chasm ･ xiao ⋆.࿔*

- chapter 14 -

a/n - i recommend listening to "no rainbows" by chase atlantic while reading this its what i was listening to when i wrote it lol

————

You fell from the vortex and collided with something quite harshly. You groaned, trying to orient yourself with your surroundings. You noticed you had fallen on a circular concrete platform embedded with designs, similar to what you stand on when fighting the Oceanid. Waves surged onto and off of the platform periodically, and the rest of the Ocean was circling around the platform in somewhat of a dome, meaning you could freely breathe Oxygen for the time being.

As you pushed your arms against the platform to push yourself up, you felt a prominent sting in your lower body, causing you to let out a cry and fall back down. You looked down at your leg and gaped at the giant scar you had received from the lawachurls some time ago. Turns out, when you had fallen, you fell from a whopping 114 feet and landed right on your unhealed battle wound, which was now reopened and streaming with blood. Ganyu's aid of healing was slowly closing up the wound, but unfortunately, it wasn't closing it fast enough. While trying to think of something, you had started to come to terms with the situation at hand.
You were slowly dying.

No.. It can't be happening now. Not already..

You were in shock, as if you weren't visibly bleeding to your death in front of your very eyes. You shook your head violently, attempting to get rid of your thoughts and focus on the current situation at hand. Osial was circling around the platform, eyes hungry with the clear intent of killing. You calculated approximately how much time you had before you inevitably succumbed to your wound, and figured it was about enough time to blow a significant hit to Osial's health.
Anything to make the Qixing's job easier.

In one swift motion (and a loud yelp), you managed to stand up and conjure your spear, readying your powers. Due to your current state, your powers were somewhat weaker, but you didn't let that stop you. You conjured a large array of icicles and sent them straight for Osial's heads. In the time frame of which they faltered, you used a large shard of ice, almost like glass, to stab through the base of the god. You continued to execute impulsive, yet calculated attacks towards Osial, lowering his health with every passing second.

As for you?

You began to periodically cough up blood, signaling you hadn't much time left. All of a sudden, you got a particularly violent coughing attack, creating a perfect blind spot for Osial to attack. As soon as you started coughing, you knew. This was it. Everything and everyone you ever lived for was about to be gone in just a few seconds. You couldn't believe it honestly, it was so extremely ironic that you couldn't help but to laugh. In the last few seconds of your injured life, you were standing there, in the middle of a platform about to get attacked by a god, laughing.

You closed your eyes. You were ready to accept death with open arms.

Keeping your eyes closed, you waited for impact. You waited five seconds, then ten, then twenty, but nothing had happened. And so, you opened your eyes, only to find yourself in Xiao's embrace once more, just like how you were when the lawachurls attacked you.
"Xiao?" You groggily said, your vision still blurry from when you had your eyes closed.

"Shh, don't speak." He said, holding you tighter, as if he could feel your pain from just looking at your state.

Xiao took you to Wangshu Inn and laid you on the bed in his room. He tried to dress your wound, desperation throwing him into action. You were now losing a lot of blood. It was staining everything.

It was staining the bed.

It was staining your clothes.

It was staining Xiao.

It wasn't until he finally sat down, covered in your blood, that he knew. You weren't making it past this. Losing you would be losing his close friend, his fellow soldier, his only love.

Losing you, would be losing everything.

As the tears slipped silently down his face, he dropped his head onto the bed, resting it against your shoulder. You slightly opened your eyes, leaving them half-lidded. You brushed a hand through his hair, wincing at the movement. He sat up sharply, all weakness disappearing from his veneer.

You struggled to sit up, pressing a hand to your head.

"How are you feeling?"

You gave Xiao a fruitless stare. Just from that, he knew. You knew, that he knew.

Being able to see clearly now, you let out a small breath. The Conqueror of Demons was sitting in front of you right now, crying.
Instantly, you took Xiao into your arms, burying your head into his shoulder. He hugged you back, clinging onto you so tight, you almost couldn't breathe.

"I'm sorry, Xiao, I'm so sorry.." was all you could say to the sobbing man in your embrace.

"I'm grateful for everything that everyone did for me. Tell them that. But listen," You said, moving Xiao to face you, staring into each other's eyes.

"I'm grateful for everything you did for me, for you to exist in my life. I love you, Xiao. I always have. I just didn't know what it was."
You were clinging on to the last few moments of your life just to tell Xiao those three words. Now that you had, you could finally rest peacefully.

"I love you too, Y/N. Please.. Don't leave me.." Xiao cried, through choked sobs.

"Let us be together in another lifetime, Xiao, when the universe is not so cruel to us." You said with a light smile.

And with that, you closed your eyes.

Forever.

----

a/n

first time writing angst lol pls dont bully me
so anyway that's the end of this book‼️ before you say it i'll say it myself the ending was shit i know
but it was either this or leaving it as 'discontinued'
this wasnt really a romance story at all so ig what you should take away from the ending.. tell people how you really feel before they're gone?
yeah that works
this was the first book i ever wrote and understandably it wasn't up to my standards so i just kind of scrapped it lol
anyway i recommend you go read lust‼️ it's my modern au xiao x reader and it's a lot better than this lol