waffle

it was supposed to be a study session with the scholar, but due to your exhaustion and unwillingness to do anything remotely constructive in the presence of your favorite person, you found yourself a little distracted. not that you had any care in the world.

you hear him huff and mutter under his breath. you think you heard him say something along the lines of, ‘gods help me’. you snicker at his annoyed expression and remembered why he is in your top 5 people to be with.

“if you didn’t come here to study,” zandiks beady eyes find yours,

“then why are you here?” the pencil he held in his hand was placed onto the hard cover of his book creating a quiet thud. you scoff at his stupidity, though something tells you he already had the idea why, he just wanted to here it from you.

sighing dramatically—you reply, “if you don’t want me here, i’ll just leave,” you make no move to get up. neither does he.

“i never said that.”

you hum condescendingly, “you implied it.”

“i did not.”

“you thought it.” the back and forth bantering between you two was more than common. it was genuinely how you were able to communicate with the stand-offish man.

you hear him groan in annoyance which makes you laugh again. you watch him resume with writing in a his small blue notebook. you never asked what he wrote in there because he never really brought it up, so you could only assume it’s some sort of diary. but why would he write in it in front of you? crawling off of him, you sit with your legs underneath your self and your hands on top of your thighs.

“what are you doing?” you ask, you expect him to roll his eyes and tell you it was nothing, instead he stares at you blankly. you recognize this face as the one when he’s deciding something. is he deciding to lie or to tell you the truth?

after a moment of silence he finally speaks,

“this notebook,” he closes the book shut, holding it in front of you for you to take, “is my own research.”

with the notebook in your grasp, you skim through some pages, taking in the information.

“what if i told you, that humans aren’t reaching their full potential?” zandik points both his fingers out, as if trying to pitch a sales idea (which he technically was). your eyes trace along the drawings, scribbles comprised of his messy handwriting. the drawings are sketches of human anatomy. their hearts, bones, nerves. you make a humming sound, absentmindedly listening to whatever he was saying while mainly being focused of flipping through the pages. your eyes widen after stopping on a certain page.

“khaneriah..” whispering as your finger traces the familiar lost nations title. enrolled as a spantamad student, khaneriah was always bound to pop up in certain lectures of yours. you always had a nagging need to correct others when they claim that khaneriah was at fault for what happened to them and their people. that something horrible must’ve happened there that caused a domino effect on the rest of teyvat. the cataclysm, king deshret and the forbidden knowledge that plagued the desert. you had almost proposed a thesis on the ley lines and their connection with the abyssal corruption—

“are you listening to me?” you startle back to the present and look up at zandik, expecting to see annoyance, you instead see intrigue. you can feel the corners of your mouth twitch.

“your thoughts are loud,” he says quietly, observing the tiny reactions you might’ve had when reading his entries. “what did you just realize?”

you think again. you’ve worked so hard in the akademiya, you are no fool to how strict they are with their rules. the sins already engraved in your mind,

interfering with human evolution.

“i realized..” you trail off, your eyes finding the open notebook again.

tampering with life and death.

once again your body refuses to speak, but your mind was creating so many connections, so many of the missing pieces fitting into the puzzle,

delving beyond the universe.

zandik squints his eyes. this was a mistake, he thinks. were you going to reject him like the rest of the world has?

investigating the origin of words.

he rushes to snatch his notebook from your hands but finds himself stunned when you grasp it like a vice.

revering gods without acts of devotion.

“do you know what will happen if you get caught with this?” you whisper, not as harshly as he thought you’d be. he nods, he already knew of the consequences if the akademiya—or anyone with the wrong intentions—would do if they found out he had been..

attempting the forbidden and fearing none.

you let go of the notebook, but zandik just continues staring at you, his eyes widening in surprise. you were smiling. a smile that spread across your face, like you just made a groundbreaking discovery.

“zandik, i am so glad you are my fucking friend.” he shakes his head in complete confusion, before he can muster up a response, you speak,

“everyone here.. even the sages, they never understood the true meaning of knowledge,” you lean in closer to him, “what’s the point in calling yourself a scholar when you don’t understand the workings of this world?” zandik feels like he could cry tears of complete joy.

“if you are going to continue researching the forbidden,” making your way off his bed to stand, you offer the flat of your hand toward him. “you’re going to need a partner who is part of that forbidden.”

who are sages to tell you to deny a part of yourself? who..

“who are the gods to tell me.. that i can’t understand my homelands history?”

you watch zandiks eyes widening in realization,

“you’re..”

“yes.”

his jaw goes slack. were you ever going to tell him that your true heritage was of the lost land? almost 100 years ago..but how?

“i’ll explain it later.” you read his mind, like always. you flex your hand again towards him, ushering him to take it. he grins, baring his sharp canines,

“this will be the ultimate partnership, you and i.” he takes your hand.

——

“you have really good features. a shame you never show them off.” you hum, almost sounding impressed but still that undertone of disappointment. he scoffs,

“why should i put effort into myself for others to see? i know exactly who i am—“

“stop moving, zandik.” a ghost of a grin is present of your lips as you hear him groan in frustration.

“this is taking too long.” he sounds very grumpy, you think. but that is because you are squeezing his cheeks a lot more than you really needed to. he just looks so stupid right now. you squeal internally.

“i barely even started,” your fingers moving expertly, using the tweezers to pluck his straw eyebrow hairs. you ignore his hissing, a plethora of “ow’s” every time you make a minute movement.

“zandik!” you shake his head with your hand like he was a puppy who had just chewed your homework and was now reprimanding him.

“it HURTS!” he shouts again, making you roll your eyes.

he now suddenly regrets knocking on your door out of sheer boredom, not knowing you were in the middle of your ‘me time’, as you called it. your whole room smelled like shea butter, aloe and almost a floral scent, a smell he knew..

“sumeru roses. i made a perfume with it myself!” answering his thoughts. he hated how well you could read him.

you looked really good. smelled good. but he wasn’t going to tell you that, but something told him that obvious staring made you understand what he was thinking because of that smirk you wore.

“what are you doing?” he asks, looking around your dorm. your windows had condensation on it, telling him you must’ve gotten out the shower a few minutes ago.

“me time.” you respond simply.

“..me time..” he repeats, more to himself like this was a difficult concept to comprehend. once a scholar, always a scholar.

you hum, “yes, the time i take all for myself and no one else.” you walk over to your connected bathroom to resume whatever you were doing before he knocked. zandik follows you, and watches you get close to the mirror and pluck the edge of your brows. the mirror has a small area clear of condensation, probably from your hand wiping the mirror.

he doesn’t notice himself staring with calculating eyes and barely flinches when your voice reaches him,

“what do you want, zandik?” you glance at him through the mirror with a smile on your face.

he shrugs. he was very bored. which was very weird because before he had met you, he always had some activity to keep his mind busy. he wonders what has changed now.

you sigh, this was a regular occurrence, where he would just show up and stare with his big vermilion eyes. sometimes you were able to guess what he was thinking, and other times—such as this—you were at a loss.

patting your damp towel on the ridge of your eyebrows to rid of any stray hairs, you observe your brows to see if anything was off. humming quietly in satisfaction, you turn back around to face zandik who was still standing there saying nothing.

you both stare for a moment before a brilliant idea sparks in your genius mind.

“come here,” you motion towards you with your hand with an innocent smile.

that was not in fact an innocent smile. if anything, zandik knew you were up to no good, but who was he to refuse. he needed some form of entertainment.

he regrets that now.

“i’m basically done!” you wipe his ridge gently with the damp rag you had used previously. tilting his chin, moving his head side to side to see if you might’ve accidentally messed up the symmetry.

you jump in excitement and grab his arm to have him take a look in the mirror. his eyes furrow in so many emotions, you can see confusion, surprise, disgust and.. awe.

“do you like it?” you ask behind him in anticipation. he can only look at you through the mirror and strangle out a noise.

“mm.” your face drops into a blank face at his lack of vocal ability. did you expect any more from him though?

“mm?” you repeat.

“mm.” he crosses his arms over his chest and huffs. that’s good enough you suppose. you roll your eyes and walk out the bathroom and plop yourself on your bed. you find yourself rolling your eyes frequently whenever he’s around but the action doesn’t convey negativity. you do it almost out of fondness.

zandik truly had nothing to say about this. he’s never taken the time to put effort into his physical appearance. why should he? he wasn’t trying to impress anyone—he didn’t care what anyone would say about him. but you, doing something so small and intimate just to try and get him to have a new perspective on himself.. it made him feel.. there were no words to describe what he was feeling. he just knew he wanted you to do whatever you wanted to him.

he reaches to the back of his neck to twirl the strand of hair you call “andam”. a nervous tick he has. you notice this and quirk your eyebrow in curiosity to prompt him to say whatever was going on in his mind.

“you do that..everyday?” the sentence comes out almost as a whisper as you could barely hear him.

you put a finger on your lip and hum,

“that was the longer version that i do every other week maybe. but,” you point to your face,

“i do my skincare everyday. having a routine makes me sane.” you think you were joking on that last part, but he takes it seriously. he continues to create a circular motion with his pointer finger, twirling the strand, deep in thought.

“do you want me to do your hair?” you stand, letting out a tired huff, and walk towards him. you think he would respond in an instant, sputtering out some excuse on why that would just be wasting both his and your times, but instead you are met with silence.

putting your hands behind your back, you circle him, like he was prey—just observing everything about him—his curly light turquoise hair, his clothes, his face, his ruby colored eyes and the light eyelashes that surround them..you had a lot to work with.

but then, you notice him looking at his feet, with a blank face. though, something tells you he’s just making that blank face so that you don’t decipher what he could possibly be thinking. after realizing what you could’ve implied, you get ready to apologize when he speaks,

“fine.” that was not the response you were expecting! you were truly, pleasantly surprised.

“but you will not go overboard, do you understand?” his hand leaves the curl on the back of his neck to point a stern finger at your pleased face. jumping excitedly, you nod and repeat high pitched ‘yes! yes! yes!’s

zandik never thought about appearances. he knew he was as intelligent as they come, so why would he need to compensate his intellects for his looks? but now, he realizes he should put some sort of effort for the one persons opinion he truly takes into consideration. that he truly cares about.

——

putting your hand above your eyes, you look at the sky. you guess it’s no later than 12 pm so you still have a whole day to do whatever you want. finding the perfect nilotpala lotus for your research, you gently preserve it in a sealed plastic bag, putting it in your satchel and call it a day.

after going to your dorm to relax and put everything down, you find yourself meaning to do something’s by yourself so you choose to go to the market. walking down the street, you see many vendors selling so many different things. you literally have to refrain yourself from impulse buying because you are a student spending most of your funds on the akademiya. you have no money.

“hey!” a male voice breaks you out of your trance and you look around, trying to find the origin of the voice.

“yeah, you! c’mere!” you slowly walk toward his stand, not many people were looking so you were already pretty skeptical. the voice belongs to a man who is from inazuma. he has brown hair—almost a reddish tint to it—and striking amber eyes.

you take a look at his stand for a second and see he’s just selling local flowers from inazuma, you shrug and just as you are about to walk away he speaks,

“that uniform, you must be a student at the akademiya, yes?” you nod slowly. this feels kinda sketchy.

“i cant imagine the stress you must have.. with all those assignments and studying,” he shakes his head in pity as you furrow your brow. you are proud to be a student at this prestigious institution, you didn’t need his damn pity.

“im fine, thank you very much.” thinking that was the end of it he quickly speaks again,

“please please i did not mean to offend. i was just saying that i might have something for your stress.” he pauses looking you up and down,

“if you want it, that is.”

squinting your eyes, you shake your head in disbelief, this guys marketing skills were terrible!

“look, sir, i don’t even know what you’re implying. you need another line of work because this clearly isn’t working for you—“

“you ever heard of naku weed?” he asks, completely ignoring your previous statement. you freeze trying to think if you ever even have heard of that. sounds familiar though..

you shake your head slowly and he grins slyly,

“like i said, you and other likeminded scholars are probably under so much pressure.” you feel yourself slowly leaning in to hear him out,

“what if i told you, this little purple plant can take all that stress away? don’t worry. it’s not permanent.” he picks up a see through bag that contains the purple, pinkish plant, shaking it in front of your face.

“just for you, i’ll even add a little discount.” he whispers so that only you could hear it. you oughta just walk away give this man the finger but you are a pacifist so you sigh,

“if i buy it will you leave me alone?” you mumble while looking for your mora, he nods profusely and laughs heartily when you put the desired amount of mora in his hand. he in returns gives you the bag of naku weed and gives you instructions on how to use it.

an hour had passed after you had gone to the market. you recall what the man said, saying you shouldn’t be alone for the first time trying it, especially if you are an anxious person.. which you aren’t but you thought it’d be best to be with someone anyways. sharing the experience right? only one person comes to your mind.

after five loud obnoxious knocks, zandik opens the door to his dorm, a frown already etched on his face.

“what do you want?” he was acting awfully condescending for someone who was doing absolutely nothing before you arrived. you happily wave around the bag with the naku weed right in his face and he flinched back. he glances before realizing what exactly is in your hand and pulls your stretched arm into his room, quickly closing the door.

“are you kidding me? bringing drugs onto campus? you could be—“ his rambling was cut short after feeling your warm hand clasp his.

“zandik, it’s fine! it’s the good kind of drug!” you grin slyly, bringing his hand to the bag for him to hold it himself,

he holds it with his thumb and pointer finger, inspecting the bag.

“plus, we won’t get in trouble unless one of us says something.” you put your hands on your hips, feeling proud of yourself that you had encountered such a delicacy (you had obviously been persuaded by that pushy vendor).

zandik thinks for a moment, you both would most definitely be on academic probation if you were caught with it. but then again, you were right, no one will know unless you say something. did you even know what this was? what side effects someone will have if ingested?

“that’s what we will find out!” you snap your fingers, already reading his mind. his lips flatten in silent concentration before fully comprehending what you just said,

“we?” he emphasizes and before he can retaliate, you snatch the bag from his fingers and open it,

“yes, we.” you pull out the naku roll that had already been prepared by the vendor in an effort to show you a quick tutorial on how to properly utilize the raw naku weed.

you were pumped. zandik saw that in your face, the excited smile and the squinted eyes telling him everything. he feels the corner of his mouth quirk, your excitement easing him.

strings of ‘ok’s follow as you take out a lighter from your bag that you discarded on his desk and walk closer to him. he watches you closely as you put the roll in your mouth and move your hand to cover the flame.

“wait,” he snatches the lighter from you, you make a frustrated noise in response but that dies out when you see him reach out, tilting your jaw towards the lighter in his hand. ‘cant trust you to use this in my room’ you hear him mumble under his breath.

the flame sparks, you barely feel the heat as you go closer to light, his gentle grip on your jaw feeling even warmer than the fire. you both watch the flame engulf the tip of the roll until you quickly back away, confused, zandik watches you inhale for a few seconds and then you take the roll from your mouth and exhale.

‘it’s not so bad’, was your immediate thought. until your throat itched. the man from inazuma said this would happen so you walked over to zandiks desk to find a cup half full of water.

your coughing spasm alarmed zandik, a bead of sweat coming down his forehead as he rushes over to you, ushering you to drink. as the coughs died down, you grin mischievously, he sees a certain glint he’s seen too many times in your eyes.

“you have to try this, zandik.” you laugh, putting down the cup and bring the roll to his mouth, he stutters and tries to find any excuse to not. but he doesn’t find any, because he knows he kind of wants to.

he releases a shaky sigh as he takes the slowly burning roll between his thumb and pointer finger again,

“what do i do?” the smell already filling up the room from just your single puff. it’s a sweet sorta smell, he thinks. very outside, nature-y smell.

“you inhale it, like your taking in a deep breath,” he follows your instruction, watching the tip burn closer to his fingers as he’s inhaling,

“and then you hold it for just a few seconds,” you remove the roll from his fingers after he took it out from between his lips.

“ok, now blow it out,” you say quickly, already picking up the cup you had previously drank from, getting ready to hand it to him.

he feels the burning sensation in his throat and he makes a face you could only bust out laughing at. or at least you tried to stifle it. zandik starts coughing, reaching over for the cup in your hand. the tears firming in his eyes from all the coughing made you pout a little, bringing your finger to wipe his eyes. he’s breathing heavily as feels you drag him over to his bed.

with little resistance, he lets you gently push him on the bed.

“that was torture,” his frown slowly turns into a stupid grin, his smile showing his sharp canines. you squeal in pure bliss, already feeling the effects of the weed, it feels like every positive emotion you are feeling right now increased tenfold. you giggle as you sit closely next to him, your thighs touching each others,

“are you feeling it? it takes only minutes to kick in,” you are right up in his personal space, cheesing in his face. as much as he wants to say it hasn’t hit, it most definitely has. and he knows it has hit for you as well, finding everything absolutely hilarious.

he lets out a huff that turns into a giggle—you think it is, you’ve never heard him make such a noise—and that prompts you to laugh with him. your knees buckle and you let yourself fall onto him,

“you’re stupid. this is stupid,” he snorts, he puts a hand on your chest to have eye level contact with you, but he feels like there are no bones in his body—thus no actual effort to try and push you off of him.

“mmmm..” you hum as you start thinking out loud,

“next time—“ you point a finger to his cheek, forehead, nose, neck, every touch punctuating your words,

“next time, we should do this in the desert.” your body swaying as you think about the spot you and zandik had visited previously where you had to conduct a field study. and you might’ve also fucked in one of those huge ruin graders.

when you look back him, his body had slumped against the junction of your neck, the bridge of his nose feeling your fast heart beat through the artery.

“ok let’s go.” he mumbles tiredly but he makes no move to stand.

“ok let’s,” you pause and laugh quietly,

“ok let’s go.” you genuinely had thought you got up and were on your way to grab your bag, but when your hand reached out, it only felt the softness of his messed up blanket on his bed.

you scream laughing again,

“did you see that!? did.. zandik wake up.” your cheeks are starting to hurt from smiling so much, looking at zandik literally snoring upright on your chest. you whisper a confused ‘what the fuck’ as you laugh to your hearts content. why is everything so fucking funny right now??

“get up, zandik!” he lols his head up to try and focus on whatever nonsense you had to say but he couldn’t stop thinking about how abnormally exhausted he felt right now,

“i’m tired.” he slurs, almost in a whiny tone that is music to your ears.

“whaaat?? we just had it! the dude said—“

“the dude?”

“yes! the dude said the weed can make you feel whatever emotion you feel and make you feel even more of that feeling.” you wave your finger around in confidence and he laughs,

“say ‘feel’ one more time..” he chuckles as he feels himself sinking into his bedsheets once again, but this time he’s magically under the soft covers. how did that happen?

“i wan’ feel you..” you squeal quietly, getting in the covers with him. you see his eyes are closed but your not sure if he’s actually asleep. all the hyper-activeness of your completely disappeared when you felt zandiks warm arm go over your waist. now all of a sudden you were tired as well.

“mmmmok let’s sleep.” you snuggle into his pillow, smelling his scent. it’s like a wood scented candle? except it’s way more amplified and heightened because of the naku.

zandik makes a noise akin to a groan and a hum, as he moves his head closer to your hair, and his arm tightening around your waist, pulling you impossibly closer. why does everything feel so good right now?

when you woke up, the sun was barely in the sky, telling you it was early in the morning. wow. you feel like you had the greatest sleep ever. you also had a really vivid dream that you know you are going to have to bore zandik with and he will nod along like he was listening.

feeling a warmth around your waist, you turn your head slightly to see zandiks ruby eyes already staring back at you. you don’t say anything, and neither does he so you just stay still staring for a few moments before he breaks the silence,

“we are doing that again.” his voice is a little groggy but his eyes shined with determination. what?? your brows furrow,

“i can’t believe you’re saying that when you immediately fell asleep? you wasted half of that roll!” you sit up in frustration, his arm sliding off of you. he mirrors you, sitting up right and turning to lean on the wall,

“yes ok, but next time i won’t because i know what’s going to happen!” he insists, patting the blanket pooled around his waist. your lips curl into a frown and he rolls his eyes,

“i’ll know what to expect and now i can enjoy it to its full potential, ok?” he brings his hand to yours to clasp it, shaking it in reassurance. you huff harshly,

“fine. but i’ll kill you if you sleep again. i used the mora that i was going to buy my lunch with for that freaking bag.” you feel his clasp on your hand weaken as you pull away, getting up from his bed. setting your feet on the soft carpet you notice the mess you 100% knew wasn’t there before the weed. empty crinkled bags of snacks litter the corner of his room.

now that you think about it, the vivid dream you had had the reoccurring taste of salt and corn. you gasp and come to the realization you were the one who ate and littered his room with the snacks.

you snap your head towards him to see zandik already staring at that said corner. the expression on his face you can only describe as mild disapproval. you shrug sheepishly.

“i was hungry, i suppose.”

“right.”

you pick your fingers, contemplating.

“say it.” he says dryly.

“..do you still want to go to the desert?”

“..yeah.”

——

tags 😛: @lovingggvelionax @fattyttore @bluemuff @amariskygal @boafis @kelya0 @vampire-gee @pinkchocoseal

your boots echoing in the halls of sandrones icy residence, you reach the grand doors of her event room. pushing it open, you are greeted with the usual attendees, greeting them with a polite smile which is reciprocated.

as you take your seat, you notice the seat across from you is empty, as well as the one adjacent to it at the end of the long table.

you clear your throat, reaching for the tea rosalyne had acquired from mondstadt,

“will the captain be joining us?” you ask with pure curiosity, but you know theres and underlying sense of anticipation.

arlecchino only sips from her cup, waiting for someone else to reply but still obviously intrigued. sandrone only quirks her brow,

“how should i know? you of all people should know his schedule.” she replies swiftly. to someone who didn’t know her, they’d think she was being blatantly rude, but she was being quite the opposite. in fact, she was teasing you. the corner of arlecchinos mouth raises slightly seeing your startled reaction,

“oh please. it was a simple question.” you wave it off, finding the multi colored macaroons on your plate much more interesting.

“say..” rosalyne starts, you already hate where this is going.

“you don’t happen to fancy the captain now, do you?” her eyes have a certain glint to them. you let out a noise to which can only be called an echo of a yelp,

“he is my—our! comrade. fancying is most definitely off of the table. please be rational and professional.” all the harbingers gave you a knowing look, columbinas angelic voice giggling softly, sandrone rolling her sapphire eyes. there was genuinely no point in hiding it. your flustered state is quickly turned when you hear the doors creak open.

capitanos broad coat had appeared, and behind him a head full of ginger. he bows his head a little, the chains rattling with his movement,

“apologies for my tardiness. i hope we are still welcome to join?” sandrone only shurgs,

“oh, we have only just begun.” her eyes trail back to you and you cant help but feel so small and a tad bit embarrassed by the underlying feeling of being so exposed.

he sits down across from you, now filling in the empty spot. childe following suit, softly sighing as he takes his seat.

you raise your tea cup in surprise, absentmindedly drinking from it. the taste is sweet, almost floral in a way. you hadn’t expected for capitano to attend. do you say something?

you hear him address everyone at the table, asking how the knaves house of the hearth had been, what had the marionette been up to lately with her trinkets—

“(y/n).” you almost choke on your tea. your eyes focusing on what you can assume are where his eyes are.

“you look well.” you’re sure the others are conversing amongst themselves but to you it’s like everyone else in the room disappeared and it’s only you two.

“thank you, thrain.” you smile, you hope not too much, putting your cup down, “as do you.”

he only nods. he begins talking about his affairs in various nations—hearing beautiful things about the landscapes of natlan. he was describing everything in such detail, you can tell he really wanted to talk about his day to day activities with someone. what you didn’t know, is that he wanted to share them with only one person in particular.

you chime in with your own comments and experiences from fontaine, telling him some stories about the obnoxious laws and rules they have there. he lets out a small laugh, as do you. you’ve forgotten that he likes to jest sometimes, you think as you giggle at a joke he had made.

time seems to pass when you have fun. you were having fun. childe is the first to dismiss himself—he hadn’t really said anything the whole time but you assume it was because his idol was attending this event so in his mind he too had to attend, much to his dismay.

thrain had made a quiet hum and stood as well, “i do have business to attend to in a few moments,” he turns his head toward you, the gleam of light on his helmet shining, the shine reflecting off your eyes.

he freezes for a few moments before walking over to your seat. your eyes widen in surprise once again, moving to stand but he only puts out a silent hand, as if telling you ‘no need’. his other hand reaches in the pocket inside his heavy fatui coat. he pulls out a little burgundy box. the designs look intricate, like someone had poured their heart into making it. he motions the box toward you, as you reach with your own.

you set it in front of you on the table, you slowly clip open the latches and lift the lid. you let out a quiet gasp as your hand delicately traces over it,

“it’s..” you are at an utter loss of words.

“the many local floral specialties they have in natlan. i just happen to find a valley of them near our camp.” he speaks. you can’t help but hear a barely audible waiver to his deep voice.

you close the lid gently and look up at him,

“thank you. these are beautiful.” you smile widely, you feel your your eyes squinting in joy. thrains shoulders relax a little as he offers his hand again. you take it without another thought. he holds your hand so lightly, like you were porcelain. he then smoothly guides his hand to the small of your waist. warm. and comforting. that moment of pure euphoria was short as he stops in front of the doors,

“i enjoyed talking with you thrain.” you tuck a loose hair behind your ear, your fingers briefly touching your ears. wow they feel like they are burning. are you blushing?

“as did i. i..” he pauses a moment and you lean in, hoping for something. something more.

“i do hope you would consider going to liyue harbor for a consultation with the northland bank with me. it will only be for a few days.” you literally feel your fingers buzzing in excitement, if you remembered correctly, it’s nearing the lantern rite in liyue soon, is he asking you on a..

“yes!— ahem, yes, of course. please do send me the details later.” you nod vigorously. you feel the flat of his palm apply slight pressure on your back before leaving, now feeling a little cold without him.

he nods and bids his goodbyes to the others in the room before addressing you personally, again.

“goodbye, (y/n).” he bows respectfully and leaves. the doors close behind him with a firm shut. you sigh almost dreamily as you think about what had just transpired mere moments ago. you turn around to return to your seat when you realize everyone was staring at you with gaping eyes.

“..w—what?” you ask chuckling nervously.

“giving you gifts..” arlecchino starts, “talking to solely you and..” her dull eyes looking at you intensely, “asking you on a date?” she raises her brows a tad.

you can only sputter,

“guys please.” you groan, you can already feel your face beating up. the ladies laugh at your flustered state.

columbina only sighs, “did you also happen to notice.. that he only addresses you with your real name?” you gasp and quickly bring the tips of your fingers to your lips.

you totally forgot. he called you your name and you called him his name. in front of your colleagues. so unprofessional!! it just slipped out so easily. him saying your name always made you soft.

feeling your heart skip a beat, you realize they were totally right. you fancied him. very bad. and apparently, he reciprocates. yaaay.

——

you had spent almost 3 hours just researching the anatomy of the human body. half way through you realize that the texts aren’t saying how it will feel and only what will happen when two people have intercourse. so you have to go in blind? that.. will certainly be an experience that you can’t wait to have. the knocks that echoed in your room broke you from the texts as you realize who was on the other side. letting a quiet yelp you stand, haphazardly putting away all the texts books and do one final room check.

bed looks neat, no anatomy books in sight, the curtains were closed. alright!

you open the door with a small smile—you were actually pretty excited—and see the expected blue curly haired scholar. his cheeks are a little flushed as he quickly looks to the side,

“well?” he barks impatiently. you open the door a little wider so he could walk in. he already knew the layout of your dorm already as you guys would have study sessions together once a blue moon. he always wished the studying would lead into something more..hands on.

you clear your throat,

“so um, you-you can just sit on the bed—or! anywhere, you can sit wherever you-”

“why did you want to do this?” he interrupts your rambling, anyone could tell you were nervous. he just had to make sure you were in this for a good reason. the right reason.

you sigh in defeat as you absentmindedly walk closer to him,

“i..just feel like i am falling behind. as much as i love this school, i’d be lying if i said it didn’t take up my personal time. i could’ve done so many other things but instead i was..” you wave your hand around, trying to find the words,

“here.” you can feel yourself curling into yourself as doubt floods your mind,

“im so sorry, this was a bad idea—“

slightly chapped lips suddenly engulf yours and you waste no time reciprocating, moving your lips to match his. zandik releases a quiet sigh that borders a whimper as he brings his twitching fingers to any part of your body—trying to find some sort of ground. you feel his hands roaming your body when he settles for one cupping the back of your neck and the other tightly grabbing your naked waist under your shirt. when did he sneak his hand under your shirt?

wrapping your arms around his neck to bring him impossibly closer, you guide him to the foot of your bed where his knees buckle and onto your soft duvet. placing your hands on his chest you separate to get a gasp of air before he greedily goes back for more. this time, his tongue licked along your lips to which you eagerly opened. the kiss wasn’t soft, it was messy, sloppy—it was a lot. you make a strangled noise, signaling that you desperately needed to breathe. he latches off of you as you breathe heavily. you get a good look at him now, him sitting in your bed, standing above him and seeing a vibrant flush spread across the middle of his face. you could only imagine what you looked like right now,

with a grin that barely conceals your bubbling excitement, you drag your finger down his throat, sternum, and stomach before reaching his belt. you could see a faint outline of his semi—wow ok. didn’t know he was packing like that!—as you get on your knees. your free hand rubs his thigh as you gently push it to get better access. you look up to see him very intently watching your every move, like he was studying you. letting out a dry laugh,

“you are totally enjoying this! and to think i thought you had the upper hand here..” your fingers dancing along the buttons of his pants, undoing them one by one. expecting a snarky response you only find him still staring at your hands at his belt. he’s waiting for you. he totally loves this!

finally undoing his pants pulling them off his legs, you see his length in much more detail, the print showing in his boxers. curiously, you palm him with the flat of your hand to which he lets out a ragged pant. hooking your finger on the top of his boxer, you bring it down and his cock immediately spring out. you couldn’t help but let out a surprised gasp. you look up at him once again to him with his brows furrowed and a bead of sweat dripping down his temple,

“don’t just stare..” he mumbles through clenched teeth. you bite your lip in anticipation. just looking at it, you could tell he was above average length. you think back to the readings and decide his dick was perfect for your first time. it wasn’t too girthy—you think that was the thing you were most worried about, just the pain you might go through—it was nice and lean. you notice the light blue hair that looked slightly groomed. you don’t even notice your hand reaching out the touch the hair, going to the base of his dick.

you take a hold of it and pump slowly a few times. he groans quietly and you take that as a sign to go even further. shaping your mouth into an ‘o’ you take him into your warmth, your tongue dragging along the underside of him. zandik lets out a moan as his hand inches closer to the back of your head. grabbing a fistful of your hair he starts bobbing your head to reach his own high and you let him. you hollow your cheeks to try and emulate a squeezing sensation. you can only assume it works as he becomes increasingly vocal by the second. you realize he’s close when his hold tightens in your now tangled hair. he comes with a very loud moan and you feel the spurts of it land on your tongue. the pressure on your scalps releases as you slowly slide off. you swallow. it’s a salty taste, not sweet and not that bitter.

his heavy breathing continues as you stand up and quickly remove your clothes. he watches as you give him a 12 second strip show, excitedly throwing off every article of clothing until you are left with nothing on. his eyes widen as he takes in the sight in front of him. feeling his intense stare you bring up your arms to your chest in an attempt to hide—not feeling embarrassed or anything..just the feeling of being watched in such a vulnerable state. zandik shuts that down completely as he grabs your arm and pulls you towards his chest, having you sit on his lap, your legs on either side of him.

squinting your eyes in sudden shyness, you ask,

“soo..you aren’t a virgin..?” your finger found it’s way to a curl on the back of his hair, fidgeting and twirling in nervousness.

he clicks his tongue in annoyance,

“does that really matter? you wanted to do this.” he shakes his head in mild confusion watching your face contort into an emotion he can’t quite place,

“i thought that..” ‘we were sharing it together’ you want to say but words die on your tongue. zandiks ruby eyes seem to have noticed what he just implied and softens. he sighs as he moves to remove his shirt.

you stare at his lean chest, he’s certainly a scrawny guy—you think—but that didn’t mean he doesn’t have a healthy body.

the two of you are now completely naked, you feel a sudden hardness poke your inner thigh, looking down you let out a silent gasp. that was quick.

you inhale slowly as you lift yourself up, setting your hands flat on his chest while his grip your waist, guiding you down.

it stung a lot. it was a burning sensation that you definitely hadn’t anticipated. you notice him look up in worry, closely watching your every move but seeing you shake your head, telling him to wait, he pauses and waits for you to move.

when you fully sat on him, you let out a heavy sigh and a half hearted grin,

“this hurts.” you laugh. he didn’t seem to find it that funny as he only responded with his tongue in your mouth,

you could feel his hands slowly gripping your hips up, only to slam them back down. his mouth swallowed your pained moans. after a while, you start moaning out of pleasure. it started feeling good. really good. setting a rhythm, you find yourself bouncing on his cock with his fingers gripping so tightly you thought you might get bruises. prints that he was there and that he did this to you, that he was your first. you let out a mewl as his dick reached a particular spot that heightened the pleasure, his cock filling you up in all the right ways.

with you focused on that high, zandik notices your neck is exposed to no one but him and he takes his chance to place kitten licks when he suddenly bites. hard. you couldn’t even register the pain due to the pleasure overtaking every one of your senses. he latches on to your neck, biting hard enough to draw blood to which he happily laps up, the metallic taste he will never forget.

zandik realizes you are close by the way your warmth squeezed so tightly he almost came right there. but he couldn’t, not yet. that tight string of pleasure felt like it just snapped and your vision was filled with white. you felt yourself spazzing from pain? pleasure? overstimulation?.. all of the above, you conclude. you hadn’t felt it before, but now you feel like your thigh muscles were on fire, they had been doing all the work and you were coming off that high feeling the tiredness overtake everything. zandik on the other hand, he continued jerking himself into you—desperately feeling the sudden tightness of your hole—when he suddenly let out a strangled moan. he’s very vocal, you note.

he lets himself fall into the comfort of your bed, pulling you down with him. both of you are a sweaty mess. your dorm smelled of sex and your labored breathing only added to that.

“i am.” he mumbled so quietly you almost missed it,

“huh?”

“a virgin. i am.” he admits with a small voice as he looks down at your face. expecting to see pity, he sees your eyes widen.

“you were.” you correct him. zandik only smirks as he looks around the room,

“i think.. my results from this experiment are.. still inconclusive..” he trails off but you already beat him to it, kissing along his jaw,

“well it’s only fair we run a few more trials?”

——

y’all lowkey fuck nonstop. in dorm, in his dorm, the library, it don’t matter.