Stay With Me~ |Xiaother|

Looking for you is like wild-goose chase (5)

As Zhongli and Xiao arrived to Traveler's place they knocked but no one answered. They also tried by calling his name but there was no response.
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"Aether someone is looking for you open the door, Paimon is too tired for that." Said the little floating kid as it opened it's sleepy eyes."TRAVELER, THE DOOR!" This time she yelled.

As she didn't hear response she didn't have other choice as to get up and see who it was.
How rude of him! He totally ignored Paimon. Now instead of sleeping Paimon has to open door. Hmp! Paimon thought to herself. As she floated to see who was at the door, she didn't even saw the paper on the table.

"Who it is?" She asked as she opened the door. "Eh? What are you doing here at this hour?" Traveler's companion said as she saw Zhongli and Xiao."Is Aether there?" Adeptus asked ignoring Paimon's question."He should be somewhere around. Come in, I will get him for you." As she said that she floated further in the house. Morax and Yaksha followed her inside and sat at the sofa while Paimon went else where.

She was gone for a while now. Xiao was getting impatient. He was about to get up when Paimon finally come back to them. Her face didn't show exhaustion neither happiness. They were more like sad and afraid."Paimon what is going on? You don't look to good." Said Rex Lapis as expression of that little floating kid changed. Now she wasn't just sad or afraid, from the way she looked you could tell she was confused and wasn't sure of what she should do or say.

"Well...I-I can't find him anywhere." She finally spoke and looked both of the quests in the eyes."Are you sure he isn't here?" Sad Zhongli as he got up from the sofa, the same for Alatus."Yeah, Paimon looked for him everywhere!" She replied flustered."Looks like we won't find anything here..." Morax started to think out loud. " Is there any other place he could go to?" This time he looked at Adeptus as he said it.

"He could have went to Xingqiu or Chongyun." Paimon replied while floating towards door."Come on! Paimon will take you there." She quickly added.Zhongli and Yaksha exchanged their glances. We have nothing to loose. Both of them though at that time."Okay, show the way." Said Geo lord with light smile.

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"We asked multiple of people if they have saw him , yet we still found nothing." Xiao said with irritated voice."There sill are couple of places we haven't gone to. Head up we will find him! Paimon is sure about that." Companion of Aether's tried her best to lighten up his mood. As they walked through Liyue Harbor somebody saw them and began to walk towards their direction."Mr. Zhongli, little troublemaker and Paimon fancy metting you there." He said it with grin on his face.

Out of everyone we needed to bump in to him. Thought Xiao to himself."And what are YOU doing here." Said Paimon with annoyed voice. It was clear that not only Alatus didn't like his presence here."It's not important now." Tartaglia answered as he looked at that floating kid. "Well since you are here you might as well just stay by my side, so I won't have to look for you later." He spoke and grinned.

"Why would Paimon do that!?" She replied not to happy about what she just heard."Just stick to me, I don't have time to always look out and take care of you." Said Childe looking seriously."What are you talking about? Why would Paimon need you to take care of her when she has Traveler?" She wasn't sure what was going on. After all it was rare for this Fatui Harbinger to be serious for at least one second.

"I'm taking about the deal." He said little confused."But Paimon never asked you to look after her." She said as she began to be more mad and annoyed."You didn't talk it over with each other?" At this point Childe didn't know what was he supposed to do."Talk about what and with who?" This time it wasn't Paimon who spoke but Xiao.

"Traveler asked me to look after you while he's not there." Tartaglia finally said something that took all of the attention of the three of them."Aether was there?" Zhongli replied."Yeah, sometime ago." Said Fatui interested of where the topic is going to take them."What both of you talked about?" Yaksha almost yelled."This and that...you know some matters." He said as he chuckled.

Both Morax and Xiao knew he did it on purpose."It's not time to joke around Childe!" Paimon yelled."Wow, that wasn't nice. Well I guess I will just go since you clearly don't want me here." He said as turned around and began to walk away. Before he did that the ironic smile of his appeared on his face. It made Alatus blood boil."Wait can we talk?" At this moment dark haired boy was hopeless. Even thought he didn't want to, he knew that if he wants to get informations about Aether's whereabouts he needed to talk with Tartaglia.

"We can talk...but what will I get out of this? Nothing comes for free. You know eye for eye and teeth for teeth." Childe replied as he stopped not far away from them."What do you want in exchange?" Asked Zhongli."First of all I'd like for that floating gnome to go somewhere else as for now because later on she will only disturb this conversation" Fatui Harbinger said as he looked at Paimon."Hey! Paimon's not a gnome!" She yelled at the top of her lungs."Gosh. That's what I was talking about." Said annoyed Tartaglia. Rex Lapis looked at Paimon that was all red from anger.

"Paimon, can you go to Xingqiu for the time being?" He asked while looking her straight in the eyes. At first she didn't want to go but after some time she finally agreed."Now back to what I was saying." At this moment his mind seems to wander somewhere because he stopped talking."Ah right, second, I want to know what is going on with everyone's attitude today." He continued. "And lastly you will owe me a flavour." He looked at them as he done talking.

"Two of yours ultimatums may be fulfilled by us. As for the last on it can be done as far as it won't harm Liyue and it won't be about the gnosis." Said Morax."I'm not sure what I want yet." Replied ginger.

He thought for a while when his eyes laid on Xiao that looked as if he was about die. Although his term with adeptus weren't the best he didn't want him to be this way. He loved to annoy the boy and besides Morax would be mad he didn't help them. Witch he didn't want to happen."Then it's a deal." Childe came closer and extended his hand toward Geo lord.

"It's a deal" Zhongli repeated and took his hand in agreement."Before we continue let's go somewhere more quiet." Said Fatui as he began to walk away.Zhongli and Xiao followed him. As they got to the place and sat down their conversation continued immediately."So tell me what exactly is going on?" Childe started to talk.

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Both of them hesitated for a while but in the end they started talking. They explained the whole situation. They told Childe everything they knew without missing any detail.

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"God, if he was to hear you...no surprise he run away. if somebody wouldn't hearing your whole conversation they could really misunderstand you." Said Tartaglia quite concerned about Aether at that time and the feelings that probably have accompanied him. "He must felt betrayed. The faster we find him and clear the misunderstanding the better." He looked the in the eyes. He wasn't smiling stupidly as he usually would.

"We looked around but couldn't find any trace of him" Alatus said with grave face."It's not time for us to talk. If we want to be more productive and rise the chance of finding him then we should separate." Morax joined the talk as he got up from his seat. Without wasting more time the rest got up as well. After a short talk, they come to agreement about who and where should go. As soon as everything was decided each of them set off to their designated places.

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- 1380 words