"I heard that things in the Adventurer's Guild have been somewhat slow these days?"

There are occasions in the times of the Traveller where he would find himself with nothing to do. Try as he might, even by teleporting around all corners of the regions that he's visited, he still couldn't find a decent enough commission that could keep him busy from day to day.

Aether knew that such a news would be something that Keqing would be in the know about.

"It's just those kinds of times I guess." He muttered with a bored sigh, picking on the documents that Keqing had been assessing whilst he sat on her desk, "Last time this happened, you had that makeshift infiltration mission for me to go on."

Noticing how his tone had turned hopeful by the end of his sentence, she shook her head while she mindlessly patted his hand – keeping her eyes on the documents, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I haven't gotten anything like that for you this time around."

Shifting to lie flat on her desk, Aether stretched out a sigh, "I'm so bored to a point where I don't even know if you not having anything for me to do is a good thing or a bad thing."

This time, the half-awake fairy drooling on Keqing's couch intervened, "Of course it's a bad thing!" She groggily squeaked, "If you don't have commissions to do, how will Paimon have enough Mora to keep buying food!"

Accompanied by Keqing's soft giggle, Aether raised his head up, "Right. That's the issue here, huh?"

"Paimon, drool." Keqing gently warned.

"Oh, right. Sorry, Keqing." Paimon quickly shook her head, and floated towards the door, "Paimon's gonna see if Huixin has a rag around."

Aether called out the moment she went out of the door, "Don't make her do it for you!"

A muffled high-pitched groan was all they heard as a reply.

"Honestly…" He scoffed humorously, "If I'm not around to keep her in check, she'd find a way to make everyone else do her work for her."

Keqing shifted some of her files around. Adapting to the space that his head had now been taking right beside her arm, "To be fair, you share some of the blame for pampering her too often."

"I pamper you often!" He feigned a pout.

"And I pamper you too." Sneaking a playful poke of his nose whilst she reached around his head for her utensils, "Nothing wrong if it's equal from both sides. She's becoming complacent before you even realize it."

"Eh, she's been like that from the start."

"Well, don't say I didn't warn you." Keqing shrugged, "Who knows, there might be a time where you're too ill to work when you need Mora, and she'd be far too out of touch to be doing any job effectively."

His silence showcased his contemplation, whilst Keqing utilized her pen scratching as extra emphasis to her point.

"I wonder, what would happen then?"

Feeling the heat of his breath next to her, she smiled in satisfaction. Knowing that the man had finally conceded.

"…Fine, I'll try to get her to do more of her share of the chores."

"That's what I like to hear." She patted his hair this time, "Good to see that even you still have some things to learn about."

He snorted, "What, like learning how to be cruel?"

"To be fair." She corrected as her patting hand began absentmindedly playing with his hair, which subdued him even further, "On yourself that is. You have a lot of burden on your shoulders anyways. Why not leave the smaller aspects of life to those who would be willing to help you?"

On any other day, he would find it ironic to be hearing that from Keqing of all people. But he understood that even she had made an effort to rely on others when the logical time to do so crops up. All while he had been far too happy to shoulder many of not only his own, but other people's burdens without giving too much thought about how it would affect him in the long term.

Even when he had Paimon by his side at all times.

And even now, when he has Keqing to come to; when he needed a proper shoulder to rest on.

Through all the reprimands and lectures, everything she said had come from a place of love.

So, he snuggled closer to her hand. Focusing on how delicately it had glided through the strands of his hair. Finding a perfect home with the pause of every movement it made.

"I get it…" He dramatically cooed, shutting his eyes in peace, "No more lectures please."

"That was hardly a lecture." Keqing chuckled, eyes stuck on him for a heartbeat before tunnel-visioning back onto the fine print ahead of her, "But I do have work to do, so be a good boy and keep quiet for now."

He could only muster his own amused laugh, "Yes ma'am."

The pair then fell into a comfortable silence. Aether relishing in the warmth that his heart is now feeling, while Keqing enjoyed his idle presence beside her. His mellow humming filling the atmosphere as she picked on the loose trail of hair beneath his ponytail. Meticulously shifting through each paper, her eyes remaining vigilant for any important details to take note of.

However, Aether could feel the itch of inactivity beginning to creep back around his body. Though a part of him had really wanted to remain in the moment, he couldn't help but to let his intrusive thoughts win.

So, he lightly tugged at Keqing's sleeve. Like a child begging their parent to give them attention.

"Keqing."

"Hmm?"

"Keqiiiiing…"

"Yes, my Qin?"

Even though the sound of her new nickname for him managed to stopped his advances, it only lasted for mere seconds before he tugged on her sleeves again.

"I'm still bored."

She sighed, exasperated as she began wiggling his head from side to side. His voice wobbling with the motion she was putting him through, "As much as I want to help, there's nothing I can-, Oh?"

"…Oh?" Aether placed both hands on the one she had been using to sway his head, "Something interesting?"

"Not really. Remember back in the infiltration mission, when I said that the Chasm was reopening?" She felt his nod through her hold, and gave him a glimpse of the document in hand, "It's finally set to do just that in a couple of days."

Immediately, Aether's eyes sparkled.

"Great! That's going to be a new place for us to-,"

"Absolutely not."

"…Huh?"

She read out the points, "The report states that the first few weeks of reopening will mostly be for personnels to ensure the stability of the caverns, citing that they will need to ensure that the structural integrity of the mines are still intact." Pointing to a particular section of the paper, Keqing shook her head, "It will only allow those with proper certification and permits from the Ministry of Civil Affairs to enter for now."

"Then…" He swung his legs around. Now sitting on Keqing's side of the table, body facing the opposite way but parallel to her side, "Can't you get me a permit?"

Placing the paper down, she turned to him with a contemplative look, "Aether, I can tolerate you going into dangerous situations for the sake of finding your sister." Running her thumb on the skin of his hand, "But I won't have you going into other unnecessary dangers; not if I can help it.

"Keqing, I'm sure-,"

"Aether, you don't understand. The accident that caused us to close the Chasm in the first place?" After he nodded, she continued, "The moment Ningguang and I saw the unstable energies at the bottom of it all, we knew that we have to close it off. It was dark and corruptive; unlike anything we've seen before."

Though he understood her concerns, he couldn't help but to argue, "But, aren't those the kinds of things that you'd usually count on me to deal with?"

"True. But like I said, the source of it goes far beyond the first lower grounds of the Chasm. It caused way too many instabilities for me to make exceptions for its current safety." She explained, worry heavily ladened in her voice, "Forget about the mysterious energy. Chances are, you might be caught in the middle of a collapse should a tremor become far too great for the supporting beams to handle."

Her grip on his hand tightened with care.

"So please, I hope you can understand my position for this one case."

Like any of her requests, this has been one that was built upon her pure rationale. Traversing through a cave that can potentially shut itself without having any inherent need to actually do such a thing can be a brazenly idiotic thing to do. Though the Chasm had long piqued his interest as an adventurer, and though however bored as he might have been, there was still no concrete reason for him to take a plunge into the depths.

Overall, he didn't have much of a ground to fight on anyways.

"Alright." He conceded lightly. Leaning closer to leave a peck on her forehead, "I promise I'll stave off of the area for now."

"Thank you… and I'm sorry." She leaned onto his body, "I know that this could've been your ticket out of boredom, but I…"

Gently caressing her hair, he pulled her chin up to look at him, "Hey, don't apologize. You're just looking out for me, and I appreciate that." Flashing a grin, he spoke teasingly, "That just means that you'll see me sticking round here much more often."

"Now that…" She stood up, her face now level with his, "I most certainly wouldn't mind."

The two shared a smile, before leaning in for a short, but sweet kiss. Keqing keeping his promise in mind, while he flared his intentions to keep it.

Little did he know, that it wouldn't long before he ended up breaking it.

Because just days later, it had been a particularly quiet evening in Keqing's office, when a millelith came in to provide a routine report of Liyue's daily occurrences.

It had all been normal when the officer began talking about the Chasm.

"Ah, and in regards to the Chasm; they have opened the Seven-Star Array seal placed over it." He flipped through his list, "Having finally assembled a preliminary team, their task will be to observe the progress of the structural strengthening of the mine, and evaluate whether or not will it be safe for miners and adventurers alike to frequent in the next few weeks."

Keqing hummed at the abnormality, "Huh, Muning was in charge of overseeing the Chasm for now, isn't he?" With an affirmative nod from the officer, she continued commenting, "It's somewhat unusual that he was able to make up his mind this quickly."

"That's because he was confident of the help that he got."

"Was he now? If he was that confident, then it's definitely someone from one of our ranks." Keqing mused, "Was it someone from the Ministry of Civil Affairs?"

The officer shook his head, "Oh, nothing like that. He was able to gather previous workers of the Chasm who individually excelled at their respective duties."

Keqing nodded in understanding, "I see…"

"And not only that…"

The officer flipped to another page on his report.

"He was also able to get the Traveler to be involved with the team as well." He reported with his usual manner of presentation, "Saying that the Traveler's experience would definitely come in handy towards dealing with all the elemental chaos down there."

The officer heard nothing from his superior, before he heard a loud snap followed by the clattering of pen pieces and the splattering of ink all over her desk.

He looked up to the Yuheng to see that her face had completely frozen. The leftover pieces of the pen she was holding still remaining in her grasp.

"L-Lady Keqing?"

She spoke in a low growl, unlike anything he's ever heard sound like before.

"He got who, to do what!?"

Aether knew that there was something prickling at him when it comes to the Chasm.

Even more so when Yuehui had told them about the disappearing hilichurls.

Put that with what he had discerned about the hilichurls, he knew that there was something that he could find in the Chasm that would have given him a lead on her sister.

Taking the chance of garnering access through Muning, he knew that from the moment Dainsleif appeared out of nowhere when he was all the way down underground, his intuitions had indeed been correct.

All the signs of a cataclysmic event happening beneath the ground. The nameless ruins, the overturned towers of a Khaenri'ahn civilization, the miasmic energies that were practically engulfing the caverns, the Black Serpent Knights roaming around the nether regions like husks, and the traces of abyssal energy.

Had he came across Lumine like he did before, his emotions probably wouldn't have been able to handle it.

Yet, the moment he went out after an extensive period of helping Muning and his rag tag group of explorers, he was then reminded of another thing that he had completely forgotten about the Chasm.

All from Muning's complaint about being reprimanded for sending them into the caverns without reporting to his higher-ups. To which beforehand, he had simply been spacing out. His mind stuck thinking through the revelations that he had just been exposed to.

"Haha, thank you... And you know, I did get a real earful from the higher-ups myself for letting you go down there without so much as a report back to headquarters..."

Ah…

Aether could feel his stomach sink pass his body when he stammered out, "…The higher-ups… Who?"

Oblivious as ever, Paimon curiously inquired, "Yeah, and who would bother coming down here themselves to give you an earful anyway?"

Well, he couldn't blame her. She didn't know about the promise that he had made with his girlfriend, and just minutes ago; he had all but forgotten about it as well.

"You might not believe me... But it was the Yuheng herself. She seemed quite concerned for your safety."

Weakly, Aether could only reply, "…Trust me, I believe you alright."

"Huh, but why would Keqing have to give you an earful about it?" Paimon asked.

Oh, how Aether wished he had her innocence at this point.

"I'm not entirely sure. I was too busy trying to make sure that I would still have a job by the time she finished steam rolling my ears to the ground." Muning answered. Visibly supressing a shiver before he placed hand on his chin.

All that Aether could muster was a weak internal apology for the dynamite that Muning had to deal with that is an angry Keqing. All because he had forgotten about one simple promise.

Someone must've reported back to her.

"Oh, but she did tell me to pass a message to you, Traveler." Muning continued, "She said to meet her in her office at seven o'clock, latest. Something about discussing an old deal you two have conjured."

"…Right. Thanks for telling me." Aether began to mentally prep himself, turning to Paimon, "Paimon, why don't you uhh… go back to the teapot or bother Xiangling for a bit? I'll handle this one."

"Okay!" The fairy had looked more than happy to oblige, "Paimon doesn't know what's going on, but if it means dealing with an angry Keqing, then Paimon will happily step aside."

One day, Paimon. One day…

After sending a swift goodbye to Muning, they teleported back into the city. Paimon immediately heading for Wanmin whilst Aether made his way towards Yujing Terrace. His mettle being tested every step of the way as he inched closer and closer to his new battlefield.

Even if he just spent practically days being under the ground, fighting abyssal horrors and cavern dwellers alike, alongside dealing with the tension of discovering what had happened to have caused such an event to transpire.

Somehow, this was a more daunting task to face up to.

Approaching the doors to the Pavilion, Aether saw Huixin, who had just about finished conversing with a rattled-looking millelith officer before noticing his presence.

"Ah, Traveler. You're just in time." She greeted with a light bow, opening the door for him, "It's a bit out of the ordinary for her to set a time for you to come."

True, he would normally come in through a bout of spontaneous thought. They rarely ever made a proper appointment for when he should come. For all Huixin knew, anytime the Yuheng was in office, meant that it was also time when the Traveler would be a welcome friend in the premises.

Aether merely shrugged. Wordlessly following her in and up to Keqing's office. His brain engaging the autopilot, letting it guide his feet through muscle memory alone.

Though he had wanted a bit more time to mentally prepare himself, Huixin had suddenly opened up the door to the Yuheng's office. Announcing his arrival, the same way she would normally do.

"Lady Keqing, the Traveler has arrived."

He peeked in. Only to see that Keqing had not even bothered to look up from her scribbling.

"Thank you, Huixin." Her idle hand pointed towards the seat across her, "Tell him to have a seat."

Yikes. If it wasn't obvious to Huixin before, it had been painfully obvious now. In her time of letting Aether into the Yuheng's office, the latter had never shied away from greeting the man with nothing less than a hug. To see her curtly respond the way she just did simply confirmed her suspicions.

When Aether passed her by, Huixin whispered in his ears, "She doesn't seem to be in a very good mood." She stated with concern, "Did something happen?"

Pausing to switch his gaze between the two women, Aether whispered back, "Uhh… it's a long story."

Right. Which basically meant that she shouldn't try to poke her nose into such a business. Especially when it concerns her forever terrifying superior.

"I see. Well then, good luck!"

With that, she shut the door behind him. Leaving him to awkwardly meander into the seat Keqing had pointed to earlier. Cautiously taking his seat like a child who had just been summoned to the principal's office.

From then on, it was nothing but silence; and not the comfortable kind.

But he understood it all the same.

It was her turn to brandish him her version of the silent treatment.

The pen scratching grew louder with every passing second. As if it had been building up to something that Aether couldn't figure out on his life.

Then it dawned on him.

Ah, this is the part where I apologize.

He cleared his throat. Hoping to remove all signs of fear from his wobbling vocal cords, "So, Keqing… I-,"

A loud cracking sound of wood stopped his apology. He looked up to see that she had stabbed her pen clean into her desk. Its ink began oozing magnanimously onto the skin beneath.

A shiver ran through his spin as she leaned forward. Her hands joined in an appraising manner while her eyes practically shot fear in his own.

"Go on…" her voice had been uncharacteristically low, "You were saying?"

Audibly gulping, Aether managed to choke out, "…I'm sorry?"

"Whatever for, dear Traveler?"

"For, uhm… breaking my promise?"

"Promise? What promise?" She feigned ignorance, her voice practically seething, "Care to remind me?"

"I, uhh… promised not to go the Chasm…"

Her knuckles cracked at the end of his sentence.

"And what exactly did you end up doing?"

"I went to the Chasm." He sombrely confessed, or more confirmed, "I even when far underground like you told me not to."

"Ah, I see…" She shifted her hands. One of them now supporting her head by the cheek whilst the other curled into a trembling fist, "So, you do understand why I'm angry, livid even, with you right now, hmm?"

Aether nodded vigorously, "I'm sorry – I'm sorry – I'm sorry-,"

With a sigh, she stood from her seat and made her way to his side of the table. Once she settled onto her desk, she began lifting his arms and inspecting his face. Carefully going through all the sections she had wanted to check.

"Uhh… Keqing?"

"I'm checking for injuries." She said flatly. Still poking at his sides and every angle that he couldn't see upfront, "In the meantime, I don't want to hear a word from you."

And so, he did as he was told to do. Loosening his limbs to eliminate any resistance that she would have to deal with. Her touch was gentle but probing with the same vigilance she had applied on to any of her work. Making sure that she hadn't missed a spot and overlooked anything that might cause further damage down the line.

He was content with staying silent. But her voice was soft when she checked the light scars that he had gotten from all the encounters down underground.

"Did you find anything down there?"

Tilting his head to get a better look of her face, he saw the anger that had previously ladened her expressions had now been completely gone.

"S-Sorry?"

"You don't break promises. So, the only reason you would've gone down there against my wishes probably had something to do with your sister, right?" She said with confidence, eyes still locked onto the parts of his body that she had been inspecting, "Did you end up finding anything?"

The same warmth had found its way back to his chest. In some cases, he couldn't quite fathom his luck in finding someone who's been able to be as understanding as she is.

Though he found himself struggling as he tried to get his words out. His throat constricting itself, a familiar bile threatening to escape from his unstable core.

"I did…"

He attempted to get the explanation going. Keqing intently watched his movements. How he had suddenly shrunken himself, his eyes now glued to the floor below. His speech uncertain and his body visibly deflated. A sight of him that she hadn't quite seen in very long time.

"Though it was more about those who had been involved with her…"

Whenever that look of his crops up, her heart can never quite take it. How was she supposed to stay angry at such a sorry face?

She exhaled with exasperation, "Archons, this is why I can never stay mad at you."

"Huh?" He paused. Caught off guard when she suddenly pulled him close. Tucking his head underneath her chin. "Keqing?"

"We've been over this before. If you're not ready to tell me then don't force yourself." She caressed his head, his arms hesitantly hovering around her waist, "I won't take it the wrong way. Just let me know if you ever need that bit of space to think to yourself."

A part of him knew that he had wore his emotions on his sleeves. He knew that he had not quite hidden the fact that he had been in distraught. What he had just learned from his expedition was… heart-breaking. How the hilichurls had been who they are, and how they ended up the way they did. All the atrocities that the Abyss had been planning behind the scenes.

It wasn't his every day, run of the mill kind of revelation. These are the ones that had completely taken him by surprise. One that requires time for his heart and mind to fully process.

"So,"

Snapped out of his reverie, Aether looked up to her, Her gaze as compassionate and patient as it had always been when it comes to dealing with his troubles.

"Tell me some other day?"

Finally holding her all the same, he took her in. Relishing at just about everything that he could absorb that was her. Her warmth, the gentle hold, and her sweet smell.

"I will." He nodded, "I promise."

She replied in kind. Patting his head, "Alright, with that out of the way…"

After making sure that it had been okay to go forth with her plan, she promptly grabbed both of his ears, giving a light rub before yanking them apart as if she was trying to rip them off of his head.

"O-oWWW!"

"You really thought you were going to get out of this unscathed?" Keqing added a few twists in the midst of her ear-yanking, eliciting more bouts of shouting from the blonde, "You're too gullible, my Qin."

"I surrender, I surrender!" Though he kept his hands on her punishing ones, he made no move to pry them off, in fear of further pain, "I've learnt my lesson, ma'am!"

"I wonder, have you really?"

"Yes, please believe your boyfriend!"

"Hmph, well played." She spoke. Releasing his poor ears from her torturous hold, "Next time, I won't let you off that easily."

Aether kept a hold of his sore ears, "I promise you, there won't be a next time!"

Watching with a satisfied gaze, she smiled to herself. Tilting her head with a thought that she knew wouldn't be too far of an assumption to make.

"Somehow, I really doubt that."

And as Aether would learn within the week; her intuitions tend to be correct.

A few days later…

Xiao had thought that the day had come when it would be his time to join his brothers and sisters into the land beyond life.

He knew that by sparing the last of his powers to send the others to the surface, there won't be any salvation for him from the dark and all-consuming depths of the Chasm. Much less, there wouldn't be anything there to save him from all the karmic corruption that had been desperate to consume him.

Despite all that, he never quite expected to be saved by the same god who had saved him from perishing all those years ago.

Today had been a day full of surprises.

Being trapped in that time rift, uncovering the karmic mysteries of the Chasm, finding out what had happened to Bosacius, accepting the closure that had come of it, and getting out of the depths the way they had done. It was tempting to say that it was almost too much for him to take for a day's worths of events.

Staying by Pervases' temple had certainly helped with coping against the monumental surge of emotions peering at his hardened heart. Before long, he realized that the sun had almost completely sunk beyond the horizon.

I've stayed here for too long.

Nodding back to the temple for a final time, he promptly teleported himself back to Wangshu Inn. Ready to get his fill of Yanxiao's Amond Tofu.

But it was clear that as soon as he landed back on the upper balcony of the Inn, that the day wasn't quite done with the surprises in store for him.

Someone had been waiting there for him. Someone who he hadn't quite expected.

It was the Yuheng.

She stood with her back against the railing. Sipping a cup of hot tea whilst looking out onto the vast expanse of Jueyun Karst. Seemingly unaware of his presence.

"The Yuheng. What business do you have here?"

Taking another sip of her tea, she finally looked at him. Her calm disposition a rare one to see whenever a mortal comes face-to-face with the yaksha, "Ah, Conqueror of Demons. Or, am I free to call you Adeptus Xiao?"

"I have no quarrels with what you choose to address me with." He gruffly replied, his usual state of temperament exacerbated by the fatigue he garnered from the journey, "Though I must warn you, it has been a long and gruelling few days for me. I don't quite have the patience to be dealing with matters that do not concern me."

"So, I've heard. I've read Miss Yelan's report." Keqing swiftly explained, "I'm simply here to extend my gratitude."

Xiao waved her off, thinking that it had been another one of the Qixing's plot to win him over, "Don't bother. It was a personal journey for me, and none of the things I did have been with yours or any of Liyue Harbour's interest-,"

"I understood that much. But, that not what I'm thanking you for."

He held his tongue, "Oh?"

"Thank you for getting the Traveler out of there safely." She solemnly spoke, her gaze invariably softened, "From what I read, the situation had been rather dire. You prioritized Aether and everyone else's safety and almost sacrificed yourself for it."

She placed her cup down. Bowing down in manner that he had never seen the Yuheng did.

"I know that our two factions hadn't entirely been in the best of terms, but from the bottom of my heart, you have my gratitude." Sincerity overflowing from her words, she sighed to herself, "There's only so much a mortal like me can do to keep him safe, and no matter how hard he tries, he doesn't exactly make it easy for me to keep tabs on him."

Xiao could only look at her with the most earnest of gazes. He understood where she had been coming from, seeing as the Traveler had also been someone who he can now freely call a friend. Yet here, she proved to him that the bond that she shared with the man had been quite a different from the one that he had.

They both share the same level of concern for one another. Yet, she has to face the fact that the man that she loves isn't exactly a mere mortal.

Something that he never had the chance to quite understand just yet.

"He can be quite reckless. I will admit that." Xiao spoke void of his gruff tone, "Though in the case of this journey, he had been an innocent bystander dragged into an issue bigger than himself."

"I gathered. But, I'm sure he probably would've found a way to get involved, one way or the other." She chuckled, shrugging lightly, "He considers you a good friend. And trust me, he would never sit still whenever any one of his friends are in need of help."

He knows that all too well. Coupled with the fact that Aether had never shied away from asking the adeptus to keep an eye out for his significant other whenever he wasn't in Liyue, he understood what she had wanted to say.

It's odd for him to find out just how similar those two actually are.

But for some reason, it did nothing but instil a sense of respect within him for her.

She finished her tea, gently placing it back onto its saucer, "Well, that's about all the I'm here for." She flashed him a wink, "Please continue to keep an eye on him. It would help me sleep better at night to know that he's got backup in case he decides to embark on some idiotic adventure again."

Xiao disguised his chuckle as a scoff, "I will do my best."

Just as he had been asking me to watch over you.

Passing by him with a wave of her hand, she called back, "Oh, and please extend my greetings to Verr Goldet. She wasn't at the counter when I arrived."

He didn't give her an answer, and simply welcomed his departure with silence. Though as soon as he was sure that she had been out of earshot, he sighed to himself.

"Those two are scarily alike…"

He walked back into the Inn, waiting to enjoy Yanxiao's serving before heading out back into the dark of the night.

Keqing's night however, had twist of its own.

She wasted no time to hail a rickshaw back to Liyue Harbour, and promptly head back to her domicile. Gathering the remaining items that she had planned to bring along in a bag and changing into a more house-friendly wear before activating her Realm Dispatch. Finding herself in her teapot study in a blink of an eye.

Heading out of her room, she took a few steps to Aether's bedroom. Knocking in her own distinct pattern which alerted the man inside to who had just arrived.

When he opened the door, he held it open with his foot. Keqing found herself being greeted by an Aether who had clasped both his ears shut with an apologetic look on his face.

"Any particular reason for the… unique greeting?"

"I'm just bracing for impact." He said with increased volume. His auditory judgement clearly impeded by the clasping of his ears, "Please spare my ears from punishment once more."

Keqing gave no room to react before she stepped in his room, and promptly pulled hard on his nose instead.

"~OOWWW!"

"Did you honestly think that I wouldn't find a workaround over such a simple line of defence?" She asked. Dragging him around the room while she made a move for his bed, "Looks like you haven't learned."

Aether held a futile grip on her ensnaring hand, "What I had to learn last time is different from what I had to learn this time!" He countered through muffled arguments, "You're gonna break it!"

"Oh, hush. You're being dramatic." She said, letting go of his nose unceremoniously. Making a move for the wardrobe as she summoned the bag things that she had brought over, "If that's all it took to break any part of your body, then you would've stopped walking a long time ago."

Massaging his sore nose, Aether sat on his bed. The pain of his temporarily elongated nostrils ignored while he watched with idle curiosity when Keqing opened his wardrobe and began adding a number of items to the amount of clothes that she had already moved there in the first place.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm taking you up on that 'moving in' offer." She nudged her head towards the bag, "This is the rest of the things that I wanted to move from my house."

Suddenly, any sort of pain he had initially felt was completely forgotten. His eyes sparkling the way it would when faced with delicious food, "Wait, are you serious?"

"Of course. I think it's about time." She said nonchalantly, her voice turning sharp right after, "Besides, how else am I supposed to make sure that you don't go running off into some restricted section of a nation without telling me in the first place?"

He picked at his hair sheepishly, "So, word's gone out, huh?"

"More like Miss Yelan's report had gone out, but yeah." She closed the wardrobe with finality, turning towards him while dusting her hand off, "At least this time, it wasn't entirely your own doing. So, I can't afford to be anywhere near as angry as I was before."

"Whoa, Yelan's report was that detailed?"

"Not really. The report only implied it." Keqing admitted, before taking her place next to him on the bed, "I had a conversation with your boy adeptus friend. He confirmed that you were simply dragged into this one by force of nature."

An impressed hum sounded out of Aether, "Wow, you got Xiao to talk to you without my help?" His grin grew wider at the prospect of the two of them finally having some time to talk with one another, "That's impressive in its own right."

"Well, despite our differences; we had a common ground after all."

"Really, what was it?" Aether innocently asked.

Keqing merely deadpanned, "You, you idiot."

"Ah…"

"I also thanked him for safely getting you out of there." She playfully slapped his wrist, "Please, try not to make his job any harder next time by being an 'innocent bystander' who needed saving."

Feigning offense, Aether recoiled, "It's not my fault the guy likes to play the whole self-sacrificing without giving us so much as a heads up."

Keqing scoffed, "Mhmm, and what is it that you like to do?"

"Argh, you know what?"

He grabbed her by the shoulders, and pulled her down with him to lie down on the awaiting mattress below them. Their eyes connecting with one another as they settled onto the pillows.

"Instead of arguing, why don't we just settle in for the night?" He lightly pecked her lips, "It's been awhile since we last cuddled to sleep."

Keqing giggled, his grin returning as her breath tickled at his nose, "That only happened once." She reluctantly admitted after, "I haven't had dinner as well."

"Then… we'll just cuddle for a while. I'll cook you something nice later." He smiled when she nodded at the modification of his request, "Why don't I tell you a story in the meantime."

"Sure." She shifted closer to him. Enjoying the movement of his breathing body while tucking herself under his chin, "What story do you have in mind?"

He thought for seconds, suggesting with levity soon after, "Why don't I tell you about what I found in my first trip to the Chasm?"

Thinking to how he had struggled to even utter a word about said experience, she lifted her head up to get a better look of his face. "Are you sure? Like I said before, only if you're ready…"

"I'm ready." His hand urged her to lie back down on his chest, "Besides, it'll be a good way to let some steam off before fully enjoying my first night of properly living with you."

The way he had freely spoke about it assured her of his readiness. So, she settled back down into the cuddle and focused on his warmth once more.

"Well then, whenever you're ready."

And so, he began regaling the story of all the things he had discovered on his second encounter with Dainsleif. His voice a melody to her growing state of serendipity, while her presence forever a boulder to him. How she would nuzzle him affectionately whenever the story reaches a rough point in the plot, always telling that it would be okay to stop if he had felt like he couldn't go through with recounting all the memories.

But he persevered, and it was all because she had been right there by his side.

Later on, after enjoying a serving of Golden Shrimp Balls that had been modified by his own personal touch, the pair retreated back into the room. Relishing in the warmth of being within the arms of one another as their consciousness faded into the realm of deep slumber.

A smile permanently ingrained on each of their lips, even as sleep finally took hold of their tired souls.