Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Are you serious?” 

Ningguang huffs, leaning against Beidou as she forms a pout on her lips and looks up at her, “Please? They’re just so heavy.” 

“You are carrying two bags, Ningguang, two — and they’re the size of my head.” 

Ningguang rolls her eyes and pushes said bags into Beidou’s arms, “Come on, you’re strong, you can handle it.” 

“This isn’t about me being able to handle it, it’s about you being lazy and using me.” 

Ningguang scoffs, turning on her heel as she continues forward on their path, “I’m barely using you, just asking for help from my generous wife.” 

Beidou huffs as she slings them over her shoulder, the bags collide with the numerous other ones that she had been made to carry. Beidou hadn’t seen the need in bringing so much to such a short trip anyway but Ningguang had insisted that every single item in them was absolutely necessary (including the numerous bottles of fancy-looking lotion, shampoo and body wash; what did a woman need so much for?).

“Since when have I been generous in your eyes?” Beidou huffs as she follows Ningguang’s trail, “I thought I was a greedy pirate.” 

Ningguang laughs, throwing her head back as she waves her hand through the air dismissively — she doesn’t bat an eye at Beidou as she simply continues walking ahead, “ Greedy ? No. Pirate ? Yes. And now you’re generous too — because you love me.” 

“Because I love you,” Beidou repeats, exaggeratingly exasperated, “I don’t think carrying your bags was written in the marriage contract.” 

“It was, in the small print.” 

“That’s ridiculous. You insisted we went on a vacation together and now you’re making me do all the work — where’s the fairness in that?” 

“There’s no fairness in this, Beidou,” Ningguang smiles, not that the pirate could see, “You do things for me because I am the love of your life and you worship the very ground I stand on.” 

Beidou scoffs, grunting as she steps over a particularly large rock, “Next thing I know, you’ll ask me to carry you .” 

The path that led around the mountain had begun to look more and more rocky as they carried on and in the back of Ningguang’s mind, she was seriously considering Beidou’s suggestion. It’s not as if she would have minded being slung over Beidou’s shoulder anyway… 

Ningguang huffs to herself nonetheless, mildly offended that Beidou would even think she would ever indulge the thought of her being carried by Beidou’s big… strong… muscley-

“Ow!” 

Ningguang’s snapped out of her train of thought as she trips, arms flailing in the air as she loses her balance and tips forward. Luckily for her, despite the number of bags that she was in possession of, Beidou manages to grab her, pulling her upright before murmuring something under her breath as she takes the lead and continues on walking, leaving Ningguang to catch her breath and calm her heart. 

A hand comes to rest over her chest, eyes wide as she looks back at the stone she had just tripped over — how had she managed to trip over that ? It was barely larger than her finger . Ningguang sighs, straightening out her dress before taking a step forward to begin trailing after Beidou but she winces as she puts her foot down. She puts a little more pressure down on it and hisses out in pain — she must’ve rolled it on the fall. 

She curses to herself, looking around in slight panic as Beidou grows further and further away. There’s not much she could do, it’s not as if she could take off her stupidly expensive heels: one, inconvenient to carry; two, the rocks would hurt too much to walk barefoot. 

And so she carries on, limping on her bad foot. She eventually manages to catch up with the pirate and it seems as if the moment of alone time away from her nagging wife has put her in a fractionally better mood. Ningguang joins her side, jogging her elbow slightly as she looks up at her. 

“Rushing ahead of me, are we?” 

“How come I’m walking faster than you and I’m carrying the weight of the Jade Chamber?” 

Ningguang crosses her arms and looks up at Beidou sternly, “It’s not that much.” 

Beidou doesn’t respond to her but instead looks down at Ningguang with a tilt of her head, “Are you alright?” 

Ningguang looks a little taken aback, lips pulled into a pout and her brow drawn down, “Yes, why wouldn’t I be?” Yes , she says, as her ankle screams out in blood-curdling agony. 

“You’re limping,” Beidou points out, nodding her head towards Ningguang’s injured foot, “Did that trip really mess you up?” 

Ningguang scoffs, lightly shoving Beidou out of the way before she speeds up her pace, “I said I’m fine, don’t worry.” As she walks ahead of the pirate, she screws her face up in pain and just hopes that Beidou doesn’t catch on. 

The two of them continue their walk for another while, Ningguang taking extra care to not step on any more of those stupid stones. Beidou talks to her about her latest voyage, about the dolphins they met out at sea and how they had found some interesting new land masses just south of Sumeru. 

Ningguang listens to it all, listens to all the little details that spill out of Beidou’s mouth as she becomes engrossed with retelling her tales and stories. In reality, Ningguang could spend the rest of her life doing that, simply listening to Beidou ramble on without a worry in the world because she had simply grown so fond of Beidou’s enthusiasm about every single matter in the world. 

“Ningguang,” the use of her full name immediately catches her attention and she turns around to look at Beidou with a frown. 

“What’s with the full name-”

“Take your tights off.” 

Ningguang chokes, eyes widening as she spins around on her (healthy) heel and glares at Beidou. 

“ Excuse me ?” She crosses her arms across her chest and tilts her head, “You’ll have to ask more nicely if you want to get me to undress-”

“ Gods , no, Ning’, we’re not going to do whatever you have in mind on the side of a mountain in the middle of Mondstadt, I’m going to check on your ankle.” 

Ningguang stops in her tracks and stares blankly at Beidou, feeling the way her face warms up — how stupid must one be to assume such a thing? Archons, she really had just made a fool of herself. 

Ningguazng huffs, looking away in slight embarrassment, “My ankle’s fine,” she mutters. 

“Your ankle is not fine, you’ve been limping for the past ten minutes.” 

Ningguang crosses her arms across her chest and frowns at Beidou — she doesn’t look very intimidating, not when she was tilted to her side as if she were some incomplete construction project. 

“I said, I’m fine .” 

Beidou raises an eyebrow and moves closer, taking Ningguang by the arms and leading her to the nearest tall enough rock to sit on, “And I said you’re not, so sit down and let me take a look.” 

Ningguang huffs as she sits down, clearly not very pleased with the prospect of being babied but she allows Beidou to look after her anyway, “For your information, I’m not wearing tights.” 

Beidou grunts as she carefully places all the bags on the ground and kneels down so that she’s level with Ningguang’s ankle — she lifts the leg up and rests her calf on her thigh before slipping her shoe off. 

“Great, that makes my job easier.” 

Ningguang looks down at Beidou, teeth sinking into her bottom lip as the pirate gently wraps one hand around her ankle and one around the flat of her feet. Beidou twists it to the left, slight pain, and then she twists it to the right and Ningguang yelps out. 

“Beidou!”

“Ah, shit, I’m sorry,” Beidou looks up at her softly, using her thumb to rub reassuringly over the skin, “That hurts, yeah?” 

Ningguang’s brow twists into a frown and she’s almost tempted to kick her in the face, “No, I just yelled out in pain for no reason, Beidou.” 

The pirate rolls her eyes and pushes Ningguang’s ankle upwards, “What about that?” 

Ningguang winces and her hands instinctively come to usher Beidou’s away, “A little.” 

“And this?” Beidou tilts it down, making sure not to put too much force into it, “That hurt?” 

Ningguang’s leg jerks back and she takes it as an opportunity to wriggle her foot away from Beidou and cradle it, “Stop that, you’re hurting me.” 

“I’m trying to help you,” Beidou sighs, reaching over for one of the few bags that actually did belong to her; she rummages it for a while before pulling out a roll of bandages. She readjusts herself, pulling Ningguang’s ankle back on her thigh before beginning to wrap the cloth around and around the leg. She starts from the flat of the foot all the way up to the shin and each time that Beidou turns it over, Ningguang has to keep herself from whimpering too loudly.  

Eventually, Beidou finishes up, packing everything away including Ningguang's shoe. 

“Why did you put it away? I need it to walk, otherwise the rocks would hurt too much beneath my feet.” 

Beidou rubs her hands together as she stands up, looking around between the bags before picking them all up and placing them all over her left shoulder. Ningguang looks at her curiously as she extends a hand towards her and Ningguang takes it cautiously, helping herself up to stand on both feet. She puts most of her weight onto her uninjured leg as she hops around a little to make herself comfortable. 

“Come here,” Beidou says.

All her efforts to keep her balance fly out the window however as Beidou bends down, wrapping an arm just under Ningguang’s behind and lifting her up. The pirate slings Ningguang over her shoulder, grunting just slightly as Ningguang squeals and knees her in the stomach. 

“Beidou!” Ningguang yells, her hands balled up into fists as she thumps away at Beidou’s back, “Put me down this instant!” 

Ningguang tries to free herself, tries to wriggle free of Beidou’s grasp but the pirate has her securely locked in place with an arm tightly wrapped over Ningguang’s ass and gripping onto her waist. Ningguang squirms and kicks, pounding on Beidou’s back as she yells and shouts commands at Beidou. 

“Put me down, right now, Beidou! I’ll have you fined for this, you know that?” Ningguang grunts as they begin walking, not once stopping her barrage of screaming. “As your wife, I command you to put- me- down!” 

“Oh shut up,” Beidou huffs, “Would you prefer walking on all the stones with your bad ankle to being carried all the way back by me?” 

“This is humiliating ,” Ningguang gives another thump of her fist on Beidou’s back, “What if my people saw me like this? Slung over the shoulder of a pirate, how embarrassing .” 

“Oh quit it, Ning’, no one cares — now will you shut up?” 

“I don’t think so- Beidou !” Ningguang cuts herself off with a squeal, face erupting into flames as she feels a heavy hand come down on her ass, “You can’t do that!” 

Beidou groans, throwing her head back in exasperation, “Shut up then! I’ve had enough of your complaining.” 

The last thing that the people of Liyue had expected to see in their lives was the sight of their dear, illustrious Tianquan slung over the shoulder of their beloved Captain of the Crux. 

Beidou waltzes past the gates of Liyue as if she did not have her wife over her shoulder, greeting any passers-by as they gawked at her in shock — their jaws hung low, dragging across the pavement as they dumbly walked by. 

“Beidou, I swear to the Archons,” Ningguang mutters underneath her breath, “This is so…” 

“So what?” Beidou laughs, “All you’ve done is complain about it the entire way here but after your initial attempt, you haven’t even tried to get off.” 

“What would the point be?” Ningguang huffs, trailing her finger over the expanse of Beidou’s back, ”You wouldn’t let me anyway.” 

“I would’ve if you kept persisting but it just seems as if you enjoyed me carrying you.” 

“That’s just not true at all, Beidou — stop telling yourself lies.” 

“We’re back home in Liyue and you still haven’t made an effort to get off so are you sure of that?” 

“You’re infuriating!”