#renkai

FLASH WARNING!!

(no you did not see me post this on the wrong account)

𑣲 ‧₊ the rhythm that is you ( it's alright, i understand )

how many times have you played this scene? it's new and raw for me, but not for you, no.

𑣲 ‧₊ character : blade 𑣲 ‧₊ fandom : honkai star rail 𑣲 ‧₊ notes : quote from catherynne m. valente. for @renkith for the winter wonderland event! IUFJALF THANK YOU FOR TRUSTING ME WITH MODERN AU RENKAI I WAS VERY EXCITED ... i have written for blade one ( 1 ) time so i hope this is okay !! I AM SORRY TO GO THE MORE BITTERSWEET ROUTE i was digging through your tags and reading up on renkai. THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE i adore you so very much my friend, i am rooting for you forever and always ok!!

beneath the sunset, you find home in blade's arms. leather and lace / hand in hand / a familiar song / the fresh air / and gentle footsteps on the concrete of this place you share. you lean into him, warmth against warmth, this dance more muscle memory and love than anything else.

"...it's been a long day." he murmurs against your temple. a soft kiss, just barely felt, but there and light and known and comforting nonetheless.

it hasn't been a long day for him, not in the slightest. but it has been for you, and he knows very well that your heart hurts, that the wound aches, that the strings threaten to fray beneath the weight of it all.

a friday in late october, and the sky shines a midnight onyx. the windows are flung wide open in the penthouse suite of the hotel, and the sounds from cobblestone streets below drift into the room: people laughing, glasses clinking, a soft city breeze.

KAI [freshly in her twenties, lamb-hearted, starry-eyed] sits on the sill, in between spread legs— BLADE [well-regarded, more musician and less rockstar these days, jewel-eyed], and the acoustic guitar he holds around her frame. out of the plethora he has, it's his favourite guitar. purchased from a garage sale some many moons ago, with both his and his lover's initials (a B and a K) carved into the body by their own hands, so... why would it be anything but his favourite? he hugs it closer to him in preparation to play kai the song he wrote for her birthday, tugging her flush to his chest in tandem, and she smiles to herself at the shift. so shy— even after all this time with him.

BLADE: [following a false start] ooh. baby, don't be like this to me.

kai bursts into a lovely little peal of giggles, which then breaks off into a tiny yawn, and blade finds himself growing evermore endeared to her— in the same way humans are to baby animals.

BLADE: [cooing and coddling, gently pinching the apple swell of her cheek] perhaps the song can wait until the morning.

KAI: [adament and pouting, tugging at the collar of his shirt] no, i want to hear it now. pretty please.

she glances up at him with an adorably sleepy gaze— for a day full of love and excitement with the person she holds closest to her heart tends to do that to oneself. the stars twinkle in her droopy eyes and the moon in her smile, and blade thinks he must surely be caught in a dream.

BLADE: [kissing her temple and softly strumming his guitar] what the birthday girl wants, the birthday girl gets...

and so, blade sings for her the sweetest lullaby. quietly, from not only his lungs but also his heart, with a voice so tender that if kai were any more awake, he's certain she may weep to receive such affection openly. he chuckles to himself at the thought, coming to a rest when he notices her adrift in her slumber on his chest.

he puts his guitar to the side and takes her body within his arms in a proper hug, careful not to wake her with his movements. he holds her like she is a precious thing, like her sinew is of cotton and her bones are of glass— because it is in such moments of tranquility and quietude that blade remembers best how, despite the front she puts up, she could shatter at any second.

BLADE: [linking pinkies with her, as if in a silent promise] if only you knew... just how loveable you are.

Fic-to-Art #20: Azula's Squad (Part 3)

So... this month's prompt was squad goals. There's a loooot of potential squads in Gladiator, so many fun group dynamics because, frankly, I've always loved writing big group dynamics so it just happens before I know it x'D hence I thought I'd give this prompt a shot... and the winning prompt just so happened to be one of the most spoilery ones it could be :'D

That being said... I was stoked to have a pretty good excuse to draw these folks together x'D like I said on Patreon, this whole team isn't always going to be together, there's a chance it might never be fully assembled with all of its members in the same place, but that doesn't change that they're all pretty much members of Azula's support group and they'll stand by her through thick and thin in the coming chaos of Part 3. What awaits us in the future is not going to be easy for anyone... but Azula will certainly get by thanks to, on great measure, the bonds and relationships she'll build with everyone depicted in this artwork.