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Xiao was having tea with Zhongli when he felt it. A sudden lack of a bond in his mind; he inhaled sharply as it snapped, the shock leaving him reeling for a brief second before it returned as though it was never gone.
“Xiao-er?” Zhongli asked, his voice tinged with concern. “Is something the matter?”
“I… Aether –” Xiao rasped, unable to even find the words to explain what he was feeling. It wasn’t something common with their kind, with adepti, but it was with Aether’s kind so he didn’t think anyone else would even understand.
“Something that that mind… connection of yours?” Zhongli hummed. “Is it serious?”
“For a second I thought… it disappeared. Only the briefest moment though, and then it returned, but I…” Xiao let out a shuddered breath, clenching his gloved fingers into the palm of his hand. “I felt him die.”
“Then of course you must go.” Zhongli put his teacup down with a slight ‘clink’ and gave Xiao a wise smile.
“I – thank you.” Xiao wasted no time in summoning his spear, the weight comforting in his hand. He barely remembered to bow hastily in Zhongli’s direction before he reached out to the wind and disappeared in a flash, following the trail all the way to the North, to Snezhnaya.
He appeared in a theatre, amidst a group of people all in their seats unconscious. His heart beat faster as he whirled around, frantic as he scanned all the bodies until his eyes landed on a familiar head of golden hair and he nearly fell to his knees right then and there, barely containing himself long enough to sit beside Aether and press his fingers beneath the blond’s jaw.
Xiao sagged in relief at the feeling of a pulse thrumming beneath his fingers and brushed them over Aether’s cheek gently, reaching out into their bond to call for him.
Aether. Aether, xinjian, wake up.
He repeated the same words, the same endearments and encouraging phrases until Aether’s eyelashes fluttered open and Xiao paused, an overwhelming feeling of relief and gratefulness for whatever deity it was out there keeping his Aether safe.
“Aether,” He murmured, cupping his face with both hands until Aether’s eyes focussed on his own, breaking out of the haze he had been in before. “Qin’ai de.”
“Xiao?” Aether’s voice cracked and he cleared his throat, lifting his own hands to curl his fingers around Xiao’s wrists. “What are you…?”
“I felt…” Xiao took a deep breath, trembling as he spoke. “I felt you die.”
“You –” Aether furrowed his brows for a second before a devastated expression came over his face. “Of course.”
“Then –” Xiao blanched.
“It was only for a moment, meleth nîn,” Aether soothed, brushing his thumbs over Xiao’s wrist bones. “A moment, and I returned. The Ruler of Death does not have the authority to needlessly kill, I’m fine.”
“A moment is still a moment,” Xiao whispered, drawing their foreheads together until his breath fanned across Aether’s face. “You still died.”
“A-Xiao,” Aether’s face softened and he pressed their lips together for a brief moment, savouring his lover’s lips for the first time in a while. He pulled away before it could deepen, remembering they were still in the theatre, and flashed Xiao a reassuring look. “I promise you, everything is fine.”
“What happened?” Xiao asked in a low voice but Aether shook his head.
“Not now. Later,” He gestured to their surroundings where the other unconscious people were starting to stir and murmurs arose in the theatre. “They’ve all died too, they’ll be confused.”
And so Xiao stood in the corner of the theatre, looming some might say, and watched Aether speak to each of the people in the room, laying his fingers on their pulse points and exchanging quiet words with them all before he felt reassured enough to return to Xiao.
“There is something else.” Xiao commented, his eyes drifting to the woman who followed Aether over, a white-haired ballerina with an unmistakable Cryo chill to her, one he found the source to be from her vision.
“Paimon,” Aether replied grimly. “She’s not well, and I… I need to check on her. Xiao, would you –”
“I will wait.” Xiao acquiesced.
“Thank you,” Aether pressed their foreheads together, closing his eyes for a second to send him the image of a train stationed in the city. “My train, you won’t be bothered there.”
“Then I will remain there. Call, if you need me.” Xiao urged, despite knowing Aether wouldn’t. He didn’t like to involve Xiao in matters relating to other nations.
“I’ll come back.” Aether promised, kissing Xiao’s cheek before he left, and the ballerina behind him. Xiao teleported to the station in Aether’s thoughts, followed the path laid out in his mind and came across the train. It was small, yes, but comfortable inside and furnished not unlavishly. He explored the cabins, finding the small one with Aether’s scent in it and scanned its insides, noting some bandages on the table, some sword cleaning supplies and various other knickknacks he knew belonged to his lover.
When Aether returned, it was in a flurry. He slid the door to his cabin open and put his sword on the table with more force than he usually did, practically ripping his gloves off before he just stood there for a second, jaw clenched and his chest heaving. Xiao furrowed his brows from where he was sat on the bed, leaning against the wall. He opened his arms wide and Aether nearly just dropped into them. The blond traveler laid his head on Xiao’s chest, arms tight around his middle and closed his eyes.
“Okay?” One of Xiao’s (also gloveless) hands checked for Aether’s pulse, while the other gently tugged Aether’s hair free from its braid to card through the golden locks.
“I’m so,” He paused, taking in a deep breath as if trying to calm himself. “I’m angry.”
“Tell me why.”
“I ran into one of the shades representing the Heavenly Principles… the Ruler of Death,” Aether said. “Not our first encounter, but this time I was involved as opposed to a bystander or an observer.”
“Is she the one to blame for why you died?” Xiao scowled, tightening his grip on Aether.
“She… I don’t think she has the authority to kill anyone permanently, and she claimed it was a Ley Line issue, but I don’t trust any of these shades,” Aether scowled. “Everyone in that theatre died and came back. And then I learn she wants to take Paimon. And she keeps killing the scientists involved in one of the Tsaritsa’s projects if they make any progress on it, because it could harm the Heavenly Principles. She kills them, Xiao, and then they come back missing memories, I –”
“She wants to take Paimon?” Xiao asked, his voice sharp.
“She tried. I tried to fight her, and did not succeed of course because – because I’m weak. Because something is sealing my powers and I – Xiao… Xiao, I can’t keep losing people.” Aether sat up, giving Xiao a frightened look and Xiao felt his own heart break at the sight of it. He cupped Aether’s face tenderly with both hands and brought their foreheads together.
“You won’t, you won’t lose more people. You won’t let them take Paimon, and neither will I. No one will. She, and you, have captured the hearts of many during your time here in Teyvat, no one will take this lying down,” Xiao soothed. “And I will not take your death lying down, xingan.”
“I didn’t stay dead.” Aether blinked, drawing away from Xiao a little to look him in the eyes.
“It matters not,” Xiao shook his head. “She killed you, and that is what matters to me. The fact that you returned is a relief, of course it is, but what if you hadn’t.”
“I would have,” Aether murmured, closer now, close enough that their lips brushed as he spoke. “I would have returned, I would have found a way.”
“Found a way to return from the dead?” Xiao asked, kissing the edges of Aether’s lips.
“Of course. Back home, there was someone I knew who did that. The one she loved died and so she followed him and begged for his release from the Halls of Death,” Aether was grossly oversimplifying the events that occurred of course, but the point still stood. “She sang so beautifully, her wish was granted at the cost of her becoming mortal like him, and they both returned.”
“Romantic, but I would not want you to give up your immortality either.” Xiao frowned and Aether chuckled, pressing the little furrow between his brows in an attempt to smooth it out.
“I wouldn’t either, I’d figure something out,” Aether said reassuringly. “I worried you, didn’t I?”
“Archons, Aether –” Xiao seemed to sag with the weight of… something. “The bond just disappeared for a second and I thought my own heart stopped. Then, it returned and I… I didn’t know how to feel.”
“I’m sorry,” Aether’s face crumpled a little. “Marriage bonds are… Eru, they’re so tied to the soul and the body, of course you’d feel it. I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologise for.” Xiao said fiercely.
“The bond comes from my species, Xiao, I –”
“I do not regret it, nor will I ever,” Xiao shook his head. “I am glad to have such a bond with you, I treasure it, and I would not take it back if I had the chance.”
“I put you through too much,” Aether dropped his forehead back onto Xiao’s chest, his voice muffled against the fabric of the adeptus’ shirt.
“You do not,” Xiao said gently, carding through his hair once more. “You are kind, and good, and I am glad to have met you, and I do not begrudge you what you have to do. I understand.”
“I wish I could have shown you my home, so so badly.”
“One day, you will return and I will come with you.” Xiao hummed.
“One day,” Aether choked back a sob. “Perhaps when I find Lumine again, when I understand why she changed so much. Maybe then I can bring her home.”
“You will, I know you will,” Xiao assured him. “Rest now, qin’ai de. You can tell me about your family when you wake, I will listen.”
So Aether forced Xiao to lay down and then flopped half on top of him, arms tight around his middle and his ear pressed right above Xiao’s heart, hearing the strong beat beneath it as he closed his eyes and fell into a dream-filled sleep.
“Anárion, Irildë,” Fingon knocked on the door to the library, causing the twins to look up at the same time, facing him with curious looks. ”I have some… news.”
“What news, cousin?” Aether, whose Quenya name was Anárion meaning Son of the Sun, questioned.
“Your brother…” Fingon looked devastated himself, a bone-tired exhaustion tugging at him, dragging him down.
“No…” Lumine, whose Quenya name was Irildë meaning Beloved Brilliance, gasped, her hands clapped over her mouth. “Finno, please –”
“I’m sorry, Irildë.” Fingon rasped.
“How.” Aether stood, fists clenched by his sides.
“A quest to aid Beren son of Barahir, from my understanding. At the behest of King Thingol.” Fingon sighed.
“Thingol…” Aether hissed, eyes narrowing. “And Artanis?”
“I have heard no news.” Fingon replied apologetically.
“Our big sister,” Lumine laughed coldly. “Of course.”
They loved their sister, of course they did, for she was closest to them in age and had spent much of her years watching over them. But she was changed in Middle-Earth, content to sit in Doriath and learn from Melian the Maia while war raged on outside the borders of the Girdle. Eventually, not even they could stay with her while their people were slaughtered against the enemies. So they left. They left Doriath, and they left her.
“Háno dead, and we never got see him again…” Aether felt the tears slip down his cheeks and Fingon tugged them both into his arms, one hand cradling the back of each of their heads. They were so capable, so strong and independent, that it was easy to forget they were still so young. They had been scarcely a hundred when they reached Middle-Earth, and it hadn’t been five hundred years since then.
Still so young, and yet their family was dying off slowly.
“Háno!” Aether jolted upright in the tiny bed, his chest heaving and his eyes wide as he tried to make sense of his surroundings, quiet mutterings in Quenya falling from his lips. “Irildë, Irildë where are you?”
“Aether?” Xiao said quietly, placing one hand on the small of his back and turning his face towards Xiao with the other. “Xinjian?”
“Ammë?” That one was a word Xiao knew and his face crumpled as he tugged Aether into a tight hug.
“I’m sorry, your mother’s not here.” Xiao whispered and Aether held him back tightly, burrowing into the crook of his neck and leaving wet spots everywhere from his tears.
“Nightmare,” Aether said into his neck. “I… I dreamt of when news reached Lumine and I that our eldest brother was dead.”
“Oh, xingan.” Xiao soothed.
“It was just us, and my cousin took us in. My brave cousin, Fingon. My brave cousin I watched get split in half by a Balrog’s axe –” Aether cut himself off with a shudder. “They’re all dead.”
“You told me once, that they returned.” Xiao recalled a conversation from long ago.
“Perhaps,” Aether sounded a little hysterical. “When Lumine and I left, it hadn’t even been six hundred years since the atrocities they committed that got us banished in the first place. I don’t know then they’ll return, if ever.”
“Have some faith,” Xiao pressed a kiss to his cheek where he could reach, brushing back his hair. “They will return.”
“They would love you,” Aether pulled away, red-eyed and flushed from his tears. “I didn’t think I would ever find the one my heart longed for, I was prepared to spend my life alone and then I found you. And no one since had made me happier, and for that alone… they will love you.”
“No one has ever made me as happy as you have,” Xiao murmured, pressing a kiss to Aether’s lips. “Never in my life before you have I looked forward to tomorrow.”
“A-Xiao,” Aether let a few more tears slip down his cheeks as he tried for a smile, but it came out sad and despondent instead and Xiao couldn’t help but tug him in for another hug. “How I love you.”
“And I you, always.”
“I’ll take you home with me one day, I swear it.”