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Whilst usually accustomed to the vastness of the ocean, Beidou finds herself feeling uneasy as she shifts her weight from foot to foot. The water beneath the ship feels more unstable than it normally does and as she gazes out towards the emptiness that lays before her, she finds that her chest tightens more and more the longer she looks.
Never had she felt like this, not in a single fight, not a single time when she had been walking the streets of Liyue looking for food all on her own, not when she had watched her men nearly die right in front of her eyes. Something about this was so unsettling and yet she couldn’t put a finger on why it felt so different from other times. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t confident in her abilities to take on such a beast, it wasn’t as if she was worried anything bad was going to happen. She was Captain Beidou and Captain Beidou was strong and brave and amazing and all the other words that the children back at the harbour used to describe her. She couldn’t back out now, it was too late and turning back at this point could potentially be even more dangerous than simply committing to it.
The grip she has on the handle of her claymore grows tighter as the ship rocks once more. The waves beneath them crash onto the hull as if they were trying to eat away at the wood and she almost feels as if they are.
“Captain!”
She turns her head around and squints her eyes, looking for the source of the call. She eventually spots Juza on the other side of the deck, his arms waving in the air and she’s about to start walking towards him when she freezes. There’s a loud roar that echoes through the darkness of the night surrounding them and Beidou’s head snaps around to the noise.
Her heart drops into the pits of her stomach as two piercing blue eyes stare right over the ship. Attached to a snake-like body is a dragon’s head, easily nearly half the size of the ship; broken scales line the skin of the sea monster and its teeth grow past its bottom jaw. Even from the deck, Beidou can feel its breath seeping onto the surface of the ship and it’s almost as if it makes her unable to move. It’s waiting and ready to pounce as the life aboard the ship comes to a halt. Every living thing on deck stops for a minute to observe the great creature above them but it turns out to be a minute too long as, within a blink, a large wave comes crashing down onto them.
Beidou falls to her knees with the force of the water and it’s then that she realises her fate.
It’s the fourth day out at sea. Four agonising days of attacking and defending and it just never seemed to stop. Her crew is fatigued and tired, a lot of the rations having been washed away by the waves that come non-stop and the constant fighting was not doing them well.
Beidou herself is exhausted, her limbs ache and she’s got a headache that pounds away on her skull day in and day out. The skin on her hand is ripped and calloused from how much she’s been swinging her claymore around and at this point, she swears that it might be easier to beat the monster in a fist fight. Beidou is determined and strong-willed but she’s losing hope as she feels her life slowly getting chipped away but she keeps going nonetheless. She keeps going because all that she can think about is Ningguang . Ningguang and her white, pristine hair; Ningguang and her golden claws; Ningguang and her soft, reassuring words. Beidou longs and longs for the day that she can return to Ningguang and she’s sure that by the end of this, she will be able to. However, there’s a voice at the back of her head, a voice telling her that maybe she won’t make it out of this alive, maybe she won’t ever make it back to Ningguang’s comforting embrace and that maybe she will never get to see Ningguang ever again. She shakes the thoughts off as she rubs closed fists against her eyes in an attempt to rid herself of her weariness.
It’s one in the morning and Beidou has not slept for more than an hour for the past few days and she can feel herself on the verge of collapsing. Even through this, she stays awake.
The ship shakes once more and Beidou jolts upright as she hears a shrill scream from upstairs on the deck. She jumps up on her two feet and rushes up the stairs, face dropping as her eyes land on the beast before her once more. It is far from the first time she has encountered it and yet the fear she felt the first time she saw it had not left her.
However, this time, she leaves no time as she watches the head of the monster come down to strike — she’s quick on her feet and with her claymore in hand, she jumps onto the upper part of the deck, raising her weapon above her head and taking the weight of the attack. She can feel the way her legs almost collapse underneath her but she perseveres and holds her ground.
The fight that day lasts much longer than any that had occurred the previous three days and near the end of it, Beidou is almost ready to give up. Almost . She takes a trembling breath in, her lungs filling with the salty air of the ocean and she looks up straight into the bottomless sea that is the great beast’s eyes and she promises it that it will come down tonight. It seems to accept the challenge as it gives off another deafening roar, the ocean shaking beneath it.
Beidou steadies herself, using her last bit of power to charge forward, jumping towards and over the creature’s head as she tightens her grip on her claymore. She feels her skin ripping but alongside the sight of the monster beneath her, she sees a purple glow from her hands, almost like electricity. The colour grows and in an instant, she can feel a powerful charge coursing through her entire body — it hurts and it burns but she doesn’t focus on it as she strikes down on the monster.
The impact of her attack creates the ear-shattering sound of electricity dispersing into the surroundings. Everything flashes before her eyes and she can feel pins and needles spread all across the surface of her skin. Every cell of her body is being attacked by something , certain areas worse than others, and she can’t figure out why.
Her vision goes black for a second and when she opens her eyes again, she’s on the opposite end of the ship, slumped against the door to her cabin and her eyes widen as she looks up and witnesses the fall of Haishan. Lightning strikes down all around them like a mask to shield the rest of the world from the sight. The beast stays still in the air for a minute before revealing how its head had been cut clean off, scars resembling electric currents apparent on its scales. The remains of the dead monster slip into the bottom of the sea and Beidou is one of the only people who watch as it happens.
Her head pounds with an unexplainable pain and her eye feels as if it’s been torn out of its socket. She’s in such a state of shock that she almost fails to notice the glowing purple gem clutched tightly in her hand. She inhales shakily as she looks down at it — she squeezes it and it shocks her. It’s purple- it’s electro. The realisation of what it is only dawns on her seconds before her consciousness seeps out from her.
===
She doesn’t know how long the journey back to the harbour is but all she knows is that she keeps fading in and out of consciousness. She can still feel the adrenaline from the fight pumping through her blood and the moment she fully wakes up she lets a sob wrack through her. She coughs and she coughs and she feels like she’s about to throw up but she never does.
Eventually, the lights of the city come into view and a feeling of relief washes over her. It feels like an age before the ship finally docks but once they do, she gets off it as soon as she can. She can hear her crew shout after her as she stumbles off of the ship, mind set on seeing one person before she falls asleep again. Ningguang .
Beidou nearly falls down the stairs as she descends into the lower half of Ningguang’s Jade Chamber and she can faintly hear the calls of Ningguang’s assistant’s behind her — something about her not meant to be there since it was too late. It was the least of her concerns.
“Beidou?”
That’s the first thing the pirate hears as she trips into the open space of Ningguang’s office. The rest of the time there is a quiet blur as she slips into sleep once more and the only thing she remembers is Ningguang’s panicked face looking over her as her eyes finally close.
===
It has been a few weeks since she’d woken up and Ningguang is all over her as usual. She’s spoon-fed every single one of her meals, all of her tasks are taken care of and Archons forbid she tries to get up on her own without Ningguang hovering around her like a pesky little fly.
Beidou knows that Ningguang is simply worrying about her but at some points, she thinks it’s a little too much — after all, she did slay Haishan.
Beidou sits on the edge of Ningguang’s bed, head hung over her lap as her lone eye observes the way the cold metal moves in her hands. She flips the vision from one hand to the other repeatedly, taking care to search for any clues on how to use such power. If she concentrated hard enough, she could occasionally make the gem glow, making it give off a small electrical current to its surroundings.
She runs her thumbs over the edge of it, surprised at how polished the material seems to be. Beidou remembers the moment she had gotten it quite vividly, the way the power had surged through her body and into her blade, creating an impossibly strong explosion on impact. The way it had all felt, the way it had made her stronger than she ever imagined herself being — it was all so foreign. So for her to sit here and it not react to her was frightening; what if it blew up right here and then? What would Ningguang say? Beidou knew she could just buy new stuff but those new items would also carry Beidou’s guilt for blowing up Ningguang’s bedroom.
A sigh escapes her lips and she tilts her head, looking down at the gem curiously — how was she meant to get this to work? Would anyone else struggle as she did? How was it meant to feel? How was she meant to know that it was working? Perhaps it was a mistake, perhaps Celestia had gifted it to the wrong person; after all, what had Beidou done that was so significant?
She clasps her hands around it and closes her eyes, taking a deep breath in as she relaxes. She waits and she waits but nothing seems to happen; she conjures up all sorts of images and memories but to no avail. Until she thinks of the night, of the night she watched Haishan’s head be cut off. The vision hums gently in her hands and she looks down at it in surprise.
Beidou tenses her hands around it and it seems to increase in power, from a gentle humming to a quiet buzzing, almost like a bee. She feels the palms of her hands tingle and when she opens them and looks, they glow a soft purple. Beidou’s eye is transfixed onto the sight, a surge of emotions welling through her. She removes one of her hands from the gem and closes it into a fist; the electro energy seems to flow from her palm to around her knuckles.
A laugh slips from her and she really cannot seem to look away. She puts the gem down, hopeful that it’ll continue but the moment she sets it down, the purple seems to slither away. Her brow furrows slightly and when she picks it back up, the same humming from before resumes. She seems to have enough control over it but that all shatters as she’s startled.
“What are you up to then?” Ningguang asks from the door. She’s got her head just around the corner and from the looks of it, she’s been standing there for a while.
Beidou becomes somewhat flustered, looking down at the vision in her hands helplessly, “I was just- I was just seeing if I could get it to work.”
“You seem to have gotten the hang of it,” Ningguang says, stepping into the room and closing the door behind her. She walks over to where Beidou’s sitting and plants herself right next to her. “You got it to work, didn’t you?”
Beidou looks up and smiles at her sheepishly, “For a bit, but I can’t use it when I’ve put it down.”
Ningguang hums in acknowledgement, “I had that problem when I first got mine.” She summons a glowing orb of geo in her hands and lets it float above her palm, “But it just requires practise.”
Beidou huffs in frustration and Ningguang laughs, leaning over to plant a kiss on her cheek, “You’ll get it eventually, I believe in you.”
Beidou rolls her eye before leaning over and wrapping her arms around Ningguang’s waist, pushing her down onto the bed. The geo dissipates into thin air and Ningguang’s eyes widen as Beidou’s hands grab onto her waist. Ningguang lets out an uncharacteristic snort as she falls back onto the bed.
“Beidou-” she gasps, containing her laughter as the pirate ghosts her fingers over Ningguang’s stomach, “Don’t you dare-”
Beidou stops, shuffling up so that she can slot her head in the crook of Ningguang’s neck, “I thought you said you weren’t ticklish.”
An arm wraps around Beidou and Ningguang presses a light kiss to the crown of her head, “Maybe you should listen to me instead of trying to prove me wrong.”
“But it’s no fun that way,” Beidou mumbles.
Ningguang hums as Beidou kisses the column of her neck, “I didn’t come in here for you to use me as your pillow, Beidou. I need to clean your eye.”
“Can’t we do that later?” It almost sounds like a whine and Ningguang raises her eyebrows.
“Does the captain think it hurts too much?” Ningguang coos, sounding as if she was talking to a baby, “Aw no.”
She looks in amusement as Beidou’s brow furrows and she looks up at Ningguang in annoyance, “That is not what I said-”
Ningguang puts a hand on each of Beidou’s cheeks and presses them together, successfully silencing her, “Hush,” she says, “Come on, let’s go.”
Her leg is by no means in any condition to be walking on and yet still here she is, on the tops of Mount Tianheng with a claymore in her hand. She’s found a way to strap her vision to her hip — as suggested by Ningguang — so that she doesn’t lose contact with it.
The blisters and ripped skin on the palms of her hands have slowly grown over and begun to form callouses and Beidou finds them helpful with her grip on the claymore. The weapon isn’t anything like her usual, sturdy one but a measly wooden one that she usually gave some of the younger members of her crew to train with. She scoffs at the weight of it, tossing it between her hands as if it were some simple toy.
She gets into her stance, a little more unstable than usually but she pays no mind to it, and she holds the weapon out in front of her. She closes her eyes and just like the previous day, she imagines the fight against Haishan, the way she had felt when he slowly sunk into the depths beneath them.
She feels her vision buzz against her hip and she remains calm, channelling the energy into her hands. It vibrates against the handle and it feels almost familiar to that night — she swallows and looks down at the leather where it glows a light purple. Taking a deep breath in, she tightens her grip slightly on the handle and satisfaction simmers through her mind as she watches electricity crack and sparkle on the edge of the blade. She clears her throat and takes a step forward, tilting the claymore to the side like she had been taught all those years ago.
Another breath, another step; the blade seems to remain infused with electro as she goes through the motions she had gone through when she had been first taught how to use a claymore. Her leg aches slightly beneath her but it’s not the worst she had experienced and so she continues on with her dance.
The longer she continues on for, the brighter her blade seems to grow and the stronger the current seems to be. She takes a pause in between steps just to make sure not to overload herself or the vision.
She continues on for what seems to be an hour or two, perfectly controlling the vision by her hip — sure, this meant that she could perhaps take on a few hilichurls at most but if she were to fight properly with it, she’d have to learn to control it without her blade as well.
The breeze on the top of the mountains seems to be doing a great job at cooling down the slight warmth that has built up on the handle of the claymore and so Beidou doesn’t find the matter concerning — until it cracks and pops against her hand and she drops the wood in shock. She freezes for a moment before looking down at her hands; it hadn’t hurt, it had just been a surprise.
She takes a deep breath in and picks the claymore up once more because after all, a small mistake can’t get in the way of her progress.
She doesn’t know how long she’s been out there for but the sun setting over the horizon seems to be a telltale sign that it’s beginning to become quite late. She knows that in the morning her whole body will ache from the amount of effort she’s exerted and how sore her leg will be but she considers her training worth it. She huffs as she rests the claymore against her shoulder and begins making her way back down the mountain and towards where the landing to the Jade Chamber lays.
She’s whistling some tune that she’s picked up from her crew as she enters the doors of the Jade Chamber. There’s a clatter of footsteps rushing up the stairs and Beidou assumes that it’s one of the secretaries running toward her to tell her off but when she sees Ningguang’s tear-ridden face, she stops in her tracks.
“Ningguang?”
“ Where do you think you’ve been?” Ningguang’s voice breaks in the middle of her sentence and she uses her sleeve to wipe at the tears on her face, “You- Where have you been ?”
Beidou freezes in the moment — this was certainly not the reaction she had anticipated when she returned.
She takes a step forward and her heart drops at the way Ningguang lets a broken sob out. She nearly trips as she grabs Beidou by her collar and pulls her in. She tucks her head into Beidou’s chest and the pirate can already feel her tears staining the shirt she’s wearing. Beidou is simply confused , confused at what could elicit such a reaction and at the same time she feels guilty because it’s been made clear that she was the one that caused this.
Ningguang sobs again, tightening her grip on Beidou, “Where were you?” she says between tears.
Stunned, Beidou replies simply, “Mountains.” She blinks a few times before regaining her senses and hugging Ningguang back, “I was on Mount Tianheng, I was just practising using my vision.”
Ningguang buries her face further into Beidou but her cries only seem to get louder. “I thought- I thought something- something,” she’s having a difficult time speaking in between her hiccups, “I thought something had- had happened to you and I- I was about to call the millelith because- because I couldn’t find you anywhere and-”
Realisation begins to dawn on Beidou as she remembers how she had simply snuck out without telling anyone, “I’m so sorry, Ning’- I didn’t know-”
She’s cut off when Ningguang sobs once more and Beidou can sense the secretaries, stood somewhere off in the corner, watching them. She presses a gentle kiss to the crown of Ningguang’s head and takes her face in her hands, “Hey, hey,” she whispers quietly, using her thumbs to wipe away at the tears, “I’m here, okay? I’m here.” There’s another kiss on Ningguang’s forehead.
Ningguang’s crying seems to quieten down as Beidou continues to whisper reassurances to her and soon enough, her weeps have been reduced down to quiet sniffling. “I thought something had happened to you- you didn’t tell me what you were doing or where you were going to go and I had no idea and I was going to call the millelith to get them to search for you but Baiwen said that you’d come back eventually so I holed myself up in my office and I’ve been waiting all day , Beidou, all day .”
“Oh I know, my dear,” Ningguang receives another kiss on her forehead, “I’m sorry for not telling you — I really should’ve, shouldn’t I have?”
Ningguang wraps her arms around Beidou’s waist and rests her head in the crook of her neck, “I was really worried.”
“I’m sorry for worrying you, my star, I didn’t mean to.”
Ningguang coughs, shaking her head and sniffling once more, “Don’t worry, I think I overreacted slightly. I was just so worried and-” she looks up at Beidou with a frown stuck on her face, “What have I told you about moving without help?” Her mood seems to shift rather quickly.
Beidou comes to a halt and she almost looks like a deer in headlights, “I-” she begins but she has no chance to finish as Ningguang interrupts her.
“And what were you doing -” Her eyes shift from Beidou’s face to where the weapon is resting against her hip, “Is that a claymore ?” Ningguang sounds more and more bewildered the more she takes in the situation, “Were you fighting - with a broken leg? Beidou - I swear to the Archons above you better not have been-”
===
Beidou hisses as the water meets the surface of her eye, quickly retracting away from it. She shuffles back from where she’s sitting by the tap and shakes the water off of her face. Ningguang huffs and grabs Beidou’s face by her cheeks, redirecting it towards the running stream of water. Almost like a cat, Beidou digs her fingers into Ningguang’s forearms and moves them away — she’s sure to not be too rough.
“ Beidou ,” Ningguang chastises her, “Doctor Baizhu told us to rinse it at least twice a day or else it’d become infected so please just co-operate for once in your life.”
Beidou huffs, taking the towel that was beside her and drying her face off, “Doctor Baizhu and that talking snake can mind their own business, I’ll be fine.”
Ningguang puts down the jug of water and reaches over for Beidou who grabs at her to push her away. Ningguang, however, sees this and bats her hand away, grabbing Beidou roughly by her chin and pushing her against the wall. She has a firm grip on the pirate’s face as she tilts it to the side. Beidou’s brow furrows in annoyance as Ningguang shakes her head at her — she tries to get away but Ningguang presses her lips against Beidou’s in hopes that she’ll calm down. It works. Ningguang settles herself on Beidou’s lap, thighs on either side of her hips to lock her down and effectively trap her to the wall.
Beidou seems to melt into the kiss and she leans forward for more. In the midst of it all, Ningguang reaches over to where she’s set the jug of water down and picks it up, holding it above Beidou’s head. Ningguang parts and Beidou’s head tries to follow her but she keeps it still against the wall.
“ Still .”
Beidou huffs and Ningguang takes the opportunity to tip the water right into Beidou’s open eye. The pirate gasps and struggles against Ningguang but it seems to be futile as Ningguang holds her ground.
“You-”
“Don’t you even think about cursing me out, Beidou,” Ningguang tilts Beidou’s head so that she can look her in the eye, “Keep that sailor’s mouth of yours shut and we’ll have a much nicer time, alright?”
Beidou’s eye seems to travel all over Ningguang’s face except her eyes and so she shuffles closer, “Do you understand?”
Beidou doesn’t have much choice but to look Ningguang in the eyes now and when she does, she swallows. She feels deft fingers find themselves on the band hanging loosely around her neck and the fabric soon makes its way over Beidou’s injured eye. A satisfied smile makes its way onto Ningguang’s lips and she finds amusement in the way Beidou simply remains slumped against the wall even as she gets up and brushes herself off.
“Now, if you’re going to behave we can go inside and clean ourselves up.”
“I don’t get why I couldn’t have just used the sink,” Beidou mumbles, slowly pushing herself off of the floor.
“Because with the way you were moving around there, you would’ve gotten water all over my expensive tiles. Hurry now, we’ll take a bath and get you cleaned up.”
Beidou’s eyebrow raises, “Together?”
Ningguang rolls her eyes, grabbing Beidou by the collar and pulling her down for a short kiss, “Together.”
She squeals as Beidou picks her up by her hips and slings her over her shoulder.
===
Ningguang’s sure that Beidou’s asleep until she feels faint shuffling behind her; Beidou seems to settle closer to Ningguang. Not that she’s complaining.
She feels the way Beidou’s breathing fans across her neck and soon after she notices feather light touches ghosting themselves over her stomach. However, there’s a slight difference to them — they’re infused with electro.
Ningguang tries to keep herself composed, tries her best not to burst out laughing but the added electricity is not helping her. She lets out a giggle and promptly shuts her mouth. She hears Beidou laugh behind her.
“Did you notice anything different?”
“You infused your hands with electro.”
Beidou places her head on Ningguang’s shoulder, “I did, how observant.” There’s a beat of silence before Beidou continues, “Want to see what else I can do?”
Ningguang considers it quietly for a second before nodding slightly, “Show me your tricks, Captain.”
Beidou presses small kisses along the column of Ningguang’s throat and Ningguang just seems to melt under her touch. A hand skirts on her hips, trailing along her stomach.
“I already knew you could do this,” Ningguang hums, letting her head fall back onto Beidou. She closes her eyes and enjoys the feeling of Beidou’s hands on her, “Nothing special.”
She soon comes to find that she has severely misjudged.
Beidou bites down on the juncture of Ningguang’s neck and Ningguang’s about to roll her eyes at the pirate’s predictability until she feels electro surge through her mouth and into Ningguang’s skin, spreading across her neck and up to her ears. Ningguang’s entire head swarms and she doesn’t even realise she’s let out a soft moan until her hand clamps down on her mouth to hide the sound.
Beidou seems to freeze behind her and Ningguang can almost hear the gears in the pirate’s head turning as she puts the pieces together.
“Oh my Archons-”
Ningguang quickly turns around so that she’s facing Beidou and presses her palm against her mouth, “ Shut up — I don’t want to hear anything of what you are about to say.”
Beidou grabs Ningguang’s wrist and removes her hand from her mouth, “I didn’t think you’d like that, oh dear .”
Ningguang frowns in embarrassment and she can already feel her face heating up, “I never said I liked it-”
“No, no,” Beidou shakes her head and there’s a grin plastered across her face as Beidou stares at Ningguang with a wide eye, “You didn’t even need to say -”
“Beidou!” Ningguang snaps, her face the same red that Beidou’s eyes were, “I said shut up .”
===
A shrill scream rings out into the empty room as Beidou looks up and into the mirror in front of her. Her hand comes up to touch the skin just below her left eye and when she does, she watches the skin crumble. Her eye is pitch black with what seems like blood pouring out of it and she cannot seem to do anything as it slowly becomes more and more deformed right in front of her. Panic settles over her and she almost wants to claw the eye out, get rid of the hideous scar that lies beneath her eyepatch.
It seems to worsen the longer she looks in the mirror — after a while, the blood darkens in colour and seems to become more viscous, almost like oil and soon enough there’s so much it almost covers the entirety of the left side of her face-
Beidou wakes up with a gasp, bolting into an upright position as her hand comes to clutch her injured eye. She quickly takes her eyepatch off and feels around for the oil she had seen in her dreams but when there is none, she simply deflates in on herself. Her heart is beating too rapidly for it to be healthy and as she looks around for any signs of mirrors, she feels the familiar dread and panic from her dream cloud over her.
Ningguang appears to notice the commotion beside her and so she opens her eyes to check it out — when she hears gentle crying, she sits up quickly and takes Beidou’s hand in hers.
“My love,” she whispers quietly into the dark, “What’s wrong?” She simply receives muffled sniffles. With a sigh, Ningguang reaches over to her bedside table and lights the lamp that sits on top. When she looks back, she sees the way tears are running down Beidou’s cheeks and how the pirate’s eyepatch has been discarded.
“Hey,” Ningguang shuffles closer to Beidou and takes her face into her hands, “What’s wrong?”
Beidou uses the back of her hand to wipe her tears, “It was just a bad dream,” she shakes her head and lies back down, pulling Ningguang with her. Ningguang watches her as she settles back into the pillows but there is a visible discomfort present in the way Beidou’s muscles tense.
Ningguang wraps her arms around Beidou like a shield, guiding her head to her shoulder and eventually, Beidou slips her leg between Ningguang’s. Lithe fingers card through brown hair as Ningguang presses soothing kissing to the top of Beidou’s skull, trailing down to her temple and cheek.
“What was your dream about?” She asks quietly, afraid she’ll startle Beidou.
Beidou doesn’t answer for a minute before she sighs shakily, “It was about my eye.”
“What about it?” Ningguang tips Beidou’s head up slightly so that she can look at it, “Does it hurt again?” She traces her thumb across the bottom lid and Beidou opens it, keeping her working eye shut.
Beidou shakes her head slightly, “No — it looked… weird.”
“Weird how?” Ningguang presses a kiss just above the eye. “I think it’s beautiful.”
She notes the way Beidou’s lips tug into a smile before quickly returning to her frown, “It was… black and bleeding and I was sat in front of this… mirror? And it was like I couldn’t look away — I touched it and the skin crumbled beneath my fingers and it started oozing some- some black liquid, like oil and then- and then I woke up and-”
Ningguang hums in acknowledgement, kissing Beidou once more on her eye, “Is that how you see your eye Beidou? Deformed and strange?”
The question appears to make Beidou think as she remains silent for a minute, “I think so — it’s just so- so,” she sighs in frustration as she buries her head within Ningguang’s embrace, “Please don’t look at it.”
Ningguang continues carding a hand through Beidou’s hair whilst the other rubs reassuring circles on Beidou’s palm, “I won’t if you don’t want me to.”
Beidou nods into Ningguang’s chest and a sigh of relief escapes her lips, “Thank you.”
“I think it’s beautiful, though,” Ningguang hums, “I think it’s something to be proud of. When I look at it, it reminds me of treasure, of a precious gem that could only be found in the deepest caves of the Chasm. It’s a sign of your battle, Beidou, a sign that you’ve survived and personally, I think it’s amazing.”
She doesn’t receive a response until a minute later when Beidou peels herself away from Ningguang and looks her in the eyes, “You’re just saying that.” Beidou’s eye searches Ningguang’s face for a sign that she’s lying but she comes up empty-handed.
“Of course I’m not,” Ningguang laughs quietly, leaning down so that she can kiss Beidou on the lips. Beidou begins to reciprocate just as Ningguang pulls away but she doesn’t go far as she can still feel Beidou’s breath against her face, “I wouldn’t ever lie to you,” she whispers, using her thumb to wipe off stray tears on Beidou’s cheeks.
===
Beidou seems to be enjoying her new vision more than she ever anticipated — Ningguang knows this from the number of tricks the pirate keeps pulling. From infusing electro into her hands every time they hugged or the way Ningguang’s items would just come to life and start buzzing when she wasn’t watching; Ningguang knew it was all part of Beidou’s little schemes.
However, naturally, Ningguang was happy for Beidou, happy that she was finally comfortable using something that she had gained out of great despair. Ningguang had watched Beidou over the past few months and she could not have been happier at how she’s recovered; she tells this to Beidou time and time again but the stubborn pirate thinks that it’s nothing much to be commended on and brushes it off.
So, as Ningguang stands here, she almost wants to tell Beidou once more how proud she is of her. However, she knows that Beidou will brush it off as if it was some irrelevant matter and scurry off before Ningguang can say a proper goodbye and so she simply does not bring it up.
Ningguang sighs and straightens out the odd bits of fur on Beidou’s cape, her hands being swatted away as if they were some annoying fly. Ningguang ignores this and continues on anyway.
“You have to look nice, it’s your first time out on sea in quite a while.”
Beidou huffs and crosses her arms across her chest, “ What’s the point if it’ll just get messed up again?”
Ningguang rolls her eyes, tired of the captain’s stubbornness, “That doesn’t matter,” she states, “You’re a representation of Liyue, you need to look presentable.” That was simply a fact; she couldn’t have the Captain of the Crux walking around looking as if she had just been in a fight.
She can tell Beidou’s going to argue back before she even opens her mouth. “I’m a representation of the sea, the ocean, the monsters within it-” Ningguang cuts Beidou’s prideful rambling off as she pulls her down by her collar to plant a kiss on her lips. Ningguang laughs when she pulls away, Beidou’s face a shade of red and her hands doing some weird motion in the air as if she was annoyed.
Ningguang hums and smiles up at her, “The Uncrowned Lord of the Sea seems awfully flustered after a simple kiss, wouldn’t you say?” she teases. She enjoys the way Beidou’s face grows deeper in colour.
“You’re embarrassing me, Ning’,” Beidou hisses at her, a frown on her brow, “In front of my crew.” Beidou had always been bashful about Ningguang’s affection in front of her crew and Ningguang found it rather sweet. Of course, Beidou wanted to look powerful and strong in front of them and so it just made her sheepishness that more enjoyable (also, if it meant it would drive that woman — Furong, if she remembered her name correctly — away from Beidou, she would continue to do so happily).
“That’s a shame,” Ningguang hums, her hands once again busily working away at sorting Beidou’s clothes out, “I thought you’d like the attention.”
Beidou’s about to respond from the intake of breath that Ningguang hears but she’s cut off when a member of her crew calls out her name. Beidou turns around, giving the woman on the deck a wave of acknowledgement and Ningguang happens to see that it’s Furong. Beidou is promptly pulled down for another kiss.
“You don’t get to leave before I say goodbye, captain,” Ningguang raises an eyebrow at Beidou, “Order from the Tianquan.”
Beidou raises an eyebrow back, “Does the Tianquan smother other pirates in kisses before they leave for sea too?”
Ningguang’s lips curve into a smile, “Only this particular one,” she rests her hands on Beidou’s shoulders and tilts her head, “Unless they’re especially handsome.”
Beidou rolls her eye and nudges Ningguang with her elbow, “That’s not very nice, wouldn’t you say?”
Ningguang pulls Beidou down for a hug and in the same motion, she can feel her heart tug in her chest. She gives off a long sigh, taking the opportunity to bask in Beidou’s scent one last time as she squeezes her. “You better go, captain,” she says — she doesn’t know if Beidou could hear the longing in her voice already but she hopes she doesn’t. “Your crew’s calling.”
Beidou can feel the way Ningguang looks out towards the ship as they sail out into the horizon and she turns around, blowing one last kiss into the air in hopes that it’ll land with Ningguang.