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A humble if not cold-faced waiter of Wangshu Inn, it came to Xiao as a shock when he found an unconscious girl outside the humble establishment on his evening break. The yellow hue of the city lamplights bathing her bruised face in such a way to allow onlookers privy to only half her bloodied beauty.
And Xiao, for all his curt attitude and stoicism, was ultimately a good person. Immediately dropping all duties to bring the injured girl inside. Calling for the boss to check her body for injuries as he went to the back to prepare a warm towel and drink. It was the dead middle of winter after all, and she wore nothing but a pure white dress dirtied by blood and dirt.
"How is she?" he had asked the inn's boss, Verr Goldet, upon his return. Taking the items from his gloved hands, she was swift to bring it to the resting injured girl by her side. "Half awake and freezing it seems," the older woman replied solemnly, and indeed, Xiao caught a sliver of golden hues cracking open on the stranger's face. So hazy it looked, yet it carried with it perhaps just a tad of both confusion and awareness.
"Should I dial for an ambulance?" the young man asked, already delving into his pocket for his old cracked phone. Screen impeccably clean as he clicked it open from its sleep.
The boss shook her head. "No," she insisted. "The first-aid kit should be enough. Let's not put her into more stress."
Xiao narrowed his eyes, taking a glance at the girl in his subtle worry as he asses his employer's words. "Very well then," the waiter shrugged eventually, already taking his leave to search for the aforementioned first-aid kit. "You call the shots. I'll tell the others too."
The boss smiled and nodded in agreement. "Thank you," she replied to the young man. "You're a kind boy, Xiao."
He didn't pay her compliment any mind. Either because it meant nothing to him, or because his mind was much too frantic despite his calm interior. Both perhaps.
•
Though an Inn never closes, being a 24/7 establishment after all, Xiao had only worked the day shift. So when the clock had hit eight and business of dinner hours came to a grinding halt, the boy was free to go for the night. And while usually, he would have near sprinted for the subway to reach the solitude of his apartment, tonight was different.
So, so very different.
Verr Goldet sat alone with the injured girl in the corner of the dining area, both speaking in hushed tones as the woman probed her for answers. Xiao was told to sit out on this for the better of all involved and the young man had at least the self-awareness to agree. For no matter his efforts, he would only come off as cold and intimidating to any not observant enough.
Such as those shaken up by an attack for example.
”How’s the situation?” Xiao asked as the boss made her way to him, leaving behind the stranger to her own devices for the time being. A cup of warm tea in her trembling hands.
“Kidnapping,” the lady sighed, sympathy potent within her tone. “Luckily, she got away. We just need to bring her home now.”
”Right...” the young man spoke, a scowl creeping on his visage as he spat out his next few words. “Can’t trust the police to do that, huh?”
Verr Goldet sighed. “You don’t need me to answer that.”
Indeed, recently the crime rate in Liyue has skyrocketed in no small part thanks to diplomatic relations with Snezhnaya taking a turn for the worst. Now, even the police have been infiltrated by Fatui agents, rendering public safety to a total joke.
“You can go talk to her now if you want,” Ver Goldet spoke up as she caught onto Xiao’s intense ‘observation’ of the blonde. Making a note of it in her head. “She should be calm enough. I’ll call for my husband to drive her home.”
“Wait,” the amber-eyed boy stopped her. “Where’s her destination? If it’s by my place I’ll take her there. Public transport is still safe enough at this hour.”
”You should really ask her yourself,” Verr Goldet replied. “Maybe you can actually figure it out since you’ve got your phone.”
Though confused by her reply, Xiao swallowed down any excuses for himself and nodded. Turning back to the injured girl as he made his way towards her. Footsteps slow and steady, much unlike his breathing.
“Hey,” he called out to her, pulling out a chair for himself as she acknowledged his presence. “I’m Xiao, a college student.”
”Lumine,” the girl replied with a small smile, tucking a strand of golden hair behind her ear bashfully. “A kidnapping victim.”
Xiao paused, as he didn’t know whether to laugh or not.
”You can laugh,” the blonde assured him as if hearing his train of thought. Though that alone wasn’t enough to convince.
”A-ahem,” the young man cleared his throat rather unconvincingly. “Well, anyway...”
The bruised girl nodded along, taking a sip of her tea.
“Can you tell me where you need to be dropped off? If it’s near my apartment I can do it.”
Setting down the cup, Lumine had looked all too apprehensive to answer his simple question. “I...can give you the coordinates?”
”The what...?”
”Coordinates...” the girl repeated, quieter this time. Her voice laced with embarrassment. “As in longitude and latitude...”
Well, Xiao faintly remembered learning that in class god knows how long ago. At least it explained why the boss mentioned that his phone would be useful.
”Type it in here please.”
“Sure thing.”
Fifteen-minute drive and twenty-five minutes for public transport. It’s not so bad, at worst, he’ll will just call a taxi after he drops her off. Yes, it’s troublesome but...
Xiao snuck a glance at the girl and sighed, putting away his phone.
“Looks like you’re coming with me, Lumine.”
It was a weird compulsion that had taken over him, a protective nature towards the stranger if you will. Though with the girl looking very well around his age, it’s presence was left unexplained.
Perhaps he was simply a guardian in his past life. One who always cared about the safety of others at his own expense.
Who knows really.
•
”Here, put these on...”
In his hands, Xiao offered the girl a white coat, some black pants, and a pair of brown heeled boots. All but the last one of those items being things left behind by previous patrons of the inn god a good while ago. With only the shoes, which was rather roomy for the girl’s foot, belonging to the boss. It wasn't much, but they can’t have her going out in what seemed to be a nightdress, and a white one at that...
In the end, Xiao was just thankful that the material was thick enough to not be transparent.
”Thank you, give me a moment.”
For her own safety of course, Xiao wasn’t one to let his mind wander to such places after all. He’s better than that.
He’s also a virgin but we do not speak of that.
”I’m ready,” came a soft voice from behind the young man. “Is there anything else we need to do?”
Bringing out his phone again, Xiao clicked on the call app and handed it towards Lumine, though the girl made no move to take it off his hands.
”I don't suppose you have family around here we can contact?” Xiao remarks with a dull voice, as if already knowing the answer before the lady could reply.
“No,” Lumine shook her head. “My brother lost his phone recently and mine was taken by the kidnappers so...”
“Ah, I see,” Xiao spoke, bemused rather by her words. So she does have family. How rare. Though inferences could be made that they both lost their parents, common amongst this generation. He was no different after all.
“In any case, that was all and we need to get going. You walk in front.”
“Understood,” the girl nodded along with a smile, to which Xiao made an apprehensive face to.
“You...need grow more of a backbone,” he began to warn her. “Honestly, with that kind of carefree attitude, no wonder you were-“
The young man stopped himself, sensing that he went too far with his words. “Never mind...”
A sudden gust of cold air hit his cheek and the boy hissed in displeasure, looking to the source to find Lumine already propping the door open for him. Beckoning for her night’s companion to keep up.
“I’ll keep it in mind,” she smiled to Xiao, not a hint of hurt within her golden gaze. “Thank you for your concern, Xiao.”
Xiao wanted to retort back, to refuse her claim with a statement backed by a certainty only truth could provide. To deny himself such praise, or say that it means nothing to his aching heart.
But he wasn’t fooling anyone tonight, not himself, and certainly not this Lumine girl.
“You’re welcome I suppose.”
•
You may sooner be able to diverge a river from its ancient course than to count on a bus to arrive on time in Liyue City. Or at least, that was the saying around here.
A saying that never failed to hold true much to the dismay of just about everyone. Yes, even the occasional hijackers.
“Don’t suppose you have school tomorrow, do you?” Xiao asked as he glared into the lying hunk of metal that was the bus-schedule display screen. Sighing as he began to lean against the waiting booth beside Lumine, who had been discreetly offered the seat by him earlier. Though the question was more of a complaint towards his own problems than an inquiry for her.
”Because I do, and frankly, I can’t afford a coffee addiction at the moment.
A chuckle left the girl’s lips as she answered his question. “Don’t worry, I finished college quite a while ago and my job doesn’t have a tight schedule.”
Xiao looked to her in shock. “You’re messing with me,” he spoke plainly. “You barely look older than me, much less an adult with a job.”
”Sunscreen goes a long way~” the girl (woman?) smiled teasingly to which Xiao could only scoff to. Whatever to keep his sanity at this point.
“Yeah, yeah, sure. At least you’ve got the brains to keep your information from leaking out to strangers on the street.”
”Aw, I thought we were at least acquaintances?”
A pair of blinking lights and never had Xiao felt so relieved over a vehicle. And hey, a ten-minute delay wasn’t so bad.
”Line up with me,” he was swift to instruct the blonde as both of them stood up. “I’ll explain to the driver that I’m paying for the both of us.”
”Got it,” Lumine obliged, hands reaching out for Xiao’s sleeve much to his heart’s chagrin. This would be too much for him if she was his lover, much less a mere acquaintance.
Reminder that this young man is a hopeless vir-
“I’ll pay cash for her, she lost her pass.”
”No problem. Give me a moment.”
It didn’t take much trouble and the duo was already on their first bus of the night. Best part was that this was one of the fancier ones with the good heater.
”Which stop?” Lumine asked Xiao as she took a seat for herself, the latter joining her with only a second’s delay.
”Third, and then it’s another bus to the subway.”
The blonde brought her hand to her chin in thought and began to release a small hum. “Um, before the second bus, can we make a quick detour? I want to finish the errand I was out on after all.”
A sharp intake of breath and Xiao brought a hand to his aching head, now practically paralyzed in disbelief. “You were just kidnapped, I repeat, kidnapped. It is near nine, and you still want to continue your errand?”
A nervous laugh and a nod. “Yes...?”
The expression Xiao wore was...difficult to say the least. Yet after a few good seconds of internal pain, he had his reply.
”As long as it’s quick I guess, not like the bus is gonna be on schedule anyway...”
“Yay!”
”Don’t cheer like that...”
A sudden pop, and the white noise in the bus was silenced by just a bit. It wasn’t the engine that was for sure, meaning that...
”Oh damnit all...”
The heater just broke.
•
“You know, I’ve heard from boss that this city use to be halfway decent before the fundings were spent on beach houses and stuff.”
”Oh yes, I remember. The buses were always on time too. It was convenient.”
”...I still refuse to believe that you’re that old.”
Their chatter, though still rather lighthearted as of right was starting to slow down in pace as both starts to succumb to the cold. Their breath even more visible than earlier much to everyone’s chagrin.
Lumine especially seems to be taking in the worst of it as she wasn’t properly dressed in the first place, her small frame especially not offering anything of value in these temperatures. Now, perhaps one would expect the two to lean closer to persevere body heat, have a tender if not embarrassing moment together.
But need I remind you that Xiao is a godforsaken vi-
“Here, take this. I made sure to fill it up with warm water before we left.”
Lumine eyes the metal water bottle in his hands with uncertainty, brows furrowed together in worry and words of denial practically hung from her tongue.
”I insist,” Xiao spoke before she could, hardening his gaze as his cold steady voice rang through the air. “I’m at least dressed properly for the night, you’re halfway through death’s door. Just save both of us the headache would you?”
Lumine laughed at his reasoning, what exactly was humorous to her left a total mystery to the man. “Sure, I’ll take it. Thank you very much.”
The bottle was taken and Xiao released a breath, the sound coming off as more of a scoff than a sigh of relief. “I just hope you don’t believe indirect kissing because you’re not keeping that.”
After a gulp of the hot water, Lumine looked to him with a bemused look on her face. Lips daring to stretch into the most teasing smirk Xiao would ever see in his life. “I only believe in it if the other party does,” she added to his statement. “And since you even brought it up in the first place...”
”Just drink your water.”
”Attention all...”
The bus came to a slowing halt and through the window, the two caught the familiar glimpse of a waiting booth. It was their stop.
“Come on,” Xiao urged the blonde as a few other passengers stood up for the stop. “And remember, you’re going to be quick about it.”
”Hehe, roger that. I’ll be sure to keep my word.”
•
Diluc Ragnvindr, young CEO of Dawn Winery, tavern owner, and apparently a friend (?) of Lumine who had traveled from the city of Mondstad to Liyue to see her for a single night. And with a underage looking drunkard no less.
It all left Xiao very confused.
”Diluc, this is Xiao. Xiao, this is Diluc, a friend of mine.”
The amber eyes college student eyed the redheaded man with suspicion as his companion introduced them both. “It’s as she says, hello.”
The older man nodded in silent acknowledgment. It seemed that both of them weren’t exactly looking to make new friends. All the better as Xiao was concerned.
”And I’m Venti!” Came a boyish voice from behind Diluc, a very drunk boyish voice. “Lumine’s favorite singer of alllll time!”
The girl chuckled and leaned into Xiao for a whisper. “There aren’t many competitions you see, whatever makes him happy.”
Xiao nodded, still assessing the drunkard with a gaze so scrutinizing, it must’ve actually hurt had the alcohol not been there to numb the pain.
“I checked his ID and the man’s of age apparently...” came a voice from behind the bar and Xiao sighed. Is he just personally aging badly?
”Ah, right. This is for you Diluc.”
Xiao refocused his gaze just in time to see Lumine handing the older man a small pouch. And Diluc, upon catching Xiao’s gaze, simply tucked it away without even checking what was inside.
”Thank you Lumine,” he offered her a minuscule smile. “I’ll keep it safe.”
The girl chuckled and shrugged. “It’s fine if you don’t really, it’s yours now after all. Now...”
A youthful giggle came from the bar and off hopped Venti. Approaching the blonde with a spring in his step and as his alcohol-flushed face leaned into hers. “My turn!” The young man cheered into her face. “Come on! Come on! I’ve waited a whole year for this y’know!”
A playful roll of the eye and Lumine started to lean in much to Xiao’s complete surprise. The college student frozen still in his spot as he watched her do the unspeakable, unfathomable, unACCEPTABLE-
Kiss on the cheek to the giddy drunkard.
”Wohoo!!! Nine hours of waiting now not wasted!”
Amber eyes wide as saucers and mouth hung up as if to catch a drop of something. Xiao scarcely forgot to breathe as he took in what just happened in front of his pure, pure soul.
”That’s all for tonight, we can go now,” Lumine spoke as she tuck up the young man’s jaw.
“R-right...”
A ring of the bell and the two had left the establishment.
...
“Ugh, I’m already starting to be jealous of him. He doesn’t even know how lucky he is!”
”What exactly did you fake being wasted for exactly, Venti...?”
”I wanted her to spoil me, Diluc! Spoil!”
”Ah yes, much like your maturity.”
”Hey!!”
•
•
.
”How about an explanation?” Xiao asked as they took their seat on their second bus of the night. “Seriously, what’s with them?”
”They’re my friends!” Lumine answered with vigor. “And I adore them dearly.”
”Not enough to call them after getting kidnapped apparently,” the boy rolled his eyes to which she winced at.
”I didn’t want to trouble them...” the answer came in a mumble.
Xiao scoffed, for real this time. “And what about me? Bothering me was just okay then?”
”I...um, sorry...”
A sigh from his lips and Xiao already began to scold himself. ‘What happened to keeping your mouth shut?’ He asked himself as the guilt nibbled at his heart like a hungry bug.
Nothing apparently.
“It’s nothing really, let’s just get this over with.”
”I’ll make it up to you,” the young woman cuts in. “Really, I will.”
Xiao casts her a questioning look. “Oh really? How?”
“Well, that’d depend on what you want.”
The young man rolled his eyes. How typical.
“There nothing I want that you can give.”
”Like what?”
Raising a hand, Xiao tapped on the window beside his seat and locked gaze with Lumine. “Can you fix up this hell hole?”
Head shrinking into her shoulders, she shook her head a regrettable no. “Unfortunately...”
”Yeah, thought so.”
Xiao doesn’t want much. Really, he doesn’t. His life was full of hardships, full of pain, but being the destructive and deprecating soul he is, he would never ask someone to take them away. He deserved it, the boy believed. All the aching and the tears, it’s what was meant to be.
“Don’t stress about it,” he sighed, sneaking a glance towards Lumine’s pondering visage. “I honestly couldn’t care less, really.”
In the end, she acted as if she couldn’t hear him.
•
The subways weren’t nearly as bad as the buses. No delays at all, can you believe it?
Well, yes actually since it was damn near eleven.
Xiao ran the numbers in his head, damnit, is he even going to attend class tomorrow? And if not, then surely he can make it up. Right?
...
“Xiao?”
The man jolts from his seat, rubbing his eyes of the train’s blinding white light. That all-nighter yesterday was really catching up on him now it seems.
“You can sleep if you want,” Lumine spoke to him in a soft voice, as if already soothing him to sleep before he could give his reply. “I’ll alert you when our stop comes.”
”Sure you won’t mess up?” Xiao asked, his words only half sarcastic.
“Promise,” the blonde grinned a little. “Now here, my shoulders should be fine yes? You just get some sleep to survive the night.”
Had he the energy, Xiao truly would have replied with a snide remark, but the truth of the matter was that he did not. And whatever apprehension he would have held for sleeping on a girl’s shoulder disappeared under the weight of exhaustion. At this point, he was willing to sell a finger or two for some good sleep.
”Thanks...” the word fell from his lips as did the young man finally close his eyes, the rush of relief washing over his tired form like a most soothing wave. Oh sleep his old, old friend...
And as the last of his consciousness faded, Lumine brought Xiao closer to her body and took a deep breath. Specks of light, small and fragile, began to circle around their form, enveloping them in its grace. Not so much entrapping the two so much as separating them from the outside world.
The outside world of which has been frozen still. Time itself pausing to not a speck of dust move against the stilled breeze.
Eight hours Lumine decided. She’ll hold out for eight hours for Xiao, to let him get his rest. And it wasn’t much, the mere hours practically next to nothing for her to endure as Lumine was an old soul.
So, so old.
.
.
.
When Xiao was woken up by a gentle shove of the head, the young man found himself suspiciously refreshed for a half-hour nap. He didn’t feel dead for one, and god knows how long since that was possible.
”Come on,” Lumine urged from beside him. Already standing up in perpetration for the stop. “I’ll show you to my place and you can meet my brother, he’ll be so happy to meet you I’m sure.”
With a yawn and a rub in the eyes, Xiao nodded along to her excited ramblings. After that nap, what comes next should hardly be a challenge to him now. It’s just Liyue City, worst-case scenario, he gets put out of his misery by a crazy punk. Nothing to fear, really.
”Sure, I’m looking forward to it.”
“Yay!”
•
As per their earlier agreement, Lumine walked in front. Leading the way for them both on this cold winter night, walking in the near-dark with half the street lamps burnt out years ago. Xiao, throwing away whatever silly notions of indirect kissing away to the nearest garbage pile, had savored every sip of the hot water in his bottle. Long gone was the insulation provided by the underground station, all that was left now is the pure unforgiving cold air of a winter night.
”Lumine, you sure you don’t need anything?”
”Sure am! You keep the water to yourself, we’re almost there you see.”
Xiao looked to his surroundings and rolled his eyes, hold back a snarky remark. Not a residential building insight and they were supposedly ‘close’? Yeah right.
”We’re here!”
Huh?
Looking to where exactly Lumine stood so confidently at, Xiao’s gaze trailed up to read the letter spelled out on the black metal arch above the girl.
Liyue Cemetery
.
.
.
”Is this... a joke?” Xiao asked the blonde in his disbelief. “You can’t live here.”
”Welll,” Lumine drawled out her voice. “I reside here you see, like any good ghost that don’t go causing trouble.”
Okay, she has to be joking.
”Listen,” Xiao sighed, bringing a hand through his messed up head in his exasperation. “I’ve been told that I am not the best receptor of jokes so you should ju-“
Where’s Lumine?
In place of where she just stood mere seconds ago, there was nothing but cold air. No shadow, no nothing.
And Xiao almost laughed.
Granted, he never thought he was the most mentally sound person there was, but this was a little too much, right? Right?
A deep breath...
’Remember...’ he spoke to himself. Bringing up the recent memories of both Verr Goldet and the Bus Driver, not to mention the two she called friends! He wasn’t the only one to have interacted with Lumine. So whatever it is, it couldn’t have been a hallucination.
”Behind you!” Came her familiar voice and Xiao gasped. Turning on his back with fervor, looking up to find the girl grinning down at him rather apologetically. Her feet nowhere near the ground.
“I...I...”
”You’re going to calm down in a few seconds and follow me to my grave in a minute, deal?”
”I...”
”Um, how about five minutes?”
Suddenly, Xiao believing Lumine to be older than him by a few years was perhaps one of the easiest things in this damn world.
•
Aether was her brother’s name, and to Xiao’s surprise, he seemed to be alive and well. Awfully young looking for his apparent age but that’s hardly unbelievable at this point.
”So you’re the fellow Lumine chose this year! Well, lucky you I guess, I’m Aether. A pleasure to meet you.”
Blond hair, golden eyes, short stature. You could definitely tell they were family, even their speech seemed strangely similar.
”What do you mean chose this year?” Xiao asked the blond man before him. “I’m afraid I am not exactly caught up with anything.”
“I’ll explain!” Came an eager shout next to Xiao. Where he found, on her very own gravestone no less, Lumine, the ghost apparently. “Every year on the anniversary of my death I get enough power to roam all of Liyue and grant a small wish. So I find myself a kind enough person to bring me back here and once they do I offer them a chance to grant a wish. Given its small enough.”
The redhead. The drunkard.
”So your friends...”
”I had promised Diluc protection charms of which I can only make so many a year, and Venti asked for kisses. Which I can only give once every year as well.”
”I didn’t approve of that,” Aether cuts in with a scowl to which Lumine rolled her eyes in response.
“It’s no big deal really, he’s a fun person and I always enjoyed it when he visits my grave.”
“He’s an alcoholic! You can’t j-“
”SO...! What’s your wish, Xiao?”
Wish huh?
He doesn’t have one.
Yes, yes, it’s absurd. For you’d think that everyone had thought of it at some point in their life. At least having a goal they can replace the wish for easily. Or just a basic want to have a wish granted.
Xiao has none of that.
Yes he was barely passing some classes, yes he was short on cash, yes there was a bottle of pills on his nightstand that most everyone would rather not need to take. But maybe it was just because of the way he grew up all by his lonesome self all these years, but to simply wish away these hindrances in his life...
It made him feel less.
Less than everyone else who has to face life head-on, even if they don’t endure half his pain.
Irrational, right? Xiao knows.
Of course he knows.
”Can...Can I save my wish for later? I don’t have anything to ask for right now.”
Aether gave him an annoyed look while Lumine’s whole face brightened up. “Of course!” She answered with glee. “You just have to visit me for it, okay? Just remember that I’ll always be here unless it’s my special day.”
Shoulders relaxed, Xiao exhaled a breath as he felt those invisible weights taken off his chest. “Sounds like a deal.”
Taking out his phone, the young man marked both on the map and the calendar for the future. And only after doing so did he began to say goodbye.
“Thanks for tonight, Lumine.”
“Of course,” the ghost smiled. “I’m just happy to have made a new friend, when are you going to visit?”
Pausing in his step, Xiao took a moment to run the math through his head. Indeed, when exactly would he have the time to visit a ghost?
”Tomorrow,” he eventually blurted out before he could mentally double-check.
“Really?!” Lumine brightened up like a star at the news, and Xiao knows that he cannot go back on his words now. “I’m so glad!”
But he’ll manage, somehow.
”Diluc and Venti are both from Mondstadt so I’m happy to finally get someone who visits regularly...”
”Yeah...” the young man whispered tenderly to her. His voice the softest it’s been for years no doubt.
”See you tomorrow.”