𝙨𝒕𝙖𝒓𝙙𝒐𝙢'𝙨 𝙨𝒆𝙘𝒓𝙚𝒕 - 𝐥𝐲𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐱 𝐟em! 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

chapter 09 - wink, blink

After y/n had asked if Lyney wanted to watch the meteor shower with her, he was absolutely floored.

Of course he had accepted, but his eyes were trained more on the eyes of the girl, which sparkled under the shooting stars.

The cold air of the late night bit mercilessly against his skin, his face flushed and hands seemingly frozen in place.

He finally tore his gaze away from the girl, looking up at the sky.

White lines acted as little dashes, standing out compared to the smaller, unmoving stars.

How stunning...does y/n always know about space events like this?

A breeze blew by the pair, and Lyney would have shivered if not for the inner warmth supplied by the girl next to him.

A particularly bright shooting star made itself apparent, and y/n grew increasingly happy.

"Look!" She excitedly tugged Lyney's arm, "did you see that one?"

He chuckled, "yes, it was quite bright. However..."

This is my chance to flirt with her a little, right?

"Hm?" Y/n raised an eyebrow in inquiry.

"...I think your eyes shine even brighter," he delivered the line smoothly (he hoped). To follow it, he winked at her to add charm.

She stared at him, mouth agape before breaking into a smile, making him blush. "Aw! That's so nice of you Lyney! Maybe my eyes look brighter because my pupils are dilated, so there's more colors in contrast to them..." she went on a tangent about the reflection of light on corneas and color theory.

Lyney kept up a smile, but his eye twitched and his confidence shattered. He loved her—wait, loved? Yes, but as a friend right? Right. He loved her, but she could be a little dense sometimes.

"Wow, y/n! Neutron stars are dense, but they have nothing on you!" Childe had even told her that to her face at school before.

"Oh!" Y/n exclaimed, bringing Lyney back from his thoughts, "when you winked, you almost looked like Lyney there. But idol Lyney, you know? That was pretty funny."

"Oh, did I really?" He asked innocently, knowing fully well that the wink could have been enough to reveal his "secret identity" completely.

"Mhm," she hummed, turning her gaze back to the midnight sky.

Ah yes, it was past midnight, wasn't it? Y/n had mentioned that staying up late was a requirement to see the peak of the meteors. He never really stayed up that late—an idol had to get as much sleep as he can, after all. Seeing as he wasn't used to late nights, that was probably the most fitting explanation as to why his eyes were feeling heavier than usual.

No, he denied the fatigue, I will not fall asleep while y/n went out of her way to let me witness something so beautiful. He stared determinedly at the sky.

He gazed in awe as stars went across the sky, one after another, creating a myriad of shooting stars. He treasured each one, as he knew that meteor showers that were as active as this were rare among Teyvat.

He felt something cold on his nose. Then, the stars seemed to close in from a vignette.

"What's..." y/n muttered quizzically, holding out her hand.

Lyney looked around, and saw that flurries were forming. "The first snow of the year," he remarked.

He looked back up at y/n, and felt his heart sink at her disappointed face.

"I'm sorry, Lyney," she said, "I didn't know the weather would happen suddenly like this. Now the shooting stars are invisible, and it's really late. And dark. It's probably gonna get cold soon, too."

"It's not your fault," he smiled reassuringly at her. "At least the streets will look pretty tomorrow, right?"

"If it snows enough. For it to look that pretty, it should probably snow around seven or eight centimeters, but these are just flurries."

"Well aren't you just a realist..." he grumbled.

It snowed harder, the flakes becoming noticeably larger and falling faster.

He noticed y/n shiver out of his peripheral vision.

"Here, take this for now."

"Wha—" she was cut off by Lyney wrapping his jacket around her shoulders. "But you'll be cold!"

He waved nonchalantly. "Don't worry at all, I'll be fine."

He thought for a few moments. He didn't want y/n to walk for over an hour to her house; the weather would surely get worse before it got better.

"Hey, where are we?" He asked.

Y/n told him the address, and Lyney plugged it into his phone.

It was a twenty minute walk from his house. Not great, but better than the distance to y/n's house.

"Would you be comfortable spending the night at my house? We have a guest room that you could stay in. I don't want you to walk in the cold."

"Oh—uh..." she thought hard, furrowing her brows. "I'd be okay with it. I'll have to ask my mom, though."

"Oh—of course, no worries."

He saw y/n press a few buttons on her phone—albeit slowly, due to the cold. She pressed the phone up to her ear.

After a few rings, her mom picked up. Lyney couldn't make out exactly what her mother was saying, but could infer for himself listening to y/n's replies.

"He asked me if I wanted to stay because it started snowing...Yes, I'll be safe...Yes, the shooting stars were worth it...Hey, why are you laughing? No, mom, it's not like that! Mom...Bye, love you."

Y/n hung up the phone. "I can stay," she announced.

"Nice," he tried to refrain himself from sounding too enthusiastic. "We should get going quickly though, the show's starting to pick up."

"Ah, right!"

*-*-*

For some reason, Lynette was still awake when they arrived, but y/n was grateful. Not only did it give her a chance to explain the situation, but Lynette kindly lended y/n clothes to borrow, while also showing her how their shower functioned. Lyney had almost immediately gone to bed, and y/n felt somewhat guilty for not noticing how fatigued he was.

It was around one in the morning, and y/n was still half awake, staring at the light of her phone.

Honestly, she had a hard time sleeping at other people's houses. It was unfamiliar. Also, it didn't help that she was easily distracted by snow.

Her gaze had been switching back and forth from the window to her phone, from her phone to the window.

One thing she had realized, was that Lyney was probably loaded. The guest room was bigger than her own room, she had noticed, and the furniture was sleek and subtle, but certainly not cheap.

The bed was awfully comfortable for merely  a guest bed, and hold on—were those curtains made of silk?

Tapestries that depicted oceans and blizzards were on one of the walls, and y/n found it funnily coincidental that it was heavily snowing outside. A sleek, black desk was pushed against one of the walls, with minimal equipment present on its surface.

Her eyes slowly dried and her eyelids felt too heavy despite her curiosity about the room. Eventually, sleep won, and she slumped her head down to the pillow.

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HELP OH MY GOD I'M SO SORRY I PUBLISHED THIS CHAPTER ON AO3 IN JANUARY BUT FORGOT TO UPDATE IT ON WATTPAD </3 IM SO SORRY😭😭😭