Canary in the Golden Pot

Chapter 3: The Storm That Is To Come

...

Which was why he was here today. Curious about Lumine not collecting the Sandbearer wood he'd usually left outside the mansion, which she always did on the day it was placed there, he stopped and asked Tubby about it.

"She caught a cold recently, and hasn't been feeling quite well since then." Tubby said "I told her to go get some rest, yet she insisted on working. Heavens knew what's going on in her mind pushing herself so hard."

"If you don't mind, could you go check on her for me? She hasn't came out since yesterday." "And please....ask her to take some time off." She added.

"Understood." He said as he opened the door into the mansion for the first time.

Xiao hasn't entered the mansion once due to his karmic debts (even if Lumine had coaxed him multiple times to do so). As he walked over to her room, Xiao noticed how the furnishings in the living room area of the house were arranged according to Liyue customs (No doubt thanks to a certain funeral parlor consultant's help).
But since he didn't know which room Lumine was supposed to be in (and he's too embarrassed to ask Tubby about it, since he's the one who forgot to in the first place), he went through every single room he saw along the way.

He found the kitchen, the study, the storage room (needs some organisation), a room full of alchemy stuff (appears to have some kind of explosive history), a Mondstadt-style guest room, a Liyue-style guest room and an unfinished Inazuma-style guest room. He also found another storeroom that was also littered with all sorts of material (to which he scrunched his nose in response to the odd smells coming from some of them), a random room that was filled with couches and screens for no reason before he finally found Lumine's room.

...

Listening to Lumine's ramblings, he held his hand against her forehead. To his shock, it felt like he placed his hand against burning coals.

"She thought she could sleep this off?!" He thought to himself, exasperated. In a flash, he ran to get a cold towel for her, placing it on her head before he left the teapot to get some medicine.

At first, he thought he'd just have her eat some Qingxin flowers along with some violetgrass to help her with her fever. But as soon as he remembered that she wasn't an adeptus, meaning that her constitution probably can't handle the effects of these medical herbs this way, he sighed and left for Bubu Pharmacy in a puff of teal and black smoke.

-------Liyue Harbor, Liyue-------

He'd never thought he'd set foot in Liyue Harbor under these conditions. The sky had been tinted with the colours of firelight by the time he left the teapot and made his way to Bubu Pharmacy.

Bubu Pharmacy had been quite busy as of late, and it'll take some luck to get the medication he wanted. Despite that, he was determined to get the medicine required and he'll be there as long as he needed to. So you can imagine the look on the patients' faces in Bubu Pharmacy when they saw the Conquerer of Demons standing in queue for medicine.

"Okay...next... C-Conquerer of Demons?!" stuttered Herbalist Gui, who'd been busy attending to the patients and didn't notice Xiao queuing with the others. "To what do I owe the honor of having you before my presence?"

"Don't mind the formalities, I'm just here to pick up some medicine for the Traveler. Do you have something for a fever?" he asked.

"Ah, well, you know as a doctor I cannot prescribe medications to patients without knowing their exact symptoms, so..."

"Let's see, she's got this extremely high fever, and she's coughing and sneezing all the time. Aside from that she's talking gibberish, and sounded funny while at it. Rain Calmer said she's been like this for a few days already"

"Ah, she's probably down with a really bad cold." Baizhu quoted as he walked in from the back. "The fever is probably what causing her to speak gibberish and a stuffed nose is probably to blame for the funny sounds."

"Is that so..?"

"But I'll have to be there to know exactly what's going on, care to lead the way?" He asked.

Xiao nodded and led him somewhere secluded so he could pull out the Serenitea Pot and enter it. After some diagnosis, Baizhu confirmed that the Traveler really was down with a bad cold.

"Don't worry, now that I know what's going on, I'll put together a strong medicine to help bring the fever down and another one to help with her weakened state." he said as he left the side of her bed. "You're gonna have to come with me to pick up the medicine. The pharmacy had been busy as of late, we're too understaffed to have the medicine delivered to your door."

"Alright." Xiao replied, sneaking a glance at Lumine as he left with Baizhu.

Xiao waited patiently in the pharmacy, trying to ignore the stares he got from the patients there. Whispers were heard but he tried ignoring them.

It's for Lumine, he repeated to himself as he waited for the herbalist to finish picking up the herbs. It almost felt like a million ants were crawling all over him as he sat there, waiting for the medicine. Conquering demons is much bearable than this...he thought as he shifted about in his seat. Some children looked at him and asked him all sorts of questions, to which he tried to answer them all. But deep inside he just wanted to get them over with.

Some time later, Herbalist Gui came with multiple parcels of herbs for Xiao. Xiao listened attentively as to which was the one used for bringing down her fever, and which one was for helping her get better.

"Now, the instructions on how to make the medicinal liquid is written here." He said as he handed Xiao a piece of paper with the instructions and details to take note of. "Make sure she takes them twice a day after meals, okay?"

"Okay." He said as he carried the dozen or so of parcels containing the herbs in his arms.

"And also, avoid anything fried, cold...." said the herbalist as per any doctor would, which most people took for granted. Not Xiao though, he's not risking it.

"...and that's should be it. She should be feeling better after a week or so." he finished.

"Thank you, how much is the medicine worth?" asked Xiao as he reached into his pocket for some mora.

"It's on the house, the Traveler has done so much for us, something like this is nothing much compared to that. If anything, tell her that the people of Liyue missed her and get well soon." said the herbalist.

"Understood, I will be off now." He replied as he disappeared in a puff of teal and black smoke.

"Aaaaand he's gone. Phew, that was intense." said the poor herbalist with relief.

"Haha, first time dealing with an adeptus, ah Gui?" asked Baizhu with a chuckle.

"Yeah, I don't even know how you could talk with... you-know-who, face to face like that without making a fool out of yourself."

"I assure you you'll get used to it eventually, especially in these times." said Baizhu with a smirk, laughing a little at his poor herbalist's dilemma.

"Yeah...I will soon. We'll need all the help we can get after all, adeptal or otherwise."

A storm is now upon them after all.