Chapter Text
“So.”
”So.”
Tension so thick you would need a claymore to slice through it. Shenhe is visibly uncomfortable, staring down at the table. Her fingers dance patterns on the smooth wooden surface. Ganyu can feel her cheeks growing red and redder, her calm façade breaking into anxiety, as it often does whenever she’s in Cloud Retainer’s domain.
Turns out putting two socially inept women in a room and expecting them to hit it off might be a tad too much.
”Cloud told me you intend to go back to Liyue,” Ganyu ventures. “Do you have a place to stay?”
Shenhe’s expressive eyes rise from the wood to meet Ganyu’s own. She shakes her head, slow. No.
That look pierces her like an arrow. It lasts less than a second, but it’s enough to shake her to the core. Those eyes make Ganyu feel things she hasn’t felt in a long time. Things she can’t quite give voice to.
She shifts, uncomfortable.
Thing is, Shenhe is perhaps the most beautiful woman she’s ever seen. Dangerously so. Significantly taller than Ganyu, slender with the body of a dancer, much like the crane she’s named after — the tilt of her chin and the waterfall of silver-white hair just accent the otherworldly grace of the woman.
It’s the look in her eyes, however. Clear, unclouded, and so painfully naïve. Innocent in a way Ganyu hasn’t been in well over a decade. If she’s ever been.
Ganyu is 38 and, to some, well past her prime. Some would call her beautiful, and perhaps she is, but it’s nowhere like this. Sure, her waist is small and she has shapely hips and a decent chest, but, much like her name, everything about Ganyu is mild. Gentle. Pretty, but ultimately forgettable.
These are adjectives she’s heard often: competent. Nice. Sweet. Smart.
Shenhe, however.
She’s beautiful the way wild animals are beautiful, the way glaciers are beautiful. There’s an edge of danger, of violence, in her every move, but it’s not malicious. It’s the untroubled violence of a snowstorm. Impersonal and natural. Clean.
Archons help her, she can’t let this woman loose in Liyue.
”You... you could stay with me...?”
There’s no real change in Shenhe’s expression, but this time the woman nods in agreement. She still says nothing, gray eyes returning to Ganyu and making the older woman squirm against her will.
This is exactly what Cloud Retainer intended, isn’t it?
It’s a terrible idea, but what else could she do? She tried to shake the awkward feeling in the pit of her stomach, the intuition that says her life is going to change irrevocably from the moment she lets this strange, strange woman in her life and yet...
”Good! ... good. It’s settled then. We can... leave tomorrow?”
Shenhe nods, still unblinking, but something eases in her demeanor that makes Ganyu feel strangely happy.
Yes, her life will irrevocably change from now on, but —
Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.