Moonlit Skies [] Xiaoven

Chapter 1 - Dawn

(Behold the official reboot! yeahhh anyways onto the actual fic)

Xiao opened his eyes when he felt the sun's first rays cast light into his room. He sat up with a slightly annoyed expression, and passed his hands through his hair to put it in place; lying down on a bed all night had somehow made his hair look like a bird's nest. He glanced out the window and stood up stiffly. God, why the hell did I actually listen to Zhongli and try to sleep? All I did was force myself to lie down and do nothing for eight hours straight. The adeptus sighed in irritation. He hadn't slept in who-knows-how-long, and he wasn't going to sleep now. He didn't want to or need to.

After sulking for an arguably sufficient amount of time, he groaned and opened the inn room's door, quickly making his way to the top porch in hopes of not encountering anybody on the way there. He did not  feel like talking to, or seeing, anyone. He never did, to be honest.

...

...Well, maybe sometimes. Zhongli and Ganyu are decent company. And Hu Tao can be funny. At times. 

He sighed.

Too bad Zhongli only ever goes anywhere with that stupid fatui man-baby. God, even thinking about him makes me want to punch that dumb smile of his. Ugh.

Suddenly, Xiao's wishful thinking of punching Childe was interrupted.

"Good morning, Xiao." A deep voice greeted the adeptus from behind.

Xiao turned around, recognising the voice immediately. "Good morning, Sir." He said, dipping his head slightly in respect.

Zhongli smiled a bit and took a few steps towards Xiao, but didn't get too close. He knew that the adeptus didn't like being close to people- both physically and emotionally, He added to himself.

"I thought I told you that you didn't need to call me Sir  anymore. You can just call me Zhongli." The tall man said.

"Uh. Right." Xiao cleared his throat. "Sorry Si-" He stopped himself. "-Zhongli. Sorry." He apologised awkwardly. 

"No need to worry. I don't really mind." Zhongli smiled.

"Anyways, that isn't what I came here to say. First off, how are you feeling? I brought some more painkillers in case you're running low," The man said, taking a small bag from his pocket and handing it to Xiao.

Xiao looked at it with a somewhat blank expression and took it after a moment's hesitation. "Thank you." He replied simply. The painkillers seemed to be doing less and less each day, and no matter how many he took, the pain of his Karmatic debt never seemed to improve. But he didn't tell anyone. Why should he? It's not like they could do anything but worry. He'd just have to bear with it like he always had. What's some extra pain going to do, anyways?

He was once again snapped out of his thoughts.

"Xiao? Are you okay? You seem to be 'zoning out', as humans say." Zhongli looked at him inquisitively.

"What? Hm, yeah, I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be," Xiao shrugged nonchalantly, as to not worry Zhongli.

"Alright," Zhongli didn't seem to give it much thought. "As I was saying, a friend of mine will be visiting Liyue. And since you haven't been socialising or seeing anybody except me and a few others, I'd like you to greet him with me."

Damn. He didn't even hesitate before getting straight to the point. Xiao thought with a hint of bitterness, then shook it off. He didn't want  Zhongli to worry, but at the same time, the way he just accepted his pretty obviously untrue reply bothered him.