Ascender || A Xiaother fanfiction (AU) {UNDER REWRITING}

Chapter 4 (OLD)

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Aether's POV:

The dark outside slowly turned light as the sun made it's way up. As it arose from behind the mountains of Liyue it's light began to cover everything within the land, that including my room. Through the window the beam of light shot itself right at my face. I squinted my eyes and then turned around. However, that didn't matter. The light that was visible on the wall was enough for me to wake me up, and so I did.

I sat up, reached my hand into the sky and stretched a big one before getting up and changing into my usual outfit. After I finished I walked up to Paimon and gently pat her on her shoulder.

"Paimon, wake up. We got to go do commissions." - A

She soon sat up and rubbed her eyes as she yawned.

"I'm awake..." - P

In a bit we found ourselves in Liyue Harbor, where we took up the commissions from Katheryne and then headed off to complete them all. After that we went to do some domain exploration and exploration in general. By the time we finished it was already noon so we headed back to Wangshu Inn. Once we got up we immediately headed down to the Kitchen where we noticed Xiao sitting at one of the tables. I waved to him with a smile and to that he nodded. I went towards him and sat down on the chair right in front of him.

"Good day Xiao." - A

He to that just nodded as he chewed a bit of his precious almond tofu... unsurprisingly. Soon Chef Yanxiao came up to the table and asked.

"What can I get you two?" - CY

I turned to Yanxiao and responded.

"A serving of Grilled Tiger Fish and Jade fruit soup, please." - A

"Coming right up!" - CY

With that he walked back into the kitchen. After a bit I turned back to Xiao who was looking down at his food as he kept chewing. After our food arrived and we ate a bit before Xiao finished his food. I was expecting him to stand up and leave, but to my surprise he didn't move an inch. Things were kind of awkward for a while until he chose to speak.

"Aether." - X

"Hm?" - A

I raised my head looking at him with curiousity.

"You and Zhongli meet today, right?" - X

I nodded in response and then he continued.

"Then let me tag along with you two on the way. You don't know where he is either way." - X

"Sure. We'd be glad to have you with us!" - A

I uncontrollably smiled at him and once again... things got awkward and accidently I spoke out of my mind after a second.

"Maybe I shouldn't smile so much huh..." - A

I looked to my side then once I heard Xiao's voice I realised that I accidently spoke out loud.

"No, no, no! It's just..." - X

I immediately raised my head and quickly apologized.

"I'm sorry!- Wait, what were you about to say?" - A

I froze after I realised that Xiao actually wanted to say something just before I cut his saying in half.

"It's just that... I don't know how to respond in those scenarios." - X

As Xiao said that he looked to the side as his cheeks barely noticeably tinted with embarrassment. I stood up and stood next to him, squatting down.

"Xiao." - A

I called his name and he turned to my way. With that I took the opportunity and with my hands I cupped his face gently, placing my thumbs right under his cheeks. Then I slowly brought my thumbs up and smiled as I said.

"You should do the same." - A

Out of nowhere he opened his eyes wide and grabbed my two wrists, aggressively yanking them away from his face, still holding them with a firm grip. My eyes opened wide as I kept looking into his eyes and then looked down at our hands. I felt that he very slightly started trembling after a bit and soon he gently started unwrapping his fingers from around my wrist and let them go. I rubbed a spot on my wrist which he strangled as I looked down with a blank face. Soon his hands gently and slowly reached out to mine, bringing them near to his eyesight so he can inspect it.

"I'm sorry. I was surprised is all." - X

He then slowly brought my hands to his face and placed it on his cheek as he looked to the side, as his face took up a quite nervous and anxious expression. My eyes opened wide as I started at him in shock. After a while he stared back at me, right into my eyes, deeply and just then Paimon spoke after finishing the last two bites of her food.

"Are you two okay?-" - P

I then quickly pulled my hands away from his face and then he immediately turned away, hiding his face in his hair from Paimon and I. I turned to Paimon with wide open eyes and as I spoke I felt as if my whole body heat would have suddenly gone up as a whole up to my head.

"Yeah, we are fine!- Haha.... Let me finish my food and then we can go!" - A

I said as I quickly sat down at my previous seat and dug into the delicious pile of gold that was in front of me. As soon as I finished the three of us, me, Paimon and Xiao headed for Liyue Harbor, where we made our way towards Bubu Pharmacy. As we got closer we saw as Hu Tao, the director of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor exited the room Zhongli was in with a quite serious and upset face. As soon as she raised her head her serious face disappeared and she smiled widely.

"Oh no. If you are here that could mean only one thing-" - P

Hu Tao opened her eyes wide before bursting out laughing.

"Haha! So now that's how you think of me, I see. Don't worry. Zhongli is still awake. Why? Can't I visit my employee?" - HT

She said as she placed her hand on her waist and smiled.

"Thank goodness." - X

Xiao whispered next to me very quietly as he looked down.

"Hey! Not you too!" - HT

Xiao just kept quiet and didn't move an inch. I turned to Hu Tao and placed an index finger in front of my lips, signing her to keep quiet. To that she took a look at Xiao and after a sigh she spoke.

"Anyways, feel free to go in. Nobody else is in other than him. I'll head back to the parlor. Goodbye!" - HT

With that she took off and headed straight for the exit of Bubu Pharmacy. After she left I gently tapped Xiao's shoulder and once he looked up I raised my hand and waved in the direction of the door, hinting at Xiao to let's head in. And so we opened the door slowly and headed inside.

1158 words!

(A/N: I'm sorry for the late upload but something I am obsessed with lately (and what Inspired this book aswell) had it's season 2 airing and well I also had to fangirl and stuff... POINT IS I'M SORRY BUT LISTEN I STILL POSTED IT! (yes i plan to update daily again while I'm full of ideas))