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Fifth Month in the year of the Emerald Finch
The sun hung low in the horizon, almost halfway under the sea. Its dying rays barely made it past the bamboo blinds of Beidou’s chambers. Beidou had already lit a lamp, not that she needed it. Ningguang’s face had permanently wormed its way into her memory many years ago. Nonetheless, it cast a homely glow over the room, reflecting upon the darkly polished wood and turning the walls of the cabin golden. The corners it could not reach remained shadowed.
Light footsteps came sauntering across the deck, and Beidou leapt up to the cabin door. It was good she had remembered to send away her crew– though less good was the large tab they would surely have accrued by the end of the night. It was rare they came into port, and so occasions like this were not taken lightly by those upon The Crux.
The door opened smoothly this time– Beidou had finally fixed those salt corroded joints– and there was Ninggaung.
“Beidou” Ninggaung greeted.
Beidou dipped her head in return. “Tianquan.”
“All formalities may be dropped, Captain Beidou. This is no official gathering.” Ningguang brushed past her into the dim chambers and alighted upon one of the waiting chairs. “Call me Ningguang.”
Beidou’s smirk widened. “As you wish, my Lady.”
Ningguang’s hair pin rattled as she turned to look at Beidou, her stare darkening slightly and edging closer towards a glare.
Unperturbed, Beidou took the accompanying seat and nabbed the liquor.
The similarity of this situation to their first real encounter did not go unnoticed by Beidou, and her mind, against her will, began to replay the foolish scene.
~
“Drinking, are we?” Ningguang had asked.
“Why, worried a lady like you won’t be able to keep up with a pirate like me?”
“Oh, so now you call yourself a pirate.” Ningguang placed an inquisitive finger on her chin. “Funny, last month I distinctly remember how you assured the Qixing that your smuggling was ‘to keep sailors in their jobs’ and to ‘enact justice’.”
Beidou crossed her legs with gusto. “Well, last month is last month. Maybe I’m a changed woman.” She gestured with the bottle.
Ningguang snorted delicately. “You look exactly the same as last I saw you.”
“Ooh, so you’ve been looking!”
“Captain.” Ningguang leveled another glare at the offending pirate. “I will leave this vessel.”
Said captain chuckled heartily. “Nah, you won’t.”
And she’s right.
~
Fifth Month in the year of the Emerald Finch
“Pour me more.” Ningguang waved a hand vaguely in her companion’s direction.
Beidou grabs sloppily for the bottle, slights tipsy. “As you wish, my lady!”
Ningguang giggled. Perhaps she is tipsy too. It wouldn’t be surprising. Though she is drinking with far less brazen abandon than Beidou, it still has been many hours since she slipped away from the Jade Chamber.
Having finally grasped the almost empty bottle, Beidou leaned across the table for Ningguang’s cup. Her top, open as it was, left little to the imagination as she stretched to refill Ningguang's drink.
Against the red fabric, her skin became golden in the low lamp light of the cabin. Red was a flattering colour on Beidou, Ningguang decided. It was good she wore it so often.
Even as she retreated back to her side of the table, Ningguang couldn't tear her eyes away. Beidou discarded the empty bottle and drew another from who-knows-where, and unsealed it with practised ease and nimble fingers. Ningguang wondered, would her hands be soft like Ningguang’s own? Or worn rough by salt and rope?
In normal conditions, Ningguang would not allow for such… frivolous thoughts. But now, slightly tipsy and in Beidou’s own chambers, she allowed her mind to wander.
Ningguang sipped her drink, peeking over the top of her cup at Beidou, who was looking back at her.
“A game, my Lady?” Beidou rested her head in her hand, eyebrow raised. Ningguang’s eyes were pulled back to Beidou’s hands.
“Drinking games?” asked Ningguang.
“I was thinkin’ of something else..”
Ningguang’s eyes darted back to meet Beidou’s.
Beidou turned in her chair and began to rifle around in a nearby chest. “Liyue Chess.”
A game by Ningguang's own invention. Any disappointment she could have felt over the loss to play a more… sensuous game was quickly overpowered by competitiveness, and Ningguang felt a smile creep its way onto her face. “Oh my, and you’re sure you remember all the rules?”
Beidou leans closer across the table. “We haven’t been back in the harbor for months now.” She sets the board on the table and coyly looks up at Ningguang through her lashes. “Being out on the open sea leaves lots of free time for studying.” The cabin light dances in Beidou’s eyes. “You sure you haven't forgotten? Spending all your time alone up in that Jade Chamber of yours?
~
Ninggung was entertaining a guest from Fontaine in the Jade Chamber, a rich businessman hoping to strike a deal. The first few meetings had been enjoyable; talk of mora never grew dull.
However, the conversation as of late had started to drift away from business and towards more personal affairs.
“If it is not so bold to ask”-- Ningguang held in her sigh– “but does it ever get lonely? Up here all alone?” He leaned slightly closer to her.
Archons, these men have no tact. Ningguang directed her gaze back at him. “Lonely? Quite the opposite.” She stood, ignoring the businessman's small jerk of surprise at her sudden movement, and made her way to the edge of the room. “I am surrounded by all that I love.” Ningguang gestures around her. “The Jade chamber is my heart, and only the worthy may stay.”
It goes deeper than that, too. Here is where she keeps her precious mementos, yes, but it’s also home to her ideas, her research, and it represents her influence over Liyue Harbour itself.
But she owes nothing to this man, nor does care enough to enlighten him of this.
“I-I see..” The businessman rose shakily to his feet and picked up his hat from the table.
Ningguang’s heels clicked across the wood flooring as she made her way over to the man, keeping a polite distance away. After the knowledge that more mora would be coming into Liyue’s economy, this was her second favourite thing about such meetings: The silent language between both parties, spoken only with a slight change in tone, an exchanging of looks, or some other small action that spoke of something much larger.
“I believe it’s time for you to go. I’ll have my people send you a document outlining the proposed silk flower trade route.” Ningguang smiled. “I wish you safe travels.” She had a certain sea captain to meet today.
They had arranged, by letter, to meet a few weeks ago. Beidou was a difficult woman to pin down– Ningguang smirked at the thought– and so opportunities like this were not to be wasted. Apparently, there were repairs that had been piling up, and so Beidou had decided it best to get them all done at once. Something about a jammed door frame.
~
Fifth Month in the year of the Emerald Finch
It was quickly turning into a sensuous game after all. The wine had stopped flowing but their words certainly hadn’t, tongues loosened by the alcohol, Ningguang supposed.
“You said you remember the rules then? All of them? Ningguang caught Beidou’s hand from where it was about to pluck a game piece from the board. Beidou’s hand relaxed in her grip in instinct, the piece dropping to the board, and they both let the piece fall with a clatter. Ningguang’s fingers moved to caress the calluses on Beidou’s hand, causing Beidou to shiver and meet her eye.
“And if I were to go like this?” Ningguang asked, slowly moving her hand down Beidou’s hand, from her wrist to her forearm then to rest at her elbow.
Beidou’s eye didn't budge from Ningguang. “Then I would oblige.”
Ningguang rose from her seat and, using the hand on Beidou’s elbow, tugged Beidou towards her, Ningguang’s other hand coming to rest on the curve of Beidou’s eyepatch-covered cheek. Their lips met lightly at first, before coming together with the deserved force of long separated lovers.
The hand on Beidou’s arm directed her to rest her hand on Ningguang’s hip and Beidou pulled them closer together. Beidou wrapped her other arm around Ningguang as well and used this leverage to pull Ningguang across the table onto her lap. Ningguang now had a good vantage point on Beidou and looked down at her as she, keeping Ningguang’s eye, placed a light kiss on her chin.
“I still remember all the game rules it seems,” Beidou says.
Ningguang huffs lightly and shuffles her weight more comfortably on Beidou's lap. “You know as well as I that the rules to Liyue Chess are made and changed by my whim.”
Beidou hums an agreeing sound and runs her hands up Ningguang's thighs, one continuing up to the open back of her dress, gently brushing against the faint bumps of her spine and back down again. Ningguang begins to roll her hips in response. “And If I were to ask you to join me in my Jade Chamber?”
Beidou brings her lips to Ningguang’s neck, smooth like polished jasper, and Ningguang tilts her head back to expose her throat further. Beidou’s lips travel softly down her neck until her head is tucked under Ningguang's chin, her ear to Ningguang’s heart. “You know I cannot be kept” she says softly. “Or kept from the sea.”
Beidou’s breathing tickles the hair against Ninguang's neck as she examines the boarded ceiling of the cabin. “I do know, but still I ask.”
Beidou exhales a small laugh that tickles Ningguang's neck again. “Just like that Geo vision you have…” Ningguang smiles softly, knowing where this is going.
“I know, I know.” Ningguang brings her hand up to stoke lightly at Beidou’s hair. “But I’ll keep asking,” she pauses, thinking of the words she had read years ago, “I want to possess you completely– your jade body and your promised heart.”
They sit together, in that lamplit ship’s quarter, and at least for tonight, they are together.