𝙰 𝚆𝚒𝚜𝚑 𝙱𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙻𝚎𝚏𝚝 𝚄𝚗𝚜𝚊𝚒𝚍 - 𝚇𝚒𝚊𝚘 𝚡 𝙵𝚎𝚖!𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛

𝙸𝚗𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎 ~ 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟿

Your POV

I waltzed over to the front desk of the inn to catch up with Xiangling. She was simply ecstatic to be meeting my 'friend'. The moment the teal-haired male made contact with her by walking up to me, her jaw dropped. "You're friends with the last Yaksha!?!?" 

She runs up to him and does a full 360 around him while Xiao looks more internally dead than usual. Finally, she stops in front of him and smiles so brightly, I'm afraid her jaw will be sore. "Hi! My name is Xiangling!"

"I know perfectly well who you are." The adepti speaks with coldness so I give him a look. He furrows his eyebrows and we both feel an awkward silence blanket the atmosphere. But once again, the Liyue cook seems unaware of it and tells us to hurry up or we'll be at Dragonspine by evening time.

The closest teleportation point lead us to the bottom of the mountainous terrain. It was definitely a lot colder than I had anticipated. Immediately, we began to search for Xiangling's desired meat. 

The cook told us that our best bet is to find the lumps of ice. Supposedly, anything could be concealed and yet preserved within them. This isn't a difficult task since we're literally surrounded by said ice blocks, except in order to crack them open, we have to take these crimson crystals and have them make contact with the cold object. 

Honestly, it wasn't the most enjoyable 12 hours of my life. But then again, I did have pretty high expectations for my first trip out of Liyue. I begged the Archons that the rest of the trip might be a bit more exciting and we might actually find the frozen ingredient.

Aching from heaving crystals back and forth, I flopped down on a patch of snow with Xiangling. She turns to face me after a few minutes of suppressed but audible panting. "Why don't we make camp here for today?" I nod and she slowly gets up to grab her bag. 

I feel so stupid when her eyes widen and I cover mine while holding in a burst of laughter. When I unveil my e/c orbs, I notice how Xiao looks very confused and so I explain. "I realized last minute that you would be coming, so in the process of packing, we only brought enough for two people." He places a hand on his nose bridge and he understands what I'm talking about now.

"So you only packed two tents then...?" 

"Mhm" 

He scoffs and then I distinguish the small tears rolling down Xiangling's cheeks. "I-I'm s-sorry! Th-this is my fault!" She starts sobbing and I hurriedly pick up my sore body and hug her. "No it isn't, we both forgot and I should've mentioned Xiao coming sooner Xiangling."

Her crying begins to soften and I continue. "You and Gouba can have one tent-" Pausing, I lock eyes with the Adepti for approval. He huffs at first but nods. "Xiao and I will use the other."

She scrubs the last remnants of tears on her face and stutters a thank you while returning the hug. I stand up and Xiangling pulls out the two tents and their structural parts. Surprisingly, Xiao helps us put them up and I find myself grinning at the small compassion he showed. Thank goodness for Xiangling's innocent and wholesome mind because if it was anyone else, they probably would be cracking jokes about the teal-haired male and I sleeping in a tent together. I mean, he's already slept close to me once but the difference is no one really around when that happens.

The cook sniffles a last time before waving goodnight to Xiao and myself. I can feel my ears turning hot as I timidly enter our tent. In a very poor attempt to make the current predicament less awkward, I take a seat in a corner of the flimsy tent. The amber-eyed male does the same in a corner across from me. 

I play with my fingers nervously and the minutes seem to drag on like sandpaper on uneven wood; raking continuously and relentlessly. As if that sensation wasn't enough, I can feel Xiao's stare burning through me. I clumsily let my fingers swim through my own bag and drag out one blanket. It isn't the thickest or coziest, but I'm beginning to be grateful for even unlikable objects. 

I glance up at Xiao, his posture carefree until his eyes meet my own. I take note of how the muscles in his arms tighten while sitting on his knees. He kept his head against one of the tent's rods but slowly lifts it enough so he can look straight at me. In a smaller voice than anticipated, I hand him one of the blankets. "I think that the blanket will be large enough that we won't have to be too close together." 

He remains silent so instead of sitting there dumbfounded, I gawkily spread out the blanket. Thankfully, I did bring two pillows so I place one near Xiao. Finally, I think I hear him mumble a thank you but being unsure, I don't respond.

I turn down the artificial light I had been carrying around and settle onto my left side and him on his right. I expected it to feel peculiar, sleeping next to Xiao, but I hadn't realized exactly how peculiar it would be. Another difference between the times at the inn and now, is I woke up with Xiao close to me, unconsciously aware of his presence during my sleep. 

Now, him being here sticks out at me like a sore thumb. I shiver and pull my knees closer to my chest. Well, a cold sore thumb to be precise. 

I shuffle again and hear Xiao sigh while muttering something unintelligible. I hear him altering his position so I turn my head slightly. "What are you-" The next thing I know, he has an arm wrapped around me gently placing me back into my original stance. As usual, I feel him bury his head into the nook of my neck and I pray that he can't feel the heat radiating off my cheeks. "Xiao-" I start but he quickly cuts me off

"Shut up and sleep." His arms constrict a bit and I huff in defeat. "I'm only doing this because I don't want you to get sick from the cold. Understood?"

"Yes sir." I state with a hint of teasing. He groan and repeats "Just sleep." Folding my eyes shut, I relax my body and allow myself to drift off into a trance filled with dreams. They'll be gone when I wake up but I'm glad to know that at least one of them will still be within my reach. 

I almost let a chuckle when I consider that I'm more in their reach right now.