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Xiao sits on the railing of the balcony on Wangshu Inn. Looking out at the view he hears someone come up the stairs.
“Hey Xiao! Guess what tomorrow is!” Lumine says happily. Xiao looks at her a little startled “What is it?”
“It’s the 1 year anniversary from when I arrived!” She says smiling, he nodded “What are you planing on doing?” He asked, she shrugged “Just a bit of cooking and maybe visit some old friends”
Xiao nodded “Hmm. Who are these friends you speak of?”
“Ayaka, Venti, Childe, just people who I‘m friends with”
“Hm.” He was a bit jealous, he wasn’t going to admit it thought “I guess you don’t have time then”
Lumine laughed “Well that’s why I’m here, to spend a little time with you, I know you aren’t busy today so I wanted to visit you earlier”
Xiao sighs heavily “What do you want to do then?”
“I was hoping, oh brooding one, that you could cook something with me! Paimon wants a big breakfast and I have no intention to disappoint” Lumine seemed quite confident.
Xiao nods slowly “Cooking? You want me to….. cook?” he gives her a very suspicious and confused look. Lumine smiled “Yeah! I figured if you like my cooking so much then you should learn to cook like me!”
Xiao teleports off the railing and appears behind her, looking at her “Alright…” he was unsure. Lumine claps her hands “Fantastic! I already have the kitchen downstairs open so we can just go now” she was already leaving for the kitchen, Xiao wordlessly following close behind.
Lumine grabs an apron, tying it around her waist “Lets get started on the broth and then move onto the main dish” she holds out an apron to Xiao, he looks at it squinting “Do I have to put this on?” He says death glaring the apron.
“Yea… Unless you somehow avoid staining your outfit while cooking” Xiao continued to glare at the apron “I am not putting that o- what are you doing?” Lumine walks over to him “I don’t want your clothes to get stained”
Traveler smiled looking at Xiao “Ok, you can cut the carrots for me while I heat up the soup!” Lumine walks over to the soup as Xiao looks at the carrots ‘How do I cut the carrots? Do I use a knife? How much do I cut it?’ He slowly pulls out his spear.
Lumine guides Spear back down pulling out a knife, “Here, spear down, if you need help just ask me!”
Xiao nodded “Ok I can do that” he looks at the carrots ‘I would rather die than ask for somebody else’s help’ he thinks picking up the knife.
Lumine uses Anemo to strengthen the fire as Xiao fucking stabs the carrot, somehow making it work and successfully cutting it..
“Ok now I can add the car-“ she turns to Xiao “What is that”
“Carrots”
“Those carrots are traumatized- here I’ll show you how”
Xiao watches Lumine cut the carrots with ease. He thinks to himself “How the fuck did you get into a situation where Traveler needed to help you? I did that exact thing”
Lumine smiled “Slice and dice not stab and cut, there is a difference” Xiao slightly pouts “What next?” The traveler shrugs “You can do something a bit easier, now that I know your level of experience in the kitchen”
Xiao sighs, looks over to where the traveler walks and gets hyper focused on what they’re trying to give whatever work to him, “What is that?” He asked
Lumine presented him with a wooden spoon “I want you to stir this soup!”
“How do I…… stir……. The soup?”
“You grab the spoon, then gently move it around in the pot”
Xiao takes the spoon and swirls it around the pot, “Like this?” Lumine smiled “Yup! You’re doing great Hun, I’ll finish prepping the dough”
Xiao thinks to himself while stirring ‘how is this relaxing?’ He stares into the soup “Whats the dough used for?”
“I’m taking some of it and turning it into dumpings, the rest I’m using for fried chicken” Lumine says while holding some up.
Xiao nodded “Alright…” his head starts to hurt a little bit, “Wait- dough? For fried chicken?”
“Yea! You cover the chicken and dough and fry it for a certain amount of time” Xiao groans “That sounds… Ah whatever, how much do I have to… stir… This?”
“Until the broth fully absorbs the flavor of the food and spices” Lumine says, she has done this many times before, “I- what?” Xiao let’s out an impatient sigh “Could you take a look and see if I did it right?”
Lumine gives it a brief glance “Yeah, you are doing fine”
‘am I feeling what hunger feels like?’ Xiao thinks as he keeps stirring, “What do we do after this?”
“Well, you could help me fold the dumplings, or make a few meaty skewers, that should be easy”
“Sure, do I stab the meat with the stick?” He has an urge to stab the meat prepared on the cutting board for some reason.
Lumine sighed “Don’t stab the meat please, you can stab it once it’s stuffed”
“How do I make the skewers?”
“Come over here I’ll show you!”
Xiao stops stirring for a moment as Lumine moves the pot, they move to the table and she starts telling him what to do.
Lumine does her instructions as she says them “You take the ingredients and then you stab them before placing them in a pan and then putting them in the oven”
“I think I can do that” he starts doing what Traveler said step by step.
“If you want, for Kaeya’s fruity skewers you just add one extra step by dipping them in alcohol for a few minutes” Xiao shakes his head “Why would anyone want to eat alcohol?” After a moment he finishes a few skewers, Lumine looks at him “Oh? Done already? Let me see them!”
Xiao moves aside for Traveler to see his work, “Did I do it right?” Lumine examines them ”It’s a bit messy but I think you did fantastic!”
Xiao was proud of his skewers, “What do you want me to do next?”
“Let’s cool the broth a bit more and then we can do the dumplings!” Xiao follows Lumine’s hands as they effortlessly work across the food, “Alright”
Lumine makes the dumplings one by one, “It’s easy! Now you try” she says, “I’m sure I can do that” he copies what Traveler showed him. Lumine gasped lightly “Ah- you are being so harsh” she gently takes Xiao’s hands and fixes it. “There ya go!”
Xiao blushes slightly and is taken aback ‘why the fuck did they touch me’ he thinks before saying “Oh, I’ll try that next time”
“I’ll knead the dough for a little, you keep being great!”
“How do I do that?” He saying, thinking ‘I’m literally doing nothing how is this great?’ Lumine smiled “Just… keep doing what you’re doing, you are great”
Xiao looks at her “So you mean…… do nothing?” Lumine giggled “No, the dumplings, keep making the dumplings”
“Oh…… sure” he goes back to folding the dumplings. Lumine nods “Ok ok, after you’re done we can make some dango, I think you’ll like it”
Xiao instantly perks up “What’s Dango?” Lumine smiled “Yes! These sweet things that kind of feel like cookie dough but are delicious”
“Hm. I’m curious” Xiao says before thinking ‘I wonder if it feels like a dream’
Lumine puts down another dumpling “I think that dish and Sakura Mochi are my favorites, I think we have enough time for both”
Xiao blinks “You have a time limit?” He feels a little guilty for taking up her time. Lumine shrugs “Well, I’m planing on doing all of this and finishing it at midnight at most, however I don’t mind staying up with you”
Xiao nods “Oh, alright. Let’s get started on the dango then so we get… two birds with one stone…” Lumine smiled “Very well! I’ll get the dye and flavors really quickly”
“What do you need me to do?” Xiao asks, Lumine waved her hand “Stand there and look cute for a minute!”
“W-what? Cute?”
“Yes cute!”
“uhm” he blushes a little but stays still “I don’t….. what” Lumine snags the things “Ok let’s get started”
Xiao was frozen in place “Uhhh. What else do you need me to do?”
“Take the flavor and dye of your choice, I’m choosing pink and vanilla, then you roll it around in your hands like so”
Xiao nodded “Alright” his blush subsides. He chooses the Chocolate and the green dye, then starts rolling it around in his hands, trying really hard to be gentle and not crush it.
Lumine smiled “You are doing great! Now we roll them into smaller pieces and put them on the stick, after that we freeze them and done!”
Xiao looks at it “Do I have to split it?” He looks a bit disappointed he would have to partially destroy his beautiful creation.
‘He’s adorable’ Lumine thinks, saying “Well you could make an ultimate dango if you find a big enough stick” Xiao sighs “I’ll split it” carefully splits the dango into a few smaller pieces.
“Mhm, see easy as cake!”
“Isn’t cake hard to make?”
Lumine hums “It depends on the cake but we don’t talk about it, let’s make our next two balls and then we can put them in the fridge and hang for a bit!”Xiao nods and continues to help until all three spheres are made.
Lumine continued to make her Dango balls, glancing at Xiao for a moment “You are handling those balls perfectly”
Xiao slowly looks at Traveler “Thanks I guess…”
Lumine picks up the dangos “Okay I’ll put these in the fridge and you can tell me about your day!”
“What’s there to say about my day?”
Lumine sits down on the table “You could tell me about the people you saw what you did whether it be your job or something else, I could share first if you are uncomfortable?”
Xiao sighs “You know how most of my days go, you never talk too much about yourself though” Lumine hums “I suppose I don’t do I, well my morning started off with my daily commissions and I hung out with Venti after—“
Xiao, chin in his hands, completely smitten as he hears about her day.
“He tried to convince me to drink for the 4th time today and I kept saying I’d do it another time! Seriously that bard-“
She continued to chat with Xiao until she stands up “I think the Dango should be good now, you want one?” Xiao nodded, Lumine grabs a couple Dango “Here you go, One for me and one for you”
Xiao chomps on one of the dango balls and gets distracted by the weird texture, he speaks slightly muffled “It’s sticking to the top of my mouth”
Lumine takes a bite “Well, I must say it tastes really sweet, I think we took it out of the fridge too early” Xiao continued eating “It’s chewy but soft at the same time” He still has the dango stick sticking out of his mouth.
“Your cheeks are puffing up that’s adorable~“ Lumine smiled “I just want to squeeze ‘em!”
“No” he chomps on the rest of the dango, the stick still popping out of him mouth, it looks like a lollipop stick.
“I still think you’re adorable! With all for Emo brooding killing stuff, also this dango is good” Xiao nodded “The dango is alright. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting”
“Honestly the ones made at the restaurants are a bit better but I shall improve!”
Xiao has the stick still in his mouth as he talks “Was it my fault?”
“Of course not!” Lumine stands up “I’ll put some covers on the food so they don’t get cold or eaten by someone else”
Xiao swallows the dango but keeps the stick “I’ll guard the food”
“Oh and,” she grabs stick from Xiao’s mouth “I’m planing on making more Dango” She puts it in her mouth and starts quickly using spare ingredients to make two more dango.
Xiao freezes up. Stands there for a minute speechless “……did you just take my stick?” He looks a little sad. Lumine looks at him “You already got attached to the stick didn’t you”
“…… no……”
“Fine you can have it back” Lumine hands him the stick. Xiao bites the stick and keeps it in his mouth “So, how many more dango are you going to make?”
“Mmm? It’s nearing 12 already! Eesh, seems I lost track of time, I’ll be heading to bed now, I’ll be back in about 8 hours to pick everything up”
“Okay…”
“Are we done cooking then?”
Lumine nodded “Well… yes? Did you enjoy it?”
Xiao hastily takes off the apron and slams it into the floor, dusting his hands off “It wasn’t bad”
Lumine burst into laughter “AHAHAHA YOU HATED THAT APRON”
“Hm?” He looks at Traveler, then at the apron, back at Traveler, back at the apron, back at Traveler, then slowly kicks the apron away from him.
“PFFF HAHAHA Ok! Next time just wear something you can get dirty in!”
“Aren’t you the one who put it on me?”
“Well I didn’t want you to get your clothes stained! If you did who would wash it?”
“…….” He looks back at the apron, slowly pulls out his spear. Lumine grabs the apron putting it with their own “Don’t rip my aprons please, they were a gift”
Xiao sighs “Okay” he puts the spear away. Lumine places covers onto the food “I’ll be heading to my house, I promise I’ll visit you tomorrow okay?”
Xiao brightens a little “Alright. Stay safe…………. Goodnight” he teleported away.
“Good night to you as well, Xiao”