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In honor of winning the prestigious Furina award, Xavier decided to host a celebratory dinner for the entire staff and cast of Musketeer Pictures. As dinner finished and the ecstatic atmosphere amongst the guests started to die down everyone started to steer away from the table to walk around or to congregate in different areas of the venue. As for Lumine, she was busy packing some leftover food and snacks for Paimon when Ayaka approached her.
“Hello, Traveller,” Ayaka greets ever-so gracefully, “it was so spending time with you again, I feel like it's been so long since we’ve seen each other.”
“I know. I’ve been so busy, I haven’t had the time to visit Inazuma recently, I’ve really missed everyone over there.”
“We all miss you too, in fact, Thoma has been talking about you a lot recently. He really wants you to try the new dish he made, which is a fusion of Inazuman and Mondstat cuisine. It’s quite good!” Ayaka replies.
Lumine’s eyes sparkle at the sound of it and tells the young Kamisato that she will try her best to come visit soon.
“Where are you going to next?” Ayaka asks.
“I’m off to Liyue, I have a commission there,” Lumine replies. After her statement she noticed that Ayaka became a bit timid and flustered, “Is everything alright, Ayaka?”
“Yes. I just have a small request…if it won’t be too much trouble, could I also commission you to send this letter to Kazuha?” Ayaka asks shyly as she hands Lumine a sealed envelope.
‘ The Sakura blooms
Maple leaves fly across the sea
Longing for just for you.’
Kazuha sighed as he finished writing another haiku in his small notepad and tucked it back into his kimono. It's been a while since he and Ayaka had corresponded. The last she wrote to him was when she had just arrived in Fontaine with her brother and Yoimiya to help with the production of a film. He understands such things are very taxing and difficult to produce, so he doesn’t quite mind the shortage of letters. The gods know he doesn’t have room to complain when there have been instances during his travels that do not grant him the liberty to write to his girlfriend as much as they both would like. However, despite this, it does not mean that he misses her any less.
Kazuha let out another sigh as he leaned his head back and closed his eyes, allowing his other senses to be fully immersed in the serene environment atop one of the Alcor’s crow’s nests. He could feel the cool breeze against his skin, smell the faint saltiness of the sea, and hear Paimon calling out to him from the deck below.
What?
Kazuha opened his eyes to see that his ears did not deceive him at all, as he looked down onto the deck, Lumine and Paimon were indeed there waving up at him.
“Kazuha! You’ve got mail!” Paimon shouts.
He was quite surprised by their unexpected visit and equally intrigued by the envelope Paimon held in her hand as she waved up at him. He quickly waved back and signaled that he would be with them in a moment.
“Well, it seems we have some unexpected guests,” Paimon and Lumine turn their attention to the source of the voice, it was Beidou approaching them with a smile.
“It’s so good to see you Captain Beidou. We’re sorry for barging in like this, we should’ve come and greet you first” Lumine greets and apologizes for their discourtesy, to which the Captain just laughs.
“What are you being so formal for? You’re always welcome here and I really don’t mind if you don't come to greet me first thing,” she says in a reassuring manner, “I was just curious, so I came out here, what brings you two in Guyun Stone Forest? A bit far off from Liyue Harbor no?”
“We’re here to deliver some mail for Kazuha!” Paimon interjects while waving the sealed envelope in her hand, consequently causing Lumine to scold her and remind her to be careful.
Beidou looks over at it curiously and smiles. She could already guess who it was from but wanted to ask anyway, “Oh? From who?” she inquired with an expectant smirk.
“From Ayaka!” Paimin says cheerily.
“I see. Well, Kazuha would be very happy about that,” the Captain replies with a chuckle.
“What would make me happy?” Kazuha asks as he approaches the group, a bit breathless from climbing down the sails.
Beidou takes the letter from Paimon and hands it to Kazuha, “A letter from your sweetheart, of course!”
Kazuha was quite surprised since he wasn’t expecting to receive a letter from Ayaka so soon, he figured that she would have been too busy to do so with her filming in Fontaine and returning home to Inazuma, “Huh? How?” he asks as he walks to Lumine and Paimon.
“We met up with them in Fontaine and she asked us to give it to you!” Paimon replies. As she eagerly hands him the envelope.
The wandering samurai slowly takes the parcel from the fairy’s grasp and promptly thanks her and the Traveller. He simply stares longingly at the envelope allowing his fingers to dance around its edges. A flurry of emotions rushed through his mind, he was ecstatic to have received a letter from his girlfriend earlier than he anticipated and he so eagerly wanted to open it and read its contents; yet he wasn’t quite sure if it would be appropriate to do so in front of his friends, or to temporarily take his leave to read the letter in a less crowded part of the ship. Sensing his hesitance, Beidou interjected, “Well, what are you waiting for? You’ve been sighing and mopping around all week, you should be ripping that open!”
“I’ll read it later. I should entertain our guests, after all the Traveller and Paimon came all this way,” Kazuha replies as he puts the envelope in his kimono.
The quartet then spent the rest of the afternoon talking about each others’ adventures since they had last seen one another. Paimon recalled all her and the Traveller’s shenanigans that they had gotten into since they had stepped foot in Fontaine. They even started telling him about the Fontanalia Film Festival and even teased him about how beautiful Ayaka was in her new Fontainian outfit and her talent in acting, something Captain Beidou was far too happy to join in on; making Kazuha’s face almost as red as the maple leaves in Ritou.
They continued with their banter and exchange of stories well into the night–until it was only the four of them still up on the deck, with only the moon and the few lamps to accompany them. As their conversations started to die down and only a comfortable silence engulfed them, Kazuha excused himself from the group and wandered to the poop deck and took out the envelope.
It felt a little heavier than her usual mail , he wondered. As he finally opened it–to his delight–he found quite a lot of contents inside: a letter, a pressed rainbow rose, and a few photographs; although Kazuha wanted to look through the pictures first, he had a feeling that Ayaka would have wanted him to read her letter first.
“ Dearest Kazuha,
I’m sorry it’s been awhile since my last letter, things have been hectic here, with filming and all, but it’s been so fun. Before filming, the director and producer were kind enough to give us a free day to allow my brother, Yoimya, and I to go sightseeing around the nation. The Traveller and Paimon even took us swimming, and surprisingly we could breathe underwater, such is the power of the Hydro Sovereign, I suppose.
Speaking of the director, I should count my lucky stars, because to my surprise the director of the film we were starring in turned out to be the previous Hydro Archon herself, Lady Furina!”
Kazuha continued to read the letter with a smile on his face, imagining what it would have been like to be by Ayaka’s side as they walked around the romantic city of Fontaine or swam in the cool waters to observe all the unique sea creatures she was gushing about.
“ Fontaine truly is a beautiful nation. Although I’m sure you will make your way to the nation of Hydro soon enough and get to witness its wonders yourself, I do wish you were here to see and experience everything with us…with me. Hopefully, next time we will be able to go here together.
I hope to see you soon back home. I love you and I miss you terribly.
Forever yours,
Kamisato Ayaka”
Finishing her letter with a longing sigh, Kazuha then leisurely looks through each of the pictures inside the envelope. Some of them were of Ayaka and her friends during the award ceremony and some of them were by the seashore celebrating their win–so he presumes. Kazuha smiles and chuckles as he flips through the photographs–almost as if he is imagining himself with her, but as he reaches the last picture, he feels as if the wind had been knocked out of his very being. It was a solo portrait of Ayaka standing in front of a beach wearing a light blue Fontainian dress with a rainbow rose in her hand, smiling; not like the usual smile she gives when greeting Inazuman citizens and officials, but one that was reserved for the special people in her life, for him.
Seeing that picture of her made the yearning and sadness in the pit of his stomach grow ten times stronger. How he regrets not being there and how he wishes he had jumped off the Alcor bound to Snezhnaya and swam to Fontaine himself just to be with her. He continues to stare at her portrait a little longer and grazes his thumb across her face in the picture.
“I love you too,” Kazuha whispers as he closes his eyes and brings the picture to his lips, hoping that soon enough it will be his Ayaka he will be kissing.
–
“Wow you’re right Beidou, Kazuha is head over heels for her!”
“Paimon, shut up!”