Old lover || Neuvillette x Reader

Chapter 10

I walk over to the duo, calling out to neuvillette

"Neuvillette!" I shout with a wave

I see both men look my way as I was getting closer to them. Once I've finally approached them, I turn to the unfamiliar man and introduce myself.

"Hello, my name is y/n" I smile at him

He doesn't look too interested but tells me his name anyways.

"Wriothesley" he replied with hardly any emotion

I look over at neuvillette and give a slight side eye before speaking again.

"Is it your first lantern festival?" I ask both men

They both nod and I sigh, not knowing how to keep up this awkward conversation. As I open my mouth to speak again, gaming comes up to me and asks if I can play for him so he can dance. I internally thank him from saving me from...whatever this encounter was.

"Will you guys watch?" I ask

Wirothesley shakes his head no, "I need to get back to Fontaine"

I look over at neuvillette and he looks hesitant

"It's okay if you guys can't listen. Hopefully you will be able to in the future!" I say before following gaming back to the stage

As gaming and I make it back to the stage, we see rex holding my erhu and the guzheng gone. I look at gaming and he just shrugs his shoulders. I walk over to zhongli and he hands my my erhu with a nod. I take a seat next to the pipa player and in front of the drums. I ask what song we were playing, but the pipa said to play whatever and they'll follow my lead. I suggest the song "rapid as wildfires" and she nods happily.

She starts us off and gaming is starting his dance while people are slowly gathering around again. When it was my cue to play, many people had turned around and started gathering around all of us. As I play, I look around at the crowd seeing different people from different nations. As I look farther, I can see neuvillette and wriothesley standing towards the back just listening and watching. Although everyone is having a good time, I can slowly start to feel myself get sick.

Once we finished playing, I felt nauseous and lightheaded. I didn't want to ruin lantern rite for everyone so I quietly call out for xiao. He told me before I can call out to him whenever I need him, but I never had before. Seconds later, he's kneeling in front of me asking what was wrong

"I don't feel good. I need to leave" I whisper

He nods his head and helps me up, careful not to cause a scene for everyone. We try to play it off as if we were just taking a stroll and we succeeded up until we got to the docs father away from the festival. I can feel myself needing to throw up, so I rush towards the edge of the docs and puke up whatever wanted to come out. My vision starts to get hazy and the feeling of being lightheaded was replaced with a raging headache and a cold sweat.

Although dirty, I lay on the docs and try to take steady breaths. I can see xiao slowly look over the docs to check my puke and unbeknownst to me, it was blood. Not knowing what to do, he told me to stay put while he tries to find rex. I do as he says and I stay laying on the docs, occasionally throwing up again.

I can hear a pair of shoes walking on the docs and towards me. I look up to see a man with white hair and half of a mask looking down at me. He smirks evilly and kicks my stomach, turning me over close to the edge. We both knew I did not have enough strength to be able to swim.

"Who would've thought there were still goddesses left after the archon war..." he starts

As he's berating me my hearing is coming and going, only being able to hear half of what he's saying. He pulls my hair so that we can be eye level and he sneers

"You weren't easy to poison, yet I managed to do so" he chuckles

He then drops my hair and my head falls with a thud. I groan in slight pain and he kicks me once more, sending me over and into the water. He leaves as he can hear people run in the distance. Thankfully, the part of the water where I fell in was fairly shallow.

As I feel my back hit the sand below, I hear a splash from up above. As soon as I feel a tug, I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.
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Xiao's p.o.v:

Traveler and I just finished lighting a lantern together when all of a sudden I hear my name faintly. Knowing who the voice belongs to, I teleport to her.

I kneel beside her as the crowd in front of us is cheering and distracted.

"What's wrong" I ask taking in her slightly pale and sweaty appearance

"I don't feel so good. I need to leave" she said barely above a whisper

I nod and help her up but play it off as if we were about to take a stroll. We only made it to the other end of the docs before she starts throwing up and into the water. Knowing that I should check, I do so reluctantly. As I look into the water, I see a crimson red slowly start to dissipate in the water. I look at her once more and see blood on her mouth.

"Stay put, I'm going to find morax"

Once I gave her my orders, I run away and teleport to morax. I teleport to his side and there's another man who's conversing with him. Sensing the tension between the two, I whisper into morax's ear about
y/n's condition and begin to drag him away. I look behind and see the man that morax was talking to was following us.

"Who is he?" I ask morax as we weave through the crowd of people

"His name is neuvillette"