Genshin Impacts One Shots.

Xiao x G/N Reader.

Synopsis // Xiao barely had a moment to spare for you, working hard to keep demons at bay, and yet, you remembered the note he had left you one night. 'If you need me, call out my name, and I'll be there.'

Warnings // Suggestive, but no NSFW is actually present. Xiao hard dom, reader bratty sub, degrading, name calling, choking, threatening I guess?? Never really had to do tags like this before.

Author's Note // Heavily inspired by MONTERO (since ive had it on repeat lately), but I've also read some somewhat similar fics in the past, can't deny they also gave inspiration - the whole calling upon xiao and him turning up trope is nowhere near new, this is just my take on it. Also a big fat xiao kinnie so finally had to indulge my need to write about him. Bit of a shorter one, might write NSFW part 2 if anyone actually cared/asks.

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Three days had passed since he left. No warning, no premonition, no goodbye, as was the nature of his work. It shouldn't have surprised you, waking up to an empty bed and a note scrawled lazily on your dresser (not on parchment you left for him, on the actual wooden surface, typical), and yet without fail, it always left you feeling empty. Yes, you signed up for this. You knew exactly what you were in for, days of silence and ceaseless worrying, waiting for the door to almost swing off of its hinges once more. It always took a few days to calm him down, almost as if every time he left, domesticity evaporated from his system, and he became wild. Vicious. Feral. Poisoned by killer instinct and a lack of regard for the mortality of anyone he came across, except you. 

What you attributed this bottomless pit of disappointment in your stomach to was the fact he had only returned the night before, more dirt than clothing visible, hair matted, and that familiar wild look laced within his paralyzing stare. Fear coursing through your veins, wondering if this was finally the time he had come unhinged and would ravage you like his prey. A fragile, innocent deer frolicking in a lion's den. And then you'd see it. A fine mist of water dispelling the raging fire in his glazen, amber irises, the colours relaxing into a golden honey due. He was home.

Not a word would pass that night, you'd clean his clothes, scrubbing out dried blood and layers upon layers of dirt, you'd shower him, searching anxiously for any sign that might suggest the blood was his own, and you'd brush his hair, lying behind him on the bed, watching his chest rise and fall as he finally rested for the first time in days. The battle was a tournament, and this was his prize. 

You were his prize. 

Not one syllable had been spoken, and that, was why you missed him. Wanted him. Needed him. 

Drunk on the thought of his gaze piercing through you, intoxicated by the lingering scent of him on the pillow beside you, you found your fingers tracing the words on the discoloured paper beside you.

'If you need me, call out my name, and I'll be there.'

Back and forth. Left and right. A metronome thudding side to side in your brain, clattering off of the inside of your skull. Call him. Wait for him. Immediate satisfaction versus waiting an indeterminate amount of time for another reunion. A final showdown of the id and the ego, primal desires battling with logic and reason, and you knew you were nothing but a brat at heart.

"Xiao, I need you."

Realising you had never actually taken him up on his offer before, you wondered if your timid call into the empty room would be enough. You had needed him, of course, there had been times you were surrounded by the Fatui, or on the verge of being ushered off a cliff by a group of treasure hoarders, but you had always held your own. Coming out a lot worse for it, but taking pride in the fact you had held your own, basking in the thought of the care he would pay you for a change, right when you needed him the most. Guilt panged ruthlessly in your chest, realising that you had succumbed to your own need for self-gratification, and for a split second, you hoped he hadn't heard you calling him.