Genshin Impact One Shots

xiao confesses his feelings for you

The breeze in jueyun karst blew xiao's hair softly in the wind as he looked down at the valley, standing tall on cliff above with the usual melancholic frown on his face. Nothing rattled Xiao's nerves. Thousands of years of war, suffering, loneliness, and guilt had hardened him beyond human comprehension. That is, until you came along. You gave him butterflies and made him lose his cool like no one else. It terrified him, yet he couldn't help but be drawn deeper and deeper into you every time he heard you call his name... oh how sweet it sounded coming off your lips.

Tonight was the night... He had decided. He was going to confess how he felt, or at least for as much as he could in his own coarse, ungraceful way. He gently picked a qingxin flower from it's place in the ground, and added it to the small bouquet of them he'd been making. A subtle warmth filled his chest thinking about seeing your face upon receiving your favorite flower. This was the last one, and he had also been collecting crystalflies all week in preparation for this night.

He didn't really understand why people enjoyed this kind of thing so much, but he knew it was just what one did when pursuing someone they cared for in that way. Truth be told, he didn't even begin to understand the concept of love until the strange feeling crept it's way into his heart. He held the hope he would slowly begin to understand these things more and more, but until then he'd do it simply because it made you happy, which in turn made him the closest to happiness he could be, or at least what he imagined it felt like, as he hadn't felt it in thousands of years, and had all but forgotten.

Somehow, you had managed to convince him to go to the lantern festival. Well, sort of. He met you halfway and agreed to sit outside the city, to which you insisted he couldn't be alone, and would come out and keep him company. Xiao of course said that was ridiculous and that he had no problem being alone, and actually preferred it. It was the whole reason he didn't want to go into the city walls. But in reality, he was glad you were going to be there. You're the only one he didn't mind spending time with, which said a lot about the strength of his feelings for you. He was always curious about human life, but too scared to be apart of it, feeling as though he didn't deserve it for the thousands of years he had slaughtered their kind. He felt even this even more about you and your heart, but that little twinge of happiness he felt every time your hand would accidentally brush his was too irresistible to not seek out.

He was a nervous wreck on his way to you, kicking stones off the path into the grass the whole way, and rehearsing what he would say the entire journey there. He considered just forgetting the whole idea altogether, but the possibility that you just might feel the same and how much that little taste of happiness would grow from it made him press on.

The sun had disappeared, and he knew he was close to Liyue. His heart raced at a dangerous rate knowing he would be seeing you any moment now, but this new feeling exhilarated him somehow. He didn't know what he would do if you rejected him, but he did know that he would continue to watch over and protect you for the rest of your days, even if it was only from a distance. Even if he had to eternally feel the heartache of the relationship between you being estranged from what could be a very painful encounter. Even if he had to watch you live your life and be happy without a second thought of him. Even if he had to watch from the background as you loved someone else, he would still protect you with his very life.

Perhaps...  that's what it meant to love someone... he thought to himself, but brushed off the thought thinking there's no way it could be as simple as that. Protecting people was his duty, and his desire to shield you from any harm, be it physical or emotional was just part of his job. Yes, that was it. Nothing more. Yet when he finally reached the city, and saw you sitting on a grassy hill, his faith in that statement was shaken for a brief moment, and his heart skipped a beat. He stood there for a little too long, just staring at you with his mouth hanging open. He felt around at his side to make sure the bouquet of flowers he prepared for you was safely secured and hidden under his adeptus mask, and sighed in relief when it was.