Home. | XiaoAether Oneshot

Home.

Home.

Xiao was foreign to the very word for the longest time. What was home? Where was it? Liyue was nothing more than his battlefield, a beautiful battlefield full of people he was bound to protect from the darkness that seeped through every crack on the ground. Many years passed, and not one year went by where he thought any different. Humans were vile, weak creatures that developed too fast, creating a Liyue he hadn’t once seen before; full of thriving new gadgets and extraordinary business...nothing out of the ordinary in the land of the beloved Geo Archon he served.

Years passed and few dared to approach the tainted Yaksha. He got used to the whirring noise that the quiet made before his thoughts settled in. Hell, he barely remembered the last time he had a full conversation with someone. Xiao grew used to it. He grew to like the silence, preferring it over the company of a foe he’d eventually lose. The clouds covered his eyes and yet never threatened to rain. He felt forever stuck in the darkness he succumbed to hundreds of years ago.

It was numbing, and each day slurred together...slowly becoming one everlasting eternity that he’d never outgrow.

Until the sun threatened to rip the clouds away with its gold embers, opening up his entire world. The sun was a stranger to not only his own world but all of Teyvat. The sun wore bright golden eyes that shone with motivation and a hint of solemnity behind the colorful facade. The sun had pale skin, smoother than the rocks skipped across the glistening shallow stream running through the deep crevasses of Nantianmen, yet a radiant fire desperately burned underneath the skin, longing for something it couldn’t find. Wisps of lustrous blonde swept along the sun’s face, gracefully flowing in the winds the anemo archon blessed them with. From rumors in the harbor that reached all the way to the Inn, this boy was an Honorary Knight foreign to this world.

At first, Xiao wanted nothing to do with this knight. He was the same as everyone else; a vile, weak human being. A vile, weak, and beautiful human being who he just happened to observe from afar the second his steps reached Liyue dirt.

To the utmost best of his ability, the yaksha wanted to avoid him at all costs. He kept his distance, watching the blonde from afar whenever he wasn’t busy fulfilling his duties, despite being clueless as to why he was so curious. The traveler seemed to not care about the distance keeping them apart. First, they met properly on the tall roof of the infamous Wangshuu inn, coaxed by the sweet scent of Almond Tofu plated delicately with care. Even closer than before, the boy was different. The way he spoke, the way he thought, and even the way he smelled were unrecognizable. He smelled like earth and the salt of the ocean that was picked up by the fragrant breeze blowing the qingxin petals in the early spring season. The traveler’s obsequious company felt different from the one-sided conversation between the boss behind the desk downstairs.

Everything about him was new… and Xiao didn’t know whether he liked it or not…

The second time they met, the blonde was in his arms after a battle that sent the ground shaking, the skies and sea threatening to spill into the land and harbor. The traveler was strong, wielding no vision yet having the powers of one, armed with the skilled hands to work a sword with beauty and ease. His wet blonde hair against his skin was soft, he couldn’t help but wish not to let the young man go.

And then his name was muttered through the crowd of Adeptus and heroes.

Aether.

Xiao read about such a name before, in the thousands of pages he’s turned in the span of his existence. ‘God of the light’. With a mere glance, the beautiful name fit him oh so well. He seemed to glow brighter the longer the adepti stared. Ah...that was irritating.