#i really like kazuscara so I wanted to use them for my first fic!!

[riisume]

Valentine's Day (Genshin Impact) Ler!Kazuha, Lee!Scaramouche/Wanderer

Summary: The former Sixth Fatui Harbinger has something he wants to tell Kazuha, but he's struggling. Kazuha gets an idea that might help encourage him to talk A/N: I wanted to have this done on Valentine's Day, but I got super busy- This is my first fic in a very long time and I kinda rushed the ending, so it's probably not the best, but I'm still pretty happy with how it came out given the situation! Happy (late) Valentine's day!

Also in this fic, Scara's never been tickled before up until this point, so it's new for him. Word Count: 1,184

There was an awkward silence. Kazuha couldn’t help but blink curiously as the former Sixth Fatui Harbinger stood before him, red-faced and struggling to say… Whatever he was trying to say. The blond vagrant knew the Wanderer to be the type to have a sharp tongue and speak his mind unabashedly. Kazuha always appreciated that about him, which left him all the more intrigued by this foreign behavior. A soft smile would touch the samurai’s lips when the Wanderer’s gaze fell upon him for the briefest of moments, only for it to gradually grow warmer every time those indigo irises would meet Kazuha’s ruby ones. A scowl only deepened on the Wanderer’s features. “Perhaps it would be easier for you to take some time and think over what it is you’d like to tell me?” Kazuha suggested, gently. The response he received was sharp; “NO!” the Wanderer caught himself a bit too late, tipping his hat over his eyes to avoid Kazuha’s startled look. “...No. I have to do this now.” It was Valentine's day. The Wanderer had learned about the tradition of asking someone you admire or care about to be your valentine back in his days as the Kabukimono. At the time, the opportunity never struck him to try it himself, nor did it interest him any time after that. Until now. He didn’t understand why he felt the way he did around Kazuha; Comfortable and safe. He didn’t understand why he would feel a swarm of butterflies violently fluttering around in his stomach whenever the samurai would smile in his direction or pepper him with kind words. It was hard to be cold towards someone who was being indiscriminately kind towards him, a mere puppet who has caused so much pain for people, especially those of Inazuma. It was excruciating. Stupid. Pathetic. A puppet shouldn’t be feeling things like this… Yet, here he was. Kazuha was patient. He didn’t want to rush the process, but it was clear that his fellow drifter might need a bit of a gentle push. Putting a couple of his fingers to his chin, Kazuha pondered; What would be an acceptable way to coax out the information? After a few moments of sorting through a mental checklist, an idea came to him; He could try tickling it out of him… Kazuha wasn’t even sure if the other was ticklish or how he would react to it, but it was one of the more gentle ways to get the Wanderer to talk while potentially getting him out of his head. That could work. The former Harbinger noticed Kazuha begin to step towards him. He lifted his gaze, an inquisitive look washing over his features. The samurai vagrant wore a warm smile as he started to circle behind his puzzled associate, arms innocently posed behind his back. The Wanderer’s brow furrowed. He peered over his shoulder. “What are you…” He trailed off. Before the blue-clad man could inquire further and turn around, he felt a pair of arms wrap around him from behind, almost like an embrace. The Wanderer felt a lurching sensation in his chest. He felt the heat rise in his cheeks and the horde of fluttering in his stomach. What did he do? Place his hands on Kazuha’s? Stay frozen like a deer in headlights? The puppet’s question would soon be answered when he felt the Inazuman’s fingers gently nudging and probing into his midriff. A foreign, tingly feeling caused the Wanderer to start shying away from the curious fingers. He opened his mouth to retort. “GH- Wahait-” Why was he overcome with the uncontrollable desire to giggle? “What are you- Hehah- doing!?” “Ah, so you are ticklish! That’s good information to know…” Ticklish? “You appeared to be distressed. I figured a little… Fun encouragement could’ve been the push you needed to tell me what you wanted to. So, if you want me to stop, just tell me what you’ve been struggling to say.” Kazuha’s fingers danced around to the other’s sides, tweaking and squeezing the tender area, causing him to practically leap out of his skin. “GAHAH-! K-Kazuhahahaaa-” “Oh? Does someone have ticklish sides?” The samurai couldn’t help but giggle, too. He was clearly amused. “Ngh-! Sh-shuhut- GAHAH-!”

The Wanderer was still confused as to why these gentle touches were evoking such a reaction from him. He completely didn’t hate it, but it sure was embarrassing. No matter how hard he tried to choke back his giggles and guffaws, they’d just keep spilling past his lips. The desire to crumple and curl up was overwhelming. The best the former Harbinger could do was try to shield himself from the samurai’s probing, tickling fingers, but it was to no avail. Kazuha was too dexterous and swift. Wherever the Wanderer’s hands went to defend, the vagrant’s slender fingers would find a new, unprotected area to scribble and squeeze away at.

Digits trailed down to the puppet’s hips, gently pressing and rubbing into his hip’s hollow. The Wanderer practically bucked in response in a desperate attempt to writhe away. It almost worked, but Kazuha’s fingers were quickly back to their ticklish assault. Even though he was being so gentle, it tickled so, so much.

“AHAH-! O-Okay- OKAHAHAY! I’ll tehehell you!” The Wanderer sputtered, his face practically glowing a bright red. A pleased chuckle resonated from the drifter behind him as the tickling slowly came to a stop… Though, Kazuha’s hands stayed positioned on his ticklish associate’s hips, just in case. The Wanderer’s laughter died down in turn, leaving him lightly panting to catch his breath.

The former Harbinger was grateful that Kazuha was still behind him. Perhaps not being able to see the other’s face would make this easier on him.

“I-I… I guess I wanted to ask if you’d… Be my Valentine.” The Wanderer was practically muttering under his breath. A surprised look crossed Kazuha’s features. Of all the things he was expecting, it wasn’t that. In truth, he’d forgotten that day was today. “You don’t have to accept-” The puppet spoke up after a moment of silence. “It’s a foolish holiday, I shouldn’t even have-” The familiar embrace from behind returned, this time, with the vagrant resting his chin on the Wanderer’s shoulder.

“No, no. I was just surprised, is all.” Kazuha was always soft-spoken, but his tone sounded more tender than usual. He couldn’t help but giggle. “I’d gladly be your Valentine, dear. Truthfully, I haven’t had one in a very, very long time. It would be a nice change of pace.” A wave of relief washed over the Wanderer and an unfamiliar feeling swelled in his chest. Something akin to happiness. Kazuha gave his newly acquired valentine a quick squeeze before taking his hand. The warm smile that graced his features as he looked over to his fellow Anemo user sent the butterflies in the Wanderer’s stomach rampant. “Come, let’s take a walk and take in the scenery. Perhaps talk, as well, if you’re up for it.”

With a faint, genuine smile tugging at the corners of his lips, the Wanderer nodded. “...Sure.”

[furinafocalor]

XiaoVen

all of these fics are centered around the ship Xiao (Alatus)/ Venti (Barbatos).

links will be attached to all of them and the names will be underlined.

the ships with a * beside them are my personal favs please go check all of these fics out when you have the time!

atop wangshu inn's peak- by vflxvyr

venti (awfully) tries to sneak up on xiao. cue xiao being whipped and mildly concerned

9/10 A cute and short fic. I don't know why I liked it so much but I loved how their relationship was potrayed. Super adorable!

*Cecilias Smell Sweeter in Summer- by Lantica1317

Camp Seven A is a small summer camp all of the kids in the local town of Teyvat attend at least once. Xiao has just moved to Teyvat and finds himself taking a job at Camp Seven A as a counselor for the Anemo group. His co-counselor Venti is all too happy to teach him the ropes. Why is that dude so friendly?

10/10 O.M.G. I loved this fic so much. I loved the au, the build up, the romance. Ugh! I loved it. It is rated as mature but the author kindly let us know when to avoid that part if you want to. So go read it please!

*Twin Songs and Matching Marks- by Elixiro

Xiao can hear every song his soulmate listens to. Unfortunately for him, his soulmate loves playing rhythm games.

9/10 The cutest soulmate au of them all. Their first meeting was absolutely stunning! I loved everything about this fic! It's about 5,000 words so go check it out!

your smile and the words i didn't know i wanted to hear- by lore_bee

"He's staying in Liyue," Alatus muttered just loud enough for Hu Tao to hear. Hu Tao froze. Her cards dropped from her pale hands as she screamed, "WHAT!?" Her body left the bed as she danced around the room. "Omg! It's meant to be! The archons have blessed you Alatus! Oh what fortune they have bestowed upon you!" Alatus dropped his own cards lying back on his bed. The next few minutes continued with Hu Tao excitedly spinning around the room and Alatus covering his ears with a pillow. or, Alatus is a superhero known as Adeptus Xiao. Barbatos, a heroin from Mondstat, says he's staying in Liyue. Chaos and attraction is becoming the new norm for Alatus. or, Venti lusting after Xiao's abs... for like ten minutes...

10/10 I really adored this au. I don't think I've ever been able to find any genshin superhero fics before so this one was a treat! It's around 12,000 words so it's pretty long. Definitely worth it though!

the history teacher is a married man- by aprilfalls

"Excuse me, mister— I mean Xiao," spoke one particular student in the 4th period before class began. Her lips were stretched into a demon-eating grin, and the look in her eyes screamed potential danger. "Yes, Hu Tao?" Xiao drowns his long-suffering sigh in his throat; a habit formed to not fuel the demonic energy that Hu Tao runs on. Hu Tao swallows, which does nothing to dampen her terrifying smile. "I'm sorry for prying, Mister-I-Mean-Xiao, but is that a ring I see on your hand?" Oh Barbatos, here it comes now. [or: four nosey kids, and the things it takes for them to realize that two of their teachers are married... to each other.]

8/10 AHHHHHHHH. So cute. Go read. Now.

tip me over and pour me out- by pyrochords

It becomes painstakingly obvious that Xiao has a thing for Barbatos, so friends new and old attempt to play matchmaker. They won’t rest until the apple of Xiao’s eye takes up residency in both his heart and his teapot. Venti is far more perceptive than people give him credit for, but thinks you should never meet your heroes. Somehow, they make it work.

7/10 The way they beat up Childe. I loved Venti and Xiao's interactions so, so much. This fic was so good. I promise you won't be dissapointed.

That's the end for right now! Thanks for checking out my post. Follow my blog for more fic recs. I'll be making a masterlist soon and I'll attach the link here. In the meantime, here's the link to my KazuScara fic rec and my ChongQiu fic rec!

[kanonavi]

hewwo tis hua on main :33 lettuce see 9, 17, 23, 31, 45, n 46 for the fic questions~

Hi Hua we are now hanging out on my blog! :3

(Hi it's me from the future crying because this is so long I can no longer justify not putting a Read More what have you done to me :sob:)

9. What are the best things about your current fandom?

How can you ask me that when we’re in the Genshin fandom rn lol Jokes aside, I think that the size of the Genshin fandom is its blessing just as much as it’s its curse. Obviously it’s going to have all of the main problems that big fandoms tend to have, but the sheer number of people also means that there’s basically a guarantee that there will be other people that are creating the exact flavor of fanworks that I want to see and to create myself.

I’ve gone through highs and lows of how much fic I read for a fandom over time and I think Genshin is one of my all-time highs, but I’m pretty sure I’ve also found the most fics in Genshin that have just felt transcendent in some way to me. For a piece of media that I enjoy as much as I enjoy Genshin, I’d gladly take a large fandom that’s a bit of a clusterfuck over a tiny fandom where my thoughts and ideas don’t resonate with anything everyone else is doing. Even if it means I’m mostly off in my corner trying my best to remain blind to greater fandom trends, I’m happy in my tiny sandbox with the few friends that I share this experience with.

17. Who was your first OTP and are they still your favorite?

My first OTP for Genshin was xingyun! I ended up pulling both of them very early on, and even before I read their voicelines and realized that they’re basically a textbook example of friends to lovers, I was impressed by how well they worked together in a team and based purely on that I wondered as a joke if people shipped them. So naturally I checked AO3 and Learned.

They’ve been deposed as my favorites at this point by xiaoven, but they’re still very high on my otp list, placed lovingly in my S+ tier alongside xiaoven and kazuscara. I think that I would have ended up shipping them regardless of if I pulled them both early, but I like to think they started my taste off on the right foot.

23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it.

The thing about all of my fics is that they're either for a fandom/ship that I'm kinda divorced from at this point or they were written when I was 14 in the AO3 editing box and there is little to no in between. Which then leaves my Genshin fics... of which there are only 3, since most of my writing is done for me and my friends rather than the public.

Still, if I had to pick one, it would be When Suikou Met a Little Bird, a fic that was written in a pure, brainrotted haze but still kind of escalated to more than I ever expected it to be. It was honestly kind of an experiment for me, since I wrote it in a perspective I wasn't used to (that being Xiao rather than Venti) and the story just kind of came easily in a way that writing usually doesn't for me. For that, I was really proud of how it came out and just really happy with it overall.

That, and I also based it on one of the most Mentally Ill screenshots I've ever taken in-game, which I will include for your viewing pleasure:

31. What's the nicest thing anyone has ever said about your writing?

I got a comment a few months ago on A Brief Respite from Lantern's Light, which was the fic I wrote in a brainrot haze after the Endless Suffering trailer ended my entire existence, which said that my portrayal of Xiao and Venti was the closest to canon they had ever read and that the way I "captured the essence of their love is nothing short of perfection". Needless to say, I kinda ascended thanks to that.

The way that I write characters is something that I guess I could say I'm insecure about, since characters are often the vessels for humanity to be brought forth in a work of fiction, even if the characters aren't human themselves. I hold characters in very high esteem in works of fiction, but because I spend so much time thinking about my favorite characters, I'm constantly worried that they're kinda turning to mush in my brain and becoming what I see them as rather than what they really are. Headcanons are fun and I indulge in them plenty myself, but when I never want to lose sight of who those characters are in the story they were written for when I'm creating my own stories for them.

That's kind of why the xiaoven scene in the Endless Suffering trailer was Everything to me. Their first canon interaction, and it consisted of an exchange that was comfortable, especially when compared to Xiao's interactions with other characters in the past and even in the rest of that same trailer. Then, that says nothing of the tender gazes that Venti was giving Xiao the entire time. The entire scene just proved to me that whether or not they're in love, Xiao and Venti are comfortable with each other and that much is real.

So after I took that scene and built off of it into my own thought of how the scene could continue if Xiao and Venti were lovers, and to have someone say that it matched their interaction in the trailer and that I was able to capture that essence? It means everything to me, to this day.

i feel like a narcissist to have answered that question at such length but oh well lol

45. What is your all time favorite fanfic?

There are plenty of Genshin fics which have had an impact on me (oh haha impact that wasn't even on purpose), but I feel like I have to give this to what's probably the first truly transcendent fic I ever read. It was a Persona 5 fic called Black Star, I'm pretty sure it's still one of the most read P5 fics today, which it totally deserves.

It was a kind of epilogue to the original P5 before Royal or Strikers or whatever the fuck X is supposed to be were ever conceived, and in my honest opinion Black Star did it better than any of them ever have and ever will. It's a fic that says what it means to, nothing more and nothing less, and as I look back over the past 5 years of Atlus milking the life out of this story that used to have meaning, it's so goddamn refreshing to have this author who rolled up, wrote a perfect epilogue for P5 and then nothing else for the fandom. Wherever they are, I hope they're living their best possible life.

Black Star fixed the main thing that the original P5 fucked up, which was Goro Akechi. Akechi barely had a character arc in the original, even by the standards of P5 writing, but in this fic he was able to gain redemption as well as a resolution on his complicated feelings towards Joker in a way that I don't even think Royal did as well. Full disclosure, I used to be a hardcore shuake shipper and Black Star is a gen fic, but there are plenty of fics which give Akechi resolution in a way that incorporates romantic feelings towards Joker which I also love. However, I just think Black Star is able to surpass them in certain regards because of how it actualizes Akechi in his own personhood independent of anyone else. At this point in my life cycle as a goroboy, I really just think that when Akechi is at his lowest like he is in this fic, he just needed anything, even the faintest glimmer of trust in him from someone in his life that he's able to do good even after all the wrong he's done in order for him to at least want to try. That can be given to him regardless of any kind of romance, and Black Star has always done it best.

I also just love the way it builds off of P5's world with Paranoia Syndrome and the Dead Sea in which Mementos rots. Again, it's like I said before, no official continuation of Persona 5 has ever and will ever do it better than Black Star. ...i should read it again at some point.

46. If someone was to read one of your fanfics, which fic would you recommend to them and why?

I am once again being made to choose between one of my three entire Genshin fics lol. But for this question I honestly feel like I have to go with A Brief Respite from Lantern's Light. It's short, but also out of my three fics I think it best demonstrates my mental state and how xiaoven exists in my brain, being rotated like a rotisserie chicken. In a way it could be kinda like my mission statement? Or like. My conceit? OH ITS LIKE MY XV COVER LETTER. i hate that metaphor, god lol

But yeah, we end with a simple answer: if you come to me for xiaoven, the xiaoven in that fic is what you're signing up for <3