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- W-where… Tell me, where have you been all this time?” Her usually reserved voice trembled slightly. The words echoed in the air for a while longer, and the taste of metal had long since settled in his mouth.
- I do not know. Beidou looks down at the floor. No, she cannot look into the eyes that reproachfully glare at her with their sharp falconry gaze.
- But I know. All these months you have conquered the boundless expanses of the sea, drinking and blaspheming. The hands of the Will of Heaven are crossed over her chest, and her already thin lips are pressed into one line. She clicks her tongue in displeasure. - I'm sure you were having a very good time somewhere on the other half of the globe. Ningguang pauses, and then continues to drill her with his gaze. “Do you know what I was doing at that moment?
“Uh… well…” Bei Dou scratches the back of his head in confusion. She finds it difficult to answer the question, so she says everything as it is. — To be honest, not really. Are you worried about me? - the bewildered pirate finally dares to deliver a verdict to the land.
The woman whose hands were clasped together looked at her very skeptically.
“Maybe I didn’t leave my office for days, no for weeks, signing papers that didn’t really represent at least some importance? I was already completely convinced that, it would seem, all the officials agreed in an instant, throwing these endless streams of useless papers under my arm. I do not take it into account, because this, compared with the rest of the duties that you have to perform even at your leisure, is a lot of trash. I just can't afford to let the streets of Li Yue run rampant with disorder and anarchy. Everyone should see me as a proper ruler who has contributed even the smallest share to our lands. And after that you still ask if I thought about you?
The Will of Heaven complains. Sorry sight.
- Do you want to talk about it? And although the words sound mocking, Beidou had nothing like that. She sincerely tried to understand and give the opportunity to express all the emotions that Ningguang keeps in her pretty head. But instead, the respected lady reacts sharply to the act of kindness, which is immediately accompanied by a sharp jump to the side.
- Will you speak out? She frowns; thin eyebrows are tense, like the face itself. - About what? You can only have two conversations with you; how you, being in a state of intoxication, vomited all over the sea vessel, and then the whole crew helped to wash the deck, or; what a prolonged sea storm you got into on your arrival to Inazuma and back. Everything that worries you; whether the fish bites successfully or whether you didn’t leave your precious flask where. But I'm already tired of explaining to you that I'm not going to support clichéd conversations.
“I didn’t mean to upset you, really. Bei Dou stretches out her hand in an attempt to put it on a sharp shoulder, but the woman deftly intercepts her wrist with tenacious fingers.
“Dear Captain of the Southern Cross Fleet, I have said enough, as have you. And now I will ask you to leave the Jade Palace, since I still have work to do. - the head of the grouping Tsisin herself does not notice how she switches to a completely businesslike tone.
“Dear Captain of the Southern Cross Fleet, I have said enough, as have you. And now I will ask you to leave the Jade Palace, since I still have work to do. - the head of the grouping Tsisin herself does not notice how she switches to a completely businesslike tone.
And she keeps her defense well.
- Ning... Ningguang. Maybe we won't communicate so formally? Beidou stops short, and it makes her feel bad.
The platinum-haired woman only snorts in response, abruptly turns on her heels and quickly leaves the space where the owner of the electric eye of a god is currently located. - I said everything. She jabs her index finger into her chest before finally leaving the terrace. “This applies to you too. Start working already.
An overwhelming loud slam of doors makes Beidou flinch. The girl, to whom she was in such a hurry, had just left to fend for herself, snapping the entrance to her palace right in front of her nose, leaving the defeated pirate, notorious for his circumnavigation of the world, at one with his all-consuming thoughts. The woman rests her elbows on the railing behind her, lost in her own thoughts. The incident that happened to her only made her think deeply about what had happened. Or maybe she really acts solely in her own interests? In any case, her sudden departures, as she suggested, seriously affected the internal state and, over the past six months, Ningguang's precarious health.
And what confirmed the hypothesis - she knew her from the beginning, not such a cold and always irritated girl. Of course, she was always very restrained, with a cold mind and a stern disposition - that's what she was put on, but Beidou always knew that she was just as fair and, despite her social position, she would never reject a brunette in a difficult situation and would always come for help. Beidou remembered how the street children spoke enthusiastically about her, joyfully holding sweets in golden wrappers in their hands. At that moment, it made Beidou smile.
A sickening lump formed in my throat. Her stomach churned at the thought that she could hurt her only star.
How could she treat her like this before? Beidou took a couple of sharp breaths to ease the aching feeling inside her stomach. - Heck. I am insignificant. She looks at the crystal clear sky; not a single fluffy cloud will float overhead, only the blue of the sky and the scorching sun. Surprisingly, the weather in Li Yue did not deteriorate today. Despite this, heavy rains pour down in the soul, and ominous lightning pierces the heart through and through. Her behavior is unacceptable to a person who cares about those. Yes, the Will of Heaven itself will take care of her. It must have been a great honor just to see her for a simple city worker, and the ultimate dream. Every time Beidou comes in with bloody hands, scratches and scars on her face, Ningguang immediately takes her to his room, lays her on the sofa; not even afraid to stain snow-white carpets with fresh red liquid - now this is not a priority. Taking out pharmaceutical supplies from a chest of drawers, a woman disinfects deep wounds; Bei Dou grimaces and hisses obscenities, to which the platinum-haired woman shushes her in annoyance. Unfolding the snow-white bandage, Ningguang tightly, but with incredibly gentle touches, bandages the cut up forearm, trying to deliver minimal pain to his warrior.
Finally, after finishing the dressing, Ningguang pulls back a little. She picks up Bei Dou's mutilated face, wondering who she got into a fight with this time.
- Scars will remain in any case. - sadly issues the Will of Heaven. She strokes the disfigured face again, running her velvet hand over the Captain's cheek, tracing the long streak on the split lip. Beidou wants to say that this is nonsense; wants to assure that it is not at all necessary to worry about what she does not in the first. However, she keeps unnecessary comments to herself, only smiling broadly with all thirty-two teeth. She knows that Ningguang will click, and still, despite her futile efforts not to scold the stupid Pirate, a few moralizing words will still escape from her tender mouth.
Beidou wonders again. No. She definitely thinks too much. This is not characteristic of such a familiar person as she is. It was still not enough for wrinkles to prematurely cover her already rough face. And, in an attempt to fix everything, despite the fact that Ningguang strictly ordered him to get out, Beidou was still banned. She breaks into the room and hurriedly heads straight for the lady's quarters, ignoring the looks of the disheveled secretaries on her.
"You can't come here, miss!"
- I do not care. Beidou angrily pushes one of them away. Steps fly one after another, and, despite the fact that there are only thirty of them, they seem incredibly long. The usually heavy step of the girl became incredibly light, completely uncharacteristic of a pirate and an experienced navigator. And here it is - the cherished door. Despite his out of breath, Beidou will not stop, in an attempt to equalize him, he will only run at full speed along a wide corridor lined with gilded tiles, and immediately breaks through the door.
The Will of Heaven, as if nothing had happened, sits at a round table, head bowed over a stack of documents. She is still perfect, stately, only now her shoulders drooped. She is tired. From the work accumulated to the disgrace, from the endless streams of applications from different parts of Teyvat... From everything. Her usually perfect back was hunched over, and overall she didn't look very good, to say the least. Perhaps it is shameful for the pirate herself to admit this, but such an impenetrable nature as Beidou, every time her heart contracted painfully at the sight of her emaciated girl. Her heart is big and deep, able to empathize, sympathize with literally everyone you meet. It was enough to hurt her heart once so that she closed herself from everyone. And I trusted only one person. Ningguang's half-closed eyes moved from another contract to an unexpected visitor who had broken into her late at night so abruptly and impudently. The red rubies narrowed, and the relaxed lips immediately turned into a strict stripe. And yet she did not look so intimidating; I simply didn't have the strength to be angry. She looks at Beidou expectantly, straight into her wine-filled eyes full of guilt and sympathy. She wants to start talking right away, but only numerous wheezes fly out of her throat, but Ningguang is in no hurry. She understand. She needs time.
After Bei Dou brings a thin girl, and from the threshold she begins to explain.
“Lady Ning Guang!” I'll call the guards, this one! - She angrily shifts her quickly darting eyes to Beidou - She will leave right now! The captain just snorts contemptuously.
- Leave her alone, Baishi. I'll be ok. Under the soothing tone of her boss, the brunette nods and hurriedly leaves, leaving the two alone.
Beidou can finally speak. But for some reason she is silent; looks at NingGuang, trying to find words that weigh at least something.
- What do you want? — the eyes of the Will of Heaven are cunning, reminiscent of foxes, but not from excitement, but from the aggression contained inside. — You and I discussed the exciting issues many times, and I delivered a verdict, preprinted with a dot. So why not leave me alone?
- Not. I really want to say a few more words. – despite the futile attempts of the Will of Heaven to drive away, the Captain insists. Ningguang's eyebrows rise inquiringly, but she listens intently. “Ning, I really didn’t want our first meeting in six months to happen like this.
And apparently the last one. - the woman with platinum hair sharply remarks, turning over the kiseru in her hands with interest. “You know, I’m not a thing that can be used and thrown away like that. First of all, I am a human.
"I don't think anything of the sort!" Of course you are human, Ningguang, that's what I wanted to prove to you all the time. And I'm sorry you thought otherwise. I considered the solution. I will stay in the harbor for as long as you require.
Qixing's piercing gaze visibly relaxes, and one can see relief in it with a small grain of sadness in the very depths of the shining sapphires, which can be seen only by extremely scrupulously looking closely.
— Not worth it. You need to apologize to yourself, Beidou. Her voice sounds like a treat to the ears, now soft and especially tremulous on the name that came out of her mouth for the first time in a day. “You have no idea what kind of agony it is when you are forcibly pulled out of your native habitat and put on a steel chain.
At the last words, Beidou gaze drooped. It seems that she finally gave up to defend the futile attempts to keep her love. It's so simple and uncompromising. But, however, she still raises her faded gaze, and, looking into Ningguang's half-closed eyes, with only her lips, she whispers desperately almost inaudibly.
“But I... I love you.
— More than an ocean?
- Many times more. - Beidou voice is noticeably more confident, and a spark lit up in his eyes again - a ray of hope, which was not so easy to put out. A pirate is a pirate. His home is the endless expanse of water. But Beidou is Beidou. And she seems to have already found her home. But can he become her ocean?
A girl with brown hair confidently closes the distance between them and... hugs. Firmly but gently, putting Ningguang in a kind of stupor. For a couple of seconds, she stands rooted to the spot, dumbfounded as her eternal source of trouble and failure, called Beidou, wrapped her arms around her, taking the first step. And no matter how much she wanted to break through, she could no longer fight with herself and hugged back, resting her head on a strong female shoulder. Burying her nose into her snow-white, neatly styled hair, Beidou finally had a sense of calmness. Not seeing, but feeling, Ningguang closed her eyelids, completely surrendering to the drowning embrace, like a storm sinking sea vessels. But still, Ningguang had to open her eyes when the mistress of the seas broke the embrace, straightening up to her full height. Grasping her face with her hands, she finally examined the bruises under her beautiful eyes, which even cosmetics can no longer block.
- You need to sleep. Beidou said as she picked up Ningguang in her arms and carried her to the bedroom. Ningguang yelped, but did not resist.
Only by taking a lying position, the Will of Heaven instantly plunged into the realm of Morpheus. Looking at her fragile figure, Beidou noticed. Ningguang has lost a lot of weight since the last time she saw her before she left. Surely her weight did not exceed a hundred pounds, which greatly distorted the beautiful figure with beautiful forms. This suggested that the girl did not eat at all. And she really forgot to eat.
- And she has to fix it. - the woman mentally noted, covering the blonde's body with a fluffy blanket.