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“If you can’t ever bring yourself to kill, call my name. I’m more familiar with death than you’d think.”
It repeats in his head over and over again. It’s something he thinks about every single time he’s in battle, every time he feels way in over his head and when things become too close to his end for his own comfort. And yet,
The only time he ever called for the adepti who swore to kill for him was for him to try some food for Xiangling.
And he came.
And he wasn’t upset about it either.
After that, he felt far more confident that Xiao would genuinely come for him if he ever needed his help. Though- he would never ever bother the adepti unless absolutely necessary.
He usually came to Xiao if he was at the inn...
“Call me again, if you ever need me.”
That being said. He wouldn’t call Xiao over a silly cough. Even if the cough didn’t seem.. Normal. It was more than a scratch in his throat, and sounded quite deep. A wet cough here and there would escape as well, but again. He saw nothing of concern.
“Are you sure you’re okay? You keep coughing and Paimon doesn’t think it’s just a dry throat any more…” Paimon questions with slight worry when he coughs again after taking a bite from his lunch. Aether quickly nods his head, not saying anything in favor of being quiet and finishing his meal. It doesn’t wipe the concern from Paimon but she does stop asking the same question over and over again.
Aether doubts it will last long. But he’ll take the lack of repetition when he can get it.
The blonde feels okay over the next few days, the cough even goes away for a while and Paimon stops questioning it.
Maybe Aether was just lying to himself though. As he finds himself gripping the side of a tree out in the wilderness coughing almost relentlessly until there’s suddenly blood up against the grass down below.
He stares at it after his coughing ceases, dread building up in his chest at the sight of red against green.
He shouldn’t have been holding in his coughs for so long.
Thank god Paimon was looking for berries on her own right now. He didn’t want to worry her.
Aether wipes the blood off of his mouth and inhales sharply, he doesn’t know what’s wrong. He couldn’t be sick, right? He felt okay- other than the constant coughing. He hadn’t been injured recently either..
He should be okay.
When he hears Paimon’s voice calling for him in the distance, he quickly stomps over the grass with his blood on it and takes a few steps forward towards where she was heading towards him.
He won’t let her worry. He’s fine. He’s got nothing to worry about either.
He doesn’t even last another day before his next coughing fit, and this time Paimon is there to sadly witness it, much to Aether’s dismay.
“Paimon really thinks you should see a doctor, Aether!” Paimon whines out, gesturing wildly to the blood Aether just coughed up on the table they were using near one of the abandoned homes in the town they were adventuring in. “Paimon is pretty sure the blood is supposed to be INSIDE the body!”
Aether looks down to the ground in a bit of shame, bringing one hand up to wipe away the blood on his lips. “Mm.. Just a sore throat.” He whispers, ignoring the way Paimon shoots him a scandalized look.
“That is not a sore throat!! Sore throats shouldn’t be bleeding! Paimon would know, Paimon’s gotten a sore throat before!” The pixie huffs out, foot stomping in the air as she hovers over Aether.
He doesn’t respond, instead walking away from the table and leaving Paimon to catch up with him with a whine of ‘Aether!’. Aether wanders over to a large rock in the middle of the forest and near a cliff. There, he sits down atop the rock and rests his head on his knees while looking off into the sky.
Paimon is quick to catch up and enter his line of vision with a pout on her face, the pout deepening when Aether just looks towards another part of the sky away from her. “Hey! Don’t look away from Paimon! This is serious, Aether!” She floats to where he’s looking, and it just makes Aether look down instead of up. “Why don’t you want to see a doctor? It won’t even take that long! And if it IS just a sore throat we can get something for you!”
Aether ignores the dread in his chest at the thought of doing that. He looks back to Paimon, shakes his head once, then stands and starts speed-walking away.
“Paimon thinks you’re being STUBBORN!” She hollers out, quickly and easily catching up with him. She gives him a tug on his braid, making him stop and look at her with a deep frown. “Aether please, you know Paimon sucks at reading expressions.”
“...Not right.” Aether mumbles out, before raising up a hand in order to cough into it and waving Paimon’s attempt at patting his back. Once the coughing fit ends and his hand is bloodied, he looks at Paimon and shakes his head once more. “I feel fine.”
“Paimon thinks you’re joking.” Paimon grumbles out, “Paimon CLEARLY saw Aether coughing, that is not fine!”
“...I feel fine.” Aether says, then pauses. “...I’m only coughing.”
Paimon hesitates at that, then gestures towards Aether’s hand. “Then what about the blood..?”
“...I don’t know.” Aether glances to the blood with a frown, then, “My throat could be… Bleeding.”
“Okay… So if no doctor then let’s at least get you some water. Paimon knows that can help with sore throats, and maybe we could get soup too.” Paimon grabs his unbloodied hand and tugs him along until Aether relents and lets himself be dragged towards a place that sells food and clean water.
He doesn’t tell Paimon that his throat isn’t really sore at all, maybe a little scratchy but.
Not sore enough to bleed.
He enjoys the soup though, and that along with the water does soothe his coughs. Somewhat.
Aether manages to get another day in of commissions and without Paimon’s worry after that, though the coughs return much stronger and there’s a settling of ‘something’s terribly wrong’ in his chest as he sits up in his bed at the inn they’re staying at coughing and unable to sleep.
The blonde glances over to the bed Paimon is in, the pixie snuggled up in the covers and snoring softly.
God he wishes that was him.
When he coughs again and gets blood on the covers, a sharp pain in his lungs has him hunching over and gripping the bed as he tries not to completely fall.
This was the first time feeling any pain, and it was in his lungs.
Fuck.
He… He probably does need a doctor, doesn’t he? He… He should…
Aether throws the blanket off of his legs and stumbles out of bed, feeling more weak than he had just a day ago and stepping over to where Paimon is sleeping. He gently shakes her awake, feeling guilty when the sprite whines and sits up, rubbing her eyes to try and clear the sleepiness from them. She glances up to Aether, meeting his eyes with a confused look before those same eyes widen at the blood dripping down Aether’s chin. “...Paimon thinks you’ve been coughing again.” She half-whispers, floating up and in front of Aether in order to get a closer look at him. “Paimon told you we should have went to a doctor! You-”
“...Paimon.” Aether stops her before she can start ranting, and the sprite tilts her head at the blonde with a frown.
She seems to just now notice the bags underneath Aether’s eyes and the way his eyes glisten, because her face crumbles slightly and she grabs Aether’s face with her small hands- essentially cupping his cheeks and staring at him with concern. “...Is Aether ready to see the doctor?” She questions, and seems to look utterly relieved when the blonde nods slowly.
The sprite is patient with Aether as they walk from the inn towards a waypoint, the traveler seeming to have trouble breathing with too much movement.
He just had to get to Mondstat or Liyue. Both had doctors.
Inazuma did too- but he’d rather not go there right now.
Mondstat it is then.
…Wait, was he still walking?
He breathes heavily as he stares at the path in front of him, feet not moving and Paimon hovering in front of him with worry on her expression.
Fuck. It hurt to breathe.
“P…Paimon..” Aether stutters out, the Sprite immediately grabbing his hand and tugging on him once.
“We’re almost there, Aether can do it!” She encourages, but her voice wavers.
She knows Aether won’t be taking another step forward. She so desperately wants him to, though. And that’s what pushes Aether to actually try and walk a few more steps.
It’s his third step when he collapses, falling on his ass and trying to just catch his breath.
He thinks- he thinks calling for Xiao over a ‘small cough’ would be a good idea now.
Aether makes eye contact with Paimon, taking in her now watery eyes as the sprite struggles in thinking about what she could do for him. Most likely knowing that the villages nearby were too far away for her to fly and get someone to help with- and this solidifies his decision.
He doesn’t want her to keep worrying over him, she didn’t deserve the stress.
Aether clears his throat the best his can with a nasty sounding cough, and mumbles out a feeble ‘Xiao’,
He’s lucky enough to get the name out at all, as coughs wrack his body and he hunches over with blood falling from his lips.
“Aether,” oh. He didn’t even hear Xiao appear.
Aether just continues to cough until enough blood comes out, afterwards looking miserably up to the adepti who was crouched right by him now, eyebrows furrowed and looking as if he was trying to figure out what happened. Aether couldn’t bring himself to tell Xiao he had no idea what was wrong, only staring with pleading eyes and gripping the grass below him as he tried to breathe correctly.
“...Okay.” Xiao mutters softly, wordlessly placing his hands underneath Aether’s legs and back in order to pick him up with care and ease. He holds him closer than Aether expects him to, though it’s certainly not unwelcomed. The comfort of being held was… Nice. “I’m taking you to Liyue.” He says quietly, disappearing soon after in a cloud of blue without letting Aether answer. Not that he could have.
….
Xiao watches over Aether from where he’s standing a little bit away from the bed the blonde was in with a watchful eye, arms crossed impatiently as he waits for Baizhu to tell him something about what was wrong Aether. The green-haired man was doing.. Something, with his hand on Aether’s chest along with his eyes closed as he did…
God damn it, what was he doing?
Xiao grumbles quietly, and this earns a snort from Baizhu who finally opens his eyes and glances over to the adepti with a momentary amused expression before it turns to something more thoughtful.
“His lungs are filling with liquid very slowly and it’s not due to a physical injury.” He states, “I see… A corruption around them that’s quite familiar to me as it’s the same corruption we see in abyss magic.” Baizhu stands up with a hum and raising an eyebrow at Xiao’s sudden murderous look. “While it is the abyss’s fault, I’m afraid they weren’t the ones that did this to Aether themselves. You recall Aether healing quite a bit of corruption just by touching it, yes?”
Xiao freezes, and slowly looks over to Aether. The blonde wasn’t really there, his eyes staring at the ceiling as he breathed slowly. Looking as if he moved wrongly he’d suddenly be coughing again or breathing heavily.
He looked scared.
“What can be done?” Xiao questions with a clench of his fist, the adepti clearly wishing to punch something but he can’t exactly punch Aether’s lungs.
Ugh.
“No need to worry,” Baizhu reassures rather quickly when seeing the angst build up in the adepti, “He just needs medication and rest. As long as he doesn’t heal any corruption for a while he should be okay.” He goes to pick up what looks like herbs but then pauses, squinting at Xiao for a moment before looking away with a small laugh.
“...What?” Xiao, though looking relieved, pouts at Baizhu’s laugh.
“Oh, nothing. I am wondering though… How has your karmic debt been treating you? Any pain at all lately?” Baizhu asks as he picks up the herbs he needs, taking them to a bowl in order to crush them into the remedies he needs.
“I… Fail to see how that’s important right now. I have however… Been doing fine.” Xiao says, voice suspicious but a little bit disinterested too as his focus quickly goes to Aether. The adepti steps over to the blonde’s bed and sits on it, making Aether’s eyes suddenly snap over to him and his body shudder. “Aether..” Xiao grips the blonde’s hand, “You’re too selfless..”
“Indeed he is,” Baizhu agrees, coming over with a cup and sitting Aether up. “Drink up, and afterwards you should stay sitting up. You’ll breathe easier that way.”
Aether’s face scrunches up at the taste of whatever Baizhu was giving him, but he drinks it nonetheless and hums gratefully at the pillows placed behind him. “t’ank yu.” Aether whispers through his scratchy throat, and it makes him wince.
“Thank me by healing the corruption slowly, no need to be so quick about it. It’s clearly damaging to you.” Baizhu sighs out, ruffling the blonde’s hair once before standing and wandering back to his desk. “A good example of this would be not healing an Adepti of their entire karmic debt at once without them knowing.”
“What.” Xiao’s eyes immediately snap back to Aether, the blonde seeming confused by that and tilting his head cutely- no. Just. Tilting his head, Xiao. “You did what?”
“Oh my goodness,” Baizhu laughs again, “He didn’t even know he did it! No wonder he’s gotten ill, silly traveler.”
“I… I no longer..” Xiao looks down to his own hands, “I was wondering why I haven’t felt it in so long. I simply thought it would be coming back even stronger once it did.”
“Yes well, it seems that you have an angel finally watching out for you, Xiao.” Baizhu grabs the piece of paper he had been writing on during this realization and makes his way towards the door, “And now you won’t constantly take up my pain remedies. Not that I minded giving it out, but. Having more in supply never hurts. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be informing everyone who needs to know of Aether’s condition and as to not let him heal any corruption without someone watching.”
He leaves before Aether could shoot a pout at him and before Xiao could say a word.
“...Aether…”
Aether snaps his head back towards Xiao and tilts it again, making the Adepti inhale sharply.
“Thank you.”
Aether quickly shakes his head rapidly, leaning forward and bumping his forehead against Xiao’s shoulder which makes the Adepti look at him oddly. “If this is you thanking me, I already told you I would come any time you called my name. And you did that. So once again, I thank you for trusting me, but most importantly, for healing me. Even if it was at the cost of… This. In which you will never be doing again, no matter how thankful I am. Do you know how it is for me to find you struggling to breathe on the ground?”
Aether squeezes Xiao’s hand at that in apology and the adepti shakes his head. “It’s fine. I’m glad you called. I will not give you any more of an.. Earful, for it. I’m sure your sprite friend will be doing that later when they return.”
Paimon had left in order to get something to eat and possibly get something for Aether. A present, or something. It was more like Baihzu shooing her away so he could work in silence.
“..Xiao.”
“Yes-” Xiao gets cut off by Aether’s face suddenly very close to his own. “Er- uh, Aeth-” Xiao actually loses his sense of words for split second, “Yes, Aether?” He finally manages out, trying to keep his cool.
Aether lays one very gentle kiss on Xiao’s cheek, making the Adepti’s eyes widen and freeze up in utter confusion.
“...I’m glad I could heal your karmic debt.” Aether’s quiet scratchy voice says, and he goes to lean back but Xiao’s brain catches up with him far too quickly that it basically slams his face right back towards Aether’s and the adepti nuzzles Aether’s cheek with a growl.
Xiao isn’t very good with his words at this point, as it would seem. The adepti just tugging his arms around Aether and keeping his nose right on the blonde’s cheek.
It leaves Aether utterly flustered, face beat red as he’s suddenly smothered with his cheeks getting pecked with light, fluttery kisses and gentle hands holding him close.
“X-Xiao-” Aether whines, utterly overwhelmed with the contact and huffing when Xiao just holds him closer.
“Rest.” Xiao murmurs, finally stopping his smothering and adjusting his hold on Aether so it’s comfortable. “You need it.”
Okay, Aether thinks when his eyes shut close and he leans into the adepti’s hold. It seems that… He might’ve just gotten a significant other through a simple cheek kiss and a few months of giving him Almond tofu at the inn.
Months of rambling to the adepti when he wouldn’t often speak back, and yet- Aether never feeling… Insecure about it when it was with him.
Maybe it was the way Xiao would actually attempt to fill the silence when Aether could not bring himself to speak at all. Never making Aether feel guilty for being unable to talk. Or maybe it was the adepti’s hovering over him every time he was hurt in the slightest of ways. Yet, the weird amount of trust Xiao held in Aether with every little thing- even Aether cooking something Xiao would normally never eat yet does just for Aether.
He never thought… Xiao would want a relationship, if he was being honest.
But now, his face is peppered with the faint feeling of kisses he was being given a moment before and his lungs are steadily feeling better. Whether it be from the affection or the remedy, he was thankful.
Silly Adepti, Thank you.