Hydrophobic ¦ Xingqiu x Reader [Genshin Impact]

A Stratagem [18]

"...Something is definitely wrong."

You cross your arms. "What are you talking about? Nothing's wrong. I don't want to do the agreement anymore. Let's just get engaged with no strings attached."

"Is this because of the letter that you received from your parents earlier?" He raises a brow. "I'm guessing they didn't take your rejection into consideration."

You mentally cursed.

"See, this is why I hate you. You catch on too quick."

"Do you not like perceptive people?"

You ignore him and just continued watching the flames devour the whole pile of letters.

What were you going to do after this? You still have no idea other than break this whole deal with him and maybe give up because this whole thing has almost made you lose your sanity. 

"My lady, I know how much you want to get away from this engagement and I also know you're smart enough to know the risks of breaking this off without our deal. So, I advise you to thoroughly think about your plan." He patiently explains as he rose. "With that said, yes, I will marry you with or without the strings attached—for now." Xingqiu smiles and helps you get up, earning an eye-roll from you.

You've tried your best to convince him that you didn't want the deal anymore—was it even worth the try? Definitely not. You felt stupid just thinking about it. Your spur of the moment plan was to break off the agreement and give up but when he reminded your initial disapproval of this, you came back to your senses.

It was really low of you to refuse to spite your parents and ask him to marry you.

"For once, you convinced me into something I actually like." You nod to yourself and mumbled a small, "Thank you."

"My pleasure."

"Let's go back. It's getting quite chilly." You say, looking around before making sure that the fire had died out and all that was left were the ashes.

Although it's already late at night, you have decided to stay up until you come up with an efficacious scheme so you had to quickly go back and ponder.

The two of you started walking back as you felt the awkward atmosphere that was starting to linger.

It wasn't like this earlier as you were bothered by something else and didn't have the time to take in every single detail of the walk.

You fake a cough to break the ice, "Earlier, you were about to say something else but was cut off by Noelle. What was it that you wanted to add?"

"I'm surprised you still remember." He glances at you. "I was going to ask what your favorite book was since I wanted to know at least a few things about you."

You stayed silent for a few seconds, debating whether to tell him or not. "...Heart of Clear Springs."

"Ah, the one with the spring fairy? How interesting, I didn't know you like melancholic stories."

It was no surprise that he knew about the book. It was a popular book series everywhere and a well known legend back in Mondstadt.

It was the first book that made you sad—which you have read at the age of eight after stealing it from your mother's study.

Posterior to finishing all of the book's volumes, you had forgotten about it for a few months until you saw the same copy from the library. And ever since then, you had been coming back to read and fall in love with the book over and over again.

It didn't bore or tire you in spite of the fact that you knew it was going to hurt you in the end.

"I don't. But somehow, I just can't stop re-reading it." You kick a pebble as you started gaining sight of the manor's silhouette. "Still, that was a random question in terms of the conversation we had earlier."