Work Text:
the sky-faring commission offices were bathed in a breathless, brilliant heat that, while typically would have lifted yukong’s spirits, only served to frustrate her even more. she’d been dumped with an unnecessary amount of work because half the commission was out sick, apparently. not to mention, someone just knocked on her office door, which is odd because the door is quite literally wide open.
yukong looks up at the intrusion to her office, willing her face to not sour. a teenaged cloud knight, judging from her stature and clothing choices, hovers by the open door nervously, a clipboard hugged against her chest. yukong will admit, she was expecting a teenaged cloud knight—just taller and more… blonder.
( yanqing. she means yanqing. )
“yes? did you need something?”
the girl skitters forward, looking like a small little mouse. she hands yukong the clipboard, and she sighs at the papers clipped to it. starskiff permission forms.
“uh, i was supposed to teach some kids how to use starskiffs, cause i nearly watched a few of them crash, but i need to fill out the permission forms and i don’t particularly know how to do that.” her words are hesitant, as if she’s picking them out from a pile and piecing them together before saying them aloud. “the lady who gave me the forms told me to ask you how to fill them out…? i can come back later if you’re busy.”
“i can fill them out for you now. what’s your full name?” yukong shifts her paperwork aside, grabbing a blue pen and hovering it over the line asking for a name, looking up at the girl expectantly.
the girl walks around, behind yukong’s desk, leaning over her to look as she fills out the papers. “i just need one done, then i can fill the rest out myself.”
“no, it’s alright, i can help you with all of them.”
her eyes light up and she smiles sweetly. “oh! thank you, miss yukong. oh–my name’s yunli huaiyin. that’s h-u-a-i-y-i-n.”
yukong writes that down on the line in neat handwriting, moving over to the next question. “that’s a pretty name. like the zhuming general. date of borrowing and the users’ names? i’ll fill out all of the skyfaring commission related information for you.”
yukong spreads out the papers and hands yunli a pen, letting her write down the kids’ names and her own on all five sheets.
“okay, so, for these, i just need to write phone numbers and other stuff like that to confirm that i, in fact, signed it. oh, and sign at the bottom there, will you?” yunli nods, scribbling down a signature and topping the i with a heart.
just as yunli finishes the last paper, another flighty little teenaged cloud knight barrels through yukong’s office door. great.
yanqing smiles brilliantly at yukong, a stack of papers in his hand. “miss yukong, i’ve got the reports!” he sets them on her desk, then seems to notice yunli’s presence. he stares for just a split second, surprised, before smiling sweetly at her. “hi, yunli.”
yunli looks up, appearing like a mouse caught in a trap. “…hi.” she schools her expression, moving away from yukong’s desk as yukong leafs through the stack of papers yanqing handed her and—dear heavens, this is a lot of paper.
“what’re you doing here?”
“permission forms. for starskiffs.”
“oh. okay.”
the two look nervous. yukong notes that this is the yunli that yanqing was talking about the other day, the one he trusted enough to tell about his not-particularly stable mental state. he described her as much… softer. perhaps they got into a fight? though, yanqing wasn’t one for settling arguments at all, much less settling them with words. she rules out that idea and frowns at the reported increase in mara-struck. she jots down a signature where it’s asked for and keeps reading.
“you never answered my question, by the way.” yanqing asks suddenly, wringing his fingers as he looks at yunli. a question?
“you never stopped kicking my chair, so…”
yanqing laughs nervously when yukong looks up at the comment. “oh—yeah, sorry. about that. i, uh, need to, uhm, go…”
yunli looks at him oddly. “then go? i’m not keeping you hostage.” yanqing runs his hand through his hair, seemingly distressed, and yukong has half a mind to send one of them away to avoid whatever sort of spat they seemed to be having.
“no, i—uh, do you eat?”
…what did he just say?
“do i… eat?” yunli sounds just as confused as yukong feels. she averts her gaze back down to her papers, curious to see how this will play out. she can stop them if she finds it necessary, and consoles her worries with that notion.
“yeah.”
“no, i photosynthesize.” she deadpans.
“i meant, like, if you did eat, we could like—go somewhere? to eat? but, uh, since you don’t, i—”
“i would like that.”
“huh?” yukong wonders if yanqing was ever taught sarcasm or not.
“to go somewhere. to eat. with you.”
“oh! okay, thats—yeah. thanks. bye!” yanqing smiles widely, cheeks dusted with pink, and runs out the door, same way he came, waving goodbye. yunli offers a small wave in response, a sweet little smile on her lips, and yukong notices the threads of gold and jadeite green glittering in her braids.
yunli seems like a sweet girl.
yukong suddenly has the urge to laugh at the absolute absurdity of yanqing’s… whatever that was meant to be. confession? so she does, and yunli whirls around at the sound, bright red.
“oh, i—uh…” she seems to pick up on the lack of mocking in yukong’s voice, then giggles—a high pitched sound, and she sighs at the end. it’s an odd laugh, but she can see why anyone would find it endearing.
( she can see why yanqing finds her endearing. )
“that’s embarrassing…”
yukong smiles at her. ah, young love. she’s always found kids cute.
“don’t worry about it. i won’t tell anyone. now, your papers are done, and i wouldn’t recommend keeping your students waiting. they tend to run off and it’s hard to corral them all back into one place.” yukong advises, piling the sheets together and snapping it back onto the clipboard, handing it back to yunli. she tenses, grabbing the clipboard and barrelling out the door, as if suddenly realizing how long she’s been gone.
“thank you, miss yukong! Bye!”
she shuts the door behind her and yukong winces at the loud bang as it closes.
…dear lan, it’s hot in here. where’d the thermostat go?