My work is killing me but I had to squeeze in some time to do my (current) fave OC ship some justice 😤😤😤 vailei ftw
That said, I prob shouldn't draw on 4 hours of sleep 💀💀💀because something doesn't look right... but I sunk too much time into it yesterday so I had to post it :'D
I headcanon Vail to be quite clingy although he was shy at the beginning. He's a soft boi 😤😤😤 Although they're both very very busy people when they're alone and have time to spend together they will not leave each other's sides.
Description: Bonus story 3/5 of an original story Something Sweet featuring my original characters from my cyberpunk campaign in a modern / university AU. Although Lei has a date planned with her boyfriend Vail, she unexpectedly gets severe period cramps and needs to cancel. Vail decides to visit her and they decide to do very cute and domestic things together.
Other tags: Period cramps (we hate those), Supportive BF Vail (we stan), puns, napping together, cooking together, SLEEPY VAIL,
Relationship: Lei / Vail (romantic)
Length: 1.8k words
When Lei woke up that particular morning she was not expecting to wake up to her uterus’ bloody revenge. Her cramps were almost never this bad, and her cycles were regular, so she didn’t know why she suddenly had to suffer. Unfortunately, she had a date that day planned that she supposed she would have to cancel. She was not in the mood for running around with such heavy flow.
-
LEI (10:08 AM): Sorry I can’t hang out today. I’m not feeling well.
VAIL(10:15 AM): are you okay? what happened?
-
Lei hesitated, her fingers hovering over the keyboard. From her experience, some men could be rather squeamish when it came to menstruation. But well, what else could she tell him but the truth? Honesty was the best policy when it came to relationships.
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LEI (10:16 AM): It’s nothing serious. I’m just on my period and the cramps are really bad this time.
-
Limping over to the medicine cabinet, she took some naproxen with some hot water and after setting her hot water bottle on her nightstand, she lay down on her bed to wait for the painkiller to kick in. Throughout the aches and tremors of her entire midsection and upper thighs, her phone rang with text notifications, so she picked it up and held it above her face.
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VAIL (10:18 AM): I see
VAIL(10:18 AM): can i come over?
LEI (10:19AM): I can’t do much though. Right now, I can only lie in bed.
VAIL (10:20AM): that’s ok
VAIL (10:20AM): I want to see you.
-
Well, Lei certainly couldn’t say no to that. It was really sweet of him and if her stomach wasn’t feeling bloated, she was certain she would be feeling butterflies instead.
-
LEI (10:21AM): Alright, then. Come over whenever.
VAIL (10:25AM): Can i get you anything?
LEI (10:26AM): If it’s not too much of a bother, I like dark chocolate kisses.
VAIL (10:27AM): omw
-
It was maybe fifteen minutes later when there was a knock on the door.
“Come in.” She said, raising her head a little to see Vail at the open door. Although he was a lovely view to look at, her pain-fevered gaze made him look blurry around the edges.
“Ceres let me in.” Vail said, as he entered the room. He was holding his jacket in one hand and a bag of chocolate kisses in the other. He appeared a little sweaty, as if he had just finished some light exercise. “How are you feeling?”
Lei sighed. “Not great. But that’s what happens.” She patted the empty space beside her on the bed. “Come and sit down.”
He placed his jacket on her desk chair and the chocolate on her desk before sitting down where she had requested. When she reached out for his hand to hold, he wordlessly let her take it.
“Did you run here?” She asked him as she gently ran her thumb across his fingers. She squeezed his hand tightly when a particularly painful wave of cramps hit her.
“Of course. I wanted to come here as soon as I could."
“That’s sweet, but I’m not dying or anything.”
“Yunyi makes it sound like she’s dying every time she brings it up.”
“It’s different for everyone.” Lei paused, thinking about it. “If it’s really hurting her, she should see a gynecologist. I could recommend one to her if she would like.” She could not help the doctor-in-training concern that was instilled into her as a med school student.
“I’ll let her know.”
Lei wondered how that sort of conversation would go. “It’s alright, I imagine that would be a little awkward. I’ll talk to her about it myself.”
“You’ve been talking to her recently?” He looked at her curiously, tilting his head much like a cat would.
Lei nodded, smiling. “Yes~ She’s such a cutie, I can’t help but want to tease her and talk to her more.”
Vail said nothing but Lei felt like she needed to add, “But you’re my favourite cutie~”
Vail looked at her skeptically this time. “I feel like you call everyone a cutie.”
“Not everyone! But it is true that there are many things I find cute in this world.” She replied honestly. “But only you are my cutie of a boyfriend, right?”
He chuckled. “I guess that’s true.”
Lei winced as yet another wave of cramps bulldozed through her uterus. Usually lying down would alleviate the pressure but it wasn’t enough this time. “There’s a hot water bottle on the left lower shelf in my closet. Can you go and fill it with some hot water?” She asked.
“Like those metal ones?” Vail pointed to the one sitting on her nightstand.
Lei shook her head. “No, they're made out of rubber or silicon so they’re flexible, and they’re flatter and more rectangular-shaped. You cover it with a towel or sometimes they come with a covering and place it on your abdomen. Heat can help ease the cramping.”
The bed creaked a little when he got up from it and went to her closet. Her closet was almost overflowing with the amount of clothes she had hanging inside so she almost never closed it and he stared at it for some time before crouching down to find the lower shelf.
“Mine has a fuzzy grey covering over it with a cat design.” She tried to explain as she watched him struggle to push aside the some long dresses blocking the opening of the shelf.
“This one?” He held up a floppy fuzzy-covered silicone blob awkwardly between his two hands.
“Yes, exactly.” Lei sighed in relief.
He left the room to do as she had asked and Lei was left alone, staring at her ceiling. I’m so fortunate, she thought to herself, to have him care for me like this.
He returned a few moments later and handed the filled hot water bottle to her. She placed it on her lower stomach and sighed in relief as the heat gradually seeped in, relaxing her abdominal muscles.
“Anything else?” He asked, still standing.
Lei smiled at him gratefully through the pain, which was luckily finally starting to subside a little from the heat and naproxen. “I wouldn’t say no to a Kiss right now.”
Much to her surprise, instead of going to fetch the chocolate kisses, he leaned over and gave her a gentle peck on the lips.
She blinked. Once, and then twice. He blinked back at her.
“I meant the chocolate…” Lei said.
“Ah, did you, now.” Although most people would think his expression was neutral, she had been with him long enough that she could see the redness of a telltale blush creep into his ears. He was embarrassed and very cutely so.
“It’s okay,” She smiled, pulling him to sit down beside her on the bed. “What you gave me was better~"
-
When she awoke from her little nap, she was feeling much better. Vail was also curled up beside her, so he must have joined her in bed after she drifted off. He was still holding her hand, which she remembered they were doing when she was still conscious.
She turned to her side to check her phone on the nightstand for the time. It was close to 2PM, so it seemed that her “little” nap had been three hours long.
She sat up at the edge of her bed and as she was about to stand up to stretch and go to the kitchen, she felt strong arms wrap around her — Vail’s. He was a light sleeper and seemed to always wake as soon as she moved from his side.
“I need to make lunch now. Aren’t you hungry at all?” She asked, gently stroking his hair.
His sleepy response was to simply nod his head a little. “A little.”
“Come on, let’s go to the kitchen then. We can have soup noodles. It’s the perfect day for that.”
The promise of noodles seemed to be enough to rouse him because he sat up gradually after, rubbing at his eyes a little. “Sounds good.” He said.
She put him to work chopping vegetables — carrots, daikon radish, green onion, onion, bok choy. He was good with a knife, after all. She simmered the soup in the meantime — chicken stock, dashi powder, soy sauce, onion, carrot, daikon — all the things she was making him chop.
“Is it done yet?” He asked while she was boiling the noodles. He had come up from behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and putting his chin over her shoulder.
“Not yet, be patient!” She laughed. “Hungry, aren’t you? And you didn’t want to let me get out of bed.”
“That was because it was comfy in bed. But this is because I’m hungry. It’s different.” He justified.
She laughed again. She used the ladle to scoop some soup, blew on it to make it less hot, and then held it close to his mouth. “Ahh~” She said.
He bent his head a little and sipped at it.
“How is it? Is it flavourful enough?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.”
She pouted at him. “You and Ceres are the same, you never have any feedback when I cook. You’re always like ‘it’s good’ or ‘it’s fine’.”
“Well, if it’s good, what else can I say?”
She nodded, “I guess it’s better for me if you’re not picky.” She tasted the remnants of the ladle herself. “Oh, this is good.”
He looked at her as if to say, see? But he didn’t verbalize it.
She sighed, “Alright, I get your point. How do you want your egg?”
“How you usually make it is good.”
“Okay, over-easy it is~”
After they had eaten, they washed the dishes together — he washed them and she dried them — she wiped her hands on a hanging towel and fetched the bag of chocolate for their dessert.
“Want a kiss?” She held up the bag of dark chocolate Kisses in her hand and shook it.
“Sure.” He held his hand out.
Instead of placing a candy there, she grabbed his hand, pulled him closer, and gave him a quick peck on the lips.
“There.” She said, smirking. “Sweet revenge.”
He stood there blankly for a moment, so she took the opportunity to place a chocolate in his still-opened hand as an apology for the surprise.
“Ah.” He finally said, at least a minute later, when he seemingly had processed the information of what just happened. “You got me.”
“But it was better than what you were expecting, right?” She said with a little teasing smile.
“Yeah,” He smiled softly at her. “It was.”
He carefully set the chocolate on the table before pushing her against the kitchen counter and propping her onto it. The marble countertop was a little cold against her skin, so she first squawked from the surprise, but she was soon distracted by his warm hands gripping her bare thighs. They exchanged many more kisses — not the chocolate kind.
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Shout out to my fellow uterus-havers -- period cramps suck
Apparently naproxen is the best for period cramps and since Lei is a pharmacy nerd she would definitely know
At this point in time Ceres + Lei share an apartment -- this will be explained in another Ceres&Lei fic I'm still writing (also a WIP from 2 years ago LOL) but I thought it was cute to have Vail + Lei do domestic things together 🥺🥺🥺
I feel like Vail would be pretty good about periods / menstruation since he works with a lot of female runners on his team (Lexi, Zoey, Keeper)
I'm very proud of that ending as a parallel to what Vail did hehe I THINK THEY'RE JUST SO CUTE (CLENCH FIST)
I drew this in May I think but only recently have I had the time to do a photoshoot with the stickers :3 They're all vinyl and waterproof.
It might be a bit hard to tell in this image but they are holding hands!!! They will protect each other even in the uncertain future 🥺🥺🥺I also want to mention how in the heart behind them, they're standing in each other's respective theme colours :D
I also really like the new outfit I cooked up for Lei :3 you can see the fullbody a bit better here as well as her doctor's coat. Vail's outfit was kinda hard cuz he's wearing basically full black XD I did my best with it though and tried to add differentiation / colour where I could :'D
Redrawing some winter outfits for Lei and Vail :3 You might recognize that I've drawn them in these outfits before as I've posted them on tumblr! I want to use this as a reference to like get comms or drawing illustrations based on them! I also have already drawn some illustrations based on these outfits~
Their heights are not to scale LOL. Vail is a certified short king 💅 Lei is a short queen but she's wearing heeled boots in winter for some reason 😂 (the reason is to slay 💅)
I'm hoping to redraw/ remake the Ceres + Elise winter outfits too but we'll see. I was actually going to use these outfits for another series of illustrations that I even sketched up but not sure if I'll go back to 🤔 I'm thinking about it though 🤔🤔🤔
I really like dressing up my OCs and making them outfits 🥺🥺🥺 I also really like the plaid for their winter outfits I gave Ceres yellow plaid and Elise red plaid as well for their winter outfits 🥺🥺🥺 It's Lei and her most beloved people 🥺🥺🥺 They're matching 🥺🥺🥺 I also think their outfits are super super cute 🥺
If you zoom in there's a bunch of little notes hehehe about the material or design :D Or which things Lei gave Vail 😂 (Like the thigh belt 😳👀😳) Since she's into fashion I imagine she likes to dress him up. And he's willing to oblige because it's her :3 Also I imagine he doesn't mind looking good for her 👀
Lei's necklace in the canon universe was a gift from Ceres :3 I'm keeping that in the modern AU too. Since Vail has silver earrings I imagine he also likes to accessorize a bit and his silver dog tags are ones he bought himself! :D I imagine if he were less active he'd wear rings too but he uses his hands a lot so 😅 Prob not the best idea
Another random detail I want to point is Vail's fingerless gloves! Cuz I actually tried drawing hands for once. It's the runner look y'know. Lei's hands are covered by her fluffy jacket but she is not wearing gloves 😳 So they hold hands like that, y'know, to keep warm 😳
One more detail is Vail's jacket is designed by someone named Nekoya 👀 (You can see the little cat logo!) You'll see her soon but she's a seamstress in the cyberpunk world :3
May have decided to draw something cute like 2 weeks ago and I'm finally sharing it now 🤡 It also became sussy for some reason don't at me.
Main sussy notes/details
The text. Enough is said there.
Bite mark on Lei's shoulder??? Ayo who gave her that?
Lei's lipstick is smudged 🤔
Vail's wearing a collar? Ayo who gave him that? 🤔🤔🤔
This is not a sus detail but THEY SWAPPED EARRINGS!!! So one ear is their own earring and the other ear is their partner's earring. Lei has like a silver ring with a green gem/shard and Vail only has silver hoops so yeah that doesn't show up as easily.
More versions under the cut!
Another version without the text. And shoulder bitemark, for some reason? I think I removed it to avoid prevent the sus but y'know tumblr gets the full sus glory
Last version is the fully coloured and rendered piece before I slapped on the filter for the ambient lighting. Yeah I always fully render these and then I'm like oh wait gotta slap filters on them anyways XDDD (suffering... why....) In this one you can see uhhh Vail's face looks more strange BUT IT'S ALREADY DRAWN I AM NOT FIXING IT. At least my babygirl Lei is a cutie 😤😤😤
It's all about that GAP MOE that Vail has 😎 He seems very calm and collected but inside he was panicking. This has been confirmed to be canon by the DM so therefore 😎 we get cute panicky Vail on the inside who freaks out when he gets some action.
This was a scene from Lei's epilogue (back when she was happy...) where uh she may have gotten too excited and jumped the gun a bit and kissed Vail before they discussed their relationship... don't do this folks XD But to be fair the "promise" they are talking about is the promise to go on a dinner date.... so I mean it's not like she was working off of nothing! Also she did ask for his consent before! We are all about consent here! (And he agreed -- although now I'm wondering if he even knew what she was really asking... scaredge...)
For more context when she leaned in to kiss him she got kinda scared so she aimed for the corner of his mouth instead, but he tilted his face so they actually properly kissed 🥺🥺🥺 Soft hours only because he reciprocated 🥺🥺🥺
This is what he's talking about in the last panel though -- the fact he just gut-instinct reacted. Apparently he has no experience which is more cute 😭😭😭 Lei's his first 😳😳😳
That's not your hoodie, Lei, whose hoodie are you wearing there? 🤔🤔🤔
I really love the clothes sharing/ clothes "borrowing" trope because it's super domestic and cute 🥺🥺🥺 She's totally going to steal that hoodie until it doesn't smell like him anymore.
Clothes borrowing/sharing well work quite well... one sidedly XD because Vail's SIZ is 65 and Lei's SIZ is 50. Vail is supposed to be a short king though, only a few cm taller than Lei (who is 159cm) so we'll say Vail is 165cm (a few cm is relative, right?) Anyways to account for this gap in size it still works pretty well cuz I've always thought that Lei would have a very thin/narrow build -- kind of like a stick. Meanwhile, Vail has a STR of 70 and he has abs/muscles sooo this must mean he be THICC (LMAO) So this will be able to account for the difference. This unfortunately means he is not going to squeeze into any Lei clothes 😔
I don't know why she's acting shy though LOL because uh certain events occurred for this clothes borrowing to happen XD. I was also going to draw bite marks but uhmmm I tried and it didn't look good...
She is both babygirl and girlboss. Get a girl who can do both 😎
(TBH I also didn't wanna draw hands LOL)
BONUS: A slightly more suspicious version of the same drawing.
I will be drawing more slightly spicy art soon 👀 These two are on my brain and they bring me so much serotonin please bear with me as I go through this lei x vail phase... THAT WILL NOT END ANY TIME SOON CUZ I'M NOT PLAYING CAMPAIGNS ANY TIME SOON XD
Very important detail (no it's not) but Lei's thighs are one of her best features 💅 Very squishy and good to rest your head on. Her other nice feature is her natural green eyes which I think Vail is just a liiiitle weak to (IN MY HEADCANON)
VAIL: Really wish everyone here had your mindset in the slums.
LEI: Well, that just makes me a little extra special, doesn't it~?
VAIL smiles: Try not to stand out too, too much in the slums now, some people here like to destroy precious things.
He called her precious I'm so 🥺🥺🥺. Soft hours only 🥺🥺🥺
This is a really cute moment that happened in the campaign's "epilogue" where my girl Lei finally got to talk to her mans after him having almost no screen time for the entirety of the campaign XD I may have dramatized it a little but but that's just me taking my creative liberties. After this I thought she would have a happy ending but... unfortunately... we learned more information later in the "epilogue" that ruined the entire mood of her previous 2 convos with her NPC friends 😭😭😭
To talk about happier things (and analyze their relationship when no one asked LOL) I think it's my favourite part from their entire conversation 🥺🥺🥺 It was just super cute and for the majority of the convo, Lei was mostly the one initiating the flirting and Vail followed her lead, but this part felt more like he was reciprocating a little more. (This is why this is dramatized a little LOL I made Vail very smooth here but it's Lei the one is the rizzmaster and probably the dom XD) It also feels like he's being protective of her 🥺🥺🥺 I love themes of protection in pairings -- like each person trying to protect the other in their own way. So this is why I also like healer/fighter ships 😭😭😭 (it's a runner/doctor ship here LOL). The fighter is killing people (which goes against the healer's creed) and also killing people who will hurt the healer, while the healer doesn't agree with the fighter's ways but still heals them every time.
Also as another side note I thought Vail was pretty expressionless/emotionless BUT AFTER THIS CONVO MY PERCEPTION WAS WRONG (This is what happens when he has 0 screen time okay) HE'S ACTUALLY A REALLY SOFT AND SWEET BOI??? He's also very good at following her requests/demands/instructions so 👀👀👀 We love a man who follows her demands/requests 💅💅💅 I think he would treat her pretty well tbh 🥺😭🥺😭 (WHICH IS WHAT SHE DESERVES!!!)
My TTRPG friends said the last panel was kind sus BUT LIKE I THOUGHT IT WAS CUTE??? I DUNNO WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT?? 🤔🤔🤔 Another friend said there was a ton of red flags BUT MY GOAL WAS TO MAKE IT CUTE LMAOOO I guess I suck at conveying my ideas XD I had a vision but it did not show through XD
I am going to draw more Lei x Vail / Vail x Lei content. WHO IS GOING TO STOP ME??? (I also need it as my medicine to cover up the pain of a certain event that happened in the epilogue :''') I'll probably a draw a piece for that so watch out)
AS ANOTHER SIDE NOTE: My favourite panel is definitely the last one BUT ALSO the set of 2 of Vail's face going from a netural expression -> soft smile 🥺🥺🥺 he's such a soft boy
