𝓢𝔀𝓮𝓮𝓽 𝓠𝓲𝓷𝓰𝔁𝓲𝓷

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝟏: 𝑶𝒏𝒆 𝑷𝒍𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝑸𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒙𝒊𝒏

"He loves me...He loves me not."

(Y/n) plucks the petals of a qingxin flower she is holding tightly in her hand. A dozen other qingxin sit next to her on the plushy green grass.

One by one, all the petals of the flower fall to the ground and are discarded.

"He loves me..."

She furrows her brows as she plucks the last petal.

"Not."

She pouts for a second, then she lets off a deep exhale. (Y/n) softly picks up another qingxin, hoping this one will have better results than the last.

(Y/n) calmly picks off the first petal,

"He loves me..." her voice softly trails off into a whisper.

Then, she stops. The flower wavers in the wind, threatening to break down its petals.

Her eyes drift off to the sky, watching the clouds pass by. Her handsets down the one plucked-petal qingxin flower among the other stemless ones. (Y/n) puts her hands together in her lap, and rubs them together. The weather is adequate, and the air fresh, but the wind makes her shudder. She looks at the figure beside her. His shoulder rests against her shoulder, his head lays softly against her head. He is soundly asleep. His hair flows in the chilling wind, the sun gleaming across his skin. She softly smiles at his peaceful composure. He never sleeps like this. (Y/n) lifts her hand to take one of his in hers. She traces her finger along the scars of his hand from battles fought long ago. She softly hums as the wind briefly settles down, giving away the beauty of Liyue with the quietness of the land surrounding them. She caresses his war borned hand. The roughness of his hand feels comforting and familiar all at the same time. With one last thought, (Y/n) presses a kiss to his hand, and envelopes it in hers. She reaches for the one plucked-petal qingxin and tucks it in behind one of his ears.

"I love you," she whispers near his ear.

(Y/n) eyes start to falter as she watches the peaceful land of Liyue a last time before she joins Xiao in a calm and tranquil rest.

-

The Earth rumbles with lightning and thunder as the trees sway in panic. The land becomes diminished and muddy from all the rain pouring.

(Y/n) opens her eyes to Liyue in a storm, her in the middle of it. She looks to the side of her, Xiao still sleeps.

Suddenly, a big boom erupts in front of them, causing (Y/n) to yelp. She immediately buries her face in Xiao's chest and clings to his back.

She feels shifting from above her.

"What are you doing?"

His hands move to be on her shoulders. Xiao pushes her off of him just a smidge, but his hands stay where they are.

Her voice quakes as she tries to let out a word, "I-"

Another lightning strike occurs.

(Y/n) lets out a short-pitched scream as she grasps Xiao even tighter than before.

Xiao sighs. He pulls her shoulders in with one arm and with the other lifts her legs as he teleports to Wangshu Inn.

It is nightfall, and no one is walking around the raised wooden planks. Xiao lands on the balcony. He then puts (Y/n) down, carefully. He watches her as she stands on her own.

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine-"

She gets cut off from another lighting strike below them.

She jumps in fright and then runs to Xiao, grabbing his hand.