For those who read 1 - 8 at the time of its release, and still haven't read my comment, I have rewritten 1- 8, specifically the part that included Aether and Keqing. Please read it, I have changed most of that part. Also, I'm on winter break so I'm aiming to make at least 3 during the holidays – maybe four if I push it hard enough. Here's hoping shoujo mangas give me ideas.
As always, please leave your thoughts and, if possible, please give constructive feedback.
[ 1 - 9 ]
Day 7
Upon closer inspection, it seemed the two managed to have gained the capability of tolerating each other – and Paimon did feel like she was going out on a limb here – but were they... it had to be the newfound eighth wonder of the world, since the emergency food (a title unfortunately given to her by Amber during one of their patrols late at night) believed it to be quite unimaginable... but were they working together? No – not actually just being fine with the other's existence, but also willing to cooperate?
Aether had actually stopped, well, stopping Keqing. The Yuheng herself had also changed, and the amazing cook was fine with her companion fighting alongside her, or even to the point where she sometimes followed his orders. Well, it wasn't exactly how an escort would work, but it's at lest a step forward. She was following Aether's orders! Paimon repeated: she was following Aether's orders!
The boy who she had been glaring at just a few days ago! The blond who she held no regard for, and ignored for most of the journey they have had so far!
Paimon had to refrain from screaming 'whaaaaaaat!?'.
By the archons, had she been hallucinating? Whatever weird stuff contained in those putrid bottles that Mr Wei called 'medicine' – there was no mistake that alcohol was contained, or at least anything that was making Paimon see things. Perhaps... was this Celestia? Had she reached Celestia? Goodness, Paimon never believed that Paimon could feel this happy aside from having a plate of roast all to herself!
It was almost on par with Amber treating her to multiple servings of wondrous, holy Sticky Honey frickin' Roast! Not to mention Golden Shrimp Balls with their absolutely golden coating, the texture and crunchiness of the outside as you bite into it, suddenly exploding with a multitude of flavours, the soft flesh inside so easy to chew and swallow, the warmth of it all soothing one's throat. Haah, Paimon's hungry...
Her stomach grumbled, unheard by the two a few meters away, too occupied in watching out for passing hilichurls. Hmph, leaving poor Paimon all alone like that, it seems the tables have turned. Soon, she's expecting Keqing to be feeding Aether shrimp balls instead of her. The thought made her even more jealous, and her mind could easily imagine it happening.
Fufu, timid Aether and super kind, mom-like Keqing, wearing a super cute apron that would make anyone, even the traveler, turn red. Oh, imagine how fascinating a bashful Aether could be!
"Say ahh~" the Yuheng would teasingly offer the blond a shrimp ball.
"F-fine... Wow, it tastes good," Aether would mumble, cheeks lightly flushed upon having realised he had just eaten from a spoon Keqing had just used a few seconds prior.
Hmph, unfair. Paimon wanted shrimp balls too! Hopefully, Sumeru had tasty food. She's heard from those in Mondstadt that Sumeru had their own type of cuisine, focusing primarily on the produce of their many farms and fruit from imports from Mondstadt; the city of freedom had an abundance of apples and sunsettias.
Mondstadt was also very famous for their jam, though not as popular for their wine – or to be more specific, Dawn Winery's Dandelion wine, but it was still another thing which pulled in tourists from across Teyvat.
Most of the inhabitants of Sumeru were vegetarians, but eating any type of meat was not frowned upon. Despite being mainly a vegetarian nation, almost half of the restaurants in the city included at least some type of meat, be it boar or cranes. Seeing as their element was dendro, their military forces were lax – and the few that they possessed were mostly healers and for defence.
And now, how did Paimon exactly know all of that? Yeah, yeah, sure – they were just going to escort someone to Sumeru, but they had some time to look around, right? Right?
Chang the Ninth lent her the Sumeru Travel Guide. Fine, she begged for it, okay? Geez... TREE!
Instead of swerving quickly to either the left or right, Paimon did her best to slow down before impact; a certain wound made her feel paranoid about how much she could exactly move around in the air. What a bother it was.
From now on, Paimon had no idea how long it would take before her body would completely recover, any barrel rolls, flips as well sudden turns were forbidden since any of the aforementioned actions could possibly reopen the lesion. Actually, the whole idea of floating itself worried the doctor, and was advised that she should refrain from doing so.
Her limit had been flying to a particular direction just a tiny bit faster, and that's it. Though, on some occasions she had been close to breaking the rules. For instance, when she had just almost hit that tree before, or when Paimon took too much time talking with the children that she was left almost left behind (she never managed to exit the house for the time they returned to Qingce), or when navigating around the lodgings when the scent of food entered her nose.
Paimon glanced back at the two, currently discussing plans on the most efficient way of arriving to Sumeru. From what she heard, they would be a day late and would require to camp somewhere unless they decided to move at night, which was a risky move – and even then they would only be several hours earlier and would still arrive the next day.
Keqing had asked one of the villagers who used to be an adventurer to deliver a message, and they had passed by him on his way back to Qingce Village.
Was it fine to smile at a sight like this? Instead of hearing passive aggressive remarks, they had actually stopped arguing. They were acting professional. Yes, they weren't acting like buddies, but it's not as if they were acting like total srangers, either. How could she put it? They were, um... yes, good colleagues – like a give-take relationship.
No special favours or anything, only bothering each other when required. It seems to Paimon that Keqing wasn't acting so, this was in no way mean, arrogant, and Aether may have gained the rank of equal. Well, slightly equal.
Did she have an effect? Hopefully, and probably, she did; not once did the emergency food ever see Keqing's face like that, or heard her like that. Even the guide couldn't sleep the whole day, so yeah, Paimon did hear the Yuheng's quivering voice as she uttered out in a softest whisper that apology. Oh, it was incredibly vivid, like remembering your own face, up to the point where the girl could remember other sounds aside from the young lady's apology.
"I'm sorry..."
They decided to continue on foot through the night, both the young lady and Aether thought it best to arrive earlier, even if they were still going to arrive on the same day if they chose to camp outside. And with baggy eyes and heavy shoulders, they made it to Sumeru. At 2 in the morning. Thankfully, all inns ran 24 hours a day, and the receptionist's face made no comment or any expression at all whatsoever when they looked at the trio – especially Paimon.
The fairy was perched atop the traveller's hair, like a fish washed up on sea, unconscious.
"Room 1120," the Yuheng said.
In actuality, only one inn existed in all of Sumeru.
"Hey, Aether?" A muffled voice was attempting to speak to him, but te pillow was too soft that the boy didn't attempt to bother to turn his head round; the pillow was way too warm. His hands took the edges of the covers and lifted it further up, covering his ears. The only reason Aether had his face covered in the pillow was because the sun was out, and the windows were open, allowing in the much unwanted air to seep through the curtains and attack his cheeks.
There was, however, some difficulty in bringing the covers up, as if something was resisting. And the warmth from the covers were not actually from the covers. Well, some of the warmth was thanks to the covers, but the rest was from another person, their slender legs twirling around his. The boy could also feel their hands going through his hair, and it gave him shivers – not that they weren't unwelcome in the slightest.
"Aether~" the muffled voice spoke again, shifting in their place as Aether felt the person's hand move to his chest before snaking to his back, their face now next to the boy's head, their breaths tickling his ear. As one may have expected, the voice was feminine, her hands poking his back in order to rouse Aether up. They were humming a somewhat familiar tune, the sound approaching nearer and nearer until Aether felt her lips on the edge of his ear.
If only to escape whatever the heck was happening, the traveller removed his face from the pillow, eyes squinting from the light, but at least her lips had removed itself from his ear – but soon coming back to peck his cheek.
Another gust passed by, entering the room from the small balcony by the right – a pair of orange curtains stuck on either end slightly stirring. Pots were hanged on the metal railing, flowers bobbing up and down due to the wind, but the books neatly placed on the bookshelves opposite the bed stayed still. A desk stood underneath the shelves, two bedside tables on either end of the double bed Aether had been lying on, a wooden drawer by the entrance of the open balcony.
However, much to the blond's gratefulness, the two windows on the right were closed – something he could faintly see for the windowsills were quite wide. The room was fairly small, including the items that was required but not being too overly decorated and easy on the eyes. In other words, Aether liked it.
Once Aether's eyes adjusted to the light, turning to the girl, his eyes welled up again. Seriously, was he being tortured? Hadn't he already gone through enough? If the fact that the traveller constantly thought about her, was reminded of her everywhere he went – even if no matter how much the boy never wanted to – wasn't enough, she was now in her dreams. What great luck he really had. Everything was really amazing and great.
...Yet, Aether felt like crying all the same, dry as his eyes may be, red and puffy as they may be, even if there wasn't any point.
And he wouldn't, couldn't, utter her name. He couldn't say what he wanted to, say what he always wanted to, was never given the chance, and never would be.
But that didn't stop him from wanting to, even if he would never say the whole thing, only managing a small stutter.
"It's already noon, sleepyhead," she said, caressing his cheeks. And as the girl dragged him by the hand, he let his feet follow, the scenery melting and forming into that of the kingdom, the city inside of the walls. His clothing had also changed back into that uniform, his golden weapon back to the left of his waist, waving to and fro by the movement of his legs. The sooting wind disappeared, and the clear skies turned black with smoke, his feet almost slipping from the amount of blood on the cracked ground, close to tripping from chunks of stone brick.
Structures were destroyed under huge rocks, a few bodies pinned underneath, some cut in half by the debris or just dead underneath the pressure. Fire spewed out on every surface of wood visible, warm enough for the blond to imagine he was inside a fireplace.
Aether instinctively pulled out his weapon, tainted red, hearing an indiscernible scream whilst the familiar sound of a body being crushed by stone reached his ears, managing to only hear the words 'stay' and 'barricade'. The traveler didn't bother on looking, having felt déjà vu – and her cerulean hair was dishevelled, blood splattered all over her armour. Upon reaching the city gates, a line of soldiers were holding their places as if they were unable to move. That was most likely the case, rooted to the ground in fear of death and scared shitless.
The blond continued to stare at the ground with his lifeless eyes, hoping that his sense of hearing could shut down. Even if they told him to stop her, Aether only continued to fumble behind the girl, sword scraping against the ground.
"Stick to the plan!" one shouted.
This really was déjà vu, after all.
A deafening roar erupted, hordes of monsters approaching as he dashed alongside the girl, sword automatically cutting down several of them in a matter of seconds.
"You suck at hugging, y'know?"
Blood went onto his face, a drop of it entering his mouth.
"Aether's a really good chef!"
His sword pierced through the stomachs of two monsters, quickly being pulled out as he swung it to the necks of a few behind him.
"Aether!"
Don't.
"Aether~"
Please.
"Aether..."
Fucking stop, for the love of god.
"Aether."
But yes, this was a nightmare, after all. One would always need to experience the horror of the dream. Aether was brought to his feet, her hand grabbing his against the boy's will, even if the traveller tried his best to stay in his current position: sitting in the ground with his head in his legs, hands covering his ears.
"Aether."
But yes, this was a nightmare, after all. Of course she would be stronger than him, strong enough to pull him up against his own will.
"Aether."
He was lifted just in time to see a flying axe heading her way.
"Aether."
Even if Aether knew he couldn't save her, he would always try to save her; the boy did say that to her, after all. And as futile as it may be, his legs moved, arms desperate to grab her, to hold her close – or even better yet, swap positions with her. Yes, it was futile, but there was no way in hell that he would ever stop saving her – even if she was only a figment of his imagination, just a dream.
But this was a nightmare, after all.
And nightmares never had a happy ending.
"Aether–!"
[ END OF PART 1 ]