The Vigilant Yaksha

Chapter 48

"So, you managed to not come back all bloody and beaten up this time, huh?" Vena poked fun at the Adeptus as they made their way down the busy streets towards the restaurant Xiao was leading her to, only getting a sideways look and a small smirk in reply.

He'd been relatively quiet since they'd left his realm and arrived in Liyue, Vena almost forgetting that it was probably due to being in the city, especially with how overly busy it was today of all days.

Once again, his body was much more stiff than usual as he walked beside her, not realizing that his body language gave him away.

Aether may be able to tell what Vena was thinking just by the very subtle changes of her facial expressions, but Vena was learning to do the same with Xiao's body language.

Unable to control it, a wave of guilt quietly washed over the girl, somehow managing to blame herself for making Xiao uncomfortable even though the date and place of it was his idea in the first place.

His eyes also had a habit of snapping to lock on anyone he thought happened to walk a little to close to Vena for his liking, now clearly overly alert probably due to her most recent kidnapping.

Blue eyes cast down to her feet, yet another reason for her to feel guilty.

"Are you alright?"

They'd been seated by now, both maintaining their silence up until their food had been ordered and even brought to their table, Vena now awkwardly just picking at her food.

The question caught her by surprise, considering it was exactly what she wanted to ask him, but was too afraid of the answer to actually go through with it.

"Of course I am. Why?" Vena answered without looking up from her plate, assuming maybe he'd see through the lie if he could clearly see her facial expression, now hyper aware of it due to Aether always seeing through her that way.

She could see his expression change through the corner of her eye, his eyes gazing at her half-lidded, clearly doubting her response regardless.

"Are you?" She deflected, pointing her fork at him as he raised his brow, deepening his skeptical look even further.

"I have the most gorgeous woman in Teyvat sitting in front of me right now... what do you think?"

Smooth. That was definitely smooth.

Her heart accelerated at that, now refusing to gaze up at him, feeling her cheeks flush with heat as she delicately brought a forkful of her food into her mouth, trying desperately to play it cool.

She looked up for a split second out of curiosity, just enough to see him smiling ever so slightly back at her.

My nerves are on fire. How does he say things like this and keep his cool? I'd be stuttering over every word.

"Do you like the food?" Xiao nodded his head toward her, obviously gesturing towards her plate.

"Mhm," Vena replied quietly with a nod of her head, being sure not to speak with her mouthful as she swallowed her bite.

"I'm surprised you wanted to go to dinner. Seeing as all I've seen you eat is almond tofu." The violet haired girl let out a giggle at that, her gaze dropped momentarily to his plate, which only held one singular piece of grilled tiger-fish.

"I'm intelligent enough to know how much humans appreciate good food." The Adeptus replied with a satisfied smirk, being sure to put his usual emphasis on the world 'human' as he always does, knowing it got on her nerves.

"Hey!" She snapped back playfully, pointing the empty fork in his direction almost like a threat.

"I'm not human! Not entirely, at least..."