Aether POV.
It's been a couple hours since I left Wangshu Inn, and I finally arrived back in Liyue Harbor. I started heading my way to the adventures guild to get my daily commissions when a certain ginger haired boy caught my eye. I easily recognized it to be Childe, who was happily calling me over. I sighed and reluctantly changed course and made my way over to him.
"Good morning Childe, Did you need something?" I asked
"Morning comrade" Childe chuckled a little to himself.
"Have you forgotten about our weekly spars already?" He continued, smililing like a puppy
"Ah, right. Sorry" I laughed nervously, yawning right after.
Childe took note of this and smiled.
"No worries comrade, come find me after your well rested" He said giving me a pat on the head before heading off
I smiled to myself.
'Maybe he isn't all that bad besides the fact he almost drowned all of Liyue'
I hummed to myself and continued my path back to the guild. Though I should listen to Childe and get some sleep, it was a pretty tiresome trip. I gave up on the idea of heading to the guild and made my way to a safe area to place my magical teapot.
_______ Time skip. Time: Early morning
I finally found a safe place to place my teapot and teleported inside. It was a nice wide open space with a mansion and a couple of Liyue styled houses on the left side of the huge building in the middle. All the houses sat on a wide giant floating island high up in the sky like a different dimension. It looked like it could be the home of an adepti. I walked across the open field and pushed open the dark oak colored doors. The inside was large and had two sets of stairs near the back of the room. The center room wasn't all that decorated but I didn't mind since me and Paimon are the only one's who actually lived in the place often. I headed up the stairs where my bedroom was and didn't bother to change. I took off my shoulder amour, scarf, and cape. I jumped on the bed and pulled the covers over me, and fell into a deep sleep.
_______Another time skip. Time: Mid afternoon~~
I flutter my eyes open and slowly sat up yawning. I grumbled and got out of bed only bothering to put on my shoulder armor and headed downstairs.
"Guess it's time to meet up with Childe" I thought to myself before exiting the teapot realm.
Xiao's POV.
I was sitting at Wangshen Funeral Parlor inside of Rex Lapis's office, it was quite fancy looking. He had asked me to drop by his office today for a chat and some tea. It's been awhile since we've been talking and it was mostly about work around Liyue. The office door suddenly flew open aggressively, only to follow behind an angry Traveler. He looked like he was just in battle, Scratches all along his arms, and his exposed stomach. His injuries looked quite concerning in all honesty.
"Ah, Traveler. How was your spar with Childe?" The calm god asked liked this was a normal occurrence.
"He went over board again. I think he did more damage to himself than I did to him" The blonde sighed.
Zhongli only nodded in response and sat up from his seat.
"Alright, where is he now?" He asked.
"I had to drag him back, he's in the waiting room on the couch" The Blonde replied
"Thank you Traveler. Please wait here so I may tend to your injuries as well." And with that, the tall, calm god left the room.
The long haired blonde walked to one of the small couches around the office and slumped down looking exhausted. I only kept my eyes on him, though he seemed to notice this and looked at me confused before giving me a bright smile and waving. I felt my face heat up and turned away, but still giving him a small wave like I would feel bad if I didn't. I can hear him chuckle a bit before sounds of him readjusting in his seat. It was silent for sometime before I looked back at Aether who had fallen asleep with his knees curled up to his chest. I hesitated for quite some before getting up from my seat and gently crawled onto Aether's couch. I sat next to the sleeping blonde, who looked peaceful as he slept.
'He sure does get injured a lot.. what a careless mortal he is.'
I stared at him sleeping before I gently pulled his head down and carefully placed his head on my lap. My face immediately turned red. I ran my fingers through Aether's hair that wasn't still in his long braid and soon fell asleep myself.
