Work Text:
Home, for Beidou, was on the deck of the Alcor, surrounded by the smell of salt and nothing to see other than waves, where she found her balance naturally -- she always felt a bit wobbly on land. She was made for the sea, and she loved it like she didn’t love anything else. But still, sometimes she couldn’t help but think of Liyue.
But even though she was born there, she didn’t think of it as home. No, she thought about Liyue because she thought about Ningguang, and to think of one is to think of the other. In a way, they were as impossible to tear apart as Beidou and the sea.
Ningguang was the essence of Liyue, a woman who never broke her word, who played the game well and always came out on top. And Liyue was the essence of Ningguang, who came from nothing and was now the most powerful woman in the country, maybe in all of Teyvat, where political power is considered. Her mere words could shift entire economies as surely as the moon shifted the waves.
Beidou thought of Liyue as she remembered the time she’d spent with Ningguang. When she thought of that too fancy, traditional Li-style cuisine restaurant that Ningguang reserved for them when they went to talk of their plans -- and do a little more than talking, if Beidou got her way. When she thought of chess games in her Jade Chamber, with the view of Liyue Harbor seen from above in the background. When she thought of seeing that very Jade Chamber, floating peacefully with the waves, and knowing she was getting close to the harbor. Ningguang lived and breathed with that city, and the city lived and breathed with her.
Which meant that all the time they had together was limited, stolen between trips to the open sea and business meetings, trying to find a time when their schedules matched. Because nothing could tear Ningguang from Liyue, and nothing could tear Beidou from the sea either -- not even each other. Not for long, anyway.
But sometimes, Beidou can feel a certain pull, after she’s been gone from the harbor too long. She looks at the sun reflecting on the water, feels the cool wind that tasted like salt, and feels a longing for something else. She’ll always love the sea, and she knows she’ll be back before long, but just for a moment, she wants to be somewhere else. She wants to be with someone else.
That’s when she turns around to Huixing and says, “let’s set a course for home.”