The Winds Bring with them Change (Volume 1)

26: Old Friends

Though he'd considered stopping by the teapot and speaking with Venti before finding his lord, ultimately, he wasn't sure if he wanted his partner to see how devastated he actually was by all of this. He was standing outside the funeral parlor, waiting for his Lord to be done with his 'work.'

As the minutes flew by, he started fidgeting, his skin feeling itchy and irritating even as he was realizing he was anxious. It almost felt as though every minute more his Lord took was a minute Venti wouldn't have. Perhaps he shouldn't be as anxious about this as he was. He knew his duty, he knew it the first time he'd shown evidence of erosion, the horror in his mind from that night still fresh in his quickly beating heart. He was to eradicate this.

But he knew he would never be able to kill Venti, even before they had gotten close he couldn't. So when Zhongli finally stepped out of the double doors shrouding his workplace, Xiao was quick to be at his side.

His Lord looked startled, but not exactly surprised. His laugh came easy when he spoke.

"Xiao, whatever are you back for? Your duties are no more, you should be with the traveler and the other one." His tone had taken on a sort of scolding tone, as if Xiao was a mortal child and not an old creature of darkness. That was how his Lord had treated him for the longest time, scolding instead of punishments, laughter instead of anger. He remembered it being a lot to adjust to when he was younger. He hesitated, knowing that if he no longer wanted to speak to his Lord, he would forget it happened and not mention it to Aether.

"It's Lord Barbatos." There, it was out. There was no going back now. No matter their old feud, his Lord was fond of the God of Anemo, and when Xiao was the one to bring it up, he was sure to be taken seriously. His Lord looked immediately less at ease than before, clearly anxious as he offered to bring Xiao into the Funeral Parlor.

"It provides a place for us to discuss these matters...privately." He sounded thoroughly worried now, and Xiao wondered if maybe he should have brought Venti along after all. The other Archon had a way of easing the sort of tension Xiao had a knack for causing.

Once they were inside, Zhongli bid a girl goodbye and watched as she left, before giving Xiao a look he hadn't seen since the wars and speaking gruffly.

"What is wrong with that alcoholic archon now? Has another of the wind spirits decided to challenge him for the Godhood whilst he's weak?" Though Xiao hadn't heard Venti speak of it, he had the feeling that the irritated and only slightly panicked tone in his Lord's voice was from experience.

"He's been... forgetting things. Not things of much importance, but landmarks, people." At the terror struck look on his Lord's face, he hesitated. He needed to tell him though.

"He didn't recognize me." The word he was thinking seemed to be floating in the air, neither of them wanting to say it, but knowing exactly what it was.

"Erosion." His Lord's voice sounded lower than usual, a tone he hadn't heard in centuries overcoming it. Xiao couldn't make eye contact, instead resorting to watching his shaking hands, a nervous habit he'd thought he kicked forever ago. He'd just told his Lord that his best friend was dying, that his partner was dying, and that he'd do it in the worst way possible for the immortal.

He would become a fragment of himself, no longer Venti, instead purely the Anemo Archon, wild and angry no doubt. Everything that made him him would be stripped away.

It caused a shudder to run through Xiao's body, his composure finally slipping fully. He was with the one person who'd been with him virtually his whole life, so the guilt he felt as the tears slipped down his cheeks dissolved completely when he was pulled into what he would call a fairly stiff hug. It didn't matter however as his knees gave out and the only thing holding him up was his Lord's arms.