???'s POV

'Ugh...what...w-what happened...?' A male's voice mutters in his head. 

It was pitched black. Nothing was seen as far as the eyes could see. And there were no noises either, giving off an eerie atmosphere. However, soon, the sound of waves splashing and thunder fills the void. And in a blink, the void changes. 

It was back to the sea. Beidou was seen leaping in the air towards the point of view. She lifts her blade and swings down while letting out her battle cry. Just as she did, the memory suddenly cuts off and everything went back to black.

'That's right...that's what happened...' The male thought. 

Slowly, the man began to wake up while groaning weakly. His eyelids start to rise and flicker, his vision blurry but can barely make out he was looking up at a wooden roof. Light hits his face, making him shut his eyes while moaning softly. After a moment, he slowly opens his eyes again, trying to adjust to the light at the side. His vision starts to become clear, letting him see that he's in some wooden room. He tiredly look around and saw that he was laying in a bed with a blanket covering him but without his shirt, revealing him to be the male who washed up onshore earlier. 

"W-what the...?" He mutters while trying to sit up. His voice was soft but rough. Suddenly, a surge of pain hits his rib, causing him to groan in pain and hold his side. "O-ow!" He murmurs while squinting an eye from the pain as he felt his head suddenly spinning. He held his head with his other hand while shutting both eyes close, hissing. He took a second to let the pain subside before groaning softly again. When he felt he could take it, he slowly opens his eyes and looks up and around himself to see where he was exactly. 

He noticed that the room he was in was a little small. There was a desk on the opposite side of the room having piles of scrolls and book with a chair behind it. Behind those, a large map that seemed to be about Tayvat hung on the wall. On it, there were several large red circles scattered around the oceans between Liyue and Inazuma. There was a wardrobe on one of the walls and a table with even more books and scrolls in front of the bed. And on the wall to his right, there was a large window, letting the sun through. 

"..." He lets out a sigh before looking down at himself. He noticed right away that his stomach was covered by bandages that seemed to have dried blood on them, covering some of his scars. And on his left shoulder, more bandages were wrapped that went all the way down his arm, leaving only his hand unwrapped. "...Great..." He mutters sarcastically softly.

"So, you're finally awake, huh?" He heard a voice ask to his right. 

No one's POV

The male's eyes widen from hearing the voice. Quickly, he gets up and kneels on the bed as a weapon materializes in his hand. He lifts it and points it towards the direction he heard the voice, glaring as his hand shook a little from another rush of pain. In his hand looked to be some kind of claymore. However, interestingly, its materials were unusual. The weapon appears to be made mostly out of blue, white, and orange scales instead of metal except for the handle. 

"Is this a greeting from where you come from?" Asks the person jokingly. Stepping out from the corner of the room was none other than Beidou herself, who had her arms folded as she didn't look even remotely scared. Instead, to the male's surprise, she was smiling a little. 

"Who are you?" The male hisses as he squints his almost golden eyes, glaring at her. 

"Relax. If I wanted to cause trouble, I wouldn't have saved you from near death earlier."

"...?" The male looks confused by her answer. He moves his mouth to say something, but the memory from before flashes in his mind, remembering Beidou's face. He continues to glare at Beidou for a moment as he puts the two together. Hesitantly, his face softens before he slowly lowers his blade, which disappears soon after. "I...remember that..." He whispers while looking down in shame.

"Well, that's good to hear. Are all of your memories intact?" She asks, sounding curious but with a very subtle hint of worry.

The male nods as he looks up at her, causing her to smile more. 

"Great! So then, care to give me your name?"

"???" He was a little surprised by how quickly she changed the subject. But, feeling no reason to hold onto the thought, he replies hesitantly. "...Y/n." He mutters as he looks away from her.

"Y/n? That's a name I've never heard before." 

"I'm...not from around here." Was all the male, y/n, explains. Still sounding hesitant to reply. 

"Hmm...I understand. Is it just y/n? No last name or anything?"

Y/n simply shook his head. 

"I see. Very well, y/n. I'm Beidou, captain of the Crux fleet, which you're currently on." 

"Captin?" He looks back at her in surprise. "Are you pirates or something?"

Beidou shrugs. "Call us whatever you want." She lets out a laugh, causing y/n to tilt his head in confusion. She does so momentarily before relaxing. "So, mind telling me what you were doing out in the ocean? Practically all ships have been prohibited to go out for days due to the sea monster recently."

"...I..." He trails off, rubbing the side of his head as he doesn't make eye contact with her. 

Beidou waits for him to speak up. However, he doesn't, leaving the two in awkward silence. Seeing as he wouldn't respond, she sighs softly. "If you don't want to answer, that's fine. Was just curious."

"...How long was I out?"

"From when we found you, two days- though I don't know before you washing up in Liyue."

"I see..." He stares down at his body, mostly his bandages, for a moment then stares at her. "Where are my clothes?"

"They're being taken care of by the crew. In the meantime, you can wear some spare clothes from our supplies if you'd like."

"Really...?"

Beidou nods. "Of course. I'm sure you don't trust me right now, but like I said; if I wanted to harm you, I would have done so already. I nor my men want anything from you. You're safe as long as you're on my ship."

"..." Y/n stares at her face for some a moment. He tries to study it to see if she was lying. But, her attitude doesn't change. So, reluctantly, he starts to relax a little. "...Fine... Thank you." He says as he slowly stood up. When he did, he was wearing only shorts. 

Beidou nods as she notices his body. She smirks a little in amusement before walking over to the table next to the bed. She picks up a pair of clothes and hands them to y/n, who takes them with a nod. "Honestly, I don't think they're wearable anymore. They were so torn and soaked in blood when we found you that I doubt you would like to keep them." She explains as y/n studies the clothes.

"I don't mind." He says as he sets the clothes on the edge of the bed before beginning to change via the shirt first. As he did, Beidou looks over to the window and stares out in the distance. For the most part, the two were silent. However, y/n made an occasional groan and grunt as he tried to get change. When he was done, he lets out a tired sigh. Beidou looks back at him and studies his body. 

Y/n was now in a simple white long-sleeve shirt and blue pants. Due to the clothing, his bandages were hidden under it for the most part. He had his hair tied in a ponytail by a black string, a part of his hair blocking a portion of the right side of his face. His hair was messy and looked thicker than before. Surprisingly, he didn't put on any shoes or anything for his feet and simply left them on the floor next to them. 

She glances at his feet and notices this before looking back at his face. "Don't plan on wearing anything for your feet?"

Y/n shook his head. "I don't like shoes. They're too uncomfortable to me."

"If you insist," Beidou says with a shrug. "Don't try anything too strenuous on your body, otherwise the wounds will reopen, okay? It needs time to heal."

"How long exactly?" 

"From what my men and Baizhu explained to me, nearly two weeks." 

"Two weeks?!" Y/n asks, sounding both surprised but slightly worried.

Beidou nods as she folds her arms. "It's what they've told me. You should be thankful to Baizhu. Without his aid, he said your wounds would've taken months to fully heal."

"..." It seems that y/n was about to say something, but for some reason, he stops. Slowly, he looks down to his feet and sighs deeply while closing his eyes. Nearly after, he reopens them and studies the room momentarily before noticing the map across the room with the red circles again. He seems to study them briefly and then looks back at the captain. "You said there's a sea monster earlier, right?" He asks as he sat on the edge of the bed and gestures towards the map by motioning towards it with his head.

"I did. Why?" Beidou gave him a curious look and glances at the map and back at him. 

"Do you plan on killing it?" 

"If I must. There's not a whole lot of information about it though, so it's hard to tell if we even can. What's your point?"

"Is it okay if...I tag along?" 

"Not in your current condition. You'll have no chance of survival if you go out so soon."

"I understand that. But I must go... by any means necessary..."

"And why's that exactly? Do you have some kind of history with it?" 

"...You can say that..." That was all he said. He sounded somber and doesn't say anything else.

"..." Hearing his tone, Beidou just stares at him for some time. It felt like an eternity, but it couldn't have been more than a few minutes. Eventually, she closes her eye and sighs before nodding and looking back at him. "Very well. Because of the last encounter with the monster we had, the ship was badly damaged. We're taking the next several days to repair and resupply before we can go back out and search for it. And I'm sure it's taking time to heal since my crew and I did a good number on it before it fled. So, rest up for now and heal as much as you can while we wait."

"Thank you." A slight smile cracks on y/n's lips as he gave a thankful nod. 

"But, I have one condition." She says quickly, her voice becoming serious. 

"Name it." 

"I'm not liable for you if something were to happen while we're out. I'm thankful that you're still alive, but my men are my priority and come first. I cannot protect you during the storms or battles ahead if something also happens to them. I won't jeopardize the safety of my crew just because you wanted to go and risk your life even though you're injured. You'll have to take care of yourself. Understood?" She says, sounding unusually serious than her usual self. 

Y/n's face also became serious as he nods. "Understood." He replies without hesitation. 

"Good." She replies with a nod as well. The two were in yet another moment of awkward silence before Beidou's face softens and she suddenly stretches. "So, now that we got all of that out of the way, what are you going to do now?" She asks while finishing stretching.

"Pardon?" 

"What's your plan right now? We're not leaving for a few days, so we have some time to kill. Do you plan on staying to rest, go out and explore, or do something else?" 

"I...I-I'm not really sure..." 

"Well, in that case, why don't I introduce you to the crew? Since you said that you're going with us for the next several days, it'll be good if everyone got to know you."

"I-I guess..." Y/n mutters. 

"Fantastic!"  Beidou says enthusiastically as she turns to walk away while motioning for him to follow. "Come on, no one bites."

"..." Y/n reluctantly gets up from the bed and follows. The two walk past the items around the room and began to head for the doors. He seemed a little tensed by what was about to happen as he silently walked with the captain. Just as they were about to exit the room, he caught a glimpse of a chessboard where Beidou was in the corner of the room. It was sitting on a small round table with two chairs as it seemed to have a game going on but was put on pause. He didn't say anything about it, finding it a little strange, but didn't question it. 

To be continued...

Hey, everyone! I deeply apologize for the wait! I really wanted to get this out sooner, but I wasn't feeling like updating for a few weeks. So I just took a break for a while after I finished my first semester of college. I am slowly getting back into writing again, so please be patient with me for the next chapter. I do want to work on the story more, but I also want to work on my two other Genshin books as well. I don't know which will be updated first, so please wait. I will do my best to get everything updated soon! Give me a few more days so I can work on some stuff! I appreciate everyone who has stuck around with this story as I do plan on finishing it. 

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Let me know what you thought as I do like to read any feedback. I also hope you all have a wonderful day/night. See ya!