Erison

Dirt

NOTES- 

This AU has strong themes of child abuse

This AU changes the plot of Genshin Impact

This AU changes Genshin Impacts timeline

This AU depicts Xiao to be psychologically and physically *15-17*

This AU will not have a dedicated posting schedule (for now, it depends on how well it does)

I have not completed all of Liyue's story quests and tasks, I have finished the Liyue Archon quests, Childe, Zhongli (first part), Xiao, and Cloud Retainer's quests

Characters who are good in the games may be bad and have character changes for the purpose of this story (Keqing is an example, though she more or less is on the border of good and bad)

You'll notice Xiao has a massive personality change in this AU, and it doesn't go without it's reasoning (let's see if I can actually make a fiction that a few people will like and I might just make enough chapters for that reasoning to be revealed)

This fic is also on Ao3, yes I'm the author 

The quiet wind settled gently to open the waves of the coast. Liyue harbour shimmered in the moonlight alone. All was deadly quiet, even the grand owl's wings could be heard fluttering amidst the land. The air was fresh, the fish was plentiful, the soil was fertile - but no one was there to use it.

Xiao avoided the rubble that littered the ground as he glanced around empty ports, where ships used to crash against the wood when they docked in, bringing trade and luxury, now old and rotting and doomed to become one with the ocean. While Xiao never particularly loved Liyue Harbor, seeing it ever so lonesome felt wrong, and made his stomach tie itself in knots.

His robes dirtied themselves as he walked against the ground.

He hated his robes, but he made Xiao get rid of all his other clothes because they were 'informal'. Now these robes were all he had.

They were too baggy in his opinion, he couldn't feel the winds against his skin, and they held him back and delayed his movements. It was annoying ... and probably built that way on purpose.

If Xiao were to object against the clothing, well, it wouldn't end well.

'Ungrateful' - that's what Xiao would be called.

'Unworthy'

'Useless'

'Lazy'

'Not deserving of the title I gave you'

"I know," Xiao replied out loud. He didn't know why. It was just an old habit to blurt outcries for forgiveness every time he thought about him. Maybe if he was lucky, they'd work. So again, like always, he choked out more. "I'm sorry," He cried to the open sea.

'You're not,' would have been his reply. 'You're just saying that.' And he wasn't wrong. Xiao was just saying it, he didn't mean it. Xiao wasn't sorry.

'Archons, I could have chosen any Adeptus and I chose the worst one. '

Xiao sucked in a breath of the cold coastal air through closed teeth. It calmed him. He forgot how much the air could calm him. He missed it. Xiao wasn't designed to stay in the overwhelmingly large rooms he was trapped in. He wasn't designed to live in luxury, with fruit, clean water and mora at his fingertips. He hated it. He hated the fact that he was living that life. It was his fault. He did this to himself.

"Xiao," hummed a voice from behind. Xiao shivered and hesitantly scanned around until he met a pair of pretty pink eyes.

Don't let Keqing's appearance fool you, she may have pretty pink eyes and hair like a field of Sumeru roses, but her tongue and skills were as sharp as her blade. "What are you doing out here, I thought you had orders not to leave your room?"

"Yes, ma'am." He managed out, biting his tongue.

"Then I will return you home."

Xiao had a desire to put his mask on. Instead, he bit his tongue more - it was practically the same thing, right?

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Follow." Keqing ordered.

Xiao hated orders. He hated when others ordered him what to do, when to do it, where to go, what to think. But Keqing was higher up than him, she objectively had more power. Thanks to the fact she was human, the Fatui liked her more than they did the Adepti, henceforth she sped through the ranks with ease.

Hell, rumours were spreading around that sooner or later she was genuinely going to join them.

Xiao was never one for rumours, but when it's one of the few things you can hear from your doors, you start to listen.

And so Xiao followed.

Keqing was quicker. Then again, she wasn't forced to wear robes like he was. Heavy, baggy robes with gold laced neatly onto the black fabrics in the shape of a dragon. It felt scratchy and gross, and this was the most comfortable one he owned. Or well, he owned and allowed Xiao to wear.

Keqing just had a simple small dress and thick pants that looked like tights. A sword tucked neatly at her side, the handle shimmering in the moon, small characters written into the steel - Xiao could only make out one.

'Loyal' - it wasn't wrong, but it didn't feel right either.

At least she was allowed to keep her weapon. Xiao was forced out of his hands and into an armoury for him to brag about to his friends. The grand weapon of the surviving Yaksha, now forced on display to be awed at by Fatui.

Xiao missed Liyue Harbor. He missed the plains and the clouds and the endless sea.

He hated the mountains. Well, he hated living in the mountains. He hated the squeezed-in palaces in the middle of the mountains he was forced to stay in.

Glowing fiery lanterns caught his eyes making him sigh. Keqing usually made him go the back route in order to not be noticed, now she was doing the front just to punish him. Locals glared at Xiao, he couldn't blame them, he was living a life of luxury while they stayed there praying to just get a bit of sunlight for their crops.

Xiao didn't want to go home...

This wasn't his home...

This wasn't his Liyue ...

Yet he was still here, why was he still here...?

They kept walking until the palace came into sight. Xiao felt like he was being dragged despite the fact no one was even touching him.

He wanted to groan and roll his eyes and object verbally but he couldn't. So instead he kept his head low and went back to biting his tongue.

It bled slightly, the taste was disgusting.

You'd think he'd be used to the taste of his own blood.

The halls were long and empty aside from the red and gold tapestries of dragons.

Xiao kept his eyes down as he stepped closer and closer to him. His heart raced and sunk all at the same time and he felt like throwing up.

He sighed, this was what, the 5th time? And still, Xiao never seemed to learn his lesson of not running away, much less to the exact same location.

"Xiao, how many times have I told you not to go out?"

"I know..."

"Come on. If you knew, you wouldn't have been out. Second Liyue can afford to lose their crown prince, can it?"