"Lady Keqing, the Traveler is here to see you."
It had been a decently quiet day in the office for Keqing. Nothing out of normality, up until her assistant had suddenly peeked her head in through small opening of her door.
"The Traveler?"
Her assistant was quick to take note of the inquisitive-natured mutterings coming from her boss.
"Was he not supposed to be here?" She questioned, turning to head back out of the door, "I can advise him to-,"
"N-No, it's alright." Waving her suggestion away, Keqing recovered from the temporary surprise, "You can bring him up here. He might have been waiting for a while."
"Understood, I will be right back, ma'am."
With a silent nod, the door to her office slid back shut. A few minutes passed before footsteps were once again echoing in the hall, approaching as it grew in volume, before the door slid back open as her assistant made way for the guest of the evening.
Their eyes connected, and in that split second, she knew that there was something on his mind.
Aether lightly bowed towards the assistant, offering his words of gratitude.
"Thanks for taking me here."
"You are most welcome, Traveler." The assistant bowed in kind, before doing the same towards Keqing, "I will be taking my leave, Lady Keqing."
Nodding in reply, Keqing gave her a thin smile as her assistant made her way out of door, and down the halls of the Pavilion.
"So, the first look at your office." His eyes glinted playfully, both his hands on his hips, "With you around, that is."
She made her way out of her seat and around her desk, chuckling to her amusement.
"I would ask for your opinion, but seeing as you've made a study with this very office in mind…" Acting ever-so ponderously while she huffed dramatically, "I think it's in both of our interest to veer away from that subject, wouldn't you agree?"
Though jesting she may have been. Aether recognized the invisible question that she ended up asking all the same.
"Something on your mind?" Arms crossed as her gaze turned apprehensive, actively gauging his own, "In time where you got something to tell me, you'd normally just wait until our schedule happens to converged in the teapot."
A soft, almost forlorn laugh escaped his lips. An item materializing in his hand as he searched for a reply.
"Unfortunately…"
As the item took its shape in his offering hand, she recognized it to be a letter.
"I don't think this news could afford to wait."
The nature of her gaze unchanging, she kept her eyes on him for a beat longer before fully turning her attention towards the parchment in hand.
What could be so important…?
Observing the unsealed envelope, realization came to her just as instant as she had noticed the gaze in his eyes.
It had borne the symbol of the Crux Fleet on its frontside.
And there was really only one person who'd be sending a letter to the Traveler in such a time period.
"From Beidou… Huh?"
An affirmative nod was all that he could give.
She hadn't even bothered to read the contents, because just as much as the letter could have only been sent by the seafarer, there was really only one piece of news that would be of importance to the man in front of her.
"I guess it has been a long time coming."
Taking the letter back to his hand, a fettered smile laid on his hesitant lips, "That it has been…"
"So, I suppose a plan is in full motion for your trip to Inazuma?"
"Looks like it." Aether could only shrug as she shot him another questioning glare, "Beidou had been pretty nonchalant in her letter. So, it sort of sounded like a 'We'll wing it on the way' kind of plan."
Keqing deadpanned, but understood all the same, "Sounds like the rambunctious captain alright."
He grinned. Knowing full well that the Qixings has had their fair share of run ins with the Crux captain their selves.
"Well then," Keqing settled for that piece of information, forgetting the urgent nature that he had come to her office with, "When are you leaving?"
A beat of silence passed through them.
"Tomorrow."
And yet another void made its way through their conversation. Before Keqing fully processed his answer.
"What?"
"Tomor-,"
"Yea-, I heard you the first time."
"Oh…"
Truth be told, she hadn't been ready for that answer. Neither had it seemed like Aether had been ready for such a reaction from her.
In a matter of seconds, her heart had grown tumultuous. A stifling, suffocating sensation that she had long forgotten the effects of, as it came at her in full force. A feeling that had grown foreign to her mind, yet still painful as it came back to haunt her increasingly wary heart.
It took everything from within her to prevent it all from rising into her expression.
The last thing she'd want to do is to provide him with more causes to concern before his trip.
"That's… An awful lot faster than I thought." Keqing muttered with trepidation. Unable to tear her gaze from the floor below, as she leaned on the edge of her desk.
"Hence the sudden visit…" Aether reasoned, scratching at his nape as he thought through his words, "I'd planned to go quietly. But, not saying so much as a farewell to you just seemed… wrong."
"Why is that?" Keqing asked with a vacant smile, "It's not like I'm the only friend you have around these parts."
"That's true…"
Still avoiding his gaze, she kept her eyes downcast until he stepped closer.
"But you are by far the most important."
Her eyes perked up. Heart jolting at the unexpected declaration.
Providing her with enough courage to look up, and meet his contemplative orbs.
The look of sincerity within, enough to slowly ebb away at the tightness in her chest. His hands finding its way to one of her idle ones, the soft touch serving as a catalyst to keep her mind at bay.
"Without you, I would've been lost for quite a long time."
He began fiddling with the curves of her hand as he carried on.
"If we haven't met at the ballista all those months ago. I doubt that I would've been able to progress as quickly as I had been able to." Aether solemnly said, raising her hand ever closer to his face, "It might have been a simple act in your eyes. But it helped me a great deal. Nothing had been easy up to that point, and it also hadn't been easy after. But you – you made it all easier to go through. When the going gets tough, you were there for me. Even when you had your own demons to fight through, you've always gone above and beyond for me."
Deep within her, the suffocation had fully dissipated.
"You helped me gain a new perspective on life. You made my heart and eyes open up to all those possibilities. A way to look at things with a different sense of importance."
"W-When have I done that?" She timidly questioned.
Aether looked like he had been given the question that he needed.
"And that's the brilliance of it all." A beaming chuckle on his lips, his sparkling alongside it, "You did it all by just being you. You don't even know it, yet you've been saving me in ways that you can't even begin to imagine."
His grip on her hand tightened for but a moment.
"All that, from being just the way you are."
A soft peck fell on her knuckle, as he looked at her with a sense of gratitude that had exceeded the levels of the Seven.
"And for that, I just want to say thank you."
To Keqing, the possibilities he had granted her had been unparalleled in her mind.
A year ago, she would be hard-pressed to find anyone that she could've cared for in the capacity that he had made her heart stumble to.
He was the first to have caused her such a great deal of worry.
He was the first to have at times, left her fully speechless.
He was the first to have truly understood her.
And above all, he had given her a kind of happiness that she had long thought to be lost.
Though at the end of it all. It merely left her with a desperate grip on his hand.
A part of her wanted to scold herself to have let the growing hope within find it's root to flourish.
She knew that his company was finite.
That the day will come where he wouldn't be by her side.
The man still had a long journey ahead of him, and she had let her emotions guide her to a path with her own selfish want at the centre of it.
The want to constantly have his presence in reach.
Yet, another part of her mind just couldn't help but to ask…
Is it so wrong, to yearn for such a feeling?
Opposite her, Aether only stood there. Observing as he attempted to gauge an understanding of what she had been thinking.
Lowering his vision, he tried to get a better look at her face.
"A Mora for your thought?"
Keqing sucked in a sharp breath. Exhaling shakily as she finally raised her head once more.
Her glossy amethyst eyes, all to be seen by his brilliant amber ones.
"You know, it's funny that you mentioned it." A watery chuckle escaping Keqing's lips. Her digits prodding at the edges of her water gates, "But I've come to feel the same way. More, I'd even wager."
Aether could only smile as she paused briefly.
"I feel I have grown immensely from my travels with you." Her voice clearing as she carried on with her words, "You've taught me a great deal of things, and you've given me so much more. Above all, you made me raise my dreams to the sky. Yet, I couldn't help but think that if, one day… I finally manage to make my dreams a reality."
Her gaze now dwelling amongst itself.
"I wonder…"
A longing sigh, filled with the small hope of what could've been filter out of her lips.
"Will you still be there by my side?"
It was a foolish question, really.
Here is a man who travelled worlds for years on end.
Worlds that she can't even possibly begin to imagine.
And yet, she still wishes for him to stay.
His despondent sigh had warned her heart to the possible outcome of his response, even when she had forced herself to look away.
"I'm sorry…" He had begun to say.
That was it.
The returning weight in her chest began sinking painfully to the pits of her stomach.
"…But."
He placed a gentle hand on her chin, raising her line of sight back towards his own.
"I can only hope that you'd be willing to wait."
A hitched gasp is all she could reply with.
"I've got more that I've wanted to say as well." His voice low as his breath tickled the tip of her nose, "But with how treacherous Inazuma seems to be, I'm scared that I wouldn't be able to give you the words that you deserve. Topics such as this are… complex. And I wouldn't want to go through it while my mind is distracted by other things."
He clasped her hands in between both of his own. A surge of reassurance within his gentle caress.
"So, the best I can give you right now, is my own wish." His voice wavering at the end of his sentence, "For you to wait until I can find, what I promise to be the right answer."
The beat to the flaps of a crane's wings cruised through the air of the room. The two stood silently in the middle of the room as Aether tries to quell the anxious pounding of his own heart.
Until a melodious titter echoed its way out of her lips.
"…Of course."
She placed her idle hand atop his hopeful two.
"The promise of an answer is already more than what I could hope for." She said with shaky breath, "You have regions of ambiguity ahead of you. If it at the end of it lies your answer, then so be it."
It was her turn to leave a small touch of her lips on his hands.
"I'll eagerly wait for when that time comes."
It had taken everything from within him to prevent his heart from fully taking over.
At the end of it all, he has a journey to the unknown to make.
Yet, it wouldn't be so bad to deviate from the path that his mind had set every now and then.
"Thank you…" Aether released a sigh of relief as he retracted his hands, "I know I'm asking for a lot. If I'm forcing you by any means-,"
"You're not." Keqing interjected, her posture correcting itself, "I can simply view this as another contract between the two of us."
Aether jokingly cringed, "Wow, way to put pressure on me."
Letting out a mock-gasp, Keqing gave him a playful shove, "You made the promise. And you should know by now, that I don't take promises lightly."
"Haha, that I certainly do."
The two shared a chuckle. The warmth of the room finally taking its rightful place after the series of wavering emotions that seared through the atmosphere.
"Just remember, Liyue will gladly welcome you back anytime." Keqing reminded him, placing a hand on her chest, "I, will always gladly welcome you back. So, don't be a stranger."
"I don't plan to be." His grin shining brightly as does his eyes, "And don't worry, as soon as I figure out the waypoints over there, you'd be seeing me round these parts in no time."
An aspect that she really can't comment on, seeing as the man himself is the only one that she has personally seen use those ancient objects.
"Oh, and I plan to use this more often."
He swiftly materialized an item, revealing it to be the stamp that she had given during his birthday.
"Letters, huh…" Keqing curiously raised an eyebrow, "How do you plan on sending them though?"
"Well, seeing as you have a study in my house." Aether replied with a degree of smugness, to which Keqing could on scoff at, "I'll just leave them there when I can. I wish that we'd be able to meet often, but I highly doubt that our schedules would really allow it."
She hummed in agreement. Seeing as both of their respective situations can only serve to pack up their workload even more.
"I look forward to your letters then." Keqing teasingly remarked.
"So long as you don't make fun of my hand writing." Aether chuckled, "I'll try to keep it regular."
"Oh, I spare no mercy." Crossing her arms together, a glare full of jest in her eyes, "I'll personally revise them should it come to it."
Another joyous bout of laughter filled their eardrums. Neither of them really wanting to end the night, if possible.
But alas, time waits for no one.
"I guess, that's about it." Aether muttered with a huff, picking at the back of his neck, taking note of the time in the process, "It's getting late. Wouldn't want to take any more of your time."
"Of course." Keqing sighed in resignation, taking shame in the fact that the night had gone by in a flash, "Get some rest. You're going to need it."
"Mhm…" Standing with his hand on his chin, he paused for a brief moment, before extending his hand.
All while leaving his pinkie stinking out amongst all his other fingers.
Keqing observed the gesture with confusion.
"W-What's this?"
Her question sparked a bout of realization within him, "Oh, you've never done a pinkie promise before?"
"A pinkie promise…" She squinted her eyes, pressing at her temple before perking up, "Oh, it's Snezhnayan culture, isn't it?"
"I picked it up from another world." Aether nonchalantly stated, before nodding in affirmation, "But yeah, apparently it's also a thing among Snezhnayan kids."
"Huh, as much as I'm not one to put things up to superstition…"
She chuckled as she noticed the eye roll that he had given her.
Even so, she extended a pinkie all the same.
"I'll take all the help I could get, when it comes to you."
Linking their digits together, they locked their bond, and internally uttered their promises.
Engraving it within the depths of their hearts.
As quickly as they had tightened their link, so was the time that they spent relinquishing said link.
Making his way towards the door of her office, Aether turned to give her one last look.
"I'll see you around, Keqing."
Keqing smiled in return.
"I'll see you around, Aether…"
Playfully saluting her, he took the chance to shoot a quick wink, before promptly shutting the door. The resounding thud that it made a signal to her that he had left her to her own devices once more.
Though contrary to what Aether believes. She had one last surprise up her sleeve.
The next morning couldn't have flown by any faster for Aether.
"There's the Crux!"
Paimon had shouted with bounding sense of energy. Floating ahead ecstatically as she made her way towards the dock steps leading to the great ship.
Aether could only chuckle. Following suit with footsteps of his own pace.
It's finally time to head to the unknown…
Though as he approached wooden steps, he noticed an extra figure besides the captain, poet, and his floating companion.
Is that…?
As he was only a few steps away, he was able to catch the tail end of Beidou's conversation with said figure.
"…I'll take good care of him, I promise you that, Keqing."
"Thanks, Beidou."
Noticing Aether, Beidou simply gave him an energetic wave.
"Hey there buddy! The crew is almost finished with the final prep!" She then pointed towards the ship, "We'll be waiting on board, you can take your time."
As Beidou and Paimon made their way up the dock steps, Aether could only stare in amusement as Keqing turned towards him.
"What, you really thought that I wasn't going to see you off?"
His body quaked with an earthly chuckle, "I guess I did sign up for this."
"You most definitely did." She laughed out.
After their amusements have settled, Keqing opened her arms up. An expectant gaze on her eyes as he instantly recognized her intentions.
Without hesitation, he dutifully obliged as he sunk himself into the embrace that she had been seeking. Keqing also taking the chance to nuzzle herself into the crook of his neck.
"Good luck out there, Aether."
"Thank you…"
"And…" Keqing pulled away slightly, her hand finding its way onto his cheek, "Be careful. I don't want you sacrificing yourself as you please, now that I'm not around to keep you in check."
"Hehe, as per usual." Aether smiled with an exaggerated lace of playfulness, "I make no promises in that regards, Lady Yuheng."
"Ugh…" She lightly pinched his cheek, a tiny air of frustration fettering around her, "Do make sure you try."
"I will… I will." He relented, for her sake.
"Alright then." Stepping aside and out of his hold, she patted his shoulder as she walked past him, "Break a leg, Mister Traveler."
"I'll be sure to put on a show, Lady Keqing."
A final smile formed on her lips. She waved him goodbye as she made her way back towards the rocky mountains of the Stone Forest.
Aether couldn't help but to stare for a while longer.
She is something else…
Chuckling to himself, he promptly made his way up the dock steps.
As soon as he set foot on the boat, Beidou's voice immediately roared in tremendous fashion across the deck of the ship.
"Alright, that's all of us!" She turned towards her crew members, "We set sail for the land engulfed by storm and tempest... The nation of 'eternity'."
With the dock steps now fully retracted, her voice bellowed once more.
"Anchors aweigh!"
And thus, their journey to Inazuma had begun.
Though as excited as he may be, his mind still partially sits elsewhere.
This time… I'll find the correct answer.
A sudden chokehold quickly terminated his inner monologue, as Beidou had caught the blonde as he stared off towards the vast expanse of the sea.
"So…" Her voice grew suspiciously mischievous, "You and Keqing, huh? Well, colour me impressed. Never thought I'd see her get anywhere near as chummy as you two were being."
Before Aether could answer, Kazuha had already began sharing his piece of mind.
"Keqing, as in the Yuheng of the Qixing?" A vigorous nod from the captain had answered him as he proceeded to hum with a wondrous gaze, "Impressive… I heard that she is quite an enigmatic personality amongst the populace. It's rather fitting that you'd be the one who was able to crack through her shell."
"I know, right!?" Beidou echoed her sentiments by almost blasting Aether's eardrums.
"Yeah, seriously, what was that?" Paimon's squeaky voice barged in between them, "Keqing never even let Paimon get close to her!"
As the three continued their onslaught of curiosity-stricken questions, Aether could only sigh with a degree of acceptance.
This is going to be one heck of a long journey…
Thanks for making it all the way here once more! Though I do have to say, this might mark a bit of a slow down in terms of uploading speed in my part. That and shorter chapters, seeing as I'm trying to get rid of my drabbling habits.
My uni is picking up once again, and level threes are a massive pain in the butt.
A lot of the questions arising from this chapter may or may not be answered by the next chapter, which would be a structurally unique one, at least... in my book that is!
See ya'll next time!