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After months of constantly moving forward without a single chance to catch his breath, Aether found himself standing in a stranger’s apartment so still he looked like one of the decorations.
Except there weren’t any.
The apartment, as cluttered as it was with books stacked from floor to ceiling, was completely impersonal. The tables and counters were all covered in notes, knives, and strange contraptions that looked like compasses, but the only cleared table for eating had just a single chair pushed under it. There were no pictures on the walls, and the single couch in the room was covered in piles of notebooks on both of the outside cushions with only enough room between them for a single person.
Aether waited silently, his arms folded against his chest to prevent them from knocking into any of the books while the home’s sole occupant looked through several of said books for the reason Aether came here in the first place.
His name was Xiao, and he was a supernatural expert Aether was referred to by a mutual friend, and he looked as out of place in his own space as he did its only sign of life.
This place wasn’t meant for two people, let alone one, and something about that left a strange ache in his chest. They didn’t know anything about each other, but if there was one thing Aether could recognize, it was when a person had learned how to be alone when they didn’t want to be.
Not finding what he wanted, Xiao took another book off of the shelf and sat back down. The movement gave Aether a chance to see the old scars over his arms, left bare beneath a sleeveless shirt that just revealed the edges of a tattoo covering his back. Based on the reason Aether came here, it was easy to deduce just how he got them. The ancient spear mounted on the wall would’ve also been a decent clue, but if Xiao had ever actually used it, he would’ve had to have been alive during Liyue’s Bronze Age.
Unlikely, but not impossible. Nothing ever was.
“You said the creature you saw moved on three legs? Could one of them have been torn off?”
Aether tried his best to remember. He and Paimon were following a lead to his sister’s most recent rumored whereabouts when they were cut off by what Aether initially thought was a man running around on all four legs. It was not a person.
The creature was hairless, but its skin hung off of its body in droops like a Bloodhound, and its saliva was viscous enough to be concerning.
It darted after them, and Paimon screamed, losing their edge of surprise, so they retreated and agreed to come back after the dust settled with more information about what they were dealing with. Lumine would be long gone, but he wasn’t going to risk Paimon getting bitten by something that could have turned her into a monster. Things like that usually weren’t born as often as they were made.
“Mm,” he hummed affirmatively. “The two legs in the back looked similar to a person’s but the knees were bent more like a dog’s, and there was a single leg in the front at the top of the sternum. I didn’t get a good enough look to see if it had hands or paws.”
Xiao nodded and turned two more pages before he finally found what he was looking for. He stood up and brought the book to him, turning it around so Aether could see what he found. They stood eye to eye between a tome with brittle binding and soured pages, the script inside handwritten lovingly one character at a time. It matched the notes and dates scratched onto the wall calendar nearby like the same person was responsible for both.
“Did it look like this?” Xiao asked.
Aether’s attention was forced back to an image inked onto the page in fine lines and steady hatches, taped next to its twin in easier brushstrokes. Two vastly different records, but both just as clear. Like this, Aether could see that the one arm did not grow out of the creature’s chest like he thought. It was formed from both of its shoulders being forced together, the arms melding into one like they were made from melted wax. He felt the strain in his shoulders as he imagined his own body contorting this way and instinctively pushed them back.
Aether nodded that this was it. He didn’t get the best look at it in person, but there was no doubt in his mind that this was what he saw.
Xiao closed the book just as silently and put it away with the others, all just as old and all just as untouchable. Paimon would’ve been crawling out of her skin if Aether had brought her inside with him, but she also would have been better at asking questions.
“Is the bite contagious?” Aether remembered to ask.
“No, but the saliva is a paralytic,” Xiao said. “It doesn’t have to worry about holding down or killing its prey to feed, and you would be alert the entire time.”
Aether nodded, accepting the information. He didn’t mention his concern was for his companion downstairs and not himself.
“You’re going back, aren’t you?” Xiao asked, his voice surprisingly mild for the question. Aether didn’t confirm nor deny it. He didn’t need someone to tell him not to because if there was even a fraction of a chance he would get closer to finding his sister, well, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d walked into Hell that week. Xiao hummed, taking his silence as an answer. “They’re not too difficult to kill if you can shoot them in the heart.”
Aether wasn’t used to shooting things, but he nodded anyway. “Good to know.”
“They’re too fast to burn, and you don’t want to get close enough to try beheading it.”
Well, that was a problem.
Xiao grabbed his jacket like he was ready to leave, and Aether’s brows raised. That was one way to kick someone out of an apartment. Just leave so they had to too.
Then he opened a box on the table and pulled out a nine millimeter and checked the ammo. Aether’s pulse spiked, but no real sense of danger came with it. He was more surprised than anything.
Xiao slipped it in the back of his pants beneath his jacket and made his way towards the door with Aether compelled to follow. He stopped long enough to glance at him like he was making sure they were on the same page. “Well?”
“Hm?”
“Show me,” he said.
Realization struck through him so quickly he was almost flustered. He may have gone there for information, but he didn’t expect Xiao to do anything more than that. He wouldn’t want him to. He’d been on his own for… a while, and he knew how to take care of himself. Paimon just made the days brighter.
“Oh, you don’t have to. I just needed to know what it was.”
“It’s my job,” Xiao said.
“Yeah, but I can handle it,” Aether said.
“Can you?” He asked just snarkily enough that Aether could assume he didn’t believe him. Normally something like that wouldn’t bother him, but he found himself straightening his spine and putting his hands on his hips in defiance. It didn’t give him the narrow height advantage he hoped it would, and all Xiao did was blink at him calmly.
“Yes, I can,” he said without mentioning the sword he kept in the trunk of his car. Or Paimon, who Xiao probably didn’t need to become aware of. She couldn’t fight, but she was there for moral support, which was all he needed.
Something passed across Xiao’s face, nearly imperceptible, but with it came a single spark of electricity up Aether’s spine. He believed him, but more than that, Xiao seemed almost surprised that he did.
In that moment, a thousand questions fluttered through Aether’s mind before he could grab onto any of them. Who are you? What have you seen? Why do I feel like I was supposed to meet you? Why do I trust you? Why do I want you to trust me?
“I’ll drive,” Aether said instead.
Xiao hummed, but that was all the confirmation Aether needed that they were going together. Both to hunt for the monsters blocking the way and for anything that might come after.
They headed down the stairs, the scuffed wood creaking and groaning with every step. The building didn’t seem like it had been inspected since the 80s, but that wasn’t something that concerned either one of them.
Xiao was silent, and although Aether nearly always was, Paimon was usually there to fill in the gaps.
A reminder which alerted him of a teeny, tiny, winged and hungry problem.
He stopped and turned so Xiao couldn’t come any farther down the stairs. “Before we go, there’s something I need to tell you.”
“I know about the fairy,” he said, sending a flash of fearful heat through Aether’s body.
“Oh,” he said, feeling his face and ears redden. “How?”
“Other than the fact that you’ve been seen together by multiple people already?” Xiao asked before he flicked Aether’s shoulder. A cloud of sparkles and glitter burst into the air before vanishing, the remaining magic consumed.
“… oh.”
Xiao said nothing.
“It’s my friend Paimon. We’ve been traveling together. She hugs me goodbye every time we’re separated, just in case.”
Xiao raised an eyebrow to that. “Is she that worried that something will happen to one of you?”
“I think it’s more for my sake,” Aether admitted. He didn’t want to explain his situation, but he didn’t want someone to misunderstand theirs either.
But Xiao didn’t need an explanation, and he didn’t ask for one. He just looked at him like he understood every moment of Aether’s life down to the parts he couldn’t talk about. It was strange that someone could manage to take it all in so easily without having to hear the whole story, but it was even stranger than Xiao didn’t seem to go through the multiple phases of shock, disbelief, vigilance, or pity Aether was used to seeing. He just accepted it.
It was oddly a relief.
Aether turned back around, afraid that something would show on his face if he let those thoughts linger, and he led Xiao down to the car parked on the curb nearby. Paimon was hunkered down in the front seat with her detective glasses on, the ones with the mustache she wore to make herself more inconspicuous. Aether opened his mouth to explain, but before he could make a sound, he heard what he was pretty sure was a quick snort. He looked at Xiao and found him expressionless like he hadn’t reacted at all.
Alright, it wasn’t like it was every day that you saw a fairy wearing a fake mustache, but it wasn’t like Aether expected Xiao to laugh either.
But knowing he did was more interesting to him than he could explain.
“I’m not riding in the backseat,” Xiao said.
“You’ll have to take that up with Paimon,” Aether said, forcing back a smile.
“Paimon isn’t sitting in the backseat either,” Paimon shouted from inside the car, her voice muffled through the window. Then she took a good look at Xiao and laughed nervously before she quickly and sheepishly started to climb towards the back over the console, her wings squishing between the seats. “On second thought, Paimon will just be back here stretching Paimon’s legs.”
“Please inform your friend that I don’t hunt fairies,” Xiao said.
“Paimon isn’t a fairy!”
Aether rubbed his temple like he could feel a headache coming on, but the smile tugging at his lips completely gave him away. Something about the idea of them getting alone pleased him more than it should have, but before he could unpack that, they had a creature to find.
And then, who knew?