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She was always warm, he thought, laying face up on his bed at Wangshuu Inn.
It was an outlandish feeling to be standing near her on the terrace of the inn the first time he saw her, after she told him the news that Rex Lapis had been murdered. His heart was trembling in disbelief and his head spinning around the fact that killing an Archon was a task bordering on the impossible. And even with the issue that worried him lingering about, he could not shake away his curiosity about her radiating energy, heat, warm like sunlight.
Xiao raised a hand to his eye level, between him and the ceiling, and studied his slender fingers. She was warm to the touch even through his gloves, he remembered, clenching his hand as if he was touching her shoulder like the time she saved her of falling that time the Jade Chamber was destroyed. Then her warmth as he held her, one hand on her waist, another on her wrist. Tiny, delicate.
He sprang up, flushed and bothered, feeling the need to run, heart pounding hard against his ribs.
Time and time again they had been out doing comissions, fighting monsters, gathering materials. He hadn’t dared to touch her since.
He went outside and climbed to the roof, cool breeze biting on his arms. Intending to let go off her image for a bit, he cursed internally, because even the roof had memories attached to her, fluffy head —like a dandelion! —appearing on the terrace below, quietly letting him know she was there, in order to not startle him. Silly human, as if he didn’t know she was there all along.
He felt warm on his cheeks again at the memory of his name on her voice.
“Xiao!”
A crime. She called his name out loud with the gist of a smile seeping on the sound. As if she was happy to see him. As if karma waves and impurity couldn’t reach her. As if she could fix the whole damn world with a chuckle and a plate of almond tofu.
Foolish girl.
He almost fell off the roof when Verr Goldet’s voice raised suspiciously loud from the front desk.
“Our dearest traveler! Very nice to see you again!”
That despicable ring of amusement in her voice let him somehow know she was voicing toward the staircase for the sound to go purposely up. Honestly, these people gave very little regard in terms of respect. Who did she think she was, his mother?
He froze when he heard the clear voice of Paimon on the floor below.
“Ugh, why do they always give us the last floor?”
“I know!” He heard her voice. She had dragged the last syllable. At first, Xiao had trouble understanding that to her, doing that implied some sort of internal joke. “It must be so hard for you to float all the way up here”.
The bickering voices fading indicated they had entered their room. He sighed and relaxed his shoulders.
“Good evening, Xiao!”
He almost jumps off his bones at the unbelievably close voice. Confused, he searched around for her, only to find nothing. A soft chuckle led him to the edge of one of the eaves. He found her, peeking through one tiny window ending just below the rooftop, comically looking up.
She chuckled again at the sight of his bewildered face.
“There’s a cabinet below my bathroom’s window, in case you’re wondering.”
“Foolish human”, he sighed.
To what Lumine sighed and gave a small smile. “It’s nice seeing you too”, she said, without a trace of snarkyness.
He breathed once, in and out. Unsure if he should say what he really wanted to say, he scooted backwards and sat over the roofs eaves, legs hanging over the edge.
“Are you planning on staying there all day?” he finally said, facing away from her.
Lumine’s heart jumped out of joy before biting her lower lip, smiling, as she squeezed herself out of the bathroom window. Agilely she grabbed the edge of the tiled roof, used to manage perfectly fine on her own, but was surprised the moment her right hand scooted forward and a strong hand catched her, helping her up with easyness.
Warm.
She gifted him a soft “thank you”, then she sat exactly like him. He didn’t mean to, but he stared. Stared at her slender arms stretching and her muscles compressing. Stared at the way she tucked the back of her skirt under her rear before sitting. Stared at her knees and long legs dangling from the edge, at her fingers lacing between her thighs. Then her face, her smile. Her eyes, glistening and not turning away. Her head tilted, questioning.
“What’s wrong?”, she asked, as if there was anything wrong with any of it.
Her voice so close to his ears taking all wrongs and making them right.
The warmth she radiated through her skin reaching to his arm.
She kept smiling as if she knew for sure there was actually nothing wrong.
“Where had you been?” He murmured, not really stopping to think how he worded the question. He flushed to oblivion when he saw the glint of mischief and the pink tinge on her cheeks.
“You missed me?!”
Xiao faced away from her again, this time covering his mouth with his right hand, in disbelief. His protest about her being the silliest person and him not having any understanding of human emotions mingled with her teasing banter for a minute. Then he blurted, panting: “and what if I DID?”
He scoffed defensively when the face of the girl shone with a rather furious blush. Xiao crossed his arms.
“Silly human”.
Slowly, Lumine relaxed her face into a fond smile. Tucking one of the longer strands of her hair behind her ear, she closed the distance between them swiftly, and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. Then she stared at him and chuckled at his absolutely bewildered almost edging on terrified face, before sliding down the roof.
“The Boss said there’s going to be meat buns for dinner so I better go, or Paimon is going to eat them all”.
He squirmed his way to the edge of the roof before he lost sight of her. His blush giving away the cover he tried to put on as he exclaimed “Tonight we fight! Lumine! I’m going to make you regret this!”. His proud voice turning out so unconvincing that Lumine turned away to look at him again, but kept walking backwards. Putting him in this state was decidedly one of the most delightful things she could do while staying at Wangshuu Inn.
“It’s a date then!” She winked, and hurried down the stairs.
Xiao sighed, angrily. And yet his hand touching where she had left the ghost of his kiss lingering, his flushed cheeks and the corners of his mouth quirking upwards were the silent testimony of his new feelings, the intense craving he felt, and that warmth sensation flooding the inside of his chest.