You've begun to feel like home. Xiao x Aether.

Distracted.

- Xiao, c'mon, we have one last commission! – Aether whined as he watched the other one stand on the same place under the tree with his eyes closed. It's been extremely difficult for the traveler to urge the dark-haired to participate in the task Katheryne assigned them every day lately. Something was definitely wrong, but no matter how many times the blond asked the Yaksha about this, Adeptus would just simply stare at him with his usual annoyed look. Moreover, as time passed, Xiao started to ignore the offers of Aether to do commissions together, saying that he had his "duty", and that he "must protect the land of Liyue at all cost", and more annoying phares that traveler heard one million times already. After the issue with the domains was solved, Aether thought it would give him an opportunity to spend more time with the other, not to mention, that after his unsuccessful attempt to ask Xiao to accompany him to Lantern Rite, the blond never mentioned that again, hesitating even more after the whole "misunderstanding" that happened that day. The monsters weren't wondering on the open areas anymore, submitting to finally stay at their places in the domains, so the problem was solved and people of Liyue started to travel over again. Even Xiangling said that now Liyue looked safer than before the domain issue. So that was only reasonable for the blond to ask Xiao to spend the daytime with him more often than before as the Yaksha was free, or so Aether thought. In reality, Xiao rejected almost every single offer of the blond, finding stupid excuses to not do the commissions together. There actually was a pretty good reason the Vigilant Yaksha did not find it necessary for him to join Aether – after some time, it was detectable that his injury from fighting Raiden Shogun was getting better and Aether himself had returned to his usual energetic self – he even started to join Xiao in fighting with monsters and treasure hoarders from time to time. Aether thought of it as a possible explanation, at least a more valid one than those Xiao stated himself, but, as he noticed, the yaksha never really commented on his improvements regarding the physical state. So, here they were – standing in the middle of the road without moving any further.

- Tsk. I do not understand what is so important about this last commission. Might as well skip it and return to my duty. – Xiao murmured with an annoyed look on his face. his arms were folded on his chest, his eyes were focused on the ground before him and his brows narrowed in slight anger.

- But this is the fighting commission, you used to like those, what's wrong again? – Aether walked up to the dark-haired and, to catch his attention, leaned forward to block the view of the ground, where Xiao was looking at, with his face. Traveler caught the amber eyes which rounded up in surprise the second Aether appeared in front of them. – Answer me. I am you friend after all. – the blond stated with the worried tone. Xiao still silently stood there in shock of the blond being so close all the sudden. For a few seconds both were examining the faces of each other, when Xiao finally reached the limit of his pretentious coolness and looked away shyly, while his face started to heat up.

- N-nothing. Let's just go and finish it quickly. – the dark-haired finally moved from one place and started walking, no, almost running, towards the designated place, where the camp of treasure hoarders was supposed to be. Aether simply ran after him with the confused look never leaving his face.

The camp was located near the Wangshu Inn in the bamboo forest at Bishui Plain. This place wasn't the usual place where treasure hoarders locate themselves, however, nothing really seemed that extremely out of ordinary these days, especially after the issue with the domains, which nobody would ever imagine happening. Aether was walking at a fast pace to keep up with Xiao, who seemed to go faster on purpose to not talk to the other. When they were just a few meters away from the camp, Xiao suddenly stopped and turned around to face the blond.

- Do you want to fight too? – he said quietly, either from the fact that there were bandits nearby, or from his own shyness.

- Yes, I'm ready as ever! – Aether said triumphally and rushed towards the camp without ever warning Xiao about it, of course with the purpose to take revenge on him for every time he did the same to traveler. Now, it was Yaksha's turn to follow the blond, so as he did.