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Ningguang spun the contents of her glass with her pinky finger. The colors were mesmerizing, a deep, rich purple that she had seldom seen before. It was a far cry from the hues painted on Liyue property, where even the sky streaked with earthy shades of gold and orange.
That was to be suspected from such a quaint place in Mondstadt, she supposed.
She removed her pinky and watched the color swirl together in a vortex. Ningguang watched for a long moment, and then picked up the small glass to bring to her lips.
The taste was incredible. What they say about Mondstadt’s wine and its taverns were true, and she was sure that she would make the time to come back here if the Acting Grand Master and her wife ever needed to see her on Mondstadt soil again.
Ningguang took another grateful sip of her drink and looked around her. It was certainly a little more rowdy than she was used to, what with all the drunken singing and merry tunes of the band in the corner. It didn’t help that it was at full capacity tonight, thanks to the warm invitation of buccaneers who wanted to feel the solid dirt underneath their callused feet for the night.
There was a dull thud, a loud groan of pain, and a clamor of cheers from somewhere on the second level. Ningguang winced.
Maybe it was a lot more rowdy than she was used to.
“Hey pretty lady,” a drunken voice lilted to her. “Can I buy you a drink?”
Before she could even think to open her mouth, a heavy body pulled out the stool next to her and clumsily sat down. Ningguang’s eyebrows jumped upwards in unconcealed surprise.
Beidou had her elbow resting on the table with her face propped up on her palm, a large mug of beer in the other hand. Her grin was crooked just as much as it was earnest.
“Beidou,” Ningguang said easily. “How much have you been drinking?”
She certainly looked drunk. Maybe not so much that Ningguang was worried that she would suddenly pass out cold, but she could tell from the way Beidou held herself and the loud volume that she was speaking in.
“Bah,” Beidou dismissed, straightening herself back up and pounding her chest with her hand to get out any hiccups trapped there, “prob’ly— five? Of these?” She held up her mug, the beer sloshing and falling to her thigh. Not that Beidou seemed to care.
“Five?” Ningguang parroted. She arched a pretty eyebrow, then looked back at her much smaller glass of wine. She pulled it back up to her lips and drank until the contents were nearly running on empty, mostly to even out the playing field between her and her new company.
“You don’t usually become half this affected after five,” she commented lightly, only because it was true.
Beidou laughed heartily at that. Ningguang half-expected her to drop her mug. “What d’ya take me for?” Beidou teased. “Five regular beers, yeah, I can chug that all night with my crew. But have you tried anything here? Mondstadt really knows how to squeeze out their alcohol.”
Now that she mentioned it, Ningguang could already feel the effects of her drink. She had another one before this, a small cocktail that the bartender assured that she’d like for the simple fruit-like flavor (she really did), and even something of that caliber was making the back of her head light.
Maybe the tipsiness was the reason why she hailed over the bartender, and then promptly asked him for two of his most expensive shots.
Beidou’s grin was still lopsided, but now twice as bright.
“Here you go,” the bartender (Charles, Ningguang remembered faintly) said cordially.
“Did you tell him to put that on my tab?” Beidou asked her suspiciously once he left. Nevertheless, she picked it up and shot it straight back without another word.
“I did not,” Ningguang replied, calm as she could be. She raised both of her eyebrows. “Would you like me to hail him over and write you down for ten thousand mora, Captain?”
“Ten thou—” Beidou coughed, pounding heavily at her chest. “You know what? You can cover that for me tonight, right Ning?” she wheezed.
Ningguang breathed out a light laugh. “You promised to buy me a drink,” she reminded.
Beidou narrowed her eye at her, then wagged a finger. “I was gonna buy you a drink of my choice,” she accused. “A pretty woman like you needs a pretty glass of booze. That doesn’t cost a foot and a hand.”
Sweeping her hand, Ningguang breezily said, “Be my dearest guest.”
“Alright!” Beidou cheered with a grin. She stuck her hand up in the air to bring Charles back over to them, then whispered something into his ear. Charles nodded along while he mindlessly wiped down a dirty glass.
Beidou sat back down, a relaxed grin still plastered on her face, then promptly said, “You know, someone like you shouldn’t be all by herself at a tavern like this.”
“Someone like me?” Ningguang asked her, arching her eyebrow in a silent question.
“Yeah,” Beidou said readily. “Beautiful, mysterious, sometimes intimidating— my kind of woman, if you ask me.”
Ningguang chuckled. “You’re drunk, Beidou.”
“I’m not drunk,” Beidou challenged. “Just intoxicated by you.”
Now Ningguang was thoroughly amused. It wasn’t every day that she got to speak with a drunk pirate, considering that said pirate had confidently told her that she was immune to every kind of beer in Teyvat. She greatly wanted to see where their conversation would go. If anything, this beat looking at reports from the Liyue Qixing in her bedroom.
“You must see something special in me tonight if all it takes to bewitch you is to sit here quietly,” Ningguang jested.
“And you’d be a hundred percent correct,” Beidou said merrily. She leaned back on the stool, an elbow leaning on the bar counter. Ningguang can detect the smallest hint of a lisp to her words. “Hell, I’d even go as far as to call you my special lady— if you like the sound of that.”
“I’m not an easy woman to captivate that easily, Captain. You’re going to need to put more effort than that,” Ningguang replied. She could see Charles approaching them with two tall mugs of something that she suspected was Beidou’s classic beer.
Beidou shrugged at her prospect, unbothered by the challenge in Ningguang’s tone. “Alright,” Beidou said, leaning closer to look at her with a beseeching eye. “If you need charm, then I’ll get you some charm.”
Charles put their mugs in front of them. Not a single drop spilled on the counter.
Curious, Ningguang picked up the glass and peered inside. It wasn’t beer.
“What is this?” she asked suspiciously, looking back up at Beidou. Beidou was grinning at her, like she had already won some silent challenge.
“Apple cider,” she chimed, and then crossed her leg over her thigh and drank at it merrily. “With a dash of Liyue’s local Jueyun Chili.”
Ningguang couldn’t wipe the surprise off her face even if she tried. “How did you know they keep Jueyun Chilis here?” she asked her, thoroughly impressed with Beidou’s drink of choice. She had been having a craving for the spice, and it was a wonder that Beidou had guessed it correctly.
While Beidou answered, Ningguang was drinking the cider contentedly. “Had a craving for it the last time I was in Mondstadt with my crew,” Beidou said with a shrug. “We had to stay for a week, y’know, since there isn’t a close enough body of water to dock snugly in. It made me miss Liyue. I guessed you’d think the same.”
Ningguang had never tasted such a heavenly drink before. She had to make sure to give Charles all her thanks before she left the tavern. “You’d guess right,” Ningguang said to her, licking her lips in absolute shock. “This is wonderful.”
“Knew you’d think so.” Beidou sounded endlessly proud of herself. “And actually, the spicy kick reminds me of something I was meaning to ask you.”
“Oh?” Ningguang put down her drink to listen to her. “Then let me hear it, Captain.”
Beidou leaned her head slightly to the side while she smiled at her. “Before I met you all those years ago in your Jade Chamber, I thought you had a pyro Vision. Imagine my surprise when you turned around and it was a gift from the Lord of Geo himself.”
“Pyro?” Now that was a new one. She had never heard of such rumors of herself before, and she had heard plenty in her time. “What on Teyvat would ever make you think so?”
“Well,” Beidou hummed. “You’re smoking hot, Ning.”
She didn’t know what else she expected.
She at least had to give Beidou that one.
“Then what do you make of my geo Vision?” Ningguang debated. She swirled the contents of her mug carefully in a back and forth motion. “Does that make me less attractive to your eyes, in that case?”
“Oh, not a chance,” Beidou declared. There was a glint in her eye. “You having that instead just means you are rocking my world!”
Ningguang bit back a laugh. She did indulge Beidou in an amused smile, however.
“And you know what?” Beidou continued, all before she could think to quip something back in return. It was like this even in the Jade Chamber, with Beidou somehow always a step ahead of her in both conversation and chess. “Me with this electro thing going on makes sense too, considering how you always leave me stunned.”
“You,” Ningguang started with a laugh, “are quite fascinating to speak to when drunk, my captain.”
“I really hope you mean in a good way,” Beidou said resolutely, dipping her chin downward to look at Ningguang imploringly with her mug still in her hand. This was the most sober Ningguang had seen her all night. “I’d never want to ruin a pretty lady’s night.”
“If I thought of you as a nuisance, I would’ve put those shots on your tab in a heartbeat,” Ningguang retorted. “Your company is making my night a lot less bleak, if I’m being frank.”
“Touché.” Beidou chuckled and lifted her mug up to Ningguang. “You’re lucky that one legal advisor from the Harbor isn’t here right now. Yanfei, if I’m not being dumb.” She scratched her collarbone and looked up at the corner of the room to think about it.
Ningguang scrunched her brow. “And why would that be a problem?”
“She’d arrest you on the spot, Ning,” Beidou deadpanned. “Arrested and tried for being as gorgeous as you are right now in front of me.”
“That’s not a legal advisor’s job,” Ningguang reminded her.
“Killjoy,” Beidou grumbled. She drank some more from her mug while Ningguang laughed. “How about this then— that dress is beautiful, but it would look so much better on the bedroom floor.” She pumped her eyebrows up and down.
“Classy,” Ningguang taunted. “But I’ve heard that quite enough times to last me the rest of my life.”
“But no one else has lived to tell the tale to see it happen,” Beidou pointed out. She chugged down the rest of the alcohol in the mug, then slammed it on the counter. Leaning in towards Ningguang, she said, “Tell you what. If I say something sweet enough to knock the esteemed Tianquan off her feet, you owe me something more than a drink.”
Ningguang raised her eyebrows curiously. “Such as…?”
“The rest of the night alone with the most gorgeous woman in the room,” Beidou answered readily.
Ningguang didn’t have to think about it too hard. Maybe it was the alcohol, or the way that Beidou was smiling at her, but she wanted to play her little game, albeit the fact that it was quite unnecessary.
“I’ll bite,” Ningguang decided. “What are you wagering against that?”
Beidou shrugged. “I’m a simple person, and I know you are too,” she said. “Sure there isn’t anything in it for you exactly, but I know curiosity swimming in an eye like an ol’ friend.”
Ningguang was impressed with her ability to discern her emotions, even when drunk. Not many can say they can do half of what she can. Maybe that was why she replied with, “Then please, do go on, Captain Beidou.”
Leveling her with an unbothered grin, Beidou leaned in closer. “I think I should buy you a few more drinks,” she mused out of nowhere. At first, Ningguang had thought her inebriated state made her susceptible to forgetting friendly bets five seconds after they happened, but then Beidou added, “I’ll stop buying ‘em for you once you start finding me hot and heavy.”
The corner of her lips twitched in amusement. “In that case, I’ll ask the bartender for a glass of water.”
Beidou’s grin widened, surprised yet pleased by her retort. “Is that cannon fodder, or is my heart pounding?”
“Maybe all that time on your ship is giving you auditory hallucinations,” Ningguang said patiently.
“I was wondering if you could tell me: if you’re here, who’s running Celestia?”
“That would imply you see me as an outcasted god.”
Beidou wrinkled her nose, but she looked otherwise undeterred. “Ning, you’re like a fine wine. The more of you I drink in, the better I feel.”
“Or maybe that was the actual alcohol you’ve consumed tonight, my captain.”
“On a scale of one to Mondstadt, how free are you tonight?”
“Liyue.”
“I can’t tell if that was an earthquake, or if you just seriously rocked my world.”
“You’ve used that punchline once already.”
“Do you have a map? I just got lost in your eyes.”
“Really?” Ningguang couldn’t help but laugh.
Beidou threw her hands up in frustration. “It’s hard not to panic in front of a good-looking woman! But you know what?”
“What?”
“I think you’d look more beautiful in my arms,” Beidou said triumphantly, leaning on the counter.
Oh, Ningguang couldn’t take it anymore. The secondhand embarrassment was too much.
She laughed, partly to act and mostly because she really meant it. She should have brought Beidou to another tavern a long time ago, just for this kind of entertainment.
She turned to the bartender cleaning next to them, and told him, “Is it possible to get a bottle of your finest wine, to go?”
“Archons, Ning.” Beidou didn’t seem unapologetic though, with how hard she was smiling. “You’re in a good mood.”
“I’m with you,” Ningguang said matter-of-factly. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Beidou’s smile was infectious, and it was plastered on her face even as she squeezed Ningguang’s hand and promised she’d be right back after fetching her coat from the second floor.
Ningguang was in the middle of putting on a jacket when Charles politely cleared his throat and asked, “Would you be needing an angel shot, ma’am?”
It took only half a second for that to calibrate in her mind. “You are incredibly kind for asking,” she said sincerely, knowing full well how Beidou’s bold behavior could seem from a perspective looking in, “but no. Not tonight.”
Not ever, really, with Beidou nearby.
Charles regarded her. “In that case, would you like me to at least separate your tab from hers?”
Ningguang laughed. “No. I’m feeling quite generous tonight,” she replied. “And I doubt my wife remembered to bring her mora with her.”