If Aether was being honest, his first impressions of Inazuma weren't the best and he was quickly becoming exasperated at the ever growing amount of hoops he had to jump through just to achieve his goal.

All he wanted was to see the Raiden Shogun, not get roped into helping the city, following a guy and unraveling a corporate monopoly all in one day.

Sadly. Aether found that he wasn't at all surprised at the events. While he certainly didn't mind helping people out, after all he wasn't heartless, he just generally happened to have more than a couple of hours to get acclimated before being metaphorically thrown into the fire.

All in a day's work was an expression he never exactly thought to be quite so literal.

But with some luck, he hoped that his 'days work' ended here. He had been lucky to catch the attention of what Aether assumed was the daughter of Shinsuke Hiiragi. She seemed to even be the one to seek him out first!

After her father's frankly ludicrous request in an attempt to keep Aether within the city, he figured that there was no possible way she could want something worse than what her father wanted.

So Aether was playing the waiting game, and what better way to pass time than to resonate with the Statue of the Seven in the backyard of the Kanjou Commission house?

Honestly, they must have been incredibly fortunate or incredibly arrogant to build a house so close to one.

"Come on Aether! I wanna see what happens when you resonate with it! Maybe it'll be like Mondstadt and Liyue and you'll get new powers!" Paimon cried out in front of him, her tone practically begging him to hurry up.

Aether chuckled. "I told you already there's no need to rush, the statue isn't going anywhere"

Paimon pouted. "But it's just so exciting! What if you get pyro powers? Oh! Or maybe cryo! Then you could be like Kaeya and Miss Ganyu!"

Aether's face scrunched up at the thought of him using a bow. "I'm uh, not too sure about me with a bow Paimon, remember? Amber tried and the arrow somehow ended up firing sideways. Ice would be cool to control though." He finished with a small smirk

Paimom simultaneously cringed and groaned at the mention of the incident and the subsequent ice pun. "Did you really have to…" She trailed off exasperated.

"Well cryo would be fitting after all, right now all we have to do is wait and chill"

"Paimon hates you."

Aether smiled at his small companion's hatred of puns. "But in all honesty it's most likely electro. The Raiden Shogun is rumored to be an electro user, not to mention that this is the land governed by the electro archon."

"Yes Paimon KNOWS that. Paimon just thought it would be cool to imagine!" Paimon huffed, her small arms crossed.

They reached the statue as Paimon finished her sentence.

It was… run down, but still sturdy and recognizable. It looked very similar to the other statues before he collected the many many fragments of power scattered around Liyue and Mondstadt.

He desperately hoped that wasn't the case here too. Mondstadt wasn't too bad but Liyue's geography had left him with nightmares for weeks about cliffs.

Oh god… the cliffs. And why were there so many? There was well over a hundred of those awful things. Just why? Why did they have to exist?

Aether shuddered. Never again. It just wasn't worth it.

"Well you won't have to imagine much longer, let's dive right in" Aether said, snapping out of his Liyue induced stupor and concentrating on the statue in front of him.

Aether breathed in deeply, concentrating inwards and focusing on the residual power dwelling on the statue.

He could feel energy flowing into him, it was jittery and erratic. Much different from the calm sturdiness that the geo elemental granted him. And also different from the serene freedom how anemo felt.

He could feel the power of electro swelling inside him and pushing the power of geo away.

For as much as the essence of electro grew within him, so did the feeling of that same power wanting to be released. It was like a storm brewing inside his body, raging and electricity wanting to be released.

"-ther"

He focused on that feeling, concentrating and allowing it to well up inside him. He tried pushing it forward, towards his hands in a way similar to how he handled his anemo powers, but it dispersed in a flash and his body was once again struck by the feeling of an inner storm.

"Aether!"

Aether continued forward, concentrating once more on that stormy feeling within him. If it didn't like when he pushed it, perhaps he could guide it to where he wanted. He imagined a strong wind, like a torrential sea breeze, moving the storm slowly to it's destination.

It fought him at first, before he could feel that erratic and jittery feeling slowly moving throughout his body and into his arms. It felt like tiny little thunderbolts bouncing around inside his arm, and then his wrist, and then his palm.

And then he expelled it outward.

Three purple juts of lightning shot out from his extended hand, the power behind it actually pushing him back a bit.

Aether smiled. He was awesome. He had managed to successfully use his new electro powers in record time.

"Aether"

Aether grimaced at Paimon's shrill voice.

"What?" He said, a bit more rougher than he intended to but he was slightly miffed at the fact that his internal celebration was cut short.

"Storm!" Paimon panicked, pointing a small finger up to the now grey skies.

Storm? What in the world-

Aether looked up and flinched at the feeling of rain hitting his nose.

There was a loud crash of noise, before Aether's vision lit up with white. The ground in front of him blew up and mud splattered everywhere. His ears rung with white noise.

Aether scrambled up. That was way too close for comfort. He needed to get to cover.

"Paimon! We need to go!" Aether shouted. His own words were inaudible to even himself due to the loud ringing in his ears.

He could vaguely see Paimon mouth something back, but her words were lost as he took his first couple of steps towards shelter.

On his fourth step there was an odd feeling of weightlessness and all the hairs on his arm seemed to suddenly stick up on edge. His stomach fell in a feeling of dread.

"Oh fuc-"

There was a deafening crash and everything lit up white.

Before everything slowly faded to black.

My goat secretary can't be this cute!

The first thing that Aether noticed when he woke up was the soft touch of someone's fingers gliding through his hair. The second thing was the incredibly comfortable pillow he was sleeping on.

Until it shifted slightly.

And then Aether wasn't exactly sure if what he was resting on was a pillow.

Deciding to risk it, Aether opened one of his eyes just a tad.

Horns.

Blue hair.

A cute bell accessory.

Ganyu? What was she doing here in Inazuma? And why was she running her hands through his hair? Wait, was he in her lap?

Okay. Too many things at once.

Aether shut his eyes in a squeeze and counted to ten. When things stopped making sense, it was better to just take a quick breather to sort things out. Nothing was ever gained by rushing into a situation or making assumptions. At least, that's what he told himself.

Aether inhaled deeply and held it for a few seconds, before exhaling in a long sigh.

Okay. He was ready.

Aether opened his eyes once more.

[Criteria for 'The Protagonist' fulfilled. Unlocking further functions.]

What.

Aether stared at the… screen in front of him. A grey panel floated above him, it's grey translucent background slightly obscuring Ganyu's face from his view, and a sentence of words colored in white.

He blinked, once, twice, before staring at it some more. It followed his eye movement, he looked to his right, and it seamlessly followed him, as if it was attached to him rather than something that just was in front of him. It was gone when he blinked, but if he focused on the corner of his vision he could clearly make out his name in black text and a few numbers following it.

What the fuck.

Aether shut his eyes once more, squeezing them tightly in a conscious effort as he took in another deep breath. Perhaps he was just dreaming? It would certainly explain a lot. In fact, it would be more reasonable to assume he was dreaming than to assume he was awake.

People didn't just have floating boxes of text in front of them after all. This wasn't a video game after all. In fact, Aether was pretty certain that Teyvat didn't even have video games. The only reason HE knew what video games were was because they were a thing in the last world he and his sister came from.

Yeah, so probably dreaming. It explained the floating text that mirrored his gaze, it explained the fact that he wasn't in pain after taking a lightning bolt to the face. It explained Ganyu above him, her fingers still running through his hair comfortingly.

It explained the fact that he was resting his head on her soft thighs, supported by her tights.

It explained the fact that…

Huh. That was a… sensation.

Aether reached up with one of his hands and softly grabbed one of his 'lap pillows'. It felt surprisingly real, and soft. And toned. And like another person. Did he mention soft? Because they were.

Almost as if he was compelled to, Aether gave them a tiny squeeze just to make sure.

"Mm… Aether? Are you awake?" Ganyu said, her soft voice coming from above him.

Okay. Maybe not a dream then. Aether internally panicked. Because WHY did he have to just squeeze her thighs like that. He could have just pinched himself or something. He couldn't exactly feign sleep anymore after that.

Aether rose up from his makeshift pillow, ignoring the sudden feeling of loss now that her hands weren't in his hair anymore. Or that his head wasn't in her lap.

He really needed to stop thinking about that.

"Yeah I'm awake. Thanks for uhm… taking care of me Ganyu." Aether spoke, averting his eyes at the end.

Ganyu smiled. "Of course Aether, it was my pleasure."

Damn double entendres.

Aether felt an unfamiliar heat rise to his cheeks. Ganyu's tone was pure and innocent, and he actually felt rather guilty for enjoying her care more than he should have.

Of course this led back to the question of what Ganyu was doing here.

He gazed around the room he was in, it was actually rather similar looking to a room for an inn. It was plain looking, with a few bland decorations here and there. A window that was closed, but it's pulled aside curtains let him know that it was daytime. The floor was made of what he assumed to be tatami and there was a futon folded up off to the side.

Alright. So he was probably still in Inazuma at least, not that he'd know why he wouldn't be in Inazuma considering the trouble they went through to get here.

"So Ganyu." Aether started, trailing off as he tried searching for the right way to word his question. Paimon usually was pretty good at interjecting when he found himself at a stumble, something he was grateful for his little companion.

Speaking of Paimon, where was she?

Aether didn't exactly have much time to ponder any more thoughts as the world went grey.

Quite literally. The world seemed to stop, as if someone had broken a watch, and turned grey. Ganyu's blue hair darkened to a pale grey, her body becoming shades of monochrome, the rest of the room followed suit and even the wind seemed to stop.

[Make your selection!]

[What is my diligent secretary doing in a place like this?]

[What do I have to do to wake up like that everyday?]

[I don't think I'm fully recovered. I need more of your care.]

Aether blinked at the multiple lines of text that popped up in front of him. He read through each of them and when he was finished he was even more confused than ever. What exactly was happening?

When he tried to call out to the frozen Ganyu, it was to his alarm that he found he couldn't. He couldn't move, he couldn't talk, all he could do was gaze at the textboxes in front of him.

It was disconnecting but also a very horrifying sensation. He couldn't move yet he had full awareness of his body and surroundings. If this was what sleep paralysis was defined as he was damn glad he didn't normally experience it.

[Make your selection!]

Those words stared back at him. As if goading the trapped Aether to choose.

This was reality, Aether decided. Trapped in his own body while some odd power caused textboxes from a video game to appear in his vision, nevermind the fact that there wasn't even any video games in Teyvat.

He had no idea what exactly this 'game' wanted from him, nor why he suddenly came upon it. He doubted just anyone hit by a lightning strike suddenly acquires a new power.

The game wanted him to choose, but choose what? The three selections? What exactly were they? If he were to think from the perspective of a game, it would make sense that these would be what he would say next. But… the prospect of it being able to choose what he said was terrifying in itself.

If it could trap his body and control his words, what else could it control? His actions? His powers? Could it control others or just him?

[Make your selection!]

Aether internally grimaced. If all it wanted was him to choose a response then he'd play along for now.

Rereading the choices, Aether couldn't help but feel a good dose of embarrassment at the thought of saying some of these. Like for real, one of them is basically a flat out proposition! He could never imagine in a million years himself saying that. He would die of embarrassment if he wasn't killed by Ganyu first.

The others weren't that much better. 'My diligent secretary'? Really? The implications of such a statement. He hadn't really thought of Ganyu that way. Sure she was cute, very very much so, but he was so focused on finding his sister that any of those thoughts took the backburner.

The last one… while not outright bad, it so obviously meant something else. Not to mention that he still felt slightly guilty for feeling her up on accident.

Even though it was embarrassing, the only real choice would be the first one. Ganyu was… innocent; she might ignore, or not notice, the innuendo in there. It was also the only choice that actually was related to what he was about to ask her before everything froze.

He idly thought what would happen if he selected the middle choice. It was just something so absurd that-

[Choice selected.]

There was a loud click that rang in Aether's ears. As if something slid or locked into place. A new textbox appeared in front of him, telling him that he made his selection.

Color returned to the world quickly, monochrome bled away and vibrant lights returned in their steed. Ganyu's grey hair returned to its icy blue.

Aether was alarmed when he felt himself able to move again, he felt words start to bubble up from his throat involuntarily and panicked at what he thought was about to happen.

"What do I have to do to wake up like that everyday?" Aether heard himself say.

Oh no.

Oh no no no. Oh god he was so dead. If Ganyu wasn't about to kill him then he'd die from the massive surge of embarrassment he felt.

"Oh!" Ganyu let out. Her cheeks flushed a rosy pink as she averted her gaze from him. "Uhm. W-well I would hope you don't get hurt like this often enough for it to be a habit…"

Oh GOD he was mortified. And yet he could only stare as Ganyu stuttered out more words. He was half in shock that she hadn't already killed him and half in shock that he hadn't spontaneously combusted from embarrassment.

"Well… we could get to know each other first…" Ganyu trailed off shyly.

Aether was silent, staring at the blushing secretary.

Holy shit.

What.

He was alive, and she kind of accepted.

And holy shit he thought he was about to die of cuteness overload from the adeptus.

[Ganyu affection +10]

[Congratulations! You have unlocked the achievement 'Everyone starts somewhere'!]

[Your friendship level with Ganyu has changed to 'Potential Interest'!]

[Congratulations! You have unlocked the achievement: 'First of Many'!]

Aether stared at the numerous pop ups. He was just…

What

The fuck.

Was happening.

Alright.

He could deal with that later. For now, he had a cute girl who had just kind-of accepted his unintentional proposition and he had no idea what to do.

"Ye-Yeah that would be something I'd like." Aether stuttered out. His voice failed him briefly for a second. Internally he was panicking because he didn't know WHY he just accepted it even if he was the one to originally ask, albeit not by choice.

Ganyu's subsequent smile was so bright and pure that Aether couldn't help but stare. "Great!" She exclaimed cutely. "Uhm… it'll be my first time… S-So I'm not sure what to do…" She finished shyly.

Aether nearly choked on his spit. T-This girl. Does she even know how she sounds? Or what she's implying? Holy crap. He almost had a heart attack just then. Was she talking about THAT? There's no way.

Or was it? Is this what he signed up for? Taking Ganyu's first time? And all because he accidentally chose the wrong response?

"First time for what, exactly?" Aether managed to choke out, wanting some clarification if not to save him from a shock induced heart attack, at least to know what he got himself into.

"Uhm…" Ganyu blushed brightly. Her hands clasped together in front of her face in a vain attempt to hide. "A d-date…"

Aether had to physically clutch his chest at the display.

My adeptus not-a-goat secretary can't possibly be this cute!

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately. Aether was saved by the bell, and not the one around Ganyu's neck.

It was by a Paimon shaped bell that barged into the room abruptly. Aether really couldn't make up his mind on whether to thank his small friend or strangle her for interrupting what would probably be considered 'a moment'.

He would eventually settle for thanking Paimon, as he wasn't sure if he could even formulate a coherent response to the half-qilin besides gawking and staring at the adorable display.

"Aether! You're awa-" Paimon exclaimed, but stopped halfway through. She blinked a few times, eyes darting between the two other occupants as a confused look formed on her face.

She was more perceptive than people gave her credit for evidently. But this wasn't something he really wanted to explain right now. All he wanted was a bit of normalcy.

He didn't like hiding things from his ever present companion, but his brain was a little fried due to the past couple of minutes.

"Hey Paimon. What's up?" He asked, managing to keep his face straight.

"Yes-" Ganyu started before clearing her throat. "Yes, is there any news?" She asked, face also straight despite her rosy cheeks.

Paimon made a face and squinted, head staring intensely at Aether before doing the same to Ganyu. She shrugged after a bit, muttering something under her breath.

"Yeah!" She fished a letter out of… wherever a Paimon stored things. "Miss Chisato met up with Paimon after you got hit by lightning. How'd you pull that meeting off? Anyways we're gonna meet up with her in a day at noon. She said if we can deliver this letter to her boyfriend in Inazuma City she'll help us get out of Ritou!"

Aether was actually surprised at the information. It was a substantially better deal than he expected to get out of that meeting. Even if it was to deliver ANOTHER letter, he'd take a single letter over seven hundred any day.

"Huh. Good job Paimon." Aether praised.

Paimon puffed out her chest with pride. "Hmph! Paimon always does a good job!"

Ganyu smiled. "Well done Paimon. Should we celebrate with a small feast?"

"Paimon likes the sound of that!"

"Then let us be off. Ningguang granted me a small amount of Mora until she can find time to visit."

Aether was sure that if it had even been ten minutes ago he would be extremely surprised at hearing Ningguang would be leaving Liyue. As it was now, he couldn't offer more than raised eyebrows.

He shifted himself and pushed his body up. It wasn't until he took his first step did he realize that he wasn't as recovered as he thought. As he put some pressure on his right leg, it gave out on him.

Shit Aether thought, already bracing himself.

Ganyu apparently had other plans. With swiftness that surprised him, she shot up and steadied him by wrapping one of her arms around him. Pulling him close.

Aether was completely taken back by the action and subsequent closeness. Ganyu was warm. Something that actually surprised him, perhaps because of her cryo vision. But that wasn't the case at all. She was warm, and felt nice.

And smelled good. Really good. That wasn't weird to say was it? Because she did. She smelled like a mix of Glaze Lillies and Qingxin.

Aether was glad no one could hear his thoughts.

"T-thanks." Aether managed to say.

Ganyu smiled at him. "It's my fault Aether, I should have attended to you better."

[Ganyu affection +1]

The small popup managed to snap Aether out of his Ganyu induced stupor. Did he really just get an affection point for falling over? Did she like that kind of thing? Being Clumsy?

"No you did a good job Ganyu. I just got up a bit too fast."

She helped him get up, but didn't release him fully, she kept a hand onto his sleeve. Her eyes surveying him in case he tripped again.

"Ahh! Let's go already! I'm not sure what's going on but Paimon is hungry!" Shouted Aether's starving flying friend.

Ganyu chuckled at Paimon's reaction. "Indeed, let's get some food shall we? I happen to know a good restaurant that also serves vegetarian food."

Aether smiled and nodded. He didn't realize it until just now, but he was hungry. He could think of… everything that happened once he was fed.

Actually. Now that he was already sort of thinking about it. "Ganyu, why are you here anyways?" He asked.

"Oh!" The adeptus gasped, looking a little sheepish as she responded. "I forgot to tell you!"

Aether couldn't help but chuckle at the exclamation. Yeah that sounded like Ganyu alright. No one could argue how effective she was at working, but she was admittedly a little airheaded.

"I was talking with Beidou and she mentioned having you along as a passenger to Inazuma. It had been a while since I've been on a vacation… so I thought why not!"

"Well, glad to have you along then." Aether replied, not surprised as he expected to be at her reasoning.

"We can catch up during lunch! Let's get to the restaurant first!" Paimon pouted from the door.

Aether smiled. "Sure thing Paimon."

He moved towards the door, opening it up and stepping outside. It was Ritou just as before.

Until everything froze and turned into monochrome.

[Congratulations! You have completed the tutorial! Further features unlocked!]

Oh right. He still had to think about that gigantic elephant in the room.

Aether really missed how simple things were back in Mondstadt.

My goat secretary can in fact be this cute

Start:Aug 7th.

End:Aug 8th.

Words: 4049.

FN here. I wanted to write something different, more lighthearted in nature since I couldn't muster up the motivation to write my other stories. Genshin has pretty good waifus, and one of my favorite fics are dating sim fics such as SAO The Eroge and Fate Grand Eroge. So it was pretty simple to me. I cranked this out in about the span of a day and decided to roll with it.

-FN