Genshin Impact Reader Inserts

ᴘᴇᴀᴄᴇ ᴏꜰꜰᴇʀɪɴɢ | xɪᴀᴏ 🍋 2/2

   This was bad.

Very bad.

You knew it was bad. Catastrophic, even. But, regardless of that, you knew you couldn't really do anything about it.

What was it that was so bad? Oh, just everything. You had a crush.

It started not long after you'd promised to become Xiao's friend, and after that, he started to soften towards you. Not much, but enough to be noticeable. He did still call you an 'insolent mortal,' but once a meeting was an improvement. Maybe the almond tofu helped. You came to see him nightly over the course of the next month and a half, bringing almond tofu on weekends, just as you promised, and Xiao (begrudgingly) kept you company. He told you tales of adventure when you asked for them, and you told him about your days at school and your family, which felt horribly mundane in comparison to his exciting life.

Then again, he was thousands of years old, so you really couldn't compare if you tried.

Still, Xiao seemed not to mind your stories, asking for more involving certain people he found amusing, and you told him all you could.

And one night as you were heading back to your room to go to bed, already giddy about seeing him the next night, you realized you had a crush. As the days went on, it became more and more clear that you had it bad. You began to appreciate the little things about the Adeptus, the way his hair fell, how his nose wrinkled when he was upset, how easy it was to get him to roll his eyes at whatever dumb joke you'd made. There was a problem, though. You'd fallen for someone completely and utterly unattainable. Xiao was immortal and you were, well, not. Also, you were pretty sure he just barely tolerated you.

Xiao was curt, formal, and more than a bit of a grouch. He seemed to look down his nose at humans, but you noticed when you came onto the balcony, his hard amber eyes softened, just a little. As days went on, your feelings grew stronger. You were deeply fond of the Adeptus, coming to him when you had a bad day or when you needed someone who you considered a friend. Sure, you'd made friends with other staff members, but none like Xiao. He was a good listener, even if he very much acted like you were the last person in Teyvat he wanted to see.

And yet, your heart beat quickened when you were with him. You'd never felt this way about your crushes in school. He was different, and not in the way he was a completely different species. He spoke his mind and wasn't afraid to bruise your feelings, which you appreciated. Honesty is a virtue. Even if his brand of honesty included calling you a foolish mortal now and again.

You hid your feelings behind your usual snark, but as the days went on, it became harder to hide them. You began having dreams of him, dreams that made you wake up gasping for air with wetness pooling between your thighs. It made sleeping hard when images of him plagued your mind when your eyes were closed, holding you close or doing unspeakable things to you. It was hard not to blush when he looked at you with those thoughts darting through your head.

It came to a tipping point one night when you woke from another dream. You woke suddenly, breath uneven and thighs trembling. The dream had felt so real. Your nightgown was sticky with sweat, your sheets tangled around your legs. You groaned in frustration and sat up in bed, running your hands through your mussed hair. You stood and shed your nightgown in favor of a fresh one, then crossed to the window at the far end of your room to look out at the quiet night. You didn't know if you'd be able to go back to sleep.

A walk. I'll take a walk. That'll clear my head.

You pulled on a silk robe, tugging it tight around your body as you quietly exited your room. The floorboards were cool beneath your feet, and you padded absently up the stairs, intending on circling the upper floor and then heading back down, but the balcony caught your eye. You'd already visited Xiao that night, and it was a Saturday, so you'd brought almond tofu. You knew Xiao tended to spend time in the attic of the Inn when he wasn't on the balcony, and while you didn't know if Adepti slept, you figured that he'd be up there at this ungodly hour. So you went out onto the balcony to watch the sky.