new tricks
pairing: yandere abyss prince kaeya x gender neutral reader
cw: dark content, kidnapping/capture, the reader is treated physically well but is still captured/being held against their will, mentions of a punishment, strange and toxic dynamic, mildly suggestive.
wc: 2.1k
a/n: dividers by @/cafekitsune!
this is just a tiny drabble. don't squint at worldbuilding or plot lol. i had this idea prattling around my head and wanted it out. one day i will write the dark long fic of my dreams but today is not the day. thank you to @/lorelune for taking a peek beforehand and assuring me <33
on the back of your neck, goosebumps ripple to life. a chill races down your spine. you know it well—as intimately as you know the brag of your own heart.
sensing him, you cast your eyes up in the reflection of your mirror to catch the shape of him behind you.
you didn’t even hear him enter your chambers. but you’d felt him somehow, known his presence. maybe known his gaze on you.
(it burns deep and vicious to know his gaze. to become accustomed and attuned to him.)
prince kaeya smiles knowingly.
the dark glint to his eye lets you know he’s in strange ways.
“you’re getting quite perceptive.” he muses. “if only you’d been so sharp when i first took you, maybe you wouldn’t be here.”
you were just a naive artist from mondstadt then. a child who knew the sound of the wind in the trees and the birdsong that rose into the sky early in the morning. you knew the golden hills and the valley and a sort of freedom that made you sing like those birds in the morning, too.
(in the dark, he asks you to sing. sing like you used to, he says. and when you open your mouth, you’re always terrified of what will come out.)
now you sit tucked away in the gilded cage he’s made for you in a land far from your home skies. in a castle where the eyes of gods cannot reach you.
“you’re lucky i wasn’t.” you reply sharply, trying to keep your bite around him.
it grows harder and harder to.
every day the edge you’ve tried so desperately to keep begins to whittle away. it’s hard to always be angry. it’s miserable to always be vicious.
(and he’s never harmed you. not physically—just in stranger, worse ways. emotionally. mentally. you wish he’d just break a bone or make a scar, so that when it heals, you know you’re okay again.
it’s worse that he spoils you. it’s worse that he cherishes you. it’s its own form of torment. he knows it.)
he smiles lazily, on the edges are amusement. fondness. he is endlessly entertained by your contempt.
he approaches where you sit in front of your ornate vanity. it’s too beautiful. it’s too grand.
he’s a dark shadow of blue behind you in the mirror. you watch his reflection carefully. he watches you back as he approaches.
something thrills inside you, wild and dark and sudden.
he reaches out, touches your cheek.
you watch his knuckle brush against your face in the mirror.
he’s testing you.
the last time you bit him.
the moment you turn your face towards his hand, it slips away, dancing out of your reach.
he smiles again knowingly.
it’s insufferable.
sensing your ire, he says, “let’s play our game.”
you breathe hard through your nose.
you turn to face him so you’re not caught in his endless reflection. you glare up at him with all the vitriol you can muster.
(it isn’t much anymore.)
“don’t you have more important things to do?”
“nothing so important as you, darling.”
your teeth grind together. but you get out;
“i’d try to escape from the balcony.”
he tsks.
“the guards would spot you.”
“i’d poison the guards.”
he laughs outright at this, “with what poison?”
you feel heat in your face, but you press on, “the hemlock i’ve been growing in the garden.”
he pauses at that. tilts his head.
“my, you’ve gotten good. i can’t tell if you’re lying.”
“go and check.” you dare.
“maybe later.” he agrees, “say i destroyed it. i froze it.”
“you’re not playing fair.” you accuse.
he laughs warmly, reaching out again to tousle your hair. you swat and push at him, but it only excites him, it only makes his hands catch your wrists and come down to your level. kneeling beside you. he holds your wrists tight, presses them down into your own lap. in another world, he could be a lover on his knees for you, his hands clasped over yours.
he fits himself between your legs. he presses himself too close.
but it isn’t another world. and his eye is like the endless night sky in this one. so dark, so terrifying.
“fine,” he agrees pleasantly, “the guards are poisoned. you slip out from the balcony. i’m a light sleeper—i hear you jump to the ground.”
“i try to run.” you breathe.
“where would you run?” he asks, nose nudging yours. you can feel the sharp cut of his foxish smile.
“past the fountain.”
“come now, you’re cleverer than that. i’d find you and drag you back.”
“i’d kick and scream. i’d make you bleed.”
“you’ve done that all before, it doesn’t stop me anymore.”
your nails bite into his shoulders as he lifts you from your place in front of the vanity. you hang around his neck like a child. instinctively, you wrap your legs around his waist.
you tuck your face into his shoulder so you don’t see the pleased look in his eye.
you know where he’ll take you.
“you need new tricks.” he hums as he sits on the edge of the bed with you in his lap.
“maybe i already have them—if it’s a good trick, you wouldn’t know.” you mumble into his shoulder. you hide there.
his hand creeps up to the back of your neck. goosebumps prickle. his fingers slip into your hair and then curl into a loose fist. he tugs gently to dislodge you from his shoulder, to pull you away so that he may see your face again.
he looks at you as if he’s trying to find the trick you speak of. perhaps it’s in your eyes or the set of your mouth.
“i always know.” he warns.
“let’s play again.” you say.
and this time, you use your weight to push him down onto the bed.
he goes down willingly, too easily.
you capture his wrists the way he did to you earlier. you pin them by his head. languidly, he stretches beneath you, amused with this show of sudden power or interest.
“okay, you begin.” he says and his smile is the curve of a laughing, crescent moon.
“i grow to trust you.”
he tilts his head, uncertain or intrigued, you can’t tell. but you can tell you’ve surprised him. his smile falters.
“i’m pleased—you know it’s all i want.” he says and though it’s softened, it’s guarded. you can feel the way he tenses beneath you, waiting, searching.
“and i grow to—to want you, too.” you say and your voice sounds strange to your own ears. far off. maybe too near. not your own, or else, horrifyingly, only yours.
perhaps there is truth there in a way you cannot even begin to untangle.
he’s silent. watching.
“what do you do?” you prompt, breath hitching, almost beg him to speak. “play the game. it’s your turn.”
you feel his wrists flex, the tendons and muscles moving, encircled in your fingers.
“i—cherish you. i foster your desires. i give you whatever you want.” his voice is bedroom soft. his lashes flutter.
“freedom?”
he releases a slow breath of frustration. you feel it against your cheek.
“a form of it.” he answers. and then, carefully, you feel the shifting of his hand beneath yours. his thumb sweeps over your wrist, into your palm. “more and more as i grow to trust you, too.”
you let your hand open up to his, feel it bloom to the touch.
“being alone in the garden.” you press, “i ask you one day to tend to it by myself, when i please.”
he laces his fingers with yours.
“in time.” he agrees, “and you can tend to your garden alone. you can walk on the grounds, wherever you please. you can take dinner in the atrium or the greenhouse or by the lake. it could all be yours.”
you squeeze his hand, “say i earn your trust—let’s finish the game.”
“i give you the world.” he breathes it and you feel it against your lips, feel it somewhere deep inside of you. on the other, soft side of your chest, where your heart thrums.
you know he is telling the truth.
but it rings discordant inside of you. just as softly, you murmur;
“and then i disappear with it. you wait for me to come in from the garden one day—and i never do.”
the tender hold of your hand turns vicious, biting.
you bare your teeth and hiss, “i steal your world and your trust and the love you gave me and i run and run and run. until you can’t find me—until you can’t catch me. i do it when you least expect it—when i love you too much.”
he pushes and twists you under him. he presses you down hard like he could keep you from disappearing, like you’re slipping from him already. but you press on;
“and you’ll see my face everywhere—in the windows of the atrium and the corners of the greenhouse. in the hemlock i grew in the garden and the wind that howls while you stand on the balcony. but i’ll be gone—“
“you’ll never earn my trust now.” he warns, “and you’ll never know the garden alone, or the world i could give you.”
“but i’ll know the one you took from me.”
his eye flashes dangerously, the flicker of frigid, dark waters beneath ice.
but then he’s gone. off of you. the warmth of him leaves you in a rush.
he grabs for a coat of his, throwing it over his shoulders in a flare of dark fabric.
“where are you going? i thought you wanted to play.” you sneer.
“and i thought you didn’t?” he heads for the door anyways, “i’m going to the garden. alone.”
“scared you’ll find hemlock?” you ask.
“are you scared i’ll find hemlock?” he retorts and then lowers his voice, almost to a caress, “i would punish you.”
“you’ve done that all before, it doesn’t stop me anymore.” you tilt your head, “maybe you need new tricks.”
the door slams behind him. you don’t even flinch.
and in a moment, you watch his figure, a dark smudge against the gray fog, trudge out towards the garden.
you watch from the balcony.
there is no hemlock in the garden.
and he is gentler again when he returns that night. but he locks the door to the balcony and he keeps the key tethered around his neck, pressed to you as he holds you; so close and yet so far.
you can feel it’s cool metal against your bare back. you can feel his skin to yours, the way he holds you like you’re going to slip away.
there is no hemlock in the garden, but there is nightshade.
“let’s play our game.” he whispers that night, pressing scattered kisses like falling stars along your shoulder, your jaw.
“i steal the key around your throat. i unlock the balcony door—“
“i hear you. i let you go, anyways.”
you go perfectly still.
“i—i climb down the balcony and i run—“
“past the fountain?”
you nod slowly. you feel your heart kick into an unsteady rhythm.
“i let you go. i let you get far.”
“you’d let me—“
your throat constricts; a ball of emotion wedged there suddenly. you feel your eyes prick with—with shock. is he really—?
something terrified stirs inside you at even the thought of your real freedom; of the thing you want most.
“and then i hunt you.”
he kisses beneath your ear, like a lover.
your blood goes cold.
“i chase you across the world i gave you and the one i took from you. and every time, i find you. i’d find you. and i’d drag you back.”
“i’d—i’d kick and scream. i’d make you bleed.” you manage to get out.
he props himself up, if only to catch your chin, to force you to look back at him.
he kisses you. slowly. sweetly.
“there’s no hemlock in the garden. you need new tricks.”
but the nightshade opens its flowers to the moon, just outside the locked door of your balcony, in the garden that you can’t tend to alone.
you melt into the kiss, open mouthed and tender. soft and deep like lovers.
when you pull away, you have the key dangling in your hand;
“and this isn’t the key to the balcony. so do you.”
when he kisses you again, brutal and dreadful, and with too much heat for someone so, so cold, you feel the sharp cut of his foxish smile.
and maybe even some sick curve of your own.
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Strawberry's Whumptober masterlist!
warning!! some of these post will contain gore, death, mental distress and other themes that may be disturbing to some readers! Please pay attention to they tags on each post and read with caution!
note: These will be 'x reader' posts because as this is an 'x reader' blog. Most if not all characters will be genshin characters simply because I know them better. If you have a character you want with a certain prompt, feel free to request it and I will write it when I get to it
if I am late some days please rest assured the fics will be uploaded eventually!
PRONOUNS: majority of my works will have no pronouns or gendered terms used for reader, if they are used they will be gender neutral or they/them. If you'd prefer she/her or he/him, there will be a link on the gn fics for both other options. If there is a specific set of pronouns you want me to use, i can edit upload another version with those pronouns, just let me know<3
Update (17th of Oct): whumptober is being put in hold temporarily, some things are going on and I can't really write atm. Everything will eventually be written by the end of October! Just a little delayed is all. Please be patient<3
Day 1: "how many fingers am I holding up?" with Albedo from Genshin impact [Here!]
Day 2: "They don't care about you" with Alhaitham from Genshin impact [Here!]
Day 3: "Make it stop" with Xiao from Genshin impact [Here!]
Day 4: "I see the danger, it's written there in your eyes" with Beidou from Genshin impact [Here!]
Day 5: Debris with Wanderer from Genshin impact [Here!]
Day 6: Made to watch with Kaveh from Genshin impact [Here!]
Day 7: "Can you hear me?" with Kokomi from Genshin impacy [Here!]
Day 8: "It's all for nothing" with Abyss!Aether from Genshin impact [Here!]
Day 9: "You're a liar" with Brother!Kaeya (and brother!Diluc) from Genshin impact [Here!]
Day 10: "You said you'd never leave" with brother!Bennet from Genshin impact [Here!]
Day 11: "No one will find you" with Cyno from Genshin impact [Here!]
Day 12: "I haven't slept in days, but who's counting?" with Freminet from Genshin impact [Here!]
Day 13: "I don't feel so good" with Tighnari from Genshin impact [Here!]
Day 14: "Just hold on" with Heizou from Genshin impact [Here!]
Day 15: "I don't need you to help me, I can handle things myself" with Ayato from Genshin impact [on hold]
Day 16: "Don't go where I can't follow" with Lyney from Genshin impact [on hold]
Day 17: "Leave me alone!" with brother!Mika from Genshin impact [On hold]
Day 18: Blindfold/tortured for information with Venti from Genshin impact [on hold]
Day 19: "I'll take one final step, all you have to do is make me" with Ningguang from Genshin impact [on hold]
Day 20: "You will regret touching them"/found family with Siblings!Bennet, Razor and Fischl from Genshin impact [in progress]
Day 21: "Don't move" with Kazuha from Genshin impact [in progress]
Day 22: "Watch out!" with Neuvillette from Genshin impact [in prohress]
Day 23: "Who's there?" with Childe from Genshin impact [in progress]
Day 24: Neglect with Aether from Genshin impact [in progress]
Day 25: "They're not breathing!" with Cyno from Genshin impact [in progress]
Day 26: "You look awful" with sibling!Chongyun from Genshin impact [in progress]
Day 27: "Let me see" with Xiao from Genshin impact [in progress]
Day 28: "You'll have to go through me" with Lynette from Genshin impact [in progress]
Day 29: "I only sink deeper the deeper I think" with Baizhu from Genshin impact [in progress]
Day 30: "It's ok to say 'I'm not ok'" with Lyney from Genshin impact [in progress]
Day 31: "Take it easy" with Aether from Genshin impact [in progress]
If there are prompts you want to see with certain characters send a request and ill write something for them and add it to the masterlist<3
masterlist will be updated as I make the posts!
last update: 14th of october 2023, 10:53pm (AEST)
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