#someone had tagged this yaommander

[commander-yinello]

A Keeper - Part 2

Fandom: Guild Wars 2 Pairing: Zhou Yao x F!Commander (no specific name or race) Chapter 2 [AO3 Link] Word count: 1071 Genre: Toothrotting, cliché fluff and awkward silliness A/N: We meet Yao! Awkward moments that don’t get better and some surprise guests at the end! I also got a request for gw2 oneshot, so I guess this is a good time to mention that yes, I do accept gw2 short fic requests!

Yao’s apartment was situated above one of Joon’s robotic facilities. It clearly had been a lab or storage of some sort, with large windows and rows of batteries near the doors. The place had been remodeled to a living area with modern hard-wood furniture and green lanterns. Not quite as luxurious as Joon’s, but more cozy than Mai’s had been.

The first thing the commander noticed when she walked inside were the Xunlai Jade posters. They appeared to be motivational, each of them with an uplifting slogan and a funny image of a cat. Her eye wandered further, seeing the main area was the entry hall, living room and kitchen combined. Yao’s place was chaotic, yet clean. There were workbenches with various jade bots and helper arms. On the nearby stool a mountain of rolled up drawings, in the bin more than a few crumpled up ideas. On the wooden cupboards there were tiny statues, mostly cats, a few dragons here and there, and interestingly some toys that looked like jade mechs. The large square carpet showed its wear and tear in the corners. The off-white countertop of the kitchen was bare, save two glasses, and it hit her that they were for her and Yao.

With a sweaty palm, she patted down her clothes. She’d worn something nice, as Taimi wanted. Well, what she thought was nice. Almost everything she owned was battle ready, more practical than stylish - she preferred staying alive over being a pretty corpse. So she hoped that her outfit could pass Cantha’s etiquette standards.

“It’s just a fun, friendly get together. No need to overthink it. They probably don’t care,” the commander told herself.

“Commander?” she heard through the only round door in the room. It rotated, slid open with a soft hum and from the bedroom came the one person that made the commander forget what she was doing.

They had swapped their usual engineer kit for a loose sleeveless top and comfy pants that reached below the knees. They still had their goggles on their head, no doubt tinkering on something small. When they spotted the commander, their eyes widened. “Ah! You’re here! I'm so glad.”

The eloquent diplomatic commander, having stood against the face of terror, dealing with ministers, officials, gods and even dragons, could only squeak as she forced herself to stop ogling Yao and say: “You are?”

Yao had trouble looking directly at her. “W-w-well yeah! I wasn’t sure if the door had let you in, it tends to bug at times,” they quickly added, pulling at long strands of black hair.

Oh. The magical sparkles mysteriously vanished from view, pulling her back into reality. There was an awkward silence where they both realized that this was the first time they were alone together, and now had no clue what to do. Usually Gorrik would chime in with a random bug fact. Why was taking down an Elder Dragon easier making conversation with her crush?

Finally, she thrusted her arms forward, presenting a small basket of fried seaweed chips. "I brought this." Not wanting to arrive empty handed, she had stopped by the night market and bought whatever the nice merchant lady suggested. She sincerely hoped nice merchant lady had not bamboozled her.

“Nice, I love these.” Yao took the basket eagerly. The commander loved seeing them smile. Then they looked at her and back at themselves. “Aw, crap.”

“What?” the commander panicked. Oh no. Her clothes were terrible. She knew she should’ve asked Kasmeer to help her. She was the worst. “What is it?”

“You look great and I look like a slob.” They reached for their goggles and the commander quickly placed her hand on their wrist to stop them from removing it.

“No no, I just threw on something I had lying around.” That was a lie, she chastised herself. “I wasn’t sure what to wear and didn’t want to offend.” Much better. "And it's only a holo-viewing."

Yao laughed. "You're right. No need to make a fuss when we're just friends."

“Haha yeah, just friends,” the commander repeated, completely calm and collected. Rationally she knew that Yao meant that they were glad the commander wasn't the Empress. Internally, in the deepest corner of her mind, she screamed.

It only occurred to them both ten seconds later that her hand was on their wrist. Unintentionally, the commander yanked her hand back as if it were burnt. They both stared at each other with glowing red cheeks.

Yao was the first to cut through the tension and coughed, exaggerating by holding a fist to their mouth. "Would-would you like something to drink? Tea? Juice?"

The commander nodded, agreeing with the first thing Yao mentioned though she didn't remember, and sighed when Yao left for the kitchen. Friends didn't act like this. She was mucking up this entire social interaction.

Was it too late to go back home? Taimi could tell anyone about her skiff skills, what did it matter?

One of the posters caught her gaze. Hang in there, it said. The adorable cat was dangling from a tree branch, staring right at her soul.

The commander clenched her hands. You’re right, poster cat. This was really not a big deal. She was going to sit on the couch, eat chips and have a great time watching the best drama ever with her good friend Yao. Yeah!

With renewed spirit, she searched and found what was obviously going to be their viewing area. A low table with a disc on it and in front a couch. A small couch. A love seat, and there was no separate chair, couch or available sitting cushion.

Oh no.

***

“What are they even doing?” Behind the wall next to Yao’s apartment window, a man with an impressively wide-brimmed hat that he was somehow able to hide, spoke in a very low tone. “By the way, the love seat is my idea. Hid Yao’s single chair in my place."

"Clever," his intelligent and bug-loving sidekick frantically whispered back. "I don't understand why the commander won't reveal her heart's aspiration. This really isn’t a complicated matter.”

"Yao won't either, though they have no problem complaining to me about it. I swear, if they don't do something, Imma go in there and-"

Gorrik started to bounce in place. "Don't! I promised Taimi only to investigate, not to interfere!"

“Okay, okay. I’ll wait.” For now, Rama thought.

[To be continued~]