Love Blooms

Chapter 5

the next morning, you picked up your luggage at the port, meeting up with a few other writers who got shipped out by yae miko.

"yae miko is truly unpredictable," one of them said. "she sent like 4 of us on a spontaneous trip?! how scary..."

you laughed, "yeah, but it gets better after some time. and besides, this trip is nice."

"maybe for you since you were born here! the rest of us have never been here before!"

"then you should explore a little," you said. "didn't she give you all maps as well?"

"she did-"

"then there's nothing to worry about," you replied firmly. "you guys should explore a little, it's a lot of fun!"

"if you say so Y/N..."

you grabbed your suitcase and wheeled it back to gandharva ville, seeing tighnari talking to a green-haired girl with pink-ish purple eyes. tighnari snapped his head in your direction when he heard footsteps. "oh, Y/N. i was wondering where you disappeared to this morning."

"yeah i just had to grab my luggage from the port," you said, walking up to them.

"you could have asked me to help," he frowned. "i would have been more than happy to send a sumpter beast."

"it's alright," you waved him off. "no need to worry."

"if you say so... anyways, i wanted you to meet someone. this is collei, the student i told you about earlier."

"it's a pleasure to meet you," you said to her.

"h-hello! i'm a huge fan of your work," she said, shaking your outstretched hand. "your writing is really good! master tighnari wasn't kidding when he recommended some of your work."

"i'm glad you think so, collei," you smiled at her. "it means a lot to me."

"i-if you don't mind me asking, when does your next part of 'the work-shy bard' come out? i'm really eager to read it."

"oh! i was going to finish it while i was here," you said. "i have a good idea for the ending, so i'll be finishing the series and then working on a few other ideas."

"cool! i'm so excited," she squealed. "u-uhm... do you mind if you sign a few copies of my books?"

"of course!"

"you don't think that's weird or anything?"

"no, why would i think that," you asked her. "i'd be more than happy to sign them!"

"okay! let me grab my books," she said eagerly, then rushed off to her room to collect all of them.

"i didn't know you visited mondstadt," tighnari said to you. "collei actually likes going there as well."

"oh really? maybe all of us can go together one of these days," you smiled.

"i think that'd be cool," tighnari smiled back.

"i'm back! phew!"

"collei, don't overexert yourself," tighnari scolded her. "you know you have to be careful."

"i know i know," she said, then held 2 books up, a pen hooked on one of the covers. "thank you so much!"

you grabbed the books and signed each one, accompanied with a thoughtful message. "there ya go!"

"thank you!!!"

"of course!"

"collei, you need to finish studying before you continue playing around, alright," tighnari said.

"alright," she said, albeit a little sadly. "i'll see you later Y/N! it was nice to meet you."

"good luck with your studies," you called after her as she left once more, signed books in hand. "she's absolutely adorable!"

"i know," he said with a smile. "did you sleep alright yesterday?"

"slept like a baby," you grinned. "thank you again for the last minute accommodation."

"like i said, no problem at all," he said pleasantly.

"tighnari!"

you both turned, seeing cyno's now-spouse gliding in from a tree top. "oh! and Y/N! hi!"

tighnari sighed, "why are you working right now? shouldn't you and cyno be getting ready for your honeymoon?"

"well... we were," they replied. "but, there's trouble within the akademiya, so cyno wanted to resolve it first."

"there's trouble," you asked them. "what's going on?"

"i'm not sure myself... he said he'd sort it out in a few days."

"well that's not good," tighnari said, then began to think.

"i agree... it's a little troublesome," you said. "i'm so sorry you both have to deal with this crap right before your honeymoon."

"as much as i want to enjoy my time elsewhere, sumeru takes priority," they replied.

"yeah, as demonstrated by your actions 6 months ago," tighnari rolled his eyes.

"... are you still going to keep berating me for it? we already resolved that issue."

tighnari scoffed, "fine, i'll drop it. why did you come all the way here though?"

"there's a withering zone nearby, so i wanted your permission to clear it before i do anything," they said.

"you don't need to ask me," tighnari replied. "just do as you see fit."

"alright," they replied. "i'm off then! bye Y/N, bye tighnari."

"bye," you called after them as they began to run in the direction of the withering zone. "those things are still popping up?"

"yeah," tighnari sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "there's unfortunately not a lot of options to stop them completely, so we just have to keep destroying them."

"i see," you hummed. "well... if you'll excuse me, i'm going to start working. after all, this is a work-cation."

"by all means," he said, watching you walk off. "make sure you take breaks once in a while."

"i will," you called back, knowing damn well that it'd be hard to considering that your writing engrossed you completely. sometimes, you'd write for hours straight with no break because of how carried away you'd get.

you only got to write for an hour before tighnari barged in carrying snacks. "Y/N, i told you to take breaks," he scolded you.

"it's only been an hour," you defended yourself.

"stop with that," he scoffed, placing it down on your paper. "eat a little bit and stretch, okay? it's not good to sit around like this for hours on end only working on shit with no break."

"fine," you succumbed to his demands, grabbing a few snacks and stretching your arms above your head.

he chuckled, "still the same as before. that writing bug lasts forever, doesn't it?"

"i think you're just jealous that i used to get all my work done without procrastinating as bad as you," you chuckled, then flinched when you felt him use one of your pencils to tap you on the head.

"oh come on, i wasn't as bad as cyno," he defended himself. "he'd stay up for hours just fantasizing abou-"

he cut himself off when he was about to mention that person. you laughed, "i don't think i've ever seen you make such a surprised expression. but i'm glad you noticed how much you talk about them, tighnari."

he nodded wordlessly then stood up, "i'll let you work now."

after he left, you let out a breath that you subconsciously held. that's progress.