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A loud thud could be heard late in the night, at the top of Wangshu Inn. The yaksha that was originally playing his flute is seen with his head in his hands, groaning in pain. This wasn’t it. This was not it.
This wasn’t the tune that he had heard a few millennials ago.
The pain that he had thought he could ignore was back, a huge weight dropped on his heart all of sudden. Xiao wasn’t sure if there was anyone nearby to witness such a vulnerable moment of his, he wasn’t sure if he was going to be fine for a few moments.
A few scenes flashed in front of his eyes, and for the first time in a long while. Fear flashed in his eyes. He remembered when his frie- No, colleagues would fight alongside him during the Archon war. He remembered how one succumbed to the enemy. He remembered how two of them fought each other. He remembered how one went beserk, never to be seen or heard again.
He remembered when everything ended, he was the only one left standing on the remains of the enemies. His eyes were devoid of emotions, his body stained with blood as he felt Rex Lapis patted him on his back, and said,
“You did well, Xiao.”
A scream came out of his throat, almost too painful for his liking. The fingers that was holding his head scratched it repeatedly, making it bleed slowly. The yaksha didn’t notice, because he was way too focused on how his heart was in pain. The memories that he tried to keep at bay kept flooding in as he slowly laid down against the wooden platform of the inn.
Ignoring the bleeding that had occurred on his head, his eyes looked up at the moon. The light shining on him was warm, though he knew that wasn’t the moon’s own light, but yet another reflection. His hand instinctively reached out for the moon, wanting to feel at least a bit comforted by someone, anyone.
Then that’s when he heard it. The flute.
Xiao quickly stood up from where he was laying down, but the constant blood loss that he had unsurprisingly ignored for the past minutes was getting to him. He held himself against the wooden railings, feeling his conscious slowly slipping away.
Before he fell against the floor, before he closed his eyes fully, before he drifted away to dreamland, he saw two silhouettes in front of him. His eyes drifted to the taller one, hand reaching out to them, and whispered,
“Rex… Lapis…”
And blackness was all he saw.
-
The next thing he remembered, was him waking up in one of the rooms in Wangshu Inn. He frantically looked around, thinking he was getting attacked, or even worse, taken away by someone. His eyes darted to the window, noticing that the sun had already gone up. He frowned, how long has he been out?
“Xiao! You’re awake!”
Groaning, he looked towards the floating companion that the twins always had beside them. Behind Paimon, Xiao could see Aether and Lumine walking in with a sheepish smile. Lumine was holding a plate of almond tofu, while Aether had a first aid kit with him. Lumine placed the almond tofu on the bedside table that he had, and went to the window to fix the curtains.
“...Why are you here?”
“We promised some people that we would take care of you for these few days, so please relax and stay put.”
Aether replied as he opened his first aid kit, ready to take care of Xiao’s injuries. The ones that he had caused to himself were more serious than the others. after all, he didn’t understand his own strength. The yaksha turned towards the sister, and she only smiled at him, gesturing at the almond tofu she had put aside.
“This was a collaborative work between the people that wanted us to take care of you! You could say… They weren’t really good with it, so I helped them out as well.”
She said with a chuckle, remembering how they messed up the mixture. Lumine had to step in to tell them the correct measurements of each of the ingredients, and even then, they still somehow manage to mess up some of them. Xiao just looked at the plate and nodded, as if to thank the blonde.
“That should be it, now you should just stay put for around three days before you feel a lot bett-”
“No. I still need to protect Liyue.”
The trio stared at each other once they heard what Xiao said, and with a worried look, Lumine spoke up.
“But Xiao, you’re hurt pretty badly. By yourself. Please, the people that wanted us to take care of you were really worried as well.”
“I agree, we’ll come back tomorrow to see if you have gotten a lot better. Don’t move around too harshly. Alright?”
Xiao’s grip on the blanket grown tighter from the words by Aether, he couldn’t just abandon his work for a few days, who knows what will happen to Liyue.
“Don’t worry about Liyue. We have it covered!”
As if knowing his concerns, Lumine said it out with confidence and winked at Xiao. Aether chuckled, agreeing with Lumine. The yaksha, albeit still a bit concerned, scoffed as he glared at the trio, suggesting them to get out as soon as possible.
The travelers and Paimon were shocked by his action, and quickly ran out of the room, but not before Aether waved goodbye to Xiao, wishing him the best recovery. As soon as they got out of the room, he quickly took the almond tofu and took a bite.
It was… surprisingly good. Xiao found it soothing to his throat, considering that he had most likely hurt his own throat by screaming. He shook his head as he took another bite. It’s good.
Maybe… Just maybe, resting for a while. Is alright.
-
“You really don’t want to visit him, Zhongli?”
Putting their flute down, a voice questioned from a figure sitting on top of the roof in Wangshu Inn. Zhongli could only sigh as he looked around the scenery from atop.
“No, I don’t want him to overwork himself more than he usually does, Venti.”
“It’s not like by seeing you, he’s going to immediately though himself into the battlefield now, is it? Besides…”
The green cladded archon smiled, putting the wooden flute against his lips once again.
“Liyue seems to be at peace, compared to a few millenials ago.”
Venti then proceeded to play a tune, a tune so nostalgic, it almost made Zhongli hum to it.
“...It really is. And we have to thank Xiao for that.”