Work Text:
By the way, I commisioned an artwork of Lapis from wonderful selencallisto! You can find her on twitter, instagram, tumblr and tik tok under this name.
When it came to scale, I took inspiration from Xiao's vision, since it's one of the smallest in the game.
Unless he was away because of his job, it was rather easy to find Gaming in Liyue Harbor. Yes, it required some luck, but I could tell that it was on my side today, since I quickly spotted him. As always, it was pleasant to watch him dance and because there were a lot of people surrounding him, I decided to wait and watch his show.
Only when it reached its end, I began whistling. It wasn't loud enough for Gaming to hear, but Man Chai quickly picked up the sound and flew towards me.
“Bring him here, okay?” I asked the suanni while patting his head, and after what I assumed was a ‘yes’, he flew back to Gaming.
I watched the two of them interact, before finally the man turned in my direction and smiled. He couldn’t see me, but he knew I was looking. He pulled out a piece of paper from somewhere and scribbled something on it, before giving it to Man Chai and saying “Give it to her.”
“Thank you,” I told the suanni, before he left to join Gaming, after which I checked what he wrote for me. A message, which told me where I should go if I wanted to go with him to Chenyu Vale. I left the paper where I stood, deciding to return for it later, and I went to meet with Gaming.
As soon as I stepped into his hearing range, I whistled to grab Gaming's attention. He wasn’t speaking with anyone, but there were still some people around him, so I couldn't freely come out unless I could quickly hide again. That’s why I had to wait for him to come over, and when he did, I quietly requested
“Take my claymore first,” while moving said weapon closer to him. He did it without a word, after which he offered me his hand. I quickly jumped onto it and he moved it towards himself, while Man Chai shielded my small figure from potential onlookers. After hiding me in his jacket, he whispered
“Are you good? One tap for ‘no’, two for ‘yes’.” Since he put his palm over my hiding my spot, I tapped at it twice, to assure him that I was alright. As soon as I did that, he began moving. Now, I just had to wait until I could come out. Fortunately, I had plenty of patience to spare.
It turned out that I didn’t have to wait long. About ten minutes later, Gaming said
“Alright Lapis, you can come out. I also put my hood up just in case,” and helped me climb out of his jacket.
“As always, thank you for your assistance,” I told Gaming once I was safely perched between his hair and the fabric of his hood.
“I'm always glad to help,” the dancer replied and we began walking again, Man Chai hovering next to us. A few seconds later Gaming inquired “So? What made you hitch a ride with me? Tea?”
“And what else?” I asked with a smirk, although he couldn’t see it. “I'm running out of tea and I don't wanna nag Mister Zhongli about it,” I explained, to which he replied
“He certainly wouldn't mind.”
“I can also pick up some medicinal herbs while I'm at it. Doctor Baizhu will certainly appreciate it,” I added, while glancing at my leg. The scar left after the nasty encounter with treasure hoarders was covered by fabric, but its look was something my brain wouldn't easily forget. If it weren't for everyone's help at Bubu Pharmacy, I wouldn’t be here now.
“Then gather all you want. I can help you carry it later,” Gaming offered, making me smile. It was hard not to while being around him.
“By the way, where exactly are we heading?” I asked, leaning slightly towards the boy's neck, who explained
“Yilong Wharf. There’s a merchant waiting for me there, who I’ll be escorting to Liyue Harbor.”
“And his cargo?”
“Tea,” he simply replied. But before I could say anything, Gaming quickly added “But don’t mess with it.”
“And who said that I would?” I asked. I couldn’t see his face, but Man Chai conveyed enough emotion for the both of them. “Fine, I would,” I admitted, making him laugh, while the suanni pushed his snout into my face. “Man Chai!” I scolded him, but I couldn’t help but laugh as well. It was a rather happy moment, until we all heard some weird noise.
And unfortunately, it was something we quickly recognized.
“Hillichurs!” Gaming exclaimed and pulled out his claymore, almost throwing me off balance. But, it wasn’t the thing that I focused on.
“My claymore! I need it!” I shouted into his ear, causing him to flinch.
“Don’t worry, I can handle them myself,” he assured, but I had none of it.
“Claymore. Now!” I demanded and, much to my surprise, he quickly handed me my weapon, while saying.
“Right, it’s hard to change your mind once you decide on something. Just be careful.”
“Of course. Just get closer to them,” I replied and grabbed my weapon, after which Gaming attacked the group of hilichurls, shouting
“Alley-oop!”. I had no idea where he took his lion head from, but it proved rather effective at gathering the attention of our enemies when he rammed at them while wearing it. This also gave me a chance to act.
“Handle those with short range, I will take care of the rangers” I said and after a confirmation from him, I jumped from Gaming’s shoulder and with Man Chai’s help I got a bit farther from the commotion. This way, I was able to access the whole situation and I quickly spotted two enemies with crossbows. “Take me to them,” I asked the suanni, who quickly flew towards them with me on my back. The pair of hilichurls was yet to notice, more focused on the dancer, who was straight up dancing with his claymore and lion head.
Another reason why I decided to separate. Without me, he could move freely.
The element of surprise was really on my side, so I infused my claymore with cryo and leaped at one of the hilichurls. I left a rather deep cut in its torso, but I wasn’t finished. From that, I leaped once more, this time in mid air, shouting
“Surprise!”, as I stabbed the second enemy in its neck. The first one was yet to fall, so I again leaped, this time landing a hit on its mask. Much to my relief, it was enough to defeat them.
“Nice!” Gaming shouted towards me, sending me a grin before turning to face more enemies. I felt my cheeks blush at this, but I hit myself to focus. The fight was far from over.
I spotted one more ranger, so I made my way towards them. This time however, they were aware of my presence, since they threw a slime at me. I barely dodged it, after which I decided a distraction was needed.
As I ran, I left behind a few afterimages that brought the hillichur's attention. Thanks to this, I was able to get behind them and as the afterimages began exploding, I cut my enemy's ankles making them fall, after which I finished them with a stab in the stomach.
With that out of the way, I moved my eyes back to Gaming, who dealt with his enemies as well.
“You alright?” I shouted towards him, while Man Chai brought me over to his side.
“Of course. What about you?” he asked in reply. As I handed him my weapon, I said
“I’m fine.”
“So we can go?” the boy asked while I moved to sit on his shoulder.
“Yeah. We shouldn’t linger for long,” I said, so he began walking.
“You really improved with your Vision,” Gaming suddenly pointed out, to which I asked.
“You think so?”
“I saw how you took out those two with crossbows! It really was amazing!” he exclaimed while throwing his arms up, making me smile. “And the one that was holding a slime! You cut his ankles, right?”
“Yes. It’s rather easy since they don’t wear any shoes,” I replied, after which I added “But, you were also amazing! I couldn’t tell if you were dancing or fighting.”
“I would say both,” he stated with a grin.
“By the way, returning to your Vision,” he said as he began to fasten his pace, “Were you training lately?”
“Yes. After the… ‘treasure hoarders’ accident, I focused most of my time on this,” I explained, grimacing at the memory. Two and a half months have passed since it happened, and I was still not over it.
And it wasn’t the first time I was attacked by them. I had time to learn.
“Ah, Xiangling told me about it. Sorry for bringing this up,” the boy apologized, but I brushed it off by saying
“Don’t be. After all, I’m still here, am I not?”
“Alright then,” he said and switched to sprinting. “Let’s see if we can reach Chenyu Vale before nighttime!”
It turned out that we actually could. As the sun began setting, we reached one of the smaller villages, where we decided to rest for the night. Before that, however, we still had topics we wanted to talk through, and since none of us were tired enough to go to sleep, we decided to do just that.
“I wasn’t really sure if I should ask this question, but, why did you start using your Vision for combat only recently?” Gaming asked, to which I replied
“Well, till recently, I avoided fighting. My main focus was evasion, so there was no need for it.” I paused for a second, to think about my next words and he made use of it, by stating
“So it wasn't practical for you. And yet, you still had good control for it. Your sprint, for example.”
“You mean the one with the frosty mist?” I asked, and when he nodded, I said “Now that one, that was the first thing I learned to do besides cooling myself during the hotter days,”
“No wonder. It’s really useful for someone who prefers hiding,” the dancer said and I agreed.
We exchanged a few more sentences, before I suddenly yawned. He also did, and even Man Chai gave a yawn of his own.
“Let's continue tomorrow,” I proposed while laying down.
“Sounds like a good idea,” Gaming agreed and did the same, with Man Chai snuggling into his arms.
A rather cute sight.
“Good night,” the boy said and I replied the same, after which the both of us quickly fell asleep.
As always, I woke up with the rising sun, but since Gaming was still sleeping, I decided to fetch some tea leaves, since I was in a place full of them. With the help of my hook, I made my way from the table, on which I previously slept, towards one of the windows. Since it was early, barely any people were out, so it was relatively safe for me to go. I stuck my hook into the windowsill, intending to return the same way I came back, and I slid from it all the way onto the grass.
“Now then…” I mumbled to myself, while looking around. It wasn’t hard to spot the baskets filled to the brim with leaves, but it was hard to tell if they were processed or not. I checked the closest one, but I wasn’t lucky - those seemed to be freshly harvested. Still, I decided to take them and dry them myself when I return to the Harbor.
After stuffing my satchel to the brim, I made my way back, just in time for Gaming to wake up.
“Oh? You’re already up?” he asked, while glancing in my direction.
“I always wake up early,” I replied, most of my attention focused on wrapping my hook around my waist. “By the way, I grabbed some tea leaves for myself,” I added, patting my satchel to emphasize it.
“Does that mean that we are good to go?” Gaming asked, to which I nodded and said
“To the Yilong Wharf we go.”
The trip to Yilong Wharf was much calmer than the day before and we didn’t encounter any enemies. We were even able to pick up a bunch of herbs, which I would give to Doctor Baizhu when I return. Although, I had to stay hidden for most of the time, since we quite often passed some people, and most of them would greet Gaming.
It was intriguing to see the effect he had on people. And it was no different for his employer, with whom he currently was speaking.
The merchant spoke casually with him, although he seemed startled by Gaming’s friendly demeanor. They discussed all matters related to the cargo, until they had everything agreed, and they were good to go.
Gaming tried striking a conversation with him on their way to the Harbor and because of that, I noticed something was wrong. The boy asked the merchant
“What kind of tea do you exactly trade with?”
“The normal one. You know, the one from the villages,” the merchant replied. It sounded suspicious to me, so I tapped a few times at Gaming’s chest to grab his attention. He put his hand over me and he asked his employer
“I need to check the area ahead, could you wait a moment?”. The man probably nodded, because only the dancer moved. “What is it, Lapis?” Gaming asked, so I could assume that we were alone.
“Something is wrong with that merchant,” I stated. I couldn’t see the expression he made, but the way he sounded when he asked
“How do you know this?”, suggested that he also had his doubts.
“As a merchant, he should know the specifics of his product. And I think that he doesn’t,” I explained. The boy hummed in understanding, before he said
“I also had a hunch. His cargo is heavier than it should be.” I couldn’t help but glance at him with surprise, even though we couldn’t see each other. “I should return to him soon. So, what will we do?” I thought for a second, after which I asked
“Do you think I can sneak inside his box?”
“Not really. It’s tightly shut,” Gaming said, making me huff. If not now, then…
“When will the sun be setting?” I asked, to which he replied
“In an hour or so. I wanted to stay at the Wangshu Inn for the night.”
Perfect
“Rest assured. I will check if that man is hiding anything.”
Thanks to Gaming’s and Man Chai’s wonderful cooperation, I was able to get out of his jacket unnoticed. While he distracted the merchant, I looked around the box, looking for anything that could help me get inside. I couldn’t find anything, so my only way was going from the top.
I whistled, to grab Man Chai’s attention, and when I did, I asked him to cover me, while Gaming helped the merchant move his cargo to his room. And from there, I had to wait.
And wait I did.
Even after night fell, the merchant was yet to fall asleep. But, it was a good thing, because I had no need to check his box myself, since he opened it himself.
Me and Gaming were right, since the box was filled with mora mixed with tea leaves. And, the merchant threw something inside it, making my eyes go wide.
A treasure hoarder’s insignia.
Although I felt my eyes close from exhaution, I kept the sleep away and I stayed still for another hour, until I was sure it was clear. Without my weapon, there was a slim chance of beating the man, so I had to escape.
I carefully left the room, and while sticking to the shadows, I went to Gaming. He was sleeping, snuggled up with Man Chai. It was a shame to wake them up, but I had to, so I walked over to the dancer and pulled at his hair. This had a bit of an unexpected effect since his hand suddenly shot up to me, making me curse from surprise.
“Lapis!?” he exclaimed when he realized that it was me, to which I shushed him and said
“Not so loud.”
“So, did you find anything?” he asked, this time in a whisper.
“Well, our merchant is a treasure hoarder and his box is filled with mora,” I replied, making him huff.
“It will be the safest to hand him over to the Millelith once we reach our destination,” he proposed, to which I nodded.
“I’m fine with it,” I said, after which I yawned. It was really hard to stay awake at this point, so I walked over to Man Chai, and I threw myself onto his back. “Goodnight,” I was only able to mutter, before I closed my eyes. But, before sleep could fully take me, I suddenly felt moving. I cracked one eye open, to see that Gaming was lying down with me in his hands. A small smile appeared on my mouth, as I fell asleep
The next day I was back in Gaming’s jacket, as we headed to Liyue Harbor. Today was peaceful as well, so I allowed myself to doze off a bit. It was like this for most of the way, until I heard
“What’s with the weapon, mister?”. I opened my eyes and focused on the conversation.
“Thanks for the escort, but I’m afraid you won’t be receiving your payment,” the merchant said, after which I heard a bunch of footsteps. The dancer took a fighting stance and he whispered
“Do you need your claymore to safely land?”. I hesitated for a second, after which I tapped once.
No.
It was enough for him to suddenly grab me and drop me outside his jacket. Although unexpected, it was also kinda expected, so I was able to soften my landing on time using my vision. At the same time, Gaming attacked the treasure hoarders, giving me a chance to move. I leaped outside the fight, to better acces the situation, and to see how many enemies were there.
It was also at this point that I spotted a man with a familiar looking scar on his face. He spotted me as well, to which I froze.
I left that scar. And he certainly remembered it.
“Don’t focus on the boy! The real treasure is that pipsqueak!” he shouted, making Gaming whip his head towards me.
“You won’t be getting to her!” he shouted and blocked a few guys from approaching using his claymore.
However, it was not enough, since from the beginning, there were some people behind me as well. Without my weapon, I could only evade them, while looking for a way to escape. Fortunately, Gaming noticed this, because he found a chance to shout
“Catch!”, while throwing my weapon towards me. I was able to grab it while it landed and from that point, I was able to attack myself. I leaped at one enemy and thanks to the element of surprise, I was able to stab him in the stomach. His scream fell deaf on my ears, as I forced my claymore out of his body and I leaped once again. The next enemy was more prepared for me, since he took a step back and tried to grab me. But, it was not enough to stop me.
“Nice try!” I shouted and I hit him in the wrist with all of my strength. As I landed on his arm, I could see the way his hand unnaturaly bent, assuring me that my strike was successful. I grinned seeing this and moved to attack once again. I was able to leap onto his shoulder and from there, I stabbed him in the neck. I barely avoided the blood that began spurting from the wound, because I leaped away at the last second.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t watching where I was going, and because of that, I crashed into someone’s stomach.
I wasn’t hurt, but the suddenes of all of this made me drop my weapon. And after that, I acted a second too late - a strong grip suddenly caught me and I felt like losing all air from my lungs.
“I got her!” my captor shouted, making me wince. I heard a few more shouts, but I felt too stressed to focus on what they were actually saying. So, out of desperation, I bit the hand holding me. I expected the grip to loosen a bit, but I was straight up dropped.
However, unprepared and not exactly in shape to think, I was unable to soften my landing, and I fell on my arm.
I bit back a scream and immediately stood up, to get to my weapon. Picking it up with one hand was difficult, but what was the most important, was the fact that I could still grip it since I used my vision to freeze my hand to it. I leaped, prepared to strike, but I was blocked by a knife. In order to not lose momentum, I forced myself to leap once more, but this time as well I couldn’t hit my enemy.
So, I decided to focus on the unguarded part.
Instead of leaping, I allowed myself to fall, only to plunge at the last moment, straight onto the treasure hoarder’s foot.
I felt dizzy from the landing, but I at least succeeded, based on the crack I heard.
Fortunately, before I could lose my balance, Man Chai suddenly swooped in behind me. With only one arm funcional, I decided to forsake my claymore, and I mounted the suanni. He took me closer to Gaming, who was yet to finish his fight.
“It’s like you read my mind,” I whispered to Man Chai, and then I analized the situation before me. The dancer’s opponent gave him some trouble, so I decided to support him a bit. Thanks to the suanni, I was able to move close to the enemy. And, when I did, I activated my vision in a way that momentarily blinded him. The taunt worked, because his attention shifted to me for a second, which was more than enough for Gaming to strike him.
“Is that all?” he asked, while catching Man Chai into his arms.
“Two are still left,” I replied, while glancing at the merchant and the man with the scar. They also glanced at us, but now, instead of confidence, their eyes were filled with fear. “Take care of them, could you?” I requested and closed my eyes. The adrenaline was wearing off and only now I realized how much my arm hurt.
I probably had to visit Doctor Baizhu.
I didn't even realize I fell asleep, until I woke up in a different place. It wasn’t hard to figure out where I was, after I heard
“Miss Lapis? Are you with us?”
“Can it wait, Doctor? I wanna sleep,” I replied and burrowed myself deeper into the covers.
“Should we really leave her like this?” Gaming asked, making Doctor Baizhu chuckle.
“Rest is important for her arm to heal. We can wait a bit with her medication.”
"Well, she would be glad to hear that I was made from the herbs she gathered."
“I think it’s her size that allows her to leap like that without anemo,” Gaming stated, while Man Chai on his shoulder nodded in agreement.
“If so, she could certainly leap higher without a weapon like this,” Yaoyao replied and pointed towards the knife Xiangling was holding.
“Lapis needs something big to do damage. I think those are perfect,” the chef said and did a spin with her knife.
“I don’t know, how about asking me for an opinion?” I asked, annoyed by their conversation. I was focused on trimming the handle of my new claymore, but it was still hard not to hear them.
“Sorry,” the three of them said at once, before Gaming asked
“So. About the leaps?”. I sighed, but replied
“Yes, it’s the size. But, I can’t leap mid air, so I have to either land, or bounce off something to do it again. Hitting is a good way to do it, although the hit has to be heavy for it to work. You know, the stronger the force, the stronger the reaction.” I couldn’t help but smile seeing the grin Xiangling made, since she was right. As I adjusted the bandage around my previously broken arm, I asked “So? Got more questions? Because I won’t be answering them later, unless I get injured again.”
“Getting attacked twice by treasure hoarders probably wasn’t the best experience,” Yaoyao said, to which I corrected her by saying
“Thrice.” I only realized that I did that, when silence fell. “Right, you don’t know,” I muttered, after which I cleared my throat and I explained “I encountered treasure hoarders three times. Twice in the past few months, but the first one was a long time ago. At least during that time I haven’t gotten seriously injured, although they put me in a cage for a whole day.”
“I sense a sensitive topic here,” Gaming stated and I nodded with a slight frown.
“Alright then,” Xiangling suddenly stated, while picking up the pot in which she was cooking some food. “How about we eat?”
“Food from you? Always,” I replied and Yaoyao said
“Thank you for the meal!” Everyone smiled, for which I was thankful. Changing the topic of a conversation was easy around them. Even so, I was yet to forget about the treasure hoarders, but for an entirely diffrent reason someone would expect.
"Gaming, I know that it's been some time and that you handed the mora from that box to the millelith, but what about the loot from defeated treasure hoarders?" I asked, turning everyone's attention to the boy. He glanced at me visibly startled and replied
"I was meant to take it?" The way he looked made me snort and I remembered who I was talking to. Of course he didn't take anything.
"You could at least take their mora. I know it was hard to see, but they had some stuffed into their shirts," I told him. This time he looked so bewildered that I couldn't hold my laughter.
"You certainly have an eye for those," Xiangling commented, while putting down bowls of stew for each person in the kitchen.
"What can I say? Keen eye spots the treasure," I replied, while puffing out my chest with pride.
"Alright then, how about we eat? Man Chain is getting impatient," Gaming said and pointed at he suanni, who was floating next to our bowls. The girls smiled at it, while I shouted
"Man Chai! Can't you wait a minute?"