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1, Tighnari
“Can you die from kissing people?”
Collei was in the middle of doing her school work, while Tighnari was busy cleaning their work station. She would always tag along – Collei would like to pretend that it was for ‘just being close to him’, but it sounded more like ‘please help me with my homework, Master Tighnari’.
It was a nice couple of years since Tighnari was in school, but he was pretty sure that at her age no one was teaching them about kissing. Duh, no one ever did, unless they were in Akademiya and were studying human relationships—but that’s less important.
Tighnari looks at her, for a moment wishing that he could read her thoughts.
“… no?” he answers finally. “Why are you asking?”
“What is someone just ate a terribly poisonous shroom?”
… well, that went somewhere… better? Hmm. Well.
Tighnari frowns his eyebrows, thinking moment about it.
“They probably wouldn’t die anyway, but maybe got sick. It depends.”
“Depends?”
“Well, people kiss differently, right?” he answers, trying to keep himself on the track. It was quite normal for teenagers to get interested in those kinds of topics anyway. Better that she came with that to him, instead of… just trying it. “If it’s just a peck, nothing gonna happen. Full make out session? Probably sick.”
When he took Collei in, he was quite young; not a child, nor a teenager, but to be fair, he was probably the closes that she had to a parental figure. Children ask those kinds of questions, right? He shouldn’t to be, hmm, awkward with this.
Even if it was awkward. Who even put those ideas into her head? Kaveh?
“Makes sense,” Collei says, slowly nodding her head. “So you should be always careful.”
Tighnari isn’t quite sure how to even answer that.
Collei goes back to her homework, and Tighnari stands in place, thinking about it. How do people talk about those kind of stuff with younger generation? He tries to think about how his Master once awkwardly laughed when he caught Tighnari and Cyno sneaking around the Akademiya, but on archons, Tighnari was older then.
For a moment, he tries to think about his parents – but his parents were scholars and researchers, and the more crazy than normal kind. He once asked his father how he knew that his mother was the one, and he answered Tighnari with ‘when she gave me a child’. It was, uh, not the answer that ten year old Tighnari was really able to understand.
Tighnari takes a deep breath, and tries again:
“Well, Collei… To be fair, the poisonous shrooms would probably hit before that person can go and kiss anyone,” he explains, smiling softly. “I mean, it would be needed to be done with premeditation.”
“But it can happen?”
“Technically.”
“So it’s not wrong to be careful.”
“There are better ways to kill someone,” answers without thinking Tighnari, and Collei opens her eyes wider, staring at him. “You don’t kiss people and have a plan to hurt them by that,” Tighnari adds.
Unless you’re Kaveh, probably.
“I mean, I know that. You kiss people because you love them.”
Well, you don’t need to love them, Tighnari thinks. But this maybe is too much, actually. Maybe it’s better for her to, at least for now, to think about it like this.
On the other hand… he shouldn’t probably lie to her.
“Mostly,” he decides on answering.
Collei sighs loudly.
“There should be books about kissing,” she decides. “It’s so difficult!”
“There are books,” Tighnari says. “In The House of Daena. But they won’t allow you to enter yet,” he adds quickly, seeing Collei face. “The courtship books are not for you yet anyway, there are things that are not age appropriate.”
He feels like his own mother. The difference was that maybe, just maybe, Tighnari was better at this whole giving the talk thing. Hard to say. His mom gave him a stern talking about holding hands when he was seventeen, so he should probably not do that – teenagers were good at hiding things.
He feels kind of old now. And he is not even thirty yet.
“Ugh,” Collei moans, annoyed.
“Wait, difficult?” Tighnari suddenly says. “Why do you think kissing is difficult?” he continues, and Collei stares at him, a little more pinkish than before. “Why are you blushing? Collei—what—did someone at school—or here—”
Before he is done, Collei just jumps up aggressively flapping her hands in front of her.
“It’s not!” she screams. “Thinking about it difficult! Anyway!” She slams her books on the table. “I’m done! I’m going to make dinner! Goodbye, Master Tighnari!”
And just like that, she runs off, leaving him kind of quite… uh. Worried? Maybe worried.
What on the Abyss?
2, Cyno
Cyno… heard about the conversation that Tighnari had with Collei – to say it nicely, Tighnari was worrying. Cyno wasn’t really sure why; it’s not like it was somehow weird to expect a teen to be interested in romance, probably. He spent too much time with Lesser Lord Kusanali, who casually would admit to him what people around them are thinking; and a lot of people were thinking about dating, somehow.
Maybe this is why so many students don’t pass their exams in the first term.
Anyway – he wasn’t particularly worried about that. He started to be… well, when Traveler came to visit the Forest Rangers.
Context: Cyno was just arriving to get his weekly report about Azar and other mons—ex sages that were supervised by Tighnari and the rest.
(“You will go there weekly,” said Al Haitham a few weeks ago, playing the role of Acting Grand Sage.
“I have better stuff to do,” answered Cyno.
“I don’t need Akasha Terminal to stalk you, to know that you visit Tighnari every time you can,” said Al Haitham, smirking, like an asshole that he is. “At least do your work when you do that.”
Should’ve killed you, thinks Cyno to himself, and leaves the office.)
More context: Traveler and Paimon were there too. Only for a moment, to deliver something.
More, more context: it was a letter. From Mondstadt. To Collei. And Collei squeaked and blushed when she took it, running away to her room.
Well. That was… new.
“She’s in love with someone in Mondstadt?” comments Tighnari, just after they bid farewell to Traveler and Paimon, and came back to Tighnari’s house. “How did she has even hidden that from me? I’m writing most of her letters.”
And then, he looks accusingly at Cyno, who immediately crosses his hands across the chest.
“I would never,” he says, and Tighnari sighs.
“I know,” he answers. “Who did she even meet there that could be considered as a crush, or whatever kids call it now?”
Cyno shrugs his arms. He was pretty sure that no one from people that he met in Mondstadt would actually be an object of Collei’s feelings; well, unless…
Ugh. He kind of hates this thought.
“Maybe it’s Amber?” Cyno asks.
Tighnari frows his eyebrows at that.
“She has a partner,” Tighnari answers. Cyno doesn’t really see how it couldn’t mean that Collei still could’ve a crush on Amber, but he drops it. “They’ve been together for few years already, it can’t be her…”
“And Amber is too old for her anyway,” adds Cyno.
“How old is she?”
“Around your age? Or maybe a little younger…”
Tighnari looks at him, biting his lower lip.
“How old am I, Cyno?”
Uh, that was. Not fair. It’s not like Cyno would ever forget Tighnari’s birthday – but no one ever say the year that they’re born when celebrating them.
“Younger than me.”
“Younger than you,” repeats Tighnari. “Wow.”
“Forever the same in my mind.”
“Wow.”
“Anyway!” Cyno shakes his head, and Tighnari just rolls his eyes. “Let’s just ask Traveler,” he suggests. “They brought the last letter to her, right?”
Tighnari shakes his head.
“They’re on their way to Fontaine,” Tighnari answers. “Don’t interrupt them.”
Cyno thinks for a moment.
“Lisa?”
Tighnari looks like he is thinking about it for a moment.
“I don’t know, Cyno…” He sighs, and looks at Cyno with a perplexed expression. “It’s not our business.”
“Your mother calls Collei ‘her little baby’,” Cyno answers. “Do you really don’t want to make sure that she is safe? It’s normal to check stuff like that.”
Tighnari’s mother seriously was calling Collei that, probably absolutely serious. She heard her. Tighnari mother never would express the same level of love that she did to Tighnari and Collei towards Cyno. It wasn’t like she hated hi—well, maybe she kind of did. Cyno once went after her, but it wasn’t his fault that she had relations with the people that actually were wrong; he made sure, that she was cleared, but she still hated him.
Kind of awkward, when he was dating her son.
“I feel old,” says Tighnari.
“Yeah,” answers Cyno. “Me too.”
Tighnari takes a deep breath, and throws his head back, staring at the ceiling. He did that often, thinking about stuff – exposing his neck a little more, that it was, making Cyno wonder if he has enough time to make it red and full of teeth marks before they need to go back to work.
Before he decides, Tighnari straightens up and claps his hands.
“Let’s just wait for now,” he decides. “Maybe she will want to write something nice to this person, so she will ask me to help her with her writing again. She asked me before about love stuff, maybe she will again. Or maybe you,” he adds, eyeing Cyno. “Don’t be weird about that.”
“I’m never weird about anything.”
“Don’t joke about it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Tighnari just smiles at that, coming closer to Cyno and kissing him softly. It’s short – so short, that Tighnari laughs, backing away, Cyno mouth still chasing him for more.
“Who was your first kiss?” asks suddenly Cyno. “Just curious.”
Tighnari gives him a suspicious look, but starts stroking his chin, thinking about it.
“Farah,” he answers after a moment. “It was my first year in Akademiya, and we went to the bar pretending to be of age. Who was yours?”
“You,” Cyno answers, and Tighnari looks at him. “What?”
Tighnari kisses him again.
“I just think I did a good job, if you are still sticking around,” he whispers.
Cyno smiles at that.
“You did.”
3, Kaveh
Kaveh has stuff to do. People to see. Buildings to build, probably. He has a lot of to do – and he can’t even get into his freaking house, because Al Haitham took his keys again. It wasn’t by ‘mistake’ anymore, oh no. Not today, when Al Haitham has visitation with Lesser Lord Kusanali herself, and they are going to have this nice, little talk how to turn off all Akasha Terminals and not cause half of the students just to jump out the windows while crying that they will not pass their exams.
Anyway. The point was, that if Kaveh wanted to come back home, he would need to go and see Lesser Lord Kusanali too, which sounds pretty terrific. She was a kind god, of course, but it didn’t mean that he wanted to go on the war path with Al Haitham in front of one of the seven most important beings in Teyvat.
He probably should to just go to the bar, get drunk and go back with someone to their home. Come back full of bite marks, or something, to make Al Haitham go all mad at him, that he is acting reckless again.
It was actually when he was in the middle in deciding to go and seriously do it, when she saw a little, familiar green head peaking from the bazaar.
“Collei!” he calls her, and she gets so scared, that she almost drops everything she had in her hands.
He smiles, a little bit awkwardly (well, he wasn’t planning to give her a heart attack), and he comes closer.
Collei is someone he knows pretty well – every time Tighnari (and Cyno) could get a day off and meet with Kaveh, he would always take Collei with him, even back when she was nothing but a little girl. She’s gotten a lot older, but Kaveh still could remember the way that she would fall asleep on the bench, hugging her legs close to her chest and hiding her face in fluffy, green hair.
Kaveh would try not drink that much back then, to not scream and not wake her up, and could remember pretty well how Cyno would just scoop her with one hand and take her with Tighnari, Collei not making even a noise during the whole ordeal.
Now, she was probably almost as tall as Cyno.
“What are you doing here?” he asks her, looking at the stuff that she was holding.
Some jewelry, a purple scarf. Nothing really that was… her style, but people can change it, he would guess.
“It’s a present,” she says, seeing the bits of confusion in his eyes. “I’m looking for something nice.”
Oh.
Well, by the way that she got scared by him just a moment ago, he could say that Tighnari nor Cyno wasn’t aware of this whole thing. Kaveh was once young, he knew what it meant.
“Oh. To who?”
Collei blushes.
Ha. Gotcha, kiddo.
“To a friend,” she answers, refusing to look at Kaveh. “S-she’s from Mondstadt, so I want to give her something… Sumerian… But still stylish!”
Now, Kaveh is smiling like a full idiot, because this all is funny and adorable. Oh, to be young again!
“They don’t call me the best dressed man in Sumeru for nothing,” he says, and winks to her, taking one of the neckless from her hands. “Well, Collei,” he starts, looking it up and down. “How old is your friend?”
“She’s a year younger than me,” Collei answers. “From the photos, she is very similar size to me! And she gave me a nice cape,” Collei says, nervously pulling her hair with the free hand. “So I need to give her something back.”
“So you had never met, I assume…?”
“We will!” Collei says loudly, and Kaveh just nods. “She told me that it would be lovely for me to come in the Spring, during the Windblume…”
“Oh, Windblume,” he mumbles. “Never been to, but I heard a lot of good things about it. Well, for the start – people in Mondstadt have quite the sense of style,” he says, and puts down the neckle. He motions for Collei to follow him, and goes to another stall. “You see,” he continues, “people there love their poetry, love, beauty, wine… How old is she, again?” he asks, and before Collei answers, he remembers it again: “Younger than you, too young to drink, then. Well. A vision haver, maybe?” Collei nods, squeezing her hands into fist and looking at him like at some kind of savor. “Liyue started the whole trend of pendants with the visions, and Sumeru took it and made it better. So, this way it won’t be the biggest present – and she doesn’t even need to keep the pedant close to her vision anyway, it can go on a bag, on the arm, on the neck – and it will be very thoughtful.”
He takes her to another stall, smiles lovingly to an old lady that was working there, and shows Collei some of the nicer pedants. The girl looks… well. Happy.
“Mister Kaveh!” she says, happily. “You’re so great.”
After a moment, she chooses the pinkish one, with a little golden flower and a purple bow.
“I will pay for it,” he insists.
Collei mumbles something under her breath, but before she can protest, he gives mora to the seller.
He gaves back Collei the pedant, already nicely packed in the paper and tied up with a ribbon, and motions on her to go and talk in the more private way.
When they stand in front of river, leaning on the balustrade, Collei looks at the package in a… weird way.
“Something wrong?” Kaveh asks.
Collei takes a deep breath, and nods slowly.
“I just hope that she will like it,” she says quietly, and Kaveh sighs, thinking for a moment.
She doesn’t really… mean the pedant, probably. The pedant itself doesn’t even probably mean that much itself – it was because it’s given from Collei to this mystery girl – that’s the most important thing. If she doesn’t like it, it’s like not liking Collei herself.
“If someone doesn’t like you, they never will,” he says after a while. His tone was bittersweet, and it made him smile awkwardly, trying his best to hide it. “But don’t worry about that, Collei! There are plenty of girls and boys that would adore you. You’re very sweet girl,” he says, patting her back.
She was, really. Somehow, he was pretty sure if they would be the same age, he wouldn’t even take a notice that she existed – and Kaveh was pretty aware that he wasn’t the nicest person growing up, so being nice to Collei was maybe his way to play a good guy card.
Plus… she was still taken in by his friends. It was probably much to call her their daughter – but in Teyvat, not many kids had any parents, so it took a village to raise a child anyway. Still, he couldn’t stop looking at her as someone that was Cyno and Tighnari kid.
Eh.
Collei nods slowly, visibly shy.
“Thank you very much, Mister Kaveh,” she says, looking down. “If you could, please don’t mention this to Master or General Mahamatra…”
He turns towards her, placing his right hand on his heart.
“Your secrets are always safe with me.”
She smiles.
(He ends up escorting Collei to her home. Before he is back, the light in his [theirs] house are once again lit; he sighs softly at that.
It wasn’t really how he planned to spend his evening, but… well, who cares. Young love was always an adorable thing to see.)
4, Lesser Lord Kusanali
Long meetings were always pretty boring – and Nahida, no matter how much she tried, was getting sleepy very quickly lately. Maybe it was from sleeping for 500 years, or maybe just because everyone was walking so fast, and she was still just a little sprout, even if growing every day.
(She actually wasn’t sure why she was so small – the memories were so fuzzy. If she was here before even archon war, she should be already a big, strong tree; so how, then? Did Sages did something to her to reset her growth? Well, there were more important things to care for before she will worry about that, probably…)
So, it wasn’t really a surprise, that sometimes Lesser Lord Kusanali would just… stop. No one ever would comment on that – for some reason, people would still get stressed out around her. She told them many times that she isn’t all knowing anyway; but still, no one would dare to say anything ‘bad’ to her.
Jumping between dreams and being just a spectator of life was a lovely thing; but sometimes, Nahida couldn’t do anything but to butt in, offering her hand. Old habits die hard, huh.
This time, is the girl with green hair again – she would often dream about things, that the girl her age shouldn’t, but recently, she would just… well. Get a little bit more her age, Nahida would guess.
Now, she wasn’t dreaming about the shadows lost between the green lights, nasty smiles of familiar faces dancing on the walls. Now, her dreams would be softer – her, sitting in the bed, looking at the photos, letters, blushing, sometimes crying.
She’s crying again this time; hugging her plushy to her chest, looking at the piece of paper that was laying on her legs. Well. Maybe Nahida could… help her.
“What are you stressing for?” she asks, and the girl looks at her with wide open eyes. “You’re not doing anything bad.”
The girl opens her mouths and closes, and after a while, she gasps, surprised.
“Who are you?”
Oh, that was nice then. Sometimes people would recognize her in dreams – she would make sure, that they would forget it once they had woken up, so people not recognizing her were a lot of nicer.
Nahida claps her hands together.
Well, doesn’t matter. She should think about it later.
“Me? Do you know what is this?”
She looks around.
“A dream?” she asks.
“Exactly. Then what am I, Collei?”
“… the part of it?”
“Yes! Very smart girl,” Nahida complements her. “Sometimes dreams come to help you with things,” she explains.
“Oh,” Collei mumbles. “I don’t know if there is anything you can help me with, because I don’t care,” she whispers, hugging her plushy even harder.
Jeez. People were complicated beings in itself, but Nahida really had no idea how teenagers were just… existing.
“What is stupid in liking someone?” Nahida asks. Collei looks at her frowning her eyebrows, and before she can say anything, Nahida adds: “I’m your dream. I know everything.”
Well, a lie.
“But it’s stupid!” Collei insists.
“Sometimes life is just like that,” Nahida says. “A little bit stupid. You’re a child of wisdom, but there isn’t anything wrong about being a little bit stupid about life,” she continues. She somehow knows Collei – she saw her often, when she was only a child, saw her in Traveler’s memories, heard about her being one of the people that people around her. Nahida also read Cyno’s thoughts one or twice, of course. To hear some of the jokes, that he was planning, but Collei was sometimes there too. She was a sweet girl; not the brightest per se, but it didn’t really matter. She was still the child of wisdom, right? “You’re very young. It’s fine to make mistakes.”
Collei sobs, sniffs, and hugs her plushy, but she looks somehow a little bit calmer.
“Okay.” Nahida claps her hands, and the handkerchief appears before her. She gives it to Collei. “Are you my smarter site?” Collei suddenly asks. “My brain got so mad at me, that it made you come to me?”
“Yep. Something like that.”
When Nahida opens her eyes, only Acting Grand Sage is in front of her.
She was laying on the couch in his office, under his own cape; he was sitting in front of her, on the chair, reading one of the many books that he requested. It was quite funny, really – when he told her that he could play Acting Grand Sage until everything will calm down, but he wants for her to give him the most unavailable books in the whole Teyvat.
She sits up, slowly, and touches her hair, fixing the small ponytail on her head. Then, Al Haitham looks at her.
“I met someone very nice in my dream today,” she says.
Al Haitham just stares at her for a while, without saying a word. He does that often. Nahida is somehow quite sure, that he always thinks that she is just waiting on the occasion to get inside his head – or something like that. It’s not like couldn’t hear his thoughts anyway.
“They were in lonely. But also in love,” she continues. Because why not. “Very, very much in love. It was sweet.”
Still, Al Haitham doesn’t answers; and when Nahida smirks, he stands up and leaves without a word.
5, Candace
Candace was many things – protector, daughter, granddaughter, friend and, most importantly; a great cook. So, of course, if she was to be left with a girl that she never met before, but she heard a lot of nice things about, she made sure to prepare her nice and healthy meal that every girl her age would love; so, maybe not that healthy then, but Tighnari doesn’t need to know about that.
She was actually the one that propositioned for Collei to stay with her – she heard from Cyno, that as she was now healthier, she really wanted to go with him to the desert and see Aaru Village for herself. It would be, of course, dangerous to send her off with Cyno to do his… work, and Candace anyway didn’t have much to do lately that was dangerous, so Collei was a nice addition.
Cyno escorted her to the bridge and gave the girl a stern talking; he left only when Candace told him to ‘start working already’, reminding him, that with Akasha Terminals still working for next few years, Collei was pretty safe with her.
Anyway. This is Candace’s favorite way to receive guest – giving them food.
“It’s so tasty!” Collei says immediately, and Candace smiles widely.
Collei was stuffing her cheeks with food – she has such a baby face while doing that, that it made Candace want to squeeze her like a little baby. Well, maybe it’s better not to try; she knows that Collei wasn’t too good with people touching her. Well, plus, she isn’t a baby.
“I want to learn to cook as good as you one day, Miss Candace,” she says, holding her face with the palms of her hands. “Your food is the best that I had ever eaten!”
When Collei is done with her food, she takes care of her books (“Master said that I still need to study, even here”), and Candace tides up a little bit, until the door of the house open without a knock.
Dehya steps into the room, sweeping it with her eyes; she lingers a moment on Collei, probably not recognizing her as a Aaru Village local, and then she welcomes Candace with a warm smile.
“Candace. I was looking for you.
“Oh my, Dehya,” she says softly, glancing towards Collei. She looks, well, somehow shy. “You know Cyno, right?” she asks, and Dehya nods her head, also looking at Collei. “That’s Collei. Remember? He’s been taking care of her with Tighnari for few years already.”
Dehya whispers ‘oh’ under her breath, nodding.
“Ah. Right, right. Nice to meet ‘ya, Collei,” Dehya says, and Collei smiles nervously.
“She’s very shy,” Candace whispers towards Dehya, who looks at her. “Cyno left her with me for a day. He’s doing some work with Rahman, you know, the…”
She stops. The bloody kind, she thinks to herself. Collei probably doesn’t need to know that.
Dehya gets the hint, and smiles widely, faking it. There were few rules in the desert; one of them was to never worry children about stuff, that they should not know about. It didn’t matter from where the children came from.
“Great. I was actually looking for them. Cyno asked me for some, uh, help,” Dehya says. “Thanks, girls. Have a nice day,” she says.
She kisses Candace on the cheek and nods towards Collei, who waves to her as a goodbye.
“Be safe,” whispers Candace, and Dehya nods.
And leaves.
When Candace turns to Collei, she looks at her with wide open eyes. And mouth. Oh my, oh my.
“You are dating?”
Candace laughs, seeing the starstruck expression on Collei’s face. Lovely.
“Yes.”
“Wow.” She blushes, taking into a notice how surprised she looked, and quickly closed her mouth. “I mean… you’re both very beautiful!”
“Thank you.”
Collei nods, and looks down at her books. And then at Candace. And at books. Annnnd at Candace.
“Oh! Miss Candace, so if… if that’s okay with you, can I ask you a question?”
“Ask away.”
“There is someone that I like,” she says slowly, blushing. “But I don’t know if that person… thinks the same…?”
Candace crosses her arms.
“Why is that?”
“They… uh, treat me sometimes like that they… maybe… don’t.”
Usually, Candace would just answer ‘then don’t worry about it’. But it isn’t how the young girl brain works – ah, she was pretty sure that would just make Collei upset and worry even more. There weren’t a lot of teens in Aaru Village, but Candace was once like that too; so, she kind of knew what to expect.
Candace thinks a moment about it.
“People say, that girls are always more mature, but that’s a lie,” she says finally. “Our mothers allowed the boys to be that way. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that,”
“Oh.” Collei nods, but she wrinkles her nose. “Well, she’s a girl anyway,” Collei says under her breath.
Candace smiles.
She should’ve guess that.
“Oh, a girl, you say?” she laughs. “Well, dating a girl can be still so hard!”
Collei blushes hardly, hiding her face into her palms.
“We are not dating,” she mumbles. “Just talking, but my brain… makes… ideas!”
Candace does her best to not laugh.
“Our friend introduced us,” Collei continues, visibly shy. “And—I mean, I don’t know! When we never meet in face now, so how I even can say that I had fallen in love? And she always uses such a big words, and I need to get the context between the words to even understand it! I don’t want to ask Master to read them to me,”
Her words make Candace smile. It’s sweet – so sweet. The way that girls would fall in love so young, and think about it as their only chance at it, always wishing for their first to be their last. One day, every one of them would have their heart broken, and they would learn that first never means anything; but, there isn’t this day for Collei. Yet.
“The way to get into someone heart is food,” she says softly. “Give them something made by you, Collei. It doesn’t need to be the best thing ever made – it just needs to be made from the heart.”
Collei for a moment just sits in silence, looking at Candace. Maybe it wasn’t the best advice – but still, Candace thought that there wasn’t really anything better that girl her age could do.
“Thank you.”
“No worries, Collei.”
Candace plans on going back to tidying up the books, but Collei stops her for a moment.
“Uh, and, also—! Please don’t tell anything to General Mahamatra,” she begs, and Candace nods her head.
“I would never,” she says, holding her hand to the heart. “Your secret shall be safe with me, Collei.”
(She says something to Cyno – but not that.
“Such a sweet girl,” she whispers into his ear, when Collei is busy with collecting her stuff. “Let her be a kid for a little bit more.”)
Bonus
“Can I go to Mondstadt?”
Tighnari looks at her as she had two heads. And two arms. Well, no. Two additional arms.
“… why?”
“On a… To meet a friend.”
“What?”
“Or to Liyue. We can meet half way,” she adds, stroking her chin. “Well! Master Tighnari, please—”
She starts jumping in place, and Tighnari starts waving his hands, trying to calm her down.
“No, no, no—”
“Please!”
“I’m not telling you ‘no’, I want you to explain it from the start!” he says, a little bit desperately. “What do you mean? Who do you want to meet?”
“My friend! Please! She writes me a letter, and gives me presents and—” she stops herself, taking a deep breath.
There are tears in her eyes, and she is ready to cry, because she may be young, but she is also in love – just like everything said, that love makes you go crazy, but no one ever said that it stings like the worst wolfhook ever.
“Who is this friend, Collei?”
She takes a deep breath, trying to keep the tears from escaping her eyes.
“… she’s a princess.”