Work Text:
Blinking her eyes awake, Keqing squinted at the clock. Sure enough it was the same 6:30 that she usually woke up to - as she adjusted to the waking realm, she noticed the pitter-patter of rain on the window, which explained it being much darker than this time usually was. Ganyu was still fast asleep, which wasn’t unusual for her, but when she shook her shoulder, she didn’t even stir, which was a bit out of the ordinary. Not paying much mind to it, she leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and rubbed her thumb on her wife’s cheek for a few seconds, smiling as if she had forgotten the beauty of the sight she woke up to every morning.
She got herself dressed, and only after trying to rouse Ganyu a second time did she give any sign of waking. She curled herself into a tight ball, quietly whimpering an objection to acknowledging the day.
“You need to get up baby, we have work. I’ll be in the kitchen making our breakfast.” As she left their bedroom, she made sure to leave the door cracked open enough to let the kitchen’s light in.
After a handful of minutes, a drowsy Ganyu stumbled through the doorway and over to her seat at the table. It takes her a few seconds to adjust her eyes to the light just after waking up, but immediately broke out in a grin at the sight of Keqing wearing her purple apron as she worked the stove. She closed her eyes, thanking the archons for the life she was blessed with.
“Hey sleepyhead, your food is ready. Three eggs over easy and four pieces of toast, just like you like it. You’re still in your pajamas too, you really just rolled out of bed didn’t you?”
Ganyu lifted herself up from the table again, and Keqing slid her plate where her head was a moment ago. “Mmmm thank you. I’ll get dressed after I eat. Thank you for cooking for me, darling.”
“Of course, I know you run a little slower when it’s rainy out, and I love doing it anyways.”
Once she finished her breakfast, she stumbled back to the bedroom, a little bit more awake this time. A few minutes later she emerged wearing her usual work outfit and a jacket. “Can I hold the umbrella?” The face that accompanied her request was reminiscent of a starving puppy, and there was no reasonable chance for Keqing to decline.
“Of course darling. Let’s get going, we’re running behind.” The moment she opened the door, the smell of fresh rain on grass and asphalt hit, and Ganyu sneezed behind her. “Bless you.”
“Mmm thank you.” She opened the umbrella and they huddled together beneath it, shoulders touching as they started on their way to work. Swerving on the sidewalk to dodge puddles and freezing the bigger ones to walk over, they made it to the Pavilion only 30 minutes behind their usual schedule, still an hour before anybody else would arrive.
They both arrived at Keqing’s office, hanging their coats and umbrella on the rack near the door. Ganyu kissed her wife and walked out, heading to her office so she could retrieve her stack of papers that she would work through today. After just a few minutes she returned with a knock, letting herself in before Keqing even had a chance to respond. She hadn’t worked out of her own office in years, she had moved her chair in to share Keqing’s desk with her. The other secretaries knew by now to bring any urgent business here instead of Ganyu’s office. While it’s up to debate if they work better while sharing their space, they certainly work happier, much to the pleasure of the rest of the staff who cherished Keqing’s newfound peace.
They worked their morning as usual, each making absurd pace through their mountains of paperwork, barely even pausing to hear out the secretaries knocking occasionally to bring a paper or ask a question. They weren’t called The Qixing’s Power Couple for nothing, they both carried the efficiency expectations of half a dozen people on their own.
As it approached their noon hour, they pulled out the lunches they had packed with them. Normally they would walk down to the harbor, but on rainy days they chose to stay in the office to eat. They slowly ate their meals, busy chatting about office gossip and the reports in the newspaper they had delivered to their office every morning. Thirty minutes after their break started, like clockwork, Ganyu yawned. She stood up and hobbled over to the couch in the corner of the room, curling up in a fluffy little ball. Before Keqing even had a chance to glance over at her, she had already fallen asleep. Even with the rain giving her a slow start today, she was a woman of routine.
Keqing opened the cabinet next to the couch and pulled out two fluffy blankets. She draped one over Ganyu, then took a seat on the couch next to where her wife’s head lay. She procured a book from a nearby drawer then pulled the second blanket over herself. Keqing had started reading significantly more ever since she had decided to extend her break to match Ganyu’s schedule with her midday nap, working her way through her collection of Yae Publishing House novels while she ran her fingers through Ganyu’s silky hair, gently scratching her head as she turned the pages.
As their break neared an hour, Ganyu began to stir. Unlike her usual quick waking, she reached her arms out, wrapping them around Keqing’s midsection to pull herself forward and lay her head back down on her lap. A smile broke across Keqing’s face, chuckling to herself about how cute she was. “I guess we can wait five more minutes, but after that I’m waking you up.”
Those five minutes passed, admittedly quicker than she wanted them to. Alas, they had more work to do, so Keqing roused her and they got back to their work, cruising through their paperwork just like any other afternoon. Hours later, the sun peeked through the clouds and bled through the office window just as it began to set.
Keqing signed the last paper in her stack for the day, looking up at Ganyu who was about to do the same. “The rain is clearing, do you want to get dinner before we go home? I can call in an order at the teahouse.”
Ganyu nodded, smiling at the idea of walking down to the harbor together. The pair grabbed their jackets and umbrella and locked up the building as they left. While the rain had stopped and they didn’t need the umbrella anymore and the air still smelled like rain on grass and asphalt, it was still cold enough for Keqing to shiver even under her jacket. She reached her hand out, grasping Ganyu’s to steal her warmth. Keqing’s hand was freakishly cold, but Ganyu didn’t mind as long as she got to hold it.
They walked down the winding stairs into the harbor, and as they approached the Yanshang Teahouse, a familiar figure greeted them at the front door. Yelan flashed a smile, waving as they approached. “Playing today, ladies?”
“Not today, thank you.” Ganyu replied. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
“Figures, I made sure the balcony was clear for you anyways.” She ushered them through the door, following them up the stairs to the one-table balcony after stepping aside for a moment to grab a tray one of the employees was holding out to her. “It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to see you two, it’s always a joy to see your faces in the flesh for once.”
As the couple took their seats at the table, it became apparent that the tray she was holding was their order. “For you, the fried shrimp, and for you, the twice-baked potatoes sprinkled with qingxin as always. And here’s your milk teas, and some napkins. If you need anything, you know where to find me or my staff. Have a great evening ladies!”
“Thank you, Yelan,” the pair said in unison before digging into their meals.
“I forgot how good they do their shrimp here, we don’t come often enough.”
“Their potatoes are lovely as well, and they always put on the qingxin for me even when I forget to ask. I wouldn’t mind coming here more often, we don’t eat out together as much as we used to. Not that I’m complaining about eating your cooking every day, I just miss the dates we would go on.”
They finished their meals as the sun sank further into the horizon, flooding the harbor with a warm orange glow. As they walked downstairs to pay, a crowd around a poker table erupted as a mountain of chips was pushed to Yelan’s corner and three people stood up to walk away in shame. She caught Ganyu’s eye as they approached the counter, and shouted across the room “Your food is on me today, come again soon!”
“Thank you!” they yelled back to her, still leaving behind a small pouch of mora behind as a tip to the waitstaff. They waved back to their old friend as they stepped out, the air cooling the sky darkened. They clasped their hands together again, taking off back up the stairs and the path up the mountain to their home, this time with some haste to hopefully make it back before the remaining sunlight dipped behind the ocean.
They arrived at their front step as the city’s streetlamps started lighting up, kicking off their shoes in the entryway and hanging their jackets and umbrella on the coat rack. Usually they would cook together after getting home, but since they already ate they walked right over to the bedroom. They got into their pajamas, dropping their clothes into the half-full laundry basket next to the door before climbing into bed together.
Days like today, Keqing cherished that everything she loved was right here by her side, a love she used to dream of. Ganyu curled up with her head on her chest, smiling and listening to Keqing’s heartbeat begin to slow as they both faded away into sleep.