Work Text:
xingqiu has invited chongyun, bennett, and razor to a trip in inazuma for a bit.
they all accepted, and agreed to ship a boat on the way to inazuma. they got invited to the iradori festival, (which is a festival celebrating novels, which was more of xingqiu’s thing.) and he decided to tag his friends along.
——————————————————
they are on a long ship ride, and the moon was shining. the moon was at it’s full, looking like a sparkling gem in the sky. and the sounds of the gentle sea was something that stuck around.
“xingqiu, why do you wanna go to inazuma with us?” asked chongyun, looking at the other blue-haired boy on the ship.
“well, i wanted to spend time at the festival with you guys! it will be fun, right?” xingqiu replies, looking at each of them being hit by the blue moonlight.
They were all very tired. bennett was nodding off asleep, razor was watching the moonlight shine on the sea in amusement, and chongyun was sitting with xingqiu on the boat. the atmosphere was quite and calm. “it’s the first time you all have been to inazuma, including me. so this will be great!” he adds. smiling at chongyun softly.
“sure. you only came here for all the books.” chongyun teases.
“hey, hey!! that’s not true,, okay.. well sure, i’ll be purchasing a lot of books, but i’ll still hang out with you guys.” xingqiu replies, being stubborn and looking off to the side. but yet the gentle breeze was nice and cold, especially after being in the steaming hot weather of mondstadt and liyue all day.
after a few moments of silence from the long night and some snores, the sun decided to finally peak up from the clouds a bit. soon enough, when the sky cleared up, they were able to see the city of ritou in the distance ahead. the skies were clear and blue, making the sun shine enough to wake the boys up.
“WOAHHH! you can see the whole island from over here!” bennett says, as he runs up to the front of the ship in excitement.,, covering up the view of the sailor. xingqiu noticed and became hesitant.
“HEY HEY,, bennett get down from there!” xingqiu shouts, pulling him away from the front of the deck. “i’m very sorry sir!” he says hesitant, laughing it off to the sailor. the sailor didn’t mind, he knew were they were going anyways.
soon enough, they have reached the docks of ritou. looking at the place around them, the beauty of the cherry blossom trees took them back, in colors of red, and orange. and the scent of delicious cooked food filled the air. there were sounds of people laughing and cheering, lanterns and food venues, and even more to lighten the mood of the atmosphere. this was an amazement to see, since they’ve never really been out of town from mondstadt and liyue. this was quite different from anything else they’ve seen before.
“here we are guys!! this is inazuma. well, an island of it.” xingqiu says, sounding like a bit of a tour guide.
they stepped onto docks, and walked toward the festival center together. falling petals, and people were everywhere. selling novels, and even selling figurines as well.
“sooo,, does anyone wanna go look around and check out the books with me?” xingqiu asked, trailing them from behind while they were walking in front of him. once he said that, they all groaned.
“come on!! someone go with me, pleasee?” xingqiu asks, bowing down. “just for a short amount of time!” he adds, hoping someone would at least go with him. chongyun turns around, and looks at the blue-haired boy bowing. it was the iradori festival after all, and it’s sole purpose was to purchase books.
“okay fine, since you treated us to this, i suppose i’ll go with you.” chongyun says. hearing this, xingqiu’s eyes lit up,
“REALLY?? thank you chongyun! i’ll find a way to pay you back, i promise!” he sighs in relief. “i was planning to go to that bookstore over there!” he points at a large bookstore, and chongyun sighs at the sight of it.
“..do i have to pay..?” he asks miserably.
“nope!” xingqiu replies. “we’ll split the payment!” he adds, with a big smile.
“okay then, that’s alrig-“ chongyun replies, but gets interrupted by xingqiu grabbing his hand. they started to run to the bookstore ahead.
“wait, xingqiu, what about the others?” chongyun asked, while they were slowing down the pace. xingqiu stood there for a moment, a bit quiet, tightening his grasp.
the dark blue haired boy turns around,
“well, to tell you the truth.. i honestly just wanted to go with you.”
‘huh? why?’ chongyun thought. but he decided to not say anything. xingqiu felt embarrassed for saying this.
“n-nevermind.”
xingqiu says, as he kept running along to the bookstore. chongyun couldn’t see this, but xingqiu’s face was beaming bright red.
—————————————————
bennett and razor watched them from a distance, trying to listen to their conversation. but then seeing them walk further and further away, not being able to hear them anymore.
bennett whispers,
“hey razor, don’t you think those two are dating??”
razor looks at him in confusion.
“razor doesn’t know what dating is.” he replies.
“oh! right.. heh,” bennett laughs, trying to think of something else to say. “dating is like.. when two or more people love each other a lot.” he says.
“like.. lupical?” razor asks, looking up at him.
“hmm, not really. like.. more than lupical! you love them even more than family.” he replies. “but i’m pretty sure those two aren’t dating! i was just joking around.” he laughs, scratching at the back of his head. razor nods, without really saying anything. he was usually quiet like this, which bennett wasn’t a big fan of. an awkwardness tensed up between the two.
bennett tried looking around for something to do, since they were in inazuma for a limited time anyways. after searching a bit, bennett spots a food vendor in the distance.
“hey razor! let’s go over there and try some food!” he says, pointing to the vendor happily. razor nods and follows him, even if he isn't very hungry. they ran towards the vendor, as a gentle cold breeze followed them.
but as soon as they arrived at the vendor,, a disappointed look came across bennett’s face.
they were closed.
bennett sighed, lowering his head down. “aww man! i swear they were open when i saw them in the distance.. i really wanted to try some of their food.. heh.. sorry, razor.” he says, smiling at him. things like this happen to them most of the time anyways, just because of bennett’s luck.
razor looked up at him, he didn’t really mind.
“bennett doesn’t need to apologize.” razor replies. bennett felt enlightened by his comment.
“well, if that’s so.. then let’s just go find somewhere else to go!” he smiled, laughing it off as always. and so, they went around the festival, and at least spent some time together. they got to order some food that they shared together,, and walked around looking at some of the books that didn’t really interest them.
and then, they found a fortune-telling venue. this piqued bennett’s interest, “woah! there are a lot of people over there! it says uh..” bennett struggled to read the big sign in the front, in red lettering. everyone was covering it up. and when he finally figured it out,,
“oh! fortune telling! c’mon razor, one more place, okay?” bennett smiled. “those two are taking forever, and we still have a lot of time!” he added, looking at the gray-haired boy in the hoodie.
razor thought for a moment, and nodded at the white-haired boy as the skies were beginning to turn orange.
he held razor’s hand and walked up to the venue.
“hello. so, you two came up here for a fortune?” the woman at the venue asked.
“yup!” bennett replied, excited. they had to pick up a cylinder with fortune slips in it, and choose one.
bennett picked up the cylinder, shaked it, and chose one. razor also did the same.
“okay razor, lets both open it up at the same time!!” he said, but ended up him opening it up first anyways.
he read the fortune,
“great misfortune.”
“be cautious. something bad might happen at any moment of the day..” bennett didn’t even wanna read any more of it. he groaned again, disappointed, always unlucky. “what did you get, razor??” he asked, trying to look at the fortune in his hand.
what he read was..
“great fortune.”
“everything in your day will go smoothly. even maybe, better than usual. you will have reunion with old friends..” bennett stopped reading, again. “man i’m jealous of you razor..! i wish i could’ve gotten great fortune..” he says, lowering his head down. razor looked down at his fortune, trying to hand it over to benny.
“hm?” bennett says, looking at what razor was handing to him.
“awww, razor! you don’t have to though. i really don’t mind getting a bad fortune. as long as i’m with you, i don’t mind!” bennett says, laughing it off.
razor looked a bit upset this time,,
“but bennett could be in danger. razor don’t want bennett to be hurt.” razor replied, trying to convince him. “i smell.. danger. it is not trustworthy here.” razor adds, looking around suspiciously.
“okay okay, fine! i’ll take it.” bennett replies, taking the fortune slip from his hand. he placed it in his bag, along with an apple.
“so.. where do you wanna go now?” bennett asked. razor didn’t know, he didn’t really like inazuma, except for their food. so he shrugged.
bennett tried looking around, again. not a lot of luck though. everywhere seemed crowded, and there were venues everywhere. they also couldn’t linger here any longer, or else they’d hold up the line.
bennett found an empty tree, with no one beside it. it had a nice view on the cliff, and it looked like a nice picnic place for them to wait at. so, bennett pointed and led him there, sitting down on the green grass and orange leafs.
now it was time to just wait a bit longer.
—————————————————
meanwhile, the two blue smurfed heads in the bookstore held quite a lot of books.
chongyun was carrying a load of books,, a big stack of them, that basically looked like the leaning tower of piza .
“xingqiuu, are you done yett?” chongyun asks, exhausted from carrying the books.
xingqiu was still browsing the shelves, standing on his tippy toes to reach the top of a shelf. “hold on chongyun! one more book!” he shouts from up high. “hmm, my client has recommended me this book, i should read it.” he says underneath his breath, picking up a book and dusting it off.
afterwards, he finally stacks the last book on top of all the others.
“alright! that’s it for today.” xingqiu says, dusting off his hands. chongyun walks over to the register, placing all the books down in one big THUD.
“seriously, why do you need this many books?” chongyun asks, wiping the sweat off of his forehead.
“because i enjoy reading them?” xingqiu replies. chongyun didn’t look suprised.
“but what about those books i handed you last week..?” he asks, confused.
“i read them all!” xingqiu says with a big smile on his face.
“WHAT?? all three of them?” chongyun says in
disbelief.
“yup! they were really good.” xingqiu says, shameless.
“huh, okay..” chongyun replies, a bit suspicious of him. the cashier finished checking out all the books.
“that will be about 5,000 mora.” the cashier says. (5,000 mora in dollars is about, 690 usd)
“xingqiu, how are we splitting this exactly?” chongyun asks, bringing out his only 2,000 mora he has.
“have you forgotten? i’m the second son of the feiyun commerce guild. i can pay this myself!” xingqiu replies.
“but i thought you said we were splitting this..?” chongyun asks, confused. i don’t think we could ever understand xingqiu’s actions.
“welll, nevermind then! take this as my way to pay you back for stringing you along here.” he smiles, handing the mora to the cashier.
“alright, whatever you say, xingqiu!” as chongyun smiles slightly at him. when xingqiu turns around to see this, his face turns a bit red. he doesn’t see chongyun smile that much,, he isn’t used to it.
“come on chongyun,, let’s go back and meet them!” xingqiu smiles back, and grabs half of the book stack, while chongyun grabs the other half.
when the two walked out, they were surprised at how much time went by. the sun was barely peeking through the mountains, leaving the sky in a mixture of blue, pink, orange, and yellow colors. it was gorgeous though, seeing the clouds swirl around each other like a painting.
bennett and razor were watching that gorgeous sunset, mesmerized. “hey razor, aren’t they taking a really long time?” bennett complained, looking at razor. razor wasn’t really paying attention, he was just still watching the sky.
“i miss my lupical.” razor says, looking down onto his lap, feeling the slightest bit sad. bennett glanced at him for a moment.
“what are they like?” bennett asked, smiling slightly. bennett always wanted to know more about razor. he doesn’t talk much,, so he had a lot of questions.
“they are.. warm and fluffy. very good at sensing danger, and fight good! ..they protect razor, and razor protect them.” razor replies, still looking down at his lap. “..razor wonders what they are doing now.”
bennett laughed softly, “hey, my dads are kinda like that too! i have to take care of them most of the time, but they protect me too sometimes.” he says, plopping down onto the grass, looking upon the sky again. “i’d like to meet your family though!” bennett smiles.
“yeah, they are very nice! and oh uh, razor wants to meet your lupical too.” razor replies, looking at bennett in his worn-down clothes.
bennett smiles, “hehe, great! we have something in common, razor.” razor smiles slightly back at him. he doesn’t fully understand the feeling when he’s with bennett, but it’s different than when he’s with his family.
the sky was beginning to turn darker, making the lanterns grow more brightly during the festival. xingqiu and chongyun must’ve been walking an inch per minute.
finally walking further away from the bookstore, they spotted bennett and razor near the tree. bennett was waving at them from a distance, happily.
“woah, took you guys long enough!” bennett says, glaring at them both. “the STARS are almost out!” bennett shouts, pointing into the sky. he didn’t understand why picking out books took so long, until he saw how much books they purchased.
“hehe, sorry! in form of my apology,, i got some books for you guys!” xingqiu says, grabbing a few books from the stack. (precisely 4) he handed one book to the each of them.
“xingqiu, i already have this book.” chongyun says, looking at xingqiu. the book was named, ‘Exorcist Travel Guide’. chongyun sighs, “It’s one of the most popular among exorcists. This was given to me a couple of years ago.” before chongyun said anything more, xingqiu pointed onto the cover.
“chongyun, look silly.”
he was pointing at the fact that, It was the second book of the travel guide.
“oh, so they made a second one? i never knew that.” says chongyun, slightly surprised. he looked up at xingqiu, with that huge smile on his face again.
‘hm, he’s kinda cute.” chongyun thought. expect,, he said this out loud.
“oh, did i say that out loud..?” chongyun realizes, looking at each of them. they all stared at him, too stunned to speak. because of the late reaction time, xingqiu flushed bright red.. slowly, but surely. then he turned away, covering his face. he was too embarrassed to say anything.
“c-chongyun, you weren’t talking about me.. right?” xingqiu asks, his voice a bit shaky.
“well, xingqiu.. who else would i be talking about?” chongyun asks, seeing the boy’s back, turned on him.
“whatever.. thanks for thinking i’m cute, i guess.” xingqiu turns around, seeing chongyun laugh a bit.
bennett starts coughing in the middle of it, “soo, a book for each of us??” bennett asks, staring at the two of them.
“OH! RIGHT,, ahah..” xingqiu says, laughing it off while grabbing one of the books from the stack.
“here, bennett!” he handed him a book, all about adventuring of course. when benny saw this, his eyes lit up in interest.
“woah!! who is this book about??” he asks, looking up at xingqiu happily.
“hehe well..! read it yourself, bennett.” he says, moving on to picking up the next book for razor. bennett groaned, but nodded. xingqiu is quite a mischievous boy sometimes. (especially him feeding chongyun SPICY PEPPERS.. what a menace LMAO)
before xingqiu could give the book to razor, razor reminds him that..
he cannot read.
“oh..! right..” the amount of embarrassment, aswell as disappointment on xingqiu’s face was unmeasurable. (HAHA L/j)
“well bennett, i’m blaming you or either lisa for that.” xingqiu adds.
“WHY ME??” bennett cries, looking at xingqiu in confusion.
“you’re around him all the time,, right?? soo why not teach him how to read?” xingqiu asks, shameless.
“eventually! i’ll probably just ask lisa to do it,, is that okay?” bennett asks, looking at razor.
“sure!” says xingqiu. razor nodded on the other hand. shortly after,, they felt that the wind had started to become chilly. and as the sky began to turn dark once again, the stars looked like lanterns up above them, as the full moon shone brightly.
“the day went by so fast.. i’m sorry that i kinda wasted your guyses time.” xingqiu says quietly in guilt, looking down at his hands. chongyun looks up at him, touching his hand.
“hey, it’s alright. i kinda actually had fun today.” chongyun laughs, smiling. “although i would rather fight evil spirits.. this was fine too.” chongyun adds, looking up at the moon. bennett laughs, and agrees with him.
“yeah! just spend more time with us, okay?”
“..ah, you guys really think so..? that at least makes me glad.” xingqiu sighs in relief, smiling at each of them. “i will spend more time with you guys next time, i promise. i’m a bit busy right now, but eventually.” he sits down on the grass with them, happily. xingqiu doesn’t usually have the chance to be himself around others, so this was nice. like a day off, that was nice for everyone.
“..thank you guys! i’m grateful that i have friends like you. and thank you for coming to inazuma with me.” he says, a bit teary-eyed. but he’s not usually the type to be quite emotional.
“of course! and honestly, thank YOU xingqiu! hehe, we wouldn’t have been here without you.” bennett insisted, seeing the blue-haired boy in the moonlight.
————————————————— after a bit, he realized.. what exactly was this feeling? of course,, bennett has always traveled alone. so maybe he just feels happy to spend time with someone. bittersweet? familiar? nostalgic? no idea.
no one exactly knew how this felt.
they all laid there, in the grass, next to a tree. the moon up above, stars in the sky, people around…
what are the chances of having a moment like this?
i don’t know.
maybe it was one of bennett’s lucky days.
maybe it was one of xingqiu’s moments where he can finally express himself.
maybe it was when razor felt that familiar feeling of family, even if he’s not around them.
maybe it was one of those moments, when chongyun feels more at ease.
who knows? not me, them, no one.
they just enjoyed this moment. where everything felt at a stand still, and time could only stick around for so long.
they had to cherish this as much as they can.
because.. they are running out of time.