You're The Only One - XiaoVen

Close Yet Out of Reach

Standing in his room, Xiao breathed heavily. Anger sprouting from his soul. He clenched his fists, crumbling the letter. He felt his nails digging into the skin of his palms as the anger grew.

"I swear...I will protect you until the very end."

He bit his lip, causing it to bleed. That is what Xiao had promised Venti but he failed to keep his word.

"You will pay for this," Xiao said aloud, vanishing from the inn.

He rushed to Guilin Plains. He usually wasn't oblivious enough to run in blind. Xiao knew that this could very well be, and probably is, a trap. He had many reasons to think so. To begin with, the strange hillichurls incident was obviously a diversion to get Xiao away from Venti. Whoever was doing this did it to target Xiao specifically and that person somehow knew that Venti was his weakness. But how? Xiao hadn't noticed anyone following them or anything.

He reached the plains before he could reach a conclusion. It didn't matter to him. Trap or not, he was going to rescue Venti. He stood above a small hill, gazing down at the ruins. No one was in sight and that's when Xiao realized he had made a grave mistake. He had let himself be exposed to anyone who might be watching. Prone to ambush.

Below him, a masked Fatui agent waved. With nothing other than Venti on his mind, Xiao hopped down to the agent. "Where is he?" He said.

"Follow me," The man said.

"You better not have hurt him," Xiao said.

"Hmph, he surrendered right away. To think he'd put up a fight-"

Xiao shot him a look that shut him up. He led him inside the cold and dark ruins and gestured for him to go. Venti's face lit up as soon they saw each other. Xiao let out a sigh of relief. He untied his hands and embraced Venti. He held the back of his head and ran his fingers through his hair as he kissed his forehead.

"Are you alright?" Xiao asked him.

"I missed you..." Venti said.

Xiao stroked his face, he had missed him too. The Fatui agent then banged the iron door to the ruins shut, frightening them.

"Honestly..." he said to Xiao, locking the door, "how could you like someone who looks like him?"

Venti brought his head down as if trying to look at himself. Xiao clenched his teeth. He let go of his lover and walked over to the door. He thrust his hand through the small iron bars and grabbed the Fatui's collar. He lifted him up and slammed him against the door. The agent's mask shattered and its broken pieces fell to the ground.

"Insult him again and I'll shatter your skull next," he said.

The expression on the Fatui man's face were nothing less than sheer terror. As soon as Xiao let go, he tumbled to the ground. He quickly gathered himself and stepped backwards, unable to take his eyes off of Xiao's. In a few seconds, another Fatui guard came rushing in.

"What happened here?" He said.

"Well, I'm here now. Tell me what you want," Xiao said.

"Haha, a Liyue without their Yaksha, why would we want anything else?"

Xiao let out one long and annoyed sigh. For whatever reason, the Fatui had been scheming yet another disaster upon Liyue. "That's fine. But let Venti go," he said.

"Who's Venti?" The second guard said, "You mean the Anemo Archon? Are you stupid, we're not letting him go!"

"Don't call him stupid-" The first guard said, pulling him away from the door. They then walked away.