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Sometimes, Aether suspected his girlfriend was going out of her way to try and exasperate him.
This time, the thought was sparked by the note he’d found on the kitchen table when he woke up: Gonna be a long day at work today. Go ahead and eat dinner without me. ~ Keqing
Just thinking about it made him shake his head and sigh. It wasn’t as if this was the first time this had happened; on the contrary, it was a pretty common occurrence, one that Aether normally let slide.
But today was different—today was Keqing’s birthday. And even though it was so very like her to ignore that fact and treat it like any other work day, there was no way he wasn’t going to do something for her, especially if she was going to have to work late.
She’s lucky she’s cute, he thought to himself, shaking his head again and chuckling in spite of himself. Despite wanting to be a bit frustrated with her, he couldn’t help but find her behavior a little endearing.
Thankfully, Aether had already been planning for a rather simple celebration, so Keqing working even later than usual didn’t complicate things all that much. All it meant was a slight adjustment to location, and that was something he could manage.
Unfortunately, Teyvat seemed to have other ideas.
“What do you mean you’re sold out?” He asked, certain he must’ve misheard.
In front of Xinyue Kiosk, Yueshu shifted uncomfortably and stammered, “Well, we received a huge request at the last minute from a very well-paying customer, so we did everything in our power to get them the food they requested…which included giving them some of our pre-orders.”
“But I placed an order over three months ago, and it wasn’t even to eat inside!” Taking a deep breath to keep from losing his temper, he asked, “Isn’t there anything you can do?”
Yueshu shrugged helplessly. “I’m afraid we’re just too busy to get it to you, but we’ve moved your order to next month and will of course offer you a large discount—”
“Forget it. Next month is too late.”
“I’m very sorry, sir.”
“It’s not your fault.” Aether sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Can I at least ask who placed the order?”
Yueshu glanced around nervously before leaning forward and whispering, “Northland Bank.”
Of course it was them, he thought with annoyance. Even after they’ve gotten what they wanted from Liyue, they’re still ruining my plans. I bet it was Childe’s idea too. I outta wring that Harbinger’s neck—
He stopped himself when he noticed how pale Yueshu had gone as she all but cowered before him. Apparently he hadn’t done a great job keeping his murderous thoughts from showing through.
“Sorry,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck as his cheeks flushed slightly. “Have a good day, Yueshu.”
Aether turned and sulked off to the nearby bridge, leaning against the railing as he considered his options. Not doing anything was off the table; he’d already committed, and besides, what kind of boyfriend would he be if he didn’t do anything to celebrate his girlfriend’s birthday?
There was the option of scrapping his current idea and figuring out something else, but he really didn’t want to do that. The whole reason he’d made the order at Xinyue Kiosk so far in advance was because he’d been so certain Keqing would like this gift: a plate of Golden Shrimp Balls. Was it a simple thing? Yes, but he knew she would appreciate that far more than something extravagant, not to mention it could be delivered to her rather than being dependent on her coming back to the apartment.
But what options did that leave him with? Nowhere else in Liyue Harbor sold them, at least to his knowledge. In fact, he couldn’t think of a single other location in the entire nation of Liyue that did. If he was determined to get Keqing some Golden Shrimp Balls for her birthday, it was looking like he’d have to make them himself, but how was he supposed to do that when he didn’t even know where to start?
“Hey, Traveler! What’s got you so down in the dumps?” He jumped in surprise before glancing over to see Xiangling resting her arms on the railing and looking at him with concern. Meanwhile, Guoba was standing right beside him, reaching up and slowly patting Aether’s leg as if to comfort him (and it would’ve been comforting, if Aether hadn’t felt slightly unnerved with the way Guoba was staring so intently at him while doing it). “Oops, did we scare you?”
“No, no, you didn’t scare me. You just surprised me, that’s all. I was lost in my thoughts.”
“What were you thinking about?” She asked. “I don’t have anything to do for a little while, so I’m free to listen if you want someone to talk to.”
As he opened his mouth to decline the offer, a sudden realization hit him. “Xiangling, you’re a chef.”
“Uh huh, at least last time I checked.”
Aether grabbed the blue-haired girl by the arms and practically shook her in place as he said with a hint of desperation, “Do you know how to make Golden Shrimp Balls?”
Guoba stepped on his foot, causing him to wince and release the poor girl, who shook her head and got her bearings before answering. “Uh, yeah! Why do you ask?”
“Can you please teach me?” Aether clasped his hands in front of his chest, giving her the best puppy dog eyes he could manage.
Just as he was considering dropping to his knees and maybe even crying to convince her (not that enough time had passed to really warrant doing anything remotely like that, but drastic times called for drastic measures), Xiangling nodded. “Of course! In fact, I was just thinking about what adding lizard tails would do to enhance the flavor—”
“No!” He cut in almost frantically before forcing himself to calm down. “I mean, no. They’re a gift for someone, and I really wanna make sure she likes them.”
“Oh, okay!” The chef looked slightly bummed, but otherwise didn’t seem to mind. “Come on, we can use the kitchen at Wanmin Restaurant.”
So, after gathering the necessary supplies—shrimp, potatoes, flour, and a healthy dose of “no, Xiangling, that’s not one of the ingredients you told me the original version needs”—they began cooking. It was harder than Aether had expected; thankfully Xiangling was patient (she even seemed to like the taste of some of his initial, horrible attempts), because it took several tries before he managed to produce anything remotely close to good…and then a few more tries before he finally did well enough to make a whole platter.
But despite Teyvat’s best efforts, Aether had Golden Shrimp Balls to deliver to his girlfriend.
Thankfully, it wasn’t too hard to get to the new Jade Chamber. After everything that had occurred in Liyue, Aether was more than well-known; it seemed like everyone seemed to recognize him as the now-famous Traveler, particularly in Liyue. Sometimes it was a bit of a nuisance, but when it came to the Jade Chamber, it was nice to be recognized and simply let up rather than having to go through the hassle of the password (not that not having to say a password really saved that much time).
Normally Keqing didn’t work in the Jade Chamber, but he had on good authority that today she was (which really meant that he’d gone to her office directly only to learn that she wasn’t there because Ningguang had requested to work directly with the Yuheng on some project or another). That was why, despite not wanting to be bothersome by interrupting, he walked up with confidence to the doors of the Jade Chamber and knocked.
Immediately one of Ningguang’s secretaries had scrambled to pull it open, and both Keqing and the Tianquan herself looked up to see him enter, clutching the plate of Golden Shrimp Balls tightly in his hands.
“Traveler,” Ningguang said, a knowing smile on her face, “what brings you here?”
“I’ll be out of your way in a moment, Ningguang,” he promised. “I just wanted to drop these off for Keqing.”
Despite her best efforts, he could tell that his girlfriend was eying the dish hungrily. “You didn’t need to—”
“No, I didn’t,” he interrupted, “but I wanted to. It’s your birthday, Keqing. Let me at least give you one present.”
She looked a bit embarrassed as he set the plate down in front of her, and her face flushed bright red when he pressed a kiss on top of her head before scurrying out the door, barely hearing her call out, “Aether!”
He got a very awkward “thank you” from her when she returned to the apartment that night, but a few days later at dinner with Ningguang, the Tianquan confirmed that Keqing had been on the brink of crying from happiness over his gift, which had completely rejuvenated her work efforts. (Keqing, who was present and entirely unprepared for the conversation to unfold the way it did, ended up embarrassed and blushing all over again—a sight that Aether treasured.)