Demonic Influences (Xiao x GN!Reader)

-2-

TW!- Slight mentions of violence

[Xiao's POV]

I was stood on the roof of Wangshu Inn, watching the surroundings. Usually around this time of day, monsters became more gutsy, appearing more frequently as the sun starts to dip back into the horizon. Therefore I had to give the surroundings my utmost attention. Wangshu Inn was surprisingly busier than normal and due to this I couldn't afford to let my guard down. 

A figure caught my eye on the path leading away from Wangshu Inn. It was the person from the day before, their h/c hair catching my eye first. I wanted to leave them alone, since there was no valid reason that I should be talking to them, but something deep inside me told me to just suck it up and approach them. So I did, phasing myself over to them. I made sure not to appear right next to them, for I was sure any average human would be scared out of their wits if someone just... materialised before them.

Walking slightly behind them, I made an obviously loud display of clearing my throat.

They jumped slightly, turning to face me. A look of surprise crossed their face, replaced quickly by a look of confusion.

"H-hello," they said, "Do I know you?"

I was confused. They had literally seen me less than 12 hours ago. Did I have the wrong person? Well this was embarrassing.

"We met yesterday," I explained.

They looked at me with a face of deep concentration on their face, realisation slowly creeping onto their expression.

"Oh yes! You were the person who wouldn't listen when I told them to leave me alone!" they exclaimed.

I could feel my face slowly heating up, more embarrassed than I'd ever been in my life.

I let out a sigh, "Well that certainly isn't how I would have liked my first impression on someone to be like."

After a moment of awkward silence, I glanced back at them.

"So, what's your name?"

They looked at me with confusion. Maybe normal humans aren't meant to jump into formalities as fast as I did? Should I have engaged in more small talk first?

"Y/n." they said quietly, looking down at their feet, "my name is y/n."

I nodded, "I'm Adeptus Xiao."

They looked up at me. "Y-you're an adeptus? I'm so sorry I didn't realise, I though you were just another one of the people here. Please forgive me for how I spoke to you yesterday! That was so rude of me! If I had known you were an adeptus... I-I'm so sorry!"

They bowed quickly, shaking their head with every word. They came across as shy and withdrawn but I guess at moments like these, they became very flustered and panicky. 

I tapped their shoulder as a way of telling them to stand up straight, "It's okay, all is forgiven."

They stood up again and then...

...more awkward silence.

"So, where are you go-" I started to say, but I was cut off by a shout.

Y/n's eyes darted over my shoulder, "Watch out!"

Turning back, I was met face to face with a blazing axe mitachurl. Crap, I had let down my guard.

I was knocked over by the force of it ramming into me, falling to the ground by a tree.

I looked around frantically for my polearm until I realised...

...I'd left it on the roof.

I braced myself for an impact, fists clenched. I knew some basic hand-to-hand combat but I'd always relied heavily on my polearm. It had lasted me so long and had won me so many battles that I never really bothered to learn much else.

Suddenly, the mitachurl was heading for something else.

Y/n had thrown a rock at it, attracting its attention to themselves.

"Y/n! What are you doing?!" I shouted.

They glared at it with fire in their eyes, pulling a catalyst from off their belt, setting it to float steadily in the air by them. I looked at it confused. A catalyst? My eyes landed on a glowing blue ornament, hanging from their catalyst. 

A cryo vision. 

They summoned a shard of ice from their catalyst, almost moulding it in a way to form a polearm. Charging towards the mitachurl, it only really took them a few slashes, stabs and impales to defeat the thing, its slowly disintegrating body falling before my feet. 

I looked up, slightly shocked to see y/n, their hand outstretched.

"Need help getting up?" they asked.

I looked at them, questions running through my mind.

One stood out.

You could only really obtain a vision through a burning passion and desire. Sometimes these events were dangerous, sometimes they were given on your average day. But y/n possesed a cryo vision. There was a known trend with cryo users. They all were people shaped by inner conflicts and misfortunes. 

So what exactly did someone as normal-seeming as y/n...

...have to go through to obtain a vision such as that?

{A/n: IM BACK AGAIN HI SORRY IF ANYTHING ISN'T COMPLETELY ACCURATE, I DID MY BEST.

Also, what do y'all think of this idea? Bc I'm a massive fan of polearms, even though I mainly use claymore users on my team, eg. I'm using Lumine, Gaming, Chongyun and Baizhu rn on my team, but what ifff later in the fic, Xiao starts to realise that y/n has a preference for making and using polearms and sooo as a small gift from our lil tsundere, he makes/gets made a custom polearm for them as a gift, just as he starts realising his feelings? I know it's a bit early on and possible ooc, but I just got the idea and I can't get it out of my head}