𝚂𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙰𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 [𝚐.𝚒 𝚟𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚡 𝚐𝚗!𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛]

XXII

"You ready to go kid?”

You stood at the gate of Mond, sun barely touching the skies and the nightly breeze still swaying through the air. You had finished everything last night, the drunken picture of everyone laughing now hanging on your wall, and here you stood waiting for the blonde boy to meet you.

He walked up to you, eyes drooping and hair a mess. There was a stagger to his steps and to his fairy’s flight pattern.You and Ariel chuckled as he came closer and flopped his head on your shoulder with a groan.

“That inn had been treatin’ you nice huh?” He only groaned again and buried his face further in the crook of your neck. “C’me on.” You encouraged, patting his back. “The faster we get moving, the faster we can get to Wangshu Inn. I heard that place’s nice as fuck.”

-

The heat, you decided, was your own personal enemy.

True to your words, you, Aether, and Paimon had all gotten a little more awake once you had started walking, but now that it was late afternoon you wanted to drop dead. Sure your feet hurt, that was now surprise despite your greatly improved stamina, but the sun bearing down so brightly made your eyes water. Sometimes you even saw heat waves on the dirt road.

Besides the heat, the trek itself wasn’t too bad. Ariel’s meltdown (ha) because his wings were getting sweaty, despite you telling him he didn’t sweat, was intensely amusing for you, and the banter between you and Paimon, or Paimon and Aether, never failed to make you smile.

The road to Liyue was long, which annoyed you. You got so used to being able to teleport there, now having to walk was getting on your nerves.

But you were excited to go, and clearly so was Aether, so you put that bitter longing for the teleport waypoints aside and enjoyed your literal road trip.

-

“[Y/n]?”

You hummed inquisitively from where you were setting up your tent to answer Aether you sounded softer than normal, hesitant.

“Can you… brush my hair… when you're done? Please?”

You looked back at the boy who was holding the wide-toothed comb you used the other day, shuffling back and forth with a nervous smile. You smiled at him and asked him to wait a moment while you finished pitching your tent for the night.

When that was done you led him to sit in front of the fire, Paimon passed out in Aether’s tent and Ariel gone for a fly to stretch his wings after walking beside you all day. The easy silence wrapped around the two of you like a blanket, nice and comforting as you glided the comb through his beautiful hair.

Aether practically melted into you, his shoulders slouching and head falling at an angle that honestly made it difficult for you to continue, but you didn’t bare bring it up. The angle his head was tilted at allowed you to see the light of the fire flicker along his face. Gone was innocence and youth that presented under the light of the sun; All you could see was shallow cheekbones and an ancient stare as he gazed into the fire.

“Aether,” you called, a thought popping into your head. “When you came over to my place, what did you mean when you said everything hurt?”

Aether was quiet for a long time, so long you didn’t think he would answer. You kept brushing his hair, uncaring if he did answer or not, but you were simply curious. You were about to apologize for being insensitive when he finally spoke up.

“When I travel to different worlds, I have the ability to shape my form into the most common or dominant species. If I don’t like that form, just as easily can I change, I can switch back to my preferred forms” His voice was hollow and dispassionate, like he was trying to distance himself from the memories. “Besides my birth form, this is the form I find myself most comfortable in, along with a couple more extremities from my birth form.”