Chapter Text
"It's hot. Like, really hot."
Xiao's eye visibly twitches but with your back to him, you don't get the privilege of seeing it. Your legs continue to swing although you're seated on Wangshuu Inn's highest balcony railing, able to fall forward at any time and any moment to your death. You don't show any signs of caring and neither does the adeptus; in fact, he almost wishes to push you off himself. But yet, you still poke fun at him.
"What do you want me to do about it?"
"I thought adepti could change the weather."
Your voice is laced with its usual teasing tone, purposely riling Xiao up and trying to make his emotions flare and seen. Without even moving or seeing you can feel the daggers he glares into your back from annoyance, and you can practically sense the sides of his lips quirking down. Rivaling him, the sides of your lips twitch up.
You can't contain a cheery laugh that naturally bubbles out of your throat. "I'm just joking, I know you can't change the weather! I'm not dumb."
Xiao is hesitant before grumbling, "Insufferable mortal."
In all the ages you've known him (actually, just a few months), not once has the male said anything positive or neutral towards you. Your joyful remarks are almost always rebutted with his snarky insults, or not responded to at all (a wise choice). Of course, your seemingly unbothered attitude just urges him on to criticize you even more.
If only.
"Well? Can't you just blow some anemo over like you always do?" You finally turn around and hop off the railing, smoothing out your bottom attire with the palms of your hands. "I can always feel the breeze you send over from time to time."
With realization, you have to bite back another laugh after hearing him mutter curses under his breath. "I'd rather die a gruesome death then help you."
Things move quickly in your vision. You don't even have time to give Xiao one of your usual retorts, his hand moving in front of his face to materialize that one, pretty green familiar mask you always see. The mask he wears when he fights, you note silently. He doesn't turn to you or state any goodbye as he strides forward and confidently hops off the balcony, and despite the height from the top of the inn you know he'll be fine. His polearm is already ready and spinning expertly in his dominant hand.
You jolt forward and lean over the railing with your hands cupping your mouth. "Don't die!" You assume he has probably sensed danger nearby the inn; or he just wanted to be free of your presence. Either way, you know he'll come back soon enough. "I won't have anyone to bother if you're gone! And I'll cry!"
The latter phrase is a half joke and half not, you just mainly want to see if Xiao turns around. He never does but you're sure he always hears you, just choosing not to respond. (And if he did, what would he even say?) You wait to see if he'll even give you that same look that he always does, reading "are you for real?" Just thinking about it makes you grin a little bit.
But as expected, he doesn't turn around to look at you or say goodbye. As soon as the heels of his feet touch the ground he disappears into the air, almost as if he had never existed in the first place.
Just like that... how easy.
"I really hope it's not too much trouble. You have my gratitude."
"It's no worries," You speak with a genuine tone to Verr Goldet, the owner of the inn Xiao has a room at. More specifically, Wangshuu Inn. You like to stay on the balcony the adeptus favors just to annoy him a little, but today you decided to give him a break and head to the lobby instead, leading to you hearing Verr mumble about a problem of suspicious monsters in the area. You know the traveler would've taken responsibility if he was here, so to lessen Aether's workload, you immediately spoke up.
And now as you walk to your location of the supposed monsters, you realize then that you're getting bitten in the ass.
You don't have a vision nor a weapon you're used to. Well, you do have a lame dull blade Xiao gave you at the beginning of your contract together, saying that you should at least be able to protect yourself while "running off and being the troublemaker you are". But you're certain the sword is going to break any moment just from how light and fragile the weapon feels in your hand.
Well, if push comes to shove, who says you can't beat hillichurls up with your fists?
You recognize Guili Plains the moment you take a second to actually observe your surroundings. The grass's color is bright and the fresh air makes you add a bit of skip into your steps. You can already see the hillichurl camp a bit of distance away, which actually don't look too hard to defeat, and everything seems like it's going smoothly.
Until you see a mitachurl with its maddening irksome shield.
A groan escapes you. Having no elemental powers or visions are hard as is, but a mitachurl shield? You don't have the fire to burn it, and you certainly aren't going to stand there and keep poking at it with your dull blade until it breaks. Your best bet is to slay as much hillichurls as fast as you can and try to lure the mitachurl towards the cooking pot near the camp. It's a small burning fire underneath the bowl, but just a little bit should be enough to take down the shield.
Right?
You don't stop to think, only changing to a slower pace as you get closer and closer to the camp. A surprise attack will be your best advantage, and besides; if you get out of this alive, you can brag about it to Xiao.
Not like he'd even care, you snort.
Well. You crouch behind a convenient pair of bushes without alerting the monsters, you sword ready in your dominant hand and the other hand's palm flat on the ground, ready to prop yourself up and jump when you see the chance. If you go for the weak points then the big mitachurl won't be a problem.
Deep breaths.
You jump.
Immediately two hillichurl archers shriek when you make your presence known, already holding up their cross bows and ready to aim for your demise. The rest of the hillichurls look up and also screech out like the idiots they are, but you take note of the mitachurl yards away who hasn't noticed you yet.
Perfect.
You drop your feet down onto one of the archer's cross bows and quickly kick the other hillichurl's weapon out of its hand. The flimsy wood breaks beneath your feet and you pull your elbow back, striking two hillichurl heads at once and effectively getting their weak point. You duck from a hillichurl waving it's torch around before leaning forward and pummeling it right back to the ground with the sole of your foot. Right as you do, you look up to see the mitachurl finally noticing you and getting into it's recognizable stance.
You can time it right.
When the monster races towards you you jump to the side, but not before hitting the shield with as much force as you can with your blade. You roll over onto the grass and quickly get on your knees and tip-toes, ready to prop yourself towards the mitachurl again.
But... for some reason the mitachurl is dancing around...? You stare at it in awe, watching fire engulf the wooden dendro shield and bring panic to the monster. You haven't even led it to the camp fire yet. So how did it...?
Something urges you to look down despite the multiple monsters in front of you, and your eyes quite literally start to glitter in delight.
A pyro vision resides in your hand.