Work Text:
"Xiao."
"Traveler," Xiao says hesitantly, her name stuck on his throat, with a stubborn refusal to budge. There are butterflies fluttering about his stomach, and Xiao would have mistaken it for indigestion if he was accustomed to the mortal food Ver Goblet insists on him trying once in a while.
Lumine turns her head towards him, her golden eyes fond, as she strides gracefully towards his side, and takes a seat next to him.
From here, the Liyue harbor is merely a speck of black and blue splashed in heavy color, but Lumine knows Xiao enjoys the quiet and the subtle view it had to offer here. She enjoys it too, most days anticipating the presence of the dark-haired adepti.
It gets lonely out there, in the crowds, Lumine would know, although it is quite ironic. But perhaps it's been nature for children of reclusion to drift towards one and the other, understanding coming by like fireflies attracted to the night. There is no need to light yourself aflame for someone who is light years away from knowing what burning to keep yourself significant meant.
She wonders if Aether is lonely too. She wonders if he’s forgotten how long they’ve been kept apart by fate, when here she was, with nothing but stars to count and days to devour, until there is nothing left for her to do that makes everything count in the end.
"You are troubled," he starts again, and there is a worried sigh heaving from his chest like he is sick of seeing her in such a sorry state. Lumine wonders if he'd ever seen himself in her just a little. Lumine wonders if she disgusts Xiao. Even just a little.
"I am fine," Lumine replies, a ghost of a smile striking her features, before it disappears, like the swiftness of wind. Xiao blinks and stares, before furrowing his brows.
"You always are," he looks away. "That's the problem."
Lumine watches him, as a night breeze picks up, golden locks carried through the wind haphazardly, like cherry blossoms in spring. His gaze shifts back at her, to her face momentarily. And before whatever liquid courage thrumming through his veins leaves him entirely, his gloved hand had already tucked the strands of loose hair covering her eyes.
“I am here,” he mumbled, subtly placing his hand on her cheek. “You have called, and I have come. Tell me what to do so I may help you carry whatever it is that’s keeping you from smiling so.” There is desperation laced underneath the crevices of his tone, and bittersweet fondness in his gentle touch.
Fresh tears have begun to sprout from Lumine’s eyes, like drops of rain falling, hindered under the airy facade of a cloud about to burst any second now. Xiao wipes them all away, and even when the moon had started to show itself from the snowy peak of Dragonspine, he lets Lumine rest her head on his shoulder.
"You are much better off crying when you want to," Xiao whispers, when Lumine rises from her stupor, as Xiao reluctantly removes his hand on hers, tightly intertwining with his other gloved hand. The sides of Lumine’s eyes are still red. "Is it not you who has told me so?"
"Yes," Lumine croaked, her eyes crinkling, a fond smile resting on her face. "Thank you, Xiao."
"I am only doing what I am meant to do," he huffed, but the glow on his face does not shy away from the moon's own shine, almost challenging it against his own. "And," he whispered, "you called my name. It is the first time in a long time since someone has called."
He raises his head to meet her stare. "Someone I knew."
Lumine reaches for his hand, her gaze continuously darting between his confused stare and their fingers almost touching, almost intertwined. She takes it anyway. He lets her.
"Has it been lonely for you all this time as well?" Lumine murmurs softly, stroking his hand with her thumb. Xiao closes his eyes, breathing in deeply.
Even now, the uneven pounding of the darkness clawing through his chest remained, unrelenting, and unforgiving. They have always been hard to bear, but it is a burden he refused to share with anybody else regardless. It is the one thing left of him that has been tainted in the others' own blood and soul; the same karma they would have borne if they had lived as long as he had — the same darkness that would eat him up the same way it had done to them.
But she is here, in all of her cliche heroine glory, her light as hardheaded as the darkness that dwelled within him.
He smiles, despite himself, meeting her tense gaze, and her furrowed brows. "I was lonely, yes — of course. But those years past by have gone by in a blink, knowing that it had all been worth it now that you are here with me."
"Thank you for calling my name," he squeezes her hand on his, and she squeezes back. "Lumine."
“Then,” she breathed, a dazzled look on her face making him blush. "Please let me keep calling you by name, Xiao."
"Yes," he laughs, a sweet deep sound, making the hairs on Lumine's arms stand. He gives her a smile, and she returns it, a hundredfold. "Please do."