Always and Forever

Chapter 1

Keqing thought she knew everything about Liyue. Its entire landscape she had fully engrained in her brain and utilised to its fullest. She studied architecture, flora, business, and everything possible to become one of the Seven Stars of Liyue. Diseases and sicknesses were nothing new to her, as she'd been treated for many different kinds.

However... How did she end up with this?

It started nearly a year ago, when that Harbinger awakened Osial from underneath Guyun Stone Forest. The Fatui had attacked in droves and droves, and she had no clue how they would have fought them off, even with the Adepti's help. The Adepti had made it perfectly clear that they were there only to fight Osial, and that it would be up to them to fight off the oncoming Fatui.

Then the Traveller had arrived, with his little pet fairy. At the time, the other members of the Liyue Qixing were glad to see him, although she herself was skeptical as to how one person could simply save them all.

She changed her mind soon enough.

With the platform swarming with Fatui, both of them had fought back to back, covering each other and taking out droves and droves of Fatui until none remained. The Adepti had still failed to destroy Osial, but they had lent the Traveller their power to destroy the Jade Chamber. Human bodies were never meant to share the power of Adepti, as she had learned firsthand. But when she saw Aether glow gold, with a sword shining brighter than some of the stars in the sky...

It was straight out of a fairy tale.

It was from that moment on, that she fell hopelessly in love with him. During the aftermath, when the Qixing had agreed to offer him one wish, she took to it personally and tried to talk with him. She tried to make the offer sound tempting, given that he could attain almost any material item at his command. But when she went to talk to him, she noticed that he sort of stiffened when she approached him, and his answer was guarded.

"Can you... put up some missing person posters?" he had asked.

Keqing couldn't lie to herself that her heart sank at hearing those words, but she still had his wish carried out to the fullest, to try and make him happy. When Aether had walked away, however, it was then she began to feel the seeds start to form, taking breath from her lungs.

Hanahaki wasn't very common, and Keqing, never seeing it before, assumed she had fallen slightly sick with a cold. She pushed it off, as she tended to do with minor illnesses, as her Vision would protect her from the most minor of cases.

After a month, her condition had worsened. She developed a cough, and couldn't sprint for longer than a minute without gasping for air. She decided to hold off on seeing a doctor, and instead sent a Commission to the Adventurer's Guild, asking them to gather some herbs and flowers to make some tea.

To her delight, the person that accepted the Commission was none other than Aether himself. It took the Traveller under twenty minutes to gather the herbs, which was astounding, even by her standards. When they met at Yujing Terrace, Aether handed the herbs to her with a smile and well-wishes. Their hands brushed each other briefly, and suddenly Keqing's mind cleared and breathing became easier. But when the Traveller had turned around and started to walk away, her heart became heavier and it once again became harder to breathe.

She brewed the tea with the herbs that the Traveller had prepared for her and drank some of it down. Although it didn't have much taste to it, she was grateful to it as it seemed to clear her airways and heal her. She sighed contently, thinking of the Traveller, and got back to work.

Two days later, the disease came back with full force, and she was forced to commission the Adventurer's Guild again. Aether once again picked up the commission, and completed it in even less time than before. When they met in Yuking Terrace, however, Aether had a request for her.