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one
“Use me. Let me be your arrow. Point me where you please, and I will strike true. From now on, do not rely on the ordinary people. Rely on me, and me alone. Please.”
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
The moon cuts a sharp path through Ningguang’s curtains, alighting her room in a pale, almost ethereal glow against the inky night sky. Crimson eyes flash, Ningguang blinking awake before her eyes open, wide, to stare at the stark white ray of light beside her. A silken sheet slips off her shoulders as she sits up, pooling at her waist with a faint rustle while the world slumbers on. She can hear the rush of the wind against her Jade Chamber, a loud but easily dismissible woosh all around her floating palace amongst the stars. The moon’s glow throws her bed into sharp relief, shading the rest of her room in darkness while drawing her eyes around the glowing oasis of her bed.
She stares, at the woman beside her.
The act of sitting had disturbed the fragile state of her bed, throwing the scene into disarray and drawing the sheet off of the mysterious woman in her bed. Exposed is a pale shoulder, connected to a long, graceful back, snow-white skin sloping into sharp contours of muscle against an elegant spine. Ningguang takes her time, savoring the sight as eyes are drawn from the hard planes of her arm and shoulder down the smooth arch of her back towards the two small divots atop a—
“You’re staring, Lady Tianquan.”
Ningguang’s lips part, whether from surprise or offense she does not know, nor does she care to. Her response is cool. Calm, measured words flowing freely without the guile of daytime pleasantries. “Should I not?”
Her companion takes longer to reply, long enough that Ningguang begins to wonder if she has fallen back asleep, but then Yelan turns, further disturbing the sheets as she sits up slowly, inhaling languorously. Her chest rises as her lungs fill with breath, and idly, Ningguang compares her to a snake, tensing and coiling its long, sinuous body as it awaits its prey. She shivers, slightly.
Piercing green eyes pin her in place even as Yelan raises her arms above her head, stretching her body and exaggerating the arch of her back while Ningguang resists the temptation of drawing her eyes along the inviting lines of Yelan’s body. She doesn’t have to, of course, but satisfaction is always sweeter when first denied.
“Careful,” Yelan drawls, glittering green eyes twinkling in the fragile light of the night. “Others might start thinking you care.” The words are said with a curl of her lips, left lightly with no bite or sting attached, but Ningguang senses an undercurrent of other, of words said between petty lovers in the heat of passion, and her mind begins to stray.
“Can’t have that,” she replies, silken.
Yelan chuckles, smooth and dark. “Of course not. The great Tianquan of Liyue has room In her heart only for her precious Harbor, Mora, and Chamber. Lowly ones such as myself should not even dare to compete with three loves as great as these.”
Despite herself, Ningguang feels a scowl form at the words. She cuts back, just as sharp and twice as cruel, “Of course, those as lofty as the extraordinary Yelan would have no wish to compete for mortal desires as petty as these, not when there exists greater pleasures in gambling dens and forsaken chasms far from the light of respectability.”
In the dark, Yelan cannot see the features clearly on Ningguang’s face, but she reads the tension in the air and does not say a word, instead stretching herself out once more before relaxing against the bed, leaving her long body to lounge against Ningguang’s bed as if in challenge.
Or, invitation.
Tense, Ningguang does not allow herself to relax, but she also does not bother stifling the signs of her amusement at Yelan’s attempt at reconciliation. She allows her lips to quirk even while she moves, movements sure as she stalks up the bed until she is lying flat against the other woman, body pressed firmly against hers. The smugness practically radiates off Yelan and Ningguang sighs. 0-1, Yelan.
"Shut up," Ningguang says, making sure to punctuate her statement by sliding her leg in between Yelan’s, pressing up and in until Yelan’s breath catches. There we go. 1-1.
Beneath her, Yelan looks up, mouth parted slightly in surprise. Ningguang cannot resist, doesn’t bother trying to as she lets herself grind down against the hard planes of Yelan’s thighs. The friction is delicious and Ningguang almost forgets that she is displeased with Yelan’s callous dismissal of her feelings. That just won’t do.
The bed shifts when Yelan groans, head tilted back and eyes lidded as she seeks further contact. The muscles in her leg stiffen, enough that Ningguang almost falls over when Yelan reaches down to roll Ningguang’s hips against her leg. The sensation is sharp, bordering on the edge of too much, and Ningguang gasps, steadying herself before dipping her head to kiss the smirk off Yelan’s face.
Eagerly, Yelan returns the action, hands moving up to wrap around Ningguang’s back while her legs shift to accommodate Ningguang more comfortably between them. One wraps around Ningguang’s hip, pressing her closer, and Ningguang takes full advantage, pushing in roughly with her thigh until Yelan starts to twitch against her.
They stay that way for a while, the minutes passing by as they rut against each other until Yelan starts to tense, movement becoming sharper, more erratic, more aggressive, and Ningguang feels herself beginning to crest the wave of her climax. It would be so easy to let herself come, to bring herself and Yelan over the edge with a few quick thrusts, but Ningguang has grander designs for them both—and she’s still feeling just a little bit petty.
The feeling of loss is immediate when Ningguang pulls back, but it does afford her the opportunity to enjoy the sight of Yelan, mouth open, lips bruised, eyes wide and pupils dilated, breathing heavy as she forces her body down and pliant to Ningguang’s will. Such a good girl. She basks in it, gets off on the way Yelan stares up at her with such sheer desperation, yet refuses to give in. Ningguang wants to ruin her.
She allows Yelan to move against her, but keeps the contact light, ensuring that any pressure either of them feels is entirely unfulfilling. “I like you better like this, I think,” she muses, staring down at Yelan while Yelan groans and grinds uselessly up into her.
“Tease,” Yelan mutters, chasing after Ningguang’s leg slightly as she shifts away before relenting. She almost sits up, nearly knocking her head into Ningguang’s with the abruptness, but stops when Ningguang’s hand touches her shoulder. She obeys the unspoken command, allowing Ningguang to push her entirely back onto the bed, resting pliantly against soft pillows as Ningguang moves down.
Around her hips and then her back, Yelan’s leg stays wrapped around Ningguang, following her movements until her head is between Yelan’s thighs and Yelan’s heel presses into her back. The other leg spreads itself wider to accommodate Ningguang, giving her a perfect view of a slick cunt, folds wet and pink just for her.
The urge to dive in is strong, to press her mouth up against Yelan and eat her out until she cries and falls apart against her, but Ningguang did not become the great Tianquan of Liyue by settling for the first opportunity that came her way. She bided her time, and took the best, always. She wants Yelan to beg.
She doesn’t go where Yelan clearly wants her, turning her head to press a biting kiss into Yelan’s thigh with sharp teeth and a sharper smile. When Yelan jerks, leg tensing, Ningguang moves her hands, wrapping one around the leg pressing into her and using the other to push Yelan firmly into the bed. “Patience,” she warns, looking up to meet hungry, hungry eyes before laughing lightly. She indulges herself in an admonishing smack against Yelan’s ass, catching her as she tries to wrench herself free and pinning her back down. “Good things come to those who wait.”
Above her, Yelan’s eyes narrow, but Ningguang does not falter, just keeps kissing and nipping and sucking along her inner thigh while glancing up teasingly every time Yelan catches her sparkling gaze. She could do this all night, and Yelan knows this, eventually accepting defeat and throwing her head back while groaning, “Good things also come to those who aren’t sleeping with insufferable—”
Her hand leaves a red print against Yelan’s snowy ass and Yelan jolts, heel pressing violently against Ningguang’s spine as she lets out a harsh curse. Driving the message home, Ningguang sinks her teeth into the soft flesh of Yelan’s thigh. She feels the way Yelan’s muscles tense in her mouth, Yelan holding herself taut until Ningguang pulls back to lap at the dark mark her teeth have left against the once unblemished skin. Like a puppet whose strings are cut, Yelan collapses back into the bed, a pliant puddle in Ningguang’s hands.
Unrepentantly, Ningguang teases the mark with her teeth while Yelan’s hand fists itself into her hair. She lets out a hum in warning, and Yelan’s grip relaxes.
Delighted, Ningguang allows her eyes to drift up, to watch the way Yelan grits her teeth and holds herself back from the undoubtedly filthy curses that would be pouring out of her were Ningguang anybody else and this bed anybody else’s. This is Ningguang’s bed, though, and Yelan knows better. “Would you like to finish that statement, darling?”
Her words are mocking, but Yelan doesn’t take the bait and keeps her mouth firmly shut. Inwardly, Ningguang sighs. All good things must come to an end, she thinks, shaking her head even as she changes trajectory and licks up against Yelan’s neglected, weeping cunt. Of course she’s wetter now.
Against her, Yelan moans, hand tightening once more in Ningguang’s hair and tugging her insistently closer. Ningguang hates to reward bad behavior, but a rare fit of mercy overtakes her and she obliges Yelan, soft licks turning rough and mouth moving with purpose until her tongue is fucking into Yelan and Yelan is trying so hard not to buck her hips into Ningguang.
She feels the way Yelan’s muscles jump, the way she stills her movements and relaxes her body to lay pliant beneath Ningguang’s ministrations, and a burst of pride fills Ningguang at how well her Yelan is behaving now. She knows that Yelan is close, can tell by the way her hole clenches against her, doubling her effort to keep her tongue inside of Yelan where it belongs as Yelan trembles in her grasp.
Yelan is at war with herself, her hand simultaneously trying to pull Ningguang’s hair up even as she presses Ningguang’s head down. Ningguang doesn’t say anything, doesn’t bother because she doesn’t need to, attentions moving higher until her mouth seals around Yelan’s clit and her tongue lashes against it.
Once, twice, and Yelan’s back is arching up as she cries out, heel jabbing deep enough to bruise Ningguang’s back as she writhes beneath her. Ningguang works her through her peak, keeping her tongue firm against her clit until Yelan is overstimulated and gasping beneath her.
Still, Yelan does not push her away, and Ningguang takes that as all the invitation she needs, pushing Yelan through her second and third orgasm until Yelan is lying limp and useless against her bed before Ningguang surges up, face messy with Yelan’s come, and claims her mouth in a deep, bruising kiss, fucking into her mouth with the same single-mindedness that she had fucked her cunt with. Then she slides three fingers in with no resistance, and Yelan convulses, silken walls clamping down around her while Ningguang plunders her mouth.
Ningguang is wretched in her own right, grinding down mindlessly against Yelan’s leg until she comes, shivers wracking her body even as she crushes her palm against Yelan’s clit on the next thrust and Yelan falls apart beneath her. Ningguang follows, collapsing atop Yelan, wet and covered in sweat with no intention of moving.
Of a similar mind, Yelan lets out a weak groan, slowly moving her protesting body to pick up the sheets and pull them up over the two of them before wrapping her arms around Ningguang and holding her close. How considerate, Ningguang thinks distantly before drifting off to sleep.
two
Ningguang was once asked by a child, “Is it possible, Miss Tianquan, to trust someone that you do not know?”
To which she replied, “Mmm, no. I do not think so. To trust someone without reservation is to know them in all ways, because it is only then that faith in the other becomes certainty. One should not trust wholly when one is uncertain.” In the corner, there was a flash of jade disappearing into darkness, but Ningguang did not say anything else before handing the child a sweet.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Yanshang Teahouse is under new management, and Ningguang is always interested in new business developments within the golden walls of Liyue Harbor. Not much is known about the new owner, a mysterious figure in the world of business and, seemingly, a newcomer. An outsider. Of course, Ningguang is obligated to investigate any potential threat to her Harbor.
The sentries at the door seem surprised at her presence when Ningguang finally has enough time in her day to visit, but let her in begrudgingly. The hostess, however, lights up when she sees Ningguang, dollar signs appearing before her eyes as sure surely contemplates how much money she can make off this single visit. And it will only be one visit, because Ningguang personally has better things to do than gamble with petty cash when she machinates the enormous industries and trade running through Liyue. The games at Yanshang are but mere pennies to her. Indeed, it is the people that she cares about.
Upon entering the casino, she hears a loud voice to her left, standing beside a quiet, meek looking young man. “Now, be careful. There are only two rules that you must keep in mind while you are here.”
Deliberately slowing the stride of her steps, Ningguang draws open her fan to cover her face even as she drifts towards the pair.
“—don’t play dice at Yanshang Teahouse. If you must play, play with friends. And above all, do not play with any strange lady that you have not seen before and do not know.”
“Is that the second rule, then?” The young man asks, and Ningguang laughs quietly behind her fan. Do not play with any lady that you do not know. I’ll keep that in mind, then.
She continues her tour of the casino, walking through the building and pausing several times at different tables to watch what is being played, but makes no move to enter a game herself, despite many invitations to the great Tianquan of Liyue herself. Curling plumes of smoke guide her movements as Ningguang observes all sorts of people indulging in every sort of vice that cannot be found at a brothel. Men and women alike, shouting in surprise and delight and sometimes anguish as the die rolls, smoke in their long and alcohol in their veins while the hospitality staff works strenuously to keep them appeased as they lose all their hard-earned money to the house our others.
One particularly persistent invitation is declined again as Ningguang finishes her second sweep of the rooms, Ningguang holding little interest in such games, although she finds herself intrigued at how carelessly some seem to part with their money. Fascinating, and she notes the names and faces of those who are especially adept at losing money for future reference, as well as those sharp-eyed characters who excel at taking it.
Many times, she hears the same bit of advice, the same warning about avoiding strange women that one does not know, but Ningguang pays it little mind. If she were to play a game, she has no doubt that she would win, regardless of the opponent. What is business and politics but one big, cutthroat game of money, skill, and power? There are no mortals alive in Liyue that could hope to match Ningguang in such a game.
Soon, Ningguang has seen enough, two circles of the property telling her all she needs to know about the establishment under new management, and she prepares herself to. One smoke, she thinks, drawing out her pipe, and that will be all.
An uncommonly loud clatter of dice a few tables to her right turns her head as smoke fills her lungs, the raucousness of the game drawing her slowly over to watch the same young man she saw at the entrance let out a sharp cry of despair when his next roll lands on a seven. Around him, onlookers let out gasps of sympathy and great cries of awe as a tall blonde woman stands to collect her winnings from the table and the young man himself.
The sharp red of her dress stands out against the paleness of her skin, clinging to her waist and chest before sliding down the curves of her body in a tight, clinging sheath. Ningguang tilts her head, taking in another puff as the woman’s lips part in a deadly curve of crimson, her neck arching back as she laughs, shaking her head before slipping back into her seat. The woman commands the table, turning her head to speak to the young man beside her, whispering into his ear as blonde curls obscure Ningguang’s vision of her face.
Another puff, and her fan slides closed with a snick. Ningguang drops her arm, sidling closer to the game until she catches a flash of scarlet before the blonde woman turns her head to speak to a fellow gambler. Ningguang’s eyes narrow as she moves closer to the table, brows tightening when the gambler to the left of the blonde rises from her seat. The onlookers take notice as the Tianquan of Liyue Harbor inches closer, carving out a space for her while the woman waves away the gambler to her left, back turned and oblivious to Ningguang’s presence.
Thwap! Throwing her fan onto the table, Ningguang takes her seat at the table from the departed gambler. She does not say a word, but the woman’s eyes flash towards her, sizing her up while leaning back in her chair. “Ah, Lady Tianquan.” She does not sound surprised. “Are you here to play as well?”
The invitation is clear, and in the corner of her mind, Ningguang remembers the warning. Do not play with any strange lady that you do not know. While Ningguang contemplates the offer, the blonde observes her, taking her measure as Ningguang assesses her would be opponent. Waving her hand, Ningguang banishes her pipe. “Yes,” she says, eventually, “three rounds.”
With one sweeping wave of her fan, a member of the floor staff hurries over, bringing forth chips for her use without a word. Ningguang’s eyes stay fixed on the blonde, who rose just as the floor girl came to begin arranging the table for the next round. The woman’s fingers are quick, dancing across the table as she gathers the dice and clears the table. “I’m sure nobody will object to giving you first roll.” Her words are said in challenge, closing her hand with two dice only to open it with six for Ningguang.
Inclining her head, Ningguang selects two, sweeping them from the woman’s proffered hand into her own. She flicks her wrist and the dice clatter against the rail before falling back onto the table, two pairs of twos staring back at Ningguang while her opponent shakes her head. “Unlucky,” she says, the tugging at the corner of her lips belying her true feelings as she offers the dice back to Ningguang.
Curtly, Ningguang offers her a short nod while the players around her begin to bet. She waits until all the chips are down before throwing again. Four, four. The woman shakes her head, smile widening. “Lucky,” she says this time, and Ningguang bares her teeth.
Three, two. “Unlucky.”
One, five. “Not quite.”
Two, four. “Close.”
Four, three.
“Too bad,” the woman says even as she sweeps the chips over to her side. “Two more.”
Ningguang nods.
The dice go to the woman, who twirls them between her fingers while the first bets come out. At the table, Ningguang is the only one to bet against the pass-line, everyone else too wary of the blonde woman with quick hands, and Ningguang smiles. The woman tilts her head at the bet, offering a jaunty wave of her hand with two dice clasped between her fingers. She winks, and the dice fall.
One, two.
Without a word, Ningguang accepts her winnings and the dice are passed on.
This time at the pass, Ningguang goes all in. The crowd leans in at the sight, unbelieving, and the blonde’s eyebrows climb. “Are you quite sure about that, darling?”
Ningguang meets her gaze evenly, crimson on crimson. “Yes.” She inclines her head towards the woman’s chips, and her attention turns.
“Very well.” With a single careless finger, the woman slides her chips towards Ningguang’s. “As you were.”
The room itself seems to hold its breath while the young man prepares to roll once again, hands shaking as he looks between the two women to his left. He tosses the dice quickly, eager to rid himself of their presence. One, one, but the die do not touch the rail. The crowd sighs and shaky hands gather the die once more.
Ningguang herself does not hold her breath, only watches expectantly until the young man rolls.
Four, three.
The blonde smiles. “Lucky,” she says.
Splitting the winnings, Ningguang gathers what is hers before standing. “As…enjoyable as this was, that is quite enough for today, I think.”
The blonde looks up. “Leaving so soon? Why not play one more? Settle the score,” she goads, but Ningguang does not take the bait.
“No, thank you,” she declines, stepping away from the table while waving a girl over to deal with her chips. She’ll buy some sweets for the children with it, she thinks. “There is nothing more I need to do here. If you’ll excuse me.” And she is leaving, walking out of the room without a backward glance. Behind her, the blonde rises from her seat, ignoring her own winnings to chase after her, catching her just as Ningguang steps through the doors.
“You came and left so quickly, we barely got to know one another.” She sounds almost disappointed, and Ningguang laughs.
“Know one another?” She arches a brow, lips quirked at the interesting turn of phrase. “Why would we need to get to know one another?”
“So that we’ll play again, of course. One should never play at Yanshang Teahouse with strange women that one does not know, didn’t you hear?”
“Strange women?” Ningguang laughs, genuine for the first time today. “Why, there are no strange women that I do not know here. You cannot possibly mean yourself, can you Yelan? I should think that I know you quite well.”
three
“I will. I will rely on you and only you, my extraordinary Yelan. I will entrust to you that which I will give to no other. I know that you will not fail me. You, I trust unreservedly.”
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Incredulously, Ningguang stares at Yelan in her hall. “I asked you to investigate what sort of goods the Fatui were planning to move through Bishui Plain last month, and you come back six weeks later missing a priceless family heirloom and wearing the fur of a centuries dead animal.” The animal part is said with especial scorn, so that Yelan understands the magnitude of Ningguang’s derision.
Her words do not phase Yelan in the slightest, nor does the disgust that slips out in Ningguang’s final words. The impossible woman only offers a careless smirk and a shrug, turning her head to the side to admire the robe wrapped around her shoulders. “I think it makes quite a statement. Fashionable. This was meant for the Tsaritsa herself. Now, it’s mine. I think that’s a fair trade, although a bit too warm for most of Liyue’s climate. I’ll fix that part, at least.”
Yelan’s casual flippancy is enough to stun Ningguang, reducing her to silent, disbelieving blinking. When she finally has something worth saying, she is forced to hold her tongue when Yelan winks at her. Ningguang sighs. “At least tell me you know what else they have been shipping. The whole trade route was surely not meant for just one long-dead animal carcass.”
“Excuse me,” Yelan mocks offense, slouching further against the wall she is leaning on, “this is but one small part of a very, very large animal carcass.”
“Yelan.”
This time, driven by the weight of command layered into Ningguang’s exasperation, Yelan huffs. Ningguang is a spoilsport, but the most interesting kind, so she does not protest. Much. Instead, she opens mouth to sing free all the hidden, dirty secrets Ningguang wants from her while the red-eyed Tianquan listens, her mind surely whirring faster than Yelan can keep up with as she plans and plots.
When Yelan finally sings herself hoarse, Ningguang nods. There is no room for words of gratitude, but a smile plays at the edges of her lips as she considers everything that Yelan has given her and everything that she can do with it. Ultimately, Ningguang’s conclusions must be satisfying enough because her tongue darts out, quick as a flash to lick her lips, and she sends Yelan a promise-laden glance between lidded eyes before her head turns.
Ningguang’s heels clip down the hall, past Yelan, and into her room. The door, she leaves open.
Yelan waits a beat, staring sightlessly at the wood left on its hinge before pushing off the wall with her foot and striding quickly after Ningguang. Entering the room, she sees Ningguang, standing in front of her mirror with her head tilted slightly. She is staring at herself, Yelan realizes, holding herself still at the doorway to watch Ningguang. What does she see? Does she see what I see?
Then, a more dangerous thought flits into her head. Does she know who I see? Yelan bats that thought away as quickly as it came, but not before it rips its way through her mind and leaves her shivering. Does she?
Whatever Ningguang sees in the mirror will surely go to the grave along with all her other secrets, and so Yelan relaxes herself. She has nothing to fear. Ningguang turns her head, eyes meeting hers as she beckons her forward. “Come.”
As if drawn by an invisible string, Yelan goes. She steps into the room fully, moving until she is behind Ningguang, scant inches of air between them. Yelan keeps her eyes firmly focused on Ningguang’s in the mirror, catching the quick twitch of her lips before it disappears and is replaced by an incline of her head. She moves closer and closer until they are touching, Ningguang giving no indication that she is paying Yelan’s movement the slightest bit of attention until Yelan’s front is pressed firmly to Ningguang’s back while her hands move to encircle her waist. She keeps her touch light, but firm against Ningguang’s hips. She goes no further, and she waits.
Ningguang of course, does not disappoint. Her lips part open in an exhalation of breath, and she says, “Good.” Tilts her head again, this time exposing the long line of her neck to Yelan’s hungry gaze. She does not elaborate.
Waves of ivory block her access, but Yelan is an enterprising young woman and does not let that stop her. She raises her hand, letting it brush aside silken threads to fully bare Ningguang’s throat to her before pausing, hand resting on Ningguang’s shoulder.
Ningguang hums. “Continue.”
The beginnings of a smile bury themselves in Ningguang’s neck, Yelan allowing herself to kiss and nip at perfect alabaster skin until a flush begins to rise. Ningguang sighs, leaning back further to give Yelan more room and the hand on her hip tightens. Ningguang laughs, amused, but allows Yelan to continue working at her neck until the hand on her shoulder begins to press down more insistently and she lets out one more sigh, longer this time, to herself, before bringing up a hand of her own to cover Yelan’s.
“Undress me.”
At her command, Yelan pulls smoothly away. She draws the hand on Ningguang’s hip up towards the buttons on her qipao, pressing down slightly on the path she traces along Ningguang’s body. She undoes the buttons, one by one, as her eyes catch Ningguang’s in the mirror. She holds her gaze, unwavering as the first button comes undone. Then the next, and the next, all while Ningguang’s molten eyes threaten to immolate her soul through their reflections and then all the buttons are free. Ningguang’s once pristine qipao begins to slump.
Against her body, Yelan feels Ningguang twitch, begin to detach herself, but she keeps her close, refusing to let go as she urges Ningguang to step out of her qipao. As the dress comes down, so too does Yelan, guiding the golden sheath carefully down Ningguang’s body until Yelan is kneeling and the dress is in a puddle on the floor.
Finally, Ningguang turns to face Yelan. Her hand moves down to cup along Yelan’s jaw as she looks up, eyes wide open and gazing at Ningguang without restraint or guile. They say that the eyes are the window to one’s soul, and Yelan throws hers wide, wide open, everything laid bare for Ningguang to look through at her leisure—there is nothing for Yelan to hide, nothing that Ningguang does not know.
This is a fact, because Ningguang trusts her, which means that she knows Yelan, sees her for who she is, and Yelan need not bother hiding the emptiness in her eyes that reflect her soul. Ningguang knows, and she does not care. “Oh, my Yelan.” Her voice is fond, possessive, and it encompasses everything that Yelan meant but did not say when she swore herself to Ningguang. She did not need to, not for one who knows her as Ningguang does.
Perhaps outsiders might find their relationship strange, their affairs inconceivable. But to Yelan, it makes perfect sense. It is not reciprocal, but it suits her, incredibly well—Ningguang, suits Yelan incredibly well, and she is the only one who can give Ningguang what she wants to continue playing her games.
“Ningguang,” Yelan responds. Just Ningguang. She has nothing else to say, and she does not need to say anything else. She looks up at Ningguang like she is a precious thing, like her soul is not her own, and Ningguang alone holds the key to its lock.
The hand at her jaw ghosts down to her chin, Ningguang following its path as something indecipherable glimmers in her eyes. What does she see? A pause, then, “Continue.”
Reverently, Yelan raises her hand, hooking a finger through Ningguang’s underwear and drawing it down, past Ningguang’s hips and down long, snow-white legs until it too lies at her feet. Then, she rises, hands trailing up along Ningguang’s body until her hand is at her back, unhooking Ningguang’s bra and pulling it off her body. This, too, falls to the ground.
Once more, Yelan meets her gaze, a challenge in her eyes, and Ningguang only smiles indulgently. Her eyes paint fiery trails down Yelan’s body, scorching a blazing path only she can see, as if by sight alone she could touch Yelan. “Strip,” she commands, and Yelan obeys without thought.
Hungry eyes follow her movements, ravenous red orbs painting a blazing trail as Yelan shrugs off her mantle, pulls off her bodysuit, and peels off her stockings. Her gloves are rolled off while Ningguang’s gaze dissects Yelan, the choker at her neck undone to the tune of Ningguang’s sharp stare narrowing at the smooth, unblemished line of her neck. Her skin prickles, body tensing, unfamiliar to the sense of being prey under the scrutinizing gaze of a predator like Ningguang, but her heart does not race in fear.
“Good,” Ningguang says lowly, stalking close to Yelan until they are pressed against one another, breast to breast as she walks them both across the room. Yelan is pushed backward against the unrelenting force that is Ningguang, forced back until the back of her legs hits the bed and she falls back, Ningguang following to straddle her waist. “Sit up.”
Yelan sits, Ningguang in her lap.
Settled atop Yelan, Ningguang considers the woman before her. She says no words, and Yelan offers none of her own, content to wait while Ningguang makes up her mind. Eventually she does, reaching out with her hands to guide Yelan’s arms up, spread wide in the air. “Summon your ropes for me, would you?” This is the first order phrased as a request, and Yelan does not disappoint.
Ningguang doesn’t bother turning to watch as Yelan’s vision glows and a glowing blue thread gathers behind her, spooling out to wind its way towards them “Around your wrists and then tie them around the posts,” she says, and watches as her words become reality.
She lets out a sigh as Yelan tightens her bindings, arms tensing and chest jutting out slightly, nipples peaking in the cool night air. Every time, Yelan rises to the occasion so beautifully. Such good girls deserve to be rewarded, Ningguang thinks. She shifts to lean closer, brushing kisses along Yelan’s jaw until she reaches her ear. “Very good, Yelan.”
Yelan gives no obvious indication of having heard her, but Ningguang can feel the slight tremors that bely tension against her body, can feel the twitch of her hips every time Ningguang presses close. She hides her grin behind the kiss she presses to her pulse, and Yelan trembles.
Snaking her hand under her and into the heat between Yelan’s thighs, Ningguang’s smile widens at the wetness she finds. She strokes along Yelan languidly, waiting until Yelan begins to relax, legs spreading ever so slightly before she pulls away to sit back on her heels. “Summon your cock.”
Bright green eyes flash, filled with liquid desire and something Ningguang cannot quite name, and then a glowing blue shape spills out from the apex of Yelan’s thighs, cascading out to form a perfectly defined cock. Ningguang sighs. Yelan never disappoints.
The anticipation builds low in Ningguang’s stomach, and she draws herself off from Yelan’s lap only to slide herself down onto her cock, the strange, cool hardness splitting her open just so until Ningguang takes all of her. Ningguang’s head lolls back slightly at the fullness, the cool burn of penetration rapidly devolving into a heady, overwhelming sort of pleasure that she basks in. Then, when she’s had her fill, she wraps one hand around Yelan’s back, claws digging into skin, and pulls her close. “Don’t hold back,” she says. “Fuck me.”
Yelan fucks her.
(She fucks her so, so well.)
Her Yelan is so gifted, Ningguang thinks, head thrown back as Yelan thrusts up into her, teeth gritted in exertion while her hips roll into Ningguang’s with savage strokes before pulling out slowly and repeating the motion in a perfect, steady rhythm. So skilled, so obedient, made just for her.
Unbidden, a moan spills from Ningguang’s lips and then she doesn’t bother stopping them, groaning as Yelan continues pounding into her. Even as Ningguang slips a hand to her clit and begins to peak, clenching down on her, Yelan fucks her through the resistance, forcing Ningguang open around her cock with each heavy thrust. Yelan does not stop, does not relent for even a second even when her arms begin to shake and her hips begin to tremor and Ningguang does not make a move to help her, only keeps one hand digging into Yelan’s shoulder while the other paints her back red in bloody ribbons. “Fuck, Yelan. So good for me, aren’t you? You fuck me so well, don’t you Yelan? My Yelan, mine to fuck, mine to take, mine to have—all mine, aren’t you?”
Her words spur Yelan on until she is fucking Ningguang into an incoherent mess in her lap, hips clapping sharply up into Ningguang’s thighs and Ningguang opens her mouth to say more only to be cut of with a choked gasp, unable to finish her thought as wave after wave of pleasure crashes into her. Her mind empties, vision nearly whiting out as Yelan thrusts up and grinds into her with an absolutely filthy roll of her hips. Ningguang moans, claws raking down Yelan’s back, letting Yelan fuck her through one orgasm and into the next until she is sated and breathless against her.
Gradually, Yelan’s thrusts slow, full-bodied movements reduced to slow rolls of her hips until those still into nothing while Ningguang recovers atop her. Times passes like that in a blur, Ningguang drifting in and out while her mind pieces itself back together before she raises her head. “Give your arms some slack,” she orders, and Yelan’s brow furrows even as the ropes holding her arms taut loosen.
Then, without any sort of pretense, Ningguang shoves Yelan fully onto her back. “I’m going to ride you, now,” she says calmly, as if laying out the day’s orders to her secretaries, “and then I’m going to choke you, and you are going to say thank you and come.” She does not elaborate, does not bother to make sure that Yelan understands, only rolls her hips and sets a punishing pace for them both while her hand moves to Yelan’s throat.
The pressure is light, at first, just a hand resting there, letting Yelan know that it can tighten, teasing her with the implications, until Yelan’s thighs jerk and she chokes out a ragged, “Thank you,” and Ningguang moans again while the hand at her throat tightens.
From the back of her mind, even as her vision goes hazy and her body tries to gasp, Yelan notices that she is thrusting back up into Ningguang, their hips coming together roughly, and she knows that there will be bruises tomorrow, but she can’t find it in herself to care. Her thoughts are starting to slip away, Ningguang is a vision in white atop her, and the world is starting to dim. The last thing she sees are two glowing orbs of crimson, flashing before her eyes before Yelan slips into the dark.
And then bright lights erupt behind her eyes and Yelan’s world comes to a screeching halt, hanging tightly over a steep, steep precipice and her heart soars, higher and higher and she is, as breath floods her lungs, for one brief moment, alive.
four
知己 (zhījǐ): the one who knows me; soulmate
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
The sun is out, bright light streaming through her windows while the Jade Chamber floats serenely atop the clouds, and Yelan is a horrible intelligence agent who is two weeks early and noticeably bereft of the information she was sent to acquire. Instead, she has a rock.
“…and what am I supposed to do with this?” Ningguang asks, staring at the dull, lifeless blob of rock in front of her before sniping, “which is clearly not the legislature plans of the Akademiya that I asked you for.”
Slouched against Ningguang’s wall, Yelan is impossibly smug, flipping a conjured die between her fingers while refusing to meet Ningguang’s piercing gaze. “It’s a present,” she says, aloof and infuriating, twirling the die around her hand before waving it away in a shower of blue. “For you, from me.” She turns her head, green eyes glinting in the light of the sun. “A thank you would not be uncalled for, here.”
Rolling her eyes, Ningguang resists the urge to throw the dusty pile of rock in front of her at Yelan. “For a present, it’s awfully unappealing to look at, isn’t it? And you still haven’t explained what I’m supposed to do with it.”
Slowly, Yelan begins to push herself off the wall, taking her sweet time to cross the small expanse of Ningguang’s office with an infuriatingly fluid grace, shaking her head as she does so. “Looks aren’t everything, Lady Tianquan. You of all people should know that,” she chides, coming up to a stop beside Ningguang.
“I mean, really,” Yelan continues, bending slightly to hover over the offending rock and snapping her fingers, “don’t judge a book by its cover.”
A burst of blue water rushes across Yelan’s gift, coating it before Yelan waves her hand and banishes it, the dust coating the rock gone as well to reveal a masterless vision sitting innocuously on Ningguang’s desk. “Or a vision, I suppose.”
Immediately, Ningguang’s eyes are drawn to what was once a dull, lifeless rock and is now a dull, lifeless vision before her, empty of ambition and worth so much more. She herself does not wield a vision, and she honestly does not care to, much more intrigued by the possibilities this masterless vision presents to her instead. Unconsciously, her hand reaches out to touch, but she catches herself, hand held just slightly above the murky white surface of the vision.
“Interested now, aren’t you, Ningguang?” Yelan radiates satisfaction, straightening until she towers over Ningguang in her chair, draping an arm around her shoulders to lean over her, head resting on Ningguang’s shoulder. “You can touch. It won’t bite.”
Hesitating, Ningguang still doesn’t let her hand fall until Yelan reaches out, hand over hand, to gently push Ningguang’s hand onto the vision. Nothing happens, the vision doesn’t bite, and Ningguang’s mind begins to kick into high gear as she contemplates her next steps—
A golden glow begins to emanate from between the cracks of Ningguang and Yelan’s hands, brighter and brighter until Ningguang can barely keep her eyes open until the room is bathed in gold and Ningguang’s eyes snap shut, only opening when Yelan’s hand leaves her own.
With mounting dread, Ningguang’s hand slips around the vision, lifting it up as her eyes open and drop down. “Fuck,” she says.
(She can still hear Yelan in the background, laughing.)
end.