dedicated to the loml delloola
- he’s very distant to you in the beginning of your relationship
- he’s never felt this way about someone before and wants to pursue a romantic relationship with you, but he knows it’s safer if he doesn’t get so close to you
- you take slow, everyday you urge xiao to break free from his tough exterior and just embrace his feelings towards you
- and eventually, he does
- he may not know how to act all the time but you don’t mind - your main goal is to just teach him how to love you like you love him
- once he accepts the relationship fully, he does anything for you
- all his life he’s been a guardian and his protectiveness is only exemplified when it comes to you
- you actually have to teach him that it’s okay to let you go to the store alone and that he doesn’t have to watch over you when you’re sleeping
- he likes positive affirmations from you - feeling incredibly secure when you tell him how proud of him you are
- zhongli would teach him about gift-giving and xiao would purchase two jade bracelets from a merchant in liyue harbor and surprise you with one of them
- and whenever xiao became overwhelmed but couldn’t find the right words, he would reach over to you and tap your bracelets together (and you would do the same to him if needed)
- xiao is mostly observant, especially in the beginning of your relationship
- when walking through liyue, he would see a couple holding hands and try to hold yours except the feeling of physical touch was too much and even though he wanted to hold your hand so bad, he just couldn’t
- so you held pinkies with him until he was ready
- the best part about dating xiao is that he can get to you whenever you need him
- like if you’re doing research in a nearby town and wake up in the middle of the night from a horrible nightmare, all you have to do is whisper his name and he’ll appear in front of you
- when you’re in distress, he might even hold your face gently and press your foreheads together - anything to let you know that he’s right there
- little by little, your relationship with each other would grow normal
- holding pinkies would grow to holding hands and instead of watching over you while you slept, xiao would learn that it’s okay to lay beside you
- at the end of the day, just being with you was enough for him