"Thanks again for this little dinner invite, Ningguang." Aether thanked, taking a seat with his plate of food presented to him.
Sitting near him in a private table is none other than the Tianquan of Liyue Harbor, Ningguang.
"It's my pleasure, Traveler." Ningguang said.
"Please. You can call me Aether - we're good friends." Aether said.
Ningguang smiled, grateful for the Traveler coming to visit her in her quarters alone in the Jade Chamber. She managed to make herself a simple dinner to have since she is working overtime as usual and feel the need to eat something.
But she thought of an idea to invite someone she can share with for a more pleasant and joyful atmosphere. And fate would have it, Aether and Paimon came to visit Liyue Harbor for a while.
So, the Tianquan pulled some strings and managed to invite Aether to the Jade Chamber at night, making sure to leave the quarters between the two of them while having her servants prep just a simple, ordinary dish for eating.
While many would ignorantly believe Ningguang would want fancy food, her orphaned and previous poor lifestyle made her want to enjoy the more simplistic things than those rich snobs would have.
The dish before them is Dragon Bread Noodles (with one bowl to share) with Fried Radish Balls as a side and sweet tea as a drink.
The two started eating at a slow pace once everything was ready.
"So, how has your journey been doing?" Ningguang asked, starting up a conversation.
"Well, still no clues about my sister since Fontaine." Aether sadly replied.
"Oh…" Ningguang said, in a sad tone.
"But Paimon and I decided before going to Natlan, we wanna stop by to see how everyone is doing so they don't have to worry." Aether explained, changing the mood to lift the Tianquan's spirits up.
"That's good. You should take a break once in a while before starting again." Ningguang explained.
"Yeah. I should start keeping that in mind." Aether said, showing a tiny bit of a blush.
The two went back to eating their noddles on the shared plate when suddenly, slurping their strand ended up being a long one that both are eating at the same time.
Both were surprised and while blushing, they couldn't help but try to finish the noddle together, continuing to eat it while being drawn closer to each other.
Soon enough, when they finished the noodle together, Aether and Ningguang ended up kissing each other on the lips.
It was uncharted territory for the two to traverse in, but they both continued their kiss regardless because both eventually having feelings for each other.
To Aether, Ningguang is very cool, beautiful, and always thinks about the safety of Liyue as well as its future.
To Ningguang, Aether is kind, charming, and is a pillar to help others as well as the pillar in need of little help.
The two released their kiss, blushing hard, but smiled at what they did.
"Guess there was more to offer than just dinner, huh?" Aether questioned.
"I do hope this fancies you well. Not just the food." Ningguang commented.
Aether couldn't have it any other way and leaned in to kiss Ningguang again, to her surprise when there is still food to eat.
But that didn't matter right now. She's enjoying it more with the man she fell in love with.
Meanwhile, watching outside from the side without being spotted were Paimon, Keqing, Shenhe, Ganyu and surprisingly Beidou tagged along, the three girls gritting their teeth and gripping the side wall so hard there are multiple cracks out of mild jealousy; Paimon sighed of not being totally surprised about Aether's strange luck with women.
That "spaghetti" kiss, if you call it that, is a reference to Disney's Lady and the Tramp, which I got this idea from. I also wanted to try an Aether x Ningguang fic myself and if there are any errors I made, feel free to point them out.