Winter Moon | Xiao x Fem Reader

Old ambers

You were slowly assembling the lantern, nimble fingers gently folding the paper, careful not to smudge the small writing on it. Sitting on your knees on top of one of the tall mountains on the edge of Liyue Harbour you let the lantern fly up in the air, joining the hundreds of small lights.

You sighed as you watched the beautiful scenery, feeling the nostalgia and sadness creeping up your throat. You put your hands together as if to pray, to whom you weren't sure but you hoped there would be someone higher than a God, than an Archon, hearing your prayers.

But you knew there was no one, no one was more powerful than an Archon.

Except yourself.

And yet here you were, the God of all gods, praying for someone else to come and help you. Pathetic.

But you were desperate for someone to hear your wish, to rescue you and so you stayed all night, praying until you could barely feel your legs.

If you didn't know better, you would have already confronted the man who had watched you the whole night from a distance far off in the forest of mountains. You could feel his wariness and his disdain, for what, you didn't know. You had already felt the fact that he was no mortal, waves of condensed, rippling power coming from his direction miles away.

Once the sun rose, so did you. Supporting yourself on a nearby rock wall, you allowed your weak legs to gain circulation back to them and dusted off your white attire. You had a long day ahead.

---

Knocking on the funeral parlour door, you were surprised to be greeted by a short girl with brown hair and red eyes.

"Welcome, welcome! My name is Hu Tao and I am here to provide you with our funeral services! How may I assist you?" She spoke in a high and excited voice. She seemed a little too hyper to be working for a funeral parlour but to be fair, in all your years of life, it wasn't the most peculiar thing you've seen.

"Uhm..." You were unsure of how to continue. "I am looking for someone actually."

"Oooh? And who may that be?" Her eyes lit up with curiosity. She reminded you of a small child.

But you weren't sure who exactly you were looking for. You haven't seen him in 3000 years, you didn't know what form he might've taken this time. If it was even a 'he', but the stars had led you here and you trusted them more than you trusted anything else.

You had to guess. "A man?"

The girl, Hu Tao, pouted and crossed her arms childishly. "Everyone's always looking for Zhongli and never me! Hmph!" You smiled sheepishly at her cute display of annoyance as she stepped aside to let you in.

The parlour wasn't anything extravagant but you could see it was doing well enough to have all kinds of commodities. You stepped into a giant room with a long table in the middle, and as your eyes followed the length of it, at the head of it you saw a man.

He was sipping his tea, eyes closed and demeanour calm but as soon as his eyes opened, you knew. It was him.

The second you stepped into the room his golden eyes had snapped open and landed on you. He studied you for a second before those same gorgeous eyes widened. The sudden pressure in the room made the eccentric girl beside you obviously uncomfortable.

"I-I guess I'll leave you two here to talk things out," she said and she exited the room with hurried steps.

"You..." He seemed to not be able to form any further words and his eyes had filled with the foreign feeling you had recognized as hope. "You're alive?"