What is this familiar feeling? [XIAOTHER]

Chapter 5: "More than friends..."

Authors note: I didn't have a picture for this chapter so i'm sorry :'(

Xiao went to pick up his phone after hearing a notification come up. It was a message from Aether. "Xiao, Could you meet me at XXX? I want to tell you something..." Xiao's heart dropped. 'Did Lumine tell him!?" Xiao hesitantly replied to Aether say he'll be there soon. He saw that Aether has read the text. He placed his phone down on his bed and quickly got dressed. Once he was done, he grabbed his phone, ran out his room, said bye to Ganyu, and ran out the door. He grabbed his phone from his pocket and looked up the address that Aether gave him. He wasn't familiar with the address though. It looked like it was in the middle of nowhere. It would take him almost an hour to get there but we ran most of the way since he didn't know if Aether was there or not and didn't want to make him wait.
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Xiao had finally made it to the location where Aether wanted to meet him. He looked around for a moment and couldn't see Aether anywhere. The only thing that stood out to him was this huge tree. It was very strange though. It looked like half of the tree was this type of glowing blue crystal. Xiao slowly walked up to the tree. 'This looks familiar.' He thought. All of a sudden, he felt a light tap on his shoulder. He quickly turned around and saw Aether. "Ah, sorry..I didn't mean to scare you." Aether put his hands behind is back and looked down. "It's fine." Then it became awkwardly quiet. "So....What did you want to talk about?" Aether shot his head up. "Oh right!" He reached into his bag that was on his shoulder and was getting something out. "Here!" Aether pulled out a neatly packaged jewelry box. "What's this?" Xiao grabbed the box from Aether's hands. "I-It's just a little gift I got you, for letting me stay at your house." Aether nervously chuckled.

Xiao slowly opened the box to see, "Is this...Is this the necklace i've been wanting?" "Yeah! I bought it today so I wanted to give it to you." The necklace had white pearls on the string of it that connected with two larger pink pearls with smaller green pearls connected to that. On the green pearls, there was two dangling things (don't know what they're called-) that had a pink to white gradient. In the center of the necklace was a grey pointy piece of metal.(?)
"Aether...how much was this?" Xiao closed the box and looked up to make eye contact with Aether. "Oh, um..." Aether mumbled under his breath. "Aether." Xiao's tone became serious. "maybe, $200..." Aether looked down once again with his hands behind his back. It went silent for a moment. "uh, but hey! It'll ward off evil, right?" "Aether, you didn't have to do this. You bought this for me just because I let you spend the night?" "Well, yeah...It's a thank you." "But I didn't need this!" Xiao raised his voice at Aether, which caused Aether to flinch a little. The tension grew. "I-I'm sorry..." Aether looked down at his feet again, trying to keep his tears in. "No, I'm sorry...I shouldn't have raised my voice." Xiao grabbed Aether's hands.
Aether looked up at him. "Please don't cry.." Aether's tears had finally escaped from his eyes and ran down his cheeks. Xiao gently wiped away his tears with his thumb. "...The main reason I brought you here was to tell you something..." Aether's face suddenly became a flushed red. "What is it?" Xiao let go of his hands. "I....I've been wanting to tell you for so long now but I never had the courage to." Xiao's heart skipped a beat. 'what is Lumine told him about the text? Does he not want to be friends anymore?' Negative thoughts rushed through Xiao' head. "I...I want to be more than friends.." Xiao stood there in confusion. "What do you mean?" Xiao nor Aether had ever been in a relationship. So, they were both clueless about everything. "Xiao, I love you...and I want to..I want to go out with you." Aether quickly covered his face in embarrassment. That's when it hit Xiao. His cheeks started to heat up. "Do you mean that?" Xiao got closer to Aether. "Yes, I do." Xiao then gently grabbed Xiao's hands and held them tightly. Aether looked at Xiao.
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"Everyone i've ever loved has been killed...because of me. I can't loose you to Aether."
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Both Aether and Xiao had just seen a white flash and someone talking. "Aet...Aether..." Xiao mumbled. "Xiao..?" It was silent for a moment. "Wait wait, so If you're Xiao, and I'm Aether...Does that mean, We we're lovers in a past life? And that past life was the life that no one knows and is thousands of years old!?" Aether groans in confusion and crouches. Xiao chuckles. He bends down and helps Aether back up. They both then look at the tree. "So, this is where we got married, huh?" Xiao smiled and then turned to Aether. They then share a loving kiss. "I love you Xiao." "I love you too, Aether."
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"Whoa wait! You're telling me, that you guys are dating now!? JUST TODAY!?" Both Xiao and Aether nodded. Lumine groaned. "I'm going back to my room." She stomped away and slammed her door. "...Well that went well." Aether started to laugh. "Well, since your here already, do you wanna spend the night here?" Xiao's face became red. Then Aether realized what he said. "W-wait I didn't mean it like THAT." Aether looked away out of embarrassment. "Ye-Yeah i'll spend the night here..." Aether nervously chuckled and then lead the way to his room. "You can make yourself at home." Aether smiled. "Thank you." Xiao awkwardly sat on Aether's bed. He pulled out his phone and texted Ganyu saying that he'll be spending the night at a 'friends' house. She then replied with a simple 'okay.'
He turned to Aether who was changing into more comfortable clothing. He had a pear of black shorts on. Xiao just so turned to him to see that he was taking off his shirt. 'His back looks soft' Xiao then became red and quickly turned away. Little did he know that Aether saw him looking at him while he was changing. Which caused his cheek's to heat up. Once he was done, he sat on his bed and pulled out his laptop. He then laid down to get comfortable. Xiao then laid next to him to see what he was doing. "I'm seeing if anyone has made an order on the shop's website. There's usually nothing there, but i'm just making sure."
While Aether was distracted, Xiao quickly kissed him on the cheek and then pretended that he did nothing. "wha-HEY THATS NOT FAIR." Xiao chuckled. "I don't know what your talking about." Aether then grunted and grabbed Xiao's face. He then quickly kissed him. "Haha! pay back." Aether smiled and put his computer away. It was getting late so they decided to go to sleep. "Goodnight." Aether moved closer to Xiao and hugged him. He then quickly fell asleep. Xiao looked at Aether. "Goodnight, my love."
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Authors note: Hello! Thanks for reading this chapter. I also want to thank everyone who has read 'Forever Together' I can't believe that it's at 23.6k reads already 😭 Thank you guys a bunch!! Please stay safe and good luck at school! (My school starts this Monday so wish me luck) Also I am doing the fan art thing so if you wanna join, it'll be on my Instagram! You can just @ me and I'll do my best to like them (Username: almond_tofu4xiao)

I love you guys so much 😭💕