Work Text:
"Hey, hey, hey, Hakushi! How've you been?"
The puppet looked up, being met with a grinning face that belonged to Sethos. The busy bee that had been bothering him for months. Sometime then he said what his name was, and since then he's been using it a lot, but only when there wasn’t anyone around other than them.
He returned his gaze to the book he was reading, before he got distracted by the boy. Hakushi could feel a pout pointed at him, but he knew that the pout held no sadness, nor did it have any frustration.
"Am I not as interesting as your book, my dear?"
Somehow, Sethos had seemed to sat criss-cross on the branch below, where Hakushi sat, without him noticing.
The cherry on top: the display of athleticism and stealth that would be unrealistic for a normal person, no matter how many times Sethos said he was 'normal'.
He knew that the persona Sethos showed to others had something deeper, like his made-up family, or how he knew that the sky was fake when Hakushi asked him about it.
Not normal at all.
Hakushi looked up at him, ready to tell him off, but as he looked at Sethos, like really looked, he paused.
The last rays of sunlight acted as some sort of halo over him while also accentuating the gold accessories in his hair and on the rest of his body, the breeze made Sethos’ hair wave in the air like ribbons, and the soft smile on his face while he pushed Hakushi’s book down didn't help at all.
It felt as if he looked at Sethos in a new light, one that made him undeniably pretty.
The puppet’s body felt as if it was overheating, although his cooling system was overworking itself to help, to no avail. His core was beating faster and faster, so much so that it felt like it could beat out of his chest.
The soft smile turned to a look of suprise. He chuckled a bit before turning to where the sun was setting, leaving the puppet alone in his new found problem, one that he caused.
"Hat guy, do you also like the sunset?" An unexpected question left Sethos' mouth.
"I don't really care about it." He said, tipping his hat to not have his face visible to the other.
"And here I thought that you liked sitting here because of how beautiful the sun is from here."
"You thought wrong then."
"So it really is because you don't like people, except me, right, my dear?" He chuckled, looking back at Hakushi, noticing that he was hiding behind his hat.
He lifted it by the rim with his fingers, making the puppet look right into his eyes. The strange behavior displayed by him intrigued Sethos. He couldn't help but want to know more of this side of him.
"Or did you sit here so I could find you? You usually sit much and much higher, so high so that even I have a problem finding you."
"Is that a problem?" The sincere tone from him shocked Sethos, since it was a first. There wasn't a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
He couldn't help but smile, not a friendly one that he shares with everyone, but a sincere smile just for the eyes of Hakushi.
"No, I'll chase you to the corners of Teyvat if it means seeing you."
A scoff came from him. "Of course, you'll do that."
"Of course I'll do that. It's for you, after all."
That stupid, big grin directed at Hakushi made him short circuit, rendering him unable to give anything sarcastic in response to what Sethos said.
He really has to go to Buer for a checkup soon.... but not right now.