🧚 Varka x Nicole 🧚 Would you still love me if I was a Seelie?
It was a risk that Varka and Nicole were more than aware of and were more than willing to take. At any moment, without any sort of warning, Nicole could permanently turn into a Seelie. For quite some time, though, it seemed as if the gods were absent in their obligation to carry out the curse. Or perhaps it wasn’t absence, but rather negligence that was buying her time. Regardless of the reasoning, every morning that Varka woke up beside Nicole’s human body was a morning he was most grateful for.
One morning, however, Varka woke to find his bed unoccupied with the exception of his body. It was a little bit unusual, but by no means for concern. Compared to the other things that Nicole was notorious for, waking up earlier than him was one of the more normal things that she had done. As his mind was still sleepy, Varka laid back down on the bed, eyes half-closed in response to the sunlight beaming in through his windows. He must have had a bit too much to drink the night prior, as his body was still heavy and hungover in addition to the fuzziness of his mind. Perhaps some more rest wouldn’t hurt, but Varka was prompted to check the time as it was quite bright in his room.
3:57 A.M., the clock read.
It was still plenty left of time to rest. Varka rolled over onto his back and shut his eyes. Slowly, he was drifting back off to sleep, until a realization hit him.
Four in the morning, yet his room was brightly illuminated with the morning sun. How come? He shot upwards, the blanket sliding down to expose his bare, scar-ridden torso. On the off chance that perhaps he left a lamp on in the middle of the night, Varka looked around his room.
Nothing.
Yet the room was still illuminated with the brilliance of the morning sun. It wasn’t until he looked up that he saw the source of this phantom sunlight. Hovering above him was a Pyro Seelie, lighting up his entire room while the candles were extinguished and the night lay thick outside the windows.
This Seelie wasn’t just any that had happened to wandered into his room by pure chance. Its tail was long and brilliant, adorned with a geometric pattern unlike the relatively common Anemo Seelie of Mondstadt. It was unable to speak a word to him, but Varka needed none to know that it was Nicole in actuality.
In the middle of the night, Celestia’s curse had finally taken hold of her soul.
Varka cupped his palms together. In response, the Pyro Seelie drifted down gently into his hands, hovering just far enough away so that she wouldn’t singe his skin on accident. That very same woman who had thrown caskets of dandelion wine off of a cliff, dulled each and every one of his best blades, manifested more stacks of paperwork due at the end of that day, and ultimately made it her life’s goal to inconvenience him at every turn was now gently cradled in his palms, refusing to even graze his calloused skin.
A tear was brought to the Grand Master's eye.
"Even as a Seelie, you’re still a mighty fine woman," Varka said.
Nicole did not, or simply could not, respond to him. She merely angled itself upwards slightly as if her eyes were meeting his. Loss was a factor of life that Varka was more than used to, or so he claimed to be. He had seen comrades fall before him countless times on the battlefield, swallowing up the grief of every death. His heart had not ached so badly in a long time, not since he had witnessed Eroch taking his life. Despite it being the will of Celestia that things ended this way, Varka still couldn’t help but pin the blame upon himself.
He couldn’t even protect the most important lady in his life. If only he didn’t make such a horrendous misjudgment during his expedition in Nod Krai and allowed his heart soften. Perhaps then, he could have spared the angel her autonomy and sanity.
"Miss Nicole, I’m sorry," Varka softly whispered, gently nudging the Seelie up closer to him.
The brilliant little Seelie drifted away from his hands and floated around him. Varka watched as she looped around behind him then nuzzled up against his face, warming his cheeks. Even with her body and mind no more, she still burned with the Pyro flames of that same Nicole that Varka knew and loved. Even as she floated around him in the form of a goldfish-tailed mass of Pyro energy, she never truly left his side.
As Nicole was still with him, Varka had no reason spend his days lounging around trapped in mourning. Despite the clock reading barely after 4 in the morning, Varka slid out of bed and tossed on his clothes. The Grand Master was on a mission to keep a promise that has stood for almost as long as they had known each other.
The Cat’s Tail was open and bustling in these unholy hours of the night. A Mondstadt tavern that closed its doors in the face of parched drunkards during the most opportunistic hours was doomed to fail. Thus, it wasn’t difficult to find somewhere to stop for a drink during any time of the day. Varka simply preferred the Cat’s Tail for circumstances like these thanks to a certain eccentric bartender that worked there to spite her customers. With little Nicole as his lamp floating at his side, Varka made his way through the streets of the city and up the steps to the entrance of the Cat’s Tail. He opened up the door to see that, to the surprise of no one, there were quite a few people already on their second or third mug, some armed with a deck of cards on their tables.
The beloved bartender Diona was present. She was up on the counter, throwing whatever hodgepodge of ingredients her little kitty paws happened to reach in and grab into a cocktail shaker and mixing it with the fury of a thousand suns. As if she weren’t worn out enough from her customers throughout the night, seeking Varka only made her flatten her ears and bristle her fur as she hissed.
"Hey! Just the little lady I was looking for!" Varka said, with a friendly wave.
"Not you..." Diona hissed. "Don’t even think about staying here until dawn when I already have enough problem children on my hands.
"I will poison you. And you will like it."
"Now now, miss. I’m not actually here for a drink or three.”
"Liar! Why else would you be here?"
"I’m actually here for a-"
Before Varka could finish his sentence, Diona disappeared beneath the counter, save for her tail curling upwards. In an instant, she peeked back up over the counter and chucked an object at Varka. If it weren’t for over forty years of honing his reflexes, Varka would have been smacked in the face with a considerably large glass jar. He caught it with relative ease in the palm of his hand, risking crushing it if he tightened his grip.
"Get lost!" Diona snapped, visibly annoyed with him.
"Hey thanks! That’s just what I needed!" Varka said, giving Diona a thumbs up.
Though her pupils were still wide on the hunt for Varka’s throat, Diona’s tail flickered with confusion. She just chucked the biggest jar that she could quickly whip out at his face, and he was walking away like that’s what he actually wanted? Varka was already asking for it walking into the tavern at such an hour, but she didn’t expect him to actually…ask for it… Whatever got him away from her. When she was sure that he shut the door tightly behind him, and did not change his mind seconds later, Diona returned to her usual business of poisoning those overstaying (not even one whole drink deep) customers.
"Now," Varka said as he pulled the door shut, "this should be plenty of space for you. You won’t have to aimlessly float around to follow me or to rest.”
With a quick turn of his wrist, Varka unscrewed the lid of the glass jar and held it up to Nicole. Without hesitation, she floated down into it.
"Comfortable enough for you, yeah?"
She could not speak, but her lack of protest made her comfort evident. Varka screwed the lid back on the jar and held it up in his palms in front of him, admiring the little Seelie-in-a-jar. It radiated with warmth; not enough to burn his skin, but enough so that he could move comfortably in Dragonspin or in the far north.
"Haha, that’s a relief. Though, now I need to find out if human-Seelie marriages are even a thing in Mondstadt..."
Looking over the expanse of Nod Krai that stretched beyond, Varka leaned against his claymore. The sunset was beautiful, and it was a rare evening where the sight of monsters did not plague the view. Despite the tranquility, his mind was not at peace, and so he was deep in his thoughts ultimately unaware of his surroundings. Nicole approached the Grand Master inconspicuously with the intention of “taking him out,” but stopped her advances upon his lack of instinctive action.
[Hmm? What troubles my almighty Grand Master today? Rough day? Planning ahead? Or maybe something happened?] Nicole said, leaning forward from behind his claymore to look at him.
"Ah, nothing more than the usual. Kinda just want to make it back home with everyone alive. Makes me miss those tedious stacks of paperwork. But that’s already enough about me, what are you up to yourself, my lady?"
[Oh, I’m not short of wonders and worries and curiosities of my own.]
"Hmm? Allow me to lend an ear, then.”
[Would you still love me if I was a Seelie?]
"Of course I would. I would put you in a jar and carry you by my side wherever I went.”
