My AO3 Works!

A Break For Some Summer Festival Fish

- a yoimiya and kirara fic on ao3. (not a ship!)
- characters are from genshin impact.
- art above made by me.
- word count: 925
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In the city of Inazuma, more than 100 packages have been delivered around the clock. With its speedy service and respectable work force, citizens can get their packages within minutes. And one of the workers, Kirara, who was the employee of the month, wanted a little break. But she must work more in order to receive her salary. Earlier, she almost got her pay cut after she almost forgot to deliver a package to the Kamisato Estate. It was a close call, yes. But Kirara never felt pressured, she saw that as a little life lesson she must overcome later in life.

But after she delivered the last package on her list, the nekomata decided to convince her boss to let her take a break for once. But she knew that convincing them would be hard, considering that her boss had never let any of Kirara's colleagues have a break.

She walked to the postal office she works at, Komaniya Express. She wondered if her boss won't let her rest up, but Kirara's the most hardworking courier in Inazuma after all, her boss would let her rest for sure. But, throughout the day there were so many orders piled up. She brushed it off, thinking that the workers who will cover the night shift will help handle it.

Kirara entered the office to see one of the night shift workers preparing to start their shift. It was 19:05 by now, time went by so fast, huh?

The worker glanced at the cat-eared girl. "I heard you filled in for the night shift, right?" He said. "If you're here to see the boss, check their office."

"Ah, yes!" Kirara perked up, her tails practically swinging left and right. "I was about to see them, thanks for telling me!"

Before the worker can respond even further, the nekomata rushed to the boss's office. She knocked on the door to be more polite, then hearing the boss's voice from the other side. "Come in!"

Kirara opened the door to see her boss examining some paperwork, slowly raising their head to face her. "Oh, Kirara. What do you want this time?"

"Hey, boss." Said Kirara. "This miiight be a bit sudden but, can I let myself take a break?"

Her boss pondered for a while, an awkward silence filled the air. To be fair, Kirara didn't mind working a little bit more. She had even filled in for the night shift today, she originally thought that today was like every other day, where there were average amounts of orders. She thought that the boss would just let her continue, and Kirara wanted to lay down in her cozy bed or eat a last minute snack. She wanted to take a break, she wanted to.

"Say, did you fill in a spot for the night shift?" The boss inquired. "Well, since today is the first day of the Summer Festival. I'll let you rest for the day, but next week, you have to do the night shift."

Kirara was surprised, staring at her boss in disbelief. "B-boss? This is so sudden!" She spoke. "Normally you wouldn't let any of us take a break!"

"Look, I'm giving you a break today because one: today is the Summer Festival, and two: you have already worked enough, you need a break." The boss smiled after saying that. Kirara could only stand there 'flabbergasted', in her terms.

"I- Thank you so much, Boss!" The nekomata grew ecstatic, then thanked her boss.

———

As Kirara stepped outside of the postal office, she saw a lot of people enjoying the Summer Festival, and saw a bunch of children running with sparklers. And that gave the cat-eared an idea to visit her close friend. She tried to buy her friend something, like for example: the newly popular Dango Milk, a small tanuki statue and a water bottle imported from Liyue with a goldfish pattern.

She ended up not buying anything because any one of those gifts were either sold out, hadn't even arrived to Inazuma or were expensive.

Kirara walked over to Naganohara Fireworks, and saw her friend, Yoimiya, talking with some children. She appeared to be playing with sparklers and giving them some goldfish shaped dango. Kirara should've bought that, it was cheap, easy to prepare, and was the best gift to buy...

"Oh! Kirara!" Yoimiya waved at her friend. "Are you on break? Not blaming you, it's great to rest during a time like this."
"Yeah." Kirara says while going to sit on a nearby bench. "Today was very busy for the office."
"I can tell." Yoimiya spoke. "Earlier, you never had a chance to say hi to me, probably because you have a ton of orders piled up."

Kirara remained silent, gazing at the fireworks in the sky. They looked like fireflies flying all over the place, the colors mesmerized the nekomata. She didn't notice Yoimiya standing beside her, handing her some of the goldfish dango.

"Here, I know you're hungry!" She said, sitting beside her friend. "I have some of these left from earlier."
"Oh! Thanks, Yoimiya. I'm really craving for some food." Kirara said before taking a bite out of the dango.

From there, the two girls gazed into the night sky, enjoying the view of the fireworks, the stars, the ambience... Yes, it was always like this every single Summer Festival. But its beauty can never be ruined every time. And as the cat-eared girl stared at the sky, enjoying the dango in her hand.

She never regretted taking that break.