#liubai

[espritradieux]

Jingliu taking Bailu with her when Baiheng is dead and she tries to take care of her but she CANNOT raise a baby in space with the mara and added grief and the constant memory of what happened to Baiheng so she gives her to the nameless instead.....

[espritradieux]

Jingliu, Abundance Baiheng and baby Bailu on the run from the Xianzhou after surviving the dragon disaster. Severe angst and shenanigans ensue

[espritradieux]

I'm sure Du Ruo Xu and Yao having similar dynamics and story to Jingliu Baiheng and Bailu will have no consequences on me as a person

[espritradieux]

When we get a Jingliu sp we better get Baiheng lore and Bailu interactions istg

[kuwanxs]

the quintet, at its core, is composed of people who are very, very morally grey, and this greyness is what makes them so compelling and interesting and even fun to interact and analyse. Naturally this is one of the first few observations we make about them, now whats funny is that Baiheng, from what we find out (in sequential order of quests/companion quests// not including in-game literary works!) is shown to be the most redeemable of the five. Jingliu has made sure we are never to think of her beloved wife in a morally compromised manner no matter what

[kousaka-ayumu]

Guys, I'mma be delusional for a moment.

Imagine Yandere! Jingliu singing "Ruler of My Heart" to Stelle who she thought is Baiheng.

The angst.

[mscheckacheck]

🦊🌙

[gamerbot-22]

To the Stars Above

Prompt: Gift

TW/CW: Pre-canon, Liubai, bittersweet angst, both characters get a little tipsy, both characters speak a little Chinese, barely proofread and I appreciate spellchecks!

Word Count: 1.096

A/N: Some tragic yuri for y'all because I. Cannot help myself. Originally this was going to be a little sweeter but when I was reading over Jingliu's character stories I got caught up on the image of Baiheng and Jingliu drinking and stargazing together.

Translation Note: 谢谢 (pro. xièxie) means "thanks," and 幹杯 (pro. gān bēi, lit. "dry cup") is a toast common in Mainland China. It's also used in Southern China, and pronounced the same way, but the characters are different.

Likes and Reblogs appreciated (reblogs > likes) and Requests are Open! Read this story on Ao3 here!

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The dividers in this post were made by @/gamerbot-22 (me!) ☆

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"Ta-da~!" Baiheng hopped a little in place, trying her best to keep the bottle in her hand from being shaken too much. This bottle--or more specifically the dark red liquid swirling inside--was always a pleasant sight for the two women, especially on such a clear night like this on Baiheng's precious starskiff.

"Oh, yes. Wine again!" For all of the sass laden in her words, Jingliu would never complain and mean it. "Is this the same bottle as the last time?"

Baiheng's tail swished behind her, clearing off the port edge of the starskiff before sitting down and gesturing for her companion to join her. "Yeah, that fancy one I told you about is taking its dear, sweet time getting here, so I thought maybe we'd just finish off this one?"

Jingliu carefully sat beside Baiheng, keeping her legs folded to the side. As much as she trusted Baiheng's capabilities as a pilot, that didn't mean that she was going to go so far as to let her legs dangle off over the clouds. That was a little too adventurous for her tastes, especially where alcohol was about to be concerned.

"Well, we would be making space for the new bottle," the swordmaster conceded. She took the bottle from her Foxian companion with no issue and read over the label again. "Remind me where you got this one from, again? I can't remember if you've told me the story."

Baiheng had absolutely told the story before, but she simply had so many tales of her adventures as a Nameless to tell that she often lost track rather quickly of who she had told what. At first she had tried to keep up with it all, constantly checking in to make sure she wasn't repeating herself, but after a while she simply stopped. And Jingliu was taking full advantage of that.

The Foxian adjusted herself to sit a bit closer, her knees brushing against Jingliu's as she looked down at the yellowing label for a refresher. "Oh, this one! Okay, so this one comes from all the way..." The Foxian reached out with her hand, drawing a line across the night sky from a cluster of stars to the North to a single, distant, twinkling one in the South. "...Over there!"

Jingliu raised a hand to her red eyes, shielding them from the moonlight to try and get a look at that distant system. She'd clocked it earlier, recognizing it from the last three times Baiheng told her this story, but Baiheng always had an appreciation for theatrics.

"You see it?" Baiheng chirped, gently taking the wine bottle from Jingliu's hand. They'd both gotten so interested in the label that they'd forgotten to actually pour it into their cups.

"It's so little," she returned, lowering her hand to rest on her lap. "How far away is it?"

Baiheng's right ear flickered thoughtfully, the motion sending a breeze across the top of Jingliu's head. It made the latter laugh, just to herself.

"Uh... You know what? I don't remember off the top of my head." Baiheng admitted, sheepish, but smiling all the same. "You know me. When you spend so much of your life traveling, your sense of distance gets a bit skewed." She handed Jingliu her cup, a little porcelain dish with the phases of the moon painted along the sides. "This is yours."

"Xie xie."

Baiheng raised her own cup, a perfect match to Jingliu's. "...And here's mine!" The two clinked their glasses together, the sound of porcelain meeting a stark but melodious contrast to the soft humming of the starskiff's engine.

"Gan bei!" Baiheng cheered, then downed the little cup in one go.

"Gan bei," Jingliu echoed, taking a proper sip with a reserved smile.

"Do you miss it?" Jingliu asked, keeping her eyes on that tiny little planet. "Seeing the stars up close? Walking on planets as distant as that one?"

It was a good question, and one with a much more complicated answer than a simple "yes" or "no." Of course Baiheng missed getting to go out there and see new people, aiding those who needed her help and discovering all sorts of new and wonderful things to hold close to her heart. But she also liked being here, back on a Xianzhou ship, where things were so familiar but also so distant at the same time after so many years away.

"Well... I'm happy here," she finally answered, letting her weight fall back onto one hand while the other kept her cup steady on her knee. "You kind of forget how nice a view is after a while, so it's good to come back and visit it when you have the chance." Her soft ears were ghosting just over Jingliu's shoulder as she cocked her head to the side.

"Hm." She raised her shoulder to meet Baiheng's temple, offering her a place to lay her head. "So am I. I always look forward to nights like this. Where it's just the two of us drifting for a while."

It's a bit more straightforward than what Baiheng was expecting, but she's pleased to hear it all the same as she settles her frame against the swordmaster's, her tail moving to arc like a bow behind Jingliu.

"It's kind of nice being away from everyone else, isn't it?" The Foxian chuckles, the sound light and playful despite how heavy her head feels. It wasn't the wine that was weighing her down, but the atmosphere, so tranquil and quiet.

Baiheng's quip earned a soft chuckle from Jingliu, and then the weight of her own head atop hers. The swordmaster's silvery blue hair was so soft against Baiheng's temple, that for a moment she wondered if she could just sleep here for the night, despite the hour and the circumstance.

"It is." The response is so quiet, for a moment it's almost lost under the sound of the Starskiff's gentle warbling.

Baiheng set her cup down and turned closer into her companion, the slope of her nose fitting perfectly against Jingliu's warm neck. "It's almost like we're stars ourselves when we're up so high."

"Are you drunk already?"

"No." She hummed. "Just... poetic."

The stars would drift for hours that night, slowly trailing over the massive ship down below, but as the two women drank and talked and shared their warmth, they started to forget.

They forgot the distant planet.

They forgot the Xianzhou beneath them.

They forgot what it felt like to be cold.

And they forgot that, eventually, all stars would fall.