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Xiao sits atop a tree branch overlooking the marshlands in the morning sun, patiently waiting for Lumine to come along like she said she would.
Within moments Lumine sprinting into the inn with Paimon close behind “We need to hurry! Paimon pick up the pace!”
Paimon yells back “IM TRYING” Lumine grabs paimon’s leg “YOU’RE TOO SLOW KEEP UP!” Paimon screeches as Xiao proofed in front of them “I’ll help you out” Lumine gasps “THANK HEAVEN”
Xiao nodded “What can I help with?”
Lumine sighed “Ok so basically I spent to much time setting up the table I forgot the food itself and now they are going to be arriving any minute”
Xiao thinks ‘who are “they”?’ Before agreeing “I’ll teleport you to where you left the food” he puts a hand on Lumine’s shoulder teleporting up.
Lumine picks up the food “Thank you so much! Paimon you get the Dango and dumplings and I’ll grab the soup. Xiao, could you take the chicken for me?”
Xiao grabs the chicken before Lumine gets out her teapot. After getting inside Lumine places the things on the table, Xiao looks around. It looked like a kitchen. ‘Its nicely decorated, who’s coming over?’ He thought to himself.
Lumine smiled “I’ll get the drinks ready for us!”
Xiao shakes his head “It really wouldn’t be a problem.” Lumine grabs the glasses as Xiao watches ‘What’s with the being so considerate today?’
“What kind of drinks do you like?” Lumine asked “I have quite a bit of bartending experience!”
“water.” He says as he looks Lumine dead in the eyes.
“Iced or…?”
“What- why do humans make everything so complicated?” Xiao became defensive, not breaking eye contact “Just…. Water…”
“Ok I’ll get you… a plain glass of water?” She said nervous about breaking eye contact.
Xiao gets a little red from keeping the eye contact and finally breaks it “What do you think I mean? Seriously what is it with humans and making everything into anything except what it’s supposed to be. Even water can’t be saved”
Lumine laughed “It’s nothing! It’s just normally some people would ask for orange juice and if you would ask for alcoholic drinks and on the rare occasion I’ve been asked to liquefy it kind of food it’s just strange for a normal glass of water!”
Xiao looks around the kitchen as she gets his water “It looks like the Inn” Lumine looks around “Huh? Oh yeah I suppose it does”
Xiao after looking around the kitchen in awe of how much it feels like home. He looks at the Traveler “It feels nice in here”
Lumine hands him the water “I’m glad you feel that way”
“Thanks….” he takes the water, and holds it firmly in his hand, before realizing he might crack the glass and adjusting his grip.
Lumine grabs a glass of grape juice sitting next to him “Again thank you for helping me out today, and last night”
“I’m not sure why you’re thanking me so much, it was no problem.”
“It’s a thing I do, I don’t normally have the chance to thank people”
“Hmm” Xiao locks eyes with Traveler “I appreciate it” he softens his gaze for Lumine. Lumine smiles with a bit of blush “Do you think-“
“PEOPLE ARE AT THE DOOR” Paimon screams.
Lumine jumps “We can continue this later I promise!”
Xiao sighs thinking ‘Why did they look at me like that?’ He walks out of the kitchen and up the stairs ‘I’m not in the mood for a party’
Traveler opening the door “Welcome! Come in I just prepared everything!”
Childe bursts through the door as soon as he knows Lumine is ready “Hey Comrade! Long time no see!”
“Welcome back Childe! Ah- Ayaka it’s a pleasure” Ayaka bows walking inside “Thank you for the invite”
Venti jumps out from behind her “Ah! Lumine, I never knew you had this many friends~” he glares at Tartaglia.
Childe laughs “And I had no idea she was friends with such small kids”
Zhongli comes in after sighing “Please, he’s an old acquaintance”
Lumine catches eye of Venti glaring at Childe and decides to walk in between them to greet Zhongli “Hello Zhongli! “
Venti stops glaring and walks right over to Ayaka “It’s truly a pleasure to meet Lumine’s dear friends from other nations!”
Ayaka politely shakes his hand “It’s lovely to meet you as well Venti!”
Lumine looks at the two nodded ‘Seems like those two are getting along nicely, now for the lovebirds’ she turns to Childe “So Childe, when do you think our next match will be?” She nudges his elbow.
Childe sighs “Oh well maybe this Monday? I’m planning on going on a trip soon so I can’t get injured too bad”
Lumine smiled “We’ll have to do it after your trip then. Zhongli, are you going on this trip too?”
Zhongli hums “Well, it’s something I would be interested in, what do you think Ajax?” Childe swoons slightly ’The way he used my real name’ before saying, quite smitten, “I think you would like it”
Ayaka has her fan covering her face leaning over to Venti “Homos” Venti whispers back “Homos indeed”
Xiao was sitting in the corner of a window, looking outside while listening to the conversation down stairs. Hearing Zhonglis voice and longing to go down, but not wanting to scare away the younger sounding girl. And longing to be near….. he sighs ‘What am I thinking… shouldn’t I be down there with Morax? By his side? And at the Traveler’s side? No, I don’t want to ruin what they’ve spent so much time setting up’
Zhongli smiled “This food, tell me traveler did you make all of this yourself?” Lumine shakes her head “I had a bit of assistance from a friend”
Venti immediately perks up “Help from a friend you say? Who might this be?” He says with an innocent smile.
Lumine grins “From Xiao, he stayed up with me until midnight to prepare all of this, so I hope you enjoy”
Ayaka gasped “Oh? What a nice thing to do!” She smiles warmly at Lumine, now wondering what this “Xiao” was like. Zhongli nodded as he gets himself a few servings of things “Now that I think about it, Xiao doesn’t know how to cook does he?”
Childe burst into laughter “Hahaha! Lumine probably taught him!” Lumine tosses a fork at him “You got the teaching part right!”
Xiao overhears the conversations ‘why did they mention me? I barely did anything’
Lumine pointed out a few things “The one’s right there he made, if you want to try Zhongli”
Zhongli picks it up “It would be quite rude not to” Ayaka gasped “Ooh do you mind if I try some as well?”
Lumine nods proudly “Go right ahead!”
“Dibs on the green ones!”
“Don’t take all of them!”
Xiao puts his hand over his face ‘What if Morax doesn’t like what I made, crap, crap, crap’
Zhongli hums “Mmm, he did very well, for a first time I’m impressed you have taught him quite well, Lumine”
Xiao sighs is relief ‘thank the seven he doesn’t think it’s bad’ he lays down beside the window, leaning against the wall. He remembers a song he heard Lumine play on the lyre and tries to quietly hum the notes.
Venti, also known as the god of music, hears the humming ‘Oh? Oh~ it seems Lumine has an extra guest’ he whips out lyre “Allow me to produce the background music of this fine dine!”
Lumine smiled “Had a spark of inspiration so suddenly?” She says gives Venti an eyebrow raise.
Venti giggled “You could say that~” He strums the same tune, picking up where Xiao left off.
Everyone eats peacefully while listening to the lyre.
Xiao opens his eyes, hearing the lyre from the kitchen and gets a bit embarrassed. He stops humming instantly. He curls up a bit while laying on the floor.
Lumine gasped “Oh! I’ll get my lyre from my room and we can do a duet!” Venti nods “Perfect! You chose the song and be back quickly!”
Lumine runs upstairs, because that’s where her room is in this fic.
Xiao was startled, looks up as Lumine runs by, and sits up as fast as he can “What’s wrong? Did something bad happening?”
Lumine blinks “Oh? Hello Xiao! I’m just grabbing my lyre for duet with Venti, feel free to listen!”
Xiao nodded “Uhh okay” he calms down a little, “Hm… when you go back down, tell Zhongli I say hello…” he says while he avoids eye contact.
Lumine smiles “Sure! I’ll tell Papa-Zhong you said hello”
“Papa-Zh- don’t call him that”
“Oh calm down, he lets me call him that! Anyway, come down when you’re comfortable!” She pats Xiao’s shoulder and runs back down the stairs with a lyre.
Xiao watches as Lumine leaves ‘Should I go? Maybe just for a moment to hear the duet’
Venti exclaims “Oh! You’re back, are you ready?” He gets his lyre prepared for the epic duet.
Lumine nodded “Of course I am!” She also prepares her lyre aswell.
Xiao peeks from around the corner so he’s not seen, watching as Lumine and Venti discussed a song.
“Do you know Ruu’s lullaby?” Lumine asked, Venti smiled “I know every song, past present and future!”
Xiao leans against the outside of the doorframe, taking a quick peak to look at Lumine every now and then.
Childe sits down next to Zhongli “Heh, I’m excited to see how this turns out, aren’t you Zhongli?” His companion smiled
“It’s lovely”
Venti and Lumine starting the song up.
Ayaka sits down as well ‘This seems Inazumen’ she thinks before she starts to hum along to the melody.
Lumine smiles happily, imagining Ruu singing with them. Ayaka somehow successfully catching the right notes. It actually sounds like Ruu’s singing.
Zhongli sighs softly ’This sing carry’s much sorrow I think it would be better to stay quiet until they are finished’ he catches sight of Xiao peering behind the door, he smiles looking away, pretending he didn’t see him.
Lumine keeping up the sorrowful sound and manages to keep the beat steady. Venti continues to lead on the song, starting the notes and making them flow.
Xiao watching intensely as they preformed. If he was going to be honest he wished he could sing along with him but he supposes he was best to watch silently from the shadows.
Venti & Lumine finished the song, it was silent for a moment before they all started clapping.
Ayaka laughs “That was amazing!” She gasps “Oh… I hope I didn’t mess you guys up…”
Lumine shakes her head “Oh no! Trust me it was perfect” Venti smiled nudging her “Ayaka~ are you a secret performer? Or are you just gifted”
Ayaka smiled, an embarrassed blush blooming across her face “O-oh it’s nothing, just something to do on the side of all my work”
Venti laughs “Impressive! Wouldn’t you say Lu-huh?”
Venti looks around, No Lumine in sight. Just outside the door Lumine was happily with Xiao “So how was it? I wanna hear”
Xiao nodded “It was alright, now get back in there before someone notices” he has a little blush on his cheeks. The performance was more then “alright” it was straight up godly.
Lumine giggled “I’m glad you heard it” she turns to go back but turns around at the last second to give Xiao a little kiss on the cheek and runs back to the others “I thought I heard the doorbell ring! So Venti about—“
Xiao stood their for a moment, covering half his face and fanning the other “Wh-w-huh?” He was obviously very flustered ‘Did that just happen?’ He thinks in a panic ‘What the hell? Why did they do that? What do I do? UHHHHHHHHHH’
With the others Zhongli peacefully chats with Lumine “Might I ask where you learned that song from?” Lumine smiles softly “A young boy in Inazuma, he was…” she trails off.
Zhongli nods “No need to elaborate, it was a beautiful song”
Xiao feels his face getting more red the more he thinks about what Lumine just did. ‘Was that why they were being considerably nice earlier?’ he sighs, shaking a little. Then walks over to the door where nobody can hear him, and teleports to the outside of the teapot. He puts his hands over his face and lets them slide down “What……… was………. That…….?”
~~~After the hanging out~~~
Lumine waves goodbye “Thank you all so much for coming! I’ll see you later?”
Childe nods “Definitely!”
Ayaka bows slightly “Thank you so much for inviting us all over!”
Venti tips his hat “It was a pleasure having a duet with you!”
Zhongli smiled “I was wondering if later on this week we can have tea with Xiao, speaking of which I think you should find him at the inn right now”
Lumine blinks “Huh? If you say so”
Childe takes Zhongli’s hand “Alright, I think me and Z should be heading out now! We need to spar the next chance we get! I want to see how much you’ve improved”
“Z? Is that another young slang term?”
“Maybe I should stick with Grandpa”
“But just yesterday you called me da-“
Childe laughs loudly “OK WE ARE LEAVING”
Lumine snort laughs “Childe?!”
“ALREADY GOING BYE”
Venti looks as they left with a small giggled “I’m definitely going to ask him about it later Bye bye!”
Lumine waves goodbye before shutting the door, waiting a few minutes, then teleporting to the inn.
Xiao looks at her as she walks towards him “Hmm? Oh, have they left?” He avoids eye contact.
“Uhhh” Lumine sighs “Yeah, they have… I wanted to say sorry about the whole kiss thingy it was kinda rushed and-“
“Sorry? Why would you be sorry!”
“Huh? You haven’t looked at me since then, are you alright?”
Xiao takes a deep breath in “Yes I’m fine” he turns around and locks eyes with the blonde. Lumine smiled “You… your blushing”
“Hm?!” He blushes even more “Hmph” he tries to look away but can’t seem to take his eyes off her.
“I suppose I don’t have to say sorry in this case… I know this is kind of forward but did you like it?”
He blushes even more somehow “It wasn’t horrible….. it wasn’t bad……..” Xiao takes a quick glance at Lumine’s posture “You look like you’re expecting me to do something?”
“Wellll if I didn’t know any better I would say that was your first time getting a kiss, are you going to return the favor?”
“Uhhhhh…… wh-huh? How-“
Lumine waves her hand “You don’t have to! But to return a kiss it shows you love them back, do you love me as well?”
‘how do I show them that I care without kissing……Uhh’ he thinks before coughing “Uhm……. I-“ he sighs “Here” he walks over to Lumine, grabbing her by the waist and hugs her.
“I- you- Ok I accept… only because I love you” she hugs him back. Xiao relaxed ‘How is she so soft?’ He burrows his head in Lumine’s shoulder and closes his eyes, falling asleep by how comfortable and soft she is.
Lumine spoke softly “Awww” she picks him up easily and takes him to his room. Xiao hums “Why are you picking me up?”
The Traveler carries him “Cus’ you’re a sleepy Xiao, I’m taking you to bed”
“………” he looks in her eyes, then rests his head on her neck “Why must you treat me like this… I’m an adeptus……..”
“No you’re a sleepy Xiao,” Lumine says playfully “You didn’t sleep after we finish the food at midnight last night, did you”
“How did you- never mind”
Lumine gently placing them on the bed “Want me to stay with youuu~” she says sweetly, Xiao shakes his head “No. it’s fine. You go where you need to”
“Very well then, mwah! See you tomorrow!”
“What was that?”
Lumine blinks already one foot out the door “I blew you a kiss?”
Xiao sighs “Okay……. There is one thing I’d like to do……..”
“Mm? What’s the thing?”
Xiao gets up, walks towards her, places his hand on the back of their neck, looks them straight in the eyes. Then gives her a long kiss on the forehead “Goodnight. Stay safe”
Lumine smiled giddily “I-… awwww I love you too”
“I never- fine”
Lumine waves goodbye “Goodnight Alatus~” she shuts the door leavening.
“Goodnight…………..” he silently panics again ‘WHY DID I DO THAT!? WHATS WRONG WITH ME’ he lays down in his bed and falls asleep after the many, many thoughts of Traveler racing through his head.