notes: i originally wasn't planning to post this one here but here it goes hehe i love beiguang fluff <3
wc: 1.5k
She’s just trying to avoid paperwork, Beidou reminded herself.
Ningguang's sudden appearance on her ship distorted her entire crew's steady pace. They've always been levelheaded, flexible in every situation, but for some reason, seeing the Tianquan of the Liyue Qixing face to face marching on the decks of the ship made everyone nervous.
One of her men accidentally dropped a rod on the sea, one spilled a bucket of caught fish, and one tripped trying to walk on the stairs. They were totally losing it today, Beidou sighed, but completely understanding that everyone would be a bundle of nerves in front of the Tianquan.
Beidou gets it.
It's Ningguang. Everyone would go crazy about her for whatever reason there was. Whether it was the Tianquan being gorgeous, responsible, or intimidating. Whether it was about the tattoo on her thigh and the insane interpretations of its entire image or whether it was about her accomplishments alone.
Everything.
Everything can make anyone go crazy about her.
Why she came here though, Beidou didn't really know. Maybe I did something troublesome for her again, and she came here to personally tell me off about it, she thought, grinning by herself, yeah, she's totally just trying to avoid paperwork.
"Greetings, troublemaker," Ningguang smelled the aroma coming from her cup before sipping the tea.
They moved to a more secluded location in the ship. It was a room that resembled the design of the Jade Chamber, but not enough to even compare to it. Its details were made to suit Beidou's taste — having its interior become a reminder of Liyue to make her feel at home. To Beidou, the sea may be where she belongs, but Liyue remains as her heart — incomparable to other places alike.
"No need to be so formal, m'lady," Beidou scoffs, sipping her tea, "I got that tea because you recommended it to me."
"Really?" Ningguang, more pleased than earlier, takes a sip once more.
"Yeah, who would dare ignore a recommendation from the Tianquan herself?"
Beidou reached for her cup, never letting Ningguang, who was now eating a cookie, escape her sight. How could she not? A goddess-like beauty was before her and if Beidou wasn't a believer of archons, she would've worshipped Ningguang as one. Maybe she already did.
Trying to shake the blasphemy off her mind, Beidou spoke, "So why did you come here?" putting her cup back on the table. Reaching for a napkin, she got distracted when she saw a crumb of cookie on the side of Ningguang's lips, tempting her hands to reach for something it shouldn’t.
Before Beidou could even reach for the crumb, Ningguang had already wiped it off.
Beidou leaned back on her chair calming herself down. Why she almost tried to wipe it off when the Tianquan was very capable of taking of herself bothered her for a full minute. But such thoughts disappeared the instant Ningguang’s voice struck her ear.
"I haven’t seen you since last," she started, filling her cup once more, “wasn’t it when the Jade Chamber fell, and you came rushing to check if I was all right?”
Ningguang was the word bold personified. She was never the type to beat around the bush and seeing Beidou become flustered by her sudden statements makes everything worthwhile.
"Yeah, what about it?” Beidou replies, trying to shake the uneasiness with the remarks of the woman in front of her.
"Well, I heard you’re going to be in the Harbor. I'd like to go as well,” pulling one loose hair behind her ears, she explains, “I haven’t walked in the Harbor since I’ve been busy with the reconstruction of the Chamber."
Walking on the harbor had never been so weird for the captain of the Crux. The people always loved seeing her, but for some reason, there has been a lot of hesitations on the greetings she received this time. She paid them no mind, after all, it was a good day to walk around with her partner whom she has rarely seen for the last few months.
When Beidou was about to invite her to go rest under the tree nearby the harbor, Ningguang asked her if she could accompany her to a few visits. They went to see the children playing around with Beidou holding the bag of delights Ningguang specifically prepared to provide them with.
I can’t tell if the kids like her or not, smiling to herself, Beidou watched Ningguang chatting with the children who were enjoying the sweets Ningguang bought for them. Well, if anything, they don’t seem to hate her. Ningguang seemed good with children, despite being intimidating adults.
After that short rendezvous, they bade the children and decided to take a rest under the tree near the harbor. Beidou has always been equipped with a lot of strength, but whenever she’s with Ningguang, she somehow keeps wanting to stay in one place where they could be alone. She doesn’t really care if they walk around and explore the entirety of Liyue, but she’d very much prefer to be alone with her right now.
Since Ningguang has a lot of projects to supervise at hand, Beidou thought that they would only sit and rest there for a while. She calmly rested her back on the trunk of the tree, putting her weight on the ground. Yes, she was very calm indeed, until one woman decided to relax her head on Beidou’s lap instead of sitting beside her.
Does she know what she’s doing? A bit agitated, she just let Ningguang be, thinking that she wouldn’t be able to push her away anyway.
Not long after Ningguang closed her eyes, Beidou had gawked at Ningguang’s lips. It looked… stunning. Her cupid's bow having the perfect arch — the same way her body had been sculpted with gorgeous curves, made Beidou sweat from nervousness. It looked so glossy that Beidou questioned how the amount of tea they drank earlier was not able to scrap an inch of its beauty. She has never been so tempted to kiss someone this much before.
“Are you asleep?” She asks, realizing that looking at the Tianquan from this angle was only making it worse.
“Are you asleep?” She asks again, still not receiving a response. From then on, she concluded that Ningguang must be. From all of her work and trying to keep Liyue intact, she must be tired and she deserved a rest.
A few moments pass when the leaves started falling. Preventing the ones from almost landing on Ningguang’s face, she sighs, finally giving in to her temptation, landing a kiss on Ningguang’s forehead. She pulls herself away from her cautiously, ensuring that she wouldn’t wake her up.
I must be insane, Beidou rubbed her temple trying to look away from the woman she just kissed.
She did it.
She kissed her.
As if sitting stiffer than ever wasn’t enough, she froze when Ningguang spoke. Turns out the Tianquan on her lap wasn’t asleep at all, and she most likely felt it when her lips pressed against her forehead.
“You kissed me,” Ningguang’s voice resonated in the air, her eyes still resting.
“I’m sorry,” Beidou apologized, swallowing the nervousness on her throat. Her eyes creasing as her mind spun around the idea of Ningguang coming to hate her and how she’d rather fight Haishan a hundred times again instead.
“Don’t be,” Ningguang assured her, fixing her head on Beidou’s lap to make her more comfortable, “I didn’t say I didn’t like it.”
If Beidou wasn’t blushing earlier, she is totally blushing now. If I understood this right, then she didn’t hate it? Then, it was okay? In an instant, a conclusion she never dared to assume arrived, no way, she likes me? She thought, her breathing becoming heavier than before.
“I like you Beidou,” Whispering softly as she sat to place her head on Beidous’s shoulders, Ningguang answered Beidou’s thoughts, interlocking her hands with hers as she did so.
“I feel the same,” Beidou has dreamt of this moment before, she just never thought that it’d be Ningguang who would say it first.
She even thought of the different ways she’d do to make her fall for her but never did because she was always on the sea anyway. She just enjoyed everything whenever they met up to discuss some plans together and tried to be content with those. But what was happening right now just made her realize that every moment that occurred before would never be enough at all.
“I like you, too,” Beidou continues, tightening her grip on Ningguang’s hands, “probably even before you ever did, probably more than you think you do.”
“I know,” Ningguang replied, grinning to herself as she fixed her eyes on their intertwined hands.
The sun became one with the sea and the same was for the two women under that tree. Not a single care for the responsibilities that await them, forgetting that they were the Uncrowned Lord of the Ocean and the Eclipsing Star for once. Drunk with their love for each other, they stayed like that until they drowned in the night, begging the God of Time, if there was such, for a single second to last forever.
“Rise.”
Slow, the shifting strands of Beidou’s hair, the brush of her fingers against the varnished pine as she draws her hands to her knees, pulls herself up from the anchor of her flexed toes. Not so much as a wobble. Slow, how she blinks up at Ningguang, knowing she is watching.
Ningguang’s throat is parched.
“Tianquan, if I may”—of course, she does not wait for permission—“would you tell the esteemed chefs that Captain Beidou of the Crux enjoys stronger seasoning?”
Hello hello I absolutely adore your art and Ning-Beidou ship art and also asking to share your lovely brushes? 🥺👉👈
Hi! Thank you so much! <33 I use a ton of brushes but I mainly use Procreate and Photoshop brushes from:
- Jingsketch
- True Grit (if you sub to their newsletter, they give you a set of brushes. it's free!)
- Ahmed Aldoori
- Fenris31 on DA
- Craig Mullins
- Loish
- https://bigsky.gumroad.com/l/zoebrush (one of my faves)
that's what i can list at the top of my head so there's probably more but i also find and use brushes from here:
Hey since you’re now the only one we can trust for correct translations over complicated characters like Kirari, would you mind double checking the translation for chapter 30 when she tells Sayaka “you know I wouldn’t allow that don’t you?” in regards to a one sided relationship. The original bet was to become strangers to each other, and then as Sayaka begins to panic Kirari suddenly changes it to jumping off the tower. From the beginning, Kirari seemed to have a lot of faith that Sayaka was going to pick the right door, giving her a way to live and keep her secretary position even if she lost the gamble. So while it seems like Kirari is saying “I’d never allow you to keep loving me from afar if you lost” it’s like she’s actually saying “I would never let our relationship end even if you lost” by giving her another way to “win.” I just want to see if there’s anything different in that scene in Japanese because it seems like one of the most clear examples that Kirari wasn’t willing to throw away their relationship so easily and shows she cares about Sayaka’s happiness as well.
Well, I don’t know about me being the only one you can trust, but the sentiment is flattering, so thank you! (I think...?)
In Japanese, Kirari says:
そんなこと許すはずがないでしょう？
Which can be translated as, “But I can’t allow that, can I/right?”
The でしょう at the end can be interpreted a few different ways. Based on context, my reading of it is that Kirari was likely seeking agreement from Sayaka, or making an assumption that she and her are thinking about the same thing. Technically, they were both thinking about the same thing but with an obviously major difference lol: Sayaka was content with adoring Kirari from afar should she lose, but Kirari seemed to have a hunch that would happen and upped the stakes by introducing the jump from the tower.
I think a lot of people see the Tower of Doors as Kirari being flippant about her connection to Sayaka and being willing to toss it away without a second thought. Hell, even Sayaka thinks that’s the case when the gamble is first introduced. But something to keep in mind is that Kirari almost certainly built that tower for Sayaka. At the very least, she geared all the puzzles on the screen towards Sayaka’s strength: logic. But Sayaka had tunnel vision, and was only interested in taking out Yumeko, especially after Kirari introduced a jump that would be fatal. Yumeko was able to best Sayaka because she took the time to figure out the weird twist (pun not intended lol) that the tower had. Sayaka actually almost figured out that the tower rotated...but then Yumeko showed up on the ground floor and she got blinded by her hatred again.
So we can infer a couple things about Kirari’s use of the Tower of Doors based on the context we’re given:
Kirari more or less knew how this gamble was going to shake out from the beginning
She planned for Sayaka to make the choices she did – if Kirari hadn’t been careful about how she planned the tower and didn’t know Sayaka as well as she did, it could’ve very easily resulted in someone’s death
Kirari gave Sayaka a way to win what was important to her, even if that meant losing the actual gamble to Yumeko
Kirari cares about Sayaka a lot, or is at the very least deeply fascinated by her – we can see the ToD as a major test of sorts
Kakegurui Love‘s chapter about Kirari actually more or less confirms that last point:
“In a sense, the battle of ‘The Tower of Doors’ was something in which Sayaka challenged Kirari for her own existence. Kirari, who reaffirmed Sayaka’s charm as a person, took her as her secretary.”
Similarly, in Sayaka’s chapter, Kakegurui Love says this:
“[Sayaka] couldn’t understand Kirari and was defeated in a gamble that bet on their connection. However, Kirari is attracted to Sayaka because she doesn’t understand her, and Sayaka just wants to be near Kirari, so she reaffirms her feelings for her.”
We even get this panel in the manga that confirms that Kirari wanted to see how deep Sayaka’s devotion to logic ran, so much that she wasn’t able to see the forest for the trees.
That bottom right panel is actually really interesting, because Kirari is pointing out two times when Sayaka was actually talking to Ririka and seemed to know that Ririka was not Kirari, but was unable to explain how or why she knew that...similar to how Sayaka knew to chose the safe door without realizing it.
Also worth mentioning, there’s a pretty significant warp on Kirari’s characterization here:
In English, Kirari says:
“If you chose any other door, you’d have died instantly...and I wasn’t gonna join you for that, trust me.”
In Japanese, what she actually says is:
他の扉を選んでいれば即死。さすがに必死のダイブは遠慮したいわ。
“If you chose another door, you would have died instantly. Even I would hesitate to make a desperate dive.”
We see a shift from the English translation painting Kirari as cruel, willing to cut Sayaka loose and die if she didn’t choose the right door, while in Japanese, Kirari is acknowledging that what Sayaka did — jumping seemingly without thinking about it — is not something she would do, which highlights how they’re opposites.
TL;DR: Yes, Kirari cares a lot about Sayaka. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have been able to craft a tower filled with puzzles Sayaka excels at, knew how she would navigate the tower, or invite her back to be her secretary while also letting Sayaka negotiate the terms of her position. Keep in mind that the instant Kaede lost and lost whatever interested Kirari, she fired him from the council immediately. When Kirari is done with someone or something, she tends to be done. That’s not the case with Sayaka: she’s been charmed by her over and over. Sayaka chose Kirari when she asked to join the council, Kirari chose Sayaka when she hired her as secretary, and Kirari chose Sayaka again in the lily field after their gamble when Sayaka thought she had lost everything.
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