Synopsis: how they’ll react when they see you get hurt - things get a little dangerous
warning -> violent*, angry XIAO, mentions of death
Xiao X GN reader
I hope you like this angy boy ;)
The wind drifted through the open air inn delicately woven into the large tree resting at the crossing of Dihuah Marsh and Guili Plains. The weather had been pleasant all day and decided to leave with a warm summer sun slipping below the horizon.
Xiao found himself walking across the balcony to look over the vast landscape below Wangshu Inn. The one place which always welcomed him without question. He’d seen countless years drift by on these plains and yet always found a place to return to here; even as the faces of its patrons faded into memory the comfort of the inn lingered still.
Below, he saw the citizens of Liyue passing through, never stopping for more than a few nights or grabbing something quick to eat from the kitchen. The endless treks they made from place to place completely devoid of any worries, all thanks to him.
He leaned forward and rested his chin on his crossed arms detecting a flock of birds taking off from the watery marsh. Their small frames disappearing into the vast sky he’d never be able to touch. He was forever tethered to the world of mortals, plagued with keeping humanity safe from destruction as the final, lonely yaksha.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d been studying the landscape, it was such a normal pass time for him that he’d grown quite accustomed to monotonous rising and setting sun. Though today, he found it peculiar for you not to be with him.
For months, you would show up to pester him. Typically, he avoided getting involved with humans as they were often messy and their problems petty; especially since those petty problems breed miasma which became his problem whether he liked it or not; he disliked humans to a great degree. However, you never seemed to get his hints, never seemed to mind his harsh tone, never seemed to be bothered by his constant attempt to push you away.
He had started to expect you on certain days of the week. Without fail you’d greet him at the peak of Wangshu Inn with something to offer him - a bowl of Almond Tofu, some items you thought he might find interesting while you were out on your travels. Sometimes you’d hold a conversation with him, or try to, and other times you’d just be there with him under the stars. At this point it was more energy to get you to leave, so he stopped trying.
So when you didn’t show up, he found it odd. The consistency of your visits made this day, the day where you weren’t there, unusual.
In the distance he noticed shadows moving quickly over the land. Their shape stretched across the rolling hills and wet marshlands. Xiao lifted himself off of the balcony, something in the pit of his stomach warned him to be vigilant.
His eyesight was better than most. Others may have been unable to clearly identify the figures at the end of their shadows, but him, he was able to see everything so painfully clearly.
As if he were right next to you, he saw you running over the hills desperately trying to stay on your feet. Your arms flailing out in front of you in an effort to catch you were you to fall. He felt it, your fear … and he saw what you were afraid of. Chasing after you were several treasure hoarders. Their burly bodies create haunting shadows across the vast landscape in front of them. He noticed you were dodging out of the way, of what he couldn’t make it out.
Suddenly you topple to the ground, rolling painfully across the dirt and grass. The group chasing you dangerously close behind.
“XIAO!” his name reverberates through him and in an instant, he vanishes.
—
The dirt coats your body, sticking to your clothes, your hair, filling your mouth as you roll across the grassy plain. Your body comes to a violent stop as you collide with one of the many rocks sprawled over the land. It knocks the wind out of you and you gasp in an attempt to get the air back in your lungs.
“I got em’!” someone yells from the top of the hill. Their victorious cheer sends its own pain your way. Get up, get up!
Grasping onto the rock behind you, you attempt to push yourself off of the ground. When you step on your right leg you topple back to the ground. There is a burning pain in your leg and when you look down to investigate you see a huge wound speckled with dirt and rocks, blood following the flow of gravity. Something they threw must have hit you, which explains why you fell.
A stampede of feet makes their way to you and before you know it you’re surrounded.
“I got their leg,” you look up and see one of them pointing at the wound. Their face beaming with pride. You were hoping they would have given up the chase a while ago, unfortunately for you they didn’t.
“What do you want?!” You yell at them, the anger building in your stomach, masking the pain in your leg. Your veins filled with adrenaline, a common reaction when one’s life is at risk.
“We told you,” one of them walks closer to you, “don’t get in our way; and yet, there you were. So, this really is entirely your fault.” he looked at you with contempt, his eyes narrowing in irritation as he spoke. “Now, if you wouldn’t be so kind, give it back.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You push his hand away from your face. You knew dealing with this many enemies would be a challenge, you just hoped the adrenaline pumping through you would be enough.
“Oh, okay…” he stood back up and made a gesture with his hands. The other treasure hoarders surrounding you lifted their bows, pulled out small bottles, and prepped their throwing knives. “If you won’t give it back, we will take it by force.”
SHIT! You threw your arms over your face and prepared for the onslaught of weapons.
In an instant you were enveloped by black and green smoke. It’s so oppressive you close your eyes and pull your arms closer to your face. The sound of metal crashing against metal, glass bottles breaking and exploding overloaded your senses. You make out confused yelling, but there is so much commotion you couldn’t understand it all.
There is a huge gust of wind which tears its way across your body threatening to take you with it. You feel something steady you, an arm bracing you from the violence.
“What the hell…” the main antagonizer yells.
The wind died down and hesitantly you opened your eyes. Shielding you is Xiao, his body hovering over you possessively. You notice his spear is driven into the ground, the tip of it deep in the earth. He’s grasping onto it so tightly the color in his knuckles are gone. When you look to his face you see he’s wearing his yaksha mask, green smoke spilling from the sides. In fact, his whole body is blanketed in smoke, it’s seeping off of him like wooden logs after a slow burn.
You can’t get a good grasp on the eyes hidden underneath the mask, but you can sense he is looking in the direction of the head treasure hoarder. When you look around you everyone is picking themselves off of the ground, equally as confused as you.
“Xiao?” you say his name softly, not knowing how speaking his name will impact the current situation.
You’re startled when his head snaps to you. His head drifts down your body and comes to rest at the slash against your leg. Shifting to a crouch he gingerly touches the skin around the wound and when you wince at the contact he recoils violently.
“What did you do?” slowly his head turned toward the people surrounding the both of you. The erratic nature of the wind knocks into you and you try to shield yourself with your hand. He stands, yanking the spear from its place in the ground. In an elegant move he rolls the spear over before thrusting it toward the man who gave the initial order.
“Look, we don’t want any trouble…” the panic in his voice enhanced by the eagerness to keep his life.
“This world has no use for humans like you,” his voice filled with contempt.
“It was all harmless fun, we weren’t really going to hurt them…” he sputtered out the excuse and looked at his comrades for agreement.
They all began to chime in, adding their, “yeah we didn’t mean anything,” “what they said,” and other useless excuses.
“SILENCE.” it was if the world itself obeyed his command. The wind stopped blowing which left the leaves still and silent. The birds had all but gone, the water dare not move in fear it incur the wrath of the yaksha. The heavy silence was unbearable, and you weren’t the only one who thought so.
You watched as those surrounding you began to shiver and shake from the silence, their teeth chattering, the sound of their heartbeats pounding in their head, the terror growing on their faces. Several of them attempted to get up and run away from the source of their fear, they didn’t make it very far. An invisible force erupted from the ground, impaling them before returning them to the ground, facedown and unmoving.
“Take another step … try me.”
“Okay okay, let’s make a deal?” the man sputters. Xiao doesn’t answer. “Let me go and I’ll tell everyone to never bother you again … yeah? Deal?”
“What about us?”
“Hey!”
“Boss!” the others shout out.
“Shut up!” he yells before looking back at the Yaksha, “…so, deal?”
“Y/N, close your eyes.” You peer up at him, his back to you, arm extended downward, his hand gripped around the long jade spear.
“Hold on …” Without warning Xiao was gone from your sight. His figure vanished from in front of you. You’re left looking at the man trembling before you, his face contorted in terror, and then your vision is gone. A hand covers your eyes and blocks your view.
“Wait … wait…..!”
….
….
The breeze picked back up. You heard the rustling sound of the leaves and the subtle whistle of the wind rushing through the grass. Somewhere in the distance a bird calls out before extending its wings for flight.
The hand covering your face slides away, it’s warmth leaving your eyes cold. You begin to open them but are stopped.
“Keep them closed.” Xiao speaks to you behind the dark veil of your eyelids. “Whatever you do, do not open them.”
You feel him lift you off of the ground and you fight the urge to disobey his order. As he carries you away the smell of blood wafts in the wind.
—
Keeping your eyes closed the whole time, aren’t sure where you are until you hear the sounds of voices below you. Xiao places you in a chair and even still, you keep your eyes closed.
“Xiao?” you call out his name, worried now that he isn’t close to you anymore.
“I’m here. You can open your eyes now.” his voice is distant, as if he’s in another room, but when you open your eyes he isn’t there. Suddenly, he appears next to you, he’s kneeling by your leg and has begun to clean the wound.
“I can do that,” you attempt to reach for the towel he is using but he swats your hand away.
“Leave it be,” he barked and you shakily pull your hand back, letting them rest in your lap.
You sit there in silence and listen to the sounds of the happy patrons below drift up to you. The inn must be pretty full tonight, you wondered if anyone may accidentally find their way to the top balcony. Looking down at Xiao you bite your tongue in an attempt to keep all the thoughts from spilling out.
After he cleans the wound and your leg, he examines it for a bit before vanishing before your eyes. You knew he was always good at appearing out of thin air, you didn’t exactly expect to see him vanish on it too. The night breeze was cool and had the scent of glaze lilies.
You’re not sure if Xiao will be back so you look down at your leg and see just how bad the wound is. The cut is quite large, not too deep, but big enough to already have blood dripping down your leg again. Something catches your attention and you watch as Xiao fades back into view. He’s carrying some items in his arm and making his way back to you, a small chair in his other hand.
He drops the chair next to you and sits, adjusting until he’s found the right position.
“I can help you with …”
“I told you to leave it.” He gives you a warning look and you know to drop the topic. He makes quick work of cleaning and applying a bandage over your wound. It’s pretty well done which makes you wonder how many times he’s done this. Even though he seems to be disinterested in your help, maybe he would be okay with your conversation.
“Thank you, for saving m….”
Abruptly he wraps his arms around your neck and pulls you into a hug. You’re so caught off guard that you have to stable yourself against the railing. The action is beyond surprising since he’s never really initiated contact, especially not this type of contact. Reaching your hand up to rest on his arms you notice he is shaking. It’s subtle, but he is shaking.
“Xiao…” you wrap your arms around him returning the embrace. “I’m okay… I’m just fine.”
You hold each other for a bit before he speaks, “I can’t lose you,” he is so quiet you wonder if he actually said anything or if it was just a wish drifting on the wind.
“You won’t. I did what you told me to do, remember; I called your name.” you say, pulling him closer and running your fingers into his hair.
“I heard you.”
MASTER