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Made to Order

Prompt: Uniform

TW/CW: Kind of a sequel to Labor Of... if you squint, slightly suggestive Ruan Mei x Herta, barely proofread and I appreciate spellchecks!

Word Count: 961

A/N: Give it up for the lovely Herta, everyone! So very originally I was going to have The Herta and Puppet Herta as separate characters but the more I thought about it, it makes way more sense to just have Herta as her own character. If a bunch of characters aren't getting separate forms in this (Dan Heng IL, the Trailblazer's Paths, March's Hunt uniform) then it's only fair.

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!) ☆

Herta rarely got breathless, but she had a tendency to get very close to it whenever she was around Ruan Mei.

Alright, get your head out of the gutter--

Whatever happens in the privacy of their own labs aside, Herta had this habit of prattling on and on whenever it was just her and her fellow genius, using Ruan Mei as a rubber duck to talk through ideas before she implemented any of them. Recently it had been quality-of-life and balance updates for her Simulated Universe project, but that wasn't what she was here for today.

No, you see, today, The Herta arrived at Ruan Mei's lab with an entire briefcase filled with half-realized, lacy drawings on the backs of old blueprints. She had spread them all out across Ruan Mei's work table, showcasing scruffy looking bodices and skirts so ornate it was hard to tell what was tulle, ribbons, or lace. A few of the sketched models wore hats, ranging from precious looking sailor caps to oversized witch hats not unlike the one Herta wore.

Ruan Mei had barely even had a chance to give her thoughts on the sketches before Herta went right into explaining each and every thought behind them.

"It's been annoying keeping track of which puppet is which, so maybe each hat could have a padlock through it? And it could be like an abacus, maybe. A lock on the right brim is one and a lock on the right is five? Or ten would make more sense." Ruan Mei could hear the rattle starting to appear in Herta's chest.

"I think--"

"Oh, but that would weigh the brim down, that wouldn't work. Rings could do the job, potentially, but that's not quite my look, is it?"

"Well--"

"I've spent however many years branding myself as the 'Key and Padlock' genius, I can't suddenly make the pivot over to something like chain links. That's ridiculous, we'll scrap that--"

Herta started to gather up all of her plans with the witch hats on them, barely stacking them before turning to look for the nearest trash can. She thought so quickly, it was hard to keep up. Ruan Mei only sighed and turned her attention back to the remaining sketches, ignoring the rustling thud of the scrapped plans hitting the metal trash bin she kept in the corner.

"Anyways," Herta breathed, dusting her hands off as she marched back over to Ruan Mei's side. "What do you think? You're the more fashion forward of the two of us, so if anyone should have an opinion on my Puppet's new uniform, it should probably be you."

Ruan Mei turned to show Herta the sketch she was holding. It had a drawing of one of Herta's puppets sitting with her legs tucked up under a big circle skirt, decorated with lace around the edge that made it look almost like she was melting into the ground. "I like--"

Herta turned and coughed into the corner of her elbow, the sound obvious even with the muffling her long sleeves provided. Ruan Mei sighed again. All that prattling had finally, after--Herta glanced at the digital clock on the wall--an hour and a half, started to get to her.

Ruan Mei slid her cup of tea closer to Herta and made a point of waving the paper in her hand like a professor skimming a thesis paper. "This one. This one is my favorite." She said.

"It is?" Herta croaked.

Ruan Mei picked up the tea cup, filled with a warm black tea, and placed it in Herta's hands. She finally took a sip.

"It is. It's youthful, but elegant, and your lace patterning here is beautiful." She ran her finger along the edge of the drawn skirt, as delicate as if the fabric was real in her hands. "And as for your numbering system with the hat, there are places you can order lightweight padlocks. They won't function, but they are light enough to hang off the brim of the hat without weighing it down entirely. I'm sure if you ask Asta, she can find them for you and have them shipped to either your lab or the Space Station."

Herta took another sip of tea quickly, barely taking the time to enjoy the relief it gave her throat before speaking again. "What about the bodice?"

Ruan Mei held the paper close to her face again. "What about it?" It was a little simple, yes, with yet another padlock over the doll's chest and some shinier fabric down the front. "Some patterned fabric could make it a little more eye-catching, if that's what you're thinking."

She felt Herta press up against her arm, the brim of her wide hat barely not hitting her in the eye. Ruan Mei knew exactly what Herta was going to say before she said it.

"What about embroidery?"

"Are you asking for me to embroider your puppet's dresses?"

"Well. Not all of them, I know you're busy with your own things." Herta corrected, closing the distance a bit more, resting her chin on Ruan Mei's shoulder. Being that close, Ruan Mei pulled her hat off and set it on the table with a slight quirk of her lips. "You know, just the one would be alright, and I can send the rest of them off to be embroidered by the machine."

Ruan Mei leaned into Herta a little, a breathless sound of her own passing her lips--just a simple chuckle. "Alright. I can make the time for that. Once the first dress is done, bring it back here and I'll have it done."

"Thank you, Mei," she hummed.

"Any requests for the pattern?"

"Nah, do whatever you'd like. You know what'll suit my mini-mes."

#Rosie Writes #The Herta #Herta #Puppet Herta #Ruan Mei #RuanHerta #Honkai Star Rail #HSR #Honkai Star Rail Fluff #HSR Fluff #Honkai Star Rail fanfic #HSR fanfic #Daily HSR Ficlet

Aw, what? You don’t even get to fight the Puppet Hertas? That sucks 3:<

Like if you want to fill out the battlefield, throws some guys on the side, but you literally have the model and the kit for Puppet Herta built already! Just flip the camera around!

#Rosie Games #Herta #The Herta #Puppet Herta #Honkai Star Rail #HSR