[EARLY ACCESS] SHRINK IMPACT | GENSHIN IMPACT - CHAPTER 52

Ningguang was starting to crack.

She kept her back straight, her voice even, but inside her composure was fraying thread by thread. The urges she’d tried to ignore, the strange new desires gnawing at her, wouldn’t leave her alone.

The plan, laid out with such urgency, had been simple enough: confront the Cloud Retainer right away. Ganyu was more insistent than anyone had ever seen her, Xinyan and Hu Tao were uncharacteristically quiet with worry, and Mona—still pale, still shaking—had agreed without hesitation. 

No one doubted the danger. Too many tiny lives were still unaccounted for.

But the final word had been Ningguang’s. And with her usual poise, smoothing the silk at her wrists, she declared:

“Tomorrow. At dawn we convene, and we will decide the safest course. Tonight, rest.”

They believed her. They always did. She was Ningguang—she was authority itself. Who would question her?

Yet the moment her doors closed behind them, her carefully built mask shattered. Heat rose in her chest, shameful and unrelenting. It was hunger, it was curiosity, it was something she hadn’t dared put a name to.

On her vanity sat the velvet box. Small, silent, impossible to ignore. Despite how hard she may have tried.

Her hand shook a little when she unclasped it, the faint click echoing in the stillness. Inside, curled together in exhaustion, you and Mona lay on crimson silk. So small. So fragile. So close she could hear the faint catch of your breath.

“Rest,” she whispered, her voice softer than she meant. “You needn’t fear me.”

Her hands hovered over you both, trembling for once, unsure. She shouldn’t. She knew she shouldn’t. But the sight of you pressed against one another, weak and defenseless, stripped every last defense she had.

She slipped a finger between your bodies. You clung to her nail instinctively, so light she barely felt it. She lifted you slowly, holding her breath until you were level with her lips.

“…So fragile,” she murmured, eyes wide. “And yet…”

Her tongue moved before she could stop it, brushing across your tiny stomach. Just a flick, just the barest taste—but enough to make you jolt awake with a gasp.

Ningguang’s breath caught. The taste of your skin—salty, faintly sweet, alive—shot straight through her. She almost lost herself in the urge to take you further, to press you into her mouth and feel you against her tongue. But she stopped, trembling with restraint.

“Don’t—don’t do that!” Mona’s voice cut sharp from the box. Her cheeks were flushed red, her hands gripping the velvet. “Put them down right now!”

Ningguang glanced at her, and the look she gave was slow, predatory. “You’re jealous.”

Mona sputtered, almost stamping her little foot. “I am not! We’re just—we’re sick of giants treating us like toys!”

But the way her thighs pressed together told another story, and Ningguang saw it. Internally, Mona cursed herself too. It was strange for her to feel this way. Like something had changed, and likely not for the better.

Was she starting to get weirdly used to this treatment? Even though she protested so adamantly against it? Even though ultimately she wanted you to be safe?

She sincerely hoped that wasn’t the case…

Ningguang seriously considered for a moment, doing more. She could, if she really wanted to. After all, who would oppose her? The world was her oyster, in so many ways…

She drew in a long breath, steadying herself, before lowering you gently back into the box. Her fingertip lingered a moment longer than necessary, stroking your chest, savoring the shiver that ran through you.

You and Mona clung to each other, shaken, unsure who you could trust anymore. You noticed the way she was a little flustered, having just watched that happen to you, and for just a moment, you considered saying something.

…But decided against it. Surely not, right?

Ningguang leaned back, her pulse quick and heavy, heat curling through her. 

“Tomorrow,” she whispered, half to herself, “we’ll confront Cloud Retainer. We’ll set this right.”

It was a lie, and she knew it. Perhaps she would confront them, sure. But she had no intentions of changing you two back to normal, not now that this secret part of herself had been so conveniently…awakened.

But she could pretend so. Until she ultimately got what she wanted.

She brushed her lips against the rim of the velvet box before snapping it closed with a soft click.

“…But tonight,” she breathed into the dark, flushed and trembling, “tonight, you’re mine.”

Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction. I do not own the characters or settings; all rights belong to their respective creators.