Under the Same Stars as You

Under the Same Stars as You - A Oneshot XiaoLumi Story

"Xiao..."

Silence filled the air as a blond haired traveler stared at the night sky.

"Xiao." the traveler said again.

"You called?" a voice came from behind them. The traveler turned her head behind them and spotted the green haired adeptus, holding his green spear.

"I was just curious if you'd come." the traveler giggled, as the adeptus walked to her.

"I didn't give you the privilege of summoning me just to have you call me at your leisure." Xiao grumbled, as he sat next to the traveler.

"And yet you don't leave immediately."

The two sat in silence, gazing into the night sky, watching as a shooting star flew overhead, then another, and another, until it turned the sky into a meteor shower.

"Tell me.." the traveler started to say, "what do you think of..." she paused, and did not finish her sentence.

"Think of what?" Xiao asked, looking at the face of the traveler still looking up at the sky over Liyue Harbor.

"It's nothing." the traveler smiled, turning her head to the adeptus. "Pay me no mind."

"Humph. If you're just going to waste my time, I'll leave to spend it elsewhere, more useful." Xiao said, as he got up to turn and leave, but a hand grabbed the edge of the scarf on his back. Feeling the hand slightly trembling, he sat back down next to her. "What?" he asked, his voice less harsh than before.

"It's nothing." the traveler said, still holding onto the scarf. "Could you stay a little while longer?" Xiao said nothing, and looked back up at the sky, wondering what was up with the usually chipper traveler, who constantly visited the Wangshun Inn to see him in vain. After some time, he felt a weight on his left shoulder, and glanced to the side to see the blond head of the traveler resting on it, fast asleep.

"I wonder what she was going to say..." he thought to himself, staring at the last of the meteors flying by.

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As Xiao, tirelessly, battled the possessed hulichurls near the Chasm, he couldn't forget how sad the traveler seemed all those months ago. He had seen her since then, but she never explained why she was sad, nor finished her question. All that she gave him was a laugh and smile that eased his pain, like the soft sound of the former Anemo Archon's flute music.

It wasn't like her to seem distraught at nothing. "Maybe it has something to do with her sibling..." he thought as he walked away from the fallen corpses of the dead monsters. He had heard of the traveler's reason for exploring Teyvet from Morax, and thought that her sibling could be the only reason for her distress.

"ARRGH!" he gasped in pain, as his karma caused him to fall to the ground. After some time, the searing pain subsided completely, and he got to his feet. As he walked toward the western mountains, he all of a sudden felt a ping of fear and sorrow, an emotion that had never crossed his heart since when his siblings perished after the Archon War. He felt a presence that he never truly noticed start to fade away slowly.

"-iao!" He heard the traveler's voice call his name and he disappeared in a cloud of black and green fire. He reappeared in a strange place, full of clouds and a single stone pathway. As he looked around him for the traveler, he spotted her ahead of him. It was strange, he thought, for usually when the traveler called, he came to her exact location, but he was quite some distance away. He ran towards the figure, but as he got closer, his eyes widened in horror.