#queueueued

Xialix / Xiao x Khalix : definitely my longest standing selfship (like ??? 5 years??? I started playing right after launch, so maybe closer to 4 and a half). Desperately trying to keep this short lol. Strangers to tentative partners to lovers (? Neat labels don’t really work here). Researcher!Khalix, who is driven by an absolutely ravenous kind of curiosity, wanders into all sorts of strange ruins across Liyue. They’re especially fond of working with locals and historic preservation coalitions.

Xiao believes they’re a prime example of humanity’s hubris— that they’re naive to even think that they could make a difference in such a short time. However, their respect for the people they encounter and the structures they seek to explore does pique his interest. Bags heavy with reference materials, incense, and fresh fruit, he watches them explore forgotten halls and leave offerings on altars that haven’t been blessed for centuries. They never take anything, unless you count their own notes, and he finds that off-putting (even for a mortal). They only seem to give, even to long dead places that want for nothing. A would-be dangerous incident at Qingxu Pool is what finally forces him to make himself known, and so begins a years long “partnership” (though Xiao would not agree with that term in the slightest). It’s his job to watch over Liyue, and that includes strange researchers who stick their noses where they don’t belong. But encounters turn to acknowledgment and then to understanding— mutual curiosity will continue to push them into each other’s orbit, even if only one recognizes that aloud.

Anyway !! a lot of their dynamic is about nurturing Xiao’s sense of personhood/wants/desires, and exploring what it means to just be. It’s quiet acts of devotion and mutual attentiveness. There’s a kind of intimacy that comes with trying to understand one another— or just trying for one another in general. And Xiao is so so willing to try, you just have to be patient. If you pay attention, he’s actually sooo easy to read…

I have. An intense desire to encourage him to explore his every curiosity and whim when it comes to the world and the people in it. Treating him gently and humanely and trying to meet him halfway is like. Ough head in my hands wow. Tentative gentleness and intrigue turned unwavering devotion>>>.

Kharina / Khalix x Furina: post abdication Furina my beloved. Again, lots of themes of exploring personhood for the first time (this will be a pattern). Best friends to lovers. Painter!Khalix is notoriously bad at remembering to socialize, often going days or weeks without doing anything outside of work. It’s not that they don’t want to, it’s that they feel like they’re always running out of time. But on a night a mutual friend invites them to a gathering, they’re lucky enough to meet Furina for the first time.

A friend of a friend of a friend, she’s already several drinks in when they finally arrive. Their first impression of just Furina is a strong one— shoeless and grinning, she’s dancing on a tabletop hardly ten feet away from the front door. It’s a far cry from the carefully curated (though no doubt theatrical) persona they’d seen plastered all over Fontaine until less than a year prior. Naturally, they’re immediately taken with her. Furina is amiable and chatty, especially when she’s drunk, and it’s so easy to fall into conversation.

Painter!Khalix is quick to learn that sober Furina is far less of a social butterfly. The next time they encounter one another is during a grocery run. Furina is mortified to know their schedules line up in any way, especially after how she’d behaved, so the exchange is terse and awkward. Painter!Khalix gets no real answers as to why until the next time both they and Furina are coaxed out to the same event, when the latter is once again tipsy enough to confess her embarrassment.

In short, she apologizes over drinks while they stare at her like they’ve found the center of their world lol. After that, things are less awkward— really, things are easy. The occasional run in while grocery shopping turns into coordinated days together, because errands are always better with friends. Then those outings bleed into shared meals, then into impromptu sleepovers. The lines get very very blurry lol. Things only go too far after a night out with friends leaves them stumbling into bed with one another. Furina is distraught and needs quite a bit of reassurance. This is her first friendship solely formed after her abdication, and in her mind she’s potentially ruined it with her own feelings. She’s had a hard time navigating relationships of any sort, much less one where things have gotten so murky.

Things cool down as Painter!Khalix sits her down to explain what their intentions/feelings actually are, and it turns out, they’re on the same page. The dynamic is basically

Furina: I’m so sorry, you’re my best friend and I do have feelings for you and I should’ve known better than to cross that line since you don’t feel that way about me

Khalix, soaking wet from getting out of bed early to go buy her flowers before she woke up (it’s pouring outside): ::3 ???

Anyway. best friends before anything else, weird and blurry dynamics while Furina navigates her own personhood/wants/desires for what feels like the first time ,,, yes. Yummy.