No Time Left (Xiao x Reader)

No Time Left

Request: Xiao + "Lie to me, then."

It's always been like this.

You, running forward at full speed. Him, desperately chasing behind, watching as you push on further and further away.

"You're joking," he whispers because that's what this has to be, right? Some sick, twisted joke that can't be real because if it is—if it is real, then—

If it is real, then Xiao doesn't know what he'll do with himself.

"I'm sorry," you whisper, cradling his hands in yours. "But we have time. Baizhu said that I still have two months to live, and I'll only start to grow weak in the final days. There's still so much time for us to spend together, so—"

"So much time?" Xiao lets out a broken laugh, turning his eyes towards the midnight sky as if asking Celestia above why this had to happen to him, why this has to happen to you. "For every second you've breathed, I've lived a hundred years. Two months is nothing," he spits. "There's no time left."

You keep quiet at that.

Xiao closes his eyes, hating how even now, you stroke his knuckles with the pads of your thumbs, knowing that he prefers this physical intimacy to any spoken words. He hates that he, a mighty adeptus, can be read so easily by a human. Hates how he knows he'll miss this same sensation when you've been handed to the God of Death in two months.

"I can bring you to Cloud Retainer," Xiao says, pulling you closer to him. "He has cures that will make you immortal, so—"

"I don't want that," you whisper. "I don't want to cheat death."

No, of course you don't. Because ever since Xiao met you, you've always refused that kind of assistance, too busy being a stubborn adventurer that declines all help from the magical spirits of Teyvat. You're the kind of fool who likes to ignore preferential treatment, who purposefully evaded Xiao on your travels so you could experience the real world without the strength of a thousand spears by your side—a brilliant ploy until you ended up backed against a cliffside by enemies, pushed to the brink of death until his golden eyes caught sight of your figure falling to the ground where even then, you refused to whisper his name.

Xiao opens his eyes, and there's nothing but pain in the twin ambers as they stare at you with longing.

He was fine with you evading him in the past, comfortable with you sprinting away because he knew that eventually, somehow, somewhere, he would find you. There would always be a way to catch up with that godly speed of his, and there was nowhere he couldn't find you.

But now, you're going to go to a place he can't follow.

"Please," he mumbles, pressing his forehead to yours. "Don't be stubborn about this. Your pride is nowhere near as important as your life."

"But my humanity is," you respond, and when you speak to Xiao in such a voice, strong and confident and determined all in one, the adeptus finds it hard to believe that you're carrying an illness best known for stealing its host's strength. "And we promised. When we began this—whatever this is—you promised me that you wouldn't ask me to give up my humanity to survive. It—it was a contract, Xiao. You can't go back on that."

"A contract?" The adeptus laughs a broken laugh, much too bitter and wholly unsweet. "The God of Contracts is dead. My master's will has no bearing here."

A long pause.

"He left me, just like you plan to."

You say nothing.

Your grip is robust as you hold Xiao's hand, the bones beneath retaining their strength of structure, but now that the adeptus senses the elemental flow within you, he can sense how it moves at a more languid pace.