Furina was in the general store, shopping to restock her pantry.

"Hm... should I buy Macaroni, or penne, or maybe long macaroni..." she muttered to herself, looking through the options.

"How about something other than pasta for once?" said a voice close to her ears making her yelp.

"AAH!" she shrieked in surprise, making Aether giggle.

"YOU STUPID IDIOT!" she yelled, lightly punching him in the chest with a pout. What she didn't realize was how stronger she had grown while training with Arlecchino and Clorinde, and as a result, Aether doubled over, groaning in pain. And still laughing.

"Are you okay? I'm sorry!" she said worriedly as Aether straightened up, a grin still on his face, before sighing and chuckling again.

"Yeah, I'm fine. but you hit really hard, Mademoiselle," he said, as Furina pouted again.

"Well, that's what you get for sneaking up on me!"

"Sorry, couldn't resist. Was worth it," he said, giggling again, before they noticed everyone was staring at them. They all had a smile, as a girl asked her mother what the couple were doing.

"Oh, nothing, sweetie. They were flirting. You'll figure it out when you grow up," she said, looking at them with a knowing smirk before walking away.

This caused them both to blush as they hurriedly picked a few items and left the aisle.

"That was embarrassing," she muttered making Aether chuckle again.

"But seriously, you should eat something that isn't pasta once in a while," he said looking at her.

"YOU SAID SO ABOUT MACARONI TOO! I am now eating other types of pasta too, what more do you want from this poor girl!" she said melodramatically making Aether laugh, before joining in herself.

"Well, this won't do. I'm cooking for you today," he said, before picking a bunch of things and moving to the billing counter.

"H-huh? HEY, let me at least pay!"

"Nuh-uh," he said pulling out his wallet as the cashier calculated his total bill.

"What do you mean nuh-uh?" Furina said confused making him turn to her and put his finger on her lips.

"You said you'd let me pay next time, so I'm paying. Now shush," he said with a smirk, making Furina blush.

'T-this cocky twerp!' she thought, before biting his finger making him wince.

"Kinky," he said through the pain, making her punch him again.

'This is the most I've seen traveller talk, and by far! Stop making me feel single Traveler,' the cashier thought, crying sad single tears.

After the shopping shenanigans, they were on their way to Furina's house, when she realised something.

"Wait, where's Paimon?" she asked.

"Oh, her, she's with Navia. They had something fun planned apparently," he said, blushing while remembering what she said.

He had already planned to spend the day with Furina, and to that, Paimon's reply was 'Oh cool, go ahead and rock her day Traveler, Paimon won't come in between your date.'

A few hundred meters away, Navia and Paimon were watching them with a pair of Binoculars. They both had fake moustaches as a Spina executive was sitting next to them with a machine that was letting them listen to their conversation.

"Ooh, this is so worth it," said Paimon with a grin and Navia nodded.

"Partner's game is unmatched across Tevyat."

"Uh, I'm not sure if we're doing the right thing," the executive said with a sweatdrop, though he was as invested as they were.

"Oh, that reminds me, here, it's a realm dispatch," Aether said handing her a talisman-looking thing.

"What's this?" Furina asked, confused.

"If you wanna visit my home, just hold it and think that. Can't spoil the surprise though. It's for people I trust so they can visit me," he explained.

"Oh, so it took you THIS long to trust me," she said with, you guessed it, a pout.

"Hey, it's not my fault that I can't think of anything other than you when I'm with you," he said with his hands up.

"SMOOTH TRAVELER SMOOTH!" said the spying trio in unison.

"Y-you smooth-talking Casanova!" Furina shouted blushing at his words.

"Hey! I may be a smooth talker, but I am not a Casanova!"

"Oh yeah! Says the one surrounded by women left and right!"

"I may be surrounded by women but my eyes are only on you!" he yelled, before realizing what he had said.

Both of them were now akin to a tomato, looking away from each other in embarrassment.

"I didn't know Traveler was that bold. I always thought of him as a man of few words,' the Spina executive said.

"Oh, believe me, he is. It's just she can extract these expressions from him, and almost effortlessly," Navia said with a smirk.

"Paimon can't wait to be an aunt!"

Furina sneakily glanced at Aether, who tried to do the same thing, and they both looked at each other in their eyes, turning even redder, which no one knew was possible. They turned away hurriedly, silently walking.

'Speak Aether, this is getting awkward,' he thought when he felt something in his hand.

He turned to see Furina holding his hand, still looking away and blushing. He smiled before wrapping his fingers around her hand.

"So, Mademoiselle, anything special you want to eat?"

"Oh, hm... I want Pita pockets and Rose Custard, and maybe Padisarah pudding! And maybe some dangos, or what about pancakes? Or maybe a Moon Pie, I love the savoury and sweet flavours of it! Wait, the sticky honey roast would also be good! There are so many options," she said, making him giggle.

"H-hey! Don't laugh," she said with a frown.

"Come on, it's just you're so cute,' he said, making her blush the 100th time in the day.

"Stop it! Now you're gonna make everything!"

"Okay, Your Highness," he said with a smile, making her lips twitch though she tried to maintain an angered expression.

'So cute,' he thought, staring at her.

"Stop staring and look ahead, we almost missed my building and walked ahead," Furina said smugly as she turned to walk to her door.

"Yeah," he muttered, still staring.

"... Partner's game needs to be studied."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Furina was lying in her bed, staring at the dispatch, reminiscing about the day he had given her.

'I'm pretty sure Traveler at least likes me... I mean he wouldn't ogle me like that if it wasn't like that...'

Furina's face became bright as she buried it in her pillow.

"But what would he be doing right now? I kinda wanna go and see him... oh shit," she muttered as the Dispatch glowed and teleported her inside the teapot.

"Welcome visitor," came a voice, making her turn to it, coming face to face with a being that looked like a teapot.

"I'm Tubby, the realmkeeper of this teapot. I maintain this realm in the absence of Master Aether. You must be Miss Furina," the being in the Teapot said.

"Y-yeah, I'm Furina De Fontaine," she said, still a little dazed and shaken up after the whole thing.

"Master Aether did not inform me beforehand that you too were invited for today's meeting, but please go ahead in the northeast direction," it said confusing Furina.

"Meeting?"

"Ah, so you were just visiting. Master Aether isn't currently in the realm, but there are other guests you might enjoy interacting with. Please go Northeast from here," it said, and Furina nodded hesitantly.

She walked where she was told to, coming across a table for eight occupied by four people playing TCG.

One looked like a famous bard she read in Steambird about, one she didn't really know, but seemed dignified and reserved.

It was the other two that made her pale.

One was the Electro Archon, and the other was the Dendro Archon.

"Ah, I see we have a guest. And it seems it's one of us," the dignified-looking man said, looking up from his cards, as others turned to her.

"AH! If it isn't Furina de Fontaine. Now we have another archon to join our game," the famous bard Venti said flying next to her.

"H-huh! I-I don't w-want t-to intrude," she stuttered, a little overwhelmed by the aura Ei and the man was emitting.

"I think Ei should keep her power in check, she still leaks it and it's intimidating to others," Nahida, the Dendro archon said.

"Ah, apologies, I did not mean to scare you," Ei said and the next second all the aura disappeared.

"IT'S FINE!" Furina said, flustered.

"I think we should introduce ourselves first. Hi, I'm Dendro Archon Nahida," she said putting her hand out for her to shake, which she reluctantly did.

"I-I'm Furina de Fontaine," she said, making others chuckle.

"We know, Traveler doesn't stop talking about you. I've even made some songs about his admiration for you. Oh, I'm Venti by the way. Also known as Barbatos, the Anemo archon," he said excitedly making her eyes widen.

"I'm Raiden Ei, and I'm the Electro Archon. And that person," Ei started, glaring at Zhongli, who sighed, " is the former Geo archon Morax, now going by the name Zhongli."

Furina felt like she was going to faint.

'WHY DIDN'T HE TELL ME SUCH A SITUATION COULD ARISE!' she internally screamed, making Nahida who could read her thoughts giggle.

"How about you join us Lady Furina? We Archons meet every month here to have a day to ourselves and would appreciate it if you'd join us too," Zhongli said, ignoring Ei's glare, knowing she was salty over losing.

"U-uh, I appreciate the invite, but it's a day for archons, which I'm not, so I don't wanna intrude," she said making others confused.

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" asked Venti.

"W-well, I'm not a god, I'm just a human who pretended to be an archon for 500 years," she said making Zhongli sigh.

"Miss Furina, while you may not be a god, and just the humanity of Focalors, you are still an archon," Zhongli said as others nodded.

"B-but how?"

"Because the word Archon, in its essence and truest meaning means a Ruler, a leader. And by that definition, you may just be a better Archon than all of us," he explained.

"But I'm not like you all..." she muttered.

"Yeah, you're not like us. You're better," said Nahida making Furina look at her.

"I've been hiding from my own people, so in no way am I a leader or a god they can depend on. Which did make them independent and stronger than they could have been with me, but still."

"I faked my own death to escape the responsibility of being an Archon and to live as a human because I felt that they needed to spread their wings. But the way I did it was extremely problematic and endangered the whole of Liyue."

"Not to mention God of Mora forgot to make Mora for his OWN RETIREMENT!" Venti playfully said making other archons chuckle and Zhongli deadpan.

"That too," he said, making Furina gape.

"... How?"

"Well... I forgot."

The others burst out laughing and the atmosphere lightened.

"I... I was imprisoned by my people for 500 years, and I couldn't help them..." Nahida said with a sad expression.

"I... I read about that. Please don't be sad, it wasn't your fault," Furina said, unable to see someone as cute as her sad.

She smiled at her and nodded, and finally, Ei spoke.

"I... after my sister died, I locked myself in another dimension leaving my Nation in the hands of a puppet. I sparked a civil war, and am the reason countless innocent lives were lost. If it wasn't for Traveler... Inazuma would soon cease to exist..." Ei said. After she started going out more, she realized the reality at the ground level, and she knew how much she had damaged Inazuma.

"I-I'm sure you did your best, it'd be very difficult to cope with the loss of a loved one. I mean..." her mind went to Aether, as she imagined losing him, and felt something gripping her chest.

"Even thinking about losing Ae- Traveler is painful for me, so I can't imagine what you went through. Though I can't say what you did was fine, or forgiven, cuz that would be completely idiotic and a lie, but still, the best you can do is to move forward and lead Inazuma yourself, rather than through a puppet," she explained as Ei stared at her blankly.

"Was I... out of line?" she asked hesitantly, a little scared.

"No... it's just you're a pretty good speaker," she said making Furina smile.

"Well, I am a director, so communication is kinda part of the job..."

"Anyway, what we meant by telling you all this is that while we made mistakes or were unable to do much, you on the other hand went out of your way to save your nation. You sacrificed hundreds of years, your happiness, and silently acted while trying to find a way to save Fontaine. In the essence of it, you're more of an Archon than we are," Zhongli said, making her embarrassed.

"Uh... I..." she stuttered, unable to find words, making Nahida chuckle.

"How about we forget about this and continue what we were doing? Of course, with Lady Furina joining us," she suggested, and others nodded.

"Well, but we are once again odd in number, so we'll have to have one sit a round of TCG out," Venti noted.

"Hey guys I'm back," came a voice.

"Yeah, Traveler and Paimon are back with loads of fo- FURINA IS HERE TOO!" Paimon said excitedly circling her.

"Oh hey Furina," Aether greeted with a smile, though she glared at him.

"Could you have perhaps warned me about the fact that I may run into, I don't know, other Archons?" she asked with an angry expression, though she wasn't really angry.

"I could, but then you'd take ages making up your mind, and you might even chicken out," he stated matter-of-factly, making her groan in frustration.

"I hate it when you're right."

"And I know for a fact that it's a lie," he replied cheekily before pulling a chair for her to sit.

"Meanie," she muttered.

"And yet you're smiling."

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Yeah, I don't really know what I wrote. Anyway, hope you all liked it.

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