This thing has only been up for about a week and it already has more follows and favorites than Whipped. This is beyond what I could've hoped for, but that all said thank you guys for showing so much love to this story. We're nearing the end but don't fret. The next two chapters are set to be the crux of this entire fic, so look forward to them!

Further notes at the end; on with the show!

Disclaimer: Genshin Impact and its characters belong to Mi-hoyo and Hoyoverse; I own nothing.

As it turns out, getting a horse to drink was much easier than convincing the hydro archon to poke a single pinky toe in the ocean. Aether could've sworn his ear was about to fall off with how much Furina was boasting, claiming that she would graciously show him how to enjoy the beauties of Fontaine under the surface. But upon getting to the beach, she suddenly believed she had pulled something chasing after the weasel thief and opted to sit this one out. Nevertheless she assured him she would join as soon as she was feeling better.

That was two hours ago.

Surfacing, the owner of the golden mane began searching for his quarry nearby. Sure enough, the archon was relaxing from her spot on a sand dune upon a chair she apparently found at some point.

Even more maddening was the fact that at some point she had found some tea to enjoy.

Archons, Aether groused with a rol of his eyes before paddling his way to shore.

"Commission's done," he informed her as he strode up, rolling his shoulders a bit.

"An unsurprising result. I expected no less from someone I favor," Furina remarked calmly, stirring her tea with a little spoon.

Aether's eyebrows shot into orbit, blinking rapidly at her. "What?"

Furina's hand stilled, her own eyes widening with a blush flashing across her cheeks, stammering to fix her slip-up. "B-by that I of course meant favored by Hydro! Tis truly a marvel you can wield the seven elements without a Vision."

Her rather shoddy evasion aside for the moment, Aether decided to let that little slip go since he still wasn't ready to face what it could mean.

All he knew was that the myriad of possibilities she invoked scared the hell out of him.

"Are you enjoying yourself, Lady Furina?" he asked instead, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice. He was sure it was showing on his face though.

"Mm, quite. It's a lovely day, and the sun lying gently upon the horizon is indeed picturesque. Perhaps I might take up painting in my spare time?" Furina answered, chattering on with a content expression.

No matter how annoyed he was with Furina's antics, even he couldn't help but admire the serene expression she had now. The smile she wore held no sense of superiority or mischief, but just a simple upturn of her lips into a gentle image.

It was all he could do not to whip out his Kamera and snap a picture of her. Fortunately, he wasn't the only one irritated with Furina.

"What happened to keeping your word, huh?! Paimon thought you were being honest back there. A deal's a deal, isn't it?"

Furina's brow furrowed, her eyes parting slightly to gaze at something in the distance. "I know what I said…"

Aether had seen that type of look before but only on those who had been through too much to properly describe their experiences. But what reason did Furina have to wear that kind of expression? Why was she staring at the water as if it was a bottomless pit?

Unless...

"Well then you-!"

"Paimon," he called out sharply, cutting the little fairy girl off at the head. Instead of saying anything else, he merely held a finger to his lips, darting his eyes in the direction of the water.

Say what you want about the little floating glutton, but she could be incredibly sharp when she wanted to be. Giving Furina one last sour look, she vanished into her special space once more to leave them be.

Sighing, Aether lowered himself to Furina's level and addressed the archon. "Is it about the prophecy?"

Furina's entire body seemed to seize up, her eyes widening as they shot to meet his. In that moment, the blond could just perceive a note of fear in the girl's eyes before her usual fire concealed it. "You presume too much, Traveler. You know nothing about me," she spat, the venom in her words enough to melt even crystal.

Undeterred by her lashing out, he nodded. "You're right, I don't. We only just met a short while ago and until recently, we might as well have been enemies."

"Your words suggest that instance to be past-tense. Perhaps I'm merely biding my time for your inevitable slip up."

"Then why even bother associating with me?"

For a second, it looked as though Furina might carry on with her diatribe but seemed to hesitate at the last second, falling into awkward silence.

It was all Aether needed to press on.

"Lady Furina," he went on in what he hoped was an encouraging tone, "it's ok to be afraid of something like that. But you can't let it control you."

"I am the God of Justice – nothing controls me but me," she insisted, practically hissing the words out. "Fear is for fools anyhow. What do I have to fear?"

What he said next was going to be a major risk, but he couldn't let Furina close herself off any further than this. He had to say something, even if it might incite her fury.

"Being alone."

Sure enough, a gloved hand lanced out and gripped his collar, surprisingly firm and unyielding despite the owner seemingly deceptively frail.

"You will explain yourself posthaste, or I shall follow through with my promise earlier regardless of the intent," Furina snarled at him, her eyes seeming to glow a faint blue.

"The Fountain of Lucine," the Traveler remarked slowly. "People say that all waters in Fontaine lead there, so wouldn't your tears follow?"

The force of her grip slackened momentarily before it reaffirmed itself stronger than ever. "I do not-!"

"It's not a weakness!" Aether argued passionately, bravely grabbing her hand with his own. "To keep all that misery within will slowly destroy you, Lady Furina, and I… I don't want to see you fall apart. That's why, even if it's only with me, don't act like nothing is wrong!"

He'd been wandering around at night near the Epiclese when he'd first heard her, sounding so utterly broken and miserable. Her sobs from the fountain were like the call of a siren, beckoning him closer so he could hear better. When he finally did hear her words in their entirety, he was both shocked and filled with sorrow of his own.

"So interminable… So lonely… Just… How much longer…?"

For all her theatrics and love for the spectacles, and even though she was a God, she was still just a girl at heart with a mountain of pressure riding on her shoulders. Who knows just how long something like this had been eating away at her? With no one that could help her with this feeling, all she could do was put up walls to keep out those who both couldn't help her and would only hurt her even more.

Aether forced himself to keep Furina's gaze on him, even as emotions flickered through her pupils at a million miles a second. Disbelief, shock, anger, fear – all of these and more were never more prominent than now, but there was something else too, faint, but it was there.

Finally, her head dipped, her lovely hair falling like a veil to conceal her features from further scrutiny. When she spoke next, it was quiet, almost the whisper on the wind but he still heard it all the same.

"What would it matter? Why should it matter to you? Because I'm like you? Because I'm a being of this world governed by the thoughts and feelings that often incite or deceive the masses? No, Traveler, I am beyond that, and nothing will convince me otherwise. I am an archon, and I cannot be allowed to show weakness; not to my people, not to the world… and not to you, especially."

Appealing to her emotions wasn't working, clearly. Fortunately, he had another card to play. "Then, if that's the case, isn't it already too late?"

Furina's head snapped up to him, a frown set in place as she glared at him.

The blond was undeterred. "Here you are, wallowing like this, putting your weakness on display despite claiming you can't show it. All this time, everything you've been saying, don't you understand that you've been showing off that weakness of yours to me anyway?"

It was a gamble, but if it paid off he might just be able to work with the result.

"…I have no weakness," she stated once more, firmer than ever. She was trying to lock herself away again, but this time, he wouldn't stand for it.

"If that's the case," Aether began, standing up and offering his hand to her, "then prove it. Take my hand and let me show you the world beneath your feet – your world."

Again, Furina hesitated but her eyes never left the hand he offered. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she reached… and knocked it away.

"Hmph, don't get carried away, Traveler. I am perfectly capable of handling myself, thank you!"

Ah, there it was, her usual bluster and sass. Aether could only smile at her knowingly, however. Somehow this version of her was easier to deal with than the grief-stricken, inconsolable wreck he once overheard.

The Hydro Archon gave one last nervous dart of her eyes to the waterfront before, to his surprise, offering her hand to him. Her face was once again dyed in a slight shade of red, even though that could've been from the evening sunlight, her eyes averting from his own as her voice seemed to tremble. "T-that said, it's only right that, as my chaperone, you escort me."

He only hesitated for a moment, but even he couldn't ignore how his own heart seemed to skip a beat as he nodded. Reaching out, he gently took hold of her white gloved hand with his own dark brown one, his eyes widening.

Her hand is so small… and even with her gloves, it's still soft, he marveled.

Strangely enough, Furina's blush deepened, her fingers curling around his to lock his grip in place. "W-well, let's go already!" she demanded, flustered. "Don't just stand there gaping at me like a fish!"

His mouth, which had been hanging open for a while, snapped shut with an audible click. "R-right."

Slowly, tentatively, he led her to the water and moved into the shallows with her, hearing her give a slight squeak.

"So c-cold," she murmured, shivering.

"It's always like that at first, but you get used to it," he promised and instead of a biting retort, she merely nodded.

Swallowing a bit, he led her deeper into the water, starting to feel more resistance from her as she began to lag behind. "D-don't you dare let go of me, got it?!"

"I'm not letting you go."

Her grip on his tightened even more at those words.

"You better not."

Encouraged, he pressed on until the water was up to their necks, the god's whimpers reaching his ears.

"I've got you, my lady," he once more assured, making eye contact with her. "I'm right here. We'll go together."

"Together…" she murmured again, her eyes widening until they fell under the veil of aqua blue once again. "O-ok… I'm ready."

Aether nodded, turning back to the water and, with Furina's hand firmly grasped in his, leapt…

She was falling... The darkness swept her away, a suffocating pressure surrounding her body as she was cast further and further into the depths.

But unlike the nightmares she used to have of this very instance, there was one thing that separated it from all the others.

Through the choking, oppressive weight bearing down on her body, there was a reassuring warmth that came from her hand.

No, not her hand... his hand.

"Furina... open your eyes," the familiar voice told her.

Normally anyone ordering her would be switftly and ruthlessly dealt with, but it was him asking her to...

So she did... and what she saw defied imagination, defied anything her dreams could come up with, certainly.

A world beyond description lay before her, so completely foreign to the one she was intimate with and yet... it didn't feel wrong to her.

Rather, for the first time in perhaps forever, she felt... relieved. As if she had been away for so long and had finally made it back here.

I've never been here before, though. Why do I feel like this? she wondered, before realizing something.

She wasn't sinking anymore... also, the hand that had been holding her - not the other way around - was gone. For a brief panicked moment, she glanced around wildly before finding her chaperone floating above her, smiling softly down at her.

Why is he so… angelic? she wondered wistfully.

"See, not so bad is it?" he asked, wading down to her level. "You're a natural."

"But… but I don't know how I'm…" Furina fumbled with her words, still stuck in disbelief. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her… and her incredulity turned to outrage. "Wait! You called me by my name!"

The Traveler's eyes widened in surprise, finally coming to the same realization. "I uh… I'm sorry, I just got lost in the moment."

"That's not the point!"

"Eh?"

Furina paused, pursing her lips before she twirled away quickly, hoping she'd hid her blush in time.

She was Lady Furina, the Hydro Archon and thus deserved nothing but the accolades that title offered. It was a matter of respect, loyalty to what her name represented. People who had dared to utter her name without bestowing the same honor that she was expecting to be treated with were quickly and swiftly dealt with.

But the Traveler was different for some reason. The more time she spent with him, the more she got to peek into his mind, the more she felt… at ease with him? Perhaps it was because when others tried, they were merely trying to get into her good graces. They didn't care about how she felt or anything.

The blond across from her, however? In the span of a few hours, he'd shown more care and consideration for her than anyone close to her ever did.

So perhaps she could allow him one caveat.

"Seeing as how things have progressed to this stage, for today, I shall permit you the use of my given name with no honorifics necesseary."

"Is that really ok though? You were pretty insistent on being called your supreme excellence earlier."

"Oh, that hasn't changed," Furina assured him, smirking a bit at his flinch. Good, she hadn't lost her touch yet… which was fortunate because inwardly, her other side was practically radiating glee.

He doesn't see me as just an archon to be revered but… something more down to earth. I can be myself with him…

Furina stilled at that thought.

Ok, maybe her other self was enjoying this a tad much after all.

She coughed into her hand, trying to ignore the fact they were somehow able to breathe underwater and speak clearly. "You have done this nation a service by bringing me here, thus you should feel honored by my grace. Now enough with dull matters, let us move on to far more pressing concerns."

"Such as?" the Traveler asked, not following.

Furina planted her hands on her hips, leaning in towards him with a sharp look in her eye. "Must I spell it out for you? A vast, unexplored utopia awaits and I will not be attempting the journey on my lonesome! As my chaperone, you honor your word and escort me, as I have done."

"Right, of course!" the Traveler said brightly, starting to swim away until Furina cleared her throat loudly, holding her hand out to him.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" she said haughtily, hoping against hope that he wouldn't question how red her face was getting. These feelings were certainly starting to get out of hand.

Her entire train of thought derailed as that notion swept through her mind like a tidal wave. But before she could ponder too long on it, her hand was grasped once more by his own, securing it tightly as he smiled at her.

More than the sea, she was gradually coming to the belief she could drown in those eyes of his...

As she allowed him to lead her about, her thoughts continued to haunt her along with the strange feelings she experienced whenever she thought of her unlikely companion. There was a single, maddeningly insane notion that lingered on the cusp of her mental periphery, but she refused to entertain it.

Not yet.

This was one duel she was determined not to concede so easily.

Originally, I was going to split this up into two chapters but I lost a bit of traction near the middle, thus this is the result. It was a challenge to keep Furina in character here, especially since she's unknowingly started to let down some of her usual defenses. Still, I think I managed to keep her balanced between her usual bombastic persona and her more vulnerable side. It won't be the last we see of that side either.

Also, did I forget to mention this is a romance fic? Our dear brat is finally starting to come around to the idea she may've developed feelings for the Traveler, but giving in like that isn't her prerogative. Like she said, it's a duel and she doesn't want to give in to him until she knows for sure what lies beyond.

So, to that I say, stay tuned for Furina and Aether's unofficial "date" under the sea. There is no way to say that without sounding corny so deal with it, lol.