Ethereal [discontinued]

月逐い祭「二十」

Y/N yawned as they let themself get tugged by Sara towards the first floor of Wangshu Inn. Ei and Miko were already there along with the others having brunch.

"Morning." They took a seat across from Ei and Miko, Sara following not long after.

"Good morning, dear." Miko greeted back, followed by Ei.

The food's aroma was enough to shake Y/N fully awake, they glanced at the other table where their son was at, talking to friends Y/N wasn't familiar with.

"Hey, Aether." He turned to his parent, his friends also looking over. "Who's your friends?"

"Oh, right! Y/N, this is Xiangling; a rising chef of Liyue. And this one is Keqing, she's one of the Qixing."

The two girls greeted them in their own way, along with an adorable panda jumping and waving behind the table.

"Keqing, Xiangling, this is Y/N, my parent." Y/N smiled politely. "And next to them are their partners."

Ei, Miko and Sara introduced themselves in their own unique way. And luckily, Keqing doesn't seem to recognize the Shogun from her different attire.

"So you managed to reunite with one of your family, I'm glad." Keqing said relieved. "I'll inform the millelith to take down the missing person posters then."

"That would be great." Aether nodded.

Xiangling turned to her panda companion, gasping. "Guoba, what are you doing!?"

The bear flinched, eyes widening in horror from being caught. "♪~"

Y/N's jaw dropped, nearly choking on their food. "He can talk!?"

"My golden shrimp balls..." Keqing sulked in her seat.

"Bad panda, bad!" Paimon scolded, but Guoba doesn't seem all too fazed, dancing to himself.

"Oh my god he's so adorable." Y/N muttered, resisting the urge to go over to him and squeeze the living daylights out of poor Guoba.

***

"I win." Y/N threw their last card on the pile as Ei and Sara groaned.

"How are you so good at this?" Ei questioned, rearranging the cards in a neat stack.

"Dunno." They grinned toothily.

Sara playfully rolled her eyes. "Of course."

The three heard Miko chuckle as she and Ganyu paused their conversation and turned to them. "Looks like you'll have to practice a lot to even have a slim chance of winning, Ei." She teased.

"Hmph, mark my words; vengeance will be mine!"

"Uh oh," Sara sweat dropped. "You just awakened her competitive side."

"Ooh, I'm scareeedd~" Y/N giggled, with Ei and Sara joining them.

"I'm happy you're in a loving, healthy relationship Miko." Ganyu said, moving her pile of signed paperworks to her other desk. "I'm embarrassed to admit this, but it makes me slightly envious."

"Oh? You can always join." The half-qilin flushed at Miko's teasing.

"I-I'm good!" She quickly declined. "B-besides... I'm interested in someone else."

"Really? Who is it? Is it a coworker of yours?" Miko's ears twitched from excitement. "Spill the tea!"

"Miko, calm down. You're going to make poor Ganyu faint." Sara chimed in, causing the fox envoy to pout.