu Tao’s contact information.
“Wait - Tao, wait! I don’t know your-”
“I’ll see you around, Yanfei! Goodnight! Get home safe!” Hu Tao was already halfway across the main hall, darting towards an open door where a tall man in an elegant suit and a long ponytail stood waiting for her arrival. Yanfei blinked in surprise and quickly stepped out of the museum before she would once again be reminded of the museum’s closing time.
She walked down the steps, now almost completely dark outside, and her gaze fell upon the two stone lions. Whiskers and Mittens. Yanfei felt a tug in her heart.
She breathed in the autumn night sky, now determined to get home sooner rather than later. Leaves crinkled under her heels and she walked away from the museum.
A slight breeze tickled her face, and Yanfei absently brushed her hair off her face and over her shoulders, and right there, she felt something flutter on her back. Slowly, curiously, she reached over her shoulder and patted around until she pulled a sticky note from the back of her sweater.
“What the…” She furrowed her brows and gingerly smoothed out the yellow paper, reading its scribbled contents.
Need a lawyer? Come talk to me for a free consultation!
Yanfei heaved a sigh at Hu Tao’s antics, absentmindedly folding the note to put it away, but she stopped when she noticed that there was text on the other side as well.
In the same messy handwriting but smaller than the first, there was another message.
(xxx) xxx-xxxx
Text me ;)
-HT
Yanfei smiled so much her cheeks hurt. That little shit. Of course she would do something like this. Of course she wouldn’t just leave someone hanging. Yanfei grinned herself stupid when she would usually feel annoyed, and before she could even concern herself with how or when Hu Tao managed to stick this note on her back, she pulled out her phone and fired a quick text. She put her phone away and carefully tucked the sticky note into her bag.
She would take the bus home to finish the rest of her papers, smiling the whole way there.