Star-Crossed [ G. Impact ]

ten | X

ミ☆

(y/n) had awoken to a disturbing thing. what had possessed this man, xiao, the conqueror of demons, the golden-winged king, the vigilant yaksha, to make her his specialty almond tofu and serve it to her for breakfast? which domestic spirit was it?

she couldn't say no after he had presented it to her so shyly; red tinted his cheeks as he held the plate out to her and he looked off to the side as if he had just confessed his undying love for her. or... something.

a grin engulfed her face and she lunged at him, tackling him in a bear hug that he so desperately tried to dodge. "xiao, you little cutie, you made this for me? that's so sweet of you,"

"get off me."

"oh, come on," her words drawled out in a playful manner as she squeezed the life out of him. "you know you love it,"

he sighed softly, still rigid as he pretended not to care. xiao was sure she had mistaken his moment of weakness the night before as him finally warming up to her. he regretted being so careless in showing how he truly felt. he would be lying if he said he wasn't ashamed.

eventually, she calmed down and took the dish from him, looking at it with sparkling eyes. however, before she dug in, (y/n) inspected him carefully. then, the food.

"where's yours?" the question slipped from her lips, to which he shrugged haphazardly.

"i don't need to eat as you do," at this, she was appalled.

the adeptus watched as her face shifted into an indignant one, and before he knew it, a spoonful of the sweet dessert was in his mouth. a noise of surprise slipped out of his throat and he choked at the unexpected movement. her cool hands guided his jaw into chewing, resting on either side of his head. xiao grunted as he tried to pry her hands away to no avail.

"food is one of the greatest things to grace teyvat and i'm gonna show you exactly what i mean," (y/n) said pointedly, retracting her hands to take her own bite. "yew are gownna wearn to wove it."

"don't talk with a full mouth," xiao scolded, gently chopping her on the head. "i only tolerate almond tofu because of the texture. it reminds me of... well, i better not say,"

she raised an eyebrow at his grimace but refrained from responding because she was still chewing. the rest of the morning, she took turns force-feeding him the dessert and feeding herself. once the dish was empty, they cleaned up camp and began their way towards mount aozang.

in order to get there, they had to cross the bridges in the huaguang stone forest once more, and she couldn't help but look down curiously. the girl turned pale when she realized just how lethal the fall would be.

xiao stopped when he noticed she wasn't following. "what's the matter?"

"nothing, nothing at all!" she reassured, grasping either side of the ropes tightly enough to turn her knuckles white. he didn't look amused.

"hmm, alright then," xiao carried on his way, clueless. the bridge began to sway threateningly under his feet.

she whimpered nervously, keeping her eyes on the wooden planks in front of her as she attempted at taking a step. the adeptus sighed once he realized what the problem was.