Swirling Feelings Modern AU

Chapter 1: The comfort your presence brings

"we worked too hard for this shit now appreciate it"

Krazylee (I PROOFED READ THIS SHIT AND I DON'T EVEN DO THAT TO MY OWN BOOKS, APPRECIATE MY WORK)

____________________________________________________

Third person POV:

‘Now that I realize, I’ve never seen Xiao’s social media accounts, and it would be nice to see more pictures of Xiao so….’ Aether thought to himself before pulling out his phone to search up Xiao on Instagram. “Let’s see x-i-a-o…..What’s Xiao_Official?” as Aether clicks on the profile he gets greeted with photos of someone, someone that is undeniably……

Xiao.

He starts scrolling down to find..“EHHHHH??” Aether goes red in an instant seeing a picture of shirtless Xiao. Once he calmed down he followed Xiao and eventually fell asleep.

The next day, Aether saw Xiao enter the store as usual and saw this as the perfect opportunity to ask about the accounts he saw last night.

“Hey Xiao, I found out that you’re a model~” Aether said playfully.

Xiao’s eyes widen in an instant, his face looks as if he regrets every decision he has made in his life, and the stress of being a model is coming back to him. “Xiao are you okay? You look really stressed” Aether said as he caught on to the fact that Xiao was panicking.
“I’m fine don’t worry-” Xiao says, only to be interrupted by Aether “You’re clearly not! My shift ended already anyway” ''Xiao, what’s your address?” Aether asks quickly. “It’s _______” Xiao says, as Aether drags him to his bike “I’m taking you there!” Aether insisted and Xiao slightly blushed.

Aether walks into the mansion, still holding onto Xiao “Where's your room?” He whispers quietly, trying not to startle Xiao ”Mhh..first room….second..floor” It was obvious to Aether that Xiao is slightly panicked and tired. He hurries up the the stairs and places Xiao on the bed to rest, when he was about to leave he realizes that Xiao is probably still panicked and just doesn’t want to show it, so he stays for the night, comforting Xiao, and they ended up cuddling and sleeping  together (not sexually you horny mfs).

As both boys wake up, they realize they’ve been intertwined all night long, as fates.

The next day Xiao and Aether are walking to school together as usual, when Lumine happens to see them walking out of the same house. She immediately takes a picture of them and posts it online. By the time Xiao and Aether got to school, almost half of the school had seen the post and rumors spreaded saying that the two were seeing each other. They were both confused on why everyone was staring at them, when Lumine suddenly pops up out of nowhere. “Hey are you guys actually dating?” she asked, straight-foward like. Aether gets very flustered and quickly says “NO! OF COURSE NOT, WE'RE REALLY JUST GOOD FRIENDS!” Aether’s now covering his face with his hands to cover him blushing extremely hard, Xiao suddenly goes  up close to his face and asks “But do you want to?” which made Aether practically want to get a shovel and dig a 6ft deep hole and bury himself on the spot. After that they somehow ended up holding hands on their way to class which fueled the fire, giving the rumors and picture taken by his dear friend (sister but he doesn’t know yet), some form of proof.

A week later, Aether’s salary decreased by a lot due to the restaurant owner’s personal issues and financial problems. Aether rants a bit to Xiao about the major salary decrease, and at some point he mentions that he will most likely be homeless if this goes on.”Haaaaah why is my life so hard~” Aether cried out as he laid his head on the table, using his arm as a pillow “Then why don’t you stay at my house for the time being? That way it'll be easier for you to save money and not worry about rent." Xiao offered, Aether thought about it and told Xiao he'll give it some thought. "Take as long as you need, I'll always have a room prepared for you”.

Xiao said before continuing to listen to Aether's never ending rants and whining, he doesn't mind listening if it's Aether, Xiao could spend the whole day listening to whatever the blonde had to say, it was fascinating to see how his ray of sunshine, his hope, his entire world, talked about his day and on and on about various topics. He loved the way those lovely and so full of life golden eyes would shine when Aether would talk about his hobbies, and the way his hands would gesture how something would or is supposed to look like when explaining things. His daydreaming cut short when the bell rang.
"And THEN- ah, time for class...OH SHIT- I DIDN'T STUDY FOR MY HISTORY TEST! GOTTA GO DO LAST MINUTE STUDY! SEE YA LATER XIAO!!" and with that the boy rushed off and out of sight.

‘ sigh, I really have to ask him out one of these days’ Xiao thought as he sipped his tea that Zhongli recommended to him.

The next day Aether goes over to the table that Xiao’s sitting at “Hey Xiao, I’ve given it some thought, and I think that I’ll stay at your house for a bit, just so I can save some money.'' As Aether finished his sentence, Yoimiya’s fireworks were practically igniting inside Xiao’s head (how is he not brain-dead yet?- krazylee). “Xiao?” Xiao finally broke out of his daze, realizing what just happened “I have a room already prepared for you, I’ll help you pack up.” Xiao says quickly “Ahh you really don’t have to help me pa-” before Aether could even finish his sentence, Xiao cuts him off “Aether, I’m not taking no for an answer” Aether blushes slightly at this and takes him to go to his house to pack his things.

A couple days after Aether has moved in Xiao walks into Aether’s room, only to see him sobbing, he was curled up into a ball. Knees tucked closely to his chest as he cried “X-Xiao..what if I ... .never find my sister?” Xiao then rushes to hug Aether ''It’ll be fine, I’ll..do something about it” Aether got confused on that last part but decided to shrug it off and let xiao hold him as he felt comfortable.

“Hello..yes I’d like to hire a detective. The best one if you may, the price doesn't matter, money is not an issue. Yes, thank you.”

A few days after that, the detective sent a message to them.

“With my research, I suspect that your sister might be a woman named Lumine Viator. She attends Teyvat college, the same college as you. There is a photo attached below. Please inform me later if I am incorrect.”

“Well that’s unexpected..” Aether said, still in shock that his long lost sister was one of his close friends. “Mhm, it really is” says Xiao, satisfied that he helped Aether find his sister. “Anyways, thank you so much Xiao!” Aether says as he pulls Xiao into a hug. “I love you so much..” Aether mutters under his breath, Xiao hears it, and gets really flustered, but thought that he was just imagining things.

(This book can be found on the other writers profile, make sure to vote for theirs too as well as mine.)