Driftwood - Genshin Impact Xiao X Reader

2 -Head first

Over the next week you were able to get enough strength to move around without any of your injuries causing you trouble. Your bruises had started to fade, but they were still visible and you had to remain wrapped in the badages as some of your larger injuries still needed more time to heal, but you were now able to take on a few more 'harder' jobs around the inn.

Verr Goldet had kept your tasks relatively simple, keeping in mind your condition, but not wanting to offend you when you were actively asking to be given work. She appreciated that you wanted to help as a form of payment for the inns kindness.

You had also offically become the one who brought the inns resident adeptus his daily tofu, too.

He was rarely on the balcony when you showed up, but he wouldn't be far away, appearing for seconds to retrieve the food before disappearing again. He was cold to you, but Verr had mentioned he was like that with everyone and to not take it personally. And, on the days where he was around for a little longer you had attempted to make small talk, though you were always meet with either one word responces or a reprimand of some sort, mostly referring to you being injured which made you slow when you delivered his food.

You made your down stairs to collect the almond tofu from chef Smiley "is it ready?" you asked, watching as he seemed to be frantically scanning the stock shelves.

"Ah, you're looking better today" he greeted with a warm smile "have you eaten yet?"

You smiled at his kindness, his stoic expression and scarred muscles making him look a lot more scarier than you would imagine before speaking with him "I'll eat after I deliver Xiaos food, as I always do"

"Ah of course" he nodded "uhm, I hate to ask this of you, but could you do me a small favour?"

"Of course, what do you need?" you replied immediently, ready to help wherever you could as payment for your free meals and bed.

"I don't seem to have any almonds" he muttered sheepishly "but there should've been a delivery today, I haven't picked it up yet as I had to deal with the lunch orders but I can't make almond tofu without almonds"

"Leave it me" you assured, giving a small salute as you made your way back out of the kitchen, hearing chef Smiley call out his thanks.

You hadn't ventured to the bottom of the inn much, in fact this was only your second time doing so, having been restricted by your injuries the previous days. You had gone last time when you wanted some fresh air and Huai'in had offered to escort you down so you could sit and enjoy the view for a few hours until you wished to return.

It had been nice, but you remembered the stairs being a bit daunting upon your return and you had to take the lift back up. Which wasn't a bad thing, but when you were desperate to be rid of your injuries and do things with ease again, having to take the elevator over the stairs was a bit downheartening.

You located the delivery boxes quite quickly, seeing them stacked up near the stairs waiting to be picked up.

You shuffled through the contents carefully, not wanting to disturb the foods in there too much in case you spoiled them. You soon found the almonds buried beneath some apples and sunsettias, pulling the bag out with victory. You examined them to confirm they were indeed almonds and to make sure they weren't damaged.

You turned to go back up the stairs, not wanting to take the lift this time to keep your legs strong, but you stopped as you heard someone scream out.

A small group of people started looking around having heard the scream "help! someone help! my daughter, she can't swim!"

You dropped the almonds, running as much as your legs would allow towards the source of the panicked shouts, seeing a distressed looking woman, shouting and screaming for help. You briefly came to a stop beside her, looking down to see the small child splashing desperately in the waters that surrounded the inn, without a thought you dived into the water.

You moved your arms frantically to reach the child quickly, grasping a hold of her and helping to keep her head above water, even though you sacrificed your own head going under more often than you liked. You pulled both yourself and the child back to the rocks, a larger group of do-gooders had gathered and had made their way down the rocks to get closer to you, one of them managing to reach the child and pull her from the water, passing her up the rocks and to safety.

You gripped onto the rocks, holding yourself out of the water while you coughed and spluttered until someone returned to help you. They hoisted you from the water, helping you climb back up the rocks.

"Is she okay?" you asked between watery coughs. Seeing the mother hugging her child tightly, the child appearing to be fine other than a little shaken, and wet.

The mother turned to find you, rushing over to you as she grasped your hands "thank you, thank you so much" she sobbed gratefully before she rushed off to get her child out of the wet clothes and into some dry ones before she caught cold.

With the sudden excitement over you picked up the bag of almonds, hoping that you hadn't damaged any in your rush to help before you made your way back upstairs. Though, regrettably you took the lift, as now your wet clothes would have made the climb harder with the extra weight.

You wandered down to the kitchen, dripping water on the stairs every so often "I brought the almonds" you called out as you approached.

Smiley turned to you with an apologetic grin "I actually found some tucked away at the back of the shelf-" he stopped mid sentence as he looked at you, standing in your wet clothes in the middle of his kitchen holding the almonds "you're- uh, wet?"

"Heh, yeah" you nodded, looking down at yourself "you see-"

He held his hands up "I won't ask, just make sure you get into some dry clothing, don't want you catching a cold after you managed to avoid one after your last dip"

"I will" you assured "I'll deliver this first" you added as you picked up the freshly made almond tofu that he had prepared while you had been away.

You walked up the stairs to his balcony, preparing yourself for whatever comment he would have about your apperance this time. He was already waiting for you, looking out over the marsh as usual.

With an annoyed sigh he turned to you stating "you're late- wet" he blinked "you're wet"

You hand him the plate of food "I am" you confirmed "please excuse me, I must get change into something not wet" you smiled.

"Wait" he called out, his tone light yet commanding. You stopped, turning back to look at him "I saw what happened" he admitted "I overheard Verr talking about how you washed up nearby after falling into the ocean, why'd you jump into water willingly after going through that?"

You shrugged "I couldn't just let the child drown"

"There was plenty of people about, someone would've saved her" he huffed.

"But I was there first"

He scoffed, looking away from you, assuming that meant he had finished speaking with you so you could leave, but he spoke as you turned to leave again "your swimming technique could use some work"

You chuckled to yourself "I'm sure it would be much better if I could actually swim"

This made him snap his gaze back to you, a frown clouding his features "you can't swim? then why the hell would you jump in to the water? you and that child could have drowned, you idiot!" he scolded.

You shrugged "but that didn't happen, did it?" you smiled softly at him before you guestered to your dripping clothing "now, if you don't mind. . " he let you leave this time, allowing you to finally get changed into dry clothes.

Once you were changed and had had fresh, dry bandages replaced over your limbs you made your way back downstairs to get yourself some lunch as you had promised chef Smiley Yanxiao.

Xiao came by as you were tucking into your food to drop off his empty plate. He spared a glance towards you as he passed.

You were a strange human, he thought.

Though he admired your reckless bravery.

"Tsk, stupid human"