The Price of Victory | Xiao x Reader x Zhongli

𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙞𝙫𝙚: 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴

Like every other day, you are awakened by the ruckus from outside. You slowly open your eyes, but immediately close them back as the light in the room is too bright for you. You pull the covers over your head.

As much as you want to just lay there, your body still a bit sore after yesterday's events, you have a lot of stuff to do today. You push the blankets off of you and stand up on the bed, scanning the room. Xiao is long gone. He is probably used to getting some sleep or no sleep at all.

Before you can get up, you hear a knock on your door. You allow them to enter and Guizhong appears from behind the wooden frame, glowing in the morning light. With each passing day is becoming more obvious to you as to why Rex Lapis would choose her over any other mortal.

She has a worried expression on her face and you fear that she's about to tell you something unpleasant. A thousand scenarios go through your head.

"Are you okay?" Comes out of her mouth. You just stare at her with a blank expression.

"Why wouldn't I be okay?" You raise one eyebrow at her. What happened while you were asleep?

"Xiao asked us not to disturb you as you had a hard time sleeping last night"

"What? No... I slept quite well compared to other nights," you don't know Xiao that well, but he's definitely not the type to lie or make a joke about something like this.

"He told us that..."

•••

Xiao is lying awake in his bed. He can't sleep so he is staring at the ceiling. You fell asleep a long time ago, judging by how your breathing changed. He turns around to look at you, your peaceful face illuminated by the moon's light.ceiling

Why did you let the person that hurt you and tried to kidnap you sleep in the same room as you? Are you that stupid? He asks himself those questions, but doesn't find an answer. Has he apologized enough for what he did? Probably not.

Xiao doesn't need to sleep like humans do, but sometimes, he likes to close his eyes and pretend that his life is not that miserable. But tonight is different. Tomorrow will be different too. He is no longer bound to that god. And yet, he feels more restless than ever.

You suddenly frown and grunt in your sleep. This catches Xiao off guard, as you've been quiet all this time. You start breathing heavily, mumbling some words that he cannot understand. He gets out of his bed and walks towards you.

"(Name), what's wrong?" When his palm touches your shoulder, as he wants to wake you up, your skin burns him. He places the back of his hand on your forehead. This is bad. "I'll be right back with Rex Lapis and Guizhong, okay?"

Xiao retreats his hand, but before he can take a single step, you grab him by the wrist. "Don't... leave me," is the only coherent phrase you've said so far. Against his judgment, he remains by your side. Your fever settles down after a few minutes, but you keep grunting and being agitated during the night.

Only when the morning sun fills the room with light, you return to a peaceful slumber. Xiao then leaves the room in search of the two gods.

•••

Your face is red from embarrassment as Guizhong finishes telling you what Xiao told them.

"Don't worry about it. It was just a fever. You're not dying or anything. Humans get sick like that sometimes, but since you're also a Geo life form, it is possible that your body simply rejected it"