Cold Blooded

The Wanmin Restaurant

Hu Tao kept her arm around Chongyun and balanced the boy on her hip as she skipped through Liyue harbor. She hadn't felt this excited and cheery in years. Chongyun laughed as they bounced up and down, occasionally clapping his hands and asking to go faster. Xingqiu trailed a little bit behind, standing tall and proud according to that chivalry code that he followed so closely. Despite how professional he was trying to look, the barely contained smile on his face was enough to blow through all the seriousness his stance suggested.

The other two members of their party, Mr. Childe and Hisaya, tagged along as well, but they both stayed in the far back. Hu Tao couldn't ignore how both seemed to be waiting for something to go wrong. Hisaya had her hand firmly gripped around a lantern pulsing with electro and Mr. Tartaglia kept running his thumb over his vision on his belt.

Hu Tao tightened her grip just a bit on Chongyun, but nothing was going to dampen her mood today.

"Hello, welcome to Wanmin Rest- HuTao?" Xiangling stood at the entrance of the restaurant with a trap in each hand piled up with food. "A-and Xingqiu? What- um, what are you guys doing here? I- I mean you're always welcome here, but I just didn't know you guys were talking again, and who's this?"

"It's good to see you, Xiangling," Hu Tao smiled and glanced around at the customers in the restaurant. "Do you think we could talk somewhere a bit more private? I get that you're busy, but this is kinda important."

"Of course!" Xiangling cried, her smile growing. "Head out the back door, I'll meet you there in half a second." True to her word, the chef started racing around the restaurant dishing out plates and drinks faster than should have been humanly possible.

Hu Tao motioned to Xingqiu and the others before going out behind the restaurant. There wasn't much here besides a few crates, but it was full of memories. They used to all play around here all the time when they were still little.

Xingqiu sat down on one of the crates and Hu Tao sat beside him, placing Chongyun in her lap. Hisaya and Mr. Childe stood at attention, ready to strike at any moment. It was honestly quite threatening. Hisaya couldn't have been much older than her, but Hu Tao couldn't shake the feeling that Hisaya had seen too much already. Mr. Childe was a whole other story, there didn't seem to be more than a speck of light in his eyes.

"Okay," Xiangling appeared a moment later and took in the whole group with her reliable smile only wavering slightly as it passed over Mr. Childe and Hisaya. "What is it that you need to talk about?"

"This is going to sound crazy," Hu Tao said, rising to her feet. Chongyun stayed sitting on the crate. "But... we found Chongyun."

"What?" Xiangling's hands fell to her side and she shook her head. "What do you mean Hu Tao? You- You told us yourself that he was gone. You saw his ghost. What do you mean you found him?"

"I mean, we found him." Hu Tao grabbed Xiangling's shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "I don't know exactly what it was that I saw that day, but Chongyun kept on insisting that he was still alive until he disappeared before my eyes. And he is, Xiangling! He's still alive, just not as expected."

"Then where is he, Hu Tao?" Xiangling's smile was gone and tears had begun to slide down the sides of her face. "If you found him, where is he? What is all this? Xingqiu? I know that you were never able to let him go, but don't you think that you're taking this too far? Leave me and Hu Tao out of it. We've already lost him once, we don't need to lose him again."

"I-" Xingqiu rose to his feet and took a step towards Xiangling.

"No, I don't want to hear it," Xiangling swiped at some of her tears. "Either show me where 'Chongyun' is or go away."