The Spark [Xiao x Aether]

Alone again VI

"...Genesis?" Ganyu asked with a tone that made her sound weirded out. She didn't even try hiding it.

"What kind of a name is that?" Xiao added while crossing his arms.

The mysterious guy already seemed suspicious. He seemed stronger than an average person. What made it even worse was that he was covering his face. Only his eyes were visible. They were a beautiful shade of violet but something about them seemed odd.

"Apologies! Maybe I should have stated where I come from first. You've heard of Khaenri'ah, no?" The guy spoke.

"That's...the nation that got destroyed 500 years ago isn't it? I'm surprised people still mention it to this day." The half-Adeptus girl guessed. She had little to no knowledge about the nation.

Genesis smiled under his mask.

"That's right! My parents come from Khaenri'ah and so do I. Unfortunately, ever since the country fell apart I've been wandering around the streets of Teyvat. I happened to notice you two out late and night and wanted to say hi but the slimes were a bit quicker than me..."

The Yaksha and The girl looked at each other. It wasn't often that people from Khaenri'ah showed up out of nowhere. Both of them were completely skeptical about this guy.

Xiao turned to look back at the boy. His eyes seemed so dull even under the light of crystalflies.

"You shouldn't be out this late. We could take you to the Liyue harbor since we were just gonna go there." The Adeptus offered. He had no interest in helping the boy with the white hood. He wanted to know what felt so strange about him.

Genesis seemed to be thinking for a while. He looked at Ganyu and she smiled. He smiled back even though it wasn't visible, then he looked at Xiao.

The two made eye contact before the mysterious boy finally agreed by nodding his head. In that split second when the two had eye contact it reminded him of Aether. Genesis did seem to have a height very similar to the blonde's, only maybe a few inches difference.

The Yaksha grabbed onto his head and almost dug his nails into his scalp.

This had been happening a lot with Ganyu too. Is every person slightly similar to Aether cursed to make him hallucinate like this?

A small drop of blood came out of his scalp and the pain made him stop thinking about his little issue for a moment. He hadn't even noticed that Ganyu and the mysterious guy had been looking at him all concerned.

"Uh, sir? Is everything alright?" Genesis asked.

"Yeah, Xiao. Is everything alright with your head? You're bleeding!" The half-Adeptus girl added.

Suddenly, the strange guy pulled out a purple tissue out of one of his pockets. He used it to clean the drop of blood on Xiao's cheek. Of course, the Yaksha immediately flinched. Being touched by strangers disgusted him. Especially by those who seemed weird at first glance.

"Sorry..." The boy apologized.

"I'm fine. Let's get going before the crystalflies decide it's a dumb idea to follow us."

With that, the three headed for the Liyue harbor. They were really far away but a small walk couldn't hurt. The whole walk was silent. Nobody dared speak. The Adeptus kept glancing over at Genesis wondering why he was so covered up. Only his eyes were visible. Was he hiding something under all that clothes? Was he a monster from Khaenri'ah that managed to escape somehow?

He kept being deep in thought about who this strange guy might be.

"So! The guy's name is Xiao, but what's yours?" Genesis asked the girl with the horns in a cheerful tone.

"Oh right! I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Ganyu. Both he and I are Adepti who watch over Liyue. Feel free to come to us if something is bothering you in the future!"

"Thank you! I appreciate that. But hey...about Xiao, he seems a little...how do I put it...depressed? Is everything alright? I managed to catch a glimpse of your conversation earlier." The mysterious guy whispered so that the Yaksha wouldn't hear, but he did. He just chose to ignore it.

Ganyu sighed. She explained how her friend lost someone very important to him and is having a hard time getting over it. She too didn't understand much that was going on but she wasn't going to force it out of the boy.

Genesis listened carefully while looking back at the Adeptus every now and then making sure he was still walking with them since he was keeping a good distance. He didn't want to get close to the strange guy.

Eventually while walking, the boy with the hood spotted something in the distance. It was Wangshu Inn. He quickly ran forward a bit and pointed to the place.

"Guys look, a building! Isn't this the famous Wangshu Inn? You could drop me off here."

"You better go with him, Xiao. I still have some work to do at the jade chamber so I'd have to go a different route..."

Xiao nodded even though he hesitated at first. Ganyu turned to the other path on the road and waved goodbye to the two boys.

"Please take care! Oh, and thank you for going out with me tonight Xiao."

Before she could leave, she accidentally tripped on some strange rock on the ground. She couldn't see where she was going because all the crystalflies were swarming Xiao. The girl got up and noticed she tripped over a statue.

She observed it for a while before finally identifying who the statue was.

"How strange...some Mortals are so mean knocking over the statue of the God of time just like that. I feel bad for him."

Xiao's head immediately turned towards the girl.

"Him? Isn't the God of time a woman?" He asked.

"Uhm...Are you sure your head is right? The God of time had been worshipped for many centuries. Everyone is positive it's a guy."

"..."

That could only mean one thing.