Salt Wife
Beidou x Fem! reader. FEM AFAB READER
Warnings: longing, the reader is in denial, some fluff one shot.
"You can be my first mate! Deal? Ha? Such names are too outdated for you huh? We'll call each other whatever you wish then."
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You stared at the endless blue for the last time. One would think your stomach would take to the ocean kindlier today, now that it was your last day on board, but of course, it didn't.
All it took was a soft lurch and it had you pressing down the rising bile in your throat.You spun away from the railing, wincing as you pressed a palm to your wind-beaten face. Few more hours. You reminded yourself. Just a few more hours and you'd be rolling in grasslands before sundown.
The curx lurched suddenly and you lost your footing. Feet skidding on the slippery boards as you yelped sliding on all fours.
"Easy there!" Someone called out. The next thing you felt was a strong grip, pulling you up on your feet like picking up a stray kitten. You pushed your hair off your face, looking up at your saviour.
"Are you okay kid?" Juza asked, his bushy eyebrows knit together with concern.
You jutted out your chin, "I'm fine." you replied, trying earn back the dignity you had lost after mopping the floor with yourself.
He gave you a fatherly grin, "takes a while to get used to the sea, that one over there was wobbling like a fawn for weeks before he got used to it."
You knew who he was referring to even before you looked, simply because he had pointed up, towards the lofty masts of the ship kissing the clouds.
The young inazuman's feet dangled from the navigator's post, swinging to an invisible rhythm. As usual, his eyes were lidded. You frowned at his expression of absolute ease. You couldn't help but feel jealous at how easily he could fall asleep there.
Not that you had any of that privilege. The wretched sea would not let you catch a moment of peace. Tossing you around in your little hammock until you couldn't help but hurl your insides out.
Even when you tried to make yourself useful on board, you were only met with irritation. The floorboards were always wet, growing things in crevices you had missed, like barnacles eating away at a turtle. They regrew no matter what you did, no matter how hard you scrubbed at them, squatting for so long your thighs screamed in pain.
It was as if the ocean had realized you were an outsider, a pest, and now was hell-bent on squashing you out.
After all, you weren't meant for the ocean. You were raised to tread mountains and open fields. To run barefoot on ground that doesn't shake and rumble. The most water you had seen was knee-deep. So if anything, just the thought of limitless depths, where you couldn't feel the earth under your feet scared you shitless.
You dragged yourself back to your feet just as the ship lurched again. Your knees buckled again, someone swore loudly and laughter erupted from the upper deck. Great now your clothes were all soapy
"Land Ahoy!" someone yelled out and your heart leaped. Sure enough among the clouds, you could see the odd peaks of juyun karst over the horizon. Finally. Finally.
The thought of home eased you tremendously. You had been on the ship for over a week now. Longer at sea than you had been on inazuman land. You had only gone there to find more materials that you could use as dyes, not knowing just how long the trip would keep you from home.
Your permit was about to end when the storms erupted. Sudden torrents so powerful that every ship including the one you were supposed to be on, decided not to set sail. There was no way you could afford to extend the permit, so when the young man named Kazuha offered you passage on the crux, you jumped at the opportunity.
You should have known that only a ship that could rival thunderstorms would harbor a captain that was lightning personified.
It was bad enough that the ocean made you queasy, so you did not want another someone here to throw your mind for a toss, make pits in your stomach and have you biting your tongue.
You tightened the grip on the railing. You couldn't tell if it was the thought of home or something else that made you tear up.
The ocean spray seemed to be eating away at your mind too. Clinging on like barnacles that you just couldn't scrape out. You couldn't wait to be back home, back with your parents and maybe then things would actually go back to normal.
Your parents had been simple people, devoted to their beloved Rex Lapis. But fear had ruled their faith, and so they hated the ocean. Given its natural history with the archon, it wasn't odd they felt so. The ocean was chaotic and unsteady. Constantly churning out calamity after calamity, harboring demons and monsters and all kinds of nasty beings.
"You find a man that's steady like a rock." They would say. You find a rock. Steady, strong and reliable. And you settle down.
Obviously, their thoughts had affected you, in every sense, you were honed to live on the hills. Knees scraped from climbing mountains and calloused feet from treading fields, raised to stand on earth that never trembled. Meant to find a man steady as a rock.
Steady, strong, and reliable.
But to temper the ocean, you had to be built differently.
Like the captain.
At first you thought it was envy that made your gut twist as you saw her. Envy of being that free. Envy of being so untamed, that it made the monsters lurking in the deep blues quiver with jealousy. You realized you couldn't stare at her too much. Every time you did, your mind would begin to drift, focusing on small things.
Like how she always had a beckoning smile, one corner of her mouth slipping tipsily. How her skin tanned, blotched with light hues of red, fading into brown, like patches of red hydrangeas had erupted across her body. Your eyes would trail the faint scars rippling across her toned arms.
You wondered how far they went, if you could trace them like lines on a weathered map.
The sound jostled you out of your trance. Her laugh breaks through your thoughts like sunlight through thunderclouds.
You blushed furiously. If it was that easy for her to distract you, The fathomless ocean must have started to make you delirious.
Just the thought of it had sent your mind spinning.
The first time you had seen her, her gaze had made you squirm in your spot. There was an underlying danger to it, like licking food off knives, or playing with flames until it finally smites your fingers. You had known in that moment; you had earned the captain’s curiosity.
And you doubted even Rex Lapis could help you with this situation.
Your interactions with the captain had been brief. But every second had scorched itself in your mind. You had known there was a pull you felt, envy and fascination and something more, mired into something you dared not give a name.
When you had lingered overboard longer than you anticipated. Night fell quickly bringing a chill that made your teeth clatter.
Like when she offered you her flask, moonlight washing over her crouched figure.
You hesitated for a second, wondering if you could really keep it down at all.
Beidou read your gait, “It will help with the cold.” She replied.
You seemed to consider this. One of the sailors beside her moved, offering you his place, and you took it.
The floor boards creaked under your weight as you sat down beside her.
You regretted saying yes the moment you tasted the booze.
It's strong. Stronger than any wine you had back home. Just one sip and its choking smell clogs your nose. You splutter out the drink, coughing.
Beido laughs as you reach for your skirts, wiping your mouth, embarrassed at how much of an idiot you looked like.
“Easy there” someone laughed, “You need a strong stomach for the sea.”
Beido’s chuckle echoed with the rest. You are caught off guard as her thumb brushed against your chin, wiping away the faint dribble of wine. Your stomach drops when she brings it to her lips and licks it off her thumb.
Her reaction was as nonchalant as yours was flustered,
The captain of the crux shrugged, "Can't waste good wine, can we?"
She pinned you with that same smiting gaze,
That was all it had been, the fleeting ghost of a touch. The captain was swept away immediately after, leaving you still standing there. You knew it was more than just fascination when it was a touch that simple that left you sleepless at night.
It was the smallest interaction, but it you tumbling back underboard, you twisted in your hammock, pulling your extra clothes to cover your sea-sprayed skirts that never dried, dreaming of tangled limbs and mapping stars on her skin.
The night only got colder as you lay awake, you might just be in love with the captain. no biggie.
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"So you're leaving?" She asked.
Your gut wrenched as you pulled your eyes off her. Forcing your legs to move, "Yes." you replied.
Her cranberry eye settled on you. You averted your gaze at once, still can't read her.
“Running away from the sea?” She jibed. “Or running away from me?”
"That's not-" You started, but the stupid ship lurched again. You huffed angrily as the luggage you were holding slipped from your grip, stumbling forward.
Beido hoisted one bag up easily.
“I’m just going home.” You completed.
“After all,” You murmured, “You can’t really run away from the horizon. It just chases you regardless.”
Every day all you wanted to do was jump off this darn ship, but something today grounded you to your spot.
You let out a gasp and too much happened in a fraction of a second, you slipped again, maybe you didn't but the next thing you felt was her arms around you, hoisting you up from being thrown overboard. Your fingers dug into her shoulders.
It hit you in that moment, how badly you had craved her touch.
“No hard feelings love, just that I can’t have regrets.” She said.
You skipped a breath and she drew you in. You went in willingly, caving under her touch. Someone gave out a low whistle and the stupid boat lurched again, but you couldn't care anymore. The world closed in on you as her lips crashed into yours.
She tasted like wine and honey and you could smell the sea salt on her skin. At that moment the world was in your hands. Nothing in your life had felt this right before. The warmth of her tongue on yours was overwhelming.
Your body felt languid, and fluid. Every time you had dreamed of this moment you thought you would freeze. Your body going still from the shock. But your body reacted naturally, feet finding the unmoving ground you had longed for.
For all the morbid mountain in your soul, you matched her with a passion and fire you didn't think you could conjure. She chuckled under your intensity, your teeth gashing lightly.
You could taste the ocean in her mouth, her fingers curled in your hair, tugging you towards her slightly.
When you pulled away, your mind was still foggy.
"Go" She rasped out.
The answer shocked you. Her cherry eyes looked at you with so much affection, you felt sea-legs all over again.
Archons, you wanted her, you needed her.
"What?" You choked out. Suddenly realizing where you were, how your baggage leaned against your leg, and where you were supposed to go. You felt lightheaded.
Her breath fanned against your face, "Go, run to your mountains." She breathed into your hair, calloused fingers running down your arms.
Like the ocean kisses the sky at the horizon.
"I'll chase you down regardless."
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