chasm ･ xiao ⋆.࿔*

- chapter 9 -

(unedited)

You laid in your bed with your leg wrapped in bandages. Xiao sat on the edge of your bed next to you, using one arm to support his body and the other to play with your H/C locks, waiting for you to awaken. Slowly, you opened your eyes and groaned.

"Oh, Xiao! Good morning!" You smiled.

"The sun hasn't even risen yet."

You turned your head to look outside. It was still well before sunrise, a time for mortal slumber. Turning back to Xiao, you yawned.

"How long have you been sitting here?"

"Since I brought you back." He averted your gaze. "I was.. worried.."

Your head slightly perked up. You've seldom seen Xiao's soft side, this was a surprise to you.

"My guy, I am an adeptus," You confidently said, "I can't die that easily."

Xiao raised his eyebrows and glanced at your injured leg.

"So what even happened?" He said. "The last time you were this injured was a few decades ago when that mutated ruin guard from Snezhnaya found its way to Nantianmen."

You looked at your empty belt.

"Ahah.. funny story.." You grinned sheepishly. "My vision may or may not have gone missing.."

"YOUR WHAT?" He glared at you, standing up. "YOU. LOST. YOUR. VISION?"

"When you put it that way you make it seem as though it's my fault!"

"How is it not?!"

"Think about it! I'm a freaking adeptus! My vision can't just fall off or something!"

Xiao groaned and slapped his hand over his face.

"So you're trying to tell me someone stole your vision and you didn't even notice?"

You nodded.

"My god, Y/N, you're insane."

"And you love it," you grinned, pulling his arm back down onto the bed.

Surprisingly, he didn't resist.

He fully sat next to you on the bed now, and rested his arm on your head as an armrest. You both sat in a comfortable silence until you fell asleep leaning into each other.

----

You woke up to the sound of knocking at your room door. Xiao seemed to have left a while ago. Sitting up, you rubbed your eyes.

"Come in," You said groggily.

"Y/N, Oh thank god, you're alive!" A ginger-haired man exclaimed as he closed the door behind him.

"Well no shit, I'm alive. What do you want, Childe?" You asked.

"Me? Want anything? I'm the wallet here, Y/N, not the spender." He chuckled to himself. "Anyway, I came here to check up on you. I heard someone screaming from the ruins, and assumed the worst."

"So let me get this straight. You were in that area, and you didn't come to help me?!" You screeched.

"You're an adeptus!" He retaliated. "How would I know that you're not able to counter three measly lawachurls? Didn't you literally fight in the freaking Archon War?!"

You groaned.

"I swear to god, some people.." You muttered.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Childe's voice dropped quiet. "I just didn't think.."

You started to take pity on the poor man. Technically, he was right. You are an adeptus, anyone would think you could handle three measly lawachurls.

Wait, what am I saying? I didn't even have my vision. How could I have countered that?

"I didn't have my vision."

Childe's eyes widened.

"What?" he asked.

"I was going to fight them, but my vision was gone. Disappeared. Into thin air." You sighed.

"How does someone lose their vision..?" Childe put his hand on his chin, appearing to be thinking.

"Can we just not talk about that?" You said.

"Fine, fine." He put his hands up in defeat. "Anyway, I came here to ask you something."

His face morphed into a serious expression. You raised an eyebrow.

"Have you been ignoring me?" He asked.

"What?" You were caught off-guard. "Me? Ignoring you? You're pretty much my best friend," you lied, "so why would I be ignoring you?"

"I dunno," he said. "You haven't talked to me since you visited Ganyu, you've been extremely dry, and you don't have a tone that sounds like you're happy to talk to me."

So he's noticed.

Do I just say it outright or keep acting oblivious? What about both?

"Weird," You say, "I haven't noticed any changes in my behavior. I think you're just overthinking."

You hear a light 'hm' from him.

"So," he says, gaining his usual volume once more. "What did Ganyu tell you?"

"Childe. My bro. My dude. My g. I don't want to tell you what Ganyu said to me, and that's final."

"But why?" He asked, attempting to pry once more.

"Can you stop pushing this so much? Why do you want to know so bad?" You finally lost it. "I can keep information to myself, y'know. It's not like I have to tell you every little thing that everyone says to me. For archons sake, Childe, you're a harbinger! I don't know how I've trusted you so much but I want to keep this info private, who knows what you could do with me?"

A long silence follows.

"Fine then." He said while getting up.

"See you around, I guess." Childe went out and slammed the door.

---------

heyyy its been like 2 months but we'll ignore that

i remembered this book existed after idk how i remembered but know what at least i did

i got 2 shenhes and a xiao with 16k primos (birthday luck 💪) so now i am here because im simping again

a lot

and ive found free spots in my classes where i have nothing to do so i was like hey why dont i just write this instead

and i had already written like half the chapter in December so that just gave me even more motivation to finish it

so if its a good year then expect this book to be updated at least once a week from now on

anyway happy late new year cya next week