Oath [BL; Book 2]

24

"....." feeling groggy Aether was sat up in the comfy bed staring off into space trying to find reason in waking up too early. Rubbing his eyes he looked over and saw what room he was in then looking as he was in the bed he had made yesterday. "?!" Quickly he got up and fixed the bed nearly having a heart attack, "I fell asleep! Did I get in bed without thinking?! It's fine! He doesn't seem to be back yet let's just leave-" He went to the door to escape but was alarmed when it opened first, "Waah!" Aether shouted startled and Xiao stared confused as to why he was on edge.

"Is there something wrong?"

"H-huh? No! Nothing uh... sorry, I ended up falling sleep." He thought to himself, "Best to just be honest with him." Aether felt bad saying, "I guess I crawled into your bed without realizing it."

"Hm." He didn't seem upset, "It was I that placed you in the bed." Xiao admitted and said, "You were sound asleep, I didn't want to disturb you."

"Oh.. you... put me in bed?"

"Yes, you were exhausted from searching for Paimon no? It's alright."

"Ah, yeah..?"

"Paimon was looking for you. I will leave to train. Be well on your travels."

"Right, thank you." With that he poofed away and Aether was left to wonder why that went smoothly. Shrugging it off he hurried to see Paimon.

She scolded him for getting lost and he scolded her for getting washed up in Liyue. After going back and forth she cried about being relieved to find him. Aether laughed finding her honesty cute, it was relieving to know she was fine and that it was Xiao that found her.

Cooking her a meal he sat with her and ate, "I'm glad you're okay, Paimon."

"Paimon too! Paimon thought she'd never see you again, Traveler!"

"I would have searched the ends of the earth for you. Don't worry."

"Hehe~ Paimon would search for you too!" That made her happy and he smiled.

".... How far would I really go? If I had the chance to find Lumine before finding Paimon if we got seperated... would I.. try to find her still?" Now wondering as he ate a spoonful of food he closed his eyes keeping the thought from clouding his judgement. "Yeah, I would search for her no doubt." A curious statement he wondered if it was a lie or not.

"Traveler?" She had finished first and said, "Paimon's going to hang out with Xianling!"

"Huh? O-oh, ok." He smiled not minding but it was surprising. "Where will you be going?"

"She said she wanted to fish up new ingredients for a dish she was thinking of making. Paimon gets to help her make it!"

"Really? Well, as long as she's fine with it."

"Yeah! Paimon's gonna go now! Paimon'll be back soon."

"Ok, be safe." He watched her happily float on by and sighed looking at the empty dishes she left.

Aether smiled and finished eating then getting the dishes together and washing them. Now unsure what to do he went to the room he had booked and sat on the bed brushing his hand through his hair taking out the knots. He was alone again, and the feeling slowly sank deeper until he wasn't smiling anymore.

With a sigh and a frown he got up to freshen up, but he couldn't find a reason to smile. "I've gotten so used to having someone around. It's so quiet..."

He lay back on the bed and covered his eyes. The silence was so loud, it felt suffocating and for a moment he couldn't breathe. The thought of it had slipped his mind entirely and when he realized he gasped sitting up alarmed. His heart was pounding, a bit confused as to what happened to him he looked around. There was no one.