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lunarsigh · 1 year ago

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the alchemy of desire

I had an idea, and then my brain spit out like twice as many words of it than I originally planned. So here. have a Star Rail fic?

~*~

Honkai Star Rail - Jing Yuan x female reader - aphrodisiac

~3k words, mature

warnings: drugs (and lack of consent for), a vague hint of imagined sexual consent issues.

It takes Jing Yuan an abnormally long time to realize he’s been drugged.

Of course, he knows the merchant making small talk with him is part of the coup conspiracy - it’s the whole reason he came to this otherwise mind-numbing event. But he didn’t expect her to be bold (or stealthy) enough to spike his drink. He’s off his game, which irritates him, in the back of his mind where the alchemical concoction hasn’t taken hold. The rest of him feels the warmth spreading through him, the pleasant haze of sexual desire starting to direct his bloodstream to southern climes, so to speak.

Well. So that’s her play. He almost laughs aloud as he realizes what he’s been dosed with. An aphrodisiac. How … droll.

He turns a lazy smile towards the woman in front of him. Her body language is all seduction - so, she intends to get the General in a compromising position and then … kill him? Blackmail him? Set up some scandalous scenario? There are many options, none of them particularly pleasant beyond the vague promise of an orgasm. Not that he had any intention of leaving with her, even if he hadn’t noticed the effect. But she may have had a slightly better chance of getting something out of this if it wasn’t for one variable.

You.

You’re in his line of sight; he’d positioned himself for that very reason, even before he took that ill-timed drink. You’re halfway across the room, making pleasant small talk with someone he half-recognizes, wearing a red dress that clings to your curves in ways that had already given him at least seven different creative and lewd thoughts this evening. You’ve been dodging his lazy attempts at flirting with you for months now; for a while, he thought you disapproved, but lately he’s become sure that you don’t actually think he’s serious. He knows he’ll break through eventually, but tonight, that dress has made it particularly difficult to wait for his prey to flinch. And now, the drug is encouraging the predator to the surface, filling his loins with heat as he sees you laugh at another man’s words, lean closer to make yourself heard over the music playing above.

The woman next to him is a sorry excuse for a hunter. She can’t even keep his attention with a drug and a set of very ample … assets.

The man you’re speaking with lays a hand on your arm, and something inside Jing Yuan snaps. The drug, he thinks, must be more powerful than he first thought. But even as that thought occurs, he is bidding farewell to the woman, over her protestations. He knows who she is, his people can find her later, he has no doubt about that. Right now, his body will only let him pursue one goal.

Your conversational partner sees him before you do, and to his credit, the man recognizes a superior predator immediately. He has backed away from you before Jing Yuan even stands beside him, which earns him some points for smarts. “I require your assistance,” he tells you, taking your now free arm and maneuvering you away without a second glance.

“What? What are you -“ Your voice is a soft hiss, and even that sound dances across his skin like an electric arc.

“I need help,” Jing Yuan murmurs softly. “I’m compromised.”

Whatever you see on his face ensures your immediate cooperation. He does feel a bit flush, now that he thinks about it. Perhaps the heat is beginning to show.

He leads you out the side door before stopping. Your immediate response is to stand in front of him and put your hands on his cheeks. “General, what happened to you?”

“That bad, hmmm?” His hands are covering yours before he can consider the movement. You’re beautiful under the moonlight. And he may have said that aloud, because you immediately widen your eyes and try to pull away from him. His hands curl around yours. “Apparently the drug is working faster than I thought.”

“Drug??” Your voice is a little too loud, and he squeezes your hands in response. “General, if you’re drugged, then we need to find -“

“I need to get back to the office,” he interrupts. “It’s the closest safe place, and I can call for backup from there.”

“But there must be a physician here!”

“We can call for one from the office. Help me,” he says. “You’re the only one I can trust here.”

It’s true, in the ways that matter. Despite the fact that he knows half of the party attendees, you are the only person he trusts to see him in a weakened state. That shrinking part of his mind that remains clear knows this is dangerous, that the heat inside of him wants you close because it wants to devour you, but he’s not a pup - he can maintain his self control. He has centuries of experience with it.

Your face softens at his words, and you tug him towards the street. He releases one of your hands, but does not let you remove the other from his grasp.

You ask him about the drug, and he answers honestly. Your offense on his behalf is pleasant. “We need to catch her!”

“I know who she is, and can find out where she lives very easily tomorrow,” Jing Yuan tells you. “She does not entirely realize that I know her game. She may suspect, and will probably panic tonight, but putting a face to the conspiracy will break it open for us.”

“But she tried to …” Your free hand waves uselessly in the air, before you land on, “assault you!”

“Do you think I would have been led astray, my sweet?”

“The fact that you’re calling me ‘my sweet’ tells me you’re drugged to the gills,” you mutter. “So maybe.”

He laughs. You’re adorable when you’re angry. And when you’re embarrassed. And this time, he’s pretty sure he didn’t say that aloud. But the drug is definitely proving to be stronger than he anticipated. He cannot take his eyes off of you. The way your glossy lips seem to glow in the moonlight, the slight movement of your chest underneath the silky dress, the way one strap seems to be on the verge of slipping down your bare shoulder - there’s a howling voice in his mind telling him to push you into a shadow and mark you, taste you, make you his. Or prove to you that you’re already his. That you’ll never be anyone else’s - certainly not that bland specimen you were speaking with at the party.

And that’s definitely not his own thoughts. Not … entirely. He has nothing against the perfectly pleasant seeming stranger, and you were probably just speaking about some trivial entertainment, basic party chatter. But merciful aeons, this drug is erasing his hard-won control at a rapid pace.

It’s good that they targeted him, he thinks faintly, trying to concentrate on the violation instead of you. Had they given this to a lesser person - one without his training, his experience, his sheer amount of patience - someone would be hurt by now. He needs to alert someone when he gets to the office. Call Fu Xuan, get her to organize a search party, make sure no one else at the event was affected …

… he needs to taste your fucking skin, it’s a hunger he has no words for. Needs your legs wrapped around his hips, needs to feel you bucking beneath him, begging, gasping -

“General? Jing Yuan?”

Your voice is, as usual, completely alluring, but it’s undercut with a concern that shakes him briefly back to true lucidity. You’ve stopped in the middle of the path, no more than a block away from the office. You step closer to him, still holding his hand, looking up at his face as if you’re searching for something - a sign that things will be okay. He can faintly smell your perfume on the night breeze, and may the Reignbow Arbiter help him, he’s going to devour you if you move even an inch closer.

“I need to get inside,” he says, voice hoarse. He lets go of your hand - he feels empty now, like he let a prize slip through his grasp, but the contact is more than he can stand right now.

He walks faster, and can hear your heels clacking on the stones behind him. You’ll keep up. He just can’t look back at you right now, not feeling like this.

If whoever made this poison doesn’t already work for the Alchemy Commission, he thinks, then they should - just as soon as their century-long prison sentence is complete.

Inside, he manages to steel himself long enough to place a call to one of the guards on duty, telling him to fetch the Vidyadhara healer immediately. But his biggest problem is still here - his own fault, he brought you here, he wanted your company. He should be keeping you safe, not putting you in danger. And this? This is danger. This is a darkened office, free of its usual flow of people, just you and him and this maddening desire that wants to claw through his skin and take you for its own.

“Leave now,” he says, as he hears your steps approach.

“Of course I’m not leaving!” you protest. “This drug is making you ill, if something were to happen to you …”

You trail off as Jing Yuan turns around to face you. When takes a step toward you, you take an automatic half-step back. Ah, so you recognize when you’re being hunted, in some way. Under normal circumstances, he’d rather see you fling yourself enthusiastically into his arms, but in this condition, he takes no small pleasure in the nerves you’re beginning to show. “Ill is not the word I’d use to describe the effect,” he says in a soft voice. He takes another step, but this time, you hold your place. Both parts of his mind are unreasonably proud of you for it.

He places a hand on your shoulder, over that flimsy strap that had caught his attention on the street. One tug, and it would be out of his way, and he’d be able to finally taste your sweet skin. Or tug far enough, and the whole dress would come falling away, and he could finally lift you up and spread your legs and feel your heat pressed against him. You would let him, he knows, he can see that spark of lust in your gaze, even as it flashed against nerves and concern. He could make you forget the rest. Forget everything except what his cock feels like inside of you.

…. And that’s why you have to get out of this office.

When he speaks again, his voice is so soft as to be nearly inaudible, if he weren’t two inches away from your face. He can feel your breath quicken against his cheek, see every tiny shudder you make - fear or desire? He’s pretty sure you don’t even know at this point. “Leave.”

The first second passes by without movement, and he’s rarely felt more conflicted than he does right now. But just as the drug is threatening to win the battle, you take a large step backward. “I’ll be - I’ll go find - someone better -“ And then you’re gone. You don’t flee, you make yourself walk with forced slowness, and he can see you trembling as you go.

When he can no longer see you through the door, he finally lets himself stagger backward, feeling behind him for a chair. Without somewhere to focus his hormonal rush, the physical sensations wash through his body. “Someone better,” he breathes. If you mean someone he’s less likely to maul, then yes, literally anyone would be better. But otherwise … there’s no one better than you. Not to him.

It would be rude to masturbate in his public office, he tells himself silently - not to mention that the little doctor would sooner stop his heart with a bolt of light than deal with any of that when she arrives. Best to suffer, he tells himself. It won’t last long.

Several days later, Jing Yuan is still at home all day, “recovering.” He may have started feeling perfectly healthy yesterday, but he so rarely gets a perfectly valid excuse to avoid the paperwork piling on his desk, he can’t bear to let it go to waste yet. The only down side is that he hasn’t seen you since that night. He spotted you hovering in the doorway as the healer and a couple of Cloud Knights tended to him, but you were gone before they helped him get back home. His sources tell him that you’ve been overworking yourself ever since, which really won’t do.

There’s only one answer - you’ll have to come to him. So he sends a note to the Seat of Divine Foresight, requesting your presence.

And right on schedule, he hears your voice in the foyer. He feels a smile spread across his face, but he doesn’t stand until you’ve entered his sitting room. He’s missed seeing your face - and your blush, now in evidence again as you realize he’s wearing only his lounging robe here. “You’re feeling better, then?” you ask.

“Entirely. But shhh,” he says with a wink, “I wouldn’t want to lose out on a couple more days of leisure.”

You roll your eyes, and he laughs. Good, he can see the tension you were holding in your shoulders fade away with the familiar banter. “I’m glad,” you say, after a moment. “That you’re better. I was scared the other night, I’ve never seen anything affect you like that.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been careless enough to let myself get poisoned.” He steps closer to you, searches your face. “But my question is … were you scared for me, or of me?”

Your eyes widen, and you look him directly in the eye. “I wasn’t scared of you, Jing Yuan. I trust you.”

“Good.” Another half step forward; at this point, you’re forced to crane your neck to meet his gaze. “Because you were trembling quite a bit that night. I had to wonder.”

You sigh, shifting your weight from one foot to another. “No you didn’t,” you say, still holding his gaze. “You’re well aware of why - why I reacted the way I did.”

“Am I?”

You flinch first - as always - and take a step backward before pacing to the other side of the room. “The conspirators are rounded up, mostly. There are a few stragglers, but we have the woman who dosed you, as well as the person who made the drug.”

“I know. You’ve spent a lot of hours on this over the last few days.” You’re tired, he can see that much on your face. “I’m told you’ve barely left the office.”

You shrug, still avoiding his gaze. “There’s a lot to do. We need to make sure they’re not able to pull any more tricks.”

“They won’t be.” He may not have been able to see to it himself, but that’s why he surrounds himself with all the best people he can find. Including you. “You’ve done well. But it’s time for you to rest.”

Now your gaze cuts back to him. “Some of us don’t have the luxury of simply declaring our own leisure time.”

“You do if I declare it.” He grins. “How about this - you are now officially assigned as my personal aide until I recover.”

“You just admitted you’ve already recovered?”

“Did I? I have no memory of that.” Jing Yuan holds a hand out to you. “Come, spend time with me.”

You look at his extended hand, and he can see your own hand flexing, as if it wants to move of its own volition. But you take a deep breath and remain still. “Jing Yuan. Please.”

The soft word makes something stutter in his chest. “What do you need from me?”

You cast your eyes to the floor again, as your lips turn upward in a sad smile. “Mercy. Please stop teasing.”

Ah. You’re still there, are you? “What do you think I’m teasing about?”

“And stop answering me with a question. Especially ones with obvious answers.” Your shoulders square, and you look up at him again. “You know I have … feelings. For you. I’m sure it’s been obvious since we first met. And the other night - Lan help me, but even as I was scared for you and sick that someone would do that to you, I was also …” You close your eyes for a brief moment, before opening them again. “Pleased. That you were paying that kind of attention to me. Even though I knew it wasn’t really you, or about me at all. And I still feel really awful about that.”

So that’s how it is, inside your head? He certainly has some work to do. “You have no reason to feel bad,” he says. Now he steps into your space, reaches over to cup your cheek. “It was me. It was about you. Let me be absolutely clear - you are the entire reason that things were not worse that night.”

“How so?” Your voice is little more than a whisper.

“Because you were all I could see. When the concoction kicked in, you caught my eye, and that woman didn’t have a chance of getting my attention.” He leans down, close enough that his breath plays across your face. “Because all it did was magnify desires that already existed. Desire for you.”

Dark pupils have started to take over your eyes; your mouth forms the shape of his name, but no sound comes out. That won’t do - there are few better sounds in his world right now than your voice saying his name. He’s going to have to figure out all the ways he can make you sound while saying it. “Stay with me,” he murmurs. “Let me show you some of the lovely images that tormented me that night. I think they’ll be quite pleasant for both of us.”

When you speak again, the words aren’t exactly what he was expecting. Your hands finally come up, fisting in the edges of his robe. “Jing Yuan. Are … are you wearing anything underneath this thing?”

Perhaps the smile that comes across his face is still the smile of a predator - that’s okay, as long as the prey is willing to be caught. “There’s really only one way to find out, isn’t there?”

#honkai star rail #honkai: star rail #jing yuan #jing yuan x reader #jing yuan x you #star rail fic #honkai star rail fic #jing yuan fic #will this make it out into the tag world?#let's see

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