Project Rebirth #2

Chapter 15

    "Would you care to explain what the he** that was?" Wanderer said harshly, shoving Y/N against the wall.
    Apparently she wasn't going to get an almost-fell-to-my-death-a-few-moments-ago pass.
    "I-I don't know," Y/N stuttered, frightened by his aggressive demeanor.
    "THEN HOW THE FU** DID YOU KNOW THAT IT WOULD HAPPEN!?" Wanderer yelled, practically choking her as his hands wrapped around her throat.
    Xiao was silent, as if he wanted to say something but didn't have the motivation to talk. Heizou, on the other hand, looked ready to explode despite his serious injuries.
    "Get. Your. Hands. Off. Of. Her." Heizou hissed, his normally light-colored eyes dark from fury. He threw Wanderer off of Y/N, frowning as she gasped for air, coughing violently.
    "What the fu** is your problem?" Wanderer retorted angrily, pushing himself off of the floor.
    "My f*cking problem is that you're trying to strangle Y/N!" Heizou raged, fixing his glare on Wanderer. "I swear to d*mn God, if any of you touch Y/N I will skin you alive!"
    Xiao looked at him, a strange expression on his face. Wanderer raised an eyebrow at Heizou, his anger momentarily forgotten. Even Y/N gave him a look. Sure, they had kissed, and perhaps she had been internally fangirling the whole time, but that was a slight overreaction.
    "You good?" Wanderer asked, smirking slightly.
    "I–" Heizou flushed red, turning away quickly. "Yeah! Yeah, yeah...."
    "Are you two dating?" Xiao asked suddenly, surprising the group.
    Y/N blushed furiously. "Of course not!"
    "You two seem to be madly in love, if you don't mind me saying so," Xiao commented, and Y/N realized that he might have a mischievous side after all.
    Heizou looked at Y/N questioningly, his uncertain stare sending a clear message. He's obviously picking apart our alibis, so are we going to admit it or not?
    "Okay, fine! Perhaps we kissed once, and maybe it was nice and wonderful and the best thing ever, but–" Y/N cut herself off as Heizou gave her another look, this one saying: TMI.
    Wanderer was cackling like a witch, an obvious trait that he had inherited from the Raiden Shogun. Y/N felt the overwhelming urge to facepalm.
    Xiao looked at her solemnly, kicking Wanderer in the shin to silence his laughter. "Hm. We came here for Heizou's wellbeing, so we should get going."
    The group resumed their journey, carefully descending down the hazardous staircase. Along the way Wanderer continued to question Y/N about what had happened, albeit more gently under Heizou's watchful gaze.
    "So, what happened back there?" Wanderer asked, maintaining his neutral tone.
    "I don't really know..." Y/N said slowly, hesitating for a fleeting moment before continuing. "I only found out about it after almost falling off a roof."
    Heizou did a double-take, choking on air. Once he had caught his breath, he said in a shaky voice, "Excuse me?"
    Y/N shrugged awkwardly. "I was supposed to attend a school event while you were injured, mainly to explain your absence. I couldn't go downstairs because of Attutire–"
    "His father, right?" Wanderer asked, trying to elucidate who Attutire was.
    "Yes. I couldn't go downstairs because of Attutire, so Yuki suggested that I go out from the second-story window," Y/N said.
    Heizou closed his eyes for a moment, sighing. "I really do need to have a talk with Yuki about safety..."
    Y/N laughed. "Yes, that might come in handy in the future."
    "Don't you ever try to climb through a window again," Heizou said firmly. His worried expression made the perpetually existing butterflies in her stomach do a little dance.
    "I won't," Y/N promised.
    "We have arrived at our destination," Xiao said in a monotone voice.
    Wanderer bit his lip, looking rather melancholy and nostalgic. Y/N assumed that this would be the moment when Venti would usually tease Xiao or spout some bad jokes.
    Y/N looked dubiously at the warped wooden door in front of them. "Is this your room?"
    "...Yes." Xiao sighed. "It leads to the guest bedrooms and such, which is the only reason why I'm letting you go in."
    Xiao pushed open the door, letting everyone amble in before shutting it behind them. Y/N examined the room, surprised when she realized that her assumptions had been wrong once again. She had thought that the son of the richest man in Teyvat would at least have a luxurious bedroom, but Xiao's room was anything but that.
    There was a small desk, a closet, and a bed in the room. There was absolutely nothing else in the room, unless you counted the barred window and concrete floor.
    "Why does this place look like a prison?" Wanderer asked, stalking around the room.
    "Would a normal prison have weapons?" Xiao asked, gesturing toward a wall.
    Y/N slowly turned to look apprehensively, then her jaw dropped. Embedded in the concrete wall were weapons of every kind imaginable, including bullets, arrows, spears, and knives.
    "...The f*ck is that?" Heizou asked. "Also, how in the world did you get arrows in the concrete?"
    "With spears," Xiao replied calmly, opening the closet.
    Y/N had reasoned that nothing could surprise her at this point, but she was wrong. There were spears in the closet. There. Were. Spears. In. The. Closet.
    "E-excuse me?" Y/N stuttered, flabbergasted.
    Xiao sighed again. "Spears in the closet, guns in the bed, knives in the desk. So stay away from those please."
    Wanderer frowned, then abruptly switched to a different topic. "Should I text Kazuha?"
    Xiao seemed to debate the idea internally for the moment then sighed. "I see no reason not to."
    As the indigo-haired male began to type in a phone number Xiao quickly added, "But call him in your own room, preferably by yourself."
    Wanderer rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Then where the h*ll is 'my' room?"
    Xiao calmly pointed toward a metal door, which was unfortunately on the murder wall. Wanderer scowled then marched off to his room, muttering "Shortie." as he went.
    Y/N turned to Xiao, about to ask a question. But he beat her to it.
    "There's another spare room for Heizou, but you'll have to sleep in here," Xiao said emotionlessly.
    Y/N's heart skipped a beat. "What!?"
    "I've never used that bed anyway, and I don't need sleep. I believe I destroyed the other guest rooms a while ago," Xiao explained.
    "Uh, what about the guns in the bed?" Y/N asked nervously.
    "To be accurate, they are under the bed and shouldn't cause you trouble," Xiao clarified.
    Y/N relaxed slightly. "Where are you going to spend the night? In another room, right?"
    Xiao stared at her blankly. "I usually spend the night in the car."
    "Maybe I'll just sleep in the car instead of you," Y/N said, laughing sheepishly.
    Xiao immediately stiffened, his usual minuscule trembling evolving into an obvious shaking.
    "N-no. I-no." Xiao backed away from her, his golden eyes flickering with...fear.
    Y/N took a step toward him, wondering what she had done wrong. But that seemed to be a bad decision, because Xiao started to hyperventilate.
    "I–Wanderer! Wanderer, I need you right now!" Y/N yelled at the top of her lungs.
    The door burst open, an extremely annoyed Wanderer appearing. "Wh–Oh god."
    "Do you know what's happening?" Y/N demanded, starting to freak out.
    "Yes. Kind of. Maybe. No, not really. But Kazuha does," Wanderer said, dialing someone.
    "Hi, Kazuha."
    "Fine, whatever, we need you right now."
    "Yes, whatever that is, it's happening."
    "Why are you f*cking stalking us?"
    "Whatever. Back door, secret button, stairs."
    "Bye."
    Wanderer hung up, looking at Y/N. "He's coming in a few minutes."
    "What should we do until then?" Y/N asked worriedly, glancing at Xiao. He had slid to the floor, still hyperventilating.
    "Kazuha said for you to stay away from him," Wanderer instructed, crouching next to Xiao, who didn't react.
    "All of us?" Y/N questioned.
    "No. Just you," Wanderer replied, and Y/N flinched.
    Several minutes later the door burst open, an out of breath Kazuha leaning against the doorway. He quickly righted himself, running over to Xiao and Wanderer.