Rest Period

5. Suprise

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Keqing's Perspective

Ugggggh, where could that idiot be? I haven’t seen him since this morning and it’s almost like everyone else is avoiding me. When I do manage to catch someone, they give an excuse and "scuttle" off elsewhere. So annoying! The only people I have managed to speak with are Ningguang and Beidou. Beidou was about to tell me something, but Ningguang shuts her up by putting a hand to her mouth.

"Apologies for that. We'll see you later perhaps?" Ningguang says.

"Yeah. Later." I respond with a slight roll of my eyes. And with that, an annoyed Beidou is dragged off by Ningguang in the direction of our shared home.

Wait.

I facepalm before, I angrily tug at my hair before stomping off to our shared home. Maybe he'll be home and give me an explanation as to what on Tevyat is going on today. If anything he's probably the one behind all of this.

Your Perspective

Alright, the cake is almost done, the food is set, everyone has their places set and once I’m done decorating the cake, we should be good to go-

"(Y/N),  I do not mean to alarm you but, Keqing is on her way here," Zhongli says nonchalantly. Xiao looked outside, shrugged, and continued reading one of the books he "borrowed" from me.

"WHAT!" I yell frantically. I estimated that she wasn't due to arrive for another 45 minutes, how did she-

"Apologies. Beidou's acting was poor enough to cause her to be suspicious of our actions." Ningguang states plainly, leading me to glare at the eyepatched Electro user.

"We're nowhere close to done with the decorations though!" Hu Tao laments.

"You're not done with your share of the decorations. Xingqiu and I finished a while ago." Chongyun stated plainly. I facepalm and tell Hu Tao to just leave them be.

"Alright! Calm down, calm down. I've got this." I say confidently.

Well, I can finish this, I just have to pull what’s called a "speedrun". I quickly rushed through the decorating got it cleaned up and all in time for Keqing to be knocking at the door. The lights were turned off so when she came inside the house we'd surprise her. After stumbling for a bit, the lights switched on and . . .

"SUPRISE!!!"

"EEK!" screams Keqing as I get a swift punch to the face. A gasp went through the crowd of people as Keqing sheepishly apologized for the blow. Somewhat dazed, I told her it was nothing to worry about and joked that its a relief I didn't drop the cake. Keqing asks what’s the occasion and we all glance between ourselves before glancing back at her.

"It's your birthday, Keqing."

". . . It is?"

"~chuckle~ You forgot your own birthday?" I say, leading her to blush and try to make up an excuse. I put the cake on the table and pull her into a hug.

"Well regardless, Happy birthday Keqing."

Keqing hugs me back tightly before looking up at me with a genuine smile and thanking me profusely for the surprise.

"So as you can see, we've got a lot set up and I've managed to gather up some of our friends. Are you ready to party?" I ask her.

"Yeah! Of course! With you putting in so much effort into this . . . I can’t wait." She responds. 

Keqing places a gentle kiss on my lips before pulling away from me. I can feel my face heat up as Keqing giggles and walks away to talk to some of the other party-goers, with a sly smile etched on her face. I'll have to surprise her again next year. It's nice to see her this happy and enthusiastic.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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