✩ʜɪᴛꜱᴜᴊɪ✩ (ɢᴇɴꜱʜɪɴ ɪᴍᴘᴀᴄᴛ x ꜰ!ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ)

xxxɪᴠ: ᴡʜʏ ᴀʀᴇ ᴀʟʟ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀᴅᴇᴘᴛɪ ᴀɴɪᴍᴀʟꜱ?

I honestly am starting to like Liyue less and less from how many stupid mountains they have. Plus now we probably have to deal with another very angry animal.

'Oh look a table in the middle of nowhere, because that makes total sense.'

We stood in front of a table in the middle of a lake next to a table under a tree.

"Why is there-" "Hey, who put this table here?" Paimon cut me off quickly. "They even set it for dinner, there's a wine jug and everything!" I shot the pixie a dirty look and she stuck her tongue out at me.

"Oooo, they even-." "Hey there's names carved into the seats." I pettily cut off Paimon right as she started to speak just as she had done to me, facing Aether as I pointed at the seats. 

"Hey cheese stick, go read the names." I spat, making Paimon gasp dramatically and stamp her tiny little foot in the air. "For the last time, Paimon is not a cheese stick!" The fairy yelled loudly, making Aether sigh at the two of us.

He eventually just ignored our fighting and went to go read the names on the chairs himself.

"Here sits Retainer." He spoke aloud, causing Paimon and I to pause with our fighting and glance over at the blonde as he walked over to the next seat. "Here sits Guizhong." He said the next name before walking over to the last seat. "And, here sits Rex."

I hummed and Paimon placed a hand on her chin. "Maybe Rex is short for Rex Lapis?" My brows furrowed at Paimon suggestion. "Then it'd have to be someone close to him that wrote that, no doubt. No person it Liyue would call the Geo Archon by a nickname." I explained, making Aether nod back at me.

"Paimon had no idea who Guizhong is, but Retainer must be Cloud Retainer!" Paimon offered up her idea, now floating around the table herself to look at all the names. "This must be where Cloud Retainer and the other adepti have their dinner parties!"

'So Xiao, Deer guy, and that bird one we just met don't get invited? That must be why Xiao is so emo.'

"How about we cook up some extra special dishes for the adepti? We are sure to get Cloud Retainer's attention that way!" My brows raised at Paimon suggestion and I quickly nodded along with it. "Can you cook something for me too?" I asked Aether, making him sigh.

-Timeskip-

Aether had made three dishes with the occasional help of me and Paimon giving him random pieces of plants we found that we thought would help. Though he called us idiots and made us put the plants down, at least we tried to help. It's the thought that counts right?

I shoveled some Matsutake Meat Rolls into my mouth as Aether set the dishes down onto the table. 

Paimon had tried to grab some of my food and I hissed at her before going back to eating. For some reason she's hiding behind Aether now. Hm, weird.

As Aether placed the last dish he made onto the table and suddenly out of nowhere we heard a loud rumbling sound that almost sounded like a very hungry giant's tummy rumbling.

I jumped in slight surprise at the sudden sound, causing some of my food to fall onto the grass.

"What was that?!" Paimon shouted out worriedly, looking around the area. 

I sighed, walking past Paimon and towards the rock path above the water, which led to the entrance of Cloud Retainer's abode. "It's the gate to Cloud what's her name's abode." I spoke, looking at the opening in the rocks. "I've heard some people in Liyue talk about giving offerings will open up their gates." I explained, lifting up some stone to step on above the water since the ones that you could walk across were slight sunken, and I wasn't about to get my socks wet.