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“We had a good stream today. I, uh, appreciate the support. Really.”
Xiao winced.
From the brightness of his monitor, messages flashed in a cascade of hearts and capital letters.
“oH MY GOD HES SO CUTE>???”
“♥♥♥♥”
“OMG?? HES BREAKING THE TSUNDERE IM SQUEALING”
“im…. im….. in love…..”
“pfffFFFFFFFFFFFFF HOOOLY 💕💕💕”
“Look, guys, I have to practice,” he grumbled. “I’m preparing for this weekend. I’m not gonna be a dick or anything, okay? I genuinely want to meet as many of you as possible.”
Xiao leaned back in his chair with a sigh, pulling the hood of his black sweatshirt over his head. He was positively exhausted. Even though he was a faceless streamer, streaming itself truly was a full-time job. Especially when he wasn’t at all an extrovert by nature.
That’s why it took a lot for him to agree to an in-person meetup. When Inucon sent a public invitation on social media inviting him to be a featured guest, his viewers practically begged him to attend.
Those bastards. They knew he was a pushover.
Of course, just the thought of it was nerve-wracking, but… there was definitely a sense of excitement at the same time. He was as averse as he was eager to meet his fans in person. He even commissioned an artist for prints just so that his fans could take something signed home with them.
Suddenly, a donation rolled through. His stream’s text-to-speech program read it aloud for him.
“hiii alatus! i can’t believe you’re FEATURED at inucon!?? wowowow time flies! can’t wait to finally meet you on saturday ♥”
Ah, one of his OG viewers. They had been with him since the beginning.
“Shit, Viatrix, you’re gonna be there on Saturday? Wow. Talk about full circle.”
Ah. He really did feel thankful for viewers like Viatrix, he was just terrible at expressing his gratitude. Hopefully, seeing them in person would spark a more genuine-sounding response. It would be difficult behind a mask, sunglasses, and a hat to conceal his identity, but he still held out hope.
Before he ended his stream, a few more donations rolled in, mostly asking about the meetup and how he felt. He was honest in the fact that he was a mix of terrified and excited. “I really don’t know what to expect,” he explained. “How many of you are actually planning on coming?”
“Me 💕”
“YES YES CANT WAIT 😫”
“I am!!!”
“MEEEE”
“Okay, I doubt it’ll be that many of you,” he grumbled, simultaneously horrified and elated at that reaction.
No way it would be that many people. He pushed that thought back as far as he could into the recesses of his mind.
Soon after he said his goodbyes, Xiao landed on top of his bed with a huff.
The sun had long since set; it was bordering on midnight by the time he finished everything up. And all in all, it was a good 8-hour stream. He felt fulfilled through the thick layer of exhaustion weighing him down.
Gods, he still hadn’t gotten used to the constant attention that came with streaming full-time.
It had been about a year and a half since this lifestyle began. It started out small, with just him and a few friends in college playing games. But, for some reason, clips of his voice caught fire. It was… pretty insane. It wasn’t long until a fandom had begun to form.
The pace at which he grew popular was sort of terrifying, but he took it in stride.
A lot of life changes had happened since then. Streaming proved to pay way better than expected, so it was a no-brainer to take a leap of faith and leave college. He made friends, moved out to the heart of Fontaine’s entertainment district, and learned how to run the business that was his public image. It had been an arduous journey, but he couldn’t have done it without a few select people.
His parents, for example. As the owners of their own business, Guizhong and Zhongli had been incredible shoulders to lean on. Not only were they accepting of his choice to leave college, but they coached him as if it was their own full-time job. And after they deemed him ready to graduate from training, they backed every decision he made with full faith in his capabilities.
He hadn’t gone a day without thanking them for adopting him.
Even when they…
Dad [8:07AM]: H
Dad [8:07AM]: H
Dad [8:07AM]: How to fix printer
Dad [8:08AM]: How to fix printer Canon TR3200
Mom [8:49AM]: Sorry Xiao your father is technologically inept
Mom [8:50AM]: Speaking of that, might need help with the printer
Xiao awoke to a barrage of texts from his parents the next morning. And when he checked his phone, he didn’t know if what came out of his mouth was a scoff or a chuckle.
Xiao [9:26AM]: I’ll call you in an hour
With a sigh, he locked his phone and hoisted himself out of bed.
Upon showering, brushing his teeth, and getting dressed, he left his room to scavenge for breakfast. And as he made his way to the front door, he ran into his roommate.
“Morning,” Kazuha called. “Where are you off to?”
“Breakfast. You coming? I’m paying.”
“Sure,” he said airily, standing from the couch. “As long as you’re okay being seen in public with a streamer.”
To that, Xiao scoffed. “Should be fine as long as you talk for me.”
Oh, to be a faceless streamer living with an even more popular streamer.
Kazuha was one of Xiao’s first friends in the streaming scene. Xiao still had no clue why he helped him so much when gaining his footing, but nonetheless, he was incredibly grateful. “It’s really no big deal,” Kazuha always said with a laugh. But Xiao knew in his heart that his friend didn’t need to help him as much as he did. He didn’t need to boost his popularity by inviting him to play games on stream.
In the end, maybe that was just what friends were for. Regardless, though, he would treat his roommate to as many breakfasts as possible if it meant displaying his gratitude. He was horrible at words, after all.
But as they walked out the front door, Xiao mulled over the idea that maybe he had gotten a bit better at words since he was in foster care. It was apparent that he was still socially stunted from his childhood, but for some reason, he gained traction as a streamer for that simple fact. All in all, in some twisted way, he was grateful for his awkwardness.
… Though, he did still hate being called tsundere.
As the two made their way down the busy street to their favorite breakfast spot, Xiao ended up settling on the idea that he had, in fact, grown a decent amount since his life changed. He would go as far as to say it was hard not to mature when he had been thrust so far outside of his comfort zone.
But though there had been an insane amount of alterations to his life over the past year or so, there was one fact he refused to change: first and foremost, his privacy was paramount. He would never show his face on stream, or in any stream content for that matter, so that he could live his life with as much freedom as possible.
The principle of anonymity had its pros and cons.
The first pro was obvious: he could walk outside and not be stopped by anyone. There was no doubt that he was socially inept; adding strangers into the mix was… downright terrifying, honestly. And judging by the fact that Kazuha was forced to wear a mask and sunglasses in public a lot of the time, he was grateful for the freedom of privacy.
He had to admit that another pro was the mystery that surrounded his brand. His popularity had been boosted by people wondering who he was, even going so far as to draw pictures of what they thought he looked like.
It was a double-edged sword, though. Because the pressure of being the person everyone expected him to be weighed him down daily. To the point where he had been tempted to just… post a picture of himself one day. Rip off the bandage.
That con wasn’t the worst one, though. The con that wore him down the most was a bit… personal.
As Xiao and Kazuha entered the coffee shop, the small bell attached to the door twinkled. A beautiful sound. But he just couldn’t help the melancholy that overtook him when she crossed his mind.
He… he just wanted to talk to her again. He wanted her to be proud of him. He wanted her to see his face on a screen and think, “Wow, he really did dig his way out of hell.”
But she had probably long since forgotten his name.
It was his first day at a new high school when he met her. Of course, foster care didn’t give a shit as to when you were torn from your old school, so his first day was in the middle of everyone else’s school year. He stood at the front of the class as his homeroom teacher introduced him, almost shaking at how anxious he felt, and then…
And then he found the bright, welcoming smile of a particular blonde.
“You’ll be sitting next to Lumine over by the windows.”
His life was never really the same after that day.
Lumine was quick to introduce herself. “My English teacher said that a new face would be joining in a few days. Would that be you?” She smiled and tilted her head out of curiosity.
Gods, she was pretty.
After grabbing the piece of paper with his schedule on it, they came to realize that they were in most of the same classes.
“Oh, cool! I’ll see you later today then!”
Xiao nodded passively at her wide smile, attempting to hide the unadulterated relief that deflated his tension. The relief that at least he would be able to find comfort in one familiar face on his first day.
And so, thankfully and surprisingly, his first day wasn’t nearly as rocky as he expected.
Nor were the days after.
… Nor were the weeks after.
The two had gotten into some sort of routine. Every day after homeroom, he would walk her to Chemistry. She would pick him up from History to walk to English together. They would have lunch together after English. And then the day would end after a few more classes in common.
And then they began to study together. His grades were horrid, for obvious reasons, and Lumine was at the top of the class. She fought tooth and nail to force him to actually give a shit about academics, and slowly, the drive she breathed into him carried over to his everyday life.
But it was high school, after all. In a few weeks’ time, rumors began to float down the narrow school halls.
“Lumine and Xiao? Really?”
“I mean, he’s hot, but… super standoffish.”
“No, seriously. I saw them kiss the other day.”
Ah. How he wished that was the case.
She was gorgeous. Popular. Intelligent. A spitfire. He was just the guy watching her from below, hopelessly in love with the way she shined.
If she couldn’t get any more perfect, she became the first person he ever opened up to.
“What are your parents like? You never really mention your home life.”
“Oh, uh…”
It wasn’t easy for her to pull the story out of him. Originally, she didn’t want to pry. But when she saw the pain that painted his face a dark shade of desolate, she knew that he truly wanted to tell her.
She never judged him. Not for a second. Her honey gaze was set on him as he told her of his past, and even when he tried to look away, his eyes were drawn back to hers as if magnetically. And so he opened up to her. He poured out his story of the pain of never feeling truly loved. Never belonging anywhere.
He expected her to falter, but she never took on the look of pity. Her golden eyes shone with confidence in him. The belief that he would overcome his darkness.
The warmth of her healing words that encircled him that day would be carried with him for years to come.
His feelings for Lumine were… unending. A flower in bloom.
And yet, he should have known that reality was just around the corner.
“O-oh, you’re moving?”
It was so unfortunate how quickly the castle he built toppled. How dark the night really was when he had a taste of how bright things could get.
He was moved to another foster home at the end of the school year, and then things were bleak again.
Weeks, months, years later, he never really got over the loss of that friendship. He wanted so badly to find her and share with her his newfound success as a streamer. To thank her for pulling him out of his horrible mental state, if only for a moment, so that he could see how beautiful life could be before being shoved back underwater. She truly was the only reason he got through the years before his now-parents became his foster parents.
“You should look her up on social media,” Guizhong said softly, laying a gentle touch on Xiao’s shoulder.
“I’m sure she’d love to hear from you,” Zhongli nodded solemnly.
Heh. If only it was that simple. Even if Lumine did remember him, he would probably meet a face of disappointment if he were to reach out to her. Back then, she had such high hopes for college. She wanted to become an engineering major. What would he even say to her? “I dropped out”?
If he was a public figure without the guise of facelessness, there was a chance, no matter how small, that this shit would have figured itself out. Maybe she would have seen him, seen his popularity, and understood.
But even then, the fact of the matter was that they were on two different life paths. It was as simple as that.
“You ok, Xiao?” Kazuha’s worried voice broke his daze.
“Oh, uh, yeah.”
Gods. Thinking about it was pointless. He had so much in his future to be excited about, and yet, his head was stuck in the past.
So he forced the thought into the recesses of his mind, as he did every time, with the knowledge that it was a futile endeavor.
Perhaps one day he would be able to move forward without the ache of the void she left. But for now, he had to make do.
In the end, he had so much to be thankful for.
For example, he was thankful for his roommate. Over breakfast, Xiao asked Kazuha for tips on how to handle the meetup on Saturday. And, of course, Kazuha was a fountain of information. He always was.
“Make sure to take water breaks,” he nodded slowly. “We obviously talk a lot on stream, but still, you’re gonna get exhausted pretty quickly.”
Mm. Fair point. He nodded. “Any advice on… nerves?”
“Well, it’s gonna help that you’re gonna be behind a mask and sunglasses. You can grimace all you want at yourself.”
“That’s actually… a pretty good point.”
“Mhm. And it’s really only nerve-wracking after the first thirsty-ish people. After that, you fall into some sort of pattern.”
Xiao winced. Thirty people? He hoped there would be, like… ten people. Max.
Seeing his reaction, Kazuha decided to press a bit further. “Any clue how many people are gonna be there to see you?”
“Uh. I don’t really want to know.”
“That’s fair,” he laughed lightly. “Just expect a lot more than you’re expecting right now. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself.”
And to that, Xiao grunted in defiance. There was no way he needed to do that. After all, who would want to come out to see a faceless streamer?
Well, he was wrong.
Xiao had gotten to the con far earlier than he needed to just so that he could compose himself. Unfortunately for him, though, nothing could have prepared him for the turnout.
He had wondered if ordering 175 prints would leave him with an abundance of extras, but… it seemed like he might have underestimated things.
Shit, maybe Kazuha was right.
Mask, sunglasses, and hat were all firmly in place as he took in the crowd lined up to meet him. He gulped, anxiety riding high, trying and failing to stay calm.
Funnily enough, his mind went back to a conversation he had with Guizhong a few days ago.
“I’m definitely some sort of excited. Or maybe just nervous. Those two emotions are psychologically the same, right? Just our interpretation that’s different?”
“Correct,” she praised. “You definitely got your smarts from your mother.”
He scoffed at that. “Obviously.”
Anxiety to excitement. Anxiety to excitement.
Ah, whatever. He was fucked.
And then the meetup began.
Kazuha was… right. As always. The whole ordeal was terrifying at first, but when he got into some sort of cadence, it felt far more natural.
“Your voice is so incredible in person, too!”
“I got my friends hooked on your stream!”
“You really pulled me out of a dark place.”
Ah. Their words really did touch his heart. The beginnings of a smile started to form on his face.
A half hour went by way more quickly than he imagined. In the midst of a quick water break, Xiao pulled out his phone to check his social media.
A stream of notifications spanned his inbox, all of “I’m so excited”s and “thank you”s and pictures of his signed prints. It was absolutely surreal how grateful he felt for all of them, not to mention how surreal this whole experience was in the first place. If anyone were to tell him five years ago that he’d be in this position today, he would have called them crazy.
But, no. This was really happening. He was an inspiration to so many, regardless of how undeserving he felt for them. Regardless of his scar-ridden past.
With a content sigh, he decided to switch over from social media to send a text to Kazuha.
Xiao [2:04PM]: Still alive
Kazuha [2:06PM]: Haha, I’d hope so
Kazuha [2:06PM]: How is it?
Xiao [2:07PM]: Pretty fun, actually. I’m running out of prints
Kazuha [2:08PM]: I told you to buy at least 150!
Xiao [2:08PM]: I did bro
Kazuha [2:08PM]: Wow, okay hot shot
Heh. Seemed as though even Kazuha, the king of streaming, underestimated just how much turnout there would be.
So with a roll of his eyes, he locked his phone and chugged the last of his water before returning to the eye of the public.
Now that Xiao had gotten into the groove, he was smiling openly and even laughing. His fans seemed to enjoy that, too. Their smiles ignited his heart, and for the first time in his life, he started to question if he was really an introvert.
He had come so far. He really had.
And he felt… happy. Alive. For the first time in so, so long. For the first time since—
“Alatus! Wow, so good to finally meet you. I’m Viatrix!”
… Lumine.
The furthest, and yet the brightest, star that ever graced his sky.
Right in front of him.
“H-hi, Viatrix, uh—”
She just laughed. Her colorful, cheery, sunny laugh. He could pick it out of a crowd, even after all these years. “No, no! Call me Lumine.”
“It’s… nice to meet you, Lumine.”
Lumine. Lumine.
“Wow, you’re just as shy as I expected!” A wide smile stretched across her face. He could see the tremble in her fingertips.
Xiao’s palms started to sweat as reality sank in. Lumine was Viatrix? A day-one supporter of his stream?
Was this some sick joke?
“Heh, yeah, it’s been a long day. But I’m really glad to see you,” undetected honesty seeped into his words.
“Your prints are so nice! I already bought a frame for mine. I, uh, definitely need to go touch grass.”
Gods.
“I’ll write a special message for you then.”
And so he did.
“Lumine,
Thank you for everything. You mean more to me than you know.
Alatus”
… And that was it.
He wanted so badly to rip off his disguise as she walked away. To confess to her right then and there. That he was Xiao, and that she was even more beautiful than he remembered. That the residual warmth that she left him with still fought off the frostbite to this day. After all these damn years.
But… no.
Because did she even remember a fraction of the friendship that he remembered? If at all?
The rest of the meetup was a little bit more bleak than before.
After it ended, he returned to the private room, removed his now-uncomfortable disguise, and wiped his hands down his face in exhaustion.
The war within him raged on. And, gods, every three seconds, his mind changed.
A part of him was kicking himself. He should have at least slipped her a note. After all these years, the gods had granted him a second chance at love. He fucked it up again.
Fuck. Fuck. He should go and scour the halls for her right now.
No.
The other part of him knew that was a bad idea. Because what if she didn’t feel the deep connection that he felt for the few months they were friends? What if she didn’t even remember him?
If he walked up to her just for her to not recognize him, he would drop dead right then and there.
But even if she did remember him, he was Alatus to her, not Xiao. The tsundere streamer. The entertainer. Who was he to pull the rug out from under her? That would be the epitome of selfishness.
It was like the angel and devil on either of his shoulders were arguing back and forth. Which thought was the angel, and which was the devil? He had no clue.
But regardless of the push and pull of selfish thoughts, Xiao knew one thing to be true: he was still deeply, wildly, irrevocably in love with her.
She was the brightest star to ever grace his sky back then, and she was just as bright now. Lumine. The one who cared enough to spare him her light, if only for a glimmer of a moment. The person who got him through some of his darkest days, just by the memory of her warmth.
She was untouchable when they were friends, more untouchable after they grew apart, and even more untouchable now. It was painful. Heart-wrenching.
But the darkness that bit at his ankles was worth it, so fucking worth it, because it meant that he felt her morning light in the first place.
He wanted to see her. He needed to see her.
No. He couldn’t. She wouldn’t remember him.
… But what if she did? And what if she felt the same way as him?
A fork in the road stood before him.
One road led to a long road of sameness. The what-ifs. The yearning. And now that he knew she was Viatrix, it looked far more bleak than what was behind him.
The other road led off a cliff. He had no clue what lay beneath.
He needed to make a decision. Now.
So he closed his eyes, held his breath, took a single moment to choose…
… And then he headed for the cliff.
Because the only reason that held him back in the first place was that he was scared of her reaction to the fact that he was a streamer. Now that he knew that she had taken notice of—no, liked—his streams, he had no reason to hold back anymore.
It would be the selfish choice. He might be completely breaking her love for Alatus.
But… no. He couldn’t live knowing that she was right in front of him this entire time.
No second guessing. No more hesitation.
As soon as the disguise was back on, Xiao left his private room to scour the convention hall.
Thankfully, he wasn't stopped by anymore. It was probably the fact that he was a faceless streamer combined with the pace at which he walked. And so he hurried, weaving through the crowds, scanning the masses for an inkling of her light.
His legs burned after ten minutes of searching.
Was she gone? It had been almost an hour since they saw each other. Maybe she left.
Fuck. Fuck.
No. Keep searching.
Another ten minutes went by as he wrapped around the convention hall once more. He was beginning to lose hope. Gods, if he had just made up his mind earlier, he could have caught her. He should have written a note on the back of her print. He—
And then he saw her.
His heart simultaneously hit the top of his ribcage and plummeted into the pit of his stomach.
She stood alone at an artist’s merch booth, seemingly buying a keychain of a character from Impact League. His print was in her other hand, as well as a bag of other pieces of merch.
Gods, he hadn’t even thought of what he should say to her.
But before he could even begin to formulate a coherent sentence, she turned his way.
“O-oh, Alatus! Are you here for merch too?”
No. “Uh, I’m actually here to ask you something.”
She froze. Honey eyes widened in a kaleidoscope of surprise, then joy, then fear, then surprise again.
“Can you come with me? I swear I’m not, like, gonna murder you or anything.”
That made her crack a little bit. “Okay, that wasn’t the first thing on my mind,” she smiled timidly, “but yeah, sure.”
And so he led her away from the crowd.
Reality sank in on the way there.
What the fuck was he doing? He was so damn excited and so damn anxious. It was almost comical, the fact that earlier he thought those two emotions were the same outside of their interpretation. Right here and now, he could write a dissertation on how different they were.
It felt like eons and also milliseconds when they reached his private room. A deep breath escaped his lips as he shut the door behind them and immediately went to slump in his chair.
“I, uh, don’t really know how to say this.”
She stood there, silent. Cautious.
“Do you remember someone named Xiao?”
A pause.
“… Yes,” she said slowly. Softly. He might even dare say fondly.
And so one by one, piece by piece, he slowly removed his sunglasses, then his mask, then his hat.
He watched as her eyes widened.
“I… was kind of scared to do this,” he admitted. And then he realized how bad that sounded. “N-not because I thought you’d leak my identity or anything, but because I didn’t know if you remembered me. It’s been so lo—”
“Xiao.”
His mouth snapped shut. The way she spoke his name took the wind from his lungs. His wide amber gaze was set on her as she stood there, silent, motionless other than her eyes darting around his face. As if she was committing him to memory.
He would be damned if he wasn’t doing the same. He loved her, after all.
And then, after what felt like forever, she spoke. “I’ve been… searching for you for years, Xiao.”
Years. She had been searching for him for years.
Butterflies cluttered his chest, their wings flapping incessantly against his ribcage.
Her voice quivered as she continued. “You never gave me your phone number. You never had any social media. There was nothing under your name.”
“My… last name changed,” he said softly. “I got adopted.”
And then her faraway gaze broke. A hand went to her mouth, and in an instant, she broke down in tears.
He would be damned if he didn't lurch up from his chair to take her into his arms.
“Y-you got adopted?” She choked out between sobs. “And now you’re… you’re Alatus?”
His heart bloomed. Not only did she remember him in the first place, but she loved his streams. She was Viatrix. His day-one supporter, both online and in real life.
“Yes, Lu,” he soothed, tugging her close to him. “You gave me the drive to make something of myself. It was all because of you. All for you.”
Saying these words to her after keeping them locked away for so long was… ecstasy. It was bliss.
She just melted into his arms as she cried. Her fists balled at the back of his hoodie, clinging to him for dear life as if he was going to disappear in an instant. And so he held her, drinking in every ounce of her presence as reality slowly but surely washed over them both.
“Gods, I missed you,” he continued softly, brushing his fingers over her hair. “Life was never the same without you.”
“We were s-so close and then you just… disappeared,” she buried her face into the shoulder of his hoodie. “I was worried…”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
He really was.
“No, Xiao, it’s not your fault at all. I… I just want you to know how much I missed you,” she said, voice still quivering.
“There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t think about you.”
It was the truth. He would never dare to lie to her.
“R-really?” She finally lifted her head to meet his eyes.
And she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
Her molten gold glimmered with traces of tears. But those tears didn’t contain any hint of sorrow. No, not at all. On the contrary, her eyes shone with elation. Relief.
And he knew that his did, too.
It was the relief that she even remembered him in the first place. The relief that he finally found her. The relief that she didn’t think less of him for choosing the streamer life over academics.
“Yes,” he breathed. Softly. Simply. Without question.
And then she leaned in to meet his lips.
Fireworks went off in his mind as he stood there, stunned, for just a moment. And then when he came to, he wasted no time to melt into her.
The kiss they shared was soft. Innocent. Something they should have shared long ago. Xiao had always yearned to feel what it was like to feel her lips against his, to taste her, but had long since sealed off those emotions, writing them off as impossible.
Finally being able to release those desires from their shackles made this moment all the more blissful.
And leaning out from her caught him with a new, heavier sense of longing.
He was awe-struck. Dumbfounded. Drunk off of her lips.
The two remained intertwined in each others’ arms, almost nose to nose. And as she returned to reality, she let out a soft laugh. “I…” she just shook her head. “Where in the world have you been, Xiao?”
He smiled widely at that. Her eyes sparkled. “Being your daily entertainment, apparently.”
Another laugh escaped her lips, but this time, it was followed by a challenging stare. “Okay, speaking of that whole thing, I have questions that need answering.”
Uh oh. When Lumine’s mind was set on something, there was no stopping her. He leaned out a bit, his arms tied loosely around her waist, as she spoke.
“Okay,” she began, “first and foremost: why didn’t you ever reach out to me?”
Ah. Suddenly, he felt embarrassed.
“Because I’m a dumbass,” he admitted with a sigh. It really was as simple as that. “I thought you’d think less of me for leaving college to stream full-time.”
She shifted out a bit further from his embrace to narrow her eyes at him.
“I’m sorry. It was just that you were always so academically focused. It rubbed off on me—obviously, because I started college in the first place—but… I should have just gotten over myself.”
It felt like such a valid fear before this moment. Now, he felt immature for allowing it to fester for so long.
She allowed a pause to settle between them before she spoke. “No, Xiao, I’m not mad. I just… really want to hit you right now,” she wrinkled her nose at him.
Ah. How… cute.
Immediately, all the weight of guilt lifted off of him as he snickered at her playfulness. Though wanting to hit someone was usually synonymous with anger, he knew her better than that. Even after all these years, she was still a spitfire. “Honestly, you have every right to.”
“Okay, second question,” she shook her head of her need for violence. “Like… I can’t wrap my head around the fact that you’re Alatus. How the hell did that happen?”
Hm. He looked off to the side as he wondered. How did it happen? “Uh, well, I couldn’t have done it without a few people.”
She raised a brow.
“Firstly, my parents,” he started. “I have to introduce you to them. They’re… great.”
She smiled brightly and bobbed her head in eager agreement.
“Secondly, Kazuha. You know, massive streamer Kazuha? He helped me a ton when I was starting out.”
Lumine hummed in understanding.
His eyes met hers once more. “And… most importantly, you.”
Her eyes widened. That just made him smile as he continued. “You were the one who gave me the motivation to make something out of myself,” he said matter-of-factly.
She just stared at him blankly.
“I don’t think you understand how much you really helped me, Lumine.”
“Really…?”
Gods, it was like he had lived his entire life just for this moment. And though there were butterflies, his heart rate was through the roof, and his hands were clammy, there was no second-guessing the conviction that lined his words. There she was, the woman who had given him the drive to become the best person he could have ever become. It was because of her. It was all for her.
“Really,” he breathed.
And then he leaned down to claim her lips once more.
“I—I can’t find what you’re talking about. What’s the home button supposed to look like?”
Lumine slapped her hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh.
“Dad. It’s a little house icon.”
“Hold on. Let me get my reading glasses.”
Xiao groaned as he leaned back in his desk chair.
It had been a bit over a month since Xiao and Lumine found each other once again. And though they attempted to take it slow at the start, they just couldn’t ignore the way they fit like puzzle pieces. It was only a week until they made it official, and another week until he flew her out to meet his parents.
Life was… good. More than good.
“So the house ico—oh, I see it.”
Before Xiao could protest this whole ordeal, from the background, Guizhong’s voice rang out. “Honey, stop harassing them. Lumine sent us a link to the user manual, we can just figure it out ourselves.”
Xiao shot Lumine a thankful look. She smiled brightly in return.
“I swear to Morax, I’m going to fly you two out here again,” Zhongli grumbled. “This printer is garbage. It’s broken 6 times over the past week.”
“I’m buying you a new one,” Xiao grumbled.
“We don’t need a new one. This one works fine.”
Xiao just laughed in disbelief. “Dad, do you hear yourself? I’m buying you a new one.”
“Enough,” Guizhong silenced the two as she audibly grabbed the phone from Zhongli’s hands. “I just bought a new one. No need, Xiao.”
“Thank the gods,” he sighed in relief.
“'The gods’ being your mother, surely,” she responded, a smile lining her cheeky tone. “More importantly, how are you two doing?”
“Good,” Lumine sang out from next to him.
“Keeping my son in check?”
“A hard job, but yes,” she teased.
Xiao turned to scowl at her. All she did was shoot him a playful, pointed smile; she knew as well as he did that she was right. In fact, she was more than right. Lumine was irreplaceable—she always was—and with her presence, Xiao’s life had taken on a new era of stability.
“Alright, alright,” he interrupted, eager to hang up to he could get back to having his girlfriend to himself. “Can I call you tomorrow? Maybe a video call?”
And then his father spoke once more from the background. “Oh, good idea! How can you video call? Can I do that now so that you can help me with the printer?”
“Zhongli,” Guizhong paused as if taking a moment to scrutinize her husband, “go away.”
“I need to print out directions to the pharmacy!”
Guizhong just sighed, ignoring him. Lumine laughed aloud as Xiao spoke, “I have no idea how he can live under a rock like that for so long.”
“Trust me, I’ve tried,” she murmured wryly.
“Please don’t teach him how to video call.”
“I won’t,” a wry smile touched her voice. “I might use it against you as leverage, but until then, you’re safe.”
Xiao rolled his eyes with a matching smile. “Guess I’ll worry about that day when it comes.”
And even though he seemed like rued the day, he honestly couldn’t wait. The people he cared for the most were all by his side, surrounding him with the love he never felt like he deserved. He felt… happy. Content. For the first time in a long time.
He wouldn’t dare to let the moment pass.