DECATHECT | HSR x F!Reader

03 ~ 516 Days Before

"I'll take the amethysts and topaz please." 

"Of course, here you go ma'am." 

[Y/N] paid the vendor the money and continued her way down the busy market, occasionally stopping to inspect a stand here and there. Most of the jewelry and accessories were fakes, which were then sold at a marked up price. 

"Premium ores sold right here! Get them now before they're sold out!" 

Perking up, the woman turned towards the direction where the voice came from. It was from an elderly man, sitting behind a mountain of assorted ores. Approaching the stand, she curiously picked up one of the ores and rolled it around on her palm. "These really are of excellent quality." she commented. 

"You have a good eye, [Y/N]." A familiar voice spoke up. 

"Hm?" Spinning around, she met eyes with a familiar individual. "Oh! Yingxing! I didn't expect to see you here!" 

"Is she your friend, 少年?" the old man asked the tall silver-haired male.

"Are we friends??" [Y/N] towards him, [e/c] eyes staring at him, eagerly waiting for his response. She wasn't sure whether or not her clients could be considered 'friends' but who knows?  

"I uh- yes?" Yingxing stuttered out as his ears turned a bright shade of red. 

[Y/N] cheered and the elderly man sighed, "Young men these days... The usual?" 

Yingxing nodded as the old man picked up a potato sack filled with ores and handed it to the craftsman. "Had you not come sooner, I would've sold all of these off to someone else." he sighed, running a hand through his short white hair. 

The craftsman laughed, "Mr. Wang, even if I were to come late, I doubt many other people would be able to pick out the best ones from this pile."

Mr. Wang huffed, waving his hands at Yingxing. "If you're not buying anything else, get going. I can be getting more customers right now." 

The latter laughed, turning towards [Y/N], "Well, shall we get going?" 

"Yeah, let's go!" [Y/N] smiled, waving goodbye to Mr. Zhang before following the man down the street. 

It was silent for a moment before Yingzing spoke up. "So uh... how has everything been lately?" He began, awkwardly shifting the heavy bag of ores in his arms.

"Good. I've been receiving more commissions lately, but they're not too complicated so that's nice." The [h/c]-ette hummed. "How about you?" 

Yingxing shrugged, "Nothing much. I've been working on a couple projects lately though." 

"Oooh I see, what do you make? Weapons? The ores you used are usually refined and used to make weapons, but I have worked with them before when making my products." [Y/N] tapped her chin while casting her gaze on the man walking beside her.

"Yeah, I make weapons for the other members of the High Cloud Quintet." 

"The High Cloud what?" 

"High Cloud Quintet." 

[Y/N] frowned, "I've never heard of that before.... I think. I don't remember." 

"Never mind then." 

The two continued on in silence. [Y/N] pursed her lips, trying to figure out something to say but Yingxing beat her to it. "It's almost noontime. Want to get lunch together?" 

She brightened, "Of course! Is this something friends normally do?" 

Chuckling, he patted her on the head. "Yes, c'mon I'll take you to my favorite restaurant." 

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"So you come here often?" 

"Not really, but I come here occasionally." 

[Y/N] took a sip of her chrysanthemum tea and admired the view from the second floor balcony of the restaurant. Starskiffs flew back and forth below the bridges and shops lined the streets as far as the eye could see. "Very nice view here." 

Yingxing nodded, following her gaze towards the busy streets below. Just then, the waiter came back with their orders. "A spicy beef noodle soup and a bamboo shoot soup," the waiter placed down their respective dishes before bowing, "Please enjoy." 

They thanked the waiter and began eating. 

"This is really good!" [Y/N] smiled as she slurped up the noodles and took a bite out of the beef tendon. "My master used to make this for me during the winter, though his version was a lot spicier." 

The craftsman sitting across from her hummed, taking a bite of ham and wiped his mouth with a napkin. "I see. He taught you well, my friend really liked the earrings I gave him." 

At the mention of his friend, [Y/N]'s mind drifted towards Dan Feng. "I'm glad he liked it! That piece wasn't as complicated compared to some of the others I've made before, so it wasn't too difficult." 

"I see." 

They finished the meal in an awkward silence, neither one speaking up and instead, opted to continue eating. Once they had finished the two paid for their meals and left the restaurant. 

"Thank you for taking me out to have lunch!" [Y/N] smiled, clasping her hands together. "I really enjoyed it. I hope we get to see each other soon!" 

Yingxing smiled, "My pleasure, if you would like, you can message me and we can schedule a day to meet up and chat." 

"I have your contact?" 

"When you took my order." 

[Y/N] laughed, "I totally forgot, my apologies! But yes, I'd really like to meet up with you again to talk! Once more, thank you for spending time with me today, I really appreciate it!" 

He hummed, watching her disappear off into the distance before he felt a tap on his shoulder. 

"So you finally went on your date?" Jing Yuan smirked, "I knew something was up! That lady is really pretty Yingxing~" 

The swordsmith grumbled, "For the last time Jing Yuan, she's not my girlfriend." 

"Your ears say otherwise." Jing Yuan giggled before sprinting off. 

"You-!" 

To say the least, Jing Yuan ending up getting scolded by his master and was forced to apologize to the craftsman, lest he wanted his Devastator Glaive to be taken away from him.  

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A/N: 

Shorter chapter this time! (sorry about that lol) Also tysm for all the reads! I never expected this book to get any reads really 

I'll try my best to publish chapters every other day or once every two days for now since school is going to start soon 

(chapter is not proofread)

Here are the translations: 

少年 [shao nian] - (means 'youngster' or 'juvenile')